Bubble girl

The dim light filtering through the cracks of the closet door was the only illumination in the cramped space. Daniel's back pressed against the cold, unyielding wall, his black hoodie bunched up awkwardly as he tried to steady his breathing. The air was thick with the scent of dust and old wood, and the faint hum of fluorescent lights from the hallway outside barely reached his ears. The closet was small—too small for the three of them—but his captors didn't seem to care. They loomed over him, their silhouettes casting long shadows that seemed to swallow what little light there was.

The first punch landed squarely in Daniel's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He doubled over, clutching his abdomen as he collapsed to the floor. His two captors loomed over him, their smirks filled with malicious glee.

"Let me have a turn next, haha!" shouted the guy with yellow hair, cracking his knuckles.

Daniel's mind raced. 'Crap I thought if I let them rough me up for a bit, they'd get bored and leave me alone, but these bastards are enjoying this way too much!'.

The boy with blue hair grabbed Daniel by the collar of his red hood, yanking him to his feet. His eyes burned with anger as he spat,

"All we wanted was to help you out, maybe even be your new pals. But no, you had to go and flip me over!"

Before Daniel could respond, the blue-haired boy shoved him back down. The yellow-haired bully stepped forward, lifting Daniel off the ground with both hands. Daniel's feet dangled helplessly as he struggled to speak.

"W-wait, I—" Daniel stammered, but his words were cut short as the brute slammed him into the wall. The impact reverberated through his body, leaving him dazed and breathless.

In a weak tone, Daniel spoke

"Aren't we heroes in training? Why are you guys even doing this? You could get expelled, you know."

The yellow-haired boy seemed to get serious, looking directly into Daniel's eyes. After a short pause, he spoke, "How old do you think I am?"

Daniel paused before answering,

"What?"

Yellow hair spoke again,

"I said, how old do you think I am, huh?"

Daniel took a long look at the boy. He had the build of an adult, with muscles bigger than his entire head. He looked around Daniel's age but much more menacing.

"I don't know... uh, 18 or 19?"

With the straightest face alive, he looked at Daniel and responded in a dead tone,

"I'm eleven."

Daniel stared at him with an unreadable expression. After a long pause, he said the only words he could think of in his confusion,

"What?"

He spoke back,

"I'm eleven, and my buddy over there is nine."

Blue hair just waved back, responding with a simple wave as he was being referred to.

Yellow hair continued,

"We wanted the money to enter the Unicycle Jousting tournament since our parents won't allow us to go."

Daniel thought for a while about this. He had heard of Aura users having physiques greatly enhanced due to their tier, as it varied from tier to tier and their aura type. Some Low Tiers could look better than some Mid Tiers physically, but for Aura to enhance the body to this extent?

Blue hair stepped up, moving closer to the lifted Daniel, He spoke, "Do you know what my power is?"

Daniel wasn't listening to any of the information being said. A wide variety of questions appeared in his head: How? What? Is your father a bear? Unicycle Jousting? Is that even real?

"Hey, it's not good to ignore people!"

A swift punch to the gut soon woke Daniel from his thoughts. Heavy breaths left his mouth as he took in the weight of the punch. Blue hair then spoke,

"My power is an Emitter-type power. Basically, it allows me to bend and twist everything I desire, but only in short ranges."

There was a short pause until he spoke again,

"Do you want to have kids? No, does a big meanie like you even deserve to have kids?"

As he said this, the boy stared directly at Daniel, then started looking down from his neck to his stomach until he reached... the genital area.

Daniel knew immediately what he was trying to say, and with panic in his voice, he spoke, "Wait! We can talk about this! I'm actually in the same financial position as you might be—might even be worse than you guys, actually! Please, just don't do anything rash!"

Ignoring Daniel's plea and with a menacing grin forming on Blue hair's face, he stretched out his hand, activating his power toward Daniel's lower area, and as Daniel closed his eyes waiting for the agonizing pain that awaited him... nothing happened.

The three of them exchanged confused glances. Blue hair tried to use his power again, but again, nothing happened to Daniel.

Yellow hair seemed to stare at his companion for a while before speaking, "Something wrong?"

"My power... it's not working."

Yellow hair responded, "Did you drink enough water?"

Blue hair stared at him for a while before responding with a confused glance,

"What?"

"My mom says if you don't drink enough water, your powers will stop working."

Blue hair responded,

"Yeah, uh, I drink lots of water more than you, I bet."

With a look of surprise, Yellow hair stared back at Blue hair and spoke,

"No, I drink like a billion times more water."

As the two bullies devolved into an argument about hydration, Daniel couldn't help but feel a mix of relief and disbelief.

I'm really being bullied by a couple of kids...

Daniel stared at the floor for a few minutes before deciding to try and break free from the kids' grip. But his efforts were in vain. The gap between Aura users and whatever he was was too vast. He instead looked like a rat trying to squirm free from a mousetrap.

