"Heyy!! Are you alright?"
Tatsuya with an overly concerned expression walked over to a girl who was lying in bed.
The sun shined its light into the room, making the girls porcelain skin look like it was shining.
The girl leaned her back against her canopy bed's headboard.
"I'm happy you made it all in one peace." She said smiling.
Sora and Luna trailed closely behind Tatsuya, nearly tripping over each other as they hurried into the room.
"Yeah barely." Sora said, tumbling over Tatsuya who now lay flat down on the ground. Like he was ran over by a earth-dragon carriage.
Luna's leg was still banged up, and she needed to be careful not to reopen her wound.
No one in the village could heal her completely, their was only one person that could heal her up. But he hadn't returned yet.
It's been two days since his departure. He didn't gave a date on when he'd return. Until then Luna was still the Lord of the mansion…. Right?
"Ohh! My poor little sister!! You feeling better?" Luna asked, bulldozing over Tatsuya who now almost went into the wooden floor. "Do you need water, or… I'll cast a healing spell right now."
"Knowing you're all save, I sure am." She replied.
"How did you catch a fever?" Sora said, her voice calm although she stood on top of a pancaked Tatsuya.
It's probably because of the rain. Tatsuya thought. I am lucky I am not sick. But can't you just use detoxification magic to cure the fever?
The girl, Ruza, tilted her head toward the window, casting a shadow across her face.
Her expression was like she wanted to say something but decided not to. "I guess I got it a few days ago. When I went for a late night walk and it suddenly started to rain really hard."
"Sisy, you need to be careful when you go outside. The weather doesn't care about you." Luna said, "He's selfish. Curse you weather!"
Ruza decided to keep it a secret that she found Tatsuya on the roof. She was happy that she got to help Tatsuya but still wondered what happened that he felt that way.
"Can't you heal your fever with detoxification magic??" Tatsuya asked.
"Don't you know how difficult that is, dummy." Sora replied while putting pressure with the leg that was still on top of Tatsuya.
"Arghh!!"
"Get off me!!"
Tatsuya grabbed Sora's leg and they rolled around the room like two tumbleweeds in a windstorm.
"Didn't realize you two became so close?"
They both stopped mid-roll, Tatsuya halfway upside-down and Sora's leg wrapped around Tatsuya's.
They looked at each other and smiled. "At least we're not trying to kill each other." Sora said.
They both let out a laugh.
Sora stood up. "I am sorry miss Ruza, should I comfort you with some healing magic?"
"Yes, please do."
I kinda feel guilty. Tatsuya thought as he brushed off the dust from his clothes. I still need to thank her for helping me, now how can I do that?
What does she actually like?
"Dad is the only one that can heal fevers like this with detoxification magic." Luna said. "But we don't know how long it will take before he gets back."
"Well with all you company I am feeling a lot better."
"I'll accompany you always! Sister!"
Sora and Luna exited the room, Tatsuya stood next to the canopy bed.
"You caught that fever because of me, didn't you?"
"Unfortunately, yes." Tatsuya looked guilty and seeing that expression Ruza quickly apologized. "It's not your fault, I wanted to help you even despite the weather."
Tatsuya believed that but it still hard to accept.
"What happened to Luna's leg?" She asked.
"She just got injured." Tatsuya quickly replied.
Ruza looked suspicious. "Injuries like that don't happen when you just get injured."
"No, she.. she fell over a fallen tree and injured her leg. It happens sometimes."
Ruza stared at him, the same way she did on the rooftop.
His gaze darted away.
She helped me, she saved me. I can trust her with my feelings, right? She saw me at my worst and still did persecute me, so telling her what I did would that be save with her?
The air in his lungs thinned. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. Something inside him coiled—tight, panicked.
"You can tell me what happened, I won't judge you for that." She said quietly.
"Ruza…" Tatsuya said slowly. "Something happened in the village,"
He hadn't meant to tell her, Not at first.
He'd thought about it throughout the journey back home. All through helping Stefan knock over a bucket and watching Sora scold the goat.
He trusted that Ruza was the only one he could tell it to, he couldn't tell it to Nisuki or Itsuki.
