Exhaustion immediately hit me the moment I got back to the orphanage. The unexpected encounter with Touko Aozaki made me even more anxious. Now that I can think clearly, having her know where I live was not a good move. Magi are the kind of people who would kill their own brethren if it brought them closer to the goal of reaching the Root, and Touko was no exception to that. I'm hoping, just like in the show, that she wouldn't actively hurt other people.
I let out a slow breath and leaned back, staring at the ceiling as my thoughts kept running in circles. There were too many unknowns, too many things I couldn't control. The more I thought about it, the more the weight of everything pressed down on me.
Touko… magecraft… my circuits… the Fourth Holy Grail War…
Each thought blended into the next until it became harder to focus on any single one. My eyelids felt heavier the longer I stayed still, the tension in my body slowly giving way to fatigue.
Before I realized it, I drifted off to sleep.
...
It was already noon the moment my eyes opened. I felt a pang of hunger and immediately got out of bed to get food in the kitchen. The moment I stepped outside of the room, the other kids in the orphanage congratulated me, some of them crying and saying they would miss me. Confused, I made my way over to Ito.
"Ito, why is everybody acting so strange?" I asked.
"You didn't know? Someone came in early in the morning wanting to adopt you," Ito replied.
I froze.
My thoughts immediately went back to the meeting with Touko last night.
I walked toward the living room and could hear Miss Ayaka talking to someone inside.
The moment I entered,
"Eiji, look, someone wants to adopt you," Miss Ayaka said. "Miss Nozomi here told me that she was moved by your kindness when you helped her yesterday."
My eyes shifted toward the woman seated in front of her.
Short reddish-orange hair. Calm posture. That same composed, unreadable expression from last night.
…Touko Aozaki.
Or rather—
"Miss Nozomi," she corrected lightly
Before I could say anything, Miss Ayaka clapped her hands softly
"Well then, I'll give the two of you some time to talk," she said with a gentle smile. "I'll step out for a moment."
She turned and left the room, closing the door behind her.
The moment the room fell silent—
"What the hell are you doing here?!" I blurted out, unable to hold it back.
Touko didn't react immediately. Instead, she rested her chin lightly on her hand, watching me with that same composed expression, as if my outburst was completely within expectations.
"…Is that how you greet someone who came to adopt you?" she replied calmly.
"I mean what do you mean by adopting me?"
"I mean what I said. I told you before I'm curious about you."
"And if I say no?"
"brat." Her tone grew heavier. "If you want to practice magecraft you will have to someday leave this place. The moment the magi in this city notice you, they won't ever leave you alone especially that disgusting fossil from the Matou."
I stayed silent.
Her words weren't something I could easily dismiss. Whether I liked it or not, she had a point. Staying here didn't guarantee safety. If anything, it might do the opposite once my abilities became noticeable.
Touko watched my reaction closely, not pushing further, just waiting.
"…Take your time deciding," she added after a brief pause. "But don't mistake this for charity. I don't do things without reason."
The room felt quieter than before, the weight of her words settling in as I tried to think of a response.
...
After some thinking, I decided to go with Touko. She was right, if I wanted to get stronger, I needed to leave this place, and I needed resources. Resources that Touko had.
Although… now that I remembered, she was also a high-priority target of the Clock Tower Mage Association's Enforcement Department, making her a dangerous fugitive.
But then again, she was also a top-tier "Grand" rank puppet master.
I spent the rest of the afternoon packing my things and saying goodbye to Miss Ayaka and my friends at the orphanage.
The atmosphere felt different as the day went on. The usual noise of the orphanage carried on, but there was a quiet weight behind it, like everyone already knew this was a farewell. Some of the kids approached me one by one, trying to act normal while giving their goodbyes. Others stayed back, watching silently.
Miss Ayaka remained composed as always, though her gaze lingered a bit longer than usual whenever she looked at me.
"Take care of yourself," she said softly at one point.
I nodded. "I will."
By the time I finished packing, there wasn't much left to do. I stood in the room for a moment, looking around at the small space that had been mine for so long. It didn't feel real that I was leaving it behind.
Eventually, I grabbed my bag and stepped outside, rejoining everyone for one final moment before leaving the orphanage behind.
...
I was walking with Touko. We were headed toward her hotel room to get her things.
"So… what now?" I asked.
"Now, we leave this city" she replied.
