Chapter 2:

Chapter 1-1: Touyo, the first Black Witch!

Black Witch Tsu-To-Yu!


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Here comes the first two-parter chapter! It was even more than I thought, so that's why I put it up as two parts. If you like this, remember to give it a like, and comment if you wanna be included in the Wattpad chapters!

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If you ask him why he did it, he would answer you with ‘I don’t know myself’.

The young boy, Touyo Shikaya, breathed raggedly. His chest pumping with air—his heart racing.

The cherry blossom petals hitting his face constantly only escalated his irritation.

He ran on the sidewalk of the street towards his home in the suburban area of the town. He turned quickly—his sight solely on getting home. His eyes were starting to sting from the sweat streaming down his forehead. His chest heaved rapidly, his breaths becoming short.

He turned around—several houses lined up, hoping nobody catches him acting strangely. He looked up. Finally, the home that he’s been living in his whole life.

A 2-story home. Black tiles covering the roof with a white color as its base. It was a fairly modern house. There was a small lawn in front of his house, and a small beaten road that led to the door of his house.

There was a gate that stood outside, made out of red brick. A nameplate that said ‘Shikaya’ was plated onto the side of the gate door alongside the mail compartment. He opened the gate. The grating sound of its hinges ensued before moved forward.

He stepped on his toes similar to a ninja and got to his door. Using his house key to open it, he enters through the door.

The large living room tinged in a fuschia color expanded before him—The TV on the western side and two couches around the TV. A small table was at the front of the couch, mostly used for eating dinner on.

He took a quick look around, the small cabinet catching his attention. The picture frames on top showed himself and his young mother. Some of the pictures also included his grandfather and aunt.

He looked around to see if his mother was there early. Sometimes she would get out of work early due to her diligence and prep dinner instead.

But she wasn’t there. For the first time, Touyo was glad that his mother was not here to greet him while she was preparing dinner. Though he knew that he had to make dinner at some point, he checked the book that he carried off on a whim.

Sinister—That’s the first word he would describe for this black book with red markings on the front. He could feel his hands trembling, his heart beating constantly against his chest. He felt the adrenaline of doing something he wouldn’t normally do.

“I didn’t steal it. I only just picked it up.”

He pretended that he found the book in a trash can, omitting the moment of his latest fall. He then checked his right palm to see the blood leaving a trail upwards. Since he was running frantically, the force moved the blood over. Before reading the book, he needed to find something to treat the wound.

Before moving to the floor using the single step over, Touyo put his shoes into the small cabinet for outdoor shoes. The mud and grime from the outside world would make the house floor dirty, so it’s a rule to take off their shoes before stepping onto the upper ledge into the house.

He quickly sidestepped all the sofas and headed straight to the kitchen.

He checked the cabinets to find a bandage to dress his wound. Tossing his school bag aside near the walls of the kitchen, he headed towards the stairs on the eastern side of the living room.

He moved upwards to the second floor, eventually getting into a long hallway. His footsteps caused a heavy sound with each fast step. He spots his room several doors away and dashes to it.

He opens the door with a slam and quickly closes the door—this would usually be a sign that meant he’d done something bad.

His room was ordinary for a 12-year-old—Blue colored walls with a floor similar to the living room. A single sized bed near his rectangle window on the top-left corner of the room. Several cabinets filled with comic books, DVD's, and books of his choosing alongside a closet for his clothes which set up his left side of the room. On the right, there was a desk with a computer and another desk solely for studying. To top it off, several scattered music disks and posters of his favorite bands were on display all across his room.

His mother kept drilling into his head that studies were important, so he kept a single desk for his studying only. Other than studying, he also uses it to read his novels and comic books. It was the perfect place for him.

He stepped over his disks—reminding himself to clean them up later—and sat down on the chair near his desk. He placed the heavy book he ‘found’ onto the desk, causing a loud thud.

It was then that his heart finally felt the strongest sense of relief. Everything was over. He now has the book. He looked at it again, and it was as sinister as ever.

