Once Upon the Magic Course

"Pwah, it was so intense trying to escape!"

The relief on Tsukuyomi's face wasn't something I can connect with─but from how he relished energy out of a bottle of water, I could only feel my throat dry a little. Practically having read my expression, he looked into my eyes and extended his hand. I stared at the bottle, the quaint audible splash from the inside trickled into my eardrums. Admittedly, the sun has to mean the best source of energy of all living beings… heck, it's probably the easiest for me to be with a certain avatar of the sun. Man can simply not live without water, and I think I'm drained for the day.

Tsukuyomi intently pushed the bottle closer.

Indirect kiss: how I wish it was Amaterasu instead of her twin brother.

"You're only separated for a couple of minutes and now, you're acting codependent?" Tsukuyomi bantered out, reclining his arm away from my personal space.

I winced at him.

"(No! You shouldn't read minds, Yomi!)"

"As usual, the contrast is not that of a person."

After such an inconsiderate file of complaint, he grimaced.

"It's too early for me to regret forming a connection with you and yet… I don't understand how my sister can bear with you."

I tilted my head, consciously looking out the door for any risk. "I don't understand it myself," I said, clamoring for a dismissal.

"If you're going to forget we're here, could you at least avert your eyes from staring at us?" Someone called out from behind the moon's son, the risks I was trying to look out for. "Not only does it defeat the point, it's like being told we're not needed."

"Aha-ha, that was never the intention. I'm only like, there's three Mind Mages… what do you want from my mind!?" I enumerated, gladly declining the water bottle as they let themselves in.

Apart from Tsukuyomi, there were two more with him.

Kafka Ikari and Nadeshiko Makinami, our classmates, a contrasting duet of a clairvoyant and mind reader.

Lean and mean as Kafka entered, Nadeshiko gracefully contrasted the effect as she prodded in with a bouncy boing. Nayami greeted them in a concerning looseness, awkward sentiment swerved to oblivion. Maybe it's a little biased on my part, envious that they were interacting with her finer than I do, but then again, I don't interact fine with most of my classmates.

It's mostly built upon cynicism, and strings pulled on the side for destructive revelations in case we turn against each other.

"Technically, I'm a Time Mage," Kafka clarified, albeit late for him to claim.

"So, how do we crush those people who threw us out?" Nadeshiko felt powerful for herself, having to pose as if she was to punch someone.

It's not doubtful that she can, but the ruminating cheerfulness simply doesn't brand her violent.

If anything, they're the textbook definition of Mages who excludes might, only mind and magic.

"You did get yourselves thrown out of the classroom… wait, should revenge be your first objective?"

We have to find the others, I proposed─but as soon as I did, Nadeshiko pulled out her grimoire and flashed a message from our homeroom teacher herself.

"If you come into contact with anyone, tell them to come to the mansion."

Yeah, Otogibanashi Mansion─arguably the safest place on Nichiyoubi for being a cultural heritage site protected not only by the family but by the government.

Shrewd and blatant strategy: either you're seen or not, seeking asylum there is the way to go. In respect to being a story, I hate how such a place exists. However, in respect to life, I'm glad such a place stands immune to threats and menaces all over the globe and back.

"As of the moment, everyone else but us and Amaterasu are not in there," Kafka reported, intently staring at the orb of fire.

"What happened to my sister?" Tsukuyomi worriedly addressed, beating me into it.

"I hate to break it for you two but we have no idea where she might have gone," Kafka vocalized, notwithstanding his curiosity over our makeshift lamp.

"Hmm, I know how her mind works… one way or another, she's currently acting on her own," I claimed.

"Yeah, you couldn't be more introspective when it comes to her," Tsukuyomi supported, eyeing me differently as though a contrarian.

How I know Amaterasu being more productive as a standalone persona, Tsukuyomi knows as well.

A simple reversal put into words: She's more prone to questionable decisions when left overseeing other people… I want to see her, though.

Tsukuyomi likely winced but decided to hide it.

"Why would it be at our house, though?" I questioned the decision, rudimentarily following with the judgment, "That's too risky."

"I'd like to believe that Miss Narukami knows best," Nadeshiko dismissed, positivity sparking by her lustrous eyes. "Although going here is also clever," she added, but only as an afterthought… probably. "I'll report to her right away!"

And so, Nadeshiko did as she told us.

"I've told them that we're together, safely with Nayami," she relayed out of their exchanges and lastly, delivered a 'necessary message' I should at least know:

"Miss Narukami has one order she wants carried out: Find out who the opponent is and initiate a counterattack by sundown!"

Investigation and counterattack with a time attack… alright?

I sighed a huff at such a puny objective. I can correlate it to being thrown out of the classroom, but it should have been forgivable for being a mindless sin. Also, there was a hole in our classroom─but I don't think that even excuses thirty Mages from hunting down an outfit who fights for an important goal.

They're mostly rabid about their objective of taking Nayami out the Magic Side─so it might as well count as a proper motivation.

Compared to flimsy revenge built upon flimsy reasons, it's stronger albeit nonsensical from my point of view.

"Hmm, you're thinking too much, Yukihime," Tsukuyomi criticized, dropping his binoculars as he looked below.

