A Promise of Pastries PV Hikari

Saturday, April 19, 2025

English - Japanese - Thoughts

@Hikari Fujimoto

Dormitory

XXXAm I a troublemaker? Do I do twenty things at once? Akari glanced at his hands like they would have the answers, which they did not. Obviously. They weren't going to magically start scrawling themselves along his arms, after all. Those were questions for later... like if he ever got to meet this Hayato!

XXX"Well, it wouldn't actually change shape... but you could always delude yourself into imagining it as a leaf instead of a fish," Akari suggested with all seriousness. The pattern of the scales would make it hard, but a leaf was the only thing he could think of that was somewhat shaped like taiyaki at the moment. "Are leaves more elegant than fish?"

XXX"I feel like you'd end up with it in your nose," Hikari remarked. Akari laughed at his comment. "That's very true. On second thought, it doesn't matter what shape it is if it ends up on your face and not in your mouth." He grinned, finishing the last few bites of his pastry. "It's important for food to be in the right place."

XXXOnce Akari laid eyes on the drawing, he practically became lost in the scene, so much so he nearly missed the question Hikari had voiced. "Um," Akari said rather intelligently. His mouth was dry. It wasn't the starter to a response, since he didn't have a response yet. It was more like a placeholder to let his friend know that he had heard him but still allow him more time to get his thoughts together. He should probably work on conveying it in something better than a filler word, though.

XXXAkari tore his gaze away, looking back at Hikari. "It's not too much," he said quietly. "It's..." he glanced back down at the paper. "Honestly, it's very beautiful." There was something about the way it captured the finality of the destruction of the garden that made it impossible to forget. For a moment, Akari thought of how a wizarding photo would compare. Would the magically captured flames triumph what had been drawn here?

XXXWait a minute. Akari looked back up again, blinking at Hikari in surprise. There was a very vivid purple present in the room, one that wasn't here ten seconds ago. He hadn't known that such a color was even possible. "Eh--?"

~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~

Calming Presence is in effect

As Hikari Fujimoto from Mahoutokoro ──────────────── 29th April, 2025 Saturday ──────────────── Dormitory ──────────────── Mentions: @ Akari Kabikimono ──────────────── Japanese -English - Thoughts

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"I’ve yet to meet a fish that radiates any semblance of elegance." Hikari remarked drily. He harbored a long-standing dislike for fish, although there was really no logical reason for it. They were just.... not very charming creatures. Wet, scaly and disgustingly slimy. He had touched those once when he had been much younger, and the memory lingered with the vivid detail of a bad, slightly nauseating dream. Since then, he'd attempted to keep a courteous distance from aquatic horrors.

Hikari shook his head, finally letting himself laugh at his friend's words, "Better if it ends up on your face and not up your nose. It would be pretty uncomfortable if it ends up down your windpipe." Hikari had, of course, never personally had that experience. His upbringing had ingrained into him careful eating habits— no talking during meals. Hayato had no such reservations, and along with the twins, treated dinners like karaoke nights. Hikari had been witness to Hayato's more dramatic bouts of coughing when the food took a wrong turn, and even their father's lectures did not seem to do bring about a change in this habit.

Akari brought him back to the present. He wasn't sure if the latter's unintelligible response was a good or bad thing. Hikari studied his expression, trying to decipher something from it. He did not seem to specifically dislike the drawing, but his facial expression definitely had something in it, a mix of proud and being blasted in the face with unwanted memories.

Hikari didn’t blame him. Yet, something about it didn’t sit right.

The blasted metamorphmagus ability. Hikari flushed, the embarrassment warming his ears as his hair betrayed his emotions yet again. He ran a hand through the strands, "Uh, it should... pass in a while." he muttered, hoping to distract from the telltale hue now undoubtedly giving him away.

Reducio

This just less perfect and more um..unfinished-

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Saturday, April 19, 2025

English - Japanese - Thoughts

@Hikari Fujimoto

Dormitory

XXXAkari laughed at Hikari's dry remark, covering his mouth with his hand. "Really? I thought fish are usually quite elegant. Most of them swim quickly and can evade capture like the wind. And the ornamental koi, they have lovely scales." He was fairly sure his family used to have two koi in the small pond at the front house when he was younger... or perhaps he had made that up. You never really know what your brain fabricated unless someone else has the same memory.

