[Re:write] Episode 34: Genesis Magic and the Tuning of the World

―Rewrite despair.

[For first-time readers] To grasp the world-building first
The beginning of the story, link to the first episode here
👉　Episode 1: The Observer Wakes in the Forest
Series guide and synopsis here
👉　For first-time readers | Please start Re:write from Episode 1

What filled Elara's workshop was not cluttered chaos, but a tense heat.

The smell of metal. The smell of oil. The smell of dry sweat from someone who hasn't slept enough.
Even though the small furnace was turned off, the tools against the wall were warm, even without being touched.
On the desk lay something whose frame had been completed first.
Thin frames, joints, engravings. A vessel that was not yet breathing.
To draw out the 'filler' for it, a strange device was set up in front of the harp.
Copper wires extending from the sound collector were tangled in bundles, crawling across the floor and sticking to a huge crystal plate.
Another bundle branched off toward a pile of parchment.
One of the terminals was screwed in roughly. The screw wasn't turned all the way.
Elara pushed up her round glasses and rolled up the sleeves of her lab coat.
She wiped the soot from her cuffs with her fingers, almost licked her fingertips, then stopped.

'Alright, let's begin!'
She puffed out her chest. Her habit of stretching appeared, and the chair legs creaked.
'I name it—the "Multidimensional Resonance Analyzer." Prototype, Zero!
I'll pick up the sound Aria plays and the "contents" returned by that score at the same time, drop them here, and read them!'
'...Prototype Zero, huh.'
Kai only glanced at the device.

He had eyes that didn't untangle the wiring, but rearranged it in his head all at once.
'Aesthetics of the name aside, it fulfills the necessary function.'
'Right? Right!'
Elara's glasses fogged up for a moment.
She pretended not to notice and wiped the lenses roughly with her sleeve.
The fog disappeared, but thin streaks remained.

Aria held her harp and bit her lip.
Her fingertips were trembling slightly. It was a tremor she intended to hide from everyone but herself.

'Aria.'
Kai said quietly. His voice was low but not hard. It had only an inescapable calmness.
'There is nothing to fear. This isn't an experiment. It's our first joint effort.
Just weave the sound as you feel it. We will do the reading.'
'...Yes.'
Aria nodded slightly and closed her eyes.
She took a breath—and exhaled.
The exhaled breath hit metal somewhere in the workshop, becoming a faint echo.

The first note fell.
Pluck.
The next one too.
Pluck.

Every time the sound brushed against the beams and returned, the 'Genesis Score' on the desk bled with a golden color. A light like wet phosphorus.
At the same time, black stains increased on the parchment. The stains became lines, and the lines became diagrams.
Fragmentary blueprints. Old star charts. Historical timelines.

It wasn't a pen.
The ink was 'dropping' on its own and taking shape.

On the crystal plate, a thin needle trembled. It clicked rhythmically, click, click.
At that sound, Elara's eyes jumped.
'It's going well! It's capturing it, it's capturing it!
...But this isn't enough!'
She traced the waveform on the crystal plate with her finger and tapped the glass with her fingernail.
'With a single note, it only opens scattered drawers. I can't see the connections.
Aria, next is a chord! The root note and a note at a bright angle. Try layering them!'

Aria's fingers hesitated on the strings, then decided.

Two notes rang out at the same time.

The air in the workshop became a step thicker. Her ears felt blocked.
The lines falling onto the parchment increased, overlapped, tangled, and became a single tree.
Outlines of living things on the branches. Mineral lattices on another sheet. Orbital calculations of planets on another.
What had been 'fragments' suddenly became a 'system.'

'...Amazing.'
Elara's voice caught in the middle of a breath.
'This isn't just a warehouse... It describes the world's physics, history, life—everything.
It's like an encyclopedia of the universe...'

Kai did not nod.
He stepped through the pile of parchment with his gaze, one sheet, two sheets, selecting what was there. Useful. But he had the face of someone saying it wasn't what he wanted.

'Not yet.'
A short denial fell.

'What's appearing here is what "already exists" in this world.
We aren't looking for records of the past. We need an answer that doesn't exist in this world, to destroy the Legion that lies outside of reason.'

Elara froze with her mouth open. No words of rebuttal came out.
Only the needle on the crystal plate clicked, marking the time of the workshop.

Kai raised his gaze and looked at Aria.
Kai's mouth started to open, then closed.

For a while, he said nothing. It was clear he was searching for words. He had the face of someone who was searching, but couldn't find them.

'Aria. I'm changing the conditions.'
With those words, the air in the workshop tightened again.
'This time, don't trace the score. Use your own song.
Try putting the emotions inside you right now—the ones that haven't taken shape—into a chord.'
It was a strangely raw request for a man of logic to make.

