Chapter 2:

Amber Sky

Through the Christmas Glass


“Cuivië, olórë! Cuivië!” Kuro vaguely thought he heard some weird words while he was sleeping. It was a nice comfy sleep and did not want to wake up. He had dreamed he was isekai'd to a parallel world by a magic girl with a subtly blue-ish face from within an Akihabara cafe. A bit cliche, sure, but his dreams were his business.

“Ämpärin húmë päällesi!”
“Shush dream noise... shush... I want to sleep...”

He heard nervous footsteps and the familiar sound of water filling a bucket. Soon that water was all over his sleepy face and damn, it was cold. Kuro was off his bed faster than a cat could eat a freshly fried smelt. No, wait, that was not his bed. Where the heck was he? He did not recognize the room or... wherever he was.

Then he saw the magic girl; the one he thought he had dreamed of. Except now she wore no make-up and her face had the color of purple cabbage. Not quite, it was bluer. Kuro thought a bit and found the best match: a blueberry!

“Heräsitkö vidoin? Huvä!”
“I do not understand a word you're saying. Who are you? What do you want with me?”

The blueberry girl looked at him with a puzzled expression and then it was almost like an incandescent light bulb materialized and lit over her head. She then started to chant again.

“Kielen jumalatar ojenna meille kätesi!
Meidän on ymmärrettävä toisiamme!”
She repeated that twice; it looked like she spoke it a third time, but this time it was in fluent Japanese:
“Goddess of Tongue lend us a hand!
Each other we need to understand!”

“Do you understand me now Kuro Neko?”
“Yeah I do, but ditch the Neko please. Just call me Kuro”
“Fine Kuro, as you wish. You're the bosu after all,” the blueberry girl smiled and a set of pitch black teeth emerged behind her cyan lips. Her hair were also cyan.
Kuro was startled and stepped back a bit. He once saw a rare black pearl up close and these teeth looked exactly like that, in both color and texture.

Bosu? What on Earth does that mean? Never mind that, just tell me.. Why do you look like a film negative? Everything about you is.. inverse. How is that possible?”

“I have no idea what a ‘film negative’ is but I could ask the same about you. Why do you have a fair skin, red lips and black hair? Oh, let's not forget your dark brown eyes!” blueberry girl showed her eyes.

Kuro had been too overwhelmed with everything to notice her eyes, despite them being her most striking feature. The irises of her eyes had a very light grey, almost white color, but the pupils of her eyes were black like normal. Kuro assumed there was an explanation for this but he didn't ask so that Blue did not think he was an idiot.

“There are ~8 billion people in my world and most of us have, more or less, the same skin color range. There are various skin tones from light pink-white to dark brown-black but there are no people with blue, purple or green skin. There are plenty with blue, purple, pink or even green hair like yours though. We have the Goddess of hair dyes to thank for that,” Kuro said with his best poker face. He hoped she was going to take the bait, to tease her a bit.

“Really?! You have a Goddess of hair dyes?! We do not have one of those here.. Which is why we cannot dye our hair with magic spells; we need to get our hands dirty - literally,” she did take it. Blue pouted her green lips and blueberry face in a way that Kuro found funny, if not a bit charming.

“Enough with the small talk. Please tell me what you want with me. If you want me to slay a rabid dragon or an evil Demon Lord plotting to annihilate your world from his dark castle I think you will be disappointed; I'm just a normal guy. By the way, what is your name?”

“Laurefindelë Entulessë Hyarmendacil. At your service,” she said while bowing gracefully. Kuro's eyes and mouth widened.
“There is no way I can even pronounce all of that, let alone remember it. Your name sounds like it was created by a hardcore Tolkien fan whose day job is in linguistics and at their free time they extend Quenya with new words. May I cut a syllable or.. five? How about I call you simply Laura?”

“Fine bosu, you may call me Laura. I think I like it, though I have no idea what Tolkien and Quenya are,” Laura said after thinking for a while. “As for why I brought you here I will tell you; in time.“

‘Keeping the suspense ha? You do not want to disclose too many details at the beginning ha? Fine, if this was an anime I was watching I wouldn't want to know right away either. Not before torturing this lame MC a bit first,’ Kuro thought, as a slight smirk was drawn on his face.
                                                             ***       
The pursuers of Kuro tracked him a few minutes after he passed out in the black snow.
“There he is! We found him! We found the Otherworlder!” the ringleader of the mob shouted. “Let's capture him before he wakes up, we need to make an example of him! The Cardinal will surely reward us handsomely! Boys! Let's take him and tie him to a plank in our town's square, for everyone to see how different and ugly he is!”

The mob cheered enthusiastically, as if with one voice, waving their pitchforks and torches. Their mostly grey-white eyes glowed even more than usual. They looked like predators who cornered their weak and injured prey and were about to devour it. It appears this is the end of the road for Kuro; if these guys get their hands on him he will probably not live to see another sunrise.

Fortunately Laura caught up with them just a few meters before their claws reached Kuro. She started to chant, or rather spell-cast. She cast a healing spell for Kuro and a wind spell to attack the mob. She requested the aid of both Goddesses, of Healing and Wind, which was intermediate - advanced magic.
The strongest magicians in the world could cast up to four distinct spells at the same time. Laura could handle up to three, but afterward she was drained of almost all her mana.

Kuro started to glow with a red glow in place of the usual green. As for the mob Laura's wind spell forced most of them many meters back and after they regained their senses they ran away in fear; the only ones who remained were the mob ringleader and his right hand man, who resisted with a defensive spell.

“We are not afraid of you little witch. We have the Cardinal's blessing. Cardinal Curufinwë is a powerful member of the Church of Purebloods, as you well know. We are going to burn alive both you and the hideous Otherworlder you brought to our pure and unmarred world and be done with your ugliness!” the mob leader was almost foaming from excitement and hatred.

“Tell your Cardinal to get his own hands dirty next time. I know that hiring you bigots was dirt cheap but, as you'll soon find out, ineffective,” Laura killed Kuro's healing spell, enhanced her wind spell and asked for the aid of the Goddess of Fire. She mixed the two spells together and created a mini tornado of wind and fire.

The mob boss and his henchman lost their self-assured smirks and tried, in vain, to counteract Laura's combo spell. Their defences were shattered and they were dashed tens of meters away, like puppets. They landed on soft ground but they must have broken a rib or two.

Behind them the violet Sun started to emerge, as the night gave way to a morning filled with a beautiful amber sky.