Noroi

Chapter 2: Sudden Transfer (Introduction Arc)

Alrich Household, Evening

Zale was slightly bent over in a bowing position with his mother softly hitting his head with her left hand - she lowered her thumb and extended the rest of her fingers out forward.

"Chop, chop, chop, and another chop." Miss Alrich repeated over and over again every time her hand hit Zale.

Zale eventually had enough and dodged out of the way from one of her 'chops'. "Look, I was just hanging out with a girl-"

His mother's eyes glared as her hair flew about the place randomly. Zale had paralysis as his eyes darted around the living room searching for any escape, there was none - his fate was officially sealed.

"You are two thousand years away from talking back to me, mister!" She approached the cornered Zale with eyes that could kill. "You were even hanging around a girl!?"

Zale tried to back away but he only took two steps backwards before his back collided with a wall. "She was nice! She was getting chased by these men! I just decided to help her! I promise we did nothing bad!" His words came out so fast, that it could seem like he was speaking another language.

His mother stopped in her tracks as her long blonde hair randomly fell back down into her long usual state. Her soft appearance was back to normal as she leaned in towards Zale's face.

"Do you...have a crush on this girl?" His mother smiled sweetly, wanting to know her son's secrets. It was normal of her, she teased Zale about anything. It could be an accident, a friend he tried to make, or just plain teasing.

Zale lifted his arm in defense as he grew negligibly flustered. "What? No...It's not like I'll even see her again. After all, I highly doubt she'll live in my neighbourhood." His flustered self turned into one filled with sadness in an instant.

"Can I ask you something?" His words came out slow. His mother nodded, knowing what sort of question he would ask. She knew what her son was going through yet at the same time, she knew there wasn't much she could do apart from just being there for Zale.

Zale took a moment before finally letting his thoughts free. "Why is it that whenever I do make friends, they all just leave my life?"

"Zale." His mother smiled at him warmly. She went down on one knee and placed her hands on Zale's hands. "A person will always leave your life at some point. What matters is how much you do with that person before they leave."

Zale had thought about it but wasn't quite sure if that was the path he wanted to take. "If that is true then what do we do about the bad moments? If people had good moments, why would they even leave in the first place?"

His mother hugged him before heading into the kitchen. Zale didn't follow, he just stood still, his thoughts still running rampant in his mind. He decided to rest in his bed, his face still hurt from receiving those punches from those guys.

Zale was casually lying down in his bed, he started to feel the pain more as it appeared on his face. He kept tossing and turning in his bed as he tried to sleep but always found it uncomfortable. "Jeez. How strong was that guy? Who does that a sixteen-year-old kid?" His eyelids grew heavy as he finally managed to find the right spot. "Mahou Academy also starts tomorrow. Looks like I messed up on passing that entrance exam..." He drifted away into his sleep.

His mother was standing outside, silently listening to his words. "Zale. I'm so sorry that this had to be the world you were born in but I do not doubt that you'll find someone who will help drive you toward a better world. A better light than I can be."

The Next Day, Mahou Academy, Morning

Various amounts of students walked through the school gate and into the Academy, some stood out more than others due to their good-looking appearance or presence.

A black-haired man who had both, ambled his way until the crowd of students passed. He began walking before someone tightly gripped his wrist. "Some force..." He thought to himself before turning his head to see some white-haired man who was roughly around the same age as him. "Do you need something?"

The black-haired man shook his head. His voice came out nice and smooth, slight deepness but that was it. "I have my answer. I no longer need anything else. Thank you." He began to walk away with his hands in his side pockets. He gave off such cold aura to the point that people could feel cold whenever he is around.

The Black-Haired man just stood back and watched him until he made his way into school then he would follow straight after. "As expected, Mahou Academy will be as weird as I could imagine. Especially if my first interaction was with Aegis." He entered Mahou with confidence and excitement. "Not like that's a bad thing."

Classroom 241

Fifteen students all sat down somewhere in the class, a few seats were empty. None of them talked to each other apart from one person who seemed to be around in his early twenties. He has short, curly, dark brown hair with angular, dark blue eyes - short and stout with caramel skin. "Well, it seems our teacher is running late, so why don't we introduce ourselves right now?"

The class was silent - the majority just gave him weird looks, and the rest didn't care. "Uh. Well okay then. It's only fair that I go first." He talked with a certain fierceness in his voice.

"I'm Nagu Nagubiri. I can perform Technical Magic. It allows me to perform a move that plays off someone else. For example, if someone had Fire Magic and let off a fireball, I could add my own attack to that giving more of a 'technical' buff or if the fireball was sent at me, I could debuff it making it more 'technical' for me."

The class didn't care. Nagu sat down and just looked disappointed with himself. A moment of silence passed and a knock at the classroom door made people look up in curiosity.

Another knock. Another knock. The class were confused as the knocking kept on going. The same white-haired adult approached the door and casually swung it open to reveal an over-excited young yellow-haired boy - it was Zale. He put his right hand behind his neck. "Uh. Hello."

The white-haired man just closed the door as fast as he could before walking back to his seat. The knocking began again but faster this time around. "Whoever is at the door. I hope you realise that the door is open. You can just come in."

Zale let out a confused sound before pulling down the handle as the door slowly opened as Zale's face grew embarrassed by every passing second.

He quietly walked to the front of the class and bowed. "I'm Zale Alrich, a new student. I think I passed the test. I'm not quite sure because my memory is fuzzy. I have very weak Light Magic as I can only turn on lights and turn them off."

"Ha! How much you wanna bet that Nagu could use something like that! His fat ass wouldn't have to move for the light switch!" The people around him began laughing while the rest of the class either smiled or just didn't find it funny.

Nagu didn't reply back, he just gave Zale a reassuring nod to continue. He continued for a while before he eventually bowed again.

He looked around the classroom assuming that the seats weren't assigned but his eyes lit up when he saw Juniper with a empty seat behind her. "JUNIPER!" He shouted.

"ZALE!" Juniper happily played along. They randomly raised their hands for a high-five before Zale sat down on the chair behind her.

Not long after, another knock at the door rang though all their ears. The class sighed wondering what else will happen between this short space of time. The door slowly opened - even slower than the way that Zale opened it. An old man appeared and began to stroll in with his walking stick. Naturally, it felt like centuries just for him to reach the middle of the classroom but at least he did it with style. "Hello, you young whippersnappers! My name is Alealeale!"

The class all had different thoughts going through their minds;

"Whippersnappers?"

"What kinda name is Alealeale?"

"This is our new teacher?"

Alealeale grinned. "Be prepared for a hard year."