Chapter Five

[amylan.livejournal.com]

Title: Greyscale
Author: amylan
Beta: N/A
Rating: K+
Genre: Shoujo, Fantasy
Notes/Warnings: None
Summary: There's a reason why Magical Girls are rarely grown up.
Length: 4215



Sometime after the incident with Selphi, Aya began to wonder about things – mainly, how exactly she had been brought together with Selphi so coincidentally, and how they both just happened to have magic powers, both of them seemingly based on the same principles.

Well, there was one person Aya knew that she could ask, though she would have to wash herself with acid after the call. Picking up the phone, she dialed in a familiar number.

“Hello?” came a voice speaking in English.

“It is me,” she replied in Japanese.

“Oh.” The person switched over to Japanese. “Did you need something?”

“Information,” Aya answered curtly.

“On what matter?”

“The matter of my… abilities.” Even in the privacy of her own home, Aya was reluctant to discuss her powers, and especially over a phone line. One never knew who was listening…

“Ah? What brought these questions up?” the person on the other end of the line inquired. Aya’s fingers tensed around the phone as she noted how very casual the other person seemed.

“I met a girl with similar gifts,” she responded.

“I see.” Offhand, the person added, “This line is secure, just in case you were wondering.”

“…All right, then.”

“Hm… Would I be right in assuming that the girl that you met has power over either water or air?”

“…Water.”

“That’s what I expected…” The voice trailed off, seeming to be sinking into thought. “You may not realize this, but there are numerous magic users in the world, Aya. Some of them learn their abilities through traditions passed down through their families, some are born with their gifts and are trained to use their gift properly, and then there are those that are like you.”

“Those that are like me… You mean, those that are like us,” Aya corrected.

“…I suppose so. Neither of us were taught our magic, nor were we born with it,” the voice continued. “We were given our magic by a higher power, and we were not the only ones.”

“Then the girl is another that was given her magic,” the blonde concluded. She tugged on her hair as she absorbed the information.

“It’s a likely situation, especially considering that you two have met and become partners.”

“I did not say that we had become partners,” was the cool reply.

“If she’s a water witch, then you two are partners,” was the answer. “That’s how it always is, at least at first.”

Pushing away the question of what her father meant by, “At first,” she asked a more pertinent one. “Are there any others that I should be aware of?”

“There are six total. Water, fire – you know who those two are, obviously – air, earth, dark, and light.” There was a long pause before he said soberly, ‘You know who the light witch is, also.”

“Of course.” The Arctic was warmer than her tone.

“Yes, well…”

“Is there any particular reason why all of the elements are from the Western elements instead of the Chinese ones?” Aya asked, changing subjects.

“Not as far as I know, but someone’s bound to figure out why sooner or later,” the person responded. “In any case… Out of the six, light and air are both out of the country, and the other four are in Kyoto. So I’ve been told, anyway.”

“I see.” Aya thought that over. If the information was true, then that meant the earth witch and the dark witch were both in Kyoto.

“All of the witches – or wizards, whichever the case may be – are eventually drawn to Five Mountains Academy,” the person continued. “It’s likely that if you want to look for the remaining two, you should look at the students there.”

“Thank you for the information,” Aya said. “I suppose that Mother will call you later.”

“Most likely. Keep yourself safe, Aya.” With that, the other person hung up.

Hanging up the phone as well, Aya thought over the information that she had gained and continued her train of thought from before. If only the dark and earth witches were left to be found, and they were most likely attending Five Mountains Academy…

Well, Miss Yamino’s powers certainly would qualify her as a ‘dark’ witch, the blonde thought to herself. She can cast curses and her affinity for the art of using straw dolls… Yes, it would seem that Miss Yamino is the dark witch. Which only leaves the earth witch to puzzle out.

She continued to ponder over the matter. If I didn’t know better, then I would say that Miss Aomori was the earth witch, but having learned more about her family background, it would seem that her talents lie only within the traditional skills of her clan – that is, the art of exorcising and binding or sealing spirits. Any person with spiritual abilities can learn those, so…

Who is the earth witch?

***

“What are you talking about now?” Selphi asked, picking over her lunch and crinkling her nose. “Ugh. Bean cakes. Want some?” She held out some of the bean cakes to her partner.

