name was Ekius, and I lived in hell.
Okay, that wasn't technically accurate. Given that Hell was a real place in this horrorscape of a universe, it was confusing to say I lived in Hell. I lived on Earth, but it may as well have been Hell for how screwed I was.
This was a universe that was referred to in my old life by the moniker 'Highschool DXD'. A manga turned anime that was ninety percent boobs, and ten percent random Dragon Ball style powerups.
At first glance, it was the perfect world for a man to be reborn into. Harems were commonplace. Everyone and their mother was hotter than the sun. And magic was real. Who didn't love magic?
Unfortunately, if one were to dig a little deeper under DXD's happy go lucky facade, they would discover a death world more terrifying than almost anything I could think of other than SCP, Bloodborne, and Warhammer 40K. Every mythology was real, which meant all of the associated monsters were real. Humans were constantly eaten, enslaved, or just plain killed for no other reason than they were weak flesh sacks in a world filled with literal deities. And--what was the last thing? Oh yeah--I was human. Just a John Doe living in a world where one needed to be John Wick to live past thirty.
I sighed as I splashed water into my face. I looked up into the bathroom mirror as I pulled my thoughts away from my unavoidably messy death at the hands of some suped up rage monster. A young man stared back through the mirror. He had short, messy black hair that seemed as if it hadn't been combed in a decade. Pale skin, and bright red eyes. I was the spitting image of my mother. Or at least I thought I was. Maybe my first memories were just a crazy fiction invented by an infant brain unprepared for the rigors of being born? Maybe I wasn't in a crappy anime world afterall?
I doubted it. I didn't think I was that lucky.
I finished up in the bathroom and walked out into the hall.
"About time!" A harpy, I mean normal human girl--I had to stop using mythological metaphors--screeched as she brushed past me. "You've been in there for over an hour!"
It hadn't even been fifteen minutes. But correcting her would just start another fight, and I really didn't care enough.
The girl in question had been…. Stacey? Sarah? Sadie? I didn't know. Something that started with an 'S'. She was one of my foster 'siblings'. About the only thing we had in common was the roof over our heads.
I was graciously taken in by a couple of true angels (Dammit! Stop using mythological metaphors!) when my sorry excuse for a mother 'put me up for adoption'. Tossed me across a hospital room and left me to some random guy who in turn probably just dropped me on a doorstep somewhere. I didn't remember. The moments after my birth were consumed by the terrified realization that I was in boob world.
Dina and Allen Ackerman--my foster 'parents'--were dicks. They grabbed every kid the state needed a home for, shoved us into three rooms, and lived off the kickbacks. Their house was a forty-five or so minute drive out from New York City on a condemned farm. They got the land for cheap, and packed kids onto the property so they didn't have to work.
There were seven of us--not including them--the last time I checked. It was hard to keep track because kids tended to come and go. Some just wanted to get away from Dina and Allen, and others were actually adopted. Not me though. Strangely enough, Dina and Allen were the ideal 'parents' as far as I was concerned.
I was the only one who knew just how screwed up this world was, and the only one who knew how unlikely any of us were to survive. Sure, DXD liked to cover up all the nasty stuff that happened to squishy mortals with another shot of some random demon's breasts, but that didn't eliminate the dangers.
People, mostly humans, were killed by Random Acts of the Supernatural (Henceforward referred to as RAS) every day. The only reason no one heard about it was because whenever RAS happened, the supernatural police would sweep through the area and mind wipe entire populations. They just casually erased people's minds, and screwed with their heads.
It was terrifying. One of my greatest fears in my past life had been losing who I was. Having someone make a jigsaw puzzle out of my mind and smash the pieces back together in the wrong order. This fear was probably accentuated by the unhealthy amount of fanfiction I consumed that featured mind control as a major plot point, but I never claimed I was a well adjusted adult. Just an adult.
Walking down the stairs, no one paid me a second thought as I grabbed my thirty cent pop tart and walked out the front door.
This was why I was perfectly fine with, and actually thankful for Dina and Allen's home. Sure, they were assholes, but they never checked in on me. That would be bad if I were a normal kid, but I was an adult with a teenager's body. I knew how to take care of myself, and was more than willing to be ignored.
The lack of attention and structure let me do whatever I wanted. In the end, that boiled down to three things.
Training--where I would run, do any kind of muscle exercise I could without equipment, and practice my rusty martial arts from my previous life's blackbelt in karate. While I wasn't expecting to be able to wrestle a demon, being in good physical shape was a must in a death world.
Research--where I would climb aboard the bus into the city and go store to store looking for anything remotely supernatural that I could use to achieve any sort of power.
And mental health time--where I would take long relaxing walks, meditate, and just try to forget the fact that I was likely to die a very painful death any day. What? Mental health was important.
I chewed on my pop tart as I walked down to the bus station. I'd already run this morning, it was why girl who's name started with 'S' was so pissed I was using the bathroom. I was showering. With my early workout done, I was off to research.
I had yet to come across anything even remotely useful over the two years I'd been looking. I would have started sooner, but I just didn't have the strength to feel safe. It would make me feel really stupid to find something that would actually let me defend myself against otherworldly monsters only to die in a mugging. It would be hilarious, sure, but only for everyone other than me.
I still wasn't the strongest guy in the world, but if nothing else, I knew I could run away really well. I'd already employed that tactic on multiple occasions. You'd be surprised how many knife wielding muggers will just stare after you in shock when you bolt away to a part of the street filled with dozens of pedestrians.
Don't try that with guns though. Seriously, guns have range. Just give 'em the money.
I made it to the bus stop just as the next shuttle was arriving, and climbed aboard.
"Two dollars." The portly driver grunted.
I deposited two bills I'd stolen from Allen in the machine and took my seat. The man really needed to find a better way to secure his money than by hiding it in the ceiling. He also needed to learn to count it. So long as I didn't take more than fifteen bucks a week, he never realized it was gone. I'd been able to save up over two-hundred bucks I buried two blocks away from the Ackerman's property just in money I pilfered from him.
Now there was an argument to be made about how, 'stealing is wrong' and all that jazz, but screw it. I lived in a death world, and the state gave him that money to support me. I was just making sure it got where it needed to go. Also screw Allen.
A few more people climbed on the bus, and we were soon moving. I had taken a seat at the back as I always did. You never knew when you would come under an assault from RAS, and need to jump out the back of a moving vehicle or face immediate disintegration.
Was I paranoid? Unless you lived in a death world, you didn't get to judge.
After a fairly typical bus ride, I hopped off the bus where I had left off last time. A shadier part of Brooklyn with smaller shops lining the street and fewer people.
I stuffed my hands into my pants pockets as I began strolling down the street, reading store names as I went.
