Haruki and Suzu were assaulted at the door by throngs of chattering children as they walked into the hall. Their interrogations continued for a few minutes, but an exasperated shout from the teacher quickly ended it. Thankful for the brief respite, they quickly settled into isolated seats near the back of the hall.

Despite wanting to avoid such annoyances, they quickly became known across the entire school as 'The Noble Couple'. To the other students, they unknowingly radiated a cold aura of maturity and poise.

With his initial moves failing miserably, Keishi seemed to have calmed down a bit. But even though he didn't speak to them again, he was always glancing at Suzu. Haruki wanted to remove his eyes and set an example to the others, but Suzu halted him with a solid chop to the head.

The first period was supposed to be Magical Theory, but his old textbook had already covered everything. Vacantly listening to the cumbersome drone, Haruki's brain switched off.

“zZzZz...”

THUD!

“Gack!” Haruki stood up, shocked awake by Suzu's sudden elbow strike. Blinking twice as he noticed where he was, the teacher glared at him like a demon crawling up from hell.

“Since this one is sleeping, you must be confident in your abilities, yes?”

“Uh, yes Sensei. Apologies.” Haruki sat down in a daze as Suzu rolled her eyes at him.

“Thanks for the wake up, these textbooks always put me to sleep...”

“Nn...”

“Haruki-kun... Will you join me down here for a live demonstration please?” The teacher spoke up with a twisted grin.

Haruki took a deep breath as he stood, casually walking down towards the teacher, showing no signs he was worried.

'Oh shit, I hope I don't screw this up. ARGH! Stop looking at me, people! Fuck, fuck, fuck...'

Having the attention of the entire room was far scarier to him than dealing with wolves!

“Since you're such a genius, Haruki-kun, I'll be demonstrating a basic spell and you simply need to defend. Ready?”

“Oi, isn't this just straight up abuse?”

Finally limbered up, Haruki nodded sternly as he took a low, barehanded stance.

“Ready.”

Even though he'd long since gotten used to sparring, this was slightly different. The teacher looked really pissed...

The crooked old man stroked at his bushy white beard, thinking hard on how best to punish such an insolent child.

'Perhaps I'll just scorch the arrogant bastard. He needs to learn how to respect a teacher... My flame will teach him quickly...'

Whipping his hand forwards with an elegant flourish, his dry, nasal voice rang out around the lecture hall.

“FIREBLAST”

'Perhaps that was too much? He'll be ok, right? Shit...'

In his gnarled hand, a small, azure sun grew to the size of a basketball. With an ear-shattering CRACK!, it shot off towards Haruki at a speed beyond human comprehension.

The students watching only saw a thick, blue beam shoot out from their teacher's hand with a terrifying screech. A burst of scorching, azure flame devoured their fellow student before their eyes, sending many into a panic.

Adrenaline surged through Haruki's body as his teacher spoke, sending his reactions into overdrive. For a moment, it was as if the world had slowed down around him. He uttered a single word through clenched teeth.

“Windstep”

The entire classroom was silent. The students that were previously laughing at him, believing he was about to get a rightful beating, sat in stunned disbelief.

Haruki was casually standing behind the teacher, rapier flickering with dark, purple energy.

Feeling the cold blade pressed against his spine, the withered old man collapsed to the floor, whimpering softly.

“Thank you for the lesson, Sensei.”

Haruki sheathed his weapon casually, walking back up to his seat as if nothing had happened.

Seated for only a moment, Haruki finally came down from the rush, shivering violently. Without a word, Suzu snatched his trembling hand into a firm grip, not letting go until after the lesson had ended.

The next lesson was his first elective, Spell Crafting. Haruki had once read through a copy of 'The Beginner's Guide to Spell Crafting.” and had been shocked to discover that he might actually have an aptitude for it.

Completely recovered from his earlier state, Haruki listened intently as the soft, grandfatherly Sensei spoke at length about 'the divine crafting language'.

Suzu was the one dozing off this time – She had no real interest in spell crafting, she only wanted to be beside Haruki. Adjusting her head back slightly so the teacher couldn't see her drooling, Haruki let out a soft sigh.

The lesson covered mostly theory, but since it was their first day, the teacher had rented a single terminal to show to them.

“This terminal is expensive and rare, so we haven't got our any of our own. Now would be a good time to look, if you're interested in the Magical Sciences.”

Haruki raised his hand so quickly that Suzu sat up, looking around in confusion.

“Sensei, could I please have a go? I've always wanted to try!”

Seeing such vibrant enthusiasm, the teacher happily waved him down.

“Haruki-kun, do you have you any experience or should I talk you through it?”

“I've read a bit, can I just see what I can do?”

The kindly old man shrugged.

“Just don't create anything illegal... Or anything that would end the world...”

Chuckling heartily at his own joke, he signaled for Haruki to begin.

