Age 5
"You're doing it wrong," Raiha said suddenly, looking up from the book she was engrossed in. Nick glanced up from his intense one-player game of chess. He had been trying to play both sides and challenge himself and provoke further thinking, but it didn't really work.
Nick was now nine years old, and Raiha five. The girl seemed to get used to the nickname after he and Dunya had called her such several times. The two of them were sitting in the library, peacefully undisturbed by pesky servants or tutors, frankly ignoring each other's presences in order to fully enjoy their own past time. "Excuse me?" He asked, turning to her. Nick did not expect for Raiha to be the one initiating the conversation.
The younger girl shifted uncertainly for a moment before shrugging and slowly getting up from her comfortable position in a velvet seat, setting her book down on the table. "If you really want to checkmate in as few moves as possible, it would be better if you did this…" She moved the knight. "They would move either here, here, or here." She tapped on a few possible spots that the king would move to.
"Predictably, if they move to one of these two spots, you can move your rook to put them in check again, or you can do the same with the third spot by using that bishop, then they'll be forced to move to here." She gestured to several positions on the board. "...and then do this." With a simple move of her pawn, Raiha had put the opposing player in checkmate.
There was a moment of charged silence, as both individuals stayed still, waiting for the stalemate to be broken by one or the other.
Nick stared in dead silence at his companion for a moment, not even questioning whatever book she must have read to learn the rules of chess, as he simply set down his king and proposed, "Would you like to play a game with me?"
Raiha gave him a grin, her eyes shining with both excitement and anticipation. There was a glint in her eyes that reminded Nick of a predator's eyes, and inwardly he shivered, remaining a cool exterior as his tutors had taught him. "Alright, but just one game," she consented.
They ended up playing for at least six hours after that, finally being interrupted by one of Nick's tutors who had finally found him for his afternoon lessons. What the tutor had found was quite an amusing scene: two young children hunched over a chessboard, looking like old men who had suffered through a long war. There was a paper tallying the number of wins for both players, and just as the tutor curiously glanced over at it, the teal haired girl had set down her rook and smiled enigmatically.
"Checkmate. Raiha: 8, Nick: 7."
Yamuraiha admitted there was something satisfying about playing board games with Nick in her free time. She would never admit it out loud, but she honestly enjoyed being challenged, and despite the fact that Nick was only ten years old, he was very much a worthy opponent.
And it seemed as if he acknowledged the same of Yamuraiha.
She smiled again as she set down the checker piece (both of them had agreed to stop playing chess for a bit after the twentieth round or so), asking, "Care to try again?"
Nick sent her a glare. "Of course," he said with the pompous attitude that only a prince could have, although there was a slightly teasing tone to his words that lessened the actual seriousness. "I can't have a commoner beating me, after all. I wouldn't have the right to call myself the crown prince of Musta'sim."
Unbeknownst to both of them, smiles had curled on both of their lips.
"Take that," Nick said triumphantly, setting down his King. They were playing a board game reminiscent of the Japanese game go, and Yamuraiha had completely and utterly lost. She kept miscalculating, all because of the same wretched rule she always forgot. The pieces didn't move: the player placed more on the battlefield, one move at a time. At the last moment Nick had used a saved piece in his hand to turn the tides on Yamuraiha's winning streak.
"Not fair," she said, crossing her hands over her chest almost poutily. "If this was a real battle you can't randomly send troops into the middle of the battlefield."
"If this was a real battle you should know the rules and prepare for all outcomes," Nick countered easily, still sporting a grin as he had finally beaten Yamuraiha in a board game, with him winning five games and Yamuraiha three.
"Tch." Yamuraiha was a very petty person and also was extremely competitive and defensive, a trait she shared with the original Yamuraiha. She said gruffly, "You totally got lucky. I demand a rematch."
"Don't be a sore loser, now…" Nick started, obviously enjoying his power as the two of them stiffened when the library doors slammed open.
"P-Prince Nicholas! Your father's guests are here, and he requests that your Highness and Princess Dunya to come greet them." The messenger stammered, obviously having heard the rumors of the crown prince spending an obscene amount of time holed up in the library with the magician's daughter.
Nick and Yamuraiha simultaneously scowled at having their matches interrupted, but somewhat reluctantly Nick stood up and gave Yamuraiha a nod before leaving. Curiously, she trailed after him for a few paces to see who the important guests were, since Musta'sim's Kingdom rarely attracted people of importance as most were wary of the war they were fighting against Magnoshutatt. When she met the masked man's eyes, her breath stopped as a single name identified the entire group of cloaked individuals talking to the King.
Al Tharmen.
That explained several things. The war, the epidemic, perhaps even the prejudice against magicians that would spark them to separate from Musta'sim and create Magnoshutatt. Maybe they even planted the seeds of the soon to be rebellion when Musta'sim's lower class would turn against the Royal family.
