A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Another mystery brewing in this parody-ish fairy[-less!] tale! XD
Happy Easter!
Review
Enchanter Shibuya was amused. "And in what way are we related?"
For the first time, Mai smirked wickedly in sweet revenge.
"I'm your child!" she declared.
And the enchanter choked on his tea.
End of Review
XDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~
III. In which Mai has reverted .III
XDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~
Kazuya Shibuya had never been rendered sloppily speechless all his life. In addition, he had spilled his tea on an awkward spot of his pants, and he'd never messed up like that.
Until that instance.
And due to a child nonetheless.
Recovering quickly and drying his drenched trousers with a glance, though, he glowered at his grinning 'offspring.' "What are you━?"
"Your child?!" Takigawa intercepted in shock. "By Buddha's beard, how could you, young man?!"
The enchanter shot katanas at the interloper, but the monk shirked him and hurried to the girl with a pat on the head.
The adult was quite sympathetic. "It must have been hard, hasn't it? To be left by yourself by your irresponsible fa━"
"She is not my child," Shibuya declared irritably, loudly...
And soon regretted it; tears brimmed the child's eyes, and she wailed━possibly defeating all banshees with her cries.
Abruptly, an anxious John suggested to the puzzled enchanter, "Shibuya-san, you must apologize!"
"That's right!" Takigawa agreed. "Can't you even pretend for her, young man? She might have been abandoned, so don't spoil her fun like that!"
The monk shut his mouth instantaneously as he realized what he'd said. The squirt wept louder, and the monk and fire demon rushed to soothe the girl while at the same time persuading the enchanter to atone.
It was very unbelievable that the people he'd thought were loyal to him would be so against him because he made a kid cry. However, he'd indeed noted how...harsh he was at his denial, and his inconsideration had always been a foible...
He clenched his jaw and shunted his head...slightly remorsefully. "Do what you want."
And the young man dematerialized out of thin air.
"That guy━!" The monk gritted his teeth and soughed. Then, he looked softly at the cherub before him while patting her head with care once more. "Don't mind that guy, alright? He's always been an egghead, but it doesn't mean he hates you."
Sniffling, Mai nodded. "O-okay..."
The monk tried to smile, and then there was a cacophonous gush of water from upstairs which caused him to straighten and assure her, "He's usually that loud when starting his bath. Don't worry. I'll go and convince him to let you stay, so don't think too deeply of what he said, alright?" And he added to the fiendish fire, "John, humor her, please."
The girl and demon bobbed, and the former sniffed some more before Takigawa was out of earshot. By then, Mai had her face buried on her cupped hands.
And next...
"Are they gone?" she susurrated to the flame, and John gave her an aflame thumbs-up after a second of flummoxed nictation.
Mai beamed like a Cheshire cat. They bought it!
Oh, it was all a mischievous ploy indeed. It took a remembrance of her parents' funeral, however, to summon tears.
With a low snicker, Mai asked John, "Did you see his face? It was priceless, wasn't it?"
John chuckled for the first time, and his conflagrant face flickered. "It was━"
The demon tilted his head with a conflicted expression.
Mai blinked and inquired, "What is it, John?"
He shrugged his fiery shoulders. "I...can't remember your name..."
Mai laughed heartily. "That's because I haven't told you yet!"
"Oh..." John's flames became rosy, and Mai couldn't help but be in high spirits.
"My name's Mai Ta━" She nipped her lip in second thought and continued, "Just Mai."
"Mai? Was it Mai you said?" John knitted his flaming brows.
Mai jounced her head.
He's really a demon amnesiac!
Somehow, the oddity of the magickal world was getting through her...in a marvellous way.
It isn't bad to get used to this, right? At least for a while, she thought cheerfully.
"It's the first time," John observed, and Mai looked agog at him.
"For what?"
"For Shibuya-san to be pinned down because of a child's hysterics," John explained, looking at her with some admiration. Mai shrugged, but she felt pleased...to be able to affect the enchanter that much.
Curving the corners of her lips upward, she surmised, "I guess he has a soft side for kids for him to cave in like that."
"I don't know..." The fire demon was thoughtful. "I'd never seen him talk to a kid, I suppose...Just maidens..."
Mai just shrugged recurrently. So, he doesn't mingle that much with others except young women?
What a playboy the enchanter sounded indeed. Not that it was novel tidings to her however. Still, such particularity was weird━not that she should care much about his preference anyway; she wouldn't be staying at his house for a long time...
Probably...
Mai sighed...and then yawned.
"You must sleep," John proponed. "You might have exerted more than your child's body could take with the journey towards this place."
