Emotionless-Kato's Misery

Chapter 2

Training started immediately the next morning. 

They could have told me earlier so at least even if I had to wake up at, say, 5 IN THE MORNING, at least I wouldn't have slept at 12 EARLIER THAT MORNING. Idiots.

And to make it even worse, I had to train with the other Emotionless.

Thankfully, we ACTUALLY had one decent teacher, the other was an idiotic dingbat who wasn't even an Emotionless.

The teachers stood in the  entrance to our training room. The girl was average height with caramel hair and sky blue eyes. She wore a faded flannel, ripped black jeans and battered boots, which made her seem quite promising, because tomboys are awesome. The other teacher, who by the way is the idiotic dingbat, was only a bit taller than the girl and looked like a kangaroo. He had short, black hair and green eyes like the colour of zombie drool. 

"Hi everyone!" the girl chirped so suddenly that everyone jumped, instantly more awake than they were a few seconds ago. "It's nice to have such a large class, I was expecting to be training an Emotionless. Are one of you guys Emotionless and the rest are Fusions?"

There was a long silence.

"Actually," Kelsie said quietly, "We're all Emotionless."

"Oh." The girl frowned like something was wrong. "That's odd."

"Why?" Hosah asked coldly. "Is it illegal or something?"

"Well," she shuffled nervously. "No. It's just weird, that's all."

"Why is it weird? It might help us to know," I prompted.

"Truuuue," she said, dragging the word out and tilting her head thoughtfully. "Generally, Emotionless wizards are so rare, we only have them once every generation, sometimes none. The fact that there are five of you-all born on the exact same day-it's so abnormal." She shook her head in confusion. "I really wouldn't worry about it though."

Hosah narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"Anyway," the girl said, snapping back to attention, "I am Kea, and this is Ned."

She gave him a look of faint disdain that proved my theory; he probably was an idiot after all.

"We're going to help you learn to use magic, because if we don't, your magic would probably break free of your control. We're also going to teach you some stuff about magic in general, not just how to use it, but that's mostly going to be handled by Ned, although I will ask someone to make sure he doesn't fall asleep like last time." She grinned like this was good news. "Let's start!"

Apparently learning how to use your powers includes physical training, sitting in a classroom, and experiencing near-death circumstances.

Kea took us to a large arena with a sandy floor and high, stone walls like a medieval castle. I wondered if we'd have to climb the wall, as it would probably be more fun than anything Kea was going to teach us. Ned just slumped over on the nearest wall and started to fold paper planes. 

"Kea!" I called, "Ned is folding planes."

"Yes I know that," she turned to face me. "I told him to."

"Why is he doing that though?" 

She sighed. "Paper planes can carry important messages if necessary. Once enchanted, the plane will contain any information the handler thinks of. If someone holds a plane, they can think of what they want to say, then seal it so only the person they are sending it to can read it. After that, they just throw the plane and it flies off."

Aarid glared at the planes like he wanted to rip them to shreds, and I wondered what they'd done to upset him. 

"Okay! So, we'll be testing your physical abilities," Kea threw her flannel at Ned, who caught it without looking up.

"Who wants to go first?" She looked expectantly at us, and I wanted to roll my eyes at how stupid a question it was. No one ever wanted to go first at anything.

Kea suddenly lunged at Kelsie, who let out a shriek of alarm. Everyone else scattered to the sides of the arena to watch the fight from a safe distance. I couldn't believe how pathetic Kelsie was. She was honestly like a harmless little mouse, ducking and dodging blows, but never attempting to fight back. She made a beeline for me, putting me between Kea and herself, and I braced myself for a punch, but Kea just stood there.

"Hmmm, you're not exactly fighting material. No matter, your skills might be useful in other aspects of training. It's your turn now Kato."

I swallowed back my fear and stepped forward. Kelsie immediately scampered over to Hosah, who frowned as Kelsie grabbed her arm. 

I turned to face Kea. She smiled at me, then threw something at me with alarming speed and accuracy. I barely dodged, and when I glanced back, a faint greenish throwing knife was impaled in the wall. It pulsed with faint light, and as I watched, tentacles-no, vines, began growing out from the crack in the wall where the knife had hit. They grew larger by the second, and thorns burst through the surface of the thick vines. Somewhere to my left, I heard Kelsie yelp, and tried not to roll my eyes. I kept my eyes on the plants, thinking how unfair it was of Kea to use her powers before we developed our own. It seemed even people I'd just met wanted me dead. 

I ducked as the first vine whipped towards me, then jumped over two more as they lashed out at me. Running towards the glowing dagger, I ducked and dodged until I was close enough to pull it out of the wall. Turning around, I flung it back at Kea, who caught it with her left hand. Picking up several pebbles, I threw them at Kea, then ran towards her and aimed a kick at her face. She stopped the pebbles in midair, causing them to hover around her, then blocked the kick with the hilt of the dagger. She retaliated by making the pebbles swirl around me, hitting me in spots that would hurt but not cause too much damage, then began slashing at me with dagger. Jumping back, I desperately looked around for any other weapons to use. I caught sight of some nun-chucks on the floor near Aarid's feet. I wasn't exactly eager to get anywhere close to Aarid, given our encounter the day before.  

I charged towards it anyway, sliding across the last few meters of floor on my knees to close the distance faster. Grabbing the nun-chucks, I turned around and got up, racing back towards Kea with the nun-chucks. She grinned and pulled out another dagger, this one pulsing with a bright purple light. She threw both the daggers, I prepared to dodge, but to my surprise she threw them to the ground, making an X with the daggers. I skidded to a halt, half curious, half annoyed about the obstacle. Suddenly, a loud wail emitted from the crossed daggers, and both vines and ghostly skulls streamed from the knives. Purple mist swirled around me and dragged me into a cocoon of misery. I struggled against the dark clouds that restricted me, but they dissipated as suddenly as they appeared. 

I glared at Kea, but she just smiled at me.

"Hey you did pretty well for your first try you know," she assured me.

"You used magic.." I grumbled.

"The earlier you learn how to defend against it the better," she replied. "You won't always have magic available to you on the battlefield, and being an Emotionless, it's actually dangerous to use your magic too much. Those daggers were enchanted by the way, they weren't my actual powers, they just store my style of magic."

I just shoved my hands in my pockets and joined the other at the side of the arena.

Kea told someone else to fight her, but I was too busy pondering her words to pay attention.

'Being an Emotionless, it's actually dangerous to use your magic too much.'

Did that mean being an Emotionless wasn't that great after all?