Darkness.
Not normal darkness, like in a room without a light. It was more of a sensation, like swimming or floating. A deep, inexplicable feeling, and as he floated in the darkness, before a thought could even form, a light broke through.
–A strange dream…
–How long have I been asleep?
He slowly opened his eyes, realizing he had actually fallen asleep. He stood up and looked around.
–I'm at school? Why didn't anyone wake me up?
Looking down, right next to the fresh puddle of saliva, lay a broken radio he had unscrewed after class. Kouji has a special ability he hasn't told anyone about yet, though such "Blessings" aren't entirely uncommon, having regressed over the course of history. For this reason, not many people know about these Blessings, but scattered throughout humanity are a few—Blessed Ones.
–Right, the old woman gave me the radio this morning on my way to school to fix.
Kouji earns a few yen on the side by repairing other people's devices. His Blessing allows him to analyze an object's structure and construction, though it's not limited to objects.
"Let's get to work," he said loudly and enthusiastically, already reaching for his screwdriver.
He looked down at the radio, used his free hand to lightly touch it, and closed his eyes.
The wires, the construction—everything flooded his mind, and then he noticed.
–Oh!—The capacitor's blown, a common problem. Luckily, I have a few of those lying around.
He reached into his pocket, and before he could even say the word "capacitor," he had one in his hand. Of course, his Blessing is also very useful for finding smaller objects.
–Wait a minute—I don't have anything to solder here.
In the same breath, he stood up, packed everything into his backpack, and walked past the cafeteria, heading straight for the tech room. Normally, access to the school is forbidden at such times, but because of his helpfulness, Kouji had been given his own key to repair equipment there in the evenings.
On his way to the tech room, he took out his phone.
"Hey Gen, I had a totally crazy dream. White hair, devils, then there was this god and we were fighting over the position. The dream felt so real, like I was actually there, fighting in a cold church."
"And—Send, let's see what he says."
After sending his message, he arrived at the technical room. He slowly opened the door and entered. He placed his backpack on the table in front of him, grabbed a soldering iron and some solder, and started tinkering. Replacing capacitors was nothing new to him, so it was a breeze. He removed the old one, replaced it with the new one, and screwed the radio back together.
"Ha, looks brand new!"
"I'll give the radio back to her first thing tomorrow morning; she'll be amazed."
He took his phone out of his pockets again to see if his friend had replied.
"Gen replied. "Whoa, totally awesome." Haha, he's right.
"Oh, it's so late already—I should pack up and go home."
He haphazardly stuffed everything into his backpack and zipped it up. He tucked his phone into the side pocket of the backpack.
In exchange for his key and access to the tech lab, he also had to meticulously document what he used and when.
-So, I used soldering iron number 12… and a little solder. That should do the trick.
-Okay, then I'll head home.
He grabbed his backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and headed for the exit. But just as he locked the door to the tech room—CLACK!
Kouji turned toward the cafeteria in shock.
-What was that? Is anyone else here? A teacher.
The noise was loud. It sounded like a window had shattered. A rather unusual scenario, but it can happen. Kouji knew there were far easier ways to break into the school than smashing the cafeteria window, the huge panoramic window.
-Vandals? But why would they vandalize here of all places?
Kouji carefully put down his backpack and slowly walked back towards the cafeteria to see what had happened. "Hello?" he said quietly as he continued down the corridor, getting closer to the cafeteria. Even from the distance, Kouji could faintly hear a voice. "I... them... the Voi..."
-What was he talking about?
The closer Kouji got, the clearer the person's words became. "I can hear them, the voices." Kouji grew increasingly uneasy. He touched his head and ran his fingers through his brown hair. When he finally reached the cafeteria, he saw who was standing there. The person didn't look like a teacher and was about two heads taller than Kouji. But one thing struck him most: the yellow eyes. He himself had yellow eyes since birth, but this person's eyes weren't just yellow. They had a greenish tint, as if someone had put yellow contact lenses on blue eyes, while his own were a bright yellow. Accompanied by yellow-green eyes, the person possessed an ominous and frightening aura. Just standing near them made one feel uneasy.
