I'm Something of a Magician Myself

The pair spent the whole Saturday and all of Sunday morning taking turns ranting to each other about their respective worlds and their lives.

There was nothing they couldn't agree with each other on as far as their knowledge went.

However, Keizo was rather surprised by the amount of content that was presented in Izumi's world. Sure his world was complex and almost entirely alien to her, but nothing could compare to Izumi's world. Her understanding of its history and current state had amazed him.

"Alright, I yield, you win!" Keizo chuckles, his hand resting on the back of his neck.

"I certainly don't feel like a winner, though." She says pouting. "I think we've each gone over everything there is to go over. It's getting monotonous. Maybe we should try something new!"

She then goes silent for a second before starting. "Hey, Keizo, Have you ever thought about learning magic?"

Keizo does that blank stare at her again.

"You mean like card tricks or the incantation magic you attempted earlier?"

"Incantation magic, exactly this!" She beams with excitement.

"I don't mean to shoot down your enthusiasm but to answer your question... I haven't thought about it." He tells her.

"Oh come on, you can't be serious, surely you must be able to cast spells." She says.

"I'm not so sure about that. Magic isn't like that, at least I don't think. Lemme give an example, if you asked me to recite a spell using words that don't have any meaning in my world, I'd definitely struggle, not just with pronunciation but with the actual words themselves." He points out.

"That makes sense." Izumi looks down, thinking.

He then sighs softly, leaning forward, resting his forehead against the mirror as he does so.

"Hey," Izumi says, resting her head against his through the glass.

He looks up at her, seeing the hopeful glint in her eyes.

"You never know until you try, Keizo."

With those words echoing in his ears, he finally lets himself give in. He sits there, silently pondering about Izumi's offer as she stares back.

"Okay..." He says hesitantly, "But how do we even know if I'm even capable of doing magic?" He asks curiously.

"It doesn't need to be complicated, I just want you to do it. Even if you're not, at least we both know that you gave it a shot." She says.

"True, you're right. Okay, let me try." He says, his expression turning serious as he steps back from the mirror.

Keizo starts extending his hands outward and swaying them around, feebly attempting to make magic happen.

"What's this?" Izumi says, trying not to burst out laughing.

"I dunno, you tell me..." Keizo says sheepishly. "I wanna be clear: I have no idea what I'm doing." He says with a chuckle.

"Obviously, you big goof. Hang on." Izumi says. "For starters, you gotta relax yourself, don't worry about any cool poses and things like that for now, currently we're just trying to get you in the right state of mind so you can channel elements, and things like that." Izumi says confidently.

"Okay." He nods, letting his arms stop flailing for now as he focuses on calming himself. 

As she watches him, Izumi notices a shift in Keizo's attitude. He looked so focused and sincere, and even though he didn't quite know what he was doing, she knew he was trying. As soon as that realization struck, she realized that she wanted to help him, just as badly as he was helping her get through her boring life, locked up in a strange box of emptiness.

"Alright, let's try a super simple spell for now, like, a water spell!" Izumi suggests. "Try focusing on water, repeat after me..." She instructs.

"Droplets come forth, rain down ever so gently, Aquia Aetherea!" He repeats following her lead. They stood there together repeating the spell over and over again, neither wanting to break the silence, but needing to. When they finally finish they both sit there for a second staring at each other, waiting for the other person to start speaking.

"Did it work?" Keizo asks, looking at his hands. "I don't feel any different, is that good or bad?"

"Yeah, you did alright." Izumi replies. "Still not sure why it didn't work though..."

"I'm telling you, maybe magic just isn't for me." Keizo shrugs.

Just as Keizo does this, he feels a strange feeling surging out of his hands. Suddenly he gets jolted in the face by a high pressure stream of water.

"Ack! That hit me in the face! What's with the delayed reaction!?" Keizo yells out.

"Coulda sworn we said and I quote 'rain down gently'!" He says shaking his sopping wet mop of hair around.

Izumi giggles a little at Keizo's outburst, watching him dry himself off. "Your spell worked. You actually did magic."

"Huh?! Really?" He stops, looking genuinely surprised.

"Yes, really. Now you just gotta focus on doing it more, and practice every day! That's how it works." She informs him.

Keizo nods. "You're right... Thank you, Izumi. For everything." He pauses and glances at her in disbelief shortly after taking a breath.

