The landscape is red. Strange rock formations jut out from the ground in confusing, physics-defying shapes. Reddish smog swirls in the air, making it hard to see very far.

It is quiet. Eerily quiet. So quiet, I can hear my own heartbeat, my own shallow breaths, and the thrilling, sleek and shiny sound of soaring bullets. Like a violin being played really fast.

Wait, bullets?

"Oh shit," I cry out, as I duck down behind a rock shaped inconveniently like a dildo.

In seconds the world has erupted into chaos. I stay crouched, listening to the whizzing, the whirring, the grunting, all the multiple noises of people fighting with their various weapons. Loudly and clearly, someone shouts.

"Tomomi, put up the shields!"

I manage a sneak peak from my hiding place. No shields.

"Tomomi put up the shields goddamn it!" Another shout, this time from someone else.

The bullets are still flying around without mercy. One ricochets off my dildo rock and skips a couple times on the sandy ground in a cool, old-school rock kind of beat before spinning to a halt.

Whoever Tomomi is, she sure isn't putting up any shields.

Oh wait...

Tomomi is me. I'm supposed to be putting up shields, my assigned weapon. The teachers all know that I suck at fighting, can't shoot, can't swing blades, so they let me use a protective tool today. Maybe, just maybe, they say, I'll be able to handle this for once.

I focus on putting up the shields on all sides of my classmates. I imagine them materializing, slowly, gradually, molecule by molecule. They will have to be strong, sturdy shields, ones that can withstand a lot of bullets and won't dent, preferably thick metal, definitely not wood, maybe even with a reflective surface so that they can confuse the enemy. I will them to rise, to grow out of the ground like hedges, like bushes, like the turnips in my granny's garden.

It doesn't happen. The shields do not appear, no matter how much I concentrate. And it's hard to concentrate. The bullets are coming like no tomorrow and people are shouting and running and everything's so loud and unharmonic and my ears hurt and my brain is all foggy, and out of the blue (or out of the red, should I say) a bullet comes flying straight at me.

I don't have time to react. I've never been an exactly fast person and my mind is in a haze. I watch in slow motion almost as the bullet comes closer, closer. I screw my eyes shut and my arms fly to cover my face.

And then I get tackled to the ground by no other than Sakai Shun, nimble and lithe and my classmate since second grade. I watch as the bullet glides past, barely missing us by centimeters. Shun curses under his breath and immediately jumps back up, firing bullets back in response. His bullets are all badass and transparent and will catch the enemy by surprise because they don't see them coming, and when they see them coming it will be too late because the bullets will already be embedded in their bodies and they will die.

I wish I could do cool stuff like that but I'm stuck with the shields which I can't even raise, because I (according to my teachers) don't "believe" enough to use any weapons. Shun can fire transparent bullets because he, apparently, believes.

Natsumi can freeze things into ice because she, apparently, believes too. I see her skate beside us now, her movements sharp and on point as she dodges all the ammo that flies past her and with a swift flick of her hand forms an ice layer over a crevice between the rocks, sealing the enemies behind them in.

Yukiya can throw fire balls because he, apparently, also believes. He is standing on one of the tallest rock formations, sending deathly huge fiery cannons at our attackers. From his high vantage point, he sees where they all are, and signals this information to the rest of us. Concentrated on giving directions, he fails for a moment to notice a lone bullet speeding towards him, but luckily sees it at the last millisecond and takes a step back to dodge it. He loses his balance, teeters for one horrifying moment before free falling down the tall rock.

Ririka catches him before he hits the bottom, zooming past just in time on her shawl. Ririka can turn her clothes into flying carpets because she, apparently, believes. She and Yukiya high-five.

They all believe. That is why they are so good. That is why they are pretty much the best students in Yamabe Gakuen, our humble academy for mindhackers in an idyllic little Japanese mountain town.

And me, I'm definitely the worst. Because however I try, I cannot believe.