"What is he saying?"
Gus clearly hadn't understood—after all, the man wasn't speaking English.
Musashi turned back with a grave expression, looking at the Auror and saying in a low voice, "Ōkuma."
The Auror named Ōkuma said coldly, " Musashi, as someone who isn't welcome, you shouldn't have come back."
"I tried to stay away," Musashi said, glancing at the restless Gus, "but I had no choice but to return."
"Then don't think about leaving again," Ōkuma said icily.
He drew his wand and faced Musashi.
"Looks like this is about to turn into a fight," Gus said, his eyes lighting up as he fawned over John. "Boss, you don't want to get tangled up with Aurors, right? Give me five hundred Galleons and I'll take care of him for you."
John glanced at the excited Gus and said calmly, "It's not just one."
"Oh?" Gus asked, puzzled.
With two sharp cracks, two more Aurors appeared in the alley—one thin, one fat.
The moment they saw Musashi, their faces darkened, just like Ōkuma's before them.
Musashi's expression turned complicated. "Furukawa… Gōda."
"You actually dare to show your face," the thin man, Furukawa, roared. "We won't hold back this time!"
"Gōda, Furukawa, move in," Ōkuma barked. The two of them drew their wands as well, taking up attack stances.
John looked at Musashi and asked, "Trouble?"
"They're here for me," Musashi took a deep breath and said in a low voice. "I can handle this."
"Hey, hey, don't try to act tough," Gus said unhappily. "Three against one isn't fair."
Musashi insisted, "This is the karma I have to face!"
Ōkuma attacked first, a red beam shooting from his wand straight at Musashi.
Musashi raised a Shield Charm to deflect it, then fired back with a streak of silver light.
The three Aurors attacked in perfect coordination, forcing Musashi onto the defensive.
"While you were gone, I never stopped training for a single moment!" Ōkuma roared. "All so that one day I could defeat you with my own hands!"
"Gōda, Furukawa, now!"
"Ultra Fusion—Crimson Light Burst—Disarming Strike—Phoenix Cry!" ×3
The three wands collided, and in an instant, a massive surge of red light slammed forward.
Musashi's face changed. His Shield Charm flared in front of him as he was forced backward step by step.
Gus stared in shock. "What is that? I don't remember any spell like that in magic!"
"That's a local specialty," John said dryly. "It's just three Disarming Charms stacked together, but the power gets boosted."
Musashi shouted, "You two, get out of here!"
Seeing him barely holding on, John drew his wand and walked forward.
With a flick of his wand, a silver phantom of armor took shape, solid as if real, diverting the incoming red blast up into the sky.
Seeing their combined attack blocked, Ōkuma's expression changed.
"Gōda!"
"I've got it!"
Gōda immediately rushed forward, firing a spell at John, while Furukawa seized the moment to strike his wand against Ōkuma's again.
Just as the light began to flare, John half-lowered his gaze and pressed his wand down.
Summoning magic activated.
Gōda was the first to be affected. It was as if an invisible giant hand grabbed him, forcing him to the ground. The spell he had fired didn't even brush the edge of John's robes.
Then John gave a casual wave, sending Gōda's body flying into the other two.
In just a few seconds, all three lost their ability to fight.
With John's current level of power, dealing with three Aurors was no problem at all.
John said lightly, "Let's go. For a local, you really led us into a dead end—I'm starting to doubt your professionalism, Akino."
With that, John stepped forward and headed out.
Gus looked aggrieved. "Boss, how could you trouble yourself to do it personally?"
"I may be rich, but money doesn't grow on trees," John glanced at Gus and said casually. "If you're short on cash, why don't you buy a few Silverhand investment products?"
"I just like the feeling of being surrounded by money," Gus laughed awkwardly.
Clearly, he had no intention of letting anyone else manage his money.
Musashi glanced at the three Aurors, worry flickering in his eyes, but still followed after John.
"Wait, the fight isn't over yet, you bastards!"
A roar made the three of them stop.
John turned back. One of the Aurors, still dizzy from the collision, staggered to his feet.
Ōkuma wiped the blood from his nose with his sleeve, panting as he shouted righteously, "How can we… let you leave just like that!"
"Seriously, do all you locals like to shout when you talk?"
Even though he couldn't understand what they were saying, Gus was shocked by the man's roaring delivery.
Do their vocal cords cost nothing?
The fat Auror, Gōda, and the thin one, Furukawa, struggled to their feet as well.
Gōda: "Don't underestimate…"
Furukawa: "Our bond—!"
A smile curled at the corner of Ōkuma's mouth as he tightened his grip on his wand.
"Let our bond defeat you!"
With that, the three of them roared and raised their wands at the same time.
