Chapter 4.5: goddesses and magic (Filler)
Lucoa walked peppily down the street of Sentaro's apartment complex, when she was done checking up on Tohru she had finally found a steady job as clerk at a farmers market and decided to give areha the news, opening the door.
"I'm home!" She announces
"Welcome back Lucoa dear!" Areha greets happily" so how did your interview go?"
"I went incredible! The manager gave me the job on the spot! And he was super nice to me!"
"Well that's wonderful dear! (I can't imagine why). Well would you like some tea?"
"Maybe in a bit, umm where's Sentaro?"
"He's up in his room"
Lucoa walks up the stairs and hears Sentaro utter some kind of incantation and sees a bright light flash in Sentaro's room, a beam of turquoise/green energy shoots out and smacks against the wall leaving large a burn mark behind .
"Hmm..that's strange" she murmurs to herself, she steps into the doorway to find Sentaro on the floor with pages from books strewn across the floor and a small cauldron and crystal ball in the middle of his room.
"What are you doing Sentaro?"
"Uhh heh! I was kinda taking a break from sketching and decided to practice my spell casting magic, my mom's a Mage so she sorta has been teaching me since I was little, but I've fallen back on it a bit...as you can see"
"Magic huh? Well why didn't you ask me? I'm a dragon goddess who excells in spell casting! Remember when I asked if you wanted me to grant you vast magical powers? So why didn't you tell me you were a Mage in training?"
"Yeah and I told you there's no value in it if it isn't achieved! This situation applies to my previous statement! Plus I thought you would look at me like an idiot like everyone else! Although.." Sentaro looks at the wall outside"I guess asking for some help would hurt anyone"
"Well what can the great goddess Quetzalcoatl assist you with young mortal?"
"Well I'm in the middle of trying to cast a temporal portal spell"
"Oh that's all? That's easy! first watch me!" Lucoa states holding her hands out and tracing the air with her index fingers, then almost immediately a purple alchemy circle appears and light from its chosen destination shines through
"Whoa!..." Sentaro gasps with awe, then the portal disappeared
"Ok Sentaro it's like this, in order to cast this particular spell you need to visualize in your mind your desired destination, it's like daydreaming except taking that mental image and having it act on the physical plane of reality instead of the subconscious astral plane, now close your eyes Sentaro, and focus on where you want to go"
Sentaro closed his eyes and thought hard.
"Do you have somewhere you want to go?"
"Yeah..."
"Good! Now hold out your hand l, focus and direct all of it into your palm"
Sentaro did as she said and focus every ounce of magic he could,then a small ever growing green circle formed in the middle of his room, revealing Kobayashi's apartment.
"Oh you wanted to visit Kobayashi again huh?"
"Yeah kinda!"
"Well look no further" a voice pops up from the portal which startled Sentaro and Lucoa, they look down and see Kobayashi poking her head through the portal
"K-Kobayashi?! What are you doing?!" Sentaro stutters out of fear
"Well this mysterious hole opened up in my living room, and I thought it was Lucoa trying to sneak back into my house, but I'm surprised to see its you kiddo! How'd you learn to cast spells so fast?"
"It wasn't me! Lucoa taught me how!"
"Indeed! All I did was dictate the instructions he did the rest and I told him to visualize where he wanted to go and here we are!"
"You wanted to come visit?" Kobayashi inquires
"Yeah..." Sentaro says bashfully
"Aww that's so sweet! Well come on kiddo there's enough room for both of you!"
"Ok...uh Lucoa is it safe to jump through?"
"Of course I jump through temporal loops all the time! With no ill effects...I think" she ponders ditzily
"Yeah..no ill effects huh? Alright here goes nothing!" Sentaro exclaims jumping through and landing surprisingly on his feet in Kobayashi's living room
"Hey guys!" He greets addressing the two surprised dragons
"Sentaro!" Kanna exclaims running up to him for a leg hug, peering up at him with her huge blue eyes
"Hi Kanna!"
"Mind telling us why you just so happened to be jumping through a portal in our living room?" Tohru inquires
"Oh, heh funny story Tohru.."
