Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Stares ❯ Toddlers ( Chapter 1 )

ONE

A year after I was born, our brother asked father if he could go to magic university and take his girlfriend with him. She was a green haired elf girl with long ears, and a very sweet disposition. She was kind to us, like a big sister and hugged Tanya despite my sister’s best efforts to fly away. Sylphiette had learned silent casting like Rudy. He was teaching her to be like him, and she had stars in her eyes when she looked at him. She adored Rudy.

For some reason, this annoyed Zenith and Father. Father refused to pay for Sylphy’s education, as it was a serious chunk of money, gold being quite valuable and not very common. Most things are purchased with copper or silver coins.

"I'll write a letter and see what I can do," Paul finally said. He heard back a month later about a job that would pay Rudy enough to cover the expense, but insisted he break off contact with his girlfriend for the five years he’d be gone. Five years is a long time to not see my older brother. I frowned. So did Tanya. We turned to father and then our mothers, wondering what was going on. We were only one year old, but I still have the memories of my previous life, and this wasn't making any kind of sense. Paul sent his reply to whomever it was. 

A couple weeks later on a bright sunny day a carriage rolled up while father and Rudy were sparring with wooden swords in the yard, as they did each day. Father was kinda mean, being very skilled, and a bad teacher. I wondered if he was going to put me through this someday and considered that was likely. There was a more serious turn and the tempo of the fight got loud. I ran to the door on my wobbly little legs with Tanya close behind me and saw father swing the flat of his sword down onto Rudy’s head, knocking him unconscious. Zenith rushed to check and cast a healing spell on him before assisting Father and a huge woman with big boobs and very small clothing with a tail and animal ears. They loaded brother into the carriage and then the woman and Rudy rolled away.

I stared at them, a bit angry. Tanya was equally angry. Rudy had been teaching Tanya magic. Now what would she do? The parents ushered us back into the house and tried to distract us with various tasks, but I simmered in frustration for days after this. 

Even at one my sister Tanya was clearly a prodigy mage herself. More than just flying magic she’d mastered early, she could silently cast all the elements and heal without chanting. Sometimes I heard her talking in what sounded like German to herself when she didn’t realize I was nearby. My 108 skills still work, stealth in particular feels like people aren’t noticing my lurking around. Tanya is an amazing sister, even if she sometimes reminds me of Komachi in some ways. Not just the similar ahoge, but sometimes when she was really determined I'd see the similarities. 

Time passed and I grew, with no messages from Rudy, no news. He didn't return, so presumably he was working his job, whatever that was. I learned to talk and form words and my education began, as well as chores such as collecting chicken eggs, watering plants in the garden, putting away my toys and clothes, and various other tasks near or around the house.

This world is weird, and not just for its moon. There were no aircraft, and the stars at night formed no recognizable patterns. This wasn’t Earth. It was similar, down to the length of day and night, and seasons, but there were also some odd quirks beyond magic. Mana is present in the air in varying densities and you could sort of feel it. When Tanya used her flying magic I could feel the air change. When Zenith used fire magic to heat up water or create a potion, that also changed the air. I could sense this. I suppose all magic users could sense this, or maybe it was just another sense everyone had on this planet.

There were humans, elves, beast-kin, and apparently something called demons, though they mostly seemed to be beastkin of somewhat stronger or stranger origins, including internal magics they could use. Rudy’s teacher had apparently been from a long lived demon race that looked like teenage humans with blue hair and lived around two hundred years without visibly aging. They all looked like teenagers, pretty much. 

Mother said the box she never opened and was keeping for Rudeus contained his prized treasure. I opened it to find out what this treasure was and found a slightly soiled pair of girls white panties folded up inside. I have to say I’m a little disappointed in Rudy for this. Mother said something odd though.

“If it wasn’t for Rudy, I think we would both have died in a blizzard. We owe him our lives.”

I worked hard after that learning how to talk. And walk. My little body wobbled a lot. Tanya just flew everywhere. She’d gotten to the point she could do flips or pin herself silently to the ceiling, or vanish into the branches of trees. If Tanya didn’t want to be found, she was good at hiding. I eventually found her working her magic on a piece of scrap iron she’d collected off a broken tool from the shed, shaping it into a rod, and then a tube. She used magic to make it hot and then cooled it again. She made a few more pieces and did more work, fitting, and then set them into a chunk of fencepost she shaped into a familiar form I knew.

