The Solstice Festival

“Yoruhi, want to play tag with us?” Tatsuko asked.

Ryuji stood right behind her, looking at him with a strange sparkle in his eyes. The two of them seemed to have become good friends very quickly.

The entire situation yesterday had put Yoruhi in a sour mood, so much so that he didn’t study the books he received from Altair’s father. Even today, the gloom lingered.

Some tag to clear up my mind would be nice, he thought, and so he agreed to play with them.

As soon as he did, an evil grin curved across Tatsuko’s face.

“Okay then,” she quietly said, daintily skipping up to tap his shoulder. “You’re… IT!”

The two of them shot off before Yoruhi could realize he’d been tricked, and when he did, he leapt from the porch and took off after them.

But he quickly discovered just how far behind he was physically. No matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t catch up, and the snow and bitter cold only made things worse.

He chased the two of them around the neighborhood while Tatsuko and Ryuji toyed with him. They would slow down every so often, just until they were out of Yoruhi’s reach, before quickly darting off again.

He became frustrated with this, and as he ran, his desire to catch them grew more and more, and he felt himself running faster and faster as time went on. His speed grew to a point where Ryuji and Tatsuko were suddenly unable to toy with him anymore, and were forced to run continuously if they didn’t want to get caught.

“You said he wasn’t going to be this fast!” Ryuji shouted.

“He wasn’t! I don’t know how he’s doing this!” Tatsuko screamed.

It was at this moment however, that Yoruhi suddenly began to feel very exhausted.

“Uh, Tatsuko? I think we should stop,” Ryuji said, noticing Yoruhi’s legs wobbling.

“Are you kidding me?! He’s going to catch us! I think he’ll be fine,” she said, rushing ahead, but when she saw her brother collapse face first into the snow, she stopped in her tracks. She silently pointed to him. “I don’t think he’s fine.”

⋆✦-∞-⟡-∞-✦⋆

“He just breathed in too much cold air, he’ll be okay by tomorrow,” Nene said as she wrapped Yoruhi up in a warm blanket.

Ryuji and Tatsuko stared at him with worry.

“So he’ll be fine before the Solstice Festival starts?” Tatsuko asked.

“Yes, that’s what I just said. The festival starts in two days, and he’ll be fine in one.” Nene assured her, “Now I have to go do other things. If your brother’s condition gets worse, let me know as soon as you can. I’ll be in the laundry room.”

After she floated out of the room, Tatsuko crept up to her brother’s bedside and stared at him closely.

“I’m sorry for doing that to you,” she apologized, “I’m a bad big sister.”

Yoruhi slowly turned his head to her.

“It’s okay,” he said, still shivering, “I should’ve stopped when I realized something was wrong. But… I was having too much fun.”

He didn’t want to admit, it had been a long time since he had run like that. It was exhilarating and he couldn’t stop himself even if he wanted to.

Hearing that her brother had fun with her little prank made Tatsuko feel a lot better, and her smile returned.

“By the way…” Yoruhi quietly murmured, “what’s the Solstice Festival?”

“You don’t know what the Solstice Festival is?” Ryuji asked.

“He lost his memories a few days ago,” Tatsuko said.

“Oh yeah, you did tell me that.”

“Anyway, every year we hold two Solstice Festivals: one during the Summer Moon and one during the Winter Moon,” Tatsuko explained, “they celebrate the start of the summer and winter, and each festival lasts seven days. There’s a different event on each day—my favorite is on the fourth, the Day of Gifts where we open the presents!”

She excitedly turned to Ryuji.

“What about you? What’s your favorite day?”

“Uhhh… probably the Day of Parades on the sixth day,” he finally said after some difficulty thinking.

“Huh?? It’s not the Day of Presents?” Tatsuko asked in surprise.

“Not really… I don’t really get presents that day.”

Tatsuko gasped.

“What?! Well this year I’m going to give you the biggest present ever! That way you’ll always remember that the Day of Presents is the best day!”

“R-really? You’d do that for me?” he asked, “t-then me too! I’ll make sure to give you a present you both will remember forever!”

“Oh, well I don’t really need you to do that for me,” Tatsuko said, “I already know that the Day of Presents is the best day!”

That’s not what he meant… Yoruhi wanted to say, but his head was too dizzy to deal with the childishness of his sister.

“Can… you guys leave me alone?” he asked in a haze, “I want to get some sleep.”

“Oh! Sorry, we’ll get going now,” Tatsuko said, “I almost forgot I have practice today.”

She stood up and did a little twirl.

“Vivian taught me that!” she said proudly, “she says I need to get used to feeling dizzy because assassins move a lot!”

