As morning came, and No Jose's problem didn't get solved by blasting it with fire when Marisa first told him about his specialty, it merely fueled it and become bigger than it was supposed to be metaphorically of course, with the new problems he faced the only thought was coffee and the rest of the problems forgotten and the world forgotten, his coffee came first as priority,
With the dash of the might of a hurricane, he sprints to the coffee maker arriving there faster than his brain predicted and faster than what his brain processed, he made coffee. With the beast sated with its needs, with making breakfast from a simple fried rice recipe, and additional sunny side up eggs, and setting aside for his father,
From there he made all the things necessary for today was Monday, meaning everyone is somehow busy, with online classes these days and since the Teacher for today was excused for an emergency and had given Jose with a wonderful case of simple essay about nature, and from the way where Marisa was teaching him about Magic and things related about it,
Though an awfully convenient timed and the teacher suddenly being inconvenienced for the first day in which Marisa was about to teach him about magic, certainly creepy and convenient but who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth, with the sudden opening of his schedule,
He walked in towards his father's study table to see if his whether his father is there sleeping in his study or when not, he could simply check outside if his father left him any notes behind to read saying:
Good morning Jose,
This is your father and I will be leaving shortly for a month as our employer has requested my aid in the mainland for further business practice and with the new policy changes and the old policies there were bound to be changes and a seminar at any time, which translates to arrive as soon as possible, with that I've left you cash for you needs for online class, food and other needs; pocket cash too, I hope that you would use it wisely…
Despite already knowing that I have part time job for this, when Jose approached father for this, he seemed to approved this sort of behavior which is weird, though then again, his father was eccentric in that sense, he wouldn't know most of the times what his motives were.
With his weird way of approving things, and all the things that were necessary like food and his education out of the way, he prepared to get out, with the warning from Marisa yesterday about using magic excessively that being of Elemental though he doubts that would happen considering he is just out for an investigation,
He doubts he would need a lot of things other than a can of pepper spray, there were thugs going around who used the myths as way of scaring people to give them money, there were there but not common, though he didn't doubt he would need the taser if they did attempt.
Going out, with his taser and a can of pepper spray in his hand, while not exactly as what he had in mind, but minimally preparing is something he did out of caution, though with how things are going, there wasn't what much in the way in the city,
Other than the debates being withheld in the city or protests, though with the nature of Filipinos, there wasn't much that could escalate other than a heated debate, and with the watchful eyes of the current enforcers of this city, it wouldn't result anything larger than that,
Though with the enforcers in the city, there weren't many of them that there were blind spots that could be made from the patrols, were most of crimes were hidden enough or hidden smartly in a way that you wouldn't get it in the first glance, wandering in those blind spots, despite the many actions and the brutal takedowns of illegal selling of magical creatures in the region or illegal human trafficking.
Though with a good eye, there are certain things you could spot like people looking around while staying in a spot or a pattern of movement in a certain alleyway, avoiding those were moderately difficult, seeing as do alleyways when there aren't many falling for the traps
They change their tactics a bit, their clothing and their routine but even with that there was a certain pattern that you could pick out from the thugs, they had marking in parts of their neck, where if you look close enough, you could see they were a gang member.
Although with the enforcers looming around the city and with it being popular to lots of people, most of their modus operandi involved stalking people and carefully taking people those who weren't the most important, those who were easy to pick off, or during the night.
But the latter could easily be countered by walking paths were there plenty of people around you or places where enforcers frequently patrol, though it's better to keep in mind your surroundings and report to the enforcers in people who were acting suspicious or places where gangs could be seen in higher frequency,
Walking towards the forest, he sends out familiars to scout out where he went out from yesterday's incident, seeing with large smoke that produced, there should be other people who were curious on what happened or an enforcer who was alerted to the smoke,
Though it's better to abandon that route despite its speed, as it's better to be safe than get caught using magic there either kidnapped by the gang members there or scouted by the guild or a group of people dedicated to magic, with his nature out there, he might be put under scrutiny or put under study for doing something that was unusual, and that was a kind of heat he wasn't wanted to deal with, though going through parts of the city where he doesn't know.
