Chapter 4

En Route to Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, Japan

Thursday, December 1st, 2050

I’d been told that the flight from Iceland to Japan would have taken much longer back in the Pre-Horde days. Back then, they didn’t have to fly straight over the North Pole to avoid devil-controlled territory. There weren’t many direct flights, for that matter. Not having a friendly airport in all of mainland Eurasia or the Americas had forced them to adjust the itinerary.

This didn’t make the experience any easier. My guts still shook at the prospect of climbing into a metal tube and flying above the Arctic at barely subsonic speeds. Devils didn’t fly, after all.

I supposed Mulciber had changed that. He’d somehow managed to fly from Spain to Iceland under his own power. That meant there was a remote chance that another living golem could interrupt our flight path. That possibility did nothing for my nerves.

“You see?” Mariko had said as we disembarked. “You had nothing to worry about.” She added a giggle when she saw my sour expression. “You look so grumpy! Smile, Kasasagi.”

I only raised a half-hearted objection; it was the happiest I’d seen her since our botched attempt at All Heal.

The Bullet Train (or shinkansen, as Mariko helpfully told me) from Haneda Airport to Nagaoka only took a couple of hours, but I wasn’t much happier about it than the flight. The shinkansen was rather packed, and Kowalski and I were the only foreigners I could see. Mr. Lahlou was in another section of the train altogether, leaving the three of us to our own devices.

I felt some eyes on Mariko and I when we’d sat together, and when she rested her head on my shoulder, a few of our fellow passengers practically radiated malice. Not many of them, but they made up for their numbers with intensity. They looked at me and saw me as European. Funny, I didn’t usually think of my human heritage making me an outsider, but I supposed it was what they could see.

“At least if the airplane went down, there might be parachutes,” I said, choosing to gripe about what I could control.

“Probably not enough for everyone there,” said Kowalski. The blond man sat on my left as Mariko napped on my right shoulder.

“Probably not,” I conceded, “but I’m not above wrestling a stewardess to save myself.”

He chuckled at that before his face fell. He wriggled nervously in his seat, which meant his bulk intruded into mine. These seats had not been made with bulky Poles in mind. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” I said.

“Do you ever feel like a fraud?”

Only every single day, I didn’t say. “What are you going on about?”

“I don’t deserve to get brought along with you and Ms. Yamada,” he said. “I’m no wizard yet. I was at the bottom of the remedial class! You fought the Horde in England, then the Holy Brotherhood twice. Ms. Yamada was in three scrapes with the Brotherhood, too. The only real fight I’ve been in was against Mol, and I got knocked out halfway in.”

“You got knocked out saving my ass with Buddy,” I countered. “I wouldn’t be here to complain about air travel if you hadn’t.”

“Yeah, but I don’t get why they’re drafting me early.”

I raised my eyebrow. “I’m going to let you in on a truth, Kowalski.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Actually, let me amend myself,” I said. “Two truths. There’s the cynical version, and the optimistic version. Which do you prefer to hear?”

“Let’s get the bad one out of the way first.”

“To a pencil pusher in Tokyo, you are a body who can cast magic to shove into a uniform. With the casualties the Wizard Corps has suffered recently, you’re a line on a ledger so they can claim to be combat ready.”

Kowalski’s face fell further. “Oh.”

The cynical version had come to me first, naturally. However, it wasn’t what he needed to hear. “Now the more optimistic version: on the other hand, that pencil pusher might have been headmaster Tachibana. He isn’t an awful judge of talent; you put on an impressive show against Mol, and Buddy is actually listening now. You’re finally more dangerous to the Horde than to everyone around you.”

Kowalski winced like I’d hit him. “I thought that was the optimistic version!”

I shrugged. “Well, it’s not as though it’s knowable, anyhow. I say embrace the one that comforts you.”

Kowalski looked down at himself, poking at his stomach in his slightly undersized uniform. “What if I am just a line on a ledger?”

“Then you do the best you can out of sheer spite. Make them choke on your success.”

