After we were out of earshot, I breathed a sigh of relief and said “Thanks. I… he was just so pushy all of a sudden!”

Soriya laughed. “Sure, he’s excited that there’s a white mage in town, it is super rare. I think that’s probably part of his job anyway, finding good recruits. Did you see the boy behind him though? Oh my gosh, so cute!”

“Uh… what?”

“Oh come on, don’t tell me that you didn’t notice!”

I pulled my hand out of hers. “I was a little busy, in case you hadn’t noticed!”

“Too busy to notice a cute boy? Man, it’s really a good thing I got you out of there! Come on, we’re almost to the physical tests! I want to show you my new spell! Hey! While we’re there, you should select your new ability too!”

“Uh… I…” I fumbled frantically in my head. How do I do that?! And another not-quite-memory floated into my mind.

You don’t, really, you just find the path that you want to follow.

Well great. Thanks me. The path I want to follow? Do white mages have the ability to escape time and space and get back to normal?!

What’s a white mage? Of course not, that would be Soriya’s {Entropist} class. Like mother says, don’t worry about the powers, what you need will come to you naturally.

That’s great, me, but what I need right now is to escape this isekai prison world!

No response from my otherself. I wasn’t really sure if that was bad or good, honestly. This other me seemed painfully naive frankly, but that would be in keeping with my pink hair and staff chick role, always seeing the best in everyone. It was a lot less enjoyable being stuck inside my own head.

Honestly, can’t you see the guild proctor is evil!? The whole empire is probably going to invade the village to steal our pendant!

Don’t be silly, we don’t even know what it does, why would they invade Breezewood for that?

Because we’re the pink haired healer girl! I practically screeched in my head.

A soft glowing warmth spread through my chest from the pendant, where it rested against my skin, and a familiar voice echoed softly in my head.

{Spiritualist} skill unlocked. Thanks to the purity of your heart and your desire to protect your village and your pendant, you’ve unlocked the skill {Spiritual Magic: Barrier}.

I stopped in the middle of the lane. “Oh honeysuckle.”

Soriya stopped and looked back. “What’s wrong?”

“I…” I thought about not telling her, but the otherme just rushed past me. “I just got my skill.”

Soriya perked up and bounced on her feet clapping excitedly. “Oh, really!? What is it, what is it?!”

“A spell. Barrier.”

“Eeeeh? Huh, I was sure you’d pick up healing first!” She pouted, then smiled. “Well, I guess you really are worried about something, huh? Look, it’s the village festival, we’re supposed to be having fun! Here’s the physical contests! I bet I can hit the dummy at 50 feet with lightning!”

I felt a smile tugging at my lips. She was just so excited about it; it was hard not to feel excited for her. “Sure. And you can show me that new spell you got. So, what is it?”

She bounced on her feet again. “It’s called Poizone! Let me show you!” she grabbed me by the hand and pulled over to one of the stalls. It was one of several broad fields where I could see several other villagers trying out a skill or testing their might with arm wrestling. Otherme quietly murmured their names as I looked them over. The field that Soriya had pulled me too looked like a sort of archery or target range of some kind. There were even a few bows laying around.

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“Hey Mr. Wither!” she said to a sturdy farmer smoking a pipe who was so brown and old looked like he was made of cured leather.

Old Man Wither. He looks his name for sure. This must be his farm? Of course it’s his farm, he’s looked like that for as long as I can remember. Well then.

Farmer Wither took his pipe out of his mouth and smiled at Soriya making even more wrinkles in his leathery skin. “Well, if it isn’t little Soriya and Lilyanna. Going to try out the strength contests this year?” He laughed, and my otherself informed me He asks this every year, he knows we can’t lift the hammer!

I paused. We can’t? Have we tried? Well not since we were very young, but…

Soriya preempted me by saying “We’re here to try out the range! I’ve got a new spell I want to show off!”

“Well now, is that so?” Farmer Wither drawled. “I wouldn’t want to get in the way of such a great and powerful witch now.” He chuckled. “Fee’s the same as last year. I’d like a bag of the pixie repellant you make. They’ve been at it again in my crops, and I’m not quite as young as I once was.”