He told her everything, how he left Luna alone in the forest and how she cried in his arms in the chief's house. But also how Sora tried to kill him because of his scent of the Devil.
"I wanted to make her pay. For Luna. For what she did to me." His fingers curled into fists.
"I told myself it was justice."
"But that was a lie."
He looked away, shame cutting down through his chest like a falling knife. "I went after her because I wanted to feel in control again. Because I wanted to hurt someone and pretend it was for the right reason."
Ruza's lips parted slightly. "Tatsuya—"
"I found her in the woods," he said, louder now. "She was crying. Crying like a little kid. And the thing is… I still wanted to do it. Even then. Even seeing her like that. I thought, 'If I kill her now, I can protect everyone else.'"
"It wasn't justice. It wasn't protection. It was selfish. I wasn't doing it for Luna. I was doing it for myself."
Ruza's expression changed, not in the way he feared. Her expression wasn't that off disgust or terror but empathy.
"A demon dog attacked her." He continued. "I tried to protect her and I lost."
He touched the side of his stomach absently, remembering the tearing pain, the gushing warmth of blood.
"I blacked out. When I woke up… I was lying in her lap. Sora. She healed me. She stayed. She didn't leave. And I realized… I was wrong. About her. About myself. I'm…"
He swallowed.
"I'm not who I pretend to be. I killed people, Ruza. Back home. Before I came here. Bullies. I thought they deserved it. That the world was better without them. That if I just cut out the problem, everything would be fixed."
A trembling breath.
"But it doesn't fix anything. It doesn't take the weight away. It just makes you heavier. Until you can't move anymore without dragging it all behind you."
Tatsuya let his limbs hang loosely at his sides.
"If you hate me now… I understand."
Ruza stared at him.
Her hands were clasped together in front of her chest, fingers curling tightly into the fabric of the blanket.
"You're not a monster, Tatsuya," she whispered.
You made mistakes. You hurt people. But you're still standing here. And you're telling me. That means something."
He shook his head. "It's not enough."
"I'm not saying it is. But… you're trying. You're choosing not to hide. And I think that's more than most people ever do."
"…I was so afraid," Tatsuya said, voice barely audible. "That if you knew, you'd see me the way I see myself."
Ruza looked up at him, eyes wet but steady.
"I see you, Tatsuya. All of you."
She smiled.
"And I'm still here."
"Thank you," he whispered.
Part 2
After leaving the room Tatsuya was left wondering what he could do to thank Ruza for her help.
Sign.
"Argh, I can't think of anything!"
It troubled him, not knowing how to repay Ruza's kindness.
Let's just return to my room…
He remembered the way back to his room, which was on the second floor and immediately next to the stairwell leading to it, so it wasn't difficult to find. But he still found himself lost sometimes.
Tatsuya eyes were fixed on the ground and he noticed how dusty it was. Itsuki and Nisuki were here when we went to the village, right? Then why does it look so dusty?
Boom!!
"Au!!"
A dull thud still echoing from the spot where his forehead had just collided with the stone wall beside the doorway.
Tatsuya was so caught up in his thoughts that he missed the doorway completely.
He clutched his forehead with both hands, "Why is the wall in the way?!"
He turned, still clutching his forehead, and prepared to retreat to the safety of dramatic sulking.
"You good."
"GYAAHHH!!"
Tatsuya shot back so fast he nearly re-collided with the same wall again. "Where did you come from!?!"
A man in a water-patterned kimono, arms folded behind his back, appeared behind him.
"I have been called to train a certain someone."
"And who might that be?"
"Someone who can't acknowledge the difference between a doorway and a wall."
"What…"
Tokagame considered this for a moment. "I suppose not. Still, you must train that awareness. If I were your enemy, you'd already be dead."
Tatsuya's mouth opened.
"…Yeah, okay, fair."
A beat passed.
Tatsuya straightened slightly. "So… you're really here to train me?"
Tokagame gave a single nod. "Yatsu's orders."
He listens to Yatsu's orders? I am really underestimating his authority..
"Why?" Tatsuya asked. "I'm not exactly the model student."
Tokagame tilted his head. "Precisely."
"Excuse me?"
