Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 5 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Two Teachers

Late in the afternoon, an old acquaintance of mine came to visit.

As far as I could remember, it had been a long, long time since I’d had visitors in this place, which served as both a study and a sitting room. In fact, I think my last guest might have been my favorite pupil, who had visited quite a while ago.

“’Sup.”

From the other side of the rickety door was my old friend, appearing unexpectedly and calling out to me in a fondly remembered voice. Trailing long, beautiful hair that shone softly like stardust, she entered the room exhaling plumes of smoke and closed the door behind her.

“It’s been a while.”

I bobbed my head in greeting from my side of the desk, and she sighed.

“Working in a cramped place as always, huh,” she noted, and sat down on the couch. She puffed out more smoke.

The Midnight Witch, Sheila, was still a heavy smoker. And she reeked of tobacco.

“So you still haven’t given up cigarettes?”

How about quitting?

“It’s not a cigarette. It’s a pipe.”

“Didn’t you used to smoke cigarettes?” I tilted my head, and Sheila scratched her cheek, looking just the slightest bit embarrassed.

“Yeah—my pupil gave me this.”

My, my, they must want you to die young. You’re beloved by all.

“You took on a pupil?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“It’s the first I’m hearing of it.”

“Never could find the right time to tell you,” Sheila made a noise that was half snort and half laugh, then inhaled through her pipe. “Speaking of my pupil, she’s apparently an acquaintance of yours. Her name’s Saya.”

“Saya…” I turned the name over in my mind for a moment. “Ah!”

Elaina spoke of her when she visited this country a while ago. That’s the girl who Elaina was tutoring so that she could become a witch’s apprentice, right? And now she’s Sheila’s pupil.

“The world’s a small place, isn’t it?”

“Tell me about it. By the way, I met yours, too.”

“Goodness me.”

“When I told Saya, she seemed incredibly jealous.”

“…Please tell her to keep playing nice with Elaina.”

“She’s so in love with Elaina that she thinks she can’t live without her, so I don’t imagine that’ll be a problem.”

“Please tell her to play nice in…moderation.”

“I don’t think anything I tell her’ll make a difference.” Sheila looked up at the ceiling.

All of the smoke had gathered as a sort of haze near the ceiling, slowly curling like clouds stirred by a gentle breeze. As she stared at the drifting smoke, she put the pipe in her mouth again and blew out a white breath.

“By the way, do you know what day it is?”

The clouds on the ceiling were disturbed by a new plume.

“Of course.”

Every year on this day, my old friend and former roommate came to visit me, and after we updated each other with all the new details of our separate lives, we took a vacation together.

This was our annual tradition.

Whenever Sheila came to visit me here, I would suddenly realize that it had been a year. Since we met like this every year—and since I knew we would meet again next year in the same way—I never felt nostalgia or any intense emotions, even when I did spend time apart from her.

“You ready?” Sheila asked. “I can help you pack if you need it. I’m guessing you haven’t started, like every year.”

“Can I tell you one thing first?” I answered, while staring blankly out the window.

“Hm? What?”

“This is a no-smoking room.”

Sheila looked shocked for a moment, but then she broke into a tiny smile.

“…You’re a little late!”

“I just never could find the right time to tell you.”

This is the story of something that happened when I was still traveling with my teacher.

“Say, Fran? I think I want to take on a pupil.”

While we were walking down some road in a country somewhere, my teacher had said, “Oh, come to think of it,” as if it were of no import, and then led into this conversation.

A pupil?

“Um, aren’t I your pupil…?”

What is this woman talking about?

“Yeah, yeah, you’re my pupil, of course! You’re my pupil, but I’ve been thinking I might like another one.”

Could that mean what I think it means? That her firstborn is all grown up and taken care of, so she wants to make another child? Sounds like one of those baby-crazy parents. Not that I would know.

“…Well, I don’t really mind too much. I am your pupil, nothing more and nothing less. I think you should be able to decide these things on your own.”

“My, my. But wouldn’t you be angry if I didn’t tell you?”

“You say, but you’ve already taken on a new pupil, haven’t you?”

That’s the kind of person my teacher was.

She sought my approval whenever she’d already made up her mind. In other words, by the time she was approaching me to consult a matter, it was a certainty that she had already taken the second pupil.

“I guess I have.”

I knew it.

My teacher said, “It’s all right, Fran. She’s a really nice girl. I’m sure that you’ll like her, too.”

