Convergence #5
Here's the fifth chapter of Convergence.
Chapter Five-
The small attic apartment was a big change for the small boy Itazura had taken in. The boy had lived on the streets for as long as he could recall, so even such a tiny apartment was a marvel. He stood in the center of the room, big clear eyes wide and taking everything in, his mouth gaping open.
It was snowing outside here too.
Itazura yawned, irritated and confused, both because of the job he had ditched and the boy he had brought along with him, trying to puzzle out why he had brought the little brat home. He wasn’t good with kids, and he had never before considered taking on an apprentice.
Plus, this was him, the guy with the less than spotless reputation. Him, raising a kid, essentially. Something was seriously wrong with this picture.
Itazura groaned and collapsed in a chair, rubbing at his head.
He glanced again at the little brat out of the corner of his eye, watched as the boy slowly circled around on the spot, staring, taking in every detail of the warm, tiny room. He sighed.
“Alright brat, to the bath with you. You look nasty.” Itazura yawned and stretched, then leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes. “There’s stuff you can wear in there.”
“Where?” the boy asked in that soft, innocent voice of his.
Itazura pointed lazily to the right, where a door led into a small bathroom. He didn’t even bother opening his eyes, just listened as the boy slowly walked toward the door and opened it, entered and shut the door behind him.
The master mage must have drifted off to sleep, because he jolted awake at the sound of a door opening and then closing. He blinked his eyes and turned to the boy standing in front of the bathroom door.
And blinked again.
Itazura watched him closely, examining the features of the boy. It was like seeing a completely different person. Those hypnotizing eyes seemed clearer still, the boy’s skin pale and bright, that dark hair sleek and shiny. If the boy wasn’t a boy, or if Itazura didn’t know he was, he’d say the kid was a beauty.
The master mage gulped. He head really done it now. He could already feel how much trouble the boy was going to be.
“Alright, brat, hold still.” Itazura was examining the boy, a hand on his chin as he slowly circled him.
The new apprentice frowned. “My name is Haruo… Master.”
“Haruo, huh? Hmm…” Itazura seemed to dismiss the new information as he continued to scan over the youngster. Finally, he placed a heavy hand atop the boy’s head and frowned.
“Um… Master?”
“Not now brat.”
“Haruo.”
“Whatever.”
Haruo tried to hold back another frown at his new master’s rude behavior. Instead he continued to stand there for several long, quiet minutes, Itazura’s hand still resting on his head. Finally the man smirked and stepped back, his hand falling back to his side as he examined the boy again. “Alright, we should be set now. Let’s go, brat.”
Haruo bit his lip, keeping himself from correcting his master again. Would he have to get used to being called “brat” all of the time?
But he drew his small body up and followed after his new master, trailing behind him in his too big clothes as the older man led him down the stairway into the small, dark restaurant down below. He blinked at the room, taking in the features- the few scattered tables, the two mid-sized windows to the back to Haruo’s and the stairway’s right, which were mostly layered in dirt and grime, minimizing the amount of sunlight that streamed in. The bar along the left, stools pushed up under it.
There were a few guests, one man who seemed dirty and drunk, passed out in the corner, a couple arguing in whispers, and the woman who stood behind the bar. She looked up and smiled faintly at Itazura in greeting, then went back to her work of wiping down the bar with a dark rag.
As Itazura led Haruo around the bar, he indicated to the boy trailing him, “This is my apprentice, Kaira. He’ll be around.”
She nodded, not bothering to look up.
Itazura didn’t stop or pause, just continued leading Haruo back out into the snow. He tossed a bundle of cloth at his apprentice, who quickly pulled it on as they stepped out into the deep snow.
There was a storm raging, and the strength of the wind nearly tossed Haruo off his feet. He clung tighter to the cloak he had been given, and continued to follow as best he could as his master headed out into the street.
He stumbled along the snow-covered ground, trying not to lose sight of Itazura as he trudged forward. It was difficult to keep his bearings, try as he might to take in his surroundings, everything was covered in white, and it took everything he had just to keep his master in his sights.
Before long, Itazura stopped before another snow covered building and shoved the heavy wood door open, pulling the boy behind him into the warm room. Haruo shivered and shook off the snow from his cloak, then blinked his clear eyes and scanned the room.
