Forest of Life

Suijins attempts to explain what she meant by "checking people out" fell on deaf ears. Raiden simply wasn't hearing any of it. "Listen, I'm not the type to judge people." Raiden joked. 

"That wouldn't be a problem, but you have the completely wrong idea!" 

"Oh really, well then your going to have to explain to me what the 'right' idea is later. Adios." Before Suijin could stop him Raiden had already disappeared in a flash of lightning. She placed her hand on her forehead before shaking her head and muttering to herself, 

"Damn it all."

 * * * 

After searching around the school for a few minutes, Raiden was able to locate Hayato, but not Lucius. He had done multiple laps around the training field, lunch area, and even inside the school building, and he still hadn't found any sign as to where Lucius had gone. "Damn. where is this guy when you need him." Raiden muttered to himself as he exited the bathroom. He looked up at a clock in the hallway and to his dismay, their final class would begin soon. As he walked through the hallway, racking his brain for any locations that he had missed. He turned the corner and noticed two people standing outside the door of Yami's classroom. 

"Hey there, Luke, Jayden." Alerted by Raiden's greeting, the boys turned around and waved. "What are you two doing?" 

Jayden responded, pointing to the door. "Were waiting for Yami to return so we can ask him somethings about the tournament. What about you?" 

"I've been walking around the school looking for Lucius. Have you seen him by any chance." Luke took a second to think before he responded. 

"Actually, I remember seeing him hanging out on the roof of the school, but he could be gone by now." 

Thanking them for the information, Raiden turned and instantly dashed towards the roof, arriving their nearly instantaneously. There, he found Lucius leaning over a railing, looking over the entire training field, as well as the forest of life. "Listen Raiden, no matter how much you try to convince me, I'm not going to participate in the tournament." Lucius didn't even turn around, keeping his eyes pasted on the massive glowing wisteria trees that stood just beyond the barrier. 

"That's not what I'm here to talk about." That surprised Lucius, prompting him to turn around and look at Raiden with a slightly curious look in his eyes. 

"Really, then why are you here?" Raiden pointed to the forest of life. 

"Remember when we were little? The first time that we tried to enter the forest of life." Lucius's eyes widened slightly, and he was clearly confused as to why Raiden was bringing this up all of a sudden. It was pretty out of character for him to be interested in anything but competing. He wasn't the type of person to reminisce about the past. 

"Why are you bringing this up now?" Lucius played it off as if he couldn't care less. however it was clear that he was more than somewhat interested. Raiden moved over to the railing, never taking his eyes of the forest.

"Do you remember how it ended?" 

Lucius scoffed at the question. "Of course. How could i forget? We had been walking around the dark foggy forest for what felt like ours, as I tried to use my powers to create a light, we heard the sound of someone following us, and got scared shitless. Turns out, it was just Yami. We got into the most trouble of our lives after that." There was a nostalgic look on Lucius face as he recalled the memories. He never told anybody, but that was one of his favorite memories from the many trials and tribulations that him Raiden, and Hayato had faced when they were younger. Despite how scared they were that day, and how much trouble they had gotten in; He always looked back on it fondly. 

Raiden finally got to the point of this conversation. "Lets go back." Now Lucius was completely caught off guard. He was snapped out of his own mind and into the present by those words, staring at Raiden with a completely shocked look on his face. 

"Y-You cant be serious. Go back? You just asked me what happened last ti-" 

"But you do want to go back right?" A voice cut Lucius protests off. Lucius turned his eyes from Raiden to the entrance way that connected the stair way to the ceiling. Hayato was sitting on top of the small rectangular structure, with one leg hanging off. 

"When did you get there?" Lucius asked, still reeling from Raiden last question. 

"I've always been here." Hayato jumped down from the entryway, making his way over to where the other to boys stood. He put an arm around Lucius shoulder before turning him around to face the forest of life. "You do want to go right? Remember when I came up to you nearly an hour ago? You were staring at that place, and even asked me what I thought about it. So lets go." 

Lucius was still unable to understand the two other boys reason for offering to do this. "Hold on. I'm still confused." He pointed to Hayato. "Just like you mentioned. When I asked you about the forest originally, you called it drab and said that you wanted nothing to do with it." Lucius pointed out the obvious contradiction in Hayato's words. 

"Yeah I did. So what?" Hayato shrugged his shoulders. "Remember the last time we ended up there. I was adamant in not going, and I still ended up wit you guys anyways. To be perfectly honest. I would want nothing more in the world than to stay far, far away from that place. However, there's something I want. And if it means getting what I want, then I'll gladly go through the forest." 

Lucius was not convinced by Hayato's cryptic explanation. However this was the one thing that he wanted. Something to make his life more interesting. And the magic forest was just that. A mystery that was waiting to be uncovered. Even if he didn't understand Raiden and Hayato's motivations, he should go for his own. And besides, they were offering to go. Why would he turn them down?

"All right then. Ill go." 

Raiden and Hayato both smiled, which only served to creep Lucius out even more. "Directly after class. We'll meet up at the entrance of the forest." Lucius and Hayato nodded, and the three boys headed to class. 

 * * * 

"I get that its a bit late to ask now, but, what exactly is our plan?" Lucius proposed the question as they stood outside of the barrier for the magic forest. It was a painstakingly obvious oversight on their part. In the moment, thinking about what they would've faced inside the forest, they hadn't considered the much more present task, of how they would get past the barrier. 

"How did we get inside last time?" This was Hayato. 

Lucius leaned against a tree as he thought back to the first time they had entered the forest of life. "If I recall correctly, we just kept throwing spells at the barrier, and an entrance just opened up." When Lucius opened his eyes, he was greeted by looks of pure disappointment on Raiden and Hayato's faces. 

