Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than the OCs I create.
Urakyoto – Private Greenhouse
- Souta -
Yasaka and I pass through a barrier into the clearing where the greenhouses are placed. As I step into the area, I take in the sight. My first thought is how beautiful it looks. The air is fresh, and there are quite a few Japanese camellia trees surrounding the edges of the clearing, but in the centre is a massive cedar tree that seems to be quite old, and wrapped around the tree is a shimenawa, a sacred rope usually used to mark trees inhabited by spirits or gods and to ward off evil.
As we walked further into the clearing, I spotted a woman standing near one of the 4 large greenhouses. As we got closer, she bowed towards us before Yasaka spoke up.
"Souta, this is Tsubaki, an old friend of mine. She'll be the one in charge of caring for any of the plants you provide today. She's a Furutsubaki-No-Rei (Old Camellia Spirit). That's why you'll notice a lot of camellia trees nearby. She can use them to detect intruders or use their pollen as a poison."
She has a beautiful face and long white hair; her eye colour is a vivid pink, and she wears a white yukata with red camellias printed on it.
Bowing in greeting, I say, "It's nice to meet you; thank you for agreeing to take care of the greenhouses for me."
"Oh, no worries at all. When Yasaka said she had a job for me to take care of growing some new plants, I was more than happy to do it; I even offered to let her use the area we're in now. The plants will be in good hands with me and my little helpers," she says, gesturing towards the cedar tree in the centre.
Now that we were closer to the tree, I could see a bunch of cute white humanoid creatures hopping around the base of the tree or playing in its branches.
"Aren't they cute? They're Kodama, and they'll protect the clearing as well as help with caring for the plants."
"That's amazing; Yasaka already told me she let you know about Mystic Fruits since I told her I would like to give one as a gift to the person looking after the greenhouses, you don't have to eat it if you don't like the idea of it." I say I'm a bit nervous since I'm hoping she likes it, as it would help in growing the plants quicker, allowing us to produce more.
Grabbing the mooncalf fruit out of the bag I brought with me and the note with a written description of what the fruit can do, I show it to her. The fruit in question are grapes; they are a bit larger than normal grapes and are light grey in colour with white and blue swirls on each one.
"Oh wow, Yasaka wasn't lying when she said the fruit could have unique appearances; now let's have a look here." Taking the note from me, she reads over it carefully.
"This is certainly a lot for just some fruit. If I hadn't already heard about what they could do from Yasaka, I would've thought you were trying to trick me, so yes, I'll accept. It'll be a great boost in personal power and for taking care of the plants. Even if you offered me one that made me a bug, I probably would've still said yes; this isn't an opportunity to pass up."
"And this creature, that it allows me to take the form of, I don't think I've ever heard about it," she says, suddenly popping a few grapes into her mouth.
"Ah, well, they are quite shy; they stay in their dens usually until the full moon, where they will then dance ritualistically under it. They're pretty unknown since they are quite rare and hard to find." I say give her a quick rundown on what mooncalves are, not that she'll see one unless I bring some back with me.
Now there's an idea; I could pick up some mooncalves the next time I'm there, and if they want to, I'll bring them to this clearing to live, they'll have a leader in Tsubaki, and they could help with the plants.
Yasaka's laughter brings me out of my thoughts as I see a large mooncalf trotting around Yasaka, followed by various small Kodama who must've wandered over at some point, doing what almost looks like a conga line.
"This is amazing; after eating the fruit I already have a sort of understanding of what I can do, but the best thing is that I can secrete a liquid from anywhere on my body that helps increase the growth speed for plants and makes them as healthy as possible.
Yasaka, I'll test the amount I can produce, and if we have excess, you could use it to sell to other factions in small quantities while saying it's hard to produce."
"Thank you, Tsubaki." Yasaka says, hugging her now mooncalf friend.
Transforming back to base form but still having mooncalf ears, she says, "And that dance you were telling me about that these creatures do, well, if I do it at night as well, then anything I have applied the moon-drop liquid to will gain a 0.5x boost in growth and improve what they can do by that amount, but on the full moon it becomes 2x instead."
