Eleventh Spell: First Friend
As everyone boarded the M Line bullet train, Haru tried to figure out where to put his luggage. Then suddenly, one of the lower compartments of the train opened up and a tentacle reached out taking his luggage into the compartment. Before Haru could reach in, the compartment closed and a loud roar came from the front of the train.
That must be the whistle, Haru thought.
So he boarded the train just as it started to pull out of the station. He stumbled a little, but kept his balance as he made his way down the aisle of luscious red velvet seats facing backwards and forwards in pairs of four. Unfortunately, many of the seats were already taken forcing him to walk further back from the compartment where his luggage was taken. Eventually, he found an empty set of seats two carts down towards the tail end of the train and settled in watching the city he grew up in fade way into rolling green hills and rivers.
"Excuse me," said a familiar female voice.
Haru looked up and saw the girl with the medium chestnut hair from earlier. Up close, he noticed she had eyes the color of topaz.
"Um, would you…mind if I sit next to you?" the girl asked. But then she blushed and said, "No! I mean, not 'next' to you but—
"Right across from me?" Haru guessed.
"Yeah, that's what I meant," the girl clarified. "I'm sorry!"
"No need to apologize," Haru insisted as the girl sat across from him. "I saw you walking up the stairs with those people earlier. Were they your family?"
"They're the reason I'm here," the girl said. "They always kick me out of their spot. Wait! I've never seen you before. Are you a transfer student?"
"I'm supposed to be boarding at Mahoutokoro with the First-Year Secondary students while taking remedial classes," Haru answered reluctantly.
"So you're an Osozaki!" the girl exclaimed. "I've heard of them, but I never thought I'd actually meet one in real-life. My name's Ruri Wataka, but everyone calls me Rui."
"Nice to meet you," Haru said as he shook the girl's hand. "I'm Haru Ryuji."
"Haru Ryuji? The Boy Who Vanished?" Rui's almost fell out of her chair. "Does that mean you have the, um…."
"What?" Haru grabbed Rui by the shoulders and steadied her. "Is there something I'm supposed to have?"
"The mark," Rui said cryptically.
"Mark?" Haru looked down at his chest. "Is it shaped like a dragonfly?"
Rui shook her head. "No, I don't think so. It was something else…never mind."
Just then, an old-fashioned trolley came rolling down the aisle with a man in a black suit pushing it. He stopped in front of Haru and Rui's seat.
"Good afternoon, kids," the man said politely. "Would you like any drinks or food?"
"Um, sure," Rui shrugged before looking at Haru. "Do you know what you're getting?"
"No," Haru answered.
"All right, then we'll have one of everything on the trolley," Rui declared, taking a fistful of golden Ryōki coins out of her blue skirt pocket.
Surprised by this, Haru said nothing as the man, who was also taken aback, took one food item and beverage off the trolley before heading down the aisle.
"Consider this a treat from me to my first Osozaki friend," Rui said. "And you don't have to pay me back. My family is pretty rich."
"I'll say," Haru remarked. "The inheritance left by my birth mother was decent, but not enough for me to afford all of this."
"So did your mother really die?" Rui asked. Then she apologized, "I'm sorry for prying."
"No, it's okay. But yeah, she really did die…or so I've been told. I only found out who I was two weeks ago, when my adopted family was killed by Warumo."
Rui gasped. "You mean…Warumo-Uragi? He hasn't been seen in the last eleven years. So why would he attack you?"
"I don't know, and that's what I want to find out."
"Were your adoptive parents Manai, or a Wizarding Family?"
"Manai."
"Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry. Are there any living relatives?"
"There's my adopted sister Daichi, who was kidnapped by Warumo-Uragi, and Higa who acted as my uncle."
"Higa? As in Rakurai Higa?"
As Haru nodded, Rui seemed perplexed.
"But he never mentioned having any Manai relatives before…. Unless he didn't say anything to protect you."
"Do you know him?" asked Haru.
"Not personally, but he is the groundskeeper at Mahoutokoro," Rui explained. "And he sometimes does errands for Dōmeki-Sama."
"Is Mahoutokoro a big place?"
"Well, it depends on what you call 'big'. Horizontally, the school is small—though it's compensated vertically."
Haru then looked down at the array of food and beverages on the table between him and Rui. As his stomach growled, he picked up one item that looked like a bento box.
"That's an Odoki Bento Box," Rui said. "It may look tasty, but the items inside don't always taste like what they're supposed to. Go ahead and try if you don't believe me."
So Haru opened the bento box and used the complementary chopsticks to pick up an octopus sausage. Instead of a meaty texture, it tasted like fish eggs. Then Haru tried a tempura shrimp, but it had a chocolatey taste.
"It's very addicting, because you never know what flavors you'll get in combination with which food item," Rui noted as she began eating her own Odoki Bento Box. She then flinched. "This chicken katsu tastes like Durian fruit."
Rui immediately grabbed for a soda drink and downed it. But as Haru watched her, the soda drink changed from bright-blue to ink-black.
"Squid Ink Soda," Rui said after she finished drinking and showed the soda label to Haru. "It's very refreshing."
Curious, Haru sipped a Squid Ink Soda. Indeed, it tasted good despite the off-pudding color. Next, he picked up a small candy box that said, 'Sugar Moth' on it.
"I hope this isn't made from real moths," Haru muttered out loud.
"Don't worry, they're not real," Rui assured. "But make sure it doesn't fly away with the cards."
Unsure of what Rui meant, Haru opened the candy box. To his surprise, a white sugar candy in the shape of a moth flew out with a small black sachet gripped in its feet. Before Haru or Rui could catch it, the moth was snatched midair by a girl standing in the aisle with long auburn hair and hazel-brown eyes.
To be continued…
