"It's weird that you come to see me like this," a feminine voice said, as the figure before me stretched about in leisure, under the faint moonlight.
Before me was a small cove with a large blanket laying on the ground, and pillows strewn about. In the center was a beauty comparable to models, despite their young age.
But I wasn't fooled by his appearance. Though pretty, I hardened myself to his charms.
"I thought I'd sneak up on you while you were sleeping, maybe kick you a bit to wake you up," I admitted. He was a headache to deal with, so harmless spite might have brought some relief.
However, he merely chuckled, as he rubbed his eyes, "Heh, I seem to sleep rather light," he claimed.
"Next time, don't make a sound," he added.
Honestly, I was pretty quiet, I think. Some sort of animal instincts, I guess?
This idiot, Toyaru. I'm sure he's another reincarnator like myself. Well, not like myself. He's a bit different than I. Even disregarding the difference in race. Our personalities also clash. I can't see ourselves becoming very good friends, and when I think of him, I want to punch him.
He's far too childish, and it rarely feels he takes anything seriously.
Liz's analysis of him supports that idea.
While I don't see myself as super stringent, our situation is very dire, and I would prefer it if he took things more seriously.
And then there's the incident from yesterday.
Violet warned me beforehand about what was going on, but when he came to me with an unconscious Kitsune, whose fingers were mangled, and eyes were scratched, I didn't know what to think.
He didn't explain who she was, what she wanted, and what he intended to do with her.
All he said was to heal the girl. I wondered for a moment how he knew I had such capabilities, but it's probably not that strange. He's been coming and going regularly, and watching me as my friends and I practice magic. I've ended up using my healing pendant on the clumsy Miishar more than once, and I haven't really asked Violet to stop him from watching us.
That said, I didn't have the time to spare, so I handed him a variant of the healing pendant I kept around. Its power efficiency was low, but that shouldn't matter to a Spirit.
However, I didn't come here to talk about that.
"You said seem," I pointed out. "Does that mean you usually weren't like this?" A personality change after reincarnation. It's not unexpected. My journal mentioned some kind of change like that, but my own memories are too vague to make a comparison.
"That's quite right," Toyaru said with a nod. "You understand, right? After all, we're Earthlings," He spoke, switching from Azurian to the ever familiar English, as a grin formed on his face. So he really is a reincarnator, huh? However, Earthling, huh?
"I don't think using that term is quite right," I pointed out. After all, we were still on a variant of Earth. Just another timeline or parallel dimension. Calling us Earthlings is misleading, when everyone on this world is one too. However, Toyaru didn't understand what I meant.
"You're not from Earth?"
"No, I am. At least, I think I am." I haven't shared this secret with anyone, since waking up that day. I have knowledge that is not my own; who would believe me anyways? "I know English, and I understand a lot of the science that isn't present in this world. But..." I hesitated for a moment, delving back into my own foggy memories. This Toyaru may not be trustworthy, but we can at least exchange information. "I don't quite remember anything from that time,"
"You weren't born with your memories, but you have your knowledge?"
"No, I was born with my memories. But I ended up hitting my head when I was a child,"
It's a ridiculous story, and Toyaru agreed.
Head trauma shouldn't work like that, despite what novels and fiction normally tell us. It's possible to have some form of memory loss from head trauma, but it usually recovers with time. But then, what if human biology is different in this world? Or if the mind just works different, if it's in the case of reincarnation?
After all, we both have experienced some changes in our thinking. According to Toyaru, all food, even familiar food tastes quite different, and certain memories seem more dream-like than anything.
If I had to guess, the memories of our past lives aren't properly adjusted into our brains, so all of the proper connections don't exist. Taste and Smell are qualities determined by memory, so it's not strange that food could taste differently if your memories are improperly moved.
I suppose I'll research the cause of our reincarnation later.
Still, I explained my story to him, and he listened attentively. His usual teasing side seemed to be gone for the moment, but I'm certain it would return. It's an annoying quality that he simply cannot resist.
It seems that when I was born, I quickly learned the language, and began writing a journal. This was supposedly a very ingrained habit of mine, and it was intensified with how the world around me had so drastically changed.
It seems that it wasn't long before I discovered that a certain magic item, could be modified to directly interfere with the structure and function of magic. I have no confidence that my current self would have noticed such a quality, Unfortunately, it wasn't too long after that an accident occurred, and the current me was born after a serious blow to the head.
Well, despite the memory loss, it's not like there was a big commotion or anything; who cares if a three year-old loses his memories, if he was an introvert who no one talked to, to begin with?
Well, when a maid gave me the journal I had written, completely in English, I ended up restarting the research on Magic I had been doing beforehand.
Well, I left out most details, but...
"Did you discover something that manipulates a fundamental force?"
Toyaru could at least make assumptions. I wanted to say no, and deny him. He was both wrong and correct, but that stemmed from his lack of understanding how "Magic" worked.
Even I only came to understand magic through various experiments, so I can't imagine Toyaru could grasp it.
"Something like that," I said, deciding on a vague approach.
However, he didn't seem disappointed. I heard of his talk with Aire, and he clearly understood the danger of this magic. In a way, it's strange that I continued my research knowing full well how disastrous things could turn up. I guess it was a left-over excitement from my past life; the dream to experience magic, huh?
But still.
"You understand the importance of this being kept secret. So I'm letting you know at least that much."
"Is that so? It has nothing to do with you having fallen for me?" Toyaru asked with a smile, as he tried but failed to strike a "shy" yet flattered pose.
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"I'll kill you," I stated plainly with a glare.
