CH #3 - Right In the First Day?!

If the first day of classes at Elderlog Academy was anything but awkward, such a thing would be tedious. All day, Ryan paid no attention to anything. In his mind, the young man had bigger concerns - like thinking about how fast a snail is - than the content taught by Professor Elizabeth, a woman in the age thirty-seven but looking fifty-something.

The woman's voice was so calm and peaceful that she couldn't keep most of the students awake. The physics class was happening completely automatically, and that meant saying "no questions, no answers".

The slideshow used featured the famous atomic models. As it was just an introductory class, meaning the content presented was not complicated. However, students could provide an opportunity to learn at least the basics, which was certainly not happening in the partially darkened room.

The only light that came in came from the windows was barely covered by a black tarpaulin somewhat permissible to the light. Ryan kept his vision at that point, not caring about anything but the sometimes intrusive and nonsensical thoughts orbiting his head.

"...Mr. Savoia, could you tell me what Heisenberg's Atomic Theory says?"

The answer came without further ado.

"No, I can't. I don't know."

The answer came simply, without any delay. Looking at a single luminous strand that crossed the curtain, he let his voice be heard by everyone equally.

This represented everything Elizabeth wanted to hear – the fact that there was a student who wasn't paying attention to the content. Like any good teacher, she was already thinking of countless ways to use him as an example to other students.

The woman puffed out her chest, with a small satisfied smile. She, with slow steps, approached Ryan's chair, who didn't seem to be the least bit bothered by the fact. Anyone could get the impression that anything seemed more interesting to him than being there.

Even so, no student expected the novice himself to have the courage to antagonize a teacher on the very first day. The vast majority thought about how he would mess up terribly on the next exams, and how the teacher would keep a furious eye on him, almost like an obsessive and vengeful ghost.

And there were not a few who acquired a certain respect for this newcomer. He was able to communicate what none of them would have the courage to say when that was, without a doubt, the general opinion – Elizabeth's classes were nothing but an incomparable annoyance and waste of time.

"Oh, and why is that, Mr. Savoia? In fact, you weren't paying attention in class, were you?"

She tried to look intimidating. The slightly overweight woman assumed a position of authority beside him, as a caretaker would a child who was not behaving himself. She was ready to use him as an example on the basis of humiliation – that was easily visible to the woman's eyes.

"I hope you all learn not to be like Mr. Savoia. He…" She gestured to Ryan. "—Didn't pay attention to class, so ..."

Elizabeth pointed to the blackboard with one palm, touching Ryan's shoulder with her other hand. She positioned herself beside him, pointing straight ahead, notoriously mocking the boy, who never once reacted with anything but a fixed, expressionless gaze.

"Why don't you go explain everything you learned about today's class to everyone?" She approached him, speaking in a lower tone. "I'm sure they would very much appreciate knowing you didn't learn anything. That's it, or an F on the next test."

... ... ...

"I don't want to, and you can't make me. In fact, you don't even have the power to just decide that I'll get an F on the test." Again, he responded quickly.

Everyone in the room reacted in some way. Some thought he must be a madman; others, that he was actually a great person because he was making a sacrifice for the sake of the group. The fact is, Ryan attracted a lot of attention, and all of that from day one.

He looked at the woman in her eyes and gave a quick, rather cold answer.

"It's very stupid of you to talk to your students like we're in elementary school, with this thing about wanting to punish them. If I don't want to pay attention to your class, it's because you don't know how to teach. Your voice makes me want to sleep, and that thing covering the window doesn't do any good to keep me awake and alert! And above all..."

He took a deep breath, looking a little outraged at the teacher. Ryan brought both hands together, clapping them against each other in a single impact.

"Heisenberg theory? Really?! I don't know what you're thinking, but this isn't a university. No one here needs to know about randomly moving electrons that may be in inexact positions that can only be approximated in location by calculation!"

Ryan didn't know what the Heisenberg Theory was – in fact, he had never heard of it in his entire life. If he said these things, it was because of Elizabeth's touch on his shoulder. He took advantage of that moment to read some of the physics teacher's memories, if having this knowledge proved necessary.

Nobody could react properly. Professor Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms. It was almost as if she had forgotten something. There was one thing the woman couldn't remember.

"Wait, what am I doing here? What is this place, and who are all these people?!"

Elizabeth looked at everyone with a pair of haunted eyes, as if she had just seen a large ghost. The heart began to accelerate, as did the pulmonary rate. She looked around quickly, trying to process any small bit of information.

Why was she there? What kinds of circumstances were these? And after all...