Mai just nodded and didn't bother to tell John that she didn't want to go inside Shibuya's castle at all; the broomstick━which she couldn't see anywhere now that she'd noticed━just led her there.
"Where *yawn* can I shweep...?" She rubbed her eyes.
"You can sleep on the couch for now," John uttered helpfully.
If Mai wasn't hexed, she would have been in her tea shop's kitchen. She would have begun preparing for her supper and experimenting on her new tea bag mixture. If she wasn't damned, she would have slept on her bed and roused jerkily at the aftermath of a nightmare.
But since she was indeed cursed, Mai lay down on the pasty couch and harkened to the crackling of John's fire until she was lulled and transported face-to-face with an eidolon of a certain wizard who was, for the first time, smiling wholeheartedly and kindly to her.
XDXDXDXD~nya~
Mai roused the next day with an ear-splitting crow of a rooster. Still sleepy, she sluggishly rose and rubbed her eyes.
"So noisy..." she murmured. "Whose rooster is that?"
She'd never heard of a neighbor having a rooster before, so how—
"It's Shibuya-san's, from upstairs." There also came a yawn, and Mai flinched and gaped at the fire.
For a moment, Mai forgot the events of yesterday and opened her mouth for a scream...but it got stuck in her throat when the rooster's noise grew louder and louder. Then Mai spotted the boisterous animal descending the stairs with a sleepy muffler-wearing Takigawa, who's scratching his head.
Spotting her, the monk blinked and stopped. It then took a few seconds before his eyes alit in remembrance.
"Oh yeah, oh yeah," he said and cracked a smile. "Good morning, young lady."
Mai bit her lip and just nodded.
Yesterday wasn't a dream, and knowing that made Mai feel a sense of dread never before felt.
Just then, the rooster flew towards her and perched on the top of the sofa's backrest, in front of her, and shouted, "Wake up!"
And Mai, forgetting her dilemma, sent it swooshing to the wall across her by its tail with a, "SHUT UP!"
It had hurt her ears, and the chicken fell motionless on the floor with a crooked tongue out.
Horrified, Mai gasped when she realized what she did to the enchanter's property in her random fury and was about to apologize until Takigawa exclaimed, "Finally! Finally somebody shut it up in an instant!"
"That's amazing, Mai-san!" The head-ish fire, which she recalled was named John, leapt on the grate cheerfully, and Mai was befuddled at their responses.
"That chicken wouldn't shut up no matter how many times we told it to, so we got tired," Takigawa explained.
Mai blinked at them. "Throwing the chicken isn't bad?"
The two nodded in unison. "Quite the contrary."
"Bu-but I killed it! The enchanter will be angry!"
Takigawa snorted. "He won't. Besides, that guy doesn't care if it's gone to Nirvana, and he always goes out before it crows! That sly lad!"
The enchanter already left? Mai was relieved. Soon remembering his smiling face in her slumber, she felt heat creep up to her cheeks.
Why did I dream of him?!
Mai shook her head. No! Don't even think about him!
"What should we do with it?" she asked to the monk. "Bury it?"
"Leave it lying there. It's just play-acting as usual." Takigawa shrugged.
"It is? It's not dead?"
"Yeah. Magick made it dramatic."
Mai nodded, seeing the revealed tongue of the rooster, and then it convulsed. "It's shaking! Is it sick? It's my fault!"
"Nahhh. I told you; it's just acting. That's one attention-seeking chicken, so ignore it. It'll hop back upstairs when it realized its efforts were unrewarded."
Mai goggled and couldn't help snickering. "What a funny chicken!"
"A troublesome one. I swear if you saw it do somersaults, you'd want to slay and roast it. Unluckily, we can't."
"Why not?"
"Because it's already dead, and it was soaked in embalming fluid for centuries so that eating it would be deadly. It was a specimen, something studied by men of science (which you'll learn about soon enough), and Shibuya brought it to life to shriek hellishly like that. Creepy, right?"
Mai nodded, but her thoughts were elsewhere.
It was a novel wake-up call. It was quite a long time ago that Mai woke up and found somebody (like her sisters) with her. Albeit her then unsolitary life will be temporary, it would be something she might hate to break out of afterwards; being alone wasn't a gladdening situation. Yet she must leave that place someday, for she didn't belong there; she was more suitable with the ordinary life...
A sizzling sound whipped Mai's head to the fireplace, and Takigawa's voice resounded, "Will omelet rice be alright?"
"I'll help you!" The girl bobbed as she stood up and noticed a thin linen blanket fall on her feet.
Who...? Oh...maybe John...Oh well, I should thank John for it later!
