Since he was little, Akira Sosu had always had a passion for numbers. Unsurprisingly, considering that his Centre resided in them, even though he still did not fully understand it. He was a teenager of average height, with eyes as black as his hair, an impassive gaze, and the attitude of an employee who had just left his house.
He was an orphan, having lost his parents in a car accident when he was a little more than one year old. He had no memory of them, apart from the image of his mother's hand moving towards him and his father's joyous smile, although he thought of them as nothing more than mere dreams.
He had therefore been raised by his paternal uncle and maternal grandfather, two people for whom the only way to recover from such a tragedy was to adopt the little relative.
Haruki sometimes reflected on how strange it was that two introverted people like them had become friends. They had met in kindergarten and it was Akira who had made the first approach, introducing himself to the other child who sat on the sidelines out of shyness. Haruki had mumbled his name and they had started talking.
In the old days what limited Haruki's friendships was his innate shyness, whereas now it was his self-imposed reserve due to the fear that everything would vanish like a mirage because of him and his powers.In fact, when they played as children, it was not uncommon for Haruki to let himself go a little, trying very little to limit his magical energy.
Fortunately, Akira, already quite serious as a child, was never seriously hurt. Another very strange fact was that the two had no particular common passion: apart from numbers, his only love as he called them, Akira played the piano, played chess and draughts and read various science fiction books, whereas for a long time Haruki had been feeling like there was nothing he really liked. Actually, there was one thing: talking to Akira.
At this thought Haruki laughed softly.
"You're in a good mood today, Haru. Did Sakura happen to write you a love letter?"
Akira teased him.
Haruki knew he was giggling internally too, he could hear it, only he hid it better. Very few people knew Akira's true character: to most he seemed an intelligent but very cold guy, while Haruki knew that behind that stern face was a guy who was extremely happy to be alive.
When they talked, he made jokes, discussed his hobbies and sometimes confided in him his state of mind, his thoughts, his feelings and his deepest problems, not to mention his mythical and crazy 'outbursts'. Haruki naturally felt he could do the same with Aki. Lately, it was mostly his upsets that were shared, unfortunately....
"I wish. Even if it was a hate letter, I wouldn't mind. At least I'd have something to do. And anyway, it would mean she at least noticed me, wouldn't it?"
Haruki retorted with a mixture of melancholy and amusement.
"Are you really that desperate, Haru?"
"I don't know what to be anymore, Aki. I do not know what to do, I don't know how to do it or why. How do you do it, Aki?"
Haruki became pensive and brought both arms behind his back.
Meanwhile, on the way the little birds chirped merrily and a few squirrels hopped among the branches in search of food.
"How do I do what?"
"How can you be... happy! How can you be happy with what you do, how can you find pleasure in your actions, how can you find the motivation to keep going, to keep smiling, in short! How can you be happy?"
"If you don't know, with a Centre based on emotions, do you expect me, an aspiring theoretical mathematician, to give you an answer? Me, who sold my soul to whole numbers and my mind to Goldbach's Conjecture? If you like, I could teach you to play chess, it is a wonderful pastime and a great distraction from calculations... or I could advise you to play the piano, with its sound so perfect. But these are all things I like, it is the prime numbers that compose me. Every composite number has its unique breakdown, it's up to you to find what your factors are, that's all I can tell you."
Mathematically poetic as usual, Haruki thought. Akira and his mathematical metaphors always intrigued him when he could understand them, although he was used to it by now.
And indeed he replied as usual:
"Thanks Aki, I don't know what I would do without you. If nothing else, even if I don't understand your teachings, at least I'll have a C with Mrs. Mizuki!" and he let himself be caught up in the wildest laughter, while still maintaining a certain demeanour, without which he feared there wouldn't be much left of that stretch of road, as well as Akira's glasses and white shirt.
"Oh yeah, I have to wash my shirt this afternoon!" remembered Haruki, looking at his visibly wrinkled uniform.
They were still in the hot season, so luckily they were still exempt from wearing the dark green institute jacket, which was very heavy and above all very uncomfortable when combined with the shirt.
