Clockwork Maiden, Literally.

The Basics: Energy Balls

The situation went unjustified. Everyone’s pointing finger at the poor the little girl.

“W-Wait!” I jumped in front of them. Their barrage of mockery was halted in a second.

“What are you doing, newbie?” one of them asked harshly.

“Well, what do you think I’m doing—what’s with you guys offending her like that, huh?”

Behind me, Nirva was surprised to see me standing up for her.

“Have you no idea? That girl is an accursed being,” one of the girl students stated.

“Cut her some slack, Wendy. She’s new here, there’s no way she’d know about Nirva’s true self.”

“That’s rude, there’s no proof that she’s accursed. Why are you guys being so mean to her?” I asked.

Silence. A strange atmosphere. What’s odder was that Madame Rozenflame and the meister didn’t do anything to stop these ramblings.

“M-Miss Eva… please stop… you’ve nothing to do with this…” said Nirva saddened.

…

“…Gerald. Tell her about it,” one of the boys stated. Gerald nods and walks closer to me.

“Eva, I know that feeling of people wanted to protect others… but please for this one, I’d suggest you step back,” he explained unclearly.

“W-Wha?” I replied confusedly.

“Bah… it appears you don’t know for real, huh? Fine, then,” he takes a pause in his words, “…legend says… that if a human born with an emerald-colored eyes and silver-colored hair… they are believed to be a bad omen: bad fortune shall rise to everyone around them.”

“But, Gerald, there’s no proof she’s like that, right? I mean, everything was fine as far since I met her—“

Eh? Someone’s pulling my dress? Oh, it’s Nirva.

“Enough with this, Miss Eva~ *hic… please…” she whined, a slight flow of tears drops from her closed eyes.

“…” I don’t get it… I wanted to stand up for her, why she’s denying my help? Don’t say she actually believed in that legend Gerald told me.

“Enough everyone,” said the meister with a frowned face. He sounded extremely disappointed. “You, too, Miss Eva, please return to your post.”

“But sir—“

“Return to your post. Do I make myself clear?”

“Uhck…” I was shocked after hearing him saying that. Sigh… I guess I must back off for now…

I’m so sorry, Nirva.

But still, though… why Madame Rozenflame didn’t do anything to protect her? Wasn’t Nirva a student, too?

…

..

.

--Meister’s Projection Land, ???? hours--

I returned to the formation. Gerald stated that my discontinuing act was a tough move to be made by newbies; or for short, a wise decision. He said that if I continued helping her, everyone will turn me down for that.

Seriously, though, what’s wrong with these guys?

Rozenflame took Nirvana with her and faded off. In this bright green landscape—which I don’t know how the sun gave light—I can see Madame Rozenflame unleashes a thick black mist around her… before finally gone. In the dim rooms of the academy, that mist was unseen. But in this place, it’s quite obvious.

“Alright, then, class… I hope I don’t have to hear your useless rambling again.”

“Yes, sir, we’re very sorry, sir!” the students apologized. I got no choice but to follow anyway.

“Put that out of the way, let’s get started.”

Each one of us was given a Red Eye device. It’s not an eyeball, because that’ll be scary as hell. The device was called that way because of a wide red dot that shaped like an eye on the spherical device that has about the size of a baseball ball.

“Alright, now raise them high!” the meister commanded. His tone still retains the odor of disappointment from before. But anyway, we raised our hands with the Red Eye.

“Good, now close your eyes.”

Everyone closed their eyes, while me in the back of the formation and my airheaded self thinks that this might be some kind of a joke.

“Eva, close your eyes!” he said loudly.

“AH! Yes, sir!” I closed my eyes quickly to avoid his anger.

“Now, what do you see?”

Everyone eagerly answered his question:

“A beautiful flower of light, teach!”

“A dazzling flame, sir!”

“A colorful flower, teach!”

Huh… nothing. I saw nothing, except the pitch black of my closed eyes. Hold on… wait a second… oh! OOHHH!

There’s something appearing! Something… reddish… what’s this…? Oh! It’s starting to take shape! What is it, what is it, what is it?

Aaaaand… HUH?! The Red Cross?!

It instantly caused an electrocution of uneasiness to my body. Not only that, it felt like my heart stopped for a moment. Aah… ahahahah… my soul’s dying inside me… what should I say to the meister? The Red Cross appeared in front of me without even me activating Time Return!

Everyone had spoken their depictions except me, but wait, Gerald hadn’t told it yet!

“A rock, teach,” he said disappointedly. Oof, that’s REALLY mediocre. The meister complimented everyone that had managed to see a depiction of an object in their closed eyes, even a mere rock, poor Gerald. “Hm…? What’s wrong, Eva? Have you not seen anything yet?” he asked.

Should I say what I saw? I worry something might happen… aaah! I can’t start worrying again, a little hurt won’t be so bad!

“A Red Cross, teach!” I stated boldly.

“…” no response from him.

“…” no response from me either. After a few seconds of short awkward silence, I put up a brave move and asked: “Is it okay if I open my eyes now?”

“…” still silence.

“Ehehehe… t-teach?”

“Wha-who-why…?! OH! R-Right, you can open your eyes, now. That’s a… good attempt,”

Hey, did I hear a slight pause before he complimented me? Was that done purposefully or what?!

