"El's mother committed suicide a few months after, right?" Clara's voice resounded in the library as she continued sifting through news articles.
"She tried to commit suicide," Alex corrected, staring at the blinking cursor in front of him. Grinning, he spun around in his chair and pointed at the computer screen triumphantly. He had been digging for a certain piece of information for the past half hour, and after several fruitless attempts, had finally stumbled upon it. He explained, "They moved her to a mental institute after that. The address was never revealed to the public, but El once brought me there for one of her visits, and I think I found the right place."
Yao peered over his shoulder. "That's a few hours away from here," he said after a few mental calculations. Alex bit back a grin at the comment: as always, Yao always knew what he was doing. "Visiting hours will probably be over if we tried to get there today, but if you two are up for it, we can drive there tomorrow."
"Best lead we've gotten so far," Clara agreed, leaning back in her chair and yawning. "El never liked talking about her home life, and maybe we can get some answers. There's nothing important that I have going on tomorrow...not compared to this."
"It's decided, then?" Alex surmised, fist-bumping his female friend and turning to Yao. "Unless you have something else to do."
The light atmosphere shifted for a moment as both gingers stared at the Asian male, seemingly ruminating through his thoughts. Unknowingly, Clara was biting on her bottom lip, a gesture that she usually did whenever she was nervous. Alex caught the gesture and understood her anxiety: doing it without their friend would be...weird, for the lack of a better word.
"For the past few months...I had ignored all of you for the sake of my studies," Yao said quietly. "And then this happened. I'm not going to make the same mistake twice."
Alex's eyes dimmed for a moment before he slung a hand casually over his friend's shoulder. Bittersweet warmth filled his chest as his eyes trailed upwards. When was the last time that the three of them actually talked like this? This...this kind of thing was what El probably wanted. "Well, captain, welcome aboard! Great to have you back."
"You earned us access to the other levels?" Sera squeaked, his voice nearly raising an octave as he took in Yamuraiha's glowing expression and the smug smirk on her face. Studying the tealette for a few moments, he determined that she must've been telling the truth. Shoulders slacking, he sighed and murmured, "I shouldn't even be surprised, anymore."
The white haired youth looked rather comfortable in his black magician's robes. Gone was the shy, quiet persona Sera adopted when first coming to Magnoshutatt. Instead, he had taken to acting as the responsible voice of their small group of friends (if she could even label them such). Then again, Sera would still occasionally abandon reason to go on one of his verbose, fantastic spiels about the science behind various magical items and spells.
Yamuraiha frowned when she realized she had to slightly tilt her head to look her friend in the eye. He and Lynn had both begun to hit their growth spurts, and although the blonde prominently towered over all of them, Sera was already two inches taller than Yamuraiha. Damn it. She had always been rather tall for females her age back in her past life, and having to look up to talk to everybody was somewhat humiliating.
"Well, technically we'd have to get an instructor to come along with us. But I've been talking with Shinya, and she told me some interesting stories about Erik that I can surely use to blackmail him to come along," Yamuraiha fibbed. In truth, she and the olive eyed magician were probably close enough for Erik to help them with or without blackmail material. None of her friends knew of her alliance with the instructor, however. After a heated discussion, Erik and Yamuraiha had come to the conclusion that they should keep public contact to a minimum in case Al Tharmen was monitoring either of them.
Then again, she actually did possess said blackmail material. Maybe she could put those stories to use sometime...
She pushed away her slightly evil schemes for the moment and instead refocused on the conversation at hand. Her eyes darted from side to side as she observed Lynn, who had stayed remarkably silent throughout her explanation.
Standing behind Sera, Lynn shifted the weight of his body from his left foot to his right. Although his perpetual scowl was still present on his face, his demeanor and general expression had softened over time thanks to prolonged contact with Sera and Yamuraiha. What had been nothing more than initial hostility between her and the blonde quickly developed into what others could only call a "rivalry", in which their classmates placed bets every test to see which of the two would best the other. And to her frustration, Yamuraiha knew she was losing to him.
In all fairness, Lynn did have more experience than her (even if the blonde had never really formally been educated in the way they were at Magnoshutatt). But Yamuraiha had a sneaking suspicion that if she didn't have her matured mindset and previous life's experience, she would've lost to him even if she had been practicing longer. Lynn, although she would never admit it to his face, was a prodigy when it came to magic. And as irritating as that fact could be sometimes, Yamuraiha grudgingly accepted the fact that having an intellectual equal that was a youth was definitely stimulating. Her work ethic had nearly doubled as she threw herself into her studies to surpass him.
