02 Awakening!

Unfortunately, and I emphasize how unfortunate this is compared to all else that's happened to me, I was only able to finish a segment of the report I had due that weekend. If I didn't do that report, I'd be disobeying what my teacher and parents told me to do, which was to finish the report. Also, my parents would tell me how bad it was that I didn't do it. Tragic, I know. But it gets worse. How much worse can it get than getting a zero on your essay and being scolded by your teacher? Is what some might ask themselves. Actually, I doubt that. One would have to be quite cloistered to not know that slacking in school is the least of the first world problems a person could have. What befell me was a problem much worse than an incomplete report. I could not and should not have finished it, as I was preoccupied being summoned to another world. I hadn't the chance to take the last sip of my coffee before the bizarre summoning ritual began.

It was as typical as one would expect. A magical type ring surrounded me. It was covered in a script I didn't recognize, and it spun around me in a counter clockwise motion. It was as "copy-paste" as magic could get, being the type that you see in almost all forms of fictional media involving magic. Still, the fact that it was something I was familiar with from manga and such did not change the fact that it was surprising beyond belief. Whether you've watched a magic-and-wizards show before means nothing when faced with just that as your reality. Flashing before my eyes was not my very own life and its contents, as I wasn't dying, but I saw a sea of vivid green, and every hue and shade within. For about a minute I stood in the amalgamation of green that seemed to have engulfed be almost instinctively- like it had begun its existence and formation with the purpose to surround me entirely, or dissipate trying. The ocean with the balance of every green between light and dark continuously caged me in, unable to see anything else, until it dissipated.

When my eyes were cleansed of emerald, and my vision returned to me, my surroundings were not of the cafe. A strange, and somewhat grim grey brick-and-mortar(literally) texture constituted the walls instead. Many men and women wearing various strange attire surrounded the area. I could see that some were wearing what looked like a black-hued uniform, resembling a Japanese uniform style perfectly. But I knew that this wasn't Japan. Some others, notably those few in the back of the classroom, wore a cloak like garment over their uniform, which were black like their uniform but with a touch of dark red. While I would have loved to stare at the ornate and unique uniforms of each and every person in the room all the way from the cold concrete floor I was magically placed on, I could not, as I suddenly gasped for air.

Looking down at myself slightly, I noticed that my seemingly out of nowhere lack of breath was being caused by the collar now somehow fixed upon my neck. While my attention had been diverted plenty by the out of the blue risk of asphyxiation, it was once again diverted. A girl who looked to be about my age stood up from the isolated seat she was sitting in, and began to march in a prideful manner toward me, her heels clacking against the cold ground with every step. Once she approached me, I had yet to stand up, so I was looking up at her from the floor. The girl had yellow, demonic like eyes. Her hair was purple, and one part of her hairstyle was made up of several strands of hair that had gone astray. It's much more noticeable than one would first think. Seeing it would make a person believe that she had intended for her hair to be that way, which she did. Once she made eye contact with me, she made an evil grin, a smirk that only the lowest of scum would make. It was a facial expression I was all too familiar with.

"What's your name?" She asked in such a cold manner, it was like her breath became frost before leaving her mouth.

"It's-" Before I could begin speaking the first syllable of my name, I was interrupted by a boot to the face. She had kicked me in the nose and chin simultaneously, and began to dig her heel into my mouth as she wiggled her foot back and forth. In the same icy manner, she opened her mouth once more, and said "Let this be most impactful and first of many reminders that whoever you were before doesn't matter now. You are whatever we call you. Any name you had before is of no importance. Those of us in high status have no need to properly title trash like you."

It isn't strange for one to imagine what it would be like to live in a world other than their own, especially a fantasy like one. But so far, I was having a terrible experience. Rather, terrible to most people. I hadn't exactly thought of the treatment I was receiving as harsh, because I was accustomed to being treated that way over time. I suppose the result of the kick to the face was that I would start bracing myself to be treated like garbage in my own world and in the next. So as I typically would, I said nothing.

"Silence means you're already understanding your place. Actually, let me tell you your place. I should at least do that, though it should be obvious. You were a mistake. I wanted to summon a powerful, deity like being to study, but I failed somewhere and got you instead. Now you're here, among the best class in the entire academy."

