Chapter 44: Earned Life (Part 10)

Of all the various things Haruki had expected of his daughter, of all the possible directions life could have taken his darling girl both blessed and cursed as she was…arguing with her friends - friends she had made in a very small amount of time - in a very juvenile but nonetheless endearing manner hadn't been one of them.

"And just what, precisely, need I do to convince you that your view of True Magic is completely and inexorably wrong?"

"I was born into a time when mystery may as well have been True Magic in its potency, witnessed and experienced it firsthand. If that is not a certificate of competence then I fear this dialogue may as well end right here and now."

…The subject matter was of less innocent and immature nature, granted.

"I am connected to the Root of All Things, if that does not immediately lend credence to my words then it at least trumps whatever primitive understanding you have of the topic, understanding that you hacked onto tablets of stone in a barely legible form at that."

Haruki resisted the urge to sigh, instead grabbing the platter of cookies that he'd just finished baking and made to swiftly bring them to the living room before the house was destroyed, a golden glow suffusing the area before there was a heavy thunk of something hitting the coffee table.

"I wield one of the tools of genesis as my personal blade and have used it on more than one occasion, its allegiance to me and me alone. I daresay that is more a practical and trustworthy source than mere theorycrafting-"

"OW! FUCK, MY EYES!"

"Oh, umm…sorry, Nanashi. Eh heh heh~?"

Grimacing at Nanashi's sudden shout of aggravation Haruki braced himself for anything as he entered the room proper, still feeling what little sense of normalcy he possessed promptly booted out the front door.

Desperately rubbing his eyes as they leaked clear fluid while Tiamat soothingly rubbed his back Nanashi was grumbling under his breath, Gilgamesh sheepishly scratching her cheek as a large spiral sword more reminiscent of an esoteric drill rested on the table, Abigail seeming amused by the series of events while Manaka was shooting a death glare a the Heroic Spirit.

"Someone needs to warn me the next time they bring out some kind of crime against reality. What the hell even IS that thing, Gil?"

"Sorry, Nanashi. I forgot Ea would probably have an adverse effect on those that try to examine it."

"You think?!"

Abigail giggled before playfully pulling on the youth's ear, teasing, "You should know better than to stare at a lady's private articles, Nanashi."

"Hah hah."

"And our kind's oldest queen should know better than to casually unleash such dangerous artifacts in his presence. Harming one's friend? How brutish."

Knowing that his little girl's words were a neutron stone tossed about in a fine china house Haruki was quick to intervene, placing the tray of iced tea and cookies on the table as Tiamat was quick to hum her thanks, taking one of each while giving the manifested Noble Phantasm a wide berth and wary look.

"Why thank you, this looks delicious~!"

As always Abigail was cheerful and more than happy to receive his treats with a large smile, the older man idly reflecting that it was painfully easy to forget she now held the power of an Outer God at her beck and call…that she essentially WAS one of the eldritch entities.

Shaking his head clear of that thought he instead turned to Manaka, gently admonishing her with, "Basic politeness to guests never lead anyone astray, Manaka. Do try to keep your temper in better check."

Nibbling with great contentment on one of the desserts as the Magus looked as if she'd just bit into something sour Gilgamesh teased, "Indeed, you should take after your father's disposition more. Polite, attentive, maturely handsome…I would have happily accepted him as a consort during the time of my rule."

Manaka's response was visceral and immediate, face flushing red and cheek ballooning outwards in indignation, pointing a finger Gilgamesh's way as she authoritatively decreed, "Papa is mine, not yours! And that's final!"

A smug, winning grin crossed the Heroic Spirit's features as she teased, "Are you willing to put that claim to the test? I have a number of potions that could accelerate my aging-"

The hum of activated magic circuits and a mad glint in Manaka's eye was answer enough, Gilgamesh giggling at the display as Nanashi - still nursing his wounded eyes - grumbled, "Abigail, Tiamat, can you stop them before they destroy the place? I'm still blind."

Deciding to take his leave and hopefully remove one of the reasons for conflict Haruki retreated to the kitchen, Ayaka trying and failing to hide her giggles from where she was completing her homework on one of the counters.

"Are you doing alright, papa?"

