Takuto shrugged and dropped into the water deep enough for it to come just past his shoulders. "I mean, I knew a girl who some people called a witch--nothing like any kinds of witches here--and she taught me a magic spell once. She said the trick was believing it would work." He laughed, then, because it had been such a weird chant that anyone repeating it usually felt incredibly silly. It took a lot of belief to chant with a face straight enough for the spell to work.

"Anyway, there were some people who had certain abilities--I don't know if you'd call them magical or not, but some of the abilities were pretty unusual."