Nina Il Manako

“Mana-nee?”

“What, Sayuki?”

The two girls were playing in the forest.

“What is that stuff? Why are you touching it?” The smaller girl asked; she had short silver hair. Her outfit was a simple maroon yukata. Her ears extended into a point.

“It’s Spaghnum moss. It can be used as a bandage in a pinch!” The larger girl, with long silver hair cascading over her right shoulder, explained. Her ears are pointy, just like the other one.

“Ohhh! And that?” The smaller one points to the other's opposite hand.

“You should know this one, it's a Gila flower! The one that goes boom!”

“Ohhh!”

The larger girl, Nina Il Manako, smiled at her sister. She knew that she asked questions, even the ones she already knew the answers to, so that she could tell her about them.

Manako’s little sister, Nina Il Sayuri, looked to her big sister. “It’s time for dinner!”

“Ah! Let’s go!” Manako stood up quickly, holding her sister's hand and running through the trees towards their house.

In the Isi region of the Nicte Great Forest, the town of Nina was founded. The town was known the world over for its wine and beer, made from the many different flowers dotted around the area. The town was situated in the Northeast of the forest, between the regions of Nawel and Ojigkwanong. The city was carved into a large root of the Giga-fauna found in the center of the forest.

“We’re back!” Manako called out as she pushed open the sliding doors from the Engawa. Sayuri followed behind her, taking off her shoes and closing the door.

“You're late.” A woman answered. From beyond another doorway, a woman slightly taller than the girls appeared, with long, braided silver hair. She had her face resting in her hand, leaning to one side. Her large chest was confined behind an apron. Her long ears pointed in opposite directions.

“H-hi mom… Sorry…”

“Sorry, mom…”

“...” The woman, Nina Il Aimi, looked to her two daughters. “You two are in big trouble! Your punishment is… to go wash up!” She placed her hands on her hips and made a fake angry face.

“Haha! Okay, mom!”

“Yeah, mom!”

The two girls ran to the washroom, turned the tap with a blue crystal on it, and washed their hands and faces.

“We’re done, mom!”

“Okay~ Come to the table!”

The two returned to the room with their mom in it. At the center of the room was a wooden table with four chairs. To the right, a large counter extended, having both a sink and a stove.

“Come, girls, sit down.” The two followed their mom's instructions and sat in their respective chairs.

“Thanks, mom!”

“Thank you, mom!”

The two thanked her as they received their meal, a soup made up of many vegetables and chicken meat.

“Huh, mom?” Manako saw her mom not only set a portion for herself, but also fill a bowl and place it at a fourth seat. “Why are you filling Dad's bowl?”

“O-oh…” Aimi went silent, then placed her hand on her cheek with a worried look. “Oh dear~ I forgot your father’s already passed away…”

A heavy atmosphere entered the room.

“Mom-”

“Don’t kill me off just like that!”

An exasperated voice called out from the entranceway behind the table.

“Dad!” The two girls quickly stood up and ran to the man who had entered the home. He had blue hair like the sky, which faded to gray in some spots. His pointy ears point behind him.

“Your home? I thought you’d be gone for-”

“You think I could stay away from my cute daughters? I got homesick as soon as I left!” The man, Nina Il Yasuo, told his daughters.

“Welcome back, dear.”

“Thanks… Can you not go acting like I'm dead?”

“Oh, but dear~ If you keep leaving like this, you may actually die!”

“Yeah, maybe to you!” Yasuo looked to his wife. “Jeez, so needy!”

“Would you have me any other way~?”

Yasuo stood from hugging his daughters and approached his wife. The two brought their faces together, kissing.

“Ew!”

“Yucky!”

“Okay, okay, let's have dinner!”

The four ate the meal together in peace, Yasuo sharing stories of his travels, Aimi shutting down his exaggerations, and Manako and Sayuri sharing their everyday lives. The family laughed together until the sky turned black.

That was the last night we spent together happily…

🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮

The next day, Manako approached a large wooden building carved into a massive root.

A sign at the entrance read- Sakikin school.

“Ah! Manako!” A girl, her black hair braided into a ponytail, said as Manako entered the classroom.

“Hi, –” Huh? Why can’t I remember her name?

“Today, we're working on our Pnuema!” The girl explained.

“O-oh yeah?”

“Look! It's Manako!” A boy with brown hair said as he pointed at her.

“It’s the flower talker!”

“What a weirdo!” Two more boys followed suit.

“Urk… I made that joke once.” Manako had picked up a flower and acted as if it had talked to her. She did this to scare one of the boys after they had pranked her. Needless to say, the boy was scared, but to hide his shame, he had taken to bullying her.

“Oh, give it a break, will you guys!” The girl told the three boys, “We all know you do this cause you like Manako!”

“Wha!? No!”

“Yeah! She’s the prettiest in the entire town!”