She continued twirling until she was out of the room.

“I should get going too,” Ryuji said, “I need to get back to training, but are you sure you’re okay in here?”

Yoruhi nodded his head.

“I’ll be fine. I’m starting to feel better already,” he assured him.

Ryuji gave him one last look before he departed. Once he was alone, Yoruhi thought back to what the two of them said.

Today is the 19th of the Winter Moon, he thought. If the festival starts in two days, that means it starts on the 21st. If the Day of Presents is on the 4th day then that means it's on the 25th: the exact same day that Christmas would be.

A fuzz of anticipation appeared in his heart.

Christmas… he thought, I wonder if I’ll get to celebrate it with someone this year…

⋆✦-∞-⟡-∞-✦⋆

“What you just experienced yesterday was mana fatigue,” Mizuki said as soon as Yoruhi walked into the mana room the next day.

He theorized as much, but he was still surprised to hear it confirmed.

“You seemed to have noticed that,” Mizuki said, catching the expression on his face.

“Well I didn’t know until today,” he admitted, “but I remembered reading that when a body’s temperature becomes unbalanced, their mana regeneration stops. But I’m confused on how I was spending my mana. Even if my body stopped regenerating mana, I shouldn’t have run out unless I was using it, right?”

“That is correct,” Mizuki said. “You were using your mana without knowing it, in other words you were using magic.”

“I… was?” Yoruhi asked.

But it didn’t feel like it, he thought.

Yoruhi had always imagined that his first time using magic would feel a lot more… well, magical, and although he did enjoy running, he was disappointed that he wasn’t able to at the very least realize his first experience with magic. It felt like missing out on a baby’s first steps.

“Yes,” Mizuki explained, “you were using a style of magic known as Enhancing. You remember feeling yourself getting faster right?”

Yoruhi nodded.

“That’s what enhancing does. It’s one of three magic styles that don’t require you to first turn the magicules into an element; that is to say that it’s certainly possible to enhance something while using an element,” she continued, “as for what exactly is Enhancing, it’s simply the act of using magicules to increase the power output of something. For example, your speed.”

That’s why I was getting faster, Yoruhi thought, and why my mana ran out.

“Then, is surrounding something with fire an example of enhancing while using an element?” Yoruhi asked, remembering how weapons can be enhanced with elements in the games he played.

“No,” Mizuki said, “that’s another type of magic style called Imbuing.”

What the heck is the difference??? Yoruhi wondered.

“An example of enhancing something using an element would be like increasing the output of fire on a fire spirit’s body, or causing the leaves on a bush critter to grow. Have you not read the books yet?”

Yoruhi shook his head.

“No, I was distracted,” he admitted.

“Excited for the Solstice Festival?” she asked.

“Something like that,” he lied.

He didn’t want to tell her about the situation in the Weiss household. It was none of her business anyway, and Yoruhi felt like she wouldn’t believe him if he talked bad about her colleague.

“Hehe, that’s okay,” she said. “I actually have something else in mind for teaching you the different magic styles. No more books.”

Yoruhi’s ears perked up at the sound of that.

“What is it?”

She smiled.

“That’s a secret, but it’ll take a long time for me to arrange things. For now, I want you to practice detecting magicules and increasing your mana. If you do good enough I’ll let you touch the Attunement Crystal on the Day of Gifts.”

“Really?!” he shouted eagerly.

“Yes, but I’ll be the one to decide if you’re ready.”

Yoruhi nodded his head in excitement and quickly ran out of the room to get to practicing.

I wonder what kind of magic I’ll be able to use, he thought, entering his room. Is it going to be Life Magic like Nene? Or maybe Storm Magic like Mizuki? What if I’m able to wield all seven! Or mayb—

BOOM! A flash of lightning interrupted his thoughts as the sound of rain outside caught his attention.

It’s raining? He wondered, walking over to the window. I guess it’s not cold enough right now for it to snow again. Hopefully it lets up before the Day of Snow during the Solstice Festival. It would be both disappointing and funny if it didn’t snow on the one day it should.

He gazed down at the city below, watching the empty streets as the rain poured in and melted away the snow while he pondered about how many Day of Snows in history had no snow. Suddenly, he saw someone running through the rain without an umbrella and wondered what kind of idiot would want to go out in weather like this without protection.

It was then that he noticed something strange about the person. Their figure was a bit unclear from the height he was staring down from but he was able to recognize a strange flower on the person’s head.

A grotesque-looking, red-colored one.

Just as it clicked who the person was, he saw them suddenly collapse onto the floor.