Chapter 1: Inevitable Struggle

The first chapter, introduces the setting and main characters.

Author's Note: Everything in this story (including, but not limited to: Names, Characters, Events, Incidents, Entities, Places, Objects, Substances, Businesses, etc.) are all make-believe, so please try your best to separate fantasy from reality. Got it? Good, let's begin. 

Episode Start.

In a park somewhere in the city of Bethesda, Maryland; a ten-year-old African-American boy possessing a mini-afro and gray eyes, sits down on a cherry-wood bench reading on an e-book device. 

Meanwhile, numerous trees shed their red-colored leaves, people walk by enjoying their time, songbirds of many kinds chirp in the distance, and an afternoon sky looms in the distance.

Back to the boy at hand, his name is Carter Weston and the title he's reading is, "To Kill A Mockingbird", as a meditative act while waiting for someone. 

Even though the wording and sentence structure is archaic by mid-2030s standards, Carter finds the novel intriguing because the story and its themes resonates with the current blights his times are going through; especially when taking into account the tremendous relevancy that super-humans possess.

His contemplation abruptly ends when two light-skinned girlish looking arms appears behind him, and affectionately wraps around the mini-afro boy's neck like a loving snake.

"Guess who!" said a sweet and energetic voice belonging to a girl, most likely the same age as Carter.

The owner of the arms reveals herself as an exquisitely adorable child whose hair is a delicate hue of pink, tied in a twintail style; she owns a pair of peach-colored eyes and a petite body, wearing an academic uniform.

"Oh, hello there Mini," Carter greeted. "I'm glad that you can make it here quickly."

"Yeah, what are friends for?" Mini responded as she vaults over the bench to sit next him.

"Look... I'm going to need your help."

"Umm... why exactly?"

The brown-skinned boy takes a deep breath, "Our master is in serious danger."

Mini gasps in shock, "Really? Where and how did you found out?" she inquired with worry.

"Well," Carter paused. "At school, I overheard it in the stairwell when I was walking back to class from the bathroom."

Flashback Start - St. Eric Academy: 20 minutes before the final bell.

A sweater-vest uniform wearing Carter exits the washroom relieved, ready to head back to his homeroom. While walking in the hallways, he notices that one of his former adversaries, Evan Korishima, is gathered up with four other students in the staircase. 

The first boy possesses messy red hair, the second one wears glasses and seems half-Chinese, and the last one is chubby with curly brunette hair. Finally, the only girl in the group has white hair with purple highlights; they're all between the ages of ten and twelve.

Interested on what they're talking about, Carter wants in on the discussion preferably undetected. Through the power of Aerokinesis, a tornado the size of Carter quietly surrounds the ten-year-old making him invincible and the tornado dissipates.

Not only that, he renders the sounds of his foot steps inaudible as a precautionary measure. He leans against the wall to eavesdrop into the conversation.

"Dude, are you serious?" said the small boy wearing glasses in a horrified tone. "Has your brother went off the deep end?!"

"Yeah, your brother is a lot of things Evan," spoke the male with messy crimson hair. "But a murderer? that's taking it too far, man."

Carter's ex-rival, whom's back is perked up against the wall sighs, "Yeah Daniel, I know," the white cow-lick haired child acknowledged. "And I gotta stop him before it's too late."

"Should we call the call the police?" the boy wearing glasses suggested.

"No Adam, they won't believe me," Evan said. "And even if they do and intervene, Justin can easily mow down an entire S.W.A.T team, he is THAT powerful." he stated. 

A momentary silence fills the stairwell; then, the girl who possesses white hair with purple highlights steps in, "Well, I'm not gonna stand around while your psychopath of a brother is out there scheming a murder." she spoke adamantly.

Andromeda puts her hand on Evan's shoulder, "Look, if Justin is strong as you describe him, then you would have no chance against him by yourself," the violet-eyed girl said. "You don't have to face him alone, let us help."

Evan cracks a smile, "Thanks guys, you know how to really help a guy when he's faced with problems."

