Ability Wielders

Showing Off

After running, he went back to his house while still mildly jogging. He cooked, took a shower, ate, and then put on his school uniform. By 6:50 AM, he was ready to go to school.

…..

It was 7:05 AM when Hayden arrived at his school. He went inside and scanned his id while reading on his phone before going up the 7th floor.

Arriving at his classroom, he unhurriedly put down his bag as he read. Five minutes passed with only him being present in the room, reading and no one else following after him. By 7:10, his seatmate arrived.

From the introductions yesterday, his seatmate was named Faye Tigreng-Pangil (1). He knew her by face as she was often labeled as the best female dancer of their batch, gaining popularity amongst their peers.

Regardless of that, Hayden didn’t pay her any heed. He even put on wireless earphones when she arrived as he didn’t like being disturbed or hearing unnecessary background noises from other people while reading. Unless it was music, Hayden wouldn’t be able to concentrate as much.

When he put on the wireless earphones and connected it to his phone, he pressed Harmony, the best music publishing app. It had a service that can be shared among three people for the premium version, with one going to his mom, and one other to his dad.

He then pressed a playlist titled “CHORUS,” the nation’s girl group of Korea. The sole girl that he was truly attracted to was a member of CHORUS, named Kim Eun-ha.

Of course, Hayden knew it was infatuation, however, it was precisely because of this reason that he didn’t possess unneeded affection for people. Most of the time, he focused on Kim Eun-ha, he wasn’t even fanboying, simply admiring her looks and personality silently.

Needless to say, he also liked CHORUS’ songs as their songs were good in general, enjoying the mix of cutesy-sexy theme of it. As he listened to songs of CHORUS, mixed in with some anime openings and ending music, Hayden continued reading, disregarding Faye.

…...

Faye Tigreng-Pangil was a woman with voluptuous curves and a face that was beautiful and cute at the same time. She was 160 cm in height, pretty tall for a Filipina. She had light brown skin and a cutesy personality when not dancing, while a fierce and competitive spirit when on the dancefloor.

This gave her the moniker ‘Dancing Queen.’ Faye was well-loved and had a prestigious reputation as she was easy to get along with. Other than that, she was pretty smart, maintaining good grades while still being able to continue her dancing career, competing in writing contests, and on Filipino Pride (2).

With this, many men tried to pursue her, yet failed. No men can resist her charms, and upon seeing a silent, unassuming classmate of hers, she sat beside him. Contrary to her expectations, upon sitting beside him, he glanced at her a single time, and following that, well, there was no after that!

Hayden only had his attention towards the teachers, listening intently. Because of this, she was a little bit annoyed. She never felt so ignored in her entire life. Despite that, when she saw Hayden’s eyes while listening to the teacher, she was put into a trance.

‘Who is this guy? When he’s concentrating on one thing, he looks so stunning! How come I’ve never heard of him in my entire three years enrolled in this academy?’ She was confused. Such an attractive guy would stand out anywhere! At this note, she wanted to try to get close to him, but to no avail.

He was unpredictable, never talked to anyone, and always read on his phone. Hayden was literally the type of guy that didn’t initiate talking with anyone. In the entire first day of school, she never heard his voice, not even once, except for when he introduced himself!

Due to this, she gave up for the day. She thought there were plenty of chances to get along with Hayden in the future, such as group studies, and in physical education when they dance.

She regained her confidence when the idea popped up in her mind. With this in mind, she continued on with her day, giving Hayden a few glances here and there. She didn’t think that Hayden noticed, yet he did. It was just that… He didn’t care.

……

Going inside her classroom, Faye saw that there was only one student inside, it was Hayden. She ‘ignored’ Hayden as she put her bag on her seat.

Then, looking towards Hayden, she saw that Hayden pulled wireless earphones and put it in his ears. She was floored upon witnessing this. He was blatantly snubbing her!

Her mood turned sour because of this. She dismissed this and fished her phone out of her bag.

Soon, the time went to 8:00 AM, Hayden kept his phone as their adviser went into the room for their 30-minute homeroom. Sir Perez held the elections of class officers. Hayden didn’t care all that much with his mind wandering to other places, raising his vote whoever had the majority.

Nobody elected him as he was an unknown, which Hayden didn’t mind. He also didn’t like being a person of power, in fact, he felt it was only a bother to be president as they had no other duties except for being called by teachers, arranging meetings, and all that.

