Chapter 1 - School Startups

"Hey wake up it's time for school!" "Rayku come on you always sleep so much."

"Yeah ok one sec let me get out." Answered Rayku.

It was their first day of school. Rayku, Shinagaya, Shinsuke and Setsuko all went to the same school because they were orphaned at the same place. They took their breakfast and then went to school. Luckily, no one was bad mouthing Rayku on the way there.

As they arrived the ceremony was about to start. They sat down together as they waited for the speech to start.

"Good morning to all of you new students to our school! I hope you all will get the chance to learn many new things and make new bonds for your future. We hope you all get the proper training to get accepted to your favorite Phantom schools" Now, if you may each collect a paper inside this box and then head to the classroom indicated.

The 4 boys stood up and each took a sheet of paper. Sadly, they were all in a separate class which meant they wouldn't be able to talk in class when they would be bored.

When Rayku entered his class, everyone seemed to have fun except for one girl sitting at the corner of the class. He decided it would be better to go sit next to her so they could be nice friends.

"Hey you blue haired weirdo, why don't you come talk with us" Said a random kid in their class. "No thanks, I'd rather sit with that girl over there." He pointed to the lonely girl while saying that.

"Aww really is that your crush?" Said the kid. "No, I don't even know her, leave me alone."

He sat down next to the girl and didn't really know what to say so he just started by saying good morning. As the girl turned around, she was all red and flustered.

"Hey are you ok? you're all red." Asked Rayku. "N-no i'm uh okay don't worry" Softly answered the girl.

"So what's your name?" said Rayku. "Oh, I'm Hanabi Sato, what's yours" "Oh so you're that girl from the orphanage that everyone talks about"

"Yeah, I'm the second child of the couple that treats you everyday."

"Oh ok. Well I'm Rayku Kagoujan and my dream is to become the Champion!" Screamed Rayku.

Everyone in class started heavily laughing while they all said:

"You really think an idiot like you can become the champion phantom one day!? Wow, you must really be dumb to think that."

"Tough talk from a guy who can't even speak properly to a future champion.' Answered Rayku.

After that, everyone went silent due to Rayku's comeback.

After some time, the teacher for the class finally came in.

"Welcome everyone. So, I'll be your teacher for the next 5 years of your life. We'll be teaching you all techniques which are useful in daily lives, history of our ancestors and many other things. Now, for today's first lesson, I'd like you all to come and pick up a sheet of paper. After this go back to your desk and gently press the paper for about a minute or so. After that's done right your name down on the other side of the paper and come put it back in the box." Rayku went up as he went to pick up his sheet of paper. As he picked his paper, he felt the warmth of a hand for the first time in his life. It was Hanabi's. They turned red as they looked at each other and then quickly picked up a paper and went back to their seats.

After all this was done, the teacher explained that this was very crucial in order to determine which type of studies each student will be going in. This paper's main job is to also provide us with which element you all possess within you.

5 YEARS LATER....

"Good morning class" said the teacher. "Good morning Takashima-Senpai!" spoke the students.

"Alright so for today's lesson, I'd like to discuss with you how the nature of your element is found and why it's important."

"First, the origin of your elements goes back to our old ancestors, the 4 brothers. These men all fought bravely during the first Phantom world war. They were able to seal evil spirits inside an unknown cave for us to live in peace. With the help of 4 legendary beasts, they were able to transform corporal energy into different forms and that is basically how elements were made. Now onto where your founding element is. Well you might be all thinking it resides inside our fingerprints but it's all actually inside our mouth. More specifically inside the taste buds. Nowadays, all of us have a special liquid stored inside of there. A thin vessel starts at our brain and then goes to our taste buds. After that it's straight to our fingers. It starts off inside our brain to make us create or perform different techniques based on the shape, element and amount of energy required.

It also goes into our fingers for us to perform certain movements in order to perform the attacks. For example, if we want to summon a sword or a pack of shurikens, we slap our hands and say Summoning technique, with the name of your object. Of course, the object needs to have been sealed by the user in order to summon it."

Alright that's all for today folks!

Remember this is your last week of school before your big summer vacation and then it's phantom school. I'd like you all to bring your special gear as the scouts for top schools will be coming over and checking out whether you got what it takes to become full fledged phantoms!"

"This is finally my chance to shine and make my dream school see how I play it!" Rayku thought to himself.

"Hey dude have you made your choices for the schools?" Hanabi asked Rayku

"Yeah, Yokosunai International, Johto prefecture and Matsubara school."

"Oh looks like we both have Yokosunaix. Well anyways, good luck for tomorrow!"

"Yeah, thanks good luck to you too" Rayku answered.

He was finally proud he could become a phantom, that was the first big step for him to become a champion.

The next day, the 4 orphans and Hanabi were all very proud they were finally going to become phantoms and be sighted by top schools. They all even had the same 1st choice in terms of school.

