Chapter 6:
The Clinic and A Friend

I was inside the yard, and was fooling around with my new wand. I really wanted to try it out, so I decided to show off in front of my parents.

"Father, let me show you some magic." I pointed at the stones, and cast "Rock Cannon" at it. It plowed right through it, but in doing so, some of the rock was expelled and hit me square in the head. "Ow… That hurt." I rubbed my temple, which began to bleed. Upon seeing the blood, my father yelled, "Zenith! Come quickly! Lumi hurt herself!"

Well, I can heal myself, you know. It had been awhile since I used healing magic, but I still knew how to do it. I pressed my palm to the wound, and concentrated. A moment later, and the cut healed. I wiped away the blood, and looked back.

"..." My parents were speechless. Eh? I could've sworn that I told them I could use healing magic.

"Hey… Lumi. Since when could you do that?" My mother asked timidly. "I think it was around winter... Two years ago?" My mother scrambled towards me, and picked me up. She exclaimed, "Lumi, you're amazing! A genius! A prodigy! I'm going to teach you all I know about Healing Magic!" My father just smiled with a sigh.

Time was flying by. I was being taught healing magic in the mornings, and etiquette in the afternoon. Sometimes, Lilia taught me to cook a few basic meals as well. It was a nice little schedule that helped me get to know Zenith and Lilia better. Anyways, one morning, we were outside, walking around where the little trees my mother grew were.

"Lumi, I want you to cut down a tree with your offensive magic, and then make it good as new with your healing magic," Zenith said. I nodded, and walked in front of her, and pointed a rock bullet at the tree.

Fwoosh! The small tree made a small cracking noise as it fell over. I went over to it, dragged the top half over to the stump, and cast healing. Really? I could've practiced like this? I thought back to the broken fingernail and winced.

"Good, so you know at least beginner-tier healing! Let's move on to something else." Like intermediate healing? She brought over rotten fruit. What were we going to do with that thing? "Mama, what's this for?" Zenith beamed, and said, "I'm going to teach you some Detoxification Magic!"

Detoxification? Like what your liver does? "Okay, Lumi. Hold out your hand. Repeat after me. May the cleansing light of the skies wash over this body, so that the darkness from within may be expelled–Detoxification!" I repeated her words, and a white light shone from my hand, which was now holding the fruit.

The mold of the fruit began to disappear, and the fruit went from mushy to firm. "Woah, does it fix rotting?" Zenith nodded her head. "Not only does it rid food from poison and rot, it can also cure stomach aches and small illnesses."

That seemed like a seriously useful skill. You could keep tons of food and never worry about it spoiling on you. I really wanted to learn how to do it without incantations, but I couldn't grasp the feeling well enough. Maybe I'd improve enough to do it someday, though.

For the rest of the morning, I practiced my beginner tier magic and my detoxification.

"Alright, honey. I'm going to the clinic!" My mother ran a village clinic, where she nursed injured villagers back to health. I had gotten invested in my healing magic training, so I wanted to try going with her today. I'd never gotten the opportunity to go before, thanks to my fear of the outside. But now, what was stopping me?

"Mama, can I go with you? I want to help you and maybe learn a few new spells." Zenith patted me on the head. "Sweetie, can I bring Lumi to the clinic today? I want to see if she's up to the challenge." Paul walked over and said, "Are you sure you're okay with Lumi possibly seeing bad wounds?" Zenith hesitated. "I-"

I jumped in. "I'll be fine! I've seen worse." Paul gave me a confused face, and said, "Like what exactly?" What was I supposed to say to that? Them getting it on? "I-I don't know." I pressed my pointer fingers together, hoping to pull off the clueless girl look. He sighed at me and said, "Just be careful."

And so we departed! It was a comfortable ride, since I was sitting right in front of my mother for the ride. Let's just say my head had some pretty nice cushioning. Once we got there, we were greeted by a pretty small looking building. It was one story tall, and was smaller than our family home.

"Wait here while I set up, Lumi." My mother said, plopping me down on a chair near the entrance. She seemed to be wiping the tables and chairs with a cloth, and preparing what looked to be bottles and set them on the counter near me. "Don't touch those, sweetie." I looked at them closer.

They had some sort of leaf inside of them, which was turning the liquid inside a pale blue color. What was this supposed to do? Was it like the alternative medicine in my past life? I suddenly really wanted to drink it. Sigh. Chances were that if I did drink it, I wouldn't be able to go back to the clinic. That's for another day, I suppose.

