A/N: Heyyyy, look who's back. Missed me? ;D
Age 9 (continued)
"Who're you?"
"A traveler," Yamuraiha said wearily, struggling to keep her eyes open. She had been travelling across the Great Desert for the past few days, and the scorching heat of the Sun along with her dwindling supply of water definitely had taken its toll. Yamuraiha happened to stumble upon a desert village just on the border of Magnoshutatt and Musta'sim right when she was at the edge of exhaustion. "P-please let me…"
Her vision was turning black when she heard the sound of hooves and felt an ominous presence nearing. Al Tharmen. Rapidly, she grabbed the sleeve of the figure standing before her. "D-don't let them find me...please…"
Before she could hear the person's reply, Yamuraiha's world dissolved into darkness.
.
.
.
.
.
"—don't even know who she is."
"But...can't just…"
"—Musta'sim...why..."
Yamuraiha groaned, trying to lift her eyelids, and whoever was talking fell silent. Slowly, her eyes fluttered open, and she took in her surroundings. She was laying on a bed made of crisscrossing springy branches, and the ceiling was a brown color. Using her right arm, Yamuraiha propped herself upwards, eyes blinking from the sudden exposure to light.
"Where?" She started, but her throat was too parched to continue. Her head was aching, whether it be from dehydration or exhaustion or both. As if reading her mind, someone handed her a glass of water.
"Sleep, child," a gentle voice said. "We will take care of you."
Yamuraiha fell asleep again.
.
.
.
.
.
"Hey, are you awake? Hey, hey…" A voice called, and Yamuraiha felt pressure on her cheek. She moaned, rolling to her side and taking in the sight of an adolescent boy sitting next to her bedside.
"I am now," Yamuraiha grumbled, blinking several times. Dazedly, she struggled to regain her senses, and she managed to croak, "Where...where am I? What happened?"
"You're still in the village. My grandma and I have been taking care of you for the past three days." The boy, who she estimated to be around fourteen (give or take a few years), was dressed in white, loose robes. His eyes were a stunning color of violet, a feature not commonly found in both Magnoshutatt and Musta'sim, but his dark black hair and olive skin tone were the same shade that most desert locals had. Handing her a glass of water, which Yamuraiha gratefully accepted, he gave her a look.
Yamuraiha was used to being given looks after all of those days spent in the castle, but the look that he had was more of curiosity than disdain. "My name's Sera, age twelve. I like mysteries and solving them. My current favorite past-time is researching magic, although trying new kinds of food is a close second. Or running. Not sure which one I like better. I hate beetles," he introduced himself quickly. And by quickly, Yamuraiha meant that the entire introduction was spit out in only one breath. "I think that there must be a reason why those shady guys were looking for you, and so I'm kindasortareallycuriousaboutit. And what's with the Rukh around you? Why does your staff keep rejecting my grandma and I whenever we try to move it? And who are you?" He asked, finishing.
Her teal blue eyes just stared blankly at him for a moment. "...I'm sorry, come again?"
"I said, my name's—"
"Not that part," Yamuraiha cut him off irritably. Realizing that she sounded a bit rude, she amended, "Sorry, Sera...that's your name, right? I'm just a little out of it right now. But what were you saying at the end? About the Rukh? You can see it?"
Sera gave her a 'no duh' look, the expression shocking Yamuraiha for mainly two reasons. One, she was already starting to be able to read his body language and expressions. Two, well...she had assumed that only Magi could see the Rukh. "And I assumed that you were a Magician with that staff of yours," Sera muttered. "Of course I can see it: only Goi—that's the term for people without magic—can't. And I've been training to get into Magnoshutatt's Academy."
...oh.
Well, Yamuraiha had epically failed somewhere with her research. She couldn't see anything that seemed akin to the fluttering...glowing...butterfly things that had been portrayed in the anime, so Yamuraiha had just assumed nobody else could see the Rukh as well. Smacking her forehead inwardly, she cursed herself for making such an assumption. Although it was interesting how she couldn't see the Rukh...maybe it was because she was reborn? Did that have something to do with it?
"—and yeah," Sera finished triumphantly, but when he noticed Yamuraiha's expression he deadpanned, "You weren't listening to me, were you?"
