A Spell for Passing
"Jeff."
"Y-Yes!" I squeaked, startled by the hand gripping and shaking my shoulder.
"You're going to do well on the exam, right?"
"Yes..." I nodded at Amy's worried question. The things that had just happened with Shine refused to leave my head.
I wasn't the only one at the starting line. There were five other people taking the exam with me, all of whom I had occasionally crossed paths with at the training grounds. Their eyes were fixed on me. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say they were staring at Amy, who stood right in front of me.
My body, stiff with tension, made every movement feel incredibly awkward. I stepped up and stood beside the others. Once Amy saw that I was ready, she immediately shouted, "Everyone, get ready!"
Every muscle in my body tensed. Crouching low, the examinees finished preparing to sprint.
"Start!"
The moment Amy's voice fell, a violent boom erupted. Bang! A fierce gust of wind made me stagger. Coughing and shielding my eyes from the rising dust, I realized the presence of the people beside me had vanished.
"Huh...?"
As the dust settled, the surrounding view became clear. I was the only one still standing at the starting line.
"Jeff. Can you really afford to take it that easy?"
At Amy's words, I scrambled into motion. My clumsy movements drew the gaze of the onlookers. My face burned with embarrassment. I wasn't focusing at all. I shook my head to clear it.
"Jeff!"
Just then, Shine's voice rang out clearly. Amidst the crowd, I spotted Shine hanging over the railing, waving her hand at me.
"Jeff!"
Rain was also hanging right next to Shine, waving her hand at me.
I slowly took a deep breath. I can do this. I can do this. Because Shine said I could.
Crackle! My heart began to beat wildly. My stiff body gradually relaxed, and a blue light began to envelop my entire frame. Zap! I took my first step.
The blue electric current bursting from beneath my feet wrapped around my body. The blue light, forming sharp lines, shot forward like a flash of lightning. The start was a straight course. I slipped between the people who had run ahead, leaving a blue afterimage in my wake. Crackle!
Reaching a sharp corner, I planted my hand on the ground to halt my momentum. My hair whipped around as the sheer speed clinging to my body rapidly dissipated. I slid, kicking up a cloud of dust. I had reached a section where I couldn't run in a straight line. At this rate, I wouldn't be able to go fast. I reached my hand out toward the top of a building.
The blue current shooting from my hand locked onto the next coordinates. Hearing footsteps approaching from behind, I leaped in a hurry. Propelled by the blue light, my body soared into the air. Whoosh! A violent gust of wind swept over me.
Startled by the unfamiliar sensation, I looked back to see a man floating in midair, smiling at me. Every time he moved, a powerful wind pressure erupted from his body. The moment I lost my footing in the air, the man's body shot forward.
"Ugh..." A faint groan escaped my tightly clenched teeth. I reached out once more.
The instant the blue light shot out, my body arrived on the roof of a collapsed building. It was terrifying. I couldn't bring myself to go any faster. I could already picture a future where I slammed my head against a wall and knocked myself out again. I bit my lip hard.
"Jeff! You can do it!"
Shine's voice echoed again. As if she were speaking right next to me, her voice reached my ears with perfect clarity, no matter how far away she was.
I immediately kicked off the ground and ran. Enveloped in blue light, my body began to sprint at high speed. A straight line, then another straight line. A straight sprint. But I couldn't build up speed easily. The pauses to stop and turn took far too long.
Halting in place, I immediately unleashed my current field. A sphere of blue light expanded from my body. Wider. The sphere enveloping me spread out further. Wider. The blue sphere grew even larger, swallowing the building I stood on. Once more. Wider.
My hair stood on end. Wrapped in blue electricity, I pushed my ability to its absolute limit. The massive sphere enveloped the entire exam venue. I could hear every sound. I could sense every movement. The entire layout of the exam venue was mapped directly into my brain.
"I can do this."
I can do this. I started to run.
The light shooting in a straight line didn't stop; it simply snapped into the next direction. My eyes couldn't keep up with the speed. In a world turned completely white, I moved solely based on the information mapped in my mind. I couldn't see. And yet, I could. Up, down, left again. Then left. Up once more. My brain, pushed to its limit, throbbed with pain.
Tap, tap. The blue light began to brush against things. A grating sound echoed, like lightly scraping against a blocked wall. But I didn't stop. Bzzzt! The only sound in my ears was the crackle of electricity. Every other noise was completely drowned out.
Right after escaping the chaotic course, I arrived in front of the ruins of a collapsed building. In my mind, I could picture the wreckage of a high-rise building completely smashed to pieces. Without stopping, I ran up the outer wall of the building. Because it was slightly tilted, I could run along it without any trouble. The windows beneath my feet shattered. The sensation of them breaking made me stagger, but I kept running without stopping.