This is how I would always end up spending my time in the city. I would aimlessly wander until a store caught my eye, then I'd look around for magical stuff. It had occurred to me in the past that magical stores may be hidden by illusions or some other form of supernatural screwery, but this was my only hope. I refused to give it up.
After around two hours of wandering and finding nothing, I decided to break for lunch. I stopped at a hot dog stand and grabbed some grub while I thought over my situation.
Things weren't going as well as I would have liked. I'd been abusing my freetime over this summer to try and make a breakthrough, but I hadn't found anything yet. In a little less than two months, school would start back up and I'd have truant officers after me if I didn't show up. I didn't know when canon DXD would start, and I had no way of finding out. For all I knew Ophis would eat the world tomorrow. She…. It? Did something like that, right? My canon knowledge wasn't perfect before I'd lived over a decade in constant terror. Now I only remembered the big things.
I chewed on my cheap hotdog and sighed. If I didn't find something soon, I needed to start building a bomb shelter. It wouldn't do much, but it would at least let me feel like I was doing something.
A shimmer of light to my right caught my eye, and I stared after it. The shimmer was gone when I looked, but I did see a store named 'Bob's Baubles'. I stared at it a moment longer, then went back to chewing on my hotdog.
There was another shimmer in the same direction, and I whipped my eyes over to try and catch it. There was a faint gleam in the store's window that faded almost as soon as I saw it. I finished off my hotdog and walked towards the store.
I didn't think I'd find anything, but I didn't lose out on anything if I looked.
As I pushed the door open, a shrill bell attached to the door chimed.
"Welcome in." A portly, older man with a bushy, greying beard greeted with a smile. "What can I help you with?"
I shrugged as I looked around. "Just browsing." The store lived up to its name. There were a host of bits and baubles. Some old cell phones, board games, clothes, hats, books, dice, pencils--he had a little bit of everything in here.
"Let me know if I can help you find something." The clerk said warmly, before directing his attention back to a book he was reading.
Perusing the shelves, I didn't find much of anything that interested me. There was some cool stuff sure, but nothing that screamed, 'Hey look at me! I'm magical!'.
Having gone over almost everything else in the store, I moved over to the window where I spotted the shimmer. It was probably just reflection off the glass, but I would kick myself later if I didn't at least check.
There were a few mannequins dressed in suits standing in the window, as well as a shelf filled with various objects behind it. The suits looked nice but weren't anything special, so I directed my attention to the shelf.
Keychains, balls, charging chords--there was more junk. The only thing that caught my eye was a small, leatherbound book with no title.
I picked the tome up and began flipping through it. Almost immediately what little hope I had for this store sank. The book was written in a language I couldn't understand, but given the format I assumed it to be a diary of some sort. With a sigh, I started to close the book when the foreign symbols began to swim on the page.
I blinked, then blinked again, and was surprised to find the symbols shifting and changing. The order flipped, and the strange words morphed into recognizable characters before my eyes. I quickly read over the words, but didn't understand anything that was being written about.
Energy storage? Life loss? Huh?
I flipped back to the front of the book, and broke out into a wide grin when I reached the title page. The book was called Notes on Mana Workings. There was no named author, but that just made me happier.
This was someone's research journal. Practical applications of real magic. Why else would the words change so I could read them? It must have been enchanted!
Swallowing my excitement, and forcing myself to remain calm, I walked up to the clerk and put the book down on the counter. "How much for this?"
The man put down his own book, and picked up the journal. He raised an eyebrow. "Can you even read this?"
I forced myself to stay calm. Either this guy was in the know and was testing me, or he had no idea what he was holding and it was a genuine question. Best to play dumb. I didn't want to become a RAS statistic.
Shrugging, I answered, "I think the symbols are cool. I was gonna use them as the basis for some art."
The man snorted, and looked the book over. "Twenty bucks."
I always carried fifty dollars with me whenever I went into the city just in case I found something useful. I was immensely glad that he was charging something in my price range as I reached into my pocket to get the money.
I paid him, and he asked if I needed a bag. I said yes because I wasn't going to trust New York weather not to ruin my Holy Grail, and I left the store with my new magic book.
It was all I could do not to tear into the book on the bus ride home, but I wanted to have plenty of privacy and time when I dove in. In a purely scientific manner of course.
I made it back to the Ackerman's property, and beelined straight for the rundown barn that hadn't been maintained since they moved in. There were still at least four hours before nighttime, and I was anxious to get started. I climbed up the barn's rafters to its loft--the ladder had been missing since I'd been dropped here--and pulled out my book.
Excitedly opening the cover, I was extremely disappointed to realize the strange symbols were back. No more english. No more hints on mana workings. Nothing. Just a bunch of scribbled symbols.
Had I hallucinated it? Was I really so desperate for a breakthrough that I was now imagining them?
I was about to throw the book off the loft, when the page began to swim. Freezing in place, I held my breath and dared to hope. I broke out into a wide grin when the strange symbols once more became a series of words. English words.
Calculations on their own have proven useless. I was forced to meditate extensively to discover how to manipulate my mana. The process to unlock my power proceeded as follows….
I very nearly started laughing as I read over the words. This was it! What I'd been waiting for so long. A chance! It wasn't much of one, but it was there. And I'd be damned if I didn't abuse it.
Focusing more intently on the journal's words than I had ever focussed on anything in either of my lives before, I began to learn.
Four months after I struck proverbial gold in 'Bob's Baubles', I had made more progress than I expected I would. I mean, I'd hoped to make steady progress and grow strong enough to defend myself, but I didn't expect it to be this easy.
The book detailed how to find your mana, and how to begin shaping and working with it. It didn't go very far beyond the bare basics, but apparently the basics were all I needed.
The book's previous owner--who I assume to be a human based on his reliance upon calculations to perform magic--lamented his inability to create spells in the latter half of the journal. The only spells available to him were those other people had already created. The mage likely lacked talent, which was something I had for whatever inexplicable reason.
Once the book outlined how to access mana that was always there, it was like a dam was broken. There was an absolutely massive pool of energy within me that I could direct in any way I wished. Where the mage who wrote the journal couldn't create spells, I found I could.
It wasn't instantaneous by any means, but if I focused on what I wanted to accomplish, I could move my mana around until certain effects occurred. Past that, it was a matter of trial and error to move my mana in the correct ways to accomplish my desired task.
Of course, I made sure to be extremely careful trying this out. I checked, double checked, and triple checked every way I intended to path my mana. I didn't know what would happen if I got reckless, and frankly I didn't want to find out. Becoming a human lightbulb or ground zero of a magical bomb did not sound like fun.
Once I had the mana movements pathed out, I would tie them to a specific spell. From then on, all I had to do to replicate the mana movements was to summon and cast my organized glyphs--a mana powered rune that appeared when you cast a spell.
