Chapter 4: Nanami Saionji The Pink Shoujo Heroine Reject

  Nanami Saionji wielded a useless power. It was the power to turn things pink, and no matter how hard she trained or fixed her mental paradigms, she couldn’t do much else except make things illuminated in a pink aura much like a shoujo background. If she wanted to be in a shoujo manga and create those sparkle effects of pink in the background of love dovey scenes, it might be questionably useful in that regard, though as of now, she’s in the wrong genre for the shoujo blossom pink backgrounds and she did not have a boyfriend, either. Or any love interest, for that matter. Why? Because she was a Rank 0 Impotent reject. Not only that, she would be a pink shoujo heroine reject too.

  Her hair turned pink from her powers, and she often loathed the color of her hair because it stood out and brought too much attention to herself. Nanami drank a cola from the vending machines, though money would be tight this month and not many people would be clamoring for a Rank 0 Impotent Psion except for basic missions like finding lost pets or babysitting or things otherwise ordinary people would pretty much do on Rank E Missions. It was suitable for her abilities, after all, and maybe children would be delighted by her pink changing abilities, though it was nothing compared to the other Psions who stood paramount in SeRAPH Halls. Nanami only remained in SeRAPH instead of another school with other impotent Rank 0 Rejects because of her grades. It was survival of the fittest in this school, where only the cream of the crop rose to the top and all that, though Nanami didn’t think that she would take this long to fully manifest and have it be such a disappointment. She lived most of her life thinking she was a normal human, with dull brown hair and violet eyes until her powers came at age fourteen, but—surprise!—she could only turn her hair pink. That was a fiasco and social disaster when Nanami wanted to change her hair color to something a little more interesting, but not something like pink.

  Pink was too much. Pink was too LOUD. And Nanami could hear her internal thoughts berate herself with constant dejections and rejections that she just wasn’t GOOD ENOUGH. Of course not, the best students, in their special classes, had reserved seats for them alone as Rank 5 Calamities. She wanted to talk to one of them, to make friends with them, but she didn’t think that they would give her the time of day. After all, the other students bullied at Nanami, poked and prodded her and pulled her hair for being pink.

  She did make a couple of friends though, and she latched onto them with all her heart. Because some small semblance of acceptance and kindness from others would be something she hungered for. Though she noticed as she and her friends went through the training sessions together, her powers weren’t blooming, she wasn’t developing any skills in other talents that ANGeLS members are supposed to have in combat or artistic or leadership skills or the other variety of talents that an ANGeLS member should have in their disposal for whatever situation should arise. Sharpshooting? She couldn’t hit the targets. Cooking? She almost caused a fire. Drawing? Couldn’t draw a stick figure. Computer tech skills? Hopelessly confused how to navigate the web and do web safety. Anything else she tried in a revolving carousel of potential things where she could find her special niche, the thing that only she could do, to stand out and become an ANGeLS member, was thought to be within reach only to have it cruelly ripped away from her.

  Her two friends, a Rank 1 Hydrokinetic and a Rank 1 Calokinetic user (who was often pissed that she was overshadowed by the great Kanna Harada for being the Rank 5 Calokinetic user in SeRAPH Academy and Nanami would listen to her complaint about the other girl and her attitude toward everyone without complaint) Though the one thing that Nanami felt in her heart, was that she was holding her friends back from graduating. They could be doing bigger and better things, taking on more difficult missions, than what was capable for Nanami. They worked in a small team of three because they formed a common bond that they wanted to become part of the ANGeLS one day and graduate. Though Nanami wasn’t sure if it was possible for her to do so. And whether her friends would stay there, awaiting their own graduations, just to wait for her to catch up.

  It was selfish of Nanami to bring her friends down like that. She shouldn’t hold them back, right? But another part of her didn’t want to be part from her friends, the two people who didn’t treat her horribly on her first year of SeRAPH Academy. Something like having friends in her schooling made it more bearable. Though to think that her friends might graduate without her and leave her alone in a school that was unsympathetic to her plight…she didn’t know what she would do.