"Sentaro look out!" Lucoa shouts as she falls through, Kanna vaults out of the way as Lucoa crashes down on top of the boy.
"And there's Lucoa..well that explains a few things" Tohru responds dryly
"Wha? Oh that portal? that was all Sentaro, he casted the spell" Lucoa adds
"W-what?! That pathetic human casted a temporal spell?! How?!"
"He comes from a family of mages, speaking of him, where is Sentaro?"
"You mean the boy your suffocating underneath your unnecessarily large boobs?" Kobayashi sarcastically quips
"Huh" Lucoa asks, then looks down to her cleavage to find Sentaro flailing about desperately for air.
"Hahhhh! Sentaro!"
10 minutes later
"So Sentaro, Lucoa claims you were the one who created that portal earlier? How's that possible? you haven't practiced magic in years right?" Kobayashi asks
"No I haven't, but for some reason when she taught me herself, I found it much easier to use it, almost as if I had known to use it for years!"
"Do you think you can do it again?" Tohru asks, trying to confirm her suspicions
"I-I can try" Sentaro responds, then he closes his eyes and reaches out with his hand again creating another ever growing green alchemy circle
"Whoa!" All three girls gush with awe, it's not everyday an average looking boy develops magical prowess
"This is amazing Sentaro I never would have thought you could master magic!" Kobayashi praises
"Pretty!" Kanna coos
"How? how is this possible?! How is this a human so gifted?! Are you certain that you weren't born in the other world? Because as far as I can tell no beings in this world can utilize magic in this way! the most I've seen is with technology"
Sentaro closes the circle and smiles at Tohru
"I assure you Tohru, I was born and bred in...this...dimen..si" Sentaro begins to slur , falling into Lucoa's chest
"Sentaro!" All three girls cry out
"No need to worry guys, he just exhausted himself, he used up more energy than his body could supply for that spell and it's taken its toll, all he needs is some rest. I'm so proud of him, he's grown so much since I first met him..." Lucoa states, laying him back on her chest using her bosom like pillows.
"Yeah, I barely recognize him anymore, he makes me fell more like an older sister than a mom now, kind of a lackluster feeling for me, how attached me and this kid were"
"That's right you've know him since he was young right Kobayashi?" Tohru interjects
"Yeah, he was such a shy introverted kid when I first met him back then I never really wanted to be responsible for someone let alone a 10 year old,be his mother was so stressed and depressed that for some reason I couldn't ignore it, she and I were good friend and she asked if I could watch him at the times she couldn't come home early, he didn't really speak much of his family, mainly his father, kinda pudgy but a cute, sweet kid to say the least, he always told me he wanted to be an anime artist and would go on and on about dragons everyday, and that part about him hasn't changed, yet at the time when he came to my door just two days ago it was like I was looking at a completely different person, he seemed the same but different" she explains summing up their relationship in a nutshell
"Why won't Sentaro speak about his father? You two seemed like you were quite close! Do they have bad blood or something?" Tohru asks
Kobayashi sighs and responds
"No, areha, Sentaro's mom, told me that he died when Sentaro was only 6 years old " the three of them all perked and gasped up at the horrible news " she told me it was during a car accident, Sentaro was in the car with him, luckily he didn't suffer any injuries but his father was critically wounded, he was rushed to the hospital after the truck that almost collided with him called an ambulance, but he was pronounced dead when they got there, he and his mother were in a bad way about it for three years, so you can imagine what it's like for a boy to grow up without a dad an have his mother act as both parents"
"So that's why he acts the way he does" Lucoa realizes" always wanting to be alone, drawing alone, previously wanting to sleep alone, all because he lost someone so dear to him that he shut everyone out of his life. This poor little boy" Lucoa tears up cradling Sentaro to her chest
"I had no idea life could be that hard for humans too, I know what it's like to lose family, but for other reasons, and no wonder he's so accepting of dragons, because no one was around to teach him or force him to believe a certain perception of reality he developed his own" Tohru realizes as well
"Yeah that's kinda what happens when your forced to grow up with an open mindset, you tend to see things differently" Kobayashi stress once more
"But then why can't most of your kind be like Sentaro?"