"All of those new places to explore," Lynn whispered reverently, shaking her out of her stupor. Without even meaning to, the words slipped out of his lips. "Raiha, sometimes I just love you." Blinking, he sputtered, "I...I mean...well...err…"
Although she could have let Lynn stutter awkwardly like an idiot, she only allowed for a small, wry grin to belie her amusement before she gave him a way out.
"I know," Yamuraiha sniffed arrogantly, performing an expert haughty hairflip that she was only capable of doing after numerous attempts of mimicking Alyasa. Lynn immediately relaxed and sent her a similar smirk, regaining his composure. Her arrogance melted as instead she sent them a warm grin, anticipation dancing in her eyes. "This is going to be so great."
"You nerd," Alyasa snapped. Despite her condescending tone, Alyasa's voice lacked the usual venom she had when speaking to the tealette. Rolling her eyes, the brunette said sourly, "As much as I appreciate the gesture, which I certainly do not...I know by now that whenever you do something, there's bound to be trouble. I still don't know how you manage to stir up so much trouble in so little time, but I'm going to be studying Healing Magic with Shinya, and she's going to kill me if I stir up a fuss."
"I am not a trouble magnet," Yamuraiha protested weakly. She was immediately sent three withering looks.
Sera adopted a deadpan expression. "You blew up one of the fountains in the middle of the night just last week. If I might add, you did so after curfew, too."
"You also taunted and provoked several of our upperclassmen in our first year, causing Lord Mogamett to reprimand the entire Academy for unruly behavior," Lynn hissed in a somewhat mortified voice. (For her sake or for his, she wasn't too sure. Lynn had gotten reprimanded that year also, after lighting one fourth year's ass on fire after they made some crude remark. Actually, everyone had gotten in on the action, to the point that Yamuraiha was surprised that the chaos hadn't evolved into a civil war. Or whatever the school equivalent of such was.)
"I only provoked them because I caught a third year bullying one of the Group B kids," Yamuraiha protested.
"Goody two-shoes, aren't you?" Sera's smile grew a tad bit wider. If it had been anyone else, the comment probably would've been taken as an insult. But Yamuraiha knew that her white haired friend was much too benevolent to say anything of the sort.
"Helluva no, she's not that self righteous." Lynn waved aside the comment. Yamuraiha twitched, despite knowing that what the blonde declared was definitely the truth. She definitely wasn't kind hearted enough to throw herself into a bunch of drama without an ulterior motive.
"The warrior of justice image just helps boost my popularity with the teachers and students," Yamuraiha admitted shamelessly, agreeing with the blonde with a nod. "It makes it easier for me to ask for favors later." Not to mention she had been itching to pummel some of their upperclassmen to the ground after being taunted for ages because of her age (and height). Although she hadn't emerged from the "First Year War", as her classmates had dubbed it, unscathed, she knew that most second years and even some third and fourth years definitely came out just as battered as her. (She considered that a small victory. Not only that, but the increase in bullying/hostile confrontations allowed for the rest of her year to flourish in their combat abilities as well.
"You just like to revel in the attention," Alyasa said flatly. The brunette knew Yamuraiha's nature way too well for her liking, in all honesty. Yamuraiha guessed that such insights were just a package with being roommates for more than a year.
"That too," Yamuraiha agreed thoughtfully after a moment of consideration. "Being rather flamboyant helps people remember you. If I didn't pull any stunts, I'd just be another nobody in the crowd."
"Assuming, of course," Lynn cut in, "that everyone ignores the fact that you're a tealette, are one of the youngest magicians in the Academy, and are in Group A?"
"Of course," Yamuraiha said amiably, easily playing along and maintaining the lighthearted atmosphere. "Have you seen the people of this world? Teal hair is nothing when you're standing next to a scarlet haired Fanalis literally half a foot taller than you."
"Nobody in this Academy's even a Fanalis, though, so why does that matter?" Alyasa deadpanned.
"Well, it is true that between all of the countries of the world, there's a very wide spectrum of hair colors," Sera mused. "Maybe I should research that in my spare time. There's not many teal haired people in the world, although I have read that some Imuchakks have teal hair. Like Hinahoho from Sinbad's tales. Your hair is very unique, Raiha."
Yamuraiha resisted the urge to flinch at her friend's invocation of two canon character's names in the same sentence. "Says the albino," she managed to reply without giving away how much those two names affected her.
"Maybe I have some Heliohapt blood? There's plenty of white haired people there, I heard. Lynn, where does your hair come from?" Sera asked absentmindedly, adopting the look he usually got whenever he had a fascinating topic to research.
"Born in Reim, raised in Parthevia." Lynn shrugged. "You tell me."
