Heart part 1

Chapter 15 - A Harsh Wind Comes

After a long, monotonous two weeks, Heart's injuries had finally finished healing. But despite this, their situation didn't improve much. Their hands were still gone. For Heart, this wasn't much of a problem, but going forward, it was going to be much more of an annoyance than what it already was. Unexpectedly, however, later the next day Juzo would approach them with a solution to their problem.

***

" Use magic to create some sort of 'artificial hands' that Heart could use? Is something like that really possible?!" Esther exclaimed. Juzo nodded in response.

Rearing her bright eyes and large toothy grin at them, Esther threw her arms around Heart in excitement. Sandy took a step away to avoid getting hit by her excited flailing.

" Isn't that such great news, Heart!? You'll be able to use some magic to get new hands!" She exclaimed directly into their ear. " Magic really can do anything!"

While forcing out a groan, as they tried to push Esther off of them, Heart thought, " I already knew that something like this would be possible. But it's not going to work out because-"

Interrupting their inner monologue, Juzo suddenly uttered, " Well actually, I'll be the one doing the magic."

Lowering her smile, Esther turned her attention to him.

" Ever since we first met, I could just feel it. Heart possesses no mana. That's why I'll be the one doing this." He said.

" I was...just about to say that!" Heart silently boomed. " But what does he mean he'll be the one doing it? There's no spell that he could...wait. Is he planning on using that? I...didn't think of that...that really annoys me."

Lifting his hands, Juzo put them together in a praying fashion.

" Could you three back up for a moment?" He asked. Without waiting another moment, Esther and Sandy began to shuffle a few steps back. Esther pulled Heart back along with them.

Taking in a deep breath and calming his nerves, Juzo uttered, " Shadow hands!"

Soon after the words left his lips, the shadow hands spontaneously appeared out of thin air. They were almost as big as the inside of the room. With just one wrong move, the hands could blow the roof or floor of the room away.

" Okay. Now...disperse!" He proceeded to shout. At his call, the shadow hands suddenly began to evaporate into several hundred smaller, but more normally sized hands.

While a majority of them began to fade away, Juzo gestured towards two in the crowd to come forward. The shadow hands floated across the room towards Heart.

Juzo proceeded to tell them, " Now, hold your arms up,"

Begrudgingly, Heart did as he asked. The shadow hands continued forward and locked into place onto their wrists.

As the hands began to writhe and squirm, Juzo said, " These hands are now yours. They'll listen to your every command. However, since I'm the one who created them, they are still technically in my possession. This means that I'll be the one that has to supply them with a constant source of mana so that you can use them."

" But don't worry." He uttered. " Unlike the larger ones, the amount of mana these will drain is negligible. They should be out and free for you to use whenever you please. It will probably take some time before you get used to them, but once you do, they should feel pretty much identical to your old ones."

Looking down at them, as the hands continued to squirm, Heart attempted to control them. For a few moments, the hands continued on, but then all of a sudden, they became stiff. With no struggle at all, Heart proceeded to lift a finger. They wriggled it around along with the other seven. Their movement was fluid and they moved with immense precision as if they were their real hands.