About 3 years ago, the streets all over the world were full of excitement, Because the long anticipated game, ‘Spellcasters’ was finally going to be released. It had been in development for about 5 years already and was nicknamed, “The game of the future” And indeed it was. Today it has an entertaining esports scene.

Ishin Academy, a prestigious private school in Tokyo, Japan. A classroom filled with chatter about Spellcasters. Amongst the chattering teens, there is a boy scribbling in his notebook.

“I’m so bored, I can’t wait to go home.” He thought.

A group of teenagers tuned into an esports live stream covering a team roster change in America, This means a team is actively trying to change their team.

“Just like that, the trade is confirmed. YKAwkward will be playing for Robust this season.” The live streamer reported.

“No Way, YKAwkward just got traded to Robust.” A teenager said.

Without giving it a second thought, the boy that was sitting down scribbling in his notebook blurted out.

“You mean Yatashi?”

The group's eyes shifted to him, he stopped scribbling and looked up embarrassingly.

“Yatashi?” Someone in the group asked.

“Yeah, YKAwkward. I used to play with him before he got signed.” The boy replied.

The group bursted out in laughter, but it’s short-lived. A boy with scruffy blonde  hair puts his hand up.

“I don’t think you’ve played with YKAwkward, You can’t be much of a high rank. Be honest, what are you? Gold?” The teen asked.

In Spellcasters, There are 8 ranks. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Sage, Diamond, Prime, Grand Prime and the coveted Legend rank.

“If I tell them my real rank, I’d have to go against him on my main account then the whole school would know who I really am.. Whatever, I’ll just lie.” The boy with brown hair thought to himself.

“I’m a sage ranked player, but I can’t be any worse than you.. Right?” He asked the blonde.

“What a joke, seriously? Whatever, I'll teach you a lesson. Meet me at the Rise and Grind gaming cafe after school.” The blonde haired boy said.

“I’ll show you what the higher ranks are like.”

“What’s your name anyways?” The boy asked the blonde.

“Hirota, Hirota Ukyo. And you?” Hirota asked.

“Kugo, Kugo Oh.”

After a boring school day, many teenagers raced to the gaming cafe to see Hirota’s victory. Kugo walked inside of the gaming cafe, he plopped his backpack on the floor and immediately started logging in.

Hirota was known at the gaming cafe as a jokester, he would often troll in his one on one games. Even then, some teens convinced the workers to stream the match on the cafe televisions.

People crowded behind Kugo’s and Hirota’s computers to spectate their warmups. The group behind Kugo gasped as he was hitting crucial combos.

“Alright, enough warming up.” Hirota said.

“Let’s do this.”


On the big television screen, a loading screen was shown, Kugo’s character had a fire emblem and Hirota’s had an ice one. They both load into the game and start on opposite sides of the map.

Kugo sized up Hirota’s moves, studying each pattern that Hirota displayed. Kugo swung his sword, Hirota quickly dodged and began running away.

While running away, he formed a ball of ice in his hand.

Kugo locks eyes with Hirota and begins chasing him.

“It looks like he’s trying to bait me to get closer to him so he can slow me down with that ball of ice.” Kugo thought.

Kugo’s legs turned into flames as he leaped towards Hirota. Hirota is prepared and throws the ball of ice. Kugo, while in mid-air slices the ball of ice causing an explosion of snow.

Hirota laughed.

“How’d you like that?”

He peaked over his screen to see Kugo’s face focused, Hirota’s eyes widened as he looked down at his screen.

The explosion of snow quickly evaporated as fire swarmed Kugo’s character.

“Damn, I used all of my mana doing those two attacks. I guess I have enough for one more.” Kugo thought.

Kugo uses a fire blast to launch him towards a Hirota who was frozen in amazement. He slices his sword all over him, this combo awarded Kugo the first point.

It is common in Spellcasters to do a counter-attack, However, it takes many factors such as; timing, positioning and understanding of the game. This was almost a perfect counter from Kugo. In the small crowd of spectators we see a boy and a girl.