Glyphs! That was what the writing in the journal was! Or at least that was my best guess at the moment given my limited information. Before it morphed into english, the text was a written form of magical shorthand.
I imagined there were far more complicated glyphs out there given how novice the journal's author seemed, but I was in no way lamenting my lack of more potent glyphs. I was ecstatic with what I had. I could do magic! While more magic would be nice, I wasn't going to go looking for trouble until I had exhausted what I already had.
Especially since what I already had would keep me occupied for a while if things continued the way they were. While I was able to create effects and tie them to specific glyphs, I had yet to do anything groundbreaking. I made spells to help me see better in the dark, lift small objects, and shoot a small beam of fire, but nothing that would rate above a first level spell on the Dungeons and Dragons scale. Considering that most mook-level entities in this world could throw around the equivalent of tiers four through six practically at will, I had a ways to go.
I just couldn't get the spells to take. The more complex or powerful the spell, the more mana needed to power it. Mapping out ways to use more mana was far more difficult than mapping a small amount. That made sense, but it was irritating. I was sure I was missing something about magic that the journal couldn't tell me, but for now I was stuck. Though I still refused to be frustrated. My progress was better than I'd anticipated, and I was learning magic. I didn't think I'd ever get over how cool that singular fact was.
Despite my elation over my discovery, there was still one mystery I was trying to figure out. Why had the text changed so I could read it? After learning how to sense mana, I didn't feel any latent magic on the book that would be powering an enchantment, so it was something else. Something about me.
My thoughts drifted back to my mother. Someone obviously supernatural in nature--she expected me to have a Sacred Gear afterall. Was she the reason I could read the book? Maybe she was also the reason I was progressing as fast as I was. Was she gifted in magic at all?
Whether she was or not, she wouldn't be helping me. She'd made her stance on my existence clear not moments after my birth. Besides, I didn't need her.
Presently, I was on my way home from school. It was such a joke. While I wasn't the smartest person in the world, I'd already been through high school and college. Having to retake rudimentary high school classes was annoying, but easy. I finished all my stuff early, then abandoned everyone to go brainstorm new ways to map out glyphs into a functioning way to be able to cast spells. You know, the important things.
The other foster kids and I took a bus to and from the school, but the stop itself was a fair distance from the Ackerman's property. So we ended up having to take a thirty or so minute walk. Most of the time it was only me walking home though. Everyone else hung out with their friends, or headed off on their own to do whatever. I didn't really care what everyone else was up to since it gave me time alone to work on my magic.
I walked into the Ackerman's house on my own. Everyone else was off doing their own thing.
"Hey! Eek!" Dina called for me as I walked through the door. She was sitting in front of the TV on a cloth recliner that was falling apart, her shaggy blonde hair spilling out over the sides of the chair. "Eek!" She repeated. I'd tried to correct her and Allen about my name once when I first got here--it was Ee-kee-us, not Eek-keh-us--but they cared as much about me as I did about them. They didn't bother to learn its actual pronunciation, and actually filled out all the paperwork regarding my stay here under the name 'Eek'. "Where's the rest?"
I shrugged past her on my way to the kitchen. "I don't know. I think they're probably off with their friends." I opened a cupboard above the sink and pulled out a granola bar. I'd need to eat something while I was training. Moving mana around tired me out more than running did.
"Allen!" Dina called. "The rest of 'em are off doing drugs again!" She stated, as if that was the only possible explanation for her missing foster children. I couldn't conclusively say they weren't getting doped up, but my first guess would be they were avoiding the Ackermans. They were smart like that.
"When are we getting the new batch?" A fat, greasy man with no hair asked as he waddled into the kitchen. "Shouldn't these ones have been shuffled around by now?"
"Yeah!" Dina replied. "They should--"
The rest of their discussion was lost to me as I walked out the back door and closed it behind me. I had much more important things to do than listen to those idiots. They may let me get away with just about whatever I wanted, but that was only because they didn't have a brain cell between the two of them. Honestly, a mentally challenged gecko would probably be a better parent.
Walking away from the house, I made for the barn where I'd hidden my book. The journal wasn't all that long, and I'd practically memorized it by now, but I still liked to have it on hand while I was screwing with forces beyond mortal ken.
I climbed up to my hidden loft, and pulled the journal out from beneath the pile of hay I hid it in. Opening the book, I was treated to the sight of swimming letters as the ink morphed into a language I could understand.
I set the open book down in front of me, and sat cross legged in front of it. Closing my eyes, I began to meditate. I'd found it was much easier to shape mana when you weren't focusing on anything else. Casting spells could be done with little to no focus, but the same couldn't be said for making them. And I was currently trying to make one.
So far all I'd been able to do was make some cool parlor tricks. I didn't have anything that I could really use to keep myself alive if a RAS occurred. I had my fire bolt, but that didn't even break through the rotted wood of the barn wall. I wasn't exactly confident in its capability to kill anything.
I figured my best bet was to come up with something defensive, so I'd been working on this spell for the last couple of weeks. In my first life, I played a game called Elder Scrolls Online. Great game, if a little tedious at times. But that's what you get from an MMO. Anyway, there was an ability unique to the sorcerer class in that game called Hardened Ward. While it wasn't the only ward spell--ward spells being shimmering cocoons of energy that protected the target from all damage until they were destroyed--it was definitely the strongest one. I'd been trying to recreate it with the help of my mana pathing for a couple of reasons.
The first, and most obvious reason, was that it was an amazing defensive ability. For how simple the skill was, it was powerful and extremely useful. It was much better for the shield to take damage than my liver.
Secondly, I wanted to test a theory. DXD and Elder Scrolls had different magic systems. I didn't know enough about how magic functioned in DXD, and wanted to know if I could make a perfect replica of an Elder Scrolls spell in this universe. If I could, that opened the door to endless possibilities. If I could copy from The Elder Scrolls, who was to say I couldn't do the same from other settings? On the other hand, if I failed in making the exact spell, I'd still have made a ward. And wards were good for staying alive. I liked life.
So far, I'd been able to manipulate my mana in such a way so as to allow myself to create a pane of purple energy, so I was on the right track. While I hadn't been able to make it dome shaped or large enough to cover my whole body, this was a larger undertaking than anything I'd tried before, and once I got it I would feel a lot safer.
Still sitting with my eyes closed, I held up my hands. I moved mana through my body with the intent of creating the pane of energy, and soon the air was humming with my power.
Meager though it was, the fact that I had any power was still encouraging. I was making progress.
Taking a deep breath, I began to curve my hands, trying to curve the barrier of magical energy with them. There were a number of twinges throughout my body as the magic resisted. I focused on those areas and manipulated my mana until the resistance was gone. With each point relaxed, the plane of force warped a small amount.
