Chapter 129.
PART 1.
Hatori checks the orb. After finding nothing wrong with it, he puts it down and picks up the second orb. Confirming that both these eyeball-shaped metal orbs are perfect, he runs out of the room of frozen time, drags James with him to the room, and shows him the eyes.
“So, what do you think? I used your research on the vision, and used the runes you came up with on these two eyeballs.” Said Hatori. “Do you see anything wrong with them?”
“What’s that part?” asked James, pointing to the runes carved at the inner parts of the eyeballs.
“Oh, these are for the retina.” Said Hatori. “My own retina was removed, so I had to come up with its alternative.”
“Hmm,” said James, examining the orbs further. “I don’t see anything wrong with these. But steel, really?”
“Well, this was the easiest I could conjure. Not to mention, it was very easy to carve these runes on this material.” Said Hatori. “Did you know I tried diamond? But that didn’t work, the shape was never the right one.”
James looked at his friend strangely. “Only you would try to use the literal diamonds as your eyes.” He spoke. “Anyway, why not copper? Given your heavy use of lightning, it might work best for you.”
Hatori thinks for a moment. “Would you believe me if I said that I totally forgot about that?” asked Hatori with a grin.
“Sure.” Said James.
“Anyway, I wanted to get this thing working, not bother with the metals, their conductivity, and corrosiveness…” James waited, he knew that Hatori would get it eventually. “…fuck.”
“Yeah. but you could always try new materials, it is not like you’re lacking in time,” said James.
“But quite honestly, I’m sick of these things. I want to try them already.” Said Hatori. “Truly, conjuring iron spikes to stab people is much easier than carving runes, and conjuring right materials.”
“Speaking of which, when do you plan to try them? As far as I’ve seen them, you won’t need to be operated to plant these ones.” Said James.
“Yeah, I designed an interface to sync with my brain.” Said Hatori, picking up both of the steel eyeballs. “And to answer your question, right now!” he jammed both of the eyeballs in his empty eye sockets, and they sank within the sockets, easily fitting in there.
Hatori winced, as the eyes dug deeper, and properly got fixed within his eye sockets. But this pain was nothing, compared to the shock that he experienced after the sudden return of his vision. The neural pathways, degraded from disuse over the years, suddenly wake up with a jolt, and Hatori gets to see after nearly fourteen years.
“Ug!” he is unable to handle this at once, as he is getting a sense of vertigo. James makes him sit down on a chair near the table on which the eyeballs were resting just a few moments ago and check up on him.
“Hmm.” he shows Hatori his finger, making him follow it. “It is working fine, but it will take longer for you to adapt to this than Suraj.”
James conjures another chair and puts Hatori on it. he starts to float the chair behind him. “Where are we going?” asked Hatori.
“To Slaughter.” Said James.
The healer was not pleased with the reckless behavior of these two boys. “Honestly you two, you should have come to me before trying anything like this.”
“He seems to be suffering from a shock.” Explained James.
“Of course he is.” said the healer. “It will take a while for him to get used to this vision. Which is working fine by the way, though these eyes do look a bit scary.”
“Don’t care.” Said Hatori. “I get to see the terrified faces of my enemies. Ug!” another wave of vertigo strikes him, as he moves his head to observe this room.
“For now, you won’t be seeing any terrifying faces.” Said Slaughter. “I suggest you practice walking with help, before actually going out in public.”
Though Slaughter was not happy with it, James took Hatori inside of the room of frozen time and made him practice moving on his own inside, helping him out. “I can’t let you go out in this weakened state.” That was his reason.
PART 2.
Judging Hatori to be good enough to move on his own, James leaves him alone. he seemed to come back in a few minutes, but Hatori felt like he was alone in there for days. He, of course, used this time to work on his adjustment to his vision. The attacks of vertigo seem to have reduced after the rehabilitation of James.
