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“Ohhh?!” Suika wowed in aww at the flying metal bird thing…?
“Cool way more stable than the old model!” Chrome noted. A drone they called it??
They all seemed amazed by it. Magma didn’t get it though. Sure it was a metal bird but what was the use for it? They could just go in and take Ibara out and this whole thing would be over right? For hell’s sake Kohaku and Ginro, two members of their team were turned to stone and there they were gawking at some metal bird.
Ryusui took the controls of the bird and started to fly it in the air. There weren't even any weapons on the damn thing.
“Ohhhh that looks fun! Let me try!” Yo added.
“Ok but I wouldn’t mind taking a crack at ya shooting range,” Ryusui deviously sang.
“Ohh trade!” Yo offered Ryusui his gun.
Magma had seen what that gun was cable off against a small thing like a snake… He wondered why they didn’t just take that and end this whole thing with Ibara.
“Enough you two! Training isn’t playtime,” Senkuu groaned.
“Fineeee,” The two said together.
“At least I get to show off my shooting skills,” Yo snickered.
“Uh huh…,” Senkuu rolled his eyes. “Come on Chrome, let’s set up,”
Senkuu’s whole plan was supposed to go down in the morning but so far, from what he’d seen, it was a wreck. It wasn’t that hard. They just had to take this Ibara guy out and they could go home.
Blam! Blam!
Plus Yo with the gun- They’d be better off letting the yellow one take aim. Hell, even he could throw an ax better than that.
Blam! Blam!
How hard was it to hit the glass bottles in front of him? Magma sat down, leaning on the walls of the cave, as he watched Yo miss the shoots he took.
“Uhhhh look at that… Being petrified again must have messed with my aim,” Yo lied.
It was really starting to piss him off. He was so focused on Yo’s lack of aim that he didn’t notice the purple robe sitting down next to him.
“You seem interested in Yo chan’s training,” Gen hummed.
Magma glanced over at Gen before looking back over at Yo. “Guess you could say that,”
“I could,” Gen sounded. “Or I could point out how pissed off you look,”
“I’m fine,” Magma tried to brush off Gen’s statement.
He didn’t even know why he tried to brush off the magician’s statements- “Magma chan,” Gen said.
-He could read his mind anyway. “Right,” Magma groaned a bit. “It’s just…,” Magma struggled to find the words.
Blam! Blam!
“Oi mentalist!” Senkuu called. “Need ya help up here,”
“Of course they do,” Gen sighed under his breath. “Coming Senkuu chan!” Gen called back. “We’ll talk more about this later ok?” Gen turned back to Magma.
“Heh, get going magician before the sorcerers start complaining,” Magma joked.
Gen smiled a bit before going to help Senkuu and Chrome with the metal bird leaving Magma to watch Yo’s training.
Blam! Blam! Crkk!
“Hey, I got one!” Yo smiled way too proud for only hitting one out of the many shots he took.
Right there and then Magma made up his mind.
.
.
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“Final battle will be waged at wave break cliff,” Amaryllis instructed. “The crashing waves and roaring winds will mask the sound of our drone. While the fighting team will take on Minster Ibara’s forces Ryusui and Soyuz will take the drone and hide it until the right time,”
Suika went around passing out black cloaks for everyone to wear. Magma took one from the small child and looked at it.
What am I doing? Following someone else's orders?
Magma looked at Yo’s gun which was so uselessly in its holster. Magma looked at the black cloak once more before throwing off to the side and taking the gun from its holster and replacing it with a similar shaped stick he found. Magma looked at the gun as he tried to remember how Yo held it.
"And what are you up to dear Magma chan?” The calm voice startled Magma a bit as it broke his focus.
“Heh just going to take care of our problem,” Magma snickered to himself.
“With Yo chan’s gun..?” Gen seemed a bit hesitant.
“Yup, going to shut that damn Ibara up,”
“W-what?! Magma chan?! You can’t just kill Ibara?!” Gen stammered.
“Why not? Bastard has it coming, plus do you really think the chief's plan’s going to work?”
“Well I-,”
“Sometimes ya got to take things into ya own hands. Magma stated when he noticed a sound in the trees. “Just watch,” Magma grinned as he ran into the woods
“Wait!” Gen ran after him.
Good! Now he can see me when I can down that Ibara bastard!
“Where are you going Magma chan?! Aughh onderful way! Everyone’s leaving too!”
“Mwahaha left them! It’ll be pointless after I’m done!”
“What has gotten into you?!”
“Guess ya forgot what I’m after magician!” Magma cackled. “I’ll take home the glory and win back the chief's throne,” Magma saw a clearing in the trees at the cliff. “Senkuu and his people love your endless sneaky schemes but since I’ve got the weapon, all I got to do is find their boss, crusty old Ibarra or whatever, and Blam! Blast him and we win!” Magma explained.
“No no no! No way it’ll be that easy,” Gen protested.
“Come on it can’t be that… hard,” The words left Magma’s lips as they took in the scene in front of him. There were hoards of people getting on their ship.
“Shit…,” Gen groaned under his breath.
“Damn bastards on our ship!” Magma shouted.
“Magma chan shhhhh!” Gen motioned to his lips with his finger.
“So which one is Ibara?” Magma questioned. “He old bastard with the beard?”
“Yes but you can't just shoot him!!” Gen said in a whisper. “Plus you’ll never make that shot from here!”
“Watch me,” Magma aimed the gun straight on like he would with an ax.
“Ughh You have no right to look so cool before almost killing a guy,” Gen put his hand on the barrel of the gun to push it down.
“What? It was you who was about to let me kill that one guy in the Tsukasa empire right?!” Magma questioned.
