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Chapter 2: The Rebel of the Wilderness

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"Now, remember what I've taught you?"

" 'Mana: the spiritual life force energy or healing power that permeates the universe'." I recite as I carefully balance and control the light spheres in my hands. I move my arms carefully around my body, like holding precious China tea cups in my hands.

"And?"

"It's the power of the elemental forces of nature that are embodied in an object or person. It can also be referred to as the soul or insight of a human. It's an invisible potency believed to inhabit people, objects or other phenomena who have extraordinary power, or magical energy. Bonus: in philosophical terms: A concept of spirit force, 'mana' is also conceived as a mysterious stuff that permeates all things. It's to be found in all things whatsoever regardless of their special nature and generic distinction."

"Excellent!" The spheres vanish and I drop my arms. "You've really done your work, Charlotte. I'm proud of you."

"I'm always the kind of person who takes her homework seriously, Ophelia!" I smiled. She laughed, a musical laugh.

"Of course! You've proving it in that one month time span! Well, that'll be all for today. And Keep up the good work." She assured. The light absorbed me, as I said my goodbyes.

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"Why do I hear wind?" I murmured.

My vision cleared as I saw Pride Rock. And Mufasa walking towards the ledge.

He stood with Sarabi and Rafiki as the shaman held Simba up in the air.

"I have a feeling of who I'll encounter next..."

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The first thing I heard when I woke up was Grim mumbling in his sleep.

"Wait...did he roar just now?" I ask as I got up, starting to prep for the day.

"How's that? Now you'll witness the power of the Great Grim!" I heard him mumble from the bedroom, as I finished brushing my teeth. After rinsing, I looked in the mirror, already clad in my uniform, and smiled as I brushed out my hair, and tied it back in the braid.

"Cmon, Grim, get up!" I smiled, tying my hair elastic in.

"I showed that Tyrant Riddle who's boss~" his eyes open sleepily. Then sat up abruptly. "Huh? The Ramshackle Dorm?!" He whipped his head around. Then his smile fell. "It was just a dream.... I thought I took Riddle out and became the strongest wizard ever! So disappointing..." I chuckled as I sling my bag over my shoulder.

"We just have to keep training!" I remind him.

"Right! Time to get moving! Another day closer to becoming a great wizard! Y'know~!" He leaps into my arms.

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We made it the cafeteria as soon as possible. After a long time in class yet again, all I wanted was a nice meal and set to the rest of my day.

"Ugh...Trein-Sensei is obviously using some sort of sleep spell on me...no matter how much I resist, I give into drowsiness!" Grim groans.

"You fell asleep five minutes in. That's not resisting at all." Deuce counters.

"Ah, it's lunchtime~! What'll it be for today~?" Ace coos. But noticed, "The cafeteria's essentially packed today."

One of the ghost chefs materialized by the area of the line we were in. "Today's a special day that happens once a month! A very popular bakery in town is here at the school to promote business! It sells out fast so early bird gets the worm!"

"Three chocolate croissants for me!"

"Can't believe I actually got something! The egg sandwich is the best!"

"Egg sandwich is already sold out! Only one deluxe menchi Katsu sandwich left!"

"Everything looks pretty good! I might want to go get some thing." Ace claims.

"Well, if it's pretty popular...Charlie, Grim, what do you guys..." Deuce turns to us but halts when he and I notice-

Grim gone. Again.

"And the hungry beast has been unleashed, y'all..." I rolled my eyes.

"Outta my way, everybody! That deluxe menchi Katsu sandwich is Yours Truly's!"

"Hey, you! No cutting in line!"

"You've got some gall cutting in front of your seniors, freshman! Scram!"

"He gives into food way too easily!"

Ace just shakes his head at Deuce's outburst.

"Grim! Stop it!" I yell, rushing up to him, as I hear Ace and Deuce following me.

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Charlie managed to grab him with both her hands locked around him and haul him away from the station before anyone could throw hands. But, lucky her, he also got the sandwich he wanted in his possession.