People not students of Scholar Academies think highly of students of Scholar Academies as they had an image of being ‘disciplined, respectable, and intelligent.’ Despite that, Hayden knew otherwise. Inside the school, students cursed, quarreled over small matters, were loud, and not as disciplined as all people think. Teachers knew this, though they overlook it because they were also like that when they went through high school. They admitted that they were wild back in the day.

This was the reason why Hayden thought it was a hassle to become a president or a student of power as every meeting is led by an officer, meanwhile, the entire class goofs around and being such a handful bunch. Nevertheless, they were still disciplined compared to regular public schools. The situation in Scholar Academies, could be described with ‘chaotic,’ while on regular public schools, it can be described as ‘pure and utter chaos.’ There’s a vast difference between the two.

When the election finished, Hayden yawned. When the next teacher arrived, he turned on Divine Perception and listened to them.

…..

10:30 was their Physical Education class. They had PE during Tuesdays, as a result, they had to bring their PE uniforms. Going to the boy’s locker room in the gymnasium building, Hayden changed into his PE uniform.

Most of his male classmates were talking while changing, on the other hand, Hayden quietly removed his uniform. When he took his clothes off, he gazed at his own body and was quite shocked.

His muscles were already pretty defined! Of course, compared to actual body builders, his would be nothing. For him, it was a miracle! With two days of workout, he was already showing signs of having six pack abs, which, prior to that, he didn’t have one?

It was nothing short of astounding! Especially because when he took a shower and looked at his own body beforehand, it wasn’t like this yet! It appears that his Devil’s Persistence was back at it. Hayden pushed his thoughts down his heart and continued to change to his PE uniform.

The uniform still suited him well as he had a thin body build prior to gaining Abilities. He was only getting athletic at this time, so his uniforms wouldn’t be an issue.

For the first meeting of physical education, they had the rights to pick what they want to do. Lazing around was also an option. Be that as it may, their teacher was watching, so it was recommended to not laze around.

Hayden sat on one side as some of the boys played basketball, some played volleyball, and some leisurely ran around the outer peripheries of the indoor court whilst conversing. He first observed his classmates playing basketball, wanting to see their techniques using Divine Perception.

Every move, every motion, every technique, it was all captured by Hayden, from one person to another. 20 minutes later, he steeled himself to ask to join.

He was an introvert and didn’t like socializing, however, he didn’t want to fail! Their teacher was monitoring them. It was forbidden to not do anything!

With this in mind, he stood up and asked if he could substitute with someone. The boys weren’t surprised and welcomed him to a team who had an exhausted player. The said player was playing for an entire 20 minutes straight already, so he took a break.

Hayden smiled amicably as they passed him the ball. He bent his knees, dribbled, and ran towards the hoop. When he encountered someone blocking him, he didn’t pass, instead, he instinctively did a play that shocked everyone on the court, including their teacher and the girls who were watching the semi-intense game.

He did a fast crossover, wanting to trick the one confronting him. It didn’t work, so Hayden did a faint of wanting to pass the guy, jumped back, and shot the ball towards the hoop.

His shooting form and accuracy could only be called perfect. After all, this was the amalgamation of the techniques of fifteen people who played on the court, with some of them playing basketball ever since they were little, adding the basketball matches he watched when he was younger, when his dream of becoming a basketball player was still alive.

When he shot the ball, Hayden was, alike them, surprised that he did that. It was unthinkable for him, who had next to no experience in basketball whatsoever, to do something like that!

Landing his feet, he smiled at the one who confronted him and nodded once. He didn’t say anything and walked away from the man and continued playing.

Almost everyone assumed that what Hayden did was only a fluke. Beginner’s luck. The next thing he did proved them wrong.

When Hayden blocked an enemy in possession of the ball, the guy felt as if he was locked in a cage with a tiger. Hayden’s concentration was intense, and this was without him using Divine Perception.

The guy couldn’t see anyone to pass the ball to, and he knew that Hayden wouldn’t let him pass. A few seconds of staring with each other, the man finally decided to pass Hayden with his dribbling.

The guy dribbled here and there before rotating his body away from Hayden to bypass him. The man smiled when he thought it was his victory. His body froze as he felt he was dribbling air now.

Everyone on the court was now truly flabbergasted. Hayden’s opponent didn’t see what happened. Everyone else did.

When the man was rotating his body, Hayden reacted to already steal the ball, taking advantage of the one hand grip of his opponent, and the fact that the opponent was fully focused on doing a single action.

Hayden took wind of this momentary gap of intense focus and saw the opportunity to steal the ball, so he did. Next, he dribbled the ball, rushing towards the other side of the court. All of the players reacted fast and ran towards Hayden.