"From what Yatsu had told me is that your… kinda unstable."
"Why is that a good thing?"
"Your instability makes you unpredictable. That makes you dangerous. Which means you must learn control before that danger turns inward or spreads outward."
"O-okay, that makes sense, but you really didn't have to word it like I'm a plague."
"You are a weapon that has not yet decided who to point itself at."
"Still sounds plague-y!"
Tokagame stopped walking.
So did Tatsuya, albeit a little less gracefully.
Tokagame's voice lowered, just a hair. "But I decided you're worthy because I of what you did in the village."
How much does he know of what happened there?
The air changed.
The corridor stilled, like the breath before a blade is drawn.
Tatsuya stiffened. "Worthy?"
"I don't think you are evil," Tokagame said plainly. "But you are unsharpened. A blade left in a drawer too long can rust—or worse, slice the wrong hand."
Tatsuya exhaled slowly.
That analogy hit a little too close.
"…So what, you're gonna be my whetstone?"
"If you like," Tokagame replied. "Or your grindstone. Depending on how stubborn you are."
Tatsuya narrowed his eyes. "That sounded threatening."
Tokagame smiled faintly.
Tatsuya rolled his shoulders, the ache in his skull slowly giving way to something.
Excitement.
Not the kind that made your heart race with panic, but the kind that filled your stomach with nervous energy and your head with the buzz of possibility.
"So… when do we start?"
Tokagame stepped forward, eyes glinting like still water right before a storm.
"Tomorrow morning. Sunrise. The clearing past the garden."
Tatsuya blinked. "Sunrise?"
Memories of when he was with Paul, flashed before his eyes. He hadn't realized until now how much fun he had back then.
You never realize how happy you we're once it's gone.
Tatsuya watched him for a moment, then let out a long breath.
His training couldn't be more painful then Paul's, right?
Despite his jokes, despite his nervousness, despite the uncertain future that was waiting for him.
He was smiling.
Because for the first time in this new world, he was actually excited to work hard.
Thud
Thud
Light and delicate footsteps, echoed through the hallway.
Tokagame turned around and offered a respectful bow. "Good afternoon, Lady Itsuki."
She returned it with a polite nod, then turned to Tatsuya. "You'll need to put your training ambitions on hold for now. There's something you both need to see."
Tatsuya blinked. "Wait, something…?"
"Yatsu Davida has returned to the estate."
Tatsuya's mind blanked. He had pictured this moment dozens of times since arriving at the mansion. Each one involved dramatic wind, fiery confrontations, answers to impossible questions, and maybe a sword drawn under the moonlight for symbolic purposes. Not… this. Not a casual walk through the garden with an overly calm samurai and a slight bruise on his forehead.
"Oh," he said at last. "Cool."
"Cool?" Itsuki echoed with a raised brow.
"Cool as in I'm gonna go throw up, then change into something less sweat-stained, then go find a place to scream into a pillow."
"I shall retrieve a pillow for you," Tokagame offered helpfully.
"I WAS BEING METAPHORICAL."
"I do not trust metaphors."
Itsuki sighed and gestured toward the inner courtyard. "Come on, both of you. He's waiting at the front gate. We're to meet him directly. He asked for you, Tatsuya."
The entire reason he went away was because he went out to get something that would maybe help Tatsuya use magic.
Could that be a good sign?
As they passed through the wide stone hallway and toward the estate's outer path, the breeze picked up—cool and sharp, the kind that carried the smell of moss, old steel, and the kind of mysteries that made your hair stand on end.
They reached the gate.
The iron bars had been drawn open, and standing in the light beyond the trees was a tall, cloaked figure, back turned.
Yatsu Davida.
Even without seeing his face, Tatsuya knew.
The tension in the air was like a breath held too long. Like lightning waiting to remember it could fall.
"I've waited a long time to meet him again," Tokagame muttered, Tatsuya didn't seem to notice.
Tatsuya swallowed hard.
Part 3
"How has it been going?" Yatsu Davida asked.
Tatsuya sat in a leather chair at a grand oval desk of dark polished wood. It's was no other place then Yatsu's Davida's office.
Opposite of him sat the man.
"It been going quite well."