“……”

Could that mean what I think it means? This must be like when a parent gets remarried, but their new spouse has their own child, so you suddenly start living under the same roof with another kid that you don’t know, but the parents try to console the children and say everything will turn out fine.

Well, I thought it would probably be all right.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing when your family gets bigger, right?

“So where is this new pupil?”

“I was just about to go and see her.” My teacher resumed walking, with me in tow.

“……”

I remember it didn’t take us long to get there. My teacher came to a stop in front of a certain building, pointed to it, and said her new pupil was waiting there.

My eyebrows furrowed. “…Um, miss?”

“What is it?”

The building was in ruin.

“Are you planning on taking on a ghost as a pupil?”

“No, no, she’s a nice, completely normal girl.”

If she lives in a place like this, I don’t think she can be particularly normal.

Light tumbled in through the crumbling ceiling. From atop a mountain of rubble, a single girl stared down at us.

She had golden hair that sparkled softly like stardust. She fixed her blue eyes on us.

She looked pretty much like a mage would look. She was wearing an unassuming white robe and a pointed hat. But there was nothing upon her breast. Apparently, she wasn’t an apprentice or anything, just a regular novice.

By the way, she was holding a cigarette in her mouth. A delinquent, huh?

“Hey, you’re late, miss.”

This girl seemed to know nothing of manners. She wore a bold smile as she gazed at our teacher. “You’ve got some nerve to keep me waiting,” she said as she came down from her rubble mountain.

“Sorry. It took me a little time to persuade my pupil.”

“Could you please stop lying through your teeth?” I requested. I mean, she’d basically sprung it on me during our walk here.

“Huh. So this is my senior pupil, hmm…? She looks pretty weak.”

“……” So this girl is my junior? She’s so rude from our very first meeting. What is this world coming to?

“Eh? What’s your problem? Don’t make faces at me. You wanna have a go?”

On top of that, she seemed to have a post-apocalyptic attitude, ready to leap into battle the moment we made eye contact.

Is this what this world is coming to?

“Miss. Where’s the good girl you were talking about? She’s been spitting venom ever since the moment that we met.”

“Fran, that stuff’s called tobacco.”

“No, not that.”

I know tobacco is really nasty. It causes all kinds of damage and has absolutely no benefits whatsoever, and she’s polluting the air around her. On top of that, she’s got a mean streak. And yet you find it allowable even though she’s spewing two kinds of poison?

“Well, anyway, I’ve decided to accept this girl as your junior pupil, so the two of you are going to get along, all right? Oh-hoh-hoh!” My teacher laughed.

“Nice to meet you. Um, your name is?” I extended my hand. I thought I would shake hers as a show of friendship.

“No name that I’m gonna tell you.” She slapped away my hand.

So, this is a common handshake in this region. Good to know.

“This is Fran.” My teacher snaked her arm around my shoulder. “And this is Sheila.” She placed a hand on my junior. “The two of you get along now, okay?”

“Die, shrew.” Sheila spit on the ground. It looked like it reeked.

“…Miss, this is hopeless,” I complained.

My teacher just laughed as usual.

And this is how the curtain lifted on our journey, all three of us.

The relationship between me and Sheila, frankly speaking, was so bad that it could be succinctly expressed in the single word: horrible.

We were simply not a good match. In every respect, we were complete opposites.

“Modding your broom to fit your own style is just the best—obviously. Whaddaya think of this baby? You’re head over heels, right?”

Sheila had applied all kinds of modifications to her broom, like attaching a handle and a chair back. She’d added some musical horns and flashing lights—maybe she was trying to fish up some firefly squid?—plus all kinds of things to make it go faster. It must have been what people mean when they talk about magical remodels.

“I mean, I think you can use your broom just as it is. Are you stupid? I mean, it doesn’t even look like the original broom anymore, does it? Are you an idiot?”

“Huh? You pickin’ a fight?”

“Is that all you know how to say? Are you stupid? Are you a dummy?”

“You’re the one who keeps repeating yourself. Not much in your vocabulary, eh?”

“I’m just stooping down to your level, with your limited lexicon.”

We started glaring at each other, and just before the situation could devolve into a fistfight, our teacher forced the two of us to stop. But that’s not where our poor compatibility ended.

For example, when we went out to eat—

“Fish or beef?”

When our teacher asked whether we would rather eat meat or seafood, I immediately answered, “I’d like fish,” and Sheila said, “Meat, duh.”

We glared at each other.

“If you want seafood so badly, eat by yourself. Our teacher and I will eat meat.”