"Don't mess with this mighty wizard! This last deluxe menchi Katsu sandwich is mine!" He bragged, sticking out his tongue. "Lemme get a yakisoba and cream-filled bread too!"

"Grim, knock it off already! Sorry about that, everyone!" Deuce apologized.

"Eh, while you're at it, gimme a roast beef and lettuce panini!" Ace orders.

"You don't get to just cut in line either!" Deuce scold his classmate.

Meanwhile, Ruggie just jogged into the cafeteria, huffing out of breath. He scans the line carefully and his ears flatten in disappointment.

"Ah, crap. I completely missed the lunch free-for-all. That last deluxe menchi Katsu sandwich Leona wants is already sold out..." he groans that he failed at the task his dorm leader gave him. Suddenly, his ears pick up the sound of a victory laugh. He follows where the the laugh came from and finds Grim with the same sandwich he was tasked to get.

"The taste of victory! I'll take my time savoring it!" The grey blue-flame cat smiles.

Ruggie puts on a smile and walks up to him. "Hey, you! That's pretty great! Got your hands on that sandwich you wanted."

"And what's it to you?" The raccoon stands in front of his sandwich protectively.

"I need to get that sandwich no matter what, but they sold out in a blink of an eye." Ruggie shrugs. "But I have a proposition: trade with me that deluxe menchi Katsu sandwich for a mini bean paste bread?" He holds a small bakery sized loaf of bread in his hand.

"No way in hell!" Grim denies.

"Now now, there's no need to be hostile. Let me help you with that!" He holds out his hands. And suddenly, Grim starts moving on his own, the sandwich in hand toward Ruggie.

"H-Huh?! What's happening? My arms and legs are moving on their own!"

'I think it's best if I don't say anything and get involved...' Charlie thought. Soon, the foods are swapped.

"Negotiation complete!" Ruggie snickers. "Thanks for being kind enough to trade me! That mini bean paste bread is equally good! But the size is just a defect. Bye~!" He scurried off.

Charlie peeked at Grim and by the looks of it, he was ready to cry.

"Nooooooo! My deluxe menchi Katsu sandwich!!"

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"This is the worst day ever...!" Grim mumbled with a mouthful of food as he paced our table. He goes for the bean bread, but can't take a bite. "And this bread's hard to swallow!"

"He says after vacuuming up three of them..." Ace retorts.

"Then what was that earlier?" Deuce looks at the stress-eating cat. "If you're going to complain this much, you shouldn't have traded in the first place."

"But that's it! I didn't do that! When that guy stuck out his arms, my body started moving in the same way on its own!" Grim explained. "Before I knew it, the trade was over!"

"Oh, so you just went along with it! That happens sometimes." Ace nods.

"That's not it either!" Grim was starting to get frustrated. "I can't explain it so well! I'm still confused so I'm just gonna keep eating to feel better! Deuce, give me some of your pasta!" He demands from the first year.

"I'm staying out of this! And get away from my food!" Deuce slaps his paws away.

"By the way, The headmaster says he has something to talk about so we need to report to his office after class." Ace brought up. "I wonder what it'll be..."

"It's probably about what happened with Rosehearts that day." Deuce guessed.

"The 'evil berserker mode' incident? Likely..."

"If that said, we might get some canned tuna for how hard we worked!" Grim grins at the thought.

"Thanks, but no." But I didn't listen to them as my thoughts went back to earlier.

"I wonder where I've seen him before..." I murmured, sipping my water.

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Ruggie walked through the green house of the gardens looking for the third year. Once he found him lying in his usual spot, he nodded up to him with a,

"Leona, I'm back with lunch~!"

The Savanaclaw lead opened his eyes slowly at the sound of his right hand man's voice. "Hmm...afternoon already?"

"Were you sleeping in here all morning? You're going to fail another class." Ruggie reminded.

Leona never answered back as he sniffed the air. "Smells like you got what I ordered." He nods to the container in his hands.

"Ugh, Leona. You always want the stuff that's the most competitive." Ruggie shakes his head. "But yep: one deluxe minchi Katsu sandwich and an iced tea!" He hands over the food to his lead as he takes a seat next to him.