Otherme jumped into the conversation without a pause. “Oh! Do you need us to chase the pixies out of your fields again? We could do that for you!” We can? I mean… oh lord, this is one of the intro quests and first xp isn’t it?! My otherself clearly didn’t understand what I was talking about, only a sense of vague confusion at what were clearly alien terms to her.

Old man Wither looked at me, his eyes widening in surprise. “Well now! I wouldn’t say no to that, Miss Lilyanna. I surely wouldn’t! But are you sure you’re up to it? Those pixies bite!”

Oh this is definitely the starter quest! Hold on… neither of us bought weapons! Or gear! And we’re just two mages!?

Soriya grinned a slightly bloodthirsty grin. “That sounds like fun! Look! I just tuned Diaboli!” She gestured with her hand, and the spellbook at her waist was outlined in glowing blue and purple light, floating up and opening itself, flipping its pages. Soriya murmured words I couldn’t catch and then reached into the floating book in front of her and pulled out a gun!

Wait, what?! Since when do black mages use guns?!

What’s a black mage? Soriya has always used Diaboli, as long as we’ve known her. She said she didn’t trust staffs.

I felt that sense of pressure in my temples building again, but gritted my teeth and resisted rubbing my temples again. Soriya’s… Diaboli, as she called it, looked like an elaborately ornate sawed-off shotgun, with a single barrel and oddly shaped stock. The whole thing was picked out in swirly gold filigree and glowing with what was clearly charged magical energy.

Do… do we actually have a fighter? Or… no that can’t be right, she’s a ranged… black mages don’t use guns! My mind protested. Otherme experienced what could only be described as irritated frustration. Soriya’s holding Diaboli, she used Diaboli all the time, clearly she very definitely does use guns, and what was a black mage anyway?!

Soriya meanwhile continued without me. “See? So yeah, lets go hunt down some pixies! Kill two pixies with one stone!” She turned to me enthusiastically. “I can show you Poizone in action, and you can show me your new spell!”

“Uh… I… I guess?” I stammered awkwardly. Old man Wither raised a single eyebrow then shrugged. “Don’t overdo it, now. You get in over your head, you come right back! I don’t want you girls getting hurt!”

“We’ll be fine, right Lilyanna? We’ve got your mom’s potions and your and my spells; we’ve got this. Come on!” She waved her gun in a beckoning gesture.

And somehow, I found myself stumbling after her into the back acres of Old man Wither’s farm, with the Old man shouting encouragement after us. Soriya’s book continued to float just to her left, glowing bluely. A short walk later and we were into what was a picturesque garden with lots of growing things that my otherself recognized but I couldn’t tell one from the other. A little glowing purple blue ball zipped out from behind one of the nearby trees and hovered near us. Up close, it was really more like an imp or tiny demon than anything I’d have called a pixie. It had insectile wings, horns, and a truly malicious looking grin full of sharp teeth. It made little squeaky noises which I might have considered cute if the pixie didn’t radiate an aura of malice buzzed in midair surveying us.

Soriya didn’t hesitate. In one smooth fluid motion she took aim with Diaboli and fired. Time seemed to slow down, and I saw with perfect clarity a spinning magic circle in glowing green blossom from the mouth of her gun, followed by a loud report. Time sped up again, and there was a ‘crack’ as a glowing green ember shot through the air to peg the pixie dead center. The pixie staggered and swayed back and forth in the air turning a radioactive green color, and then popping into a nasty green and purple mist that evaporated into the air.

I turned to look at Soriya, who was grinning, one hand on her hip the other holding Diaboli resting it’s barrel on her shoulder.

“And that’s what Poizone does.” She smiled, and pretended to blow a little smoke off Diaboli’s muzzle. Technically inflicts ‘poison’ too, but I guess he was too weak to stick around for long. Good for pixies. Not so good for Kuzco’s though.”

It hit me like the isekai truck I’d never seen. I looked at her in shock, my mouth dropping open. It can’t be. She couldn’t possibly be…?! Like seeing a picture of a vase turn into two faces, like seeing a drawing of a duck turn into a rabbit. But… but I was, and that was just as impossible. Could it be…!? Extremely hesitantly, I ventured "Is... is that because... it's not the poison specially chosen to kill kuzco? It's not kuzco's poison?"

The smile on her face slipped into a shocked ‘o’ of surprise and her violet eyes got huge. She stammered out “Are… are you an isekai too?!