Chapter 37 : Tempus Fugit - Zashiki-warashi

I straighten in my seat, the afternoon sun peeking through my bedroom windows, and take a long look at my latest drawing.

Upside of having a whole month to more-or-less rest and relax? I got more than my fair share of free time to improve my drawing skills.

The latest one is, once again, one of a strange, alien, vista. A city, chock full of cyclopean towers, with walls made of solid metal, right atop either a desert or a barren wasteland, depending on who you ask, shining under the light of two harsh suns in the distance.

I sit back a little in my chair, mulling over what this particular vision couched in paper could possibly mean.

At first, I thought they were figments of my 'past', of the memories I inherited right from a game character. Then, I thought that they were visions transcending the boundaries of the local multiverse, sent along the ebbs and flows of the Warp, a window open on its original realm.

Now?

Now, I wasn't so sure anymore.

Little details, sprinkled in those drawings, were telling me that those weren't from the universe where the Ruinous Powers had everyone dancing to their tune.

Sigils, repeated along the walls. City-wide domes of shimmering energies, protecting the cities inside of it from the, oftentimes, harsh environmental condition that I could recognize raging outside of them.

Iconographies, repeated, over and over again, and not an aquila in sight.

It was intriguing.

It was frightening.

Channeling the Warp without purpose, letting myself be freely puppeted by it that way, and systematically getting a similar result?

There was no way it didn't want to tell me something, and I had no clues what.

Wordlessly, shaking my thoughts away, I rise up from my seat, absentmindedly taking a few pins from my drawer, I bend over my desk, and pin the drawing on the wall, next to its brethren, before taking a few steps back.

It was funny, really, I muse to myself as my eyes roam over the succession of various cityscape, taken from so many places across a fantasmagorical universe, that Sakura kept lauding me for my 'artistic vibe' and 'boundless imagination', when, in fact, I acted more like a glorified Oracle of Delphy.

And, just like her, I didn't even know the meaning of my prophecies.

I float, at ease and peace both, in the multi-hued, nonsensical, realm of the Lower Stratum of the Immaterium, like each night -bar those where my lover swung by- since I had found myself capable of doing it.

Mind-eyes 'upward', lost in contemplation of the slow motion of the sea of souls and thoughts, and tether firmly held in hand, I keep getting tempered, molded by the weight of the psychic-soul stuff of a whole universe.

From my point of view, looking at the imprints of so many souls living their lives in my 'radius', it is a bit like looking right into the Milky Way and being able to tell what each star thinks in truth.

At least, if I focus hard enough.

Sadly, it was way more boring -and awkward-, since I usually could only do so at night, which meant that most people were either asleep, or mid coitus.

Considering I have close to zero voyeuristic tendencies and that there aren't that many true night owls living in the few blocks I could cover when completely 'relaxed', I have quickly dropped any attempts to glean some useful info from this little trick.

Especially when my lackluster performances with telepathy entered the equation.

Though, I think I finally managed to understand why the souls of my most devilish friends were brighter than any others.

The answer, as it turns out, is magic potential.

Now, how did I manage to decipher that exactly?

Well, recently, one of the little stars had started to shine a little brighter, its glow growing ever more intense day by day.

Coincidentally, it was the star that belonged to one Hanakai Momo.

And, well, since she had taken her place at Sona's side in early June, it was relatively easy to deduce why her 'glow' increased.

A known hard worker suddenly gains access to magical powers, ones which increase the more you use them?

No wonder Rias' peerage were fully fledged bonfires when put next to the flickering candles of mundane folks.

Though, considering Toroko-san's own -I was curious, sue me- started to get a little brighter too since he really started to push himself with a total disregard for mortal limits, I was almost certain that increasing what I could only qualify as 'latent Touki' played a similar role.

I didn't know if that was the case in the original setting, but, here, in this universe, there is a correlation between magical potential/latent Touki -and possibly sage arts too- and the strength of your soul.

I am willing to bet that this was never the case in the grim darkness of the far future, though.

After all, magical potential in the Warhammer-verse was never a question of inner potential, but how attuned to the Winds of Chaos you are.

So, by applying the same logic to its sibling universe, I strongly doubted that the souls of its denizens shined as brightly as those I laid my eyes upon every night, considering everyone's got a bit of magic in this world.

Except Psykers, of course, but that's the very reason why we are so tasty to daemons, after all.

Big souls, fine meals, or something along those lines.

I not-sigh as the Warp keeps weighing on me, neverending fractals on the edge of my sort-of-sight, feeling almost content in the moment.

The relaxation was, after all, very welcome after another day spent working hard in the school of gains.

The moment stretches without limit, my mind empty-

-until, suddenly, something catches my attention at the extreme limit of my 'radius', prompting me to 'look' that-away-

-only to freeze in bewilderment mixed with fright.

I gingerly angle myself a little closer, not really believing what I'm seeing…

…But, alas, there's indeed a disturbance in the Immaterium.

More precisely, something akin to a big ass whirlpool is forming in the sea of souls and thoughts, somehow reaching deep in the Lower Stratum, pulling more of the psychic-soul stuff foundational to this universe-

-and a quick glance tells me it is centered around two stars close-by, one a little brighter than the other, but not that much, which makes me think they belong to mundanes.

In the depths of the Immaterium and in the real world both, I swallow thickly as I keep looking at the phenomenon intently, the 'tornado' still going strong, pulling more and more of the building blocks of the universe in it-

-only for it to suddenly snap back, like a rubber-band, an all-encompassing wave taking the sea of souls and thoughts in its wake, and forcing me to shield my not-eyes-

-and I mentally gape as I realize that, where there were two stars before, three now exist, the new one shining brightly, and I'm momentarily stumped.

…What the hell did I just witness?

I only went to see things for myself a few days later, after having confirmed that the new 'star' hadn't gone away or something.

My destination had been a quaint traditional little house, almost on the other side of the town.

Safely under the cover of my aura, reeking of enough Indifference that no-one really paid me any attention, I managed to confirm that the house belonged to a young couple quite faithful in the Shinto pantheon-

-and that the new star, so much brighter than theirs, belonged, in fact, to a zashiki-warashi, a prankster spirit synonymous with good fortune.

Considering the young couple seemed to literally exude joy in everything they did without paying any mind when a pair of shoes 'mysteriously' disappeared, I was more or less positive on my analysis of the situation, if the physical characteristic of the spirit -red skin, bob haircut, barely older than a toddler- weren't enough of a conclusion.

There was only one conclusion I could come to, as I watched, wide-eyed, the happy little family going on with their life.

The young couple had, somehow, brought into being the zashiki-warashi due to their belief-

-and it had so many implications that my mind was blown away.

Wordlessly, I made my way back to my home, under the cover of the night, any plans about getting into contact with the magical creature thrown out of the window, and, above all else, internally freaking out about what it meant for me in particular.

[AN: A shorter chapter this time, because I want to expand on the conclusion in the next one.

In the meantime, I think I'm going to enjoy every wild theory you'll be coming with. :3

Hope you enjoy, xoxo]