A diamond hidden within the gray line

Chapter 84: Preparations and max's encounter leading to unexplained guilt.

-Narration/ 2 days later.-

By the time they all returned to the koopa kingdom, everyone was hardly in the mood to engage with anyone else and it showed to all those who saw them which lead them all wonder what happened at bowser's castle. Max decided to at least rest for the rest of the day once he got back, knowing that he took beating after beating while tyson decided to stay at mike's home considering that he didn't have any plans to stay anywhere. As for the koopalings...they all took this time to contemplate what they've seen, heard and read. Partly, it didn't bother them since mario was mentioned by zöhm. However...this bothered them knowing that, for whatever reason that even max doesn't understand, involves him in a big way.

As for roy, he had a lot on his mind. From finding out about his actual dad even though he never asked about his name, or what he looks like, to finding out what his mom had to do. He wasn't too happy with bowser, and didn't understand why max always seemed to get all the action, but he knew that bowser didn't intentionally do this which is the only thing keeping him from lashing out. Bowser on the other hand...his emotions have taken a heavy hit that he wasn't prepared for. He wants zöhm's head after knowing that he used a forbidden spell that acts as a rare heart condition that killed his wife. He didn't even know that such a spell existed before and if he truly was a evil monster and knew about this spell...then the likelihood of him using that on mario would have been definite.

And yet..he wondered why zöhm mentioned mario in a way that paint mario as corruptible. How could a goody two shoes like him fall into that category? Was mario even capable of that? These are questions that bowser would probably never get the answer to which annoyed him to no end. But perhaps...perhaps he will one day?

During the next two days however, tyson decided to take it upon himself to train both max and mike in the ways of aura and he was not one to waste time knowing that he wanted them both to be prepared. He could see that mike has partial control over his aura abilities which made training him easier to a certain extent. With max however...he knew that Mike taught him to at least sense aura, but was amazed at how quickly max was learning even though he wasn't exactly confident. Tyson hasn't even started on teaching max to safety use aura sphere and it became obvious that max is nearly as skilled as he is!

Hell, it left max's brothers and sister absolutely speechless! Well..except for iggy who swore up and down that max is now a bonafide force user and even begs for max to teach him which catches max completely off guard which mike tease max by saying that he's a 'master' after all, and that it's only natural that he gets to be a teacher one day which annoyed kamek, yet it also intrigued him since this wasn't anything like magic at all!

And marx? Well..it became hard to tell with what he's thinking, or doing. To max though, he felt that Marx was looking for something specific. Clearly, it wasn't where he is now, but at the same time...he wondered if marx was looking for a way to..express himself in a way that he wants to. At this point, he had grown use to marx's antics...mostly.

It is now 2:30 in the morning and max hasn't fallen asleep just yet, and has long since got comfortable while his shell lays next to his bed. He quickly feels a dark presence in his room that is also...familiar.

But this time...he wasn't in that nearly pitch dark realm...

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Quick note: This next part will feature nsfw in terms of nudity and erotic flashbacks. Reader's discretion is advised.
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-Max pov-

The past two days have been quite an eye opener for me...how am i able to use aura so easily even though tyson hasn't taught me and mike how to use aura sphere? According to tyson, he seems to think i naturally have it even though i'm not a lucario like him and did say that it's astronomically rare for another being to do what i'm doing. Heh..i guess it means that i'm..i don't know..gifted?