NOVEL NEXT Chapter 89: A new start!
She was feeling great!
She hadn't had this much sleep in quite a while, or at least not after she hadn't been able to sleep outside her [Soulscape], but after that shower?
She had slept like a baby!
The world was radiant and she was quite happy, in the end, she didn't even need to get that moisturizing cream either!
Her skin had returned to normal after her shower, perhaps it wasn't dry skin but a side effect of being in [Shift] form for too long? Or maybe a side effect from the [Cleansing]?
She had noticed that it had been hard to do it before after all...
And now that it was a new day...Perhaps she could try again and see if she was having difficulty doing it?
She didn't think it would make that much of a difference but there was a certain...[Nagging] at the back of her head asking her to check it. And some [Nudging], she could almost hear [Alice] knocking in the metaphorical glass that separated her from the other side of the [Shift].
So sighing at the idea of one of her [Shifts] being intelligent she closed her eyes and focused inward, she tried to collect the [Mana] and focus it on one point inside her [Soulscape].
And while searching for the spot that was in one of the walls inside her [Library] she noticed how Alexa wasn't around...The library felt...Weird.
But she didn't think too much about it since she could feel the presence of [Alexanders] in the other half, so if the brother was around, then the sister should be around too.
Instead, she delved deep into the feeling, she could sense how the mana wanted to keep moving in the same way, it followed a pre-set path in her body that fueled different parts of the [Soulscape].
It flowed first into the foundation of the buildings inside her [Soulscape], then traveled into the walls, the ceilings, made a stop at the bookcases in the library and into the servers in the laboratory...Then it spread itself equally into the atmosphere of her [Soulscape].
She...Obviously didn't want it to follow that pre-set path, and perhaps that was why she had such a hard time before?
She was struggling to make it work as she wished since the mana was intent on following that preset path, and as such, instead of fighting against the currents...Elizabeth started saving scraps of mana.
She smirked as slowly but surely she stripped some mana here, a strand of mana from there...Slowly but surely she was building a small mana bomb in the depths of her [Soulscape], as deep and hidden as she could manage, in a spot where the mana wasn't flowing.
Half an hour after she had started she was frowning as she struggled to keep the mana in place, she had barely enough for it to cover her whole soulscape. But she wanted some extra to make sure.
"Eli-Eli, breakfast is ready 💗" Said her Rossie from the dining room.
She was running out of time, so without other options, she gave it one last push making sure to condense it as much as possible before letting it rip apart in an explosion of blue-ish mana that flooded her [Soulscape]. It billowed out trashing and ripping apart every foreign mana out of her body.
...And she didn't see much of it being expelled, she saw a few parts of her [Soulscape] be scrapped by it, but some insectoid robots went and fixed it quickly enough, Alexanders didn't seem to mind it in the laboratory half...
And while she couldn't see Alexa in the Library she didn't see much disturbance caused by her experiment either, if anything the biggest problem was how her mana flow seemed to be lethargic after this.
But being able to do it (Albeit with some difficulty) proved that her [Alice] half was mistaken!
She wasn't a dumb blonde like her other half thought!
Why she managed to do the same thing she had!
And she had a handicap even!
...Why did she have a handicap?
If anything her [Alice] half should be the handicapped since she was designed to be her [Powered] half...Why was she able to manipulate mana better than her? Wasn't her the [Magic] half and in turn the one that could do it better?
Granted she didn't have problems casting spells nor following examples of mana exercises...But then why was her mana so adverse to do the exercise to cleanse herself from the [Taint]...
She needed to check on that...
But that would be for later!
She had a breakfast to eat! And she wouldn't leave Rossie waiting for her! That would be rude after all ✩
So the blonde girl rushed into the bathroom "I WILL TAKE A QUICK SHOWER WAIT FOR ME ROSSIE!" said Elizabeth while running into the bathroom that was in their shared living room. That was bigger and better equipped after all.
The blonde girl quickly took off her pajamas and jumped into the shower, she made an effort to not think too much about what had happened the prior day, she wasn't going to need to [Shift] into [Alice] unless they pinged her back asking for her presence...
And she...Wasn't sure if she was ready to deal with that, she could feel the [Other] girl in the background grumbling but got a feeling that she was okay waiting.
Both girls knew that it would be just a matter of time after all.
And she had more important stuff to worry about, like how much time she had to shower!
She could smell the food almost as if she had forgotten to close the door to the bathroom....She didn't have time to check though!
So instead after a quick shower (She didn't even have the time to wash her hair either!) she quickly picked a comfortable and casual set from her [Wardrobe] and let the [Skill] dress her as she walked into the dining room.
