Bonds and Repairs

Light illuminates the room in a comfy glow. A ray of light aims at Haruto’s eyes as he fully wakes up.

“That was really comfy. Definitely one of the best nights of sleep I ever had.”

His eyes glance over to Lila who begins to slowly but surely wake up as well. After a few quick stretches, she sees Haruto is fully awake.

“Good morning Haruto. Hehe” Lila smiles as she realizes hair is messy.

Getting up, she grabs her school garments and a hairbrush.

“I’ll be in the bathroom Haruto. After I finish, we can head over to Wand Repair for that crack on you.” Lila waves to him before she enters the bathroom.

Waiting comfortably, Haruto inspects the room and sees the exact spot where Lila performed her first spell with him.

“Man, only yesterday was when she performed her first spell with me. Doesn’t even look like anything burnt the walls.”

Haruto sees the exact spots where Lila’s fire spell hit earlier, no evidence remains to show any spell was conducted. His eyes roll down as a thought comes to mind.

“I wonder if my parents noticed I’m gone. I doubt anyone at my school cares about me but I hope I tell them I’m alright.”

Looking at himself, he wiggles side to side until Lila returns. Minutes pass by and noises from her bathroom make out to be her getting ready.

Clank

Lila walks out of the bathroom, clean and organized. She fluffs her hair a bit and walks to Haruto.

“Sorry if I took too long Haruto, let’s go get you healed.” Lila grabs Haruto and walks out of her dorm. As she exits, she sees little remarks once again sprawled on her door. Both stare at the writing and see it’s not only mocking Lila as useless.

Instead, there’s writing saying “Lila+Lazy Kitsune” and “Useless plus useless= Curse”. Lila scowls at seeing her new friend Taro being mocked like this. Haruto shares the same feelings when his eyes turn visibly upset.

“We’ll clean this later Haruto. What’s important is you getting healed.”

Lila lightly rubs his small crack upon his wooden form. Walking past, some other female students still remark on what they heard yesterday.

“Did they catch on who angered that troll and froze it?” A random birdmaid asks.

“No, but I heard that the guards who had to handle that troll finally got better.” One close female Minotaur says.

“At least there’s that, let’s hope we hear no more troll yells anymore.” A small and timid female fairy adds.

Passing by the gossip, Lila and Haruto make it to the main hall, where numerous students are either talking or making it to their destination. Lila looks around and finds a good portion of the wall not being used.

“Great, all we need is to get to Wand Repair.”

Lila grabs Haruto and closes her eyes. Haruto feels his energy and aura slightly as Lila mutters her words.

“Wand Repair…Wand Repair.”

The wall soon shifts and morphs into a circular doorway with blue energy. Stepping in with Haruto in hand, he feels the same warm and comforting feeling as yesterday.

“Ah, this feels like heaven.” Haruto mutters to himself.

“Huh.” Lila feels the energy coursing through Haruto, lightly touching her hand. Basking in the energy, Lila feels massive comfort on her hand.

Soon, they get through the other side of the doorway. Lila notices the soft feeling is gone now.

“I need to know how to make a bed out of that.” Haruto says to himself.

Very quickly, both of their eyes see each other as Lila shakes it off and continues walking. In front is a large tree-like desk with a receptionist.

She appears to be middle aged but has good skin care, wearing a long sleeved variation of the uniform. Her brown eyes meet Lila’s.

“Can I help you young lady?”

“Yes. You see I have a crack on the back of my wand and I need someone to look at it.”

The receptionist looks at Haruto with a dumbfounded look towards his eyes. He does his best to not move them as she looks at the crack, also worrying Lila.

“Okay. Go to door 3, someone will look at your wand.” She says as she points to Lila’s destination.

“Thanks.”

Lila hugs Haruto.

“You’re doing great staying still Haruto. You’re the best.” Lila whispers.

Besides door 3 are numerous other doors that go down a seemingly long hall that goes for what looks like a dozen yards. Looking at the width of each door, Haruto notices it’s slightly the same as the dorm doors.

“Love them using pocket dimensions for rooms. Saves a lot of space.” A gleeful Haruto expresses.

