Hello peoples! Thank you for checking this madness out, my Co-Author and I are very grateful. My Co-Author, Maple, is over at FFN's MagicalArchives! Check her out because she's awesome~ We plan to update this on a bi-weekly basis, hopefully we can write enough to keep up with that. So this fic is mainly Gerita, but it has lots of Spamano, Fruk and other pairings ^^ So we hope you enjoy, reviews and feedback are always appreciated :) We do not own Axis Powers Hetalia, nor do we own Spirited Away. ~Kat
Happy reading everyone! :) ~Maple
"I still don't see why you don't just pull over and ask for directions."
Actually, truth be told, Ludwig wasn't even sure why his brother was even driving when his eyesight wasn't the best. He gave a sideways glare at his brother Gilbert- an albino man, aged twenty five, who was currently laughing his head off and saying something about being too awesome to ask for directions.
The two brothers were on their way to their new home- or rather, they were supposed to be. Ludwig was sure that Gil had taken at least ten wrong turns by now, and they were now driving on an old country road in the middle of no where, headed toward a forest.
"We're lost." Ludwig stated, unamused with his brother's antics.
"We're fine, we have four-wheel drive!" Gilbert smirked, speeding up.
"That's not the point!" Ludwig gripped his seat, hanging on as the road got progressively rougher. They had entered the forest now. It was strange; looking out the window, he could see more than just the trees flash by, but he couldn't make out what the other things were. "Slow down, you're going to kill us!" he turned, snapping at Gilbert.
"Woah, what's that!?" the white-haired man slammed on the brakes, causing both of them to jerk forward from the sudden halt.
Ludwig cursed, a hand coming up to rub at the place his seat belt had dug into his shoulder, though his ice blue eyes were fixated on the thing that had made his brother come to an abrupt stop.
There was a statue in the middle of the road- and now that he could get a good look at it, he knew that it must have been more statues he had seen among the trees. It wasn't fancy- it was old stone, eroded in places from the weather, and was rather short and bulky with no limbs. It did, however, have a carved face with deep eyes and a wide, grinning mouth. A very odd decoration indeed.
"Hey Ludwig, what do you reckon that is?" Gilbert pointed to what lay beyond the strange statue- a large arched entrance set into a large stone wall.
"I don't know. Gilbert we should- Gil!"
Gilbert had turned off and climbed out of the car, curiosity having gotten the best of him. "Oh come on Luddy! Let's go check it out!"
Ludwig frowned, unbuckling and stepping out of the car as well. "Gilbert, we have no time for this. The movers are going to get to the new house before we do."
"They have a key, they can start without us! Come on, where's your sense of adventure?" Gilbert said smirking, his red eyes gleaming mischievously, before striding into the tunnel-like archway.
"Get back here!" Ludwig ordered, alarmed. He had moved to stand next to the statue, and though he'd never admit it out loud- and least of all to his thick-headed brother- this place gave him the creeps. Just something about the air didn't sit right with him, and the way the wind seemed to nudge him forward, as if trying to lure him into the entrance, unsettled him greatly. "We don't have time for this nonsense! It's going to get dark soon and we're still lost! I mean it, get back here!" he raised his voice a little, his German accent coming out thick as he did so.
"Nah, I don't think so. Your big scary voice doesn't work on me, kesesesesese! I want to know what's on the other side! Look, I can see a light at the end!" Gilbert called back.
Ludwig groaned, and knowing that he couldn't let his elder (and idiotic) brother go off on his own, begrudgingly followed after him. Gilbert, seeing that he was finally coming, paused halfway through the tunnel to wait for him to catch up.
"So, what do you think is on the other side?" The excitement of adventure was evident in his voice- Gilbert really was like a child.
"More forest?"
"You're no fun Ludwig, you know that-hey, do you hear that?"
They paused, becoming silent. It was faint at first, but now that he was listening, Ludwig could hear it too. It was the unmistakable sound of a train.
"We must be close to some railroad tracks or something. Odd. I didn't see any, did you?"
Ludwig shook his head, though it was debatable if Gilbert saw the reply or not since he had started walking again, not waiting for an answer.
They reached the other side, and, Ludwig had to admit his assumption of there being more forest was wrong. Instead, the two brothers were met with a wide open field, so green and beautiful it was almost surreal. In it were more of those old stone statues, and to their left-
"Hey, what's that? What are those weird buildings? They look abandoned. Awesome! Let's go check it out!" and without waiting, Gilbert dashed across the field.