"Nah. It's my responsibility, young lady," Takigawa refused.
"But—"
"Just go and tidy up your blanket."
Hesitating and biting her lip, Mai bent and grabbed the cover and folded it neatly before lodging it on the sofa.
"Sit before the workbench!" Takigawa gestured to the table near the dresser and shelves of weird stuff, and when she did as told, John laid plates before her.
The arched windows still showed the view of the sea port, and the sky was still orangey but marked that of sunrise rather than sundown.
"By the way," the monk started, "what's your name?!"
"Mai!" she replied louder than the sizzling sounds on the pan.
"I see! You can call me Bou-san!" he shouted back.
"Okay."
"Do you want yours spicy?!" He shook the pan, jerked it upwards, and expertly caught all the contents in it.
In amazement, Mai didn't think much when she said, "Yes."
Still insisting to help, she brewed some white tea as the monk stir-fried something white, almost circular, and that has holes.
Standing beside the adult made her unable to take off a smile from her face. She'd never had brothers, but having one like the monk seemed a great idea for her...
Or a dad...
Mai giggled inwardly.
Ah! I need to put my act together!
"Bo-Bou-san...?" she began gently as the sizzling waned.
"Hm?"
"Where does Papa usually go?" she inquired as they sat to eat.
She wanted to play the abandoned-child-needing-father's-attention role quite well, so she decided to level up with the name-calling.
The monk hesitated to reply and then sighed. "Your irresponsible father is lass-roping."
Mai tilted her head. "What's that?"
"Well...I don't know if you'll understand, but that guy goes out early every day just to start wooing girls everywhere. I'd seen him in action once. Quite the playboy he is that it's scary. I'd never seen him beaten up because of it though. Must have evaded with magick."
Mai agreed with a nod before she could stop herself.
He loured and pointed his chopsticks to her. "Listen, Mai-chan. When you grow up, don't fall for guys like your dad; people like him will just hurt you."
Mai jounced her head agreeably and wished he didn't notice the blush on her cheeks. She clearly hoped she wouldn't too—fall in love that is...
Ah, no; she wouldn't! She's quite sure of it. After all, besides his astounding skills of magick and handsome face, there didn't seem to be any redeeming qualities about him.
Just like I'm not his type, he's not my type too!
An image of his smiling face flashed across her mind, and she shook her head. No! That's just a dream!
"Anyway," she diverted, "are you really a monk, Bou-san? How come your hair is long? How come you're in a wi—in Papa's castle?"
Bou-san laughed. "You're quite a curious little lady! It'll be fun to see you bother Shibuya! Oh well, alright. To answer, it's been a long time when I went down the mountain. I don't like being bald, and the monastery was so quiet—I'm more of a lively guy, you know? So, I came to town and started playing music, but magick intrigued me. So, I decided to train on a new sideline while I do exorcisms and street concerts."
Mai then mused if other monks were like him; she hadn't befriended a monk before.
"Ah! John, where's the screen?" Bou-san hollered.
"Wait a moment, Takigawa-san." John narrowed his eyes, and then a thin sheet of small square glass hovered near the fire.
"What's that?" Mai inquired, but the monk wasn't listening to her.
"Widen please," he ordered to no one in particular.
"About how much?"
"480p perhaps."
"Ok."
The glass expanded just like Mai's eyes.
What is that for? Her childish curiosity was at its peak.
"Screen on," Bou-san commanded, and a burst of colors and a rush of sound sprung out from the enlarged glass.
"Wha—?" Mai blinked, and Bou-san smiled.
"It's the TV."
Mai could tell now, but she'd never encountered one that's absolutely wireless!
"Did the en—Papa—Did Papa make that?" She gulped her tea and glanced at the announcer of the morning news━a pink-clothed woman.
"Most likely," Bou-san answered. "I haven't seen anything like it from the others. To top it off, it's voice-controlled. Ah, is the screen too small?"
"It's okay—"
"HD, please. Oh, and 3D too."
Mai gaped as the newstudio and the announcer looked as though they got out of the thin glass and were seemingly as fleshy as the inhabitants of the castle.
"Amazing..." It was the first time Mai saw something inexplicably scientific or magical—or probably a mix of both. In the land of Wō, after all, magick was more relied upon than science (the latter and the former don't seem all that different for Mai, and she doesn't care to distinguish between the two, anyway), for the emperor concurred with being more environmental-friendly.
"I know, right?" Bou-san nodded. "Trust me, there's a lot more mouth-opening in this place."
Of that she was quite sure, for Shibuya seemed quite flamboyant in using his powers.