Despite their efforts, they couldn’t reach Hayden as he was too fast! His grip on the ball was good, and his handling was even better. When Hayden reached the free throw line, he threw the ball at a perfect angle, ran even faster towards the net, caught the ball mid-air, and performed a dunk with explosive power!

Precise timing and flashy! Hayden’s performance was remarkable! At this moment, the girls who stopped what they were doing was impressed by Hayden’s feat. Adding the fact that Hayden was pretty short and jumped that high, it was as if they were watching a professional basketball player!

Among them, there was Faye. She was surprised of Hayden’s skill in playing basketball. Now, she was utterly confused. “How did this guy not stand out? Pretty good stature, handsome, with outstanding basketball skills. Where was he?”

On Hayden’s defense, he was likewise fascinated of what he did. Did he really do that? Was he the one who truly did that? In truth, Hayden didn’t have the intention to show off, he merely wanted to test if he can do it.

While Hayden was still analyzing his own actions, his teammates patted him on the back. They already changed his views towards this unknown entity. In their eyes, they didn’t doubt Hayden’s skills anymore. He was accepted as part of the pack.

The game continued, Hayden defeating his opponents with his outstanding dribbling skills, feints, remarkable passes, three-point shots with pinpoint accuracy, unexpected passes, it was as if Hayden knew the court like the back of his own hand. His agility was impeccable, passing through a three-man guard with ease, his ball handling was uncanny, doing a crossover, changing paces, rotating his body, faking a crossover, then shooting the ball with a ‘formless’ form, like an anime character, with perfect precision. This was done by using his Divine Perception in the latter half of the game, pushing it to the limits. What’s terrifying here was that all of his actions was natural, akin to flowing water. After 15 minutes of pushing Divine Perception to the edge, Hayden was mentally exhausted.

Hence, Hayden substituted out and drank water on the side. His white sweaty PE uniform stuck to his body, outlining his developing muscles. While drinking, many girls had their eyes stuck on him, gulping.

A fine-looking man was only a fine-looking man. An average-looking man with great skills was superior in their eyes. Unknowingly, all of them developed a minor crush on Hayden.

As Hayden was drinking his water, he had a sudden premonition that a storm is coming. ‘Why do I feel something will disturb my peaceful life?’

Eyeing his surroundings, he now knew what the source of this premonition was. ‘f**k, I showed off too much…’

He realized what his mistake was. Playing was good, exercising was good, learning skills was good. Regardless of the aforementioned things, showing off was bad! Extremely bad! Hayden secretly sighed.

…..

Their PE time was finished. After resting for five minutes when he had a water break, he played ten more minutes on the court. Subsequently, he took another break and didn’t play anymore.

He didn’t want to show off anymore. Showing off too much might backfire on him someday! Actually, it was already taking effect.

“I guess I got to be careful if I would show off my keyboard playing skills...” Hayden shivered at the idea of showing his skills in playing the keyboard.

While changing his clothes in the changing room, many guys came up to him to ask things and interact with him. Hayden entertained them, albeit, giving off short answers, cutting off potential questions after the initial one.

On the outside, Hayden was full of smiles, on the inside, he was starting to get ticked off with these interactions. He wanted his quiet life back! ‘Well, I guess it’s a good exchange for getting good grades… Wait, if I watched sports anime, would I be able to copy their moves?’

His thoughts wandered off, thinking of farfetched concepts that shouldn’t be possible. ‘Nah, those anime shows are way over-exaggerated. At the end of the day, I am still human in terms of physical abilities unless I used Indestructible Devil…’

Talking to himself in his own brain, he was the one to depart from the changing room first. At least that’s what he thought when people caught up to him. ‘Goddammit.’

…..

The day went off smoothly, except for the fact that people tried to socialize with him. Hayden needed to make an excuse to be able to finally go home.

“Jeez…” Hayden underestimated the power of showing off too much. “I wasn’t even trying to show off! I wanted to test the water with my feet, not get pushed in!”

Hayden hated the spotlight too much. Now that it was focused on him, he abhorred it more. Socializing was too much of a drag!

“At least I get my peace at home…” Hayden remembered that he still had his room of solitude. “I guess it’s inevitable to not stand out. I was too careless…”

……

When he arrived at his house, without delay, he ascended to his room and put on comfortable clothes. With the intention of resting, he slumped down his body on his bed.

