Sword Witch Book One

(6)

They were all back in the fountain shop, gathered around the same table. Refills of their beverages of choice were present, mostly. She personally wanted something lighter than another shake, and took Haru’s advice of a strawberry float. These were accompanied by a tray of snack foods.

All present assumed this was going to take quite some time, and it was with unanimous agreement that they decided it was going to effectively be the location of their evening meal. The snack tray, boasting an assortment of baked goods, may have been more finger food, but it would serve their purpose. The confectioneries were at a reduced price this late in the evening, making it a cheaper alternative for feeding five teenagers than pizza.

Miss Sada apparently didn’t eat like the girls, either, contenting herself with simply rolling a cookie back and forth with her finger for the time being. “Well, then, now that we know the problem,” she suggested, “how about we start the session over from the top? I say introductions make the most sense, and they’re what good manners would demand.

”Miss Chiaki, I think we can all agree it’s only right you go first.”

Awkwardly, the blonde got to her feet and turned to face her, standing in silence for a moment before deciding to do a dip of her head. “I- … I’m Haru Chiaki. It’s … It’s nice to meet you.”

She stood there fiddling with her hem for a bit longer, but finally looked back to the teacher. “I don’t know what else to say.”

Said teacher was more than ready to take over, however. “Haru and Nariko have been friends since grade school,” she smoothly provided. “In fact, this relationship was the reason that she joined our little group at the same time you did just over a year ago.

”In said group, she is known as Flare Witch, and supports her allies with her light magic. She is also the only member of the team besides Reina who can use purification magic.”

“Purification magic?” She understood manipulating light, but this sounded more unique than that did. “What are we talking about, some sort of anti-poison?”

“Not really, no,” Miss Sada replied, but the redhead picked up the explanation.

“The demons don’t always do the attacking, themselves,” she provided. “Often, they’ll place a curse on somebody or an object with special significance by infusing it with demonic essence. Even if we defeat the resulting mutant, purification magic is the only way to remove the essence. Otherwise, we would have to kill the victim if it’s a person to put a stop to their rampage.”

Homura sighed and rubbed her forehead as if personally offended demons would be so annoying. “Even if murder were an acceptable outcome, though, it still wouldn’t fix the problem. Object or person, if left alone, it will eventually stabilize into a new proper demon, unable to be restored and regenerating in the demon realm even if it’s later destroyed.”

“So someone with purification magic has to get to those encounters before it’s too late,” she deduced in reply, earning a nod from the redhead.

“Each witch also has a passive ability that assists them at all times, even before they formally become a witch,” Miss Sada continued, motioning back to the blonde. “Haru is an empath.”

She nodded in understanding, but stopped halfway through as her eyes widened and she looked toward the pigtailed girl as implications flew through her mind. “An empath? You mean--”

Haru let her head lower, not meeting her gaze as she gave a sad, little smile. “Yeah …”

For the first time, she really understood the full impact of her punch that first evening and what that would have meant to someone who was that sensitive to emotion. It also explained why her previous outburst seemed to stress the blonde girl so much. She had hardly had an interaction with the poor girl that she wasn’t unknowingly causing her physical anguish, despite her being her most fervent advocate the last time they sat at this table.

“Oh, Haru,” she said, leaning over, but finding herself stopping short of reaching over and actually putting a hand on the girl. “… Haru, I’m so sorry …”

The blonde made an effort to meet her eyes and put on a bright smile. “Hey, this whole thing is because you didn’t know, right? You were scared and lost, and I didn’t pick up on it. Nobody’s going to hold it against a cornered animal for biting.”

“I’d like to think I have more presence of mind than an animal.”

“Clearly, you don’t,” came snarked from across the table.

“Shh, Natsumi,” Miss Sada quickly scolded the redhead. “Thank you, Haru, go ahead and sit down. Miss Wakumi?”

As the first girl returned to her seat, the gunmetal-haired girl looked like a deer in the headlights for a moment before hesitantly climbing to her feet. She stuttered for a moment as she adjusted her glasses.

