I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

Ascension Ceremony.

What can we tell about the said event?

Not much to be honest. One goes to a weird crystal ball, touch it, and sees if something happens.

"If you have magical energy dormant in your soul. Usually, you will understand how to use it, and it will be as if you are waking up from a long dream. So we call it Awakening to gain magical powers" said the teacher in charge of this event.

She looked like a woman in her forties, if Elizabeth didn't spend time with her mother and her friends she wouldn't notice her magical heritage either. If one paid attention it was easy to notice. The slightly pointed ears, the weird shine on her eyes...

The way her nose was pointy without being out of place...

"Psst...I think our teacher is a witch..." said the pink-haired girl to her left...

"What makes you think so?" asked the blonde girl, wondering which one of the points her friend had noticed. She was starting to doubt if she was indeed an airhead, and this was a good chance to test the waters.

"I mean, who else would dress in a long flowing robe and would use a pointed hat," said with all the confidence in the world her new friend...

And just like that, all the reasons why her friend wasn't an airhead went out of the window "Yeah, you might be into something" was all that she could say.

"On the other hand," said the drill sergeant who was, in reality, a crazy old man.

"If you have a special power hidden in your soul. Then you will feel like something is suddenly being turned on. So we call it a Trigger or 'Triggering' to said event. You will understand how to 'Trigger it on' or 'Trigger it off' after experiencing it. " She kinda thought it would have a more in-depth explanation.

But as her father said, you can't explain powers to a nonpowered individual, not even magical entities could understand the powers and their mechanics. They tried.

That was part of the reason why powered men married magical girls after all. Or why Magical Guardians married powered girls.

Not that they called themselves magical guardians, but most of the male magic users called themselves wizards or warlocks or something akin to that.

Like how older magical girls called themselves witches and stopped using frilly dresses and used robes like that teacher.

She hoped Mother would do the same soon enough...

But in Mother's words...Only a magical girl without talent does that. If you could rejuvenate your skin and body. Why wouldn't you do so?

So most of the witches either didn't have the talent or couldn't afford to pay other Magical Girls to cast the spell...

"We will start calling you and you will go through the Ascension Ceremony, you will get several chances to do this. So even if you don't get anything out of this trial. Don't despair, you could still awaken or trigger without this ceremony," said the witch in a sweet tone, trying to dismiss the worried faces around.

She didn't succeed, chances to trigger would diminish with age (Without danger to your life at least) and chances to Awaken would diminish faster (Unless you sold your soul to a demon or a god that is).

After 20 years it was almost impossible to awaken a magical talent, and while you could trigger...No one wanted to intern under someone younger than themselves.

So triggering after 20 meant going solo. And solo heroes...don't live long.

But this doesn't matter to Elizabeth!

Even if she awakened or triggered she would pretend that nothing happened at all!

"Now if you Awaken, a magical circle will form on the wall, we will then give you your new badge and move you to the right classes" crap. Was there something like that?

What about privacy?

"We will not show your affinity nor inherent school of magic for privacy reasons, but we had to add this since some people claimed to have awakened before" Oh...Yeah, she kinda could see how that worked.

But it was still okay!

That only ruined half of her plans, now if she could secure a trigger event. Then pretend that nothing happened...

"And if you trigger, the thing will project a light. Depending on the type of power, the emblem will reflect it. Sorry, but your type of power will be the classes you take, so even if we only showed a sword emblem everyone would know the type of power you have," added the sergeant from hell.

Ruining her hopes and dreams.

"It's okay Eli-Eli. I'm sure you will awaken! ...Or trigger!... Dunno what one you want, but you will make it!" said the pink-haired girl trying to soothe her worries.

To be honest she just wanted to get it over with...

"See you on the other side!" said the pink haired before running away, it seemed that she had some social wits since she noticed how futile her attempts were and decided to run away.

Calm down Elizabeth Starbright. Let's think this through first.

The chances of triggering are way too low without a cosmic event or the threat of death. So chances to trigger aren't that high, to begin with.

Chances to awaken are lower since it depends mainly on one's innate talent to either feel or manipulate mana. So unless you make a contract with a magical entity to increase your mana manipulation's you will never awaken, and even if you do, if you don't have the talent it's meaningless either way, since you need the extra talent to deal with Mana.

That's why Magical users are a premium in the powered community. While powered are more popular if they are a tinker class because they are even rarer as a powered with a specialization on crafting and advancing technology, even if half the time their power is the one doing the heavy lifting on the creation.

Of course, you can be a magical user without triggering, you only need to make a deal with a magical user. Most of the second generation of magical users in the world are in that category anyway.

"I DID IT!!!" came the scream from the crystal ball. Did someone manage to awaken or trigger?

"I DID IT ELI-ELI!" ....Of course, the pink-haired girl would awaken, the power of that pink head was a dreadful thing.

"YOU CAN DO IT TOO ELI-ELI!" et tu Rosalina?

"Student Rosalina, calm down, your friend will come soon enough, go to reschedule the classes you will need," said the witch teacher trying to sound calm. Not much success on that, since she managed to get a new student with the right type of magic it seems.

Since she didn't show any reaction to the other awakeners it seems her pink-haired friend had either the right type of attunement or a higher-than-normal talent.

Judging by her pink hair and now pink eyes, it was probably both.

"Elizabeth Starbright, it's your turn" Well...Time to get this out of the way...

What's the worst that can happen?

---

Teach's POV

Not a bad batch overall, 10% triggered, 5% awakened and among them, one magical girl with an A-Grade talent wasn't a bad start.

The powers were weaker overall, but a B-Class Strength type was a good powerset. Easy to teach too, so John could have some fun with that.

