Saku Kinoshita here.

Yeah so, seeing all the nice reviews I decided to continue the fanfic although it'll only be a monthly release since I'll be busy with Unknown Entity in the mean time.

So look forward to some future releases.

Chapter 2: Hang Out

It had been a few days since Rood enrolled into kindergarten. Despite his numerous requests (more like threats) to his caretaker, Rood still hasn't been able to get out of the school. On the bright side, ever since Rood started hanging around Lidusis, no one except for Dio has bothered him or gave him any unnecessary attention like they did on his first day at the school. His only issue was that Dio has been constantly telling him to switch seats and stop hanging around Lidusis for his own safety. Rood didn't really get what Dio was getting so worked up about so he just continued staying by the gray haired Idun's side like usual while ignoring his dark blue haired friend's protests.

Dio had warned Rood on multiple occasions that he should stay away from Lidusis for his own safety so that he doesn't end up picking a fight with the Hereis. In all honesty, Rood was actually hoping that would be the case that way he'd find an excuse to get out of the school, but not before giving Chevel a piece of his mind.

"Until next time, make sure to stay away from strangers and be careful of kidnappers." At the sound of the bell, Orphell dismisses his students signalling the start of their exciting two day weekend.

Several students cheer in delight now free from the iron chains of their prison. Rood didn't seem surprised seeing Dio as one of the students cheering like an idiot.

"Finally, school's over! I never thought it'd end!" Dio gleefully exclaimed.

"It's only a two day weekend. It happens every week." Rood deadpanned.

"Rood, Rood, Rood, my friend..." Repeating his friend's name, Dio shakes his head in disapproval with his hand on Rood's shoulder. "Since this is your first week of school, you have yet to realize the beauty of weekends in a long week of work and boring classes. Listen, in weekends, you get to play around as much as you like!"

"We already do that at breaks and at home."

"Unlike weekdays, you don't have to go to school and study those boring lessons!" Dio won't let Rood's words shaken him up.

"Even if you don't like it, you still have to learn if you want to continue your education and get a job."

"And you get to sleep and play all day as much as you want!"

"You do that school too."

Technically, Rood is correct. During lessons, Dio would always fall fast asleep after a few words from the professor and would only wake up during breaks or lunch time.

Hearing all of Rood's flawless counterarguments, Dio falls into despair on the ground.

"Hehe..." Dio lightly chuckled.

This worried Rood as he thought Dio had lost it.

"There's still one thing that makes weekends so special!" Dio proudly declared. "Home visits!"

Rood stares at Dio with a dead look in his heads.

"Weekends are the perfect time to go over to each other's house and deepen our friendship!"

"Oh, so you're going to intrude on someone's house and mooch off them? Good luck with that."

"How mean, Rood! I'd never do that!"

"Speaking of which, do you want to come over my house, Lidusis?" Rood asked Lidusis.

"Wait, how come Lord Artian gets to go, but I don't?!"

This is so unfair. This was practically favoritism... No wait, discrimination.

Having arrived at the kindergarten where her child was, Duchess Dayner Artian walks through the gates ready to pick up her son.

"Excuse me, I'm here for my son." Duchess Dayner approaches her son's professor.

"If you're looking for your son, he's no longer here. He went to play at one of his classmates' house."

"!" Did she hear him correctly? Her meek, withdrawn son went to someone else's house? This had never happened before.

"Based on your reaction, it seems that you weren't informed of this. Very well, I will give a call the house to return your son." Orphell starts to head back to phone Rood's house until Duchess Dayner stops him.

"That won't be necessary. But I would like the house's address so that I may pick up my child when he calls."

To think her son would go to another friend's house.

Whoever that child Lidusis was with, she was just grateful to him.

After being picked up, Rood brought Lidusis... and Dio reluctantly to Opion's Headquarters as they were being escorted by a beautiful red orange haired woman. Passing by the magicians of Opion, she leads Rood and his two friends to the Master's office.

"Whoa, you've such a pretty mom, Rood!" Dio whispered to Rood.

"She's not my mother."

"Then your sister?"

