(Kouhaku’s POV)

Oh my, oh my! It seems that Genbu-san and Maria-san are all over Hiyuuki-san! I do know who he is, since my family is quite old in the village, and my parents on his side, I know a lot about him and his situation on the village.

(Iori): “Alright, it seems that everybody is here. Aside from Maria and Fuyuki, it’s the first time that I meet you three. I believed that you must have heard of me, but I’ll introduce myself. I’m Hiyuuki Iori, and you can consider me the “head priest” of this temple.”

I take a step forward and raise my hand, smiling:

(Kouhaku): “Hai hai! I’m Haruka Kouhaku! Nice to meet you, Hiyuuki-san!”

He nods to me, with a serious face. Su-chan goes next.

(Suzaku): “I’m Natsume Suzaku. Nice to meet you, Hiyuuki-san.”

She said, making a light bow. Hiyuuki-san also bows lightly and politely. The last one is Hitotsu-san, but he seems a bit… angry?

(Yuichi): “Hitotsu Yuichi.”

He said dryly. Iori just looked at him, without saying anything. Seeing that he wouldn’t talk now, Su-chan says:

(Suzaku): “Hiyuuki-san, since when do you have powers? Did you know about us?”

(Iori): “About half a year. And yes, I learned about you since you guys gained powers.”

Wow! That long?!

(Yuichi): That long? Why didn’t you contact us? You could have helped us!”

He said, a bit angry. I’m no as angry as him, but I’m also a bit bothered. After all, I would have helped if I found out about other people with powers! Hiyuuki-san smiled. However, it wasn’t a good smiled, more likely an evil one.

(Iori): “Ho, but I did help. Didn’t you find strange that nobody in the school was curious about your club? And that no teacher talked about anything about your club activities?”

(Kouhaku): “That was you?!”

(Iori): “Yeah.”

(Suzaku): “So why you didn’t talk to us? Why didn’t you join us?”

He simply raised his eyebrows, saying:

(Iori): “I don’t walk with weaklings.”

He said simply. That… bothered me, you know? That was plainly rude. However, I kept my mouth shut. Who knows what he has been through to talk like that? Su-chan… as expected, she’s nodding, as if she understood wat he said. After all, there isn’t anyone so fixed in power than her.

(Yuichi): “You don’t seem that strong to me either.”

He said arrogantly. Maria-san immediately pale, her eyes widening.

(Maria): “Wait! That-!”

She stopped herself, hugging Genbu-san, raising a barrier around them both. Hiyuuki-san smiled, his face contorting in an evil grin that sent chills down my spine. When suddenly, the air turned heavy, literally pushing me to my knees.

It wasn’t only in my body, I felt as if all of my being was being pressed down by an oppressing thumb, crushing my spirit and body. I grind my teeth, raising my head with difficulty, looking to Hiyuuki-san’s face.

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His blue eyes have a light blue glow, and his mouth is still grinning. I can clearly feel that the source of this pressure is him, without any doubt. Suddenly, his eyes turn off, and the pressure stops. I gulf a large amount of air, not realizing that I was holding my breath… no, I couldn’t breathe at all.

Maria-san and Genbu-san are completely fine, but Maria-san’s barrier is heavily cracked, in the verge of breaking.

(Iori): “Just as a note, I went easy on you guys. I don’t want to kill you guys after all.”

He said, smugly, looking at me in the eyes. I smiled back, nervously and sweating a bit. I glance to Su-chan, who is sitting on her butt, as if she fell by stumbling back. Hitotsu-kun is also on his butt.

(Iori): “Well then, now that I have your attention, let’s go inside the temple, I have to talk about a few things with you guys.”

He says, knocking on Maria-san’s barrier, the light hit shattering the barrier. He then walks pass us without looking back. Maria-san and Genbu-san help us three to stand back up and following behind him. I worriedly take a look to Su-chan, and she’s looking at him with glittering eyes. Uh, her obsession with strong people is showing up.

(Yuichi): “What the hell is wrong with him, to do that to us?”

(Maria): “I think that he has quite proud in his strength.”

She says, wearily smiling.

(Kouhaku): “Maria-san, did this happen to you at some point? After all you made that barrier…”

(Maria): “Yes. I did the same question as Hitotsu-san... and the result was the same. That’s why I was ready. Sorry for not covering you three, I wasn’t fast enough.”

