Chara would be lying if she said she wasn’t scared.

  There were too many unknowns. She didn’t know anything about the other spirit, she didn’t know her motive, she didn’t know where they were going, she didn’t even know why she was following. Moreover, this only ated for the mysteries she uncovered withi 30 minutes. In fact, she barely knew anything about herself and only retly discovered that she irit.

  Despite being surrounded by so mucertainty, Chara had almost no choice but to bottle up her anxiousness and bear with it. She didn’t want to do anything that could actally upset the other spirit.

  So far, the other spirit appeared to be friendly and approachable, but Chara had already personally experienced how easily feelings of favorability could be repced with feelings of spite and was unwilling to test the waters.

  Moreover, they could hardly be sidered equals. Not only was the spirit obviously much strohan her, but her magic was alse and mysterious. And this was even after disting the invisible leash around her ned her extremely low mana.

  Stu a situation where her tinued well-being was almost entirely within another’s hands, Chara couldn’t help but be filled with fear and anxiousness. A, in spite of all her worries, her most dominant feeling was curiosity.

  Despite all her worries, what Chara was ied in the most was how the other spirit spoke. She didn’t uand how it was being aplished, but when Curiosity spoke, Chara simply uood.

  This pletely went against her uanding!

  Normally, unication only happewo or more parties mutually agree; that a specific sound esture should represent a certain cept or idea. I.e. speak the same nguage.

  However, in the case of Curiosity, it was as if rather than speaking words from a nguage, she was just turning meaning into words, miraculously resulting in the words being meaningful in and of themselves. To her sense of audio, these “words” sounded like plete nonsense, but to her intuition, they veyed a clear idea, full of information and purpose. It was beyond sce!

  As the procession of two spirits and myriad diamonds made their way down the cave, the curiosity spirit observed with i as the little spirit bubbled with curiosity. Intuiting the smaller spirit’s i, the greater spirit saportunity. Not aware if her idea was feasible, she prefaced with a question.

  “ you uand what I’m saying?”

  In respohe swirling of Chara’s mana slowed like she arsing the question. After a short pause, her swirliuro normal. The out a sudden jolt, before resuming her slow swirling. Then, she started boung up and down to show her agreement.

  Cute…

  The curiosity spirit didn’t uand the smaller spirit’s cute gesture but proceeded uhe assumption that it meant affirmation.

  “Then, would you like me to teach you how to [Speak]?”

  The little spirit’s swirling decelerated as she sidered the meaning of what she interpreted as the word “Speak.” What she uood is the idea of veying information. However, she had the impression that what the other spirit meant was slightly more specific than that. Either way, she floated up and down to show her affirmation once again.

  Taking note of her agreement, the curiosity spirit began her expnation. “Using [Speech] is simple. First, [Imagine] a cept. Then, direct it outwards or at a target through your [Spirit]. Do not [Envision].”

  With her expnation cluded, she quieted down, and began the smaller spirit with subdued anticipation.

  Chara kept waiting for the rest of the expnation, but it never came.

  ……Wait, that was it?

  She gred at the other spirit, but the curiosity spirit only let out a childish giggle befoing silent. As, this would only be the beginning of Chara’s troubles.

  When she began reviewing the other spirit’s expnation, she quickly realized that there were many things lost in transtion. Well, it wasn’t so much that the curiosity spirit had deliberately obfuscated her expnation, but simply, that she didn’t have the required background information to uand her in the first pce.

  It was like the time she tried probing the diamond vein. The word “diamond” was not the literal tent of the analysis; it proximation after Chara carefully interpreted and piled the information. However, this was only possible because she knew what a diamond was in the first pce. Had she not uood the cept to at least a basic degree, the information would have been pletely unintelligible.

  The problem she was having now was simir to this, but only to a slightly lesser degree. That is, she uood what the spirit was trying to vey, but only partially or within her own prehension. As a result, even in sarios where both spirits were referring to the same cept, their interpretations could be pletely different.

  In this instance, while Chara uood the definitions of both “imagine” and “envision,” she harbored the distinct feeling that she was being expected to i with something literal. She was in a simir dilemma for the cept of “spirit”. While she sehat it referred to a specific part of her being, and that it had something to do with the soul, her uanding didend much further.

  There was definitely some additional nuance tained within all four cepts. Unfortunately, it had to be discarded as miseous information as there was no intelligible way to interpret it with her current uanding.

  Spirit? “Spirit”?! I am spirit! How I use myself to send unication? That doesn’t make any sehat’s like saying, “e up with words and then direct them at another person using human.” Why did you only give me the abstrad then shut up!? Are you actually trying to kill me with curiosity?

  As Chara got more and more frustrated, her mana started expanding and trag while swirling faster and faster until she had turned into a swirling tornado. Soon, the little tornado even started produg different colors!

  Haah… Where do I even begin… Um, since she specifically dis-included it, I should probably figure out the differeween “envision” and “imagine” before I try anything… cluded Chara, with her mana now making small rippling patterns.

  Um… If I remember correctly, “imagine” means to form a mental image, and “envision” means to imagine a future possibility, or to visualize… she recalled, as shallow waves of mana rolled across her form.

  So, like… What? I have to imagine what I want to share, but I ’t imagine how to aplish it? And what if I want to share future pns? Uuu… This is all so fusing! cried Chara, her rippling now very uable and full of inprehensible currents.

  Well, assuming I’m right about “imagining” something, then I just have to direct it outwards or at a target through my “spirit”? What does that even mean?!

  Chara was fused. The term “spirit” didn’t make any sense. However, as she repeated the statement in her head, over and ain, she gradually came to realize that the only part of the expnation that didn’t make sense, was the term “spirit.” When she ighe term “spirit” and only focused on the instrus, “direct outwards or at a target,” it was remi of the way she maniputes her perception.

  Chara had a hunch. Could it be… that the term “spirit” is referring to perception? Or is it the other way around and perception is only a part of “spirit”?

  Meanwhile, the curiosity spirit was having an absolute field day watg the little spirit’s swirling adjust nearly every ten seds as she nearly boiled with curiosity.

  Wow~! So many thoughts despite being so small…

  The curiosity spirit was happily swishing and swirling down the cave when a childish voice rippled against her spirit.

  “Ah, um… you hear me?”

  This time, it was Curiosity’s turn to be nearly startled half to death as she looked around warily before her gaze finally nded on Chara.

  “That voice… Little Spirit, is that you?”

  “You hear me! It’s me! I—I speak!”

  Chara was through the moon. Having been fined in a hospital room for years, she had already been permaly scarred by loneliness. However, even she could have never guessed that once she was finally put out of her misery, she would wake up in an even more miserable pce.

  After many trials and tributions, she finally learned how to perceive her surroundings and move around. Having regained her freedom of movement, with no future prospects regarding a body, the only thing she was missing was her freedom of speech. She was really starving for a versation.

  Chara was so delighted by her success that she failed to notice the greater spirit’s gradually worsening mood.

  “Little Spirit.”

  Without warning, the little spirit’s attention was suddenly no longer hers. Taken aback, Chara stared up at the greater spirit full of fusion.

  “Do not speak.”

  Without knowing the reason why, she had lost the ability to speak.

  maury