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Conjuration magic. It was a beautiful type of magic. The ability to summon anything you wished to, so long as you knew how to, was a very enticing prospect, but due to the difficulty that came with conjuration, few decided to study further than basic image conjuration. Fewer still decided to dedicate their life to the art and take up a specialization in the conjuration itself.
So, why then, had Minori made the foolish decision to apply to specialize in the most difficult school of magic? She wasn’t even good at any of the other schools of magic! Why did she think she could focus on conjuration magic!?
Minori shook her head vigorously as she headed out the door of the final class for the day. She knew exactly why. Haruka had looked so beautiful with her frequent shows of conjurations in class. But was she really about to choose her school of magic for some silly crush?
If anything, her failure on the first wave of specialization tests was a sign that she should go for an easier school of magic, like enchantment magic or even combat magic, but failure wouldn’t stop her. She was committed to at least trying to enter the school of conjuration magic no matter what!
As she turned the corner, she remembered how skeptical Professor Miku had been about her choice of conjuration magic as her specialization. She had subtly suggested other schools of magic a number of times, but, because Minori insisted, she went on with the test. It was a massive mess.
Because it was a test about conjuration, Professor Miku had asked Minori to display her ability to utilize spectral conjuration as the bare minimum to take up the school of magic. It was then and there that Minori already knew she was going to fail. All of her self-study hours spent learning spectral conjuration earlier had shown her that she definitely wasn’t ready, but she tried the test anyways.
Not only had Minori forgotten a crucial component while applying the ingredient during the formation of her conjuration, but she had also flubbed the spell incantation entirely. While she intended to conjure the spectral image of a simple house cat, she had instead ended up summoning a completely hairless and immobile kitten.
Minori smiled to herself. She was happy that she had even been able to conjure up a spectral image, in spite of her failure, but because her spectral image had not show signs of movement, it was deemed unacceptable for the purposes of the test. According to Professor Miku, the key difference between basic image conjuration and spectral conjuration was that spectral images were able to move and interact with their surroundings.
Things weren’t all bad, though. While Minori had failed her first try at the specialization test, there were still plenty of opportunities to take it in the year to come. As long as she could manage to pass it at least once before the end of the year, she’d be able to join the school of conjuration!
Minori felt lucky that Professor Miku had at least noticed her determination and offered her a special chance to improve on her conjuration magic. She never said what it was going to be, but Minori had assumed from the fact that Professor Miku had told her to go to the Conjuration Hall after class that it would be some kind of private lesson. That was where she was headed now.
Minori hurried her pace, excited to finally see what was inside the Conjuration Hall. The large room had always been reserved exclusively for practicing members of the school of conjuration. It was an honor for Minori to even be allowed temporary access.
Upon entering the Conjuration Hall with the special code her professor had given her, Minori was shocked to see the shelves on the wall filled to the brim with artistically designed penguin plushes. There were so many of them!
Curious on if the plushes were all spectral conjurations, Minori touched the nearest penguin plush and her eyes widened as her finger sunk into soft resistance. If these had been conjured, they had been conjured up with a much higher level conjuration than Minori had ever seen.
Minori had an idea as to who had conjured these, but before she could think too much about it, the door opened behind her. Jumping away from the penguin she had been inspecting, Minori turned to see Haruka closing the door behind her.
“Oh, you’re here already? I haven’t had time to get anything set up,” She said.
Unable to respond, Minori simply stared at Haruka, her mind racing to try to process this unexpected entrance. What was her crush doing here?! Was she also here for the private lessons Professor Miku had mentioned?
“My name’s Haruka Kiritani.” She extended her hand out to Minori.
“M-Minori Hanasato!” Minori nervously yelped as she shook Haruka’s hand. Even though she was in the same basic conjuration class as Haruka, this was her first time talking to her.
“It’s nice to finally get to meet you. I was so happy when Professor Miku told me someone else was finally going to join the school of conjuration. I’ve been looking forward to our lessons all day,” Haruka said, a smile at her lips.
Minori felt her cheeks starting to get hot as she looked away. She didn’t know what to say to that last part about looking forward to meeting her. Trying to maintain what little composure she had left, she eked out the most basic reply she could.
“I-It’s nice to meet you too!” Minori said as her hand instinctively slid into a silly salute.
Haruka giggled at the salute as she moved over to the large table in the center of the hall, retrieving a large cauldron from underneath it. She continued to grab more conjuration supplies from all the corners of the room as Minori stood there.
“Because of how difficult conjuration magic normally is, no one else in the school is studying conjuration magic past the basic levels. Normally, I have this entire hall all to myself.” Haruka continued, quickly filling the cauldron with binding liquid. “There’s plenty of conjuration supplies in here. We can use whatever you need.”
Whatever Minori needed? What about her? Wait, was Haruka supposed to be teaching her?? But they were in the same year! They were even in the same entry level class for conjuration!
“Whatever I need? What about supplies for you?” Minori asked, a hint of disbelief creeping into her wavering voice.
“Oh, did Professor Miku not tell you? She asked me to tutor you today,” Haruka said, not looking up from the supplies she was setting up. “What creature did you decide to specialize in when you first learned conjuration?”
Taking in what she just heard, Minori clutched at her head. It was exactly what she thought. The special lessons the Professor was talking about were supposed to be Haruka tutoring her...
A smile slipped on to her face. She was going to be taught conjuration by her inspiration! And her crush... Maybe this was her chance to get close to her crush..?
“Minori? Are you okay?” Haruka called back from the hall bookshelf. When had she gotten there?
