The First Rain
"What do you mean, thanking me out of nowhere?"
"I'm going to work hard too. I'll do my very best so I don't fall behind you all."
"Of course I welcome the effort, but what's this about not falling behind?"
"Look at yourselves. Every single one of you has some incredible ability. Meanwhile, there's not a single thing I can do. I'm ignorant about everything. So that's why I'm going to try. I want to be like you guys... someday."
"Good grief! Bayul, even if you're going to be oblivious, isn't this taking it too far?"
"He has absolutely zero grip on reality!"
Bayul's humble blunder drew simultaneous groans from Eli and Aidan. A glance at Quinn and Logan showed they wore equally incredulous expressions.
"Bayul, you're a Spirit User. Don't tell me you've already forgotten what that means?"
"You said you wanted to do something about Zaya's Flame, didn't you? That's not something any of us can do — only you!"
"That's right, the Tuner of the Natural World! A being of that magnitude — that's you!"
"...M-me?"
"Honestly, it seems like you don't know yourself at all. The way you commune and speak with spirits — do you have any idea how astonishing and amazing that looks to me? I've never once seen anything like it in my life."
Bayul had only said what he genuinely felt, and now that his friends were reacting so extravagantly, it was he who was flustered. It was all the more so because not once had he ever considered himself impressive.
"Bayul, let's get some self-awareness, shall we? Please?"
"...O-okay. I'll try."
Chided by his friends, Bayul nodded along before he knew it. Their gazes were so stern that he got the feeling another lecture was coming if he didn't.
"You do chat on, don't you? Planning to spend the night here?"
"Are you insane? Sleep in a garbage dump like this?"
"Then let's cut the small talk and get started, shall we?"
This was time they'd carved out by shaving hours off their sleep. At the crisp, sobering tone of Quinn's voice, Bayul straightened his spine and steeled himself.
"I don't know how well it'll go, but let me try."
He cast his mind back over the training he'd done. It had been a while since his last practice, so a slow review of the fundamentals seemed the right place to begin.
Innocent, could you give me some water?
It was the most basic of basics, but Bayul focused intently as he sent his will to Innocent.
Whoosh!
In an instant, water surged up around their feet. As before, it was as though they'd all stepped into a transparent bathtub, the water swallowing them to the waist. The only difference from last time was that, though submerged, not a single one of them was getting wet.
"Oh, that's a clean touch."
This much didn't even surprise them anymore. Water had risen to their waists out of nowhere, and nobody panicked — Logan excepted, of course.
"Gah!"
A sound rarely heard from Logan escaped him. Genuinely startled, his face froze like ice as he stared down at his own waist. The water appearing out of thin air was startling enough, but he was even more dumbfounded by the fact that his submerged body was completely dry.
Unaware of Logan's reaction, Bayul pressed on to the next step.
Lance of Agos!
The moment he pictured it in his mind, a massive spear of water materialized in the air above. Innocent had been absorbed in playing with Ingrid, but before he knew it she was at his side, dutifully carrying out his commands.
After that, everything he had trained in flowed smoothly and naturally, one technique after another.
Bayul, imagine that you are the water.
You have to believe that you yourself have become water.
You and Innocent are practically one and the same.
Quinn's advice, heard countless times before, echoed in his ears. Becoming the water itself. It had been difficult and abstract then, and it was difficult and abstract now. All Bayul could do was try his utmost not to forget that thought.
Remembering the flow of water, the feel of it, its scent, its taste, he poured every nerve into Innocent.
How much time had passed like that? The small puddle that had formed on the clearing in front of the coop vanished — and then, all at once, rain began to fall from the sky.
Patter, pit-pat-patter!
Starting with a drop or two, the rainwater soon came pouring down over them with a steady rush. It was a small downpour, wetting a radius of perhaps a dozen meters, but its intensity was considerable. Bayul and everyone else were instantly drenched through, like drowned mice.
"Whoa, now you're even making it rain? Incredible!"
It was on an entirely different level from the spirit arts he'd performed so far. Compared to before — creating water, then shaping it into spears and shields — there was simply no contest. To those who had always considered rainfall a god's domain alone, the shock was nothing short of staggering.
"Bayul, that's amazing! You made real rain!"
"I'm touching it and I still can't believe it. How on earth did you do it?"
They were soaked to the bone, but not one of them was angry. Even Eli. They were simply delighted and awestruck.
"...I-I don't know either. I just thought it would be nice if it rained, that's all..."
Paradoxically, the most surprised of them all was Bayul himself. Trembling, he reached a hand up toward the sky.
It's cold.
The steady rain pattered against his palm. His whole body was already drenched, yet only now did the realization truly land.
I made real rain!
Ever since the geography lecture that afternoon, Bayul's mind had been filled to the brim with thoughts of Zaya's Flame. A being who could extinguish that flame — and the fact that it was him, and him alone, had weighed heavy on his heart.
Thank goodness.
But now, he could breathe a little easier. Rain like this wouldn't come close, of course — but they did say a good start was half the battle. More than anything, it was a genuine relief just to be able to do something.
"Bayul, why does it seem like you're the most surprised one here?"
"Right? His face has gone completely red."
Eli and Aidan looked at Bayul's flushed cheeks as though they were adorable, smiling. Until just recently, this boy hadn't even known what a spirit was — and now he'd conjured rain from the sky. To the two of them, that was genuinely admirable and a source of real pride.
"Well, it's just... I made it happen, and I still can't believe I did..."
"See? This is how extraordinary you are! Feel a little self-awareness kicking in yet?"