"Not really," Yamuraiha replied bluntly.
"I get that response a lot." Sera shrugged casually, looking unperturbed. "I talk a lot."
Yeah, I've kind of noticed.
Biting back her instinct snarky remark, Yamuraiha instead chose to focus on the questions he imposed on her. "So...you say you can see the Rukh," the teal haired girl said slowly. "Can you tell me what exactly about the Rukh around me looks weird?"
"Well...normally the Rukh's just there, fluttering around everyone, you know? But with you...it's kind of like…" Sera's nose scrunched in concentration as he tried to find a way to describe it. "They're trying to flutter away from you, if that makes any sense. It's kind of like you have this aura of 'non-Rukh-ness'? Like, an empty sphere around you where the Rukh should be attracted to."
"I see," Yamuraiha mused. Indeed, this account sounded similar to that of Lord Ekhbar, the crazy not-a-paedophile Al Tharmen associate had told her before she left. Remembering her manners (because despite it being nine years since her past life, social etiquette was still ingrained in her somewhere), Yamuraiha said, "I'm Ya...Raiha. Nine years old, escapee from Musta'sim, and currently also hoping to get into Magnoshutatt's Academy."
"Ah, that's awesome! I mean, the part about wanting to get into the Academy, not the part about you being an escapee. I didn't think I'd actually meet anyone else around my age who'd want to: everyone in the village's always discouraged me. Except Grandma." The last part was tagged on afterwards, like an afterthought. Sera beamed at her. "Do you have a magic you specialize in? Are you a...red magician?"
"You know about the different classes of magicians, yet still haven't gotten into the Academy?" Yamuraiha asked, slightly impressed. From what she recalled, the series first explained those when Aladdin was already in the Academy. Then again, it had been a while since she had watched Magi, so maybe the memory was faulty.
Sera puffed his chest out proudly. "My grandma owns the village bookshop," he explained. "My parents died when I was younger, but my uncle was a magician and used to bring a lot of magician texts and stuff. We would've moved to Magnoshutatt with him, but Grandma didn't want to leave the shop: you know, old memories and all? So I decided to stick with her until I grew older and wanted to test my luck at being a magician."
That would explain Sera's rather broader knowledge on magic, although Yamuraiha still couldn't figure out why he wasn't a part of the Academy yet. "Is the test to get in hard, or something?" Yamuraiha pressed. "Why haven't you joined yet, then?"
"Ah…" Sera turned a shade of embarrassed red, finding the need to fiddle with his fingers. "Uncle kind of died in some kind of training accident, so he never got around to actually teaching me much. I just know stuff, but I just can't get it to work."
"I see." There was a short moment of silence that Yamuraiha was surprised to find wasn't that uncomfortable. "I'm sorry for your uncle," she offered. "And your parents."
"You didn't do anything." Sera shrugged. "Besides, my parents died when I was pretty young, so I don't remember them. And Uncle...well, I liked him a lot, but Grandma's really the person who's been taking care of me for most of my life."
"Oh."
Yamuraiha really was an amazing conversationalist sometimes. She inwardly facepalmed at the stupid reply.
There was another brief period of silence.
"My parents died when I was an infant," she said suddenly. "I was raised in the Musta'sim palace until they discovered me trying to do magic. Some servants broke me out, and that's why I'm here." Yamuraiha felt like the kid needed at least some compensation for spilling his entire life story to her. The majority of explanation was true, just with a lot of crucial details omitted and her lying about how she got out.
"Wait...does that mean you can do magic?" Sera instantly brightened.
"Um...yes. I'm best at Water Magic." Yamuraiha watched the purple eyed boy warily as he began jumping around energetically.
"That's so cool! I wanted to be someone cool who specialized in Life Magic or Water Magic or something, but noooo I just had to get Wind Magic. Of course." Sera began to rant to himself as Yamuraiha just watched the boy, stupefied. "Then again, White Magicians' second affinity is Heat Magic, and it'd be really cool to do some kind of fire tornado thing but how would that even work?
Something about him reminded her of her friends in her past life (if she had even considered them as friends, a nasty voice whispered inside her), and that made Yamuraiha feel nostalgic, at peace, and bitter at the same time.