"They're both much too large for me to pinpoint common features," Sera moaned. "And Alyasa's brown hair is almost a dime a dozen in the countries surrounding Magnoshutatt." Out of curiosity, Sera tilted his head and asked, "Do most people in Musta'sim have teal hair?"
"Well, you've got to understand that Magnoshutatt itself was created from former Musta'sim citizens," Yamuraiha drawled. "The royal family all have green hair. Light green, not some kind of forest green like what I've heard about the Parthevian royal family. But the servants I've met all looked different."
Sera deflated. "This topic is impossible."
"Well, if you have time, maybe you can research trends regarding magic type?" Lynn suggested. "It's much more feasible to research, considering where we are."
Sera perked up immediately, snapping his fingers. "Ah, that's a brilliant idea, Lynn! I can survey magicians about their type and home country. Alyasa, your family has several generations of magicians, correct?"
"...yes?" Alyasa answered slowly, her face looking slightly bewildered by the sudden pivot the conversation had taken. Unlike the other three, the brunette wasn't as invested into new research and development: she enjoyed learning things more hands-on, which was probably why the brunette signed up for healing.
"Then we can even survey you and some other magician families and see if it's genetic!" Sera beamed, easily summoning a gust of wind to lift himself. He hovered above the ground for only a second before he was taking off into the sky, calling, "Come on! Your dad should be finished by now since exams ended an hour ago. Let's go ask him!"
"I...uh...wait...Sera!" Alyasa sputtered, stomping her foot in protest. The action didn't help at all: the white haired magician already zooming off towards one of the large buildings in the Academy. Over the course of their first year, Alyasa had finally softened from her "Sera is a boring nerd" stance. As two of the top students in Group B, the two eventually got over their differences to an extent. Thanks to Yamuraiha's pep talk, Alyasa treated the three of them in general with a little more respect. Although Alyasa usually hung out with her own friend group of giggling female magicians, she would occasionally drop by the three of them and hang out whenever she was available. The brunette turned to face Lynn and Yamuraiha sourly. "I don't suppose you'll do me a favor and drag him down to one of the lower levels with you two?" She pleaded halfheartedly.
Lynn shook his head, sending a dry look in the direction where Sera took off. "When Sera gets an idea in his head, he won't stop until he has a thirty page report on said topic."
"Good luck," Yamuraiha added for good measure.
Alyasa moaned, muttering something about how her hair was going to be ruined before snatching her Magic Turban from a bag at her side and unraveling it, revealing a floating magic carpet. With one last deadly glare at the two, she flew off in the direction where Sera left.
"I still don't understand how you managed to get her to chill out," Lynn said thoughtfully after a few moments of silence.
"Just like how Sera and I got you to get that stick out of your ass?" Yamuraiha replied sweetly.
"Oh, shut up."
"Anyways, want to try heading to another district? We have an opportunity that most second level citizens don't get," Yamuraiha offered, her voice sounding a little miffed at the reminder that no, she was not a first class citizen. That honor only went to "high level magicians".
"If you can get us an escort," Lynn replied, gazing at the Sun for a moment before nodding. He must have deemed their amount of time before curfew satisfactory enough.
It was times like these where Yamuraiha wished that magic in the Magi world worked like Harry Potter. It was easy enough to wave her wand (or staff, in this case) and say something like "Accio Erik", but spells in Magi were never that simple. She had to command the Rukh to do things, and understand it. A simple incantation wouldn't be enough to do anything.
Instead, she sucked in a deep breath and turned in the direction of Erik's nondescript lab area, using Sound Magic to enhance her voice. "ERIK, I WILL SPREAD STORIES OF YOU AND YOUR CHILDHOOD CRUSH ON A CERTAIN TEACHER IF YOU DON'T—"
Three seconds later, she could spot a quickly approaching figure on a magic carpet. She couldn't keep the smug look off of her face as Lynn simply stared, stupefied, as Erik glared daggers at the petite tealette. "What is it this time, your Royal Highness?"
Pretending she didn't notice the sarcasm literally oozing from the older man's words, she took a moment to bask in the feeling of power that washed over her before snapping back to business. "You are going to take us to…" Yamuraiha abruptly halted in her command. What District should they see? Which was the one that held the most priority...at least, in Musta'sim's eyes? In a split second, she made her decision. The words rolled off of her tongue before she could stop them. "...the Fifth Level Authorization District."
"Am I?"
