Author's note: Hey everyone! :) I'm Connor, and I do author's notes at the start of all my chapters in bold. This is most decidedly not part of the story. *Nervous laughter* If you want to leave the review (highly appreciated, by the way :D), I'll respond in the AN here. The author's notes usually provide a bit of context, along with some rambling. They're not integral to the story, so feel free to skip them if you want.

I also have quite a few stories on this site, although many of them are rather old at this point. If you're looking for weird Earthbound AU spinoffs, I've got you covered. But in all honesty, this story is new for me because of how... un-weird it really is. The setting is more or less your standard school AU, but even in a school setting I can't really bring myself to write a bunch of sappy drama. So we'll see how this turns out with no sappy drama and fewer people blowing stuff up.

This chapter in particular doesn't actually deal with Lucas and his Magicant. :( But it does introduce Ninten's situation, and that kind of dragged on for almost 5k words. The later scenes with Lucas really require Ninten's investment to mean much of anything, and Ninten needs to explain where he is in life for his investment to make any sort of sense. Hopefully Ninten and Ana will be satisfactory for the time being. :) And because there aren't all that many characters in this story (no real Ness appearance, unfortunately D:), the story will be shorter and I might be able to finish sometime this decade.

Oh, and there are also references to 15th/16th century Eastern European special forces units, for those of you who dig that sort of thing. Not exactly my area of expertise, but there's some pretty cool stuff around that time period and location.

Disclaimer: I don't own any intellectual property of the Mother franchise yada yada please don't sue me.

Disclaimer #2: Strong language (although I do my best not to direct language in abusive/offensive ways; no racial slurs or gender-charged insults). This story as a whole deals with some heavy emotional or mental health issues. While I do base the characters' mental health struggles in part on my own experiences, I'm not a therapist or a psychologist and the way characters deal with their mental health and emotions should not be taken as a clinical recommendation. Due to these factors, this story may not be appropriate for everyone... although I don't think that there's really much that's aggressively disturbing in this chapter or future ones.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day. :)

Ninten reminded himself that he was studying inside a library, and that he should under no conditions do anything that would create a distraction to the other people study-

I can't do this.

Ninten slammed his fists against the hardened grey plastic that lined the smooth tabletop, gritting his teeth as a soft thud registered in the back of his ears. He took a deep breath, doing his best to swallow his anger as he looked around. Nobody at the other tables seemed to notice his outburst. If anything, Ninten noticed more noses sniffing and eyes darting towards the pepperoni pizza in the middle of the study booth next to him. Maybe the tables were designed to be quiet when banged on. Honestly, he wouldn't put it past the university to consider noise-banging levels into account when deciding which tables to pick for the library. Rumor had it that the reason they draped so many curtains around the walls was so that the cloth would absorb all the sound.

Ninten raised another fist to test his new theory that the tables were, in fact, utterly noise-proof before thinking better of it and muttering a curse to himself. He shifted in his seat and released a sigh, bending over his paper and looking over the scribbled pen marks.

He studied the crudely drawn diagram of a pulley system in the corner of his paper. The heavier weight would fall down and pull up the lighter weight at the other end, sure, but how was Ninten supposed to figure out how fast the heavier weight was moving when it hit the ground? He would have to take into account not only the movement of the light and heavy blocks, but also the spinning of the wheel at the top of the pulley.

Which meant, as Ninten had been dreading all along, some nasty math.

Ninten rubbed his eyes. When had been the last time he had gotten a full night's sleep? Working on physics sometimes drove him into hysteric fits on his good days, and he knew that he grew irritable when he didn't get a full eight hours of sleep. He let out a yawn, although a part of him wondered if he was just trying to trick his own body into thinking he was too tired to work on physics.

Well, time to ring the emergency alarm. Thankfully, this one didn't require making any actual noise.

Ninten closed his eyes and entered in the psyweb.

