Proper Burials

“Proper burials are important,” a teacher explained to her class of students, “as we know, all things are made up of magicules, including you and me. When we die, our bodies return to it, leaving behind a trail of magicules that we can only detect when we use our magical senses. This trail of magicules must be cleaned up. When a large mass of complex magicules lingers in an area for far too long, dangerous things can happen.”

A student raised his hands.

“Teacher, what bad things happen when we don’t bury the magicules?”

“Err… well. No one knows really. It’s been a long time since any mass of complex magicules have been left out too long, so any information regarding the consequences are pretty unreliable. Just know that it’s best to never let anything dead linger too long.”

“Ehh? That’s lame.” the student said.

“Nah she’s lying,” another chirped in, “my dad says that we do know what happens we don’t bury someone’s magicules. You just don’t want to tell us because you think it’s too scary!”

“Yeah! I heard my dad say that leaving behind an animal corpse causes mutations to form in the nearby area. That’s why adventurers exist to investigate them!”

“Really? My mom says that the spirits walk through the spirit realm and go around causing trouble if we leave a corpse on the ground.”

“Well your mom is stupid!”

“No, your dad is stupid!”

“Well, your mom is more stupid.”

“Not more stupid than—”

“QUIET!” the teacher shouted, causing the class to silence.

She let out an exhausted sigh.

Suddenly the bells rang, signalling the end of the day, and the children scrambled out of the room, chattering about different things as if they hadn’t just annoyed their teacher.

It was the 8th of the Hollow Moon and the Hollow Festival that took place during the full moon every year was in exactly a week. The children were reasonably excited for the celebration, and were even more excited about the new technology that had recently become globalized.

“Hey did you hear about the television?” a girl asked her group of friends.

“Yeah, my mom recently bought one home for us. Apparently, we can see stuff happening from across the world now!”

“Woah, that’s so cool! I wish my parents would buy one soon.”

“They’ve been out for a while now; I heard they were getting cheaper. You might even be able to save up for one of the older models if you work for it!”

“Ugh, my dad says that it’s evil, and makes us dumber, so he doesn’t want us watching anything on there.”

While the group talked amongst themselves, another group of familiar friends overheard their conversation

“What do you think about the television?” Altair asked her friends as they walked out of class together.

“Our dad is going crazy over it,” Yoruhi said, pretending to never have heard of this invention before in his life. “He says that he can now promote the Draconic Balance style from across the world. He just needs to talk to whoever is running the channels on there.”

“My parents love it,” Ryuji said. “At first they were a bit skeptical, because it was expensive, but my mom recently got a promotion and the plays she’s working on have started appearing on there. We have a bit more money now, and my dad found a new job as a stunt double.”

“What’s a stunt double?” Tatsuko asked.

“It’s someone who looks like a famous person that does the dangerous parts of a play so that the famous person doesn’t get hurt,” Ryuji explained. “People say that my dad looks really handsome and since my mom is good at makeup, she can make him look like anyone.”

Altair giggled at the thought of Ryuji’s dad wearing makeup.

They made their way out onto the streets and stared at the canopy of leaves above them.

“You know, they say that in other parts of the world, the leaves actually change color and fall to the ground,” Ryuji mentioned, “but the leaves here are too magical to die during the winter, so that doesn’t happen here.”

“Let’s go explore a part of the world where the leaves fall down then,” Tatsuko silently said, catching the attention of the group.

They had noticed the silencing of their dear friend over the years and knew the reason behind it, but were still surprised she somehow always found the enthusiasm to declare her desire to explore the world together. Out of all of them, they had expected her to lose her passion first, and Yoruhi thought that perhaps her meager declarations were actually a sign that she was losing interest.

Let’s not bother her about it, he thought.

Even though Fukuro wasn’t his, he was also saddened and distraught at the bird’s waning health, and even more distraught that he couldn’t do anything about it. All he could do was hope that it all blew over at some point.

“WATCH OUT!” someone yelled, catching the group’s attention.

They looked up at the source of the noise and saw a giant bag of honey falling down from the tree above, and they quickly scrambled out of the way.

The bag lands with a splat, spilling honey along the road.

“Damnit Haru! I told you to be careful with the honey! Do you know how much this is going to cost us in profits during the harvesting season?!” their dad yells.

The group couldn't help but laugh as they walked away.

Hanamichi was known for two things: swordsmen and flowers; however, neither of these things were their main exports. Although flowers made up a good 30%, their biggest moneymakers were the giant bags of honeys, preserves, and enormous fruits that grew from the magical trees around the city.

With the Harvest Moon coming next month, early tree farmers had to collect the honey and begin preparing for the harvesting of the fruits, but because the process of severing the sacs of honey from the tree had to be quick, it was common for bags of them to accidentally fall from the sky. It would be a year's worth of progress lost if it spilled however, and the angry banter between the farmers when it happened always amused the four children.

They continued walking until they came across a fork in the road near the library where each friend had to split up.

“See you tomorrow!” Altair and Ryuji wave to Tatsuko and Yoruhi as they head home.

The siblings’ walks home had become very silent over the past year. Before Fukuro’s condition had worsened, Tatsuko would always challenge Yoruhi to a race back home that she always won, but in the past year, their races had gradually stopped.

They made their way back to the estate, and Tatsuko went straight to her room to check on Fukuro, while Yoruhi entered the living room where the ‘new’ television had been set up. His dad sat there watching some play about the Elsend region across the sea.

“Dad, you should get started on the dojo ” he said, reminding him that the kids were coming back from school and that they would arrive soon.

“Oh, Yoruhi, you’re back,” he said in surprise. “Sorry this television thing is just so awesome. Did you know that people have started abbreviating it as just ‘TV’ instead?”

“No, but that sounds efficient,” Yoruhi said. “Anyway, can I ask you about something I learned at school today?”

“Sure, anything,” his dad said.

“I heard that bodies that aren’t properly ‘buried’ cause anomalies to happen across the world… Is that really true?”

“Yes. In fact, I thought you might’ve already known that since you were looking to become an adventurer. Most of the job is just clearing out the mutations that happen from these anomalies, and the other part is going around making sure that any dead animal magicules you find are properly buried.”

“Oh… I thought it was just some scary story they tell every year during the Hollow Moon.”

“Haha, it gets a bit exaggerated sometimes, but the anomaly thing is definitely very real.”

Yoruhi thought for a moment.

“Dad?” he asked.

“What is it sweetie?”

“Did you have to go back and bury my… parents when they died?”

Hayate silently pondered, not knowing how to respond to that.

“While I wasn’t the one who did it, we did have to send adventurers over there to clear it up,” he explained.

“I see,” Yoruhi said.

He had wanted to know if his dad knew the way back to the place he was born for he wanted to see the carnations there again and prove that they were real. But if he had sent adventurers there to do the job instead, it would be a lot harder to check.

“I’ll go check on Tatsuko now,” he said. “You should get to work.”

“Thanks for checking on her,” Hayate said.

He knew his daughter was going through a rough spot, and was thankful that Yoruhi had grown to become someone he could rely on.