My mother went outside, placed a small sign outside, and returned. "Lumi, you can sit with me while we wait for any patients." We waited for a few minutes, and a young man came stumbling in. "Miss Zenith, could you help me out?" She looked him over, and said, "Again? You have to learn your lesson."

He had a cut on his leg that seemed to be from a hoe. It sounded like this guy in particular had a habit of doing this accidentally. "Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to be a guinea pig this time." My mother said with a grin. He shrugged, and said, "As long as it stops bleeding." My mother ushered me towards him. Was I going to heal an open wound? This parenting was questionable at best but it'd probably be beneficial later on so I wasn't complaining.

I hovered my hand right over his injury, and cast the beginner-tier healing spell. Would this be good enough? Thankfully, it was. "Woah, is this your daughter? She's really talented." Zenith beamed, and said, "That she is! I think I'm gonna bring her along to the clinic every now and then to help her improve with her healing magic."

"Well, she's adorable. I bet you'll get more sales because people will want to see her." the man said. Was I really that cute? Hardly. He was probably just being nice. "Well, thank you again, Zenith." The man rummaged in his pocket, and took out a few small bronze colored coins.

That was the currency around here. It was more or less like this: One small copper coin was 100 yen, one large copper coin was 1,000 yen, one silver coin was 10,000 yen, and one gold coin was 100,000 freaking yen.

I hadn't thought about the currency until one day some preppy looking man in a suit showed up seemingly collecting taxes or something. I asked my parents later about the value of the coins. It was nice learning small stuff like that. That made me ask myself the question of whether I wanted to stay in the village for a long time. I still haven't answered that one.

"Come again!" Zenith said, as the young man walked away. She sat down next to me. I decided to inquire about the glass containers. "Mama, what's the liquid in those containers for?" She looked at the containers I was pointing at, and then averted her eyes. "Um… That's a low level aphrodisiac. You don't know what that is, do you?" I did. But I definitely wasn't going to tell my mother about it. "No, mama." She breathed a sigh of relief. "It makes people feel a lot more lovey-dovey, so people who love each other buy it occasionally."

Hah. Hearing her explain what an aphrodisiac was to a five-year old was hilarious. And so, we spent the rest of the afternoon there, and my healing magic continued to grow.

A few days later, I decided I wanted to explore. I had lots of places I wanted to see in more detail, and hopefully familiarize myself with.

"Mama," I said, with the book I had gotten for my 5th birthday in hand. "Can I go outside to play?" She raised her eyebrows, and said, "Not just in the yard? Outside?" I nodded my head fervently. "Oh, well then sure. Are you really going to be okay?" I smiled, and said, "I can handle myself, don't worry." She chuckled, and said, "Sure."

"Oh, but it is a surprise to see you head out like this. Nice to see you be more outgoing. I see Roxas was a good influence." She said, smiling.

"Okay, I'm off." Zenith called after me, "Be careful! And be nice to others!"

And so, I left home.

Several days went by. I was getting used to leaving after my afternoon classes were finished, and just exploring. I got to know a few kids, who held me in high regard. "Why?" you might ask. Roxas and Paul were both pretty popular, so the fact that I was related to them in some way automatically got me some points.

Anyways, that wasn't the point of me going outside. Me exploring the area thoroughly meant that if I ever got a bit too haughty with my words and got kicked out for a night, I'd know where to go and what to do. I also wanted to find out more about the biology around these parts. I brought the botanical encyclopedia for that purpose.

However, around here there weren't any plants that stood out too much. It was fine though, since there wasn't a lot I could do with pretty flowers other than give them to others anyways.

My thoughts were interrupted as I walked out of a forest, and began to hear voices.

"You're sick! Go away, Demon!" I heard being shouted, and seemingly to another person. That tone of voice brought up bad memories I had been trying to replace with good ones. "Get the hell out of here!" These were the voices of someone who used the numbers on their side to torment somebody who they thought to be below them.

Now that I knew those words weren't directed at me, I was angry. I wasn't just about to let some kid go through the same shit I had years ago. I decided to investigate.

I found the source of the noise. There lying before me was a kid, huddling away in fear, and three others throwing mud at him.
"Take this!" One said. "Ha, nice! Direct hit, man!" Another. "Ten points if you can nail him in the head!" Once again.

I was fuming. This was one hundred percent one-sided bullying. I couldn't stand to let this go on for any longer.

I cast a wind spell. Blast. The shockwave blew away the bullies. I shielded the boy behind me. "What the hell was that? Who're you?" I glared at them. "Leave this kid alone, won't you? Or else I'll burn your sorry behinds to a crisp."

"Hey, you're that knight's daughter, aren't you now. Lumi, was it? Do you really think we're gonna be scared of a girl like you?"

