Alex Brim slowly closed his open mouth. He stared at the pendant and said, with tears piling up in his eyes, “I don’t deserve this, Shinatobe. I told you on the first day we met I didn’t deserve to have you at my side. Then, Okami appeared. I am very lucky to have you both, but I am not even half as wise as my father. I like this World a lot, and meeting Mermaids, Fairies, Elfians and Beast-kind is a dream come true. Using Magic and my fighting skills to help others is truly amazing, but…”
Shinatobe approached him and caressed his left cheek. “For being so humble is what makes you right to have that pendant. I saw the depths of your soul and I know you will never betray us or intentionally cause harm to any living being. You already accomplished so many things, and I am sure you will not stop surprising me with your kindness and wisdom. You improved the lives of so many with things that you didn’t consider important at that time, but they were tremendous breakthroughs. Countries changed because of you, technology and science advanced, and some societies in several countries improved. You deserve that pendant, and you deserve us.”
Suijin took one step forward and signalled for Alex to join him. He then grabbed Alex’s both hands and touched his forehead with him, while saying, “I am Suijin, the Spirit of Water, son of Izanagi and Izanami. I accept you as my partner. Do you accept me?”
Alex gulped and asked, “Suijin… are you sure you want to make a contract with me?”
Suijin made a slight smile. “I have great hope in you, Alex Brim.”
“Okay… thanks… I am Alex Brim in Azurath and Sakamo Ryu on Earth, son of Narasaki Sachi and Narasaki Toru, and adoptive son of Yahei Brim. I accept you as my partner, Suijin, son of Izanagi and Izanami.”
A sphere of Magic surrounded them, and like what happened when he made a contract with Shinatobe and Sarutahiko Okami, an ocean of memories filled his mind. Memories of Suijin over his millennial life. Alex tried to focus on some of them, but like what happened with his previous contracts, he could only focus on Suijin’s feelings. The memories were too many to grasp in that single moment, and Alex knew he would need years of meditation to remember a small fraction of them. He also knew that Suijin was seeing his memories, and like what happened with Shinatobe and Sarutahiko Okami, he was crying because of what happened to Sakamo Ryu during his infancy.
When they broke contact by dispersing the globe of Magic, Suijin hugged Alex and spoke with a trembling voice, “With this, we are one. Thank you for your memories, and I am sorry for what happened to you before entering the Shrine. May you never face such sadness ever again.”
“Thanks, Suijin. You lived a glorious life, and I can only recall a small fraction of it. I will need to meditate a lot to grasp everything you did and saw.”
Suijin let him go and made a gentle smile. “We can talk about it whenever you want.”
Shinatobe pulled Kagu-tsuchi’s right arm and made him get up. “Your turn, moron.”
He looked at her in surprise and asked, “You… are going to force me to make a contract with him? Why? I don’t want to!”
Shinatobe let him go and made two blades of compressed air that she pointed to his head, almost touching his eyes. So much Magic surrounded her that the room disappeared. There was only light around, and her voice sounded like thunder. “You either make a contract with him, or you will die right now. I will not let you go out from here alone to roam free and disrupt our plans. I don’t trust you.”
Kagu-tsuchi stuttered, “Y-you… c-can’t kill me like if I am a bug… m-mother and father will never forgive you…”
“I don’t care. I should have killed you when your Mage Summoner died, but I was a fool and let you go because you were my brother. I won’t make the same mistake twice. You will also have the responsibility of making sure Alex doesn’t force us or convince us to do something similar to what your Mage Summoner did. You are the only one able to take that responsibility because you have already walked that path. I expect great things from Alex, and he may need the power of the Four Elements, but if you refuse to make a contract with him, I will kill you and find another Spirit of Fire to take your place.”
From the light around, Alex spoke, “Shinatobe, if he doesn’t want to, let him go. He made a mistake, and I think he is still suffering from what happened to his beloved.”
“No, his sin is not that easy to be forgiven. He is one of the Four, his responsibility is to this World, and he broke that sacred vow. For as much pain as he suffered until now, it’s not even half of the pain he caused to us, his sisters and brother, and to the thousands upon thousands of families that lost their beloveds. He will make a contract with you and help us take care of this World. Or he will cease to exist.”
Alex bit his lower lip and asked, “How are you sure he won’t betray me and try to kill me? Or refuses to lend me his Magic?”
“That is one good thing about the contract, Alex. He can’t kill you because you and he will become sides of the same soul. You can not kill him as well because of that. But even with a contract with you, I am able to do it if he disobeys my orders. That is the power that I have, as the Leader of the Four Elements.”
Kagu-tsuchi slowly nodded and Shinatobe dispersed her Magic. The room reappeared and Kagu-tsuchi approached Alex. They held their hands and touched their foreheads. As they were introducing themselves and the sphere of Magic was enveloping them, Alex saw Kagu-tsuchi’s memories, together with the powerful feelings of love towards his deceased Mage Summoner, mixed with the sadness of losing her. On the other side, Kagu-tsuchi was seeing Sakamo Ryu’s life, and he cried as Suijin did. When the contact broke and the sphere disappeared, Alex and Kagu-tsuchi were hugging each other, and they were both crying.
