Free Web NovelChapter 493: Arc 6, Chapter 109: Back to Basics
’You’ll figure it out; I know my detective.’
"Shck-ksh-wsh!"
Fumeko’s head lifted off of the desk. Pages of paper floated down, with one stuck to her forehead. Soft sunlight glowed through the blinds and her nose shrivelled.
She moaned and whined, squinting as she looked around the scatter of paper in front of her. She had to peel off the paper stuck to her forehead.
Her hand reached up and touched the sticky sweat, where all the hair framing her face was parted or stuck to her skin. A thumping of parade of elephants strolled around her mind.
The brunette groaned right into the hand she pushed her face into. Taking her sweet time, she glanced around the room. ’Why am I in dad’s room...?’
She ruffled her hair around while she roamed through a blur of memories. Saying something to Asobi, then going upstairs to her father’s room, locking the door and then sitting at the... ’Then what?’
Fumeko pushed the mess away from her, "Was I trying to find something?" As she spoke, she moved her tongue to her lips and tried to swallow nothing. She looked around for water, however that was of course not here.
She stretched each limb with a breath and a sound. Finally, she pushed the chair back and ambled out of the room. Traces of sweet and savoury with a hint of smoky-saltiness lingered in the hall. ’Bacon and baked beans.’
There was a sudden influx of saliva that silenced the thirst of her tongue. Motivated by cravings, she descended down to find Hotaru reading over some documents with Tiffany in the living room, while Asobi meditated in the corner of the dining room.
"Where’s the food?" a strident voice came from above.
"Fumeko," Hotaru turned.
"You just got up? We’re going to go out to lunch in a bit," Tiffany replied.
The brunette peered at them from over the railing, "Fuck lunch, where’s breakfast?"
Hotaru’s ears flickered, "Meko, it’s noon."
"I was done with the washing up hours ago."
"Oh." Fumeko paused on the stairs for a moment. She then went all the way down with everyone’s eyes on her. "What’s she doing?"
"Sobi? Apparently focusing her magic back in place," the wolf-girl shrugged and turned back to her work.
"Only upon centring mine aura may magic flow through the vessel of mine being. The inner must outer to perceive all that the light touches," the meditative magician replied with her eyes still shut.
’...’
"Impersonator," Tiffany glared with an eye. She turned back to Fumeko, "What happened yesterday? You didn’t come home till past midnight."
"Worried?" Fumeko crossed her arms. "I was busy on a lead. It’ll take some time, but I have some things to go on. I’ve got to," she rubbed her temple, "Send something to Palais Front-de-Mer."
"Well great; now can you come look at your own paperwork," Hotaru ordered with a finger.
"Yeah, yeah, I figured. I’m gonna go drink something first," Fumeko walked towards the kitchen.
"Did you brush your teeth or even wash your face?" the redhead’s voice continued.
"Shut it."
Hotaru sighed and shuffled papers together.
’What, they don’t know to keep out breakfast for me?’ Fumeko filled a glass with water, gulped it down and filled it again. She grabbed a packet of biscuits from the pantry before she headed back to sit in the living room.
"Sign this, it gives you the ownership over the house," Hotaru handed the paper before Fumeko even sat back. "This is all benefits, I’ll get some carbon paper later, it’ll be easier. And this," she stopped pushing documents and paused on a set of them stapled together.
Fumeko bit softly into two biscuits that sandwiched the chocolate in between. "What? Lady Pinberry already told me everything," she chewed.
"It’s up to you," her crimson ears folded back and she handed the documents over. "It’s for custody over Kineko."
The second biscuit hit the roof of her mouth. ’Yeah. I was supposed to come to a decision about that...’ After a pause, she took the papers and read them over.
"So?" Hotaru hushed—her eyes on the table. "What are you going to do? Even when we find her and get her back... Detective Namora isn’t coming back."
’... ...! What if dad’s corpse was a fake? Why have I not even thought that magic could be behind this!?’ Fumeko stared at the papers.
The view of her father pinned to a clock rang again. A soft breeze across her ears as the scent of rot was taken away with it. Blood down his shirt and gouged out eyes.
