Chapter 86.
PART 1.
Hatori is working with the crows. The birds have quickly picked up advanced magical tricks aside from telepathy, though none of them have chosen any modification. According to that one female crow whom Hatori met for the first time while trying out his telepathy, there’s a fierce debate in the parliament about the modification and its ethics, and the young crows are getting impatient already since they have a long list of the things which they want for themselves.
Currently, Hatori is trying to levitate himself while meditating for maximum focus. The crow watching over him is charged with protecting him if he falls, to make sure he doesn’t get injured. Each time he falls through, there is raucous laughter at his expense, in the form of loud cawing. The other crows are enjoying this show.
Ignoring their mocking, Hatori focuses on levitation. Once he gets this down, he will then try to move himself in the air. He is hoping to crack the secrets of flying. He sneaked inside the library to find out about it. Though mages did experiment with flying objects, there is no record of a mage flying by himself. Not even a mention of a mad sorcerer doing that. He decides to give it a try. Even if it fails, it should build his instincts enough that if he ever ends up in a falling situation as he did on the mountain where Karasu was killed, he can levitate himself to the ground safely.
The practice is going well, especially after the first few tries. He is slowly getting the hang of it. But it is disrupted by Liang and Maria’s arrival. Hatori lands on the ground with a wump when Maria calls him. “Oy barbarian. Welcome your friends!” the crows laughed even harder in response.
While other animals get startled by their friends, the crows did not do that. They ruffled their feathers and went slightly higher on the trees, but they did not leave the area; instead, they quietly observed these two new humans. Hatori does not doubt that the parliament will hear about this.
Rubbing his butt, he looks at the two in his camp. “Yo. What brought you here?” he asked.
“Nothing much.” Said Liang. “We kind of got sick of the loudness, so came here for some peace.”
“Maybe I should open a silent spa.” Said Hatori. “Come here, and enjoy the silence. But pay first, lest we use you to fertilize our giant trees.”
“I don’t think you’ll attract any customers with that attitude,” said Liang.
“Enough of business.” Said Maria, slamming the shogi board in front of Hatori. “Play with me.”
“Okayyy…” said Hatori, arranging the pieces on his end. “What happened to Raven?”
“He’s too busy being a punching bag of a champion.” Said Maria. “I miss my home, and this is the closest thing I got to it. so, play with me.”
“Sure.” Said Hatori.
“Not gonna lie, I also miss home.” Said Liang.
Hatori tilts his head. He tries to remember the last time he missed his home. Not the home in the magical world. But the real home from where he was brought here. He is under no illusion that the house of Zeko is a temporary place for him to live. If the mage decides he has enough of him, he can kick him out at any time, apprentice or not.
“By the way, do you know that your name is misspelled?” Said Maria, making the first move of the game. “It is supposed to be Hattori, with an extra t in it.”
“I know.” Said Hatori, making a move of his own. “My dad made that mistake in the registration, and it has stuck that way since. I’ve no interest in correcting it either. One less letter means less writing.”
“Lazy boy.” Said Maria, capturing Hatori’s piece.
PART 2.
Nandan Durve is a young duelist from Subcontinent, who is making his reputation known internationally. At the age of fifteen, he defeated nineteen-year-old mages and has risen among the top hundred under twenty duelists in the world. He also likes to get away from his training time-to-time and enjoy the festival at the Academy. Sometimes, he misses it because of competition, but this year, he managed to get here on time. In Hatori’s first year, he got to enjoy the company of ambitious kids and fought in the dueling tournament that year to select who would go on to participate in an international tournament on the school’s behalf.
“Hey boy,” he sees James. “How’re you doing?”
“I would like to say good,” said James. “But I can’t lie to you.”
“What happened?” asked Nandan, realizing that this year hasn’t gone well for these boys from James’s tone.
James tells him everything. How Hatori’s pet was murdered, how he was banished, and how Raven and Josh are fighting, and how they have yet to make up. “I’m getting fed up with them.” He concluded. It feels good to tell all of that to someone.
“Hmm.” Said Nandan. “Tell you what, if they don’t make up, then you have the right to beat them, especially if this is giving you grief personally.”
“Now, where exactly is Hatori?” asked Nandan, wanting to meet him.
James takes him there, but he leaves quickly. Maria and Liang welcome Nandan into the camp. “You know, you must have gotten tougher since the last time we fought to have survived this forest.” Said Nandan. “This was the forbidden zone, and the students were discouraged from entering here due to the fatalities.”
“I can’t imagine why.” Said Hatori, happy to see Nandan. “I like it here. I think I’m gonna make it my permanent home.”
“Whatever you do, you should know that I have your back.” Said Nandan with a smile.
“I’m glad for that,” said Hatori.
“Anyway, I’ll come to talk with you later. I do have some friends to see as well,” said Nandan, and left.
“It is getting late.” Said Liang. “We should be going as well.”
“Feel free to come here any time you like.” Said Hatori.
“Sure.” Said Maria. “Hopefully, you’ll play a better game next time,” said Maria, and leaves with Liang.
Hatori lost their shogi match today. ‘In my defense, I was tired from trying to levitate myself.’ But he did not say that out loud. No need to tell them his secrets.
