While Emilia stayed indoors most of the time, she made sure not to get out of shape. Her magic could not be recovered, but her physical health could. So, she always made sure to eat healthy and when she wasn’t writing she did lots of exercise inside her room.

She was doing push-ups, when she heard a knock on the door. This was rare, as her parents usually only bothered her when it was time to eat. She almost fell in surprise.

The person knocking waited patiently for her to reply at least. It was probably Jakob, maybe another publisher had made a request?

She sighed as she slowly got up and opened the door.

And closed the door again.

Standing outside was a beautiful girl with dark hair. Emilia vaguely remembered seeing someone like her before, but the sudden appearance of this stranger surprised her. Maybe she saw wrong, but she was wearing a magician’s badge. Had this girl come here to make fun of her?

Before she could decide what to do, the door was opened from the outside. While she had only caught a quick glance, Youko was sure that she’d found the right person. There was no mistaking that nose, that mouth, and those eyes, even if they’d lost the shine they used to have.

“Emilia!”

Emilia did not recognise Youko. She had changed too much, and she now actually combed her hair (it made a bigger difference than you’d think). So she stayed silent, hoping this stranger would just go away.

Youko did not go away. She didn’t really know what to say either, though.

Actually, the sight of Emilia in sportswear had gotten her in a daze. She froze as the other shifted uncomfortably.

In the end, Jakob was the one to break the silence with a cough.

“Emilia, this young miss was looking for you, I believe. Do you know her?”

“She does,” Youko said.

“No,” Emilia said at the same time.

Youko turned to her, shocked. “Did you really forget me? Did you completely forget tutoring me??”

Ah. Something clicked inside Emilia’s head.

“Youko!?”

She nodded and smiled shyly. “I really thought you’d forgotten me there. I’m so glad you remember.”

Jakob cleared his throat and announced that he would be taking his leave, so that the two of them could talk it out.

They both nodded at him and went back to awkwardly staring at each other.

“Why are you here?” Emilia asked. Had she returned just to make fun of her? Judging from the badge she’d even graduated a year earlier. Jealousy slowly built up.

“I’m here to help you,” she said. “I am deeply indebted to you, now I’ve finally become strong enough to be by your side.”

An inexplicable emotion welled up inside Emilia.

This girl gained her license and badge, the things Emilia so desperately wished for now, and yet, instead of putting them to any kind of use, she decided to hang around someone who’s lost every little bit of magic potential?

Did she know how humiliating this was!? Was she doing it on purpose? Or was she just that oblivious?

Warmth rose to her head, and for the first time in years she felt angry with someone other than herself.

She took a deep breath. “Get out.”

“Huh? Why!?”

“Just get out! I don’t want to see you.” The strength of her voice surprised Emilia herself as well. It had been a long time since she’d ever yelled at someone.

Youko decided not to argue, nodded and left.

Emilia closed the door and slid to the floor leaning against it. Her face was flushed with anger, but she felt kind of good having raised her voice.

After a while, her anger faded, and she felt kind of bad. Oh well, that was that.

Without thinking too much about it, she continued exercising and went on with her daily routine.

She had to work hard now as a deadline was coming up for a new project proposal. This time, it was a bit hard to imagine the kind of hero she would write. She’d have to think more about it.

It was a bit hard to fall asleep though, as when she had nothing to occupy herself with, her thoughts seemed to all fall back to Youko. While she had that outburst earlier (to be fair, Youko had been quite insensitive), she was pretty glad to have made such a great impact on someone. She kind of hoped Youko would go on adventures and help people like she wanted to. Despite her envy, she wanted the best for her.

The next day, she was woken up by loud knocking at the door. It couldn’t be her parents, they always left for work without speaking to her.

Before she could answer, the door was opened, and Youko entered, carrying a platter with bread, some fruit and a glass of water were on.

“Good morning,” she smiled. Emilia moved back in surprise.

“What are you doing here?”

