New Tricks

"I'm telling you, you're doing it all wrong!"

"I'm doing it exactly how I was taught!"

I swung the end of my branch down on Bixey's head, though she swatted it away like a pesky fly. To pay us back for helping her with the humans, she'd agreed to guide us north. She was "heading that way anyways". Of course that's how every conversation with her went. Either a dismissive comment or an argument. I can't say I hated it.

"Then whoever taught you how to fight was more of an idiot than you," Bixey said, yanking my weapon from me and throwing it into the trees.

"I'll have you know I was vice-captain of both my high school and university teams!"

"What the hell is a high school and university?!"

My face puckered at my slip up and I turned to walk away. I wasn't about to try and explain how I'd come from another world.

"Gods humans are so annoying! You've been all doom and gloom since the other day. Then you ask me to help you train and you argue with me."

"That's because all you're doing is criticizing me and telling me how everything I'm doing is wrong!"

I glared over my shoulder before turning away with a huff. It was true that I'd asked Bixey to help me train at night after we set up camp and I knew to some degree she was right. I was still in the mindset of trying to score points. I just didn't want to admit the best years of my life had been wasted practicing useless forms.

"This is so stupid." I kicked a rock and jumped when it bounced back at me. Yahime was looming beside me. "What, do you want to yell at me, too?"

Of course Yahime didn't say anything. She just gave that same blank stare. I'm not sure why it made me feel a little better.

"I know she's not doing anything wrong," I said, sitting. I picked at the grass, peeling the blades in half as I vented. "It's just frustrating. I want to help Aurelie. I want to fulfill her dying wish and get back at the empire. But how am I supposed to do that when I'm so weak?!"

I grabbed a handful of grass and threw it as hard as I could just for a breeze to catch it and dump it all in my hair. I wanted to scream. My hair was already a patchy mess. With Bixey's help we'd managed to untangle or trim the matted parts out. It was still a mess, but when I brushed it right the bald patches were hardly noticeable. At least we hadn't had to cut it all off.

It's just awful that my hair was that bad to begin with. And those patches… How she figured out how to hide them even when she was in school around all those nobles… Aurelie was amazing.

That was how I'd known how to cover them. The patches hadn't been a post-exile issue; Aurelie had been dealing with them for years. Between anxiously picking at it and her never ending mountain of stress, the patches had been a regular part of her life. Not that anyone knew. She'd expertly hidden them and made it a rule that the maids attending her were never allowed to touch her hair.

"You look stupid."

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe we should go it alone, Yahime. Some people are more of a pain in the ass than helpful."

"Shut up," Bixey retorted. I let her pick the blades of grass from my hair. "I'm sorry I called you an idiot. I just get heated, that's all."

"I know, I know. And we both know I'm as much to blame. I just hate to admit how powerless I am. I can't use magic and I can't fight for shit. I thought all my years of practice would help, but then you're telling me it's all wrong…"

A splash on the back of my hand surprised me. I was crying? I wiped my eyes with my sleeve and sniffled. I hadn't realized I'd gotten myself so worked up.

"Well it's another few days until we reach the last human town. We can keep working on it until then. It's not like you're completely hopeless."

I chuckled, leaning back to butt her in the chest with my head. The blow knocked her back, throwing the grass she'd collected into the air and all over my face. Then we laughed, at each other, at our exhaustion, at ourselves. And Yahime watched.

***

"Are you sure she can do it?" Bixey asked, annoyed. "We've been at this since yesterday and she still hasn't changed at all!"

All I could do was shrug. We'd gotten within sight of the last human settlement, Edgeton, the day prior only to realize we couldn't just waltz in with a three-meter-tall shadow monster in tow.

"It says she has the skill [SHAPESHIFT]. So she should be able to transform somehow."

"You keep saying 'It'. What the hell is 'It'?"

"'It' is just the thing that tells me about Yahime."

"And I'm telling you that I've never heard of someone having an 'It' tell them what their familiar could do! Especially not a Dusk."

How was I supposed to explain? I'd prodded Bixey several nights prior if she had anything like my status menu and she'd looked at me like I was insane.

"Just trust me. Now let's try this again, Yahime. You need to get smaller."

I held my hands in front of me, lowering one and bobbing it to get my point across. While ringed eyes stared in response.

"Maybe it's hopeless," I conceded, throwing up my hands. "I don't get why she can't understand this."

"It's not like Dusk are known for being intelligent. By all accounts it's more of the opposite. They're said to behave more like mindless golems than living things."

"Don't call her that," I snapped. "She's sensitive. Right, Yahime?"

The Dusk tilted her head.

"See? Besides, can't you use [SHAPESHIFT]?"

"Of course I can."

A puff of smoke surrounded Bixey. It hung in the air for several seconds, revealing a mirror image of me once it dissipated.

"How do I look? A perfect transformation!"

I nodded and grabbed Yahime's clawed hand to pull her closer.

"Like that! See how she changed her size and how she looks?"

To my astonishment, Yahime's head bobbed in understanding. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I pushed more.

"Then do exactly what she just did!"

The noon sun dimmed above me at my command. My shoulders tensed and the already frigid mountain air felt solid in my lungs. Bixey was like a frightened cat with her hair puffed and on end. Then, millimeter by millimeter, Yahime shrank. Smaller and smaller, hair and limbs morphing until at last she joined us as another copy of me. Well, sort of.

Unlike Bixey's perfect transformation, Yahime's was… rough. Her skin was still the same fluid black substance and her face was still featureless aside from her white eyes. Her hands had become somewhere between human and their original form making her look like she had the kind of nails a high school gyaru would wear.

"Good job!" I cheered. Whether she could actually understand me or not, I'd figured out through our bond that Yahime reacted to praise, so I'd been trying to shower her with as much as possible. "I knew you could do it, Yahime!"

"Yay. Good job. Only took you over a day."

"Stop being mean," I said. "It's your fault for not showing her sooner."

Bixey's cheeks flushed. To be fair, I hadn't considered it either and it really went to show how stupid we both were. But if I could get her to take sole responsibility, I wasn't going to complain.

"Whatever. Just have her put these on." With a snap of her fingers, another set of robes identical to the ones Bixey and I were wearing appeared, this time including gloves and a head wrap with a veil. "We can't do much about her eyes, though."

"It'll be fine," I hoped. "What's the worst that can happen?"

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