Work Text:
The steam rises from the mug in Yachi’s hand, swirling in the early morning sunlight flowing in through the window. She closes her eyes as she takes a sip of the tea, letting the warmth of it spread from her chest to her fingertips.
A loud bang breaks through the silence, shattering the moment. Yachi places the mug gently on the table. Another two bangs sound, creating ripples in her tea.
Yachi springs to her feet. The banging continues. She bolts across the room, flying down the stairs. Her fuzzy socks almost cause her to slip on the second to last step, but she lands with both her feet on the floor. A muffled shout is coming from outside.
Yachi stops. Through the glass window a man’s face is visible. An unfamiliar face. He has a buzzcut and a panicked look on his face. A strange man is banging on the door. Yachi looks around the room. She grabs the nearest object, a broom, just in case.
She meets the pleading eyes of the stranger through the glass. Her grip on the broom softens.
“Help!” he shouts, “please” follows a second later.
Yachi walks to the door and unlocks it. The man nearly falls into the shop. He takes a few stumbling steps in.
“Can you help me?” He all but begs. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him.” His voice breaks on the word “wrong.” Only then does Yachi notice the other man slung over the stranger’s shoulders.
“Yes,” Yachi answers before she can think.
“I mean… We can… Kiyoko will…” she continues once her brain catches up.
The stranger looks at her with drawn together brows.
“OH!” Yachi jumps up “you can put him on the worktable.” She runs to the other end of the shop and starts clearing their worktable. Most of the things just end up on the floor.
In the end she stands with a book in her hands turning between the table and a bookshelf but never really deciding on where to put it.
The stranger eases his friend or traveling partner onto the table. Yachi watches as he cradles his friend’s head and gently places it on the table.
He whispers something in the other man’s ear. Yachi can’t hear what, and somehow trying to overhear this seems wrong.
The stranger straightens and Yachi finally looks at him. He’s somewhat tall, his hair shaved in a buzz cut and his skin suntanned.
He is about to speak when Yachi interrupts him.
“One moment” she says, now clutching the book in her arms.
She opens the top half of the back door, leans out and yells, with seemingly her whole body.
“Shimizu!” the sounds echo out through the garden and the thicket beyond.
She leans back in, cheeks red.
“She should be here in a second,” she explains to the stranger.
“Are you not the witch?” The stranger looks at her intently.
“I am” she straightens her back just a little, “Yachi Hitoka.”
“Tanaka Ryunosuke” the stranger replies, “Ennoshita Chikara” he says with a pained look aimed at the man on the table.
A crack, like a lightning bolt strike, interrupts the conversation.
“Shimizu” the young witch exclaims, her face lighting up.
“Hitoka” she replies, “what’s wrong?” her eyes search Yachi’s face for any clues.
“We have customers…” Yachi trails off “or guests?” she continues “anyway, they need our help” she concludes, motioning to the two men in the room.
Kiyoko turns to face them. Yachi repeats their names for her.
“What happened?” Kiyoko addresses this question to Tanaka.
“I don’t know,” he says with a sigh. “He’s been like this for days and before that he started getting more and more tired and now, I can’t wake him up” his shoulders sag.
“I have tried everything,” Tanaka continues.
“At first I thought he just needed to rest, we’ve traveled a lot, but that didn’t help and then it got harder and harder to wake him up,” Tanaka takes a deep breath, “and now I can’t.”
Yachi gently guides Tanaka onto one of the chairs by the worktable. She grabs a cup of tea seemingly out of nowhere and places it in his hands. Tanaka grabs the mug with both hands.
Kiyoko steps over to her large bookshelf, running her fingers idly over the spines. She takes a few of them out and leafs through them at a leisurely pace.
“I have really tried everything,” he repeats. It seems that once the words started coming, he couldn’t stop them again.
“Even when he was still awake, we went to healers, mages, witches” he looks up at Yachi pleadingly.
“I even considered trying to contact the fae, but Chikara was so against it” Tanaka places one hand on Ennoshita’s arm.
“So, I never did and everyone I’ve met in the last few days have said to come here” he finally stops talking.
Yachi places a hand on his back.
“Kiyoko will figure something out” she says softly “I’m sure of it, now drink the tea.”
Yachi leaves her place next to Tanaka and goes to her worktable.
