A Regular Mage

The two had arrived at the shrine which was crowded by the horde. Vendors were available with majority of food freshly made and skewered such grilled chicken, bananas dipped in chocolate filling, and ball-shaped pancakes. Kotaro remained by the only person he knew, keeping his eyes on her and kept silent. A variety of monsters gathered under the moon, ranging from tiny green children to larger green-skinned folks, pretty ladies with elongated necks, cucumber-loving turtle imps, and many more. Hardly, any of them attacked one another nor a single human within the shrine.

"You should definitely try this!" Noel handed Kotaro a chocolate banana on a stick. He bit a piece, chewing its fruity and sweet flavor combined into one.

"It's super sweet,"

For the first time, he saw his classmate smiled. His peripheral vision blurred, including the background lights shining behind Noel, and her pure image had been fixated to his sight. "You know what? You have a cute smile."

His eyes widened, released from the trance of constant staring, and his cheeks flushed in scarlet. "Riku said the same thing too. What's so cute about me?"

Noel sighed heavily, "Can you stop shaming yourself and be humble about it?" She flicked his forehead, retaining her serious face like the one back in school.

"So, how was it?" asked Riku, approaching the two.

Though the experience meeting a vampire was new, nothing changed in himself. "I don't feel anything change in me."

"I wasn't expecting you to become confident so quickly. I know I misled you, but it must've been nice to see an actual vampire," the shrine maiden smiled. "Have you heard of witches before?"

"I have. Why?"

"My friend's a witch!"

"Did you say a witch?" A golden haired lady caped in a purplish black dress intruded their conversation; she carried a corn broom, wearing a pointy hat with an emblem attached. "Hey there, Riku! Did you miss me? I've never felt so much better before! And that boy over there, is he your boyfriend?"

The shrine maiden groaned, "Maybe you should've stayed sick. Anyway, Melissa, this here is my guest--Kotaro Nishiki."

"Kotaro Nishiki, huh?" Her chestnut eyes analyzed the young man, further inspecting him by coming closer, but she soon gave it up. "You're an interesting folk. By the way, I'm Melissa Higashi!"

"Can you fly without the broom?" wondered Kotaro.

"Of course I can. I just like flying with broom because it makes me feel like an actual witch!" Melissa giggled.

"That's so cool..."

Riku observed their interactions, noticing his confidence slowly building up, and a future she knew he'll build for himself. Then, she sighed heavily out of the blue. "Alright, you can stop sneaking up behind like that. It's creepy."

A distortion of reality split opened to a portal, and hands were the first to come out of it before they revealed themselves. "Looks like you're getting better to detect my gaps."

"That's because you're always behind those gaps all the time."

Yuuki glanced at Kotaro before turning to the shrine maiden, and he continued to tease her once more.

The young outsider approached Yuuki, and he returned the stick. "I think it is yours..." Everyone remained silent other than the side conversations from the monsters. Luckily, the silence was killed by Kotaro.

His sight shunned from the man in front of him, hoping not to see his facial reaction. Although, he only received a silent reply. He was fine with that, biting his lower lip.

Yuuki smirked in response before giving the stick back to Kotaro. "Keep it. It's yours..."

"You're not serious?"

"It belonged to a friend that I did not treasure. Only when I truly lost that person, regret overwhelmed me. Lost opportunities are the most painful ordeal in this world, and I wish I could meet them again--so that I may apologize for everything I've done to them. If our friendship has a time limit, I hope it lasts for more than ten-thousand years."

Yuuki's words hit him to the heart, sensing the immense loneliness in his violet eyes, and he accepted the stick. "Then, I decided!"

"Hmm?" responded Yuuki.

"I'm going to find your friend, and give him this sword. I know for sure he'll accept your apology for everything you've done to him. That's a promise!"

Suddenly, laughter emitted from Yuuki. "You're an oddball, you know that. Everything I said was just a lie. It was completely made up, and you're going to waste your time finding them. Let me just say that I have plenty of friends like Riku and Melissa."

"We're not friends," both Riku and Melissa commented.

"But now that you've made a promise to me, you can't break it. You know what happens to people who break promises from me?"

"What happens?" Kotaro wondered.

"Yuuki, don't do this..." suggested Riku.

He grinned, "Allow me to demonstrate!" Two portals opened: one on top of Kotaro, and the other underneath him. He fell into one portal and appeared on top before falling back, and it soon became an infinite loop of torture. "Now, you're not going to break that promise? You're going to find my nonexistent friend and give that sword to them?"

Ending the loop, the entire body of the young man trembled, gawking stupidly in front of a large crowd. Countless of chortle emitted from the horde, and the outsider was made to a fool. Holding all of the emotions piling up in his insides, he remained as a rock, hoping the crowded laughter would end soon. It only grew louder.

Noel approached Yuuki, and she punched him by the arm. "That's not funny, master! You don't joke with him like that!"

"I-It's fine, Noel...I'm perfectly fine..."

"You heard him, Noel. He's fine. Now he knows not to break any vows from me."

"You're too cruel of a person to do such a thing. Especially to someone who is vulnerable like Kotaro," argued Noel.

He leaned his body onto the outsider's shoulder, and he smirked. "We were joking around!" A sudden jerk to the stomach stunned Yuuki, and he distanced himself from the outsider. "You had the audacity to hit me like that."

"I'm going home..." The crowd made way for the outsider's path, entering the shrine, and the celebration continued without him. Without the outsider's presence, Riku felt uncomfortable to continue this celebration--so she ended it quickly. Vendors packed up and left, supported by Fuuko and his companions. Beak used his flight to dispose the hung decorations, and soon the shrine was deserted with only the shrine maiden, the witch, the student, and Yuuki.

"Care to explain why you thought it was funny to poke an outsider? He stopped the generator for all of us. Shouldn't you be happy that he did that for this world?" asked Riku.

"To be fair, Noel did take part of this too. So why aren't we crediting her for destroying the generator--as a matter of fact, she even ended the Infinite Loop."

He retained his conceited attitude, immune to any criticism and mysterious on his true intentions, and countless of times the shrine maiden struggled to read him.

"I don't understand you."

"I don't know why you're so fixated in that outsider? He might become the second Joe Jones..."

A change of mood forced the shrine maiden to approach Yuuki. Her hands clenched into fists, narrowed brows as she glared fiercely at the man. "Don't you dare bring up Joe! Kotaro is not going to become the next Joe Jones."

The man smirked, brushing off the threat. "It's a possibility. I'll apologize to him tomorrow. It's getting a bit dark," yawned Yuuki before entering inside his portal.

"Well, Riku, I best be going now," the witch took flight on her broom, and only two remained in the shrine.

"I'll...uh see you tomorrow," said Noel, and she climbed down the stairs.

The shrine maiden watched upon the stars that harbored the night skies, filled with curiosity of the outsider who returned home, and she released the tension overwhelming her with a deep breath. "I'll see you again, Kotaro..."