Getting in the Groove

…

…

Yuri frowned as he slumped in the chair.

Currently, he was at home, in Tachibana's other room reading a manga. Ayumu had dropped him off and returned to work, but with a nasty threat to ensure that the Prince doesn't wander off and get lost. But even without the threat, Yuri wouldn't have left the house in boredom. He was too remorseful about what happened today to even read Death Note properly.

It hadn't been his intention to lash out at the principal like that, but the aged man was being unfair to him. And he absolutely hated when he was being punished for someone's mistakes. So now that he's been expelled from school, he had nothing to look forward to. That is, until the transfer gets approved which he hoped Tachibana's principal won't rescind because of his attitude.

"If he does, I'll kill him." Yuri hissed out. However, in that moment, his eyes landed on the magic circle on the floor. He started to wonder what his counterpart was going through and midway, he totally discarded his thoughts. He could care less anyway.

"New message from Takahiro!" Kei's chirpy voice echoed throughout the small room, startling the Prince.

"What's it say?"

"I quote, 'since you got your royal ass expelled, you're gonna learn some martial arts this week. Our dojo goes to tournaments and fancy shit like that so you gotta be prepared', end quote."

"Martial Arts? I thought I was going to do volleyball." The Prince pouted. "Send him a text Kei. Ask him about volleyball." He ordered the petite AI.

"Roger!"

Within less than a minute, Mochizuki replied, "No sports. Martial Arts only. That's your punishment for getting expelled. End of discussion, see you after school."

Immediately, the Prince's mood turned sour. If he could head back to Kanagawa Sohgoh and really rip the principal apart, he would have.

"Fuck." He cursed.

xxxx

[Meanwhile in Saishi…]

Tachibana's life became even more hectic than when he was on Earth and had Martial Arts practices and tournaments to do. Here, the young Japanese had to learn many things about the Kingdom, but what he was instructed to pay keen attention to was the Prince's schoolwork.

For now at least.

[Monday...]

Waking up, Tachibana found out a frightening truth that nearly made him faint from the shock. The time difference between Sekai and Earth was staggering. Akira informed him of this, as the older male recalled when he had spoken to the other Yuri, he was in pyjamas while it was still daytime over here.

Sekai had a total of sixteen hours in a single day.

When Tachibana heard that, he wondered if Akira was pulling his leg. Throughout his time here, he didn't think there were sixteen hours. If anything, the days were so damn long that they felt like an eternity. But then, the next bomb dropped.

One hour in Sekai had one hundred and fifty minutes.

Tachibana nearly died from the shock. When he tried to work out the math, it roughly meant that for every hour spent in Sekai, about two and a half hours passed on Earth. That meant, Sekai was like Earth but with thirty-three hours.

"Now this is what you call Time Zone Difference." Tachibana had said.

After breakfast, Tachibana was hauled to the Library by Seiya and there he was taught the History of Engineering. It was one of Prince Yuri's subject areas; and surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as he'd thought. Engineering History was just reading about the history of technology, basically. What made it simpler was that some of the technology classed as "ancient" was present in modern-day Japan. Transportation such as aeroplanes and boats (cruise ships, ferries etc), were obsolete from God knows how long (hence the term "ancient") and were replaced by Teleportation circles.

Other forms of transport that were once present in this world were the typical carriages, steam locomotives (that were once prominent during Earth's Industrial Era), Trams etc. But these, after further refinement, gave birth to the current train system which when Tachibana inquired about it, found out that not even the Shinkansen could best.

After that, he'd have a break but he was viciously dragged to the training room by Akira. The older male wanted to learn the roundhouse tornado kick, however, Tachibana decided just to teach him Martial Arts. He had a feeling that later on, Akira would pester him to learn another move anyway.

Following, he had to learn more about the geography of not only his Kingdom but the other countries as well. Yet again, Tachibana was amazed, but at the same time, relieved. While the entire continent was Japan, there were a few areas in each country that defied laws of nature and everything else which gave it the fantasy feel that he felt this world lacked.

