Magic, a Runaway and Trouble
“Mom and I have always been running from the spirit hunter, the fire demon Genuoduolasu. Dad died trying to protect us. We were powerless and could only run away to the human world. My mom died protecting me and bought me some time to run away. I stopped to catch my breath at a brook and that was when you came over to say h.e.l.lo. You then saw the demon, grabbed my hand and desperately fled to that big old place. Then you got hit by his h.e.l.lfire.” As she finished talking, her tears streamed down her face. I guess she was remembering the terrors in her past.
“Oh right, what is your name?” I tried to change the topic to lessen her terror. Then again, I really didn’t know what her name was.
“Silent Water.”
“Silent Water? That name sounds really pretty, it suits you.” She blushed again. I felt like she was way too shy.
“Ahh~~ anyways. You can live in my home… No no no, I do not have any hidden intentions. I am just worried about you because it is dangerous outside. You also do not know anyone so you should stay here for now.” It really was dangerous here. Even if there was no demon threat. The spirit slave sellers would go crazy when they catch sight of her.
Silent Water hesitated. Then she said: “Then, I’ll be in your care.”
“Alright. You should go take a bath now.” I look at the torn and tattered clothing on her body.
“I don’t know what to eat tonight… I should go and buy her some clothes first.” I mutter.
“Take a bath?” Silent Water’s voice pitched higher as she quickly shook her head.
“Yeah, take a bath.” What’s wrong?
———-
“Why are you acting so weird?” I don’t understand why Silent Water stiffened and clasped her hands together.
“Uh… if you don’t mind, you can change into my clothes.” I hand her a sweatshirt.
“This… is my first time… that I have taken a shower with a guy, so… if I do anything wrong, please forgive me.”
“Eh . ! ? What.. did you say?” I listen to her every word 20% more carefully than I normally do.
“I said… this is my first time… taking a bath with a guy…” Silent Water slowly whispered every word out.
“No no no, why? Why would you be taking a bath with me?” My voice trembled as I picture what she said in my head. Her snow-white body appeared in my imagination and I felt kind of dizzy. What a strong impact….
“But, that was not what you meant?”
“No, no, I did not mean that. Girls and boys cannot bathe together.”
“Ah, cannot bathe together.” Silent Water sighed in relief. Did she think I was a bad guy? Although I cannot be considered a good guy either.
“Your face is kind of red, do you have a fever?” Silent Water’s expression had changed. Did I really see a flash of disappointment across her face when I told her that we cannot bathe together?
“My face?” I rub my face. It was really hot, dang it, am I really that low? I only imagined it for a while… ah, I feel kind of giddy.
“Okay, here is the switch, this is the towel, this is.. I should go.” By now, I felt really guilty in front of this beautiful. I am such a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, to insult her in this way. I quickly ran out of the bathroom and took my wallet and phone with me as I went out. I walked to the entrance towards my bicycle.
“Eh? Where’s my bike?” I could not find my bike that I usually left near the entrance. Did it get stolen?
I stared blankly at the entrance for a while until I realized what was going on. I mutter: “Oh right, this is a different world. I don’t own a bike in this world… Usually I stay at home and never go out. I only go out to buy groceries and help Takahashi at work anyway.
……
“d.a.m.n.” I kicked the little pebbles on the ground. “I don’t own a bike and the road is really long, how unlucky.”
In my original world, aside from walking to school, I always traveled by bike. Not having a bike here is really inconvenient.
However, the me without a bike discovered a lot of new things as more and more people appeared on the road before me.
Although the road didn’t change much, the buildings practically multiplied. There were spirit selling stores, magic book stores, magic item stores, and weapon stores. There are also people who were wearing long mage robes. If this was in my original world, if it wasn’t at the cosplay section of Akihabara (j.a.panese Electronic Street), they would get stared at as if they were exotic animals or aliens.
I stopped in front of the women’s clothing store. Today is Sunday so there are tons of people here. Or should I say tons of girls in here. I saw Kamiki Kuji, my cla.s.s monitor. I know she saw me but she did not bother to greet or look at me. Whatever. She was a spiteful girl so I did not want to have anything to do with her anyway.
The shop was full of young women. I was the only boy in here so I was somewhat embarra.s.sed. Why aren’t there other guys here buying things with their girlfriend? I randomly picked some girl clothes and left… to go to the male restricted section… of the underwear area…
I immediately bought a few pieces, checked it out, and rushed out of the store. I saw amus.e.m.e.nt in Kamiki Kuji’s eyes and I know that by tomorrow, everyone would know that I bought women lingerie.