Her expression wilted back down and she felt every crumb go down her throat. She set the packet aside and took a breath. ’...Get it together. He’s dead. If I can’t trust my senses, I can’t trust anything else.’
"I don’t know," Fumeko’s voice went soft; the nasally tone all but gone. "I’m not exactly suited to be a guardian to anyone, much less a five-year-old."
"Actually, Kineko’s closer to six. Her birthday’s in April," Asobi suddenly appeared right over the sofa behind the brunette.
Hotaru and Tiffany flinched slightly, while the completely unfazed Fumeko replied, "Regardless, it doesn’t change my point. I can’t be looking after a kid." Her face crumpled into the papers she held. ’Jotou would’ve said something by now—anything.’
The four in the room stayed silent, till one of them broke it, "There is no reason you need to make the decision immediately. She is still missing. Perhaps, let her make the decision when the time comes?" Tiffany doubted her own statement.
"I guess..."
Hotaru sifted fingers through her own tail, "The only thing I can add, is that Kineko has a long life ahead of her. One that doesn’t need adventurers who intend to go around the world. Or raised by us for that matter," she let out a dry chuckle.
"Didn’t stop my dad from trying. He had a lot on his plate too," Fumeko reminisced. ’Us. This mess of an us, taking care of a literal child. Luckily Lady Pinberry already has a therapy program set up for her.’ "He didn’t have magic, and neither do I now.
Am I really suited to be adventuring with all of you into the unknown anymore? Do I need to, or even have to?" she spoke her thoughts aloud.
"Well," Hotaru’s voice broke a little. Her ears parted back, "You don’t have to, you never had to. If you felt forced..."
Fumeko shut her eyes, regretting her choice of words, "No, that’s not what I meant. I, I like travelling with all of you." ’Love. I wouldn’t want to stop, I don’t wanna stop.’ "But if Kineko needs someone... I have everything I’ll need. Here."
Tiffany’s face sank as she looked at the brunette; no words came out of her.
"What’s happening!? No! No! No!" Asobi shouted everyone out of their stupor. "This is just the sad-dy emotions speaking! We don’t have to make any decision; we’ll figure it out! We need to get Jotou and Kineko back first anyway.
We stopped a war! We can get Fumeko’s magic back, it’s not like it’s gone forever and ever and ever! We just have to poke the spark back into her, so let’s focus on that!" Asobi kept poking Fumeko’s head with her wand.
The detective seized the wand and tossed it to the other side of the room, causing Asobi to yelp. "If it was that easy, I would’ve done it by now," her nasally tone returned.
Asobi ran for her wand.
"Also, we didn’t stop a war, we partially ended some of it. Which is still impressive, I admit, but there’s no correlation between the two from a magical standpoint," Hotaru uttered.
"We worked a miracle that never anyone thought was gonna happen soon and I’d call that pretty darn magical," Asobi flicked her wand with a glittery sparkly flair.
"I... don’t disagree. Everything just has its due time, and if we want to run errands around lunch and then later try to ignite that which you lost, it could be vital to what we do next," Tiffany added.
_
"Come on Meko, you can do it!" little neon lights shot around in various colours.
Fumeko had her eyes on a teapot on the dining table. The night had settled in and the brunette’s posture had slumped into the state of a puddle. "Will you shut up?" she breathed out.
"Just like your first time," Hotaru guided.
"Except I underpowered it didn’t I," her hands were hovering around the pot.
"Don’t focus on that, focus on doing the spell now."
’I’ve been at it for hours. Visualize the heat, figure out the temperature, increase the blood flow—as if I have any control over that.’ Fumeko shot her eyes wide open and focused all her vision on the pot...
She stared...
It started to burn! Her eyes, not the water. She was forced to close them. She groaned and leaned back, running her fingers through her hair, "That’s it, I’m done. It’s clear my fucking affinity doesn’t wanna work with me."
Hotaru rubbed her temple, "Fumeko, it’s a spell that doesn’t need an affinity, you should still be able to do it."
"Maybe you’re not believing in yourself enough," Asobi supposed.
