Chapter Two

Their eyes tracked his movement through the hall. They tittered annoyingly behind their hands, as though that would somehow prevent him from hearing them – someone even pointed at him!

"Whoa, look, it's the Black Magician..."

"The famous..."

"... Is he coming back from a mission?"

"Do you think I could try talking to him –"

A familiar thought drifted into his head as he kept his stare ahead, thankful his hooded cloak shielded him as effectively as a glare did. I hate places with so many people.

His reputation drew attention to him like a light source drew insects but simultaneously acted as a buffer between him and the people. They were usually either too shy or too intimidated to try stopping him for a talk. Didn't mean he felt any less comfortable. This is why I didn't want to come through the front door. He preferred the back way, but when he'd gone there, he'd found it barred with a note stuck to it that had said, "If you are not a thief or an animal, please use the front door". For moment, he'd wondered what the bastard would say if he punched a hole through the back door but he'd quickly resigned himself to walking through the halls of Opion.

"Ro – Ah, Blow! Why're you here at this hour?"

Blow stopped midstride and turned his head. "Ms Ren," he greeted weakly.

Her copper coloured eyes were studying him with bemusement. "Are you here to debrief on your mission?"

"Yes," he grumbled, remembering the events of that night. "It was a bad mission."

Ms Ren laughed, giving him a grin. "So you did do it."

"What else could I do…?" Blow was on his way to a dark mood when he noticed the stack of papers in Ms Ren's arms. "What are you holding?"

"What?" Her face froze for a second before she gaily laughed again. "Oh this? It's nothing!" She nodded her head back the way Blow had come and started backing away. "I've got to go. Master should be in his office! Let's eat lunch or something sometime soon, okay?"

Blow resisted the urge to arch a brow. "Sure."

"See you, Blow!" And as Ms Ren hurried off, one of her papers fell to the floor, right in front of Blow.

"Ms Ren! You dropped –" Blow froze when he caught sight of what exactly was on that paper, mouth slightly agape. It was a poster of him holding a fucking rose! He couldn't remember ever posing for this. Blow's eyes flew over the words and he couldn't believe what he was reading:

"Just for you! I'll take any request as the Black Magician."

"The centre of attention! The Black Magician Blow always on standby! Mission requests sent to Opion."

He stood in a rush, scrunching the flyer in his hand, his face stoic.

"Blow!" Ms Ren shouted, dropping the flyers everywhere as she began to panic. "You saw it? You've seen it?

Everybody in the hall was silent as they watched the Black Magician bare his teeth in a smile. "Is this…" he waved the semi-crushed flyer around. "Master's doing?"

Ms Ren ran a hand through her red-brown locks and and avoided Blow's eyes. She could feel herself sweating. "Ah... yeah... that's –"

Blow moved fast, disappearing around the corner almost before the words had left her mouth. "W-Wait!" Ms Ren cried, but it was too late. "Ah... It was supposed to be a secret..." She stood immobile in the hall, wishing she hadn't talked to Blow today at all.

~break~

Blow didn't even bother to knock, choosing instead to kick open the door. It hit the wall with a loud bang and the man at the desk lowered his cup. "Hmm…? What – who's kicking down the doo –" A piece of paper unexpectedly hit the man's face, making him jolt in surprise and slosh his drink. His drink was place down, safe on the table, and he patted his head, despite the lack of any injury. "What?" He repeated with bewilderment. The man looked up and blinked. "Eh? Blow?" He jumped up, a smile stretching across his face. "You're here! I was waiting for you…" The grin slipped off as he registered Blow's dark expression. "… What's wrong? Did somebody bully you on the way here?"

Pointing a finger at the man, Blow couldn't contain his anger. "You're the one bullying me!" he accused. "Look at that thing!"

"This?" Master said, glancing down at the paper in his hand. He stared blankly at it for a second before pivoting around, swiftly opening the window and letting the wind take it from him. Blow was so flabbergasted that all he could do was stare. The man brought a hand up to shade his eyes from the early afternoon sun. He laughed. "It's gone – I don't know what you're telling me to look at."

Blow couldn't believe the audacity of Master. He was almost struck speechless. "Are you…" he started. "… kidding me?! Making something like that without my permission…!" Blow released a little growl, thinking about his unwanted fan club and their star-struck eyes. "It's already noisy enough wherever I go!" He covered his face with his hand, hunching his shoulders over, muttering, "God… It's… so embarrassing… I can't even lift my head up!"

The care-free chuckle from Master made him bristle. "Our star Blow gets embarrassed quite… easily –" Another piece of paper hit his face so he caught it and quickly scanned its contents. Master's eyebrows rose. "Oh!" Blow could practically see the sparkles in his eyes. "You succeeded! Getting an autograph from Seren…"

Annoyed, Blow cut him off and gritted out, "This is the last time." Master looked at him, uncomprehending, so he glared and elaborated. "That I do some stupid errand as a mission."