“Huh? You eat by yourself, then. I will eat fish with our teacher.”

“Ehh?”

“Huhh?”

Ultimately, the three of us all ate separately that day. By the way, our teacher apparently ate bread. She was the commendable sort of person who preferred bread to either meat or fish.

Sheila and I clashed with each other at every turn.

“Fire spells or ice spells—which should I teach you today?”

When I replied, “I’d like to learn ice spells,” Sheila raised her voice. “Huh? Fire of course! Are you kidding me?”

“All right, how about we split the difference and take today off?”

Ultimately, we slacked off for the day. I think our teacher probably wanted to do nothing anyway.

“If a mage is without her wand, she can’t do anything. So you must have some techniques in case your movement is restricted, or for times when a weapon is taken up against you.”

It was extremely rare for her to teach us anything that was not magic. She was asking us what sorts of skills we wanted to learn.

“Okay, teach us some martial arts.”

“Well then, please show us how to handle a bow and arrow.”

“Ehh?”

“Huhh?”

Ultimately, she came up with an incomprehensible compromise: “All right, we’ll split the difference and I’ll teach you how to use knives. First of all, hide your knife under your skirt. This is a throwing knife, okay? Then, when you go to pull it out, lift your leg all sexy-like and—”

She hit us with a lesson on knife handling.

To give another example, we quarreled even after we had finished an assignment.

“Esteemed witches! How swiftly you solved this incident for us. As a reward, I’d like to present you with a choice between these two boxes.” Set up in front of our eyes were a large box and a small box.

Well, I thought, I must take exception to your arrogant attitude. I mean, it’s supposed to be a reward, and here you are making us choose one over the other, but I suppose…

“The small one is best,” I answered.

“It’s the big one, obviously! Use some common sense!” Sheila snarled.

“Huh? It’s an unwritten rule that in situations like this, you should choose the small one.”

“What’re you saying? Of course the big one’s better.”

“Huhh?”

“Ehh?”

After that, we glared at each other for a while.

Ultimately, our teacher approached the client. “It’s a reward, so it’s natural to give both, isn’t it? Are you trying to insult us when you say that we have to choose?”

The episode ended without any trouble.

The two of us were like water and oil. We absolutely did not mix. We collided, separated, and it was unthinkable that we would ever get along.

The rift between us grew ever wider.

“I think you’re the only person I’ll never ever get along with.”

“My, my, what a coincidence. I also feel I could never get along with you and only you.”

That was the one point on which we agreed.

The relationship between us was horrible, yet we continued our travels together. Oddly enough, though we clashed at every turn, we never once reached a settlement. When it came to magical ability, we were evenly matched.

Our teacher just smiled and watched as we fought all the time.

“…Miss, why did you take Sheila as a pupil?”

One day, I asked her this question when Sheila wasn’t around.

“Curious?”

I thought there must be some deeper reason. For once, our teacher didn’t smile her ambiguous smile, but rather stared back at me quietly. It had been a long time since I had seen her look so serious.

I nodded and waited for her to speak. Why on earth could my teacher have taken Sheila as a pupil? Could it have been because she had magical talent? Or maybe because she was being blackmailed…?

I had all kinds of speculations running around my mind. My teacher clapped a hand down on my shoulder and said just one thing.

“It’s because she’s a good cook.”

“……”

Apparently, Sheila had exploited my teacher’s appetite.

The relationship between us was horrible all the time.

It got so bad that we couldn’t even have a proper conversation if our teacher didn’t get in between us, but we were stuck together on this journey.

Then, one day—

“Welcome. This is the town of Qunorts, the Free City.”

We arrived at a small port city situated on the coast. The faint scent of seawater drifted over the town, where houses with orange roofs and unassuming white walls had been built with their eaves all in neat rows.

It was actually a beautiful little city, but we were not in such a great mood. All along the road, we had passed a huge number of signs and billboards on display with discriminatory phrases like, DEFY MAGES! and MAGES ARE NOT TO BE FEARED! and MAGES ARE DEVIL’S CHILDREN! and so on.

You could say it was incendiary.

“What’s this place’s deal? Are they trying to pick a fight with us?”

Ordinarily, I would be ready to disagree with anything Sheila said just because she had been the one to say it, but in this instance, I could not help agreeing.

“…It seems we aren’t welcome in this country,” I said.

“I wonder…” In contrast to the two of us, who were making no effort to hide our displeasure, our teacher remained quite composed. “Although there may be hints of that here, we shouldn’t write off the entire city. If that’s your stance, you’re no different from the bunch who hung up all those posters and signs.”

