Chapter 6 - A Pleasant Nightmare

Wind rushed past my ears, deafening me to the silence. I exponentially sped up as the wind measured my ears useless. Falling for around 10 seconds or so, the end of the hole was now apparent. I looked away, terrified of the drop, and braced myself for a painful death.

I hit the surface of the water, exhaling all the air in my lungs instantaneously. The pain coursed through my legs, and the shock rattled the brain in my skull. I lifted my hands, grasping for air as I lost consciousness.

...

I stuffed, the key, my lunch, and my books into a bag. Rushed to the door. Rattle, as the key shook before a slight click. Oddly, the sound made me shudder. I stepped my foot out the door and hurried to the stop where the bus would arrive. The bus was waiting at the stop, until the driver noticed me. The doors started closing slowly. I just about made it to the bus and was about to get on, when a hand grabbed my shirt's collar, and threw me on the floor.

"Fuck off loser" shouted the generic bully stereotype, from my school. "Shit tards like you don't deserve to ride the bus."

I picked myself up, aware of the common routine and dusted my dark grey trousers off, shook clean my blazer, and straightened my tie. Beginning the three hour long trek to school, I departed from the bus stop.

Many hours later I arrived at the school, whilst classes were in session. "Hailords awakener and mana theory school." read the hanging sign above the school entrance. The word awakener had been painted over multiple times, showing the importance of the awakeners. In the school there were two main factions: the awakeners, and the theorists. As the names implied, the two were both different in their capabilities. Around ninety percent of the students were awakeners and saw themselves as superior over the non-awakeners. At the age of sixteen, around fifty percent of people awaken an attribute. At seventeen, around three percent of the remaining people who had didn't awaken at sixteen would awaken, and at eighteen the chance of awakening was around one in sixty thousand. No one had ever awakened after the age of eighteen before.

I stepped into practical mana class, having dozed off during my journey due to the repetitiveness of the halls. The green haired woman turned towards the door and watched me walk up to my seat. She averted her eyes from the black haired person after realizing who he was. I arrived at my desk and sat down to the same frequent vandalism scribbled across it. "Waste of Mana.", "Drop out, failed talent." I took out my book and placed it over the writings, beginning to tune into the lecture.

"As I was saying, attributes are not all that there is to ones mana signature. As a person's proficiency in their talent increases, their range of control over their attributes abilities increase, and if increased enough, mana can be used for separate reasons or even different attributes simultaneously. It should also be stated that attributes change a person's body accordingly with their attribute, and greater synergy can make a person more durable or allow them to withstand drastically hot and or cold temperatures."

"Edward, would you please come to the front of the class?" asked the green haired teacher. Edward rose from his seat and trudged to the front of the class. He had a huge body, and was seen as the model student by the teachers, with both earth and wind attributes. His attributes practically made his body indestructible among the third years. The professor lightly asked, "Edward would you show off your attribute's synergy with your body please." Edward flashed a grin at the beautiful teacher before extending a rocky knife from his hand and stabbing it into his arms, thighs and chest. The knife crumbled to rocks as the giant's body was left unharmed. The beauty showed a look of surprise on her face before congratulating Edward and sending him back to his chair.

The teacher then ordered all of the students to work on their attribute's proficiency whilst she finished off some paperwork. I looked to the board and jotted down the notes from todays lecture into my book. I still needed the notes despite the fact I didn't have an attribute, as when I got my attribute I would need to work extra hard, to catch back up. The lesson continued with the student's self practice until the end of the lecture when the bell for morning brake rang.

I packed up my books and joined the crowd of people piling into the halls. Back to the fun of waiting for my next lesson. Less than a minute after entering the hall, a group of awakeners had surrounded me. Student's hierarchical status stood depending on whether they had attributes, which was followed by the strength of their attributes in this place. Being at the bottom of the pecking order in this place, made an easy prey for people, who had nothing better to do than bully.

"How was your walk to school shit tard" stated one of the bullies, specifically the one who had prevented my use of the bus this morning.

I responded in a dull and boring voice, "It was great thanks, but I think I'll be on my way. If you would kindly move, it would make my life much easier."

Another bully chirped in, "Ha, the failed prodigy wants to pass us. Spouting idiotic nonsense like that is a sure fire way to get in a fight. You wouldn't want that would you, you pathetic bitch?"

I was about to make an attempt at retorting before I stopped myself, and forcefully pushed emotion into my voice, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I was just trying to say how busy I was and I needed to get past."

"Yeah, Yeah" the third bully said, slamming me to the wall. "You know the drill, hand over your money or we'll beat you to half an inch of your life. The amount of money you have is always so pathetic you know, I guess being poor comes with the package of not having parents anymore."

I turned to the man, who dared slander my family and crunched my hand into a fist. I dropped my bag to the floor, and charged at the brute. He noticed this and threw a slow punch at my face. I turned to the left avoiding the punch narrowly as I planted my hand on his wrist, pulled him in closer and launched a jab at his stomach. The man fell at my feet as I lifted my knee into his nose, breaking it into several pieces as the bones went crunch.

The first and second bullies were more prepared than the last and exuded their mana signatures, otherwise known as auras. The suffocating presence of attribute mana haltered and slowed my movements considerably. The air became incredibly cold and windy as the two used their attributes in sync. I roared at the top of my lungs, "you dare mention my parents!" before a blade of wind came rushing at my arms and dully collided at my elbow. Still, the force was more than enough to fracture the bone in my arm and conclude the outcome of the fight. I fell to the floor as the two boys, ruthlessly kicked me in the ribs, over and over.

Ten minutes later I was sitting in the principles office, after having briefly gone to the nurse who healed my most basic wounds with her nature attribute mana. My arm hung from my shoulder limply in a cast, with the nurse mentioning that with regular treatment it should take around a week to heal. Nonetheless, I sat in a comfy armchair in front of the principle of the school.

"Tomita, it would seem you have spent a large amount of time absent from school recently. I can assume this is due to the bullying following your lack of an attribute." the stern principle inquired. I looked at him before looking down again, and slightly nodding. "It is a shame that you do not have a attribute, but do not let that effect how happy you are in life."

"On the other hand, your missing attribute should be embraced instead of rejected, and so I am going to give you two choices. You can either drop mana practical classes or you can leave school."

"Wait no, that's totally unfair" I retaliated, however the principle looked at me and said, "Life is unfair, Tomita. Despite your huge amount of mana, and the hard work you put in every day at school in the first year, life didn't give you an attribute. I hear you own the title of failed prodigy around school now. You were labelled as having great talent, but now you don't and must adapt to that situation. I can no longer allow you to waste away in a class you shouldn't attend. You have the ability to be great outside of the field of mana and such and so I reiterate my offer. Leave the class, or leave the school."

In the end I chose to leave the school.

...

I was so very cold. My retinas widened as large as they could yet I still couldn't see anything. I tried to move my hands but found them unable to move. After a while, my eyes adapted to the light and I realised that I was in a frozen pond. My last memory was falling under the water, so what had happened here? My brain ignored the ice surrounding me and ordered me to turn my arms, loosening the frozen water's grip. This stupid ice, why can't life be easy for once? Suddenly, the ice disappeared and stagnant water replaced it. I splashed my arms on instinct, my brain being too cold and focused on what had just happened to respond. I dragged myself to dry land, a rocky lip that surrounded the pond.

After I was assured of my inability to drown, a pressing matter poised my mind. Did I just use an attribute?