“Rifuru,” I tried. Tanya turned to regard me, still too small to actually hold it herself.

“What do you know, little boy?” she asked in a tiny high pitched Japanese. I blinked.

“Isekai,” I answered. Tanya frowned, sinking down to the ground beside me.

“Me too,” she finally said. “Where are you from?” she asked.

“Chiba, 2010,” I answered.

“Tokyo, 2010,” she said, then thought a moment before adding,” Then Germany 1915 to 1925. I fought a war.”

“Eyes sad?” I asked her. Speaking is hard with a tiny new body. I think she’s been practicing more than me.

“War is sad,” she said. “How old when died?”

“16, high school. Truck in crosswalk. Sister too.”

“I was 35, pushed in front of a train. God is real, and it hates me,” she said with certainty.

“Many gods here,” I pointed out.

“Hmm? Perhaps,” she said. “The mana here is thick. There’s so much of it. All my spells seem to work easily.”

“Wizard? War?” I asked.

“Oh, yes. The world war had mages, not like the Japan I came from, completely different Earth… but not as different as this place. That one was still Earth. This place… the continents and moon are wrong,” she explained.

“Stars, moon, not same,” I agreed.

“Rudeus was teaching me magic. I am annoyed father sent him away. The god that sent me here will eventually show up and torment me again. I must be ready to fight him, niisan,” she announced. Well, that explained some things.

“Miss music, books, video games, movies,” I sighed as much as a tiny body not yet two years old could sigh.

“I don’t miss artillery raining down, trench warfare, the stink of white gasoline or gunpowder, the constant fear. This place is peaceful, Tobias. I love peace. I have been searching for something this peaceful for my whole last life. So much war, all to try and earn a peaceful retirement before I was 20. I justified a lot of death and destruction in search of something half this good.”

“Why train for war?” I asked, getting out the words.

“Because Peace is just the period between wars, when the smart people are reloading. Humans make war because they are greedy and lazy and it is easier to hate than to work,” she said. She lifted her rifle.

“I won’t be able to fire this for another four years, probably,” Tanya said, disappointed.

“Rudy just held out his hand and focused, then shot. Ask Sylphy,” I said. Tanya nodded agreement.

“I’m just more used to rifles. Conjuring stones or ice seems slow to me. In the war I could cast a spell on the bullet, make it go miles and explode.”

“Artillery?” I asked.

“Yes. And I can fly. Imagine what that is like to a troop in a muddy trench,” said explained. It sounded really scary.

“Our mothers are listening,” Tanya said sharply, turning that glowing gaze towards the house. I turned to look that way too, spotting Lillia and Zenith peering out the opened window at us.

“Goo!” I waved at them. I carefully stood up on my very short stubby legs and wandered around the yard, feeding chickens.

Tanya put a hand on her rifle and lifted into the air via magic, entering our bedroom and returned without it to survey the yard as she often did. Keeping watch. Sometime later I heard snaps as she practiced the rock throwing spell.

Our mothers called us in around lunch and we joined them to eat tiny meals for tiny bodies and listen to them talk with Father over various household things, asking him to split more wood for the fireplace, how patrolling the edge of the fields was going with Laws, Sylphy’s half-elf father, and similar things. After lunch I got tired, as I often do, and was laid down on my bed to sleep beside Tanya, who was also out like a light. So strange. A pair of isekais, and she reminded me of my sister in some ways.

Our days continued on like this for some time. We both grew bigger, and Tanya’s skill with her magic only increased. She read the book on magic mother kept in a trunk, and Rudy’s notes she’d found with his things. Silent casting was real. I tried casting the various spells and got little for my efforts. It is possible that my mana didn’t move well. I kept trying it, moving it around as the feeling of mana got a bit stronger. It didn’t want to get past my skin though I think maybe it made me a lot tougher.

When Dad was working out with his sword his muscles and skin glowed, probably from magic moving in him. This attracted the attention of various village women, all of them married, who looked shamefully lecherous. I found Mom and got her to notice the crowd outside. She tched at this and straightened her maid outfit before seizing a basket and a knife to pick vegetables in sight of Father. I made myself scarce when her wiggle gained his attention and he followed her inside. There were typical noises and the housewives blinked and then glared, storming off. Good.