Letting silence reign over them, they ate and harkened as the news announcer vanished, and in her place was...
"Your Majesty, is it really true that the Maou did not give any threats for the Hawthorne Convention?" somebody, in the unseen background, uttered.
The emperor had a sheer black veil over his face, which was covered with a white mask, and a black box-shaped hat. He also wore a purple kimono and some furry ivory pelt over his shoulders. No one knew what his face really looks like, but Mai heard he had lived for centuries.
Turning her head away from the life-like figure, Mai tilted her head. "What's the Hawthorne Convention?"
She didn't really listen to any news, nor was she interested with politics or anything besides her tea shop.
"It's a meeting of the emperor's coven."
"Coven? What's that?"
Helpfully, John answered, "A group of witches and wizards appointed by the emperor."
"Ooh..." Mai whirled back to the out-of-screen apparition.
There were clicks of cameras and a cacophony of questions before the person Mai-knew-very-well-as-the-Emperor raised his hands and silenced the unseen interrogators.
With an even and clear tone, he finally spoke, "First of all, Ubusuna-san has never posed as a danger to our conventions. We always think of her messages—or, as you termed it, threats—as an encouragement to do a better job. We may not agree to her ways of saving the magickal community, but we are one in motivation. Now, to answer your query, Ubusuna-san has not left us her usual message for the convention next weekend."
There came whispers and then a pounding on some wood to silence everyone.
"Your Majesty, do you not think of it as strange, then? Do you not, if I may be so bold, think that her silence for the convention's preparations may be deceiving?"
The emperor shook his head, but under his mask, he might be frowning. "As I have often said, we do not wish to speculate ill-humor in people. Despite her incessant promises—or, as you'd like to call, threats—she has not actualized any hostile action to the coven. It is improper for us to prejudge her again and again when she had done nothing to us."
"But, your Majesty, if i may be so bold, how about the Maou's terrorism in other countries? She has led fellow sorcerers to exterminate ordinary people, so do you not think of her as hazardous to national security, especially of those who do not use magick?"
The emperor sighed.
"Unfortunately, yes. We acknowledge her as a threat to national security but not a threat to the convention. The assemblies we've held throughout every year are always well-protected and hosted by the strongest witches and wizards the world has ever known━reasons why Ubusuna-san is not dangerous to our coven."
Mai tilted her head. Why have they not caught her yet, then?
"Your Majesty, we've also heard about the recent disappearance of the great diviner, along with some town mages. Will the coven—?"
"There's someone at the door!" John proclaimed, and Mai flinched.
Hastily gulping his tea, Bou-san shouted, "Screen off! John, hide that now! Anyway, who is it?"
"Three men bearing the insignia of the emperor—"
"His envoys?!" The monk turned to Mai and gave her a tiara. "Wear this to hide yourself!"
Mai obediently followed, and Bou-san took his sable hat from the broom cupboard and wore it before he opened the door.
As John had said, there were three men outside. They were wearing sky blue and white kimonos and ivory headbands with the crimson phoenix in an orange circle on the middle of their foreheads.
"Good morning, gentlemen. What can I do for you today?" Merlin-Takigawa greeted.
"Good morning, Sir Merlin. Is Narumi Kazuo there?" they spoke in unison.
"No..."
"Then, as usual, we will hand you his invitation. If this letter is not opened by the person addressed on it, the emperor will exercise his judgment, so please pass this to the rightful owner. The three of us will be witnesses that you have taken the letter for the medicine seller Narumi Kazuo."
The old monk just nodded as he took a foot-long bamboo trunk.
"Have an honest nice day!" They gave a salute and strode off.
Bou-san immediately closed the door and took off his hat.
Then John cried, "There's another batch! Kira Kira City!"
"Whoa! Wait a moment━"
"Still from the emperor!"
"Seriously..." Bou-san scratched his head, turned the colored knob in the middle of the door knob, and swung the door open again—but without wearing any disguise. The pointer was on the red hue.
"Sir Takigawa?" They wore the same clothes as the previous envoys, and Mai could not seem to distinguish their countenance from one another.
"Yes..."
"A message from the emperor for the ghost hunter. As witnesses, you will be liable if the news did not reach him and was opened before him. The contents of the letter consists of matters supposedly for national secrecy. Please refrain from temptation."
They were like robots after all...saying similar words as the ones in Port Nihon...
Mai however had averted her gaze from them and was blinking at the background. The capital was majestic with its sky-scraping pagodas and glimmering bejeweled roofs. The name of the city itself was befitting, and Mai was tempted to run outside. Bou-san had shut the door immediately though when he received another bamboo trunk.
