Chapter 2
"The New Beginning."
"Uhh... T-The fishes were damp and burned, so strange!"
"Here, let Onii-chan dessicate it for you."
"...Sure."
He opened his palm and the same invisible force appears again, condensed into one point and amended into a flick of fire, he grabbed the moist but burned fish and enveloped it with the flame, drying it for his little sister.
"You make me astonished every time you easily change your mana into whatever elements and shape you wanted..."
"It takes practice, and hard work, I'm confident you could do the same soon."
"How about me?"
"You will, unquestionably, Megumin."
A smile etched onto her face, feasting on the dried fish her brother dried just for her-
She saw Kazuma drying a fish again and gives it to Yunyun, a blank face engraved on her face, she aggressively rips the white flesh of her fish with her teeth, showing how irked she was
"Wow, you must be really hungry Megumin."
"Hmmhmmm!!'
"I'm envious, able to enjoy your food like that..."
"HMMM!!"
They continued to eat the tasteless fish meats, there are some parts where the flavour was bitter, so they have spit it out.
This occurrence happened every day, sometimes they would catch something else from the river, like shrimps, crabs, crayfishes, lobsters...
The tranquil river strangely provides various species of seafood for them to eat, so he and his little sisters were happy to occupy this field, they found this grass field when Kazuma was only a mere 5 years old while Megumin was 4 years old, Komekko wasn't even born yet.
Also, this field was the place they met Yunyun, who was sulking before the river because she couldn't grasp one of the works her teacher gave her, considering she was the chief's daughter, she entered the academy earlier, which was when she was 4 years old, it was pretty harsh, but thankfully, she could handle it.
They asked her how's going and she told them the reason, in particular, he already grasped the way to use mana, and show her the most essential part of becoming a magician, which was... well, controlling mana.
And that's how they became friends, and how Megumin was interested and begged him to teach her too, and how Yunyun always wanted to see him.
"Ah... the meat's so bitter, why don't I bring some flavoured foods next time we met up here?"
"If you can, I wouldn't mind."
"What kind of flavour? Spicy? Sweet? Or savoury? Salty, maybe?"
Megumin asked her with a barrage of questions, looking at the sky with a curious look on her face, wondering what kind of food her friend would bring.
On the log, Kazuma sat in silence, smiling bitterly at his little sister, it was only food and yet, she was pretty curious about it. Indeed, as he said, his family wasn't as prosperous as others, so the food provided by his parents were limited, they probably give them cooked rice without any ingredients or seasoning, still, it was nice for them, although undisputably, it was the reason why he and Megumin's growth were slower than other children.
Fortunately, his father often goes out and bring some fruits and vegetables he got from the forest, so they didn't lack vitamins.
Books were really great, he got to know these things from them.
That, until they found this river, the meat they eat provided them protein, which was pretty important for their growth, so their development was noticeably improved. He was thankful for that, and surely, Komekko doesn't have to suffer like them and could grow like any normal children.
One problem, no one's here know how to cook, all they know was that, meat has to be cooked by heat before they could eat it, he saw in books that it was to kill the viruses and bacterias in meats. So it's inevitable that the flavour of the foods they eat was tasteless, sometimes it was even bitter.
Thankfully, Yunyun is a good person, and occasionally brought some tasteful food he saw people ate occasionally in the village, they are very grateful. Sometimes they intentionally leave some leftover to give their parents, tears of happiness trailing down their face were engraved in his mind, rendering it to one of his best memories.
Oh well, there are some bad memories, but might as well be appreciative of his happy life.
He's unrestricted to play in this beautiful forest, have great parents and 2 cute little sisters ready to accompany him, and a great friend who never hesitated to help. After all, living taught him one thing, there are no such things as a barrage of good occasions, there's always bitterness in the sweetness of life.
"Oh, right. Yunyun, Megumin said you wanted to show us spells you managed to learn, right?"
"O-Oh, yeah, c-correct, a spell, precisely."
"Why don't you show us?"
Yunyun was silent for a moment, she lowered her head, waylaying her eyes with her bangs without her realising.
He put down the eaten fish and stood up, striding to Yunyun who was still sulking and sat beside her, putting his arm over her shoulder and gave an encouraging smile.
"No need to be nervous, even if you failed to cast it, there's only me, you, and my cute little sister-"
"Onii-chan!"
"-so no one would mock you if you failed."
He promptly comforted her, standing up and gives her a hand. Yunyun stared at his hand, and grasp it tightly.
