“Fuck!” Zoey suddenly shouted as she shot up from her sleep.

She lost consciousness again and lost her sleepless streak with Endurance! It was probably going to take her an entire month without sleeping to even get started on raising it to the next level again. Zoey knew she went through a lot of fights within a short period of time but come on. She took in her surroundings with an annoyed sigh to see a familiar face looking in her direction.

It was the edgy kid that thought he was in an anime. Wearing a blindfold like that will definitely get him killed unless he has magji eyes or something.

“...” Zoey stared a little bit harder.

Did he have magji eyes? Was he born with them? Could she unlock a magji organ too or was it hereditary? Hmm, he had kind of cute facial features. If she banged him and they got kids, would they have magji eyes too or would they get a different magji thing?

Zoey caught the slow reddening of the magjistar’s face as he turned away from her.

‘Oi.’ Zoey refused to believe this.

This fucking little pervert wasn’t reading her mind, was he? Zoey knew that magjistars had some type of mind magji or memory magji to keep the magjistar world hidden for so long from regular people but still. Straight up reading her thoughts was a little too fucking broken, wasn’t it? This didn’t even cover why the hell he was watching her over in the first place! She picked a nice shitty little janitor’s closet to take a nap in but here she was all warm with a nice comfortable coat across her body.

‘If you did anything to my body while I was asleep, just know your death will be quick and entirely painful.’ She threatened without opening her lips.

“I can’t read your mind but I can see your emotions.” Joseph explained, feeling the bloodlust radiating off of Zoey’s body.

“Oh. So, did you decide to help me or something? I don’t really know you and as far as I know, I made a lot of enemies and no friends in the magji world so far.” Zoey didn’t know what his goals were.

“Yes.” Joseph answered. “I know you have a bounty on your head and because our teachers are "friends” I decided to help out.”

“Okay, three things.” Zoey put up three fingers. “First, I have a bounty on my head?! Who the f--- Wait! Is that why all those people were attacking me?! I just thought it was because they were sent by some higher-ups of the OM.”

“Well, you might not be entirely wrong about that... But all I know is that someone with a lot of money wanted you captured alive.”

“How did you find out about this?” Zoey narrowed her eyes at him.

“I took out some of the bounty hunters and forced them to cough up answers.” Joseph saw her suspicion close in on him like a stalking tiger as she cycled her abnormally active mahna within her body.

“Hmm.” Zoey felt a little bit disgusted that she felt both joy and anger at the fact that she had a bounty on her head already.

On one end it meant that she would have more fights and opportunities to raise her skills as time went on. On the other hand, it also meant that she was clearly seen as a threat of some kind to the OM for some reason. Did Victor have to go through this shit too while growing up or was her situation special? What kind of organization tried to ruin their own people because they were too strong? It wasn’t like Zoey was trying to cause a revolution or change how things were fucking run. But as they just continued to try to fuck her over, that was starting to sound like a better and better idea. Once Zoey finds out the assholes responsible for trying to kill her, she’ll rip em apart with her fists!

‘Not literally though.’ She thought. ‘Probably.’

A person could only go through several assassination attempts before they get fed up. Zoey considered herself quite patient and calm-headed that she hasn’t marched straight over to the OM headquarters to demand answers and compensation for the physical and mental trauma she’s suffered so far. Plus, she hasn’t felt the urge to kill the assholes who were responsible for placing a bounty on her head or the shitheads willing to kidnap and deliver a teenager to some mysterious fucker for money. But the OM has definitely landed itself on her shit list and will take quite a bit of time to restore themselves to the magical association that protected the world she thought they were when she first met Alexander and Lindsay.

“...” Joseph kept silent as he looked at the waves of constant eruptions from Zoey’s various emotions.

“Second thing. I didn’t know that jerk had any friends at all. Who are they?” Zoey asked, slowly burying her boiling anger for another time.

“My teacher is your teacher’s ex.” He explained.

“Oh. That poor woman.” Zoey pitied her. Sure, Victor looked very handsome and charming but his personality... Eugh... Unless she taped his mouth shut, she couldn’t even imagine being involved with him.

“She described it as a time where she was still discovering who she was.” Joseph said. “But I don’t think it was a positive experience...” He could see the regret she felt when talking about it. So, he imagined it wasn’t a pleasant breakup or relationship.

“I can imagine...” Zoey smirked. “Okay, last thing, is there any way I can stop you from reading my emotions?”

“Not that I know of.” Joseph answered. He hasn’t met a person that could escape from the power of his eyes.

