Of failed teachings

“Okay. You already know the principles behind the five elements and the theory of how to appeal to them, right?” the kid asked around yet another yawn.

Reisen, seated cross-legged on the shop floor, searched in the meanders of her memory, finding very old and mainly forgotten teachings. “… Sure.”

Yukiya, seated in front of her, didn’t look very convinced, but apparently decided to have mercy on her, at least for the moment. “… right. So, let’s begin from a simple warm-up: try to make this amulet float.” They gestured to the wooden object on the floor.

She put her hands on her knees and focused all of her attention on it: nothing happened for what felt like a small eternity, but then it trembled and slowly, slowly started hovering in the air. “Lo and behold, Yukiya, I’m not so bad after all!” she said, even with a certain dose of pride, turning to them.

They didn’t manage to go farther than a barely drafted “Good job”, however, that she lost what little control she had over the amulet, which flew towards the kid and hit their forehead. “Ouch!”

Reisen winced in sympathy. “Ah, sorry Yukiya.”

They massaged the offended spot. “It’s… fine, but I don’t think we’ll take our chances with the earth magic amplifier.” That was to say the rock. She could agree on that. “Let’s change, try to do like Nagai and raise a trickle of water from here.” They pointed to the full fishbowl next to the other objects.

For the second time, Reisen obliged and focused with all of her might: although the liquid surface rippled, however, nothing else happened. After a few minutes of failures, where the most she obtained was to make some droplets levitate and fall, she gave up. “I don’t know kid, I don’t think it’s working.”

They frowned. “Reisen, this is taught in elementary school.”

“Not to make excuses, but that was a long time ago.”

“Reisen these are the basics. What were you even doing during magic lessons?” Now they sounded like her parents and her professors.

She shrugged. “I always preferred sports to magic, I guess I was distracted. Or sleeping.” She ignored how they brought their palms to their face in dismay. “In any case, that’s why I asked you to teach me some spells.”

“Yes but I thought you meant…” They waved their hands in the air. “… more advanced incantations, not starting from zero.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well it’s not my fault if you thought wrong.”

“Reisen.”

“What?”

As it turned out, getting into a yelling contest while one was trying to control magic wasn’t a good idea: while they were arguing, the water in the fishbowl had begun to agitate more and more, and at Reisen’s final exclamation it exploded with an angry splash, breaking its container and soaking both of them.

“… minor setback?” offered Reisen.

Yukiya sighed, more disgruntled than she had ever seen them. “We are definitely not taking our chances with the lighter either.”

Reisen snorted despite herself, doing her best not to laugh. “Agreed. Wait here, I’ll bring some towels.”

The kid shook their head with a soft huff. “Towels?” And then, after igniting the lighter and drying the water with a snap of fire magic and a cheeky expression, they added: “You may have slept during magic lessons, but I did not.”

She rolled her eyes. “Show-off.” A smile, however, crept on her face. “Thank you, though.”

“Of course” they grinned. “Magic is wonderful.”

“So you’ve told me.”

That was their turn to roll their eyes. “I’ve also shown you. But in any case, at this point I think it’s better if we start from your elemental aptitude and continue from there.”

She frowned. “My… elemental aptitude.”

“Reisen, please-”

“I know what it is, you of little faith, don’t give me that look. I just… don’t know what mine is.”

The expression on the kid’s face told her that they’d deeply underestimated what they were working with. “… You really don’t use magic much, huh.”

One of her eyebrows twitched. “And you are on thin ice.”

“Anyway.” Sensing the danger, Yukiya not so subtly redirected the conversation to the topic at hand and tapped their cheek with their index, pensive. “From what I’ve seen I’d say that you have an aptitude for metal, even though it’s more akin to your least bad subject than to your best one.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Hey, not my fault if I’ve never quite needed magic.”

“Still…”

“Thin ice, Yukiya.”

“… Right. In any case, for the moment focus on metal magic: levitation, transmutation, things like…” They yawned. “… that.”

Reisen tilted her head to the side, remembering one of the conversations she’d had with Nagai on the train and trying not to worry. “Did you sleep badly?”

They massaged their eyes and blinked tiredly. “I just… took long to fall asleep and woke up very often, it’s all.”

“If you say so.” She glanced at the clock. “Anyway, I think that we could as well prepare lunch; that may give you some energies.”

“But…”

“Don’t worry, we’ll continue magic training in the afternoon” she said while standing up. “Besides, it’s useless to keep pushing on with an empty stomach.”

At that, they relented. “Okay then, lunch break it is. However…” They narrowed their eyes. “In the afternoon it’s transmutation time.”

She smiled. “Yes, yes, of course. Now come with me and let’s see what we can cook.”

