SERCO- A brief look into Serco's early life

-Serco's POV-

When I was born, the whole country was in an uproar.

"He's Chosen."

"He's a key to ending this godforsaken war." The citizens whispered amongst themselves, as soon as I was shown to the world by my father King Seran. My world had been so dark just minutes ago and all of the eyes now watching me were frightening. I remember that day very clearly. On Infaniya everyone is born able to manipulate the elements, but most have to be taught how to access those elements. On rare occasions, instead of someone choosing an element, the element chooses that person. I was one of those rare occasions; chosen by fire; and because the fire chose me, my potential to control it is much higher than most people. I was born into the royal family and because I was born powerful I became heir to the throne immediately, ahead of my 5 older brothers.

2 years later,

"Focus." My stepmother reprimanded me as I stared at the flame, lit on the candle before me.

"I am focusing," I argued, now scowling deeply because of irritation.

"If you're focusing then why are you failing to contain the heat of your flame?! Your candle is melting! Extinguish your flame, start over, and concentrate!" She demanded

"I'm trying!" I shouted and In my rage the candle was incinerated, leaving nothing but a puddle of wax mixed with ashes. She sighed and stood to her feet.

"You've failed." She stated coldly before leaving the room. I sat quietly then stood up and grabbed a new candle from the shelf, to begin training again. When my mom returned in an hour I had mastered it. "Wonderful... remember that a calm mind is the key to victory in battle, do not let your emotions guide you. Never let yourself lose control." She reminded me, fire users are more susceptible to our powers getting out of hand than the other elements, so meditative training is mandatory and necessary. I nodded, letting her know I understood. "It's been 3 days, are you hungry?" She asked, I could tell by her eyes, she wanted me to say yes; she desired to reward me.

"I'm not hungry," I answered, detached. She sighed.

"Then would you like to go to the park?" She suggested, while lovingly stroking my head.

"No," I replied. "I would like to spar with someone." I offered instead. Her eyes widened.

"You're only two." Step-Mother noted. My kind grows twice as fast as a human so I was about the size of a 5-year-old human child.

"I want to witness the fruits of all this training." I retorted. My brother's mother stared at me, trying to analyze my feelings then she said,

"No, you're not ready. You will get to spar next year. Not earlier." Her tone was stern and I knew I couldn't persuade her otherwise. That didn't stop me from feeling disappointed though. "Oh! I know, why don't I get some Impregnable Parchment and make you a training outfit." her final statement stirred my interest.

"Yeah! Let's do it." Stepmom smiled, happy to have finally gotten me excited for something.

After we got back from the market, I went to the training room and practiced more, at that time, my oldest brother Tiren entered the room.

"What are you doing?" He asked in a condescending voice. I pretended not to hear him, so he came closer and yelled, "I said, what are you doing?"

"You have eyes, use them," I replied, without looking at him. He then grabbed my wrist, only to quickly let go, because of the high temperature of my skin. I couldn't help but smirk slightly as he blew on and shook his hand for relief. "I'm sorry," I stated, not because I actually was, but if our parents ask questions later, I can honestly claim I apologized.

"You bastard, what did you burn me for?" He questioned fury in his voice.

"It was an accident." It truly was, but I do not regret it.

"... Since you are training anyway, we should spar." He suggested, now that his hand had healed. He's 10 years older than me, fully grown, over a foot taller, and the heir before I was born, out of all my brothers he should be the strongest. I stared into his emerald eyes and gave him a confident smile,

"If that is your wish brother. I would be pleased to accommodate you."

We stood in front of each other and bowed politely.

"Let me know when you're ready." He requested.

"I'm ready," I replied, no later than when those left my lips, vines wrapped around my ankles, holding me in place. My brother's eyes changed to neon green, and his muscles bulged just before he landed a right hook to my jaw. I turned my head with his attack, as burned through his vines, then I caught the wrist of the hand he'd attacked me with and brought my elbow down snapping his forearm in half. He was surprised by my counter-attack, added with the pain of a broken arm, noticing that his guard was momentarily down I thrust my palm against his chest, forcing him down onto his back. Then I engulfed his body in the fire. He screamed, crawling on the ground, trying to escape my range. "Yes, that is where you belong, at my feet." That's when my stepmom entered the room, she was holding my new clothes.

"What's going on here?" She asked, both angrily and worriedly.

"Big brother, here asked me to spar, I didn't think I was permitted to refuse. After all, he is my elder." I stated, smiling as innocently as I could.

"Is this true?" Our stepmother asked, now looking to my brother who was panting, covered in burns and smoking from our fight.

"Yes." He answered, doing his best to look unfazed but his arm was broken so awkwardly it was taking a while to recover, the bone was poking out from beneath his skin and 3rd-degree burns covered most of his torso, where his shirt had been burned away. Tiren, embarrassed, quickly left the room. I knew he aimed to put me in my place and prove I didn't deserve to take the throne from him, so there was no way I could let him win.

Even before that, Tiren hated me. He would stare at me in resentment, spit in my food whenever our parents were not watching, he would remind me every day how terrible of a sin it was that I was born. I didn't think he could like me less, but I was wrong. His mother had passed away and our stepmother was on his side, secretly trying to raise him up in status. Every day after that he challenged me again and again, never winning once. I quite enjoyed it.

