"I'm trying my best to be polite, but if you move your sword a centimeter closer to me I will tear you apart." the strange mage discloses.
Despite the warning, Oriana didn't give in, pressing her swords against his arm.
"A dual sworder… bone magic nonetheless." the mage observed. "You must be the lady my futile colleagues failed to kill." with no response from Oriana, the mage assembles another gun from the air around his free arm. "Now, away."
With no hesitation, a beam of mana hits Oriana in the chest, sending her body to the floor, causing more damage to the building and more dust to pollute the air. The ones left in the court watched in disbelief as the bleachers were in absolute chaos.
"What are you waiting for?" Sugawara screamed to both teams. "Get out of here!"
"Flora magic: Flora root" casting this spell, Sugawara stretched his arms as plant roots shot from his palms, forming a spider web big enough to imprison the mage.
"You, young man, also have a wonderful type of magic." he divulged. "Air magic: Aerial Ripping Rocket" with a single air shot, the whole root web was destroyed. "However, I am stronger."
The mage looked around in the clouds of dust for his target, dismissing Sugawara, but she was nowhere to be seen.
"Well, this is no good. Air magic: Enchanting Cyclone" a cyclone followed his spell, cleaning the air of the dust and also taking everything with it.
Benches, nets and papers flew in the strong wind along with Oriana's and Sugawara's bodies until the mage was satisfied and nulled the spell, leaving everything that flew with it to deal with gravity. Oriana groaned when she tried to pull her weight to her elbows. Fighting for air to reach her lungs, her gaze found the mage's. The smug look on his face made Oriana contort her face in frustration.
"There you are!" he hummed, pulling his air gun to her direction. "One more of these and the job will be done."
Before she could order her body to move forcibly, a shadow was cast on her as someone had positioned themselves protectively in front of Oriana. Most of the players left the court and ran for safety, but not all of them.
"Daichi, what are you doing? It's dangerous!" Oriana's voice scratched when she tried to speak.
"I won't let anything happen to you." Daichi's voice was tense, but he did not move an inch from his stance.
"Don't be an idiot." Oriana coughed the dust, her voice was clearer as she rose behind Daichi. "I'm the one who is protecting you right now."
"I sense no magic from this one…" the mage murmured. "Get out of my way you commoner pest."
With a flick of his wrist, a gust of wind blew Daichi to the side. It was a rough landing and Oriana rushed to his side immediately, retrieving her swords.
"Are you okay?" Oriana asked, lifting his head.
"Yeah, it was nothing."
"Listen to me, you have to escape." Oriana left the boy seated on the floor.
Sugawara joined Oriana, taking a protective stance before Daichi with his open grimoire.
"Leave this to us." Suga said reassuringly.
"We will definitely protect you!" Oriana and Sugawara spoke in unison.
"How touching…" the mage hummed. "Looks like I'm killing the three of you after all.
As the enemy prepared for another air blast, Oriana cast another spell.
"Bone magic: Forth Swords"
This time, adding to the two bone swords, another pair of blades grew from under her fist.
"Go Oriana. I'll support you."
"Roger that!"
As the stranger's air blast was charging, at the same time, Oriana prepared to block it and attack with her swords, something else was approaching. Oriana felt the familiar mana coming from the same direction her enemy had blasted a hole. Her body froze with this new provoking presence.
In a flash, someone else was between the trio on the floor and the blast. A wide magic circle was drawn in the air, swallowing the spell, then a similar blast with double the power of the original spell hit the mage directly. The enemy fell from his broom and landed with a thud, unconscious.
"Sorry, I was late, but you seem unharmed."
Oriana was in disbelief, staring at the figure upon her.
"Who is this guy? Is he an enemy too?" Sugawara lowered his voice. "He looks scary."
Oriana couldn't judge him. With a mask containing a mouth full of sharp teeth, hiding half of his face and those piercing blue eyes, Oriana thought he looked scary too the first she met the guy. Although, after spotting the Black Bulls robe, Suga relaxed, sort of.
