Autumn Mountain Academy.

I stared at the big letters displayed above the school gate, wondering to myself if I really am in the right place. The school just beyond resembled a miniature metropolis. Tall buildings mingled with a nice open field where students walked through, as maglev trains and small roads alike snaked through the campus.

With a sigh, I adjusted my bag’s strap over my shoulder and began walking forward. Looks like this is the place I’ll be staying in for the next two years. It’s definitely bigger than my last school. The ambiance is definitely better. I’ll have to acclimate myself with the flow of this place as soon as possible.

The atmosphere around me was a typical high school morning. Students and teachers alike walked to their classes, some alone and some with their friends or colleagues. At a glance, everything seemed normal. But upon closer inspection, one would easily be able to notice that something was amiss.

Boys and girls never mingled.

At least, not out here, in the open.

“Hey! You!”

Boys and girls walked together, some in pairs, others in groups of threes or more. But no two people of the opposite sex walked beside each other. It was a strange sight, to say the least. If I wasn’t paying as much attention as I was, I would have completely missed this altogether. But the fact remains, that the moment I stepped into this campus, the two genders suddenly became segregated.

“Hey, idiot! I’m talking to you!”

Hmm. Now that I think about it, people are paying way more attention to me than they should be. Do I have something on my face? Or do they realize that I’m a transfer student? I’m trying my best to blend in here, what are you people looking at?

I eventually get my answer when I end up bumping into a stone wall.

At least, I thought it was a stone wall.

“Hehe.”

What greets me is the image of a mountain of a student. His muscles bulged from his blazer, his hair a bright orange sun, and his eyes glowing with madness. The student before me resembled the image of an orange chinchilla on steroids.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he said with all the haughtiness of a cartoon villain.

“Walking to class.” I reply.

“Ehhh?” he leaned down to meet my eyes. The idiot must have been seven foot tall. “What makes you think you can just walk around looking like you own the place?”

“Did I really look like that?” I tilt my head and realize that he’s accompanied by two other idiots. “Shame. I was trying really hard to look bored. Though I guess that’s why I looked like I was full of myself.”

The idiot grinned and gritted his teeth.

“You’re pissing me off.” he said.

“Sounds like you got issues.” I replied, pulling up my sleeve to glance at my wristwatch. “Maybe you should meet with a psychiatrist or something to deal with your problem? In any case, I’m running late for class.”

I tap him on the shoulder and head on my merry way, all while trying to ignore the shocked and confused looks that everyone is directing at me. The big bully, on the other hand, whose name is still a mystery, doesn’t say anything for some time, up until I’m about twenty meters away.

“FIRE LANCE—!”

A beam of fire seared through the air and roared right over my shoulder, crashing into a nearby tree, annihilating it completely. A pillar of fire burned high and bright, destroying the concrete beneath and blackening the nearby school walls.

Students screamed and shouted around me as they fled from the inferno.

“What the hell?” I ask, narrowing my eyes.

Turning around I see the idiot standing with a feral look in his eyes. His arms are hunched and his massive shoulders are bent. He looks like an angry grab just barely struggling to stay upright.

“I am Shirou Hamasaki! An A Rank Overseer!” he declared to the uninterested skies. “They call me many names— the Inferno, the Hellraiser, the Burning Young Man, the Solar King!!”

The students around us watched in awe, and some of the teachers joined in as well. No one made a move to intervene.

“But most of all, I am known as the Gatekeeper!” he shouted. “I am the judge of all second years, I decide if a second year is worthy of his or her rank! I read through your records, but all I saw was black! So here I am, to test you!”

“Is that gatekeeper thing an official position?” I ask innocently, raising my hand.

“My position as the Gatekeeper is beyond such things as petty rules!”

“So it’s not official then, gotcha.”

“Listen here, you fool!” he flexed his muscles and spat fire from his mouth. “Autumn Mountain Academy is the greatest Overseer school in all of Japan! We are the spear of the morning, the birthplace of heroes, the greatest academic institution the world has ever seen! Our C Rank Overseers are A Ranks in other schools! To wear our uniform is an honor a student carries until death!”

He pointed a muscled finger at my face, his mouth contorting into something that vaguely resembled a grin.

“I’m here to test your mettle, transfer student! I— the Inferno! I, an Overseer capable of creating spheres of fire that reach 5,700 Celsius, a hundred degrees hotter than the surface of the sun! If you can fall to my attacks, then I will demote you to E Rank! If you can survive for five minutes, you will be demoted to D Rank—!”

“I thought the school decided on our ranks?”

“I AM THE SCHOOL!!”

“I thought you were the Guardian?”

“GATEKEEPER!!”

“Whatever.” I close my eyes and shrug. “Listen, I’m late for my class. Go harass someone else.”

“I’m not done with you!” he flared, opening his palm and pointing it right at me.

A sphere of fire gathered at his fingertips, spinning rapidly. It launched forward with a boom, sending a shockwave of fire in every direction. The sphere of fire burned with all the power of a miniature sun. It roared toward me, leaving behind a streak of baleful red.

Then it just stopped— along with everything else.

The world stood still.

I stared at the sphere of fire, wondering what to do with it. Looking past it, I see its master, grinning excitedly at his latest victory.

I stare at the space above and behind him. Reality bends around me. Now I find myself a few feet above Inferno’s neck. When time resumes, my foot comes crashing down on his head, sending his face into the concrete.

The silence that followed was deafening.

Everyone was watching us now.

Inferno’s two cronies stared at me like deer in the headlights.

So much for trying to blend in.

“Hideaki Kimura.” I say, smiling widely. “Second year student and S Rank Overseer.”