Chapter Fifty-Six: I'll Be Your Contradiction
Just in case you were wondering about the title of this chapter, yes, I read/watch "God of Highschool" (The WEBTOON is better in my opinion), with that out of the way, enjoy the chapter. Cya.
"So, that's what's going on, aye? Interesting, good work, Finral,"
The next day came for the Black Bulls, Yami was currently sitting on his chair and sipping some coffee as the spatial mage relayed all the information he got from the Witch Queen, with the most interesting obviously being the information on the Eye of the Midnight Sun, and the likely existence of the elves.
"I didn't think we'd ever be facing off against another race besides humans," the dark mage said aloud. "Although, I don't think these elves will be much of a threat, according to the stories I read about them when I was a boy, elves are these small creatures with pointy ears, even if they are supposed to be strong mages, stature can make a decent difference, no offense to Asta though,"
"Uh, no offense Captain Yami, but I'm pretty sure those were just misconceptions, from what the Queen told us, I'm positive they look something more like us," Finral told him. "So, what are we going to do?"
Yami put down his coffee and took out the Magic Stone his squad members had given him the day before, looking at it for a few seconds before getting up. "I know what I'm going to do, I'm delivering this stone to Julius ASAP, if that organization wants this to make themselves stronger, we can't let them succeed,"
The dark mage looked over at his other squad members, who were all peacefully enjoying their breakfast. "Hey, I'm heading to Magic Knights HQ, any one of you wanna tag along? After you're done with your breakfast, of course,"
It didn't take long for the thread mage to raise her hand. "Oh, I can go, I ate a light breakfast today, so I'm all ready to go,"
"Nice, Finral, you know where we're going, a portal to the gate of HQ," Yami plainly instructed.
"On it, and don't forget to bring a transmission device so you can contact me to make another portal when you're done," the spatial mage advised before creating a portal.
"Will do," the two mages replied before walking into the portal as it disappeared.
Finral walked over and sat down with the others. "Damn, I know it's behind us, but yesterday was quite the day for us, I still can't believe Asta tried to kill us,"
"Wait, what?" Luck, Magna, Charmy, Gauche, and Grey asked simultaneously, the previous day had been so climactic for the group that went to the Witches' Forest, they had forgotten to tell the others about what happened to them.
"Vanessa's crazy mom took control of Asta and forced him to try and kill us, luckily, it didn't happen," Noelle explained.
"My bad, you guys," the swordsman stated apologetically, but was quickly met with nods of forgiveness by his squadmates.
"Really? I always thought the rookie was too hard-headed to be controlled like that, I guess some things about us are still a surprise to one another," Magna stated.
"And speaking of surprises, there's something I want to know, Asta," Kenos spoke up, causing the magicless mage to look at him. "What happened to you yesterday, when you were fighting Ladros, that transformation you went into?"
"Transformation?" the same groups of mages asked once more.
"Yeah, when you look at his left side, everything seems fine, but his right side was an entirely different story, his hair was black, his eye was a different color, he grew a horn and a wing, he could even fly, you should've seen it, it was incredible," the solar mage explained.
"I can only imagine how cool that would look," Luck said with his usual excitement. "C'mon Asta, let's head outside and fight, you can show me this new form,"
"I don't think I can, I don't remember how I exactly did it, the form sort of just came," Asta explained.
"Oh, then do you at least know where the power is coming from? Is it from your swords? Finral then asked.
The spatial mage's words caused the swordsman to look down at the ground, recalling the first meeting between him and the devil who was referred to as Roth.
"I can see you're having trouble with the guy who absorbed the spirit, if you want, I'll defeat him for you...all you have to do is give me control of your body, sit tight and I'll handle everything," the mysterious devil had told him.
"I don't know where I got it from either, it's a bit of a mystery," Asta lied, for the time being, he didn't know much about the devil inside his grimoire, so he chose not to share it with his squadmates as that could've eventually led to questions he didn't have the answer to.
"I also want to know how exactly did the devil get in my grimoire? Was it always there? Is there a possible way to take in beings and put them in a grimoire? So many questions, and for now, I don't have any answers, so I'd better keep this on the low until I can find out more," the swordsman continued in his head.
Everyone seemed content with Asta's answer, except the solar mage. "I don't know what exactly was responsible for that transformation, but whatever it was, it made my grimoire react to it, just like at the Underwater Temple, you're right, this is a bit of a mystery,"
For now, Kenos put the thought aside, he would try to find out more later, but now, it was time to continue their breakfast.
"So, you went to the Witches' Forest, aye?"
Those were the words that came out of Yami's mouth as he and Vanessa walked down a hallway, with the door to Julius' office not too far away.
"Yeah, that's what happened," Vanessa replied with a small smile.
"Was there anything different, it's been a while since I last crashed that place?" the dark mage then asked.
"Nope, nothing like that, everything stayed practically the same, even the security drones were the same: as bad as ever," the thread mage replied once more as the two shared a quick chuckle.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot to ask, where's your cat?" her captain asked.
"Rouge? I decided to leave her at the base for now, but I should get used to having her along with me, you never know when you could use her power,"
Yami opened his mouth again, Vanessa assumed he was going to ask another silly question, but when he asked it, her eyes slightly widened.
