In a spacious gymnasium class 1B awaited their instructor. The gym was large with enough room for up to four classes to use it at once without disrupting each other. That was as long as the bleachers were not pulled out otherwise only two and half classes could use the gym at one time.

“So how long do we have to wait until he shows?

“Not sure. You’d think he would be on time considering this is the first day of class we’re actually gonna do anything.”

“You so sure about that. We’re in the gym but we weren’t told to change into our gym clothes.”

Yuuto glanced in the direction of the students talking. He figured they had a point the teacher was taking his sweet time. And they hadn’t been instructed to change. What was that about?

Are we really gonna do any magic training today? It didn’t really seem that way earlier today but here we are. What’s going on with this school anyway?

“Hey, I’ve got an idea. While we wait why don’t we show everyone what type of magic we use?”

Yuuto twitched for a moment. He wasn’t quite sure what the best way to get out of whatever this activity was.

“Here I’ll go first.” A girl with pink hair in pigtails commented.

Her palm was out facing upward, it started to glow for just a moment with a rainbow of colors. Then just above her hand small firework like lights danced.

“I use sensory magic. Mostly visual color changes.”

Without any prompting one of the male students jumped into the air and floated down shouting levitation.

“Well prepare to be amazed I can read minds.” A blonde girl with huge glasses proclaimed.

Yuuto and the rest of class stared at her silent for a moment. The girl pointed her finger at the three girls who stood right beside her and said.

“Blue, yellow, and stripes.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

It took a second but the faces of all three girls turned beat red.

She didn’t just tell us their….

“You could have seen em in the locker room. That doesn’t prove anything.”

“Ohhoho. But you said it yourself earlier we didn’t change into our gym clothes. So when could I have seen their panties.”

The amount of confidence the blonde with huge glasses was exuding seemed strange considering the topic at hand.

Why would someone decide to use that to prove they could read minds? She could of told us something more useful about the girls like... wait I wonder what the criteria for her mind reading is though.

The blonde turned toward Yuuto and smiled just before pushing up her glasses. “Easy thoughts are the criteria. Like ones that just pop into your head, Yuuto.”

“Okay thanks I think I…WAIT…a second.”

Yuuto looked flustered for a moment. While his classmate just looked at him and then to the blonde.

“What was he thinking Koutaru. Come on tell us.”

Koutaru simply smiled as a tall muscular man wearing a solid white shirt and dark blue shorts entered the room.

“Hi I’m Mr. Sensu your gym teacher. And today you will be practicing a basic but vital magical ability.”

“Uh Mr. Sensu you introduced yourself to us last week.” The levitating boy commented.

Mr. Sensu blinked scratched the back of his head then seemingly remembered.

“Oh sorry about that then. Anyway today I’m gonna teach you about bullets.”

“Bullets?” Jet asked.

“Yes, bullets as they are commonly known are balls of condensed magical energy. Well actually there are severally types of bullets. Some look exactly like what you would expect them to. While others like the basic bullet do not. Ok, now that the explanation is out of the way I want you all to form a line. Each one of you will stand by me and attempt to create a bullet.”

Yuuto was too busy running through what Mr. Sensu had just explained to notice that the line was forming. Once the line was almost finished Yuuto rushed in nearly crashing into one of his fellow classmates. The line finished forming and the first student went up to attempt a bullet.

“Uh Mr. Sensu how do we make a bullet?”

“Oh sorry. You focus your magical energy through your body and into your hand. Imagine it dripping like water from a facet slowly filling in a container slowly at first than faster.”

The first student extend their arm with their palm facing down. With a deep breath they closed their eyes and focused. At first nothing happened then a moment later a small blue ball started to appear under the student’s palm. It grew at first then stopped not quite shaping a ball more like a glob.

“Okay. Not bad. Next.”

The first student stepped away while the next student tried then a third student. a girl with short dark hair.

“Aoi Chiba.” She announced.

A second later Aoi started forming a bullet. Blue energy formed into a perfectly rounded sphere. Class 1B stared in amazement before the bullet dissipated.

“That was really good miss Chiba. Next time put more energy into aside from that perfect form.”

After Aoi students went up each with varying result some bullets were small and rounded others were large and glob like. Yuuto watched carefully examining each one of the bullets trying to determine the difference between the ones made.

Some people have larger amounts of energy output but less control others have control but lack energy output. Bullets may be basic but if you have to put the right amount of energy into them. The third person who tried the girl Aochi was it. She probably has the best control in the class so far. Wait now that I think about it guys seems to have better control than the girls while the girls are releasing more energy. Girls are typically more emotional meaning taping into their magical power is easier. Guys being more analytical makes control easier meaning Aochi is more analytical than emotional but you have to focus on the right amount of both.

“Uh you will the dark blue hair you’re up.”