“Aswang has another victim?” Hayden was surprised. “The same manner? Wait, don’t tell me… A serial killer is on the loose?”

Hayden was terrified of murderers. Having a person wanting to take your life was scary enough, what about a person that wanted to kill for the pure enjoyment of it? Or to get revenge? That’s the worst!

“Holy s**t… If worse comes to worst, I would need to use my Ability to protect myself…” Hayden mumbled. He was not excited, nor terrified of the idea of confronting a serial killer.

On the contrary, he was calm, imagining the worst-case scenario that may occur. “Well, for the interim, it’s none of my business. If the appearance of a vigilante were to be heard by the Arch-Analytics Agency, the Triple A, then it would be investigated. And if they knew of my identity, a 17-year-old, pursuing a serial killer, they would be suspicious. It’s the police’s job, I’m sorry for the people that will be affected…”

Hayden was saddened by the fact that people are dying because of a loose cannon. His main priority for the moment was to survive and protect those close to him. It would be a catastrophe if he gets discovered.

“Well, no use pondering it now if I’m not going to meddle.” Hayden tried to shrug off the matter. “Let’s learn Korean.”

…..

1 Tigreng-Pangil – If directly translated to English, it would mean Tiger-Fang. Meanwhile, Emperador means Emperor.

Fun Fact: Filipinos use Spanish terms as Filipino at times, for example, green in Filipino is supposed to be ‘luntian,’ however, more Filipinos would say the Filipino translation is ‘berde’ instead, derived from the Spanish word ‘verde,’ which, obviously, means green. Emperador is one such example, as well as tigre, which are both Spanish. Another fact is that Filipinos don’t use pure Filipino in talking, we, at least in the NCR, or more commonly called as Metro Manila, more often than not, use a slang termed as ‘Taglish,’ a portmanteau of the words English and Tagalog; Tagalog being the alternative term for Filipino, which is wrong as Tagalog is supposed to be a language in of itself, which Filipino was based on. Taglish is spoken by combining Filipino and English together in a single sentence. Example: “Kumain ka na ba? Hay nako, eat na, please naman, wag ka magpagutom!” – “Direct” Translation: “Have you eaten? Sigh, eat now, please, don’t starve yourself!”

Note: There is quite a number of languages in the Philippines, yes, languages, not dialects. Tagalog is one of these languages, which the national language, Filipino, was derived on. There are two main differences between Tagalog and Filipino. In Filipino, the word ‘titser’ can be considered as a correct translation of ‘teacher,’ while in Tagalog, ‘guro,’ is the correct translation. Lastly, the Filipino language uses the alphabet system of English, while Tagalog uses what is called ‘Abakada,’ and its sentence structure are much more sophisticated than Filipino. If you’re interested, these people on Quora gave a more apt explanation here: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-key-differences-between-the-Tagalog-and-Filipino-languages

2 World Lore Time: Filipino Pride is a competition in the Philippines created by Ethan Puting-Ilaw during his third term of presidency (2029-2032). The Filipino Pride is a competition in the entire country between high-school and college students nationwide, with high-school being both junior high-school and senior high-school combined. Filipino Pride was part of the third movement of Project Intellect as a way to increase competitiveness between the Filipinos, as well as to improve camaraderie between students. Before being able to represent their region, a school must go through city-wide preliminaries, then onto the region-wide preliminaries. Due to this competition, Filipino students clashed, making them have more significant growth in sports and mental abilities likewise.

The Filipino Pride is divided into two main categories, Athletics and Brains. On Athletics, it is where baseball, football, soccer, basketball, volleyball, and many more sports, are contested on. On Brains, it is where the smart kids shine, with talent on mathematics, research, technology, debates, essay writing, poetry, history and geography, chess, analytics, and many more were challenged on.

When the World Government was established, a new worldwide event was born, the Annual Youth Pride event, which is only inferior to the Youth Olympics. The Annual Youth Pride event is essentially a yearly Youth Olympics, with fiercer competition as it is held annually. The main prerequisite is that one is 18 years old. If you’re older than 18 years old, you won’t be able to participate. It was the same if you were younger. Each youth only has one chance in their entire life of participating in the Annual Youth Pride, which was held on the World Government Island, a new island that was discovered in 2029, and is also the base of operations of the World Government. Needless to say, members of the World Government didn’t reside here, as they were still leaders of their own respective countries. World Government Island was named as such because the World Summit was held in it every year.

The World Summit, as it suggested, was the meeting of the World Government. The days before it, the Annual Youth Pride is held.