EDIT: 9/3/2015
Having fun in Regalo?
Author's Corner!
Here's another chapter of Arcana Famiglia! I may or may not finish this in a week or two, I have to check the manga again.
R&R ~ Read On !
Legend: ' ' are thoughts, " " are characters speaking, *bold* are actions done by characters and sfx, italics represent past events, memories, emphasis and foreign language, and bold italics time skips.
WARNING: May contain OOC, various point-of-view, and possible lemons!
II : Arcana Famiglia
'The breeze feels nice...' I thought as we drive through the forest. "Are you sad?"
"Eh?" I blurt out as I look to my attendant, Luca.
"Well, you are leaving the house you've lived in for so long. It's no surprise if you're a little sad. But fear not, you have me, your attendant, the 14th card, La Temperanza, Temperance, by your side- Eh?!" he yells as he takes notice I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. My arm was propped up on the side of the car as I watch the view of trees pass by.
We parked the car as we arrived at the manor. Walking to the front doors, we were greeted by a few members of the famiglia. "Welcome, Ojou!"
"You all came to welcome us?" Luca asked. "Of course!" the blonde replied. "Today is the day that Mondo's only daughter, Miss Felicità, joins our family," a bald man states.
"What he said, Bambina." "Pleased to meet you, Ojou." I was greeted by a man wearing an eye-patch and another wearing glasses. I smiled at them.
"Thank you. You came, too, Nova?" I asked while looking towards my cousin.
"This idiot insisted that all the upper echelons of each serie be present in greeting you," he tells me whilst side glaring at the blonde. "Who the hell are you calling an idiot, you damn chickpea?" "Don't call me a chickpea," Nova retorts. I laugh escaped my lips as I smile at their antics. "Don't laugh, Fel," Nova scolds me.
"Hey now, when did you start calling her "Fel"?" one of them asks Nova. "That's right, you two grew up together, didn't you?"
"Mhm," I reply with a nod. I look back at Nova, only to have him look away from me...again.
"Alright then, it's decided!"
"Hm?"
We looked toward the blonde as he continued, "Let's all introduce ourselves to Ojou again." "There's no need," Nova tells him. "Well, she may know you, but she doesn't know me that well," the blonde retorts. "You mean us, Libertà," the man with the eye-patch tells Libertà? I guess that's his name.
"Exactly." "That is true."
"Yes, please do," I tell them.
"All right! I'm Libertà. I'm in the Intelligence serie. Our serie deals with foreign diplomacy and affairs as well as gathering intelligence. And the leader of said serie is Dante," he introduces while looking towards Dante, the bald man. "I am also the director of the Arcana Famiglia. The card I made a deal with is the fourth card, L'Imperatore: the Emperor. My Arcana power is-"
"You're taking too long, old man. I'm the head of the "Coin" serie, which deals with finance. What would you like to know about me, Bambina?" he asks me before getting pushed aside.
"And i'm in the serie responsible for inspections, Pace, head of the "Wands". My favorite food is lasa-" he introduced before getting pushed aside as well.
"And I'm-" "You don't need an introduction, Luca," they tell him. I stifled a small laugh and looked at Nova.
"Anyway, my favorite food is..." "You two are mean!"
"What are you being shy for?" Libertà asks Nova. "I'm not being shy. I'm Nova of the "Cups" serie responsible for security."
"There are so many different serie," I comment. "They are all needed here on Regalo. And you, Milady, will be assigned to the serie in charge of intervention, "Sword"," Dante tells me.
"Sword?" I ask. "Who's the head of that serie?"
"The position is currently open," Libertà tells me.
"Ahem. With that..."
I beat another member of the Swords, earning my final win to claim the spot as head of the Sword serie.
"By the name of the 20th card, Il Giudizio: Judgement, I proclaim Felicità the victor," Sumire, the family's Mama and my mother, announces.
"Well done, Milady," the member compliments me.
"I definitely don't dislike strong women."
"Congratulations, Milady!"