Taking advantage of my progress, I poured more energy into my barrier. It kept bending and bending, until I'd made a small sphere. While my eyes were still closed so I could focus, I could feel the orb of pure mana in my hands. I was getting close.
Carefully, so as not to lose my hold on the magic, I began expanding the small sphere into an oval of energy that would be able to cover my entire body. Sweat started gathering on my forehead as I pushed my magic further. My dome expanded. It continued to grow and grow.
Finally, after what felt like hours, I had done it. I opened my eyes, and beheld my work. Hovering a few feet away from me was an oval shaped purple barrier that looked perfectly sized to fit a person inside.
I smiled in triumph, and--while holding the dome with my left hand--began to form a glyph circle with my right hand. If I didn't get this translated into a spell right now, I'd have to do all this work over again. Mapping spells was hard work, and if I dropped it now I'd have to do it over. I'd still remember where to send the mana, but I doubted I'd have the energy to attempt it again today. I'd screwed up with my darkvision spell, and had to rest before trying again. If I could avoid that here, I would be a happy weak human rather than a sad weak human.
Glyphs began appearing in the air in front of my right hand, and slowly melded into a circle. This was how I made spells. Using different glyphs I'd discovered through trial and error, I was able to arrange them in a set pattern, then wind them together into a circle. The floating circle of glyphs would then become a permanent spell I could use. I just had to remember the order of the glyphs, which for some reason was incredibly easy. It just came naturally to me.
I remembered from DXD the anime that the spell animations were big disks of different colored energy with a few strange symbols interwoven between them, but I'd found out that wasn't how they actually looked in reality. Well, DXD reality anyway. Instead of disks of pure mana, you needed to use specific arrangements of glyphs. It was the only way to bring about any kind of effect.
One by one, the glyphs before me fell into place and began to stabilize. My arms began to shake under the strain of using so much magic, but it was worth it. With a smile, I cut off the flow of mana maintaining my spell.
The purple orb disappeared almost instantly. I raised my right hand, and a spinning circle of purple glyphs lit up in front of my hand. I cast the spell, and laughed out loud when I found myself surrounded by a shimmering dome of purple energy. I canceled the spell, and fell backwards, exhausted.
It worked! I had done it! While it wasn't the exact spell I was going for, it was close enough. In fact, it might have been better in some ways. Hardened Ward only targeted the caster, but I knew I would be able to shield whatever I wanted with my new spell. I didn't think it would be as strong as The Elder Scrolls version, but it was still a layer of armor I didn't have yesterday, so I was counting it as a win.
I'd also completed my science experiment. I wasn't able to perfectly replicate, but I may be able to when I'm more experienced. On top of that, I was still able to create an approximation of what I was going for. If nothing else, I'd proven I could use other settings for inspiration on what spells I create.
Inhaling deeply, I rose to a sitting position. I pulled the granola bar I nabbed from the Ackerman's kitchen out of my pocket and began to chow down on it.
Using that much mana for that long always tired me out. The trade off was very worth it, but I still wished I had a better system for doing this. I knew there had to be something I was missing, but I'd exhausted the information that could be found in the journal I bought.
Content with my accomplishment and deciding to call it for the night, I hid my journal, and climbed down from the loft.
When I left the barn, I noticed the sun going down. I'd started the second I got back from school, so I must have been at the ward spell for literal hours. Oh well. It worked, so it was worth it.
Quietly making my way back to the house so the Ackerman's could pretend I'd been in the house the whole time--I stayed out of their hair and was polite, so they didn't really care what I got up to so long as they didn't see anything--I stalked up to the back door and pulled in open.
Seeing no one in the kitchen, I stepped inside and headed upstairs. Dinner wouldn't be for a little while yet, and I wanted to try and catch a power nap before it was time to eat.
I pulled open the door to the room I shared with three other boys, and froze in terror.
Aside from me, the only other person in the room was one of the younger kids. Jim I think his name was? He was laying down on his bed, and was fast asleep.
He wasn't what scared me. That honor went to the dark, hulking mass of fur with teeth reminiscent of an angler fish. It had no eyes, only hair and a gaping maw. It was hunched over like a gorilla, it's steps each making the cheap floor boards creak, and it was leering menacingly over Jim's sleeping form.
I thanked every deity I knew of it hadn't spotted me as a million questions ran through my head.
What the hell was it? What was it doing here? How strong was it? Should I run? Should I help Jim? Was Jim already dead? Did I stand any chance whatsoever?
Before I could make up my mind on whether to help or not, the thing made my decision for me.
It sniffed the air with an olfactory receptor I couldn't see, and turned away from the prone form of Jim. It searched around a moment until its whole body turned to face me, and I swear the thing smiled. With a baritone roar, it bolted towards me. Its fangs shone through the dark as it reared one of its massive arms up to smash me.
My eyes flew wide, and I dove out of the doorway.
The monster careened past me, raking its thick claws through the air I just occupied as it went. It fell to the ground, the impact shaking the foundation of the house, but it quickly rolled to its feet to reacquire me. The moment it found me, it charged me once more.
Remembering the work I completed not an hour prior, I held up my hand and cast my ward spell. The same translucent purple field fell around me just as the monster closed the distance.
It struck forward with its claws, but they rebounded off my protective bubble. It snarled in anger, and reared back on its hind legs as it began furiously slashing against my shield.
Using my temporary invulnerability to my advantage, I ran right past the monster, down the stairs, and out the back door.
It followed close behind me and kept slashing my barrier with its claws. With each hit, I felt my shield growing weaker. It wouldn't last much longer, and I was still exhausted from making the spell. I didn't know if I'd be able to cast it again.
Running as fast as my legs could carry me, I bolted towards the old barn. My morning runs seemed to come in handy as the monster fell behind me. I tore through the barn's doors, and beelined to an old storage chest. I'd poked around in it one day when I was curious, and now I was incredibly glad that I did.
When I reached the chest, I wasted no time reaching into it and pulling out what I'd been running for.
A rusty, old woodsman's axe. Likely left over from the previous owners.
Hefting the axe up and back, I turned to face the monster. The mockery of Sully from Monsters Inc. thundered towards me while snarling dangerously.
Forcing myself to keep calm, I waited until the monster was right on top of me.
Its claws raked across my barrier again, this time shattering the shield completely.
At the same time, I brought the axe down right into its mouth.
It gurgled out a scream as it pulled itself off the axe. It collapsed to the floor of the barn, dripping black ichor. Crying in pain, it used its meaty arms to claw across the ground to get away from me.
"Like hell you're getting away!" I bellowed, and ran after it. I brought the axe high above my head, and slammed it down into the creature.