He still wasn’t sure if he would even enjoy the book. But after all the trouble he went through to get it, he was sure that he would enjoy it—whether he liked it or not. The rough texture of the leather cover on his fingertips, he flips it open. The pages finally revealed.

It was blank.

“Huh…?”

He turned another page.

It was blank again.

“…”

He turned another page.

Once again, blank.

“…”

An entirely new feeling was born in his heart. It was pure frustration and rage.

“That’s why it was thrown away! Because there’s nothing there!”

Touyo felt his entire adrenaline session completely wasted, and a feeling of disappointment over such a useless matter of being excited filled his mind and body. His body felt stiff and dropped his head over the book.

“Hah… I should have figured this.”

He knew that nothing exciting would come from finding a useless book. Even so, he thought he could find something interesting. But to turn out that it doesn’t even have a sentence, must less a word—it was a truly useless book.

He wanted to throw it away. Yet, he couldn’t.

Not until he checks all the pages. It’s the very least he could do after all that trouble.

Heaving a sigh, Touyo trudged through several pages at once. The sounds of the pages being flipped filled the room.

“This book has a lot of pages…” Touyo said with an annoyed tone. For a useless blank book, it carried a ton of pages.

Then, he came across something black. It quickly went past his eyes before everything turned white again.

“Huh? I think I…”

Noticing the strange color, he returned to the page in quick haste. Then, he found it.

Words—and a marked circle, large and intimidating, made out of pure red were shown.

Offer blood to release this book.

…that’s what it said on the page.

He groaned out loud.

Once he found the words, he found his excitement again. Only this time, it was coupled with an extreme sense of foreboding.

(Isn’t this bad…?)

Such a suspicious looking book is now asking for blood to assumingly put on the marker beneath the words. It was obvious that it was those kinds of books that cultists would use to summon some demon by committing kidnapping and murder.

And he has it. In his house. In his room. On his desk.

“Haha…hahaha… this is it. This book… it looks really crazy.”

Suddenly this suspicious and terrifying book was hilarious to Touyo instead of frightening. He was not religious, so he never believed in demons from hell. He also wouldn’t believe in ghosts or monsters from horror movies existing in real life.

It’s a different story if he did watch a horror movie. He can’t handle watching that.

But it was different. This book was the definition of ‘terrifying’. Yet despite every warning his head was telling him, he still wants to try it out.

Because the demanding of blood is what made other people queasy about these kinds of books. Nobody would forcefully cut themselves just to put blood on its page, eventually doing absolutely nothing but hurt oneself for no results.

But he is injured right now. In other words, he has a wound which was currently losing blood. He looked at his right palm—the bandage was already reddened with blood.

His heart started beating faster. Goosebumps were felt on his arms and he felt a chill that passed through his body. It roused his adrenaline.

Nothing bad will happen. It’s just a prank. He pulls off the edge of the bandage with those thoughts in mind as he peeled it off slowly.

The wound—upon the release of the confining bandage— finally dripped blood and traveled across his palm. He moved the palm towards the marker. The strange, blood red circle beckoning him to feed it.

“Maybe this demon can make my life exciting?”

He unconsciously said. He had no idea why he was doing this.

All he knows is that he doesn’t lose anything in return. He knew that it was fake, but he tried it anyway.

Because it looked fun.

The blood fell onto the marker. It scattered across the page, the marker’s color and the blood color mixed together in a form of harmonious clash.

“Heh,” he scoffed. He knew that nothing would happen.

Then the blood was absorbed into the page.

“…”

It was too fast for him to comprehend. His heart practically stopped.

“…Huh?”

The page brightens up and nearly blind Touyo from its powerful light. He reacted by forcing himself back, eventually toppling over the chair he was sitting on and fell over to the ground with a giant thud.

He lifted his back, trying to recover his eyesight. Once he did, the sound of pages flipping echoed in his ears.

