My name is Irino Maru—a name only a handful of people ever call me by. My parents. My teachers. …And that's about it.
Everyone else at school calls me "Nerd," "Glasses," "Four-Eyes," or whatever new insult they come up with that day.
It's honestly impressive how creative they can be with bullying. Every. Single. Day.
This all started back when my magic manifested— Or rather, when it didn't manifest—around the age of seven.
Most kids awaken their magic between four and six. I was late. Very late.
Late enough to become the class joke for a long time.
My dad's a normal government worker—not very high-ranking—and my mom does cleaning jobs here and there.
We're not poor, but definitely not rich. Just your average middle-class family.
Since I'm an only child, my parents worry over me constantly. Every time I came home, they'd ask about school.
At first I answered honestly. Then it became routine. Then it became exhausting.
Eventually, I just pretended not to hear them and kept eating my dinner in silence.
That was my life. At school, no one wanted to play with me. I always ate alone.
After class, I'd watch everyone else play together from far away.
I wanted to join them. But in the end, I always walked home by myself.
Then—everything changed the day I discovered tokusatsu.
Heroes of justice, villains of pure evil— It was like someone relit a tiny flame inside me that had long burned out.
Seeing heroes throw themselves into battle to protect the weak…
It was so cool, so inspiring, I couldn't help but imagine myself as one of them.
I wanted to be that hero. A champion of justice. Someone people would cheer for.
From that day on, that became my dream.
When I was about seven and a half, I begged my parents to buy me magic tools and textbooks—
So many that the house nearly turned into a storage room.
If I wanted to become a hero, I needed to become a mage.
Mages protect people from monsters and fight back against Terromagia.
Just like heroes fighting villains in my shows.
I wanted to help people. I wanted to defeat evil. I wanted to be praised as a bringer of justice.
I practiced magic every day until my vision blacked out. Sometimes until my body gave out. I read magic theory books I barely understood.
One book said:
"Magic has no limits. As long as you can imagine it, it can become real."
I was seven. How was I supposed to understand something like that?
Luckily, my mom taught me. She used water magic while cleaning, since it was convenient.
My first magic was water, inherited from both my parents. Mom taught me to feel water—
Its texture, its temperature, its taste, its flow. But she forgot to teach me how to control the quantity.
So I drained all my mana in one go and passed out.
I practiced more.
Eventually, I had enough mana to move on to target-shooting. But that was another problem— Neither of my parents knew any combat spells.
So I studied alone until I finally succeeded.
I still remember that moment perfectly—
Jumping around with joy, smiling like an idiot, even though my hands and legs were shaking from exhaustion.
From then on, I focused only on becoming a mage.
Other students talked about their dreams too, but I never felt we were the same.
They wanted to be mages because it was the social norm.
I wanted to be a mage to uphold justice. I was different from them. Better, even.
Whenever someone talked lightly about becoming a mage, it irritated me. They followed trends.
I followed conviction.
I believed that made me special.
When I entered middle school, I avoided everyone and dedicated myself to studying magic theory.
And that's how I earned my nickname. Or nicknames.
The teasing never stopped— Shoes hidden, milk thrown at me— But I never fought back. It was just another normal day for me.
As long as I walked straight ahead, one day they'd call me a hero.
That's what I told myself.
"Good always triumphs over evil."
I repeated it every time I was bullied.
Just hold on a little longer, I told myself. One day, everyone will recognize me as a hero.
Then—
I heard a rumor that shattered everything.
Onishima Ao.
A boy with no magic.
I didn't believe it. Not even after hearing it from ten different people. Everyone is born with magic.
Even dwarves, who have the lowest mana, can still cast something.
But then— I went to see one of his duels.
And in one moment, everything I believed collapsed.
There he was— A boy holding nothing but a plain metal baseball bat.
No magic stones, no enhancements. Just a cheap bat from a sports shop.
At the start of the match, everything moved faster than I could process—
His footwork, his unpredictable movements, his reflexes that shouldn't be humanly possible.
His opponent was a top-class magic student. But he looked nervous the entire time.
It ended with the sound of metal striking skull.
I had to splash water on my face multiple times before accepting it wasn't a dream.
His opponent had cast beautiful, complex spells— Yet Ao still won.
It felt like the tokusatsu shows I loved. A wicked demon overpowering a hero of justice.
But evil isn't supposed to win.
That single duel destroyed me.
My conviction— Everything I built my identity on— Collapsed into worthless rubble.
I realized there were people far stronger than me. People I could never hope to reach.
Every day after school, when I tried to train, that scene replayed in my mind.
My motivation drained before I even lifted a hand.
My water magic—something I worked so hard for— Felt like nothing but a tiny trick in comparison.
Years passed.
I decided to live quietly and avoid Onishima Ao at all costs.
Even "living quietly" didn't include having friends— Partly because people didn't want to be around me, and partly because… I didn't think I deserved any.
For two years, I succeeded in avoiding him. School was easy so long as I didn't cross paths with that boy.
Arrive earlier or later than him. Eat lunch alone. Go home immediately.
A simple, looping life.
Until—
He found me.