"Guess it's settled. Ojou is the new head of the Sword," Libertà says.
"Saluti " (A/N: Pronounced as sa-loo-tea and means "Cheers!" in Italian)
"Now your new path has opened up, right, Ojou?" Libertà asks her. "New path, huh? That was fairly well-said. For you," Nova comments.
'My new path...' I thought. "You haven't the right to choose your own path...
...in your current state!"
I woke up upon recalling Papa's words. I sat up in bed.
"In two months, we will be holding the Arcana Duello. The victor will receive the title of 'Papa', and I will grant their wish."
"And one more thing. The winner will marry my daughter, Felicità."
"Good morning," I greet as I walk into my office. "Good morning, Milady," Luca greets back. Walking further in, I notice the large stacks of paper atop my desk. *sigh* "I see... so today I'm sorting out the documents?"
"Yes. All other members of the Sword are already out on their patrol," Luca informs me. I look down at that. "Everyone's looking out for you."
"Eh?" this got me to look back up. "Well, in light of Papa's announcement last night, we figured you might need some time to think by yourself."
"I know," I reply. "Th-That's right, we've received quite a few limone... I'll go and prepare some limonata," he says and runs past me. Before he left, he said, "Ah, yes! Arianna-sama said that she would come by later!" As soon as he closed the door, I looked out the window.
"Arianna is here..." *knock*knock*knock* "Ah- come in!"
The door opened to reveal- "Ciao, Ojou!" "What are you doing here, Libertà?" I ask him. He walks in and shows me a pink seashell. "Here." I take it from his hand and look at it more closely. "Ah~ How pretty!"
"I picked it up when we were unloading this morning," he tells me.
"Are you...worried about me because of yesterday?" I asked him curiously. "Eh? Uh...yeah..." he replies, scratching his cheek. "I'll be okay. After all, I am the head of the Sword," I tell him. "Well said, Ojou." When he said that, footsteps could be heard from the hall. We looked towards the open door to see Nova run by. "Nova?"
"That's strange. He's never in a hurry," Libertà says. He grabs my hand, pulling me out the door. "Let's go see why!"
We ran down the hall and stopped at another open door to see Nova crouching on the floor looking under the bed. "Huh?"
"The hell are you doing?" Libertà asks. "I-I'm working!" Nova tells him. "You two seem rather close this morning."
"Close?" Libertà asks again. Nova looks down, causing Libertà to look at our hands, which we still being held together. "S-Sorry, Ojou!"
"Eh?" I blurt out confused.
"A-Anyway, what do you mean "you're working"?" he asks once more. "This has nothing to do with either of you," he tells us. "Jeez, sorry I asked. Let's go, Ojou."
I step forward. "Are you having some trouble? I ask him. "I'm not troubling over anything."
Suddenly, I feel my Arcana powers activate. I look into his heart to see Nova and his team on patrol. A carriage was passing by as he noticed a kitten in the middle of the streets. "A white...kitten?" I blurt out.
"What's that?" Libertà asks me.
"You did it again! Stop snooping around in my heart without permission!" Nova yells at me. "I-I'm sorry..."
""Stop snooping" you say... You don't have to be so mean about it."
"He's right, Nova." We turned to the door to see...
"Aria!" "Arianna!" "Hime!"
"Aria, what are you doing here?" I ask her. She was wearing a dark blue kimono with a floral pattern on it. 'A beautiful kimono...wait- now isn't the time to be thinking such things!' I thought. "I came back yesterday, remember? I was merely walking down the halls when I heard you yelling. What's all the fuss about anyway?" she asks. I mentally sigh.
"Yeah, what's that about a white kitten?" the idiot asks me. Giving in, I explain the story to them.
"Eh?! You saved it?! You saved a white kitten from being run over by a carriage?!"
"Oh my...you weren't hurt, were you?" Aria asks me worriedly. "No, I wasn't. And keep it down!" I direct at the idiot.
"So you were looking for that kitten?" Fel asks. "Yes...I thought I followed it to this mansion, but it got excited and ran off somewhere," I tell them. "Let us help you find it."
