April.

Kurato became an elementary school student.

The school he enrolled in was Momoyama Elementary School, a prefectural public school closest to his home.

Yanagi had apparently wanted to enroll him in a famous private elementary school a bit farther away, but having her escort him to and from school every day would have been too much of a burden and above all, Keita attending Momoyama was the deciding factor.

Keita’s mother had also apparently agonized over sending him to that famous private school, but the tuition was simply too expensive.

Apparently boys with D-rank abilities could be admitted with priority, but because the school put heavy emphasis on ability development, the tuition cost several times more than that of a normal private school.

They had sent him to a private kindergarten, but she had complained that it was already too much on her income alone.

“Good morning!”

“G-good morning…”

When Kurato entered the classroom, he immediately greeted the entire class.

The only ones who returned the greeting were a group of boys clustered together in the corner of the room.

They raised their hands slightly and greeted him back.

In contrast, the boys sitting on top of their desks at the front of the classroom only glanced at Kurato for a moment before turning their faces away without returning the greeting.

So-called, deliberately ignoring him.

The girls surrounded by those boys did not even look at Kurato.

At first, he had been surprised by their reaction, but now it was nothing more than ordinary daily life.

Kurato sat down by the window and immediately generated a shield beneath a potted plant on the balcony and began lifting it.

It was part of his training.

He had already mastered most elementary school academics, so his time after arriving at school was devoted almost entirely to training.

“Makishima-kun, that earlier thing was kind of bad…”

A boy approached Kurato’s seat, constantly glancing around as he whispered into Kurato’s ear.

Kurato immediately understood what he meant.

As E-ranks, they were not supposed to speak to the group of boys and girls gathered at the front of the classroom, the so-called upper-caste group.

But Kurato deliberately tilted his head as if he did not understand.

“It was just a greeting. If they’re going to nitpick over something like that, it’ll interfere with our elementary school life, won’t it?”

“Interfere? Uh… what I mean is… you know, those people and us are different ranks, so… that’s why…”

The slightly chubby and timid boy, Takeuchi-kun, stammered as he continued his weak protest.

He was clearly more concerned about whether Kurato’s voice might be heard by the caste elites perched on the desks than anything else.

So Kurato smiled at him.

“I know. You’re warning me because you’re worried about me. From now on, I’ll only greet our group.”

“Y-yeah. Thanks.”

“No, I should be the one thanking you. Thanks, Takeuchi-kun.”

After saying that, Kurato looked toward the upper group.

Eight boys and five girls.

What they all had in common was that every single one of them had magical power of D-rank or higher.

In this class, those D and C-rank students, the upper caste, held sway, while those of us E-ranks, the lower caste, were pushed to the edges of the classroom so as not to get in their way.

As could be seen even from the morning greetings, while there was no outright bullying that caused physical harm, the upper caste was always given priority and became the center of the class.

In contrast, the lower caste was not even spoken to and had privileges flaunted over them in various situations.

Since they were only elementary schoolers, it amounted to things like being unable to participate in the lunch pudding battles, being stuck with unpleasant roles during cleaning duty or class committees or being barred from using the playground during recess.

They were trivial things.

But if this escalated, it could easily develop into bullying or incidents.

In this class, no, in schools nationwide outside the Special Zone, this kind of visible rank-based caste system had apparently become the norm.

D-ranks are superior.

E-rank trash should know their place.

Apparently, it gets even more vicious in middle school and high school, according to Saito-kun, who had an older brother.

As for Keita, a D-rank, he ended up in the neighboring class.

According to rumors, he was quite popular with the girls there.

Being D-rank with one of the four major attributes, Geokinesis, he was probably seen as promising for the future.

Incidentally, Kurato’s “official” magical power rating remained E-minus.

He had received a D-plus assessment at the Kashiwa Real Tournament a few months ago, but that was not an official measurement.

It was simply to determine eligibility for tournament participation.

Since Kurato had not undergone a re-measurement, his rating remained what it had been at birth.