“Gah! No, she’s a weirdo!”

“You're just jealous the Elder praises her all the time, not you!”

“N-no!”

“Yeah!”

“Stop, –!”

“Now, everyone, in your seats!” a middle-aged man said as he walked through the door.

The kids immediately sat down, all of their ears pointing into the wind.

“Today we’ll start with our prayers to Hanasakuya.”

–

“Great job, Manako!” The middle-aged man, Elder Nina Ol Daiki, called to her.

Manako had just used her ability to make plants grow to control when a Gila flower would set off, even without the use of magic.

“Impressive! Your ability allows a plant to grow in an instant! But not only that, it allows it to do so while only using the energy it would take it to grow regularly in that time… It's quite the powerful ability!”

“T-thank you, elder!”

“Manako, do you remember what you told me?” Daiki looked to the small girl after glancing at the other students’ progress.

“I… I told you I wanted to be an Apothecary…”

“Yup, and I told you about the various options you could take to get there. There's the regular apothecary, which uses and studies regular medicine. Or, you can become a Magus and become an apothecary who not only studies regular medicine, but also studies magical ones too. Do you remember the one you told me you wanted to be?”

“?” Manako looked to her teacher, confused. The conversation had happened a week earlier; of course, she could remember. Why was he bringing this up now? “Yeah, the second one.”

“And do you remember how I said you could do so?”

“By attending one of the large schools outside of the forest. What's this about, elder-”

“Manako, I recently got back a response… The school of Saionia has agreed to take you in.”

“Huh?!”

“Think it over, this is a big chance, Manako.”

The rest of the day, Manako was in a big shock. She had seen herself as nothing more than a country hick, not someone that could attend the same school as those who wrote all of her favourite books.

That night, Manako returned home with the news.

“What?! You’ve already been accepted into Saionia?” Yasuo asked in surprise.

“That's my Mana~!”

“Mana-nee! What is Sainonia?”

“Saionia, sweety~. It's a big school at the top of this continent. Remember? I pointed it out on the map~.” Aimi explained to her second daughter.

“Oh! That's so cool!” Sayuri said, a smile on her face that seemed strange.

“Thanks, mom and dad!”

“So, do you want to go? It will be a few years until then~.”

“I… Want to think about it…”

“Good! It’s always best to think these things through, right, honey?”

“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah!” Yasuo agreed, a complicated expression on his face.

“Alright, you two, go get ready for bed~.”

–

“Mana-nee?”

“Yes, Sayuri?”

The two girls lay in their respective futons, sprawled atop the bamboo mats beneath them.

“Will you be going far away?”

“... Maybe.”

“Are you going to leave me? Can I go with you?” Sayuri asked, tears welling in her face.

“Sayuri… I can’t…”

Sayuri looked at her big sister, tears streaming down her face.

“But, I’m Dad's daughter! I’ll get homesick as soon as I leave! So il come back abunch!” Manako searched around her room. She saw many flowers and plants that Sayuki gathered. Her prized crystal, which she had been given when she was born. And other gifts. Eventually, she found her finds from the previous day. “See, I have to come back to show you all the things I find! Yup, I'll find a magic that lets me come back right away! Then, I'll show you all the cool stuff!”

“Mana-nee! Waaah!” Sayuri sat up and hugged her sister.

“Don’t cry, Sayuri. Even if I leave, all you have to do is study hard! Then you can come study with me!”

“R-really?”

“Yup! Then we can team up!” Manako looked at the two things in her hands and picked out the Gila flower. “I’ll give you this! Here.”

Manako placed the flower in Sayuri’s hair.

“See, I’ll get you even cooler stuff next time!”

“T-thank you, Mana-nee”

“...”

The two girls drifted into slumber in each other's arms.

Unaware to them, the Yellow moon was not the only one watching.

“M-hm~! I really have the best daughters~”

The gaze watched the two, then returned down the hallway.

—

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Manako didn’t know how long it had been since she had fallen asleep, but the red moon in the sky gave away that it had been at least 6 hours.

“Whose being so loud?”

Manako looked beside her. Sayuki slept soundly next to her.

“She really sleeps like a baby,” Manako whispered as she stood up from the futons.

Tap tap.

Her small feet walked to the door and slid it open quietly.

She then walked towards the kitchen and then the entrance.

“W-who are you?!” Yasuo asked in a panic.

Manako saw three unfamiliar men standing past the door. Oddly, it seemed as though the door had disappeared.

“Honey, who are they?” Aimi asked, standing in the kitchen.

“That's not for you to know.” The man standing in front said as he raised his hand as if he was about to comb his hair, but stopped.

On the other hand, a tattoo of a three-headed snake wrapped around the world, each head eating a moon.

And that's where my memories stopped.

All I felt was a sense of emptiness after I woke up, completely alone.