The one I had yearned for these seven long years

Is that… light? Shouldn’t I be dead? That truck hit me way too fast for survival to be at all plausible. How, then, are my eyes beginning to see again? Why is my mind conscious? Why am I not dead?

I try to open my heavy eyes. There’s sound around me too, people’s voices maybe, but I haven’t the cognitive ability to focus on both right now. I keep trying to open my eyes. Every attempt moves my eyelids a little more. A little more. A little more. Until finally, I’m able to see.

My vision is unfocused. Not something new to me, of course, that’s why I need glasses, but this is a different kind of unfocused. Everything is a blur of colours, beams of light streaming into my unready eyes, my head in pain from the overwhelming stimulus. Eventually, however, I brave out the headache and focus enough to make what’s in front of me. Two giants stare down at me… no, giants they are not. It is myself that is small. I try to move my neck to look down at my body, but my head is too heavy. However, I do move my hands into my sightlines. It’s as I’d thought. I’ve been reincarnated from birth.

* * *

It’s been four years since my reincarnation, and I’ve come to understand this world relatively well. It’s the sort of world you see in a lot of fantasy video games, although it’s more reminiscent of feudal Japan than medieval Europe. My father, Lord Kana of Shimatou island, is a rather powerful man in this country. As his title suggest, he governs an entire island.

Being a fantasy world, unsurprisingly, this place is also filled with magic. Unfortunately, it comes with a caveat: everyone’s born with one of the six divine elements, and can use spells with only that element.

My father’s element is air. As the lord of the land he also leads the local samurai, all of whom have air as their element. Air mages are faster, more agile, and more versatile than other elements, making them extremely efficient in combat. Not a day goes by where my father isn’t training his skills in swordsmanship and magic when I wake up.

My mother’s element is water. Water mages find more practical use in their abilities, with water spells having lots of uses for cleaning, cooking and other household chores. As a bonus, her mastery of temperature control magic means we can have an onsen-like bath in our home year round. That’s not to say she’s a pushover in a fight, however. My parents often spar for training, and her defensive prowess is more than enough to give dad’s attacks trouble. I enjoy watching them. They've been together so long that they have an intimate understanding of one another’s fighting styles, like two chess masters who know one another’s tactics as well as their own.

My element, however, is darkness. Most children don’t find their magical attribute until they’re at least ten or eleven, but my knowledge of old JRPG and fantasy anime story tropes came in unexpectedly helpful, and I sought out my parent’s books on magic usage to determine how spells are best cast.

Darkness and light are two elements that are very different from their cousins. It’s said that this world has two gods, one of darkness, and one of light. The god of darkness controls powers that consume and destroy, while the god of light controls the powers that create, heal and protect. The other elements are controlled by the two in tandem, a balance of sorts, giving them the potential to both help and harm. Darkness and light are controlled entirely by their own respective god, and are exceedingly rare.

Light users are highly sought after for their innate healing abilities, being able to heal otherwise fatal wounds in ways no other element can. They’re also able to assist in the growth of crops, grant blessings for good health, and even “buff” the effects of exercise and training, allowing people to gain strength and experience incredibly quickly.

Darkness is the element of destruction. The most powerful darkness mages can cause earthquakes strong enough to sunder entire islands, but even on the low end, darkness magic excels at taking life.

This, of course, does not mean the darkness mages are evil people. Quite the contrary, many of the great war heroes of this pseudo-Japan were darkness users who chose to use their rare and destructive abilities to defend their homeland from invaders. They’re also regularly contracted for destruction work, such as tearing down buildings that are either no longer needed or are too dilapidated to save. But what’s undeniable is that darkness as an element has an incredibly high potential for evil, especially when used by one with a propensity for it.

Not that I have any intention of being that person, of course. I’ve no desire to become some eminence in the shadows that controls the world through fear. But that hasn’t stopped me from secretly training myself on more and more powerful magics this past year or so.

As with any role-playing game, control and capacity of magic increase as one uses them more and more, but thankfully I don’t have to put random animals to the slaughter to raise my proficiency. Simply practising spells on my own seems to be enough. Of course, a year’s training is little compared to what fully trained adults can manage, but I’m likely the only four year old in this world to have mastered consuming the life force of plants and fungi for energy. Hopefully mother doesn’t find out it was my experiments that accidentally ruined her favourite blackrose bush, but sacrifices must be made in the pursuit of science and self improvement, mother dearest.

The technique I truly want to master, however, is gravity manipulation. It’s a high level magic, and some places regulate or even prohibit its use due to it’s extremely high potential for destruction.

Despite the seemingly nonsensical existence of magic, the laws of physics in this world differ little from those of my original universe, so gravity remains an exceptionally weak force. This means that the energy required to harness it is monstrous, and only through rigorous training can significant use of it be achieved. But when one does reach that point, they become the very harbinger of death, bending the most fundamental forces of nature to their will.

I was a physics nerd back home on Earth, so the idea of bending spacetime with magic is very appealing to me. Which is why I’ve spent the better parts of my days practising magic nonstop, killing plant after plant to replenish my energy, and using my every waking moment to cast spells. Somehow, my loving but irresponsible parents have yet to catch on.

The events that would change the course of my life, however, unfolded on one of those many similar days.

I was once again spending my time secretly casting low-level darkness spells in my room, trying to steadily increase my mana capacity, when I heard a commotion from downstairs. Not too long after, I heard my name being called.

“Shiidou! Come downstairs, my love! There’s someone in need of introduction!” The voice behind those words was that of my mother, who for some reason was content to allow her toddler to wander the house and its nearby woods with no supervision. Somewhat miffed at the interruption to my training, I oblige the request and trudge my way downstairs.

As I enter the living room, I’m met with a new face. A woman, likely in her 30s, in a traditional maid outfit. The reason European maids exist in a country so closely resembling feudal Japan evades me, but she’s not the first I’ve seen. Until recently, another lived in our home, but was forced to return to her ancestral home upon the news that her family had been struck with a deadly plague. This being the case, the replacement hardly surprises me.

“Young master Kana Shiidou, it’s a pleasure to be at your service.” She gives a smile and a respectful bow as she speaks. “My name is Saido Okaa, I’ll be working as your family maid from here on out. And this is my daughter, Ann.”

By the woman’s feet was a girl I hadn’t noticed until now. Roughly my height, so likely a year or two older than me. She, too, was dressed in maid garb, and attempted to emulate her mother’s politeness, although she seemed far more anxious about it.

“S-Saido Ann, pleased to be at your service.”

As she gave a similar bow, her eyes and mine locked for a moment. It took naught but that short moment for me to realise. She was the one I had yearned for these long seven years. The one I lost that tragic day. My childhood friend had been reincarnated into the same world as I had.