–A man. Who was this person? Certainly not a teacher, if he was jumping through the window.
"It hurts, it hurts," the person kept saying.
The entire floor was littered with shards of glass. Could someone even hit a glass that hard? Kouji already knew something was wrong, though it wasn't entirely unfamiliar. Of course. He had abilities; why shouldn't others possess them as well? He lived in a small town; aside from the occasional shoplifting incident, crime wasn't exactly common. Certainly not people with such an ominous presence. Upon closer inspection, Kouji noticed that the man barely moved, as if he weren't in his right mind, and also, he held a knife in his right hand.
As he slowly stepped back, Kouji unfortunately stepped on a piece of broken glass—CLACK!—making a loud noise.
–Shit.
The man immediately turned toward him and stared into his face.
–There's only one thing left to do…
Kouji turned around and immediately ran to his backpack to get out of school.
–The police!
–Shit—My phone's in my bag too.
Kouji suddenly turned 180 degrees and slid under the man's legs, stabilizing his balance—He jumped behind a table and knocked it over.
–Shit, that guy's right by the exit and he blocked me when I was going to get my backpack.
–Nothing to be done.
Besides his gift for analyzing what he touched, he had also been very flexible, agile, and strong since childhood. However, he also had a second gift, though it was rarely used.
The ability to alloy objects he had analyzed with steel, metal, or similar materials. Kouji himself didn't know exactly how it worked, but it certainly came in handy now.
"That guy's completely out of control, I need to get past him somehow."
Kouji touched the table leg and took in its entire structure. As if by magic, the table leg turned metallic.
"Fighting a knife-wielding assailant wasn't exactly my idea of a future, but with the Reinforced Leg, it should be possible, even if he's bigger."
Kouji peeked out from behind cover, and before he could even blink, the man was standing right in front of him, swinging his knife toward Kouji. Instinctively, he blocked the knife's impact with the rod, as if his body had registered it before his brain.
The rod and the knife pressed together as Kouji braced against the man's immense strength.
"How can he be so strong? He doesn't look very muscular. I'll have to hold the knife out and wait for the right moment—" Kouji was still lost in thought when he realized it. The knife was slowly slicing through the metal rod and the wood behind it.
–Impossible. I've seen a lot, but a normal kitchen knife doesn't cut through metal and wood. He doesn't even move the knife; it just glides through the material.
Kouji kicked the table backward, which threw the attacker off balance, and he dropped his knife, which Kouji picked up. He slashed the metal of his pole with the blade while already running away from the man, across the cafeteria.
–Broken? I hit it lightly, and it bends right away. How did he do that?
Kouji knocked over a few more tables. By now, the man had become completely silent, and it seemed as if he had lost all sense of direction and was just swinging wildly at Kouji. Kouji threw the broken knife and his partially cut pole onto the floor beside him and ran toward the exit again.
–He can't do anything with that stuff anyway.
The man picked up the metal pole as Kouji ran away. Kouji kept a close eye on him, so he couldn't attack. But—after the man picked up the metal bar, it transformed into a new knife.
–Shit, I should have just gone home.
The man was closing in, and when he was within range, he swung at Kouji. Time seemed to slow down as the knife hurtled toward him and—
"Duck!"
An unfamiliar voice, deep but not very deep, echoed through the cafeteria. Kouji looked toward the voice; it was coming from outside, toward the shattered glass. It looked like lightning had flashed across the cafeteria.
–What was that? It looked like lightning, I couldn't even see it.
Before Kouji had properly processed the situation, the voice was already coming from behind him.
"Are you okay?"
Kouji turned back—his face filled with shock. Beside him, a white-haired man in a black coat, carrying a katana. Right next to him, the crazed man—a gaping vertical gash across his torso, blood still gushing from him, forming a pool on the floor.
Kouji froze in shock. One man had slashed another right before his eyes. After a few seconds of silence, he managed to squeeze out a few words.
"W—Who are you???"
"My name's Ryounosuke."
"Call me Ryo."