Hello everyone out there!
Once again, Magi belongs to Ohtake Shinobu, my OC to me, there might be spoilers plus references to objects, songs, games and so on. I use most characters names from my country's official translation so they might differ from those you're used to.
Have a fun time reading!
Day 7 Dealing with the situation
Sinbad stared shocked at the doorframe through which Lenka had left a second before. The young woman had pushed the door close so forceful that she had broken it out of the wall. Apparently she was really angry now. He leaned back and sighed while rubbing his eyes.
"Damn it."
Masrur stepped forward, picked the door up and leaned it against the brick stones to create the illusion of a tidy room while Ja'far sighed deeply.
"You overdid it again, Sin."
The king frowned.
"I did not-"
A loud cracking sound interrupted him and he turned around just to see the fanalis girl and the aura of death she gave off.
"Oh, Morgiana, I didn't notice you were here."
"... Lenka tried to help you when she left with them."
Sinbad scratched his head and sighed again.
"I thought so."
"Yet he couldn't believe she was this honest and came back without ulterior motives or as a spy after he had tried to approach her in an inappropriate way," Ja'far continued his king's sentence who shrugged and admitted:
"That's what I thought."
Morgiana's right eye twitched and the black aura intensified. Suddenly he was very glad that he had Masrur and Ja'far with him.
"Lenka never told us lies. She said what she would do and did it."
Then she stepped to the door as well, her feet leaving cracks in the floor. There she turned around, taking exact the same posture as the young woman that had left before.
"It was Lenka who suggested to kidnap Alibaba. I think she planned all of this to save as many citizens of Balbadd as possible and to avoid something terrible. Something really bad must have happened to her in her past to make her act like she does. That's why you should give her a second chance."
With this words the girl disappeared. Sinbad growled and ruffled his hair then hit the plate with his head and mumbled some unintelligible words that were probably curses.
"Ja'far?"
"Sin?"
"Keep me away from alcohol for a while."
"I'll do my very best."
Lenka was so furious that her steps burned the dirt under her feet and hence she left a smoking trail in the streets of Balbadd. The few who crossed her path took one glance at her just to hurry back in the direction where they had come from to not get roasted, especially after she had punched a hole in a half-crumbling wall in her fury.
I should have killed him that day, Orobas growled and the young woman sighed.
"No. He should stay alive to prevent people from dying."
Stuuupid!
She snickered and turned into a narrow alley that led her further into the slums. The sun started to set and the clouds turned orange, red and pink. Peachy colors. This made her remember Judar and she sighed deeply.
"This situation is really stupid."
You're not at fault. You did what our dear Solomon wanted you to do.
"No one else here understands that. Except the djinn," the traveler answered and climbed on crates that were piled in the form of a pyramid against a house wall then on the roof. Walking up here was much more interesting because she could train her reflexes when slipping or jumping from building to building.
"Assassins Creed real life version," she joked when throwing one of her daggers in a wooden scantling a washing line was connected with, then did a flic-flac forward to overcome the chasm between two houses.
"For your information, Assassins Creed is a game from my world," she explained her joke to the djinn while pulling the knife out of the pole and sheathing it.
"I quite like it."
Is that so? Hey, I can somehow feel Amon's presence. That Whateverbaba must be somewhere below us. Want to greet him?
You bet.
Lenka stopped and listened to the wind then ran silently over the roofs to the source of the noises she heard. At the edge of one she scrunched down and peeked at the street. Alibaba stood a few meters away while Cassim was in front of him and some of his closest followers waited behind their leader, as well as a man with dark hair, a white long dress and a scarf that covered the face under the eyes and a turban-like headdress.
Al-Thamen, Orobas growled and Lenka felt his wrath. She grinned with excitement and stood up.
Let's do it.
Apparently Cassim had punched Alibaba a second before, because he was saying the famous last words "The next time we will meet we are enemies."
