hello hello we are back with chapter 3
happy bday to the resident dangerous lady: Haru Miura
praise to the khr goddess Akira Amano, we lowly believers offer up our measly OC fics as tribute
word count is about 22,720. ⋌༼ •̀ ⌂ •́ ༽⋋
also for simplicity's sake, i'll just start putting the title here for the rest of the chapters.
Chapter 3- Out on the Town!
Before leaving the house, the trio decided to change into more suitable clothes for their new setting. They went up to their rooms and met in the living room when they were ready to set out.
Vi tied up her hair into a high ponytail and was now sporting a medium black crossbody. She switched her leggings to a pair of black shorts, but kept on her lilac tank top. Lana exchanged the clothes meant for her adult self for a peach colored t-shirt bearing a red cherry decal, paired with jean capris to match. Ian changed out of his now extremely baggy clothes to a more adjustable pair of basketball shorts and yet another tank top, but this time it was black with a musical score decal on it.
Once they were all decently changed, they met back in the living room where the map of the town waited for them on top of the table. Quickly realizing that both Ian and Vi would probably have a fight over where to go, Lana grabbed the map and unfolded it.
On the map, there were several locations that were already circled and labeled, including the school they were supposed to go to, their house, the nearest market and shopping district, a post office, a few restaurants (including a certain sushi shop) with small notes rating them 5 out of 5 checkered hats, a few shrines, some parks scattered here and there, an arrow pointing off the map that was labeled simply as 'Kokuyo Land', a circle in a random residential area, and a few circles around nothing.
Pointing at the shopping district, Vi declared, "I want to go shopping! We could use some clothes, right?"
"We don't really need to go shopping since our clothes have shrunk a bit, haven't they?" Lana pointed out to the excited girl. "Plus the clothes in our closets have also somehow shrunk."
"Let's go shopping anyways!" Vi whined, wanting to go on a shopping spree. "One can never have too many clothes. Especially with our new unlimited bank accounts!"
Ian shrugged, adjusting the hem of his pants, "I needed some shirts or some better pants anyways." A pause. "And some belts too I guess."
Two against one, so Lana reluctantly sighed and agreed to go shopping with the two. Folding up the map and slipping it into her bag, she saw her phone and showed it to the others. "By the way, did you guys find your phones in your luggage upstairs too?"
Nodding sagely as she pulled her phone out of her purse, "Yep and I tried calling my house but it wouldn't connect at all." Vi recounted.
Ian patted his pocket where his own phone was resting. "Yeah that's understandable, you know, considering that we're in another world and all."
Lana looked upset at this knowledge, but started going through her contacts, "Alright, but I'm pretty sure that we can still call each other—" She was cut off by her phone singing the Love Hime song.
Vi held her phone triumphantly in front of her, "Haha! It does work. Calling each other. Also I can't believe you have that as your ringtone."
"No one can stop the power of the Love Hime song." Lana reminded Vi and almost tried to push up her nonexistent glasses, "Besides it's infectiously addicting to listen to."
Ian watched this exchange in silence, only responding with a sigh. "Alright, ignoring all of that, if anything happens we just contact each other. In the unlikely event that we separate I suppose."
Everyone took a picture of the map with their phones so they wouldn't get lost if anything happened. Once they stepped out of the house, they locked the door using their new house keys.
"So shopping district it is?" Lana asked the two again to confirm their choice.
"Yeah, I'm curious to see what the fashion here is like," Vi wondered out loud. "How different do you think this world will be from our world?"
"Don't just talk about this kind of stuff in public, you never know who could be listening. We should come up with some sort of code later." Ian nagged, as the group started walking towards their destination. Until a certain someone began to increase their speed, "Vi you dick! Quit walking so fast! Why are you always like this?!"
"Hey, it's not my fault you can't handle your short legs," Vi shrugged innocently, hands in the air, and grinned sideways at Ian.
"Shut up, not my fault. Don't forget I'm actually taller than you when we're older." Ian tried as a rebuttal, but it unfortunately fell short of insulting.
"Great, now your external appearances match your internal ages," Lana pointed out to the two bickering friends as she made a small grin at her next words, "You actual children."
"Gosh Lana." Vi sniffed softly, pretending to wipe away a single tear. "Were you always such a mean 13 year old?" Putting a hand on her chest, the girl acted as if she were extremely offended.
"I'm going to suffer forever from the both of you." Lana heaved a sigh to herself.
In the midst of their conversation, a certain person just happened to be passing by. Overhearing snippets of their strange conversation, the figure began to follow them, curious about this trio.
"I still can't get used to this…we have to go through our teen years all over again…" Ian bemoaned the fact that he would have to hit the gym once again to get into a decent-enough shape, not to mention the training he would have to do to regain his flexibility.
Vi patted Ian on the head, pretending to console him. "If anything, we'd probably get better grades in school this time around. Imagine all the sleep we could get during class!"
Lana frowned in disapproval. "No sleeping during class! And if you could deal with middle school once, you can do it again!"
The person narrowed their eyes toward the trio, suspicious from their words. When the trio stopped to look into the window display of an accessory shop, the figure quickly, let's say, 'borrowed' the wallet from Lana's bag.
A glance at the ID card inside told them everything they needed to confirm their suspicions. They furrowed their brows in perplexion and returned the wallet to the bag, without the owner ever suspecting a thing. There were plans to be made and people to be confronted, so they took off.
In the meantime, the trio, unaware that they had just been pickpocketed, continued with their shopping. They entered the accessory store, each heading over to their respective interests.
"I want the bow hair clip, I really do." Lana contemplated between a hair clip and a necklace she spotted from the window out of interest, "The black bow clip or the metallic silver star necklace?"
The clip was mostly made up from a black ribbon tied onto a barrette while the necklace consisted of a silver-colored star made up of metal held on a chain. The bow would look good as a daily wear whereas the necklace could do pretty well with outings around town, she remembered in the past that she never had time to buy something to be cute or anything. All that was in Lana's mind were mostly studying to get into medical school. Not a single interest was made, but she was quite fond of being able to do this again.
"Then again I could buy both." Checkerface did give them an unlimited bank account, although at first Lana perished the idea of splurging money. Lana decided that only this time she would be guilty for spending on something more than what she needed most. She didn't hesitate when she brought the two items over to the cashier to pay, "Guilty as charged."
Vi was busy looking at the earrings, grateful that she had gotten her ears pierced at a young age and wouldn't have to get them repierced after the age change. "Hoops are kind of a bold statement, but studs are always in fashion. Pearls are nice, if not a little mature for a teenager. Dangling earrings might be too flashy for a kid. A simple gem would do nicely, although plain silver works just as well," she pondered out loud.
"So many options to choose from. Ooo owls!" Vi spotted a pair of small owl shaped earrings. They were studs with the outline of an owl in metal and tiny black gems for its eyes. There were many different animal earrings in the display alongside it, like doves and cats. "Ah I want them all, they're so cute! Wait, I could totally get them all with my fancy new card. Bless you creepy old man." She grabbed all the cute earrings she wanted, including the owls, a pair of cats, plain silver small hoops, a simple gold chained ear cuff, and a moon phases earring set. A shop attendant handed Vi a basket when they saw how many items she was holding.
As she inspected her new earrings, she walked past the ring display and caught sight of a purple gem that reminded her of her new ring. "Well, I guess since I'm adding a ring to my outfits now,, I might as well get a few more." Vi leaned in to get a better view of the different designs. "Gold rings are a bit tacky if they're not top quality. Silver rings are better since almost anyone can wear them. Although you wouldn't see a middle schooler walking around flashing a diamond ring. Colored gems are good, too, although I'm pretty sure no one would wear a mood ring all the time…" She made a face, thinking of their own mood rings. She decided on a plain black band that was engraved with a silver crescent moon and a silver snake with inset black eyes that could wrap around a finger.
Taking her basket over to the cashier, she noticed a sheer lavender scarf that matched her outfit. Making a quick decision, she grabbed the scarf and added it to her purchase. Vi mentally thanked Checkerface again for the money, already planning what to buy at the next store.
Ian was browsing through the store when the stand of arm bangles caught his attention. "Ooo dang holy shit. These are hella nice…Those fancy dangly ones won't do jack shit, but I suppose they are aesthetically pleasing to some people. Just give me the simple bangles with like maybe one design on them. Although they wouldn't look nice on my current figure sadly. I'll keep this in mind when I can fit them better." He began to walk past the display, when he turned on his heel. "Pshhhhh what am I saying. I'll buy them now for my personal collection. Heheheh excellent. Eggcellent." A silver bangle that reminded him of wind and notes was added to the basket.
The next aisle that he stopped at was for jewelry. "I'm not that big of a fan, but it can't hurt to look for some more necklaces and earrings. Oh sweet. Wind chime earrings." Ian snickered, "Vi is going to complain that I have too many wind chimes, but you can never have too many!" He grabbed a few of the simpler stud earrings, and a cuff earring that looked like a sword and shield. "Nice. Now necklaces. Simple is best. I have no idea what Vi thinks, getting such over the top things. What happens if you fall or get hit? It's going to go straight to the bone and you'll bruise at least." The one he settled for was a white woven dreamcatcher design, with three feathers.
Ian was pretty happy with his purchases, usually one or two things would be enough to satisfy him. Today, it was a splurge day. Stepping out of the store with his bought goods he chuckled, "Thanks Checkerface, you creepy stalking bastard."
Next door to the accessory shop was a clothing store, and after glancing inside, they all decided to browse through.
Ian went straight to the bottoms section in hopes of finding better fitting pants. There was hope for his wardrobe to be found in cargo and sweat pants, some jeans, and shorts. Most of them were relatively simple in design, maybe he had grabbed one or two of those nice exercise leggings, so what? Ian figured that his figure currently could make them work nicely and snuck a few circle skirts into the basket for himself later.
The next area was shirts, in which case Ian got a lot of. More tank tops, ones that would fit his current physique at least, some t-shirts, a few long sleeved shirts, and four different colored plaid jackets. A few that he liked in particular included a navy blue tee with a trail of clouds, a painted space shirt, and a tee showing a crow taking flight. Ian gathered his choices in his arms and headed over to pay when the sundresses section caught his eye. "One wouldn't hurt I guess." Glancing around to make sure that neither Vi nor Lana saw him, he grabbed a white and green layered hi-low sundress and rushed the cashier.
Lana browsed through a section filled with pastel colored blouses, debating whether she should get some more until she came across the latter half. Mostly full of skirts, which silently made Lana cringe a bit by some of their lengths. Not to mention the shorts. Speed walking past the skirt and short aisle, Lana made a beeline for the pants and capris area of the store.
Sliding through the hangers of pants and capris for the right size, Lana finally found a white capri pant to go well with most of the pastel colored blouses hanging in her closet. Better yet, Lana managed to discover a black skort sitting within the capris. Probably a shopper gave up trying to return it to the previous aisle, lucky for her the skort is just right.
"Thank goodness this store sells skorts." Once she found a few more skorts in both brown and navy, Lana headed over to the hats section. Lana pondered a bit on which kind of hat she'd decided to get. The brown yarn beanie with a cute button accent, the nice straw sun hat adorning a blue ribbon with white polka dots, and finally a jean designed baseball cap. They all weren't too bad.
"Would I care to splurge again?" Lana knew she would regret the minute she headed to the cashier with all three. However, it wouldn't hurt to have three new hats. Hats were a necessity for facing the weather, "I would, and I shall."
Taking the clothes and hats over to the person at the register, Lana settled by giving a smile to the cashier, "Hi, I'd like to pay for these."
Once Lana became content in buying the new sets of clothes to add on, she decided to make her way outside the shop to wait.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lana spotted Vi walking in and out of the dressing rooms with arms full of clothes. She grabbed several pairs of black skinny jeans, one pair of jean shorts, several pairs of leggings in different colors, and several skirts of varying lengths. She walked out with two pairs of jeans, a dark blue pair of leggings, a black pleated skirt, a red pleated skirt, and a long flowing gray maxi skirt.
Putting her chosen items in a shopper tote, Vi went over to look at tops. She picked out several t-shirts with slogans like "I'd rather be sleeping" or "Nobody cares" and other shirts with designs like cute animals or flowers. Several tank tops of multiple colors, two sweatshirts, a plain black jacket, a blue hoodie, a purple blouse, three plaid button-downs, a long sleeved blouse, two short sleeved blouses, and three sleeveless sundresses all went into the cart after a short inspection. The dressing room attendant gaped a little at the amount of clothes Vi had selected before waving her into a room.
When she was content with her appearance, she left the dressing room, leaving with two tank tops, the black jacket, the purple blouse, a pink plaid button-down, and two sundresses, one in cream and one in white with red accents. As she was in line for the register, she realized a detail she had forgotten until that moment.
"Why did I get this many clothes? We have a school uniform." Her eyebrows scrunched looking at her chosen clothes, wondering if it was worth it. "Screw it. It's not my money, make it rain." The cashier was taken aback at the sheer amount of clothes the girl had brought, but said nothing.
Thus, Checkerface's bank account took its second hit of the day.
Vi was carrying four bags at this point, while Lana had two small bags, and Ian had two tiny bags and one large bag. Taking a detour on the way home, they spotted a supermarket and decided to re-stock up their kitchen even though it was barely used.
"This would go a lot quicker if we split up," Vi pointed out. "We all know what we like and dislike."
"Wow Vi, you and your efficiency." Ian rolled his eyes. "Alright, I'll get drinks and frozen goods since I was heading there anyways."
