Oh gods, this chapter was SO HARD to write. Not only did I have massive writers' block for it in general, I also realised there was just so much I wanted to include. In the end, I even chopped some bits out and put them into what will (eventually) become the next chapter. This so-called 'part 1' is definitely becoming a lot, lot longer than I anticipated, the story in general a lot more complex than I anticipated. It is, however, a lot of fun.
Fingers crossed that I'll have less trouble with the next chapter. Though it might still be a while before it comes out because not only do I have one other fanfic on the go alongside this, I also am hoping to start a third...though there's various factors that mean I have to wait before I know whether I will be, either way.
Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter!
It was the weekend, at last.
Minoru could tell, because the air was suddenly so much quieter. Even from this distance, he had been able to hear the hustle and bustle of school days continuing on. It had not overwhelmed him, as such, but every time he heard the echoes of the school bell, or all of that footfall, he worried that somebody would have worked out where he was. Each time he heard those sounds, he expected to hear the trampling of the grass and plants, watch Principal Asakura swoop down, flanked by members of Niðavellir and tell him there's no escape now, cutting through the protective rune-drawn barriers he created.
So far though, that hadn't happened. The only other souls he had seen were animals, his barrier was not disturbed, and so Minoru was finally, finally able to relax. He knew he couldn't stay here forever, though. This forest was next door to the school after all, even if he had ended up quite deep in it. He wasn't quite sure where he could go. He knew that though his parents claimed to be uninterested, that they knew all the details of his old friends. If he approached them, then he'd be easy to find, even though he was sure that they would help him regardless. In any case, he'd left his phone at the longhouse on purpose, so he couldn't contact them even if he decided he wanted to.
So perhaps I shouldn't think about that now. No, not now.
The rabbits he had hunted the night before had been filling enough that he didn't really need to eat breakfast, but he was feeling a little peckish, so he looked in his pack for an energy bar, and chewed on it absently. He didn't have his sketchbooks, but he did have some of his exercise books, and there were some pencils somewhere. Since he had no intention of going back to school anyway, he thought it didn't really matter if he drew there.
So after carefully tucking the wrapper of his energy bar back into his bag (so he could throw it away when he did leave this forest), he pulled out one of his exercise books, found a pencil, and then sketched whatever he saw, whatever caught his interest. A scampering squirrel in the branches of a tree, the gentle waving branches of a different, skinnier tree. The grass near him, and the other little plants that grew between its stalks.
The shadow of a woman in the distance, amongst the trees, a spirit of the forest, if this forest even had any spirits. He somehow didn't think so, because surely something would have come up in the many lectures he'd had about Asgard Academy's long and virtuous history. Yes, most of it would have flown right over his head but he was sure he'd have remembered something about forests, and all the richer and frankly much more important history of a forest. That was neither here nor there, though. He didn't always find it easy to imagine things that weren't there, but he found it easy to imagine the idea of this forest spirit, wandering around gracefully, almost floating. Clad in a hooded cloak and a tunic, both in dark colours that mirrored their surroundings, Minoru imagined them coming closer and he was a little afraid, but he remembered that it wasn't real. He was just imagining something that he was drawing, and he had to be honest, he was drawing it rather well.
Nonetheless, the figure in his imagination kept coming closer, and he was beginning to actually feel unsettled, so he stopped looking at the area he imagined the forest spirit to be in, and concentrated on the emerging drawing in his exercise book. But then he heard his barrier crackle, and he looked up and realised that the figure he was drawing was in fact real. And that they seemed to be staring right at him.
Seemed, because for some reason, he couldn't see their face. The figure stepped back in reaction to the crackles, and then raised their hand to draw runes of their own, a rapid, messy sequence of which Minoru could only interpret some of the runes. It was enough for the person to effectively dismantle the protective barriers he had put around himself. Immediately, Minoru leapt up, transforming quickly and holding his hands out, prepared to mount an attack.
"Don't."
The figure's voice was feminine, to the best of Minoru's understanding. A tendril of orange hair peeked out from their hood, folded in a way that suggested the rest of their hair had been long, and pushed haphazardly into the hood. More curious, however, was the fact that although now the figure was looking right at Minoru, he could not see their face. They wore a silk scarf over it, like a mask.
"I won't attack unless you attack." the figure said. "I am not here to attack you."
They held up their own hands, in a more conciliatory gesture. Minoru frowned at them.
"Then what are you here to do?" he asked.
The figure just laughed, and Minoru felt a prickle of annoyance. What was so funny about that question? Wouldn't anyone ask that question, faced with a mysterious figure in the forest?
"Who are you, anyway?" Minoru demanded. "Would it be right to think of you as a woman?"
The figure laughed again, for a briefer time, before then nodding.
"Yes, that's right." The woman said. "That's completely right. But as I said, I am not here to fight you. I do not have the energy to fight you, and I need it to fight the ones I need to fight."
Minoru stared, and then sat down heavily, back next to his bag. Without really understanding why he was doing so, he found another energy bar.
"Would you like it?"
The woman stared at it, but didn't say yes, or no. Minoru held it out until his arm began to ache, and then he gave up and put it down on the grass. The woman remained standing, watching him, and Minoru started to feel like a bug under a jar. He fidgeted, avoided her gaze, and then blurted out.
"Who are you?" he asked. "You didn't tell me your name."
"You did not tell me your name, either."
"…it's Minoru. What's yours?"
The woman didn't answer, instead staring at him again for a moment before looking at something over his shoulder. Minoru turned to try and see what she was looking at, but since all there was was forest, and the looming shadow of Asgard Academy, he wasn't sure he was seeing it.
"Did you come from that way?" the woman asked suddenly.
Minoru turned back, scowling.
"Yes. But you did not answer my question. Isn't it rude to not answer questions?"
The woman shrugged, and asked back:
"Do you care a lot about being rude?"
"I don't know," Minoru said honestly. "I'm always told that I am rude, but I don't know if I am. The rules of not being rude change a lot. But I still don't think it's very nice to not answer questions when they're asked, at least not without a reason. If you don't want to tell me your name, you should just say that directly. It's confusing otherwise."
And too late, Minoru remembered that other people didn't typically like being told they were confusing, either. But this woman didn't seem like she was angry. Instead, something in her posture seemed to quieten, and she nodded slowly.