(Kouhaku): “Don’t worry about that. I guess you can never be ready for that kind of thing.”

We enter the Haiden. I’ve came here a few times with my parents when I was small, but I never stayed for too long or entered the temple. We enter the Haiden, that actually looks more like a dojo.

(Suzaku): “A dojo?”

(Iori): “This is a temple dedicated to a god of war. The respects are paid inform of fights. Anyway, sit.”

He said, walking to the center of the dojo and sitting with his legs crossed. We sit in front of him hesitantly as he lay down his katana on the ground to his left. Out of curiosity, I ask:

(Kouhaku): “Is that katana real?”

He looked at me, taking his katana again. Holding the handle with his right hand, he unsheathes his sword. Yeah, it’s real. The metal gleams beautifully under the incandescent light. He then sheaths it again, saying:

(Iori): “Now, to what really matters. What you guys think your powers are?”

We look at each other to the unexpected question. Our leader, Genbu-san, answers:

(Fuyuki): “We think that we are ESPERs, since our powers manifested so suddenly and they way that we use them.”

(Iori): “Alright, first, you guys are not ESPERs. Way far from that, actually.”

I raised my eyebrows, surprised. Wow… that’s… unexpected.

(Suzaku): “So, what we are?”

(Iori): “Mages.”

We fell on an awkward silence for a moment.

(Iori): “Don’t look at me like that. I’m being serious here. ESPERs do exist, but not you guys. If I’m not wrong, you guys feel physically tired when using your powers, right?”

(Maria): “Yes, pretty much.”

(Iori): “It’s because you guys spend all your mana, your magic power. ESPERs use something called mental energy, or prana, from their brains top interact with the world, different from mages, who use mana like you guys. If they deplete their mana, they suffer from unbearable headaches.”

I nodded. It isn’t that hard to believe, frankly. After all we have been through it isn’t impossible to believe that mages exist. And it’s quite comforting that exist other people like us around the world.

(Iori): “So for now on I will teach magic to you guys instead of leaving you guys training by yourselves. I’ll have to be quick as well, since there’s a battle coming up and you guys will have to help.”

(Suzaku): “I’m fine with being trained, but what’s with that “battle”?”

I also want to know, because that sounds really, really dangerous.

(Iori): “In the beginning of the year, you guys heard about some criminal gangs on the village, right?”

(Fuyuki): “Yeah, they vanished some time lather though. It was around may, right?”

He nodded, saying:

(Iori): “I was the one that kicked them out of the village.”

We all made surprised expressions.

(Iori): “They were both dealers with magic crimes, and they were the rulers of the outer village. Well, now I am the ruler of the whole territory of the village in the magical sense, but you get the idea.”

(Fuyuki): “How does that work, exactly?”

Genbu-san asks.

(Iori): “Normally, when a mage resides somewhere, he has to pay respect or at least ask permission for the strongest mage around to perform magic on the area. Of course, they can do without it, but it’s considered rude on the magic community. The two gangs were fighting for control of the village for some years, but I butted in and kicked them out of the village. And now, I’m the master of the territory of the village.”

He said.

(Iori): “However, I unfortunately didn’t manage to wipe them out, since I wasn’t strong enough at the time. Now, however, I can easily destroy them, but they have established themselves in Wakkanai, and I can’t get out of the city, because hunting one of them in that city will drain too much time, and it will leave this village unprotected.”

(Suzaku): “So that’s why…”

(Iori): “Yes, I will use you guys as a defense line.”

(Yuichi): “You will use as meat shields in your fight?!”

He almost screamed, quite angry with Hiyuuki-san. Hiyuuki-san frowned angrily, his eyes literally shining blue with danger.

(Iori): “Now, [shut up].”

He said. Immediately, I felt my mouth unable to open, but the worst was for Hitotsu-san, whose mouth shut with enough strength to his teeth make a loud sound.

(Iori): “You don’t have a fucking option. They will come, and they will not spare a mage on their way. They won’t destroy the village, but they will certainly take over, due the unique way this village. They will either kill you guys or either sell all of you as slaves. I already way too much shit on my back, so I WILL train you guys, and you WILL help me on the fight.”

He said. None of us could answer. Looking at us, his eyes turned off, and he said:

(Iori): “Tomorrow, pack your stuff, enough for a month, and wait for me at night. I will fetch you guys to where we will train.”