At Haruki's remark and his following laugh, Akira too let a smile escape, which lasted until a few seconds later when he turned his head, squaring a white-roofed brick-red building with a huge black emblem of a roaring lion placed beside the entrance.
"Here we go again." Haruki sighed.
"Let's go before we're late. You know how Karuzawa is..." concluded Akira.
The two climbed the vanilla-coloured stairs and entered the right corridor of the first floor, stopping at the last door on the left. They entered the classroom, greeting Professor Karuzawa, and sat in the two desks to the left in the middle row. After roll call, the teacher began his lecture on angiosperms, their characteristics and possible magical applications.
Haruki's bored gaze, as always, wandered around the class for a while and then settled on Sakura, who was at the last desk on the far right and talking to Iri. Akira's joke made sense: in first and second grade, Haruki had a big crush on that blue-eyed and blue-haired girl, always smiling and joking. But he now felt that even that had passed. Now he only felt a great emptiness inside.
Biology lessons, especially botany, were always boring for him. If only they had talked about salamanders...Ah, what extraordinary animals! To everyone's eye, they look like lizards like any other, but in reality they are born in water and only as they grow up do they appear so similar to others. Perhaps he too was destined to be a salamander. Or maybe he would have remained an egg forever, unable to cross that barrier that separated him from the others.
Ah, if only they had talked about salamanders, instead of discussing the angio- he felt he had to yawn, and then he prepared to do so as discreetly as possible- angiosperm- aaaaauuuugggghhh- WOOOOOSSSSHHH.
Dammit! Dammit! He had failed to contain his aura! A conspicuous amount of grey-coloured magical energy - a clear symptom of boredom - had expanded throughout the class, causing a series of yawns and causing the windows to shake severely. For a few interminable seconds, the eyes of the class were all on him; even the professor looked at him sternly. Finally, he resumed explaining, bringing the others' attention back to him.
A few minutes later, the bell for the change of time rang and the students greeted their teacher. After an initial fright, followed by a wave of anxiety about what the others must have thought, Haruki returned to his normalcy, which did not cheer him up much. At least now they would have Professor Kaneda.
The runner, as he was known among the students, always dressed sporty and wore a bandana to remove his dark brown hair from his slightly bearded face. He had a sunny and helpful personality, always ready to help his students with a myriad of advice and proverbs. Too bad they only had Practical Applications one hour a week.... At least his father had had the bright idea not to make him an objector, otherwise, he would have been left in the classroom at the mercy of the substitute teacher, and an extra hour between desks was just not needed.
All the students, except Nemo, Yami and Komi, went down to the school gymnasium.
"Today we're going to do some healthy fighting!" announced Kaneda festively, who was sporting a pair of zebra-print sunglasses that day.
"For those who join our glorious army, it will be a good taste of what awaits you. For the others... well, in this crazy world, a little self-defense doesn't hurt." he added smiling.
To the surprise of many, waiting for them in the gymnasium was class 5B with Professor Rezu, who had always been a rival of Kaneda and was decidedly less likable. Kaneda claimed that the sort of grudge Rezu held against him was due to the time when, in the Empire Student Sports Championships, Kaneda beat him, in his opinion even by a lot.
"OK guys, this will be a joint lesson with the other fifth years, this way it will be easier for you to fulfill your potential. Take care though, no foul play or hitting too hard, we don't want any of you to break any bones in your bodies, understood?" the teacher recommended.
"Yes, teach!" the pupils exclaimed in unison.
As the professors proceeded to draw the names of the fighters, Haruki sat with the others on the grey stairs surrounding the platform on which they would have fought. Although he would have liked to let off some steam, he felt as if caught between two fires: on the one hand, he didn't want to break his nose; on the other, he was very afraid of losing control, of letting himself go too far and becoming... a monster.
It had never happened that he unintentionally (let alone voluntarily) hurt anyone. However, he remembered well the moment when he had begun to fear his powers: he was 11 years old, and he was walking home alone; for some unknown reason, he was very angry and, seeing a large tree nearby, he struck it with force.