Most people were connected to the psyweb in their everyday life, but to harness the network for anything other than receiving notifications, Ninten had to enter another plane of existence. He could still hear the sounds of his own breathing back in the physical world, and he could still smell that oh-so-delicious pepperoni pizza at the table next to him, but at the same time he stood inside a sprawling room with lime green floors, glassy-clear tables and chairs, and a soft orange horizon in the background instead of walls or a ceiling.

How strange this must have been for Ninten's parents to encounter the psyweb for the first time. He had taken for granted all his life how he could be in the real world, alert and ready to respond if someone tapped on his shoulder, yet at the same time look at all of the people sitting at clear tables and smell the scent of vanilla in the air in this alternate dimension.

Ninten walked over and sat down at a table. He pressed a hand on the glass. He imagined again how it must have felt for his parents to come into the realm for the first time and place an arm on the glass table without feeling the usual cool sensation. Of course, even though it was a shame that he couldn't feel the smoothness of the table, it was probably for the best that other sensations such as pain couldn't be captured and transferred through a psychic medium.

"All right," Ninten said out loud, sliding his hands across the glass table. "Show me Ana Aniah."

The glass table created ripples like a rock thrown into a pond. Ninten held his hands on the table, seeing as the glass ripples forced his palms up and down in waves. Saying Ana's name out loud hadn't been completely necessary, but a part of him was opposed to becoming one of those people who used mental signaling for everything.

And oh, did Ninten know people like that.

After a few moments, the glass stopped rippling and reformed into an image of a wooden frame covered with feathers that was bent near the top to make it look like a curved wing.

Yep, definitely Ann.

A blinking green light at the top of the image indicated that she was online, but Ninten recalled that during the first time they met up to do homework, she hadn't responded to his message for hours even while online. All that time, Ninten had been worrying that his simple message of "So you want to look over English papers, right?" had somehow struck a wrong nerve. And then, of course she had responded, set up a time, strutted into the library to meet him with a massive grin on her face, and probably never known about Ninten's anxiety over her lengthy response time.

Since then, Ninten had left her to the beat of her own rhythm. Sometimes, it would take almost a day for her to respond, but she always would offer help and support when she did. Ninten sighed and connected his mind to the table in front of him in order to send a telepathic message to Ana.

"I'm getting rekt by physics. Send the cavalry plz."

Ninten thought over his message for a moment before sending it telepathically through the table. A ring of light travelled from the outer part of the table into the center, and then shot down the single leg into the ground below.

Two words popped up on the glass table: "Message sent."

Ninten leaned back in his chair and waved a hand upwards, bringing up a clear screen with a list of songs. He picked out one of the songs, technically listed under the pop genre but with actual lyrics instead of a couple lines repeated over and over again, and released a sigh as familiar music started to play in his ears.

Ninten opened his real eyes and appeared back in the library in front of his mess of papers. He gave his list of physics equations a quick run-through before giving up and staring off into the distance. Even outside of the psyweb, the pop music he selected still played in his ears. Because, really, he wasn't completely outside the psyweb. When the psyweb was first invented twenty or so years ago, people would have to immerse themselves completely in it to access its features. But now, it was almost the opposite. Almost every single student around him was connected to the psyweb in some way. Maybe they were listening to music as well, or maybe they were trying out the new psysmell fad. Ninten, and most of these students, never left home without a secure connection to the psyweb in case they needed to access the psyweb's databank of information.

So Ninten had to learn to live with the constant pinging and notifications. He could relegate it to the back of his mind. Mostly.

It took Ninten a few seconds of silence, minus the scratching of pencils, to realize that his song had ended. Ninten hadn't heard any pings from the psyweb, but he closed his eyes and warped himself back into the psyweb to check.

He reappeared right back at his original table in the psyweb, looking down at the Ana's same profile picture of a wooden frame with feathers. No response message.

Ninten stretched his arms up to the orange sky out of habit, never mind that he couldn't even feel his arms in the psyweb. If Ana wasn't going to respond to him now, he would just have to find a way to kill more time.

