Chapter 112.

PART 1.

Hatori turns his empty eye sockets to a first-year student, if he could have eyes, he would be glaring at the girl. “Now now, that is no way to deal with your younger peers.” Said Kangana. She turns to the girl, and asks in a sweet voice, “You are sorry right?”

“—Yeah, I’m sorry. I should look where I’m going.” She spoke.

“…” Hatori just walks away.

Kangana goes after him. “That is no way to make friends, you should accept the apologies of people!” she said, managing to keep up with his long stride, despite the difference in height among them.

During the lunch, Hatori sees Avinash. He wanted to exchange some words of war with him since he often responds with such fire, which makes it a joy to bother him. “Soooo! I hear some people are too big to talk to us,” he said to Raven who is sitting next to him, while showing his middle finger to Avinash.

Avinash opens his mouth to retaliate, but Kangana comes out of nowhere. “That is no way to control your anger. You should not taunt people, they will retaliate, and it’ll turn into a brawl!” she said, taking the empty place on the table.

“Eat more calcium, the calcium deficiency can make you cranky!” said Kangana, adding small fishes that are apparently full of calcium.

His friends watch, and yet, fail to react properly. That being, help him in killing this girl and bury her body somewhere, or perform a necromantic ritual on her to take over her soul. Surely there are ways to do that in a magical world? “Eat with a smile, such a grumpy face won’t make you gain control over your anger.” She chided.

‘Ending your existence will give me a lot of control over my anger!’ thinks Hatori, as the lightning starts to spark, and zap some people.

Ignoring the chatter of Kangana, something about always keeping control over his magic, and not harming other people, Hatori enters the class of Professor Krodhatma. The professor is surprised to see his most brilliant student here, since he does not need any formal instructions, just a few directions every now and then. The girl who came after him is even more peculiar. Is she stalking him? She is not part of his class, so he is certain that she has no business being here.

Hatori is hoping that he could get rid of this girl in the class, surely, she will have to leave him alone here? she must have her own classes, right? But apparently, he was wrong. Kangana followed him in the class and poked and prodded him to pay attention to the professor. Hatori already knows the stuff the professor is covering in this class, and unlike certain students who seem to be barely keeping up, he just like every year since he joined this class, is already ahead of them.

Some students have other things in mind, however. The guy sitting behind Hatori creates a paper ball and throws it across. It hits Hatori, and in his anger, he turns it into a needle and throws it back.

“Ga! My eye! Are you mad?”

The temperature goes down in the class, and everyone prepares to run. However, after chastising Hatori and the boy (and sending him outside to get his injury healed), Krodhatma continues the class as if nothing happened. But the students who were observing him were certain that professor Krodhatma flinched after hearing that word.

“You see, you should be more like your professor. You shouldn’t turn mad at the slightest provocation; you could end up hurting a lot of people like that guy who just left. Other people will get mad at you then.” Said Kangana.

The volcano cannot be restrained anymore. the lava has climbed to the maximum limit. Unable to contain his anger, professor Krodhatma explodes. “I’m not mad, I’m angry, you hear me? angry, angry, angry, angry, angry! This is the class of angry runes, not mad runes! It is what I have written on the board, there is no grammatical difference either.”

With a smirk, Hatori manages to ditch Kangana in the chaos, who watches this rampage with open-mouthed shock, unable to deal with the sudden violence happening around her, as the professor tries to murder the students, while other students use spells, cheap shots, and plain old trampling to get out of the way of Krodhatma.

However, this is not enough to make her leave him alone. “Why won’t you leave me already?” he asked. “I’ll kill you and bury you somewhere, you hear me?” he said to her at the dinner.

“Here, you need some more calcium. Maybe I should talk to healer Slaughter, and get you some calcium pills?” she wonders out loud.

This girl is not afraid of him. The threats are useless against her unless he follows them. he could not follow up on his threats because she was only thinking of his well-being if he killed her, what would people think about him? he might be a villain, but there are lines he is not willing to cross.

‘But I just might decide to cross them if she continues to push me like this.’ He thinks while glaring at his friends. He is furious at them, why did they need to give that ad?

The next day, the circus begins again. “Should we stop this?” asked Raven in concern.

“No, that is for his own good,” said Shin. “He needs to be more sociable.”

“Yeah, but I miss my partner, there are so many experiments pending because of this.” Said James.

“No!” said all three, “You nearly destroyed our hideout and the time room with your last experiment.” Said Josh.

“SHHHH, there is no such thing as a time room,” said Shin with a whisper.

“Yeah, sorry.” Said Josh.

“Look, no amount of anger control will save you if you expose that place from Hatori.” Said Raven.

While Shin and Raven explain that Hatori found that place, and he lets them use it because he trusts them, James is unable to watch the suffering of his friend any further. Hatori is the way he is, no amount of training is going to change that, otherwise Zeko would have already tried it. but maybe he should tell him that he should keep his secrets to himself, his advice of trying to modify the runes without carving them, or adding new ones again, without carving, helped him a lot. He merely needs to think of an idea, test it, and just apply it to his body now. James is happy that Hatori shared that with him.

