The sky was shining red with smokes, I found myself on the top of the world. As far I could see, I could only see flaming clouds devouring the world. On the top, suddenly a bright light fall on me. That moment I realized, I wasn't alone there. There was someone... maybe a boy, or maybe a girl was standing on the top. As the light blinded me, I could feel the person moving towards me. Before I could do anything, I felt like I was being pushed. At that moment I heard a voice which was unclear.
"This is your end... "
I could barely listen this as I was falling into the abyss of fire below me. I closed my eyes for my final moments hit and then "Thudd…" .
I slowly opened my eyes, looks around and groaned in pain. Damn it, I fall down on the floor from my bed. My back was hurting as hell. But more importantly, what the hell was that dream. It was really a weird place and who the pushed me from there. But I could never know, afterall that's the type of dreams are those. So I better got up before my old man begun to scold me.
I slowly rubbed my eyes and then slowly approached for the clock on the table beside my bed. The moment I looked at the clock, my body begun to panic as it was 8:45 and I had only 15 minutes before the classes start.
"Oh no, my perfect record will be ruined... " I screamed and hurriedly ran out of my room.
I quickly went to the kitchen, where most of the time my father stay in the morning. As I opened the door violently, I screamed.
" Why didn't you woke me up, old man?... "
But to my surprise, there was nobody. The only thing I found was a plate of breads and fried eggs. There was a small note left with the plate.
" Sorry Kirei, Dad has been called for the job early morning today. Have a good day.. "
What... Really.. a mission in the morning.. And I had to wake up late on this day. Damn it... I can't let my perfect record record go in vain.
I barely have time to eat or get fresh, but I can't go to school the way I was in. So I quickly went to washroom to wash my face and then changed my clothes into my uniform. I took two bread slice and put the fried egg between them and put them in my mouth in hurry.
As I was done, it was already 8:53 on the clock. Well, I guess I had no other option left. I had to use my magic cards to do the impossible now.
From my house, the school was in 40 minutes walking distance. So, even if I used the speed up card, it will still take 20 minutes. That definitely won't work. I needed to do it more fast, So if I use my enhancement card with the speed up card, there might be a possibility to do this task.
But it had a drawback. If people saw me moving that fast, I would definitely got caught as a mage. So I had to hid myself from public too. That's where it came to the stealth card. This could easily erased my presence completely.
So I have to use all three cards together this time to be able to get school in time without getting the attention of public. There were times when I thought it would be impossible to use them all together. But now that I had trained harder myself, I was sure to pull it off.
I locked the doors and then begun to do a bit warm up by stretching my body. It was already 8:55.
For not getting caught using cards, I always keep then under my clothes. One was hidden in my arms under my shirt, another was in my shocks and the last one was on my chest, using it as a locket.
I began to concentrate on my mana flow and all three cards responded to it. All three card begun to shine and they got mixed with my body. My body begun to feel heated a bit as a sudden growth of mana in my body. But that means I was ready to take off for school.
I begun with a jump on the roof of our neighbors. With my current enhancement, I could easily jump though a 3 storey building. And with speed up, I could do it in a blink of eyes.
"Maximum output, Extra enhancement and speed up 50%"
I yelled as I begun to hop over buildings. Thanks to my presence being erased completely, I was easily able to skip though a lots of path this way with out getting any attention.
After a few minutes, when the school became visible to me, I decided to make an impactful entrance, that could cause distraction. As I was almost 200 meters away, I jumped with all my force towards the middle of the school field, Which created a crater in the middle of the ground, which cause a huge sound wave across the school.
The sound distracted the teachers and students normal works. As human minds are always curious, they begun to look through the window of the hall, which gave me the perfect opportunity to sneak in my classroom and undo my magic without a worry, as nobody was in the class.
I checked the clock, which was telling me it 9:01. I was just hoping the teach hadn't completed taking attendance.
A few minutes later, the students begun to come back to the room. Thankfully they didn't noticed that I was in my seat. Soon later our homeroom teacher came and told us not to panic over the mysterious sound and attack. I felt a bit guilty to give them all a panic attack, but I guess that's a good way to distract them from myself.
"Hey, it seems you were just in time, Kirei."
A soft voice rang in my ears. I turned around to the desk next to me. It was my classmate, Eri Roselia. She was a kind girl, whom I was familiar with since our grade school.
"Huh... yeah... Just manage to sneak in today.. "
I nervously answered. But before we could continue our conversation, our teacher gave us a cold stare, so we both focused on the class. Though I was happy with this, because it's really hard to escape from such a childhood friends.
Well, I said before that I didn't mixed with others in my childhood, but it changed after I found out I can use magic, though not properly. But I begun to go back to school since then. It didn't bother me that I didn't have my mother or anything, afterall in my mind, I was already a special one.
During that time, I found a little shy orange haired kid, getting bullied by some punks in the school. As chance of being some kind of hero, I stepped in to stop those bullies and end up in a fight. Though I was outnumbered, I did use my enhancement card to win this over. Since then that kid became friend with me and that's how I meet Eri.