"I just had one of the oldest Heroic Spirits casually place a priceless Noble Phantasm on our coffee table, profess a dire to keep me as a manservant while an Outer God, Goddess and True Magician watched as if it was all a play or nursed unintentional injuries…"

He trailed off, eventually shaking his head.

"And, as a Magus, all I could think was that I hoped I wouldn't have to purchase brand new furniture. Or if I should consider a homecooked dinner for later or traverse the easy route with takeout."

Seemingly understanding his point Ayaka merely nodded, replying, "We were always a bit of a bad Magus family. Even sister wasn't very normal in that regard, when I look back on it."

Smiling at the more open and confident demeanor of his once demure and meek daughter she abruptly grinned in a manner that was unsettlingly close to her older sibling's, asking, "What would mother have thought of Gilgamesh's offer?"

Casting his mind back to his late wife Haruki felt his lips twitch upwards in reminiscence. She had certainly lived up to her looks in personality as well, almost perpetually demure and deferential to his decisions and desires despite being quite brilliant in her own right…it made the seven times she had wanted something more than anything else borderline frightening in intensity.

After all, he had been one of those seven.

"I think even the Queen of Heroes would find herself on the backfoot, Ayaka."

Considering the fact that the Sajyou's garden was in a perpetual state of bloom and brilliance the sight of a twisting tower of wood completely absent of its leaves was a bit of an outlier…it also meant Nanashi had fallen a bit short of the mark yet again, the homunculus huffing out a breath of frustration as he deactivated his Mystic Eyes, now no longer feeling like he'd shoved a kitchen knife into them.

"What about this time, Manaka?"

Briefly gaining a far away look in her eyes the girl nodded happily a moment later, replying, "It is still recorded within the records, you can now consistently perform this action."

"Although you had hoped to erase the entire tree, had you not?"

Gilgamesh's blunt words originated from the male's left, the Queen of Heroes currently in the process of braiding Tiamat's hair while Abigail lounged nearby, kicking her legs and watching a ladybug crawl its way across a patch of grass.

"Don't be so mean to him, Nanashi is working really hard and managed to do something really impressive~!"

Abigail's words were accompanied by Tiamat thinking for a moment since she didn't want to nod her head, instead presenting a thumbs up and simple utterance of 'fight on' that had him snorting in amusement.

"Looks like all that TV watching has given her lots of catchphrases to choose from."

Good cheer lost as he turned back towards the target of his experiments Nanashi scratched his head in frustration, wondering just what he was doing wrong.

The experiment was simple on paper, a lot less so in execution. Manaka would grow a tree with her magecraft - so as to have a closer and more intimate connection with it - before he attempted to remove it from their reality…and only their reality, ensuring the tree would be recorded in the records so that Manaka could retrieve its information since they wouldn't have a clue as to whether it had worked or not.

Turns out trying to test whether something had actually been erased from the collective consciousness of all living things was a bit tricky.

"Especially when I don't actually know how to hold myself back or alter things properly."

Before this latest round of experiments he'd always gone all in with his True Magic, erasing things using his Mystic Eyes to their fullest potential regardless of consequence…that wasn't on the table anymore and he'd quickly hit a rather massive hurdle.

Namely that he didn't have a fucking clue how to hold himself in check. Activating his abilities had always occurred by first using his eyes to view the common origin point of a person or object and then forcing his will against that connection, willing it to disappear. He'd never been concerned with doing things halfway and now was at a loss.

How did one impose their will on the fabric of reality but only halfway?

His latest attempt at jankily fixing the issue had been to physically shut his eyes right before trying to erase the tree from existence, cutting off his Mystic Eye's ability and relying on the hazy and diffuse mental image of the thing to ensure it was only partially erased.

Except he found himself only focusing on one aspect of the tree and the rest slipped from his mind, leading to the strange case where specific parts of it were vanishing from their singular reality but the rest remained.

For obvious reasons he also didn't feel like relying on having to time closing his eyes in the first place, that was asking for trouble.

"Mind giving it another go, Manaka? Might as well keep trying, maybe I just need practice, as annoying as it is to say."

"Perhaps I should become a gardener? After all I would wager that after this is well and done I will be a rather fair hand at the growing and caring of plants."