Clothes materialized in her body as she walked to the table and sat down (The door to the bathroom was indeed open, but Elizabeth decided to not think too much on that either!).
"As always it smells great Rossie." Complemented the blonde to [Her] girl friend.
The pink-haired girl seemed to be focused on other things while her eyes seemed to stare at her, "What's up Rossie?" Asked Elizabeth.
The pink-haired girl just kept staring at her, was she seeing something with her skills?
"Eli-Eli are you sure you are okay?" Said finally the pink-haired girl.
Elizabeth wondered what she was seeing, so with a flick of her mind she turned the [Notifications] the pink-haired girl was seeing.
Nothing out of order and a couple of diagnosis spells she had cast while she was showering, they all returned green and okay. This also confirmed that as expected the door to the shower had been open while she showered...But they were both girls, so it was okay!
Yes, nothing wrong with [Her] Girlfriend watching, no sir!
"I mean, yesterday was harsh in a few ways...But everything was fine...Sh...I mean." Elizabeth stopped to rephrase what she was about to say, she almost referred to herself as third person...With another name...Silly Elizabeth.
"[I] found a way to deal with the [Taint] so my swing moods should somewhat settle to more normal levels." Added the blonde while shoveling some of the breakfast [Her] Rossie had served.
"Why?" Asked Elizabeth, "Is one of your [Spells] saying something?"
She of course knew all the [Spells] Rossie had access to were saying she was okay, maybe one of the more [Emotional] based ones would ping something...
But Rossie never used that part of her [SpellKit] on her, so no way she would find something about her internal turmoil ✩.
"No...." Said the pink-haired girl while glaring at the [Notification] in front of her while willing it away, "All my [Diagnosis] spells say you are okay...And your mana does indeed [Smell] clean." Sniffed [Her] Rossie after saying that.
She could [Smell] the [Taint]? How would that even smell?
...She was going to shower and bath more often...Maybe she could ask Mother about some deodorant spells... It wouldn't do for [Her Rossie] to smell her after she had exercised... Not that the smell would stick with her after they ended the [Shift]...
Actually couldn't she fix this with a [Shift]?
But then she wouldn't have excuses to shower with the door open...No wait...Why would she need excuses to shower with the door open? Huh?
"Can you use one of those spells but point it at my mental state?" Asked Elizabeth.
She needed to know why she would need an excuse to shower with the door open, maybe the [Mana] was indeed affecting her thought process.
"Are you distressed?" Said [Her Rossie] while she casually cast a mandala so complex that it might as well be A-Tier grade.
The spell hovered above her head...Then divided itself into different magical circles that hovered around her head. "Nothing seems wrong." Said [Her Rossie] frowning.
She looked so cute while she was worried!
Then after thinking over it for a few seconds one extra magic circle separated from the rest and traveled down, settling over her chest and hovering just above her heart.
A few seconds later another magic circle separated and this one traveled down and settled just above her waist, a few centimeters above her waistline...
She didn't like how this was going...
And true to her worst fears...A few seconds after [Her Rossie] frown deepened more and with a signal from her hand, one extra magical circle materialized and flew straight to float a few centimeters away from her hip.
"Should I stand?" Said the blonde while these magical circles radiated pink mana.
"No you are okay, keep eating." Answered her friend while she manipulated the magical circles.
But she wasn't looking at the notifications that flooded around her, her Rossie was focusing...Elsewhere.
She knew that because she could see the notifications around her girlfriend and how they claimed that she was okay. And could also see how her girlfriend was focusing on something else...
Was she...Looking at the mana stream instead?
She tried to focus on the mana but didn't notice anything...Wrong, the magical circles around her chest and abdomen did seem like they were trying to search for something else.
"Eli-Eli..." Started saying to her Rossie while she finished the last of her breakfast, "...What is going on in your [Soulscape]?" asked her Rossie.
She took a napkin and cleaned the rest of the food on her lips and afterward took a sip of her morning juice, today it was orange juice by the way!
"What do you mean?" Answered the blonde girl.
Admiring the cute frown on her girlfriend's face, "...What do I mean?" Asked back the pink-haired girl, " It looks...Weird? I can't get measures out of it, I should be able to at least see where it was...But it feels like yours never quite grew or formed...?"
That made the blonde girl frown too, hers wasn't probably as cute as Rossie's but she could feel the skin in her forehead frowning, she then closed her eyes and focused inward, "I mean...I can feel it and see it." Said Elizabeth, she could see it quite clearly too.
And now that the [Taint] wasn't a problem she even could see from the outside of it the ball of shadows floating in the void...And could even feel the soothing waves of [Shadows] floating around her...
"I could invite you over...?" Said the blonde girl extending her hand towards her girlfriend.
Mother had said to never show anything about her [Soulscape] to strangers...