'A master couldn't make something like that even if he had a week... There's no harm in him messing around.'

Nodding, Haruki eagerly poured his magic into the machine, booting it up.

'YES! It's exactly like how I imagined it!'

A single line glowed white on the monochrome display..

Loading – S.P.E.L.L. OS.

Complete. Loading source: 'Light Mine'.

Complete.

With a bright flicker, a simple command line interface appeared, sending him into a brief choking fit.

'So it really does look like Java code!? Even the syntax is basically the same! I know my teacher used to brag that 'Java would run on almost anything', but this is kind of insane...'

The spell's source was only a few dozen lines of code at most. Haruki cackled to himself, his eye showing a glint of pure joy.

He'd once tried a programming course in the old world. Even though he'd eventually dropped out due to his illness, Haruki's skills were more than competent. Many of the other students would ask him for help while the teacher wasn't around, since he had a knack for explaining things simply.

Chakakakaka...

Haruki's hands breezed over the magical keyboard, which looked remarkably similar to the old world counterparts...

'The keys even pulse red... If I get enough time, I'll see if I can change the colour...'

It was a simple enough matter to do minor tweaks to the existing spell's code, so he decided to try something else.

'What about adding an element? It should be relatively easy, I just have to figure out the naming convention for the various elements... Wait, didn't I hear something about light and dark exploding once?'

Hammering out another dozen lines of code, Haruki finally pressed the “Craft Spell” button.

Compiling Error: Line 14 – Unknown variable.

With a sheepish grin, he quickly replaced a letter and hit print once more.

The teacher watched on with a look of reverence, but most of the class had grown bored, turning to chatter among friends. A mechanical voice screeched out from the small, stone terminal.

“Please set the name / command word of the new spell”

“Yin-Yang Minefield”

“Registered. Compiling and printing spell scroll: Yin-Yang Minefield”

With a loud, dry cough, the machine ejected a large parchment onto the desk in a billowing puff of brown smoke.

“Thank you, Sensei. I've been wanting to try that for a long time.”

Taking a moment to read the scroll, Haruki walked back to his seat, almost skipping with each step.

You have learned the magic: Yin-Yang Minefield.

This spell was crafted by Abe Haruki.

107 MP cost.

Casts a dual element mine at a chosen location. (2m Radius)

Light and dark energies are held in constant rotation

by the opposing forces. If the shell is disturbed,

the energy will destabilize and react, causing a

devastatingly powerful explosion.

Trigger mechanism does not distinguish between friend and foe.

Friendly targets will not take damage from the explosion,

however the concussive force will propel them!

Suzu stared up at Haruki with a questioning look.

“Don't worry, it's just similar to something from Earth. I'm not a super genius or anything.”

Hearing this, she calmed down immediately. Lately, she'd been struggling with a small inferiority complex. Having no chances to fight, she felt as if she was quickly getting weaker, while Haruki was constantly evolving his knowledge and techniques.

'No, I should be happy that he's amazing. If I ever hold him back, then I'll just train harder.'

As he finished reading the scroll, their teacher let out an exasperated sigh, sitting quietly for a moment with vacant eyes.

“Sensei, you're welcome to give that spell to the school library, I've learned it already.”

That poor teacher's name was Aurelius Primus.

In his many years of life, he had never seen anyone work so assuredly and accurately on a terminal before. Most masters spent their entire lives investigating the secrets of the divine crafting language, while this first year had created an entirely new spell out of the basic spell he had added!

Reading the spell description another time over, his face turned as white as a sheet.

'Using the reactive properties of the two energies to increase the yield? The headmaster needs to see this...'

Stumbling to his feet with a brief stagger, he addressed the class, voice cracking as he spoke.

“Free time until the end of the period, I have to leave for a while on business.”

With the scroll hidden under his clothes, Aurelius sprinted from the lecture hall.

'This kid has the potential be dangerous...'

He burst into the principal's office, not slowing down as he opened the door. Mustering the last of his energy, he weakly tossed the scroll onto her desk before collapsing into a wheezing lump of pure suffering.

“Aurelius, what is this?” she asked, looking up from her paperwork.

“Abe Haruki's first unique spell... It's...just look.”

Unfurling the scroll, she started to read with a look of intense irritation. A few moments later, her expression changed to one of astonishment.

“The church cannot know of this. Please take the scroll to the forbidden vault and don't mention this to anyone...”

“Is it that serious?” Aurelius came from a family that was devout to the church, so he had a rough idea, but seeing the principals reaction, he finally felt a sense of urgency take hold.

“Aurelius, please keep a close eye on Abe's development. It seems things might get far more complicated, soon.”

He bowed his head and retrieved the scroll, feeling a rush of adrenaline as he headed off on his new mission.

'A forbidden spell on his first attempt? Truly frightening...'