A Fae's Emporium 10 (Patreon)

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRai

A Fae’s Emporium

Chapter 10

-VB-

Touma didn’t know what to do. 

He was tired as hell, everything hurt, and he could barely move around. 

Dad was also unconscious and probably not going to get up.

And Tsuchimikado… Tsuchimikado was lying in a pool of his own blood. 

The teenager - no, the man - had sacrificed himself to pull off magic his body couldn’t support. 

And he died for it. 

Touma’s hands curled up into fists as he knelt there, feeling powerless. 

If only he wasn’t so weak! 

He tried to get up but his knees buckled and he fellt back down, almost pushing him into the pool of blood.

What the hell was he suppose to do now? Call the police? That wasn’t going to happen because this was magic related, and the police never responded to those. And even if they did, he was pretty sure the Church of England guys were going to magic away the memories and records! 

“Goddamnit, I’m just a high schooler,” he muttered with a sniffle.

-VB-

Kanzaki Kaori let out a sigh of relief as the magic dispelled and the angel disappeared. 

She sheathed her sword and stood there for a second. 

Fighting an angel, limited as it had been by the mortal constraints, had been rough. 

It tested her to the limits of her abilities. Both it and she didn’t want to destroy the land around them, which limited both of their actions. And as such, she had to fight without her greatest abilities. 

Nanasen had been almost not enough to counter the angel’s relentless and regenerating attacks. Did it mean that Nanasen was weak? No, it merely meant that the current spells and rituals in her arsenal had been … specialized, yes. She had specialized her repertoire to fight against other humans. 

She never thought she would be fighting an angel by herself, after all, never mind as the defender. 

She turned to leave… and found herself staring at a purple haired woman - a very buxom woman - in a maid uniform. It wasn’t one of those perverted Tokyo anime maid uniforms either but an actual uniform like the one Tsuchimikado’s sister wore. 

And staring at her as if the battle she must have witnessed was nothing out of the ordinary. 

“... Good afternoon,” the woman said as she spoke up. “I’m sorry, but my master asks that you remain here while he goes to make a deal with the survivors up in that house up there.”

Kaori stared at her before her eyes slowly narrowed down. 

“What are you planning?” she demanded as her hand slowly drifted over to her sword handle. 

This was … kind of bad. 

She just spent a lot of stamina fighting off the angel, and while it hadn’t been too hard, she wasn’t at her top condition while the woman across from her on this sandy beach looked like she just woke up. 

“My master is a master of trade,” she smiled. “He merely wishes to make a … profitable deal with the occupants. Specifically, he has designs for one known as ‘Kamijou Touma.’”

Kaori’s hand… grasped her nodachi’s handle. 

And struck.

The woman parried her attack with the back of her hand as if it was nothing. 

“Ah, mundane magecraft.”

… Mundane?

She, a saint, mundane?

Kaori immediately struck again. Faster.

The blade flashed… and the purple haired woman, now with one hand on her waist, snapped out with one hand with a casual dismissiveness and parried her attack again, sending her nodachi’s trajectory flying away.

“If this is all you can do, then you are nowhere near enough to dissuade my master, never mind actually stop him.”

Then there was a burst of sand and air.

One moment, she was across the beach.

In the next moment, she was right underneath Kaori’s guard with a fist drawn back.

“Grit your teeth, girl. This is going to hurt.”

Then she struck.

The fist drove into her stomach before Kaori had a chance to bring her nodachi down to guard from the attack. The fist drove in deep and then sent her flying. 

Kaori gagged from the pain running rampant over her stomach before she gritted her teeth and flipped around in the air. She landed perfectly on her two feet, but then stumbled from the pain and exertion.

How…?

“... You have some unique physiology, don’t you?” the purple haired woman hummed as she shook her fist from almost a hundred meters away. “A normal human’s fist would have shattered from doing what I did to you.” 

Kaori decided right then and there that she had to take this seriously. 

“My magic name is Salvare 000,” she gritted out loudly as she could without yelling. 

“Introductions now? My, the people here are very formal, aren’t they?” the woman chuckled. “Then allow me to introduce myself.”

A smile.

And then an explosion of power. 

Kaori buckled underneath the raw surges of power emanating from the woman like dense and heavy waves. 

“I am Medusa. Please, I hope you entertain me while my master is scamming your friends. Let’s exchange some pointers, yes?”

She had no choice. 

Karoi invoked her Stigma. 

-VB-

“Oh man, you look like a mess.”

Touma, with bleary eyes, scrambled to get up at the new strangers’ comment and found himself staring -.

“A cosplayer?” he muttered as he stared at young man - or a teenager? - who walked into the room. He looked like Stiyl did, a little, but instead of a heavy cloak, this guy dressed himself like a medieval messenger or something. Like one of those trumpeters. Just not as fancy.

“W-Who are you?”

