Mana Level

As Kaede walked into the classroom the chatter died down. He straightened his back as eyes fell upon him. Standing at the front of the classroom was, who Kaede could on presume, the teacher. The man had black graying hair slicked back and glasses. He was like a walking cliche. The man gave Kaede a warm smile.

"Our new student is here!" he said. "My name is Mr. Lewis. Welcome to the class."

Kaede glanced at everyone in the classroom. Like Mr. Parker had said there were only thirteen students in the class. He tried to remember their faces quickly. These were to be his new classmates. After scanning over the crowd once more he noticed Nova sitting in the back. Now that he had identified where Nova was, he felt a little more relief and put a smile on his face.

"Thanks." Kaede said, trying to sound enthusiastic.

He wasn't trying to embarrass himself in front of all these students. He would shower them with such a positive energy that everyone would flock to him like flies to an electric bug zapper.

…

Maybe that wasn't the best analogy.

"Would you like to introduce yourself?" Mr. Lewis said.

"Right." Kaede said. "I'm Kaede Savage. I was born with this oddly pale colored hair, I don't wear contacts, I like being outdoors, and learning as well! I look forward to being your classmate."

It was an odd introduction, but he knocked out all the questions people tended to ask him when they first met him. He had often gotten strange looks as a kid for his purple eye color and he had to explain to them multiple times that it was possible, just very very rare. And then people tended to be shocked when he said he had never dyed his hair when they asked for his hair care routine…

Mr. Lewis smiled at him again. "What a lively introduction! Does anybody have any questions they'd like to ask Kaede?"

A boy with brown hair in the first row shot his hand up immediately. To Kaede he looked like the leader of the class. He had been attentively staring at him since he entered the room. Right now he'd make a good impression on him and that way everyone else would follow suit.

"Yes?" Kaede said to him.

"Were you really referred by Mr. Yunlan?"

At that question the other students perked up and refocused their already laser focused attention. Kaede tried to maintain his smile. 

Was Angel such a hot shot in the mage world? Why was he inadvertently putting this much pressure and expectations on him? Why didn't he warn him about this? Did that guy have no shame?

Kaede shifted a little. "Well I guess he did, but I don't really know him all that well. He just saved my life is all."

"Oh." The boy said looking quite disappointed.

Did he already blow his chances with this class? If he knew that knowing Angel was such a big deal to them he would've told Angel to refer him to this school anonymously.

"Well that's enough for now." Mr. Lewis said. "Kaede please take a seat anywhere."

Kaede made his way to the back of the class and sat next to Nova.

"Sorry about what happened last time." Kaede said to him. "Just so you know I wasn't trying to do it on purpose."

Nova glanced over at him, but quickly averted his eyes.

Him too? Anxiety crawled up in Kaede's stomach. Things were already at a rocky start.

****************************

Kaede wondered what would happen if he flunked out of this school. Would he get sent back home? Surely not. They couldn't just ignore his existence now that they knew of it. Or maybe they had some sort of mana magic that could take away his ability to use mana. He wasn't sure. 

Same as how he wasn't sure what he had just heard in that classroom. His head was spinning at all the technical terms. What was the difference between Poe Style and Weaver Style? What was a dead zone and why were they supposed to be wary of them? He looked down at his scattered notes in dismay. He was clearly missing out on the basics and none of this would make sense or be helpful to him until he got some questions answered.

The school was a lot more lax than the others Kaede had attended. After class had ended Mr. Lewis left the classroom and told them to do self study until the next class started. It wasn't what he was used to, but it gave him the opportunity to ask Nova his questions.

"You understand everything that he said right? This is my first day here. Was I supposed to get all of that?"

Nova blinked and then looked behind him. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything another classmate interrupted.

"Don't bother asking Nova questions. He's too full of himself to consider talking to us."

The one who had interrupted was the boy from the first row. He sauntered over to Kaede's desk and crossed his arms.

"I don't know how long you've known about mana , but we typically know these terms before we come to this school."

Kaede deflated a little. "I've only known about mana for a week."

"I'm sure you'll catch up in no time." The brown haired boy continued. "My name is Marin Poe."

"As in Poe style?" Kaede asked.

Marin's lip quirked up. "Yes. My family created Poe Style and thus it is named after us. It's the most used mana style to date."

He had felt a little worried about the other students in the class, but Marin seemed friendly enough. And helpful too.

"Are we introducing ourselves now?" A girl with blue-black hair skipped over to them. "I'm Larillis Thorton!"

"Nice to meet you." Kaede replied.

"If you need anything I can be the perfect guide." She continued. "You can ask Alette over there. I'm a great welcoming committee." She said pointing to a girl with green hair sitting by a window by herself.

"She's the other transfer student this year."

Another boy with black hair and glasses walked over to them as well. He stuck his hand out to Kaede.

"I'm Sora Yoshida." He said. "I look forward to seeing what you're capable of."

Kaede shook his hand back and felt some apprehension curl in his stomach. He wasn't capable of much.

"Well I'm new to all of this so I don't have many skills." He said.