Yokosunai International. It was the top school in their country for studying and becoming professional phantoms.

When they arrived, the place was already almost full. Thank god they came with Hanabi's parents otherwise they would've gotten lost. The 5 kids separated each other and were going to the different training halls to prepare before their first match.

Rayku had to fight someone in Setsuko's class. Apparently he was a good fire user so Rayku had to elaborate in terms of physical fighting.

He knew that fire style users more have a reckless mindset while Rayku was the opposite. Just in case he was going to use a fire breath, Rayku elaborated a wave attack to counter his opponent's attack.

After half an hour of training, Rayku and the 4 others went sitting down in the students row as they were getting really scared for their fight. In total, the people would need to do 2 battles with students, one written test and then the recruiters will check who to pick.

After a couple of matches it was finally Rayku's turn. "Now onto the 8th battle of the day, Rayku Kagoujan a electric user VS Hikodo Koyanagi a fire user!"

As everyone was cheering, Rayku stood up and walked away towards the entry of the arena. "Good luck Rayku!" Screamed his friends. Rayku walked forward as he saw the huge crowd shouting and cheering for him and his opponent.

"3, 2, 1..... May the match begin!" Suddenly, the entire arena was silent as Rayku and Hikodo stared at each other. Hikodo suddenly slid to the right and used a fire breath onto Rayku.

Rayku decided to throw a water wave onto his opponent's attack for it to not damage him. After that he quickly ran to Hidoko's back and knee kicked him. After that he used his lightning to stabilize his opponent. "Hikodo Koyanagi down. Winner is Rayku Kagoujan!"

As part of the crowd was cheering for Rayku, he looked down to Hikodo and told him "best of luck to you partner". Hikodo was very frightened towards how strong Rayku is. Even though they had the same education, Rayku still managed to surpass him.

After the match was over, Rayku went back to his seat while his legs were trembling. He was quite frightened from Hidoko's fireball bit managed to stay concentrated and not lose hope.

The rest of the matches went by in order to start the second part of the exam, the written part. Rayku wasn't expecting a high mark in this part of the test since he wasn't really focused on intelligence. He wanted to be more of a strategic type.

After finishing the written part of the exam, the students had to sign and write down a few information on a form in order to apply to Phantom schools and crews.

« Rayku's informational Phantom form »

Name: Rayku Kagoujan

Place and Date of Birth: Yokosunai, 2nd February

Primary element: Lighting

Attack types: Rapid and powerful

Reasoning for wanting to become Phantom: I want to provide help to the people in need. I also want to be able to forge my future life with what I learn throughout the journey.

Lifelong goal (if any): Acquire the Champion rank as a Phantom.

« Shinagaya's information Phantom form »

Name: Shinagaya Fujiwara

Place and Date of Birth: Nagoya, 15th March

Primary element: Fire

Attack types: Strategic and powerful

Reasoning for wanting to become Phantom: I want to expand my knowledge on the entire world. I also want to be able to explore all 6 countries and learn the different cultures.

Lifelong goal (if any): Become a top tier representer Phantom for Hanoma.

« Shinsuke's informational Phantom form »

Name: Shinsuke Sakamoto

Place and Date of Birth: Nagoya, 23rd July

Primary element: Water

Attack types: Sharp and powerful

Reasoning for wanting to become Phantom: I want to make new connections and be able to forge nw bonds with special people I will meet along my road. I also want to able to teach my knowledge to other people.

Lifelong goal (if any): Become a Phantom studies teacher

« Setsuko's informational Phantom form »

Name: Setsuko Uzuki

Place and Date of Birth: Nagoya, 10th October

Primary element: ground

Attack types: Colossal and powerful

Reasoning for wanting to become phantom: I want to be able to do as much and I can to protect my loved ones from danger. I would like to also start to build new crews.

Lifelong goal (if any): Become the President of Hanoma

After they finished writing down their informational Phantom form, the students were now free and had to wait 48 hours for their invitation to the schools that chose them.

Since the 4 kids wanted to celebrate their graduation, they decided to go to a small restaurant near the orphanage. That restaurant was quite special to the kids because they would go there for birthday and special celebrations.

« Welcome to Fudokoto! » said the servers.

They all saved up some money so they could get some good food for their graduation celebration.

After finishing their meal, they just went back to the orphanage and could barely sleep because of the excitement for who will ask them to join the prestigious schools they applied for.

«Rayku! The letters arrived! You got two demands you're so lucky! » Screamed the 3 other kids.

As Rayku stood out of his bed, the morning sun was hitting his room as he went downstairs. He was half asleep so he could barely see around him. He then went to the toilet to wash his face and teeth up to prepare for his morning walk around the district.

When he went out of the bathroom, everyone there was staring at him whatever he would do. He then walked towards the door and looked. There were two letters written for him.

Rayku was so shocked and surprised that he just ripped out the envelope and then read the letter that will change him forever.