Chapter 29 School Days

“Like, at what point did they think cheese was a good idea? Did some idiot just serve expired milk and hope for the best?” - Dare, C Class Cowl when threatening hostages.

Aiden had three core subjects, Mathematics, English and Self Defense.

The first two were the standard fare he had back in his old world, SD was slightly different though, it was essentially a physical education course focused on exactly its namesake, taught as soon as a child could walk in this world, diligently training a child’s body as well as teaching them the basics of several simple weapons.

The presence of such rigorous physical education in this world might’ve been the reason why Aiden had yet to see someone who was truly overweight. Despite the presence of miracle foods like Gapples ensuring starvation and hunger remained a foreign concept, the realities of living in this world meant everyone at least wanted to be in shape to run like hell.

Other than his three cores, Aiden was also allowed two elective subjects, the first of which he and Jun, along with the other idiots who were late, glumly stepped into.

Inside the classroom, there was a man with hair braided into short dreadlocks, he wore a pair of black spectacles, covering his eyes.

Aiden paused as he noted that the man carried a white cane and that his face was crisscrossed by scars that went under his sunglasses.

He turned his ear towards them.

“Good morning!” he cheerily said, “Are you my students for Visual Design?”

Aiden nodded before he slapped himself for the lapse, and answered, “Yeah.”

“Well, you’re a bit late-”

Aiden’s eye twitched violently as he saw the clock behind the man.

“-but don’t worry! First week is always a bit hectic innit?”

He cheerily continued, “Anyways, I’m Grian, no need for Misters or Sirs here, just call me Grian, I’ll be your teacher for VD, come on, sit.”

The teacher gestured in a direction about ninety degrees off where the seats were placed, “Sit and introduce yourselves!”

The students obliged, mostly silent.

Grian pointed in a completely random direction, “You there! Introduce yourself and we’ll go clockwise.”

No one was actually in the direction he pointed at, but he spoke it with such confidence that a girl with pigtails spoke up.

Aiden found himself sitting next to Jun as the classroom sounded off, she already had her phone out underneath the table, taking quick glances at it.

To put it very kindly, Aiden was of a similar mind. He had chosen Visual Design as a lazy subject, one to put little effort into and still get a high grade to buff his average marks.

Not because he was lazy like Jun might’ve been, but because the nature of his financial situation would require him to spend some significant sum of his free time earning money. He considered the effort and time he needed to parse into each aspect of his life and found himself shorting the budget of the education. After all, he had already technically gone through this once before in his past life, the main purpose of him being at school was not education,

‘But qualification.’

A metahuman license was his ultimate goal, along with knowledge of meta techniques, but those wouldn’t be available to him until long into his education.

So until then, where minimum effort would suffice, minimum effort was what he used.

However, he intended to pay full attention to his next elective.

As the bell rang and he walked into the classroom, he noticed something strange.

Sat at the teacher’s desk, was a three head chimp. All of the heads had their skulls opened, two revealing an empty skull and the last on the left bore an exposed brain.

The head with the brain was weeping softly as students streamed in.

When everyone was seated, the weeping head turned and looked at them, reaching into the air, the chimp pulled out a new brain and plopped it into the middle head.

“Greetings,” the chimp said, “I am Number Four, the school librarian. Unfortunately, your assigned teacher for Introduction to Bleed Sciences, Mr Reese, passed away last night.”

The classroom erupted into chatter, and the weeping head seemed to weep harder, one of the hands even began cradling it.

A hand shot up, the same girl with pigtails from his previous class, “Four, what happened to Mr Reese?”

“He was called on yesterday to deal with the ongoing incident,” the middle head emotionlessly replied, “When he was examining the novel Gate that appeared, one of the ‘Fly’ Invaders pushed him into it and his head was caught in the Bleed field.”

Aiden’s mind flashed to the Gate he and Ranpo saw open, one that instantly disintegrated a man’s foot.

“Until a suitable replacement is found, I will be teaching this course. I believe my grasp of theoretical knowledge is enough to teach the needed parameters of this course, however, I will not be able to provide as in-depth guidance as Mr Reese would have. The school is aware this may not be what you wanted, as such you’ll be allowed a subject change.”

The chimp began tapping the laptop on the teacher’s desk, “I will still be teaching you for the duration of this lesson. If you wish to change subjects you will need to hand in the relevant forms before the end of the week. After which all will be locked in.”

One thing Aiden could not get used to was the silence. The speed at which the student’s around him just accepted a teacher was dead.

Aiden did not know the person who died.

Aiden did not care for his death any more than that of a person hearing of death unrelated to them on the news.

But he still remembered that nameless cop who pulled a grenade so he wouldn’t leave a body to desecrate.