"Don't worry about it now." Marin said. "We've all been beginners once. Right now all that really matters for you is your mana level."

"Mana level?" Kaede said, intrigued. "What's that?"

Sora's eyes lit up at the question. "A mage's mana level is the maximum level of mana a mage can access. The higher the level the stronger of a mage you are."

"Larillis, Sora, and I are all A tier." Marin said.

"What's the highest level you can get?" Kaede asked, leaning slightly forward.

"S tier." Larillis said. "That's the level that Mr. Yunlan is at, but to be honest they should create a new category just for him."

"His skills are far too vast to be described as S tier." Marin continued. "Which is why we were intrigued by the student he recommended."

Kaede put his hands up. "He didn't really recommend me. And I'm definitely not anything like him."

"You don't have to be like him." Larillis laughed. "But we are interested in your mana level."

"How do I find that out?" Kaede said, perking up.

"It's easy! We just have to go to the nurse's office." Sora said.

"Maybe that's not the best idea." A soft voice mumbled out.

Kaede looked over to Nova who had finally spoken up for the first time that he'd been there. He didn't look Kaede in the eye and seemed to be debating if he should say more.

Larillis rolled her eyes. "Don't mind him Kaede. He just doesn't want you to be a higher mana level than him."

Kaede cocked his head. "What level is he?"

"That doesn't matter." Nova snapped. "Mana levels shouldn't be some huge spectacle."

"But it is important." Marin butted in. "You can't start properly training if you don't know what mana level you are."

Kaede wanted to trust Nova. He was the only one he kind of knew, but when he really thought about it he knew him just about as much as the others. And more than anything else Kaede wanted to be able to train in mana.

"It couldn't hurt that much?" he said to Nova.

"It won't hurt at all!" Marin said. "Just follow us."

Nova didn't say a word as he watched Kaede leave the room with the others.

"So Kaede," Sora said as they walked down the hallway. "You've met Mr. Yunlan in person right? What's he like?"

"Angel? He's a bit cocky." Kaede said, recalling all of their interactions. "I suppose he has a good reason to be cocky, but I had just had my entire world turned upside down and all he could do was laugh at me."

Kaede sighed thinking about it. Angel was always like this about everything though. The first time he had met him he was laughing because Kaede had gotten sent back to the orphanage. Seven-year-old Kaede had decided to hate Angel then, but as Angel stuck around his hatred did not.

Kaede snapped out of his thoughts. He had just dissed their idol to their faces. And he wasn't supposed to know Angel at all.

"It was pretty impressive how he took down the mana being though." He tacked on for good measure.

"I bet it was!" Larallis said, ignoring the insult. "Do you know he has a secret mana style that no one except him is allowed to use?"

Her eyes seemed to glow as she talked about it. "Some people think he can travel through mana!"

Kaede's head spun. How detailed could these mana styles get? What exactly was possible with them.

"We're here!" Marin said as he opened the door to what Kaede could only presume was the nurse's office.

And like the rest of the school the nurse's office looked like any other standard nurse's office. Except for the giant machine sitting off to the side. It was a giant cylindrical device with what seemed to be a crystal inside of it.

Kaede pointed at it. "I'm guessing that's what is going to test my mana level?"

"You got that right!" A woman said.

Kaede turned his head to the voice, which was on the far side of the office, and saw the nurse coming over with a big smile.

"I'm Mrs. Cathy." She said, "I wasn't expecting you to come test your mana level so early but we can go right on ahead."

"What do I have to do?" Kaede asked as he was ushered over to the machine by Mrs. Cathy.

Mrs. Cathy went over to the panel on the side and punched in a few numbers. Then the glass panels of the device slid apart revealing the crystal to Kaede.

"Am I supposed to go inside?" He asked slightly concerned.

Mrs. Cathy laughed. "Of course not! You just need to grab the crystal and try to direct your mana inside of it."

Kaede looked back at the crystal and slowly grabbed it. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate like he had done in the alley. The buzzing sensation pricked his hands and instead of creating a whip like he did last time he directed the mana into the crystal.

"Great job! You can let go now." The nurse said.

Kaede let go of the crystal and stepped away from the device. Mrs. Cathy punched in a few more numbers and the doors closed.

"So how does this thing work?" Kaede asked.

"It's a mana device." Marin said. "It was created by the Harris family years ago to test the levels of mages. It takes the mana you've collected with your body and then analyzes it."

Kaede only halfway understood what he meant.

The crystal inside of the machine started making whirring noises and the mana in the crystal dispersed into the glass cylinder. The mana swirled around in the space like dancing insects and then they all suddenly stopped and floated to the ground.

"What does that mean? Is this supposed to tell me my mana level?" Kaede asked, puzzled.

He was kind of hoping that it would just flash the mana level somewhere or have the mana swirl into the letter S. He turned to face his classmates and their faces had dropped. Larillis looked at him with a little pity.

Great.

"The amount of time that it stays swirling in the container determines your mana level." She explained.

"And yours only lasted for a second." Sora continued.

Marin looked the most disappointed. "Which means you're an F tier mage."