Through the narrow streets that made up his quiet, upper-class neighbourhood, Jin dashed with enhanced speed, zooming past pedestrians and weaving through cars, rushing home as fast as he was allowed to. He wanted to teleport to get back home faster, but, at the same time, he didn’t want to stop to ask for a permission slip to use Traversal magic outside of the academy. Fear had been eating at him since earlier that day, when he had heard Max’s scream. He knew he couldn’t waste a minute getting back.

Classes were ended early due to the schoolwide ruckus. Every student was being checked to ensure that there were no injuries. The medical examinations had taken some time, since the telepathic cry wasn’t only heard by the Scion class. Rather, it seemed to reach nearly all corners of the campus. It was both impressive, and extraordinarily frightening.

Jin could only imagine that an event like a schoolwide telepathic attack was the type of magical phenomenon that set a place like Yōsaishima Academy on high alert. If any students had sustained damage of any kind, it would be the academy’s responsibility for not adequately ensuring their safety. This was the degree of accountability that one would expect when you consider the money parents and guardians spend by sending their children to the most prestigious tertiary magic institution in all of Japan.

Jin found it hard to remain calm after the scream had subsided. His mind raced with questions of what could have happened to Max. What could have happened to someone that would elicit such a powerful reaction? Was he wrong to put Max in the care of Dr Mashima?

Even Hitomi was shaken up, and surprisingly worried about the man supposedly from another world. Jin was caught off guard, and quite embarrassed, when she suddenly demanded that they exchange contact details.

“If you find that fool, will you please let me know?”

Jin’s phone only held the numbers of Akiko and her parents. He had never really asked anyone for their number or email before. It was hard to deny the disappointment at Hitomi only sharing her contact details to make sure that another guy was safe…

Jin chided himself at the thought. Max could have been hurt, and that was more than enough of a reason for Hitomi to give him her number. It showed that she was kind-hearted and caring, and that she would go out of her way to make sure that even just a stranger was okay. It just so happened to be the case that Jin was a point of contact for said stranger.

He finally reached his house and hastily unlocked the door. The house was dark, with all the shades drawn and not much light being provided by the slowly setting afternoon sun. He reached for a light switch when someone in the shadows called out.

“Don’t.”

“Is that you, Max?” Jin called out, dropping his bag in the entry passageway and slowly making his way to the darkened living room.

“Yeah just... leave the lights off,” Max spoke sullenly.

Jin walked in to see Max sitting on one of the cushions around the chabudai. In the dark, he could just make out that Max was sitting with a sunken head.

“Are you okay?” Jin asked warily.

“Yeah,” Max spoke softly. “I’m alive at least, which is saying something considering the day I’ve had so far.”

“Did they hurt you?” Jin walked closer, but maintained a cautionary distance.

“No, but,” Max paused, “I think they wanted to.”

“We heard you scream,” Jin said sullenly.

“I didn’t scream,” Max raised his head to look at Jin.

“We heard you in our heads. I don’t know how you did it, but you gave the entire academy a headache.”

“Huh?” Max forced out a scornful chuckle. “Serves them right I suppose.”

“What happened?”

“What did Mashima tell you?” Max asked, almost accusingly.

“She insisted that you were in safe hands, and that I should just go home.”

There was a long moment of silence. Jin quietly stood at the dinner table, unsure of what to do with himself.

“I think I understand what’s going on now,” Max finally said.

“Did they help you recover your memories?”

“There’s nothing wrong with my memory!” Max stood up angrily. Behind him, the living room curtains swung open with a violent force. Another case of that pesky sudden outburst of magic.

Light flooded the room and Jin saw his face clearly. He looked furious, though it was Max’s fist that caught his eye.

It’s covered in blood, Jin thought. What did he do?

“Geezus relax, it's my blood,” Max answered his thought. “I didn’t hurt anyone, but it fucking burns. Also, I can’t seem to stop doing shit like this,” he gestured towards the curtains.

“I don’t understand,” Jin said, getting a closer look at Max’s knuckles. His skin was torn and the blood was fresh. If he had hit something, it was probably in the house.

“Well, apparently I can read minds, for one thing.”

Jin nodded his head, not bothering to feign surprise.

“Not just yours,” Max continued. “Everyone’s. Your sister’s, every goddamn person on the way to the campus, every horny adolescent moron at the academy. Even that lecturer Mashima. I heard everything they were thinking.”

