The Magicians' Realm Chapter 17: Hallowed Fields, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 17, everybody! In which we learn a bit more about the schooling in the Magicians' Realm….And happy Day of the Dead, by the way. :)

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Quite possibly so….Your question is actually about to be answered in this chapter, strangely enough….Haha, that's probably true—girls get spoilt, boys get toughened up. :)

Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Hmmm….Yes, good things come to those who wait. This one probably feels slower because I'm only updating once a week and the chapters are longer on average than my other stories. Good news, though—major impetus occurs next chapter! :D

References:

Original characters + setting © Kineil D. Wicks (myself, not the girl in the story)

Yami halted at a semi-Victorian house on the border between the Commoner and the magic sections of town. He rang the doorbell, a strange-looking device that resembled a large clockwork bird with a pulley, and waited.

Teana examined the house as they waited. It was three stories and fairly narrow, with gears and stovepipes and large windows on every conceivable surface. "Eclectic," she observed. "So let me guess: Miss Weaver and her brother are both Magicians."

"How'd you guess?" Yami asked, looking genuinely surprised.

Teana pointed at first the Commoner section, with its sensible houses with sensible designs, then at the Magician section, with its wacky and weird design choices on even stranger houses. "You magic people have a strange sense of what constitutes good housing."

Yami's retort was cut off by the door opening.

The lady who opened it was dressed nicely in a long-sleeved, puffy-shouldered, high-collared blouse and a long dark skirt that brushed the floor. She had orange hair pulled into a bun, with the exception of a flyaway strand that flopped forward, taking the edge off of her potentially harsh face, which was open and gleeful at the sight of Yami. She was a head taller than Teana, and her gray eyes sparked with interest when she saw Teana.

"Yami!" she said, gesturing for them to come in and accepting Yami's bow. "So good of you to visit." She took both of Teana's hands in her own. "And you must be Teana—we've heard so much about you."

"Any of it good?" Teana asked drily.

"You'll be sainted upon your death," she responded, equally deadpan.

Teana had a feeling she'd like her.

"Miss Gardenier, this is Miss Agnes Weaver," Yami said, introducing them. He glanced around. "Is Doctor Bleak still a coat rack?"

"No," Miss Weaver responded, waving a hand. "He figured his way out of it about a week ago; he's off on one of his campaigns again."

"Who's Doctor Bleak?" Teana asked, deciding for that question over the coat rack one.

"He's my brother," Miss Weaver said. Upon seeing Teana's expression, she elaborated, "Our parents divorced when we were twelve; we were quite the talk of Rosca Town." She gestured farther into the house. "Right this way please; you'll want to leave your coat with Rack—it's quite warm in here."

Teana started as a bunch of clockwork claws unfolded from the closet and extended for her coat. "If it's all the same, I'll keep it with me."

"Suit yourself."

Teana looked around the room; it was packed with clockwork devices. "What's with all these, uh, things?"

"Miss Weaver makes them," Yami supplied. "She's quite gifted with anything with gears."

"They're my specialty," Miss Weaver said.

A young boy stuck his head out of a door in the hall.

"Miss Weaver?" he called.

"Now Crake, I told you to keep practicing with those tuning forks," Miss Weaver scolded, turning to him. "You've got to have an ear for those if you hope to get anywhere."

The boy pouted, but ducked back in.

"Tuning forks?" Teana asked.

"You'd be surprised how much music relates with magic," Miss Weaver explained. "Certainly, magical theory covers a lot of ground—but here I am being rude. Sit down, and I'll get the oven to make some tea."

*/*\*

Yuki sighed, staring out the window.

Hallowed Fields was nestled in a prime piece of real estate, with the forest on one side (and the river beyond), the tracks on another, and the town on the other. It was near enough to the train station that the various students who travelled miles to attend only had a twenty minute walk to complete the journey. It was a bastion of learning.

And Yuki was bored out of his skull.

His brother had breezed through every course they had to offer by the time he was twelve. Hallowed Fields seemed bound and determined, however, to keep Yuki until he was eighteen. Or maybe even longer.

Worst of all, they seemed like they were just rehashing the same things over and over again. Yuki wondered if they didn't have a quota that they had to fill every day, and that one day they just ran out of things to do.

His mind turned back to his family's conversation the other night. At moments like these, he could sympathize with his Grandpa Larry's opinion of the school.

A blackbird landed on the sill and looked at him, chirruping hopefully.

Yuki waved and mouthed maybe later.

The bird hopped back and forth on the sill for a minute, examining the room, then flew off.

Yuki wished he could go with it.

The birds knew more than the teachers did, anyway.

*\*/*

Tea had been made, and Crake—one of Miss Weaver's students, as it turned out—had been returned to his parents. Now Miss Weaver, Yami, and Teana were sitting in the drawing room, with Teana being treated to a lecture on magical theory by an enthusiastic Weaver.

