Fluffy was the first sensation was something that he felt, something from the back was comforting his back and felt warmness from it, he stretched his back and he felt croaking of his body, letting lose a sigh of contentment, he shifted to his sides to go get a better resting position but that only gave him a spot in his leg in pain, he shifted again but that only resulted in a worser pain in his back,
His eyelids shifted groggily and the first thought of before he awoke from the wonders of the unconsciousness where of "waking up with his body in pain, and hoping that this wouldn't become a trend". A smell of coffee hits him and his body jolts out of him as he felt the need as if like a gateway drug, gingerly accepting the mug of coffee that was handed by him that he didn't see,
He carefully walks towards the seat like a zombie and he absorbs the coffee as the first couple of sips of coffee entered his system, he sits there for a couple of moments and he hears the giggling beside him and looks at them to see Marisa and someone he didn't knew, but he heard that someone say about him being compared to something flesh-eating zombie.
Though the after-effects of adrenaline washed out and all sorts of things that happen such as the constant pains and the feeling of guilt of not reminding his co-worker and his dad of his sudden disappearance, he sighs alerting the attention of both of the people who has been waiting for him to wake up
Both of them looked at him with amusement and stared at the boy who exclaimed who just waked up, He tries to say something but immediately clamps it down, he wanted to talk about his father, his sudden disappearance from the spa, and all sorts of things but at that moment he felt something and he chose to follow that instinct and spoke
"That girl from earlier, is she safe?" He spoke the words not out of concern nor out of guilt of something he has done, but was the first thing that came out from his mouth
Marisa looked at him strangely and the woman eyed him critically, both of them looked at each other as if planning what to say but Marisa seemed to stumbled on her words as if unsure what to do with him and the woman glared at Marisa but softened as her eyes landed upon Jose, he didn't know what they were talking about, so he faked a cough to catch their attention
"Indeed, she is and only a few amounts of bruises and cuts were there" The woman says but continues with a smirk "Though for a someone who just waked up, worrying about her and not about yourself... that does say something about your characteristics isn't it, Mapulon?"
A frown appears on her face and she glared at the woman but it had no actual weight on it, and the woman's smirk grew only larger, a silent conversation occurred between them, as the woman sighed at Marisa and bore a much more serious face, The woman begins and says," I'm Yukari Yakumo, a simple youkai who overlooks the barrier" and she made a critical eye,
That looks like the ones his father would made and he wilted a bit from that stare but stared back with same intensity but of caution with small pints of fear within, the woman seemed to approve and continues earlier with," For someone who just barely fought of a horde of zombies and someone who kept in mind the safety of civilians first it was impressive but then again that was expected for those who just turned into elementals, despite there were stragglers and the buildings being burnt, but those were abandoned apartments so those don't count, it was truly impressive indeed for your first battle"
Jose cheeks grew hot in embarrassment at the sudden praise given by the person in front of him but made forced his embarrassment down as he recalls what she says about him becoming an elemental, he frowned at the nonchalance in which the person told him about becoming an elemental, but so he asks," What do you mean becoming an elemental? From the books I've read, there weren't any actual ways as seeing as that the only known elementals were fairies or non-existent, there were other method but those were unsafe and it involves with experimenting with your body seeing as that the mind and body is delicate, it's not like did that either since the only thing I did was reinforce my body"
He looks at them for a moment but they seemed to be staring at you like as if you were an idiot who said something like an idiot would, he continued," I simply thought that, if there were ways to become an elemental then there are ways to strengthen your body without killing yourself" A smug smile appears on Jose and horrified look and a dark look turns to the attention towards Jose
"Which is I simple imagined the fire as something to be used and placed it within my body", Jose says with face grinning with pride, both looked at him in the sense like an idiot which returned from Maris to exasperation and amusement from Yukari Yakumo, Yukari looked at Marisa and simple muttered to her with a small "good luck and "take care".
Yukari looked at Jose and speaks," It seems that I have other business to tend to..." She looks at Marisa as if apprising her if whether she was capable of what Yukari, in that moment Jose felt like he was reminded by the fact that she was youkai, he instinctively straightens up which Yukari noticed but didn't care to bother, Marisa gave her a determined no, as soon she did, an eldritch like portal forms in the floor where Yukari was standing, and disappears into it.
Though after she exits, there was someone in the door that was waiting, He squints and looks at the figure to see the
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In a forest, where the nature was taken over it by it through time, there were two people standing, the other talking about youkai in general and the other listened, for a weekend, it seemed like Marisa was some sort of a strict teacher by the way she was teaching. They covered quite a lot of topics but it seemed that magic was something that Marisa seemed to tend to not discuss today, but seemed to tip-toe against it, merely mentioning it but giving examples of it.
