Writer Eternal: Hello. Hope you enjoy this new project of mine.
Chapter 1: Encountering Magic
Magic was the last thing Kaito expected when he got the mail in the morning. He thought it was a prank from his buddies. He kept it in his room for laughs and went to the mall.
It was supposed to be an ordinary drive back home.
"Nice Mercedes Kaito," his neighbor, Jorge laughed as Kaito parked along a driveway in Chatsworth, California.
"An old 1990's model with 90,000 miles, but I managed to upgrade some of the utilities. Man am I glad I got the part time job at the junk yard. Been a year since I turned fifteen and got the work permit," Kaito agreed. "Reading books and finding parts was all I needed, besides the assistance and expertise of my colleagues there."
"Thanks for the lift even though we're neighbors," Jorge grinned and left the sleek black car and walked to the house across the street. Kaito locked his car and looked at his cellphone.
"Today is Wednesday. Better put the trash bins on the street for tomorrow morning," Kaito sighed and unlocked the gate beside the garage to enter the backyard.
As he left the street, five people donning black cloaks with silver fasteners appeared out of nowhere. They had polished sticks akin to wands in their hands and fired energy spheres of different colors toward the front. Two men in white cloaks appeared, one blocking the energy missiles with a white staff with a goat's skull mounted on top.
"Lionel, why the violence?" the white-cloaked man wielding the staff mocked as the five other wizards kept their wands pointed at the two men.
"Sebastian, why? Why become a dark wizard?" one wizard growled as he stepped forward. "Why serve the demons? Magic is supposed to protect mankind, not destroy it."
"Blood magic and death magic are the most powerful in this world. If I can become powerful enough to take what I want when I want to, why the hell not?" Sebastian asked. "Why must we follow the laws and rules of the mundane, non-magical humans? We are more powerful than they are. Magic flows in our veins. Why must we live in hiding?"
"Forget them, Sebastian. They cannot understand our great dream. We fight," the other white-cloaked wizard said and sent red bolts of energy at the five other wizards.
"We cannot let Sebastian escape!" Lionel roared and the other wizards also began casting spells. Lionel made a gesture behind his back and his comrades focused their attention on the other wizard.
"Miguel," Sebastian started but Lionel was powerful enough to keep him from assisting the other dark wizard.
Miguel blocked spell after spell with his wand, sending his own spell bolts at his opponent. The pavement cracked and had new holes as bolts were deflected one after the other.
However, Miguel was only one man. We was soon overwhelmed by the four other wizards and took three blue bolts to the chest. His back banged against Kaito's car, the driver's window breaking as Miguel's head hit the glass.
Miguel knew he would not win and secretly put something in the car as he pretended to pull himself up by using the door as leverage. He had a pouch and a ring with the magical effect of storage rooms within. No one knew the small pouch existed and Miguel intended to leave the ring and return for it later.
It was just bad luck that Miguel died as the four wizards took no chances against the rogue wizard. His eyes glazed over as he slumped onto the ground and grew still.
"The other wizard is down! Secure Sebastian!" one of the four said and they rushed to assist Lionel. Kaito was leaning against the side of the garage, a black and blue bin behind him as he watched the fight with a mixed feeling of shock, awe, and fear.
"HAHAHA! My ambitions cannot be stopped here. Farewell, old friend," Sebastian grinned as he took out a crystal orb the color of blood.
"Not good! Everyone get back!" Lionel's face paled and shouted as Sebastian held the orb above his head. A red skull appeared from the ground and swallowed Sebastian. Sebastian had escaped and he took classified intel with him.
"Repair the road and cars. Leave no traces," Lionel said and vanished into the shadows. The other wizards nodded silently, two taking the body of the dead wizard before repairing the street and Kaito's car.
"Whoa. Magic! They did magic! How awesome," Kaito whispered and quickly sprinted to the street with the bins. After putting the bins on the side of the road, he quickly inspected his precious car.
As he turned the car key half way, his eyes bulged as he saw how clean and new his car was. Even the mileage was down to zero. He felt the leather seat and even found the car tires as perfect as the day they were first put on sale.
"What is this ring?" Kaito frowned as he found a small black pouch with dark purple stars under his car seat. He felt some strange energy enter his body and dropped the pouch in fear.
"What was that?" he panicked and touched his chest to feel nothing wrong. "I'm okay? I'm okay."
He sighed with relief and picked up the pouch again. He wanted to untie it, but was afraid the wizards would come back to check the scene. It was also midnight and he was past curfew. Luckily, it was summer or he would really be in trouble.