“……”

“……”

We looked at each other in silence, and she continued, “There’s someplace that I’d like to drop by, if that’s all right.”

We stopped walking.

UNITED MAGIC ASSOCIATION, QUNORTS BRANCH.

Before our eyes was a building with a sign written in a script that looked almost shy.

“My apologies for keeping you waiting, venerated witches—”

Our teacher may have been a traveler, but she was also a skilled witch, and so she was frequently called upon by the confidential organization known as the United Magic Association.

From suppressing insurrections to transporting baggage, the jobs she was entrusted with had an incredible range, but our teacher basically did not turn any of them down.

“Spare me the niceties. How much does the job pay?”

“Well, first, I’d like to give you a description of the commission—”

“How much does it pay?”

“……”

The reason was simple. She was obsessed with money.

“…Ten gold pieces.”

“Humph.” She was nodding apathetically at the staff member of the United Magic Association, but inside, her heart was leaping for joy. “All right, and the description?”

Her ulterior motive made her seem rather rude and unpolished, but this country was apparently facing a situation at the moment that they couldn’t resolve without relying on her.

“In our city, there is presently a criminal organization using an antique shop as a cover for their illegal activity… You all might have caught sight of their work around town? The posters and signs slandering mages.”

According to the representative from the United Magic Association, the staff at the antique shop was a clichéd mob of thugs working as robbers and pickpockets in town. There was none among them who could use magic, and for that reason, they were more against mages, who had special powers, than the normal crowd. They had apparently harassed and slandered the United Magic Association on countless occasions.

I see, I suppose ordinary thieves would consider mages to be a threat.

However—

“If you’re getting harassed, then you can just go and retaliate, can’t you? I mean, they can’t even use magic, right?”

Beside me, Sheila asked out loud the question I was thinking.

It was a reasonable concern. What reason could there possibly be for going out of the way to pay a group of outsiders to resolve the situation?

“We’ve confronted them many times before. It’s very hard to tell you this, but…as embarrassing as it is, we’ve never been able to stand up to them even once, to say nothing of arresting them.”

“…Is there some reason for that?”

The staff member nodded at my teacher. “They’ve got some kinds of strange tools. For example, invisibility cloaks, swords that can cut through anything, guns that never run out of ammo, matches that induce hallucinations—”

Because of the antique dealers’ ability to skillfully manipulate these mysterious objects and use them to toy with the mages, he said, the public had practically lost all trust in the United Magic Association.

They were doing the same things as magic—perhaps even more—without using magic, relying instead on these cryptic objects that could conjure special energies, he told us.

Since they were plastering up inflammatory posters and signs wherever they pleased, it seemed certain the people in this city no longer had faith in magic users.

As the clerk had finished his browbeaten tale with a look of exhaustion, he turned his gaze toward our teacher. “Can’t you do something about it…?”

“……” She was keeping intently silent, and her eyes were not focused around us, but somewhere far away, as if she were looking across the ocean. It was as if she had suddenly come to understand something.

After a brief pause, she offered a short snort. “Understood. I promise this matter will be completely resolved.”

“Thank you very much! If a skilled witch such as yourself promises to resolve the matter, then even that—”

“Oh no. Not by me.” She cut the enthusiastic clerk down. “These two will solve the problem, right?”

She placed her hands down on our shoulders.

……

Excuse me?

Immediately after we’d checked into our hotel, our teacher cheerfully clapped her hands. “All right. Allow me to explain the rules!”

It was as if she were kicking off some kind of game.

“Starting today, the two of you shall trap and arrest the Antique Store Posse. They may be in possession of certain bothersome tools that would cause trouble for an ordinary mage, but those won’t be any problem for two pupils of mine, right? After all, you’re no ordinary mages.”

She had a really nonchalant way of speaking, but her words seemed to be saying: “Failure is not an option for any student of mine.” To rephrase it unkindly, she seemed to be telling us, “Whoever doesn’t pass gets the boot.”

“Hmm—so in other words, you’ve got no need for the one who can’t resolve the matter, and you want her to quit being your student? I like the way you think.” Beside me, Sheila grinned and offered those nasty words.

“……”

Apparently, as horrible as our relationship was, we were both thinking the same thing.

“Interpret it however you like. The time limit is three days. Show me what you can do before that time has passed.”

Our teacher neither confirmed nor denied her intentions. With that, she left the room.

And so the curtain rose on our three days.