"Aha! And I thought you would keep the act up longer," Lenka said loud and jumped down, landed swiftly and ambled slowly towards the surprised men. The Al-Thamen mage turned back to escape the situation just to find himself in a cage made of nearly invisible white flames.
Purifying Cage, snickered the djinn.
"Miss Lenka?" Alibaba asked astonished, "I thought you were with-"
"Sinbad," the other man growled and pulled his black mist sword out of nowhere while his followers rustled around them. The traveler made a face and snorted.
"Sinbad. Perverted stupid king. First class git, if you ask me."
Alibaba's and Cassim's jaws dropped at once.
"Huh?"
Lenka grinned contemptuous.
"He is a lecherous moron who only cares for himself and his country and I'm very shirty now, so don't test my patience any more or you will experience something nasty."
"So you're not an ally of his?" the fog troupe's leader asked with a hopeful glint in his eyes. She stared at him with a cold expression.
"I am not. And I won't be the ally of a war-hungry freak like you as well."
He gasped for air yet the traveler simply walked by to smirk at Alibaba.
"I really pity Amon. Poor djinn who got stuck with a guy that is not able to use even weapon equip after more than half a year... And yet too proud to ask the ones who can do for advice."
Alibaba gaped at her in horror.
"W-What did you say?"
"Surprised? You know I have a duty to do, don't you? Protect the ones choosing kings and..."
She stepped forward so fast that no one could follow her movements.
"Kill people like him," she said and, in the same move punched the Al-Thamen guy on the other side of the flame wall in the face. The nose broke under the impact with a satisfying crushing sound, his head flew back while blood turned the scarf he wore crimson red. Alibaba screamed in surprise and shock, Cassim as well but she ignored them, her expression a manic grin. Her left fist hit the man's temple while the other punched him in the guts. She started to laugh, a fierce, mad sound that echoed with another persons voice.
"This is great!"
The mage staggered back and came in contact with the flames. His clothes didn't burn but the flesh of his leg started to melt like hot wax and he screamed in surprise and pain.
"Scream more!"
Her punches were like the fire of a machine gun, fast and hard.
"More!"
Blue scales grew up her arms, turning her jabs even heavier.
"Fiend!"
Wrath flooded through her body like fire, not only hers but that of her djinn as well.
"Answer me!"
Their voices merged and turned into one, not male nor female. The man coughed, spat blood while bones cracked under the vicious blows he received.
"Why did you betray our king?!"
Their fist hit his chin, the head flew back and with a loud snap the spine broke. The corpse slumped and turned under a flashing light into a small doll that fell on the ground, jumped up and rolled to the shocked fog troupers.
Lenka/Orobas growled and picked the clay figurine up.
"Filthy doll soldier."
"That was a nice work-out. I'm so glad we decided to come to this place," she said then stretched her arms and yawned sleepily.
Cassim was the first one to recover from the shock.
"You killed him!" he screamed, his followers awoke from their terrified state and pointed their weapons on the traveler who snorted while shooting a nasty glare at anyone who dared to come too close.
"As if. This was just a clone. You have to find the original body to kill those madmen for real. Another clone will appear in a few hours. Well then," she pulled her magic scarf off and jumped on the hovering cloth.
"See you at the finale, guys."
The last words she heard through the roaring wind was Cassim cursing her and his once best friend to death. Lenka sighed while putting the doll into her bag. Her rage had vanished faster than it appeared – as it always did – and now she simply felt melancholic and empty.
"Destiny won't change for you, poor boy."
"Kougyoku! I'm back!" Lenka shouted through the open window of the royal chambers. The red haired girl looked up from her dinner then pouted at the other.
"You're late. I was really bored."
"Aw, poor girl," she grinned, climbed into the room and petted her friend's head.
"Did Ka Koubun scold you? For becoming friends with me?"
The princess puffed her cheeks with pride.
"He did, but I send him to the djinn soldiers to look after them. He won't be back for another hour, I suppose."