"If you want, I can see if I can help," Yamuraiha offered. "We can exchange information. I liked to sneak into the Royal library a lot, so perhaps something the other person knows might benefit us."
Usually Yamuraiha would have been more reluctant to share information with strangers, but she was perceptive enough to know when and when not people were telling the truth. She could judge people's characters extremely easily, which was one of the many reasons Yamuraiha's personality was somewhat cynical. Most people were cruel, untrustworthy, the kind to stab you in the back if it meant their success. But she could tell that Sera was a sincere person, and she wanted to help him. It was perfect: he'd get the training he needed to get in. She would get the satisfaction of being a good person...along with other self-benefitting things thrown into the deal as well, as the boy would have a lot of interesting information about how Musta'sim worked and would serve as a potential ally.
Damn, she really was a selfish person. Yamuraiha frowned.
"Free information? Sure! Of course!" Sera exclaimed enthusiastically, grabbing onto Yamuraiha's shoulders and literally throwing himself over her. She stiffened at the close contact. "This is so great. Thanks, Raiha!"
"Yeah, yeah, just get off."
Someone entered Sera's residence through the front entrance, which was basically a piece of cloth hung over a carved stone opening. Immediately, Sera's face lit up, pausing the rapid conversation between him and Yamuraiha.
"Grandma! Raiha...you know, that blue haired girl? She's awake! And guess what, she's a magician too. We were just talking about some theories we had about how staffs help magicians channel magic better and how that might work. We were debating between two theories: the staff's just a point of concentration that allows the magician to focus more on, or the staff is able to redirect the Rukh itself. It's really awesome."
"Sera, Sera, slow down," the elderly woman laughed, patting the enthusiastic Wind Mage on the head gently. She set down a bag full of books and made her way to where Yamuraiha was laying. "How are you feeling, dear?"
"Better. Thank you for your hospitality, I owe you and your grandson my life," Yamuraiha said politely, mustering as much sincerity as she could offer. "Not many people would do what you did for me, a stranger."
"Nonsense. You're young, and although those dreaded Al Tharmen men were looking for you, I'm sure that you are a fine girl." Sera's grandmother gave her a warm smile. Yamuraiha could see why Sera had given up living in Magnoshutatt for her: everything about the elderly woman gave the other person a sense of comfort and ease.
"Dear, I won't pry into other's business if they don't want me to...but whatever reason Al Tharmen is chasing you...you haven't done anything wrong, have you?" Sera's grandmother asked, and although her tone was kind there was still a wary look in the woman's eyes. Old age came hand in hand with wisdom, and Yamuraiha would've been more worried if the woman wasn't somewhat cautious.
"No," Yamuraiha replied as honestly as she could. "It...it has to do with my lineage, my birth. Musta'sim does not approve of those descending from magician lineage." It was the truth, but not all of the truth. She couldn't go spouting details about her reincarnation nor abnormal existence.
"I see. We do not discriminate by who you are when you are born, but who you will become in the future." Sera's grandmother gave Yamuraiha a pat on the head affectionately as she had to her grandson. "And as I'm sure Sera has been telling you plenty about, our family has dealt with magicians in the past."
"Yes, he has spoken to me about your family's history." Yamuraiha nodded to confirm this. "We were discussing earlier about how certain affinities to different kinds of magic worked, and whether or not it was genetically influenced, environmentally influenced, or both."
Sera made an interesting companion. He was extremely energetic and loud, and sometimes it was hard to make out what he was saying when he became highly passionate about a subject because of the speed of his words, but it was nice to to have a companion with a thirst of knowledge. Prince Nick, back in Musta'sim, had mainly played that role, but he had always been into more of the practical topics that would actually affect him should he come to the throne.
Sera, on the other hand, looked towards the unknown and not only accepted it, but strove to figure it out. He would have made a wonderful scientist back in Yamuraiha's old world. She should know: in her past life, Yamuraiha had been extremely successful when it came to academics at school. She was expected to be great.
"I see. Sera, why don't you keep Raiha here company while I'll start preparing dinner," his grandmother said kindly.
"Sure, Grandma." Once the elderly lady left the room, they quickly resumed their discussion.
