FORSAKEN KID: Hey, it Wasn’t as Bad as We Thought! (unfinalized)

A few days of the three doing mostly Job Requests from the Batch passes(davey can go home now). Today, David followed Ialan to his school. He judged the place for a bit, and Ialan agreed to whatever he said. “Why this school, in the first place?”

“I am looking for someone. Although she is not here anymore. She transferred out right before the monday of my first class.”

Knowing the infamous 1-month-policy of South Schools, he comments, “I get you. Our lucks sure do love toying with us. Makes me wonder if someone else is cursed like us.”

Ialan observes that David is getting a bit comfortable. It’s not like he’s a buddy now, but he is getting there. “Well, I will be on my way. Class starts in five minutes. You can roam around more if you like.”

“Yeah. See ya around.” He walked around for a short while. Soon, he got bored and went out to buy 3 pretzels. One fell to the ground. But he was pretty much expecting it. His unluckiness works randomly. Sometimes it’s on, sometimes it’s not. This time, it is. He’s sure to buy himself more than one when buying snacks because he doesn’t know when his misfortune is active. Had he bought just one pretzel, he would be starving.

He finishes the snack and waits beside the road. After mere seconds of waiting, Marina appeared. She was on a vehicle. She promised she’ll show up right after David’s done with his business. The vehicle also stopped because of traffic, now Marina's perfectly paralleled David. What are the chances? “Heya, did I make you wait?” No effort and still good chances with luck. Their luck levels are the complete opposite.

“For a good 10 seconds,” he climbs the vehicle to top-hop. The traffic proceeds.

“I’ll tell you a secret, Davey. To master top-hopping is to ride on a vehicle without the owner finding out you were freeloading,” she jumped to a cab with feather-light steps. David was about to jump as well, but the cab started speeding and it became more dangerous for him to leap. He had no choice but to hop on the minibus behind the cab. But his steps must’ve notified the people he was there. The driver started driving in an S rapid pattern to drive him off. Marina calmly watched from afar, watching him get more distant. David decided to risk it and went running on the roofs, leaping great lengths and weight. Finally he caught up to Marina, but collapsed on his butt. He’s sure he left some dents on some vehicles, plus didn’t get the chance to leave some coins for them. “Damnit,” he felt his ankle strained.

“That was a great fail,” Marina commented, standing on both her feet straight on a speeding cab like nothing. “We should get that treated soon.”

“No need,” he started healing himself with a silent chant.

“...I'm impressed. I didn’t know you were a Herbal Witch,” technically Witch Doctors who are experts with handling medical herbs and fast healing chants. “And they say doctors need their own other doctor.”

As expected, his chant was quick, “What did you think the type of witch I was?”

“...a plain ol’ witch, maybe. A typical one who can make offensive and defensive spells, but nothing more complicated.”

“Aren’t you cocky. Those are the types that learned in schools. I'm self taught,” witch schools are known for raising children to have lesser power than what they can acquire. Conspiracies says this is how witches' social pyramids are retained. ”What type of witch do you think you are?”

Marina sat down and felt the wind. “A genius.” Homeschooled by one of the best teachers before the change in curriculum(her gran), niece of the now-retired Greatest Herbal Witch.

David did not question any further. She’s arrogant, but right. He’s seen how she can cast big spells just from imagining it—without drawing the magic circles three years ago. It’s possible with smaller spells that require smaller circles. But the bigger circle the spell requires, the more complex it gets, and the more difficult it is to ‘free-hand’.

“By the way…” to change the subject, “Why are you feeding children and making them plant trees?”

“Tch,” he heard her click her tongue. “Because this place stinks! Smoke and dust everywhere. I was born'n raised surrounded by trees, so it’s like torture breathing in this polluted air! Not a single tree in sight either!”

Marina signals to jump to a different vehicle making a turn, “So you just decided to change the place?! Crazy girl,” jump!

They landed. Marina’s step is still impossibly feather-light. “People outside Caotica are crazy, saying this place is chaotic. It’s not at all! They have the wrong idea. It's not completely ordinary nor peaceful either, but I'd say I had a more chaotic childhood. This place needs change. Name it anything but Caotica.”

David scoffs, “By planting trees?”

“Is that wrong?”

“I-I guess not…” wow, he completely sounded like an asshole there. “And the feeding of children?”

