Chapter 137.

PART 1.

Hatori is observing the memories of a dead crow, acquired through her blood. It was an old crow that recently died, which given how brutal things can be in nature, is a remarkable thing. He saw her sharing her knowledge with younger crows, which actually delighted Hatori.

‘No wonder they are thriving in the world.’ he smiled. He always liked crows.

So, what if they don’t have the sweetest of cries? They are smart, and that is what matters.

The process of acquiring the memories from the blood is not that hard. You just need to draw the shape of a human head in the ground, put the blood in the center, channel magic through it, and you can observe the memories from a first-person point-of-view.

Of course, before doing any of this, he asked the permission of the crows nearby. They did not mind, but Hatori decided to be polite. These birds can be vengeful. Once Zeko destroyed one of their nests, they harassed him for months, until Hatori returned, and helped him in reconciling with the corvids. They have decided to forgive him on a probationary basis. if he did something like that again, no amount of Hatori’s begging could save Zeko from their torment.

Knowing all of this, Hatori did not want to offend them.

Meanwhile, Shin is observing all of this happening nearby. Hatori is surrounded by crows, and with that weird head shape on the ground, plus that blood, it all makes him look like a proper evil necromancer mage. it is enough to freak him out. he thought Hatori would be over his love for the crows, but apparently, he was wrong.

Some of the crows turn his way as if sensing his thoughts. The bells jingle on his head, as he flinched. “Awesome crows…” he chuckled nervously, “Very intelligent and wise.” He smiled, but it came off as a grimace.

But at least those crows did turn around. Hatori gets up from his kneeling position. “What’s up with your scared look?” he asked, coming out of the memory.

“Nothing.” Said Shin, cursing his cracking tone.

“Sure.” Hatori didn’t believe this tough guy's act but decided to let it go. “Let’s go eat lunch already. I’m starving.”

‘How can you eat anything after observing the life of a crow?’ Thinks Shin, following Hatori.

PART 2.

James comes to Zeko’s house. He will be staying here until Hatori leaves, which according to what the boy has told him, will be sooner than all of them. “So, your vacation will end before us,” said James, his lips curling in a smile. “The guy who had the lightest workload in the school had the shortest vacation during the apprenticeship. Fitting I say, karma even.”

Hatori ignores the ribbing and shows James some runes. “I’ve seen these runes in the books given to me by Munshi, or I have come up with them myself. As you can see, all of them are related to souls and spirits. I was wondering whether we can use them in a Yantra or not?”

“Hmm.” thinks James, looking at the floating runes around him. “I haven’t seen anything like that before. I’ll have to do some testing before I can give you a definite answer.”

“That’s fair.” Said Hatori. “I wonder what kind of effect these runes will have on a human, or perhaps an alchemically created body?”

“I don’t know. Also, I resent you for passing that class without even showing up more than ten times during the entire year,” said James. The alchemic processes going on in a living body are mindboggling, and understanding them can be such a pain.

“Well, it helps that I wasn’t pursuing a perfect score in that one,” said Hatori.

“That’s bullshit. You were among the top ten even in that class.” Said James.

“So what? You were at the first spot. I fail to see why you are so furious about this.” Said Hatori.

“Because I attended the class. And yet, you still managed to get to the third spot. How?” asked James, exasperated that Hatori was not getting his point.

“Talent. Truly, I am a genius of unparalleled intellect, who only appears every thousand years, who grows in height and muscles when transformed, and has a terrible temper, and has green energy as my aura… I think I’ve gotten sidetracked.” Said Hatori, realizing that he was not describing a genius anymore.

“Quite.” Agreed James.

PART 3.

Now that he has some free time, Shin is considering some more modifications for himself. This time, something more beyond the music, as he needs to enhance himself physically. It won’t do to live with a monster like Hatori and stay physically weak. Who else would remind him of his place then, and puncture his ego?

But working with the runes is not an easy task, and cutting yourself open each time for modifying yourself is even harder, not to mention, painful. It also carries a risk. What if he made a wrong carve ? This is the sort of problem which a surgent should worry about, not a musician.

‘How come Hatori doesn’t have any problem with this?’ Shin has not seen Hatori modifying himself, ever since he did his first few modifications in his fifth year, a full year before any of them. but he also modified the animals, something which none of them have ever done or attempted.

Shin shook his head. This isn’t the time to remember the glorious invasion. Come to think of it, Josh did Hatori a disservice by making him train under Kangana and turning him rather mellow. Or maybe this is his natural response after most of his enemies are gone? Whatever the case, Shin does miss that violent, and dangerous Hatori who can scheme for months just out of spite.

‘Maybe I should ask him for help with this. He certainly has something in his sleeves, that’s why James and he do not have to resort to cutting themselves open when modifying himself.’ He thinks. deciding this is the best action he can take, Shin approaches Hatori in the evening, right before the dinner.

Predictably, James is also there. As Shin gets closer, he hears their conversation. Something about souls, physical bodies, their medical implications, and what it means to resurrect a soul. It all went over his head. Such technical magic is beyond him, and Shin has no problem admitting that.

