I let out a breath as I approached the shrine. To be honest I didn't think of anything to say for my apology? No, this wasn't an apology neither of us was in the wrong. But I just had to talk to her, to make sure there weren't bad feelings between us. I entered the shrine grounds. There was no Sanae sweeping the yard but oddly enough the grounds were mostly devoid of leaves. Strange since she arrived home later than me.
I walked up to the sliding door of the shrine and knocked. There were some heavy footsteps approaching. I Gulp, it was Kanako who going to answer the door. My mind raced, did she know that I and Sanae argued. Did Sanae tell, would Kanako even care. My thoughts stopped when the sliding doors opened. Unconsciously I straightened my posture. And I was indeed right, Kanako was the one who opened the door.
Thankfully she didn't look opposed by my presence and so I assume either Sanae didn't tell or Kanako simply didn't care. I was leaning on the former. Since she looked at me with mild surprise and curiosity. "Ai-San what brings you here." I nod at her.
"Kanako-San, I wanted to talk with Sanae if you don't mind." I checked her reaction. Her eyebrows rose slightly but there was nothing more. No hint that she knew why I wanted to talk to her adopted daughter. She mused for a bit before ultimately smiling at me.
"Sure, you know I don't control every aspect of her life." My eyes widened along with my mouth. Did I really think of Sanae's relationship with her gods like that? I mean it seemed like it since Sanae was always so serious with regards to Kanako or even Suwako. I was about to ask when I decided to just keep my mouth shut and just simply nod. "Anyway her room is to the left of the living room." I nod and thank Kanako. She simply gave me a smile and a nod before walking out of the entrance. I walk into the shrine and into the living room. Heeding Kanako's words I took a left and entered a short corridor with several doors. I frown which one was Sanae's.
"I could use my ki sense..." I mutter to myself before shrugging. I stood at the first door and let myself concentrate. I can detect the tiny amount of ki within the wood of the shrine. As I spread my ki sense further I felt a far larger amount of ki right in the center of the last room of the corridor. I stopped and blinked. That was definitely where Sanae is. I breathe in and out while rubbing my hands together. "Alright let's do this." I walk over to the entrance of what I assume to be Sanae's room and knocked. There was a brief pause followed by several footsteps. The sliding door opened revealing Sanae.
"What is it..." Her words trail off as her eyes widened the moment her eyes landed on mine. I gave her an awkward smile.
"Hey, Sanae." Her surprise quickly dissipated. She straightened her back. And gave me an emotionless look.
"Why are you here." I wince internally, that cannot be good.
"I... just wanted to talk to you." I pause for a second. "My mom heard us argue." Sanae widens her eyes but continued to stay silent. "And she suggested that I should talk to you since I wanted to make it up with you." My face felt hotter by the second. "So uhh can we."Sanae stared at me, then blinked. Then her lips curved upward. A sound came out of her throat as she moved her sleeve towards her mouth. It was obvious, she was chuckling. I relax, I'm sure this was good. After a couple more seconds she stops and moves her hand back down her side.
"Of course." I breathe a sigh of relief. "You know I was actually going to apologize to you today but Kanako-Sama gave me a bunch of tasks to do." I look at her curiously.
"Apologize for what?" she shifts her eyes away from me.
"Yesterday, it wasn't in my place to tell you what to do with your parents." She shakes her head. "I got emotional and I shouldn't have-." Her eyes widened as I grasp her hand gently.
"It's okay, you don't need to tell me." She slowly nods than a look of realization dawns on her face. A blush instantly appeared on her face. I glance from her face to the hand I was grasping. Right, I release her hand. "Ahh sorry about that." She shook her head.
