Magi and Djinn World Tour! Student of the Dark Arts –

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Chapter 3: Exchange Students

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Raku moved quick on his toes as the station ended and the pavement above began. He had walked in San Fran and San Diego before. In Tokyo a few blocks, Osaka, but never…

London.

It was as if he'd decided to jump into a book, a book on the past. A past that looked familiar even at first glance. "Where is the landmark that used to be here?" He asked the magi. John put away his cigs as Raku seemed to be recalling the time he'd been alive to find Rokuro during a world War in the past.

"Things changed a lot since you were alive, Raku. You'll have to walk a bit farther than this. We've almost arrived."

A few blocks up, Raku took his protein bar and John treated them both to lunch. It was an odd timing. The two were quieter, more reserved and John had a tendency to be more helpful than he'd been rumored as by the Titans. Or the bat.

Dick had said John mostly kept to his work, like batman.

Maybe he had a terrible experience as a child? Raku but into his sandwich and ignored the gnawing desire to know more about the man. That was just a djinn's madness at work.

They were off again; this time a cab as John relented and took the time to keep them on their toes. The last place was a big building with stony steps and its aura was quite enigmatic at first glance.

"Come along." John walked up the steps as Raku followed behind. Not to question, not to ruin his moment as they came to an office building and stepped through the doors with their guards up always.

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It was a seated area. Chairs lined there as the quiet settled back in. John went to the front desk as he pulled out a card from one of his connections here in the city. "Afternoon. I'm here to see …"

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It came as a blur. The clock was their metronome while the man at this desk was particularly interested in the testing Raku had done over his wait in the Grayson household. "Very good score. He intends to start right away?"

"He's just gained expat citizenship." John blinked.

"Wait?...that early?"

"I can gladly go over anything that wasn't checked off."

The two went at it as Raku sat and stayed mouse quiet the entire time, until the director turned to speak to him.

"Your guardian said you're interested in Philosophy and to work in anthropology as a major. Maybe as a historian someday. I'm interested to know what you enjoy the most about the three subjects you've chosen."

A test. Raku smiled and nodded as his mouth spoke something only a God could convey.

"Your passion in unquestionably strong. Gifted even, for someone appearing so young." Grinned the school's director as Raku let his head rest, on knowing he had passed. "Welcome to our college, young Grayson."

John smiled at the kid as he seemed, delighted at sharing a common surname as his contracted.

"I'm more than pleased to have been selected in this process, sir. I won't fail my own expectations to pass every course. It's been my desire to study the past and take to heart all I can from her lessons. There can be no better answer than this."

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There was a minute that Raku was told to wait out in the hall, so he did. John spoke to the director who nodded. "In his time, it would be a form of autism now, more so."

"I know it, Adam. I'm hating labeling him as much as you. You know our story. Shoji was sure to inform the board as well?"

"That this school is also meant to help people with his sort of background? The magic, you mean? Or the shyness?"

"That's just the trauma talking, mate." John said. "He was a victim to it for a very long time. I'm hoping he'll open up here. Not be so attached to the past."

"As he said, he wants to learn from it."

"And a magus as the college's headmaster isn't a red flag to anyone like him?"

"John, I know how it was reconnecting, even after –

John put a finger up. "He can know it later. For now, my focus is on his prime elective of study, to dip his toe in. This being just a taste once he can well integrate within our society as he sees it. I see a way to heal, and I hope he might as well take that lesson to heart."

Adam nodded. "Your note earlier said that his trauma makes him younger, physically. Can it work both ways if he lets his magic, out?" Adam asked the other magi.

"That's possibly, why I need him here when my work takes me out of the picture for days. I didn't say he'd be on every mission, but to make him a special case like this and his social quirks, it worries me."

"You're acting like his guardian would." Adam replied. "I know you cared enough to agree to having him train it out of himself, but you will have to tell him one day, Johnny."

"When it comes, that time will harm both of our egos, bloke. "John leaned his head back into his seat and ignored that he had one more stop to make before they were finally home.

"Ah, is he staying in that manor? The one you won in a poker game?" Adam was a fellow magus that made sure that the country's hidden magi stayed that way from the general public. It was a government decision actually, and John had to thank the royal family for making the call at long last.

"Will you keep your end, if I can keep him out of trouble, John? That you won't run off and leave that boy without anyone to relate to?"

"Same way that brat did? Never." John shook his head. "Aiden doesn't understand, not yet. Maybe if he had a reason to stop playing the shallow side of life, to look into humanity as a joke."

"You're all but human yourself, though." Snorted Adam as John rolled his eyes to the door behind them. "Yes, but I'm superior and inferior for all that I have mastered. Raku might just be pure of heart, yet no one bothered to take a good look for themselves."

"He's not though." Adam said. "Raku is a demi god with a past that almost made him a convicted criminal for all eternity. He even was forced to serve a dark master and killed for a living. If he really isn't a threat as you told me, I can see it. He looked reborn to me, like none of that mattered. He's hurt. But you took him in, regardless."

"I did it for him, not me."

"We'll see, Johnny. You have our word." Adam vowed. "Raku will be treated as if he's new, not special. I intend to use caution around this one, just in case..."

"And report to myself or those on the list I have if he's not able to handle a few new changes. There's a lot of work involved; I'm still schooling him back at the house."

"Then, count on it, John." They shook on it like old friends and John rejoined his pupil in the hall. "Ready to shove off, lad?"

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Raku is going to a new university for magic!! Yay!! Next up, his breakthrough! Noted, this is right before Tokyo and during Ami's school setting right before her high school debut. Find out!