"So, how was it, ya know...visiting your old home in the forest?"
Vanessa sighed. "With all due respect, Captain Yami, the Witches' Forest was never my home, it wasn't even an old home, my true home is back at the hideout with the others,"
"That's good to know, it sort of makes me wonder how the other witches are doing that have left the forest to start a new life, especially her?" Yami asked, putting emphasis on the last word, similar to what the Queen did the day before.
"Ah yes, I hope she's doing alright, we haven't seen her in some time," Vanessa said back with a big smile on her face. "Have you kept in touch with her?"
"Sorry to say, but I haven't, just like us, she's an adult with her own stuff to handle, I guess that's made us drift apart a bit," Yami replied as he blew smoke out of his cigarette.
"I see, well that's a bummer," Vanessa mumbled as the two reached the door to the time mage's office.
The dark mage quickly knocked. "Come in," the familiar voice of Julius said from the other side, the two Black Bulls entered and were met with a smile.
The Wizard King was currently sitting at his desk before standing up. "Yami, what a pleasant surprise, I wasn't expecting to see you today," he then turned his head to the thread mage beside him. "And Vanessa is with you this time, hello, it's been some time since we've last seen each other, how have you been doing lately?"
"Hello there, your majesty, I've been doing just fine, but it seems like you're busy," Vanessa said back.
Julius chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. "You know me, the Wizard King is always busy, although I haven't seen Marx around today, I wonder what he's doing?" he said before asking, but then went back to the question at hand, turning once more to Yami. "So, why exactly are you here? I take it that something important happened?"
"You bet, I got a present for you," the dark mage replied as he took out the crystal-like object and showed it to Julius.
The Wizard King lightly gasped before the object was placed in his hand. "A Magic Stone? I'm impressed, it hasn't even been three days since you delivered the stone you acquired from the Underwater Temple, where did you find this one?"
It was Vanessa who answered his question. "We found it in the Witches' Forest," she replied.
"The Witches' Forest, if I'm not mistaken, that's the place you were born, right?" Julius asked.
Vanessa nodded. "That's right, the Magic Stone was with the Queen of Witches...my mother, while we were there, we had a run-in with the Eye of the Midnight Sun and the Diamond Kingdom, but both forces were subdued and we returned yesterday,"
"I see, it's a good thing you went to that forest, I'll be sure to send stars to your squad, 15 should be an optimal number, seeing as that's how much your squad was awarded the last time, oh, and speaking of stars, there are some things I have to address, regarding four of your squad members, Magna Swing, Luck Voltia, Charmy Pappitson, and Grey,"
Yami raised a brow, those weren't names he expected to hear while visiting. "Are there any problems regarding them?"
Julius softly waved his hand in a denying manner. "Oh no, nothing like that, it's just that yesterday, Magna and Luck succeeded in clearing three dungeons, as for Charmy and Grey, they managed to defeat many hordes of magic beasts that lurked in the forest and were giving people trouble," he explained. "Those actions warranted a handsome amount of stars, your squad is really starting to do well,"
"Thanks a bunch, but we're not done yet, the Magic Stone isn't the only thing we got from the Queen, there's something else I gotta tell you, I'd take out a piece of paper and something to write with," Yami said before he told Julius everything that Finral relayed to him from the Witch Queen, from the purpose of the Magic Stones, to the elves.
"And that's all that he told me," the dark mage finished, awaiting the time mage's response.
Julius was now deep in thought, he held his chin before his eyes fell back on the two Black Bulls across from him. "This is very valuable information, incredibly valuable information, we now know the purpose of the Eye of the Midnight Sun's objective to obtain the Magic Stones, or at least, a close objective, that and a possible ally that can be working with them, good work, Yami, your squad has outdone themselves,"
Yami looked to the side with a plain look on his face as he blew out another breath of smoke from his cigarette. "Don't thank me, Vanessa and Asta are the reasons some of the squad went to the forest in the first place," he said.
"I see," the Wizard King then looked at the thread mage. "The Clover Kingdom owes you and Asta a great debt of thanks, and I'd like to thank you as well. This information warrants another set of stars, what you and your squadmates have done is one of the greatest benefits to the kingdom right now, so, how about 50 stars?"
"50 stars? Holy crap, you're being generous," Yami said with some surprise in his voice. "But of course, we'll accept it,"
Julius smiled. "Great, I assume that's everything, thanks for stopping by, I really-,"
"Yo, I see that the door's open, so I'll just walk in,"
The three mages looked back at the sound of the new voice, it was a tall man, his green Magic Knights robe visible, but of course, the face wasn't new.
It was Jack the Ripper, Captain of the Green Praying Mantises, wearing his usual lunatic grin.
"Ah, Jack, another surprise, I don't think I've ever seen you here for anything other than a captains' meeting, what could possibly be the occasion?" Julius asked.
Jack walked over to his desk and set a slip of paper on it. "I'm just here to turn this report in, it's for a mission two of my squad members completed yesterday," he replied.