He blinked several times, his face contorted to resemble a deer in front of headlights. His body trembled. The book began to shake uncontrollably. His heart was beating so much that it could blast through his chest.

The book finally stopped shaking and the light quickly died out.

Despite that it stopped, Touyo still gazed at it. His heart was the only thing causing noise in the room.

Then the bright light flashed from the book again. But this time there was something else.

A hand also came out of the book.

“Gah!”

Touyo peeled his eyes open to see a hand coming out of the book. He was vaguely reminded of a famous old movie starring a robot from the future. Then an arm followed afterward. Then a head, a torso, and finally some feet covered in ebony black boots

“Aaaaaaah!”

Touyo screamed like a girl as an actual girl came out of the book.

She wore a long dress which extended all the way from her bottom neck to her ankles. A small purple bow placed on the top of her dress, and several smaller ones over the frilly lines that ran down the middle of her voluptuous mountains.

Once her body came out of the book, the light finally died down. But the girl remained in the air—floating seamlessly.

Her hair was black as her boots and tied up in a ponytail held by a purple bow. It swayed as the girl shifted her head left and right while still remaining in the air.

Touyo only stood still at the sight, his eyes popped wide open.

The girl finally turned around, showing her face.

Her round face accommodated her sharp eyes as they cast a curious gaze on the boy. She pursed her soft lips, her eyes half-closed.

Then she took a glance at the room, and then to Touyo himself.

“Boy.”

She spoke, her silky voice caused Touyo’s ears to melt.

“…You really saved me there!”

The silky voice that melted Touyo’s ears turned into a silvery voice that rang out in joy.

“Aaaah! Demon!”

Touyo turned his body around to crawl away from the floating human-like being who have come out of a demonic-looking book.

“Hey! Hold on! Don’t run away!”

The girl shouted and spotted the door that Touyo was aiming to go to. She pointed her finger at the direction he was going to.

Thump! Touyo’s head rammed right into some kind of force—an invisible wall that impeded his way. Tears welled in his eyes from the shooting pain coursing through his forehead.

“W-What the?!”

“There. Now you can’t escape!”

She spoke in a sing-songy voice this time, blowing her finger pretending it just shot a bullet.

“W-W-Wh-What…” Touyo stammered, his eyes quivering.

“Oh… that’s the first time you see it, right? Real magic?”

“A-Ah…”

Touyo couldn’t describe what he witnessed at all.

He honestly believed that he summoned some kind of demonic human who has been sealed away for centuries to prevent her from taking over the world.

But after a closer inspection, he noticed that the girl kept making curious glances everywhere around his room. He couldn’t help but changed his thinking after noticing her eyes full of wonder.

“I know that in this world, magic is considered to be just a fantasy. So I understand why you’d be shocked,” The floating girl placed her delicate finger to her chin while making her remark.

“M-Magic…?”

“That’s right! Magic!” She said out loud. Was she excited to say that?

“U-Umm… Then… are you a demon?” He had to ask to clear his doubts.

“Of course not! Does this sexy body of mine resemble in any way a demonic being?”

She paraded her body with her hands to show off her well-developed assets, rousing Touyo’s face into a reddish blush.

“N-No…”

“Never mind that,” The girl swept it aside with her hand. “Rather, I should thank you for saving me back there! If I have to be stuck in that book for another month, I would have lost my mind!”

The girl grabbed the strands of hair on her head. Her body floated upwards towards the ceiling and began to spin around, a pained expression marring her beautiful face. Touyo took a step back and finally asked another question forming in his mind.

“U-Umm… why were you inside that book, then?”

“Ah, well, here and that, and all that kind, and…”

As she was saying incomprehensible sentences, she kept looking aside from place to place without looking at Touyo’s direction. Touyo now believed that rather than being sealed for taking over the world, she was sealed for a more personal reason that she can’t explain.

“Anyways!” She finally finished. “I got myself into a situation where I had to demand blood from somebody to get me out.”