It seemed on first glance to be a bar, several men with glasses filled with misty looking liquid set before them at tables or at the counter. A burly man stood behind the counter chatting with one of the customers, and a woman stood beside the customer, a tray with one empty glass resting atop it.
But there also seemed to be objects for sale behind the counter, things like bread and butter and candles and other things a person would find at a chandler’s shop.
Haruo frowned, then jumped forward to catch up with Itazura, who had gone ahead and was now leaning over the counter, greeting the burly man jovially. He reached over and patted the big man on the shoulder, then laughed heartily at his own corny jokes. The man laughed along with him and nodded in response, then indicated to the woman on the other side of the counter to join him.
She did, walking behind the counter and joining the big man, standing by his side.
Haruo joined his master, edging up against the counter and standing on tiptoes in order to look over. The hood of his cloak slipped down, exposing his dark hair. The big man noticed him.
“Oi, oi, oi. It’s late Master Mage. No brats in the bar at this time.” The woman blinked at the man and looked around.
“Oh, no need to worry, Daisen. This brat’s special.” The big man, Daisen, gave Itazura a skeptical look. Itazura laughed and patted Haruo on the back roughly. “This is my new apprentice! Allow me to make the introductions. Haruo, this is Daisen, Chandler and bar keep. I’m gonna be sending you over here to get some stuff, supplies and food and things that we’ll need.”
Haruo nodded and Daisen smiled slightly. “My new apprentice here is Itazura Haruo. Got any manners brat? Bow to the man.”
Itazura patted Haruo on the back harshly enough to make him stumble, but for his part, Haruo was stuck on repeat, his brain repeating the same phrase which had slipped from his new master’s mouth over and over again- “Itazura Haruo”.
His master had given him a surname, his own surname.
He felt a strange thrill, given such an honor. But then his brain caught up, and he gave a jerky kind of bow. He had seen it done, on the streets, peeking out from dark corners, but had never done it before, this manners thing, and had never expected to be given the chance to do so.
And that was the first time he saw “the look”. That look he would be seeing a great deal of in the coming years and would get very used to. But for that first time, he was just confused.
The woman frowned and looked around, then glanced at the big man named Daisen and murmured, “Who are you two referring to?”
Daisen shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Geez Woman, pay attention. Master Mage said the boy is his apprentice. Did you not hear that?”
The woman didn’t look very happy to be spoken to in that manner, and she replied, “I heard, but I don’t see any boy. Are you imagining things?”
Daisen looked at her and blinked, then shook his head. “Now see here, don’t play tricks with my head woman.” He turned to Itazura, who was calmly leaning against the table, using a toothpick from the pile beside him on his teeth. “Don’t listen ta her, Master Mage. She doesn’t get these things.”
Itazura waved his away. “No worries. She isn’t wrong.”
Now everyone was looking at Itazura strangely. He grinned and let both elbows rest on the counter. “You know my reputation, Master Chandler.” Daisen nodded. “So you gotta understand the position me and the brat are in. It’s too late to change my ways, and there’s nothing to be done about my past. But the kid’s gonna have a hard time if he’s associated with me as my apprentice. He’ll have a hard time getting his own clients one day. So I put a little spell on him.”
Haruo’s mouth dropped open. When had he done something like that? What had he done to him?
And Daisen and the woman, his wife, were staring at Itazura, wondering what he was getting at.
“The spell makes the brat invisible and inaudible to everyone but my current and previous clients, hence why Daisen here can see him but the lady can’t.”
“Ehh? Is that true, Master?” Haruo exclaimed.
The Master Mage grinned and nodded. “Yup. That’s the truth.”
“You’re joking,” Daisen’s wife spoke plainly.
“I ain’t. You can’t see him, hear him, or get any sight of anything he’s carrying or any trace of him at all unless you are a client or former client.”
Daisen was rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “If this is to save the kid, why let anyone see him at all?”
“Don’t tell me you’re buying this ridiculousness,” Daisen’s wife murmured, a frown marring her face.
“With my less than sparkling reputation, people don’t trust me much. But my clients still recommend me. You know, you were one of my clients, Daisen. You should understand. Would you hinder him now you know him?”
A knowing smile crossed the big man’s face. His gaze wandered to the boy who was still peering curiously over the counter. Those eerie clear eyes met the older man’s muddy brown orbs, and the smile grew. “I get you, Master Mage. You’re right. The kid has nothing to fear from clients of yours.”
