At first, we hadn’t had much to do with one another. Once, I’d put in an anonymous tip to a public agency. Since then, I’d just pretended I didn’t see it happening. I hated that, but if I wasn’t careful, talking to her could get me arrested. I figured this was a job for the authorities anyway.
“I’ve got a disposable heating pouch here, if you want it…”
“Are you sure?”
“They’re cheap, and I bought a few too many.”
“…Thank you.”
However, I still saw no signs of things improving. How many months had passed like this? One day, I’d come home on the last train of the night after a company drinking party. Flecks of snow were visible on the rooftops, and she was sitting just as she was now, holding her knees in front of the door. Her stomach rumbling had drowned out the sound of my key in the lock, and I gave in. At the time, I guess I just pitied her. I’d grabbed a pastry from my apartment and given it to her—that was our first contact. Since then, I’d give her a little something now and then when we saw each other.
“Well, good-bye.”
“Good-bye…”
Bowing slightly to my neighbor, I entered my apartment. I made no move to invite her in. Even if she’d accepted, letting someone under eighteen into your home would be kidnapping—a criminal offense. I’d done some research, and even for a first-time offender, the prosecution would just skip the probation and go right to the jail sentence. I couldn’t take that much of a risk with a parent I already knew was guilty of neglect.
So I kept our conversations to a minimum, too. I was only giving her a little bit of help until she could stand on her own.
That evening, I had arrangements to receive a lecture on magic in my apartment from Peeps.
I’d finished eating dinner and had a bath, and my mind and body were clean and clear. I sat in the chair at my desk, and Peeps perched atop his metal cage, positioned on top of some cardboard boxes in the corner of the room. It was a cramped apartment—a studio with a kitchen—so our current positions seemed likely to become routine.
“I see. So you chant the words and create an image in your mind, and it just comes out?”
“Now that I’ve shared my power with you, you don’t need to worry about lacking mana. You will likely never need any more for most spells. If you can chant the appropriate words and construct a sufficient image in your mind, you can use magic.”
“That’s surprisingly ordinary.”
“Ordinary in what way?”
“Sorry. Don’t mind me.”
This meant the issue came down to chanting. If the incantation was long enough to fill a whole page of notebook paper, there was no way I could memorize it. It would be nice if they were as short as the ones in fantasy games—I wondered if there were any like that.
“How long are the incantations?”
“It depends on the spell. Some are short; others are long. The shortest are just a few words in a row, but the longest might take up an entire book. Memorizing the latter would likely prove impossible.”
“That’s quite a range.” More so than I’d expected.
I remembered having to read aloud in Japanese class during my school days—and how one time a kid named Ookawauchi had been called on by the teacher to read aloud, and brandishing his textbook in front of him, he’d started belting out the magic chant from a popular anime. Wonder how he’s doing these days. If the bell hadn’t rang as he was trying to sort out his failed prank, things would have gone a lot worse for him.
“You can also shorten incantations once you are accustomed to them. However, to do that, you’ll need an even stronger, even clearer mental image. It’s hard to describe, but spells will steadily sink in over the course of using them hundreds or thousands of times.”
“Hearing all this makes it sound more like a practiced skill than I thought.”
“Yes. And that is why learning magic takes time.”
I’d been thinking magic was more of a specific technique. This seemed much more difficult. But it was basically like making an illustration, wasn’t it? Beginners did plenty of rough drawings before starting their final draft. Professionals, on the other hand, could start from the draft, since they could tell what it would be like already. Depending on their level of skill, they could even skip all the way to the line work. Was that a good analogy for incantations and shortening them?
When I thought about it like that, it started to feel like this was going to be a long journey. I’m pretty bad at drawing, too…
“Personally, I’d like to use the spell for teleportation like you did this morning.”
“That is a fairly advanced form of magic. The incantation isn’t overly long, but it is extremely difficult to form the mental image. I cannot recommend it as a first spell, with you only just beginning your studies.”
“I see.”
I still wanted to use the teleportation spell, though. I could skip the crowded trains. I could make my commute time zero. Being a corporate slave working in the city gave that a value that was hard to substitute. I could rent a cheap place in Hokkaido for the summer and in Okinawa for the winter, then still work here in the city. It was like a dream—and this spell could make it reality. I very much wanted to learn it.
This morning, I’d shown Peeps the company’s location and a picture of the area using a map application, so he could see what it looked like before transporting me there. He’d mentioned it was difficult to go somewhere you haven’t already been, but even he was surprised at how smoothly it went. It was a fearsome combination of magic with satellite imagery and a street view.
“In that case, I’d like to learn two spells at once. Would that work? First, I’ll learn whatever spell you think would be easiest, and at the same time, I’ll study the teleportation one. How does that sound?”
“Quite ambitious, I must say. You seem quite curious about magic.”
“Maybe not magic in general, but definitely the teleportation.”
“I see. Then you will need diligence. I will teach you the spells. In the meantime, I can send you to work. It will likely make it easier for you to form the image in your head as you experience it over and over.”
“Thank you so much, Peeps.”
The night hours passed just like that. Peeps told me the incantations needed for the spells, and I wrote them down in a notebook. In contrast to the teleportation spell, which was about half a page long, the other spell was only the length of a haiku.
I’d read and memorize them during my breaks at work. It was best to go steady with everything. If you went hard right away at something you weren’t used to, you’d quickly exhaust yourself. Good old daily practice suited my personality. Still, the idea of teleportation magic was attractive enough to make even me want to rush.
The problem occurred the next day in my office. And the cause was magic.
During my lunch break, I’d read out a spell, a notebook in one hand. Not the teleportation one, but one Peeps had explained to me as being simpler. I must have gotten the incantation and mental image right, because a small flame burst to life at my fingertips. Essentially, it was like a magic lighter.
I was in a bathroom stall at the time. When the spell triggered, it created a bigger flame than I was expecting. It was stronger than a lighter—it was more like what you got when you sprayed a flammable aerosol into a lighter’s flame. The flame was so large that I started to panic.
A moment later, the smoke detectors went off, and things went down the crapper. I’d obviously be in deep trouble if they found me out, so I hurried out of the bathroom. Returning to the now-lively office, I joined up with my concerned coworkers and looked back at the restrooms, acting like I didn’t know anything.
Fortunately, they never found the culprit and decided someone had lit a cigarette in a restroom stall. I was eliminated as a suspect right away since I never smoked, and things ended without incident.
When I got home and told Peeps about it, his reply was encouraging. “It seems you have more of an affinity for this than I thought.”
“Affinity?”
“I didn’t think you would succeed all at once. That is quite an accomplishment.”
“Getting praised by you like this makes me kind of happy.”
“And you should be proud. The day may well come when you exceed even my powers.”
“Does that mean if I try hard, the teleportation spell will be possible?”
“I had thought at first it would take years, regardless of how fast you were. But if you keep this pace, it will probably happen much more quickly. It will still take more than a mere few days, however. Just never forget your daily diligence.”