I opened my eyes and so the Red Cross disappeared from my sights. Phew, that symbol scared the fridge out of me. Well… even though it is implanted to my chest, though…

“Alright, everyone had done a good deed. Allow me to tell you about the meaning of those depictions in your minds…”

He took a breather before continuing on, “…the picture of such will show you what kind of magecraft you are going to be fitting in. Not only that, the depiction also shows something that you liked the most,” so said the meister thoroughly.

…HOLD UP. Since when I developed a liking to this self-killing Red Cross?! Am I a masochist? NO! That’s VERY CRAZY! I’m absolutely NOT like that!

“Teach!” Gerald raised his hand.

“Yes, Gerald?”

“I don’t really understand why rock appeared on my mind. I mean, I liked something cool, but not a mere rock, that is.”

“Ah, about that…” he walks to the middle aged man, “the sign of a simple rock might confuse you with being ‘Oh, it’s a basic thing, it’s bad!’ like that, but no. The true meaning behind the depiction is waaay deeper than you think.”

“Is that so…?”

“Yup, you gotta believe in yourself. What’s your magecraft type?”

“I can shape-shift the ground, sir…”

“I see, elemental magecraft… then it correlates with you, my boy,” said the meister brightly.

“Really, sir?”

“Yup.”

Gerald showed a happy face, thus thanking him for praising his results. I wanted to ask about the Red Cross, but he had started the next session already. Dammit.

“The next one is how you project simple energy balls. If you’re gifted with the ability of magic, then you should’ve been able to cast one without saying anything,”

The meister swivels himself to the other way, “…for example.”

He stretched out his hand into the faraway landscape… and fired three energy balls in a second. Each of them had different color: red, green, and blue. Huh… I wonder does that color have some meaning. Oh, well…

The energy balls travelled in a high speed as they emerged from the meister’s gauntleted right hand. Another thing I realized from him is that his magic didn’t display any magic circle. It just fired at will like that. I thought, “So this is a magician’s true power, huh?”

Everyone clapped at the meister’s stunning performance. I don’t clap along, though… a sense of amazement by gaping is enough for me rather than to clap unconditionally, hehe.

“Now… to do it…” he turned around at us again, “you simply have to focus and channel your strength to your hands. Then you—“ *BOOM *BOOM *KAABOOOOM!!!

HUH?! What’s going on? Everyone was shocked as well as I do. The meister turned around casually and says: “Ah… finally collided the ground, huh?” He then flinches at us after realizing that the explosion scared the hell out of us. “Uh… ahem! Um… don’t worry, that explosion was from my energy balls earlier, they just landed on something, making them explode a bit.”

A bit, you say, huh? Yeah, right… even an explosive charge won’t be exploding that violent, dammit!

“Don’t mind them, you guys are 100% safe with me.” *CLING* he grins and thumbs up.

“Anyway, as I said earlier, to cast energy balls, you must channel your strength to one point of your body, preferably your fingers, that is,” the meister explained.

And so each of us tried to cast energy balls, it’s a good rendition for me, to be honest. Rather than holing up in my time control ability most of the time, I might need something that could be a small offensive weapon that could combine with my time control ability.

Talking about my time control ability, I think I could give it a try when my turn comes in. Let’s see if I can make myself look like I’ve casted three energy balls in the same time. Tee-hee-hee.

“Eva, Gerald, you two was the last,” said the meister. “Alrighty, sir!” I said brightly. “Don’t start getting too spirited or you’ll break something,” said Gerald lowly.

“My, what a word from an old man, truly, tee-hee!” I grinned at him.

“Huh? Old man? Who? Me? Hahaha, funny story, Eva. I’m still 16 you know? Not a stiffy old man.”

UGH! That’s shocking… didn’t think he’d be so young, wait, he’s younger than me!

My dad would likely say this line to me if he’s here: Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Well, that’s true but does that mean someone looks too? Oh, how terrible of me of thinking such a thing. Good lord!

“I’m so sorry, Gerald.”

“That’s okay. Everyone SAYS so.”

“Oh.”

And so, we took our position on the higher ground. The meister instructed us to aim for the scarecrow stand in the distance.

“You go first, Eva.” Gerald stated kindly.

“Eh…? If you wanna go first, then go on!” I retaliated. “You sure?” he asked. “Hm! Go on,” I replied.

He then stands on the ground with a steady stance. He closed his eyes for a second as he draws both of his hands forth. Shortly, I can see a slight sweat coming out of his face, followed by an orange energy ball emerging out of his hands. The grasses are getting blown by his magic casting. Whew… his magical energy ball is greater than the others.

“Grrgh…”

“Don’t bother charging your energy ball, Gerald. If your opponent is an extremely agile one, your attempt will be in vain!” said the meister.

“Fwah!” he lets off the energy ball. Its size was as big as a steam car. I dare say it’s probably bigger than that. Despite the size, its movement was rather slow. It took a while for it to collide with the standing-still scarecrow.

*KAAABOOOOM!!!

The explosion shaped like a big yellow sphere with a visible shockwave coming out. The shockwave nearly blew me away, but the meister quickly casted some sort of barrier to prevent us from flinging away by the big explosion.

“Good gracious, Gerald! That’s one deadly energy ball you release there!”

“Haah… haah… how cool was it…?” he gasped as he asked.

Geez, what a pushover… but I gotta say… it was super cool!