"There’s nothin to believe!" the brunette raged. "It’s a source of power that needs to be channelled to make something happen. You can use words, or hand gestures or other bullshit. Fucking Jotou could do it with her damn tongue." frёewebηovel.cѳm
"Would a tongue not be necessary for a verbal component?"
"You know what I mean," Fumeko pointed at the blonde.
"I actually don’t," Tiffany narrowed her eye. "If you’re so keen that your magic’s going to go off of method, then your emotional state shouldn’t be affecting it; but that’s not the case, is it?"
"What’re you getting at?"
"I think Asobi has a point," Tiffany replied.
"I do?" the magician tilted her head.
"Yes, you do Sobi..." the redhead sighed.
"Do you even know this spell?" Fumeko squinted at the blonde.
"N-no..."
"Then you try it," the detective pushed the teapot to the blonde’s side of the table. "You’ve been watching me the entire time."
"Correction. I spent a quarter of it making supper." Tiffany tipped her chin up to the brunette and posed with a few fingers hovering over her eyepatch and the other hand stretched out towards the teapot.
The other three gathered around close to observe the attempt.
Tiffany moved her hand and twisted her fingers in arbitrary motions, "Oh mine wonderous audience, bear witness the potential of I, Stellar Vespertillio, the Child of Void within the Sea of Stars! Simmer-!"
"PheW-Tink!" "Fwoosh!" "Tink-Crash!"
Everyone ducked for cover as Tiffany eeked and the pot lid came flying off from the whistling steam, bounced on the table, bounced again and rolled off onto the floor and cracked in two.
Hotaru’s and Asobi’s widened eyes glanced at each other before poking their heads back up the table. Boiling bubbles came to a rest inside the teapot with most likely scalded leaves. "S-sorry..."
"It’s... fine, the pot wasn’t expensive," Hotaru cleared her throat.
"Ow, fuck..." Fumeko’s voice came from the, kitchen?
They all rushed to check in on her.
Fumeko was to the side, near the fridge. She clutched the side of her head whilst groaning as blood trickled down her nose. She panted. ’What... just happened?’ Everything in front of her was a wobbling blur.
The next thing she saw was a glowing blue hand immediately giving a new sensation of needle pricks and stings. However, within the next minute her vision cleared and all that was left was a nauseous feeling in her gut.
"Did I... blink?" she asked in a daze and leaned on Hotaru’s assistance.
"Uh, maybe? You were way over on that side of the table, then, all the way over here," Asobi drew an illusory line that spanned at least four-ish metres.
"I didn’t even notice," Hotaru lead the brunette back to the dining room.
Fumeko made no hesitation to take a seat and let her head fall onto the table. She allowed her breathing to return to a steady rhythm before she even faced up.
"This is good news—all things considered. Your affinity does in fact work," Tiffany told.
"That wasn’t ever a question, it’s not like an affinity just disappears out my body," Fumeko retorted. "Right?" she looked to the wolf-woman.
"No, and if it can, I’ve never heard or read of it," she pursed her lips.
"Sooo, your affinity does work, but only in an emergency. This is great!" Asobi hopped.
Fumeko side-eyed, "At the expense of my consciousness and to get a room away from the danger? Great discovery Sobi."
"It means, if you do get into danger, you at least can dodge it. Once..." the magician figured out the fatal flaw in her machinations.
"Perhaps the more important factor, is that with the right elements involved, you can figure out a way to cast your magic again," Tiffany interjected.
’It’s all here... If I want a better chance, I can try to get it all back.’ "Alright, let’s keep going," she said with a sweat she wiped off her cheek.
"None of that. It’s best you take some rest for now," Hotaru advised.
"I’ve broken through the block; now’s the time to try some more," Fumeko reached her hand for the teapot.
However, a magician’s hand grabbed her wrist first, "P-please don’t scold me, but Aru’s right. We can try again in the morning."
"Listen Meko, magic’s dangerous, especially in the state that you’re in," the redhead continued.
Fumeko rolled her eyes. ’Yeah, but when Jotou does it over and over, she gets a slap on the wrist. I have to listen?’ "...Fine," she growled and yanked her wrist free.
