Reiko POV

mhmm...

This is impossible...

I've been trying for an hour now but I still made no progress. The ball of water in my hand, the moment it grows even an ounce bigger, or if there was even just a single bump.

Pop! 

It bursts!

"Still no luck?"(Cheryl)

"it's impossible... forget about the ticket, let's just go!"(Reiko)

At this point, there was no point in me to waste this much time for some tickets. It's not like I am the type to go to large meet ups or parties or whatever. 

"Don't be like that, I'm sure you can do it, you haven't given up in finding Kana, so what's stopping you now?"(Cheryl)

Well... no, that's different from this, completely! One is necessary the other is not. 

"What if we do this together? Maybe together we can make some progress."(Cheryl)

While saying that she moved behind and grabbed my arm, looking at the water at hand. 

"How about you approach at a different angle? For me when I realised I could do wind magic, the first thing I tried to do was force it out just like fire... it never really did much."(Cheryl)

Approach at a different angle? But I've tried that already! Ok think think...

Ah what if I just force it immediately, as quickly as I can!

POP!

"Bleh! kek kek kek!"(Reiko)

"Are you alright? Water in your nose?"(Cheryl)

I nodded to her question. It was a humiliating fail...

How about I try doing it slower this time? Gentler I guess. My hands at the sides of the bowl of water started making the water bubble up and slowly grow and grow and...

ᵖᵒᵖ

Eh?

That's pathetic! It burst before it even became a ball!

I'm going nowhere with this! What's the point of going anyway! I'm gonna quit that's it!

...

hmm... okay, maybe just a little bit longer. It's times like these where you have to be stubborn, just like how dad was. 

Ah! That's it! Maybe I can draw some inspiration from mother and dad! That's right, I'm a modern man from a modern society, I'm sure if I can recall some things from my past life I can make progress!

Let's see now...

let's see...

-----

"It's been four months now! I can't do this alone anymore!"

"You don't think I've not been trying!? Do you know just how hard it is for me to..."

Homework.

I don't like homework much, but in a way I do. It's something I can do when I get home and when Kana is asleep, like right now. We didn't get to play much today, she was feeling bad so we had to take her to the hospital again.

But that's fine, I'm sure she will wake up. She usually does a day after. 

I can usually finish homework pretty quickly, but I'm stuck on this question.

Mother and dad were noisy, so I wasn't able to sleep much the last two days so I fell in asleep in class. I missed a couple classes because of that. It's my fault so I should probably fix that and sleep earlier next time. 

But now I really don't know what to do...

"I'm going!"

"Good! Don't come back!"

Bam!

I think they're done, maybe I should ask dad for help. 

When I opened the door, I only saw mother, in her usual white uniform. 

Oh... 

"Reiko is that you?"

She noticed me.

"Yes mother."(Reiko)

"Oh baby come over here."

pat pat

Mother tapped the floor lightly. 

Going over I sat down on the ground next to her. Mother was tired, her face showed that fact yet she smiled and patted my back.

"Reiko, do you know just how much I love you?"

"Yes, you love me more than anything else in the world."(Reiko)

"That's right. I'll give everything in the world just for you to grow. So in the future you better take good care of me okay?"

"Yes, mother."(Reiko)

"So what's keeping you up so late?"

It was only seven.

"Actually..."(Reiko)

I brought up the math homework up to her face. 

"Can you help me? I'm lost."(Reiko)

Looking at for a few seconds, mother came up with the answer.

"It's six."

I was confused, my head tilted a bit as looked at my paper. Scribbles and eraser marks all over, from the mess was my answer of seventy two. I scratched my head and asked mother,

"How come?"(Reiko)

At first she looked confused,

"That's what the answer is, what more do you need?"

"I know that, but I dunno why it's six."(Reiko)

"Well then, it's because you multiplied here rather than divide."

Although I understood what she was saying, I didn't really know why I had to do this. 

"I still... don't think I get it..."(Reiko)

Mother sighed, her attitude changed as she pointed to the answer and repeated the same lines, not quite fixing the problem but instead just doing the same thing over and over again, only changing in the order of how she said it.

This is why I preferred dad in somethings, whenever I need to ask a question, dad could usually answer it clearly, that is when he's not red. When he is red, it's better to stay out of it.

"You know what honey, mother's tired. You're a smart child, you can figure it out. I'll check it again tomorrow, don't disappoint me."

After about a minute or two, mother sighed again and gave me back the paper. Only a couple seconds later, she left for her room, leaving me in the same situation as from the beginning.

At least I have the answer.

Maybe I just wasn't trying hard enough. 

Let's see what I can do.

-----

Maybe if I worked harder and longer it might help. But I've already been doing that...

I guess I'm just not good enough...

