Chapter 05: A year as a bronze crest(01)

Cafeteria, Circle Hero Academy, Central City, USA, Earth

Monday, September 5th, 0108 PA; 12:15(CST)

Currently Kai and John or rather, Vector and Justice were sitting at the end of a table across from each other. Directly to Vector 's left was an obviously uncomfortable pale skinned boy with brown hair and hazel eyes wearing a red uniform with a silver school crest.

Vector looked at the boy smiling. "Dude, it's your lucky day. I was just telling Justice here about what I've been able to figure out about how our powers work. I've also figured out how to get much stronger much quicker than the way we do it here in the states."

The boy's right eye brow came up and he turned to look at Vector and then at Justice. Justice just shrugged helplessly.

"He's been hyping this for the last 15 minutes and he's seriously the smartest person I've ever met. Might as well hear him out…"

Vector's eyes glowed for a moment as they turned solid silver. "Now don't worry, this is a sensory skill." He then continued to stare at the boy for a couple of seconds before turning to look at Justice.

Justice went stiff for a second. "K... Vector, that is kinda creepy, it's like you're looking at my soul. It's pretty disconcerting."

"Trust me the other version is way cooler. I don't want to cause a ruckus here though."

He then looked back at the boy who was currently biting into a slice of pizza.

"So my name is Vector. I'm an S rank dual lightning and wind controller. You're a metal controller…"

The boy's eyes went wide. "I wish! I'm D rank… WAIT HOW DO YOU KNOW MY ATTUNEMENT?!"

Vector's eyes returned to normal. "Shh, keep it down. You want everyone to know? Anyways… You wanna stay a D rank or would you rather be a controller?"

Justice looked over at Vector with a frown. "Dude… That's not cool. Why would you mess with him like that?"

Vector's face went from smiling to serious. "I never joke about getting stronger. Then took a bite of his pizza and quickly chewed it.

"Fine, fine, let's hear about this miracle method."

Vector's smile returned as he swallowed. Then he turned to look at Justice. "OK. It's more of a misconception than anything. We don't have powers. We're cultivators…"

"..."

"..."

The boy in red's eyes went wide and he looked at Vector. "Seriously? Like in the novels? Like in the online comics from overseas?"

Vector's smile broadened. "Oh, good. You got some idea about it then. That'll save me a lot of explanation.

Short answer is yes. Now hear me out. I've been training 6 months out of the year in Japan. They don't see powers the same way. They use Taoist logic. My point is that none of the students at the place I was training at ever stayed a D rank for more than 6 months."

Justice and the boy's eyes went wide.

"Really?!"

The boy's jaw dropped for a moment as realization spread across his face.

"REALLY??? Really? Wait, does that mean that you figured out their system for getting stronger?"

"That is exactly what I did. I also figured out how to make it better."

Justice's face went stiff. "That's right, you used to train with Raijin and Fujin. Is that where you learned this?"

Vector leaned back crossing his arms with a grin on his face. "Yep. I also read their entire national library as well as the one in Shanghai. See they have people that can do illusion techniques and even this thing called soul techniques. Well I figured out their system. Then I figured out how to make it better!"

Justice grinned. "Well are you gonna tell us how or do we just guess?"

"Remember how I mentioned soul techniques? Check this out." Vector put his index fingers to his glabella and slowly pulled them away. A small silver orb of pale silver light the size of a pea floated above each finger tip.

The boy looked at Vector with eyes of adoration. Please say that's what I think it is and you're like some secret master…"

Vector looked at the boy and smiled. He held up his left finger. "These contain a breathing technique I developed." Then he held up his right finger. "They also hold the secret to a body cultivation technique I figured out."

"Really?"

"Really." Vector then pointed at the other two as the pale silver orbs flew into their foreheads.

Both boys immediately collapsed face first into their lunch trays. Everybody in the surrounding area looked towards the noise.

Vector grabbed both boys' heads and pulled them up off their trays.

"Haha! These two goofballs stayed up all night searching the internet. Now they can't stay awake. HaHaHa!"

The surrounding people just stopped paying attention to the trio and went back to their food and conversations.

"Ughh… That was intense. It's like you downloaded memories into my head. Wow! Does this really work?"

"Ughh… My head…"

Vector smiled at them both and let go of their heads. "Oh good, you guys had me worried for a second. That's the first time I tried that on a human after all."

Justice and the boy both turned their heads staring at Vector with their eyes bulging open. Justice narrowed his eyes. "Are you telling me you figured out some way to mess with souls and this is your first time trying it out!?"

Vector looked at him with a dead pan look on his face. "I've tried it hundreds of times on beasts and I haven't killed one in 2 years. Matter of fact I'm on a streak."

Vector's eyes turned silver again. "Here I'll even check to make sure nothing went wrong…" Then he gazed at the two others for a couple of seconds. "See I didn't even… Oops… Oh well it'll be fine."

Justice reached across the table and grabbed Vector's shoulders. "What will be fine and what oops?!"