The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 7 (Patreon)

Early chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 7 – Purify

Needless to say, the Purifier attack on her, while on live TV, caused a bit of a scene. Not just because the terrorists had decided on such a public assault, but because of the abilities she had displayed. Apparently, her being able to create a necrotic shield, without chants, a CAD, or any kind of production or preparation, that could stand up to Santified Spellrifles at close range without faltering was kind of a big deal. To say nothing of her other tricks.

Kaori had to just shake her head at that. The first two spells any mage learned were always some form of Magebolt, and Mage Shield. The spell names varied depending on the element and type of magic user, of course, but the fact remained that, almost without question, the first thing a magic-user learned was to ‘shoot’ a ball of magic at a target, and the very next thing their instructors beat into their heads was a way to defend against hostile attacks. Even the most powerful mage was useless if they were dead, after all.

Necromancers were no different in that regard. Sure, raising the dead, and those kinds of things were flashier, and what got Necromancers most of the attention, but even the baby necromancers who could barely animate a freshly-killed rat as a zombie could snap a Necrotic Shield into place. It might not do much, if they didn’t have some power behind it, but they could do it.

She just had more power than most people. Literally, it was part of what happened when she was summoned to the other world. Her class gained the potential for greater power than normal people. She had forty years of training on the battlefield, and had killed the Demon King. Anyone who thought that she could just be taken down by some idiots with a couple holy guns clearly didn’t know who they were dealing with.

That was the thing with Magick. The more you rose in power, the less you had to worry about groups of idiots with mass-produced attacks. Whether they were a group of goblins with their blades, or the enchanted bullets from those rifles, for a mage of her power she would have to be under assault from an entire army for those crude attacks to reach her, and, even then, killing her was another matter entirely.

If you wanted to kill a magical being, you either needed to overpower their defenses with raw force, swamp them with so many attacks that you drained their mana dry, or outwit their defenses, finding a chink in their armor. If you didn’t have an army (or at least one that would object to suffering 60-90% casualties in human wave tactics), and you didn’t have a champion that was simply more powerful than the enemy, your best bet was with a team of skilled adventurers, who could work together, covering a variety of skills, so that you could wear the enemy down without too much risk. That is why you never saw any adventuring parties made up entirely of mages, despite their massive offensive potential. Get an enemy into melee with them, and they were fucked, unless they had spent time training to fight hand-to-hand, and without a healer, any injuries could be fatal while in the depths of a dungeon.

At any rate, she hadn’t intended to flaunt her power. Indeed, she thought she had been very restrained, simply throwing up a shield to catch the bullets, so they wouldn’t accidentally hit the host, or others, and complete a simple, efficient, nonlethal takedown. The fools didn’t even have any protections against Death magic, despite facing a lich!

Fortunately, the craziness was not the only result of the interview. One of the managers at the New York office of Phantomline, the Akagawa Company’s ‘magic supplies’ division, had been watching the show, since the Big Boss’s daughter, one of the Lost Sleepers, returning was HUGE news in the company. He was much more interested in her comments about how CADs were different from the ‘foci’ that magic-users used in the world she’d been snatched to.

He sent the clip to the American VP of Phantomline, who quickly forwarded it to the home office. The home office apparently took all of thirty minutes to get in touch with her father, most of which was due to the fact that he was in the middle of being talked down from contacting an oyabun who owed him a favor to ‘handle’ the Purifiers for daring to attack his daughter. Once he calmed down, however, her father clearly saw the business potential of a completely new field of magic technology, one where there was only a single expert in the world, that they already had a connection to.

Which is why, during her 9 A.M. meeting with Lilah and Holly to discuss the aftermath of the show, her father called her at her hotel. He had a business proposal for her! He was asking her to start a new division of Phantomline, devoted to ‘her’ kind of magical equipment! A division that she would be the head of!

Lilah quickly took over the call at that point, and, on speakerphone, the four of them quickly decided that being an independent contractor, with a design studio headed by Kaori, was the best course of action. This would allow her to consult with Phantomline to try and develop a mass-production version of her foci, while also selling a limited number of ‘premium’ artisan-made items, for an ‘elite’ crowd. And it also reduced the liability for Phantomline, since they wouldn’t have to cover the studio costs during the development phase.

Deciding where to base the studio was difficult, but eventually they decided that it would be based in Tokyo, though it was expected that she would have to experiment with this world’s materials, seeing as how much of what she knew was from working with materials that had been created in a magical world, and this world’s magic was still young, and hadn’t fully infused everything around them, not yet. Between the funds she would have once the courts decided she was who she said she was, and the treasures she brought from the other world, she would have plenty of money to repay the startup loans her father’s company would give her in short order, even without a product that could be sold immediately. Better still, that would give her some official standing to work with Phantomline, so she could compare and contrast different styles of gear.

