A Sphere with an Atmosphere of Magic, Ice x Lightning

15. Detention can go crazy sometimes

They were forced to sit next to each other, and Time was watching their every move. Every single time either tried to hurt the other, Time would quickly block the blasts. 

So of course both boys decided to see for how long Time could block their blasts. 

Ice would throw something basic, and so would Light, then Light would do something more complex, and Ice would retaliate by doing the same, then they would go harder and faster until the principal had to block six bursts at a time. Then he would shout "ENOUGH, STOP IT, WOULD YOU?!" and the duo would stop for a minute or so, then begin again.

During one of the lulls, Time yawned. He was tired, and their detention was going to be over in 20 minutes anyway. It was quiet. Too quiet. And then Light and Ice began screaming. Time opened his eyes and noticed the two boys staring into each other's eyes. What...? And then he saw it. Almost invisible streaks pulsed through the air between their eyes. But they were neither golden and yellow-white nor white-blue glowing with lavender. The ever-brightening magic was red with yellow pulses, and after watching it darken and solidify into something almost dangerous, Time realized who's it was. Mnemo. Memory. Mnemo tampered with their memories? And then didn't bother telling me?! I thought he trusted me!

While Time was flashing through all his memories of Mnemo, the light between the two boys was not flashing from one place to another anymore. It was a solid beam and Lightning and Ice were not going to hold it any longer. Their screams pitched towards a high note that Time couldn't listen to without feeling spikes of pain in his ears. Suddenly the red collapsed inwards, the shockwave hitting them both, and they flew to opposite ends of the classroom. The screaming cut off. Luckily the classroom had been soundproofed, after quite a few teachers ran in to see what the pretty loud blasts of magic where about.

Lightning opened his eyes first. "What...?" Then Ice stirred, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head, staring at the tunnel of empty space where Light sat opposite him. They had hit all the desks and chairs, setting them tumbling away from their paths. They turned to Time. "What? What just happened?"

Giving them no explanation, Time mumbled, "I need to check on Mnemo, sorry, I'll be back soon." and ran from the class.

Ice turned to Lightning, dazed, and asked, "Why Mnemo?"

Lightning looked at Ice and decided that "I don't know."

And then they realized they were in the same room as their sworn enemies, alone, and for some reason talking to each other. 

But the problem was that both were out of magic. Drained. The only thing they could do was sit there and wait for the principal to come back.

---------

Time barged into Mnemo's office. "MNEMO! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ICE AND LIGHTNING?!" 

"Nothing?" Mnemo answered, but not without his eyes going kinda glassy for the moment.

"Nothing?! I KNOW something happened, and you are going to tell me!" 

But Mnemo wouldn't - couldn't, Time realized, answer, and Time finally understood what had happened. "Show me your hands."

Mnemo held them out. There was only two rings on his left hand, and his right was empty. 

But Time wasn't giving up. He himself had 'nothing' on his hands. "Show them all. All that you can." And suddenly at least thirty rings poured of Mnemo's fingers. "Oh stars, you got a lot."

"People hate their memories sometimes." answered the Memory God. "And they don't want me telling."

Instead of commenting, Time lifted his hands, palms facing the sky, and summoned void-black balls. 

"I do hope you're not going to bother breaking them all? "

"Oh no. Why would I. They're your own burden to carry." He picked out two rings, shining with Ice's and Light's magic. Black tentacles hit them and after brightly resisting, the two circles shattered. 

-----

Back in the classroom, both Ice and Light jolted as they felt some of their magic come back. It wasn't enough to fight, though, so they continued sitting.

-----

Mnemo nodded in respect. "You're good."

"I've practiced."

"600 years old, no surprise."

Time rolled his eyes and faced Mnemo again, "Now talk."

"Fine. I'm just telling what I know, okay? They told me basically nothing."

"Just do it." 

Mnemo sighed. "Three years ago, they run up to me in tears, and shout, at the same time, 'TAKE MY MEMORIES AWAY, MNEMO, ALL MY GOOD ONES ABOUT HIM!' while pointing at each other. I got confused, since most of the time people ask me to get rid of their bad memories, not leave them with those bad memories. So of course I asked them why in the howling world of madness would they want that, and they ended up rambling on about each other hurting them, something about a crashed cafe toilet door, and the Panoh festival, the one that was three years ago.

After dumping all that totally disorganized, tattered information on my head, they looked at me like 'We told you, now do it, when are you going to do it?' So, as I was extremely tired, oh right, did I mention this happened at like 2 am in the morning, they made the promise rings, very basic, 'Don't tell us, don't tell anyone else, don't return the memories unasked, and erase completely and only what we tell you to erase.' I took their memories, also the one of our conversation and the one of taking of their memories. I couldn't mention it, and they can't remember. 

That's it, until you broke these rings. But I'm not going to change anything just because you wanted to hear the story. So there."

Mnemo sighed. 

He obviously needs more practice ending speeches. Was the first thought in Time's head, until every other thought came pouring in. 

"W-what?! That's why they suddenly began hating each other, right after the Panoh festival! I didn't even get it! Something bad happened during that night, and they got into the worst fight of their life!"

---------

As Ice's gaze traveled over the room, he accidentally hit Light's. Their eyes connected. And immediately, an intense pain began slowly building in the back of his head and his chest. He saw Light's hand fly up to cover his eyes, and the pain vanished. 

"We can never look in each other's eyes for too long again." Light whispered, but loud enough so the other boy could hear.

"Yeah..." the only thing Ice felt was a bit of regret, never again to see those black eyes with the bright golden ring in the middle of the iris that he knew so well.

---------

"I will find out what happened, Mnemo. I must. They must remember! They were so happy, and now that joy is replaced by anger and a drive to do better than the other. I will listen for any rumor!"

"Time, you must not make this your obsession. I'm sure you understand, but I will still remind you. You cannot be active, asking around too much. They must do this on their own, as much as they can."

"Okay. I really do understand. 600 years gives you a lot of experience. But I will make them immortal until they do. They will not age from when they turn 19, and will begin growing older from when I find out that they found out."

"That's an... interesting solution."

"Thank you."

"Well, now only time will show. Pun intended!" Mnemo joked.

Time smiled. "Nice pun. Thanks."

He walked out of the building. He still had two idiots in detention.