Another substandard pair of bullets pinged off the wall of her bedroom, and with a groan Isika slumped backward, sprawling across her bed. It had been days, and she still did not feel any closer to figuring out this two bullet exercise. Sometimes they fizzle out, sometimes they burst, and all of them mismatch.
She rolls on her side, And she still hasn't figured out what she is doing wrong either. It was like somebody had given her an instruction manual but had torn out the page that had step one on it, that someone being Marisa.
An angry pout arrived on her face, as she started to wonder, not for the first time if Marisa was just screwing with her. Before she sat upright, and slapped her cheeks. No that was just the frustration talking, Marisa isn't like that, she wouldn't have taken her this far just to mess with her.
She held both Temples with her thumbs and two fingers, a habit she had picked up from her mother, and tried to really think. There must be some angle she hasn't considered, some avenue she hasn't explored.
Removing her hands from her head, instead holding one out in front of her, and conjuring a simple blue bullet. One thing she had gotten good at was single bullets, she barely had to think about it anymore, although she doubts any one of them are the same. She felt it out in her hand, trying to memorize its composition for what must be the thousandth time. It feels so easy when she has one in front of her, if only she could hold onto one as a reference…
The thought stopped her cold and the bullet popped in her hand as she forgot to maintain it. Why didn't she try making a reference bullet, one she didn't need to maintain to use as a guide to making her other bullets identical and stable? The idea sounds so simple that she is surprised she hadn't thought of it sooner.
She adopted her thinking pose again. But how does one hold on to a stable bullet? Her bullets are stable when she fires, but they tend to pop when they hit something… What if she just fired a bullet that never hit anything?
With this vague idea to work on she went to work on her bullet again, playing with trying to change the way they move, as well as the direction. After a few false starts and a lot of misfires. She found herself watching her simple bullet lazily orbiting her wrist in a five centimeter radius. She moved her arm slowly, afraid this might dislodge the bullet, it followed easily. She felt a little bit of pride at her accomplishment, but reminded herself why she did this, and set about carefully molding another bullet, this time using the spinning bullet as a guide to her bullet construction. She nodded in satisfaction as the bullet in her hand now perfectly mirrors the orbiting one.
Now at this point she should probably go to try the two bullet exercise using the reference bullet as she originally intended, but first, there was something else she wanted to try. She made the second bullet orbit her wrist as well, and then she made another, before sending that one to join its brethren. Almost in a trance, she started conjuring bullet after bullet, slowly building up speed as the amount of time it took to make them became shorter and shorter as her technique got better and better, identical bullet after identical bullet. Slowly her little solar system of bullets became a swarm, and she only stopped after she realised that her magical reserves were running a little low.
Surveying her wrist-based maelstrom of stinging pain, she suddenly realised that she now had to do something about this, one that preferably didn't involve popping them by hand.
Well, she was guiding their movement by attaching them to her wrist, what if she just... let go?
She tried singling out one bullet, and cutting its connection to the wrist. It immediately spiraled out of control, impacting against Isika's face before she could react.
Rubbing her nose and grumbling to herself, she decided a little tweaking was in order before releasing. After playing a little bit with the connection, and a few more rogue bullets, she decided that instead of just cutting them off, she sort of creates a new connection to shift them too, that might straighten them up and launch them slightly more predictably, like a guide rail. With a little bit more magical tinkering, she finally got a bullet to fly forward, impacting against the floor. Curious she lifted her arm pointing her open palm at the door, and fired another.
It impacted against the door with a ping.
She then started firing them in quick succession, the bullets peeling away from the swarm to join the trickle of bullets that was slowly becoming a deluge. She even tried tweaking with the guide making the bullets fire in a forward spiral to add a little bit more of a flourish. Before she knew it she had exhausted her supply of bullets and she was giddy with what she had figured out. She couldn't wait to show Marisa what she had done. But then she remembered she was still supposed to be doing the two bullets exercise, that took the wind out of her sails somewhat.
With a sigh, she held her hands out in front of her, and tried to conjure the two bullets.
And succeeded.
Isika blinked. Held in either palm were two identical bullets.
She barely had even thought about it, it had just happened.
With growing euphoria, she realised that in her little distraction, she had succeeded in the whole point of the two bullet exercise, standardising her casting.
She immediately ran off to Marisa's study to find Mima.
After revealing her success to Mima, the Ghost had immediately summoned Marisa, who came surprisingly quickly, considering she is supposed to be teaching a class. But Isika wasn't complaining. Proudly she showed off her double bullets and…
"Nice."
"Eh?" Isika said, almost stunned by Marisa's lackluster response.
"Good job." Marisa said, smirking. "Now tell me how you did it."
"What?" Isika said, still nonplussed.
"How did you figure it out?" Marisa said, "This is a test. Show me your workings."
Isika, suddenly nervous, wondering if she had done something wrong, started explaining her thought process, and her little technique, which she decided to dub 'the spin gun' because she liked the sound.
Marisa Nodded, still smirking. "Can you show me that one as well?"
"Alright." Isika said, before starting to summon bullets to orbit her wrist. She was a little low on magic, so she couldn't do as much as she could in her room, but she managed to summon a respectable twenty, which she held up for Marisa to examine hesitantly.
