Iris had decided that she wanted to prolong her death as much as possible, so she had stayed an extra day in the castle. She was now on her way back to the Black Bulls base, traveling on foot for the majority of the time and taking a few breaks here and there. She wanted to enjoy the scenery before her. 'It's a nice break from the Capital,' she thought.
Just as she was arriving at her destination, she felt a surge of magic. At first, she didn't know what to make of it. 'Who could it be? I'm sure it's not from anyone I've met before,' she grew worried and afraid of what might be happening. She continued walking, a frown making its way onto her face.
Without dwelling too much on the topic, she continued her peaceful walk. 'They can handle whatever that is themselves.' She laughed evilly to herself, thinking of a beat-up Magna and Luck. 'Oh my god, my sadistic side is showing!' She quickly erased any bad thought that was etching its way onto her mind.
Back at the Black Bulls' base, they had all also felt the intense magic. Luck felt a spark and quickly made his way to the source with everyone else following in suit. He chuckled to himself, wanting to fight whoever was attached to the other side of the magic. Everyone went outside, making their way to the source.
To their surprise, there was a person trapped within their own magic. A female with white hair and lavender eyes desperately tried gasping for air, only to be rejected by her water magic. From that same prison, magic shot out, hitting its surroundings.
Yami stood in front of the base, contemplating what was happening in front of him. 'If only a runt with magic canceling abilities were here,' he thought. He took a puff of his cigarette, slightly annoyed.
Blasts of water were getting closer to where the group stood, creating muddy craters. Seemingly out of nowhere, Asta came crashing towards the group with Yami catching him. "Good timing. Go take care of that."
Asta was squirming in Yami's grasp, saying that he couldn't do anything because he didn't have magic. Yami had an evil look in his eye, grinning like a madman. He looked at Asta and then at the blue sphere, a plan forming in his mind. Before Asta could react, he was launched into the air by Yami.
At the same time that Asta was thrown, Iris arrived at where the group was standing. She ended up seeing the look on Yami's face, shivering at her ruthless captain. 'Geez, Captain Yami sure doesn't hold back, does he?' She sweatdropped at her Captain's actions.
She walked to stand beside the crowd, watching the events transpire. Asta reached close to where the water capsule was, stopping his incessant screaming. Reacting quickly, he took out his anti-magic sword, slashing the water in half.
Iris watched in amusement, curious about the logistics of what the ash haired boy had done. A creepy and out of character smile stretched across her face. It was eerily familiar to a certain lightning user, the resemblance uncanny. 'Is this some form of cancellation magic? No, that's not it. I don't sense a drop of magic off of him.' Iris had tried deducing what she witnessed, failing after several tries, she grew even more curious. 'If it's not magic, what is it?'
Water dispersed everywhere, soaking the Black Bulls. They all had yet to take notice of their returning member. Finral was busy trying to catch Asta and the Silva royal from splattering onto the floor. That captured everyone's attention, including Iris'.
Iris gazed at the spatial magic. She had always been fascinated by it ever since the first time she had laid her eyes upon it. She acknowledged its flexibility and versatility. Frankly, she found it to be a beautiful form of magic. "Wow, Finral is as amazing as always," she whispered, standing beside Yami.
Internally, Yami jumped, not aware that Iris had been watching the scene unfold. He remained stoic, merely sparing her a side glance. Deciding to intimidate his subordinate, a glint in his eye shined for a split second. "You sure took your sweet time getting back, huh? I should crush you for that," he boomed, grabbing the top of Iris' head. Surprisingly, no one else had heard Yami. Instead, they were still preoccupied with the previous events.
"Wahh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to neglect my duties, I swear!" Iris comically cried, frantically moving around in hopes of escaping her cruel fate. 'At this rate, I'm not sure how long I'll be alive. I keep angering Yami!'
Placing her down, Yami took an inhalation of his cancerous addiction. "You missed a lot but worst of all you made me deal with these idiots." The rest of the members turned to her hearing Yami speak. Some of them were surprised while others were confused.
Growing an evil smirk, Iris furiously started patting Yami's shoulder. "Aw, don't worry Captain. I know you missed me a great deal. No need to be ashamed to admit it."
A dark and murderous aura surrounded Yami, making the others flinch and back away. Iris kept her evil smile, satisfied that she had ticked off her Captain. She turned to where Finral, Vanessa, and Charmy were.
As soon as Iris made eye contact with an ash-haired male, he immediately took the opportunity to run up to her. "My name's Asta! I'm from Hage village and someday I plan on being the Wizard King!" Asta practically busted everyone's eardrums with his simple introduction. His voice rivaled even Yami's.
Iris had raised her hands over her ears in an attempt to stop Asta's loud vocals. 'I swear I'm gonna go deaf before I make it to the age of sixteen!' She lowered her hands, ready to deal with anything that would be thrown at her. "Hi there. You must be the new recruit." She glanced at the white-haired girl that stood not too far from them. "You must also be new here."
The silver-haired girl gave her signature cold glare, trying to intimidate Iris. Iris looked away, wondering why she was being stared at so coldly. 'What's with her? All I did was say hello and now it looks like she wants to chop my head off.'
