Katachi had stumbled upon a small house made from stone. It had been a mere 3-minute walk from where that trap was set up, but before him was a rather exquisitely-built house. Plain and simple - Those words defined the hut perfectly. With a window at the front and the side, and a small, wooden door affixed into the granite walls, it was so basic it would have been regarded as "common", and "stereotypical".
That was not enough to deter Katachi's sense of adventure.
Pushing the door open gently, he peeked into the tiny hut.
The whole room could be described in one word - Messy. The cream ceiling and orange wall, the milk carpet and pumpkin furniture would have given off a homely feeling, had the entire place not been littered with occult objects, test tubes and vials, magic circles, a fridge with too many wooden tablets hung onto it, and to his left, a study desk with a board made to allow nails to be driven into it, to secure papers onto it.
K : (Wow! This... This is a gardener's house?)
He took a few more steps into the bizarre house, admiring its unusual interior, and had almost forgotten that he was trespassing.
K : (There's so many things...! A magic circuit used for coherence, a weird circle with webbings at the center, a sword hung on the wall, a portrait of a certain Sir Phlegmius with a huge knight's sword engraved with a serpent eating a fish on the blade, a weird 3-orb gadget with a handle, a model of Pierre's Dice, there's so many things to look at, I don't even know where to begin!)
Katachi was so absorbed that he failed to notice the groceries dropping onto the floor at the doorway.
"H-HAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
(!) Katachi turned around, to meet a girl slightly taller than him, with blonde hair tied into four braids, and a bust size of Mount. Gigraceldi, donning the school's uniform.
"Who- Who are you!?"
It appears that this lady was the owner, if not a mere resident of the hut.
K : (She's the gardener!? But... That can't be right, she's wearing the same uniform as those girls inside that classroom. Maybe she's a caretaker or student of some sort? Had she been punished to stay in this place, away from everyone else? Or had she willingly chosen to stay here?)
K : (She's the gardener!? But... That can't be right, she's wearing the same uniform as those girls inside that classroom. Maybe she's a caretaker or student of some sort? Had she been punished to stay in this place, away from everyone else? Or had she willingly chosen to stay here?)
K : "I'm... I'm Katachi, I'm a new student of Sage Raufid's. My- My lesson was supposed to start tomorrow or the day after, so I just- I just... I..."
Katachi was shocked.
All his life, he had thought that Mother Rin's chest size had been the biggest he had ever seen. Mother Rin had said that a girl's chest is sensitive, and so only people they trust and permit the perusal are entitled to touching them, and that one should not indulge in the sin of lust. Having gone through such a limited education, he had come to believe that Mother Rin's chests were the biggest in existence.
K : (What in the- Those are HUGE! They don't fit her body size at all! Not even Mother Rin's were this big!... If they could come in THIS size, I wonder how big they can actually become...)
"You what?"
Katachi snapped back to consciousness. The girl before him was staring at him, seething with rage that he was staring at her chest.
K : "I... I. I just. Wandered around. T- Trap sprung. Al- Almost got killed... Found the hut, en- en- en- entered here. W- w- wasn't thinking. Cool- Cool stuff. You there. Exit... blocked..."
Since young, Katachi had lacked social interactions with the children of Mielfeud, being the ostracized bastard child and all. To be able to talk to a girl face-to-face gave rise to an uncomfortable feeling within him, even when they were 4 meters away from each other.
The fact that he was still stammering, and not frozen on the spot completely like a block of ice, was already pretty remarkable.
The fact that he was still stammering, and not frozen on the spot completely like a block of ice, was already pretty remarkable.
"Pfft! What's with you? There's no need to be this tense, it's not like I'm going- ... !"
The girl was scornfully mocking his erratic speech just a second before, but her face changed into a serious frown as she replayed his words in her head.
"... You sprang the trap?"
K : "Y-yes, I uh... I did. I touched that uh, wire thing, and these shards flew towards me."
The girl's eyes widened, and her jaw drooped in disbelief.
"... Impossible...! Those shards were infused with Vithrolu's decay magic! Your body was supposed to rot at the parts struck, and you should have no control over your rotting body!"
K : (Wha-...!!! I knew the trap wasn't that simple! It WAS a right choice protecting myself after all!) "That's really disturbing! A trap that rots bodies and kills people?! Who are you anyway!?"
The shock incited his natural instincts to defend himself.
K : (If I'm really going to die here, I'm not going down without a fight!)
