Yamuraiha

"Hey, (y/n). Come here," I call. "Hai." She sits opposite me on the floor, my magical items arranged around us on the floor. "So...I want to try this spell. Would you mind helping me?" I ask. She nods quietly.

Hm...is it just me or has (y/n) been a little quiet lately? I wonder what happened. Maybe this spell will help her take her mind off of things.

I've been developing a spell that has similar effects to the Eight-Color Magic Sorting Crystal. The Sorting Crystal helps magicians find our which type of magic they have the best affinity for (mine is water obviously). I've been trying to create a crystal for regular people. Of course, not all of us are magicians. But each of us has our own rukh and magoi. And each of us has an affinity to a certain type of rukh.

"Here. Hold this," I tell her, putting a small crystal statue in front of her. She hesitates.

"Yamuraiha-san..."

"What is it?" I ask, concerned.

"Why does this statue look like a deformed dodo head?"

"Wha-I-it's not a dodo! It's a swan!" I stutter, blood rushing to my face.

I take a deep breath. "Anyway. Just hold it," I say.

She picks it up carefully with both hands.

With the Eight-Color Magic Sorting Crystal, magicians infuse some magoi into it. My special crystal is designed to draw out a bit of magoi from the holder and create a small effect based on the rukh they have the closest affinity to, like a flame or a small fountain of water or a flash of light. It's like allowing non-magicians kind of create their own little magic.

Something starts to form inside the crystal.

Hm...I wonder what kind of rukh (y/n) will have? Will she be a sound type? Or a water type like me?

Something dark forms inside the crystal.

A strength type maybe?

I hear a faint twittering sound.

A sound type, then.

The twittering sound grows so loud that it sounds more like...screaming.

Crash!

I yelp and cover my face from the explosion. Shards of crystal, along with the dark...something, shoot across the room.

Breathing hard, I lower my arms. The screaming's stopped. The dark stuff is gone too, as if it's never even been there. Pieces of my swan head statue lay all over the floor.

The door bursts open and Sharrkan runs into the room. "What happened?" he yells. I wipe the sweat from my forehead. I myself don't entirely know the answer to that question.

"(Y/n)!" Sharrkan exclaims, his eyes widening as they fall on her bleeding hands. I rush over to her and grab her hands, pieces of crystal cracking under my feet.

"Don't worry. I'll heal you right n-"

She gets up abruptly. "(Y/n)?" I say. She bows. "I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you," she says before leaving the room.

"Yamuraiha, what happened?" Sharrkan asks me again. "I asked her to try one of my spells," I explain.

"What, you mean that dodo head that you gave me the other day?"

"It was a SWAN! And I'm sure it was working properly. I mean, I already tried it on you first."

"It shot lightning at me."

"Well that was because you have an affinity for lightning rukh."

Sharrkan scratches the back of his head. "Anyway, don't you think (y/n)'s been acting kind of weird lately?" I nod. I'm really disappointed. I was hoping to cheer her up with my crystal statue. But what the heck just happened back there? What was that dark stuff? It could've just been strength magic but...that noise. It sounded like the rukh. Extremely agitated rukh.

I sigh and look around my room, an uneasy feeling still lingering inside me. After getting all this cleaned up, I'd better go and find (y/n). She had nothing to apologise for. Maybe my crystal had gone wrong. Maybe it drew too much magoi from her. What happened wasn't her fault.

Wasn't it?