“Hey you guys,” he said, attracting their attention, “Can you help me out here?”

“With what?” asked James.

“Well, I seem to be having a problem in modifying myself. The rune work has gotten complicated, and I really don’t want to cut myself open for each small modification.” James opens his mouth. “And don’t give me the tripe about how you don’t have a solution for this problem. I know that you guys haven’t cut yourselves since your first few modifications.” James closes his mouth.

What could he say to that?

Hatori and James exchange a look. For a moment, Hatori enjoys that feeling of being able to do that with a person in the first place. He then turns to Shin. “We use a different rune dialect, which lets us modify ourselves on the run, without cutting ourselves open. It is shorter, and it also lets us test some small rune functions before we even use them.”

Hatori provides a small example to Shin. He summons a small floating symbol for fire. After channeling his magic through it, a flame appears in the air, which dissipates after a while. “The runes look different, so it’ll take you a while to get used to them. but that is the only solution to this problem you have.”

“Is there a manual for this?” asked Shin.

“I do have one,” said James. “I used that to learn it myself, and I took notes. I’ll lend you those notes.”

“In my case, it is restricted. Zeko will have my hide if I share his stuff with anyone, even you guys.” Said Hatori.

“We understand.” Said James and Shin together.

Mages take their secrets very seriously and guard them ruthlessly.

Once Shin has the manual from James, he starts to read it. The runes are difficult to understand. Everything is reversed in this dialect compared to the standard runic script, and it gives him a headache to understand all the symbols. But he is determined to get this down, especially since it will free him from cutting himself. Though Hatori did warn him that he still has to go through this process one last time, a sort of bootstrapping process, as he called it.

Shin would have just called it a starting process because strapping boots has nothing to do with this. Sometimes, Hatori uses the strangest of terms.

PART 4.

During the dinner, Hatori asks a question. “Master Zeko, I’ve faced all the elemental spirits, except lightning. Isn’t there one in the house?”

“Why don’t you try searching for it?” said Zeko with a smile.

That smile implied that there was one. so Hatori goes to search for that spirit in the morning. First, he met with Yaksha. “Good, you’ve become strong. I would like to spar with you someday.” Said the water spirit.

“Yeah, thanks. Did you know that I met some girl who was really angry at you?” asked Hatori.

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the spirit which was bubbling in happiness after seeing Hatori suddenly goes quiet. “Can’t imagine why. I haven’t met spirits of the opposite or same gender for a while. you see, I really don’t get along with other spirits, specifically, spirits outside of this house.”

It is clear to Hatori that Yaksha is evading the question. not interested in digging into the love life of the water spirit, Hatori asks a question. “We can spar one day; I’ve learned some magic to deal with unruly spirits that I’m itching to try on you. but before that, tell me, isn’t there a lightning spirit in this house?”

“Hmm. there is one.” said the Yaksha. “Though I suggest you talk to the spirit of information if you want to know where that spirit might be.”

So Hatori goes to the library, where he meets with the spirit of information. Thankfully, unlike the year before, the spirit is not interested in asking any trivia or philosophical questions this time. after exchanging some pleasantries, Hatori asked the question for which he had come here in the first place.

“So, is there a lightning spirit in this house?” asked Hatori.

“Of course there is.” said the librarian spirit. “If you want to see it, go to the basement. I assume you know the way down?”

“Yeah, though I’ve rarely gone down there,” said Hattori, before he left for the basement.

Hatori reaches the basement, where the central yantra which runs everything in this house hums quietly. “Well, well. look who showed up. you’ve grown a lot since the last time I saw you.” said the central yantra. This is a lie, since he observed the boy all the time in the past, and still continues to do so, monitoring his progress every time Hatori enters this house.

“Yeah, I haven’t come down here for a while,” said Hatori.

“Word through the electric wires is that you’re looking for me?” asked the central yantra.

“Not you, the lightning spirit.” corrected Hatori.

“As I said, for me.” said the central yantra.

“You are the lightning spirit,” said Hatori a few seconds later.

“And you finally get it. I assume you want a fight?” asked the yantra.

“Not really. I haven’t warmed up; it is too early in the morning.” The yantra ignored the words of Hatori entirely and morphed into a square-shaped box into a floating plane with three guns in front of it.

The three guns fired three different spells, which had different ranges. But all of them were lightning spells. Hatori dodged and sidestepped the first two, but shielded the final one, because its range was long, and the yantra was spreading it in an arc to hit him after the first two spells fell short of their target. Hatori thought that the only threat would be the spells, but the yantra proved him wrong quickly. it closed range with him blazingly fast and electrocuted him by touching him. despite the shocks, Hatori grabbed its body, and threw it against a wall, hoping to damage it by brute force.