Itazura nodded. Haruo glanced over and met his master’s gaze. “You see, brat, I might not be what many would call “decent”, but I’m good at what I do. I still get recommended and I get the job done. Those who aren’t or haven’t been clients don’t understand my methods, but my clients get it. And they’re grateful. Weren’t you when I stumbled on you?”
Haruo’s eyes widened. He nodded. He was starting to understand. At the time when Itazura had appeared, Haruo had been in a deep, dark place. He had been about to die, had been prepared to die. He had no hope that he would survive the night, no hope he would be saved. But then this man had come and freed him, pulled him out of the darkness of the life he had always led, and now, he had hope. He had a real future. In many ways, Itazura had saved him from more than just those evil men, he had saved him from a horrid life.
He looked up at his new master and smiled, gratefulness filling his face. “I understand, Master.”
Itazura grinned and patted the boy on the head.
“Well, since you’re impossible for those who aren’t clients to see, you’ll have to make sure you only go to those who can see you to get the stuff we’ll need, hmm?” Itazura nodded to himself and turned back to Daisen. “Since being with me will make things difficult for him in the future, this is the only method to make sure he gets a clean start.”
Haruo nodded and looked again at the Chandler, who too was agreeing with what Itazura said. “Well then, this is the method we’re gonna use from now on,” Itazura continued on. “I’ll place the order for the things before hand, that way Daisen here can have everything together by the time Haruo gets here. The brat will bring the money then and that’ll be the exchange.”
The woman was coming forward again. “I don’t know what you two are going on about…”
Daisen stopped here. “I get your drift. Kid, when you get here, get my attention and we’ll make the transaction in the back room. The wife here don’t gotta know anything about it.”
“Daisen!” The woman began. He waved her off.
“Got it, kid?”
Haruo nodded.
“Good, now that that’s settled, here’s the stuff I’ll need…”
Haruo was then forgotten, the woman wandered off to see to the customers, her eyes continually going back to peer suspiciously at the unscrupulous mage, as the Chandler gathered up the listed items and Itazura chattered on about nothing.
Chapter Five-
The small attic apartment was a big change for the small boy Itazura had taken in. The boy had lived on the streets for as long as he could recall, so even such a tiny apartment was a marvel. He stood in the center of the room, big clear eyes wide and taking everything in, his mouth gaping open.
It was snowing outside here too.
Itazura yawned, irritated and confused, both because of the job he had ditched and the boy he had brought along with him, trying to puzzle out why he had brought the little brat home. He wasn’t good with kids, and he had never before considered taking on an apprentice.
Plus, this was him, the guy with the less than spotless reputation. Him, raising a kid, essentially. Something was seriously wrong with this picture.
Itazura groaned and collapsed in a chair, rubbing at his head.
He glanced again at the little brat out of the corner of his eye, watched as the boy slowly circled around on the spot, staring, taking in every detail of the warm, tiny room. He sighed.
“Alright brat, to the bath with you. You look nasty.” Itazura yawned and stretched, then leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes. “There’s stuff you can wear in there.”
“Where?” the boy asked in that soft, innocent voice of his.
Itazura pointed lazily to the right, where a door led into a small bathroom. He didn’t even bother opening his eyes, just listened as the boy slowly walked toward the door and opened it, entered and shut the door behind him.
The master mage must have drifted off to sleep, because he jolted awake at the sound of a door opening and then closing. He blinked his eyes and turned to the boy standing in front of the bathroom door.
And blinked again.
Itazura watched him closely, examining the features of the boy. It was like seeing a completely different person. Those hypnotizing eyes seemed clearer still, the boy’s skin pale and bright, that dark hair sleek and shiny. If the boy wasn’t a boy, or if Itazura didn’t know he was, he’d say the kid was a beauty.
The master mage gulped. He head really done it now. He could already feel how much trouble the boy was going to be.
“Alright, brat, hold still.” Itazura was examining the boy, a hand on his chin as he slowly circled him.
The new apprentice frowned. “My name is Haruo… Master.”
“Haruo, huh? Hmm…” Itazura seemed to dismiss the new information as he continued to scan over the youngster. Finally, he placed a heavy hand atop the boy’s head and frowned.