"Get snacks too. Lana can get produce and the bakery." Vi thought for a moment before continuing. "So that leaves meat, dairy, and canned/boxed stuffs for me."
"Okay, any specific requests before we set out to our zones?" Lana asked.
"Not too much veg." Vi made a face. "But lots of fruits is good. What kind of meat do you want?"
Ian just looked at Vi square in the face and said quietly, "All. But fish in particular. And those quick grill meats."
Grabbing a cart and heading over to produce, Lana first checked the tomatoes to replace the ones used earlier for sandwiches, "Even if Vi hates them, it's still good for us. "
Glancing around for any other vegetables on sale, she grabbed a few more plastic bags, "Then let's get those mushrooms, zucchini, and broccoli too since they go well with stir-fry. It's a good thing there's already some cabbage in the refrigerator."
Lana pondered back on what other vegetables were in the fridge combined with the ones she had in her cart. Soon a worker arrived to restock the vegetables, the person brought out a few sets of cauliflower and bean sprouts which were not on sale but were at a good pricing.
"The cauliflower and bean sprouts also for later." Heading over swiftly, Lana grabbed a few more of the vegetables and wrapped each in plastic bags to place into the cart. She proceeded to head over to the fruits aisle.
"Strawberries?" Lana would get them if only they were in season, but looking at the prices and seeing which fruits were on sale, she decided to buy something else. "Since the persimmons are on sale, that means it's autumn here…hm, maybe some pears too although persimmons are better crunchy than soft."
Once she finished taking a pound each of pears and persimmons, Lana walked over to the bakery section wondering what baked goods she could get.
"There's the milk bread, a certain person definitely would eat all of it before the rest of us do." Lana could already imagine the culprit stealing the milk bread from the kitchen, "Red bean paste bread…cream puff bread…curry bread…Vi might like the red bean paste taiyaki."
Ian popped out next to the cart from nowhere. With a box of donut holes. He gently-not-so-gently shoved them in the cart and while looking straight at Lana, he whispered, "D holes" and ran off for more groceries.
Startled by Ian's sudden appearance out of nowhere, Lana nearly screamed before realizing it was only Ian with a box of donut holes. Taking a deep breath, Lana muttered to him while pinching the bridge of her nose, "Really Ian?"
Resuming her original goal, Lana made her decision, "Might as well get the curry and cream puff bread along with a loaf of white bread since we practically used up the last one for the sandwiches."
Thinking that she bought enough, Lana was going to head over to the cashier only to meet with the smell of fried karaage. Halting in her steps, Lana slowly glanced over to find boxes of freshly cooked karaage. However…there was one problem. It looked like this supermarket had those half price hour sales, and karaage is gonna be on sale in three…two…one…
Dashing like a crazy madwoman, Lana dove right into the emerging crowd of home-stay mothers and tired ones that recently came out of work. She wasn't going to lose to these women, Lana would get her karaage and celebrate her success with vegetable stir-fry.
A glint shone in the corner of her eye, Lana went after the first one she spotted immediately only to have a businesswoman's hand grab the box at the same time. Upon raising her head, Lana could see the woman glare directly at her. There's no way she's gonna lose to this woman, Lana thought, tightening her grip over the box. When the woman did the same, the two continued to hold their grounds until the box of karaage started to have nail markings over it.
The woman attempted to shove the box out of Lana's hands, but unfortunately for the businesswoman doing that act was the wrong choice. Especially for someone as determined as Lana. Instead of Lana's hands being forced off, it was the businesswoman's.
Lana muttered silently while giving off a scowl toward the woman, "There's no way I'm losing this karaage."
"Is that girl really a middle schooler?" was all the businesswoman uttered the minute Lana returned to her cart.
Pleased with her victory, Lana headed towards the register with her haul.
Meanwhile, Ian brandished his own cart in the direction of the snackety goods aisles which would then be followed by a trip to the sugary drinkables. Up to bat was the cavity creating delicious goods, most of which would be chocolate probably based on the three. "First things first-o. All of them snacky snacks. Soft chocolate chip cookies, jello cups, choco candies, and marble cake? Hell yeah. All~ in the basket one by one." Wafers, biscottis, cocoa batons, gum, sweet red bean and brown sugar cakes, and milkita candies were also shoveled into the cart. There was a sizeable dent left in the candy section as Ian passed through.
Taking a semi-wildly-dangerously smooth turn to the next lane, Ian slid into the freezer section with the intention of grabbing a lot of microwavable foods just to piss Lana off. "Unhealthy? Maybe. Delicious? Absolutely." That being said, a good armful of microwave foods was added to the cart, including an oven baked Hawaiian style pizza. Take that Vi. Yet another chunk of depleted stocks in the freezer aisle, restock on Aisle 14 please.
'Making my way down rows, pushing fast, aisles past and I'm chips bound. Banananana babababa badadadada doo doo doo.' Snickering to himself, he headed to the chip section when an open row caught his eye. The long sought after drink island. The place where all of those glorious sugary liquids would reside. And then, he saw them. The sweet honeyed brown coloring of his favorite brand of milk tea. Ian almost shed a tear in joy as he reached for a can, "Ah, only 100 yen per can. How cheap! Not that it really matters, but I'll take some nonetheless." And then after gently adding the single can to the baby seat of the cart, proceeded to grab the rest of the stock and add it to the cart as well. Now there was the matter of Lana and Vi's drinks. "Vi likes Calpis right? Eugh. Who knows which flavor, I'll just grab them all. And some apple green tea for Lana." And there goes another row of items into the cart. Paying no attention to how the cart is fitting all of these items, Ian added some fruit juice, mainly apple, orange, grape (yuck), and lemonade and some iced coffee bottles.
Now chips. Or chisps in Lana's case. There were just as many kinds as there were in a vending machine when you were younger and couldn't choose between the meager offering of chips and yet it seemed like an endless list of choices. Since there were so many, Ian decided to just ask the others their preferential chip. Leaning into the main aisle, he cupped one of his hands around his mouth and spoke loudly, not yelling, "Do you guys want any chips?"
Vi unexpectedly glided past the aisle, skating on her cart and yelling back at full volume, "I'm always a slut for doritos!" all of a sudden grateful for the language barrier.
Furrowing his brows, Ian yelled back across the aisle, "Screw your dorito meme, I'm going to fill my ass with ruffles!" And then more quietly under his breath, "I did not in any way mean literally, any gods or higher powers do not take that literally and fill me with ruffles that won't come out nicely. I meant the cart."
Ian quickly pushed the cart through the aisle and grabbed Vi's doritos, his own ruffles, and a bag of lays for Lana, all sour cream and onion because they are all one flavor people except Vi who was a heathen for liking the artificial cheese flavor. Some Asian seaweed crackers, seaweed snappers, shrimp and squid crackers, as well as a big family sized bag of barbeque lays and a tube of pizza pringles. Significantly less damage to the chips aisle than any other aisle that Ian had hit up. "To the cashier!"
Vi made her way to the back of the store pushing her cart quietly after her previous escapade. "Meat. Ahh so good." She drooled a little at the thought of barbeque. Lana would probably make her eat vegetables, but Vi didn't mind eating vegetables as long as they weren't raw. "Yum yum. Brisket with a side of cabbage stir-fry."
She carefully selected two packages of sliced beef brisket and one of pork belly for grilling. A package of chicken breasts and a tilapia fillet also went into the cart. Then she headed to the counter and asked for a half pound of shrimp from the man behind the counter. As an afterthought, she also grabbed a box of sashimi.
After the meat was the dairy section. She grabbed a carton of 2% milk for Ian, a carton of almond milk for her lactose intolerant self, and a carton of whole milk for Lana. Vi wondered if there were eggs in the fridge at home, but since she didn't look in the fridge, she wasn't sure. She decided against getting them for now. Recalling seeing an ice cream machine on the counter, Vi contemplated getting heavy cream to make a batch, but figured it wouldn't be good since the weather seemed to be getting colder.
As Vi walked past the canned goods aisle, she recalled the pantry in the kitchen. "There should still be enough non perishables there since we didn't eat anything in there. No need for canned soups and such right now. Same with cereals and instant noodles, huh."
Vi prepared to leave the aisle when she saw teas and coffees. "Oh sweet heaven." She grabbed a box each of green, black, barley, white, and oolong teas, stacking them in the cart. Spotting one of her favorite brands of pu'er leaves on the shelf, she quickly grabbed three and placed them in the child seat of the cart. Taking two more, she put them into the cart with the rest of the teas. Reaching the herbal teas, she grabbed a box of jasmine, chamomile, hibiscus, masala, and earl grey, adding them to the total.
"Alright, I think that's every type of tea and enough to last us months of tea time. Now time for coffee." Vi vaguely wondered if her middle school self had the mild caffeine addiction she developed studying for college exams. "Well, there's no time like the present to develop a lifelong addiction!" Selecting a french vanilla flavor that she remembered Lana drinking and a hazelnut flavor that she quite enjoyed, she continued on with her shopping trip. "It's too bad Ian never liked coffee very much. I suppose it's just too mature for him," she snickered behind her hand, glad he wasn't in earshot.
She figured she was done with her section and headed for the check out.
As the trio paid for their goods, they all earned some strange looks from the other customers who had never seen them before. Although it could have also been because they were middle schoolers with terrifying amounts of food in their carts, especially Ian whose overflowing cart seemed to be defying physics by not toppling over.
They left the store loaded with an entire day's worth of bought goods. Vi managed to "borrow" a cart from the supermarket so they wouldn't have to lug them all the way back home, although Lana made her promise to take it back as soon as possible. They attracted a lot of attention, being children pushing a cart with an assortment of grocery bags and clothing store bags.
At last they reached home and were all excited to add their purchases to the house. Vi reached the front door first and opened the door, while Lana and Ian unpacked their items from the cart. They entered the house together when they were spooked by a strange shadow in the darkness of their living room.
"!"
"Wah!" Lana screeched in complete astonishment of the sudden appearance of the figure. Grabbing the closest item she could reach, Lana dropped her items on the floor and took hold of the taser her dear big brother gifted her not too long ago that had been sitting inside her bag. Lana silently thanked her brother for gifting her a pink hello kitty taser. Placing a thumb against the switch, Lana's taser flickered sparks of electricity dangerously on the adorable yet vicious item.
Ian immediately placed his bags on the ground as gently as possible and took a battle stance, grabbing hold of the tall lamp plugged into the wall outlet beside the door. *Warning, please do not attempt this at home since you'll be electrocuted.*
Lamenting her lack of a better weapon, Vi swiftly adjusted her keys in her palm, prepared to strike at a moment's notice and slapped her other hand against the wall, hitting the light switch and lighting up the room, revealing the figure sitting on the living room table sipping at an espresso.
"Who the fuck are you?" Ian and Vi yelled almost simultaneously before the figure was illuminated.
The figure lifted his head and tipped his hat so the trio could see his face. "Those were nice reflexes, but clearly not the reactions of civilians. Who I am isn't important. What I want to know is who you three are. Your conversation was very unusual as well as your actions just now. So that brings me back to my point, who are you and why are you here?"
Upon sighting the talking baby in a suit, the trio froze.
Lana mumbled toward Ian, "I-isn't that…?"
"Reborn?" Ian whispered back, taking a few steps back but tightened his grip on the held lamp.
Terror enveloped Lana's eyes as she lowered the taser a bit, "What?!"
Vi was frozen in shock, but suddenly swung her arm, hitting Lana in the chest. "Dude! Do you know what this means?! I can't believe it! Holy shit! Oh my god!" Vi hissed, knocking Lana after every sentence.
"Could…ow…you…ow…stop?!" Unfortunately for Lana, Vi didn't relent her aim, "Ouch! Gah! P-pain…so much pain. AGH!"
Ian just stared at the shortest person in the room. "Oh my god holy shit. I thought it was familiar but this?"
Reborn smirked, "Ah, so you have heard of me."
"Shit, he heard us!" Vi clapped the hand that wasn't still tightly gripping the keys over her mouth.
"Wow he has really fucking good hearing, like what the hell." Ian ran his hand through his hair in shock.
"Paaaain." Lana whined, still hissing in pain from Vi's panicking hits and holding the taser tighter than usual.
"Since you have heard of me, that just makes it easier. Now," Reborn pointed his gun towards the trio, "Tell me who you three are and your connection with the mafia." He paused, looking at Lana and making eye contact. "Lana Vega."
Lana flinched when hearing her full name. Unsure of whether to raise the taser, she glanced up to stare at the baby hitman directing his gaze to her, "How does he know my name?"
Vi dropped her jaw. "What devil's witchcraft is this? I knew he was good, but not this good."
The tiny figure atop the table smirked, "I have my ways. Now tell me."
Ian scrambled to come up with an explanation. "Uh. We're not really allowed to talk about it. We're…under oath…?"
"Omerta huh?" Reborn figured from Ian's fumbled words, "Well since you clearly know the mafia, but you haven't changed back into your older selves, it can't be the TYL bazooka. That leaves either some new way that de-aging happens, or you're somehow involved with Checkerface."
The three looked at each other in confusion and worry, unsure if this somehow broke the rules that had been given to them, which would mean that they lost even before they started 'playing'.
Vi spoke up, thinking up a vague answer. "Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say that the bazooka is definitely not the only event that can change a person's age. But besides the bazooka, there's not many possibilities it could be. Since everyone here is an example of the one and the same," she finished, giving a pointed look at Reborn.
Ian, catching onto Vi's drift, added, "So now we know that you know and you know that we know."
