Our story begins in Intramuros. A walled district in Manila with Spanish architecture which was meant to be a stronghold, but was destroyed during the invasion of the Imperial Japanese Army. In present day after its restoration, it's a tourist spot and the home of a couple of universities. One of which is Lyceum of the Philippines University(LPU), the school where our protagonist goes to.
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It's an early morning in Intramuros, his final year in junior high school is about to begin and Basilius is just sitting on top of the wall just in front of LPU. He's just looking at the good view of the field and the city hall outside the wall, quietly enjoying the morning serenity.
He sees other students meet with their friends. Those are students who have been classsmates before and are reuniting in the same class this year. All he can do is watch them because he has no friends. He has poor social skills because he was always taught by his parents to be cautious around people due to his superhuman abilities. They're afraid of people finding out because of what they would do to him. So, he has isolated himself causing him to become quiet and nonchalant.
But, little does he know that many girls like him because at 17 years old, he's a bit taller than most boys in school, has pale skin, soft and flowing long black hair that reaches his shoulders with a white stripe on his bangs, and mesmerising blue irises like that of a wolf.Â
While enjoying the scenery, he suddenly hears the school bell ring with the help of his superhuman hearing.
Calmly he says, "hmm... not good. I'm about to be late on my first day".
So, he stands up and takes a deep breath, then, he suddenly blurs away. A few seconds later, he appears inside the school.
As he walks on the busy hallway to find his classroom, he notices a commotion a few meters in his direction. He sees a small, slim 10th grader getting picked on by 4 12th graders.
The 10th grader says, "it's just the first day of class. Can you guys please give me a break?"
"Yeah, it's the first day so we should all start having fun", says one of the bullies.
Then, the leader of the bullies walks up to the slim boy and places his hand on the slim boy's head, "we just want to make sure that all you 10th graders are ready to become seniors".
"...And that means you must learn to respect us".
Using the hand that he placed on the slim boy's head, he slaps his nape enough for him to flinch and become anxious.
"Hmm... your uniform is too neat. I bet your mom prepared it for you. We got a mama's boy here, guys!", says one of the bullies as he prepares to slap slim boy's nape harder than the first time.
Before the bully could land the slap, Basilius appeared out of nowhere and stopped the bully's hand using his left hand while his right hand is still holding on to his bag on his shoulder.
The bully is taken by surprise, "who are you?! Do you also wanna get hurt?"
Basilius gives the bully a side eye, then he slowly turned his head towards him.
"Hmm... shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"
Then, he squeezes the bully's arm. The bully is in so much pain that he keeps trying to get away from Basilius' grasp. He lets go of the bully, and the bully drops to his knees in pain. Other students start to notice what's happening.
The leader and the other 2 bullies looks at each other thinking their reputation is being ruined in the eyes of the students around them. So, the other 2 charges towards Basilius while he's looking down at the one on the floor. However, Basilius sensed them, so he dodges them by stepping aside without even looking, then he casually trips them. The students around them are in awe.
Basilius and the bully leader start to stare at each other. Then suddenly, a professor arrived in the scene.
"What's going on here?", said the professor.
"Nothing, sir. They just bumped into each other on the way to class", answered the bully leader.
"You all better watch where you're going next time. This is a busy hallway after all."
"Yes, sir."
"Well, what are you all waiting for? The bell already rang. You're all late for class."
While the other students hurried away, Basilius and the bully leader stared at each other again. The bully looks in anger, while Basilius looks in disdain. A few seconds later, Basilius walks past them without looking back, but the bully leader is still looking at him.
Basilius arrives at the classroom doorway, and everybody just stares at him. He noticed that a student is standing in front of the class, it's the slim boy from earlier.
"Hmm... so we're classmates", he thought to himself.
"Ah! Another late student... and who also happens to be new in this school", said the professor.
The students have become curious to learn who Basilius is, so they all just looked at him. Basilius became anxious because of this. He started to walk towards the professor hesitantly with his head slightly bowed, and his eyes unsure where to look. Then, he started to introduce himself...
"Uh... Hi, I'm Basilius. You can call me Leo."
The slim boy is looking at him keenly, and thought to himself...
"This guy. He confidently saved my ass from the bullies, but he couldn't handle speaking in front of a crowd."
"...what an interesting person."
Leo is just standing and does not know what to do, so the professor said...
"Hello, Leo. Tell us more about yourself."
"Um... I'm 17 years old from ah... Cubao, Quezon City."
"Okay. What are you hobbies, talents, and special skills."
When the professor mentioned special skills, Leo became wary. He made sure that he wouldn't mention about his superhuman abilities.
"A-ah... I'm a... ah... not really an interesting person."
"Oh... okay. Everyone, Leo has been homeschooled until now, so please treat him kindly and befriend him."
"Thanks for introducing yourself, Leo. You can find a seat now."
Leo chose the seat on the back corner next to the windows, which coincidentally, is right behind the seat of the slim boy.
"Alright. Since the late students are done introducing themselves, let's continue with the ones who haven't introduced themselves yet. Let's start with..."
