Inheritance

Chapter 9: A new face

It had been two months since Ian had dissipated into thin air, and the saddest thing is that no one had even noticed that he was gone. The Old man was sitting there, having had used his abilities to transform into the teacher and impersonate for two reasons. The first was to see how Ian's day to day life was like, what his routine was. This was just to see how easily his life would blend with the life of one with the gift of bladeworks. So, he put the regular teacher in stasis and decided to impersonate her to see what high school life was like for him The problem is that no one seemed to know who he hell Ian Novelli was. Even the teacher who he was impersonating didn't have a clue, as his name wasn't in her grade-book. He chuckled to himself, sure that he wasn't going to let Ian forget about his obscurity. 

Suddenly,  a chill ran down the old man's neck, instantly sobering him, and making him remember the second reason that he was here; the evil presence that he had sensed while messing with Ian all those weeks ago. I seemed that first assignment would be close to home if you could call a place where no one knows who the hell you are a home. 

He entered "his" classroom, and sat in his comfortable chair,  pointing at some obscure assignment that he had written on the board earlier in the day. The only good thing about teaching was the three-month break that you got every year, which seemed to be coming up soon, as that was the only thing that any of the students wanted to talk about.

A whiny, pubescent voice rang in his mind. The old man was about to answer with something along the lines of, "shut up" or "ask someone else, I'm busy" when he realized that the voice that he heard didn't pass through his ears, but was directly through his head. When he realized that it was Ian, a smile appeared on his face, followed immediately by pain. Pain through his entire head, as Ian went from whining to shouting really fast. He kept saying things along the lines of, "you suck" "almost died", "hate you". Apparently, it's possible to get a headache from telepathic communication. You learn something every day. The old man decided to let him vent for a while, then finally spoke, (thought?)

"You done?"

"No, but the rest can come later," Ian responded. "When do I get out of here?"

"Normally You would stay there for at least a year, but I'm pulling you out early. We have a situation at this terrible school of yours."

"At least we agree on something. Is it the food that you're talking about, or is it the terrible teachers?"

"Neither. It's you're first assignment."

"So, why don't you call me back to my home right now"

"First I really want to know how you beat the second challenge. Most people don't really get past it on the first time."

"Wait..., did you just say "the first time"?"

"Yes. you get multiple attempts to finish the training assignments. Did you not know?"

There was silence in the old man's head for the longest time. Then, Ian spoke.

"So, I wouldn't have died?"

"That is correct."

"Just bring me back"

"You never explained..."

"Please..."

The old man felt pity for Ian for the first time in forever. Sure he was generally an unfeeling, hardened old man, but this.

This is just sad.

The old man sighed, and put his head in his hands. Ian just wasn't ready. But with the way things were about to go down at this school, they would need blade works. The old man looked raised one hand in the air, waved it around randomly and pointed at the door.

The door opened, and Ian walked through it.

The old man looked up and looked Ian in the eye. He saw a lot of emotions directed at him. Confusion, anger, doubt. There was more in there to see if he tried to look hard enough, but the old man just didn't care enough.

"Well, well, look who's back. How did it go?"

"I hate you"

The old man smirked to himself. Some things never change.

"I'll just take that as 'it went well, thanks for asking'."

"I hate you."

"I have to ask you, how did you deal with the clones? I remember having trouble with that particular training exercise when I did my training."

As soon as the word clone was mentioned, Ian's face went beet red. It wasn't exactly a look of shame on his face, but it was close.

Really close.

Ian looked down at the ground like he was expecting it to swallow him whole, looking like he was welcoming it.  He looked down and started to explain. About how the clones chased him around until he and they were both too tired to keep running. About how instead of doing things the manly way and beating the clones, or whatever, they were just too tired to beat him. He didn't win, he just floated by.

"How am I supposed to be this hero, to hold this huge power of blade works if I can't even beat myself."

The old man chuckled to himself and looked Ian in the eye.

"By beating the crap out everyone else."

The old man smiled to himself, as that statement managed to get a smile out of Ian.

"Come on Ian, let's go. We have a villain to kill."