He then placed the bamboo trunks on the table and resumed eating.
Mai took off the tiara and wondered. "Why is Papa given a letter from the emperor?"
"It's the usual invitation for the convention."
Mai gaped. "He's included in the coven?"
"No, but the emperor insists for him to join the assembly. His Majesty knew that Shibuya is the only one truly at par with the Maou, so he wants him to cooperate in the mission of executing the Maou."
"Does that mean the coven is tasked to kill the Maou?" Mai blurted.
Bou-san blinked at her. "Hearing the word kill is harsh from a child like you...But it's not a wrong term I think...The Maou has been making the world a darker place than it already is."
"But the emperor said she has the same goals as him, right? What goal?"
"You're quite a bright little lady to understand all these things," Bou-san said in amazement, and Mai's eyes fluttered. It was then that she realized she'd been acting less than a child with her choice of questions and words.
"We-well, the adults who'd taken care of me were always talking about serious stuff, so I learned grave things from them." As much as she tried not to look away, she just couldn't seem to hold her gaze with the monk's.
"It must have been hard." The adult soughed and patted her head though.
"A-anyway, Bou-san, how did the Maou make the world a darker place?"
"Hm..." The monk scratched his head uneasily. "How should I say it...Ah...You know what's happening in other countries, right?"
Mai tilted her head and thought of how to phrase her response to make it sound more like a child of her body's current age than her real-time self. "Umm...they bring the witches and wizards to Nirvana, right?"
Bou-san nodded quickly. "Yes...that. That works. I mean to say, yes, that's what they do to people like Shibuya, but...it isn't right. Imagine families, children—many people prevented to live and pursue their dreams or happiness. I've heard that some who were suspected of witchcraft and wizardry aren't even witches or wizards! It's very inhuman, those persecutions..."
Mai's imagination was very vivid, so soon, a familiar dampness gathered in her eyes as she imagined a world engulfed by fire...Her loved ones screaming for help...Herself being helpless and unable to help because she wants to survive...
A world that was full of screams inside but was truly eerily silent outside. A world where even screams couldn't pierce the air before the crackling of flames drown all opposition.
Mai couldn't live like that. She coughed as though she choked smoke. The image was suffocating, and her head bowed.
"That's so sad..." She pretended to snuffle like a child, but she genuinely lost her appetite. "Why are they doing that to witches and wizards?"
Bou-san put down his chopsticks and examined her sadly. "Unlike Wō, other countries rely on science than magic. Also, men of science had backed up men of religion on their side to point out that magick besides being unscientific is also blasphemous."
"Blas—?"
"Against god. Work of the devil, they say."
"That's horrible...!"
She then thought that there are different kinds of bad guys in the world.
He nodded. "Yes."
There was a pause, and Mai picked on her food again so as not to waste Bou-san's cooking. Then...
"Well I can't really understand the Maou. She seemed to be against her fellow sorcerers, but then she's cruel to common folks too."
"If the coven has the strongest wizards, why can't they catch her?" Mai frowned.
Bou-san's mouth was full with food, so John responded for him, "You can ask Shibuya-san about it. The Maou has been trying to catch him. He knows her weaknesses and her goals. He's been stopping her endeavors as much as he can even without the encouragement of the emperor."
Bou-san swallowed and uttered, "Yeah..."
That signaled the end of their conversation as Bou-san saw the time and ate in a hurry. After consumption (the monk's cooking was top notch), Mai offered to wash the dishes, but Bou-san and John just told her to leave her plate on the sink, where it soon became squeaky clean as the castle.
Lesson learned: magick was scary but convenient.
Since Mai could smell the sourness of her armpits, she inquired about the bathroom, and the monk led her upstairs.
The second floor was as white as downstairs, but it was so blank. There were no paintings and no furniture. If not for the golden door knobs, Mai wouldn't recognize the doors at all from the walls. On top of that...
Mai observed that there are only two doors although the hallway is quite wide.
"Where does Na—Papa sleep?"
The monk pursed his lips. "Ah that...The door to his room vanishes when he leaves it. He's always been so secretive."
Mai just shrugged and left it at that.
XDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~
When Mai entered the bathroom, she felt displaced, especially when Bou-san closed the door. All four corners and the ceiling were flat and made of glass. The floor was covered with tatami mats (to ensure no one won't slip), and on a corner, a moderately high waterfall was filling a rather wide stone-made pool. With the splashes of water, it was most likely magick again that prevented the tatami mats from getting wet.
The pool water was turquoise blue just like the view on all corners and on the ceiling. Fishes in different colors swam beyond the glasses that encased the bathroom, and Mai was distracted enough with the fishes seemingly dancing everywhere she gaped.