XXX"It's a long way from your nose to your windpipe," Akari objected. "It's impossible for a pastry to enter your windpipe if it wasn't in your mouth first." He had had the unfortunate experience of getting noodles up his nose after inhaling just a little too hard. It didn't even make sense! If you have food in your mouth and inhale through your nose, why does the food go up instead of down?

XXXComplexities were complex.

XXXHe set the sketchbook aside with a slight smile when Hikari's ears turned a bit red. "It looks good," he commented. That particular shade of violet probably wouldn't look good on anyone, but if it toned down a little, it would actually match Hikari pretty well. It was interesting. You wouldn't think that a bold color would match his reserved and quiet friend, but it somehow worked. Or Akari was just terrible at color theory.

XXXHe gave the sketchbook back, beginning to clean up the slight mess that had resulted from the pastries. He wiped his hands, offering one of the unused napkins to Hikari. "Hey, how did you do in Herbology the other day? I really don't think they should be teaching first years how to set people's clothes on fire." Akari chuckled slightly. "That's just asking for disaster." And to be honest, after the fiasco at the Garden of Eden, they really didn't need any more flames this year.

~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~

Calming Presence is in effect

Sorry I'm late! I legitimately forgot I had an Akari referencing lesson 4 clothing ignition spell

As Hikari Fujimoto from Mahoutokoro ──────────────── 29th April, 2025 Saturday ──────────────── Dormitory ──────────────── Mentions: @ Akari Kabukimono ──────────────── Japanese -English - Thoughts

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Hikari shook his head, leaning back on his chair with a sigh. "No kind of fish are ever elegant. But... I guess you're right. The ornamental koi... they're alright." Truth be told, as far as Hikari was concerned, all fish were same in his eyes. Real or fake, pet or wild, jewelled or plain, he couldn't care less. Keep those away from him, he's perfectly fine.

What? Long? He had to admit, Akari's words sent his brain into an overdrive, searching for where he had got the possible misconception that the nose did not connect to the trachea. But no, there was definitely not error in his knowledge. He was fairly confident about his information on human body structure. "It's possible if the food accidentally enters your nose though. And it's not that long." Hikari countered, still puzzling it out. "The only thing in the middle is our throat, and then the windpipe is right there."

He ran his hand through his hair, a familiar nervous habit. His curls slipped through his fingers, a sharp reminder of his metamorphmagus state, and he was hyperaware of the sharp purple it was currently adorning. Hikari couldn't quite see it, but he was sure if he looked at himself in the mirror, the color would burn his eye.

He accepted back the sketchbook, setting it aside carefully, to ensure it did not get dirty, before turning back to Akari offering him a napkin. "Thanks." He muttered, carefully wiping the remnants of the pastries off his fingers. Akari had already switched up the subject, diving into Herbology. The sudde shift in gears left Hikari fumbling, as his brain struggled to catch up to the switch in conversation from art to schoolwork.

"I did alright." He responded, remembering the last Herbology class. "Learning a fire-making spell can be helpful." He shrugged, "If our classmates lack basic school decorum, or common sense, or both, that's hardly the teacher's problem, right?"

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Saturday, April 19, 2025

English - Japanese - Thoughts

@Hikari Fujimoto

Dormitory

XXXAkari still didn't agree with Hikari's view of fish, but he put it aside for now. Of all the things to argue about, fish was a strange one. Not even the minature koi?? They're so cute! Tiny fins and all!

XXX"But while you inhale, air goes through your sinuses before heading to your windpipe," Akari insisted, using a hand to demonstrate the path that the hypothetical food would take, not that it helped very much. "It has to go up first. And you can't force food into your sinuses. That's horrifying." He paused.

XXXHow many sinuses do people have? Does the air, like, separate into each of them? How does that work? "...or maybe I'm remembering the diagram wrong..." Medical diagrams were kind of disturbing. The 'generic' way that the people were drawn made everything look creepy. Huh, what were we talking about again? Akari's gaze followed Hikari's movements as he ran his fingers through his hair before accepting the napkin.

XXX"Ah, yes," he mused, closing his eyes. "One spell for setting things on fire, another specifically for setting clothes on fire. I'm sure the school wants to prevent injuries to their students, right? The fire isn't really a problem, it's the fact that it's for clothes." Akari emphasised the word with a hand gesture before shoving his hands together back into his lap and taking a deep breath.

XXX"Aaaaanyways." He was getting too worked up over nothing. He inspected the dormitory wall from where he was sitting for the hundredth time that year, noting the surfaces where the stone was smooth and where there were slight indents for no particular reason. "Eeh, so... why did you decide to sketch the Garden, Fujimoto-kun? I think most people would want to avoid the topic, at least for a few weeks."