In the back of his mind, he knew that he should probably try to give his physics homework another shot. Maybe with a clear mind, he could figure out some of those problems.

But maybe he couldn't. Maybe physics was a lie, and this was all impossible to-

Okay, Ninten. Maybe he wasn't calm. Ninten opened his real eyes, appearing back in the library. He gathered up his papers and filed them away in his binder.

It was time to work on something else for a while.

Ninten sometimes forgot, after hours of studying in libraries with other panicked students, how good it could feel to walk outside under clear skies. He walked over to Sullivan Square, nicknamed "shitty club square" by university students. The "square" itself was more of a brick doughnut shape with perfectly green grass in the center and surrounding area. Didn't Mimmie mention once that lawns were terrible for the environment? Ninten couldn't quite remember, but if so he doubted that the university would care despite their supposed green-friendly initiative.

Ninten scouted out one of the stands reading "Sunrise Art Magazine." He circled around the other stands for a few minutes, even though he knew exactly where he wanted to go. A spelunking club? No thanks. Intermural lacrosse? Yeah, not when he wanted to discard his image of being a rich kid. Christian service group? Well, that would make his family happy…

Ninten shook his head and checked his watch. No more point in stalling the inevitable. Ninten took a deep breath and walked up to the Sunrise Art Magazine info booth. The girl standing at the booth had her eyes closed and her lips tilted up in an amused smile. Definitely in the psyweb, or maybe inside her own personal psyspace. Her eyes flashed open as Ninten approached, and she directed her smile towards him.

"Welcome," she said, pushing up the pair of glasses on her face.

"Looks like you have a relaxed recruitment week." Ninten looked back over at the spelunking club, seeing a group of students talking to the person behind the info booth.

"Yeah, everyone's at other places. People tend to be more interested in fraternities and sororities than us."

"Oh, that's going on too?"

The girl gave him a strange look. "It's called recruitment week for a reason."

"I guess so." Ninten could feel his cheeks reddening. "So, uh… this is an art magazine, right?"

He could hear sarcastic clapping in the back of his head. Great going, Ninten. He really nailed the conversation with that one.

"I mean, I know that you're an art magazine," Ninten said. "Are you accepting submissions?"

"We are, provided that you are a PSI student." The girl shrugged. "Obviously."

Uh… no. Not obviously. In fact, Ninten would have been less surprised to hear "We're batshit fucking crazy" as an add-on.

"Hmm." The girl studied his expression. "You're not a PSI student, are you?"

"Why should using psionics be at all related to making art?" Ninten couldn't stop the frown from coming to his face

And of course, Ninten was a PSI student. No rich kid with enough money and resources would be allowed to fail the PSI test.

"Well, it would be frustrating for a lot of PSI students if they had to deal with non-PSI students. You know, a lot of people here don't even come from good families. We're just looking out for each other." She flashes an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

What. The. Fuck.

Poor people shouldn't be allowed to create art because it would offend rich people? What kind of world was this piece of human shit in front of him living in?

"Thanks for your help," Ninten muttered before turning around and walking away.

He did his best to hide his tense muscles, huff of anger, and hands shaking with rage as he made his way back to the library.

So this was the world Ninten lived in.

He slung his backpack off of his back, setting it down on the floor. He unzipped the backpack and shuffled around for his physics binder. After a few moments, he released a sigh and slouched back into his chair.

Maybe his great-grandfather was right. About the status, and about everything.

A pinging from the psyweb interrupted his stewing. Ninten leapt into the psyweb and appeared back at the virtual glass table to smell the familiar scent of vanilla in the air. Across from him sat a girl his age with light, coppery hair and a knowing smile dancing on her lips.

"The cavalry has arrived," she said. "One Winged Hussar at the ready to defend the faith and help with physics. Should be as easy as fighting Turks."

Yep, definitely Ana Aniah. She dressed up as a Winged Hussar last year for Halloween and asked Ninten to go trick-or-treating with her. And this was when they were freshmen and didn't know each other that well.