Speaking of James, he brought Raven, Shin, and Josh with him. Raven actually came here after leaving his preparation in the middle. “So, what is that which you want to show us?” he asked, he shut his mouth after seeing the steely eyes in Hatori’s sockets.
The sight did not compute at first. They are used to seeing their friend with empty eye sockets, so it takes some time for them to process this new sight. “Wow. You guys look so ugly.”
And just like that, the moment of shock was over. “How dare you call my esteem self ugly?” asked Shin, offended on the behalf of his looks. He puts a lot of care into his appearance.
“Easily. At least those bells look pretty on your hair.” Said Hatori. “Of course, this is just an initial observation. I still need more data to form what is commonly thought of as pretty or ugly.”
“Thanks for the compliment. I’m still not taking you on dates.” Said Shin.
“Yeah, sure.” His voice cracked at the final word, and tears started to fall from his eyes. They have seen Hatori cry only once when Karasu was murdered. But these tears are of happiness.
“I never thought I would see your faces!” he managed to choke out. they all hugged him, providing the emotional support.
After a few minutes of sniffling, Hatori composes himself. “So, I deduce that you plan to use this room to adapt to these eyes before you leave with Munshi?” asked Raven.
“Yeah, I have to work on a lot of things. My daily physical workout, my hand-and-eye coordination, my reflexes, I think I’ll kick learning to read and write down the street for the future.” Said Hatori.
“Makes sense. Those will take time,” said Josh.
“But you know what is the good thing? I won’t have to relearn how to carve runes.” Said Hatori.
“Oh yeah, you always use touch or magic for that,” said Shin.
“Also, I think I’ll challenge the champion here for a match in the future.” Said Hatori, clapping Raven on the shoulder. “I think I would like to see how I measure up against him now after this latest enhancement.”
“Challenge accepted.” Smiled Raven.
PART 3.
During the dinner a few days ago, Daphne asked Hatori to come and watch her duel. Of course, he couldn’t refuse. So, Josh brought him there, since he still is having trouble adjusting to the pace of the world with his vision. Josh is there mostly as an observer, to keep an eye on him, and make sure that he has support if he is struck by the vertigo again. This is unlikely to happen, as Hatori has told them, given how he has not experienced that for several days yesterday in the room of frozen time.
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“So, her opponent would also be a girl?” asked Hatori.
“No,” said Josh. “There is no separate division for duelers based on their genders. This is the same for other magical sports as well, and of course, board games like chess and shogi.”
“Though it is very rare to see girls in dueling.” Said Josh.
“Of course it is,” said Hatori, “They are not nearly aggressive enough. That’s why it is harder for them to compete with boys.”
“Keep talking like that, and you’ll get beat up by a girl.” Said Josh.
PART 4.
Daphne walks out to the arena, feeling the sun on her face, and the murmur of the crowd watching from the stands. She remembers what she knows about her opponent. ‘Aditya Dutt prefers to exchange heavy spells with his opponents, and then take advantage of their exhaustion.’ Her brain supplied the info.
“Today is the final match of the Academic Dueling championship!” said the announcer. “On my left, we have Daphne Blake, a surprise entrance, who has done wonderful in her first tournament, and come to this final!” the crowd cheered.
“On my right, we have Aditya Dutt, who is not a stranger to the dueling scene in the school. Give it all for both these competitors!” the crowd responded with claps and cheers.
“Now, begin!”
Just as Daphne expected, Aditya started with heavy spells, trying to incapacitate or exhaust her from the very early in the fight. Daphne blocked his initial spell of fire with a shield, side-stepped the wave of sand coming her way, and jumped over the non-elemental spells coming at her legs.
As Aditya pauses to start his next chain, Daphne retaliates with her own spells, making him lose his footing with a small earthquake, then motioning her staff to pummel him with rocks, most of which he failed to dodge. He glared at her with his mouth bloody and started his chain again.
After two more chains, he is starting to huff, and Daphne is getting better at their exchanges. Until he collapses, and Daphne pins his legs with a conjured metal sheet and summons his foci to her. “And the winner is Daphne Blake!”