The girl floated back to the book, grabbing it by its corner like it was a used tissue. Her hands shook, rage swelled up in her body as she gritted her teeth.

“Every single human that I ever come across just take one look at me and throws me aside! Like I was dirty and filthy! It’s so cruel! How can humans be so cruel to a book?!”

She put her free hand under the book. Above that hand, a purple light resembling a circle with strange letters on the edge appeared.

Fwhoosh! A fire was born out of that circle, and the fire started to burn away the book from the bottom up. The book was encased with fire and has withered into ashes in an instant. The ashes soon left her hand and dissipated into the air.

“Ah!” Touyo gave a slight shriek. The fire has completely burned the book into ashes in seconds.

“God, I hated this book. But you got me out of there! So, I owe you!”

The girl put her empty hands back on her voluptuous hips. Her captivating smile beamed in Touyo’s eyes.

Touyo was left stunned by such a smile. A smile that no other girl—other than his caring mother— has ever given to him. It was enough to rattle his prepubescent mind into turmoil.

“Oh, right, I never told you about myself, haven’t I? My name’s Tsubaki! The Black Witch Tsubaki! And yours?”

Tsubaki floated right near Touyo—specifically, her face went right near Touyo’s. Her glinting purple eyes kept gazing into Touyo’s brown eyes, making his cheeks blush madly.

“M-My name is Touyo Shikaya.”

“Touyo, huh…? Alright!”

The girl floated backward in an instant. She faced the distraught Touyo who remained blushing with her hands on her hips, her giant chest stuck out.

“You wanna be a witch?”

The moment stopped between the two. Touyo could only remain still while Tsubaki continues to shine with her bright smile. After a moment or two, Touyo snapped back into reality.

“…Huh?” Touyo finally gave a reply.

“Like I said. You wanna be a witch?”

“Y-You’re asking me if I wanna be a witch?” He asked again, making sure that he got it right.

“That’s right! It’s a great honor of becoming a witch, you know!”

Tsubaki extended her arms wide as if to celebrate the splendor of being a witch. However, Touyo expressed a doubtful gaze.

“But… I’m a boy.”

“When does that matter?! I plan on making the name ‘Black Witch’ completely universal! You can call yourself an honorary Black Witch!”

“B-Black Witch?” He tilted his head.

“Hehe~” Tsubaki chuckled. “That’s the name I’m using to call my students!”

“Eh… students? Then…?”

“Now you’re getting it!” Tsubaki pointed at Touyo again. “You can become one of my students!”

Tsubaki pointed her finger at Touyo to show the exciting wonder of being a witch. However it only left Touyo stunned to even reply properly.

There was an invisible barrier that he just rammed into a minute ago. Then a fire that came out of nowhere, burning a book to ashes in seconds.

He couldn’t tell what is real and what is not anymore. However, one thing is clear:

Tsubaki can use actual magic.

“Y-You want me to be your student? Then, if I do, you’ll teach me magic?”

Touyo stood up from the floor, his body filled with unexpected energy. His heart began to race at the idea of being able to use magic.

“That’s right! …Though, that’s if you can.”

Tsubaki pointed at Touyo with both her fingers like they were guns, but a moment later she placed her finger up to her lip in concern.

“I-If?” Just like that, his surging energy dissipated.

“First, I gotta make sure that you have a working Magic Core.”

“M-Magic Core…?” He tilted his head. He figured that that’s where magic comes from since it has magic in the name.

“It’s a hidden organ deep within your heart. It’s not normally seen, but it’s there. However, since you have been living in a world with no magic at all, it’s possible that it lies dormant. In hibernation.”

“Hibernation… it’s sleeping?”

“That’s right. And usually, it requires a great deal of work to awaken one’s Magic Core.”

“Eh… so that means that I can’t do it if it’s asleep?”

Touyo’s face became showered with disappointment. Tsubaki noticed this and flashed a sparkling smile.

“You would think so, huh? But I got the perfect kickstarter right here!”

