A Magical Mishap

Everything was blurry when Judal came to. Blurry and unreasonably painful. He had gotten headaches from over-exhausting his magoi before, but this was just a whole new level of ridiculous. Space manipulation or not, no spell should make one feel as if their brain is being mashed through a flour sifter. Judal squinted as he attempted to put his surroundings into focus, but instead of finding a devastated palace courtyard to smirk out at, his vision fell upon a dingy, age stained and crumbling, stone grey wall.

"What the hell…?" Judal scowled as his vision cleared completely. He lifted himself up onto his sore limbs and sauntered towards the wall in disappointment. This wasn't part of the Kou Palace, it shouldn't have been a by-product of his spell. The spell he'd cast had been meant to destroy, not to defend or transport. Transport. That's it, maybe he'd messed up a command and the spell had landed him in a different part of the continent. Judal growled and punched the wall in an effort to release some of his frustration. All that practice and he still hadn't pulled it off…no matter. Once he recovered a bit more magoi, he would return to the palace to resume his studies.

Judal sighed and looked to his left, where light leaked into the dirty room through a broken window. He shuffled over to the window carelessly, figuring that it couldn't hurt to know where he'd landed before heading home. But as he looked down on the busy streets below, he realized something. He…didn't recognize this place. He could have sworn that he'd flown over every possible country in their world, and recently he'd even sat through that insanely boring presentation by that baby magi, Aladdin. And yet…he couldn't recognize a single building in this city.

Everything looked wrong. From the tall glass buildings towering overhead to the mysterious shiny carts pulling themselves down below. This was…impossible. "What the hell is going on here…?" Judal growled menacingly as he stared into the masses on the streets below. "Is this some kinda sick joke?!"

His shouts failed to breach the noise, and while he briefly considered staining the ground red with their blood, a groan rose up behind him. "Judal, I'm not sure that spell will be of much use to us if it's going to incapacitate our own troops as well…"

Judal's head whipped around to see his king, Hakuryuu, wincing as he attempted to rise to his feet. The magi's scowl deepened at the sight of him, and with extreme effort, he managed to make his voice level as he addressed the young king. "I'm afraid the spell didn't work as planned."

"I see. Well, we can employ other methods to fight our enemies, so it's no matter…where are we…?"

"The spell I was using looks like it backfired. We were teleported somewhere..." Judal muttered as he turned back to the window, "and I really don't know where the hell we are."

"What?" Hakuryuu rose to his feet behind Judal and stumbled over to the window beside the magi, still clearly fatigued as a result of the spell. For a few moments his hazy lack of recognition continued, until at last he leaned out the window and gaped in shock at his surroundings. "W-Where in the world are we?!"

"Didn't I just say that I don't know? Jeez," Judal muttered before swiveling around and heading towards the door. "It won't do us any good to stay here. We should have a look around."

"R-Right."

oooOOOooo

Twenty times. He had been called a loon twenty times. This, of course, did not account for the ten who had complimented his and Hakuryuu's costumes, or the five who had praised their acting skills, nor the few who had paid them in weird coins and crumpled bills for the stunning performance. Not a one. Not a single bloody person had bothered to tell them where they were. Judal had never once been so strongly compelled to commit murder before in his lifetime, not til now.

"The customs of this kingdom are very strange…" Hakuryuu murmured beside Judal, seeming somewhat more energetic than the agitated magi. "I've never seen clothes like these before, and there seem to be magic tools all over, even more than Magnostadt itself…"

"So this place has more magic than that crusty old joke of a country, whoop dee do," Judal replied lazily, "Well if that's the case, why can't I summon more Rukh? And why is my magoi taking so damn long to return?"

"Well…there could be any number of reasons for that, right?"

"Not as many reasons as you'd think," Judal muttered as he stopped and studied the buildings surrounding them. "I don't get it…"

"Excuse me, boys."

"Hm?" Judal looked over his shoulder and saw a few men in weird uniforms walking towards them. "What?"

"We've been getting reports of two crazy people disturbing the peace in this square, and according to a few witnesses around here, that's you. Now I'm not saying you're actually crazy, but if you wouldn't mind, we'd like to take you down to the station for a little routine questioning."

"Huh?"

"Let me say it simpler for ya, ya damn weirdo," another uniformed man said as he walked up next to his companion. "Get in the car."

Judal stared at the gruff man for a moment before breaking into a toothy grin. "And what if I say no?"

"It ain't a question, ya little brat, it's an order. Get in the car, both of ya."

