Standing alone at the back of the house, Kaz was practicing to control as well as understand his strength. Being stranded to different world where magic exist, he needed to do it sooner or later if he wanted to survive here. On the other hand, he wondered why he stayed in his Cait Sith form, an avatar from Alfheim Online, a massive multiplayer online virtual reality game. Based on the time of the year, he could see that he was appearing in some medieval time, or as he thought. There were machines in this world, but they were simple designed and their functions were limited, not mentioning most of them were made from woods. One other thing that made him think a lot. It appeared that gods exist in this world, specifically, the gods from Norse Mythology. Reminding, when he first came to this snowing place, he met two persons, one of them was Skadi. As he remembered, it was a giant whose father was killed by the Asgardian, the gods. When she attempted to make her revenge, she got a deal with the gods but Kaz did not remember what deal. However, he remembered that after that deal, she married the god of the sea, Njord. One thing for sure, if Skadi, a giant, married a god, meaning she could be seen as a god, and he did kill two gods as the same day. He wondered if it could be trouble later.
After relaxing his mind, Kaz took a deep breath and focused. He then raised his hand, a few second later, a small fire appeared on his palm. He did not get any burn or heat from it. He tried to control the fire and later, he realized that he could control the fire element. He could create small or big fire, as well as moved them around by his will. He then drew his fire sword and slashed strongly ahead, creating a big fire running on the ground. He then focused and the fire extinguished immediately. Whenever he had free time, he always tested and practiced his ability. He also learned that he could control the fire element thanks to his fire sword. However, there were a limited time, or he should use the word "energy", because it fit well, he thought. When the fire sword changed its color from red to brown, it meant he used all the sword's energy and it would took a while to recover it all, and it seemed to recover automatically. And not only his fire sword, but also the ice sword taken from Skadi.
After testing the fire element, Kaz started with ice element and it worked the same as fire. After that, he tried to do something stronger and bigger. He focused and later, a red seal appeared on his palms. When he put his palms opposite to each other, a small fire ball appeared and it got bigger by second. Not knowing how big it could be or not sure if he could control it, Kaz released the fire ball and it created a fire explosion. Thankfully, it was not too big and the ground was burned. When a blue seal appeared, which was big enough to cover the burning ground, Kaz successfully summon an ice but it was over expected. A big ice appeared cover the burning ground with sharp blade. He walked closer and thankfully, it was not danger. However, the cold from it was real. Suddenly, he heard someone was clapping behind him, and it was Kioku.
"It was great." – She smiled.
"Thanks, I guess." – Kaz scratched his head. He then asked. – "Sorry, did I wake you up?"
"Yeah, everyone was waken up because of the explosion. We thought something bad happened but it seemed it was your practicing after all." – Kioku answered.
"Hey, is everything alright there?" – When Tsubaki and her husband, Beck, who was armed, coming out, they saw Kaz and Kioku, along with a big ice close to them. They wondered what happened.
"Everything's fine. False alarm." – Kioku told back to them. She started feeling curious about Kaz's strength. There were many myths about this boy but she only wanted to hear from Kaz, and by over time, she understood him more when he told her about what he remembered. She thought she was a little luckier than him, who no longer had a family or a place to return. She wondered if it was a fortune when she met him. If it was not for him, maybe not only them, but the whole village would be destroyed. The more he stayed here, the more she liked him and did not want him to leave her.
"Alright, you two, let's take a break." – Tsubaki shouted out. New Year was coming and she decided to clean the house while Kioku and Kaz helped her to do the housework. She smiled happily when she saw Kioku and Kaz was getting along well. They smiled a lot whenever they stayed together.
"Kaz, can you tell me about your village?" – Kioku gave Kaz a hot cup of coffee, and asked curiously. Not only her, but also her aunt.
"Well…" – Kaz wondered what he could and should tell them. Normally, he preferred to use the "nation" word but in this world, "nation" seemed not to exist. "City" was the biggest place people gathered, next was "Town" and the last was "Village". Additionally, "Country" did exist but it was a word to use as a border than close to "Nation". There were many countries existed in this world, and each countries had cities, towns and villages on that land. Each lands was named just like in Norse Mythology: Asgard, Midgard, Vanaheim, Jotunheim, Muspelheim, Alfheim, Nidavellir, Svartalheim and Helheim. Kioku's village was at Jotunheim, the land of the giant. According to her, they were not too far from the sea, but not too close from it. After thinking hard, he answer. – "Let's say I'm from Alfheim, but I don't live in the middle of the land, but on a big island, far from it. A big island that has a lot of cities. I was living in a cities."
"Is there an island that big?" – Kioku asked.
"The world is big, girl. We never know all of them." – Tsubaki commented. – "Alfheim is a land of elves, right?"
"Yes, and they split into different clans, like Salamander, Undine, Spriggan… only us, the Cait Sith, are different and I don't know why." – It was the first time he used everything he knew from a game to explain a thing, and he wished they would believe him.
"So there are many types of elves, right? When I was young, I met some elves and they wore different clothes. One of them wore red clothes and he said that he belonged to the Sala… something?" – Tsubaki tried to remember.