"I apologise. It has been a long time since anyone has asked me that question." She said after a long pause. "Alright then, I'll tell you my name, but it won't mean anything to you."
"I-is it meant to mean anything to me?" Minoru wondered.
"Well, somehow, I don't think so. Especially not if you're a Niðavellir member. But somehow, I don't think you are, because what possible reason would Niðavellir have for you to be out camped in this forest? It is not as if this is a particularly good vantage point for seeing anything, is it? I would know."
Minoru had barely processed any of that before the woman bent down to whisper in his ear. It took him a moment to realise that the words she'd whispered were presumably her name. And as she said, it meant nothing to him. But a question occurred to him as she straightened:
"Will your name end up meaning something in the future?" he asked.
The woman's voice did something funny as she answered, as if it had become clumped up and stuck in her throat:
"I hope so."
She cleared her throat quite violently, and then reached beneath the black silk to wipe at her face in a rough gesture before sitting down properly, next to him but not too close. The rest of Minoru's brain chose that moment to catch him up to the rest of what she had said, and he immediately responded:
"I don't want to be a part of Niðavellir, but I feel they might make me if they find me."
"Why on earth would they make you, if you were not born to it?"
"My family moved into the Asakura Longhouse, and all mahou shoujo high school students living there attend Asgard Academy, and all of them join Niðavellir."
"Ah, yes. I had heard about the creation of a longhouse…it was a long-held dream of his, I remember."
"His?" Minoru asked.
"Principal Shunsuke Asakura's son."
"So, the current Principal Asakura?" Minoru checked.
The woman nodded.
"He wasn't the Principal when I was there, but he was angling for it, even then. How long has he been Principal Asakura, may I ask?"
"About ten years."
The woman tilted her head and then tapped her fingers against her knees.
"I wonder who he had to sacrifice for that?"
"What do you mean?"
The woman stared directly at him. Of course, he couldn't seen her face to discern any expression, but in some ways that was easier. He didn't have to try and work out if she was secretly trying to say something else while saying the opposite, or try to interpret what her precise frown or smile meant, if she was frowning or smiling at all. It didn't mean he knew how she was reacting to him, but it was a uncertainty that sat easier with him.
"I don't want to answer that question now," the woman said. "So I won't. I might answer it at a later time, if you don't end up finding out the answer yourself."
And there was a part of him that felt something crash and churn deep within him at those words, like a boat tossed in a stormy ocean. Nonetheless, he still found that all of this sat easier with him. It did not matter that all the puzzle pieces that he was putting together told him that this was a new sort of danger. He had learnt not to take certainty for granted, and so even if this certainty shouldn't have been so, he wasn't going to do that.
That didn't mean he wasn't curious to find out more about whatever she was alluding to. So he asked:
"…How would I find the answer?"
The woman sighed, and took a moment to answer, and when she did, her voice had gone funny again.
"The thing about Niðavellir is that when it has you in its sights, it won't let you go. You will end up in Niðavellir, whether you like it or not. The only way to escape is to die, or to make them think that you're dead. I know your next question will likely be, how do you know that? And though I know you like things to be directly told to you, I think you are clever. Can you figure out how it might be that I know?"
Minoru frowned.
"Can you give me a moment to think about it?"
"That I can do."
The woman turned her head away, gazing at the trees-or so Minoru presumed. Either way, she wasn't staring at him and he wondered how it was she was being so understanding. He had not even told her of her disability, and he had a sneaking suspicion she wouldn't even know what it was if he did tell her. But she had asked him to figure things out, and so he tried to pull it all together. The trouble was, none of the clues were particularly tangible. Still, he did his best, and found his thoughts circling back to one little thought that had kept coming up: she sounded tired, and sad, like something had been happening for a long time and she'd perhaps mostly given up. But only almost. He also thought of how she had specified between the two Asakura men, as if there was a reason she had needed to be specific rather than simply saying 'Principal Asakura' or 'Asakura' and being done with it.
"You're….you're a former student, aren't you? From before the current Principal Asakura. And you were a member of Niðavellir back then. And they think you are dead. "
Minoru frowned as he said this last sentence, sure that that couldn't be right. But the woman turned to him and nodded slowly.
"That's it. That is exactly it. There is more to it, of course. But I do not want to tell you that yet. For now, I want a favour from you."
Minoru wondered if he should be suspicious. Knowing that he was right only bought up so many more questions, and he knew they were the type of questions that needed to be answered, that in this case not answering them wasn't a good thing. But whatever this is, it is better than what I have waiting for me, isn't it? At the very least though, he had to tread carefully.
"What sort of favour?" he asked carefully.
"I just want to you to show me how you managed to get in here. I assumed you got through via the school, but I couldn't break through it myself."
Minoru's eyes widened and he sat up straighter.
"It was you. You made the weakness in the barrier."
The woman barely moved, but Minoru got the sense that beneath the coverings, she was smiling. But she did not say anything.
"Why?" he demanded. "That's a protective barrier, right? You want to break into a protective barrier?"
"Well, so did you." The woman pointed out.
Minoru hunched his shoulders and stared at the woman. She's right, he thought, I did. I only did it to escape but I did break it. He took in a deep breath, let it out, took in another breath and let that one out. His chest started to feel tight.
"But only because you were trying to keep yourself safe, am I right?"
Minoru managed to nod, and the woman looked in his direction, seemingly studying him extremely closely. Suddenly, he wanted her to go again, so he could be alone with the trees and the wind and the scuttling animals. He'd barely heard any animals or birds since this woman arrived. Abruptly, though, she stood up and, still looking at him, she said in a voice that had again changed quality:
"Tell me the runes, at the least. Demonstrate what you did, from here."
"I…" Minoru gulped. "I….don't want to go back."
"You do not need to go close enough to be seen. Just close enough that you could potentially replicate the same spells long-distance. "
Minoru blinked, and the woman sighed.
"I am, fundamentally, trying to do the same as you. Except I've decided that now I am no longer going to hide to achieve that. Your time to decide that for yourself will come. But don't worry, I won't ask you to be complicit. I will not consider you my comrade, or even an accomplice."
"I…what? Who said anything about comrades or accomplices? And in what?"
