GxG 15
[One Week Later (15 years old)]
Calling the last week hectic would be a massive understatement.
Between dragging out my old baby things and buying what we need for Hana, I have cut down my experimentation to near zero.
We figured out that even though Hana could consume natural energy, she still does need to eat actual food too. While it was funny watching her face scrunch up while eating that pea mash, part of me wondered if that counted as cannibalism.
I did get my mom to babysit for a few hours while I went back to my base to make some things for Hana though.
The main thing I had to do is replace the makeshift necklace I had given her. I ended up spending the whole afternoon tinkering until I was happy with the new necklace, but it was worth it.
I ended up with a small amulet based on a modified Rainbow Lotus, and absolutely covered in formations.
Protection, Tracking, emergency Healing, but the most useful for day to day life was the Illusion formation. Over the years I had tinkered here and there with illusions, and even added them to my warding matrix.
The purpose of this illusion is to simply make Hana look like my daughter, at least to the mundane eye.
Light brown hair, honey brown eyes, round off the ears so they aren't so elven, hide the markings the formations left.
I love my baby the way she is, but frankly a little disguising will make things so much easier.
It's not perfect by any means, but the amulet is more than enough for daily life.
She loved it too, her eyes didn't leave it once when I was swapping it with her old necklace.
She also chews on it a lot too, so I could just be misreading something I guess.
That leads us to now, with me walking up to Jophiel's house with Hana in my arms. Her human disguise was on, I wasn't planning on mentioning that she was a flower spirit until I understood the situation better, especially with the whole Sage thing on top of that.
No reason to lock her away though, so disguise visits it is.
Knocking on the door, I heard movement inside.
"Coming, who is it?" Marge called as she opened the door.
"It's Nathan."
"Nathan? You aren't scheduled until next week, not that you can't stop by. Who is this cutie?" Marge asked upon opening the door and seeing Hana.
"Hey Marge, this is my daughter Hana. Is Jophiel in?" Hearing the word 'daughter' made Marge's eyes almost pop out of her head.
Blankly nodding her head she moved to the side to let me in.
"Yeah, he's in the back with the kids."
"Thanks Marge!" I said as I walked past her. She was rooted where she was, probably trying to reconcile 'magic gardener Nathan' with 'teen dad Nathan'.
"Yo, Jophiel. Do you have a moment?" I called out to the Fallen as he was working on some Light magic exercises with his kids.
"Nathan? Yeah I have a moment. What's up?" He said before pausing a moment and turning back to his kids "Go run the drills we just talked about."
"Okay" "Kay, dad." They said before running off.
"So what's up kid? Who's the squirt?" He said after turning back to me and noticing Hana.
"Ehehe... This is my daughter Hana. I got her last week!" I can already tell how much fun I'm going to have telling vaguely misleading statements about my Little Flower.
Jophiel just put on this smarmy grin which I promptly ignored.
"I didn't think you had it in you, kid. Good job! What do you need me for though?"
"I need two things. First, how much would it cost for a whole set of papers for her? I'm talking birth certificate, vaccination records, and everything else backdated about half a year."
"Jeez kid, that will run a pretty penny. More than I pay you for gardening and the occasional enhanced food, that's for sure." He laid out. I pretty much expected that, but it still sucks.
"Wait really? I knew it would be a lot, but you also pay me more than petty pocket change for my services."
"Yeah, but the kind of service you're looking for isn't just adding papers to one or two locations. A full backdated creation of an identity like what you're asking for takes a lot of work to make it hold up under scrutiny."
That makes sense. Next time I'll have a kid the normal way to avoid the paperwork.
"At least that leads to the next topic. Since I have a new mouth to feed and I was already toying with expanding, I was wondering if I could rely on you to introduce me to some people needing my services. I haven't figured out flight yet, so keep it within a day's drive?" I asked bluntly. No point in beating around the bush, we live close so I'm not worried about him screwing me over.
"How much are you offering?" He is still a shark though.
"5% finder's fee flat rate." I instantly offer. It's a little steep, but it's not like I'll be starving for money if the rates are anything like he's already been paying me.
"Deal." Was all he said, and we shook on it.
After I hung around for an hour letting Hana meet Jophiel's family, she eventually got sleepy and we headed home.
