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Chapter Text

         –––––––––– PROLOGUE ––––––––––––     

Young Mash doesn't know how far away he's gotten from that twisted castle. A few lacerations, lots of cuts and lots of bruises adorned the 7 year old boy's body. Though he had escaped, he didn't go unscathed. The trauma, the healing scars forced open again and the bruises made a mess of the poor boy. What did he deserve to be treated like this? All of these came from his father. Why? What did he do? These questions tormented the poor boy to the point he cries harder than he already was

It wasn't long before the boy made it to the middle of the forest. Exhausted from his escape, he falls unconscious, feeling relieved as he's succumbing to his injuries. After previously thinking that he's dying, he dreams as he's asleep.

"ah ah ah, the spell wasn't as strong as before, boy." Mash hears before he feels something strike his back. He screams out in agony only to be hit again. "Do it again, I'm only doing this because I love you and don't want you to get hurt. Now do it again, Mash" his father says in an insincere tone. He gets up again to do the spell again. Only to fail and the cycle continues

he's crying and struggling to stand as he's being continuously beat. Condescending words are being said to him by his father but it's going one ear and out the other. It's until he's left alone that he manages to stand up. Only to fall down again. He's crying harder as he feels a warm hand shake him awake

Upon opening his eyes, the pain from his injuries make him hiss "Are you okay, kid? You were crying in your sleep" he hears an elderly voice say to him. Mash freezes up in fear. He's in a stranger's house. He gets up and takes off running, ignoring the excruciating pain. He gets about 4 meters away from the old man's house before the pain got to him and he's fainting

Luckily, he doesn't dream again and wakes up much earlier than last time. Opening his eyes again, he's back in the old man's house. Before he takes off again, determined to escape, the old man calls out to him "Please don't run! You'll open up your stitches and bleed out! Please, you're safe here, I will not hurt you" the old man reassures Mash.

"...Where am I?" Mash asks as he carefully sits up. "You're in my house in he middle of the forest, kid" the old man answers. Mash freezes up in shock as thoughts of his father finding him swarm his mind. As if feeling that kid was about to spiral, he asks him "what's your name kid?" In the softest tone an old man could make to try and distract the boy. "...Mash" Mash answers hesitantly. The old man smiles "my name is Regro Burnedead, where are your pa-" he starts his question before cutting himself off.

"do you want to stay with me? We could be a family" Regro offered. After what seemed to be an eternity, Mash makes his decision. "Only if you'll have me....Pops" Mash answers with determination in his eyes.

And thus, Mash Burnedead lived with his pops. Pops taught him how to do magic, make cream puffs, and how to get his magic to its full potential. Pops showed him what it felt like to be loved, to be cared for and to be kind. Mash carries all these teachings to his new school. Easton Magic academy, where he aims to be the divine visionary to make his pops proud and make his father see that he was wrong.

Chapter Text

------------------- Chapter 1 -------------------

Deep within the forest of the Magic Realm, every animal is afraid of the pure strength of a certain black-haired mushroom head in the middle of his workout. How could they not?

"Hmph Hmph Hmph!" Grunts and Clangs of metal are heard by all animals in the vicinity and after a few minutes, the teen finishes with his intense and heavy workout. He then pulls out a paper bag with creampuffs and opens it. "Nothing like a cream puff after pumping iron" Mash states nonchalantly and begins to eat his cream puffs as he walks back home.

The door creaks open and Regro turns his head towards the door "I'm back pops" Mash says as he closes the door. "How's today's training? You're gonna need it for your entrance exam tomorrow" Regro asks "done and done" Mash responds.

"Well that's good, I'm going to go to the city, do you want to come with?" After Regro had asked, Mash instantly brings out a paper advertising a limited edition cream puff. "Can I come with, I wanna buy this" Mash asks with pleading eyes. To this, Regro sighs and lets Mash accompany him to the city.

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Mash looks around to observe the people in the city. They're all using their magic. 'couldnt they just do all this stuff by hand?' Mash thought as he approached the cream puff stand with his pops. In his excitement, mash accidentally bends the coins in his hand.

"We'll take seven of the special" Mash requested. The goblin cashier responded with a 'sure thing' Mash gives the cashier his coins and the cashier looks at the coins like it murdered his entire family.

'THE COINS ARE BENT???' the cashier screamed in his head.