"The more difficult it is to get, The more you want to eat it."

"I'll eat anything as long as it isn't moldy!" Ruggie leans back. "I'm sure that Prince Leona wouldn't know anything about that."

Leona scoffs. "I'm not the crown prince. I'm second in line. I couldn't be king even if I wanted to. I'm not different from the masses."

"I still won't forget when you said 'I thought this looked like a dog house' when you saw a picture of my hometown." Ruggie mentioned.

"Did I say that?"

"Yep you did. Ugh, I want to live in a castle so huge that I could say the same thing about my own home..." the hyena imagines.

Leona laughs humorlessly. "Being royalty isn't all it's meant to be. Effort or skills: don't matter. Everything is decided by what order you were born in."

"Is that so?" Ruggie opens one eye. "By the way, the dorm leader meeting is after class. They're discussing the Magical Shift tournament. You better not miss it."

The lion scoffs in response. "...pain in the ass..."

"As dorm lead, you got the biggest room! Work to keep that place.."

"Okay, okay...." Leona waves it off and yawns. "Kay, now I'm stuffed and sleepy. Wake me when the hour's over..." he shuts his eyes, passing out.

"I'm not an alarm clock, ya kno-he fell asleep already?!" Ruggie could only massage his forehead trying not to stress out. "Ugh, why me...?" He lies back, waiting for lunch to be over. But then-

"Now that I think about it... where have I seen that raccoon and that girl before?"

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Charlie and the boys arrived to the headmasters just as he ordered. They knocked and entered politely.

"Excuse the interruption, Headmaster" Deuce apologized.

"Ah! You're all here, I see!" He nodded, standing from his desk. He walked around to the front. "I shall get right to the matter at hand. Now that things have calmed down after the Heartslabyul incident, there's a serious matter I must discuss with you. And as well as something else with you, Miss Luchessi." He directed the last phrase toward Charlotte. "You all must learn about the corrupted state Rosehearts fell into if you're to become wizards."

" 'Overblot' you said?"

"Correct."

"I've heard that word from my bro before but seeing someone build up enough blot to become That was something else..." Ace said. "He really did go 'evil beserker mode'."

"And what is 'blot' anyway?" Grim perked up.

"Of course. You two need that explained as well. I shall fill you all in for I'm that gracious." He clears his throat. "Blot is a type of waste created after one uses magic. In the same way that a vehicle creates exhaust as it burns fuel to run. Spells burn magic to manifest and create blot at the same time....That should be easy enough to understand."

"So blot's basically the exhaust of magic?" Charlie implies.

"Correct. Blot has been researched since the dawn of recorded history but there's still many mysteries to unravel. One thing that's known for sure is that blot is a toxin and building up too much can cause great harm to both one's mind and body."

"Yea, my grandma used to always tell me, 'You'll build up blot so don't go and use magic willy nilly'. She went on and on about it."

"With great power comes risk. No matter how great the wizard, they can't infinitely use magic."

"So you're saying the more we use magic, the unhealthier it becomes?"

"No, that's not exactly correct." Crowley thinks for a second. "Maybe it's best if I show rather than explain it. Ghosts! Time to work!" A few ghosts manifested before us.

"You called, Headmaster?"

"Hey, what's going on?" Ace stared.

"Please lend a hand in helping temper these young ones."

The second floated toward Deuce, who backed away unsurely.

"As you wish. Lets play around~!"

"Everyone, ready your magic pens. Your special lesson with the headmaster isn't over yet!" He claims as I move off to the sidelines to better watch and analyze.

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"Oi, birdface! Talking about blot and fighting ghosts have nothing to do with each other!" Grim spat as soon as they finished. Crowley waved the ghosts to leave, and turns to Grim.

"Grim, look at the magic crystal around your neck carefully." The raccoon followed his order and he gasped.

"Why are there weird blotches on my crystal?!" He scrubs at them with his par furiously. "I can't get them off!!" He freaks.