Touyo raised his head, only to be met with Tsubaki’s outstretched hand towards him.

He eyed on Tsubaki’s delicate-looking hand as the same purple magic circle appeared again. But this time, what came out got him to widen his eyes.

A small orb, purple and black mixed together to form a swirling mass within the orb. The orb just floated on top of Tsubaki’s hand, unaffected by gravity.

“W-What’s this…?” There was a tinge of fear in Touyo’s words.

“It’s a personal spell I made myself,” Tsubaki spoke in a prideful tone. “It’s called ‘Magic Authorization’. This handy spell is something I made precisely for this situation! It’ll wake it right up!”

“Oh!” Touyo understood the concept a little as he nodded rapidly. However, his mind raised a doubt. “W-What happens if I do take this? It won’t hurt… will it?”

“Mmh… well… it really depends on how you take it…”

Those words rang in Touyo’s head, making his blood run cold.

“Well! If it comes down to the worst, I’ll use my magic to do something about it. But in the end, it’s still your decision.”

For a moment, Touyo could sense the change in tone and atmosphere around Tsubaki. Her slanted eyes sharpened and a broad smirk spread on her lips.

“Touyo, do you want to become a witch? If you refuse, then I won’t bother you anymore. I’ll give you some compensation for your trouble, and I’ll be on my merry way.”

Touyo couldn’t breathe for a moment.

He was given a choice. To take on this dangerously sounding spell, or just get paid.

Just get paid, and then continue his life of just being bored. With nothing exciting happening in his life, he would just be normal.

Being normal… Touyo could only see it as a sin.

“I’ll… become a witch!”

Touyo shouted. He hesitated for a moment, but his voice cuts through loud and clear.

Tsubaki formed a wide smile.

“Then, brace yourself!”

Tsubaki shouted and swung her hand with the orb high above. Touyo could only widen his eyes before the orb heads right to him—right into his chest.

The orb came into contact with his chest and something unexpected occurred.

Indescribable pain.

The orb passed through into his chest without issue, but the more it entered, the more pain Touyo went through. Something was invading his very essence, and the invasion is taking a toll on his body. It was enough to make him cry out, his mind losing focus on it. It took only a moment before darkness took over his eyes.

After a moment has passed, Touyo opened his eyes. Only to find out that he wasn’t in his room anymore. There was nothing but darkness all around him, sparing no light. He tried to move his hands and feet, but there was nothing there.

But after a while, something shimmered in front of his eyes.

In the distance, only growing bigger, was a flame that flickered slightly.

It was similar to the purple flame from before, only that it was a crimson-colored flame. The flame only became brighter and brighter.

Then it was encased in a perfectly spherical object. The sphere blackened and trapped the fire inside, but the glow continued through the blackened sphere.

The sphere glowed brighter to the point of blinding Touyo.

“Ahh!”

Touyo shouted, his eyes quickly opened to check around himself.

He caught the ceiling from the living room. The lamp with a rotary fan that’s used to keep the room cool spun around in a slow harmony.

But there was something his head was resting on. It was warm, and he was sure that he was resting on something unbelievably soft.

“Hallo~”

Tsubaki’s beaming face appeared at the side, her chest nearing his face. Touyo ultimately widened his eyes.

Tsubaki offered her lap for Touyo to sleep on.

The woman whom he has just met moments ago put his head on her lap as he slept while sitting on the spacious sofa, all the while keeping his head warm and fuzzy.

His face turned into a crimson red to the point where Tsubaki could see steam coming out of his ears.

“A-Aaaah! What happened to me!?”

He immediately jumped out of the sofa, his mind wandered before turning back around to face Tsubaki.

“Relax,” Tsubaki stood up from the sofa, eventually floating upwards into the air. “You’ve just been knocked out for about 2 hours.”

“2 hours?!” Touyo snapped. “How did that happen?!”

“Well, I put you through the ringer with the Authorization spell, remember? You knocked out and I took you here to rest up.”

