Chapter 1

New Winds

Konichiwa! This is my first fic for this profile. I would be glad if you point out my mistakes and request for me to change them through PM, but I do not accept insults and criticisms in public. That was just a reminder. Please rate and review my story, arigato!

A boy who looked to be around the age of 17 walked towards the stuffy hall. He had messy dark brown hair and striking good looks. He pushed the door of the hall open and stepped inside for the first time. It was vast and huge. The first thing that caught his eye was a blue-haired boy who was trying to throw flames at the other boy he was sparring with. 'I shall call him…Flame Thrower.' The new boy thought in his head.

As he walked towards the sparring pair, he spotted a man who looked extremely old sitting on a majestic-looking chair while observing the boys. His white beard cascaded down the front of his Japanese robes and his hair was so white, it almost looked glow-in-the-dark. The man spotted him almost immediately after and motioned for the boys to stop sparring. They obeyed and stopped in their tracks.

The old man gripped his walking stick and limped towards the new boy. The boy walked towards him as well. "Ah, you must be Takuma Yagami." The old man said in an excited voice as he neared the boy. "Yes." Takuma replied, simple and short. Once the old man got close enough to him, he held out his old wrinkly hand for Takuma to shake. The boy shook it without hesitating and shot the old man his signature cool bored look. "We've been awaiting your arrival." The old man chuckled.

Takuma simply snorted. "I'm your master starting today. I'm Fuji Hannagi." The grandpa continued, "Call me Hannagi-sensei." "Alright. Hannagi-sensei." Takuma repeated after his new 'master' in a bored tone. The old man beamed and limped back towards his chair. Once he sat down, he boomed in his loud voice, "Everyone, please welcome our new student, Yagami, Takuma."

The students started clapping dully with unamused faces plastered on them. Hannagi-sensei beckoned Takuma to go to him. As Takuma slowly walked towards his master, he passed by the lifeless-looking students. 'Damn, what was wrong with these people?' He thought to himself. It was rather creeping him out. Once he reached his master's side, Hannagi-sensei started blabbering on how he should introduce himself to the other students.

"Alright everyone, STAND UP STRAIGHT!" Hannagi-sensei yelled in his old raspy voice as everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and stood straight as a lamp post. Some of them were straightening their clothes as well. "Now, BOW." Their master ordered. They shot Takuma a grumpy look and bowed to him. Without hesitation, he bowed back, just to be polite. Takuma was about to take a seat on the floor like the other students when Hannagi-sensei began to drone on, "Now, could everyone please introduce themselves to Takuma Yagami?"

A faint groan could be heard coming from the students. Takuma couldn't blame them. In fact, he was pretty annoyed as well. 'Hannagi-sensei is annoying.' He made it clear in his head. The 'introduce yourselves' event took about half an hour. Takuma found out that there were many students of different and weird personalities. To start it off, there was a boy who tried to attack him with earth magic right after he'd introduced himself. Then, there was this bunch of petty useless girls who tried to hook up with him before even introducing themselves.

'This is gonna be a long day.' Takuma sighed to himself. As everyone sat down obediently on the floor, the door of the hall slammed open. Hannagi-sensei raised a bushy white eyebrow and set his gaze at the open door. Takuma and the rest of the students did the same. Who in the right mind would come in AN HOUR LATER than the real time the class started? Before Takuma could think further, a girl who looked to be around only half the size of everyone else trudged clumsily into the hall, her hands full with boxes and bags. Okay, maybe three quarters.

"Why are you late again?" Takuma heard Hannagi-sensei ask the girl in a bored tone. She dropped her stuff on the floor with a thump and ran a hand through her waist-length brown hair. "S-Sorry, Master. You asked me to get the sparring equipment and all! I couldn't carry all of them myself in one shot so I took a few trips." She sighed and wiped the sweat off her forehead. She had cute bangs. 'She's pretty.' Takuma nodded to himself in agreement with his thoughts but was cut off when his master nudged him.

"Go introduce yourself to her." Hannagi-sensei ordered. The girl heard him and raised an eyebrow, "Introduce wha- oh, new student." She proceeded to walk towards Takuma and their master. The brown-haired boy got a tiny bit more nervous as she got closer. "Hajimemashite." She smiled sweetly as she held her hand out for Takuma to shake, "Watashi wa Misaki Hannagi desu."

Takuma grabbed and shook her small hand almost a little too willingly. Her hand was so warm and soft, as if she hadn't been doing any rough things her entire life. 'Baka Takuma. This isn't the time to be thinking of all these.' He mentally scolded himself and loosened his grip on Misaki's hand. After a rather long silence, he spoke, "Hi. Takuma Yagami."

"Alright, you're lucky to be new here, Takuma. Master's always nicer to the new students." Misaki giggled as Hannagi-sensei hit her head with his paper fan. "Misaki, don't encourage students to fear me. I'm not as scary as you describe it." He growled as Misaki giggled again. "As you all know, Takuma Yagami is a wind magician." Hannagi-sensei announced and a few students gasped, "I know. Wind magicians are the most powerful among all magicians. I'm pretty sure you can beat this silly girl easily as well, Takuma, even though she's…quite good." He motioned to Misaki.

Takuma smirked his signature smirk. "We'll have to see about that." Misaki glared at their master angrily and hopped into the sparring ring, "Give me all you got. I won't lose to a new student, wind magician or not." Takuma chuckled lightly and coolly walked into the sparring ring as well, "Stubborn little girl."

He first summoned a small wind barrier in front of him to block Misaki's attacks. He wasn't even sure what type of magic she could use, but he was sure any type of magic couldn't break through his wind barrier. He then summoned a small wind and playfully wrapped the not-paying-attention Misaki in it. She angrily broke away from it by summoning blue flames in her hands. "Alright, get on with it already!" She whined as she slammed a flame in Takuma's direction. He swiftly dodged it and countered her attack with a ball of wind.