"No, she's my guardian's secretary."

"We're here." Directs them to the Master's office, Ren opens the door. "Master, I've brought Rood back."

"Really, that's great!" Master was so happy to hear that Rood came back safe and sound. Sometimes, he worries that his precious son would get kidnapped by some weirdo. With someone as cute as Rood, there's bound to be stalkers and kidnappers around him.

"And he brought company this time."

The sandy blond man instinctively hides behind his chair using a clipboard as a shield.

"It's not another stray cat this time."

The memory of that rapid stray cat Rood set in his room as payback for sending him to school traumatized the older man. Still, hearing that Rood brought something with him didn't ease his worries.

"Nor is it a tiger, coyote, gorilla, bear, alligator, or a tank of piranhas.

"What about a boar?" He still wasn't fully convinced yet.

"They're both human." Ren clarified.

At this, Master's eyes pop out of his eye-sockets.

"H... Humans?!" Master joyfully cried in his handkerchief. "To think, the day would come where Rood would invite friends over. I never thought I'd live to see this day."

"Don't worry because you won't live much longer after this..." Rood smiles at his guardian while cracking his knuckles.

He knew what that smile meant. Rood uses that smile when he's pissed and is about to beat him up.

"Let's not get hasty, Rood. You have guests, right?"

He didn't want to die an early death and not by the hands of a five year old year either.

"Rood, I understand how you feel at the moment." Ren interjected. "But you do have friends over. You can do that afterwards. Right now, you can go play with your friends."

Hearing Ren's sensible reasoning, Rood complies with Ren's request and stops himself from half killing his guardian. "Alright..."

Rood heads back to Lidusis and Dio.

"I'm going to go now." Rood leaves taking Lidusis and Dio with him to an unoccupied room they could use to play in.

Once Rood is out of eye's sight, the sandy haired blond lets out a breath of relief. He thought he was goner there.

"I thought he was going to kill me..."

"But he will later." His secretary noted while checking some documents.

He wished she hadn't said that.

"Still, this is the first time Rood has brought over friends. It was a good idea to send him to school after all..." Tears of joy well up in the Opion headmaster's eyes.

"At the cost of your life though..." Ren deadpanned once more.

Oh, that's right... Rood's still mad him for sending him to school. He almost forgot.

"Never mind that, don't forgot you have an appointment scheduled today." Ren reminded her superior. "It's a big client so be on your best behavior."

Having brought his two friends over, Rood wonders should he do next. He's done his part so what else should he do.

"Wow, Rood. Your place is really big! I can't believe you live here!" Dio exclaimed.

"No, I don't live here. This is just where Master works. I wait for him here until he finishes his work."

"Work?" Dio didn't get why Rood called his father 'Master' but didn't put much thought into it. Come to think of it, he heard some people he passed by in the hallway talking about going on jobs. He even heard one of them mention this place's name. Wait, wasn't that place a well known organization renowned for a famous magician. And didn't Rood say that Ren was his father's secretary. "Does that mean that this is Opion?"

Rood nods his head confirming Dio's question.

"Whoa! Your old man is the chairman of Opion!" Dio just learned something intriguing about Rood. "Then does that mean you've seen the Black Magician?!"

"B-Black Magician..." Rood repeated that name. Why did his friend have to mention that name?

"Yeah! He's a super famous 1st ranked magician! Everyone in school knows about him. And not only is he super strong but he's one of the youngest magicians ever. Rumors have it he's around our age."

Rood knew about this. He knew about the Black Magician all too well. More than anyone else.

"So have you've seen him before! Since your old man is the chairman of Opion, it's only natural you'd know what the Black Magician looks like both unawakened and awakened."

"Y-Yeah..." Rood couldn't look his friend in the eye.

"Really! Is he the same age as us? What does he look like? Is he as handsome as the rumors say? "

Being bombarded by all these questions, Rood wasn't sure how to answer his dark blue haired friend. Out of all the topics to talk about he had to choose that one.

"Is it true he's a woman?" Dio secretively whispers to his blond friend in a hush-hush manner.