I sighed: “ I would never have thought that in my new life I would be labelled as a pervert who buys lingerie.”
I suddenly felt very tired. I dragged my tired body into the supermarket and bought some food and water. I also bought household items that Silent Water would need; such as toothbrush, towels, etc.
When the bill arrived, I incidentally saw underwear on a counter. I suddenly felt that I would be better off dead. If I knew that they sold underwear here, I would not have went into that store full of women and bought underwear. I swear the girls there had an abnormal look in their eye as they looked at me with an “Is this guy really buying underwear?” sort of expression.
Exhausted, I went home.
In just one day, I had my first experience with death, my first fight with a demon and won. I also bought women’s underwear for the first time, even if it was under the strange gazes of the young women there…
Ah… I don’t want to live anymore… eh? Weird. Since when was I so concerned about the opinion of others? Before the change, I would not have even cared… no… the previous me would never have had to buy that sort of underwear. The reason why I would care about what others think was probably because that was what the me of this world thought. He probably wanted other people to think highly of him and cared about what they thought of him.
As I pondered over this useless problem, I had already arrived home. At this time, the sun had already touched the mountain top.
By the way, what day is it today? I remember that before I died, the sun was already setting. Why had the sun only start to set here?
I took out my cellphone and looked at the calendar. —- June 3rd, yesterday? How weird, I went to school today and clearly remember that it was Monday.
Did the s.p.a.ce travel generate this time difference and let me go to another world’s yesterday?
Oh~~ well, I do not care about Einstein’s theory of relativity since I don’t really understand it. I don’t even want to understand it anyway. As I stand in front of my entrance, I wondered about this unimportant reasoning. I have already traveled through to this world, who cares if I do not know what time it is? Maybe this world’s nerdy me caused this problem.
If I think about it, the two mes of different worlds are completely different. I don’t like studying but I know how to do housework in that world but it is the complete opposite in this world.
Deep in thought, I opened the door. I saw Silent Water on the sofa in my sweater.
After her bath, Silent Water looked like a water lily, beautiful. She was the only girl I have ever laid eyes upon, aside from Satsuki.
Although I knew she was a beautiful girl, but it still surprised me. She had rosy skin and there was a mysterious feeling when I look at her blue black hair. It was a fascinating feeling. In the sweatshirt, she looked more energetic than before.
As soon as she saw me come home, she went over to the entrance and said: “Welcome back.”
Silent Water was so polite, and I have never been welcomed back before!
————————
I gave all the bags to Silent Water and turned on the TV. After a while, I was relieved of my “I want to die” feeling and suddenly remembered that I wanted to learn magic.
Magic is the conversion of spiritual power. Unless someone is very skilled, magicians usually use magical items to cast spells. Magic items can convert spiritual power with the minimum amount of energy lossage but if it was a really good magical item, the magic spell could become more powerful.
I remember that I had a special magic wand given to students by the school in my bedroom drawer. I ran to the second floor and opened my room. My room was basically a small library. The room of about 60 square meters had 6 or 7 shelves filled to the brim with books.
I opened my desk drawer and it took me a while to find the school’s magic wand. In this world, ‘my’ spiritual power was too low and ‘I’ could not cast any kind of offensive magic. So ‘I’ bought an expensive wand that could conjure up a small tornado. That was how I pa.s.sed my high school entrance exam.
The black stick in my hand looked like a chopstick. It was even the same size. I weigh it in my hand: “Why is thing so light? Don’t tell me it was just an ordinary stick.”
No matter what, other people have used this stick to cast magic. I should also be able to use it too then.
Since I have defeated that Superior demon, I had a newfound confidence in my heart.
I look at the table and opened a black magic book. I could not help but laugh: “Ah, the nerdy me, since you can’t do it, I will help you complete your journey.”
I found an easy transportation spell, a small wind spell and waved the stick in my hand. As I recited the magic spell…
Nothing happened.
This must be a mistake. I tried again and…
A “pfft” sound was heard and the magic wand started to emit smoke.
“f.u.c.k.” I threw the magic wand onto the floor. “Am I getting trolled?? I have already beaten a Superior demon!”
I stepped on it a couple of times. Then I angrily sat in the chair.
G.o.ddammit, isn’t it just a little magic spell? I close my eyes as my heart struggled.
