Chapter 5: A Day in Shion's House

Magic, an enigma that I can't seem to wrap my head around. In consumable media, it's something that is related to the fantasy genre. In a real life scenario, it is something like an impossible illusion but hidden beneath those tricks are smart lies that set up how it works. But when I founded the VTuber agency that is Hololive and its succeeding branches, I learned about the supernatural, and myths being true, but what ruins my perception of reality once and kept me curious ever since is magic.

Murasaki Shion is one of the second generation talents of Hololive main branch. In her account bio, she claims to be some big shot from a well known magic academy but in reality, she is some kind of chuunibyou who can back up her claims with her innate knowledge of magic. It's like she is born as a witch who just ends up to be a spoiled brat who thinks anime is real.

It is at night when I am simply retweeting what A-chan posted in a social application that is Twitter. Tomorrow is a free time for everyone, including me. Thinking about my plans for tomorrow, I must plan out what I should do if Shion declines.

I search through my contacts, in search for Shion's number. Once I find it, I try to give her a call, hoping that she will answer. Luckily, she answers.

"Hello?" the witch asks through the phone call.

"Good Evening Shion, are you free for tomorrow?" I ask.

"Oh, Yagoo. I don't know why you're asking but I don't have any schedules planned tomorrow." She responds, elevating my hopes.

"That's great. Can I stay by at your place for an entire day tomorrow?" I ask once more.

"Why so? It's unusual for you to ask that to me—Wait what are you—" she exclaims, misunderstanding the situation but I intervene to prevent it from escalating.

"I'm not interested in you! I am just thinking of learning a little bit of magic." I announce my motives.

"Really? Are you sure? You want to learn magic from me, the magic extraordinaire Murasaki Shion?" she asks with a tint of her narcissistic flare.

"Yeah, I'll bring in some wine if you wan—" I answer, but I didn't get to finish as I am interrupted by Shion

"Sure, be here by 8 o'clock." She immediately complies before the call ends. Looks like there's no need to plan a B when there's an A tomorrow. Should I bring a bottle of Plum Wine or Sake? Oh well, I'll buy what is available tomorrow.

I leave my phone on the table and stand up. I stretch before drinking a glass of water and prepare to rest for the night.

A half rotation of the Earth arises and I am now in front of Shion's front door with a briefcase on my right hand and a sake bottle on the other as there's no plum wine in a store nearby.

I drop my suitcase and check the time through my watch to see that I am just exactly in time for the scheduled time. I knock on the door, expecting the witch to answer but. . .

"Shion, are you there?" I ask whilst knocking again. She didn't answer. It's a minute over the scheduled time and she's not answering? Did she oversleep?

I knock once more, not noticing that the door is being opened and when I notice it, it is already too late as my knuckle hits the forehead of the sleepy garlic or so what the overseas fans call her.

She yells in pain, crouching and clutching her forehead for a meager 10 seconds before standing up, facing me with a grumpy face.

"Good morning Shion." I apologetically greet her. I can tell that she is not happy with it.

"Come in, Yagoo," she says in annoyance with no greeting whatsoever and goes further in her home. I bow and come inside, taking off my shoes and say, "Please excuse me for my intrusion."

Her living room is quite small with minimal furniture and a tatami set up. I perform a seiza on a zaisu next to the table set and place the sake on top of it while I wait. After waiting for a few minutes, Shion returns with a proper indoor outfit holding two cups on her hand.

"So you're here to learn Magic huh?" She asks as she places one of the cups in front of me.

I look on top of the cup to see that it's coffee. I look back at her and nod before taking a sip of homebrew—it's instant coffee.

"Ok then, take your time on the coffee Yagoo. I'll be storing this sake for later." She says before standing up and taking the sake bottle I bought and bringing it to her kitchen. I look back once more at the cup before gulping it all down. Once done, I place it on the tatami table and wait until she returns.

After a few minutes of waiting, she returns with her hair properly fixed wearing her witch hat, which I find it unnecessary if we are inside her house just to learn a bit of magic.

"Now then," She says before drinking her own cup of coffee, "I need to lecture you about this before you go try to turn yourself into a rabbit."