That's insane. Dittany could already heal shallow to moderate wounds when eaten raw; a 2x boost to dittany will make it a highly sought-after healing item.
"Dittany, make the first thing you plant Dittany and use all the seeds. Once they have finished growing, gather as many seeds as you can from them for the next full moon and perform the dance then."
"Why, what's so important about this dittany plant?" Yasaka asks, confused.
"It's a plant that's able to heal shallow to moderate wounds when eaten raw, and when dried and crushed and mixed with 15 drops of salt water, it can be applied externally, providing the same healing but also regenerating the skin. I don't know what a 2x boost would do to the healing properties of dittany, but it'll be worth it to have a stock ready in case it's ever needed." I say, much to their shock.
"I'll give you both a book on the plants that are going to be grown; it'll have everything from what they need to grow to what they do. Yasaka, I know potions aren't really a thing, but I think getting a team together to start creating some would be good for the faction; they might even come up with a healing potion of their own."
Slapping her cheeks "Sorry, this is a lot to take in. A plant that can heal is a massive boon for us, and you just hand it over with the rest of the plants, only asking for a batch of each when we can provide them. It's not just this but everything else. The more you do, the more I feel like I owe you, and I feel like it will get to a point I can't provide anything for you at all until another faction swoops in with a greater offer."
"Woah, woah, hey now, sorry I didn't know I was putting so much pressure on you; I know healing is rare, and maybe I should have discussed it with you before just throwing it on the table like this. The batch of plants I get will help towards making more Mystic Fruits as well as my own uses, and if anything, you've provided a place to grow the plants, and I don't have to lift a finger to do anything, so no, you don't owe me anything.
As for leaving the faction for any other offers, I won't be doing that. I've grown to love the faction from my short amount of time being in it; the people are wonderful, and everyone tries to help each other when they can, so don't worry; if I had any issues, I'd let you know." I say, reassuring her, "I suppose with everything I've been throwing at her recently and now showing her a healing plant, she reached a limit."
"I apologise for my unstately behaviour that was unbecoming from a leader of a faction. I should've spoken to you about it in a more private setting, not gone on a tangent here. I just feel that I haven't provided you anything substantial in comparison, and I couldn't even get you full access to the vault," she says sadly.
"Yasaka, you're looking for resources for me like I asked, right?"
"That's right."
"And you've been giving me information on the supernatural and providing me training with your guards?
"Yes, I have. Why?"
"Because you have been doing things for me, and before you say that's what you're supposed to do, it's not; you don't personally have to provide me the information or let me train with your guards without even being one yourself, so you have been helping me; you just don't realise it with how worried you've been over not being able to give me something to match the Mystic Fruits, and you shouldn't have to. You and I both know how absurd the Mystic Fruits are.
I've been a part of the supernatural for more than a month now, and without your help, I'd probably be imprisoned or, worse, dead. Sure, my dad would've taught me what he knew, but he barely knows how to fight apart from the few earth spells he knows; he's more into warding than anything else, so yes, you've helped me a lot."
"Thank you. I suppose you're right, but if you have any trouble or feel like you're getting taken advantage of, please let me know." she says, finally smiling again.
"I will. Now, about the potion's idea, what can you tell me?" I say, hopefully she stops worrying now.
"Well, the idea has merit. You're wrong about potions not being a thing, though; it's just not heard about outside of the Chinese faction. They call it alchemy and have sects dedicated to the creation of pills and potions, but they are very secretive about what they can do and rarely sell to outsiders," she says, correcting my mistake.
"Do they have cultivators?" I say a little too quickly.
"Yes, I believe that's what they like to refer to themselves as, and those that have spoken to them all say they like to preach about reaching immortality," she says, not too bothered by it all.
Actual cultivators, oh, I wonder if I'll ever get to witness the young master trope. How exciting!
With both Yasaka and Tsubaki staring at me smiling for no reason, I cough into my hand and say, "So these cultivators wouldn't wish to teach us anything regarding alchemy?"