Shit. She had to get out of this country. Yamuraiha refused to become a pawn to such an organization, and if they somehow figured out that she had knowledge of the future, the would never let her leave. Her life would be controlled even more than Judal's. As soon as her eyes met the amused golden of the masked man, she stared down at her feet in a show of submission.
Just please, please, please leave me alone, she inwardly prayed.
Her plead seemed to be working, for he simply gave her one last look before turning and greeting the King of Musta'sim, and Yamuraiha quickly took the opportunity to scurry back into the sanctuary of the library.
Be a darling and do this for me, my daughter. You know that everyone is watching us.
You won't turn out like your mother, I'm sure. After all, you're a good daughter, aren't you?
I love you, my darling little girl.
Deathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeath
That night, Yamuraiha had nightmares of a world that she thought she had left far, far behind, along with a cold, eerie darkness whose feeling couldn't be described with anything but a single word: death.
Age 7
"My daughter, you understand that my duties are very important, right? You know you can't be selfish…I love you, my little girl, but you understand, right?"
"Yeah! Daddy has to go to his very important job now," the little girl nodded her head energetically. "So I need to stay in the house and be quiet and not answer the door."
"Good girl."
"What are you making?" Dunya asked curiously, sitting up from her sprawled out position in the fresh green grass as she looked over at Raiha. The teal haired girl had quickly became a favorite companion of hers, as Dunya seldom got the chance to talk to people her own age and gender, so occasionally when Isaac had training she'd call Raiha over to play with her.
Dunya had quickly discovered that her friend was similar to her older brother, in more ways than one. Both of them had a sort of sour personality, although Raiha was definitely more mischievous, and even a little...bitter, if that made sense. Dunya had observed that her friend had the same look in her eyes that the adults had sometimes, and that scared her a little bit. Besides their personality, both of them had a thirst for knowledge and respect for one another that Dunya knew she'd never earn.
Every time Dunya would enter her brother's studies and start chattering about the pretty gown their mother had worn the other night, he would give a quick nod and comment before dismissing her to do her work. Similarly, Raiha only half listened to her on such 'irrelevant', as the girl had deemed them, topics.
"Flower crowns. Scoot a little closer and I'll show you how to make them," Raiha gestured for her to come closer, a rare moment as usually the girl was too caught up in serious stuff like studying. "I used to make these a lot."
Dunya watched in amazement as her friend weaved the stems of the flowers dexterously, the ends weaving in and out of each other, before finally the girl tied a knot and the finished product was placed on her head with a pat. "You look cute," Raiha said simply, and Dunya knew this to be the truth because Raiha never said anything like that without meaning it.
"Thank you!" Dunya beamed. Scrambling around the grass and picking some of the tiny flowers, she declared, "I'm going to try to make one too! For you, Raiha!" And the green haired princess couldn't help but feel a little proud at the sudden look of surprise in her friend's face.
They spent the rest of the evening laughing and giggling at Dunya's attempts to weave the flower stems as seamlessly as her friend did, and although the final product looked a little crooked and wilted, Raiha accepted the gift with a small, genuine smile. "Thanks," she acknowledged.
Dunya was beaming the rest of the week.
At the same time, Raiha had been struck by a simple thought: I don't want to die.
She would ponder on this revelation for a long time.
Yamuraiha had been suicidal in her past life for reasons that she did not like to reminisce on. Yet somehow, in the course of only a few years in which she had met Dunya, Raiha had found a newfound interest in the world that she didn't have before.
Magic. The world wasn't ruled by Physics: people could fly on brooms that couldn't logically support their weight. People could appear and disappear wherever they wanted. Mysterious Dungeons could appear out of nothing. Just the thought of magic, a thing that she didn't even think possible in her old life, made Yamuraiha's fingers itch for a book.
She was not a fool to think that her suicidal tendencies had resided: oh, far from that. The haunting feeling of death that she felt every night and the constant nightmares did not help her mental stability, and sometimes Yamuraiha would catch herself wondering if she'd return to the Rukh or be reborn again if she were to die again. Even so, she could now hold a knife without trembling hands, and that meant something. Something about Yamuraiha had changed, and perhaps the different environment she had been exposed to had played a part in that.
But her interest in the world wasn't the only reason that had changed her. Something about Dunya, whether it be the constant smiles and giggles the girl gave her, or the 'see you tomorrow's, made Yamuraiha want to see tomorrow again. Having a friend was nice: Dunya was not yet a twisted noble who played with their people and manipulated their words, and anything she said to the girl was not judged or looked down upon. It was refreshing to talk to a person who didn't judge her based on her station or beliefs.
She couldn't say as much about Nick. Nick was sort of confusing to Yamuraiha. He was not in the original series, so she honestly didn't know what to expect from him. They often met in the palace due to her frequent wandering around and his frequent lessons, but Nick was much more aware of the state of things than Dunya. He had begun taking more loads of paperwork for him to work on, as his father began sinking the country deeper and deeper into ruin. He hadn't uttered a word of protest, but Yamuraiha knew that the boy couldn't withstand that for long. No child could.
