The Lady in the Lake

HE MATERIALIZED IN THE MIDDLE OF AN OPEN FIELD, with Mount Haruna looming before him in the distance. The area was shrouded by a thick fog like Reina had mentioned, without signs of any people nearby.

“This is Gunma, alright,” said Ryuuji, noting the stark contrast with the bustling metropolis that was Tokyo. Given that his line of work dealt with spiritual anomalies, he seldom ventured into rural areas. For better or worse, nature didn’t have a tendency of spawning corruption on its own.

“Good thing there won’t be prying eyes here,” Ryuuji thought before breaking into a sprint, his armor glowing with a dim light. It was a physical enhancement spell, which allowed him to sustain top speed for an extended period of time.

Despite having arrived roughly a kilometer away, Ryuuji closed the distance in under two minutes. Then, as he reached the base of the mountain, he activated an invisibility spell and kept running up in a straight line.

Mount Haruna did have a paved road leading to the summit, but if anyone else were traveling there, the odds of Ryuuji bumping into them were high. Thus, he took the route with some chest hair and climbed up the mountain with spurts of levitation magic.

He reached the summit three minutes later. His breath was labored, and as Ryuuji removed his helmet, he revealed his face to be drenched with sweat.

Yet the look in his eyes was unfazed.

He procured an enchanted energy drink from his tactical belt, affectionately nicknamed a stamina potion, and drank the can’s contents in one go. In a matter of seconds, his exhaustion vanished like a bad dream, and his body was ready for action.

Then, Ryuuji put the empty can back into its pouch and walked towards the lake in the middle of the mountain’s summit.

The air was thick with fog in there too, but the water’s surface still reflected a glimmer of moonlight within. These were hardly the ideal conditions for a scrying ritual, yet for Ryuuji, they would have to suffice.

Luckily for him, he had an ace up his sleeve.

His competitors from the ACU and the ATC were most likely looking for the moth yōkai, or perhaps even the Wandering Songstress. Yet these were vague figures; mere titles or descriptions which couldn’t be easily narrowed down.

Ryuuji, on the other hand, was laser focused on finding Kisaragi Hotaru… and he still had access to a handful of her personal effects.

Chief among them was a short letter, which Ryuuji procured from a case in his belt. It was the last present Hotaru had given him, during the final Christmas Eve they spent together.

He stared at the folded piece of paper and let out a nostalgic sigh. Even after all these years he hadn’t forgotten about her for a moment, breakup be damned. Thus, even if it tore his heart to do so, he knelt before the lake’s edge and opened the old letter.

“To Ryuuji, my beloved…” he read the text out loud, releasing mana into the water as he did. A magic formation took shape upon its surface with complex figures surrounding an empty space in the middle, like a window into the beyond.

“I may not be as eloquent as you with the letter you gave me last year, but I wanted to receprocate,” he stuck to the original wording, misspelling and all. “I’m prepared this time, you know? The power of words is my domain, but I still lose my breath when I try to tell them to you face to face. So for now, I’ll put them in paper instead.”

The water rippled within the runic circle, the lake responding to its effects.

“It’s strange, isn’t it? Even after being with you for so many years, my heart still races when you ask me out. Like the other day I stayed late at work and you showed up with a bouquet of flowers. Akiko-san teased me the whole week, but I couldn’t stop smiling when I saw them in the lab.”

Ryuuji’s voice tightened as he read on, his magic brimming with power.

He remembered the day like it was yesterday.

“Just you wait. I got you chocolates this time, but I swear I will surprise you one of these days. When you least expect it, I’ll be there with my arms wide open for you. Until then, please hold onto this letter as the proof and promise of my love.

“Forever yours, Kisaragi Hotaru.”

Tears welled in Ryuuji’s eyes, and as he parted his gaze from the letter, a hazy silhouette began to show within the scrying circle. Sharpening his focus, he carefully increased the mana output to his spell, and slowly but surely the image became clear.

“There you are…” he muttered.

Beyond a shred of doubt, that was the face of the woman Ryuuji had lost. He couldn’t hear her through the spell, but she was calmly singing a lullaby just the way he remembered.

Somehow, against all odds, the dragon hadn’t killed her after all. She was indeed the Wandering Songstress, hiding for years beyond his reach.

But now, whether it was by sheer luck or the guidance of fate, Ryuuji had found her. Judging from his spell, she was hidden in a plateau in Mount Akagi, concealed by a powerful barrier. Without a memento of her, the scrying ritual would’ve failed.

Determined to make contact, Ryuuji wiped his tears away and donned his helmet. A regular teleportation spell wouldn’t cut it, because even if he managed to slip through Hotaru’s barrier, chances were she would escape if she noticed his magic.

Fortunately, Ryuuji could see a body of water next to her as well. By the looks of it, she was by the shore of Lake Ōnuma, which opened a teleportation option for him. If he materialized underwater, he might just give her the slip.

Gambling everything on this, Ryuuji held the letter firm in his hand and activated a levitation spell, floating to the center of Lake Haruna. Then, he surrounded himself with a magic barrier and descended into the water’s depths.