Lana started to wonder what's up with this inception-like theme going on. Shaking her thoughts off Lana attempted to explain their situation without using any words that'd violate their rules, "You see, what we're trying to say is—"
"No, I understand…Checkerface it is then. Well, he must have some sort of plan, otherwise he wouldn't have sent you three here. Since you three are here, might as well help out. Gokudera's fight is tomorrow, so I'll be expecting you there in the case that something happens."
Finishing his coffee, Reborn placed the cup down and strolled through the front door nonchalantly as they simply stared in confusion as to what just happened.
"…We should go place the groceries into the fridge." Lana spoke, breaking the silence.
"Unload the bags!" Ian yelled as he grabbed five bags in each arm and heaved them over to the kitchen.
Vi stared blankly. "He left like three bags for us, and I think he took a clothing bag."
Ian's voice reverberated loudly from the kitchen, "If you want them, you're welcome to come and grab some!"
"I will not eat a shirt under any circumstances!" Vi yelled back, grabbing the three remaining bags and walking towards the voice.
"That's not what Ian meant, Vi!" Lana carefully closed the door, locking it behind her, "Vi would've said Reborn didn't lock the door…and loudly yelled that he was being rude."
"Hey! Reborn didn't close the door when he left, did he? How rude!" came a voice from the kitchen.
"There she goes." Lana sighed upon hearing Vi's voice.
Ian's voice once again floated into the living room, "Haven't you people ever heard of closing the goddamn door, no~?"
Heading over to the kitchen, Lana checked the clock set on the microwave noticing that it was dinner time, "Vi! Did you see a black bow clip in one of the bags? I kinda need it so that I can start making the stir-fry."
Ian wandered into the kitchen, "I haven't seen your bow at all. Are you sure it's not in one of your bags?" He was wearing a shit eating grin, with the black bow clip placed nicely in his hair.
"Nevermind!" Lana gave a blank look to Ian after yelling to Vi, "I think I already found it."
Ian snorted and handed the clip over to Lana. "I guess you did."
"Thank you." Lana felt obliged to thank him in spite of his actions.
Vi walked into the kitchen holding a butcher knife. "I heard someone say stir-fry."
Pulling her bangs, Lana clipped them in place with the bow clip, "Do you want to chop the vegetables?"
"Yes." A glint in her eye, she headed to the sink to rinse off her knife.
"Just don't hit your hand, and don't aim at us either." Lana turned over to Ian after warning Vi, "Could you hand me the wok?"
"Sure." Out of nowhere, Ian had already pulled out the said item.
Taking out a cutting board and setting her knife on it, Vi headed to their fridge and inspected the inside. "Fancy," she whistled, impressed. "So what do you need me to chop, Head Chef Lana?"
"Mushrooms, cabbage, broccoli, and zucchini." Lana replied while gathering the ingredients for the sauce base, "Oyster sauce, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. Hey, Vi take the garlic too!"
Using this as a chance to test out his wind powers, Ian took a few deep breaths to calm himself enough to light his wind flame. Then, gently wrapping one item at a time in a ball of wind, he struggled to lift it in a way that it just hovered. However, a lack of solid control unfortunately caused each item to spin in varying speeds and directions. Ian was able to manage up to a inch above a surface before it became too dangerous to control and unfortunately dropped a bottle of strawberry wine he had managed to obtain with a shout.
Turning to the source of the sound, Lana berated Ian, "Don't play with food Ian."
Her eyes widened upon the fragmented label of the alcohol stating 'Strawberry Wine', Lana thus voiced a serious tone to Ian, "We're not legal for Pete's sake Ian!"
"Shhhhhh Lana it's okay! It's not that bad really. They didn't even card me!" Ian looked sadly at the lost bottle and went to grab the broom and mop.
"How in the world did they not check for your ID card?!" Lana huffed as folded her arms across.
Returning to the scene of the crime with said mop and broom, Ian began cleaning up his broken mess. "The swagger walk obviously. You know? The 'what up I got a big wiener' walk of badassery, well that plus the credit card that Checkerface gave us just screams 'I'm rich!' So they didn't card me."
Sending a face palm to herself, Lana breathed a stressful sigh, "I can't believe this happened."
Ian pouted as he collected the broken glass fragments in a bag, "I can't believe it either! It was a delicious one too! I mean, I got more but still…" With a sigh, he left the pantry to go practice some more with non-damageable goods, probably lightweight too just for control's sake.
Taking each item out as Lana listed them off, Vi miscalculated the amount of food and grabbed too much for them to finish that night for dinner.
Lana didn't notice any of this as she was busy scolding Ian.
Vi paid no attention to them in the background as she prepared to play with her new shiny knife. After the vegetables were rinsed, she stuck her tongue out estimating how thinly they should be chopped. She had switched her butcher knife to a more suitable blade for vegetables. "Hmm, the knife seems a bit bigger than usual. Maybe just cause my hands are smaller, I guess." She started to chop the vegetables, getting into a rhythm. Chopping and putting it in a bowl. Repetitively. She didn't notice the sheer amount of food she had gone through until it was all gone.
Somewhat sheepishly, Vi yelled out, "Uhh, hey Lana! How much did we need?"
"One cabbage, six sliced mushrooms, one zucchini cut in fourths, and five broccolis chopped into small chunks." Lana yelled back to the girl assisting her with the vegetables as she busied herself on heating the wok.
"We're going to eat stir-fry for days." Vi deadpanned upon viewing how much she had chopped up.
Lana turned around at Vi's words and was going to question her until she saw the amount of vegetables sitting on multiple plates beside the cutting board, "I can't believe you."
Meanwhile the duo was cooking, Ian was sitting on the living room floor with pieces of paper in his hands. He took some time to quickly fold them into pieces of origami, and then set them around himself. "Focus your resolve, huh?" Ian stared off into space as he tried once again to find and hold onto his so-called-resolve from training. "Okaaaaay. Last time, I thought of…hmmm. It's essentially like a dying will bullet, except you need to hold onto that thought." Inhale. Ian let his eyes close as he could feel the heat rising through him, "So I guess mine would be to my own personal happiness."
Ian opened his eyes as his ring on his right middle finger lit with silver flames. Exhale. He focused on the paper crane directly in front of him and raised his right hand, "Take it slowly, one at a time." He imagined the wind creating a platform, enough force to hold it up but not enough to rip through. Once visualized, he could create a platform from scratch, entirely made out of air essentially, hovering relatively stable a foot off the ground. Gently picking up the crane, he held it over the top of the platform and gingerly set it down, careful to keep his concentration on both his resolve and his visualized platform.
Taking slow, even breaths to match the pulse of the wind, Ian slowly dropped his hands down into his lap, keeping a careful eye on his test object. Once it was stable enough, he focused on making additional platforms to place his other origami pieces on. Now with a total of seven different sized and shaped platforms, all relatively stable in holding the pieces aloft, stability was achieved.
"Now for the true test." Standing up, Ian created a platform big enough for him to sit on. "Wow ok this feels weird. Like I'm perpetually falling but at the same time, not?"
Now that he knew that he could keep them stable on a platform, it was time to try moving the platform and keeping the pieces sitting in the same place on top of the platform, starting with the crane. However, in moving the platform, the crane wobbled and tipped over, thoroughly wrecking Ian's concentration, and dispelling the platform as a gush of wind.
"Goddamnit." Ian groaned as he threw himself onto the floor in frustration. "But progress. Stability is good. Mobility can be worked on a little later. For now, I smell food." Climbing back to his feet, Ian made his way back to the kitchen, taking care to avoid his origami creations. .
Still in the kitchen, Lana put the finishing touches on the stir-fry.
Sitting on the ground next to the fridge, Vi felt displeased with herself for getting too much food and asked Lana, "Do you need anything else?" hoping for a chance at redemption.
Lana tried to think of something Vi wouldn't be able to mess up, "How about you set up plates for the karaage and sashimi in the fridge?"
Vi got up and raised a fist in the air, ready to prove herself. "I humbly accept this mission, Captain Lana!"
Shaking her head, Lana muttered, "How did I get from head chef to captain?" Deciding the dish was done, she turned the stove off. "The stir-fry is ready!" Lana announced while placing the stir-fry on a serving platter.
After taking out the karaage and sashimi, Vi took out a couple of plates and utensils for the trio. She also removed the small packet of soy sauce from the sushi box and put it into a separate sauce dish. She left the wasabi and ginger in the box, grabbing a small bit of each for herself.
Ian walked into the kitchen. "Ayyy it smells nice in here! Is it eating time?"
Grabbing the plates and utensils, Lana spoke to Ian, "Yeah, grab what you want."
They split the karaage and sashimi evenly among them and grab a large portion of the stir-fry in an attempt to make as much of a dent as possible so they could finish it faster.
Ian filled his plate with the stir-fry, karaage, and sashimi. As for the sashimi, Ian made a face at the ginger and wasabi in the box next to the soy sauce. "Gross. Why do you even use those? Soy sauce is all you need for fish."
Grabbing her own food, Vi shrugged. "It's pretty good after you get used to it. Maybe you just have a baby mouth with baby tastes." She poured some soy sauce into a separate small plate with a bit of wasabi, mixed it up, then dipped a slice of sashimi into the sauce. "Mmmm, it burns so good."
"Sashimi on its own tastes just as good." Lana dipped some sashimi into the sauce premade by Vi to try some, "The wasabi and ginger are good to try once in awhile."
"Eugh. Anyways why is there so much stir-fry?" Ian gave a questioning nod to the still very overflowing wok.
"I am very insatiable and I love food." Vi answered, looking innocent.
Looking in the cupboards for cups, Lana retorted sending a scowl to Vi, "She hecked up."
Ian chuckled, "Haha, we're going to eat this same thing for days." He turned his head suddenly, hearing a soft shuffling of steps in the hallway. Seeing Ian turn his head, Lana and Vi both turned to see what he was looking at.
Tsunomichi slowly wandered into the kitchen, as if lured out by the smell of food.
Vi snickered, "What are you an animal?" and went to the fridge in search of a drink. "Oooh, so much calpis! You want a drink?"
"I want you to stop tormenting the man." Lana rolled her eyes, despite having some anger welled up for Tsunomichi herself. "Grab me a water bottle and get Ian a milk tea."
"We don't have enough food. See? Only got three portions. Too bad." Ian popped open the can that Vi passed him and took a swig. "Ahh delicious~"
Tsunomichi's expression saddened at the thought of no food for him.
"Yes, if your portions are for some bear," Lana deadpanned remembering the sight of the amount of vegetables Vi cut, "We made so much food already, so it shouldn't hurt to share some with Tsunomichi."
Vi sighed and relented, "I suppose some would say that starving an animal is inhumane." She took a sip from her strawberry calpis.
Lana grabbed her plate and water and told the girl, "Vi, go to the dining room."
"Nah, I'll go to the living room. Maybe watch some tv," Vi left the kitchen, balancing her plate of food, the soy sauce plate, and her calpis.
"Put on food network if they have it!" Ian shouted after her, slowly following with his own plate and drink.
"We might need subtitles though!" she yelled back from the living room.
Before leaving the kitchen, Lana washed the plates in the sink placing them into the dishwasher. However as Lana was going to leave, she sent a blank look to Tsunomichi. In truth, Lana still felt irked about the first abrupt transportation along with the room incident although Lana gestured to the food, offering their leftovers to the sad caretaker. Finally, Lana left the kitchen to see what the two were doing in the living room.
When they walked into the living room, they spotted a phone they did not notice before on a side table had a flashing light signifying a voice mail. The principal had called to confirm their enrollment to Namimori Middle starting tomorrow, since the uniforms should have arrived by tonight. They should arrive early to make preparations for their classes and familiarize themselves with the school.
"School starts at eight in the morning so I guess we have to leave around seven?" Lana took note of the times mentioned from the principal's call.
"If school starts at 8 and we leave by 7 does that mean I need to be awake and playing up the bass at 6?" Ian asked, already putting an alarm on his phone for 6 AM.
Vi looked up from where she was inhaling her food. "So like. Are we going to talk about the elephant in the room? Or I suppose in this case, the hitman in the room."
Ian looked up from his phone and rested his head on his fist, "Wow you just gotta bring that up during this, the most peaceful of mealtimes? Yeah sure fine let's talk about how motherfucking Reborn was in our fucking house. Or about how we're in the goddamn manga. OR about how we're going to meet fictional characters that we hella crushed on? And how we got fineass magic powers?"
"Calm down Ian," Lana reminded him, "Now go drink your milk tea."
With the hand holding the milk tea can, Ian pointed his index finger at Lana and opened his mouth like he was going to speak, but paused and took a sip of his tea instead. "Now that I've drunk, returning back to the situa—"
"Hey, Lana," Vi interrupted. "How are you taking this all? You haven't seem freaked out very much."
"Reborn said my name." Lana spoke in a calm manner taking a sip of water while sending the both of them a blank face, "Of course I'm freaking out."
"Ah yes, I can tell from your tone and facial expression that you are absolutely traumatized." Vi drawled sarcastically. "But seriously this is completely batshit wild."
"You could say that this is, indeed, the freshest horseshit." Ian snickered to himself. "But ignoring all that, what do you guys remember from KHR?" With a glance at the two of them, he returned to shoveling food into his mouth.
Vi put a hand on her chin thoughtfully. "Okay, Reborn said that Gokudera's fight was tomorrow. The only thing that I can think that matches that is the ring battles with the Varia right?" Snapping her fingers in realization, she grabbed another mouthful of stir-fry, shoving it in her mouth.
