Prologue

A dark and cloudy sky looms above the house rooftop. A bright light shines within the gray mounds of puff in the gloomy atmosphere. A celestial being hovered over the earth and speaks a single phrase.

"The time is nigh," the mysterious entity speaks, "the time for a secret to be free is nigh." The being then starts flying away, leaving a single ball of a mysterious energy. The ball of energy, descending down to the ground at a unreasonably fast speed, collides with the Earth and the energy within the ball scatters, filling the oxygen-rich air. The ball disappears along with the energy.

We call that energy, Mana.

A few hours later, the sun rises once again, indicating the beginning of a new day.

"Zach, do you have everything ready to be taken to school, like your supplies," Mom asks while following my movement down the stairs.

"Yes, I have everything I need for school. We already discussed this before," I say to my parents as I beginning putting on my socks and shoes, "Aight, I'm bout' to head out."

I open the pastel white door and step out into the world, ready to face anything that could happen during the day. I start my path toward the bus stop that's only a a few feet away from my house.

"Hope you do good," Mom yells out to me

"I got it alright," I reply back, "I'll be alright."

Once again, I start my path toward the bus stop. I switch on my phone, put on my earbuds, and listen to some of my music once I had arrived at my destination.

The clock reads 7:01am. The bus usually arrives at the bus stop at 7:06am. I take a deep breath, pat my cheeks and quietly whisper to myself, "What can go wrong today."

The bus arrives, I hop on and sit down at my regular assigned seat. On the way to school, I chat with a few of my friends. The sound of k-pop music can be heard throughout the already loud enough bus.

"Fucking turn off that shit music, Olivia," Darien says out loud in such a energetic voice, "Nobody wants to listen to that gay crap on this bus."

"Fuck you, I can listen to this whenever and wherever I want to," Olivia replies back, "I want to know, with a show of hand, who thinks that BTS music is gay?"

The six people, including my friend Alex and I, raised our hand, leaving the three people, Olivia, Megan, and Alana, in my group of friends alone and not raising their hand.

"Alright, fuck off then," Olivia suggests to the entire group.

"On the topic of music genres, what kind of music do the rest of you listen to?" I announce, "I listen to mostly lofi hip hop and end music."

Alana replies with, "I listen to Justin Bieber"

"I listen to rock music," Justin responds. Strange, Justin doesn't usually talk on the bus, he's usually head on the window and listening to his "rock" music.

"I listen to rock music too," Darien shares. Seems like Darien and Justin have something in common after all, except both of them being obese.

A few minutes pass by, the bus pulls up to the school and the bus driver calls for people going to in-school breakfast to get out and into the school. A load, of people, looking like about 12 individuals including Olivia, leave the bus and the bus door closes once all of the people leave. Our group continues to have a conversation.

A couple more minutes pass, the bus driver calls for everyone remaining to attend school. The rest of the group of students who didn't go eat breakfast at school leave the bus, including me.

I start heading my way down to the school pavement, then to the school entrance.

'It should be an odd day today. That mean I have periods 1,3,5, and 7.' I think to myself. I get into my locker unpack my supplies, shove my backpack into my locker, and slam my locker with an unreasonably strong force to scare the people around my to be humorous. I walk into homeroom and do the Pledge of Allegiance, following the words from the people on the announcements.

Hours pass by and I'm now in period 5, which is my math class. Alana, which is the same person that was on the bus with me in the group of friends, is also in my math class. I sit away from Bashir, which is someone that I'm supposed to sit with, because I really don't trust him after a certain incident. Our math teacher, Ms. Carey, hands out some math assignments and the class proceeds to complete the assignment. Of course, because I have a fast mindset and I like getting things over with, I complete my math assignment first using only mental math. I put my amber-colored pencil on my desk and use my phone for a while.

'Damn, I really don't have any good games on my phone. I wish I could listen to some music but I am in class so I probably shouldn't so that I won't get caught," I think to myself. I put my phone back in my pocket and fidget with my pencil, like tap the eraser part on the desk or spin it around in my finger, for a while.

I get immersed in the fidgeting of my fingers, when suddenly a bright azure flash appears from within my hand and then quickly disperses. I get startled of this. Other people around me take notice of what just happened, also with the same expression I do, shocked.

"Zach, what do you have in your hands," Ms. Carey reacts.

"I have absolutely nothing in my hands except for a pencil," I reply with. Nervous, I fidgeting with my own fingers and making circles with them. Another bright azure flash appears and takes the same of the circles I'm making from my finger. Water from that circle comes splashing out and my paper gets completely soaked in this mysterious water. The circle then disappears and the water-

flow gets cut off.

What is this?