(24)

The school's sports field was filled with the soft thwip of arrows impacting targets and twang of the massive bows releasing them. Despite the repetition, the sounds of the archery club's practice were no louder than insects in the late afternoon air.

It was terribly hypnotizing.

The brunette looked up from her seat at Reina as the council president went through the motions of positioning herself for another shot. She turned sideways, pointed her feet, turned them outward and readied her bow, then drew the arrow back clear past her ear close enough to snap the organ if her hand slipped.

When she had first seen Reina in the club uniform, she'd made the remark that it actually looked like something someone called Sacred might actually wear. The tall girl had all but physically flinched at that and insisted that it was the uniform of the sport, worn by all members.

The brunette had kept her peace for a while since, but she was reaching a point where it was break it or fall asleep.

"Hey, Reina, I don't think I've ever done archery," she started as the taller girl paused in preparing another shot to pay attention to her, "but I thought I had a pretty good understanding of it."

Tamashini lowered her bow out of the ready position as she tilted her head. "Is there something I can explain?"

She leaned her elbow on the table she was sitting at while her other hand twirled one of the carbon arrows between her fingers. She tried to keep her tone apologetic. "Well ... aren't you guys ... kinda bad at this?"

That made the council president look even more confused. "What are you talking about?"

She rubbed her head in embarrassment. "I mean, you all take so long to line up your shots, and the target isn't even that far away. That's, what, thirty yards?"

The way Reina furrowed her brows made her look like she was about to take her junior's head off, but the brunette could tell it was only a look of concentration as she did the conversions in her head. "More or less."

"And the bigger the bow, the longer range it has, right? That bow would be big for Dakunaito. Surely thirty yards is nothing?"

The raven-haired girl looked back to her bow in her ungloved hand. "That's not quite how it works, but you are right to think there must be something you aren't understanding."

Reina turned back to the brunette, motioning toward her with the bow. "Kelly, have you never heard of kyudo?"

She scrunched her nose in her own concentration. "... No ... I don't think so. Or at least it wasn't something I ever had explained to me. It's not just another word for archery?"

"Archery," Reina explained as she began sighting in her target again, "is a combat style. Speed, accuracy and power are all important. If I wished to do so, I could take a modern compound bow and put a dozen arrows into the middle of that target in the time this takes me to do one. Most of the members could probably do at least three or four, I'd think."

She went through the entire process again and released another arrow, penetrating the target up to the shaft.

"So archery is about performance," the brunette summed up. "Alright, I get that. But if the point here isn't that, what is it?"

"It's ..." Reina gathered her thoughts for a moment. "... It's a form of meditation."

The brunette felt her gaze going flat, but couldn't stop it. "How do you go from target practice to meditation?"

Again, the council president paused, but then motioned for her to stand up. "Come here, I'll show you." She pulled her glove off and passed it to her. "Here, you'll want this."

Once the younger girl had the glove on, she passed her the bow, as well, and guided her to where she would be in line with the target. "In Kyudo, every step is deliberate. It is so slow, not just because we are moving through them, but because we are thinking of them."

The brunette's nose wrinkled again. "Is this one of those symbolism things," she asked with unsuppressed disdain.

"No," Reina immediately answered sharply. She paused again, though, then turned the girl sideways. "If I had to compare it to anything, it probably has more in common with yoga. The exercises have a purpose, an objective. If everything is in order, and you shoot with a pure focus and dedication, hitting the target is not a matter of accuracy, because it cannot miss."

"Ever?" the younger girl asked as she followed Reina's guidance to line up her body, starting with the placement of her feet and moving up from there. "That's a bold claim."

"Perhaps," the raven-haired girl agreed, "but it's true." She moved the girl's hands to the proper places on the bowstring and the grip, and how to hold the arrow. "Now look to the target, make sure you do it with just your head. Everything else should stay put."

She began guiding the brunette in raising it upward, then drawing the bow as she brought it down toward the target. "Do you feel the way your whole body is holding the bow like this?" Reina ran her hand up the brunette's arms and across her shoulders, then down her spine. "Your entire being is connected to the weapon. When everything is in alignment, all of your power can flow directly into the arrow. Concentrate on that feeling as you focus on the target."

And with that, Reina stepped away, not quite back to where the brunette had been standing before. "Now, in the same way you've seen me do so, release the arrow."

The brunette focused on that strange draw-back twist Reina did so smoothly, deciphered the movements, and released the bowstring. The arrow zipped from the bow and buried itself in the target in the field. At the same time, she felt her body release its own tension, as if sighing after a full body stretch.

She blinked. "... Huh." Not how she expected it to feel.

