Out in the world

Gonna be honest. I'm kind of nervous about leaving the town. Not once in my life have I ever set foot out of town. Which is quite surprising. You would think that a young kid would be very curious about the world and...

Actually, I think it's good that I never explored beyond the town. Yeah! Me never setting foot from the town's wall is good since it means I will experience the outside world for the first time!

I walked through the town's stone pebble streets. Through my walk, I could only imagine what adventure and life changing moments I would experience. I imagined walking besides people I considered friends, taking classes that would further my crave for knowledge, or even finding the one. You know, the one you will spend your life with.

Oh I can't wait!

"Mom, who is that?" a young voice spoke. It sounded like a child's voice. Curious, I looked to see where it came from and why I heard it. I saw a young boy wearing some decent clothes, they were similar to mine except they were smaller and in a better state than mine. He was young, probably younger than ten years old?

"Shush, we don't want him to come to us or else he might curse us" a woman said as she appeared next to the boy and grabbed his hand. She then quickly looked at me. Our gazes locked onto one another. She sneered in disgust as she quickly took the boy away.

Huh. How weird. I mean, it's not weird that she looked at me in disgust. I mean I am essentially a homeless person. So people are either going to look at me either with disgust or even with pity in their eyes. But, never have I ever seen a woman walk away so fast.

Wait, what did she just say? Curse them? When did I do things like that?

"It's the brat!" An old voice shouted. I looked and saw an old man wearing a decent white shirt and using a wooden cane to help him stand. He seemed to be older than 40 from his white hair and wrinkled face. Or at least to me that is what someone over 40 looks like. He looked at me with anger in his eyes as he walked to me. I was about to speak before he suddenly raised his cane and struck me on my head.

!!!

Shock and confusion ran through my body. Why did this old man hit me? I fell onto the floor as I clutched my head. I felt it spinning, but from what I could see there was no damage. Or at least there was no blood.

I stared at the old man confused. I stared at his eyes and saw anger. He was angry at me and the reason was enough to strike me.

"You took my wife!" He shouted as he raised his cane again and tried to strike me again. But I knew he was going to strike me, so I was able to stumble away. His wooden cane made a loud crack on the pebble ground as he seethed with anger. He looked at me and shouted, "you took my wife! You cursed brat!"

I stared at the man in confusion. What did he mean by that? I never harmed anyone while in this town. The only time I could confidently say that I ever harmed someone was when I was going through the garbage and a couple of guys tried to...

...

...Yeah. Those guys learned not to mess with me, but even then they should be alive since they rushed to a hospital. Or at least one of them said when I hit them all with [Pest Control]. I then saw them again walking the streets, though they were wary of me.

"Uh, s-sir" I said, my stuttering happening. Right, I should explain this shouldn't I? So I have a sort of throat problem in this new life. It probably happened due to the amount of rotten food and dirty water I drank before I received my new spells. But my body is sort of weak.

I should explain my appearance now shouldn't I?

I am a 18 year old boy who stands at a small height with a very skinny appearance, so skinny that you could see my bones. How tall am I? Well, compared to those at my age, I am probably smaller than them all. Though I wouldn't say I am too small, I am small enough that height jokes are something I hear a lot. My height is due to my constant diet of you know. I wear a tattered white shirt with tattered brown pants. I am not wearing shoes since the ones I found were either too small to wear or were so broken that it was best to just salvage what I can get from them. My hair was once a nice beautiful brown, but has now changed to a sort of dirt black color due to it being unwashed and unkempt for many years. Clean water is hard to come by and I mainly use it to drink. Also I have very long hair that reaches all the way to my heels due to me never cutting them. It was due to pure laziness, but I thankfully cut the front parts of my hair. Though that is also very rare as my front hair covers the top parts of my eyes in long unequal strips of hair. Finally my skin is a pale white. It is probably due to lack of nutrition, rarely going out into the sun, and because of my magic basically infecting me with a virus or so I think on the last part.

Now that you sort of know how I look you should understand why my body is weak. A diet of horrible food and lack of movement causes it to slowly degrade over time. 

...

