Project: Gamer Ver. Error, File Not Found
Anime Adjacent Entry: 047
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
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30/6/1993
That... changed things.
That changed a lot of things.
Areru had been expecting the man to lie to him. To have some dark book of plots and secrets that Areru would need to painstakingly unveil, one bloody page at a time.
Instead...
The Kanto Magic Association was doing nothing about the Youma because they -had- tried something, and it had cost them the lives of their men and women. And it's been even more costly for the Kansai association.
Areru would bet good money they'd tried to bind the Youma to the service of some Onmyo priests or priestesses, then tried again when they lost contact with the first group.
"This... is a problem," Areru admitted out loud, his gaze locked on the Yggdrasil sapling that was, inexplicably, planted in the middle of the technically-not-a-citystate. "Worse, really."
"The youth often complain about that when they discover what their elders actually have to do," Konoe said. The ends of his mustache tilted up and Areru half-expected the man to be grinning underneath.
"That's not what I mean," Areru said with a shake of his head. He wasn't about to tell the man that Areru was on his third life, that he was personally acquainted with the realities of trying to hold a job, keep the bills paid and find time in between everything to eat, sleep and deal with his schoolwork.
Bilocation was arguably the best spell in existence. Hands down.
"I had hoped that you or the Kansai mages would have had some method of handling the creatures," Areru explained. "That you don't, that it cost you lives to learn that is..." Areru didn't have words for that. Nothing that would resolve the matter, nothing that would make it better. The teen just shrugged and shook his head before continuing. "I can't keep biting Youma's heads off. They taste terrible."
The old man chuckled, once, but came to a rather uncomfortable stop when he realized that Areru wasn't joking.
"...That's not your actual form, is it?" Konoe asked before he took a slow draw from his teacup.
"I can feel the ward over this place," Areru told the man as he began to tap one finger on the armrest of his chair. "I assume it has something to do with the vampire you lot are keeping here? I don't plan on breaking it if I don't have to."
The ward in question felt like water, pressing against his skin. It tasted like subjugation and weakness, tainting the air, but it didn't penetrate through his disguise. Areru was reasonably sure he could overpower it.
Or, if not...
The dragon's eyes slid away from Konoe and back to the towering tree.
He could think of a number of ways to disrupt it.
"...Your knowledge of my school is rather worrisome, young Ginji," Konoe slowly said as he seemed to look down and into his teacup. "You spoke plainly enough to ask me about the Youma, allow me to do the same; What do you want?"
"I wanted to know why a group of fourteen year old girls are openly throwing around magic with enough punch to break Tokyo in half. Now that I know, my other desires taste like ashes because I'm not interested in demanding you or yours do your job if it could see you dead. It's... frustrating." Well, that was the nicest way to say things.
The nicest way that Areru could come up with on the spot, anyway.
"Young man? I am an educator. I do not take any pleasure in seeing children fighting my battles for me." Konoe's words were quiet, his voice creaking like old wood, but there was more to them than just empty platitudes.
Ginji wondered how many of those that died had been Konoe's own students.
The teen quietly sighed as he considered the changes this demanded of him. If the Kanto mages weren't strong enough, or whatever other institutional failing kept them from matching the Youma, then trying to teach them a spell or two that would work better still wouldn't be enough.
Holy, Holy Weapon or Cursed Weapon might all have worked but they demanded the user either have a strong spirit or a strong sense of faith. The Kanto mages seemed to focus on knowledge, which was a perfectly fine choice outside of this specific issue.
And the Kansai mages freely frolicked with demons and kept bound spirits under their command. They'd be able to use the spells...
But Areru didn't trust them with the power they already had.
"...I suppose we're at something of an impasse, then," Areru slowly got out as he considered the situation. It was... not good. At all.
"Perhaps less so than you may think, young Ginji," Konoe said with a small shake of his head, a wheezing laugh in his voice. "The Youma may be outside the scope of those I can command but I believe there is another avenue of assistance my school may offer."
Areru tilted his head slightly as he thought on the old man's words. Konoe was offering the assistance of his school, though, and not his association...
"You mentioned the girl's throwing about a significant amount of power, hmm?" Konoe leadingly asked. "And power is something that comes to the rest of us with practice but, more than power, one must have control. And that, young man, is something that we most certainly can teach!"
"...Somehow? I have a hard time seeing Sailor Moon track down and defeat a Youma while she's been polymorphed into a rabbit," Areru told the old man, his voice a flat deadpan.
"That... those are ermines," Konoe said with a small cough. "And that is a punishment inflicted upon those who would reveal the secret of magic practiced by an associate school in Wales."
"That's... not great. But I suppose it's better?" Slightly? Somehow?
"I like to think so," Konoe agreed. "Here? We simply erase someone's memories."
"...We're done here," Areru declared as he stood up, a scowl overtaking his features.
"Excuse me?" Konoe asked, confusion clear in his tone. "Young man, is there-"
"The mind is man's final sanctuary," Areru cut in with a dark hiss, colors leeching out of the dim room as he glared into Konoe's hidden eyes. "That you and yours would violate it is inexcusable."