  “I shouldn’t let it get to me,” Nanami said. “I should congratulate my friends for graduated to the next Rank. “I think my breakthrough should come pretty soon, wouldn’t it? I mean, even if I don’t develop powers that are useful like my friends did or if I never become a Rank 5 Calamity, I still have things I should be able to do, right?”

  Nanami scanned the halls for the thoughts of her friends among the other people in the school, wondering where they were, seeking and questiong them out to tell them that she was wondering whether she should drop out from the school or not. If they were moving onto graduate and leaving her behind, then she wouldn’t want to hold them back due to her own selfishness. Yet…what good was it to go through school without any meaningful relationships?

  Nanami decided to enter the training area to test her abilities. Once the simulator indicated that start time was ready, Nanami let out a focused breath and clapped her hands against her cheeks to hyper charge her concentration. Went into the epicenter of the training room to fight against the polygonal figures that would soon attack from all directions. It was an onslaught that barely lasted a second, and Nanami was left under mental strain and wariness as she realized that none of her psychic abilities have manifested to their full bloom, and neither did she develop her martial arts. Her greatest weakness, besides her stupid power, was her athletic ability.

  But…

  BUT….

  She was determined to do this so she could graduate onto the next Rank along with her friends, because didn’t they make a promise that they would be together with one another through thick and thin? That’s what Nanami believed, anyway.

  Though as soon as the light light that indicated the simulation had started, Nanami didn’t even last a second. She started seeing stars spiral over her head and cuckoo birds whirling above as her head spun, in decaying orbits. Nanami didn’t know what happened to kncok her flat on her back, though they must’ve toughened up the simulation polygonal models, haven’t they?

  Or maybe, Another part of her mind whispered, the mean part, the nasty part that constantly degraded and mocked her. Maybe you’re just not good enough.

  Nanami got up again, slouched, before she played a bit with her side ponytail. Even the purple bow in her side ponytail sagged with depression, as though knowing that Nanami failed to live up to the promises and hopes and dreams she had for herself. She wanted to become an ANGeLS member, but how could she, at htis point, when she couldn’t even last a second against polygonal figures that were simulated to be harmless for training? Nanami shook her head again, clapping her cheeks, before she determined to give it another try.

  “Once more!” Nanami told herself, before she went through the training simulator again.

  The same results occured again.

  Knocked flat on her ass. Nanami let out a sigh before she gathered her legs and put her hands together in a prayer, pleading to some Deity out there that she would develop something other than useless power.

  She lay knelt on the ground for a few seconds before she sensed her friend’s Aura’s a small distance away, wondering why they intiated a separate training sequence without her. Weren’t they a team, didn’t they do everything together? She wandered toward the section of the training room where her friends were, wondering what they were doing and saying, though their thoughts remained closed off to her and they were whispering to one another as they trained among the polygonal figures that leapt toward them relentlessly. They both worked in sync with one another beautifully with fluid movements that showed they honed their practice and techniques over many session together, and Nanami slowly realized that they did this without her this entire time.

  She didn’t have enough evidence to fully substantiate this yet, though with this intuitive sense of emotion she had in her gut, she knew that she was going to be cut loose because she was holding the team back.

  “Hey! You guys!” Nanami said with a cheery smile on her face as she waved toward her friends. “What are you guys doing? Do you think I could’ve joined you in your training session?”

  “Oh no, we’ve got everything handled,” the Hydorkinetic said with a somewhat haughty tone toward Nanami.

  “You can just sit and observe,” the Calokinetic user said.

  “But,” Nanami said as she poked her fingers together, casting her gaze away and unable to meet their eyes. “I thought we were a team?”

  “Weren’t you training by yourself?” the Hydrokinetic said. “You can continue to do that.”

  “But I thought we could do it together,” Nanami pressed, feeling herself visibly wilt as her worst fears were being confirmed true. She was a burden.

  “Don’t worry about it,” the Calokinetic said. “We actually have been talking, and we thought of something that would work out best for all of us.”

  Nanami wilted further, as the feared words were coming out.