As the individual introduction is going on, slim boy turned around to talk to Leo.
"Hey. I haven't got the chance to thank you for saving my ass back there. By the way, I'm..."
Before slim boy could finish introducing himself, Leo interrupted him, "Juanito Batumbakal. You prefer being called Netnet."
"How did you --- you weren't even here to hear me introduce myself earlier."
"I was just by the doorway listening to what's going on before I showed myself", Leo lied.
"Oh... okay. Anyway, thanks. I don't know how I would've gotten away from them if it wasn't for you."
Leo just nodded. And as Netnet turned to face the front, Leo noticed that he has cuts on his hands and a scar on his right shoulder. He thought to himself...
"Hmm... it seems this guy gets bullied a lot. I feel sorry for him."
He subtly looked at Netnet's bag on the side which was slightly open. He saw some sort of contraption. He used his enhanced vision to allow him to see through the shadows of the inside of the bag, but he had to be cautious because his eyes glow when he uses his enhanced vision.
"Smartphones. But... they don't feel like smartphones. Hmm..."
"Maybe he's just into that crypto mining thing... or he fixes phones."
He, then, looked at the other students to observe them as it is his way of learning about people before actually knowing them. He's been doing it since he was a kid that he's become really good at reading people.
While he's observing people, he suddenly froze while his heartbeat got faster and his eyes widened. He sensed a powerful aura in the classroom.
"What is that aura?!"
"I've never felt this kind of aura before, and it just appeared out of nowhere."
Then, in the corner of his eye on the seat to his right, he saw someone stood up. Leo slowly looked up to check out the guy clearly, and to his surprise, the guy was also looking at him. He's as tall as Leo, with orange eyes, very light skin, and thick red hair with curtain bangs that are shaped like wings and a thick, long ponytail that reaches his waist.
Then, the guy walked to the front. As soon as he stood in front, the aura got so strong that it made Leo uneasy.
"Who is this guy?!"
"Is he like me... or is he one of those superheroes in the news, the Alphas?"
"Or... is he one of the Omegas?"
He wanted to see the aura to gauge how powerful the guy is, so he activated his enhanced vision without a care if anyone else would see his eyes glow. As soon as he activated his enhanced vision, his heart skipped a beat because he saw a huge violet aura covering everything behind the guy including the wall except for the professor.
"This guy... is on a different level than me."
Just when Leo thought he should not think negatively of the situation because he doesn't know him, the guy casually looked into Leo's eyes, which shocked him.
"He didn't react to my eyes! He knows about me."
All of a sudden, the huge overpowering aura diminished into a normal amount but still strong, and it turned from violet to orange. This confused Leo.
"Wait... what's going on? What happened to his aura?"
Then, with a very manly voice and while girls in the class were chattering in infatuation because of how handsome the guy standing in front is, he introduced himself.
"Hi. My name is Kagirim Likha. You can call me Kagi, but for the girls, you can call me whatever you like."
With a disgusted look on his face, Netnet whispered to Leo, "that guy is so cocky, am I right?"
Leo didn't answer as he was too focused on Kagi as they locked eyes again trying to intimidate one another.
"Alright. Thank you very much, students, for introducing yourselves. Now, of course I must introduce myself. I'm professor Epdelion Kuwago. I normally ask my students to call me Sir Leo, but since we already have a Leo in the room, you can call me Sir Delion."
"I'm your class adviser, and also your professor in the Filipino subject. And for those who like clubs, if you're fascinated in mythical creatures like kapres, tikbalangs, aswangs, and the likes, I encourage you to join the Philippine Folklore and Mythology club, which I administer", he added.
Suddenly, Leo's heart rhythym changed as if his heart is telling him that there's something about mythical creatures that he needs to know about. "What is this strange feeling?" he thought to himself.
"Anyway, let's get busy because as 11th graders, what we will learn this year in my subject is all about the ancient scripts of the Philippines. Many of you might not know this but there are many scripts used by our ancestors and it varies per region. We'll begin with Baybayin, and hopefully by the end of your senior year, you will have learned each and every one of those scripts", the professor said.
He added, "now I know what some of you might think. That's too much to learn, especially considering you spent the first 4 years of high school learning the many dialects and languages of our country. There's just so much to learn because our culture is very rich, and the Filipino subject is all about learning what it means to be Filipino, especially now that we are blindly adapting the cultures of other countries overshadowing our own."
As the professor was conducting his lecture, Leo was still thinking about the aura he felt. He's suspicious about Kagi, and he's eager to know why someone like him is in LPU.
Suddenyl, Leo got distracted by a sun ray reflecting from a thing inside Netnet's bag on the floor. He couldn't tell what it was, so he had to lean over a bit just to have a good look. To his surprise, he found no more than 10 smartphones.
"What is Netnet doing with those phones?"
"...Is he a thief? Maybe he sells them?"
At that point, Leo is just baffled by how his day was going. So many things were happening, but the good thing is that Leo trained him self to have a calm mind so he knows exactly what to do.