Aya waved the pastries off impatiently. “I spoke with a contact and they told me that there are at least four other magic users, besides ourselves, that have powers like ours.”

Selphi stared at the other girl. “Yeah, I know that already. Where have you been?”

The blonde started, then hissed, “What do you mean, ‘I know that already’? How do you know that already?”

The American shrugged. “My predecessor told me, of course.” With a sly smile, she added, “Isn’t that who informed you?’

“Stop acting like you know everything. It’s annoying and infuriating,” Aya warned the other girl. “Though… If you do know everything, I suppose you know the identities of the other four?”

“I know three out of four of ‘em, yeah,” Selphi replied, starting to eat her spicy noodles. “I met them personally, as a matter of fact.”

“Are the earth and dark witches here at this school then?” Aya asked impatiently. At Selphi’s responding nod, she made her guess. “Is the dark witch Miss Yamino?”

Selphi looked the other girl over carefully, then grinned. “As a matter of fact, she is. Reasoned it out, did you?” she continued, slurping up her noodles again.

“It was not that hard to deduce,” Aya replied with not a little bit of pride in her voice. “Miss Yamino is the only person at this school that I am aware of having magical abilities, besides we two. Not only that, but her abilities seem to be based on the darker side of magic, given that they are based on giving people various diseases and the like. She was the natural conclusion.”

“And Ami-chan is just chopped liver?” the brunette asked with a grin. “I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear that…”

“Miss Aomori’s abilities are not magical,” Aya snapped, sounding as though she were being forced to explain something to an exceedingly slow-minded child. “Her abilities are solely based on the spiritual abilities granted by her clan’s bloodline and the skills that she was taught as an onymouji. She has yet to display any sort of power that would qualify her as being one of the witches, or even a magic user.”

“Well, I would say that spiritual abilities do count as a sort of magic,” Selphi pointed out.

“Be that as it may, her abilities are not the sort of magic that I am referring to.”

“I suppose so.” Selphi stared into space for a moment, then nodded. “You’re right. As far as anything can be said, Ami-chan hasn’t shown any earth-type abilities.” Then she smiled slightly, as though she were thinking of a private joke.

“Something funny?”

“Not at all… So, do you have any speculations over who the earth witch is?”

“Not at the moment,” Aya admitted. “I have not seen any evidence that anyone else at Five Mountains can use magic… But then again, I suppose that you know differently, don’t you, Miss Waters?” The sentence was punctuated with a cool glare in Selphi’s direction, which the brunette promptly ignored.

“I might, yeah,” she agreed casually, changing her focus from the noodles to some slices of pork chops – leftovers from the previous night’s dinner.

“And I suppose you have decided not to enlighten me?”

“Not at all,” was the cheerful response. “No point in giving the game away before it’s even half over, right?”

“…I think you just mixed more metaphors than I care to count.”

“I probably did.”

Eyeing the other girl, Aya pointed out,” What if the earth witch is a danger? She may be like Miss Yamino, and only using her abilities for her own personal gain.”

Selphi hadn’t even waited for the sentence to be half-finished before she started shaking her head. “No, no, she’s not the type to do that. In fact, I’d say that she’d do something like seal herself into a cave before she tried to do whatever it is that you’re trying to suggest.”

There was an audible growl from the blonde. “Miss Waters…”

“Aya-chan, instead of trying to find out who this mysterious witch is, why don’t you try turning your deductible abilities to finding the identity of this new murderer?” Selphi suggested. “It looks like this one has the same MO as Mr. Tanaka, so it could be that we have another incubus on our hands.”

“I highly doubt that,” Aya replied, packing up her lunch. If her partner wasn’t going to listen to her, then Aya found no reason to waste the rest of her lunch period with the stubborn woman.

“Why’s that?”

The blonde stood and started stalking off through the brush. “Because incubi do not attack men.”

***

“If that girl is going to be useless, then I will just have to take matters into my own hands,” the blonde muttered as she made her way up the steps to Stone Fox temple. “Miss Waters said that they had several seers here – at least one of them should be useful to me.”

“What’re ya doin’, standin’ over there and mutterin’ to yerself, Arashi?” a familiar voice intruded into Aya’s reverie.

