魔法のレッスン

***Before I start I'd like to thank Eka-chan (ekadarmayanthi) and greyrani-san for always commenting on every chapter and motivating me to always write more! :'3 Also, thanks to chuamx and Xsalvia and shiLOVEchi.  I greatly appreciate all my commenters.***

***

"Yuri..." Ryosuke whispered, sitting in the pitch black room he called 'home' now.  "I miss sharing a room with you..." He pulled his legs up and wrapped his arms around them, putting his head down.  

*11 Years Prior*

*September, Akanashian Year 281*

      “Ewwww, Okaa-san,” Ryosuke whined, “Yuri is drooling all over me!”

      “Little kids do that, Ryosuke,” she told him as she made dinner, “Not too long ago you were drooling all over your older brothers.”

      “I didn’t drool,” he said proudly as he tried to push his little brother away from him a bit. 

      “Oh yes you did,” she laughed, “In fact I think you drooled much more than Yuri does.”

      “Ew,” he made a face as the drool dripped on his hand, “Okaa-san, wipe it!”

      She sighed as she stirred the stew over the fire, “Daiki please help your brother!”

      “Ryosuke you’re such a baby,” Daiki took Yuri from him.  Yuri had learned how to walk this year, but Ryosuke wished he would learn to stop drooling all over him and stop crying all the time. 

      “Ryosuke, you have to take good care of Yuri from now on,” his mother told him as Daiki was wiping Yuri’s mouth.

      “Why?” Ryosuke asked innocently, running over the toy box grabbing a wooden train.

      “Because Yuri’s going to move into your room soon,” she said suddenly.

      “EHH?” Ryosuke dropped the train he had, “What!?”

      “Don’t make that face at me,” his mother laughed a bit, “Soon Yuri will be too old to continue sleeping with your father and me.”

      “But I’m five now!  I need my own room!  Everyone else gets to keep their rooms!  He can move in with Keito-nii-san.”

      “No way,” Keito came into the main room, “I’ve got to study.  Ryosuke, you only just entered school and are closer in age with Yuri.  It’s only natural that you share a room with him.”

      “I’m doing good in school!” Ryosuke defended himself.

      “Well,” Keito said.

      “What?”

     “I said it’s well,” Keito fought, “Not, ‘I’m doing good’.  It’s ‘I’m doing well in school’.”

      “What?” Ryosuke said once more, “Anyway, Okaa-san I’m learning more about magic now.  I study hard too, so why do I have to share a room with Yuri?”

      “It’s final Ryosuke,” she pat the boy on the head and Ryosuke heard Yuri giggling in the other room.  He was laughing at him, Ryosuke thought, what an evil baby!

     After supper Ryosuke ran upstairs to his room.  “I’ve got to enjoy it while I can,” he sighed, pulling his blankets up and snuggling in. 

***

     The next morning, Ryosuke had gone to school and was determined to study really hard today.  He was in his first year of school now—he was no longer a baby!  He had to be as smart as his older brothers.  The teacher walked in the classroom and set down her books.  After morning greetings, she started into a discussion.  “Everyone here has a basic understanding of magic, but you need to understand the limits and extent of your magic.”

      “What does that mean?” a kid asked.

      “It means that there are certain things you can do with magic and certain things you can’t do with magic.”

      The kid nodded in understanding and she began writing things on the board.  “There different forms of magic out there in the world, I’m sure.  In fact, closer to Kazekoku, people study a type of wind magic.  And people close to Tsuchikoku study a type of earth magic.  The same goes for those by Hikoku with fire.”

      “Does that mean they’re bad?” a girl asked.

      “No.  These people may study fire magic, but they aren’t from Hikoku.  They are from Yukiguni and thus fellow citizens.  The magic these three groups of people have differ from ours only in the way that they can manipulate the elements slightly.  It does not mean they can bend an element, though.  For example, a person studying earth magic can make the soil richer and better for harvesting crops.  However, they cannot move the earth as they please or connect with the earth as those in Tsuchikoku can.  Instead, everyone here in Yukiguni is connected with our snow magic.”

       She drew more on the board before continuing, “While in the future you will learn more and more tricks from magic that will make life easier, such as unlocking spells, hearth spells, and healing spells, all of our magic comes from the Snow King.”