The woman continued to stare at him, and Minoru once again felt like a bug in a jar. He didn't want to do anything bad, really. He didn't want to cause actual, proper trouble. He just wanted to be left alone, he didn't want to always have to be on guard. He knew he didn't understand everything but he was sure that agreeing to help this woman would end up being some sort of trouble. Yet, for all she had held back from him, he was sure that everything she had told him was some sort of truth. He knew he wasn't always good at discerning that, but some deeper instinct told him that this was so. Which meant that any reprieve would surely be short-lived.
Maybe I'll just help her, and then I'll go away, and hide for as long as I can hide and then….and then after they find me…whatever happened then didn't bear thinking about, really. Perhaps he'd be able to ask this woman for a favour in return, and perhaps he could use that to find somewhere new to hide. Another forest, somewhere deeper and darker, away from other people.
(A part of him did believe her to still be some sort of forest deity, somehow, despite the undeniable truth)
So he took in a deep breath, let it out, took in another one, and let that one out too.
And then, he stood up and said:
"Alright then."
…
Sometimes, Kie thought, answers to questions could be in plain sight. She didn't think that would be the case for most of her questions, but there was one she thought had some possibilities: why she had heard Erina's voice. Erina was dead, and had been sent on. So, it made sense that the answers lay in understanding exactly what it meant to be a reaper. She sure as hell couldn't ask Chika Kato, even though having a reaper on-side could turn out to be pretty handy. But she could do her research, and what better place than the library?
The library in the town centre was actually a lot bigger, but the school was closer to her. For an establishment that were fond of their secrets, they seemed to have no problem in allowing students unfiltered access to the school library during weekends and even holidays.
When she got there, the staff librarian was nowhere to be seen, but given that student librarians didn't work the weekends, Kie was sure that she was around somewhere. She hoped not to have too many problems with her though. One of the first things Kie had done once she had convinced Fukiko they would be working together was to get her to clue in the staff librarian, just to smooth the way. And sure enough, when Kie headed to one of the sections she thought would be relevant, she found that the staff librarian was there, shelving books.
"Good morning,"
The librarian stiffened, and then said:
"Good morning."
She then turned to continue shelving, almost furiously. Kie watched with fascination, momentarily forgetting what she had come in for, but was shaken out of her fascination by the librarian dropping a book. Kie swooped down to get it, and then held it out. The librarian froze, and then narrowed her eyes at Kie.
"What do you want?"
"You….dropped this?"
Unable to help herself, Kie looked at the book's title. Wider applications of Bloodworking, 15th Edition with new footnotes. Kie raised an eyebrow at the title. If there had been any bloodworker specialists or mahou shoujo, everyone in the school would have known who they were. She supposed that a healer would be interested in bloodwork, but she didn't think they'd read an entire book on the subject.
"What are you looking at?" the librarian snapped, snatching the book. "You've seen that book before!"
"…I've never read it."
"No, but one of your little hoo-"
The librarian stopped and stiffened, and looked around her askance before stiffly amending herself:
"A fellow club member of yours borrowed this. I assumed it was for some project of yours."
"No, they're looking for some first-year student who has run away. What would that have to do with bloodwork?"
The librarian frowned at that.
"Not the boy? The shy, awkward one who gets bullied?"
"I…I have heard that about him, yes."
The librarian seemed to shed some of her fear at that, and snorted:
"Typical, that you do nothing about that but then go looking for him only after the damage is done."
"You saw it happening?"
Starting to shelve books again, the librarian answered:
"Not much, granted. But I did. I hear you're only looking for him to recruit him rather than to help. I can't imagine why he'd want to join you all."
"I can't imagine it, either." Kie said, before she could really stop herself.
Again, this made the librarian stop in her tracks, and gawp at Kie:
"But….you're one of them now."
"Yes. That doesn't mean I like them. You don't either, do you?"
"Shhhh, don't say that so loudly."
Kie blinked, too startled to point out that actually, they were probably the only two people in the library. Indeed, the librarian seemed to realise this, because they relaxed slightly, and picked up a few more books off of the trolley.
"In any case, you carry on. Just don't cause any trouble."
"Of course…"
Kie started walking again, but then paused, and turned.
"Say, you said another Niðavellir member borrowed that book on bloodworking…who was it?"
The name that the librarian gave surprised Kie, but she managed not to show too much of that feeling. She carefully made a mental note of the name, however, the same way she made a note of everything the librarian had said (or, not said) before moving on. Quite how any of it fitted into the puzzle she was trying to solve, she did not know-but she was sure it did fit.
But now, to look at another piece of the puzzle.
She read through different step-by-step descriptions of how reapers detected deaths that were in progress, and how they determined the right time to reap a soul, or whether the person who was close to their death could in fact be bought back from it. She read through the precise processes, and what could be gleaned from the afterlife based on them. She read through different funeral rites that loved ones could use for their dead, and their importance in the reaping processes. And it was there that she got closer to what she really wanted, because of course, the question of funeral rites could only be raised once the soul was safely reaped.
"Leaving a soul unreaped disturbs the balance of life and death, and if left for too long, can cause serious disturbances in nature which can have catastrophic consequences…"
Kie thought, yes, I know this, but…she read through some cases where souls had been left unreaped, and the varying consequences. Most of them were from murder cases where the bodies had been concealed, but there had been some from natural disasters and other accidents where rescue efforts had unfolded over many days. The effects ranged from weird weather phenomena to mental and physical health issues in those near the unreaped soul. But then…
"Despite an unreaped soul losing its stability the longer it is left in that state, it nonetheless knows that it is in an unnatural state and yearns to be sent on. Although by and large they are unable to control the effects they have on the world, retaining a sense of self means they can attempt to communicate with the outside world, and make their presence known in order that they are found and reaped. This contributes to the phenomena known as 'ghosts'"
Kie kept reading, and discovered:
"It is rare for an unreaped soul to be separated from the body, but there have been historical incidences of this happening during wartimes. However, all these cases have been tried against the International Council and categorised as war crimes. Although the motives for this in some cases can be similar to more domestic cases, e.g. an attempt to conceal wrongdoing where the person's death was concerned, there have been unsubstantiated rumours of attempting to use the souls for unsavoury (and, frankly, impossible) purposes during the war. Further details of war cases can be found in the Further Reading chapter."
Kie stared at this page for a very, very long time, and thought:
That's ridiculous
And then:
They would have been reaped then and there, wouldn't they?
