Ryan Homes

Sarah was heading to the school cafeteria to meet her friends after class. As the descendant of a legacy family, she had to be careful of how she presented herself in public. It was why she maintained an ice cold persona and kept others at an arm's length.

Passing through the daily chaos of fights and arguments in the corridors she suddenly heard a particularly curious group.

"Your world is about to become shittier, Mr. Ryan!" she heard the loud bellow from around the corner. It was the voice of the infamous bully in their class. Sarah realized that those imbeciles were out to bully the student named Ryan, probably the same guy who she was supposed to do the semester project with.

Frowning, she quickly pursued the source of the conflict, turning right only to see Ryan calmly walking away, hands in his pockets, whistling. No sign of the group of bullies.

"Isn't he supposed to be weaker than average? I thought he wasn't even a mid ranker."

Sarah could not figure out how he handled several people at once within a few seconds... or did he? She was not sure what happened and it left her feeling puzzled.

In the cafeteria, Sarah was sitting with her friends, silently eating.

"Sarah, I heard you got paired with James for the project."

"Lily, is there any news in this school that you do not know?" Sarah asked exasperatedly.

Lily Fly was one of the powerful high rankers in school, the head of the school newspaper as well as a member of the student's council. With bob cut Auburn hair and a happy go lucky personality coupled with her attractive appearance, she was one of the most popular people in school.

"Hehe. I heard the third person in your group is that weirdo Ryan."

"Yeah, I do not know much about him though. He is a low tier ability user, right? Why'd you call him a weirdo though?" Sarah asked cautiously while trying to feign disinterest in front of Lily.

"Ho, it seems our Ice princess is interested to know about a low ranker?" Lily smirked playfully.

"Nothing like that, he is in my group and you suddenly called him a weirdo. It is better if I know something I should be beforehand." Sarah answered coldly, frowning.

"Haa, well that is true. The thing is, I called him a weirdo because I have such little information about him. You know that I have been trying to make a detailed catalog of students and their abilities for the student council. Well, when it came to this guy, all his public info is contradictory!" Lily smiled bitterly.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Sarah was surprised and asked reflexively.

Lily shook her head as she smiled bitterly, then removed a file from her bag she had already prepared beforehand and passed it to Sarah who opened the file to carefully read.

[Ryan Holmes]

[Second Year - B]

[Ability - Floatation (Can levitate small objects with his hand)] (???)

[Potential - Low] (???)

"The basic information seems to be what I expected Lily, what is absurd about it?" Sarah asked.

"My dead Sarah, a person with such a pathetic ability and potential, not only did he enter a top school like ours where he would be destined to be in the lower dregs, he roams about the school calmly, never attends class and acts like he doesn't care about anything."

"So?"

"What do you think happens in this school to the Low Rankers? They are destined to be bullied and picked on by Mid and High Rankers! And here is the weird part, When this weirdo joined our school that was exactly what he went through, but in these two years, he has no record of being admitted to the infirmary. Not normal!"

"Perhaps he just stayed to himself and did not visit the infirmary." Sarah said as she passed back the file to Lily, who put it back inside.

"Princess, be wary of him is all I am saying."

"I am wary of everyone, Lily."

At that moment she found that far behind Lily, James seems to have approached Ryan who was quietly eating his lunch. At that moment a lot of eyes turned towards James. James calmly walked over and talked to Ryan. James did not appear to be talking in a pleasant manner, while Ryan just had a poker face on.

"Oh boy, looks like bad luck is finally here for the weirdo. I doubt James is up to any good." Lily muttered nonchalantly as she got back to her lunch.

Soon James left the scene, but the eyes did not leave Ryan, who continued to eat, ignoring everything else.

Minutes passed, following which Ryan calmly finished his meal, disposed off the tray and walked out.

"What do you think that was that about?" Sarah asked no one in particular.

"Hee, probably James calling him out for a 'chat', may be asking him not to be the third wheel between you two?" Lily smirked.

"It appears to me that James does not know his boundaries. There is nothing between us." Sarah scoffed.

"I know that, but does that meathead James understand these things? He is just the King of a class in the second year for half a year and thinks he is an overlord now, hmph." Lily spoke with disdain of James.

"His ability has a lot of potential in combat. His intuition for battle is also top notch. If he can let go of his arrogance, he could even be considered by some families who specialize in steel bodies." Sarah dispassionately analyzed.

"Steel bodies huh, the durability of his steel transformation isn't as high, but the mutated versatility in usage is quite potent if used cleverly. We might get some data if we observe his 'chat' with Ryan, haha, want to take a look?" Lily asked with a wink.

Sarah nodded as they headed out behind Ryan, who was heading towards the open field on campus, where James and his gang was already visible.