The first words that come to my mind are 'How beautiful' when I gaze upon the image of my soon to be childhood friend, Sira, as she stands in the moonlight that frames her like an angel with her long red hair and hardened eyes contrasting her naturally beautiful face.I call out to her and she turns to me and smiles. "You must be pretty cool to talk to me like this after everything."I wake up with a slight start, bumping my head on the bunk above me. It's occupied by another friend who I recently made named Arc who gives me a small scolding since it's the second time I've woken him up like that this week. He has a plain looking face with a short sleek black Mohawk and sideburns.Located in the Roto Kingdom, The Roton Military Academy is an all purpose academy meant to make strong mages and fighters for the front lines, however it's evolved into a general purpose academy with the option of joining the military or going to pursue other careers. The military trainees are kept entirely separate from the general studies students and don't interact with them much, if at all. This was fine with me since I didn't care what they were up to, but I was a little curious about their magic research classes.I walk into the mess hall and see Sira waiting by the door for me with an annoyed look. "Took you long enough." she says haughtily as she grabs my hand and drags me towards the defac line."Sorry about that. I was being scolded by Arc again." I say with an apologetic chuckle."It's not like I wanna woken up by your hard head in the morning." Arc retorted next to me in line.We get our food and sit down at the lunch table in the corner. No one wanted to interact with me despite me being the top scorer in the practical and written exams, but I was okay with this since I preferred a smaller circle of friends. This was our second week here, and our first class of the semester began today. In the class, we were getting our squads assigned, and though it was random, I was secretly hoping I would end up with the two people before me rather than two random people I didn't know. Sira saw me staring at her and threateningly said, "What are you looking at dumbass? I'll never forgive you if you lewd me in your mind.""I'm sorry. I'll stop staring." I say sheepishlyAfter eating the slop served by the academy, we all headed to the classroom for home room. We were lucky enough to be assigned similar schedules. It felt like divine intervention that we were all able to stick together throughout the day.We sit down amidst everyone glaring at me. I wanted to believe it was because they were jealous of me being the top scorer in the written and practical exam, but I knew the reason was because of my name, so I just tried to ignore them."They're just jealous because they aren't as amazing as you Kazu." Sira says condescendingly towards them in an effort to cheer me up. It doesn't help very much, but the thought of her trying does help slightly, considering her condescending personality.My full name was Kazuhiro. Growing up, I hated my weird name. It earned me looks from other people when they heard it and it rubbed people the wrong way for reasons I didn't know. Weirdly enough though, I've grown to like it since it gave me Sira in a sense.The teacher walked in and I felt an immense pressure as a women in her 30s with short silver hair and sharp eyes walked in and silenced everyone, drawing their attention, as if she was saying, 'Don't look at that idiot.' She placed her books down on a podium at the front of the room and started speaking in a heavy Bormi accent. "My name is Mrs. Unde. As I'm sure many of you know, you will be assigned squads first. That does not mean you can slack off with them. What it does mean is that you will be getting along with your mates whether you want to or not. If I hear of any infighting in your squad, everyone in the squad will be expelled on the spot. Am I clear?" She said all this while glaring around the classroom.Everyone responded with a prompt "Yes ma'am."Surprisingly, Sira, Arc, and I were all put in the same squad: Squad 5. We were assigned new dorms with our squad mates and each given a room key card along with our recruit uniforms. She instructed us to go change and get ready for a practical test that would determine our ranks within the class and our squad."It's kind of exciting." I say to Arc who is changing next to me."Damn right. I have been training my entire life to get into this school, and now I get to spend my time in this school with you. The guy everyone dislikes." He says all this with a sarcastic tone and smile, but I don't take offense to it since he has a point.As we were changing, a pompous looking guy with shoulder length brown hair walked up to me and started making fun of me, but I ignored him which seemed to piss him off rather than shooing him away since he suddenly grabbed my collar. I promptly responded by grabbing his wrist and pinning him to the ground in seconds. "Words are fine since they don't bother me, but don't touch me." I say calmly while tightening my grip on his arm. "The same goes for my friends. Don't even talk to them if you wish to bring them harm or upset them." I say threateningly.The man whimpers in reply and I let him go and head out. Arc looks at the man on the ground for a second before catching up to me and saying, "Damn. Remind me not to get on your bad side."I turn my head to him and reply coyly, "I'll hold you to that. It's pretty easy for me to get upset."We meet up with Sira standing with another girl in the yard. The girl next to her bows her head to Sira and walks away before we arrive. Sira looks at me a little annoyed and says, "You should be grateful I still hang out with you. What's up with you."
She notices my slightly annoyed expression I was hanging onto from before.
"Just a little scuffle in the locker room." I tell her with a slight smile before the teacher walks up to the crowd.The teacher clears her throat loudly, silencing everyone. "Listen up small fry. This will be no walk In the park. You will be subjected to harsh training beyond anything you could imagine. More than that, after you're done here, you will be sent to kill other people and watch your comrades and friends die before you. With that knowledge in mind, I am giving all of you the chance to leave this academy now. Will any of you who don't wish to kill another person stand up and leave the premises immediately." She glared at the class after she finished her speech. I steeled my resolve as the thought of everyone in the village and Sira flashed in my mind. Two people stood up and started walking away. She continued, "Good. Now that the wokows are gone, we can continue. First of all, while all of you may have personal reasons for fighting, I'm here to tell you that the enemy doesn't care about that. Can anyone tell me how magic works."Arc raises his hand, and she gives him permission to continue. "Magic activates when an incantation is spoken aloud, opening up specific gates in your mana system, allowing mana to circulate through the gates and bring forth magic. While everyone is able to use all the elements a little, your mana system is able to open certain gates for elements easier and wider, allowing more mana to pass through that specific type of gate. This makes it so that mages are more proficient in certain elements compared to others."Arc quickly cuts his explanation off when the teacher glares at him for speaking too long. She goes on to say, "Yes Arc. Thank you for the in depth explanation." She then asks, "Can anyone besides Arc tell me about the basic elements?"Sira spoke up and said, "There are four basic elements. They are earth, wind, fire, and water.""Can anyone tell me about other elements?"A girl in the back with square glasses and shoulder length blonde hair spoke up, "Some people who are skilled at manipulating their mana with more than one element can make offshoots that combine multiple elements in different ways.""Now that we have established the basics, shall we begin." She began muttering an incantation for earth magic and several target shaped rocks started forming from the ground around them. She continued with, "There should be enough for all of you to practice on. Get to work, ya bunch of ocilates."From a young age I've been able to open my gates without an incantation, and I have no idea why. Not wanting to stand out I began muttering an incantation for a basic water ball spell, but I accidentally fired the spell prematurely when a yelp from a surprised student nearby startled me." Everyone stared at me, and I struggled to think of an excuse when Sira proceeded to do an incantationless spell that I taught her when we were young."It's not that hard. Kazu is just amazing for thinking of it at all." She said trying to draw some of the attention away from me.Everyone looked around nervously, and the instructor walked up to me and Sira and said, "You two will be coming to the office with me. Arc can come too since he's part of your squad."