"Hey, Laura," Dan called as he was leaning back onto the cafeteria table.
"Hmm?"
"Can I ask something?"
"Sure..." She replied.
"If you wanted someone to quit doing something, how would you do it?"
"Umm..." Laura's head starts working for an answer, she has never been asked something like that in her life. She couldn't think of any right answer, only selfish on different degrees.
"Maybe sympathy?" She said.
"What do you mean?"
"Make them feel the way you feel about it."
"Isn't that kind of..."
"Selfish?"
"Yeah," he nods.
"There's no other way around it. Wanting someone to stop something for you is very selfish."
"But... What if it's because I care?"
"Still selfish," she shrugs. "Just not as much."
"How should I tell him?" He sighed.
"I'm assuming you're referring to Sam?"
"Yeah, sorry I didn't mention."
"I'm not sure for what, but just be honest and straight. But also respectful. The way you blunt words out is kind of insensitive," she replied with a genuine smile.
"Right... Sorry," he apologized, remembering his odd ways with words.
The two then stood up and head to find Sam, they soon found Sam sitting next to Volta in front of their dormitory. The two seemed to not be speaking a word to each other.
Volta squints her eyes as she sees Dan's face, a sensation that felt familiar, one she didn't understand its origin. She first felt it during her spar with him on the day they met, then again during their wrestling match.
What is this feeling? She wondered. Have I met him...?
Sam stood up and didn't say a word, simply looked into Dan's eyes. His hand in his pockets, his eyes were locked on his. On the opposite, Dan couldn't look Sam in the eyes.
"Hey, Sam," Dan greeted while looking down to the ground.
Sam senses Dan's emotion, nervous. Anxious.
"What's... Up?" Sam asked, having his guard up.
Dan was still looking away from Sam's face. Laura gauges his face and was a little annoyed.
"Dan...?" Laura tugged his jacket.
"Just... Give me a second..." He mumbled.
Dan takes a deep breath and fixes his headband, then looks up to face Sam. His lips were shaking, his hands were trembling.
Honki desuka? Koitsu wa sowasowa desuka? Sam couldn't believe his eyes. The guy he knew to be so indifferent and unshaken was possibly at his most vulnerable. A side of Dan he never saw in all the years he's known him.
Honki desuka = Are you serious?
Koitsu wa sowasowa desuka? = This guy's nervous?
"Sam..." Dan manages to say.
Sam sensed disapproval and disappointment within Dan's words, he didn't like where things would go.
"No," Sam turns away and began walking the opposite direction.
"I didn't even say anything yet."
"I don't want to hear it."
"Just listen."
Sam turns around and glares at him with an irritated look on his face. Hands holstered in his pocket, head hung low.
"I want you... To quit being a sorcerer..." Dan said in a low voice.
"I knew you'd say that..." He murmured to himself.
"It's not worth..." Dan slowed down in saying his reason as Sam turned around and glared at him, "losing yourself for..." Dan manages to finish his words.
"I don't care what you think," he clenched his fists.
Laura takes a few steps back and away from Dan. Volta senses a brawl happening and she feels like she should get involved if need be.
"I appreciate you're trying to appeal to me, Dan. But this is something you do not get to meddle with. So... Back the fuck off," Sam warned.
Shit... What do I say? Dan was panicking a little.
Trigger him. Get him to pour out his feelings, Jon advised.
How?
Annoy him.
Dan grinned at Jon's suggestion, he thought it was the perfect idea. Dan's nervousness disappeared in an instant, his heart was racing as he knew the exact thing to say and poke at Sam.
"You've always been wearing a mask, haven't you?" Dan accused.
"That's more you," Sam projected.
"Oh, you're right, I do have one," Dan nods, not refuting the fact that he hides himself too. "But... Yours is way bigger, isn't it?"
"What the hell are you trying to say?"
"That real you," Dan chuckles.
Sam didn't respond, he simply glared at him.
"Remember that time you were called to the principal's office? Remember what it was for?"
"No," Sam shook his head.
