Chapter 7: Chapter 6: Magic [1]

Chapter 6: Magic [1]

Maru became overwhelmed with emotion, her lips quivering as a toothy smile inched itself across her face. Tears began streaming down her cheeks like a waterfall.

For the longest time her dream always seemed impossible to reach. Yet here she was now, feeling closer to it than ever before. Her feelings of inferiority quickly subsided in the moment as she realized she would finally be competent enough for Francis and Tianyu to consider her their equal. No longer would she have to be babied, protected, and pampered by them. It’s not that she never appreciated it, but she’s always wanted to stand on her own.

“So this is what it’s like,” she whispers, looking down at her hands still.

She immediately thinks back to all the times she saw her friends cast spells. Maru was ecstatic to finally have Magic – but she had to understand it now. It wasn’t going to be easy, Tianyu always described Magic as a complex power every time Maru asked about it, but she was more than willing to take the time to understand it.

“This power running through me… that’s probably Magic Energy.”

Wiping the tears from her face, she takes a deep breath to try and compose herself.

“How do I use it?”

Gripping the staff tightly with one hand, she creates a fist with her other hand as she pulls it back. Maru envisions herself throwing a basic jab, followed by a bolt of lightning erupting from her fist. “I hope this works,” her voice was a little shaky; part of her was scared.

Maru throws her fist forward toward the statue, her arm becoming a blur as it ripped through the air at bullet-speeds. Once fully extended, a bright blue spark would burst from her knuckle, sending out small arcs of electricity in all directions followed by a boom of thunder.

A lightning bolt would zig-zag through the air, eventually colliding with the statue to create a small explosion strong enough to chip off part of it. A piece of the man’s shoulder flew high into the air before it came crashing down.

“I’m sorry!” Maru exclaims, instinctively pulling her arm back, “I didn’t mean to.” Although the statue wasn’t an actual person, it felt disrespectful to damage it like that, especially after all those stories she read in the journal.

She looks back down at her hand again. “I guess I should’ve envisioned the target too.”

Looking back over at the statue, Maru watches closely as the rest of the statue begins to crack and crumble. Its structure collapses quickly, turning into a pile of rubble and grey debris as the entire sculpture falls over. The area was quickly shrouded by a cloud of thick dust, akin to a misty fog on a winter morning.

“I really shouldn’t have done that.” Maru used her free hand to fan the debris away from her face as she coughed.

Among the settling dust, something catches her attention. A large silhouette stands tall in the place where the statue once stood. They wore a white tunic with dark red stains covering the lower half of it and part of the shoulder. A fraction of their dark messy hair was tied together into a lengthy ponytail that extended down below their waist. They slowly brushed a few stones on their body, revealing the pale skin hidden beneath.

“I feel reborn,” the man uttered, his voice light and airy as immediately shifted his gaze towards Maru.

Maru looks back at him, feeling intimidated as his soft brown eyes briefly flash gold. “Did you write that journal?” She points towards the book, hidden beneath a small pile of rubble beside the man’s feet.

“Well I’ll be damned,” he reaches down and rummages through the rubble to find the journal, “I thought it’d be gone by now.” Brushing it off, he opens it and casually flips through the pages. “It’s still here; did you give it a read, miss?”

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Maru nods, “it was awesome! There were super cool stories in there. Is it yours, Mr…?” Her voice trails off, hoping the hero would introduce himself by name.

“Manho.”

His response was blunt, blatantly ignoring her main question. A golden Magic Circle appears in Manho’s hand as he uses the other to hold the journal in front of it. Suddenly, the journal is reduced to a collection of golden dust, fading away in a matter of seconds.

“What year is it?” Manho tilts his head slightly, looking back over at the girl.

“Uh – it’s 576, the 5th Helios.”

“A little early…” Manho whispers under his breath, his eyes darting around the area. He’s silent for about a second before he asks her another question.

“Where did you get that?” He asks nonchalantly.

“The date? I memorized the calen–”

“Not that,” he interjects rudely and points towards the staff she’s holding, “that.” Manho briefly glances over his shoulder, taking note of the empty altar behind him.

Maru starts to profusely sweat as a strong tension begins to fill the air. As it stands, Manho was being confrontational, and it was likely for a good reason. Not only that, but she could feel an exceedingly powerful aura radiating off of him. As she concentrated her vision on him, she saw a golden mist enshroud his body like a cloak, but she only saw it briefly. Still, she had no reason to lie to him, even if he was very intimidating.

“I found it in the altar behind you. I was just being nosy at first and then I touched it and it wouldn’t let go of me. I pulled it out and…” Maru looks back at her arms and hands, noticing that her body was still surging with lightning. “I’m pretty sure it awakened my Magic.”

No wonder Manho was so confrontational – with all this energy around her, Maru looked like she was ready to fight him. Her heart began to race as the fear settled in. The last thing she’d want to do after awakening her Magic is get into a fight. If it was against Francis or Tianyu, then maybe she’d reconsider, but she didn’t want to fight someone more experienced such as Manho. If he’s the hero the journal painted him out to be, then he was leagues above her in strength. Surely, he wouldn’t want to hurt her though, right?

“How do I turn this off?!” She thought, her mind starting to spiral into a panic.

“Interesting,” Manho muttered, somehow easing Maru’s nerves a little. “So you know nothing? You do not know of your Attunement, your Resonance; not even the name of your Magic?”

Maru shakes her head slowly, a little embarrassed. “No…”

“Magic can have names?”

“Worry not,” Manho smiles slightly, cracking his knuckles. “For the greatest motivator in life…”

Manho takes a single step forward, the rocks beneath him cracking as he suddenly appears directly in front of Maru. He throws a jab directly towards her face at blinding speeds, his fist flying through the air as a blur.

“...Is the fear of death.”

Maru could barely process the speed at which he moved since she wasn’t really paying attention. His fist traveled from his side to her face nearly instantaneously. First Gon and now this guy – just how many people outclass her effortlessly, and how many could she meet in a day?

By the time she realized he was attacking her – she miraculously had both of her arms raised to block.

“What?” she thought, completely appalled, “how did I…”

Manho’s fist slams into her arms, sending her flying back into the wall of the cave with a reverberating thud. The entire cavern would shake, small pebbles falling from the ceiling as the rocks settled. Maru landed on both feet, her arms still raised and her heart beating a mile a minute.

She winces slightly from the pain, but it wasn’t nearly as painful as she expected.

“He doesn’t hit as hard as Gon. Is he just holding back?” She thought to herself.

Manho chuckles lightly, “you didn’t see it coming – but your Magic did.”

“But my Magic did.” Maru echoed Manho’s last words. He spoke as if her Magic was a living thing with its own eyes, capable of reacting to attacks before her own mind could even process them. It was certainly handy, but could she rely on it? She wonders if the staff played a part in this too – she was still holding it after all.

“Let’s try that again. This time, however…” Manho clenches both his fists tightly, taking on a fighting stance and tensing up his muscles.

“...I’ll kill you.”