Most of the kids were crapping their pants and that was fun to see. The poor girl that got called out was an exemption to this though.

She looked calm, and he could swear she almost looked annoyed at her friend for singling her out. What was that about?

Her name was...Oh, she got marked by John as a promising cadet?

"Elizabeth Starbright, your turn" Let's see how she deals with pressure.

For her part, the girl didn't bat an eye at being called out.

So that's why John marked her huh?

Judging by the name she has some heavy powers behind her. A quick search on her file and...

S#it.

It's the daughter of those psychos...

Please be normal, please be normal, please be normal.

"Just relax, touch the crystal and it will be all automated" First time in my career as an educator that I don't advise this trial.

But you can't blame me!

No way in hell I will be responsible for teaching the daughter of those psychos!

Last time someone even mentioned the possibility of their sons being normals he disappeared!

At least this kid looks normal enough...Who am I kidding...

HOW IS THAT A NORMAL HIGH SCHOOL GIRL?

The girl walked like nothing and her poise was that of an experienced soldier!

She looked mesmerizing enough that half of the kids that were shitting their pants now were entranced with her looks!

If I didn't know her parents I would be too, to be honest...

"Will my parents know the result of this test?" asked the girl, she didn't look that nervous, but a kid is a kid in the end I guess?

"Your grade of awakening or triggering will be private, no one but you will know it" And if it were someone else then the result itself would be private too. But her parents would know...It would be a surprise if they weren't watching right now.

"Good enough I guess..." said the girl and without a warning she placed her delicate hand on the crystal ball...

And then...All hell broke loose.

---

Back to normal POV...

Status
Name: Elizabeth Starbright Title: The Inheritor of the Akashic Records Alias: None Level: 1	Health: 100% Mana: 100% Stamina: 100% Stress: 30%
Strength: 8 Constitution: 3 Agility: 7 Dexterity: 12 Intelligence: 15 Wisdom: 5 Charisma: 22	Magic Origin: Shadow Weaver Magic Spells Slotted: 0/10 Magic Circles Slotted: 0/10 Skills: - Status - Identify - Inventory -P̵̡̢̡̛͚̝͓̭̠̺̆̾͊̏̊ŗ̶̡͈̟͛̈́̐̋̎͊̓͝ọ̶̡̢͓̖̩̱̯̍̏̐̂̅ĺ̸̛͈̰͎̐̈́̋́ī̵̡̝̫̮͚̜̯͍̯̓͛̆͂̾̕f̷̯̟̳̰̈͌̐̂̔̆̋͋̽ē̸̺̖͙̤̲̖̭̯̳r̷̨̡̛͎͚̳̣̤͘̚ḁ̶̢̧̜̬̄̀̂͗͝t̸̥̜͚́̚i̶͈͉̙͊̾̀͜o̷̗͚̻͍̟̹̝͔̍̑̓̇͒̽̆̽̕͜n̴͕̞̺̯̮̯̽̇͌̽̔̾̕

Well...That didn't go as planned.

"Say...Can we not register this and pretend nothing happened?" asked the blonde girl while hopefully looking at the witch and the crazy old man.

For their part, they also looked astounded somehow.

"I wish we could..." answered the witch.

"Yeah, not happening," said sternly the crazy old man.

"Had to try..." said our poor protagonist, now why they weren't keen on keeping this hidden you ask?

If she were a betting girl then she would say that it might have something to do with the fact of what happened when she touched the ball...

If we dial the time a few seconds into the past it would be easier.

 

When she came in front of the crystal sphere she nonchalantly touched said ball, as soon as she did so she felt as if time slowed to a crawl, this was the first reason she thought something was going really wrong. Then it all started to happen, all that her mother told her would happen if she ever got summoned to another world and someone was one of those cursed existences...Protagonists...

 

First, the damned ball started shining as if it was the second coming of the Messiah. That would mean she had triggered...And what a trigger am I right? It all would be normal enough, nothing that would qualify as a 'Protagonist event'... At least till the stupid crystal projected a magical circle above her head...And it was the most complex magical mandala she had ever seen in her life... And she lived with one if not the first magical emissary in this world...

 

At least it was only projected for a few seconds, same with the stupid shining ball, so she thought to herself 'Maybe no one noticed and I can say it was a flash bang? ' but such thoughts were crushed when she looked to the witch...Who was looking straight at where the overly complex mandala was. That was a no.

 

So she would pretend to be a magical girl...Or so she was planning at least till she noticed how the crazy old man was looking to where her hand was hovering, looking at where the crystal used to be.

 

So both teachers knew she had the necessary skills for both of their courses...

 

Yeah...At least most of the students didn't look like they noticed the shining ball, so maybe they didn't notice?

 

"YOU DID IT ELI-ELI YOU ARE A MAGICAL GIRL!" screamed the bane of her existence, the pink-haired girl.

 

"Yep, a totally new magical girl and nothing else here..." said the blonde girl deciding to stick to only one side, poor Papa.

 

"W-w-we gotta adjust your schedule to add..." started say the crazy old man still somewhat flabbergasted.

 

"All the necessary magical class, true. I will look into it with my new and only teacher" said the blonde girl cutting the crazy old man. Sorry, but not going to study both courses.

 

"Oh...Right, and we need to add..." said the witch...This bitch didn't catch up on her?

 

"Right, gotta add some normal classes in the place of the powered classes I used to have, nice catch teach" Did she catch on to it finally?

 

Judging by the somewhat apologizing look she was giving to the crazy old man that was looking down it seems she caught on to it.

 

Now...How do I deal with this ominous blue screen that keeps hovering in front of me...

 

Since no one mentions it, it seems no one can see it?

 

Did Mother mention something like this in her stories?

 

Ugh...Time to call Mama I guess.....