Street Magic

The people watching the fight looked at Del standing a couple of feet away from Melinda. They watched as he slowly walked back over to the sword that he had dropped. Some people started to feel sorry for Melinda as they watched the girl try to control her sobbing. Even so as she was crying it seemed as if Del wasn't done with her. He picked up the sword and walked back over to her.

It was a sword fight after all.

"Stop! The fight is already over, just leave!" The girl who had brought the swords earlier had ran over and came between Melinda and him. She had her arms outstretched to block his way.

"Oi oi, I have to finish the duel."

"You're overdoing it! There is no reason for you to do this!" She said loudly, now yelling at him as her lip quivered.

"Tsk, I'm overdoing it? She approached me first, trying to make some lowly admirers beat me. Not only that, after I defend myself she comes back to try and embarrass me while I mind my own business. You think she would have simply stopped at 'winning' a duel? You think she wouldn't have kicked me down in the dirt?" Del told the girl as his face started to become agitated. His fist clenched onto the sword.

"She wouldn't do something like that, you don't even know her!"

"It doesn't matter, I have made my judgement." Del said coolly.

"Your cruelty knows no bounds."

"Finally, something comprehensible from you." Del said as he began to walk forward. He walked right through the girl, not even caring for her presence anymore. The girl almost fell back as she watched the boy walk over to Melinda. She quickly got back up to stop him, but it was too late. He brought his sword down as if to cut her in half, yet it was a wooden sword not to say that pain would still be sufficient.

Unexpectedly though he stopped it a few inches from her body. He then poked her hips with a plain face. "Oi oi oi, stop your whining, the duel is over." He said as he poked the end of the sword into her hips. He kept on poking her with a bored look until she finally slapped away the sword with an annoyed looked on her face. Her eyes were still red and her face was still wet and dirty from the tears. "I'll be heading back to my room now, if you want to fulfil your end of the deal just come to room 7." He said while looking down at her. He then walked away without even looking back and a simple look on his face as if he had done something trivial. The girl who defended Melinda immediately came to her side.

As Del was walking away, he was staring into space.

[Sword Skill Plundered]

...

Allyssa was back in the room studying on the upper floor. She sat at her bed reading a book on manus theory. She was deeply engrossed in the book even moving her lips as she read, wording out some things like 'adapting' and 'flesh'. She jumped when the door to her room was slammed close. She got out of the bed quickly to see who it was. Upon looking down from the floor she had seen that Del had come in. "Welcome back" She said in her meek voice.

Del looked up to see her looking down from the floor. He hadn't got a good look at her before, but she was pleasant to look at. "Hey, wanna see a magic trick?" He said with a small grin.

A couple of minutes later Allyssa found herself sitting across from Del with a small table between them. On the table were three bronze coins neatly lined up. Del took off his long sleeved shirt to make the magic more believable. Allyssa saw him taking it off, expecting him to be skinny as the clothes had suggested, but found that he was actually extremely well toned compared to most. She quickly stopped herself from staring. Del tugged on his under shirt before looking at her.

"So you are a mage?" Allyssa asked him with curiosity and a somewhat louder voice than usual. "Why are you studying at a combat academy then?" She asked him curiously.

"I'm not a mage, I'm a magician, it's not real magic and everything I do will do now will not be as it seems, I will speak in rhymes to trick your mind as you try to perceive even though I deceive." Del rhymed as went through his sentence. He picked up the two coins on either side of the middle coin. He held them in between two fingers on each hand before flicking his wrist. When his wrist were still again the coins were gone. "Your eyes will trick you and so will I, for this demonstration is that which is sly."

He picked up the coin that was still on the table and spun it. It didn't move at all from where it spun. "Look at coin or not, you may start to feel fraught, as I show you things are different from what you thought." He said as he cupped both hands. He opened them and showed that the coins were now in his hands. Allyssa looked at him with wide eyes, wondering how he did what he had. She didn't sense anything strange, though the spinning coin was somehow bothering her.

Del put both coins into his right hand hand and lifted it above his head. He then dropped both into his left hand. Clank, the sound was clear. "I was joking about the rhyming, it gets old quickly." Del said as he clenched his left hand. He then placed the palm of his right hand on the table. When he lifted the palm the two coins were on the table. Opening his left hand revealed that they were empty. The moment he did so Allyssa's face became even more confused, trying to figure out what the trick was. Maybe this was real magic and he was lying.

"How are you doing this?" She finally asked him while watching his hands slickly and smoothly. "I told you earlier, I'm tricking you. You've been paying way too much attention to that coin." He said as he picked the two coins on the table back up. He held one in each palm. He then clapped his palms together. Once he took the two palms apart the coins were gone once again.

"What? But I haven't...?" She said almost askingly. She then looked down at the coin, she then started to notice that it had been spinning for an abnormal amount of time. Before she asked about it Del snapped a hand in front of her face, the two coins appearing between his fingers.

He then put his hand down onto the table, putting on the coins flat. When he lifted his hands they were all face up. "That's the end of the magic show!" He said cheerfully. "What did you think?" He said as he leaned into the table and held his head up with a closed hand.

"It was... different, I haven't seen anything like it before." She said to Del.

"It's called street magic, it's all about messing with the other persons perceptions. Learned it from my... country." He said to her as he collected the coins off of the table and stuffed them into his pocket.

Allyssa looked at him with even more awe. "Can you teach me as well?" She asked excitingly. She thought it would be a useful skill to learn, developing it may even be useful in battle. Something was still racking her mind though, and she felt that she was piecing it together.

"Sure, when I have the time." Del said as he walked over to his bed. "I'm going to tap out for tonight." He said laying down. He got under a sheet and closed his eyes.

"Alright, have a g-" She began to say before noticing that Del had already fallen asleep somehow. She looked at him to make sure that he was actually asleep. After some moments of staring she left the room and made her way too the library hoping it was still open.

"Can he actually... project manus?" She asked herself quietly as she speed walked.