...

I don't really want to give up now since now I really don't want to disappoint Cheryl. 

"Still having trouble?"(Cheryl)

"...y- yeah..."(Reiko)

"Hmm ooh I have an idea! Did Fionne tell you anything?"(Cheryl)

"yeah I need to get a control of it's... flowy nature and then after, she dipped my hand into water."(Reiko)

"Is that so? Then how about you cup water into your hand first?"(Cheryl)

I listened to her, cupping the water into my hand, it was cold. I tried again, this time keeping the mana output around the middle. I ensured that the water never left my hand, not even a second.

I breathed in, as more and more mana I used the more control I gained. 

The ball began to float away, staying just above my two palms.

Now what do I do? At any moment, it could just pop.

...

What if I-

!!!

T- two nubs!

Two nubs at the side! 

I- I made a pinching motion with my hands and then all of a sudden, the ball grew two nubs!

I- I did it! I really did it! 

"Mom I did it!"(Reiko)

I looked at Cheryl then back to the ball, look at its small little arms. 

When my moved my arms so did the nubs, when my hand went up so did the nubs, when my down so did the nubs. It's like a puppet. It's not sophisticated enough to be a fish... but this is good too!

"...Reiko what did you just call me?"(Cheryl)

"eh? Cheryl, isn't that what I said?"(Reiko)

"...yes, you're right. I must have heard something wrong."(Cheryl)

Weirdly she was flushed red, she also had a silly grin too. What's up with her? Did I say something wrong

...

I don't think so...

Clap, clap, clap

"Good job."(Fionne)

EH!?

POP!

"Kek, krekk kek!"(Reiko)

"Oh my, bad job, very bad job."(Fionne)

Fionne flicked her fingers and all of a sudden all the water from the ground, clothes, hair and all was drained and gathered to one place. 

"Usually, you wouldn't suddenly burst the water, it can cause mold to grow."(Fionne)

Water evaporated into the steam in an instant. There was barely even a boiling process, just steam. Sc- scary...

"d- did I pass?"(Reiko)

"Hmm, I guess you did, well then here you go."(Fionne)

The ticket gently glided down to my hands. I call this a ticket even though it's more of a letter of invitation.

So this is it. A little underwhelming I think. 

"Oh yeah by the way I forgot, also have this."(Fionne)

She passed another sheet of paper, this one had both my first name and face on it. I wonder if this world has cameras too. On the bottom of the sheet was a signature and fingerprint too.

"Since you're not noteworthy, I got a personal signature from Fafnir, incase they don't let you in, and if they ask you any questions, just say you are one of her students."(Fionne)

Gracefully jumping onto the window she gave me one last glance. 

"Get yourselves a fine dress too, you both look like plebeians... Oh, also, I forgot, here take this. Cover your right eye with it, well then I bid you two goodbye."(Fionne)

And like that, she disappeared, becoming mist in the air. I caught the white eyepatch she threw. I wonder why I have to cover my eye? Is there something wrong with it?

...

"Cheryl why are you smiling like that?"(Reiko)

"It's too late for a tailor made dress, but I'm sure we can get something by the time of the ball."(Cheryl)

Oh...

Help me.

-----

...

...

...

I'm not going to talk about it.

...

...

...

'Oh lighten up! I promise you that it is going to be all worth it!'(Cheryl)

It's awful, I'm waiting in this long line, I'm wearing this stupid dress and Cheryl's not even with me!

We only had one ticket so Cheryl chose to go invisible, leaving me all alone! This dress is so tacky and uncomfortable. It's too breezy and too blue!

I can't believe she convinced me to get this! 

I mean I understood where she was coming from, I'm now a girl and all... but it's still like a piece of my old identity being tarnished in my eyes.

What makes this more humiliating was the bows and frills. This was Camilla's originally. It was a bit old and worn but still seemed way out of our budget. 

How rich must they be if this isn't gaudy or showy enough?

Of course we had to quickly get Cheryl a dress since Camilla only really had ones for my size, then again that was stretching it a bit, since the dress is a little too big for me.  It was a long nice midnight blue one piece. She wanted to match... 

Mine's a lighter colour than hers to accent my hair... I guess...

It's a shame that she can't be with me, since y'know we have one ticket and all.

It's made worse since I have a feeling everyone is staring at me. It might have to do with the fact I'm carrying three bags on me, two big ones, one small one to my side. 

What a sight it must be, a little child carrying two large bags with a small wooden wagon. I regret this already...

"Halt! Invitation!"

Oh, looks like I'm already here.

There was a guard, same white uniform as the guards from the last city, except for the occasional steel plating here and there. His right pushed forward to stop me from going, his left hand held a large spear.

Sc- scary...

