Chapter 2: Chapter 1: The Dark Girl With The Bright Smile

A soft slam hits the wooden desk, quiet enough to not gain attention by others.

“You can’t use any magic?!” whispered Kukui in a shocked state.

Khalid quickly responded- “Um, It’s a bit complicated, but yeah I can't really use mana nor do I know what my skill is.”

“Well that sucks,” replies Kukui as she tilts her head, pitying Khalid. She then faces the desk and conjures energy that feels dark and despairing. This feeling unnerved Khalid as he watched nervously.

Kukui’s dark mana formed as little spheres that she then attached together. As she was finishing up her sculpture, she hid it from Khalid by blocking his view with her back.

Suddenly, she swiftly shows a slime monster made of dark-radiating energy right up to Khalid’s face.

“Boo!”

Although startled, Khalid didn’t really show as much fear as Kukui expected.

“Wow, everyone I did this to got scared as hell. I barely felt any fear out of you,” Kukui says as she disassembles the sculpture.

“Uh- no. Wait, you can feel my fear?” asks Khalid, shocked by this revelation.

“Ya, see my skill is Goety, It’s a bit different from other people’s skills since it uses negative mana, which lets me feel emotions like fear, hate, and other stuff.” responds Kukui, staring upon the ceiling.

“Oh, I see..”

“Anyways, Is there anything you want me to make?.. Well, anything I can make since I'm not much of an artist.” she asks, curious on what his answer will be.

Khalid thinks for a moment. He looks at Kukui and sees a bright smile on her face. Something about it makes Khalid feel comfortable.

“I want.. I want you to make a necklace,” he answers, giving back a bright smile as well.

Kukui is a bit stunned by his answer. “Ah- You always seem to be full of surprises. Alright, but I’m going to make it how i wanna alright.”

“Sure,” responds Khalid, his smile growing even more.

===

September 14th, 2146, 6:51pm

Today was a lot better, and I think I made a friend! (She also didn’t seem to care that I couldn’t use magic either.)

– *Indicates Journal Skip

In my magic-engineering class, we had to get into groups, but I was alone when we had to start the assignment. Fortunately, a girl named Kukui came in and became my partner.

When she introduced herself, I felt something off, especially when she showed her magic.

Apparently, Kukui has a distinct type of mana known as “Negative Mana”, which is able to have special interactions with anything negative, such as a negative emotion like fear, anxiety, anger, etc.

The existence of negative mana gave me chills, and I started to get a little anxious. But Kukui seemed to be the exact opposite of what I expected. She was pretty kind and fun.

When I saw her smile, I felt as if I was all okay.

Feelings are weird.

Also, for the sculpture that we had to make, I decided to make a necklace, and Kukui picked out the design. And so we create an orb necklace with an eye icon.

When the sculptures were ranked, our sculpture.. Was at very last. Although, I can’t say I was surprised.

Kukui then showed me something as class was about to end with the necklace. She told me that with her magic, she could embed an interconnected signal between herself and the necklace. It was pretty cool seeing her cast the spell.

She then put it around my neck and told me I could keep it. And, I really appreciated it.

I like having a friend.

…

September 15th, 2146, 5:09am

I.. something is wrong, something is very very wrong.

I saw something in my dream that left me.. That made me so anxious right now.

I can’t remember it at all, it was so short.

..I kind of don't want to remember it anyway.

My soul feels as if it was.. Shifted.

I feel.. So tired.. I

===

Ring Ring Ring

The 2nd period bell rang, and everyone started to quickly ram out of their classrooms. Once again, Khalid was the last to leave his class, but he didn’t seem to mind.

As he was walking through the halls, as he passed an intersection, he barely noticed a flash of light coming near his face. He immediately tilts his head, letting the light barely scrape a part of his ear.

What the hell..? Thinks Khalid before quickly realizing where the source of the light came from.

“Harold, w-what do you want from me?” ask Khalid, getting fearful as Harold’s dread presence gets closer.

“Oh cmon, I’m just messing around, no need to get so serious,” he responds, chuckling, swaying his bright yellow hair with his hand in a fashion that nerves Khalid.

“Shooting people with beams of light isn’t what I call messing around,”

Harold moves his brightening hands in a pre-throw stance- “So what? No one has ever complained about it, you whiny baby.” He then aims at Khalid’s chest and shoots another beam.

