Eye - ink

Piercing pain in the hands, woke up Orion from his sleep. He opened his eyes to perceive a mind-numbing headache. He found himself lying on the reclining chair.

With bright light focusing on his face, he slowly adjusted to examine himself lying bare torso, with his hands wrapped in medical bandages.

"Sh*t! This hurts like hell!"

Grumbled Orion as he managed to sit a little upright on the chair. His head was blazing with migraine, while his hands were hurting like he had shoved them into the red hot oven.

"You awake?"

Came a little tired Voice as Asahi appeared holding a cola can in his hand. His face was a mixture of bland and tired expressions.

Orion squinted his eyes,

"How much I was out for?"

"Three hours...Or maybe three and a half."

Replied Asahi vaguely. Seriously, he had several things to think about how to explain to his superiors rather than keeping time for his knocked-out duration.

Orion lifted his bandaged hands, and with almost coincidence met his eyes with Asahi. Both of them looked away and sighed.

Almost unanimously both of them decided to not discuss about of it. Asahi then proceeded to sit on the side bench and instructed him,

"This is a magic lab of our acquaintance which is a very important location for us Magic users. Here we perform several procedures like tattooing or runes etc. Which helps agents in their missions."

"Tattoos? you mean ink?"

Asahi took a large swing of his drink to moisture his throat and leaned back comfortably on his guest chair.

This newbie introduction thing is always given to juniors, but this time he had to take this task himself voluntarily.

Now as stuck he already was, he should probably relax in his explanations. No need to give a detailed textbook-type explanation. Just give a basic run down and get off with it.

"Yeah, inking. You can take ancient symbols or tattoos to give yourself....hmmm, buff? More like a temporary buff…"

"Like extra HP?"

Chimed in Orion. He is a fan of games, seriously who is not at this age.

Asahi suddenly felt maybe he should have switched to layman terms much before,

"No not like that? It's like anti detection or….hacking, no more like interrupting with electric signals to mess with camera, radio, or mobiles.

These play important role in keeping our world hidden from the commons when every nook and corner nowadays are mapped with satellites and cameras.

Some runes and symbols are specific, which gives very specific effects. But in short, every magic-user prefers to ink himself for convenience.

It's like shortcut keys for a computer, who wants to type out full cheat code when you can just press, ctrl+alt+del?"

Orion nodded, this explanation was rather easy to digest than with gods and planes.

He was like a nodding chicken this whole time. You can tell anything to him during these times and he will accept without any questioning. When the world he believed from childhood is mercilessly destroyed, he didn't mind being more open-minded this time.

Moreover, with everything weird going on for last week, he would hardly be surprised if someone was to announce now that Keanu Reaves is immortal. He would just nod and get along with it.

As they were chilling out, a black man walked inside wearing a tank and jeans. His body was riddled with tattoos and ink as he paints his body in his hobby time, which he most likely does.

Asahi nodded to the newcomer and introduced,

"He is Markos our ink Mage. He is an expert in describing runes and magic tattoos. "

Markos raised his eyebrows in greeting as he began to look for his tattoo tools.

"Hey, Buddy! Just relax and point out which tattoo you want. It will be done in a jiffy. The first time is on house, so be wise."

Orion was suddenly surprised at the prospect of him getting a tattoo. He turned to Asahi for an explanation.

"It's an expensive job, first inking will be paid by us. All others you have to pay by yourself in the future, ok.

Regarding choice, I think you should get basic interruption and anti detection. These are most basic for beginners."

Orion wanted to ask for more details when Markos dropped the heavy-ass book on his lap.

"Chill dude. Select design, I will integrate them into one tattoo."

Orion opened the book to see various designs of tattoos, hand-drawn. Some of them were ancient unknown scripts, while some were cryptic symbols. There were even factual designs of animals like foxes or beaver.

This unexpectedly became an unusual decision. He wanted to check all designs but to check the whole book, it will take too much time.

He again looked towards Asahi his very personal helper. To come to his aid.

Ashai finished and knocked his drink to the dustbin. He walked to Orion and lifted the book from his lap and threw it aside on the chair.

"What do you want as permanent ink? Any preference? Cool skull, animal, or painting?"

Orion was suddenly caught off-guard by his quick question. He fumbled in his mind and then shook his head indicating he does not have any particular preference.

Asahi nodded and turned to Markos who was busy filling ink in his pen. The ink was radiating a weird glow and smell, making people skeptical about its ingredients.

"All basic, Antidetection, interruption and…..pain dulling.

Make it a….minimal design."

Markos looked up from his pen,

"Ok,"

He then proceeded to lay down Orion on the seat, while he was ready for his work.

"You said it should be from book..."

Orion tried to open up conversation as he was beginning to draw.

The man just shook his head,

"Ink, runes depends on magic and intent. Shapes are just for aesthetics. I gave you a book because I can draw only those things beautifully. "

He after taking the advice of Orion and Asahi began to draw the ink. The process took one hour to finish.

After one and half hours, Asahi and Orion walked out of the shop and stood in the middle of the busy streets of Tokyo with a new tattoo on his Side rib cage. After designing important runes, Markos joined all of them together in a minimalistic design to draw the shape of the eye.

Now Orion was flaunting the single Eye tattoo on his side of Ribcage under his left arm. But his new tattoo was hidden under his t-shirt and left arm as advised by Asahi to hide it from common view.

He was still a normal person without Contract or Magic therefore he will not be able to charge his tattoos by himself. But magic pumped by Markos would be enough to last him half his life if he lives normal magic-free life.

"We are in Tokyo?" Asked Surprised Orion.

"What do you think? Business shops like tattoo artists work in the middle of the city rather than in random places. "

This meant when he was knocked out, instead of providing him rest. Asahi took him to Tokyo by car all while he was unconscious.

Guessing what he was thinking Asahi commented,

"Yes, that's true. Because I have various matters to settle today. I can't wait for you to wake and then finish tasks slowly. Moreover, I had first bandaged your mangled hands by the medical team of MoJ, so you should probably thank me first. "