Reina stepped back up and held her hand out for the bow, then waited as the younger girl pulled the glove off. "That is why we fire so slowly, Kelly. Each step is important. Hitting the target isn't. That will happen on its own. We are concerned with perfecting the form."

"Meditation," the girl nodded slowly as she stepped out of the older girl's way and back toward the table. "I get it."

Reina went through an entire shot before she spoke again. "Have you had any luck figuring out Purification? You've seen Chiaki and I both do it several times now."

But the brunette frowned at that as she thought back on each time she'd seen either perform the spells. "No. I don't think you two do it the same. I get completely different vibes from it."

The president was halfway through setting up another shot, but paused. "... Vibes?"

"Yeah," she confirmed. "Haru feels like she's trying to hug all of the cursed energy at once with light. Yours feels more like watching Red pull weeds, all throttling and stomping. It's bossy and feels kind of personal."

Reina lowered her bow entirely and turned to face the brunette. "Nariko," she said, and if the first names were coming out, she was serious, "you make it sound like our Purification, itself, isn't doing the same thing at all."

The shorter girl, too, gave that a long moment of thought, considering the possibility. "Maybe it isn't."

The raven-haired girl stared at her, then set the bow against the wall and took the seat across from her junior. She steepled her fingers before her as she gathered her words. "Kelly, it doesn't work like that. Purification is Purification. It all does the same thing."

But the brunette just gave a dismissive shrug. "I wouldn't know, boss." She knew that wrinkled the older girl. "I don't know anything about magic, remember? I'm just telling you what I see."

The girl that was Sword Witch leaned forward over the table and pushed her finger against its surface. "I know that to cast Shining Lance, I had to focus my mindset to be what drives Haru. It's flashy and blinding because she wants to be the center of attention. Not out of vanity, but because it means that attention is off of her friends."

Pay attention to me! The feelings that went through her just before she first cast it flowed through her mind. So intense, so desperate. Nothing in the world mattered more in that instant.

"For Flame Witch's Fireball," she continued, "I had to get worked up about the battle, itself. About what I was fighting for, what was on the line. It wasn't just about fighting or proving myself able to overcome. I knew I was stronger, that someone else was weaker, and I couldn't tolerate losing when it was so important to win."

I'll take it from here. So boldly she'd spoken those words. It still burned her up inside thinking about how it felt when she realized, for all her power, she might not. What it would have cost Ran. The impact it would have had on Haru to lose her best friend again, and far more permanently.

She pushed the feeling aside as she sat back in the chair and crossed her arms. "I haven't learned how to cast a barrier yet, but I've learned a lot about Shield Witch and why hers are so strong. She's so scared of hurting someone else that I've been tempted to ask if she's had some sort of traumatic experience, but didn't want to be too nosy. Still, nothing is more important to her than protecting others. Rather than a wall, she's more like a torrent. Her focus pushes so much energy out that nothing can push through."

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I will save you! Ran's words to a protodemon echoed in the brunette's mind. So full of determination.

Still, the girl sighed and gave a meaningless wave of her hand. "On the other hand, when she can't focus, all that energy gets diverted and pushed off. She could cut steel with her focus, but without it, she just gets washed away."

Reina had listened quietly as the girl went through each of the other witches. Only when she finished did the elder witch speak. "You're describing them like they're elements."

"Aren't they?" the girl returned with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't we all? All five of us are almost completely defined by our element and how we push and pull against it."

The older girl kept her face well-disciplined. "Then what of you?" she asked. "You have attempted to channel your own magic several times to varied success, and pull from it automatically with your demonic weapons. Has this given you any insight into yourself?"

She was quiet for longer on that one, even looking out over the archery field as she mulled the question over.

"That's harder to say," the brunette finally answered. "To me, it's just normal behavior, and it's hard to tell where I end and the magic starts, if the two are separate at all. After all, you're all constantly telling me how much I'm exactly like Nariko."

She closed her eyes, lowering her head as she cupped her chin. "I could give descriptions of myself. I'm impulsive. An adrenaline junkie. Once I see a route forward, I take it with little consideration for alternatives. All could be aspects of lightning. But every time I use my magic, none of that enters my mind. I just do it. It's more like an act of will than anything. I push the mana in the direction I want it to go, and that's it."

The brunette frowned at that point. "Given what that did to my ankle on the camping trip, though, and how that foil exploded, I'm pretty sure I'm doing it wrong. That reckless discharge of lightning, too. It was cool and all, but was more just opening a fire hose than anything constructive."

Reina's gaze was as intense as heat rays with her fingers folded together in front of her mouth. "What is the difference between when you use your mana directly and when you cast one of our spells?"