Lenka sweat-dropped at the thought of the poor devil of an advisor who had gone against the strong-willed Kougyoku and was now somewhere on the palace grounds with the vicious djinn soldiers who would kill anyone who breathed in the wrong second and sent a prayer to Solomon to bring the man back alive. Speaking of alive...
"Cutie, I'll go and look after Judar for a second, okay? I'll be right back."
The redhead nodded and pointed on the door leading out of her dining room.
"You know, the first door to the left. Bye!"
The traveler winked and left the room with a big grin on her face. When reading the manga back in London she had thought of the Ren princess as a stupid cold selfish bitch at first but after the Sindria arc she had started to quite like her. And the Kougyoku she had met now was a really good child and actually very gentle even though she had quite the temper.
She hummed with pleasure as she stepped into the dark room where the Magi laid on his bed behind a room divider. He was still pale but more Rukh fluttered lazily around him. Lenka frowned.
"There are more black ones here now. Well, it's not like I don't like the colour, but these depraved Rukh look like the gangster version of the white ones. And yet there are still not enough for you to recover. Seems like I have to give you special treatment again, doesn't it?" she told the unconscious Judar while taking off her metal vessel, stuffing it into her pocket and placing her hands on his forehead and chest. Once again she became aware of his nice features and well-defined muscles, although he was a bit too skinny for her taste. Too bad that he was on the dark side...
Please please don't continue this thought. For my mental sanity. For yours. Please. Don't.
That was solely for me, you idiot.
Too scarring. Give him the magoi and leave before you get more of this ideas.
"Yes mom. Here we go then."
Lenka exhaled, closed her eyes and commanded her magoi to flow from her hands into his body while thinking of good memories. The songs of the blackbirds in the morning that would wake her up in summer... the smell of the earth after a light rain... the sunlight that shone on her siblings that played at the shore, their joyful laughter filling the air...
Get well soon, she thought while opening her eyes and taking a step back and reached in her pocket.
Lenka! The fiend! Behind you!
The woman whirled around, flicked her wrist to wrap the necklace around her arm and switched to attack stance in the same move to stare at a man with strange coulored hair and goatee who wore a checkered mask that covered his upper face, white robes and the staff he held. Apparently he had entered through the open balcony while she had poured her magoi into Judar.
"Ithnaan!"
The corners of his mouth turned upwards at her low hiss.
"So you heard of me already."
She wrinkled her nose and bared her teeth.
"I won't attack as long as you won't. I would rather not fight here with Judar and Kougyoku this near. None of them deserve to be pawns in your game."
He tilted his head.
"You are... clever. Yet you don't know much about this game, woman."
"I think you are the one who is unaware of the other, Ithnaan who was once Solomon's friend and one of the holders of the divine staffs," she grinned with cold eyes. He didn't flinch yet his Rukh told that she had startled him, even though they were black and filthy.
"That is... interesting. So you are... the warrior," he said slowly, his glance glued to her face.
She shrugged then gave up her stance.
"I might be anyone. Fact is that I won't attack you when I'm clearly in the worse position. Plus Judar won't wake up for now to help you or me. Let's keep the good face up and continue this masquerade, won't we?"
Ithnaan smirked.
"You really are exceptional. I think I seem to understand why Solomon brought you here."
"You don't," she deadpanned. "Let me ask one last question."
"Well, what would it be?" he answered with a slight chuckle.
"Why did you betray our king?"
Ithnaan stared at her, or so it seemed. Thanks to the mask and the fact that he stood in the shadows Lenka couldn't see his expression yet she noticed the sudden change in his Rukh that fluttered nervously around him.
"Ah, you see," he said and stepped forward. Lenka held her ground until the fallen man stood only half an arm's length away from her. He smiled a little, then grabbed a strand of her golden hair and let it run through his fingers. She didn't move an inch but continued to stare at him.
"That I can't tell you, warrior."
