The next day,
The time was free, and there weren't any classes. Yukari was scheduled to meet an alchemist, leaving Tsukishiro alone.
Still not inclined to go home, he decided to pay the school library a visit.
The library was massive. With Ceiling and walls made of cobblestone, painted with white, the shelves stretched far out, wih books of different colors arranged neatly.
The seats were empty, and people were only a few people. He decided to look for a book that could perhaps help him in his magic training.
Recently, training magic has been hard. It's like in each step he takes, he's met with a dead end.
It is almost like the mountain journey he is climbing is getting steeper and steeper.
He needs a breakthrough to progress further.
That in mind, he walked towards the shelves. He looked at the neatly arranged row of books.
From Physical Training Books to Weaponry Books, all were there.
"Magic, magic." His eyes traversed, looking for a book about magic.
Suddenly,
Thud*,
A book at the far end of the shelf fell off. No one was there, it just fell off.
Feeling a little confused, he walked up to it. He knelt down, and picked it up.
"All about magic..." He read its title. It was a peculiar, black book, with white letters engraved.
"Let's see..." Grabbing the book, he went on to take a seat at the nearby table.
Upon opening it, he noticed that the ink used was already almost faded, yet with legible.
He flipped through the introductory page and went on to the part about "Different Magic Types."
In there, was listed tables of all of the different kinds of magic around the world. There are almost 1.5k thousand types of magic written. And then, he found a particular section.
"Black Magic?" He wondered.
Then, under that title, was the magic "Darkness."
However, under the dark, there were only three, and mysteriously it is written in a language that he never saw before. Only one, out of those three, were written in his native language.
Curious, he looked at his palms. What if he tries the spell written in his language?
Curiosity got the better of him. With a quiet voice, he enchanted the chant.
"Wrath, from silence unborn. Tarnish the sky, and open the doors. Unleash your rage and destroy this world. Come forth, the darkness within, everyone here, reveres your name."
As he finished chanting, a black flame manifested within his palms. His eyes gleamed in amusement in surprise at the unfamiliar magic spell in front of him.
However, as quickly as it came, it left and disappeared from his palms.
And in the next second, he felt a sharp, intense, burning pain on his hands.
He held his wrist with his other hand tightly, as he clenched his teeth, trying not to scream from the unbearable pain.
It radiates all throughout his palm, as if it's being burned by the hottest fire in the universe.
The pain continued, yet slowly ceases. He looked at his hand it wasn't even brusied, nor burned. It was... Normal, as if the burning pain wasn't there at all.
However, Tsukishiro was confused. His hand still is burning. But, there's no trace of wound.
"W-What the hell happened...?" Tsukishiro murmured under his breath.
It was a magic. Upon summoning that magic, he felt all the magic energy within his body surge, as they they're all being drawn to a single place: his palms.
Moreover, it felt different that what ha haven't learned before. It felt... Deep... And dark... It's almost impossible to fully explain what he felt as it was otherworldly.
His palms are fine now. However, the feeling of that flame lingers like a phantom.
As he was flabbergasted, a noise from outside brought him back to his senses.
There, he peeked outside to see several magicians, seemingly friends with one another, practising their own magic, laughing as they did.
This scene brings a memory back—a memory he holds dearly—his training with Youko when they were younger. Though greatly different in strength, they were inseparable.
"I miss those moments." He murmured. Having seen others train, he was inspired, and at the same time, curious, to try that new magic again. He grabbed the book, and registered it at the front desk, before leaving away with it.
He walked through the halls, and arrived outside, a training space. It was empty, except for the few people he saw earlier. He moved to the side, an area empty of people.
There, he opened the book again and searched for the chant.
"There it is." He took a final glance at the book before putting it away and preparing himself.
He took a deep breath before facing forward with a focused expression.
"Wrath, from silence unborn. Tarnish the sky, and open the doors. Unleash your rage and destroy this world. Come forth, the darkness within, everyone here, reveres your name."
At first, nothing.
Then—a flicker.
A faint pulse of black energy, a ripple like wind through a lake. It surrounded his fingers in a halo of soft, unstable energy.
A slight joy tugged the side of his lips into a smile.
However, just as it briefly started, it turned into a black flame, just like before. The intense pain rippled once again through his palms. He clenched in teeth, trying his best to endure the pain. The black flame continued to dance on his palms, intensifying the pain further as time passed by.
"M-M-More..." He groaned in pain. However, his efforts to continue further were stopped as his body finally reached its limit. He fell onto his knees, his palms aching, the pain of the burning flames lingering within.
He caught his breath, his body exhausted of magic energy. Just a little more push, and he'll be fainting.
A surge of disappointment dwelt within him.
He never improved. He is still the same person as before. A slow learner, he thought to himself.
Amidst all this, the black cat looks from the corner of the wall, its blue eyes curious.
...
Elsewhere within the academy, in the corner of a chamber, shines a bright light through the window. a girl sat on her chair, her fantasy novel lying on the table, her eyes focused.