Marisa's smile had widened, and then she gestured to a large target on the wall.
Isika, still kinda bemused, fires off the torrent of spiralling bullets, and while accuracy varied due to the spiral trajectory, most did land on the target.
Only then did Marisa beam, and ruffle Isika's non-existent hair. "Ha-ha! Now that's what I'm talking about. Great Work!"
Isika blushed. "Really? It was just something I worked out while trying to figure out the two bullet-"
"The two bullet exercise was never the point of this." Marisa said, laughing.
"What?!" Isika shouted.
"Please, it would have taken me half a day at most to teach you if that was all there was to it." Marisa said dismissively.
Isika felt a twinge of annoyance, but Marisa wasn't finished.
"No, the real point of this exercise, the lesson I was trying to teach you… Was hard work, and working things out for yourself."
"Wait, was that it?" Isika said indignantly, then Marisa bopped her on the nose.
"No my dear Apprentice, that is not 'it' as you put it. Allow me to explain." Marisa said, stepping away, clearly enjoying this. With her back to Isika she continued. "You see, the two bullet exercise is basically magical kindergarten, but without the basic instruction, even this can be a struggle. But is struggling such a bad thing?" She turned back to face Isika. "By struggling, you learned more about your magic, refined your control, and through your own skill and reasoning, managed to figure out a solution all on your own. A solution that was far more complicated than the exercise you were trying to perform in the first place I might add. By persevering, you have grown, and you grow in a way that you never would have done if I had just handed you the solution."
Isika's irritation had slowly given way to surprise then awe, as she slowly began to comprehend the Lesson she was being taught.
"Plus, it also taught you how to be annoyed at me, which is a start." Marisa said, winking.
Isika then quickly shifted to embarrassment. "W-well, I wasn't so much annoyed at you per say-"
Marisa laughed her off. "Don't worry, don't worry. It's a good thing. It's alright to get angry or be annoyed. Call me a bitch to my face if it makes you feel better. It's a much more healthy Master student relationship, and much better for your independent growth if you are willing to question me, or call me out on my Bee Ess."
Marisa then looks wistful. "Reminds me back when I was an apprentice, and Mima was pulling the same Bullshit on me. Only for waaay longer, in fact by the end of it, I was considering taking up exorcism out of spite."
Isika shot a concerned look at the ghost, but she only laughed. "It never would have worked, you don't have a spiritual bone in your body. However your attempts never did cease to amuse."
The two elder Magicians laughed, leaving Isika to awkwardly chuckle along, wondering why this is funny.
After they ceased laughing, Marisa then started addressing Isika again. "Considering how new you are to magic in general, I decided not to string you along for as long as Mima did me. Didn't want you to regret being my Apprentice too much. Which is why I decided to spill the beans now."
"Thank you very much!" Isika said very quickly.
"Oh Don't thank me yet, I'll still be doing this every now and then. I just thought I'd tell you why." Marisa said, smirking.
"O-oh, alright." Isika said, feigning enthusiasm.
Marisa laughed, and slapped her on the back. "You're allowed to hate it, you know. Just as long as you recognise that by doing this, you can become a better Magician overall. You see, no Magician has ever become great just by learning by the book. You can Learn from books, like certain library dwelling Magicians I might care to mention, but true greatness cannot be achieved from aping the accomplishments of others. To be a great magician, you have to understand magic, and more importantly understand yourself. This is why I have structured The Curriculum of the Final Spark, my Academy, around practicals and experimentation. Also why I encourage sparring, duels and brawls among the students."
Marisa threw her arms out expressively. "You see, all four Academies are about producing great Magicians, the future soldiers, scholars, scientists, doctors and even Operatives of the Alliance, but we all have different ways of going about it. As for me, I built the Final Spark as a Whetstone, a grinding edge to constantly make honed edges out of dull blades, and keep them nice and sharp until they leave my care, where hopefully they have learned to sharpen themselves. That is why I teach hard work and effort, because in my eyes, that will take you further than any magical tome or Grimoire."
At that moment, Isika's respect for Marisa reached new heights, as she felt awed in a completely different way than when she was simply showing off magic. This level of passion and drive for both teaching and magic in general did nothing but reinforce Isika's conviction towards her chosen path, she would become the sharpest blade this whetstone of an academy had ever produced, to do any less would be a disgrace to herself, and her teacher.
"I am ready for the next step in my training Sensei!" Isika said, eyes full of fire.
"No you are not."
"Eh?"
Marisa burst out into yet more laughter. "You have nearly burned out your magic reserves for today, the only thing you are ready for is dinner and an early bedtime!"
"Oh." Isika said, deflating like a particularly winded balloon.
"Come on my adorable little apprentice. I hear they are serving mushroom curry tonight!" Marisa said, leading the thoroughly defeated-looking Isika out of the study, a thoroughly amused Mima in tow.
Authors Note:
And this is the point in the story I can start speeding up, now that I have given you an understanding of Marisa's teaching methods, and Isika has grasped the basics, Some more Thane/Parent subplots will be later, but for now I let Isika revel in her accomplishment.
Also to anyone who read the latest chapter of my other story that came out earlier, I accidentally released it without the author's notes, feel free to check that if you missed them.