Many times he had done this, sometimes even injuring himself, because his father had told him that if he could not control himself, it was 'Better to hit a plant than a person'. This made sense to Haruki, so he had followed his father's advice. Only trees and sometimes bushes, though, because for Haruki, flowers were too beautiful to be destroyed for any reason.
But that big, beautiful tree would remain the same after he had hit it, of course. And so Haruki had accumulated all his anger in his right hand and lashed out a fist at the plant. In an instant, he lost all his livour, which was replaced soon afterward first by astonishment and then by fear.
The tree had not cracked, nor had it fallen. The tree was no longer there. It had been disintegrated in such a way that not even the splinters were left. From that day on, Haruki stopped hitting trees. No matter what he did, it seemed like he could never hope to escape the calm sea, the void within his heart. Never.
"The first one for class 5B is... Taru Akairo!" shouted the Runner. Among the pupils of the other class, a rather fit boy stood up, with long red hair pulled back in a pigtail, an olive complexion and blazing eyes. Over his shirt, he wore a burgundy-red jacket, while his trousers were black with occasional carmine-coloured lines. At the teacher's call, he smiled and his eyes glittered with confidence. And now for the big moment...
"To challenge him, from class 5A... oh, good one... Akira Sosu!"
Haruki flinched slightly. He hadn't expected that in the slightest. Perhaps Akira had also been surprised, as he sat still for a few moments. Then he stood up resignedly but nonetheless calmly, turned to Haruki and said:
"Better sooner than later." And with that, he reached the platform, where his challenger was already waiting for him.
The two challengers faced each other on the platform, with Taru's mocking expression, while Akira remained as glacial as ever, save for the eyes that scanned and studied his opponent.
"OK, guys, fair play! No excessive blows, when the other is down or ends up outside it's over. Are you ready?"
They both nodded.
"Very well, then start!"
And then the pupils from both classes began to cheer their classmates on as the teachers sat down side by side, with Kaneda merely saying:
"Let's see who taught them best..."
After a few seconds in which they both stood still, the first to take the initiative was Akairo who, pulling his right hand out of his pocket, sent a red stream flowing out of it which within a second gathered to form a dark vermillion sphere of energy that Taru hurled forcefully at Akira.
Remaining still where he was, he levitated from his black trousers his enchantment sheets (note: magic tools widely used especially with a visually focused Centre to make the use of magic easier and less tiring) and pulled three sheets with a large black 4 from the paper pile.
They instantly pulverised and were replaced by 12 cubes of terrain that looked like the gymnasium floor that assembled to form a barrier against which the enemy attack crashed. There was a brief but intense red glare.
Haruki followed the affair with moderate interest, partly because his friend was fighting and partly because he wanted to see if this fight might hold any surprises. On the surface, however, it seemed to him that it would be a fairly standard fight, with attacker, defender, and predictable blows. Haruki sighed slightly and reclined his back against the top step. Those in class 5B continued to make a loud racket. Taru must have been a very popular student.
When the light finally faded, both the sphere and the wall were gone. Then, slightly surprising all the students, Taru started walking forward, his right fist clenched and wrapped in magical energy and his right hand holding a burgundy-red, viscous substance.
At that point, Akira hurled a sheet with the symbol 2 forward, from which a strong jet of wind was released, which Taru managed to avoid at the last moment. But the student from 5A was certainly not finished: he immediately activated three more powerful air cannons. With a leap, the opponent in red avoided the first attack, then with a sideways dive escaped the second, but ended up right in the line of fire of the third.
Then, bringing his energy ball forward, he turned it into a barrier with which he managed to shield the blow, which landed against the ceiling, shaking it violently. Concentrating his magic construct once more, he directed a scarlet ray at Akira. Three sheets with a large 1 released as many flames that collided mid-ring with Taru's attack. At that point, the young Akairo smiled and said:
"So you want to play with fire?"
Immediately the ray of energy ignited into a tremendous blaze, a classic example of ideal transmutation (a type of magic that consists of transforming one concept into another associated with it).