Even if the deaths were in a year that there had been no reaper on roster, one would have been called in immediately. That was what always happened. And in Erina's case, Chika would have been there. She had been there, hadn't she?
Something tugged at the back of Kie's memory. An angry voice, protesting, half muffled by the chaos surrounding it, yet still somehow distinct enough to grab her attention. The feeling of trying to open her eyes to see what was going on, but her head feeling too heavy to do so. The pain, sparking everywhere.
"What do you fucking mean, you'll handle it?!"
But when she tried to grab onto the memory, it crumbled into dust. Kie concentrated, tried hard to push past the fog of it, but the only pictures that were becoming clearer were the ones that she didn't want to remember. There was nothing useful in those pictures, only hurt and fear and weakness. Nothing that was going to help her understand what was going on here and now. She didn't need to relive those bits, it was just this one memory, this one memory that would surely explain-
She stood up abruptly, and almost slammed her chair in the effort to tuck it in. She actually slammed the book she was reading shut, piled it atop the others, and gathered them up to check them out. She opted for self-service, so as to not bother the staff librarian anymore, and then after stuffing the books into her bag clumsily, headed outside.
Passing through the courtyard in which last year's attacks had first unfolded, she found herself stopping in the middle of it, looking around her. Was it here, she wondered, was it here when….when what happened? Something did, didn't it? She looked around, hoping that the surroundings would jog her memory, but it wasn't happening.
Something dropped on her face, and she looked up to realise that it was raining. As the rain dropped through the barrier, it sparkled, and it occurred to her that having one large barrier over the school rather than a series of small ones over each section of the school's campus was probably a bad idea. The amount of magic that would be released in one go if the barrier were to be broken would be catastrophic if not handled correctly, Kie knew. She wondered just how far it went, and started walking again, only paying attention to the rain as it fell on the barrier. Each drop sparkled momentarily before the barrier waved slightly, and then allowed it through. The more she watched, the quicker the rain seemed to come through, the barrier seeming to start to flash from how quickly the sparkles brightened and faded and then did so again.
Coming close to some of the railings, she saw that on the ground where puddles were already starting to form, the barrier was starting to sparkle from the bottom, too. She crouched down to get as good a look as she could from through the railings. Not long after that, though, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.
She looked up, studying the trees. The rain was getting heavier, making it harder to see, but by the gods, she was sure that there was somebody standing there, observing. No, wait…two figures. There's two figures.
"Sempai!"
Kie jumped, splashing as she spun around to face Tsuyoshi, who looked very rumpled but dry under his blue raincoat and purple umbrella. He also looked as perky as ever, though mildly concerned as he got nearer.
"Sempai, what are you doing? You're getting soaked."
"Oh, yes…" Kie stuttered. "There….there was…."
She turned back to the forest, but if there really was someone watching, she couldn't see them anymore. Now that Tsuyoshi had come, they had probably left, anyway. And now she really felt the wet, and the cold. It was seeping through her clothes and skin, and made her shiver.
"Oh dear, I don't have a towel, but, uh…" Tsuyoshi stammered. "Uh, I have spare clothes…."
"It's alright. I can dry off in the Nidavellir quarters."
"Oh, that's where I was going!" Tsuyoshi exclaimed. "I'll tag along."
Kie did not particularly want him to do so, but didn't have any particular objection to it. Though she started to find she was developing an objection when Tsuyoshi decided to prattle on, and on, and on the entire way there. It didn't help that all he seemed to want to go on about was how much he loved Niðavellir and how much he wanted to live up to his parents' legacy. What legacy, she wanted to ask him. It didn't seem like there was anything particularly worth aspiring to in their story, but then again, what would she know? Still, she tuned out as much of it as she could without making it obvious she was doing so. And she had to admit, she was grateful for the fact he gallantly held his umbrella over her head while they were still outdoors, even though her stupidity had ensured that that was somewhat of a pointless exercise.
When they got to the headquarters, Shiho wasn't anywhere to be seen, and the door to her room was closed. But once Kie and Tsuyoshi had both dried off, and Kie had settled herself at the table of the main room with one of her borrowed books, Shiho shuffled in, her little dog at her feet.
"It is the weekend, you know," Shiho said irritably. "Is something the matter."
"I wanted to use the school library, but then I got soaked on the way out, so I came here to dry off."
"Oh, and I came to get some solo practice with some of the equipment here!" Tsuyoshi exclaimed. "I already practised with my grandparents and cousins earlier this morning. But some of the equipment and weapons you have are different here."
"They would be." Shiho said mildly. "Although I understand your family have a high quality dojo themselves. Your father sometimes invited members over to practise there when there was not enough space in our own rooms. "
Tsuyoshi was practically glowing at this scrap of information, even as his brow furrowed and he asked:
"Oh, but don't Niðavellir members get priority in the main school's gym and dojo, especially if they're preparing against a specific threat?"
Shiho nodded in agreement, but did not elaborate either way. Kie decided to test the waters:
"I supposed they decided it would be better for the welfare of the school to let the other students use that equipment, and give them the opportunity to better themselves that way. Especially as Niðavellir already opens up so many other option that they don't have."
"Ah!" Tsuyoshi exclaimed, blinking rapidly as he processed this. "Yes, I suppose you're right!"
Shiho, on the other hand, did not say anything in direct response to Kie's statement. Instead, she stared cooly at her for a moment, and then asked her what she was reading. When Kie held up the book so that Shiho could look at the cover, Shiho raised an eyebrow.
"That's a bit outside your remit, is it not?"
"What's Kimura-sempai reading?" Tsuyoshi asked, coming over with two cups of coffee. "Here! I don't really understand how that fancy machine of Jeff-sempai's is meant to work but I think I managed it, so hopefully you like-oh. Why are you reading about reaping?"
"It's just what I am reading about at the moment."
Tsuyoshi once again blinked rapidly, but then shrugged:
"You really do read a lot, don't you?!"
"You're a third year student, are you not?" Shiho said as she climbed onto a chair. "Do you not think it is best to be focusing on what you will need for your exams, as well as making sure you are keeping your specialism sharp?"
"Is there a problem with me reading a book readily available from the school's library?"
Kie narrowed her eyes ever so slightly, well aware she was challenging Shiho without really understanding what she was, or where she stood in all this. And she knew that Shiho knew that she was challenging her too. But why? Is this another piece of the puzzle.
