E4: Spirit Woes Pt. 3

It was now day five since Mizuki had disappeared. Anna had gotten excited by the search party's return, but their search had turned up the same answer everyone else had given her. Nothing.

The leader was met with the slap of a slipper, sent a step back as Anna winded up to threat another. "Lies! You did not look hard enough! All of you!"

"Lass, we have tried," he assured her, surrounded by his men. "Stand down my friends, she is just frustrated."

"I paid you to find her, not come to me with empty hands!"

"And I am saying, there is nothing we could find. We have searched the roads, the wild land, and the towns over. We have come up just as empty as you. We're sorry, we can give you most of the payment back." Anna paced back and forth, her slipper still in hand as she frustrated thought. "What about the forest to the north?"

"Are you insane? That place has been a deathtrap for a lifetime!"

"She could still be alive in there, and we will never know!" Anna said. "You are supposed to be men, a fearless band of men."

"We are fearless, but also sensible. If we think something is a deathtrap, the group that has lads with death wishes, then it is a deathtrap. Donald here even has a child. How is the sonny boy Donald?"

"He well captain."

"That's great to hear Donald," he turned back to Anna, her face red from anger. "For a girl of your height you are sure feisty."

"Find. Her! Or next it will be those balls you cherish so much!"

"No." Before he had finished sounding the 'o', he took another slap from her slipper. Two of the men rushed in and grabbed her arms to hold the flailing ball of anger back. "Weaklings! Sissies! Cunts, all of you! If you aren't going to do it, then give me your sword, I'll go do it myself!"

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The band escorted Anna, who was suited up with armor and handed her weaponry, to the edge of the forest. The wind blew aimlessly, with no moving critter in sight. The mass of trees seemed to extend far into the forest, stretching to infinity, till the eyes could no longer make out more trunks.

"Well?" The leader of the band said. "This is the northern forest."

"I see that. It is as eerie as you said..." Anna said, all five feet of herself starting to go beyond the treeline. "I'm keeping my word, you don't have to worry about me."

"We have standards lass," Donald chimed.

"Quiet Donald, go back to your boy."

"He has a point you know," the leader said. "We aren't one to leave a damsel alone. It's more of a new philosophy. More business when people don't think that we just pillage and ask for sexual favors."

"So what am I to you? A hole to extort later?" Anna said with narrowed eyes.

"That is the old philosophy. Right now, you are our damsel, and it is our job, to remove the distress." He came up to her and put a burly hand on her shoulder pad. "And the best way to do that…."

"...Is to not go in." Anna fumed in silence, before stabbing the sword into the ground. She started marching the way home, stomping on every little bump and leave she could find.

"Does this mean you will heed our words?"

"Go rape a nun you linguistic fuck!" She yelled, masking the tears with anger as she continued on. "Oh Mizuki, what will I do now…"

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With the minka now clean and proper, the spirit had finally decided to teach Mizuki the ways of a Yokai, starting with the scrolls in the compartment below the home. Candlelight now illuminated the walkways loaded with scrolls on either side much brighter than before, but it was still a far cry from the ideal place to read a scroll. "My god, must I read them here?" Mizuki asked, laying one along the ground to unroll. "It is tradition to do the scroll studies in the scroll room. Where else would be appropriate?" The spirit asked.

"The rock garden?" Mizuki said, still unrolling the scroll. It had reached the length of her height at by this point, and still had a sizable roll left before she could read the entire scroll. The symbols were thumb-sized and stacked with 6 in one column. This went on from end to end, which turned out to be twice her height. Mizuki groaned and fell on her side to the floor, not looking forward to reading each and every symbol. Which brought up another issue….

"What is wrong Mizuki?" the spirit asked, feeling something off as well. Mizuki was stuck at the first symbol, staring at the bundle of lines drawn together. "I….I…."

"It is that why we haven't been speaking Japanese?" the Spirit questioned. "No wonder I have been talking to you in your dialect all this time."

"I'm very sorry!"

"It is but a small matter," the spirit said. "As I have gotten your language from you, you can get my language as well. We are connected, after all." Mizuki felt a shiver go up her spine while her eyes flashed yellow. "There we go, now our minds can share our knowledge of everything." Mizuki was unsure it worked, but her gears started turning once she had taken a second look at the paper. Like she had unlocked a secret language, she started reading across the scroll. "No no, go vertically Mizuki."

"Oh, oh right."

Mizuki spent the next two days down in the scroll rooms, the spirit refusing to allow her to read anywhere else. Her only reasons to get to leave were to cook, sleep, and tend to the rock garden for her merriment. At first, she didn't see any difference after reading each scroll, but at least her eyes seemed to not be wearing down from the poor reading light.