  “We’re thinking of finding a new team member,” the Hydrokinetic said. “Sorry, Nanami—youre skills aren’t just gonna cut it. We want to graduate and go onto the next level, but with your skills and abilities, it just isn’t good enough.”

  “Yeah,” the Calokinetic user said, though at least she had the decency to deign some pity toward Nanami. “Sorry, Nanami. We really wanna graduate and we at least need a team of three to be able to work together.”

  “And you’re definitely not the right fit,” the Hydrokinetic said, putting a hand on her hip and letting out her sigh. “Sorry, that’s just how it is.”

  Tear brimmed in Nanami’s eyes, though she tried not to let them show as she kept on smiling thorugh her pain.”Oh, of course,” Nanami said. “I…I wuoldn’t want to hold you two back. I know that you’ve been looking forward to graduating onto the next Rank. But…you think we could keep in touch? We’ve been friends for so long…”

  The Hydrokinetic user looked toward the Calokinetic user, who seemed to share her opinion before the Hydrokinetic user said. “Look, Nanami. Maybe it’s best we don’t see one another at all.”

  “Eh?” Nanami said, feeling all the color blanch from her face.

  “I mean,” the Calokinetic user said. “We’re going to be busy with more coursework and new missions that are more fitting of our caibur. You should focus on you and do what you can do. You got good grades, right? Shouldn’t you be studying instead of trying to become an ANGeLS member?”

  Nanami’s smile froze on her face, before she wilted again. “But I wanted to be together with you guys…since we’ve been here since preschool, right?”

  “Nanami,” the Calokinetic user said, looking like she wanted to say something that she has been letting build up over the years but never said out of restraint. “We already found our third team member. They’re a Level 2 Electrokinetic User, which is far more useful than your Rank 0 Unclassified ability. I mean, what good are you going to do on an ANGeLS mission? Flash people pink?”

  “So you see,” the Hydrokinetic user said, looking scornful. “That’s just how things are.”

  Nanami tried not to cry, balling her hands into fists and biting her lip. “I thought we were friends.”

  “Well, you were more like a tagalong more than anything,” the Hydrokinetic user said, before she gestured toward the Calokinetic user. “She is my real friend. You just followed us and gushed about us being friends without getting to know us.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Nanami bowed her head, before she said, “I guess I never knew you two after all. You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  Then she walked off, leaving the two to train on their own while Nanami sighed and sulked about her situation.

  It was her fault that the situation came to this. She kept on holding onto her friends, holdong onto them and holding them back from living up to their true potential while she was still stagnating and never finding her stride. It was unfair to hold her friend’s back, right? Yet, even so…something about this felt very wrong, and Nanami didn’t want to think ill of her friends and intentions and it was only the natural course of things, a grief in her heart wrenched it like a giant squeezing it in his fist, and her guts felt hollowed out. She lost her appetite for the half-can of cola that she had been drinking out of, tossing it into the dispensor and sitting on a bench outside of the SeRAPH school, her favorite place to go when she was depressed or needed to think. Sometimes both.

  She was about to head that way before she saw something that caught her attention. She was the new student, Junshin Fujimoto, and Rika Kobayashi, the Walking Calamity of the class, training together in a simulation doing basic drills.

  Nanami blinked, before she paused, awestruck, watching them both clear the polygonal figures with perfect form and precision and in time. It was the most basic and fundamental drills in martial arts training that they’ve done, not even using their psionics to wipe out a massive way of polygonal figures, though there was still something mesmermizing about watching the duo fight together and practice their fundamentals.

  Is it all right for me to be watching them? Nanami thought as she stood outside of the window that watched over them.

  “Are you observing too?” a brunette girl said, the Rank 5 Atomokinetic Hina Kihara.

  Nanami felt her breath hitch in her throat with tears that someone of such caliber would deign to talk to her, especially since her two best friends of several years ditched and cut her loose for being too weak. Maybe this person was mistaken and thought that Nanami was like them—she didn’t belong here. She wasn’t a Rank 5 Walking Calamity like these titans. She was Nanami Saionji, a Rank 0 Impotent. Trash. Garbage. Disposable.