Kiyoko has stopped leafing through her book, seemingly finding what she was looking for. She stands at the head of the table, holds a hand over Ennoshita and starts chanting quietly. A faint golden glow spreads over Ennoshita’s body. The glow pulses and for a brief second it turns purple before disappearing.
“What does that mean?” Tanaka asks. His eyes flick between Kiyoko and Ennoshita.
“I’m not really sure to be honest with you” Kiyoko answers, already looking through a new book.
“But Hitoka and I will figure it out” she adds.
“Why don’t you go upstairs and rest for a bit?” Yachi asks Tanaka. At the sight of his hesitation, she continues “we’ll take good care of him, and tell you if there’s anything to tell, I promise.”
Tanaka nods and Yachi leads him carefully upstairs to a couch, where he immediately falls asleep.
“Poor man probably hasn’t slept since this started” Yachi tells Kiyoko as she comes back downstairs.
“So, what’s really with the purple glow?” Yachi asks. She walks over to stand next to Kiyoko, leaning against her while Kiyoko reads on.
“It just means that the root cause is magical” Kiyoko explains, “but it doesn’t get more specific, so I don’t know how much it helps us.” She sighs and puts down the book.
“I’m sure you have something in all of your books that will help us” Yachi reassures her, “I’ll look in my stuff too and see if I have any ideas” she continues.
Yachi leaves Kiyoko’s side to go over to her worktable. The silence fills the room as each woman works on her own project. Kiyoko sits down but still hunched over a book.
Yachi pulls several containers full of herbs, flowers and other ingredients from various shelves.
Kiyoko flicks her hand over her head and from somewhere in the room gentle piano music starts playing.
“Thank you” Yachi says to her.
The two of them work for hours, the music changing from song to song being the only thing that notes the passing of time. Yachi occasionally checks on Ennoshita but nothing changes.
Tanaka wakes up at some point and joins them downstairs.
The pained look on his face stays as he takes his place on a chair next to Ennoshita.
Yach adds some ingredients to her pestle and mortar, the rhythmic mashing blends into the soft piano sounds. She adds a glittering liquid to the powder in the pestle, turning it into a malleable past. Yachi forms the wet paste into a seedlike shape and carries it in a shallow bowl over to Kiyoko.
“Do you think you could dry this for me?” Yachi puts the bowl on Kiyoko’s table.
“Just enough so I can light it” she explains, “and only if that won’t interfere with anything you were planning to do.”
Kiyoko swirls her hand over the seedlike shape and mutters something under her breath, with another motion of her hand she draws the moisture out of it. The water evaporates and forms a small cloud, with a flick of Kiyoko’s hand the cloud disappears in a shower of glitter.
Kiyoko puts her book down and turns to Yachi.
“What are we hoping this does?” Kiyoko asks.
Yachi steps closer to Kiyoko, standing in front of her with their knees touching.
“I’ve mixed together two remedies but none of the ingredients counteract each other so it should be fine” Yachi says. Kiyoko takes one of Yachi’s hands and entwines their fingers.
“The first one is just to clear the body of any sickness that is of this plane, but since we think the cause is magical it probably won’t do anything” Yachi talks on, “the second one is against curses, it should clear most of the garden variety ones and if it’s anything more complicated it should at least alert us to it.”
“Okay, so we just light it?” Kiyoko waits for Yachi to confirm the next step, before snapping her fingers and setting the concoction alight.
The two women simply watch for a few seconds before delicate tendrils of smoke snake into the air.
Yachi gently untangles their hands and carries the smoking bowl over to Ennoshita. She cradles the bowl gently in both her hands as she walks around the table and Ennoshita.
On the third time around the smoke hangs in the air, forming a circle over Ennoshita. As she closes the circle and ends at his head, she places the bowl on the right side of his face. The smoke floats gently from the bowl up into the air.
“It shouldn’t take more than half an hour but if there’s anything you want to try in the meantime, it should be fine, we just need to not disturb the smoke” Yachi trails off, her eyes still focused on the smoke.
Yachi takes a seat on a chair next to Tanaka, close to Ennoshita.
“How will you know if it’s working?” He whispers.
“The smoke will tell me,” Yachi answers, “it can change colour or fall down closer, but it will disappear when it can’t do anymore.”
“And if it doesn’t do anything?” Tanaka asks.
“We’ll try something else,” Yachi answers earnestly.
