"That was an Umibozu you summoned, right?"

Liam turned up towards the woman inquiring after his spell. He sat crouched in front of the collection of rubble in the living room, separating the different material which made up the furniture into different piles. The morning sunlight bled through the curtains behind Rin, with single blades of white light piercing through the cracks. The light gave substance to the dust and sawdust lingering in the air. The boy breathed carefully around the rubble out of fear of being sent into a coughing fit. He spoke as he continued working,

"Yeah. It wasn't actually an Umibozu, since I was too weak to summon an actual one. I just used it's concept of 'a monster from the abyss' to manifest darkness which acted like one." He explained, tossing a chunk of blasted wood into it's appropriate pile to his right. Before he began his journey to Japan, he had read up on the many Japanese urban legends, cryptids, and spiritual creatures.

An Umibozu, as he had learned, was a sort of Yokai which emerged in the sea to torture sailors. They either crushed their ships with their arms or drowned them with empty barrels, assuming the sailors didn't trick them. It was the reason he had wanted to get to Fuyuki bridge at first.

The magus nodded at his answer, taking a sip from her freshly brewed tea. A similar cup of coffee sat next to it untouched.

"Oh, I meant to ask you yesterday, but-" The boy clapped his hands together upon finishing his job, sending clouds of dust into the air he just inhaled. He coughed for a few seconds as he stood, his eyes almost watering from the involuntary action. Rin waited patiently for him to recover. "-obviously stuff got in the way... What's the WiFi password?"

"There's no WiFi here."

Liam stared at the girl across from him for almost half a minute before he realized she wasn't messing with him.

"How the hell do you function? Or plan on doing the assignment from Modern Magecraft?"

She responded with a shrug as she finished off her tea, placing the cup down slowly onto the saucer. Since Liam didn't know any spells that could physically repair objects, she had let him off with just organizing the different rubble with it's appropriate parts. As well as sweeping up afterwards.

"I won't. I'll just do it when I get back." Rin explained simply, standing up and making her way to the kitchen across from the room. "You spend too much time around that classroom. If they saw you mess around with technology like that, they'd throw you out in an instant."

The boy shook his head, the sheer difference in talent between them becoming even more apparent with her first comment. He spoke again to distract himself from such thoughts.

"Where can I use my laptop then?"

"Go to a café or something." She called back, speaking over the running water she was using to clean her dishes. He gave a sigh as he made his way across the many piles of destroyed furniture to his cup of coffee. He took a sip of the tan liquid, placing it back into its saucer with a loud 'clink'.

Liam stared at its surface. It was glossy, yet not reflective enough to show himself his face. The movement it had experienced already started to slow. His body swayed slightly with the liquid until it stopped. It was still now. Liam could feel himself almost sinking into it-his body growing heavy, his eyelids half covering his tired eyes.

"Hey." Rin spoke up from behind him, pulling him out of his self-induced trance. He hadn't realized he was standing there for so long, seeing as how Rin finished washing and drying her dishes and made her way back over. It had to have been close to five minutes. Liam looked back up at the girl with the same drained expression. She spoke again,

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"You okay?"

"Um... I-I don't know." The words spilled from him as he rubbed his head. The only descriptor he could give use on himself right now was 'dull'. His body felt heavy and devoid of energy, lulled into a stillness by some unknown force within him. His thoughts melded together into an unrecognizable blur. He swore the Earth itself targeted him, pulling him down stronger than it would any other person. Liam noticed the woman start to open her mouth to console him in some way, but he spoke instead to stop her.

"It's just everything. It's all catching up to me." He assured her before she could speak. "I'll get through it. Eventually I'll get used to not being under constant threat of death again." He had wanted to laugh along with his attempt at a joke, but found he couldn't muster one, leading to an awkward air remaining between them. Eventually Liam turned to make his way up the stairs.

"You know, if you do decide to use that Mystic Eye," Rin spoke up as he walked up to the second floor, "you should talk to our beloved teacher. He's had experience with the Rail Zeppelin, who can transplant it for you."

Liam did laugh this time, as the topic of his newly acquired eye came up. He found the eye itself to be rather repulsive, and the thought of having it transplanted into his body only made his skin crawl even more. However, what he did find humorous was Rin's initial reaction to it the previous night. She had almost knocked it onto the floor when he took it out. Which would have assuredly disturbed her even more.

He eventually made it to the guest room, his leg muscles still aching from the battle from last night, but a familiar vibration traveled through his pants and into those muscles. With a raised eyebrow, he pulled out his phone from his pocket. He scoffed upon seeing the caller ID.

"Speak of the devil, and he shall appear." Liam mumbled to himself as he picked up the phone.

"So you're still alive?" The Lord asked, his voice as dry as ever. Liam scoffed again-this time even harsher than before.

"That's a hell of a way to start the conversation."

"I apologize. Rin sent us a message last night."

The boy raised an eyebrow at how she could've gotten a message to the Lord so fast without a phone, but he chalked it up to some sort of magecraft. "So I assume she explained the whole thing?"

The silence gave Liam his answer as he entered the room. He kept the phone between his ear and shoulder as he dug through his large black bag on the comfortable bed, in search of his laptop.

"...I wanted to let you know I'm excusing you from your homework, given what you've gone through." His teacher continued after the silence, maintaining his usual serious demeanor. "Please take care."

"Wait." Liam spoke up quickly. Given that he didn't hear the ring that accompanies a disconnected call, he continued, albeit anxiously.

"Do you ever... You ever get that sudden feeling that your body's moving on its own? Without your control?" He wasn't sure why he was asking this. Perhaps it was a prime example of the topic he suddenly switched too. An involuntary action his body forced upon him "And I don't mean in extreme situations, where you just react without thinking. I mean... When you're walking to your job, and you realize you're not making your body walk, but its your body taking you along for the ride on its own?"

Another silence lingered in the call, although Liam could tell that this time he was taking a long drag from a cigar. He continued moving in the meantime while he anxiously awaited his teachers answer.

"If you're referring to something you personally feel, I highly doubt that would be the case." The man finally answered once Liam retrieved his laptop. He wanted to ask directly why he thought so, but he knew that the man would continue explaining.

"Given your Nature, from a magical perspective, it would seem most likely that the feeling you described is an extreme overlap between your soul and body. The connection between the two would be much stronger than other beings. Aspects of your mind, even those you are not aware of, would bleed into your physical body. To use your previous example, your subconscious is aware that you must go to your job, and so it carries out the action-even if the part of your mind that is 'you' isn't explicitly thinking about it, or directing it. It's quite the opposite of your initial theory." El-Melloi finished his lecture before raising his cigar to his lips again. "Why do you ask?"

The sudden question startled Liam, considering he didn't anticipate the man asking him that. "I don't really know. Its kind of just something that's been prodding my mind recently."

The Lord made a noise that supposedly meant understanding. Under threat of an even longer silence befalling them, Liam moved onto a more grounded topic.

"By the way, what do you know about transplanting Mystic Eyes?"