Ithnaan touched her cheek with two fingers, leaving a black Rukh there which turned white and fluttered away. He chuckled with amusement.
"Your Rukh is this pure yet you have such a past. A pity you won't fall and join us."
Then he tilted his head slightly, grinned and turned back to the balcony.
"I'll see you on another battlefield then."
The fallen disappeared in a vortex of black Rukh and left a speechless Lenka in the room.
"What the fuck was this?"
I'd say he was interested in you.
She snorted, closed the balcony door and left the room.
"As if."
For real, I really think so. First the idiot king, then the fallen Magi and now Ithnaan, not to mention every other male or female you met had a certain interest in you. Do you emit special pheromones or-
"Shut up!" Lenka yelled, "I did nothing! It's Sinbad x Ja'far, Alibaba x Mor x Hakuryuu, Kougyoku x Judar and Lenka x her duty as Solomon's warrior! I don't want a relationship with someone nor I will have one! I stay neutral! Why does nobody get that?!"
Lenka stood in the hallway, breathing heavily after her outburst. Orobas was silent. She straightened up, ruffled her hair with both hands and sighed gravely. Her fuse was really short today. Hopefully this wouldn't continue or-
"Lenka?"
She flinched and turned to Kougyoku who stood in the door frame to her room. He lower lip trembled a bit and she looked quite frightened. The blonde sighed again then covered her face with her hands for a few seconds.
"Sorry. I had quite the hard day. Sharing magoi with two Magi is exhausting, then having fights with Sinbad, using a fiend as punching bag and dealing with Ith- never mind. I'm a mess."
The princess swallowed, then stepped forward and patted her friends shoulder.
"I see."
Lenka exhaled again then gave the other a weak smile.
"I would murder for dinner and a bath and sleep. Not you, though."
Kougyoku smiled too.
"I think I can arrange something."
Both looked up as a man in once glamorous and now quite tattered robes staggered around the corner and in the hallway, wearing a horrified expression as if he had seen hell and would never get the pictures out of his head.
"My, Ka Koubun, you're back already. Could you please go and order some maids to prepare a bath and food for Lenka here? And what happened to your clothes?"
Never mess with a Ren princess, Lenka thought.
"So, why are there even more black Rukh than before, peach boy?" Lenka asked the sleeping Judar the next morning while staring annoyed at the floating birds. Kougyoku tugged at her friends vest.
"Are there really more black Rukh? Is this bad?"
"It actually is very bad," Lenka said and poked one of them.
"Purify."
The Rukh made a chirping sound, went white and then slowly back to black.
"Are you kidding me? Purify. Purify. Purify!"
"It doesn't seem like it is working, right?"
"Ithnaan that bugger," growled the traveler and cracked her knuckles.
"He deserves a good old fashioned beating with a crowbar."
"What is a crowbar?" asked the princess with a giggle and Lenka gave her a smirk.
"Something really nasty."
Kougyoku snickered, then looked a bit depressed at the other.
"Are you sure you have to go? We could spend the day training with our djinn equip and eating and dressing up."
Lenka shook her head and patted her friends arm.
"No, I have to go and look after Aladdin too. He is a Magi as well and I'm here to take care of them, am I not?"
The princess sighed.
"Yes... but I will be really bored until you come back..."
"You can pick the dresses you want me to wear later," Lenka suggested, and the others eyes lit up.
"Oh, that would be great! Then you can get your clothes washed in a proper way."
"I am glad we didn't burn them. Getting them wet with Vinea's help was easy, but drying them with pure flames... I think I'll come back earlier then."
Kougyoku nodded in agree.
"That's a good idea. I'll have some maids prepare food until then."
"Geez, why don't you marry me? We would be a great couple. I go and beat the bad guys up and you join me occasionally to have them feel true despair. Then we go home, dress up and have dinner. "
The princess chuckled.
"Two girls can't marry."