He prepares to venture to the forest, were Marisa taught Jose, seeing as that place was magical in nature, and the other forest were easily seen by those who passed by or covered with gang members,
He selects path were enforcers travelled less, gang members were more frequent and places where it was considered moderately dangerous and was recommended to travel in pairs or groups. Though with the way he was going, the way he was going was dangerous,
Though with the get-up he did was, he had scarf along his neck, that covered both his eyes and nose. And he had those looks that were said by those who had taught him before to be calculating and dangerous, and with the few self- defense lessons he had,
No, that wasn't paranoia, as it was only good when there were people who did their best at enforcing, brutal even but there were those gang members desperate enough to kidnap people in locations were enforcers patrolled nearby,
It was quite justified in what he was wearing and what he was carrying around, he forced a mask that says he knows where he was going as gang members were known to kidnap people who were tourists looking for directions towards popular spots,
He walked towards the entrance arriving at the market place, it was what you would typically expect from market place from the wet products to the dry products all in their segregated to find what you need much easier but comparing to the markets where enforcers patrol?
It was like night and day, you couldn't see what exactly is different as you would have to look at the people interacting, if you closely enough there were some people who were walking in pairs and in groups, those who got separated made their face appear strong but looking at the hands, they tell a different story,
They were shaking, fear was imprinted in the face, Jose looks closely to see other groups staking out that person, but were doing it discreet enough that no one would have seen it, Jose contemplates whether he should go there and help the person standing there, or risk exposing himself to the gangs,
He was armed himself but with only the taser and the pepper spray, and the gangs most likely have knives or guns, he didn't know to what extent they were willing to go, will they take hostages in order to get that guy or will they shoot people. Jose's face grimaces at the potential ways the things could have gone wrong,
He looks there to spot that the person who was being encircled was being slowly backed into a corner and a guy from the would-be gangbangers were approaching the person with what seemed to be disarming smile, Time is running and his options lessened with that short amount time.
There were only a few things that he could do, he doesn't want to escalate in fighting against them as there were too many people here and using magic would alert them here, he might more likely have worsened the situation if he used magic that he himself doesn't have the best control with,
Though if someone were to be what looked like to be kidnapping attempt and you didn't know whether if the gangbangers were actually them or people who were genuinely concerned for their friend, well unless if acted like their friend and helped them out… those were the last thoughts of Jose as that idea stood out before him and with that in mind he executes the plan, it had many flaws and had much more many chances of screwing it up and much more likely to escalate the situation,
But then again that was the only plan he could think of and only one chance to do it again and no do overs, with a beating heart and a script in mind, he walks toward the person, he looks at the person who was standing there,
And Jose says," Excuse me, Sir or Ma'am but you seemed to be troubled here?" He adds a tone implying of sympathy
The person turned towards Jose and looked at him with caution, wariness and recognition,
'Where did this person recognize him?' where the slowly dreading thoughts of the boy, the person seemed to be a female around the age of him, he felt shiver in his bones, where did this person recognize him but he forced those thoughts inside of him, to stop them from surfacing in his face,
He coughed, so the person who was looked at him strangely snapped out of what kind of trance the person was in,
The person in front of him seemed to come out of it and looked to be like someone who was around the age of him but the way she carried herself had some sort of demeanor of confidence, a confidence that she was capable enough to stop the what maybe a kidnapping attempt on herself,
He was momentarily awed at the aura but he scolded his face into a neutral face as the woman looked at him strangely and says," Hmm… You're that Mapulon, right?" She seemed to have look that was turning from what seemed to be her normal face towards something of a smirk
Before Jose could respond to the woman, she seemed to grabbed his hand and they took off, somewhere he couldn't know which way they were headed towards seeing as the woman seemed to know where she was going, she instead continued with
"My name's Suika Ibuki! I'm an Oni! I heard some words of what Marisa told me about a human turning a half-elemental! Were those true?" With the way she said in a confident tone, with the way how she stopped to asked and how intense it was,
He only nodded towards the Suika, she appeared to be someone who didn't liked lying and he didn't benefit in lying and the way she heard from Marisa was genuine too, But the way she talks like someone strong enough that she had no reason to say lies at all,
She walked towards a corner and walked straight into it, they appeared in a forest of weird fungi that he will definitely not consume with how they looked like some sort of a radioactive waste turned into a fungus, though for some reason, why did Suika brought him here?
He didn't know why but he looked towards the person responsible for taking him her and says "Excuse me… Suika, but why did you bring me here? Well, it's nice that Marisa talked about it to her friends about me… But why did you bring me here?"
She looks at him and says with all loony like smile and say, "You're Jose, right? Then whoever is Marisa's friend is also my friend too!"
