Some Days Later_
Owls heralded the night waves, crashing onto the wood beams of South Port, Kria.
There were reports of a sighting of some vegetation seemingly swimming across the waves from Kria Park, across the broken port till it had made its way to the northern section of South Port.
Of course, the vegetation was no simple creature; if it was, shadows would not be surrounding thousands of ruby red eyes, like tiny spores on the creature.
"NOW!" Jotou screamed, jumping out from behind a crate.
"Woah there planty-friend! You look a little creepy, you need some sunshine!" Asobi waved her wand and a bright white spotlighted onto the mass of writhing vines—a flower in the centre of ruby red.
"It's a flower? That's it? It's a giant flower!?" Fumeko poked up from hiding.
"Jotou's plan doesn't change, shove it into the water!" Hotaru ordered, casting rejuvenate on herself, Fumeko and the passing Jotou.
"Spark!" the blade hummed with electricity, her new gear like a cape in the wind. Sword in both hands she struck the growing vines that attempted to grasp her.
"Thud!" "Smash!" She pushed the plant back, but did no damage to the thing itself. "Spark isn't killing it!" Jotou exclaimed, the energy dissipating as she struck again. The blade connected, but seemed to do even worse.
"Jotou! Move back!" Hotaru warned.
"Plan Asobi then!?" Asobi on the other side yelled over. Not awaiting confirmation, she increased the brightness of the light, causing everyone to shield their eyes.
The flustered plant writhed, but did not move back or forth. Its roots pierced into the wood and crawled around the planks to secure its spot.
"Plan C!" Fumeko ran from behind, dagger in hand. She kept her eyes half-open, "Jotou!" she said to the only one in view.
"This way!" Jotou pointed with her sword. Fumeko ran past her, going in quickly before the roots and vines decided to come back up. She struck its beaming red centre, only for the dagger to—"Tink!"—off with no effect.
"RUN BACK!" Fumeko dashed faster than when she first came. The vines uprooted themselves whilst Jotou got ready with her blade.
"How long do I need to blind it!?"
"It's not afraid of light, it probably thinks it's a powerful spell!" Hotaru replied and her assumption was proven true as the velatos no longer cared for the light beaming down.
"It 'was' afraid," Jotou reported, "One plan left!" her blade began coursing with lightning.
"Jotou! WAIT NO!" Hotaru's eyes widened.
"Thundering Strike!!!" fizzles of yellow light sparked and shined, spinning and winding as she struck right at the creature's stem. "BLAstt…!" The thunder reverberated back and forth—like the echo was somehow broken.
The flash of light was followed by a, "GAHH!!!" scream still elegant, if not bloodcurdling. Jotou winced, groaning as the metal of the sword cracked and fell across the ground like shattered glass.
The handle fell from her grip just as she fell to her knees, unable to stop herself from moaning from the sharp pain—like needles jabbed all throughout her right arm.
"Jotou!" Hotaru dashed from behind cover, running to her side. The blonde's face leaked tears of blood, her right arm had no control, merely falling limp like it was rubber.
Asobi dispelled her light. Fumeko ran back in a circle, "You idiot, you missed!" Fumeko pointed to the top half of the flower swimming away in bits of electrocuted water.
"And now you're injured! We said not to do it!" Fumeko continuously berated.
"Is Jotou okay!?" Asobi rushed over from behind the crates they were hiding behind, the other Asobi fading away in a puff of smoke.
The dark stem of the velatos withered away, leaving a dark green plant stem and most of its roots. The rest of it swam away using its petals like arms.
_
"This is indeed a velatos… but you only got half of it?" the clerk adjusted his glasses.
"Uh huh, the flower part swam away," Asobi explained.
"Okay… and you want compensation for a half-kill?"
"Do the math, it's five gold isn't it?" Fumeko negotiated to the magician's side.
Meanwhile, sitting at a table behind them; her crimson ears flickered above her head as her hands carefully moved over Jotou's arm—water glowed and flowed above her skin.
"Ngh," Jotou winced, but Hotaru held her arm steady, kept in an improvised sling.
"Careful, don't move yet," her blue eyes never looked away from the arm, delicately going to the blonde's nails before dropping the water with a, "Phew…"
"Thanks," the blonde looked to her in a sigh, blood stains wiped away from under her eyes.
