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Magic was all about the core. Using the core. Channeling it. Conjuring her energy. Himekawa just had to channel her energy and force it out.
It was pointless. For all that she did, it was pointless. She gave up.
Years ago, Himekawa gave up. She wanted to use magic so badly when she was younger, but it was only for specific people. People who had it developed deep within their bloodlines. And Himekawa did not. She had nothing special about her. Himekawa didn’t even know who her blood belonged to. All her life, she had been abandoned, not sure where she was meant to be.
Himekawa spent a lot of her time by the seaside. With her hardworking hands, she built herself a shack. She used what the forest gave her as much as she could and headed into a nearby village for what she lacked, like clothing and furniture. Her experience was small, so while Himekawa was good at farming and growing her own produce, she was not yet used to woodworking. It was her next project.
With a loose rope hanging on her hip and a dagger on her belt, Himekawa ventured into the woods in search of some good-looking trees. She didn’t like taking apart the nature that was there and only picked those logs that had already fallen. But it was very hard to find trees that were in good condition that were already laying on the forest floors. Himekawa struggled. By the time she found something, Himekawa was far into the woods, and it would take some time to lug it back home.
But she was determined. Himekawa wanted to live alone. She needed to. She didn’t fit anywhere else. She couldn’t do magic. She had no family. She didn’t get along with people in the academy. She didn’t belong anywhere.
Himekawa used her prepared rope she grabbed and fastened it around the log. Using the bark and any sticking limbs, she hooked the rough twine around and secured it. She wrapped the rope around her waist, tied it tight, and started to pull. With the strength in her hips, Himekawa started to use her body to pull the log through the forest back home.
It was exhausting. Himekawa had no idea how far she had gone, but she knew she had trekked far and had even more to go. Regardless, she kept her feet moving, her blood pumping, and her focus centered.
Alas, Himekawa was only human. More human than most. She began to feel fatigue after some time. Her hands gripped tightly onto the rope cinched around her waist and tried to keep going. But it was too much. After all, Himekawa was only human. Her energy was at its limit. Soon enough, her vision went black.
The next time Himekawa saw light, it was a light she had not known. There was a pink hue to the light. It was bright in a way she had never seen before. While it was foreign to her, Himekawa had a satisfying enough explanation for it: the light that came from the stars on a stormy night.
She sat up. Her body ached. Especially around her waist where she had put all the weight of tugging the tree trunk. She had assumed that she had passed out, a storm rolled over, and the stars were lighting her path through the branches of the forest; and the pink hue was the beam of light striking some different-colored leaves that cast a new shade of color.
There was a hamster sitting on her leg.
Himekawa shook her leg, but the hamster didn’t move off. Wild animals were (obviously) not a strange thing to come across in the wild. What was strange was that it was a hamster. What happened to bears? Deer? Not even a coyote? It was a hamster? How odd. Himekawa shook her leg once more, but the hamster was still stubborn and refused to hop off.
“What the hell…” she muttered. “Shoo off, dude. I have things to do.”
“You’re awake.”
Her soul nearly left her body to hear another person talk. Himekawa jumped where she sat, ready to fling up. And she did. Himekawa shot up to her feet, but her body was still tired and sore, so she immediately began to rock. A hand, however, grabbed her and helped her stand. But Himekawa was on alert. She yanked her hand back and took a few staggering steps back, using a tree for stability instead.
“What—who?” Himekawa stammered. It wasn’t that Himekawa had never seen a person before. She did go into town. But going into town was far, and no one ever came out the way she lived. There was a reason why she was out there. To be alone and undisturbed. So who was this person?
She cleared her throat and repeated a bit more sternness: “Who are you?”
“Oh, my apologies!” It was a woman. She was tall. Dangerously tall. If she wasn’t adorned in pink, Himekawa would’ve thought she was a tree. She had long pink hair, too, braided down in one large braid that swung with her drastic movements. Her outfit was a long white skirt with scuffs of dirt and her top was cut short and only covered her chest. It confined it too. Himekawa could see the way the top created some pinching marks around her armpits from how tight it was.
“I’m Arashiyama Kimie!” she introduced herself with a grin. Her teeth were sharp, reminding Himekawa of her shark friends that would sometimes greet her at the shore. The familiarity of it almost made Himekawa drop her guard. “I was out walking when I saw you passed out. I would’ve felt bad leaving you there.”
“Why were you walking this deep in the forest?” Himekawa questioned.
“I got lost,” Arashiyama deadpanned, and then her face took on a frown. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean harm.”
