The Magician of Sound

"... That's my plan. Does Teacher have any suggestions?" Kai finally finished his thirty-minute explanation. In the meantime, not a single word was spoken by Ria and the other girls.

"Suggestion? Do you really think I'd give it to you just like that? That'd make it too easy for you. Instead, I'll give you some homework so you'll know what your plan is missing and search for the answer yourself," she shook her head and answered calmly.

"Right, this is Teacher's style of teaching. All right." Kai nodded. "There's still around one week and a half before the mission. Maybe I'll stay here for a day or two and work on it after I get back."

"In that case, I'll give you your homework later." Ria nodded, leaned back to the chair, and closed her eyes, formulating a few questions and writing them down.

Suddenly, Kai broke the silence with an unexpected question.

"By the way, Teacher… I almost forgot to ask, but I need to ask you this. What's an SS-rank magical beast?" Kai asked.

Ria opened her mouth in surprise. A shocked expression was visible on her face. Her hand slipped out of the table, but she didn't fall because her other hand held onto her chair.

Michelle and the others had faces of confusion when Kai asked, but it turned into shock. They couldn't understand why a person like Ria, who had been in control this entire time, suddenly had such an expression.

"SS-rank magical beast?" Michelle had a distorted face as she asked. She had never heard such a term before, so this clearly shocked her. If Kai asked such a question, it would mean that he already knew of such an existence. The problem was, what kind of existence was an SS rank magical beast?

Ayaka and Tasha couldn't help but recall the S-rank magical beast they met in Russia, the Snake God. Recalling such a beast made them think of how puny their existences were. And to think there was another existence beyond that snake…

Ayaka closed her shocked mouth with her hand while Tasha looked at Kai with sweat beginning to appear on her forehead. "What do you mean, Kai? The highest rank a magical beast can have is S-rank, right?"

"Teacher, can you answer that question? When I asked Sir Nathan, he told me to ask you instead." Kai asked with a grim expression. Judging from her reaction, she definitely knew about them, or at least had some knowledge about it.

"That Nathan? I really should come and beat him up for good." Ria bit her lips while slamming her table. A few seconds later, she suddenly looked up with another shocked expression. "Wait… if you're asking me that question, it means you already know about 'that', right?"

Kai looked around and nodded his head. "Yeah. Teacher is right."

"Haiz. I should have predicted that you would ask that question after the battle in Cuba. I miscalculated that Nathan would explain it to you and ask the other one to me. With your ears, you should have noticed 'that' on the battlefield… Wait. Now that I think about it, the report isn't correct. The reason for the battle wasn't numerous magical beasts.

Instead, it should be that."

"Why does Teacher ask? Isn't it in the report with your rank?" Kai asked with a confused expression.

"That old man was playing with his life." She narrowed her eyes and released killing intents.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you think that old man would send you into a mission like that without my permission? No. He needs to ask my permission first. I agreed with him because of his proposal about his plan and asked him to give me the report later. It seems I can't trust that old man anymore. Fine then." Ria was seriously pissed about it.

"So… can Teacher answer my question?" Kai looked at Michelle and the others before turning back to Ria.

"Two S-rank magicians and a Zodiac… They indeed have the rank to access more information. However, I can only tell you about the S-rank magical beast, not that unless you ask me individually. It's only because of my identity that you can enjoy that kind of rank, after all." She shrugged.

"Yeah, that's fine."

"An SS-rank magical beast is…" Ria paused for a moment, staring at Kai for a minute.

"Teacher, what is it? The suspense is too long, you know." Kai made a weird expression while his fingers were twitching because he didn't know what she was thinking about.

"I've given you the answer." Ria merely answered with a simple but meaningful line.

Kai fell into silence and looked down, weighing something in his mind. 'She has given me the answer? Is she playing around because Sir Nathan lied on the report? No, Teacher wouldn't direct that anger at me… Then, she must have answered my question, but there's no word that can describe it…

'Wait, word?'

He looked up and stared back as he realized the answer. "Teacher, don't tell me…"

"Oh, you're quick to catch on," Ria smirked proudly.

"What's the answer?" Tasha furrowed her eyebrows while Ayaka crossed her arms. Both of them began thinking about what the answer could be. On the other hand, Michelle gasped before unconsciously muttering, "Kai? The SS rank magical beast is Kai?"

"!!!" Tasha and Ayaka came to a realization as they looked back at Ria to check the answer.