"Oops, guess I crushed them in my excitement. Sorry, let me fix that" Mash stayed before taking the coins back

'wha- what does he mean by fi-' the cashier's thoughts were interrupted by multiple sounds of metal bending. Mash was bending it to it's original form. The poor cashier may or may not have screamed. Regro stands beside his son in shock as Mash gives the fixed coins to the terrified cashier.

After that whole escapade, it was time to go home to rest up and prepare for the entrance exam tomorrow.

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'Easton Magic Academy. A prestigious school that produced numerous pillars in the magic realm. Of course, the entrance exam is notoriously difficult. The one in charge of running the exam and trusted with guiding the next generation of mages is none other than the supreme Magus Cum Laude...Claude Lucci, that is, me' Claude proudly narrated in his head. (Hey! I'm the author here! who gave you the right to narrate?!)

Claude begins to observe this years applicants below. He sees multiple students who are children of nobility and who's parents are working in the bureau of magic. He begins on another monologue about how he'll polish their magical abilities and such.

Which is interrupted by the sound of metal clanging at an alarmingly fast rate.

Claude hurriedly looks around to find a black-haired boy...PUMPING IRON?!

He looks away and again begins on another monologue about how he must be imagining things and that pumping iron in a magic school is downright wild. He looks away from the window for a moment to calm down. When he looks back...

'THE BOY IS DOING THE INVISIBLE CHAIR ON ONE LEG WHILE READING A FITNESS BOOK!!!'

He stares at the boy in shock. 'A slacker?! In this prestigious school?! Forget it, a slacker like him won't make it past the first round' with that last thought, Claude begins ln his grand entrance.

Claude greets the examinees before a green flame appears and he walks out of it then introduces himself. At the mention of his name, the students start recounting his achievements. That fed his ego alot.

"You must think you're hot stuff, appearing out of a firestorm and all" Claude hears the black-haired boy say in a blunt tone.

'IM GONNA FLUNK HIM!' Claude angrily said in his head.

Remembering that he has a job "It's time for the first exam. Please take your seats" Claude proclaims as the examinees look around in confusion as there are no chairs. Claude brings out his wand then, desks and chairs spring out from the ground then there are quills and papers falling from the sky and land on the desks perfectly. The examinees are both shocked and impressed.

"Why didn't he just set all of this up before we got here?" A familiar blunt voice from the same boy asks.

'ILL KILL HIM!' Claude angrily thought again.

'no matter, with a pass rate of 3%, there's no way a slacker like him will pass!' Claude grinned at that thought

"You have 30 minutes! Begin!" Claude yells
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The students flip over the test to see the questions squirming all over the place. One even complained.

'the questions are easy, that's why I enchanted this test. To pass, you'll have to dispel my magic to get the questions to line up properly' Claude explained in his head. (Again with this! I'm the author! You don't get to narrate!)

Mash grabs the quill and looks at the questions squirming on the paper. "Could you kindly stop moving?" Mash asked politely. The questions still squirmed like they were taunting him. An idea crossed his mind.

He crushes his quill above the paper. "Kindly...stop moving." Mash commanded and the questions were quick to line up perfectly.

Mash walked up to Claude with his paper in hand "I finished" and gave Claude the paper. 'He lined them up perfectly?!' Claude thought.

From that point on, Mash somehow found a way to pass each and every test. From making a huge rock float with magic and running on water without magic.

Claude still doesn't know how Mash is still in the running. So he made the next test a maze. The ground shook as Claude made the walls with the ground using his magic.

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"Sounds like a piece of cake" Mash bluntly said. "Um.." Mash hears and turns around to find a girl with blonde hair and a red ribbon on her head. "Could I possibly tag along with you?" The girl asks. "..Why?" Mash asks. The girl, Lemon Irvine, explained that it would be more efficient and Mash let her come with him

The next few steps, Lemon trips and Mash watches awkwardly. Imps came and just held Lemon back as Mash watched awkwardly. Then the ground tried to grab at Lemon and, again, Mash watched awkwardly. "This is... efficient?" Mash asked himself.

Lemon fell once again and Mash hesitated for a moment before going on without her. He made it a few steps before Lemon sobbed out "don't leave without me!"

Mash stared at her for a moment "I gotta hurry" He said, before running. Lemon won't let him get away. "Levios Cuffus!" Next thing he knew, Mash was cuffed by metal on his wrists and ankles and he was falling. Still on the ground, Mash asked Lemon "Why'd you do that?"