“I simply pity them. You see, Ialan was once homeless. Before I found him and abducted him (with his consent) to make him my brother. I realized that there are children that live like that, dying without having a chance to live life. Ialan was about to die of fever and hunger then…” her tone lowered, “…I would love to help those children the best I could. If only I had all the money I need… I’d feed ‘em everyday and buy them shelters.”

“She says she’s looking for the Diamerald to sell for a hefty price.” David remembers what Fuego told him. In this one, David is on Marina's side. “Yeah… that’s not a bad idea.”

Lunch. They finally got off the vehicles’ roof after hours, and off to a small food stall. David was exhausted, on his knees.

“That was 4 hours and 20 minutes of lecture. Since we round up, that’s 21 by 5, so 105 rands in total.”

David hands his payment, panting. “That was impossible… there’s no way I can land lightly like a ballerina like you do!”

“Correct. That's because I use the wind to make me ‘lighter’. There’s no way anyone but me can pull that off,” chuckles as she buys two meals, 500 rands each.

“No shit!” Way to make David agitated. “Damn wind child.”

They dined just outside a cheap cafeteria besides passing motors. “For the second job, it’s from a Job Request listed on the Batch’s billboard. I signed my name for us and Ialan. Due tonight.”

Request: catch all stray dogs in Division S39, dead or alive.

There have been complaints of active stray dogs around the area. The place is full of dog shit, and they always breed which makes more stray dogs. No one wants to adopt them anymore, and they are absolutely noisy during the night. A human finally filed a request and asked the dogs to be removed, which are at this point, pests. There’s a mini organization that takes dogs, dead or alive. The person who files for the request has the option to do whatever they want with the dogs. They can give them to this shadow organization if they want.

“Due tonight?”

“Right about that. It will pay us 400k rands.”

“400k???”

“There’s reaaally many dogs so it’s extra labor. It's just the rightful cost.”

David took a bite from his meal, “It will be split, right?”

“Among us three, yes.”

“...dogs, hm…?”

Later, the three, Marina, Ialan, and David went to the batch wearing their ‘cloaks’, a cloak received only after graduating from witchcraft. All necromen wearing this cloak are certified witches. Ialan and David are the youngest members of the batch. Two misfortune-bound children walking together is not a good sight. Who knows what disaster their abilities combined can make. Naturally, their circle is evaded.

Marina approaches the register. “The job under ‘Marina’ due tonight? I'd like it to be closed.”

The registrar took a piece of paper from the ‘M’ drawer and dropped it in the ‘ongoing’ jar. It has a spell set to notify the Head Batch about the jobs taken. “You’re all settled. As usual, please finish the job before dawn. And don’t let a soul notice you.”

“Gotcha. Let's go, boys. We're after dogs tonight.”

Riding on a cab, from a distance, the three can already hear the wars of the dogs from Division S39. “Ialan, circle around the division and draw a wall spell against 4 legged mammals. David, we’re off.”

They jumped off a street from the roof of the cab to the said division while Ialan remained on the vehicle and dashed away. There’s already lots of dogs barking around, some at Marina and David, while the rest barked at each other.

“What a horrible infestation. Shouldn’t they have asked for a pet expert rather than us? Davey, enlighten me. How can humans with no knowledge of witches make Requests for us to take as jobs? I’ve been dying to know since the start of time.” asked Marina.

“Why the hell are you asking me? Aren’t you an ‘information breaker’?”

“Because you work for the Batch Head and you do know, so naturally, I ask you. should I have asked a dog, you’re saying?”

David sighs before explaining that the Head Batch hangs enchanted posters on walls that advertise the batch. People who are desperate are hypnotized by these posters and are tempted to post their concerns to a mailbox that the Head harvest every end of the month. The spells will be on until their payment. If the pay is too low, the request will be rejected. Since signers are desperate, they will pay the highest they can. Once the job is done, the signer will lose all memory regarding the job. But rumors can spread while they have the memories, which is a free advertisement.

“In this case, someone got so fed up with dogs and their shit they wanted to get it off the Division. If they hired professional animal exterminators, who knows how much it would cost. Probably not as cheap as 400k.”

Marina starts writing up chants from imagination alone. Little by little, David watched how she created it in awe, something he can’t imagine him doing. “Let’s go. Ialan’s coming back soon.”