I turn my head only to see my aunt holding my mother off the ground by her neck while bleeding to death out of her stomach.

My mind goes blank in horror.

My hand reaches forward and I run towards them as fast as my little eight-year-old feet possibly could.

Yotsuba Maya, I will become strong enough to kill you one day, even if it's the last thing I do.

"Onii-sama, wake up. Are you alright?"

Tatsuya wakes to see his little sister Miyuki mere inches away from his face.

"If you're gonna try to kiss me, Miyuki, at least do it in public so I can pretend that you're doing it as a joke."

Tatsuya slowly sits up as Miyuki quickly backs off of his bed, blushing slightly.

"No. . . it's just that you're sweating. I can't remember the last time I've seen you sweat."

"Really. Pretty sure I sweat every time I hear the word 'incest'. But no, I just had a bad dream. That's all."

"A dream of the past?"

"Yeah."

"Well don't think too much about that. Today's the beginning of a new chapter!" Quite literally.

With a soft smile, Tatsuya replies, "Yes, today is our first day of high school."

"I'm so excited! Come, I've made you breakfast. I have to get there early, remember?"

Today is the opening ceremony at the National Magic University Affiliated First High School, where Shiba Tatsuya and Miyuki will be attending. As the top scorer on the entrance exam, Miyuki is set to give a speech at the opening ceremony as the class representative.

Magic in this world is treated no differently than science. Magic technicians channel psion particles, which are non-physical energy-containing particles, through Casting Assistant Devices (CADs) which use activation sequences, much like computer code, to allow the psion energy to interact with the physical world in very specific ways.

Using magic requires special genetics, but also intense skill and knowledge on top of that. Thus the nine National Magic University Affiliated high schools in Japan are designed to train the best new generation of magic technicians.

Over the last century, once magic became widely known, society has quickly shifted to revolving around magic. The countries that rejected magic were quickly taken over and the countries that embraced genetic manipulation in order to produce stronger magic technicians and funded research in magic rose to become global superpowers.

Japan, the US, and China were the first to take advantage of magic and not before long, these three countries became the only three global superpowers left in the world. The US, renamed as the USNA, took over all of the Americas and Europe. China took over all of Asia, renamed as the Great Asian Union.

Magic became the only necessary military force, able to stop nukes, as well as any other normal military threats. But perhaps more importantly, magic was used economically in order to massively boost production, transportation and technology.

Tatsuya and Miyuki arrive at the steps of their new school, donning their brand new teal and white school uniforms.

"You must be Shiba Miyuki. Pleasure to meet you. My name is Saegusa Mayumi, but you can just call me Mayumi. I'm the student council president." A slim girl with long, wavy femme fatale black hair approaches the Shiba siblings. She has large yet sharp crimson colored eyes that are irresistibly cute, yet simultaneously command respect.

With a nod from Miyuki, Mayumi continues, "It is tradition that the class representative is granted a position in the student council. So I welcome you as a member of the student council. The rest of the student council is already set up in the auditorium. You should go rehearse your speech with them. Just follow this path down and take a left."

Miyuki starts walking off before turning and waving goodbye to her older brother. Mayumi now turns and smiles at Tatsuya.

"You must be Shiba Tatsuya, Miyuki's older brother? Have we met before? Perhaps a long time ago?"

Saegusa Mayumi, the heir to the Saegusa family, one of the ten master clans. In Japan, the ten strongest and most powerful magic families are known collectively as the ten master clans. The ten master clans were formed to be the defenders of Japan or the economic drivers for Japan's booming economy. The Yotsuba family, which Tatsuya and Miyuki used to be a part of, is also one of the ten master clans.

Each family within the ten master clans are magically unique in some way which allows them to be more powerful than others. The Saegusa clan, for example, are able to have their spells be self-triggered instead of manually activated, as well as use passive spells that are continually active.

Knowing all this, Tatsuya smiles back and replies, "Just Tatsuya is fine. I don't remember, but I highly doubt that we have met."

