One Night in Osaka

"I do, in fact, have that honor, with the rank of Master Mage." With a grin, she tore off a tiny piece of the okonomiyaki with her chopsticks, and popped it into her mouth.

"I feel very fortunate, then. To be in the hands of such a skilled teacher."

Before she could collect her thoughts, she heard her mouth charge ahead and respond out loud. "Oh, believe me, these hands can teach you so very many things." She froze, and her face suddenly felt a burning-hot blush explode across her cheeks as she watched his eyes go very, very wide. "Pixie me sideways, I can't believe I just said that. I mean, I MEANT to talk about teaching you sigil basics and such, but it came out all wrong, makes me sound like some sort of tart, not at all proper OH GODS I'm rambling I can't bloody well shut up—"

His fingertip was suddenly resting gently against her lips, and their eyes met. "Sorry about this," he said. "You looked like you needed the assist. Lord knows I've let my mouth get away from me sometimes, no harm done. And for the record, I don't think you're a tart."

Alessia caught her breath, and found herself wondering what would happen if she started nibbling, suckling on his finger just now... no. She settled for making a show of giving it the tiniest of exaggerated kisses as she leaned back. "Got rather flustered there, sorry about that. Feel rather silly. And now I'm hungry for an actual fruit tart, of all things."

He shrugged as he also leaned back, his smile never wavering. "I tried making a chocolate-orange tart last month, thought it turned out pretty well. I could email you the recipe, if you like."

"Hold on a moment. You bake?" A laugh jumped out of her. "Are you for real?"

He held a hand over his heart, as if wounded, but he was laughing as well. "Is that so hard to believe? I mean, I'm not going to win any Bake-Offs or defeat an Iron Chef, but I'd like to think I know my way around a kitchen, yes."

"No, that's not what I meant!" She shook her head while still giggling. "I'm quite pleased that you're a man of such lovely talents, Donovan, and I'm sure your tarts are delicious. I think I will take that recipe, although I'm not much of a chef myself." A couple of minutes later, she put her phone back into her purse, having traded email addresses with him and received a tart recipe for her efforts. "If only you lived near London, we could make a day out of baking and delightfully bad movies."

He was looking down at his own phone, and then back up at her. "I would very much like to take your picture right now. May I?"

The admiration in his eyes sent a warm tremble down through her heart. "Of course you can." She leaned forward a bit, arranging herself in what she hoped was an attractive pose. "You almost sounded sad when you asked, though."

He held up his phone, but hesitated. She saw his eyes flicker down briefly, and then he tapped his screen twice, taking two pictures in quick succession. "I am, a little." He put his phone back in his pocket. "This is my first time overseas. I don't get to travel very often, and I'm not going to be in Osaka for much longer. I wanted to have something to remember you by, in case we never see each other again after tonight."

Alessia glanced down, and realized that her pose had shown a bit more bare cleavage than she'd thought. She wasn't too surprised to realize that this didn't bother her in the slightest. "I'd... been trying not to think about that, to be honest. I've been having a wonderful time — and we haven't even taught you your first sigil yet." She stood up, and without warning moved to his side of the table and sat down in the chair next to him, her smartphone suddenly in her hand again. "Come on, I need some pictures of you as well, and only a proper selfie will do."

Although he seemed a little startled by her sudden closeness, she was glad to see that he didn't shrink away. She leaned into his side, holding her phone up with camera app primed, and threw her other arm around his shoulder. "Here's to a beautiful chance meeting in Osaka, Donovan. Smile for the camera..." He brought back the smile she was hoping for, the closed-lipped one with the corners turned up that put the emphasis on his handsome wide eyes, and she took full advantage of it. Snapping picture after picture, she moved the camera about to get every possible angle of the two of them together.

After the sixth such picture, she glanced up and saw that they had an audience — the four college girls sitting across the aisle, who had paused their conversation (but not their giggling) to watch these two foreigners flirt and pose. On an impulse, she gave Donovan one last direction. "Hold still, I want this one to be good." And then at the last second, she leaned in and kissed his cheek just as she tapped the camera button.

