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The Ritual (Kakasaku)

To the student body of the University of Konoha, Kakashi Hatake is their teacher of Philosophy of Cosmology. For the small number of students who select this subject as part of their curriculum each year, they insist that, yes, he is younger than most of the teachers and certainly more attractive. His slightly slouched figure commands attention in every room. However, he is chronically late, often seems apathetic towards his students, and is notoriously hard to impress in the classroom.

Low grades are a frequent occurrence in his tests and final scores. Those who dare to write essays or papers about black holes, against the warnings of older students that it is his area of expertise, unknowingly subject themselves to rigorous scrutiny of their work and a barrage of complex questions on the topic that discourages even the bravest and breaks the weakest. In short, he appears impossible to please as a teacher and incredibly easy to disappoint, often criticizing his students' lack of imagination when attempting to bridge the topics of his class, allowing their opinions to shift from one position to another, like leaves in the wind.

Kakashi Hatake is one of the most brilliant physicists of his time, yet he works at a godforsaken university instead of one of the country’s most prestigious institutions. And this isn’t because he is on a noble mission, putting his knowledge at the service of those who weren’t fortunate enough to secure a place at a better university, nor is it because he wants to collaborate on a revolutionary idea with a teacher lacking funding so they could work together and bask in the recognition afterward. No, Kakashi ended up at Konoha due to the reaction of his peers to his beliefs and how those beliefs intertwined with his work.

Kakashi is undeniably brilliant, but a life marked by loss shaped his conviction that black holes are the threshold to another realm or, at the very least, a means of communication with it. He believes they are a door humanity does not yet know how to open, and he is determined to decipher how to use them. However, his line of study was met with mockery and cold remarks about his sanity. Tired of enduring such treatment, he decided to retreat to a more secluded place, where he could continue developing his work without dealing with the snarky remarks about his research. The more distant he remains from his colleagues and students, the fewer personal questions he has to answer.

The truth is that Kakashi is desperate to find substantial proof to back his thesis, either to reunite with his loved ones or at least to ask the burning questions that haunt him every day. Why did his father take his own life when he was so young? Why couldn’t he endure his demons a little longer for his sake? Why did Obito have to try to be a hero by enlisting in the army, only to be killed so young? Why was Kakashi tasked with watching over a grieving Rin when he was the least suited person for the job? Why was he left alone at every turn?

After a decade of working non-stop on his thesis, Kakashi is tired of the answers slipping through his fingers. Technology has not yet reached the level required to prove his work, and people remain too close-minded to even attempt to understand his ideas. The frustration weighs on him like a slab on his shoulders, heavier with each passing day. The fury Kakashi feels from the lack of genuine support and the mockery he endures has ultimately led his investigations down an unexpected path, magic.

Of course, someone like Kakashi did not wake up one morning and decide to perform the ritual he had spent a month and a half setting up. If that had been the case, he would have checked himself into a mental hospital immediately. No, his interest in magic and the belief that it could benefit his thesis came at a slower pace and from an innocuous source: the faculty library.

He was there looking for books to complement his work, when he stumbled onto Essays on Science and the Practice of Magic in Antiquity, forgotten in a dusty corner. On any other day, he wouldn’t have paid it any attention, but Kakashi wasn’t having a good day, and he felt a peculiar sympathy for the book. He knew all too well what it was like to be relegated to a corner, silenced so as not to bother the rest. With that in mind, he decided to take the book home.

The book turned out to be more interesting that what Kakashi initially thought, it was a collection of essays about how in the antiquity magic and mysticism were present in the lives of some of the renowned scientific names of their time, whose contributions are still the foundation of today’s science, and these figures did believe in things that the modern world rejects today, but if they were right in their works of geometry or astronomy why would they be wrong in that aspect too?

That first book led him to read Physics and Mystic: Philosophy, Religion and Magic in Late Antiquity, that also lead him to The Mystic of the Numbers in the Pythagoreanism, and Kakashi kept delving deeper into the subject, until he was reading exclusively about mysticism and magic, thirsting for the new knowledge the topic could offer, eventually he did found Ancient Magic in a New Key, an old, tattered book with a battered, scratched cover worn from years of continuous use. The margins were filled with handwritten commentary from different people across various time periods. But most importantly, it contained descriptions of real magic rituals.