"Wait, leave? Where?"
"Far away from here. I can't really stay in one place for too long. I'm a rogue mage, so some of the Enforcers from the Association might bother us," she replied. "Don't get me wrong, I can handle them, but it would still be annoying."
I glanced at her as we continued walking, trying to process what she had just said. Leaving Fuyuki entirely wasn't something I had fully considered until now.
"So that's it then…" I muttered under my breath, adjusting the strap of my bag as I kept pace beside her.
On the bright side, I might avoid the Fourth Holy Grail War.
The thought crossed my mind as we walked, though it didn't really ease the tension settling in my chest. If anything, it felt like I was trading one unknown for another. Leaving Fuyuki meant escaping the immediate risks I knew about… but it also meant stepping away from anything familiar, including whatever small advantages I had in this place.
I glanced at Touko's back as she led the way.
...
Once we got her things, we immediately took a taxi toward the airport. Honestly, I wish she had told me earlier that we were leaving the country.
A few hours later, we were seated on the plane. It was quiet. The kind of quiet that made every small sound feel louder than it should. The air between us felt a bit awkward, so I decided to strike up a conversation.
"Hey, Touko," I called out.
She looked at me.
"Hm?" She raised her eyebrows slightly.
"What were you doing in Fuyuki?" I asked.
She stayed silent for a moment before answering.
"I was commissioned by the Tohsakas to retrieve a relic from the past."
"A relic?"
"It's the fossilized skin of the first snake to shed its skin."
I paused.
I might not be able to avoid it after all
"They're willing to pay a vast fortune if I manage to find it, so we're heading toward the Middle East first." she added, almost casually, as if traveling across continents for something like this was just another errand. "That's where we'll start looking for clues."
"…You make it sound easy," I muttered.
Touko let out a quiet hum, leaning back in her seat.
"It's not," she said plainly. "If it were, they wouldn't be paying that much."
That made sense. The more valuable something was in this world, the more dangerous it tended to be.
"And we're just going to… find it?" I asked, a bit skeptical.
She glanced at me briefly before looking forward again.
"We're going to follow traces, records, and whatever information I can get my hands on," she replied. "Relics like that don't just disappear. They leave a trail. You just need to know where to look."
I leaned back in my seat, letting out a slow breath as I stared ahead.
This wasn't just some training trip. This was already turning into a full-fledged job, the kind that actual magi dealt with on a regular basis.
And I had just been dragged into it.
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to process everything.
From an orphanage in Fuyuki… to flying across the world chasing some ancient relic with Touko Aozaki.
Yeah.
Things escalated way too fast.
...
A year passed before I even realized it.
Somewhere along the way, I turned eleven.
Life didn't slow down after leaving Fuyuki. If anything, it only got more intense. Traveling from place to place, dealing with Touko's work, and training whenever there was time became the new normal.
Reinforcement was the first thing she drilled into me. Not just using it, but controlling it down to the smallest detail. What used to knock me out after a few attempts eventually became something I could sustain without losing control.
Then came bounded fields.
At first, it was simple things, marking a space, setting a boundary, understanding how to define an area with intent and structure. It wasn't flashy, but the more I learned, the more I realized how important it was.
She also made me experiment with reinforcing specific parts of my body, especially my eyes. It wasn't easy. The precision required was on a completely different level compared to reinforcing limbs. One mistake and the backlash wasn't something I wanted to experience again.
She had me practice Reinforcement using grapes first, telling me to treat them as if they were my eyes; when one of them exploded, it made me seriously rethink my life choices.
Aside from practical training, Touko didn't completely ignore theory either.
I learned about the Clock Tower, the politics within the Mage's Association, and how most magi operated. Bloodlines, secrecy, hierarchy. It wasn't exactly comforting information.
While we were traveling from place to place, we occasionally picked up bits of information about the relic Touko was searching for. Most of it came from rumors, fragmented reports, or obscure references buried in old records. Nothing concrete at first, just whispers that something tied to ancient serpents had been unearthed or mentioned in connection to old excavation sites in Egypt.
Touko didn't react much when she heard them, but I could tell she was paying attention. Every lead, no matter how small, was something she mentally stored and cross-checked later.
Over time, the pieces started to connect. Multiple sources kept pointing toward the same region, Cairo, along with mentions of restricted digs, private collections, and groups quietly investigating anomalies tied to prehistoric remains.