That's a lie
"Glad to hear it." He responded, not seeming to notice Tatsuya's lie. "Well, I shouldn't keep you waiting. You know quite well why I called you here."
Tatsuya nodded
Yatsu got something.
It was a small wooden box, it radiated a quiet presence that commanded attention.
A soft blue hue, weathered and kissed by time, cloaked its surface like a faded memory from a distant summer.
The wood had been lovingly carved, each petal and branch etched with the care of a craftsman who believed beauty was sacred.
At the heart of the lid, encircled by a halo of flowers and vines, stood a bold emblem—a tree, its branches splayed wide like open arms.
Its edges were brushed with a rustic brown, where the blue had faded.
"A box.." Tatsuya questioned.
"Not just a box."
He opened it.
It glimmered like a shard of emerald light. The twisted chain sparkled faintly in the sunlight—old, but not tarnished, like it had weathered countless stories and yet remained untouched by time.
"What is this…?"
A pendant, shaped like a diamond. A jagged "Z" was carved into its center, like it was stitched from lightning itself.
"A necklace?" Tatsuya offered, unsure if he was asking or answering.
The green glow wasn't just a color. It was a presence. Soft, like moss under bare feet. Quiet, like the forest just before it rains.
"It's a pendant but not a normal pendant." Yatsu began. "Inside this necklace a mana-spirit rests. She channels mana into the bearer, allowing them to use the mana of the spirit to strengthen their own mana or higher capacity of mana."
But what does that change for me, I don't have a single drop in me..
"Now my theory is." He continued, "Can for someone who doesn't possess any mana, it be used as their source of mana?"
Tatsuya couldn't give an answer to that question, not that it was intended for him to answer.
So far he didn't had any interest in any of this mana stuff. He did found Paul's explanation interesting but because he couldn't use magic himself he judged it as useless for him.
Maybe if this works he would be more interested.
"How are we going to test it?" Tatsuya questioned.
Yatsu smiled, his smile for the entirety in of their conversation was satisfied, like he had found the answer to a question he couldn't solve.
That expression was what made Tatsuya belief it could be the cure to his problem.
"Just try it."
Part 4
Tatsuya stepped out into the sunlight, clutching the pendant in his hand like holding a tiny star that had fallen to the ground just for him.
The garden was quiet.
A breeze passed through the open courtyard like a sigh from the sky itself.
He had never felt anything like it.
His body, once hollow and disconnected from this world's flow, now felt tethered like the roots of a tree finally touching soil.
"Stand there," Yatsu said from behind, his hands clasped behind his back as he walked with the posture of a noble who didn't need to pretend. "And close your eyes. Listen."
Tatsuya didn't question him.
He closed his eyes.
And for the first time in this foreign world, he felt it.
It started as a whisper something that stirred in the air just above his skin, brushing along the edge of his thoughts like a voice from a forgotten dream. Then came a sensation deeper than breath, something alive and pulsing in the air around him.
Mana.
"Now," Yatsu's voice said, calm and steady, "recite the incantation for the spell."
Remembering the incantation Yatsu had explained to him earlier, he spoke them, trusting the words would grant him power.
"Whispers of calm, echoes of tide,
From stillness draw the strength to rise,
Let winds be hushed and hearts made clear,
Unveil the path the soul holds dear.
Water sphere!"
From his outstretched palm, a sphere of water formed.
Then it launched forward.
With a wet crack, the sphere slammed into a tree across the garden, breaking apart into a rain of glistening droplets that sparkled in the sun.
"…I did it," Tatsuya whispered, staring at his palm. "I actually… did it."
A laugh escaped him—short, stunned, somewhere between a gasp and a sob.
"I used magic," he said again, as if saying it aloud made it real.
The pendant around his neck pulsed a soft rhythm like the beat of a heart not his own. He looked down at it, then up at the sky—blue, endless, unfamiliar—and for the first time, it didn't feel like a cage. It felt like a place he belonged.
Something that had been missing all this time had fallen into place.
Yatsu Davida watched from a few paces behind, his arms still crossed, A satisfied smile traced his lips.
The kind of smile a craftsman wears after finally hammering the last nail into a stubborn masterpiece.