~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~

Calming Presence is in effect

As Hikari Fujimoto from Mahoutokoro ──────────────── 29th April, 2025 Saturday ──────────────── Dormitory ──────────────── Mentions: @ Akari Kabikimono ──────────────── Japanese -English - Thoughts

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Somehow, their conversation had shifted to Biology and nasal passages.

"Which part of the nose were the sinuses again?" Hikari wondered aloud. He hadn't spent a lot of time learning the human anatomy when he had been back home. His father's library was filled with books on magic, not biology.

"Well, even if you can't force food into your nose, it can still go in by accident..." A vividly disgusting image of Hayato with a noodle stuck in his nose presented itself in his mind, and he shook his head quickly, dismissing the image. Sometimes his own memory was too sharp for his own good— pictorial clarity could be a curse when the topic was something as silly as that.

His friend changed the subject, shifting between topics with an ease that left Hikari following in quite amusement. This time, the topic was magical. Admittedly, Hikari agreed to his point of view. There was after all, a different spell for setting clothes on fire. Why couldn't there have been one inclusive fire spell? Hikari wasn't really sure. That's probably not what he meant. "Setting clothes on fire can be... useful though." Hikari remarked, thoughtfully . He couldn't immediately conjure a situation where it would save the day, but the idea lingered, like a mischievous spark waiting to catch.

The conversation shifted yet again.

Hikari glanced down at his sketch, the flames seeming to rise off the sheet in stark, uncolored waves, curling as if they longed to breathe. Why had he decided to sketch it? He didn't know. It had felt liberating, like art often felt for him. "I'm not sure." He admitted softly, "I've been thinking about that event all month. Maybe...that's why?"

Reducio

This just less perfect and more um..unfinished-

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Saturday, April 19, 2025

English - Japanese - Thoughts

@Hikari Fujimoto

Dormitory

XXX“I think here and… here.” Akari patted his own face with both hands, once under his eyes, once on his forehead. “It’s a little creepy to think about. It was a long time before I realized there’s more to your head than just mouth, skull, and brain.” The topic was getting stranger by the moment, so he coughed awkwardly before steering the topic away again.

XXXAkari eyed Hikari with a slight amount of concern when he commented that setting clothes on fire could be useful. “What, like… you get kidnapped and need to set your captor on fire…? But your captor would likely take your wand first… unless you got kidnapped by a mumajin? How would that even happen? Although you could learn it wandlessly… It’s insane how people can cast all by themselves, right?” Wait a minute. How did we get to this topic? He scrunched up his nose. “Uhh, that aside…”

XXX“Ah.” Akari glanced down at his hands, suddenly subdued. His friend's response triggered a hint of worry inside of him. “Hey, Fujimoto-kun… I never asked you if you were alright. I mean, I did, but that was physically alright. Do you, eh… are you…?”

XXXThe words were not, in fact, formulating properly. What had he even been trying to ask, anyway? “…want to talk about it? Orrrr…” he shrugged awkwardly, chancing a half-glance up at Hikari again. Akari couldn't remember the last time he had felt this uncertain. He didn't like this feeling, not knowing how to go about something with his usual energy. At least in the midst of the flames, there had been adrenaline firing him to go, go, go do something, but now, sitting quietly in the dormitory, his mind was treading very slowly. If metamorphagi can shift based on emotion, what does purple mean? Akari tried to think back to other times Hikari's hair had shifted.

~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~

Calming Presence is in effect

As Hikari Fujimoto from Mahoutokoro ──────────────── 29th April, 2025 Saturday ──────────────── Dormitory ──────────────── Mentions: @ Akari Kabukimono ──────────────── Japanese -English - Thoughts

Five months earlier, Hikari would've proudly said that no-one could make him doubt his memory skills.

That was before Akari had cartwheeled into his life, all rainbows and glitter. And malfunctioning brain activity.

Hikari's biology knowledge was very swiftly getting messed up. Somehow the location of the interior of the nose had shifted from the face to the skull and brain. Signal to abort conversation.

The boy chose not to respond to whatever their version of the human anatomy was becoming, instead following Akari's shift to the next topic... which was, not surprisingly, equally messed up.

Except with a touch of Akari's characteristic imagination.