Kowalski puzzled over my words. “Huh, I actually feel better.”

I leaned back, wrapping an arm around the snoozing Mariko’s shoulders. “I thought you might.”

“B-but I barely know half the spells we were taught back in school,” he said.

I nodded to my lady. “She’s in the same boat. Besides, if they expect us to catch up with the second years, there’s going to be some sort of training. Relax already. Think about the positives; we aren’t too far from Gunma, as I recall. You might be able to visit your family.”

He brightened up that that. “It would be nice seeing my little sisters again. I worry about them.”

“I’m sure they’re fine.”

He shuddered. “You don’t know Gunma, especially that Little Poland they shoved us into.”

“If it’s like the Little Korea where Heida rented a room, it was certainly drafty,” I said. “Probably not the best smelling, either.”

“For sure,” he said.

“Still, you said it yourself before,” I said. “You being a wizard got them a larger apartment. Do it for them, if you can’t for yourself.”

He nodded. “That’s a good point. Y’know, I get why I’m weirded out by it, but why aren’t you happy?”

“That’s a rather broad question,” I said.

“No, I mean, I’d think you’d be overjoyed to get drafted. You’re always talking about how you want to avenge England, but I could tell that was an act for Mr. Lahlou.”

“Was I that obvious?”

His shrug jostled me in the tight quarters, and Mariko’s rhythmic snoring turned into a snort. “I think I know you pretty well. Probably not something a teacher would notice.”

I’d have to be careful about that; if I was going to be assigned with Mr. Lahlou for the duration, he’d get to know me well, too. Still, I had to clear this hurdle first. I couldn’t very well say anything that smelled of the truth, now could I?

“You aren’t the only one feeling a bit fake,” I replied. “Everybody who pays attention to wizarding recognizes me as the Magpie Wizard. It’s quite a bit to put on me while I’m still in training.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“You’ll do fine,” Mariko murmured into my shoulder. I still wasn’t the best at Japanese, but I gave myself marks for understanding that through her slurred voice.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” I said, a little let down as she straightened up. I enjoyed her intruding on my space much more than Kowalski.

She said something else in Japanese that escaped me, aside from a ‘you’ mixed in there. Kowalski responded with a set of numbers, though I couldn’t make out their meaning.

“Pardon?” I asked.

“Oh, I said we’re about a half hour out,” he replied.

“You should practice your Japanese,” she said, continuing on in her native tongue. “We are…” I couldn’t understand the next bit. “… for a long time. It’s time to learn.”

I hesitated, before a devilish little idea occurred to me. I had anticipated the request to broaden my linguistic horizons and had done something about it while Mariko hadn’t been looking. It was time to give her a little surprise and scratch an itch at the same time.

“Then come with me, my dear. I’m in the mood for a kohii. You can supervise me while I practice ordering.” The word for coffee had stuck, the way Yukiko had badgered me with it the last time she’d tutored me.

Before Mariko could respond, I’d pulled her to her feet and was leading her towards the next train car.

“Isn’t the snack bar the other way?” asked Kowalski.

I pretended not to hear him as we vanished into the next car. My memory was confirmed as I spotted exactly the sign I’d expected.

“Rafal was right,” said Mariko, switching back to English. “You are up to something.”

“Well,” I said, scanning around us to make sure there were no eyes on us, “it seems to me that we have just enough time before we arrive to have a bit of fun.” I didn’t mention that things had been spoiled back in Iceland, since that could only further spoil things. Seeing that there was nobody out of their seats, I pulled Mariko into the cramped bathroom. I could only just close the door behind us; simply standing in the tight space was close to second base.

“Kasasagi!” Mariko’s jaw went slack. “Y-you cannot be serious.”

I smirked down at her. “Of course I am. Iroppoi.”

As I’d hoped, her face went bright red as I called her sexy. “Who taught you that word?”

I fished a thin guidebook from my pocket, flipping to a dogeared page. “Flirting in Japanese. I grabbed while we were in Iceland. There are all sorts of useful little nuggets in here. ‘Anata wa Haru no ichiban no sakura yori utsukushi’.”