And at that moment, I detected a subtle movement. Something was shooting toward me at high speed. My wide-spread current field was still active. This meant the entire exam venue was within my range of perception. The flow of air warped. My body reacted to the unidentified object flying through the air. A faint electrical signal sent from the current field surged through my entire body.
My halting body leaped into the air, dodging the incoming object. My speed dropped. The moment my vision cleared, I spotted the next object.
"Balls?"
Balls. Yes, they were balls. Large balls were flying at me from all directions. But they weren't ordinary balls. The moment I dodged one, it struck the outer wall of the building and dug deep into the concrete. Staring in shock toward the direction they came from, I saw several ball-launching machines, the kind often seen at the training grounds.
I immediately twisted my body. Thanks to my reflexive movements, I barely grazed past a massive ball. I didn't see anything like this when Shine ran. With that thought, I immediately started running again. My stationary body began to gather speed, shooting forward once more. The end of the collapsed building course was drawing near. Running toward the highest point, I didn't slow down.
Tick, tick, crackle. Something holding back my mind shattered. At that moment, my hazy consciousness began to clear up. It felt like waking up from a long, deep sleep. Vitality began to course through my entire body. My muddy, sluggish thoughts became crystal clear.
"You can do it."
The voice that still hadn't faded. I nodded at Shine's words. I can do this. Without reducing my speed, I launched myself off the edge of the building. Wrapped in blue current, I soared high into the air. My body, launched with a loud boom, immediately began to fall. Using my momentum, I cleared the next section of the course entirely.
I began to plummet—a free fall from a massive height. I braced my feet toward the ground.
Thud! A violent impact rattled my entire body. My legs buckled, and my mouth instantly filled with blood. Coughing up the blood that welled up, I gauged the remaining distance. Through blurry vision, I stared at the straight path stretching ahead. My right hand, planted on the ground, was enveloped in blue electricity. A blue line surged along the surface of the earth.
The straight line of current crossed the finish line in the blink of an eye. And in that same instant, I arrived there too. My body collapsed. Slumping to the ground, I spat out the blood pooling in my mouth. "Blegh..."
The people waiting at the finish line gasped in surprise and rushed toward me. I looked at them before simply lying flat on my back.
"She's injured!"
Leaving behind the noisy shouting of the crowd, my gaze drifted toward the massive screen mounted inside the exam venue.
I smiled. I arrived faster than Shine. I won.
"Jeff!"
Rain and Shine, who had been watching the exam while hanging from the high railing, jumped down at the same time. The onlookers reached out in panic, but streams of water gathered around Rain, wrapping around the two of them as they descended toward where I lay. Once again, Shine's voice reached me with perfect clarity. Riding the water down, Rain and Shine rushed to my side.
"Jeff is hurt!" Rain made a huge fuss, grabbing my arm. I gave an awkward smile.
"I passed."
"You dummy!" Shine was furious. She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped my lips. The white cloth was instantly stained red.
"We have to go to Rabin right now!" Rain tried to carry me on her back with her tiny body. She managed to lift me, but because she was so short, my feet dragged on the ground.
People who looked like medical staff approached and examined me. My mouth, my legs, and my arms. After a brief checkup, they laid me on a stretcher.
Hearing that I was injured, Amy rushed over immediately. She ran so fast that the structures inside the exam venue were completely obliterated by her white flash. I had passed the exam in first place, and now I was leaving the venue in first place too. Carried on the stretcher, I was transported to Rabin's Clinic.
"Rabin! Jeff is broken!" Those were the first words out of Shine's mouth as we arrived at the clinic.
"Her legs are completely shattered." Just as Rabin said, my legs were in terrible shape. Because I had braced myself with my legs when falling from such a height, the bones were broken to pieces.
"Will she need to be hospitalized?"
"I don't think that will be necessary," Rabin replied with a smile to Amy's worried question. Rabin's hands began to glow with a green light. He was a healer, an incredibly rare type of ability user.
The treatment on my legs finished in no time. Although the bones had fused back together, they weren't fully healed yet, meaning I would have to wear a cast and use a wheelchair for a while.
"All done," Rabin said after wrapping my legs in a cast.
"Jeff's legs got hard." Shine caressed my legs with a tearful face. It seemed she preferred them soft. Perched on the edge of the bed, Shine stroked my legs and whispered softly, "If your legs are hurt, you can't walk, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then you won't even be able to go to the bathroom on your own?"
"I guess not...?"
"Then I'll have to help you, won't I?"
I didn't answer. Shine smiled happily and hugged my legs tightly.