Chapter 147.
PART 1.
“So, you want something like theatrical drama?” asked Hatori.
“Yeah, but I can’t seem to get anything else beyond that,” said Josh.
“Hmm,” said Hatori, considering the problem.
Josh wants to do some sort of drama or theatrical presentation this year, but he has no idea beyond what he wishes to do. Josh is hoping that Hatori will be able to suggest some good ideas to him, but Hatori is also puzzled. Drama is not exactly his strong suit.
But then, Hatori remembers something. People beat each other, giving long speeches as if they were kings and presidents of their respective countries, a crazy crowd, an equally crazy pair of commentators, and every matter, small or big being settled in a ring. Yes, this seems to be a perfect solution to this problem.
Josh watches the growing smile of Hatori, worried that his friend might come up with some crazy thing. “What do you say to wrestling?” Josh puts his face on his hands.
“I don’t want any fighting.” He said, his voice muffled due to his palms covering his mouth.
“I’m not talking about fighting.” Said Hatori. “What we’re gonna do is use some crazy unrealistic move which never works in a fight. it will be fake. It will be huge. And it will be entertaining!” declared Hatori, getting in the spirit of the idea.
“Ah, that does have some potential.” Smiled Josh. Perhaps he was too quick to judge his friend.
Then Hatori began to describe other roles. “It won’t do if there are just two fighters. We’ll need a commentator, preferably two of them. an announcer to announce our names as we enter the ring.” Said Hatori. “And of course, we’ll need to decide which one of us will play the role of a villain.”
Before Josh could say anything, Professor Prakriti came. “Mister Hatori, come with me.” she grabbed Hatori’s arm and dragged him with her. Hatori is so shocked that he can’t do anything to extract himself from her grip.
PART 2.
Raven arrives. He is late in Josh’s opinion, but given his haggard look, he decides not to give him grief about it. “If you were just a few minutes early, you would have met Hatori,” said Josh.
“Yeah? Where is he?” asked Raven, as they both walk to the dorms of Josh and James.
“Professor Prakriti came and dragged him with her.” Said Josh. “Honestly, I don’t know why she did that. he is here for a day, and a majority of his time was spent with me and James. I don’t think he could come up with anything which would bother her specifically.”
Raven, despite his tired state of mind, does plan to keep the championship trophy with him this year as well. but for now, he needs rest. Seeing that Raven is nodding off while standing up, Josh ushers him to his own bed, covers him with blankets, and leaves him to sleep.
PART 3.
Professor Prakriti takes Hatori to the forest, where she makes him watch all the animals going around their daily business. They are clearly modified, for dogs do not use elemental magic (or any kind of magic) normally, and the birds do not use cutting blades of wind. Hatori didn’t even think that the wind could cut, or it can take the shape of a blade. The crows have increased in numbers, and the chick on his shoulder (who is surely going to be a fully grown crow any day now judging by the increased weight), is delighted to see so many new crows.
‘Why don’t you meet them?’ he suggested telepathically. ‘I’m sure they’ll be happy to show you around.’
‘You sure about that?’ asked Karasu the second.
‘Of course.’ Said Hatori with an encouraging tone.
The professor ignores the crow on Hatori’s shoulder suddenly taking a flight and disappearing among the crows of this forest. “Do you see what you did?”
“Did what, professor?” asked Hatori.
“You cannot be this clueless!” she thundered. “All these animals are newly born. They have received all the abilities of their parents, resulting in new and different combinations of magic, without any kind of magical modification!”
Hatori notices how the crows have monopolized the tall trees. he also gets two familiar greetings from the elephant and the snake, who are nearby but decide not to come and greet him in person, instead of giving him a mental brush as a sort of telepathic hello.
“Did you know this would happen when you modified those animals for your invasion force?” asked Prakriti, bringing Hatori out of his mind.
“No professor, I didn’t know.” Said Hatori. “Clearly though, these animals have prospered, so I fail to see why you are so angry.”
Professor Prakriti gives Hatori a dark glair and then leaves in a huff. Hatori ignores her childish behavior. It is a fact of life that some adults do behave like kids, and there is nothing you can do about it. no point in feeling angry at the children in adult bodies, after all.
