Work Text:
He had been called in again.
Without asking him if he was already busy with something else, or if he agreed to it at all. They just told him "You're wanted at the rituals hall. Hurry up."
Following the orders, little Yuna D. Kaito walked down the bleak hallways of the Magic Association's headquarters, dragging the heavy tails of the extravagant dark robe along, as he headed towards his destination.
He didn't have it in him to satisfy their umpteenth request. He never had it in him, but at the same time, he couldn't even find in him the will to leave those godforsaken hallways behind, and together with them, all those who frequented that place too.
His soul felt more empty and dead than ever, especially ever since they informed him of her passing one year prior.
Every single day he just went through the motions of life, without truly feeling any of it. Fulfilling orders on command, eating whatever solid food he could find around—another passive response to his survival instinct. None of that came from his own will. His mind had recently started wandering to places a nine-year-old should never go.
But he didn't care. All he knew was that he just didn't care. About anything, or anyone. Not even about himself.
The boy reached the so-called "rituals hall", a spacious room just as dark and ominous as the rest of that damned place was, if not more. A couple of Higher Mages were waiting for him at the altar. He walked past a small group of Comrades whispering among themselves—his ears passively overheard the words "it's quite weird" and "she should've shown signs by now", before reaching the altar. At the center of it, a magic glass orb rested on a crystal support. Kaito noticed they already had magically adapted it to his height.
"Yuna D., we want you to check remotely a young child, for any possible trace of magic developing in her body."
"...Why me? It is a very simple task that any of the other Comrades could effortlessly do."
The brow of the Higher Mage who had issued the order twitched, slightly irritated by the child's insolence. Kaito's impudence was well-known among the congregation, yet the older magicians usually just ignored it in exchange for the child's services. This time was no exception, and the Higher Mage simply replied "It is a quite complex case. The ones who commissioned this task to us want to be absolutely sure of the verdict, therefore they requested for the intervention of our most powerful magician. Which happens to be you."
Kaito lowered his gaze. They had specifically requested him, for a service apparently only he could offer. He stood out among all the other magicians of the Association for his innate astonishing abilities. He could do almost anything with no effort. The feeling stirred by that acknowledgement should've made him feel proud...appreciated...wanted.
...But it only made him feel worse.
He couldn't help but hear a voice inside his head whispering...
"Am I being wanted , or...am I being used?"
But ultimately, little Kaito didn't care. That's all he knew.
So he looked up and climbed the altar's stairs, reaching the glass orb.
He circled it with his small hands covered by the robe, starting the spell necessary to summon the appearance of the target of the check-up he was ordered to perform. The orb emitted a strong beam of light, reflecting a small figure at the center of it. A little girl, dressed in a light blue and white pinafore.
And then, he saw them.
Two blue eyes staring straight at the core of his soul, piercing through the thick glass.
He froze on the spot, a knot forming in the pit of his stomach.
He would've recognized those facial features anywhere.
That ash blonde hair, those eyes resembling blue topaz stones.
Nobody told him the name of the little girl beforehand, nor which clan she belonged to, but he didn't need any of that.
He immediately knew who she was.
It's easy, when in your whole young life you've only met one person who didn't look at you like a property to exploit or a menace to keep at arm's length.
And suddenly, his mind played back the images of a pregnant Lilie, eyes glowing with a peculiar light, while she proudly informed him that she carried a very precious love inside herself.
"Love born from love," she said.
He remembered staring at the baby bump, confused as it always happened when it came to whatever that powerful magician said. She invited him to touch the little bump, but he refused, grossed out by the idea.
That was the last time he saw her.
Kaito quickly estimated the toddler could be about 2 years old, which matched with the other info he had. He had heard the baby Lilie had given birth to wasn't even one year old when the accident happened.
The boy peered deeply into those blue eyes and the knot in his stomach slowly turned into a cold grip when he realized something was off.
Way too off.
The little girl's eyes held emotions he never saw on Lilie before.
She wasn't smiling like her mother always did, and frankly she looked quite confused and scared by the examination she was being subjected to.
She looked lost. Rootless. Lonely. Just like...
He felt something snapping and stirring inside of him. It felt as if the little girl had suddenly acquired the gravitational pull of a planet; he felt inexorably drawn to her, despite his reluctance.