The teachers at the school said to never even say the [Name] of the [Origin] to others, that while one could find the names by the use of [Spells] or [Special Skills] to be careful.
But she trusted [Her Rossie], besides...It was kind of unfair that only she knew the name of Rossie's Origin while she didn't know hers.
The pink-haired girl seemed to think about it for a few seconds while dismissing the spells that had been examining her, she almost wanted to grab one of those circles and keep it there...But decided against it.
She would settle for having her girlfriend's attention during the day...Or by looking at her cute frown while she worked, that worked too ✩
"Maybe I will take you on that later...Actually, how do we visit another's [Soulscape]?" Asked her girlfriend while thinking...
Yep, that's cute.
"I will ask at work later today," ended saying [Her Rossie] while grabbing the leftover dishes and passing them to Beatrice.
The little maid had shown up from nowhere at some point and was waiting for the dirty dishes to be cleaned, such a dutiful small thing!
"Thank you, Beato." Said Elizabeth while giving the little girl her own empty plates.
The little maid just nodded and moved to the kitchen with the whole thing, she was just so adorable!
"Ready for today?" Asked her girlfriend bringing her back to the topic at hand.
Today she was finally going to see her girlfriend at work, and she of course had the important job of keeping her safe!
"Yes," said the blonde girl while focusing on the magic part of her status.
She had a few additions to magical circles and spells that had been added at some point, mostly miscellaneous stuff...Some were ideas she had gotten while going about her chores...Others had come from inspiration from seeing other magical girls around...
"Are you nervous?" Asked the blonde girl.
"No," answered quickly her Rossie," in the end they are strangers...I will be sad if they suffer because of a mistake from me, but they will get better in the end." Finished saying her Rossie.
That was...Cold. And she wasn't sure if that was the right type of mindset a [Healer] should have, "If it was someone I [Love] then it would be another problem... But we have enough [Healers] around to fix any mistakes so there isn't anything to worry about."
And she guessed that was kind of true?
She was surprised that her Rossie had such a view of the world that she wasn't worried about the sick and injured... And she was probably pretending to not care to convince herself about it.
She had been quite worried when she got injured at school after all...
Yeah, she was probably acting like that to not worry her!
So cute!
"So...Are we using [Shift] here or in the way there?" Asked Elizabeth while fishing her obsidian bracelet from her inventory and putting it on her right hand.
"We could do it from here...But they advised us at the clinic to use it at the district instead, since if we use it outside we will need to get keyed to this district too..." Answered her Rossie while putting on her silver bracelet too.
That was actually fair...The only ones that didn't need to listen to this kind of rules were probably the [Villains] after all...
And today she wasn't a [Villian] but a [Magical Girl]!
So she needed to respect the rules!
She turned her sight to the [Shift] menu and saw the [Alice] entry beckoning her...Right...If she turned into [Alice] she would probably be able to sneak by...
NO! Today was [Rossie]'s day, she could have fun as [Alice] later!
'Wonder if Rossie likes black-haired girls more...Or does she likes blondes more...?' Was the random thought that Elizabeth had while closing the [Shift] menu.
Maybe the system was ignoring something in her psyche after all, it was a meaningless thought, no matter what [Rossie] liked she could probably build a [Shift] for it.
She couldn't wait for her [Mind] to settle back into normal after being free from the [Taint], maybe then her [Rossie] would stop looking at her with that cute worried frown of hers...
Maybe then she would [only look at Her], but while that happened...
"Let's go then!" She grabbed the arm of [HER GIRLFRIEND] and dragged [HER ROSSIE] outside their [AlPoAvReT MnEeNsTt] into the city!
She couldn't wait to see how the cute small and lovely hands of [HER ROSSIE] bestowed [hope] and [LOVE] upon the masses!
No wait..." Hmm..." mumbled the blonde while Rossie locked the door of their [AlPoAvReT MnEeNsTt].
"What's the matter Eli-Eli?" Said [HER GIRLFRIEND] still with some worry clouding her [LOVELY] face.
"No, nothing..." Answered the blonde girl, if one of the [PPaArTaIsEiNtTeSs] tried to grab more [LOVE] of [Her Rossie] than they deserved...Then they would get a visit from the [Shadow Empress] later at night.
Yeah, the [LOVE] of [HER ROSSIE] was only for [her] and [her alone]. They would get their just [PUNISHMENT] and [Alice] would get some time in the outside, maybe that way she would stop banging the metaphorical glass in the background?
Everyone would win!
Except the one that got a visit from the [Shadow Empress]...But that would only happen if they tried to hog all the [LOVE] [HER ROSSIE] was giving while [Healing] them!
So they deserved it at that point, yes.