"Hmmm…" Mizuki said at one point, looking at her assortment of vegetables. "What is so interesting Mizuki?" The spirit asked, confused about why she was just standing there.

"It has a….glow to it," Mizuki said, pointing at the carrot. Through her eyes, she could spot the mana that resided in the carrot, coming off it like a slow simmer of spiritual steam. She moved her hand through the gassy mana, watching it dissipate away.

"The room is finally showing its effects I see."

"Effects?"

"As a yokai, it would be detrimental if you couldn't interact with the mana you control," the spirit explained. "The room must have deemed your mind ready, and therefore your body."

"But all I have done has read…"

"Exactly! With knowledge, the rest can easily follow suit in your body," the spirit said, mentally putting hands on Mizuki's shoulders. "Let the dragon-ki seep into your body, and bless you more~"

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The haziness she saw grew more and more evident the more she read, even starting to permeate through the floorboards of the scroll room. It was like trying to walk through a fog, as she fanned away more and more mana just to keep herself from bumping into a wall. "It's everywhere!"

"That is the natural energy for you. You will have to learn to remove the mana from your vision on command."

"How do I do that?" Mizuki said, bumping into the steps leading up to the ground. "Ow!"

"Focus and breath simply. As with all else, the rest will come…"

"Naturally. I know." Mizuki waited and sat on the floor, keeping her patience as the mist slowly disappeared from view. She repeated a longing to see normally as a human, and her surroundings obliged, letting the candlelight reach her eyes once again.

It was only the first of the changes she would experience, however. She first realized it when heading to the river to clean herself, leaning over the water to scoop it onto her face. She caught a glimpse of her reflection, seeing her eyes replaced by completely yellow orbs with black silts. Likewise, she shrieked at first, thinking a doppelgänger was playing a trick on her, but the reflection didn't disappear when she left and came back. Her eyes were still a radiant gold, and now, two nubby horns had begun to protrude from her horns.

"Is this the dragon-ki's blessing?" Mizuki asked, poking and pulling at the horns. They felt like real, monster-esqe pointers, coarse and impossible to take out. She reached down into the river to take scoop some water into her mouth. The water stuck still like one large droplet instead of half of it slipping away, sliding around on her skin like butter. "I didn't even practice magic…."

"But you remembered the skills from the scrolls, no?" The spirit came in, back from being missing. Mizuki nodded, getting a wide-angle view of herself while looking at the water ball. "When you said, everything else will follow…"

"You will still have to hone your talent. Only the abilities will be accessible, but not necessarily the skill. Are you able to take that bubble off your hand?"

"Um…." Mizuki tried picking it up from her arm, only for it to stick to her other hand. "Not again!" The spirit chuckled and bid Mizuki adieu, leaving her to have to deal with taking off the water from her body. She ran back to the minka, figuring that her fastest answer could just be lying somewhere in the basement.

"Water, water, water…." Mizuki said, skimming through scrolls to find something to help her. The water seemed bad at first, but her grip was so strong that the bubble rubbed against the scrolls like a balloon. She soon found the scroll she was looking for. She scanned it closely, groping the bubble with her free hand while she read. A pop of water jolted her while she was reading the last line. She turned to a bubble that was no more; just water that had splattered onto the floor, and a hand that had lost its skin and filled the space with golden, shiny scales.

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Some moons later, Mizuki hath woken up in a completely transformed body. Two translucent fins with golden skeletons had grown out as a result of learning to communicate to animals. Her hair had turned white, and her horns grew larger along with her bank of mana to practice spells. Her legs had fused into a tail while she was at leisure in her river; that transformation was hectic, but then with the right scrolls, she had learned to fly and hover, so she wouldn't have to practice moving around on one limb.

She got up, stretching her arms and lower limb. The tip slide up the wall, wiggling around until she pushed herself upright and started walking, eh, sliding over to the rock garden. Butterflies greeted her as she slid the door to the side. "Morning!" She chirped, one of the butterflies landing in her hair to rest. They kept her company while she rearranged the rock garden once more. Her pictures in the gravel had gotten more precise, with this one being an etching of her past neighbor. "Have you met her?" Mizuki asked the butterfly on her head.

Flap, Flap.

"Yes, she does have hair like me…but soon, we will be able to see her again. One last time…" Mizuki said, raising a golden finger to the butterfly. It hopped onto the finger, flapping once more.

"I mean, I won't be able to live beside her no longer…"

Flap, flap.

"Do I want to? Well….no, no, it will distract me from my duties," she answered, shooing the butterfly away. "Silly butterfly."

"Silly indeed," when the spirit that lived inside her head. "I am proud of you Mizuki. You have made so much progress in so little time, anyone would have been glad to mentor such a quick learner."