"There's no need," I say.
"But there's a better chance of finding it with four people rather than just one," the idiot suggests. "Four?" I ask.
"It's obvious I'm going to help as well. Let's split up, Ojou! Hime!" "Okay," Fel nods in reply while Aria just chuckles at his suggestion.
"All right, I'm going this way." "Then, I'll look over there." As they leave the room, I let out a heavy sigh, but stopped when I heard chuckling again. I look up to see Aria still in the room, looking at me. "W-What?"
"Oh, nothing," she says and turns to walk out the room. Before she leaves, she stops at the door and looks over her shoulder to look at me.
"It's nice to see you again, Nova."
That smile.
The same, genuine smile she always gave me when we were kids...
"Y-Yeah, sure..." I heard her laugh again. "Well? Are you coming?" she asks me. So she was waiting for me.
"Yeah, I'm coming."
We walked into the library to the sound of a cat's meow from inside and saw the cat atop one of the many bookshelves. "All the way up there..." Aria says while looking up towards the second floor.
I make my way up the stairs and stop in front of the bookshelf the cat was on top of. Grabbing a ladder, I placed it in front of the shelf and climbed up.
"Be careful!" I heard Aria call out worried.
As I made my way to the top, I come face to face with the kitten. 'Gotcha-' I stopped mid-thought as I felt the bookshelf lean towards me.
"Ahh!" "Ah, Nova!"
I fell off the ladder, the various books toppling onto me. The kitten jumps onto one of the books as my head pops out of the pile, a tick mark appearing on my face. 'That little...' I hear Aria make her way up the stairs and stop near the pile of books.
"A-Are you alright, Nova?" she asks me. *sigh* "...I'm fine," I tell her as she helps out from under the books.
We make our way back into the halls of the mansion.
"Stupid cat..." I mutter under my breath.
"Now, now..."
In the Gardens
"Found you!" "You're not getting away this time!"
I calmly walked up to Felicità's side whilst the two boys ran over furiously. "Eh? What the heck?" Felicità asked, alarmed. I place a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump a bit in surprise before looking at me and smiling. "Arianna..." I smile back at her. We notice the kitten jump into the pavilion.
"I'm going in from this side!" "Then I'll go around from the other side!" The two jump at the kitten, only to bump heads with each other as the kitten jumped into my arms. I sighed at the sight whilst Felicità just stared at them.
"You little...!" "You won't get away with this!" The kitten got scared in my arms, which Felicità and I take notice of, before pouting at the two. Felicità kicked them both on the head.
"Will you two stop it already?!" "Honestly!" The cat meows happily.
"They say cats like girls, but...could it be any more obvious?" Libertà says. "Seriously..." Nova agrees with him.
Felicità and I glance at each other before stifling small laughs. "What's so funny, Ojou? Hime?" Libertà asks us.
"It's just so rare for you two to agree on something," she tells him. "Hoh? Is that so?" I question whilst looking at the two, a small smirk upon my face.
"It's merely a coincidence. A coincidence," Libertà insists. "That would be my line," Nova says.
"You piss me off..."
I merely giggle at their antics as they continue to argue for a bit. "Are they always like this, Felicità?" I ask her. "Mhm," she nods and laughs with me.
After they calmed down, we sat down within the pavilion and discussed the current situation.
The lost kitten.
"There's no other choice but to return it to where I found it," Nova suggests. "Where you found it? You mean Fiore Street?" Libertà asks.
While the two discuss about what to do with the cat, Felicità and I just keeping petting it affectionately. 'I wonder where Pepe went off to...' I wonder. "What if it gets in the path of a carriage again?"
"Are you going to adopt it, then?" Nova asks Libertà. "You know I can't. I never know when I'll have to go out to sea because of work."
I notice Felicità stop petting the cat to look at the two, so I do the same as well. "I think this cat belongs to someone though," she says. I look at her, then back at the cat. "Now that you mention it..." I trail off to point at the ribbon around the cat's neck. "Look here."