“R-Right…”Touyo’s memory was slowly coming back. “Y-You pushed the orb into me… and I could have sworn that I almost died…”

The pain that he went through was astronomical. It could be comparable to a heart attack, but his mind told him that it was ten times worse than that. That indescribable feeling of pain that could have taken his life if he was even slightly weaker… it made him nearly shiver at the thought.

“Oh, so it was that painful, huh? Better work out the kinks, then. That was my first time, after all.”

“W-What did you say?” Touyo’s right eye twitched in response.

Tsubaki chuckled, all the while a suggestive sultry look showed in her slanted eyes. “You devil, you~ I said that you were my first~”

“Don’t make it sound so damn dirty!”

Tsubaki laughed out loud at Touyo’s expense, making his entire face go red from that kind of comment.

“Hahaha~” Tsubaki’s joyful laughter filled the room. “Sorry to make you a test subject, but it really helped me out. Now, can you tell me how you feel?”

“How I feel?! I feel…! Umm… I feel…”

Touyo’s rage dissipated the moment he took control of his senses. A feeling unbeknownst to him coursed through his body.

It's riveting. It was never this overwhelming before. Touyo had to clutch his hands into fists and open them again and again to adjust this new feeling.

“A-Amazing. It feels like I just gained… incredible power!”

“Ooooh! This power! It’s empowering meeee! Oooh! This strength! It’s unimaginable!”

Tsubaki raised her hands up, screaming at the top of her lungs with her head held high. Touyo related to that scream, getting his face to redden more than usual.

“Don’t say it like that! That’s so embarrassing!”

“Hehe~ But it was so fun looking at you so pumped up.”

“S-Shut up!”

Touyo could only look away in embarrassment, his face once again burning in a crimson red.

“That feeling that’s coursing through you right now is called ‘Arcana’, your magical energy,” Tsubaki managed to stop, but a tear welled up in her right eye. “It’s obvious that you’ll feel a lot different than before. But I also wanna make sure that there weren’t any drawbacks. Since you still had the energy to fight back, you’re completely fine.”

Tsubaki offered a bright smile. Touyo wanted to give her a stink-eye, but instead he kept looking to the side.

“Now then, since you got the body for it, how about we jump into our first lesson together?”

Tsubaki winked at Touyo, making it seem like sparkles came out. Upon hearing ‘first lesson’, Touyo’s heart quickened its pace—excitement growing on his face.

“F-First lesson? In learning how to do magic?”

“Right,” Tsubaki pointed upward. “For our first lesson ever, I’ll have you do the basics—the element spells.”

“T-The element spells?”

Touyo knew all about the element spells even without knowing what they were. From all the TV and anime he watched over the years, only someone who lived under a rock wouldn’t know about the classic energies of the earth.

“Y-You mean I get to start learning how to shoot fire or control water?!”

“Haha, barely. We’re just starting, so reign in your excitement a little.”

Tsubaki chuckled, obviously sensing his excitement practically exuding off of him. Butt Touyo couldn’t hold himself back. His hands kept swinging up and down, practically generating wind on their own.

“You're definitely going to need to learn these Black Magic spells,” Tsubaki said, smiling and winking. “Since you'll need them to protect yourself.”

“Protect myself…? From what?”

“Why,” Tsubaki made a sing-song smile. “To protect yourself from your enemies, of course~!”

“W-Wha…”

Touyo’s excitement dwindled a little from the news. What enemies? Despite bearing such a massive question in his mind, Tsubaki continued on without waiting for him to calm down.

“Now that that’s out of the way, we can start! First, here’s a demonstration.”

Tsubaki made a spin once in the air and was about to land on the floor. The boots covering her feet soon glowed a purplish glow before they vanished, revealing her delicate feet that soon made contact with the floor.

She then lifted her hand and after another magic circle came out. Once again, the purplish fire burned brightly from it like before, surprising Touyo despite already seeing it before.