"You're late young man," his father, William Drake, frowned as Kaito walked in.
"Kaito Shen Drake, why are you late?" his mother, Ting, demanded. "I know it is summer, but the time is past midnight."
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"I know. There was traffic in the freeway so I drove using the streets," Kaito lied with the pouch stuffed underneath his shirt behind his back. He quickly rushed to his room upstairs and locked the door behind himself.
Inhaling and exhaling deeply, Kaito decided to open the pouch. His eyes bulged as his while floor was littered with items and coins. He looked at the tiny pouch in shock, disbelief still on his face. As the moment passed, he shook his head and began examining the items on the ground.
He put the copper, silver, and gold coins back in the pouch first. It was clearly currency used by the wizards and held no special purpose. He was disappointed to find no wand or staff, but he found a book containing minor spells and other important facts about wizards.
"A book on magic!" Kaito cried and covered his mouth in shock. He immediately began examining the book.
He learned that wizards were one of three kinds of professions using magical energy. The other two were warriors and rogues. It was just like a videogame in which each profession had separate branches of higher tiers. An example was a rogue choosing to become an alchemist, thief, or assassin. Each of the three professions had four branches of higher levels.
Kaito was most interested in magic and the book mainly talked about wizards in the first place. Kaito was Chinese American, but his name was Japanese as his namesake drove his mom to the hospital when her water broke. If not for his godfather, Kaito would not have been born safely.
He loved wuxia and xianxia novels. The magic book said that wizards were broken into tiers. He could not become one of the higher professions until he reached the necessary level.
All three professions had the same lowest tier: Apprentice. After passing Rank 3 Apprentice, Kaito could become a wizard. With each rank up, the wizard had more magical energy and could cast more powerful spells.
As he opened a strange black and white book, something entered his body. As Kaito fell to his knees, he could see Tai Chi fish circling each other in his mind. One coi fish had white scales and a circle of black scales on its head while the other fish had the exact opposite.
Kaito's body trembled as magical energy surged into his body. Black and dark purple liquid impurities burst from his body three times. Kaito had unexpectedly reached Third Rank Apprentice.
He wrinkled his nose and rushed to the showers as he couldn't stand the smell. After he washed it off, he scrubbed the floor hard and dumped his clothes, sponge, and paper towels used in the trash bin.
Of course, he had them in a trash bag and used several sprays of cologne to hide the smell. His parents were already asleep so he sighed with relief once he entered his room safely.
"What did you do to me?" Kaito muttered and opened the book cautiously once more. He discovered it was a meditation technique used to recover spent magical energy. It would no longer assist in increasing his rank once he became an official wizard, only helping recover his magical energy.
"To my descendant for which this book was intended, I walked the wrong path and I must be dead by now. If you are reading this, my ambition was really too costly," Kaito read aloud as he noticed writing within the last few pages of the book. Burn this book after obtaining the ancient magical energy I left behind. It will have changed you. It is no simple meditation technique."
"Wizards, warriors, and rogues live two lives. One life is that of a mundane, non-magical human. I could not accept living in hiding and so I died. The other life is one with magical energy. You are now living the second life," Kaito continued.
"You should be a Third Rank Apprentice after opening the book. After you become an official wizard, you will disappear from Earth. They always seem to know when someone breaks past the Apprentice Third Rank. By they, I mean some mysterious force with magical energy living in the shadows. Unless you use an ancient or forbidden method, you cannot return to Earth," Kaito began and nearly dropped the book shock before the following words changed.
"I know this is a lot to take in, but I believe in you. The rest of the items in my pouch is intended to assist in increasing your foundations as a wizard. If the person reading this is involved with my death, you would have died by now. I truly hope you are my descendant and not some bystander. Otherwise, I died without a wife or family of my own. A death like that is a sad and lonely one."
"You looked like an evil wizard, but you gave me this gift. Thank you," Kaito said, saying a small prayer and made a sign of the cross before burning the book in the backyard.
As the fire went out, he simply locked the door in his room and slept on the bed without changing after all the items were returned into the pouch.
The magic book Kaito read earlier opened by itself and intelligible runes floated from the book and entered Kaito's mind. Slowly, the image of Miguel rose up from the book.
"Forgive me. This Earth cannot tolerate your existence. There is too little magic here. For your future, you'll reincarnate as a different person. You'll be the same age as you are now. Your looks and family will be different. I just hope you find Sebastian and stop his ambition. No doubt, he is the reason I died," the apparition said and held out a hand. Kaito's body shined and vanished from sight with the magic pouch.