Chapter 20

Koji awoke to the sound of birdsong outside of his window. He stretched and sat up, suddenly realizing how much he had missed such a simple sound. He smiled and breathed in deeply, the smell of cinnamon and honey filling his nostrils. He felt refreshed and ready to start the day.

Then he remembered everything that had happened in the past forty-eight hours and his smile faded somewhat. But he refused to fall back into despair and got dressed with a steely glint in his eye. Koji elected to leave his Order armor behind, only putting on his basic outfit.

Koji went downstairs and found Makuro seated cross legged in one of the armchairs, reading from her Lexicon. As soon as Koji’s foot crossed the threshold of the sitting room, she closed the tome and stood up to greet him.

“Good morning,” Makuro said with a beaming smile. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes,” Koji replied. “Did you?”

“Oh, I don’t sleep much these days,” Makuro said with a little hop. “Anyway, what do you want for breakfast? I can get you pretty much anything here.”

“Um, pancakes?”

“Coming right up!” Makuro breezed past Koji and into the kitchen. She was out of sight for all of five seconds, and then she came back with a stack of hot pancakes drizzled with sticky syrup and butter. “Here you are.”

Koji gaped at Makuro. Last night, he had been too physically and emotionally drained to think too much about magic, but now that he was refreshed, the sight of such flippant sorcery amazed him.

“How did you do that?” Koji asked as Makuro sat him down to eat his breakfast.

“Hospitality is one of the many things we at the Magecroft Organization are trained to do,” Makuro sat across from Koji and snapped her fingers, making a silver fork and knife appear in front of Koji in a small burst of blue light. “As an employee of Magecroft, I am responsible for maintaining the Organization’s good image.”

Koji nodded in understanding and began to eat the pancakes. They were delicious and sweet, and he soon cleaned his plate of them. Without being asked, Makuro brought over the teapot and poured Koji a piping hot mug of tea.

“While you were resting, I was doing a little research,” Makuro told Koji. “You’ve been here in this world for about two to three weeks, correct?”

Koji nodded affirmatively.

“And you have no idea how you got here.”

“Not really, no,” Koji confirmed. “I get flashes of memories from my being in Shibuya and a car or truck or something, but it all fades away before I can properly think about it.”

Makuro nodded seriously. “I see. And you unlocked some manner of power upon arriving in this world?”

“Yes. I’m not sure if the two things are connected, though.”

“I did some consulting and ran a few tests,” Makuro said to Koji. “Your abilities are not like mine, which require magical energy, or mana, to sustain. That would explain why the Order was so insistent on having you; their Magicide crystals don’t do anything to hinder your powers. In short, they were scared of you, and so was I, initially.”

“You were?”

“I didn’t just randomly decide to attack you on the road when we first met, you know,” Makuro steepled her fingers in front of her eyes. “Our detectors showed an anomalous energy signature in the area and we thought it was some kind of new weapon from the Order to try and strike out at us. I made the choice to go in and neutralize it before it could do any harm, but I underestimated you. Not only did you break my weapon, but you managed to actually destroy one of my Dragoons. Not bad, especially for someone who had no formal training.”

“So, if my power isn’t magic, then what is it?” Koji asked eagerly. “The Order’s records and archives didn’t have any information on it.”

“Well, they wouldn’t,” Makuro conceded. “Your ability is something that the Magecroft Organization has categorized as something called Mu. In a nutshell, it’s the ability to perform arcane and supernatural feats without any mana to fuel the action. It’s very rare; I believe according to our records, we have encountered only four other beings who are capable of naturally wielding Mu like you.”

“There are others like me?” Koji put down the mug with wide eyes.

Makuro waved her hand and the teapot levitated back up to refill Koji’s tea.

“None of them are in this world. I said they were capable of using Mu abilities. However, from my brief look at the records, none of them manifested it the same way. Yours seems to be taking the form of gold light and physical force, and I think that with some practice and training, it could evolve and grow into something even more potent. But that would take much time to do. Like any other skill, Mu grows stronger the more you use it.”

“I noticed,” Koji curled his fingers and gleaming golden particles appeared around them. “So what does that mean for you?”

“Well, now that you aren’t helping the Order anymore, I think that it’s fair to say we can move on to the next topic. How you arrived here.”

“You know that too?” Koji leaned forward, wanting an answer to this question which had plagued him before.

“I do not,” clarified Makuro. “But I think I can help you find out. Come with me.”

Makuro led Koji out to the back of the house, where there was a pair of lawn chairs set to reclining mode.

“Lie down on one of those, and I’ll see about undoing whatever is stopping you from remembering.”

Koji did as he was told, laying himself on the chair. It was a clear morning, and the sun was still low enough in the sky that it wasn’t in his eyes. Makuro reached into her sleeve and took out what looked like a pair of knitting needles that had barbed points, like tiny harpoons. She stood next to Koji and held the needles over his forehead.

“Now, I am going to cast a spell to put you into a shallow sleep,” Makuro said, using her thumb to trace a circle over Koji’s brow. “But I’ll make it as quick as I can. Just close your eyes, that’s a good man.”

Koji shut his eyes and tried to breathe normally, a task made harder by the fact that he had no idea what Makuro was about to do. She put her index finger on his forehead and there was a small pulse of energy, putting Koji to sleep.

Following this, Makuro lowered the two needles onto Koji’s forehead so that they came just short of touching his skin. She dexterously manipulated the two points as if she was trying to pick a lock. Faintly translucent threads of energy began to appear, crisscrossing Koji’s face like an arcane spider’s web, and Makuro got to work unraveling and unpicking them from each other. Koji’s eyelids twitched occasionally as a thread was undone, but he did not open his eyes.