She sighed and, without looking, replied, “I’m in need of the services of this temple, Miss Aomori. I don’t suppose that you could direct me to a quality seer, could you?”

Ami slowly walked over. “I might. Depends on what yer goin’ ta be lookin’ for, though,” she answered, her words coming out as being carefully measured.

“And why is that?”

“Because when Waters decided t’ use one of our seers, she ignored me when I told her not t’ push him too hard. He’s our best one and if yer goin’ ta be using him, ya better not be pushin’ him more than’s healthy,” Ami replied.

“If what I seek is not easy for him to find, then as far as I am concerned, he is an inferior-quality seer and I will seek elsewhere to find what I need,’ Aya said evenly. “Perhaps the main family will be of assistance.”

Aya didn’t miss the look of irritation that crossed over Ami’s face. “Come on, then,” the blue-haired girl said, starting to stalk off. “I’ll take ya to Ayumu.”

A few minutes later, Aya was situating herself in front of the same boy seer that Selphi had found herself in front of just a few months ago. “My sister tells me that you seek something,” Ayumu said.

Aya nodded. “There is a…magician that I need to find,” she said.

“Do you have a name?”

“Only an identity… And an idea of what sort of magical energy she exudes.”

Ayumu was deep in thought for a moment. “I think that I can help you. Clear your mind and focus on the information that you seek,” he instructed before closing his own eyes. Aya closed her eyes, and for a few minutes, the only things to be heard in the room were the sounds of their breathing.

“Yes…” Ayumu murmured. “I can sense the location… The person that you are looking for is very close by.” After another few moments, he added, “The person that you are looking for is—“

“Arashi!”

Two pairs of eyes snapped open at the sound of Ami yelling. The door was thrown open and the onmyouji stood in the doorway.

“What is it?” Aya asked, sounding annoyed.

“’Lo, Aya-chan~” Selphi sang out from somewhere behind Ami.

The blue-haired girl rolled her eyes. “Waters came and said that you were violatin’ rules or something like that.”

“She’s cheating by trying to get help from you guys!” Selphi called out.

“Right.” Ami looked briefly over where Aya presumed Selphi was, then back at Aya and Ayumu. “In any case, this readin’’s over. Sorry for the inconvenience, but Waters brought up a good enough point to me and I’ll have to ask that ya cancel this.”

“Awww, big sis,” Ayumu whined. “I was just about ta tell, too!”

“I know,” Ami replied. “Thanks for yer time, Arashi, and sorry about all this.” She turned and walked away, allowing Selphi to spring into her place.

“Come on, Aya-chan~” The American sang out. “You skipped your cram school today and your mom’s real pissed off now,” she added with a grin so wide it was almost obscene.

“You told my mother?” Aya glared at the other girl. “You… meddling… No one asked you to interfere!”

“Yes, but interfere I did, so deal with it,” Selphi waved off. “Besides, your mother has a right to know where the hell you are, doesn’t she?”

Aya continued to glower at the other girl until she had moved out of the doorway and out of sight. With a quick bow and a muttered thanks to Ayumu, Aya soon left the room and began to follow Selphi.

Then it hit her. “Miss Aomori!”

From seemingly out of nowhere, Ami appeared close by. “Yeah?”

“You are the earth witch, aren’t you?” Aya demanded.

Ami and Selphi exchanged looks. “Well, she had to figure it out eventually,” Selphi said with a shrug. “And it’s not like we’re being especially subtle about this whole thing.”

“Point taken.” Turning back to the blonde, Ami said, “Yeah, I’m the earth… witch. Whatever. It’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big…” Ami and Selphi eyed the livid blonde and began backing away. “Not a big deal?! You could have helped us this entire time and instead you have chosen to be lazy and just stay on this hill for all this time?!”

“I quit a long time ago,” Ami said simply, disappearing again.

“Wha—“ Aya stalked after the other girl, only to find that she was nowhere in sight. “Miss Waters…”

Selphi held up her hands defensively. “Hey, I talked to her about and I respect her choice. Don’t try dragging me into another argument, all right?”

“Have you two just been conspiring against me this entire time?”