The duo makes it to the door and Lila opens it, with both seeing where the door leads them. It’s a massive room full of sawdust, shavers, glue, knives, and various types of wood.

Skrrrrt

At a crafting table, a tall woman with a ponytail, red hair, blue eyes and wearing a makeshift dress made to double as an apron is carving wood.

“Darn it, went too narrow with this.” The woman exclaims to herself before seeing the duo.

“Oh…welcome. Don’t mind me, I was crafting a wand by hand.” The woman throws her safety equipment in the table.

“How can I help you?”

Lila steps forward.

“My wand has a crack on the back and I was sent here to get it fixed.”

Lila hands over Haruto to the specialist as she inspects him.

“Why does your wand have eyes?”

“Um…for encouragement.” Lila responds.

“You see…I put them there for encouragement and it made my hope better to use for spells. Hehe.” Lila smiles awkwardly.

Putting aside the motionless eyes she is staring at, the wand repairer sees the crack.

“Oh okay. This is pretty common. Did you use some strong spell?”

“Yes.” Lila rubs her left arm shyly.

“That’s why. I’ll fix your wand in no time.”

“Thank you Miss…”

“Irigami, Mrs. Irigami.” The wand repairer states.

“Nice to meet you Mrs. Irigami, I’m Lila.”

Irigami begins to look at her inventory of various pastes and saps.

“Say, do you know what type of wood your wand is made from?”

“I…I’m sure it’s from a Maple Tree.”

The wand repairer looks at various bottles and finds one that’s labeled “Maple Sap”. Going towards Haruto, she opens the top of the bottle and uses its connected brush on the lid to cover the crack with the sap.

“Ooh, that feels cold.” Haruto shivers.

Glancing over the wood shavings and wood dust, she finds Maplewood dust in a closed package. Opening it, she takes a pinch of it and sprinkles it all over the sap. With one finger, she mixes and applies the sap and dust thoroughly into the crack.

“This feels so weird.” Haruto says to himself.

Mrs. Irigami then adds the final touch with a wrapped bow tie around Haruto. Still keeping his eyes motionless, he is handed back to Lila.

“Your wand will be fully fixed within 2 days. I do have to warn you to not attempt any big spells. What did you use anyway?” Mrs. Irigami asks as she cleans up her table area.

Lila shifts her eyes to the side and decides to come clean.

“You know that troll yell that was heard by the entire school? I had to fight it with a friend and used a freeze spell.”

The wand repairer stops and looks back at Lila in utter shock.

“That was you?! This school had been talking about it nonstop.”

“I know. Please don’t tell anybody, I don’t want any more unwanted attention.”

Irigami turns curious at that statement.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not popular at all in this school, people would find new ways to taunt me if they knew about that incident.” Lila says.

Mrs. Irigami steps forward and forms a friendly smile.

“Your secret is safe with me. Besides, that spell was excellent as you froze the troll in its tracks.” Irigami gives a thumbs up.

“Thank you. You’ve been so kind.” Lila bows with Haruto in her hand.

“No problem. If you have any more wand damage, come to me personally.”

“Thanks, I will.” Lila turns around and proceeds to go to the door. But she remembers something.

“Hey, I want to ask a question.”

“Sure.”

“When I went through the summoned pathway, I felt a very comfy feeling in my hand, like if I was in pure air.” Lila looks at Haruto and smiles as he stares at her.

“Sounds to me you have a lot of hope channeling in your wand. The building pathways use it and it must be channeling in your wand.”

“That I get but what does it mean that it’s so nice to feel?”

“Lila, Hope is what powers us, drives us, and even comforts us. This building is a pool of hope and you must have been channeling it to feel comfort.”

Haruto hears all this and thinks back to the times he passed through the doorways to different rooms.

“I get it! Hope is like water and it can feel comforting, passing through the pathways is like me feeling pure nirvana on relaxation.” Haruto glances at Lila again.

“Lila needs comfort and I will always give her it. I must have focused it to where she felt my comfort as well.” Haruto blushes.

“Oh…okay. Thank you Mrs. Irigami.”

Lila continues to walk out with Haruto in hand. Now with Haruto patched up, Lila smiles as her friend is better and their bond grows deeper.