It clatters to the ground, but it flies up once again, a little bit warbly at first, but quickly stabilizing itself. The spirit then changed the size of its body from a toy plane to a full-size combat plane, ready to bring mayhem to its enemies. Hatori has to use the flight to get out of the way of its spells. but moving in the air opened him to more attack since the Yantra has more experience in the air battle. However, it gave Hatori a chance to move to attack, instead of reacting and defending. The Fire Blast heated the body of the yantra, but it did nothing more aside from making it wobble in the air. the basement is proving to be a short ground for their battle, so Hatori flies through the stairs, takes advantage of the yantra’s design, and blows one of its wings as it slowly turns to pursue him in the enclosed area. This did not slow down the central yantra, and it pursued him to the outside, and they began to battle outside of the house, right above it to be more specific.

Hatori’s conjured chains didn’t have an anchor, despite the right frequency of the magic, so they proved to be useless. Instead, it gave the spirit two very fast weapons to batter Hatori with. One of the chains struck Hatori’s face, and another struck his belly. Hatori spat the blood in his mouth to the side, and in retaliation to all of this damage, destroyed the two guns, while taking another spell, which stunned him due to the current running through his body.

The chains struck him a few more times, before he vanished them, undoing the conjuring. “How do you keep shocking me so hard despite my resistance?” asked Hatori, after stabilizing his flight after that beating.

“Because of the positive lightning. You should really learn to use it. properly.” Chided the spirit, before firing another spell from its single remaining gun.

Hatori batted the spell aside, and his right arm hung limply as a result of the shock. But his left hand was fine, so he used that, pointing his palm to the spirit, he battered it with the water spells. while the majority of the water ended up raining down upon the ground, enough of it stuck to the yantra’s body, which Hatori then turned into ice. The gun got jammed, the wings spun slower than before, and a ball of lightning knocked the Yantra, crashing it to the ground with a loud explosion.

When he was sure that the spirit had conceded, he landed on the ground, where he found an impressed Zeko and an annoyed Shin. “Why did you have to disrupt my sleep?” he asked, hiding his concern for his bloody friend behind his biting words.

“Sorry.” Said Hatori. He tried to smile, but his face was swelling, it hurt to even move his lips.

the murder of crows hovers above them, cawing loudly. Judging by the feelings he is sensing, Hatori thinks they are impressed with him. “You’ve done wonderfully. I’ve never seen a mage fly and battle like this before.”

“Because mages do not fly.” Said Shin, reminding Zeko of the fact. “I’m not sure how he does that, but he better keep it a secret, lest they decide to cut him open in a lab.”

“Point.” nodded Zeko. “But still, it was wonderful. I think I’ll have to get a new module for you, to train your air battle reflexes.”

“Thanks.” That was the only thing Hatori could say.

“But that is for later.” he runs a spell over Hatori, healing the minor bruises and cuts. “For now, you need a bath in the pool of the Yaksha.”

PART 5.

Porus crumples the letter in his hands. “Pray tell, why am I learning about this now?” he asked.

It seems that Fernandes, Zeeko, and their circle knew about the incident in the Sindapur. But they decided to inform him later. “The official excuse is because you were busy. The unofficial excuse is that the people who dealt with this issue barely got out of there alive, and Zeko himself learned of it later. I couldn’t exactly give you a letter like this outside of the castle.” explained Amarnath.

“Magic dammit, this is why I actually supported the necromancers when they wanted to legalize the burning of the corpses.” Porus continues to curse for the next five minutes. After he was done blowing his steam, he gave new orders, for which Amarnath had been waiting patiently so far. “Ensure that all the strong mages from the past have their graves protected and watched all the time, and I’m bringing this issue to the court once again. Judging by Fernandes and Sharmas knowing this, it is probably an open secret by this point.”

“Of course, sir.” Nodded Amarnath, noting the orders down.

“Let’s hope we can legalize the burning this time.” Porus knew that he was hoping for the impossible, but hope was all he has.

PART 6.

Munshi and Jimmy are here to pick up James and Hatori respectively. “See you later, guys.” Said Hatori.

“You too!” waved Shin, while James just nodded.

Shin will remain here until Sangita calls him once again. Raven and Josh have not shown up this year, due to their own schedules.

Hatori brought a young crow with him this time. he was pushed out of his nest, and he decided to bring it up. Munshi does not have any problem with that, as long as Hatori can take care of the young chick. The necromancer was more interested in knowing whether Hatori succeeded in the tasks that he assigned him or not.

“So, did you summon a soul?” asked Munshi, once they were on the road.

“Yeah, it was tiring. Much more tiring than just observing memories,” said Hatori.

“Don’t you worry, you’ll get powerful enough in the future to summon a soul, at least the recently deceased one. Bringing someone like that battle mage, however, is out of reach for everyone.” Said Munshi.

PART 7: A BOOK OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL NECROMANCERS OF THE LAST CENTURY, MUNSHI.

Munshi was born into the Rao family, where he was overshadowed by Praduman Rao, the current head of the family due to his blindness. Munshi was exiled later from the family when he refused to abandon his association with Zeko and his group.

However, despite that, it did not affect his work. His contributions to the necromancy are celebrated worldwide, in particular, his optimization of the circle for summoning spirits, his regular contributions to the researching of the souls and spirits, and the articles that he writes in the necromancy monthly.