24. Kekkai-

The first step was to find that enchanter.

I moved towards the market district, the sounds of the city slowly returning to my ears. The smells of food and spices were a sharp contrast to the stench of the alleyway, a reminder that life, in all its messy glory, continued, even in the face of such horror. 

I needed to find a way to navigate this world, to use its resources, and to find the people who could help me. I needed to be smart, I needed to be cunning, and I needed to be ruthless. I was done playing by Kirin's rules. I was done being a pawn in his game. I was going to be the one who changed everything.

I walked down the "Street of the Craftsman," the massive thoroughfare, a chaotic symphony of hammering metal, grinding stone, and the shouts of hawkers trying to peddle their wares. The street was a testament to the city's industry, a place where anything could be made, for a price. 

I turned down a smaller side street, the entrance to the witchery quarter, the air immediately growing thick with the scent of incense and something vaguely metallic, like old blood. 

I needed a gold coin to pass the guard, a burly man with a perpetually bored expression, to enter the slightly less massive street down the street of another street in the market district, but with the few hundred gold and other denomination coins clinking in my pouch, and the similar hundreds of platinum in my storage amulet, along with my other stolen materials from the times I had stolen resources on my way to my death a bunch of times before this, I definitely had enough.

He grunted as I passed.

I could feel the weight of them as I returned the punch to my belt, a tangible reminder of the lives I had taken on purpose and by accident.

The skills I had acquired in this endless cycle, felt as stolen as the lives that had been cut short.

I examined each building, each shop a potential source of the help I needed. 

I entered a few shops that catered to extremely wealthy clients, places where the air itself seemed to shimmer with arcane energy, but each enchanter seemed to either be too busy, too arrogant, or too disinterested to hear out a special order. 

Each time I had entered a shop, the attendants looked at me with disdain, their eyes sliding over my worn clothes and my young face, dismissing me as another naive fool with a foolish request. 

I could feel my frustration growing, the weight of my goals pressing down on me. I needed to find someone who would listen.

How hard was it to sell to someone who had money?!

I eventually reached a shop that seemed small, almost insignificant, from the outside, but was surprisingly larger on the inside.

The walls seemed to stretch into the distance, lined with shelves filled with jars of strange ingredients, glowing crystals, and books bound in leather that looked older than time itself. 

The air hummed with a subtle energy, a feeling that was both unsettling and strangely comforting. A voice, old and raspy, but with a hint of amusement, broke through my thoughts. 

"You seem to be in a rough spot, lad. What do you need from Old Lady Kuu? I won't claim to be the best enchanter, but I will give you what you pay for."

I jumped back in panic, my heart hammering against my ribs. I hadn't felt her approach at all, not even a whisper of movement. I drew my blade, the familiar weight of the Daito a small comfort, and used the technique for surprise attacks directed at me from behind, a technique that Kirin had drilled into me, towards the voice behind me. 

The blade slammed against an invisible barrier, a solid, unyielding force that stopped my attack cold. 

Shit, I thought, my face flushing with a mix of embarrassment and anger. "Ohohohoh! Jumpy aren't we? Please put the swords away, young man. You must be in some serious trouble for that to be your first reaction to being snuck onto. Come tell granny Kuu all about it."

I turned around, my gaze locking onto a smiling and wrinkled old lady, her eyes twinkling with amusement. 

Her hands, gnarled and weathered, seemed unnaturally strong.

Her grip moved in a way when grasping things like that looked like it clenched like iron, but was controlled like velvet.

She was covered in small gems, each one a different color, each one shimmering with an inner light, all sewn into the form of a cloak and dress. 

I could tell, even with my limited knowledge of sensing magic, if not using it, that each gem was enchanted with some effect, a subtle hum of power emanating from her very being.

Every single facet of the dress was an enchantment, a veritable arsenal of arcane power. 

I sheathed my blades, the sound of metal on leather a sharp contrast to the soft hum of the shop, and bowed at a ninety-degree angle, my head lowered in a sign of respect. 

"Grandma," I said, my voice sincere, "I am very sorry for entering your store and treating you poorly. I was not thinking clearly." I remained there in my bow for a few moments, my gut muscles aching, from the previous interaction between my lunch and the ground.

Kuu visibly nodded in my peripheral vision, a small, almost imperceptible movement. 

"I can forgive you," she said, her voice still raspy but now with a hint of kindness, "Now, tell me why a store that only appears when a great need of a cataclysmic weight, appeared to you, a small child of thirteen-who-is-not?"

The bell above the door rang, a sharp, insistent sound that cut through the silence. I looked up, bewildered, and saw Anna, her face tear-streaked, her violet hair a mess, standing in the doorway. "What?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper, my mind reeling.

"What?" Anna added, her mouth wide in astonishment, her silver eyes mirroring my own confusion and astonishment.

"Well, this is interesting," the old woman declared, her voice now laced with a hint of something else besides amusement, something that I couldn't quite place, but that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Her laughter was kind of grating now.

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"