"Then we should find the owner," Libertà suggests. "Despite the fact that we have no leads?" Nova questions. I look at him with disbelief that he's being so pessimistic when he's the one who found the cat in the first place. He notices my staring and looks back with a look that said "What?"
"What a pretty smell."
We turned to see Felicità...smelling the cat. "It smells like flowers?"
"This would be a perfume made from a blend of Osman Rose and Prelude Rose."
"Jolly!" "Not to mention the ribbon around its neck is made from fairly expensive material," he adds. "Hm? What's the matter?" he asks Libertà who was looking at him the entire time he came here.
"Oh, well, you rarely leave the lab. What are you doing out at this hour?" he asks.
"Indeed, the Tarocco I made a deal with was the 18th card, La Luna: the Moon. But that doesn't mean I'm not allowed out during the day," Jolly states. "You probably hit a snag during the progress of your shady research," Nova comments. I look at him, again. "Nova."
"Hn. Apparently, you still fail to comprehend alchemists."
"Th-Thank you for telling us about the perfume," Felicità says to Jolly. "I am the family's advisor. It's only natural I advise family members when they are troubled," he says then walks away from the pavilion. "Well, we're one step closer," Libertà says. "The clues are..."
"...the perfume," I say for him.
"...and a ribbon made from expensive material," Nova finishes. Felicità stands up from her seat, cat in arms. "Let's go!"
"Yes." "Yeah!" were the two's replies. They glanced at each other only to look away afterwards.
*sweatdrop* "Now, now..."
Afternoon
We walk to the cafe, an air of depression surrounding the three as we walked in. I was fine, as it was in my personality (more like Arcana powers) to be calm about everything.
"What's wrong with them, Hime?" Pace asks me. "Ah, well..."
We sat down at the same table and explained what had happened to Pace.
"I think it's rather impossible to find its owner with just those clues- Or maybe not. It's still too soon to decide that," he tells us.
"But after walking around so much, it's no wonder you're exhausted," Wand Member A says. "I wish those of us in the Wand could be of more help, but we have to get to work now," Wand Member B tells us, dropping their hopes of gaining more help.
"I'm sorry, Ojou! Hime!" Pace apologizes to us. "If only I knew more about perfumes...Oh- There is! There is someone who knows!"
-line
"And so, you came to see me."
The cat meows. (A/N: I laughed after reading this a second time lol)
"More importantly, why don't you play for a while, Bambina?" he asks Felicità. 'What a flirt' I thought. "So this is the place run by the Coins, Isis Regalo."
"Yeah, this isn't the only place, though," Debito adds. "Maybe next time," she tells him. "You're welcome anytime, Bambina. Of course, you are too, Bella," he says while glancing at me. "B-Bella?" I stutter. That's Italian for "beauty", right? Oh dear...
"So, when is next time?"
"Are you gonna help us or not, Debito?!" Libertà asks. "Tch. I can think of at least fifteen signorinas who wear this perfume. However, I have no idea if any of them own cats," he states. (A/N: Signorina is "lady" in Italian) "Not to mention, if the only other clue you have is that... I rather hate to disappoint a woman, but...It's impossible. You should give up," he tells her.
"Ojou..."
We look to Felicità who held the cat in her arms. 'I sense something good will come out of this, and I'm no Kousuke' I thought. (A/N: Will be explained why she says this at a later time) "Blonde..." she mutters. "Huh?" I blurt out while looking at her, my head tilting to the side a bit.
"Ojou, did you..."
"...look into its heart?" Nova finishes for him.
"You just "a blonde" right now, didn't you?" Debito asks. Putting his fingers to his chin, he says, "I'm able to narrow it down to eight with that...Expensive material? Heh, it would seem I won't have to disappoint you after all, Bambina."
At Abito di Federica
"Oh, Fran!"
The cat jumps down from Felicità's arms and jumps into his owner's. "I was worried sick about you!" We smile at her. She gets up from the floor and looks at us, "Thank you, Arcana Famiglia."