"No, it's alright." She looks behind her for a second. "So do you want to come in since it's probably better if we were talking in my room and not in the corridor?" I shrug. And followed her into her room while closing the door behind me. I gazed around Sanae's bedroom. I didn't really expect anything but maybe shrine maiden-related stuff. But unexpectedly she has a lot of anime figures in her room a sure sign of her hobby. She also has a shelf halfway filled with various books most of which were related to math or science. She walks to her bed and sat down. I follow after her and sat down beside her. "So... are you still going without telling your parents." I sigh.
"I don't know, I could tell them and hopefully they'll just accept it but it's not that easy." Sanae hummed. "I want to go but I'm worried that they'll try to stop me or even worse follow me." What can I do? Leaving without a trace would just make them distraught and blame themselves. I didn't want that on my parents for the rest of their lives. But telling them could go either way.
"Tell them." I raise my head up and looked at Sanae. "It's much better than leaving without telling them." I opened my mouth to respond but she quickly cuts me off. "Maybe just maybe they'll accept it and move on, the sooner you tell them the more time they have for them to come to terms with you leaving." I think about Sanae's idea for a moment. It was honestly the best among the options I have. There was a risk of my parents denying but... I had nothing else.
"When should I tell them." Sanae raised her eyebrow.
"Like I said the sooner the better." I grimace, I don't even know when Kanako was going to leave for Gensokyo. Maybe I shouldn't mention leaving and maybe just revealing my powers first. Then maybe Sanae, Kanako, Suwako, And even Hiroki.
"When are you guys leaving for Gensokyo." Sanae shrugged.
"I don't know, Kanako-Sama hasn't told me." I nod.
"So I'm thinking I shouldn't mention leaving with you guys yet." Sanae thinks for a moment before nodding.
"You can, it would probably not change anything when you do mention it but it would probably stop them from being anxious on the get-go." Then everything is set. It's either they won't mind me leaving or they don't. Another thought came to me, maybe I should mention Sanae about me telling my parents about her and two goddesses. Then I realized telling my parents about Kanako and Suwako would make them believe in them. That's gotta be beneficial to them so they won't mind. I stood up, seemingly breaking Sanae out of her thought.
"Thanks for talking with me Sanae but I gotta go now." I bowed and moved towards the door. But before I could open the door, Sanae stopped me.
"Wait, are you going to tell your parents now." I looked behind me and saw Sanae standing up. I shook my head.
"Not immediately, my father isn't home till evening." Sanae nods.
"Okay, then but do you have anything else to do this afternoon." I look at her oddly. She was starting to blush slightly. What was she trying to get at? I placed my hand on her shoulder.
"Sanae can you just tell me what's on your mind." Her blush intensified.
"Oh ah, I just wanted to ask if you wanted to hang out for longer since you just got here." I blink, was that really it. I didn't mind since I've reached my growth cap once more so I really didn't have anything to do but train my mastery. I let go of her shoulder and shrugged.
"Sure, you should have just said so." She perks up.
"Great, hold on I'll go and make tea." I step to the side as she walked towards her door. She opened and closed it all while I was staring at her. I shook my head, I wonder how many normal friends Sanae has.
Several hours passed and it was time to go home. I bid Sanae goodbye and began walking towards home. My mind drifted on how to reveal my supernatural abilities to my parents. By the time I arrived home, I settled on telling them and then showing off a mana orb. I mused on forming a fireball instead of a mana orb but that would probably scare my parents. I knocked on the door. "Mom I'm home!" There was no reply for several seconds till I picked up the sounds of footsteps walking towards the door. I simply waited for my mother. Now that I noticed dad wasn't here yet since his car wasn't parked in front of the house.
The door opened and mom stood there with a smile on her face. "Rui-Kun." Her hand reached out to pat my head. "So how did it go, did Sanae-San forgive you." I nod.
"It went great, uh she actually invited me to stay longer to hang out." I moved her hand away from my head through my mom was disappointed slightly. "Hey, mum can I talk to you and dad later." Mother stopped smiling and a concerned look formed on her face.
"Why what's wrong." I shook my head and grasped my mother's hand.
