"Oh my, what do we have here?"
The boy opened his eyes upon hearing the familiar voice.
The night before, he went to the beach to look for the old man, and despite his desperate efforts, he couldn't find him. It felt like that was his last chance to do anything with his life, the last ray of hope. Eventually he ended up sleeping on the soft sand near the sea. If it weren't for the great pain in his arms and his situation, it would have been a great experience for him.
That same man was standing in front of him.
"You fucking liar." Said the boy quietly without getting up. His hands still hurt, so much that he had no idea how he even managed to fall asleep.
The old man sat next to him. "Let's do something about your arms." The boy replied coldly. "Just go away. There's nothing that can be done."
"Don't be so sure, you need to start training. Right?" Akira stared at him surprised.
"This might be stupid of me to say right now, but I still have no idea what I want." Said the boy in an uninterested tone.
The man finished bandaging one of his arms as he was talking. "I'm pretty sure you do. I happened to be there." He got closer to Akira's ear. "I saw them running with your sister." He whispered.
The old man was then met with something he hasn't seen in a while. A seemingly lifeless boy who has lost everything was suddenly looking at him with his eyes filled with hatred. His eyes lit.
"I am surprised. However, your reaction says it all. You know what you want." He said as he finished treating the second arm.
That moment, Akira realised something else. He felt guilty for his sister being kidnapped. He felt... responsible.
He made up his mind. In front of him, a small light started to appear, a small but very bright light. It was growing bigger each second. He had no idea where it would lead, but it felt like... a new path opened.
The boy quickly decided that he would first find his sister, then deal with the diary. It seemed important, possibly containing clues about the past of the world.
He stood up, having calmed down.
"Are you sure this is going to help my arms?" He asked the old man, noticing that the pain in his arms disappeared completely.
"Nothing is gonna save your arms anymore, but this bandage will make them usable without you feeling any pain. Let's say this is imbued with magic from a powerful individual I know. It won't be destroyed if you use magic so it should be fine." He smiled lightly.
"Alright. Where will I train?" Asked Akira, visibly happier.
"Now, now... Quite impatient, aren't you?" Said the old man, his smile widening.
"Reminds me of my old self."
A moment of silence.
"We will go to the forest."
The boy nodded. He had no idea what the forest meant. There was only one forest near the neighboring city, but the man started going in the opposite direction. Maybe he didn't know what a forest was?
"Hey, the forest is the other way."
"We are going to the bigger one" replied the man without stopping walking.
"What do you mean?" That was the first time he has ever heard of a bigger forest, but followed the old man as he didn't seem to intend to answer any of his questions.
They reached the end of the village.
Ahead of them were only hills with all sorts of flowers and occasionally trees growing. He has been there a couple of times. In that area no one had any fields because of a legend which said that people used to have farms there, but something, some sort of monster would always come and destroy their crops.
It was said that the monster was huge, made out of rock with a giant blue sword that could perform ranged slashes.
Akira tried a few times to find where the monster might have come from, but seemed to never manage to reach the end of those hills, no matter how much time he spent on trying.
Was there really a bigger forest at the end?
"Hey, there is no forest there. I have explored this area."
The man didn't stop to look back to Akira. "Let's make a bet. If we manage to get to the forest by foot in about an hour, I will ask you a rather... personal question."
The boy was perplexed. There was no way they could get there in only an hour when he spent literal days trying. "Ok, bet. But if you lose, you will tell me all about yourself."
"Sure." The response he got was simple.
The boy smirked.
***
"Wait, I've never been here before." Said Akira as they were passing a wooden bridge across a large river. "All I have ever seen were those random meadows and hills."
"Do you really not sense it?"
"Sense what?"
"Magic. There is some sort of spell here to prevent people from coming this far. Most people, that is."
"Huh, really? And I spent so much time..."
Akira stopped, baffled. "What... the fuck is this?"
He turned slowly towards the old man. "You can't be telling me that this is a forest!"
In front of him, pretty far away, trees could be seen. Giant trees, so giant that even at that distance they almost covered the sun. They were creating a huge shadow spread over the land and since the trees had multiple layers of leaves, it was really hard for sunlight to pass through. Therefore, getting closer to the forest made it feel like walking through constant night.
***
Not too long after they entered the shadows, the boy started feeling cold chills down his spine, which were getting stronger and stronger by the moment.
"You feel them, don't you?" Asked the old man casually. "That is another spell. Just like the one from before, this one exists here naturally. Its purpose is to make people turn back out of fear, but as long as you know that you should be fine."
"You know... I really do feel scared. Very." Said the boy with a quiet and shaky voice.
"Huh? Really? That is... a bit weird. Anyway, let's just keep talking and you will eventually overcome it."
The boy nodded.
"Since the forest is right in front of us, I am going to ask you my question, ok?"
"Tsk, ok."
His expression turned serious. "Who told you about magic?"