"I don't- Where is this coming from?" Konoe asked, the man fumbling to regain control of the situation as Areru relaxed the hold he kept on his nature.
"Look at the 'new' blood in your school, old man," Areru demanded, one arm waving towards the buildings beyond Konoe's window. "How many of them look like the men you've tasked with keeping your secrets? How many of them were born to single mothers, women who would say they don't remember the conception of their child?"
"You would dare-?!" Konoe started to shout, power welling up around the man.
Areru would have none of it. He refused to tolerate the man demanding face to assuage the fragile egos of those with powers that none should be trusted with. He raised one hand and snapped his fingers, just once-
And the magic that Konoe was attempting to call upon was Silenced.
"Keep your monsters close and chained, old man," Areru told him, a dark promise in his words. "If I find them in Minato? You won't be getting them back."
Konoe Konoemon reached out, one hand clutching at his throat as his lips moved, to demand something of the dragon, to further dig his hole ever deeper, Areru did not know. The teen snapped his fingers again-
And appeared on the surface of the moon. The dragon exhaled, his breath lost to the vacuum of space, and balled his hands into fists.
The Kansai kept the spirits of tortured animals. They created the spirits of tortured animals.
The Kanto relied upon magics that, by simple association, meant they couldn't be trusted to keep their word. What did it matter if they made a promise to someone if they could just try and rip that promise from someone's mind?
The teens lungs tried to reinflate, tried to draw something from the emptiness around him, and failed.
Why were both of the magic associations in Japan so...
Worthless?
Looking up, to the Earth hanging high overhead, Areru felt some of the tension bleed out of his body.
Konoe would get his magic back in a few days. Areru hadn't Locked the spell. He'd been reacting rather than actually working with a plan. Hell, he'd been far too close to relaxing his disguise and just... slamming one scaly fist through the man's desk.
Memory magics, mind magics, the whole damned school of Enchantment... that was the most insidious art. It was just... vile and disgusting.
Areru knew magics that would raise the dead and he considered them a more acceptable choice!
Looking at the Earth, Areru worked his jaw back and forth. He couldn't believe that Konoe seriously thought that anyone, anyone at all would entrust children to his...
Care...
Areru gritted his teeth as his irritation spiked again.
People did trust Konoe. People sent their children to his schools, unaware of the mages in the shadows that would... violate their minds if they saw something they weren't supposed to see. Or if they learned something that it would be more convenient for them to forget...
Sliding one hand down his face, Areru felt his frustration growing. He was trying to be delicate, to avoid making too many enemies, but...
Well. At least having enemies would mean he actually stood for something.
Pointing at the Earth, his hand moving in a lazy circle, Areru needed to calm down. He had something important he planned on doing around midnight and he couldn't be yelling or shouting when he went to do it.
-----
Several hours later, just a little after midnight, the Areru that had stayed home slowly opened a box that had been delivered earlier that day by mail. It came from an address he was familiar enough with, and the box itself was covered in various different stickers and colors of tape.
The first thing he extracted from the box was a letter. Which he would get to in a moment.
The next thing was... a small stuffed animal? A black dog with red eyes... and two heads? It had a little red cardboard heart attached to it with the letters 'Ty'.
Finally was a small card. One that had a long phone number and PIN code on the back. An international prepaid phone card.
Slicing open the envelope, a sheaf of paper and a few photographs fell out. Areru set the letter to the side for a moment to look at the pictures and a soft smile spread across his face at the sight.
Two little kids. Twins. Wearing kneepads and elbow pads and big plastic helmets were pushing around a pair of bicycles. Not riding them. Pushing them.
James and Jamie, Areru's half-siblings in the states.
Reading through the letter, obviously from his mother, the smile just grew wider and wider. The bikes had been purchased with the money Areru had sent to his mother for Christmas. Apparently, James and Jamie both were really, really thankful for their 'Brother Ary' for getting the bikes for them.
Flipping the letter over, Areru actually found a crayon drawing of a bunch of stick figures. With their bikes. And the words 'Thank you!' written in different colors.
That would be going on the fridge later. Areru desperately needed something good after the day he'd had.
But that could wait, at least for a few minutes. More immediately, Areru had something he needed to do.
Picking up the phone from its cradle, Areru held the prepaid card up before his eyes as he painstakingly input the digits, then input the PIN when it asked. Then he had to input another string of numbers!
Still, in short order he had the phone ringing.
"Hello?" a woman's voice answered in English. "Who is this?"
"Hi, mom," Areru said, in English, into the handset. "Finally got your letter."
"Ary!" the woman shouted, right into his ear. "It's been so long! Oh, you have got to tell me, how have you been? How's school going? Are you and your father getting along?"
"I'm alright," Areru said. "And school's alright, too. Can't say much about my father. He works so much, I can't even remember the last time I saw him..."
The two didn't get to talk very often. International phone calls were expensive and getting the times to line up with a twelve-hour timezone difference was a pain.
But, some days?
It was just worth it.
