Unlimited Ambition

Hamazura Shige, the thug I knocked down with several broken ribs, struggled to lift his head. Watching me and Ruiko walk away, he couldn't help but shed a few tears of heroism: "Damn it... We were both trying to pick up girls... Why is there such a huge difference?! He's just a little more handsome, has a better physique, and is a little younger than me... What's so great about those pretty boys?! Waaaaaah..."

"Brother Hamazura, don't cry. You still have us brothers, don't you?" A thug from Skill Out, a group of armed but powerless individuals, comforted him from the side.

"Waaaaah..." After that, several delinquents dressed in bad clothes hugged each other and cried, their bromance causing everyone else (except the fujoshi) to flee in panic.

Of course, at that moment, I had no idea that my unintentional action had once again changed the sexual orientation of a normal man (strange, why did I say "once again"). I continued my walk, chatting and laughing with Ruiko.

"Speaking of which, Ruiko, you seem to care a lot about your abilities," I asked.

Ruiko's mood dipped slightly afterward, but she quickly recovered. Come to think of it, she's definitely the energetic type of girl. I don't have anyone like that in my family. So it feels really novel.

"I used to care a lot about this, and even used some shady devices because of it. It caused a lot of trouble for Misaka Mikoto-senpai and Kuroko-san. But I've come to terms with it since then. If I don't have the ability, I don't have the ability. Being happy is more important than anything else."

"That's how cheerful Ruiko said it," she said.

Ah, yes, it's that cheerful personality that's so infectious. Compared to Mikoto, this child has a different kind of healing power.

"Such an attitude towards life is indeed commendable—but, Ruiko, have you ever considered that you might actually possess abilities that transcend the natural order and are harmless to your body—or even beneficial?"

By the way, when this topic came up, I had already successfully arranged to meet Ruizi at a very nice coffee shop, and we ended up sitting in a private room with only two people. Although I'm completely clueless about such luxury items, the food was really delicious.

"Huh? Senior Wright isn't playing a trick on me, is he?" Ruiko clearly didn't believe it.

"Absolutely not." I shook my head solemnly. "Ruizi, you haven't forgotten my backstory, have you?"

"Senior means...you're from Jerusalem?" Ruiko asked, for some reason, and gave this answer.

I nodded: "That's right, Ruizi, since you're so smart, I'll get straight to the point—magic."

"Huh?" Ruiko looked at me with great confusion, her eyes seeming to say, "Did this guy eat something weird?" which was quite hurtful.

However, I didn't care and continued my persuasion efforts.

"Magic, it's magic. You saw it on TV when you were little, right? That thing where you wave a wand and it shoots out fire and water."

As a result, Saten Ruiko felt a lot of pressure.

"...Wright-senpai, are you... alright? Should we call an ambulance?"

"...You don't believe it, do you? Of course, I understand. It's indeed a bit difficult for an ordinary person to suddenly believe in something like magic—but before Academy City, Ruiko, did you really believe in the existence of superpowers?"

"...This seems different, doesn't it?" Ruiko was a little confused by what I said.

"Since we can believe in the existence of superpowers, why not include magic as well?" I pressed on, "Is it just because we haven't seen it before?"

Tears continued to flow in her mind.

“Well then, I’ll tell you something, Ruiko. Don’t tell anyone.” I glanced around to make sure no one was watching—then decisively transformed the entire private room into another dimension, severing all the hidden connections Aleister had laid out: “I am actually a magician.”

"Puch."

Saten Ruiko finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Sorry, hehehehe... Senior Wright... hehehe... but, but it's just too funny... hehehehehe... saying he's a magician..."

Ruiko clutched her stomach, laughing until tears streamed down her face. But seeing my serious, earnest expression, Ruiko couldn't laugh anymore.

"The power I used was indeed magic. As you learned from Mikoto before, I defeated her—and that was magic."

"Eh...Eh?!?!"

Hearing me say that, Ruizi became somewhat surprised.

"Speaking of which, the tradition of magic is much older than that of superpowers—in fact, in the eyes of many magicians, superpowers are the truly incredible things." I continued, "Although an individual's ability is singular, their strength can be quite formidable. And the types are incredibly diverse. It certainly has its merits. Therefore, after the emergence of superpowers, some magicians have conducted similar research."

