Sparks Fly

It wasn't too far into the day when Hitoshi was challenged to his first duel of the year. It was also not too long into it when Hitoshi burnt the boy challenging him to a crisp. The students that surrounded the two boys cheered and some scolded him for destroying the other boy.

"Not too shabby," said Daichi, who was holding his friend's things. "You're getting better I'd say."

"Let's just hurry and get to our next class," Hitoshi said, looking down. Defense Against the Dark Arts was next, and it was taught by one of his favorite teachers. Professor Yukimura wasn't too strict and knew what he was talking about like he'd been teaching it since the dawn of time which meant he made the class very interesting.

"You might've gone too rough with that guy," said Momoka as she led the way. "He barely got two whole spells out."

"No," said Hitoshi, he kept his head down and carried on.

"Whatever you say," said Momoka with a shrug.

"She's right though, two spells? You might be losing your touch," said Daichi, grinning.

They continued to talk of the duel till they were seated in class, where Hitoshi didn't bother anymore and instead thought back to the tournament. His mind fought back and forth on whether or not he'd compete.

Soon, professor Yukimura entered the room and ordered them to quiet down so he could begin. Everyone promptly silenced themselves and sat up as it was a peeve of the professor.

"You can go ahead and—," the professor's voice faded away as Hitoshi caught sight of something. It was a feather.

As Hitoshi slowly opened his textbook, he stared at the feather, it looked like it had an eye on it. That was because it was a peacock feather, of course, a cream-colored peacock feather that poked out over a boy's shoulder.

"Right then—" professor Yukimura continued. Hitoshi didn't remember seeing this boy last year, must be new then. And yet at the same time, he seemed familiar.

There was a tap on his shoulder.

"You doing alright?" Asked Daichi. "You're kind of just staring off —"

"I'm fine," Hitoshi hissed.

Yukimura paused and looked at Hitoshi and Daichi, waiting. The two looked at him and clamped their mouths shut. Yukimura moved on.

"The Cruciatus Curse is one of the unforgivable curses," Yukimura read. "The purpose of this curse is to torture an individual by causing them false pain."

Hitoshi zoned out again, he had already read the textbook cover to cover over the summer as his mother liked him to be prepared and ahead of his classmates. Instead, he ended up looking at the strange feather boy.

"Why do you have a feather?" Hitoshi thought.

"What are you talking about?" Daichi asked.

He didn't realize his friend was looking at him, puzzled at the question he just asked. It wasn't until he registered that he hadn't said thought the question and rather said it aloud that he looked back at him.

"What?"

"You want to keep it down, Mister Bakugou, I am talking."

Hitoshi just stared in surprise. He nodded and looked back down at his book. Something was up with him, must've been the duel earlier.

"So, using this curse is highly punishable and should not be used but I have to teach you about it anyway."

The class carried on, when a question was asked, the students raised their hands. Hitoshi kept quiet though, this time around and opted to just stare at his textbook so he didn't get distracted again.

"You doing alright?" Daichi asked once again.

"I'm fine, Daich" Hitoshi grumbled.

Yukimura, instead of demonstrating the curse, went on an excruciatingly long lecture about how the curse was cast, what the effects are, and its many applications. How it would trick the victims' nerves and cause them to be in excruciating pain despite there being no wounds inflicted. The students shivered at the thought.

The class carried on as the professor went through the history of the curse and what he theorized it felt like. He did however emphasize that it was a forbidden curse for a reason, swaying the class away from the thoughts of using it. Yukimura also explained that there was no counter spell which dampened the mood even more.

Once again Hitoshi stared off, not caring to listen. It wasn't until a hand was waving at him that he realized that he was indeed staring at the boy with the feather again. The student sitting next to the boy was making a confused face at him and gave Hitoshi a nod, asking him "what do you want?" without words. Hitoshi only narrowed his eyes and rolled them back to where the professor was. When he looked back, he saw the feather boy's face for the first time.

Light brown eyes stared back at him, eyes surrounded by some kind of pale patch-like markings that decorated his cheekbones, contrasted by his tanned skin. Brown, almost fluffy hair lay combed back with strands laying on his forehead. That all accompanied a disturbed look on the boy's face as he scrunched his nose and rolled his eyes while turning back to face the professor.

The action left Hitoshi stunned. What was that? Plenty of people have looked at Hitoshi like that as a result of his attitude, but, that was somehow different.

