10 Teacher's Call

Milo brought his box into Gray's little kitchen and began washing down all his needles and supplies, even if most of them weren't used. He'd managed to clean and patch up the kid's open wounds, but how was that supposed to save someone in such a critical condition? He could die...

But Gray had insisted, claiming that taking him to the hospital was useless.

How was that possible? The doctors at a hospital center can save and rescue just about anyone unless they were mages...

Did that mean that kid was a mage, too?

Milo frowned as he set his tools to dry on top of a towel on the countertop. He glanced behind his shoulder back to where Gray sat with the kid with his eyes closed, barely moving an inch. It was like he was frozen.

Earlier, the black mist was only a small glow that enveloped around Gray's hands as he was doing...whatever he was doing, but now, it was like he was engulfed in a huge black flame. However, his eyes remained closed and his expression remained unbothered.

Milo turned back and stepped into the living room, tearing off his gloves. He darted his eyes between Gray and the kid. He wasn't so sure before if Gray knew what he was doing, but seeing is believing.

The kid looked pretty much normal back to normal now, nothing like the pale, beat-up, and bloodied figure when he first came in. Other than some scratches and the white bandage peeking out from underneath his hair and on his neck, he only seemed as he was sleeping.

He cast a worried glance at Gray, though. Even if he was a mage, wasn't it extremely exhausting to be using one's power nonstop for so long? They were almost at the three-hour mark.

Jade stepped out of the bathroom where she had been washing the dirty towels. "Mister Milo," she said. "Where should I hang the towels to dry?"

"Er-" Milo glanced around the apartment, looking for a good spot. The noticed the few chairs lounging around and brightened. "Ah, just put them on the back of the chair...and call me Milo. 'Mister' sounds weird."

She reddened and disappeared back into the bathroom to gather the towels. Earlier she seemed scared out of her wits and too nerve-wracked to be his helper, but when they had started, Milo noticed how sharp and quick she was.

He smiled. Indeed, everyone was full of surprises.

"Oh!" he suddenly remembered. "I should call Mister Kinoshi..."

_______________

Luca Kinoshi straightened up when he heard his cellphone vibrating on his desk. Though school already ended hours ago, he still had to clean up after the labs he's had in his classes today.

He picked up his phone and his eyebrows raised in surprise when he found who was calling. It was his former student from almost five years ago, Milo Park. He hadn't had a nice talk with him for a whole year.

"Hello, Milo!" he greeted cheerfully. "How are you doing? Did you get into the med school I helped you apply for?"

"Haha, I did, Mister Kinoshi. I still have to say thank you for that," Milo said from the other end of the line. "It's so close to home, I can just come and go as I wish!"

The teacher beamed. He was glad that he'd got to teach so many successful students. "That's great!" he exclaimed. "No need to thank me. You were my student, and as a teacher, that's my job. Did you call me for a specific reason today? Or was it just to say hi?"

Milo let in a sharp breath. "Ah...yeah...about that. Do you have a student named...Emrys?" he asked.

He brightened up at the mention of the boy. "Yes, of course! Do you know him too? It seems the world is really small!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Milo said, but his voice didn't seem too enthusiastic. "Well, I only got to know him today, to be honest. Can you do me a favor and help him get a day off tomorrow?"

Mister Kinoshi paused, confused. "Yeah, I can do that," he answered, his mood starting to go downhill. "May I ask why? Is there something wrong?"

"Uh...that...I don't know if I should say this. It's kind of hard to explain over the phone, but, uh, he's got into an accident...I think?"

He shot up out of his chair, a bad feeling burning inside his chest. Emrys left school earlier today, and that guy...

It must've something to do with him. That guy was definitely not a good person.

"Is he alright? Where are you? Are you with him? Should I come over?" he pressed urgently. He slammed his hand down on his desk. "I should've stopped him from leaving today!" he shouted.

"Woah, woah, calm down, Mister Kinoshi. What do you mean? He's going to be fine!"

Hearing that, the older man lowered back down into his seat, taking a deep breath to calm down. "He left early today, and there was this suspicious man with him. I don't suppose he's a good man, and I think he probably did something to my student."