It had been about three days since Yamuraiha woken up. Since then, she had gotten much better, now able to move around the residence and help out with chores to make up for what they did for her. She found that Sera, around the house, was exactly what she expected him to be: a clutz. He often got so excited about a subject that he'd forget about whatever task he was supposed to do, which had eventually led to him being banned from the kitchen, he had explained to Yamuraiha. Apparently his banishment from the kitchen had to do with a time when he accidentally left a kettle of water boiling too long, and although Sera wouldn't disclose most of the details of that particular escapade, Yamuraiha could tell that his grandma had not been happy.
Thus, when Yamuraiha had begun to help out by cooking dinner and cleaning the house, it was an understatement to say that his grandmother was relieved. Sera couldn't really be trusted with any household task.
"You're such a dear," his grandma said absentmindedly, patting Yamuraiha on the head as the two of them stood at the kitchen counter, cutting herbs. "Where did you learn how to cook?"
"I helped out at the kitchen during my stay at the palace," Yamuraiha explained simply. "It was an...enlightening experience."
His grandmother hummed in response. The conversation faded as the two focused on preparing dinner.
"Why don't you go talk with Sera for now?" His grandmother suggested. "You've been cleaning and cooking nonstop for the past two days."
"But…"
"It's alright, I can handle dinner. I think right now the most you can do to help is watch over Sera and make sure he isn't getting into too much trouble." The elderly woman chuckled. "You, Raiha, are three years younger than him, but I think that you're much more mature."
"Thank you, ma'am," she replied awkwardly, setting down the cutting knife on the cutting board. "I guess I'll go see what Sera's doing."
Yamuraiha made her way out of the kitchen and into Sera's room, calling his name. The boy quickly popped his head out of his room, and she couldn't help but blink in surprise at his rather messy appearance. His dark, raven locks were tied in a short ponytail that reached his shoulders, and he was wearing green, copper-tinted goggles. His white robes had dirt and ash on them, making the once-white robes a muddy brown color with splotches of coal black. Yamuraiha instantly frowned at this observation. She'd have to wash them later.
"Why are you so...unkempt today?" She managed, scrutinizing him from head to toe.
"I've been working on something," he explained simply. Yamuraiha rose an unimpressed eyebrow at the lackluster response. He elaborated, "I was trying to tinker with your staff, but every single time I try touching it, it keeps sending an electrical shock wave to blow me back. Quite interesting. Where'd you get it?"
Inwardly, Yamuraiha whistled, impressed. So the King really had made a high-quality staff for her. Nice, but difficult to lie about. "The Crown Prince of the Musta'sim kingdom, Nicholas, thought of me as a friend. It was a parting gift."
"Despite Musta'sim telling everyone that magic was evil?"
"I used a bit of mental manipulation," Yamuraiha admitted shamelessly. "But he never really cared for social standards anyways. Interesting company, that one." What was interesting was how Yamuraiha's heart ached as she spoke those words. Despite everything, she still missed the green haired prince's presence.
"How'd he get it?"
"Custom made. Have you heard of the staff maker, Seisha?" Yamuraiha spoke the truth this time. Staff maker Seisha lived a hermit's life in the Great Desert, but everyone knew that his staffs were the highest quality in the world. The King had actually confirmed that he had it made by Seisha, so she wasn't lying. It was always good to mix a few truths within her lies. If one truth was proven true, then it made the lies look like they were true too. "He was going to give it to me for my birthday, but since the King discovered my powers there was a change of plans and he got one of the servants to give it to me before my escape."
"Hm…" Sera hummed thoughtfully, bearing a striking resemblance to his grandmother in that moment. "Interesting. So I guess there must be some kind of spell banning anybody other than the user to try using this staff. Completely theft-proof. Although I guess it allowed for certain people to take it, as your prince and the servant must have brought it to you. Maybe there's some trick to allowing certain people to access it?"
"I guess. Never actually knew that it could do that before you told me," Yamuraiha admitted. This conversation was already in dangerous territory, and before she could get any more uncomfortable, she changed the subject. "Anyways, would you like to review a bit about elemental magic? Then we can practice actually performing magic, and you can help me by observing the Rukh when I perform spells. I want to be able to do one while keeping the Rukh around me looking normal."
