Four Drowned Leaves

Chapter 2: Desolation

A/N: Just re-upping the warning about violence and gore at the beginning of the fic. I really mean it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The two of them were collapsed in the shallow waters of the lake's edge, entwined, Fuutarou wrapped around the girl he had feared was lost to him forever. The emotions, sweeping around him like the ebbing flow of the water of the lake, were threatening to overwhelm him -- but he forced himself to choke them down. It was one of the hardest things he had ever done.

"It's... It's hard to explain," he finally said. "I can try, but... I don't yet understand everything myself."

Fuutarou finally, achingly, released her, and pulled back. He stood, the lower part of his wool leggings soaked with water. It would take time back home for them to dry; in the meantime, he would simply have to live with it.

"Eh? Uesugi-san, your clothes..."

He looked down, briefly confused. He had long since adjusted to the medieval clothing of the village; he wore a dull brown tunic which extended to his mid-thigh, and wool leggings underneath covering from his waist down to his leather boots. On the whole, apart from his fair complexion, he realized he looked just like one of the residents of Foryth Eldi.

He looked back up at her, and then sighed. There was no way to avoid the subject.

"I think when we fell into the river, we were cast into another world."

"Wait, what?! We're in an isekai?!"

Fuutarou frowned. "I don't know what that is. Regardless, the time we came through wasn't the same."

She froze. "What... what do you mean?"

"Yotsuba... it's already been three months for me."

Yotsuba was silent for a moment, her eyes glancing around as though she was struggling to verify what he had said. As though her brain refused to fall in line with the evidence that her eyes presented to her. Then, finally, she slowly nodded.

"Ok... it's been three months for you."

Fuutarou nodded, and Yotsuba let out a slow sigh.

"...Ok."

Her reaction confused him... and then he remembered what he had been in the midst of doing when they had fallen, all those months before.

Oh. ...That makes sense.

Fuutarou heard footsteps behind him, and he turned to see Kora slowly approaching. For a brief moment, she had an odd look on her face; then, she shook her head slightly, and it was gone, her face organized into a grin.

"Well, Fuutarou," she said, "You have the makings of a great mage. The first time you cast magic, you summon a woman from the sky!"

Fuutarou blinked. "Did I... summon her?"

He had not known the word summon, and he turned the word over in his mouth, picking up its meaning from context.

Kora snorted. "No. The magic you were using was weak. It would have summoned a nice little bit of rain... if you had succeeded in summoning anything."

Then, she looked down at her own clothes, which were soaked by the after-effects of Yotsuba's collision with the lake, and smirked.

"Actually, there was a nice little bit of rain. Good job."