He still remembered Johnjohnjohnjohn, the hobgoblin who had killed him.

Did the people around him also remember? Or did they forget? Did they, teens younger than him in all aspects, just accept death so easily after only such minor interest?

Aiden was getting left behind, for Number Four continued to speak, continued with the lesson.

“... most call Bleed Science ‘Magic’, in fact I suspect many of you signed up here because you wanted to throw a fireball, I will have to inform you that this course will not be able to teach you that.”

Aiden felt a palpable sense of disappointment wash through some of the class, a leg tapping here, a pen fidgeting over there, eyes looking out the window.

The teacher seemed to not notice this change, as he continued, “The term magic is largely a misnomer, given by civilians who did not understand the phenomena, but knew enough to realise it was separate from meta abilities. I will be using the two terms interchangeably though.”

“‘Magic’, is very simply put, the study and application of Bleed in a controlled and understood manner,” a projector lit up, showing an image of a mecha that towered over mountains. “The Gigantes were built under the principles of magic, material that defied our laws of gravity and cube law, exploited to counter a very specific type of enemy. It can be considered the prime example of Bleed Science.”

The image changed, showing men and women in various… unusual states.

“Then we come to the first originator’s of ‘Magic’,” Four passionlessly spoke, “Bleed victims.”

Aiden’s hand scrunched up, tightening around his pen.

“You should know not all Bleed effects are inherently harmful, the mob of senior citizens rampaging through the streets a recent example. In fact, the first users of magic were people who suffered Bleed and got a beneficial effect from it, we called such people, Sorcerers.”

“Sorcerers have either been accidentally or intentionally exposed to Bleed, altering their very relation to reality. The variety of effects is truly staggering, yesterday, you see people becoming stronger the closer they were to death, some may be able to access the scientific systems of other realities, some can speak words and bring them to reality, others’ may only be able to float a few centimetres off the ground.”

“It’s like having an ability isn’t it?” a boy spoke up.

The middle head glanced at him, “Indeed, however-”

“However!” the weeping head suddenly interrupted, tears drying, “The essence of sorcery is the malleability of the soul.”

“-what I mean is,” the middle head continued, “unlike us, Sorcerers are still susceptible to Bleed. All magic is still susceptible to Bleed, and will change under its effects.”

“That is why Mr Reese perished yesterday, being a Sorcerer does not mean you are resistant to Bleed effects, the opposite in fact, simultaneously, having an ability makes it significantly difficult to become a Sorcerer as you are resistant to Bleed effects.”

Aiden’s hand rose.

“Yes Mr Bu?”

“What about people suffering from Bleed Sickness?”

“Again,” the middle head passionlessly spoke, “the variety of effects is too staggering to truly classify. Each case needs to be considered individually. The only all-cure solution is to develop into a metahuman.”

“What about the Sophist?” someone else asked. “Health Potions and stuff?”

Four nodded with all three heads, “That is a good segway, increasingly, the world is developing metahumans whose abilities specifically interact with Bleed effects, the Sophist of Elixirs is a good example of this, she is a tinker of some kind able to manipulate and combine Bleed effects with unreplicatable efficacy. She easily qualifies as one of the top experts regarding the subject.”

Another hand shot up, but Four waved it down, “Questions will be taken later, for now, I will talk about something that will be increasingly important in the future.”

The screen changed again, playing a video of the school’s Vice Principal as she fought at Last Stand yesterday.

“The prime weakness of Bleed Science is that its nature is inherently forged from the alien and unwelcomed,” Four began. “All Bleed effects gradually disappear as our reality rejects it, they may leave permanent scars, but the invasive reality would eventually be superseded by Hume. Thus any practitioner would need to constantly restock on resources that would eventually fail.”

“However, Living Concepts are a different matter,” Four continued. “It is a scientific system originating from Arcadia, where belief can turn the immaterial into the material. Some decades ago, the US saw the potential of this system and left open a Gate to that dimension, allowing its Bleed effect to permeate the entire world.”

“Because of that, everywhere on Earth, belief has the capability of congregating into singular, physically interactable entities. What we term Living Concepts,” Four gestured behind him, onto the screen. “Law is an example of this, where the Ozzie Government discovered the nascent concept of Law and integrated it within the very legal system, incidentally making all members practitioners.”

“Unlike with Sorcerers, who hold individual and fading fragments of Bleed, the Bleed of Arcadia is so prevalent even normal people can practice it and not risk losing their power to time, all they have to do is fulfill the needed conditions and it will be available to them.”

The weeping head spoke up again, “The difference between blade and talent…”

The middle head nodded, “Indeed, the difference between magic and an ability user like us can be summed up easily as the different between gunpowder and an ability that lets you throw fire.”