"Seriously though? Just like that? How about simply channeling the energy, are incantations really that important?" He asks.

"Of course they are, silly! How else would you know what to-"

"Don't answer that, It's just a silly thought." He says, staring at his hands. I just can't imagine myself having a magic power like that... It seems unreal."

"Hold on a minute though, let me try something, I'm feeling a rush right now!" Keizo says hyped up suddenly.

He takes a deep breath, trying his best to channel his newfound energy and redirect it outwards, he extends his hands outwards and thinks of water shooting out of one of those water-cannons at the arcade.

Saying nothing, he focuses really hard and to his surprise, water materializes and shoots out of both of his hands.

The water splashes the mirror directly.

When it clears away, it reveals an unfalteringly shocked and stunned Izumi. She must've stood there in silence for an eternity.

"Literally how!?" Izumi manages through her agape mouth.

"Like I told you; just channeling, it's kind of instinctive." Keizo smiles slightly, still not believing he actually managed to use magic again.

"Wow..." She says, still dumbfounded. "I've never seen someone not use an incantation and have a spell happen, like, what?" Izumi says.

"I'm just as stupefied as you right now to be honest..." Keizo says. "I find the words a bit too chaotic. No offense, but channeling just feels right." He says with a comical thumbs up.

"None taken."

They both laugh at each other.

"I've spent countless years mastering all the incantations of dark magic, elemental magic, transport magic, healing magic and the list goes on... but somehow you get it in a flash with no incantations... Unbelievable~!" Izumi says with a happy, swooning sigh.

"It's amazing, truly." She says.

"I'll admit I am a bit jealous, but honestly, if you've got a hang of it this quickly, who knows what you could do if you really hop to it!" She adds with a few fist pumps of each hand.

"Well, It's like how I am with most new things, I wouldn't say it's the easiest thing to learn. It does take a fair amount of concentration but once I figure it out and get the ball rolling, you're welcome to see how far I'll go!" He says enthusiastically, smiling from ear to ear. "And if anyone can teach me, it's you." He adds.

"Well, if I have anything to teach you about magic, then it will be a blast... literally!" Izumi says excitedly. "I'll show you everything, I'll show it all to you! You better start taking notes~!"

✧ ✧ ✧

In a few hours, Izumi filled Keizo's brain full of extensive knowledge on various elements, how to conjure different kinds of magic, some of the more advanced ones like levitation or teleportation. In return, when he started asking questions, he discovered that while she hadn't used much power earlier, she did know how to summon fire and water elementals, use light magic, something called a dark aura and probably much more. With all the explanations he absorbed from her, the more impressed and curious he felt about magic.

"Are you sure you wanna try that one?" Izumi asks with a hint of caution, pointing at one of his many spells written in a binder which was supposed to be for schoolwork.

"Absolutely!" Keizo replies eagerly, already making his way over to the bookcase, grabbing the book he was reading earlier.

"Okay, hold on. I have to warn you, this one is going to suck." Izumi warns him.

"What? ThinkI can't handle it or something?" He scoffs playfully.

"No, it's just that every time I tried that one out, I ended up with this large mass of coagulated fluid that just kinda sat there looking just as glum as me when I realized I created the complete opposite of what I wanted." Izumi says.

Keizo pauses before slowly closing his book, looking up at Izumi in disbelief. "So what was it supposed to be then?"

"I wanted to create a healing slime. But, you're gonna end up with a lifeless pile of gel most likely. Or at least, your version of one." Izumi confirms. "It will appear for a while then just melt away into the atmosphere oddly after a while." She explains.

"Well, there's no harm in trying!" Keizo beams hopefully, only this time, his hopefulness got shot down rather quickly.

He got into position and channelled with all his might but as soon as he tried it, it came out a mess.

"It's on my floor now." Keizo says in between slow claps.

"Not for long though, remember? It'll go away on it's own soon enough." Izumi says. "But what did I tell you?"

"Yeah, I know." Keizo slouches inspecting the goop splattered on the bathroom tiles.

"Did someone put that spell in there by mistake?" Keizo thought out loud.

"I dunno, but for either of us to get the same result it almost seems that way... Izumi agrees.

"I don't know what to do next though..." Keizo looks to the ground in contemplation. 