  “Um, I didn’t want to bother you guys,” Nanami said in a voice that was barely a whisper.

  Hina smiled gently before she put a hand on Nanami’s shoulder to support her. “Hey, don’t worry about it. You’re always welcome to observe and learn and train with us. Not to try, but I sense that you’re in quite a state of dejection. Care to talk about it?”

  Nanami stared open-mouthed at Hina, before she snapped her jaw shut. She curled her hands into fists, before tears started to finally spill down her cheeks. Hina came over to hug the pink-haired girl in her arms, petting her hair and whispering that everything would be okay.

  “My friends…they just left me, you know?” Nanami said as she parted away from a good long cry and wiped away her tears with the backs of her hands. “After we’ve been together for so long…didn’t our friendship, our time spent together, mean anything to them?”

  “I don’t know about your personal situation or your relationship with those two,” Hina said. “Though from the sounds of it, real friends would make time for you and stay together with you in the courses and help you. Or, if you were that afraid of holding them back, as you put it, they would graduate and still keep in touch. I’m sorry you’ve had such a bad experience in SeRAPH, Nanami…sounds like you’ve had it rough.”

  “I have a useless power,” Nanami whispered as she sobbed again. “The only thing I can do is turn things pink. I mean, what good is a power like that?”

  “It might prove more useful than you think later down the line,” Hina said. “All it takes versatility and a little flexible thinking. If I’m guessing correctly, you’re an Unclassified Psion, right?”

  Nanami nodded in shame.

  Hina looked towards Nanami gently, before she used her atomokinesis to create a hamburger and fries for all of them to eat, four for each, one for Junshin, Rika, and then one for Nanami and Hina. Nanami blinked, not wanting to admit that her stomach grumbled at the sight of delicious food—but how was it possible to replicate such delicious food without even relying existing materials?

  "Well, eat up!” Hina said cheerily before she dug into her burger.

  Nanami took a tentative bite of hers, before her cheeks glowed with warmth. The savory flavor of hamburger patty or rich juicy meat and the vegetables like the tomato and lettuce were perfectly arranged in aesthetic order of an ultimate burger, and the melty in your mouth cheese perfectly aligned with everything that Nanami would call the ultimate cheeseburger. Furthermore, there was ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and a tinge of onions on the burger along with a specially crafted sauce that created a distinct flavor that brought the aromatic spices of the meat and vegetables and buns themselves into full coordination with one another.

  She couldn’t resist. She wolfed down the burger, before gulping down some soda to go along with it, and then taking the deliciously firm yet perfectly soft fries that weren’t too soggy with grease that were out of this world delicious to her sense of palette. Nanami swore that if more of this food was created, Hina could create a business out of this thing. It would be a smart thing to do, too, to create materials out of nothing so that means no more slaughtered cows, resources weren’t expended, and if waste materials were a problem Hina could potentially get rid of the waste by using her Atomokinesis once more to clean up and recycle and restore the energy and physics balance of the world. To think that such an amazing person was offering this token of friendship to her brought literal tears to Nanami’s eyes.

  “Nanami-chan,” Hina said as she conjured up a kerchief with her Atomokinesis and wiped away her tears. “I’m not sure what happened, but sometimes good food and a listening ear will help with your troubles. I’m here for you, okay? If you want refills or an extra order, I can always make some more!”

  “Thanks, this is already good,” Nanami said as she finished off the rest of her burger, belched, and watched as Junshin and Rika came to the meal as well. “You’re Junshin-san and Rika-san…”

  “Yes,” Junshin said with a nod, wiping his head with a cool can of cola, before snapping the lid open and sipping it. “You were watching us?”

  “Um, yes,” Nanami said, suddenly feeling the pressure of their gazes hovering over her. She wondered why literal Deities would be talking to an ant like her, though they seemed comfortable enough to talk with her, though the problem was, Nanami didn’t know what to say to how to interact with them as equals. They were on a whole other level of aptitude, and seeing them perform in the training simulator was both amazing and awe-inspiring and a little soul-crushing. To think that people of such skill existed out there…

  “I see,” Rika said in a calm voice, looking at Nanami levelly with a cool blue gaze in her eyes, though it wasn’t a sharp or cutting gaze, but a silvery blue sheen of peaceful skies. “Did you learn anything from observing us?”