"Now stand up, I'd rather not hear you complain about your legs because this lecture will take a while." She orders. I comply and stand up even though it's unnecessary to me.

"Magic is a craft that is used by many long ago in the eastern side mostly as medicinal treatment. In those times, people treat them as miracles or blessings from the buddhas. Sadly, the tradition diminished overtime due to the rise of the Heian period. No one knows why but I believe it to be that it's because of the decline of Chinese influence in Japan," Shion explains before stopping to let me digest the history lesson, "Meanwhile in China, the tradition very slowly died out 100 years after the Heian Period, which is the start of the Song Dynasty in China; also known as the "Golden Age of China". And it slowly died out during it because of the ever prosperous economy and change in religion but once the new dynasty started, which is the Yuan Dynasty, it's like the magic users disappeared overnight because of the military's weak forces against the conquering of China by the Mongols. But that is only the tip of what Magic has in store for us."

"While Magic in our end is diminishing, the discovery migrated to the west during the Dark Ages, where the application is more diverse compared to the east.. But unlike the origins of the east, the age of magic in the west is like an explosion; grand but short-lived." She says, further tickling my curiosity. Just what happened in the west?

"Their Magic is almost the exact opposite of what the Chinese have as they are able to imitate and manipulate factors of nature such as fire, water, ground, and air. Some use it for good, but many take advantage of it for themselves, making people fear them. It all ended in the Late Middle Ages of Europe, where people had enough of their antics and decided to hunt them down and burn them till none are left." She continues. It saddens me that this is what birthed the existence of the term "witches", a vile female capable of casting spells and curses. Luckily, the term expanded into something much more but its origin is not as positive as it is now.

"Yagoo, do you want to know what really caused the end of magic in the western end?" Shion asks. I am here to learn magic for an entire day so why would I decline if it could be useful in learning it?

"What is it?" I ask.

"It ended when Jeanne d 'Arc, the saint who is considered a heroine in the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years' War, was killed by fire." She states. This leaves me with many questions. Why is a saint the cause of the end of Magic?

"Who is Jeanne and why is she the end of it?" I ask.

"Well, do you know the legacy of Joan of Arc?" Shion asks a question that I don't know.

"No, I don't know what that is." I truthfully answer. This leaves her baffled which confuses me.

"Really!? I thought that people nowadays teach people about her tale!" She exclaims. Sadly, I am sure that the school system in Japan doesn't teach that. . . I think.

"Well not in Japan, Shion." I comment apologetically, making her sigh in disbelief. I may not be completely sure but I know that I wasn't taught about it in my time.

"Fine, Jeanne d'Arc is a woman who led her nation to prosper during the Hundred Years War. Unfortunately, she was captured and was killed by fire due to numerous reasons. One of which is the use of witchcraft or what we would call magic," She elaborates, "But the ironic thing is that she knows no Magic and her death marks the end of western magic, which is a magic in it of itself."

"And that concludes the history of Magic. For the technical bits, I'll just give you a copy of a book made by my late parents." She says with slight pride and a smug smile. She raises her right hand, as if holding something out of thin air until I hear something moving. I turn my gaze to the direction of the sound until I see a flying thick book coming towards the smug witch.

"Here," She gives me the book, "But long story short, Magic is existent in all living beings but it's dormant unless awakened from extreme stress or emotion, birth, or forced awakening which I will perform to get the ball rolling."

"What wha—" I fail to finish my sentence as I feel a force pushing me to the ground. I end up falling on my butt, much to my dismay, and I try to stand up but I am shocked at what I am noticing.

"You see it didn't you? That aura you have is your mana leaking out. Better try to shut it Yagoo before you are sucked dry." She warns me. I am not liking this crash course by the second.

"What did you do, Shion?" I ask in panic.

"Just try to find a way to calm your senses." Shion says. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I can hear something hard moving through friction, but I decide to pay no attention to it.

"Sora is currently singing Shiny Smily Story alongside Sui-chan as the rest are fulfilling your dreams." Shion whispers to me, causing me to let out a single tear drop as I see them on the stage, singing like idols.