"Yeah right. This has nothing to do with you, kiss-ass." I held my hand out, and pointed at them. I conjured a large, scaldingly hot fireball, and just let it sit there.

"You want to call me that again?" I asked, waiting for an answer. I wasn't scared of them. With the power I held right now, childhood bullies were like rats, scurrying away to whatever hole they lived in.

They trembled, and the ringleader hesitantly said, "A-alright, kid. You win this time. Next time, you won't be so lucky." I scoffed. They ran away like cowards.

Hah. I hoped I didn't sound too arrogant. Thanks to Roxas, any fear of men I had from my past life was gone by now. They were just kids, anyway. Anyways, I turned back to check on the boy. He stood up, trembling in fear.

"Y-you… aren't going to hurt me, are you?" He asked fearfully. I shook my head. "Are your things okay? I noticed you were carrying something." He presented what looked to be a basket, and then took off the hood of his hoodie.

Whoa. That's one pretty boy. Not that I was into little kids, or anything.

"Y-yeah, I'm okay. Thank you for saving me." I smiled at him. He seemed to be fine, but he was covered in mud everywhere. Damn brats. "Here, kneel down for a sec, won't you?" I said in my kindest tone of voice. "Eh? Oh, sure." I guess he was the submissive kind.

I walked over to him, and hovered my hand over the top of his head. "Close your eyes for a bit. This might startle you, so be careful." I cast "Waterfall" and heated up the water so it wasn't cold. "Bwuh? Ahhh!" I washed the majority of mud from his head, but I couldn't do all that much about his clothes. I used my handy handkerchief to wipe off the remaining dirt from his face.

"That should do it." I stepped back, and smiled. In doing so, I finally saw his shining green hair. Wait, that reminded me of something Roxas had told me during our late-night studying sessions.

"If you ever see someone with emerald green hair and a jewel on their forehead, don't go anywhere near them."

Well, he didn't have a jewel or anything. But the hair sure checked out. Eh, I was probably fine. This guy was totally harmless. "Th-thank you..."

The boy's words of gratitude cut off my thoughts. He said it in such a cute voice that I wanted to protect him forever.

"Hey, kid. Let's be friends." I offered. He looked hesitant. "You aren't bothered by the color of my hair?" I shook my head. "Not at all. My tutor was a demon, and he was a great person. What race do you belong to?"

"I-I uh, don't know." Really? Jesus, parent your children! "Well then, what about your parents?" He replied, "My dad's half elf, half human, and my mom said she was mostly human with a bit of beast race."

Beast race? First I've heard of it. I seriously need to get a book about races around the world one of these days. "And… They tell me I'm not a demon but… m-my hair isn't the same color of e-either of my parents…" He began to sob quietly. Must protect.

I gave him a reassuring head pat. Well, I'd feel sorry for the kid if his mother went and had an affair. But really, all this talk about people segregating over hair color was absurd. I'd had enough back in my old world with something similar, so just thinking about it made me upset.

Changing the topic, I asked about what he had in the basket. "T-that's my father's lunch, I was on my way to deliver it when…" he trailed off. I decided to see what his parents thought about this situation. I might even give them a piece of my mind.

"Let's go, then. Shall we?" He nodded, and began walking. He spoke up soon after. "So, um...why...why are you...protecting me?" I smiled. "My father told me to use my abilities to protect the weak. And, you're pretty cute." He blushed, and said, "R-really? Thank you…" He then said, "But what if the boys stop being friends with you?" I scoffed. "Like I'd want to be friends with that sort of group. If that does happen, I'll just play with you anyways. As of today, we're friends."

"Huh?!" He exclaimed, with his ears twitching. Protect protect protect pr– "Ah, are you too busy around the house to play with me?" I asked. "N-no.. not really…" The boy shook his head. He really was adorable.

Now, I don't want to sound like a groomer when I say this, but maybe we could grow up getting ever closer, until…? Just thinking about it made me grin. This boy was cute beyond belief.

"Oh, that's right. I haven't gotten your name yet, kid. I'm Lumina Greyrat."

"M-my name is… Sylph–" His voice was so small I could barely hear it. "Sylph, huh? That's a really awesome name. Like one of those fairies!"

He turned red, and asked, "Fairy…?" I shrugged. I gave him another head pat, and we continued on the way to his house.

Author's Note:
Thanks for reading this chapter! This was the third chapter I finished today, so excuse me if the quality's a little low.

I wanted to hone in a little on Lumi's healing magic and Zenith, as I really love Zenith's character. Big reveal in two chapters for the genderswap fans, and Paul argument next chapter!