"I couldn't have done it without you, spirit."

"Please, call me 'Anna'," she assured. "Although, that would make it harder for our last scroll…"

"Oh, but the previous ones were so much fun. The lesson on making a thunderstorm was so lovely to experience the first time…" The voice chuckled at her endearing comment. "It was a bit shabby, and my writing during that time was frantic. I should have taught you not to pour too much mana into the spell. I just hope nothing notable happened, wherever the rain yet."

"I'm sure it was fine! At most, maybe a few plants would be extra delicious with the mana. Let's go read the last spell." Mizuki walked inside, opening the door to the scroll room and headed down. She went to the deepest parts of the room, where the final scroll in the bottom right corner was tucked away. She took it and opened it on to the ground, humming until the last bit of the paper had come out of the scroll. She picked it up and started reading, her pleasant tune coming to a stall once she got past the first three lines…

"It's time for us...to part?" She read out loud.

"Mizuki," the spirit started. "We both knew this was coming. After all, my time to go has come."

"But we have only been together for a season!"

"That was plenty of time to watch you grow into the role," the spirit assured. "I'll miss watching you bumble around the kitchen. If only you were as good as cooking as you were flying…"

"I'm fine for what I need," Mizuki joked, starting to read the rest of the scroll. Once she was done she rolled it up, taking a deep breath and holding out her claws. "It has been a pleasure Mizuki."

"It has been an honor, Anna." The misty mana was pulled out of her body, being concentrated on her palms. She could feel the presence of her mentor leaving her, leaving only the powers that the dragon-ki had bestowed to her. She put the scroll back and went upstairs, seeing a new kimono of white and faded golden flower stems, placed beside the pot and stove. One last gift from beyond her grave, she supposed. She put it on, letting the sleeves hang from her elbows instead of sitting on her shoulders. "I will fix it later," she decided, moving into the kitchen to take her place on her chair. The orb sat in her lap, pulsing idly while she looked out towards the hillside. Everywhere, the forest and the land...was all hers and hers alone.

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Mizuki flew through the air, holding her new scroll with all the information she needed. "Nabu was nice," she said to herself, flying through the night sky. "If only you were there to see it, Spirit Anna."

On her way to the forest, she passed over her old village. She could see all the people milling around, living on as if nothing had happened. The crops and trees were just about to finish ripening, most likely needing her touch to make it happen. It was her duty after all. She then saw Anna, who had somehow gotten up to the top of her house and was staring at the moon.

"That's strange. Human Anna would never do something like that," Mizuki thought, materializing the orb that was her mentor. "What do you think, Spirit Anna?"

The orb of course, didn't answer, but it's pulsing made it feel all the same. Mizuki decided why not, and decided to dive from the sky to see what was going on.

…

"Moon," Anna started, resting against the chimney of her home. "You are the only one that hasn't failed me. I won't yell at her anymore, I won't turn her away when she drags me on "tomato-watching. Please," Anna said, getting on her knees and putting her hands together in prayer. "Please bring back Mizuki…" A claw fell upon Anna's head, pulling her entire torso upright. "Get out of that position, it is not yourself at all…" Anna's heart sank when she felt the claws, its sharp edges digging through her mortal clothing.

"I said stand before thee!" The voice repeated. Anna began to sweat, being turned around on top of the building. Two slits looked down on her, with a body of a snake-woman, but the horns of some dragon. "Oh, I forgot to say please, hehe." Anna wrung herself free and moved back on the roof, breathing heavily. "You don't scare me succubus!"

"No, I'm a deity, not a succubus," Mizuki said, her tail not even touching the roofing as she hovered close to Anna. Anna was running out of stepping room if she wanted to get away. "Would a succubus come to answer your prayers Anna?"

"Only a succubus would have such huge bosoms," Anna exclaimed, pointing at the D cups on Mizuki. Her smile left, replaced by a blush while her claws hid them from view. "The spirit never told me my breasts grew….ow!" Anna threw her shoe at Mizuki, taking off her other one. "If I'm going to die, I'm going to die with honor slut!"

"Don't jump Anna, I need to tell you something about Mizuki!" The Ryu made a lunge, but Anna was too fast, jumping off her home into the embrace of pain on the ground.

"No!" Mizuki yelled as mana shot from her, changing form from invisible mist to water to become a water bed. To Anna and any curious onlooker thought, it seemed that the water just appeared out of thin air, rushing to save the girl from breaking a bone or worse. She sank into the waterbed, being tossed half a foot before landing once more in it. Mizuki came down quickly, looking too and fro before rushing Anna inside her home.

"Get off me, just slay me where I am!" Anna yelled. "I rather be dead than a-"

"My Shirohebi?" Mizuki offered.

"What?"