Chapter 43.

PART 1.

Hatori is currently fighting a yantra on the grassy part of the secluded ground he found a few days earlier. This place is strange. Not only does everyone seem to ignore the pretty obvious gate to enter here, but no one seems to come here at all. Not to mention, the dangerous feeling he gets here sometimes.

Though he chalked it up to loneliness.

Currently, he is grappling with the yantra provided by the school. He thought he had to do a lot of begging and scraping for getting this, but surprisingly he got it very easily. He just asked Sultan about getting one, and before the class was over, he handed him a small doll like shape. He told him to add some magic to it when he needs to practice with it, and it’ll grow into the size specified by him. He just needs to think about the size while adding the magic into it. Hatori still doesn’t understand, after thinking about it, how something can actually work just by thinking about it.

Meanwhile, Sargent Book is instructing him from the sidelines. “Grab the wrist, grab the wrist! Now, pull it back; watch out for the elbow.” With a loud snap, the arm of the Yantra broke.

He has been sparring physically with this thing for an hour now, and much like dueling, it saps his stamina quickly. “Good job there. Now, let’s have some dueling, shall we?” said Sargent Book.

Tiredly, Hattori deactivates the yantra, and brings out another doll like figure. This one has a fixed size, but unlike the previous one, it can fire some selected spells like Sting for example. And if he gets too close to it, it can retaliate physically as well.

“For now, you’re fine with training with these yantras. But soon you’ll surpass them. At that point, you will need to create or buy advance yantras for your training.” Said Sargent, while Hatori deals with the Sting spell, blocking with his basic shield, and firing off several Slice spells in succession, mixing them up with Pierce and Sting spells of his own.

This kind of routine is common now for Hatori. He spars in the morning and evening, and brews potions in the day-time and tries to keep up with schoolwork. After such an exhausting day, he doesn’t have the energy to walk to his room. So he has spent many nights on this strange part of the ground. Strangely enough, the elements don’t seem to bother him. He even woke up to the falling rain once, but he was completely dry.

PART 2.

Hatori’s friends are worried. For several days now, Hatori has not come to sleep in their dorm, not to mention skipping classes. “At least we get to see him during breakfast, lunch and dinner.” Said Raven when Josh raised the matter.

“Also in potions… sometimes.” Added Shin. Every other class is ignored by Hatori. They are not sure how he is keeping up with classwork.

“Still, what exactly is he doing?” asked Josh. “It can’t be good for him if he cuts himself off from everyone like that.”

“You won’t be able to stop him.” Said James, suddenly, silencing everyone. “He’ll talk to us when he is ready. Remember, the events of last week heavily affected him.”

They all nodded. “That’s fine. But only to some limit. We should interfere if things go far.” Suggested Shin.

“Yes.” Everyone agreed.

PART 3.

Hatori didn’t have much trouble picking up the magical sensing. Given how it mostly requires focus, it wasn’t a hard task for him to learn that. And he is perfectly aware of who deserves the credit for that. He can already hear the smug voice of Zeko talking about all those meditation sessions.

The magical sense is different from Radar spell. While the spell works like a well… radar, by reflecting the waves of magic at the casters mind, and painting the picture of an object in the process, the magical sense is feeling the magic around you, and discerning the changes as it goes through. According to the book from which he is learning all of this, he can even sense people with perfect accuracy once he familiarizes himself with the feel of their magic, even if they change their form, shape, and voice.

Though Hatori hasn’t tried that with many students, he can sense the spirit of Sargent Book, though the book didn’t talk about spirits. Whereas he can now sense unfamiliar people coming or going away from him. According to the book, once someone starts to use it regularly, it becomes second nature, and no effort is required to sense something.

Though Hatori decides to still use the radar spell. It has its uses still.

Hatori falls asleep after performing the exercises in the book. He then begins to dream.

“So, did you complete Tekken 7 already?” asked a boy, looking around to be 13.

“Yep.” Said Hatori. “Though still, I like Tekken Dark Resurrection better.”

“You do know you get beat up on that one, right?” asked another boy of similar age.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“That is a petty reason to hate a game.” Said Hatori with his arms crossed.

