Rise of the Strongest Soul Mage

Chapter 6 Ryo

"Get out of bed dummy."

Sora felt a slight push on his body, his eyes opened slightly but he shut them back. He had to still be dreaming.

Next, he felt the sheets pulled out from underneath him and thrown over his head.

"Wake up!"

Sora was immediately jolted out sleep. He pulled the sheets off his head only to see someone standing over him blocking his view.

Sora had a puzzled look on his face as he began looking to his door then back at the person in front of him then at his door again.

"What?" Ryo asked

"I locked that door." Sora said to himself with an uncertain tone, but he repeated it to the person in front of him in a more assertive tone. "I locked my door Ryo."

"Yeah, and I pick locks." Ryo shrugged as a matter of factly.

Sora shook his head and ran his hand over his face.

"You're going to give me a heartache one of these days."

"We have great healers at the infirmary. You'll be good in no time." He replied, stepping backwards to give Sora space to get out of bed.

Sora got out of bed and stretched before sitting back on his bed again.

"When did you get back?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Last night but I was exhausted and passed out in my room."

Ryo was the only good thing in Sora's life. Ryo was a level two mage. He had gone through his selection process a year before and was in training to become a Hunter. Since joining, he spent more time with the Hunters who had a separate area in the academy but he made sure to check in on Sora when he could, which wasn't often at all, he had been away for months now.

Meeting Ryo was completely by chance. Sora had curled up into a ball after one of his sessions with Konan that drained all energy in his limbs. He simply laid there unable to move.

Ryo had come into the room to eat and be alone when he heard the sulking from Sora. He walked up to him and Sora sat up after noticing someone else in the room.

Ryo's approach had been subtle. He offered one of his sandwiches to Sora which he took and they both sat to eat in silence. Ryo didn't ask any questions, nothing about what happened to him and nothing about the rumors relating to his inadequacies. They simply ate in silence and afterwards, Ryo walked him to his room.

Since then, Ryo never left his side. Their friendship grew strong and they became inseparable. To Sora, Ryo was a strong chord that pulled him back from the brink of emptiness and depression but they had had to separate after Ryo finally got into the Hunter's Guild. Sora was happy for him but the fear of being alone again was unbearable and frightening.

Konan hardly approached Sora when Ryo was around, not because Ryo was more powerful but because Ryo wasn't intimidated by him and he wasn't afraid to retaliate. After all, he could use his powers, unlike Sora.

"How did training go? Sora asked.

Ryo sighed and relaxed on the bed before speaking "It's exhausting. We relearn everything we thought we knew but with more focus on skills that are important to hunters. It's good though."

There was a thing about Hunters, they always gave you enough information to keep you satisfied but nothing to actually digest. Ryo had become like that too. Whenever they talked about the Hunters or his training, he gave vague answers but Sora never pushed for more information, because he knew Ryo was okay.

"Hold on." Ryo paused suddenly;

"What?"

"There's something different about you." Ryo began to skim through Sora as though searching for something.

"What??" Sora seemed impatient.

Sora hoped the faint lines from his cuts had cleared. He had a shirt with full sleeves on and his pants were full length too. He wasn't ready to be analyzed or pitied again. Although Ryo never did any of it to him, he just wasn't ready to talk about his sessions with Konan.

"When did you change your hairstyle? You grew out your hair. Whose idea was it to give you bangs?"

"I…I wanted to do something different." Sora tried to sound as convincing as possible.

"I see." Ryo squinted. "Well it's ugly, suits you perfectly." Ryo laughed

Sora let out a soft chuckle, thankful that Ryo believed him.

"We should go eat. Go wash up, you stink."

They laughed it off and Sora got up to change out of his clothes.

Absentmindedly, Sora took his shirt off and dumped it on a chair in the room.

"What the heck is that?" Ryo's tone was tight.

"What?"

Ryo got up and moved closer to Sora. His eyes ran through Sora's body "What's that on your body?

Sora realized he had taken off his shirt in front of Ryo.

"It's nothing." Sora replied, trying to brush him off but Ryo didn't back down.

"Those lines…the marks, it's something. What is it?"

"I err…fell a while ago."

"People don't fall and get marks like that all over."

"I fell into thorns."

"Bullshit!"

"Spikes?"

"Sora!"

"Just ignore it."

"He did that, didn't he?"

"Nobody did anything."

"When are you going to ever stand up to him?"

"I fell Ryo."

"BULL SHIT SORA!"

"Just ignore it…please." Sora replied with a pleading tone hoping it would calm Ryo.

Ryo sighed and sat on the bed. "This is barbaric. He does it to you because he knows you'll take it. He wouldn't do it to anyone else. "

"He does it to me because I'm a useless mage."

"Don't even dare say that again."

"But it's true and you know it."

"I don't know that. I know you have one of the sharpest minds I've ever seen."

"But I'm still a mage with no powers."

"Stop it Sora. You know he won't stop till you do something about it, right?"

"Do what Ryo? Do what? I am a mage with no powers, what could I possibly do?" Sora's voice cracked as he buried his face in his palms.

"Stab his freaking eye with a fork! How about that?"