For the beginning they discussed mostly of the state in which society as a whole how it was affected, it depicted photos of how places like Japan or the U.S dealt with the creatures or was it commonly denoted as Youkai, they are variations of what they call but for the sake of simplicity, they are simply youkai, and it shifted towards how the Youkai were formed,
They were formed through belief, it was noted that the belief of a person affects how the youkai manifest themselves, if let's say if a country that believed in heavily in myths, if the myths says that certain types of monsters exist because of myth then it would be the amount of belief is equivalent to creature in question, seeing as that the Philippines has such many cultures with its own set of myths, adding the colossal giant that is Christianity,
With the large amount of belief, along with the great mana in the atmosphere, there are bound to be many mages who would come here to practice their magic, however with that also came with the many creatures that feast upon humanity despite its benefits. The requirement to put up talismans to protect your house was in a mandatory basis and was religiously practiced, seeing as that the people who didn't were found missing or brutally killed by something,
It was a really good reminder, along with many warning from not touching the mounds as they were owned by a fairy or not disturbing that forest as there were as fairy residing in that area, but with the new sources of entertainment that you could get in the internet, fairies were changed from monster that would employ torture or silly pranks that would end up those in the receiving end dead,
However, with today, their appearance changed and their behavior changed due to social media and the industry, lots of creatures changed, those that were dangerous become more than just a little annoyance and those that were harmless, become dangerous, and because of those rumors were one way to find information despite being rumors most of the time dead ends.
Seeing as the zombies were quite in large from earlier and primitive knowledge of throwing obstacles for attacking, with its own nature as something that was dead, then there must have been an incident before that contained enough belief within them to turn them into zombies who were capable of that, there were a few accidents that he had in mind that could have done that,
He walks up to Marisa and says," Remember the part when you said that belief affects magic and creatures and stuff?"
"That is horribly summarized but... Yes, indeed" She looks onto him and continues," What's your point?" saying to make him get to the point
"I remember a few accidents that took place here recently that might have been the origin of those zombies" and he continues
"In the docks, there were a few accidents that implies in the rumors, I've investigated from my earlier days when I was in the region taking a break, there was an accident there about a chemical leak apparently it become famous enough that resulted in earlier incident"
He huffs and as a sweat pour down in his body, he felt like he ran a marathon and studied like someone procrastinating for finals...
Marisa looks at him and says," We won't be doing this sort of preparation today and the intensity would be cut out seeing as that was just a crash course of what to expect but with you, already knowing the basics, we skipped it and began with simpler magic, seeing as that your origin is that of a fire elemental or a fairy, one way", She giggled at how absurd the last statement she said and how she said that with a straight face
He looks at her and mock glares at her and laughs along with her and she continues," I could give you pointers but it seems that you have your own tricks with you with the talismans, I'm not giving you tips for now as I wanted to see how you would progress, if you were left alone with your wit in battle and how you could adapt fast in battlefield"
"Though, seeing as that despite being homeschooled, I do have days like Wednesdays and Thursdays where in the afternoons, my schedule is wide open"
"I see... I could make a schedule for that" Marisa nods to that
Jose then looks at her seriously and she rose her eyebrow at that and she lets him continue," How about the incident from earlier, wouldn't better if we could investigate the docks much earlier? Seeing as zombies suddenly arrive, when I was there would be, one way to solve the issue with no casualties and stop it before it gets dangerous"
Marisa nods at him but then says," I'll let you help but in one condition, you shouldn't use your magic that often, your control right now is finical at best, you might worsen the situation instead, but with the objective, fighting wouldn't be even in the agenda for today"
"With that being said... we'll meet up here same place, every Thursdays and Wednesdays, right?"
"Of course... for a final warning, don't experiment on your own, okay?" Despite the dismissive attitude, there was a strong sense of warning present inside the tone.
And thus, they walked separately they walked separately, Marisa went off somewhere with a broom and Jose went off back towards his job and steeled himself forgetting about the inevitable talking to his co-worker would do, seeing as the reckless way, he did earlier but all that was forgotten as he plans on what on how to solve the current incident,
Finding information wasn't that hard to find, nor were people cutthroat enough that they started killing people if words get out someone was doing magic in public, it was more of the phenomenon of how magic works, it can be talked but more in private, it was frowned upon talk it in public, most are given a slap to the wrist and a stern talking to, the fact that incident took place somewhere abandoned was lucky
People have been fined or worse imprisoned for doing solving incidents publicly, things could have easily gone south, if people drew their own conclusion making the situation worser that it would have been, that was how magic worked here, through belief just like what has been said earlier, information could influence but not directly control. It is why most incidents that were involved in the supernatural world were isolated, poor evidence and bunch of speculation,
Walking towards the spa, he could only predict what she would say. Jose didn't predict that he would get to an accident and his co-worker was someone who was motherly type, someone who would mother you over where you go? Why you were hurt? What you were doing there? Thus, he prepared to make a short message why he was doing there and hiding where it was pointless, she wouldn't ask any questions but would it worth it?
