2 Primal Energy

A week has gone by since my initial discovery, and I've made several interesting notes about it. I've written it all in my school notebook, carefully slotted between doodles and school notes to cast away any suspicion. Just to be safe.

For one, everything that lives has Primal Energy. It doesn't matter what it is. Humans, dogs, trees, flies, or even the snail I found. They all have Primal Energy in them. To have Primal Energy is to live, and to lose it completely is to die.

Two, everything that lives generates Primal Energy. It isn't something I noticed at first, but after doing some more tests on the ferns just outside my house, I noticed how the Primal Energy it lost returns after some time, while the leaf I snapped off from it eventually loses all its Primal Energy and becomes inert.

That means I don't need to worry if something runs out of Primal Energy. As long as it can digest things and replenish itself, it can generate more Primal Energy.

Three, Primal Energy makes me stronger. Not noticeably at first, but after a week of constantly sapping Primal Energy from the poor flora in my neighborhood, I've noticed that my body has gotten stronger. My muscles haven't suddenly grown or anything, but the school bag that I hated carrying suddenly became as light as air.

It's the mystic sort of strength, and I can't help but be somewhat giddy about it. I mean, you see all those anime characters lifting boulders without having an ounce of muscle, so being able to do that in real life was no short of amazing.

And four, taking in Primal Energy seems to expand my Primal Energy 'storage', as I call it. The small bead of energy in my heart slowly grew as I took in more and more Primal Energy. After a week of absorbing, the bead has grown to the size of a marble, and the Primal Energy coursing through my veins can suddenly be seen as specks of white moving beneath my skin.

It isn't much, but my eyes tell me that this isn't something anyone should be able to do. Or, at least, anyone normal.

My eyes tell me a lot of things, but out of all, it constantly reminds me of this; Knowledge is Power. To know something is to begin the growth of understanding, and understanding eventually leads to enlightenment.

Primal Energy is something, well, primal. Something that existed before even the gods came to this world, none of them knows what it even is. That knowledge had been lost to time, until now.

My eyes have allowed me to see the Primal Energy that lives in everything, and through it I've been given the ability to interact with it.

Which brings up a good question; what happens if I tell this to someone else? Will they be able to interact with Primal Energy as I do if I explain the concept to them? Is teaching them about it enough?

I close my eyes to let my eyes work. A small ache begins to ring in the back of my mind, and I receive nothing but a vague feeling that it isn't that simple.

It's just minutes before midnight, and again I find myself sitting behind my desk, writing and reading through all the discoveries I've made in the past week. I've been doing a lot of that recently. Thankfully, my parents aren't asking too many questions. They're just happy that I'm 'starting to be productive again'.

They would probably be sad if they saw what I'm actually doing. Then again, it's not like I need to learn too much. I may have been an office worker in my past life, but the trauma from highschool and AP Physics will remain with me eternally.

Not even the likes of Japanese and History can thwart me. My eyes may have come from God, but it seems God is just as disgusted by the two as I am. Whenever I begin to really struggle, my eyes begin pouring necessary information straight into my cranium.

I put my pen down and give my arms a quick stretch. I've been sitting for two hours straight. My hands feel a little clammy from all the writing I did. I give my fingers a little shake before I flip the notebook shut. With a small groan, I jumped and plopped my face straight into my bed.

And as I lay there, I think. For the past week, I've been absorbing Primal Energy by tearing off leaves and taking in the leaking energy. It works well enough, but it feels slow. I want something faster. I want a source with more. And it just so happens that there's a small forest just north from my home.

Trees hold a lot more Primal Energy than normal plants. It's a little unfair comparing the two. If the leaves he plucked were a small drop of energy, then the plants they came from would be a puddle, and trees would be entire rivers.

Of course, it'll be a little difficult trying to carve a hole in the bark to allow some Primal Energy to leak through. But I do have a butter knife I 'borrowed' from the kitchen drawers.

With a plan made, I slowly drift off to sleep.

My sleep is a dreamless one.