Daichi must've seen the interaction as well because he leaned over and whispered, "what did you do?"

Hitoshi shrugged, looking between his book and the boy. He spent the rest of the lesson taking random notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses as professor Yukimura spoke. He didn't dare look up again until the bell rang — and when he stood up to leave, the boy who caught Hitoshi staring at his friend was coming straight for him. Those who saw what was about to happen began to murmur amongst themselves — "Is he gonna duel again?" "— will be so cool, seeing him duel twice in one day — I can't wait!"

Hitoshi didn't want to deal with him, it wasn't worth his time, plus the kid didn't look too special so he doubted the impending duel would be worth it.

"The hell was that Bakugou?" he snarled as they left the classroom.

"Who even are you ?" said Hitoshi.

"Excuse you!" said the boy curtly, he stood in front of Hitoshi, blocking his path. "Yamasaki, Yuta Yamasaki." Yamasaki had a hand on his wand, glaring daggers into Hitoshi.

"Ok, what do you want?" Hitoshi said flatly.

Yamasaki didn't miss a beat.

"You're a creep who can't keep your eyes to yourself!" he said. "How about you stop making my friend uncomfortable and keep your eyes off of him!"

Daichi just looked at his friend in confusion.

"What are you—?"

Daichi didn't get another word in as Hitoshi drew his wand and narrowed his eyes. The students around them went silent in awe, some quickly went back to the classroom to get the professor to supervise.

"Well come on," he said to Yamasaki. "You wanted a confrontation? Come on. You chose this."

Yamasaki was breathing fast, his annoyance building. He neither moved nor spoke. Instead, the boy they were talking about walked up.

"It's fine Yuta."

"No!" said Yamasaki defiantly.

Hitoshi stepped back until he was a good distance away, students clearing the way. Then he said, "you come out here all hot-headed, just shut up and fight me. Don't get all scared of me now, I won't hold back on you."

Daichi joined his friend, of course, to be his second in case the duel went south, but something unexpected happened. Instead of Yamasaki stepping up, the boy with the feather did. This gaudy yet regal boy, clad in black robes and a peacock feather stood up to Hitoshi and flourished a bow, his wand ready to duel.

Everyone stood quietly as the professor walked up. He was filled in on the situation by those who retrieved him and when he saw Hitoshi, he pursed his lips and shook his head.

"Don't destroy anything."

Hitoshi didn't acknowledge him, he just stared at the boy as he did back in the classroom. His brightly colored aura that he seemed to give off almost stunned Hitoshi without the need for a spell. This almost led to his immediate defeat as the boy launched a wordless spell.

Without thinking, Hitoshi dodged and charged the boy, yelling "Confringo!" The fiery explosion deflected off as the feather-wearing boy cast Protego, the fire exploding against the magic shield, giving his opponent a lovely warm glow. Seeing the golden light of the boy's next spell, Hitoshi spun and sidestepped away as a Revulsion jinx missed him.

"Nice footwork, Bakugou," the boy said with an amused smile, "does this mean you're a good dancer?"

Hitoshi didn't bat an eye at the boy's words and pointed his wand, casting Incendio, mouth pressed into a hard line and eyes narrowed. The flames spat from the tip of his wand and the boy caught his eyes as he cast Aqua Eructo to counter. The water kept the fire from reaching his opponent but Hitoshi didn't let up, he refused to lose to some boy that had been distracting him all class. This duel was lasting too long for Hitoshi's liking so, with one last swirl of his wand, Hitoshi yelled "Expelliarmus!"

The scarlet light struck the boy, knocking his wand out of his hands and throwing him backward into Yamasaki before he could counter again. Hitoshi regained his standing and wordlessly stepped back into the gathered students as they cheered for his win. Yamasaki helped his friend up and glared daggers at Hitoshi again.

"Not going easy on anyone, huh Toshi?" Daichi chuckled. He threw an arm over the blonde's shoulders and walked with him as they were dismissed by professor Yukimura.

"He knew what he was signing up for when he stepped up to me, and he was fast to counter me," Hitoshi stated, eyes fixed on the hall ahead. "If I went easy that would have been a waste of my time."

"Waste of time?" Daichi laughed, "that duel was over as soon as it started! Just like this morning, what made this one different?"

The two were rejoined by Momoka as they walked down the hall and towards the moving staircases. Then a hand caught Hitoshi's shoulder.

