Disclaimer: No, I don't own PoT, sob

Chapter 18

Sakuno thanked Ryoma for sending her home, and stood on the doorstep, watching him leave. As she turned around, she directed the door to "Open". Stepping through, she asked it to close behind her.

Her grandmother had not returned yet, which meant she could practice a little magic around the house for a bit. Sakuno was already used to living in a magical household, she could and would use her magic to perform everyday. But Sumire was not used to seeing things flying around the house, doors suddenly opening and pots and pans washing themselves in the sink. As such, they had an agreement: Sakuno would use her magic when Sumire wasn't around, at least for the time being, until Sumire got used to her granddaughter's power. Sumire did concede that not having to clean the house manually was an advantage of the magic.

Sakuno studied the contents of the refrigerator as she decided what to cook for their dinner. The ingredients flew out one by one and started washing and chopping themselves at the sink. A pot filled itself half full of water and went to sit on the stove, seconds before the stove lit itself up. Rice was washed and set to cook.

Mayu had taught her many culinary skills, since even witches had to eat. Dishes that Sakuno could cook using her hands, she could replicate the method to reproduce the dish. Sumire had a problem watching vegetables get chopped up and meat get marinated all of their own accord.

Sakuno once tried to conjure the finished dishes out of thin air, but discovered that food had to be worked for or paid for; otherwise it would not fill her stomach. The transfer spell was also not useful in this instance, since she didn't want to take away someone else's dinner.

While the kitchen was filled with happy sounds of utensils and cutlery, Sakuno took a hot shower then started on her magic practice. She reflected on the guidelines and was happy to find that she was upholding the reputation of Ryuuzaki witches pretty well. She had made so many new friends at her first day of school, compliments to her aunt for remaking the shy Sakuno. Life back in Tokyo was looking right peachy.

Moving on to actual practice, Sakuno opened several notebooks containing spells she had copied from her aunt. She was currently trying to master a Sight spell, one that could help her see what was happening then anywhere on the earth. More practice would ensure that she could control the spell better and use up less energy casting it in future.

She had started on this before she left Osaka, and back there, her aunt's method for her training was to let Kurokuro out of the house and ask Sakuno to find him. Normal people should not feel it when they were being Sighted, but magical entities could. In Sakuno's mind, every time she finally found Kurokuro, the cat would hiss irritably in her direction, protesting the invasion of his privacy.

Now that she was back in Tokyo she was tempted to Sight Kurokuro, the spoilt familiar belonging to her aunt, one more time, just to see how he was doing. The cat really wasn't that scary after she got to know him. Two years together had taught her almost all of the feline's quirks. She tried to remember if there was any thing in the house that she could transfer to Kurokuro, to appease the feline for being her Sight target. Ah, she had some cherry flavored sweets. Kurokuro had a weakness for cherries and cherry-flavored anything.

Mayu once gave him a cherry-flavored mouse-shaped chew toy, which Kurokuro grudgingly played with. He loved cherry, but Kurokuro was way, way above chasing and eating mice. He was a witch's familiar, and he deserved better respect, especially from said witch. Apparently he told Mayu exactly that, and Mayu had laughed when relating the conversation to Sakuno. Kurokuro had gotten rid of the toy almost as soon as the flavor was gone.

Sakuno stood in the middle of her room, raising her arms out in front of her, closing her eyes but opening her other senses as she sought the faraway place in Osaka. In her mind, she was flying over Tokyo, seeing buildings fly past far below her as though she was a bird. There was Osaka, and there was Mayu's house. She looked around outside and on the roof, not seeing Kurokuro anywhere. She was reluctant to enter the house, for surely Mayu could feel her if she did, and it was rather rude to enter people's houses without permission, even if she was only there in spirit.

Just as she was hesitating, she saw her aunt bend out of the 2nd storey window and wave at the sky. Sakuno smiled. So, Mayu already knew she was there. Sakuno looked in through the 2nd storey window to find her aunt busy mixing up one of her potions in her large workroom and Kurokuro was just being lazy on the couch. Laughing, Sakuno transferred the sweets onto the coffee table in front of the couch. Kurokuro looked towards her, suitably annoyed at having his nap disturbed then pounced on the sweets, rudely turning away from the window. Sakuno laughed again when she saw his tail wave happily as he started on the treats.

Mayu saw the present to her cat and smiled towards the window. Mayu weaved her hands in the air, in the pattern for the transfer spell, and then blew a kiss towards the open window. Sakuno then withdrew from the house she had gotten to know so well, and returned to her self. On a guess, she went down to check the cookie jar Mayu gave her as a 'graduation present', together with several cookie recipes. Sure enough, there were fresh chocolate chip cookies in there straight from her aunt's kitchen.

Smiling to herself, Sakuno took a cookie and sat down to enjoy it at the kitchen table.

One evening two years back, she was doing this same thing in this same spot.

She fondly recalled her stay in Osaka. Her aunt was very kind to her, and taught her many things. Sakuno also had access to many books on magic and magic usage. It was the books that got her all hyped up about trying out new spells. Her aunt could only teach her simple spells that were useful around the house, but the books held much greater treasures.

Mayu was not ambitious in her craft so she never tried the more complicated spells, she also suspected her meager power was not capable of handling those spells. But Sakuno was different. Sakuno could learn and control the higher level spells. Mayu didn't encourage Sakuno to master those spells, for most of them were destructive ones, but she didn't discourage her from exploring her gift either.

All Mayu said was, "Power attracts power. Be aware of what you are doing. And always be very careful not to hurt yourself or others." And Sakuno dutifully paid heed to her words.

Sakuno was so caught up in her reflections, she didn't recover until dinner was done, and the finished dishes were plunking down in front of her.

Checking the clock, she saw that her Obaa-chan would be coming back soon. She quickly set the dirty utensils to wash and arranged the dinnerware properly. Just as the pots were settling back on their shelves, all clean and dry, Sumire's voice rang out from the entryway, Sakuno called out a greeting on her return.

Then, the family of two sat down to enjoy the well-prepared dinner with fresh cookies to follow, chatting throughout about Sakuno's new school and Sumire's students.