"So what was the result?" Ruiko asked.

"Indeed, some magicians developed their own superpowers by following the experimental methods they learned from Academy City—but after that, they found that they could no longer use magic—to be precise, the superpowers they developed changed their bodies, making them unsuitable for using magic."

I shook my head as I said this: "Later, as the experiments progressed further, the magicians finally had to announce that magic and superpowers could not coexist (Tsuchimikado was an exception). Those who used magic could not use superpowers."

"So, conversely, can people who can't use superpowers use magic?" Ruiko asked eagerly.

"Come to think of it, that's certainly true." I nodded, then asked, "Rinko, do you want to learn magic?"

"Can I?" Ruiko asked uncertainly, "Someone like me, an ordinary person..."

"No, no, no, I've already said that magic has absolutely nothing to do with so-called talent. It's closer to subjects like mathematics, physics, and chemistry. As long as you work hard, even if you're a little lacking in talent, you can still achieve something."

"Really?" Ruiko had already stood up without me noticing, looking at me with shining eyes.

I smiled and nodded: "So, would you like to learn magic?"

Seeing that Ruiko was still hesitant, I gritted my teeth, tilted my head to the left, and smiled sweetly with narrowed eyes: "So, to put it another way, Ruiko Saten, do you want to sign a contract with me and become a magical girl?"

At that moment, a phantom of a strange, silvery creature—neither cat nor rabbit—appeared behind me and mimicked my movements.

“…Senior Wright.”

"what's up?"

"I don't know why, but after you made that move just now, I really wanted to punch you."

"...How could this be?! This is clearly the best way I know to persuade someone to use magic?!"

In any case, in the end, Ruiko couldn't resist the temptation and agreed to learn magic from me (after I announced that I could grant her one wish).

"Tears, I don't know why, but your compatibility with the wind element is really high."

After performing a basic elemental magic assessment on Ruiko, I said this to her.

"Really? Isn't this a good thing?!" Ruiko asked.

"It's not that it's a bad thing..." I scratched my head: "Because the compatibility is very high, it's easy to get started with wind magic and progress is very fast. Of course, the downside is that other magic sequences will be relatively weaker."

"It doesn't matter, I'm not that greedy," Ruiko said.

I nodded, admitting that I myself had forgotten when I discovered it. Ruiko's magical talent is truly remarkable. After that, I wanted to find an opportunity to bring her in. Today just happened, Mikoto and Kuroko were both in class…

"Wait, I remember there aren't any holidays now," I asked.

“That’s right, I skipped class and ran away,” Ruiko replied.

……

Never mind what I said.

Next, I planted a seed of power within Ruiko's body (don't misunderstand). After that, I simply taught her the basics of magic, meditation, spells, and the like.

"Raiko, your affinity with the wind element is so high. Therefore, wind magic is the most suitable for you among elemental magics. Here are a few books, take a look first. If you don't understand anything, you can come and ask me. Oh, this is my residence in Academy City."

I snapped my fingers, and then wrote down the address of the small villa where I was temporarily staying, using paper and pen that appeared out of thin air.

"By the way, did Senior Wright conjure all these things with magic?" Ruiko asked, pointing to the pen and printer paper.

"No, it's just a little trick to retrieve things from a distance, borrowed from the supermarket next door," I replied.

"..."

Chapter Twenty-Five: A Girl's Heart

A day later, Ruizi found an opportunity to come to my house and showed me the Wind Blade in person.

The next day, the wind blades spun in the sky, the wings of wind appeared, the wind barrier was formed, and the phantom dragon of wind appeared.

On the third day, the Wind Dragon Unparalleled Dance, Death Storm, Forbidden Time-Space Turbulence Cutting Technique - Shattering the Void.

Day 4

"Stop! If you keep going like this, you're going to collapse my house!" I rolled my eyes, simultaneously casting a protective spell on my little villa. At the same time, I stopped Lei Zi, who was still gleefully intensifying her wind. It was as if the gale-force winds in the entire space had absolutely no effect on me.