Spellcasting for elements was an interesting process for Keizo to go through, he'd write down a spell's activation phrase which was broken down into 3 parts as professionally and thoroughly explained by Izumi.

First there was the type of magic that gets called out, followed by the desired form, then finally the archaic name for the magic type is announced to tie it all together. The archaic name acts as sort of a confirmatory statement to authenticate and uphold the spell's power, allowing the magic to flow properly.

The basic idea of casting a spell was simple, and yet extremely complex at the same time. 

To make any sort of significant progressional understanding it would take the average person years of study and training. Yet somehow, Keizo was soaking up the information like a sponge, leaving Izumi still completely confused, but also amazed.

"Well, "let's see what we've gone over..." Izumi motions Keizo to hold his book up to her.

"Rain, Water surge, Stagnant Flame, Iridescent Glow, Pulsing Light..." She reads from Keizo's spellbook which is essentially just text in between math equations.

"We've pretty much gone over all the basic and small party trick spells that won't put your house or this bathing room in any sort of damage." Izumi smiles proudly at her apprentice.

"So all I need tell you about now is the big ones... The really powerful ones, the super duper extraordinarily powerful ones."

"While that does sound fun, I've got school tomorrow. I haven't really done much preparation for it yet and besides, I don't know if I want to learn such advanced magical things just yet." Keizo admits, shrugging.

Izumi raises an eyebrow. "You mean you aren't interested in learning about these spells anymore?!" She asks.

"I still am! Don't fret one bit! It's just, that isn't where my focus lies right now." He reassures her with a grin and pat on the shoulder.

"You've done schooling in your homeworld right? What happens to those who miss out on doing homework and other testing?" Keizo asks.

"They get expelled, but before that, there's a period of peer ridicule and mockery during their academic year, they have to endure endless mockeries by their peers, their teachers, etc. There are many reasons why people drop out of the Kuronaga Institute of Magic eventually, it just depends on the situation and the person's mental state. I never engaged in jeering those who weren't doing so well, because everyone has different talents, strengths and weaknesses, also it just didn't sit right with me. Our school is full of elitist people who are just as skilled as you, but they all look down at the rest and mock them." Izumi vents with clenched teeth. "Forgive my blunt language but I just really don't give a damn about what that my school and The Divine Council of bullshit thinks of me, they'll always get the last word, I guess. The real question here is how do you feel about it?"

Keizo pauses for quite some time, all this time he'd never heard Izumi swear like that.

"I... really hate it. I haven't experienced anything like that, but gosh does that sound harrowing!" He says, slightly shivering.

"Exactly!" Izumi says, grinning widely. "I'm pretty much used to bullies, so that's just kind of what life is like for me, that is until you showed up."

"That makes sense." Keizo nods.

"Well, what's our goal today?" Izumi says attempting to lighten the mood a bit.

"Well, I was gonna get a head start on some homework, maybe make something to eat." Keizo says. "Hang on though, don't you get hungry being in there?" Keizo asks with genuine curiosity.

"This might come as a surprise to you, but nope, I just get tired, but never hungry. I don't know why it's like that. It's not like I'm complaining or anything either, still it's just so odd though..." She says with a sigh. "I haven't actually put too much thought on what I'm feeling while I'm trapped in here." Izumi admits.

"But if that was the case, I definitely wouldn't want to be here, this place is a waking nightmare."

"Do you ever get scared though? Like, about how you'll get out?" He asks her.

"Well, sometimes I get a feeling in the back of my mind, but, other than that I just ignore it, and try to relax whenever the feeling comes back." Izumi explains.

"I really wish I could use my powers to escape but, for obvious reasons even you've seen that I simply can't. There's nothing I can do about it. I've slowly come to terms with the fact that there's nothing I can do about being without magic either. That's just how it is." She says with a pout.

"Well, I for one think that your situation is a load of crap! As for getting out, mark my words, if you're certain your magic can get you out of here, then who's to say that mine can't?" Keizo says with a bout of confidence.

"If anyone deserves to have this freedom, it should be you! I've never heard of anyone with a better magical talent in all my life!" he says enthusiastically.

"You really do something like that for me?" Izumi asks.

"Positively, and I intend on proving it can be done!" Keizo says proudly.

"So, let's get to it!"

She nods in agreement. "Yeah, let's get to it!!"