“Yes! I’m okay!” What had she asked about earlier? Oh right, creature type. “I tried to specialize in both cats and dogs!”
Haruka filtered through some of the books on the shelf. “Mmmm, those are both very different animal. You should focus on only one of those for now. How about felines? They’re much smaller than canines on average so they should be easier for you to learn right now.”
Before Minori could respond, the book about feline conjuration had already magically flown from the shelf to the table in front of the now boiling cauldron. It was open to the familiar first page, “How to Conjure a Common House Cat.”
“Now, may I politely ask you to show what you do know? It’ll give me an idea of where I an help you today,” Haruka asked as she approached the table with a smile.
Minori nodded, a bead of sweat forming on her forehead. As much as she was eager to learn, she was also scared she might embarrass herself in front of the one who had inspired her to pursue conjuration in the first place. Careful to not get the portioning wrong, she slowly placed the components for the house cat spectral conjuration one by one into the cauldron.
After all the ingredients had dissolved completely into the brown binding liquid, Minori grabbed her wand from her pouch and pointed it at the cauldron as she chanted the intricate incantation she had already spent hours practicing to perfection.
The cauldron tilted over in it’s holdings and spilled the liquid out onto the summoning circle, but before it could hit the ground, the shape of a cat manifested. Once again not moving, the spectral image of the cat landed on the dirt covered summoning circle with a soft thud as it tumbled down to it’s side.
Though this time the conjuration had all of it’s components, and therefore it’s hair, Minori sighed as she saw the same lack of movement repeating again. Haruka simply nodded and once again grabbed a new set of components for another cast of conjuration.
“Ah, I see what the issue is here,” Haruka said, filing the cauldron. “Can you try again? This time, stop for me when you get to the incantation.”
Minori nodded, getting to the next conjuration without a moment of hesitation. Haruka seemed to be implying that her issue was on her incantation, so she didn’t second guess her memory when it came to mixing ingredients.
As requested, the moment everything had been dissolved, Minori paused in front of the cauldron with her wand out. She had dedicated so many hours of her independent study to trying to get the incantation right... What had she gotten wrong?
Haruka slid in next to Minori, standing alongside her. Their bodies pressed together as Haruka grabbed Minori’s arm, pointing the wand at the cauldron together. Minori’s face felt like it was about to ignite the moment she realized what was happening.
“Now, chant the incantation.” Haruka whispered into Minori’s ears. She was so close.
As Minori chanted the incantation, Haruka moved Minori’s arm rhythmically up and down in tune to the incantation. Surprised by the unexpected movement of the wand in her hands, Minori gripped tightly to not have it fly away from her.
The cauldron once again tipped over into the summoning circle, forming the shape of a cat from the liquid magic. This time, the cat landed spryly on all four of it’s feet and immediately darted off toward the nearest table, away from the humans it saw looming in front of it.
As Haruka pulled away, Minori had to steady herself. Though she appreciated the brief moment, she was definitely not mentally prepared for her crush to get so close to her like that.
“What you’re missing is the wand movement. With everything but basic conjuration, each incantation requires a specific motion to go along with it. That’s what the dots and dashes on top of the incantation readings here mean.” Haruka pointed to the incantation in the book. “I’ll teach you how to read the notation of the motions later, but for now, just try your best to copy what I did.”
“...Okay.” Minori was thankful for the time to mentally recover from the lesson as Haruka went down under the table to once again grab components. Though she swooned at her classmate, she had to admit the tutoring was much needed. The up and down motion of the incantation was still solid in her brain.
Speeding through the mixing process, Minori quickly made her way to the incantation section of the conjuration. As Haruka had instructed her, she motioned her wand along in step with her incantation. Up, down, up, up down and tap the cauldron, just as Haruka had done with her hand before.
The cauldron once more came down, dispensing the conjuration into the summoning circle. The liquid once again evaporated into the air, the form of a cat in it’s place. The cat landed sloppily in the circle, but it did not fall over as her first attempt had.
Minori’s eyes were locked on to the spectral feline. It wasn’t moving. Had she done something wrong? But she had done exactly as Haruka had instructed!
Then, Minori gasped as she saw the conjuration slowly turn it’s head. It’s paw slowly lifted off the ground, pointing toward the same direction the first cat had run away to before it at a snails pace. It was moving! It was moving slowly, but it was actually moving!
“Very good, Minori!” Haruka cheered. “It’s going to take a lot of practice to get the movements right, but you’ve got the right idea now!”
Excitement bubbled within Minori as she watched the spectral image of the cat slowly skitter off. She had actually done it! After trying all year, she actually cast a real conjuration spell! It wasn’t just some basic image conjuration! She could actually do it! She could actually join the school of conjuration! And it was all thanks to Haruka!
Unsure of how exactly to thank her, Minori’s excited energy burst forth from within herself as she latched on to Haruka in a tight hug.
“Oh, thank you Haruka! Thank you! Thank you!” Minori cheered, tears of joy pooling at the corners of her eyes. Then, it registered in her brain what she had done in her spurt of happiness and she hurriedly forced herself back away from the completely unprompted hug.
“Sorry! Sorry! I was just so excited,” Minori apologized. She still couldn’t believe she had it in her to so boldly hug her crush like that.
“...I-It’s fine. You’re welcome,” Haruka stuttered. There was a hint of red at her cheeks as she refused to meet Minori’s eyes. “Just a little more practice and you’ll be ready to try the specialization test again. How about another attempt?”
Excitedly, Minori hollered her agreement as she raised her wand to the sky. If it meant spending more time around Haruka, she was going to get into the school of conjuration, no matter how long it took!