[LINE BREAK]
[One Year Later (16 years old)]
"Son, what exactly am I looking at?" My dad asked with steel in his voice.
During our talks after the reveal of magic and how dangerous the world was behind the veil, I learned a lot I didn't know about my dad.
Like for instance, he was in the military. It makes sense in hindsight, he has always been very no-nonsense, but I thought that was just for his job.
Right now we were standing an hour drive outside of town in a location I had hastily warded as much as I could.
I had finally figured out how to make proper arrays while I was warding the hell out of my home, my lab and putting out advanced warning wards.
Basically, it was an application of Landscaping combined with Formations that let them feed off each other and reinforce the formations.
Anyways, one of my long distant wards pinged with something putrid heading straight towards my hometown, so I went to check on it.
What I found was a slathering monster. Open wounds, senseless roaring, misshapen limbs.
I almost put it out of its misery on reflex, but a casual senjutsu scan showed this thing had a soul. A human soul to be exact.
It was only when I found a chess piece pumping foul energy into the beast did I finally figure out what I was looking at.
A stray devil. A slave that ran away from its master, and had their contingencies activated.
I had killed before, but that was only hunting animals for food sometimes when I was out exploring or traveling for work between cities. I had never crossed the line of killing anything sentient.
So obviously I did the best thing I could. I sedated the beast on the level of its soul, warded the area to hell and back, then went to get my dad.
Thankfully Hana was napping with mom, so we had a few hours.
"I'm pretty sure this used to be a human." His shocked look would have been funny in any other scenario.
"Explain." Was all he said.
"Based on what I found inside them and what was in those books, I am pretty sure this is a runaway devil slave." I told him as neutrally as I could. Just looking at this was horrifying, but seeing it with senjutsu?
So much worse.
"A devil slave? Devils look like this?"
"No, devils look like humans, mostly. This is what happens when their slaves rebel. They get turned into mindless beasts until they are put down, usually by a passing bounty hunter following the trail of victims."
I am so thankful I haven't met any devils before. I have an inkling I would not like them.
"So this is what you were protecting us from. What you meant when you said it was dangerous." My dad looked extremely put off. He believed me when I told him it was dangerous, and even more so when I showed how strong I was.
This was his first experience with the true savagery of the moonlit world. I could not blame him for being put off.
He turned to me, steel in his eyes.
"What are you going to do with it? Put them out of their misery? Taking a life is a heavy thing, even if they are like this. I won't blame you if you ask me to do the deed." That honestly means more than he could know.
"Thanks but... I think I can heal them. I don't have much experience healing souls, but I have lots of experience from making the Rainbow Lotus I could apply and learn the rest slowly. Human experimentation is not a light topic, so I wanted at least your opinion. I don't think mom could handle this sight."
"You think you can help without causing more harm?" He asked deadly serious.
I looked him back right in the eyes.
"Yes, I think I can. Maybe not right now, but I can keep them alive and sedated until I can help them. I... don't feel that my current inexperience should be the reason I sentence a living person to death, no matter their current state."
Thank goodness I grabbed Medicine and Surgery back when I was learning all the different science fields for my motes. They should be able to mesh with Senjutsu for what I need to heal this person, at least physically.
"Alright. What do you need me to do?" Huh?
"You'll help? I thought I was doing this alone?" He just looked at me like I was stupid.
"Of course I'm helping. This is horrific." I should have expected that.
"Then I need help moving them closer to home. I can set up a heavily warded location to keep them hidden and unconscious for a long time while I work.
"Sounds good, I have a friend I can borrow a truck from, no questions asked."
"Thanks dad."
[LINE BREAK]
[Two Years Later (17 years old)]
Inhale.
Feel the world.
Feel how it moves.
Exhale.
Feel how it breathes.
Breathe with it.
Inhale.
Breathe a piece of the world in.
Feel it.
Suffer it.
Experience it.
And let it go.
Exhale.
Slowly opening my eyes, I grinned as I felt the mote slot into place.
Sage.
"Yay! Now Daddy can eat like me!" Hana said excitedly as she jumped into my lap.
Wincing slightly as that little bit of natural energy played hell with my body, I brought my hand up to pat Hana on the head.
"That's right Little Flower, I'm just like you now." The megawatt smile on her face makes this little bit of pain worth it.