The power of that blast managed to penetrate the fiery triptych and advanced, like a fire in a defenseless forest, towards Akira, who merely remarked: "Quite predictable."
When the fire was within a metre of him, and some of his comrades began to worry, a massive column of water leaked out of the floor, instantly blocking yet another enemy offensive. Haruki yawned softly; he hoped that his friend Akira would have some surprises in store for him, but so far it had been a maddening bore. Strange that Akira was only defending, but it was hardly unsurprising.
His eyes lit up in an instant, however, as his mouth mumbled with barely enough conviction to be heard, "Akira!" Out of the artificial geyser created by the boy with the round black glasses suddenly jumped Taru, who tried to strike him with a fist coated in magical energy, which Akira quickly blocked with a barrier.
With his other hand, which had remained unused up to that point, Taru hurled that red substance that had all the appearance of being simple red ink, which Akira dodged with an only slightly dishevelled expression, at the same time making a backward leap. To everyone's surprise, instead of pursuing his continuous offensive, Taru stopped, his usual confident smile plastered on his face.
"You don't move badly at all, and I must say you do well as a charmer, for a Mad (an informal name by which magicians expert in mathematics were referred to). You did well, but you've lost now. I know the moves of those who use Enchantment Sheets by heart."
The boy dressed in red said.
Akira, slightly shaking his head perhaps in defiance countered:
"I too am familiar with the fighting style of the Environmental Transmuters. Using everything around you concerning your centre to turn it into something dangerous. I can see that you don't care much about hiding your Centre, since anyone would be able to tell from your outfit that it is Dark Red."
"Bingo!" chuckled Taru.
"But knowing that won't do you any good, you know? It's too late now, look at your precious papers..."
At that point Akira turned back to his tools and saw at that moment that they were smeared with specks of ink. Just then sparks sprang from those stains and began to devour the surrounding paper undaunted. Akira was quick to throw them on the ground and could do nothing but watch them become nothing but ashes.
"You managed to avoid staining your clothes, a very deft move, but without your papers you can do practically nothing. Give up..."
Clearly, in all this, the cheering of the students, especially those in 5B, had become even more incessant, and now even Professor Rezu was hinting at a smile under his moustache, with Kaneda merely saying dejectedly:
"I guess the first round goes to your boys. I must say they are quite capable, you know?"
"Evidently they have a good teacher." concluded Rezu in a tone of resentment to the utmost power.
"Then it's over." Haruki thought, a little disappointed for his friend.
"Maybe if he had attacked he could have made it, but you know, if it's not about maths, Akira never heats up..."
Now the whole of 5A was in religious silence, all waiting for what Akira would do. Surrender, of course. The rivalry between A and B was one of those pillars of the school, and to have victory blown away like that was not at all pleasant. But then again, what could Akira possibly do?
What young Mr. Sosu did was to take a deep breath and, after a sigh coming straight from his lungs, say:
"I guess I have no choice. To please Mr. Kaneda and save what's left of my reputation in the classroom, I can only do this. It's not that this interests me much, but my grandfather always told me as a child that honour is something that must be defended by all means and with all one's might. All right, I'll use it!"
After this speech with a motivational content but delivered in his usual passive tone, as if it were the description of a theorem, to the general amazement first of Taru, then of Kaneda and finally of everyone, including Haruki, Akira bent down and, crossing his fingers with his arms stretched out to the maximum, touched the ground of the platform with his palms and said evocatively:
"From One to matter, from opposites to spacetime, Fire and Air, Water and Earth, cubes and pyramids, even and odd, the All and the Universe in four levels, the world in three lines, life in a 10. Illuminate the Truth, Sacred Tetraktys!"
It was then that a triangular sulcus appeared in the ring with 10 dots stacked with 4 dots at the base, and then followed by 3, 2 and 1 at the top of the triangle.
It was the famous and celebrated Pythagorean Tetraktys, for the Greek philosopher the basis and symbol of the entire universe. Taru's face was coloured with surprise and sudden terror as he stammered.
