While the others grilled Ahio about his mission to save the donkey, I borrowed Daisuke's tome and leafed through it. Some pages hung by a thread, yellowed and likely printed decades ago. From spells to runic prisons, the book spoke of everything scholars could dig up about witches. It showed diagrams of rituals that burned anything in the area, of amulets that could heal, and even a spell that could kill with the flick of a finger.

Whoever this man was, whether he was a witch, found a witch or looted one of their homes, I needed to know what we were up against.

While we stayed for lunch, a juicy chicken roast with sauteed vegetables, and didn't leave till night set in, I could barely pry my fingers off the book and return it. My list of fields to research now held one more topic.

That night, I stayed up late meditating. Every time I closed my eyes, I wished I'd read another chapter of Blade Fables, with Yuuhei by my side, grinning at me and saying something ridiculous. But every time I opened them, all I saw was my room in Heikisato.

***

February 5. Fourteen and a half years old. Saishuu Riku.

I was late.

Or I would be if the queue dwindled away at the rate it was going. Swordsmen with quests to do, merchants who've had their goods stolen and officials with boring paperwork fidgeted around me in the HQ. I should've asked the receptionist where the replacement unit was when I'd had the chance last time.

As the seconds flew closer to seven o’clock, my stomach twisted. As if it weren’t bad enough that I had to join a whole new team, now I was late. What would they think of me? What if they'd all been up early today and had to wait for me for ages? This was the price I had to pay for refusing to wake up with the sun on a Sunday.

On my defense, it was Sunday.

With five minutes to go, I reached the end of the line. Before someone could jump in and take my spot, I got the directions and squeezed my way through the crowd. If I ran as fast as I could, up two flights of stairs and a few corridors, I could do it. I'd arrive in the nick of time.

A minute before my watch struck seven, I skidded to a stop in front of room number fifteen, where the letter said my team, squad six, should meet up in. My breaths came heavy and hurt my airways. First the queue, and now my own stamina wanted to make me tardy.

Once I'd begun to breath like a normal human, I opened the door with a trembling hand and took a step in the well-lit, wood-panelled room. When a great brown bear jumped on me.

As I stumbled and almost fell, my brain caught up. No not a bear, but someone with a ton of brown hair. Their arms encircled me tight in a hug. Perhaps they were a bear after all.

As soon as it happened, they let me go and stepped back. My eyes no longer covered by a mass of curls, I saw the attacker. A slight girl, maybe my age or younger, crossed her arms and grinned at someone behind her.

‘Hah, I told you it'll be a boy! I win the bet.’ As she laughed and turned around, her long curls bounced around her sky-blue dress,

My cheeks grew hot. I'm never going to be late again. Not even on Sundays.

‘Oh don't be shy, you're as red as a tomato. My name's Cho and I'm a medic, you?’ she asked, her nut-brown eyes glinting as bright as her smile.

My cheeks grew even hotter. I did not deserve this for waking up late.

‘Tahro--Tahro Akagi. I'm a fighter.’

'Great to meet you Tahro, I was wondering if you'd ever come.' She struck out her hand and winked. 'You're not actually a girl though, are you?'

With every word she spoke, the hopes of my blush ever going away diminished.

I shook her hand. 'No.'

'Can we get back to business now?' asked a new voice with a sigh.

My gaze shifted to the corner it came from. A lithe boy my age stared at me from his seat by a window. Along with his raven hair, the unfolded collars of his navy-blue shirt framed a small face.

‘I'm Kei, your team leader,’ He steepled his fingers. ‘If you're done wasting time, is ten o'clock tomorrow okay for you to start our quest? The rest of us agreed on it while you were dilly dallying.’

As Cho told Kei to take it easy, his words stung me like wasps. It took all I had to not defend myself. ‘Yeah…um, the time is good.’

The boy stood up. On both sides of his hip hung a v-shaped sheath. Boomerangs. Did he use them to fight? We,’d never had them in general training. Could he use them to fight?

‘If that's all, everyone's free to leave,’ he said and walked closer. ‘I hope you're better than the loser we had before. And don't be late again.’

