2

“…Huh?”

A confused gasp escaped Kuya’s mouth as his desk, which was previously in front of him, was suddenly replaced by an overgrown wall.

Kuya continued to blink a few more times before looking around him only to be in shock as what was previously the sight of his classroom had suddenly turned into the courtyard behind the school building.

“Yes! It worked!” exclaimed a cheerful voice behind Kuya.

“?!”

Recognizing the voice, Kuya quickly spun around and saw exactly who he had been trying to avoid since lunch break.

“Unkempt black hair with messy bangs and just a bit taller than me… Yup! You’re definitely that guy who ran away before.”

A few steps in front of him stood the second-year girl Kuya had previously encountered in the courtyard and ran away from.

“Woah! You’ve got silver eyes!”

“?!”

Without warning, the girl suddenly closed the distance between the two, leaning her face towards Kuya’s to get a closer look at his eyes, slightly raising her feet to make up for the height difference between them.

“They look so cool!”

“You’re… that senpai from earlier,” Kuya said as he made some distance between the two of them.

“Mhm… My name is Amanagi Mana from Class 2-2, and you are…?”

“Uh… Mikazuki Kuya.”

Having openly introduced herself in a cheerful and confident tone that left no room for doubts, Kuya reflexively followed along, giving his name as well.

Wearing a giddy smile on her face, like that of a child who had just gotten their hands on a new toy, Mana reached out her hand for a handshake.

“Nice to meet you, Kuya-kun!”

“Uh, right… Wait no!” Kuya exclaimed, his brain finally catching up to what was happening.

“I was just in my classroom a few moments ago and now I’m suddenly here in the courtyard. How the heck does that even happen?!”

Seeking an explanation for the strange event that’s happened to him, Kuya decided to directly confront the person he believed to be the cause.

“Hm? Oh! Well you see, the truth is…” Mana started, suddenly taking on a serious expression with her eyes closed…

What’s with the sudden serious tension?! Is she about to reveal some extremely serious secret?!

She suddenly takes a wide stance with her right arm pointed to the sky with weirdly smooth movements, as if practiced.

“I’m actually a mage!” she revealed, striking a pose with a smug expression.

“…”

“It actually kinda hurts when I’m met with just silence, you know?” she said, her face now a shade of a red.

“Sorry, I’m not sure how to react when you answer my question like someone with eighth-grade syndrome,” Kuya replied with a deadpan expression.

“That’s so mean!” Mana protested.

Putting aside her attempted dramatic reveal, thinking of what’s happened today as ‘magic’ does seem appropriate.

Unable to think of a more reasonable explanation, Kuya decided to partly believe Mana. With that conclusion, he asked a question to the slightly slumped Mana, “So if what you’re saying is true, does that mean you cast spells and hex people like a witch or something?”

“Hey, that’s rude! I’m not some wrinkly old witch!” she retorted, her cheeks puffed up to signify her annoyance.

Eh? You have a problem with being called a witch?

“Witches are always the villain in stories! And they have moldy wrinkled skin, with crooked noses and warts and stuff! I’m a cute and beautiful high school girl, so I’d prefer if you call me a mage instead,” said the self-proclaimed cute and beautiful high school girl puffing out her chest.

“But you can do magic spells and stuff?” asked Kuya, deciding not to further pursue that topic and continue on with his questions.

“Mhm! Though it’s probably a bit different from what you’re imagining. I can’t cast spells by reciting long incantations or spell names. And I also can’t produce or manipulate elements using my hands or something like in most fantasy novels,” she explained. “What I can do are enchantments.”

“Enchantments?”

“Yup, enchantments. I can take an item and imbue it with magical abilities, turning it into an enchanted item!”

She took out what looked to be a magic wand model with intricate designs from a strap holster on her thigh beneath her skirt.

“I recently bought this cool looking magic wand I found and enchanted it with the ability to lift small objects around. I call it… the Floaty Wand!”

Wow, she sucks at naming things…

“So what I saw before during today’s lunch break,” said Kuya, fighting the urge to make a retort at Mana’s naming sense.

“That was me practicing using it with multiple objects,” she said as nearby sticks and pebbles levitated. “It takes some concentration and focus to use, so when you surprised me before, I ended up almost dropping a rock on my feet.”

“Sorry about that I guess?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine! No one ended up hurt so it’s all good!”