I had officially taken my first step onto the Path of Nature. At this point it was just a numbers game until I could purify passively and without strain.
Over the last two years Hana has started talking, walking and growing like a little beansprout.
My mom watched her while I was at school, but other than that I was her primary caretaker.
Thankfully my mom and dad loved Hana to bits so they agreed to watch her when I went out for the various senjutsu related jobs I got through Jophiel.
It turns out there are a lot of alchemists nearby that have a lot of disposable income when it comes to improving ingredients.
I was shaken out of my reverie by two very excited little hands.
"Daddy! Watch what I can do!" Said Hana before concentrating on the grass in front of us.
I watched with fascination as a singular Rainbow Lotus grew out of our lawn before she trotted over to it, picked it, walked back to me and messily put it into my hair.
"There, now you are pretty like me!" She said as if she had turned me from a pile of mud to a shining gold statue.
"Does that mean I was ugly before? You wound me, my Little Flower." I exaggerated as I fell backwards, dragging her down with me.
We rolled around and giggled for a little while, before just laying there and watching the clouds.
Recently more and more of Hana's natural abilities have been coming in.
More than once I've walked in on her laughing herself to tears by making a tree branch wiggle.
Since having Hana dropped into my life I have cut down heavily in my general research and basically stopped my artificial Sage project.
Why study the fake when my precious Little Flower is a wellspring of Sage related information. I can try again once she's more grown and I'm more experienced.
Also, over the last year my patient has made huge strides. I've managed to get her back to a roughly humanoid shape, and isolating the Evil Piece did wonders for her health.
I still can't wake her, as her mind is still feral from the pain, but I have high hopes.
Once I isolated the Evil Piece I noticed she has a spark of something in her I think might be divinity.
I don't think she is a demi-god, but divine ancestry is not out of the picture entirely.
Either way it doesn't matter until I can heal her better.
Gregory also grew a second tail.
Somehow.
I have no idea how or why, but during one of our routine therapies he started inhaling nearby natural energy and a second tail just popped out.
Of course that lazy cat went right to sleep. Bastard.
Looking at the clouds made me think about how I only have a year left of school left before I can go out and explore.
With Hana of course, it's not like she is going to go to kindergarten like a normal child.
I'm thinking first stop Japan? I haven't seen Yasaka or Kunou in over 10 years, I wonder how they are doing.
I did get that letter from them once I started branching out my services which was basically an open invitation to visit Kyoto.
Learn what I can about Hana, learn some higher level senjutsu techniques.
Actual soul techniques are my final roadblock for my mystery patient.
Maybe getting Hana some actual friends would be good too, she hasn't been clicking well with the human children at the park.
But it doesn't matter now, laying in the sun watching clouds drift by with my Little Flower snuggled up to my side.
[LINE BREAK]
[Three Years Later (18 years old)]
"Make sure you call often, and send lots of pictures." My mother frantically said as we stood in the airport.
"Just don't do anything too stupid, and keep Hana safe." Was all my dad added.
"Of course, she's my everything." Was all I needed to reply.
Hana and I were currently boarding a plane to Kyoto, with my parents watching us go.
Gregory decided he did not want to come, something about another cat annoying him.
He has gotten scarily smart since he grew that second tail. Something is fishy, but he's still the same cat I picked up years ago so I haven't pressed him.
"Daddy I can't wait to see the clouds up close!" Hana had her priorities straight.
"Of course, that's why we got window seats, my Little Flower." I said as I bopped her nose.
She just giggled.
Looking at the clock and then at my parents, I tensed a little.
"So this is it."
"Yup, you'll do great son." That was dad.
"Bring home a cute girlfriend or 10? You've kept us waiting by diverting us to Hana, but don't think I've forgotten she needs a mother." And that's my mom.
"Yes mom, I'll do that. But seriously, we will be fine. We have a plane to catch. Say bye to grandpa and grandma Hana."
"Bye bye! Don't lose the flowers I made you!" Before we left for the airport Hana grew two really nice Rainbow lotuses, one for each of my parents.
"We would never!" Was all my mom said.
Hearing the buzzer, I knew it was time to leave. I just nodded at my parents, scooped up Hana, and walked to the gate.
Next stop, Kyoto!