Normal POV
I spent a good chunk of time studying the basics and theories of magecraft before taking a break and hanging out with Nate once I made him finish his homework.
Time soon passed and night came.
"Alright little star, time for you to go to sleep," I said, turning off the lights of his room and tucking him in.
"Aww but I don't want to go to sleep yet!" Nathaniel complained with a small whine.
"Alright then..." I put a hand to my chin in thought before a lightbulb went off in my head "how about I tell you a story?" I offered.
That seemed to have gotten his attention "a story? What kind?" he asked, now interested.
"I'll tell you the greek story of the Pleiades sisters and the hunter Orion," I began after pulling a chair out to sit on.
"Long, long ago," I began, lowering my voice, "there were seven sisters called the Pleiades. They were nymphs, daughters of a Titan named Atlas. Atlas who by the way was so strong that the gods made him hold up the sky itself."
Nate's eyes widened "all by himself?"
"Yeah," I smiled faintly "every day and night without an end. The sisters loved him very much, but they could never help him. All they could do was watch."
I paused letting that sink in.
"The sisters were beautiful and kind, and because of that a great hunter named Orion noticed them. He was powerful, proud... and relentless. He began chasing them across the world, day after day."
Nate frowned "did they want to play with him?"
I shook my head "no they were scared. They ran and ran, but Orion never once stopped hunting them down. No matter how tired they got, he would just keep coming."
My voice softened without me meaning to "so they prayed to the gods to save them and finally, the gods did listen."
I reached up and gently brushed Nate's hair back from his forehead.
"To protect the sisters, the gods turned all seven of them into stars and placed them high in the night sky where Orion could never hope to reach them."
Nate stared at the ceiling, imagining it "so they were safe?"
"...Yeah," I said quietly, "they were safe because later Orion himself was placed just a bit farther away from them. So he would be close to them but never able to reach them."
"Yet," I continued after a moment, "there was a problem. Atlas their father was still holding up the sky. And because the sisters were now part of the stars, they had to stay far away from him. They could see him every night... but they could never reach him."
Nate's lip trembled just a little "that's sad..."
"Yeah," I admitted, my chest feeling heavier than it should "even when you're saved... sometimes you still lose something."
I swallowed.
"That's why, if you look up at the night sky, you can still see Orion chasing the Pleiades. He's always close, but never close enough. While the sisters stay together, shining softly, and watching over each other."
Nate was quiet for a long moment.
"Do they miss their dad?" he asked in a small voice.
I closed my eyes briefly.
"I think they do," I said "but I also think they want him to know they're okay. That they survived."
Nate hugged his dinosaur tighter and yawned "...I think they're brave."
I smiled, warmth spreading through my chest despite the ache.
"I think so too," I whispered.
I stood up and pulled the blanket up to his chin "goodnight, little star."
"Goodnight, big bro," he murmured, already half-asleep "will you still be here in the morning?"
My hand stilled for a second on the blanket.
"Yes," I said softly, more of a promise than words "of course I'll be. Where else would I go?" I muttered towards the end before closing and leaving his room.
I took a kitchen knife and sat down on the couch before pricking my index finger.
The book of Magecraft Fundamentals and Elements gave an in-depth detail as to how one could create magic circle ritual to find their element and origin.
So on the table I drew out a perfect circle if a bit shaky.
After that I grabbed a piece of paper and placed it on top of the circle.
Once the final step was done I switched my circuits on and began the chant.
"Let that which is hidden be revealed. Let the foundation answer the question. By blood as proof, by will as key. Show me the truth of myself."
The drop of blood on my fingertip seeped into the circle.
The paper trembled.
At first, nothing happened. For half a second, I thought I'd failed but then ink-like letters began bleeding through the page as if written by an invisible hand.
Rigel Jones
The name settled onto the paper with finality, the letters dark and heavy, as if carved rather than written.
Below it, more text formed.
Magic Circuits: 25
Quality: Average
"Yeah I already know that" I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck.
Then the paper pulsed again.
New words appeared.
Elemental Affinity - Ether, Water, Earth
Attributes - Binding /Halting.
My eyes widened slightly.
