Three dirty, disheveled children sat in a row on a bench on one side of a heavy wooden table, stained dark from decades of use. The rest of the room was simple white plaster over stonework walls and hardwood flooring, for this wasn't a public area where the Clan felt the need to show off. Had the equally darkly stained wood shutters of the window across from them been open, the remains of a mushroom cloud would still be visible drifting in the wind, slowly dispersing as it made its way south towards the Kingdom proper.
Facing them were a pair of elder Archwizards of their clan. One wizened and spry with a pair of spectacles, the other middle aged with dark hair just beginning to gray and an intense expression. Their teachers over the past several years, for the two thirteen year olds on the cusp of adulthood. At least by the King's Law, if not by the standards of what passed for their judgment. The youngest, six (And a quarter! she always added) years old, perhaps showed the most sense of all and merely kept working her way through the wheat crackers set in front of her while pretending not to have any idea what was going on.
"Now then," the wizened principal of their school, Kagoori, addressed the older pair unusually sternly, "I would have a full account of just what the three of you thought you were doing outside the village during an attack."
Megumin's eyes glowed with eagerness. She'd been practically vibrating in her seat since the trio had been led inside and leaped at the chance to proclaim her deeds as she leapt to her feet.
"But of course! For it was I, the Greatest Genius of the Crimson Demon Clan, who struck a mighty blow against the Forces of Evil! Though the day began ordinarily enough, the prophetic vision vouchsafed to me by my crimson blood revealed this to be a lie! A mere veneer of normality over the boiling madness that was to come!"
The 'adults' nodded gravely, giving her their full attention. Meanwhile, Yunyun realized that this was, somehow, going to be even worse than what she'd braced herself for and put her face in her hands, resigning herself to the inevitable.
"The announcement of a break in our ceaseless labors due to dire circumstances had only just been issued. As you know, we students are charged to move in pairs or groups when such a warning goes out, so I and my Best Rival did just that! We reached my home without incident, only to find that Komekko was missing, and the signs of a fearsome struggle abounded! Fearing the worst for my beloved sister, we followed the trail left by her vile kidnappers, and found her bravely confronting several of the fiends after attempting to escape in the finest traditions of the Clan!"
"She was out foraging for dinner and several hobgoblins were trying to take it from her," Yunyun interrupted, trying to restore sanity.
Ignoring the interjection, Megumin carried on "For an endless moment I was seized by indecision! Wracked by vacillation! For while Komekko was performing admirably in holding her tormentors at bay, duty and love for her tore at my soul in turn against the mere idea of allowing her to be at risk for an instant longer!"
Yunyun's eyes turned back to her friend from where they had been raised heavenwards, perhaps pleading for strength. Baleful crimson light glowed and dimmed in time with her breathing through her narrowed eyes, as she tried to bore a hole in her seatmate with the strength of her gaze alone at the sheer brazen bullshit contained in that sentence. Megumin fearlessly pressed onwards, wrapped up in the tale she spun.
Mostly out of whole cloth by this point.
"My rival cut the tangled knot of my feelings by ambushing them with her magic, ending the standoff! Rescue thus accomplished, we were of a mind to return home when a new threat arose before us!" Even Megumin's lung capacity had limits, and she paused for breath.
"Then congratulations Yunyun!" Puuchin, their class' teacher, exclaimed in delight. "Many are the years since one of the Clan claimed her birthright so early!"
The light, and outrage, faded from his student's eyes, and she seemed to shrink in on herself in shame. "I-I didn't get Advanced Magic. I…only h-had enough points…f-for Intermediate," she finished in a whisper, staring at the floor between her feet.
"Oh…oh I see," he said after a long, awkward moment, looking away.
Megumin's instincts telling her to hurry things along were dead on, and she resumed her story without missing a beat.
"Then! Just when we thought our struggles over, did we see a host that blotted out the sun, verily freezing our blood in our veins! The attack that we had been warned of was upon us, and help was nowhere to be found! Should we prevail, it would only be by our own strength!"
"There couldn't have been more than twenty gargoyles…" Yunyun whispered, but was ignored.