"Who am I...?"

She did not know. The woman who didn't even know her own name touched her face, and...

... ... ...

Elizabeth opened the door and immediately started running through the halls of the place, not knowing the slightest information about anything. A person with no name, no past life, who just appeared there.

"Okay… Maybe I went a little bit too far with her…" Ryan told himself in a low tone.

He turned around, looking at the majority of the class, who, at that moment, could only question each other about what they had just seen.

"Nature is calling, folks!" Ryan said, in a poor attempt at a joke. "Because you never know, right?"

He didn't erase them, but just suppressed the woman's memories. They would return to normal in a few moments, and it would all be memories of something strange happening. Anyway, he figured he might have done a little too much with all of that.

But, there was no more time. The lunchtime alarm was heard by everyone. Shocking one hand against the other once more, he quickly got to his feet.

"I hope lunch isn't anything made with fish... I hate fish."

He hadn't paid attention during class, but that's not a problem for Ryan Savoia. All he needed to do was give a curt pat on the shoulder to someone who actually attended the class with their minds and absorb their knowledge in the form of cloned memories.

...But that would be a tricky thing to find. Everyone was equally mentally dispersed, which meant he would have to study for real.

"Change of plans – erase the memories of the class from the teacher's mind and get everyone in the room into a verbal agreement that none of this actually happened... Yeah, sounds like a good plan!" Ryan thought, smiling a little at the end. "I can do this or..."

Ryan looked at a certain point in the room; more appropriately looking for one person.

Chatting with her friends was Ashley Brown, the only girl who was really paying attention in class. She was actively interacting with the teacher from the previous turn and participating in the class. By analyzing the profile of this type of person, Ryan quickly determined that they should be smart and dedicated.

And, above all, Ashley was someone easy enough to approach. She was one of the first people to approach him as soon as he arrived. As they say – newcomers are always the center of attention when they arrive.

... And, especially, these people have a whole image of being "nice" and "friendly" to preserve. She wouldn't act rudely with him.

"Hey, Ashley!" Ryan called out to her, stepping closer.

He also waved and smiled at her friends, who followed suit in reaction.

"Oh, hey Ryan!" She greeted him. "I must say it was very brave of you…! I was paying attention, but the class was still very tiring… So thank you for making this sacrifice for the class, even if it burns your record with Mrs. Elizabeth…" Her tone fluctuated during her speech, starting with enthusiasm and ending in something a little more melancholic.

"My issues. I can take care of them myself." Ryan soon tried to dispel any possible heavy atmosphere. "But tell me something… Did you really understand that? I mean, her class sucks!"

Not just Ashley, but the two friends chuckled a little at the shrewd rookie's absurd sincerity.

"I study at home!" She revealed. "If I were just relying on classes, as most do, I would definitely get pretty low grades. Take a hint!"

Of course. They always take the chance to rub it in everyone's faces how good they are at something specific. But that was great, that was just the best – she had full knowledge of the subject. That was all Ryan needed to know.

"I see… So this is very good for you, right? Well I'm going now! "But before leaving the room, Ryan turned around once more."... Just one thing ... Excuse me, but..."

In a quick movement, Ryan touched Ashley's head. The girl's long, straight blond hair matching the sky blue eyes slipped for a brief moment through his fingers. That had been more than enough.

"Sorry, it was too sudden. It's just that your hair was a little messed up... That kind of thing kind of gets on my nerves... But it looks pretty cool now, so I'm going for real...!"

"Ah... Thanks, I think...!" Ashley began arranging her hair with her bare hands, almost like combing the strands with the spaces between her fingers.

... ... ...

"Perfect! Now I've acquired the knowledge of Ashley's memories... This first day can't be that bad!"

Ryan left the classroom, entering the bathroom located on that floor, when-

"Huh... That was easier than I thought it would be."

***

"Huh…? Where… Where am I…?"

The black in his mind began to clear. He opened his eyes slowly, causing them to be pierced by painful threads of light that, although not so abundant, still generated that kind of shock.

"Looks like he's waking up." Said a voice. It was feminine in nature, but endowed with a kind of strength that is usually only heard in more masculine voices. Possessing a unique harshness, it cut the air around it.

"Oh, the sleeping beauty finally woke up? This is great... This is the best!" This time, a male voice was heard reverberating. It was more childish than the first, not having as many implications, but still showing the desire to want to assert itself.

He was still dizzy. Opening his eyes almost completely, Ryan took in the low light and the real size of the place. He was no longer in the classroom, but in a completely strange and different environment; a place he had never seen before.

