Michi Tsurugi wanted to become the Kage, the protector his whole village would name their own. To get there he had to graduate the slayer academy. To graduate, the crystal ball in the testing hall had to glow gold for him. It never had. Today it flashed red, then died to gray. He stood in the stone testing hall of the academy, sweat sticking his lime-green bangs to his cheek. His grimoire lay open on the pedestal. Beside it sat the sheathed sword he'd been assigned, no beast tame by his side. A slayer needed all three to obey his will. His book, his blade, his beast. Michi couldn't make one of them listen. "Again," said Master Wyn. She leaned against the wall in her green robes, arms folded. She looked barely older than Michi, but every student knew she had slayed phantoms for a hundred years. She did not smile. She had failed him four times this week already. "Watch the orb," she said. "It shows what you actually are, not what you wish. Right now it shows a boy pushing three things that don't trust him." Michi grabbed the sword and shouted a spell from the grimoire. The blade sparked, then went cold. Still no tame to even react to this failure…The crystal ball stayed gray. Behind him, other students laughed under their breath. “Michi… you fail again.. I’m sorry.”Wyn said After the graduation test Michi walks home alone frustrated. All his hard work and studying still he has nothing to show for it. He wonders why its so hard for him. Why do they sll hate him & put him down? “I’ll show them” he thinks to himself. “ I’ll become A legendary kage. They will have to acknowledge i exist then! they’d respect me and stop treating me like a nobody because i an a Somebody & one day I will matter. Thats not just a promise .thats my truth!”