“Imagine the magic that you want to cast in your head and make it become real.” I try to not think about the little reminder written in the magic book’s appendix and tried to imagine a tornado circling around me, with me at it’s center.
It had not even been a second into my fantasy when I heard “peng peng peng, bang bang bang” sounds coming from all around me. The sound of things crashing against one another.
I open my eyes and find that the book shelves, desk, bed, wardrobe, clothes, and other things were continuously colliding in front of me, no, in a circle around me! Is there wind wall?
Did this mean that I succeed?
I was at the center of a large tornado. I was so happy that I shouted out in joy.
“Pa.” My underwear hit me on the head. As I grab my flying pants, I finally realized that my things were still flying around me.
The tornado ignored me and I panicked. When did it become so big?
If this continues, the entire house would be destroyed. What do I do?
“Use your heart to feel your magic, it will change according to the owner’s thoughts.” I quickly wished for it to disappear and sure enough, the tornado vanished.
I could not be happy anymore as I looked at all the things in my room fall down. Even the door was blown off.
I hear Silent Water’s footsteps right before she came in. She asked: “What happened?”
When she saw my messy room that looked as if a war took place in here, she screamed: “Kyaa~~ what happened?
“Nothing, nothing.” I could not say that I did it myself. Magic is so scary.
“But…” Silent Water still looked a little worried.
“It’s really nothing, I just…. fell?” This excuse was probably too weak. I squat down and start to pick up my books and propped the table up.
“Oh it was like that, are you okay?” She actually believed me! Silent Water was too easy to trick! Was it because she was a spirit?
“Let me help you.” Silent Water also crouched down to help me clean up.
———— One hour later……
“Ahh~~~ thank you… Silent Water.” I lay down panting on top of my bed, tired out of my mind. The me in this world really loves to read, he probably owned thousands of books.
“No no no, I should be doing this.” Even though I cannot see her expression from here, I can hear the tiredness in her voice.
Fortunately, aside from the window and door, the bed, chair, table, and other things in the room were not badly damaged. Lucky me.
From now on, I would not dare to randomly use magic anywhere. I don’t understand why people like magic. Its destructive power was so terrible.
What’s up with the mini tornado spell? Is this really “mini”? The mini that I knew of are small things that do not go over 20 centimeters. My room is around 60 square meters. Don’t tell me that mini tornados have a diameter of 8 meters or more? I turn the pages of the magic book and see that the spell was for a tornado of 8 cm in diameter. I suddenly had an urge to rip the book apart.
What kind of book is this? It gives even gives people false information. Looks like I cannot even believe in books anymore.
I was not angry anymore. That accident gave me an opportunity to some spring cleaning. I put all the books in the bedroom in the empty room next door. The room next door can truly be called a library now.
As I look at my room that consisted of only an empty bed, two chairs, and a table, I felt like it was missing something.
Oh right, a computer. How can I be missing a computer? I ran my tired body up the stairs to the third floor and carried the unused stations I bought last year down the stairs.
Silent Water sat in a chair and tilted her head as she watched me bring the computer down. She cutely asked me: “ May I ask. what are those two boxes?”
“This, ah, this is called a computer.”
“Oh~~~ then does the other box it have animals inside it?” Silent Water’s eyes twinkled adorably. She was obviously not the cute type, why did I feel that she was cute?
“That, ah? That is called a television, a TV. It is one of humanity’s scientific technological products. It can broadcast programs, the animal world is one of the programs that it could play.
“Oh~~~ “ Silent Water didn’t really understand what I meant but she nodded her head anyway. She was like a studious student: “Then can this computer also play TV shows?”
“This so-called computer has a mechanical mind. It is very smart. It is better than the TV. You can watch programs that may not show up on the TV, play games, listen to music and lots of other things on it. You’ll get me after you see me using it.” I went back to the third floor to bring the keyboard and mouse down.
I connected the power supply, opened the computer, opened IE. But the page did change. What’s going on?
Silent Water sat next to me and had watched me refresh the browser for 5 minutes already. How can I disappoint this curious girl?
After 10 more minutes…
“f.u.c.k, is the network cable not plugged in? I realized that I did not plug in the network cable. When did I become such a scatterbrain? If the cable has not been plugged in, how could I even browse the net?
“Network cable?” Silent Waters could hear me speak chinese? Then again, for spirits, language was probably universal.