"I'm still far from enough. To put out Zaya's Flame, I'd need to rain a hundred times — no, hundreds of times — more than this."
"You're already thinking that far ahead? You've only just started. You practice, that's all. The worrying can wait."
"Exactly. What matters right now is that you made this rain fall. Isn't that right, Quinn?"
As if sunbathing on a bright, clear day, Quinn had lifted his face into the pouring rain and was smiling. Unlike the others marveling at the novelty of it, he was simply, purely happy — like a child.
"Well done, Bayul."
It was a gentle tone Bayul had never once heard from him before. And the praise itself was a first, too.
"...Are you insane?"
"Did something possess him just now?"
A warm word on top of a smile he still couldn't get used to. It wasn't just unfamiliar — it was downright eerie.
"Yes. This is it. This is what spirits are!"
But none of their chatter reached Quinn. Emotions were surging through his chest. To him, this was no ordinary rain. It was a hopeful omen of the days to come, when the brilliant glory of the past might be reclaimed — and it was the future of the Mermaid Kingdom itself.
The legend might actually be true!
A fierce longing kindled in Quinn's blue eyes. Could he trust this boy? Was he allowed to hope? Could Bayul truly master the spirits? Every time he looked at him, Quinn doubted, and doubted again.
And yet — now, he thought he could believe. No, he wanted to believe. Bayul could be a great help in rebuilding their dying homeland. If it was him, it was possible.
Quinn turned to Bayul with grave earnestness and spoke.
"Bayul, I have a favor to ask—"
And then it happened. The rain, falling without warning, stopped just as abruptly.
"Innocent!"
Innocent, who had been drifting through the air, lost her balance and dropped to the ground with a soft thud.
"What's wrong with her?"
"Did she faint or something?"
Thankfully, there were no visible injuries. She was simply lying there, limp and slack.
To Bayul and his friends, Innocent like this looked strange and unsettling.
This was the girl whose laughter was so constant it nearly rang in their ears, wasn't it?
"Innocent..."
Wincing with sympathy, Bayul stroked her cheek. There was nothing wrong with her. He could tell. Innocent was simply exhausted. Making rain, it turned out, truly did take an enormous amount of power.
"Innocent, go rest. Get some sleep."
As if in answer to his gentle voice, she forced her eyelids halfway up, then dissolved away in a soft shimmer.
"Where did she go?"
"The Water Garden."
"Ah."
The Water Garden was Innocent's favorite place in the world. It would be no exaggeration to say she spent most of her time there, apart from the hours she spent with Bayul.
"She used up all her energy, that's all. She says a little rest will fix it, so don't worry too much."
"Says the person who looks more worried than anyone."
"I suppose I just... feel a little guilty about it..."
Innocent wasn't hurt or sick, but seeing her so listless truly did sit uneasily in his stomach. Perhaps it was all the worse because she wore the appearance of a small child.
"Bayul, are you alright?"
Perhaps it was because he'd watched a spirit collapse right before his eyes, but Logan looked him up and down with anxious eyes.
"Yes, Logan, I'm fine. But you must have been pretty shocked, huh?"
Logan had vaguely assumed spirits were beings much like Gideon. But confronted with the real thing, they were nothing of the sort — and their power, too, surpassed anything he'd imagined.
"You remember what I said about spirits being the Tuners of the Natural World? This land's grown more and more disaster-ridden because the spirits vanished ages ago. But apparently, for whatever reason, they're being born again now — and I've become a Spirit User, able to communicate with Innocent, one of them."
"Bayul, so that's why..."
"I know it might sound grandiose, but I want to help. So many people are suffering from these disasters. My hometown of Hamilton alone — droughts and floods just keep coming, one after another. Honestly, I'm not confident. But I'm going to try as far as I can."
"And putting out Zaya's Flame, that's..."
"Yes, that one I really don't have confidence in... but I'd rather not know than just sit back and do nothing about it."
"...That's remarkable, Bayul."
Logan had always thought of him as young. He'd cherished him all the more for how much pain the boy had endured.
And yet, in the time he hadn't been watching, Bayul had grown up entirely. While some floundered under the weight of their own lies and lived on in sorry fashion, this boy had matured into someone who could put others before himself. Suddenly, Logan felt infinitely small and shabby by comparison.
"It's only the beginning, though. And if it had been just me, I never could have done it. Everyone helped like it was their own business — that's how a day like this came to be."
"Damn right, and my contribution was the biggest! Without my magical prowess, would any of this even have been possible?"
"The biggest role was mine, not yours! If anything snuck up on us, who do you think would've caught it first? I'd have made short work of it!"
"I think something already did show up?"
"...What?"
"Look."
Every gaze swung toward where Eli tipped his chin.
"Black!"
There, a single pure-white dog — the very opposite of its name — was walking toward them with easy familiarity.
"Bayul, Black? Who's Black?"
"I meant to tell you and forgot. You know, that thing."
Bayul hurriedly explained the bath incident from before they'd gone to the night market last weekend.
"Whoa! So he was white all along?"
"It was all just grime?"
Except for Logan, seeing Black for the first time, they all stared down at him in sheer disbelief. Oblivious or indifferent, Black was clearly delighted to see Bayul after several days apart and busied himself rubbing up against him.
"Just how dirty was he, then?"
"He was pitch-black, dude. I'd believe it if you told me he'd been dyed!"
Going by all this, it really was Black — but perhaps because of the white fur, the name sat oddly now. Moonlight, maybe, made his coat gleam like polished silver.