"What's going on?" I asked one of the trainees blearily.

"It's the morning bell. It helps us to get up so we can start our training early," she explained brightly, getting up and making her bed. I groaned and rolled over, deciding that whoever was able to get up this early and still function could not possibly be human. I closed my eyes and was just about to doze back off into the blissful realm of sleep when I felt my shoulder being shaken and a familiar voice spoke to me.

"Lisa, get up. We must meet Sensei Saito at the Great House. He has made a decision," Sora's voice came from behind me.

"Just let me sleep a little while longer," I grumbled, shoving the pillow over my head.

"Sensei Saito is already waiting for us. We must go now," Sora said, removing the pillow from my head and shaking my shoulder in an attempt to get me up.

"If I get up, will you stop?" I muttered.

"Yes," Sora agreed, flashing me a grin.

"Fine," I said, sitting up and throwing off the covers before getting out of bed. "I'm up."

"Meet me at the entrance of the apprentice's living quarters in ten minutes. That should give you enough time to get up and get ready for the day," Sora said, turning and making her way out of the building.

I stumbled out of the female apprentice living quarters ten minutes later, my bedhead only slightly tamer and exhaustion still clouding the deepest corners of my mind.

Sora was waiting for me, as promised, outside of the living quarters, tapping her foot impatiently. I threw her a sheepish grin and together we made our way down the dirt path, drawing closer to the fork in the road that separated the girls and guys living quarters with every step.

It was a rather windy day and, as we walked along, the morning breeze tugged at my clothes and sent my already messy hair flying around in every direction. A storm seemed to be brewing overhead, with dark clouds lining the horizon to the east.

My sleep last night had been fitful, though dreamless, but when we met up with Danny and Shinji at the fork in the road, I knew it had been the complete opposite for my brother. His hair was disheveled and he was practically falling asleep on his feet. When I shot him a curious glance, he just muttered, "I'll tell you later." That made me even more curious, but I kept my mouth shut as Sora and Shinji led us down the path to the Great House.

When we reached the entrance hall of the Great House, Sensei Saito was already sitting on the gilded throne at the end of the room, waiting for us. He looked up when we entered, his wise eyes surveying us quietly for a moment before speaking.

"Good morning, you four," he greeted us.

"Good morning, Sensei Saito," Shinji and Sora answered. Danny and I were silent, still not sure what to expect.

"I have consulted the Oracle and came to a final decision about Danny and Lisa's situation," he declared. I perked up, a tiny prick of hope soaring through my chest.

"As it stands right now, there is no teleportation spell powerful enough to travel between realms. I will gather a team of Banzai's best magic-users and instruct them to create a powerful teleportation spell that will get you two back to your realm, but that may take months. In the meantime, you will live amongst us and attend daily training sessions with Shinji and Sora. I have a feeling that the gods have much planned for you."

Just like that, the tiny prick of hope that had been growing within me was dashed to pieces.

Months. We wouldn't be home for months. And it was all because Danny had to go and open that stupid satsuma jar.

"Train?" Danny blurted out, dumbfounded.

"Yes, you shall train. There are several paths an apprentice can take. You can choose to train in the ways of the samurai, the magic-users, the healers, or the scholars. But you must choose one and only one path," Sensei Saito explained.

Sensei Saito dismissed us and insisted that we attend the training sessions, which were being held in exactly five minutes from now, so we made our way out of the Great House together.

As it turns out, training sessions are held separately according to the different paths an apprentice could take. I knew Danny had his heart set on being a samurai, and so he would follow Shinji to the dojo. I, on the other hand, couldn't decide between following the path of a scholar or the path of a magic-user. Shinji suggested that I attend both training sessions and decide which one I liked better. It was a good plan, and so, in five minutes time, I found myself in the village's humongous library.

It was larger than any library I had ever been in, and certainly larger than the huge community library back home in Boston. It had two floors, one for ancient and modern books, and one for scrolls, both floors connected with a beautiful sprawling staircase made out of cherry wood. Books of every color and size were crammed side-by-side on bookshelves as tall as the ceiling. On the second floor, there were rows of circular cubby holes where neatly-rolled scrolls rested, waiting for the next person to unfurl them and delve into the secrets that they held.

In short, it was basically a bookworm's heaven.

The scholar training was being held on the second floor of the library. I could already see several people gathered there, each seated on cushions surrounding a short table. I made my way up the staircase and awkwardly sat down on one of the cushions. Several heads turned in my direction and my skin prickled from their stares. I knew I didn't fit in. Even with the silk clothes that Sora had given me, I still looked out of place, a puzzle piece that didn't quite fit into the bigger picture.

Once everyone was seated, the head scholar, a bald man with a long white beard and matching mustache, rose to his feet and held up his hands, calling for silence. The quiet chatter that had reverberated through the room went silent all at once, everyone's full attention now on him. 

"Welcome to another day of studying the art of knowledge. Each of you that are here today has chosen to delve deeper into the mysteries left behind by the Ancient Ones. Today we will study the works of Kadano Azumamaro," the man said, picking up the stack of books and handing them to one of the students near the front of the room before instructing him to pass them down the line.

When I received my copy, I examined it in fascination. It was an ancient book, bound with leather that was cracked and torn in places. Several ink splotches stained the cover and the spine, indicating that it had been the source of study for many a scholar over the decades. The musty smell of the old book drifted off the pages as I opened it, disturbing some of the dust that had settled on the cover.

The Head Scholar, whose name I soon learned was Sensei Hitoshi, was a very strict teacher. He instructed us to read in complete silence for a full hour without as much as a cough. If someone made any sort of noise, he would fix them with a stern glare that seemed so sharp that it could pierce the skin. His eyes would often linger on me, a hint of distrust glinting in them.

Although I would be in the village for months before the teleportation spell was finished, I knew that I would never get used to the multitude of stares that always seemed to prick my skin.

After the hour-long session was over, I walked out of the library feeling somewhat unfulfilled. Sure, the class had been interesting and the library was something from my wildest dreams, but I felt the need to do more than just sit at a cramped table and read dusty books all day. An itching curiosity was bubbling up inside of me. It had been since the moment I'd arrived in the strange little village. I hadn't known it then, but after the scholar training session was over, I knew what I wanted.

I wanted to learn magic.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Thank you so much for reading and supporting this novel! Let me know what you think about it so far! What path would you take if you were training in Banzai: Samurai, Magic-User, Healer, or Scholar?

If you would like to support this novel further and receive some cool character art and lore, you can subscribe to my patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/kmanderson

The next chapter should be up by Next Friday, as usual!

~K.M. Anderson