The next morning comes, and I'm off to Kuoh Elementary. It's…fine. Going to school isn't overly terrible, and it gives me time to use my eyes. I don't have any friends here. Acquaintances, sure, but no one I can confidently call a friend. Not for a lack of trying, of course. The me before all this tried his hardest, but he just didn't fit in with anyone.

That Hyoudou Issei was sad, but I'm not. Not really. I have my family with me, and that's more than enough.

School passes in excruciating boredom, but once it does I quickly begin making my way to the forest near my home. I've already told my mom that I'll be back later than usual. I walk along, using my eyes to keep me from getting lost and occasionally listening to the errant thoughts of the people around me.

On that note, why're there so many perverts in this town!? I can't go five minutes without listening to some guy's raunchy daydream. Was the world just like this? Am I the weird one?

I'm painfully snapped back to reality when I smack my face straight onto a tree's bark. I've somehow walked all the way to the forest. I stare at the trees around me as I rub my nose, before I shrug. It's probably my eyes being special again.

I make my way deeper into the forest. It's a small one, just barely big enough to be called a forest. There aren't any big animals living here; I can only see small critters living in the bushes and atop the tree branches. Eventually, once I'm hidden away from any potential prying eyes, I pull out the butter knife I 'borrowed'.

And I begin chipping into the wood. My knife doesn't dig, and I don't expect it to. I keep plowing the metal into the bark, watching for the moment Primal Energy begins to leak out. It takes a while, and the already dull knife flattens even more, but eventually,

Snap! One moment, the river of Primal Energy coursing inside the tree bark is calm. The next moment, the hole I've been digging finally reaches through the outer bark, and the river of energy begins rushing towards the wound.

I quickly slap my hand onto the hole, and I barely manage to stifle down a gasp as pure, electric energy rushes into my body.

It's incomparable to the small rush of heat I get every time I take in the energy from a leaf I plucked. Here, it feels like I'm holding a burning stove. It almost feels like my hand's seconds away from burning. But I keep my hand pressed onto the bark, gritting my teeth as I see the white glow rush into my skin.

And as I do, I keep a careful eye on the tree. Because though I know Primal Energy can be regenerated, I don't want to bleed this tree dry. Draining all of its Primal Energy will make it temporarily weak, and there's a high chance the tree could get sick and die.

The moment the tree's Primal Energy falls below a tenth of its original, I quickly pull my hand back. The heat quickly vanishes, and I pull out the makeshift bandage I've prepared for the poor tree I've nearly sapped dry.

And by bandage I mean duct tape. I tear off a strip from the roll and plaster it over the hole I dug. Immediately, the rushing stops. The Primal Energy settles, and the energy returns to the slow crawl up and down the tree.

It's something I discovered minutes after my first absorption, actually. After I sapped that first leaf dry, I noticed that Primal Energy was still leaking from the potted amaryllis in my room. I panicked for a good second, before my eyes told me I just needed to cover the 'wound' with something.

The answer I came to was duct tape. Quick, easy, and fairly cheap. And after some time, the 'wound' will close on its own, and I can tear off the tape without the risk of an energy leak.

Nodding to myself, I turn to the butter knife in my hands. As expected, the thing was dull and slightly dented. I can probably still use it a couple more times before it becomes completely unusable.

I look down, and I can't help but grin. My 'storage' of Primal Energy has grown tremendously. The marble of white has expanded to the size of a tennis ball, and I feel amazing. I feel warm all over, and I feel stronger. My bag already feels light, but after taking in all that Primal Energy, I can barely even feel it.

Hmm. I should get some weights to check just how much my strength changes. Although I'm not sure how I'll get any.

I look to my left. There's a small rock there. It's just about the size of my hand, and definitely not something a boy like me should be able to break.

I walk over to it, and taking a breath, I stomp on it with all my strength. My foot aches slightly, but I lift my foot away to see what happened.

And though the rock is still clearly a rock, I can't help but grin.

Because there's now a crack on it.