Despite his wary nature, she had grown fond of Nick. His frequent sputtering after realizing she had pulled another prank right under his nose was amusing, and it was nice to talk to someone somewhat intellectually. Nick excelled in that. He also was mature for his age, which made it a lot easier for her to make conversation, as he wasn't someone who expected for her to ramble about fashion or the like. She respected him, and perhaps if his father wasn't such an idiot, he would've made a fine king. They weren't friends, but they were more than just acquaintances, and Dunya would be heartbroken if Nick died from stress.
She supposed a trip to her dear prince was necessary.
"What are you doing?" Nick looked up from his paperwork in surprise, unsure of what the seven year old tealette wanted. The twelve year old prince was steadily building up his reputation among the castle servants as cool and level-headed, but both of them knew that to be untrue, as proven by the numerous times when Yamuraiha had managed to piss him off.
The girl shrugged as she pulled a chair over to his desk (highly improper, his mind said, but he shoved that thought), taking one of the feather pens on his desk and dipping it in ink. "I thought that a guy like you might need some help doing the paperwork."
"...okay, did Dunya put you up to this?" Nick asked suspiciously, but quickly dismissed the thought. His little sister wasn't that aware of the more boring side of royalty, like paperwork, and he intended to keep her childhood that way. Then that probably meant that Raiha was actually doing this of her own free will, as he doubted her pesky attendant Mira could have convinced her to do this, nor the other servants she hung out with.
"Nope. I just felt like it," Raiha said easily, grabbing a pile of papers and scanning them over. "A trade negotiation with the Reim Empire? Psh, well they're just trying to rip you off on some of these terms." Swiftly but accurately, Raiha drew a line through several of the set conditions on the list. Looking up at Nick, she simply explained, "I've been reading up on a lot of legal terms recently. They're trying to make you give up a crucial part of your economy without even looking like they are, the clever dogs. Subclause 58."
Her tone of voice quickly changed to a sterner one. "Do you realize that you need to sleep more often? And does your father even check on all of these documents? You can't handle this all by yourself."
"I'm fine," Nick said, his patience wearing.
"...when was the last time you ate?" She deadpanned.
"...yesterday morning."
"Good lord, dear, take care of yourself some more." Raiha proceeded to cross out several more terms on the long trade agreement, scanning over the whole document before setting it aside in a pile and continuing to look through other documents. Although Nick did not want to admit he needed help, he grudgingly admitted that it would be nice for him to have another hand helping. He had spent two hours looking up legal terms the night before, and that only got him through a single page.
Raiha was smart, and he knew that she had a level of intelligence higher than a normal servant, which was why he allowed for her relationship with Dunya to progress. That was also why he did not utter another word of protest against her helping him, the words dying on his lips as he simply sighed in defeat.
Raiha gave him a triumphant grin.
A/N: As I was busy for the past week(s?) I'll address all reviews for chapter 3: (feel free to skip this if you want, although there's interesting tidbits)
JaceSienna98: Thank you very much for the review! :) Every reincarnation fic is a bit different, but I like adding past background in my OCs, and since reincarnation fics tend to start from the beginning of their life to the end I decided for Raiha to have a bit of an interesting first life. I've noticed (in a nonstalkerish way, I swear) that you've also reviewed on a few of my other stories, so I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate it. ;)
Tamisin: Thanks for the review~ Haha, it's very fun to think of all the different possibilities. One person can only do so much, yet one person can change the world a lot depending on how they play their cards. Poor Sinbad is being ignored lol, although as the fates may have it I'm sure Raiha will meet him sometime. Mogamett...well, in the canon timeline they never specified the age at which he kidnapped Yamu, and in this time Raiha is much too close with royalty for him to actually sneak off with her lol. But he'll factor in the story. Somehow.
Nanouchy: Thank you for the compliment. :) I find it interesting that most of the OC stories in the Magi fandom are mainly actually OCs that live in the world, not reborn/fall-into-the-world/ripped-through-a-portal OCs haha. Not to mention the trend of Kouen/OCs I've seen recently that suspiciously looks influenced by Marshmellowtime's 'Enigma' lol. Regarding romance (haha, I was wondering if anyone would ever ask), I'm sort of a heavy shipper. At this point, idk how it'll end up: Sharrkan is near Raiha's age group (he's 2 years younger lol), and those two will have a lot of fun interactions that I'm already planning; but at the same time...well, Raiha's also pretty mature, and so we'll see where that goes.
Again, thank you for all the reviews/favorites/follows/views! It means a lot to me to know people appreciate the story. :)
Regarding the story, in case it wasn't clear, Raiha is still suicidal. She is. But she's put that to the side for now, and although it may not be as high in the priority list to kill herself, there's no such thing as her going "oh, I have friends: yay, don't want to die". She feels as if she is, in essence, an "Abnormality". She shouldn't exist, Yamu deserved to live her own life, and there's a whole boatload of guilt and angst that will not be washed away magically by Sinbad/Dunya/whoever-else.
Thanks for all of your support. :) Until next time!