Disclaimer: I do not own DanMachi or any of the Omori's original characters, nor do I make any profit off of my writing.
"And you're sure this will work?"
Bell was hopeful but less than minimally confident. He wanted it to work, but honestly, what were the odds going to be?
Lenoa seemed to be off the same mind and she smacked him with her ladle, scowling down at her.. concoction. "For the last time! I! Don't! Know!"
He frowned. "But- "
The ladle was once again beared toward him as she lifted her head to glare at him from beneath the brim of her hat. "You finish that sentence and I will find more entertaining ways to distract you."
Bell sighed.
That was the cruz of the problem, Lenoa had kept saying things like 'distract you' and 'keeping an idiot busy' and he couldn't help but think this was all an elaborate prank. A ruse. But why would Lenoa lie to him?
All he had done was show up at her shop almost a month ago, never leave, pester her constantly on her secrets to the arcane arts, and all-in-all was a general nuisance.
He just didn't get it.
All he wanted was to be a witch like her, was that so wrong?
Of course, Lenoa would always snap back with an indignant 'I'm not a witch, you daft idiot!' but the pointed nose, red warts, long chin, tall hat, and the fact that her shop was called the 'Witch's Secret House' would say otherwise. No normal person spent that long in front of a cauldron either.
No matter how much she denied it, he was confident that she was a witch.
If only he was as confident in his ability to perform this ritual.
It was a simple ritual, one that he found in a book the witch had thrust into his arms after his first day in the store. It was in some weird language, something appearing more in symbols and heiroglyphs than the alphabet he was used to. It took a while (and he means a while) but he finally cracked the code!
Kind of.
He figured out one spell!
Maybe.
He had no idea.
There was a picture depicting where to draw chalk lines and a few drawn out ingredients. So yes, he never cracked the code, and yes he was really entirely on pictures to complete a very complicated and possibly dangerous ritual.
There was no but with that statement, that was exactly what he was doing.
Bell raised the book up and squinted down at the pages before peering over the top and checking over his work one last time.
Chalk circle? Immaculate and unaltered.
Ear of sabertooth? Gross as ever.
Eye of bloodsaurus? Just as unsettling as the last time he saw it.
Bat drool? Evaporated.
Shit.
He really should have considered that.
The white-haired witch's apprentice sighed as he plodded his way to the back room, resigning himself to the flurry of scratches and bites that would greet him.
Bats did not like him.
The feeling was mutual.
Ten minutes later, after a symphony and screams and squeals erupted from the back of the store, a bandaged clad boy dragged himself through the doorway and placed the newly acquired vial on the ground.
What was next?
Distilled terror.
What?
He glanced back toward where the bat's were making whatever noise bat's make. He was certain that there would be enough terror in the air for a while now. That was probably fine.
Plus, he couldn't really say for sure if that was what the ritual required anyway. All he had was a cartoonish angry face to go off and he just filled in the gaps himself.
Distilled terror seemed far more 'witchy' than 'angry face.'
Bell hummed to himself as he checked over a few more ingredients, ignorant to Lenoa's smirk behind him. She really had outdone herself this time. Her pranks on the boy had been just about the only reason she hadn't thrown him to the Ganesha familia guards for trespassing.
It was amusing.
Bell paused at the last item on the page, one he somehow missed all of the previous times he's read through it. How had he missed it? He tapped his finger on the picture a few more times before turning the book toward his teacher. "Mistress Lenoa?"
Just like that all of her amusement was swept away. "Would you stop calling me that! Do you know what people will think if they hear that?"
Bell blinked and cocked his head to the side innocently. "That you've taken an apprentice?"
She gave him a look and made a grab for her ladle once again and Bell clamped his mouth shut. After a brief moment of silence where neither of the two spoke, Bell realizes she was waiting for him to ask his question.
He pointed to the picture that stumped him. "Do you think this looks like me?"
And just like that all of her amusement was back. It was a rather good representation of Bell's face if she does say so herself. She was rather proud of it.
"Hmm? No?"
Well that was about all of the reassurance Bell needed. His mistress would never lie to him.
He shrugged. "Do you know what ingredient it is?"
"The essence of a fool."
Bell blinked. "M'kay. Where does one get that?"
"Witch's secret."
"But I am a witch."
"A witch has completed a spell."
"Oh."
".. "
".. "
".. okay! Thanks mistress!"
Lenoa shook her head ruefully as she continued stirring her stew. She honestly did not understand how the boy could think she was making potions when the ingredients consisted of peppers, beed, wine, onions, carrots, and potatoes.
The essence of a fool. That was a supply Bell would never run dry with. An infinite pool in that young boy.
Over in the corner of the shop, Bell checked over the list once again.
'Measure twice, cut once.' That's what his grandpa had always said. Sure, that was about woodworking; and yes, he'd already checked twice. But if measuring twice was good, why not throw in a bonus third time?
Ear. Eye. Drool. Claws. Cobwebs. Terror. Idiocy. Whiskers. Hemlock. Cattail.
Everything seemed in order.
Bell nodded once to himself and began the incantation. He didn't know what the words said but he could certainly try his hardest to pronounce them right! That one kind of looked like it would make an 'en' sound and that one most definitely like a 'clay'. Of course, how could he forget the 'ierbfgeirug' letter (symbol?) right there.
