{Index III: My Sons Are So Weird}

In a small wooden home, an old man was leisurely spending his morning with a cup of tea.

The wrinkled face was old and tired, but positive nevertheless. He paused for a moment in the middle of drinking before rubbing his smooth head.

I miss my hair, sigh.

Noticing that his cup was empty, the blue robed elder lifted his wand as it released a yellow light which enveloped a pitcher.

As the pitcher slowly floated over and tipped a bit, a small stream of fresh new tea flowed out, slowly filling the cup.

"My name is Regro Burnedead. I'm a chic and elegant 75 year old living with two sons in a forest far from other humans." sipping at his second drink of fresh brewed tea in the morning, Regro recalled his past, "I was quite reckless in all sorts of ways in my youth, but when you get as old as I, very little bothers you."

"But… But… there is one thing this old man doesn't understand…" Regro paused before turning his gaze towards the door.

Hearing the sound of the door creaking, Regro gave a wobbly smile, "Please open the door, Tom."

He prayed, prayed to whatever god was out there that his son would listen to hi-

The door suddenly stopped still before it was suddenly pulled off by its hinges on the wall.

Seeing the broken wood frame and the door in the air, Regro took a moment to process before he yelled with crossed eyes, "AAAAAAAAH! NOT AGAIN!"

"Oh, pops. I'm home." a markless face with yellow eyes and a black bow-cut hair said before setting the door aside on the ground.

"Mash! Why?! Why did you rip the door off its hinges to come in, Mash?! And where is your brother! I told him that if he can't open the door then he should at least teach you how to open it!" Regro grabbed his heart and spat out angrily.

"Oh." Mash blinked.

Regro nearly flew to wring his precious son's neck.

He forced himself to stop, maybe this time. Maybe he had a good reason to do so?

"I couldn't remember if I was supposed to push or pull." Mash's stoic face came full view.

"15 years!" Regro, with energy that a normal 75 year old man should not have, jumped up and down angrily.

"Oh. Hey, dad. I'm back. I'm coming through the hole where the door used to be in a completely normal fashion." Tom, Regro's second son, walked through the hole with amusement in his eyes.

Seeing the charming face with curly brown hair and chestnut roasted eyes, Regro started pointing. "15 years! Tom! 15 Years! How many times did I tell you! If you are not going to open the door then at least teach your brother common sense on how to do it!"

"...hehe." Tom's face scrunched upwards with a mocking smile.

"..." Regro almost spat out blood. How could you have such a charming face, but a lousy attitude!

On the side, Mash frowned when seeing the old man unhappy.

He nudged his brother on the side.

Tom's body suddenly flew, crashing through the wall and went rolling against the ground before coming to a stop.

"..." Regro stared all buggy eyed.

Mash blinked before realizing what he had done. "I'm sorry, Tom. I just wanted for you to fix the door… so that pops won't be angry." a gloomy feeling floated around Mash.

Regro grimaced before looking at his son helplessly. "Oh, well… if you're feeling sorry for what you did, then…"

"I know…" Mash grabbed the broken door before walking towards the door frame.

Then all of a sudden he started smashing the door, horizontally against the frame. "... I'll fix it myself."

"AAAAAH! Turn it! Turn it! Ah, Tom! Where are you? Tom?!" Regro stuck his head out with panic in heart.

Upon seeing his other son deep in a gully that was created by the speed he was flying with, Regro didn't bother to ask if he was okay, but demanded for him to stop Mash!

"Tom, look! Look at what your brother is doing?! Stop him! And fix my door, my wall, oh my poor house! Why?! Wuwuwuwuw!" Regro waved his fingers, constantly pointing at Mash who was still trying to fix the door and to Tom who was face down on the dirt.

The poor old man's cries echoed through the forest.

Tom Burnedead on the other hand, lifted himself up with a stumble before yelling back. "Huh, dad! Father! What about me, you don't care about me huh?! What am I, a slave!"

"I do care about you! That's why I don't bother mentioning it because I know how tough you are!" Regro yelled out. "Hurry! Hurry! Stop your brother! Fix my house with your wood magic, quickly! Slave? What a slave?! All I see is a charming son of mine who wouldn't listen to his father when he is begging for help!"

Regro, along with the constant banging sound coming from Mash, began to throw a bunch of manipulative statements!

"Ooooh! Poor old me! I raised two sons and this is how they treat me…!"

"I remember building this house from scratch when I was already so poor…"

"An old man, instead of living comfortably in his own household after many years, but no! I'm just an old man who wakes up only to be driven mad by his sons. Wuwuwu, raaaaah! Do you want that for me, Tom! You want me to have a heart attack?!"

"That is isn't it! You want me to get a heart attack! Huh?! Hm?!"

Tom Burnedead was quiet while staring at his adoptive father in this magical world. His lips twitched at the thought that he was being scolded through emotional means to get him to feel guilty. Surely enough, the standard attitude for the anime world was really different from reality.