"Maybe suggestions, and criticisms."
"Eek!"
"But not too harsh, don't worry."
A pull was all it takes to bring her confidence back, he grinned scantily, patting her shoulder and take a step back, waiting for her to cast the spell.
Yunyun looks around and realized something.
"Kazuma-Kun, Megumin, where's Komekko?"
"Oh, my mother picked her up a while ago."
"Ah..."
One of her concern vanished, she nodded at her exclamation and determinedly looked at the river, like Kazuma did before, colourless breezes flowed to the tip of her finger and condensed into one point.
Although compared to Kazuma, her finger was shaky, and the flows of the breezes weren't as neatly as him.
"You're improving." He reminded her.
"Y-Yea!"
She furrowed her eyebrows, and the condensed mana turned into a revolving air, a grey sphere, if you were near enough you could feel breezes tickling your skin softly, but Yunyun keeps gushing mana into the sphere, it was obvious that she was focused on the flows of her mana, not stopping despite the element was already formed, the result?
Boom!
The sphere exploded, it overthrows Yunyun into the air and she landed on Megumin, who howled because of Yunyun's sheer weight, after all, she was pretty skinny for her age.
He smiled in pity, Yunyun was 'fat' compared to other kids, so seeing his little sister's skinny form getting pressed by her 'fat' physique was pretty painful to watch, even for him. He wanted to snort but thought it was too cruel for his little sister.
"O-Onii-chaaaan!"
A hand was grasping the air desperately, he snickered a bit before helping them separate themselves. He grasped Yunyun's middle and bring her up, after making sure she could stand on her own he turned his gazes to Megumin, who was looking pretty miserable.
"O-Oh no! Megumin, I'm sorry!"
She was breathing heavily, her eyes were glazed over like a person who lost her soul, her limbs were twitching like a possessed girl, in all, she looks pathetic.
Kazuma doesn't know whether he should laugh or cry, but right now, 'saving' his little sister was his priority. He swiftly picked her up and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek, interestingly, Megumin immediately woke up while her pale face turned rosy significantly.
"Eek!"
"Ah!?"
Her senses were pretty quick to recover after he kissed her cheek, he gave her a quick smirk before turned his attention to Yunyun, who was staring at him with a shyly look.
"Well... your control has improved. Other than controlling mana, you should too, pay attention to the condensed mana you wanted to amend, you were too focused on channelling the mana into the point and neglecting your concentration on the part where the condensed mana turned into an element. It's good to be concentrated on your mana control but pay attention to the alterations of your compressed mana."
He softly scolded her, but a smile still etched on his face, making her feel warm despite the scolding he gave her.
"Yes, I understand, Kazuma, I will try to be better next time."
Yunyun nodded in determination, her hands were clenched strongly, she wanted to attempt it one more time but Megumin suddenly asked a question she too interested in knowing.
"Onii-chan, can mana turned into something other than elements?"
He pondered a bit at her question, flicking his fingers in confirmation and clenched his hand, like always, mana that took form into gentle breezes flows neatly to his hand. But this time it wasn't condensed, rather, it was covering his hand like a glove, the invisible force called mana was like an invisible armour.
He thrust his arm into a tree and shockingly, his punch created a hole in its log, despite that, his hand was safe, not a single bruise was seen on his pale skin.
Kazuma nodded at his work, he turned to the surprised girls and answered Megumin's question.
"Well, if you have enough control on mana, you could cover certain parts of your body, you could even covered a weapon and make its range extended, though I am not able to do that in my current level. And yeah, I still am not able to figure out what kind of things I could amend with mana other than this and elementals."
He shrugged his shoulder, he originally wanted to go to the library to learn more advanced ones, but realize that he wasn't even done with the manuals which contain over 13 books yet.
After making experiments with mana by himself, he learned that if he doesn't have any understanding about what he was about to do, then don't do it. Never overestimated yourself.
A gloomy look on his face was visible for a second, he recalled when he wanted to make a weird staff out of pure invisible force(mana), oh, and trust him, it didn't end well, not at all.
"W-Wow... you already on the seniors level... amazing, despite our 1-year gap... I'm envious."
Yunyun sulked again, a soulless gaze was directed at the ground and a smile full of pitifulness for herself was etched on her face.
Megumin, on the other hand, was in awe at her big brother, already at this level... how many hours her brother spends learning magic? It ignited her fighting spirit and called her brother out.