The time mage's face showed confusion. "Oh, you usually don't hand reports in, I thought your vice-captain did this, but now that I think about it, I haven't been getting reports from your squad in some time, has Levi not been feeling well?"
The severing mage sighed. "No, it's not that...he resigned from the squad earlier this year, he said something about my attitude being annoying or some crap like that,"
"Some crap? I don't know, if you ask me, that guy was smart to leave, I can't imagine anyone wanting to be your vice-captain," Yami spoke up with a short laugh.
A comedically angry look came to Jack's face as he walked up to his fellow captain. "Why don't you just shut up, Yami! And that reminds me, why the hell are you here?!"
"Well, if you must know, beanpole, I'm here to relay some important information regarding the Eye of the Midnight Sun, which earned my squad a buttload of stars, we're rising up," the dark mage replied.
"As if, need I remind you that every year during the Star Festival, the Black Bulls rank last every time, it's practically a tradition at this point," Jack said tauntingly.
"Well, things might change for us this year, you should watch out," Yami said back with a small look of confidence.
"He's actually right, Jack, I'm proud of the Black Bulls' recent resolve, and they've amassed a good amount of stars too, just before you came in, their squad was given over 60 stars at once," Julius spoke before pointing out.
"What?!" Jack exclaimed as his head turned from Julius to Yami. "N-No way, what do you have that I don't?"
"A better squad, duh," Yami responded with a nonchalant face before turning around, quickly facing the thread mage. "Let's head back to base, cya around Julius, and you too, beanpole," he spoke his last words before the two exited the room and started walking down the hallway.
Jack walked out of the room and watched them as they walked, he grit his teeth. "Just you wait, Yami, I'll top you, just like I always have," he thought, but then, a question came to his mind, one that was almost obvious, yet he forgot to ask.
"Hey Julius, who was that woman accompanying Yami?" the captain asked.
"Her name's Vanessa Enoteca, a witch, and one of Yami's oldest members," the time mage replied.
Jack pinpointed on one word within Julius' explanation. "A witch, aye? I've heard a bit about them, heck, Dorothy is one, aren't they supposed to be powerful mages?"
"That's right, what are you thinking?" the Wizard King asked.
"When it comes to me and Yami, there are only three things he has in his squad that I don't: royalty or nobility, a magicless mage, and a witch. My squad is intentionally made up of commoners, that magicless boy is a one of a kind and I don't really want him in my squad anyways, but then that leaves a witch, I should try and recruit a witch into my squad, she can even be my new vice-captain and replace Levi, ah, it's foolproof. Well, I'll be off, I better get searching,"
Julius watched as Jack was soon out of sight, he held his chin in thought. "So, Jack wants to find a witch to be his vice-captain, this can either go in his favor, or can go incredibly wrong when Jack's, um...interesting personality shows itself, but regardless of the results...I'm going too, a new mage can possibly lead to an interesting type of magic,"
The time mage glowed in a bright light, as it faded, an old lady stood in his place. "Ah, it's been some time since I dawned my Chronovala disguise, and it's a good thing Marx isn't around either, that makes it easy, new magic here I come," he said as he quickly ran out of the room.
Just three minutes after he did so, footsteps were heard approaching his office, and those footsteps belonged to the memory mage, Marx, with a small stack of papers in his hand.
"Damn, headaches really suck, it hurt so bad, I could hardly get out of bed for a few hours, I couldn't even message anyone to tell them I wouldn't be here, good thing the pain didn't last long, that means I can get back to work," he mused as he arrived at the Wizard King's door, which was already open at the time.
"Hey there, Julius, sorry I'm late, major headache, I got these papers for you to-," Marx was beginning to say as he started walking in, but stopped midway as he saw that the office was empty, he dropped the papers, an angry look on his face as he knew where the time mage escaped to.
"DAMN IT! JULIUS!"
"Well damn, this is proving to be a bit harder than I thought," Jack muttered to himself.
About twenty minutes had passed since the severing mage had left the HQ building, he began strolling through the capital, as a Magic Knight Captain, it didn't take long for people to notice him, but he ignored them, steadfast on finding what he sought.
"Hm, perhaps just taking a walk wasn't the best idea, witches could be anywhere, but their existence is open knowledge, no witch would try to hide the fact that they are witches, so maybe I should ask the people around, it would make the most-," Jack began thinking, and he was close to carrying out his idea, but then a figure came from beside and now walked in front of him, pulling him from his thought.
He looked at the figure walking in front of him, by the look of their body, it was easy to infer that it was a woman, she moved in front of him so quickly that he didn't get to check her frontal features, as for her back, she wore some sort of white top and a black pencil skirt with brown stockings that covered her legs, and black boots which adorned her feet, at her waist was a black satchel, holding both her grimoire and some other sort of object inside. But what drew the captain to her was the large green hat atop her head.
"Well, I'll be damned, if I'm not mistaken, that's a witches' hat, it looks similar to Dorothy's and that Vanessa woman, and she has a good amount of mana too. Just as I was about to try something else out too, now that's some good luck, I found my candidate, all I have to do now is follow her to wherever she's going and recruit her once we get there," Jack thought with his signature lunatic smile as he continued to follow the woman.