"And you would love to have him help plow your fresh and waiting to be seeded fields, yes~?"

Both Nanashi and Manaka blushed at the innuendo, Abigail openly giggling at Gilgamesh's teasing while Tiamat just rolled her eyes, no doubt wondering why they were so shy about such things after having already fucked like animals.

"All jokes aside why are you so upset and impatient, Nanashi? By any sane metric you have made incredible progress with your mastering of a True Magic."

Abigail nodded in agreement, stating, "You didn't seem to mind taking your time beforehand, what's the rush now?"

Curling his fingers into a fist the homunculus grumbled, "Because I'm so close. Before it wasn't that big of a deal because the finish line was far off. Now I'm just a single step away and I don't know how to cross it aside from bashing my head against a wall until it breaks."

Ayaka walked over to them after having refilled a collection of water glasses, stating, "Unfortunately that's how most normal magecraft and other such disciplines go. The rate at which you've learned and progressed through things is actually quite astonishing, Nanashi. Magus families can go several generations before making a significant advancement in their chosen craft."

Once again huffing out a resigned and grumpy breath the homunculus just forced himself to keep working at it, opening his eyes wide as with a rusting of green and brown the tree regrew its leaves at Manaka's command.

"Perhaps if you had learnt this True Magic in a non ridiculous manner this would not be so difficult…honestly, who attempts to master a primordial force of the universe through guesswork?"

"The guy you're dating. Now let me work, please."

A few more attempts followed, each just as partially successful as the last as the homunculus felt himself quickly becoming resigned to the fact that everyone was right, that he was going to be at this for a long time to come.

"Hopefully the Counter Force doesn't decide I'm taking too long. We didn't exactly agree on any specific time frame but I-"

"Umm, Nanashi?"

Turning to Ayaka as she frowned in contemplation the girl slowly asked, "Do you always have to use both your eyes to properly use your Magic?"

Blinking at the unexpected inquiry he haltingly replied, "Umm…I guess so? To be honest I never really tried it any other way. Don't you have to use both eyes? Hence why they're called Mystic Eyes and not Mystic Eye?"

The youth felt a steadily encroaching wave of embarrassed indignation as the group stared at him.

"Please don't tell me my lackluster education is about to come bite me in the ass again."

"Try doing what you were before, Nanashi, but just use one eye."

Gritting his teeth and sort of hoping Ayaka was wrong about this the homunculus closed one eyelid, let the other spin to life as the world exploded into expanded perception-

-and released a loud, exasperated curse of, "Oh for FUCK'S sake!"

"Ooh, that sounds like a yes."

Abigail's amused comment did nothing to lessen Nanashi's aggravation, the youth gnashing his teeth in sheer, impotent irritation. Using only one eye - something he had never once thought to try - made his ability to follow the path of something to the Root a hell of a lot more blurry and indistinct. Normally a bad thing but in this case - when he was trying to only affect a 'portion' of the object in question - he could rely on his muted vision to ensure he didn't accidentally destroy the entirety of the thing from all of the multiverse.

"If this works I'm going to be both incredibly happy and incredibly pissed. Alright, here goes."

Taking a deep breath he willed the out Soof focus and muted pathways of the tree to disappear-

-and blinked as he was left staring at nothing, deactivating his eyes before turning to Manaka, the girl glancing down at the notepad they had written beforehand so that they knew what to look for…and a wondrous smile blossomed across her features.

"It's still there, Nanashi. You did it!"

A surge of euphoria, relief and general irritability coursed through the male's body, lips splitting in a shark's grin as he said, "Today, Ayaka, you proved to be a hell of a lot smarter than all of us combined."

"W-well, you know I…Nanashi?!"

Briefly wondering why the brown-haired magus sounded so concerned it was only after a moment that the male realized he was falling towards the ground, grass and dirt rising up to meet him-

-before finding himself standing on a darkened path, ethereal mist drifting about as a familiar red shadow stood before him.

"Oh…guess we're having that meeting now, aren't we?"

Welcome to the last few chapters of Unnatural Life! It took me a little bit but I managed to get the rest of the story written down despite the summer heat, they'll be releasing every couple days as opposed to the roughly two weeks everything else was.

Enjoy!