Lana capped her water bottle to add on, "So does that mean we're in the Varia arc?"
"Oh no," Vi suddenly cried out. "That means my bae is in prison!"
Ian rolled his eyes in exasperation, "But your other bae is gonna arrive. All meek and shy and absolutely no battle prowess."
"Actually, you guys…" Lana frowned a bit, unsure of how to feel about what she was going to mention. "I don't think I remember much of what happened in the Varia arc. I mean it's been so long since we've read and watched the major storyline of Katekyo Hitman Reborn."
"Well like the Vongola wins at the end, so that's not really much of a problem. I remember my gf wins her battle against an arcobaleno with the help of my bf." Vi recalled, finishing her stir-fry. "And I still remember the order the battles were in. Sun, lightning, storm, rain, mist, cloud, and finally sky."
Ian shrugged, taking another drink from his tea, "Mostly what I remember had to do with Yama's match. And some of Gokudera's since that was a fucking amazing match!" Grinning, he set down his can before continuing, "I even took some of Bel's tricks to use for myself. Honestly, the wire technique you wouldn't think it would work properly but it does! It's actually pretty genius of a move. And absolutely dickish."
"I see." Lana nodded as she listened to Ian's memories of the arc, "All I recall was how they first met all of the members of the Varia and Tsuna finding out about his dad being an external advisor to the Vongola Family. The rest of the arc is where I draw a blank."
"Well, I suppose that's good enough for now. We shouldn't interfere too much since they are capable of handling this without us." Vi pointed out, remembering Checkerface's rules. "So we should watch from the background and not change too much plot."
"Let's watch from the roof!" Ian jumped out of his seat, managing to not spill any of his food in the process.
"Why the roof?" Lana questioned Ian's suggestion, uncertain of going to the rooftop in the middle of the night.
Ian looked as smug as he felt, "Because it would look cool. And because it would be nice and windy outside."
"You and your wind." Lana sighed, "As long as we don't get hit by a stray attack, otherwise we have to be watching elsewhere."
Shrugging as he finished his last few bites of food, Ian set his plate on the table, "I'm pretty sure as long as we stay on the other side of the school we should be fine from the turbine blasts. The only thing I'm worried about is the Varia's ability to sense others and their 'murderous' intent or whatever it was."
"Easy, we just have to not want to murder anyone. Or malicious intent. Which may be harder than it sounds actually." Vi tapped her fingers against the couch, swirling her drink around in her other hand. "Hm, we also have to stay away from Levi's weird squad since they get beat up by Hibari after the battle. Wouldn't want to run into that guy on a dark night."
"I doubt any of us wants to run into Hibari in the first place." Lana shuddered as it dawned on her that THE Hibari Kyoya from KHR is now considered real, "I still question as to why most of the fandom loves him the most, not to say I wasn't one of them before. Although now that we're here, I'm more terrified than glad to see him."
"The danger is the attractive part." Vi explained. "It's like how people like bad boys who don't 'play by the rules'." Fingers up doing air quotes, she made a face at a thought. "Which is exactly what Hibari is, if you think about it."
"Hibari is a walking danger zone, I still don't understand why he is cloud attributed when he's perfectly suited to be storm as well." Ian returned to his seat on the couch with an 'oomph' and leaned onto his knees, focusing on lifting his now empty tea can in a ball of wind once again.
"I guess Gokudera is more explosive than Hibari from Iemitsu's understanding." Lana internally laughed at the dry thought.
Ian glared at Lana. "That was absolutely horrible." And with a smirk, sent his can flying towards Lana in a wobbly arc.
Catching the can into her hands, Lana shrugged her shoulders, "Hey, I'm not the one who chose the guardians. Also that was rude, both throwing it and expressing the hidden pun in that. Telling me to 'can it.' Hmph."
Clapping her hands and ignoring Ian's snickering, Vi gathered their attention. "So in summary, the plan is to watch the battle from the roof and stay safe." she concluded. "Besides that, we go to school like normal middle schoolers, don't stick out too much, and gather information."
"Yeah." Lana agreed with Vi's statement.
"Righty-o champaroony. Good pep talk team. Break the huddle. It's time for sleepy time junctures to the dream freeway to snooze city. Because I am pooped." Ian stretched his arms above his head as he slowly pushed off the couch.
"You guys go ahead, I'm gonna go wash the dishes." Lana got up from her seat holding both Ian's can and her water bottle on top of her plate.
"You sure? We should probably help since you cooked after all." Vi argued.
Ian looked surprised at Lana's offer and reached out to grab his plate and can back. "I meant after dishes dude. Gimme gimme."
"Nah, it's fine." Lana reassured them, taking Ian's respective items with her in the direction of the kitchen, "Besides I need to pack the leftovers for our lunch tomorrow."
"Seriously, you don't have to do all that." Vi grabbed her plates and drink and followed Lana into the kitchen. "What's the point of having three people if one does all the work?"
"I guess if you really don't mind…I'm feeling really tired all of a sudden so I'm really going to go to sleep early then." Ian yawned and rubbed at his eyes, feeling his body become lethargic and heavy. "Goodnight~." Ian turned and climbed up the stairs two a time to his bedroom where he changed out of his clothes, into a loose grey tank top and blue sweats, and collapsed into bed. He placed his phone on the nightstand and flipped the switch next to his bed that lit up the ceiling lights, changing the room from its regular bright white light into a darker blue light that mimicked the view of the night sky below the ocean waters. The soft shades of blue dancing along his walls was the last thing Ian saw before he fell into a deep sleep.
Lana took Vi's plates and pushed her out of the kitchen, "Just go. It's all fine, so go on ahead and get your beauty sleep."
"Beauty sleep is for the weak. I am a natural beauty. This is the work of angel tears and heaven's clouds." Vi insisted as she was pushed out. "I don't need sleep! I'm all mighty! I can last forever!"
"Last week, you messaged me with that one tweet about 24 hour sleep cycle with the caption 'dis me'." Lana reminded the girl of what took happened before they were transported.
Vi yelled back from the stairs. "I am a multifaceted enigma!"
Shaking her head, Lana was going to head to the sink until she remembered about another cup sitting on the living room table. Placing the dishes beside the sink, Lana headed back into the living room to grab the said item. Once she took hold of the cup, Lana muttered to herself as she stared at it, "Reborn's cup."
Lana pondered as to how the hitman managed to find out her full name, since neither Vi nor Ian had referred to her by it, only her first name. Trying to shrug the thought off since it was giving her a headache, Lana decided to resume her dish washing duty. Once she took out the dish dryer from the cabinet below the sink. Lana commenced washing all of the dishes closest to her first. When she had finished most of them, Lana turned off the water and went over to see the dishes on the table. Wondering if Tsunomichi ate some and hopefully not all of the leftovers. However, much to Lana's surprise, she found the plates of food already gone on the table, replaced with only three lunch boxes atop of the dining room table.
Taking a closer inspection of the lunch boxes, Lana noticed that each one had a particular design referring to them by their primary flames. A white lunch box of stars scattering around, a black lunch box filled with different phases of the moon, and finally a grey lunch box using various leaves and flowers caught in swirls to signify wind flames. Lana felt bad for doubting on Tsunomichi after seeing this, he even managed to get them lunch boxes which all three of them forgot to get at the supermarket. Heck, he even washed and put away the dishes she was supposed to do before going to sleep!
Lana made a mental note to thank Tsunomichi for packing the lunch and took all three of the lunch boxes to place into the fridge to preserve the food. A yawn sounded from her mouth, feeling her need for sleep, Lana went straight up the stairs for bed.
Opening the door to her room, Lana took out a matching pair of pastel blue pajamas bearing the sleeping star twins known as Kiki and Lala. Lana mumbled, "I forget that I had these pjs."
Dragging herself over to the bathroom while holding her pjs in hand, Lana's eyes squinted from the brightness of the bathroom lights. She spotted two sinks, a toilet, and a bath/shower combo with a shower door. Standing in front of the two sinks was none other than Vi in her pjs, wiping her wet hair with a towel, "I took a quick shower."
"Wow." Lana admitted, "That's a pretty fast shower."
"Didja want to use the bathroom?" Vi asked, already unplugging the hair dryer from the wall socket.
"Yeah." Lana headed into the bath and shower combo and closed the door behind her.
As Lana was taking her shower, Vi took the hair dryer into her room. Once she finished blow-drying her hair, she went back into the bathroom to brush her teeth.
She stared incredulously at the clear dinosaur patterned cup on the side of the sink. "They took my toothbrush."
Lana stepped out of the shower with a towel wrapped on her hair while wearing the pajamas she chose and holding onto the folded clothes she wore today, "Calm yourself, Vi. Did you double check your suitcase or room to make sure it's still there?"
Vi walked back to her room holding the bright green toothbrush, still somewhat in shock. "My toothbrush. Oh my god." Mumbling to herself as she looked through her carry on bag. She took out a case and mentally prepared herself before opening it. "Oh wow okay."
She walked back to the bathroom holding a toothbrush in each hand. "This is fucking surreal."
Lana goes back to her room to place her laundry into the laundry basket she found in her closet, going back over to her suitcase, Lana grabbed her pink travel toothbrush, a clear plastic cup, and toothpaste. Walking back into the bathroom, Lana filled up her cup with water and started brushing her teeth. After gargling all of the minty foam using the water, Lana spat the contents into the sink. Cleaning the cup with the sink water, she placed the toothbrush and toothpaste into the cup.
Brushing her teeth quickly yet thoroughly, Vi went through her ritual of mouthwash and floss. "Dental hygiene is very important," turning to Lana. "Also my dentist has scarred me for life."
"I can see that." Lana continued to dry her hair using the towel first and then went to use the blow dryer in her room.
"Alright I'm done with my stuff. Night!" Vi exited the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
"Night!" Lana responded back to Vi as she finished blow drying her hair, unplugging the item. Returning it to the dresser, Lana switched off the lights and tucked herself into bed.
And thus their first night in their new house in their new world ended.
Ian opened his eyes to the sound of waves crashing. The sky was partially cloudy with a light breeze and the sun was warm on his face. "Where am I? This isn't my room for sure." Looking in front of him, there was nothing but crystal clear ocean and sand. Trying to get his bearings, he glanced around until a glimmer caught his eye. Turning around so he could see what it was, he was greeted with nine doors, six of which were unfocused, bound in chains inside a silver crystal. The first two doors labeled in his own handwriting, Daily Life and Kokuyo, were unlocked and unbound. The third door, labeled as Varia, was only cracked open, still bound by chains. Stepping forward to look through the door, Ian stopped as the chains rattled and unlocked itself, allowing the door to open all the way.
"What even is this?" Ian took a few cautious steps forward, standing in the bright light that was shining upon the floor, filling the air with images. Quickly turning back around to look, Ian was stunned as he saw pages upon pages from the manga. The storm battle followed by those of the rain, mist, cloud, and the all-out-war for the sky.
Ian took a few steps into the water, staring at these recalled lost memories in confusion. "This…I remember this happening, I read it! But why did I forget so much?" As he got to where the group met up with Lancia following the end of the sky match, there was a loud cracking sound. The crystal surrounding the next door shattered, revealing a chained door marked as Future that opened as much as it was allowed. Through the opening, more images were cast out, once again filling the room with his sealed memories. Looking back and forth between the cracked door and the room, Ian allowed himself to immerse back into the show, refreshing his memory of the sequence of events leading up to the raid of Melone Base. And then the memory stream stopped.
Ian returned his gaze back to the sealed doors, only growing angrier as he stared at the four remaining crystallized doors. "Wait what the fuck?! Are you telling me that I have more of these memories, the story, forgotten? Or were they sealed away? How did I get them back? I need to—"
The sound of his alarm playing the soft melody of Dearly Beloved caused him to open his eyes, once again in his room. With the morning light filtering through the raining curtains, the room was somehow cast into a warm and bubble bath-like look. Ian sat up and ran a hand through his messy hair, still a little tired. "Goddamn, what a fucking dreamtrip. I should mention it to them during breakfast. I'm sure I was just going insane, but maybe I wasn't the only one who had that dream."
Getting out of bed, he padded over to the bathroom he apparently shared with the game room. It was a pretty clean bathroom, with two white tiled walls and a marbled flooring with a soft fluffy white rug. The shower and bath unit was on the same side as the toilet, while the double sink unit was on the other side. At this point, Ian really wasn't questioning why all of his things were in the bathroom already. Instead he just pulled open the drawer where he hoped he would find his speakers and found said speakers in the drawer. "Amazing."
Using the portable speakers to blast his music, Ian moved in time with the beat while taking care of his morning ritual. He brushed his teeth with minty fresh toothpaste rather quickly, quicker than the recommended '2 minutes sing the happy bday song to yourself while you brush your teeth' because that was bullshit . He simply used his hands to transport water to his mouth to rinse it out, 'like a heathen' as Vi would say. "Morning time means shower time!" However, upon turning towards the shower he was greeted with 18 pairs of eyes.
A scream rang out through the house.
Vi was startled awake by the sharp chirping of her alarm. She sat up feeling absolutely dead to the world. "Wow tiny me was not a morning person." She looked to the side, spotting her alarm clock on the ground where she swatted it. "Well thank goodness I'm awake." The room was dimly lit since it wasn't facing the rising sun.