PART 2.

Shin is going through his own modification ritual. Due to his ahem, existence crisis, he was left behind. As a result, Hatori and James helped him out in designing his ritual and the rune work. But the modifications are entirely his own.

aside from a few physical improvements to make his body strong (though he won’t be competing with Josh or Hatori in a head-to-head physical fight), most of his improvements were in improving his vocals, specifically giving him a microphone right on his throat which he can on and off at will, allowing him to sing at his usual notes, without going hire, and spreading his voice as far as he could. Apart from this, due to his improving shape-shifting abilities, he has transmuted the tops of his hair into bells, instead of attaching them every morning.

‘Imagine the surprise when I duel Hatori. I wish to test the illusive properties of these bells against his audio defenses.’ He thinks while coming out of the ground. He needs to take a dip in a tub in which the healing and soothing potions are mixed in. Carving runes on the body can be a painful and bloody task, after which some cleaning is in order. At least there is no chance of infections since the wounds do close up quickly after the ritual.

he finds Lavanya outside of the ground. She still has not made any connections beyond him. “I can never understand how you and your friends can stand that place.” She said, falling in step with him. “I never went inside after the second time. the whole place gives strange vibes.”

“Huh. never felt that,” said Shin, not mentioning the tunnel, or the room located underground. They may have gone through some traumatic events together, but Shin has learned over fourteen years of orphan life that you do not give your secrets so easily to anyone.

PART 3.

when Kangana is not looking, Hatori escapes by taking his ghostly form. Smoothly coming out of a wall, he senses her in the corridor, and not finding her, congeals into his human form. “Waa!” screamed a voice spooked.

“Am I that scary?” asked Hatori, with his cracking fourteen-year-old voice, trying to sound gruff.

“More like startled me,” said Ranveer, who is the spooked one. “You look like a prisoner who just escaped the jail.” Commented Ranveer.

“You don’t even know the half of it.” Hatori wanted to cry, but the tears won’t come. “I think we should leave this place.” Said Hatori, sensing Kangana coming close.

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Grabbing Ranveer, he ran in the opposite direction and ended up right in the steps of Corvus’s office. “Why must I run with you? I’m not a prisoner.”

“Because you talked with a prisoner, therefore you are guilty.” Said Hatori with a smirk.

“Whatever. Do you have a partner for this year’s events?” he asked.

“Partner, for what?” he asked. the only partner he ever had was for dueling practice.

“You don’t know? there are some parties which you can attend with a partner this year. they hold them every year, but for fourth years and below are not allowed, it escaped you.” said Ranveer. ‘That, and the council hounding you.’ he added in his head.

“Hmm. never thought about it, in fact, I’ve only heard about that from you,” said Hatori.

“That is surprising, even James knows about it,” said Ranveer.

Hatori has a sour look on his face. “Those bastards, they stuck me with a crazy girl!” he exploded.

“Easy now. I’m taking him to those events, by the way,” said Ranveer.

“Who, James?” asked Hatori.

“Yeah,” he observed Hatori for a reaction.

“Already have a partner huh? I’ll see who can I find, or whether I should find someone or not,” said Hatori. Ranveer relaxes, looks like there won’t be any trouble coming from Hatori.

“So, there you are.” Said a demonic voice.

Hatori tries to escape, but Kangana grabs him. “Did he express any anger at you?” she asked Ranveer.

“No, we were just talking.” He answered, remembering the girl from the elections. She was the opponent of Josh. ‘But what is she doing with Hatori? Is this some kind of revenge for her loss?’ he thinks.

“Oh good, I’m making progress with him. soon, he will have full control over his anger.” She smiles and drags Hatori with her.

His face begged for help, but Ranveer remained rooted in his spot, unable to move. ‘Somehow, I think I’m better if I do not get involved.’ He thought.

“Hey brother!” said Bhavani, coming skipping, and halting in front of him. “What was the deal with that girl and Hatori?”

“I don’t know. But I suggest we stay away.” Said Ranveer to his twin.

“Okay. father sent us new clothes; you should come with me to try them,” he said.

“Sure.” He said, leaving with his brother, and hoping that Hatori would come out of whatever this is alive. he likes the boy, there are very few people who can have such calm and deep conversations with him.

His brother is sadly not on the list. He is too fiery and passionate for that.

PART 4.

“So,” said the girl, “Given his history of assaulting the students, and targeting young female mages, we do not want him coming here during the convention in the festival, and we want Corvus to block him from coming here.” finishes the female student.

“Okay, the president and I will put this point in front of him,” said Avinash, while Tom looms in the background, taking his role of security guard very seriously. Some students have expressed their dislike of the new council and their preference to returning the old way. the president has taken this threat seriously, therefore every council member has at least one fighter with them. since Avinash himself is no slouch in magical fighting, he feels safe enough with Tom and doesn’t feel the need for having multiple guards.

