Chapter IV.XXXVII (4.37) - First Date

  “And remember,” Professor Knoff said as they gathered up their bags, “I want the equations in your homework to be fully drawn out. Show your work! Not just the end result answers. You have the formulas in your textbook. Simply follow them, write it all out, and you’ll be fine.”

  Something between a mutter and a groan came from the Numerology F students as they rose and exited the classroom.

  “Kaga and Kajima, hold back for one minute,” Knoff called out to them.

  Kizu and Ione glanced at one another then waited until all the other students had exited.

  “What is it, professor?” Kizu asked.

  “I wanted to check in with you about your experimentation with soul concoctions. Namely, I need to verify that you’re not doing further testing on yourself or Ms. Kajima without supervision.”

  “No.” Kizu had actually considered it the previous day, but decided against messing with his soul for the time being. As much as he was both eager to free Ione from Chiame and was curious to expose more of his soul stowaway’s past, he had enough to worry about at the moment. “I haven’t touched any of those brews. Though I did get in contact with a necromancer who offered to help me cultivate some materials.”

  “Did you now?” Professor Knoff’s eyebrow rose. “Interesting. You must tell me about what you manage to scrounge up! But, that’s not here or there for the moment.” He turned his attention over to Ione. “Ms. Kajima, have you been experiencing any further issues with the creature clinging to your soul?”

  “Um.” Ione hesitated. “Well…a bit. But nothing really bad.” They waited for her to elaborate. Finally, she folded. “Chiame ripped apart my roommate’s pillow,” she admitted. “And then got a hold of some red paint I was using to experiment with as summoning materials. And she wrote a few short messages on the walls of my dorm.”

  “What sort of messages?” Kizu asked.

  “Just…stuff about cutting off people’s tendons and decorating the carpet with intestines.”

  “Nothing bad,” Kizu repeated dryly.

  “Hey now. My roommate was able to clean everything up with a few simple spells. She only screamed for like ten minutes.”

  “Hm.” Professor Knoff tapped his wobbly chin as he considered. “Perhaps this is even more of an issue than I first assumed. Are you two available now? I have some papers I need to grade and look over before tomorrow morning, but I can rearrange my schedule.”

  “Actually…we are kind of busy,” Kizu admitted. “If Ione wants to postpone our plans, we can though.”

  “Absolutely not!” Ione said. “I’m happy as a lark. Another time is totally fine.”

  “If you’re certain,” Professor Knoff said.

  “I am! Let’s go, Kizu!”

  Ione nearly yanked his arm out of its socket as she pulled him toward the classroom exit. Kizu managed a short goodbye to Professor Knoff. And then they were outside.

  Now out of Knoff’s classroom, Ione relaxed considerably. They walked out to one of the academy courtyards out among the flowerbeds. Classes finished for the day, it was finally time. Kizu was confident in his plans, but that didn’t make his heartbeat pound any slower.

  “Alright, Kizu. Today is the day. Wow me.”

  “Are you ready?” Kizu asked.

  “I just suffered through Numerology F. Conscious. I’m pretty sure I can handle anything you’ve got up your sleeve.”

  Kizu held out his hand and Ione took it, a slight smile touching the corners of her lips.

  Then he jumped.

  A moment later, they stood in the receiving room in Port Kallis.

  “Welcome to Tross,” Kizu said.

  “Damn. Okay. Nice surprise start. I half expected you to just take me to dinner in town or to play board games with Anata and Mae.”

  Kizu rolled his eyes. “Not that there’s anything wrong with dinner and board games. But, come on, you can put your expectations a bit higher than that, at least. It’s our first date, I’m not going to skimp out with something easy.”

  Ione peaked her head out the door. “So many people. Do we need to fill out customs documentation?”

  “I sent it ahead of time. We’re clear for entry. Let’s go explore the city.”

  After a few minutes of weaving through the rush hour crowd, they managed to exit the building and enter into Port Kallis.

  The city was substantially different from the cities Kizu had visited in Hon. Beyond just the different culture of the architecture. There were more street rats and dark alleyways. But in contrast to that, people were just generally more friendly here too. Different from the formal bows the citizens gave to Aoi when he walked the streets of Kyonaka alongside her. Here, strangers smiled when they made eye contact and people were more willing to chat.

  That also meant that street hawkers were more willing to shout from across the road and illusionists had large gaudy advertisements on display to snag attention from passerbys.

  “Oh! Did you see that? That vendor is selling birds! One of them looked like it might be a violet long feathered dodo. They’re only ever seen on Mauve Island off to the east!”

  They double backed just to check and see the price on the bird, but Ione left dejected and irritated when she realized there was an enchanted paint over the bird’s feathers. Even she nearly fell for it, which frustrated her all the more.