"Because a lot of us are scared of new things and what we can't control and haven't been given the push to see things differently"
"That a pretty primitive and archaic way of thinking, no wonder your kind are so far behind, if you would just dump this whole perception shpeal crap your kind would be more accepting of dragons"
"I agree Tohru, but like I said not all humans see it that way, only a small percentages of our race share your mindset, Sentaro being one of them"
"Sentaro..." Kanna coos again, stroking his forehead
"Kanna..." Sentaro stirs in his sleep, Kanna gasps and bends down to wrap her arms around his neck.
Tohru looks on in contemplation, he truly was different, a cut above the rest of his kind even if they didn't choose to see it, but of course he and Kobayashi were different to begin with and the same in that regard, but where they truly physical proof that human and dragons could coexist?
"Hey Tohru, you think you could help Sentaro out with another training exercise I was thinking about?" Lucoa asks
"Sure what kind?"
"Live target practice!"
"Oooohh heheheh!" Tohru giggles deviously "sounds like fun!"
"Something tells me this isn't gonna end well.." Kobayashi flatly comments
A few minutes later, Sentaro is awake and staring up at Kanna who is light stroking his hair, this was strange to him, it was usually Lucoa who was affectionately doting over him.
"Hi" he greets
Kanna responds by patting his forehead, Sentaro sits up and pats her head tensely which she responded with a soft coo, closing her eyes at the sensation, Sentaro chuckles again, just then, Kobayashi waltzed in with a coffee mug in her hand.
"Hey kiddo! You sleep well?"
"Yeah, kinda, where are Lucoa and Tohru?"
"They're waiting outside for you, they told me they had some kind of surprise for ya!"
"Oh, alright you comin?"
"Sure kiddo, right behind ya!"
"Kanna?"
"Mhm!" She coos, grabbing his hand
"Well time's a wasting!" Sentaro gets up and along with the two girls struts out the door to find Tohru and Lucoa chatting outside
"..so I think the ruins would make an excellent training ground" Lucoa concludes, Sentaro assumed since he basically walked into they're conversation
"Training ground?" He asks
"Oh Sentaro! Your awake! You sleep well?"
"Fine, what are you two talking about?"
"Oh your surprise! Kobayashi didn't tell you?"
"She told me you had one, but not what it was, so what is it?"
"Me and Tohru decided since you learned how to make temporal portals so easily and on your first try, maybe you could learn some offensive magic, and what better way to learn than against a real threat, ergo, we're taking you to the other world!" She happily exclaims
Sentaro was floored "Y-your world?! The dystopian fantasy world?! Y-your taking me there?!"
"Surprise!" Lucoa proclaims, Sentaro jumps for joy and embraces Lucoa and squeezes as hard as he can
"YES! YES! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! My god your the best Lucoa!" He gushed and kisses her cheek
"Awfully excited! I knew you would be! Tohru if you wouldn't mind?" Lucoa asks, tohru obediently responded to her hint by creating an orange magic circle with a dark multicolored swirling vortex
"Well, shall we sweetie?" Lucoa asks, taking Sentaro's hand in hers
"You know it!" Me muses and the two step in firs with the three girls following suit
The portal opens in the ruins of an old city and the 5 of them step out into it
"Whoa, check out these ruins! But it doesn't look any different from back home" Sentaro says
"I've lived in these ruins before, trust me! you won't be saying that for long!" Tohru admits almost eerily
"Aah! it feels so different to be back! It's been a while some I've come to this place!"
"You've been here before?" Kobayashi asks
"Yeah me and Tohru always came to the ruins so I could help her master her magical powers"
"Really? well why here?" Sentaro interjects
"Oh! because of them" Lucoa nonchalantly points to a group of skeletal demons with flaming bones beginning to crawl out from the decayed ruins and advance toward them slowly
"W-what the hell are those?!" Sentaro exclaims fearfully with Kobayashi sharing his fear
"Fire wraiths! They destroyed this city a while ago and never left, that's why I brought Tohru here, they make the perfect practice dummies!"