It let out another agonized shriek, but it was still moving.
So I hit it again. And again. And again. I hit it and hit it and hit it and hit itandhititandhititand….
Breathing heavily, I backed away from the destroyed corpse of whatever it was that had tried to kill me. It was nothing but a pile of black and brown mush now. Black fluid seeped out from the pile, and clumps of dark fur littered the area.
I dropped the now black axe as everything began to sink in.
I did it. I killed a….whatever the hell it was. I killed it!
I threw my head back and began laughing maniacally. I couldn't help it.
I had done it.
I had stared into the eyes of this hellscape, and told it I would not go quietly. The rational part of my mind knew this thing was probably as weak as RAS came, but I'd still done it.
I won!
As my high faded, reality started to sink in. There was a dead monster in front of me, and a house full of people that saw it.
My eyes widened, and I bolted back to the house.
I didn't see anyone other than JIm, but that didn't mean the gorilla thing hadn't gotten anyone.
When I made it back to the house, I didn't even need to open the door. It, along with a good chunk of the door's frame, had been smashed when the monster tore through. The kitchen wasn't much better. The floor had holes punched through it wherever the monster stepped, and anything in its way had broken against the beast's body.
Moving past the kitchen, I carefully made my way up the half destroyed stairs.
The first person I checked on was obviously Jim. I maneuvered around the new holes in the floor and walked up to him.
"Jim." I said as I rolled him over to look at me.
His body flopped over as I moved him, and what I saw made me jump back.
There was a gaping hole in his stomach, and his eyes were dead. The monster was able to take a bite out of him before I got back.
Swallowing so I could keep my lunch down, I staggered from the room. I tried the girls' room next to ours next, but stopped at the door frame.
There was blood everywhere. Bits of flesh and bone littered the ground, but there weren't any bodies. Only small pieces of what used to be human beings.
"Don't move." A cold voice spoke from behind me.
I froze at the command, and my heart rate spiked to a million bpm.
"Turn around slowly." The same voice ordered.
Expecting to see a cop with a shotgun trained on me, I slowly turned around while simultaneously raising my hands.
The sight that greeted me was not a law enforcement officer, or at least not one that I was familiar with.
The man before me had short blonde hair, a pair of glasses, and was wearing a blue-grey trench coat over a white shirt and pants. In his hands he held a sword. His eyes were suspicious as he asked, "Did you do this?" There was a barely restrained fury in his tone.
My eyes shot wide, and I frantically shook my head. "No! I came to see if they were still alive! The monster is in the barn. I killed it with an axe when it got through my ward!" I begged every deity I knew of that the man would believe me.
He held his sword up a moment longer, then relaxed. "You speak the truth. I apologize for my hostility, but this is a gruesome scene indeed."
I nodded. "It's alright. This is…. Yeah, this is bad."
We shared a moment of silence as we both looked once more to the blood stained room.
"Come." He broke the silence. "We must see to the monster."
I led him down the stairs, and out to the barn. When he saw the creature's destroyed corpse, his mouth drew into a line as his earlier fury returned.
"A grue." He spat. "Vile creature of darkness. If only I had been here sooner." He stabbed the corpse with his sword in frustration, then seemed to compose himself. "I apologize, my friend. This failure is mine to bear. I was not fast enough to arrive in time. While you dealt with the creature, I was able to evacuate the surviving members of the family."
I perked up. "Some of them made it?" I hadn't considered any of them my actual family, but that didn't mean I wanted to see them be eaten by a literal grue. As a side note, grues were apparently real in this hell universe.
The swordsman nodded. "The parents were slain, but four of the children survived. That was due to your intervention, my friend. It is fortunate a mage of your caliber was nearby." He looked me up and down. "You are young to possess such talent. Where were you taught?"
My thoughts began to race as he spoke. He didn't know I lived here. This was an opportunity. As far as the world knew right then, I was eaten by a grue. I could disappear forever if I was able to play my cards right. The guy had a way to tell I was being truthful. I couldn't lie here.
"I am mostly self taught, though I learned from many sources." I began. I was mostly self taught, and I drew inspiration from the various fantasy worlds from my first life. "I was training nearby and just happened upon the monster. I wish I had been here sooner." All I said was true.
The man shook his head. "Do not blame yourself. Four children live because of your actions. Remember that." He stepped forward and stuck his hand out. "I am Ryan Shorborough. An exorcist in the service of humanity."
I stuck my hand out, and couldn't help but grin internally. I wouldn't have to change my name. The one true favor the Ackersons ever did for me. "I am Ekius. A novice mage looking to progress my craft."
Ryan bowed his head. "It is good to meet you, young mage. While I cannot offer you a monetary reward for the monster's death, I would like to thank you for your involvement. Is there anything I could do to aid you?"
This was the part where the noble hero was supposed to deny any form of compensation. Unfortunately for Ryan, I wasn't a hero. I was an average idiot trapped in DXD who had already survived one RAS. I needed to be prepared for the next.
"As I said, I am looking to progress my craft." I began. "If possible, I would welcome magical tomes. I understand if the church's more advanced books are restricted, but rudimentary books would aid me. Even if only to validate what I have already learned."
Ryan nodded. "You ask little, and have more than earned it, Ekius. If you will follow me, I am sure I can accommodate you."
Well shoot. I was starting to wish I had asked for more. Even so, I didn't feel like pushing my luck. Anything was better than nothing, and I wasn't going to screw up my chance to get something by being greedy.
I followed Ryan back out of the barn and took notice of several more people arriving at the house. All wore robes or a trench coat of the same color as Ryan's. More exorcists.
"Ryan!" An older man--the only one wearing a white robe--called. "Has the threat been eliminated?"
"Yes, Father." Ryan answered with a bow. "The grue has been killed."
'Father' smiled warmly. "Well done, Ryan. And especially well done saving the children. Do not blame yourself for this tragedy. Without you, all would have been lost."
Ryan shook his head. "Alas, I would have been too late. Had this mage not intervened, the children would be dead." He motioned to me, and suddenly I was the center of attention.
I was beginning to wish I had left when I had the chance. This much attention couldn't be good.
The gray haired man gave me a once over. "What is your name, child?"
I bowed my head in the hopes it would make him less suspicious. "Ekius, sir."
He walked forward and put a hand on my shoulder. "You have done a great thing this day, Ekius. Preserving human life is a burden that must be borne by all. It warms my old heart to know the youth understand this. Have you considered joining the clergy?"
"Yes, sir." I answered truthfully. It was one of my first thoughts in fact, but the xenophobes kinda turned me off that idea. "I have considered it, but elected to progress my magic before anything else. In the future I may join the church, but I would like to learn all I can on my own first."
