Turns out there’s a magical society settled in the underground of Arthas, who’d’ve thunk? Banzan seemed pretty open about the information, probably because if she actually told anyone they’d think she’s crazy. She’s still going to tell her friends though, in due time. For now, she’s training. According to Banzan, magic doesn’t have a limit, and the more you use it the stronger it gets. Like a muscle, but without the plateau. So, that leads her here, sparring with Hiroshi like a madwoman.
He was amenable enough to the idea of extracurricular sparring, seemed a bit excited even. His swordsmanship has soared since the start of their spars, now winning at least half of their bouts and climbing. Her magic, she’s determined, doesn’t actually make her better at sword fighting. It just tells her what her opponent will do and takes from her knowledge to give the perfect answer, or as close to perfect as possible.
What it doesn’t do is help her learn, and considering she needs to be unfocused to get it to work, she’s barely learned anything since she started this routine. Still, she’s training magic, not becoming a sword saint, so it's good enough. That and Hiroshi seems ecstatic at the prospect of fighting her at her best, which makes her heart do little flips.
This routine goes on for three days before they’re interrupted.
“Stop” says an authoritative voice “what are you doing?”
They both turn to see a tall and lanky man looking them over with a critical eye.
“Sparring, instructor” Hiroshi replies “we thought to polish our skills during our free time”
Korin takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly through his nose “and I see you thought it wise then, to not give your body rest from the exertion and bruises?”
Alex raises a brow, “aren’t you all spartan when it comes to training?”
“Within limits” He hisses “I train you to build yourselves up. What you are doing will cause you both to break given enough time. You need to rest”
Hiroshi bows “We’ll keep that in mind instructor”
The man sighs “I hope that you do boy”
-
Unfortunately, Hiroshi takes the advice of Instructor Korin like doctrine, so they’ve had to reduce their extracurricular sparring to only an hour a day. Ah well, training is training, shame that her other friends refuse to partake.
“Absolutely not” Aki says.
“But whyyy?” Alex questions.
“I have no intention of being your punching bag.” He says.
Alex turns to Sasha with puppy dog eyes.
“Sorry Alex, I’m with Aki. Keep your spartan shit as far away as possible.” She says
Alex grumbles and mumbles expletives, something along the lines of ‘pussy ass bitches’.
“Why have you gotten so intense with training anyway?” Aki asks “I mean, you’ve always been a muscle head but this is next level.”
“Building up my magic” Alex replies instantly.
Aki raises a brow “you can do that?”
Alex looks at him shocked “I haven’t told you?”
“You haven’t talked to either of us since you started your crusade to self-destruction”
-
After telling them about her encounter with Banzan, Aki and Sasha have gone into a contemplative silence. That and they’ve gotten a few weird looks from the other kids in the common area. Alex and her friends have been labeled as slightly crazy by the others with how seriously they take magic, Alex doesn’t exactly keep it a secret.
“He didn’t have his own mark?” Aki finally asks.
Alex shakes her head “not according to what he told me, apparently most of their members don’t.”
“You think we can learn magic then?” he asks.
Alex shrugs “I don’t see why not”
“Think you could ask him to teach us next time you see him?”
Alex scowls “I can just teach you.”
“You’ve said so yourself, you don’t really know what you’re doing. It just happens” Aki points out
Alex scowls harder “doesn’t mean I can’t teach you”
-
It does, in fact, mean she can’t teach them.
That or she’s a horrible teacher but Alex chooses not to contemplate that. Then again they didn’t try for very long, courtesy of getting hit a lot while trying to copy her brand of magic. Maybe if they weren’t quitters they’d have cool ass magic powers too.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
She promised she’d ask Banzan to be their teacher if she sees him again.
-
Alex is trying to move objects, but not with the mundane methods of picking shit up and placing it somewhere, no, she’s trying to move shit with her mind! She decided to try other methods of accessing the mystical realm of magic, mostly ‘cause she can’t train all day anymore. It has very little success so far, but it’s not a complete waste of time. She managed to nudge her pencil forward! It was only once, but still! It was also half an hour ago.
She’s trying to figure out how the fuck she did it.
It didn’t feel like she was taking energy from wherever the fuck it comes from and manipulating it, it felt like she was moving a pencil. Like what you’d do with your hands, except without hands.
She was kinda hoping to reverse engineer magic by finding out how to manipulate the juice. No dice unfortunately.
She keeps staring at the pencil.
“What on the blessed earth of our lord Yaldaboath are you doing” says a voice behind her.
Alex turns to find Sasha standing between her doorframe “The fuck is a Yaldaboath?”