"Oh, come on!" Dans scoffs at Sam's fake innocence. "You sent four kids to the hospital. One kid broke his collar bone, one kid had three ribs shattered, one kid had a light concussion, and the last kid was in a coma for three weeks."
"Shut up... Like you've never sent kids to the hospital."
"What's wrong?" Dan tilted his head, wearing an obnoxious smile. "You don't like when people poke at you?"
"The hell are you even getting at?" Sam raised his voice, his blood boiling with rage.
"Remember what you beat them up for?"
An image of Sam's older brother flashed into his mind.
"Sean, right?"
"Shut up..."
"My... How disappointed he must be at you," Dan said in an obnoxious tone.
"Don't you fucking dare," Sam threatened, right on the edge of letting loose.
Dan split his legs apart, preventing a double-leg takedown with no defense. Dan recalled the way he pummeled the four kids, Sam was a ground and pound type fighter.
"What was your dream as a kid again?" Dan asked as he looks up to the sky. "Sean mitai ni naritai, deshou?" He said in an obnoxious tone.
Sean mitai ni naritai, deshou = To be like Sean, wasn't it?
Sam pulled his hands out of his pocket and expelled a force unfamiliar to even Jon. Sam dashes forward, faster than he's ever shown. Dan tried to grasp Sam's gravity yet felt nothing. He couldn't feel an ounce of magic circulating within his body.
Huh?
That split second moment of Dan being caught off guard, Sam grabbed a hold of Dan's ankle and lifted his leg high up. Dan hops on one foot, trying to break free, but Sam was quick. Sending the heel of his foot to the back of Dan's leg and sweeping him off the ground. Sam grabs to hug Dan and used his weight to slam him to the ground. As Sam was about to begin pounding away at Dan's face, Dan curled his legs up and kicked against Sam's arm and rolled backward. Manage to get his footing back.
Dan pulled his hand back and was about to throw a nasty haymaker, but then his fist couldn't plunge forward. He glances aside to see Volta's expressionless face, her arm tangled against his, preventing him to move. Dan's lips twitched as his eyes watered, his eyes glinted with fear and worry.
As Volta looked into Dan's eyes, unknowing why, but she understood that she was stepping over a line. Meddling with something that she should let unfold. She untangles her arm from his and steps back. But Sam used that opportunity to take Dan down to the ground.
Dan was forced to cover up as every punch that Sam dealt was driven by unbridled rage. He lost the light in his eyes as his face turned pale. Dan got tired and Sam broke open his defenses and began pummeling down on Dan's face. Blood spewing from Dan's nose and teeth. Sam's fist bruising from every punch.
Dan, you're going to die, Jon said, a little exaggerating.
Just a bit more...!
"Sam, enough!" Laura yelled. But it was nothing but a loud ringing sound to him.
Feeling a desire to save Dan, Volta's body moved to hold Sam back, preventing him from landing another punch. Volta struggled in holding Sam down alone, Laura rushes in to help. The two of them were realizing that their combined strength was an easy contest against Sam's.
"Sam, stop! You're going to kill him!" Laura yells.
Dan looks right into Sam's eyes, lifeless and filled with hatred. He then started chuckling. "There it is... That's the side you're hiding."
From his words, Sam suddenly snapped back. Not realizing he blacked out. Just like the time it was with the four kids.
"What...?" He muttered to himself. After he was no longer resisting, Laura and Volta easily pushed Sam off of Dan. Dan slowly stands up, his head spinning like a top. Blood dripping down to his jacket.
"This is shit, I just laundered a set too," he murmured, annoyed.
Sam looks down to his bruised knuckles, "I'm... I'm sorry..."He realized what had just done.
"You're sorry, is it?"
Sam looks down to his fists again, trying to wipe off the blood with his shirt.
"Sam," Dan called in a low exhausted voice. "I don't care if you want to be a sorcerer, it's your choice," Dan said.
Sam narrowed his eyebrows, surprised to what he just heard, "then why...?"
"I don't want you to die for something as stupid as revenge," Dan revealed.
"It's not stupid!" Sam deflected.
"Yes, it is!"
"You wouldn't know!" Sam snapped. "You never lost anyone!"
