Chapter 7: Chapter 6 – Akira

When Yuki opened his eyes, he found himself in an unfamiliar place. Surrounding him was a sea of green grass speckled with the bright hues of flowers that swayed softly with the light breeze. A gentle sunlight shined warmly on Yuki. In front of him was a young tree, maybe a feet or two taller than Yuki, that offered a small patch of shade to him. Amidst this picturesque scenery something stood out, contrasting from the nature around it.

 

Turning around, Yuki saw a large crystal orb that spanned two yards and floated above a ring of turquoise flowers. It resembled the magni orb from the third exam that caused him to faint This gave Yuki a clue as to where he was.

 

‘I’m dreaming aren’t I,’ he thought. ‘I didn’t know I could think of a place this nice.’

 

“You aren’t dreaming, Yuki. This place is as real as you are,” a familiar voice corrected him.

 

But the voice sounded a little different. Instead of reverberating around his mind, the sound seemed to be coming from a source. A source that sounded female and was right behind him.

 

“Then I must be a ghost right now,” Yuki replied turning around, expecting to see a woman sitting under the tree. Once he looked, he inhaled sharply.

 

In the shadow of the tree laid a large beast with three heads, a goat, a lion, and a dragon. It’s front was of a lion but the back that of a dragon and at the end a snake instead of a tail that swayed in the air. But Yuki wasn’t afraid. If anything he felt as if he knew the beast and to his eyes it was majestic and powerful. Instead, Yuki was shocked. It resembled the image of the beast that was engraved onto his arm.

 

“Oh, that would be unfortunate if that was true,” the creature said with it’s mind while showing its three pairs of teeth in what seemed to be a smile. “You aren’t afraid of me are you?”

 

Yuki laughed lightly. 

 

“No, I’m not. I was just surprised. Are you a chimaera by any chance?” He remembered seeing such a beast inside a Greek mythology book he read when he was a child.

 

“That’s correct, I am a chimaera. But I’m glad you aren’t scared of me in this form. I would have felt sad,” she said.

 

“ ‘In this form’?” Yuki asked.

 

“Yes, did you actually think I looked like this?” the chimaera giggled. “This is only a look I take on when I need scare people or fight. It’s not my normal form.”

 

After saying that, she began to glow a soft white and the outline of her body morphed into that of a human. When the light died down, a girl slightly shorter than Yuki sat under the tree, knees drawn to her chest, dressed in a white dress. She was beautiful, too beautiful to be a human. Her long dark brown hair framed a white face with two sharp hazel colored eyes that shined with confidence and intelligence. A pair of cat ears stuck out the top of her head.

 

She patted the ground left to her, and Yuki took the hint and sat next to her. Once he was settled, the girl leaned her head against his shoulder and began to talk quietly.

 

“We haven’t actually met in person, so let’s introduce ourselves.” She moved her head and looked up at Yuki.

 

“My name is Mayumi Akira,” she said with a smile.

 

“And I am Mayumi Yuki,” he said with a small smile. “We have the same last name?”

 

Akira laughed. “Of course we do. I’ve been with you since you were born and have always been aware of what was happening around you. But it wasn’t until recently that I gained enough consciousness to be aware of who I am. When I did, I knew my given name but not my family name so I adopted yours.” She poked Yuki in the chest. “I am bonded to you.”

 

“Bonded? You mean the mark on my arm, is that what it is?” Yuki asked.

 

“Yup,” she said. “That shows that we are bonded.”

 

 She pointed at her own right arm and Yuki saw the same tattoo. 

 

“But it hasn’t been completed yet. That’s why others cannot see it. And why I can’t talk to you outside of you being unconscious,” she explained.

 

“Is it because my mana wasn’t awakened yet?” Yuki said. When Akira nodded, he stopped to think for a bit before speaking again. “Do you know how to complete it?”

 

“Why? You want to talk to that badly?” she asked with a coy smile on her face.