She put her glasses on and made her way to the bathroom, still groggy and yawning widely without covering her mouth. When she entered the bathroom, she saw Lana's door still closed. "I guess she's not awake yet. Gotta be quiet…"
Spotting her reflection in the mirror, she put a hand on her hair in shock. "This is exactly why I never got bangs again." Her hair was sticking up in all directions, defying gravity. Looking for a flat iron in the cabinet underneath the sinks, she found bottles of hair products of all types. "How much stuff does he think a girl needs? Like the only thing I would ever use is shampoo, conditioner, and maybe a detangler spray." She spotted the flat iron behind the hair dryer from yesterday.
Acting quickly so Lana wouldn't see her anything less than perfect, she turned it on, waited until it was warm enough, and swiftly pulled her bangs straight. "Ah, wonderful. Maybe I should have gotten hair clips yesterday, but I can pull off bangs." Hearing noises coming from Lana's room, she pulled the plug, wrapping up the flat iron, and hid the evidence.
Vi closed the cabinet door and picked up her toothbrush just in time for Lana to walk through the door.
Lana groaned as she turned off the alarm clock, feeling slightly groggy. It had been awhile since she woke up this early to get ready for school. Getting off of her bed, Lana fixed her bed sheets straightening out the wrinkles made. Once she finished, Lana went to grab the comb sitting on her dresser to comb the small bundle of mess known as her hair. After combing her hair, Lana headed straight into the bathroom. She tried to stop herself from rubbing her eyes while opening the door to the bathroom, inside she found Vi already brushing her teeth.
"Good morning, Vi." Lana mumbled taking her cup to get her toothbrush.
"Morning," Vi managed to mumble out, toothbrush and foam in her mouth.
The two got themselves ready in silence, brushing their teeth and washing their faces, until…
A scream rang through the house.
Lana and Vi, after quickly glancing at each other, ran out of their bathroom to Ian's room.
Knocking on the door, Lana yelled through, "Ian? Are you okay?"
"They're here!" Ian yelled back, "They've just been sitting there, watching me this entire time!"
Vi yelled through the door, "Do you need me to knock the door down? Because I can probably do that!"
Lana gave Vi a stern look. "The door is unlocked, you know."
"I can still knock it down, just say the word," Vi was already cracking her knuckles in anticipation.
The door opened quickly and Ian appeared looking spooked, "No no it's ok. I just…He just. He brought my ducks over."
Lana, about to scold Vi who was about to break down the door, was taken aback at the strange sentence Ian just uttered. She blinked and could only manage to speak out a single word. "What."
Ian snarled, becoming increasingly vexed and opened the door to let them in. "My rubber duck bath collection, the SS Bath Bottoms! And he arranged them by size! Look!" He pointed to the bath rim like he was about to lay down a sick objection in the courtroom to break the witness's lies and expose the truth, the truth…about ducks.
"You see, the biggest with the grey scarf is Cryanophymium. Then its Tattoomaylei, who is the grey one with a tux. Myriad is the next one with the arrow patterns on his wings. 006 is the one with the purple crown and her wings spread out. D.Y.M.O. is the one that looks like it's metal but it's really not, he's just very finely painted. Jasmine is the one with the glasses that has the indent in her back, I sometimes use her to have candles floating in my bath. 009 is the one wearing a blue vest and is holding a ball. Historia is the graduation-looking one. Duck Duckaroo 2000 is the one in the yellow polka dotted inner tube that also has an indent for my candles. Sodium to the Nth Batduck is the one with large black rimmed glasses. 003 is the one that has the daisy sun hat, Omnium is the white one with the two swords on its back. Clark a Doodle Duck is the one with red polka dots. Makki is the pink one with a teal bowtie and Mattsun is the fluffy one with a teal bowtie. Rellia is the one with the giant red bow on her head. Zennikins is the one making a scowl as if it were insulted and that…That one is a new one. The checkered hat one. Ohmygod that fucking fuckboy I swear to god he added a new duck to the SS Bath Bottoms. That's its new name, I'm sorry duck. Your name is now Fuckboi. You're not going into the SSBB, but you can go with the Why U Mad Hatters collection and not the Tops Not Bottoms collection since you have a fedora."
Staring at the disorganized duck line, Ian sighed, bemoaning silently that he would have to rearrange them the next time he took a bath.
"Well, good luck on that." Lana checked the wall clock in Ian's room and went back to her room, "I still need to wash my face."
Vi, eyeing the row of ducks closely, wondered out loud, "I thought I once gave you a princess duck."
"The one with a crown right? Yeah you did. Lunark the Moon is in the Tops Not Bottoms collection. Why?" Ian turned around to look at Vi suspiciously.
"Just curious. Although, in my opinion, the princess seems more like a bottom." Snickering behind her hand, she left Ian's room.
Ian's response was just a look of disgust. Heading downstairs for breakfast, unchanged, he muttered to himself, "She could be a power bottom, you never know. Anyways, no shower for me I guess."
Back in Vi and Lana's bathroom, the two finished tidying up and got ready to go downstairs, still in their pjs.
The trio walked into the kitchen to find their student uniforms folded nicely on the table with a note on top with a checkered hat, presumably from the only checker maniac in the house, Tsunomichi.
Lana took the note and read the letter out loud.
Good Morning!
I hope you three are ready to start going to school! Normally I would be there to take you to school as your legal guardian, however, Master Checkerface requested my help so I am currently away on business. Although, I am confident that you three are able to take good care of yourselves and are able to make it to school with no troubles.
Remember the rules given to you.
Your caretaker, Tsunomichi.
Listening in the back, Vi took her head out of the fridge, "Wonder what kind of business that could be." She found the curry and cream puff bread that Lana bought yesterday. "Aw Lana, are these for us? Hey, Ian! There's a cream puff for a cream puff!"
Ian looked out from the pantry. "Who're you calling a cream puff, cake pop? Hand it to me," sticking his arm out.
Lana stifled a yawn while refolding the letter, "I'm not dealing this without coffee." She turned to the coffee machine, taking out the box of french vanilla Vi had purchased yesterday.
After receiving the offered cream puff, Ian grabbed a chimichanga from the freezer and moved to the microwave to heat it up.
Vi was still rifling through the fridge and called out. "Hey do you want anything to drink besides coffee? Also, I still gotta toast my bread."
Lana headed over to set the toaster oven, "Could you get me an apple, 3 eggs, and half a glass of orange juice?"
Ian called out by the microwave, "Just gimme the whole thing of orange juice!"
Vi passed the curry bread to Lana who put it in the oven, got out an apple, 3 eggs, the orange juice jug, and the almond milk carton for herself, and closed the fridge.
Once Lana got the three eggs from Vi, she asked the two on how they want their eggs while taking out a frying pan and spatula, "Scrambled or over easy?"
Ian removed his finished breakfast delight from the warming machine, gently rested a hand on Lana's shoulder in passing, and whispered, "I'm always scrambled."
"What about you Vi?" Lana asked while drizzling a small amount of olive oil onto the pan.
"Also scrambled." Vi sipped her almond milk, waiting for her curry bread to finish toasting.
Lana muttered to herself as she salted the first scrambled egg, "Guess I'm the only one who prefers over easy."
While pouring the other two their glasses of orange juice, Vi remembered a thing. "Hey I saw three boxes in the fridge. What were those?"
"Those are our lunchboxes, I think Tsunomichi packed the leftovers for us after I offered him some dinner." Lana replied, starting on the next scrambled egg.
"Really?" Ian went to the fridge and took the boxes out while putting the orange juice back. "Hey Lana did you look inside them yet?"
"No, I was too drowsy yesterday." Lana stopped for a moment by the time she finished her over easy egg, after realizing her small mistake, "I should've checked, drat."
There was a snort from Ian. "Oh my god you have to take a look, this is amazing."
Vi went over to look and began laughing so hard, she choked on her milk. "This is absolutely surreal."
Lana, making sure the stove was off, headed over to look. "Did I make the right choice in giving him food?"
"I fucking guess so, this is completely hilarious." Vi put her drink down, starting to cry a little.
Ian picked up his full glass of OJ, giggling to himself as he took a picture. "I absolutely fucking think you did, this is the best thing that I've seen this week."
Lana gaped at what she saw, "Wow…this is adorable."
It was the cutest fucking lunch boxes any of them had seen. Vegetables cut into little flowers, those little hot dogs cut into octopi, the rice was shaped into cute animals with faces made out of seaweed. The stir-fry from yesterday was neatly put around everything, creating a nice border. Overall, it was absolutely adorable.
After taking a gulp of his drink, Ian commented amusedly. "Wow he does care. Either that or he's scared as all hell of us."
"I don't even know any more." Vi shook her head. "It almost seems like a shame to eat these. If he made these every day, I might forgive him in a week."
Lana marvelled at their caretaker's success, "Tsunomichi has found the way to Vi's heart, through her stomach. I also kind of owe him an apology later…anyways! It's school time, c'mon we need to change into our uniforms!"
They each grabbed their own uniform from the table and spotted something. Underneath the uniforms was another note with an orange dying will bullet, that the trio could only guess was from their guest yesterday.
I'll be watching you three.
-Reborn
"Well, that's not terrifying at all," Vi broke the silence with her sarcastic remark.
"Wow you are absolutely right that's not creepy at all. Nuh uh! Not at all! I, for one, welcome yet another person watching our every move." Ian placed a hand on his chest, looking sincere, but his words dripped with sarcasm.
"At least he somewhat knows our situation." Lana stated while taking custody of the letter.
"Our situation? Do you mean constant threat of death? Ah yes, I am so pleased that a hitman knows that we are in constant danger." Vi retorted. She sighed heavily. "Why don't we just get changed."
Ian laughed at that, "We are the danger that lurks in the streets."
The trio all headed back up the stairs to change into their respective school uniforms. When they all finished, they met downstairs in the living room.
Lana dressed in a white blouse covered by a dark blue sleeveless sweater vest, paired with a grey skirt and black leggings, last but not least a red bow tie on the collar of her blouse. On her hair was none other than the same bow clip she bought at the accessory store to hold back her bangs and in hand was an olive colored messenger bag meant to be used for her laptop that is now used for her messenger bag. Decorating on the zipper, Lana added a rabbit charm adorning a gold bell she used back in high school.
Vi wore the same as Lana except she chose to ditch the black leggings for a pair of black thigh highs. In her head, she complained about being absolutely stifled in the layers. She especially wanted to rip off the stupid red bow that had no business being there, but she settled for laying it flat and covering it with the purple scarf she bought the day before. She had dug out a medium black messenger bag from her closet and decided to use that as her bookbag. She decorated her bag with a bunch of pins she had collected over the years. There were five small cat face buttons, two rainbow pins, three dog faces, a volleyball, a snake, and a crab. She decided to keep with the same running sneakers she wore to the airport, since boots and the like were just impractical for school.
Ian looked very uncomfortable in his uniform. "Eugh. Longsleeves are gross" He kept fiddling with the longsleeves of the sweater vest and white button up. He temporarily debated about tucking them into his grey pants, but decided against it. Once he finished adjusting his tie to a decent constriction, "Damn neck traps," he grabbed his black messenger bag, attached his nalgene bottle, and picked up his skateboard and headphones from the floor.
In the living room after seeing each other, Vi smirked. "I think we may stick out more than planned."
"Why do you say that?" Lana asked Vi.
"We don't dress like middle schoolers." came the reply.
Ian sighed, resting his arms behind his head. "We are middles schoolers, in middle school uniforms, going to middle school. It doesn't get any more middle school than that. I look fine though. Maybe you should look in the mirror yourself, you look abnormal."
Vi sighed. "It's just something about the way we stand and hold ourselves."
"Our stance?" Lana glanced at what she was wearing for a few minutes before sending Vi a questioning look.
"Righty-o sorry lemme just fix that real quick." Ian immediately dropped into a slouch and put up an air of defiance. "Jyuudaime! I will be the boss' right hand man!" Straightening back up he gave Vi a smirk. "Better?"
"Why you gotta sass me like that? I was saying that we seem more mature than the average middle schooler and you just have to prove me wrong!" She held her hand over her eyes in irritation.
"Most middle schoolers seem more mature than the average middle schooler! I don't know what you want from me!" He stuck up his middle finger at her, and pulled another rude gesture from his pocket.
"Alright enough arguing and more walking you two." Lana reminded the two.
"We're like still in the house, where do you want me to walk? Into the wall?" Vi's voice began raising. "And statistically speaking, if most middle schoolers were more mature than the average, than it wouldn't the damn average!"
"To the windows! To the walls!" Ian laughed as he rolled out the door on his skateboard doing an ollie over the threshold.
"To be or not to be, time to say goodbye to the house and head straight to school." Lana pointed at the wall clock waiting for Vi by the door, "Ian, why in the world did you skateboard out of the house?! Now there's gonna be dirt on the floor!"
Grabbing her bag, Vi muttered under her breath. "I'm starting to think the saying that boys mature slower is real."
"Don't say that." Lana remarked toward Vi's statement, "Come on let's go."
Cursing at Ian in her head, she followed them out the house and locked the door behind her. "He started it this time, calling me abnormal. I look cute as fuck which is more than what he can say. Hmph."
"Yes, yes." Lana followed after Vi to walk beside her, "Vi is the cutest in Namimori."
Ian stood at the front gate, balancing on his skateboard. "Hurry up ya slowpokes."
Vi rolled her eyes. "Why'd you bring your skateboard anyways? Are you gonna just hold it all day at school?"
"What if the administrators or teachers confiscate it?" Lana brought up.
