Sight-Infused

I spent the remainder of the day squinting at random objects to test my ability. I was lucky I still have some strength to do the laundry. That night, I slept early, intending to keep my promise to watch Aliya and her band perform. In the time I spent sleeping, the student council and the festival committee had put in work to decorate the school field for today’s event. Apparently, the school’s festival committee handled all the work when it came to events or decorations, regardless of whether the event actually counted as a festival or not. The club festival didn’t actually count as a festival. It was a small scale event where clubs would perform and try to gather as many members as possible.

There would be several different stages. The sports clubs and anything that relates to physical activity like the magic-wielding club would utilize one of the school’s fields, while the music club, theater, and dance club would be performing in the auditorium. Aliya’s band, which was under the music club, would be performing there as well. Aliya sent me a quick message in the morning, reminding me to attend. I checked the clock.

Eight fifteen.

She performed after lunch, which meant a lot of time for me to go around. The remaining clubs, which did not need a special room or a wide space to operate, all built camps in one of the three school buildings.

“Any club you want to visit?”

I asked Antonio, who walked beside me. He seemed inseparable from his lab coat, which he still wore even on a day like this. The teachers didn’t seem to mind, weirdly enough. His coat didn’t seem dirty, either. Did he have multiple of the same coat…

It started to glow blue.

“Why water?”

“It keeps the coat clean, so I do not need to clean it. All I do is give it a bit of perfume in the morning.”

He lifted his right hand and sniffed it.

“No smell. To answer your previous question, I had already decided to join the science club. The question is not regarding myself, but you. What club do you want to join?”

He asked while pointing at me. I shrugged my shoulders. The school had sent a map to all the new students, listing all the clubs and the places where they built their home base, along with the schedules for performances. I had read through the entire list, not finding anything that piqued my interest. The problem came from the fact that I did not know what I wanted to do, not because of the lack of options. If anything, the number of clubs here was surprisingly high, making me wonder how all of them managed to survive in the first place.

The school only had four hundred fifty students at most, and that wasn’t counting those who dropped out. If the rumors were correct, we already lost eight students from the first year. The rate of drops out significantly increases as time passes, up until the first month, or so I heard.

“Have you not spent time to consider it at all? They shared the list yesterday afternoon, what did you do with your time?”

“Sleeping. To be fair, I’m exhausted.”

“Physically weak is another thing to add to your list of weaknesses. Your overall positive points seem to be reducing with every passing second.”

“Hey, the person from the legend wasn’t strong either.”

“That was because they were at war. They need a strategist, he fulfilled that role. What role did you fill in this day and age?”

“...”

I couldn’t reply. I didn’t even know what role my ability could fit in.

“After completing high school, I suggest you join the military. They would love to have someone like you… assuming you completed high school in the first place.”

“I thought you had forgotten about it.”

“Is there anything from the way I act that makes you think I forget things easily? Have you not been observing me, or have you gotten yourself so focused on the glows around you to the point you forget about everything else? Your life is not decided by your abilities, is it?”

He said as he entered the front door to building A.

“Are you going to the science club?”

“Yes, I am. Maybe you should consider joining me, maybe it would help you and your lack of intelligence.”

“I’ve tried studying before. No matter how hard I try, I never get good grades. The absolute minimum was all that I could achieve.”

“Maybe the way you study is wrong, thus leading you to your demise.”

How could grades lead to someone’s demise?

“Anyway, we should put those things to the side for now. This day is a day where you explore what things you would like to do or learn outside the school curriculum. Let’s not use it to discuss matters that could be worked on other days. You still have a few weeks, did you not?”

We walked through the hallway, looking at the classrooms that stood on either side of the hall. The doors to each room had a small piece of paper attached with the name of the club and a quick explanation of what the club did.

Antonio stopped in front of a room with a paper that bore the writing ‘science club’ on the door. He knocked before opening the door.

“Ah, Antonio. You actually came.”

One of the students inside greeted him. Antonio smiled and approached him, lifting his right hand as he approached. I followed closely behind him while taking glances at the other students that sat inside. I did a quick count and only found six other members inside.

They all wore the same lab coats, although I wonder if they wore them just for this day, or were they like Antonio who wore them wherever he went.

“Of course. I had made a promise to meet you here, I would not go back on it without notice.”

“Doesn’t mean it’s alright for you to disappear with notice.”

A short hair girl cut into the conversation, a slight smile on her lips. It seemed like he knew the people here… could he be…

Ah, the girl’s coat glowed purple. Maybe it was a side effect from the detergent she used? I mean, several products did come with magic shielding properties, for long-lasting effects. Those ones tend to be more expensive, as not only do they need to engineer the product itself, they need to apply the magic on top of it. The only way to apply shield magic that I know was manual application, like the technique Aliya’s maid used.

Wait, does it mean I could see the shield even back then?

“Ah, here he goes again.”

Antonio lightly tapped on my shoulders, bringing me back to reality. Everyone stared at me, looking really confused.

“Ah, sorry. I got dis…tracted…”

I realized that if I didn’t explain it, people would think that I got distracted by the scientist girl, but that wasn’t the case. I glanced at Antonio, who took a step back.

“Creep.”

“Ah, that’s not what I meant!”