 

“Yes,” he replied honestly. “It’s natural to want to talk to your partner.”

 

Akira smiled, clearly happy with that response.

 

Taking Yuki’s hand, Akira said, “I do know how to complete it. That’s one of the reasons why I took you here. Just push your mana to your hand and I’ll do the rest.”

 

Yuki did as he was told and felt for the warm energy that was within him. He  circulated his energy, following his instincts, to the palm that being held by Akira’s soft hand. Akira clasped it tightly, intertwining her fingers with his, and pushed her own mana. 

 

Unseen by both of them, an aura had formed around each of them and began to sprout tendrils of mana. The long threads twisted and weaved complicated patterns as they touched each other before combining to create a thick rope of mana. Yuki felt as if a hot iron was being pressed onto his arm and let out a groan of pain. He could feel the mark being burned into his arm, the pain getting stronger the thicker the bond between him and Akira got.

 

Right before the burning became unbearable, it suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a feeling of euphoria as a rush of thoughts and emotions flooded the pathway between them created by magic. There they laid, hands still together, panting from the pain and overflow of information. Yuki turned his head and looked at the girl next to him. He felt as if he knew her, as if she was a close childhood friend that he had shared all of his experiences with. Akira felt his gaze and locked eyes with him. They stayed like that for what felt like hours to Yuki.

 

Akira was the first to break the silence.

 

“There are some other things we need to talk about right now,” she said still gazing at his eyes.

 

“Alright,” Yuki replied, not moving.

 

“You probably already know but your main attribute is not fire but rather earth,” Akira said. “I altered the test so that it showed you as a fire user.”

 

Yuki sat up. “Why did you do that?” he asked. He had already guessed that he was an earth user. The call of the land had tugged on him the strongest. But he was curious as to why Akira changed the color of the crystal.

 

“It’s because earth is a very rare element. You’ll understand tomorrow,” she answered sitting up as well. “There are no humans that have an earth affinity.”

 

“So I’m a dual user then,” Yuki said.

 

Akira nodded, “Yes. I cannot fake an affinity.” 

 

“You will learn how to use fire from the instructors here, but for your main attribute there is no one there to teach you. Luckily you have me,” she said with a smile. “I’ll teach you everything I know so don’t worry. But keep what you learn here a secret, we don’t anyone finding out about you.”

 

Yuki agreed, he didn’t want attention anyway.

 

“Will you be teaching me anything else besides magic?” he asked.

 

“I can teach you how to fight as well,” she said proudly. “I also have a bunch of knowledge that I can give you.”

 

“How do you know so much if you’re the same age as me?”

 

Akira considered his question for a bit.

 

“Well, it’s because it’s a special trait of my kind I guess. I can access all the knowledge of my ancestors,” she said. “But it’s kind of like a library. I have to find the right book with the right knowledge so it can take a while before I find what I want to know.”

 

“That seems useful,” Yuki replied. He turned his gaze to the large crystal ball in front of them. “Akira-sanThey have the same last name so he uses first name, what is that?”

 

Akira turned to see what Yuki was referring too and nodded with a knowing expression on her face.

 

“That’s your Jewel of Life. It’s the center point of all of your mana and possesses all of your life’s information.” Waving at the field she said, “This whole place is a different dimension formed by your mana. As your mana capacity grows, so does this space.”

 

“Wait, wait, wait,” Yuki said while holding a hand up. “Are you telling me that I’m in another world?”

 

“Well, you can certainly think of it like that,” she replied scratching her head. “But rather than a different world it’s more like your world.”

 

“Do other people have this?” he asked.

 

“No,” she answered flatly. “Humans normally don’t have the necessary amount of mana to create a space like this. You are special.”

 

Akira changed subjects. “Anyway, back to the Jewel. If you go and touch it, you will see your information among other things. You should go check it out.”

