11 I've finally found you

Yanking his hands away from her grasp in a rush, he looked around him at the expectant faces of both students and professors.

"You all don't have some way of searching for her?" Asahi gave a nervous laugh at the cornered position he was in.

All students shook their heads, they had no affinity for such ability, and this was a problem of a broken spell formation–that was a risky situation only the experienced could attempt venturing into.

'Are you kidding me?!' Asahi's mouth gaped open slightly.

There was one clause about his unique ability that he had told no one, not even Rumi and he feared he might do so if the pressure continued for the search.

He had wanted to voice it out when he was pulled by none other than Tenji.

All eyes followed the two as they looked like they were in a heated discussion.

"You knew?! How?" Asahi hissed, stunned by Tenji's knowledge.

Tenji shook his head with a smirk on his lips, "it's best you don't disclose that information, for your safety."

Asahi glared at him, disturbed by the revelation of such words. It could only remind him of his family's paranoia–he had never understood why they would always change their location once the truth of his ability was out.

'What the heck am I not getting?' He narrowed his eyes, hoping to get some answers from this professor.

"You can do this, and I can assist you." Tenji offered with a smile.

"How can I trust you, you know so much about my clan, even things kept secret for so long?" Asahi took a step back, wary of developing a soft spot for a professor he was meant to despise.

Tenji made no effort in stopping him from leaving and carrying the burden by himself. "If your team wins this presentation, I will tell you all you need to know. Right now you need my assistance even if you're too proud to ask for it from me."

Asahi scrunched up his mouth and muttered incoherent words and gave a light nod.

He couldn't deny the fact that he needed the assistance of a higher-grade sorcerer. If he was to attempt to search for her, that would have been easy, but also manipulating her mana to bring her from limbo?

Doing something so delicate would drain his current grade's mana by 70%.

Tenji was his only option as no one had been able to quantify his grade since he had never disclosed nor could he detect what grade he was in even with his ability.

The mystery behind this professor was something he was intrigued by but also resentful of and getting word of Rumi's interest in him when he wasn't present in the academy at the time only made him want to distance himself and Rumi from him.

"All you need to do is place your palms on me and channel the little mana you got, got that?!" Asahi commanded, not concerned about the distinguishing age gap and status.

Tenji raised a brow, placed his palms on Asahi, and leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "You seem to forget where you are, young one!"

Asahi gulped and his eyes widened when he got a boost in his grade by 100 more.

'What the fuck is going on? How can he possess this much for his age?!' Asahi stared at the ground in horror, he had just goaded the wrong person and from the inflow of mana in him, he could feel that it was just a fraction of the entire storage of mana in him.

Asahi sweat dropped and forced a smile, "I was so stupid as to blurt out stupidity."

Tenji nodded his head with a smile, pulled him close, and brought him to the rest of the impatient crowd.

"Asahi has something he would like to say to everyone," Tenji said with a hopeful spirit.

Asahi dusted his hands and rubbed them down his shirt.

"I can save her..."

The tense atmosphere reduced as everyone let out a sigh of relief after watching the two deliberate bitterly.

"See I told you that he could do this!" Maiyu called out loudly with a whoop.

Asahi sneered in her direction, making strangulating gestures at her openly for all to see.

There was a little giggle from the crowd. Suzi ran forward to hug him, "thank you, thank you!!"

Asahi was proud of his little victory, but when she shot him a hard glare, he took a step back and mumbled an apology to Suzi for his uncanny behavior.

Caught by Tenji, he let out a gasp due to the strong grip on his shoulder.

'Do you participate in some body-building event or something?'

"Don't you think you had forgotten a bit of detail?" Tenji whispered with a big grin for all to see.

Asahi grimaced and nodded his head, "Professor Tenji would be assisting in my endeavor due to my great plan at knowing the best method of approach." He concluded and masked his nervousness with a laugh.

Tenji cleared his throat and forced a smile even though that latter part was clearly out of context. 'Enjoy your little speech.'

"Let's begin, shall we?" Tenji said and immediately placed his palms on Asahi's shoulder.

Asahi felt a jolt of mana boost and his blue eyes glowed.

'Inhale... Exhale!' Asahi repeated in his thoughts as he concentrated on the Tria's mana essence.

Projecting himself into limbo, he found everywhere misty and dark.

There was an echoing sound coming from his right and using his ears he followed the sounds by taking careful steps.

"Tria!" He called out loud with his hands at the side of his mouth to regulate the echo.

He suddenly felt overwhelmed with a negative emotion that seemed to be coming from Tria's direction.

'Why is she so hard to find?!' Asahi pulled on his hair in frustration, kicking on the mist in front of him.

Taking another uncertain step forward in the dark, his smile broadened at the sight–there she was crouched and wrapping her hands around her knees, her purple hair cascading down her body and spreading out onto the floor.

He let out a breath of relief due to the dimly lit environment. 'I've finally found you!'

This would be the first time he would see her without her hood on and he was stunned by what he saw on her head.

*****

A/N

I would really appreciate your comments and support of this novel with your power stones. Your active comments would motivate me to write more chapters.

°As the poll was given with two comments after 3 hours of publishing, I would do a mass release of two chapters on Saturday.