Dan rushes to Sam and grabbed his collar twisting it and pulling it, he glares at Sam through his bruised eyes. What Sam was used to was Dan threatening him with empty words. I'll beat your ass or I'll kill you. What Sam saw was tears flowing down Dan's eyes. A sight even more rare. Dan lowered his head and rests his forehead on Sam's shoulders.
"I can't... I can't lose you..." He pleads, his voice barely above a whisper.
For the first time in his life, Sam sensed Dan's genuine feelings toward him. Sam was speechless, unable to process what was happening right in front of him.
"If I have to be your punching bag, just so you don't lose yourself, I'll gladly be one," he said in committed tone.
"Dan..." Sam sighed.
"I promise, I'll play games with you. I'll hang out with you more," he pleads.
"Dan..." Sam smiled.
"Just..."
"I won't quit, Dan. I've made up my mind. But, I won't die either. Just you see."
"Then..." Dan dropped to one knee and wrapped his arms around both of Sam's legs and pulled a double-leg takedown. Dan got top control and returned the pounding to Sam. His fists slamming down, feeling mana coursing his body again. He envelops his hand with Dark Gauntlet and start slamming with renewed vigor. Sam lifted his hands above his head, just blocking without an idea of what to do. He couldn't move his legs due to Dan interlocking his legs under both of them. A technique Volta unintentionally taught.
"What's wrong, Sam!?" Dan called out, mockingly, "can't fight back!?"
Punch after punch, Sam was just forced to cover up, his arms bruised from blocking unrelenting powerful blows. After a while, Dan stops and just got up. Walking away quickly. Sam got up slowly, his hands completely sore and bruised. Perhaps even fractured. As a desperation shot, Sam tried to land a haymaker to the back of Dan's head. Dan drops to the ground while sending his leg to sweep Sam off the ground again.
"If you're not gonna quit, you better beat me with everything you've got," Dan said, glaring down at Sam.
Sam grins at him and got up. The four then head to the infirmary and Laura scolded the two of them for not even holding back in the slightest. She was mostly upset because she expended a lot of mana healing the two idiots.
Not long after, Laura got a phone call from Kai. An urgent matter and she was told to go out to the open field. "Looks like we'll be having training," Laura announced to them.
"What makes you say that?" Dan asked.
"Kai told us to go to the field, said he has a guest for us to meet."
"Okay, cool."
The four hastily went out to the field, arriving at a similar time with the others. Kai was standing, holding some sort of rolled up paper, next to a man with dark grey hair, a white shirt and a purple hoodie tied around his waist.
"Shit..." Laura said, almost panicking.
"What is it?" Dan asked.
"That's Hinora Shino..." She points.
Dan gauges Sam and Volta's face to see if they knew who he was, then asked away in a whisper, "who's that?"
"The strongest sorcerer alive?"
"Never heard," Sam replied.
"Well, he isn't famous," she shrugged.
"Is he stronger than... Shujin?" Dan asked.
"For sure," she nods confidently.
The four regrouped with everyone. They lined up in a row, in silence. Kai's face was blatantly annoyed, and Shino's was simply smiling. A forced one at that.
He's got two different eye colors and he's not wearing a uniform...
He's the one and only, so it seems. The man with two.
Two what?
Cores.
Kai then gestures to Shino with barely any energy, "ne, minna meet my brother, Shino..." He introduced unenthusiastically.
"Can you introduce me a little bit better?" Shino whispered loudly. "You're embarrassing me!"
"You are an embarrassment," Kai snarked.
"Give me that!" Shino reaches out to snatch the rolled up paper on Kai's hand.
"Bitch, ask next time."
"URUSE!" Shino yelled.
Ne, minna = hey, everyone
Uruse = Shut up!
Shino turns to the students with a smile, standing about eight feet, "now, let me introduce myself, I'm-"
"Shino, right?" Heath cuts him off, "Kai just said so."
"Teme..." Shino squints at Heath. Shino was grabbing onto Heath's hoodie and pulling him in with a death glare, "you think you're tough, huh?"