Bou-san was right indeed; there were many things more jaw-dropping in there, and if there were more hidden rooms, it might take Mai years before she could discover all their wonders. Somehow, she was beginning to think that living in magick isn't that bad. Even if she dislikes the enchanter, he was indirectly giving her access to such fantastic magickal experiences that something dropped inside her stomach at the thought of being unable to stay in the future.
When she had enough of the aquarium view, Mai rose from the pool, which was shallow as though to accommodate her tiny form and which smelled like ripe fruits Mai couldn't name. As soon as she finished dressing up into a mint green floral sundress (which she frequently wore when she was really still a child), a corner of the room turned white, and the door appeared. Before long, Mai went down, and Bou-san ushered her to follow him.
"How was your bath?" John inquired, and Mai thumbs-up-ed.
"Amazing!"
The monk showed her towards the space under the stairs. Green silk curtains surrounded it, and Mai blinked at the monk.
"What's behind it?"
"It's not much, but while I can't persuade Shibuya to reconstruct this place, I can only prepare this small space for you..."
It was more than enough actually. She was free loading from then on after all (until her curse is broken), so she didn't expect she would even have a space in that place.
Sliding the curtains aside, Mai saw three heaped thin pallets on the floor and a green velvet coverlet laid for her.
Takigawa smiled reassuringly. "I'll get you some cute sheets later so that it'll feel homey. I would want to give you my room, but it's actually still a storage closet. It can be quite suffocating although there's no dust or dirt, and it seems like the boxes are stuck to each other and on the floor that I couldn't move them out..."
"It's perfect! Thank you, Bou-san!" Mai beamed and hugged the man's legs.
The monk was startled, but he then patted her head.
Although the enchanter was unlikable, his companions were different, and Mai was somehow grateful that her stay at the castle wouldn't be horrible after all. To repay John and Bou-san's kindness, Mai offered to watch the store. Bou-san didn't want to give her such a responsibility, so he gave her a skipping rope—which she just put down on the table when John offered to tell her a story.
XDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~
"I'm going out for a while, so I'm closing the shop. If you're hungry, there are snacks in the pantry, ok?" Bou-san said while clutching a flower pot to his chest.
Mai just bobbed her head, and when the monk finally closed the door, she swished her head to John.
"It's alright if I peek at wherever that black one leads to, right?"
"Yes, but—"
Mai didn't wait for him to continue and dashed to the door in childish prance. She turned the colored knob on the door, and the black part landed by the pointer. Swinging the door open, Mai was met with a granite wall.
She stepped back reflexively and exclaimed, "Why is it—?"
"It's for precaution," John explicated from the hearth, "in case the Maou slips in here."
First his room, and now this secret place? How can he be so thorough? Mai pouted.
"It's not like the Maou can bust in here, right?" Mai asked. "If he's the only person the Maou can't stand against, doesn't that mean he's very strong?"
"Yes, but the Maou knows his weakness."
"Weakness? What weakness?" If Mai knew what it was, maybe she could persuade him to vanquish her curse—
"I'm sorry. I can't tell you," John said contritely.
Dang!
Mai growled inwardly.
Just then, the still ajar door slammed shut, and the disk on the lintel turned once more.
And speaking of the dev—wizard, he entered from (what Mai surmised as) the rocky ravine she'd fallen into yesterday. Consequently, seeing her by the door, he scowled.
"Don't open the door for too long," he spoke and went past her disapprovingly.
Pouting, Mai also went upstairs and grasped a side of his trousers. Looking down, he narrowed his eyes. "What is it?"
Time to torture him.
Mai smiled and cooed, "Read me a story, Papa!"
He glared, and the room darkened and cooled. "No."
Hmph. I won't give up!
Undaunted, she jutted her lip. "Please?"
He squinted at her again. "No. Go play with John. It's not even bedtime."
Who said it's only bedtime that you can read stories? And how could she play with fire? Wasn't that supposed to be dangerous?
Mai didn't give up, however, and soon, tears welled up in her eyes. "Why won't you read for me, Papa? Do you hate me? *sniff* Uwahh..."
To her silent satisfaction, the enchanter stiffened and stared at her. He shunted his head, but Mai insisted while shaking his legs, "I just want Papa to read me a story! Why is Papa so mean to me? Uwaaaaaaaaahh..."
"You should read to her. It's not that hard," John's voice reverberated the room.
The enchanter furrowed his brows. "You—"
Mai glanced up at him expectantly with tearful kitten-wide eyes, and he loured and sighed.
"Fine."