"There is not." Shiho stiffly bit out after a moment.
"Rest assured, I am studying as I should be." Kie said, although it wasn't entirely the truth. "But I like to read outside of my disciplines. It makes my world feel broader, and it is helping me to understand everyone here. I've been reading about spellsinging, although I find the online resources better for that. Once I'm done with these, I'm thinking of looking into smithing, maybe. Or bloodwork, although that is a rather niche speciality, is it not?"
Another test. She couldn't resist. That, and she wanted to know if Shiho had any idea who it had been who'd already been reading up on bloodwork, and why. But from the way her eyes flared ever so slightly, it didn't seem like it. Tsuyoshi, as always, was (somehow both pleasantly and annoyingly) oblivious, instead focusing on something else completely:
"You could ask Nakahara-kun, right?"
The thought of this was so ridiculous that Kie snorted. Tsuyoshi looked stung by this, and it was Shiho who pointed out:
"Just how many people has Nakahara-kun let down into the workshop since he took it over?"
"Uh….Kurosawa-kun, Inoue-kun, Hiyama-sempai and Kato-sempai and….Jeff-sempai once and…Suzuki-sempai."
"Mainly the first two and the last one." Kie observed.
"Not you?" Tsuyoshi asked Shiho.
"If it was necessary, he wouldn't have a choice. But he needs his space to work, and he's going to provide an essential service for all of us, likely in large batches at short notice. So I'll tolerate it. You'd best do so, too."
Tsuyoshi nodded meekly at this. Kie didn't want to particularly feel sorry for him, but she found herself doing so, and so she said:
"It is a little strange that he lets Suzuki-san down there. Most of the time, it seems like he can't stand her."
Tsuyoshi blinked at that, which did a good job of replacing most of her pity with annoyance, but then he said:
"Yeah, it is a little weird. But I guess if anyone was going to try and make him more sociable with the rest of us, it'd be someone like her, right? She must be good at getting along with people with all that celebrity status."
Kie didn't know about that. But as far as she was concerned, she considered someone like Kenjiro or even Arisa to better fit that sort of role than Kotone. Not that Kotone wasn't nice, or anything, but she didn't think being a celebrity was quite the same thing as the innate charm that Kenjiro in particular seemed to have.
One thing that they do have in common is that none of them seem like they're of a type to be part of Niðavellir, to willingly, easily cover up major wrongdoing…
In fact, she was coming to realise, none of them really do. Not completely.
Mentally, she shook the thought away. She didn't know that, not for sure. Aware that Tsuyoshi was waiting to an answer, she gave him a non-committal shrug, and then picked up her coffee. She sipped it tentatively, and finding it adequate, thanked him. He immediately perked up again, and looked around for some snacks, eventually producing a packet of chocolate chip cookies.
"Why are you reading about reaping though, if you don't mind me asking?" Tsuyoshi said between mouthfuls of cookies. "It's not really something that you could learn to do anyway, is it?"
"No." Kie answered bluntly.
"No, you don't want to answ-"
"No, it's not something you can learn, which I'm aware of. But I want to understand, especially considering the risk to life being part of Niðavellir-"
"But that's just how it is, right?" Tsuyoshi exclaimed, interrupting her. "It's a risk you have to take, for the greater good. And since everyone has to die eventually, what better way to do so than as a hero, defending others? But, I suppose you have to be prepared for it."
And you're prepared for it? Kie wondered silently, with a raised eyebrow. It was hard to believe that someone who drooped at the slightest correction was prepared to die. His droopiness wasn't something she wanted to deal with either way though, so she just said:
"I agree with that. I find that reading about what is supposed to happen helps me with that preparation."
Tsuyoshi nodded very seriously at that, and said:
"Yes, that makes sense! What do you think about that, Shiho-san….oh, she left."
Sure enough, at some point, Shiho had indeed left, presumably going back to her room. Kie wondered briefly at that, but then shrugged it off. She finished her coffee, ate a couple of cookies, read some more of her book. Tsuyoshi, thankfully, didn't seem to want to chat more, and in fact took out a textbook and flipped through that while he had his own coffee and cookies. When they were done, he offered to wash up the cups and saucers. As he did so, Kie noticed that there were crumbs all over the table, somehow.
"Where's there a dustpan and brush?" she asked.
"For wha-oh, just use Crumby-san!"
When Kie just stared bug-eyed at Tsuyoshi, he giggled and went to a cupboard, opening the door and opening what looked like a red dome. He flipped it over and pressed a couple of buttons and then set it down on the table the right way around, showing that it was not just red, but decorated to look like a ladybird.
"Is that…a mini-hoover?" she asked.
"Yes!" Tsuyoshi exclaimed. "You didn't see it when Jeff-sempai bought it over? It's specifically a crumb sweeper, but I guess it could be used for any small mess on the table."
"And….and it's called Crumby-san?"
"Yep!"
Kie watched it for a few more seconds as it made quick work of the crumbs. Then, carefully, she went to find the packet of biscuits, opened it, and carefully shook out some crumbs into her hand. She then returned to the table, scattered them in a rough path, and picked up Crumby-san and placed it at one end of the trail. Immediately, it started to hoover up the crumbs, following the path. Rather than make more mess, she and Tsuyoshi both attempted to prolong things by nudging the crumbs here and there, but there was only so much they could do before the table was completely clean and Crumby-san was just moving aimlessly around the table. Even though its features were painted on and therefore inanimate, Kie was completely convinced that the little crumb sweeper looked very bewildered by this state of affairs. She couldn't help but keep watching it whizzing around, and eventually Tsuyoshi took mercy on it and switched it off. Once he'd emptied out all the crumbs that it'd swallowed up, he put Crumby-san to charge. Then, he turned to Kie and asked:
"Say, would you like to do some combat practice with me?"
Before Kie could answer, Shiho's voice came from the doorway:
"I'd argue that that's a much better way of preparing for death than reading books, wouldn't you?"
They both jumped as Shiho appeared to materialise in the doorway. Tsuyoshi looked embarrassed, but though Kie was sure she'd gone as red as he had, she concentrated on smoothing down her borrowed clothes, hoping she smoothed out her own composure in the process too.
"I'd argue both have their purposes. But you really don't want me reading about reaping, do you?"
