Chapter 27: The Passage of Time, Part 5

It has been a few weeks since I met with Eun Yuri. Due to her studies, she had not been able to free up enough time to come to the master's house where I would help her develop the skill [Mana Circuit Application] so she can begin her magical training.

So a few days ago, she sent me a message telling me that she has this weekend free, and we agreed that we would use that time for her training.

Since I had a lot of fun joking with her last time, this time I decided to continue with the joke, only on a larger scale. The master was initially against it, but after a few rounds of betting and drinking where I emerged as the winner, he had no choice but to collaborate with the joke and promised never to drink against me again. Unlike Seol Jihu from the novel, I cannot be defeated in drinks as long as I have my [Self-Healing] active, and the master learned that the hard way.

This brings us back to the present, where the members of The Shadow are dressed in X-men cosplay. Yes, the X-men also exist in this universe, not the real ones, but the stories from the comics and movies.

At this moment, the master is in a wheelchair and is using a special cover to hide his hair. With that and his hat to conceal his hair even more, he gives the impression of being bald. Added to the chair and a few touches of makeup and costume, he is the Korean Professor X.

Around us, the most talented members of The Shadow do cosplay of other mutants, and using the little control of mana they have, they emulate one or another magical ability like throwing fire, air, the most talented is channeling a bit of electricity in his hands, but all have in common X-men style clothes and makeup to give them a mutant or mysterious look.

The less talented are limited to showing off greater speed or strength using [Physical Reinforcement].

"You really have a wicked sense of humor, tricking me into wearing this silly costume and forcing the boys to dress up too, not to mention that all this is to deceive a poor girl," said the master with quite the annoyance in his voice, but I know that inside he is enjoying watching the whole thing.

"Don't be like that Professor X, this is also part of the training. We are practicing methods of disguise and acting, which are key for infiltration and distraction. Besides, your outfit looks great on you and goes perfectly with your role as a master," I said, trying to contain my laughter while I discreetly take a few photos. With those photos, I will be able to convince him to help me with another prank in the future.

"Whatever, the girl seems to be finally arriving. I see the car of 'Logan,' who you sent for the girl entering the house's grounds," said the master.

"You heard Professor X, from now on, do not neglect your performance!" I ordered everyone.

`Logan`, better known as Shadow #26, which is his code name, parked the car and four people got out. The first is 'Logan', then the other two who came out seem to be Eun Yuri's bodyguards, who tried to ensure the area was safe but were left speechless by the surreal spectacle we are presenting.

Normally, I would take precautions against strangers seeing these things, but today we have all the measures in place to convince them that it is a kind of cosplay festival and there is nothing to worry about, which is really part of The Shadow's camouflage training. And finally, Eun Yuri came out fascinated by everything she sees, but quickly became nervous when she saw her bodyguards and the current situation. She obviously worries that they will find out about the supernatural and even expose it to the public, and she gave me an apologetic look.

By the way, I'm going with the same facade from when I first met her, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses that cover a large part of the upper area of my face, and a mask to cover the lower part, so that almost no part of my face is visible and I can safely say that no one would recognize me, not even my family.

The master and I went forward to greet her, I am of course pushing the master's chair.

"Welcome to the Incheon cosplay festival, I'm glad to see you could make it, Miss Eun Yuri," said the master while trying to get into his role as Professor X, but as I said, with his age and demeanour as a master, the role fits him like a glove.

"Oh! Hello sir, sorry I came with extra people, they are my bodyguards and my parents wouldn't let me come without them, I hope I don't cause you any inconvenience," she said quite nervously.

"Not at all young lady, today we are celebrating and everyone is invited, the more the merrier, but exclusive functions can only be entered with special tickets, so I'm afraid that if you wish to enter you will not be able to be accompanied by them if they do not have such tickets," said the master in a serious tone.

Her bodyguards did not seem very happy with the idea, but after seeing the festive atmosphere and checking things out a bit, they finally had no choice but to reluctantly accept and let Eun Yuri enter a large tent we had prepared in the yard, where only some members of The Shadow were performing another show of superhuman abilities.

When we entered the tent without the bodyguards, Eun Yuri finally let loose and said, "WOW! This is incredible, I can't believe it, everyone here has superpowers, oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Eun Yuri, nice to meet you, sir," she said to the master.

"Call me Professor X," said the master reluctantly. In the background, I heard several members of The Shadow laughing and I saw the master's eyelid twitch a little as if he was going to get a tic, but he held back.

"Oh my god, so you really are Professor X and you guys are the X-men! I thought it was just a facade, but now everything makes sense. You are real, so the driver who brought me is Wolverine right? I saw him, he looks the part, even the messy hair and beard and he's quite gruff," she said while looking at Shadow #26 who was dressed as Logan, he in response just grunted and said he was going for a beer and that he doesn't have time to babysit... Of course all of this is him getting into his role and Eun Yuri almost had a fan attack.