"Are you not gonna thank me?" the mage jumped from his broom and was approaching Oriana.
"Wha- what are you.." her voice cracked, incapable of speech.
Now on his feet, Daichi exchanged a look with the mage and pushed his friend's arms gently.
"We should leave now."
"What are you doing here?!" Oriana snapped, screaming in the red head's face.
"Saving your ass." his casual tone was getting on Oriana's nerves, causing her to lose her cool.
"You just came here? With that creepy mask? And the Black Bulls robe? Do you want to get arrested?"
"Huh? Arrested for saving all these people?"
The gym was empty at this point, only five people still present including himself and an unconscious person.
"That's not how it works here!" she yelled. "Take off that mask, take off that robe and put a goddamn shirt on!"
"Calm down, bean." he said. "I have a message for you, but you have to relax first."
Oriana felt her fists flinch at this point, not sure if she wanted to punch him or hug him. Right now the punching was winning.
"I swear, you are going to be the end of me, Zora Ideale."
Before the authorities arrived, Sugawara immobilized the unknown mage with roots he had conjured so he couldn't use his magic to escape and the group fled the scene. No matter the amount of explaining, it wouldn't look good for them. It had been a really, really long day. With the gym destroyed, they had no other choice but to reschedule the match in another gym.
Meanwhile, Sugawara, Daichi and Zora rushed to Oriana 's house to process the situation and try to calm down the disturbed teammates. On a mobile device strange to Zora, the other three were chatting with a group of loud teenagers who were pleading for an explanation. Without even seeing the screen and even though he wasn't in the living room with them, Zora was sure one of the kids on the other side was even crying. Finally the call ended and he was able to sit with them.
"They all saw, huh?" Oriana murmured.
"The secret is out of the bag. What the hell do we do now?" Suga groaned as Oriana tried to bandage the restless boy.
"Stop moving Suga, I can't work like this."
"Sorry." he sighed.
Zora recognised every one of her movements, familiar to her routine when doing this, with her exhausted voice after a rough battle and her feelings of overwhelm. Then, Oriana had caught Zora's gaze.
"Are you okay? That was your strongest spell, right? Are you feeling sick or anything?"
"Nah, I'm alright. That isn't enough to run me out." Zora said. "You were the ones who took the beating."
The air around the table felt confusing. There was relief after a battle won, but the one without magic had a dumbfounded look on his face. He would also give Zora side glances when he thought Zora wasn't looking, but he knew.
"Okay, you are done." Oriana spoke softly. "Well, I'll try to, hm." she looked around the table, then around the room, like the words she was looking for were written in the walls. "I'll see if, hm, I can cook some food. For you guys." she finally said.
"I think she lost it." Suga whispered once Oriana left the living room.
With a sigh, Zora lifted himself. Still fumbling with the slippers Oriana gave him and made him use. As comfortable as they were, his normal shoes were more practical, but no shoes in the house was the rule.
"I'll check on her before she kills herself trying to cook. You rest or whatever."
Upon arriving in the kitchen, Zora witnessed a lost Oriana. She was fetching ingredients around her kitchen, but it didn't even look like she knew where the things were. He observed Oriana, leaning on the door frame. She was looking in every cupboard for a cutting board, then found her first ingredients easily, but then looked in two different drawers for a knife.
"You okay over there?"
Oriana's head snapped up, but she didn't look at the character behind her.
"Yup, just fine." Oriana said. "You had a message for me?"
Zora crossed his arms, not pleased with the situation whatsoever.
"It can wait."
"You said it was urgent."
"You're not in any condition to hear about it."
Oriana stopped her cutting motion, but still wouldn't look Zora in the eyes while speaking.
"I said I was fine."
"I'll tell you tomorrow."
Not bothered enough to answer, Oriana picked up the pace while cooking. Zora observed her silently, it was more awkward than he expected. The one year apart was taking a toll on them. He still remembers how they would both bite each other's ass all the time . The bickering was fun to him, even if he would never admit it.