"Ann, I asked your mother, and she said that you're a quarter Polish," Ninten said. "I don't think that this is really necessary."

"Oh, of course it's not necessary." Ana grinned. "But it's fun. Besides, I could be channeling my Lithuanian heritage as well."

"Are you?"

"No." Ana sniffed. "But people tend to forget about Lithuania."

"Because they always remember Poland."

"For someone who asked me for help, you're being a little rude." Ana frowned. "But let's do this your way. Where do you want to meet? I'm in the science café right now."

"The science café is fine. And… sorry if I hurt your feelings."

"Hey, I was totally kidding about you being rude." Ana paused. "I mean, you were being a little rude, but that's what friends do."

"You must have strange friends."

"Well, at least you're admitting it." Ana grinned. After a moment, she looked around at the different people chatting at the other glass tables. "I hope nobody got offended by my comment about fighting the Turks. Turkey's a cool place. Sort of."

"I don't think anyone was listening to us," Ninten said. "A lot of times, I feel like I'm screaming into the void out here."

"Into the orange void," Ana said, looking out at the carrot-colored horizon. "I hate the designs of these psyspace meeting areas. It actually looks like someone barfed all over the sky."

"What barf have you seen that's pure orange?" Ninten smiled. "But I'm glad that you're learning to be a little considerate of what nationalities you're insulting."

"Nah, I'll still fight Turks any day."

"Well then." Ninten leaned forward. "If you're a Winged Hussar, I guess I'll just have to be a Janissary. We took Constantinople from you Christians, and we're not going to stop there."

"Ottoman warrior spirit at its finest." Ana stuck out her tongue and wrinkled her nose as if she had tasted something sour. "But I'll admit that Janissaries are pretty awesome. For Turks."

"Well, most of the early Janissaries weren't Turks. That's why it fits with who I am."

An uneasy expression crossed over Ana's face. "Is this about your adoption again? You know that your parents love you just as much as your sisters."

"My parents aren't the problem. My great-grandfather yesterday flat-out told me that I was adopted because of my PSI."

Ana hesitated. "He… did?"

"I didn't mean to complain. Compared to the orphanage-"

"It could just be a cultural thing," Ana said, cutting Ninten off. "Maybe he's just really proud of your PSI abilities."

"I don't think so," Ninten said. "I think my great-grandfather is just a cold person."

"If you really think so…" Ana fumbled for words, "Then I'm sorry."

"Like I said, I'm not complaining. Besides, Winged Hussars were recruited for their strength and used as tools of the state just like Janissaries."

"The analogy doesn't extend that far. I'm not a tool to be used by my parents or the government." Ana frowned. "And you seem to be saying that you are."

"There's nothing wrong with being useful, Ann."

"But there's something wrong with being used." Ana inhaled sharply. "Well, I'm glad that you're okay with your situation. Just… don't be afraid to talk to someone about this if you need support, all right? Maybe we should focus on physics for now. It's getting late."

Ninten looked down and issued a mental command to have it tell the time. The numbers 4:26 appear on the glass a moment later. There should be plenty of time to finish up the physics assignment, but maybe Ana needed a few minutes to herself.

"Yeah," Ninten said. "I'll meet you at the café."

Ninten walked into the science café, looking at the sign labelled by the elemental symbols for calcium and iron lined up next to each other to spell Ca Fe. He spotted Ana pouring over her massive white physics textbook a few tables away from the counter. She looked up as he walked over, a sly grin coming to her face.

"There you are." Ana hoisted up a pink-colored smoothie and took a sip. "I'm glad you came to me for help. This assignment is a little tricky."

"A little tricky? It's absolutely insane."

Ana looked over at the other people at nearby tables, none of whom seemed bothered by Ninten's whiny tone. Most of them had their eyes shut, and their focused facial expressions told Ninten that they were navigating the psyweb rather than taking a nap.

"Now might not be a good time to bring this up," Ana said, "But…"

"But what?"

