Chapter 5

Day after day passed.

I continued my studies at the Gozen School and managed to stay out of trouble. I only observed from the sidelines as Satu got into a fight with a girl from her group, and as Koji wrote them both up and sent them to cleanup duty. This time, however, no one was allowed near the storehouse. It was unclear if this was a specific order or if the school grounds and garden simply needed tidying.

I was slowly mastering my subjects and was getting praise from my teachers more and more often. Training with Ayu fell into a familiar routine. My ryoku began to obey me. Even if these were just small steps on a ten-thousand-mile road, I was happy. Especially in that moment when a wave of violet light shot from my fingers and swirled around my wrist like a fish before jumping to my other hand.

Ayu nodded in approval.

"You have good ryoku, Aska," she said. "It feels like you simply forgot how to use it, and now you're remembering. Remembering is always easier than learning something new."

Not entirely, Teacher Ayu. I had never used ryoku before and had no idea how to control it. But I had no choice. I had to learn to do everything my predecessor could.

As for calligraphy, I was doing much better. It felt like I could sense the meaning of the hieroglyphs. It only took me to see a new one and write it a few times for my brain to kindly find the right meaning as soon as I saw the familiar kanji again. Ryoku wove into the lines easily and freely. Teacher Tehiko praised me more and more. The girls in my group exchanged glances of genuine confusion, but they didn't dare say anything. Calligraphy with ryoku is not as innocent as just calligraphy. And yes, you shouldn't forget: a word can kill. A written word infused with ryoku will kill for sure.

True, they didn't teach such things at school. I was training myself, understanding that I wasn't going to limit myself to simple ciphers and disappearing text. I had to get the snake to come back; I had a lot of questions for it. The scaly thing probably wouldn't answer them, but being able to control it would be much better than just summoning it spontaneously.

All students at the Gozen School were allowed to visit the library; no special clearance was required. So I spent as much time there as I could. During that time, I got a decent grasp of Taiyoganori's history, studied its geography, and, with great difficulty, found a book about the life of Godo Shenghai, a Kanji Master. He was one of my venerable ancestors. The book mentioned that he could draw hieroglyphs in the air and use them to destroy his enemies. There were no specifics, which was incredibly frustrating.

Before bed, I would stubbornly climb onto the roof and practice drawing kanji. That wretched snake had turned its tail on me and didn't even think about showing up. I used up a lot of materials, but nothing worked. I was about to throw the inkwell at the neighboring roof when suddenly, something croaked next to me. I almost jumped and looked down to see a frog sitting nearby. It was looking at me with reproach, as if to say, who drags frogs up to this height?

Not believing my own eyes, I reached out to touch the little watery creature, but an unexpected purple spark flashed, and I was thrown against the wall. I hit my head and squeezed my eyes shut, holding back a scream. And then it suddenly became clear: I was infusing the ryoku the wrong way. Or rather, I didn't have to infuse it into the writing at all. I had to write the ryoku itself.

At that moment, workers appeared in the courtyard, repairing the summer training ground with Teacher Koji, and I had to crawl back inside the building. On one hand, I was surprised that they were working at night; on the other... if the whole day was busy with students, then conversations with others were moved to the night shift.

The next day, I was shamelessly yawning and almost ran into a wall, tripping over a gnarled root in the courtyard. Haruka caught me and almost dragged me by the scruff of my neck to the right classroom.

After muttering my thanks, I took my seat, genuinely glad to be sitting far away from the teacher. Even though Tehiko was quite gentle, my sleepy face wouldn't please her.

"Aska, have you been running to the Tokugawa school at night?" a voice asked from behind me.

I turned around. It was Kyoko, Satu's scrawny friend, who hadn't really shown herself in that canteen fight. I had noted her down as "just another one."

"Why Tokugawa?" I asked.

It didn't quite fit into my worldview. Kanji, ryoku, training, a frog, for heaven's sake. But the neighboring school?

"Because there are boys there," someone snickered in front of me. "To have a sleepless night, you need a boy, Aska."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"There's no other way?" I asked innocently.

"If you had a brain, maybe," Kyoko interjected. "But since you don't, you have nothing to brag about except your butt."

"I'm glad you appreciate my butt," I said. "And if that's the case, you're definitely not interested in boys from the Tokugawa school."

Laughter erupted, and Kyoko's cheeks flushed. It seemed she hadn't expected me to have a comeback. Oh well, learn your lesson, girls. You picked the wrong thing to tease me about.

"You're..." she hissed, but at that moment, Tehiko walked in.

She looked at everyone present and gave a slight nod.

"Good morning, students. My apologies for being a little late; we had an urgent meeting. And now we will have a surprise knowledge check. The best work will receive a special reward."