Aria opened her eyes and looked into Kai's pupils. She confirmed that there was no hesitation there.
'...Yes.'
Faces floated in her mind.
The last smile of her brother Leon. Kai's shoulders as he turned his back. Mimi's innocent eyes.
Joy, sadness, anger, and love.
Holding the bundle that remained untangled without trying to untangle it, she let her fingers fall.

Jaaaaaang...

The sound was a chord. But it wasn't too clean.
It was mixed with a grittiness that felt like being scratched by claws behind the sternum, and only the final lingering resonance was unnaturally clear.
In that moment, the air in the workshop 'bent'.
The corner of the desk shifted like a heat haze. The shadow on the wall lagged behind and then caught up.

The 'Score of Genesis' emitted a white flash, not gold. A white so bright it burned the eyes.

The parchment fell silent.
Not a single drop of ink fell.
The needle on the crystal plate stopped its ticking sound.
Instead, particles of light were born in the center of the workshop.
They looked like dancing dust, yet they did not fall.
They swirled, gathered together, and expanded and contracted with every breath.
The closer one got, the drier one's cheeks felt.
The scent of metal was mixed with the smell of rain before it falls.
The back of the tongue tasted sour.

“...What is this...”
Drake muttered in a daze. His throat was dry, making his voice crack.

Elara's lips trembled as they remained parted.
“...You're kidding. This isn't information.
　...You're creating 'matter' from nothing...?”

The light held heat. Yet the light it emitted was cold. The contradiction touched the skin directly.
The particles began to take shape.
A stem. Petals. Crystal facets were born one after another on the edges of the petals.
The light itself solidified into a transparent flower.
Even though it wasn't in any botanical encyclopedia, the moment one saw it, the body understood first.
Words were delayed, catching in the back of the throat.

Kai just stared at the flower.
A shudder chilled the back of his throat. His chest hurt with every breath he took.

“...Rewriting the laws of physics.”
The words fell to the floor. They sounded hard.

“No—it's Genesis Magic.”

Elara missed a breath and her shoulders jerked.
She clenched her fists, her face caught between laughing and crying.

Kai said, without taking his eyes off the flower.
“Elara. We're changing our priorities.”
“...Huh?”
“Vessel creation is on hold. Right now, we are going to—unravel and bring the phenomenon before us under control.”

Elara's eyes returned to 'sanity' for just a moment, and the next, they twisted into a childlike, crooked smile.
“...Obviously!”
She went to slam the desk, but stopped just before she did. She didn't want to shake the flower.
“Finding such an interesting—no, such a dangerous hole, and you think I'd keep working on vessel creation!”

Just as she finished speaking, something in the device's wiring 'popped'.
A single small spark.

Elara pretended not to see it and wiped her fingers on the hem of her lab coat. The smell of burning grew stronger for a moment.
Kai walked over to Aria and gently took her trembling hand.
Her hand was as cold as ice, as if it had been exposed to a torrent of magical power. The temperature dropped sharply where their palms met.

“Aria.”
Aria exhaled. Even though she breathed out, her voice trembled.
“I... I'm scared... Everything that's inside me right now... is going to... out...”
Kai squeezed the hand he was holding.
“You are the only instrument capable of sounding the scriptures of God.”
After saying that firmly, he lowered his voice.

“It's okay. I'm here.”
“Kai...”
Tears welled up in Aria's eyes and streamed down her cheeks. They gathered at the tip of her chin, looking like they might fall but didn't.
Even so, she tried to smile, though she failed a little.

“Once more—play it just like you did before.”
Kai's voice grew quiet. It wasn't a command, but a request.
“Together, let's play the true song of this world...”
The end of his words was absorbed by the wooden walls of the workshop.

The light flickered, shadows stretched, and the air, mixed with the scent of burnt metal and the smell of rain, escaped through the gaps in the window into the cold.
In the distance, the wheels of a carriage rattled once.

On the desk, it remained in silence. Even as the night air outside rattled the window.
The crystal facets rubbed together, and a single high-pitched sound like a bell fell.
The sound pierced the air, lingered, and slowly dissolved.
Dew-like droplets formed on the edges of the petals. Transparent droplets that trapped only the light.
They grew heavy, slowly expanded—and then, plop, fell onto the wooden desk.

Where they fell, a white ring spread for just a moment. A ring that was neither water nor a burn.

Though no one touched it, it didn't disappear, and only the cold light remained.

Thank you for reading.
Aria's emotions create 'Genesis Magic,' bringing existence from nothingness.
How will Kai 'tune' this extraordinary power?
The relationship between the two will become the core of the story.

To read the continuation/background

Click here for the link to the beginning of the story, Chapter 1
👉　Chapter 1: The Observer Wakes in the Forest
Click here for work information and synopsis
👉　For first-time readers | Please start 'Re:write' from Chapter 1

👉 Click here for a summary of the story 'Re:write' so far.