Chapter 2. The Vanishing Gss.oOoOo
“Séléné! Debout, on est arrivés!” (Wake up, we’re here!)
She had to admit, the journey had been long. Even though she was excited to begin a new adventure, the monotony had settled in quickly. She’d started to doze off on the pne somewhere over Germany, and eventually drifted into a full, dreamless sleep during the car ride. Her neck ached from the awkward angle, and her legs were stiff, but still, here they were!
After what felt like forever, the family had finally arrived at their new house. Séléné didn’t quite know how to react. On one hand, the house was very pretty: a typically English red-brick home with ivy curling up the walls, nestled on Chinaway Road, in the quiet countryside of Devon. The garden out front was untamed but charming, dotted with buttercups and daisies like it had been waiting for a child to return.
On the other hand, the contrast with her house in Japan had never felt more stark. The angles were unfamiliar. The air was cooler, softer, wetter. The silence wasn’t the hum of cicadas and wooden walls, but a strange stillness filled with distant birdsong and the occasional gust of wind.
Still, she didn’t want to upset her parents. So she smiled bravely, pushing the unease down, and stepped out of the car with quiet resolve, ready to begin this new chapter of her life..
To avoid unnecessary trips, she picked up her handbag and a small suitcase, making her way toward the house. Each step was marked by the soft crunch of gravel beneath her shoes, oddly satisfying in the cool morning air.
Inside, it took her a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimness. The front door opened into a handsome entryway, lined with pale wood and soft, faded wallpaper. Three doors stood ahead, and a staircase climbed toward the upper floor. A simple wooden shoe shelf stood nearby, and after years of cultural instinct, Séléné slipped her shoes off without a second thought.
To the left of the hall was a lovely room, likely meant to be the living room, still waiting for furniture. The only notable features were a tall, soot-streaked firepce and a gss door leading to a veranda that overlooked the back garden. Light streamed in from the windows, catching dust in the air like tiny floating spirits.
To the right, a second door opened onto a spacious dining room, also empty for now, which connected to a bright, modern kitchen already fitted with a stove, refrigerator, and a few shiny new appliances. A faint smell of paint lingered in the air.
The final door in the hallway led to a utility room, where a washing machine stood next to a tiny half-bath and a narrow stairwell descended to a celr. She peered down curiously but decided not to explore that part just yet.
Upstairs, the second floor held four rooms: two bedrooms with attached ensuites, a compact office beside the master bedroom, and another space that could become a third bedroom, a pyroom, or, her secret hope, a library someday.
After exploring, Séléné stepped into what was clearly meant to be her bedroom, situated just above the dining room, and she really liked it. Apparently, her parents had prioritized furnishing the bedrooms first, because this one was already fully prepared in soft vender tones, with sheer curtains fluttering gently in the window and a woven rug that felt warm under bare feet.
Pleased, she peeked into the ensuite next and was relieved, deeply relieved, to find a proper bathtub. Her Japanese self was not ready to go without baths. She had worried silently for weeks that this was going to be the dealbreaker.
Once satisfied with her mental map of the house, Séléné sat quietly on the edge of her bed. The mattress dipped slightly under her weight, the covers still crisp and unfamiliar.
Life would be different now, but she was sure she could get used to it. She just needed a little time.
oOoOo
Four months had passed since their arrival, and Séléné was slowly growing used to the rhythm of things. The ndscape was different, the customs strange in subtle ways, even the weather in summer colder than she liked, but overall, life was good. Not perfect. But steady.
There were caveats, of course. Her father was always busy with the company. She saw him mostly over dinner or te in the evenings, exhausted but smiling. And she missed her grandmother terribly. They phoned once a month, calls were expensive, but she wrote letters in between, even if most days there wasn’t much to report.
Sometimes, she wondered what she would do without Kabuki. But Okuni had taken her under her wing in a new way, teaching her, night by night, through dreams. In those quiet, half-lucid moments, Okuni passed down the old forms and movements, step by step. Nothing changed in the real world yet, but according to her ancestor, the day would come when her dances would create protective magic, woven rituals instead of raw spells.
Apparently, at the magical school, she’d learn something else too. Wanded magic, they called it, more varied, more flexible, but quick to fade.
This morning was the st day of the holidays. Tomorrow, she’d be starting at a brand new school, with strangers, in a nguage she still didn’t think in.
And she was nervous.
She stood in the kitchen, slicing fruit and assembling her breakfast, but her thoughts were elsewhere, tumbling over what she might have missed. Had she packed enough notebooks? Would the teachers be kind? Would her accent make her stand out too much?