Ludwig called after him to wait up, but knew it would be useless. So instead, he broke out into a run too, just barely managing to catch up as Gilbert had to slow down to cross over a path of rounded rocks.
"These look like river stones...there's even a stream down the middle. It looks man-made though." Ludwig noted.
"They were trying to install a river?" Gilbert snorted, reaching the steps on the other side and holding a hand out to his brother to help him step up. Once Ludwig stood beside him, he turned to appraise the buildings again.
They were strange buildings- almost stranger than the statues. They were lined along what appeared to be an old street, some of them falling apart with age.
"This place looks like it used to be an old renaissance festival, or a theme park or something, eh Ludwig? These were vendors and carnival games." Gilbert gestured to the nearest structure. He then froze, and sniffed the air. "Hang on, do you smell that?"
Ludwig sniffed the air too, and could immediately smell what had caught his brother's attention.
"That smells awesome! Come on, we've got to figure out where that smell is coming from!" Gilbert tugged on Ludwig's arm, leading the way into the empty street, under lines of old paper lanterns, and deeper into the apparently abandoned town.
It didn't take long to find the one vendor that appeared to be brand new among all the other decrepit structures. This one seemed to glow- a food bar with freshly cooked goods still sizzling deliciously in the open air. Ludwig would admit that his mouth watered from the tantalizing smell.
"Hello in there! Does anybody work here!?" Gilbert called out, walking right up and taking a seat at the bar.
When no one answered, Ludwig frowned. "Gil, we should just go."
"And not try any of this? No way!" Gilbert snorted, and then called out again. "Anybody!? Oi! Who runs this place!? You've got customers!"
"I mean it Gilbert. Think about it, we're out in the middle of no where. This isn't right." Ludwig's brow furrowed.
"You worry too much! You need to learn how to just go with the flow sometimes." Gilbert smiled at him before helping himself to a plate.
"Gilbert!"
"Whaaaat? I'll just pay for it when whoever owns this place gets back, no big deal." Gilbert shrugged before digging in. "Scheiße! Luddy you've got to try this! It. Is. Awesome!" he exclaimed before taking more bites.
"I'll pass. I, unlike you, don't trust random food we find out in the middle of no where." Ludwig replied flatly.
"Suit yourself." Gilbert said between bites. "But damn, you have no idea what you're missing."
Ludwig had to look away in disgust as his brother's table manners had all but flown the coop. As he did so, his eyes caught a glimpse of something else that was rather curious.
"I'm going to go check something out Gil, you stay here."
"No need to tell me twice." his brother grunted, his mouth muffled with food.
Ludwig shot him a look of highest disapproval before moving out, his eyes again casting upward to look at the strange black smoke in the sky that had peaked his interest. So he strolled through the street, glancing around at the old buildings, and climbed a staircase, all the while following the smoke back to it's source.
Finally, he stood in front of what had to be the biggest building he had yet seen in the ghost town. This building, like the vendor's stand where he had left his brother, looked new, and the smoke that had led him to it issued from a smokestack just beside it. A large bridge connected the street to the entrance of the-
"Bathhouse?" he read a sign. What a weird place for a bathhouse- weren't those more common in Japan? He stepped forward onto the bridge, drawn in by the absurdity of it. A noise distracted him though, and he looked over the side of the bridge, blinking when realized he was looking down into a ravine, at the bottom of which was-
"Well, I found the train." he mused.
A sharp gasp came from the direction of the bathhouse and broke Ludwig's solitude. The blond turned his head to locate the source of the noise, and standing there before him on the bridge was a boy not much younger than himself. He looked strikingly Mediterranean with auburn hair and eyes that almost shone gold in the light of the setting sun; his features made the Japanese style clothes he was wearing look strange on him.
The boy's eyes were wide, his brows knit in concern. Ludwig was perplexed by such an expression, and was startled when the boy approached him.
"Ve…. You aren't supposed to be here! You need to leave immediately!" The boy spoke urgently in a thick Italian accent.
When Ludwig didn't move the brunet latched on to his sleeve, looking to the German's eyes pleadingly.
"Please, it's going to be dark soon! You need to leave now!" The Italian's head snapped to the nearby lantern, for it was beginning to ignite- along with the others in its row. The look in the Italian's eyes had gone from worried to frantic in that moment and he pushed Ludwig.