Having at least someone that knew him about his activities that isn't his dad nor someone one with them helps, he knew himself that he has a problem and that revolves around his origins, he didn't know, but just do what he thinks is what the best course of action, with a plan in his mind, and different phrases to calm down his co-worker and a way to best to solve this with no problems attached afterward? That seemed like impossible but he makes do what he has.
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Arriving at the store, he could see the temporary closed sign in the door and someone inside waiting impatiently, he saw a wicked smile from that woman and he regretted going here, then again since when did his plans actually toke place and just improvised all the way, Jose rubbing his shoulder then thought of," Why plan when you already improvise before the plan even starts..."
And looking at the woman and she says," You were quite reckless, I thought that parkour was something that you did but I didn't know to what extent... but that? You are really something you know?"
Though her words were calm and as if someone who was just scolding like it was something she saw every day, her eyes were righteous fury and he doesn't have a say for that, it was justified even too. He stood there as she scolded him there, but there was something else that made him winced, she looked at him with more serious than he thinks that she was capable already and said," For someone's who working on this spa though only on weekends, despite being just your employer, you've already worked here for months already... so please whatever your problem is just tell me Okay? We've known for months... but if you aren't ready yet? I'll be waiting here, okay?"
No, he didn't tell her immediately what it was, no he wasn't someone who just suddenly gave up information and why he did that, it was a slow process and he says," I've been searching for who my parents were and who I am..." he trembles a bit which she gave him reassuring smile "I've asked my father for where he got me, but he always gave me, those weird thing about when you get older or something about go finding it for yourself"
Jose unknowingly himself vented to her, despite not telling her about the supernatural and parts of the story herself and some questionable, she merely listened and smiled warmly at him, after his vent he sniffled there for there and they stayed there for a couple hours, while it may have been embarrassing to Jose but he felt his chest feel lighter, he timed out and began to walk home.
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Arriving back home, there were a few dusts gathering the foot steps leading to door, he guessed that his father was later again... though up to this point, he was always arrived late anyway, with the new routine set-up by Marisa, for moments he stood there, despite being smart there were things that he does that he felt stupid, he does things which are things that are teenagers do, though guess some leeway won't really affect him.
He enters the kitchen and only to have something gnawing in his head and he went to put the bag from his back to put the groceries, only to see that the bag was empty, he looks around to remember and spots a note and it reads," Bring groceries for-" He didn't need to read all of it as he drops forgetting why he went to city in the first place other than his part-time job, he sighed and prepared to go grab cash from his savings but only to see a portal open up and to see a woman exit out of it,
She puts the groceries down and some sort of book down, she smiles at him and went back inside, before she went inside, he mutters "thank you". The woman merely smiles and went inside the portal, like the teenager that he was he merely gapped they're like a fish, barely remembering that happened, he slapped himself to stop from gapping there instead went organized the groceries and went preparing dinner.
From there he autonomously did all things out of habit, he might as well be a maid for how he went out and did things out of habit, he looked at his work as he got out of his state, to look at the front door cleaned from the dust, he sighs and went back inside carrying the broom with him, all while wondering what he should do, which are three things: clean the house (done), prepare dinner (done), investigate the docks for his origin (put on hold), about the elemental stuff (study about it), that woman who entered his house (?).
Obviously looking at the assortments of things to do the woman who just entered with his groceries while also knowing where he came from without even him knowing about it, violating his privacy and probably bunch of laws that he didn't know about but suddenly he felt like that suddenly things changed priorities, it seemed that for him that studying about elementals were his first priorities after all what might happen to him?
Were there any changes to his body? His attitude or his state of his body? Despite them being just investigating and with all the sudden changes and his sudden increase in activity about investigation turned into a extermination of the dead, and the new protocols and laws about using magic in the first place such as familiars, using magic in public and especially with his sudden change of his being into a fire elemental, for a teen like him who had only went into a small brawl and most problems were minor? It felt like the world suddenly went upside down to him.
Author Notes: Thank you for reading! I've been rereading this whole chapter but it feels like it felt rushed like and the small(?) info dumps I added seemed too much to me when reading last chapter... And reading with along the outline I've made to what the protagonist would be it felt like rushed but reading the outline, it seemed to sit well and the ending I've planned for it...
Leave reviews what you think you needs it changing, it would be appreciated :). For those who read and never wrote a review, thanks for sticking here by the way!!!