Makuro worked calmly and methodically, severing thread after thread with professional expertise and poise. Each one was flicked off to the side, where they drifted away into nothingness.

After two hours of work, Makuro finally breathed a sigh of relief and put the needles aside. Then she gently patted Koji’s left cheek.

“It’s finished,” She purred.

Koji opened his eyes, then suddenly grasped at the side of his head as a spike of pain shot through his brain.

And he remembered. As clear as crystal, he remembered everything.

Koji had been with his schoolmates in Shibuya, getting a coffee after a particularly difficult exam. It had been a couple of minutes after four in the afternoon, and he and his friends had been waiting at a traffic light to cross the road. Koji remembered hearing the screech of car tires, and seeing a silver convertible swerve out of its lane and towards a young woman with long, dark hair who was standing near them. Dropping his drink, Koji had leapt out and pushed her out of the way, only for the car to ram into him instead. There had been an explosion of pain, and then…

“I remember now,” Koji whispered, putting one hand to the side of his head. “I… I think I died?” He had trouble saying the words, but once they were out, he knew they were true. “I got run over by a car and I ended up here. God, is this the afterlife, then?”

“Nah, it isn’t,” Makuro replied with a shrug. “I’ve been to the afterlife. This ain’t it. Now, I don’t know why you ended up in this world in particular, but what I do know now is that someone or something, and I don’t know who, decided to move you here after getting hit by that car. I will tell my superior about this though, they might have a clue.”

“Your superior?” Koji repeated, confused at the term.

“The Magecroft Organization is a company. We have different ranks and levels on the ladder. I take my orders from a superior who acts as my guide and mission control on assignments. Convenient, isn’t it?”

Koji nodded. “I suppose it is. Last night, you said you were going to show me around. What does that mean?”

“It means,” Makuro said patiently. “That I’m going to let you see what the Order has done to Behalan, and why they have to be stopped. I’m expecting my paperwork to go through any day now, so while I wait for that, I’ll give you a little tour. Feel up to a bit of sightseeing?”

Koji swung his feet off the lawn chair and stood up. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Makuro smirked and held out her hand, and a swirling yellow portal appeared there. “Follow me.”

Makuro stepped into the portal and vanished. Koji followed suit, and found himself in front of what looked like a farmhouse.

“This is a good place to start,” Makuro announced. She and Koji approached the farmhouse and a lean man wearing overalls and a straw hat came out to greet them. “Good morning, Mr. Pearson! How are the chickens?”

“Miss Makuro!” Mr. Pearson said with a wide grin. “Ever since I bought your predator repellant, I’ve been getting a good night’s sleep without having to worry about foxes getting in the henhouse, or wolves poaching my sheep. Much thanks for that!”

“You get what you pay for,” Makuro replied jovially. “But I’m happy to have been of service. Koji, this is Mr. Pearson, one of the many farmers who help keep the kingdom’s bellies full. Mr. Pearson, this is Koji. He’s from Behalan and I’m showing him around.”

“Koji, was it?” Mr. Pearson vaulted over his fence and shook Koji’s hand. His grip was firm and strong, but not too tight. “Nice to meet you. I don’t get all that many visitors these days from Behalan. Most of them are too scared of being near magic tools and trinkets that they steer clear of the likes of me.”

“Yeah…” Koji said, looking at the farm. There were small blue crystals set up on narrow podiums that were spraying water onto crops, and on top of each henhouse there was what looked like a black stone with glowing green etchings. “Are those the, uh, predator repellents?”

“That they are,” Makuro nodded. “They emit a magical wave that tricks the brains of predatory animals to stay well away. As long as they’re in place, no wolf, fox, or possum is going within a hundred paces of this farm.”

“Aye, it’s been a real lifesaver,” Mr. Pearson chimed in. “Well worth the price you charged for them.”

“Yes, well, like I said. You get what you pay for.”

Koji and Makuro stayed to chat with Mr. Pearson for a while longer, but then the farmer had to return to his work.

As they waved goodbye to Mr. Pearson, Makuro glanced at Koji. “Ready for the next stop?”

“Sure,” Koji said, smiling back at her. “So you sold Mr. Pearson some magic tools to keep his farm safe?”

“Yeah. He was having a lot of trouble with keeping his livestock safe, so we recommended him an appropriate product. It’s basic customer service.”

Makuro opened another swirling yellow portal and she and Koji stepped through.

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of new information for Koji. Makuro took him to many places around the kingdom of Firosa, from a magical dam that was keeping a river from overflowing and destroying a village, to a healing house that made ample use of Magecroft potions and herblore to heal the sick and wounded in a fraction of the time of normal medicine, to a signal tower in the middle of a town that could use magical runes to communicate and pass news onto other towns and cities in less than a minute. The more they traveled, the more Koji marveled at how magic was used to better the lives of those who lived in the kingdom, and the more he became aware of just how much the Order was stagnating the people of Behalan.

It was nearing dusk when Makuro finally returned them to her house.

“So, what do you think of that?” Makuro grinned at Koji.

“Definitely an eye opener,” Koji smiled back. “I had no idea so much good could come from magic. The Order… they’ve been wrong from the beginning.”

“Yes, they are,” Makuro said, steering Koji into the house to get ready for dinner. “Now, the remaining question is, what are we going to do about it?”