Shiho's eyebrows twitched, as if she were deciding whether to frown. Eventually, she sighed, and said.
"No, I'm not. But your combat skills, particularly where your swordsmanship is concerned, is not nearly as good as some of the others. Whatever you read, you need to practise that."
Before Kie could agree to this, Shiho turned and walked away again. The sound of her door slamming could be heard, and Tsuyoshi gave her a bewildered look:
"What was that about?"
"I don't know."
"Yeah, I guess that's just what she's like, huh? Anyway, I'll be honest, I'm not as good with the swords as I could be but…if you want, I could try to help? Shiho-san was at least right, that being prepared for combat will also help you."
Before Kie could answer, a new sound startled them both once again. It was a sharp, desperate, noise. It almost sounded like someone had let out a cry of pain. Kie looked all around her, as did Tsuyoshi-but then, to her surprise, he suddenly pointed at the window and gave a shaky laugh.
"Woah, it really looks like the wind was picking up! And the rain hasn't let up either!"
"Mmmmm."
"It really did sound like a person, but I should know better."
"Mmmmm."
Kie wasn't so sure that it wasn't a person. Not least because she still heard sounds of human pain. It was muted now, almost blending in with the whistling and wailing of the wind, but it was there. Had it been there all along, she wondered. She tried to think back, but she hadn't been paying that much attention to the wind and rain. It had just been there, after all, simply a background noise. But if she really, really thought of it, it had started getting louder when Tsuyoshi had asked her why she'd been reading about reaping.
"Anyway," she said, decisively. "You go ahead. I'll come and join you in a moment."
"A-ah, yeah, sure thing, Kimura-sempai! See you in a moment!"
Tsuyoshi scrambled off, and rather than make a move, Kie waited. She listened carefully to the sounds she thought she was hearing, trying to separate them out in her mind, discern whether that awfully human wailing sound really was coming from outside. And then, under her breath, she asked:
"Who are you? Can you tell me?"
The wailing stopped, quite abruptly. The wind still carried on howling, however, the rain beating against the window.
"Are you…still there? Can you hear me?"
Kie did not dare raise her voice any louder, especially not when Shiho could be listening in. But this time, when she asked, there was a soft whimpering. It lingered for a few seconds and then, although it was so whispered and strained it could once again have been mistaken for the wind, she heard:
"No….no…"
And it did not sound like once voice, but two. Which means…
"Marin Tákáshidottir? Leif Sakai?"
There was no answer, this time. No words, no wailing. Just the rain, the wind, the silence. But it didn't matter. Kie was convinced: somehow, one way or another, it had been them. Just as it had been Erina singing on that first day.
Somehow, the dead were still there.
And Kie didn't know what she was going to do about it. Not yet. But she would be, somehow, because whatever else was rotting at the heart of Nidavellir, this was the worst of it. It's lucky that nothing really catastrophic has happened….just how many unreaped souls are still here, anyway? Far more than Erina, Marin and Leif, she was convinced of this. So one way or another, she had to find a way to expose this, do something about this.
And until she did, she'd make sure that she did not join those unreaped souls.
So she put away her books and other things, and rushed off to join Tsuyoshi.
…
Rei wasn't surprised when they didn't spot any trace of Minoru in the busy town centre. From what he'd learnt of the AWOL first-year student, he didn't seem to much like noise. The marketplace wasn't much better, but it was near to a small park which had a lot of wooded areas, and it was there they thought they'd have better luck. They did, however, have to cross the market itself to get there and although Rei was antsy about the amount of time that the search for Minoru would eat into, he found the market a fascinating place. It wasn't somewhere he went often himself, and honestly he had assumed it wouldn't really be his thing, but he couldn't help but spot a lot of interesting things on some of the stalls. One stall was selling a lot of transformation-outfit-type jackets, and the cut and style of a couple made him wonder if perhaps it was time to update his own outfit. Or, if not now, if he should keep this stall in mind if he needed to do so later.
A little further on, as he separated from Hanayo to check a different row of stalls, he spotted a familiar face. Emiko Chiba was sitting at her stall, diligently reading a textbook that Rei remembered was still sitting on his desk, bookmarked with the chapters he needed to read before next week's lesson but hadn't yet done. Her stall seemed to have a wide range of items, all of them looking like they were second hand, or quite possibly third or fourth hand. There were also a number of basic charms against theft for sale, and what looked like bags of mahou gin. Rei badly wanted to ask about them, but he decided to greet her first.
"Hey, Chiba-san."
Emiko looked up and smiled, greeting him back before saying:
"I remember that you said you'd be searching this area. With Hamasaki-sempai, right? And…one of Endo-kun's bullies?"
"Ah, Hiyama-san's group is taking one of them. Unfortunately, the others have family or extra-curricular commitments they can't get out of, so they'll be enquiring online."
Emiko nodded, and then said:
"Don't you wonder if having them in the search will do more harm than good? If Endo-kun was scared enough to run away, then being searched for by the people he was running away from will feel more like being hunted, no?"
Rei opened his mouth, and then shut it again. Slowly, he nodded.
"Well, I suppose we would be the ones to approach him, they're just helping with the legwork. Besides, it's as much to give them some consequences as it is for them to help us. Perhaps properly seeing the impact bullying has will make them think twice before choosing to pick on someone else who is 'weird'."
Emiko nodded, but didn't comment. Instead, she simply gestured to her textbook and asked Rei:
"Have you finished the chapters, yet? Did you understand them all?"
"Ah, I haven't had a chance to, yet…" Rei said, "Actually, there's a lot I need to catch up on, but I'll do that this evening."
Emiko nodded sympathetically.
"I know, it can be hard to find the time to fit it all in, can't it? I'm sorry I can't actively search with you, but I need to have this stall open today…"
To Rei's surprise, she picked up one of the bags of mahou gin and shook it. With a sigh, she went on to say:
"They're hard to get, mahou gin, but they sell for much more than their value because of that, so I'm hoping I can sell at least a few of these bags. The rest, I'll have to keep for emergencies if they don't go, and if I don't sell enough of anything else."
"There's a lot though, couldn't you just keep them?" Rei asked.
"I could, and I do have more. But like I said, people will pay through the nose for a bag of mahou gin, especially freshly made."