Mariko managed to collect herself a little. “How would you know I am prettier than a cherry blossom? You have never seen one.”

“Maybe not,” I conceded, pocketing the book again. “Still, it’s certainly given me some motivation to learn the local lingo, especially with you to practice on.”

My hand found its way around her hip, but she brushed it away before I could get started. “Not in a shinkansen restroom! We barely fit in here!”

“We may not have another chance,” I countered as I caressed her face. Not the cheek I’d been after, but it was still delightfully soft.

She tried to push past me. “Soren, if we get found in here, I will die of humiliation!”

“I think the danger adds some spice to it,” I said.

“I do not like spicy foods,” she said. “Now let me go! This is not funny.”

I could tell from the angry glint in her brown eyes that I’d lost this fight. “Very well.” The train jostled as we rounded a corner, and I barely kept us both standing as she fell into my arms. “You might have a point; this isn’t the most romantic environment.”

“Are you so desperate?” she asked.

“Well…” I couldn’t deny the accusation. “We’re about to be fully under the League’s thumb. Can you blame me for wanting one last lark?”

“Not normally, but Soren!” Her chiding tone was motherly, which did a bit to dampen my ardor. “How did you think this would work?”

“I imagined it would be a bit more spacious, for one thing. I’ll send my complaint to the train company at the first opportunity.”

That earned me a tiny grin. “I am almost sorry it did not work out.”

“Only almost sorry?” I asked.

“This was not the time or place,” she said, her tone firm. “I do not know what gets into you sometimes.”

“You know where half my blood comes from,” I said.

“But you were a nobleman back home,” she said. “Surely you learned some decorum!”

I laughed at that. “My dear, there isn’t what you’d call a gentleman in all of occupied Europe. Count yourself lucky you’ll never see it.” I cracked the door open an inch to make sure the coast was clear.

It was decidedly not.

“What the hell are you doing here?” demanded Kiyo Jones.

Chapter 5

I had certainly considered the possibility that I might run into Kiyo again. It was a small world (and smaller all the time, thanks to the Horde), and we were both Wizard Corpsmen. When around one in a thousand humans had magical talent, that was an extremely tiny social circle.

However, I hadn’t considered it would be under such delicate circumstances. Mariko had the sense to freeze as I slammed the door shut.

“That was Kiyo! Kuso!”

I recognized the intent of Mariko’s whispered curse, even if I didn’t know the word itself. “Let’s not panic just yet,” I said. “There’s got to be a way out.”

None were occurring to me as I scanned the miniscule bathroom, but there was no sense in panicking. There wasn’t exactly a back door. Even if there was a way to make Mariko vanish, Kiyo would bump into her.

A delicate fist banged on the door. “Hey, get out of there! I’ve gotta piss!”

Such a lady, my Kiyo was.

Well, I amended to myself, not my Kiyo anymore. That was part of the reason I’d shut the door. The other part was on the verge of hyperventilating as she pressed against my back.

“I’ll be just a minute,” I said.

“Well, hurry up!” growled Kiyo.

“She is going to catch us,” whispered Mariko. “Oh God, she is going to catch us!”

“Calm down; you faced a damn mutant and didn’t blink! This is nothing.”

“He could kill me,” she said. “This makes me want to die.”

Well, she wasn’t going to be much help. I’d always prided myself on my improvisational skills. All I had to work with was a panicking Mariko, a combination toilet and bidet, a sink, and whatever was in my pockets. That consisted of my cell phone, my passport, and wallet, as well as Flirting in Japanese. I counted that last one out; it was what had gotten me into this mess, after all.

“There we go,” I murmured, whipping out my passport. The plastic booklet was just about new; I hadn’t had one until headmaster Tachibana had helped me forge all the fine details needed to really become Soren Marlowe. I hoped my plan wouldn’t damage it.