All that got them was a shrug in response. "Ehh. It'll be okay. If sports kids can keep their shit somewhere so can I with my skateboard."
Vi grumbled into her scarf. "Shoulda brought a coffee, it's cold out. I hate this. How long 'til we get to school?"
"I think…" Lana grabbed her phone from the pocket of her messenger bag, "We have exactly…oh no…10 minutes left to get there."
Ian pushed off the ground, starting to roll down the street slowly. "We've got time. We live pretty close to school anyways."
"Ian, slow the fuck down." Vi complained when Ian started to get ahead of the others.
Ian skidded to a stop and turned back to face them in shock. "I just barely started moving! And you're telling me to slow down, says the one who wouldn't slow down yesterday when we were shopping!"
"Ian!" Lana called out to the skaterboy in frustration, "We can't catch up to a skateboard on foot."
With a sigh, Ian hopped off his skateboard and picked it up, waiting for them. "Alrighties then."
Increasing her speed into a sprint, Lana headed straight for the direction of the school, "That's what you two get!"
"Betrayal!" Vi cried out. "From the most unexpected source!"
"Oh wow! Lana, taking it from behind!" Ian grinned. "But not for long!"
"No fair! You both got a head start!" Vi yelled, running after them.
Taking off in a mad dash, Ian rolled his skateboard out in front of him and jumped on, riding the momentum from both the roll and his sprint to pull in front of Lana. "First to school wins!" The distance between their house and the school was in a diagonal line, cut in between the residential district that was filled with big gaps and smaller alleyways. Unfortunately, Ian on his skateboard wouldn't be able to fit through the narrow alleys safely, meaning he had to go around the entire residential homes onto the sidewalk to get to school.
Dodging and weaving through the early morning risers, the tired workers, the vibrant exercise joggers, and late school goers, he made it out of the residential area and to the sidewalk. For the most part, it was an uphill climb, all the way up to the school. "Why are schools always at the top of the fucking hill. Why even put a school anywhere near the hill? Do they want their students to be tired in class or something?" Ian groaned, reclaimed his wheels, and hit the ground running.
"This sucks all the ass, I swear, it's enough to be a vacuum." There were other students who were also walking to school that stopped to look at Ian, who was running in a dead sprint up the hill without looking too winded. But ignoring their stares, Ian continued to run up the path, the school gates in sight. However, Vi was coming up the opposite path, also almost at the gates. He locked eyes with her and leaned forward to reduce wind resistance. Summoning all of his energy to propel his legs further, faster, fiercer.
As Vi ran past Lana, she spoke under her breath. "Thank fuck I wore my good sneakers today." She was also grateful that her legs were longer than the other girl's. "See you at school, Lana!" waving behind her.
Once she was a good distance ahead of the girl, she took out her phone and opened up the picture of the map of the town. She began mapping out shortcuts, using alleys with less people and other low traffic areas.
Vi quickly turned a corner into an alley and spotted a tiny crying cat. "Oh no! I must pet it!" Remembering her lack of time, she just fucking grabbed the cat and started to run away. Hugging the kitten to her chest, she cooed. "Oh you're so fluffy and white and I love you. I wonder if I can keep you secret until later."
She continued running through alleys and side streets, narrowly missing trash cans and loose garbage. As she skidded out of an alley, fully intact and dusting herself off, she spotted some students wearing the same uniform as her.
"It's a hill?! Seriously?!" She bemoaned the uphill climb, as she adjusted her bag and the kitten in her arm. Cursing her plight, she started sprinting up the hill, hoping that Ian wasn't already there. She gained some weird looks for having a cat with her, but she ignored them and concentrated on not tripping and falling on her face. School gates in sight, she spotted Ian coming up the other side, almost exactly at the same time.
Making eye contact with the boy, she mustered her remaining strength and moved her legs faster by sheer willpower. The two reached the front and rushed through the gates.
"First!"
"I win!"
Left behind, Lana grumbled at Ian's and Vi's speed, "I forgot they're faster than me."
As Lana jogged down the sidewalk, she noticed a sudden increase of people out today besides the students. There were people exercising or walking their dogs, students from other schools going down a different direction, and workers rushing to get to work. Lana barely dodged the incoming lady walking her dog heading down her way.
"Why are there so many people out today?!" Lana bit her lip as she continued to evade incoming obstacles she came by. In the midst of her constant evasions, Lana spotted a cute dog wandering outside its house.
"Oh, what a cute dog—" Without even realizing it, Lana's face had slammed into the pole. She cringed as she pinched the bridge of her nose, "Ouch."
Taking a few steps back, Lana leaned down to pet the adorable dog's head out of satisfaction. Once she got her satisfactory amount of petting, Lana continued running onwards to see a familiar building. Nami-Middle in all its seemingly normal glory, with students entering from the hill. Wait…a hill?! The uphill climb?!
"Oh my…no!" Lana screeched as she attempted increase her speed more, "Uphill climbing…time to internally sing the Love Hime song!"
Humming the tune to herself, Lana's sprint slowly inched after each person she surpassed while smiling to herself. Each person that was passed wondered why in the world was she smiling with a small bruise in the middle of her forehead. Although by the time Lana spotted the gates of the school, she saw Vi and Ian already leaning against the gates waiting for her.
"Well there goes my chances of winning." Confirming that she lost to the both of them, Lana slowed down her pace back to walking.
As she approached the gates, she heard the bickering that she had long gotten used to.
"What do you mean you won? I obviously stepped past the gates first!"
"Are you blind? Clearly, my head went through before yours!"
Lana reached the gates and sighed. "Congratulations, you both tied. Does either of you have water?"
Ian unclipped his nalgene from his bag and handed it over to Lana. "So what happened? Didja get lost?"
"I ran into a pole after spotting a dog on the sidewalk." Lana finished after taking a waterfall of water.
Stifling her giggles after seeing the bruise on Lana's forehead, Vi put her arms around both Lana and Ian's shoulders. "Nice job anyways. Although let's not do this every morning to avoid the whole 'who won' thing, okay?" Remembering her indignation before Lana arrived, a spark of determination welled up inside her.
Unbeknownst to her, her ring flickered up for a few seconds and her hands glowed dimly. The glow went into Ian and Lana respectively and the two felt a sharp tingle.
"Oi." Ian rubbed at his neck, "Why the hell did you zap me?"
"Huh?" Lana blinked a few times before placing the palm of her hand on her forehead, "My bruise doesn't hurt as much all of a sudden." She took a moment to collect herself and realized that she felt rather refreshed for someone who just ran up a hill.
Eyes wide, Vi whispered to the other two, "I think I saw my thing light up," holding her hand up.
"So does this mean it was your you know what?" Lana whispered back to Vi.
Ian face palmed. "We really need to come up with a code. Can't just say things or you-know-whats all the time." He glanced around the schoolyard, not seeing many students that early. The likelihood that anyone had heard them was nil.
"Oh man, that's so cool, I wonder if I can do that to myself." Putting a hand on her chest, she scrunched up her eyebrows in concentration. Soon the trio saw her ring dimly light up and hand glow a little. "Dang that packs a punch. Kinda like I just chugged an energy drink."
Ian looked at Vi worriedly. "While the idea sounds really gross, that was indeed neat-o."
"Uhh, Vi…I know this is a little late to say but why are you holding a cat?" Lana pointed out at the small animal still in Vi's grasp.
"I found it." Shifty eyed, Vi held the kitten a little tighter. The kitten mewed in protest.
"Where exactly?" Lana's eyes narrowed at the girl holding the kitten close.
Feining ignorance, Vi looked at her nonexistent watch on her wrist. "Oh, would you look at the time! We should head to the admin office!" She started to walk ahead towards the building.
"Vi…" Lana shook her head in disappointment, "Why are you taking the cat?"
Ian straightened out his tie before sighing and following. "At least hide the cat before going into the building, Vi."
Vi turned around, grinning brightly. "Come on Lana, fix your shirt already. You look like you just ran a mile."
After they cleaned themselves up a little and Vi hid the cat in her bag, they headed to the administration office. They sat in the waiting room for a couple minutes before the secretary called them into the principal's office.
The principal was sitting in his chair facing the trio, three packets sitting on the desk in front of him. "Take a seat." He gestured to the chairs in front of the desk, that looked very similar in style to the waiting room chairs. Which meant that they would be moderately uncomfortable.
After taking a seat, the trio got a good look at what was supposed to be the principal of Namimori Middle School. The principal was a professional looking stout old man, showing signs of age, but had a head full of hair that was obviously a bald comb over wig. It was a little hard not to stare too much at the wig, but they managed to sit through most of his spiel about the importance of learning and being proper young girls and boys in a professional school setting and blah blah blah.
Wanting to get his speech over with, Vi put on her teacher's pet face. Looking like an innocent angel, she smiled sweetly. "Of course, we want nothing more but to get the best possible learning experience out of this! We've heard so much about the brilliant teachings of this esteemed institution and were so pleased to be enrolled here."
Ian, leaning back in his seat, pretended to gag at Lana. He mouthed the words, "Kill me and end my suffering."
Lana frowned at Vi's actions and mouthed back to Ian, "I can't, we're inside the school."
The principal seemed to be very impressed with Vi's performance. "Well that's excellent! Oh, I seem to have rambled on a tad. Why don't you kids go get yourselves acquainted with our humble school." Waving a hand, he excused them from his office. "And don't be late for class, now!"
"Thank you sir!" Vi walked out first, making sure to bow slightly.
Following Vi's example, Ian bowed deeply to the principal, grabbed the packets off the table, and walked out the door.
Lana did the same as the others, closed the door behind her, and followed after the two.
Once they were out of earshot, far away from the principal's office, Vi turned to her companions. "That was disgusting. All teachers want to hear the same thing. 'I love learning' and fancy words like 'institution' or 'accredited' and bullshit. It's almost too easy." Making a face at how easily the principal was charmed.
"Terror." Lana mumbled, somewhat feeling grossed out from the principal's reaction.
"Horrifying." Ian had on a look of disgust. "Anyways let's go check out this 'prestigious mental institution' why don't we? Otherwise I'll go mental." Inside the packets was a map of the school grounds, with their classroom written on the bottom of the map. He handed Lana and Vi each a packet that they could call their own.
"Sure, unless I go mental before you." Lana added while taking the packet Ian offered to her.
"Ahh school. The foundations of education. I'm practically in my element." Opening her packet, Vi looked inside, spotting the map, a student handbook, and other miscellaneous papers. She made a mental note to read the handbook thoroughly for ways she could bend the rules.
"Hey, you guys…" Lana noticed something about the area they were at after opening the map. Pointing at a spot on the paper, "I think we're here."
"Hey you guys." Ian mimicked and pointed to the third floor of the building. "Isn't that the location for tonight's battle?"
"Do you want to go check it out or should we head to class?" Vi asked, eyes scanning the walls for a clock.
"I say we go straight to class." Lana personally didn't want to be late to class unless she was sick, "Transfer students shouldn't skip their first class."
Ian snickered, walking backwards towards the school. "How scandalous. Transfer students late on their first day? For shame. We could always just say that we were looking at the library like good students and lost track of time in the books."
"We are not skipping class." Lana wouldn't budge from her previous statement.
Vi sighed. "Fine. Wouldn't want my good student status to be tarnished, after all."
"It wouldn't really be skipping, we'd just be a tad late." Ian nudged Lana's shoulder, trying to see if she would give in.
"No, Ian. We're not skipping class, and that's final." Lana reinforced the same words, grabbing both of Ian's arms to in order drag him to class, "No one is avoiding education hours. Not under my watch."
Ian watched, amused, as Lana struggled to pull him along even though he was walking with her. "Yes, mom." Turning his head to look at Vi, he called out to her, "Vi! Quit waiting at the bus stop, the bus is already moving."
"This is amazing." Vi watched the spectacle in front of her. "It's absolutely hilarious."
"Quit joking around, and let's go." Lana tugged on Ian's arms.
By some miracle, the three had ended up assigned to the same classroom. They entered the classroom to find that class had already started.
Everyone turned to look at the new arrivals.
The teacher looked up from the chalkboard. "Ah, you must be the transfer students. I had expected you earlier. Where were you?"
Vi had her teacher's pet mask back on. "Oh, we were listening to the principal's lovely speech. He was very informative, but unfortunately, he lost track of time. But he sent us to class, telling us how great of a teacher you were and that he sends his regards." Grinning brightly at the teacher, she quickly charmed him.
Lana glanced over at Ian, mouthing the words, "She's at it again."
The teacher scratched his head, feeling a mixture of pride and embarrassment. "Well, I guess that's fine then. Anyways, why don't you introduce yourselves." He stepped aside and motioned for them to write their names on the chalkboard.
"Um, excuse me sir." Lana spoke up, "Unfortunately my name is in English, is it fine to write it as is?"
"Sir, I'm afraid that goes for us, as well. You see, we're not from here." Vi interjected.
"Same with me. Which would be better?" Ian followed, taking another step closer.
The teacher seemed lost and confused, having never had to deal with this many transfer students at once. "Er well, I suppose you could write your names in English and then read it out loud for your classmates."
"I have a Chinese name, is it better if I use that?" Vi wondered, curious.
Ian looked a little worried, looking at Vi before returning back to the teacher, "I have a name in both Korean and Chinese, is that okay?"
Flustered, the teacher continued. "If you want to use your other names, you can, but you don't have to."
All three take a piece of chalk, each of them writing their names up on the board. Once all three of them finished, they all turned to face the class.
"Lana Vega"
Since her name was in English, a few students got it but not all of them.