Tanaka doesn’t answer just turns his attention fully back to Ennoshita.
The next half hour passes slowly. The smoke finally stops rising from the bowl leaving only the ring in the air. The smoke ring darkens to a near black before suddenly dissipating.
Yachi flies out of her chair. The chair gets pushed back with a screech. She hurries over to open a window, the door and yet another window.
Once again, she moves over next to Kiyoko.
“This is really bad” she whispers, “I think we need to get Tanaka out of here.”
Kiyoko nods.
“Maybe we should get Daichi to come and get him?” Yachi whispers.
“I’ll send him a message,” Kiyoko replies.
Yach returns to her own workstation and tries to send Tanaka what she hopes is a reassuring smile. He looks at her with scrunched brows.
“One of our friends will come and take you to his place while we work,” Kiyoko says interrupting the wordless exchange.
“I want to stay here with him” Tanaka replies.
“We understand that, but it will be easier for us to work if you stay somewhere else.” Kiyoko says with as much authority she can muster.
Tanaka opens his mouth to try and argue his case, but Kiyoko sends him one look and he says nothing.
The following silence is heavy. Tanaka avoids making eye contact with either of the women and instead just sits and holds Ennoshita’s hand. From time to time, he’ll whisper encouraging words to him. The two women each focus on their own books, sharing glances occasionally.
The bell above the door rings and the silence is broken by the soft sound of a man’s voice.
“Hey, heard you needed a babysitter?” The newcomer says.
“Daichi!” Yachi hisses and nods her head towards Tanaka.
“Ah, sorry” Daichi rubs the back of his neck, “I’m Sawamura Daichi” he sticks his hand out for Tanaka to shake.
Tanaka takes his hand tentatively and mumbles “Tanaka Ryunosuke.”
“Let’s go and leave them to it” Daichi says and slings an arm around Tanaka’s shoulders and drags him out.
“How bad?” Kiyoko asks the second the door shuts behind the two men.
“It’s like he’s not fully here” Yachi says, rummaging through her drawers, finally she pulls out a mirror. She turns around and grabs a bottle from a shelf.
“Can you turn the mirror into a portal with this?” Yachi hands both things to Kiyoko.
Kiyoko lays the mirror on the table and coats her fingers with the oil. She carefully draws on the mirror’s surface while chanting quietly. When she lifts her hands, the mirror disappears leaving a shimmering see-through film instead. Yachi takes the mirror from the table and holds it out in front of them framing Ennoshita in the middle of the oval.
Not quite over, but halfway out of Ennoshita’s body hovers a dark green, glittering shadow version of him. The shadow has no real features but the outline of it is the same as Ennoshita’s body.
Yachi starts to walk towards him, but Kiyoko reaches out a hand to stop her.
“I don’t think you should touch him” she warns.
“You know what it is?” Yachi asks, as she takes a few careful steps forward.
“The Fae” Kiyoko simply replies, “his soul is slowly being ripped to their realm.”
The statement lands like a bomb. Yachi retreats to Kiyoko’s side, the mirror now hanging down her side. Yachi leans into Kiyoko’s side. Kiyoko wraps an arm Yachi’s shoulders and pulls her closer.
“I don’t know what to do” Yachi whispers, “I know we shouldn’t touch fae magic in any way, but we have to try and save him, right?” she continues.
“I’ll try a grounding spell” Kiyoko replies, “but after that we need to sleep.”
“But –“ Yachi tries.
“No, this is hard on us and if we really want to make a difference, we need to be at our best,” Kiyoko interrupts sternly.
“I’ll burn some herbs for grounding to help with your spell,” Yachi concedes.
“Thank you,” Kiyoko says and places a kiss on the top of Yachi’s forehead.
Once again, the two women go to their own workstations.
Yachi cuts cloth and binds a mixture of herbs together. This time she simply lights it with her tinderbox. The spark takes immediately burning away the cloth and reaching the herbs quickly.
A strong, earthy smell spreads throughout the room. It smells like wet soil, like roots boring down and taking hold. Yachi waves the herbs around, making sure the scent hangs in the air as long as possible, though not ever getting close enough to touch Ennoshita.
Kiyoko opens a large book and riffles through the pages before landing on the right one.
“Could you just stand behind me?” Kiyoko asks as she steps in front of the table, she places the book on a wooden stand in front of her.