I panicked, and the rest of the group gave me an investigating gaze. I looked toward Antonio, pleading for him to get serious and help me. He then gave me one of his smug smiles, before explaining to the rest.

“So that’s how it went.”

Antonio said as he explained my unique properties to the rest of the group. By unique, I meant something entirely different. Instead of explaining my ability to see shields, Antonio told the others that I had been looking for a good-smelling detergent, which was still weird.

“You really should be careful. Your stare is way too weird.”

The boy that Antonio was talking to let out a shrug.

“I’m sorry.”

I apologized, not wanting to push the matter further.

“Anyway, I will be taking him around. You have written my name in, I assumed?”

Antonio asked, his face returning to the plain expression he usually wore.

“Yep. Leave that part to me.”

“Alright, I’ll continue. See you all later.”

Antonio dragged me out of the room while the others waved at him.

“You could have helped me earlier back there.”

“There would be no fun in doing that, same case when you let an ant run around, blocking its path, letting it change directions several times before murdering it. There would be no fun if the bloodshed happened the instant you saw said ant.”

“You’re freaky… do ants even have blood?”

“They have something called hemolymph.”

“I see.”

“Still, you really should learn to control your gazes. For someone who does not know you, it is really, really weird. To add to the fact that you are weird from the beginning, this made you twice as weird. Anyway…”

He leaned back on the side wall, glancing at me, his hands in the coat’s pockets.

“Where do we go next?”

I brought out my phone and looked at the list of clubs, searching for a name that would intrigue me, at least a little. Even the slightest interest would be good.

“Umm… umm…”

“Do you really have nothing else?”

“Sigh… I don’t know.”

I had been focused on Aliya this entire time, I didn’t know what to do without her. I couldn’t just barge into her band and ask to join, especially not when I lacked musical skills of any kind. I wouldn’t want to ruin the atmosphere they built…

But I want to be with her.

And no, becoming a part of her fan club does not count.

“...”

I realized Antonio’s cold glare on me, bringing me back.

“Let us tour around the school. Maybe you will find something that piques your interest.”

He said, turning around and slowly heading for the exit.

“All right.”

I said, following behind him. I looked at the clubs that had their base camp in the same building.

“Language club… literature club…”

I read every single paper attached to the six classes on the first floor. Only one room was left empty, the others were all filled with various clubs trying to promote their activities to their younger audiences.

“Wouldn’t explaining it over and over again every single time someone entered get tiring?”

“Do you not read the listed times under each club’s names?”

“Oh, so that’s what they’re for. But if that’s the case, then why don’t all clubs have it?”

I actually checked the music club’s schedule, and the time listed two in the afternoon.

“Some clubs do not require many explanations, thus all they do is let you fill in a name, and have a gathering of sorts later. Others, especially larger ones that already have too many members, tend to require an audition, of some kind. If you failed to pass the audition, you will be placed in a secondary club of sorts. You will get special training so that your poor performance does not hinder the others, but at the same time, you get the chance to learn. If I am not mistaken, the music club follows this rule, unless you are like Aliya and were recruited by the member… which means if you truly have an interest in music, then I can accompany you to the meetup.”

“You can play music too?”

Antonio shook his head.

“I only said I will accompany you. Besides, I have nothing against learning a new skill.”

If I could get into the music club…

Nah, it wouldn’t help. There would be no way for me to get in the same band as Aliya’s. I would be placed in a completely different, less skilled group. There would be no point in joining the club, not like I had that much interest in playing music anyway.

“Your face said you disliked the idea. Would you rather go alone? Either way would be fine with me. Your ability would be of no use as of now, thus there is no reason for me to be around you at all times.”

“That’s not what I’m thinking.”

“Then what are you thinking?”

“It’s nothing… let’s change buildings.”

I shook my head and exited the building, heading to the one that stood east of it, building B. Like building A, most clubs used the classes on the first floor, but unlike before, there’s a single club that utilized a class on the top floor.

“Why would the traveling club be using the fifth floor?”

Antonio peeked through my shoulder, looking at the phone that I held.

“Traveling involved moving around various locations which stood a long distance from each other. If you cannot move your body freely like that, then you shall not deserve to travel.”

“I see…”

“I made that up.”

… Really?

We went to building B, looking around the clubs situated on the first floor. Nothing caught my interest, though. We eventually arrived at the stairs, which were located on the northernmost side of the building. Antonio started climbing, I followed in his footsteps.

“I wish they had escalators.”

I complained, but Antonio ignored me and continued up.

“If you are this weak, you should forget about joining a club whose very existence relied on traveling great distances.”

“I’m not that exhausted. Just slightly tired… Besides, I’m complaining because I need to climb five whole floors to get to a class. Can you imagine doing this every day?”

We reached the top of the staircases on the fourth floor, which meant there was one floor to go. Antonio looked around and pointed toward the west end of the room.

“If we ever found our class being on the fifth floor, we could just go with an elevator.”

He said, pointing to a double door that had been colored brown.

“Huh?”

I approached the door, only to realize that the brown doors were made of metal. I looked to the side, finding two small buttons on its left with up and down arrows painted on them. I pressed the up button. A ting sound could be heard, followed by the doors opening to the side and a small, brown room inside.

“...”

I walked toward the room, only to be held back by Antonio. He gave me his smug smile.

“Would you really be a traveler if you were defeated by a set of stairs?”