"What, you don't need papers, you're a natural Mad?"
"I don't believe it, he can already perform ideal transmutations without any tools of enchantment or favourable environment? With such an abstract Centre? That's university curriculum!" exclaimed Kaneda at the same time, with even Rezu not hiding his astonishment.
"Without any support even the simplest spells are very tiring, but if I want to win I have no other choice. So what do you say? Shall we resume?" said Akira, sketching the faintest of smiles.
In the meantime, his classmates had begun to murmur, most of them to express their surprise, but some also to sing unexpected praises for this reserved boy, who had managed to refine his magical abilities perhaps more than anyone else in the class.
Haruki, on the other hand, remained silent, still in shock: he knew that Aki was very studious, but up to that point... then all those words of appreciation, Kaneda standing up and loudly encouraging his pupil, all that made him feel a bit... jealous, yes, but above all excluded, locked in a bubble that refused to burst.
While Haruki was lost in thought, the clash had resumed, but this time with reversed fronts: inside the platform, Akira was free to cast his spells from anywhere, while Taru could only try to avoid or block them. From under the red boy's feet suddenly appeared a brown 4, from which a column of earth sprang out, forcing Taru to retreat.
However, behind him, with a gesture of his hand, Akira made a 2 appear, which generated a powerful blast of air that made the poor helpless young man crash against the enormous parallelepiped, but above all against his opponent. At that point, taking a step forward, Akira stretched out his right hand, from which sprang like a small torrent a wave-like 3, which struck Taru with a terrible current, pushing him towards the end of the ring.
Rebounding for a moment, the rubicund student generated a barrier behind him, managing to stop himself before it was too late. Then he slumped to the ground, exhausted by the sudden and unexpected siege. He gritted his teeth furiously and emitted a loud shout, then shouted to his opponent:
"Let's see if you can stop this one!"
In a very short time, all the energy that the painted pylons, that the now fallen leaves on the road, that his clothes and those of his comrades gave off because of their colour, built up inside him and, straining like never before, he pushed it out hard to create his most powerful, hottest and most devastating flame he had ever created. Taru lunged forward and released his strongest technique.
SCARLET FLAME
Akira, who had been watching all this in silence, merely stated as his opponent approached 'Eh... I think I'll have to try to end it here too. After all, I won't be able to maintain this spell for long.″
And saying that, he bent down, resting his left limb on the ground. The Pythagorean symbol carved into the ring began to glow, then the floor began to change colour, coming to resemble the image of the Universe. And there, inscribed in the triangle, appeared a gigantic 10, the sum of the four elements, the All.
Lifting his hand, Akira seemed to tear away that magnificent work of art, which accumulated to form yet another sphere, coloured with galaxies, a world in miniature. With a burst, Akira came towards Taru and, once they were within arm's reach, countered his attack with his deadly blow, representing a perfect and rational world, summed up in 2 figures, born of 4 principles, enclosed in 3 sides.
TRIANGULAR UNIVERSE
The impact of the two blows was tremendous and shook all the windows of the gymnasium and even the walls, generating a wave of wind that made everyone jump out of their seats, including Haruki who had been speechless until then, unsure of what to think or even if he should think at all.
The devastating force of the two teenagers was enough that both professors got up to ascertain their condition. Fortunately, everyone saw the two challengers almost immediately, facing each other and mostly unharmed except for some minor damage to their clothes. Both were panting, though Taru more heavily.
The situation remained like that for almost a minute, with all the spectators in religious silence. The one to break it was Akira, who commented rather dryly:
"Too bad, I was hoping to knock you out with this move, but I'm still not strong enough, after all I've only just started using these kinds of spells a few months ago. Oh well, whatever. Good job, you did very well. I give up."
And as he turned and took the first step towards the edge of the platform, if it could still be called that, he added: "Good fight."
Then, very calmly, he climbed down and went to sit with his comrades on the steps, to everyone's amazement. For a few more seconds, no one uttered a word. Even the teachers were too stunned to speak.
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