01x08 - The White Witch and the Black Witch

[bunniefuu]

It's morning. I've got to eat something.

- SCRAWNY

- Good morning.

Looks like he's lost weight.

Yeah, Lize doesn't like
to eat a whole lot.

He even pretended to be sick before.

- I CANNOT EAT...

- But Luna saw right through it.

I wonder if he just doesn't
like Luna's cooking.

I'll be back later!

HE WAS ALLOWED TIME TO
PICK WILD STRAWBERRIES

- Did Lize really say
he hates your cooking?

- EPISODE 8: WHITE WITCHES
AND BLACK WITCHES

- Well, he is royalty, after all.
He's probably a really picky eater.

But is it really inedible? Twist his arm
if you have to, just make him eat.

Us black witches don't have
to eat like humans do anyway,

so we don't really get how that works.

Mushroom Lord, thank you for seeing me.

Now that I think about it, I once
heard that natural energy eaters

- taste things differently than humans do.

- HAVING NOTICED LUNA AND THE OTHERS WERE ACTING STRANGE, LIZE
MADE PLANS TO SPEAK SECRETLY TO THE CHATTY MUSHROOM AGAIN.

- What? They do?

Natural energy eaters?

We can get by with natural energy alone,

but since he's closer to human and
has a white witch's constitution,

it isn't that easy.

Mushroom Lord, what does
"natural energy eater" mean?

Well, let's see.

Black witches like Luna do not get
their sustenance by eating food,

but by extracting the magic and life
force directly from nature itself.

Black witches, with their strong magic,

always have fresh energy
flowing through their bodies,

so they do not age the way that humans do.

They never had any need for the kind of
culinary traditions humans developed.

However, Luna is very interested
in human culture and customs,

so perhaps she was trying to
copy what she knew of cooking.

Perhaps she wanted a taste of what it
is like to be part of the human world.

However, it seems observations and books
alone were not enough to teach her

how something should taste.

Poor Miss Witch...

You remember that time you said
you baked a really nice cake

and decided to send it to
another magician as thanks?

Oh, that cake! It was really yummy.

It was for Master Bird and
I'm the one who took it to him.

He took a bite and said...

Is this a kind of experimental
drug or something?

Yeah, so you might wanna get
a human friend to taste your cooking

and get some pointers.

- Is this some kind of pie-shaped medicine?

- APOTHECARY

- Honestly, I think the usual pills or
liquids are a lot easier to ingest.

- THE MOUSE MAGICIAN

- Huh.

- Yeah, this tastes nothing
like food. Mm-hmm.

Even pigs wouldn't eat this sort of slop.

- THE PIG PRINCE, LANCELOT

- Maybe it'll work for cow feed.

Oh. I don't need to eat any.
I can sense the aura.

- THREAT DETECTION

- BOOKSELLER

- But here's a cookbook
I think you should read.

Oh, that's why. There's a human child
that you're trying to cook for.

Are you using good ingredients?

If I can't get something,
I leave it out or use a substitute.

If that's all you're doing, it still
shouldn't turn out this bad.

Don't sweat it, Luna.

Can you think of any
other reason for this?

I use reversal magic to remove
the poison from the mushrooms,

and sometimes cheat with magic to
make it look more like the real thing.

That explains it.

Um...

Hey, step on up.

I'd like one wheel of cheese and—

Yikes! It's the poison mushroom
witch everyone's talking about!

Sorry, but would you get away? Please
don't grow any mushrooms on my product!

Ah! Get away from my shop!

What're ya gonna do
if you spoil all my goods?

Stay away from me!

Hurry up and get out of our town!

Hmm?

What's this? You want us
to sell you vegetables?

That puts us in a real spot.

You're that poison witch from
the black forest, aren't ya?

If folks found out I sold ya all
that milk, I'd be in real hot water.

Sorry, but I gotta charge ya
double market price or no deal.

Well, let's see. I guess I could sell
some for three times market price.

My boy.

My boy?

Your sadness is turning into
blight and starting to overflow.

Do I really have to write about
this feeling in my diary?

If I write it down,
it'll be like I never felt it.

I'll go back to not knowing anything
about how Miss Witch feels.

I know the blight I collect creates
a lot of problems for everyone,

but the thought of living on
with no memory of her pain

scares me even more.

Is there any way I can
hang on to this feeling?