“Um … Ran Wakumi … nice to meet you … I’m Shield Witch. I specialize in barrier magic. Oh, and my passive trait is increased intelligence, so if you ever need help with your studies …” She seemed unwilling to go further, and was visibly relieved when Miss Sada permitted her to cease with a nod.

Her butt hardly hit the chair before the redhead had sprung to her feet, thumbing to her own chest. “Natsumi Homura! I’m Flame Witch! Nobody’s better when it comes to laying down area damage and literal cover fire! Ran’s my best friend in the whole world, and we came into this together. I’ll never let anything bad happen to her!”

This open oath made the bespectacled girl next to her sink a bit in her seat. She didn’t seem to take any notice, however, and leaned against the table to focus on the brunette. “I’m also all too often the only one to stand up to your bluster and arrogance!”

Immediately, Haru protested. “Natsumi! That can’t be called for right now!”

“Why not?” the redhead retorted, standing up straight again to cross her arms with a smirk. “As far as we know, she’s only lost her memories, not her personality. She deserves to know who to expect will be knocking her down a peg.”

Indeed, her knee-jerk reaction was to rise defiantly to the challenge, to balk and give the redhead the argument she clearly desired. She was fairly sure, though, that would be anyone’s gut response to being called out that way over a past they didn’t have.

She swallowed it, however, and instead gave Natsumi her best bright smile. When she answered her, she did so with all of the genuine sincerity she could find in her. “Well, then, I will put my trust in you to keep me in line, Natsumi, and thank you.”

Again, the unexpected response put the redhead on the back foot for the second time that day. “Wh-what? No! That’s not right! That’s not how you’re supposed to respond! Stop being weird!”

As she continued to just smile in response, earning giggles from Haru, Ran reached over and tugged her sleeve. “Natsumi, your power …”

“Oh! Right!” Homura regathered herself, crossing her arms proudly again. “My passive power is strength! So think twice before you challenge me!”

“Oh!” That was certainly a more vivid passive ability than those she had heard so far, and it piqued her curiosity. “How much strength does it give you?”

“Well, to be honest, it’s not superhuman,” the redhead admitted, nevertheless rubbing her nose confidently, “but even without transforming, I’m as strong as or better than any guy our age I’ve competed with!”

That … was actually a lot more impressive than it sounded, the brunette reflected, taking it in. The average guy was at least twice as strong as the average girl, as a rough rule of thumb, meaning her enhancement was at least doubling her actual strength, maybe even tripling it if her small frame was really matching the most athletic of her male contemporaries.

If the two of them ever did get into a physical fight, she’d have to remember to fight as if she were fighting a man, or else Natsumi could seriously hurt her.

Apparently, her impressed state showed on her face, because the redhead, with the smuggest look on her face imaginable, returned to her seat and confidently crossed her legs.

“Well, then,” Miss Sada spoke in the wake of the interaction, “I believe that marks you as next, Reina.”

The older girl closed her eyes and sighed. “Normally, I hate talking about myself, but far be it from me to object when even Ran went through with it.” She stood up straight, the tips of her fingers pressing against the table in front of her, and when she opened her eyes, she certainly looked like a student president.

“I am Reina Tamashini,” she stated with a bold, clear voice that seemed like it could flow across a crowd without needing a microphone, yet which was not strained by volume. “I was a witch before any of you awoke to your powers. My powers are the strongest present in all fields except for your individual specialties. My own specialty is purification magic, but I possess a broad library of spells and can fill or supplement any other role on the battlefield as needed.

”Outside of our role as witches, I have always done what I can for our fellow students at large by serving on the Student Council, previously in middle school, and now for my second year in high school. If you need any assistance finding particular school services, my council duties keep me busy, but I will always find time to help.”

She continued, “My passive ability is precognition, though it is very limited. Simply put, I tend to have a sense of impending events before they occur, which allows me time to prepare.”

For the first time, instead of looking ahead as if she were addressing an assembly, Reina turned her gaze to the brunette. “I … am sorry, Nariko, but Chiaki was not the only one to fail to notice what you were going through. Whatever it was that happened to you, I never foresaw it.”

