Magi: The Adventure to the Southeast [REMASTERED]

✩12. Magoi Manipulators Match

There was a custom in Qadar Village where the villagers would bathe in the lake so early in the morning before beginning their day. It was believed that soaking themselves in water with the moon still reflected on its surface before daybreak came would bring luck. That custom was never exclusively for the villagers, hence why Ardhi was here: in front of the door to Sinbad's room, eager to drag his violet-haired guest into participating.

"Sin! Wake up!" Ardhi said as he knocked the door. He waited for a moment but there was no answer, prompting the man into knocking the door again. Still no answer. He curled his eyebrows and soon realized there was a key inserted into the door's keyhole. He twisted it, opening the door, and when he looked into the room the one whom he was looking for wasn't there.

Ardhi let out a small puff, slightly annoyed at the fact that Sinbad didn't sleep in that room even though he had gone through the trouble to prepare it. As he closed the door behind him, his gaze hovered to Ja'far's assigned room and noticed the ajar door. Faintly, he could hear the two Sindrians' voice coming from inside there. His hand then moved to push the said door open and as he stepped inside, he casually greeted the Sindrians with his usual cheerfulness.

"Hey, Sin! Ja'far-kun! Wake up, there's a tradition I want you both to..."

Ardhi gradually stopped speaking as he processed what was unfolding right before his eyes. On the mat was Sinbad on all fours, who of course was partially naked and below him was Ja'far. The two men's eyes met with Ardhi's dead ones as the colors drained from Sinbad's face.

"...sorry for interrupting whatever you're doing. I'm gonna leave you alone now..."

"You aren't interrupting anything, I swear! This is just a misunderstanding, Aru!!" Sinbad frantically stood up as he came up with any excuses he could think of, but Ardhi didn't look like he cared anymore. Meanwhile, Ja'far who was still lying on his back on the floor only let out a tired sigh as Sinbad continued to panicky explain his situation.

***

"So you sneaked into Ja'far-kun's room in the middle of night and when morning came, he woke up and the first thing he saw was you naked on the floor and next he gave you some clothes to wear so you won't cause any misunderstanding. Buuuut..."

Ardhi narrowed his eyes in disgust as he emphasized his words. "...since you wasn't fully awake yet you clumsily tripped and fell altogether with Ja'far-kun onto the floor and unfortunately, somebody forgot to lock the room so when I arrived I witnessed something that I swear won't be erased from my mind anytime soon. Is that it?"

Sinbad, now fully clothed, nodded repeatedly in glee. Finally after a long explanation he managed to convince Ardhi that everything he saw this morning was purely accidental.

Ardhi ruffled his hair in distress, glancing out the window as he frowned. "Seriously. To think I'd waste my beautiful morning dealing with this nonsense..."

Sinbad grimaced. "Sorry for causing you trouble so early in the morning. By the way, what sort of tradition that you wanted us to participate?"

"A tradition that involves getting up so early in the morning when the moon was still up there," Ardhi crossed his arms, "But as you can see, the sun's already risen, so... why don't you just follow me to the plains?"

And so, the three went straight to the plains. "Why are we here, Ardhi-san?" Ja'far looked curiously at him after they had arrived at their destination.

Ardhi turned around then suddenly threw a long stick at Sinbad. The violet-haired man readily caught it, staring at it in slight confusion as Ardhi took out a pair of short stick out of nowhere.