"We'll most likely get denied, and while we could offer to trade some of the plants we grow here for teaching material, they'd probably screw us over with useless books and teaching methods they don't use anymore, so it would be best to trade plants for plants or money," she says, thinking it over.
"Ok, that's fine. In the meantime, we'll just do it the old-fashioned way of trial and error. I'll keep an eye out for anything on potions or pill formulas that we can use. If we can get potions better than what the raw plants can provide, then the faction will get a better reputation from the others if we start selling them."
"But wouldn't it just be a waste of resources if it goes nowhere? Surely it would be better to just sell the raw materials instead?" Tsubaki asks.
"It would waste some resources, but with the improved growth speed, you'll most likely end up with a lot more than you realise; just keep anything that's grown on the full moon."
"He's right, this is a good chance for us; if we can start making our own potions and pills, it would do a lot for the faction. Most of the other factions treat us as someone that can be ignored, but if we have something they want, they'll be more likely to listen to us, so it's worth losing a few resources for something more." Yasaka says, agreeing with me.
"It's decided then. I'll contact you when the first batch is ready. I'll dedicate one of the warehouses to dittany only, but in the future we might need to have more warehouses built depending on how fast everything grows." Tsubaki says.
"That's fine, and thank you again for doing this for me, Tsubaki. It's really helped a lot. If there are any issues, contact me straight away. I'll have Mito sent over to guard the area and lay a few more wards if that's ok?" Yasaka says, glomping her friend in a big hug.
Laughing and hugging back, Tsubaki says, "It's nothing; you helped me out in the past; it's the least I can do, and that's fine; I'll prepare a place for Mito to rest."
Grabbing the copied herbology book that contains only the information on the plants for the seeds I currently have, and the collection of labelled seeds as well as a pair of dragonhide gloves out of my bag, I hand them over.
"This is everything you'll need; it's important to wear the gloves when handling certain plants, but you'll find all that out in the book. I've left my contact details in the back should you need me for anything regarding the plants or the Mystic Fruit; if I find more seeds I'll drop them off in the future, it was lovely meeting you."
"Same to you, and thank you, but I'm sure with the book and the fruits power, I'll have nothing to worry about with the plants." She says taking everything from my hands and passing each one to a Kodama who wanders off towards the greenhouses.
Waving goodbye, Yasaka and I make our way back out of the clearing.
[Split]
Kyoto – Dreamleaf Trader
It's been a few days since meeting Tsubaki and getting the greenhouses set up; she's sent a few messages saying everything is growing nicely and that with the current growth speed we are looking at getting the first batch delivered sooner than expected.
As for Yasaka, she's back to her usual self after stressing over everything and worrying I might leave the faction. I told her now that she knows about the extract ability, she can focus on finding unique items for me and not to worry about anything else, but after she had a conversation with Grandma Fumiko, who she met on a stroll with Kunou, I've ended up gaining a house in Urakyoto.
It was unexpected but not unwelcome; I knew I would've decided on getting one there at some point in the future; I just wasn't expecting it to happen so soon. Though after being told about the house, I ended up giving her the niffler, fairy, acromantula, and hippogriff fruits, which had her sighing and me laughing under her glare.
I didn't just hand them all over for free though; I counted the house towards the payment, but Yasaka also managed to get her hands on a wind grimoire for me, which I swiftly added to my power.
I also added all 7 years of the charms, transfiguration, and DADA books to the grimoire. At first I tried with a copy of each book, but that didn't work, so I used the originals instead, but not before testing the extract on both types of books. From the originals I gained 21x magical energy, while the copies didn't have this, so I couldn't just use any book or grimoire; I had to use one that's been saturated in magic.
With the new grimoires added, I gained the ability to have 2 out at once when I reached 5 grimoires, so with that logic, it'll be 3 at 10 and so on, and with the fruits traded to Yasaka, I have almost completed the next unlock quest.
Unlock Quest: Trade 9/10 Mystic Fruits to unlock [Mouth, What Mouth].