“That’s normally an early sign of mana activity in young mages. Though I admit, it’s rare for it to manifest with such an alarming degree of intensity,” Jin said pensively, realising why it seemed so odd that Akiko would be yelling that Max was an “outsider” and should “stay away”. It was likely just her thoughts that Max had heard. Although, knowing that made it no better. She shouldn’t be thinking that way at all.

“Is that why you were so passive today?” Jin asked.

“Passive? I was losing my goddamn mind! Two days ago I couldn’t be bothered to stay awake in class. Today I’m traveling halfway across the goddamn world and back here in a fucking instant!”

“What? Wait... did you… did you teleport?” Jin asked, his face scrunched up in confusion. Short bursts of magic prowess was one thing, but teleportation? That doesn’t just happen to people. “Back up a little. You’re gonna have to explain this to me.”

Max sat down and began to tell Jin what happened after Mashima had taken him to Dr Shouta. How the Vice-Chancellor showed up, and seemed to have already made up his mind that Max was somehow a threat. How, when they attempted to restrain him, he reflexively and unwittingly dematerialised, and somehow rematerialized thousands of feet in the air. He explained that he somehow managed to do it again, wilfully, ending up outside a simulacrum of Jane’s apartment building, thinking he had made it back, but learning that he was still in Jin’s world. That Jane’s apartment building looked the same, but was entirely unique from what it was in Max’s world. And how he finally, without putting much thought into it, once again dematerialised, purposefully rematerializing in Jin’s house.

Max decided that it was probably best to leave out the fact that he was somehow isekai’d to the anime world of Mahō No Gakusei. It was hard enough to convince Jin that Max had come from a world where magic didn’t exist.

Jin took it all in, surprised and angry at how Dr Mashima, who seemed so kind, would put Max, a lost visitor, in the hands of people at the academy who would try to restrain or harm him. What kind of people were running the university if the Vice-Chancellor himself made an attempt to harm a seemingly innocent stranger?

All these thoughts only further contributed to his apprehension towards the new Scion faculty; while simultaneously finally giving him the resolve to decide that he would stay the full length of the course. He needed answers, which he could only get by staying on at the academy.

“Why did they want to restrain you?” Jin finally asked. “I don’t get it. It couldn’t have been for nothing.”

“Oh,” Max said, pausing to dig into his pocket. “I should probably have told you earlier...”

He pulled out a signet ring. One that was scarily identical to those worn by the Scions.

“When I woke up on that bench yesterday, I found this on my hand.” Max held up the ring.

“A guild ring...” Jin eyed it carefully. “Who does it belong to?”

“I don’t know,” Max gave a disapproving look at the ugly thing in his hand. “But when I hold it, or wear it, somehow I’m able to control my magic.”

Jin slowly shifted his gaze up to Max's face.

“You’re… you’re a Scion? But how? If you’re from another world, how could you possibly have a guild ring?”

“I’ve got no fucking clue,” Max said calmly. “But it helped me, so I think I was meant to have this ring.”

Jin was suddenly entirely confused about the order of things. How many Scions were there around the world? Were there other universities training Scions? Were Max and Hitomi the only ones from outside of Japan? Nothing was making sense. Somehow, Max made things not make sense.

“I think,” Max cut in, breaking Jin away from his thoughts. “I think this ring might be how I get back home… how I save Jane.”

***

Jin considered what their next move should be. Max had gone to the guest room claiming to be tired and hadn’t come out for the better part of the afternoon. If Max was being honest – and, judging from the scream he sent out, it was likely that he was – then Jin couldn’t trust the academy, and he especially couldn’t trust Dr Mashima. If someone as seemingly kind-hearted as her could set them up like she apparently had, then no one was to be trusted. At least, not anybody he had come into contact with among the faculty members so far. Even the top brass were supposedly sketchy, since the Vice-Chancellor would pick and choose who their enemies were without so much as a justifiable reason.

So far, Max had given every indication that if he was using magic, he didn’t know how he was doing it. Jin wasn’t of the mind to trust the visitor from ‘another world’ so soon, but nothing Max did gave the impression that he had any malicious intent. If anything, he seemed just about as scared as Jin would be if their positions had been swapped. Deciding that Max was an enemy, despite the oddities that surrounded his circumstances, made the academy leadership seem far more untrustworthy than the lost outsider. How long would it be before they decided that some other random Scion was a threat on some senseless whim?