“Me?” the man grinned. “I’m a merchant of all things great and low. I have a bargain for erasers and pencils but also take deals for guns and C4s!” Then he leaned forward. “Or in your case, I am a man who trade in many things magical and even the divine!” A pause before his eyes drifted to Touma’s right hand. “Like your right hand.”

Touma froze. 

“Y-You can do something about this…?”

“Of course! In fact, if you want, then I can even give you -!”

“Take it!” 

The man stuttered. “... Sorry?”

“Just take it and all of the unlucky things in my life away!” 

“... I was going to offer you your lost memories for the deal?” 

“DEAL!” 

The man looked at him, flabbergasted. 

What the strange man hadn’t considered at the time was the fact that Kamijou Touma was perhaps at his lowest point. 

Not only did magic almost get his father killed, he just saw someone die in a rather brutal fashion. 

Kamijou Touma was … emotionally compromised. A teenage boy with no prior experience in dealing with death. Thrust upon life or death situations with no reward coming his way. 

So unfortunate. 

So … unlucky. 

And Touma hated his fate with a not insignificant passion.

He was not yet the man who would be the unwitting head of the Kamijou Faction in the far future. 

No.

He was a mere inexperienced teenage boy surrounded by death and destruction wrought by magic.

And, in this small moment, he feared it. 

Unfortunately for him, the strange man who came here for a deal was not one to, let’s say, offer so little for something so great.

Indeed. Kamijou may have said “deal” but the merchant had not.

“No deal!” the stranger frowned as he crossed his arms into an X. “You may not have known me for long, but I pride myself in doing legitimate deals! You insult me by offering me so much for so little!” 

Touma’s mouth opened and closed. 

“Did you not hear me? I trade in the divine. Your arm and what binds it is close enough to it that a mere set of memories is not enough for me! No, there must be more!” 

“You want to give me magic?! No, I don’t want it!” 

Please don’t forget that Kamijou Touma was, in this instant, surrounded by death and destruction wrought by magic.

“It’s not a matter of whether you want it or not! I don’t do totally unfair deals! Only a little unfair unless you piss me off!” the petulant man shouted back.

“T-Then what’s a fair deal?” he asked as calmly as he could. Because this was a chance to finally be normal.

“A Level 5 ESPer ability.”

Huh? “Y-You mean like Biri biri?”

“Biri bi-? Oh, you mean Railgun? Yeah, the least I’ll give you will make you stronger than her.”

Why?! Why?! That’s not normal at all! 

“W-What about my luck?” 

“Luck?” the man tilted his head. “... Well, I do trade in luck, but it’s just not enough to trade for that thing inside of you.”

“Then what are you even suggesting, man? Stop leaving me in suspense, damn it…!” 

He grinned coyly. “Well… I want to trade a favor.”

“A-A favor?”

“Yup!” he grinned. “I will give you three instances of ‘luck,’ and in return, you and your future friends will come to my aid three times. How is that?”

Touma opened his mouth again and closed it. “W-What is luck in this instance? Like an example … that would apply to me!” 

“Oh. That’s easy. Meeting the love of your life.”

Touma nearly did a spit take. 

“Uh-?”

“Maybe even overcoming a great enemy without even needing to try?”

“Wait-.”

“Or maybe when you study, it actually sticks inside your head for like a whole semester?”

Touma reached out and grasped the man’s extended arm with the most serious face he could muster.

“You have a deal.”

Kamijou Touma was a student. Not a very good student but a student nonetheless. The idea that he would have “luck” in studying? 

Well… That appealed to him a lot. If he could defeat a “great enemy” without trying, then he could also defeat the “great final exams” without trying.

The man cackled as he accepted the deal. “Oh, this is a freebie. Your friend over there is not dead.”

“Huh?”

“Yup! He has an ESPer power that lets him revive. Maybe you can surprise him with your foreknowledge of it when he comes to visit you!”

Touma slowly looked down at the blonde teenager who made it look like he had made a great sacrifice. And he might have. 

But he felt a little cheated.

“Maybe I will.”

“Great!” the man said. “Here.”

“Huh-?”

He saw the man’s fingers suddenly approaching his forehead and then he fainted. 

-VB-

Medusa stopped. 

“Ah. It looks like my master has made a deal,” she huffed as she pulled her fist back.

And the girl with the body like a Demi-Servant dropped to her knees.

She knelt on the sand, wobbling as she tried to stay awake.

“I’m surprised you lasted this long,” she hummed as she looked down at the girl. “Even if I wasn’t using everything I could, you still withstood a Servant’s full frontal assault. That speaks highly of your capabilities. And you were learning as we fought, too.”

She hummed as she stepped back and gave the barely conscious girl a curtsy. “I hope you enjoyed the pointer, Salvare 000. I do hope you can do better next time.”

Then she teleported out, but not before witnessing the girl faint.