"Mother… are we related?", Akira asked bluntly, gathering his courage, but the moment the words left his mouth, he realized how ridiculous it sounded.
Yuki blinked at him, then gave him the kind of look one only reserves for complete idiots.
"Of course, we are related. You're my son," she replied flatly.
Akira nearly slapped his forehead. "No, no! My tongue slipped. What I meant to say was… are you and Father related?"
Yuki looked at him in confusion, having no idea where these stupid questions from her son came from. "Of course, we are related. We are husband and wife."
Akira nearly choked. "Not that! I mean blood-related. We all have the same hair and eye color, and you said both you and Father went through this rite of passage, and no one outside our family ever entered the basement, right? That's why I asked."
Yuki gave him a patient smile, the kind that said she was humouring a curious child. "It's complicated. We are from the same clan, but very distantly related. Still, it's… more complicated than that." She paused, then gave him her usual smile, the kind she always used when steering him away from dangerous questions. "I'll explain everything about our family when you're older. For now… are you ready to continue your training? Or do you need to rest?"
Akira grinned, noticing her usual tactic of dodging important questions. "Rest? I can do this all day."
Yuki nodded but looked uneasy. "Sigh… Well, prepare yourself. You'll probably die a few more times today. It'll hurt, too, so… just brace yourself."
Though her tone was stern, her heart ached. Even though she knew he wouldn't really die, the thought of killing her son, even for training, pained her deeply. But she steeled herself, knowing this was crucial for his future, all she could do was harden her resolve and promise to make each death as painless as possible.
And so time passed as they continued to train, and Akira died pretty easily every time.
"Take this, Hydro Pump!" Akira shouted, a magic circle forming in front of his hand as a torrent of high-pressure water burst forth toward his mother.
But before the water could reach her, a small fireball intercepted it, causing a steam explosion. The resulting blast sent Akira flying backward before he could react.
"What the hell was… oh!" Akira tried to stabilize himself midair, but a small ice spear pierced his head, killing him instantly.
"Ugh, when will he learn not to shout the attack name before striking?" Akira's mother sighed, watching her son vanish from the arena. This marked the sixth time he'd died today. While Akira was usually a genius, today he seemed… distracted.
"Ouch… Oh, I died again." Akira stood in the waiting area, his hand reflexively reaching for his head. "How does she cast her spells so much faster than me? Didn't she say I can cast spells faster than most people?"
"It's because your reaction time is slow. This is your first real fight, after all. You'll get used to it soon," Yuki said as she appeared beside him.
"And why," she added, looking utterly exasperated, "are you shouting out attack names before casting? You do know how to use silent casting, don't you?"
"Well, Mother… because all cool anime characters do it. This is the way," Akira replied with utmost seriousness, as though this were a universal truth.
His mother's expression shifted to one of disbelief. She reached out, pinching his cheeks with surprising ferocity.
"Ow! Ow! Mother, wait! I'm sorry! Please forgive me!" Akira yelped, instantly surrendering.
"What kind of fool screams out their attack before using it? You might as well hand your opponent a written strategy before the fight even begins!" She dragged his cheeks mercilessly, with a sharp tone.
"I'm so sorry! I won't do it again!" Akira promised, realizing just how foolish his actions were.
Yuki released him with a sigh. "You need to take fights seriously. This isn't a game. If you mess up, you will die. Don't fool around."
"Yes, Mother," Akira mumbled, rubbing his sore cheeks.
"And stop relying on basic elemental spells to fight. They're easy to use but just as easy to counter. Magic is so much more than controlling elements. Next time, try something more advanced."
"Something more advanced…" Akira murmured, deep in thought. He'd been killed six times today, and his mother had only ever needed one or two moves to counter him. She knew all the spells he typically used, and large-scale magic took too long to cast. What could he do?
After thinking deeply, Akira decided he had to do something different to defeat his mother, so he chose to use something modern. Soon, as they faced each other again, Akira raised his hand. A glowing magic circle appeared, started spinning rapidly.
"Gatling Annihilation!" he called out, and the circle unleashed a hail of glowing projectiles, spraying forward like a magical minigun. But his mother's magic shield appeared instantly, blocking every single one with ease.
Akira didn't look frustrated. Instead, he said calmly, "More."
Four more circles appeared in front of him, all of them whirring to life. Together, they bombarded his mother's shield in a relentless storm of glowing bullets. The air vibrated with the intensity of the attack, and at last, small cracks began to form across the shield's surface.
But Yuki only smiled. "Not bad. But let me show you what true advanced magic looks like."
A new magic circle formed before her, an impossibly complex one, and the spell activated. Akira's mystic eyes widened. The flow of mana in the air twisted unnaturally, converging on him, locking his very body in place. He could see the invisible compression of energy, he knew he had to move, but his body didn't react in time, and mana forced its way inside him, seizing every molecule of his body. Heat and pressure built in a single instant, and before Akira could even move, his body detonated.
There was no time to scream. His limbs tore apart as if ripped from the inside, flesh and blood scattering in a burst of energy. For a split second, he felt the unbearable sensation of his entire body being shredded by the very mana he relied on. Then everything turned black.
When Akira opened his eyes, he was back in the waiting room, and all he could say was, "Mother, that's so unfair."