She shook her head in reply, dismissing the apology. “No matter what your superpowers, I don’t think this was something anyone could have prepared for.” Instead, she changed the topic. “I’m sorry, do you not have a witch title like the others?”

At that, the raven-haired girl lowered her head, clearly visibly annoyed at said title. “Sacred Witch. I’m sorry, I find it pretentious and don’t like sharing it.”

That raised an eyebrow. “You don’t choose your titles, then?”

“Not as such,” Miss Sada explained. “The nature of magic is that it will always reflect the individual using it. Even with a basic spell, if you and I each cast it identically, there would be differences in the manifestation because there are differences between us. More unique spells that depend on those differences to define them often simply cannot be used to produce the same effect by someone else.”

“Like how everyone’s outfit reflects some sort of idealized inner self,” she guessed by connection.

The other faces at the table looked a bit uncomfortable at that, but Miss Sada’s expression brightened in the way only a teacher’s does when she sees something click for a student. “Exactly! I’m pleased to see you noticed something like that so quickly, Miss Kelly. You’ve certainly been paying attention.”

She crossed her arms as she elaborated. “The spell that provides the transformation is incredibly specific to the individual, yet you each technically use precisely the same spell. Even the incantation comes out slightly different, and is where the title comes from.”

The brunette thought on this for a moment, turning the information over in her head. “So,” she glanced over to the older girl, “and forgive me for asking this, Reina, I’m just wrapping my head around the rules,” then back to the teacher, “the reason there is such a visual difference between Reina’s outfit and what one would picture when imagining something sacred is specifically because of how it bothers her?”

Her upperclassman’s shoulders visibly stiffened at that, but Miss Sada practically giggled as she clapped for the deduction. “Oh, you’re so quick, dear! You’re catching on so fast!

”Yes, our beloved leader’s conflict certainly is to blame for that, and that’s exactly how the system works. Personal matters being personal, however, you’ll understand if I leave it there. If you’ve deduced that much, I imagine you can get a good guess at the rest, but that’s for her to tell when and if she decides to do so.”

As she finished, Miss Sada motioned for Tamashini to sit and took her own turn standing, giving the brunette a warm smile. “Well, I guess it’s my turn, then. I am Sarasa Sada, though the surname is assumed. You were correct in your earlier suspicions, I’m not human.”

Her form began to suffuse with light as she jumped onto the table, but by the time she landed, she was much smaller. The quadruped form that landed in the middle of the table was pure white, possessed two tails, and despite possessing almost batlike wide ears and a pair of feathered wings, was very catlike overall, including the way it sat.

She merely stared at the creature, who was clearly disappointed with the lack of fantastic response. “A magical talking cat,” she intoned flatly. “Isn’t that awfully stereotypical?”

“Why, yes,” Miss Sada’s voice answered from the mouth of the feline pegasus with a tone of bemusement. “That was why I chose it.”

“So this isn’t really your form, either?”

“My dear,” the former teacher replied, tails swaying, “in your limited understanding of the universe, you would consider me a fifth dimensional being. I have no form as you understand it. I had to assume one conforming to your perceptions of existence to even interact with you.”

The brunette leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. “Alright, then, what brings a fifth dimensional being down to our four?”

“Three,” the redhead reflexively corrected, only for the gunmetal girl to correct her in turn.

“Four,” Ran said only just loud enough to be heard, shaking her head. “Time.”

She ignored both of them, however, and elaborated on her question instead. “Are you why we have powers?”

“Oh, no, dear, not at all,” Sarasa replied. “I came in response to them. You would consider me the group’s mentor and guardian, here to help make sure you understand your powers and use them safely and responsibly, for both your sake and the sake of those around you.”

“And I’m pretty sure we all know the answer, given that we are even having this conversation,” she followed, “but I’m guessing you don’t know what went wrong, either.”