"You see, magic is a lot more than just wand-waving and magic words," Miss Weaver said, stirring her tea. "It's more feeling than fact. You can't exactly teach feeling in a classroom, however, so it ends up being the dry muttering and reading that most people think of."

"So if I thought I could do magic, I could, is that what you're saying?" Teana asked.

"Exactly," Miss Weaver said. "Some magic does require some practical application, however, so those are the branches I'll be focusing on when making my classes."

Teana glanced at the sizeable stack of papers outlining said classes. Miss Weaver had spent the last two hours describing each one in loving detail. "So…when are you going to start this school?"

Miss Weaver's expression soured. "As soon as I can get it built—I had the perfect spot picked out, but the Administrators won't sign the papers—"

"That doesn't surprise me," Yami muttered. Then, at a conversational level, "Where are these papers, Miss Weaver? I'll sign them right now."

Miss Weaver beamed. "Aren't you the dear," she said, hopping up and pulling a small briefcase open. "I have the papers right here." She rushed back over with a sheath of papers and a pen. "You need to sign here, and here, and here—it's three separate properties, but I need the space."

"Can you do that?" Teana asked Yami.

"Sign my name?" Yami asked, scanning the papers as he accepted the pen. "I should hope so—I've been doing it all my life."

"I mean sign those papers—legally."

"I'm Head Mage, so yes." He scribbled his name out; Teana noted he was left-handed. "You asked how I got my work done—it involves a lot of trimming of time-wasting."

Teana saw his signature as he flipped the page up to sign the others, smooth and looping and tightly-spaced. "There, Miss Weaver," Yami said, finishing. "You are now the proud new owner of…" he scanned the papers again. "Twenty square miles."

Teana resisted giving a low whistle. "How big is this school going to be?"

"It's more like the Ancient universities," Miss Weaver said, accepting the papers and restoring them to safety once again. She pulled out some blueprints and brought them over. "It's going to be two dorms and a main school building, with an exercise field and a graveyard…."

Teana bit back her question about the graveyard and resigned herself to another two hours dedicated to learning about Hollow Fields.

*/*\*

The bell rang, and the children ran out pell-mell. No one wanted to stay too long in Hallowed Fields if they didn't have to.

"See?" Yami said, pointing. "There he is."

"I believed you," Anzu told him.

Yuki paused in his exiting, however, to address a blackbird which had landed on a nearby branch. It chirruped at him, to which Yuki responded, then patted the bird on the head.

Anzu turned to Yami, unsure of what to make of the strange sight. "Your brother pets birds on the head," Anzu observed.

"I know," Yami replied, shrugging. "We're having him tested."

Yuki left the bird, which flew off. Yami pulled off a glove, put two fingers in his mouth and let out an ear-piercing whistle. "Yuki!" he called, waving. "Over here!"

"Could you warn me next time?" Anzu asked, rubbing her ears.

"Sorry," Yami said, shrugging as he pulled his glove back on.

"Hi Anzu!" Yuki chimed brightly, trotting over.

"Hi, Yuki," Anzu said. "What are you doing talking to birds?"

Yuki shrugged. "It's a thing."

Anzu looked to Yami, who shrugged. "That's all we've ever been able to get out of him on the subject."

"Yami can't even figure out how I do it," Yuki said, grinning. "It's a unique thing, I guess."

"I'll get it eventually," Yami muttered. Anzu could tell it bugged him not to know something potentially magic-related.

"Maybe Yuki will teach you, if you agree to teach him something in return," Anzu said.

"Really?" Yuki said, ecstatic.

Anzu had to laugh at the glare she received from Yami.

*\*/*

They waved goodbye to Miss Weaver and departed. Teana moaned when she saw how late in the afternoon it was.

"What?" Yami asked.

"I missed one job, and now I've got to run before I'm late for another—"

She tried to dash away, but Yami caught her hand and gently pulled her back. "Yami, I really do have to go," she chided.

"Before you do, could you at least tell me why you have to work yourself into an early grave?" he asked.

"Because not everyone has a cushy job like you," she replied. "I have to pay for groceries, utilities, my apartment—"

"Well, that's easy to solve!" Yami said, smiling broadly and looking quite pleased with himself for figuring it out. "Why don't you come live with me?"

"Do what?"

"I'm pretty sure I asked—"

"I know what you asked," she said cooly, pulling her hand free. "I'll have you know I'm not that easy, bucko—we've barely known each other for a month! Why would I move in with you?"

Yami shrugged, hands up in the air. "Why not? Trust me when I say that my house is big enough that you and I would never see each other, if that's what you want."

She tilted her nose in the air. "That's not the point—you're supposed to ask properly, after a proper amount of time—" The clock tower bonged. "I've got to go."

And she dashed off, leaving a bewildered Yami Skellington in her wake.

Good riddance, too.

After all, what kind of guy asked that sort of thing that quickly? And that casually, too? The nerve!

And how stupid was she, to almost say yes.