Sadly, it's all a dream as I do what Shion whispers and it is to open my eyes. As soon as I open my eyes, I immediately notice the lack of mana flow around my body; not only that, I feel like I have gained another sense.

"Good job, Yagoo. You can now use Magic." Shion chirps as she pushes away what seems to be a stool.

I sigh, the entire scene that just unfolded is too quick for me to comprehend everything. I expected for this to be relatively calm but instead I am immediately thrown into some kind of comedy skit where the plot goes by too fast..

"Now then, what do you want with Magic? Actually, why are you interested in it, Yagoo?" She asks bluntly.

"You know, Shion, you ruined my understanding of the world thanks to Magic." I elaborate, "But seeing how Fubuki was able to go out in public without a tail that was supposedly there. I asked her about it and she said to ask you about it."

"Really, Yagoo? You want to learn Magic just for that?" she asks, unamused. I nod in approval, causing her to sigh.

"Follow me" she says as she proceeds to walk out of the living room. I also start to follow her, not wasting the limited time I have.

We end up in a spacious white room located beneath her house. I observe the room a little bit to notice that each step I take makes a sound of thick cloth hitting on a smooth floor while the texture of the walls feel like matte-like concrete.

"Now, Yagoo, this is where I test out or experiment with magic spells," Shion explains, "Before things could go wrong for you, concealment magic is similar to invisibility in function. They both function as optical illusion but how they work is different. Invisibility makes your body transparent while concealment magic erases the presence of something or someone."

"The side effects of these two are also different. Invisibility only affects your entire body, and you will have motor problems if you can't see yourself. Concealment magic has more control but once the affected object is noticed, it's most likely that it'll be noticed, if it is a part of something. Not only that, sloppy concealment attempts are easily noticeable to those who look hard enough." she continues.

"Now then, that magic is advanced for the likes of you, Yagoo," she bluntly states which saddens me a little bit, "But you can learn it today, as long as we start with basic body enhancements and projectile spells."

"What should we learn first, Shion?" I ask with newfound determination and naive expectations.

What happens next are a bunch of trials and errors not worth mentioning in detail with a bit of Shion scolding me for my mistakes.

The first lesson is a body enhancement spell that renders me immobilized on the first try. She comments that I failed horribly but nailed the part where most novices should fail. I then took a bit of time imagining something that might make the spell work and I try to make it work. . . Well Shion gave me an answer during my imagining process that I will not use because I am now questioning her purity.

After a few attempts, I managed to nail the basis of it. We then went ahead to try to make me learn invisibility just in case if I am unable to "cast a projectile" as she said. It is different from a concealment spell but functions similarly without being too similar. The first attempt is a failure, making me look like an idiot and she ends up breaking down in laughter. She proceeds to inform me on how to perform the spell in a blunt manner, which I manage to digest easily..

If I have any idea of the difficulty scale of this spell sooner, I would've learned a few more basic spells instead of this as I only manage to cast it successfully three times just in time for lunch.

We then proceed to go back to the living room and switch our route towards Shion's kitchen, where we might prepare lunch. . . or see that her fridge is empty and we might have to go to a nearby fast food chain to order our lunch.

"Uh—Yagoo. . . We have to buy lunch." Shion nervously asks as she closes the refrigerator.

"Your fridge is empty," I bluntly assume, "Your fridge is empty."

"You don't have to say it twice!" Shion retorts while blushing from the embarrassment she accidentally unleashed.

I sigh and walk back to the leaving room to head out. I look back to see that she is following me so I gesture to her to follow me to my car.

Once inside, I grab hold of the steering wheel and ask, "So where, Shion?"

"There's McDonalds, Lotteria, and Coco Ichibanya nearby. I am curious about McDonald's Idol Burger that will cease production tomorrow." She comments. I guess we will go to McDonald's; not because of Shion's interest in the burger, but because of it being the first fast food chain I see in the lane. Luckily for her, it also has an empty drive-thru lane so she doesn't have to stay in the car.

I drive my way to the drive-thru and order two Idol Burgers, one Mega Potato, and two salads with drinks being a regular-sized Qoo drink. Once finished ordering and already paid, we then wait at the pick up area. Knowing that the order might come at a minute or two, I decide to strike a conversation with a waiting garlic.

