Useless

Standing in front of him was a beautiful girl with her black hair tied into a ponytail and hazel eyes wearing a sports bra. Opposite of her was a boy with similarly colored hair in a t-shirt and shorts. He had short hair and was of average height. He certainly wasn't ugly, but he wasn't particularly good looking either.

To anyone, the girl looked like an angel, but to those who knew her true nature, she was anything but one. In the hierarchy of power in their school, she ranked sixth in the thousands of students.

Their high school was one based on power, the rankings were based on strength and wits; who could hold themselves in battle. The girl's name was Mei.

Kevin hated her with all of his heart. More than anything he wanted to see her beaten senseless, to finally feel what he and countless other students went through daily. To him, she was a prime example of the kind of person he hated the most, powerful ones who would pick on the weak.

Kevin knew he could do nothing, all that would come out of their confrontation would be his face beaten into the ground and getting laughed at by his peers. Nobody would stand up for him either, everybody wanted to be on the side of the stronger person, the winner. The teachers couldn't care less either. Every day was the same. Constant beating and degrading from his peers. Obeying every order given to him like he was a dog. His money stolen, his projects destroyed, the abuse never ended.

All his life, he had been average at everything, schoolwork, athletics, even his social skills. Except for one aspect, he was Useless. A Use was a simple thing, a power that each individual has. Depending on the circumstances, it could be Awakened at a young age, or never at all.

Kevin was mostly a shut-in who liked to play video games, watch anime and browse web forums, but he still kept up with studies and maintained a few good friendships. He lived a truly dull and boring life. The only things that kept him going were his loving parents and close friends, Rubi and Ciel.

Of course he was sick and tired of his treatment. The voice in his head always told him to fight back, to take a stand. But he had already given up. He accepted that was how his life was going to be.

That was, until four days ago, when his Use mysteriously awakened. Kevin had the ability to wield a pitch-black liquid that he could shape and solidify at will, which he called Dark Matter, and over the last few days had been training to see the full capabilities of it. Kevin spent many restless nights training in his backyard. There was just something about it, he felt truly alive when he was Using his power.

He found he could shape it into a variety of things: a sword, shield, spear, chain, albeit being simple weapons. He could also fire a compressed blast of the Dark Matter that could easily shred through the trunk of a tree in his backyard.

Truth be told, Kevin wasn't planning on fighting Mei. He knew he would be severely outclassed by her. It was when he walked down the stairs and saw Rubi slumped over by the lockers, getting her face kicked in that something snapped. Maybe he was overconfident from awakening his Use, but the old him would never have tried something like that. In that moment his mind screamed one thing: kill her.

The boy had sprinted to Mei with full intent of starting a fight, punching Mei in the face. Even though he had awakened his Use, he couldn't let the fight get out of hand. After all, if the two of them caused too much damage to the school they would both be in major trouble.

Instead of beating the boy down for touching him. Mei smiled. It was the smile of a hunter about to devour its prey.

"Meet me at the arena tomorrow morning. If you don't show up…"

Mei held up a finger and mimicked the action of slitting Kevin's throat.

"You and all of your friends are dead."