"Huh? But I haven't even used my full strength yet." Ruiko indicated that she hadn't had enough fun yet.

I rolled my eyes, instantly appearing in front of Ruiko in a dimensional leap, and then lightly tapped her on the head. Ruiko stuck out her tongue and made a face, finally stopping the demonstration.

Then they watched as everything in the house was blown away by the fierce wind. Even the tiles on the walls, the wooden planks on the floor, and even the reinforced concrete were reduced to atoms in that single Death Dragon Whirlwind Explosion. The entire house was gone except for the outermost layer of the Heaven's Sanctuary facade.

I couldn't help but slap Leizi again. But Leizi acted spoiled and jumped right into my arms.

"You really are... what am I supposed to say to you?" I looked at Leizi in my arms, torn between two options, but secretly pleased. I sighed dramatically, then snapped my fingers. A powerful spell instantly restored the entire house to its original state. Leizi watched, her heart filled with longing.

"Senior Light, when can you teach me this kind of magic?" Then Ruiko began to beg and plead, wanting to learn this magic from me.

I shook my head slightly. I thought to myself: While I knew you were a genius, I never imagined you'd reach this level—it's practically monstrous. In just a few days, you've almost mastered the entirety of wind elemental magic. This kind of talent is among the best in the world. If you were in the magic field, you'd be worshipped like a god. It's a pity you chose the wrong profession.

But this is good, it's a great bargain for me.

"You idiot," I said, feigning anger, "besides wind magic, you can't even ignite a single fireball. The Great Law Spell is a divine-level spell, after all. Do you think you can learn it or not?"

"Oh, please, I won't..." Tearful might not really believe in the magic; she probably just wanted to stay in my arms a little longer and be spoiled.

Speaking of which, this girl has been clinging to me a lot these past few days. The light in her eyes is different from Mikoto's, different from Mise's, and even different from that perverted Kuroko. If I really had to make a comparison, then it's somewhat similar to Kanzaki's.

It wasn't the kind of gaze a woman gives to her lover, or a wife to her husband. It was a gaze that was extremely complex, mixed with a great deal of emotion.

Longing, admiration, desire, gratitude, and an indescribable love.

To be honest, I'm only a year older than her, but according to the rules of the magic world, I'm her teacher. These concepts of seniority and ethics weigh heavily on Ruiko's shoulders. Besides, Ruiko also knows that I'm dating Mikoto.

Ruiko was a very kind girl. She knew she couldn't bring herself to steal someone else's love. Especially since the person in question was Misaka Mikoto, a senior she had always respected and who had helped her a great deal.

The best she could do was take this opportunity to snuggle in my arms and act cute. And she used the guise of a disciple, a junior, or a younger sister—basically, something like that.

Tears welled in her eyes, and she kept reminding herself that this was enough. She shouldn't ask for more. God had already been good enough to her…

But now, being gently held in her teacher's arms, a feeling that should have been warm and comforting, turned into a deep sense of loss for Leizi. She couldn't stop crying.

"Tears, what's wrong?" I looked at her expression, which seemed to want to cry but also laugh, and I knew exactly what was going on. But I pretended to be very puzzled and asked her that.

"...It's nothing." Ruiko forced herself to swallow back the excuse that 'the wind got in my eyes': "I just feel that you're too kind to me, Wright-senpai...I'm so touched that I want to cry."

"What?" I pretended to be nonchalant. "Speaking of which, you're like... well, like my little sister. You just feel a sense of closeness to you without even realizing it."

"...Is that so, little sister..." I was very concerned about the bitter smile on Leizi's face.

"What's wrong with you today? Are you feeling unwell? Do you want me to check you out?" I asked.

Ruiko shook her head: "No need... I just used a little too much force in the magic I cast today. I'll be fine after meditating for a while."

"I send you--"

I was interrupted by Ruiko halfway through what I was saying.

"No need, I'm fine on my own." After saying this, Ruiko turned and ran away.

"They've taken the bait, though it's a bit inappropriate to say it like that." I turned around and poured myself a cup of black tea—don't get me wrong, it's the kind of cheap stuff you can buy in vending machines.