Learning About My Magic

I glanced at Hideo’s casual attire and couldn’t help but note the contrast between his clothes and Aile’s. Aile wore shorts and a vest that appeared to be designed to allow her a full range of movement. Hideo, however, seemingly contradicted this in every way, wearing jeans and a large and heavy-looking jacket that would appear to only restrict his movement.

Aile readied her sword, a two handed grip with a lowered stance and an unwavering glare. She glanced at my hip, waiting for me to respond in kind. I stared blankly, evoking a look of confusion as she tilted her head.

“You aren’t going to draw your sword? Well, at least you remembered to bring it,” she muttered with a condescending tone.

“Why would I need it? If we’re fighting with magic, then isn't a sword much less effective than using the cosmite crystals.”

Aile sighed and thrust her sword downward into the grass beneath her feet with such force that I could feel the air pressure from a few metres away. She gripped onto her hips with both hands and looked up towards the sky.

“Well it seems like you’ll have to train from scratch, but I’m hoping your body still remembers how to use magic,” she sighed, almost to herself.

Directing my attention towards her sword with her fingers, she began her explanation.

“The swords are infused with the cosmite crystals, meaning we channel our magic into our blades for combat.”

“Hmm…”

I pulled my sword out of its sheath and held it between my fingertips. I winced as the glare of the sun reflected from the sword into my eyes for an instant, leading me to a realisation.

“Hey, Aile. Is the colour of the sword significant at all? Mine is white, while yours is black. Is this because different cosmite crystals are being used in the creation of each one?”

Hideo took a step forward eagerly, holding his hand out towards me and speaking in a very calm manner.

“Well, the colour of the sword reflects your affinity. Your magic and affinity have been determined already, before you lost your memories. Similarly, Aile and I already have affinities, so the colour of our swords reflect that.”

Aile seemed to understand basic concepts well, but something about Hideo’s delivery enticed me to listen. He appeared to be a natural teacher who knew where my mental shortcomings stemmed.

“Oh. So what affinity did I have?”

“You had a tendency towards ice powers. You could create icicles from your sword and create a colder area around you to freeze objects within a certain range.”

I immediately conjured images in my head of being able to restrain opponents by encasing them in ice, or impale them with icicles originating from my sword. It might not have been the most practical of skills, but I felt a rush of excitement regardless. My only apprehension was that I didn’t know any other peoples’ abilities, so I had no reference to determine if this was a strong ability.

“Oh, that’s cool. I guess I’ll have to train my mental control rather than my actual magic, since my body has previously awakened strength then. What powers do you two have? What affinity manifests in a black sword?”

“I’ve never shown you, only very few people know. I guess it’ll be a surprise.”

From Aile’ response, it seemed that keeping one's ability to themself is extremely valuable for combat, something my previous self clearly didn’t take into account.

“Hmm… Ok then. What about you Hideo? What colour is your sword?”

“It’s more or less the same for me. Nobody knows the colour of my sword, because I’ve never had to draw it out of its sheath.”

“Seriously? Never?”

Hideo slid his hand towards the handle of his sword and held it close to his body, as if it were quite precious to him. I couldn’t see the actual blade, but the sheath was coloured in a bright blue and white colours, which didn’t indicate anything about his ability to me.

“Even though channelling magic through a sword is the most effective means for combat, it isn’t the only one. When in sword form, the cosmite crystals are flexible - there doesn’t need to be a specific type of crystal as your magic will affect it. However, that doesn’t mean the detached, more specific crystals can’t be used for combat. I’ve simply won all my fights with these detached crystals until this point.”

“Woah slow down for a second. What do you mean?”

Hideo reached into the pocket of the navy jacket he wore and pulled out a red crystal that looked very similar to the crystal I had seen Aile using previously.

“Well I assume you saw the flame crystals we used for cooking already. Essentially, I use preset fragments such as the flame crystal to deal my damage, as opposed to using my own magic on a sword.”

Transfixed, I continued to stare at the crystal between Hideo’s thumb and forefinger.

“Oh, I think I get it. So the cosmite within a sword can become any different element of power depending on the magic of the person which they infuse into the sword. Alternatively, detached crystals have a predetermined element or purpose. That’s quite interesting, but it does seem that the sword would be much more effective in that case.”

Aile raised her sword towards the trees once more before continuing.

“I tend to only use my sword, rather than crystals. Would you care to accompany me in my training then?”

Including me in her training appeared to be a rare act of kindness towards me from Aile, one which I would surely not pass up.

“Sure, what do you usually do for training?”

Aile lifted her sword out of the ground and glanced around at the forest around us. There were a few clear pathways between the trees and also quite a few unnatural pathways, which were identifiable by the large stumps which occasionally appeared in each of them.

“Usually, when I’m by myself, I practise the form of my swordplay by dashing through and cutting trees, with an occasional focus on physical strength building. But, I’m guessing for you, magic training will be more effective. So, how about we spar?”

Aile radiated an ominous aura, almost implying to me that she would kill me if I accepted. She had been waiting for an opportunity to fight me and if I accepted I’d probably end up dead.

It seemed that Hideo noticed the sweat start to form on my face, as he stepped towards me with his usual calm demeanour.

“Don’t worry, Benjiro. I’ll watch the fight and give you some pointers after the battle. For now, try visualising your magical aura created from the balance between the natural energy of the world, as well as your own body. The difference in pressure of these two forces will accumulate in your blade and be released, hopefully in the form of ice as before.”

“Visualise a balance between my energy and that surrounding me?”

I tried visualising it as directed, but my imagination for once had failed me. I didn’t know what these forces looked like or how strong they were, so how was I supposed to visualise it?

I tensed my body and tried to expel this energy, but I felt as if I didn’t have enough control to simply release my energy.

“If I released my energy, it would all escape me immediately, I can’t direct it in any way.”

“Hmm, no dice then. Let’s try putting a little pressure on you to see if you’ll be more effective. Aile, don’t hold back.”

“Don’t hold back? We aren’t going to fight are we?” I asked, offering a desperate stare to Hideo.

“Well if you don’t want to learn, we don’t have to.”

“Yeah, I think it would be funny to see you try to learn everything on your own,” Hideo chimed in.

If I was fighting Aile, then I understood my life was at risk. But, could I make my way to the equivalence without someone to teach me magic. Would I even need to fight?

In this body, given my history, learning magic seemed to be a necessity and it was doubtful that I would find a better teacher in a short amount of time.

“Fine, let’s do this.”