There were large expanses of forests called the Mizu Forest. These were typically forests with a difference: their trees and grasses were completely water. When Tachibana saw the corresponding picture, he nearly choked on air. The Mizu Forest had trees, which had branches and leaves per say, but it were evident that they were made out of water. These trees were predominantly found in the Kamata Kingdom.

"Hmm, now you know who never has water shortage." Tachibana joked to himself.

With his interest piqued, Tachibana continued to read more about these "strange" landscapes and stumbled upon something even more ridiculous. In Amagiri, there was a Savannah called the "Fiery Savannah". That area had rain, but, the "rain" is fire. Add to that, the flowers in that area had petals of blazing fire.

Tachibana paused.

Although he was interested, he decided to leave these landscapes for another day. This was from one extreme to the next, and it was damn scary.

[Tuesday...]

Tachibana had Spearmanship with the King, which was the only thing that he was looking forward to. While he was still using the Twin Spears, the Japanese found many ways to incorporate his Martial Arts. This made him quite the opponent, since people of this world had no Martial Arts due to Magic.

King Ayumu was especially glad upon seeing how flexible and adaptable Tachibana was. When the King showed him videos of what the Prince looked like when he was in action, Tachibana could only look on in amazement. The Third Prince seemed like a natural whenever he wielded any of his Spears. His movements were so fluid and beautiful, that Tachibana thought that he was probably doing some ancient Spear dance.

Still, it didn't break Tachibana's spirit. If anything, he felt the need to better the Prince. It was almost as though he was treating this like a martial arts competition, the Prince was an opponent that he needed to overcome to win. With eyes ablaze, the young Japanese absorbed everything the King threw at him like a sponge dipped in a bucket of water.

That said, Tachibana decided to become formidable.

[Wednesday...]

Tachibana thought that this day would have been just like the rest. However, it turned out to be a disaster.

This particular morning, the boy felt as though his head was on fire. He had woken up in the early morning, with a splitting headache. For the entire day yesterday he was fine, and he knew he hadn't received any head injury (King Ayumu was extremely cautious).

With a groan, he turned on his side towards the bedside table and reached for his phone. Still, his arms were a bit weak, and the phone ended up falling to the ground. Luckily, an indignant Takeo (the cellphone's AI), materialized in his holography in an attempt voice his displeasure of falling to the floor.

But upon seeing the agonized look on Tachibana's face, he could tell that something was wrong with his owner. Quickly, the miniature AI sent a message to everyone in the contacts, which was limited to the two guards (Ken and Kibou), Seiya, Akira and the King and Queen.

And within seconds, one of the small doors flew open and in came the two guards. Ken quickly checked Tachibana's temperature and with his element being Fire, he's able to discern when people are suffering from a fever.

"It's not a fever…" Ken said. He then turned to Kibou, "Go call someone. He looks like he's dying."

"Head…" Tachibana managed to groan out. "…on fire."

"You mean you have a headache?" Ken asked. In this moment, the main door flew open and Tachibana's new family flowed in with worried looks on their faces. When Ken told them what Tachibana had said, at first, they were all confused but Queen Azusa took swift action. She tried to soothe him with her water magic, Akira and Seiya tried to keep him awake, King Ayumu immediately wrote up a Teleportation circle to the hospital.

...

…

"He'll be fine." Doctor Ayane said. "But it's as Takahiko said, mana is changing him and the effects are starting to take root." The Tachibana family let out a sigh of relief.

"So, what's going to be next?" Seiya asked.

"I can't be sure." Ayane answered with a shake of her head. "He's having these headaches because mana is changing his cognitive capabilities. I don't want to know how he'd react when the rest of his body starts changing as well."

"Oh shit." Akira said, covering his mouth in the process.

"Oh shit is right, Your Highness. But one thing I do know is that he won't die. These changes aren't life threatening. You can treat it as the flu or something. He'll be extremely sick, but rest assured, his life isn't in danger."