Gently moving Mariko out of the way, I ran it under the sink for a few moments before tossing it behind the toilet. All of my practice with throwing Svalinn’s Wrath daggers paid off, as it banked off the wall and was perfectly hidden by the porcelain throne.

“Pretend you’re searching around the toilet,” I hissed an instant before opening the sliding door. “Kiyo Jones! What a…”

I trailed off as I got a good look at my ex. She was striking, as always; as much as she would deny it, she was a beauty in her own right. Her pitch-black hair offset her snow-white skin, and she had the most kissable lips.

Funny; I hadn’t felt like admiring Heida was cheating on Mariko, but thinking those thoughts about Kiyo seemed like a betrayal.

However, there were signs she had slipped back into some old habits. Her hair was a tangled mess, barely kept in line with a scrunchy that gave her a loose ponytail, and her eyes were bordered with dark circles that spoke of a lack of sleep. At least her white and green cadet uniform was clean.

“Move it, Marlowe,” she said, grabbing me by the sleeve and pulling as hard as she could. The short girl didn’t have much upper body strength, but her desperate yank pulled me forward. “I… Mariko?”

“Do I hear Kiyo?” Mariko snapped back upright, the dampened passport high enough for Kiyo to see before placing it on the narrow counter next to the sink. “S-Soren, it was behind the toilet the whole time.”

I’d give her performance a ‘C’, which was better than I’d expected. “Oh, thank goodness! I was worried it was lost.”

“You need to be more careful, Soren,” said Mariko icily.

“I’d have been in a bind if they’d caught me running around without it,” I said. “I owe you one.”

“You do,” she said, shooting me a meaningful glare. “Spot Clean.” The runes encircled her hands and collapsed, drawing all the water and filth on the passport to one point. A thin envelope of magical energy held the wobbly orb together long enough for her to send its contents down the sink.

“Good as new,” I said, taking it from her trembling hand. “Thank you, my dear. Let’s leave Ms. Jones to her business.”

Kiyo could be hard to read at times, but this was not one of them. Her arched eyebrow told me just how much stock she put in my little ruse. “What were you two… y’know what? Don’t care. Go have fun somewhere else. Now, move! I’ve gotta pee.”

We acquiesced. I still believe we might have gotten away with it if Mariko hadn’t looked so damned guilty as she made way for Kiyo.

“It was nice to see you again, Kiyo,” said Mariko through the door.

“Yeah. Same to you,” came Kiyo’s muffled reply.

“She knew,” said Mariko as we made our way back to our seats.

“She knows the passport was a lie,” I said. “She doesn’t know what I was up to.”

“Kasasagi, you two dated for months,” she said. “Back at the school, you used to sneak her into your room most every night for… loving. She is going to see the two of us in a strange spot and assume.”

“It’s Hell letting people get to know you,” I murmured, the sound swallowed by the background noise. “Well, I suppose we just have to move on.”

“If I can ever look her in the eyes again,” said Mariko. “What was she even doing here?”

“Seems obvious to me,” I said. “She has the same combat record as you, and she’s a crack shot with a rifle. Heck, she even worked her way out of the remedial classes before the attack. She’s a clear candidate for being moved up.”

Mariko’s eyes widened. “Oh no! She thinks we were… you know… in a public restroom. That is how she found out we are dating!” She stopped right in her tracks, burying her face in her hands. “I could just die.”

“At least we got the announcement out of the way,” I said, trying to look reassuring. “That was going to be awkward, regardless.”

“Not that awkward,” she said.

We returned to our seats. Kowalski looked up from his phone.

“I thought you were getting a coffee?”

“The line was too long,” I said.

“Yes, because Soren always needs instant gratification,” snapped Mariko.

“Oh,” said Kowalski. “Oh! I saw Kiyo Jones walking around! I said hi, but she didn’t notice me. Looked like she was in a hurry.”

“Yes, we ran into her too,” said Mariko, shooting me a meaningful look.

I doubted they carried flowers at the military base. A pity, since I suspected I was firmly in the doghouse. I’d have to find some way to make it up to her.