But unbeknownst to the severing mage, Julius, or rather, Chronovala, wasn't too far behind him and continued to discreetly follow him.
Jack kept following the woman down whatever path she went, oddly enough, not once had he opened his mouth to say something, most likely for the fact that he wanted to stay relatively silent as to not alert the lady of his presence and wonder why he was following her.
Only about ten minutes passed before they reached a woman's destination, which was a decent-sized yellow building.
"Here we are, right on time," the captain heard the woman say with a chipper tone as she opened the door and walked inside before closing it behind her, not once noticing the severing mage's presence.
Jack raised a brow and peered into a window to see what was going on inside, but as he did, his eyes widened, inside the building was a room full of...children. "Wait a minute, she's...a teacher?" he whispered.
"Hello students, how has your day been so far?" she asked as she passed through desks, each with a student sitting at it.
"Hello Ms. Goodwitch, our day has been good!" the children responded in unison.
"That's great, now that I'm here, we can get started on your magic lessons," the lady known as Ms. Goodwitch said as she took off her hat and turned around, letting Jack see the rest of her features.
A white skin tone, she had light blond hair that was tied in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side, her bright green eyes were made more noticeable by the clear-colored ovular glasses she had on, her white top was a long-sleeved pleated top with a keyhole neckline and flared gauntlet cuffs. But then there was her chest, the size of her mountains was a sight to behold, if compared to Vanessa, she'd surely put the thread mage's rack to shame.
"Goddamn," would've been the thought that came out of an average man's head upon seeing the female teacher, but Jack was no such man, he had an objective, and he was going to carry it out.
He walked over to the door, any sensible person would just knock, but to those who knew Jack, knocking would be the last thing on his mind, and lo and behold, it was as he kicked the door open with his leg before walking inside.
The first thing he took notice of was the children looking at him, they appeared to be of various ages, with the oldest looking to be 13. And thanks to the different perspective Jack had, he was able to notice something else about the kids. "The clothes they're wearing, these kids look a bit on the poor side, is this woman not getting charged to teach these children? Is this some kind of unofficial learning thing?"
"Wow, check out that guy's robe, he's a Magic Knight," one of the students said.
Ms. Goodwitch looked at the severing mage, the look on her face showed no sort of fear at the sight of the sudden intrusion, just a slight look of surprise that switched quickly back to normal as she walked forward. "Hello there, welcome, is something the matter?" she asked.
"Tell me, miss, what's your name?" Jack asked back.
"Glynda Goodwitch, I'm 28 years old in case you were wondering," she replied. "And I recognize you, Jack the Ripper, Captain of the Green Praying Mantises. As I asked earlier, is something the matter? I have a class to teach and I don't want this to take too long,"
"So, you're a witch, you have a great amount of mana, and then there's that attitude of yours, I like it all, you're perfect for the position," Jack replied.
Glynda raised a brow. "The position of what, if I may ask?"
The severing mage laughed for a few seconds before composing himself. "The position as the vice-captain of my squad of course," he replied once more before reaching into his satchel and pulling a neatly folded green cloth, unfolding it to reveal the squad robe. "I always keep a spare on me in case mine's gets shredded or something, but you can have it,"
Glynda crossed her arms, her brow staying raised. "You speak like I already accepted your offer, what if I so happen to decline? You did just barge in and begin demanding,"
The lunatic smile came to Jack's face as he grew a large blade out of his arm before pointing it at Glynda. "Decline? Who said I'd let you do that? You're the perfect candidate, so, it's either you join or get cut to ribbons,"
The students looked at their teacher, obvious worry was on their faces, Glynda, however, merely uncrossed her arms, letting them fall to her sides. "Is that so?" she asked, her voice growing oddly dark, her hand reached into her satchel, pulling out the other object, which happened to be a black riding crop with a black and purple handle.
Her grimoire then came up to her, it was purple, and was enveloped in a purple aura as it flipped through pages, stopping on one. "Telekinesis Binding Magic: Crushing Grip!" she declared as she pointed her riding crop at Jack, freezing him in place.
"Oh crap, I can't move," he thought with a look of surprise on his face.
"Listen and listen well, sir captain, I don't do kindly to threats, so do me a favor and never say that to me again! Telekinesis Magic: Repulse Blast!" Glynda exclaimed as she concentrated purple magic to the tip of her crop before flinging it at Jack's head, sending him straight towards the hall, hitting it head-first, the force managing to knock him out.
The telekinesis mage quickly turned back to her students. "And that class...is how you handle a punk, restrain them, then attack," she said, not missing the chance to use this as an opportunity to teach the children.
"Oh," the class responded in unison.
The woman then turned to Jack's unconscious form. "Now, what to do with him?"
"Don't worry, that won't be necessary,"
Glynda and her students turned their heads towards the door at the sound of the voice and were met with an old lady.
"Oh, hello there miss, is something the matter? Are you lost?" the woman asked politely.
"Miss?" the old lady, who was in fact Chronovala, repeated before looking at her hands. "Oh, that's right, I almost forgot, why don't I remove this disguise," she was then enveloped in a bright light, once the light faded, the old lady was gone, and the Wizard King stood in her place with a smile on his face.
