14 – Cool as a Cucumber

After finishing his recovery, it took two weeks for Jonny to get back to where he had been before the incident. He took it easy the first few days, as Helen recommended, then started ramping up his activity. Even once he was back to full activity, though, he had lost a little bit of strength. Not quite as much as he thought he would have, but it still took a few days to fully get back into form.

Now, he was feeling good as new, but he had a few new problems as well. The first was that while he could sort of remember how he used his mana against the primaboar, he could not replicate it. Not even a little bit. No matter what he did, the only thing he could do with his mana was circulate it.

The second was Tommy. While in the infirmary, he had briefly thought that Tommy wasn’t actually so bad. He had taken that back on the first day out. Sure, life or death experiences helped people bond, but Tommy might have bonded a little too closely. He was now insisting on joining Jonny’s workouts, forcing Jonny into close proximity with Tommy’s worst feature: he never shut up.

Day in, and day out, Tommy somehow always somehow had something to talk about. Most of the time, it was magic. The spells he was practicing, the spells he had seen the older kids using, the spells he had seen the nuns use, the spells he wanted to use… Tommy knew that Jonny couldn’t use magic, but he seemed to forget that completely whenever something got him going.

I need to figure out this internal mana stuff, thought Jonny.

He was burning with jealousy every time Tommy mentioned what he was learning, or showed off the latest thing he had learned to do. None of it was even that impressive. He could float a piece of lint above his hand for a few seconds, or make water in his cup vibrate, or make a tiny pinprick of light in the palm of his hand. But even those tiny things were infinitely far beyond Jonny’s capabilities, and he needed something he could do on his own. Just one little internal mana technique. It was all he needed.

And that was why, when he overheard the nuns saying that one of Helen’s old friends had arrived, and one of them mentioned that they might be staying at the orphanage for a while, Jonny immediately knew exactly what was going on. Helen had promised to find someone to teach him punching magic, and now someone new had come to stay at the orphanage. There could only be one reason for that. Well, one that Jonny wanted to think about anyway.

Immediately, he told the nuns that he needed to use the bathroom so he could get out of the classroom, and he then ran down the hall toward Helen’s office. He didn’t care if it was rude to eavesdrop on their conversation. He needed to know.

Unfortunately, it was just his luck that they happened to be leaving right after he got there. He didn’t even get a chance to eavesdrop, and the conversation was already over.

“Oh, hello, Jonny,” said Helen.

Jonny ignored her as he sized up Helen’s guest. She was… different than he imagined. He had been expecting someone more like his old trainers. An older man, a little hobbled from injury, but still powerfully built. Instead, he got a lean old woman with gray hair and a mask.

As he looked closer, though, he realized that she didn’t look unimpressive either. Why she wore a solid black mask on half her face, he had no idea, but he had to admit that it looked pretty cool, and while she was lean, she was tall, and had fairly broad shoulders, and she carried herself in a way that made it obvious she was trained. She also had a sword on her hip with a lion-shaped pommel and ruby eyes.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“This is my old friend Igrette,” said Helen.

“Oh. Are you my new magic teacher?”

Both of the older women stiffened slightly.

Ah, was it supposed to be a surprise?

“Well…” started Helen.

“I’m ready to start right now!” he said. “I’m strong and I can fight. I wanna learn punching magic! I’ll work the hardest anyone ever worked!”

“Sorry, Jonny, but Igrette actually just turned down my offer,” said Helen.

“What?”

“I would have loved for her to teach you, but… Well, I’ll let her tell you herself.”

Jonny caught Igrette shooting Helen a quick glare before turning back to face him. She regarded him for a few seconds, then spoke.

“I’m not good with children.”

“Well, that’s fine, because I’m good with adults,” said Jonny.

“I’m no good at teaching.”

“Well, you can just show me what to do and I’ll copy you. I’m good at that.”

Igrette didn’t seem to know how to respond to that. She looked to Helen for help, but Helen deliberately ignored her, smiling at Jonny while pretending not to feel her gaze. Igrette soon gave up and turned back to Jonny.

“I don’t want to do it. I’d rather not be tied down anywhere.”

“You’re gonna travel?”

“Yes, and–”

“I can come with you! I wanna see the world anyway.”

Helen stifled a snort of laughter while Igrette looked even more taken aback than before. Jonny felt like he might have been going a bit far, especially since he had only just met this woman, but he got good vibes from her. In his time as a fighter, he had met a lot of people. Good fighters, bad fighters, good fighters who thought they were bad, bad fighters who thought they were good, and more. But the people who were always the toughest opponents—and the best teachers—were the ones who were exactly as good as they thought they were.

They knew their skills inside and out. They knew their strengths and weaknesses, and played to them. Even if they were weaker fighters overall than more talented people, Jonny struggled with that type a lot more than any other, because they forced him to fight smarter. And this Igrette woman gave him that feeling.

Sure, if she left, Helen would just find someone else, but would they be as good? Jonny doubted it. This type of person wasn’t easy to come by, and if Helen trusted her, that was good enough for him. Helen seemed to be a pretty good judge of character, based on all the nuns she had under her.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

This was the best chance he was gonna get for a while, and he didn’t want to miss it. Besides, if he got out of the orphanage, he’d get away from Tommy too, and he had been feeling pretty trapped there, anyway.

“I won’t be annoying,” he said when Igrette failed to respond. “I know how to shut up. I can clean. You won’t even notice I’m there.”

Helen failed to stop her laughter this time, and Igrette was at a complete loss for words. Jonny knew he was being ridiculous, but he didn’t care. Being ridiculous was just part of the game when it came to fighting, and he had gotten good at it to sell his fights. And if it got him a good magic teacher, it would be more than worth it.

After a few seconds, Igrette seemed to finally have some idea of what to do. With a sigh, she crouched down in front of him so that their eyes were level and reached up to remove her mask. Jonny’s eyes widened as he saw what was underneath. It one of the gnarliest scars Jonny had ever seen, marring the entire side of her face and leaving her eye blind. It looked like a damn dinosaur had tried to rip her face off, and then someone glued her back together afterward.

“Look, kid,” started Igrette, a trace of sadness in her eyes.

“Your scar is cool as f–!” Jonny caught himself. “…as a cucumber.”

Damn, that was lame as hell.

“I– uh–” Igrette blinked a few times. “My scar is what?”

“It, uh, looks cool?” asked Jonny. “How’d you get it? Are–?”

Dumbass, you can’t ask if dinosaurs are real!