His hand moved from my shoulder to my cheek as he said, "God works in many ways. You are already on the path of righteousness. I see no reason to push you further, but know there will always be a home for you among us. Simply inform any priest that Father Gregory sent you."
"Thank you, Father Gregory." I replied, doing my best not to choke on all the Cool Aid.
"Father?" Ryan broke in. "Ekius has requested novice level magical tomes if we have any to spare. Would it be possible to acquire some?"
Father Gregory nodded. "Of course. Anything for one of God's children. Come!"
He led Ryan and I away just as the house and barn began to burn.
I looked back in a panic as I realized my journal was in the barn.
Father Gregory, mistaking my panic, reassured me, "To ensure no more evil befalls this place. It will also hide the supernatural from the general public."
I feigned having an epiphany. "Ah. Of course." I forced myself to see it as a win. Had they searched any more, they may have found the book, and that would have raised questions I didn't want to answer. This way, it would be destroyed with the grue, and I had already learned all it could teach me.
Father Gregory, Ryan, and I entered a black SUV, and, at Gregory's command, the driver took us away.
The trip was spent with Gregory and Ryan going over the specifics for how to officially deal with the 'incident', and a few more thank you's to me. All in all, it was over fairly quickly, and we exited the car before a church in the city.
Ryan excused himself to go give his report to his superiors--apparently there were people above Gregory, though that wasn't too surprising--while Gregory led me into the church.
He brought me to the chapel's basement where there was a massive library. He retrieved a small satchel and placed four books in it. He held it out to me, and I forced down my giddyness.
"All I ask is that you not use this knowledge against your fellow man." He said as I took the bag.
I nodded seriously. "Of course, Father. Humanity already fights on too many fronts for us to be at odds with ourselves." I had no designs for world domination. I just didn't want to die a grizzly death like what had just happened to my foster family.
Gregory smiled wide. "Go with god, my son. May your path be forever bathed in his light."
"And yours as well." I replied with a head nod. The religious overload was beginning to kick in, so I made my exit. It was hard to see the church as some great pinnacle of humanity when I knew a lot of the really screwed up parts of its history. It was best for me to get out.
I exited the church into a beautiful New York night, and despite the fact that several people I lived with were brutally murdered an hour ago, I couldn't help but smile.
I had books! Magic books!
Now I just needed to find a place to spend the night.
….
Uh….
As it turned out, my rampant paranoia proved to be justified. I had been stealing a little money from the Ackerman's every week and burying it away from the house in case said house blew up. And what do ya know? The house blew up!
Well, burned down, but that was semantics.
After grabbing my money, I paid for a run-down, one night hotel room and crashed. The moment I woke up the next morning I was gone.
The church knew I existed now, and while I wasn't expecting them to randomly stab me in the back, they probably had someone watching me. The sooner I got away from New York the better. I didn't want to have to answer too many of the church's questions. Or give them any more information about me.
Originally, my plan had been to take a plane to the other side of the continent, then I looked at plane prices.
I might have been able to afford the trip if I sold my kidney, but I was rather attached to it. Heh. Attached.
With no other option, I stocked up on food and water and boarded a bus bound for Pennsylvania. I took a seat in the back where I could watch everyone and bail out if need be. Half an hour after I got on, the bus was rolling out.
As much as I wished I could teleport, figuring out a spell to make it work without killing myself seemed a little above my pay grade at the moment. If I tried to figure it out with my current skill level, I might end up with my head in a wall.
I wasn't as strong as I wanted to be yet. Sure, I'd survived the grue attack. But that was just it. I'd survived. I needed to be able to dominate weak monsters like that. Not run away to a conveniently placed deus ex machina. Relying on anything that wasn't with me one-hundred percent of the time was a recipe for disaster. That meant no weapons that I could be disarmed of, which left me two avenues I was willing to pursue at the moment. I needed to become a much better martial artist, and an even better sorcerer.
I had nothing against weapons, in fact a lot of the weapons in this universe were stupid powerful. The problem was that everyone and their mother was after a strong weapon, and weaker ones wouldn't hold up when you needed them most. If I were to somehow get my hands on an Excalibur fragment, everyone would try to kill me so they could take it off my corpse. I'd already thought long and hard about this. I wouldn't go after any weapons. If it wasn't magic or a hand to hand style of martial arts, I would leave it for everyone else. Specializing was the only way to live here.
My feelings on weapons aside, I wasn't against magical items in general. I just didn't want to have to fight over them with people who could casually destroy cities. Any magic item I used, I wanted to have been made by me. That way, I would know everything about it and be able to remake it if I lost it, or it was destroyed. Right now I didn't know the first thing about magical crafting, but I was making progress in magic, so things were looking up in that regard. I probably wouldn't be able to make anything for a few years yet, but I had the potential now.
As the bus got on the highway, I pulled out the four books Father Gregory had given me. Fortunately, all four were in english.
The first was titled 'Beginner's Guide to Mana'. After flipping through it quickly, I realized it was essentially a more teaching focused version of the journal I had. I could look more closely at it later to see if it had anything the journal didn't, but for now I wanted to learn something new.
The other three books were titled 'A Catalogue of Beginner Spells', 'Runecraft for Beginners, a Mage's Cipher', and 'A Magical Bestiary'. I remembered asking for beginner level material, but Father Gregory took my request a little more literally than I intended. Oh well. New magic books were new magic books.
Setting the others aside for later, I opened the spell catalogue. My repertoire was severely lacking at present. I had one spell with tangible combat applications--my ward--and everything else was only able to enhance slight characteristics of myself. If I could learn spells without having to spend the time and energy to make them, I would be incredibly happy.
I opened the book to its first page, and it was like Christmas, my birthday, and Halloween had all come at the same time. There was an alphabetic list of every spell within the tome. Fire balls, ice blasts, barriers, muscle enhancements, mental enhancements, alteration spells--there were too many to count, and each spell had a description of its capabilities and common difficulties experienced casting it with the proper glyph arrangement sketched near the description.
There were also tips for using calculations to cast spells, but they weren't anything like what I'd assumed them to be. I thought the calculations of magic were shaping mana. In actuality it appeared that mages had to do high level algebra, trigonometry, and calculus in their head in order to make their spells work.
Since I'd never done mental math while casting, I ignored the calculations part and focused my efforts on memorizing the glyph arrays. I couldn't practice on the bus, but the moment I was alone I was going to have fun.
Surprisingly enough, the bus ride felt rather quick. I did spend the entire time memorizing a library's worth of spells, but who knew studying could make time move fast? I decided to blame the fact that it was magic.
The bus was headed all the way to Harrisburg--Pennsylvania's capital city--but I got off at Lock Haven. It was a large enough city to be mostly protected from most RAS, but still small enough that the church wouldn't have as large a presence here. At least that was the hope. My supernatural experience was lacking, so I wasn't going to be surprised if a demon fell out of the sky and crushed me.