Jin decided that sitting in his room thinking too much would help nothing, so he decided to cook. He knew Akiko would be home soon after her club activities, and that he’d need to find some way to talk to her in private about her recent behaviour. While it was understandable that she may have felt that Max imposed on her privacy, which she likely cherished given that it was just her and Jin in the house, there was no reason for her to alienate him and paint him as some outsider threat.

When Jin got downstairs to prepare to cook, he realised that he had forgotten to send Hitomi a message. He wondered if it might have been a little too late to text her, as it was just reaching evening. He decided that she would likely be more upset if he didn’t update her at all. He told her, with fingers awkwardly fumbling all over his keypad, that Max was fine and that he had been waiting at Jin’s house when he returned home. Only a minute had passed after Jin sent the text before, to his surprise, his phone rang.

He stared at the caller ID for a while as the phone buzzed and vibrated repeatedly.

It was Hitomi.

Calling him.

It was his first call from a girl that wasn’t Akiko, and he was so shocked that he nearly forgot to accept the call altogether.

“H–hello?” he greeted tentatively.

“Good evening, Mr Akira,” she said with noticeably more confidence than him. “What did you find out?”

“Uh…” Jin laughed shyly. “It seems that scream was an accident. Max is perfectly fine.”

Hitomi gave a long sigh.

“I’m sorry,” she laughed softly. She had a nice laugh, the kind of warm laugh that emanates from one who you’d never expect to get as angry as she did at the café. Max must really have put her nerves to the test.

“I was just so worried. Especially since I didn’t do anything to help that doofus, and if something happened to him because I was unwilling to help, I would never have forgiven myself.”

“The situation is not quite so dire,” Jin said reassuringly. “But it’s nice to know you care so much for someone who seems to grate on your nerves.”

Hitomi laughed again.

“He really does. But even an ungrateful idiot in need is someone who we should help if we can, you know?”

“Yeah,” Jin agreed. “You’re right.”

There was a little pause. Jin was taking in what Hitomi had said and realised he forgot to keep the conversation going.

“Well, anyway,” Hitomi broke the silence, making Jin feel very guilty as he probably must have been wasting her time with his awkwardness.

“With that worry out of the way, we can rest easy. Don’t stay out too late tonight, okay? Be on time for class tomorrow.”

“Alright,” Jin said with a nervous laugh. “I’ll do my–”

Suddenly the phone was yanked from Jin’s hand.

“Hello, who is this?” Max was holding the phone to his ear.

“Max! Is that you?” she replied.

“Yes,” Max replied curtly. “If you call this number again, I’ll have you arrested for harassment.”

With angry screams and what sounded like some curse words from the other end, Max quickly ended the call.

“Why did you do that?” Jin looked at him annoyed.

“Shouldn’t you be focusing on Natsuno?” Max asked, handing him back the phone.

“Natsuno? Why?”

“Never mind,” Max dismissed the topic. “Listen, so I’ve thought about what to do.”

“Me too,” Jin pushed his annoyance aside, though disappointed that his call with Hitomi was so abruptly cut off before he could even greet her properly. He thought maybe he should send her a text to apologise, but realised that it would probably be inappropriate since he had no justifiable reason to make contact again.

“I wanna join your class, the Scion class,” Max cut into his thoughts.

Jin resumed his cooking preparations.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Jin said defensively. He didn’t want to paint another target on Max’s head if people at the academy were already looking to harm him.

“Not really, but I think once I speak to Mashima again I might be able to smooth things over.”

Jin paused his preparation, putting the rice cup down in front of the rice cooker.

“Why would you do that? She set you up!” Jin exclaimed.

“It was a misunderstanding.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Cause she’s not one of the villains.”

“One of the villains? What villains? This isn’t some game, Max.”

The front door opened. Akiko was home.

“I just need to speak to her again,” Max said quietly before walking to the dinner table to sit.

Max’s words had left Jin even more annoyed, though he had the idea that maybe Max’s certainty was a sign that he knew more than he was letting on. He looked over at Max who seemed to be lost in thought. Jin hadn’t realised earlier, but he looked at Max’s feet and saw he was still wearing shoes.

“You know you’re supposed to take those off at the entrance, right?” Jin pointed at his shoes.

“Fuck. Sorry, bad habit.” Max took them off, before quickly looking up with a stunned expression. Jin turned to see what Max was looking at and saw Akiko, glaring at the two of them again.