The cat’s ears seemed to droop at that, and the tails stopped moving. A moment later, it glowed once more, and the light flashed back into the teacher’s seat, where it once more solidified into Miss Sada’s form. Indeed, she looked both saddened and quite apologetic.

“I really am sorry, dear, truly. It is my responsibility to protect you all, and in some manner that even my abilities can’t perceive, I have completely failed you. If it were some action by the demons, a curse of some sort, it would be detectable, but there is no indication that there is anything wrong with you in any way.”

“Except for the fact that I’m not me,” she concluded, which earned a sad nod from the teacher.

She sighed, then, and took her turn to stand. “I guess that means I’m up.”

She stood there a bit just gathering her words, how best to say what came next. “My name is Nariko Kelly. Except it’s not. I am a first year in high school. Except I’m not. I’ve known some of you for years. Except I only met any of you for the first time three days ago.

”If my name is not Nariko Kelly, don’t ask me what it is. I can’t say. If I am not in high school, don’t ask me where I am. I can’t say. If I was not here four days ago, don’t ask me where I was. I can’t say.”

She paused briefly as she watched the other girls, a bit of her fearful she’d see the same burning irritation in their eyes that Dakunaito had displayed when she said those words. She didn’t. Their gazes were lost, confused, mystified, even, but not angered. She took what strength she could from that, swallowed, then continued.

“These are not refusals to speak and I’m not being flippant or deceptive, but depressingly literal. I spent much of the first day just trying to write my own name, only to produce gibberish each time, a jumble of not-symbols that weren’t even the same from one attempt to the next.

”I know my name, my experiences and my history, in the same way you know yours without thinking about it, but trying to think about it produces nothing. I know these things, but I can’t recall them, and even attempting is unpleasant. Were it just unpleasantness, I would force through it just to get answers, but when I do, there is nothing there. There is a void where the things I know should be.”

Natsumi looked completely befuddled by all of this. “Riko, the way you’re describing this, you make it sound like you think you were …” She waved a hand about, trying to come up with words. “… erased, or something.”

“That sounds ridiculous,” she agreed seriously, “but it’s an apt description of how I feel. Erased.”

Miss Sada leaned forward and pushed a napkin toward her. “Nariko, if you please, I want you to try writing that name now, in front of us.”

She looked down at the napkin for a moment, but knelt down to retrieve a pen from her bag. She sat back down in her chair, pulled the napkin over and began to make precise motions with the instrument. Once she finished, she set the pen down and pushed the napkin to the middle of the table.

The redhead looked down at the seemingly ordered chaos of jumbled lines in utter incomprehension. “This can’t possibly be something written accidentally.”

Ran, too, looked down on it, adjusting her glasses to focus on it. “It doesn’t look like any language I’ve ever seen. Miss Sada?”

She, too, shook her head. “It’s not a language at all. They really do look like they could be symbols of some sort, but they’re not. This is nothing but random lines.”

Natsumi pushed it to her again. “Do it again.”

Obligingly, she put the pen to the napkin again and attempted to write her old name. She already knew what the outcome would be, as she had done it many more times than this, but perhaps here …

“It’s just random lines again,” Natsumi complained. “They aren’t even the same ones!”

She looked over as Haru put a hand on her forearm. “Please, Riko, just one more time. I need to see something. A little slower, please.”

She wrote a third time, this time concentrating on the precision of every stroke.

“You noticed something, Miss Chiaki?” the teacher inquired.

The blonde girl nodded, but it was Reina that spoke. “I believe I saw it, too. Now that she has mentioned it, I am certain that Kelly wrote the same way each time. Her strokes were the same on each attempt, but still produced different nonsense.”

“That’s not possible!” Ran looked as if she had been told to believe the world was flat.

The upperclassman looked to their teacher. “Miss Sada, is it possible it is somehow a forbidden word?”

The brunette raised her hand. “Ah, come again?”

Miss Sada gave a smile to her at that, then obliged. “A forbidden word is something reality, itself, has deemed unmentionable. How it came to be forbidden and why is often unclear, given that most forbidden words have been so longer than historical recollection.

