Here it is. Enjoy!
--<<>>--
"You… ng… mas… ter…"
Let me sleep, Obito.
I didn't need to open my eyes. I could see him. He was kneeling outside my door, one hand raised like he'd been about to knock for the third time.
He froze.
I watched his shocked face yet again. You'd think he'd be used to it by now, but no. Every single time I acknowledged his presence without looking at him, he reacted like I'd performed a miracle.
"The Six Eyes, really, are a formidable ability." He said.
I sighed and sat up on my futon, rubbing my face with both hands. "I know, right?"
I turned my attention back to Obito, and that's when he did something unexpected.
He knelt. Not the casual, one-knee kind of kneel. The full thing. Both knees on the floor. His hands pressed flat in front of him. Forehead nearly touching the ground.
The hell?
"I would like to formally introduce myself, young master." He sounded like he had rehearsed this line at least a hundred times. "My name is Obito. I was born an orphan with no family name and no clan. Soran-sama took me in, gave me a place within the Yuki clan, and trained me. Now I have been entrusted with the task of guarding you." He paused. "I shall do so with my life."
I just stared at him.
Okay… so I have a guard. A personal guard. Who just swore his life to a four-year-old.
This was a lot for someone who hadn't even brushed his teeth yet.
"Get up," I said. "Get up, Obito. There's no need to be this formal."
He rose. And when he looked at me, with shining eyes. As if I'd just given him a gift instead.
"Thank you, young master!"
His enthusiasm was so sincere it almost hurt. I didn't know what to do with that kind of energy directed at me.
In my first life, the most loyalty anyone ever showed me, outside my family, was Kaito bringing me manga in the hospital. And even that came with an expiration date.
This felt different. A lot heavier. Like it carried weight I wasn't sure I deserved.
I pushed the thought aside and stood up. My futon was in a mess. I reached down to fold it, because that's what you do in the morning, and -
"YOUNG MASTER, PLEASE LEAVE THAT TO ME!"
I flinched so hard I nearly tripped over my own feet.
Obito had materialized beside me.
One second, he was by the door; the next, he was right there, looking offended that I'd tried to fold my own bed.
"Your bath is ready," he said, already scooping up the futon. "Please, go ahead."
I just nodded and walked away.
This is going to take some getting used to.
***
The bath was a large wooden tub.
Made of hinoki wood, which smells like cedar and something faintly herbal. Big enough to fit me comfortably.
I climbed in and sank into the hot water up to my chin.
Ahhhh~~ This feels good.
I sat there for a while, letting the heat soak into my body. Then I reached for the chewing stick on the edge of the tub.
A thin twig with frayed bristles at one end. This, ladies and gentlemen, was a toothbrush.
I bit down on it and started scrubbing.
Still not used to this.
.
.
.
As I sat in the tub, nibbling on my dental twig like some sort of health-conscious beaver, I let my mind wander to the day ahead.
Today was the day. My first training session with the other young clan members. My father had said it would be in the evening, after lunch. The basics of cursed energy control. Physical conditioning. Foundations.
I was looking forward to it. Not because I was excited about training, specifically. But because I finally had something to do. In my first life, I'd never had that. I'd drifted through school, present but not doing anything.
Now I had something more interesting to do.
I looked down at my hand beneath the water.
Why not?
I focused. Reached inward. Found the cursed energy sitting in my core and pulled a thread of it through the familiar channels. Abdomen. Chest. Arm. Hand.
The temperature around my hand dropped. The bathwater near my fingers went from hot to cool in an instant. A small ring of frost formed on the water's surface around my wrist.
And sure enough, an ice fan materialized in my palm.
I held it up above the water and studied it.
I should learn a weapon, I thought. A real one. This fan is Yuka's technique, Yuka's style. If I'm going to develop as a sorcerer, I need to find my own way of fighting.
I dismissed the fan, cutting the flow of energy. The ice crackled and dissolved into mist that rose from the bathwater like steam.
Something to think about later.
I climbed out of the tub, dried off, and got dressed.
Back in my room, Obito was kneeling in the exact same position I'd left him in.
This will take a while to get used to. I thought, yet again.
I sat down across from him.
"So," I said. "What's today's plan?"
Obito straightened. "Young master, your training session begins after lunch. Before that, your schedule is clear."
"Clear," I repeated.
A free morning.
Hmmmm... what to do?
"What are Ryu and Yuka doing?"
"Both the young master and young mistress have separate training sessions today," Obito said. "Given their… special circumstances."