"Sure!"
"Now?"
"Nope."
"...now?"
"Still nope."
"...now?"
"Still just as non-Rukhy as before," Sera observed. "Try harder."
"I am trying," Yamuraiha gritted her teeth. She was meditating, with her legs crossed and hands clasped in front of her chest as she closed her eyes and attempted to maintain a Borg. The golden sphere flickered every now and then, but generally remained strong thanks to her constant training to push her endurance levels. Sighing, she let her hands drop to her lap and gave Sera a frustrated look. "How am I supposed to suddenly make the Rukh like me? I can't even see it. Since birth."
Sera shrugged. "The textbooks never covered a case like this," he said helpfully. "I think there was one case where there was a woman of whom the Rukh fluttered strangely around whenever she was going to do something...out of this world, but that was just a legend. The three Magi all attract the Rukh at ginormous rates, according to one of the books I borrowed from Grandma."
"Sure. Great. I can't even see the Rukh, much less make friends with it. Them. It." Yamuraiha decided to drop that internal struggle and instead attempt once again at somehow manipulating the Rukh. How was she supposed to do it? A spell?
What had she done in the past that could help her now?
She stilled completely, easing her breathing and concentrating deep inside her mind. For whatever reason, she was reborn into this world. A world in which the Rukh was considered a 'natural phenomenon'. What did she know about the Rukh besides that?
Yamuraiha came to an epiphany. 'All people, after they died, would return to the Rukh'. Essentially, the Rukh consisted of the life energy of once-beings. The logic sounded more logical in her head, but if she was born in this world, a person who did not come from or return to the Rukh, that could be considered the 'disturbance in the pond'. Her existence was literally something that went against the grain.
It was possible that because her 'soul' wasn't from the Rukh, this might be the reason why the Rukh was rejecting her magic and body. Then again, it was also possible that she herself was never reborn, but simply the memories were retained and carried over into this body. Was she really Raiha? Or was she just a Yamuraiha with memories of Raiha's past life?
She remembered that yet another theory on reincarnation into an alternate universe, guiltily stolen from fanfiction she had read in the past. It was possible that at one point two 'souls', two consciences lived in Yamuraiha's body, but her soul, with its extra lifetime of memories, had eventually dominated and taken over Yamuraiha.
Whichever one of those theories was correct didn't really matter. But she was pretty sure that she had figured out why the Rukh was rejecting her.
Closing her eyes, she murmured, "Please...for whatever reason I have been brought here...I doubt that these circumstances will assist me in keeping the storyline as is. For whatever reason I am here...I can not have this hindering me in my quest to make up for my existence. For Raiha's existence. Lend me your power, your assistance."
To be completely honest, Yamuraiha was not sure if that would work at all. But judging by the exclamation of surprise from Sera, she supposed the Rukh had abided to her wishes. For now, at least.
"You're not...bad, I guess," Yamuraiha said carefully. "But not the best either."
"I know, I suck," Sera corrected grumpily. "Don't try to sugar coat it."
Well, she tried being nice. "Okay. Your feeble attempt at Wind Magic was the most pathetic thing I've ever seen, and I've seen plenty of patheticness. I think a piece of shit can do better, honestly, and if that sorry attempt was actually what you considered as 'magic', that's sad."
"...thanks," Sera grumbled.
Yamuraiha sent him a sugary sweet smile in return. "Okay, so let's start with the basics all over again. Try making a Borg."
Immediately, a golden sphere encased Sera's figure. She approached it warily and with a gentle hand, knocked against it. "Seems sturdy enough," she mused. "Okay, so what do you do to get this to work?"
"I attempt to manipulate the Rukh by telling it to move that way, and to make sure it's strong enough I found that concentrating on an extremely small point works. The best method is to cross your hands together if you don't use a staff, sort of in a praying motion. Then at the tips of your fingers a ball of light should appear, and you focus on expanding that while keeping your hands at a thirty degree angle."
Sera would have rambled for much longer had not it been for Yamuraiha stopping him.