“Um… Master?”
“Not now brat.”
“Haruo.”
“Whatever.”
Haruo tried to hold back another frown at his new master’s rude behavior. Instead he continued to stand there for several long, quiet minutes, Itazura’s hand still resting on his head. Finally the man smirked and stepped back, his hand falling back to his side as he examined the boy again. “Alright, we should be set now. Let’s go, brat.”
Haruo bit his lip, keeping himself from correcting his master again. Would he have to get used to being called “brat” all of the time?
But he drew his small body up and followed after his new master, trailing behind him in his too big clothes as the older man led him down the stairway into the small, dark restaurant down below. He blinked at the room, taking in the features- the few scattered tables, the two mid-sized windows to the back to Haruo’s and the stairway’s right, which were mostly layered in dirt and grime, minimizing the amount of sunlight that streamed in. The bar along the left, stools pushed up under it.
There were a few guests, one man who seemed dirty and drunk, passed out in the corner, a couple arguing in whispers, and the woman who stood behind the bar. She looked up and smiled faintly at Itazura in greeting, then went back to her work of wiping down the bar with a dark rag.
As Itazura led Haruo around the bar, he indicated to the boy trailing him, “This is my apprentice, Kaira. He’ll be around.”
She nodded, not bothering to look up.
Itazura didn’t stop or pause, just continued leading Haruo back out into the snow. He tossed a bundle of cloth at his apprentice, who quickly pulled it on as they stepped out into the deep snow.
There was a storm raging, and the strength of the wind nearly tossed Haruo off his feet. He clung tighter to the cloak he had been given, and continued to follow as best he could as his master headed out into the street.
He stumbled along the snow-covered ground, trying not to lose sight of Itazura as he trudged forward. It was difficult to keep his bearings, try as he might to take in his surroundings, everything was covered in white, and it took everything he had just to keep his master in his sights.
Before long, Itazura stopped before another snow covered building and shoved the heavy wood door open, pulling the boy behind him into the warm room. Haruo shivered and shook off the snow from his cloak, then blinked his clear eyes and scanned the room.
It seemed on first glance to be a bar, several men with glasses filled with misty looking liquid set before them at tables or at the counter. A burly man stood behind the counter chatting with one of the customers, and a woman stood beside the customer, a tray with one empty glass resting atop it.
But there also seemed to be objects for sale behind the counter, things like bread and butter and candles and other things a person would find at a chandler’s shop.
Haruo frowned, then jumped forward to catch up with Itazura, who had gone ahead and was now leaning over the counter, greeting the burly man jovially. He reached over and patted the big man on the shoulder, then laughed heartily at his own corny jokes. The man laughed along with him and nodded in response, then indicated to the woman on the other side of the counter to join him.
She did, walking behind the counter and joining the big man, standing by his side.
Haruo joined his master, edging up against the counter and standing on tiptoes in order to look over. The hood of his cloak slipped down, exposing his dark hair. The big man noticed him.
“Oi, oi, oi. It’s late Master Mage. No brats in the bar at this time.” The woman blinked at the man and looked around.
“Oh, no need to worry, Daisen. This brat’s special.” The big man, Daisen, gave Itazura a skeptical look. Itazura laughed and patted Haruo on the back roughly. “This is my new apprentice! Allow me to make the introductions. Haruo, this is Daisen, Chandler and bar keep. I’m gonna be sending you over here to get some stuff, supplies and food and things that we’ll need.”
Haruo nodded and Daisen smiled slightly. “My new apprentice here is Itazura Haruo. Got any manners brat? Bow to the man.”
Itazura patted Haruo on the back harshly enough to make him stumble, but for his part, Haruo was stuck on repeat, his brain repeating the same phrase which had slipped from his new master’s mouth over and over again- “Itazura Haruo”.
His master had given him a surname, his own surname.
He felt a strange thrill, given such an honor. But then his brain caught up, and he gave a jerky kind of bow. He had seen it done, on the streets, peeking out from dark corners, but had never done it before, this manners thing, and had never expected to be given the chance to do so.
And that was the first time he saw “the look”. That look he would be seeing a great deal of in the coming years and would get very used to. But for that first time, he was just confused.
The woman frowned and looked around, then glanced at the big man named Daisen and murmured, “Who are you two referring to?”