“Just stay there, okay?” She repeats to Yachi.
Kiyoko lifts her arms out in front of her. She starts reading from the page. At first her voice is soft, as the words slowly tumble from her lips.
Then as the words start to taste familiar her voice grows; it fills out every inch and every nook and cranny of the room. The magic starts flowing from her, silver tendrils wrap around her arms, snaking their way from her shoulders to her fingertips. The magic flows from her fingertips towards Ennoshita. The silver tendrils wrap around his body and then around the invisible part of his soul. The words on the page start to flow together and creating a rhythm of vowels and consonants.
Yachi watches from behind Kiyoko.
She pulls the mirror out again and watches Ennoshita through it. The tendrils of Kiyoko’s magic are pulling down on the green shadow version of him. If she tries hard enough Yachi can almost convince herself that it is slowly sinking back to where it belongs.
Kiyoko falters, stumbles over a word. The magic flickers for just a second. Yachi looks at Kiyoko again. Sweat has started to form on her forehead. A single drop of sweat slides down Kiyoko’s temple. Kiyoko picks up where she left off, but her voice is strained. Her arms fall lower and lower. She sways on her feet, still she keeps chanting.
Yachi puts down the mirror and rushes forward. She makes it just in time to catch Kiyoko as she collapses and falls to the ground. The silver tendrils disappear immediately.
Yachi cradles Kiyoko in her lap.
“Are you okay?” she asks, brushing the hair out of Kiyoko’s face.
Kiyoko nods and Yachi pulls her tighter. The two sit on the floor for a minute, Yachi holding Kiyoko.
“Let’s get to bed” Yachi whispers “do you think you can get up the stairs?”
Kiyoko nods again but neither woman moves, they just stay in each other’s arms.
“Okay,” Yachi says and helps Kiyoko to her feet.
Yachi checks on Ennoshita. His chest rises and falls in steady rhythm, his eyes still shut as if sleeping.
Yachi sighs and walks away from him, then follows Kiyoko and heads to bed.
*****
Kiyoko wakes up with an ache in her body and in an empty bed. Her body is stiff and slow as she sits up. The light from the window so bright even through the curtain that she must shield her eyes. She walks slowly out of the room, searching for Yachi.
Kiyoko hears Yachi before she sees her. Yachi is humming along to the gentle piano that once again floats through the house.
Kiyoko looks at the stairs, sighs and makes her way downstairs one step at a time.
“How long have you been up?” Kiyoko asks Yachi as the first thing.
“I couldn’t sleep” Yachi mumbles, “but I have an idea.”
Yachi meets Kiyoko by the bottom of the stairs with a small notebook in her hands.
“See if I can spin your magic into some sort of a thread, I can maybe stitch his soul to his body,” Yachi points several things on the page. “I don’t know what the side effects would be, I obviously can’t use much of your magic and I don’t know if it’s a permanent,” she starts explaining, “like can it start ripping away again or what about when he’s old? Can we accidentally make him immortal?” she rambles on. Kiyoko listens patiently.
“We can try making the thread, but I don’t think this is our decision” Kiyoko replies, “we’ll have to ask Tanaka if this is a solution for them.”
Yachi nods, “I’ll get the spinning wheel ready, and I’ve made a strengthening tonic for you.” She points to the cauldron on the fire, “just grab a mug and scoop some up.”
Kiyoko does just that, wincing a little when she gets a whiff of the smell.
“Why don’t these ever taste nice?” Kiyoko complains.
“Quit complaining, it’s good for you” Yachi says with a laugh, “maybe even grab two cups.”
“I think I’ll start with just the one,” Kiyoko says and continues sipping the concoction with a frown on her face.
Yachi drags the spinning wheel over to her work chair. She riffles through her shelves of flasks of oils and finally pulls one out filled with a lilac fluid.
“You should also eat something,” Yachi notes to Kiyoko as she continues.
Kiyoko, still sipping on the strengthening tonic, pauses at the mention of food.
“Should have probably started with that,” she drinks the last of the tonic and places the mug on Yachi’s table. Kiyoko stands by the stairs and summons some cereal and milk from upstairs.
“Did you tell Daichi to bring Tanaka back today?” Yachi asks.
“Should be here any minute,” Kiyoko replies while eating.
Yachi binds together more herbs in white cloth.
Daichi walks in seconds later with Tanaka in tow.
