The bell rang overhead, signaling the end of the day. Getting up from her seat in the back of her final class, a brown-haired girl with more than a little chub pushed her notebook into her backpack and tried to quickly get out of the class that usually ruined her day.

She ignored the looks she got, moving with confidence that she pretended she didn’t have during the school day. She wasn’t like the rest of these people. She was extraordinary, she was different, and she was a fighter.

But, you could never tell with the appearance she had taken. Her mentor had given her a cloaked body, one that she went into every day before coming to the hellhole that was mortal school. But, he hadn’t told her that the body would be slow and….big.

Casting the high school students around her a look of disgust that barely registered on her face, the girl quickly headed to the school parking lot. You see, she was a Shunera. An advanced, mutated human that had far developed beyond mere mortal intelligence. She also had a fair longer life span. For each year a human lived, she lived five. Though, the years she went through compared to one year for a human varied by your age. Some slowed down to ten years per one human year. Anyway, by now, she was eighty while those in her grade were sixteen. She had grown patience with this long amount of aging though. As a child – which she was for only fifteen years, when she only appeared three – she had been hotheaded with her decisions. Those around her were constantly in harm’s way due to her quick temper.

But now, at eighty years old, she was far more superior than them. Unfortunately, she still had to go to high school, in hope of finding her mate. That was the one drawback of being a Shunera. They had a soul mate. And once you found them and successfully mated, they too would become a Shunera. A far weaker one, yes, but they still had the long life every Shunera had.

And also, they didn’t have the main thing that made Shunera….different from humans. Shunera had the ability to control either fire, water, air or earth. Only one of the four elements however and they usually matched the color of the Shunera’s eyes.

This girl in particular actually had blood-red eyes to match her power over fire. While in her cloaked body, however, she had brown eyes that were practically black. She hated her cloaked body with a passion. She was used to her white hair, not the mucky brown so many humans had. And yes, that was another thing about Shunera. Their hair color came in many different colors. Red, blue, green, purple, pink, gray, etc.

Sighing, the girl got to the crappy car that her mentor had also given her, still finding the whole high school thing just a complete waste. She didn’t even want to find her mate. Sure, when mates are together the Shunera’s element control is supposed to grow stronger, but she also didn’t want to drag around a useless lump that had no powers at all. She still found it weird that Shunera didn’t mate with each other, only humans. It could be because having two parents with elemental ability would be too strong for an offspring, but hell if she knew.

As she pulled out of the school parking lot, she praised her mentor for at least darkening the window tint as far as legally possible. Opening her mouth, she pulled out the retainer-looking device, licking the roof of her mouth with a scowl as she felt her body change into its natural shape.

Putting the body cloak device in its holder, she stuffed it into her school bag and pulled down her visor, looking at her reflection. Her blood-red eyes stared back at her, framed by white eyelashes. Her white hair was in a low ponytail, stopping at her mid-section. Her skin was tan, contrasting greatly with her albino-like appearance.

Grinning toothily, the girl caught sight of her sharp canines before closing her visor once again and looking around the road she was driving down, she felt her eyes widen drastically.

Slamming on the brakes, she let out a long stream of cussing as a boy darted out into the road, running away from five other guys that looked big, brutish and stupid.

Eye twitching in annoyance, she hopped out of the car, hearing the car behind her beeping loudly. The boy who had been running away had frozen, his body five inches away from the hood of her car.

Sneering at all six of the men who had instantly turned their eyes to stare at her, she started yelling at them. “You motherfucking dipshits. What the hell do you think you’re doing running into the fucking road? I don’t want to clean some dumbass’s  blood off the hood of their piece of shit.” She growled, jabbing a thumb at the ratty car she was driving. It had been cheap and easy, so her mentor had refused any of her pleads for a better looking car.

“What the hell are you? Albino?” One of the brutish men asked, his right eye blackened and bruised along with his jaw.

Forgetting that she had just taken off her cloaked body, she looked down at herself and scowled. Her clothes had also moved back to their normal size so the baggy, black A7X shirt she was wearing along with her black skinny jeans really did not make her look tan.

Glaring back up at the five guys, they instantly flinched and she sneered. “Get the fuck out of here before I blacken your other eye, you dipshit.”

The five guys looked at each other before turning to glare at her. Marching straight up to the one who had spoken, the leader she presumed, she gripped the front of his tight, gray shirt, before pulling him down to her height of 5’7”.

“Move.” She snarled before releasing him and turning on the spot, landing a roundhouse kick on his unprotected side. Grunting in pain, there was a crunch of his ribs snapping and he fell against one of his lackeys.

Glaring at her, he signaled for the other guys to follow him, calling over to the still frozen boy standing in front of her car. “You won’t be as lucky next time, Leo.”

The boy followed him with teal-colored eyes, looking fearful. Scowling at the boy, the girl walked over to him and picked him up by the back of his dark blue shirt, dragging him over to the sidewalk and placing him there.

Glaring at the boy one more time she turned on her heel, walking back to her car.

“W-wait!”

Sighing loudly, she turned to the boy with a raised eyebrow. His hand that had been extended towards her dropped and he ran it through his pitch-black hair.

“U-um, thanks. You know, for that. Er, who are you?”

Scowling at the stuttering boy, she glanced over him. He looked scrappy, his clothes ragged and poor and his hair slightly greasy as if he hadn’t had a bath in a while. He was tan and only a few inches taller than her, probably just barely reached six foot.

“Depends. Who are you?”

“Leo Carrow.” He answered immediately and she rose an eyebrow before opening up the door to the driver’s side.

“….Nero Harkins.” She told him, feeling an unnatural desire to be truthful. Frowning, the girl got back in her car and quickly shifted it into drive, stepping hard onto the gas pedal.

There was this weird….feeling she had and she felt a strong desire to head off and speak to her mentor.

Parking her ratty ass car, Nero stepped out and headed into the three story house nestled far back in the woods. As soon as she shut the door, however, she was glomped.

“Nero~!!” Grimacing, she tried to wrestle her way out from under her mentor. Unfortunately, he was stronger than her and was in one of his annoying loving moods.

“Get the hell off me, Kyo!” She growled. The red-haired man glomping her pouted, his amber eyes glowing in amusement. He, like her, was a fire Shunera.