"That's not a reason to bring me here though" he finished rather lamely, how does someone who doesn't have many in terms of friends, he doesn't know how to properly small talk and the plans he formed to rescue but instead become someone who was what seemed to very push and seemed to shine when talking,
"Indeed… Yukari told me that you didn't have online classes today, and she also told me that your father seemed to away for a long time"
How? Why? Were the thoughts of Jose when he heard that but he remembers that she could simple go in and get information about it, though if she did that then why was Yukari getting information just about that and not the other things, she could blackmail Jose but she didn't so what's her motive?
While he was in deep thought, she speaks for a moment then flicks her hand to grab Mapulon's attention, he looks at him and she says, "the means in how she got your information is not important, but you being an elemental is important"
He looks at her fully focused on what she was about to say and she continues with, "Being an elemental, there aren't any changes that could be said that could be very distinct however it depends largely on the element… let's say if you were a fire elemental, your eyes change a bit to mimic those of a fire, your hair in the edges changes into red and you could sense rage, bloodlust and envy much easier than you would have"
"However, for today, since you're an elemental, chances that when people will pick it up, with your new sense you more likely to see that there will be people who will want an elemental and demand how you become one, and for that we will see how you will fare in a battle"
He wanted protest that he only went to a brawl that day but that was instantly forgotten as he felt something came up as Suika jumped towards him and made a jab towards his fist, he felt his heart racing and moved to jump out the way out of instinct,
Then as Suika jabbed she switched towards by opening her palm which resulted in something forming in her hands, he tried to counteract that before she could do something by throwing three talismans for restraint, she easily dodged talismans, and prepared a card, she pressed it into her chest, it glowed for a moment nothing happened, as Mapulon wondered what she was doing, until suddenly orbs surrounded her, all different in color, then it circled around her with different effects
Then in suddenness the orb that emitting lightning suddenly sped towards him, it splits into four, he then tries to dodge in between them, he successfully grazes between two the suddenly four emitted a sound, the first orb increased in sound and it produced a bolt that switched from the first, then to the next.
He ignores it in the favor of the grassy like orb that speeds toward him as it speeds to him barely grazing and hitting the earth only for it to shatter, he jumps backwards to avoid getting hit but barely manages to escape with scrapes and bruised around his body,
As he does this the bolt that were circulating between the orbs suddenly switch to target Jose, it was extremely fast and with how intense the speeds the orbs were despite being short fight left him breathing for air and his felt his legs slowly bucking down from the suddenness,
He didn't know how to avoid, he could probably reinforce his body to try to avoid but he felt that if he did so, he would damage his chances at getting his body electrocuted, and that would hurt for a while, all he needs is a small burst to move him fast enough to avoid it, an idea enter his brain,
He prepares his legs as the bolt sprang towards splitting three times, he noticed but as of now as it gets closer to him, he felt his legs increase in temperature, as the bolts reached within 50 meters, he forced something to speed up and as he felt it, fires sprang beneath his leg and it became smaller enough,
That it was capable to lift him up, it neared 30 meters and within a moment, he felt himself being lift up as an explosion sprang from beneath him as it carried him away from the electricity, he felt himself flying and then three orbs of wind tried to bring him down,
But there were avoided by the speed the explosion went, he felt himself smile at that however with the speed he was going he might crash into something, he positioned his hand towards his back and brought that feeling he felt when he used it to fly, it halted his momentum for a bit but he felt his hands stop something incredibly heavy suddenly,
He hit the ground with a roll, as he rolls towards Suika who was looking at him with concern, he fell towards his back and he looks at her and says "That was one way of discovering on how to fly,"
She smiles at him with amusement, she tried to say something but it fell to deaf ears as his eyelids fell to sleep with tiredness,
"You know the first orb was to tell you how serious I was going to teach you about magic and how it was dangerous, and all the stuff but with this show, I think there will be more than just combat that I will be teaching you for today…" She says with a sigh as she looks at the forest where there were two spots singed with flames,
And spots were there were two trees uprooted by the orbs, "Though with the way you learn and adapt are impressive, though it would have been better without the unnecessary damage to the nature… though this was your first experience in a battle too… heheh" She laughed there, as Jose's body shivered as Suika carried Jose one handedly,
Suika was someone who prided themselves as for what they themselves are, and looking at they he fought, he analyzed the orbs themselves and what they did and look of someone determined to do something, he was someone with enough training could be powerful enough,
With someone who was talke about Marisa, it was plus towards Suika herself, though with how competent the Jose was despite his first actual mock battle, teaching him would be fun, and with the way how Marisa was talking with him, their relationship might grow closer from friendship, though she was giddy in the prospect
But she was an Oni, they were the type of race that weren't patient but for this time, she will be patient for them, for now she will carry him to her hut, it was somewhere she used when she couldn't sleep at the shrine,
She lifted him towards the futon where she left him there, the room become hotter as the longer he stayed there but the increase was small enough that one wouldn't see the difference but for an Oni who lived underground mostly, with temperatures, it was freezing, it was noticed.