She felt like she was answering under that imperious gaze almost before she could choose to do so. "Casting spells feels like trying to find the combination to a safe, except different combinations take me to different safes. Each combination is an exact state of mind, then once I find it, I get squeezed into it, like my mind is forced to conform to the spell, and then gets released after the spell goes off."

It was Reina's turn to sit back, her gaze no longer focused on the brunette as she mulled the words over. "How odd. I had expected it to be more like my Shadow Casting."

Shadowcast was the actual name of Sacred Witch's most flexible spell, which allowed her to summon nearly any other effect she desired, including elements usually specific to other Witches. It was what she had used to call down lightning on the protodemon created from the Homura Family armor.

"What's it like?" the brunette ventured.

"Almost exactly the opposite of what you described," the council president answered honestly. "I will it, and the mana obeys. It does not alter me in any way I am aware."

But the brunette just nodded confidently at the description. It backed up her own suspicions. "Honestly, that checks with the impression I get of your magic," she said. "It's very top-down." She tilted her head and looked to the ceiling of the deck the club shot from. "I wonder if all darkness-element mana is like that, or if it's more just you."

Reina's eyes narrowed. "You're trying to lead me, Kelly. I don't like it when people do that."

The thoughtful expression evaporated into a sheepish grin. "Ehehe, sorry, sorry!" she apologized, her hands raised. "It's just, you obviously want to ask, but you're putting it off! I wasn't trying to lead you, so much as I was trying to give you an opening!"

The older girl went silent at that for a long, heavy moment, her eyes still narrowed at the witch across from her as if she were considering the sentencing for her crime.

And finally, it broke as she leaned back again, eyes closed as if she were unbothered by the subject. Above it. "Fine. Kelly, you've described how you think every Witch's powers work except my own, content to bandy about the bush. You clearly think you know something insightful about them. Please, share."

Despite being phrased like a request, it felt like it had the weight of an order.

"You're a Ruler," she answered. "Everything you touch bows to your command. Every club you join, every group you're in, every room you enter. You're even doing it right now, while you're talking to me."

Reina recoiled almost as if she'd struck her. "I didn't--"

But the brunette shook her head. "Natsumi can't forget to be strong. Ran can't forget to be smart. Haru can't forget to feel what others are feeling." She met her senior's eyes. "Red pointed that out to me, and she's right. They can't choose not to do it. There's no toggle for it. It's always on." And then, in a moment of introspection, her gaze drifted past the older girl. "Even I may really have spent my whole life Analyzing, even if I don't have any awareness of it, and I'm only a witch by proxy."

The raven-haired girl seemed to grasp hold of that and regathered herself. "Kelly, my Witch ability is--"

But she cut her off. "Precognition, I know." She waved her hand back and forth in front of her face. "But if it weren't for that, I'd really say your passive is the power of Command. It would make way more sense, too. All of our passives are constant throughout our daily lives. They never stop, for better or worse. But your Precognition is spotty and focused almost entirely on important single events. If this were a story, I'd say it behaves more like a narrative gimmick than a proper passive."

The brunette pushed her finger to the table again. "But if your passive is actually Command, everything makes sense. You're a royal in every space you walk into whether it makes any sense or not. Like the Fencing club. Tora doesn't treat you like a Captain, or even Council President. He stands next to you like you're a damned Queen. And Cho straight up worships you like a goddess."

Reina started to protest again, but she cut her off once more.

"No, Reina, I'm not exaggerating. You just don't see it because it's normal to you. But I'm telling you, to everyone else, it's blatantly obvious even if they don't associate it with magic. You're in charge. You're always in charge. It takes a powerful will even to stand up to you, and you can usually get your way with as little as a glare you don't even realize you're giving."

"Kelly. Let. Me. Speak."

She opened her mouth, but even though she had intended to give assent, Reina's tone of voice kept so much as a sound from leaving her throat for a heartbeat and a half.

Whether this was noticed or not by Tamashini wasn't really clear, but the older girl took the silence to catch up, herself, then gave a frustrated sigh as she rubbed her face with one hand.

"Again, my passive ability is Precognition, not this Command thing you've come up with," she finally replied. "But if it were, what would that have to do with my magic?"

The brunette still had to swallow to clear her throat before she could answer. "You're a Ruler," she repeated, and did her best to ignore the growing glow of a glare in her team leader's eyes. "Everything you touch bows to your command. Everything. That includes your magic." She tried a different tactic. "Have you seen how you transform?"

The raven girl's furrowed brow said that she hadn't, or at least that she wasn't making the connection. "What does that have to do with anything?"