“Oh, cool it,” Selphi responded with a sigh. “It’s not like that. She’s pretty useful, even if she did quit, and she was pretty sure that if you found out about her, you’d try and force her back to work – which, from what I’ve seen, wasn’t very far off from what you’re doing now.” She crossed her arms and gave Aya an odd look. “So we agreed that she’d pass information on to me as long as I kept my mouth shut about her.”

With a laugh, she continued, “Of course, I forgot to take into account that you’re stubborn as all hell when you want something – and that’s not a compliment, by the way. It’s not an insult, but it’s not a compliment.” There was a pause. “Where was I?”

“How my stubbornness has anything to do with you keeping secrets,” Aya prompted.

“Ah. Thank you. Yes, well, I didn’t think that you were going to run and come here to find out answers – which is cheating as far as I’m concerned, but it’s not like you care about my opinion anyway and at least you’re resourceful – so I only had a short amount of time to warn Ami about the whole thing.”

“How did you even know that I was here?” Aya asked.

With a slight grin, Selphi pointed at her head. “You-know-who was awake and pointed out that if I was going to find someone by coming over here, it wasn’t really a stretch to think that you’d try the same thing, especially since I told you about the whole thing and you researched the Aomori family and all that…”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Aya interrupted, waving her hand dismissively. “In any case, once I came here and started the reading, there was really nothing that you could have done to stop it without arousing some suspicion.”

“Yep.” The American nodded. “But we did what we could. Didn’t have much hope for whatever was going to happen, but we didn’t really have much hope.”

“And now what are you going to do?”

With a shrug, Selphi replied, “What we were going to do anyway. Ami’s bound to have to join up again eventually, and she and I have a fight scheduled some time soon.”

“A fight?” Aya’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“Just a sparring match, Aya-chan, no need to fret,” Selphi replied cheerfully. “We’re just going to have a little match to see which of us is stronger and that’s all.”

“I see.” There was a long silence. “I do not suppose you would like a sparring partner to practice for your… sparring match.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Selphi replied with a grin. “Ami-chan probably has a lot more time to practice her magic than I do – if she practices, anyway. I could use the help.”

Aya nodded. “Very well, then.”

***

“Hyah!”

Aya crouched low, her staff held between her hands to block Selphi’s axe-kick. Moving quickly, she tilted the staff, forcing Selphi’s leg to the side, then swinging it up to smack Selphi between the legs.

Selphi grimaced, backing away painfully. “I’m not a guy, remember?”

“It is still a painful place to be hit,” Aya replied sharply, taking hold of one end of the staff and beginning to take swings at the other girl, keeping her distance.

Selphi easily dodged each swing, even as the staff began lengthening again. “Where did you get that thing, anyway?” she asked. “It’s not exactly something that you can just buy at any old weapons shop, I’m betting.”

“It was given to me,” Aya replied. She grabbed the staff near the center like a pool cue, and, keeping her weapon lengthened, began rapidly jabbing at the other girl.

“Given to you?” Selphi spun around, as though she were a ballerina. “By who?”

“My predecessor.” Aiming carefully, she finally managed to jab Selphi hard in the ribs. The other girl hopped away, rubbing where she had been hit, though showing no other signs of pain. “And what about you?” Aya asked, watching as Selphi moved her hand within her sweater to continue rubbing at the injury, though still avoiding the blows. “Why are you not using your magic? That is the whole point of this exercise, isn’t it?”

“You aren’t using yours either,” Selphi pointed out.

In return, Aya pulled her hand back and curled her fingers up, as though holding something between them. A set of shurikens made of fire appeared and she flung them at the American.

Selphi spun and avoided them once more. “Your throwing technique is awful,” she commented. She finally removed her hand from her sweater, a set of throwing knives caught between her fingers. “This is how you should do it,” she finished with a giggle, tossing one knife.

Aya easily hopped out of the way, but a moment later felt burning pains in the arm closer to Selphi. “You’re right-handed, right?” the American asked conversationally.

The blonde grimaced, pulling the knives out of her arm and beginning to heal them with a blue flame. In the meantime, her arm was useless.

“As you said, I don’t use my magic very often,” Selphi confirmed. She somersaulted over and began kicking at the other girl, walking on her hands. “It’s for two very good reasons.”

“And those would be?” Aya avoided the kicks as well as she could, but still caught one under the chin. As she fell to the ground, Selphi spun on her hands and caught Aya in the side with crushing force, kicking her into a tree.