She turned the page with her delicate fingers, her eyes locked on the scene she was reading. She sat on the chair, dressed in a white, soft dress, her hair tied into a bun.
The book talked about the legend of the "Lost Bride.", a bride who cursed the lands for eternity.
Though she didn't notice it right away, the black cat, through her slightly opened window, has returned. It softly jumped into her lap and rubbed its head against hers.
"Oh, you have returned." She murmured with a smile. She closed the book with a soft snap before picking up the cat and walking up to the window, carrying it in her arms.
"The day is beautiful, isn't it, Ferro?" She said, rubbing the head of the cat. Her eyes looked through the distance, her mind gazing at a different scene. She still thinks of Tsukishiro and the boy Rei has mentioned.
"Ferro, do you think I'll meet him?" She asked the cat jokingly.
"Just kidd-"
*Meow*
The cat's meow was followed by another, and another, as if an insistent "yes" answer, while looking directly into her eyes. Youko stopped midway her sentence, looking at the cat, surprised.
"Maybe... If fate allows." She smiled. "Now then, I guess I'll begin my daily magic energy training. Do you want to watch, Ferro?"
Ferro meowed before jumping out of her arms and onto the table, looking at her.
"Alright, Ferro."
Youko grabs a mat from behind her and places it on the ground. She sat down, palms gently resting on her knees, and she closed her eyes.
Breathe in, Breathe out.
Thoughts that linger must fade.
Let the silence grow.
Stillness reigned within the room, and time, seemingly... Slowed down, as if responding to the pulses of her magic.
*Thump* *Thump*
The circulation of energy within her body slows down, and eventually it came to a complete stop. And as that happened, the molecules around her also stopped, down to its atomic size.
Then, she inhaled, as if having oxygen of her own, before standing up.
She took a look around, and everything seemed to have come to a complete halt. Ferro, the black cat, stopped in her tracks. The leaves outside the window were caught mid-sway, hovered, and still.
She looked out of the window. From the outside, it was a wall in disguise. Everything was still, even the dancing trees came to a complete stop.
Seeing that her magic worked, she slightly tapped the window, causing it to break. The glass fragments shattered explosively. However, it came to a stop in mid-air.
Then, Youko stepped out of the window frame, shattering all of the fragments into even smaller shards as she did. Then, she landed on the ground. Surrounding her was the forest.
"Now that everything is settled, it's time to train." She said to herself.
Youko walked through the motionless world. Every echo of her footsteps struggled to keep up, as if reality itself couldn't catch up with her.
Then, she stood in front of a motionless tree. She looked at it with emotionless eyes, as if it were her enemy.
"The light hand of twilight... Arise." She chanted.
Suddenly, a very bright light manifested behind her. And then, it distorted itself, slowly turning into a hand, with fingers sharp it could cut through the air.
Then, she flicked her wrist, and the hand made of light quickly followed. This single motion was enough to shatter the motionless trees into fragments thinner that hair strands, that basically, it seemed as if they disappeared momentarily.
"Disappear." She said, then she snapped, so did her hand made of light. In the next second, it released a huge shockwave that turned everything around her into dust, suspended, and scattered in the air.
She looked around, her eyes glowing in a golden color, sharp, and now, straight, looked around. She felt satisfied with what she had done.
"Reverse." Then, she opened her palms, closed them, and as she does, everything turned to dust was pulled within her axis, and in the next second, returned to their previous, natural state.
She dispersed the hand, made out of her light energy.
She then lets out a sigh before turning around and walking towards her window. She raised her left foot and stepped into the air. She ascended through the air, as if there were stairs underneath her feet.
Upon reaching the frame of her window, the glass shards still remained suspended in their place. Youko gently entered her room once again, and like before, the glass shards were pulled to her as if she were the axis, and immediately dispersed, returning to their natural state.
And then, she sat on the mat she had placed earlier. And then sat, before taking a deep breath again. As she did, all those who stopped in time continued as usual.
"Meow," Ferro purred at Youko, jumping onto her. She caught Ferro in her arms.
"Looks like I still have control over these powers of mine..." Youko murmured to Ferro with a giggle, in which Ferro purred in response.
The world around her continued, as time that was paused began to move forward again. However, for a momentary second, no, a split-second, those at the academy felt a pulse of strong energy surge.
It is as if something unseen passed by them.
What was that?
I felt something pass by me just now!
Maybe it's a ghost?
Murmurs of those around echoed all through the school grounds, and even Tsukishiro, who was on his knees, felt the unexpected wave of energy.
"What was that... just now? The wind felt... warmer..." He murmured. However, this warm energy that just passed by miraculously healed him, and he regained his lost energy.
In disbelief, he tried to stand up. His fatigue was no more, nor was his weakened feeling. He's like a newborn baby.
"I-I... what the hell... happened?" He wondered, in both terror and amusement.