"That can't be the only way, right?" Raiden tried to rack his brain for any other way that they could have entered. but just like Lucius had said, the last time they came, they had gotten inside by just throwing spells at the barrier until an entrance unveiled itself. 

"Well then, Lets do it." This was Hayato. It came as a shock to the other two boys, because if anybody was going to advise them to stop, and not continue. It would be Hayato. Yet here he was telling them to keep going. Hayato ignored the weird glances the other two boys were shooting him before moving towards the barrier. Swiping his hands in a downward motions, he created a cut in the air, and blasted a line shaped slash of wind straight at the barrier. The magic clashed against the barrier, releasing a massive amount of energy and blowing clothes, and hair in the wind before the attack completely dissipated. Leaving not even a scratch on the massive purple, dome like barrier that surrounded the forest. Hayato looked back at the other boys. "Are you two just going to stand there and gawk?" 

That snapped Raiden and Lucius into attention. They walked up to stand by Hayato before beginning to launch magic attacks of their own. Raiden's entire arm and hand began to glow a bright blue color as he launched a concentrated blast of lightning at the barrier. Lucius on the other hand, pointed a finger gun at the barrier. Instantaneously, a laser beam of gold light shot out and hit the barrier. Hayato followed immediately after, launching a wind attack once again. As all three of the boys magic connected against the barrier, a loud rumbling sound arose from deep with in the forest, and the ground began to shake. Then, a small door shaped hole opened in the barrier. 

Hayato looked at the other two boys with a massive smile on his face as he walked in, before any of the boys could say anything. Lucius tossed a glance at Raiden and they both shrugged before smiling and running in. Behind them, they heard the rumbling sound of the barrier's door closing. 

From up close, the boys got a good look at how massive, and also beautiful the forest of life was. Up close, the wisteria trees seemed like the legs from massive giant like creatures. Each trees stump varied in thickness. When you looked all they way up, the massive wisteria flowers intertwined with one another, forming a massive chain that blocked out any and all sunlight, creating a dark atmosphere. The dark purple wisteria flowers were literally glowing, casting eerie lights and shadows that served to create bone chilling illusions. Due to the canopy of trees being so closely packed together, the only light that shined in the forest was the faint glow of the flowers, that barley illuminated anything that wasn't directly in front of them. And since they were so high up, the flowers light was of no help. If it wasn't for the light that Lucius and Raiden created, it would be impossible to see even the trunk of the trees, even though they were so large. 

As the boys traveled through the forest, looking around and awe as they went, Raiden made a comment. "You know, the forest seemed much scarier when we were kids. Now, its more beautiful than anything." 

"Its called maturing. Your not a scared little kid anymore who believes the legends of the forest, so obviously it wont seem as scary." Hayato explained in a condescending tone. In reply, Raiden killed his lightning magic, which plunged him and Hayato into darkness. Hayato tensed, and Raiden laughed.

"Matured right?" He joked, which caused him and Hayato to enter a friendly scuffle. In front of them, Lucius had stopped in his tracks, staring up at something in utter awe. When Raiden and Hayato looked up, they saw a massive chunk of wood nearly double the size of an average tree laying in the path in front of him. It was so large that Lucius had to shoot a beam of light into the air to even see where the top was.

If they weren't in the "Forest of life" they would've thought that this thing was just an abnormal large tree trunk. "Call me crazy, but I think that this is a branch." Lucius had just began to voice his opinions when Hayato shouted out, pointing to something. The other two boys looked over and to their surprise, there was a pair of glowing eyes glaring at them from the forest. 

"What is that?" Lucius asked, beginning to increase the strength of the light. However Raiden was faster. 

"Who cares?" He summoned a javelin made of pure lighting before tossing straight at the pair of glowing blue eyes. The lightning erupted against the body of whatever this creature was, creating a mini light show, before dissipating. A second later, the lightning returned, flowing around the outline of a wolve shaped creature. The creature bared its fangs and let out a low growl, before charging out of the darkness with amazing speed. In less than a second it had tackled Raiden and smashed him straight into a tree. The other two turned around to see if he was okay, but the fight was already over. 

Raiden stepped out of the human shaped hole in the tree trunk, dusting himself off. A few feet away, the body of the wolf like creature that attacked him was sprawled across the ground, its neck broken. Lucius shined his light over the creature to reveal that it had white and black fur, as well as covered in crystal like horns all over its body. 

"Seems like that creatures ability to absorb any magic thrown at them, before repurposing it for their own use, at the cost of a slight drop in power and speed." Raiden made a quick analysis before turning over to look all around them. Slowly, more and more pairs of glowing eyes began to appear in the darkness. As well as a pair of massive green eyes. A smirk popped up on Raiden's face as he took in their situation. 

On the other hand, Lucius turned to Hayato and pointed at the branch. "Think you can cut us away through?" 

Hayato also smiled. 

"Your talking to a prodigy here." 

 * * * 

Yami stood by a window, closely observing the magic forest. The three boys had entered 10 minutes ago. From behind him, a man with graying hair sat imposingly at a desk. "I'm not one to question your methods Yami, but was it really okay to let them enter the forest?" 

Yami didn't respond for a little bit before saying. "Its the only way those boys would be able it make up without me doing it for them." 

The man at the desk laughed. "Sure, whatever you say. how about this. Give them another 20 minutes in there. I wager you won't be able to catch them all in under 10 minutes." 

Yami removed the cigarette from his mouth before adjusting his tie, and taking a look at his stop watch. "Gambling with your students lives? How depraved of you." He turned his eyes to the man sitting at the desk. "I'll do it in under 1."