Newcomer

Ryuuhei could see nothing all the while he was in the SUV. No matter which way he looked, all he saw was black. He tried calling out to the driver multiple times, but no reply ever came.

Eventually, he began to panic.

“......Just how long have I been in here, anyway?,” he wondered as he pulled out his cellphone to check the time. Upon pressing the power button, he froze temporarily as he read the digits reflected on the screen. The clock read twelve sharp. Somehow, the time had not changed since he boarded the vehicle.

“Ryuuhei, you lunatic. You’ve really gone and done something irreversible now,” he thought. “Didn’t your mother warn you about getting into cars with strangers?”

He checked and rechecked, but the screen on his phone always read exactly twelve o’clock. It was as though he had stepped into some strange, liminal space removed from time.

“......Am I dead? Is this purgatory?,” he said, this time voicing his thoughts aloud. Though the thought seemed silly to entertain, Ryuuhei’s present situation was exactly what he envisioned the afterlife to be—a black and lifeless world, void of anything and everything he ever held dear.

“Wait a minute,” he said. “I have an idea.”

He unlocked his phone and turned its brightness as high as it could possibly go. Even at maximum brightness, it was still difficult for him to clearly observe the interior of the car. He pointed the screen of his phone in various directions, hoping to learn something about where he was and what was going on.

“Surely, there must be something visible from the window,” he thought to himself as he redirected his phone screen toward it. He looked and looked, but all he could see was a somber shade of black.

In a moment of frustration, Ryuuhei finally lost his temper.

“This isn’t funny,” he snapped, pointing his phone toward the driver’s seat. “I want to know what’s going on here—”

He froze mid-sentence when he realized with horror that the driver’s seat was empty. The wheel was turning by itself, and there was no one else with him in the car.

“......Impossible...! I know I heard a voice greet me back at the bus stop!”

Just then, a faint shriek could be heard as the car began to rattle and creak. Since the SUV had no seatbelts, Ryuuhei had to hold onto the ceiling handle above him to avoid being tossed around as he felt the vehicle begin to descend.

“Woah, woah, jeez!,” he exclaimed, unable to catch his breath. “Wasn’t this a car ride? How the heck did we end up in the air?”

Ryuuhei started to feel sick as the car began to drop altitude faster and faster, only decelerating as it neared the ground. Finally, it landed with a satisfying thud. Though it left him feeling dizzy, Ryuuhei was unharmed by the impact.

“......Damn you people over at Lingua Magi. This is so not how you treat a guest,” he said to himself as he hyperventilated.

In moments, the doors of the SUV opened, and Ryuuhei stepped outside. Judging from the absence of sunlight, he could only assume it was nighttime—wherever he was.

He turned around, expecting the same car that picked him up—only what he saw next made him stop dead in his tracks. Greeting him were a pair of large gleaming red eyes—feral and burning with the intensity of a wildfire. They pierced clean through the darkness, leering at him. Ryuuhei gulped and craned his neck upward, following the eyes as they slowly moved higher and higher into the air.

“......Um, hey there, big guy,” he choked, too tense to move a muscle.

The gargantuan animal let out a bellowing roar toward the heavens. Ryuuhei instinctively pressed his hands to his ears and clenched his eyes shut in defense.

“I am so dead,” he thought to himself as the beast in front of him locked its eyes back onto him. He cowered for a moment, expecting it to strike. But to his surprise, it did not attack—instead, it elegantly propelled itself into the air with a mighty kick and flew off into the night. The flaps of its wings sent a gust of wind toward Ryuuhei, ruffling his hair.

“To think that car was a dragon this whole time......,” said Ryuuhei, still bewildered by what he thought was a brush with death. Much to his chagrin, he did not even have time to catch his breath before the next bout of trouble came to find him.

“Bind. Target: Intruder.”

No sooner than Ryuuhei heard a voice announce those words did several rings of light appear and ensnare him.

“Ugh, I can’t move......!”

He struggled, but it was no use. Whatever had surrounded him left him unable to even budge.

A young girl came running toward him. She appeared to be in her pre-to-early teens.

“You there! What’s going on here? And what were you doing to Tomo-kun?”

“HUH? What was I doing? I nearly became dinner just now, thank you very much!,” Ryuuhei rebutted with a look of displeasure. “And who’s ‘Tomo-kun’?”

“—Tomoki Shinonome,” said another voice. “The ferryman of Lingua Magi. Tomo-kun is just a silly nickname my kid sister invented.”

Ryuuhei’s eyes widened as the figure slowly came into view.

“......You are...!”

It was the woman who had handed him the card back at his apartment.

“Eira, let him go.”

The girl protested. “But, but...!”

