Chapter 9 A New Journey

Marco has grown used to living in a house, in fact he preferred it much more then the hard stone floor of his old cave. The others were also very welcoming and he often spent more time in their rooms then his own impromptu one. Sakura was often wishing him away so he could learn the basics of the English language while she demanded that in return he teach her the basics of his own language.

While sometimes Marco cursed his perfect memory, especially since when he used the Mindscape he saw that person's entire life meaning every one of their memories had essentially been copied over to him. That included their personal trauma and heartbreak. After viewing Viper's memories Marco decided that the MindScape would be for true emergencies only. He was afraid that if he took in too many bad memories he'd go insane.

However his photographic memory was also a great boon when it came to learning new things. Learning an entirely different written language was hard but Marco suspected it'd be much harder if he didn't have his memory to rely on. But that speculation mostly came from the fact that Sakura was learning at a much slower pace then him.

Other then Sakura the person Marco hung out with the most was Yoro. He had almost immediately gotten hooked on video games. Unlike English Marco had taken to tech like a fish to water. Oftentimes Ricco would join in with him and Yoro but he was usually busy working on some kind of secret project. Even though Marco had no clue what a weather mage would need liquid nitrogen for.

Unlike the others Pete was very punctual and had everything done a certain way. He wakes up at exactly five o clock and grabs the healthiest cereal he can find. He then has exactly three fourths of a cup of cereal and a half cup of milk. The point is he's very exact with how he does things and gets very upset when things aren't the way he needs them to be. Which is why at four o clock p.m. Everybody drops what their doing to attend his afternoon training. Marco shivered 'And you NEVER want to be late to afternoon training' he thought.

Training, as Pete liked to call it, included endless sparring matches against each other. Meaning that when you've knocked out an opponent it's merely replaced by a new one with no break in between. By the end of the hour everyone was barely able to move and Pete considers training "complete". This training has however taught me the strength of my teammates. Pete is the strongest which is why he remains the leader. He's even told me that if anyone were to beat him in a fight they'd take leadership, which nobody has managed to do so far. I'm below him being able to defeat all the other members except for him.

However Ricco was always difficult to defeat, unlike Pete who used brute strength to win fights Ricco took a much more intellectual approach. With the largest pool of attacks out of all of them he like to exploit weaknesses and experiment during battle trying different combinations of arrows and colors. But his lack of stamina was almost always his downfall with his magic power draining incredibly fast.

Just a slight bit weaker then Ricco was Sakura although their more like equals with their current record being 23 Ricco and 21 Sakura with the archer place just barely above her. During one of these training sessions he got to meet one of her other spirits named Fūri. It looked like a dark gray lynx but according to Sakura it's actually a tanuki. Unlike the other two spirits he met Kappa, who was more of a passivity, and Tengu, who was more interested in playing then fighting, Fūri was a natural born fighter always up for another challenge. According to Sakura however Fūri becomes three times as powerful at night and she almost beat Pete using this strategy, key word being almost.

Yoro happened to be the weakest of the group but since he was also the youngest it didn't come as much of surprise. Weakest of the group did not necessarily mean weak however. Yoro specializes in defense more then anything and his armor made of earth could take some serious damage before breaking.

Marco sighed It had been a few weeks since he joined and to be honest he was getting a bit restless, Sure playing games with Yoro and studying with Sakura had been fun but he was ready to go out and explore. He had grown used to staying in one place for too long but he longed to see the rest of the world even exploring the forest had been a new exciting experience for him.

Marco was brought out of his thoughts however when the couch he was laying in literally disappeared from underneath him. "What the hell?" He muttered.

"Sorry bout that." Yoro apologizes. "But Pete says it's time to pack everything up."

"But how did the couch disappear?" Marco asked dumbly.

"Oh right you're still new." Yoro realized. "Sakura may be the only one of us who utilizes Requip magic in combat but every member of the team knows it. We store all out belongings in our Requip space and move them from base to base."

"Oh I guess that makes sense." Marco said "So when are we heading out?"

"Right now" Marco turned around to see Pete waiting at the doorway. "Get outside there's just one thing left to do." Ricco tossed Marco a backpack as he left.

"It's a relief that you joined actually." Ricco said. "We don't have enough magic power to store everything we own so we usually end up having to carry some things. With you here though it'll seriously lighten the load."

"Really? I thought between the four of you you would have enough magic power." Marco said.

"Three of us." Sakura corrected. "Pete isn't carrying anything yet."

"Yet?"

"Just Watch." Ricco smirked.

Pete placed one hand on the small cottage they owned and it was engulfed in a bright blue light. In just a few seconds it had vanished and Marco was left agape.

"Pete doesn't carry any of our stuff because..."

"He carries the house?!" Marco said in shock.

"Hm" Pete smirked "The strongest is meant to lead. If I couldn't manage a task like this what kind of leader would I be?"

"Oh boy" Ricco sighed "Try not to get a big head about it."

"Alright." Pete said. "As you may know our next destination is the town of Macanica. It's a technological paradise and as a result many dark guilds have stationed themselves around its borders."

"I'm seeing a lot of blue circles though." Marco muttered. "Doesn't that mean only weaker guilds are hanging out around there? If this technology is really so grand why aren't the stronger guilds after it?"

"They don't need it." Ricco explained. "The weaker guilds have to find some way to get an edge on the legal guilds, so they'll try stealing power instead of training for it like most mages."

"That guild over there seems pretty dangerous though." Yoro said pointing to a yellow circle on the top of a mountain.