"Sorry. I must be mistaking you for someone else. I'm also sorry for making you come early because of your sister. You are welcome to watch the rehearsal if you would like to."

"Thanks, but I think I'll take a look around the school first."

"What up, loner." Tatsuya hears from behind him as he is strolling around the school. Without realising, it was already almost time for the ceremony to begin.

Tatsuya turns around to see two girls walking up to him. In the front is a girl with wild, short, red hair, and behind her is a shy-looking girl with short, straight black hair and sparkling golden eyes hidden behind large glasses.

"I'm not. . ."

"The name is Erika. Chiba Erika. And this is Shibata Mizuki. Are you going to the opening ceremony too? Same! Come with us!"

Chiba. Another familiar name for Tatsuya. While the Chiba family is not part of the ten master clans, they are one of the 18 assistant houses, powerful magic families that support the ten master clans.

"No thanks, I'm fine. . ."

Before he could finish, Erika grabs Tatsuya by the arm and drags him towards the auditorium.

The three of them enter the auditorium to see that a lot of other first-year students have already been seated. Even though anyone could sit anywhere, there was a major difference between those who chose to sit in the front and those who chose to sit in the back.

All the students sitting in the front wore uniforms that had a flower emblem on their shoulders, while all the students sitting in the back had empty emblems.

These emblems are used to distinguish between course 1 or course 2 students. Course 1 students with the flower emblem are the ones that scored exceptionally well on the entrance exam, while course 2 students with the empty emblems scored worse, but still good enough to get into the school. Unofficially, course 1 students are referred to as the blooms, while the course 2 students are the weeds.

Miyuki, scoring the top of the entire class, was placed in course 1. Tatsuya on the other hand, was placed in course 2. Tatsuya scored a perfect grade on the written and theoretical portions of the exam, but nearly failed the practical portions of the exam due to the limitation that only standard-issue CADs could be used. Without his unique CAD, Tatsuya's casting speed is laughably slow.

Both Erika and Mizuki have empty emblems as well.

"Hey there are open seats right here, let's sit here." Erika says, pointing at seats next to them, but very far in the back of the auditorium.

Tatsuya, wanting to sit closer to see his sister better, quickly replies, "No actually I think I want to. . ."

Erika pulls Tatsuya into a seat as the ceremony begins.

"That speech from Shiba Miyuki was amazing!" Erika says while stretching as the ceremony is coming to a close and everyone starts to leave.

"Yes, very motivational. I'm glad she is our class representative." Mizuki chimes in.

"Hey boy!" Erika looks at Tatsuya. "That Shiba Miyuki. She's pretty hot don't you think? Would you smash?"

"Are you ever going to ask what my name is?"

". . .No."

I can't believe "no" is actually in her vocabulary. Tatsuya thinks to himself.

"My name is Shiba Tatsuya."

"Ohhh so you're like her. . . but would you smash though?"

"That is my cue to leave."

"Class E. Here we are," Tatsuya notes to himself as he walks in and finds his seat near the middle of the classroom.

Since today is the opening ceremony, actual classes do not start today, but the remainder of the day is left for the students to meet each other and familiarize themselves with the building.

Almost immediately, the person sitting in front of him turns around.

"Hey, I'm Saijou Leonhard. Leo for short. Hope we can get along this year."

"Tatsuya. Shiba Tatsuya. Nice to meet you."

But before their conversation could continue, the door gets blasted open and a girl with wild red hair walks in.

"Tatsuya! What a coincidence! We're in the same class!" Erika walks in with Mizuki right behind.

"This is no coincidence. This is God's punishment."

"Yo! Miki! You're here too! You never told me!"

"You never asked," was all that came out of the boy sitting in the back, eyes glued to his screen. He had small, narrow eyes and long black bangs.

"You two know each other?" Mizuki asks.

"Totally. We've known each other since we were like five. Hey Miki, have you met Mizuki?"

"Yes."

"Do you think she looks attractive?"

"Wait, Erika. . ." Mizuki starts blushing.

"Yes."

"Would you like to go on a date with her?"