She didn’t notice her elbow shifting until she heard the clink. Her arm had nudged a gss of orange juice perched near the edge of the counter.
Too te to grab it.
She turned in panic, but the gss never hit the floor.
It vanished mid-air.
No shatter. No spsh. No sign it had ever existed.
She blinked, stunned. The silence that followed seemed to stretch longer than it should have.
It was starting to become a real problem.
Since she had started training with Okuni in her dreams, her accidental magic had only grown stronger, more responsive. It used to only happen when she was upset. But now, even a distracted thought could make something disappear.
If she could erase a whole gss without even being emotional... what would happen if she did lose control? At school? In front of others?
She needed to be careful. Very careful.
It would probably be best to stop practicing the dances altogether, at least until she got to the magical school. There, hopefully, someone could teach her how to manage it, before something truly dangerous happened.
“Daijōbu, Ushio-chan?” (Are you alright?) “I didn’t hear you waking up.”
Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed her mother enter the kitchen. The voice pulled her back, and she flinched slightly, but this time, she recovered quickly and returned to spreading jam across her toast.
“Hai,” she replied. “I woke up a bit earlier than usual. Guess I’m a little nervous about tomorrow.”
“That’s normal, dear, but you’ll be fine, you’ll see,” Miyu said warmly, stepping closer and reaching for the kettle.
“You’re right,” Séléné murmured, in a voice that sounded steadier than she felt.
“Would you like to go for a walk ter today? Together? Just to clear your mind?”
With a bite of toast between her teeth, Séléné nodded. She had already explored a little around the neighborhood, but hadn’t dared stray far. With her mother beside her, maybe she could finally venture past the hedgerows.
The rest of breakfast passed quickly, filled with light conversation, talk of the weather, the funny words on the cereal box, her father’s habit of mispcing his keys. It wasn’t unusual for them to talk like this, but moments like these always warmed her. There was something comforting in the ease of it. A quiet space between worlds.
Once they were done, they cleaned up the kitchen together, moving instinctively around one another in a familiar rhythm, the soft music of ptes, cutlery, and shared silence.
Then, with the dishes put away and the sun now fully up, Séléné padded back upstairs to get dressed, already thinking about where they might walk, and what she might feel once she was no longer quite so afraid.
oOoOo
“Maman, regarde, des moutons!” (Look, Mum, sheep!)
Séléné felt like she was walking on a cloud. They had been strolling through the English countryside for barely fifteen minutes, and already she had seen animals she’d never encountered before, having lived her whole life in the tightly packed urban heart of Uji.
“I see them, darling,” Miyu replied with a smile in English. “I suppose animals like sheep are perfectly suited to a colder region like this.”
Séléné nodded eagerly, a wide grin pstered across her face. So far, they had seen goats, plenty of chickens, a few cows, and she was almost certain she had spotted ponies in the distance, though they were too far away for her to be sure. They had appeared only briefly between two hills, silhouettes more than creatures, like something from a fairytale.
For the first time since arriving in Engnd, the disorientation she often felt, usually just confusing or dull, had shifted into something joyful. She was soaking in every second of this walk, storing the experience like sunlight behind her eyes.
Miyu seemed to enjoy the outing too, though with a bit more restraint. Her steps were measured, her posture calm, but the gentle smile she wore when watching her daughter gave her away.
The afternoon sun still sat high in the sky, warm for te August. Birds sang from the hedgerows, and the breeze brushed against their cheeks with a softness that smelled faintly of grass and wool. In the nearby pasture, a cluster of sheep observed them with passive curiosity, blinking slowly as the two unfamiliar figures broke the usual rhythm of their day.
Everything felt quiet, peaceful, suspended.
Until it wasn’t.
Miyu, who had been smiling moments before, now looked tense. Her steps faltered slightly. One hand curled at her side. Her expression tightened, not in fear, but in vague discomfort, like someone walking into a room and suddenly forgetting why.
Séléné felt it too, but for her, it wasn’t just a feeling.
Something in the ndscape had changed.
Her eyes drifted past a break in the hedgerow, and that’s when she saw it.
Far across the field stood a tall, round structure, just visible between the hills. From this distance, it looked almost exactly like a life-sized chess rook. Solid, unusual, strangely pced. Not a ruin, not ancient, but too odd to ignore.
Séléné tilted her head slightly. She wasn’t sure what it was. A tower? A strange old silo?Or maybe someone really had decided to build a giant chess piece in the countryside.
Whatever it was, it didn’t seem threatening, just mysterious.
Séléné squinted, trying to make sense of it.
Before she could ask anything, her mother spoke again.
“We should go, sweetheart. I left the windows open.”