“Eeek! Wait! Wait! I’m sorry! It was all my fault! Please just spare my life—”

The man I had chased into an alley raised both his hands in the air. His teeth were chattering, and his eyes filled with tears.

This must be what it means to be a cornered cat.

“I’m not going to take your life. I’m after that weapon of yours.”

I had my wand pointed at the sword in the man’s hand. He was a member of the Antique Store Posse and the owner of a sword that could cut through anything.

After collecting some eyewitness testimony in town, I had gone directly to the scene of the crime and ended up running him down.

“Hey, wait a second!” A voice came from behind me. “I’m the one who first laid eyes on that guy. I’ll be taking his weapon.”

When I turned around, Sheila was pointing her wand at me.

“I am the one who chased him down. Which means I have the right to claim the spoils.”

“No, I used you to chase him down. Which means I’ve got priority. Understand?”

“I don’t understand, and I wouldn’t hand him over even if I did.”

“Ehh?”

“Huh?”

We glared at each other for a little while, but as always, we were at an impasse.

“……”

“……”

We didn’t bother finishing the argument once we realized the cornered man had escaped while we had been absorbed in our bickering.

The three days of our contest passed at the same pace.

Whenever one of us would chase down a member of the Antique Store Posse, the other would get in the way.

For example, when Sheila chased down one of the owners of a gun that never ran out of bullets, I went and interfered. Another time, when I caught one of the men who had an invisibility cloak, Sheila came to usurp my achievement.

“What’s with you? Are you trying to get in my way? Or do you just want our teacher’s approval?”

We clashed at every turn.

“Shut up! This has nothing to do with you.” Sheila blew toxic purple smoke in my face.

“……”

“……”

We glared at each other.

“…Humph.” I turned away.

Ultimately, since we kept getting in each other’s way, we didn’t manage to collect a single one of the extremely important special weapons.

If things keep going like this, I won’t even manage to get my hands on any of them, and our teacher will run out of patience. I was fueled by these worries.

Then one day—

“You there. You’ve been going around trying to take down the Antique Store.”

I was sipping hot coffee and reading the newspaper alone at a café, searching for more information, when a voice came from the table directly behind me.

Inside the café, which I could see over my newspaper, was a waitress hard at work, an affectionate couple who seemed oblivious to their surroundings, a man in a suit who clearly had too much free time, and all sorts of others.

I was certainly not alone, so at first, I thought the voice might have been calling out to someone else at some other table.

“Hey, I’m talking to you. Fran? Or whatever your name is.”

Oh, me? I turned around when my name was called.

I saw long red hair. The other person was facing away from me, toward an empty table. They were looking down, and the hat they were wearing obscured their expression. Slowly, the person turned toward me, until nearly half of a woman’s face became visible, and she quickly turned away again.

The only thing I had seen were her long, sharp canines.

“Where did you learn my name?”

“Well, the details aren’t important, are they?” The nameless Fang Lady laughed loudly. “More importantly, how’s it going? Is your assignment going well?”

“Does it look like it’s going well?”

I held up the newspaper so that she could see. On the page was the headline: LEADER OF THE ANTIQUE STORE POSSE ANNOUNCES, “WE WILL HAVE THE HEADS OF THE MAGES WHO KEEP ATTACKING OUR MEMBERS.” To the surprise of no one, Sheila and I had completely failed to keep a low profile. This unknown leader—we knew neither his name nor his face—was apparently quite angry with us.

“Huh. Looks like you’ve gotten yourself into quite a dangerous situation. Did you pick a fight with that gang?”

“No, but this works in our favor.”

“Hmm? Why’s that? Your life is on the line, isn’t it?” Even though I couldn’t see her eyes, I could somehow tell that Fang Lady was furrowing her brow.

“It means they’re coming to me. It’ll save me the time and effort of searching for them,” I continued, holding the newspaper in front of my face. “The problem is there’s a chance that my junior pupil will get there first. She’s a bold and disagreeable girl, but she’s fairly capable, so she might take down the Antique Store before I can.”

“Huh… Someone’s confident…” Fang Lady mumbled to herself. “By the way, do you know all the particulars about the Antique Store Posse?”

“The particulars?”

“Who the members are. The purpose of the organization. The location of their base. How they go about acquiring their tools.”

“I’m not interested in any of that. I just need to crush them, right?”

“Uh-huh.” She looked like she was nodding. “Total, reckless self-confidence—”

It sounded like someone was snapping their fingers.