“Since you can read my mind basically, how about this?” Zoey stood up and met him at eye level. “Become my friend. I don’t know if anything you’ve said is true or not but I'm not smart enough or determined enough to find out the truth. So, I'm going to take it at face value. Just know that I do not take being backstabbed well. I have a lot to lose with my friends and family, not in the magji world and if you ever decide to use them against me or put them at risk, you will Hurt.” Zoey laid it all on him at once.

“...” Joseph could feel his mahna actively resisting against the imposing and frightening mahna of Zoey pressing down on his figure. He didn’t know what kind of experience Zoey’s gone through but his eyes could tell that she was special.

Neither his teacher, Victor, nor any other powerful magjistar gave him a feeling like this. It wasn’t terror or anything like that. But that something tied to her made her unique and different from everyone else. Joseph couldn’t tell if that uniqueness was the reason for her absurd strength just that it was present in her and in no one else he’s seen so far. Underneath the surface, she shone brightly, like an unearthed priceless gem. Of course, Joseph had met plenty of people with various types of personalities and Zoey wasn’t anything special in that regard. But with her talent, strange but positive temperament, and specialness, Joseph had no reason to deny the offer. It would be his pleasure to become friends with someone like Zoey. Even if she had some deep issues that he wasn’t going to touch with a ten-foot pole and was a little perverted.

“I’ll be your friend.” Joseph nodded.

“I would like to say you’re my first magjistar friend around my age but I got two other friends that kind of brought me into the magji world. I guess I could say you’re my first friend after the whole prodigy bullying thing I did.” Zoey smiled. One step at a time was slow as fuck but hey, every accomplished goal started somewhere.

“I can imagine why.” Joseph didn’t know why she did such a thing but could feel that she felt no regret about doing it.

“Who knew magjistars were so sensitive? Just because they got beat up a little, they threw a huge fit over it. Total babies.” Zoey shrugged it off. She got the techniques she wanted in the end so, it wasn’t that bad of a deal.

Since this guy could see her emotions or whatever, Zoey felt it would be pointless to act differently from her true self.

“It’s about pride.” Joseph answered for her. “You only very recently came into the magji world while those geniuses you defeated have been in it their entire lives. Raised since childhood into becoming great magjistars. Your actions basically stomped all over the prestige and pride held by those from the Bloodline Faction and the Knowledge Faction. Two of the major three factions in the magjistar world. Trying to stomach that someone like you from the other side could manage to soundly defeat so many of their geniuses when you only learned of the magji world not too long ago was impossible.” Joseph tried to explain.

“Fucking idiots...” Zoey grumbled.

So childish! Pride? They should be happy there’s another powerful magjistar among them that wants to do good! If they had even 1/10 of a brain, they’d realize that she could probably be more useful alive than dead. All those so-called prodigies or whatever could benefit from her being so strong! Zoey was completely selfish but she wasn’t selfish to the point where she would hoard everything for herself. Zoey had no problem training with others, sparring, or helping them get strong. Those kids from those two factions would benefit from being beaten by her. They could see their faults more easily and improve on them. And getting their asses kicked by her would motivate them to shape up and train harder.

“Are we allowed to leave our wing? I need to release some of this anger or I'm gonna get even more pissed.” Zoey asked.

“The East Wing just recently called for back-up. If you want, you can head there but I wouldn’t recommend it. The daemon there emits a strange gas that has spread across the entire wing.”

“And?” Zoey raised her eyebrow.

“The gas has been noted to mess with the brain. Some people claimed to see double, hallucinations, or a complete lack of control in their motor functions. At the same time, it was said to strengthen nearby daemons exposed to the gas. I don’t have the mahna reserves to deal with her, so I left it alone.”

“Sounds good enough.” Zoey had 99% confidence in Abnormal Conditions. “Here’s my number, so we can talk later or if I need help.” Zoey recited her number to the blindfolded boy before walking off to find the East Wing.

As he saw confidence flowing off of her small but large figure, he questioned just what did she have up her sleeve to resist the magji aroma of the daemon. From what he saw of her fights earlier it didn’t look like she had any skills to deal with it. But Joseph didn’t doubt that Zoey had some way of resisting the gas. He’d find out something about it just looking at her in a few minutes.

“Oh, what’s your name?!” Zoey turned around and called out before she nearly forgot.

“Joseph.” He didn’t like to yell so he used magji to project his voice farther without raising it.

“Hope we’ll be good friends Joseph! And thanks for helping me out!” Zoey turned around and blindly tried to find her way to the East Wing.

‘I don’t think she knows where the East Wing is.’ Joseph silently kept his thoughts to himself when he saw a confused hazy aura surround Zoey.