Abilities

*** 10 years ago, Ima Elementary School, Ima Town, Ukhozi Empire

Many teachers would consider it an impossible task to gain the complete undivided attention of an entire class of 7-year-olds, yet here stood Filomena Fandango, in possession of exactly that. Thirty 7-year-olds looked up at her with rapt attention, for the first time ever.

Filomena took a long second just to pace up and down the classroom, enjoying the power she had over students, some of whom had never paid attention to any of her lessons despite having been taught by her for over a year at this point.

The reason for this level of attention was the topic that they knew she would be covering in the lesson that she was about to give at the moment.

Abilities.

The mystical powers which made this entire Empire (as well as practically all other forms of civilization on the world) function, and certainly an extremely exciting topic for children, none of whom had unlocked their own abilities to date.

Filomena basked in the silence for just a bit longer until her students looked like they were about to burst from the effort of keeping their mouths closed.

"Abilities," Filomena said simply.

Excited murmuring broke out across her class.

"An ability is a power which rests within every single one of us and manifests in the form of a specific power or trait which is unique to the wielder of the ability. As far as Ukhozi's researchers have been able to find, abilities can only manifest in one person at a time but they may manifest in another person after their first user has passed away." Filomena paused, "Any questions?"

Seeing that there were none, Filomena continued.

"These powers and traits are known as abilities. Abilities can be roughly divided into 4 separate categories. The 4 types of abilities are passive abilities, target abilities, transform abilities, and belief abilities."

A student raised a hand, "What do those types mean?" she asked curiously.

Filomena nodded, acknowledging the question and continued, "Passive Abilities are abilities which have an effect which is always active in the vicinity of the user. For example, if someone had a passive ability which served to make people happier, the effect would be automatic within the sphere of influence of the user of the ability. Target Abilities, on the other hand, require contact with the target to take effect, whether it be a physical projectile or in the form of a touch to transfer an effect."

Filomena took a breath, looking around at the faces of her students.

It had been a whole 6 minutes and none of their eyes had glazed over! It was truly a magnificent sight, one of the greatest milestones in her teaching career.

"Transform abilities are pretty straightforward, they provide a user the ability to transform, fully or partially, into a certain creature. The last type of ability is one that was only rumored to exist and lacked any kind of definitive evidence until very recently. A belief ability is an ability, the power of which is entirely dependent upon the belief of others. Essentially, a user of a belief ability is able to project themselves as an Avatar of a deity of sorts, however, the power of the deity is determined entirely by the number of people who believe in it. Belief Abilities have the potential to be godlike, but they can also be extremely weak if there is no one who believes in the deity of the Belief Ability. It is believed that the founder of this Empire wielded the Belief Ability of a wind deity named Ukhozi, which gives the Empire its name."

Checking her students once more, a few faces were beginning to go blank, but then that was to be expected once history was brought into the picture, the children were only really excited in finding out where their own abilities lay, and what they would be capable of in the future.

As if she could read Filomena's mind, a student raised his hand to ask that very question, "How do we find out what kind of ability we have?"

All the other children listened alertly, waiting for the answer to the question which they had all been waiting for.

"That is a good question, Ignace," Filomena said, "For the next few weeks, you will be doing a course in PE that will help you find your ability and hone your skill with it to the level that you can utilize it safely."

The little boy nodded his understanding, looking like he wanted to run off and go to PE at that very moment.

"To continue," Filomena carried forward, "As you all know, abilities are essential in our society. They are the powers which let us be the efficient nation that we are, and they are the powers which let the forces of the Ukhozi Military be the greatest in this world."

At the mention of the Ukhozi Military, the entire class broke into shouting and screaming.

Filomena sighed as she tried to regain the attention of the class, the silence had been good while it lasted, but at least she had gotten her point across...mostly.

There was too little time left in the block to try and regain control, so the teacher decided to listen in on their conversation instead of wasting time and energy to stop them only to have the school bell grant them their freedom immediately in any case.

"Abilities are why The Ukhozi Captains are so cool!" one child said excitedly.

"Mama said that Captain Rouge will become the new Emperor next year and then they'll need a new Captain!"

"Man, if I get an ability as awesome as Captain Jaune, then I'll be the next Captain for sure!"

"Yeah right, The Captains are the greatest military...thingy of the Empire," another student began.

"The greatest military asset" Filomena supplied.

"Like hell, you'll be the next one," the same student finished.

"Language!" his teacher reprimanded sharply.

The bell rang signaling the end of Filomena's favorite lesson of the entire year. The experienced teacher exited the classroom with a sigh, she couldn't wait to have the next batch of students back in her class for the Ability lesson.

*** Present, The Indigo Household, Ima Town, Ukhozi Empire

His mouth was drawn tight.

His clenched fist was held up in front of his face.

His eyes sparkled with determination.