"I joined the same day that the Magic Knight Exams were held!" Asta once again screamed his lungs out as if his life depended on it. Iris flinched, Asta's loud voice ringing in her ears.
Before Iris could respond, the other recruit interrupted. "I'm Noelle Silva. I got in without taking any exam because I'm royalty, unlike him." Noelle flipped her hair over her shoulder, looking away in the process.
It took a few seconds for her words to process in the mind of Asta. Once he understood that he had been insulted, he quickly jumped to defend himself. "Hey just 'cus you're royalty doesn't mean you're better than anyone! We're on the same team!" He rose a fist in the air while continuously spouting what Iris deemed to be nonsense.
Iris looked to the other members for help but deadpanned when she saw the state that they were in. Yami was looking off to the side, lost in thought. Luck was trying to rile up Magna while Finral held his hands up in defeat, not wanting a fight to start. Vanessa had started drinking despite still being soaked. Charmy was eating and Gauche was looking at a picture of his sister. Gordon was mumbling incoherent words in the background. They had ignored her, not bothering to say a simple 'hello'.
"By the way, who are you?" Asta had gotten close to Iris, too close. He was less than eight inches away from smacking into her face. Iris grew slightly flustered but remained calm on the outside. 'Doesn't he know what personal space is?'
Asta's question made the rest of the members stop. Of course, they all knew who Iris was. The reason behind their silence was that they all had finally acknowledged her return. Iris gave a small smile, opening her mouth to speak. Before she could, she was once again interrupted.
"Hey, Iris! Why didn't ya tell us you were back?!" Using his regular over the top voice, Magna shattered whatever was left of her hearing. He put an arm around her, shaking her while laughing. 'I swear I'm gonna die soon.'
Growing irritated, she unknowingly released some of her magic. Magna kept smacking her back, throwing small insults here and there. "Did ya get lost on the way back from the capital or what?"
Finral decided to step in, not wanting to find out what an angered Iris would do. "H-hey, Magna, maybe you shouldn't do that." Of course, Finral had gotten ignored by the loud-mouthed fire user.
Instead of murdering Magna, Iris put on her best smile, not wanting to scare off the newbies. It came off as slightly creepy but Asta didn't notice. He thought that she had been genuinely smiling. "My name's Iris. I joined the Black Bulls a couple of months ago. I'm-"
Before she could finish, Magna, being annoyingly vehement, he barged in giving his two cents. "She's the Vice-Captain!" He proudly stated, putting his hands on his hips.
Asta's eyes sparkled in awe, quickly turning into shock. "How's that possible?! You don't look any older than me!" His brain struggled to comprehend what he had heard.
"She's just that great! Are you questioning your seniors?" Magna threatened, showing his delinquent self.
Asta dropped to his knees, begging for forgiveness. Magna laughed before jokingly saying that he'd accept his apology. 'It wasn't you that he was insulting so why are you getting worked up?' Alas, Iris would never understand the logic the fire user would use.
"I can't believe you're already the Vice-Captain! You must be super cool and super strong! How old are ya anyway?" Asta had continuously praised her, the sparkles in his eyes returning.
"I wouldn't say that I'm that great. I was dragged through the mud with missions." She gave a small smile before becoming her childish self. She chose to ignore Asta's question about her age, not wanting to deal with his curiosity.
"Hey, we should celebrate the recruitment of our new member!" She turned to Magna, who was next to her, a gleam in her eyes appearing.
"Bahahaha! If you would have been here yesterday you would know that we already welcomed them!"
Iris deadpanned, not realizing what she had missed. 'Wait, they threw a party without me? How rude!' She pointed at Magna, eyebrows slightly furrowed. "You mean you celebrated without me?!" She raised her voice slightly, not actually being agitated.
"How were we supposed to know when you'd come back?" Magna waved his hand around, dismissing her.
A bead of sweat rolled down Iris' face. She hadn't realized that she didn't leave any note stating that she'd be gone. She sort of just got up and left. She decided to brush off any other details. "Charmy! Let's have a feast! Now that we have everyone here, let's celebrate for real this time!" She turned to look at Asta and Noelle. "C'mon let's go have fun. This is for the both of you so go crazy."
Without questioning Iris, Charmy quickly got to work on arranging the festivities. She summoned her sheep cooks and prepared the most delectable looking assortment of foods. She made sure to make three times the amount that everyone would normally eat.
Everyone went ahead with their usual antics. Vanessa continued to get drunk while Luck and Magna fought. Asta was having an eating contest with Charmy, Noelle sitting to the side watching them. Gordon and Gauche were off to the side with Grey tagging behind them. Finral tried to keep the peace between everyone with Yami watching him fail in amusement. It was another normal day at the Black Bulls' base.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
School has been hurting me so much. I've been overwhelmed with homework and projects. I couldn't even keep up with my schedule of uploading weekly!! I only started school last week and these teachers already have no mercy ;((
I'll be uploading another chapter this week. After that, I'll only be updating once a week before returning to my regular schedule of uploading twice a week. I don't want a repeat of what happened last week to happen again, so I decided to write ahead a few chapters.
Stay safe!
- B. S.