“Anyway, thanks for lending me BlazBlue. I really enjoyed that one.” said the first boy.

“Yeah. And screw those people who think that story is not important.” Said the second boy, before realizing what he just said. “Ah s—I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Hatori isn’t bothered by it.

He joined their school this year, and quickly proved himself to be a prodigy of sorts with computers and programming. Though he studies other subjects with children of his age, in their computer course, he is the youngest student in the class. Suraj and Ajay are two friends he made in his computer class.

Though they did ask him about where he studied before coming to their school, they quickly realized that he doesn’t like to talk about it. Though he comes off as a jerk, because he doesn’t talk to people often, these two boys realize that he actually is a very nice boy underneath his quiet demeaner.

As soon as the dream began, it was over. With a jerk, Hatori wakes up. For a moment, he thought he is still in his room back in his house, spending summer playing games or reading books on his laptop. A perfect summer for the lazy kid like him. But his ears reminded him of the open space of the isolated ground.

‘I wonder what mother would say after learning how active I’ve become. Would she approve?’ He thinks. But he quickly shook off the thought. Her approval is not important.

No sir. He doesn’t need anyone’s approval. Certainly not from a person with whom he hasn’t spoken for a year and a half. And no, he is not in denial. Keep accusing him of that, and he’ll turn you into a frog, and then squash you under his shoes, as soon as he can learn to turn someone into a frog.

After breakfast, ignoring the rush of the crowd in which everyone is trying to get to their class in time, Hatori goes to the library, and returns the book about magical sensing. He then looks for the next book on Zeko’s list, before he finds another book.

“Fociless Magic: Advantages and Methods.” Announces the robotic voice. “This book teaches fociless magic, and talks about what advantages it presents compared to the magic done with foci.”

Borrowing that book, and putting it in his bag, Hatori finds a short booklet on basic runes and enchantments. Getting comfortable after finding a chair, he begins to read those two books. ‘Looks like I should start carving again.’

Going back to his secluded spot, Hatori tries to perform the color-changing transmutation. The class has moved on to some other transmutations; for example, changing the needle to a matchstick. Hatori does not have any trouble with that. But the color change is still causing him problems. Often times, his matchsticks have the same color as the needles, instead of the wooden color. Though he does get the texture right, since they do feel made of wood when Hatori touches them.

The light-reflecting doesn’t work. He can’t remember all the patterns for the colors. But now that he has learned magical sensing, he can now mimic the same flow as other people have while doing this transmutation, giving him a perfect result. Turning a red ball into blue, and turning a metal needle into a wooden matchstick complete with the right shade of color.

Watch out, folks, he has taken his first step in turning you into a frog.

PART 6. SELECTED READING FROM FOCILESS MAGIC: ADVANTAGES AND METHODS.

If you go around observing the mages in these current times, you will see the heavy use of foci. But this wasn’t the case when the Mage Dimension was created at first. Magi of that time were capable of using magic without foci. So how come things ended up this way?

The reasons are many. But the biggest of them is the effort of the Sorcerer’s Institute to encourage the use of foci to develop the expertise in magic faster. Fociless magic requires a strong mind and a strong body, both of which take a lot of time to develop. Not to mention, foci can be useful when you need procession, when you’re unraveling wards, laying the enchantments, or powering up the runes.

So why did I write this book? Mainly because I do think fociless magic has its own advantages. And if you are willing to put the effort into it, it can pay off massively. First, spells can be understood better, because you will get to experience the flow of magic directly within you as you cast them. Second, during dueling, you can basically cast spells without worrying about the limitations of a foci. True, there are some mages who use two focis together. But compared that with casting spells from both of your hands, legs, and even your mouth, they will be pretty much outclassed.

Given time, you can even develop the ability to use magic without even moving your body, casting spells solely from your mind. Though it should be noted that only sorcerers have displayed this capability.

At the end, you will be able to use your own body as a foci, which will allow you greater procession, which no foci in the world can match. If you are not afraid of hard work, then continue on. A great magical journey is about to start for you.

(End.)