"Yay~" She celebrated quickly, and she gazed at him dreamily and chirped, "I'll get some snacks first!"
She ran to the pantry to get them some box of cookies, and while she was deciding between the chocolate chip and the macademia kind, the enchanter neared John and asked in a muffled tone, "Did she get near here?"
"No. There's a rip on your jacket...Did you have a skirmish?"
"It's nothing—just got caught on a nail."
"She clawed you?"
The enchanter shrugged. "It's nothing worth caring about. Where is that monk?"
"He went out to test his spell."
"What's the probability of his success?"
"Pretty high."
"John! John! Make some green tea with lemon and roasted brown rice!" Mai's voice rang out from the pantry. The little girl then came back near the fire with two different boxes of cookies.
"Alright." John summoned the kettle to the hearth once more.
You're very obedient, Shibuya remarked inwardly, and John smiled at him.
So are you, Shibuya-san.
Before he can glower at the flames, Mai grabbed the enchanter's hand and ushered him to the couch, where across was a table with a plate of the cookies Mai chose. She then sat on the floor, beside his right foot, propped up her elbows on the edge of the couch seat, leaned her chin on her entwined hands, and peered up at him eagerly. "Start reading now, Papa!"
Mai was definitely going to make sure her baby-sitter would answer to her demands.
XDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~
The enchanter was, by all means, a killjoy.
"Papa is so boring!" Mai narrowed her eyes while the enchanter was halfway a thin fairytale book entitled, "Snow White and Rose Red."
With a lour, the young man closed his book. "If you don't like my reading, ask someone else to read for you."
Mai made a moue with her mouth and shook her head. "No! I want Papa to read for me!"
He wasn't going to get out of the situation easily indeed.
The enchanter stared at the girl and loured more.
Mai clung to his pants and egged on, "Come on, Papa! Make the witch's voice better! Make Snow White's voice more girly too! Your normal voice sounds so horrible!"
Mai as a child was really the death of man's pride. No glare of his had receded her persistent energy. Fortunately, before the lad can sigh in resignation or use a frigid glom, John suggested, "How about you take her to the playground in town? She can befriend kids there."
The enchanter then had a gander at John and smirked. "I was about to."
He stood up, and Mai batted her eyelids. "Papa?"
"We're going out."
"That's—!"
The enchanter walked to the door without listening to her protest, and with a glower at John, Mai left with the wizard.
XDXDXDXD~nya~
The playground was just about four blocks to the left of the enchanter's shop in Port Nihon. It was full of kids. Parents or guardians were nonexistent, and Mai wondered if the children's safety was taken for granted because of extreme confidence on the kids themselves.
"Aren't you Sir Merlin's child?" a boy wearing a dark baggy shirt and shorts inquired to Mai.
Recognizing him from yesterday, Mai beamed. "Yes! Nice to meet you!"
"Onii-san, who is she?" a girl in a comely blue and white striped kimono asked. She had the same ebony hair as the boy who asked Mai, but she wore it long and in pigtails.
"Sir Merlin's child!" the boy answered and then asked Mai with a flush on his cheeks, "Would you play with us?"
Mai gazed up at the enchanter.
"Isn't he medicine man?" the boy's sister queried, and Mai nodded.
"Yup! He is my father!" Mai grinned at the frowning enchanter.
Not even questioning his youthfulness, the boy stepped up courageously and stared at the lad. "Medicine man, can she play with us?"
Shibuya's orbs lingered at the little boy, who tried his best not to cower under his measuring scrutiny. At last, the enchanter shrugged and told Mai, "Do what you want."
So before Mai can protest again, she was hurled by children's hands in the middle of the sand pool.
"We're playing 'Daruma-san has fallen down'!" the boy's sister informed. "Onii-san's the oni!"
The boy, whose name she found out was Warai, then turned around a few feet before them and drawled with a shaky voice, "DAAAAAAAAAARUUUUUUUUUUMAAAAA AAAAAAA-SAAAAAAAAAAAN..."
Imitating others, Mai moved towards Warai's back.
"...HAS FALLEN DOWN!"
They all stiffened, and Warai checked whoever moved. Nobody dared, and Warai turned his back again. The game carried on until the kids got tired of it, so they changed games. They soon started cops and robbers, and everyone was running and hiding before the kid-cops find them after counting.
The playground only had the bowing giraffe slide and igloo-like structure as good hiding places, so Mai couldn't count on those obvious spots. The rest of the kids headed to the trees, vending machines, and food stands surrounding the area. Mai, not knowing where to hide, dashed to the enchanter, who was sitting on a bench, with an expressionless face. Mai then shook his legs and said, "Papa, papa! Hide me!"
