Riarshi sat himself down at a desk near the front of the small lecture-style classroom. The room was well lit from the morning sun piercing the windows, and the all too familiar scent of eraser board marker and freshly waxed floors floated through the air. Riarshi had thought a program revolving around the use of magic would have left these traditional schooling themes long in the past. But during his initial week of classes, the POH had proved him wrong.

Riarshi unpacked a pen and paper from his bag, placed them neatly on his wooden desk, and mentally prepared himself for the second week by closing his eyes and filling his lungs with a few deep breaths.

The first week of the Hero Program had flown by faster than anyone could have expected.

Intro classes had filled Riarshi's day from 8 AM to 4 PM while reading assignments ate up his time at home. The history of magic, magical science, and magic theory were all important subjects the POH claimed each Hero should be fully versed in. Riarshi had always been strong in conventional academics, so the first week failed to scare him away.

Although Riarshi was confident, he knew things wouldn't remain this easy. Today marked the start of practical classes, and the classroom he was currently sitting in was the meeting spot for his first. According to their professors, these non-traditional classes were meant to test each student's skill with magic rather than their knowledge.

Looking up from his desk, Riarshi noticed Tabito stroll into the classroom. He had a backpack flung over one shoulder and his orange eyes were bright with obvious excitement. They shared a look and waved to one another. At least there was one familiar face in this class.

Riarshi was checking his phone one last time before class started when someone walked over and stopped in front of his desk, casting a tall but skinny shadow over his twiddling thumbs.

He was wrong. There was another familiar face.

"Ah, still here? To be honest, I'm surprised. I thought for sure you'd screw up on one of the first assignments and be sent packing."

Riarshi lazily glanced up from his phone to see Leon standing just inches away. His yellow eyes stared down at him with a sense of unearned superiority.

"Well, I'm here, aren't I? Kinda answers your question," Riarshi said bitterly, trying his best to add the most obvious sense of sarcasm to his voice as possible.

Leon slammed his hands on the sides of Riarshi's desk. Frustration scrunched his face.

"Listen here, kid. If you act like a smart ass with me I'll kick your ass without hesitation. You should be thankful they even gave you a chance in the Program. You could have sat at home and let us take on the role of Hero. Instead, you decided to bog down our class numbers when there's already too many people here in the first place." 

Leon leaned in closer. "Oh, did I hurt your feelings? Don't even think about fighting me. The professors would probably applaud me for showing a commoner some respect. In fact, I think my magic would impress them more so than the beating."

"Oh, thank the gods, I was worried no one would find your magic impressive," Riarshi quipped with artificial worry. He kept his narrowed eyes on his phone. "I don't need to explain myself to you. Leave me alone."

Leon's face flushed bright red. His yellow eyes glowed, showing he had his magic ready for a challenge. Riarshi noticed this and straightened up. 

The classroom door swung open. Silence crashed down over the students like a wave. Leon bolted to his own desk, allowing the anger chilling Riarshi's chest to thaw.

The man who opened the door trudged along the front of the classroom and toward the professor's desk, where he threw his black leather suitcase with a thunk. His long brown hair was pulled up into a bun and large round glasses framed his face, hiding both eyes from view. A cream-colored sweater laid on top of a freshly ironed, white button-down shirt. His presence oozed a sense of seriousness and authority as he stood, looking over the staring students from behind his mirror-like glasses. His face was solid like stone.

A small bead of sweat formed at Riarshi's brow.

If the Hero Program's practical classes were the most intense and carried the highest probability of failing, this man surely meant pure business.

The man opened his mouth to inhale, causing most of the students in the room to flinch.

"Hey! What's up everyone!? You all ready to start the real test of the Program!?" the man bellowed with an unexpectedly casual yet energetic tone. A whitened smile framed his face, and he waved his arms wildly above his head.

"My name is Khohn, and I'll be your professor for the first practical class of the Hero Program!"

The class gasped at this unexpected introduction. It wasn't just his odd casualness that surprised them. It was that the famous Hero, Khohn, had a teaching position in the Hero Program.

Khohn smirked while the students mumbled amongst themselves. "Some of you may know who I am-" he interrupted with his hands resting on his hips, "-but for those of you who don't, I am a Magic Hero for the POH. Former Top Ten member and current Gold Rank."

The Top Ten, as the name implied, were the ten strongest Magic Heroes in the nation. Possessing a spot in this group of elites was something every Hero strove to accomplish. Being awarded a position not only meant increased pay but also guaranteed fame and popularity. Magic was power in this country, and some would stop at nothing to claim it.

Riarshi, deep in thought, shook his head back to the present.

"Now class, from here on out, we'll meet at practice field B. Can't be practicing your magic in a small classroom, am I right?" said Khohn. "Just for today, I wanted to start class in this building to give a quiet and proper introduction."

Khohn paced over to the teacher's desk and grabbed the suitcase he tossed there a few minutes before. "All right, everybody grab your things and we'll officially start the first practical class. Everyone follow me!" he shouted, waving them toward the door.

All twenty students frantically packed their belongings and followed the marching professor out the three story academic building.

***

The POH had built the Hero HQ on a lengthy strip named Hero Street, which ran horizontally in the upper half of Spiritfield. They also built the academic building - where they held traditional classes - on this same road, but across the street from the HQ.

Despite sharing many similarities with an ordinary high school, the POH academic building was far from normal. Temperature-controlled rooms, free vending machines, and congratulatory key-chains were among the many amenities provided to the students enrolled in the Hero Program. Riarshi took full advantage of these.

While the class slowly trailed behind Khohn, Riarshi used this chance to absorb the views of the bustling city during this warm, shiny day. A fresh breeze of grassy air floated past his nose, and the sun beamed down on his skin from a scarcely clouded sky.