"There we go, that's better,"
Glynda's face showed some surprise as she bowed her upper half. "Oh, greetings your majesty,"
The time mage put a hand up. "Please, Julius is fine, it's a pleasure to meet you, Glynda Goodwitch, now before I explain what I'm doing here, I must say," he began before running up to her, starry-eyed. "Your magic is incredible!"
"Huh?" was the only word that came out of the telekinesis mage's mouth, confusion obvious in her voice.
"I've never ever heard of telekinesis magic before, what else can you do? How many different spells do you have? And that riding crop too, I've seen mages use Magic Items in conjunction with their magic, but that looks like an ordinary physical object, how do you make it work?" Julius asked in rapid succession.
Glynda wasn't sure how to answer, but thankfully, her students came to her rescue. "Hey, that's the Wizard King, right? I've never seen him up close before!" they exclaimed, it was their turn to be excited as they ran towards the man.
Julius stopped his nerding upon hearing his title. "Children," he said before kneeling down and extending his arms as the two kids ran into them, two climbed onto his shoulders before he stood back up, with an additional three gently pulling on the bottom of his robe. "Hello there, it's nice to meet you all,"
"Students, please don't pull on his robe," Glynda lightly scolded.
"Don't worry, it's okay, I don't mind," Julius told her with a smile. "As for why I'm here, Jack told me that he'd be looking for a witch to become his vice-captain, and it seems he chose you. I must apologize for him, Jack has always been a bit of a confrontational person who's lacked formal manners, when he said he was looking for a vice-captain, I did expect something like this to happen in the back of my mind,"
"Is that so? His public image was never the greatest, but how does his squad even function with a captain like him?" the woman asked.
"There was someone in the squad that balanced things out and made things manageable, but it seems that he's apparently no longer in action," Julius replied. "Although, Jack had a point, it would be good to be his vice-captain,"
Glynda perked up at his remark. "You think I should join?"
"It wouldn't be a bad idea, look at these children," he answered as the telekinesis mage's eye fell on her students. "Forgive me if this sounds insensitive, but what are the…financial situations for them?" he asked, the second half being a whisper as to not let the children here.
Glynda lightly clapped, signaling for the children to back away from Julius, he put the four other kids down as the woman pulled him away from them to talk more privately. "Many of their parents don't have enough money to send them to an actual school, so I decided to teach them what I know for free, I do have other ways to make money though, but this is where I spend a majority of my day,"
"You know, being a Magic Knight does pay really well, and there's even more pay for a vice-captain, your magic can do good for the kingdom, and the income you earn can help your students, it's good to see people helping the less fortunate when it comes to magic, I know someone who does the exact same, although he doesn't want to be a Magic Knight," Julius said before looking at her intently. "So, will you accept the position?"
Glynda's eyes shifted from the Wizard King to her students, then back again to the man in front of her. "I suppose I can accept, you surely did it a lot better than he did," she remarked, pointing to Jack. "And who knows, maybe this position will help me make some new connections with others, those are always good,"
"Perfect, something tells me you'll do just fine, vice-captain Glynda," the time mage said before hearing a beep on his transmission device, he then reached into a pocket and took it out. "I wonder who that could be? Must be Owen or something," he said, but upon answering it, he was quickly proved wrong.
"Julius, where the hell have you been?!" he was met by the angry face of the memory mage.
"M-Marx, what a surprise, I thought you weren't going to be in today, seeing that you weren't around," Julius said, his eyes closed and a plastered smile on his face, doing the best he can to sound innocent.
"I had a bad headache this morning and wasn't able to call in, but enough about me, the real question here is where are you?" Marx asked, his volume dropping to normal, but the tone remaining the same as earlier.
Normally, the time mage has no good excuse to give his assistant, but this time would be different as he pulled Glynda into the view of his transmission. "You see, Jack had recruited someone to be his new vice-captain, since it wasn't done through the normal procedure, I merely came to officialize it,"
The hostility in Marx's tone vanished instantly. "Oh, well I suppose that's acceptable, although, I'm not the fondest of members joining through the back door, we don't really get to gauge their skills,"
"True, but Glynda here is nothing to worry about, she literally knocked Jack out with just one spell," Julius said.
"Wow, that does sound impressive, never heard of anyone being able to pull that off on a captain, it's good to have you working with us, Ms. Glynda," Marx then said before addressing the telekinesis mage.
"It'll be a pleasure to work with you as well," she said back as the transmission ended.
The two adults then walked back to the children. "Um, Ms. Goodwitch, what were you talking to the Wizard King about?" one student asked.
"What were we talking about?" Glynda repeated as she walked over to Jack and picked up the robe beside him before putting it on. "It looks like your teacher has become a magic knight,"
"You look great in green, but if you're a magic knight now, who will teach us?" another student asked.
"Oh, that's right, who's going to be their teacher?" Glynda asked Julius.
"Don't worry, you can still be their teacher, the new location can be Green Praying Mantises HQ, the squad is predominantly made up of commoners with the occasional noble, so your students won't have to worry about being given a hard time," he replied.
