Magi

Magi Chapter 3

The two searched online for a place to prepare for the tournament. They eventually found an ad for a "Shirou's Academy," a place for magi to hone their abilities. They decided to head there in the morning, then went to sleep.

The next morning they ate a complimentary breakfast before heading out to look for Shirou's Academy. They quickly found the academy. It was a run down, Japanese style building that stood out from the pristine skyscrapers surrounding it. Hayako and Suzuku went inside. The building appeared to be empty. They looked around for a little bit, eventually finding a thirty-something year old man laying on the floor, snoring loudly.

"Excuse me," said Hayako.

No response.

"Excuse me," said Hayako, slightly irritated.

No response.

Hayako picked up the man and threw him across the room.

"Excuse me!" she yelled.

"Okay, geez, there's no need to get violent or to yell," the man said.

"Are you Shirou?" asked Suzuku

"Yes, are you here for training?"

"She is."

"Ah, it's been a long time since a magus came to me for help."

"I can tell," said Hayako.

"What do you need training for?"

"I need to enter the tournament starting soon, and I need to win."

"There's no way you can be ready for that in time, it starts in a week. Just go home, kid."

"No, I need to see Mr. Sawano. It's important. If you won't teach, I'll find someone else, or teach myself."

"Okay, geez, I'll teach you. Let's see what you can already do first."

A ball of mana shot toward Hayako. She ducked under it, but its course changed and it still hit her.

To manipulate mana moving at that speed..., thought Hayako.

Four arms of mana formed and restrained each of Hayako's limbs. Shirou ran forward and punched her in the face. The arms released her and she went flying across the room. She crashed into a fall and fell to the ground in pain.

"If this is all you can manage you have no hope of winning," said Shirou.

Standing up, Hayako created several balls of mana and sent them flying at Shirou at high speeds. Shirou prepared to dodge, when Hayako created more balls from the mana behind Shirou and also sent them flying toward Shirou. He created two walls of mana and the balls slammed uselessly against them. Hayako created two arms of mana from the mana surrounding Shirou and lifted him into the air. She slammed him back down into the ground, then repeated the process. She was so focused on this process that she failed to notice the wall of mana forming right in front of her until it slammed into her, smashing her against the wall again.

Hayako created a blade of mana and sent it spinning through the air toward Shirou. It was moving slowly so he easily dodged it, but not the arm of mana that emerged from the flat of the blade and punched him across the room. Hayako felt a slight satisfaction at seeing the man crash into a wall. Before he could recover, Hayako restrained him with mana arms and created a mana blade inches from his throat.

"I win," said Hayako.

Then she felt her mana contructs dissipate and two mana arms lift her into the air. A mana blade formed inches from her throat.

"I win," echoed Shirou.

He manipulated mana I was already using? Hayako thought

Hayako bowed her head in acknowledgement of her defeat.

"You're not bad, kid," said Shirou, "You move mana well, think on your feet, and I've never seen a kid your age move ambient mana like that. You might even be able to make it through the prelims with just that. Still you stand no chance of winning the way you are now. Ever seen one of these tournaments?"

Hayako shook her head.

"Some real monsters join every time. And they're the ones who make it to the finals. So, first we'll work on your mana manipulation, it's good, but it could be better. I'm going to create a moving target out of mana. You create a ball of mana and launch it at the target. Manipulate it midflight to hit the target. Got it?"

"Yes," said Hayako.

Hayako sensed the target form and sent a ball flying at it. The target moved. Hayako tried to correct the ball's course, but by the time she reached out to it mentally, it had already hit a wall and dissipated. This process repeated itself about ten times, before Hayako figured that, to correct the ball's course, she should simply never take her focus off of it. So she didn't.

With that in mind she was able to move the ball midflight and after ten more tries, she was able to consistently hit the target, regardless of how it moved.

"Good," Shirou said, "You're a fast learner, but you can't keep all your focus on the ball. Otherwise you won't be able to stop this."

A ball of mana flew towards Hayako and slammed into her.

"Now, hit the target and block or dodge my attacks at the same time."

Hayako tried to do this and initially found herself either wildly missing the target, or getting slammed by Shirou's attacks. After about ten tries, she was able to hit the target and block or dodge Shirou's attacks.

"Good job," said Shirou, "That's enough for today. Comeback tomorrow and we'll get into the really cool stuff."

Hayako and Suzuku went back to the hotel. They had a nice room service dinner then went to bed and slept.