Alex cleaned his tears and said, “You loved her very much, Kagu, and you are still suffering. I am sorry for what happened to you. We both know her death was necessary at that moment, but things might be dealt with differently, and you could still be with her. I felt that your soul is still shattered, and I hope you can heal with my help.”
Kagu-tsuchi cleaned up his tears and made a slight smile. “Your soul is not any better, Alex. I can’t even imagine the pain I would feel if my parents died, and you lost your father before you were even born, and your mother when you were so young. I hope we can help each other heal because I know very well that I need all the help I can get, and you also need some.”
Alex nodded and faced Shinatobe that was disguising her sadness. She knew how he felt about his parents, and the tremendous burden it was for him to have an entire World on his shoulders. He didn’t complain when she told him what she expected from him, but she felt when they made the contract, how much it pained him to have such responsibility. She made a forced smile and spoke while glancing at Kagu-tsuchi, “I am counting on you, Alex, to be sure that brat doesn’t go off track. If possible, I would like not to have his blood on my hands, but I won’t let him escape if he even thinks of disrupting the peace in this World. As for your voyage tomorrow, Suijin and Sarutahiko Okami will be your backup while Kagu-tsuchi and I will be hidden, but always with you.”
Alex smiled while cleaning his face. “That means you will be a tiny dot of light behind my right ear, and Kagu will be behind my left? But… Wait a minute… I now have four contracts with Spirits of every element, and those Spirits are the strongest in the World. Does that mean I am even more powerful than I was? Because that’s kind of scary!”
Shinatobe sat on the edge of the bed next to him. “Yes, you will be able to use Spells of each element, and your physical strength will also increase. Strength, agility, flexibility, endurance, stamina, sight, hearing, and speed. All of it will be multiplied by four. You will need to be even more careful because with two Spirits you were able to destroy a country, but with us four, if you get distracted, you could destroy the entire World. We would stop you before that actually happens, but you should know you have that power.”
Alex stared at his hand and gathered Magic into a single dot of light. With little effort, he turned that dot of light into a tiny wind tornado, then a small waterspout, that quickly changed to a fireball and finally took the shape of a granite sphere. He frowned and looked at the sphere. “This was way too easy… I will need your help to get used to this power because I just concentrated a little, and I could do all this.”
Sarutahiko Okami took the sphere from Alex’s hand and stared at it while rotating the sphere, “Yes, and it is perfect. You have really improved in such a short amount of time. Any other Mage Summoner out there would have to practise for months, to be able to do this sphere, and you used a bunch of distinct elements to get to this. It seems Shinatobe is doing an excellent job with your Magic training.”
Alex got up and went to the closet. “Yes, she sure is. She is always annoying me with her “practice, practice, and more practice’. It seems I only need to focus on the element I want to use and concentrate on what I want to make with that type of Magic. Little by little, I am getting used to not even saying the name of the Spell.”
Alex undressed and changed again to his School uniform. Shinatobe pointed to a big scar on his left shoulder blade. “You should get rid of that nasty scar. Now that you can use Suijin’s Magic, you could heal it completely. Better yet, get rid of all those scars you have, they are far too many.”
Alex made a slight smile while caressing the line of the scar on his forearm. “Each of them has a story and a memory. This one I got when I was fighting against my father. I was a second too slow, and he hit me with his spear. We fought for hours, and he almost fainted with exhaustion. I gained bragging rights and mocked him for months because of this. I don’t want to get rid of them. Besides, it also makes me look scary. I heard girls dig this kind of things.”
Sarutahiko Okami made a kinky smile. “I like it. It makes me want to lick them. You have so many that I could lick you all night. Hehehe!”
Shinatobe grunted while making a braid in Alex’s hair so that he could return to School with no one finding it strange why he didn’t have his usual long braid. “Stupid woman, always thinking about the same thing every single day…”
Alex reached for the closet’s knob and returned his gaze to his Spirits. “I will return tomorrow. Try not to make a mess in my absence, okay? Shinatobe, you can take care of the supplies, right?”
“Yes, leave it to me. By the way, considering that you will travel to the ‘Republic of Beliersia’, are you going to see your estate? At least to check if your keeper is doing what you asked about the crops?”
“Yeah, I should, shouldn’t I? If he did as I told him, the harvest was more than enough to pay the taxes, sell half of the surplus, and donate the other half to the Church. The problem is that I don’t know how I would be able to go there without our companions finding out. I would prefer it if none of them found out that I inherited such a vast estate from my father.”
Shinatobe shrugged. “I don’t see why that would be a problem, really. Unless you fear they would ask why you are working as a rented Hero, when in fact, you don’t need the money because you have the Noble title you inherited along with your father’s estate.”
Alex answered while grabbing his pendant, “Precisely… I will decide after we cross the border. For now… By the power of the fallen Spirits, open a Passage to Earth! See you all tomorrow!”