Shiller sat in his office, flipping through reports while dialing on his phone. After dialing the number, he put the phone to his ear. There was a busy signal for a long time before it was finally picked up. First, there were a series of explosion sounds, then something sounding like something falling, followed by Strange's cry of surprise.
"Hello? Steven, what are you doing? Why haven't the two case files I asked for last night been delivered?"
"Oh, wait! I forgot!" Strange hadn't finished speaking when he yelped out: "Ouch!"
He pulled off the ribbon wrapped around his face and said to the person opposite him: "Wong, I said wait, I need to answer the call, I..."
Before he could finish explaining, Shiller's roar came through the phone: "Forgot?! You've forgotten four times this week! The three case histories I asked for yesterday, you said you forgot! I'm paying you a hefty salary, can you..."
Just as Strange was about to explain, the ribbon floating in the air struck his face again, causing him to yell out. The Mage King on the other side said: "You need to focus, or else the Magic Power won't obey your command."
"I wish I could focus!" Strange yelled. He said to the person on the phone: "There's nothing to see in the case file of the patient in room 2! Didn't I tell you yesterday? His symptoms are entirely fabricated just to woo that nurse named Fenna..."
Dodging to the left, Strange spoke quickly on the phone: "I'm having a bit of trouble over here, oh, dammit—dodge..."
As he spoke, he bent down to evade a sweeping ribbon, then switched the phone to another hand. He used his freed right hand to shield his face and said: "I'll give you those two case files when I get home tonight. Right now, I need to..."
He swung his arm forcefully, finally catching the erratically flying ribbon. He breathed a sigh of relief, saying: "...Resolve some trouble."
The ribbon in his hands slipped out with a "whoosh," circling a chandelier, and then charged straight towards Strange, pulling the chandelier with it.
Strange screamed and was sent flying backward, his hands covering his head. When the phone dropped to the floor, Shiller's threatening voice could be heard: "Listen, I don't care how difficult your hobby class is, you must finish your work on time, or else I'll dock your pay."
Hearing the busy tone from the phone, Strange held his face in his hands and said helplessly: "I regret this. I want to quit, is that okay?"
He lay on the floor in despair and said: "It's impossible for anyone to learn this stuff. How do I explain to a ribbon to listen to me?"
The Mage King on the other side calmly replied: "The power of magic comes from belief. You must learn to persevere."
The next afternoon, Strange was writing when Shiller walked in with a cup of coffee asking: "You've been attending the classes for a week now. How's the learning going?"
Without saying a word, Strange sighed deeply and looked up to give Shiller a once over. Shiller followed Strange's gaze to look at himself and asked: "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with me?"
"You can do magic too, right? Can I ask how long you've been studying?"
Shiller countered: "Who told you that was magic? I'm a mutant; I was born with these abilities so I didn't have to learn."
Strange's eyes widened in shock and anger: "Then you asked me to learn magic! You...you bloody..."
Shiller shrugged. He always used this as his excuse. To ordinary humans and mutants, he was a Magician; to Magicians he was a regular human or mutant. After all, mortals and Mages wouldn't cross-validate stories.
Strange held his head and said: "I should have known, how could such a powerful ability be easy to learn?"
"Can you believe it? I've spent the entire week fighting a floating ribbon!"
Strange burst into laughter. He said: "I really have that damn ribbon to thank—it makes the patients here seem easy to handle!"
"A ribbon?" Shiller asked with some confusion: "Didn't they teach you to draw circles or something?"
"Drawing circles? What's that?"
"That's the Magic Portal."
Strange scoffed: "Who knows when I'll be able to learn that? I'm currently getting one-sidedly beaten by that ribbon. Forget controlling it, I can't even catch it."
"I really hope you can learn that Magic Portal technique soon."
"This way, you can throw the completed case files to me directly through the portal."
Strange rolled his eyes and continued: "That fat Mage said that the Supreme Magician thinks I'm very talented. What kind of talent do you need to fight a ribbon..."
"Didn't he tell you any techniques or something? Like calming down and concentrating on controlling..."
"Of course, he taught me. But I couldn't calm down while being slapped by a ribbon every second. So is that my fault too?"
"So, you're planning to go on ? Fighting with a ribbon?"
"What else can I do? Wong told me that beginner Mages have to overcome this hurdle to learn how to concentrate."