"...Three?" that wasn't common and a bit rare for a magi to have more than one element.
Certainly not unheard of though.
Attributes on the other hand were something I had no clue about and were probably something I'd have to either search around for at the library or ask Waver.
A final section then appeared.
Origin - Vessel / Sage
Silence.
The magic circle on the table was gone, having been used up on the paper.
"...A dual origin?" I whispered.
Origin's were the absolute truth of a person's existence, the axis their soul rotated and leaned most towards.
[Vessel] could be defined as a container. Something meant to hold, carry, and receive.
[Sage] on the other hand means someone who seeks, records, and understands.
Snatching the paper I started ripping it to shreds before tossing some of it into the trash and the other half-down the toilet.
Just enough to not clog it.
One could never be too paranoid or cautious with these things.
I possessed a lot of potential, something any mad magi might want or experiment on.
Still I wondered if one of my origin's was [Vessel] then shouldn't my mind have been able to hold the information of the knife I traced?
No, I suspect that it's not my mind which acts as a [Vessel] but rather my [Body] or [Soul] which is why the information disappeared.
This also brings me to another conclusion.
This witch factor that I had wasn't just compatible with me because I was well attuned with the sin of [Pride] but rather because I was quite literally a perfect container/holder for the factor itself.
With [Sage] I can actually admit to having a bit more influence on me since I wanted to seek and understand magecraft and by de-facto even True Magic's.
Glancing over at my flip-phone the time read as 11:00pm.
Instead of going to sleep like I should have I decided to flick the TV on keeping the volume low and started moving around the apartment grabbing a bunch of junk and putting it on the table.
I would spend the rest of the night spamming the [Analysis] and [Projection] spells.
I figured that if Shirou could eventually do the [Analysis] with only a glance I could probably do the same by repeatedly doing it every single day.
It would be useful since I am probably going to need it when I am out in the field with Gray and the Professor.
I never watched or read anything related to their series. I only just knew that the characters had a detective like series related to them from the type moon wiki and because of FGO.
I am really hoping that my stars won't be so bad that I have to use the Domain Expansion.
Dying hurts like hell I thought with a shudder.
[Projection] on the other hand was spammed so that I could see if there was a way to restructure and modify it to my own liking.
One of the first ideas for a spell that came to mind after finding my elements was the ability to deploy solid structures of shadows to then launch at my opponents.
[Projection] serves as a good starting spot as it involves creating something from the user's imagination.
All I'd have to do is imagine an empty vessel image of a weapon before filling the inside of it with shadows instead.
But there are several problems to address.
For starters how does one fill it with shadows? After all it can't just be conjured out of nowhere like with typical fantasy stories.
The second is that GAIA aka The Will of the World will immediately start degrading the vessel into nothingness and the shadows inside would either explode out or fade away into the atmosphere.
So in summary with [Projection] we have a vessel/image but no way to even insert/create the shadows to guide and insert into the vessel/image. With whatever these attributes of mine were though I could probably just bind-halt the shadows into place so it does not escape or implode.
Or maybe I could try to instead find a way to shape existing shadows and then bind-halt them into shape without the use of a projected vessel.
Sigh...damn Nasu and his complex rules I thought with a headache from all the thinking and constant use of analysis.
Before long it was finally 2:50am and I finally fell asleep on the couch having used up most of my mana.
-end of chapter five-
So your thoughts so far?
Also like I said I am no master expert like Melegant or Bleap with the Nasuverse-Magecraft system/rules.
So some things that I might attempt to explain/have my MC research on might not even work or make sense in canon.
But anyways the goal is basically to remake a Nasuverse variant of the [Minya] Spell from Re: Zero. If you have any suggestions or insights of your own I'll be glad to hear and give credit for. Same if you do for any of Aldebaran's other spells from Re:Zero.
Lastly MC is mostly knowledgeable of the three Fate Routes, Fate/Zero, and FGO.
Case Files Adventures, Fate/Apocrypha, and Fate/Extra were ones he never saw and only ever heard/read about in passing.
So he's only vaguely aware of some things regarding Gray and Waver's stories.
Was also thinking for his main weapon which would be better for him.
Guns or Swords?