So far, 8 have gone to Yasaka and 1 to Dumbledore. I could've completed it, but I didn't want to give up the only purified fruit I had or the basilisk fruit since I hadn't made it yet, and the unicorn fruit wasn't something I could give to her with the risks that it came with, so I decided to just wait for now and finish it another time.
In other news, the store has been slow going these past few days. After my post about the new magic books, I had a few magicians enter the store to check them out, but they were quite rude and said I was lying about the books, even after demonstrating some of the spells, but they just claimed that it was a trick or a magical trinket I was using for the effects and stormed off. What can you do? You can't please everyone. Soon they'll realise I was telling the truth, and I'll deny them service in the future. I already had their magical signatures blocked from passing the ward line.
Magical Firewhisky was quite a hit with people, especially Yasaka; she said something about it being a really great drink for people who had a fire affinity, which got me thinking if Firewhisky was popular with people who had a high affinity for fire, what about other magical alcohols? Could they be made for the other affinities? I wrote that down on the to-do list for the future.
Other than that, today had been pretty slow; I've just been sitting here reading through the grimoires. I decided to master Earth first since it was my first affinity; it's surprisingly complex. You don't just read the spells in the grimoire and cast them to gain a mastery; instead, the grimoire tells you to understand the earth, to feel the vibrations, and to understand that while the earth can protect, feel solid, be steady, and offer support, it can also crack, crumble, and cause disasters.
It provides various meditation exercises to do like walking bare foot on the earth or putting by bare back against a bolder while cycling my energy through them.
It was the same for all the elemental grimoires; the wizard books, though they were different, simpler even, the new grimoires taught you to understand wizarding magic from the first to the seventh year, and mastery was obtained when you cast 5 non-verbal spells from a wand and created 1 new spell for each book.
*cla-cling*
Putting away the grimoire, I look up to see 2 people enter the store; both have blonde hair and blue eyes, and from what I can tell, they are siblings.
The girl was about 4'11 with shoulder-length blonde hair. She wore a sorceress-like dress that was blue. She had a large witch-style hat in the same colour that had a black bow with a yellow star attached to it at the base of the cone. She also had a matching cape with pink flowers and yellow stars dotted around it, and the final item, which she was holding, was a large staff that had a yellow crystal shaped into a star with pink and blue ribbons attached just below it.
The boy, on the other hand, was much taller; he looks to be 5'10. His hair reached just below his ears but was styled to show elegance; he also had 1 long braid on the left side that went down to his shoulder. He was wearing a black business-like suit and held himself like a noble, clearly ingrained into him over the course of his childhood. His hand rested on the hilt of a sword on his hip, which gave off a holy feeling.
"Welcome, my name is Souta, owner of this establishment. How can I help you today?"
While introducing myself, I give a quick scan of both to see their ideal Mystic Fruits. It's always interesting to see people's most compatible Mystic Fruits. It also lets me get a quick personality read from it, usually just based on the fruits offered. It's not all-knowing, so I don't rely on it completely, but it gives me something to go off at least.
[Le Fay Pendragon Ideal Mystic Fruits]
Mythical Zoan: Human-Human Fruit Model: Morgan Le Fay
Logia: Mana-Mana Fruit
Paramecia: Library-Library Fruit Model: Magic
[Arthur Pendragon Ideal Mystic Fruits]
Mythical Zoan: Human-Human Fruit Model: King Arthur
Logia: Light-Light Fruit
Paramecia: Avalon-Avalon Fruit
If I remember correctly, these 2 work with Bari Lucifer; hmm, that doesn't seem right. Ah well, maybe I'll meet him in the future.
"Hi there, I'm Le Fay, and this is my brother Arthur. A friend told me they came here to purchase books on a new type of magic. When she told me, I was super excited and had to come check it out myself." She said excitedly while skipping towards the counter.
Her brother, still as composed, just calmly walked over but kept his eye on me in case I attempted anything against his sister. Pretty intense guy; I fear for her future boyfriends.
