The mountain witch

The more he looked at her the fresher his memories. She spoke, her voice clear, he realised she was controlled by no shrine or old god; she was lucid. They knew each other, yet they were different people. Him from the one who spared her life, and her from the one who begged his mercy. Facing each other, they both knew better than to make the same mistake again.

She took a deep breath, straightforward: more air in the lungs, more spells cast; basic battle knowledge the pacifist genius never got to learn. He quickly ran in her direction, to which she reacted by filling his path with obstacles. Quicksand at his foothold, a spiny wall at his handhold… He struggled, bled, but kept running towards her—an approach no half-witted mage would even consider. And the fruits of Akihiko’s effort: he shoved his hand in her mouth, “I wanna see you cast a spell now.” It was unnecessarily gruesome, but he was angry. The teacher reached out for a knife in his pocket, “I’m sorry, Koharu, you should have chosen better.”

She screamed like never before, her eyes teared and her hands threw blind punches at Akihiko. He was about to finish her off if not for Seishiro interrupting, again. This time, Akihiko just stepped back allowing the fight to stretch longer.

Koharu coughed and regained her breath. “FUCK YOU!!” She shouted and continued in a lower voice, “Why won’t you use your magic? You speak to Awako-sama, don’t you? You must know spells strong enough to erase the whole place from the map.” She spat, “WHY?!”

No response.

Annoyed, she took hold of Seishiro—who did not resist—and threatened to cut his throat with a sharp piece of rock. Her grip was so tight that her hand bled. “Speak.” She said, whispered, almost.

“Fine, I’ll speak, just leave the boy.”

She pushed the blade slightly towards Seishiro’s neck and nodded.

“How do you think we manage to speak a language we don’t know, cast spells we never learned? The truth is, we don’t.”

“Poor Seishiro doesn’t have time for riddles, get to the point.”

“Simple spells are very easy to understand and cast; the more complex and stronger, the harder to perform a spell at will. Of course, the most complex of spells require one to give their voice altogether to IT. I wonder just what else do you agree to give away as a part of this contract… I wonder why everyone lost their mind back then… I wonder how much of the Koharu I knew is still in you.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“Koharu,” his voice so sharp it cut through her doubt, “When is your birthday?”

She dropped the blade and stepped back, “It’s…” of course, she didn’t remember, there wasn’t much left of her to remember such a trivial thing. “N-no… That’s not true, you massacred them in cold blood…” she looked up at his face, no guilt, only pity. “You did… you di- didn’t”

Silence.

“Hayato… am I crazy?”

Silence.

She took another deep breath. This time, vines from the ground strapped his limbs; he felt countless stings where the vines made contact with his skin. The stings soon transformed into paralysing numbness. “Feshta”—a small flame burned the vines which limited his movement, but Koharu had more to come. Blade-sharp roots launched at dazzling speed. He managed to miss one, but a second pierced his shoulder. He hardly removed it only to see more coming his way—he needed an opening; such a battle would only drain him to death with constant dodging and accumulating wounds and tiredness.

Watch your left, slide out of its way, careful from the walls, keep an eye on Seishiro, your back is exposed.

In the midst of such accelerated survival-driven thought, he made no progress.

Let me lend you some power. You used it earlier to teleport, didn,’ you? I won’t completely take over from one spell.

Akihiko finally surrendered, opening his mouth to cast a spell. One would be enough to hail hellfire on Koharu, to make the earth swallow her, just one word…

“Get off him, bitch.” The vines loosened as Koharu took a hit in the head by none other than Inori, “Thought you could drag me away this easy?”

The moment was enough for Akihiko to rush and grab the witch’s throat, “I’m sorry, dear cousin... I’m glad we met again.”

Her now-red damp robe stuck to her skin as she mutely made her last struggles, shed her last tears and bit her last silent farewells to all the family she had in the world—her killer.

Inori paid Koharu’s death no attention and instead faced Seishiro. “So, how do we wake him up?”

“Inori, I recall ordering you to leave,” the teacher said.

“Huh?” she answered, “If not for me she would’ve split you in half, be grateful.”

Despite that not being entirely the case, perhaps she saved me from a worse outcome, he thought. Interrupting their argument was a pulse of air from Seishiro’s direction.

“Hey! Don’t leave, please.”

Akihiko’s eyes widened, he recognised the feeling. Very few things looked as beautiful as someone using magic for the first time. Akihiko would compare it to childbirth—the analogy was effective for getting the point through, but it never did the feeling right. The boy’s eyes turned golden, his skin bright white contrasting his deep dark hair, he took a breath.

A blinding light. The next thing, his hands strapped around Inori’s neck. He then retreated when the teacher threatened him.

“Please tell me what happened.” He looked back at Inori, she was concerned, not angry, not fearful, merely concerned. Guilt could kill him, “Inori, are you… I’m sorry, I…”

Akihiko headed towards the seal, the infant sealing enough power to end humanity. “I’m sorry, I really am, you will have to feel this.” His hand approached the seal. It glowed in light, kept glowing, then extinguished.

The baby opened its eyes; it felt life again for one brief moment. The next moment, its skin started falling apart, bones breaking… Thus, the pain of living for so long. A seal was broken, two to go.

The mountain witch arc – end