It was something like a multi-sport court. The place appeared to be closed, and time had done a good job of deteriorating the space. The gym was in a decrepit state – the wood on the floor peeling, the paint on the guardrails right in front of the stands fading. Everything was very dark, but light came in through a huge hole of some kind in the ceiling.

Right there, in the center lit by that beam of light, he could see that even some plants and grass were breaking through the ground, indicating that the place had been abandoned for some time. Several puddles of rainwater formed on the wood that had lost the marks of its painting.

A place beaten by abandonment. That place seemed to be closed for years on end, with no maintenance or restoration efforts. A few dry circles, visibly basketballs, were empty of air as filled to the top with dust and mildew, and piled in a corner, in the murky void.

But most important of all was a single factor.

"Eh... Eeeh?!" Ryan panicked as he realized his circumstances, almost promptly waking up from whatever imaginative dreams he was having.

He began to thrash violently, but found he couldn't move. Trying to move his arm, the young man realized that he was not able to make the slightest movement with any of his upper limbs.

He was tied up, held by the wrists. Ryan could feel what appeared to be ropes, which kept him attached to a metal frame in the place – one of the protections that kept the balls from hitting the people in the stands.

Incapacitated, he began to look around, until he came across a pair of shadows, watching him closely, before approaching the young man who couldn't turn back or back down, no matter how scared he was of the whole thing.

"Take a look at what we have here! What a big fish we caught, eh, my dear Lira? " The boy revealed his face, stepping out of the shadows.

Eyes red like a pair of simmering embers, accompanied by snow-white skin, with a slight hint of rosy humanity. In the end, to finish his composition, the long, dark, pointed hair, disorganized like a black forest.

"We won't be long on this. I want to lunch. "This time, the girl also showed off to Ryan.

Her eyes were pink like cherries, adorned by red, round glasses. Her dark brown hair gave her a tone of normalcy, but even so there was a sense of authority that couldn't be described emanating from this girl. It was like something supernatural, where her mere presence made all the difference.

The two were right in front of him. Ryan, unable to react, could only stare, a little afraid of what would happen next, at that dark and possibly isolated patch of reality, where the outside world certainly wouldn't find him if anything happened.

"What are you–" He tried to speak, but was quickly interrupted by the boy.

"You must be wondering how you got here, I suppose." He started talking. "Lira, do you mind telling him?"

The girl then bent down a little in the darkness, seeming to pick something up. In about five seconds, she returned with a large object in her hands, a book titled "Quantum Physics, 37th Edition".

"What did you do to me...?!" Ryan promptly forced himself to ask, looking at the two of them alternately. The red-eyed boy started to smile a little at all that confusion.

"Isn't it obvious? She knocked you out with that pile of knowledge, hitting you right in the head…!" He pointed to the book, laughing a little at the end. "Look, we didn't think this book would be enough, but it's like they say – The weight of knowledge is one of the greatest for humanity!"

The two moved closer until they were equally equidistant from Ryan. The pair of students introduced themselves; their unique presences making them the only people there.

"How is it going there? Do these feel comfortable? I hope so, actually." The boy asked. "Don't worry... Maybe we can get you out of there! Oh, and by the way, my name is Cast. Cast Cravache."

The boy named Cast then leaned on the girl's shoulder, who rejected the gesture. In a quick movement, she "ejected" his hand from her shoulder, crossing her arms with a grim expression on her face.

"I didn't give you the freedom to touch me like that…!" She announced, baring her teeth at the boy. "Anyway, let's get this over with. I'm hungry after all this crazy planning... My name is Lira Suzuki."

The first opportunity Ryan got, he turned his face to what appeared to be the entrance to the place and, in a loud yell, tried to let the world know his plight.

"Help...! I just got kidnapped by a couple of freaks...! Somebody help me, please!" He tried to scream but was forced to stop when he felt something cover his lips.

A finger. Cast knelt down and placed his finger there, closing Ryan's lips. Looking at the boy with maniac eyes, Cravache smiled once more, showing all his front teeth. His eyes seemed to glow like blazing torches.

"Nuh-uh! I would save your breath if I were you! We are on the other side of the school now and this place has been abandoned for years on end so no one will listen to you! We took this precaution beforehand." He started to say, causing Ryan's eyes to widen. "And besides, there are other things you're going to have to use your breath on."

He stood up calling the girl with his hand. Lira, who was a little distant, approached even more of the Savoia, who began to tremble with anxiety.

"What do you want from me...?"

"Excellent. You seem to have a minimal sense of what's going on here." Lira let her voice be heard once more: "That in itself makes the process so much easier."

