The tiny girl, Tsutsuji, looked down at Mark, her face red and cheeks poofed out like a child might when frustrated with a stubborn adult.

"What?! Why are you laughing at this Great One?! Do you not know who I am?! You should be in Reverence! REVERENCE!"

After a moment, Mark finally managed to pull himself together before wiping away a tear. He'd not laughed that hard in a few years. He shook his head and looked at the tiny girl with a smirk. He did not know who or what a Magi Spirit was, but he did know what a Tsutsuji was. It was the name of a flower from Earth.

A Subspecies of the Azalea, they were a common enough flower and popular with home gardeners. His mother had a small bush she'd tended to for years before a freak storm had destroyed her garden (and half the neighborhood.) According to her, the Azalea stood for temperance and fragility in the language of flowers, with the Tsutsuji in particular also holding the meanings of patient and modesty.

Maybe whoever had named the little girl has wished that she would grow into these same Virtues.

Or maybe they just had a sense of humor.

Mark didn't really care either way, but strangely enough, the little girl didn't seem so strange or threatening as she had just a moment ago. He crossed his arms and raised a brow as he looked up at the flying girl and asked, a smile in his voice.

"Ok, little Tsutsuji, let's assume I know what kind of bug a Magi Spirit is. Where did you come from? More importantly, why are you here? Little girls shouldn't be wandering around the forest alone."

Tsutsuji's face darkened another shade as a tiny vein throbs on her head. With a glint of light off metal, the little girl drew the tiny naginata, swinging it wildly in Mark's face.

The man scoffed, easily dodging each blow with a simple twist of his body. The girl was fast, but now that Mark knew what to watch for, he could tell she was still an amateur. She swung the polearm around with the form of someone who thought they knew it should be used but had never been formally trained.

Or like some hobbyist swinging swords around in their basement the way they'd seen on an anime.

The girl's blind rage and small size made avoiding the attacks even easier. As she continued her fruitless assault, she screamed out in a high-pitched voice.

"B-bug!? Bug! Whose fault do you think it is that I'm stuck in this Vessel! If you'd let me be, I could have taken my time, but NoOoOoO! You just had to go and touch this Young Lady with your grubby fingers!"

Mark laughed again. He didn't know why it was so much fun teasing this little creature. Maybe it was just the pent-up stress of the past few days. Or maybe it was just how much she reminded him of another little girl, one he'd not thought of for years. Though he guessed she'd not be so little anymore...

As old memories once more clouded Mark's thoughts, Tsutsuji's eyes flashed; there! An opening! Like lightning, she struck, rushing forward to poke Mark's nose with the sharp object, a crazed smile cracking her face.

But at the last moment, Mark's hand shot up, grabbing onto the tiny flying girl by her feet and pulling her down several inches. Tsutsuji slammed her eyes shut and squeaked at the sudden shift of momentum, dropping her weapon. When she opened her eyes, she was dangling upside down by her feet, a few inches from Mark's face.

Mark chuckled, twirling her naginata between his fingers like a pocket knife, and gave the little girl another mocking grin. Tsutsuji could only flail her arms and wings helplessly as she dangled by her feet, trying to strike him or grab at her captured weapon.

"S-stop! Give it back, give that back right now! Where do you get off attacking this Young Lady like this!?"

Mark looked down his nose at the flailing girl and humphed.

"Now, what makes you think someone in your position should be making demands? Besides, I distinctly remember you attacking me first."

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Mark's grin widened as Tsutsuji blushed, turning her head away as if to say 'I don't know what you are talking about'. Mark leaned closer to the girl's face, their noses almost touching as he spoke, all cheer vanishing in an instant. When he spoke next, a dangerous light shown from his eyes.

"I'll ask you one more time. Who are you? What did you come here for?"

Tsutsuji gulped down as the tiny Naginata in Mark's hand stopped spinning and pointed straight at the young girl's throat.

________________________________________

A short while later, Mark sat near a small fire, his legs and arms crossed as he stared down at the tiny girl in front of him. Tsutsuji sat on a small rock in a practiced seiza position, silently looking at the ground, not daring to meet the man's eyes.

