Aquarian Age Juvenile Orion Volume 1 by Sakuraku Gokurakin

Mana Kirihara used to live in a large city, but seven years ago, she was involved in an incident and had to move away, Now, she is returning to her home town, and to her childhood friend named Kaname Kusakabe. But after all this time, will he even remember her? She hopes so, because she has wanted nothing more than to return to him ever since she moved away.

But Kaname seems to have forgotten all about Mana, although he does remember the incident. But his best friend, Naoya Itsuki, has secrets that Kaname doesn't know about. For instance, Itsuke is part of a war fought between factions over some kind of magical power. There are five main factions, each out of a different magical tradition or group. He fights for E.G.O. or the Evolutional Girl's Organization, so named because women have traditionally had the abilities in this group.

But when Mana returns, the members of all the groups realize that there is a new power in town, something they call a "Mindbreaker". Members of other groups come to fight this new threat, as each seems to feel that "Mindbreakers" are something bad. And when it turns out Mana is the Mindbreaker, she is confused. What do they mean? She has no idea what that is or what she is, or that she even has any kind of magical power.

Kaname doesn't want to see Mana again, but when she is attacked for being a Mindbreaker, something in him snaps, and he grows a pair of black bat-like wings out of his back and helps defend her. This is something he has concealed since he last defended Mana from an attack seven years ago. Seeing his black wings makes him feel ugly and evil and dirty. tainted and corrupt. But he agrees to defend her if she is attacked again, and soon Itsuka feels the same. He transfers his allegiance from E.G.O. to Mana.

But Itsuka and Kaname aren't the only ones in town to realize that a Mindbreaker has come. Tomonori Nakaura, a teacher at Mana's school, and his adopted son Tsukasa Amou are also drawn in to Mana's web. But will they try and kill her for being what she is, or will she be able to befriend them also? Who wants Mana dead, and will they succeed in killing the kids who want to defend her, like Isshin Shiba?

This was an... interesting story. Interesting in that it seems to be based on a game. Not a computer game or tabletop game, but a card game released in Japan (and perhaps America) by Broccoli Games. It's an idea that isn't new (look at Pokémon and Yujioh), but trying to figure out what is going on is hard because the characters who belong to the factions are so busy being mysterious and tight-lipped that most of the time, you can't figure out what is going on.

What is a "Mindbreaker"? It sounds awful, something like a torturer, but by the end of the volume, I had absolutely no clue! Nor was I able to figure out what all the other characters are supposed to be or why the various factions are fighting beyond disagreeing with each other. And it would have been really nice to know, because otherwise it's like viewing the story through nearly opaque glass. People do things, but the reasons for why are very, very murky.

This could be an intriguing and wonderful series... if there was more explanation. As it is, it's something like an almost-understandable DADA-ist play. I can only hope for more explanation in the second book I have, or I'll be permanently wearing a giant question mark on my head with regards to the series.