Megumin stood again with a flourish. "Fortunately, I had only barely amassed the means to do just that mere hours before, for I had by then collected a full fifty skill points! Enough to procure my heart's desire, and the key to our salvation!"
"Fifty points!" the teachers gasped "And you hadn't already…" the blood drained from their faces in unison, for there was only one skill that demanded so many points of anyone who wanted to master it. "You…you don't mean…" her principal groaned.
"INDEED! It is precisely as you say! For at that moment, I seized my destiny in mine own two hands, and took up the magic that surpasses all others! At that moment, I became an Explosion Mage!"
There was a long, long silence. One filled with both regret and disappointment on one side, and shame and euphoria on the other.
Komekko chose that moment to push her now empty bowl across the table with a scrape of wood on wood. "Thanks, misters! Those were good!"
The girls' teacher shook his head, broken out of contemplating just where he'd gone wrong, and failed his most promising students. "I'm glad you liked them," he replied with a kind smile. "But it's probably time to send you all home. We shall seal away all that was spoken here this day, and bear your words to our tombs." He glanced at his superior, who nodded agreement.
"I…what is done may not be undone even by the goddesses. Your time here in the Red Prison is completed. From this day forth, you are both accounted as full adults of the Clan, with all the duties and privileges to which one is entitled. Go forth and darken these halls no longer, but instead may your Crimson fury thunder forth upon the world!" he proclaimed the standard benediction for graduates. Though, this time, his heart really wasn't in it.
With their dismissal fresh in their minds, Megumin and Yunyun escorted Komekko from the building, pausing only at the front gates to look back at the place that felt like their whole lives to that point.
"Well, n-now what?" Yunyun asked, ever practical. After a moment she began to trudge away, Komekko's hand in her own. The feeling of the pity and the disappointment she'd seen in the eyes of their teacher and principal sat in the pit of her stomach like a lead weight. Even the mere thought of seeing it on the faces of people she cared for brought hot tears, thoughts of what she could possibly tell Wiz, or her dad, when they found out she wasn't a real archwizard after all swirling through her head.
Unfortunately, Megumin's instincts were a bit of a dice roll. This one came up snake eyes.
"Must you ask? Now, my legend might truly begin! With Explosion in hand, I need only step forth and forge my path to glory in the light of its magnificence!" she proclaimed, turning away from the vision of her past and boldly striding down the trail to the village, practically dancing on air as she went.
Yunyun gazed after her, self-loathing spiking into anger as her friend celebrated getting everything she ever dreamed of. They'd never really fought before, not more than stupid playground arguments that were forgotten the next day. But for a moment she almost chased her down and shook her like a baby's rattle, demanding to know what her best friend thought she was doing.
Because this…this felt like a betrayal. Of everything they'd done together, meant to each other.
Her shoulders slumped, and she let go of Komekko's hand. The little girl looked up at her questioningly. "Go catch up with your sister. I'm going home by myself today," Yunyun told her softly. Nodding solemnly, Komekko gave her a quick hug around the waist, as high as she could reach. "Thank you," she said into the fabric of Yunyun's robes, then scampered off.
There wasn't really a path from here to her home. Years of coming here directly would've worn one, but she and Megumin had always come together after meeting in the square.
But that was ok. The land was clear enough, even this far up the valley their village nestled in. She could make her own way this time.
Not long afterwards, Yunyun found herself outside the head-high stone wall surrounding the chief's residence, on the opposite side of the main gate. Naturally, anything tough enough to even dream of surviving the forests around her village would treat it as a suggestion at best. But when the manor house had been built privacy walls were in style, and so when the chief of the time had commissioned a replacement home a privacy wall was what the architect had given it.
Proving that she hadn't lost her touch scaling the structure despite lacking any recent practice, Yunyun was up and over it in a flash using a pair of concealed handholds she'd scratched in the stone blocks years ago. Using the matching pair on the other side, she lowered herself down rather than jumping like she'd used to. She was an adult now, for better or worse, and risking messing up her robes wouldn't make the coming discussion any easier she decided while letting herself into the house. It was probably originally designed as the servants' entrance, not that they'd ever had or really needed any. Instead, she'd made it her own, since dealing with the magically powered main gate and massive double doors of the front entrance was just silly in her opinion when it was only her coming and going.