"Yes."

"Wait do you really mean it?" Mizuki manages to say while her face is completely red.

"Sorry, what are we talking about?" Mikihiko, hearing that it's not Erika talking to him, finally takes his eyes off what he was reading.

Tatsuya, genuinely confused, asks, "You were saying 'yes' even though you had no idea what she's talking about?"

Staring dead into Tatsuya's eyes, Yoshida Mikihiko replies, "Have ever tried saying 'no' to this woman?"

I feel you bro is all that Tatsuya could think.

Suddenly, Erika gets another idea. "You know what? I've heard that there's a really good cafe nearby. And I'm tired of being at school already. You guys want to go check it out?"

"Sure," Tatsuya replies, thinking that he has nothing really better to do and perhaps it would be beneficial to get to know his classmates better. "Leo, you want to come too? Sorry our conversation got cut off. I do want to go ask if my sister wants to come too."

With that, the group of Tatsuya, Erika, Mizuki, Leo, and Mikihiko leave to find Miyuki's classroom.

"Miyuki."

"Onii-sama! I see you've met a lot of new friends already."

"These are my classmates. We are planning on heading over to a nearby cafe. Do you wish to join us?"

"Of course!"

But as the group leave the course 1 classroom, many of the blooms glare at the sight of those weeds not only infiltrating their classroom, but stealing away the most beautiful one amongst them.

"So Miyuki, you call Tatsuya 'onii-sama,' but are you two twins?" Mizuki asks as they walk towards the cafe.

"No," Miyuki replies, "my onii-sama was born in April while I was born in March of the following year."

"Hey Tatsuya," Erika teases, "must be sad being a weed while your little sister is a bloom, hm?"

"Maybe if I could feel sadness." Tatsuya replies, "My little sister has always been superior to me in every way. I'm used to it by now. I also don't mind being a weed so long as I get access to the latest research studies from all around Japan."

Leo joins the conversation, "Research huh? That's some high aspirations. All I want to do is be able to defend this country after I graduate."

"Typical blockhead dreams," Erika casually remarks.

"Yeah? I like to be realistic with my goals. And what kind of non-blockhead goals do you have?"

"You really want to know? I wish to carry on the Chiba legacy as being the fastest swordsmen in the country."

"Chiba. . . Your family specializes in acceleration-type magic in order to go incredibly fast right?"

"Wow! Correct! Looks like you're not as dumb as you seem."

"How dumb did you assume I was?"

The group is almost off of campus grounds when another group of students cut them off.

"You really are a bunch of misfits. All but one of you seem to be missing an emblem, eh?" the boy in the front of the new group says mockingly. Every single one of these students that showed up all have the flower emblem on their shoulders. Tatsuya suspects that many of them are from Miyuki's homeroom.

Mikihiko looks up for once, "That emblem of yours is quite meaningless. If that emblem was the Star of David and we were in Europe in the early 1940s, I'd be the one laughing and you'd. . .uh. . . probably be dead."

"Miyuki," says the same guy in the front with thick eyebrows and short brown hair. "We blooms are going to hang out at the park. Ditch these weeds and come join us."

"But. . . uh. . . I want to be with my onii-sama."

The boy becomes impatient, "We understand, but you can do that later. I'm sure you don't want to taint your reputation by hanging out with the rest of these losers."

Leo is furious, "Losers? Just because we're course 2? You're nothing special. I bet I could beat the shit out of you in a real fight." Leo gets into a fighting stance.

Erika prepares to fight as well, "Well that guy (Leo) actually is a loser. But I can assure you I can make you go cry for your mommy."

Leo gives Erika a quick You're not helping look.

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that," the bloom boy says with a smug smile.

"Flash Cast," the boy mutters then shouts, "Concussive Blast!"

Faster than humanly possible, the boy's right arm with a CAD raises forward towards Erika and Leo. Rings of light appear around the boy's CAD as his spell activates.