"Perfect," she said before facing her students. "Okay class, consider the day over for now, you have an early release, but meet back here at the usual time so I can take you to the squad base for your lessons,"
"Alright, bye Ms. Goodwitch, bye Mr. Wizard King," the students said in unison as they walked outside.
"Bye," the two adults said back with smiles.
"So, what are you going to do about him?" Glynda then asked, pointing to the unconscious captain.
"I'll take him to Owen so he can get a look at him, it shouldn't be too bad," Julius replied. "And speaking of that, I'll use this chance to teleport you to the base," he extended his hands towards the two people as they all disappeared in a flash of light.
They quickly appeared at the front of Green Praying Mantises HQ. "Here you are, your squad's base," Julius said.
Glynda looked at the building, it was quite large, and it looked quite nice. "I see, I also assume it's a pretty fair distance from where we were?" she asked and was met with a nod. "It's most likely possible that I'll be staying here, so I might need a day to transport the things from my home to here,"
"Feel free to contact me if you need any help with that, for now, I better take care of our unconscious captain, goodbye," Julius said as he and Jack disappeared in a flash of light.
"Alright then Glynda, time to begin your duty," the woman told herself as she walked inside the base, but once she entered, her eyes widened, despite the appearance of the base's exterior, the interior was nearly appalling, there were large piles of stuff left everywhere, seeing that the building was large, it didn't look as bad as it could've been, but regardless, it was in need some cleaning and reorganizing.
She kept walking forward and eventually saw a singular member walking in her direction. "Oh, another member, this is a perfect chance to introduce myself," she thought with a smile.
Unfortunately for her, the mage coming towards her was in fact Sekke, the bronze mage. "Hm, I wonder what I'm going to do today, I haven't seen Captain Jack since this morning, which is perfect for me, maybe I'll go to a brothel or something," he thought, but stopped for a few seconds as he saw a woman walking in his direction, and his jaw almost dropped.
"Forget the hookers! I think I just hit the jackpot, look at the rack, goddamn, I've never seen her before, this can be a good opportunity," he continued to think before he began walking to her again.
It didn't take long for them to cross paths. "Hello there, my name's Sekke, I've never seen you here before, why don't we…go out for a coffee sometime?" he said in his most suave voice.
Glynda on the other hand, didn't look too impressed, she even thought his act to be some kind of joke, as such, she smiled. "Hi, I'm Glynda Goodwitch, the new vice-captain, it's nice to meet you, Sekke, I must say, you're quite funny,"
The bronze mage's mouth dried instantly upon hearing her words. "W-Wait, did you say, new vice-captain?" he asked with a slight croak.
"That's right, I was recruited just a few minutes ago, it's a pleasure to work with you," she replied.
Sekke quickly straightened himself before clover-saluting. "T-The pleasure is mine, if there's something you need, please don't hesitate to ask," he said with a stutter. "Oh crap, if Jack finds out I was trying to hit on the vice-captain, I'll be a dead man! And his temper is already hella short,"
"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind, perhaps-," Glynda was beginning to say, but was interrupted by the arrival of a new voice.
"Hey Sekke, have you seen Captain Jack around? I saw him this morning, but now he isn't around,"
The two turned around to see a man, he was of decent height, with long, disheveled green hair, and an old-looking face. The man was none other than En Ringard who, despite his elderly appearance, is in his early 20s.
Glynda quickly recognized the person the voice belonged to. "Oh, En, hello, I almost forgot you were a member of this squad,"
"You're not the only one to be surprised, Glynda, I didn't think my siblings' teacher would become a Magic Knight," he said back.
"So…you two know each other?" Sekke asked.
"Yup, Glynda here teaches my 10 brothers and sisters among other children," he explained. "So, why are you here?"
"I've been chosen to be this squad's new vice-captain, Jack...got into a bit of an accident, so he won't be here for some time, so in the meantime, would you mind giving me a little tour of the base?" she replied before asking.
"I'd be honored, let's begin over there," En responded with a quick cough before walking towards the first place.
"I'm right behind you," Glynda said as she turned quickly to the bronze mage. "It was nice meeting you," she said before walking away.
"Same here," Sekke said back as the two were soon out of sight, he then breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, so much for going out today," he groaned as he walked over into another room.
"And finally, we have the offices for both the captain and vice-captain," En announced, but his tone was somehow between tired and bored at the same time.
Twenty-five minutes had passed, and En had just finished showing her the two captains' rooms. The building had a high number of rooms to visit, but it didn't take them too long to clear.
"So, these are our offices, I guess I better check mine out," Glynda said as she walked over and opened the door and walked in, but as she did, her eyes widened.
Her technically new desk was loaded with stacks of papers, you would think that Julius had moved into the telekinesis mage's office, but that was not the case. "Holy crap, so many papers, um, En, why are these all in my office, shouldn't they be in Jack's?"
"Not really, Captain Jack doesn't do paperwork too often, usually, it was Levi who did it, so it would usually end up in his office," En replied.
Glynda raised a brow in confusion. "Levi?"
