“Bad news, my little apprentice.” Victor leisurely came into the medical wing.

“For me or for you?” Zoey glared at the dickhead that teleported her when she was seriously injured.

“Both! It turns out the big wigs didn’t like our little troublemaking and sent the big dogs after us. We injured their pride with how many prodigies you took out despite not having any real cases under your own belt.” Victor explained, taking a seat next to her hospital bed.

“Since we’re done causing trouble, hurry up and teach me the other two techniques.” Zoey stated.

“Look at you!” He suddenly stood up. “In the condition, you’re in you think you can learn anything?! Just sit here and rest your tired and weary body, my little apprentice. I’ll deal with this!” Victor announced with pride.

“Don’t you dare fucking...” Zoey just sighed as she held her bandaged wound. “Bring me a chocolate cappuccino when you get back...” She didn’t even bother.

“Anything else?”

“Sour candy.”

“See ya in a bit.” Victor vanished from the hospital wing.

Victor arrived in the city streets right outside the hospital. In front of Victor was a single woman and a boy around Zoey’s age. With his trademark leisure grin, he gave the two a greeting wave. It was impossible for him to not recognize the woman but the child was a new one. A blindfold wrapped around his eyes, black chains wrapped around his right arm, and a straight-forward stance filled with confidence.

“I heard you’re looking for me.” Victor smiled.

“Give me one good reason not to break every bone in your body.” Kali demanded.

“I need my bones to fight daemons.” Victor answered.

“You really don’t understand how dumb you are, do you?” Kali shook her head with a mocking laugh. “Because of your stupid little stunt, do you know how many people are thinking about categorizing you and your little apprentice as wanted magjistars!? If it wasn’t for me, you would be kicked out of the OM and chased around as criminals by now!” She stepped up to Victor and poked his chest.

“It was them, wasn’t it?” Victor no longer smiled.

“Who else?” Kali replied. “Do you even know what’s going on right now? More and more magjistars are mobilizing to deal with the weird daemon incident happening!”

“I heard about it, but is it really getting that bad?”

“Lower grade magjistars used to be able to group up together and deal with singular daemon threat but for some reason, daemons have started to team up more often. Making cases harder than they usually are.” Kali then took a breath before harshly poking Victor once again. “Because of the stupid shit you and your apprentice are doing, it's making shit harder for us and borderline helping the daemons!” Kali explained.

“Well, I think I made enough of a statement.” Victor grinned. “Me and my little apprentice will handle these daemons for you guys.”

“Victor! You are no longer allowed to go on cases with Zoey Benjamin Winters. They ruled that you aren’t fit to teach the next generation of magjistars. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be allowed to be near the girl but thankfully for you, you’re still allowed to be near her. You cannot directly go on cases with her anymore.” Kali informed him.

“Eh...?” A dangerous minute burst of mahna was briefly expelled from Victor’s body.

Kali frowned at the sight of this while the boy behind her subtly started to shake.

“They wanted to take my cute little apprentice from me?” The people walking by quickened their pace.

“You don’t know how hard I had to fight for you and your ‘cute little apprentice.’” Kali poked him once again. “Give me.” She held her hand out.

“Thanks, K.” Victor accepted the Heart-Bound Contract with Kali.

Victor would owe her two favors without a single complaint and would follow them to the word. It was the least he could do from what he heard. Kali protected Zoey’s future as a magjistar. Victor couldn’t care less about not being able to teach another magjistar or whatever. However, if he ruined Zoey’s future, he’d feel a little bad but mostly pissed off with those bastards at the top. If they really decided to make him and Zoey criminals, he’d bring hell to the entire organization from the top down. Starting with those bastards first.

“Quit messing around and do your damn job.” Kali gave her first order.

“Who’s going to be with Zoey?” Victor asked.

“It's out of my hands. I did as much as I could but deciding that wasn’t something I could speak on.” Kali answered.

“I appreciate it, anyway. I’ll just give her a few things for protection just in case.”

“You two really caused a lot of damn trouble... You know how much those bastards care about face. You’re so stupid sometimes.” Kali turned around and crossed her arms.

“I didn’t think they’d get so upset about it. I made sure to pay for their medical expenses.” Victor would

“It's the principle of things, Victor! How are they supposed to take it when you’re recording their carefully raised and brought-up apprentices getting the snot beaten out of them by some girl who was basically just brought into the magji world? You know most magjistars look down on people not raised around magji.” Kali felt herself getting upset again. “Please just think before doing something next time! I know you don’t care about yourself but think of the kid at least... That’s all I ask, Victor.” Kali sighed.

“I’ll do that.” Victor nodded.

“I couldn’t be happier to hear it. If I show up in front of you again, I'm going to have to arrest you on orders from the OM. Or kill you. Whichever they decide.” Kali left Victor with those words before walking off with the boy.

“See you around, K.” Victor walked into the hospital.

“Since you’re not going to be taking me on cases anymore, teach me the next two techniques now.” Zoey was happy that she was going to get a break from Victor.

“Talk to me about that when you’re completely healed.” Victor shrugged her off.

“You’re a piece of shit, you know that?” Zoey didn’t hold back.

“I’m only doing what’s best for you.” Victor put on a wronged expression.

“I can’t wait to start going on cases by myself.”

“I’m going to miss our time together, you know?” Victor began to use his finger to draw circles on her cover.

“I won’t.”

“You’re my first apprentice. I never found anyone as interesting as you are to teach.”

“I hope I never meet someone like you again.”

“When I was younger, there was nothing I couldn’t do. Magji came easy to me, I never had to work hard for anything.” Victor smiled. “You are similar to me but you weren’t raised like me.”

“I was born with a diamond spoon in my mouth from the beginning and never understood the less privileged and untalented. You are both of those things but at the same time not.”

“I didn’t ask for your stupid life story.” Zoey muttered before closing her eyes and laying on her pillow. “I asked for magji techniques...”

“When learning something new, you completely suck at it. You suck at it more than anyone else could suck at something. But that doesn’t make you lose hope. You just continue to work at it more and more until it looks like something less sucky.”

‘He really knows how to piss people off...’ Zoey thought, trying to go to sleep and ignore him.

“I always knew that’s how regular people went about it but then I realized, you weren’t normal. You’re a monster like me but instead of a monster of talent, you’re a monster of hard work. You sucked at first but you grew too quickly. The more work you were tasked with the more efficient your growth. As long as I carefully made sure you didn’t break but was thoroughly pressed, you grew at a rate two to five times as fast as other people. It made me question if you were even human but then I remembered how I was when I was young...” He softly laughed. “I also wasn’t anything like a human back then either. A mutant, a freak, a monster. I was called them all and took the names with pride.”

Zoey turned over on her side and cuffed her ears with the pillow.

“Monsters like us, are feared and rarely understood by others. Zoey. If there’s one thing I want you to remember from all of this. Make strong bonds with others. Otherwise, eventually, you’ll become enemies with the whole world. Our strength makes others uneasy. That’s something that can’t be helped. The weak fear the strong and humans distance themselves from what they don’t understand.” Victor patted her leg. “Lindsay, Alexander. Don’t let them become afraid of you and cherish them. They’ll go far. I can tell.”

Zoey listened to every word of his with a strange uncomfortable feeling in her chest. Soon, she could tell she was all alone in the hospital room. Only the sound of her beating heart and the uncomfortableness rising along with her chest. Stupid Victor... Always have to make her feel not normal in some way! Maybe she would miss killing daemons alongside him just a bit...