"Yup! they were real pushovers too! You should have a problem with them"
"Lucoa what the hell?! I can't fight those things!"
"Sure you can! If your learned how to make temporal portals your next step is energy projectiles! It's simple and kinda like throwing a baseball! if you can master temporal portal physics, this should be a snap, watch this!" Lucoa summons a purple ball of energy on he fingertip and hurls it at the nearest wraith exploding on contact leaving the wraith nothing but a jumble of flame enveloped bones
"Whoa..." Sentaro awes
"Alright it's your turn sweetie!"
"W-what?!"
"Hurry it looks like one of them has taken an interest in you!" Lucoa points to one of the wraiths slowly advancing on Sentaro very suspiciously, ambling like a zombie growling and snarling, Sentaro backed away extremely fearfully, he didn't know what to do
"Lucoa stop this! That thing's gonna kill him!" Kobayashi shouts at her, but Lucoa gives her her trademark warm smile
"Trust me..." She nearly whispers, Tohru and Kanna stand by as well waiting to see the verdict.
The wraith lunges at Sentaro letting out a banshee like screech coming in with its claws aimed at his head, Sentaro turned his head and held out his hand, and when he expected to feel the searing heat from the wraith's claws but instead he heard the clatter of bones in n the ground and the sound of sizzling, he turned around to see the remains of his would be attacker reduced to nothing, then looked at his hand which was sizzling with green energy and realized what he had just done.
"What the?! How did I?..."
"Woohoo!" Lucoa cheered as she bounced up and down" You did it sweetie! Like I said, like throwing a baseball! Except it was more like a huge energy blast but hey you get my point!"
Kobayashi Tohru and kanna were all floored at what he had done, but Kobayashi the most, rivulets of sweat wee trailing down her brows and her normally dead eyes were wide with a mixture of shock and fear
"S-Sentaro.." She stutters out
"Well I'm thoroughly impressed!" Tohru admits shaking her head in awe"I didn't know the human had it in him"
"Sentaro is powerful!" Kanna exclaimsthrowing her arms in the air for emphasis" his magic went 'wshoom!' "
"Oh my god! THAT WAS SO FREAKIN AWESOME!" Sentaro bellows with joy and intoxication
"Well I'd hate to interrupt your little intoxicating realization, but it looks like some of your new friends wanna get better acquainted Sentaro!" Tohru interjects pointing out all of the remaining wraiths climbing out of the ruins like insects, Tohru and Kanna step up to lend a hand, but Sentaro stops them by holding out his hand.
"Don't worry, I got this.." He flashes a devious grin and a cold glare, it was enough to send a chill down the girls' backs, even Kobayashi's, they had never seen this side of him before, but then again he had never had a taste of incredible power enough to be drunk on it
The wraiths charged him but Sentaro stood firm and uninterested then held out his hand and formed a softball size ball of energy and hurled it at them, then repeated the process screaming an invigorated'LEEROY JENKINS' at his enemies as he more then down left and right like he was in a living rpg..which wasn't far off..
"W-well, seems he has this handled" Tohru stutters out, a little put off and frankly startled by Sentaro's sudden change in behavior
"I-I didn't expect him to take it this far, but I suppose it's incredible progress, at least he's having fun!" Lucoa says trying to find some model ground to explain his sudden outburst of demented joy and magical intoxication.
Kobayashi didn't say a thing. She couldn't, she was too shocked by this, the little boy she regarded as her stepson was a Mage, and not only that but he was displaying it in all of its glory in front of her disbelieving eyes
"I-its lie he a whole different person, and I thought I had someone to sympathize with about being normal and average, how quickly that went out the window! His abilities, his power, he's almost on pet with you guys, how the hell long had this kid kept this bottled up?!"
"Well, he's probably had to suppress it for a while because of his mother's teachings and for anger issues, but because he's somewhere where he can be himself, it sorta let loose and flipped a switch!" Lucoa explains
"So basically your saying the kid was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode?" Tohru generalizes
"Exactly!" Lucoa chirps
Sentaro walked up to them sweating and breathing heavily, slight burn marks, possibly from his multiple energy balls riddling his shirt and pants, an adrenaline induced glaze over his eyes which we're shrunken to faint circles and a large grinch style grin on his face.
