Chapter 2

Emica walked over to Professor Sumire's office, her mind in turmoil.

'How can Professor Sumire suggest for Sensei to be a teacher? I can tell he's powerful, but he's just so lazy!' She knocked on the door of Professor Sumire's office.

"Come in," Sumire said, her muffled voice coming from the other side of the door. Emica opened up the door and went to stand in front of her desk.

"Princess, what is it?" Sumire asked, getting up and bowing. Emica smiled, before her face twisted.

"Sensei Souta doesn't teach! So far, he's only napped during class and had us do self-study! I ask for you to reform him, or I want him fired!" Emica said. Sumire sighed and sat down, holding a finger against her temple.

"Yes, princess. I'll address the matter right away." Sumire replied. Emica nodded before leaving. Sumire got up, her feelings ripping her heart in two ways. Either to release Souta, and let him go free, or, force him to teach, and suppress his potential. Both had there pros and cons, but the consequences were both very bad.

'Well, guess it will have to come down to how he reacts.' Sumire walked out of her office and went around the school, looking for Souta.

"I can see you." Sumire heard this before she remembered what she gave Souta. She didn't think that he still had it, but she kept it. She raised her wrist to her face and rolled the sleeve up, revealing a silver bracelet with a ruby in the middle.

"Souta? Why do you still have this communication device?" She asked. The ruby glowed, Souta's voice echoed from it.

"I kept it because I wanted to screw with it and see if I could make it something completely different." He said. Sumire rolled her eyes, as it sounded exactly what Souta would say.

"Where are you? I need to talk to you." Sumire asked.

"I'm on the roof." He replied. Sumire furrowed her brows.

"I looked on the roof, I couldn't find you."

"I'm on the roof of the teleportation device building. Why is there a whole building just for a simple device?" Souta asked. Sumire chuckled, Souta's humor never fails to amuse her.

"I'm coming." Sumire pulled her glove above it and went over to the teleportation building. She saw Souta slightly floating above the small point in the roof.

'How did you get up there? There are no stairs.' Sumire wondered, before remembering he knew how to fly. She took out her wand and pointed up.

The amethyst on top glowed. Sumire jumped up into the sky, before landing in the arms of Souta.

"That's some weight," Souta said, groaning, trying to keep Sumire from falling from the bridal-style way he was holding her.

"Shut your mouth." Sumire got out of Souta's arms, holding onto his shoulder to stay afloat. Souta allowed her, but he shook his shoulder, making Sumire shake from the shared levitation. She gripped onto his bicep, not wanting to plummet from 3 stories (30 feet) to the ground.

"Stop moving, or I'm taking away your food privileges for a week," Sumire warned. Souta stopped moving at the serious threat. Serious to him, at least.

"What did you want to talk about?" Souta asked, looking at the sunset. Sumire was a bit surprised at how willing Souta was when normally, he would not care.

"I know that you are waiting for the new world. I am too. But, it's not going to just fall into your lap. What about teaching these kids about fighting to prepare them for the new world? Then, maybe you'll find Lig-"

"If this is just to get me to teach, I want to see that the kids have potential," Souta said, interrupting Sumire. Sumire pursed her lips, trying to figure out how to show the students potential. Originally, she was going to threaten him by taking away his food privileges for 3 months, but it was much more complicated than that.

"So, if I can prove that the students have at least a fourth of your potential then you'll put in the effort to teach them?" Sumire asked. Souta nodded, brushing a hand through his hair.

"Yes. But, they are still kids. If I see that any of them have anything less than a fourth of my potential, I will kick them out of my class." Souta said. He knew that even if he was living in a time with very advanced fighting arts, the potential was put to a set limit for those who chose that path.

"Souta, I also want you to keep on teaching for another reason. You can possibly find Light, and then find the other 3 elements." Sumire said, looking at the sunset as well. She flipped through memories of hers from the past 10,000 years, so many deaths, so many tragedies.

"Sumire, why do you still stay? I don't need any more training, and you certainly have a place in the Elemental Dimension." Souta said. Sumire smiled sadly, that smile holding eons of pain.

"I promised to the first Light that I would protect Darkness for as long as I could. Do you remember why she put me under that oath?" Sumire asked. Souta nodded, slightly smiling.

"You told me this all the time when I was younger. The first Darkness had gone on his own journey, without Light. He made a young girl take an oath to watch over Light. The young girl took the form of many to keep Light in her watch. She disappeared during the Great War when the Elements were battling an army of creatures from space. Because Light was angry at having an oath sworn in her name, she put an oath on you to take care of the future Darkness's." Souta recounted. He had heard this story countless times, and he was grateful that Sumrie had saved his former lives too many times to count.

"I already found the guardian of Light," Souta said. Sumire looked at him, before nodding.

"I knew you would find her quickly," Sumire said. She had already known who was the guardian, but she wanted to see if Souta was still sharp.

"Hanae Yang. She is from a very powerful family but was cast out because of her underwhelming potential. Perfect form for the guardian to take." Souta said. His ability to gain information never ceased to amaze Sumire, even with all her experience with him.

"So, who do you think is Light?" Sumire asked. Souta sighed, before taking out a coin.

