Cloaked in Fantasy: The Secret Life of Kurohen Naiko

Chapter 4 - Fixer Upper

It was another average day after school for Kurohen. With one exception, her bully was nowhere to be found. Kurohen thought to herself that, hopefully, she scared him off, and he'd never bother her again.

"Oh! I just remembered! I want to go to that quaint little building I found and turn it into my own personal hideout. Now where was it? ...Gah! I can't remember!"

She pondered for a moment.

"Ah! I have an idea!"

She zipped open her tote bag and donned her magic cloak.

"Let's see if this works..."

She lifted one side of her cloak with her hand, and swished it, turning herself around in the process. In a flash of light, she disappeared.

In another flash of light, she was instantly transported to the abandoned building.

"It worked! I can teleport! Oh gosh! There are so many places I wanna go! I mean, I'd be okay with just flying everywhere since I love flying anyway, but now I can just go anywhere in an instant!"

Kurohen shook her head trying to get a hold of herself.

"Aah! Now's not the time for that! Right now, I've got a hideout to remodel!"

She walked up to the door. But just as she was about to reach for the doorknob, she stopped in realization.

"Wait a minute! I don't have the key to the door! And I certainly don't want anyone breaking in and trashing this place. Hmm... Oh! I have another idea!"

She placed the palm of her hand on the door, and closed her eyes, concentrating. A red magic circle appeared from her hand onto the door itself. The magic circle rotated for a while before Kurohen finally opened her eyes, and the circle disappeared.

"There. Now it should only open for me, and nobody else. Magic circles can pretty much do anything if you set your mind to it. Anime taught me that!"

With a flick of her wrist, she created a ball of light and entered her new hideout.

"Okay, first, let's fix this place up. Hmm... I wonder..."

She remembered the time she first came here, and dusted off a mirror with a single touch. So first, she tried touching the dusty old table. Sure enough, the dust on the table started to dissipate, and it was as if it became a freshly built table that had just been given black paintwork.

"Guess I have the magic touch!", Kurohen giggled to herself, and quickly got to work.

She started touching everything in the room, restoring them to the way she wanted. The windows became clean once again as more natural light poured into the room. The nearly worn-out chairs were built anew, and given a lavish shade of black to match the table. The moldy walls were disinfected and turned a brilliant dark red. The stone-cold floor was covered in fancy wood paneling, making the room feel much more cozy and nice-looking. Finally, she approached the bookshelf that once housed her magic cloak. She touched it, and it also turned anew. The dust was gone, the rotting wood was replaced with new stronger planks, and the shelf itself was painted a beautiful shade of dark purple.

Kurohen looked around admiring her work. "Normally, a project like this would take days or even weeks. But I managed to do all of it in two minutes! My powers are amazing!"

She placed her hands on her hips and stood there in pride.

"Oh! I almost forgot!"

She opened her tote bag again and pulled out a black box. The same black box that had once contained her magic cloak. She placed the box back on the shelf, exactly where she found it.

"Now that I have this bag, I don't really need this box anymore. But I'll keep it here for safekeeping. And as a memoir for everything that's happening recently."

She looked around again.

"This place sure looks different compared to how I found it. I think it looks a lot better, actually. Come to think of it, I should probably look into buying this place so I don't get into any legal trouble... Ahh, I'll deal with that later. But for right now..."

She pulled out her phone.

"...It's time to do some shopping!"