The man nodded. "Yes, Levi Aflouma, he was the former vice-captain, a user of azure flame magic, he was a powerful mage, but an even more organized person, he did have a bit of a short temper, but he had a good sense of honor, especially when it came to making sure people didn't take the fall for someone else's mistake. But eventually, he couldn't stand Jack's attitude and he left, we lost contact with him after that, who knows what he's doing now,"
Glynda's mind went back to something Julius told her earlier that day. "There was someone in the squad that balanced things out and made things manageable, but it seems that he's apparently no longer in action,"
"And I suppose that's why the number of papers here has increased?" the woman asked, warranting a nod from her squadmate.
"I see, then there's something we have to get done, let's go," she continued as the two walked down a hallway, quickly running into Sekke.
"Oh, hey there," the bronze mage quickly greeted before beginning to go his way.
"Wait, Sekke," Glynda said, stopping him as he turned to face her. "I'm going to need you to do a favor for me,"
"Um, sure, what is it?" he asked.
"I need you to find everyone in the base and tell them to gather in the main area ASAP, En, if you could please help him," Glynda politely ordered.
"We're on it," the two magic knights replied in unison before walking away from her.
Glynda took a deep breath before beginning to walk herself. "Alright, it's time to address your squad,"
In a short span of ten minutes, all of the members were gathered in the main, all looking at Glynda, with Sekke and En beside her.
"Thanks a lot, you two," she said gratefully, she was met with two nods before she cleared her throat, ready to speak to her group of squadmates.
"Hello everyone, a lot of you may not know me, and some of you might've seen me walking by while I was checking out the base with En, my name is Glynda Goodwitch, the new vice-captain, it's very nice to meet you all,"
Gasps immediately rose from the crowd, but they stopped as the telekinesis mage continued to speak. "I know that this is sudden, but I'm going to need you to work with me. I know about your previous vice-captain, Levi, and how he did things before leaving. I want you to know that I'll do my best to be the vice-captain this squad needs, that's a promise I intend on keeping. Are there any questions?"
One knight took this as a chance to raise his hand. "Um, I hope you don't mind me asking, but how exactly did you become the vice-captain?"
Glynda put a hand on her chin. "Well, let's see, earlier today Jack followed me to where I teach children how to use their magic better, he then barged into my class and demanded I join his squad, or else he'd, cut me to ribbons," she replied, the last part in a more carefree tone.
The others nodded, that's exactly how Jack acted.
"I didn't take kindly to it, so I just used some of my magic instead, which succeeded in knocking him out cold," she finished explaining. "That's the whole reason he isn't here right now,"
"What?!" they all exclaimed, no one in the whole squad had a chance of beating Jack, but then, this lady comes in and pulls it off all by herself.
"She must be amazing," they all thought in unison.
"But now to the other reason I called you all here," Glynda then said as she walked over to a nearby mound of stuff and pulled out her riding crop, slamming it on the tall amalgam. "No offense to any of you, but this base can really use a clean, I assume you all live here, so you must treat this place like a home, or a classroom, messes can cause problems, and we don't want that, do we?"
"No ma'am!"
"Good, so for the rest of the day, I want you to clean and get this base looking spotless, don't worry about missions for now, we have eight other squads to handle that, I want cleaning to be quick yet efficient, breaks will be systematic, if you don't finish cleaning today, you'll continue tomorrow, and keep going until you're done. Everyone will do their part, I expect no slacking from anyone, those who do will be punished, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes ma'am!"
Glynda smiled. "Perfect, now get to it, a clean base makes a happy vice-captain," she said as her squadmates dispersed throughout the base. Her eyes then fell on the bronze mage. "Sekke, you go help them, I trust you to be my eyes and ears, inform me of progress or if there are any problems,"
"You got it, boss lady, bah ha," he said with a quick laugh before heading out too.
The vice-captain then turned to her other squadmate. "As for you, En, you're going to help me get some paperwork done, there's no way I can finish that stack by myself in a short amount of time,"
"Leave it to me," he replied as they both started walking towards her office. "Y'know, you did well in taking charge and mobilizing the others to get work done, I guess being a teacher of different groups of people has its advantages,"
You're not wrong there, it did make it easier," Glynda agreed as they reached the office and both took a seat on opposite sides of the desk. "Are you ready for this?"
"Yup," En replied as they both took papers and began looking through them.
"Hey, while we're doing this, there's something I want you to tell me," Glynda then spoke up, her voice becoming a bit more serious. "I already know a bit about Levi, but tell me...what about Jack? How do you see him as your captain?"
"How do I see him? Well, starting with the most obvious things, he can be quite crazy at times, he usually has this urge to cut things, and his manners along with his formal courtesy do leave much to be desired," En began. "He doesn't do much official work, despite being a captain, he'd much better prefer going into battle than handling things like this, not to mention he can be immature at times, a man child if you will, you did say he demanded that you join,"
"So, I take it you don't see him in a very good light?" Glynda asked.
"Oh no, I said those were all the obvious things about him, now it's what isn't obvious. Despite the way he talks about cutting things up, when it comes to fighting, there's no one I know that fights as seriously as him, he fights for himself, but also for the people around him. His attitude is a bit crazy, but he does genuinely care for us. I remember one time we completed an important mission, he told us he was proud of us and treated us to dinner, it was the only time I've ever seen him like that," En continued.