The crowd cheered, especially the girls. Daphne waved in response; she was certain to feel the exhaustion later.
PART 5.
Hatori remembers the duel which Nandan fought during his first year. Nandan pinned the arms of his opponent with an iron spike to the opposite wall. But this duel, despite the heavy exchanges of the spells, ended quite normally, and both duelers walked away with minor scrapes and burns, which are easily healed with a potion.
Hatori goes to congratulate Daphne. “Good fight.” he shook hands with her, and left quickly.
He is feeling strange. Seeing her sweat-streaked, just coming out of a fight has done something. He has to run out of here before he embarrasses himself. Josh is coming after him, telling him to slow down.
He collides with someone and ends up on the ground. “I told you to slow down.” Said Josh, finally catching up with Hatori.
“Ug.” Said Avinash from the ground. “And I was having such a nice time.” he then looked at Hatori. “Wait a minute, you remember the experiment, don’t you?”
“Oh, I kind of forgot about that,” said Hatori, getting up from the floor. “Sorry.” He lends a hand to Avinash.
“Figures.” Said Avinash. “I knew you couldn’t be trusted with the responsibility, so I already found a professor. Let’s go talk to her, she has a baby.”
Professor Jyoti looked at these three boys strangely. Josh is wondering why is he dragged along, but it seems he cannot escape. “So, you want me to give my son to you, so you can test how hard it is to snatch candy from a baby?”
“Yes professor.” Said Hatori and Avinash.
“I’m being dragged here against my will.” Muttered Josh.
“Hmm. okay, but you must do this under my supervision.” They agreed.
But then, another argument broke out. Jyoti and Josh watch, as Avinaash and Hatori argue. “I will be the villain.”
“No, I will be the villain.”
“Look, I lack morals, as well as eyes. I also look scary, the near sight of me is enough to make kids cry. I should be the villain.” Said Hatori, not revealing the fact that he had regained his sight.
Before they left to watch the duel, Shin cast an illusion on Hatori’s eyes, making them look as if he still had empty eye sockets. “As if. I wish to be the king of this country, which is an ambition. Ambition is evil; therefore, I should be the villain.”
“Why not play rock-paper-scissors?” suggested Josh.
“Fine.” They both nodded. “Rock-paper-scissors, one, two, three!”
Hatori one, for Rock Beats Scissors. “That doesn’t make any sense. Scissors should cut the rock.” Sulked Avinash.
The time is right. The baby had just woken up from his nap, and the candy was in his hand. Hatori tried to snatch it away, but the baby did not give up. he used all the possible ways to protect his precious candy, something which he does not know what it is for he has not eaten one yet. But this person is trying to take this from him, so it must be important. He used a strong grip, cuteness, tears, and throwing the tantrum, and in the end, he made Hatori back off.
“Hmph! You give up so easily.” Avinash goes to try his luck, and finds out how right Hatori was.
It is not easy to snatch anything from a baby.
PART 6.
As the festival comes to an end, Hatori is meeting up with his friends. Raven is going out with another trophy in his name, having successfully defended his championship. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could take this room with us?” said Hatori.
“Hmm. I thought of that, but the runic script running this thing is very old.” Said James. “And to be honest, I’m not confident enough to try and copy that yet.”
“Well, I’ll help you in translation, just study up on the old runic scriptures.” Said Hatori.
“Sure.” Said James, not minding the additional task.
After all, this will allow them to essentially take advantage of this room, even outside of the Academy. they will graduate in three years; they will have to do this before then.
PART 7.
Manoj collects the blood from the corpse of a long-dead mage. “Isn’t that wonderful that they preserved the body? this makes things so much easier.” He said to no one. he likes to talk with himself when he is alone.
“The time of ritual is coming close. Within the next three months, I shall have a weapon to make everyone kneel before me.” he starts to chuckle at the very thought, rubbing his hands while imagining everyone bowing down to him.