She gave him a cold look that seemed to pierce the boy's own heart. Lira's partially oriental eyes, combined with the fact that she had what appeared to be sanpakugan type eyes , only added to the fierceness of her gaze.

The sensation Ryan experienced in those seconds was that of an icy hand squeezing hard that part of his body, right inside his chest.

"We have some things to discuss, Ryan Savoia." The fact that she had revealed knowledge of his name once again filled him with a kind of sharp surprise. "Let's ask a few questions, if that doesn't bother you."

"Of course it bothers me! I'm tied up, you two are probably a couple of maniacs and... And... But what is this...? What is happening to me…?"

"Do you feel calmer now? This procedure was not my idea. If you have to blame someone, blame this idiot who is here beside me." Lira looked at Cast, looking a little displeased with everything.

"Oh the idea wasn't that terrible! And tying him up was a good one, admit it!" Cast replied, pointing a finger at Lira.

"Let's try not to deviate from the focus here. Ryan Savoia, as I said, we have some questions to ask. " She spoke.

That weird feeling has continued to fill him ever since. Ryan, even tied up and in a dangerous situation, actually experienced extreme inner peace. He felt very peaceful, even when that was far away from what should really be going through his mind.

It was as if he had been drugged with a cocktail of many different types of tranquilizer.

"Ryan Savoia, we know you were responsible for a very peculiar event this morning. Cutting to the chase, you were the one who erased the memory of Charles Vincent, Senior Student, this morning; weren't you?"

Ryan swallowed the saliva that pooled in his mouth. The silence of the place made the sound echo throughout the room. His posture became a little more rigid and defensive.

"Me, erasing some guy's memories? What do you mean by that? People can't erase memories... What makes you think I did this?" He tried to play the classic 'superpowers don't exist' kind of explanation.

"That's a fact. Most people think there are no superpowers. That's a normal thing to assume." Lira said, "How about we show you, if that's the case? ... Cast, do you want to show him?"

She suggested that the boy continue with the explanation. He gladly accepted the responsibility.

Cast clicked the vertebrae in his neck, much to Ryan's surprise. He snapped his neck twice, taking a deep breath and then exhaling.

"Right away! Hey, newbie! Take a good look and let me know what you think! Here comes a whole new world!"

Upon opening his eyes, Ryan was actually surprised by what he saw. Cast's eyes glowed a vivid shade of red, two bloody headlights pointing directly at Ryan. The young man, not knowing what to expect, took on the defensive kind of look and witnessed the scene that took place.

Suddenly, shadows in the corners of the room took shape and expanded, creating large hands with sharp claws. The light level of the place changed radically and the luminosity became erratic. Gradually, the claws of darkness rise to the ceiling, protruding there.

In a matter of seconds, dozens had formed, running to every corner of the place, almost as if they were looking for something. Ryan looked around, unsure what he should be watching. It was then that, at the apex of that vortex of light and shadow, everything came together in one point.

Ryan's own shadow grabbed all of her hands, lifting her eerily off the ground, materializing her. Everything happened so fast.

In the blink of an eye, Ryan's shadow was destroyed by several others, reduced to nothing.

It was like a storm: it appeared violently and suddenly, and disappeared in the same way. A blink of an eye and the whole scene disappeared as it came.

Ryan again swallowed the contents of his throat and, pushing hard since he couldn't hesitate as he spoke, asked Cast something.

"This can't be real… Right?"

"You are real. We are too." Cast approached his mate and, full of himself, made his eyes stop glowing.

"You must recognize that, no? We have special abilities; the same as you. These powers, things that no one else can do... And you just had proof of that, right here and now."

Ryan had never seen another person with that kind of power. In his mind, up to that point, he was and should be the only one capable of doing something like that.

But anyway, there was no doubt, and that was what confused him most.

"What do you plan to do from now on, Ryan Savoia? As a friendly suggestion, I suggest you surrender before we start a conflict."

It was as if the boy's own world was crumbling. Everything he had believed so far was reduced to pure white ashes in the wind by the revelation made there, where every single idea saw its end in the abyss of that strange despair.

There was no longer the solidity of the belief of being special – of being unique, and in the midst of the turmoil of feelings he was going through, the boy thought that there was only one thing to do.

He built up strength in the region of his forearms, and applied it in a single explosive supernatural display. In just meager two seconds, the ropes were torn like mere sewing threads.

He got to his feet, aware of what he was going to do.

"Oh! This is getting interesting!" Cast spoke, smiling at his reaction.