"Ugh, I thought we were never gonna leave. Kal'tsit, why did it take so long, thought you got most of it done yesterday?" Apollo said as he dropped his head in his hands.
Currently the Rhodes Island team is heading back home from Ursus. Kal'tsit, Silence, and Dobermann were minding their own business, nothing out the ordinary for them.
"That should be enough." Apollo on the other hand was starting to feel the boredom set in as he rechecked his plan for the magecraft class. It felt weird for him to teach magecraft from the very beginning. Students back home were either already familiar with the basics of magecraft or their culture being a good avenue to explain things. "However, since I know nothing about this place, that won't work." Apollo rubbed his head. "I'll do the rest later."
Apollo pushed his handful of notes away, and walked towards the group he traveled with. Checking their surroundings, they saw a large empty field not too far from where Rhodes Island landship is located.
"Hey Kal'tsit correct me if I'm wrong but we can practice arts since no one or thing is here right?" Apollo asked with a smug smile.
"While I do feel concerned regarding that look on your face, you are correct. As long as it's nothing on the scale of a catastrophe, we'll be fine."
A sly smile started to form on his smile, he turned towards Ifrit.
"Little one, want to burn some stuff?"
The duo of Ifrit and Silence stared at Apollo's words. Silence with a dumbfounded expression as if she heard the dumbest thing ever said, while Ifrit on the other hand had a bright expression.
"You don't have to tell me twice." Ifirt got up and ran straight towards Apollo.
"Hold it." Silence palmed the top of Ifrit's head before she got far. "Absolutely not. I feel as if I don't need to explain why shooting out arts abilities is a terrible idea."
Apollo expression dampened. "I would understand on the way towards Ursus, but everything is set and done; you don't have to be a stick in the mud, " Apollo said as he pointed towards the child with his thumb.
"Exactly!" Ifrit said as she tried to maneuver out of Silence's grasp.
Silence could only sigh in disappointment, however there was another feeling creeping in.
"Fine. I'll allow it but stay within where I can see you." Silence stated.
"Yay!" Ifrit shouted in joy as she ran off.
Silence turned towards Apollo who had a joyful expression. Apollo walked towards Ifrit pulling something out of his chest. Out from it came another small sphere.
"Ifrit tried to hit this target dummy!" Apollo shouted as he threw the sphere a few feet ahead of where Ifrit was standing. Instead of the homunculus that he was known for, out came a simple test dummy. It was similar to a target you would see in a firing range.
"Where did that come from? Is that your art? It's kinda lame if you can only make test dummies that I can burn so easily." Ifrit announced with her chest out and nose pointed to the sky.
Before Apollo could respond, Ifirt pulled out her flamethrower and torched the target engulfed it in flames. Apollo saw the display of power as if an untamed hell fire was violating the target. A small tingle stroked his heart at the showing of power, he was brought back to the massacre of the traffickers from last night.
A small but noticeable euphoric feeling filled him, however as quickly as the euphoria came it left with it being replaced with guilt. "I shouldn't be thinking like that anymore. They would be disappointed in me." Apollo muttered so only himself could hear.
"Are you impressed? Of course you are." Ifrit shouted with her nose higher than before."
"Was it cool? Yes. However, I want to try something." He pointed towards her flamethrower. "I'm gonna be working under the idea that your flamethrower is your staff. I have a hypothesis to wh-" Apollo froze upon seeing the Ifrit expression, while Ifrit's proud expression was still there, he could see something else creep up at the utterance of the word 'hypothesis'.
"Rather it's an idea I have. Ifrit I can tell you like fire, so we made more fire. How about it?" Apollo slowly took a knee so he was about as tall as Ifrit .
Ifrit looked towards Silence then back at Apollo. He didn't bother to follow her eyes.
"If you think your idea can please Lord Ifrit's desire to be stronger than I will allow it." She announced once again in her loud voice.
Apollo smiled. "Of course my lord." Playing into Ifrit's mental image of herself.
Ifirt handed over her flamethrower to Apollo. He quickly deduced that the best way to increase the firepower was to apply a spell to the muzzle of the flamethrower. He muttered an incationed and a small magic circle was seen around it. Ifrit's eyes focused on it.
"What's this?" She said as she poked it.
"Just a little trick from my homeland. Now do what you did before."
"But that dummy is already burned to bits."
" Firstly the saying is 'burned to a crisp.' How does a fire girl not know this? Secondly, are you sure it's burnt?"
Apollo pointed to the target with his thumb. What the test dummy was doing was not only surprising Ifrit but also everyone else to varying degrees. The dummy that was charged blacker than a black hole was slowly regaining color and repairing whatever damage was done.
"Now that it's fixed and I did my thing to your flamethrower. Try it again and use about the same amount of energy."
Ifrit did as she was told with a devilish smile as if falling into her more violent tendencies. She felt her body warm up and she made sure she used the exact same amount of energy. The next moment the flame erupted out of the flamethrower with greater wraith. If the first set of flames Ifrit shot out were from the first level of hell, then the flames she is currently putting out was that of the second level.
"This is amazing! What did you do?" Ifrit shouting running towards Apollo.
"That my friend is a secret." Apollo said as he placed a finger over his lips.
Ifrit could only pout at the answer. As this interaction happened, Kal'tsit simply observed.
'Could this be the magecraft he was talking about? So the use of a pocket dimension as storage and the amplification of a spell. What else can he do?' Thoughts like these swirled in her head.