Master shook his head ruefully. "No can do…" he opened a drawer beneath his desk and took out a stack of papers as high as the length of his forearm – maybe even higher – dropping it onto the desk with a slap, shuffling through a few of them. "There's… finding Ms. Elle's lost puppy, delivering Lucy's heart-throbbing love letter… and so many others are waiting for you!"

"Shut it!" Blow barked out.

"But I'm surprised you got it, Seren is known for being bad tempered and hating strangers," Master said. He smelt the signed paper, nodding absent-mindedly. "As expected, this smells great."

Bad tempered…? "She didn't look bad tempered at all… maybe she'd been amicable because she'd just been attacked…?" Blow frowned at his Master, who was still sniffing at the scented paper. "There's demon blood on that."

Master held the paper a respectable distance away from his noise, shock colouring his fair features. "What? Attacked?" he exclaimed, eyes glazing over as he thought of the musician. "But the area she works in is a safe zone, isn't it? Did she meet bandits or something?

"No, it was a demon." Blow thought back to the incident. "A demon of high rank at that… It wasn't all that strong but for something like that to just pop out in an area protected by the Tower... strange, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it really is." Master sighed, falling back into his chair. He leaned his elbows on the desk, clasping his hands beneath his chin. "I'm going to need to look into this. But, on the other hand... to think you'd get an autograph at a time like that... Blow... you're quite –"

Blow interrupted, still smarting over being sent on such a boy's task. "It was on your orders!"

Master cleared his throat. "Anyway... How long are you going to stay in that form, Rood?"

"I have more than enough mana since somebody keeps giving me stupid missions." He lifted the hood of his cloak back, glaring at the man behind the desk who... was just nodding in agreement! Blow brought up his right hand, and his blue-black mana appeared, flickering like a real flame. "My name is Blow," he uttered, feeling more than anything his mana withdrawing inside of him even as to Master, it looked as though he was being engulfed by it. "Awakening, end." The mark on his right hand flashed silver blue for a moment, seen faintly even through his leather gloves, and it warmed his whole body like he'd stepped in front of a working fireplace.

The cloud of mana lifted from him slowly as Master watched avidly. The difference in appearance that Rood had to his awakened counterpart still amazed him. Light, golden blond hair, indigo-blue eyes... the most striking being physical stature. Rood had the body of a young teen and had yet to grow to his full height, topping out at around five foot three or four while Blow's form was a little shy of six feet. Speaking of... "Rood," Master said in pleasant surprise, stroking his imaginary beard. "You've grown taller since the last time we met."

Rood lifted a hand to his head, feeling self-conscious as he always was when it came to his height. "... Really?" His eyes narrowed at the subtle change their conversation had taken so he strode up to the desk, leaning forward and slapping a hand onto it. "I got the autograph!" he declared, making eye contact with Master. "Now give me a proper mission!" Somehow, Rood held the stare without blinking but Master just returned it, all the while smiling.

Finally disconcerted, he asked, "What –"

"Rood."

Rood shut his mouth at Master's serious tone.

"After that day," Master began reluctantly, crossing his arms and settling into his chair. "The people as well as the magicians are out looking for you. Shic from the Magician's Association is especially out to get you. From now on... it's going to get even more dangerous; it'll be different from how it's always been. I'm... honestly worried about that."

Rood wasn't too sure, but he thought he felt his right eye twitch. "You say that, Master..." He held up the spare flyer he'd hidden in his cloak. "And you make something like this?"

"You've got more?!" Master said in disbelief.

He crumpled the stupid flyer and levelled Master with a knowing look. "Scrap the dumb talk. Are you going to give it to me or not?"

"... Well..." The man dropped his gaze and started drawing god damn patterns on his desk with his finger – like he was a shy eight year old girl instead of a fully grown man! "There is this one big thing... There's an auction house that opens once every two months. It only deals in scarce and rare items. There are rumours that a magic stone with a Name will make an appearance in the upcoming auction."

Rood inclined his head in understanding. "A high class magic stone then..." Those were always coveted.

"Yeah," Master confirmed. "The only problem is that other magicians have this information as well. Do you understand what this means?" He grinned. "This mission might get quite interesting."

~break~

A while after Rood had already left, Opion's Master stood by the window, completely ignoring the remarkable view he had of the flourishing garden. His thoughts were consumed by the permission permit for one Rood Chrishi that he held in his hand. ... Age of fourteen years, ability type of and specialist in darkness... On the bottom of the embellished slip were the words "Admission is permitted." and the golden Helios school emblem.

"...I couldn't even show him. If he saw this... he'd get really mad at me..." Master bowed his head, guilt and the need to shield and protect eating away inside of him. How was he supposed to get Rood to agree to something like this?

~break~


AN: It's surprisingly difficult to think of a good way to describe the visual, physical and mental effects of the magic in black haze. I may or may not change the rough interpretation of it in this chapter later ;_;

Let me know what you think, thanks!