Life of a Transfer Student

Monday morning. It was the beginning of a new week. It is currently autumn, six months into the academic year. The first year students at Tokyo's Third High school for gifted students in division A were very excited even though it was the start of a new week. The class was in a rambunctious and noisy mood.

"Have you heard? We have a new transfer student coming!" Screamed one of the more gossipy boys in class.

"Yes, my aunt was telling me yesterday that we have a new student transferring from America." Another girl chimed in. "I wonder if she is a boy or a girl?"

"Better be a girl!" A manly boy laughed.

Soon the home room tutor entered and the class fell silent in anticipation.

"Good morning students. Please welcome our new transfer student - Erica Lint, she has come all the way from America, and isn't very familiar with Japanese customs. So everyone be good to her!"

The girl, Erica Lint, was relatively tall for her age - 16, had an innocent and quiet look, but an infatuating smile. Her silvery white hair were long and she had a certain charm to her as she bowed and introduced herself. Soon the teacher pointed her to a seat, next to a girl who was kind of a tomboy.

"Hello Erica-chan, are you Japanese?" The girl asked her, curious because of her facial features. "I am Kawaguchi Rika. You can call me Rika."

"Hello Rika. Yes, I am half Japanese, but this is the first time I've been to Japan." Erica answered softly.

"Btw, I am a strength type, do you mind telling me what ability you have?" Rika asked inquisitively.

"No problem, I am an elemental type." Erica smiled.

Rika was shocked. A rare Elemental type! "Wow! We have an elemental type in our class now!" She shouted, to the anger of the teacher, but soon everyone turned and looked at Erica. Their class now had a rare Elite ability user!

Let us backtrack a bit. This world, it is Earth. However, here abilities have always coexisted. In the past, ability users were extremely rare, but as time has passed by the earth has slowly changed. More and more ability users have risen up, and human society has adopted them in society. Ability users are often integral weapons of war between countries, times aren't very peaceful!

The nature of abilities is bizarre and varied. A lot of abilities transfer through bloodlines, others rise up spontaneously. However, abilities in general have a few classifications - most of the ability users, almost 90% are strength types. They have augmented abilities but those are still augmented versions of human abilities - higher strength, agility etc. However, there is a great deal of variety among them in terms of how powerful they are so one cannot look down upon them! Erica on the other hand, is an elemental user. Which means she could control a particular element. This was a rare typification.

---

Several days had passed by and students had become familiar with Erica. She was also very popular, due to having been from the USA and her rather exotic looks. Guys were falling for her and she was receiving several love letters, but she didn't respond to them. However, she was not unfriendly with girls either.

Today was training day. They had to train their abilities. Many students were looking forward to this, to see what Erica's powers were. The tutor asked the most powerful student in Grade 1 division A, Kazuki Saito to spar with Erica. Saito was a modification type, also a very rare type who could manipulate his body's density and hardness.

As the two fought, people thought Erica would stick to long range attacks from her elemental ability. Instead she turned to close combat, and surprisingly people realized that she was able to compete in terms of fighting ability with Saito who was fortifying his hands and legs to make them harder. Saito was surprised, but he continued sparring. Erica was fairly aggressive, but did not yet use her ability to control an element.

In a bid to interrupt the flow, Saito punched the ground, raising debris to disorient Erica, as a defensive reaction she ended up waving her hand and suddenly a wave of ice formed, crystallizing the moisture in the air, creating a shield in front of her.

"Ice! She can control Ice!" Rika yelled.

"And just from that wave, you can see that she has a very advanced control over the Ice element as well. She isn't an ordinary elemental ability user." The tutor thought to himself before he interrupted the match. He didn't want Saito to get demoralized, because he was sure now that Erica could trounce him.

Erica was superior in both basic combat as well as using her long range capabilities with the ice element, one could only imagine ice spears or weapons hurled at the opponent. A close combatant like Saito wouldn't stand a chance. Erica's fighting style was unusual for Japanese too, it seemed like a more flexible unpredictable art unlike the Japanese heritages which were popular currently, like Karate or Aikido which made it more difficult for Saito to anticipate moves.

"Where did you learn to fight like this Erica?" A boy, Daiki, asked.

"I was taught by my brother to fight." Erica said calmly.

"It is a very unpredictable battle style that seems to incorporate bits of Jiu Jitsu, MMA and military boxing techniques. Your brother must be a combat expert?" The tutor asked.

"He has had an interest in various martial arts since he was young." Erica said, before pausing. "He is a civilian."

"Oh." The remaining students enthusiasm was dampened a little bit. Ability users were put on a pedestal after all. Having an ability was often tantamount to being in high society.

--

Erica walked back home and Rika had accompanied her to her place for the first time. As they entered, they found the smell of a warm meal wafting through the air.

"Are you back Erica? Freshen up, I've made some lunch today." A voice from the Kitchen spoke.

"I've come with my friend from class. Do we have enough food?" Erica asked back.

Rika looked around, flustered. She didn't think she would have interrupt lunch, she was just walking back, but Erica asked her to come for lunch without a warning.

"No problem, please have a seat." The voice responded.

"Is that your brother?" Rika asked.

"Umhmm." Erica nodded. Soon her brother came out with plates and food.

"Hello, I am Red, Erica's brother. Nice to meet you." Red spoke with a smile on his face.

Rika was shocked. Red looked nothing like Erica. Erica had Japanese traits, but Red didn't! He was a tall and slim. Black hair and calm blue eyes, but he was Caucasian. However, she didn't forget her manners. "Hello, I am Rika, Erica's classmate."

"Oh, are you confused? I am Erica's adopted brother, our parents adopted me before she was born. Unfortunately, they passed away when Erica was little. I've been raising her since."

"I'm so sorry." Rika said, but Red waved his hand. "Don't worry, we get that all the time. Come on! Eat up!"

--

"So Red, which school are you going to?" Rika asked as they were having food, however the answer shocked her.

Erica told her with much hilarity that Red had already graduated from University at the age of 18, now 21, he was working as an Interior Designer. Apparently Red was fairly famous in interior designing circles, he had quite big customers and corporations work on redesigning their corporate offices or homes and that it was because of work that he had transferred to Tokyo and so Erica moved with him too.

Rika was amazed. In his early 20s, Red who had to also take care of a sister, was a high earning business owner who worked at his own free time.