“Oh me. Okay then.” Yuuto walked from the front of the line to Mr. Sensu. He looked over at the rest of his classmate from class 1B then turned to the right ninety degrees. With barely curled fingers he raised his right arm pointing it in front of him.

Let the magic flow through you like water. Allow it to fill up a container.

Yuuto took a deep breath and closed his eyes then exhaled while he opened them. Almost immediately after blue energy began to gather around the palm of his right hand.

Focus on the shape while you let it flow. Let it flow.

The energy grew in size quickly taking on the size and shape of a baseball. The bullet fluctuating at first then seemingly stabilized before growing in size.

Yeah. I’ve got this. I’ve really got this down.

Energy surged around the bullet as it fluctuated again. POP the bullet burst exploding in front of Yuuto. He blinked twice as the black smoke around him cleared. Mr. Sensu fanned his hand in front of his face protecting himself from the smoke.

“Wha…what happened? I thought I had it.”

“Piece of advice. Knowing you need focus isn’t the same thing as having focus. Although I’m still impressed you could muster so much energy considering your score during the entrance exam.”

Yuuto’s head turned toward Mr. Sensu like there were gears stuck in his neck he stared at his instructor while thinking. You can’t remember introducing yourself the week before but you remember that.

With his head hanging down Yuuto slunk back in line while listening to the mocking cries of Jet, Sun and Meiji.

“Oh looks like there’s another one who wants to be a great magician. This one thinks he can outshine us all.”

“Yeah guess he figures since glasses is gone. He doesn’t have to hide his real potential.”

“Potential to blow himself up that is. Hey, what’s that smell, it’s like smoky failure.”

“No more like a sorry excuse for a magician.”

Yuuto hadn’t actually noticed they those three goons were in class until they had decided to start making fun of him. It would take a lot more than that to bother him though. But their presence made him curious they mention a kid with glasses, where was he anyway? It seemed odd to Yuuto that they would be here but Senji would be missing.

“Most of the guys’ bullets weren’t that big. And yet you three probably had the smallest in the class. I’d try harder before making fun of someone else. But I guess you can’t help what you’re born with.” Aoi commented out of nowhere.

“Why you. I’ll make you…”

“Enough. If the rest of you would like to see how a proper bullet is made then I suggest you pay attention. And just for you all to know Yuuto managed to surprise me for two reasons one was the amount of energy he managed to produce without exhausting himself, two is the fact he realized the trick behind making a bullet.”

As if a spotlight had be shinned on Yuuto the entire class toward to face him. Some of them looked jealousy while others congratulated him, some just had blank expressions on their faces. No matter what expression they had. Yuuto felt the same way annoyed and concerned. He didn’t want to be the center of attention and now all of sudden he was.

Damn it, damn it, damn it I put too much energy into the bullet. Now it looks weird that I’m not tired at all it’s not my fault. Damn it I didn’t want to attract any attention good or bad and now Mr. Sensu just heaped some at me. Damn you, why? Why did he have to do something so unnecessary? Was it because of those three idiots? Did he think he was giving me a pep talk? That’s it, it’s those three fault I’ll just smash them for this….wait no that’d be counterproductive plus in most things it’s three strikes and you’re out. By my count its one no, no two, they’re at two. I’ll just keep a mental note of that for later.

Mr. Sensu had begun preparing his bullet, the change in the air caught Yuuto’s attention. He could feel the energy emanating from Sensu ever so slightly. Then he saw the ball appear out of thin air like well “magic” It was about half the size of a basketball maybe smaller. It was perfectly round and a light blue color.

“And now I’ll fire it.”

Mr. Sensu said his words after firing the bullet which zoomed across the gymnasium toward the door. It looked like Mr. Sensu was about to prepare a second bullet but before he could the bullet he fired exploded like fireworks in the sky. Small bits of blue energy sprinkled down to the gym floor as Mr. Yoshida entered the gymnasium.

“You might want to give me a warning next time?”

“Sorry about that Yoshi.”

“Why does everyone insist on call me Yoshi? No matter I came here to tell class 1B something before you dismissed them.”

“Well the floor is yours.”

Mr. Yoshida smiled for just a moment, a meaningless gesture before walking toward class 1B. His hand were behind his back as he scanned the faces of all the student he stopped at Yuuto not because of their little chat earlier but because he had soot on his face and clothes.

“As you all well may know Ichiryu no maho Academy is a one of the top magical school in the country as such there are two entrance exams. The first entrance exam also known as the preliminary exam allows you temporary entry into the school. The second exam, the elimination exam determines if you will be staying at the school. This year the elimination exam will be held in one month. That is all.” Mr. Yoshida turned around and left immediately leaving no time for questions.

There was a shocked expression on everyone’s face including Mr. Sensu’s but most of all Yuuto was frozen in place. It never left his mind that he had barely passed to gain entry into the school. Now he was concerned about how hard he would have to work to stay here.