"Mio dio, they're lighting the lamps. Go now! I'll try to distract them."
Ludwig heeded him, and bolted in the opposite direction just as the Italian turned to address the bathhouse, conjuring golden scales into his hands; he exhaled over them, and they flew like cherry blossom petals into the air before him. Hopefully with that little magic, the authority wouldn't notice the human on the premises…
...
After he had run down a complete set of stairs, the shock of having actually met someone else out here wore off, and Ludwig paused, looking back toward the top of the steps. "What was up with him?" he wondered, somewhat annoyed now that he had been shooed away like that.
He thought about marching right back up the stairs and asking that boy what he was on about, but his attention was then caught by the lighting lamps. It was peculiar. Just earlier, the lamps had looked too old to still be functional, and yet here they were, lighting up, gleaming, good as new.
In fact, now that the town was full of that glow in the quickly setting sun, 'all' the buildings appeared to be repaired...almost like magic.
Suddenly feeling very out of place, he broke into a run once more, the boy on the bridge the least of his concerns; he needed to get back to Gilbert- NOW.
As he ran, other things he couldn't explain began happening. As the night sky appeared, shadows began to move, waving inside the brightly lit shops, strolling through the streets. Ludwig accidentally ran through one of them, momentarily thrown off by the unknown force.
"Gilbert!" he yelled, feeling very out of his element as he barreled down the street and skidded to a halt, looking at his brother's back. "We've got to get out of here, there's something hap-mien Gott!" he stared in shock.
His brother was still sitting where he had left him, but it was more than obvious that he had overeaten. His clothes were straining, and he looked ready to fall off the stool he sat on.
"Gilbert, come on, you've had enough, any more and you'll pop. I don't care how awesome you think the food is." Ludwig put a hand on his brother's shoulder, shaking him a bit. "We need to leave!"
The sound that then escaped his brother's throat wasn't human. 'Gilbert' turned, looking at Ludwig, snout snorting, mouth still full of food, ears flopping. Ludwig stepped back from the pig in alarm. What was this? Some kind of cruel joke? He wouldn't put his brother past it; though he'd admit this would definitely be one of his more elaborate schemes.
He stepped out back to the street. "Ok Gil, you win, you've had your laugh, this isn't funny anymore!" he called. No snide remarks or hissing laughs answered him. "I mean it Gil! I've had enough of this, I'm going back to the car!"
Ludwig jogged back toward the meadow, still dodging around the weird almost-solid shadows. When he reached the place where the river-stone path had been, he stepped down into something he hadn't expected. He pulled back out, wide eyed, and couldn't help but gasp at the large, wide lake- or was it an ocean?- that now covered what had once been such beautiful lush green open field.
He stumbled back in disbelief, promptly falling on his butt. Lights out across the sea of water seemed to be coming closer. It was almost like...like...oh no...it was. A boat was drifting nearer and nearer.
"This is insane." Ludwig breathed, trying to wrap his mind around it. There was just no way this was possible. This whole place was improbable. One does not simply find food out in the middle of no where. Shadows don't move like that. People do not turn into pigs. Meadows do not turn into oceans in less than an hour.
And then it clicked. "Of course! I must be dreaming." he muttered, rubbing at his arms for warmth. Now that the sun was completely gone, the night air was left with a cold, crisp feel. 'Ah, but I'm dreaming that too.' he mentally chided himself.
'I just need to wake up. I probably fell asleep in the car and Gilbert took advantage of that and started blasting some of his weird music. Yeah.'
Ludwig looked up, his gaze fixated on the boat as it drew closer. The ferry actually docked a few yards away from him.
And then more craziness; the doors on the ferry slid open all at once, and pieces of paper floated out, moving as if marching in line. As they came ashore, the papers morphed into masks and grew shadow-like bodies.
"This is the weirdest dream I've ever had." Ludwig concluded, uncharacteristically but rightfully disturbed by the whole ordeal. "I just need to wake up and make this place disappear...it isn't real...I'll just wake up, the memory will fade away, and I'll forget this ever happened." he muttered to himself.
As soon as he said this, he noticed something off, and held out his hands in front of him. "I didn't mean I wanted to disappear!" he exclaimed, staring through his now translucent hands.
This was all too much. Too much. He forced himself to his feet, and hid behind a nearby bush. His sight of all the impossible things now blocked from view, he concentrated on waking up from this nightmare.