In a contrary expression, the brunette's face lifted in surprise. "... You really don't--" As the glare started coming back to Reina's face, she cleared her throat and went back to answering the question.

"The magic comes to you, tries to dance with you, to court you. But at every turn, you stamp it down, drag it along with you or otherwise force your will on it, and ultimately, it becomes your outfit, the last stray bit that doesn't directly serve you stomped out beneath your feet. It's quite dramatic."

"Our transformations shouldn't be taken so literally, Kelly," Reina advised, almost as if to ward off an accusation. "Yours is literally just a wall of golden light you cut through."

"Mine's artificial," she was immediately ready to remind the president. "I don't have a transformation. That's half the issue I've been having since I woke up here. That's what the wall of light conceals, that I'm not doing some complicated dance with my mana like the rest of you. If I did, I'd have my own spells, and wouldn't have to be trying to study everyone else's like I'm stuck in magical girl remedial classes."

"All the more reason you shouldn't be jumping to conclusions," the older girl insisted. "What do any of our transformations have to do with our powers?"

This time, the brunette gave her the full-on, Are you kidding me? face. "Uh, everything? Haru dances and ends in an idol pose because she's cheering on her friends. Natsumi literally burns everything around her and ends in a fake combat pose because she's all about the conflict. If Ran's outfit wasn't made of cloth, she'd look like she was armoring up." And she pointed at the raven-haired girl as she finished. "And you straight up go full dominatrix to your own magic."

"You're seeing theming and confusing it for deeper meaning." Reina looked past the brunette to the entrance to the training field as tension left her face with the prospect of a distraction. "Ah, Chiaki, welcome."

"Hiya, Reina," the blonde girl chirped as she approached. "Hey, Riko! Having fun throwing sticks at inanimate circles?"

The brunette stood to greet her friend. "It's surprisingly spiritual," she answered. "All about lining your whole body up just right so that everything follows through."

"Eh, I'll stick with my beanbag toss," Haru cheekily replied as she underhanded a plastic-wrapped blackberry pastry to Reina, who effortlessly caught it. Then she poked her friend in the chest. "And it doesn't sound very helpful to your airsoft skills, either."

She spared a crooked grin; it was obvious Haru had seen the tension coming in and was deliberately making it as difficult as possible to return to the topic. "No, I don't think it would be." She glanced to Reina, as well, her grin widening to full. "Don't suppose there's a ninjitsu club in this school?"

"Unfortunately, no," the council president confirmed without sharing the expression, despite clearly going with the joke. "I recall an application for one last year, but it got turned down for wanting to put white pepper flour in hollowed egg shells and climb structures without safety gear."

"Well, maybe you can bring it up with Sarasa," Haru suggested to the brunette. "She's out of her meeting and asked me to send you her way."

"Ah, right," she replied, then turned to Reina. "Thanks for the kyudo lesson."

The older girl raised her hand in a wave. "Any time, Kelly. You're a surprisingly good listener."

Haru giggled while she feigned an expression of offense, but then the blonde pulled her attention again. "Also, I'm heading out. I'm meeting my family at the train station. I won't see you again until after the weekend."

"I'll try to hold myself together," the brunette joked, earning a light jab in the arm from the blonde.

"I'm an empath, Riko. I know you're going to miss me."

* * *

After the two girls left, Reina picked up her bow again, but only stared down at it in her hand. She knew that her passive ability was Precognition. It had shown itself all her life, and Witches didn't have two passive abilities. Still, Nariko's words hung in her mind.

Ruler. The power of Command.

Something about them resonated with her, making sense somewhere deep down she couldn't quite trace even if they were impossible. And Nariko had made good arguments, she could admit that. In fact, that it made so much sense only increased the sense of disturbance she felt thinking about it.

"But it's good that it's impossible," she muttered to her bow, as if it would keep her secret. "I'm not fit to rule."

This, too, struck some deep chord buried inside her, a far more painful one. She knew it to be unquestionable truth. Though as much as she scoured for the memories that must have been attached to that string, she couldn't quite recall why she wasn't fit, or why the thought hurt so much.

She went over the ways she served her classmates in her mind instead. As Council President, as Club Captain, as the head of the Witches. She was a leader, sure, but she told herself she wasn't a ruler. She was the servant, not the other way around, and that was the way it was meant to be.

The old adage came to her mind in Nariko's voice, that the best person to be in a position of power is the one who doesn't want it. But that pulled on that injured string, too.

"But Kelly," she said, as if the girl were still there instead of her talking to her bow, "I'm not that person. Some part of me, I'm sure, wants it too badly ..."