Magic, a term many are familiar with and yet very little actually know about. Magic has existed throughout the entirety of human history and has affected said history during its continued existence. Of course, this is completely unknown to the vast majority of humans, magic started to fall after reaching its height of popularity during ancient times and while many panicked over the situation. Most rejoiced after all, they were the cause of such an illogical phenomenon.

A powerful tool that manipulated reality itself to varying degrees it is impossible for such a thing to not end up running the world itself. And yet it does, just in secret. Magic has been hidden and kept in check by powerful governments and other secret organizations for various reasons. Mostly for power and control but also for protection.

After all if society continued on the path it had been in the ancient times, the world likely would have come to its end far sooner than it already is now. Magic was used in minor disputes resulting in far more death and destruction that would have been normal. On top of that despite its long history, very little is known about magic.

The secret organizations and governments have worked with and against each other in attempts to properly study it, however they have been unable to find equipment that can detect much about magic until it manifests itself. The most that was known about it, was that it used the old style understanding of elements. Things like air, wind, fire and so on over the discovered, tried and true periodic table.

Furthermore, it had been theorized that magic could be used by approximately one tenth of the human population, experiments to find what made them capable of doing such a thing came up short. The only explanation found mostly via asking the gifted was that it almost felt like the had an extra organ. Said organ could not be found by any means even dissection came up with nothing.

A normal person would not normally know such things without either coming upon them by accident or having connections that lead to such secrets. Masashi Goro, first name Goro, currently twenty-eight years old is one of said gifted. He would be called a mage and he was a person who joined one of those secret organizations after finding out about his ability to use magic by total accident. One that nearly lead to the burning down of his house as a young kid living outside of any of the big cities in Japan. Years of research as he was sure he was not crazy lead to him joining to learn more about his abilities.

In short it was very much like a cult, rituals, compulsory attendance of weird gatherings, blood sacrifices and worst of all, secret handshakes (man that was embarrassing) the whole shebang. You could bet he got himself out of there the moment he could escape...after learning a bunch of secrets of course. This lead to him being hunted throughout the country making for a stressful time at a young age until the finally seemed to give up when he was twenty-four.

Now he was a handsome young man working at a gambling parlor as a dealer and also a boyfriend for hire. That’s right, he was rented out nightly for a few hours to pretend to be a woman’s boyfriend. What, it made good money and all he had to do was show up and get treated to nice food. And that is what he was currently what he was doing it would have been more enjoyable if the lady currently hiring him was not trying to touch various parts of him.

“Enough, I told you no touching it is part of company rules.” He repeated for the umpteenth time tonight.

“C’mon its all in good fun, besides you don’t know whether you might want to go further later.” The woman said suggestively.

In fact, he did know, it wouldn’t. He planned to get home and have a good night’s sleep after a long day at work. Don’t get him wrong, she was beautiful and smart, if he was currently looking for a partner he might have considered. However, he wasn’t and this was work. He was a professional, holding hands, hugging, that was all fine he might even show off his magic ‘tricks’ if he felt you were trustworthy enough. However, any further was out of the question.

“No, we would not go any further. You know as much as I do that it is not just about us anyway, this is my job.” He said as Ayaka pouted before picking at her food sullenly. This would not last long it had happened a few times already and over several ‘dates’. She always chose him (making sure to turn up earliest before any of the other girls) and while he wanted to decline, she was the highest payer and most consistent customer, so the boss made him suck it up. He did somewhat enjoy his time as she always chose expensive high-quality restaurants, but he had always made it clear that it was just a job to him, nothing more. It did not stop her from trying.

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His phone vibrated and he quickly took a glance at the message he received.

“Do you hate me?” Her latest trick was out again as he groaned in annoyance.

“No, I do not-” He lost his train of thought as he glanced at the commotion behind her.

A group of men in suits were at the bar counter talking to the barista who seemed to be denying something.

“We have to go.”

“Go where? Don’t tell me you finally fell for m-”

“Now!” He pulled her off the chair they traveled somewhat light luckily so not much was gathered as he headed for the back of the restaurant dragging her behind him.

