Prologue: Bullies

Another school day was taking place at the moment in Domino High, and it had finally reached that time which almost every kid eagerly awaited as the minutes ticked by on the clock and the teacher droned on and on: lunch time.

For other kids, however, lunch wasn't the best part of the day. In fact, some of them really wished that the period would get over and done with as soon as possible.

One of these kids was dashing down the hallway at the moment, hurriedly trying to make his way to the restroom before anyone spotted him. He was a rather nerdy-looking kid, with short, wavy black hair and thick glasses that framed large, inquisitive green eyes. Slung over his shoulder was a bag loaded with heavy workbooks on physics, calculus, and various foreign languages, and a tape recorder for lectures.

Right when he'd turned the corner, however, he suddenly skidded to a halt. Standing right before the bathroom door were three large, rather nasty-looking thugs with their arms folded and evil sneers on their face. "Hey, Kasuka," the middle thug, a guy with brown, closely cropped hair and beady black eyes, smiled poisonously at him. "We've been waiting for you."

Kasuka took one step backwards. "You have?" he said, trying desperately to hide the fear in his voice.

"Yeah, bro," the left guy with rather oily blonde hair and green eyes said. "We've been in desperate need of someone like you to help us."

Kasuka gulped. "Help you with what?" he squeaked with a sinking feeling that whatever it was, it certainly didn't involve schoolwork.

The right guy, sporting spiky black hair and deep blue eyes, pounded one fist into his palm. "We haven't had a chance yet this week to practice using some of our moves," he grinned. "And we'd especially like to do so with a live, actual human being."

The three thugs stepped forward. Eyes opening wide with horror, Kasuka turned on his heels, rounded the corner again, and started dashing back down the hallway.

"A moving target! That's even better!" the brunette thug laughed. Kasuka quickly picked up his pace as he heard the sound of three pairs of heavy footsteps approaching behind him.

He hurriedly ran and ran, turning an inestimable number of corners in a desperate attempt to shake them off, but no matter where he went, he could still hear the bullies, laughing and quickening their run to try and close the gap between him and them.

Finally, after one last turn, Kasuka came across the one place where he knew no bully in their right state of mind would want to go for risk of being seen as one of the geeks: the library. He quickly dashed inside and let the door slam shut behind him. Turning around, he saw the three thugs had crowded together and were peering through the tiny glass window at its top, eyes narrowed in nasty glares.

Kasuka heaved a sigh of relief. He turned around and sat down at a nearby table for a rest. "Just made it…" he panted, giving a small smile. His happiness, however, quickly turned back into fear. "But it's not like it'll make much of a difference in the future…"

He let out another, rather depressed sigh and rested his chin on his hands. "They're just gonna be waiting for me again, no matter where I go…and how many more times am I gonna be this lucky?" He groaned out, "Aw, man…" and sadly laid his head down on the table. "What am I gonna do…"

He sat there for a few minutes, contemplating perhaps writing up his last will and testament. Finally, he lifted his head up and slowly arose from his seat. He started aimlessly wandering down the various rows of books, glancing half-heartedly at the titles.

Suddenly, the particular title of one book caught his eye. Stopping, he pulled it off of the shelf and read the cover out loud: "Different Magical Solutions for Different Situations…" he murmured. He started flipping through the pages and glancing at its various items of what looked like witchcraft creations, ranging from amnesia spells to love potions to incantations which supposedly enhanced one's beauty. "Must be some sort of study on witchcraft or something…"

His eyes fell upon a particular spell, one which required both an incantation and particular items in order for it to work. They opened wide with shock as he whispered to himself: "Strength enhancement…" he murmured.

After staring at it for a few moments, however, he shook his head and snapped the book shut. "Who are you kidding, Kasuka?" he rolled his eyes. "None of these things should actually be able to work…" he muttered. He paused. "Still, maybe I'll check it out anyway…just for a good laugh or something…"