The day finally came for Ains to go on her first trip outside of the school, she had just gotten her proper uniform previously. Despite the teachers' tireless efforts trying to get her to sign up to famiglias and join the S classes she still chose to remain with Joaquin. A decision which remained a mystery to even Joaquin himself.
Since all of this happened this morning she was worn out, and currently resting on the bus's steps. Joquin was leaning against it next to her, Ruben and a girl named Nadia Voidon were standing on the other side of Ains and opposite to them was the blue-haired Idol Prince Wang and his assistant Beipan Tou.
As if there was a law demanding it, the Idol Prince kept his fan with him covering half of his face. The group had not said anything to one another for the last minute or two and the awkwardness was starting to get to some of them.
Joaquin on the other hand was more concerned about how today was going to proceed, first of all, he had no intentions of staying with the others. He was entering the forest with research having been done on the possible monsters they will face and their magical language.
It was almost all he could think of, glyphs, runes, and other scribbles of ancient magic were at the top of his schedule on the regular. Although he referred to this magic using its technical terms binary abilities and gang energy.
The person who had invented these terms was somehow a bit like Joaquin, they both believe that everything can be summed up and explained by numbers. Even the scale used to test one's potential used number.
The binary meter was an invention that separated and united humanity all at the same time. Its scale ranges from 0 to 14 and it is divided into 4 parts. 0 and 14 meant bleach, 1 to 6 meant destructive, 8 to 13 meant constructive/ creative, and finally, 7 was the best of everything. Joaquin's binary count was 0 and therefore his binary nature was bleach negative or bleach minus, depending on how one wanted to make fun of him.
After thinking about the binary meter he wondered if it could work on the smoke ghost, he turned his head and looked down at Ains. He wondered what her count was, judging from how the teachers reacted towards her, Joaquin deduced that she could be a bleach positive or bleach plus. She could be a 7, known to Joaquin's people as a magic saint and to the Idol Prince Wang's people as godsent sometimes even oracle was assigned to them or if evil devilsent.
That one last thought directed his attention to Ruben, the expression on his face hopeless and sort of undermining to 10th grand seat.
"Be mindful of how you look at…" Nadia tried to speak but Ruben signaled for her to stop.
"I don't think I owe you anything this time around. You abandoned me remember?"
"How's training going?" Joaquin dodged Ruben's masked plea for his return to his side. It wasn't like Ruben needed him for anything, for one he knew that Joaquin would try and escape as soon as they walked into the forest and two if he were to stay it would be because he wants to use them for something.
Ruben just wanted to have Joaquin on the team so that he can track his movements and try to hinder anything that could cause trouble for him. It remains an unknown reason to Ruben as to how Joaquin kept dodging the wrath of the school rules when he had basically broken every single on of them. Not counting the time he was suspended for a month and father sent him to a military school.
Kind of odd considering that Joaquin thought of himself as an orphan despite having a fairly large family. To him, they were more of extras if not obstacles making life unnecessarily too hard for his liking.
The same went for making friends, Joaquin knew a lot of people and a lot of people knew him. None of these people however could ever go as far as to say that they were friends. Ruben encouraged the idea which got under Joaquin's skin, they would occasionally butt heads and end up beating each other up. The fact that they still talked to each other as if those fights never happened was a miracle, an appropriate term for this age.
"Oh, where are my manners? I heard that you have a grimoire now, although I was late I would like to say congratulations." Beipan said with a grin facing Joaquin. Immediately after he said so the Idol Prince Wang turned his head quickly to glare at him.
Tou's smile only grew wider as he pretended not to see his young master glaring at him.
'I never liked this snake.' Joaquin sighed. "I'll be much happier if you didn't mention it."
"Oh my, is that so? Is it because even after unlocking your unholy magic you're still inferior to all of us?" Beipan said.
"TOU!" The Idol Prince Wang screamed but was halted by Joaquin signaling.
"Last time I checked I wasn't second-rate to anyone."
"Second-rate is such a strong statement, I prefer helper, secretary if I may. As for you, how does it feel knowing that you'll never overcome the shadow Ruben cast over you?"
"I'm sorry, but I've always been immersed in the darkness so it was kind of hard to notice minuscule things such as shadows."
"Hopeless I see and here I was expecting that you'd use your newfound ability to make a name for yourself. Or do you enjoy being fostered?"
"You don't know anything…" Ruben tried to interfere and like the Idol Prince Wang, he was also shut down by Joaquin.
"You know what? I never thought about it that way before, I would like to have a name of my own." Joaquin left the bus and walked over to Beipan. "I wonder what it would take. What do you think?"
"A MacGuffin?" Said Beipan as he looked up to Joaquin in order to stare directly in his eyes.
"Interesting, and in order to get it what do I need?"
"To the leader of the strongest famiglia in… Oh," Beipan paused and exclaimed as he noticed that he just challenged Joaquin in the Idol Prince's position. He wanted to add on to his statement but Joaquin had already started walking away.
"I thought so, we will be seeing each other around then." Joaquin waved.
The Idol Prince Wang shoved Beipan back a little and tried to call out for Joaquin when suddenly, he was swept off his feet.