Katachi bent his legs a little and bent his back, lowering his center of gravity. Should there be a surprise attack just like before, he would have to be ready to intercept every one of them.
The shock incited his natural instincts to defend himself.
K : (If I'm really going to die here, I'm not going down without a fight!)
Katachi bent his legs a little and bent his back, lowering his center of gravity. Should there be a surprise attack just like before, he would have to be ready to intercept every one of them.
*** ***
(This boy barged into my house, and now he wants to fight me... ? He doesn't seem to know who I am, though. I guess I can try to calm him down for now, until I figure out who exactly he is.)
B : "Me? I'm Bael. I'm an animationist, or, well, a reanimator if you rather that. I live here because my room mates often complain about a rotting smell coming from me, but I can't help it if I want to be proficient in my magic."
The boy wore a dumb look on his face.
K : "... You're not going to fight me?"
B : "You're in my house. If anything, I should be the one initiating the fight against a stranger like you, not the other way round."
The boy lowered his arms, and blushed at the apparent situation. He seems to have noticed that he was the one intruding, and should therefore expect to be attacked. To have let his guard down for even a slight second showed how his long his road to maturity and battle awareness was.
B : (C... Cute!..)
Bael started constructing very, very twisted thoughts in her brain.
B : (He's so... So stupid, so pure! He's like a clay doll that is still moist! Mmhmm, I want to mold him into a shape that suits me!)
Her face started to twist into a very wide, sinister smile. The boy must have noticed that because he took a few steps back in horror, when he had noticed the shifting eyebrows and lips on Bael's face.
B : "Hey, boy. What's your name?"
The boy retracted his neck further and further.
K : "... You're... not going to use my name for some voodoo spell, or anything weird, are you?"
B : "Fufufuu. I'm an animationist, not a hexer. I can't curse you even if I had your name."
The boy had finally let his guard down. Reaching out his hand slowly for a handshake, he muttered softly.
K : "... Then... Katachi. Kotsuba Katachi."
B : (... Kotsuba? That's... familiar. The structure suggests that he might have come from the far East, or maybe his parents did. Ohde, maybe?) "... Nice to meet you, Kotsuba-Katachi."
She had uttered his name in an unusually-afst fashion. Katachi's face had curled into an irritated frown upon hearing that.
K : "... You know what, just call me Katachi. I would rather you just call my name if you're not going to pause between my name and surname."
B : (His name... ! Wait, his name! I know it means something funny in Ohdean! I don't know what, but I've heard of it before!)
Bael's head brewed with a nasty idea.
B : "I have a better idea. I'll just call you 'Baka'."
K : "... Please don't call me by this name when others are around."
Bael is going to love teasing the daylights out of him.
*** ***
Katachi walked out of Cosmatral Neud and rested onto a bench right outside an archway that led to the halls. His cloth was well patched up, with a small hankerchief dyed the same color as the cloth, and some very fine stitching.
K : (What a difficult woman.)
After mocking his name for a good 10 minutes, the huge-breasted female named Bael proceeded to pour some tea for him, and they chatted for around 5 hours, with her talking excitedly about the school's history and facilities. The only thing he could have done was to tolerate and wait until her mouth ran dry, which was a bad idea in any case.
She had animated her teapots to refill her cup on an automatic basis, so even before a quarter of the way through Katachi had dozed off. The cloth on him being repaired was probably the only thing Katachi was thankful for after visiting the house, apart from the view of the interior.
Having entered the garden at around noon, he was quite shocked to realize that the sun was almost halfway down.
K : (Haa... I'll have to head back to my room. Where is it...? Oh, wait. The halls are filled with that funny magic that takes you where you want to go.)
Stepping through the archway into the inside of the school, he felt the directional magic controlling his limbs oppressively. Katachi had headed left, but the magic forced his body to turn around, and walk to his right. That would have been an uncomfortable feeling, but thankfully it was short-lived. Had one suffered that effect for long periods, one would most likely puke from dizziness.
K : (So, from the garden to my room, I would have to take a right, then a left, up the stairs, walk along the handles of the stairs, and loop over it, walk down the corridor, take a sharp right, the third room to the right. Huh. I'm not that far from my room. That might be good news.)
Entering his room, he saw a plain, classic room, with a bed and a rack with some clean uniforms already prepared, and a small, plain desk. The only odd thing about the room was that the rack had been deliberately placed above the bed, so if he had got up while in bed Katachi's head will definitely collide with the rack painfully.