"Salamander, they are the strongest in term of raw strength in Alfheim, however, they are weak against the Undine clan, who are very strong as water and ice element. You know, the Salamanders control fire very well." – Kaz told.
"Water win fire, I get it." – Kioku smiled. – "So what about other clans? What are their strength?"
"The Sylph clan is the master of the wind, Gnome is very tough because of their earth element, which helps strengthen their defensive. If you want to find a good weapons or armors, Leprechaun's blacksmith is recommended. Pooka clan has some of the best music and songs in Alfheim. Imp, or other word, is the Dark Elves, they are very good of chemistry, poison as well as herbs. Spriggan…" – Suddenly, while telling them, Kaz paused. Whenever he or someone reminded of this race, he felt uneasy. It was because it reminded of a person he knew, but not a friend of him, the person who saved thousand lives from the accident called "Sword Art Online", aka, "SAO". It was personal, he admitted but he had no right to hate him. But it still was a sad memory of him because if he reminded of that person, it reminded him of her.
"You okay, Kaz?" – Worrying, Tsubaki asked.
"Hm? Oh, sorry, I just remember some memories I don't like." – Kaz tried to drive their worry and kept his story. – "Well, the Spriggans are the master of stealth. They can go in and go out and nobody will know their existence."
"Now I understand why, when somebody is stolen and if they can find the culprit, they blame the Spriggans." – Kioku commented.
"It is not nice, though." – Tsubaki sighed.
"Compare to them, our Cait Sith are pretty out of place." – Kaz slipped his coffee.
"At least, you're cute." – Kioku and Tsubaki agreed a same thing and it made Kaz spew out his coffee. For apologize, Kioku took a clean hankerchief and cleaned his face by herself while smiling.
"So how people in your cities treat black cat? It makes me worry a lot when I know you're are one." – Tsubaki then asked worryingly.
"It depends. I have heard a lot of myths about them but overall, black cats are considered good luck. It is said that they will drive bad lucks and tuberculosis away." – Kaz told.
"Wait, really?" – Both Tsubaki and Kioku was surprised.
"Something's wrong?" – Kaz questioned.
"So it is why you're recovered." – Kioku said.
"Recovered from what?" – Kaz was getting more uncomprehend.
"Before we met you, my aunt got tuberculosis. If anyone gets it, it is like a death sentence. But not long ago, she was said to be recovered. The doctors and we were surprised." – Kioku answered.
"Must be a coincidence." – Kaz knew what they were going on about and he tried to stop them, but it was useless. But at least, they would not ask he continued, since it was believed that black cats could cure love, which he did not believe, and he did not want to say it out, either. However, he heard that black cats could cure tuberculosis was a rumor back in Edo period. But whether where it came from or if it was true or not, it was clear that that disease could not be cure that easily. He then asked. – "So black cats are supposed to be bad omen around here?"
"Yeah. Most people, if they see a black cat, they will kill it and throw it body far away. If anyone adopted a black cat, they will be sentenced to death because of the so-called connection with evil. But don't worry, the whole village see you as a good fortune than the contrary. You changed their minds, after all."
"If it makes them treat black cats better, then I rather take it." – Kaz smiled.
After a long chat, they continued their work until it was done. When Tsubaki and Kioku prepared food and Kaz was forced to stay out of the kitchen, despite the fact that he wanted to help. While sitting and had nothing to do, Kaz decided to test his ability of using ice element. He successfully created a small ice cube. It looked clean and it gave him some idea. He then stood up and found a leather bag, he washed it to make sure it was clean, then he created an ice cube which was big enough for him. He put the ice cube into the leather bag and smashed it until the ice cube was pieces. Hearing noise, Tsubaki asked Kioku to check and the young girl saw what Kaz was doing. She saw Kaz put out of ice pieces into a cup, then he put out strawberry syrup onto the ice and a little milk on it. Seeing Kioku, he invited her his product. Kioku took a taste and suddenly, she liked to eat more. It was cold, yet it was sweet. When Tsubaki came out, Kioku gave her a taste and Kaz realized he needed to make more. They kept asking and Kaz was having fun to make shaved ice for them. Until…
"Cough. Cough." – The next day, Tsubaki and Kioku was lying on the beds because of angina.
"It isn't serious and they will be recovered after a week." – The doctor examined them and concluded.
"I'm so sorry." – Kaz apologized to Beck, Tsubaki and Kioku.
"Don't mind it. It was us who asked for more." – Kioku and Tsubaki comforted him, despite their throats were in pain.
"Oh my Allfathers, I didn't have enough medicine for both them for a week." – The doctors suddenly spoke.
"Do you need any help?" – Kaz offered.
"I need to go back to my village. There is no medicine left in my house, by the way. Would you mind to company with me? I need to bring more than angina's medicine." – The doctors asked kindly.
"Something happened?" – Kaz asked.
"Recently, a villager who sold her death cow to a lot of people, creating a food poisoning to a lot of people." – Beck answered.
"It's been a while since my last supply, I feel worry so I would like to have someone reliable to go with me. Of course, you can refuse it if you don't like to go." – The doctor said but through his looks, it seemed he needed Kaz to go with him.
"It's okay, I'll go with you." – Seeing it, Kaz agreed.