In another life, she left the village following Megumin on the traditional tour as an adventurer after managing to keep her secret. After a series of adventures, she had plenty of time to quietly make up the levels and points she needed to get her Advanced Magic. Her father, loving though distant from a lack of anything in common and the daily struggle keeping the clan from imploding, had sent her on her way with a hearty laugh and few questions. He was simply glad she was embracing one of their traditions for once. As for any other friends who might ask…
Now though, the freshly minted wizard left her outer robe on a rack by the door and went down the hall in her uniform for the last time.
Passing a life-sized head and shoulders portrait of her mother on the wall, she paused. Brushing a hand on the light burning in a bronze holder below it, she fed it a bit of mana and bowed her head. Not quite in prayer, that would be very unwise with her life goal. But she liked to believe she was calmer and thought better here, sometimes. That her mother might still be helping her in some small way even now.
She never fully told her dad what Wiz had done for her, that awful night. She hadn't really planned to keep it a secret, but…even then she realized Wiz couldn't be 'just' an Archwizard and do the things she had done. And it hadn't taken long for her own research combined with what her mentor had let slip to paint a damning picture.
Wiz was a lich.
The most deadly and dangerous of all the undead. Slayers of heroes, enemies to and predators of all who lived. Who sent whole parties of high-level adventurers packing at the mere rumor that one was in the area.
Who had helped a heartbroken little girl grieve without benefit to herself, and at great risk by trying. Who ran a little shop in a little town, badly as far as she could tell, and never hurt anyone. Who had spent years teaching her not only magic but tips and tools to help her connect with her clanspeople better than she ever would have alone. Even make a handful of at least friendly acquaintances with her classmates.
So, who was the real Wiz?
One way or another, she intended to find out.
Firming her resolve she stepped past the little shrine and made her way down the hall, tiled in varying shades of black marble and paneled in cherry wood, to find her dad in his usual place after 'chiefing hours'.
Over the years the workshop they shared had become practically an annex of the Archive's black magic section. Ceiling high shelves lined one wall and were filled with her notes, from the uneven near scribbles from just after Wiz took her on to her latest neat, densely written, and diagrammed notebooks. She tried to clean them out every so often, but somehow her oldest and most embarrassing childhood pages wound up having pride of place in the scrapbook her dad kept prominently displayed on his own shelves.
"Oh! I thought I heard you come in, sweetie. I heard from the Prison, they said you'd graduated! I'm so…" he called from his bench, then halted his latest dabble into potioneering as he caught sight of her. His face changed. Loving, if absent minded, father to Chief of the Clan in the space of heartbeats. "What happened? What's wrong?"
His little girl nodded, and spoke the words that good fathers both dreaded, and secretly hoped, to hear from their teenage daughters.
"Dad, I…have a problem and I need your help."
Megumin didn't notice she wasn't being followed by her usual complement until she was nearly home. Komekko skipped along behind her and hummed something about crawfish, and Chomusuke trotted at her heels on her other side, keeping well away from her natural predator. But her best rival was nowhere to be seen. Usually, she would at least stay over until dinner before going home, not wanting to impose on a family that had enough trouble feeding the people it already had.
"'mekko? Where did Yunyun go?"
"She said she hadta go home by herself today! She seemed kinda sad, maybe her daddy needed her for chores?" she tilted her head in thought, then shrugged.
Well, it wasn't like her rival came over every single day, just most of them. It was just…she had wanted to celebrate together. As rivals who…well never mind. She was a wizard now! Wielder of the greatest of all magics! Today would be a day of celebration even if it was by herself! Perhaps even they would feast when her parents returned, if they had been fortunate with their business elsewhere! But for now, she would manage their repast in proper style!
"No matter, come Komekko! Extra soup for dinner tonight!"
