Tahro Akagi shouldn't live in two worlds at once.
Yet, forced to spend his days studying by a no-nonsense mother, he longs for adventure. In a moment of desperation, Tahro's soul splits in two. While one of his selves remains in Japan, the other fi...
While the others grilled Ahio about his mission to save the donkey, I borrowed Daisuke's tome and leafed through it. Some pages hung by a thread, yellowed and likely printed decades ago. From spells to runic prisons, the book spoke of everything scholars could dig up about witches. It showed diagrams of rituals that burned anything in the area, of amulets that could heal, and even a spell that could kill with the flick of a finger.
Whoever this man was, whether he was a witch, found a witch or looted one of their homes, I needed to know what we were up against.
While we stayed for lunch, a juicy chicken roast with sauteed vegetables, and didn't leave till night set in, I could barely pry my fingers off the book and return it. My list of fields to research now held one more topic.
That night, I stayed up late meditating. Every time I closed my eyes, I wished I'd read another chapter of Blade Fables, with Yuuhei by my side, grinning at me and saying something ridiculous. But every time I opened them, all I saw was my room in Heikisato.
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February 4. Fourteen and a half years old. Saishuu Riku.
I was late.
Or I would be if my stamina had any say about it. I ran as fast as I could, up two flights of stairs and a few corridors. A minute before my watch struck seven, I skidded to a stop in front of room number fifteen, where the letter said my team, squad six, should meet up in. My breaths came heavy and hurt my airways.
As if it weren't bad enough that I had to join a whole new team, now I was late. Almost. What would they think of me? What if they'd all been up early today and had to wait for me for ages? This was the price I had to pay for refusing to wake up with the sun on a Saturday.
On my defense, it was Saturday.
Once I'd begun to breathe like a normal human, I opened the door with a trembling hand and took a step in the well-lit, wood-panelled room. A great brown bear jumped on me.
As I stumbled and almost fell, my brain caught up. No not a bear, but someone with a ton of brown hair. Their arms encircled me tight in a hug. Perhaps they were a bear after all.
As soon as it happened, they let me go and stepped back. My eyes no longer covered by a mass of curls, I saw the attacker. A slight girl, maybe my age or younger, crossed her arms and grinned at someone behind her.
'Hah, I told you it'll be a boy! I win the bet.' As she laughed and turned around, her long curls bounced around her sky-blue dress,
My cheeks grew hot. I'm never going to be late again. Not even on Saturdays.
'Oh don't be shy, you're as red as a tomato. My name's Cho and I'm a medic, you?' she asked, her nut-brown eyes glinting as bright as her smile.
My cheeks grew even hotter. I did not deserve this for waking up late.