Daisen shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Geez Woman, pay attention. Master Mage said the boy is his apprentice. Did you not hear that?”
The woman didn’t look very happy to be spoken to in that manner, and she replied, “I heard, but I don’t see any boy. Are you imagining things?”
Daisen looked at her and blinked, then shook his head. “Now see here, don’t play tricks with my head woman.” He turned to Itazura, who was calmly leaning against the table, using a toothpick from the pile beside him on his teeth. “Don’t listen ta her, Master Mage. She doesn’t get these things.”
Itazura waved his away. “No worries. She isn’t wrong.”
Now everyone was looking at Itazura strangely. He grinned and let both elbows rest on the counter. “You know my reputation, Master Chandler.” Daisen nodded. “So you gotta understand the position me and the brat are in. It’s too late to change my ways, and there’s nothing to be done about my past. But the kid’s gonna have a hard time if he’s associated with me as my apprentice. He’ll have a hard time getting his own clients one day. So I put a little spell on him.”
Haruo’s mouth dropped open. When had he done something like that? What had he done to him?
And Daisen and the woman, his wife, were staring at Itazura, wondering what he was getting at.
“The spell makes the brat invisible and inaudible to everyone but my current and previous clients, hence why Daisen here can see him but the lady can’t.”
“Ehh? Is that true, Master?” Haruo exclaimed.
The Master Mage grinned and nodded. “Yup. That’s the truth.”
“You’re joking,” Daisen’s wife spoke plainly.
“I ain’t. You can’t see him, hear him, or get any sight of anything he’s carrying or any trace of him at all unless you are a client or former client.”
Daisen was rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “If this is to save the kid, why let anyone see him at all?”
“Don’t tell me you’re buying this ridiculousness,” Daisen’s wife murmured, a frown marring her face.
“With my less than sparkling reputation, people don’t trust me much. But my clients still recommend me. You know, you were one of my clients, Daisen. You should understand. Would you hinder him now you know him?”
A knowing smile crossed the big man’s face. His gaze wandered to the boy who was still peering curiously over the counter. Those eerie clear eyes met the older man’s muddy brown orbs, and the smile grew. “I get you, Master Mage. You’re right. The kid has nothing to fear from clients of yours.”
Itazura nodded. Haruo glanced over and met his master’s gaze. “You see, brat, I might not be what many would call “decent”, but I’m good at what I do. I still get recommended and I get the job done. Those who aren’t or haven’t been clients don’t understand my methods, but my clients get it. And they’re grateful. Weren’t you when I stumbled on you?”
Haruo’s eyes widened. He nodded. He was starting to understand. At the time when Itazura had appeared, Haruo had been in a deep, dark place. He had been about to die, had been prepared to die. He had no hope that he would survive the night, no hope he would be saved. But then this man had come and freed him, pulled him out of the darkness of the life he had always led, and now, he had hope. He had a real future. In many ways, Itazura had saved him from more than just those evil men, he had saved him from a horrid life.
He looked up at his new master and smiled, gratefulness filling his face. “I understand, Master.”
Itazura grinned and patted the boy on the head.
“Well, since you’re impossible for those who aren’t clients to see, you’ll have to make sure you only go to those who can see you to get the stuff we’ll need, hmm?” Itazura nodded to himself and turned back to Daisen. “Since being with me will make things difficult for him in the future, this is the only method to make sure he gets a clean start.”
Haruo nodded and looked again at the Chandler, who too was agreeing with what Itazura said. “Well then, this is the method we’re gonna use from now on,” Itazura continued on. “I’ll place the order for the things before hand, that way Daisen here can have everything together by the time Haruo gets here. The brat will bring the money then and that’ll be the exchange.”
The woman was coming forward again. “I don’t know what you two are going on about…”
Daisen stopped here. “I get your drift. Kid, when you get here, get my attention and we’ll make the transaction in the back room. The wife here don’t gotta know anything about it.”
“Daisen!” The woman began. He waved her off.
“Got it, kid?”
Haruo nodded.
“Good, now that that’s settled, here’s the stuff I’ll need…”
Haruo was then forgotten, the woman wandered off to see to the customers, her eyes continually going back to peer suspiciously at the unscrupulous mage, as the Chandler gathered up the listed items and Itazura chattered on about nothing.