Chapter 5

Koji awoke in the late afternoon; at least that was what he could judge based on the sun’s position in the sky. He had not yet seen a clock in this city, and was starting to think that they did not exist here. He would have to come up with a better way to properly measure time.

However, he soon pushed this aside. Rena had given him a guest room at her inn, and it was comfortable enough. He thought back to his old room in his house in Japan, and a small pang of homesickness drifted through him. He wondered what his friends and family would do without him, and if they would even miss him.

He sat there on his bed for a while, ruminating about his old life. This led to his thoughts turning to his conversation with the High Lords of the Order last night.

“They want me to join them…” Koji muttered.

As long as he could remember, he had been a fairly average student at his high school. Never chosen first for any sports teams, but not chosen last either. He had more or less accepted that he would be the middle pick for anything.

But now these High Lords, who watched over the safety of an entire city, wanted him to join them and help finally turn the tables against the Magecroft Organization. On one hand, he did not like the idea of being put into any kind of battle especially against people who were all but stated to be able to use dangerous magic. He had no intention of getting himself killed over someone else’s ideals, no matter how lofty and altruistic they were.

On the other hand, it had felt somewhat nice to hear from the three High Lords how much they needed his help. For once, he had been approached by someone in power, and they wanted his help.

Of course, he thought, he would probably need to figure out his new powers properly. He had surmised by everyone’s reactions that there wasn’t another person he could tutor under or learn from; an ability like his seemed wholly one of a kind here. And back on Earth, for that matter.

Koji stood up, his bare feet quiet against the wooden floor. He stretched and brushed his hair back into place. Then he took in a deep breath and mimed throwing someone against the wall.

As he did so, a dart of golden light formed between his fingers and thudded into the wall like an arrow. Koji smiled slightly. His new power seemed intuitive enough, and what he wanted to happen just seemed to happen when he used his power.

What were the limits, he wondered idly to himself. Throwing darts and conjuring shields was all well and good, but then he remembered the wave of energy that he had used to destroy the dark knight back on the road when he had first awakened to his powers. If that was any indication of what he could do, then perhaps the High Lords were right to want to recruit him.

Eventually he got tired of hypotheticals, and while he wanted to try out more moves and test the extent of his power, doing it in Rena’s family inn was probably not the best of ideas.

It occurred to him that he had not actually gotten a good look at the city of Behalan; he had been brought here while unconscious, and the ride to the Order of the Unbroken Path’s headquarters had been done in the cover of night. He walked over to the window and pushed the curtains aside.

Koji gasped. Behalan was huge, vaster than any city he had seen before. It sprawled all the way from the coast to the far distance, at least eight hundred kilometers in every direction. It was built in tiers, like a wedding cake, with the Order’s main stronghold situated on the highest one. There were rows and rows of houses that stood no higher than two stories. Given that he could see quite far, he assumed that Rena’s family inn was located near the edge of the city, which made sense; travelers would be entering from the gates and would not want to go too far inward to get a room to sleep in. Canals carrying sparkling clear water ran through the city’s streets, reminding Koji of photos of Venice that he had seen on the Internet back in his old life. Behalan was alive with probably millions of people, and while there were few wide open areas he could see, Koji could tell that it was just as lively as Shibuya. He felt a desire to explore bloom inside his chest, and he grinned.

So he pulled on his boots, put the bed back in order as best he could, and went downstairs.

Unlike the night before, the inn actually had customers. None of them looked twice at Koji as he came down the stairs, presuming him to be just another guest who had woken up late.

Koji looked around for Rena, but he could not find her. There were other girls attired in similar garb to Rena’s though, so he went up to one of them.

“Good morn- afternoon,” he said. “Have you seen Rena around anywhere?”

“Miss Rena?” The serving girl replied breathlessly. “She’ll be back in the kitchen. It’s lunchtime though, so she probably won’t be available to talk. Lots of hungry guests, you know.”

Without another word, the girl hurried off to see to her next customer.

Shrugging, Koji decided to leave the inn for now. He had always possessed a decent sense of direction and he quickly memorized where the inn was before setting off in a random direction. He weaved through the crowd, looking for something interesting to see or do. Here and there, he noticed soldiers belonging to the Order going about their business, either standing watch or patrolling. Koji wondered about what he had been told the night before about the Magecroft Organization’s activities in the city. Certainly there did not seem to be much unrest to be seen, at least not on the surface.

Koji meandered around the streets of Behalan for about an hour before he paused at a bridge. It spanned over a canal, and there were gondolas floating down it, carrying various goods to their destination. Houses lined the streets as well as the canals, and Koji wandered down one of the side passages, interested in seeing where he might end up.

Koji found himself in some kind of open-air square. It was brightly lit by the sun, and was surrounded on all four sides by other houses. Narrow passageways led in between the buildings, and in the center of the square was a well.