"I'm sorry for deceiving you. But I have a very personal reason to keep you from the goal. I must stop you here." Lemon explained. Mash is silent as he somehow gets up. "It's useless, no human can break those cuffs" Lemon stated.

"Sorry but... I've got a personal reason of my own." That was the only thing he said before Mash broke the cuffs. 'Holy cats!' Lemon thought in shock, barely hearing Mash's "Later" as he ran

"This is bad! I have to catch him before he-" her sentence by cut off by a deep and powerful voice.

"Four legs in the morning. Two legs in the afternoon and three legs at night. What am I?" The Sphinx asked her.

"I don't think I'll like the answer!" She raised her voice as she pulls out her wand. Only for it to be swatted away by the sphinx.

Her legs won't move. She can't move. She is frozen by fear. She has to solve the riddle. But she cannot concentrate. The Sphinx creature raises its staff "times up! Accept thy punishment!"

This is her punishment isn't it? This is her punishment for selfishly tricking people. She screams for help. But soon accepted it. Just then..

BAM!

"It's a human, right?" Mash states nonchalantly as he punches the sphinx with such strength that it knocks it out and it's falls over.

"Why...why did you come back for me?" Lemon asked as she looked at her saviour. "I thought...that your personal reason might be like mine. I felt bad for you" Mash stated with such sincerity it made Lemon blush.

"But now, neither of us will make it in time..." Lemon uttered. "How do you think I got here so fast?" Mash asked as he tilted his head.

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Claude grinned at the thought that his plan had worked. He had set traps and sent Lemon to slow mash down. The plan was perfect! He hears something in the distance. It seems like the examinees hear it aswell as they start to worry

WHABAM!

WHABAM!

WHABAM!

WHABAM!

WHABAM!

WHABAM!

With one last punch, there was a gigantic hole in Claude's last wall and the one who caused it was none other than Mash with Lemon behind him.

"HE JUST MARCHED THROUGH!!" The examinees all shouted in unison.

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"Ho Ho Ho Ho! What a curious young man" the headmaster laughed as he watched Mash.

Chapter Text

------------------- Chapter 2 ------------------- 

"HE JUST MARCHED THROUGH!!" The examinees all shouted in unison.

"Sounds like we made it" Mash says in a composed manner despite literally punching through a lot of dense walls just to save a friend. Many of the examinees were outraged and started to shout at him for being a cheater and unfair. All of them said many different things, but one thing remained the same. All of them were mad at him, and they're all shouting at him.

Mash just stands there and tries not to remember HIM. How HE treated him. How HE hit him because he "loved him". How many times he screamed out for HIM to stop but HE never did. How many times he passed out due to being beaten by HIM.

He tries to block it all out. He tries to remind himself that he isn't in that cursed castle. He tries to remind himself that he's trying to get into a good magic school. He tries to remind himself that he now has his Pops, who actually loves him and wants the best for him. He isn't with his FATHER.

He isn't with his FATHER.

He isn't with his FATHER.

He isn't with his FATHER.

He isn't with his FATHER.

He isn't with his FATHER.

"GO HOME!"

Someone shouted. Then all of them started to shout the same thing at him over and over again. Mash's eyes widen as he remembers all that happened to him.

Then suddenly, he is 5 years old again, being hit for doing a spell wrong and having his childhood taken away by the very person who was supposed to protect him.

Then suddenly, he is 6 years old again, having to do much more difficult spells than a child his age should be doing.

Then suddenly, he is 7 years old again. Bloody, beaten, crying and struggling for air. All because he didn't do a spell the way his father wanted

Then suddenly, he is in the forest, covered in bruises and cuts, both old and new.

Then suddenly, he is relieved at the thought that he might die.

"PLEASE STOP THIS! HE'S NOT THE ONE AT FAULT!" Mash's train of thought is interrupted by Lemon's surprisingly loud voice and he instinctively flinches. Lemon opens her mouth to speak but is cut off by Claude threatening her "Don't you dare! say another word and you'll regret it! I can still reconsider our deal." he had said.