  “I think so,” Nanami said as she held her hands against her drink and began to chug down her cola. “Though whether or not I can apply the fruits of my observations is another problem.”

  “What seems to be the problem, Nanami-chan?” Hina said in concern, conjuring up another serving of fries for everyone as the others dug in and began to eat and listen to Nanami’s tale of woes.

  “Rika and Hina…” Nanami said, blushing and stuttering and glancing away. “You guys, along with Kanna Harada, are like the Idols of the school for being Rank 5 Calamities. I’m so awe-inspired that I don’t know why people like you are talking to me!”

  “Don’t get so starstruck by us now,” Rika said with a small smile, before she cleared her throat and took a French Fry and nibbled on it. “True, our abilities and skills may seem intimidating. Though what you don’t know is the amount of training and dedication it took to get to those levels.”

  “B-But…” Nanami said. “What if your power is something that is absolutely useless? Something that serves no use in the ANGeLS, which is where I want to go?”

  “Nanami-chan, you’re much too hard on yourself,” Hina said as she put a comforting hand on Nanami’s shoulders and hugged her, her brown eyes shimmering and shiny with happiness. “Mama Hina is here to help you! Or if you prefer, I will be your sister or best friend or whatever you need! I think that one day you will become someone really great and surprise us all—you will prove to those who have underestimated you that they’re dead wrong about you.”

  “I can only turn things pink,” Nanami said with a sigh, before she turned a French Fry pink, ate it, and said. “See? Can’t even change the flavoring to something like, I don’t know, strawberry flavored fries. I mean, not that anyone would want that, maybe, but I mean, oh gosh, what am I saying, I’m just babbling about how useless this power is!”

  “You’re self-conscious about your Rank, right?” Junshin said.

  Nanami nodded.

  “When you’re around us, Rank means nothing here,” Rika said.

  “Yes!” Hina said. “In fact, we are just friends among this circle, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Friends…” Nanami said, feeling a sting in her heart about her former friends who cruelly dropped her from before. She so wanted to reach out and accept this grace of good luck, this seemingly lucky stroke of friendship, though would they abandon her too…? “You’re all very kind…”

  “We can’t tell you what to do about your other friends,” Hina said. “We don’t know the entire situation and may be misinterpreting things, but from the sounds of it, you need to make your own decisions about what you want to do, whether you want us to help you train and move on to graduate with your friends or whether you want to stay in SeRAPH. You always have an open seat among us, in either case.”

  Tears started to plop down onto Nanami’s knees as she squeezed them together, a flustered flush over her face as she bowed her head and wracked her shoulders with sobs.

  “T-Thank you so much! I’m just…I don’t know how to react to such kindness…”

  Junshin, Hina, and Rika looked toward one another, before they gave sympathetic gazes towards Nanami.

  “Hey,” Hina said softly, rubbing Nanami’s back in comforting circles. “We don’t know what you’ve been through, but we’re always willing to hear you out, should you need a listening ear. Please take all the time you need to let it all out.”

  Nanami sobbed, her chest heaving in breat sighs and gasps as Junshin and Rika hovered near Nanami to console her while Hina continued to hold onto her. And Nanami grasped onto HIna like a lifeline, the days events rushing to her in one big rush and she was wondering whether she deserved this stroke of good fortune, this literal blessing from the God of fortune and luck to have people like these be her friends and mentors. She wondered if she should invite her friends along, wondering if she was being selfish holding back this opportunity from them too.

  Would her friends be friends with her again if she asked them to join the table with the Rank 5 Calamities in the school?

  But then…Nanami reflected. Such thing wouldn’t be true friendship on their end. They would be using her for status and popularity in the school, and they have forsaken her once, and what is stopping them from using and forsaking her again? It seemed too cruel of a reality, though today really opened Nanami’s eyes on what happened between what she thought were former comrades and friends. She supposed that her friends were too tired of trying to find lost pets with her or babysitting children as kind of guards, though she really thought that they would all climb out together. She worked hard to be above her station, she really did, though she was barely hanging on by a hair for her SeRAPH education.