Kakashi studied the book thoroughly, it was filled to the brim with rituals for love, amassing power, gaining knowledge, killing enemies, acquiring wealth, winning wars, provoking catastrophes, and even summoning demons. But Kakashi had no interest in any of these. What caught his attention was a more modest ritual, one designed to prove the veracity of a person’s claims. It seemed to have been performed in the past before trials, giving the individual tangible evidence to support their assertions. After all, what is science, if not a perpetual trial?

With that in mind Kakashi spent months, trying to untangle the content of the ritual, separating and classifying the commentary of other rituals, what they did, what was needed, what demanded, there were runes and hieroglyphs as well as pictograms and mathematical formulas all mixed together, complicating his task. Ultimately he managed to compile a list that included finding a location and objects related to what he was trying to prove, several formulas to write in the space and with what materials they should be written, the disposition of them, and finally blood. That was the most unsettling element, but every ritual spoke of a price to pay, and Kakashi would happily provide a couple of liters of his blood if he could finally test his ideas.

Following his checklist the first thing he needed was somewhere to carry on with the ritual. After scouting the area surrounding Konoha, Kakashi discovered an old astronomical observatory abandoned in the 1990s, resting atop one of the nearby mountains, the perfect place to carry out his plans, remote and unlikely to attract anyone’s attention in the middle of the night.

The ritual’s instructions were precise, specifying whose blood was required and the exact moments it should be drawn. It needed to be his, and he needed to take half a liter every time the moon changed phases, for at least six different ones, always an hour before dawn. That introduced the problem of how to store the blood from all of these different moments to preserve it as fresh as possible. Luckily for Kakashi, as a teacher he had access to the labs, where if a few glass flasks with lids went missing, as well as some anticoagulant, it’s not going to raise any suspicion, none of the teachers of the chemistry department has a good track of keeping a tight control over their supplies. Kakashi discreetly acquired a small freezer for storing the blood, ensuring it wouldn’t draw attention from those around him.

The task of withdrawing the blood was more a nuisance than anything, in preparation for it Kakashi needed to annotate the days the moon changed its phases and then check the exact hour when dawn would begin, he had to set an alarm for an hour and a half earlier since he needed to be awake enough for the task, unless he wanted to rupture a vein or something worse, he gave himself that hour and a half to shower, have a coffee and gain some mental clarity before doing it. It was a relief when he performed it for the last time, then all he needed to do was wait for the next moon phase change to carry out with his plans.

Tonight is the day. Tonight Kakashi Hatake is going to prove to the world that his theories are right. With a resolute step he enters the building, the air reeks of humidity, the dome of the building is broken and rain and snowstorms have swept inside over time. Every object left in the building is now covered in a thick layer of dust, moss, mold, or a mix of everything. Stains are splattered across the floor, remnants of leaks from the damaged dome, and most of the metal in the room is rusted and oxidized. In the center of the room lies the telescope. Kakashi is surprised to find it left behind as well.

The lenses are splintered, rendering it useless, but for what Kakashi intends to use it for, it is enough. Kakashi makes his first trip to the car to retrieve his own telescope. He needs to locate the Virgo Cluster in the night sky. Once he does so, he moves the abandoned telescope, not without effort, until it aligns with the same position in the sky as his own telescope. Once satisfied, he returns his telescope to the trunk of the car and proceeds to bring out almost all the items for the ritual.

First he lays a big piece of translucent silk on the floor next to the telescope. On it, he has written several mathematical formulas in gold ink, along with hieroglyphs from the book in silver ink. On the silk, he carefully places one of the laboratory cuvettes he stole from the lab, and in the middle of it, aligned with the eyepiece of the telescope, he places a tiny prism made of graphite. With one final trip to the car, Kakashi brings the blood inside and pours it with precision until it fully covers the prism.

Now he only needs to complete one last step, Kakashi needs to place the flame of a candle in front of the largest lense of the telescope for it to function like some short of magnifying glass, since he wants to prove what lies at the other side of a black hole, the graphite prism will act like one, absorbing the light instead of refracting it like one made out of glass, the broken telescope and the abandoned building will serve as metaphors of the death, and Kakashi muses that his blood has to be the payment for proving he is right.

After the first five minutes of standing on a ladder, holding the flame in front of the lense, he starts to feel stupid and and begins questioning whether all his work was for nothing. Perhaps he truly is as insane as people presume him to be, but then, a wind that wasn’t there before starts to howl inside the observatory, the room starts to feel warmer and the smell transforms from humidity to sulphur, Kakashi finds himself paralyzed, only capable of moving his eyes and breathing. The smoke from the flame grows in size until it looks like it is coming from a much larger source. The blood in the cuvette starts to boil, adding a metallic scent to the already foul air. Blackness envelops the room, and his vision blurs until he can see nothing at all, after that Kakashi begins to hear an incessant ring on his ears.