Special circumstances?
I didn't know what that meant. However, I added it to the list of things to ask about later. Right between "What is Limitless?" and "Why did the Gojo clan kick my mother out?"
The list was getting long.
"Any suggestions?" I asked him.
Obito bowed his head. "Whatever you shall order, young master."
I sighed.
Of course. He wasn't going to suggest anything. He was a guard, not a friend. At least, not yet. His job was to follow, not to lead. To protect, not to entertain.
I'd have to fix that eventually. But for now, I worked with what I had.
Why not take a tour?
I'd spent four years on this estate. Four years of the same buildings, the same gardens, the same faces.
"We're going out," I said.
Obito looked at me. "Out, young master?"
"Out of the estate. And if possible, out of the…" I paused. I'd lived here for four years, and I didn't actually know what to call the settlement surrounding the Yuki compound. "What is this place? A village? A city?"
"A town, young master."
"A town. Perfect. I want to see it."
"Are you sure, young master?"
"Yup."
He hesitated. I could see it in his energy, a slight fluctuation in his core. Then it settled.
My guess? He'd made up his mind.
"As you wish."
I stood up and stretched, feeling my small joints pop in ways that shouldn't have been satisfying but absolutely were.
Then I paused.
"Oh, by the way," I said, turning back to him. "What's your cursed technique?"
Obito's energy spiked. Not aggressively. More like a flinch. His eyes widened, and for a moment, he looked at me the way you'd look at a child who just said something deeply inappropriate.
"Young master," he said carefully. "I will gladly tell you mine. But please, do not ask this question to anyone outside the clan. Asking a sorcerer about their cursed technique is considered a taboo."
Oh.
That made sense, actually. If cursed techniques were essentially your combat abilities, then asking someone to reveal theirs was like asking a soldier to hand over his battle plans.
"My bad," I said. "I didn't know."
He smiled and nodded. "All is forgiven, young master. You are still learning."
He got up too.
"As for my cursed technique, it is nothing extraordinary. It allows me to travel through shadows."
"Travel through shadows?"
"Yes. I can enter one shadow and emerge from another, within a radius of approximately five hundred meters."
"That's incredible."
He scratched the back of his head. "While it may sound impressive, the technique has significant limitations."
"What kind of limitations?"
"Two main ones." He held up a finger. "First, the cursed energy cost is massive. The further I travel, the more energy it drains. And if I carry someone with me, the cost multiplies. A single long-distance jump with a passenger can drain a sixth of my reserves."
I looked at his cursed energy with the Six Eyes. His reserve was less than that of my father, roughly half of what my father had. For a technique that consumed energy like that, it meant every jump had to be calculated.
"And the second?" I asked.
"The shadow I enter and the shadow I exit must be equal to or greater in size than my own shadow. Or, if I'm carrying someone, the combined shadow of both of us."
I thought about that for a moment.
"So if you needed to transport both of us across this town, you'd need to find a shadow large enough to fit our combined shadow area."
Obito's eyes widened slightly. "Exactly, young master. You understood that remarkably fast."
"It's not that complicated."
"Most kids take much longer to understand that."
Then he added, "This limitation also has a secondary benefit. Because I'm always aware of the shadows around me, their sizes and positions, it gives me an innate sense of my surroundings. I always know the rough layout of any area I'm in."
I looked at him with something that might have been respect.
That's actually brilliant.
His technique has hard limitations. But instead of resenting what he had, he'd built upon it.
He'd made something out of what he was given.
I thought about Charles. About the question I still carry with me.
What is life?
I didn't have an answer. But watching Obito talk about his technique, watching the quiet pride in his eyes as he described something that most sorcerers would dismiss as unremarkable, I felt something.
Maybe life isn't about what you're given. Maybe it's about what you do with it.
So simple, yet it felt like the biggest revelation I had so far.
I made sure to remember his answer.
Maybe one day, one of those half-answers would become whole.
"All right," I said, shaking off the thought. "So, can you get us out of this town? I want to see what's beyond the walls."
Obito nodded. "That I can do, young master. It will only take two jumps to reach the outer wall."
"Perfect." I clapped my hands together. "Then we have something to do."
Obito stood up, fixing his clothes.
"Let's go, Obito."
And for the first time since I'd been reborn into this world, I was walking out of these walls.
That, I decided, felt like progress.
--<<>>--
W for Obito...
Powerstones and comments are greatly appreciated.
And if you enjoyed it, add it to your library.