First Magic Circuits

The two girls were still resting on the ground after their arduous fight.

They were still exhausted from all of that, after all Scarlet had to dish out all of her attacks and Akane had to dodge each of them flawlessly, repeat until she managed to dodge all of it perfectly.

It took a while, but after a while Akane understood Scarlets attack as if they were her own.

"Hey, Scarlet. Mind showing me your face? I am sure wearing the hood all the time must feel stuffy, right?"

Hearing this, Scarlet twitched a bit, before starting to scratch her cheek again. She seemed embarrassed about this whole thing.

But after a while she pulled her hood down, revealing the face of a cute, young girl with pinkish hair, styled in a right-swirling pompadour.

She also had a pair of dog ears, her eyes were completely black, with four-sided star shaped pupils and a birthmark on the left side of her face, right under her left eye. She looked young, very young, it made Akane wonder a bit about who she is.

"Scarlet, how old are you and what is your occupation?"

"Huh, why do you suddenly want to know that? Well, I am Scarlet Red, member of the royal guards, to be precise, assistant of the vice-captain, as for my age, I am 16!"

So Scarlet was 16, didn't that mean that she is only a year older than her?

"Well, we monster didn't really had much perspective in the underground of what we wanted to aspire to be, after all it was an enclosed space with limited resources. I just did my best to follow my dream of becoming a soldier and just tried reaching it."

"No, no. I mean the fact that you also can read my mind is concerning to me, but I didn't want to judge your position based on your age!"

Once again, Scarlet chuckled, talking with this girl really was pleasant, but the resting time was over and so she stood up and started stretching.

After she finished her routine she offered her hand for Akane, to pull her up.

"Well, let's finish our objective. Did you really think the fight with me would be the end of it?"

Hearing this Akane was surprised, she really thought that was the only thing she had to do here.

"You dummy, you still have to integrate my soul for everything to finish here, now follow me."

Suddenly a path appeared on the other side of the room, leading far out from here in the opposite direction where her normal soul area would be.

"Come, follow me, or are you doubting me in some way?"

Scarlet said to Akane, while leaving her behind a bit. Seeing this, Akane panicked a bit and soon ran after her.

"I thought that you'll never come."

Hearing this, Akane felt offended. Teasing her like that and then blaming her. She wasn't really a fan of that. As she was about to reprimand Scarlet about that, but then she noticed that the girl was blushing a little bit.

Well, that was an opportunity to tease her.

"Oh my, oh my. What do I see here? Are you blushing? Do you might be too embarrassed to tell me something?"

Hearing Akanes sudden teasing made Scarlet blush only more fiercely. The entire situation made talking for her only more and more difficult!

She barely knew anything about the girl! During the entire fight she acted as if she was familiar with the girls entire life, as if she always watched her from the shadows in her soul.

She didn't! She just woke up at the same time where she needed similar control as her magic type, she barely knew anything about Akane and now asking her to tell her about her life was difficult! It was just so embarrassing.

"Huh, huh, why are you so embarrassed. Is it maybe something you are hiding under your big cloak there..."

And with Akane switching sides the entire time to poke her, didn't improve the situation for her at all.

"Shut up! You are annoying me!"

After a while of teasing her, Scarlet finally shook off Akane. She couldn't endure and hide it anymore.

Meanwhile Akane looked at her with open, surprised eyes, as if she just observed something that wasn't supposed to happen.

Seeing this made Scarlet just flick her head, she got was she bargained for, why the hell that surprised expression?

"Geez, I am only a bit embarrassed to ask how your live has been during the last 15 years. You don't have to start teasing me out of nowhere."

Akane was rubbing the place on her forehead that just got flicked. It was kind of a bit painful, but she was after all the assistant of the vice-captain of the Royal Guards. She had to be strong for that position, right?

After the pain faded and realization about Scarlets question hit her, Akane gained a sadistic grin on her face.

"Huh? You have been acting so familiar with me during our fight, as if you already know everything about me, but it turns out that you don't know anything about me? Is that true?"

Right now, Akane had the smuggest grin on her face imaginable, seeing this made Scarlet only angry and another forehead flick was about to come.

She was already lifting her hand and Akane was ready to dodge it this time. But Scarlet didn't go through with this action...

...instead of just flicking her head, her arm dropped again, and she breathed out a breath of frustration, sighing with a painful expression.

"Can you blame me for acting so familiar with you? After all, the way you act is just so similar as hers. You just reminded me of her so much that I just had to act the way I would whenever I had a spar with her. I am sorry if it felt weird for you because I acted so familiar with you."

Akane swallowed her saliva in that moment, she messed up, didn't she? That was the feeling that she got anyways, and she felt how uncomfortable the consequences of her action made her.

