Chapter 74.

PART 1.

It has been a month since the new year started for the Academy, and Krishna Menon has observed Hatori secretly. He is trying to find leverage on the boy, which he can use to either subdue him or bring him to heel. Both of which refer to absolute control over him.

If he did that, then his father wouldn’t be able to call him a useless lout. He’ll murder his father, take his place as the family head, and bring the Menon family to new heights. All of which would be done with the weapon called Hatori.

He’ll be fed potions, taught destructive spells, kept in absolute control, and unleashed on enemies whenever needed. The boy won’t last in this role, of course; he gives him twenty years tops. But that would be enough time to establish the Menon family as the rulers and destroy the authority of the throne. Once that happens, they’ll use Hatori as a living bomb, his magic primed to explode at their command, causing widespread devastation to their enemies, should they go against them.

But before any of that could be done, he needs to find a weakness. At first, he thought of Suraj, the blind boy who seems to hang around Hatori. Naturally, he should make for a good hostage. But why add a human variable? He has a safer idea instead.

“Ah, just the group I was looking for.” He said, finding five students he was looking for.

“Professor. Did you need something from us?” asked Sonia, one of the students.

“Indeed. I want you to do the following…”

PART 2.

A month before this insidious plan was hatched, Hatori is enjoying himself. Though it is hard to adjust to living life without constant attacks, he likes the time he gets to spend in the Academy. He gets to refine his talents, and of course, learn new things on his own.

Sometimes, the things he learns go out of control, such as the flying yantra which he made with James and Josh, who got involved since they needed to confirm various mathematical things to make sure that their yantra would fly.

Fly it did, but it immediately went out of control. The remote with which it was supposed to be controlled went up in smoke, and several students got an impromptu haircut with the wings of that yantra, which exploded right before colliding with a tree.

Coffing from the smoke, Hatori wheezes. “Do you have the schematic?”

“I do have those.” Wheezes James, already thinking about the potential bugs.

And now he thinks he has spent too much time with Hatori. His strange vocabulary is affecting his own. “Hey guys, look, a nest on the tree.” Points Shin.

“Oh yeah, good thing it didn’t collide with it,” said Josh.

“Wait, is there something on the ground?” said Raven, looking for the shrieks which were coming from the dried leaves below the tree.

“A chick of the crow.” Said James, picking the bird up. “Likely panicked from all that noise and smoke.”

“Can I hold it?” asked Hatori.

“Sure. And just so you know, his gender is male.” Said James.

“How did you know that?” asked all four of them.

“The voice. Even as a baby, you can hear the difference between male and female, assuming you know what to hear for.” Said James.

“Cool.” Said Hatori. “Ima raises him.”

“What?” They all look at Hatori at this sudden declaration.

“Do you have time to do that? with your training and everything?” asked Raven.

“Well, I’m sure I can manage it,” said Hatori.

“But how will you teach him to fly?” asked Josh.

“Hmm. a good challenge.” Hatori strokes his chin in thought. “I know, why not use a yantra?”

“I am listening.” Said James, getting interested.

“We’ll design a yantra which can feed this guy, and do crow things.” Said Hatori.

“What crow things?” asked Josh with amusement.

“Fly, for one thing.” Responded Hatori.

“Truly, you have a wealth of aviation knowledge.” Said Josh sarcastically.

“Don’t listen to him. I’ll take good care of you.” The chick shifted in Hatori’s hands.

It has calmed down by now, and it is no longer scared. “But what caused it to fall from its nest?”

Then, Hatori hears a familiar voice. A voice that he hates. A voice that every poet can’t help but like, and write verses upon verses in praise for it. “That explains it,” he said with a dark tone, as if ready to burn whatever was in the nest right at this moment.

“A Koel.” Said James. “Any particular reason for such dislike for this bird?”

Hatori thinks for a moment. “No,” he said, not wanting to explain anything.

“Fine. Let’s design that yantra.” Said James. “While we work on that, you three will take care of him.”

“What? Why should I—” Josh’s complaints are silenced by the glare of James.

“You will take care of it. Do you understand?” he asked, glaring at all three of them together.

“Yes, we understand.” Said Raven, even performing a salute taught to him by his father.

“Good.” Then, Hatori and James leave for the secret ground.

The secret ground is a place that Hatori found in his first year when he needed someplace to train in peace without getting threatened or observed. Later, his friends also started to use it. Nowadays, the place is filled with things, with yantras, notes, schematics, broken parts of yantras, and tons of other things. This is because the place is entirely immune to the elements outside; they can sleep here out in the open in the rain, without getting wet.