After a few short minutes of their battering, Blue hair decided to put an end to the talk.

"Okay, fine, enough. We still have to deal with this meanie. People like him aren't allowed to have kids."

Blue hair took two steps to the right and picked up a mop, which he then broke into two with ease using his knee. He passed the other half of the mop to his yellow-haired friend, who caught it with one of his arms while the other was still holding Daniel in place. He began to swing the broken half of the mop like a bat. He spoke,

"Auras can't do all the work."

He approached Daniel.

Realizing what the blue-haired boy was trying to say, Daniel started to struggle even harder to try and break free, but it was all hopeless. The only words Daniel could muster were a simple yelp before the wooden stick met his groin...

But it never did. Instead, the two children were distracted by something else.

Bubbles?

Bubbles spread across the room, distracting everyone in the large closet. They were small but started to spread in large numbers, and they were all coming from the opened closet door. A figure spread out its hand and was the one spreading these bubbles.

The door seemed to gleam with a yellow light so radiant that the figure's face could not be completely shown. The figure took a few steps, and it became slightly more visible. The figure resembled that of a young girl. She had short black hair and wore a white hoodie with a blue ribcage X-ray on it. With the radiant light shining on her and the way she seemed to have saved Daniel from danger, she was like an angel in Daniel's eyes.

There was something otherworldly about her, a quiet grace that made the air around her feel still, sacred. The hoodie draped over her like a cloak of purity, its simplicity only adding to her ethereal presence. Even though Daniel couldn't see her face all that well, the very few features he could see were like an angel's. She moved with a gentle confidence, as if she carried the weight of something divine, yet her demeanor was soft, inviting. She wasn't just beautiful—she was something beyond, a fleeting glimpse of heaven wrapped in the warmth of a hoodie and the wildness of a wolf's spirit. And even though Daniel did not posses aura of any kind he could tell that this girl was at least a High Tier

She took a few more steps, still spreading the bubbles, before speaking.

"You bu—"

She coughed a loud, hacking cough that shattered the illusion. The light behind her flickered and died, revealing her true appearance.

Her hoodie from before was not all that great it had weird small patches on it and seemed to have food stains all over, showing little care for it. Her hair was scruffy and messy, as if she had only washed it a few times in her life. And her face... it was alright wasn't like an angel's or anything special.

The coughing lasted for a solid few seconds, giving the three of them time to exchange weird glances at each other. After the coughing had stopped, she wiped her mouth and began to speak again.

"Sorry, choked on my own spit there. Anyways, as I was saying..."

There was a pause before she spoke again.

"Anyways, you two got a lot of nerve picking on the weak."

The two adult kids stared at each other, exchanging weird glances. After a few seconds, Yellow hair was the first to speak.

"Her Aura is really weak. Can't we just stop her?"

With a quick nudge to his shoulder from Blue hair, Blue hair responded, "Hey, don't you know Aura users tend to hide their true Aura to seem weak?"

Yellow hair stared with a weird expression on his face.

"But why?"

"For lots of reasons. Some High Tiers don't like the attention their Aura brings. Some just don't want to be known as strong. But the most common reason... is that they wanna look cool when beating people up, knowing they're underestimated."

A smirk appeared on the girl's face.

"Correct. Once my bubbles touch any of you, blood spores will spill all over your body until you're a dried-up raisin."

With fear shown in their eyes, the two boys got together and hugged, shivering, hoping for safety as the bubbles got closer and closer. Eventually, one touched both of them.

...But nothing happened.

Forms of sweat started to form around the girl's face as she looked at Daniel. A simple word was said in that instant.

"...Run!"

With quick reflexes, she grabbed Daniel's arm and ran out of the room. Daniel gave her a confused look while they ran.

"Wait, you're not a super-strong High Tier!?"

She responded, sounding as confused as him,

"Do I look like a super OP High Tier to you!?"

"HUH!?"

They could both hear the frantic voices behind them, screaming to catch them as they fled from their pursuers.

***

After what felt like a few hours of running, the two decided to stop and catch their breaths. They found a nearby bench just a few steps away from them at the field of their giant high school. After some heavy inhales and exhales, Daniel thought to speak to the girl and thank her for saving him, but a hand was put in his face, stopping him from talking as he was abruptly interrupted by the girl who had saved him just minutes ago.

With sweat dripping down her face and exhaling for what seemed to be the last time, she spoke, "Dang, you're pathetic, dude."

Daniel's mind raced at those words.

"HUH!?"

She responded,

"Yeah, dude, you're pretty pathetic. How you gonna get picked on by an eleven-year-old and a nine-year-old? Personally me I wouldn't let that happen, but that's just me though."

She continued

"I saw you earlier when I arrived late to school and saw you running from a bunch of kids. They dragged you to a closet, and I just thought, maybe I should help this poor soul out. And now here I am, a possible next target for those brats."