”Given that they can’t even be recalled, there could be countless such words that whole societies just never even thought to use, so actually finding evidence of one, much less figuring out the reason, is extremely rare. Think of it as protective amnesia on a universal scale.”

The teacher tapped her cheek as she looked up to the ceiling in thought for a moment before finishing. “It can only be induced artificially by incredibly powerful magic, so why such effort would be spent on a mere name is unfathomable.”

“It wasn’t exactly a rare name,” she countered. “I have a hard time imagining millions of people around the world just suddenly forgot their names and nobody noticed.”

Miss Sada considered this for a moment. “It could be it was not the name that was stricken, its state is merely a symptom of it due to its ties to you.”

“You’re saying I was what was stricken.”

But the teacher merely sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I’m sorry, Nariko, but that’s impossible. I admit it would neatly explain everything you are experiencing, but the amount of magic required even to forbid a single word is so high that it would take an all-powerful god to forbid an entire individual existence. Even if such a being existed, I can’t imagine such a drastic action could be taken without being noticed. Especially so recent.”

She raised her finger in lecture. “Ancient forbiddings are one thing, we have no way of knowing what ripples may have been made. But in only the last week? Such a massive expenditure of magic would have been felt by all of us, and countless others, even those merely sensitive to the arcane.”

“And it wouldn’t explain why whatever remained would have manifested in you,” Reina pointed out. “I know I brought it up, but we are moving away from the point at hand. You, Nariko, not whoever you’re recollecting. I apologize for the insensitivity, but recovering our friend and ally from whatever is afflicting her must be our first priority and primary focus. Whatever happened to whoever this person was, if we can help them, we will, but we need to get you back first.”

The teacher lowered her head. “It pains me to pile insensitivity upon insensitivity, Nariko, but there is very likely nothing we can do for whoever you are recalling. If we assume for the moment in lack of a better suggestion that they were, indeed, forbidden in their entirety, there is nothing to save. What you are experiencing might be nothing more than a dying echo.”

She looked down at the napkin and nudged it back and forth with her finger. “Or the fading ripples.”

Miss Sada gave a sad smile and reached over to squeeze her hand. “I’m sorry, dear, really, I am. But if this is the case, whoever you think you are is just a ghost. You’re already dead.”

It was Haru who stood up, as if personally harmed by this. “But why, Miss Sada? Why Nariko? You said ripples would be felt by everyone, so why is this only happening to her?”

“I also said it was impossible,” she corrected. “We simply have no better answer ready. We also don’t know that no one else has experienced something from it, only that Miss Kelly is the only person we know that has.”

The table went silent for a bit longer, but it was actually Homura that broke it, unusually quiet.

“I could guess why it affected Riko.”

She let the table’s undivided attention dwell on her for a moment as she clearly gathered her words. “The whole reason none of us noticed something was wrong with her was because nothing was wrong with her. These past three days, if we’re all being honest, her behavior has only been a little off. Even Haru, who knows her best of all, looked her in the face a little over an hour ago and said she was behaving just like herself.”

Her gaze went to the brunette more decisively. “And you started to raise to my heckling every time in the same way Riko would. Don’t think I didn’t notice just because you caught yourself.”

Her gaze drifted around the rest of the table as if gauging their reactions. “Riko has been behaving in exactly the way Riko would behave if Riko were in this situation. That’s why none of us noticed, and that’s why I’m betting that it hit her, because she resonated with whoever this other person was.”

She motioned across the table to her. “Whoever is sitting in that chair right now, in Riko’s body, the degree of separation between the two is so slim that the …” she floundered for a moment, “… the echo, if that’s what we’re calling it, slammed right into her like she was tuned for it.”

“That’s a brilliant line of reasoning, Miss Homura,” Miss Sada praised her solemnly. “I’m proud of you for putting that together. Some of us were perhaps too close to notice it.”

She sighed, however, and again reached out to squeeze the hand of the girl in question. “But this is all speculation, Nariko. I’m sorry, dear, but the truth is we don’t really know what has happened to you. I care about each of you as if you were my own daughters, and it pains me to know what you must be going through and not be able to give you any answers.”