"Lord Mogamett allowed for us to go if we brought an escort," Lynn explained, slightly gritting his teeth. It sounded like he was resisting the urge to throttle Yamuraiha for her overly haughty tone. Not like she could blame him: in hindsight, pissing off their one ticket to their adventure was probably not the smartest idea. As diplomatically as he could, considering his irritated state, the blonde finished, "And we'd like for you to help us."
"Why—"
Yamuraiha hummed innocently, her smugness literally radiating off her in waves.
"...damn it." Erik glowered at her. In subdued reluctance, he sighed and resigned himself to his fate. "Fine. When?"
"Now," Yamuraiha said casually, taking a page out of Alyasa's book and examining her nails nonchalantly.
"She-devil," Erik cursed, motioning for them to follow.
As they followed the raven haired man, Lynn spared a glance at the tealette. "You're crazy."
"Getting him ticked off is the easiest way to get him to shut up quickly," Yamuraiha shrugged. "Got the job done, didn't I?"
"Still crazy."
"As are you."
"Touche."
They had barely made it into the Fifth District when a voice called out to them. "Bringing children into this District now, Erik? I didn't know that Lord Mogamett started his indoctrination so soon."
Erik's frown now deepened into a scowl. "Otto. Were you waiting for my arrival, or do you just happen to be around enough so that you can piss me off whenever I come by?"
"Nah, I was off drinking. Being an adult is liberating, man. My old man wouldn't let me drink until I reached of age, crazy ol' coot." A man, probably somewhere in his early twenties, stepped out from the shadows. In his left hand was a bottle of beer, and despite his ragged clothes, his eyes shone with a certain light that made her know that she couldn't underestimate him. Instinctively, her eyes trailed the most prominent feature of the man's face: a long scar that stretched from the right side of his forehead to his left cheek.
The man noticed her stare. Wryly, he asked, "Never seen a scar before, sweetheart?"
"Nah," Yamuraiha choose her words carefully. She was going to go for an "I'm jealous of your hair", but instead settled for, "I like your hair."
Otto blinked, obviously taken aback as his hand unconsciously brushed his red locks back. Quickly enough, he regained his demeanor. "Well, kid's got spunk, I'll give you that. Better than how you whimpered the first time you were here."
Lynn looked hardly captivated by the conversation, his eyes instead taking in the various sights of the district. Although it looked like a normal city, she knew that the blonde was talented enough to feel small bits of magoi leaking out of everyone's bodies. Not only that, he was observant, and it only took him a few moments of scanning the broken expressions of people's faces and various bars where people were blatantly abusing alcohol and drugs before he turned to her. "What's going on in this District?" he asked her in a low tone of voice.
Her lips felt dry. Swallowing and licking her lips, the tealette replied in an equally quiet voice, "Where do you think all the power for our magical tools come from?"
She saw a flash of horror in Lynn's cerulean eyes before he skillfully masked it. If not for his slightly tense posture, Yamuraiha would've guessed that her words had no impact on him. Then again, she always knew the blonde was a softie. Instead of allowing the rather tense atmosphere between the two continue, Lynn instead turned his attention back to their chaperone and the man he was exchanging scowls with.
"Aren't you going to introduce us, Erik? Or should we do it ourselves?" Lynn asked, folding his arms over his chest. Erik halted his silent glare contest with the red haired Goi, having the decency to at least look somewhat contrite.
With a superfluous gesture of his hand, Erik declared, "Raiha, Lynn, meet Otto. Otto, meet the banes of my existence."
"Charmed," Otto deadpanned. His eyes made a cursory sweep of their figures before taking in the black magician robes that made them stick out like a sore thumb amongst the Gois of the District. With an underlying question in his voice, he asked, "Academy students?"
"Blackmailed their way here."
"Not much to see here, anyways," Otto snorted. There was something about his demeanor that changed as soon as the statement left his mouth. Yamuraiha struggled to maintain her relaxed posture as she felt Lynn tense beside her at the sudden hostile vibes their host was emitting. His eyes darkened as he sneered, "Go home. We don't need you spoiled Academy kids here, anyways."
"Otto." Erik's voice warned trouble, but the red head must've missed the frustration that leaked into the magician's voice.
"You're only going to cause us trouble. Then again, that's the only thing you magicians are good at, anyways—"
"Otto," Erik growled, his fists clenched into tight balls. "Shut up."
There was a moment of silence before Otto sighed, the wind seemingly knocked out of him. For a moment, Yamuraiha thought that the red haired man was going to punch Erik in the face. But instead, he gave Erik a half friendly nudge. Lynn and Yamuraiha both glanced at each other, trading incredulous looks. Yamuraiha had to fight to suspend the disbelief that trickled into her expression.