The four onlookers' giggles had stopped, replaced instead with little gasps of surprise. Alessia simply stood up, leaving a slightly stunned Donovan in his chair, and headed back towards her original seat. As she did, she flashed the quartet a wink, which brought another flurry of nervous and excited laughter from them. Sitting back down, she checked that last picture, and was pleased to see a look of happy shock on Donovan's face, his open-mouthed gasp captured for posterity during her kiss. She looked back up at him, and to her eyes, his smile had taken on a new warmth of amusement. "Is everything alright, my handsome soon-to-be-apprentice?"

His smile broke into a quiet laugh. "Everything is wonderful. I can't imagine how anything could be better, my beautiful soon-to-be teacher."

This time she knew exactly what she was saying, and meant every word of it. "I can." He looked up into her eyes at that, pausing in the act of grabbing another bite to eat, and she just stared right back with a deliberately enigmatic smile. If he couldn't handle the idea of a woman taking charge even a little, best she find that out now rather than later.

He leaned forward, and let the tips of his fingers brush gently against her hand. "Yeah. And I'm not going to be afraid of that."

Alessa felt a warmth in her belly that had absolutely nothing to do with their delicious meal. "Am I really so terrifying?"

"In all the right ways, Alessia. I promise." He squeezed the back of her hand, and for a few seconds, neither of them said a word as they searched each other's eyes.

"Oh wow, they're in love! Are they gonna kiss?"

"Hush! They'll hear you!"

It was as if a bucket of cold water had been splashed into her face, and from the way Donovan was blinking in surprise, he seemed to feel much the same. She turned and looked — and sure enough, the quartet of young Japanese women at the next table over were watching them with rapt expressions. All save the one with a high ponytail and red highlights, who was angrily punching the shoulder of her shorter-haired friend for accidentally interrupting things.

"Sorry about that," Alessia said to the young women. "I guess we're being a little too public."

Their eyebrows jumped in surprise, and Ponytail threw yet another punch at her friend's shoulder. "SEE? I *told* you they spoke Japanese! You owe me a parfait next weekend!"

"Ow! Quit it, you were right and I was wrong, so stop already!" The short-haired girl bobbed her head towards Alessia and Donovan in a quick sitting approximation of a bow. "I'm really sorry that I interrupted your conversation. Just pretend we're not here, we'll be quiet."

Donovan gave Alessia's hand a warm squeeze, but then pulled his hand back. "Maybe another subject change is in order? Seems to be a theme tonight."

Alessia nodded, sighing in regret. "At least we know Lady Ebisu's gift really works both ways," she whispered, before turning back to their audience. "I suppose my friend and I were being a little indiscreet, my apologies. We just met tonight, and we've been having a wonderful time together already, but we'll try to be more considerate." As she turned away, she could still hear them arguing amongst themselves.

"Damnit, now they'll never kiss! Good going, Kaori-san."

"I'm sorry, but they were so cute just then, it was like that one TV drama!"

"Shut UP, you idiots! I just TOLD you that they can hear you, and they CAN understand you! Did you not just hear her talk?"

"Hey, I don't care if he pulls her dress open and takes her right there on the table in front of us, I just want another beer. Hana-san, hit the waitress-call, would you?" This was from the tallest and apparently oldest of the four. "Hey, lovebirds!" Alessia turned back to look, and the speaker wore a heavy-lidded and amused expression. Her friends urgently tried to shush her, but she ignored them. "You two want another round of drinks? My treat, since my roommate here has all the social grace of a brain-addled farm puppy." She ran her fingers through her thick mane of solid black hair. "Whaddya say?"

Donovan shook his head with a laugh. "Thank you, but I'll have to decline." He lifted up his giant stein of ginger ale. "Still got plenty to work on."

Alessa shrugged. "Likewise, but thank you all the same. You all have a lovely night, though."

The tall woman gave a deep nod, and turned back to her three friends. "And with *that*, we four are ALL going to mind our own business, okay? Okay. So, Michiko-san, you were going to tell me about your Aikido class..."

Setting aside thoughts about their boisterous neighbors, as well as the fascinating mental image of getting 'taken right there on the table', Alessia turned her full attention back to Donovan. "I did promise you I was going to teach you your first sigil tonight. I should keep that promise before we get more, ah, distracted. Sorry about that."

"Nothing to apologize for. Where do you want to start?"

Over the next fifteen minutes, Alessia showed Donovan the basic shape of the "illuminate" sigil she'd demonstrated earlier, drawing it on a napkin with a pen, but without willing it into action herself, and then had him practice it as well.

