/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>44936519 (6/?)
Marisa grumbles as she makes her way back to her shack. Mima has been working her and Alice like dogs. Every lesson is the same: Mima will cover some wide magic concept before breaking it down into useable bits. From there she and Alice have to refine their spell cards with said new concept or make new ones.

Magical lessons from one's master. Simple, right? Well, if you use a circle or something incorrectly, then it's a practical lesson followed by a remedial lesson. If your lines are not absolutely perfect, then it's a practical lesson followed by redrawing the circle a hundred times. If you mess up one of those drawings? Practical lesson. If your magical concepts for a spell card aren't complementary enough? Practical lesson. If you take too long to finish? Practical lesson. If you finish everything perfectly and Mima hasn't finished preparing her next lesson? Congratulations, you now have time to do some practical lessons.

A practical lesson in this context is Mima thrashing you until you can't get up while not following spell card rules. To be fair, Mima's explanation that Yukari might not follow spell card rules when backed into a corner is valid. Still, no matter how practical it is or how much real fighting experience can be transferred to a spell card duel, Mima's magic hits like an oni.

Of course, Mima's not unreasonable, when Mirsa asked if she maybe do something other than a practical lesson, she agreed. Instead, Marisa did 'conditioning training' which amounted to running around the Forest of Magic while Mima shot magic at her. After that, she worked out while being shot every time she broke form or slowed down.

Given all this, Marisa jumped on the opportunity for a day off. Apparently, Mima wanted to 'go negotiate with a true monster' and sent Alice off to gather some alchemical components (mercury, sulfur, arsenic, and some other stuff if she remembered right). As there wasn't much else to do (and out of a fear that she'd get more practical lessons if she did nothing), Marisa elected to go bring whatever useful stuff was left in her shack.

Drawing close to her house, Marisa paused upon seeing two people by the door. Rei-no, Hana and Aunn. Hehe, she did agree to teach Hana when she stopped by, didn't she?

Somewhat sheepishly she called out to the two and waved before flying close. Before she could get a word in Hana asked, "What happened to your house, Marisa? Not that it's a bad thing, but..."

Marisa looked away with a chuckle, "Ah, well... my old teacher stopped by and decided that my house wasn't clean enough, so she disintegrated most of it."

Hana tilted her head, "Your teacher? I don't think you ever mentioned her before."

Marisa shrugs, "There's not much to say when she spent the last few decades sealed away. Of course, when the seals in the Hakurei shrine stopped being maintained... it was only a matter of time ze."

Aunn frowned, "Sealed away in the shrine... is your teacher that lady that helped all those demons take over the shrine? I was so mad! If I had a body that could have moved back then, I'd have beat them all up and made them apologize and make them clean everything back up."

Marisa sighs, "Yeah... that's her. I can't believe how long it's been since then. Given our first interaction was me helping trash the shrine, it was a wonder that-ah, never mind. So what do you need from this humble magician ze?"

Hana didn't seem quite ready to drop the topic but relented by asking, "Well I was looking to train. I want to... I need to get stronger."

Marisa grimaces, "I... look, my teacher has been throwing me through the wringer these last few days and this is my first day to rest. How about you come to Alice's house tomorrow and you can practice with us ze?"

Hana nodded eagerly before pausing, "Alice's house? What are you doing there?"

Marisa grimaces as she remembers just how much of her stuff Mima destroyed, "Well as my teacher destroyed most of my equipment, we had to relocate to Alice's house to practice."

Hana raises an eyebrow at that, "And she's fine with that?"

Marisa rolls her eyes, "A bit too fine with it if you ask me ze."

After a few seconds of silence, Aunn pumps her fist into the air and exclaims, "Alright! We're going get super strong and then beat up Yukari and save Anon and he's going say we're all good girls and then he's going to pat us on the head and then we're going have a big dinner and be happy forever with no more stinky gap yokai messing with us!"

The two other girls couldn't help but smile at Aunn's words, though a pit in their stomachs envied the girl's innocence. Could things ever really return to normal after...?

****

>>44937217
Sorry about that. In my defense it came to me in a dream, so the Baku are to blame. That's a lie. It was a compulsion I had right before I went to bed, but whatever.