About one and a half meters across and partially covered by a short steeple, the well was currently being used by two old women, both of whom were carrying a number of clay jugs with them; presumably to carry water, Koji deduced.

He stayed partially hidden under an awning and behind a shrub, wanting to see what this was about.

Neither of the old women seemed to have noticed Koji, as they were deep in conversation.

“I heard your grandson earned himself a promotion a few days ago,” one of them said, who was wearing a knitted shawl over her pale green dress.

The other old lady, who wore a maroon bonnet and a peach-colored dress, was hunched over one of the jars and was in the act of emptying the well’s bucket into it.

“Yes, he was promoted, as I found out through a letter,” she grumbled as she shifted the jars around. “He could have come and told me in person, that boy.”

The woman in green sighed. “I’m sure he’s been very busy, Tara. Being promoted always means more work to do. The Order is thinly spread trying to manage the city.”

“More work towards what?” Tara said crankily. “Confiscating more magical items that people need to live? Remember when we had aqua crystals, Hazel? Now we have to break our backs just to come fetch water from half a district away. How is that good management?”

Tara thumped her hand on the well. A little too hard, as she ended up knocking the bucket back down the well. Hazel reached out to grab the rope, but at her age she was not nearly nimble enough and the rope slipped just out of her reach.

“Well, that’s just wonderful,” Hazel groaned. “I’ll go fetch someone to get the bucket back.”

Koji stepped out of the shadows, putting on his friendliest face.

“Need some help?”

The two old women stared at him, seemingly confused by his sudden appearance.

“Were you just hiding there this whole time?” Tara squawked at last.

“Uh, no,” Koji lied quickly, not wanting to give the wrong impression. “I just, um, wanted a drink and happened to come along just now.”

“Hmph,” Tara looked skeptical, but Hazel began smiling.

“It’s a good thing you came along when you did, young man. I don’t suppose you have a long stick or something? We’ve lost the bucket to the well.”

Koji nodded and walked up to the well. The water was about two meters down, and he could see the bucket bobbing in the water with the rope attached. He tried reaching down to grab it, but it was out of his reach.

“That won’t work,” Tara scoffed. “We’ll have to fetch one of the city guards.”

“No, wait,” Koji said, standing back up from the well. “I think I might have something that can do the job…”

He held out his hand and concentrated his thoughts, imagining a long staff with a hook on the end. Tara and Hazel gaped in amazement as golden light coalesced around Koji’s hands and formed that very tool. Koji gave the hook a few swings and then dipped it into the well. It easily caught onto the bucket and Koji hauled it back up along with the rope. He then dismissed the long hook, letting it fade away into nothing.

“Here you are,” He passed the bucket back to Hazel and smiled before turning around to leave back the way he had come. “You two ladies take care now.”

As he left, he could feel Hazel and Tara’s eyes drilling into his back, but he didn’t mind. Helping them out had felt good, and it also affirmed something with Koji: he could indeed use his powers to help others. It wasn’t a daring act of heroism like he had dreamed of, but it was a start. Maybe if the joined the Order, there would be more opportunities to exercise his new abilities.

Koji strolled along with thoughts about the Order and his new powers racing through his head, and he almost missed the sight of an unusual boat floating down one of the canals.

He blinked heavily and rubbed his eyes, but it was no mirage. There, standing in a gondola just fifty meters away, was that same cloaked figure from the battle on the road. They were missing their scythe, but Koji would have recognized that burning stare from anywhere. The black robed individual was at the moment standing over and examining a stack of what looked like small wooden chests, and was drifting further and further away with each second.

Koji clenched his fists and began to follow along the side of the canal. That person was working for the Magecroft Organization, and if the High Lords were to be trusted, that meant that trouble was stirring.

Sticking to the shadows, Koji tailed the gondola through various channels and canals. The ferryman brought them to a shaded cul-de-sac, where the gondola was moored and workers came to unload the chests off the boat. The cloaked figure did not stay to watch them, and went inside the nearest building.

Not wanting to be spotted, Koji took a mental note of the spot and scurried off back to a more populated street, searching for a member of the Order.

He did not have to look far. Standing guard at a bridge were two Order guards, both of them men and looking rather bored at their post.

Koji approached them.

“Hey, sirs?” The guards turned their heads to look at Koji. “I think I’ve seen some Magecroft activity down that canal.”

The guards were instantly alert. “You have? What did you see, young man?”

“There was a gondola with some weird boxes being watched over by a shadowy man,” Koji informed. “They might still be there, if you hurry.”

The two Order guards rushed off without another word, leaving Koji in the dust. With nothing else to do, he followed after them, slowly this time.

It was just as well that he did, because not thirty seconds later, there was the sound of a roaring explosion and one of the guards’ bodies was launched out of the passageway and into the canal, where he landed with an almighty splash. The water around him began to turn red.

The sight of it shocked and angered Koji to his core, and without another moment’s hesitation he dashed off down the passage, golden light already gathering in his hands.