After that, the family took turns staying in Tachibana's hospital room as if on night watch.

[Thursday...]

Tachibana was back to normal, much to everyone's relief. But before he was discharged from the hospital, he was given two sheets of paper, both with math questions by Takahiko. This happened before when he had first arrived here, so this made the silver haired teen feel like he's experiencing déjà vu. But upon receiving the papers, Tachibana frowned, and proceeded to do these questions. They were the same ones that he'd received prior, but within a flash, he was done.

When Takahiko took the papers, he grinned, and said only one word: "Correct."

But, they all seemed to have not noticed Tachibana's face.

He wasn't a dunce, but when it came onto math, there was no way he could do two sheets of papers so fast and got all the answers correct. He stared down at his hands in shock. Tachibana knew his hands weren't what he should be looking at. They had nothing to do with his processing ability, and he wondered just what would happened from here on out.

King Ayumu had already briefed him that the longer he stayed here was the more he'd become like them, but to think that the changes were already in full swing. Thinking back, Tachibana realized that the reason behind his 'headache' was the fact that his brain's capabilities were changing. And judging from what he just did, it probably meant that he was ―need he say it―becoming 'smarter'.

Tachibana didn't know whether or not to be glad or start his fretting.

For one, the Ningen of Sekai weren't like Humans. Sure, they may have similar outward appearances, but God knows what's going on the inside. He had no idea what they're bones were made out of, because whenever he sees his new family in action, they could probably cause a light tremor in Japan with just a punch. All he knew was that these people were rock solid.

Does that mean he'll become 'rock solid' as well?

If that's the case, how will his body react? Will he have muscle aches or something? Tachibana shook his head to rid these thoughts because there wasn't a single soul that could answer them.

[Friday...]

Yet again, the King dragged Tachibana's ass to the training room after breakfast. He was actually mastering the Twin Short Spears at an alarming rate; add to that, his processing ability had increased. Without even realizing, Tachibana was becoming quite formidable in Spear Arts (at least with the short spears), and for once, he was being original. There were many times when he'd mix his spear moves with Martial Arts creating a new set of skills.

"He really is a Tachibana," King Ayumu had mumbled to himself while wiping away a tear. "No matter which world or dimension, once a Tachibana, always a Tachibana." He even started to tear up. "He's beautiful. I can't wait to see in what ways he'll turn into a monster." The King shuddered with delight. "I really need to award his parents."

[Saturday...]

Unlike prior days, Tachibana's training on this day revolved around the use of Lightning & Thunder magic. While the blond still wasn't capable of casting magic of his own will, he was given another ring which he placed on his left index. This ring was not an inter-spatial device; instead, it contained magic spells that the Prince had known. And this made Tachibana have to study more as well. The magic spells were voice activated and would only respond to his voice.

As such, Tachibana has to learn the names of these spells and their uses. It was a pain in the ass since there were tons of them. Seiya and Akira tried to help him in this aspect, but most of the time, they laughed at his misery.

...

…

Apart from all this, throughout this week, he found out that between his brothers and his eldest cousin Isami, there was serious bad blood going on. Dinnertime was always the moment in which the three boys would hurl nasty insults at each other, and by extent, attack each other under the table with their elements (of course when their parents found out they were seriously reprimanded).

While the Isami of Earth got along with Tachibana, the silverette still couldn't stand the man. And the Isami of Sekai was even worse than his counterpart on Earth. Tachibana decided to make a mental note to steer clear of this one, as God knows what he'll do (or try to swindle).

Tachibana even met with Kohaku and Mamoru a lot more, the two felt somewhat guilty for him being here. Mamoru was the one who failed to stop the Prince while Kohaku was the one who opened the magic portal and told Akira to pull him through. Seeing this as an opportunity, Tachibana got them to help him with using the magic from the ring. Some spells were done smoothly, while some nearly caused the King to hack their heads off.

Still, Tachibana found his week in Sekai quite interesting.