The screen changed again, this time showing a video.

It showed a great figure painted in blue, its face black and head decorated with feathers. Chains hung around it, needles and tubes pumped glowing liquids into the man’s body. He appeared weakened and beaten, gaunt and hung from his chains.

Underneath, there was something he didn’t expect.

A health bar and a semi-familiar name.

Huītzilōpōchtli the Enslaved God, Lvl ???

Aiden blinked, recognition in his eyes, not as deep as he would with an animal, but he knew the name and what it meant in his old world. Even his memories as Bu began to tingle, remembering the event that happened.

“The US used the Arcadia magic system to incarnate an old concept, likely a dead god worshipped and believed during the Pre-Apocalypse era, and sent it to Gorea under the pretense of securing the nation from the civil war erupting to claim ownership over the Labyrinth, though they likely did it to claim the Gamer’s body and ability for themselves. They were rebuffed in the end, however…”

The god screamed in pain as something was injected into it, it thrashed and clawed, but its chains were not made of mundane metal, soon Light blinded the camera.

The video jumped to a desolate land, filled with burning ashes and the sight of a shattered Sun.

“The city of Keoul and its three million inhabitants were all killed in the attack. Now, Gorea remains a political entity only because they hold the Gamer’s corpse and the Labyrinth surrounding it.”

“Returning to our gunpowder analogy, through gunpowder you may be able to make a gun, and though the gun may be susceptible to Bleed and require bullets to shoot, it can be mass produced, anyone can learn to wield one and with enough resources, knowledge and research, you may be able to make a nuke.”

“So that’s what happened in Bleed Science,” Aiden said as he unpacked his lunch.

Jun lounged on the bench much like a cat and like one only mm’ed in response.

“What about you?”

“Had theatre,” she murmured.

“You seem off.”

She glanced around at the open field, “It’s weird you know, I figured I would never step foot in this place.”

Aiden paused for a moment, his spoon stopping just short of his mouth.

He put it down, “You’re here aren’t you?”

“Still feels unreal, like, you don’t know what bastards geneline families end up producing. They shove a golden spoon up their asses and call it parenting, fuck, I half expect some ass to just-”

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the queer bitch.”

“-there it is,” Jun murmured as she slid off lounging position into a sitting one.

Four- no, five guys strolled up to them. Aiden’s eyes slid over each of them, young, teenage, and exuding an air of sure cockiness. One was clearly the leader, walking at the front, his hair blonde and slicked back.

‘Was I ever this much of an idiot when I was a teenager?’ he pondered for a moment, before his body tensed as they surrounded them.

“Awww,” Jun answered with a similarly confident and cocky expression. “Did the baby get bored of suckling their mommy’s credit card?”

The leader sucked in a breath, before he smiled and laughed, “When I heard you ran away from home I thought that was the last time I would hear of Jun Jito. Have you heard from your parents by the way? They told me you running away was the best thing that ever happened to them.”

This time, Jun kicked off the bench and stood up, she wasn’t as tall as the leader, but still everyone around them tensed.

Aiden realised that perhaps, they may be unaware of what ability Jun held, or perhaps they were and understood the risks of fighting someone with superspeed.

He suspected the former, because though Jun wore her Nightcore mask, she did not show a single hint of her speed.

“Don’t call me by that name,” she said.

The leader grinned, “Make me, Jito.”

She smiled in response, cracking her knuckles, “You think your tiny ass fire would hurt me?”

Almost imperceptible, if not for the fact Aiden had his eyes glued on her, he would not have noticed her eyes darting to him for the briefest moment.

‘So his ability is fire.’

There was no reason for her specific taunt, other than to communicate some info to him.

“I see you got new goons Dale,” she said, eyes flitting around, “I recognise Adam, but who’re the other three?”

Three unknowns, was she aware of what Adam did? Likely, then the last three boys at the back were the unknowns.

She seemed confident in taking them, though Aiden really wished she had more proof to back it up, surrounded by five ability users, four of which Aiden had no clue what they did.

“They’re my new mates, Warren, Carson and…” he paused, looking at the last one, “I’m sorry, I always forget your name.”

“Shmebuloc!” he answered.

Dale snapped his fingers, “Shmebuloc! That’s it! Either way, they’re each more than enough to kick your teeth in.”

“And yet you’re here with five people against little old me?”

As they continued trading threats, Aiden, the only one disengaged and still looking about, noticed a quite peculiar thing.

Crows.

Everywhere, perched on nearby branches, fences and benches, all quietly looking at the confrontation.

Ranpo nodded to him when he noticed his gaze.

“Are we going to do it?” Aiden spoke for the first time, tone lazy and calm, appearing to aim towards Jun, but really, his eyes were focused on the boys.