The next week had her endure talk show interviews in England, Germany, South Africa, China, and Japan, finishing her promise to give an interview in each country one of her classmates had come from, ending in her own home country. Fortunately, there weren’t any idiots who tried to attack her in those countries. Sure, the increased security that surrounded her when she traveled was part of it, but she didn’t doubt that most people who may have wanted to kill her decided to rethink their plans after her little display.

None of which mattered at the moment. She had returned to a place where she was always happy, even as a child. Thanks to her father’s connections, she had been able to spend part of her afternoons working as a miko at the Hie shrine. Doing the work had taught her humility, despite her family’s wealth. It also felt good to have a connection to something greater than herself.

Now, she was thankful that the priest had allowed her to return. She wore her ring to suppress her aura, and used her ankh to become ‘human’, at least outwardly. The same tools had allowed her to step into shrines and temples in the other world without issue, despite many of that world’s gods hating the Undead just slightly less than Demons, so she was glad to see that it worked here, too, when she passed under the tori gates.

The head priest, who had been a novice the last time she’d come here, before heading to America for school, met her at the top of the stone steps. “Ah, Akagawa-san. It is good to see you, after so many years.”

She smiled warmly. Here, at least, was someone that wasn’t her family, greeting her simply because she had been gone for a long time, rather than making a big deal out of it. “Ah, Sensei. It is good to be back.”

Looking him over, she nodded approvingly. The wore the karingu well, and he looked as though he was still in his thirties, despite having to be at least sixty by now. She could sense the magic in him, circulating through him, strengthening his body like the ki talked about in martial arts circles and cultivation light novels.

She focused her eyes on his again. She could see the question in them, and smiled. “Sensei, you would have made a proud warrior in the other world.”

“Hah! My if one of my students was telling me that, I would make them run laps so they could put their energy to better use than flattering me. But, if it comes from one who has killed a maou, then I will just have to accept the compliment.”

They shared a laugh, before the priest turned, leading further into the shrine. “So, your message mentioned that you wanted to undergo purification? Are you sure that is wise, given your… nature? The powers are there to cleanse negative energy, but they also dispel dead spirits, and set them to their rest.”

“And I am, in essence, a dead spirit inhabiting my formerly mortal shell, yes. Consider this a test, to see whether the kami will accept me, after all this time, and after everything that has happened. I promise you, Sensei, that if I start feeling the rite damaging me, then I will stop.”

The priest sighed knowingly. “You seek to find your place. A lot of people did the same, when their magic first awakened. They did not know if becoming majin would cut them off from the kami or not.”

He considered for a moment, then nodded. “Very well, Akagawa-san. I do not know if this is wise, but sometimes one must tempt fate to know the truth. I will aid you in this. You can use the miko’s bath. It is still where it used to be. Cleanse yourself, and I will have one of the mikos bring you clothes.”

“Thank you, Sensei, but I have my own, that I had made for me in the other world. I think it fitting if I wear them for the rite.”

In the bath, she brushed her ankh, and the traditional kimono she had purchased when she returned to the country disappeared, leaving her naked in the changing room, wearing only her ankh, her ring, and the pins keeping her hair bound up. When she got to the bath itself, she found that she was not alone. A young miko was there, also cleansing herself.

Looking over, the girl smiled at her. “Oh, hello. I haven’t seen you here before. Are you new?”

Smiling at the innocent interaction, Kaori sat on one of the stools, and began washing herself as was proper before getting into the bath itself. “No, child. I used to be a miko here, long ago, but I haven’t been able to help with services in a long time.”

The miko frowned, clearly upset. “Child! You can’t be much older than me! I might not be as hefty in the chest as you are, but I’m still thirteen!”

“Oh, don’t worry, little one. You’ll grow, and grow up, in time. But I’m afraid I’m a good deal older than you are. I only look this young because of magic.”

The girl blinked, and said, “So is that why you’re wearing jewelry in the bath?”

“Yes. Otherwise, I would be looking a lot older than you.”

“You mean old old, like thirty?”

Kaori giggled. “Oh, much older. I’m fifty-six years old, now.”

“WOW! That’s the same age as sensei! Can you teach me that magic, so I look like you when I’m old?”

She sighed. “You are better off learning to be healthy and strong like sensei. I went down a different road, which is part of why I haven’t been back here in forty years.”

“Forty years? Does that mean you know the Lost Sleeper that returned? Sensei said she used to be a miko at this shrine when he was a novice.”

“Of course, I know her, little one. She’s me.”

“WHAT! Oh WOW! Wait until I tell my friends about this! Can I get a picture with you?”

I laughed, and nodded. There was no political game here, just a child wanting to impress her friends at school. “Sure. Once we’re both dressed, you can take a picture with me.”