9 It all starts from now

Kotori's POV:

Two years have passed since Emily was born.

The child, Emily was an absolute joy.

She was quiet and rarely made fuss. Chika baa-san also agreed that she had never such a well-behaved baby, unless she threw her tantrums. They were quite scary.

Our days passed in bliss. It was so surreal. Slowly, I was able to forget all my worries. I had to. My daughter was very perceptive. She never missed it when I was out of sorts… and bug me till I sighed in irritation and forget about it.

For her, I left my past behind. She was worth it all.

It was amusing to watch her grow up. She was a little lazy. Mostly bored I guess. I felt a bit guilty about her being unable to play with the kids of her age. It was because of me. I never let her go outside the residence.

The little girl must be definitely bored. So I spend all my time with her. Through this, I found out that Emily is very smart for her age. Well, she always was smart. She called me 'ma' when she was just four months old. Everything happened so quickly. She grew up fast, before I knew it. So here we are. Making an attempt to pull my kid out from the pile of books.

"Emily, dear. You need to sleep now."

"...Just a bit more, mum."

"You said that a while ago, hon."

My two year old sighed and walked towards me.

"Can I stay awake for some more time?"

"No, dear. You need to sleep."

"Sigh… Let's go."

Emily sighs more than I ever did. I could tell something was on her mind. What a two year old had to worry about, I can never fathom it. I simply decided to ask her.

"Emily, do you have something you want to talk with me?"

"...no."

"Just remember that I will always be there for you, dear."

I kiss on top of her head and tuck her to sleep. I turned the lights off and laid beside her.

I pretend to sleep for a while.

Three hours passed and I opened my eyes.

I looked at the little girl who's 'asleep.'

There was yet another change in the magic around her. It started about a month ago. Every night when Emily sleeps, her magic starts circulating within her body…

It causes me to worry and be proud at the same time.

Proud because my daughter was more gifted than me and worried because… she would get hurt, just like all of us have…

I wonder how much longer she can be kept in the dark. Every day, as she grows, I can't stop myself from worrying. How am I supposed to tell her about magic? What should I do...when the curse acts? What will I do when she asks about 'him'?

***

Emily's POV:

I know it's cliche, but time passes by in a blink of an eye. Typically if you're severe need of it. Time, I mean.

Today's a bit… special. It's my third birthday and after two days, my family's supposed to die. Three years of meditation, spirit tempering, etc. all helped me remain calm today.

But that doesn't mean I'm not tense. I'm on an alert mode.

Thankfully, Mum and Chika baa-san brushed it off as me being nervous. As I'm leaving the compound for the first time. Since it's my birthday, they both wanted me to take out. To play. Hence, they took me to the playground.

Somehow, they were able to accept my calm, almost distant attitude towards everything. How? That's a mystery, but I'm grateful for that. So I guess my indifference was seen as 'shyness towards strangers' when put on my usual poker face.

And not a single kid dared to come closer to me, except for a certain boy. He's named Shuhei. He was also quiet. Too quiet. And his Mom and mine seemed to be friends and chatted. We both stayed calm. Till the evening and went home.

I noticed my surroundings today. It had a Mexican feel to it. There was rarely any vegetation. Now that I think about it, the air's a bit dry too. No wonder mum never took me out. Kids would definitely get a heat stroke if they stayed outside too long.

We went back home and I laid on my bed to sleep even though it never came I think through the plan for the nth time inside my head. Countless alternatives are ready if even one thing goes wrong. I take a deep breath and decided to proceed with my plan tomorrow.

The next day.

I think through the plan for the nth time inside my head. Countless alternatives are ready if even one thing goes wrong. I take a deep breath and decided to proceed with my plan.

It was simple. When no one was watching me, I cast a small spell on myself. A very insignificant magic spell. It could be called as a hex too. And it worked perfectly fine. As a consequence, I felt the temperature of my body rise. I smiled as I fainted.

Entering inside my mindspace, I calmly watch the way things happen.

Looking at how my mother panics, I felt a bit guilty, but didn't stop the spell. Everything depended on this. I know this was a gamble. And I plan on winning it. I always do.

"Do you think this would work?" Anna, the nervous wreck asked me.

"It will." I said to her. And it did.

After her initial panic, mother regained her composure. She and Chika baa-san took me to a room I never knew existed in the house.

"What's wrong with her?" Chika baa-san asked worriedly.

"She's under a spell." My mother told, her voice never so cold.

"What?! How is that possible?!"

"We will know it very soon. Right now, helping Emily matters the most, everything else can wait. Baa-san, you know what to do."

"Alright, Milady."

As I watched everything unfold like I predicted, I smiled.

"Did you see that, Anna? I was right."

"...Hai. But…"

"I know. There might've been a thousand different ways things could go wrong, but they didn't." And they would not. I made sure of that. After everything that happened, saying that I'm a control freak is an understatement.

Since the moment I knew my family was in danger, I began planning. And when I did plan, nothing would escape it.

And for almost three years, I took measures for this day. On this day, there would be an attack in the neighbourhood. And my family would likely get killed in the midst of chaos.

IF they got involved in it.