“I mean yeah but-,”
“I don’t see why it’s different here. Hell I see even more reason to kill That guy than the other. At least the other guy didn’t almost kill Kohaku and Ginro!” Magma shouted in frustration. “What use are your plans if people get hurt?!”
Gen paused for a second. “Alright but you can’t make it from there. We need our own boat if we’re going to be in range.
“Like that one?” Magma pointed to a ship.
“That’ll do,” Gen sighed.
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.
.
Crkk crook!
The stone casing crumbled around Magma as he sat up. There was Gen, Kohaku and Senkuu.
“Ok next,” Senkuu moved on.
“So blurt huh Senkuu,” Kohaku noted.
“What? I’m not going to say Hi,” Senkuu scoffed at him and Kohaku walked to the next person.
“So… we won?” Magma asked.
“Yeah, somehow we won,” Gen joked a bit.
Magma looked around and saw the rest of the crew alright and greeted each other. “Nah, we won because of Senkuu’s plan,” It stung to admit.
“Magma chan-,”
“Oi mentalist!”
“Right right!” Gen groaned. “Everytime…We can talk later,”
As the rest of the crew greeted each other Magma kinda just stood there.
.
.
.
Magma watched as the waves the ship created slashed behind them in the window of his room. Above him the sound of celebration was playing. The people above cheering and probably having a feast, a custom in the village after a fight, and maybe some music. It probably would be more fun rather than just sitting in his dark room but was he really wanted up there? He had more self respect than that.
Knock knock
Magma turned his head to see his boyfriend standing in the doorway. “Hey there Magma chan,” He held a plate of food with him.
“Hey Magician,” Magma returned his attention back to the window.
“What you doing down here?” Gen asked.
“Ehhh didn’t feel like parting,”
“You? Not feeling up to a feast? I’m not so sure we woke up the right Magma chan,” Gen sang.
The joke earned a small laugh from Magma in return. Gen sat down on the bed next to Magma and leaned on his arm. “But really, I can tell you’re lying,”
“There really is no point in trying to lie to you huh?” Magma half heartedly questioned.
“Not really,” Gen shrugged. “So might as well tell me,”
“You make it sound easy,”
“What cha 'mean?”
“I don’t even know. I just feel like I wouldn’t be wanted at the celebration,”
“What do you mean?”
“See that!” Magma groaned. “It’s so damn easy to ask ‘what I mean’ or ‘what’s wrong’ but I don’t even fucking know,” Magma scoffed. “Like it used to be, no one asked me how I was doing and I could live with that. Didn’t have to think how my emotions would affect my actions or any of that shit. Now I have to think about them but I don’t even know what they are?!”
Gen hummed a bit. “Well as the mind reading magician I am, maybe I could try to guess,”
Magma's immediate reaction was to say no and try to pay no mind to the thing that was bothering him… but that wasn’t right. “Sure,” Magma’s answer was simple.
“Well let’s see,” Gen held his chin in his hand as he thought. “Was it maybe that you fell into your old habit of taking control of a situation by showing how strong you are and now you're disappointed in yourself?”
Like his words clicked a part in his brain Magma was missing. “Yeah I guess so,” Magma confessed. “I mean I was so sure we would be in and out. Kick Ibara’s ass and get whatever Senkuu wanted but then Kohaku and Ginro got turned into statues- Ugh I don’t know. I felt scared…? Like I was so fucking sure I could get control again than things would make sense again but Senkuu’s plan was going to take to damn long,” Magma sighed. “But in the end that stick’s plan worked again and mine failed,”
“Why does it matter whose plan won? They both had the same goal in mind,”
“Yeah but I wanted to show that I was more capable than that damn sorcerer. Show the others I was worthy of title ‘chief’,”
“And why do you have to do that?”
“To prove myself,”
“And what would proving yourself do?”
“It would show I’m the strongest,”
“And why do you need to be the strongest?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“Humor me. In this new world Senkuu chan is making with science why is being the strongest so important to you?”
Magma was going to respond with the soooo obvious answer but none came. Senkuu already proved against Tsukasa that science could beat strength but still, Magma fought to be the strongest.
“I’m not saying having the goal of being the village chief is bad but who do you have to prove your strength to anyone? You know how strong you are obviously. You can show off sure, but you don’t have to prove anything to anyone,”
It seemed like a hard pill to swallow. Things he’d been taught for most of his life versus what his boyfriend told him.
Does he really not need to prove himself?
“Well I just came here to drop off some food for the night. I can go if-,”
“Nah, stay,” Magma said. “We can just sit in silence for a bit right?”
“If you want to, sure,” Gen leaned his head back. “I don’t expect you to change all at once but we can take it a step at a time,” Gen put his hand over Magma’s.
“Going to be a lot of damn steps,”
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.
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“Welp we need a pilot,” Senkuu noted.
“That’s me of course,” Ryusui huffed.
“Of course,” Senkuu grinned. “And there’s no point in making the trip without a scientist. That’ll be whoever the best scientist is the day we finished the rocket,”
Everyone knew who Senkuu meant already.
“So like you Senkuu chan,” Gen sighed defeated.
“Don’t forget a squad that’s ready to work. People who can leap into action,” Ukyo pointed out. “Combat on the moon is a terrifying prospect but we still have no idea even what why-man is,”
“Mwahaha then how about we hold enough grand bout to see who’s strongest,”
“A fun filled tournament to see who’d be best? Nah, no need,” Senkuu crossed his arms. “We already know the strong guy around,”
“Oh right! Tsukasa!” Taiju snapped his fingers.
“Ten billion points big oaf,”
And that was ok with Magma.