It takes a while before he regains his senses one by one, tact is the first one, Kakashi notices that he still is holding onto the candle more or less in the same position before the ritual overwhelmed his senses. He believes himself unharmed, and the room seems to have returned to its previous temperature.

The next sense to return is taste. He feels the metallic tang of blood in his mouth. He isn’t sure if it’s from the blood in the cuvette or if he injured himself during the episode. Despite his efforts, he cannot locate a wound either inside or outside his mouth. Not long after, his sense of smell returns, and he notices that the sulfuric stench has left the room. The odor of dampness has returned with full force, but mingled with it is an out of place floral scent coming from somewhere nearby.

In fourth place comes the sense of hearing, and initial stillness is followed by the soft sound of steps moving in the furthest point from him, the exact place where the floral smell seems to be steaming from, Kakashi clings to every bit of information his senses provide, desperately trying to determine the result of the ritual.

After what it feels like an eternity Kakashi regains his eyesight again, quickly he checks himself for injuries, quickly assessing that he is in fact as good as he was before the episode, then proceeds to scan the room, there, in the furthest corner of the room, with her back turned to him is her.

In the dim light of the observatory she appears both ethereal and unreal, her long hair cascades to her hips in waves, a part of it is twisted or maybe braided, to keep it away from her face, it looks like a pale shade of red or maybe pink, Kakashi isn’t sure, what he can see it’s that she is wearing an almost transparent black tunic that reaches her feet, the fabric of garment has sparkling details that capture the light with every one of her movements, it has long fluid sleeves, and the skirt has lace patterns on it. It has a vague resemblance to what a woman would wear on top of a bikini, except it’s far more intricate and she isn’t wearing anything underneath it.

The woman looks completely out of place in this dirty, rusty observatory, yet Kakashi cannot take his eyes off her. Though his isolation is self imposed and he has never been one for long lasting relationships, Kakashi has been with several women in the past and is no stranger to the beauty of the female form. There is something about her long legs or perhaps her round ass that keeps his gaze fixed on her. She must notice it because she spins to face him, and his breath catches in his chest.

Her eyes are captivating. Kakashi is so enthralled by them that he barely notices her moving toward him. In the blink of an eye, she is standing at the foot of the ladder.

–You should come down, human, you're going to fall and what a waste it would be to lose that pretty face by smashing it against the ground. –

Her voice is velvety, made for seduction or for whispering dark secrets in the shadows. Kakashi descends to face her, realizing that she is smaller than him, the top of her head barely reaches his shoulders.

– I’ve been summoned to many weird places, but this one takes the cake. – Kakashi isn’t sure if it’s the situation or the floral scent emanating from her, but every word that leaves her red lips confuses him more than the last. – Summoned? Like a demon? – – I don’t know why you sound so confused human, you did it yourself – – Me? No, there must be a mistake. First of all, my name is Kakashi. Second, I didn’t summon you. I performed the ritual, yes, but I was trying to prove what lies on the other side of a black hole.– her laugh cuts him off. –Then why add the blood and the flame if you didn’t want to summon me?. There is no need to be shy or make excuses. Kakashi – The way she pronounces his name sends shivers through his spine. – No, the flame was an allegory for the fire burning inside the stars and the blood was the payment, the book said. – – Well either your precious book lied to you, or you didn’t interpret it right. Whatever it is, now you’re stuck with me for the rest of your life. And while one of the children of Avaritia might have been better suited to your wishes, I’m still powerful enough to assist you. I’m also quite certain that the payment method will interest you far more. –

If she is telling the truth, Kakashi has failed so spectacularly on his task that he has managed to summon a demon, and Kakashi has no idea how to make her leave, and she seems to be having too much fun right now, if her hands roaming through the expanse of his chest is indicative of anything. Maybe all he can do it’s get what he can out of this while trying to minimize the chaos she can unleash.

– In that case, what or how should I call you? – Her captivating eyes light up as she presses her body tightly against his. – Sakura, but I’m sure that we can find more along the way. – She winks at him before raising to her tiptoes to grab his face between her hands and kissing him on the lips.

#kakasaku

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