"Who's next?!" He demands huskily
"I-I believe that's enough for now Sentaro...you did quite well for your first time!" Lucoa says putting her arms in his shoulders, trying to calm him down
"It felt like I was living an RPG VR game, that was hella freakin awesome!" He grabs Lucoa's torso and pulled her into a vice hug squeezing her as tightly as he could accidentally burying his head in her chest"your frickin awesome Lucoa! I love you!"
"Oh! Well what a way to compliment a lady! And you certainly never cease to amaze yourself!" She croons stroking his hair
"Don't you think it's time we headed back befor something else shows up? This doesn't seem the place to just play around in!" Kobayashi snaps the two of them back
"Yeah probably the best idea, we should-"
"What is this?" A gravely deep voice chimes in from behind them, Tohru, Kanna and Kobayashi all pulled horrified grimaces on they're faces as if they knew this person from somewhere
"T-that voice, it c-can't be" Tohru stutters utterly terrified
Sentaro looks up to behold an old burly guy with an intense glare on his face, a long scraggly gray beard and a long reddish black cloak on that had frayed ends, it was enough to frighten him out of his stupor.
"L-Lucoa who's that?"
Tohru answers that for him
"...F-father?!"
"That's her dad?!" He shouts dumbstruck
"Yes, he's the dragon emperor of the chaos faction"
"Oh man..."
"Tohru, I thought I made myself perfectly clear when I said no humans for the other world were allowed in ours why did you disobey my direct orders to you?!" He bellows angrily which shook the ground underneath our feet
"B-but father I-"
"I will not take excuses daughter! Now answer me!"
"I-I..." Tohru was speechless and frankly chastened to the point of muteness, Sentaro felt he had to do something,Tohru was his friend and a good one at that.
"W-wait! It wasn't her fault! I-I wanted to come here!" Sentaro interjected stepping in front of Tohru, the king shot his intense glare to him which cut thought Sentaro like a sword, making the boy sweat bullets of fear
"Silence! No worthless human has any place or voice in this matter! I knew my daughter could not be trusted to uphold our laws, she is weak! And has grown soft during her time in your world, henceforth she will remain here"
"But father!-" his glare immediately silences her and she looks swim with contempt and despair
"Yes father..."
"No!" Sentaro stands firm and glares up at him"she's not going anywhere! I don't care who you are even you are the "dragon emperor"! It's Tohru's choice on where she wants to be! And as her father you should be willing to let her live by her own morals! Not stifle her and force her to grow up and be like you! Obviously she doesn't want that anymore! And why should you forever her to be something she's not?!" Tohru was awed by Sentaro's words, he was defending her just like Kobayashi did, she couldn't believe it, and she didn't know what to believe then.
The Emperor was getting impatient, and he wasn't going to stand for disrespect
"Who do you think you are?! Do you know who you're talking to you lowly human wretch?!"
"Yeah! A stuck up ritualistic asshole forcing his beliefs on his only daughter just to fit his selfish and narrow minded agenda!-"
"ENOUGH!" The dragon Emperor roars blasting a flame based ball of engeey from his hand and hitting Sentaro dead on sending him into a pillar, knocking the wind out of him and rendering him unconscious, the girls all let out horrified gasps and pulled grimaces over they're faces as the boy slumped to the ground.
"SENTARO!" They all cried out in despair
"Unforgivable, this runt thinks he can stand against me! I will teach him to pick fights completely out of his league! What an absolute nuisance'" The Emperor lands on the ground and charges another ball of energy, but Tohru dashes in front of him and unfurls her wings glaring down at him with rage fueled eyes
"Stop this father! This has gone far enough!"
"You'd dare take this human's side as well over your own kind?! Have you gone insane?!"
"Father..I once told you I respected you as a dragon, but as a human, I respected Kobayashi more, and now I respect him as well, he taught me an even now important lesson, that some humans can be trusted and that war and carnage aren't everything, that life is about more than endless slaughtering and annihilation! Why can't you respect that?!"