Once Hatori is certain that the professor is truly gone, and is not discretely observing him, he goes to the lake. He remembers his days when he camped out here like a warlord, planning his glorious invasion. He showed those students who controlled the Academy to not mess with him. and this lake and that Yantra helped him along the way. speaking of that Yantra, it clearly has evolved. Hatori believes there is nothing of the original remaining in that yantra, beyond some opcodes. Everything has changed, from its body to its runes. The lake is similar, some of the abilities it has Hatori never did give it originally, such as the ones that allow elephants to perform acrobatic maneuvers in combat, despite their size and weight.
While Hatori didn’t’ know that his modifications would be carried over to the next generation at that time, it is clear how that happened. The entire forest seems to be part of this system, which constantly changes as Hatori observes it. quite frankly, the entire thing is out of his hands, and it is glorious to observe.
PART 4.
Hatori came back, but Professor Prakriti was not with him. Josh didn’t want to ask. Besides, in the happiness of being together with all four of his closest friends, he has no interest in knowing what happened with Hatori. besides, he looks to be fine, if he were to be in trouble though, he wouldn’t be laughing so openly.
“Hatori, shouldn’t we tell them what your idea is?” asked Josh.
“You mean for his drama thing?” asked James.
“Exactly.” Said Josh.
Hatori explains, and five minutes later, they all get the basic idea. “I was thinking that you three should also play some roles in this. Shin could play the announcer, and Raven and James can play commentators.”
“You mean I get to insult you two openly without any repercussions?” asked Raven with a smile. “I’m in.”
“Me too.” Said James with the same smile as Raven.
“Now that’s settled,” said Josh, ignoring the looks of happiness on James and Raven’s faces, he asked the next important question. “We need to decide who will be the villain and the hero.”
“Of course, I’ll be the villain.” Said Hatori. “I have the right credentials for it as well! I invaded the school, gutted the order of the Academy, and caused all sorts of problems in the process. I should be the villain!” concluded Hatori.
“First,” said Raven, “You didn’t do the gutting alone.”
“Second, we totally supported you during the invasion.” Said James.
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“And third, I should be the villain!” said Josh. “I have the right credentials as well!” Hatori groaned at Josh stealing his words. “I ruthlessly took advantage of the gutted order, manipulated the emotional masses, and became a tyrannical president, who has been tormenting the students ever since!” he concluded.
“Oh yeah? what was the last evil thing did you do?” asked Hatori, not impressed.
“Several of them. I auctioned ancient porn, which is still going on by the way, we’re making an awesome profit on it, I overwork my staff constantly, and just yesterday, I groped some girls, taking advantage of my presidential powers to get away with it!” said Josh, daring Hatori to equal him in the villainy department.
“As if!” sneered Hatori. “Kangana will castrate you if you ever groped a girl. The staff member will rebel and replace you in a heartbeat if you overwork them for no reason. and auctioning porn? It was mine and Shin’s idea, and our business. We only brought you in because we didn’t have anyone else at that time!” said Hatori.
“Okay, enough.” Said Raven, getting a headache from all this arguing. “Let’s do a toss. Whoever wins the toss will play the villain. Why you want to be the villain is beyond me. I thought everyone wanted to be a hero.” Grumbled Raven, bringing out a copper coin.
“It's fun being evil.” Said Josh and Hatori together.
With a snarl, Raven throws the coin to the floor. “Face is Hatori, and crown is Josh.” He announced as the coin rolled on its side. The coin landed with its crown side up. “Hatori wins. He will be the villain.” Seeing Josh’s whiny expression, Raven thundered. “No whining!”
“Fine.” He sulked.
He decides that he will go in the game for himself. He will not follow the script. This will be the revenge of the shooters, baby!
PART 5.
After the entire plan for their “Wrestling drama” is hashed out, Hatori leaves for a walk. The ground is covered with snow this year, which is a rare occurrence. During his seven years in this school, he has rarely seen the snowfall of this level. He spied Daphne also walking in the snow, Ravina nowhere to be seen. Hatori makes his way to her, the snow crunching under his feet. He idly considers designing some enchantments for better balance for all kinds of surfaces. Fighting on slippery snow does not sound funny to him.
“Hello.” He greeted her from behind. She turned around, ready to lash out, but stopped in time when she saw who greeted her. Hatori approves of this reaction.
“Hello.” She returns the greeting.