“A variation of the christian god, real funky history on that one. Don’t think they're real, mostly ‘cause their mother’s called Sophia.”
Alex scrutinizes the pink haired-wait her roots are going back to their natural brown, when did that happen?
“You don’t believe in a god because their mother’s named Sophia” She says incredulously
“It’s a very American name, ok!”
“You realize some gods can supposedly see into the future right? Maybe she just picked a name that suited her fancy”
Sasha tilts her head to the right, “huh, I hadn’t thought of that”
Sasha tilts her head to the left, “so, what are you doing?”
Alex points to her pencil “I’m trying to move this” she says dramatically “with my mind.”
Sasha just nods “cool” she says “wanna rob some fools?”
“Bet”
-
Alex’s starting to get headaches, nothing unbearable, but it’s been a consistent annoyance for the past few days. Alex assumes it has something to do with her magic juju, which means she’s doing something right.
It’s supposed to be like a muscle!
And you only know you’ve worked a muscle when it’s in pain.
That or you tore it, but Alex chooses to believe the burganing headache is a good thing. Unfortunately, that means she has to rest. She doesn’t know how much her special sauce can take before it goes from beneficial to harmful, so for now she’s stopping when she feels a headache coming on.
She’s been able to move the pencil a few times, little nudges, but nudges all the same. Movement is all she needs for vindication. Interestingly, if she imagines it more as a hand than an ephemeral force, the nudge rate per hour is about ten, which is a marked improvement.
But for now, rest.
“AKI!” she yells out in the common room.
Grumbles and mumbles pervade as eardrums are assaulted. A few in Lost Hope have tympanic enhancements, but only those like Alex, who’ve found a boss to get jobs from, can afford such things. Everyone else has to be content with their stipend.
No one comes to her call.
She marches over to Aki’s room and swings the door open.
No one is there.
Huh.
-
The headaches come more frequently as she gets better at nudging her pencil, and with more intensity. The past week has been a constant routine of moving the pencil back and forth. She can do it on command now!
Rest you say? What the fuck else is there to do? She can’t go to any bars with Sasha cause she’s flat broke, the small bump in her finances from robbing a few people already gone. Aki’s going somewhere after classes and comes back looking slightly tired come night. She has a feeling it has something to do with Ellie but she hasn’t asked, that would be rude. She could go pump some iron with Sasha and/or Danny though.
Hmmmm…yeah she’ll go do that.
-
Alex doesn’t really do walks, but because she has fuck all to do, and her headache has officially been upgraded to migraine, she’s decided to join Sasha on one of her leisure walks through the city.
“What do you even get out of this” Alex grumbles, slightly moody from the very painful throbbing of her brain.
Sasha looks at her and shrugs “It’s calming”
“That’s it?”
“Well no, it’s also nice to look at, and walks are good for you”
“That’s only if you don’t exercise”
“False”
“Fact”
She gives Alex a slight thump on the head and runs.
“You bitch!” Alex says, chasing after her.
-
It’s been another month, and still no jobs from Ellie, her inhibitions about asking Aki what the fuck is going on dwindles by the day. So she decided to intercept him after algebra today, grabbing his shoulder before he can head off to wherever the fuck he’s been going to.
“Aki” she says gravely.
He turns slowly and looks her in the eye “Yes?” he says, slow and cautious.
“Where ya going?” she asks.
His eyes dart around to the gathering crowd “I can’t say” he says.
“Does it have anything to do with Ellie?”
He gulps “no” he lies.
A small smile plays across Alex’s features, all sweetness and not a hint of malice, “are you sure?” she asks again.
“Alex” he says her name like he’s trying to calm down a beaver “we’ll get jobs, then you can get your money, okay? It’ll just take a little while longer”
Alex’s smile doesn’t change “I’ve lost ten pounds Aki, ten pounds of muscle, gone” she says “It’s been a month, i’m debating whether I should start peddling drugs again”
He gives her a concerned look “It’ll just be a little while, I promise. Ellie has a big one lined up for us, you just have to be patient”
Alex deflates “fine.”
-
She can make the pencil roll now! Yay! Huzzah! Tallyho!
All she has to do is sacrifice her will to live as the mother of all migraines fucks her brain raw.
She rolls it again.
Arrgh, fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Why did she do that? Oh lord in heaven-if there is a heaven-why in the fuck did you make magic. All it’s good for is pain, pain, and more pain. Jesus fucking christ it hurts
She rolls it again.
Ha, hahaha, FUCK.
Oh fuck a cuck with a duck, all that she is is pain, everything that encapsulates her being is focused on her brain as it signals for her to stop.
So she rolls it again.
She goes unconscious