"Kaeru Yosozume, the heir to the Yosozume family, one of the most powerful families due to their equal affinity to most elements of magic, those elements being water, fire ,wind and earth, leaving just sacred as the only element they can not control."
a professional looking 40-50 year old man wearing an expensive brown three piece suit, explained emotionlessly to the 12 year old boy who listened with boredom in his gaze.
"you are aware of what that conveys, correct?" he asked, irritated by the boys lack of effort
"yes, it means if I, as the heir do not have enough elements I will be deemed unworthy of the title of heir and thus, disowned."
"exactly; if you are revealed to have one or two elements you will be disowned, at three their may be some backlash at you taking over the family; you should hope you have four." if anyone other than his educator or family were to say this they would be in quite some trouble.
'so basically, tomorrow I need to show aptitude for at least three elements' Kaeru thought to himself
luckily for Ryo, he was Kaeru's educator and could get away with such warnings.
He sighed "I hope you know I am only saying these things because I only wish you pass the aptitude test, it is tomorrow after all. so first you must go over the basics again."
he flipped the black board over, showing a detailed diagram of the human body this diagram showed all the vital organs to a mage, the brain, to allow both thought and movement, the heart and its veins and arteries, pumping blood and thus oxygen to the body and the appendix, the countless mana veins and arteries spread throughout the body.
"now remember, the appendix is vital for a mage, more so than any other organ, as it allows magic, atmospheric mana is pulled in through the arteries into the appendix. the valves shut, keeping the mana for when you need it you can then push the mana out through the veins and thus, magic" Ryo, raised his left hand up and created a flame on the tip of his gloved index finger. "it is important to note that the veins are much wider than the arteries and thus a mage will use up mana much faster than they could ever absorb it."
Kaeru stifled a yawn and nodded his head 'why do we have to go over things so basic' you couldn't really blame him for being bored. it was like telling a college kid that the number after one is two, no-one could listen to something so simple for ten minutes without getting bored; Kaeru had been going over this fact of the appendix for the past hour. it was mind numbing.
*****
Kaeru was waiting with thirty other children his age, it was a mix of both nobility and commoners, the aptitude test was created by a mage who didn't believe in the class system and thus it was one of the only times all were equal.
the children were called forth in alphabetical order, so Kaeru with the first name Yosozume was one of the last to be called up. the first kid to be called up stepped onto a wide, slightly elevated pentagon, on each corner stood one mage, each holding a differently coloured orb.
the orbs were red, blue, green, brown and yellow, each representing one of the five elements.
as the kid stumbled into the middle of the pentagon, wiping the sweat from his hands onto his trousers, but as his hands stayed by his side, he could do nothing to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.
the five mages all readied their orbs; an energy the same colour as the orbs pulsated towards him, as the light hit him, four of the five colours bounced off, but the brown energy was absorbed into his body. he was an earth mage, a single element mage.
two adults, a man and a woman, most likely his parents seemed visibly relieved when they saw his element, seeing that they were both wearing cheap clothing it made sense. an earth mage could do farm work very well, being able to till the soil and pull up fertile soil from deep underground, it was the perfect farming element.
numerous other children stepped up one after the other, some skipped away in joy, others dragged their feet towards disappointed parents.
eventually just Kaeru was left, he was the reason no-one had left yet, they wanted to see just how great the heir of the famed Yosozume family was.
"Kaeru Yosozume" as his name was called, he confidently walked up, why would he be nervous, he would only lose everyone and everything he ever cared about, his entire life if he got less than three elements, so no, he wasn't the slightest bit nervous, he was terrified.
he strode into the centre with a gate that said he would and could do anything he wanted to, it was an act, naturally. acting was one of the skills all nobles possessed as well as piano, archery and calligraphy.
as he stood there, five differently coloured beams of light hit him.
none were reflected, every single element was absorbed into his body, this was something that had never happened before, no-one had ever had affinity for all five elements.
Kaeru felt a warm sensation spread across his body, this was the mana flowing through his mana arteries, but as the warmth spread to his appendix, his body didn't cooldown like it was supposed to, it instead continued to heat up, his arteries got hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter, hotter still, it felt as though lava was flowing through his arteries, he collapsed to the floor, not even able to scream in pain and desperation.
he faintly a heard voice, possibly his educator. "stop it now, cut the mana"
then another voice replied "we can't its pulling the mana from our appendixes."
the lava burrowed deeper into his body scoring his arteries, making its home in his most vital organ, invading his appendix. mana rushed in like a dam had been broken, his valves, they were the dam, the mana forced its way out of the appendix, overloading the veins, ripping them wider; the mana escaped from its vessel.
and as it did, the mana flowing into him finally stopped, but the reason it stopped. it had stopped because, he had lost affinity to all elements