Chapter 3
1651 Words
A spark ignited into a raging inferno, capable of burning down anything in it's way. A small flame flickered, living its final moment. Yet, it does not die, it continues to burn, brighter and brighter until soon it is the sun itself. It's funny how a single thing can represent something so different from each other. The flames of war. The fire of warmth.
*******
Most people at night sleep. Unless you're a night dweller, like vampires. But Yukino was not a vampire and she certainly did want to sleep, but a dumb dancing book was currently crashing into her headboard making a ruckus in the middle of the night.
"What in the b****y world are you doing?" Yukino picked up her pillow and threw it at the book, expecting it to knock the book out of the air, instead the book flew out of the way and positioned itself in front of Yukino. Stopping in front of her, it opened itself as words began forming on a blank page.
Yukino stared at the words, mouth hanging. "What the…" she began. "Haha, I must be dreaming or hallucinating!" She pulled the covers over her head and started to sleep. She didn't get very far along as the book rammed into her head.
"What the hec… " her sentence got cut off as words once again began to appear.
[You are not dreaming.]
“How would you know?”
The book rammed into Yukino’s head and she instantly felt pain.
[See, you’re not dreaming.]
Yukino started at the letters on the pages of the book.
"Ha...” she let out a small disbelieving laugh, “I'm talking with a book... and the book is talking to me…"
[Technically, you’re talking to me, but I’m not talking to you.]
Yukino's eyes twitched as she stared at the words, kind of angry that she's getting roasted by a book.
"Okay then. What are you? How are you flying? Where did you appear from?" Questions after questions began to form in her head. Her mouth just did the favor of sharing them to the world.
[I’m a divine book thank you very much, I can fly because I’m a divine book, and I came from you.]
"Me? Does that mean you were inside me? That's creepy."
[Hey, hey, hey. You were the one who chose me.]
Yukino face blanked out. "Me? Choose you? When did I choose you?"
[The space.]
"The space?" Yukino has totally forgotten that she was literally taking to a flying book as questions once again started to stack up. This talk wasn't necessarily helping her poor brain either. "What space?" If the book had a face, Yukino was sure that it would be looking at her as if she was an i***t.
[The floating orbs.]
"Floating... orbs?" Yukino's eyes widened as she came to a sudden realization. "You were one of those floating orbs!"
[Yes! I was!]
"Okay uhhhhhhhhhh. Then goodnight." Yukino, not knowing how to respond decided just to go back to sleep. That of course didn't happen as the book once again rammed into her. "Ouch! You freaking hurt!"
[I’m not done talking yet!]
"What do you mean not done? What else is there to talk about?"
[Your cheats.]
"Cheats? We can talk about it tomorrow, I'm going to sleep." She again started to crawl under the blankets but the book rammed into her. Again.
[Honey, I’m not done talking yet.]
A pissed off Yukino stared at the book for a long time before saying, "Well then go on."
[Of the choices you’ve chose, there’s a weapon.]
An icy blue fan appeared on the page. Swirls leapt from the rivet, all the way up to the ribs of the fan.
"A fan? A fan?? A fan???"
[Yes. A fan.] The poor divine book wants someone else.
"That's a weapon?"
[Yes it is, and in fact it suits you very well. Once you’re strong enough, it’ll be cutting steel like butter.]
Yukino sighed whilst repeating in her head, don't judge a book by its cover. But no matter how long she chanted that, she just couldn't see how the fan could possibly cut a blade of grass! Much less steel.
[And here is another cheat, your ride.]
A beautiful icy blue chariot appeared. It was more like a carriage in the shape of a swan. The two blue birds did not look like swans. With their long tails and slender neck they looked more like a phoenix.
[See ain’t I amazing? With me around, not only will you be able to store these items in me, but I can also inform you about sooooooo many things... since you obviously don’t know anything.]
Yukino slammed the book shut. "Are you trying to promote yourself? Cause you're failing, since the sheer idea of burning you ashes is sounding more and more amazing." The book opened itself again.
[There’s more... geezes, calm down.]
"There's more?" Yukino was shedding imaginary tears as her sleep continued to slip away.
[Your magics.]
"Huh?"
The book totally ignored her as it continued.
[These are the magic that you choose. The is the first one: Future Magic.]
