I do not own Harvest Moon
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"You're on!"
"Damn strait!"
Garring daggers at each other, the two Neharu siblings quarreled over their newest bet, the taking over of their father's farm.
Kudamasu Neharu, or Kuda as the other 5 siblings liked to call him, sat with his brown eyes glaring with a smirk to his "baby" sister. Though he himself was only pushing 23, his smirking features pushed him down to around 18 and his long hair was not helping in the matter otherwise.
Keia Nehru was quickly returning his glare with her own, violet eyed heat vision. She and her older brother Hareu were the odd balls in the family with their different looks. Hareu with his mother's soft pink hair and her with her grandparents' violet eyes. Never the less, the young girl, just turning 18 tomorrow, was getting her first taste of beer and poker. Somehow, the game had turned to betting after her oldest brother Yukita slammed the idea of Strip-poker down from Kudamasu's friend request and now responsibilities were replacing the money and scattered skittles.
Her bet, spending 1 year in her brother's place on the small farm Takeru in Flower Bud village in Kudamasu's place. Her reward, 1,000 dollars and bragging rights.
"Now now children, try not to wake the guests..."
Keia snapped her head first to the doorway where she was greeted by Yukita's twitching face as he stepped over yet another one of Kuda's friends, too drunk to piss sprawling out where he passed out.
Glancing up, his warm blue eyes smiled to his little sister, then turned cold to the middle child of the family. "Now mind explaining to me, why my baby sister is going to go work where you are supposed to be in Father's absence...and why your friends are..." He shuddered lightly at the thought and Keia could only imagine what was happening up in his bed room.
Kudamasu in his defense weakly waved a hand to the eldest brother out of the five and turned back to stare at his card set. "Sis wanted to try it...and I'd have to pay up a grand if she survives..." Snickers rose from his mouth as his tooth pick fell from between his teeth. "Like hell she would! Easy work for me, and easy money for me!"
"Easy now Kuda..." A smooth voice sounded out from behind Yukita as a new body stepped out. he did not even bother to step over the fallen body, let alone step on it to reach his destination. "Keia-chan has more tricks up her sleeves than you have in your entire brain capacity."
Ciro Neharu, the second oldest and literal second in command of their parent's absence. His brown hair currently had streaks of neon green throughout them as dark clothing hung lightly to his thin, yet tall frame. Even the brown eyes he had been born with were starting to turn a dark blackish color. In Keia's mind, no one could pull off the punk motive better than her brother. He even had the lip ring to prove it. And to surprise them all, he was the first to marry, and the first to be expecting a child the next winter.
Sticking his tongue out, Kudamasu flashed his own tongue piercing to the three year older male before him. "Yah yah, whatever ya say there bro..."
"I'd listen to him...Ku-da-ma-su..."
A bright laugh came from the new boy stepping into the room, only he had chosen the back screened door. The only boy to be in the barns despite the massive party that shook the entire Neharu adobe. His jeans were stained permanently in green juice from the grass he spent ages working in, and his messy pink hair was held back loosely in a wispy horse tail. Hareu Neharu, only boy to devote his life to the monsters in their warm sheds even after his father had left. "I believe you would have learned to not temp baby sister into such rash things..."
Keia smirked over to the sneering Kudamasu glaring over to her one year older brother. Three brothers for her, one against her, and that one was making the bets.
"Alright then, it's settled if Kui agrees..." Yukita glanced to his only sister with a smile. "Keia takes Father's farm, and you have to pay her when she returns Kuda-kun... Alright?"
"Agreed..."
"Agreed Yukita-sama!"
She smiled, how bad could it be. It was just a farm, right?
(-' '- )
"I HATE THIS PLACE! HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT!!"
Poor Hareu was probably flinching at his sister's shrilling voice over the small cell phone's receptor. Stupid, stupid Hareu to call up and ask how his baby sister was doing. Poor girl, she was not even in Flower Bud Village and she was screaming how Kudamasu was an ass. Alcohol was probably leaving her system.
"Hareu, are you even listening?!"
"O-Oh, yes... Don't worry, I'm right here."
Growling, Keia glared out from her position on a small wooden bridge, the only stable surface keeping her from plummeting into the midnight water bellow her. "Thank god, I thought I lost you for a second!" Glancing around with her violet eyes gleaming dangerously, Keia dropped her bag to the ground with a dull thud.
"Where are you though, sis?"
Keia glanced lightly to the left at a small bush shaking in the dull wind. "Some place called Forget-Me-Not Valley...saw it on the sign coming in."
"Oh!" Hareu's voice cracked lightly through the static of her phone. "In that case, head down to the town, there should be an inn there. Go there and ask for a Mrs. Ruby and Mr. Tim. They should help you out if you explain your predicament and tell them that you're related to me."
A loud crash echoed somewhere in the large home and Keia could barely hear Kudamasu screaming in the background; "Not Mom's clock!"
With a sigh, Hareu was soon back to addressing the youngest child. "Alright, I have to go be clean up crew before Mom and Dad get home...sometime, anyways. Just go there, kay baby sister? Love ya!"
"Love you too..." With a swift click, the youngest Neharu child, just barely pushing 18, slid the phone back into the back left pocket of her black, baggy jeans. Soon, her hands were resting upon a small necklace that took possession of her neck. A blue and white thing, with a light blue heart resting right where her collar bone dipped and diamonds, small and clear, resting on it, and on two other places upon the beaded necklace. Her father's last present before he had left for the main land...the last present he had given her before that faithful day Yukita found him collapsed in the monster barns he felt so tied to, even after cattle, sheep, and actual chickens had been introduced to the small nation's town.
"Daddy..." Her eyes softened while fingers clutched to the heart in fear it would slip away, just as her father did. No one knew the reason for his collapse, and the doctors had proclaimed him healthy the previous day. So why had he so suddenly collapsed and taken her momma over to the "main land" hospital where he was pronounced in a coma.
Never-the-less, Keia stared back out into the path leading towards the town and swallowed a hard lump forming in her throat. Street lights lay dark and dead while one flickered on and off in the distance, silhouetting a small building with the word "Bar" inscribed over it in cracking paint.
"Lovely Kei...you get yourself not only lost, but in a run down town with no street lamps!"
Rustling drew her away through from her thoughts as eyes shot over to another path perpendicular to the bridge she stood on. A figure, one lone figure was actually walking down it. Thinking them helpful as every village so small should be, especially like the place she had grown up in, she did the one thing she though right.
"Excuse me? Could you please help me? I am a little lost here!"
Her breath was snapped away when the figure looked up and the final street bulb went out down the road. No matter, the moon light was enough to see. The face she had seen on wanted posters throughout her brother's room, Ciro's room. The lawyer's room.
Silver hair shining in the moonlight and the flash of green eyes were enough to stop her heart.
Phantom Thief...