"Nothing, I just have something to show to you both." She stares at me for a few seconds before giving me a nod.
"If it's nothing then." After she said that I moved towards my room to wait for my father to show up. Half an hour later my father's car turned up at the front of the house. My mother called me downstairs to have dinner with them. As soon as we finished eating I turned towards my dad. My mom watched me with curiosity probably wondering what I wanted to talk about. I called out to him.
"Yes, son." I swallowed my saliva as my fingers twitched. Then I said it.
"Dad, mom do you guys believe in magic." Eyebrows were raised as both looked at me with surprise. Then after a few seconds, my dad chuckled.
"Son I thought we went over this years ago." My fingers twitched once more. A much younger me who was still ignorant of the ways of the world totally believed in fantastic things found in tv shows and such. Things that were believed to be nothing more than a fantasy of the modern world. But now it was real, it existed in the past and even now hidden in small spots across the world. "Magic isn't real you can't shoot fire out of your hands or fly." I felt myself chuckle metally. I can't do the latter yet, but I can definitely shoot out fire with my hands.
"Then dad how do you explain this." I raise my hand from my lap and willed my magic to form a ball on the top of my palm. My entire right army glowed an orange hue as streams of mana flowed towards my palm and soon merged into a ball of orange. The chopsticks dad was gripping between his fingers fell on the plate as silence reigned.
"H-how." Is the word that came out of his mouth after a moment of silence. I close my palm reabsorbing the mana orb.
"Like I said, magic." I made sure to stress the word out. The two stayed silent for seconds more. Then, my dad finally spoke.
"This cannot be real, magic isn't real." I frowned and looked at my father with concern. He got a little hysterical at the end. My mother meanwhile stood up and walked towards where my father was seated. She grasps his shoulder causing him to turn his head towards her.
"Calm down dear." She gave him a reassuring look. This seemed to work as my father relaxed his stiff posture. She then turned her attention to me. "Rui when and how did you get you're... magic." Her lips quivered as she uttered the last word. They're still shocked about the sudden reveal that their son was capable of using magic and the fact that it even exists in the first place. I couldn't blame them.
"Well, how should I say this..." I didn't prepare on explaining how I got my magic. "I got this almost two months ago..." I believe it was September six when I ate the fruit. "By eating the fruit of the plant I recently brought." A look of recognition appeared on my mom's face meanwhile my dad looked on with confusion. Well, he really didn't look at the garden much.
"I knew there was something strange with that plant." I gave her a sheepish smile. It was a miracle that my mom didn't immediately notice the rising temperature around the Amaterasu plant. "So after you ate it you can just suddenly use magic?" I shook my head.
"No, I needed to train my control first." Which was easy enough. "Anyway once I was able to have proper control over my mana and yes that's what I call the stuff that made up that ball of light." My father rubbed his face while my mother smiled.
"If you're magic wasn't real I would have called you a Chūni." My eye twitched while in corner of my eye father was chuckling. Well, at least I'm the real deal, unlike those annoying children who just boast that they have supernatural powers. I would have found it amusing if they weren't so embarrassing to watch.
"Right... so is there anything else that you two want to ask." They glanced at each other before shaking their heads. I raise my eyebrows. "So none aren't you guys more curious about magic."
"It is interesting Rui but we're a bit shaken right now." She glances at my father again. "Even then I don't think magic has any use for us." I digested the sentence my mother said. Magic, useless... well if I think about it if my theory that my body uses mana as a fuel to fulfill whatever effect that I want. But if it's only unique to me and the fruit was only supposed to give me a mana supply and fire magic then it's quite useless in modern society. Besides It's not like my parents have any sense of adventure being content with their life here. So I could only nod.
"Okay, then but is it okay to use it here inside the house." Well, I'm not going to throw fireballs or anything considering how potent my fireballs are now. Both of them thought for a moment.
