Day of Gifts

“WAKE UP!!!” Tatsuko’s voice shrieked through the doors of Yoruhi’s room. “WE’RE ALL WAITING FOR YOU SO WE CAN OPEN OUR PRESENTS, AND IF YOU’RE NOT IN THE LIVING ROOM IN 10 MINUTES, I SENTENCE YOU TO BE BEHEADED!”

“Tatsuko, if you don’t stop yelling, you’ll have to wait until tonight to open your presents!” her dad’s voice called right after.

Yoruhi wasn’t used to waking up early for present opening, for he never received any, and he also didn’t like being woken up by the sound of someone yelling, especially not a child. Nevertheless, he quickly got out of bed and was out the door within the minute, not because he was afraid of being beheaded, but out of pure excitement and childlike wonder of what he received.

The living room had been decorated for the holidays on the Day of Decoration, and in the middle of the room was a giant pine tree with a lantern at the very top. In this world, the concept of Santa was replaced by the tale of Noelle, a girl who got lost with her expedition in the frozen lands of the Ferinth region up north.

According to the story, she used her magical lantern to guide the lost troupe back to safety, but afterwards, she returned back to the snow in order to save even more people. After one rescue mission however, she never came back; and the story has it that she became a winter spirit that helped guide lost travelers when it snowed. If you helped her by lighting a lantern at the top of a tree, she would spot it and leave behind a present.

Yoruhi wasn’t too fond of the story, because it sounded darker than what was actually told, but he enjoyed the gift-giving tradition that came out of it.

When Tatsuko opened up the present he gave her, her eyes sparkled with joy. She donned on the cloak and spun around the room, watching as it flowed in the wind behind her before giving him a big hug.

“Thank you Yoruhi!” she shouted. “Now open my present!”

Yoruhi opened a small box to find his very own haori in there. It was a pure white color with scribblings of poorly drawn blue carnations. He surmised that she must’ve replicated the poor picture he had drawn days prior, but nevertheless he was delighted to have received it.

Up until now, he had mostly been wearing robes given to him by his parents because they had assumed he came from the Monsaria region. Receiving his own haori for the first time made him feel accepted into the culture of the people of the Umirin region, and overwhelmed with emotions, he hugged his sister back.

Maybe having a sibling isn’t so bad, he thought.

The next present he received was from Altair, and he opened it up to find a manga series. It was written by the same author that wrote the Fitoria the Rose Knight series that Altair had and was titled, Samuran: The Unrelenting. Attached to it was a note from her.

I hope you enjoy this series. It’s from the same author as Fitoria the Rose Knight, and it has the genres you like. Please give it a read.

Yoruhi smiled. Receiving a book recommendation like this reminded him of the days in the old world. It helped bridge the gap between the mental divide he had about reincarnation. He placed the box away and told himself that he would read it later.

“Oh! Here’s one from Ryuji!” Tatsuko suddenly shouted. “It’s for both of us I think.”

It came in a single box that wasn’t gift-wrapped, but it didn’t bother either of the siblings. When they opened it up they found two handmade bracelets inside. One was blue and white, and had a poorly made carnation on it, and the other was orange and gold, and had a marigold.

Next to the bracelets was a note that read: I asked my mom to make these for you guys. She’s really good at making bracelets! I got one for each of us, so we can always remember our friendship.

“Friendship bracelets!” Tatsuko yelled, picking up the marigold one.

That’s sweet, he thought, picking up the carnation one and figuring that Ryuji’s mom was also the one who wrote the note. The flower wasn’t perfect, but it was the effort that mattered. It was the type of present he would’ve wanted to receive from his parents in his old life—a present made with love and not money. Had he received a present like that, he would’ve cherished it forever.

The rest of the family unwrapped their presents and chatted about random things. Nene received a few presents, and the rest of the family’s maids were sent presents as well.

Being one of the heads of the Sakura Noble Family, Mizuki and Hayate received a lot of presents from many different people who either wanted to thank them or receive their blessing for the year. Because of this, they told their two children to not buy anything for them, for they had more than enough to get through already.

As everyone began to pile the trash together, Mizuki suddenly tapped Yoruhi on the shoulder and told him to visit her in the mana room. It took him a moment to remember why, for he had been too caught up with finding the cure for Altair, and when he finally remembered that he was going to be able to touch the Attunement Crystal today, he quickly jumped up and bolted out of the room.

In the mana room, Mizuki sat by the edge of the travertine pools as she always did, and in her hands she held Attunement Crystal by its base.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

He nodded his head, walking up to the orb in an entranced manner. He wondered what kind of elements he would be able to wield, and still held onto the childish belief that he might be one of the special ones who could wield all seven.

Yoruhi reached his hand out slowly in anticipation of the inevitable pain. When his palm touched the orb, his grip became forcefully locked onto it, and he felt a sharp sting like electricity shoot through his body. The pain was so sudden and much stronger than he had anticipated, and he was unable to let go of the orb willingly.

Instead, Mizuki had to quickly gripped his wrist, forcibly yanking it off the orb. When he was finally released, Yoruhi stared at his hand which was swollen red and blistering in pain. He began to feel a dizziness in his head—a sign of mana fatigue—and Mizuki tossed him a mana potion as if she knew it was going to happen.

While recovering from the headache, he warily stared at the orb which was now glowing.

Swirling inside the clear glass dome was his mana, and it began to dance around, bouncing along the walls of the orb until it finally touched the tightly packed magicules inside. Upon interacting with one, it combusted into small flames.

Fire, he thought with awe, the pain on his palm becoming negligible as his mind was entranced by the process happening in front of him.

He continued watching carefully as his mana kept interacting with the magicules, causing a chain of combustions over and over again, until something new happened. This time, the mana floating inside the Attunement Crystal began to slow down and small bits of it began to turn into ice.

Frost, he noted the second magic he was bound to wield.

The process repeated for another minute, freezing and combusting, freezing and combusting, until the last of his mana that was injected into the orb caused a new reaction to occur. Slowly, tiny little leaves began to form inside, sprouting from the remaining magicules.

Life Magic, Yoruhi silently realized. He was disappointed that he was not a special person capable of wielding more than three elements, but he was satisfied with the result nonetheless.

“And there we have it,” Mizuki said with a grin on her face.

She had been silently writing something down in a notebook the whole time, to which Yoruhi hadn’t noticed because he was too busy staring at the orb.

“The first ever recorded 5-year-old to have touched an Attunement Crystal in centuries.”