As he mentally went over what the little girl had told him over the past hour, he felt another headache coming on. He gently rubbed his temples and sighed.

According to the girl, she was a "Spirit of the Magi," a fundamental force of nature in this world. In simple terms, she was a "Will" born from the collective intentions of the Magi. Specifically, she was a subspecies of Magi Spirit call a "Guide." Guides acted as the voice of the Magi, directing and instructing other beings on the Magi's will. Guide's duties varied from Guide to Guide, but each was critical to the natural flow and Order of the world.

Mark couldn't help but think that if the other Guides were similar to the one in front of him, this world's average blood pressure must be very high.

Tsutsuji's presently assigned duty was to act as Mark's instructor and assistant in the System tutorial, answering any questions and concerns that he may have. Mark moaned, genuinely beginning to regret selecting YES, as he nursed his growing headache.

When he finally opened his eyes, Mark looked down at the little girl and asked,

"So, what now?"

The Guide kept her face pointed towards the ground as she mumbled something, not daring to meet the man's eyes. Mark gave a heavy sigh and growled to her in an impatient voice,

"What? What is it? Speak up and don't mumble when you're asked a question."

Tsutsuji turned her face up, though her eyes were on the verge of tears as she turned away, still not looking the man in the face. When she spoke, her voice was quiet,

"I-I have a message for y-you."

She quickly reached into the space between her back and shell, producing a 'large' (for her) white marble cube flecked with gold, about half the size of her head. She placed the cube on the ground, and it gave a slight shake before quickly breaking down into fine glistening sand.

The sand mixed with the surrounding stone and dirt as though it had a mind of its own, quickly forming into the shape of a person, roughly the size of Tsutsuji.

The Earthen person moved on its own, reaching out to tap the air as if fiddling with something that Mark could not see, then it spoke in a loud voice. Mark frowned as he listened; the voice was instantly recognizable as the voice of the Stranger.

["Hello? This thing working? Blasted contraption, why did I ever program these things in. Mark, if you're seeing this message, then the Tutorial program has been activated, and you've made contact with Tsutsuji. First off, let me apologize for her behavior. She can be a little fireball, so be careful not to get burned".]

Tsutsuji's eyes went wide, her face turning cherry red. She squeaked out in indignation, her tiny wings beating the air as she stood.

"H-hey!"

The Earthen Stranger with a wide grin.

["First off, I wanted to explain a little about The System, what its purpose is, and the nature of this world. As you are already aware, this is not your world. Or rather, it is better to say this is what your world COULD have been. One pivoting point of this world is the existence called Magi.

What are the Magi? Well, it starts long, long ago.

When the world was still young, it was very similar to your own. ALL worlds share the same history, up to a certain point. Creation, a Garden, a Fall. Everything started there, at that moment, when the first 'Choice' was made.

THIS world pivots on the destruction of the Lesser King, the Celestial body that your world would come to call the 'Moon.'

The Moon's function wasn't just to light up the night sky; it played an essential role in the world's natural order. Its influence moved land and sea, called the tides and the wind. Its pull even affected the growth and direction that Life would take over the Eons.

With its destruction and the splitting of the Skyshards, while not erased, its influence was greatly weakened. A Great Stone can support a Great burden, but when that stone is broken into pieces, that support is no longer stable.

With the weakening of the Moon's influence, the world was thrown into chaos and destruction. There was a need to replace that lost influence to bring Order back from chaos. Thus, the Magi were born.

The Magi, in terms you would understand, are something similar to Organic Nanobots; microscopic bio-machines designed to "mimic" the influence and power that was lost. Alone, a single Magi cannot do much, but just as the trillions of cells make up your body, the countless Magi scattered through the world have the power to influence and reshape reality.

Thus, they have become a cornerstone of the world, bringing order and becoming a fundamental law of nature. You might ask yourself, 'Ok, so what? What does that have to do with me?' Well, it is first necessary to understand how the Magi work before you can understand the System. I am sure by now, you've noticed your new Ink? Yes?"….]