The wind ball barely missed Misaki and made her skirt flare up. She flushed red in embarrassment and charged towards Takuma carelessly with flames ready to throw. As she approached the skilled wind magician, he caught her wrists before she could fry his butt. The rest of the students watched in silence and awe. "Y-You-" Misaki spluttered in defeat, "You win for now, but I'll beat you next time!"

"Yes, Princess. I'll be waiting for that next time…if it ever comes." Takuma teased as he let go of her wrist. She slowly got out of the sparring ring in shame and took a seat against a corner of the wall, panting lightly. Takuma also sat down near the other students as he watched another pair spar. 'Misaki…that's a nice name.' He thought in his head, 'Misaki Hannagi…wait WHAT?! Hannagi? Could she be Hannagi-sensei's…DAUGHTER? Nah, he's too old…GRANDDAUGHTER!' He had just fought with his master's granddaughter. What an honour!

Takuma glanced at the pretty stubborn brown-haired fire magician who was pouting alone in the corner. He then shifted his glance to his white-haired kind-natured calm master. They were NOTHING alike. Then again, he was nothing like his grandfather as well. She shook his head…hard, to get the silly notions out of his head. Before he knew it, everyone else was already standing up. He stood up as well, not wanting to be left out.

They all bowed before Hannagi-sensei and started leaving the hall. After a while, only he and Misaki remained. Misaki walked over the Hannagi-sensei and sat on the floor before him. "When can we go back, Ojīchan?" Takuma heard her ask. So she was Hannagi-sensei's granddaughter. That SO wasn't expected. But, wait. He needed to make it clear. The curiosity was killing him. "Uh…Master?" He asked as he approached the two. "What is it, boy?" Hannagi-sensei asked in his usual raspy voice.

"Are you two…related?" Takuma asked as Misaki sweat dropped. She then began to stubbornly deny, "That's none of your busine-" "Yes, indeed. She is my only granddaughter. That explains how much better she is compared to my other students." Hannagi-sensei cut in and proudly smiled a grandfatherly smile. Misaki's face turned red, embarrassed because she was interrupted.

"Oh, I see. I had expected that." Takuma simply replied as the two nodded, "But you two are nothing alike." "That's none of your business, like I said. It doesn't concern you." Misaki snapped, folding her arms and pouting again. "Baka Misaki. Don't be so rude to a new student." Hannagi-sensei hit her head with his paper fan again, "I hope you don't mind my granddaughter's ridiculous attitude." Misaki shot her grandfather a death glare, "Ridiculous?! My attitude is perfectly fi-" "Don't worry. I don't mind it at all." Takuma smirked.

'AGAIN I'm interrupted. This baka just HAD to suddenly appear and ruin my life.' Misaki growled in her head and started thinking up ridiculous ways of how to destroy Takuma – for GOOD. "Alright, Ojīchan, I'll be off now." Misaki finally grumbled as she stood up, picking up her million bags as well. "Where are you going?" Hannagi-sensei scolded her, "I hope you're not going to hang out with those rude friends of yours."

Misaki groaned irritatingly and snapped at her grandfather, "Those weren't my friends. They were just my schoolmates and I happened to bump into them and BAM, they started bullying me!" Takuma watched the argument as Hannagi-sensei furrowed his eyebrows, "Why didn't you fry their asses with your magic then?" "Ojīchan! You know full well I can't use my magic in public for stupid reasons. You're the one who told me that!" Misaki quipped.

"Uh…weren't you going to leave already?" Takuma cut in before the two could continue their awkward argument. Misaki glared at him in annoyance, "Urusai! You have no right to-" "Takuma has a point there." Her grandfather pointed out, cutting in as well. 'Dammit, must they keep cutting me off and interrupting me?!' The angry brown-haired fire magician slapped both Takuma and her grandfather in her head.

"Right, I'm off." She lightly stomped her foot and pouted. With that little show, she trudged out of the hall looking angry and defeated. "Good grief. What a dramatic stubborn granddaughter I have." Hannagi-sensei shook his head and sighed a few seconds after Misaki left the hall. "Why, I think she's a rather interesting girl." Takuma assured his master, smirking. "With an attitude like that, it's likely she'll get in trouble often." The poor old man frowned, "I'm the only one who can take care of her."

"What about her parents?" Takuma raised a bushy eyebrow, only to have his master sigh again. "She doesn't have parents." Hannagi-sensei sighed AGAIN. "You mean…she just suddenly appeared on this earth one day?" The wind magician asked yet another stupid question. Hannagi-sensei sweat dropped, "No, you baka! I meant…her parents died when she was young. I've been taking care of her since." "Oh, I see. I'm sorry." Takuma simply bowed his head.

"Don't say sorry to me. It's her who lost her parents." The old man stated dully. "Well, you did lose your son or daughter as well." Takuma reminded. His master immediately went silent and shifted his gaze to the floor. "I think you should go now." Hannagi-sensei finally broke the silence that had lasted quite a while, "And I think you're the only person who doesn't mind my granddaughter. Would you please do me this huge favour of protecting her?"

"I don't mind. I will protect her…for you." Takuma nodded and his master sighed…OMG AGAIN! "I'm going. Goodbye, Master. Training tomorrow?" The wind magician asked as he stood up and dusted his clothes. "Yeah, tomorrow. See you." Hannagi-sensei waved as he watched his new student walk out the door.

'Protect and take care of Misaki well…for the sake of peace.'

Sensei – Teacher

Hajimemashite – Nice to meet you

Watashi wa ~ desu – I am ~

Baka – Idiot

Urusai – Shut up