Okay you're just gonna have to imagine I took the time to place a disclaimer here.
I managed to write a story based on a character so minor that he doesn't even get a character slot here at ffnet. How cools that?
Okay, if you like what I gone and done feel free to review.
Gosunkugi glared at the inoffensive candle, but to the try-hard magician it was becoming truly annoying. It just sat there, a finger of wax, flipping him off every time he tried to ignite it. Such a simple cantrip, not even a real spell, just two words to aid in a mental exercise. He scanned the page from his magic book again, running his finger down the list he checked each item.
First, become comfortable and relax. 'Okay, that's a check.' Gosunkugi leant his elbows on the table as he frowned in thought. 'Well maybe not as relaxed as I should be, but this is getting really frustrating. This is supposed to be the most basic beginners exercise!' Beginning his relaxation exercises again he took some deep calming breaths. Then beginning at his extremities he tightened the muscles in his feet as tight as he could, then after a count of ten he released the tension completely then he repeated the process for each distinct major part of his body, calves, thighs, buttocks and so on until he reached his chest then he began with his hands and worked his way up to his shoulders his neck and finally the muscles in his face giving him the look of someone who'd been constipated for a few days. Between each muscle group he mentally repeated such phrases as, 'Relax' and 'Feel the tension leave your body'. After five minutes of this he felt himself touch the edge of sleep and then began with the second step.
The second part he'd become extremely adept at, this is where he imagined the candle sitting there on his table, the wick of coarse cotton as dry as tinder. Then came the picture and the sensations of heat as that self same wick began to smolder and finally burst into bright yellow flame. He'd gotten so good that he could smell the smoke and gently melting wax, he could almost feel the warmth generated. To get those sensations down he'd lit a candle so that he could fix those sensations in his mind, the first time he tried the exercise he'd move the candle too close and all he'd smelled had been his nasal hair as he breathed in the heat from the candle. That had only proved that if he got to close to the flame he'd get burned.
The third part was to intone the incantation with the utmost conviction that it would work. he'd lately begun to wonder how to do that when he could almost gaurantee that the spell would fail, I mean it had failed the last fifty times he'd tried and with the words -
"Ignius Emblazio" He retallied the failed attempts at fifty-one as the candle impressivly failed to light yet again. The only good thing about it was that he didn't know anyone else who'd succeeded with it either, small comfort though it truly was. In an uncharacteristic show of determination that would have surprised his fellow students at Furinkan High School he moved on to the fifty-second attempt since he'd uncovered the supposedly easy spell. Over the next few minutes he moved through steps one and two and was just about to get to the exciting part when he was disturbed by a knock at the door.
"I know you're in there Hikaru, you can stop incanting for a moment and come and unlock the door for me." His mothers gentle voice called from the other side of the wooden door into what he loosely called his 'Inner Sanctum', not that it deserved the capital letters as it served double duty as warlocks workroom and young teenagers bedroom with all that that implied. Hikaru gave the closed and safely locked door a death glare to let the mere mortal on the other side know that he didn't appreciate being disturbed, the key to this was that the door was indeed locked which implied that it was currently closed.
"And don't you look at me like that young man!" Hikaru jumped guiltily at being caught in the act as it were, 'How the hell does mother always do that?" He sighed as he got up out of his comfortable chair and slouched over to the door and opened it to let his mother in. Brightening up as he caught the smell of tea and his favourite snack of chicken yakitori on steamed rice with a sweet soy sauce poured over the top, maybe effort fifty-two could wait a while after all.
"Thankyou for the food mother." Hikaru shoulders raised slightly as his mother smiled at him, then put the tray on his workbench knocking the candle over in the process.
"I see that you're still working on the same thing. How many attempts does that make it son? Thirty or forty?"
"Umm, I'm up to number fifty."
"Oh Hikaru, if you want to light the candle so badly why don't you use a match?" She smirked a little as she teased her ever serious son.
"AAArrrgggg! Mooooom!"
"Yes Hikaru? Was there something?" She raised her eyebrow in enquiry.
"But that would ruin the whole point of learning the spell." He tried not to sound too frustrated with the whole thing but to be honest it was nearly to the point of trying something other than magic for fun, 'Maybe the nice guys in the science club would like a new member.;
"Hmmm maybe you're right Hikaru it probably would. Oh and talking about learning you'd better make sure you do your homework before Monday." She smiled again and headed for the door thinking to herself that she really was lucky to have such a quiet well mannered son, unlike that Ranma fellow her son was always telling her about. She turned back to say one more thing to her son, "Just remember that you must control your emotions when you try these spell things my son, not watching them can lead to unfortunate repurcussions." Then she closed the door before he could ask her how she knew that. Putting that thought aside for the moment he decided to turn his attention that should prove much more interesting, Yakitori and tea, not necessarily in that order.