“Hey, what are you doing!”

He opened the door to the kitchen causing the cooking staff to turn towards them, upon seeing him the Chef smiled before pointing him to the back door. He knew the staff here which is why he had started choosing the restaurants they went out to during their dates. She had seen that as a sign that he was taking some initiative which he tried his best to assuage without giving away the real reason. He had noticed some suspicious figures snooping around and believed that the organization was onto him once more.

“Sorry, no time to explain, we must get out of here. I would refund you personally.” They were going around the restaurant to reach her car.

Just as they got to the doors.

“Hey!” The suited meant were outside…either they noticed him escaping or there were more people than he expected.

He hurriedly jumped into the driver’s seat forcing her to go over the gearbox to the passenger’s seat as she had expected to drive.

“Sorry again, I would drop you at your place first.” He knew where she lived from when she discreetly tried to driver him to her place instead of back to his workplace.

He heard cars screeched after them as he sped off into the road bobbing and weaving and barely avoiding other cars in his way. Ayaka held on in fright. A quick glance at the rearview mirror showed two black vans following a window opened to a gun peaking out.

“Duu Taa’hun.” A quick chant created a thin barrier of violent winds around her vehicle causing the incoming bullets to divert off course. Above the car a large white sigil appeared about a couple meters in diameter, the size of the sigils were related to the power the spell meaning that when doing very low level magics the sigils were very small. Small enough to hide them in fact. Sigils weren’t material in nature meaning that if you learnt to control them somewhat you could actually hide them within your body.

His passenger screamed as the rode was torn up.

“Fii’san Faa’ro.” The ground heated up in front of the offending vehicle before erupting into a pillar of fire as it passed overhead. The driver’s vision was obscured by the flames and the surprise of it all caused him to crash into a light pole on the side of the road.

Two elements of magic, most people could only handle learning one, it was almost like a mental block and it seemed that to learn another you essentially had to forget or replace the old one. Like a computer with a maximum disk size.

At this point Ayaka was staring in disbelief behind her, was this just a lucky coincidence, but the man’s chanting next to her as he still focused on the road pointed to it all being his doing.

She looked behind then looked at him, then back, then at him again.

“Did you jus-”

“Not now, I would explain a little after we get out of here.”

There was still one more chaser and he could see windows winding down for yet more shooters.

“Err’an Laa’tan.”

A blinding flash illuminated the road as they reached a section that was clear of other vehicles. The chasing car swerved before taking the wrong road to the right. It was an illusionary copy made of redirected light that copied the cars movements but flipped the image, anyone could see the imperfections if they focused but the blinding flash disoriented them.

That was right, he could use three different elements, making him a bit of a genius. Their words, not his.

Eventually he reached her home having done some explaining on the way as he felt he owed it to her.

“I know this all sounds crazy and I am sorry for putting you in danger, I would refund the cost of the date tonight.”

“Ha…you are right this does sound crazy, magic? Secret cults? What next, dragons, undead, elves?” He winced at the incredulity in her voice.

“But I cant deny what I saw and overall, you have never lied to me, that I know.”

“Thanks…for believing me.” It was a weight off his shoulders to tell someone some of this, even his family didn’t know, in fact, they thought he was dead.

“Surely you aren’t going to leave the car here?” She asked as he made to leave.

He looked confused.

“They saw the car so they know what to look for, and you don’t know who could be watching so if you are followed a car would be useful.” His face lit up in realization.

“Sometimes you can be so dumb despite being so smart.” She shook her head in disbelief.

“But what do I do with it? Its your car.”

“Get rid of it, I don’t care what happens to it.” She was right, the lady was stacked financially to say the least.

“I really appreciate you for this, I would make it up to you somehow.”

“A proper date another time, get going.” She waved him away.

Sometime later after dumping the car in the middle of nowhere and burning it with magic, Goro found himself in bed, the day had been long and he was tired after using so much magic in just a few hours.

He slept off only to find himself stuck in another world wondering whether he had been caught by the group after him.

[Beginning Initiation]

[Grant name to participant…]

[Name selected -> Jocu]

“What. The. Fuck.”