As far as I'm concerned,
even if I'm corrupted,

this pain is a very valuable,
even irreplaceable feeling.

Even if they say this
feeling is poisonous,

I don't want to let go of it.

Luna, Lize just got home!

Welcome back.

Did you pick a bunch of
raspberries and stuff?

Well, no, not really.

Wow, you're such a goof, Lize.

You can't do anything without me, can you?
Next time I'll go with and help.

Dinner is ready. Take a seat.

Wow!

It smells good!

It looks good!

It's a turnip and milk soup. With bread.

Um, I didn't make much, though.

Wow!

Thank you for the food!

This is good!

Hey Lize, I'm the one who found
the guy selling this milk.

And I baked the bread by myself!

You're kidding!

Yep, I'm kidding!

My boy, you must deepen your understanding

and open your heart as wide as you can.

That is to say, you must
experience so much cheer and joy

that it smothers out
the darkness you carry.

But in order to find that happiness,
you must look to your own heart.

So, my boy, seek out
as much joy as you can.

If you do, even the mighty blight
will eventually up and run away.

That day, with my heart and my belly
both full, I didn't write in my diary.

The next day, I asked Miss Witch and the
Mushroom Lord about building a garden.

Miss Witch told me that I have a natural
talent for growing vegetables,

and went into town to find
me a book about gardening.

She said she'd let me study gardening,

as long as I don't neglect
my magic training.

I really started to love it.

When I was studying, the little things
that bothered me would just float away.

I imagined days of plowing,
days of watching plants sprout,

days of thanking the sun
and the earth and the rain,

days of watching my plants
grow, and days of harvesting.

Whenever I imagine the days to come,
my heart fills right up with joy.

Okay, do it again!

All right.

Don't get distracted, you idiot!

I'm sorry.

Jeez. You got some nerve slacking off
when you already can't learn worth crap.

I've noticed myself thinking about
Miss Witch a whole lot recently.

But not about her being a poison
witch. About how beautiful she is.

I wonder why. It feels
like every cell inside me,

from the hair on my head to
the tips of my toes, is drawn to her.

Are you even listening to me?!

I've got to concentrate on my training.

- CAW! GYAH! SQUAWK! GRR! CAW!

- This isn't good enough.

- And I get punished with close-ups
of the ugliest thing in this world,

- Emotional abuse.

- the crow's twisted face.

Emotional abuse.

I've got to do better!

- Emotional abuse.

- Ugh.

The crow says he's observing Lize,
but it's always an excuse to bully him.

I'm not bullying him! This is training!

- Reversal magic, time magic,
spatial magic, transformation magic...

- Emotional abuse.

- Emotional abuse.

- There's a ton of magic that
I'm supposed to learn.

- Next is the apple. Give it a shot.

- Emotional abuse.

The one I'm practicing
now is conjuring magic.

You use one thing from your body to
conjure something else that exists.

You can only get one measly
leaf out of a tuft of hair?

At this rate, you'll end up totally bald
before you conjure a single apple.

Caw, caw, caw!

No matter how hard I try,
the only thing I'm getting better at

is blocking out whatever
the crow says to me.

Hey, Luna. Show him how it's done again.

For more skilled magicians, even
one hair... no, even one drop of sweat,

should be enough to produce
something that wasn't there.

Luna got the hang of this
magic in no time, you know.

IN NO TIME

I'm starting to realize that
I might be a complete failure.

B-But the apples I make, you know,
probably taste really bad.

I guess that's reassuring, but I'm
not sure how to respond to that.

You can have this.

You're giving him a gross apple?

I-It shouldn't be...

Don't do that, Luna.

B-But it's not... probably not...

I still don't know what my purpose is
in life. I don't know a lot of things.

I did it!

Wow, that's great, Lize!

But I want to live up to
Miss Witch's expectations.

With that as my guiding light,
I think I can endure the hard training.

You gotta quit spoiling him.

The council members will show up soon
to test him. Could be any day now.

So what magic has he learned so far?

H-How to use his diary.

That doesn't even count!

Gravity, healing, and conjuring magic.

Yeah, but all only barely.

And that's it?!

The Mushroom Lord said that Lize
can grow plants real fast, though.

Something about a green—

Drop it, bull. Keep that to yourself.