This time I had to bite down on my tongue. I wasn't even late, if anything, I was a minute early. As he passed by, Cho followed him and swat his shoulder, saying something about being too harsh. He'd better listen.

As I swirled around to leave, my eyes caught the figure of a girl by the window opposite where Kei had sat. Of course, my last teammate, the informant.

With her large round glasses and striped purple overalls, she looked like a ring-tailed lemur. On one hand she held a notebook, a thumb in between its pages, and with the other, she nibbled on the end of a pen. Her fluffy blond hair stood out against mahogany-like skin, as she stared out the window.

Should I say hi? But it was too early in the morning to tactfully break someone's trance. I'd meet her tomorrow anyway. I left the room and the girl with her thoughts.

***

Once out of the HQ, I took a different path to the one that led to my apartment. Unlike the narrow alleys, the paved roads winded around the heart of Heikisato. Before long, I was surrounded by the training grounds and school I'd frequented for the last four years. Vast lecture halls, amphitheatres for mock fights and the library, a tower, stood side by side.

The wind carried the noise of several clashing weapons and voices. Here and there, children ran to their classes, lugging heavy bags. Scant a month ago, that was me, rushing between these buildings with friends four years my junior. They'd all graduated too, now in special training.

On route to the library, I kicked up some dirt. While being around people my own age was nice, it hurt to lose everyone I knew. Those I'd played with in the parks had left to train with their mentors. Some had gone back to their home villages, while others are too busy to meet up.

I wished Yuuhei were here, with his shark-like grin and half-done art. We could have fun at food stalls, read books together and chatter all day long.

If nothing else, I wished I could stay as a replacement for squad eleven. Ahio wouldn't be able to go on new quests for a long while yet, so they needed one. But it seems I'd lost the spot to someone else.

I stepped inside the library tower. Bookcases cramped around its circular walls, and sunlight flitted in through the windows in between. A chandelier at the top gave light that bounced off the railings that spiralled to each level. In the reading area on the ground floor, most of the armchairs and ottomans lay unoccupied. Aside from a few shuffling pages and whispers, the tower was as quiet as can be.

I scampered up to the balcony on the third level. Texts on psychology lined the shelves, and a poster above each bookcase clarified its subject matter. I made a leeway to the area labelled Meditation.

While I'd made little progress on using the connection between both my selves, I'd come up with enough theories to test out. If I imagined my situation as two souls connected together, as if with an umbilical cord, then some part of me, like my mind, could cross over. Like the time I'd fought with my mother. Perhaps, if I entered a deep trance, in Saishuu Riku while tugging at the cord, I could do it again.

I fished out a few titles on falling into a hypnotic state. After getting some old tomes on witches from the second floor, I checked out the books and left.

***

Several tries later, I huffed and opened my eyes. This was impossible. Regardless of the steps I'd followed, the number of deep breaths I took or how I'd made myself nearly asleep, the great mushroom-like HQ still stood outside my window.

What had I done different that day when I'd wanted to save Ahio? I'd wanted to inform the authorities here. I'd wanted to know if Ahio lived or died. Now I wanted to know if I'd changed anything. If the Minister had planned something and I'd screwed it up. What was I doing wrong?

My breath caught. No, I was not doing anything different. Every time I'd closed my eyes here, thoughts about Blade Fables, about Saishuu Riku swam in my mind. How had I not realized this before?

I was pulling on the wrong end of the cord.

A smile tugged at my lips, as I took a few deep breaths like the books had told me to. I scrunched my eyelids shut. They hid the sword by my door, and the crystal glass dome outside my room. This time I envisioned Yuuhei's face. His shark tooth and messy black hair. The stupid conversations my heart ached to have again.

What wouldn't I do to speak to my best friend one more time?

An eighth grade maths textbook flashed in front of me. The image disappeared as soon as it came like it were nothing but a product of my own imagination.

A wave of euphoria washed over me and my heart beat quick. For the first time, I broke my meditation and grinned. I'd figured it out.