  “We’re almost to the spot,” Kizu said. “Just need to make it down by the docks.”

  “I’ve heard rumors that Port Kallis has a family of giant sea cucumber-lion hybrids. Is that what you’re bringing me to?” This was at least Ione’s tenth guess at where he was taking her to. She seemed to be enjoying the game.

  “Not quite. But you’re close.”

  Kizu had spent quite a bit of time examining the city maps as well as visiting yesterday to scout out the path in person, but still found himself second guessing his directions.

  Thankfully, they arrived at the large building with only three wrong turns. Having it situated by the coast helped a lot. The building was structured out of enchanted glass. Through it, hundreds of species of fishes could be seen swimming about.

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  “Louis Raul Sea Life Aquarium,” Ione read out loud. She stood perfectly still.

  “You mentioned you wanted more underwater creatures to study for summons,” Kizu explained. “And then I was looking through the glass in Roba’s office at all the fish. And I picked up a brochure while—”

  He cut off as Ione threw her arms around him, nearly knocking him off his feet. But she released him from the hug nearly as suddenly as she’d engaged.

  “Let’s go inside! Oh, I can’t wait to see what sort of mammals they have. I wonder if they have anything magical. That would be the dream! How late are they open? You already have the tickets for us? That saves so much time. I can’t believe this is happening!” Ione rattled off words as she dragged him off into the glass building.

  Kizu handed the staff their tickets and then they were surrounded by sea creatures.

  “Look at the length of these spines on this sea urchin. They’re half a meter at least. The description says they carry no poison, but instead break off in the skin of their enemy. They then further splinter under the skin and slowly burrow deeper into the enemy’s body over time, causing extreme itchiness in the best case scenarios. But if not removed, they can threaten their victim with death as the splintered spines travel up the bloodstream to the heart!

  “These aquatic birds have been found up to three hundred meters underwater! Look at those feathers! They’re practically glowing with magic. I wonder why they want to descend so deep. What’s down there for them? My guess is some sort of magical flora or fauna that they need to help them maintain their bodies.

  “A real life manatee! I’ve heard we have some near the academy but I’ve never been able to get a glimpse of one before. It really looks like it should be magical. Look at that snout!

  “Oh! I bet you can’t spot this one! I’ve read about them before. Looks like an empty tank, right? Wrong! Check up in the tank’s corner. See those two beady black marbles? These crabs are transparent save for their eyes. They’re absolutely terrifying if you encounter them in the water.

  “The amount of flamboyant frills on this fish would make Basil jealous! It has extreme control over its maneuverability underwater. If I could find something like that but bigger, it would make for a perfect summon!”

  Ione bounced from location to location, with Kizu following after her. They only had three hours until close and Ione was on a mission to locate the most interesting creatures in the aquarium before choosing which to study. Personally, Kizu thought the big, red octopus was pretty neat. He’d watched it squeeze through a tiny hole to get some food dropped on the other side of its tank. But while Ione agreed it was impressive, it didn’t seem to meet even the top thirty most interesting things to look at for her.

  After questioning some staff, they learned that the aquarium didn’t contain any sentient creatures. They had years earlier, but apparently the aquarium’s namesake took issue with the idea of imprisoning innocent people and had them freed from captivity. A large portion of the aquarium’s profits actually went into researching creatures and helping enact laws in Tross to free captured sentient creatures. It had been a leading force in the freedom movement of merfolk a hundred years ago.

  In the end, Ione settled down to study a dire sea lion. The glass stretched several meters upwards, separating the underwater area from the ground section to get a full view of both. She was convinced a mammal would be a more suitable summon for reasons that were a mystery to Kizu. In contrast to her earlier ramblings, Ione went silent as she buckled down and began studying the massive creature closely. Her eyes were alert as she tracked its movements. She stood stiffly, her finger tips pressed up to the glass that separated the behemoth from the humanoids.

  “Interested in Bob, eh?” One of the staff wandered up to them.

  Ione didn’t respond, utterly absorbed in her study.

  “That’s the name of the sea lion?” Kizu asked.

  “Yeah, Ol’ Bob. He’s been here for the better part of four decades now. In the wild they’re usually hunted and killed by a predator long before they reach this age. Normal sized sea lions actually have a higher life expectancy than their dire cousins. As far as we know, Bob here is the oldest of his kind.”

  “Is he the oldest creature in the aquarium?” Kizu asked.

  The staff member laughed. “Not by even a fraction! We have a mollusk that’s five millenia old. A jellyfish that’s at least eight centuries. A penguin-bear chimera that’s 498 years old. Several of the sea turtles are centuries old. Our cephloshark is around that age as well. Even the sea goat is a decade older than Bob here. And that’s just a few. Nah, Bob doesn’t even rank in the top hundred oldest species we have. But he is gorgeous.”