"Finally, while I may be used to traveling. I nearly always did it on foot, so sitting in a truck for a long time was quite an experience no matter how many times I did it."
The group returned to Rhodes Island sooner than expected. It was evening time with the sun dieing the world in an orange-reddish hue. Kal'tsit informed him that he should expect a list of candidates for his magecraft course within a week. Apollo headed straight for Marth's room after Saria mentioned that he needed to see her. He was already planning to see her but Saria's concern for her only made it an even higher priority.
"Oh Marth I'm back."
Apollo entered Marth's room and the sight he saw wasn't what he wanted to see. Scattered across the floor were large amounts of cube remains all of them being different degrees of black. However his eyes snapped back towards the main point of interest, it was Marth sitting at her test. Apollo could see her worn out factual features as she looked intensely at the cube.
Apollo walked through the minefield of cube fragments and took the cube out of Marth's hands, her head snapped back.
"Apollo your back, wh-when did you get here?"
"Not important, I'm taking you to the cafeteria. It looks like you haven't eaten."
Before Marth could reply, Apollo picked her up from the chair by her stomach and tossed her on his shoulder. "Taking care of the body is more important." He said as he left the room with his new hostage in hand.
As Apollo walked he decided now was a good time to inform Marth on what's happening. "So I can tell that you have been struggling on the enforcement magecraft."
Marth didn't say anything. Apollo could feel the downcast of emotions she was feeling, he decided that it will be better to handle this over dinner.
They soon reached the cafeteria and ordered their food. Marth didn't say anything and was eating slowly. Apollo felt both a mix of twisted pleasure and sadness from seeing Marth like this, it reminded him of the expression Ritsuka when she learned the truth behind the lostbelts and what happens when you cut the Fantasy Tree down.
"I can see that the enforcement magecraft has been hard for you."
Marth offered no reply besides a small nod, she wasn't even looking Apollo in the eyes for the conversation.
"Don't worry about it. Relatively soon I'll be teaching a few other people magecraft, similar to a class you would take in school."
The expectation Apollo had for sharing this with Marth was that she would feel happy about learning with other people and to learn more about magecraft, however Apollo saw something roll down Marth's face. The light in the room caused a small shine to appear on Marth cheek... a tear.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to disappoint you." small hiccups were escaping her lips between the words.
The single tear turned to two.
Then from two to three.
Then three to countless streams.
"I know I'm in incompetent." Her voice was silent yet muddy, thick with many emotions. She looked up at Apollo making sure her normally muddy, dazed eyes stained red were full of tears "But please don't leave me."
Apollo slowly pushed out his hand and rested it on her head, rubbing it softly. Marth's already weak heart was shattering, she didn't know why but so much was flowing out. Apollo continued to say nothing, not even bothering to give the few people looking over at the two in question any mind. His first and only mission is to tend to Marth; his student.
"Marth I have done many things in my life, many of them I'm not proud of. Alot of people would say I made countless mistakes and I can understand that. However, my choice to teach you magecraft and my faith in you." Apollo paused as a quick tape of memories flashed by in his head showing many of said mistakes "I'll make sure to everyone that picking you wasn't a mistake. I promise you that."
With those words a shattered sound could be heard. Marth who had to endure many of the trials imposed by the world. The loss of parents, racial discrimination, oripathy and more at a young age was forced to haphazardly repair and enforce her heart. That same heart was once again being quickly rebuilt and just as quickly shattered akin to a calamity destroying a city.
"Lets eat, food helps everyone. After that you can have much needed rest. I'll tell Saria you're sleeping and may miss any appointments today."
Marth looked back down at her food, nodding. She ate slightly quicker than before. Visible to no one, not even Apollo, a faint shine was cracking through Marth's dazed eyes. Apollo could do nothing but have a faint smile grow on his face, it reminded him of when he first took Shinji out to eat after freeing him from his grandfather.
Two people were entering a building. They went through a check-in to confirm their identity. The two walked through the halls and past the insignia of their organization. 'Imperium Service Unit' could be seen printed on the wall.
"Let's hurry, the Major hates waiting." One of the men said.
The two soon enter a room, with an older man in a military uniform.
"Men, take a seat."
The two followed the directions.
"So inform me on the mission, I don't have all day." The Major said.
One of the men pulled out a file and placed two pieces of paper on the table. "We observed the main target of Kal'tsit, she didn't do anything out the ordinary as seen in the contract we got from the business she made a deal with."
"I see. You men did a good job, not provoking her. Between you and me I heard that this infected cat is quite the fighter, and can easily tear through dozens of capable fighters."
"Uh sir, there is something else that we need to bring to your attention." One of the men said.
"What is it?" The Major replied while cocking his eyebrow.
One of the men pulled out another piece of paper with an image of a man wearing a red beaded necklace with a cross attached to it. The Major picked up the piece of paper.
"Apollo Kotemine? Sounds like someone from Higashi with a last name like that. Who is he?"
"We believe he could be a possible threat, most likely not the same level as the primary target of Kal'tsit but a threat nonetheless." The two men began explaining the experience of observing Rhodes Island, mainly focusing on Apollo.
The Major took the file off the table with all the contents inside. "I'd like to thank you boys for the report. You both are dismissed."
The two both said "To the glory of Ursus, Sir" while saluted before leaving the room making the Major the sole occupant. He opened the file and read through Apollo's file again seeing the many instances of the word 'Unknown' written.
"I know those two, Leo and George can handle a simple background check." He stared intensely at the photo of Apollo. "Who are you?".