“We might have an idea” Yachi says to him, and continues to explain, both what they know and what they don’t.
“It’s your decision if you want to try this, we can’t promise you anything” Kiyoko says as Yachi finishes explaining.
“Let’s try it,” Tanaka says, nodding with a grim smile on his face.
“We’ll get to work then” Kiyoko says, while Yachi simply nods.
Kiyoko gently draws a symbol with the oil on each of Yachi’s hand, holding onto them just for a second longer than necessary. They look into each other’s eyes.
“It will work,” Yachi whispers. Kiyoko searches her face for any sign of doubt, but either Yachi has none or she hides it perfectly.
Kiyoko nods, lets Yachi’s hands go and draws the same symbol on several parts of the spinning wheel. Kiyoko takes her place on the chair next to Yachi; they’re sitting so close that their thighs are touching.
“Ready?” Kiyoko asks.
Yachi nods and begins pressing on the treadle, at the same time as Kiyoko starts chanting. This chant is soft and whispered. Kiyoko’s magic manifests as a silver orb floating in front the girls. The smoke like texture swirls around itself but seems contained to the round shape.
Yachi reaches out and grabs a handful of it. The part that she holds stays attached to the rest and warps the shape. A shiver runs down her spine, the cold of the magic almost burning in her hand. She might as well have grabbed onto an icicle. Still, she can touch it, and leads it over the hook around the wheel and starts pressing on the treadle. The magic starts winding around and around the bobbin, creating one full of what looks like silvery thread.
Yachi can’t help but cast a look at Kiyoko and sending her a smile as the magic just continues wind around and around.
“I think that’s enough” Yachi says, and Kiyoko stops chanting.
Both are focused on the bobbin as the rest of the magic disappears. The magic wound around the bobbin stays, the thread shimmering in the light. Yachi lets out a big sigh of relief.
“Okay, now for the hard part,” Yachi starts “harder part,” she corrects herself.
“We’ll do it together” Kiyoko says, and Yachi nods.
They both get up from their chairs and Kiyoko gets the needle she fashioned to hand over to Yachi. They stand next to Ennoshita and Yachi threads the needle.
“Where do we start?” Yachi asks, “or how?”
“Wherever feels right, I think, and we just have to go for it” Kiyoko says and takes Yachi’s hand, giving it a squeeze.
Yachi goes to start at Ennoshita’s head, Kiyoko holds the portal mirror in front of Yachi, so she can see where she is supposed to sew.
The needle passes through Ennoshita’s clothes and body without meeting any resistance but as she tries to sew through the projection of his soul it becomes much harder. Trying to push the needle through it is like trying to push two repelling magnets together.
Yachi manages to make the first stitch and then she continues. She slowly makes her way around Ennoshita’s body. Her hands start shaking as she reaches his leg. Kiyoko takes the needle from her and continues in her stead. They change back and forth several times as the manage to make it all around Ennoshita.
Yachi places the last stitch in Ennoshita’s forehead. With the last stitch the thread of magic sinks in and all visible traces of what they've attempted disappears. Both women collapse on a chair, Yachi leans into Kiyoko who in turn wraps an arm around Yachi’s shoulders.
“Now we wait,” Kiyoko says and casts a look at Tanaka who has been silent since they started.
“You can hold his hand again if you want” Kiyoko says, and Tanaka moves closer to Ennoshita and does just that.
Together the three of them wait in silence.
At some point Yachi gives into the fatigue and falls asleep on Kiyoko’s shoulder.
Soon the sun begins to set, the orange glow of the sunset falls in through the window. At some point the orange dips fully behind the horizon and is replaced by the bright full moon.
The first moonbeam hits Ennoshita’s face and suddenly he stirs. His hand twitches, squeezing Tanaka’s.
“Chikara?” Tanaka asks, getting up from his chair.
Ennoshita’s eyelids flutter and finally they open.
“Ryu?” Ennoshita’s voice is hoarse and barely audible but still Tanaka lets out a sob at the sound of it. He hugs Ennoshita, clinging onto him.
“Hey,” Kiyoko nudges Yachi gently, “let’s give them a moment.”
Yachi untangles herself herself from Kiyoko. The two of them walk upstairs, arms around each other.
“We did it?” Yachi whispers.
“Yeah,” Kiyoko answers and pulls Yachi tighter, “we did.”