"You're lucky I could even heal that… Looks like the thunder and lightning echoed into your arm instead of going out, shattering every bone in your arm into tiny pieces like glass.
It wasn't just reforming the bone fragments like tiny puzzle pieces, it was also internal bleeding," Hotaru wiped the sweat on her forehead, "I was afraid your arm was going to pop like a balloon at any moment."
Jotou smiled, the pain fading, "Well, luckily I have you."
Hotaru faced her with a blushing smile, "Thanks," before her brows furrowed and ears spiked up. Her hand grabbed Jotou's ear and twisted it immediately, "What did I tell you about using that spell!?"
The shock of lightning through the blonde's hair gave her a warning, but it was too late, "Ow, ow, ow! Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Jotou's head twisted into Hotaru's hand.
"Hey, stop hurting her, that's my job," Fumeko came back, throwing five gold onto the table with a sigh.
"I thought it was also Jotou's job to hurt herself? Ooo! Can I hurt her next!?" Asobi requested gleefully.
"No," Hotaru let go of her reddened ear. Jotou took a breather, going from one pain to another.
"Some thundering strike; it barely even made a sound compared to the last time," Fumeko jeered.
"That's because the thunder echoed into my arm instead!" Jotou flung the healed arm out before gulping in pain, "That's fatigued… that's very fatigued," she slowly pulled her arm back.
"I'm not rejuvenating it, you deal with it," Hotaru condemned.
"Whatever. You got five gold from those roots?" Jotou noticed the gold on the table.
"Yup, I somehow convinced him…"
"Why didn't you just say we killed it?"
"I was going to obviously, but guess which blabbermouth got to the counter first?" Fumeko side-eyed the elf.
"Hm? That's the truth, right?" Asobi's eyes bubbled.
"For a circus actor that did an entire circus show by herself, you sure are losing the ability to lie fast," Fumeko grumbled.
"Hey!" Asobi whined, "I'm an actor, I do acting, not lying! It's not lying, it's more like pretending! And my tricks aren't lies! They're illusions!" about to sob.
"They're basically lies," Fumeko folded her arms.
"Enough; it's illegal to do that anyway," Hotaru halted the two.
"It's illegal to lie?" Asobi questioned.
"Like someone's gonna go look for half a flower swimming in the sea," Fumeko rolled her eyes. "Put it simply, if we just killed it, this would've been a lot smoother."
Jotou cradled her right arm, "You think I have any idea?" she spoke, "I've faced five other velatos and used four different methods. This one's the sixth and clearly, I need to find a new one."
"You may have the unique ability to not get hit by velatos and you did kill some in the past. But the problem wasn't the method this time…
As much as you've done, the fact is you're not a great magic user. The same way those first times were lucky, that thundering strike was a miracle and a half;
And even then, you didn't exactly come out of it just fine," whether Hotaru was advising or scolding was anyone's guess.
"So? You're telling me we should've ran from the velatos?" Jotou cocked a brow.
"No, I'm saying, you two," Hotaru pointed to Jotou and Fumeko, "Need to learn magic properly so that you can stably use it. And I'm deciding we do that tomorrow."
"Listen, I don't feel like-"
Hotaru tsked, "I get that your detective brain doesn't like not being able to understand magic, but you need to learn. Honey isn't cheap, it imports all the way from the northern Cravolta territories. So, if you want good tasting food and not bread every day-"
"Okay! No need to threaten the food." Fumeko sighed, "I'll learn magic. There's no way in hell I'm gonna be able to do it…"
"We know your affinity is based in shadow and Jotou's lightning. Don't get pessimistic; I'll go to the library tomorrow and find all the knowledge I can in the early morning. I'll get us breakfast and after that, we get into some magical training."
"Come on, you can do it; don't sell yourself short, okay? I'm just as crap as you and we'll learn together," Jotou convinced the pouting brunette.
How could she resist the blonde's smile? "…Fine, I'll do my best." Fumeko turned away from her, "You and your conniving grin!" she muttered to herself.
"Can you also find some for me!?" Asobi giddied.
"Sure," Hotaru agreed, "Tomorrow it is; you can just call me teacher."