“I decided to live here now! Your parents are really nice, they let me use the guest room… Ah yeah, I told them I’ll be helping you, so that’s what I’m doing now.” She nodded at the platter. “They said this is what you usually like to eat, so I thought I’d bring it up for you.”

“Wait, wait, this is all going a bit too fast for me… Did my parents hire you as a housekeeper!?”

“Pretty much.”

“You, you don’t have to! Where did they even get the money to pay you?” Emilia’s parents weren’t poor, but they weren’t well off enough to afford a housekeeper either.

“Oh, I don’t need money. I’ve money enough.”

“Then why...”

“To help you.” Youko looked very determined about this.

Emilia sighed. Seemed like she wouldn’t give up about this. Well, at least she was served breakfast. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all…

Never mind that.

Youko had asked to watch as Emilia exercised, promising she wouldn’t be in the way. While she wasn’t in the way, exactly, her stares were… quite distracting to say the least.

Emilia didn’t really mind people looking at her that way, though no one really had since her accident, but somehow when Youko so intently looked at her muscles, she felt really really embarrassed. In the end, she quit her routine early, telling herself she’d make up for it the next day.

Youko seemed disappointed.

After exercising, she ate a bit more, and sat down to brainstorm about her newest project. As she was scribbling ideas down, Youko watched intently once again.

“Are you Emi?” She asked suddenly.

“Ah, yeah,” Emilia was a bit embarrassed, and hadn’t really expected Youko to read that kind of thing either. “How did you know?”

“Well, it’s kind of obvious, I think...”

Emilia blushed a bit. It really was embarrassing to be associated with her own escapist novels.

“I mean,” Youko continued, “The writing style is beautiful, and there are certain things only someone who has been in battle could write accurately. Yet, most of your protagonists either have no powers, or have hidden powers. It feels escapist… and yet none of them end up happy. The author must not be a happy person then. The person who matches this profile of writer the most is you, and on top of that, the name is similar.”

Emilia looked away. “Ah, is it really that easy to figure out? Here I thought my identity was a well kept secret.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I didn’t tell anyone, and even if I did, I don’t think they’d believe me… to be honest, most of them think you died or something.”

“What?”

“Well, you never really appeared again after that accident… most would assume it killed you and the school just wanted to cover up.”

Emilia sighed and looked up at the roof. It really had been a while since she’s seen anything else above her, she hadn’t seen the sky in about a month now. And she really didn’t communicate with anyone from her school any more…

“Oh, speaking of,” Youko interrupted her thoughts, “Do you want to take revenge?”

“Uh, sorry, what was that?” Did she really hear that right!?

“I asked if you want revenge.”

“For what? The sabotage? Do you know who did it!?”

Youko shook her head. “Not yet. I’ve been too busy with my studies to look into it, but now I’m all done! So, if you want revenge, I’ll gladly destroy their magic as retribution.”

This girl was kind of scary. “No thanks, I’ll be fine,” Emilia said.

She’d already decided to forget about the incident as best as she could. Besides, revenge wouldn’t do any good anyway.

“Aw, okay,” Youko replied. She seemed genuinely disappointed about it. “Just know that if anyone hurts you, I’ll be there to bring retribution.”

“You really don’t have to,” Emilia sighed. “I’ve decided to leave the life of magic behind me. I’ll just stay here and write my novels. That is enough for me.”

“Really? Then I’ll stay here with you!” Youko smiled. Emilia blushed. (What was wrong with her face today? Or rather, what was wrong with this kid, spouting nonsense like that?)

“Ah, are you sure that is okay? Wouldn’t you rather go on adventures and all that…”

“I’d rather be with you.”

How come this brat was so clingy?? She wasn’t like that before, was she?

Fine, she gave up.

“Okay, you can stay here then.”

“Thank you!” Youko smiled sweetly.

anorb

Well, I'm not quite sure I like what I'm doing with this story, but I'll see. I'll still try and update regularly, though there's a chance I'll just rewrite the whole thing later.