The practice fields, also located along Hero Street, were about a half mile away from the academic building. Large and dense with bright green grass, they spanned hundreds - if not thousands - of square feet, just off the main road. Once the class approached the turn for the fields, the students slowed, expecting to take a sharp right onto a maze of concrete pathways leading up to the massive open plain. To their surprise, Khohn continued walking down Hero Street.

"Uhm... Professor, the fields are this way..." one student called out to Khohn. 

The professor whistled a soft tune as he kept on marching. 

"Oh, I know. Just heading to where we're having our first class. Come on, keep up! I'll leave you behind if you stay standing there!" he shouted without turning around, waving a dismissive hand in the air.

A palpable sense of confusion washed over the students. Instead of questioning his judgement, the class fell silent and ran to catch up to Khohn. Marching, Khohn led the bewildered and nervous first semester students toward the Spiritfield Stadium.

Once they were within a few strides from the entrance gate, Khohn stopped and spun on his heel, facing his class. The class shared confused looks with one another.

"Here we are, kids!"

Silence.

One student raised his hand, "Er - professor, why are we here?"

Khohn placed a finger at his temple and gazed at the bright blue sky. A sinister smile spread on his face. "Oh? I didn't tell you all? The first practical class is the annual Newbie Showing!"

"...Huh?" the class murmured in unison.

The Newbie Showing? This wasn't in any of the pamphlets they gave Riarshi with his acceptance. Neither was it on any of the "About Us" postings on the school website he had once studied late into the night.

Khohn turned away from the students again and trotted up to the stadium gate, his dress shoes clicking on the sidewalk. Once he was about a foot from the gate, a large green wall shot from the ground. This massive security measure crackled with small sparks of electricity embedded within its gelatin-like appearance.

Khohn gently tapped the enormous obstacle with his index finger. The wall shattered into a thousand bright green fragments that either floated into the air or fell to the pavement.

Another moment of silence from the class.

"Come on guys and gals, let's get this Showing on the road!"

His puns were already horrible.

***

Khohn led the group down a set of stairs, through a cellar door, and into the innards of the complex, which reeked of a musk that reminded Riarshi of his apartment basement.

The concrete maze brought the group to a wide and dark holding room that connected to the entrance tunnel of the arena. The bright blue sky taunted them from the end of the lengthy tunnel, but Khohn ordered everyone to stay put. They listened.

Over the next ten minutes, impatience continued to grow in each of the students, evident by the murmur of nervous chatter and the shivering of hands. Riarshi was no different. The moans and groans from several teens in the class were riddled with anxiety.

From the same concrete hallway they passed through with Khohn, two more groups emerged, each led by a different professor.

"About time you two made it. I thought you guys would go soft on your Newbies and break tradition!" Khohn yelled out to the two professors leading the groups, waving his arm in the air with an exuberant hello.

One professor giggled and flung her crimson hair over her shoulder. Her light-purple eyes glimmered in the darkness of the concrete atrium.

She clicked her tongue before she spoke. "Come on Khohn, you know that's a professor death penalty if we ignored the Showing."

The other professor, a male, spoke to this. "We all had to do it when we were students, now it's their turn to suffer." The man, slightly on the rounder side, released a booming belly laugh. Khohn and the female professor added their own echoing snorts to the mix.

These cheery roars didn't help the sixty silent and stunned Newbies cope with their spreading anxiety.

If the male professor didn't say it with such a cheerful face, Riarshi would have thought their lives were in danger - that this wasn't really the Hero Program, but a murderous cult who preyed on young blood.

Thankfully, this wasn't the case.

In the corner of Riarshi's eye, a large firework exploded out in the arena. The yellow and red lights shone down the entrance tunnel and into their concrete room.

"There's our signal people!" Khohn yelled. His eyes suddenly widened, and he spun towards the three classes. "I almost forgot, squeeze yourselves into two lines!"

Almost instantly, and without questioning, everyone began separating into two single-file lines.

"Come on, people, hurry up! Otherwise the commish will have my head. He wants this professional and neat!" Khohn shouted, clapping his hands together.

When Riarshi stepped forward to get into formation, someone hit one of his shoulders from behind. The unexpected shoulder check nearly threw Riarshi to the cold concrete ground. He caught his balance with a quick sidestep and straightened himself.

"Hey! Who-"

Right as he spoke these words, the shining glint of sapphire met his newly lit hazel eyes. This wasn't the jewel sapphire he had seen at stores. These were the eyes of a short female whose head barely made it to the height of his chin. Her hair was long and elegant, black like the night sky, and her skin was an olive tan, as though the sun had lightly kissed it. The lights from the arena's exploding fireworks sparkled off of her deep sapphire eyes and her midnight hair, creating a beam of silvery light that cut through the darkness of the concrete room.

Riarshi couldn't take his eyes away from this girl. Without warning, his throat clenched so tight it trapped the choice words he wanted to say. Even if he confronted her about this rude push, he recognized that this girl's eyes stared through him as though he wasn't there.

Her eyes were empty.

The girl did not pause or hesitate, despite shoulder checking a boy larger than herself. She slid into line without an apology or even a glance.

Riarshi snapped out of his brief, brightly lit trance and quickly noticed that he was all by himself at the back of the line.

"Hey, need a line partner?" a familiar voice called from Riarshi's left.

Riarshi spun around.

Orange hair filled his vision. It was Tabito.

"Uh, yeah, sure."

Tabito nodded and beamed that same wide smile he had at the fair. He and Riarshi took their place at the back of the two lines, then followed the crowd as they walked through the tunnel.