For the first time ever, he found himself reflected in the eyes of someone else.
From outside, Kaito looked as deadpan as ever. But inside, he felt that organ that barely kept him alive beating much faster than he had ever experienced in his pathetic, dull life.
A Comrade snapped him out of his trance, soliciting him: "So, what about the fragments of magic?"
Kaito remembered why he was there in the first place and activated another spell. His eyes sparkled while he analyzed thoroughly the toddler reflected in the orb.
He searched and searched...and as an alien feeling took possession of his body, making him feel anxiety for the first time, the world came crushing down on him.
None of it. Not a single speck of magic in the child's body.
Not a sign she would ever develop any, even in the future.
He knew it. He knew what that meant, for that ruthless clan composed of nothing but greedy, heartless people.
Shame and contempt. An affront to a centuries-old lineage of brilliant magicians. A blemish on the one thing they could take pride in.
This little girl's life had barely just began and she was already condemned to suffer a shame she had no blame for.
But it didn't have to be that way. Not if he could help it.
For the first time in his life (oh, how many first times he experienced in a handful of minutes just because of those sad blue eyes) he felt compelled to actually do something.
Something more than the mere warnings he used to give to the mother of this little child, warnings that for his entire life he would be afraid to find out were warranted and connected to the powerful magician's early demise, and that of her beloved husband.
He just needed to tell the truth. Because what her blood relatives would most likely have done, once they found out she didn't have any trace of magic, was to kick her out of their clan. And as despicable as that sounded, it actually seemed like liberation to him.
An innocent girl without magic powers like her had no means to defend herself against the greed of the rest of her family. But out of that toxic environment, she would've been able to live a normal life. She could've had a chance to live a life where she would've been blessed with the love of a family who truly appreciated and respected her.
That love that Lilie always used to talk about and that was stripped from this child too soon.
That love that he still couldn't understand and, so early on at this stage of his life, he was resigned to never completely grasp for himself.
He didn't really know this little girl and he probably would’ve never seen her again, but for the sake of the only person who treated him like a human being, and for those familiar blue eyes he felt he could relate to, he knew he wanted something better for her.
So he turned around, feigning condescension.
"There's nothing at all, here. She's just like a 'blank book' ."
Kaito groggily opened his eyes, finding himself reflected in another pair of eyes that were staring back at him.
Those beautiful eyes, blue like topaz stones. The same ones he saw in the dream that revisited his childhood.
"Akiho-san...?" he said, his voice hoarse from the heavy sleep.
Akiho was lying on her left side, on Kaito's bed, right in front of him.
"I'm sorry...I came to check on you after your seizure and when I saw you didn't answer at the door, I realized you were still sleeping...but I couldn't stop being anxious. So I came in...and decided to wait here for you to wake up."
Kaito could spot traces of turmoil in her eyes. She had been afraid to lose him, once again.
She lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry for taking the liberty."
"Nothing to apologize for," he answered with a drowsy smile.
She looked up again, her own face breaking into a relieved, beaming smile.
He could feel it again, that irresistible pull towards her, like she was the center of the Earth. She was the answer to the question that haunted him a lifetime ago. She was the one who wanted him, not used him.
Despite the 'blank book' comment in the end had backfired tragically, the dream made him realize that ever since his eyes met hers in the glass orb, that fateful day of many years ago, there hadn't been a single moment he hadn't loved her.
Even when he still didn't know what love was, even when he still hadn't understood what love entailed. Even when it still wasn't the "Love" everybody praised endlessly in their romantic songs, the one he certainly was feeling now. It wasn't that love, but he now was sure it was a kind of love nonetheless.
His love for her had changed and evolved from the very first moment and had the power to change him too, along with it.
Ever since he met her, he felt the inexplicable urge to do something for her. That gravitational pull shook him from the torpor of his depression, making him feel alive, rather than going through the motions.
How or why he came to feel that way didn't matter, it just happened.
And he would've been grateful for it for the rest of his life.
"You changed several expressions on your face while you were sleeping. What were you dreaming about?" Akiho inquired with curiosity, propping herself up on her elbow.
Kaito stared tenderly at her.
"The center of my world."