"So Shion," I say, gaining her attention, "To have hidden a project with the management team under my nose for two years, I am surprised but thank you."

"It seem that they managed to finish it, looks like you got the first experience, Yagoo," Shion comments with a triumphant smirk, "And it looks like you liked it and from that, it looks like it worked marvelously."

"It did." I reply, unconsciously smiling at the fact that this brat is responsible for the newest, though rare tech.

"Here's your order, sir." a female voice speaks. I turn my attention towards the bearer of the voice to see that my order is done. I take the order and give my regards before giving the paper bag to Shion's lap and start on driving the car.

"Oh! No wonder you like this burger!" Shion comments while happily munching on her burger. Something is bugging me after she said it but the answer is given to me as how did she know I like the Idol Burger?

"Eh? I am sure I didn't mention how I like the burger. Where did you get that information?" I ask, slightly disturbed as to how she knows about it.

"Fubuki told me. She also told me about how you acted like a chi—"

"Ok, that's enough!" I exclaim, cutting her off. The drive back to Shion's house is a silent one. Once back, we place the paper bag on the nearby table, intending to eat our lunch in the living room.

"So Shion, knowing that it's your creation, when will you plan on using it, if you don't mind me asking." I ask after I swallowed a chunk of the idol burger I bit off.

She ponders about it for a few seconds before taking a sip of her drink, "As soon as I get a model capable of utilizing the full capabilities of it. I plan on asking in two days but since you're here, Can you arrange that for me?"

"Sure, I'll let A-chan know about your request." I answer before finishing my burger and salad as the fries have already been eaten while at the car. Once finished, I ask her the whereabouts of the trash bin as I will throw the trash away.

She replied by leading me outside as apparently the trash bin is at the right side of her home. I feel like an idiot for not noticing it but the relevance of it is that of the weight of an aerogel. Once done, I return inside to see Shion heading to the kitchen.

I wait for her by sitting on the zaisu and facing the kitchen, expecting her to come out of the kitchen. After minutes, she still hasn't come out. Why is she taking so long? I stand up and head to the kitchen just to trip over what seems to be a foot of someone. I immediately stop my fall using my hands as support and stand back up to see Shion besides me.

"And that is how the concealment spell works, Yagoo," Shion speaks, "If you're asking, I have been at your side by the time you sat there. Jeez, just how durable are your legs to withstand for even more than 10 minutes on a seiza without feeling soreness?"

"Well, you get used to it if you live under Sora's roof for a while." I reply before standing up, heading back to the white room. But before I can continue my stroll, I am stopped by Shion as she tugs on the back of my suit.

"No need to go there, the concealment spell is harmless so there's no point in going there." she says.

"How come?" I inquire, confused as to why we went there earlier but not now.

"The only reason we are there is because of the body enhancement spell. Initially, we will be going there for the projectile spell but after thinking about it, you're here for the concealment spell and not the basics. Not only that, thinking about what kind of projectile spell you are going to use is a waste of time." she answers.

We then start on the crash course and the first attempt is horrible as one would expect to learn such a relatively advanced spell without learning the basics first. Shion keeps on reminding me to imagine how the spell works as I keep on getting focused on applying the process without imagining. It took the entire afternoon as I kept on making mistakes.

"Finally, you managed to do it." Shion mockingly comments. I sigh, and collapse on the ground because somehow standing around for hours while looking like an idiot sapped most of my energy.

"Well, I'll be heading out to get ourselves dinner, don't do anything stupid while you rest Yagoo." she says before heading somewhere, probably going to change outfits in order to go outside. I inwardly sigh, thinking what should I do while Shion will be heading outside. What should I do?

Before I should ask myself that, I should try to sit on the zaisu and avoid laying down on the tatami mat, no matter how good it feels.

I can see from the corner of my eye that Shion just went out of her home, providing me all the space I desire until she comes back. I first slowly stand up and walk towards the kitchen to quench my thirst. I grab a clean glass and fill it with tap water from the kitchen sink. I am grateful for this innovation as this provides more space in fridges but I feel sad to the people who can't simply drink tap water. At first I thought that everyone drinks from the kitchen sink but I was wrong when I stumbled upon Haato's story in the Philippines about the origin of her resistance to her own homunculi, added with the information I got from Shinzui and Risu about Indonesia. It looks like not everyone has the privilege to drink clean tap water.