He stood on the roof, acting for surveillance while I remained on the ground mindlessly scaling the downhill road. Kafka remained inside the derelict shack to sleep, downright expressing refusal to take part in the upcoming event. Nadeshiko had taken Nayami to the atelier, leaving behind us three boys on our own.

For a reason stated by Nadeshiko, if we were to make it work─I needed to stay out of the mansion.

I'd separately work 'as intended' so it goes quite contradictory when I'm left with Tsukuyomi and Kafka.

"Huh, I'm thinking too much because I'm missing a crucial point why I'm about to ride on Naru's plan to counterattack," I bounced back for him to ponder.

"Huh? Are you kidding me?"

"No… it feels more like I'm being dragged into something apart from what I want to do on my own."

"That's definitely my part in this whole conundrum. On a precursor, I'm more out of the picture. Imagine being thrown out of the classroom to the middle of nowhere, and seeing through the situation by acting like a detective?"

"Imagine being called by you when I'm doing my research, and being ambushed by the lower grades we've been training with for six months now?"

We sighed, both at the same time.

Mostly intentional.

"Count a year and six months for the Second Years."

What should turn out as a discussion for pinpointing our enemies, it rather devolved into discussing previous combat.

"Thanks to our building not being mixed with the other classes." He touched his nose's bridge, laughably evident of reduced brain cells. "You've faced more or less sixty students, then? No rebellious supporter on your side?"

"Fifteen or less, I've skipped half. No rebellious supporters on my side."

"Wait, did something extravagant happen?" In a daze, he shot me an eyeful. "Don't tell me you could still use magic while inside the barrier?!"

I told him all about what happened.

"You traded your memories to fill up Miss Kyoukaisenjou's bladder!?" Tsukuyomi shouted in utter shock, unbelieving what he heard as evident in his widened eyes. "Man, that's too hardcore!" He immediately judged.

I didn't say anything back.

Resting his back onto a rusted iron bar, he exclaimed, "...Hm, so they returned for you?"

"Not for me: They're looking out for Nayami."

Tsukuyomi paused for a while: he knew the story, Amaterasu told him. Coming from a rational prediction, he'd be surprised to gasp. Lest, throw himself away for a comedic flair nonetheless taken from his truest fear.

"So from when she entered class, we had gods in the classroom!?"

Nailed it.

"Moments ago, they were with us."

Seven gentlemanly figures congesting the small shack to be precise.

When Kafka and Nadeshiko welcomed themselves in, it looked like a can of sardines─I might have left if they didn't function like ghosts.

"Uh, I'm embarrassed somehow… but yeah, same thing for the Spirits."

I nodded, most agreeing with his sentiment.

Gods they may be called, they're collectively and technically Spirits when in the Magic Side.

"…Yukihime?" Adherent to an off-tone, Tsukuyomi called with an apology in mind, "I'll tell you that it's our fault they almost took you down─our juniors, I mean."

"Are you trying to tell me that our efforts to educate them as seniors backfired?" I assessed, "…I haven't been attending to them, though."

Tsukuyomi grinned.

"Exactly, Yukihime! We've always hated you for leaving us out, and we trained them with the objective of defeating you."

I shot him an eyeful.

"We didn't play a part in it, though." He quickly cast shame out of his system, and pointed the blame for the obvious, "It's mostly your protege, and whoever's on her back."

"It's our twisted ideology," I corrected him.

'Weakness should not be welcomed at all cost!'

Our class was able to outrun─by always acknowledging weakness and looking out for each other.

"Yeah, exactly… blame the whole school but not our class. We have your back, buddy!"

"Naw, cut it with the sports festival stuff."

I shut him off, chuckling by the end of it.

He didn't argue more, and laughed along.

The conversation only tells me that I'm being too carefree.

It's like a blind reliance on him for everything at the moment, I disclose extremely valuable information at the drop of a casual talk. He is Amaterasu's twin brother so it might have merited an extra level of trust… However, it doesn't lift possible betrayals─I'll be stabbed at the back any second now, and be taken into their custody as the savior of Nayami Ayanami they needed to dispose of.

Clairvoyant and Space Mage.

It's not necessarily that he might have been the former collaborator, but Kafka Ikari undoubtedly matches the description. Meanwhile, Tsukuyomi might be working with Ayase Kyoukaisenjou… so I'm baiting them: Tsukuyomi first in the sequence to show his true colors.

"Hey, why did you burn the butterfly!?"

Any signs of betrayal didn't occur.

Tsukuyomi complained─a hasty transition from our synchronized laughter.

I smiled, and kept another sense of guilt into my brain before feigning ignorance.

"Come to think of it," I readily sprang─one crucial thought which sat on my mind all throughout the first herald of the classroom incident, "How were you thrown out of the classroom?"

Tsukuyomi tilted his head, and looked up to the sky.

"Hmm…We haven't told you about that yet, have we?"

"First time I'd be knowing if you'd share."

"Miss Kyoukaisenjou barged into the classroom with a masked man, and it chained the next second, we were teleported out of the classroom…"

He stopped, implementing cheap suspense before finishing the story.

"...In midair─a heart-stopping skydive beyond the clouds."