Chapter 290: Battling Mages.

"Haru, I'm sorry. If you get this, can you please call me back? I didn't mean what I said, and I'm sorry for not taking your side. I didn't trust you, and I hurt you. Please just come home." The sound of a voice recording carried its way through a clean hotel room where Haru lay on the bed looking up at the TV.

"Won't she just give it a rest already?" Haru complained as he buried his head further into the pillow behind him. He looked down at the phone screen that blurted light around the darkroom and saw the forty-seven missed calls from both his mother and father.

He sighed before holding the power button and putting it down on the nightstand.

'I really do need a break, don't I? I wonder what the nightlife is like in Tokyo. ? I haven't actually been into the city yet. It might be a good idea to take a look around.' Haru thought to himself as he remembered that he had never been into the city before.

He had heard his parents complain about it being a dangerous place since it was an international hub for mages, and there would constantly be fights in the streets and disagreements with store owners. But with his strength, he figured that he would be fine.

After a few minutes of convincing himself to get out of bed, Haru finally swivelled his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up before looking out through the glass balcony doors at the night's sky.

Although he wasn't in the heart of Tokyo, there were dozens of skyscrapers that seemed to reach the heavens with their height. He didn't mind the look of skyscrapers since they looked clean and modern from the outside, so he felt like he had a lot to look forward to as he put on some suitable clothes from his storage ring, which consisted of a half-open dress shirt and trousers.

He looked at himself in the mirror seeing his unkempt hair, and laughed slightly at the sight of him.

"Why did anyone let me go out of the house like this?" He asked himself while looking at the hair that was spewing in different directions before releasing a bit of Qi from the tip of his finger and pulling his hair back out of his face into a ponytail while leaving himself with some longer hair on either side of his face.

He smirked while looking at how plain his outfit looked. He had never tried to impress anyone with how he dressed before, but Haru thought that he could do something to attract some attention to himself for fun. He took a little bit of fire from Kun's flames and used it to tie his hair in place.

A small red flame danced around on the back of Haru's while lighting the darkroom.

He laughed once again at how silly it looked but decided not to worry about it. He left the room and made his way down to the ground floor and through the lobby while getting looks of confusion as he walked past the workers.

Their attention was drawn to the flame at the back of his head, so his plan seemed to work in his favour, making him feel like a celebrity as everyone looked at him.

Usually, he liked to keep a low profile, but since it was a city full of mages, there were likely to be delinquents hanging around hoping to pick on someone who tried to go undetected. He figured that if he didn't want anyone to trouble him, he had better do something to draw attention to himself and make him look confident in his abilities.

But still, he wanted to keep his strength to himself. So he walked into the city instead of flying.

As he started to approach the heart of the city, the sounds of speakers playing music and advertisements became audible with the lights of moving billboards shining down upon the grew concrete.

Cars zoomed up and down the roads at speeds much faster than the speed limits, but there was no response from the police. It seemed like what his parents had said was the truth.

Tokyo was self-governed by and for mages. There was no need for police or traffic laws if people could use magic to keep themselves safe.

The streets were empty at first, but as he made his way closer to the centre, they slowly filled with more and more people. They pooled around the entrances to clubs and bars with loud music playing as Haru walked past though he soon became the centre of attention as a flame wiggled on top of his hair.

"Hey, you're hair is on fire." A woman shouted out to him as he walked past. It seemed to cause concern with whoever saw it, but he simply smiled and carried on as he traversed the streets. But as he got to the very centre of the city, he was stopped in his tracks.

The building all-around had images of two shirtless men with the words "International Magic Battling Broadcasting" at the very top.

From what Haru could tell, two well-known mages were going to fight against each other while being broadcasted on live TV.

Something like that wouldn't have drawn Haru's attention if it wasn't for the gigantic crowd that had gathered at the roadblocks. Many of them had alcohol in their hands, and others had flags that were blowing in the wind. Haru looked around, amazed by the number of people an event like that had drawn.

It seemed as though a million people were there from the ground, and he instantly became interested in what the strength of the two men was like if they could draw out so many people to see them fight. HeShe knew that they had to be some of the strongest mages in Japan based on the crowd and wanted to find out more.

He looked around and struggled to see where the fight was taking place until he saw a long red carpet that had people lining up on either side with cameras, taking pictures of anyone that walked down it.

'That must be the place.' Haru thought to himself as he looked at the carpet that led to an open doorway.

'Why is no one heading inside? There is no one there, and the doors are wide open. Why wouldn't anyone be going inside?' He thought as he saw that only a few people had entered. He figured that it wasn't open to the public, but with no one there to tell him otherwise, he decided to investigate a little further.

Haru began to approach the red carpet, all the while many people in the crowd turned their heads after catching a glimpse of the burning red flame on the back of his head.

"Mommy. Who is that man?" A young boy called out while pointing in Haru's direction as he stepped foot onto the red carpet.

Suddenly all eyes were on Haru as he walked further onto the carpet and past all of the camera's, but none of them took pictures of him. Everyone was too transfixed on the flame around his hair to care about taking photos, and he walked past without any trouble at all.

He kept his head held high as they all looked at him and then walked through the doorway at the end of the red carpet. A slight yellow glow came down from the ceiling as he found himself in a dark corridor.

There were small circular ceiling lights that shined down upon his head, almost as if they were meant for him to follow. There was no one around to tell him to turn back or not to continue inside, so he carried on without a second thought.

The walls were coated in a black velvet-like fabric that seemed to absorb all the light, so the only thing he had to guide him was the lights in the ceiling.

Haru walked for a while before coming to a stop as the corridor came to an end. He almost thought that he had walked into a trap room if not for the small shiny silver handle on the black velvet in front of him, signifying there was a door. He pulled down on the handle and the door opened with a creak as the sounds of cheering rushed in towards him.

"And now it's time to welcome today's fighters to the stage. Let's give a warm welcome to the Siberian Combat mage, Jyina Socao." A voice boomed out from a loudspeaker as a crowd erupted into thunderous applause. It was almost as loud as lightning striking the earth but. But suddenly, it stopped as the music started playing.

"And give a welcome to Japan's own S Ranked mage, Kazuo Satou." The voice called out once again as Haru opened the door completely to be blinded by flashing lights as the room erupted with cheering once again.