Suddenly a snapping sound cracked out.

"Noooo~! My door~!"

Mash held the broken ends of the door with a tilted head.

Regro cried as he knelt, shouting why god was so unfair!

Tom was speechless seeing this scene from afar. He clicked his teeth before walking out of the gully. Walking towards his home, he brought out his wand before waving it forward.

"Wood Style:..."

Inside the house, Mash stepped back as new wood stretched from the ground, making a new door in the once empty door frame, and beside that, the surrounding wood around the hole on the wall twisted before it was eventually covered up.

The new door was pushed open, walking in, Tom closed the door behind him.

"My door… my house…"

Tom's face twitched, "I already fixed the door and wall, dad."

"... Is it fixed?" Regro slowly lifted his head away from his hands.

Mash nodded, standing next to Tom, "It is fixed."

Seeing a new wooden door, and no large hole, Regro gotten off of the ground with his hands clasped behind him. He nodded with a calm and recollected look, "Ah. It's good that it is fixed. Let's have some tea, shall we?"

Regro, as if nothing happened, walked over and sat on his chair before waving his wand, pouring more tea into two cups for his sons.

"..." Tom blinked, that face change, too fast.

"Mash, did you finish today's training routine?"

"Of course." Mash grabbed a mug for himself and his brother.

Tom took the mug, but stared sideways at Mash and his father with a displeased look. He clenched his other hand into a fist.

That training routine, that special course of his father, Regro Burnedead, which allowed one to tap into the toughest magic of them all… Muscle Magic!

A routine that Regro taught Mash, but not his other son, Tom.

So that was how it was wasn't it, dad? If you had also taught me that, then I wouldn't have suffered so much!

Regro uncomfortably drank tea under the hot stare, after all these years, his son was still mad at him for not teaching him his lesson planned physical routine.

The old man doesn't understand, there's nothing special about this routine so why would Tom want to learn it so much?

Anyway, the reason why he taught Mash was because of his condition… which was special.

Mash wasn't like ordinary people. He couldn't use magic because he was different, because he did not have a mark. Giving him something to at least train his body to learn how to survive. It was the least I can do as a father trying to protect his son.

His other son, Tom, on the other hand was a different kind of special.

… An absolute freak!

Regro didn't know where, but his son Tom mastered magic he never heard of, and some of the spells were so dangerous!

For instance, years ago there was a time where Tom was igniting a large boulder in the forest with black flames, which was very extraordinary.

Tom called it, Amaterasu, a fire spell that burns for seven days and seven nights with heat with unimaginable power, like that of the overlaying sun.

Hiss. How scary it was when seeing such pitch-black flames surviving for seven days even under a rainy season.

There was also Tom's so-called favorite spell, "The Sage Art: Shadow Style: Thunder Blast" which allows him to conjure purple lighting. The most horrifying thing about the spell was not only the effects, but how Tom has a mastery over it.

That spell, Regro saw that the purple lighting fired from it could disintegrate things into ashes, ignite the grounds with scorching sparks.

His son, Tom, has an excellent control of the spell, knowing how to limit the output, change the range of it, or even control the electricity in its flow.

Tom called it, and to be his words exact, "One of my Unforgivable Curses" and the action behind the true purpose of the spell scared Regro when he heard it.

Once the spell hits his opponent, first the target would be paralyzed, then Tom would redirect that spell's lighting to slowly converge and gather at the heart before igniting it with dozens of sparks.

The result would be instant death, and when Regro saw Tom use it on a wolf that tried to attack them during a picnic, Regro could have sworn he saw the soul of that wolf be completely obliterated.

Of course, he has no way to prove it, but the light in the wolf's eyes, which soon became dull, as its whole body slumped down onto the ground with no movement at all had Regro scared silly.

There were times when Tom used the spell, although it may seem flashy and large it wouldn't cause much damage because Tom would always reduce its effects, but if he were serious…

Anyway, Tom has mastered so many powerful spells, he didn't need his training routine anyway. It was an old routine too, but he gave up on it after practicing it for, like, about a week or so, but he never forgot it, and that was why he lent it to his son, Mash.

But who knew his genius freak of a son, Tom, would be jealous of that fact!

Not only that, but his son Mash was also turned into a physical freak!

The things he did with only his body alone, hiss. Maybe that's why Tom was jealous, because he saw the effects of the workout, and wanted to be like Mash too.

But Regro was helpless too! That routine was normal, it's just Mash is a freak at exercising!

But Tom, however, believed that it was some sort of ancient training that gives the user a magical physique.

Crazy kid...

At the end of all this, the old man just doesn't understand. Why were his sons so weird?!

Unaware of the atmosphere, Mash drank his tea when suddenly a rumble appeared in his stomach.

His eyes lowered.

Hm. Hungry…