“Uh…” Jin laughed awkwardly. “Akiko–”

She quickly ran to her room and shut the door.

“Dammit!” Jin suddenly blurted out.

Max started laughing softly. It was the first time Jin heard him laugh since they met. For a while, he wasn’t sure Max was even the type of person who ever laughed.

Jin scratched at his hair, embarrassed to be using the same language he had chided Max for using. He felt himself start to blush.

“Sorry,” Max’s laughter subsided. “I promise, I’ll try to tone it down when your cousin is around.”

Max got up to place his shoes in the genkan.

“My sister,” Jin corrected him quietly.

***

Later that evening, when dinner was ready, Jin decided to try talking to Akiko. Max was back in the guest room, and it was likely better he stayed there till Jin could placate his sister. He knocked at her door.

“Akiko?” he called out softly.

There was no response.

He knocked again, this time ignoring her persistent silence and opening the door slightly without prompt. He peeked in cautiously. She was lying on her bed, listening to music through earphones and reading a novel. She glanced up with an annoyed expression as he came in, before immediately ignoring him by focusing defiantly on her book. Jin simply stood at the foot of her bed, watching her. She couldn’t ignore his presence forever.

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“What is it?” she finally asked.

“I’m sorry.”

Akiko took out her earphones, set her book aside and sat up.

“For what?” she asked, quickly turning her face away.

“For springing this whole overnight guest thing on you. Just please try to bear it for a bit longer.”

She slowly turned her head to look at him, before just shaking her head back and forth.

“It’s not that you sprung it on me. It's just…I– I prefer…” she started, stuttering through her words.

“Speak your mind, Akiko,” Jin sat down at the foot of her bed.

“I prefer it when it’s just us!” she stuttered out.

Jin realised that it was most likely not a matter of Max’s being here, or the fact that he was invading her privacy that upset her. Rather, to Akiko, it must have felt like she couldn’t be herself with her brother while some person she’d never met before was around. She was always quite shy, shyer than Jin, and while she had friends, she always had a hard time dealing with strangers, and here there was one spending the night at their house. For a second night.

“I don’t like this man. I don’t like how he talks to you. The only person who talks to you like that should be me!” she exclaimed suddenly.

“Do you even know who he is? Where he’s from? He could be a thief or… or a murderer! And we’re just letting him stay at our house!”

“Akiko,” Jin said softly. “I understand your concerns… but, throughout life, we’re gonna deal with all kinds of people. Some are good people. Some are bad. Some can be really quick-witted, while some can seem a little absent-minded.” He thought of Natsuno, and the haunting, blank stare from her cold, blue eyes.

“Then there are those like Max, who are lost and feel helpless. You have to understand that they might be frustrated that they can’t do anything to solve their problem on their own. Either way, if we can help these people, we should.”

“But why? Why does it have to be us?”

“Well… because we can. Everyone needs a little help sometimes. We’re of the means to help Max, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t. Wouldn’t you want someone to help either of us if we lost our way too?” Jin asked gently. “Everyone deserves a chance.”

Akiko didn’t say anything, but he could tell that she understood.

“If you have the power to help someone, even just a little, I think you should do it,” Jin continued. “No matter who they are.”

There was a long pause. Akiko sniffed, and it was hard to miss the gleam in her eyes. She was holding back tears.

“Then I’ll help too. If it means it’ll be just the two of us again,” Akiko looked up at her brother with a determined expression.

Jin laughed nervously, scratching at his hair.

“I mean, it’s not exactly what I was getting at, but I suppose I’ll take what I can get.”

“Though… now that I say that, I realise that I don’t even know what your friend needs help with.”

“Well, it’s kind of complicated...” Jin said awkwardly. He felt that it wasn’t really his story to tell.

“Tell her,” Max said from the door.

Jin shot up to his feet.

“Woah!” he yelled. “Don’t lurk like that!”

Akiko glared at Max again, who stood leaning against the doorframe with folded arms, not looking her way.

“Don’t you dare step foot in my room,” she hissed.

“The thought never crossed my mind, but I don’t need the two of you fighting about this. If it’s such a big deal, I’ll find some other place to stay the night this time,” Max went on. “You can fill your… sister in on the story.”

“This again?” Jin raised his voice. “I already told you, it’s dangerous out there.”