If the girl really was speaking for her classmates too and not just herself, then the bunch of students in the room seemed to think of themselves as the smartest, or the brightest, or whatever. They identified themselves as the elites, the ones at the top. They've revealed themselves as the group I find the most revolting. Though I was accustomed to this type of treatment, I would still have found them disgusting even if they were peasants and not nobles. Them being in the upper echelon of the academy just strengthened my disdain for them. Anyone who treats someone they way they treated me is scum, social status aside. I assumed my new role as human trash as quickly as I had done so in my own world. However, as if I hadn't accepted how fate hadn't changed, I tried to stand up. Doing so resulted in a blast to the chest. Not from a gun or anything of that sort, it was a burning sensation. My skin wasn't any crispier nor was my hoodie, but my insides were burning intensely. It was as if someone shot magma straight through my flesh into my chest. I could feel my blood boiling literally, and I let out an expression to convey that I felt as such, though I didn't want to.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" As I writhed in pain and nearly bent back in sheer agony, I caught glimpse of one person in particular sitting in the middle rows of the classroom. They had their arm outstretched with their palm open, a red magic ring similar to the green one used to summon me was revolving around their hand.

"You don't do anything we don't tell you to do!" The girl with the tasty(not) boot raised her voice to exclaim.

"You're like a slave. That's what you are, and that's where you stand."

As if she completely disregarded that I already existed for many years before this moment, she said "You're the product of a mistake and nothing more, so you'll act like it and be treated like what you are." Her tirade went on, mainly emphasizing that I'm trash, a slave, their toy, while repeating the same statements over and over with slightly different wording each time to make it sound like she wasn't beating a dead horse. She might be proficient in whatever it is that qualified her to be in this 'elite' class, but she clearly wasn't an expert at speech. So after getting her basic message that I have no value other than the value they give me, I began to just let it go in one ear and out the other, with the same dead inside expression, that accurately depicted how I felt by the way, that I have to everyone else. I drowned her out, until she said something that caught my attention, or rather, somewhat resonated with me.

"You and everyone else like you deserve this just for being the way you are."

The next line was the final nail in the coffin.

"Try getting better luck in your next life."

My eyes changed from the same deadpan expression they always had to one of anger. At this point, the melting pain I felt was no longer there. There definitely had been fire or heat sent into the core of my very being, but I couldn't sense it. It was like it was completely natural, as if it had been there from the beginning. For a few short moments, my mind clouded with anger, fury, despair, and a type of pain much worse than any physical pain one could endure. But after, my head became clearer than it had ever been. A powerful aura had formed about me, and I knew because I could feel it. I sensed also that others could visibly see it, the intense aura. With seemingly unnatural strength and speed I didn't expect to have, I leaped up from my crawling position into a stand. The act of me standing up created a shockwave that sent the girl with the boots, who I previously thought to be quite strong, flying into the rows of desks. I was acting almost instinctively, like this aggressive behavior was always my normal. At the time I was just acting on impulse, and I hadn't realized that for the first time, I disobeyed instructions from those above me. And it wouldn't be the last time. This was the birth of a new person whose disobedience knew no end. As I stretched my previously somewhat cramped neck, I heard the abrupt phrases from several people around the room.

"Oh my god."

"It can't be."

"I thought he was gone?"

"He's supposed to be just a myth!"

"This isn't happening..."

Everyone else in the room realized before I did that scythe-shaped sickles drowning in a ruinous energy had formed in both of my hands. My face, for the first time, had changed from the normal neutral and dead inside expressions I had always had before. I had exchanged my usual expression for the same evil grin that the girl had given me not long ago. Not caring that I was now acting on my own will, my face carried the expression further. My malicious grin evolved into a full crooked smile that shared the pure wrath that the energy seeping of my sickles also carried. And so I turned my attention to the girl who put her boot in my face.

"You're.. That aura... you.."

As I got closer to her, she continued to fail at forming a sentence.

"No... You..." Still, she could say nothing, until-

"This guy.. You.. You've killed before."

My smile stayed put.

Someone else in the room muttered.

"I don't believe it. It's..."

I opened my lips to speak.

"My name is..."

Coincidentally, that other person in the room finished my sentence, adding in some details that I wasn't aware of.

"...The Fourth Sojourner, Ryo."

Try getting better luck in your next life.

I was told that once before. I heard those exact words right before she was taken from me. Those words were once the trigger that marked the beginning of a tragedy.

They would signal the beginning of a tragedy once more.