Whether she noticed it or not, she didn't give a response towards that, she went outside and took a nap, it was only until become afternoon someone was speeding towards here, she yawned but barely moved from her position, she looked up to see someone poking at her and mumbling, it increased volume for a while,
That she yawned and waked up to stop that increasingly annoying sound, to find a blurry blond with her hands seemed to go everywhere, she cleared her vision and to see Marisa finally stopping her conversation, she waits for her to respond to which Suika says, "What did you say?"
She says thick with sleepiness, she didn't know why some people had the energy to be that energetic and why she was panicking at the moment, to which she simply said, "What got you panicking?". Marisa tries to say but she simply cut her off and say, "If you are talking about Mapulon, he's here"
At that Marisa was relieved to hear that Mapulon was here but was immediately set into a panic mode as to why would Mapulon would end up here, she tries to say something but Suika cut off her again and speak, "I brought him here and wanted to test him about his current abilities".
Though if it were a simply testing his abilities then where was he, so Marisa asks, "then where is he?".
"He fell asleep" Suika answers as if asking whether the weather is hot or cold, Marisa felt herself become worried as many multiple questions race her, Oni were prideful creatures they were known to not have the biggest restraint when someone annoys them so she asks
"Is Mapulon safe?"
"He is, he merely suffered from his first time in combat and the sudden large use of fire magic" Suika smirks and says, "Have you ever taught Mapulon to fight already or experienced? I doubt that with just that incident, he could pull of the things he did today"
Marisa was confused in Suika's smirk and could only thing of ways that could actually ways she could use by the quick lesson from that one day, she was confused in with how limited the lesson was there shouldn't be many ways that you could combat Suika,
With just the barebones on how magic operates and the belief system, there shouldn't be enough about magic that could be used in combat, Marisa pondered there how Mapulon lasts that long, she asks, "Then where is Mapulon, right now?"
Suika tells her that he is in the futon she set up earlier, Marisa checks on him and leaves a note behind, and leaves behind telling Suika that "If he did that outside Gensokyo, he would be exhausted with the amount of mana he used in the flame bursts and unviable way of flight"
Marisa shoots a ray of light near the oni's head, the oni sweats as she felt the warning of to back off, though she smirks at that protectiveness of Marisa,
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Mapulon wakes up with his body heating and feeling sore, though he searches for what he did earlier, and remembers fighting someone, he tried to talk her out of it, that he didn't wanted to fight right now, because something his teacher told him about but, he ignored it today.
He felt bad for not listening to that one advice his teacher told him, he tries to walk but he only gets up but nearly fell barely clutching at the door as he felt his body groan at the sudden movement, he pants at the exertion, he walks slowly but surely
He arrives at the main hall heavily panting, but makes deep breaths before continuing, he walks slowly to spot his bag he carried with him earlier but doesn't move to get it but instead moves slowly towards the backyard, where he almost fell but was caught by someone,
"Careful there, you might injure yourself with magical exhaustion" She hands me a tube and continues "This is a herb used to enhance the production of mana inside your body and it helps the weakness you feel in your body"
The liquid felt weird not like in taste but the way it entered the mouth, it felt like it was just absorbed by the tongue and tasted bitter, he quickly drank it before he spit it out
"that's how usually it feels like when you first drink the herb but after getting used to it, hopefully not this herb is a must for carrying as emergency"
She continues to talk about how different herbs have may different properties and different materials affect different people, she grabs my hand and steers me into the main hall where there was a chair nearby and guide me there,
For a hut it had many things that he didn't think that would have belonged like a bath tub, electrical lights and all sort stuffs, He didn't think they would have internet of all things. Wasn't most magician lived in rural places where they loved the quiet places,
Suika looked at Mapulon as if he said something insulting, he replies, "I didn't think that you would have all these sorts of things, most of my knowledge came from old books or incidents that looked magical in nature"
She was unconvinced but accepted the explanation and says, "There are many things that are mostly misconceptions and with the information being controlled by the enforcers for safety, there wasn't many things you could hear to know about magic"
"There bound to be misconceptions but with magical relative to the belief, the meager words of rumors are being controlled to stop making accidental creatures born about by said rumors… though I've already heard you from Marisa,
I did that earlier to test your combat skills, in case there are those who wanted to take you either for experimentation or killing you in case they might think you are an elemental born from that incident, mind you most elementals mind their own business, but when attacked they are very vicious"
With the additional information received from Suika, the fact that he didn't instead straight up asked but merely listened to others for those rumors, almost lead him to be imprisoned for doing things the correct way, and he first asks, "Are there any incidents related about fire?"