A year later I attended school for the first time. Many of my classmates would compete for my attention but they were all transparent. I could see that they only wanted to be closer to me because I was royalty and the current heir to the throne. Their parents told them it would be in their best interest to befriend me, so everyone in my class did nothing but kiss my ass. It was irritating.

"Hey, Serco, want to come with us to the Parlor after class?" Fling, a classmate, invited.

"No," I answered while hurrying to leave. We're not allowed to use our powers without permission and walking from class to class is ... inconvenient. I wish I could fly or teleport.

"Wait!" Fling shouted at my back. She rushed to my side.

"Please come!" She pleaded. I stared at her.

"I don't want to," I replied coldly.

"Don't be such an antisocial prick and come!" Her declaration amused me.

"Alright." She was pleased by my reluctant answer so she ran off, excitedly, to inform her friends.

That night at the Parlor, a restaurant in my hometown, all my classmates took turns singing Karaoke and Fling paid for a table full of food. My appetite is even lower than other Infaniyans so I stared at the food in disgust. Just the smell of food made me feel incredibly full.

"Your turn." Fling stated while handing me the microphone, everyone else in the room stared at me in anticipation, so I got up and sang. I didn't really care how I sounded but once my song was done I was met with applause. "Wow, I had no idea you could sing." Her praise was empty flattery. There were plenty of people here who had done much better than me. When she snapped at me earlier I had hoped she was different...

"Yeah, that was great." One other person agreed and my other classmates plastered on smiles and nodded. Clowns. 

"I'm leaving," I announced while tossing the microphone to the nearest person, then I immediately teleported home. Every day after that was another dull day and identical to the one before it.

At first, my parents were only disappointed in my academic performance but in less than a year I rose to be the top student in the school and they couldn't be happier. My mother is the King's new wife, and due to political reasons I don't have much time to spend with her (and the divorce from my stepmother is taking forever so she's still the one I see most often) so I was happy to bring her good results when I could. Strangely, the better I did in my studies and fights, the less popular I became. People would glare at me in the hallways and murmur under their breath spiteful sentences.

I never liked socializing so I was cold and soon my status alone was no longer enough to make people force themselves to reach out to me.

It wasn't until secondary school, 6 years later that I met my first friend.

She came at me with all she had, throwing punches, mostly aiming at my face, because of that she wasn't properly guarding her legs, so I easily tripped her and she fell onto her back.

"First point for Serco." Trainer Neal stated. She jumped back onto her feet and attacked me with even more passion. She'd learned her lesson from before and was watching her footwork carefully, but she wasn't ready when I slid around behind her, using her momentum to my advantage. I then kicked stopping my foot a mere few centimeters from the back of her head. "Second point to Serco! Serco wins! You may take your seats." She puffed out her cheeks and pouted. After class ended she approached me.

"You're so mean, you should have gone easy on me." She chastened. I scoffed saying,

"I am sorry for respecting you as a capable warrior. I will not make that mistake again. Now excuse me." whilst trying to move around her. She adamantly blocked me.

"I want to fight again." I admired her moxie but...

"Unsupervised fighting could get us expelled," I warned. She glared at me but eventually accepted that I was right.

"Well.. could you tell me what I was doing wrong?" She requested. I rose my eyebrows then took my seat again and she sat down beside me.

"Your guard was too open, also your footwork is sloppy and you're too stiff. You're also unobservant of your opponent's movements. You rely too much on your eyes rather than your instincts. Most of the opponents you fight will be faster than your eyes can follow you need to strengthen your reflexes and widen your range of perception. You also overthink, making your, already slow, reaction time even slower." I instructed. She listened to my criticisms quietly then once I was done she stood up and said.

"F@#k you." Before leaving the sparring room. She's the one who asked for my advice, what is she so pissed about?

The next day after that she shoved me in the hall, pretending to accidentally have bumped me. The day after that she spilled grape juice on my white Gi, while I was waiting to spar. The next day, we were opponents again,

Because of my irritation, I didn't give her a chance to attack and had the heel of my foot pressed on the top of her head before she moved.

"First point to Serco." Mr. Neal noted. I returned to a neutral position and she glared at me. In the next round, she attacked first, lowering herself and delivering a sweeping kick. I jumped up, narrowly dodging her then spun sending a roundhouse kick towards her face, surprising me she blocked it and rolled herself away, keeping her center of gravity low. I laughed, it had been so long that I had been so amused. My laughter caught her off-guard as well and she didn't react in time to stop the punch aimed at her chest. I lightly tapped her and the teacher clapped. "Second Point Serco! You may return to your seats." The girl grumbled and pulled at her snow-white hair.

As soon as she could she rushed over to me and declared.

"I hate you! You're such a jerk!" I gave her a smile in return,

"Do you want to be friends?" Her pale cheeks turned pink as soon as she heard my proposition and she stood silently for several seconds before replying,

"S-sure."

"What's your name?" I inquired.

"It's... Crescent." Her cheeks became closer, in color, to red and she turned away from me. "Are you serious?" She questioned. I knew exactly what she was referring to but I decided to play dumb,

"About what?" I asked.

"About being friends?!" She stated in a testy voice. I laughed once again.

"Why would I ask, if I wasn't serious."

"To toy with me." She accused. People are usually easy to understand but she's such a weirdo.

"That sounds like a waste of time and breath," I noted. She then sat beside me and said.

"Alright." We talked until class ended and I could see all her hostility towards me, from before, dissipate completely.