After another ten minute delay a replete Hikaru Gosunkugi turned back to the 'Beginners Tombe of Incantations and Cantrips - unabridged", he'd nearly brought the Cantrips for Dummies version but felt that it lacked that certain verve required for even a beginner wizard. There on page two of the beginners book was indeed a warning that a wizard should be in control of their emotions at all times or there could be untold consequences depending on the emotion felt at that time. He thought about quitting for the day and trying again on Saturday when he might have calmed down a little but then brushed that consideration aside as he had come too far to back down. He, Hikaru 'The G man' Gosunkugi, as he often thought of himself wouldn't back down from a challenge. Attempt 52 coming up.
In his frustration he skipped most of step one this time around.
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Downstairs
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"So how's it going dear?" Watane Gosunkugi enquired of his wife.
"Not too bad, being as though he hasn't come into the families power yet. You know, maybe we should have told him about all this so he wouldn't be pushing so hard. I didn't find the centre of my power until I was twenty. And you were how old?"
"That would have been the year I met the most beautiful woman and fell in love."
"Oh and who was that dear?" Chinami stood there tapping her foot.
"Er, that was you dear, I swear I've never had eyes for any other woman!"
"Nice save dear." Her eyes seemed to glow as she gazed at the man who had held her heart in thrall for the better part, and she did mean better part, of the last quarter century. That would have surprised anyone who lived outside of Nerima as the fact was both her husband and herself were more often than not mistaken for Hikarus older siblings. An added bonus to the fact that they practiced the Gosunkugi school of High Magic.
"Hmmm, as for telling him, I don't think it would have done anygood. He has the families stubborn streak already, learning that magic runs in his veins would lead him to even greater frustration and possibly into making dangerous mistakes as he tried to push through the barriers we placed in his mind."
"Yes I know you're right, I swear he gets that pig-headedness from your side of the family."
"That's funny, I always thought he got it from you." He laughed lightly even as he ran for cover. "Now dear, not in the house."
"Don't you 'Now dear' me, you baka." She clenched her fingers as she prepared to release her favourite levin bolt at her errant husbands rear end, which unfortunately for him she could still see around the sofa.
CRAA-YELP!-AAACK!
Both of them were startled, even though Chinami wasn't quite as surprised as her husband as she watched him attempt to climb the wall in a futile attempt to get away from the pain that currently resided in his ass. 'Holy Kami that was a low powered levin bolt, it should have been just a little stronger than static shock.' Her hands flew to her mouth as she heard a muffled Kerumpf from upstairs, promptly forgetting her husbands injured pride she bolted for the stairs.
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Upstairs
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Hikaru made his way through the second step in preparation for the low level incantation. Currently he was on his fifty third try for the day and he was getting to the point he was really pissed. 'This time for sure.'
The world turned.
CLICK
"IGNIUS EMBLAZIO!" He added more emphasis than the spell strictly called for.
It's funny how time can seem to slow down for people in certain situations, as if to give you the full time necessary to enjoy the approach of your doom. In Hikarus case he watched intently as the wick seemed to glow for just a second, just like the spellbook said it would, then his world went white as the wick turned into an incandescent flame only slightly cooler than a magnesium flare. He was instantly blinded by the actinic flash as a previously foot tall household candle became a puddle of wax even as the tower of flame emmited from the wick burnt a small hole in the ceiling. He didn't see his mother smash open his bedroom door and rush in, incanting spells as she came to extinguish the blaze that had started when the insulation in the roofspace had given up the brief fight against igniting and had begun to merrily burn it's way over to the far wall.
"Mom! MOM! I can't see, what the hell happened?" Hikaru relaxed as his mother crushed him in her arms, then he promptly began to panic again as he felt his lungs fight for the needed air to keep himself conscious.
Watane finally made his way into his sons room after a quick check to see if certain parts of his body were still attached, shortly after the levin bolt had made contact with him the pain had subsided leaving the offended parts of his anatomy extremely numb.
"Chi-chan put our son down now, he's beginning to turn blue."
"NO! Not gonna!"
"Now dear your scaring him more than the situation is." He sighed in relief as his wife reluctantly let go of her son. "We need to either get him to a hospital or uncle Orito, you decide dear. At least Orito won't ask awkward questions."
"Yes true, but he's such a hentai."
"I know, but at least he won't ask to be paid in that manner again." He smirked as he remembered the punishment that his ordinarily mild mannered wife had dished out to the most deserving hentai. She'd never run across Happosai so a certain grandmaster of anything goes could thank his lucky stars that all his body parts were still attached, uncle Orito had looked very strange for a month or two while he figured out what spell his niece had used to make his nose dissapear. The space it should have occupied became a flat area of smooth skin, over which he'd cried as he considered the loss of erm for lack of a better term 'Face'.
"Mom, what's going on? Who's uncle Orito?"