He had never been inconvenienced by it before, so he had not bothered to formally re-test.

One might think he should just retake it, but when he thought of Takeuchi-kun, Saito-kun, Umegaki-kun, Yamazaki-kun… his fellow E-ranks he had grown close to, he hesitated over whether there was any need to do so.

This class had not been like this from the beginning.

At first, everyone got along without discrimination.

Of course, the five girls had kept their distance from the boys from the start.

But among the boys, there had been no division and no rank discrimination.

Oofuji-kun, Suzuki-kun, Abe-kun and even Kato-kun, now the top of the boys’ caste, had all played together with them.

Things changed in mid-May, when ability classes began.

Once ability classes started being divided by rank, everything changed.

D-ranks and above trained on the grounds to properly use their abilities, while E-ranks were made to do nothing but classroom lectures about abilities.

What kinds of abilities exist.

How should you protect yourself.

Live your life considering the differences in abilities.

That kind of educational philosophy was being taught.

In other words, instead of thinking about how to use abilities they could barely use, E-ranks were being told to learn survival skills to protect themselves.

That was the educational policy that had spread through this school, through Japan and through this world.

However, these ability lectures were extremely meaningful and enjoyable for Kurato.

He gained a great deal of knowledge about abilities he had never known before.

For example, the types of abilities.

Abilities were divided into four evaluation tiers based on their type.

Top-tier, high-tier, low-tier and bottom-tier.

Keita’s Geokinesis, being one of the four major attributes, was high-tier, while Raito’s Cryokinesis, being an even higher form of Aquakinesis, was called top-tier.

The other four major attributes included fire, Pyrokinesis and its higher form Detokinesis.

Wind had Aerokinesis and its higher form Electrokinesis.

Earth had Geokinesis and its higher form Goldokinesis.

In contrast, Kurato’s Create Shield was considered bottom-tier or even the weakest type.

This was because there were superior versions such as Create Armor and Barrier and above those, the completely superior All Create, which could create anything.

Abilities were classified into these four tiers based on usefulness and rarity.

Abilities were also divided into attack-type and support-type.

Attack-types were further divided into close-range and long-range.

Long-range was split into the four major attributes of fire, water, wind and earth, as well as non-attribute types such as Psychokinesis.

Support-types included create-type abilities like Kurato’s shield, Teleport, which had shone in the tournament, Yanagi’s clairvoyance ability and Satomi Ryosuke’s Heal.

Abilities not suited for direct combat were collectively called support-type.

There was also a major difference between men and women in the distribution of attack-type and support-type abilities.

Women were more likely to be attack-types, with around 60–70% falling into that category.

Men, on the other hand, were over 90% support-type.

For example, Keita’s Geokinesis was one of the four major attributes, but because it specialized in interference, it was classified as support-type.

Thinking back, Kurato realized he had never met a male attack-type.

Raito had also said he was better at defense than offense.

As for why this imbalance existed, research had apparently not progressed far enough to determine the cause.

But Kurato believed that whoever granted these abilities had decided that giving men attack-type abilities would only create conflict and had adjusted the ratios accordingly.

As Kurato absorbed this new knowledge, he sent his shield flying up to the rooftop.

Alright.

With no load, he could now control it even at over ten meters away from his body.

Next, he would try farther, more and with heavier loads.

Kurato’s training continued without sparing even the lunchtime pudding battles.

* * *

And so, about half a year after Kurato enrolled, the teacher addressed everyone during homeroom.

It was about the All-Japan Ability Tournament held at the end of the year.

All-Japan was the largest single-combat tournament.

The All-Japan D-rank Elementary Division would begin in late November.

A mock match to determine Momoyama Elementary’s representatives would be held the week after next.

Two students would be selected from this class and a vote would be held next weekend.

Since it was a D-rank-and-below match, E-ranks could technically participate, but it was expected that only D-ranks would apply.

Therefore, the teacher said it would be preferable for D-ranks or those confident in using their abilities to step forward.

Incidentally, this elementary school had six grades with two classes per grade.