      “The Snow King?  Is that his dad?” another questioned, pointing at Ryosuke.

     Ryosuke knew of the Snow King of course, but it was not his father.  “No,” he answered, feeling smart.

     “I asked the teacher,” the boy snickered.

      “Ryosuke’s right,” the teacher answered quickly and smiled at him. “The Snow King is said to live deep in the mountains.  As for why he’s called the Snow King, he is the one who bestowed upon the people of Yukiguni their powers many years ago.  He is immortal and his magic is something that none of us can even imagine.  He gave only a fraction of it away to give everyone born in Yukiguni for centuries to come their magical abilities.  Because he came from the snow, that is where all of our magic gains its powers from.”

     “Does that mean when there is no snow our powers are gone?” another girl asked.

     “That’s a good question,” the teacher said, “But no, we don’t lose our powers.  You see, even though there are times that there isn’t snow on the ground and it is warmer, it doesn’t mean the snow isn’t there.  When the Snow King gave us his magic, he had to give us the snow as well.  The snow is inside of all of us.”

     “There’s snow in me?” a boy giggled in the back with his friends. 

     “Yes and no,” the teacher continued on, “In theory it’s snow, but in reality it isn’t.”

     “That doesn’t make sense,” he whined.

     “When you’re older you’ll understand it better,” she said, “Anyway, the point of this is that our powers come from the snow.  When we deal with magic, the powers come from the snow the King gave us all.  Our Winter Festival is to celebrate the Snow King you know.  When we call go to the shrines with our family that day, we are giving patronage to the Snow King.  Every year a few select people even make the journey to the Snow King’s Mountain for pilgrimage and to give thanks at his shrine.”

      “So we can only do magic with the snow?  How then can the others work with earth too?” another asked.  It was starting to get complicated, Ryosuke thought.

      “They aren’t working with the earth, dear.  That is what the earth benders do.  They are still working with the snow.  They use the snow to change the earth; they use the snow to change the wind; they use the snow to change the fire.  We can only work with snow as the Snow King only gave us snow to work with.  That means that all the magic we do is connected with the snow.”

     “How is the unlocking spell related to snow?  Or the hearth spell?” Ryosuke suddenly asked, “Snow is cold, but hearth magic is warm.”

     “Don’t think of it in those kind of terms, Ryosuke,” she said, “Think of it more as the snow giving the power.  The snow gives the power to the heat, it doesn’t make it hot.  You do that yourself when you get advanced enough.  Now, getting on to the actual purpose of this lesson—the extent of your powers through your life.  Before starting to learn magic you all need to understand there is a limit to what you can do to it.”

      “You will be able to study things such a snow healing, you can study into snow hearth, simple snow spells that make life easier such as melting spells, freezing spells, locking and unlocking spells.  You can make it snow if you study hard enough, you can a lot of what you put your mind to.  However, you can’t do any of the magic that the other countries’ children think you can do.  Levitating objects, blowing up a house with the flick of your hand, flying?  That stuff doesn’t exist so don’t let your little minds wonder to thoughts like that.”

      Around the classroom groans and sighs of disappointment could be heard, including one from Ryosuke himself.  “Does that mean I can’t use a spell to make my brother be quiet or stop drooling?”

      “No,” the teacher told him, laughing nervously.  Though in her head she thanked the Snow King he was too young to figure out that he could use freezing spells or something crazy on his younger brother’s drool. 

     The bell rang for lunch and all the students took out their lunches as the teacher dismissed herself from the room.  “Guys,” one of the boys stood up, “I’m having my birthday party this Sunday!”

     Several kids cheered and Ryosuke smiled.  “Birthday parties sound like fun,” he said.  “Takuma-kun, I heard kids eat cakes at the parties!”  His face was practically lit up at the thought of eating cake on your birthday.  Every time he had a birthday he couldn’t have a party because it was for the kingdom to celebrate with him.  Instead of a party with cake, he went to the shrines with his family and people would congratulate him, giving him blessings.

     “Of course there will be cake,” Takuma laughed, “But you can’t come Ryosuke!  You’ll eat all the cake before anyone else can touch it.”

     Kids sniggered as he began handing out invitations and Ryosuke sat down to eat.  Ryosuke frowned as Takuma stood in front of him.  “Sorry,” he stuck his tongue out. 