Oh yeah, he was doing this right.
At some point during his pattern of choking and hacking that he called an incantation, the door to the shop opened and an elven woman wandered in, her young apprentice at her side. Lenoa had greeted them.. well, not unkindly but certainly not kindly. It was rather difficult to discuss their business when Bell was still going to town on his voice box.
He was going to be feeling that in the morning.
Riveria blinked at the young man.
"What is all that?"
Lenoa sighed.
"My entertainment for the past month."
The high elf woman raised an eyebrow and made a gesture for the witch to go on. "He wandered into my shop almost a month ago, raving about the 'arcane and demonic arts' and how he'd always dreamed of being a witch. He was rather certain (and unapologetic) that I was one such witch. He asked me to train him. I smacked him. He asked again. And again. And again. Eventually I just wrote some gibberish in a book to shut him up and he hasn't left since."
Riveria stared at her with one closed high, already feeling the headache coming on.
"And why, pray tell, did you not just have him thrown out?"
"Like I said. Entertainment."
Riveria opened her mouth to say some rather scathing remarks about not feeding insanity but she was rudely cut off by an explosion. A cloud of white like mist exploded from the corner of the store, enveloping the boy and billowing toward the three onlookers. Lefiya coughed and heaved as she waved a hand through the air trying to dispel it. Riveria was far more forward thinking and opened the front door to give the cloud an escape.
When the dust had finally settled, they were greeted with a rather odd sight.
The boy was (unfortunately for Lenoa) still alive and breathing. Well, upon a second glance, the 'breathing' was questionable at best. He seemed to have forgotten how if his worryingly red face was anything to go by.
Oddly enough, all of the ritual's ingredients were gone, simply disappearing like the smoke, fading into oblivion.
The chalk ritual circle flashed one more time before vanishing as well.
How odd.
Of course, it was rather hard to miss the-
"Nyaa!"
-stark naked cat woman.
What?
Riveria quickly removed her cloak and draped it over the girl's shoulders, shrouding her body, while Lefiya slapped a palm over the young.. witch's? Eyes. Was he a witch? It certainly seemed like it. Riveria knew Lenoa wasn't actually a wish, she just had rather eccentric spells from her falna and grimoires and liked to embrace their nature. But this seemed very witchy.
She'd probably ask the boy if he wasn't out cold. The combination of blood loss by nose bleed and blunt force trauma by flustered young elf's hands being too much for him to handle.
The high elf turned to an equally wide-eyed Lenoa.
"Well, I'll be.. I didn't expect that."
"Oh? You didn't expect the boy to create a person? Really, Lenoa? You didn't?"
Riveria knew she wasn't acting the part of crown princess anymore but could she be blamed for that? The kid created a person! A full ass person! (Emphasis on the ass! So much ass!) A person who was, admittedly, rather dimwitted and most definitely had a problem drooling if the newest ingredient to Lenoa's stew was anything to go by.
The cloaked girl had wasted almost no time crossing the room and standing above the bubbling cauldron, staring down at the liquid's surface as she got lost in its depths.
So beautiful.
So succulent.
She wanted it.
She was going to drink it.
She stuck a hand into the liquid and tried to scoop some of the beef and vegetables out but quickly recoiled with a scream at the scalding temperature.
Never one to be deterred (in her singular minute of life that is), she tried again.
For some reason, it didn't feel any better that time.
Perhaps a third try would yield a different result?
Lenoa blinked in rapid succession before letting out a noncommittal hum. "Too much essence of a fool perhaps?"
She'd need to update the recipe.
The girl sulked as she stuck her entire hand in her mouth to cool it down. With her current challenge obviously impossible, she broke her streak of never being deterred. A sad event, truly, it only lasted three minutes. Perhaps her next would be even longer.
She glanced around the room, her tail idly shifting the cloak around her as it spun and twisted in her excitement. Occasionally, pale skin would peak out from its folds as her front was exposed, her tail pushing the rear to far back. If Bell was still awake, he wouldn't have been for long.
Speaking of Bell-
"Master! What happened to nyou! Nyaa!"
-the girl had finally realized his current state, slumped over a crumpled display case.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Hey everybody! Guess whose back?
I'm happy to let you all know that I've got a great drop of fics for you all this week and next, starting with 5 today! I've written over 100,000 words and nearly 40 chapters for all of your enjoyment! (Though with twelve whole days to release them all you can bet your butts I'm going to be writing more!)
Story releases will continue around 5 p.m. EST every day between December 13th and December 25th. Happy Holidays!
Now, you may be asking "why?" which is fair. I said I was taking a little bit of a vacation and now I'm proving that I did the exact opposite of that! Well, the answer is pretty simple! I'm asking for all of your support in raising money for a charity fundraiser I help head with my university, all of the information is included in my profile but I can assure you it's for a very good cause! Head over there to check out more about it.
Any amount you can spare will be truly helpful, if all of my followers alone (and that's only about 1/10 of my viewers) were to donate just $2 that's already over $700 we'll have raised which is honestly crazy!
Oh, also I've started doing my own artwork for some of my characters. Check out my Deviant Art page to see the first few members of the Astraea familia that I've been working on for Great Spirit of the Skies. More coming soon!