The Emperor thought I this comment for a second, peering down at his daughter with disbelief
"Because the very notion is preposterous and sickening! Trusting humans?! I have not changed my answer or my mind daughter! I will never agree to this or your decisions! I respected that woman because she was willing to show me just how much she claimed to care about you, but this boy blatantly insulted me! That will not go unpunished! Now move aside daughter or I will remove you myself!" He threatens, until Lucoa steps In front of Tohru and stares him down
"Out of my way Quetzalcoatl"
"I wouldn't if I were you...if you wanna get to him, you'll have to get through me, and do you honestly want to challenge a goddess?" Lucoa mildly warns opening both of ever now glowing eyes, steam emanating from them, the emperor twitches slightly, he knew that he could challenge her but it wouldn't end well
"Look at you all, defending humans, how low you have fallen.. And you call yourselves dragons" he turns tolerable but gives Tohru his parting words
"Tohru, my forever foolish daughter, one day you will understand that you can't keep up this little charade, and you know you can't, battle and bloodshed are in your nature, one day you will see..." And with that the emperor leaped into the sky and disappears into an invisible time rift.
"Tohru.." Lucoa says, to which she turns to looks at her the Lucoa comes into give Tohru a tight hug" thank you, thank you so much for defending him, If something were to happen to him..I-I don't!..." Lucoa's voice began to break as she started sobbing
"Shhhh! I understand, your welcome.."
She then looked to Kobayashi, who gave her an 'I'm proud of you' smile.
"I think it's high time we really left!" Kobayashi proclaims
Tohru nods and pulls Lucoa together, then she opens up a portal to the human world and they all depart on a rather bittersweet note.
About an hour later, Sentaro jolts awake and gasps audibly.
"TOHRU!" He shouts
"Yeah?" Said dragoness asks, he turns to see her sitting beside him dabbing some rubbing alcohol on his head
"W-what happened? Why are we back?"
"Well after my father left, Kobayashi felt it was time we left the other world, plus you took a rather nasty hit from hm, normally a fireball from him would kill anything it hit, bit for some reason he pulled his punches around you and only left you with a scar! Surprisingly he's never that lenient with humans, ever! What you aid to him must have really gotten under his skin!" Tohru explains
"Wow! I never thought I get through to a dragon! Let alone an emperor!" He looks down at his chest to find his shirt singed and bandages wrapped around his chest
"Well you got through to me, and thank you Sentaro"
"For what?"
"For standing up for me! Even if you had no chance of succeeding in the altercation! Or even if it wasn't your business! You defended me and my ideals as if I were your closest friend"
"You are Tohru! I wasn't going to let that guy talk to one of the most energetic, funny and amazing girls I have ever met any kind of way! You are indebted to Kobayashi and therefore her family, and any friend or family of Kobayashi's is a friend of mine, we'll always be pals Tohru"
He holds out his hand, which Tohru takes and the two share a firm friendship shake
"I was wrong about you Sentaro, I apologize for thinking of you as just another one of those pathetic male human"
"It's ok Tohru, I couldn't hold a grudge to save my life!"
The two share a chuckle which turns into a full fledged laughing fest, then we see Kanna Kobayashi and Lucoa looking on happily to two fast friends reconciling and enjoying each other's company.
"Tohru has changed so much Kobayashi" Lucoa starts"it seems my sweetie just brings out the best in her! And I had never seen him act so brave until today, I actually thought I was gonna lose him" she remarks grimly
"So did I Lucoa, but somehow, it didn't come to that, last time I talked with Tohru's father he blasted the glasses right off my face! And I thought when he had Sentaro at his most vulnerable he would have killed him, but he didn't! What he said must have really made him think!"
"He questioned his authority, and made him question his own morals, moe than likely now he respects Sentaro for that like he respects you for claiming you care about Tohru"
"That kid never ceases to amaze..."
"No he doesn't, and think about it, this is only the beginning of it all"
"Ya got that right! Well for better or worse, this is gonna be one long adventure filled summer and I can't wait to see what comes next..."
"Neither can I Kobayashi...neither can I" Lucoa sighs contently, staring fondly at the two giggling friends