“Just for curiosity’s sake, why do you not express similar sentiments against Professor Krodhatma?” asked Avinash, drumming his fingers on the arms of his chair.

“Because he never preyed on young girls, and for all his rages, not one student ever died by his hands. If anything, during the stampede, other students are likely to kill each other than get killed by his hands.” Said the girl. “And before you say that his classes often end in a stampede, they have no one but themselves to blame. There is a board outside of his classroom, explaining that the word which triggers him should not be used in his presence. If they cannot remember that, then magic has no need for them.”

“I suspect Corvus will appreciate this attitude,” said Avinash.

The female student nodded and left. Avinash sighed. This work is proving to be exhausting. He was hoping to get rid of his stress by raging at Hatori during lunch, but that weird girl just killed his mood. “Boss, the president is coming here.” rumbled Tom.

The boy has such a deep voice already, despite being a few months younger than him. “I told you not to call me boss.” He spoke.

“Of course, boss.” Said Tom with a smirk.

Josh comes in then. “So, anything for me?” he asked, taking the chair.

“I thought I was supposed to come to you,” said Avinash, after he finished telling the complaints of that girl to Josh.

“Well, I was outside of the office, and you are the only one remaining who didn’t come during the evening meeting, so I decided to come here myself.” Said Josh.

“I was held up by that girl.” Said Avinash.

“It’s fine, I’m not holding this over you,” he said.

“Did you imagine that’ll be so tiring?” asked Avinash.

“No. but this is a small price to pay to see my vision come into reality.” Said Josh. “A fair student body which is not a puppet of the professors or the nobility.”

PART 5.

the festival is set to start in a few weeks, and there is a frantic search for partners among the students fifth year and beyond. Hatori is untouched by this chaos, working to develop his spells. he finally got bored of lightning spells, so he decided to use his knowledge, and develop some non-elemental spells.

the time to do this he has to request from Kangana politely. All the while thinking the ways of murdering her in various horrifying ways, he asked with a pleasant expression to let him develop some spells alone, and surprisingly, she agreed. However, he is still not going to be nicer to people. Let someone else handle the diplomacy.

“But your never-ending streak of violence and hate is going to one day tie your own rope!” said the voice of Kangana in Hatori’s head.

‘Then so be it.’ he replied.

“Hatori, are you done?” asked Shin from the tunnel. “We should leave, we’ve got some new areas to search for.”

“Coming.” Said Hatori, packing his notes.

searching the old antiques and selling them, as well as the poison detection yantras are giving Hatori a lot of money, but he is fully aware that it is not a fortune on which he can call himself independent from Zeko.

PART 6.

“Did you find any boy?” asked Daphne to Ravina.

“No. what about you?” asked Ravina.

“Me neither.” Said Daphne. “Maybe in your case, you like girls?” she teased.

“Hmm. haven’t thought about that,” said Ravina. “But I’m sure you will pick a boy.”

“Right. But the choice seems not good in my opinion.” Said Daphne. “Maybe except for a certain blind boy.”

“Really? Him? you can have anyone, but you pick him? That guy is a monster.” Said Ravina.

“You know what? I’m definitely picking him up. let’s see whether he is really a monster or not.” said Daphne.

“Fine.” Said Ravina. ‘But I’ll be sure to keep an eye on you.’ she thinks, cancelling any plans to find a partner. Looks like she has to sacrifice for her friend.

PART 7: THE FIRST CONTACT.

Though stories of Elves, Goblins, Dwarves, Trolls, and Fae are quite old, having been told on both sides by magic users and non-magic users, everyone thought that these were nothing but myths.

until one Elven ship crashed on the magical dimension side of the earth, where they got the first confirmation. The ship landed on the outskirts of the Academy, where the entrance to the dimension where the Academy is located. Zeko found the ship and dismantled it, and many people got angry at him for doing that. however, the Elves were not bothered by this at all.

During this temporary stay, the Elf princess left a prophecy that is tightly controlled by the kings of the Subcontinent, no one knows about the exact words or the conditions of this prediction, aside from its existence.

The contact grew enough that Dwarves, the second race to come in contact with humans, are employed on Earth by mages for various tasks, though mostly they worked as cooks, instead of mining, unlike the stories about them. however, according to some Dwarves, they used to do both of these things, but they have left them behind by this point. they have good enough technology to mine for them, so they do not have any reason to do that by themselves.

This caused the historians to think, how come they know stories about these creatures when they only got in contact with them about 80 or so years ago? Some historians theorize that they used to be in contact with some old human tribes, and over time their stories were passed down to their generation and got corrupted into the modern-day stories as we know them.

Elves have not spoken or made any contact with humans ever since their first crash-landing, and Dwarves do not care about how humans portray them in their local stories. The thoughts of other races are currently unknown.