Himekawa felt like something struck her in the chest of feels. She groaned and shook her head. “No, it’s not—your fault.” What was she apologizing for exactly? She had no idea.
When Himekawa shook her head, she realized that the pink hue she woke up to before was still there. She put her eyes on it and realized what it was. There was no storm nor were there any stars in the sky that could be seen, covered by leaves blocking the view. Instead, there was a small pit created with rocks and a few tiny logs that were burning by a pink flame.
“A pink fire?” Himekawa questioned.
“Do you not like pink?” Arashiyama wondered. “I can change the color. Which do you prefer?”
“You can… change the color?”
Arashiyama nodded. And to prove her point, the small flames flickered between various colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, until it settled back on pink once more.
“Magic.” Of course, it was magic. Everyone had magic. Everyone except Himekawa. She suddenly felt a strange feeling toward this Arashiyama woman.
“Yes, magic. Can you not…” Arashiyama proved not to be a stupid woman. Meeting someone who felt odd toward magic who lived isolated from the wonderful city of magic she was from—it was clear this person had no touch for the arts of spells and aura. She mulled on it, humming with a nod, before she turned the fire’s color to the standard color of orange and red.
“I won’t use it anymore. Sorry,” she apologized.
“You were in a strange position. What were you doing?”
“Huh?”
“When I found you,” Arashiyama said. She put her hands on her hips, drawing attention to her waist as she said, “You had a rope tied around you and a log! And you were faceplanted in the dirt. I cleaned your face while you were out.”
Himekawa lifted her hand and subconsciously scratched her cheek. “Ah, thanks.”
“What were you doing with the log?” Arashiyama questioned.
“I was bringing it back to my home.” Himekawa found that Arashiyama was a different kind of magic user. She felt strangely okay explaining herself to the woman. “I refuse to hack down the life still breathing for my own needs,” she began to say. “So, I look for already dead trees and repurpose them, to give them purpose after their long life.”
Arashiyama began to cry. Cry?! Tears started to well up in her eyes. Himekawa was startled and had no time to react before Arashiyama stepped forward and engulfed Himekawa in a hug.
“Oh, that’s just beautiful. That’s so sweet! You’re so amazing,” she praised, her words spewing out in a heap of kind words. Himekawa felt like her head was spinning. Being so close to another person, having them hug her, and feeling their warmth. All of it were things Himekawa wasn’t quite used to being isolated on her own.
“I’ll help you!” Arashiyama declared as she took a step back, grinning with her wide set of sharp teeth. For some reason, Himekawa couldn’t decline.
Arashiyama used magic to help get the log back home. With the flick of her wrist, little balls of pink fur seemed to scamper from the woods and run over to the log with the rope dragging from its trunk. The glowing balls picked up the log effortlessly and began to carry it off. Himekawa realized it was an army of hamsters. The two women followed.
She began to explain her life to Himekawa despite not asking, but Himekawa listened anyway, nodding along to Arashiyama’s stories. Himekawa had to admit, for being a magic-user in the city, Arashiyama was a lot more open-minded than most of them were. She didn’t care or judge Himekawa for her lack of ability, but she treated her like a person. And in return, Himekawa felt herself opening up as well.
Arashiyama sat in the sand on the beach Himekawa built her home near. She watched her use the log to create a small bench. It wasn’t a short process by any means. Himekawa took a small axe and began to hack away at the bark.
While she worked, Arashiyama dove into the woods and collected fruits and berries. By the time Himekawa was finished for the night, Arashiyama had a bowl of fruits ready to eat.
They sat on the log together. It was more comfortable after Himekawa had gotten all the rough bark off. Now, it was a smooth wood. It had plenty of work it still needed, but they could sit on it as a smooth log for the time being. They looked at the sea’s waves as they let the fruit juices slide down their chins.
This was something that Himekawa always did. But she had always done it alone. Having Arashiyama there was a new comfort that she didn’t know how good it was until she was drowned in it.
Himekawa used her sleeve and wiped away the fruit’s ripe juice off her face. She looked over at Arashiyama and noticed a similar mess. So, she raised her hand and carefully helped clean Arashiyama’s face the same way. The woman’s face went bright red, jaw dropped open, and eyes widened as she stared at Himekawa in silence.
“Thank you, Arashiyama-chan,” Himekawa thanked. “This was a great night. I enjoyed it.”
“Ah?! Ha,” Arashiyama nervously laughed. “Ah, you’re welcome.” She cleared her throat and turned her head away, trying to pull herself together as she stammered, “I’ll come back anytime, Himekawa-san.”