With a look of utter shock, Daniel responded, shouting and trying to defend himself

"I'm sorry, did you see the size of those kids huh!? They were twice my size!"

She looked at Daniel with a flat, unimpressed expression.

"Yeah, but they're still kids though, werent they?"

A stutter was heard before Daniel spoke again,

"But you ran away too, didn't you!"

"Only to save your sorry butt. I don't wanna go to jail for putting hands on a minor."

She continued

"And no offense here, but this is a school with Aura users trying to be heroes, and from what I could feel from you, you don't seem to have an Aura yourself."

She paused before speaking again

"Or are you just a super-strong High Tier who's really good at hiding his Aura but enjoys having his ass handed to him?"

"Or maybe"

She gave him a cheeky grin, pointing at him as if she was about to laugh before continuing,

"or is that your Aura? Not having an Aura?"

Grabbing her stomach, her back turned before bursting into laughter. "If so, that sucks for you badly. That's even worse than being a Low Tier."

Daniel stuttered more and more, the words seemingly finding less and less defense. After a few seconds of trying to say something but the words seemed to be stuck in his throat, and after a few minutes of constant laughter he just went silent and didn't speak, looking at the ground in utter defeat.

The girl continued to laugh out loud and as the wind blew, the only thing that could be heard was the loud girl's laughter.

After a few short minutes, she wiped a tear from her eye and stared at Daniel, still grasping her stomach while sounding like she was still trying not to laugh. She looked at the defeated Daniel and spoke.

"Hey, dude, you okay? I was just messing around, you know."

Daniel, while still staring at the ground, after a few minutes of silence, finally spoke with a defeated tone,

"No, you're right. I shouldn't be here. Everyone here seems to have a power other than me. Heck, do you hear how ridiculous that sounds? Am I the only one in this city who doesn't have a power? Might even be the only person ever to exist without any form of power ever. Heck, even my mom has a power, and I don't."

He continued, "People, animals, and even items—all these things have an Aura besides me. I'm an anomaly in a world full of powers. Everyone and everything has an Aura besides me..."

"...And it sucks loads."

After a few seconds of staring at the floor after speaking, Daniel raised his torso up, raising his head and staring at the girl's eyes before speaking again,

"But still, despite all these odds... I'm gonna be a hero. And not just a hero—the greatest hero who ever lived. Better than even Mariana, the Sword Saint."

"And you can count on those words."

There was a long pause between the both of them. No one seemed to speak, letting the words sink in. After a few seconds of dead silence, the girl stared at Daniel one more...

...And burst into laughter again.

Daniel turned red at the response, feeling a bit embarrassed from the whole exchange. He shouted,

"Hey, come on! I'm spilling my whole heart out here only for you to laugh!"

The girl wiped a few more tears from her eyes before speaking to Daniel, "Sorry, sorry. It's just... jeez, man, what a declaration."

She spoke again, "What did you say your name was, hero?"

Daniel replied with a short pause, "It's Daniel..."

She spoke, "Daniel, huh? I'm pretty sure you could tell already, but I'm no Mid Tier."

She exhaled, letting that final laugh disappear.

"I'm a Low Tier, and you know, being a Low Tier and all, life hasn't been easy. I'm a Natural Type too, and I'm the only person in my entire family who seems to be a Low Tier in a family full of Mid and High Tiers. So, you can assume life hasn't been easy for me, from both family and people in general."

She paused before speaking again.

"But hearing your hilarious declaration right now reminded me I'm not the only person like this around, you know."

She raised her hand, balling it into a fist and pointing it at Daniel. "My name's Mira, and from one Low Tier to the next, I'm rooting for you."

Daniel stared at her for a while before reaching his hand out as well, connecting his hand with hers in a fist bump. Before Daniel could do anything else, Mira put her hand over Daniel's head and pulled him off the bench onto his feet. As she did that, she pulled out her phone and took a picture of her and Daniel, with Daniel looking ridiculous in the photo. Then she scrolled on to the school schedule as they both walked.

"So, what's your class, Low Tier?"

With an agitated voice, Daniel responded, "It's Class B-15. And delete that photo I look crappy."

"Oh, quit your whining. Oh, check it out we're in the same class! And check it out, we're in the same team!"

Daniel stared at her with a confused look. "Same team?"

***

"You've gotta be kidding me."

Daniel uttered these words as he was grouped into a team of three after making it to his homeroom with Mira. The team of three consisted of Daniel, Mira, and a tall, slender guy who looked around Daniel's age. He had a dark complexion, black eyes, and an uninterested look on his face, with the same iconic dreadlocks Daniel had seen before.

Daniel's fists clenched as his eyes locked onto the tall, slender figure beside Mira. The same dreadlocks, the same dark, uninterested eyes, the same face that had coldly shut the door on him when he needed help most. Now, this guy this stranger who had once sealed his fate was his teammate. His permanent teammate.