She, too, sighed, and made a conscious effort to square her shoulders. The crooked grin she put on next was her attempt to show she was trying to speak in jest. “Well, at least there’s the possibility that you’re all talking about me like I’m dead and you’re still wrong.”

With that, she moved her hand through the air as if to clear the topic from the table. “Since we’ve all hashed out just how much we don’t know, let’s get back to the introductions. There’s still someone left who hasn’t been introduced.”

The table looked around, clearly doing a mental head count. “Who?” Haru asked.

“The one person at the center of all of this mess,” she replied. “Nobody’s introduced me to Nariko Kelly.”

There was a sense that went over the table of realization, some nodding. Miss Sada, for her part, was smiling again, though it was still a little sad at the context.

“Nariko Kelly,” she began after taking in a deep breath, “is the middle child of three. She has a sister in college and a little brother that just started middle school. She’s an above average student despite being rather lazy about homework, and usually has to pull in extra credit to keep it that way.

”She is known as Thunder Witch, and excels at devastating single-target attacks. This specialty is a deadly combination with her passive ability, Analysis, which doesn’t actually raise her intellect specifically like Shield Witch’s, but lets her take in many details very quickly and instinctively reach deductions on the battlefield. You may have already noticed it in action.”

She nodded in understanding, though she had to admit she felt nothing particularly magical about looking at the battles she’d seen. She simply witnessed what she did and drew obvious conclusions. On the other hand, she doubted Red felt particularly mystical while lifting, or Ran’s intelligence meant information just came into her head. Honestly, she couldn’t confirm or deny she’d experienced Nariko’s special ability.

Haru, seeing a lull, piped up. “Nariko is very protective of others,” she offered, seemingly eager to share more insights into her best friend. “She’s very quick to take action and cares very deeply about the people she deals with.”

“She also talks a lot …” Ran seemed compelled to contribute after the blonde did. “I think she likes to talk to me because we’re both smart, but she rambles too much and doesn’t know when to stop.”

“She definitely wears her heart on her sleeve,” Natsumi agreed critically, “but that goes both ways. She’s very prone to acting like her abilities mean she knows everything, and gets bossy when she thinks the rest of us don’t see it. She’ll push you around and try to take charge of everything if you let her.”

Haru sighed. “Natsumi …”

“You know I’m right,” the redhead answered back. “You’ll do her more harm right now by lying about it.”

“It’s true,” Reina put in coolly, “that Kelly has a very … strong personality, but that also makes her stalwart. When she sets her eyes on something, she doesn’t waver, and that makes her someone you know you can always count on, regardless of her flaws.”

At that, Miss Sada gave her a smile in conclusion. “I hope you get along well with her, Riko.”

She gave a wry smile in appreciation of the last line as she considered all of this. “Well, it certainly sounds like she and I have plenty in common.” Some of the more criticizing takes were actually a bit hard to swallow because of how close to home they struck. Personally, she’d like to believe she’d grown out of some of those less desirable traits, but once upon a time … “I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.”

She twiddled the pen back and forth over her fingers, then, on impulse, leaned in to pull a muffin from the tray, but she had hardly pulled it in front of her before Haru had swooped in to swap it with a flan. She glanced to the pigtailed girl with a raised eyebrow.

The girl blushed and looked away, apparently worried about being pushy. “Walnuts.”

“I’m allergic?”

“Too bitter, they burn your tongue.”

“Hmm,” she replied, “thanks for the save.” She picked up a plastic spoon instead and dipped it in, sampling the custard and caramel before she spoke again. “So that’s introductions, I’ve got some questions about how stuff actually works now, if that’s okay?”

“Okay?” Natsumi objected from across the table, propping an elbow on the table and her chin in her hand as she set aside a cake plate. “It’s literally why we’re all still here.”

