Level Zero

Act 1

I would first like to start my story with the act that my world has turned into complete hell. I swear the devil himself is torturing us. The thing is, I don't even know how it happened. 

It just...did.

It was a normal morning. I had graduated from training school with my friends:

Kazey Yamamoto. I've known them since we were kids.

Iwa Yuri. I met them at the training school when we started five years ago.

Koji Tsuyoshi. I also met them at the training school.

Koshi Nao. You guessed it. Training school friend as well.

And Akarui. Akarui Nakamura. I first met them when we were spar partners to practice fighting stances and attack methods. God I hate talking about them after...after...never mind. It's a hard subject to talk about. 

We all went to the training school because we all have what we call clicks. Clicks are really important in our world, and the type of click you have judges you significance. For example, having a click with a smaller significance makes you someone in the Middle Rank. You can help people, but only for small things. Saving cats from trees for example. I've seen someone do that before. 

People who have stronger clicks are known as Protectors. Those people are trained my high-class professionals and are taught how to keep their clicks in their control to help people, rather than harm them. I always wished to be a Protector, and the wish finally came true the day I was requested to join the training school. I was trained all day and almost all night, taught different methods, learning new strategies, and meeting the compatible people I would work with at the same headquarters one day. 

But most of the world population doesn't even have a click at all. That's the Lower Rank. You can only get a click if you have a certain connection to something special and important to you, or a talent you may have. One you get your click, you become more vibrant and colorful. Without a click, you have no pigment, and are less capable to show emotion. That's why so many people are envious of people who have clicks. The power, the color, the feeling, the emotion. And if those greedy people get a click, they are the people everyone needs to be cautious about. Especially the Protectors. We keep an extra ear out for them.

I received my click when I was eleven, which was about ten years ago. There was a huge fire in my apartment building. We thought that everyone made it out okay, but a woman was screaming that her young daughter, Hotaru, was still in there. I knew that woman. I babysat Hotaru when she had important business meetings. Hotaru would always call me her older sister, since she had no other family. I always looks forward to visiting her. She meant so much to me. So without thinking, I ran into the burning building. I had found her hiding under the kitchen counter in her apartment. She was crying and struggling to breathe due to the thick smoke. I grabbed her and quickly hurried through the now-crumbling building, trying not to get us hit by falling beams or wall rubble. I made it out of the building, both of us gasping for air. Hotaru clung to my body until I told her we were outside, and I returned her to the woman. 

As the ambulances and firemen began to arrive, I felt oddly warm. Then it went away. Then it came back. My body got warm then cold back and forth, until I felt warm everywhere in my body, like my insides were being lit up in flames. I looked down at my hands. I saw something in the middle of my palm. It was a small flame, flickering like the lit up wick of a candle. It just sat there. Quietly. Dimly. Then it went out.

Ever since that day, I could control fire. It could be scary at times, since I could also make it myself. Let's just say I went through a lot of oven mitts. I was given long blonde hair and my bold orange eyes. My friends all have their stories and colors too.

Kazey always had an obsession with the wind. She loved how it would blow air into sails and kites, and fill up hot air balloons. And one day, as she felt the breeze roll in, she was picked up with it. She flew for the first time that day, and has loved it ever since. She had long, wavy teal hair, teal eyes, and pale skin.

Iwa loved the outdoors. The hiking, the gardening, the animals, the rain, the sun, all of it. But she was absolutely absorbed with love about rocks. She said she would find a new one everyday, and add it to her collection. She had told me the first thing that had happened to her was when she got hit in the head with a baseball. She said she felt nothing. She felt her head, and it was rock hard. She then walked into her house about to tell her mom, when she overheard her mom say that her favorite flower died in it's vase. She looked over at the flower, wishing that it could still be alive. And then it was. She told me bother her and her mom were startled by this. She had her click with the earth ever since. They have short, evergreen hair, light brown eyes, and light tan skin.

Koshi said she were a pretty stupid kid. The type stupid enough to stick a fork or their own finger inside a socket. Surprisingly, that's not how they got their click. She had a connection to electricity and technology for a long time, and eventually found themselves given a Photons click. She had pale yellow hair that she always wore in a loose braid, pale skin, along with gold eyes, and freckles that looked as if they were sparks of electricity themselves.

Koji said that they got their click because they were trying to defend themselves. They were bullied for a long time because they didn't receive their click yet. One day, Koji told me that something bubbled up inside them that never had before. The next thing they knew, they had horns. They had a tail. They had sharp, pointy fangs. And they were not afraid anymore. They never knew that to call their click, because they turned into a demon or monster to protect themselves. Eventually we decided to call them a demon and left it at that. They had white hair that was wavy and always covered their pale blue eyes, with pale skin.

And then there was Akarui. I know I said that I didn't want to talk about them, but I will explain their click to you. It was fireworks. Beautiful, colorful explosions. They told me that ever since they were little, they would always be excited to see fireworks. Their eyes would always sparkle in delight when a firework would explode a rainbow of color in the sky. They were overjoyed when they had realized it was their click. They had beautiful crimson hair, with long v-bangs that would get in the way of their face, and heterochromia eyes that always seemed to be a different color. I miss those eyes.

In case you noticed that I put 'had' for every person I was describing except for Iwa, that's because...well...they're gone.

And that, is where it all began.