"Onii-chan, watch your amazing little sister! I will show you the greatness of my spell!"
...It didn't end well.
He sheepishly piggybacked his passed out little sister, she channelled the mana into the condensed point too much, ensuing an overworked body and caused her to go unconscious.
"Well, Yunyun, we gotta go, it's nearly dark, so we'll see ya-"
"Yunyun-chan!"
A rough voice suddenly interrupted him, resulting in both of them blinking their eyes in surprise. Out of nowhere, a middle-aged man with a thick moustache came out from the bushes and trudged over them, a lot of sticks and leaves were on his form, he looks pretty comical.
"Oh, my sweet, beautiful, smart and cute daughter! For you to earnestly called me with the magical tool I gave you, ah! So swee-"
"Otou-san, where are the uniforms I requested?"
"Ah, here, here."
The middle-aged man smiled brightly, bringing out a bag which consisting of two black cloaks, a buttoned black t-shirt, a black shirt, a pair of black trousers and a knee-length black skirt. From their sizes, it looks like they were for kids.
"Anything for my daughter!"
Yunyun smiled in satisfaction, after checking the containment of the bag, she gives it to Kazuma with a much brighter smile on her face.
"Here, take it, Kazuma-Kun."
He didn't immediately take it, gazing at the bag that will certainly change their lives, he glanced at Yunyun's father who gives him a suspicious stare, ensuing getting elbowed by his daughter. He gives her a sheepish look before looks at him and smiled formally.
Immediately after he smiled, the air around him changed. Kazuma widened his eyes.
'Ah... this, this is a Clan's Chief.'
"Well, I don't doubt both of your capabilities if even my talented daughter recommended you two, after all, I trust my beautiful daughter, I believe she had a good pair of discerning eyes! Congratulation for entering the academy, I trust you two to get the best results."
Indeed.
He nodded vibrantly, taking the bag and bowed to the overloving Clan's Chief, he was trying to hide it but he was excited-
"Thank you, Chief."
-Excited that finally his little sister could be educated properly!
"You're welcome, come on Yunyun-chan, let's go home!"
"Yeah."
They departed, before they completely out of each other sights, they turned around simultaneously to faced each other and waved their hands.
"See you tomorrow! I can't wait Kazuma-Kun!"
A certain chief had his eyes widened, shifting his head rather quickly to his precious daughter who started to use familiarity to call a boy.
"Me too!"
After the siblings were out of sight, and before Yunyun could even ask her father about something, he beats her at it and asks hastily.
"Why are you so close to a boy?!"
...
She sighed distastefully, her father is a loving father, but sometimes he was spoiling her too much. Developing her to be over comfort in life and made her underestimated the lessons her teachers gave her, she thought she could get everything as long as her father was there, yes, including knowledge.
She was so dumb back then, and the result? Obviously, she failed the first test, because she didn't study, thinking it was easy like her life, she was flunked.
But then she met him, a boy who struggles despite lacking so much, changing her view in life and inspired her to study. When she started to do what he did, she was astounded at how easy the lessons became.
His father gives her a hand, and she grasped it, smiling at him and stared at the road ahead.
'Tomorrow.'
Hyoizaburo's Residence.
"Ohh!! My handsome son bewitched the clan chief's daughter and manage to enter the academy through it! Ah! As expected, Kazuma-Kun!"
"Hmm... remarkable, a child and yet... I'm proud, really proud."
"O-Onii-chan! Why you no carry me!?"
"Uhh... Wha- What?! Onii-chan bewitched someone?! Onii-chan, how could you?!"
He stared at his bickering family members, sweats were dropping at an alarming rate, but he was smiling vibrantly, his family members' weird proclamations couldn't waver his excitement.
"Megumin, here."
A girl uniform, Megumin's eyes widened when she saw what her brother brought. Her gazes shakily shifted from it to her big brother's developed face, asking him slowly, clear affection was in her voice.
"W-What's this...?"
"A uniform for you, you did hear what Yunyun said back then, right?"
"I... I thought it was a joke..."
"Of course not."
She was frozen for a moment, then she snatched the uniform and jumped into her dependable big brother's arms, crying hysterically.
"W-Waaah! I-I a-am so h-haaaapp-py...!"
He just hugged her, looking at his smiling parents and a clearly confused Komekko in his mother's arms.
For a moment, his green eyes were blazing with determination.
'Tomorrow, Megumin.'