"It seems son that you came into your birthright earlier than we expected. That shouldn't have happened for a couple of years. We thought we had time to teach you the things you needed to know, but as is often the case we failed to take into account the chaotic factors that Nerima imbues into any given situation."
"Huh?" Hikaru would be staring at his father if he could see. It wasn't helping that he was developing a world class headache, the kind that arc welders got if they forgot to put on their mask.
"Let me try dear. You did realise that Nerima is a very chaotic place in comparison to other places in Tokyo, didn't you dear." She waited until her son stopped nodding. "There's a reason for that. Once, a long time ago, before most of what the west calls recorded history, there was a very powerful demon. Somehow it was able to escape onto the earthplane and cause much damage to the delicate balance of magic in whatever area it happened to be. After a few hundred years, it either became careless or maybe it was just bored, we'll never know for sure, but some warrior monks from a long extinct Shinto order managed to corner the evil beast outside of a town that would millenia later become the city of Tokyo. The demon had a great deal of fun as it fought the monks to a standstill, for three days the battle raged across the countryside. Hills were levelled by their special techniques and the magic the demon released. Finally the monks were able to wound the beast and from there the battle was quickly won. Instead of sealing such a powerful entity on this plane of existence they sought to banish it back to its own dark plane as they didn't want to have to do this again if they could help it. They spent several hours incanting the spells and creating the required seals and sigils to bind the creature back to its own world. When they finished they flung the demon back from whence it came but they in their arrogance had failed to notice that they had not truly
defeated the demon, it was merely playing with them, and allowing them to send it home with no loss of energy on its part. While they had been making their preparations, the beast had also been making plans. It knew it would only have one chance to cause some more lasting damage on the earthplane, so instead of cursing one of the warriors it decided to create an area effect version of the curse. even knowing that it would be weaker in that form. Even as it was vanishing it released the curse that would change the lives of everyone within a seven kilometre radius." She settled back and waited for her sons reaction. Her husband had picked his son up as she started the story and made his way down to the family saloon placing him carefully on the backseat. Chinami Gosunkugi had joined her son and held him while she finished the story as they started the journey to the seat of the Gosungugi family.
"Whoa! Cool story mom. What was the curse?" He had to know what this had to do with his initial question.
"The curse was of ancient Chinese origin, the basic cantrip goes something like 'May you live in interesting times' of course it was couched in ancient demon-tongue. At the time the curse was uttered they were far out in the countryside and to the north of what would come to be the capital city of Japan. As time went on the population grew and the cities expanded and this one grew to cover the cursed ground. The village that grew there was called Nerima." Hikaru smiled as he understood the meaning of what he'd just been told.
"That must have been one powerful curse if it's still affecting Nerima after all that time."
"Hmm not that powerful actually. The demon was very cunning about using its own power, it somehow managed to tie the curse to the very earth here. After the monks realised that a powerful curse had been issued they looked for ways to free themselves and the land from its burden. They moved their religious order here and built a temple."
Hikaru began to frown as he considered how much information his mother seemed to have about a situation that happened thousands of years ago.
"I can see you're about to ask how I know so much about all this, hmmm?"
"Yes, I mean how can you know all that?"
"Would it help if you knew that the name of the Abbot of that religious order was Gosunkugi?"
"No way!"
"Yes way." She smiled at him even though he couldn't see it, he could hear the supressed laughter in her voice. "That is why a member of our family has lived in Nerima ever since the village first appeared, we owe a debt to the people and the land. After the demons defeat the monk began a study into magic to see if he could reverse the spell. He had a little apptitude for magic so he made some progress but none against the curse. The problem has always been that the curse was based on chaos magic, even though the spell was visible to us the whole thing could reform as we watched without losing any of its function. The Gosunkugi family art is based on life or order magic, it makes it very hard for us to alter the curse in anyway, though we'll keep trying."
"So who's this Okito guy we're going to see?"
"Ah yes, Okito. Well, remember I told you the family relies on life magic?"
"Yes."
"Well one benefit of that is we have the ability to heal people with magic. Your not so great uncle Okito is the head of the families healing order, we hope he'll be able to do something for your eyes." She looked at her son worriedly as he still wasn't able to focus on anything he was 'looking' at.
"I'm alright mom."
"You most certainly are not young man! You'll be doing exactly what Okito tells you to do, unless it's something perverted. If he tells you to do something like that just you let me know and I'll put him in his place!"
"Now dear don't upset Hikaru like that. Let him form his own opinion of my uncle. We're nearly there, just hold on a moment son." Watane spoke up from the drivers seat for the first time during the trip, due mainly to the fact that he'd been driving like a maniac for the last ten minutes. That wasn't a number of police trying to arrest him, no indeed, they were forming an escort for him. Yes that was it, an escort. Even so the blue flashing lights and the wailing of the sirens were starting to annoy him. He gestured casually with his hand as he muttered a few syllables and suddenly the police cars receded into the distance as they all developed the same mechanical difficulties at the same time.