As Zoey led the two strangers to a more secluded area, her senses heightened for any signs of mahna or sudden movements. The city's sounds faded into the background as they reached a quiet snowy alley, away from prying eyes. Once they were away from the bustling streets, Zoey allowed them to turn around and face her. Her gaze was sharp, evaluating every nuance of their expressions and body language. The guy took a cautious step forward as he cleared his throat.
"We're not here for trouble," he reiterated, sensing the tension in the air. "We came here to request something of you…"
Inner Zoey crossed her arms, maintaining a defensive stance. "And what the hell would the magji world want with someone like me, who they expelled?" She asked. The girl, who had remained mostly silent, finally spoke up. "We aren’t from that branch of the OM." She made their stance clear. Zoey's skepticism deepened. "How did you hear about me then?" As far as Zoey knew, she never met anyone from another magji branch. Unless she counted that foreign magjistar, she fought once. Then again, she didn’t even know if they had magjistar branches over wherever she was from.
The girl looked irritated as she continued. "Every branch of the Organization of Magjistars knows you in some way. You are S-Grade Victor Khan’s only legacy before his mysterious passing. Information like that isn’t just hidden, S-Grades are too important for people to not know everything about them." She snorted as if this information was common knowledge. Common knowledge was something that Zoey was sorely lacking when it came to the world of magji, for the most part.
Zoey's expression remained stoic. "What do you want from me?" She asked flat out. They glanced at each other. Zoey kept her guard up, ready to go on the offense at any moment. “As Victor Khan’s only apprentice, we have no doubt that you are incredibly strong, right?” He asked as if he didn’t already know. “Depends. Why do you want to know?” Zoey didn’t know the limits of her full strength, but she was confident in saying she was strong, at least.
“We need your freaking help!” The girl threw her hands up into the air, seemingly frustrated. “I don’t know what the hell made you so paranoid, but if you can’t even answer a few questions without getting your panties in a twist, I don’t see how you’d be any help to us!”
Zoey turned her attention to the guy who was burying his face in his hands. “Please give us a moment.” He forcefully dragged the girl out of the alleyway as he began whisper shouting at her. At this point, Zoey no longer thought they could be assassins or people planning to kill her. She was slightly interested in what kind of help they needed. It seems they were pretty desperate to try and ask her for help when they didn’t know shit about her except that she was Victor’s student.
When they returned, the girl looked a lot calmer. “I apologize for my outburst… The lives of people I care about dearly are at stake, and I’m very wound up and have mistakenly taken it out on you.” She sounded like she was pulling teeth saying this. Zoey thought if what she was saying was true, she could at least have some sincerity when asking for help.
“Is there any way we could convince you to help us out?” Actual sincerity came from the guy’s voice.
“What is it that you need help with?” Zoey didn’t mind hearing them out.
She might have nothing to do, but that didn’t mean she would just involve herself in anything. There had to be something for Zoey to gain out of this. She may have played a hero with her students, but regular Zoey ain’t no selfless bitch doing things out of the goodness of her heart and shit. Boundless was only for her students.
“We need your strength. The talent of someone an S-Grade magjistar trusted enough to make their apprentice. Our OM branch is at risk of being overtaken and overthrown by a group of criminal magjistars.” He explained.
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“How’d that happen?” Zoey wondered aloud.
“It’s a long story…” He sheepishly admitted.
“So you want me to what? Kill these guys? Beat ‘em up? Stop them with violence since your branch is too weak to? Do you guys not have your own S-Grade magjistar?” Zoey bluntly questioned.
It was just a moment, but she saw the girl twitch at what she said. “S-Grade magjistars aren’t that common… If every branch had one, there’d be no daemons left in the world.” He explained. “But, we need your strength if we want to stand a chance against these people. We are not strong enough to deal with them on our own…”
“So why me and not another branch?” Inner Zoey suddenly realized. It didn’t make a lot of sense to ask someone like her for help instead of another legitimate branch of the OM. If a group of criminals took over a police station or a government building, they definitely wouldn’t ask someone who wasn’t affiliated with one of those two places.
“They won’t believe us…” He revealed. “The people in charge of running our branch are either in cahoots with the criminals or being blinded by those in touch with them. So, if we ran to another OM branch to ask for help, they’d confirm it with one of the higher-ups at our branch.” He explained while looking into her eyes before realizing he should probably continue. “Which means they’d find out that we know about them and we’re looking to hurt their interests. Which could lead to the deaths of us and the people we care about.”
“So, I’m just the strongest person, you know?” Zoey tried simplifying it for herself.
“Yes.” He answered curtly.
“What do I get risking my life to help you guys out?” Zoey was interested in what he had to offer.
Despair seemed to hit him all at once when he heard those words come out of her lips. His shoulders slumped, and his gaze dropped to the ground, almost as if the weight of the world had settled on him. It was an instinctual reaction. He so desperately wished that Zoey Winters wasn’t one of those people who cared more about themselves than other people. It would’ve made this so much less humiliating. But, the world was never fair…
He dropped to his knees before bowing toward Zoey, his forehead touching the dirty alleyway ground. “Please. I’m willing to do anything if you help us out. I will give you all of my material positions, knowledge, and even my own life if you need it. I beg of you, please, help us…”
Zoey frowned. Now this made her look like a fucking bad guy. Inner Zoey was laughing her ass off, irritating her even more. This guy was making her look like an asshole for asking a reasonable question. No matter how she answered, if it wasn’t a yes, she’d be some sort of fucking monster for condemning several people to death apparently because she didn’t do the right thing and help them out. But Zoey wasn’t born yesterday. She wasn’t some sucker that a sob story by a stranger could convince her to do anything.
She took a moment to think before replying. She saw the pissed-off look on the girl’s face but didn’t think much of it. Zoey focused on what she could gain from helping these people out. Helping an entire OM branch. Having hundreds of magjistars in her debt…
‘We could make a magji clan!’ Inner Zoey suggested.
‘And do what? Start a magji clan war with other clans till we’re the strongest and in charge?’ Zoey sarcastically responded.
‘It sounds fun, doesn’t it?!’
‘It sounds fucking stupid.’
‘Wha? What’s wrong with it? Teaching, fighting. You love those things!’
‘If I did that, it would be no different from spitting on what Victor wanted for me. I’m not going to make enemies for the sake of my own battle lust. He wanted us to make friends and stuff…’ Zoey was feeling an idea coming on.
‘No…’ Inner Zoey tried to stop her. ‘How the fuck you gone live your life for someone else? I thought Zoey was a bad bitch that did what Zoey wanted.’
‘This is what I want.’ Zoey stated.
A group consisting of daemons and magjistars that’ll expand outside of the OM and to other parts of the world! Bringing peace between two races that have warred for who knows how long! Victor would love that! Zoey would make so many friends that asshole could only smile and praise her for doing so damn good of a job. Plus, she wouldn’t become some psychopath focused only on fighting and making the world a worse place since she was doing a thing that was good for the planet. War was bad, after all, wasn’t it?
“Okay. I’ll help you.” Zoey made up her mind as Inner Zoey went surprisingly silent at her choice.