Something I've realized since
I started the garden

is that even though I don't have seeds,
I can make the plants I imagine sprout up.

That is not easy to do for most people.

That's what Miss Witch said, but
everyone acts kind of uncomfortable

about this power I have.

Anyway,

Lize, eat as much as you can.

And become a big boy.

Picky wittle boys don't
gwow up big and stwong.

Hmm? What's he so gloomy about?

Dunno.

Why?

Why is my body so much smaller
than Miss Witch's body?

It's almost like I'm a child and she's
an adult. We're not a good match at all.

But I get the feeling that my body
wasn't supposed to be like this.

A feeling that I was supposed to be
a protector, not the one being protected.

I need to be focused on my
magic training right now,

but I feel overwhelmed
by things I can't control,

and get distracted by irrational thoughts.

I have trouble spelling this
confusion out in my diary.

Or maybe I don't want to.

I don't want to explain it all away.

Yeah, he doesn't have a chance.

Oh.

After all that training in black magic,

he's probably got one-tenth of
the abilities he should have by now.

That little?

You must have figured it out by now, Luna.

He's definitely descended
from white witches.

And it sounds like they've got their
own way to awaken their powers.

He's gonna have to figure
out what that is by himself.

But for us black witches, that's
something we'd probably want to avoid.

Good try, even though
you've got it all wrong.

You should just give up.
It's such a waste of nice hair.

Who's there?

Can you hear us?

His magical powers are starting to grow.

We're right over here. Look down.

No, we're behind you.

He finally noticed us!

Nice to meet you, Lize.

Welcome to the spirit world.

Spirit?

Look at how surprised he is!

Well gosh, you didn't
notice us all this time.

He still looks adorable
when confused, though.

Good afternoon, Lize.
I'm the bean spirit you created.

I'll tell you something.

Even if you do what the black witches
want, you'll never become like her.

Huh?

I am a thistle spirit.

Lize, thank you for taking
such good care of us.

People of white witch lineage have a
different constitution than black witches.

Constitution?

This child's seeds are more
magical than they should be

and it's got the green
spirits all in a tizzy.

Oh be quiet, water spirit.
Don't be so annoying all the time.

What is happening?

Hello, Lize. I'm a wind spirit.
You don't understand any of this, do you?

White witches are essentially "charms."

In other words, your charm allows you
to borrow power from demons and spirits.

Charm?

White witches' magic and longevity
largely draw from those energies.

See? So the black witches and
white witches are totally different.

White witches' powers may seem trivial,

but their charm power is actually
a weak point for the black witches.

Oh dear. Kinopio is upset.
Perhaps we said too much.

So Lize, you should polish
your charm abilities

and use that power to entertain us.

If you do, then we can help you out.
That's how white witch powers work.

But I still don't know
what this is all about.

Yes, but you're already starting to see.

Sing us a song, Lize.

A song? I've never sung before.
I can't even think of one.

You can do it. Just take your feelings
and put them to any melody you imagine.

This is your white witch training.

Training?

Go for it, Lize.

What the hell is that singing? Is it him?

That is definitely spirit language.

Mushroom Lord!

He probably carries the
language inside his cells.

Do you understand what it
means, Luna and Claude?

How would I know? I can
more or less guess, though.

Do you understand, Mushroom Lord?

Yes, I certainly do.

Lize, when you fall in love one day,

song will become your solace,
your strength, and your guide.

Whose voice is that?

The power of love is what
awakens the white witch's charm

and amplifies it.

Wonderful! You're great, Lize!

How cute! I can totally get behind that!

Lize, I offer you the
blessing of the trees.

And we present you with
the protection of water.

We give you the seeds of wishes.

Do you get it now, Lize?

Polishing your charm
with the power of love

is the key to white witch magic training.

There are a lot of different
kinds of white witches,

but your singing is especially lovely!

Love may be poison for black witches,

but it is a source of
power for white witches.

What? Poison?

Sing once again, Lize. Sing so
that even the sky blesses you.

So that even rainbows appear!

In that moment, I still
didn't understand anything.

Looks like that gut feeling
I had was spot on.

It makes me sick,

but if it gets the job done, I'm not
gonna complain about how he does it.

As long as it doesn't put her in danger.

I had no idea that this feeling
that awakened my magic,

this once-in-a-lifetime love,

would drive you into a corner, Luna.