"Cool! I can't believe the X-men are real and that I'll be part of them, but then who are you? You never told me your name, no wait, you wear sunglasses even inside the tent and you did so aswell at the cafe... I know, you're Cyclops right?" when she said that whilst pointing at me, I saw several of The Shadows fall to the ground laughing, even Shadow #26 who was immersed in his role as Logan and was drinking a beer choked on laughter and ended up expelling the content through his nose, the master also almost fell out of his chair laughing.

"Yes, he's definitely Cyclops, that is why he doesn't take off his glasses, but not only that, he also shoots beams from his mouth if he doesn't wear the mask, so that's why he doesn't take it off as well," said the master while laughing, the others around were not much different.

"Ah, that explains a lot. At first, I thought he had some ugly scar and had to keep his face hidden because of that," said Eun Yuri innocently, and some laughed a bit more.

Shadow #11, one of the female shadows took this opportunity and joined in and solemnly said, "You're also correct in thinking like that miss Yuri. Cyclops does in fact have a horrible scar on his face and that is another reason why he doesn't freely show his face. It's better that you don't see it or you might get traumatized."

The other girls in The Shadow immediately agreed, but what they are trying to do is prevent Eun Yuri from seeing my face rather than simply making fun of me.

"Ha Ha, very funny, tomorrow we'll train twice as hard to see if you can keep your spirits as high as now," I quipped, to which everyone complained.

"Don't worry Cyclops, even if you have an ugly scar I still think you're a great person," said Eun Yuri. I thought it was out of sympathy for my supposed situation, but in reality, her eyes were looking at me very intensely and I had to look away, this girl's blue eyes are dangerous.

"Ah, to be young," said the master, watching the whole situation.

"But let's hurry, there's not much time to awaken the girl's abilities, if we delay too much her bodyguards might get desperate and end up causing unnecessary commotion," said the master in a more serious tone.

"That's true, serious matters first, then we can continue with the fun," I said, recomposed, and Eun Yuri got excited because she would finally get her "powers."

We took her to the center of the tent where there was a large phosphorescent tetragram in the shape of a star on the ground and told her to sit on the floor and extend her arms. I sat in the same way but in front of her and my hands held hers.

Then all the members of The Shadow inside the tent began to chant, "Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao, " while performing a dance on one leg and shaking one hand while waving a cloth bag with the other.

For my part, I began to channel my mana into her body and circulate it to awaken the [Mana Circuit Application] ability.

If you're wondering about the chanting, the dance, the tetragram, and the whole show, well... it's just that, a show to continue with the joke. And the serious tone from before was already planned. By the way, the chant is the one that the Uncle from the Jackie Chan animated series usually does.

But Eun Yuri does not know any of that and was totally focused on the sensation of my mana circulating through her body. After a couple of minutes I could feel that her mana was moving by her will and no longer by mine, which shows that she has successfully developed the ability, and to verify it, I checked with the [Nine Eyes].

I was surprised; the most talented member of The Shadow who developed the ability took about 15 minutes to do so, but Eun Yuri developed it in just 2 minutes. And that is without me informing her to be aware of the sensation of mana circulation as I normally do. I wanted to see if she would react instinctively, and she did. She was definitely born to manipulate mana.

"What is this? It feels great and warm, I've never felt anything like it. It's like I've had many cups of hot coffee at the same time. You didn't drug me, right? No, this is a bit different, I can move it at will. What happens if I send it to my hand?"

I wanted to stop her, but it was too late. A fireball shot out of her hand towards me. Fortunately, her hand was pointing at me and not at the master who was somewhat close behind me; he is the only one in this tent who is just a normal human.

I stopped the fireball with my hand, and it didn't even scratch me. After all, I activated [Mana Cloaking] to avoid any damage, but Eun Yuri panicked and began to apologize excessively.

"Calm down young lady, it's okay, accidents with newly developed abilities are normal. But now you have to be careful not to hurt anyone. You are forbidden to practice using abilities anywhere other than here under proper supervision until you have enough control to avoid causing an accident," said the master in a serious tone.

I don't know if he realized that he sounded much more like Professor X than before, and it took me a lot of effort to contain my laughter. But in the end, I couldn't when Eun Yuri said in the most sincere way possible, "Yes, Professor X, it won't happen again, I promise." At that moment, I wasn't the only one; everyone started to die of laughter. Eun Yuri thought we were laughing at her loss of control, so she was very embarrassed, but she didn't realize the reality.

The master on the other hand almost turned red. I don't know if it was from embarrassment or anger. Everyone ran out of the tent fearing it was anger, and only the master, Eun Yuri, and I remained.

After that, Eun Yuri practiced her abilities under our supervision and finally had to go back home. Throughout the weekend, she didn't realize that the whole X-men theme was a facade and a joke. It was only until her next visit, when we were on the "Men in Black" theme, that she realized everything and learned the true identity of all those present. But that's another fun story for another time.