  The sea lion swooped around his tank, his belly rubbing across the glass and blubber rippling on impact. The room shook just a bit and several others in the room stumbled, but Ione didn’t even flinch. She looked more vigilant than Kizu had ever seen her.

  “Did you say there’s a jellyfish?” Kizu asked.

  “A whole section of them! Don’t know if you’ll be able to squeeze in there today though. An entire school came to visit from Hon and those kids are clogging up that area right now.” The disappointment must have shown on Kizu’s face, because the staff member gave him a sympathetic smile. “Just an excuse to come another day! Plenty of other critters out and about here.”

  The staff member continued on his way, checking in on people.

  Kizu supposed he was right, but that didn’t make him less crestfallen. He sat back on a bench and watched. Not the dire sea lion swimming in loops on the other side of the glass, but instead his mind wandered over to the people in the room. There wasn’t any one type of person who visited the aquarium. Plenty of children, definitely, but old people hobbled by right past them. The ranges of people varied drastically. Powerful mages, Kemon tribesfolk, middle-aged women. Plenty of people looked to have come alone. Others had their entire families in tow. And he was also far from the only teenager out on a date.

  This was a place of learning for everyone. The price of entry hadn’t been egregious and it seemed like the aquarium mostly sustained itself on donations.

  “I think I finally have it!” Ione said, sitting down on the bench with him.

  Her smile was contagious and Kizu felt it infect him. He also noted that she sat close, her leg pressed against his own.

  “You can summon a dire sea lion?” he asked.

  “The sheer size of this guy makes it a challenge. It’s easily my biggest summon yet! But I think I understand the creature enough for a proper formula now.”

  “That’s amazing! I’m surprised there aren’t more summoners studying the creatures here.”

  “I don’t understand it either. People just…don’t get monsters. To me they make so much sense. Human bodies are the same too. But I obviously can’t summon one of those. But the way they move and function, I can understand it at just a glance.”

  “You know that’s incredible, right?” Kizu asked. “You are incredible.”

  “Smother me in flattery.”

  Kizu stretched his arm around the back of the bench, around Ione’s shoulders. She leaned into him.

  “What do you want to see next?” he asked.

  “Hm. Well, I think I have a good idea of what I want to take a look at. But I need a few minutes to process the last creature I studied. It took a lot out of me.” She set her head against his shoulder, her black hair hiding her face from his sight. “Anything you want to see?”

  “Well…I’d like a better look at the jellyfish. I want to study them a bit further. But the entire area is swarmed with children right now.” He sighed. “I really want to get Sojan back, but I’m not certain I want to dive into the cove blind. Have I…did I explain to you exactly what happened on Owl’s Respite?” he asked. “The night I lost my leg?”

  “I know most of it. But not the entire story.”

  Careful not to mention Warlord Inari by name, Kizu quietly told her about what happened. He felt her tense up as he described dragging himself across the floor, blood gushing from his stump of a leg. When he finished, she asked him about the Harbingers. She knew pretty much everything by now, but she asked about what happened out in the Tross Tundra. So he began with that story.

  Kizu told her everything. His feelings of disgust and rage at being used by the entities in the aurora, his discomfort with his soul companion and the vision he’d experienced after drinking the soul potion. A lot Ione already knew, but she never interrupted.

  While he spoke at barely more than a whisper, he still remained alert and wary of eavesdroppers. Confessing everything to Ione felt right, but that didn’t mean he intended to expose himself.

  Thankfully nobody else in the aquarium nearby gave them any mind. He and Ione were simply another couple, tuckered out and resting.

  Bob, the dire sea lion, rubbed his belly against the glass on another pass by them, causing a child to squeal and dash over to his mother. An older man made a joke about Bob dieting. A large hermit crab in a tank nearby skittered away.

  Not long after Kizu finished talking, he heard Ione’s soft snores and felt her breath against his neck.

  Kizu closed his eyes and took in the moment. He felt at peace.

  “Our facilities will be closing in five minutes! Please make your way to the exit. We thank you for your patronage and hope you’ve enjoyed your time here at the Louis Raul Sea Life Aquarium. Do not forget any possessions on your way out. Please come again soon!”

  Kizu cracked an eye open at the announcement and his heart fell.

  “Damn. For once, I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” Ione said. “I wanted to enjoy the moment a bit longer.”

  Standing, Kizu stretched and looked around the room. It was near empty now. And the few people remaining were walking to the exit. Nobody was paying them any mind. Kizu reached up and touched his necklace. The one that protected him from divination detection. Then he glanced in the direction the worker had gestured at earlier when telling him about jellyfish.

  “What if…we didn’t go back just yet?”

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