  Hina patted Nanami again, looking at Nanami with such kind eyes that Nanami’s lip wobbled again. Her eyes became watery, and Hina said, “Oh dear. I must say, Nanami, you’re going to run out of water in your body at the rate you’re crying! Here, take some water.”

  Hina conjured up some water, and Nanami took some to sip. Rika and Junshin looked toward one another wordlessly, before they said their piece.

  “There is something you could do for us, if you’d like to join,” Rika said. “Though first, we need a better assessment of your abilities and where you’re coming from so that we can give you better optimal customized training for you so that you can refine and practice your technique.”

  Nanami wiped her eyes, beefore she literally bounced on the balls of her feet. “Y-You would do that? Really?”

  “Of course!” Hina said enthusiastically. “Besides, we believe that knowledge should be free to everyone, and if we can help everyone be their best selves, then that’s what we’re going to do!”

  Nanami sniffled, before she said. “I’m so lucky to have met you guys.”

  “Well, like I said, don’t get starstruck on us now,” Rika said amusedly. “We’re human like everyone else is.”

  “I-I know! I didn’t mean to put you up on a pedestal, but gosh, I’ve always admired you and the ANGeLS Team,” Nanami said as she fidgeted in her seat and began fiddling with the purple ribbon in her side ponytail.

  “We need to get a proper diagnosis of your abilities first before we can help you,” Hina said. “That’s why we want to see your abilities in the training Simulator. With your powers.”

  “Eh?” Nanami said. “My powers? But…”

  “We’ve got your back,” Rika said. One of us can even come in with you if it makes you feel better.”

  “Nanami nodded. “Okay.”

  “So,” Rika said as she stepped into the training Simulator with Nanami, ready to step up the polygonal fighting wire frames. “I might be best suited for knowing where you potential lies, Nanami, and what your powers might be best suited for. Turning things pink is a starting point, and though you may not be happy with the result now, with training and practice, you can get better and more powerful and be the excellence you wish to be.”

  “Though how am I going to be of help to you in this training simulation?” Nanami said nervously. “I can’t fight and I don’t really think my powers are going to be doing anything…”

  “There is something that I wanted to test, is all,” Rika mentioned, slinging one hand on her hip before she turned to Nanami with a smile. “Now get ready, they’re coming.”

  Nanami tried to shrink as a wire frame dropped from above, which Rika used Telekinesis to manipulate the wire frame away from Nanami as Nanami crouched and hid her hands behind her head. Nanami certainly wasn’t expecting that, but knowing that there was someone in there with her in the etraining sessions was soothing and helped ease her nerves.

  “Now, this is a short experiment,” Rika said. “Flash your powers in the holograms eyes.”

  “Eh? What good will that do? Wouldn’t that just turn it pink?”

  “There might be more to your powers than you realize,” Rika said mysteriously, as Nanami stood up and nodded. Once the wireframe rushed them, Nanami shot one wireframe in the eyes with pink power. The wireframe flinched for a second, blinked, then eventually ran toward Rika and Nanami again.

  “Eee!” Nanami shrieked. “I think I pissed him off!”

  Rika smiled before she said. “That’s all we needed. Thank you.”

  Before she used her psionic powers to literally blast every polygonal figure away in the Training Simulator Room. Hina and Junshin watched from the dock above, marveling at the way that Rika handled things. Junshin turned to Hina, before whispering, “She’ll eventually become a Level 5 Calamity, eh?”

  Hina nodded. “Yup! I believe in Nanami-chan!”

  Once they got out of the training room, Nanami slinked to the floor, knees splayed outward as tears ran down her face. “I was scared! My powers didn’t do anything at all!”

  “But it did,” Rika said. “The effect was brief, though training, you will slowly and surely become a Walking Calamity in your own right, Nanami.”

  Nanami wiped at the tears in her eyes, before she said, “Eh?”

  Rika smiled. “You have photokinesis based powers, Nanami Saionji.”