Here comes his teasing again. I probably wouldn't mind it if our relationship were better, but the way we met, and with our current circumstances, I can't help but be wry of this individual. He's a Fox after all, and while I'm not one to listen to superstition, I get the feeling this one is rather sly.
Toyaru laughed at my remark, as he spun about, and dropped himself back onto the ground, atop his blanket and pillows, with his legs crossed. Following that, he let out an outrageous claim, with a wide grin plastered on his face.
"Right, right. You have your harem troupe; what could you possibly need with another beauty?"
T-this little shit... "Ha-harem!?" I shouted out flustered. "I've no idea what you're talking about!" I said.
"What? The princess and the two slave girls? Not to mention that young one... you lolicon," T-this idiot, something like that would never be allowed!
"There is no such relationship! Besides, polygamy isn't a legal practice in Senilea."
It's true. Sure, there was some disappointment learning that (for some reason I could not understand) but it wasn't as though I truly had any such goal.
Toyaru seemed shocked, as he tilted his head, and asked, "What? You're not allowed to have multiple wives? What about concubines?"
"I have no such ideal!" My face was hot, and I'm sure he could clearly see how I wanted to avoid this topic, but he wasn't the type to consider other people's circumstances.
I would much rather consider romance and love later, AFTER our current predicament is taken care of. It's not like I'm blind to my surroundings, but now isn't the time.
"Anyways, so what did you come here to talk about?" Toyaru suddenly asked, switching back to the Azurian language.
I let out a sigh, cooling my head down as I jumped back to what I wanted to talk about. There were a few things. I already explained my circumstances, and I seem to more-or-less understand his own. But, there was something from earlier I could explain.
"A few things. But first, you called us Earthlings. But I want to ask. Have you noticed the stars?"
So, I went ahead and explained.
My journal described that many of the constellations seemed to match up with Earth's. There were slight differences in timing, but that could be explained with a slightly re-positioned Earth.
Ultimately, this Earth seems to be just a tiny bit further away from the Sun, and possesses three moons.
Achiel, Forno, and Abach.
Their existence is a mystery to both of us, but when I explained how the shape of the western part of the continent seems to match up with the Earth continent named "Europe", Toyaru was some-what convinced, though he still carried his doubts.
Of course, I don't remember much of how Europe looked. I could only take what was said in my journal as fact.
However, the current cartography was too primitive to reliably trust, so Toyaru chose to withhold judgement.
Toyaru pulled himself back up, as he began to gather his belongings, and stuffed them all into a leather bag.
"So? What do you remember?" He asked.
I figured he would ask that.
"Family, occasionally. Some close friends, I guess. Most names are a blur though. I just remember they exist, and maybe I'd recognize them if I saw them,"
Strangely though, my academic knowledge has mostly stayed in tact. Math and Science are well, but things like history and geography seems to have taken a hit.
Toyaru looked like he wanted to ask a more difficult question. Something that he seemed afraid of the answer to. But as he put up a hopeful expression, I thought it might be something serious.
"Do you... remember any entertainment you use to watch?"
... Or it might be something silly.
Well, I decided to be honest with him.
"... No, I only remember some vague references," I said with a shrug. "Nothing like plot details or even the names of shows I watched."
...
Toyaru let out a sigh.
A very long, drawn out, defeated sigh.
Following that:
"Fuck!"
"Mother fucking, shit, whore fuck fuck, slut, shit, bloody damn fuck..."
—He began to let out a fury of slurs, in some sort of blind rage, as his threw his arms about in tantrum.
"Damn fucking land-whale slut, shit, fuck fuck fuck
Shitty shit shit, fuckity fuck fuck.
"All I wanna do is catch up on my shit, BUT NOOOoo!
"Who's a trap gotta s/fuck to get some damn fucking other-world shows?!
"God can go eat a dick, I'm fucking killing someone, dammit!"
—I was in pure shock, looking at him in confusion. Was it really that serious to him? I thought perhaps he had finished, but after a short pause...
"ELEVEN YEARS! You know how long Eleven Fucking Years is?
"No, strike that, Eleven fucking years on a world with three-hundred and seventy-fucking-two damn days!"
—Ah, he's lost.
"Then comes this kid. This mother fucker. I don't know when he died, but he doesn't remember either!
"Ah, but maybe, just maybe he remembers how all my shit finished, you know?
"But the fucking bitch doesn't remember!!"
Is he talking about me? He's talking about me.
Is he done now?
As if to relieve stress, he let out a loud groan he had bottled up until now.
"Ok... I'm done now. Ok... If two people can reincarnate from our old world into this one, there should be more, right?
"Right, it's not the end of the world yet. I don't have to kill everyone.
Now, calm down. You still have stuff to do, right?"
...
—A silence passed between us, as he looked over to me with the same fox-like smile as always.
"I... Didn't think you could talk so... colorfully,"
...
"Ah... did I say that out loud?"
...
I couldn't stand the look of embarrassment that seemed to slowly crawl onto his features, so, I quickly changed the subject.
"Well anyways, we intend to attack Lein's camp before sunrise. After that, we'll be leaving almost immediately," I explained.
"Well in that case I'll join that attack," Toyaru asserted.
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Author Notes:
And I'm back. So, I originally wrote this chapter from Toyaru's perspective, and decided to switch to Aniel's, but I don't feel I did a great job.
I already had some of Aniel's backstory planned out; in fact he was actually the main character of another story I had planned to do, but only wrote one chapter of, and never posted anywhere. But I feel that I didn't do a very good job of showing his thoughts. I kinda tried to portray his lack of trust with Toyaru, but it's probably pretty flimsy.
Anyways, I think I'll shift over my schedule to Tuesdays through Saturdays. Why? No real reason.
As always, Feedback and Suggestions are appreciated and Encouraged.
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