"If you get kidnapped, it would be advisable to throw a punch, towards the groin." Hikari said, abruptly putting an end to Akari's monologue (and probably also his imaginary scenario) "Also, getting kidnapped by a mumajin is too far-fetched. Not to mention, revealing our magic to them is a terrible idea."

In his defence, he had thought for a little, wondering how he could respond to the mildly silly conversation without dimming his friend's way-too-bright light, but holding unintelligent conversations were more in his 'how to avoid' category than his 'makes for alright conversation' list.

If Father finds out the kind of conversations I have with my only friend here, he'll have me pulled out of school.

The conversation shifted the third time, towards a more apprehensive topic. "Talk..." Hikari repeated. The word tasted foreign on his tongue. At home, Hikari didn't really have anyone to talk to; his mother was always busy with household chores and looking after his siblings that Hikari didn't want to burden her with his problems. Hayato was way too young to be bothering about problems he would not doubt face some time in his life.

As for his father... Well, he was just never there.

But Akari had become his friend. He would listen and he wouldn't judge. Hikari swallowed, feeling the words get stuck in his throat, unable to come out, "Well... it was a bit sudden..." He muttered lamely.

Reducio

This just less perfect and more um..unfinished-

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Saturday, April 19, 2025

English - Japanese - Thoughts

@Hikari Fujimoto

Dormitory

XXXAkari laughed at Hikari's very firm statement, seemingly wanting to shut down the topic. "My, how physically violent of you, Fujimoto-kun! I wouldn't have expected that from you. But, my apologies. I guess we have strayed too far into this subject." He cleared his throat, still smiling. Despite what some people might have thought of him, he would never reveal magic to those without it, at least not on purpose.

XXXHikari seemed very hesitant, offering a singular, uninsightful comment. "Mm," Akari voiced, even less helpful than Hikari's. It was terribly awkward. "Well, ah, you know it's not good to spend too much time dwelling on it. It happened, and it was terrible, but we have to move on someday." He kept his tone soft, speaking slower than usual. "I..." Is one month enough? Akari thought it was, didn't know how it was for other people. His parents usually never let heavy feelings influence them too badly, but they were also probably very good at hiding it, not wanting to impart it onto their young son. But now, he and Hikari were in it together. They had both experienced it, and now they both had to deal with it. Perhaps it was just a matter of time.

XXX"I know I should probably be more patient," Akari admitted. "Everybody processes things differently. But it hurts to see you suffer." He gazed out the window over Hikari's head, half-hoping there would be something there to distract him. But there were no distractions now, not from this painful conversation that could either be pushed away or pushed through. Not even a single bird soared through the frame of sky he saw. With nothing there to hold his attention, he returned his gaze to the sketchbook sitting on his friend's bed, lingering on the pencil strokes. It really was an incredible likeness, and it made him wonder if recreating it on paper helped Hikari.

~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~✩✩✩~

Calming Presence is in effect

As Hikari Fujimoto from Mahoutokoro ──────────────── 29th April, 2025 Saturday ──────────────── Dormitory ──────────────── Mentions: @ Akari Kabikimono ──────────────── Japanese -English - Thoughts

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Hikari didn't, couldn't, answer immediately. Not because he hadn't heard, but because he did, and somehow that made it harder.

His gaze drifted back to the unfinished sketch in front of him, the flames which refused to stay still even on paper. They curled across the page in uneven strokes, frozen but alive in a way that unsettled him. After a moment, he shut the book quietly and set it down beside him.

Hikari wasn't really sure of his answer. What exactly was it about the incident that still bothered him? He knew it wasn't the fire itself. Fires happened. Sure they were dangerous, but then again, everything was if one was careless, even water. Brooms could fall from the sky. Potions could explode. Magic, Hikari had learnt early, was dangerous by nature.

Accidents happened all the time too. He had heard people say so multiple times, although now he was forced to wonder how many of those men clad in suits and masks had ever actually faced an event where they had been forced to lose someone important that they could speak of accidents so lightly.

But what was it that still hung so heavily over his shoulders.

Was it the way he'd failed to react? Or was it how close his only friend had come to hurting?

"There's nothing to really talk about." He said quietly, discomfort bleeding through his features for the second time that day, melting from purple into a dull brown. "I'm not specifically bothered by the fire anymore. It's just..." He trailed off, thinking, and failing to come up with anything at all, "Actually I'm not quite sure what it is."

"Maybe..." His voice dropped, "I suppose I think I could've handled it much better than I did."

Reducio

This just less perfect and more um..unfinished-

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