Waking up this time was different, to say the least. Where other times, I was up and ready to go after the initial grogginess, this time my body felt as if it had been lacking sleep. My eyes were trying to keep themselves shut from the outside world and my body felt numb, refusing to move. It had taken me a second but I was able to open my eyes. I was glad that I was in my cell, that meant that… ...thing was done and I was free from it. I was finally able to move but had to wince at the sharp amounts of pain that crept up uninvited. I pushed my body up with heavy breaths, trying to combat the pain I was feeling. This was a pain was different from what I usually felt. It was like there was soft but noticeable an itch that made itself apparent under each scar. From what I could see, they had already stopped healing. They must have not been as serious as I thought they were. My cell had three more occupants than before. I thought that they were funnelled here but it seemed like they came here of their own choice rather than the slavers bringing them here. Most of them were all asleep, including Simon. First was Rob. He was the one who lead me to the theory of them choosing to come here. He seemed kind of happy to talk to someone, it didn't seem like there was someone for him to talk to as everyone avoided him. He's a nice guy once you get to know him. Gives me the Hiruzen kind of vibe, If you know what I mean. There was some weird symbol on his back. It looked like some drawing or tattoo. It looked very familiar but I wasn't able to see it as he turned over. The next was the boy that had been calling out to me during the fight. Got some weird blue hair, a darker shade of blue than Simon's. There was a weird tattoo on his face, I didn't know tattoos were allowed at his age but this world most likely doesn't run on the same rules as mine. The next was a girl, that had curled herself up in the corner. She was the only one awake, I could hear faint crying from her. She must be new here as well. I couldn't see her face from here but I could see the long flowing dark red hair from here, not sure of the exact shade, not that I knew many. I was in a good mood from learning I could do magic so I walked up to her, why not put some sunshine into her dark life? I made sure to male my footsteps loud enough so she could hear me over her crying. I sat down beside her but she didn't make any sort of reaction. Sighing, I gently placed my hand on her shoulder as she tensed at the touch. I couldn't help but smile at the funny scene of her almost falling over from surprise. "Hello…" I called out to her as sat back up "My name's Akira." Ice breakers aren't my thing. "I-I…"She broke down again. What the hell do I do know? When it doubt, hug it out. She tried to push away from me but I held on to her body. Punching, kicking, scratching, She did everything she could to let me go but I held on. I let her pour out her emotions as much as she could. I remember doing the same, it's better to let someone cry their eyes out every once in a while, even if they don't want to. Where My Demons Lie I watched as the casket was lowered with a whimpering breath, lowering the hat on my head to cover my eyes. Mom was next to me, letting ber tears out without holding back. As much as it hurt for me, it had hurt my mother more. I laid my arm around her shoulder and pulled her into my chest. She did object and grabbed my shirt and sobbed. She sobbed and sobbed until there was nothing to left. "You were just like him, you know. He always had a smile on his face. Even when times were tough, he kept his smile." She said between sniffs, wiping her eyes from the tears. "I know, I was there." I retorted. She giggled a little, lifting my heart a little. I hated seeing her like this. "You're definitely his son. If you can make a joke about his funeral than I fear who you marry. I don't think they will able to handle you." "Your right about that but that won't be the reason." It took her a second to realize, she hit me in the arm but there was no force behind it "Pervert. Disgusting Pervert." I laughed, Mom, joining in soon after. I don't think she was laughing at the joke. Where my Demons Lie I noticed that the girl had stopped crying yet kept a tight grip on me. My arms were wrapped around her body as she laid her head on my chest. She looked up to me with bloodshot eyes brown eyes "Thanks." she muttered before quickly looking away from me. She still didn't let go of me. Don't thank me, I didn't do anything. Hm? I looked down to see drops of water landing on my hand. My hand found itself to my eye only to feel the warm tears that were escaping it. I'm crying? Why? I got over his death years ago. "Are you ok?" The girl asked, he still hadn't of moved from her spot. "Eh, weren't you the one who was crying before?" I asked getting a small blush from her. It's good that she's in a happier mood. Well, that's my good deed for the day. "Hey is there a draft in here or something?" I asked the girl after a few seconds of silence. "Ummmm, I don't think