After a moment of silence that felt too long for both sides of this conversation, Akane started shaking her head, before slamming her two hands against her cheeks to compose herself again.

"Damn, why so serious? Look, I am sorry, alright? It was kind of a dick move from me to make fun of you with your overfamiliarity to me. I mean after all I know that you folks had a deep relationship with Frisk, especially considering the fact that you forgave her for what she did."

For a moment Akane wanted to clench her chest, but there was still that little question that floated in her head, she turned around to Scarlet and locked eyes with her.

"You forgave her for what she did, right?"

Having that question suddenly come out of nowhere, completely unexpected, cut off the atmosphere of this scene and Scarlet was perplexed for a moment.

"If you mean the situation of dying without our knowledge and then proceeding to erase all of her memories in her soul, just so she can carry our lives over to her next life, then yeah, I forgave her for that. I can't promise you for sure, that the others will have the same opinion as me on this though."

Hearing this Akane just facepalmed herself and shook her head, her last life gave her some troubles, huh?

"Anyways, what I wanted to say was that I shouldn't have made fun of you because of that. I might not remember what happened in my last life, but that won't change the fact you all here are also me friends, right?"

Akane said that while pointing at her chest. Akane didn't notice, but she pointed right at her soul. Scarlet, seeing this play out in front of her saw an image of Frisk, overlapping with Akanes. Once again she had to laugh, they really were similar.

"All is well and forgiven, but I still want to know what happened to you for all of these fifteen years you have been alive by now."

Now it was time for Akane to laugh. Yes, if was only fair for her to tell an old friend about her life until they were up to date again.

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Akane retelling her entire life from the point she could remember again was an emotional rollercoaster for Scarlet.

She was angry at all of the jerks that tried targeting her, happy when she was able to catch a break, satisfied when she heard how she overcame obstacles (aka slapping the faces of the people so hard that they lost their reputation), sad when Akane retold her about the experiences that were emotions for her and relieved that she managed to find people she could trust in this life.

Scarlet was happy knowing that Akane did so well in this life. Of course, there these downs, namely landing in hospital every single month, somehow.

"Tell me, what was the point to make your body so resilient when you'll land in hospital every month anyways?"

Akane just silently stared at Scarlet for a moment, before just giving a 'teehee', as a reply.

Needless to say, but Scarlet was about to flick her head again.

"Wait, wait, wait! Before you do that again! Why the hell did you ask that question? Isn't it better for me to have a strong, healthy body, that gets in hospital every month because of accidents, instead of a weak, sickly body that gets in hospital every month for no important reason?"

For a moment Scarlet wondered why the hell she would ask that question, but then she herself noticed how nonsensical her question was.

"Huh, you are right. I just had the feeling that you wished for a weak body for some reason."

"Why the hell would anyone in their right mind do that?"

The two nodded, before starting to walk again.

"So, Scarlet. What is the point of us walking this long path for the entire time?"

Scarlet looked at Akane for a moment, before proceeding to walk again.

"Well, it's because you'll get you first actual magic circuits when we arrive at the end of this path."

Hearing this, Akane stopped walking. She couldn't believe what she just heard.

"Wait, magic circuits?"

"Yeah."

"Basically, the organ system in my body that will make me able to use magic?"

"Just like your nervous system is the system that makes you move? Exactly."

"Aren't they extremely difficult to create?"

"Oh, you bet they are. Why do you think that the entirety of humanity barely managed to scratch together seven mages to seal us away forever? It's unimaginable difficult for humans to create them and humanity barely managed to scratch together seven, despite ignoring age. I mean seriously, a seven-year-old loli and a 96-year-old geezer where the oldest and youngest from that group"

"And I'll get some just like that?"

"What do you mean just like that? You've beat me, didn't you?"

"That still sounds so easy that I have doubts!"

"Then just appreciate how easy you have it!"

The two girls started taking deep breaths for air, they have been gradually getting louder and louder in that exchange until they started screaming.

It was quite silly, honestly.

"How many do I get?"

"Not so many, only two."

Well, Akane didn't really have to ask that question. They arrived at their goal and what Akane saw was unbelievable.

Two huge light pillars, looking like they were spears that pierced the universe. Akane gulped at that sight.

Scarlet just walked in front of them and spread her arms out.

"Time to absorb them, Akane!"

Akane could only laugh at that ridiculousness.

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Trying to absorb the pillars:

Akane touched one pillar and felt how an intense electric shock went through her.

Actually, that happened, Akane spasmed at the pillar until she got launched away from it.

"Scarlet?"

She just gave a thumbs up seeing this.

Akane once again swallowed a bunch of saliva in her mouth.

She already knew that it won't be a walk in the path to get some magic circuits, but this was ridiculous.