"Sure, I don't see how that ball of yours could be of any danger." I gave my dad a wry smile. I formed a tiny fireball beside my head.
"Dad I can also form fire by using my mana." He only gave me an exasperated look. I waved their concern away. "Don't worry I'm not going to start throwing fireballs around the house." I moved the fireball in front of me so I can snuff it out with my hand.
"That's good..." He shakes his head. "So then when you previously said that you were training your control over your mana." He cringed a bit. C'mon is it really that embarrassing to say? "Do you get stronger by using your magic?" I nod. "And I'm sure your mother would have noticed you flinging fireballs around the house, so where did you exactly train." I sucked in a breath. This is going to take a while. After half an hour of explaining I finally filled my parents in on about Sanae and her gods along with Hiroki and Renjiro's clan. I let out a sigh as I can finally rest easy. They still don't know about my plans on leaving but hopefully by the time I do leave they'll just accept it. Fat chance they won't do anything about me leaving. I hop onto my bed. It was early and my mana reserves were full. But mentally I was tired and a bit of shut-eye would hopefully get rid of my fatigue. Closing my eyes, it didn't take long for me to lose consciousness.
With a couple of blinks, I sat up with my mind fully rejuvenated. I stood up and stretched. With a quick glance at my clock school was still hours away. I sat back down on my bed and pondered. I was having an XP drought, there was no major quest to fulfill or fodder to beat up for easy XP. And ranking up my main masteries AKA sword, mana, and fire was starting to slow down a lot. It takes me around three days just to level up one of them. Still, they provide a lot of XP along with a stat boost. It seemed that it also scales with my level. So an idea came to my mind. I could rank my other elemental masteries along with unarmed and various other weapon masteries.
Additionally, when I was window shopping for perks I saw a perk that could double my stat growth cap which was huge. Thankfully I had a perk point saved up. After scrolling for a couple of seconds in the list of perks. I spotted the one I was looking for.
Greater potential: increases your perk limit by 5 and doubles your stat growth cap
perk limit huh, I did notice that potent life force had a max of five. So I guess this is helpful. How many perks points can I even have anyway? Glancing at greater potential again it was now grayed out.
Requires level: 100
Ahh, going to level one hundred is going to take a while. Whatever at least I can continue gaining stat points. My plan of leveling up my other elements was still the same since I'm pretty sure I'll hit my cap again in like a month probably. Anyway since it's still early I'll head out and do some training. Not in Renjiro's village though for obvious reasons but in the mountainous woods in the east. I'll get back just before my parents wake up.
After training for a few hours in the mountains I quickly ran back to my home. Thankfully there was no one around to see me and even then they wouldn't recognize my face since it was still dark. After I closed the door of my house I silently made my way to the kitchen then to my room. I freeze midstep as I saw my mother at the top of the stairs. She looks like she just woke up though she perks when she sees me. "Rui, good morning."
"Morning to you too mom," I say as she walks downstairs and into the kitchen. I follow after her to help her prepare breakfast.
"So what do you want for your birthday." I stopped chopping the onions and turned to look at my mother.
"Birthday? I didn't realize it was this close." I don't even know what date is it today.
"Today is October 30, so your birthday is just two days away." Damn, how did I not notice my birthday coming up? Then again for the past months, I've been focusing entirely on training and it's not like I place much importance on my birthday anyway. "So then what do you want Rui." I shrug.
"Nothing." It's not like I'll be bringing anything with me to Gensokyo except for maybe my clothes. My sword and any other magical item are going to be safe in my inventory. My mom sighs.
"You are inviting Sanae right?" I pause for a second. I guess I'll try. "Oh, and you're other friend as well." I give my mom a nod.
"Alright alright, I'll invite both of them over." My mom gives me a satisfied nod before returning her attention to cooking. I sigh, I guess I can't blame her for feeling happy about me having friends even if both of them were older than me by four. I shake my head and continued helping my mother cook.