so, Maybe?" She asked after a second of contemplation. "You don't feel that at all?" I asked. After I woke up, there's been a weird...feeling. As I said before, I felt like someone had left a door open inside a warm home. "No." She replied. "Am I supposed to feel something?" "Nah, Don't worry about it." I dropped the subject with her but I wasn't able to get that annoying itching feeling to go either. This is just getting worse and worse. The looked down to see the girl had laid herself on my lap. I let her stay there as I needed some sort of distraction from that annoying feeling. I played with her hair making her lean into the touch. After a while, her breathing had calmed down and she had fallen asleep. The sounds of shuffling broke me out of my thoughts. It looked to be Rob that was waking up first. I put my finger to my mouth to indicate that everyone else was asleep. He nodded back and came into whispering distance. "How are you feeling? You were in quite a mess when we got you back," he asked. There was a lot of concern in his tone. He was definitely a Hiruzen. "I feel quite odd. There some weird itching and I feel a breeze. Actually, that breeze has gotten stronger." I shivered. "It' like I'm cold but I don't feel the cold." "I think I have the answer. It happened to me when I experienced it." He started. "Experienced what? There's no need to be vague and shit." "Where did you hear such language?!" I sent him a deadpan "Remind me where we are again?" "...Right" He calmed down somewhat "Do you have a weird feeling around you? Something you haven't noticed before?" He asked. "Yeah, a breeze." I answered after a second, where's he going with this? He looked relieved "Thank god. I thought that they did something to you." "You're being vague again." He chuckled at my response. "I believe that you have unlocked your magic. You're currently feeling the ethernano enter you magic container." My magic? That's great, I don't need to figure out how to use it myself. Wait, didn't Fatass™ (Trademarking it so nobody uses my brilliant name in their fics) say something about my magic being unlocked? or was it Asshole™ (This one aswell)? "Could you teach me how to use it by any chance?" I asked him with a slight smirk. He shook his head, making me lose my smirk "No, I'm sorry. I currently don't have the time or ability to do so. I most of it for your wounds." He must have some healing ability. He seems to fit the old priest build. I sighed "That's fine. Could you at least help with his itching feeling I have?" "Itching feeling?" Rob asked with a tilted head. "Yeah, I think it's also my magic at fault as it happened after I unlocked it." He put his hand in his chin and hummed to himself "I'm not sure but I believe you may be hypersensitive to magic." "Hypersensitive? How is that much different to other people?" I asked him with a tilted head. "You must have lived in an area of extremely low ethernano causing your body to adapt to take in as much as it can, it usually happens after many generations of people living in those areas." "So kind of how an Iris expands to give in more light when there's a low amount, my magic is doing the same." He looked at me with a raised eyebrow "An iris?" Huh? Did he not know? It was fairly common knowledge. "Don't worry about it." I told him. It wasn't important right now. "Right...Do you know if had lived in such an area?" he asked me. "I think so. I hadn't of ever seen any magic." Unless the Illuminati was real, I don't think there's magic back home. Wait another second. If Pride said he created this body, how does it work in conjunction with the theory of my hypersensitivity to magic? My body was created by Pride, who was most likely using magic to do so unless he waited about a decade, so that means it was grown in an Ethernano rich environment? Gahhh, why can't something be simple for once? "Then that must be the reason for it. That might be why you can feel it under your skin." "So I got some weird itching feeling and a cold breeze?" "Said breeze should be gone soon enough. Your body will dismiss the feeling soon enough." "Right, now can we go about the fact of the hypersensitivity? It's very annoying." "I'm sorry but unless you learn how to control your mana, I can't help you." For fucks- Calm down. "Can you tell me how magic works in the body at least? I'd like to know as much as I can." He nodded "I can do that at least. Magic works by collecting the ethernano from the air around us and storing it in our magic containers. Said containers are organs that are located underneath your stomach. They would convert that ethernano into mana that our bodies can process with each person being different. When using magic, your container would push the magic around your body to the various places it needs." "So it's kind of like a heart?" I asked after his explanation. "Your heart?" He seemed confused for a second before something clicked "Right, I get what you mean. Though I don't see emotions being relevant in this scenario. You don't seem like someone who would be ruled by his emotions." Emotions? What on Earth? "No, I'm talking about how blood pumps around your body. It's kind of like that." What am I talking about? It sounds exactly like that "No wonder they act like that," Rob said to himself though I tuned him out. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I didn't know much about meditation to do it correctly but I could at least implement the principles. The first thing I did was try to block out any outside interference. It wasn't as hard as I thought since it was already so quiet when compared to the bustling city of London. Now for that itching feeling… I focused on that feeling and noticed how much worse it had gotten. It got bad enough to knock me out of the trance I set myself in. Straighten me, I went back into the trance. It was kind of weird feeling this. It was like daydreaming but not having anything to think of except the feeling. Right...now what do I do? I focused on that feeling and felt how my body had exploded with sensitivity. It was hard to concentrate but I did it. Right now, I'm going to need to be able to interact with my magic. I traced my hand over why it was most apparent and focused on that instead of my body as a whole. Now, I'm here but I don't have any idea on what to do. Maybe try rubbing the area...nope. Maybe pressing into it...nope. Maybe try tensing the area...nope-actually yes. It wasn't much but I was able to feel something. For a split second, the feeling had lowered slightly. Tensing it must have had the effect of slowing or blocking the mana coming from the magic container. Right, I got two possible qualities of my magic container. No.1, Mana works on will somewhat. I wanted the feeling to go but it didn't do that but when I focused on it, it had gotten stronger. No.2, When I tense my stomach area, the container slows its output. With those two things, I think I'm able to give this a go. Forst things first, let's simulate the heart beating with the magic container. Breath in, tense the stomach, stop the flow of magic. Breath out, release the stomach, continue the magic. The feeling is slowly following me. I can feel it start pump around my body and return itself back to the container. It was as if a drop of water had travelled from the tip of my finger to my stomach. I felt like I had dropped into a warm bath and let my tense muscles rest for a second. It was so relaxing to let my magic pump itself around my body. Once I had done the initial startup, my magic container had continued to pump magic in and out of itself without trouble. I opened my eyes to see that everyone was awake. They had turned their eyes to me as I had gotten up and stretched. How long was I like that? Simon was the first to break the silence "What were you doing?" he asked. "Meditating," I replied. It was the truth after all. I did not want to tell them I had magic. That would lead to undesirables like them wanting me to break them out. Rest assured I was going to do it but I wasn't going to rush it. We most likely weren't going to have a second chance to escape if we fail the first time. I'd rather be prepared with my magic. "Mediating? That's boring." I snorted at his response but didn't say anything. If only he knew. Where My Demons Lie My stretching had evolved into working out, I was currently doing pull-ups with my hands on some rocks stat was sticking out of the wall. If I was going to train my magic in my sanctuary than I'm going to train physically here. Every little helps when trying to take down a slaver's tower. "Thirteen...fourteen...five-" I had to stop and catch myself. I was not only tired but my hand was slipping off the rock that I was golding. "What are you doing up there?" Someone called out. I ignored them for a second and opted to fall down to the ground next to the blue-haired kid. He was the one calling me. "Exercising." "Why are you doing that?" "Becuase I had nothing better to do." I shrugged. He stared at me for a second before blossoming with a smile "My name is Jellal Fernandes. Nice to meet you." Jellal? I remember that name from somewhere. "I'm Akira. Don't have a fancy second name like you." He scratched his head "Thanks." For some reason, he took it as a compliment. "I liked your fight. It even looked like you were going to win for a while." That sounds like an insult. What the hell did I do to you? "It was my first time and he wasn't gentle. Of course, I would have finished first." That went over his head, not that expected him to understand what that-Gah. Holding my head in pain, I saw Rob standing over me. "What the hell was that for, Asshole?" I exclaimed, getting up again. Only to crumple back onto the floor, "You may be foul-mouthed but I won't let you infect these children." I stood up and stared into his eyes "Oh and what about those cunts out there?" "Language" "Fuck no-gah" Both Rob and I stared each other down, each not letting ourselves lose to the other. It was then when I heard the sound of the door unlocking causing us to look to the now open entrance. "Ah shit, here we go-would you stop that?!"