"You kind of say this every time."

"Well, the assigments are insane every time. I don't know how we're passing this class."

Ana raised an eyebrow. Despite Ninten's complaining, he managed to do better than her on the first exam. In fact, he got one of the top scores in the class.

Fuck if he knew how.

"Well, let's go through the problem you're stuck on," Ana said. "There was an example like this in the book."

Ninten let out a shudder as he looked over at the giant, white tome to the left of Ana. It amazed him, again and again, how Ana could actually stand to read material that managed to be incredibly boring yet hopelessly confusing at the same time.

"Hey, it was interesting," Ana said, smiling as if she could read his mind.

"Well, I guess some people are interested in boring material," Ninten said. "And either you've already gotten good at PSI or I need to hide my expressions better."

"Why not both?" Ana grinned. After a moment, the smile dropped off her face. "Have you noticed all the freshmen around here?"

Something about the sad tone of her voice prompted a memory to resurface.

Heart pounding with anxiety, a stern woman with grey eyes trained unwaveringly on him as she flicked her wrist to slam shut the only door with PSI, locking him alone with her in a grey room. She took a step forward, the clack of her shoes echoing throughout. She leaned in and whispered three words to him.

"Make it work."

And then, when Ninten took his next breath, the air wouldn't come.

"It's PSI testing, isn't it?" Ninten said, returning to the present. Even saying the words out loud gave him nausea.

Make it work, or be known in life as a failure. How was it fair that so much of his life could be judged by a single moment?

Ninten shook his head. This is what happened when he passed the stupid test. If he had failed… Ninten didn't know what he would have done. His adoption hinged on his ability to accidentally make a doll levitate at age six. He was raised with the unspoken promise that he would become a psion and use his PSI to enforce his family's will.

What would happen if all of that had disappeared in a moment? What would he do? Who would he be?

"Ninten, are you okay?" Ninten returned to the present to see Ana's blue eyes, wide with concern, examining his face. "Can you breathe all right?"

"I'm fine." Ninten reached into his pocket and gripped his inhaler. "It's not coming. Not this time."

"If PSI testing is a touchy subject, then we don't have to talk about it," Ana said.

"When did you have your test?" Ninten said. "I never asked you."

Ana blinked, shooting him a suspicious look moments later. "Right at the beginning of the week. Why does it matter?"

"So you didn't have as much time to prepare."

"You mean that I didn't have time to shake down my friends for tips and tricks." Ana shrugged. "It's hard for me to be too mad when everything turned out well."

That was the difference between Ninten and Ana right there. Ninten wished that he could be more like Ana and not worry so much about what could have been when the here and now was plenty challenging to navigate. But there were some thoughts he just couldn't shake.

Who would he have been today if he had failed the PSI test?

"I didn't know this was so painful for you," Ana said. "If you want, we can talk about something else."

"Hard to ignore." Ninten looked around at the tense postures and steady gazes of the freshmen around him. He could almost taste the anticipation in the air. "Besides, I always feel like it's me who has all of these touchy issues. Do you ever wish that you could come to me for help?"

Ana's eyes widened in surprise. "I… uh… hadn't really thought about it before."

"I'll take that as a no."

"Ninten." She gave him a soft punch to the shoulder. "I do trust you to help me. It's just that…"

"You're perfect and don't need any help?" Ninten finished for her.

"Of course not. But I think I'm okay with where I'm at. For now." Ana smiled, smoothing out her jeans. "Although meeting together to work on physics does help me a lot, if that counts."

Ninten raised an eyebrow. "You've already read the textbook and know the answers to the problems, and you think having me ask the stupidest questions known to humankind helps you?"

He cleared his throat and looked around to see a few people staring at him. Maybe not so loud next time, then.

"It's nice to check answers," Ana said.

"Okay," Ninten said, quieting his voice. "If you honestly think you need the physics practice then I won't waste any more of your time. How did you do problem four on the assignment? The one with the pulleys and spinning?"