No one’s keeping you here, she nearly bit back, but she was starting to get the impression the girl was a typical thorned rose. After all, she was the one that had insisted on relying on each other, and despite her temperamental tone, it was very possible she just poked at her out of habit.

Instead, she took a deep breath. “What is a witch?”

Natsumi arched an eyebrow to look at her like she was an idiot. “A witch? A woman that casts magic, of course.”

But she shook her head. “No, that’s what the word means, but what is a Witch?” As she repeated the question with emphasis on the word, she motioned around at the girls at the table. “What are we? Where did the powers come from? Why did they come to us?”

The redhead just leaned back and shrugged. “Dunno. Don’t care. We can help people, and that’s all that matters. Maybe someone knew that’s what we’d use it for.”

“There is a story,” Miss Sada provided more informatively, “that witches such as yourselves consorted with demons in a previous life, and that your powers are gifted so that you may redeem your sins by battling what you had once invited in.”

That did not sound like something that she approved of. “You make it sound like we’re some sort of suicide squad,” the brunette summed. “Except nobody had the common decency to tell us.”

“It’s only a story,” the teacher soothed. “History is rife with myths that exist to excuse the demonizing of the most virtuous of people solely because someone else feels inadequate. I wouldn’t read too much into it if I were you.”

“If it’s only a story,” Homura objected stubbornly, “then I like mine better.”

“Yours wasn’t much of a story, though …” Ran timidly pointed out.

“Okay, magic, then,” she attempted to steer the conversation back to the matters at hand. “You said it changes form depending on the individual, and we all actually use the same transformation spell, right?”

Her mind flashed back to when Flare Witch “fought” Dakunaito. The girl’s hand to hand skills were nonexistent, but her power was insane compared to any concept of normal. “The demons that attacked today were targeting me because they knew I was vulnerable, but if I could get that combat boost, I could at least keep myself safe. If it’s all the same spell, can’t you just tell me how to do it?”

She had her answer before even a word was spoken as they all broke their gaze, one after another, around the table.

“Were it that we could,” Miss Sada answered her, not nearly as long after the question had been asked as it seemed. “Some spells can be taught or learned, true, but many of a Witch’s spells are innate to them. The transformation spell may be the same mechanically, but it is granted to them as part of their awakening.”

The teacher turned to meet the brunette’s gaze again. “I’m sorry, Nariko, but even if you have no recollection of it, you’ve already awakened as a Witch. There’s no way to do it again to replace it.”

Well, this was getting to be quite the depressing and unproductive session. She took the moment to pull from the float for a long draft, then sighed when she stopped. This body really liked strawberry, she’d need to remember that.

“Alright, so to summarize, we don’t know why I’m in this state, we don’t know what we are, and we don’t know how to get my powers back.”

“Oh, your powers aren’t gone, dear,” Miss Sada was quick to assure her. “If anything, that’s the issue. You just don’t remember how to use them.”

“Can you at least tell me why Dakunaito has such a hate fetish for running this face through with a claymore?” She pushed through with the question she had been moving for despite the interruption. She understood Miss Sada’s point, but the end result was the same, and she hadn’t been looking for reassurance on them anyway. “It seemed a lot more personal than just Demon versus Witch.”

The teacher nodded, grasping the topic change. “It is. Dakunaito is obsessed with personal honor, though we’ve never been clear on what, exactly, Thunder Witch did to impugn it. If Nariko knew, it amused her too much to share it, and as you’ve likely noticed, Dakunaito, himself, is rarely in a talkative mood. Suffice it to say that she has personally slighted him deep enough that he believes only her death in combat by his hand can set it right.”

She puzzled on that for a bit, however, twirling a lock of her white hair in thought. “Still, that makes his behavior lately odd. Something must have made him desperate if he was willing to jump you the other night and catch you unawares.”

Ah. Yes. That was a conclusion they had drawn previously and she hadn’t taken the time to correct. Miss Sada didn’t need psychic fifth dimensional powers to notice the change of expression on her face to one of embarrassment, and arched an eyebrow just before she started answering.