Compared to before, the spell light this time was even more intense.
Three beams as thick as water bottles shot toward John, only to be easily deflected by the armor.
John narrowed his eyes and flicked his wand. It was as if each of them had been struck by a sledgehammer—they all collapsed at once, unable to move.
Damn.. I always thought they exaggerated things in Anime...
This time, John didn't turn away. He stood there quietly, watching the three of them fall.
After a while, the trio panted as they struggled back to their feet.
"Our bond— it's stronger than diamond!"
Ōkuma's face flushed deep red, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Yet he still roared, "Our bond carries the weight of justice!"
The moment he finished shouting, John flicked his wand again.
The three of them were slammed down by gravity, even the ground cracking beneath them.
"How are they this tough?" Gus stared in amazement.
What are these guys?
Cockroaches that won't die?
Musashi said to John, "Let's go."
"Wait."
John stared at the three of them, as if expecting them to get back up again.
Musashi silently prayed they would just stay down.
But things never go as hoped.
"Hey, Furukawa, Gōda, you guys alright?"
"I'm the one and only Gōda, unmatched under heaven. Of course I'm fine."
"That's right. Until I get to eat sweet potatoes grilled by Miss Minamoto herself, I'm not giving up."
Under Gus's gaze, which shifted from surprise to utter shock, the three of them got back up again.
They were clearly injured badly enough to spend half a year in St. Mungo's, yet they still forced themselves to their feet.
It made Gus genuinely start to wonder—were these people some kind of mutants?
John, however, looked intrigued. At some point, his eyes had already changed into vertical pupils.
He stared at the three of them as a strange power coiled around their bodies.
"So this is the power of emotion?"
John chuckled softly. "Looks like this trip was worth it. The magic of bonds is fascinating."
As the three stubbornly climbed back up, every line they shouted about strengthening their bond seemed to inject them with another surge of power.
The principle sounded bizarre.
But once you had a real example in front of you, it didn't feel strange at all.
The classic case, of course, was the Boy Who Lived—Harry Potter.
In theory, the protection Harry carried from love worked on the same principle as this bond.
Through sheer force of will, magic was pushed to its extreme.
The gap between Lily and Voldemort had been bridged—by love alone.
Motherly love and friendship are, at their core, both expressions of emotion.
In a magical world where willpower is the main driving force, this kind of power has almost no upper limit.
It's just like that saying—as long as there's love, I'll even kill a god for you.
You have to admit, in countries that produce hot-blooded anime, this emotional power gets used even more often.
If you've watched those shows, you'll know—those protagonists train for less than two and a half years, yet somehow manage to defeat villains who've trained and planned for hundreds of years... poor Aizen.
So yeah.. It's ridiculous beyond belief.
Those protagonists all live by one word—love.
Friendship, romance, family love…
John watched as the three of them were infused with that power called "bond." Not only did their strength increase, even their bodies seemed pumped full of adrenaline—they could move again.
He was certain that just now, his summoning magic had shattered at least a few of their bones.
Yet now they looked as if they'd merely been bumped by a bicycle—give them a moment and they might even start running.
"What if I try crushing it?"
John looked at the three faces filled with stubborn defiance and continued his experiment.
Dragon's Gaze rolled forward like a steamroller.
The three of them, who had just been lifted by the power of their bond, suddenly felt as if a sky-covering black dragon had appeared before their eyes, unleashing a world-ending breath of destruction at them.
In an instant, their hearts were filled with fear, and the will-born power of their bond shattered.
With that support gone, the three collapsed like deflated balloons, unable to move after hitting the ground.
"Are they dead?" Musashi exclaimed in shock as he rushed over to check on them.
Clearly, these three were people he knew—judging by their age, they were likely students from the Magic Institute as well , back when he was Akino Musashi, the outcast in white.
But John had no intention of killing Aurors.
After confirming they were still alive, Musashi stood up and turned to John, saying gravely, "Lord Silverhand, thank you for your mercy."
"Let's go. We still have to make a trip to the Magic Institute."
John neither agreed nor disagreed. After taking a few steps, he stopped and said to Musashi, "Remember to erase their memories."
Musashi tightened his grip on his wand. Gus looked at him and said, "How about you give me five Galleons and I'll do it for you?"
"No need."
Musashi said expressionlessly, "My mistake. I can handle it myself."
With that, he raised his wand.
"Obliviate."
A flash of silver light followed, and the memories of the three were wiped away.
After that, Musashi left the place with John and Gus, leaving the alley behind.
A day and a night later, the three of them woke up in a daze, their bodies aching as if they had been hit by a carriage.
None of them remembered why they were in that alley at all.
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