ACT 1
It was a rainy day.
Everyone was peacefully staying in their houses. Well, with a few exceptions.
Even in that weather, a couple of kids could be heard running and yelling through a small town.
---
Akira looked back. The three guys chasing him didn't seem to slow down, and he was running out of breath. However, that didn't bother him that much. After all, he had been in that situation more times than he could count.
As usual, Akira made the "hunters," as he called them, follow him to the outskirts of the town, an area that was hard to make your way through unless you knew it by heart. There, he would make the hunters chase him until they were finally lost and couldn't make their way out.
The reason why Akira managed to pull it off every time was because of magic.
Akira lived with his mother, father, grandfather, and little sister. However, his grandfather had died not too long before. Akira didn't know much about him. He only told Akira that he liked to explore the world when he was young, before all the "madness" began.
The madness was the name of a phenomenon that took place around the time Akira was born. According to his grandpa, humans suddenly started developing magical powers. And despite not everyone being able to use them, it was proven that most people possessed some power.
After that, for an unknown reason, the world was divided into four: the North, South, West, and East. The East, where Akira was born, was the poorest of the four.
Akira always believed that was the reason why almost nobody knew how to use magic, at least in his town. His parents always told him that it was for the better if he couldn't use it. However, Akira never really cared about what his parents or anyone said to him. It's not like he tried very hard to awaken his magical powers, but he was simply able to use them, although barely, but enough to keep him entertained.
---
As he planned, the hunters followed him through a narrow space between two old buildings. Akira could barely hold his laugh, thinking that the poor guys were now deep within an inescapable labyrinth. Eventually, they reached a dead end.
"You finally can't run away, you bastard!"
yelled one of the hunters as they slowly got closer to Akira. However, the boy used most of the strength he had left to jump super high using magic, high enough to reach the top of a smaller building.
Akira started laughing hysterically at the guys who were staring at him in disbelief.
"Take that, you dogs!" The boy laughed even harder.
"That is not fair, you bitch!" another guy yelled.
They tried to shout, hit the walls, and even climb, but to no avail. They were too tired.
After spending another hour or so laughing and making fun of the poor guys that were struggling to find their way out, Akira finally left them alone. That was his favorite activity. He would usually target smaller groups of older guys, sneak near them, and steal something. And just like that, they became the new hunters.
It's not like they ever did something to him, he just found it funny and entertaining.
As he was wandering around, Akira noticed that the rain had stopped and the clouds were going away, revealing the sun that was starting to set. While getting closer to the center of the town, he was wondering if he should go home to have dinner or skip it, steal something using his magic, eat it, and then come back home late. He eventually chose to go home, as he most likely wasn't able to use any more magic that day.
Still, he had some time left, so he decided to do something he had been thinking of for a while.
There was an old bookstore that no one was visiting anymore in that town. The boy wasn't a fan of reading, but lately, he had started to feel the need to know more about magic. He wanted to know how to use it better and more efficiently. His master plan was to become the "ruler of the streets" and to make other kids fear him. "Pretty simple," as he thought.
Luckily for him, that bookstore didn't have anyone to watch over it. As he sneaked in, he had really hoped that there would still be books left, but to his disappointment, that was not the case. The whole place looked like it had survived an entire war. All the bookshelves were either broken or barely standing, and the whole room was covered in dust, which made Akira wonder what had actually happened there since nobody was looking after it.
After scanning around and not finding anything, he eventually gave up and punched the wall, frustrated. He needed to get more powerful, and the fact that he couldn't find his answers there only made him more obsessed with it. Even on his way home, he kept thinking about all sorts of methods to convince his parents to tell him about it.
He knew they could use magic, but they refused to talk to him about it just like his grandpa.
However, he eventually decided to stop thinking about it as he almost got lost on his way.
By the time Akira got home, it was completely dark outside. Not even a light, nothing. The sky was filled with beautiful stars, and if the boy hadn't been hungry, he would have stayed on a roof just watching them. It was his other favorite activity.
He quietly opened the door.