“I was at your house this year,” said Hatori, falling in step with her, “And imagine my surprise when I saw the trophy.”
“Dad has still put it right in the front, where anyone could see it, right?” she asked.
“Yep.” Said Hatori with a smirk. “His pride and joy, winning duels and taking names.” The smirk got wider as Daphne blushed.
“I told him to remove the trophy after a while,” she muttered.
“I think he doesn’t get tired of gloating.” Said Hatori. “He talked a lot while I worked on the spirit wards.” He carefully left that out so that he also didn’t get tired of listening to him.
“What about this year then?” asked Hatori. “Any competitions?”
“No,” said Daphne. “Professor Bali took us to forests around the Academy instead, making us practice our survival skills there. he carefully excluded one forest in particular.”
“He’s smarter than I thought then.” Said Hatori. “Most of you won’t come out of there alive if you provoked the denizens of that forest.”
“That is quite a bold claim.” Said Daphne.
“Of course, do you know who turned them that way?” Hatori puffed up self-importantly. “But my own gloating aside, Professor Bali was right to take you there. wilderness is perfect for practicing combat. Nothing cares about your status there, if you are weak, then your food. And if you are not weak, then you are hunting for food.”
“Isn’t that a rather brutal outlook?” asked Daphne, “After all, didn’t civilization itself come out of the wilderness? Shouldn’t that mean it is possible to live there without violence everywhere?”
“Well, you don’t see violence all the time,” said Hatori. “Also, these are very philosophical topics. I never thought about them.”
“I think you need them more than anyone.” Said Daphne. “Who knows, you might turn this entire world into a glass floor.”
The only reply Hatori has for her is a wide smile.
PART 6.
Corvus is meeting with the professors. Currently, he is listening to the conclusion of her report about Hatori’s experiment. “In short, the boy has no idea what he did.” She spoke.
“This is nothing unusual,” said Krodhatma, the resident rune expert. “There is no way to predict these things. there is a reason why we do not encourage experimenting with animals with runes and rituals.”
“Maybe we should scare the boy, put the fear of magic in him. else, he might decide to do this again.” Said Prakriti. “When I spoke with him, he didn’t sound horrified or expressed his regrets. He was unfazed. This is a dangerous behavior which has to be curbed.”
“I don’t think this is a wise course of action. And before you accuse me of favoritism, understand why,” said Krodhatma, glaring at several professors who opened their mouths to say the same thing. “We, through our own machinations,” he looked at Corvus while saying this, “Cornered the boy so much so that he was thrown out of this school on flimsy charges. He had no way to appeal, no one to fight for him. that’s why he resorted to that experiment; consequences be damned. And if we now try to scare him, it’ll just enforce in his mind that we’re not to be trusted, and this will spread to other students. Professors can take any action at flimsy charges, banish students to the forest with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, and leave no room to appeal such harsh punishments.”
Prakriti sighed. “When you put it like that…” she trailed off.
“Besides,” continued Krodhatma, “He is much more experienced since then and has become more powerful as well. whatever we do will not scare him. however, it will express to him that we are hostile towards him, something which we should not do.”
“Agreed.” Said Corvus. “We won’t take any action against Hatori Eagle. However, we will continue to monitor the animals. Who knows, maybe we might achieve some breakthroughs of our own?” everyone smiled at Corvus’s hopeful tone.
PART 7: THE ROLE OF GENERALS.
The generals in the Subcontinent’s military have many important roles. On one level, they must direct the military operations, and on another level, they must interact with the civilian side of the government. The generals are always appointed by the king, who chooses the general from the crop of experienced military officers available at the time of their rule. due to this, the generals never allow the same kind of political structure as it is present on the civilian side. Meaning, that a soldier who comes from a lower-class family can hope to have the same prospects as a soldier from a high-class family. This structure is enforced in the military harshly. As a result, many people who do not get any choice in employment due to their birth often end up in the military, where they can have hope for some social mobility.
The generals also play an important role. And that is to keep the brute force of a mage king in check. Due to the harsh way the kings are chosen in the Subcontinent, only the strongest of the mages have any chance of getting the chance to sit on the throne. However, the generals keep them in check, and in the past, often challenged them and removed them from the throne. Though a general taking the throne from the king is a rare event, it has only happened twice.