Chapter 39: History and Places

'This can't be happening! This can't be happening! No!' Sora thought as he paced around his room with his hands on his head.

"Would you stop that? You pacing around is making me nervous." Zatanna said from the side, halting him a bit as he turned to stare at her.

She was sitting cross legged on the bed with a big book on her lap which she was flipping through.

"Have you found anything?" He asked still panicking.

"Not yet but I'm still looking." She said as she flipped another page.

Sora's pacing stopped but his expressions showed that he was still panicked.

"You need to calm down. I've never seen you so worked up before. What is this Red Dawn has you so worried?" Zatanna said showing concern at his abnormal behavior.

She has always known him to be confident if not a bit arrogant. He seemed to always have the answer for the problems that came but just last night he came back looking flustered and bit scared.

She had been perusing the magical history books her father left for her about anything remotely related to the Red Dawn and so far she had found nothing which further heightened Sora's fear.

It greatly worried her. What is there about the Red Dawn that has even him scared?

He was about to restart his pacing when she grabbed his hand in hers.

"You need to calm down." She said softly as she pulled him to sit beside her. They sat in silence for a moment until she spoke up.

"You didn't get any sleep last night, did you?" She asked as his eyes widened a bit before he hid it.

"What makes you think that?" He retorted with a question of his own.

"Because of the screams." She answered softly as he turned his face away.

"You've been having nightmares every night since I got here. The walls aren't that thick."

"You didn't scream yesterday because you didn't sleep." She said only for him to speak up.

"I apologize if I interrupted your sleep." He said lowly as he got up but he was pulled back.

"That's not the problem here. You're hurting in a way that I can't imagine. Please, let me help." She spoke again, sounding weak as her voice trembled a bit.

He closed his eyes for a moment as he went into thought. Although Art of the Mind helped him in building his mental fortitude, that didn't stop the effects of the trauma he had already experienced.

It didn't remove the trauma, it simply kept it under control.

'It seemed that it wasn't as controlled as I thought.' He thought.

Truthfully, it was the reason he spent most of his night time leveling his skills. He was afraid to sleep and relive those memories.

He didn't know whether it was a blessing or a curse but hearing the name of the akatsuki removed all thoughts of sleep from his mind.

'It looks like I'm not as invincible as I thought.' He thought with a bit of self loathing.

Maybe…

His eyes opened as his gaze turned towards Zatanna who was still staring in concern.

He felt some weight leave his body as he let a small smile which she mirrored. He might not have said anything but the silence was more than enough to convey his thoughts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I found something." Zatanna spoke up, alerting Sora who was mixing ingredients at his desk.

"What'd you find?" He asked behind him as he dropped the beaker he was inspecting.

"Thousands of years ago, wizards and other magical beings had different and conflicting ways they used magic."

"With all the conflicting ideas, they were categorized into two types. Some of them used it externally and outside their body to affect their environment and the world around them."

"Others used magic internally to strengthen their physical bodies and possess supernatural physiques."

"They formed groups and competed with each other to see whose techniques were better. These groups still exist but have devolved and are settled in different countries."

"Out of all the groups that were recognized, there was one that stood out as the strongest. They called themselves the Red Dawn and they were led by a powerful sorcerer named Aldous." Zatanna finished as she took a deep breath.

"That's a lot to take in." Sora commented.

"What can we find about this Aldous?" He then asked Zatanna who flipped the page.

"Nothing much about him except that he was powerful enough that no sorcerer alive at the time wanted to face him in battle." She read out.

"The Red Dawn settled in a remote continent. That part of the continent is what is now known as china. That's where it ends." She said as she flipped over and scanned the pages.

"They might still be around, we just need to find out where." Sora said with a look of contemplation.

"How are we going to do that? We can't exactly go from door to door until we explore the whole of china." Zatanna said dryly.

"We could try asking your dad for clues. But then we'd be giving him a way to force himself into this." Sora said, putting his thought out there.

Going to a league member for help basically gave them access to butt in and he wanted none of that.

"What if we-" They were interrupted as the necklace on Sora's neck glowed and hummed, floating a bit above his skin.

"What's going on with your necklace?" Zatanna asked as the ring that laid on Sora's desk lit up in tandem, catching their attention.

The ring shot from the table before floating over the book on Zatanna's laps. The pages rapidly turned until it stopped at a page that contained a map before stopping and hovering over it.

"I have an idea." Sora said as he sped to the small shelf in the other room before returning with a map in hand.

"And you have a map why?" Zatanna asked curiously as she tilted her head.

"It was already here when I moved in here." Sora defended as he spread it on the floor.

"Now what?" The homo magi asked only for the ring to float away from the book over to the map.

It circled around a few places on the map before slowing down as it reached china. It hovered over a certain point in china.

Sora and Zatanna shared a look as the necklace stopped floating but the ring didn't fall. Sora moved to the computer, downloading a detailed map of china and printing it out with the printer in the corner of the room.

He brought it closer to the big map before throwing the big one into his inventory as the ring floated to the smaller one.

It floated around the certain areas as if searching for something before stopping and hovering above a place on the map.

Seeing that it wasn't moving anymore and simply floated there, Sora quickly marked the area before the ring would fall.

"Well, that happened." Sora said as they both stared at each other.