"That guild." Pete growled. "Is called Scrap Metal and as much as I'd love to take it out we aren't strong enough yet. Besides before we can even get to Metalica we have to pass through here." Pete pointed to a spot on the map labeled Chirapa town "The land surrounding Chirapa Town is covered by poisonous bramble that goes on for miles, we could go around but that would take an extra couple of weeks. Rumors say that the town is ruled by a particularly scummy member of ERA but we should be fine as long as we don't cause any trouble.

"We should go around then." Sakura deadpanned.

"If we're not looking for trouble it's looking for us." Yoro agreed.

"I'd rather walk." Ricco muttered.

"You guys are really negative." Marco sweat dropped.

"Were going through." Pete said firmly. "My decision is final, if you have any complaints you can take it up with me personally."

"You know I've heard they have some really nice scenery there." Sakura said nervously.

"I'm sure we won't run into any trouble." Yoro amended.

"I'd rather not get poisoned again." Ricco muttered.

'They changed their minds so fast.' Marco thought.

Pete was beginning to get annoyed, he soon realized that his newest member was not good with traveling long distances. He was only walking with them about a third of the time. Otherwise he's of wandered off to god knows where. The first time it happened we were thrown into a panic

Luckily, we managed to find him but from that moment on we tried to keep an eye on him, but he always seemed to disappear the moment any of us looked away. Even worse as Pete has learned during his calligraphy lesson Marco had absolutely no sense of direction. Nor did it seem it was possible for him to improve considering the fact that whenever Pete gave him a map it would spontaneously combust.

Pete shook his head Marco had been one headache after another, at first Pete had thought that he would have kicked someone like him off the team the first chance he got but... in his opinion the pros heavily outweighed the cons. The fight against Viper has shown him that he had grown cocky in his abilities, while Marco didn't seem to be capable of underestimating others, allies and enemies alike. Pete grit his teeth 'Which should be what the leader is meant to do.'

Pete sighed and shook his head again. 'Thinking like that won't get you anywhere.' On the positive side of things, they did find a way to keep Marco from wandering off, even if it was a bit humiliating.

"I can't believe this was your best idea." Marco deadpanned.

"Yeah well I can't believe that you can't go fifteen minutes without getting lost." Ricco shot back.

"But a leash?" Marco whined "Didn't you have any better ideas? Now that I think about it why did you even have a leash?"

"It used to be Yoro's" Pete deadpanned "He wouldn't stop running away to fight someone stronger then him."

"Shut up." Yoro pouted.

"We'll get a tracker for you in Chirapa Town." Sakura sighed. "You'll just need to keep that in your pocket nobody will know it's there."

"The Hell Why didn't I get that?!" Yoro asked.

"We didn't have any trouble finding you." Ricco said. "You were annoying to catch, he just can't follow the beaten path for some damn reason."

"The road keeps moving." Marco muttered.

"The hell does that even mean?!" Ricco yelled.

"Finally," Marco sighed "We're here now we can take this damn collar off."

"No way." Sakura said.

"What?!"

"There's no way to guarantee that you won't wander off again." Sakura said. "So, I'm supposed to keep an eye on you while Yoro finds a tracker."

"Hahahaha!" Yoro laughed "That sucks for you!"

"Why you little..." Marco tried to lunge at Yoro but the leash around his neck prevented him from doing so. Prompting more laughter from both Yoro and Ricco.

Pete sighed in annoyance as he looked up at the town's sign. "Chirapa Town huh? Why does this place give me such a bad feeling?"

Two people stood on top of a building in the center of town. The female member had blood red hair and wore a black jacket with a red outline over a white shirt with a black Magic Council symbol in the middle. She also wore a white cape with a green gem as the clamp.

Her male partner wore the something except the outlines to his outfit were orange instead of red. He also had messy almond hair and his outfit was more stylized with a larger cape and fancy white gloves to signify he was her superior.

"So, this is the place?" the girl asked.

"That's right Maria." The male replied. "Cero believes that this is the source of the demonic energy we've been searching for."

"If that's the case then the first step should be to meet up with Officer Saxam correct?"

"Cero believes that would be foolish." Cero said. "Cero's research indicates that Saxam has no info in that particular subject. According to his profile he never does any more then he needs to. Cero believes that he wouldn't conduct an investigation unless it cuts into his paycheck. Besides were supposed to stay hidden remember.

"So, I had forgotten, is that correct?" Maria asked.

Cero ignored her "Well look at that." He said. "Two birds one stone. Cero seems to have spotted another target."

"Oh, really who is it?" Maria asked.

"Pete the Shadow mage, and Ricco the Storm." He said. "Two notorious dark mages charged with the crime of attacking one of the members of the magic council."

"Doesn't he seem a bit young for that?" Maria asked.

"Facts don't lie Maria." Cero waved her off. 'Chirapa Town what an interesting place you turned out to be.'

A shadowy figure smirked as he stood in front of three women on the streets of Chirapa Town. "Ladies it appears we have some guests, uninvited guests."

The three straightened as they listened closely as to what their boss had to say.

"Now we can't have some troublemakers mucking up our fair city, now can we?" He asked.

"No sir!" The three saluted.

"Then why don't we take care of them." He said.

"Yes sir!" The three saluted the man and disappeared into the city streets.

The figure smirked. "It's almost ready, and I won't let anybody into my town until it's complete. Chirapa Town... the perfect place to achieve your goals."

A masked man stared at a giant circle with 12 glowing panels on it. Each of the panels displayed three things a picture of an animal, a picture of a person, and the name of a location.

Tiger

Snake

Rooster

Ox

Rabbit

Horse

Monkey

Rat

Pig

Dog

Dragon

Ram

Those were the pictures displayed and located on the Monkey panel was a man and the area he was located.

Chirapa Town