Under those words, pictures started forming. Blue holograms, cameras, bombs, and other security things, such as traps, lasers and a force field.
"That's pretty neat." This sentence was also ignored.
[The second one: Art Magic.]
Under those words, an animated video started playing. The artist drew a flower and soon the flower popped out of the picture, becoming real.
"That's also cool." Yukino laid on her side, her elbow resting on the bed, as her chin rested on her hand. "Is that it? Can I go to sleep now?"
[No, there are also some things I have to tell you.]
“Okay...”
[The first is a couple of buffs. One which is always having a large amount of mana.]
Yukino's nose scrunched up at the thought. "That's good..?" The book decided to ignore her once again.
[Another is pain reduction.]
Yukino's eyes flared up in happiness. "I don't like pain…"
[And quite a bit more but since they’re quite useless I’ll just tell you this, if you don’t live until 80 years of age, you will without fail be reincarnated again. Thus you must work very hard!]
"How annoying…." Yukino muttered, totally unaware she just fell right into the trap the book has set up.
If the book had a face, it would surely be smiling and laughing like a maniac. A very evil maniac.
[Also, would you like to enter my space for training?]
"Uh, yeah." Yukino answered with some hesitation.
[Please put your hand on the handprint.]
Yukino placed her hand on the handprint and immediately felt lightheaded. When she opened her eyes she saw she was in a different space.
Yukino looked around and had to say she was impressed. The space like area was not only very fascinating it was also very calming.
[We’ll first start by learning how to control your mana flow. Sit down and close your eyes, try to feel or see something, then draw it in.]
Yukino plopped onto the floor and did as the book said. Soon she began feeling warm.
[Alright, to use magic, bring out the mana in your body and form a picture in your head. In this case imagine a holographic screen.]
Yukino followed the direction and soon a hologram appeared.
[Alright, you’re actually decent at this, I thought it was going to take forever. But I’ll be honest if it weren’t for me you’ll probably be hopeless.]
Yukino's cheeks puffed out before shrugging. "Whatever you say."
[Alright, next is the art magic.]
"Well where's the paper?" Yukino looked around.
[Haha! I’m a divine book so I have unlimited paper, so I’ll spare you one.]
"Cool," Yukino totally ignored the letters that obviously was only there to promote itself, instead she stared at the piece of paper that appeared out of nowhere. "Well, what do you want me to draw?"
[Actually I recommend that you to do origami or sculptures rather than draw.]
"Too much work." Yukino went to grab the pencil that appeared when huge letters popped out in front of her.
[For drawings you need to further visualize everything into a 3D print when you make it come alive, so for origami or sculptures, that already have a 3D shape, all you have to do is inject magic into it.]
"..." Yukino said nothing as she simply dropped the pencil, which then continued to float in the air, and then grabbed the paper and started folding it. Soon she has made a crane.
[Alright, put in magic and tell it what to do.]
Yukino did as the book said and after putting her mana into the crane she told it to fly. And it did. Then Yukino told it to breathe fire. And it didn't.
[The properties of the animal and such will have to stay the same. So unless you’ve seen a crane spit out fire in your world then it won’t happen in this one, much less from something that is made of paper.]
"This is so dumb." Yukino said as the crane flew back down onto her palm.
[Try creating a camera using your holographic powers.]
Yukino created a camera.
[Merge the camera and crane together.]
Yukino struggled a bit before she finally managed to merge the camera and the crane. The crane now had a blue light with white lines running through it.
[Since the two powers combined, you can use your holographic powers to make a screen appear and it’ll show you what the crane is seeing.]
Yukino spent minutes trying to do it, with the book constantly giving out pointers. At last she had made her hologram. The screen showed what the crane was seeing, and it would have cool if Yukino was in a better mood, but the amount of time it took to make it had completely pissed her off. Not to mention she used a lot of mana and was not absolutely exhausted.
"Can I get some sleep now?" Yukino gritted through her teeth.
[Nope. We’ll always be having these lessons at night since you’ll be busy doing something else in the morning. No rest for you. Ever. Well, until you somewhat perfect your magic.]
"Can I burn you now?"
[Of course not~ Well since it’s the first day, I’ll let you off.]
The book closed and Yukino was returned to her comfy bed and immediately collapsed.
- Writer