So I began thinking about how to avoid this disaster. How can I stop them from getting involved? How can I protect them? There were endless things that I had to worry about.

Often the solutions for most of the problems would be simple, almost ironic. We just won't be willing to accept them. That the troubles which would plague us could be dealt through easily.

The point is, if we think carefully, life can be a whole lot easier. I can say that it's true. I just had to be brave enough to try it. And believe in myself.

So I took the risk. The risk of exposing my whole reincarnation and many other secrets. Maybe Murphy's law doesn't always work. Only with enough preparations of course.

The day I found out that my mother was a witch, just like me, it became less complicated.

How I knew that? Simple. I felt magic come in waves from her. It was very powerful.

Besides that, there was also the smell of certain herbs that lingered on her sometimes. And the books in the family library weren't so subtle either. Books based on herbs, medicine, human anatomy, astrology, etc.

Yes, magic has the ability to 'change' the reality. And witches need to understand the reality to do that. Another explanation to why mages were rational beings, researchers and fans of logic (unless they are the folks from Pottterverse).

And also very emotional. As the 'change' comes not from thought, but through feelings.

So when I found out that mother and even Chika baa-san were able to do magic, I knew what I had to do.

Witches always liked to be prepared. We always believe that prevention is better than cure. So guess what would happen when they both find that their beloved little girl was under a hex?

The retaliation would be fierce. I could tell that they were laying low. From what, I don't know. But I do know that being passive was not the solution. Sometimes, we need to fight rather than avoiding the problems.

Things might get worse because of what I did. But what could be worse than dying? Maybe dying without knowing why and watching your loved ones die too, powerlessly. Like I did.

And none of that is going to happen again.

I know that I changed the future. All the information I know would be rendered useless now. And I could care less about the apocalypse of a future anyway.

I'm safe and those who I care about are safe. It's enough for me. And what's more, knowing the way my family is, they are not someone you'd want to mess with.

All they needed was a single wake up call. And I was glad to provide them with that.

I'm slightly excited. I've hit the jackpot. I've averted a crisis in the most harmless way. More importantly, they both can no longer hide magic from me.

I can finally practice it freely. It's the only thing that reminds me that dream like life I'm living right now can be taken away at any instant.

Magic is also the only thing that wouldn't make me vulnerable. Death changed me. I admit that. So much that I sometimes can't recognize myself anymore.

But it doesn't matter. I'm not gonna be powerless anymore.

3rd person POV:

Kotori calmed down. The emotional turmoil she felt when she saw her little baby blacked out, was nowhere. All that remains is the clarity. Clear thoughts that let her mould the situation to her favour.

Because when everything is clear, nothing hides. Anything can be taken. Just like now, Kotori was able to put away all her emotions down. It was her special ability.

She checked her daughter's pulse. It was normal, but the temperature was not right. And that didn't make things any better.

Sighing, Kotori took the herbs Chika brought and started concocting a cure without any delay. When the medicine was done, she fed it to Emily.

The child started getting better soon after that. kotori cold eyes warmed a bit seeing this happen. But she was not finished yet. She wanted to know who dared to lay a hand on her daughter.

She walked out of the secret chamber and went to the porch. The moment she stepped out, three shadows flew towards her. There was the slightest bit of mockery in her eyes. With a wave of her hand, the three of them lost their lives. Seeing this, the leader of the three tried to escape but he was too late.

The woman appeared behind him like a ghost. A bloody line formed on his throat. Slowly blood dripped, but he didn't die. Kotori made sure he wouldn't. She had to get the truth out of him, after all.

The intruders were brought into the basement of the house. There, they were tied up like prisoners.

Sometimes, people come back to life. This would happen because the connection between their soul and body would not be completely severed. Hence creating a chance to come back to life.

What Kotori did was similar to that. She just temporarily cut their soul from their body. It would take a great amount of skill to do that. And Kotori was skilled.

She looked at the men who regained their consciousness. They looked terrified, but nothing changed. Another advantage of this Soul Delinking. It would allow the caster to control the spirits of the victims for a while. Stronger the spirit, harder the control. But as said before, Kotori was skilled, very skilled.

She searched through their memories. A Yamanaka would be scared by the brutality of the scene happening here. Kotori just wrecked the minds of the four people.

She found the information she wanted and put the men out of their misery. Then she went back to check on her daughter. Emily was getting better and would soon wake up.

Chika entered the room after burning the bodies. The gentle old lady was gone. She was replaced by a demonic nanny, who'd make bodies disappear. She spoke to her master.

"Is Emily-sama getting any better?"

"Mm. She would soon wake up."

"May I ask who those men were, they clearly weren't our kind."

"They are not. They are hired."

"Mercenary? No, they must be shinobi."

"En. They are from Iwa. A typical three man squad and their jonin."

Chika frowned. Things were going to be messy. A jonin died and the Tsuchikage wouldn't leave it without doing anything about it. Looks like things won't be peaceful anymore.

"You don't have to worry about it, Chika baa-san. I'll just hire some shinobi from Sunagakure. They'd be a nice cover." Meaning, all the people she killed would be placed the Sand ninjas' account.

"Then I'll inform the Daimo."

"Please do that."

avataravatar