"Can you give your mask a rest?" Oriana asked suddenly, her back still turned to him. "You're making them uncomfortable."
"I don't want to." Zora answered.
Oriana sighed, seeing how her body became tense, Zora walked to her side on the stove, now leaning on the kitchen counter.
"Why are you mad?"
Oriana ignored him, stirring away her feelings, making Zora cringe at her brute force.
"It's not the vegetables' fault, you know?" Zora's irony only made it worse. Now he was the one sighing. He really was going to do this now, huh? "Look at me. Oriana, c'mon."
Zora grabbed her shoulder gently, turning her body to his. Reluctantly, Oriana looked up to those piercing blue eyes..
"Just tell me what's going on in the Clover Kingdom." Oriana insisted.
If it wasn't for the tragic look in her eyes, he would've told her.
"At least take off that mask!" Oriana yelled.
"No and no."
"What the hell is your problem? You can't just walk in here with that thing on anyways," Oriana pointed to both his mask and his robe. "You're calling attention to yourself. Besides, there's nothing for you to prove here." she bursted.
Before, Oriana wasn't even looking in his direction, but now she wouldn't let her gaze fall from his, waiting for Zora to waver. None of them was letting go.
"Let's make a deal."
"What?" Oriana furrowed her brows.
"You rest today and I'll tell you the message tomorrow, in exchange, I'll take off the mask so I don't scare your little friends."
Zora knew this was not what she wanted. Knowing Oriana, she would probably head out to the Clover Kingdom as soon as she knew what was happening. However, he noticed just how drained she looked. As great of a mage as she is, Oriana would be no good in her condition. He was actually surprised by her compliance to his suggestion. Leaving himself in an unpleasant situation as well.
What an annoyance.
He thought before taking off his mask. It wasn't a complicated system, but secure enough so it wouldn't fall, ever. With his face and shoulders uncovered he felt vulnerable, but there was some amenity in the fact that it was Oriana in front of him. It takes him back to the first time he revealed his face to Oriana, she didn't have any kind of stupid reaction. All she did was cup his face and take a full mental picture before he decided to put it on again, hiding his features.
"Put a shirt on, you pervert." Oriana said.
He couldn't argue, now he was fully exposed from the waist up, making him feel even more vulnerable. Zora didn't say anything, waiting for Oriana to catch up on the situation.
"You didn't bring any other clothes, did you?"
"Nope."
"Figures…" she murmured before leaving the kitchen and the food in the stove cooking.
Zora didn't expect to waste more than a few hours trying to find Oriana, a day max. Her iminent mana was easy to trace for him, so he didn't bother bringing anything besides his broom and the clothes that were already on him. While waiting, he would peek at the pots on the stove, the scent was familiar, almost smelled like Charmy's cooking,but not quite.
"Here, this should fit you."
Oriana threw a grey sweater in his direction and he catched it with ease. With some hesitation, he dropped his mask nearby and held the sweater in front of him before putting it on. She was right, it was a good fit.
"This is yours?" he didn't need to ask, as it had her nostalgic scent.
"Yup. Bought it in the man's section for a really good price." was Oriana… bragging? "It's super comfortable, right?"
"Hm, sure."
The night wasn't as odd as Oriana was expecting it to be. Even if she wasn't in the mood to talk, Daichi's interest in the three mages powers was rather adorable. Sugawara showed off his grimoire to his best friend and Zora showed his after Oriana insisted on it and even explained his powers to him willingly. Oriana was surprised by Zora's good mood, she would think he would be all sour after laying off the mask, but it had the contrary result.
It was late by the time Daichi's parents called him home. Sugawara made his cue with Daichi. And then it hit Oriana. Zora had no place to stay in Miyagi. As he was laying on the floor watching some program on the TV with a bowl of chips in front of him, Oriana tried to make him a makeshift bed with blankets and sheets, she also had an extra pillow for when Suga or Daichi slept over. He thanked her for the effort in his own way of speaking, which sounded more rude than anything else.