 

Yuki stood up and walk over to the crystal, Akira following him. Up close, Yuki could see that inside the ball there was a dense fog that whirled around. Without any hesitation, he reached out and placed his hand on the sphere.

 

Before his eyes, a large translucent screen appeared that resembled a game menu. Behind it were two wooden doors labeled “Memories” and the other “Library”. In front of the doors, light red text glowed that said “Requirements Not Met”. Ignoring them, Yuki turned his attention to the screen in front of him.

 

「MAYUMI YUKI

You are reading story The Hidden World at novel35.com

   Title: None

   Class: None

   Passive Abilities: ??? , ??? , ???

   Skills: Analysis (Lv. 1) , Mental Fortitude (Lv. 2)

   Techniques:

   Magic - Elemental Magic: Fire (Lv. 0) Earth (Lv. 0)

                 Mana Manipulation (Lv. 1)

   Combat - Basic Hand to Hand Combat  (Lv. 6)

                     Intermediate Sword Arts (Lv. 1)

                     Intermediate Dagger Arts (Lv. 2)    」

 

‘So it’s a status screen,’ Yuki thought to himself. ‘But there doesn’t seem to be personal levels or physical stats.’ Yuki decided to ask Akira about the screen.

 

“That’s because this isn’t a game. It will update later to show your physical traits once you have exercised a bit. But don’t expect any numbers. In real life, it’s impossible to measure someone’s capabilities using numbers,” she answered. “Also, if you don’t mind would you be willing to show me your status? I’m curious.”

 

“I don’t mind, but how do I show you?” Yuki replied.

 

“You know how I can communicate to you through telepathy?”

 

Yuki nodded.

 

“You can do that too,” Akira said. “Just focus on that bond between us, you can feel it right?”

 

The bond between them. Yuki could feel it, how could he not. It was constantly tugging on his mind, pulling his attention to it so much that he could almost see the rope connecting him and Akira. Focusing on it was easy, and when he did he felt a rush of emotions and things that were not quite thoughts but vague imprints of thoughts. Using this, he created the image of his status screen in his mind and pushed it through the bond.

 

A gasp informed Yuki that he was successful. He looked at Akira’s face to find the reason behind the gasp and was greeted to an expression of great surprise.

 

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

 

“This was not what I was expecting,” she said, gaping a little.

 

“Is my status horrible or something?” Yuki asked confused.

 

Akira shook her head.

 

“Nope, it’s actually the opposite,” she said. With a rueful grin she added, “Your stats are very good for someone your age. It’ll be better if I explain how your status works.”

 

“Everyone has a status that they can access, humans usually see theirs with the help of a status crystal. But I already said your special so that’s why you don’t need one. Your status begins to automatically update after you have awoken your mana. If you were to look at your screen the moment you were aware of your mana, it wouldn’t show any information other than your name. But as you gain experience it will start to show skills and other things. And now we’ll talk about your status.”

 

“In your ‘skills’ category, you already have two of them,” Akira said with a slightly unfocused look. She was reading the image of Yuki’s information in her mind while speaking. “That’s already very unique as that means that your experience doing those things were enough to qualify them as a skill. Your techniques are even more impressive. Your elemental magic is level zero because you just awakened them so that’s to be expected. But to have mana manipulation already means that you subconsciously used your mana from a young age.

 

“What surprised me the most was you physical techniques. You have basic hand to hand combat which means you have experience in close combat fighting. And a lot of it for it to be level six. Then we get to your weapon techniques. The fact that you have intermediate in two different weapons is amazing.”

 

“It makes sense,” Yuki said. “I was trained in sword and knife fighting when I was a kid.” 

 

Yuki's father was what could be considered a weapon enthusiast and was a master at weapon combat. He was the one that taught Yuki and Yuki continued to practice by himself after his father's death. But Yuki had stopped a couple years ago when he had entered middle school.

 

Akira wasn’t convinced.