As soon as Emiko said this, she blinked and then abruptly snapped her mouth shut, reddening slightly. The spots of colour on her cheeks only served to highlight how pale she actually was. Rei wasn't sure if she was naturally that pale, or if this was a sign of something else, but then she put her textbook down and, with shaky hands, reached for a bottle of water. She fumbled to open it, and then took huge, almost desperate gulps. And as she lifted the bottle each time, the sleeve of her threadbare red jumper shifted slightly to show the edges of a bandage wrapped neatly around her forearm, although it wasn't clear how much of her arm it covered. When she put the bottle down, and picked up her textbook and opened it back up again, he saw something similar on the other arm.
"Chiba-san, are-"
Emiko looked at him questioningly, so clearly she had not noticed him noticing her bandages, but before he could finish his question (or even work out what, exactly, he was asking her), he heard a shout and immediately spun around.
Across the marketplace, a stall was quite clearly being ransacked and vandalised, with a teenager whom Rei assumed to be the owner of the stall struggling to free herself from the hold of two of the people responsible. They had her by both her arms, and she seemed to be trying to wriggle free. However, since she was very slim and slight, she wasn't doing a good job of it.
"Hamasaki-sempai!" Rei called out as he ran towards the girl, transforming as he did so. "We need help!"
He then called out to the ransackers at the stall to stop, and fired a round of bullets as he did so. Those who had been ransacking the stall turned to him, and while a few ran off and started to harass another stall-owner instead, the others squared up to face him, holding clubs and baseball bats. Rei fired at one of them, blowing a hole right through the bat, but this enraged the holder of the bat and he came at Rei with the broken bat, managing to hit a glancing blow to his right shoulder. Rei winced and staggered back slightly, and this was all it took for the ransackers to swarm at him.
The next few moments were a blur of him aiming more bullets, these imbued with immobilising spells, but then otherwise having to use one of the adaptations of his gun to shoot out a whip to try and keep some of them at bay. The ransacker with the broken bat seemed to have a particular vendetta against him, though, and soon they were both rolling around on the ground, both throwing and trying to dodge punches and kicks. Eventually, though, Rei managed to get him down in the simplest of ways-sticking his leg out, so that he tripped over. As the ransacker yelled and fell to the floor in a messy sprawl, Rei sat on him to prevent him from getting up, and forced his hands behind his back. While looking in his pocket for something to tie the ransacker's hands with, he turned to see how the girl was faring.
Now he was a little closer, he realised that he recognised her as being in the year above him. It took him a little longer now to locate her name in his memory-Idunn Miyazawa-and he remembered that she'd actually come to their stall on the first day, expressing that she was potentially interested but that she couldn't join, as she wasn't mahou shoujo. Indeed, she was staring in terror as one of the ransackers stood before her, dangling a number of small objects from their hands.
"Wooooow," they were saying. "That sure is a huuuuuge amount of amulets, quite impressive. I'm sure one or two of these will work for me."
"I, no, please give them back-" Idunn begged, still writhing and trying to break free, pink eyes huge and pleading.
"Then come and get them. Oh, wait, you can't!" the ransacker sneered. "You can't do anything without them, can you, not as long as I've got them…."
Desperately, Idunn writhed more, and kicked out again, this time connecting with one of her captor's shins. He howled and let go, but almost immediately rose up and, eyes flashing, punched Idunn in the face. She cried out and reared back, clutching her face with her free hand, while still trying to break away from the person still holding her by her other arm. It was then that two people came flying in, kicking both captors away as they did so. Each paired off with one in a one-to-one fight, gleaming swords and daggers against the baseball bats. Finally finding twine, Rei made quick work of tying it around the wrists of the ransacker he had pinned down, and said:
"As a member of Niðavellir, I am invoking my right to put you under temporary arrest until appropriate authorities may come and invoke justice," he recited, hoping he remembered the words correctly. "Do not try to resist, or it will be all the worse for you."
As he then got up, ignoring the ransacker cursing at him, he heard Hanayo yelling the same words, and a quick glance over his shoulder showed her making quick work of rounding up the final ransackers, including the ones who had escaped. Satisfied, he ran towards Idunn and her captors and fought ferociously with them. Although it was two against one (the girls, though they tried their best, were quickly overpowered and forced to sit next to Idunn's ransacked stall to tend to their own injuries) Rei put up his best effort only to have one of his guns knocked out of his hand and the other snatched from its holster. Immediately, he threw up the most basic of rune barriers, to delay the blow of the club, when suddenly, a glowing emanated from Idunn. Or, to be accurate, it emanated from her shoulder, growing wider and enveloping her in soft pink light. When it faded, to his astonishment, Idunn was transformed, the opalescent panels of her long, layered skirt glowing in the residual light that was apparently coming from the tattoo of the spider weaving its web that took up most of her shoulder, fully displayed in her sleeveless mahou shoujo outfit.
Idunn's eyes widened as she looked down at herself, and then she sighed with relief before brandishing a small circular loom, which she quickly used to weave a length of glowing white cord, which immediately wrapped around the fingers of the ransacked still gripping her arm. With a few more loops, the cord tugged and pulled the fingers away, allowing Idunn to finally break free. She then cast off the cord, setting it free from her spindle before running to Rei, looking uncertain.
"I think it might be best to get out of the way-"
"AAARGH, WHAT IS THIS THING," the ransacker yelled. "GET IT OFF ME, YOU-"
Rei took advantage to knock the ransacker to the ground and arrest him the same way he had done with the other one, and then saw that Emiko had arrived at some point and was taking care of the final ransacker, though this one she tied to a nearby wooden post rather than knocking them to the ground. She then went to talk with the approaching group of market security, and both Rei and Hanayo did the same, before Emiko helped them to lead away the ransackers.
"So, it seems like these hooligans have been targeting what they perceive to be new stalls, particularly those that seem to be selling particularly unique magical goods, in the search for new amulets and other charms or talismans they can steal and use for themselves." Hanayo stated. "They may also be responsible for a spate of robberies in a number of districts. Had you had any trouble with them before?"
"Um, not me, personally, but I had heard some things. But this was only my third time doing this stall. Some friends suggested that I sell some of my weavings…."
Idunn gestured to the wreckage of her stall tiredly. Sure enough, Rei could see that the scattered items were woven charms in a variety of shapes, textures and colours, all of them glowing hazily with imbued magic.
