So this is the sneak chapter following the passage I wrote a few months ago. >Here< well first this is a fantasy, post and pre apocalypse fic surrounding a twenty-year-old student attending an academy and her friendship with EXO. This is pretty much a MAMA ERA type fic 

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My eyes closed, lashes tickling the top of my cheek bones. I did not know why I came out here, in the courtyard. Maybe I liked how the grass tickled my bare feet. Maybe I wanted to breathe in the cool spring air. Maybe I wanted to be far from those people. Maybe I knew the chances of being caught out here was less than a thousandth. However, a shadow faced me ten and a half metres away. He stood at a perfect one hundred and eight-degree angle. I almost shouted out of happiness, but caught myself in time when he shifted his left leg towards me.

“It’s not often I see another person out here.” His voice was soft, brushing against my ears in a sensual way. He took a step closer to me as I brought my hand towards one of the daggers on my belt. He chuckled. “No need to become defensive. You’re just very intriguing.” At the rate he was taking his steps, it would be eleven seconds before he was close enough to strike me.

“What is your alias?” I managed to calmly reply, hands itching to rip my daggers out.

“Jongin, teleportation. Now your turn.” He stopped on his sixth step, seven metres away from me.

“Jikyu, precision.” I stay rooted on my spot, challenging the boy to come closer to me.

His eyebrows flew into his bangs. “Wow, it’s not every day you meet a person with precision skills. What level?”

I scoffed at his attitude. “Don’t act as if you’re close to me, kid.” I let go of my dagger after seeing no threat. However, I made sure to keep my shoulders straight and facial expression strong. “I suggest you leave before I make you.” The boy held his hands up in surrender (I was sure he was mocking me) and strolled past me. I turned and watched him disappear before tilting my head to look at the stars. Slowly, the encounter faded from my mind and it started to wonder.

I didn’t know why my life turned out like this. My family had never filled me with love; they were never there. I remembered my childhood very clearly. Nobody wanted a freak like me. I was thrown onto the streets like a disabled child. To this day, I had no inkling what the reason for my existence was. If I was treated so poorly, what was the point of living? Yet, I could not bring myself to end my life. I was forever destined to suffer whatever wrongdoing my ancestors or I have done in the past. Or maybe, it was imprinted in my soul to live a life full of pain.

Stars, when will you come and take me away?

One, thirty degrees to the right, ninety-eight light years away, twinkled mightily as if to reassure me that it was with me and would never leave me alone. A dry chuckle erupted its way out of my throat. Nothing will ever want me and affiliate with me. And I was all right with it. Sometimes, I found myself yearning for warmth, not from clothing, but from another person. Then I would shake my head to rid that ludicrous thought.

The time I spent outside satisfied my rushing mind and I turned to slip back into my room. Three thousand and seven students were asleep, save from zero-point-two percent (there were a few cyborgs), and sixteen teachers were patrolling the grounds, thankfully inside. I ran to the main doors, balancing my weight and force against the gravel so that no sound was produced. Nobody was standing by the doors but a teacher was walking in a straight line along the left corridor away from me. I pushed the metal frame away, enough to fit me. My ears twitched at the tiny squeak the door let out. I still need to work on exerting force accurately. My legs noiselessly dashed to the east wing of the school where the female dorms were. I took the stairs to the thirteenth floor and quietly opened and closed the fourth door.

“Gone outside again, huh?” One of my roommates, Sujin, looked up from her book to scrutinise my appearance. Impressive. She read another one hundred and fifty-four pages since yesterday. She must have been bored.

I grunted in response before heading to the bathroom to splash water into my face and change into comfortable clothes. I headed straight for my bed and fell fast asleep, not before I sensed an extra presence in my room disappear as quickly as it appeared.

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It was morning, one more day before classes began. I used the day to replenish the energy I spent last night. However, my hand refused to stay still. I stopped my left arm from reaching the imaginative dagger by my side once again. My brows came together in confusion and frustration. What event in the past triggered this reaction from my body? I hadn’t been on the streets for years and there was no need to fight. There was nobody who wished to harm me; it was no longer heard of in this country. Is it that boy from last night? Involuntarily, my face scrunched in vexation. His sultry voice came back and ghosted over my ears once more. His eyes held mischief, but I glimpsed hesitation, fear, and anger. I let a breath out. There was no use mulling about him when there was less than a seventh of a percent of meeting him again. However, something at the back of my mind murmured, ‘that boy is part of a destiny intertwined with many, even yours.’