*BONG*

After that, Dio decided not to ask any further questions about the Black Magician.

"Rood, you got any books we can use?" Sporting a large bump on his head, Dio asked. A picture book would a good way to deepen his bond with Rood since the latter seemed like the type to be more interested in book than playing tag.

*THUMP*

However he did not think Rood would bring out a really huge, hard-covered, 500+ page book. That wasn't a book anymore that was a blunt weapon. Did they made picture books that big? And with that many pages? Surely, Rood didn't grab a dictionary by mistake, did he? Just looking at the gigantic abomination was enough to make Dio feel faint as he could feel all his blood drain from his face just by the sight of the thing. Even Lidusis was dumbfounded by it as well.

"Rood..."

"Yes?"

"This isn't a book shaped block, right?"

"What are you talking about? I brought out a book like you asked."

No, no, no, no, no... That can't be a book! It's anything but a book! From Dio's perspective, books are supposed to be much more smaller and compact. This was pretty much about the same size as them. And what kind of kindergartener reads this type of thing! It's practically a monster!

How was he going to explain this to his friend? But before that...

"Rood..."

"What?"

"Do you read this kind of book?" There is still the possibility that there wasn't any other book available so Rood just happened to grab this. Yes, that's it. That's how it is.

"Pretty much." Rood nonchalantly answered.

There goes that idea.

"I haven't had time to catch up on it so this is the perfect chance to finish it."

And what's more is that he's almost done with it?! No more, he needs to stop him.

"R-Rood, how about we try a book with more pictures instead?" There was no way Dio can possibly read that. It's best to subtly shift the direction of the topic. He needed Rood to change books right away.

Fortunately, this time Rood did bring out a book with pictures and lots of it. Yes, pictures of magic circles.

This isn't coming across well... First, it was a monster book. And now, an encyclopedia of magic circles.

"I don't mean like that?! I mean like something we can color on or paint! Something more simple and basic."

"Here." Rood holds out notebook.

Too basic?!

He brought a notebook out of all things? Well, he did say something to color on, but he was expecting something like a coloring book.

Oh well, let's just make due with this.

Seeing as how he had no choice, Dio compromised with the notebook. At least, it was better than the other two options.

"Alright, let's draw something fun like our future selves!"

5 minutes later~

"Finished!" Dio exclaimed. If he might say, he was proud of his current work.

Rood and Lidusis finished their drawings as well.

"Let's takes turns showing ours." Dio suggested. "I'll go first!"

Dio shows his drawing to the two. Although Dio still held his reservations towards Lidusis, he didn't mind acting all casual with Lidusis right now since they weren't at school.

The drawing was very crude in Rood's opinion. Since it was supposed to be a portrait of their future selves, why was there another person next to Dio's future self? Or rather what was Dio's future self? All Rood could see was a blue eyed man with really long black hair next to a small baby dragon. What's more was that the dragon was the same color as Dio's hair. Don't tell him that's Dio's future self? Just what is he trying to become?

"Who's this?" Leaving the dragon aside, Rood didn't remember seeing someone like that before.

"That's my most important person!"

"Most important person?" Rood never knew Dio had someone like that.

"Yeah, he's the number one person I care for and respect. He's not here right now, but I do want to see him again. More than anything else..."

"Eee... Is that so..." Rood dully responded.

Wait, Dio forgot something. How could he not notice this earlier?

"But that doesn't mean you aren't important to me, Rood!" Dio rubs his cheek on Rood's head while tightly hugging the blond. By saying that he had someone important to him, he unintentionally made Rood feel lonely. What a horrible friend he is for not realizing this sooner! "I still care about you too!"

*BONG*

"So what's your picture, Lidusis?" Rood carries on to the next person in line while Dio nurses the poor bump on his head which now had another one on it curtsey of Rood.

Shyly averting his gaze, Lidusis shows his drawing of an older version of himself, Rood, and Dio.

So he wanted to be with them even in the future. How sweet...

Rood didn't mind and found Lidusis's drawing to be really nice although he wasn't exactly planning on staying in school any longer.