As soon as the class ended, I tried to avoid Eri as I knew she would bombard me with a lots of questions. It's not like that it's annoying, it just hard for me to lie to a close friend of mine.
"Umm.. Kirei, you looked worried for some reason. Is something bothering you? "
It was Eri's soft voice, that brought me back from my thinking. I looked at her, as she was standing in front of my desk. Her long orange hair was tied up behind her head in a single bun. Her marvelous orange eyes was telling he she was worried from my behavior today. So, I had to clear things up and made her believe that I was fine.
" Nothing really, Eri. Just had to do some household work in the morning as dad wasn't home today. So feeling a bit tired. "
I tried to assured her that's the fact. But in reality, I was exhausted for using all 3 mana card together. I really wanted to sleep atleast for an hour right now.
" Oh.. you really are a hard worker, Kirei.. Though are you prepared for the math test today? "
The worry in her face had reduced a bit, the last line came to me like a breakless truck. I totally forgot about the test.
"Wait, we have a test today? "
I yelled somehow keeping my voice down, so I didn't get much attention. But this made her face a bit cautious.
"Wait a second, don't tell me you didn't study for the test... "
Her words were absolutely true. But I couldn't say anything more to get her triggered, after all, this cute , sweet and soft girl had some weird obsession with me and my status. I even had to become a perfect student because of her weird obsession.
"No.. no... why won't I prepared for the test. I just thought the test was supposed to be happen tomorrow. "
I tried to give her a fake answer to avoid her wild gaze. Yet she looked at me like I was a prisoner and she was the executioner. I was just hoping she would buy the excuse I had given.
"Well, then I hope a perfect score from you, Kirei. "
She said in a soft voice while moving back to her seat. I should have been glad that she was gone now, but deep down I was crying, because I was going to fail today's test for sure, but I couldn't fail it, could I?
The first thing that came in my mind was cheating in the test. As the math class was our fourth period, I can sneak in the teachers room to steal the question paper. If I was a normal person, then I wouldn't have thought about it , but as a mage , who had the stealth card, I could be successful in this mission.
I suddenly stood up from my seat and rush towards the door. As soon as I opened the door, I saw an young lady was standing there. She was none other than our English teacher, Miss Yamomo.
"Sorry mam, but I gotta go to the washroom real quick. " I exclaimed in a hurry to get past her. All she had, was an shocking reaction on her face. But I didn't care about that. I just wanted to be free from my childhood friends torture if I failed the test today.
As I said them, I went to the washroom, but not to empty my tank, for using the stealth card in privacy. I took the card I used as a locket and grabbed it to concentrate my mana circulation with it. As a result, the card begun to shine and soon, my presence was erased.
As nobody could sense me, I quietly made it to the teachers room and slowly opened the door in a way that none could notice. I slowly reached out math teacher, Mr. Fuka's table. I slowly opened his drawer, as I knew, he didn't lock his drawer. After a minutes of search, I found a copy of today's test. I jumped in victory, thankfully I was in stealth mode, so none could detect it.
So I happily get out of the teachers room, and begun to make it to the Washroom again, so that I can undo my magic. I undo my magic and then put the question paper in my coats pocket. I could now solve this during lunch break and pass the test.
As soon as I opened the door, I say a girl with black hair in our school uniform standing in front of me, blocking my way. I didn't know why but I was feeling quite nervous at her look at me.
" Umm... hello... do you need something?... " I nervously asked.
Her expression did change a bit, which showed a bit of arrogance. She was surely looking down on me. It's the first time someone looking down on me since my shut in era. Though she was giving an intimating aura, I couldn't let her looking down on me. Afterall I was a pride mage.
" Huh.. Did the little trickster getting angry? " She exclaimed with an arrogant voice.
I couldn't take it anymore, she was clearly insulting me.
"Could she be a mage? " a thought jumped in my head. I decided to put her down here as a thought about her being a mage crossed over my mind.
I tried to use the enhancement card, which was on my right arm, but before I could use it, I was tied with chains. I begun to feel dizzy too.
"Feeling dizzy? those chain just barely touched you for a few seconds. Yet you are out of mana. Really a trickster. " She begun to laugh at me.
What the hell are these chains, did she casted them and who's she... What's her deal.. etc questions are bragging in my head. So before I passed out I wanted to ask her these.
" What are ... those chains... " I barely asked her.
"Huh, it's called "Draining Chain".. An especially of mine. " She answered bluntly.
So she was a mage, but what's her deal with me...
" So… what did… that mage want from... a mage like me.. " I strugglingly tried to hold my pride.
She begun to laugh at my question like a mad dog. It was really annoying, but at the same time it was tiring. I was about to pass out any moment. But before I passed out, she spoke up.
" You dare to call yourself as a mage. You are nothing but a faker who is just a trickster. You are no mage, dumb faker." She told in a menacing voice as she tighten the grip on the chain, which caused me passing out completely...