“Look, man,” Max said, without as much anger in his voice as Jin expected. “I’d rather take my chances out there than keep making things uncomfortable in here. If Akiko wants me to go, I’ll leave. I’ll find my way back to the academy tomorrow morning.”

“We’ve already spoken about it,” Jin said, looking hopefully at Akiko. “Things are okay now, you don’t have to go anywhere else.”

“If she says it’s okay,” Max finally looked at Akiko, “then I’ll be happy to accept your hospitality again.”

Jin, fearing that Akiko would tell Max to hit the road, began to stammer.

“Uh, Akiko, if it’s… uh–”

“It’s fine,” Akiko said, lowering her gaze to the floor.

Jin was relieved. Despite him placating his sister, he had imagined that she would take the first opportunity she could get to get rid of Max.

“You can stay,” she said softly. “But only because Nii-chan insists!” she suddenly yelled. “And you need to be nicer to him from now on, or you’ll have to deal with me.”

Max gave a slight smile.

“Fair enough,” he said.

Jin was glad that his sister was attempting to be understanding. She wasn’t a selfish girl, but she wasn’t always one to put the comfort of others first, due to her uncertainty, and her shyness. He decided that he should treat her to something nice. He wondered if the store down the road still sold those little cakes that she liked. He would need to check after dinner.

“Can we eat now?” Akiko asked her brother. “I’m starving!”

Moments later, they all sat at the dinner table and, despite Max’s visible disappointment at the food being served, he didn’t vocalise any of his thoughts, as he was now at Akiko’s mercy.

While they ate, Jin told Akiko about how Max had accidentally ended up in Yōsaishima, and that it likely had something to do with magic. He omitted the mention of ‘another world where magic didn’t exist’. He also decided to omit the events that had transpired that day. He didn’t need her worrying about the intentions of the faculty on top of her already mounting anxiety about his magic. He decided that he would find out whatever was really going on at the academy first, and that he would share the answers with her when the time was right.

“You sure you didn’t just get so drunk that you accidently portalled yourself here?” Akiko said scathingly, glaring at Max. “I’ve heard of that happening before.”

“No. I… barely drink,” Max lied, thinking about the one night he and Jane drunkenly broke into the apartment next to hers and slept on the neighbour’s floor, cuddling up against something mysteriously furry and… wet.

“And I had just gotten home from university when I suddenly found myself in Yōsaishima. But Dr Mashima,” Max looked at Jin, clearly understanding his intentions of not divulging too much to Akiko, “she suggests that maybe someone tampered with my memories, so we’ll find out tomorrow.”

Max spoke to Akiko with a surprisingly calm tone and, despite her glares and sour questions during Jin’s explanation, he didn’t seem to get riled up by her. It was uncertain whether this was a result of the events that took place earlier that day still weighing on him, or whether he was simply trying to keep the peace. Perhaps he just knew how to deal with volatile people.

“Hmm… Have you thought about asking mom and dad for help?” Akiko spoke to Jin in a much kinder tone.

“No. I don’t want to make this their problem. They deal with enough as it is,” Jin set down his chopsticks.

“But they could ask the guild for help,” Akiko whined.

“I’d rather not trouble your family either,” Max was slowly finishing his iced tea, with clear difficulty.

“Fine,” Akiko set down her bowl and stood up. “But if your lecturer can’t help Mr Tenerbri tomorrow, then I’m gonna ask mom and dad for help.”

“I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” Jin waved his hand at her.

“We’ll see. For now,” she started walking to the hallway that led to her bedroom, “I’m going to my room.”

She quickly turned to glare at Max.

“Don’t forget to thank my brother for the food!” She shut the hallway door behind her angrily.

There was a quiet moment after the door slammed and the two could hear Akiko stomping down the hall in their silence.

“I’m sorry about her. She’s not used to strangers really,” Jin laughed nervously, attempting to break the ice.

“Don’t worry about it,” Max said reassuringly. “I used to have to deal with this kind of stuff all the time. Even Jane’s little sister came with the sass.”

“Oh? How did you manage to deal with that?”

“I didn’t really,” Max explained. “I just let her say and do what she wanted. To her, I was just some asshole invading her relationship with her family. She had every right to be upset.”

“So she still hates you?”

“No. One night I was babysitting the little twerp and she just… stopped. I don’t know, I guess it must have become boring not getting any reaction from me,” Max was looking around the room curiously.