"That's great; I'm glad people are starting to realise I'm not trying to scam them. You'll find the books on that shelf over there; feel free to browse through them but be warned: you require a wand to be able to cast any of the spells. I'm still not sure what effect a staff would have if you attempted it." I warn her gently while pointing towards the bookshelf.
"No problem, Lavi already told me about the wand, so I had one made for me before coming here," she says, pulling a wand from her hip, and like the rest of her outfit, it fit the theme; the wand used a dark brown wood, while the handle was blue, and on the back of the handle was a yellow star-shaped crystal with smaller ribbons of blue and pink.
Thanking me for letting her look at the books, she excitedly skips over to the bookshelf; her brother, on the other hand, decides to stay near the desk.
Hmm, thinking about it, I wonder if she meant Lavinia when she said Lavi. I'll have to thank her the next time I see her.
"So, I guess your sister drags you around a lot in her grand search for magical knowledge." I say, giving him a smile.
I see a noticeable upturn of his lips before he responds, "Yes, she is very dedicated to learning all the secrets magic has to offer; it is my duty to protect her as a brother and a knight."
"I guess her excitement can lead to some very interesting moments." I say with a small laugh.
With a weary sigh he says, "You would be correct; she seems to attract trouble if left alone for too long."
Seeing as he not one for small talk, he instead stands in silence waiting for his sister, which leaves me tapping at the desk wishing he'd just walk over to his sister instead of standing next to me.
An excited squeal gets our attention as Le Fay bounds over to the desk.
"It works; I'll take it all, a whole new branch of magic to learn. Oh, I can't wait; I really need to thank Lavi for this. Look, brother Lumos." After reaching the desk, she began speaking at an incredible speed before casting the wand-lighting charm before turning it off with a Nox.
"How much for all your books?" Arthur said, nodding towards the shelves.
"For each book, it is 21000 yen, or I will trade for any grimoires, unique objects like magical items, or hard-to-obtain materials. Also, Miss Le Fay, I am assuming it was Lavinia that told you about the books; if you could let her know we got a new stock of books on magical defence, it would be appreciated." I say, I finally got the DADA books put up for sale, but I renamed it to magical defence.
"Oh yes, I'll definitely let her know," she says, reaching into her bag as she begins pulling items out.
After some bartering, we all end up happy with the trade. For all the books I had on wizarding magic, for 26 books I got 252,000 yen, an orb of affinity, a brooch of shielding, a sleeping bag of resting, and 3 blank crystals that can absorb elements to attune to.
"Thank you for your purchase. Feel free to stop by in the future; I might come across more items that interest you." I say, I'm quite happy with the trade.
"We will thank you; now come on, brother, let's go quickly so I can read these," she says, dragging her brother out of the store, who thanks me with a nod before sighing and following his sister.
Watching it happen, I just let out a small laugh.
They were nice; as scary as the brother seemed, he wasn't too bad, just stoic and very protective of his sister.
*Phone ringing *
"Hello, Yasaka, what's up?"
"Hello to you too, Souta. I was wondering if you would like to join 2 of my guards in hunting down a stray devil that recently entered our area. I know you've been practising with your new power, but this will be a good way to put it to the test."
After thinking it over for a minute, I reply, "Sure, not what I expected, but it would probably be best if I got used to using it in an actual fight."
"Great, I'll send you a message with the location and who will be going with you. My guards will make sure you're safe, but please be careful; the stray devil has murdered quite a few people before making their way to Kyoto."
"I will; I'll let you know when I meet up with them. Speak to you later."
After hanging up, I sit there thinking over what I accepted. After the spider incident, I've not been in another fight other than training, so this will be a good way to test the grimoire outside of training.
Slightly nervous, I get up to prepare myself for the upcoming hunt.
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
We've set up stable materials for future potion making or maybe pill refining.
I also felt that with leading a faction and all these new and powerful things dropping into her lap, even Yasaka can get slightly stressed out since more power means more eyes from the other factions, so I wished to show that here.
We also have new faces thanks to Lavinia and an upcoming fight, which will be my first official writing for a fight, so please go easy on me, but after that, I think it's time for the upcoming world.