"It has to be exactly right. You're hacking into the source code of the universe, it's not going to work unless you use the right password, so to speak." She pointed down at his fifth attempt. "Almost there. That line is too short, and the next section after it is a straight line, you're adding a curve to it. Don't worry, you're doing great for your first sigil. Seriously."

A couple minutes later, he drew the sigil for the fifteenth time, and then twitched in surprise just as it finished. "Whoa."

She favored him with a smile. "Felt a tingle, did you? That's excellent. It means you got it right."

He looked down at his hand. "But the light didn't happen. What did I miss?"

"What I'm about to show you. You had to get the sigil right before we could get to this part." She held out her own hand, palm up. "Now that you know how to make the right key, now it's time to learn what to do after you use it." She tapped her forehead. "Precise thinking is important here. You don't want to be distracted by yesterday's football game, or the cute blouse that the girl behind me is wearing..."

"I'm more distracted by the cute girl right in front of me." He blushed as he said it, and Alessia flashed him a grin in return.

"Flattery will get you, well, nowhere right *now*, mister. This is lesson time." They shared a quiet laugh, and she pressed on. "But seriously, right now you need to focus. This sigil is a kind of language, and it says 'create light'. Once you complete the sigil, turn that key so to speak, you've got a few moments where you can mentally command it. How bright do you want the light to be? What color? Do you want it in your hand, or floating over your shoulder, or somewhere else? The command window is very short, so as soon as you feel that tingle that means your sigil is complete, you focus into that tingle with your commands, and that's what completes the spell. If you don't give it commands, the spell just fizzles out, and nothing happens at all." She pointed to his pen. "Try it again, and this time, command and complete it."

She watched Donovan start on the sigil again, only for him to stop halfway through when he realized he'd erred. He took a deep breath, and the next attempt was slower, more deliberate, and perfect. She could feel the resonance around him now, and half a second later, a small dot of glowing green light blinked into being and hovered over the table between them, as bright as a Christmas tree decoration. She looked back to Donovan — he was staring at the light with his jaw agape.

"I did that." He rubbed at his chin. "I'm really a mage. Holy shit."

"You did, and you are. Very well done." She took half a second to mind-trace the same sigil, and a second dot of light, this one golden yellow, now orbited Donovan's. "Now that you know how it feels, it'll be easier the next time, and tracing that sigil will eventually feel as natural as whistling or snapping your fingers."

"I could feel it when you cast your own spell just now." Donovan wrenched his gaze away from his first spell, and back to Alessia. "Is that normal?"

"It is," she replied. "When someone completes a sigil near you, you'll feel an echo of it, and roughly where the casting mage is. If it's a sigil you've cast before, you'll recognize and feel what that mage is doing, but if it's new to you, it'll just feel like gibberish." As soon as she said this, she suddenly felt a new casting nearby of that same sigil again, and now a tiny red beacon joined the green and yellow ones in the air over their table.

As one, Donovan and Alessia looked in the direction they sensed the sigil from. At the table nearby, the taller woman who'd offered them beers before was looking right back at them, one finger held surreptitiously to her lips. She glanced quickly to her three friends, who were obliviously still engaged in conversation, and then back to Alessia and Donovan, with a small shake of her head. She made eye contact with Alessia, and then started tracing a sigil on her open palm with a fingertip. Alessia recognized it as a typical "Whisper" spell, and smiled as she heard the woman's sub-vocalized words in her ears.

"I'm Chiaki Atsumi, 1st 'Kyu' rank student-mage. Pleased to meet you. Do you know this whispering spell?"

Donovan looked back and forth between the two women, but before he could open his mouth to say something, Alessia caught his eye and shook her head. He nodded, and sat back, eyebrow raised in curiosity as he dove back into the okonomiyaki.

Quickly mind-tracing the Whisper sigil, she glanced back to Atsumi, and replied under her breath. "Daphne Alessia Astin Devonshire, but please call me 'Alessia'. We don't use the same ranking system back in England, but I've been told I'm equivalent to a 5th 'Dan' rank. Likewise, a pleasure to meet a fellow mage."

Atsumi coughed, nearly choking on her cola. "That's... impressive. I apologize for interrupting, Devonshire-Sensei. But your date... not much of a mage, is he? I've seen children do better, it was *very* rough, barely a complete sigil. Surely a master such as yourself can attract more skilled companions? He is handsome enough, I grant."

