M.I.A

Zahna found herself in a field alone, surrounded by forest. “Where’s HQ?” she spun around, “Asta?” she began to panic. “Captain Yami?!” She took in the surroundings around her ‘where the hell is this? Spatial magic? Did someone transport me, how? Asta, Yami or me should have picked up on their ki.’ She felt a large presence gazing at her from just beyond her view, “Show yourself coward!” she readied her body and blade reinforcing them with dark magic like Yami had taught her.

A huge lizard came running at her on two legs “what the hell is that?!” she exclaimed as she prepared to counter its charge. It came stomping at her at a speed that surprised her for its size, and she felt the weight of it shaking the ground beneath her as it made its approach. She rushed forward, “Dark Cloaked…” She raised her blade as she channeled her mana “Lightless Slash!” a black crescent wave ejected from her sword, its trajectory was headed straight for the neck of her large lizard foe.

As the wave passed under its chin, its motion began to slow. Its body toppled forward as its head rolled back towards its shoulders. The whole mass of it came crashing down on the ground, kicking up dirt and debris. The cut was so clean that its blood had barely splattered, though it began to well around its body.

“Charm’s would eat you right up… ugh” she scanned for more enemies but it seemed that the other ki signatures she felt had withdrawn rapidly after the beast was felled. ‘Smart’ she re-sheathed her blade. “I don’t feel any hostile mana, or any person. Where am I?”She took to climbing a nearby cliff for a better overview of her surroundings. She was disappointed by what she saw, “I’m in the middle of a huge forest!”

With the hideout, and the rest of the Black Bulls being far out of her reach she decided to press on. Uncertain of what direction she should go, she headed south in hopes of seeing a village. As she traveled through the forest she began picking up on some strange mana.

“This feeling. It’s starting to make me feel sick, this mana is pure evil…” she said as a shiver ran down her spine. The feeling grew stronger as she traveled forward. ‘It doesn’t feel like it’s moving… is it dormant?’ she peeked out from the treeline to the location the feeling was the strongest, and she saw a small shrine-like structure that seemed to be above the location of the evil magic.

‘That shrine… What's sleeping under there, another devil?’ she thought as she scanned the exterior of the structure. ‘I’ll have to report this to the others, but how? My portals wouldn't take me back, this doesn’t make any sense. And why is the sun out?’ her situation wasn’t adding up in her mind, causing her great frustration. She then felt some kind of presence monitoring the area with magic and hid. She wasn’t able to find any ki nearby and concluded that whoever it was must be monitoring the strange building. She decided to keep heading south, and as her distance increased from the building the feeling of the menacing mana subsided.

The location she was headed towards reminded her of what the grand magic zone felt like from a great distance, so she kept her guard up. “Damn… I’m too tired for this.” she hadn’t been able to sleep since she had arrived but knew that she would have to stop to camp soon. Luckily for her, she already suffered through some intense survival training with the black bulls as part of her “baptism.”

‘To think, they still made me go through all of that after they rescued me. I can’t keep going like this though.’ She went to work constructing her shelter using her magic to help gather and process materials. Her portals moved building materials from near and far, and she used the reinforcement of her dark magic to help build her shelter faster. It took her a little under an hour before she was done building her survival shelter. The only thing she was missing to complete the moment was a hearty meal. “It’s a good thing there’s some easy prey around here” she thought about the large lizard that she had taken down earlier. If that thing could find something to eat out here, she would too!

With her ability to sense ki and her magic, finding a meal was not a problem. Though it wasn’t something that she was used to eating. Letting out a slightly disappointed sigh to herself, “There sure are a lot of lizards around here…”as she roasted her next meal on a makeshift rotisserie. After she was done, she chowed down and was surprised to find that the meat was actually quite tasty. “Magna would be jealous of this barbecue!”

“I can’t exactly keep watch and sleep… What would Zora do? Oh right!” She began placing magic trap seals around her camp. “Now if something gets too close, they’ll be in for a big surprise!” satisfied with her defenses, she went inside her temporary home and laid down. ‘I wish I knew what the others were doing. I’m sure they’re worried about me.’ Her last thoughts before drifting off to sleep were of her team, they’d become like family to her, and she missed them dearly.

Meanwhile, a certain old man was receiving quite the tongue lashing “You’re such an idiot!” a small old woman smacked the old man in the head with a staff “why would you waste a wish on something like that?!” He was guarding his head as he was being chased around a small island by the small old lady that was floating on a shiny crystal ball. “You can’t expect your little brother to be satisfied with just the t.v. Now can you! A man has needs!” he said in his own defense, though she wasn’t interested in entertaining his foolishness. “Now we have to wait a whole year just to clean up your mess! And what if something terrible happens in that time? You fool!”

She stopped chasing him and sighed, “Well you better find her, and you better tell me when you do!” the old woman scolded him a final time before heading off. ‘Geeze, I just wanted to meet a real-life magical girl! What’s so bad about that?’ he thought to himself as he rubbed his head. His sister made him promise to train the young woman who was displaced in their world lest the future she saw came to pass.

Soft waves rolled in around him, and a turtle had just come ashore. “Are you really going to train another student, master?” The old man adjusted his glasses and then looked at the talking turtle. “It looks like it. I didn’t think I’d have to train another student after those two… but my sister would hound me to the ends of the earth if I refuse!” The turtle had a look of bewilderment on his face. “It seemed like Baba was worried about something other than just training though.” the turtle commented but the old master turned away with a tinge of embarrassment. “Where should I start looking, hmm…” the old man looked out over the sea, and quickly set off across the water in a mad dash.