Once I finish cleaning the one glass cup I drank, I check my phone to see that I lack the internet to connect to my social media accounts. It's a minor inconvenience but because of current technology letting you access the data of other lands without the need of a router, it's just easily accessible as a click of a button. Once I gain a connection from the towers, I check my YouTube account to see that my recent video garnered around 800k views from just two days alone. I check the comments on the video to see that everyone is expecting something, whether they think of it as a joke or not. What surprised and might worry me is the fact that Lyrica commented. . ?

"It's all coming together."

"It's all coming together?" I ask myself, speaking in a slightly accented English or what people jokingly call "Engrish". I don't know what is coming together unless her suspicions are now known to be true. If that's the case, can she ever predict the fact that the Hololive Indonesian branch is getting a rebrand? Probably not if Moona already told her about this. If Shinzui-san told Moona about it, that is.

Sighing, I close the app and shut down my connection to prevent data leakages. I asked to spend an entire day here but it can either be just till evening or until the next day and depending on the circumstances, it could go either way. I walk outside to check on my car to see that my car only contains a quarter of the fuel tank left. I gaze outside of Shion's property to see only one gas station that is sadly closed for the day. Usually most stations are up for around 18 hours every single day at minimum but because of this anomaly, I would rather assume that today is also their off day than to say that they are out of business.

I lock the entryways of my car and head back to the witch's hut. There I reconnect to the servers and make a group at Discord, something I should've done ages ago but couldn't because I didn't think much about the application until now.

"Ms. Enma, A-chan, Shinzui-san, have you three got in contact with Kaheru, Lyrica, and Dia Ai?" I type in the group. Thanks to Discord's activity log, one can simply check to see who is online just from the colored circle besides their profile picture. I see that the head managers are all offline. I am about to close the application just to get a vibration that they replied.

"Ai will be able to contact you in 3 days"

"Lyrica is free within the next 3 days."

"Kaheru just wants to join with Lyrica in meeting you just so that she can not wait for you after your call with Lyrica."

Looks like I will have a busy meeting in three days. If all goes well, "Hololive SEA" and "Project Y" will commence.

"Thank you" is what I sent in the group before closing the application and cutting off connection one last time. Once done, I discard my phone in my open side pockets and sit on the zaisu. It is pretty peaceful around here and it might get boring if all I did is just to sit on this one zaisu for an entire hour or so depending on how long that brat will take trying to get groceries.

I reach out my case and open it, revealing its contents which is merely a folder of papers and some novelties. Those papers aren't really worth my time right now. . . A keychain has nothing to humor me. . . Those pens aren't worth drawing if I don't have the skills to draw something interesting. . . Well, nothing, nothing except for this circular ball that I somehow kept and forgot to cast away. I place the ball on the table then close my case, after which, I stare at it for a second.

I wonder, will it even work? I mean, A-chan and Fubuki seem to be passionate about this. We now have a new set of equipment that I will use in conjunction with my future virtual model. Even with all being well so far, I am still questioning myself. Will something go wrong? Or is it just my gut feeling? On the side note, Rebranding a branch to something bigger might fail due to a larger range of audience. But despite all of this, this can still work because unlike the main branch and the English branch, we just need applications from anyone who has direct relations to any countries from the Southeast side of Asia, someone who at the very least knows English, Japanese or native SEA language. The requirement is more accessible now but they still need to show their talents; otherwise, it won't be enough to get a seat in the 3rd generation talents. Adding Lyrica and Kaheru won't be a problem but the question is if they are adaptable enough and are in good terms with the talents. They are valuable assets that will make the rebranding a success but I sometimes feel like their personality could possibly turn off some of my talents. That is a problem but as long as it doesn't make them hate each other, I am fine. I need to take a breather because I think that I am thinking too hard.