"If you don't have an invitation, leave the premises immediately!"

The guard tightly grabbed the spear, bringing sideways, standing on a low and ready stance. 

"Huwah!"(Reiko)

In a panic, I reached for my bag, taking out the slightly crumpled invitation. 

Using both hands, I gave the letter to the man. 

"A plus one ey? Name! Age! Place of Birth! Date of Birth!"

"I- uhmm, n- n- name iss... my name is...."(Reiko)

AHHHH! I'M BLANKING!

"my name's k- keiko, no! K- ketsui r- w- r- weiko..."(Reiko)

uh- uh a- age, should I be honest or or should I just say something that seems reasonable.

uh... uh... uhhhhhh...

"errrr...."(Reiko)

"Soldier LAB648 C! Take her for interrogation."

"Yes Sir!"

Oh man I took too long, I'm getting interrogated already!

"Follow me promptly!"

A man from the right, wearing a less intricate uniform than the man on the left yelled out loud. My body froze for a second but I had to quickly collect my thoughts.

"poor kid..."

"they allow children this young?"

"do not tell me I have to deal with those things here too."

As I was being taken away I heard the murmurs of those behind in the line. You can those were from nobility. One it was blatantly obvious, since past a certain point, somewhere close to the gate, servants were pretty much sent out while the nobility were escorted by the other guards nearby provided by the palace. 

Two they all wore fancy, almost shining. 

Three their accents, very posh and sophisticated, they spoke their words delicately, as if it was a precious and fragile jewel.

And here I am, every now and then flubbing a word or two, thank you wisp. ¹it's a little bit of retcon, but she has an occasional lisp, I'm still going to write her text normally tho. Maybe it will get worse the more trauma she is being dealt in the future.

The path we took was far from the main palace, still within the gates, but we moved farther to left than the middle. Although one building, there seemed to a left and right wing too. 

I was taken to the left wing of course. 

Feeling the tense, trained footsteps of the guard and the very low rumbling sound from my pitiful wagon, it sure was an experience, not a good one however. 

If I wasn't an adult, I think I might've even wet myself.

I want out...

The scenery's nice at least... the grass is green, the path is paved in smooth stone, there were hedges too and a large fountain, not close to me but it was still a nice distraction. 

"Over here!"

He said, opening up the door to a large corridor. 

It looked like a dorm because of well... all the rooms and all the guards. It was the dorm for royal guards maybe. 

Either way that didn't matter as I was taken all the way to the end and into a dark room. 

Uwah... do I have to be here... alone?

'Don't be scared, I'm sure it's going to be alright and if anything goes bad, I'll be there okay?"(Cheryl)

Cheryl tried to help but it didn't work. I was made to sit on a seat opposite to the man, the door was closed and the room was pitch dark except for the lone candle.

"You said your name was Ketsui Weiko?"

"r- Reiko actually..."(Reiko)

"Let me see the invitation?"

"h- here you go sir..."(Reiko)

"What is your relationship with the Great Lady Fafnir?"

"st- student."(Reiko)

"Do you have any means of identification, such as a student id or such?"

"I- I have this..."(Reiko)

I gave him the signature Fionne gave me. He glanced at the paper quickly before tossing it aside.

"Okay then, at ease... It was scary huh?"

"eh?"(Reiko)

I nodded at him, a little confused. His tone changed so suddenly I was shocked. Going from strict soldier to laid back gentleman is something... really.

"Now can I ask to check those bags of yours? You don't actually have choice, it's a formality you know illusion of choice and all."

"..."(Reiko)

"Better hope you're not hiding a body in there."

"..."(Reiko)

"Okay then, the old silent treatment, anyway that is not a joke, it is protocol, we have to check your bag. So if I can just..."

He shuffled to the side towards my bag.

"I- m confused..."(Reiko)

"ah sorry about that, I just wanted to lighten the mood and all. By the way, don't worry too much about the interrogation, you're safe, mostly. Maybe the captain will keep an eye on you, he's the stubborn type, so when he finds someone suspicious, well it takes a lot to change his mind."

As we saying all that, he was going through both bags. He wasn't making a mess, he was actually quite polite in the way he was going through it.

"Teddy bear? Nice, my daughter has one similar to this."

"th- that's not mine!"(Reiko)

"yeah yeah."

After a minute or so, he was done. 

"That's a wrap."

"eh? That's it?"(Reiko)

"Actually, I didn't do the entire protocol, but from the looks of it, you're clean, really what could a six year old really do? Captain's just paranoid. Come, I'll escort you to a room first, then to the main hall."

"uh oh... thank you sir..."(Reiko)

"My name's Charles, call me Charles."(Charles) 

"th- thank you sir Charles."(Reiko)

"that's... whatever..."(Charles)