"If it is who I think it is, I want to see that locket," Souta said. Each Element had a token that would distinguish them to the other Elements.

"You haven't activated your token in 20 years," Sumire said. The neglected token had lost its radiance, making it look grey.

"I haven't imbued it with darkness since I was born. I saw no point in finding Light. But, I've watched through eyes that weren't mine see the world slowly destroy itself. I always wanted to be powerful enough to sweep this world into a new era. But, the more that I look at the world, I want to keep it. It's just, there's a certain charm to this world, even if there's so much evil." Souta said. Sumire sighed, before combing her fingers through his hair.

"Souta, it is already determined that this world is destined to change. Gaia herself put that fate on this world herself. To go against that, would be equal to a death sentence." Sumire said. It was a curse on her part to have it inscribed on the inside of her arm. The swirly letters on her arm, bearing the words of Gaia during the Great War. She kept it covered, feeling ashamed of the curse.

"What will happen if I try to go against her?" Souta asked. He was genuinely interested. Going against the rules was always something that he was up for.

"Creation going against its creator? It's not unheard of, but we're talking about the creator of this universe. She's much more powerful than you are." Sumire said. Going against someone powerful always resulted in at least someone dying.

"I asked for what would happen, not a lecture." He said. He kinda liked this world and he didn't want it to change.

"Well, you would become the ruler of the world, holding infinite power. But to defeat her, you would need Light, Earth, Air, and Water. All five of you combined could probably defeat Gaia at a huge cost." Sumire said. The Great War between the Elements and the mortals was very dangerous, and Gaia took the side of the humans. The Elements lost, and almost all of them died, the ones surviving were Earth and Water.

"..." Souta thought about what Sumire said. Sumire had seen Darkness, Light, and Air all die while Earth and Water walked away with heavy injuries. They went into seclusion before dying quietly. All of them were either hated or loved by humans, partly because they helped people, but they were powerful, and they were put under an oath to help the rich.

"Souta. If you do wish to have another war with Gaia, be careful with all the lives that will be sacrificed. You know that Gaia can unweave oaths and manipulate people's minds. She can take the form of anything. Going against her will always yield consequences." Sumire warned. Souta flew down to the ground and placed Sumire on the ground.

"Who said that I have any interest in going to war?" Souta asked, a grim smile adorning his face.

~The Next Day~

"Emica~chan, do you think Professor Sumire did anything with Sensei?" Hanae asked, struggling to keep up with Emica's long strides. Emica was at least 4 inches taller than Hanae, Hanae only being 5'1.

"I hope so. If she doesn't, then I will have to report Sensei and Professor Sumire to my father." Emica said. She detested those who didn't want to do anything with people who did not put in an effort to help the world.

As she walked in class, she saw Souta standing at the front of the class. He looked towards the door as Emica and Hanae walked in.

"Hello, girls. Take a seat and please wait for class to start." He said. Emica was impressed by his change in attitude, but his nonchalant stance and messy appearance made her doubt him.

"Sensei, have you changed?" Hanae asked. Her high pitched and cutesy voice asked. Souta nodded, taking out a coin from his pocket. Hanae's eyes gleamed before she smiled.

"First time that I've seen you so diligent." She walked away and went to her seat, taking out a notebook and doodling in it.

Emica was a bit confused, but she let it slide, taking her seat.

In a few moments, the bell rang, and a group of boys ran to their seats. Souta sighed before walking in front of his desk.

"Welcome to the first class. As you all know, the Yin Yang Academy no longer does homeroom to fully implement the time to teach you. So, I will be teaching you the basics of the different fighting arts. I will be delving deeper into the foundations of it, so you can choose next year what path you want to take. The next two periods, we will be learning about the basics of sword fighting. Can anyone tell me what the basics of sword fighting are?" Souta said. The class was surprised before Emica raised her hand.

"Swordfighting is brute strength used to suppress an enemy, and eventually defeat them. The art of the sword is using a sword to block and attack an enemy. Being strong isn't the only part of being a swordfighter. Reading an opponents body and taking note of how they act is a very important part." Emica stated. Souta nodded before going to the side of the class and grabbing two real swords.

"These swords were made especially for special warriors in the army. They are originally swords made by the Elements, able to hold a certain type of energy that is excluded by those who choose to wield swords. As we all know, when you choose which branch you wish to pursue, you are put into a purification chamber that sets a new type of energy in your body that will help prepare your body. Swordsmen extrude energy called sō atari. It protects their muscles and strengthens their body so they can last longer in war." Souta's hand glowed, and the glow spread to the sword. The sword that had broken pieces connected, creating a powerful looking sword. The power that rolled off from it was overwhelming.

"The more potent your sō atari, the more power that will be released by your sword on strike. Any sword can hold sō atari, but swords that were made by the Elements were made specially to be able to hold the three different types of energy. All of you can extrude a little energy from each fighting arts path, so we will be learning this class how to use that small bit of energy to defeat enemies that are stronger than you."

'Tha- that's possible? Such a heaven-defying technique can actually be used?' Emica thought, gripping her pencil until her knuckles turned white.

"This is a technique used by warriors to conserve their energy. It's not very heaven-defying, so you all can calm down."

'This contemptible man! His attitude is still garbage!' The class thought, groaning in their heads.