"Indeed, great question! As an elemental there are many ways magic can be controlled and many ways it could backfire heavily, there was that once incident where a group of mages tried to perform an experiment where they forced a person to become an elemental but eventually, later on it backfired and the place where it started burned around it
The person who reported this incident seemed to have gone missing afterwards, there were two leading theories behind this as it was either one the person who was experimented it or a rogue magician"
"Hmm… I see, since most known ways on becoming one, were either too vague and or either dangerous, it involved sacrifice they attempted to create one which backfired on them very heavily… Is that right?" Mapulon replies
"Indeed, but most of it is speculation, and with the enforcers guarding the details about It heavily, there were only the signs of the what used to be the village and the rumors, but most of the rumors were exaggerated to the point it nearly created a creature from it
Which lead to people removing the information about it and tons of purification of the surrounding area… But enough with this" Suika looked at the clock and says, "It's quite late today, and the monster leading out to Gensokyou at night are very dangerous it would be better if you sleep here tonight, but if you wanted to contact your parent, there's a landline, I could let you borrow"
"I understand, though where would I sleep?"
"There's an additional room here, where you could sleep, I'll let you go there, so that you could rest your magical exhaustion. The herb works better when your asleep, I'll help you to the room"
He tries but instead looked at Suika, with pleading eyes. Suika sighs and helps Mapulon out towards the room, she guides her to a free seat, and slips a paper in his hand, it was the password for the internet here, for a oni she was very generous and kind. A model person, he strives to be like Suika,
He changes clothes within his bag, Suika carried earlier. He slipped in to sleep wear and grabbed his phone and looked around his gallery to find an old photo of him crossdressing as a maid, he looked at closely and to see that him and that picture from before looked very different,
He laughed at the picture and blushed a bit, how he himself looked cute there for a moment, he went to the settings entered the password, opened the browser to find information, he scrolled until he finds an interesting article, and it reads in the headlines
"Mysterious fire that burned the village, unknown tragedy causing casualties closed before was opened as new evidence of culprits were found, will justice be found or the culprits left free?"
He reads and to see that all it was about was that there were evidences of mad people conducting a hazing or recruiting grounds, it was said that they were conducting experiments to something demonic, it was later said by an expert that these were people who were cultists and was told to not believe in things what the cultist said,
He reached to bottom of the article to see that there were different types of reaction from those crying outrage to the victims of the tragedy, those who supported the cultist and those who debated with said cultist about saying that it was hocus pocus, later it was then locked by an admin
As it led into out of topic and as death threats and insults were said, lots of people were muted that day and infractions were given as if it was candy. In short it was unnecessary drama, he scrolled again to find videos about dogs and cats, he looked towards email for the essay, he was supposed to finish within 5 days, though with the free time, he went out and proceeded to type in his phone on an app, to at least start something in his essay, he puts out the ear plugs and let himself immersed in the music and focused in the task ahead,
30 minutes in the task but he felt sleepy, he saved his work and instead closed off his phone and went towards the bed as he was sleepy, with all the time in the world and despite not going out to find his origins, he rested easy and let himself fall asleep
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Author notes: Chapter 5, today was the longest chapter I've made and tons of block building in place, though I worry the pacing seemed too slow though, if it seemed that Suika seemed OC, well that's to be expected as my only experience was playing Touhou 6 and 7, and other music videos
Though if you want me to correct me on that pm me, or put a review in the log if the quality or the pacing seemed off to you but anyway upon writing this chapter as the one thing like writing is the world-building, character development. Though for the ship I was planning it won't most likely happen as I don't have the experience for it and something harder,
Anyway… See you to the next chapter! Have fun reading :)