BZZZ…TCHHZZ! 

The light was countered by an unknown projectile that was able to rival its power.

“What the-”

Suddenly, Harold gets hit upon by dark energy. Harold quickly uses his magic to resist the black magic;

Luminous Skill: Protective Radiation - The user creates light radiation around their body that can resist external mana.

“Damnit.. Kukui! I know it's you!.. There's nobody else with that damn evil magic in this whole school!” screams Harold furiously towards the corner of the hallway.

Slowly, Kukui exposes herself from the corner- “Why are you so mad? No one complained about your sudden ambush eh?”

“Oh shut the hell up you witch!” replies Harold, amplifying his arms with light energy, heading towards Kukui for a tackle.

Kukui tries to counteract this by shielding herself in dark miasma, unfortunately, Harold then fires a barrage of light beams, cracking her shield bit by bit, until it shatters, leaving Kukui vulnerable.

Her eyes tighten, her face shutting in an instant as she takes a heavy blow upon her stomach. Her body, stunned by the wave of kinetic energy, shoots off the hall into the pavement of the wall, blowing debris from the impact.

Harold starts to laugh, his grin growing as his eyes fill with vengeance. “You might be ranked higher, Kukui, but we both know I’m really the strongest here. Light is always better than darkness, no matter what!”

His malice and anger swarm upon his back, embodying negative energy.

“...”

Kukui slightly grins- “Sorry Harold, but it seems you still fell for my trap anyways.”

“What- No.. Not again dammit!” Harold quickly turns and in a desperate shootout with red orbs.

Goety Skill: Negativity Orbs - With negative emotions, the user can use its essence to create orbs of negative mana.

Harold gets increasingly tired trying to block off the attacks, and in a moment of break, he gets hit on his shoulder with a grand impact from an orb. He then loses his guard and gets hit more by the rest of the orbs, until he can't muster his energy and collapses.

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“D-Dammit.. You.. You witch!..” grunts Harold as he tries to scream.

He then with barely any energy left, gets up and quickly runs away from the scene.

Khalid was amazed by what he saw, so much he forgot the pain of his bruises, but not enough to notice it again after a few seconds- “Agh..”

Kukui hears him and turns around- “Oh, Khalid! Im so sorry I didn’t come earlier, we should take you to the nur-”

“No- no it’s alright, I can handle it, thanks,” interrupts Khalid with a nervous smile as he stands up on his own.

Kukui feels a wave of relief and wipes off the sweat from her head.

“Y’know Khalid, if you want you can join my party, It’s made out of people who are against people like Harold and we want to make this school a safer place for everyone.”

Khalid took a moment to decide and appreciated her kindness.

“Mm- Maybe but uh, maybe not cause I’m too weak to protect myself..” he says, looking away from Kukui.

“Oh, sorry- ha,” responds Kukui awkwardly, but quickly reinforces her confidence and pulls out her arm for a handshake. Khalid smiles back with no nervousness this time and gladly shakes her hand.

===

September 15th, 2146, 8:50pm

Tonight Michael confronted me about my absences in the 13th, and I wasn't able to grasp my words.

“Khalid, you can tell me, I’ll help,” Michael told me. I froze in humility, trying to think of any excuse to give, but was unable to come up with any.

“I- I.. Sigh.. I got knocked unconscious by someone while I was on my way to class..” I replied. God, I’m just ashamed of having to be seen as weak, I hate it.

“What! You should’ve told me earlier! I’m going to email the school’s office and request punishment for the student who did that to you,” he said. He then went into his office room in order to do just that. I was contemplating on stopping him but I knew I couldn’t.

I’m just going to go to sleep tonight and try to forget.

…

September 16th, 2146, 6:28pm 

I didn’t expect to see Kukui’s friends right away, she came to me with them and I was in all honesty really nervous, especially since I was taken by surprise.

“Ey, Khalid!” she said as she pulled my hand, dragging me onto her group. She wanted us to have lunch together, and I agreed.

As we walked to lunch, I had some questions about her friends.

“Hey Kukui, is this your election party that you were talking about?”

“Oh- nah, these are just my friends. I'll introduce you to my party after school,” she replied.

We all rushed to the cafeteria in order to get the best food that was being served, and we chatted for a while, although I stayed pretty silent most of the time.