Why am I trying to explain? Just know that my body is weak and my stuttering is caused by many things, but mainly I never speak often.

"Shut it you cursed brat!" The old man shouted as he tried to hit me again with his cane. I moved out of the way as his cane made a cracking sound on the ground. I swear the first strike must have been luck, cause the second and third have some force in them.

"Uh, why are you trying to hurt me?" I asked the old man kindly. This seemed to have made him more pissed as he tried to hit me with his cane again. I tried to dodge it again, but I then felt something tug my hair.

I looked and saw a young girl with tears in her eyes grabbing a hold of my hair. I couldn't even think as the old man's cane struck me on the head and caused me to hit the ground. I groaned in pain as I clutched my head.

Oh now I'm bleeding.

"Give me back my sister" the girl shouted as she kicked me in my stomach. I gasped in pain as I clutched it and went full on fetal position. I looked at her eyes and could see anger like the old man, but as well as sadness. 

I then felt my hair get tugged as I was raised to my feet. I saw a young man, probably two or so years older than me, for a moment before I saw a fist.

I was punched in the nose as I fell onto the ground, nose bleeding. I looked at the young man and saw the same anger as the one both people had.

"W-why" I asked, my stuttering happening out of pain and fear.

"You took my mother" he stated as he kicked my chin. I raised my hand as he kneeled down and began to punch my face. Each punch felt harder than the last.

Then I felt a kick. Followed by a smack. Then a slam. A slap. A spit.

A crowd formed around me as people, both old and young, circled around me and attacked me. Though each one was different from the last, they all had the same reason.

I took someone from them.

Either it was their sister, brother, wife or mother. Their friend, best friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, fiancé, or even wife and husband. They all proclaim that I took someone from them.

And from what they are saying, it might be true.

One of my spells is called [Pest Control]. It's a spell that is supposed to kill pests using a Virus that infects their body. It is supposed to kill things like moths, ants, cockroaches, or even rats. But the spell doesn't know how to differentiate things that are "Pests."

This means that if people were to walk near me and inhale [Pest Control] they would be considered a "Pest" and the spell would deal with them as such. In the past, Gregory would deal with this problem though and so I never had to deal with it. But with him being gone I had to stay away from people just so they didn't get infected.

Even after the orphanage was abandoned and I had to search for scraps to eat, I always hid in the alley or dark spots to stay away from people. But it would seem that I didn't do a good job at this, since people were still infected by the Virus and had perished.

I feel like shit now. 

Not because I am currently being dragged by almost everyone in the town across the pebble road. But because I was not able to control my magic and people got hurt by my spell. But also because I was being dragged feet first on the hard pebble ground covered in bruises and was bleeding from my nose and mouth.

The crowd reached the town's gate. They all grabbed my body before tossing me out of the gate. They stared at me before an old man in the group pointed at me and shouted, "you are banished from Broken Blade and are to never ever step foot into our town ever again! We would have you hanged if not for your corpse being too dirty to even show in front of rats!! Leave with your garbage and live a life you deserve, you cursed child!"

They then tossed my items out before going back inside and closing the town's gate.

...

Man what a day it has been. 

I finally decided to leave the town, got to say goodbye to the townsfolk, and was even given a free ride to the city gates! Heck, they even helped me unlock a fourth spell.

It's called [Viral Rejuvenation]! It basically generates a virus inside my body that is constantly moving to heal any wounds I receive either inside or out of my body. It can heal things such as bruises within a one to five seconds, cuts and gashes in a few seconds, or even broken bones within several minutes. Of course things like lost limbs can't be healed by it because it requires lots of nutrients and such to even repair it. But thankfully, as the original host it doesn't take much from me to heal my other wounds. Of course, people can be infected by it by simply being near a wound of mine and inhaling the small virus particles that seep out. The effects would be the same, they would be able to regenerate the same things as me. But the problem is that they aren't the original host, so it's going to take more from them just to heal their wounds. So they may seem fine on the outside, but on the inside they will be having a war of attrition against their own body.

"With this I am sure to be accepted into the academy" I say as I stare at the blue sky above.