He appreciated how neat everything was, yet couldn’t help but feel like he missed the messiness of home, especially Jane’s messiness. He missed her disorganisation, her quick wit, her warm smile. How aloof she was about how people perceived her, despite how beautiful and smart she was. How patient she was with him, despite how much more hard-headed than him she could be. He missed her.

Suddenly, he stood up.

“Since Akiko’s back in her little cave, let’s head to that store you wanted to check out,” Max said as he stretched his arms out above his head.

Jin’s eyes widened at him, “You’ve got to stop reading my mind like that. It’s incredibly invasive.”

“Hey, I couldn’t help myself,” Max smiled sardonically. “Come on. I wanna get some fresh air.”

***

Outside, the night air was warm. The shop was only a few blocks away from Jin’s house. Max looked at the assortment of houses lining the streets. Some were quite obviously modern, while others had a somewhat more traditional air about them. He had always dreamt of walking through places like this when he was bingeing slice-of-life anime. He couldn’t bring himself to feel as ecstatic about it now as he once imagined he would have felt. He would have preferred to visit Japan under different circumstances, and ideally with Jane at his side. He also thought that it was important to separate the real Japan from this fictitious version he somehow found himself trapped in.

The store was pretty normal given the world it was in. Max didn’t know what to expect, but he was glad it was a normal convenience store and not some special, spell-accessed super store that looked small on the outside but was actually humungous on the inside. It was a regular old 7/11 with a night clerk that may or may not have been able to use magic, but who nonetheless had to sit through the night doing his job like any normal person had to. This gave Max some comfort. After all he had seen, he needed some of this seemingly insignificant sense of ‘normal’.

The bright white lights of the convenience store were a welcoming contrast to the darkness outside. The clerk greeted them both very courteously and told them to let him know if they needed help finding anything. Max understood him perfectly, but it was no longer a surprise. This world was having strange effects on him, and it was probably best to just go with the flow. If he could use this world’s logic to get back to his own world, there’d be no complaints from him.

They went looking through the aisles, and Max was in awe of the wide array of products being sold that made the 7/11 back home feel like a hovel in comparison. The snacks looked healthier, there were more drink options. Even the cooked food smelled heavenly in comparison to what he had eaten in Japan so far. He didn’t quite know how the yen currency worked, but he could tell the food was likely being sold for less than it was worth.

Eventually, they found what Jin came looking for at the back of the store, near the cold-storage units. It was something like a Twinkie, though judging from the colour of the packaging, it was chocolate flavoured and was slightly bigger in size. Jin held it up to Max.

“Can you read this?” he asked curiously.

“No. Should I be able to?”

“Ah,” Jin went on. “So I suppose your universal translation skills don’t seem to apply to writing.”

“Can translation magic do that?” Max asked inquisitively.

“Well, it requires a different spell from the one we use to understand spoken languages.”

“Hmm…” Max narrowed his eyes. He picked up another one of the neatly packaged cakes. He looked at it with focused eyes, but nothing was happening.

“I don’t know, it doesn’t seem to be–”

Suddenly the letters began to shift from Japanese text into more familiar shapes, rearranging and hopping over one another to make sense to Max’s eyes.

“Cho… co… soft Sponge,” he read slowly and aloud. He looked up at Jin with widened eyes and a wondrous smile.

Jin grabbed the snack out of Max’s hand.

“How do you keep doing that?” he cried. “I didn’t even teach you the spell yet!”

“Don’t hate on natural talent, dude,” Max shrugged with a smug smile. “I guess you won’t need to now.”

“I’m beginning to believe more and more that you’re some prodigy from who-knows-where, whose memories have been tampered with somehow,” Jin said sourly.

“I’m telling you. No one tampered with my–”

“PUT THE MONEY IN THE FUCKING BAG!” a sudden growl came from the front of the store.

Jin and Max looked up to see what was happening, and quickly ducked behind the row before them. A masked man at the front of the store was holding out his hand, which seemed to be covered in a small flame, aiming it at the clerk.

He raised his hand towards the small TV which hung on a mount against the wall, and shot out a small flaming orb, causing an explosion on impact that completely shattered the TV.

“I’m not playing around, you fucking ma-deki! Empty out the damn register!” the masked man yelled.

“Are you fucking kidding me? I thought Japan was one of the safest places on Earth!” Max whispered almost too loudly.

“I warned you that Yōsaishima had its fair share of danger,” Jin whispered back, annoyed. “Though I’ll admit that this is a first for me.”