     Ryosuke got upset.  “I won’t eat all the cake,” he fought, “If you want, I’ll let everyone else have a slice before me.”

     “Still,” Takuma said, “If you come, what would be the point of having a birthday party for me?  The adults would fawn over you; the other kids that don’t go to the Royal Academy would only pay attention to you.  In the end, my mom would make me give you whatever you wanted.  What’s so special about you?”

     Ryosuke frowned once more, “Then I’ll tell them not to do any of that.”

      “Psh,” the kid pushed past him, causing a bit of anger to rise inside of Ryosuke.  “You don’t understand anything.”

      “What do you mean I don’t understand anything!?” Ryosuke suddenly yelled. 

      “Ryosuke-kun,” someone else tried to calm him down, “Sensei will be angry with you for yelling.”

      “What?” he cried, his fat tears trailing down his chubby cheeks, “Takuma-kun is the one being mean.”

      “Aren’t you the prince?” another said, “You should be a bigger person I thought.”

***

     “Tadaima,” Ryosuke ran inside to his mother playing with Yuri as Daiki and Keito followed behind.  Only Yuya was in Junior High so he came home later. 

      “Okaeri,” she called out. 

      “Okaa-san,” he went up to her, “Since today I learned there is no spell for making babies be quiet or stop their drool, I think it is not possible for Yuri to sleep in my room.”

      “Yuri isn’t much of a baby anymore,” Mao explained to her son, “Soon he’ll be talking.”

      “Oh great,” Ryosuke said, “He’ll be even louder!”

     “He’s growing up fast.  He’ll stop drooling soon as well.  There will be no problem.  For now, stop worrying about it.  He’s not sleeping there for a while yet.”

      Ryosuke smiled at that, “Good.”

      His father walked into the room, “Okaeri,” he pat Keito and Daiki on the head.

     “Otou-san,” Ryosuke ran up to his father and his father picked him up.

     “How was your day?” he asked his son, putting him on his shoulders, messing up his hair before Ryosuke fixed it annoyed.

     “I learned all about magic—we talked about the Snow King,” he told him, “Someone thought that was you!” He laughed and his father laughed with him.

     “Did you correct him?”

     “Yes, of course!”

     “You’re smart, huh?” he messed up his hair once more before setting Ryosuke back down on the floor. 

     “Of course I am,” he nodded, fixing his hair again, “I’m just as smart as Keito-nii-san and Daiki-nii-san.  Even Yuya-nii-san won’t be able to keep up with me at this rate!”

     “Slow down there,” his father said, “I think you’re getting a bit ahead of yourself, no?”

     “Yes, Ryosuke,” his mom came up to him, “Don’t get conceited.”

     “Hai, hai.”

     “Want to come with me?” his father put on his cloak.

      “Where?” Ryosuke’s eyes lit up.  He loved it when his father took him places.

      “I’m on a trip to town today,” he said, putting on his mittens, “I’ve got some business.”

      “I’m coming, I’m coming!” Ryosuke grabbed his own small cloak and purple mittens. 

      “Don’t forget your hat if you’re tagging along; your ears will get cold,” his mother told him.

      He grabbed the hat and waved by to his mom.  “See you Yuri, I’m going with Otou-san,” Ryosuke said quickly as the toddler drooled again, laughing.  “Ew.”

      He held on to his father’s hand as they walked to the town together.  “Have you made lots of friends in school yet?” his father asked him.

      Ryosuke thought about the question.  Then he smiled and gripped his father’s hand tighter, “Of course!  I have lots of friends.”

      “That’s my boy,” his dad ruffled his hair for the third time that afternoon.  

***

Hai, this is the next chapter.  Most of the chapters won't be in the past and this is sort of a "filler" so to speak, but I felt that this chapter was neccesary to add into the story for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, I wanted to explain a little bit more how magic works in Yukiguni and this was a good way to do so.  Secondly, I wanted to show a bit more family bonding of the Matsumoto's and hopefully show you that Jun has a loving side to him before showing you the next chapter ^^;;...  Lastly, I want to try making Ryosuke a bit more of a rounded character.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

「第七話:魔法のレッスン」を楽しんで下さい。＾－＾

(Posted on 月・2014年03月03日)