I sigh, looking away from the ball and gaze down at the nearby time-telling device to see that I have zoned out for ten minutes!? I probably overthink about this. I take a firm grasp of the ball. From my grasp, the ball is relatively rough to the touch but is squeezable, making this a stress ball. I test its bounciness to see that it can bounce, maybe I can throw it to the door and have it bounce back to me.

I test my hypothesis by setting the arm with the ball behind my head and proceed to perform the overhead throw towards the door. I am anticipating a bounce once it hits the door but what happened next surprised me. The door suddenly opens, revealing Shion with two bags full of groceries. I hope that the ball misses Shion but despite the height difference I have against Shion, the ball is far enough to be experiencing significant gravity changes, hitting her right on the noggin with the ball powered with the arm strength of an adult male.

"Ack—!" Shion yelps, dropping the groceries without it somehow spilling out, and starts to crouch and clutching her forehead.

"It hurts. . ." she cries in pain while still maintaining that position for almost a minute. I grab the stress ball and her groceries and then place it on the tatami table whilst waiting for her to recover.

I start to apologize but I am immediately met with an unknown attack that causes me to black out.

~o~o~

I groggily wake up from my sleep, feeling a sharp pain at my head. I clutch my head with my left arm, hissing from the pain of merely touching it. I notice that I slept on the tatami mats of Shion's house, though I fail to know how I managed to black out aside from being hit by something I have no idea of. I scan my surroundings to see that Shion is lights out with her head next to the now empty sake bottle on the table.

Sluggishly, I stand up heading to the kitchen sink to drink water. I access my phone to see the current status of the talents to see that Fubuki is having a RTA. . . Stream? Drinking the tap water first, I then join in Fubuki's stream to be greeted with some sort of timer?

"So far, Shion has just reached one baba, this has been the longest stream overdue for this year yet and at this pace, Shion will surpass the record she and Marine had set up two years ago!" She says, which baffles me. She's been streaming about how long Shion is late to her scheduled stream!?

"I'll try to wake her up." I type in the stream before placing the drank glass cup on the kitchen sink and rushing towards the living room where Shion lies out cold.

"Eh!? Yagoo in the stream!? Everybody, say hello to Yagoo as this will be a historical moment! Who knew Yagoo will take part in waking the old woman up!"

"Shion! Shion!" I yell at her, shaking her gently to try waking her up.

"It looks like Shion still has yet to wake up! Has Yagoo failed to wake her up?"

After a minute of trying, she finally wakes up, still in a state of stupor.

"Ugh. . . what happened— Yagoo? I must be dreaming. . ." she mumbles with a slight slur as she tries to stand up. Because of the amount she drank yesterday, which can be gauged due to how she easily emptied the sake bottle while I was knocked out, I have to help her up to prevent her from falling.

"Shion, get a hold of yourself! You are already four hours late in your stream." I state, which makes her eyes widen in realization after hearing the term "stream".

"Yagoo!? Crap I need to prepare for the stream!" She yells as if she isn't drunk in the first place. She then starts to scramble around the room, in search of something only to find nothing and rushes upstairs.

"And— Wait!? It's finally here! Shion's now awake with her recent tweet! It looks like Yagoo did uphold his comment and successfully wake up the old woman from her slumber! One baba and twenty minutes with the hashtag getting trending in Japan and Yagoo ultimately ending the streak! What a legendary moment we have here!"

I sigh, closing the stream I am watching just to realize that I, too, am in a dire situation.

"Shion, I'll be going now!" I yell as loud as I can for Shion to hear. I quickly pack up my things, which is only the stress ball as the rest of my things are already packed in the first place, and head straight to my car. I immediately inform Ms. Hayatori about my situation as soon as possible because I will be ending up late to work and start driving to the nearest gas station for fuel to go back to my house and to the building. I can't simply go straight to my workplace without a proper shower because it sets a bad example to my fellow workers and colleagues so I have to go back to my house.

I am already three hours late for work and I can't afford to reach one baba!

5589 Words

My expectations are low but holy crap I have almost tripled the word count. Also, this is the reason why I failed to meet my already low expectation of once a week update. The word count above is counted in Google Docs so the word count in Wattpad may be vastly different in comparison (The word count doesn't include the title, the count itself and the Notes below it.)