The cashier was starting to empty out the register. Without warning, Max suddenly yelled.

“You picked the wrong house, fool!”

The masked man turned frantically, firing a slightly bigger orb in their direction. Max and Jin instinctively jumped out of the blast radius as the orb hit the aisle they were just in, exploding and shattering the glass of the fridges that were behind them. Some of the cans and plastic bottles were melted down by the heat, and liquid was spilling all over the aisle floor.

“Who else is here!?” The man aimed his flame at the clerk again. “Who was that!?”

The clerk shook his head aloofly.

“Are you trying to get us killed?” Jin whispered again as they ducked behind the aisle alongside the entrance.

“We can’t just sit here with our dicks in our hands!”

“That doesn’t mean we need to be reckless!” Jin slowly peeked over the shelf to see the masked assailant looking around nervously. “Maybe, we can catch him off guard somehow.”

“Okay, okay,” Max seemed to concede, looking up over the shelf as well. “Then follow my lead.”

The masked man was starting to panic, and screamed at the clerk to hurry up. Max steadily emerged from the aisle with his hands held up in surrender.

“Lovely night tonight, huh?” he called out at the man, who turned the flame towards him. “Woah, take it easy now.”

“Where the hell did you come from? Was that you in the back?''

The man’s voice was already hoarse from yelling. Max could tell by the apparent weight of the bag that the man carried, and from the fact that the clerk still had cash sitting on the counter, that this was not the first place the robber had knocked over that night.

“Look, I just wanna make sure everyone gets home safely tonight,” Max said calmly, putting his hands on his head.

“Shut the hell up, gaijin!” the masked man screamed. “You have no say here!”

Max only knew rudimentary Japanese words from his time watching anime, but even he knew that ‘gaijin’ could be used as a derogatory term for foreigners in Japan.

“Okay, that was just fucking uncalled for,” Max lowered his hands. “I’m trying to make sure everyone gets out of this alive, there’s no need for name calling. Just get what you came for and leave.”

“You know, you and this ma-deki scum make me sick. People like you don’t belong in Yōsaishima!” the man said with a repulsive tone. “Maybe I do us all a favour, and burn this place down with you and this abomination in it.”

“Jin, if you don’t take this asshole down, I swear I’ll kill him myself.”

“Jin?” the masked man asked before Jin hastily jumped out from the aisle behind the assailant to subdue him.

The man reflexively let off a small orb at high speed in Max’s direction.

“No!” Jin screamed, grabbing the man’s flaming hand. Slowly, from Jin’s grasp, a smoky frost crawled up the robber’s arm in a crackling slither, extinguishing the flame in the man’s palm.

As the man screamed in pain from the cold, Jin’s mana reverberated throughout his body, increasing his strength twofold. With his free hand, he pushed the man against the counter, nearly sending him right through it. The man gasped for air as his body slammed into the wood, leaving a large fissure, before falling with a hard thud onto the glossy tiled floor.

Jin looked back to see the orb suspended in the air in front of Max, who had his hands raised around the orb, looking equally as shocked as Jin was.

“Uh… are you okay?” Jin asked worriedly.

“Jeeeeeeezus, I thought I was a goner,” Max laughed nervously.

“Are you okay, oji-san?” Jin asked the clerk, who rose up from behind the counter and confirmed that he wasn’t hurt.

Jin picked up the coarse black bag of cash from the floor.

“How much did he take?” he asked the clerk.

“Only about ¥30 000 so far,” the clerk said. “You two should hurry up and leave while he’s down. I could only stall him for so long.”

“Oji-san, listen to me. If you can’t use magic, you need to please look out for yourself. This man could have hurt you,” Jin chided the clerk. “I appreciate your kindness and your courage, but I’d appreciate it a lot more if you would consider your safety first.”

Jin took out some notes from the bag, counting it to make sure it was ¥30 000, before handing it back to the clerk.

“Thank you very much, young man. The two of you are very brave,” the clerk bowed. “I apologise for all this trouble. If there is any way we can somehow repay you, please say.”

“All I ask is that you please consider closing for the night after you call the police,” Jin bowed in return.

“I don’t mean to interrupt you two!” Max called out. “But can someone tell me how to deal with this thing? I can’t keep this up forever. I don’t even know what I’m doing right now.”

Jin turned to Max, having completely forgotten that he wasn’t necessarily adept in his knowledge about how to counter magic. He thought for a moment.