He needed to appear confident, like a fight wouldn’t even be a problem, much like what Jun’s doing, he realised.

“I’m in the mood to kick some ass,” Jun replied with a smile.

“We do have them surrounded,” he added with false casualness.

For the first time, one of the boys looked around them, noticing the increasing murder of crows.

“We’re surrounded Dale,” the one named Warren spoke.

“Master type,” Dale spoke with renewed interest as he looked over Aiden for the first time. “You must be pretty good to control such a large crowd, wanna ditch this bitch?”

Ranpo cawed, inciting a large cacophony of caws in response. Aiden was used to controlling his expression, so no hint of surprise marred his face as he put down his lunch box and stood up, causing them to slightly back away and bunch up.

“I don’t quite appreciate your tone.”

They believed his ability was controlling the crows and while that was true in a very indirect way, there was no need for them to realise the falsehood, not while he was concocting tattoos right underneath his sleeve.

“He can’t be that good,” Warren continued, “Master types tend to lose out on power the more they have, and we have him up close.”

“Shmebuloc!” Shmebuloc agreed.

“Do you wish to test that theory,” Jun said with an expression that clearly screamed, ‘Try us idiots.’

Warren hesitated, leaving Adam to jut in, “Manifested abilities do get to break some rules.”

And that, Aiden realised, was the core thing stopping conflict. All of them held abilities unknown to the other, he was faking his and Jun’s mask gave little to what she was actually capable of. It would become abundantly clear should things come to blows, but until then they were all assessing the risk of actually getting into a fight.

While simultaneously pretending they could easily take the other and freely trading insults.

He hated teenagers sometimes, reckless yet strangely sensible in all the wrong ways.

But he needed to diffuse this situation, there was no fucking way he was going to see what happened next. He already had a detention on his record, a detention! Being in any way associated with a superpowered school brawl was the last thing he wanted.

And so, he mimicked Jun’s confident and arrogant tone as he flexed his one hand, “I would hate to get my shirt dirty.”

He saw it then, confidence being slowly chipped away. They came here with the numbers advantage, now they were surrounded by crows and facing two unknown abilities.

“How strong can you really be?” Dale asked, his eyes fixed on him. Not in a challenging way but… almost in interest.

Suddenly, the concrete beneath them exploded into dust, everyone jumped back, shielding their eyes before what was embedded in the ground was made apparent.

A piece of chalk.

Aiden looked around, Eagle eyes covering his own as he spotted a tiny hole passing through four buildings and at the other end of the school was a cranky looking titan in military uniform, looking positively pissed.

Cold sweat dripped down his face as he realised that chalk could just as easily be embedded in any of their skulls.

“Well,” Aiden said, “that was the principal.”

A veritable flood of cold sweat fell down all their faces at that statement, though Dale continued to posture,

“Well… I supposed we should pay respects to the war hero shouldn’t we?”

“Shmebuloc,” Shmebuloc agreed.

Nods all around, even from Jun, freely agreeing with the person she was at throats with earlier.

They began to retreat, “This isn’t over!”

Then another chalk embedded itself right underneath Dale’s feet, “Well, this is definitely over today!”

Jun smiled wickedly, “Just try me-”

She couldn’t even finish her sentence before a third chalk stabbed itself into the wood beside her bench.

“-some place other than here!” she quickly amended.

Aiden realised for all the threats they partied around, all of it was just posturing, they were prepared for a scrap, clearly, but not one with actual risk.

And Principal General Wendal Richard Monger and his immensely gruff face was a risk in itself.

They were teenage idiots, but not all of them had a death wish.

When they were sure the goons had left, Aiden looked at the chalk-sized hole, seeing that the Principal was nowhere to be seen, he fell back onto the bench with a sigh.

“Any idea what Monger’s ability is?”

Jun shook her head, “No idea, but my parents, as much as I fucking hate them, were scared shitless of that dude.”

She suddenly looked around, “Wait, can he hear us?”

“Probably,” Ranpo answered as he flew down, “if he knew to intervene in a fight on the opposite side of the school.”

“Then should I be talking shit about him?” she asked, “Umm, Principal Monger, I don’t actually think you look like an ogre fucked a cactus.”

Aiden put his lunchbox back on his lap, “I feel like you’re provoking him more than anything with that statement.”

“Oh, by the way Aiden,” Ranpo began, glancing around shyly.

“Yes?” he asked, spoon pausing before his mouth.

“How many grapes can you buy?”

“What are you asking for?”

He sheepishly replied, “I sorta promised every crow here you would buy them grapes if they stood around for a bit.”

Aiden put down his spoon, looking around at the dozens of crows that surrounded them.

“I need that job.”