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‘That tall boy.’ Comes the voice of the elephant in Hatori’s head. ‘He looks like a tough bastard.’
‘He is tough.” Said Hatori. ‘You should avoid him. not only is he my friend, but I'd rather not test what kind of new tricks he has picked.’
‘Indeed.’ Said the snake. ‘He looks like he is built for fights, from the feel of his magic to his body.’
The entire conversation happened without the participants ever coming close to each other. The advantages of telepathy continue to increase. Hatori has also gotten used to hiding his thoughts better, which seems to please the snake.
‘Broadcasting your intent is no way to hunt prey.’ He says it all the time.
PART 3.
James is having some trouble with his project. It is hard enough to come up with schematics, but to carve the runes, while keeping the mathematical formulas in mind, and adjusting the whole thing in real time is impossible. If Hatori were to be here, he could have given the rune carving part to him, he is insanely good with that. But since he is not here, he must ask for subpar help. ‘Better bury such thoughts deep within. It is not polite to say these things out loud.’ He thinks to himself.
He finds Raven and Josh in the room, turned away from each other. The tension was palpable as if another brawl was about to break out between them. But James has no time for that. “I need your help, both of you.” He throws the rune schematics to Raven and hands the mathematical formulas to Josh. “Please help me with these. I can’t do them alone.”
“I refuse to work with him,” said Josh.
“Same here.” Said Raven.
“You know why I’m doing this,” said James to Raven. “Can’t you put your grudge aside for a moment?”
“No. him first.” Raven insisted.
“Tell you what, if they don’t make up, then you have the right to beat them, especially if this is giving you grief personally.” Nandan’s words came to James earlier today. ‘They are causing a delay to my project. This is certainly giving me grief.’
So he attacks Raven and Josh, but both boys fail to defend themselves from sheer surprise. He bucked their beds by the earth element, making them sprawl on the floor. He does not give them any chance to recover, battering them with Stinger spells. But Raven and Josh did not stay quiet for long. They transmute their pillows into iron balls and then throw them at James.
While it does allow them to breathe for a moment, since James had to dodge, they fail to regain initiative. James reveals that he is not just good with earth elements, as he conjures water, and sends all that water to Josh and Raven, who got swept outside of the room and got slammed hard to the floor. He further demonstrated his mastery of the element by turning the water into ice and pelting them with hailstones.
Shivering and now bruised, Raven and Josh look at James with frightened expressions as he comes out of their soaked room. “Will you listen to me now?” He is holding the diagrams and schematics which he gave to them earlier in his hands. Then, they notice how he hasn’t used his foci so far.
They shudder at the thought. He would have ended them right then and there with a foci. But that still doesn’t make them willing to stop fighting. They try to run, to escape the wrathful James, who is roaring and coming after them. They have never seen him raise his volume, but now he is stampeding towards them like a bull.
Their path to escape is blocked by Shin. He is waiting for them with his staff in his hand, ready to cast spells. “Hey there, boys.” He said to them. “Looks like you’re in quite a trouble.” As James gets to them and begins to fight with Raven and Josh physically, he laughs as the bells in his hair jingle with his laughter.
After they are all exhausted, Raven tells why he was angry at Josh. “I’m not your servant.” he said to him. “I can tolerate that people are calling me that, but what pissed me more was what you said regarding Hatori. You have no right to say that for him.”
Of course, Josh has his reasons. “But you should understand my position as well. Do you honestly think that I can pick fights with everyone just for you?” He replied. “Though I shouldn’t have said that in regards to Hatori. I’ll say sorry to him.”
“Enough of this soppy drama. Help me already.” Said James, who is happy with the resolution, but now wants to get back to his project.
They listen to him quickly, lest they provoke his anger once more. They have to watch out for his rage from now on. “I’ll clean the room.” Said Shin, and goes to fix the room. It needs a nice drying, and everything has to be put back in its place.
PART 4.
In the forest, Hatori is working with the lightning element in his underground camp. He has neglected the other elements such as water and earth so far for this element, working exclusively with lightning.
At first, it was very hard to work with it. Making electricity appear was harder than fire, but when he got good enough with it, he started to experiment with its flow. When electricity flows in his body, it doesn’t harm him. It lets him think faster, but it also exhausts him. if he can think of a way to use his energy better, he can take advantage of this.
‘Now, I just need to refine this element in battle. Then I’m set. After that, wind will be the only element I’ll need to master.’ He thinks.
Walking outside, he sees that the bee and wasp queens have shifted into his camp with their hive. The time of the attack is getting closer and closer; the festival will end in an hour, as the new year hits. These queens will take care of the portal from the other side, and Hatori explains one final time what they must do. “In addition, you will return here once you’re shield has run out automatically.” He finishes the explanation.
No one minded the explanation, since the nerves were running high. None of the creatures thought that they would be able to go toe-to-toe with mages. ‘But our magical resistance is high; why can’t we fight without our shields?’ complains the snake.
“Because I won’t let you die.” Said Hatori out loud.
And thus, they all wait for the clock to hit zero. The new year will be opened with a bang.
(End.)