"No problem," said the pudgy kid. "And after we beat him, we could drop by to get some hamburgers!"

All of them laughed, "Sure Toby, whatever you say." Evan commented.

Amidst from all the talking, Carter begins to feel a throbbing-sharp pain in his head while sustaining his invisibility and inaudibility, like that of a frying pan beating him against the cranium.

"Alright, meet me at the south of town after school," their blue-eyed leader announced. "We're gonna stop him if it's the last thing we do." Evan solemnly declared.

They all nod in agreement and head off back to their respective classes. After they're gone, the grey-eyed child dropped onto his knees, gasping for air as he regains physical visibility.

While attempting to wobble back on his feet, a multitude of thoughts and questions circulates through Carter's head, "Justin Korishima? Is that the guy who goes by the villain moniker: Absolute-Zero? What does he have against Master Noir?" he thought strongly. 

"Whatever it is, I have to get Mini to help me protect our teacher at all costs!"

The mini-afro haired boy quickly recovered and dashed back to his homeroom. 

After five minutes pass, the final bell of the day rings; large groups of students ages eight to thirteen exit their classrooms and perform daily rituals of talking to friends, retrieving items out of lockers, heading to after-school clubs/programs, and what not. 

Carter runs among the crowd of his peers with backpack in hand; he pulls out his smartphone to contact Mini while quickly leaving the building's premises.

Flashback End

"I need to expand my Mente reserves, that's why I've been reading this book." the black 10-year-old revealed. "Handling two or more techniques at the same time can put a big strain on your mind if you're not careful."

"Yeah, I know," the pink-haired ten-year-old agreed, she then pulls out a device with a touchscreen from her skirt pocket and taps on it. 

"Anyways, I think we should head towards the subway, and probably hurry too because the train is leaving within fifteen minutes." Mini stated as she reads the transportation schedules of Bethesda through her white android phone.

"But, I don't know if we should do this or not," the peach-eyed girl hesitated. "We should just run and call the police." she proposed in defeat.

The gray-eyed boy solemnly rises from the bench and puts the e-book reader in his chest pocket, "Mini... we can't run away from this," he dignified. "Do you, as one of the elite students of St. Eric Academy, want to be called a coward for the rest of your life?"

Mini looks at ground and at Carter, "No."

The African-American child places both of his hands on Mini's shoulders, "In order to meaningfully grow as a person, you need challenge and stress in your life," he claimed. "Without growth, what's the point of it all?"

"I see," Mini paused. "But Carter, how will I do it?"

"Don't worry, I got your back," Carter affirmed. "Just like you said earlier, what are friends for?" he smiled lightly.

Encouraged, the rose-haired ten-year-old jumps off the bench, "Well, what are we waiting for?" she playfully asked. 

"Come on, we got a life to save!" Mini exclaimed as she dashes towards the subway with pink lightning surrounding the child's leg, enhancing her speed.

"Right behind you!" Carter responded eagerly and follows suit, running expeditiously.

End of Episode.

Terminology List

Anima: Basically, the fancy word for super-power. People who have it are called Anima-Users, those who don't are dubbed Mundane.   

Aura: Energy that an Anima needs in order to work properly. There are four that exist: Robur (Physical Energy), Pathos (Emotional Energy), Ethos (Spiritual Energy) and Mente (Mental Energy). A single person's body possesses reserves of them, like a fuel tank of a car, but having four of them. They can be enlarged by doing tasks; the more complex, the larger the expansion.

Aerokinesis: The ability to control air with one's mind.

Robur: One of the four energies needed in order for an Anima to function properly, it acts as a foundation. Without it, the Anima cannot exist.

Pathos: One of the four energies needed in order for an Anima to function properly, its role is to be the enhancer. 

The more extreme emotions an Anima user experience, the more powerful the effects produce by it; the opposite will happen if the user is sluggish. 

Without it, the Anima's effect would be completely ineffectual. Its color is red and represents the season of summer.

