Page 6 of Shinji Takahashi: Into the Heart of the Storm

Hey Aunt Yui. No troubles here. Me and Lucy are going on a field trip to the SOUTH PACIFIC with Oliver tomorrow. I’ll order a fruity drink with a tiny umbrella for you. Enjoy your snow.

He added a sun emoji, a palm tree, and an ocean wave before sending the text off with a grin. A few minutes later, his phone buzzed a second time.

Not jealouswas all it said, next to the sobbing emoji. With a smile, Shinji stuck the phone in his pocket and continued packing.

As he was tossing in the last of his socks, there was a knock on his door, and Lucy poked her head in.

“Hey,” Lucy greeted, coming into the room. “Are you done?”

“Almost,” Shinji grunted, forcing the lid of the suitcase closed and zipping it shut. The clothes he’d stuffed in would have fit better if he’d folded them beforehand, but who had time for that? Grabbing the handle, he heaved the suitcase off the bed and set it on the floor before turning to Lucy. “There. I’m finished. You?”

She snorted. “Not even close. I’m still choosing what shirts I’m going to wear for the next week. Plus, I need to figure out what’s going in my emergency kit. So far, I have bandages, mosquito repellent, disinfectant, and hand sanitizer. Can you think of anything else?”

“The kitchen sink?” Shinji smirked. “You know, there’s this thing called ‘traveling light’ that’s really popular these days.”

“I like to be prepared.” As she glanced at Shinji’s suitcase, her nose scrunched up. “And at least none of my clothes are going to be a wrinkled lump of nasty when I take them out again.”

He shrugged. Wrinkled clothes never bothered him, though Aunt Yui would sigh in exasperation if he wore a shirt for more than three days. “Did you need something?” he asked Lucy.

“Yes,” Lucy said. “I lent you a book a couple weeks ago. On the different mythologies around the world. Remember? Did you ever read it?”

“Not really,” Shinji admitted. It was a massive tome that could break his toes if he dropped it on them. “Imeantto. But I kept getting distracted by, you know, not-boring things.”

Lucy sighed. “Predictable. You’re only the guardian of one of the last magic fonts on earth, with the spirit of the Coatl inside you. Why would you need to read up on other myths and possible guardians around the world?”

Shinji rolled his eyes. “Don’t you have packing to do?” he asked Lucy. “Or did you just come in here to be sarcastic?”

“Says the king of sarcasm himself,” Lucy retorted, but her faint smile said she wasn’t being mean about it. “But no, I want to take that book with me. In case we spend a lot of time on the water, I can do some light reading.”

Light readingshe called it. Shinji shook his head and went to his desk. The large book lay beneath a stack of

comics, where it had sat, untouched, since Lucy had lent it to him. “You know, the Society probably has a bunch of ancient encyclopedias gathering dust somewhere,” he said, holding the giant book out to her. “You could just borrow one of those if you get bored.”

“Some of uslikestudying.” Lucy took the tome, holding it to her chest, but she didn’t leave. “Hey, Shinji, you know who Phoebe is, right?” she said. “And why her family is so important?”

“Not really,” Shinji said, making her sigh.

“Henry Mystic?” she went on, as if he should know the name. He stared at her blankly, and she rolled her eyes. “Really, Shinji, there is a huge portrait of him hanging on the wall in the meeting room. How have you never noticed it before?”

He shrugged. “You mean the old guy with the monkey and the funny hat? Yeah, I’ve seen it. So what?”

“It’s called a fez.” Lucy sighed again. “Henry Mystic was an extremely important and influential member of the Society, and part of SEA history,” she went on. “He lived at the same time as Harrison Hightower, and there were rumors that they were acquaintances, maybe even friends, before Hightower’s falling-out with the Society. The Mystics have been part of SEA for decades; plus, they’re also very rich. If the Society does anything big, you can be sure the Mystics know about it and are probably involved in some way themselves.

“So, just be careful with what you tell Phoebe about the tattoo and the Coatl,” Lucy finished. “She is a member of SEA, but there are stories about her family and what they’ve done in the past, and some of it is kind of shady. The Mystics are just as powerful as the Hightower Corporation, maybe even more so. We don’t want you getting caught up in another power struggle over the tattoo.”

“Is that why she’s cursed?” Shinji asked, making her frown. “Oliver said something about a ‘Mystic curse.’ Do you know anything about that?”

“Sort of.” Lucy shifted the tome to a more comfortable position in her arms. “Just stories, really. There were rumors about the Mystics in the Hightower Corporation. Things just…happen around them, things that can’t be explained. My father used to be terrified that he would run into a member of the Mystic family and that their strange curse would latch on to him. Apparently, it dates all the way back to Henry Mystic and an old music box he found.”

“Great,” Shinji muttered. “And this is the person who’s going to try to teach me magic. I’ll probably start meditating and a lamp will fall on my head.”

“Ican teach you magic,” Lucy said, a bit indignantly. “I probably know more about how magic works than Phoebe Mystic does. I’m sure she’sreadall about it, but I’ve actually used magic in my creations.Withoutmaking things explode. I could help you if you would just let me.”

“I can’t.” Shinji shook his head. “I mean, I appreciate it,

but…I can’t explain it. It’s something I gotta figure out myself.”

Figure it out.That was how it had always been. Aunt Yui was great, and Shinji knew she did everything she could for their well-being, but it had always been just the two of them. Sailing around the world, managing the shop, taking care of everyday life; sometimes his aunt simplycouldn’tbe there when he needed someone. So Shinji had learned to take care of himself. He didn’t like asking for help, especially with something he felt responsible for. That was just how he was wired.

---