 

“I know, but for them to be intermediate means that you reached level ten in basic and was skilled enough for the technique to upgrade,” she explained. “On top of that you must be really skilled in fighting with a dagger for it to be level two. The amount of experience you need increases when the skill upgrades. And from intermediate and up, one must have actual talent in using that weapon otherwise it won’t level up.”

 

Yuki slowly absorbed this new information. He knew that his status was good but that wasn’t what he was expecting. From Akira’s excited voice, he understood that this was something unique that her ancestors have never seen or rarely seen. Based on Akira’s explanation of the system, it was difficult for something to be recognized as a technique or skill. One would have to be at least a decent amount of experience for it to be so. And past basic techniques or skills one would have to have real talent in order for it to level up. Yuki didn’t know the actual amount of experience that was required for a technique to upgrade or how many tiers there were but he could tell that having two intermediates was amazing.

 

“I have to hide this too, don’t I,” Yuki said with a sigh.

 

“Not you, we. Or really me because I can manipulate what is shown on status crystals and things like that,” Akira corrected him.

 

“You might need to tomorrow. I get the feeling that we will be getting status crystals,” Yuki said.

 

Akira agreed. “You probably will. Just go somewhere in the middle if you have a choice and I’ll give you a completely boring status.”

 

“That would be appreciated,” Yuki said, thanking her. “Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

 

“Are you trying to get away from me?” Akira jokingly asked.

 

Yuki smiled lightly at her reply.

 

“No, I was just thinking that it was getting late and that I would need to wake up soon,” he clarified.

 

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about that,” Akira told him. “Time here moves faster than outside. It’s really only been a couple minutes back in the real world. But your right, I don’t want to keep you here much longer. And now that our partnership is completed I can talk to you even when your awake.”

 

“Then,” Yuki said, “if there is nothing else you want to talk about I’ll be going back.”

 

Yuki stopped and thought for a little.

 

“Wait, how do I go back?” he asked.

 

“I can send you back,” Akira said. “But before you go I do have one more thing to talk with you about.”

 

Yuki nodded.

 

“About?” he asked.

 

“When I talked about hiding yourself, what I really was saying was hiding your strength,” she said. “I don’t think you should be hiding who you are.”

 

Yuki glanced at her sharply.

 

“What do you mean by that?” he said in a quiet voice.

 

“I’ve been with you since you were born. I know that you grew your hair out to cover that face of yours. That you barely washed yourself to the point that your skin was hidden by dirt. That you wear loose clothing to hide the outline of your body,” she said, her voice filled with sympathy and melancholy. “I know what you have been through to get to this point, but I don’t want you to do that anymore. I want you to accept yourself.”

 

“Who cares what the other people think!” Akira exclaimed. “I liked how you looked before. And I wish that you go back to being that. I will be here for you no matter what. Please.”

 

Yuki stood there quietly, not moving while Akira looked at him with caring eyes that pleaded to him to listen.

 

“Please. Send me back,” he asked in a whisper, looking away.

 

Akira nodded and waved her hand. As the green field around Yuki began to disappear, he spoke again.

 

“I’ll think about it,” he said quietly. “Thank you,”

 

And as the world around him disappeared, a small smile formed around his lips as he completed his sentence.

“Akira-chanYuki changes how he addresses Akira from -san to -chan. -chan is a form of endearment..”

---

Profile - Mayumi Akira

Gender - Female

Species - Chimaera

Affinity - Earth

Age - 15(?)

Height - 5’ 5” (162.6 cm) [In true form]

Description - A beautiful girl in her true form. She has white skin, brown hair, and hazel colored eyes. In place of human ears, she has a pair of feline ears. In her other form she has three heads; a goat, a lion, and a dragon. The front of her body is of a lion and the back that of a dragon. On her back she has a pair of dragon wings. In place of a tail, Akira has a viper.

(This is in the glossary. It will update there as the story progresses.)