24 Chapter 24: Moving On
Sora opened his eyes very early the next morning, still seated on the floor in the middle of the room.
He looked to the alarm clock that he pulled together.
'Was I out for that long?' He asked himself as he saw the clock read '2:38AM'.
He had spent the last few hours using Art of The Mind to venture into his mind. He found himself in what he guessed his mind space. He had full control of what happened in said space.
His memories floated around the mind space, showing different times in his life. The surroundings looked like an apocalypse had struck it.
The cracks in the sky were more glaring than anything else. The hours were spent fixing the cracks and rearranging his memories in such a way that they weren't bleeding out for any telepath to sift through.
The cracks had closed up a bit and were less noticeable but not completely gone. Art of the mind was at level 5 at the moment.
In the few minutes that he had woken up from his faux meditative state, he could feel the difference.
His mind was clearer than before. The weights that lay on his mind, while still there, were under control and not as heavy.
'Let's test out this skill, shall we?' He thought rhetorically as he got up on his feet.
He stared at the computer before activating the skill.
'Analyze.'
A screen popped up in front of him, displaying
[Object: Computer]
[A computer created by Makoto Sora using spare parts. Despite its low budget appearance, it is as powerful as any modern computer if not more.]
He snorted as he read past the 'low budget appearance'. He couldn't deny the usefulness and ability of the skill.
He spammed it on different objects in the room to get a general feel for the skill. Satisfied with it's use, he moved on to his next objective.
Creating a seal to hide his house from magical senses.
He looked to the small mirror in the corner of the room. His black hair that formed bangs over his face, growing to resemble Sasuke. There was no change to his face and appearance besides that and the addition of a necklace with a crescent moon as the pendant.
He didn't notice it until he acquired Energy Sensing. At the time while spreading his senses around the apartment complex on his way back, he discovered that a vast majority of the apartment was hidden from his senses.
Immediately alarmed, he physically searched the apartment. It took him a full three hours to find the object responsible for it.
Among his belongings that he had brought with him, he found the source. A necklace lay among the pile of his things was a crescent moon pendant.
What was more shocking wasn't the apparent ability of the necklace to hide people and objects from magical senses, it was the owner of said pendant; his mother.
At the moment he found out, he couldn't help but question himself.
[Object: Magical Pendant]
[A pendant passed down from generation to generation. It possesses the ability to obscure people and objects from magical senses.]
[Note: It's previous owner was Makoto Asami.]
'Did she know about it's abilities or is it just a coincidence? If she did, then why did she have it?' He thought at that moment, adding one more mystery to his plate.
'I need to speed this up.' He thought before getting to work.
With the necklace as an example, he could try and replicate it's effects through fuinjutsu. For now, he would have to keep it in the apartment to hide Zatanna from those who were searching.
He took out the calligraphy tools and a fresh roll of paper and got to work on drawing the seal. With Sealing Mastery at level 3 already, he could already manage some basic seals such as minor explosion tags and flash seals.
With that goal in mind, four hours passed in the blink of an eye.
On the table in front of him were numerous strips of paper with symbols drawn on them. They held held various effects.
A bunch of them were explosive tags and others were flash tags while a minor amount of them were storage seals.
With all of these seals drawn, Sealing Mastery was now at level 10, giving him adequate knowledge to continue with the final seal for the moment.
He took his time to complete the strokes and linings of the seal, careful to avoid any errors. He frowned remembering the amount of wasted ink and paper.
The process of drawing seals was slow and meticulous. Any mistakes made could shatter the entire thing and cause disastrous effects.
It took him a full twenty minutes to fully draw it. After he made the last stroke, he used Analyze to appraise it.
[Object: Camouflage Seal]
[A seal created by Makoto Sora to obscure the area in the range of effect from outside magical senses. The range is 30 meters.]
[Note: It last for 7 days after being activated.]
'It's not perfect but it'll do. I need to improve the formula to increase the time of effect.' He thought as he carefully grabbed the seal.
He moved to the center of the apartment which was in between the living room and the bedrooms.
He turned to the small portrait on the wall. A portrait small enough to hide the tag. Adjusting the portrait a bit, he stuck the tag to it's back before putting it back in place.
He then looked at the portrait, a bit of emotion bleeding into his face as he saw himself along with two others.
"Are they your family?" Zatanna asked from behind him, seeing him stuck at the picture.
He nodded at her question, no reaction to her sudden appearance.
"Are they…?" She asked quietly, having already had a guess seeing as how he never talked about them despite their pictures being found in the apartment.
He stayed silent but it was enough to convey his answer. She quietly brought her hands to her mouth, tears coming to her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I can't imagine what it feels like." She said quietly to comfort him. He forced down the urge to snort at that.
'I was a jerk to you and here you are feeling sympathy for me.' He thought with no amount of humor.
Art of the mind helped him in staying composed while lost in the picture. He turned to Zatanna who still had a sad look in her eyes.
"Enough about that." He said calmly but not harshly, surprising Zatanna who expected him walk away without a word.
"What are you doing awake so early?" He asked the girl who's eyes couldn't help but open wide at his attempt at conversation.
"I- I couldn't sleep anymore." She answered, which he reacted with a hum. She wanted to ask how she got to the bed but she had a feeling that he wouldn't answer that particular question.
Sora groggily walked to the kitchen with the intent of making something to eat. Seeing what he was doing, she didn't want to end the rare interaction.
"I can make something to eat if you're hungry." She offered.
When he halted, she honestly thought he would refuse but was shocked when he gestured for her to go on.
With a smile, she quickly moved into the kitchen. She stretched out her hands into the air and chanted softly.
"Stneidergni emoc ot em." In that moment, the cabinets opened and ingredients of different kinds floated out of it towards her, stopping in the air in front of her.
With that, she got to work. Sora stood to the side, forcing down the urge to whistle.
'Magic is so convenient.' He thought as he watched her work.