So that explains the floating objects I saw before during lunch break. Me suddenly appearing here from the classroom is also probably caused by an enchanted item. I wonder what she used though?

Seeing as Mana had already told him this much, he didn’t see any reason to not ask about that as well.

“So, I’m guessing you’ve also got an enchanted item with the ability to teleport people?”

“That’s right! I used these!” she said enthusiastically, as she reached into her pocket and pulled out two strips of paper with little drawings on them.

“Stickers?”

“Uh huh. I’ve enchanted each of these stickers to mark and teleport things! I stick a target sticker to someone or something I want to teleport, and then I stick a destination sticker to where I want to teleport things to. Today was the first time I’ve tried to use them on a person so I’m glad everything went well.”

“Hold on, when did you stick a sticker on me?! And did you just admit to using me as a guinea pig for something potentially really dangerous without my consent?!”

“Ah no, no, don’t worry! I’ve tested these teleportation stickers on animals before, it’s perfectly safe! I stuck the target sticker on your clothes using my wand while you were trying to run away before. So the only problem was whether or not your clothes would teleport with or without you.”

“You count my public humiliation as perfectly fine?!”

Mana continued to laugh as Kuya eventually gave up trying to fight against her. He then instead turned his attention towards something else he didn’t fully understand.

“So anyway, Amanagi-senpai, you’ve got something to say to me don’t you? Otherwise there wouldn’t be any point in bringing me here.”

Although, I’m pretty sure I already know what she’s going to ask me… She practices her magic here in the courtyard where not a lot of people come, which means most likely she’s trying to keep her powers a secret.

“Hm?” she sounded, refocusing her mind back to the conversation, “Well actually…”

She probably took me out here to ask me to not tell anyone about her secret. Fine by me, I was—

“Kuya-kun! Could you help me with testing out one of my enchanted items?!” she asked, bowing her head with her hands clasped together.

“Huh?”

“You see… I’ve been looking for someone pretty athletic to help me out in my tests. Kuya-kun, you were really fast when you were running away from me before. So, could you—”

“Hold on, time out! You just wanted to ask me for help with your experiments?”

“Yeah?” she replied, quizzically tilting her head slightly.

“Aren’t you gonna like, make me swear to not tell anyone about your powers or something?”

“Huh? No, not at all. I don’t really care either way whether you tell other people about me or not,” she said flatly.

She seriously doesn’t care at all?!

“But then… wouldn’t you get ostracized in your class or something? Being a mage and having the power to make enchanted items, if people found out, they’d start avoiding you and calling you a freak…”

“Hmm… Well, I don’t really care about how people I don’t know think about me. It’s not like I live to make everyone think of me positively. I’m already pretty well-known for being a weirdo in my grade anyway, haha.”

“…”

Kuya seriously couldn’t imagine how Mana was perfectly okay with other people potentially being told about her powers. It was the same as a one way ticket to getting outcasted by everyone. People always hate and reject anything that isn't the same as them. Being the only duck in a flock of swans is nothing short of a living nightmare.

And with rumors like those that tend to spread far and wide. It wouldn’t be long before every aspect of your life is affected by it. Once that happens, you can’t be at peace in school anymore, and being at home just makes you dread having to come back the next day…

Because that’s how it was for me…

At some point without realizing it, Kuya had started looking at the ground, as memories resurfaced.

“Kuya-kun,” Mana called out, causing Kuya to glance up.

“Look at this,” she held out a lighter and flicked it open.

But instead of sparking a flame, orbs of light started coming out of the lighter. They floated around like beautiful bubbles, surrounding the scenery with a faint light.

“And that’s not all,” Mana said, as she flicked the lighter a second time.

Suddenly, the balls of light floating out of the lighter started changing colors. As Mana started walking and waving around the lighter, dozens of magical lights surrounded the area. With light from the setting sun, for a moment, it was as if Kuya had stepped into another world.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Mana asked.

“Yeah…”

Looking around the small area, Kuya then turned towards Mana. She was smiling brightly from ear to ear, with a satisfied look on her face.

“As long as I can continue to use magic like this, and live my life how I want, then that sounds like a good life to me.”

The words lingered lightly in the air, yet somehow they weighed on Kuya’s chest. His gaze shifted from the wonderful dreamland to Mana, the way her hair caught the fading sunlight, the easy confidence in her smile, he stared at her and something inside him ached.