Ana reached down into her backpack and dug out her physics notes, tossing them onto the table. After pouring over a couple diagrams, she looked up at him.

"I'm happy to help you just because," she said. "I don't need anything in return. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, because if you did want something in return then you probably would have given up on me a long time ago."

Ana frowned. Ninten averted his gaze.

"I wish…" Ninten said, "I just wish that I could be useful."

There. He said it out loud. He wanted Ana to be weak and helpless, even just for a moment, so he could do something to really help. Did that make him a bad person?

"Everyone does," Ana said. "And maybe it's easy to be me and to know how to help. But I hope you know that you can't do everything on your own. It's okay to rely on me. I can say that when I do need your help, I won't hesitate before asking. Because it's okay for friends to lean on each other. So please, don't feel like you can't ask for support just because I already help you out with physics."

"Is this about what I said earlier? How I'm a Janissary?"

Ninten hoped that nobody else was still listening, because his words sounded crazy out of context.

"A little," Ana admitted. "You scare me a little sometimes. Humans aren't Skinner's pigeons. We're not tools to be used. You're still you, regardless of what you can do. You know that, right?"

"But I don't want to just stay as me. I want to change and grow."

"There's nothing wrong with changing yourself," Ana said, "But your worth as a human being shouldn't be tied to what tests you pass or fail. Any freshman in this room who fails the PSI test this week will not be any less of a person. And you wouldn't be if you had failed, either. Not in the eyes of your family, not in my eyes, and hopefully not in your own."

Ninten really did need to do a better job of hiding his thoughts from Ana. But she was wrong. His family did care about his PSI abilities. If it was the only reason they adopted him, then his PSI was probably the only reason they still kept him around.

"Even if we get this physics problem wrong," Ana said, "Even if we fail this class like you always say we will-"

"Hey, I only said that I'll fail. You're obviously going to be fine."

"Even if you fail, you should never let failure convince you that you can't be the person you want to be."

Ana looked into his eyes, watching for the slightest motion, the first sign of nervousness or avoidance.

Ninten didn't flinch.

"Maybe we can talk about this later," he said. "I just want to get this assignment done and go home."

Ana adopted a weary smile and slouched back in her chair. "Yeah, I'm pretty tired as well. A little break from all of this work could do wonders for my eating habits. Maybe I'll force myself to make something other than pasta tonight."

Yet even as she smiled, Ninten heard a hard undertone woven beneath her casual words. He looked into Ana's eyes, saw them tighten, and knew that this wouldn't be the end of their conversation.

Staring at Ana's face, he almost missed the sound of footsteps behind him. Ana's gaze shot up as she looked at something behind him, and Ninten turned around to see a man wearing a suit with his hands crossed behind his back. He bowed to Ninten, holding the pose for several moments too long before standing up straight.

"Ninten," Ana whispered. "Do you know this guy?"

Great. Just great. Now Ana would know… well, she already knew about that, but he hadn't really told her everything about what his social status truly entailed. And as far as he was concerned, the more people who saw him as a regular kid, the better.

"I told him," Ninten said, standing up and addressing the man in the suit. "He could send me a message through the psyweb. This is completely unnecessary."

The man offered an apologetic shrug. "Unfortunately, I do not have a say in the matter. Dean George has requested your presence. Immediately."

Now that caught the attention of students around him. Ninten gulped as he looked at all of the heads swiveling and eyes sizing him up. They probably thought he was about to get expelled.

Ninten took a deep breath, realizing only then that he had been clenching his fists. He held his hands together, trying his best to look professional as he smiled at the man in the suit. The poor man really was just one of George's messengers, and he didn't deserve Ninten's anger.

"All right," Ninten said. "Lead the way, then."

Several pairs of eyes followed him as he walked out of the café behind the man in the suit. Ninten knew that he hadn't done anything wrong, and even if he had he would never get expelled.

Not when the dean, known in America only as "George," was Ninten's great-grandfather.