"I will definitely become the greatest fighter in the history of the Ukhozi Empire," he said, before hesitating just slightly but moving on to firmly finish, "and maybe, just maybe, I can become the next Emperor of Ukhozi!"

After holding the pose for a long second, he brought down his arm, letting the expression on his face fade to neutrality.

"How was that one? I think I really nailed it this time," Ignace Indigo asked.

"Mediocre," his mother responded, before moving into the lecture he had already heard a million times before.

"We live in a small town, Iggy," Ivonne Indigo started, ignoring her son rolling his eyes, "There is very little scope here, not only for you but for everybody who lives here, and the colleges in the big cities don't look this far out into the boonies for their prospects, so you really need to impress their selectors, and you aren't the only one trying. Come September, every single child in this town will be doing anything and everything in their power to get into college, any college, in Ukhozi City. Tens of thousands of children will be applying with you and all those colleges put together will take a few hundred. Any child could say that, every child will say that, but you don't sound nearly sincere or determined enough."

Ignace sighed before bringing back his most determined smile to practice his spiel over again.

His mother clucked disapprovingly at another lackluster acting performance, "You need to act like you mean it, Iggy."

Ignace threw his hands up in frustration, "Well that's the problem, isn't it! I don't mean it. I don't have any desire to be Emperor of this damn country, it's just the most stable path to a cushy job as a Protector."

"Iggy," Ivonne replied, speaking slowly as if to an infant, "No child here actually has any dreams or aspirations of becoming Emperor, or even a Captain, but that is what you have to say to get in, and if you want to get in, you need to say it a hell of a lot better than that, now go again."

Ignace glanced at the clock.

"I would, mom, I really would, but I'm supposed to be in school in just under 5 minutes," he said casually.

Ivonne's head turned to look at the clock so fast that Ignace could nearly see an after-image of it in its previous location.

As his mother let out a little yelp of surprise at how late it had gotten, Ignace idly wondered whether his mother would ever get whiplash from how fast she turned her head.

"Chill out mom, I can fly there," Ignace said cheerfully, glad to be getting away from his torturous impromptu acting lesson.

"Don't be stupid Iggy, I'll drop yo-" Ivonne began, before being interrupted.

"Transform Ability: Eagle!" Ignace announced, giving his magic a second to catch onto his command, as it usually required, before feeling the telltale signs of his transformation magic taking over, changing his body into that of an eagle.

Ignace flew out of the window in his form of an eagle, flying with the wind to travel as fast as he possibly could, making a landing just outside the gates of his tiny school before turning back into his human form and running in through the gate, getting into his classroom just in time to avoid being marked late, sitting down in his place near the front and settling down for another monotonous day of school.

At 18 years of age, Ignace was just about done with school.

'If anything is going to get me to give a sincere college interview, it's going to be fear of this' he thought dryly as his teacher at the front of the class droned on and on.

Making it through the period was a herculean feat but Ignace made it through as he had been doing for years.

"Oy Ignace," another boy in his class called across as the break began, "You coming along for a game?" he continued, throwing a football at Ignace playfully.

Ignace batted the ball away before cracking a smile, "I'm coming, Adrien." he said before getting up and making his way out of the school building and down to the school parking lot which doubled as their school playground.

Quickly dividing the kids present into 2 teams, Adrien flicked the ball high into the air and immediately all the aerially-inclined students were up in the air, vying for the ball, Ignace among them.

The Indigo boy had performed a partial transformation on his arms, blowing himself into the air, faster than the other students, and sent the ball hurtling back to Adrien, who was on his team, on the ground level.

Adrien ran with the ball, only to have the ball stolen from him by another boy who had some manner of speed-enhancing ability. Using his wings to gain speed in the air, Ignace quickly caught up to the person who'd stolen the ball, dropping onto the ground, skidding a little bit as he did, and stealing the ball back himself.

The game continued in this vein until the end of the break, with Ignace's team leading the score 4-2.

As they walked back into their tiny-ass school building, Ignace looked around at the sweaty faces of the boys he'd just been playing football with.

All of the boys who would be in competition with him for those elusive few seats in just two months.

Ignace put that thought out of his mind as he reentered the school building.

Thoughts for another day.

*** Last Day of School, Ima Town, Ukhozi Empire

And another day it was. Ignace stood in line, watching his classmates receive their graduation certificates, one by one.

"Indigo, Ignace." the Headmaster of the school called out boredly. Taking the cue, Ignace walked up to take his certificate, smiling slightly as he looked out onto the audience, which for the most part seemed as bored as his Headmaster. He found his mother's eyes, Ivonne giving him a soft smile as she clapped along with the rest of the crowd.

Ignace sat down next to his mother after coming down from the platform on which he'd received his certificate and looked up at his prospective competition.

'They're your classmates' he corrected himself mentally.

'But they will be your competition'

Thoughts for another day.

***