….
….
Whew. Murphy was being nice for once.
Right off the bus, the first thing I did was grab something to eat and buy a newspaper. I didn't really care about what was happening in the world--I had too much on my plate as it was--but I did need to start seriously looking for work. I had just under one-hundred dollars left. That wouldn't get me that far, so I needed a way to make some money.
I'd briefly considered trying to become someone like Harry Dresden. A freelance magical private investigator. As cool as that would have been, there were, unfortunately, a few issues with that. For one, I wasn't nearly as put together as Dresden was. I had no contacts, and my combat capabilities consisted of running away, and trying spells I'd never used before. Another issue was the fact I didn't want to be public for as long as I could help it. Advertising yourself to be a mage could get you eaten if you didn't have the right friends. Considering I had no friends, I was a perfect candidate to be gobbled.
With my dreams of being Dresden sufficiently dashed, I concluded the only thing I could do was work mundane jobs until I figured out enough magic to get by that way.
I finished my lunch and stowed my newspaper in the bag with my books. I walked away from the food truck I'd stopped at and headed to a nearby bench.
Pulling the newspaper back out, I searched the paper for job openings. There were quite a few of them, but not many I could apply for.
'Entry-level position. Experience required.' was a rather popular phrase. One that also irritated me. Why was it an entry-level position if you needed experience? How were you supposed to have experience in a field you couldn't enter without experience? Did employers really not see the paradox of that stupidity?
There was also the issue that I didn't have a driver's license or any form of legal identification and, as far as the government was concerned, I died in a house fire with most of my foster family. In the event the worst case scenario came to pass, I could probably use an illusion spell from my new book to fake something convincing.
Eliminating all the positions I couldn't even try for, I was left with three. Fry cook, librarian, or janitor. What interesting choices.
The fry cook opening was for a local fast food joint, and I hated serving jerks food when they'd scream at you when you got it right, and scream at you more if you got it wrong. Unless the other two fell through, I was going to avoid that.
The librarian was fairly straight forward, but the hours were crazy. You were the first to show up, and last to leave. I wasn't up for a twelve hour shift. I had magic to practice.
That left the janitorial position. There wasn't that much information about it, but I'd been a janitor in my last life. It wasn't fun, but it wasn't awful either.
I bought a map and started walking towards the address on the ad. I wanted to try out my new spells, but it was more important to make sure I'd be able to eat next week.
A couple hours of strolling through the city later, I was walking down a dirt path surrounded by trees. It was rather pleasant, but also the kind of place a serial killer would prowl. Keeping my eyes peeled and my magic ready, I rounded the corner to the building.
I was surprised to see a simple white, one story building with a slanted, brown roof. The building didn't have a parking lot, just a large dirt lot that may have fit a few cars if they were lifted up and placed deliberately. A sign over the door read, 'Inoki's Martial Arts'.
Huh. The ad didn't say this place was a dojo. Maybe I could kill two birds with one stone? I wanted to become a better close quarters fighter afterall.
Walking up to the door, I gave it an experimental pull, and walked through when it opened.
The interior was simple, yet elegant. There was a small entryway with a sitting room off to the right, but the rest of the space was open. The floor wasn't covered in mats like I was expecting. Instead, there was a tan carpet like in The Matrix when Moprheus and Neo threw down. There were weapon racks along three of the four walls. Sais, tonfas, kamas, guandaos, bo staffs, bokkens, katanas--there was a wide variety of weaponry of all sizes. There was a hallway cut into the back wall that led to an intersection. A sign showed the bathrooms to be to the right. The left led off beyond my eyeline, but there were no exit signs, so I assumed the only entrance to be the one I just walked through.
"Can I help you?" A pleasant voice spoke up.
I turned to face the voice, and was surprised to see a short--she was barely tall enough to reach the five foot mark--middle-aged asian woman smiling at me. She had black hair cut to her shoulder. Brown eyes. And she was wearing a plain white gi with a black belt hanging loosely from her waist.
"Sorry." I responded. "I was admiring your dojo. Are you the owner?"
She nodded, still smiling. "I am. My name is Yuki Inoki. How can I help you?"
"I'm Ekius." I gave my name as I held up my newspaper. "I was here to ask about the janitorial position. This is the place, right?"
"You are in the right place. May I ask why you were interested?" Yuki inquired with a slight tilt to her head.
I shrugged as I stuffed the newspaper in my bag. "I need money. It may not be a very compelling reason, but it is a motivating one."
The woman chuckled. "That it is. Do you have any experience?"
I had to fight back a groan. Seriously? Again? Luckily, I technically did. And it wasn't like she could check with my parents. "Yeah. A little over a year's worth. I'm not sure how cleaning malls translates to cleaning dojos, but I'm sure I can figure it out."
The woman shook her head. "You misunderstood my question." She held an arm out, directing my attention to the dojo. "Have you ever trained before?"
I raised an eyebrow. I wasn't sure how this would get me a job, but I'd humor the woman. "Yeah. I know a little bit of karate."
"'Karate' is a very broad term." She said, amused.
"True enough. I studied mostly shotokan, but I learned a fair bit of shorin-ryu after I got my black belt." I closed my mouth quickly. Shoot. I didn't mean to tell her that much. Dojos talk to one another pretty regularly from what I remember. It would be easy for her to figure out I didn't train in this life.
Yuki nodded in acknowledgement. "So you would consider yourself capable?"
I snorted. "Not at all. I know enough to know how outmatched I am by someone who actually knows what they're doing." And that wasn't taking into account the bullshit monsters in this universe. I still wasn't sure how this related to the job offer, but the conversation had been enjoyable at least.
Yuki looked intrigued. "Are you interested in learning more?"
Ah. She was fishing for more customers. Now the current conversation made sense.
"I'm always open to learning." I answered truthfully. "But my financial position is a little precarious right now, so I wouldn't be able to pay for lessons. That's why I was looking for a job." I tried to gently get us back on topic. Yuki seemed nice, I expected her to drop the topic and talk about how good I was at cleaning toilets. I was surprised when she didn't answer at all.
She clasped her hands in front of her and looked at me curiously.
There was an awkwardly long pause as she just stared at me. I was beginning to get uncomfortable when she spoke.
"You are unusually troubled." She stated.
"Um…. Excuse me?" Was I just insulted?
"You are unusually troubled." Yuki reiterated. "It is not uncommon for people to come to me while going through a difficult time, but you are more troubled than most. What tragedy has brought you to me?"
Ok. I needed to reclassify this woman. She wasn't nice. She was crazy. Time to bail.