I shook my head at the voice.   

I heard the front door close. It was Heesa. There was a flurry of shuffling feet and shouts in the Eastern corridor. My eyebrows furrowed when I identified a male among the girls. Ideas clicked together and my lips curled into a snarl, scoffing at the indecency in this school. My head turned to face the ceiling and I forced my arms to be immobile. I wondered if that other person in my room was Jongin from last night? His alias was teleportation but he never mentioned his level. If that presence was his then he could teleport to a person wherever they are which would mean he was between the advanced and expert level. I should watch out for him.

My eyes switched to the window on my right. It was forty-two minutes past eleven in the morning. I spotted Sujin outside with her three male friends. They were from the basic classes also known as the fledgling class. All of them were elemental manipulators save from one. They surrounded a person and I saw one of them raise their hand, in greeting or in harm, I did not know. However, the sneers implanted on most of the boys’ faces and a shout of pain confirmed my initial thought.

They were bullying that person and that was punishable by banishment from the country. An exaggerated groan rumbled in my throat when I remembered the deal I had made. I waited for a second to scan the surroundings. No teacher seemed to be alerted to the situation. My eyes caught a slight movement in the air above one boy. Of course, somebody had breached the security system―which is a bracelet, designed to minimise exertion of power, and placed a force field over them, poorly at that. My legs took me out the window as my powers kicked in. I swiftly climbed down the building and my feet placed themselves where I could not be seen by those fledglings and Sujin. A metal, atmosphere, and magic manipulator stood in a tight ring around the female student. The raised hand struck across her cheeks, the slap did not ring past the barrier, however, my ears picked it up. They know. Before the magic manipulator had a chance to turn around, I was already behind him. A basic magic manipulator could not perform multiple tasks at once and I sensed no high-level powers in his core. He was completely defenceless and the others were too busy attacking the girl. With the dagger in my hand, I made a shallow cut right where his heart was. The others had no opportunity to counter-attack me as my arms reached for my specialised cuffs. I didn’t let the smirk show on my face when I heard the shouts of surprise. I was surprised too; I made a new record of a second and a quarter to cuff four people at once. After I finished with the last manipulator, I glimpsed Sujin’s face of betrayal, not that I considered her a friend. “Jikyu! What are you doing?”

I stared emptily into her eyes. “I am saving you from death. You know the consequences of intentional harm, especially you, Min Sujin.” She averted her face from mine and I spotted the split second of guilt on her face. The fledglings cursed and glared at me for disturbing their activity while I crouched before the bullied female. “They will receive their punishments. Here.” My offered hand lay before her. She wiped her building tears away and took my hand. Her fragile fingers gingerly wrapped around mine. She is a fledgling air manipulator. No wonder she couldn’t defend herself. Although I knew already, my mouth opened to ask her. “What is your name?”

She kept her voice as steady as possible, but the underlying fear was still there. “My name is Jang Soo.”

“You have been bullied for a long time, correct?” My eyes caught Jang Soo turning her head confusedly towards me. I knew what she was thinking, how could a person who has just learned my name know so much? “Don’t worry, I will not impose a harsher punishment on them because I have no evidence of the past incidents.” The girl beside me kept silent while I led her to the entrance of the girls’ dormitories. “I believe your room is on the fourth floor, correct?” Jang Soo nodded quickly and rushed to the elevator, leaving me alone by the doors. I sauntered back outside to find the four manipulators still in their places. My eyes shone in excitement, knowing that the cuffs worked perfectly to extinguish any power and paralyse the wearer. “You all know what will happen. So, I will ask you, do you agree for me to take the restraints off in exchange for your obedience to me on the way to the chambers?”

My face remained indifferent when they shouted in desperation, “Please! We will listen to you! We beg you, take these cursed things off!” It is amusing when one thing is taken from manipulators, they become powerless and they absolutely detest the feeling of being incapable to exert core power. They detest the feeling of being incapable to control something weaker than themselves. I have witnessed their destruction every single day of my childhood.