Her voice was too quick, slightly brittle. It was the kind of excuse that came from instinct, not memory. Séléné frowned, she was sure they had checked all the windows before leaving. Miyu had even gone around the house twice. But her mother had already turned away, walking briskly, not looking back.
Séléné cast one st gnce at the strange tower, fixing its position in her mind. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew she’d want to find it again. Someday.
The walk home was much faster, and far less pleasant than the one that had brought them out. Miyu kept her pace quick and silent, eyes fixed ahead, no longer noticing the sheep or the sunlight or the birdsong. And when they finally stepped back through their front gate, she paused at the threshold, as if confused about why they had returned so urgently in the first pce.
Séléné said nothing.
But something about it didn’t sit right.
During one of their dreamless lessons, Okuni had told her about protections used by wizards, spells that concealed magical locations and gently repelled anyone who didn’t belong. The most common was a kind of enchantment that nudged non-magical people away without conflict.
She couldn’t be sure. But she had a reasonable suspicion.
She had just encountered the British magical world for the very first time.
oOoOo
“Okaeri!” (I’m home!)
“Tadaima, Ushio-chan!” (Bon retour) “So, how was your first day?” Miyu asked out of habit, though the tight smile on her daughter’s face told her everything she needed to know. This was probably not going to be a glowing report.
Séléné let out a small sigh as she kicked off her shoes. She had just returned from her first day at an English school, and the experience had been… unique.
“It was nothing like I expected,” she began. “When I saw the uniforms, I thought it would be kind of like Japan. The other students are nice, really nice, actually. No one made fun of my accent or my hair. A bunch of them even asked me questions about Japan. But the csses…” She paused, clearly still processing. “First of all, we don’t greet the teacher. We just sit down and start. That’s weird. And we wear our outdoor shoes all day. No changing. No cleaning duty either. As soon as the bell rings, we leave, there are no clubs or anything after css.”
Miyu nodded. “That’s definitely a bit different. But maybe not all bad? It means you have more time to study and get good grades.”
“Right,” Séléné replied, clearly unconvinced. “Except… that’s the other weird thing. Apparently, there aren’t really bad grades here. If you don’t get a good mark on a test, you just take it again. As many times as you want. And there were boys who didn’t even stay for the lesson, they just walked out and went to another room to use a computer. From what I understood, the only rule is that you’re not allowed to disturb the ones who are listening.”
Miyu had to admit, it was entirely different from anything she had experienced in Japan. She had always known Japanese schools were strict, but she hadn’t expected the contrast to be this stark.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” she said gently. “As long as no one’s stopping you from studying, it’ll be fine. And knowing you, you’re not the type to let anything slow you down. At the very least, you’ll have a good sense of both cultures now.”
Séléné gave a vague nod but didn’t say much. She wasn’t sure how to feel. On one hand, she still wanted to do her best, her upbringing made that instinctive. But on the other, the whole atmosphere at this school felt like a brake on her motivation. And deep down, she already knew that she’d be changing schools again next year… and that her current grades probably wouldn’t matter at all.
She was still standing in the entryway, schoolbag in hand, her eyes distant with thought. Miyu, watching her from the kitchen doorway, couldn’t help but smile a little. Her daughter had always had a competitive streak when it came to academics, if only to silence the people who judged her for her hair. It was hard to call someone a delinquent when they were top of the css.
Now, suddenly finding herself in an environment where none of that mattered… it had to be disorienting.
“Why don’t you go do your homework while I finish getting dinner ready?” Miyu offered.
The suggestion seemed to snap Séléné out of her thoughts. She looked up at her mother, a little surprised.
“Homework? Oh, no, apparently they don’t believe in that here,” she muttered, halfway to herself, and started trudging up the stairs with the air of someone personally offended by the very concept of free time after school.
“If you want,” Miyu called after her, “you can still do some, and I’ll check your work after dinner. Your father will be home early tonight too, he decided to come back sooner for your first day.”
At that, Séléné let out a happy little squeal and raced up the rest of the stairs two at a time. Miyu wasn’t entirely sure if it was the promise of her father’s return or the offer of extra homework that had made her daughter so delighted. Knowing her, it could easily have been both.
Meanwhile, upstairs in her room, Séléné had begun unpacking her schoolbag, sorting through the notes and worksheets from the day.
This first day had been very different from what she was used to, but she reminded herself that next year would be even stranger. This wasn’t what she was used to. But perhaps a year of this odd, floating in-between life would make the real change easier to swallow…
So she did what she always did.
She kept going.
She would prepare herself, quietly, steadily.
And when the time came… she would be ready.