With a cheer worthy of a horde of Mongols, her little sister streaked towards the front door.
The cooking went quickly, it wasn't as if she had a lot of choices about what to make, and the sisters sat at the faithfully long serving rickety table in the main room with bowls filled to the brim in hand. A selection of trail rations rounded out the oat porridge, the salted crackers were particularly good crumbled on top, Megumin thought. Komekko preferred to just inhale everything as quickly as possible and didn't have an opinion.
"Yay! That was good, thanks Sis!" she cheered once they were finished. "Too bad Aunt Yunyun couldn't come!"
Megumin's grin at Komekko's infectious cheer widened. "Be sure to call her that next time you see her," she smirked, imagining the look on the target's face.
"OK! She can come to dinner next time! I've got some extra crackers she can have for saving me!"
Annoyed at having her stash raided again, she knew exactly where those 'extras' had come from, it took Megumin a moment to realize exactly what she'd heard. Looking down at Komekko, her sister looked back up curiously, a cracker crumb still on her chin. The high the new wizard had ridden all the way home popped like a balloon sighted by a nest of flak guns. She…hadn't thought about that. And in that moment…with a choice balanced between her dream and her family staring her in the face…she'd blinked.
She would have picked Komekko. She would have! In another second, her finger would've stabbed down to make her a mistress of Intermediate, or even Advanced, Magic.
In another second one of those hobgoblins might've decided to take its chances. Might've…
She looked away from her sister, tears pricking at the thought of coming home…like that.
Alone.
Instead, her rival had stepped forward in her place. Had set herself back months at least, maybe a year from getting her Advanced Magic. Made herself a laughingstock if anyone found out she opted for an inferior magic, the same derision she herself would get from the fools who denied the majesty of Explosion if she revealed her secret.
"That sounds great," she replied to Komekko with a strained smile. After cleaning up and doing the chores, she helped her get ready for bed. Finally climbing into their futon, Megumin held her sister close despite her protests. But only small ones, she didn't seem to mind having her big sis cuddle more than usual tonight.
'Tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll meet up, and we'll go out for tea and fire crescents at the café, and things will be just like always," she told herself firmly. "Maybe I'll even treat her, and we can plan our adventurers' tour together…' she allowed as she drifted to sleep.
The next morning, she went to the square like always to wait. After a few minutes of waiting she wanted to slap herself, since she and Yunyun didn't go to school anymore and could meet whenever they wanted. Instead, she went to the Chief's Manor.
Megumin avoided doing that usually. It made her feel too much like accepting charity, and conscious of the much-patched dresses and skirts she wore when the gates opened in front of her and the high double doors loomed ahead. But today she would make an exception.
She banged the gargoyle shaped knocker stoutly, and Chief Hiropon answered after a minute or so.
"A good morn to you, I seek your daughter's company this day," Megumin fluttered her cape in greeting, as she looked up at the much taller man warily.
Her hopes that he hadn't heard anything about yesterday were crushed under the weight of disappointment in the look he gave her.
"Well met, but you come too late. She has embarked upon her journey of mastery," he replied severely, at odds with his usual boisterousness.
Her heart sank.
"Her…she's gone? Already?" the tiny wizard shook herself "I mean…she embarked upon her tale alone and unaccompanied?" she tried to recover her own usual tone but couldn't quite keep her anxiety from leaking into her reply.
Her chief nodded. "Indeed so. The monsters which lair here are far too dangerous for one without Advanced magic to face, even for one of our blood. She goes to seek her fortune in a less hazardous place and gather strength for her eventual return."
Megumin looked away from him, unable to meet his eyes after being the cause of her best rival's temporary exile. "Then…then I must wish her strength and fortune. Where shall my rival be seeking them?"
For a painful moment it looked as though Hiropon would refuse, but he let out a small sigh of his own. "If you write to Wiz in Axel my daughter shall receive it," he relented. With that, he stepped back inside.
Megumin stood on the front steps for a moment, then made her way to the gate. Unintentionally, she quoted her friend from just yesterday.
"Well. Now what?" she asked her familiar riding on her shoulders.