"Oh, you're a weaver?" he asked.
"Yeah," Idunn said. "Only at the specialist level, though."
Rei blinked at Idunn, and then looked around for the amulets that had been taken, remembering they had dropped in the last part of the scuffle. He bent down and scooped up the assortment of objects. Some of them were woven, but there was also a small enamel necklace pendant of a spider, a slightly dented mahou gin coin, and a silver filigree necklace. Holding them out to Idunn, he asked:
"But you didn't have any of these when you, you know…"
"Oh!" Idunn exclaimed. "No, that's…my tattoo. I didn't think it'd work, but I'd been trying to get it to work…"
Hunching her shoulders slightly, she briefly covered the tattoo with her hand, but then let it go again as she knelt down to try and tidy up her goods. She used a tattoo as an amulet? That's impressive, even if she's not mahou shoujo at all. Rei so badly wanted to ask her where she had learnt that, how she'd managed it, but there were more pressing issues at hand. Instead, as he helped her with the tidying, he asked:
"Is your face alright? Do you need it seen to?"
"No, no, I'm alright. It hurts, but it's not bad. But…thank you, kouhai, for the help."
"Not a problem," Rei replied. "I'm glad you're alright."
"I am, really. I'm sorry for the trouble."
"As Niðavellir members it's our duty to help you, as a fellow student." Hanayo briskly told her, also kneeling down to tidy things up. "So don't apologise. I would suggest putting additional safeguards on your goods, however, to prevent a repeat incident. "
Idunn blinked, and her wide-eyed expression of gratitude slipped slightly as she bit her lip and averted her gaze. Rei winced, thinking that Hanayo could have perhaps been a little gentler, but he knew she wasn't so good at that. Honestly, he wasn't either, but he gave it his best shot anyway:
"Do you need help setting up some safeguards, maybe? There's another Niðavellir member with a stall here today, she's been doing it for a while. It's like, a scrap-item stall, but she's selling some mahou gin too. She's the one who has gone back with the market security, but I could get her to come and help you once she's done with that, if you'd like?"
"I know the stall," she said quietly. "But no, that's alright…"
"Are you really saying that the only reason that you stepped in was because she's a student of Asgard Academy?"
Rei hadn't paid too much attention to the other students who had also tried to come to Idunn's aid, especially not once they'd been taken out of proceedings. But he had subconsciously registered them as Asgard Academy students, most likely because he'd thought there to be something familiar about them. Nonetheless, he was astonished to see that they were none other than the Sasaki twins. It wasn't clear which one of them had spoken though, as both glared, with the one dressed in white still bandaging her sister's arm.
At a loss for what to say, he looked to Hanayo. Hanayo pursed her lips, and addressed the twins:
"You should be grateful that we stepped in to intervene. You certainly needed the help."
The air seemed to shimmer around the twins as they sat up straighter and glared. One of them (Rei didn't know if it was Signy or Lyra) said:
"We are aware. That doesn't make your attitude okay. Is this really what it means to be a member of a school army?"
Hanayo's nostrils flared, and she rested a hand on the handle of her sword as she replied:
"Being a member of a school army means helping that school, and the members of its' community, and that's what we did, as simple as that. You are aware that the criminals we apprehended were targeting others, as I mentioned? By stepping in now, we've prevented any more crimes to other Asgard Academy students running these stalls, and to anyone else here. You should be grateful."
Rei shifted from one foot to the other, and looked to see how Idunn was doing. She turned out to have been watching the exchange apprehensively, but now she asked:
"I…I mean, we are, honestly. But, I guess, now I'm wondering…"
She blushed as everyone looked at her, ducking her head slightly. But after a moment, she lifted it, and for the first time since Rei had met her she seemed fully composed, calm, as she asked:
"So, if I wasn't a student of Asgard Academy, would you have left me alone?"
Hanayo huffed at this:
"I'm not going to dignify that with an answer."
With that, she returned to tidying, although her demeanour was noticeably chillier. Or, at least, chiller to Rei, who liked to think that he knew the difference. He wouldn't say he was particularly close to any of the Niðavellir members, but he liked to think that he knew them well enough from the things that they did share. Or at least, where the newer members were concerned, he liked to think he'd get to know them well enough.
Probably not Nakahara-kun though, to be honest. He's too grumpy. Then again, Kimura-sempai is also a bit…weird.
It was easier to think of things like this than it was to think about what Idunn had asked, and just why his first instinct was to ignore it and put on a cheery face while he quickly helped her tidy up. But the question kept nibbling away at the edge of his thoughts, and when they were done, and Hanayo was making noises about getting on with their proper tasks, he knew he had to say something.
"Miyazawa-sempai…" he started.
Idunn turned to him, and he hesitated.
"I…I didn't recognise you at first, you know."
Idunn blinked.
"When I first saw you needed help. I didn't recognise you as a student, not at first."
Idunn tilted her head, but then nodded slowly.
"Alright," she said, just as slowly. "Thank you, again. Really."
Rei nodded back, feeling awkward.
"Well, it's time I went. I have other duties, unfortunately. So, um, if you have any other troubles, don't hesitate to reach us."
"S-sure."
Rei walked away and went to join Hanayo, who at first didn't acknowledge him, but then said:
"We should check when Chiba-san will be done with her stall, then she could aid us in the searching process."
"I suppose so, yeah," Rei said. "I didn't ask her, but she seemed rather busy. It's understandable, isn't it? Plenty of us are busy."
Rei remembered the textbooks still on his desk, all the unread pages, all the exercises he needed to do. But those are petty concerns, really, aren't they?
"I'll go and find her." He offered.
Since the market security had dispersed, he assumed that Emiko had gone back to her stall, and so he headed there. As it turned out, when he got closer, she too was making her way back to the stall. There seemed to be something wrong with her, something unsteady about her movements, and indeed, she put a hand on the edge of her stall before looking at him and asking:
"We need to tell Hiyama-san about all of this, right?"
"We do, yeah, but first, I wanted to ask, do you think you'd be able to help us with the searching once you're done here today? We could do with the help….Chiba-san, are you quite alright?"
"Oh, yeah, I just need some more water…"
Shakily, Emiko reached out for the bottle still on her stall, but then had to let go of the stall so she could open it. In that same moment, her knees buckled and she crumpled, and Rei only just caught her before she reached the ground.