Now that Toranto had officially started his secondary education and was sufficiently old enough, Elixia saw it as sufficient timing to have him take up new interests and teach him useful skills for later in his life. Elixia and her parents were well aware that they lived in a relatively bad area, however, they wanted Toranto to always feel safe in some capacity everywhere he went. Because of this, they agreed it would be a good idea for Toranto to take self-defense classes. When Elixia and her parents ran this thought by Toranto, he agreed. He also saw it necessary to know how to defend himself. He began self-defense classes at the age of 13, he went to his self-defense classes two times a week until he was about 15 years old. Elixia was able to find a nice enough place near their home that could offer him lessons, she doubled her work efforts to pay for his lessons.
In the meantime, he was taught how to farm and grow all manner of plants by his grandparents while his mother taught him how to sew and play the piano. He progressively began to stick out even more during primary school as his horns grew larger. He often spent his time at his school alone, which always made him feel isolated. But he never felt alone, because he always knew he could talk to his mother when he got home each day. Toranto excelled in his more science and math-focused classes, while also taking a liking to psychology. He took advantage of every possible way he could learn something new about science, bending, and the mind, and he was always excited to tell his mother and grandparents about the things he was learning. When he was 15 years ago, he decided to ask his mother if he could take martial arts classes so he could properly learn how to fight. He wasn't interested in harming someone, but taking two years' worth of self-defense classes probed him to enjoy the art of fighting. When he asked his mother, she responded with happiness that he was taking an interest in learning new skills. Elixia happily signed him up for martial arts classes where he would spend the next couple of years properly learning how to fight. Toranto ended up doing much better than anyone expected in secondary school and became a capable fighter from years of teaching. He had never been in a real fight before, and he never had any reason to fight anyone, but his family was comforted knowing he was able to defend himself if he were to face a situation where he needed to. On his 17th birthday, his mother would surprise with him a gift he could use if ever he needed to defend himself. It was a modular shield, one that could be separated into two plates by infusing the shield with a specific amount of energy. Each resulting plate could be strapped to one of his arms to completely shield his forearms. Elixia knew this would be the ideal tool for Toranto in a fight as he tended to avoid weapons and preferred to defend himself rather than harm another. After years of experience, Toranto found that he preferred fighting styles that focused more on defense, so a shield he could passively use in a fight would be ideal.
By the age of 17, Toranto had completed his secondary schooling and gained many new skills up to this point. He was fully prepared to enter tertiary school with the help of his mother. Elixia knew that Toranto wanted to pursue tertiary education, and she wanted to help him along the way as much as she could. Although tertiary education was not a necessity to enter into the workforce, for the field of work Toranto wanted to go into he would need some form of tertiary education. He didn't know what exactly he wanted to do, but he knew he wanted to do something where he could combine all of the skills and hobbies he had acquired over the years. Elixia was able to find additional work on top of the job she already had to help with Toranto's education. Of course, Toranto knew he would have to find some form of work as well to help pay off his educational debts, but Elixia wanted him to wait until the end of his education to find work so that he could pay off his debts without having to worry about his classes.
Toranto spent the next two and a half years completing his tertiary education, where he was able to spend even more time learning about the complex nature of science and bending in his world. He never had any real issues concerning the material itself, but it started to become a drag having to learn everything by himself. There were many times when he wished he had people around him who could assist him with his studies or just make sure he was understanding something correctly. But he never had this. It was the same during his secondary education, he did almost everything alone. Elixia began to notice that he grew drearier over the years despite following the field he wanted to pursue. Elixia was the only person Toranto felt he could completely open up to at this point in his life. He would often tell her about what he was experiencing, and it helped him a lot over the years. The constant loneliness he felt when he walked outside of his home could always be quelled by his mother when he returned. She would always wait for him and listen to every word he had to say if it would do even the slightest to dull his pain.
With the constant support of his mother, Toranto would go on to finish his tertiary education. Although he mostly wanted to complete the five-year education track which would have allowed him to potentially find work in the upper sector of the research and development field, he knew his family did not have the money. Regardless, he was immensely happy with the education he was able to receive thus far and countlessly thanked his mother for working so much to keep his debts as low as possible up to this point. Elixia was proud of him, she always knew she would be. Over the years of Toranto gaining his education, many teachers he had would often assume he wasn't mentally capable of handling higher-level education and that he could choose to take easier courses instead. Some instructors were genuinely concerned for Toranto's wellbeing and mental health seeing as he was the only known half-breed in this region of Denomi. Most, however, would tell Elixia this information in the hopes of Toranto dropping out of their classes. Elixia knew this, and it often made her furious, but she kept her composure all this time for the sake of her son. She never wanted Toranto to think less of himself because of what others perceived him as. For the most part, Toranto never had to confront that side of himself, because he always had Elxia to remind him that he was just as capable as everyone else.
Toranto was now entering a new stage in his life, with his educational debts lying over his head he needed to find work as soon as possible. He wanted to find something he enjoyed, something he could apply his years of study to. The sad truth of the matter, however, was that he was not being considered for every position he applied to due to his heritage. Although he did not want to accept this fact, he could not shake the feeling from his mind. He had all of the credentials needed to work the positions he applied for, yet he was always rejected. Laboratory technician, laboratory assistant, entry-level engineering, and entry-level data analyst, were some of the many positions he applied for and were rejected from. During this period, Toranto was forced to grapple with the reason why he was not getting accepted anywhere, which ultimately led back to the one topic he had been avoiding his entire life: the question of what he was. But there would be no time to answer this now.