It was Saturday, the end of my first week at the Magic Academy.
Since it was a day off, I had planned to sleep in, but my body had other ideas. I woke up at four in the morning as usual. I tried for a second round of sleep, but by six, I was wide awake and gave up.
"Am I an old man or something?"
Exasperated with myself, I rolled out of bed and pulled open the curtains. The morning sun came streaming into the room.
"Maybe I'll go for a run..."
Running was part of my daily routine, but I’d never actually gone for a run this early in the morning before.
"Yeah, let’s do that."
I swapped my pajamas for athletic gear, headed out of my room, and walked down the stairs. I noticed someone was already in the living room and peeked inside to find my mother watching television.
"Oh, Tsukasa. What’s the matter? It’s rare to see you up at this hour."
She looked at me with a surprised expression.
"Must be the new school schedule. I'm going for a run."
"What about that bedhead? You look like a mess, so fix it before you go."
"The wind will fix it while I run. Besides, I’m taking a shower as soon as I get back."
It was a win-win—I could wash off the sweat and fix my hair at the same time.
"I see... Well then, I'll have breakfast ready by the time you're done."
"Thanks. See ya."
I stepped out of the house and started jogging. Since it was six o'clock on a Saturday, there were hardly any people around. The air was cool and felt great against my skin.
When I reached the park that served as my usual turnaround point, I took a seat on a bench.
"Man, the weather is perfect."
There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. The park was empty and incredibly peaceful. I sat there for a while, staring blankly up at the sky.
As I was wondering what I should do with the rest of my day, I spotted someone else out for a run. A fellow runner, I thought. I watched as a woman in athletic gear jogged toward me.
Even from a distance, it was obvious she had a great figure. Her long platinum blonde hair swayed in a ponytail behind her.
"Whoa..."
The word slipped out involuntarily. As I sat there staring, our eyes met. She kept running while maintaining eye contact and passed right by me, but after a few more meters, she came to a sudden stop.
"Hmm?"
The woman slowly turned around and looked at me.
"Good morning."
"Good morning..."
She returned my greeting.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Running..."
Well, that was obvious.
"Sorry, I mean—why are you here? This is Japan."
The woman was Shar, the girl I had attended the Curse Studies lecture with just yesterday.
"Um, I could say the same for you, Tsukasa... Ah, no, I suppose it’s perfectly natural for a Japanese person to be in Japan."
I guess she had a point.
"Want to sit?"
"Sure."
Shar nodded and walked over, so I slid over to give her some space.
"What a coincidence—or rather, what a strange place to run into each other. Do you live around here?" she asked as she sat down.
"More or less. I was out for a run too."
"I see... Do you like running? I'm out at this time every morning, but I've never seen you."
She was certainly an early riser.
"Yeah, I like it. But being out at this hour was just a fluke. There’s a three-hour time difference between Japan and Astral, right? My internal clock is still a bit messed up, so I woke up early."
"That makes sense. But it's a good thing. Time zone issues can be quite serious, so it's better to just lean into that rhythm. I wake up early on weekends too."
I wake up early too...
"Wait, Shar, do you live in Japan?"
"Well..."
Shar looked away. I got the feeling it was better not to pry into her circumstances.
"I never expected to run into you on this side of things, Shar."
Though I wasn't really one to talk, being a student there myself.
"I didn't think so either. I knew you were Japanese, of course, but the world is a big place."
And Japan has a lot of people.
"Why do you run, anyway? Do you like it?"
"No, I hate it. Or rather, I'm bad at sports in general. I’m a total indoor person."
She certainly didn't look the part.
"Is it for a diet or something, then?"
"Something like that."
She said it so casually that I couldn't help but glance at her. She didn't look like she had an ounce of fat on her; if anything, her figure was incredible. Her form-fitting running gear made that very clear.
"Don't think you really need to, do you?"
"I do. It’s less about losing weight and more about maintenance. Being a girl is hard work."
Come to think of it, Toko was always doing stretches in her room too. Plus, my sister and I had been trained in martial arts by our father since we were kids, so we were used to constant exercise.
"Hmm..."
"Tsukasa, you only decided to become a mage recently, right?" Shar asked, her eyes fixed on the horizon.
Her profile was seriously beautiful.
"That's right."
"With that much magic power, why didn't you consider it sooner? Were your parents against it?"
"No, they actually encouraged it. The problem is that even though I have the magic power, I can't actually use it."
I wondered if I would have aimed to be a mage much earlier if I’d been able to manifest it normally.
"You did mention that... It's been a week since you started the Academy, so how is it? Any progress?"
"None at all. I tried using the spell formulas in the textbook, but I don't get it. I’m just bad at externalizing magic power. Or maybe it’s just my constitution. I can use Reinforcement Magic, though..."
"Reinforcement Magic? So you're a combat-type mage?"
"I took down a bear in my grandpa's mountains with a single strike during Golden Week."
I was actually pretty proud of that.
"A bear... Wait, a bear?"
Shar turned to me with a shocked expression.
"A bear. Well, an Asian Black Bear, specifically..."
I wondered if I could take a Brown Bear. Probably.
"That's incredible... Although, I suppose with your level of magic power, it's possible. I couldn't do that no matter how much power I had."
She had mentioned being bad at sports.
"You're not the combat type, then?"
"There's no way a girl who loves alchemy would be a combat type. This is a secret, but I actually have no talent for magic."
No talent?
"Seriously?"
"My magic power isn't that high, and my technique is just average. Most importantly, I have zero athletic ability. Because I'm the Student Council President from a prestigious family like the Hiverts, everyone assumes I’m an elite, but I'm actually in a pretty bad way."
She seemed like such a high-achiever, though.
"Well, your magic power is definitely lower than mine. Probably less than half."
"You don't have to be so blunt about it!"
Shar laughed and playfully swatted my shoulder.
Ah, crap.
She was seriously cute.