I didn’t know who had snapped or why, but I felt slightly uneasy the instant I heard the noise and raised my face from behind the newspaper again. Then I knew it was all over.

“……”

Surrounding my table were the waitress and all the customers pointing weapons at me. They were armed with swords and guns, and even knives and forks.

“Let me give you one piece of good news.” Directly behind me, the woman with the fangs sounded like she was smiling. “You don’t have to worry about your little friend taking down the Antique Store before you get the chance. Because we’ve already captured her.”

“……”

“Oh, and don’t even think of resisting. Make one suspicious move, and we’ll take off your head right here.”

“……”

That was the very first time I realized my own stupidity.

Maybe I had been blind to this because of the three-day time limit, or because of my growing frustration with my junior, or because of my inflated ego. At this point, I didn’t know which of those might have been the cause. They had probably all worked together to lead me to this rotten end.

“Take her away. Deal with her.”

The one thing I can say for sure is that, back then, I was a hopeless fool.

“…You gotta be kidding me. They caught you just like that?! What an inept senior you are.”

“…They caught you before me. What an utterly useless junior you are.”

“……”

“……”

Our words lacked the usual vigor. Not surprising, considered we’d been taken prisoner in the Antique Store Posse’s base of operations.

We were in a dim room. The air was a little damp. Orange light trickled down from a ceiling lamp, causing the particles of dust that danced through the room to sparkle.

In the middle of the room, we were surrounded.

Rope was wound around our arms, restraining our movement down to our wrists. I didn’t think I could do much like this. The lower half of my body wasn’t bound, so I could probably have run away, but I had just been told that they’d kill me if I moved, and their weapons were pointed right at us. The phrase nothing else could be done seemed entirely appropriate.

“You mages are always like this, always getting in the way of our work with your weird powers. I can’t stomach it. I really can’t.” The woman with fangs was here. “Nevertheless, you really are a pitiful lot. As if we would lose to two shrimpy little apprentices!”

Fang Lady heaved a huge sigh. This woman, who appeared to be the leader of the Antique Store Posse, looked at her comrades as they surrounded us, holding weapons at the ready, with cold eyes.

And then, she looked at us, too.

“Seems you two are quite the talkers. We overheard everything, you know? How you’re having some kind of contest to hunt down our members. What is that? Do you think messing with our livelihood is some kinda game? Huh?”

Fang Lady placed her finger under Sheila’s chin and tilted her face upward, looking down at her with a cool expression.

Sheila stared back, looking angry as always. After glancing over at me for just a second, she said, “…It was never a game. We wanted to take you down.”

And then she spit a big wad of phlegm right in Fang Lady’s face.

It looked like it stank of nicotine and poison. Her spit looked so toxic, I half expected Fang Lady to get lung cancer on the spot. I’m pretty sure it increased her risk for a heart attack or stroke.

Sheila was rude as ever, even in the face of mortal danger.

“Huh? Do you think you can disrespect me?” Fang Lady’s eyebrow twitched.

“P’tooie.” Sheila spit at her again, utterly merciless. It really did seem rank.

“Don’t mess around! Don’t you understand the position you’re—”

“P’tooie.”

“Hey. That’s quite enough out of—”

“P’tooie.”

“……”

“P’tooie.”

“…………Ewww.”

Before I knew it, the corners of Fang Lady’s eyes were gradually filling up with tears. More likely spit. No matter which one it was, it looked like it reeked.

Sheila’s persistent attacks may have succeeded. Fang Lady muttered, “Ugh…gross.” She disappeared from the room…or so I thought, but she just wiped her face off and came back again.

“…Humph! What a joke! You there! Deal with these two! Immediately!”

In that moment, as she was barking out orders, every eye in the room was gathered on Fang Lady.

That moment itself was the best chance we were going to get.

Thud. The rope restraining our arms fell to the ground. It was lucky we remembered the sneaky knife skills our teacher had taught us once as a compromise.

“—Ah-hah!” Sheila grasped her wand and blasted the weapons out of Miss Fang’s henchmen’s hands.

“—Okay!” I did the same, incapacitating them.

They were open about their hatred for mages, but just like mages, if they didn’t have their special weapons, they were nothing but ordinary people.

Could it be hatred born of semblance?

“Wha…!” Our surprise attack seemed to have worked. The expression on Fang Lady’s face told me that much. “W-what are you doing? Take those little witches down right now!”

Ignoring her panicked commotion, we fought on.