"Nice to meet you all, my name is Lana Vega." Lana gave a small bow before resuming her introduction, "Although I prefer to be called Lana more than my surname, and let's all strive for good year!"
Content with her introduction, which sounded so generic and foreign to her in her own mind, Lana stepped back to allow Vi to introduce herself next.
Her name got some strange looks from the students who didn't recognize the uncommon kanji.
﹁
張
維 Victoria Chang
娟
﹂
"Nice to meet you. My name is Victoria Chang, but my last name can be pronounced Chō in Japanese if you feel like calling me that. Otherwise, you may call me Victoria, or Vi." She bowed to them and continued speaking. "Let's get along this year."
She stepped next to Lana and allowed Ian to take the stage.
Taking a step forward, he bowed enough to be polite. "Pleased to meet you, my name is Tae Hoon Chiang, and even though our last names are similar, me and Vi are not that similar." Then without giving them his nickname, he turned to point at different parts of his name on the chalkboard, 「태 훈 江」, to indicate which character was for which name, which got him even more strange looks from the mix of languages. Turning back to face the class in spite of the weird looks, he grinned and shook his head to move his bangs away from his face, "Let's have a good year together."
The teacher stared blankly at the trio who managed to completely distract the class from his lecture. "Okay, there seem to be three empty seats in a row by the windows. Take your seats and we can start class."
Vi took the first spot, Lana the one after that, and Ian slid into the final desk. The teacher began his lecture anew after the three got themselves situated.
"Oh, since you may not have the books yet, go ahead and share with the student next to you."
Turning her head to the right, Lana had to blink twice to realize who's sitting next to her. Orange hair, check. Sparkly shoujo eyes, check. Warm smile to anyone that's friendly, check. Indeed this person was none other than—
"Nice to meet you, Lana-chan!" The girl sent a bedazzling smile toward Lana, internally making the poor girl cringe at how bright it is, "My name is Sasagawa Kyoko."
"Nice to meet you, too." Lana started to question as to how many people, especially Tsuna and Ryohei, can stand the sparkly aura of her's when she's basically being stabbed in the eyes with it. Moving her desk over to join Kyoko's, the said girl shifted the textbook over to share. Lana returned Kyoko a smile of thanks, but internally wept at her timing of horrible luck today.
Out of the corner of Lana's eyes, on the edge of textbook was a drawing of a smiley face. Returning her gaze back to Kyoko, who continued taking notes, Lana wasn't truly sure of whether to feel blessed by the school idol like many others or attempt to ignore the drawing which tried to get her to bond with one of the female protagonists of KHR?
Vi laughed internally. She had seen Kyoko the minute she walked in the room, but apparently, Lana hadn't since she sat right next to her. 'Oh the poor luck of that girl,' Vi lamented. Time to see who she had been dealt.
Vi turned to see a relatively good looking boy looking back at her. Like he wouldn't win any beauty contests, but he wasn't by any means ugly. Anyways he was like a 6/10, she mentally rated. Not particularly interesting yet.
"Hi, nice to meet you!" She smiled and extended her hand.
The boy shook her hand firmly and responded. "Hello Chō-san, welcome to our class. My name is Sakamoto Hideki. I'm the class representative, so if you ever need something, you can ask me."
Internally, she was very pleased with herself, having chosen someone who knew what they were doing. He got up and moved his desk next to hers. Placing the textbook in the center between their desks, he continued, "Let's get along."
Already thinking of ways she could twist him around her finger, she smiled shyly, looking up from under her eyelashes. "Okay, Sakamoto-kun."
Ian snickered behind his hand at Lana's misfortune of sitting next to her to-be rival. 'Vi was lucky to have sat next to a semi-cute guy, but I'm not really the glasses type. That's Vi.' was his train of thought as he turned to face his neighbor.
'Wow I hit the motherfucking jackpot.' Was all Ian could think of as he looked at his desk buddy. It was like he was a main character from a best selling romance novel, a model on the cover of some fashion magazine, and every teen girl's fantasy husband, all combined into one fucking gorgeous middle school boy. Short brown wavy hair, warm green eyes, great smile, a well rounded, tanned and fit body, Ian completely wasn't paying attention to anything else going around him, including what he happened to be saying to him.
Ian only snapped out of his train of thought when a hand entered his field of vision. Realizing that his desk mate probably had introduced themselves while he wasn't paying attention, Ian quickly reached out and shook the offered hand. "Ahahah sorry I wasn't paying attention…Uh I couldn't quite catch your name…"
"That's quite okay Chiang-kun. My name is Hirase Aki. You can call me Aki if you'd like." Aki smiled at Ian and pushed the book over to him. "Here. I've already read ahead so I'll be fine."
"Let's share it anyways." Ian gave a smile in gratitude, scooting his desk over to share with Aki. 'Ah. Wow okay he's super cute and all but it would be hella fucking illegal if I was my actual age and not this weird psychological physiological age return to 13. Stay faithful to Yama, Ian.'
The teacher continued lecturing once they had the books in front of them. "Okay class, now who can tell me…"
First period seemed to last forever. The hour ended and the teacher left the classroom. Almost immediately, most of the students gathered around the trio's desks.
"So where are you guys from?" A small girl with wavy brown hair asked them. A couple other students nodded and leaned in, curious about the answer.
"America, but if you want a more specific area, it's California." Lana started her explanation, "My parents take me back to visit the Philippines once in awhile."
Ian nodded, "I was born in California too, but I go back to Korea and Taiwan every other summer."
"I was born in Taiwan," Vi responded. "But raised in Cali most of my life. I go back to visit every summer, so I really have a connection there."
A tall boy with black hair and glasses interrupted. "How do all of you know each other?"
"Ahh. We met in elementary school in Cali." Ian recalled, grinning at the memory. 'We met in middle school there actually, but I can't tell them that now can I?'
"Why did you guys come here from California?" A tall blond girl asked.
"We were interested in Japanese culture." Lana managed to convince the students with a common answer.
At this question, Ian stalled. They still didn't understand as to why Checkerface picked them to come to this world, and they didn't really think of a reasonable excuse as to why and how they came to be in this world. Shrugging, he BS'ed his way through his answer. "I guess I just wanted to spend some time outside of the countries I was familiar with, kind of like a study abroad." He hoped his questionable answer matched his insecurity in his being here.
Vi was quickly becoming bored with these questions that could easily be answered by one person. "Yeah what they said."
"Would you like help getting around the school?" Kyoko asked the trio.
"That's alright." Lana declined the offer given by Kyoko, there was no way she needed to spend more time with Kyoko much longer than school hours.
Quickly glancing at Aki before focusing back on the group, Ian smiled and shook his head. "No it's okay. The principal included a map in our papers."
Vi nodded, no longer listening, put her bag on her lap and sneakily started petting the inside.
The class bell chimed and a different teacher walked in. "Alright everyone, let's sit down and get your books out. Well, I see we have new students. You can share with the person next to you."
Vi turned to Sakamoto again, "Well, Sakamoto-kun, I guess we'll be sharing again!" She batted her eyelashes and smirked internally as he pinked a little.
Without any need for speaking, Kyoko immediately shared her textbook with Lana who continued to cringe seeing more smileys on the edge of the next book. Smileys everywhere. Lana prayed that she would get by today without seeing another one after school.
Ian was surprised by the sound of a desk moving next to him. Aki had moved over this time, opening the book to where the class had left off yesterday and leaned in close to whisper, "Perhaps I should just stay here today then Chiang-kun?" He gave a wink and either didn't notice or didn't comment on Ian's reddening face.
Thus, the day passed, each period becoming increasingly similar to the last. The teacher would come in, surprised at the new students, tell them that it was okay to share books, and continue with class. After class, their classmates would come running up to them with more questions. "How fluent are you guys in your natural languages? Do you have a significant other? Do you like sports? Do you play sports? Which club will you join?" The trio were becoming increasingly tired of answering these questions and were becoming more and more grateful for the interruption the teacher's entrance made.
During lunch, they got several compliments on their adorable bentos and more questions of who made them. The three had trouble holding their laughter as they remembered seeing them in the morning and the fact that Tsunomichi had made the adorable lunches for them. Vi occasionally 'dropped' food into the bag in her lap.
By the end of the day, the trio was unusually exhausted by the relentless questioning. Classes ended and everyone packed up, saying their farewells and 'see you tomorrow's.
Aki stayed behind a little while longer so he could exchange phone numbers with Ian. "Just in case you need help getting adjusted here." He said with a wink and a wave as he left first.
The trio let this fun event drop, as they were incredibly tired from the day. Vi could have her fun making fun of Ian later, after a nap maybe.
"Kill me…" Lana exasperated unable to take the endless amount of smileys and sea of questions directed at them.
Vi yawned, covering her mouth. "I'm beat. Should we go home or stay here and wait for the thing?"
Ian groaned, completely and utterly exhausted. "Let's go home for a nap! The thing doesn't start till 11 at the earliest anyways!"
"Home it is!" Vi took out her bag and brought out her cat. "Aw it's sleeping. Too cute."
"Nap awaits!" Lana raised her arms to stretch, feeling the need for more rest. As they started walking, she sighed heavily, "Do you want to know what Kyoko drew on the edge of her textbooks every time she shared her book with me?"
Vi hummed, rubbing her face into the kitten's fur. "No what did she do? Little miss sunshine."
Ian snickered and leaned forward to look at Lana. "I don't know man, rainbows? But sucks for you dude. I can't believe you got stuck with her as your desk companion."
"She kept drawing smileys, and during each class period when she shifts her book to me, the smileys increase!" Lana claimed, "She's trying to befriend me in the most uncomfortable way."
"Sounds rough bro. I have it hard too you know. My dude next to me, he's a really good looking guy. 10 outta 10 would bang, if I didn't feel like it was wrong." Ian shuddered, humming softly. "Besides, since we're here, I've gotta be 100% focused on getting that blue feather to or from Yamamoto. I don't care either way."
Vi held out the kitty towards Lana. "Shhh, just pet the kitty. Animal therapy."
Lana didn't hesitate to pet the kitten held in Vi's arms. The kitten was quite fluffy and made it difficult to not pet the animal.
They arrived home, exhausted. Lana unlocked the door and they all filed into the living room.
Vi dropped onto the chaise part of the sectional and laid the cat on top of her. "Wake me up for dinner."
Locking the front door behind her, Lana grabbed a pillow by the end of the sofa to rest her head on, "Yeah."
Ian muttered something unintelligible into a pillow. Probably something along the lines of "Same, buddy chum pal friend-o. It's nap time."
By the time they woke up, it was already dark outside. Strangely, the trio did not remember having blankets on top of them before they slept.
"Uh Lana? Please tell me you woke up and put blankets on us." Vi pleaded, eyes wide.
"…I hate to say this Vi, but it wasn't me this time." Lana replied, a little bit surprised.
Ian popped his head out of the cocoon of blankets he was wrapped up in. "Well, if it wasn't you guys, and it wasn't me, then who's flyin the digeridarn plane?"
Vi stiffened up, realizing something was missing. "Where's the cat?" She flipped over the blankets and searched under the table. "Where's the cat?!"
"Um, Vi?" Lana tapped the girl's shoulder, "I think the lights in the kitchen are on."
"Nya?" Vi turned her head very quickly, hitting Lana in the face with her hair. "Nyaa!" she yelled as she ran to the kitchen.
"Blech!" Lana grimaced at getting hit by Vi's hair.
Untangling himself from the pile of pillows around him, Ian managed to stand up and stretch, "C'mon let's make sure it's not a burglar or some kind of weirdo freak. Also m' very hungry, it's gotta be dinner time."
Upon entering the kitchen corridor, the trio's eyes widened to see the cat Vi had taken with her eating cat food while being petted by their caretaker.
Hearing the sound of footsteps nearby, Tsunomichi turned his head over to them wearing a smile on his face, "Tonight's dinner is curry! Not too spicy, but a good blend of mild!"
Heading over to inspect her cat, Vi looked at Tsunomichi suspiciously. "Where did you get the cat food?"
"The pet store." Tsunomichi answered to the girl.
"So this means I can keep the cat." Vi responded.
"Yes, at first I was going to return the kitten to the shelter, but they grew on me right after I fed it." Tsunomichi spoke in delight.
Vi pumped a fist in the air in success. "Yus. Cat acquired." Grabbing the kitten, she held it over her head like Simba in victory. "Oh it's a girl."
Ian chose to ignore all of that and headed over to the kitchen to grab a plate full of curry for himself. "Thanks for the food. Curry. Excellently yummy and de-lish."
On the stovetop was a pot of curry and steam was coming out of the rice cooker.
Lana opened the pot of curry to inspect it while reaching for her own bowl. "Hey Tsunomichi, what did you put in here?"
Tsunomichi, counting on his fingers, listed off the ingredients, "There's potatoes, carrots, onions, some green onions, and a mix of chicken and beef."
Vi had grabbed a bowl while no one was paying attention. "Really? There's onions in this?" She had already stuck a spoonful into her mouth. "You can barely taste it. Nice." and gave Tsunomichi a thumbs up.
"You actually got Vi to eat onions," Impressed by Tsunomichi's cooking skills, Lana sent a smile to him before proceeding to scoop her own helping of curry and rice, "That's amazing, also thank you very much for making our lunch and dinner for today."
"Hey hey~ This is pretty good. Thanks for lunch also!" Then Ian shushed himself by taking another bite.