"I understand what you mean," she said patiently. After all, the part of Yamuraiha that had a hate-love relationship with science knew the importance of testing different methods and determining the most effective. "And your way of thinking is good. But for elemental magic, at least from what I've gathered, you'll need more than just figuring out through trial and error. You need to feel it."
This time, Sera was the one to give Yamuraiha an unimpressed look. "Feel it?" He repeated skeptically.
The realist in Yamuraiha had reeled at first too, when she first read the explanation in one of the books the King had brought her. "Yeah. Just sit down into a meditative pose, and I'll talk you through the entire process," she commanded, gesturing for him to sit down.
The boy did, albeit reluctantly. Taking orders from a nine year old was never really the best, and a part of Yamuraiha sympathized with him. She was surprised to see Sera relax into a meditative state so quickly, but then again, despite his personality he was still a few years older than her. He knew that fidgeting wouldn't serve him much.
"Picture the place you feel most comfortable at," she said soothingly, allowing for Sera to readjust for a few moments before continuing once she saw the more relaxed smile on his face. "Now, where is that place?"
"Grandma's bookshop," Sera murmured.
"Cool. Okay, so now imagine you're reading a book. You're immersed in the story, you're in the middle of a particularly dramatic reveal. Your hand grips onto the book cover just a tad bit more tight, and you inhale as you turn the next page." She continued to use the same calm, soothing tone of voice that she personally thought a yoga instructor would use during meditation.
"Now, for some reason you can't turn the page. Maybe the pages are stuck together, or your finger keeps clumsily grabbing more pages than you need to. You're starting to get frustrated."
"You feel your frustration, your emotion, your desire to turn the page." Oh, God, she was sounding so cliche and dramatic. It was making the part of her that flourished in theater, no matter how brief the time she was in the drama club had been, revive once again.
"You feel these emotions building up, as if there's some kind of dam keeping you from releasing them. But slowly, all of those pent up frustrations build until you can't hold them back any longer. You feel wind. Air, rushing past you and sending the papers next to the spot for the cashier fluttering into the air. Wind, blowing open the bookshop door and making the bell on the door chime. You feel the wind. You feel wind. Feel the wind." Her voice grew stronger and stronger until her last few statements were nothing but a command.
And just as she finished saying those words, Yamuraiha felt just the barest of breezes brush past her skin, but considering they were inside and sheltered from everything, she knew the breeze was due to magic.
Sera's eyes snapped open, his amethyst meeting her surprised teal. Delighted, a grin spread across his face. "Raiha! Raiha! Did you feel that? I did it!"
"Yeah, you did," Yamuraiha confirmed, the barest of smiles worming its way onto her face.
It was progress.
A/N: I love you guys. Seriously. You all are so amazing. And blunt haha. Like, dangggg you reviewers are just wonderful people and it's so cool to hear from you all. And there's just been an overwhelming response from favorite-ers and followers too. Thanks guys. :D Legit this chapter would have taken like a month longer had it not for you all, because it takes a lot of motivation for lazy ol' me to get writing.
I'm currently in a foreign country, and all I can do is type this up, haha. You guys are truly amazing.
Let's see if I can address any points or questions now.
-Nick and Dunya: Wow, you guys are really pessimistic haha. I see most of you being like "they'll turn evil". Most. At this point in time I am still unsure of what to do, but I have an idea. That will hopefully provide a lot of angst and stuff. Whatever you're thinking of, it's probably not it, but feel free to make hypothesises (hypothesii?) in a review.
-Romance: Okay, so shoot me, I might be shipping Raiha/Nick too. Anyone else with me? I don't think I'll have a set pairing, as I really think that having a set pairing just ruins the surprise and suspense, but prepare for a lot of ship teases from everyone and anyone. Haha.
~also, just an fyi, in a previous chapter I totally messed up and said that people could't see the Rukh. Well, as you can see from my half BS'd explanation in the chapter, that's the excuse I got haha. XP Thanks to kociopakta for catching that.
-everything else: Irony is awesome! So's messing with the plot. And thanks for saying this is a nice story. ;) Although I personally think meeting everyone through fanfiction is better.
Anyways, yeah. Thanks for reading, and drop by a review if you have time. ;D
Question of the Chapter (why do I still try to do this?): What do you think of Sera?