Lying on her own bed upstairs, Oriana was still wide awake, even if her body begged for some rest, her mind was rushing from thought to thought. Zora didn't change at all, if anything, he got stronger. Earlier in the kitchen, she was stopping herself from diving into those blue eyes. Oriana couldn't afford to do that anymore. She feared she might have been the one who didn't change at all. Did Zora notice any difference? If the rest of the Black Bulls saw her now, would they notice any difference? She can't see anything that might've been different in her. Oriana knew she was a coward and this aspect in her didn't change at all.
Keeping herself from drowning in her own self-awareness, she tried to guess what could be so important that they sent Zora of all people to deliver her a message. It's urgent, but too much for Oriana to handle, at least in Zora's opinion. Then she remembered a conversation she had with Suga a few days ago. How he felt an ominous energy coming from the north. She was now convinced it had to be about that energy. These two episodes were connected, she was sure. If there was such a threat in the Clover Kingdom, if Zora came all this way to inform her of it, that means he wasn't there with just a message.
The morning after, Oriana woke up nauseous. It was a wednesday, she had classes, but other priorities had come. And there was absolutely no way she would leave Zora alone in her house or bring him with her anywhere. That man is suspicious and has a provoking look in his eyes that would cause nothing but trouble.
Oriana sent Daichi a message she would be skipping today, so he didn't worry. It was unusual for Oriana to skip, but this was an unusual situation to be in. Heading downstairs, she found Zora in the exact same position as last night, but this time further away from the TV, in the makeshift bed she had made him. Oriana wasn't surprised at all by how quick he got the hang of the remote. She would join him, but only with a cup of coffee in hand. It was not possible to tolerate Zora without caffeine. So she did her normal routine, after getting her coffee, she headed over to the porch in the living room. Clearing her throat to catch the red head's attention, she signaled him to follow her. Sitting on the edge of the porch, she waited for Zora.
"Are you feeling better now?" Zora asked.
"Yep. You can tell me. I'm sure I can handle it."
Zora explained the recent main events. Asta's trial, the massacre in the Diamond's Kingdom, the presence of a new demon and the war that was approaching.
"We've been training our asses off with the Heart Kingdom," Zora continued. "We are using this alliance to everyone's benefit. We need as many mages in the zero level as possible."
"Zero being the highest level." Oriana assumed.
"Right." Zora shifted his position, now it was the hard part. "We need your magic to fight the demon."
Oriana clenched her fists around her mug. She knew it was coming, but she still hoped she didn't hear those words.
"The Black Bulls need you more than ever. That was the message Captain gave me for you."
Her character hadn't changed at all, she just realized. Her hands were shaking from the strength she was putting in them. Her whole body was shaking from her very bone. There it was, her destiny calling her name once again, but her dark history pursues her and doesn't let her see the world with the same clarity she once had. Years ago, there was no way she would back out if it was destiny calling, but now she is just guessing her way through life. Her dreams weren't what she was expecting, it was so painful. It burned her from the inside out, because at her back bone, she still wanted to fight to protect those who she loved, but she was terrified. Then, like a new realization, all the things she thought she forgot about being a mage, they returned to her. To protect. She's been saying that to herself and others. That the Magical Knights protect the innocent and the people they love. Oriana was no different, she fought with her friends in mind always. Their faces came up in her mind, one by one. All of her Black Bulls family and new faces joined in. Daichi, Sugawara, the Karasuno Volleyball team. It's for them.
Oriana drops her shoulders and finally turns to Zora.
"I'm going back." Oriana said. "I want to go home."
The morning sun reflected in her beautiful smile. The traces in her face looked relieved, her smile was genuine, but tears welled in her eyes.
"What are you even crying for?" Zora asked.
"I remember why I fight." Oriana couldn't stop the tears from falling. "I fight because I love you guys."
Zora looked surprised, but soon he was smiling too. By instinct, he drove his hand to Oriana's head and left it there.
