The Magician of Sound

After getting a two-day rest, Kai and the others went back to school, lazing around in their room.

Kai had nothing to do other than research for another sound-based attack or support magic. At first, he wanted to take the Levitating Concept since it could make him float in the air. Unfortunately, he couldn't imagine how he would put it to use, considering he was a close-range fighter.

If he were a sniper, gunner, or archer, he could shoot his enemy down from the sky. But with how he fights in close combat, he would need to move around a lot. Because of that, the Levitating Concept wouldn't work because the concept required two plates.

"You're researching again?" Michelle sat down beside him. On the other side, Tasha was also researching something, so she didn't pay attention to him and Michelle.

"Yeah. What about you?" Kai nodded before asking her back.

"Training my shadow." Michelle pointed to the shadow behind her. The shadow was massaging her shoulder like a human with fluid and precise movement. "I need to have perfect control of one shadow first before moving onto two and more. In the last war, I realized that my control wasn't good enough.

It might be enough to move around in the open field with a few basic movements, however, those intelligent magical beasts made me think otherwise. If I can fight alongside my shadow, I can build up a group of myself. My current target is five shadows with fluid movements."

Kai nodded and turned back to his own research. All of them had their own share of work. This included Sanae, who needed to make an assignment for the class. Kai told her that he could see what kind of assignment he made, so he thought it would be better to make it in her own office.

To his surprise, Sanae only answered him with, "It's peaceful here, and I can drink or laze around. I don't even need to put on the facade of a good teacher."

The statement perplexed him since he thought Sanae was a special teacher who loved lazing around. However, she said because she was still in the trial period, the teacher contract could be terminated at any time, so she needed to put up a facade for a while.

At that time, Kai's poker face turned into a smile, laughing at this silly matter. In the end, Kai let her do what she wanted. The assignment wasn't hard to begin with, so be it with or without a sneak peek, it was done in a matter of minutes.

"By the way, are you going to get another magic concept?" Michelle asked while looking at his research paper.

"It's Sound Levitation," Kai answered nonchalantly.

"Levitation?" The word of Levitation piqued Michelle's curiosity. It seemed as if Kai wanted to fly in the sky, which led him to research this. After all, there were five members in their group, but the only person who could fly was Ayaka. If they jumped off the helicopter, only Ayaka and one other person would be ready in combat.

It would be a different case if Kai learned to fly. They would be able to jump and join the fight right after since all of them would be able to leave the helicopter. Of course, Evan wasn't in the calculation since he was a healer.

"It's nothing useful from what I see. I've tried twisting a few parts of the concept to make it useful in battle, but I don't have high hopes." Kai shook his head in disappointment.

"What do you mean?"

Kai didn't answer her immediately. Instead, he made two magic circles in front of him. The magic circle was spherical, though the two were split in half and opposed each other.

"This magic required two magic circles. The bottom magic circle takes the role of a transducer, a vibrating surface that makes a sound. In contrast, the top magic circle takes the role of a reflector. A sound wave travels away from the transducers and bounces off the reflector. This condition allows the reflecting wave to help suspend objects mid-air."

Kai put on his headphones, as Michelle quickly asked. "Is it going to be loud?"

"For me? Yes."

Michelle only looked at him with condolences.

Before continuing, Kai put another layer of Sound Insulation around his ears. He activated the magic circle before pulling the teacup on the table. He dipped his finger into the tea, wetting his finger.

Michelle was astounded. She thought Kai was going to drink it first before giving a demonstration. At the same time, Tasha, Evan, and Sanae were also interested in it, as they glanced at Kai while doing their own things.

He let the tea droplet fall in between the two magic circles. The surprise came at this time as the tea droplet, which was supposed to fall, floated without any signs of falling.

Astonishment filled the eyes of everyone in the room. These two magic circles weren't his new magic. It was a magic circle to produce sound, while the other one was a magic circle to reflect the sound wave. His vibration sword magic circle had the concept of these two.

After floating for a while, the magic circle disappeared as Kai took off his headphones.

"Simply put, that's the concept of Levitating Sound." Kai sighed.

"Why are you disappointed? Can the magic circle make you float in the air?" Michelle asked.

"No. I set this magic circle to 22 Hz, which is on the edge of human hearing. If I use a higher frequency, you'll hear a loud noise like one you'd hear when attending a rock concert. It was super loud to only levitate a little droplet like this. If I want to use it to levitate my body…" Kai didn't continue, but the others understood what would happen.

"I see. Not really a promising concept, I guess." Michelle made a weird smile.

"That's only the original concept. I think I can tweak some parts and replace them with magic… but there's no promising lead at the moment." Kai sighed.

"I understand the importance of this magic since we have our own helicopter right now, but don't overwork yourself," Michelle advised.

"Yeah. I can use half the concept to soften the falling though. Like I make a magic circle on the ground with enough power to soften our fall. Then we can jump off the helicopter." Kai said before looking down, finding a problem. "But to do that, I'll also need a form of catalyst since I won't be able to make a magic circle too far away from me."

"What are you guys talking about? If you want to jump off a helicopter, you can just ask me. I can teleport us together to the ground." Tasha couldn't help but comment.

"You know the answer." Kai shrugged while pointing his finger at Tasha.

Michelle chuckled before grabbing the teacup and replaced it with new tea.

"Thank you."

After satisfying their curiosity, Sanae and Evan focused back on their own duties.

Kai also moved to continue his research, but...

Suddenly, his communication device rang. This was not his usual communication device, but the device that Sanae gave him when they were in the hospital. She said that this device was connected to another device, which was supposed to be in Sakura's hand.

He had been refraining from communicating with her because the situation there hadn't stabilized yet. That was why when he received a message from her, Kai frowned his eyebrows, wondering if the message was a good one or not.

"Ya. It's already been a decade since our last meeting… Maybe not since we met in school. Unfortunately, at that time, you didn't realize my identity, so it's such a shame. But on the other hand, if you see this message, I am sure you already know my identity from a certain person.

"Though I want to talk to you, I am afraid I can't. Firstly, after a few months, the situation in United Asia has calmed down. Because of the loss of both sides, there are a lot of daily reports about deaths in the news. In the end, Tokyo has become a disruptive city, and numerous people have started leaving the city. Even the schools are suspended there.

"The situation turned into a cold war between the north and south with Tokyo as the epicenter. Don't worry, I am safe here, and there is no possibility of a large-scale war happening soon… or at least for around six months.

"That's why if you are reading this, enjoy your life at the moment. After everything is fine, I will go to your place and meet you. Although I miss you, it'll be better for us to meet after peace comes to this land once again. At that time, let me have some private time with you.

"PS: I will try to tell you the situation here once a month, and please don't reply to this message. Even though the situation has calmed down a bit, I still need to be careful."

Kai fell into silence, staring at the message. This might be the first time he heard the word of Sakura or Yajima Haruko after a decade.

Michelle noticed his expression and peeked at the message. "Oh. The way the sender speaks... looks like it's Sakura."

"Yeah. This is the communication device that Teacher Sanae gave me." Kai nodded while glancing at Sanae.

"It's good then. At least she's safe. We can meet her in the future, so it's no big deal. After all, if the situation turns chaotic, the other families from each prefecture wouldn't look at this in a good way and might band together to stop the war," Michelle said.

"Indeed." Kai nodded before looking at the ceiling. He muttered inwardly, 'Take care.'