As everyone was lost in their own thoughts after Kia’s introduction, a high-pitched voice brought them all back to reality, “You guys are treating me as if I am air?” The speaker walked in behind Kia but unlike the latter’s gentle footsteps that did not disturb the dust, the new character’s steps felt like a threat in the ears of the students.

It was a shirtless girl dressed in red shorts with a black skirt over the shorts. For children their age, there wasn’t a notable difference between boys and girls yet. Even among adults, the culture of the Toro Kingdom did not view breasts sexually so it was not uncommon for women not to cover their chests.

The girl that had just walked in was naturally Fury Jua. Her black eyes seemed to shine a deep crimson when the rays of the sun shone on her. These eyes were what granted her the nickname ‘Red-eyed demon’. Fury also had golden rings on her neck that looked like circular plates with the center hollowed out to fit over her head and neck. The 3 rings fit perfectly creating a concentric pattern with each of them bigger than the last. Further, the rings were so large that they reached all the way down to her diaphragm. It was not strange to view these rings as some type of breastplate or chest armor.

Hearing Fury Jua’s words, even the teacher was embarrassed, after all he had only mentioned a single new student. Malkia’s aura and entrance had overwhelmed everyone. When all the students saw Fury, their memories were immediately triggered. This girl had actually gotten into a fight with almost 90% of the students in the class about 2 years prior. She had basically terrorized everyone there in one way or another: and it was not just the students in this class but all their age mates in the Kijani Age Group.

Seeing everyone ignore her, Fury was already pouting with her cheeks looking puffier by the second. Mwana could already predict where this was going simply by observing the size of her cheeks. “You guys dare ignore me? Do you know what my tribe’s name is? Jin. Do you understand what that means?” Hearing her words, Mwana was already slapping his head, ‘She’s implying she’s royalty?’ Indeed while the authorities in Eastern Jin Nation claimed to be descended from the Human Emperor, the authenticity of these claims was unproven. Fury was indeed a Jin tribeswoman as that was her father’s tribe while her mother was from the Jua clan. As a result of her mixed heritage, she took on both Jin and Jua as last names but even she was not firm on which name she used. She would interchange ‘Fury Jin’ and ‘Fury Jua’ sometimes on a whim, other times based on the circumstance.

On hearing her words, the class’ reaction was to be expected.

“Ha ha ha ha ha.”

“No way!”

“She's one of those, right?” Someone asked with a shocked expression. Clearly people who claimed to be royalty to feel superior were not uncommon.

“Jin right? Ha ha.”

“Delusional”

“Are you trying to be the emperors?”

After one person commented, it opened the floodgates and together they gained the courage to criticize Fury. Naturally, Fury’s current state could be predicted. Fury had lighter skin than both Kia and Mwana so at this point the blood on her face was clearly visible. She was tomato-red and her lips were shacking almost violently from her silent anger.

“Cheza, what did you say?! I've marked you from now on.” She had already seen some of the people who were mocking her and Cheza, as one of the jokers, was naturally very easy to notice as he had been laughing recklessly.

“What! Why me alone, Maji 2 also said that you are delusional, didn't you just hear him?” How could Cheza go down alone? Maji 2 who had only silently commented was also dragged into the mud.

“Ooh, Maji, how courageous. Ha ha'a.” On hearing Fury’s menacing laugh when addressing him, Maji 2 felt a shiver down his spine. He couldn’t believe that rascal Cheza would drag him into this, “Cheza you bastard!” He almost felt ready to challenge Cheza to a fight the same way as his older cousin Maji 1 and Mwana.

“Maji what did you call me? Did you just insult my mother by calling me a bastard? You are seeking a beating!” In one sentence Maji 2's words had already been misconstrued into 'insulting ones mother'. He almost could not believe his ears when he heard Cheza’s rebuttal. Luckily, as he was about to blow his top, the teacher intervened, "Enough, shut up or all of you will be punished together, there is still a lot of construction work in the village, hmmm." The teacher was already fed up with these rascals scrambling about like rats and shouting around like parrots. He was fuming and his forehead was red from anger. One could almost see steam rising from it, a fire attribute warrior indeed.

These children were treating him as if he was invisible and this all started when Fury walked in. He couldn’t help but address her, “Fury, it is your first day back in the village and you are already causing trouble? As for the rest of you, is this how your age group behaves?” Although Fury shut up, her little face still remained indignant. She clearly didn't think she was wrong at all and she was definitely holding a grudge. As the teacher was about to assign temporary seats to Kia and Fury, the former walked directly over to Mwana. Mwana’s heart was almost beating out of his chest seeing her walk over to him. Some of the children were already fantasizing of sharing a seat with her until they saw her walk towards Mwana’s seat. All of them could not help but be jealous.

When Kia reached him, she calmly greeted Mwana who could only reply to her greeting while stammering. It was a miracle that he managed to string together a sentence. Luckily, he still maintained enough thought to scoot over for her so that she could sit next to him. However, from the corner of his eye, he could see his classmates’ different reactions. Most of them seemed surprised that Mwana even knew Kia while Cheza was snickering off in the corner laughing at Mwana’s nervousness. As Mwana’s best friend he clearly knew about his crush on Kia and he was somewhat friends with Kia himself over the weeks she spent in the village.

Mwana also noticed Maji 1 steaming in jealousy out the side of his eye. On seeing that reaction Mwana could only think that, ‘Maji 1 seems to have gotten a crush even after he was beaten up. Was he always a masochist?’ However, Mwana did not entertain him and just chose to revel in Maji 1’s stink eye. Anyway, he could not bother thinking about a rival like Maji 1 with Kia next to him as it was already hard to concentrate when her scent reached him.

On seeing that Kia had already chosen her seat, the teacher dismissed Fury and told her to sit with someone she knew. Unlike Kia, Fury had already been to the village two or three times and knew many of the children in the same age group. The Jua village categorized age into Age groups and Age Sets. The children in this class were in the Kijani or ‘Green’ Age Group. Usually several Age Groups would make up an Age Set with a single Age Set spanning 20 to 30 years. The name of the Age Group could be added at the end of someone’s name, for example: Jua Mwana Kijani or Jua Jana Kijani.

Fury chose to sit down next to one of the girls, Jua Maisha. Despite her notoriety, she still had some friends in the village. Before sitting down, she made sure to give Mwana the ‘I see you’ eyes by pointing to her eyes with her fingers to which Mwana responded by rolling his eyes.