Each class had about thirty students, of whom five were girls.

Four were D-rank and one was C-rank.

The boys numbered twenty-five, with eight D-ranks and the remaining seventeen being E-ranks.

Keita’s class had a similar distribution and apparently most public schools outside the Special Zone were like this.

The unusually low number of girls was because many C-ranks and above went to the Special Zone and even D-ranks often attended girls’ schools near the Special Zone.

In kindergarten, he had not noticed, but that was a private school, so the ratio of girls was higher.

Outside the Special Zone, the female ratio was quite low, roughly two men to one woman, like Edo-period castle towns.

Anyway, back to the official tournament.

A voting system.

With only two slots, one would almost certainly go to the C-rank girl Iizuka-san, a friend of Takeda-san (a girl in the upper caste of the class).

The other slot would likely go to Kato-kun or perhaps Takeda-san’s other friend, Shimizu-san.

As Kurato trained, he pondered what he should do to enter the tournament.

If he could win All-Japan, entry into the Special Zone would come into view.

But no good ideas came.

With his E-rank designation, there was a strong tendency for him not to even be considered.

Even if he raised his hand, it would be taken as a joke.

Should he sit this one out and try after becoming D-rank in the magical power measurement at the start of the next school year?

No, this was a rare opportunity.

He needed to build achievements as early as possible and secure entry into the Special Zone.

Raito’s smile from that day was burned into his mind.

As he kept going in circles with these thoughts, it was suddenly after school.

Kurato quickly left the classroom and headed to the back of the school where there was no sign of people.

The grove of miscellaneous trees there was his favorite training ground.

People rarely came and even if they did, the trees conveniently concealed them.

Kurato began training as usual.

But thoughts of how to handle tournament candidacy kept resurfacing in his mind.

What if he tried persuading the E-rank boys to vote for him?

No, that wouldn’t work.

They were doing everything they could not to draw attention from the D-ranks.

Even with anonymous voting, they would hesitate, thinking it would be discovered.

If Keita were here, maybe they could have devised something.

Perhaps because his thoughts were elsewhere, his shield eventually stopped moving and floated aimlessly in the air.

‘Damn it. I’m distracted and can’t focus. At this rate—’

“Wouldn’t that make it not practice?”

“Exactly. That wouldn’t be training at—”

He almost nodded in agreement, then froze.

‘Huh?’

Only after responding reflexively did Kurato’s heart leap.

Someone… was there?

Kurato spun toward the source of the voice.

There was a figure leaning against a tree with arms crossed.

That person was—

“Takeda-san? Um, what are you doing here?”

Takeda-san, his classmate and one of the caste elites, stood there at a slight angle.

A faint smile played on her lips.

She reminded Kurato of a cat pleased with a successful prank.

From those upturned lips, a cheerful voice spilled out.

“Makishima-kun, what are you doing out here?”

“Me? I’m—”

‘Don’t answer a question with a question.’

Kurato frowned slightly, but of course did not say that out loud.

He thought harder about what he should say.

Should he really be honest with her, the most influential student in class?

Training itself wasn’t wrong, but an E-rank acting uppity could be spread around the class.

That would only make voting more troublesome.

Seeing Kurato hesitate, Takeda-san covered her mouth and laughed.

“Ahaha. Just kidding. I know. You’re practicing your ability, right? You do it here a lot after school.”

“Oh?”

Her words sounded almost mocking and Kurato’s voice naturally dropped.

“What’s your objective?”

Sensing Takeda-san was not to be taken lightly, Kurato narrowed his eyes warily.

* * *

Memo

A magic power rank caste system begins from elementary school ← it seems to get even worse in middle and high school.

Outside the Special Zones, the male-to-female ratio is 2:1 ← then what is it like inside the Special Zones!?

Abilities have superiority and inferiority depending on their type. They are divided into four categories: top-tier, upper-tier, lower-tier and lowest-tier.

Abilities are divided into two types: offensive types (long-range and close-range) and support types.

Women are mostly offensive types, while men are almost entirely support types.