"Wake up! Wake up Light! I Said Wake Up!"
A man's hand slammed onto Light's desk, causing him to jolt awake.
"I'm up!"
Light said in a rush. He looked up and was greeted by the man's round face.
"Finally, you got to stop sleeping in class. I'd make your sleep curfew earlier but that won't matter after today. Anyways, write down all of the things I'm about to tell you. They won't be helpful for survival but they will be helpful to learn about for graduation."
This was the teacher that Neutral had assigned to Light. He was a taller man, about twice the height of Light, but also very lean looking. He had a relatively easy going attitude that allowed him to be as patient as possible with Light. If it were anyone else, Light would've been killed by now.
"I'll keep it interesting so you stay awake this time."
The teacher pulled a chalk board out, grabbed a piece of chalk, and got to work drawing symbols and words at a speed Light couldn't comprehend.
"And this is just a Fresh God. Way below Good, Evil, and Neutral."
The teacher finished setting up his lesson and set down the chalk, grabbing a pointer stick in its place.
"What is this word?"
Light stared at the word on the chalk board before answering
"Graduation?"
"Bingo! Ten points for you! Now tell me, do you know what happens during this event?"
"I graduate and don't have to learn anymore, just rest out in the countryside for the rest of my life."
Light kicked his feet onto his desk and leaned his chair backwards. This was meant with a sigh from the teacher and Light falling backwards. The teacher, holding a chuckle, waited for Light to get up before responding
"No, graduation signifies you getting your mask. We talked about this already, remember?"
Light, who hadn't paid any attention to the last five classes, looked at the teacher confused
"You are so lucky to have me as your teacher, the one I had would've killed me by now."
He shivered like he was remembering something long ago
"Anyways, during graduation you will officially turn three months old which, to mortals, is about eighteen years old. You'd be an official adult."
The teacher paused for a moment, cringing while he imagined Light as an adult, and then continued.
"During the graduation ceremony, you get your mask. Since I'm sure you don't remember this either, a mask is the main power source of a God. If this mask breaks you're no longer considered one and will be fed to the snake. Do you know why we can't let it break?"
The teacher looked over at Light and was quite surprised to see him writing everything down.
"Why is that?"
Light asked, looking up from his notebook
"A mask is what holds a God's concept."
The teacher glanced over at a confused Light before grabbing the chalk and writing more things on the board.
"Let's start from the beginning. When a God receives a concept, they are essentially giving that concept to all of the mortals. Of course, the concepts always existed in the first place. Take fire for example, there is no God of Fire but it still exists in the human world. This is due to the 'snake phenomenon'. Do you remember what that is?"
"No clue."
The teacher looked to the floor and covered his face with one of his hands , sighing into it before continuing.
"The snake phenomenon is one of the many ways to refer to the World Snake. The World Snake holds all concepts that are not currently held by any of the Gods. However, as I previously mentioned, these concepts within the snake's body are still present in the mortal realm, they just aren't that prominent. Save a few of course."
The teacher looked back at Light only to be met with a quizzical glance
"You may ask."
"First off, if the snake holds all the concepts then why not kill the snake and get all the concepts? Two, what do you mean by "Save a few"? three, what constitutes a concept? Finally, what does this all have to do with masks?"
The teacher took a deep breath before answering.
"Let's start with the first question and work our way down. The reason why no one's killed the World Snake is because no one can. The last time a God attempted to steal a concept from the World Snake was also the first, and the reason it never happened again is because the poor bastard came back in a state worse than a vegetable while his concept was never seen again. Still following?"
The teacher looked over at Light, who was half asleep, and threw his piece of chalk at his hand.
"I got that, Geez! …Did you have to hit the back of the hand?"
"Pass it back and focus up, this stuff gets serious now."
"Alright, alright. I'll focus up. Here."
Light threw the teacher's chalk back to him and he continued.
"Concepts are split into four separate ranks, going from weakest to strongest these would be, Ordinary, Irregular, Divine, and Fated. These ranks don't necessarily determine how strong the concept is, it tells us how praised the concept already is by mortals. An example is; say that one God got the concept of insects. Insects aren't normally praised in the mortal realm so this would be considered a concept of the generic rank. But let's say that a different God got the concept of water. Water is a necessity to life and is therefore praised higher, bringing it to the divine rank. We don't know the exact rank of a concept that hasn't chosen a God yet, we can only estimate. What we do know though is that for a concept to be fated, it has to be a core element of the mortal realm, like how love is. This is often not a physical object, but a literal concept of something, a concept of a concept is the best way to put it. We only know of three fated concepts and those are Good, Evil, and Neutral."
"That's cool and all, but wouldn't that mean one of those three is stronger and could destroy all other concepts? Or just destroy each other and become the strongest?"
The teacher looked towards Light, who seemed bored, and smiled.
"I'm glad you mentioned that as it can sort of connect to your third question. A concept is something that is considered big enough to be important. For example, ash isn't considered a concept. That's because it's too small and depends on something too large, so it instead falls under the category of the fire concept. The reason why Gods rarely kill each other is because concepts are essential and need to be balanced. Say that there was a God of Water and a God of Fire, if these two fought each other and one of them died then the balance would be tipped too far one way and collapse. The same goes for people of the fated rank. If one of the three current fated dies, then the balance would be tipped too far one way and collapse. This would lead to the world being flipped upside down and all the mortals would likely die and, in turn, the Gods as well."
"So every time Good and Evil talk about going to war they're joking about ending the world? Ah yes, me and my friend also joke about ending the world, just your average Tuesday! Also, those two didn't connect at all."