"Fine. If you kids want to see this place so much, I might as well give you a tour." Otto's arms extended outwards in a mocking gesture of invitation. Derision, along with a bit of frustration, rang clear in his baritone voice. "Welcome to Magnoshutatt's magoi factory." The red haired man paused for dramatic effect, scratching the back of his head. "Ah, wait...what did you guys call it again? Ah, right. The Fifth District."
They were following Otto through the District, suspicious gazes pinned on them, when Yamuraiha decided to slow down her pace to match Erik's. The instructor stared at her for a moment before raising his eyebrows, asking a silent question with his olive green eyes.
"How do you know him?" Yamuraiha questioned lowly. "I was under the impression that most magicians didn't come down here except for...disciplinary stuff."
"I was a stupid kid back in my second year in the Academy. Decided to go on an adventure." Erik snorted, seemingly laughing at his own stupidity. "Made friends with him somewhat after breaking a guy's teeth when he was about to get mugged. We met up a few more times after that, and even though he eventually figured out I was a magician, he didn't really care at the time. I told him about the outside world, promised to get him out, all that shit."
They walked together in silence for a few more moments as Yamuraiha waited patiently, not even turning to face Erik in the eyes.
"We liked going on adventures. Taunting drunks and running away was exhilarating, at the time. Liberating, for me. Then some of the magicians found me and they thought he was beating me up, with my ragged appearance and all."
Yamuraiha made a noncommittal sound of acknowledgment.
"It's my fault he has that scar," Erik finally said. "And although I know he's gotten...over it, somewhat, there's not much I can do to help. I come down for the occasional drink, every now and then. Incognito, of course."
There was a beat of silence.
"Shady guy," Yamuraiha snickered, breaking the tense atmosphere. She glanced upwards at Otto, who was engaged in some kind of "man to man" talk with Lynn about how the blonde should cut his ponytail. Suddenly, she viewed the man with a little more respect.
Sure, people said it took courage to help people. To befriend people.
Yamuraiha found that more than either of those, it took more courage to forgive people.
Chapter Notes:
1) oH MY GOSH. Thank you to Miqila for alerting me, as I am absolute trash when it comes to checking the raws, but Yamuraiha has finally appeared in Sinbad no Bouken! Admittedly, she has only appeared in the Japanese raws. I'm definitely keeping up with them now (ahahaha my Japanese teacher would be proud) but I will now be slowing down my writing pace (more than it already is) because I want for the most recent arc to end before I start writing it. The best part is that, thanks to checking ages and timelines, canon!Yamuraiha's appearance should be this year. So depending on how the manga plays out, you may be seeing Sinbad pretty soon in this story. However, I want to keep this story spoiler free. Thus, I'll be keeping with the English releases of Sinbad no Bouken, which means that it'll probably be even slower haha. (Plus my Japanese is still trash anyways.) If Yamuraiha plays a crucial role in that arc, I really feel like I should try keeping with it (as it deals heavily with Serendine, and we know that shit is going to go down probably haha and if this arc is skipped RIP OUR TIMELINE). Otherwise, if she doesn't really do anything except for her cute cameos and subtle Sharryamu moments, I'll probably change the plot and Raiha will be meeting Sinbad and co. in a muuuuuuch different scenario.
2) Is the friendship thing going on between Raiha/Lynn/Sera/Alyasa the cutest thing or what omfg my babiessssssss
3) Raiha is an absolute manipulative bitch and she doesn't care haha it's so cute
4) I realized that the manga is absolutely screwing over my fanfiction plot so I'm sorry what can I do
5) I have a special chapter I'll publish...er...sometime as I continue to buy time for SnB to progress. (Prepare your hearts, dear shippers.)
6) Otto is a canon character. I might slip in more canon Magnoshutatt characters that you may recognize in future chapters.
7) I lowkey stalked every single character in various countries to come up with the conclusion that there aren't any trends in hair color between different countries and there is literally no way I can come up with the stereotypical appearance of citizens in each country.
Other last minute notes...err, I have an OC fanfiction recommendation blog on tumblr! Link on my profile. It's superrrrr slow but every fanfic I choose to go on that blog is amazing, so...if you like OC fanfics, check it out? ;D
Are any of you artists/mixers/animators? Because if so HELLO I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOU SO I CAN USE YOU (imeanwut). Sneak peeks. Discussions. Suggestions as I continue to revise my plot. Omakes. Whatever you want eyyyy I'm desperate for connections.
I'll be heading to Spain and Portugal for awhile but I'll try to update sometime? I have a really long special almost finished as we wait for the manga to hurry up.
Sorry for the long A/N! Love you all so much. Until next time~