"Those weird blotches you're referring to are actually black smudges that resemble drops of ink. Blots created from using magic."

"He's right! I can see small smudges as well on my pen!" Deuce inspects his crystal with sheen eye.

"Bleh! It's so dirty!" Grim shudders as Charlie picks him up. She uses her fingers to pick up the gem gently and true to his words, she can see Black smears dotting over nearly half of the purple crystal. She runs her thumb over them, asking, "But they will disappear with time, headmaster?"

"Of course." He responds.

"Phew! That's a relief!" Grim breathes.

"With enough rest, the gems will go back to normal over time. Magic crystals not only help by performing spells, they also prevent blots from accumulating directly within the caster. They are truly a wonderful item back and shoulder your burdens."

"I see. So you mean that if our Crystals start to darken, it's vital to rest properly."

"Exactly. Eat and sleep well, and normal blots will disappear all on their own."

"How about that? So when I start to become the greatest wizard, I can fire off spells like nothing! No problems at all! I always eat my fill and sleep like a rock!"

"The amount of mana A person holds varies between people but aside from very special cases, The difference doesn't really affect the maximum blot a person can tolerate."

"What do you mean by that?"

"What I mean is people like Rosehearts, Who possess a lot of mana, must be exceedingly careful about how much blot they are accumulating."

"So if you aren't paying attention, and just keep using up magic without focusing, you'll get covered in blot?"

"Well, with the amount of mana all of you possess, I don't think there is any danger of that. Isn't that great?"

Ace's expression suddenly soured. "That line of yours doesn't bring me any happiness. Like, at all!"

"If you use too much magic and the Crystal turns completely black, you suddenly go into 'evil beserker mode' like Riddle did? That huge evil spirit was super scary..."

Charlie recalled seeing a giant manifestation of the Queen of Hearts behind Riddle.

"The amount of Blot a person accumulates is greatly influenced by their mental state. Anger, sorrow, fear, confusion...being swathed in negative energy makes blot all the more easier to build up, and Overblot occurs much more easily as well."

"Negative energy..."

"The giant shadow that appeared behind Rosehearts when he was rampaging....they say that appears as the incarnation of negative energy fused with blot. However... The details are still fuzzy at this time. There is still so much we don't know about Overblot. Due in part to there being very few cases of it occurring..."

"Who would want more cases like that?! I certainly don't!!"

"It's very fortunate that we were able to get Rosehearts back to his normal self. And whatever happened, what I sensed, if he hadn't....AHHH! I DON'T EVEN WANT TO IMAGINE!! IT'S TOO PAINFUL?!"

"Don't yell like that! You scared the crap out of me!!" Grim leapt on top of Charlie's head in response.

'Yea, man! Take a chill pill!' Charlie thought, plucking the cat off her head.

"Ahem, my apologies. I lost myself there for a moment. This has become long-winded, but I hope that you all will understand that using magic comes with certain dangers." Crowley reminds. "You'd do well to never forget that."

"Yes, Sir." The group replies unanimously.

"And with that, our special lesson is brought to a close. You may return to your daily lives!"

"Uh, headmaster! You said you wanted to talk to me?" Charlie asked. "Is it about me getting back home?"

"Oh yes! Uh....a way to send you back to your world..." Crowley searches for the right words to say. "Of course I'm looking for one! I haven't forgotten anything. I've just been busy is all."

"Your eyes are all over the place..." Grim says blandly.

"I-I'm not lying. Just preparing for the Dorm Magical Shift Tournament in October has had me distracted! There is a meeting with all the leads afterwards..."

"Magical Shift Tournament?"

"What is that?"

"What?! Charlie, you don't know what Magift is?!"

"Nope. Should I?" She asked.

"It's famous worldwide. Pro-league and World Cup too."

"I dunno, Either!"

"Magical Shift, or Magift for short, is a sport played by two teams of seven. There is a disk that must be thrown through the opposing team's goal to score points. And the team with the most wins the match." Ace explains.

"Oh! So it's almost like football!" I point out. "American, not European, I mean."