"Interesting," Glynda responded, her head down as she sorted through more papers.
"To answer your question, sure Captain Jack can be very strange at times, but regardless, I like him just how he is," the man answered.
Glynda narrowed her eyes a bit. "You like him just how he is? Hm, interesting," she thought, the rest of their work for the day was silent.
"According to this, his brain is fine, he should wake up soon,"
Those were the first words Jack heard before his eyes shot open, he found himself lying down on a bed, surrounded by jellyfish.
"Oh, good, you're awake," the familiar voice said again, Jack turned to his left to see Owen.
"It's just you, why am I here?" the severing mage asked, but his memory quickly returned to him before the water mage could respond. "Oh yeah, now I remember, that witch flung me into a wall,"
"That's right, Julius brought you here to me afterward," Owen told him.
Jack held his head a bit as he groaned. "Uh, how long was I out for?"
"Three days,"
"Three days?!" Jack exclaimed as he jumped out of bed. "I'm feeling all better now, I'm off!" he called as he quickly exited the building and jumped into the air before speeding towards his base.
It didn't take him long to arrive as he landed at the front of the base. "Man, to think that I've been out for three whole days, I'm really getting the urge to cut something. Although, I wonder what my squad has been doing for these past few days?"
As he opened the door and walked in, his eyes widened. "Holy crap," he muttered as he beheld the interior of the base, it was the cleanest he had ever seen it, the piles of things were no longer around, and the floors were so clean, he could see his reflection.
"Hey, it's the captain," he heard one of his squad members say. The severing mage looked over to see her and two others scrubbing and sweeping. "You're back, make sure not to hit your head again, we wouldn't want you getting another concussion!" she called as the three laughed vigorously.
Jack couldn't help but laugh too. "That witch did get me good, no one's been able to pull something like that on me before, not even Yami, but how did they find out, did Julius tell them?" another thought came to his head, but he voiced it out. "Why are you all cleaning?"
"Oh, we were ordered to," one of the knights replied.
"Ordered to? By who?" he asked again, but his question wasn't answered by them.
"It seems you're awake, welcome back,"
Jack turned around at the sound of the voice and was partially surprised to see Glynda walking towards him, her robe on, as well as that, Sekke, En, and some other squad members were beside her.
The severing mage smiled as he extended his arms triumphantly. "Ah, Glynda, it seems you accepted my offer, I'm more convincing than I thought, I made the right choice choosing you to be my vice-captain, I take it you're the one who ordered these guys to clean the base, and the one who told them of the result of our first encounter, nice work, but now I can-," he was beginning to cheer, but was stopped as he felt himself getting immobilized in a familiar way.
"Damn it, it's this again," he thought before looking up, and surely enough, the telekinesis mage was pointing her crop at him, a serious look on her face as she approached him.
"Listen, I didn't accept your offer, I accepted Julius' offer, let's just set that straight right now, and one more thing, three days ago, I asked En what he thought of you as a captain, and he told me that while you can be strange at times, he likes you just the way you are, well...I don't!" the woman exclaimed.
"Huh?" Jack thought with genuine shock.
"I for one think you can be so much better, I'm a teacher, I want to bring out the best in those around me. You can start by not neglecting your responsibilities as a captain, no wonder Levi left, you left too much under him. Next, you can start acting more maturely, you're not a manchild, so stop acting like it, you're an adult, you don't have to completely discard your personality, but don't act so childish. En said that you genuinely care about your squad, and I believe that you do, but you still have a long way to go. I believe you can be a better captain, and a better man, but only if you try," Glynda said.
The others watched from afar, they would be lying if they said they didn't feel a little bit of tension between the captain and vice-captain.
Jack looked down, thinking about what the woman said to him, but then, he could feel himself move again, he looked back up to see Glynda just a few inches across from him.
"So...will you try?"
The captain scratched the back of his head nervously, shifting from the ground to Glynda's face, he opened his mouth and gave his answer. "I...guess I could try, y'know, if you think it'll make me better," he said just as nervously, but upon saying so, he witnessed a sight he had never seen.
Glynda closed her eyes and smiled warmly. "You have no idea how happy that makes me,"
Jack's face then bloomed a bright red, he could've sworn the sun was shining behind her as she smiled at him, he turned his face away from her and began walking away. "Uh, I'm heading to my room, nobody better bother me!" he exclaimed.
He was soon out of sight of his squad members, at the door to his room, his blush lessened. "What the hell was that? What happened to me back there? Did it happen when she smiled at me? Nobody...nobody's told me something like that before. Uh, I need to cut something to get my mind off of it," he asked himself multiple times before saying, but then, Glynda's last words to him repeated in his mind.
"You have no idea how happy that makes me,"
Jack then sighed before beginning to open his door, the blush returning to his face. "Actually...I don't feel like cutting something right now," he said before entering his room and closing the door behind him.
Author's Note
Glynda Goodwitch was an OC given to me by Warmachine375