The Third Wheel

-----Yui's POV

After getting back from Luna's place, I didn't expect to meet a new face in Kaede's room. At first I was genuinely shocked to see such a beautiful person beside Kaede, but after hearing the story about her, I was left even more shocked.

Yui: "So what are you, like a god or something?"

Mai: "No, although if there is a god in this world, I'm sure they're not too happy with me after what I did."

She told me about how she was responsible for Kaede's and my reincarnation and how she's been with Kaede ever since the carriage incident. I felt a bit unsettled being told I was casted aside by her, but I'm grateful that she managed to bring us both here, even if it wasn't really planned.

Kaede: "Mai told me how magic truly works. It's not exactly what we thought it was."

Yui: "Oh?"

She went on to talk about how spirits aren't the special beings that granted us magic, but was actually Mai instead. The story about the first family being given magic was true, but didn't know about how they had to make 'that' deal with her. Given everything she's said right now, it would be silly to think a god would do something like this. But then... what the hell is with my magic then?

Yui: "Then can you explain why my magic is like this?"

Mai: "Hmm? Oh wait, I think I do sense something wrong. May I?"

She raised her hand to my chest. The suddenness was alarming as I had no clue what she intends to do. I look over at Kaede who also looked startled, but gave a small nod.

Yui: "Okay. Go ahead"

Mai: "I'll just ask for you to stay still. It may be a little discomforting."

With her warming her hand passes through my chest as if my body was a ghost or something. Her movements inside my body felt quite weird, it felt like my body was incredibly light, but also unstable as I begin to focus on keeping my legs straight. Suddenly, a sharp pain radiated in my heart, like it was being burned from within.

Mai: "Like I thought. You have a hole."

Yui: "A what?"

She took her hand out from my body, causing my body to lose balance for a brief moment.

Mai: "Your vessel's damaged, but that should be impossible. When humans are born, they are clean slates, allowing the vessel inside to properly form. However with yours it didn't form correctly, leaving a hole inside."

Yui: "Is that because of my memories from my old world?"

Mai: "I believe so. Something must've happened during your rebirth that would cause your vessel to become like this."

Yui: "Wait, so- this hole is the reason why I can't use my own magic?"

Mai: "Yes, and it would also be impossible for you to make a contract with spirits since they wont get sufficient mana from you."

This girl... or being? Who ever Mai is, they must play a big part in this world if they aren't a god. They were the person that gave humans magic so they must have some role, maybe like a servant of god?

Yui: "Then why is it that I can control other people's magic?"

Mai: "My guess is it's a by-product of your vessel needing mana. Since I had to change how the human hearts work, the vessel plays an important part of it, so if your vessel doesn't receive enough mana, you'll cease to exist; die."

Those words froze me in place as I stand there speechless.

Mai: "Because of this, the hole in your vessel acts like a vacuum, sucking in the surrounding mana to keep you alive."

Just like that, my frozen state loosened up as my heart tighten up at finally having my biggest question answered. I have no doubt that Mai isn't lying, her words don't come across as such, plus after everything I heard and how she just reached inside my chest, I have no doubts.

Yui: "Are you able to fix it?"

Mai: "Well I've never seen something like this, and when I had a look inside your vessel, I couldn't sense any mana coming 'from' it. Maybe it's due to it being exposed like this for so long you've lost the ability to produce mana of your own. So repairing that hole would be cutting away your only source of mana, killing you. I wouldn't want something like that to happen to my Kaede's partner."

This is all quite scary, but I more or less accept this. Beside I'm able to use magic so I'm more than happy with that. For the past 15 years I've been struggling to use magic like everyone else, but to finally been given an answer as to why, it's relieving more than anything.

Yui: "Thank you Mai"

Mai: "You're welcome."

Kaede: "Did you have to do that though?"

Mai: "No, but I knew you'd react so I wanted to see that expression of yours fufu~"

Seeing Kaede react like that, getting jealous over Mai was quite amusing. However all of this talk is quite big no? It made sense as to why I'm able to use all the different elements, since that was the original purpose when Mai had given humans the ability to use magic. But only Mai and that first family would know of this, so maybe we should keep this to ourselves for now, who knows how people would react when being told what Mai had told us.