Finally, I followed Kukui after school to meet her party and..

…

..These are just the same people. I thought to myself, seeing the same blond girl, Jesse, and dark-yellow haired boy, Persley, but did not say out loud as I didn’t want to come off as rude.

But I noticed others coming from down the hall, and so did Kukui.

In the front was a light-red haired boy with hazel eyes and an edged chin holding and writing on a notepad of some kind. There were also two others behind him. On the left was a short, teal-haired girl with eyes the same color, she seemed to be in a call with someone but hung up before reaching us. Then the last one I could barely notice, as he was mostly right behind the red-haired boy. He seemed to have coffee-colored hair with, honestly, a very unique twisty haircut. Something was off about him though, and I realized what it was as they came closer.

He seems to have bruises on his face.

“Hey guys! How are yall,” greeted Kukui, with an ever-determined smile.

“Heya,” “Sup,” “Hi,” they said, in order as well, coincidentally.

“Alright, since everyone’s here now, I want to tell you why I called a group meeting today,” she announced, as she moved closer to me. “We got a new person who enrolled in this school and he said he might want to join our party.”

I could see from the corner of my eyes the man with the notepad writing down on it as he looked straight at me. (It was a bit freaky). Everyone else seemed to pay close attention as well.

“My new friend here’s name is Khalid, and I say we should try our best to convince him to join us!” she urged, and soon they all began to convince me one by one.

..It was probably the silliest thing I have ever seen, and I still don’t know if that's a good thing.

The first person to come at me was, of course, the observant red-haired man himself. “Heya Khalid, my name is Quinton Merrian Typhoon Reginald Hareath Calamander Komilis Venti The Sixth, and I’m the party’s greatest senior.”

 

I almost couldn’t hold my laughter and was about to break, but luckily it seemed that everyone else already had, and I was especially surprised to see the man himself burst into laughter as well.

“Ahahah-.. I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Just messing with ya,” he assured. I could see the little tears of laughter swoosh down his cheek.

“Oh- haha.. That's pretty funny, especially the Quinton part, it sounds so futuristic.” I responded, but as soon as I opened my eyes once more I saw the cold-dead serious expression on his face.

“Kid, that actually is part of my name.” he recited as I saw the depths of his darkening pupils. I felt like I couldn’t move for a second, but then he gets pushed aside by the teal girl-

“Anyways, my name’s Kassandra, you can call me Kas for short, and I'm the PR manager for the party cause I’m the best at it~” she claimed. I then slightly hear the coffee boy speak lightly- “Actually I help you a lot with-” “It’s all meee,” interrupts Kas as she runs back to the others. I could tell she’s been having some sort of withdrawal for not using her phone.

“So.. uh- My name’s Ruben and-” as he introduced himself I felt a slight deja-vu.. 

It was then I realized he was the boy who was beaten up by Harold yesterday, and his bruise matches with mine if it was much worse. I started to feel bad and guilty, but then he saw the expression on my face and said- “Hey, if you’re worried about my bruises, it's alright, I always have one in some way or another.”

Although he tried to make me feel better, it actually just made me feel worse.

I then felt a sudden grabbing of my shoulders by Kukui- “So Khalid, now that you’ve met us, what’s your decision?” she asked.

I thought for a bit about it, thinking about the pros and cons, then I made my choice.

“I'll join, as long as you guys want me to join as well,” I announced.

In a sitcom style (weird), they all said “Of course.”

“Great, You’re now one us Khalid, happy you with us,” said Kukui.

I also wanted to ask something but before I could she continued- “Anyways, meetings dismissed so y'all can go now if you want.”

I hesitated but I tried to ask again, “Hey Kukui, you told them about my skill right?”

“Huh, oh I haven’t sorry,” she confirmed, “I kind of forgot you couldn’t use mana haha.”

Although disappointed, I thought to just deal with it, “So anyways, you need any help at the party or anything,” I asked.

“Mm yeah, follow me, let's prepare for the pre-election week!”

 

Erm, my hand is straining and.. I feel pretty tired.. It's so late.

I’ll end it off here for now.

===

===

Start of Arc 1 - Redemption

“I have yet to find a way to limit the weight of the mana, as it is impossibly inconceivable to measure. Hopefully, I can create a solution as soon as possible.” - Log 36

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