“What should we name him?” asked Josh.

“Since Hatori is the one raising him, I think he should be the one to name him,” said Raven.

“Makes sense.” Said Josh, watching Shin make faces at the chick.

“You’re gonna scare him like that,” said Josh.

“No, I’m not, your face is scarier!” said Shin.

“You take that back!” roared Josh.

Raven snatches the chick, as both Josh and Shin start to brawl with each other. “Ignore them. Let’s feed you something.”

Hatori decides to use the runic script taught to him by Zeko. James couldn’t help him there, so he just worked on the schematic, and the behavioral part. Remarkably, they were done designing the crow yantra in just a day. Now, it is time to test it.

Sending it flying to the chick with some food, they watch from afar its behavior, and the reaction of the chick. The baby bird seemed uncomfortable at first, but it got used to the presence of yantra slowly and considered it normal.

“Have you planned to name him?” asked Raven.

“Hmm. haven’t thought about it.” Said Hatori. “What do you say to the name Karasu?”

“What’s that? It sounds like something out of Nihon.” Said Shin.

“It is. It was the name of a puppet in the show I used to watch.” Said Hatori.

“What kind of puppet?” asked Josh with amusement.

“You know, a weapon.” Said Hatori.

“You saw some strange things, my friend.” Said Raven.

A month passes, and Karasu is getting used to his new life. He has also tried to fly, though it didn’t result in much. Luckily, the crow yantra was there to catch him. but Hatori is certain it’ll learn to fly quickly.

But happy events do not last in the world for too long. One day, when he comes back from his training and attends a rune class, Hatori finds Karasu missing, and a letter in the nest. The crow yantra is lying nearby, broken into pieces. The letter said to come to the observatory mountain, alone.

The observatory mountain is where astronomy-related work is performed. This mountain has a corrected height to put various instruments on it to observe the celestial bodies of space. The mountain is modified to add cliffs and branches over the years, making it look like a large rock-shaped tree as a result.

Hatori is going into one such cliff, one of the small branches of the tree. The letter had no sense of magic, meaning there was no way to track his movements. Maybe he should have brought someone with him. but it is too late to think about that.

The cawing of Karasu brought him to the right place. Five students surround him as soon as he comes into the clearing, where Karasu is held in the grip of a girl two years older than him. With a haughty tone, she begins to speak.

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“Hatori Eagle. It is good that you’ve come here. Goes to show you can follow instructions with the right incentive.” She spoke.

“What the hell do you want?” He has heard Zeko use that word. He surmised that it was not supposed to be used in polite company; but this isn’t polite company by any stretch of the imagination, in his opinion.

“I think you already know.” Speaks a male student behind him. The girl silences him with a glare.

Sonia doesn’t like it when someone tries to undermine her. Once this task is over, she will punish that impudent brat heavily. “What my friend tried to say was that you should realize your place, accept your fate, and heel to the families. We are the ones who run this country, not Porus and his throne or his lackeys.”

“I won’t join you,” said Hatori with a furious expression.

“Looks like a demonstration is in order.” With the snap of a finger, Hatori finds himself cut from his magical senses.

He couldn’t judge anything; he is blind like he used to be before he learned magic. “Boys, go wild on him.”

Hatori expected an attack, but instead, he hears the pain of Karasu, as it is tossed from one student to another. From their laughs, the girl seems to be the only female in this group. Hatori tries to target them, but he can’t hit them at all. Not to mention, they can use Karasu as a shield.

The feathers are plucked from his body, and he is tossed back to Sonia, barely alive. “Now, here’s the price for refusal.” Sonia puts Karasu under her shoes, and stomps on him with a crunch, ending his life.

Then, they attacked him. Hatori used some of the potions he was carrying with him to put them on backfoot and then retaliates with elemental magic. He burns one student to death with the Fire Blast, the variation of the Blast spell which Zeko taught him. Another student gets burned, when he tries to get closer, and Hatori uses the firewall. Inside his Firewall, he tosses a potion that reacts explosively with fire, which explodes, and some of its drops land on Sonia’s face, who is watching this battle with horror. How can just a third-year be so strong? His fire magic should not be strong enough to burn them.

Ignoring her screams as her face gets burned, Hatori accurately pinpoints the footsteps of the remaining two students, and he burns both of them with a Flamethrower spell. He had trouble using this spell before since it is very energy intensive. But now, in his rage, the fire element seems to be clicking right in his brain, allowing him to perform any spell.

But since his magical senses are blocked, Hatori doesn’t realize that a fuming Sonia is coming from behind him. He drops his Firewall just in time for her to pick him up with difficulty, and push him down to the cliff. For a third year, Hatori is surprisingly bulky. He manages to hold on to some rocks, but his grip is slipping away.