Ethos: One of the four energies needed in order for an Anima to function properly, it acts as the activator, or if the Anima's effect is continuous, its power source. Appearance (e.g. animal-like traits such as cat ears and tail) consumes the least amount of it. 

Without it, the Anima can't activate and any peculiar characteristics will disappear. Its color is yellow and represents the season of autumn.

Mente: One of the four energies needed in order for an Anima to function properly, it's function is to keep the Anima, and its effects produced by it, stable and consistent. 

Without it, the Anima and the effects produced by it becomes volatile and unpredictable. Its color is blue and represents the season of winter. One can increase the reserves of this Aura type by doing things that involve the mind, e.g. dabbling in philosophy, reading, solving puzzles, etc.

Author's Note: As for the methods of increasing the reserves of the other three Auras (Robur, Pathos, and Ethos), I would like you draw your own conclusions, I'm interested to hear your thoughts. 

If there anything I can fix, remove, and/or calibrate in order to make your reading session and overall experience more enjoyable, just tell me. Also, I'll be happy to answer any questions.

There will be a fight scene in the next chapter, look forward to it.

Author's Note

I will upload the second episode on Friday (maybe, not really sure on how often I should update).

Reviews

[A. N. Craddock]

There were a few things that made this hard to read for me. I'm only going to talk about two though, because I feel like the others wouldn't be quite so noticeable without them. So, here goes...

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First up is the amount of run on sentences in your story. I'm not going to count them all, but there are several, and in fact, your first sentence is one. At 31 words long it's pretty hefty. That said, there's another, much longer sentence that occurs not long after the first. It's 46 words long, and makes for a difficult read. My suggestion would be to try and break the sentences up where possible. I'll give some examples below using your opening sentence. Keep in mind, I'm not saying my versions are better or that you have to write things as I do. The examples are simply a way to demonstrate what I mean.

Examples:
In a park somewhere in Bethesda, Maryland, a ten-year-old African American boy, with a mini-afro and gray eyes, sits on a cherry wood bench reading an e-book. (27 words)

In a park somewhere in Bethesda, Maryland, a ten-year-old African American boy sits on a cherry wood bench reading an e-book. (21 words) He has a mini-afro and gray eyes. (7 words)

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Next (and last) I want to talk about tense. The tense of your story changes A LOT. So much that I found myself confused often, and had to go back and reread almost the entire chapter to make sure I understood everything. The first example of this can be found in your third paragraph.

"His contemplation is interrupted when two light-skinned girlish looking arms appeared behind him and affectionately wraps around the mini-afro boy's neck like a loving snake."

Because you've used "is", "appeared" should be "appear" and "wraps" should be "wrap" to make it proper third person, present tense.

If you were to use "was" instead, "appeared" would then be right and "wraps" would be the only change needed. Though, it would also change the story to third person, past tense.

I'm assuming your story is meant to be written in third person, present tense because that's how it starts and that's how it mostly reads. This tense can be pretty tricky to master. So, my advice would be to master third person, past tense first. However, if you really want to write in third person, present tense, make sure to write in it as much as possible.

Examples:

His concentration is interrupted when two girlish looking arms appear behind him, and affectionately wrap around the Mini-Afro Boy's neck like a loving snake.

His concentration was interrupted when two girlish looking arms appeared behind him, and affectionately wrapped around the Mini-Afro Boy's neck like a loving snake.

Bonus Example:
This example touches on the run on sentence issue as well.

His concentration is interrupted when two girlish looking arms appear behind him. They wrap affectionately around the Mini-Afro Boy's neck like a loving snake.

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Final Thoughts:

Normally, I prefer to comment more on the content of a story than the technical aspects. I made an exception here simply because I feel like so much of the content is missed thanks to technical errors. That aside, I'm a huge fan of anime and I chose to read this because of that. It did have a very anime-esque feeling to it, and I'm not sorry for having spent time reading it.

If you ever need someone to read your work or simply want to talk about writing, feel free to contact me. ^^

Keep Writing,

Amber

[arrias99]

All of your complaints are fixed, I think.

I appreciate your insight.