“W-Whoa…”

“Usually, you need to chant for this kind of stuff as a beginner. Stuff like ‘O’ fire, grant my need’, or something like that. But that’s not how I work.”

“E-Eh…”

Though Touyo was glad that he didn’t need to say such embarrassing words to do magic, he tilted his neck as he got curious on the process.

“But it does require you to say at least something. For a beginner, making an image in your mind is exactly what you need to make magic happen.”

“So, I just say something and do it?”

“Pretty much. There's a lot of complicated ways of explaining this, but seriously, just think of something and say it. That's how you do magic--the Black Witch style!”

Tsubaki clenched her hands, causing the fire to stifle out. She opened her hand again, showing that nothing was burnt.

“I-I see…”

It was hard to believe at first, but the obvious fire that was just flickering in her hand without burning herself proved that Touyo’s sense of realism is nothing compared to real magic.

“Now, put out your hand.”

Tsubaki put out her hand in front of Touyo, doing as she said. Touyo hesitated for a moment, but he soon raised his hand, though it shook in anticipation.

“Now, imagine the fire that you just saw. Don’t do anything yet—just imagine it.”

Tsubaki spoke gently as she flexes her hand a little, but nothing happened. Touyo then kept his focus on his own hand and imagined the fire.

He imagined the flames he would usually see burning on a match or on his old stove that they used to have. But weirdly enough, it wasn’t a powerful image in his mind.

Touyo then recalled the fire from before, right before he woke up from Tsubaki’s lap. The same majestic fire that was shielded into a spherical object was so mesmerizing that he used that as his image.

“Okay,” Tsubaki could read his mind from his face expression and grinned. “Now you got the framework up. It’s time to build it.”

Using the concept of building, Tsubaki made a small smirk as Touyo was completely taken by her words. He nodded once before listening in.

“To enforce magic to existence, you must gather the arcana within your body into your hand. Make a trail—a bridge, so to speak—that forms directly from your heart. The heart has the Magic Core inside, so it is the source of your power. Build that bridge towards the portals you’re creating—to your hands.”

Touyo did exactly that. He closed his eyes, imagining the fire while also imagining the invisible energy forming a trail from his chest to his shoulder, to his arm, and finally, to his hand out front.

However…

“Ghh…”

A sweat trailed from his skin as he struggled to keep the two separate. In one thought, he was imagining the fire. But in the other, he was imagining the trail.

These two thoughts raced in his mind, getting him mentally exhausted already.

“Oh…?”

Tsubaki noticed the change in his expression, making a light noise.

Touyo grunted and continued to form an image, but his body was soon wearing out on him. Eventually he stopped breathing altogether, and before he knew it—he was struggling for air.

“Mmmrrgg…!”

Touyo’s hands now shook along with his body in desperation. The image in his mind was becoming too much to bear. His face was slowly becoming redder from the tension.

“Touyo!”

Touyo popped open his eyes. Light shone in through his eyes as he gained focus, finally seeing the beautiful woman showing a concerned look on her face.

“You okay?” She asked after seeing Touyo’s color return to normal.

“Y-Yeah… umm… did I do it?”

“Well…”

Tsubaki looked at his hand, motioning him to do as well. His hand did not do a thing. It just hung in the air, a puppet hand on strings.

“N-No way! I tried so hard…!”

“Indeed… it shouldn’t be something that hard to do…”

Tsubaki poked her chin several times as she stared at the hand that refused to make fire. The look on her face showed that something went wrong, and it hit Touyo right in his chest.

“D-Did I do something wrong? I tried everything you said.”

“Mmh…”

She burrowed in her thoughts, trying to find an answer. Touyo was left hanging as he pursed his lips from being stared at so deeply by Tsubaki.

“Well… I got a lot of theories, but I think—”

—Rumble…

Following along the strange noise that occurred, their feet shooked from the ground itself. A small groaning bellowed from the house as it shook, causing Touyo to flinch while Tsubaki looked up.

“Ah, out of time.”