Still high on the adrenaline, Hitoshi whipped around ready to face whatever student that was angry at him for not going easy on someone, it had happened before. Instead, he was once again stunned in place as he was now face to face with the boy with the feather. Pale markings he had noticed before did indeed decorate his cheekbones like a masquerade mask but also poke out along his neck from underneath his collar. But his purple eyes shocked Hitoshi the most.

Hitoshi opened his mouth to say something but he gaped like a fish out of water, blinking in surprise. Instead, the boy spoke up.

"Nice job, Bakugou," he said with a knowing smile as if he expected Hitoshi's reaction. "Maybe next time you decide to stare at me like an absolute creep, I'll beat you."

"You did pretty well out there..." Daichi trailed off.

"Fujioka, Takara Fujioka," the boy said, exactly like Yamasaki, as he shook hands with Daichi. Hitoshi noticed that even his hands were pale. The thought of what pale patterns he had under his uniform flooded his mind.

While Daichi introduced the three of them, Hitoshi grumbled and looked towards the groups of students walking by, completely erasing the thought and hopefully the pink tint of his cheeks.

"Don't mind him," Momoka bumped her shoulder against Hitoshi's, "he's not much of a talker unless you get him riled up."

"That's alright, I'll see you around Ishiyama, Yamashiro, and you too Bakugou."

"Just call me Moka, it's easier."

"Alright, see you Moka," Takara smiled and began to walk past the three to join up with some other students but quickly took the feather off of his vest and pinned it in Hitoshi's headband.

"See you!"

"What was that about?" said Momoka, watching Hitoshi's face.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Hitoshi, looking pensive.

"So you've developed a staring issue?" said Daichi as they set off down the hall. "I didn't know there was anyone that could make you act like that."

Hitoshi didn't respond as his friend mimicked his gaping.

During dinner, Daichi hadn't let Hitoshi live the incident, as they've decided to refer to it, down. Normally, Hitoshi would've told someone off for bothering them, but that was new. It was just because the boy was striking, not striking, just different. It was as if Takara hypnotized him with just one look. When they walked back to their tower for the night, Hitoshi brought up a subject he'd been wanting to bring up.

"I know I've been on and off about it, but I'm going to be an Auror," Hitoshi said as they approached the portrait.

"I'm not surprised," said Daichi. "You've got good marks and amazing skills in combat. I wouldn't doubt you becoming an Auror."

Hearing that, Hitoshi didn't continue. He just nodded as the portrait opened up and revealed the common room like always, and when they entered, their classmates complemented Hitoshi on his dueling wins.

"Let's just go," said Hitoshi.

"I'm coming," Daichi yawned, used to his friend's way of expressing his thoughts.

They walked up to their dorms, leaving Momoka with her other friends, to work on the assignments their professors had given them. As Daichi sat on his bed to work, Hitoshi chose his desk but didn't get much work done. He thought back to the duel with Fujioka. The boy had known what spells Hitoshi was going to use and countered just as fast as Hitoshi could cast. Not many opponents had done that, hell it surprised him that Fujioka had stepped up to duel instead of Yamasaki.

"You all right, Toshi?" Daichi asked him.

"Hmm?" He hummed, "I'm fine. Just um, reading this book."

He held up the book he had definitely not been reading.

"It's about—" he had to remember what it actually was, "shielding the mind. We read it last year."

Daichi just raised a brow and rolled his eyes, saying "that book is upside down dude." It was and Hitoshi just set it down the right way, turning his back to Daichi.

Hours later into the evening, Hitoshi hadn't gotten any more progress in the book, he instead took to researching past Triwizard tournaments.

"You still reading?" Daichi's groggy voice called out. He was buried in books and parchment.

"I'm not," said Hitoshi, who yawned and stood up from his desk, "I'll turn out the light."

"Yeah, thanks."

He waited till his friend had cleared his bed and burrowed under the covers before turning out the lights with a flick of his wand and going into his own bed.

"Hey, Toshi?" said Daichi, the sound of his blankets rustling as he turned. "Are you serious about wanting to compete in the Triwizard tournament?"

"Yeah," said Hitoshi, "I'd like to, it would make this year more interesting. Why?"

"Just don't want you to die," said Daichi. His words hung in the air. The two went silent and let the statement hang around them.

"I'm not going to," said Hitoshi with a sigh. He hadn't actually thought about it, him dying in the tournament, and that Daichi cared that much.

"You better not."