After I had relayed the incident details to the manager of the chambers, I nodded in acknowledgment towards the fledglings and Sujin. My legs hurried out before I could hear anything. It was one in the afternoon. That was enough time for a few hours of training before dinner. My mind sighed as my body tingled with energy, fingers twitching in anticipation. The training hall was on the other side of the school. It was only three hundred metres from my spot, and so I began my journey.

Students loitered the hallways and did not pay any attention to me. I favoured that; being invisible. It would bring me many advantages should I need them. So, I paid heed to every single conversation and deduced the student’s personalities. Ah, he seems to excel in terrakinesis. He would be beneficial: he doesn’t seem to have close attachments to anything and he is capable in making hard decisions. My eyes continued to lock themselves on the path ahead.

“I heard that Jongin is one of the top students and he only joined this year,” a petite girl whispered to her friend.

Jongin?

“No way! The Kim Jongin?”

“Yeah, he’s second, right underneath Heoyoon.” I forced my face to remain indifferent when hearing one of my fake names. My legs sustained their steps. When I was insisted to enrol to the school, I had one condition and that was to remain anonymous. I was only satisfied when my name was changed and my school photo digitally created. Frankly, I, as a student, did not exist in the school. Everybody silently accepted Heoyoon as a student although they never saw her. However, I, as a manipulator was known as Jikyu. Nobody ever questioned my strange name. Before joining the school, I called myself Byeohyun.

Fortunately, the school did not use a roll calling system to record attendance. Rather, on our left wrist there was a bracelet, and when students entered classrooms, a sensor would detect the bracelet and send information to the administration for their attendance. It also minimalized the exertion of power to avoid fights that had5 potential to destroy school property. At the end of each school day, it would display a report on a student’s behaviour, grades, progress in classes, homework if any and alerts. It was very convenient at first. However, as my ability devopled and improved, I hadn’t any need for two of its functions. Nevertheless, I still had to wear it.

Those two girls continued to gossip as I passed by them. Kim Jongin seemed more than the boy I met last night. Where did he come from? I had not been made aware of him in the student profiles. I frowned in confusion. My brain must have been excessively stressed then. I need to improve my memory.

It wasn’t long before the training centre came into vision. Seven students were present. Fortunately, they were all situated in different sections of the facility. A smile spread across my face when I spotted the array of untouched swords. They gleamed delightfully as if joyous to see me approach them. My fingers gently caressed the scabbards of the many blades before resting on my favourite, the dagger. The hilt was made from the wood of a baobab tree and the blade created from metal mined and smithed with such accuracy I could feel my spine shiver pleasurably in satisfaction. I held the dagger forty-eight centimetres away from my chest. It glinted beautifully in the sun as it twirled in my hand. I imagined an enemy flitting about with the aid of supernatural speed. My legs increased their pace as I slowed my breathing. It was not long before my power took over. Swipe to the left and skim the dagger down the shin. I permitted my body to obey, controlling it just enough to exert the precise force and movements for the attack. Dodge the kick and aim for the other leg. I spun one hundred and eighty-six degrees to the right, executing the attack perfectly. They were down. Taking the advantage, I swung my legs over their body and pressed the dagger against their neck while pointing my elbow right above their heart. There was a moment of silence, my breathing remaining stable and laxed. Somebody is coming, ten and a quarter metres away, one hundred and sixty-two degrees from North. I waited until he was close before snapping my blade out and whipping my legs around to trip him. “To whom do I owe the pleasure of this wonderful meeting?” I growled before standing tall as he groaned in pain and rose from his spot. I knew that man was older than me, but in battle, age has no definition.

He dusted himself off and grimaced inwardly before offering me a small smile. “My name is Lee Go-Im. I couldn’t help but notice your skills. It’s like your alias is supernatural combat, but it is not because I cannot sense it from you.”

My arms folded over my chest with my knees locked in place. “What do you want from me?”

“I want you to join our school’s combat team.” Of course, I had heard of this team. However, I did not bother thinking about them. My brain had endured enough stress and learning new faces, names, rules and places could be the limit.

Seeing the man’s genuine anticipation, my resolve faltered slightly. “I’ll think about it.”

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If you have any questions about this sneak chapter in particular please comment it down.