Side Story: Jothan

The waves crashed against the islands of Windhell Archipelago. The day was sunny, but the water itself was brewing with maliciousness and dangerous sea creatures. And in the distance, a small boat was speeding along the waves, accompanied by a scream that was echoing over the ocean.

“PROFESSOR! THEY’RE GOING TO EAT ME!!” screamed Jothan as he narrowly dodged a fanged fish on his water ski.

“Hang on! Training is almost over!” shouted Professor Welst. “Kanna! Are you getting the fish?!”

“Yes, Professor!” shouted a girl with pink hair. She was currently following right behind Jothan on her surfboard-like vehicle and was taking down the fishes that lunged at him from the water. She knocked another fish away from Jothan with her pink energy ball, catching it and storing it in her sack in an instant. “I think I have enough for today!”

“Good!” shouted the Professor. “Kill some more for good measure! We’ll start heading back now!”

“HURRY!!” exclaimed Jothan as another fish lunged at him. He quickly created an illusionary wall on the fish which made it slap harmlessly against him and drop back into the water. They had been doing this for 30 minutes and he was reaching his limit.

After an additional few more fish-killings, the crew made it back onto their island. Jothan weakly but rapidly threw his equipment off and ran into the beach, falling knees-first into the sand. His legs were spaghetti and his whole body felt sore. His hands were red from holding on to the line for so long.

“That was fun!” exclaimed Kanna as she dragged a large sack onto the beach. “Let’s do it again tomorrow.”

Jothan lay down on his back and formed an ‘X’ with his arms. He knew the training was necessary, but he hated doing it. He felt like he was going to die every session. Literally.

“You did okay today, Jothan,” said the Professor. “Next time keep your mouth shut and focus on the fish. You’ll do better that way.”

Jothan placed his hands over his eyes to block the sunlight. It was easier said than done. Those ‘fish’ they were swimming with were man-eating beasts with teeth like nails. He had gotten to know them very well since his arrival at the islands, and it hadn’t been pleasant. Without anexide, he’d already be half-dead by now.

“Come on! Let’s go,” said Kanna cheerfully as she grabbed Jothan on the arm. She half-dragged him along the sand with her sack in her other hand. Jothan eventually got up and dusted the grains off himself.

“I’m going to go take a shower,” he stated.

“Don’t be late,” the Professor said. “Lunch will be served soon.”

Jothan nodded and pulled his tired body to the showers. This was life for him now.

〄 〄 〄

When he arrived, Jothan had discovered multiple things about the Islands and the people living in them.

First of all, the Islands wasn’t what he thought it was. When he had gotten off the boat, he was given a location to go to, which was one of the numerous islands that existed within Windhell Archipelago. That part was easy. He had fetched a boat to take him there and found the buildings that he would call his new home. A large school was on it, along with dorms and the students that occupied it.

But then the hellish training had started. From running around the Island every morning to various survival exercises within it, Jothan had suffered something very similar to elite military training. They did receive quality education. Jothan had expected that. But he hadn’t anticipated everything else that came with it,

Secondly, everyone here was crazy. Even the fat people were extremely fit. Hardly anyone on the island lagged behind in their morning training even though they were all of the same age. Jothan had been surprised to find out that some of these students were residents whose family lived on the Islands. The Professors were also people who had their homes on the island. And they were the craziest of them all.

Thirdly, residents from the Island were…weird? Special? Exciting? Jothan didn’t know the right word to describe them. Almost every student who was a native to the Islands had incredible abilities and colorful hair. Yep. They had colorful hair like the ones you’d find in anime. Kanna was one of them. And to top it off, they were somewhat used to this sort of lifestyle. Kanna had explained it was because their parents did similar things around the other parts of the Islands.

And finally, these ‘similar things.’ It was fighting man-eating monsters or harvesting plants that could potentially kill you. This had shocked Jothan the most. Sure, they lived in a world with superpowers. Sure, some of them could do superhuman things. But monsters? Seriously? He had never even seen one before he came to the Islands, but this place was teeming with them.

He had learned in class that it was because the local animal life themselves had SAP in them, just like humans. It was unbelievable. This information never had existed outside of this place.

But well, this was his life now.

Jothan sliced into a man-eating fish with his knife and stabbed it with his fork. After adding some sauce, he chewed it.

“If the food wasn’t great, I’d seriously think about quitting,” he stated.

“Woah! Already recovered to crack jokes?” said Kanna over a mouthful of fish. Her long, pink hair was still dripping with water after her quick shower. Not that it mattered. They were eating outside on one of the benches. The tropical trees gently swayed as the cool ocean wind blew over.

There was another rule here. You had to obtain your own food. Thankfully, Kanna was an excellent cook.

“So that’s a compliment, right?” she teased while Jothan gulped down some fresh water.

“Sure. Whatever you’d like,” replied Jothan nonchalantly as he took another bite of the fish. Kanna watched with satisfaction as Jothan picked out the last piece of flesh from the fish and set down his eating utensils. “Yeah, it’s good,” he finally said.

It was lunch now. Educational classes started from 3 pm and ended at 9 pm with a 20-minute dinner break in the middle. The rest of the day was spent obtaining food and doing practice drills—simply, physical training—with the professors. They were called professors, but Jothan believed they were actually retired superheroes. They were just that crazy.

“Let’s go clean up now,” he said. “We don’t want Professor Welst to wait, do we?”

“Nope!” said Kanna as she stacked the dished neatly on top of each other. Jothan took the trash, fish bones and whatnot, and threw them inside the island’s trash area. Garbage was never wasted here. It was recycled as fertilizer or food for the local life. Because there weren’t any stores nearby, the whole place was very eco-friendly. Even the vehicles were solar-powered.

This place was insane. Jothan wanted chocolate milk so bad.