Dio too found the drawing to be rather touching although he liked his quiet school life at the same time and for several reasons he can't tell him.

"What's your's, Rood?" Dio was curious what Rood drew. Since his father's the chairman of Opion, he probably wanted to take over his father's position and become the new chairman or maybe become a strong magician like the Black Magician.

Much to his and Lidusis's surprise as well, Dio did not expect to see a picture of someone being tied up and served to a lion like an entree. And for some reason, that someone in the picture looks an awful lot like the Master of Opion. The cartoonish style did lighten up the mood giving it a comical aspect.

"How is it?"

Honestly, in their opinion, this drawing was scary as hell. What kindergartener draws a picture of their own guardian being eaten by an animal?

Joke! This has got to be a joke! Right? This was a joke set up by Rood. Because there's no way he would actually wish for something like this to happen.

"Was it no good?"

This is bad. If they don't say anything soon, they'll end up hurting Rood's feelings.

"Then about this?" It seems that Rood had another back up as he shows them his second drawing. This time it was a tiger and in its mouth was the Master of Opion. The tiger was holding him by his side like a mouse in a cat's mouth.

This wasn't any better than the first one. Actually, this one was more horrifying. The cartoonish style didn't really help either. Just what does he see his guardian as?

Domestic violence? Was Rood being abused or something? Did he hate his guardian? Exactly, what kind of relationship did they have?

One thing, they learned that day was that Rood was scary as heck.

This was no good. No good at all.

"Gyyyaaa!"

"Someone stop him!"

"My nose! My nose! He broke my nose!"

"Someone call the Chairman!"

Sigh~

What is he going to do? With such an unruly child as that, Lanoste wonders if there was anything he could do to get that foul tempered child under control. Hearing the screams of terror from his magicians was nothing new. It'd be weirder if there wasn't a day where that boy wouldn't tear apart his organization. The only time it was quiet was when the boy went out destroying parts of the city. If it wasn't at his workplace, it'd be somewhere out in the city.

"Just where on earth did I go wrong in raising that child?" Lanoste was sure he raised him to grow up to be a capable gentleman that would greatly benefit the Association. Instead he got one tiny powerhouse bent on destroying everything in his path.

"I'm pretty sure it's because of that attitude that he became like that." Van, Lanoste's most loyal magician and even referred to as Lanoste's Dog, deadpanned. He could remember all the countless times his boss irked the young child so much that he underwent an early rebellious phase.

"Then what makes so sure of that... Loyal dog of our's..."

"Please stop calling me that!" Van gets goosebumps every time Lanoste calls him that.

"Never mind that, we've got a bigger issue at hand right now..."

"Bigger than him running around destroying the place?"

Action speaks louder than words so Lanoste dropped a bunch of sheets of paper on his desk.

"What are these?"

"Complaints from Opion."

Oh... This didn't smell good.

"And more where that came from." This time Lanoste drops a large stack of complaints on his desk.

"Seeing as how things have been going lately between our organizations, both the Master of Opion and I arranged a meeting at Opion to discuss our latest problem."

"He doesn't know about this right...?"

"I'm hoping to keep it that way..." Lanoste absolutely didn't want to let that child know about this. "Which is why I'm having you keep an eye on him while I'm gone. And make sure he doesn't find out at all costs."

Van didn't need him to tell him. He would've done so even if he wasn't asked.

"So when's the meeting?"

"Tomorrow, at Opion." Lanoste answered. "I'm hoping you don't mind babysi..."

Wait a minute, didn't that voice sound awfully different than Van's usual voice?

Even Van was stumped by the extra set of vocal cords. He knew for sure it wasn't his or his superior's voice. For he recognized that voice.

"So it's tomorrow..." The young redheaded child smirked.

Now this was a big miscalculation on their part.

"H... How long have you been here... Shic?" Van didn't notice the root source of their problem entering the room. No wonder it was so quiet outside.

"Ever since you started yammering about Opion..."

This wasn't going well.

"I can't wait to see Blackie again..." Shicmuon grinned at the thought of seeing his prey once more.