Well done," he said simply.
Tatsuya turned to him, eyes wide, heart still racing.
"…You really did it," he said. "You actually found a way."
Yatsu shrugged. "I had my doubts. I still do. But I had to try."
There was a pause. The breeze rustled the grass again. A bird let out a single call before falling silent.
"Thank you," Tatsuya said.
It was quiet, honest, and filled with everything he couldn't put into words.
Yatsu closed his eyes for a moment, letting the sunlight rest on his face like a reward. Then he turned on his heel.
"Be careful, you may have access to a mana-spirit, but it's not infinite. You can still exhaust the spirit."
He began walking back toward the manor.
Tatsuya stayed there for a moment longer, the pendant still glowing gently on his chest.
He looked down at it, fingers brushing its emerald surface.
"Mana… magic…"
Water. Fire. Wind. Ice. Maybe one day… all of it.
For the first time since coming to this world, the thought didn't scare him.
It thrilled him.
He smiled—bright, almost childlike.
Tatsuya felt that the world was less rejecting him anymore.
Part 5
The garden was quiet.
Not the kind of quiet that comes from stillness, but the kind that breathes between things. The rustling of distant leaves. The faint creak of a branch swaying beneath a bird's weight. The low hum of insects settling into the afternoon sun. That sort of quiet.
The kind that spoke, if you knew how to listen.
Tokagame Takashi sat on the edge of a stone bench nestled between two hydrangea bushes, his worn scabbard resting against his leg.
Next to him sat a boy.
He has dark green hair and green eyes, his dark green kimono contrasts perfectly with the garden around him.
He looked around seventeen, He didn't speak.
Instead, he sat with both hands folded neatly on his lap and watched the clouds drift by overhead with an expression that was neither bored nor curious.
Just enjoying the nature around him.
A breath later, Tokagame Takashi lowered himself onto the bench beside him, slow and deliberate.
Micah didn't look at him. He already knew it was his master by the sound of the boots brushing against gravel. By the rhythm of his breath. By the scent of steel oil and mountain wind clinging faintly to his coat.
"You've been quiet today," Tokagame said, resting his hands on his thighs. "Something bothering you?"
Micah shook his head once. "No, sir."
Tokagame didn't press the issue. He rarely did. He was the kind of teacher who let silence do the work for him.
Still, after a few moments, Micah spoke again.
"Do you ever think the wind gets tired?"
Tokagame raised a brow.
Micah continued, still watching the rustling tree branches, voice soft and steady. "It's always moving. Always brushing against leaves, bending grass, carrying the smell of things it doesn't understand. Do you think it ever wants to stop?"
Tokagame let the question hang there, like a leaf caught mid-fall.
Then he said, "The wind doesn't have the luxury of rest."
The boy's lips twitched, not quite a frown, not quite a smile.
"Just like swordsmen, then?"
Tokagame exhaled through his nose. It wasn't quite a laugh. It wasn't quite not one, either.
"Maybe."
A bird fluttered down near the edge of the fountain. It dipped its beak into the water once, twice, and then vanished back into the sky like it had only stopped by to say it existed.
The boy leaned back slightly, eyes half-lidded.
He still looked at the world like it might forgive him if he asked kindly enough.
"I thought becoming your apprentice would be harder," Micah admitted. "Or maybe I hoped it would be. That way I'd know I was getting stronger."
"You've improved," Tokagame said plainly.
"I feel like a leaf trying to stand on a stone," the boy muttered. "Like no matter how still I stay, the wind's just going to knock me off again."
"…Then root yourself."
He blinked.
Tokagame glanced toward the trees—toward a maple that had stood there longer than either of them had been alive.
"The wind is strong. But a tree isn't scared of it. Because its roots are deeper than the wind can reach."
There was silence again, but this one was different. Heavier. Like it was trying to wrap itself around them, to lull them into the kind of rest they didn't often get.
The boy leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees now.
"I want to be someone strong enough that the wind rests when I speak," he said quietly.
Tokagame didn't say anything at first. But when he did, his voice was low. Certain.
"You will be, Micah."
The boy turned to him—finally looking at his master—and nodded