de_bel_survivor | Day 30 - [Action]

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Day 30 - [Action] | [Voice]

[At school, Classmates may notice Kouki’s carrying a very full bag. Fuller than normal. Any attempts at asking will earn them a smile, followed by “It’s a secret” from him.

After school, Kouki immediately head out towards the store to pick up something. It’s something he’s been meaning to do since he first found out about Yotsuba’s departure, but… admittedly he put it off due to other distractions and plain procrastination. But not any more.

It’s with a smile that he opened up the journal and speak to the village at large.]

Hey, this is Kouki Wakahisa. For all New Feathers, welcome to the village and I hope you’re settling in okay. I can’t offer you guys much that other people haven’t already covered yet. But if you want to be friends, or even have a chat, I’d be up for it.

[But that’s not what he’s opening the journal for.]

In any case, if you guys like to see something silly but fun, come by the playground behind the school. It’ll be here until the sun start to set for the day. [The season’s been getting warmer, and summer should be here next month. Which mean the day’s getting longer.] Just don’t step on them while they’re going around. Some walking toys aren't all that durable.

[What walking toys? If anyone’s curious, they can come and check it out.

At the playground, there’s a number of animal toys walking around the playground, almost in a march. At the front of the group was a stuffed elephant, taking the lead. Watching them nearby was Kouki, who’s smiling at the view. From time to time, he’d walk over and recast the animation spell on a toy that’s about to run out and turn back into a normal toy.

It’s a pretty simple, harmless thing to make the toys move around. But Kouki did plan on showing this to a certain little girl. But unfortunately, Yotsuba’s gone...and he’d have to make up for it. Showing them to other people can brighten their day under this fine day.

At least he’s not doing it during the heat wave from the past few days. That would suck.]

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[He shake his head.]

Nope, they're not. They're actually stuffed toys. I find them easier to work with instead of mechanical ones.

Then they're magic? [She sounds surprised for just a second before a smile breaks out across her face.] Amazing! Did you do it?

Yep. [He make a gesture with his hand, obviously referring to all of the marching toys.] I made all of them move after a lot of practice.

May I see some more of it? I'm sorry for interrupting, but when I saw them, I was so interested that I had to see them up closer.

Sure, I don't mind.

[He glance at the parade, looking at the toys carefully. He already used all the toys in his bag, leaving him to wait for one to start running out of magic.

Seeing a stuffed dog slowing down, he swiftly walks over to pick it up and returns with it.]

If you don't mind, I'll be using this fella as an example.

[Ever the attentive student, Ami looks closely. The stuffed dog, for the time being, seems quite normal and commonplace. Nothing magical about it.

Maybe that's what interests her most - that moment of changing that completely, from something so normal and so easily overlooked to something so special.

She nods.]

He's very cute.

Thanks. I found him in the shops a while ago.

[He's been going to the stores whenever he can, slowly building up the small collection of toys just for this. He can't get a life size stuffed elephant, so he went with the parade as an alternative.

Kouki hold up the toy so Ami can see the sigil on the stomach.]

See this? With this sigil, I can channel some magic into the object to animate them.

[Gathering some magic into his free hand, he touches it and pour in the right amount of magic. Most of his lessons was spent learning how to control the output.

A short moment later, the toy twitches and then its head looks around.]

[She has to wonder one thing...]

Can anyone use these sigils? That is, can anyone cast this type of magic?

[Is it just a ritual, or something innate to the caster? It's really a somewhat irrelevant question - she tells herself she doubts it could work for her - but she's curious about the ins and outs of this power.]

Anyone can use them, as long they're willing to learn how to make them.

[If they're innate to the caster, he would have more difficulties in learning them.]

Mr. Helios taught me these, so he would know more about it.

I think it's interesting - like a whole new school subject. [Says the girl who's finished with university. Maybe she should get a second degree some day... But the truth is, she's achieved what she wanted.]

[Kouki didn't get to finish high school. Becoming a demon king and waging war tend to take priority over a typical Japanese education. But he's catching up in Luceti.]

As long you have an interest in it, any subject can be fun to learn. Probably not as much report writing, unless you want it.

I didn't mind writing reports. It was sort of a nice way to relax.

[Yes she seriously said that. What she means is that it was good to have something to focus her mind on, so that the rest of it would unwind.]

...A nice way to relax?

[Well, okay, if it's something you can enjoy writing, Kouki would understand it. But the fact remains is that she just said report writing is relaxing.

Well, it takes all kind of people.]

I guess you can do research into it and write up a topic about it.

[Oops, she said something people seem to find a bit strange. It's just how she is, really: she'd loved every bit of schoolwork.]

I've written a few things for my job back home. I haven't done it as much here, but I try to keep clear records at the clinic.

[Where 'a few things' is really her not saying 'some notable articles for prominent medical journals at the age of nineteen'.]

[Compared to Ami, Kouki doesn't share her love for schoolwork. He prefers creative activities, either in arts and crafts or music.]

Oh, a job? What kind of job is it?

[The clinic. Kouki doesn't go there a lot, because he knows better than to get hurt any more than necessary. Mostly thanks to his demonic endurance and immune system.]

I became a doctor. [Behind the tendency to downplay her achievements, there's a certain pride in having accomplished that.] That's why I wanted to do something like that here, too.

You look younger than most doctors I know.

[She seems rather young, but he should know better than to judge a person by their age.

Ami must've studied hard to to get the job she want. It almost makes him envious.]

[Youngest in her world, so the rumor went. Ami downplays that by habit and natural modesty - as well as a sharp awareness that it makes her stand out more than she'd like, to talk about things like that.]

It's just that it was something I studied for since I was very young. So I was able to focus all my hopes and all my energy on that.

That's great.

[That she get that chance to study for her dream. And it's still impressive, no matter how you look at it.]

And what kind of doctor? I know there's different fields doctors can be in.

I was training as a surgeon. [By which she means 'advising the surgeons and helping them'. Not that she minds; it feels good to be useful.]

["So does that means you get to work with people's insides?"

But he refrains from asking that, no matter how curious he is.]

Meaning you must've been in the operating room a lot. [Close enough, and it's an obvious statement.] And you never regretted it?

I definitely never regretted it. If being there could help them, then it was where I wanted to be, too.

[She's been asked before, how someone of her temperament can handle the gruesome reality of injuries and death. But if it means working to preventing those things, then she can.]

Then the world's a little better off with someone like you around.

[Fortunately, his experience with humans wasn't completely soured. It's just a matter of whether or not he'd forget his reasons for his choice.]

I was just a student before coming to Luceti, so I haven't done much in society. [In a typical sense. Not so typically, he wonders if he can even integrate himself back into Tokyo.

Some people may remember his face.]

[She's lucky herself: Back in her Tokyo, no one outside her friends, and some former enemies who are now their allies, know the depths she sank to or the crimes she committed during that time.

And she'd wondered how she could ever go back to them and fit among them, after what she did. The guilt, that's something she would know well.]

I'm not really sure it's any better because of me.

[The guilt is something she does know well; though she probably hopes the comment passes for modesty.]

[How lucky. He just hope time will make people forget, or at least their memory of his face fade away. He knew there were a lot of people who supported him in the end, after proving his actions to them.]

It might be hard to see in the long term, but in the short term, it's easier to see. Even if it doesn't, just work for it.

[It's how he justify his choice to fight.]