The answer, it turned out, was karaage don, since they had nearly all the ingredients and it was a fairly simple dish to make. They ate – and Reisen metaphorically patted herself on the back for a job well done –, but after clearing the table the kid’s head inched closer and closer to its surface, until it was cushioned by their folded arms; their eyelids fluttered closed, and just a few minutes later they were fast asleep.

Reisen didn’t notice right away, but as soon as she did she felt her expression soften. They must have been pretty tired, after all, even though they refused to admit it.

That position risked being uncomfortable in the long run, but she didn’t want to disturb them or wake them up for the moment, so she decided to train for a bit while she looked over the shop.

“Transmutation time, they said, huh? As if.” There was no way she would’ve started from that if she could choose, but levitation, on the other hand…

Making pieces of metal float wasn’t the most difficult thing, despite her lacklustre skills – maybe, if she trained enough, she would’ve been able to repair Corinne? –, but it took a lot of her attention and if she glanced away even for one second they fell back on the ground.

She did that for an hour or so, until a buried memory resurfaced to the front of her mind. Now that she thought about it, her parents owned an allegedly ancient and important magic tome: it had never been on display in the shop, which was one of the reasons why she usually forgot about its existence altogether, but maybe it could have helped – if not her, possibly Yukiya –, so she went retrieve it. As things stood at the moment, anyway, her mother and father wouldn’t have cared – still, she pushed down all bitter thoughts on the matter, telling herself that it wouldn’t have been like that forever –.

She had barely taken the book from the shelf in her parents’ bedroom and begun to quickly flip through its pages out of curiosity, however, that she heard a noise coming from the living room and kitchen, followed by the sound of anxious steps. She didn’t have the time to go and investigate, though, because the kid suddenly appeared and skidded to a halt in front of the open door: they were breathing fast and seemed frazzled, so she couldn't help but worry.

“Yukiya? Are you-”

Her tentative question didn’t go very far, because their eyes locked onto her and a second later their arms were squeezing her.

If that wasn’t a cause for concern already, Reisen felt a few tears soak the front of her tee-shirt. She didn’t know what had happened, but put a hand on their back and the other on their head nonetheless. “Kid, what’s wrong?” she asked softly, confusedly. The magic tome had fallen on the floor, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

They refused to look at her, but squished their face against the crook of her neck. “… I had a nightmare, and when I woke up you weren’t there anymore, so I… I had to be sure. I’m sorry for overreacting.”

Reisen didn’t have to ask them what they had dreamt about: it wasn’t difficult to put together, when the first thing they had done had been to search for her, when they were now silently and not so subtly checking her pulse. When she had had nightmares of them dying too. She took a deep breath, tinged by a certain amount of sadness, and strengthened her hold in the vain hope that it could make their worries go away. “… it’s not the first time it happens, is it?”

They stayed quiet, but that was answer enough.

“Is that why you’ve been very tired these past few days?”

If possible, they hid their face even more.

She sighed. “… I’ll bring my futon back into my room.”

At that, Yukiya detached themselves enough to look at her, wide-eyed and vaguely frantic. “No, there’s no need, it’s stupid, I’ll just get over it-”

She rolled her eyes. “I won’t hold your hand until you fall asleep, silly, I just think it is high time that we do that pyjama party I promised you.”

The kid stared at her for a few moments, but then ducked their head. “… can we do a pillow fight?”

Drowning all the thoughts that told her she was too old for this, Reisen grinned mischievously. “Sure, but only if you’re prepared to lose.”

Yukiya let go of their hold, and Reisen was relieved to see that they were finally smiling again. “I should be the one saying that.”

“We’ll see, kid, I accept your challenge.”

Their smile got a bit brighter, and then they tilted their head to the side. “By the way, I thought you would’ve been in the shop. What were you doing here?” Their gaze fell on the tome on the floor, curious. “Did you develop a sudden interest in magic books while I wasn’t looking?”

“Yes, and you missed the epic revelation of the full extent of my actual powers.” Reisen maintained her poker face before the kid’s crestfallen expression for a few glorious seconds, but then she snickered and rolled her eyes. “I’m joking, I just randomly remembered about this one and thought it could’ve been useful, but…” She shook her head, shrugging. “… well, look for yourself” she said, gesturing toward it.

Yukiya picked it up, and their eyes widened when they flipped through its pages. Their gaze went from the tome to Reisen and vice-versa. “It’s blank.”

“Yeah, I have no idea why my parents even kept it.”

The kid’s attention, however, wasn’t on her anymore: after their first moments of surprise, they traced the paper with their finger; nothing happened for a few seconds, but then they let the book fall on the floor with a yelp.

Reisen was startled for a split-second, until she realised what was occurring: the pages of the tome were glowing, and letters were appearing on them.