“You ruined my face. If you survived this fall, I’ll torment you for the rest of your life, you hear me?” screamed Sonia.

Hatori opens his mouth, and casts the Flamethrower spell once more, burning Sonia right where she stands. Coming down from his fog of anger, he smells the burning flesh on the mountain. He gagged on this smell, before rallying himself and pushing the bile down. He needs to think of a way down this cliff, without getting hurt.

But his hands get sweaty, and he loses his grip. He starts to fall to the ground, and his fingers start to bleed when he tries to find some purchase to hang on. In his panic, he casts the levitation spell on himself, the very first magical trick he ever learned. This brings him to the ground safely, but the wind buffeted him, turning him upside down. He lands head-first to the ground and lies there delirious from pain and concussion.

PART 3.

Half an hour later, Krishna Menon comes into the observatory and walks to the cliff, where he instructs the five students to keep Hatori. But instead of finding five students and one prisoner, he found only ashes and half-burned bodies. None of them survived, and there is no sign of Hatori.

‘Clearly, he used the fire element. But how could he overwhelm their protections so easily?’ He thinks. ‘How can a child of a lesser breed do so much damage?’

‘No matter. I’ll just move on to my second plan.’ He smiled.

Walking into the office of deputy headmistress Surbha, Krishna takes a chair. “Tell me, do you have the module for the forest?”

“I do, but why do you need it?” she asked.

“I believe it is time to punish an unruly child.” He tells her his plan.

“Are you certain?” she asked once again.

“Yes, I am certain. Now, please activate the module, and just watch the show tomorrow during breakfast.” He then leaves with a jump in his step.

PART 4.

After Hatori wakes up, he manages to walk to the secret ground, where his friends find him. They take him to healer slaughter, who immediately sedates him to treat the concussion.

“Let him sleep. Once he is awake, he’ll be as good as new.” Said the healer. “He suffered a concussion, and some magical strain.”

But healer Slaughter does not know how much Hatori is suffering emotionally. Once he wakes up and leaves the hospital, he tells them everything. None of them could believe it. the sheer cruelty is impossible for them to process.

After crying, Hatori goes to an uneasy sleep, while his friends discuss this latest incident. “One thing is clear to me.” Said Raven. “We’ve been ignoring the families, just because they haven’t threatened us personally.”

“Yes, but Hatori doesn’t have a moment’s peace. He got kidnapped, twice, the hazing the first year, and now this.” Said Josh.

“You guys need to consider another angle.” Said James. “If they need a hostage, we could be used there as well.”

That grim declaration didn’t make their situation any better.

The next day, on breakfast, things are about to get worse. Hatori didn’t want to eat anything, but his friends dragged him to breakfast, claiming to grieve on an empty stomach was no way to grieve. As soon as he enters the mess hall, Krishna Menon gets up from his table and implements his new plan.

“Dear students,” he spoke, silencing everyone. “There’s a dangerous student among us. He has been slowly killing sires of powerful families since his first year. He is a threat to our way of life, for he has no respect for magic. Do you think such a student deserves to live among us and study with us?”

“No!” came the emphatic reply.

“Then, I call the motion. According to the laws of the student council, you have the power to vote. Should we banish this student?” the votes for the yes were outnumbered by the votes which opposed this.

“Good. Hatori Eagle, you are banished to the forest for an indeterminate amount of time. You may not go home even during vacation. That is your punishment. You will not take anything more than your foci, and the clothes you are wearing. Go and leave the grounds of the Academy, immediately. Or else, we will remove you with force.”

Hatori goes out without saying anything, with his shoulders slumped, and tears flowing down his cheeks, a picture of defeat. “Krishna, you’re taking advantage of the laws. Students have always fought and killed in this Academy; it didn’t seem to bother you then. Why now?” asked Amrita, the professor of history.

Other professors have also raised similar objections. “The students decided for themselves, remember? None of us can do anything about it.” he looked at Corvus while saying the last part, a deliberate taunt for the headmaster.

PART 5.

Maria and Liang lamented their position. Since they are kids of the diplomats, they are forbidden from interfering in the internal matters of the students here, which also includes one student versus some professors and most of the students.

“You know, I’m not going to become a diplomat.” Said Maria. “What is the point of that position, when you can’t help someone when they are the victim of a false accusation right in front of you?”

“Indeed.” Agreed Liang. “Though Hatori is our friend, I would have felt it necessary to help anyone who was stuck in that unfortunate situation.”

(End.)