“Apologies for making you wait. Maybe I can use Psychokinesis to squash it and disperse the mana inside the orb.”

“Is it really that easy?” Max smiled. He looked at the orb curiously, then nodded his head. “Okay, give me just a second.”

Jin was about to protest, but he saw the determination in Max’s eyes.

“Max, if you’re gonna do this, then just try to focus on expelling that mana back into the air. Do not try to destroy it or force its shape.”

“Uhh… Right,” Max nodded with uncertainty. “Then maybe step back in case I blow myself to hell.”

Jin stood back and watched as Max focused on the flaming orb, cautiously bringing his hands together.

Max closed his eyes.

Okay, don’t force it, he thought. Just send it out into the air quietly.

Slowly, the orb began to diminish in size and brightness, before disintegrating into small, spark-like embers which sank to the floor and died out completely. Max looked instantly relieved, and let out a long sigh. Jin was beginning to find it harder and harder to deny that his theory about Max being a magic prodigy was right on the money.

“That was excellent,” Jin smiled.

“Yeah I just thought of it like squeezing out a quiet fart,” Max gave him a thumbs up.

“That’s… well I suppose I’m just glad it worked. How did you know it could potentially blow up?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well if you tried to destroy it or force it to change shape in some manner,” Jin responded, “it could likely have ended in a catastrophic explosion.”

Max’s smile quickly faded to a disquieted shock.

“And you still let me fucking do it? I just meant I’d probably drop it and blow myself up. But now you choose to say I could have killed us all!?”

“It didn’t seem like you’d take no for an answer,” Jin said defensively. “And you managed it expertly on your own.”

“You two are quite amazing for such young mages,” the clerk said with a kind smile.

Max grinned for a moment, quite pleased with himself, before quickly looking down with a panicked expression.

“Jin, look out!”

Jin turned to see the masked man firing another orb, this time at the clerk. Jin's hands instinctively shot up to grab the orb, suspending it psychokinetically right before it hit the counter. The masked man pushed past him, as Jin threw the flaming orb towards the back of the store.

“Dude, get down!” Max quickly yelled at the clerk, running in to help Jin. An unseen force swept him off his feet and sent him flying through the store’s glass entrance. He scraped across the street, instinctively covering his head with his arms.

The assailant made a desperate run for it. Jin hurried out to see Max slowly getting up with a calm, yet clearly enraged look in his eyes. Max didn’t move at all for a moment, simply just watching the robber run into the distance, and, after solemnly looking at the ring on his hand, he suddenly disappeared from Jin’s sight.

He reappeared in front of the robber. The assailant recoiled, taken by surprise and staring in horror at Max’s fierce expression.

Max jumped, and, spinning, landed a harsh sounding kick square on the would-be robber’s face, sending the man flying to the floor. The force of the kick caused the man’s body to roll onto the pavement some distance from Max. Jin could tell that Max had magically amplified his strength.

When did he learn Augmentation? Jin wondered.

Walking up to the downed assailant in slow strides, Max put his hand to the man’s throat. Jin was afraid Max was about to crush his airways with his new strength, but instead, he quickly disappeared and reappeared in front of the store with the man’s throat still under his hand.

“I got this piece of shit,” Max said coldly. He looked up at Jin with a worryingly calm demeanour, which was only made worse by the blood coursing down his face. “Call the police.”

Jin stood quietly for a moment before nodding and turning to the clerk who was already on the phone. The masked man groaned in pain, and Jin turned to see Max holding his two fingers to the man’s forehead.

“Time for some sleep, you xenophobic prick,” Max said, as a faint glow started to emanate from his fingers. The man screamed, uncertain what was being done to him, but his fear quickly faded, as his eyes started to drowsily fall shut. Somehow, he was rendered unconscious.

Max stood up with an almost egotistical smile. The fierceness that had been there a moment ago was starting to fade, but something about his demeanour still seemed volatile… and frightening.

“Ha. I saw that in a show once. I wasn’t sure if it’d work.”

Jin was now adamant that Max must have been a genius mage, whose memories of his abilities were slowly returning. Jin had also not seen Max’s eyes when using magic at any point earlier amidst the chaos of the scene in the store. But there, in the light spilling out from the bright konbini, he realised perhaps what the flash was that he saw when Max had unconsciously used magic the previous day.

Max’s eyes, when using mana, glowed an eerily dark, repulsive violet.