Judal grinned a little wider before letting out a tiny laugh. "You can't tell me what to do."

The man scowled for a moment before taking a step forward, his eyes still glaring daggers into the defiant magi. What happened next was something Judal hadn't quite expected. He felt something cold and blunt connect with his stomach, delivering a blow strong enough to knock the air out of him. His legs buckled beneath him as he fell into a coughing fit and glared at the man, whose sneer made it obvious that he'd enjoyed that.

"You should know better than to talk back to a cop, ya cheeky bastard."

"And what exactly do you think you're doing?"

Judal held a hand over his stomach and rose to his feet as Hakuryuu spoke up next to him, his balance wavering slightly before he righted himself. Having the wind knocked out of him had hurt like hell, but luckily he wasn't the only one who was pissed about his treatment. It seemed that the asshole that hit him managed to anger Hakuryuu as well.

"What am I doin'? I'm doin' my job and apprehending the suspects. And the two a ya are the suspects, so why don't you kids be good little brats for a moment and get in the car."

"If you put a little more effort into showing respect," Hakuryuu said evenly, "I might have obliged you on that request, but since you instead chose to look down on me and injure my magi, I'm afraid following your orders is something I will not do."

Judal grinned weakly as he watched the "cop" shrink back a little in his king's presence, laughing a little as they stepped back towards their companion. "Damn coward is just acting all high and mighty, Hakuryuu," he chuckled, "but honestly he's weak as hell."

The young man turned his eyes to the magi briefly before returning his gaze to the officials. "I believe your stomach would say otherwise."

"Shut up, I wasn't prepared for that," Judal snapped, "and besides, my physical skill doesn't mean a damn thing when I have magic."

"Which is something you lack at the moment, is it not?"

Judal pouted at Hakuryuu in irritation. "I do too have magic…my magoi's just taking some time to recover…"

"It seems like we're gonna have ta grab these loons by force…" the gruff official muttered before turning to his more composed companion, "Call for backup! The bastard with the scar probably won't go down without a fight!"

"Heh," Judal smirked as the composed official ran back towards their strange metal cart, "You could easily wipe the floor with this jackass, couldn't you, Hakuryuu?"

"Probably."

The magi grinned, his eyes fixed solely on the man who'd hit him while he waited for his king to give him hell, but sadly seemed that Hakuryuu did not share his plans.

"But we aren't staying to find out."

"Huh?"

"It's time to retreat, Judal," Hakuryuu murmured as he grabbed the magi by the wrist sprinted into the mob of people occupying the city square.

"What?! But we were just getting to the good part!"

"We're at too much of a disadvantage!" Hakuryuu shouted back, "you can't use magic, we don't know the enemy's numbers and on top of that we're surrounded by at least a hundred civilians!"

"Who gives a shit about the bystanders?!"

"Do you really want to find out what happens if we anger the government here?!"

"Why not?! Sounds like fun!"

"Save that attitude for a time when we aren't this weak!" Hakuryuu yanked Judal into an alleyway at random as the magi groaned in protest. After a few more turns they slowed to a stop in a tiny back alley, and Judal struggled to catch his breath after being forced to keep up with his king.

"I think we lost them for now…as out of shape as always, Judal?"

"Shut your trap," the magi spat, "there wouldn't be a fucking problem if I fly like normal."

"I'm a little concerned about how long it's taking for you to restore your magic. At least two hours have passed since we woke up and you're still incapable of even the simplest spell, aren't you?"

"That's—"

"If your magoi hasn't recovered by sundown, we'll have to find somewhere to spend the night, and since we managed to get on the bad side of the authorities, I doubt that place will have a roof. We'll need to find a way back tomorrow. I can't afford to be away from the palace right now."

"There they are!"

Judal groaned as a pair of uniformed officials appeared at one end of the back alley—and he had just recovered from their last run. "Can't we fight them this time?"

"No. Start running."

oooOOOooo

Ayyyyy. Peeves here, bringing you yet another story from my trash brain just because I can. So the premise of this is simple, no? Ye, well to explain a little further, this story is set in a modern/future AU setting, but with characters from the canon. Imagine that Magi and The Devil is a Part Timer had a baby but Magi filed for full custody and won. That is what this story is. Now for the first time in a while this is not a pairing-centric fic, so the story will mostly focus on Hakuryuu and Judal's interactions and how they survive. Fave, follow or review if it interests you, mkay?

p.s.-if you came here from Still Dreaming, I am working on that, promise