Flash Cast, as Tatsuya is remembering, is the signature ability of the Morisaki family, meaning this boy must be Morisaki Shun. The technique uses a small, almost unnoticeable acceleration-type spell first in order to speed up casting their actual spell. The actual spell being Concussive Blast, an oscillation-type area-of-effect knockback spell.

But despite the speed of Flash Cast, Erika is faster. Erika immediately activates Wind Step to dash directly in front of Morisaki, almost as if she teleported. She extends her hidden retractable baton and swings at Morisaki's arm, knocking it away.

Coincidentally in that moment, Saegusa Mayumi and another female student casually chatting with each other stroll onto the scene right behind the group of blooms.

When the Concussive Blast from Morisaki fully activates, Morisaki's arm and CAD are pointing at the group of blooms due to Erika's swing while Morisaki himself is falling backwards, causing the spell to angle upwards.

The Concussive Blast vibrates the air just above the heads of the blooms and Mayumi, just barely missing them.

The girl with Mayumi, angered, quickly runs forward and subdues Morisaki.

Simultaneously, multiple rings of light appear around Mayumi, something that even surprises Mayumi herself.

These must be her Saegusa family special self-triggerable spells that have triggered from Morisaki's attack, Tatsuya concludes.

Activation rings of light appear around Tatsuya's left eye and before Mayumi's triggered spells could finish activating, they shatter and disappear.

Mayumi looks up at Tatsuya, amazed, but Tatsuya simply looks away, back at the girl who subdued Morisaki.

"My name is Watanabe Mari. I am the chief of this school's Disciplinary Committee. All of you here are suspected of being involved with improper use of magic.

"Hey! I only acted out of self defense. Morisaki is the one who launched an offensive attack," Erika proclaims, crossing her arms.

"Please forgive us," Tatsuya steps in, "I can assure you no one else here used magic."

Mayumi, desperately wanting to question Tatsuya, says, "Yes Mari, I think only taking in Morisaki and Tatsuya for questioning will be enough."

"Very well then," Mari sighs, a bit confused why Mayumi wants Tatsuya so much, "Consider this an act of kindness from your student council president."

Mari takes Morisaki to a separate room, while Mayumi and Tatsuya are alone in the student council office. All the other students have scattered for the day.

As Tatsuya looks out the large window that oversees the entire courtyard, Mayumi locks the door, and casts a spell to prevent sound from leaving or entering the room.

Noticing this, Tatsuya jokes, "Should I shut the window blinds too or do you prefer sex with natural lighting?"

Blushing slightly, yet unamused, Mayumi ignores the comment, "Let's get to the point. Back there, you countered all of my spells, even though you clearly don't have anti-nite on you."

Anti-nite is a fairly new precious metal alloy, first created a decade or two ago. It has the capabilities of jamming CADs and thus canceling activation sequences. The substance is incredibly rare and hard to manufacture, so only the military has access to small amounts of it.

"How did you do it?"

"I guess there's no hiding it from you. My left eye is an artificial eye with a computer inside. It allows me to read activation sequences as they are activating, thus allowing me to generate the exact sequence needed in order to counter it."

"Reading sequences as they're activating? I've never heard of such technology. Not even anything close to it in the most recent research."

"Well, before starting high school here, I was very involved in the military for quite a few years. This artificial eye is merely an imperfect prototype that I am testing."

A misleading truth. Even though Tatsuya's statement is true, his artificial eye has nothing to do with the military. Thankfully though, in recent years, the Japanese national military and the ten master clans have had some conflicts and thus communication between them has been lacking and surrounded by secrecy.

The artificial eye, codenamed God's Eye, was invented by Sakurai Honami, the lead scientist for the Yotsuba clan, specifically for Tatsuya when he was young and still a part of the Yotsubas.

God's Eye functions both as an enhanced eye and a generalized CAD. When Tatsuya was young, he inherently had the problem of being extremely slow in casting spells due to psions moving unnaturally slow through his body. God's Eye is connected directly to Tatsuya's brain, so activation sequences begin as quickly as Tatsuya can think of them.