“Network cable is… it’s hard for me to explain but basically without it, the computer cannot watch TV or play games.” I ran up to the third floor to bring the network cable down.
I plugged it in and refreshed IE…
“Well… did not pay internet fee.” This world’s me basically did not use the computer. His books were basically his computer. Since he did not use the computer, he obviously did not have an internet bill.
“Internet fee?”
“Yes, like a TV, you have to play a fee to see a show. Just like the lights that are on right now, if you do not pay the electricity bills, it would not light up.” I have really failed. I have disappointed Silent Water. Although she had a studious look on her face right now, she was probably a little bit disappointed.
Weird. When did I become so sentimental. I was originally a free and easy going person…
“So that’s how it is, humanity really has a lot of advanced knowledge.” Silent Water brightened and nodded her head.
Knowledge? This a darkness, everything requires money. Hmph~ I remembered an unpleasant memory from when my uncle from my previous world took me to j.a.pan. Although he was the general manager, his starting salary was small because the branch had just opened. I was bullied when I first arrived in j.a.pan and my pocket money was taken. From that day on, I saw the true nature of the world. The most important thing in the world was money. It was probably because of this that the me in my old world liked to save money. Totally different from the scaredy cat me in this world who pays people a protection fee of either 10,000 or 20,000.
(TL: Since they are still in j.a.pan, I am a.s.suming this is still in their yen currency. $85 ~ $170 USD)
Speaking of protection fee, looks like I have to teach Yamada Yukihito another lesson in this world too. It was so weird, wasn’t he a lvl 3 Battle Master?? He’s always asking me for money. If it wasn’t for the boy genius, my best friend, Takahashi n.o.buhiko who was a lvl 2 Intermediate Magician, I’m afraid that I would have already been drained dry
Speaking of Yamada, I’m reminded of Satsuki. This world’s Satsuki is the only female friend of the bookworm me in this world. She is gentle, easy to approach, and the G.o.ddess of the nerd Lin Xiang. But she was in love with my best friend, Takahashi. Yesterday, she called ‘me’ to help her with her confession.
Ey~ speaking of funny, when Satsuki called the nerd Lin Xiang, he was happy for 40 seconds until he picked up the phone. Then when Satsuki asked the nerd Lin Xiang to help her with a confession to Takahashi, he became devastated. That was why he wasn’t in a good mood today and went for a walk along the river. And then met Silent Water.
Oh~ don’t worry, nerd — no, I mean the me of this world. The things you did not finish in this world, I will finish for you. The people you want to protect, I will protect for you.
If it weren’t for you, I probably could not have resurrected.
“Excuse me, what’s wrong with you?” Silent Water asked.
“Huh? What’s wrong with me?” My thoughts were interrupted by Silent Water.
“You were staring at the ‘Unable to connect to Webpage’ words for a long time.”
“Oh~~~ I was lost in thought earlier.”
I looked at the unmoving clock on the wall for the time and then stared at my watch: “It’s already nine o’ clock. Are you hungry? I can go downstairs to cook something up for you.”
“Um.” Silent Water’s face was indescribable. She seemed to be very happy but she also looked embarra.s.sed at the same time: “Can you please worry about yourself for a bit? From when you were packing away your things, your stomach had not stopped growling.”
“Is that right? Haha” I scratched my head and laughed, embarra.s.sed.
————————————
“Do you need my help?” Silent Water entered the kitchen.
“Nah, you can just go out and watch TV.”
“No!” Silent Water yells very loudly, startling me. I turn around to look at Silent Water. She had a fierce look on her face but when she saw me turn around, she suddenly became timid: “ Uhm, sorry, I… did not mean to do that. But, uhm, I don’t want to live in your home and not do anything.”
“This is nothing, you don’t have to do this.”
“My mom always told me that I can’t get something for nothing, so… please let me help you? Silent Water’s eyes were determined so I could not refuse her.
“Okay. Come here, I’ll teach you.”
“Mhm~~ mhm~~” Silent Water suddenly became very enthusiastic.
——————————————
“Why do you have to wear that?” Silent Water points at my ap.r.o.n.
“Oh~ this? This prevents my clothes from getting dirty.”
“Oh~~~” Silent Water nodded her head.
“This is called a cuc.u.mber. We cut it like this.” I cut the cuc.u.mber into thin slices as Silent Water studied carefully by my side.
“This is called a pork chop. We must fry it.”
“This is…”