He gave her a gaze that showed his refusal, but Mai did not care. "Make me invisible, Papa!"
The enchanter did not budge, and Mai was spotted by one of the kid-cops. In mischief, she stomped on the enchanter's foot with all her might and sent him flinching. The lad shot daggers her way, but Mai just stuck her tongue out and said devilishly, "It's Papa's fault!"
She huffed and stayed in the stone-made igloo to wait for other kid robbers to save her from captivity. Luckily, Warai crawled to rescue Mai, and holding hands, they ducked behind a bush somewhere.
Mai giggled at the nostalgia the instance gave her. Usually, when she played games like that, it was her who rescues others.
Warai blinked at her as she tittered and finally got to ask her, "What is your name?"
Mai smiled. "I'm━"
"FOUND YOU!"
They were chased out of the bushes by a brunette boy, and Mai bumped into someone.
"Look where you're going," Shibuya remarked as he helped her up.
Mai just puffed up her cheeks. "Whatever."
"Kyaa! You two are so sweet!" Warai's sister exclaimed, appearing out of nowhere.
"Huh?" Mai's eyes twinkled.
"It's obvious, right?" A brunette kid-cop smirked.
Warai's sister flushed with glee. "He's jealous! Medicine man, are you two married?"
Mai and the enchanter were speechless as they failed to understand how marriage was attributed to their talk.
"Kyaa! They're married! You're still so young!"
You're all young too, the enchanter thought with a sigh. Kids...
"Fathers can marry their daughters?" another girl, who's one of the kid-cops, tilted her head.
"She is not my child," Shibuya corrected, and it finally went through the children's heads when he heard them gasp.
They then began whispering although he could still hear them. Somehow, all kids stopped hiding and chasing and gathered before Mai and Shibuya to join in the conversation.
"That's okay, right? If they're married? My mother says it's ok if you're not relatives."
"Yeah, but isn't he a pil?"
"You mean pile? You know...the enemy of children?"
"Wrong! It's not pil or pile! He's called a pedophile!" the brunette boy said proudly and pointed at the enchanter.
The enchanter glared, but the children were not scared.
"Wut's that? Isn't tat diffwent?"
"Isn't it pedobear? Not pedophile?" another nodded.
"Pedobear is a kind of pedophile!"
"But he's not a bear..."
"Pedoboy, then?" a child suggested.
"Stop thinking about pedophiles," the enchanter commanded, most likely restraining his irritation with just a cold look.
But the children were not fazed and instead pointed at him.
"Pedophile! Let's call the town mages!"
They pumped their fists and made a line.
"Yeah!"
And the troop went off.
Mai turned to the enchanter and playfully asked with a grin, "Papa is a pedophile?"
If looks could kill, Mai would have become sashimi, but the magickal lad just shunted his head before walking away.
He didn't hold out a hand, but Mai blinked, chortled, and clasped her tiny hand with his anyway. When he quirked an eyebrow at her, she just chimed, "Let's go home together, Papa!"
The enchanter then was confronted with a fact; even in the playground, he had a hard time. Children like Mai seemed more powerful in their assertiveness than the young wizard indeed.
Still, he couldn't just let go of Mai's small hand—a source of warmth he didn't find uncomfortable at all in that warm first day of June.
XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~
Even though many days droned on like a copycat of one another, there would always be a day that would start dissimilarly━either because of a change in the routine-players or the necessity of the situation.
When Mai roused on a fine first Saturday of June, she thought she was dreaming again: She had returned to her older self, her real-time self. It was too good to be true. The pajamas she swore she'd worn the preceding night was lying, torn, below her and on the mattress. The curves endowed to her gender and own heritage characterized her physique. Her arms and legs were elongated once more, but her hair remained short.
It was good that the draperies enclosing her lair concealed her naked nubile form from another's eye; she wouldn't have been able to cover herself with the blanket equipped upon her by Bou-san.
Then she noticed a silhouette through the cloth barrier.
And the veils were slid aside to reveal a ravishing lad.
The enchanter and lady-turned-child-turned-lady-afresh ogled at each other for three seconds.
And then a screech shifted the moving castle upside down.
XDXDXDXDXD~nya~
A/N: Muahahaha! Muahahaha! Muahahahaha!
Ok, enough of my silliness lol. next chapter is entitled "In which Mai has skipped." ^^ See you soon!
sashimi=raw fish sliced into thin pieces
onii-san=honorific for elder brothers
Daruma-san has fallen down=a game wherein the "it" is called an oni (demon). It's similar to the red light/green light game.