Both are blonde, with blue eyes. These teenagers are: Seto the younger brother and Yuki Hajime the older sister.

“Hey Yuki, that guy doesn’t play like a lowly ranked player, right?” Seto asked.

“His timing and skills, they can’t be that good for his rank.” Yuki replied.

“Somethings up with this guy.” Hirota thought.

Kugo locks eyes with Hirota. Hirota freezes the ground and skates towards Kugo.

“In our last encounter, I played too defensively. But he countered my best attack.”

“I’ll make sure I end him this time” Kugo’s legs turned into flames again, He kicked Hirota up into the air. He launched up to follow through with his attack. He grabbed his sword and landed perfect hits on Hirota again. Awarding him another point.

“Damn it!!” Hirota shouted,

“That’s it. I quit!” Hirota shouts

Out of disappointment a lot of the crowd leaves, Kugo gets up and begins stretching, only to be faced with an angry Hirota.

“Be honest, were you cheating or something?” Hirota asked.

Kugo shook his head.

“Well then, you’re something special. I’ve never seen a perfect counter before.” Hirota said.

Seto and Yuki stand beside Hirota.

Kugo was nervous, he’s never talked to this many people in real life before. He sighed and stammered his next sentence out.

“I’ll be honest, I’m not a sage player.”

“I’m Asprince, Ranked Legend #5.”

Hirota looked in amazement at Kugo. He has not seen a legend this close-up before.

“I knew it, why didn’t you tell the truth before?” Hirota asked.

“I wouldn’t have wasted my time going against a legend.”

“Well, I didn’t want everyone to know about my rank. So if this could stay with us, that’d be great.” Kugo chuckled nervously.

“We won’t say a thing, we promise. Right, Hirota?” Yuki asked.

“Why are you asking me?”

Yuki and Seto looked at Hirota and bursted into laughter. Yuki’s watch beeped.

They stopped laughing.

“Come on Seto, it’s time to go.” Yuki said.

“Yeah, one second.” Seto rolled his eyes.

“I want to play with you when I get home! Accept a request from Setoh, okay?” Seto asked while Yuki dragged him by his hand.

Kugo nodded, Yuki dragged Seto out of the cafe and the door closed behind them.

“Who were they?” Kugo asked.

“Seto and Yuki Hajime, their brother, owns an esports team. Dragon Fire Esports, ever heard of them?”

Kugo stood in amazement.

“Wow, They’re really good. Didn’t they win the Japanese Gauntlet last year?” Kugo asked.

“Yep, this year they’re trying to make it into the Pro League.” Hirota responded.

Kugo felt a drop in his stomach, a momentary glance of nostalgia, thinking about the days when he and his old friend used to obsess over Spellcasters and dream about going pro.

“Yeah,” Kugo muttered. “They’ve got some serious talent.”

The silence between Hirota and Kugo grew a little too loud. Kugo was awkward and Hirota liked to talk.

“I’ll be heading home then.. See you later legend!” Hirota said.

Before Spellcasters took over his life, Kugo had a best friend named Kaito. They were inseparable. When Spellcasters arrived on the scene, Kugo’s skill level skyrocketed to a point where he couldn’t play with Kaito anymore due to the massive skill gap. Nevertheless, Spellcasters remained the center of their universe. Unfortunately, Kaito started feeling like Kugo was always boasting about how good he’d become. Their friendship dwindled, and Kaito made a solemn vow to challenge and defeat Kugo in Spellcasters, all in the hopes of regaining some of his lost pride.

Kugo sighed, his thoughts still lingering on the past, and began walking home. As soon as he arrived home he logged into the game. He adds Seto’s account. Almost instantly Seto accepts it and joins his party.

“Hey.” Seto said.

“Ready to get some games in?”

“Yes!” Kugo stammered. 

The two of them played almost all night.