Light thought before the teacher snapped him back to attention
"To fully answer your final question, we'd have to talk about what graduation is. Recently, you might've begun to experience strange episodes, things out of the ordinary like being able to hear people's thoughts, if you haven't then that's fine. But if you have, let me know right now."
Light looked up at the teacher with a contemplating look before responding
"Can't say I have."
The teacher sighed and then continued
"That's completely fine as well. Anyways, episodes like these normally let us know what your concept could be in advance, but since you haven't had any, we'll ignore that portion."
The teacher quickly erased a small portion of the board before continuing.
"Concepts connect to masks because masks are the concepts. That sounds confusing but when you first receive a concept it would be within the 'snakes womb' as we call it. What will happen is a concept, sometimes more than one, will start to call out to you. You will then have to choose the concept that you want and touch it. Once you touch a concept, it will begin to form a mask. Just a little tidbit of information, while the concept is going through the process of transforming into a mask you can design the mask as you like, but keep in mind that these changes will be permanent. Anyways, once a concept is fully made into a mask, you'll feel a small prick. That prick is the concept attaching itself to your soul-"
"Wait what! You mean to tell me that it'll only feel like a 'small' prick? Hmm?"
Light looked at the teacher with a bewildered expression before he continued
"Ok fine, I lied, it won't be a small prick but an excruciating pain. Happy now?"
"Yes"
Light gave the teacher an idiotic grin before he looked back up at the board and got back to teaching, giving a disappointing sigh before doing so.
"Anyways, once the concept attaches itself to your soul, it is now yours. You'll be able to harness its power in exchange for the faith it produces and be considered a full God. But, there's one thing to note about these masks. When a mask is on a God's face, it is the strongest part of their body. It can still be broken but it will be very hard. However, when a mask is off of the God's face, it would take more effort to rip a piece of paper in half than the amount it would take to crush the mask into bits. There is no set way to solve this problem so my recommendation is to just keep it on at all times."
The teacher looked away from the chalkboard and to Light
"Any questions?"
Light looked at the board full of information and raised his hand
"Yes?"
"What happens if a concept doesn't choose you?"
The teacher wasn't expecting the question and was caught by surprise for a second, but quickly regained his posture and answered.
"It's simple really. If a concept doesn't choose you then the snake swallows you whole and either adds you to an existing concept, which forces you to serve the next person that selects it, or makes you into a brand new concept, in which you will then be reborn some place else as a little thank you token. This actually has a risk of happening to everyone if they stay inside the 'snakes womb' for too long. Only three people have ever been rejected though, and I highly doubt that you'll be one."
Light gave the teacher a curious look
"And why's that?"
"Sum it up to me having a positive outlook on life."
The teacher looked outside at the sun and started to pack up his things. He looked over at Light, seemingly confused, and sighed.
"That's all we have time for. You packed everything you'd need right? You're only allowed five items, so they've better be worth it."
Light looked at the teacher and understood what he was saying
"Can I go grab my bag really quick?"
The teacher sighed before snapping his case shut
"Be fast."
Light got up and ran towards his room. Once inside he frantically grabbed his bag and a pencil before running out to meet the teacher.
The first thing he saw when he got his teacher's outstretched arm, like he was beckoning for something.
"Let me see inside."
Light realized what he was asking for and handed his bag to the teacher's outstretched hand, to which the teacher unzipped it and looked inside.
"Some food and water, a firestarter, set of clothes, and a notebook."
The teacher looked at Light quizzically
"Wheres the pencil? I know you're hiding it."
Light grabbed the pencil from his back pocket and presented it to the teacher shamefully.
"How'd you know?"
The teacher looked at Light pitifully.
"It makes no sense to bring a notebook with no pencil. It's too illogical, even for you."
The teacher looked down at the teacher which was in the palms of Light's hands, and handed his bag back to him.
"Keep it. It's just a pencil, the only thing that would change if you didn't have it is you wouldn't be able to write. Consider it a reward for listening so well today."
Light looked at the teacher with a face of beaming joy before snatching his bag from him and shoving the pencil into his bag. The teacher looked at him and smiled, like he was reminiscing on something. He then outstretched his hand again.
"Grab my hand tightly now, I have something to go do so I don't want this to take too long."
Light put his backpack onto his back and grabbed the teacher's outstretched hand as tight as he could. One second, Light was in front of the school holding the teacher's hand and thinking about how embarrassing it was to be an adult and holding another adult's hand. A couple of seconds later, Light was standing on a cliff holding the teacher's hand, this time as more of a necessity for balance. He was afraid that if he let go, vomit would be the least of his problems.
"You can let go now."
"Just give me a little bit."
Eventually, Light regained his senses and looked up, only to be face to face with a five year old child.
"Wait a minute. I know you! You're that mortal kid!"
Candy looked Light up and down
"What're you doing here though?"
The teacher looked at the both of them with a confused expression, before grabbing both of them by the shoulders and bringing them to the cliff edge.
"I won't ask how you two know each other but I will tell you one thing. In order to pass this exam, you two must hunt down a Lear. It's a bit tougher than usual but the higher ups thought you'd need more of a challenge since there's two of you as opposed to only one. Don't worry Light, War was paying attention in class so she'll know what it looks like and some of its habits."
The teacher stopped at the edge of the cliff, causing the two children to look down.
"That's a long way down, thank Gods we have a transporter-"
The next thing that Light saw was the edge of the cliff with the teacher looking down at them, both arms semi-extended.
"YOU BASTARDDD"
Light shouted towards the teacher as he was falling down, but the teacher seemed unfazed and shouted back
"I wouldn't bother coming back if you fail! You'd just end up being executed by the higher ups anyways."
The teacher turned away from the cliff edge and began walking away before mumbling to himself
"That should be enough to scare them off for a while."