“Number one – my magic is mostly defensive,” Selphi replied, flipping back onto her feet and waiting for Aya to recover. “No point in using magic to attack if I don’t have it, you know? And number two – my magic levels are constantly changing.”

“They what?” Both of Aya’s arms were now wrapped around her midsection, healing any bruises or potentially cracked ribs.

“Well, it’s nothing you have to worry about because you’re the fire… witch. User. Person,” Selphi began, “But since I’m the water user, I’m not as lucky, because what does water do when it’s outside?”

Aya shot the other girl a look that told her to get to the point. “It evaporates. My magic levels are based on how much energy I absorb from the water around me, and while I can absorb energy from the water in the air, the sun can easily make me lose energy. So can just being on the ground,” she added nonchalantly, hopping and making certain that her feet impacted to ground hard to make her point clear. “So, really, just using magic carelessly isn’t any good. I have to conserve it and wait for the opportune moment.”

“And when would that be?” Her ribs were almost healed now… Aya glanced briefly at her staff, lying on the ground some distance away, and then back at Selphi, who was staring up at the sky above. It wouldn’t be hard to just slip over and grab her weapon…

“Nighttime and monsoon or winter seasons,” Selphi replied cheerfully. “Lots and lots of water around, though changing the snow into water is pretty exhausting…”

Aya pounced, landing next to her weapon. Grabbing it and swinging it around, she found herself suddenly pinned to the ground with a series of very, very sharp icicles surrounding her entire body.

“Well, I might not have too many attack spells, but waste not want not, huh?” Selphi said with her usual grin.

“Ha ha,” Aya replied dryly, wiggling. “Release me.”

“Nope!”

“…What.”

“Well, I think that I’m about ready for Ami-chan now, and it’s funny as all hell seeing you pinned to the ground and helpless.” Nodding to herself, she turned away and began to walk off. “Don’t worry, I’ll let the servants know where you are!”

“Miss Waters, get back here! Miss Waters? …Selphi!”

***

The entire day after, Aya completely ignored Selphi, which seemed to greatly amused the other girl because she had her unstoppable grin on her face. Still, it couldn’t be certain, especially considering that she almost always had that grin on her face anyway.

Still, the blonde couldn’t help but feel some concern for the other girl. That day was the day of the fight, and there was no telling how it would go over. Selphi was a more than competent fighter, that was certain, but Aya had no idea of Ami’s capabilities.

Her pride refused to allow her to speak to the American, though, not even to wish her good luck. She went through the motions at school, she left, and she went to her cram school.
And yet her pride still allowed her to call up the other girl late that night. “Hello?” a heavily-accented male voice came through the phone. He was speaking English.

“Hello,” Aya replied in Japanese, “My name is Aya Arashi. Is Selphi Waters there?”

“No speak Japanese,” the man replied. “Talk to someone else.” There was the sound of someone slamming the phone down, and Aya stared at hers as it emitted a dial tone. Pursing her lips, she redialed.

“Hello?” This time it was Selphi’s voice. She sounded tired.

“Miss Waters, It is Aya Arashi,” Aya said. “Did you win the bout?”

“Well, I’m alive, so I’m pretty sure that’s a yes,” Selphi replied easily. “We decided to make the stakes a little higher to make things interesting, so it was a fight to the death.”

There was a long silence. “You killed Miss Aomori?!”

“Easy, easy,” Selphi replied. There was a quiet mutter of something that sounded like ‘ow, my ears’, then, “She’s not dead, as far as I know. I left her in a position where it was pretty likely, but I don’t think she’s actually dead.”

“Then what did you do?”

“Water bubble!” Selphi answered. “I covered her head with water. Like I said, it’s not guaranteed that she’s dead, but it’s still a fairly likely possibility.”

“How is that only ‘fairly likely’?” Aya hissed. “How could she survive that?”

Selphi replied, “As an earth user, she can manipulate minerals that would react with the water and use it up. Hence, she could easily have survived the whole thing.”

“Whatever.” Shaking her head, she added, “I have some ideas on our latest target. I will speak with you about it tomorrow.”

“Sounds fair,” Selphi said with a muffled yawn. “Night.”