“Eheh, that’d be because he didn’t jump me. Now I’m feeling like a heel toward the guy trying to kill me for not clearing this up earlier, but …” She gave a meaningless hand gesture. “… I mean, you all know I had other stuff on my mind at the time now …”

She took a deep breath and explained, “He announced himself clearly when he showed up, and when he did attack, he held back a lot, even giving me an opening I now realize was when he expected me to transform.

”For a while, I think he was just trying to force me to transform and accept his challenge. He didn’t really threaten me with any serious injury until he thought I was lying to him. I can’t say I blame him. He’d actually stopped by the time Haru showed up. He figured the real Nariko was being kept elsewhere, and had determined to interrogate me to decide on what to do next.”

She reached down and rubbed her side where she was kicked. “Haru actually told me I’d be fine by morning. I thought she was just being flippant at the time, but I know I went to bed with broken bones that night.”

“The rapid healing rate when you are at rest,” the teacher confirmed, smiling at the thought of it keeping the girls safe no doubt. “A boon of being a Witch, and an undeniable indicator that you are still awakened as one.”

Miss Sada idly tapped the table as she explained the process. “Even just stopping to rest will let you recover more quickly for a breather, but when you get a full night’s sleep, it goes full in on making sure you’re fully operational, no matter what you were suffering from. It’s kept you girls out of the hospital more times than I care to think about, and saved me from answering very uncomfortable questions from your parents.”

Haru beamed a million volt smile at the momentary lightheartedness. “Yeah! We’re like Wolverine, but cuter!”

Natsumi, who seemed quite voracious and had put away more calories since the brunette had met this group than anyone else at the table, was chewing on a length of rock candy. “And that sounds a lot more like the behavior we’ve come to expect of Dakunaito,” she confirmed. “And today? You said he was part of this attack, too, right?”

“Not so much a part of it,” she shook her head. “It was just the couple and the grunts – the dretches. They were the ones making the attack. But since Dakunaito had decided I was key to getting to Nariko, he took issue with them trying to steal his kill and defended me. He was eventually able to overpower the man in the suit and drove the couple away.”

The redhead whistled. “Hard to come up with a better bodyguard than him, even we have to admit that.”

She scoffed. “Yeah, well, he’s not my bodyguard, and he made it very clear he’d like to not have to do it again. He suggested one of you escort me if I’m going somewhere alone.”

“I’m inclined to agree with his suggestion,” Miss Sada put in. “I understand it will be an inconvenience to all involved, but I hope everyone will also understand the unique situation of everything right now.”

A rare frown came to her lips, but it was warning rather than upset. “Besides, it is best not to rely too deeply on demons. Oh, they are a diverse people, but they are still what they are. Perhaps Dakunaito is the most honorable of them, but he is still a being of evil, he won’t even deny it, and even his concept of honor isn’t wholly in line with what you or I might consider.

”Ultimately, all demons bow to their emperor, and their emperor wants nothing less than our destruction and the enslavement and harvest of humanity. Dakunaito’s ultimate goals are no different, his spat with you is only a distraction.”

The teacher sighed, however, and seemed like she’d adjust glasses if she had any, instead rubbing the bridge of her nose again. “I’ll need schedules from everyone so I can best see who is available on what days. You should be fine at school, where we are, or at home, as demons prefer to strike in seclusion, rather than broadcast their existence. The most important times will be when you are walking to or from school or on weekends.”

She smiled, however, and gave the brunette a reassuring expression. “If none of the girls are available, I’ll walk you home, myself, but on the bright side, this could be an excellent opportunity for you to learn more about them. If they’re busy, you should consider seeing what they’re busy with and seeing if you can help if you don’t need to go home immediately.”

On this somewhat lighter note, the last of the really big questions had passed for the time being, and conversation drifted on to smaller details, mostly the girls chatting about their lives and important people in them. The talking went on quite late, until Miss Sada finally had to point out to them that tomorrow was a school day.

But she had to admit, there was something nice about not being in hiding about it all now, and having people she could ask about things, people she could count on. Even if it did come bundled with demons and magic.