"In my world they can, and adopt children as well. And they can do everything."
"Your world seems like a fine place to live then," Kougyoku sighed. Lenka hugged her.
"When I'm back I tell you more about it while you dress me up, okay?"
"Okay!"
The blonde grinned and stepped on her magic cloth.
"Bye then!"
The Rukh led Lenka to the ruins of the fog troupes hideout while swirling around her as if she needed an embrace and they were trying to give her one. Columns of red and orange flames shot to the sky when Alibaba tried to manage a djinn equip and failed. Lenka smiled. The scenery reminded her of her first tries to do an equip as well. Apparently her visit yesterday changed his mind about asking for help. So he wasn't that stupid, just... Alibaba. Suddenly the flames died and the boy slumped down to catch his breath. Lenka frowned.
Should I go down there now?
I think you can.
She nodded and let the cloth float down.
"Hey there."
Sinbad and Alibaba turned to her; the younger flinched and stepped back a few inches. Sinbad smiled.
"Hello Lenka."
Aw, come on!
She cleared her throat and pulled the clay figurine out of her bag to hand it to him.
"I brought you a souvenir. Hope you like it."
His eyes widened then he started to laugh. Alibaba stared at him in confusion while the tension in Lenka crumbled. The king shook his head then grinned at her.
"I'm truly sorry as well for suggesting you would betray your friends and for approaching you in such an ungraceful manner. I want to apologise and thus offer you-"
"You don't need to offer me anything," interrupted the girl, "just stop assuming that I would break my oaths and friendships. And I don't mind the kiss, it was just very startling."
Sinbad chuckled and gave her the doll back.
"I'll do my best. By the way, could you help me with Alibaba's training? It's better to have a second opinion on this things."
"Wow, you're making real progress, King Sinbad," Lenka joked and turned to Alibaba.
"Well then, I think you still have questions, haven't you?"
Alibaba lowered the water bag and nodded.
"I don't get what he means by compressing the djinn's power within my own body."
Lenka blinked then tilted her head.
"Well... that's difficult. Maybe it's different with every djinn. I chat very much with Orobas, that's why when I do an equip it feels like the connection between us deepens. I just give him more control and that results in changing into a spirit of fire and purity. It's kind of, I can't describe it better, a fusion."
He stared at her in awe.
"Your djinn talks to you? I haven't spoke to Amon since the dungeon capturing."
Sinbad cleared his throat.
"My djinn speak to me occasionally yet Lenka's djinn is much more active. He even materializes in this world what means she has way more magoi than a normal human. Normally only Magi have enough energy to give a djinn's metal vessel physical form, like Aladdin did with his. Lenka is no Magi, that's why she uses the equip to fight as every other dungeon capturer does.
Lenka mentioned the word 'fusion'; that's a good comparison. By possessing yourself with the djinn's powers and assimilating with those powers you will obtain the same power as the materialized djinn. And that's what you call enveloping yourself with the djinn's power, or simply put, 'djinn equip'!"
Lenka nodded in agree. Sinbad smiled at her and continued.
"After succeeding in 'djinn equip' you will possess the same outward appearance as your djinn. That princess djinn is probably something close to a fish."
"I think Vinea looks a bit more like a snake than fishy."
The two men burst out in laughter before Lenka realized what she had said and blushed.
"That was not what I wanted to say!"
Sinbad wiped his eyes then turned to Alibaba.
"Your magoi should be restored by now. Remember what Lenka and I told you and try activating your djinn equip."
The young man nodded and gripped his dagger with both hands.
"However, a full body djinn equip is probably impossible."
"That's true," Lenka agreed, "If you haven't trained for the equip before and simply shot flames it's almost impossible to do the full equip right now. It took me six days after clearing the dungeon to do a weapon equip, and eleven more for the full body equip."
Sinbad and Alibaba stared at her with big eyes.
"Six," the king repeated amazed then grinned.
"And you knew what to do?"