"Well, you don't scare me."
"Soudesuka?" Shino said with his interest piquing the longer he glared at Heath. "I'll make your life a living hell. You're up first. You and one other."
Teme = You piece of shit...
Soudesuka? = Is that so?
Shino looks around at the crowd and wonders who to pick, "you, Varr. You're up with him."
"Why did I get dragged into this?" Nate sighed, visibly annoyed.
Shino lets go of Heath and backs away a few steps, he then opens up the scroll of paper and slammed it to the ground. A rectangle of light of twenty by forty meters lit from the ground and brought only Heath, Nate, and Shino into the space called "arena". From the light, created barriers that allowed no escape, for all.
"What is this?" Nate wondered.
Heath looks around the area and recognizes the incantation. "A training ground incantation, copied from the blue book," Heath stated.
"Alright, omaera. Kamaero."
"Are we fighting immediately?"
"To the death, Varr."
"You've got to be-"
Omaera = You guys
Kamaero = Get ready
With no motion, Nate's eyes were suddenly covered by Shino's shin. Nate was thrown to the barrier and was half-conscious. Heavily concussed.
That's way too fucking fast, Heath thought, a little panicked.
Cosmic Resonance: Oblivion Incineration, Heath silently casted.
Shino turns to Heath quickly, Heath disappeared from his view. A prominent strike that would've killed even high-rank sorcerers, by suppressing his mana wavelength briefly, he became undetectable. Heath pulls out a card that would've cut through the fabric of reality itself, as he swung to cut, Shino was long gone.
Shino was behind Heath, holding onto to his hood and pulled him. Twirling him around and throwing him to the barrier opposite of Nate.
"That's a neat spell you got there," Shino complimented. "What's your name?"
"Heath Hart."
"Heath, you're a sorcerer of your age," he applauded.
Heath disappeared from Shino's view and tried again cutting with his card, before his hand could reach Shino's body, he was stopped by Shino holding onto his wrist. Shino grips tightly and made a malicious grin, he snaps Heath's hand like a twig. His bone exposed and broken jaggedly. Heath's eyes widened as he gaped his mouth to cry in agony, but stopped as Shino went to grab his neck, lifting him off his feet and choking him.
"You're really far behind, aren't you?" Shino points out. "I mean, you have one overpowered spell and you think you're the strongest, don't you?"
"Fu..." Heath's voice was weak.
"What's that?" Shino asked.
"Fuck... You..." He barely manages to let out.
"That's what I thought," Shino snaps Heath's neck and releases. Heath's body lifelessly dropped to the ground.
"Heath?" Nate saw from afar.
"Finally awake, Varr?"
"Did you...?" Nate struggling to stand back up, leaning back onto the barrier for support.
"Yes, I fucking killed him. Kuso-mahoutsukai..."
Kuso-mahoutsukai= Piece of shit of a sorcerer
"Then..." Nate slides back down to the floor.
"What, you're giving up?" Shino felt disgusted.
"I can't beat you, Shino."
"You really are a piece of shit of a sorcerer."
"I... Am," Nate accepted.
"UGH!" Shino groaned loudly. "You just saw your friend got murdered and your response is to give up?"
"What hope do I have?"
"You could at least die trying!"
"What difference would that make?"
"Such a fucking downer," Shino stomps the ground, annoyed.
Shino was suddenly standing in front of Nate, looming over him. Smoke quietly emitting from his back.
"Pathetic," he said in a low voice.
Shino goes to grab Nate by his shirt and slams him against the barrier, "you're just trash!" He said as he used his other hand to slam Nate's head against the barrier. Like hitting a wall of bricks. Shino created a barrier of ice behind him, about seven feet away. "You sorry excuse for a Varr!" He grabbed Nate tightly as he spun around, twirling Nate, finally releasing him to crash through the wall of thick ice.
The impact snapped Nate's spine, paralyzing him. Shino walks over to Nate, scratching the back of his neck. "You're boring."
Shino hovers his right hand over Nate's body, he snapped his finger and set Nate's body on fire. Nate was unable to make a sound, so he burnt up in silence.