On the table was a wooden tablet with his study schedule on it.
K : (... I only have classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so I guess the lesson plan is rather relaxed. I wonder if the students around have a schedule like this as well.)
Placing his sling cloth onto the table gently, Katachi walked out of his room, and only had one thought in mind.
K : (I want to bathe.)
The magic made his body turn to the left, and he started marching towards the boys' bathroom.
K : "... You're not going to fight me?"
B : "You're in my house. If anything, I should be the one initiating the fight against a stranger like you, not the other way round."
The boy lowered his arms, and blushed at the apparent situation. He seems to have noticed that he was the one intruding, and should therefore expect to be attacked. To have let his guard down for even a slight second showed how his long his road to maturity and battle awareness was.
B : (C... Cute!..)
Bael started constructing very, very twisted thoughts in her brain.
B : (He's so... So stupid, so pure! He's like a clay doll that is still moist! Mmhmm, I want to mold him into a shape that suits me!)
Her face started to twist into a very wide, sinister smile. The boy must have noticed that because he took a few steps back in horror, when he had noticed the shifting eyebrows and lips on Bael's face.
B : "Hey, boy. What's your name?"
The boy retracted his neck further and further.
K : "... You're... not going to use my name for some voodoo spell, or anything weird, are you?"
B : "Fufufuu. I'm an animationist, not a hexer. I can't curse you even if I had your name."
The boy had finally let his guard down. Reaching out his hand slowly for a handshake, he muttered softly.
K : "... Then... Katachi. Kotsuba Katachi."
B : (... Kotsuba? That's... familiar. The structure suggests that he might have come from the far East, or maybe his parents did. Ohde, maybe?) "... Nice to meet you, Kotsuba-Katachi."
She had uttered his name in an unusually-afst fashion. Katachi's face had curled into an irritated frown upon hearing that.
K : "... You know what, just call me Katachi. I would rather you just call my name if you're not going to pause between my name and surname."
B : (His name... ! Wait, his name! I know it means something funny in Ohdean! I don't know what, but I've heard of it before!)
Bael's head brewed with a nasty idea.
B : "I have a better idea. I'll just call you 'Baka'."
K : "... Please don't call me by this name when others are around."
Bael is going to love teasing the daylights out of him.
*** ***
Katachi walked out of Cosmatral Neud and rested onto a bench right outside an archway that led to the halls. His cloth was well patched up, with a small hankerchief dyed the same color as the cloth, and some very fine stitching.
K : (What a difficult woman.)
After mocking his name for a good 10 minutes, the huge-breasted female named Bael proceeded to pour some tea for him, and they chatted for around 5 hours, with her talking excitedly about the school's history and facilities. The only thing he could have done was to tolerate and wait until her mouth ran dry, which was a bad idea in any case.
She had animated her teapots to refill her cup on an automatic basis, so even before a quarter of the way through Katachi had dozed off. The cloth on him being repaired was probably the only thing Katachi was thankful for after visiting the house, apart from the view of the interior.
Having entered the garden at around noon, he was quite shocked to realize that the sun was almost halfway down.
K : (Haa... I'll have to head back to my room. Where is it...? Oh, wait. The halls are filled with that funny magic that takes you where you want to go.)
Stepping through the archway into the inside of the school, he felt the directional magic controlling his limbs oppressively. Katachi had headed left, but the magic forced his body to turn around, and walk to his right. That would have been an uncomfortable feeling, but thankfully it was short-lived. Had one suffered that effect for long periods, one would most likely puke from dizziness.
K : (So, from the garden to my room, I would have to take a right, then a left, up the stairs, walk along the handles of the stairs, and loop over it, walk down the corridor, take a sharp right, the third room to the right. Huh. I'm not that far from my room. That might be good news.)
Entering his room, he saw a plain, classic room, with a bed and a rack with some clean uniforms already prepared, and a small, plain desk. The only odd thing about the room was that the rack had been deliberately placed above the bed, so if he had got up while in bed Katachi's head will definitely collide with the rack painfully.
On the table was a wooden tablet with his study schedule on it.
K : (... I only have classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so I guess the lesson plan is rather relaxed. I wonder if the students around have a schedule like this as well.)
Placing his sling cloth onto the table gently, Katachi walked out of his room, and only had one thought in mind.
K : (I want to bathe.)
The magic made his body turn to the left, and he started marching towards the boys' bathroom.
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