In the henchmen’s hands were swords and guns, shields and spears, and all kinds of other stuff. There was no need to go out of our way to kill them; as soon as we stripped them of their weapons, they lost any kind of will to resist.

One after another after another, we confiscated their weapons. We collected every one we could see.

The weapons piled up on the ground. Perhaps because we were faced with real danger, we had forgotten all about our contest. We had snatched their weapons from them one by one, while guarding the ones we had already collected in between us, behind our backs.

—Apparently, we underestimated the situation.

It would probably have been easy enough to take each one of the criminals down on their own. We could have even turned it into a competition. But we didn’t have the time to spare.

Rather than thinking that Sheila was revolting, or resenting her audacity despite being my junior, or anything along those lines, I was thinking only about survival.

I’m sure she must have been thinking the same.

“ ”

It was certainly a strange feeling.

Even now, I remember it well.

The girl I hated had become very reliable—even though we were always in disagreement. Even though we were always fighting. Even though she was always my exact opposite.

The two of us were like a mirrored pair.

It had taken us much too long to realize that simple fact.

Before I knew it, we had managed to pile up many weapons and tools beside us.

By the time it was all over, we were completely exhausted, and Sheila and I sank to the floor, back to back. We had drained nearly all our magical reserves, our breaths were ragged, and we were dripping with sweat, but we lacked the energy to wipe it away.

We had bound the members of the Antique Store Posse with rope, but we didn’t have the energy remaining to haul them to the branch office of the United Magic Association.

“…Let’s carry them off after we rest for a little bit.”

I could feel Sheila nod in response. “Agreed.”

“……”

“……”

“Hey you,” Sheila muttered. In a small voice, as if she were talking to herself, she spoke to my back. “Why are you learning magic under that teacher?”

“…Why shouldn’t I?”

“I’m just asking. Don’t raise your eyebrows at me.”

“Oh, can you see my face?”

“I can tell somehow, even without looking.”

“……”

I questioned her right back. “Why did you decide to learn magic from our teacher?”

“I don’t really have any particular reason—”

The story that she told me then was the kind of thing you hear all the time.

In the country where she and I had met, Sheila had been an orphan, but she had lived by herself, strong of will.

She had studied magic on her own and used it for pickpocketing, extortion, and other rather questionable activities. She had met my teacher on one such day.

As usual, she had been using magic to steal wallets, but unfortunately for her, her target of the day was my teacher. Sheila could use magic but had no schooling, so she couldn’t have known just how powerful a ranking witch could be.

She was caught in the act by my teacher.

“That’s when she filled me in. There are people in this world called witches, which just means they’re strong mages. And when you become a witch, you’re able to get a good job right away. She told me I could stop living like a stray cat. And so I decided I wanted to become a witch,” she explained.

“See? It’s not such a great reason, is it?” Spitting out the words like she thought they were stupid, Sheila snorted. “And how ’bout you?”

“My name is Fran.” Then I answered, “I don’t have any great reason either—”

If I were to write it down, my story would take only a few lines.

“There are no witches in my hometown. So if I become a witch, I’ll be the only one in town. I’ll be set for life, yes? That’s why.”

“……”

“The reason I decided to study under our particular teacher is even simpler. When I kept failing the advancement exam to become a witch’s apprentice, I got her to tutor me in spellcasting, and I passed. So when I was looking at becoming someone’s student, I apprenticed under her.”

“…So you became her pupil for selfish reasons.”

Well, I suppose if you boil it down, that’s the case.

Behind my back, Sheila let out a quiet laugh.

“…What the heck? You and I are the same, aren’t we?”

“……”

We had always had our backs to each other, facing opposite directions.

Maybe we had always been closer to each other than to anyone else.

“Guess so.”

I realized I was laughing. The warm body against my back was trembling, too. I wondered if I had started it, or if she had. I still wonder which it was.

Somehow or other I felt like I knew, even without looking.

Everything after that was easy.

Starting with Fang Lady, we personally locked the Antique Store Posse away in prison, via the United Magic Association branch office.

She and her gang hadn’t done anything particularly bad like murder—only petty theft—so their crimes were not that serious.

“Even by the weightiest estimate, they’ll just be sentenced to several years of hard labor, huh?” Our teacher shrugged.

She told us that the mysterious tools that the Antique Store Posse had used had been brought in from an island country through one of the ports in the Free City Qunorts. She also said that she had visited that island country once before meeting me and Sheila—and that’s why she had recognized the tools.

According to the laws, taking the tools out of the island country was prohibited.