Lemon lowered her head and began to speak the truth "The truth is...I was told to prevent him from reaching the goal...by professor Lucci" Claude tried to stop her midway through but she continued as the other examinees stare at her in surprise. "He said he'd let me pass if I slowed him down. I was desperate to get into this school for my poor family..." she continued "but he didn't just save me, he told me... HE'D MARRY ME!" Lemon strayed from the truth so abruptly

Mash craned his neck in her direction with a look if utter confusion "I never said that." he responds. They go back and forth, Lemon misunderstanding what Mash had said and Mash is confused.

"I set him up, so what? this is my exam. who says I can't fail those i don't like? you two reek of commoner and don't deserve to be here. This is a prestigious academy for the elite." Claude continued to belittle them both. Mash would've been alright with it if it had been only him who was being insulted, he was used to it. But to insult his friend?

"If so, no wonder your family is struggling." Mash wasn't listening to him a few moments ago but this got him to glare at the man who said it. Then, Claude challenged them. his magic energy pouring out to prepare an attack.

Then, Mash appears beside him and..

SNAP!!

Mash had broken Claude's wand. Just went and snapped it. The other people there yell in shock.

"That was uncalled for, professor." Mash said in irritation and glared Claude down with an intimidating aura. The other examinees are talking among themselves. Claude opened his mouth to speak but couldn't form any words. He wants to tell him to shut up, that he doesn't have to listen to him.

SILENCE!

A booming voice was heard from above, It was Wahlberg. The headmaster. His father's enemy. As Wahlberg took control of the situation, Mash didn't really listen all that much. He was wondering why his father had deemed Wahlberg an enemy, he seemed like a nice old guy. "Now, for the first interview." was all Mash heard before being teleported to some sort of council room.

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"we will begin the final interview for Mash Burnedead." Wahlberg stated. "thank you for having me" Mash responded

The questioning began with something relatively simple "First, I wish to ask why you chose our school" Mash took a second before responding with a simple "So I may learn, improve my magic, socialize and make my pops proud" To that the teachers whisper and mutter but decide that it was a good enough answer, as did Wahlberg

"I heard you stopped to save a girl even though you were running out of time in the maze, is this true?" Wahlberg asked and Mash nodded and muttered out a "yes" Wahlberg asked him why and what made him do it. Mash took a few seconds to respond with "If I didn't I think I would've regretted it." he said wholeheartedly

The headmaster chuckles "You're the type who acts before they think, I see. Did you consider that you might not be able to answer the sphinx's question, defeat the sphinx or break the walls?" Wahlberg probed "even if i couldn't, i still had to try." Mash answered. The headmaster laughed again and commented on Mash's amusing answer. "But it shows that you do not understand the ways of this world. There are many creatures in this world much more powerful than you." Wahlberg explained and Mash stopped listening.

"What if you were to face... Someone like myself?"

Mash feels it before he sees it, the immense magical power. It feels like it's trying to suffocate him. This spell, its the Ancient soul spell his father had told him about when he was 6 years old. He knows what it can do, it targets the opponent's most cherished person, it takes their soul and puts it in the doll. If the monster controlling the knife stabs the doll, the soul of that person would never return. 'Pops is probably who it targeted, gotta do something about that quickly' Mash thought and punched the blade.

Wahlberg was speaking but Mash wasn't listening, he was trying to come up with something to do. Then it hit him. 'I just have to outlast him.'

And so he did it. Mash put both of his hands under the blade and-

SHHHLIC!

The teachers are looking at him in surprise even Wahlberg looked surprised. "I'm sure you can't keep this huge thing going on forever. All i need to do is outlast you" Mash said nonchalantly. Wahlberg began to speak again but Mash wasn't listening, he was too focused on trying to ignore the pain of the blade going through his hands. He did hear that part about noblesse oblige or something. Then suddenly, the blade going through his hand is gone, along with the rest of the spell and the whole room is illuminated with candles infused with magic.

"my apologies, this was indeed a test, i had no intention of causing you harm" Wahlberg said truthfully. "you don't have to apologize...can you heal me though? this really hurts..." Mash requested

"of course" Wahlberg agreed and pulled out his wand to heal him. Mash thanks him.

"oh and regarding your question about what I'd do if I had to face you. My answer, Headmaster is... I'd knock the stuffing out of you" Mash said, unconcerned. Wahlberg laughed as the teachers yell at him. "let him be" Wahlberg said to calm the teachers.

"I welcome you to Easton Magic Academy, Mash Burnedead." Wahlberg welcomed and smiled at Mash. Mash thanked him and went on his merry way.