"I see." With that, there is a knock on the door. Mayumi unlocks and opens the door with magic to let Mari in.

"I've sent Morisaki home," Mari sighs, "Since this is only the first day of school, I didn't punish him much, but he will have to be removed from his position as a new member of the Disciplinary Committee. We'll have to find a new capable member before the activities fair."

Mayumi glances at Tatsuya and grins, "Well, remember how I was talking about trying to find course 2 students to be a part of the student council? I think Tatsuya here could fill that spot in the Disciplinary Committee."

"And what makes you say that?" Mari stares at Tatsuya.

"He has the ability to read and counter activation sequences. An invaluable asset to the Disciplinary Committee if you ask me."

"Is that so? I trust your judgment, Mayumi, but we'll have to discuss this with the rest of the student council."

"Very well then. Tatsuya, can you come to this student council office tomorrow after school? I'll introduce you to everyone in the student council."

"I'll be there." Tatsuya thinks about how his little sister is already in the student council, so perhaps he could spend more time with her if he could be in the Disciplinary Committee.

Tatsuya walks towards the front of the campus where he said he would meet up with his sister to walk home. But as Tatsuya gets closer, he sees his sister talking to two other girls.

One of the girls had short messy grey hair and two long strands on each side. Her eyes look sleepish, her face expressionless, and she isn't saying a word. The other girl was completely the opposite. Cheerful and always smiling, her mouth would not stop moving. She had dark blonde/brown hair that ended in two pigtails. Both girls have the flower emblem on their shoulders.

As Tatsuya approaches, Miyuki notices him, "Onii-sama, meet my new friends from my homeroom! This one is Kitayama Shizuku," pointing at the sleepish one, "and this one is Mitsui Honoka," pointing at the cheerful one.

"Nice to meet you both. I hope to get to know you two more throughout this school year."

"Not too well," Shizuku finally speaks, still expressionless, "I will only be here for the first half of the school year. After that I will be an exchange student in the USNA."

"Exchange student huh? What makes you want to study in the USNA?"

Tatsuya knew that there was only one true answer. With the tensions amongst the three global superpowers growing throughout the last decades, studying abroad was almost impossible. Countries only allow it in order to infiltrate the other country with spies to gather information. If Shizuku said anything else, she would have to be lying.

"I want to go fuck some white boys."

"Hehe. . . it's getting late," Honoka nervously tries to change the subject, "Shizuku and I need to get going. See you around Tatsuya!"

So concludes the first day of high school.

The next day all classes officially began. The school day remains relatively uneventful due to everyone being in class, so course 1 and course 2 students do not collide with each other much.

Once classes are through in the afternoon, Tatsuya and Miyuki head to the student council office.

"I'm so excited, onii-sama! I would love for you to be a part of the student council."

"Yes, but don't forget that everyone in the student council has to agree to it. Since the student council is purely made up of blooms, I can't say that this will end well."

Miyuki knocks on the door and Mayumi opens it with a big smile.

"Welcome! Allow me to introduce the student council to you, Tatsuya. As you know, I am the president. The vice president is Hattori Hanzou, standing over there. Ichihara Suzune is our treasurer and A-chan there is our secretary."

"Don't call me A-chan to the underclassmen, president! My name is Nakajou Azusa. Nice to meet you, Tatsuya!"

Suzune is tall and thin with long straight hair and long bangs. A-chan is incredibly short, almost appearing as a middle schooler, with short, curly, orange hair.

Hanzou stood there, his back facing the group, staring out into the courtyard.

"I don't care how much you praise this guy, Mayumi, I won't believe that he's strong enough to be on the Disciplinary Committee until I see it with my own eyes."

"What do you mean. . ." Mayumi asks, a bit scared of the response.

"Shiba Tatsuya. I challenge you to an official duel. If you win, I'll welcome you to the student council. If you lose, I never want to see your face again."

Mayumi's fear was justified, "Look Hattori, let's not go that far. You are undefeated even amongst the course 1 students. It wouldn't be fair to. . ."

"I accept your challenge."