“......Now. I’m not going to ask you again.”

“...Fine,” said Eira as she reluctantly obliged.

After breathing out with a sour expression, Eira closed her eyes and began to focus intently. Ryuuhei watched as light gradually gathered on the forefinger of her right hand. After the light had reached a certain intensity, she opened her eyes and swiftly scribbled something into the air—it was kaijo, the Japanese word for release. The two kanji characters levitated effortlessly in front of her as they gleamed in an intense, spiritual luster.

“Release. Target: Bind,” she shouted, as though she were giving a formal announcement. The moment she finished the incantation—boom!—the characters shattered like glass and vanished. Ryuuhei felt the bundles of restricting light around him weaken their hold on him before they too, vanished without a trace.

“......Magic?,” he said in a hushed voice. “......And using Japanese?”

“Hmph!,” exclaimed Eira as she clenched her fists and turned around with an air of annoyance. “You ruin everything, Haruka nee-sama!”

“That does it.” Haruka channeled her attention throughout her entire body until she was engulfed in a blanket of soft, flowing light. In her hand materialized a sleek, metal staff that reflected the glow of the torches surrounding the area. The staff began to move on its own, separating itself from Haruka’s hands as it rapidly spelled out a flood of Japanese characters. Ryuuhei had no idea what was happening, but it seemed to be responding to what she was imagining inside her head.

“Teleport. Target: Eira. Destination: Eira’s home room,” she declared in a stout voice. A beam of light shot out from her staff and headed straight for its target.

“No!,” screamed Eira as she once again attempted to gather light to her fingertip. “If I can just undo the spell or guard in time—”

“It’s useless. Your castings are too slow to counter mine. Now off to bed.”

Eira continued to pout until—whoosh!—she disappeared into thin air with a piercing sound.

“......And to think I was still going easy on you that time,” thought Haruka before turning to face Ryuuhei with a bow.

“My apologizes, Ryuuhei Sakazuki. That one sure is a handful,” she said politely, her voice emanating a serene and regal calm. “She always misbehaves whenever I let her tag along.”

Ryuuhei grimaced and forced a slight laugh.

“......Haha, yeah, seems that way,” he responded dryly.

Haruka smiled at him. Ryuuhei was surprised she was even capable of such a gesture, given her lifeless demeanor when he met her the day prior.

“Still, she sure is beautiful up close,” he marveled in secret. “Doll-like, even.”

“You must be tired. Right this way,” said Haruka as she started to walk away from him. He followed impulsively, running slightly to catch up with her.

“......Say, Ryuuhei-sama.”

“Please, just call me ‘Ryuuhei.’”

“Understood. Then, Ryuuhei, are you afraid of heights?”

He thought for a moment, a look of confusion on his face. “What is she getting at?,” he wondered. Considering all that had happened in the past twenty four hours, he couldn’t help but feel a bit worried.

“......Not particularly. Why do you ask?”

Upon hearing his response, Haruka beamed slightly as her body began to radiate a loving, animate blue.

Ryuuhei watched as her staff once again separated itself from her hand and started to dance elegantly, leaving a trail of glittering text in its wake.

“Joint Magic: Sustained Flight. Targets: Self and Ryuuhei Sakazaki. Maximum Altitude: One hundred feet. Speed: One hundred kilometers per hour. Destination: Ten feet before Lingua Magi front gates.”

The instant Haruka finished reciting the incantation, the text blew itself apart as both she and Ryuuhei began to float, rapidly ascending into the night sky. Ryuuhei started to shriek like a little girl. The last time he had made a sound that embarrassing was when he found a spider in his boxers a year prior.

“A-are you trying to kill meeeee!?,” he shouted at the top of his lunges as he and Haruka rocketed north, accelerating to the speed she had designated.

“Do not be afraid,” she said, laughing slightly at his antics. “We will arrive shortly.”

Despite her attempts to calm him down, Ryuuhei remained in a state of distress for the duration of the flight. Each time he looked down, he felt his stomach drop in fear.

Before long, an enormous, castle-like structure came into view. It was the most beautiful thing Ryuuhei had ever seen before—almost alien-like in the precision of its architecture and coloring. He was at a loss for words.

When at last they arrived before the gates—exactly ten feet before, just as Haruka had specified—she turned to him as they remained suspended in the air. Then, she spoke. Her voice echoed soberly into the crisp, evening breeze.

“Welcome......to Lingua Magi.”

Ryuuhei was about to respond when he was met with a flash of light, followed by the sound of Haruka whispering, “Release. Target: Joint Magic: Sustained Flight.”

He let out a scream and flailed his body as they both began to plummet toward the ground below.