There was a pause at the other end of the line.

"Hello?"

"Mister Kinoshi, with all due respect, if you're talking about the person I think you're talking about, I'll have to say you've misjudged him. He had done nothing wrong, you can't just accuse him of something like that."

He sighed. "You're right, you're right," he muttered. "I'm sorry. I'll take that back."

Background noises were heard from the other end of the line, and he assumed Milo was talking to another person. It took a few moments before he was back.

"Sir...uh, can you also help Jade take a day off tomorrow? She says she's in your second period advanced chemistry class."

The teacher frowned at the mention of another one of his students. "Jade? Yeah, sure. Did something happen to her too?" he asked, concerned. He was confused. How did Milo suddenly just cross paths with two of his students on the same day, all of a sudden?

"No, she's fine. She just got caught up in this mess by chance and needs a day to catch up on her assignments."

"Oh, that's alright," he answered with a huff. What in the world happened with them?

Suddenly, a girl's shout was heard on Milo's side, and Milo said a few inaudible words before saying, "Mister Kinoshi, I have to go now. It's nice talking with you, and thanks!" He said that all in a rush before he ended the call, leaving the teacher to listen to the dial tone, completely confused about what was happening.

He gave a deep sigh and buried his face in his hands.

...Should he go find them?

_______________

Emrys blinked, light seeping into the back of his eyelids.

I'm...still alive?

Faint muffled voices were exchanged as he slowly regained consciousness.

"He moved!" a girl's voice exclaimed. "Is he going to wake up?"

"Kid!" a man's voice said. "Emrys, can you hear me?"

Emrys lifted his injured arm, finding there was no pain at all. He rubbed his eyes with his fingers and felt something heavy on his head. He reached up blindly and felt the rough fabric that wrapped around his forehead.

He groaned and pushed himself up on his elbows, a pink-haired man and a familiar black-haired girl coming into view. The girl gasped and covered her mouth with her fingers, her eyes twinkling with joy. "He's okay! He's alive!"

The pink-haired man grinned and pushed up his glasses with one finger. "Emrys, do you feel okay? Any pain? Discomfort?"

He frowned and rubbed the back of his neck with his arm, glancing down at his ruined clothes and fresh bandages. "Strangely...no? I feel...perfectly fine. What's this black smoke?"

The girl shifted her gaze. "Mister Gray?" she called. "Mister Gray, you can stop now."

Emrys' eyes widened. Gray?!

He whirled his head and swung out his arm, a great ice spike forming in his right hand. For some reason, that action came naturally and felt more powerful.

The pink-haired man backed up in surprise while the girl yelped in terror as Emrys held the sharp edge of his arrow against Gray's neck, breathing heavily. "What do you want?" he growled, hostile.

Gray didn't move, didn't flinch as he pressed the arrow against his skin, drawing blood.

"Emrys, what are you doing?" the girl exclaimed. "He was the one that saved you! We don't know what he did, but it took him three hours non-stop to bring you back to life!"

Emrys blinked at her in surprise. "What?"

"It's true," said the pink-hair man.

He turned his head and took a closer look at Gray, the one who tried to take his life just hours before. He was sitting with his legs crossed and had both his hands wrapped around his left arm. His long, black strands of hair had fallen forward and blocked his eyes, preventing them to see the expression on his face as he slowly withdrew his hands, the black mist around them quickly dissipating.

Emrys slowly moved aside his arrow, starting to feel a little guilty for suddenly attacking him out of the blue. But still... "Didn't you try to kill me earlier? What exactly do you want?" he demanded.

A little smile formed on his thin lips, and Emrys only then saw the sweat dripping from his hair and down to his chin, his face as white as sheet. "Did...did you really think I was trying to kill you?" he rasped, his voice unnaturally airy and weak. "That was only to awaken...your powers...dumb*ss. Who knew...you were going to..."

His shoulders sagged before he could finish what he was saying and he hit the ground with a loud thump, unconscious, red slowly dripping onto the floor from the cut Emrys made with his arrow.

Emrys stared at him, frozen in disbelief as Pink Hair and the girl rushed to Gray's side.

All- all that was just to awaken his powers?