“…That’s why we needed to gather them all up and return them to the island country. Good job recovering them, you two.”

Our teacher sent the recovered equipment back, accompanied by a letter that read: We recovered these for you, so hand over the reward, okay? It seemed like she knew important people there.

Yes, yes, thank you for your hard work. (From now on whenever you find something, go ahead and destroy it on the spot. Don’t go to the trouble of sending it back. It’s a nuisance to have you demanding money every time!)

A letter to that effect was sent back, along with a rather sizable sum of money.

In other words, we were paid by two parties—both the United Magic Association and the island country.

How underhanded. How cunning.

“See? Travelers can earn money this way.”

Our teacher laughed to herself.

This underhanded, sleazy way of getting money wasn’t something that I wanted to learn from her. Unfortunately, it seemed to have been inherited perfectly by her daughters.

This was what they called genetics.

From there, our journey continued.

Sheila had always been comfortable swimming with the tides, so she quickly became a witch’s apprentice and had a corsage pinned to her breast, just as I had.

The two of us together, under our teacher’s guidance, were taught in time all the dirty ways adults made money, along with some very respectable spells suitable for reputable mages.

We traveled along like that for about half a year.

In the end, when our teacher was about to return to her hometown, the two of us received our names as witches.

“Fran, your hair is black, right? So you’re the Stardust Witch.” She pinned a star-shaped brooch on my breast.

“Sheila, your hair is shiny, right? So you’re the Midnight Witch.” She pinned one on Sheila, too.

We tilted our heads, wondering how on earth our teacher had come up with those names.

“My hair is black so I’m the Stardust Witch? What does that mean?”

Shouldn’t I be the Midnight Witch if my hair’s black?

Shouldn’t Sheila be the Stardust Witch, with her blond hair?

Aren’t our names reversed?

Our teacher smiled, looking like she had been waiting for me to ask exactly that.

“Midnight and Stardust set each other off to an advantage when they’re together.”

“Uh, I don’t quite understand what you mean.”

“……” Our teacher had sulkily fallen silent.

Glancing sidelong at our teacher, Sheila said, “…In other words, the two of us will stay together even if we’re apart, or at least, that’s the message that she’s put into the names. That’s what she’s trying to say.” She looked at me in exasperation.

“……” Our teacher’s cheeks had turned quite red, so Sheila’s guess was probably correct.

Ah, how simple.

“But why did you derive our names from our hair color?”

I tilted my head again, and our teacher flashed another smile before answering me.

“Because it’s cool.”

After our journey with our teacher was over, I went back to my hometown and became a schoolteacher. Surprisingly, Sheila started working at the United Magic Association.

She got such a respectable job that you would never imagine that she had once earned her daily bread through pickpocketing and blackmail.

I wonder if I should expose her someday once she reaches a high standing? Just kidding.

“…You’ve changed, haven’t you?” Sheila asked.

“Both of us have aged,” I replied. It was a line more suited for an old woman.

As if she was surprised by what I’d said, Sheila let out a white puff of breath as she walked along beside me under the autumn sky. “Are we really old hags now?”

Ah, of course she had a comeback.

“Anyway,” Sheila continued, “from where I stand, you’re the one who looks like she’s changed.”

“I do?”

I’ve always looked like this, haven’t I?

“Before, you were always quick to argue with me,” she said. “But now you look like an old lady fully enjoying the retired life.”

“How mean…”

“I kinda miss the rambunctious side of you.”

“Are you lonely?” I asked.

“Not particularly.” Sheila answered. “Really, though, I do like our relationship now better than before when we did nothing but fight. It’s…comfortable.”

“…You really have changed.”

Sheila snorted. “I suppose we’ve both grown up.”

We had each walked our own paths after finishing our journey together.

But we had never grown estranged.

Once a year, the two of us met. We weren’t really obligated to go on this trip, and on the other hand, we weren’t walking around clinging dearly to each other twenty-four-seven either.

Somehow or other, we had decided together that this was the right level of distance.

“Well then, shall we go this year, too?”

I looked up at the sky. Every year since our travels together had ended, I had rather looked forward to going on a trip with Sheila.

So the two of us climbed aboard our brooms and left the city.

The deep green grass rustled. The wind blew strong and chilly, letting us know that winter would be here shortly.

“It’s the new moon, I think.” Flying on her broom next to me, Sheila looked up at the sky.

I followed her lead, and her gaze. I was captivated.

The stardust sparkling in the midnight sky was very, very beautiful.