"That's right. I am staring at an SS-rank magical beast…" Ria glanced at Ayaka for a few seconds to strengthen her point. "The SS-rank magical beasts are the Zodiacs, which means Leo, Aries, Pisces, Sagittarius, and Taurus."

Kai closed his eyes for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh. "I see. Sir Nathan didn't want to talk about it because Teacher would be the best person to answer this question."

"Yeah. Don't worry, if the whole world treats you as a magical beast, I'll just destroy the world together with the magical beasts," she shrugged. "As long as I'm alive, no one in this base will mistreat you.

"Then, when I pass away, you will be able to fend them off by yourself. Besides, with the medicine, your children won't bring the curse of their parents. Though I won't be able to say anything if the government decides to create more Zodiacs. At the very least, the ones that I care about will be fine." Ria smiled gently, treating Kai like her own child.

"Thank you, Teacher." Kai was moved.

She wanted to enjoy the mood, but unfortunately, she couldn't really do that given the situation. Her expression turned serious again as she said, "There's also another kind of SS-rank magical beasts out there."

"Eh? Do you mean someone from the Europe Union Base? There's a Zodiac in that place, right?" Kai asked.

"No. I'm not talking about that," Ria shook her head with a grim expression. "I'm talking about failed experiments."

"Failed experiments?" Kai frowned. His killing intent accidentally spilled out. This was the exact reason why Kai asked Ria to stop creating Zodiacs after him.

"It was only after they kicked me out of the project. They tested on a bunch of people and turned them into half-beast half-human creatures. As I said earlier, reality is different from fantasies and movies. Their appearances were… horrendous.

Most of those who survived were locked inside a cell so they could get more data… but after a certain accident, those failed experiments managed to escape from that place and scattered around the continent. No one knew about their locations, and the government couldn't do anything."

"Is it fine to talk about it to us like this?" Michelle, who knew about the rank and classified information well-enough, asked.

"It's considered the same topic, so don't worry," Ria brushed her anxiety away with a single sentence. "The animal genes in their bodies have long already dominated their human genes… so the magical beasts treat them as their own and don't attack them at all. If you meet them, can you kill them for me? After all, the failure came from my own experiment."

"It's the government's fault, not yours. It was thanks to your experiment that I'm still alive right now, so I don't blame you, Teacher." Kai smiled gently. Looking at her ashamed expression made him want to change the topic. He let out a long sigh first before asking, "That's right. You want to fight me, don't you? How about we do it now?"

Ria stared at him for a few seconds before smiling. "Yeah. We should. The rest of you may watch our match. I am sure it will be beneficial for you."

Kai took the first step toward the door before Ria passed him and guided them to the battle room.

All of them entered the practice room where Ayaka trained with Ria. This was a battle between a teacher and a student, no one would actually interfere.

Kai glanced at Ria, who already entered the simulation tube and was waiting for him inside the stage she had prepared. Michelle and the others stopped not far from Kai before their attention was taken away by the screen above the simulation tube. They saw Ria Ross with her poker face appear in a plain white room, waiting for Kai to arrive.

Knowing that he had made her wait, Kai quickly entered the simulation tube and entered the white room. The room was quite big, considering it was a 50x50 meters room.

"Are we going to fight here?" Kai asked while looking around the room.

"That's right." She nodded while stretching her palm toward him before pulling it back again mysteriously. "I've inputted the data of your Vibration Swords, so you can call them here."

Kai nodded with a serious expression, closed his eyes, and imagined the pair of swords from earlier. A second later, they appeared right in front of him. He took the two swords and swung them a couple of times to check if they were the same swords.

"How is it? It's the same, isn't it?" Ria asked while putting her hands in her white laboratory coat's pockets.

"Yeah. There's no problem." Kai nodded before relaxing every muscle in his hands and pointing his swords at his teacher. He closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again. However, his eyes were not the same anymore. His eyes turned into sharp yellow eyes, releasing killing intents.

"The time limit is thirty minutes. If no one is defeated by that time, it's your win." Ria Ross said and stomped the ground with her right foot. A greenish silver magic circle appeared on the ground before a white sword slowly emerged from within. The sword's length was the same as Kai's, but it was without any decorations as it was made of magic. "Start!"

As soon as Ria shouted, both of them leaped forward and slashed their swords against each other.

Clank!

The clicking sound of metals was the starting sign of this great battle.