Vi paused before taking another bite. "Oh yeah, I guess thanks for lunch too?" She continued shoveling food into her mouth.
Tsunomichi shook his head and gave the three a kind smile. "Not a problem at all. It is all part of my duty as your caretaker after all. Now, once you are finished just leave your dishes on the counter, I will take care of both cleaning and packing your lunches for tomorrow." Clapping his hands once, he walked out of the kitchen leaving the trio alone.
They each took a seat in the chairs around the island and ate their curry.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me. The cat doesn't have a name yet." Vi spoke up between bites of food.
The cat stared at them with its big blue eyes. Raising a soft fluffy paw, she licked it and scratched at her ear, until her white fur was sticking up in a cowlick.
Vi cooed at it. "So cute."
"We could name her Snow." Lana suggested by the kitten's fur.
Ian grinned and reached out to pet the cat. "It's a girl right? Let's call her, Lily maybe. Or some other flower maybe. Or…" Pausing, he turned to look at Vi, "484a. The penal code for petty theft, because that's as close to the code for the theft of an animal for personal purposes that I could find."
Vi, placing a hand on her chest and feigning deep offense, took back the cat. "How rude. How could you just accuse me of such a thing."
"You guys…Stop arguing." Lana's feeble attempt at stopping the rising argument went unnoticed.
"YOU LITERALLY PICKED HER UP AND RAN AWAY!" Ian yelled, then crossed his arms over his chest in a huff because he could no longer pet the cat.
"She was just crying in the middle of an alley without a collar or anything." Vi pet the cat softly and stuck her tongue out. "And I can't believe you looked penal codes just to sass me."
He rolled his eyes, but still smiled at the thought of Vi picking up the cat during their race. "Oh, but of course I would. But whatever. What's your name for her then?
She looked away suddenly and mumbled, "When I didn't know she was a girl yet, I was calling her Blue Eyes White Dragon in my head."
"I cannot believe you were going to name a cat Blue Eyes White Dragon." was all Ian could say as he stared at her incredulously.
"It matches her!" Vi argued, indignantly. "Look at her!" She yelled, holding the cat up.
Lana sighed and raised her voice to cut over the two's squabbling. "Alright break it up! Now that we've figured out that we can't agree on a name for the cat, let's go over the plan for the matches."
Ian shrugged and slumped in his seat. "We go to school, observe, make sure things go the way they're supposed to. I'm pretty sure that if we meet them now they'll only get distracted."
Vi added onto Ian's statement. "Don't get caught, don't change anything major, don't reveal who we are. Pretty much."
"Anything else? I think that was most of the rules anyways." Lana hummed to herself, already feeling the excitement run through her at the thought of seeing Tsuna.
Tsunomichi came back into the kitchen abruptly. "It's almost 10. You best be heading out soon if you want to hide yourselves before they show up."
Shoveling the rest of the food into her mouth, Vi got up and grabbed the cat and bowl. She yelled something muffled to Tsunomichi who nodded like he understood. He took the bowl and the cat from her as she left the kitchen, hand to her head in a sort of salute.
"…Did you understand what she said?" Lana questioned Tsunomichi about Vi's garbled words.
Tsunomichi shook his head. "Either something about thanks for dinner and she's going upstairs to get her things or that we're under attack by aliens and she's going to be abducted."
"I'm pretty sure it's the first one." Lana deadpanned about the second option Tsunomichi stated, "Unless she actually said that instead."
"Nah you never know. She could have some recently developed E.T. bullshit sense and there are actually aliens. But I digress. Let's go get changed." Ian grinned, slowly rising from his seat and stretched.
Placing the plates on the counter, the two followed Vi upstairs to their respective rooms to change into clothes to conceal their presence during Gokudera's battle.
Lana unclipped her bow clip, placing it on the dresser to not lose it. Exchanging her uniform for a pair of dark blue jeans and a black long sleeved shirt, Lana debated whether she should take anything else with her besides her cellphone. Her eyes trailed over to the star necklace sitting on her dresser, unfortunately Lana didn't want to lose it either so she decided to leave it. Only taking her phone, house keys, and finally the rings she received from Checkerface hanging on the chain of her old necklace.
Vi changed out of her rumpled uniform into a pair of black skinny jeans and a dark gray shirt. Thinking it would be cold outside, she also grabbed a fluffy black coat and some gray gloves to cover her rings. She kept the purple scarf on since she was starting to like it. "Hm, I guess that's it? Don't want to stand out too much in the dark." Putting her cellphone in her coat pocket, she headed back downstairs. She decided to keep the running shoes too since they were quiet if she walked the right way.
Ian debated with himself about changing into night gear but decided, "Fuck it. Tee shirt and sweats should be okay." Ian changed into a light grey pair of sweats and an old dark purple archery club shirt and left his skateboard leaning against the wall before heading back down. Before shutting the door, his eyes caught on the pair of rings that were just sitting on his desk and decided to grab them as well.
In the living room, Tsunomichi was waiting for them on the couch, petting the still nameless cat. Standing up, he gave them several instructions. "Alright now, make sure you don't stay out too late! Don't catch a cold outside! Be careful you don't get hurt in the aftershocks! Don't pick a fight with any of them! Make sure you try to come back immediately after the match, unless Reborn wants something with you three! I'll be waiting with a nice hot cup of cocoa when you get back! Get back home safe!"
"Oh my god, you're like a mom." Vi didn't seem to know whether to look amused or horrified.
"We can't deny the fact that he's our caretaker anyway." Lana didn't mind it, Tsunomichi actually seemed more concerned for them despite being Checkerface's assistant to say the least.
"It's actually pretty cute of him." Ian smiled, appreciating this side of Tsunomichi more than the one he had first encountered.
Tsunomichi sniffed indignantly. "I can't help it, I worry about you sometimes. Now shoo, you're going to be late."
The three were shooed outside by Tsunomichi, who stood inside the door, making sure the cat didn't run outside. After they were out of earshot, Lana decided to bring up a question, "So…how are you guys feeling about this world? Minus the excitement."
Slowing in his steps, Ian sighed. "I can't help but wonder what about home, you know? What's going on with our family? There were people at the airport too, didn't they freak out?"
"I'm actually pretty curious about the science behind this, this is absolutely wild," Vi waved her hands in amazement. "Is this actually a parallel universe or a completely separate dimension? Why was it a manga in our world but it turns out to be reality here? How does Checkerface have the power to do this kind of shit?"
"Vi, you nerd," Ian butted in.
Vi continued speaking as if no one had interrupted her. "Also I was running off the theory that while we're here, time back home has paused. Like while we've been removed, that universe is lacking something that makes it function." She paused in her speech. "But that's not necessarily the case."
Ian cast a worried glance at the girls, before returning his gaze forward. "That's what I'm hoping. After all, the last my mom saw of me was me leaving for the airport, expecting to get a call when I touched down in Japan. I saw dad even further back than that because of his work. My sister, Esther, always loved traveling, and she'd probably flip if she knew that I had gone beyond where she could explore. Peter would be in a tizzy, he always panicked if I had shown any sign of sickness or got hurt at all. Hopefully, it's just a different space-time coordination, and time works on a different scale here than there."
"I hope you're right on that theory, because…" Lana paused for a moment to think about her family, "I kind of miss my mom's cooking, dad being a dad when it comes to my future choices, and last but not least actually wanting to see my brother, Will, get married to that pretty lady…called Fauna who makes funny star jokes at the planetarium they work at. Like c'mon, get married already and stop stalling brother!"
"Wow can't believe you're already talking about marriage. Are they even dating?" Vi asked.
"Probably not." Lana huffed while giving a scowl toward answering Vi's question.
Ian snorted, before coughing to regain his composure. "That's actually hilarious. Make one of those 'plan matchmaker' things, why don't you?"
"Do you think I haven't tried? The short version of what took place in the plan ended in an utter failure once he found out I'm the perpetrator who thought of the idea."
Vi sighed heavily. "To be honest, I don't know if I really miss anything back home? I'm mostly sure my ma isn't too worried since we were supposed to go on our trip, right? We're sort of used to not being in contact a lot. Cause like I spend so much time between Taipei and LA, we're not exactly together all the time, so she just doesn't worry too much. Plus this whole thing still feels like a dream, all very surreal."
He took a deep sigh, staring up at the sky. "The fam is probably worried. They always got worried about me when I stayed out too long without contact, even during high school. And this seems to be a long time unfortunately. Who knows how long we actually spent in that space, training? This seems like too unreal, like one of those lucid dreams."
"…Mm, if this really is a dream. Then this is the longest and strangest one we ever had, although I hope nothing bad happens as we continue from here on out." Lana proposed, unsure of what's to arrive.
"Thanks Lana, you just jinxed it." Vi turned her head and looked around. "You know what they say, knock on wood." She knocked her knuckles against Lana's head.
"Ouch! Stop, my head isn't made out of wood!" Lana slapped Vi's arm away while puffing her cheeks out in frustration.
Ian laughed and poked at Lana's cheeks. "Hahah! Now you look like a fish, just like your bf!" Smile fading, Ian turned to face the two girls. "But what are the actual chances that they would fall in love with us, much less even like us for more than our abilities?"
"Well, considering we're complete strangers as of now," Vi paused for dramatic effect, putting a hand on her chin in thought "Oh, maybe a couple years if we're lucky."
"True…" Ian continued moving forward up the hill. "This is gonna suck a whole bag of dicks, ain't it?"
Lana mumbled, "I guess so."
The conversation trailed off at their depressing topics and they continued to walk in silence, the occasional scuff of sneakers or odd sound from a house filling the background noise.
The trio arrived at school, the buildings looking eerie in the darkness. Hearing voices approaching the building, they immediately went to hide in the bushes. In peeking out between the branches, they could see the unmistakable trenchcoat-like uniform of the Varia flowing in the wind. The trio overheard them talking as they walked past.
An impatient child-like voice muttered out loud giving a sigh, the trio deemed the owner of the voice to be Mammon, "What's taking those brats so long to arrive?"
Another voice cut in. "Ushishishiii~ Maybe the bomb kid got scared and ran off like a chicken with its head cut off~ That means I'm the winner! Just as a prince should be."
A loud piercing voice that the three knew for a fact to belong to a certain long haired swordsman rang out through the school. "Vooooiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Don't get too cocky yet Bel!" And continued yelling things for a few minutes after that the trio chose to tune out.
The giant with the lion's mane turned to face a small group of people that kneeled in front of him. "Lightning Strike Squad! Go patrol the grounds."
"Yes, squad leader Levi!" His minions responded without heed before disappearing into thin air to make rounds.
The Varia proceeded to enter the building, so full of themselves in anticipation of winning this round for their boss' demands.
After the Varia entered the building in which the battle was to take place, the trio ran into the adjacent building with a good view into the other's windows. They quickly made their way to the rooftop and situated themselves in an ideal location to spy.
Ian collapsed onto the roof floor, still a little tired from the day's adventures. "Aww man. The Vongola aren't even here yet how boring. Now what am I supposed to do?"
"Hope they don't take too long." Vi shivered into her coat, putting her gloves on.
Lana's expression grew to a grin as she quietly squealed, "We're finally get to see them in real life! Especially Tsuna, yes all the yes!"
Vi gasped. "Rude, Speak for yourself." She mourned the fact that she wouldn't get to see her bae for like three days.
Raising himself onto his elbows, Ian raised an eyebrow at Vi's statement. "Bro, what? It is your dude's own fault that he's locked away in baby jail."
"Calm down you two." Lana tried to pacify their incoming argument until a shrill cry of complaint and a fit of hearty laughter filled the area.
"What the fuck was that?" Vi whispered harshly, looking around them.
"Whoop de doo. It looks like the circus has come to town." Ian hummed, lying back on the floor, content to just lie there.
Lana muttered back, "It sounds like something is happening below us?"
The Vongola, except Gokudera, had arrived in their usual noisy fashion. The trio was too high up to make out clearly what they were saying, but it seemed like it was following the manga word for word.
"So begins the third battle of the Varia arc. Only however the fuck many to go." Vi drawled, trying to remember how long the manga was.
Ian remembered his dream from the night before and thought it was a good time to bring it up while nothing was still happening. "Hey uh guys. Last night I had this really crazy dream. I was uh…what seemed to be a beach? And there were locked doors inside crystals. And it showed me the rest of this arc, like the battles for storm, rain, mist, cloud, and sky and some of the Future arc as well. And I'm just like, how the hell did I forget that much? Was it the same for you guys?"
An expression of comical confusion swept across Vi's face. "I don't remember what you're talking about. I didn't have that dream and I don't really remember much about the arcs after this. Isn't it normal though since it's been awhile since we read it?"
"Ian, are you sure that's true? I didn't even have that sort of dream at all, plus the arcs are kind of fuzzy." Lana seemed puzzled at Ian's statement.
Ian was becoming increasingly confused and worried about what happened, but tried once again to explain what happened to them. "I'm absolutely sure! I mean…Yeah I guess it's been a very long time since I've last read it but still! There's no reason for everything else to just be all a big hunk of nothingness! I just—"
"Hey! They're going into the building! It's about to start!" Vi stage-whispered, shooshing the other two.
The trio watched from the roof as the stage was set for the battle for the Storm Vongola ring.
also posting schedule is that we are gonna try to keep up with the khr birthdays and post accordingly
(but who fukin knows how that'll work out. i doubt it.)
so that means, the next update is potentially in 2 days. we are not even halfway done with ch4 sooo...
hahahah it would be great if it rained soon. ;3
have a day or two.