...I definitely didn't count on this. In schools, they usually give you a heads-up about tests, but here everything had fallen on me like a ton of bricks.

"What did you expect?" Misaki shrugged. "It's called a knowledge check for a reason. Teachers want to see what we know and how much we've remembered. If they warned us, we could prepare. This way, they want to see how responsible we are."

"How responsible we are... " I grumbled, following Misaki into the hall.

There was nothing special about it, really. I would manage somehow with calligraphy; I wasn't the worst student. What scared me more was that they could do this for any subject. God forbid the Weaver and all her company arranged for this in mentalism. That would be a huge disgrace!

"Don't worry," Misaki whispered, "you'll be fine. It won't be the best work, of course, but you'll definitely pass."

I froze at the entrance to the hall.

Not the best...

And why, exactly, wouldn't it be the best? What makes me worse than the others?

"Aska?" my friend called, puzzled, realizing I was stuck at the entrance.

"I'm coming," I nodded and walked over to Misaki to take our seats next to each other.

The hall could easily hold two hundred people. But, as it turned out, they would "check" two groups at once so there wouldn't be a crowd and the teachers could get a break. As soon as we took our seats, the second group, whose students all wore black keikogi, appeared. Oh-ho-ho, it was Haruka's and Satu's group.

A moment later, they both entered the hall. Haruka was, as always, focused, and Satu was, as always... annoying. Great, at least some stability. Noticing me, Satu narrowed her eyes. I smiled innocently, feeling even from here how my dear "storehouse partner" was grimacing.

The girls sat down and talked quietly. They clearly knew what these checks were like, what the huge board on the wall was for, why there was so much space between the board and the first row, and why the teacher's table was off to the side by the window and at a decent distance from the students.

Asking Misaki if we had something similar before would be quite stupid. Pretending to have amnesia here would be too much, so it was better to keep quiet.

The girls began to talk more animatedly. Now and then, I could catch fragments of phrases: "Last time...", "The kanji were blazing with fire," "I tried, but...", "Remember when Waubi's thing blew up."

They weren't very helpful, but they gave me some idea of what was going on. In the end, I understood that the board was for writing kanji. I had to try hard and execute the sign so that it absorbed all the ryoku and showed an action.

What kind of action, I didn't understand. But a guess was dancing on the edge of my consciousness that it was about something visible. Maybe a simplified version of my snake, instead of which a frog came hopping.

"Well... if my kanji croaks… that's not bad," I perked up. "At least no one will think of turning this place into a frog pond."

"Aska," Misaki whispered, leaning toward me. "What are you planning?"

I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"Why do you think I'm planning something?"

"You have a look on your face like you're watching the Gozen School burn in blue flames."

I didn't have time to answer, as Tehiko entered the classroom. Koji followed her. Okay, I didn't really want to see him.

He seemed to feel something, scanned the students, his gaze lingering on a tall girl in a black keikogi, then on Satu, then he looked back outside. And then he suddenly turned his head and looked straight into my eyes.

For some reason, a shiver ran down my spine.

For a moment, I simply couldn't move. There was something in that look that made my mind scream: "Run, before it's too late!"

"Alright, your task today," I heard Tehiko's voice as if through a fog, "is not just to write a kanji and fill it with ryoku, but to make the kanji perform an action. We all understand that this will last a few moments, but that's enough to understand what you've learned. You don't need to put all your ryoku into it. Understood?"

"Yes, Teacher Tehiko," an uneven chorus of voices rumbled.

I hadn't thought about that. In general, it was clear that if you put everything in, you could simply collapse from exhaustion. When I was in the infirmary, Izamu had explained quite well that throwing ryoku around was a bad idea. He even showed me dried-out bodies in pictures in his office.

They gave us paper, brushes, and inkwells. I immediately grabbed a tool and started twirling it in my fingers. It was a silly gesture, but it somehow calmed me down. Misaki gave me another suspicious glance.

Why is it always Aska?

Tehiko flipped the hourglass, and the sand began to slide down.

"Students, you have forty minutes. After that, you will take the sheet of paper where you have prepared your options and present your work to everyone. I wish you good luck."

Ah, so now it was something like test preparation, and then we would present it in front of the teacher. The plan was clear.

Koji didn't say anything. Either it wasn't that important to him, or he just didn't interfere in Tehiko's business. She was teaching calligraphy, so it was her job to communicate with the students.

I looked at the sheet of paper and quickly thought about what I could draw. Something that wouldn't attract too much attention, but would still outdo my rivals. I had a feeling in my heart that I really needed the prize for the best work to understand this world.

My fingers squeezed the brush so hard it almost cracked.

I think I have an idea.

Well... help me, Weaver.