"Seriously…" Zora scoffed. "What about that friend of yours? The one with flora magic, he might be useful."
"I can talk with him, but I make no promises." Oriana said, wiping away her tears.
The clouds cleared in her mind. The sun would shine bright, warming up the last few colder days. With her mind made up, Oriana doesn't have much time before leaving.
Against her own wishes, Oriana had to leave the house. After classes were over, she changed out of her pajamas and ran to Karasuno High, hopefully to catch Daichi and Sugawara on their way home. She wishes she had time to talk to both of them separately, but she had to leave that same day. Enough time had been wasted and she knew how rigid some of the captains could be. She could already feel the cold stares. After all, she was late for the party-but more importantly, she pretended her own death. There would be no way to escape from that.
Their classes had ended fifteen minutes before Oriana arrived at the road they always took to go home. There was a possibility they already headed home by now, but she was sure she could catch them somehow. In the crossroads where they would split up to go home, Oriana searched for the Karasuno uniform to no avail. Where to go first? Daichi or Suga? There was no time for both.
"Oriana?" the voice she was hoping for called for her.
Although only Daichi was there accompanied by Asahi and Kiyoko. No sign of Suga.
"Good, I still caught you." Oriana exhaled. "Isn't Suga with you?"
"He didn't come to class today. He was tired from yesterday." Daichi explained.
Oriana nodded. It was only natural to be tired after using magic and having no way to replenish it. Then, she remembered. Both Asahi and Kiyoko were there, they both saw Oriana and Suga using magic. She would expect weird glances, distancing from her, but they acted like their normal selves.
"We already know everything." Asahi smiled fondly, catching Oriana staring.
"And you're not… scared?"
"Not at all! We thought it was really cool. We just wished you had told us earlier." Asahi laughed, scratching the nape of his neck.
Looking in Kiyoko's direction, she didn't say anything, but nodded reassuringly.
"Thank you." Oriana dropped her shoulders. "And sorry. I didn't know how to tell you guys about it."
Oriana would miss everyone in Karasuno and their individualities. Her heart broke a little by the thought of never seeing them again and there wasn't even time for a real farewell. Once again, Oriana would just disappear. Not for everyone though, to Daichi at least, she would have to say something. Grabbing his hand and a sad look in her eyes,
"I have to steal him from you for a bit."
"Sure thing." Asahi smiled.
"Good-bye, guys." Kiyoko and Asahi said in unison.
"See you around!" Oriana said, knowing she might never see them again. "Let me walk you home for a change." she joked.
"How could I say no to that?" Daichi smiled, kissing her cheek.
Tragic endings was something Oriana did not need. With this in mind, she would do anything in her power to avoid another one. Starting with this very moment.
"Daichi," Oriana called. The boy gripped her hand looking at her. "I have to go back."
"Go back? Oh."
"There's a new threat and the Black Bulls need me."
"Is it...dangerous?"
"Everything about being a Magic Knight is dangerous, but we do it to protect others." Oriana reminded both Daichi and herself.
The wind brought the last leaves of early winter. Something in Oriana's eyes bothered Daichi. Something tells him their time is up.
"We don't know much about this new threat, only that there's another demon involved. The last time we faced a demon, it took everything we had to defeat it." Oriana continued. "This time we have an alliance with another kingdom, they will be helping us with training and evolving our magic to new levels. Even so,-" she was interrupted.
"You already made up your mind, right?" Daichi stopped in his tracks.
"Yes. They need me. My family asked me to help them. I'm not turning my back on them. Not anymore." Oriana's voice modulates. She's been beating around the bush, however, Daichi could hear the confidence in her voice. It was definitive.
"But you'll be back. Right?" Daichi's voice quavers.
"Actually, there is something you should know in case I don't come back." Oriana's voice lowers, only for him to hear.
They have come a long way from when they begane. Oriana was able to be vulnerable thanks to him and she gave Daichi new found confidence. Right now, Oriana couldn't assure they would see each other ever again.
"I love you, Daichi. You've made me really happy."