"It was great talking to you. Really. But I just remembered I need to go pick up my sister from school. She'll be waiting for me." I turned around and started walking. My hand was on the door knob when Yuki spoke again.
"You did not arrive in a car. You arrived on foot. The nearest school is five miles away, and closed for the day over an hour ago. Try again, young man." Her tone was not exactly cold, but not as warm as it was before.
Freaked out for more than one reason, I asked, "You know when the nearest school gets out?" Just my luck. I walked into a creepy pedophile's dojo.
Apparently following my line of thought, she laughed. "It is nothing like that, I assure you. Several of my students study there. Now I would like to ask why you are leaving so quickly. Did I touch a subject you did not wish to discuss?"
"Frankly, I've just decided I don't want to work here." I stated bluntly. "There's a few more places I can try today. So have a good day, but I'm gone." I pulled the door open, but was interrupted again.
"You do not have a place to sleep, do you?"
I blinked at the woman in confusion. How could she tell?
She motioned towards my chest. "That shirt is covered in dirt and what appears to be ash, yet you are still wearing it. You have a bag slung over your shoulder containing books, food, and water. Where most would navigate using their phone, you do not have one. You arrived here by reading a map. Your financial position is, as you put it, 'precarious'. You walked to my dojo when the nearest bus stop is four miles away, leading me to believe you do not possess any other mode of transportation. How close am I?"
Huh. Apparently this lady moonlighted as Sherlock Holmes. Either that or I needed to be more subtle.
It was probably the second one. I was in a bit of a rush to get away from the church. Also, when did she get a look inside my bag?
"Well done, ma'am." I complimented her. "If you ever want to change careers you could probably make it as a detective. I'm leaving now." I didn't even make it a step before Yuki's voice stopped me.
"You may stay here. There is a spare room I use to house visitors. If you find you are uncomfortable here, I will feed you and give you a spare change of clothes before sending you on your way." The small woman had yet to move from her position. Her lips were in a flat line, and she was watching my movements intently.
"Why are you offering me anything?" I asked, confused. "I literally just showed up on your front porch. You don't know me."
"You are in need of aid. I can tell you would aid an innocent if the opportunity presented itself. Is it so hard to believe someone else would as well?"
I raised an eyebrow. "You're assuming a lot about my character there. Both that I'd be willing to help people and that I'm innocent."
Yuki's lips pulled into a small smile. "No. I am not. Now, will you accept my offer?"
Thinking her offer over, I doubted I was going to come across a better one. Food and a roof sounded nice. Plus, she didn't seem like the serial killer type. Then again, serial killers did tend to blend in really well.
My eyes panned over the woman's shoulder to an ornate set of unsheathed tantos that were on display.
Knife collection. Nice. Not helping my serial killer suspicions. Neither were the slew of other weapons along the walls.
I sighed. "If you'll have me, I would be grateful to spend the night." I told her, closing the door behind me. If she was a serial killer, I'd cast my ward spell and run. Or try out some of those more devastating offensive spells I read about on the bus but hadn't had a chance to use yet.
Yeah. The second one. If she was a serial killer, I'd blow her up. Nice.
Yuki smiled happily. "Wonderful. Please follow me." She turned around and started leading me to the back of the dojo.
I pulled my shoes and socks off quickly before stepping on the dojo's floor, and hurried after her. We took a left turn which led to a hallway with four doors off to my right. The first door was open, revealing a storage room filled with pads, wooden dummies, padded dummies, punching bags, and a host of other training equipment. The second door was closed, but Yuki stopped before it. She pushed it open, and motioned for me to walk inside.
I did so while being careful to watch her for signs of attack, but she made no moves against me. The room was small. There was a cot set against the wall with a comforter and a pillow. There was also a small table with a bonsai tree on it against the other wall. My anxiety quieted slightly when I noticed the square window set into the back wall. It wasn't much of a view, just the trees out beyond the dojo, but it would let me run at a moment's notice if need be. The room was small, but comfortable.
"Make yourself at home." Yuki said. "I will retrieve a change of clothes for you and leave them outside your door. Please feel free to make use of the restrooms. There are fully stocked showers within." She nodded towards me, and walked away.
That was a very subtle way of telling me I smell. I wasn't disagreeing with her by any means, I was just impressed with her tact. Some might consider it backhanded, but I didn't think she meant it that way.
Not willing to leave my satchel filled with magical gold unattended, I brought it with me to the bathroom.
Just as Yuki said, there were fully stocked showers behind cloth curtains to provide privacy. I set my bag down right outside the shower, and left the curtain slightly open so I could watch it.
A surprisingly refreshing shower later--a shower that was thankfully free of attempts to steal my magic books--I was walking back to the room Yuki was letting me use. I had to put on my dirty clothes to get there, but once I made it back I found a shirt and a pair of sweatpants folded on the floor next to the door. The shirt had a cherry blossom tree pictured on it, and the sweatpants had a fist on the right thigh.
Happy to get out of my dirty clothes, I changed into the new ones. Yuki was right. My shirt and pants both were covered in dirt, ash, wood shavings, and--something she thankfully didn't notice, or at least couldn't place--black grue blood.
I sat down on the bed and looked out the window. The sun was starting to go down. I couldn't see it above the trees, but the sky was getting noticeably darker. A knock at the door drew my attention.
I hadn't closed the door, so I was able to see Yuki--now changed out of her gi and instead wearing a pair of sweatpants very similar to the kind I was wearing, though in a smaller size, and a simple t-shirt--standing there.
"Dinner is prepared if you are ready." She said, her hands folded in front of her.
I stood up, and followed her. She led me back across the dojo to the sitting room adjacent to the now locked door. On a small table in the center of the ring of chairs there were two plates. Both had a cut of salmon and white rice.
Yuki sat down on the floor by the table, and crossed her legs.
Seeing the table was too small for the chairs, and not wanting to be a dick to my host, I sat down opposite her. "Thank you for this. Really." I said genuinely. No one had ever helped me just because since I came to this hell world. It was suspicious, and I didn't exactly trust her, but I was grateful.
Yuki smiled warmly. "You are welcome, Ekius. It is my genuine pleasure." She picked up a set of chopsticks and began to eat.
I picked up the chopsticks next to my plate and began to eat as well. It had been a while since I had used chopsticks, but after fumbling them a few times I got the hang of it.
We ate in silence, and I was grateful for it. No probing questions about who I was or where my parents were. Just food. Against my better judgement, I was starting to like this lady.
When we were finished, Yuki outright refused to let me help with the dishes. She sent me to her guest room, and wished me good night.
I pulled my satchel up onto the cot and held it close to me. If anyone tried to steal my books, I'd feel it, wake up, and burn them.
With that one last paranoid thought, I passed out.
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