Time passes and it eventually came time for us to sleep, leaving us with a whole new problem on our hands.

Kaede: "Can you just like, go back inside me or something?"

Mai: "I told you. It's stuffy in there, it's much more relaxing being out here like this. It's a lot of fun."

Kaede: "But we're about to sleep."

Mai: "So?"

Kaede: "So~ I'm not about to share a bed with you. Plus didn't you say you don't need sleep?"

The 3 of us were now in bed with Kaede in between both Mai and me, clearly upset at Mai's presence.

Mai: "Yes, but laying in a bed like this is a new experience for me, so I'll just lay like this while you two sleep."

Kaede: "There's another bed for a reason, just use that one."

Mai: "You hate me that much Kaede?"

Kaede: "No, but I won't be able to get a good night's rest if we're cramped together like this."

Mai: "Hmmm."

Yui: "Please Mai?"

Mai: "Ah fine~"

She slides out from the bed at my words, walking over to the other before collapsing face first onto the sheets. Looking over Kaede's shoulder, her hair does look extraordinary, much longer than Kaede's. I wonder if it's because of her contract with Kaede that they the same color of hair. I'll save that for another day, moving my focus back on Kaede who was facing me as we lay together on the bed.

Kaede: "Still wish Mai would just return back inside me."

Mai: "I heard that!"

She tried to be quiet, but Mai immediately responded with a muffled response from under the bedsheets.

Yui: "Yeah, it'll be awkward for us to do stuff."

Kaede: "We'll figure something out. Goodnight."

Yui: "Mmm. Goodnight."

Shuffling closer to each other, we fall asleep in eachother's arms, giving Mai zero attention as she gets herself comfy in the spare bed. I was upsetting to learn that I wont be able to have a familiar of my own, like how other student's summoned theirs during our first 4 matches, but maybe if I make a contract with something that's not a spirit, maybe I could have a familiar of my own. With those thoughts, I fall deeper into sleep.

Waking up, my eyes were greeted with a pair of golden eyes staring at me. It reminded me of Kaede's back home, but I come to my senses as I move my gaze to the real Kaede who was still sleeping beside me.

Mai: "You're finally awake."

Yui: "Huh?"

Mai: "It was so boring laying down for that long, but watching you two sleep was quite satisfying."

Kaede: "W-what? How long were you watching us?"

Kaede who was now woken up with Mai's conversation with me looked to be quite annoyed as she began to wipe her eyes.

Mai: "About 3 hours, maybe 4."

Yui/Kaede: "Creep."

Mai: "How? I didn't do anything, I was only watching."

Yui/Kaede: "Still a creep."

Mai: "It hurts being called that. I'm sorry if I don't know how humans work okay."

And with that our new day started. We hid Mai from anyone else, but Collin and Violet apparently knew of Mai's existence so people are going to find out at some point, may as well introduce Mai to Luna.

We saved Luna from all 'that' talk, only introducing Mai as Kaede's familiar. Luna was shocked just from being able to talk with her.

Luna: "I wonder what my familiar will be like."

Yui: "You interested in this sort of magic?"

Luna: "Well after seeing Kaede's familiar like this, who wouldn't be curious? What about you?"

Yui: "Oh. I'm not actually all that interested."

I did wish I could, but after learning about myself from Mai last night, that possibility is close to zero.

Luna: "Shame, I was hoping to see what yours would be like."

Kaede: "If you want, I could ask Violet to teach you? She's the one that helped me summon Ma- my familiar."

We held off of telling Mai's name since it might rouse some suspicions, so after having a conversation with Mai about hiding her name, we agreed to call her 'Kaede's Familiar' when around others.

Luna: "Sure! Thank you!"

Kaede: "No problem."

Seeing Kaede and Luna interacting again in a friendly manner was pleasant to see. I was worried that their little fight from before would plague future conversations, but it doesn't appear to be the case.