"Not at all, Madam Federica, it is after all the job of the family," I tell her whilst bowing slightly. "I must do something to thank you," she says. She looks around her shop before turning back to look at me and Felicità. We both look at each other before looking back at Federica in confusion.
Later, the curtains to the dressing room opened.
"Oh, my. How wonderful. Just as I thought, you two look great," she compliments us. Felicità simply smiles. I, on the other hand, was completely amazed. "I've...never worn a Western dress before," I tell her.
"You look great, Arianna," Felicità tells me. I smile at her and say, "You too."
"Please accept those as a token of my gratitude," Federica says. "Huh? But..."
"Ojou, Hime, just take it. She did give it to you, after all," Libertà tells us. "Accepting someone's token of appreciation is good manners, as well," Nova adds. After contemplating on it, Felicità decides to accept the gift.
"Thank you, Madam Federica."
'It's gotten late...I hope Kousuke isn't worried as much as Luca is' I thought to myself, smiling a little at the though. The two were so alike yet so different at the same time. Felicità carried the box that held her gift inside, while Libertà offered to carry mine. It took a while before I gave in and let him carry it for me. Quite the gentleman if I do say so myself.
"It sure does feel good to be able to help out those in need," Libertà says. "Huh?" Felicità and I blurt out. "Your Arcana powers, Ojou... The reason we got to see her smiling face was because of your powers," he tells her.
"How naive," Nova comments. "What?!"
"I told you not to look into others' hearts without permission," he continues. "Nova..." I trail off as we stop by a lamp post.
"Why do you have to be an ass and say it like that?!" Libertà yells at him. "I don't know about the cat, but do you really think that there's a person who would actually feel comfortable if that happened to them?" he asks. "That may be so, but Felicità hasn't any control over her Arcana powers," I tell him.
"But we're going to have to win in the upcoming Arcana Duello." Felicità turns to look at him, "Huh?"
"Where did that come from?" Libertà asks.
"It's true that we need to strengthen our Arcana powers. Learn how to control your powers with your own will. If you manage to do that, then..." he trails off, his face softening as he looks at his red-headed cousin. "...I'll believe in you."
'You sure have a way about things, Nova' I thought while walking behind him. As I passed Felicità, I said, "He has a point, dear cousin."
I quickened my pace to match Nova's as we walked side-by-side. I side-glanced at him and noticed he was doing the same. He noticed me looking at him and turned away, a faint pink reaching his cheeks. I smile a bit before looking up at the sky. "Nova, I...
...I heard about your parents."
He stopped and turned to look at me once more.
"You... From who?" he asks me. I turn to face him. "Papa, of course..." I step closer.
"I...can help you, Nova."
"Wha- How? They've been put into eternal slumber by my Arcana powers... I doubt there's anything you could do..." he trails off. I put a hand on his shoulder and my other on his cheek, turning his face to look at me. "I can help you...with my Arcana powers."
"Your...Arcana powers?"
"I have a contract with the first card, Il Mago: the Magician. It gives me the ability to make one's desires become a reality, be it pure of heart or selfish greed," I tell him. He stays quiet for a moment, probably thinking about what to do. After a while, he shakes his head and takes my hands off his shoulder and face, but didn't let go as he puts them down.
"I want...I want to undo what I've down with my own strength," he tells me with determination.
I smile at this and nod in understanding.
"As you wish."
What is your Tarocco?
What a day! The power went out for like 30 minutes earlier. It was soooo hot, I literally felt like I was dying. I went downstairs and my mom woke up from her sleeping, complaining how hot it was. Anyway, Arianna doesn't seem to have many parts, but I'm sure there'll be more chances for her further into the story. And I'm sorry Ash lovers, but I want her to have the Magician QQQQQ
R&R? Tell me what you think? Contribute your ideas! I'll take 'em all ~
P.S check out the Western dress Arianna wears on her character page! It's the last picture under appearance. Well?
Enjoy your stay at Regalo Island.
ffxshilayt aka Shila -