Donovan leaned forward, speaking softly. "Are you and her talking? What about?"

Alessia bit her lip, suppressing a giggle, and sent him a quick whisper-spell as well. "Your cute bottom. Give me a minute." As Donovan sat back with a new blush across his cheekbones, Alessia re-established contact with Atsumi. "That's because it was literally the first spell he's ever cast." She waggled her eyebrows. "I caught him from a fall earlier, and contact with my spell activated his latent sensitivity. He really is a complete novice, but I'm already quite fond of him. Also, there's no need for any 'sensei' honorifics, honestly."

Carefully nibbling at a rice cracker, Atsumi pondered this. "To still be latent into one's early adulthood — that's an unusual find. My own Sensei and the Lady Ebisu, a nearby spirit, will be very interested in this. I hope you don't mind my telling them?"

"I just formed a Pact with the lovely Lady Ebisu tonight. She was there to witness his awakening, and took him on as well. His name is Donovan, by the way. As for your teacher, feel free. Where are you apprenticed?"

"My friends here don't know I'm a mage, we're all students at Kyoto University together. But I take classes on the side at Kyoto Resonance Research Society."

Alessia smiled to herself, thinking back to a rather memorable conference in Paris several years prior. "I know the staff of Kyo-Res-Re-So well. Please give my fond regards to Kaneshiro-Sensei."

Atsumi could only give a silent nod of acknowledgment to that, but she sent another Whisper a moment later. "...I confess I am curious. Were you really about to kiss Donovan there before Kaori opened her big mouth?"

Glancing back to her date while still sending whispers to Atsumi, Alessia couldn't help but grin. "You know, I think I still might. He's very sweet, has a beautiful smile, and best of all, he doesn't fume and strut when a more accomplished woman comes along. I'd imagine Japanese men in the mage community are just as bad as Englishmen?"

Atsumi winced as if biting into a lemon. "If I start recounting those sort of stories, we'll be here for a week, easily. I'll let you get back to your date, but... as a fellow supplicant to the honored Lady Ebisu, welcome to Japan, Alessia-san. And please convey my welcome to Donovan as well..." A playful giggle came through the whisper-spell. "...once you're done wearing him out tonight! Good luck!"

Feeling Atsumi cut the connection, Alessia sent her one last sidelong smile and nod by way of goodbyes, and then focused back on Donovan. "Sorry about that. Girl talk."

Donovan grinned. "Not a problem at all. Gave me a chance to experiment with something, actually." He pointed to the collection of little lights they'd created. Atsumi's red light had faded out, but there were several others floating there now, of varying shape, size, color, and brightness. "Since you said I'd gotten the sigil perfect with this one," he said, holding up the last napkin he'd been practicing on, "I tried tracing the existing shape of the sigil with my fingertip, and it worked just as well. That was okay to do, right?"

"VERY well done! That's lesson two covered, then." Alessia watched his little dancing constellation, and smiled. "Some mages like to stitch favorite sigils into their clothes, or carry around a book full of them, for exactly that purpose." She thought ahead, and gave a sad sigh. "I hate to ask this, but I really should. When do you leave Osaka?"

"After another day or so." He put his hand back towards hers, their fingers intertwining. "I've had fun exploring this country alone, but it's been better to have you for company. I wish we had more time." He squeezed gently, and she returned his grasp in kind.

"So do I. I'm here with my little brother and my amusingly-crazy mother, but we've got important plans for tomorrow that I cannot break, and schedules set equally in stone for the days following that. Otherwise I'd rather insist that I see you tomorrow." She squeezed his hand again on "insist".

"You know I never thought I'd say this, because it sounds like a cheesy song lyric, but..." He looked up at the ceiling for a moment, taking a long, deep breath before meeting her gaze again. "...We really only have tonight, don't we?"

"Yes. Yes indeed." She shrugged. "And I don't know if I should laugh or cry about that. But the night's not over yet. Let's get some air."

Since the food had been paid for at the time of ordering, there wasn't anything else keeping them there — but as Alessia stood up, she felt Atsumi cast another Whisper spell. "Have a good night, you two. And be careful out there, there's been a lot of pickpockets and such about lately, and they almost always go after foreigners first."