Lenka nodded.
"Yes, but my problem was that the djinn saw how much magoi I could have had IF I was born here and not in my world. I had to wait this long because the Rukh had to give me the magoi I didn't possess. That's why I get stronger every day and can do a simple kind of magoi manipulation already, because this power is foreign to me. It's like a child that learns to walk, it get's better every day."
"For real? That's very interesting and also a bit frightening. I had to learn for months with the Yambala tribe to master magoi manipulation and you can do this yet already."
Lenka shrugged.
"I just asked the Rukh and Orobas for advice. Wait, if I rethink the me right now is becoming really Mary Sue-y right now. Really overpowering. A standard character. Easy to read. Perfect. That's bad. Really bad. I don't want to be standard."
"Wait a second," Alibaba said and waved with his dagger at her.
"I didn't get all of this. What's the weapon equip? And what about you not being born in this world? And what is this Mary thing you think that is so bad?"
Lenka started to laugh when she saw their confused faces.
They must think you're insane.
At least a little mad.
She wiped her eyes and inhaled a few times to calm down.
"Have you seen Kougyoku's metal vessel change into a sword?"
Alibaba nodded.
"Well, that's weapon equip," Sinbad continued, "the place nearest to the djinn is the easiest to equip."
"Look, it's like this," Lenka said and unfastened her necklace to show Alibaba the jewel with the eight-pointed star.
"Then I give Orobas a mental poke,"
I get it, the djinn sighed.
The necklace slowly turned into the blue and white saber and scales grew up to her elbows.
"Ta-daa!" Lenka cheered and did a few quick lunges and parrys.
"It's a little inconvenient that Orobas settled in the necklace, but it's much easier to hide under the scarf than a sword."
"Hey!" the djinn said and materialized. Alibaba yelped and stumbled back while Sinbad frowned as the equip wore off and Orobas rose to a size three times bigger than a human. The djinn possessively wrapped his arms around Lenka and pouted.
"You know that the necklace was given to me by our precious guardian. I won't move unless it's destroyed."
Lenka patted his arm.
"I know, dear, but I think having a sharp or spiky vessel is more convenient. A necklace has other assets, hasn't it?"
Alibaba had recovered from the shock and took a careful step forward. Orobas instantly stared at him with his golden eyes, causing Alibaba to flinch.
"I see. Poor Amon. I'm glad that Lenka is my queen. At least she knows what to do when it comes to using the power of magoi and Rukh."
The young man blushed ashamed and looked down at his metal vessel. Sinbad cleared his throat.
"You know it's rude to-"
"Hear the king of rude behavior talk," Orobas sneered, "You know how to do it the right way. Suspecting an innocent of treason because she told you she'd go with another metal vessel user to clear things up when their Magi was nearly flattened to death. Way to go. I seriously consider Lenka should stay with the Kou princess already. This girl has manners."
Lenka gave him a clout.
"Stop being such a prick. Can you return to the vessel please?"
"My queen," he nodded and disappeared. Lenka suppressed a giggle when she saw that Sinbad looked as if he had bitten on something sour while Alibaba had miraculously recovered from his humiliated state after witnessing the High King's treatment. She waved at them to get their attention and bowed like an actor at the end of the play.
"So that was a weapon equip and then an unintended djinn materialization. Thank you for paying attention and please don't try this at home!"
And the seventh chapter is out for the public! Two more until the Balbadd arc is finished *Lenka throws confetti* and we go to Sindria! I finally know how to answer reviews – except guest reviews, you can't answer them, can you?
Yeah, well, a bit violence in this chapter *Lenka whistles innocently*, but hey, the rating is M and the series is pretty violent too! Hehe. There will be more mature content as the story proceeds so be warned. Or are you probably waiting for that? *winks and blushes*
Thank you so much for your support! Thank you to everyone who has read, favorited, followed and/or reviewed! You are awesome!
Yours,
TheMultipleMeExperience