Title: Love X Blessing X Curse
Note: Juudai, Sho, Manjoume 16 years old
Ryo (when he's lost 5 years ago) 13 years old
Fubuki 18 years old
Chapter 3: Clues
"Manjoume, I'm hungry…" Juudai groaned.
"Fine! Fine! We'll eat! But we have to meet our friends first! They have to be worried!"
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~in the hotel~
"Oh, but we have eaten two hours ago." Fubuki said calmly after Manjoume asked them to go out for dinner.
"Nee(hey)…why did you leave us?" Juudai asked, half conscious. She so hungry!
Asuka looked at Juudai's condition then turned to scold Manjoume, "Why…you're so irresponsible, Manjoume-kun? You should bring her to the restaurant immediately when you find her!:
"…Actually he just dragged me away when we met near K.C burger…." Juudai said,"..where Johan wanted to treat me."
"What? Johan? Dare ka (who's that)?" Sho aksked innocently.
"Um…he—"
"He's NO ONE!" Manjoume said harshly.
"…" Fubuki, Asuka, and Sho looked at each other and nodded their head as if agreed to one thing.
"Let's go to that K.C burger! They exclaimed. 'We want to know what Johan is like. Maybe we'll meet him there!' they thought.
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~in K.C burger~
"Yay! Food!" Juudai smiled happily when she received her tray of food. Although she's a bit irritated that Manjoume chose to sit right beside Asuka, not beside her.
When everyone had been on ease that Juudai had been fed, Fubuki, Asuka, Sho, and Manjoume realized that Juudai wore pretty cloth which was full of laces.
"…." Fubuki and the other male were speechless.
"Eh…Juudai, you look so cute," Asuka said cheerfully,"where did you get that gown? Was that..um…Johan who bought it for you?"
"Hmmm? No, I exchanged my dress with Risa."
"Risa? Who is Risa?"
"She's a runaway girl whom Johan looked for…" Juudai put her burger and looked away," I wonder whether he has found Risa….Oh!" Juudai suddenly stood up. "Johan, is that you?"
Johan, who heard someone calling his name looked away from his burger and smiled widely when he spotted Juudai. "Oh, Yuki-chan." He grabbed his tray and moved to Juudai and friends' table.
He sat between Juudai and Sho. Manjoume regretted immediately that he chose to sit between Fubuki and Asuka.
"Yuki-chan, I never thought that we'll meet again." Johan said smiling to Juudai after glanced at Manjoume. Fubuki could see something burned in Manjoume's eyes.
"So do I." Juudai smiled cutely.
Fubuki could sense that Manjoume was burned, not literally though.
"So, um…they are your friends whom you go with?" Johan ignored Manjoume's burning stare.
"Yup. There…Fubuki Tenjouin, Manjoume Jun, and Asuka Tenjouin." Juudai pointed at her friends on the opposite side of the table one by one. "…and the one beside you is Sho Marufuji."
"Hi there, I'm Johan Anderson, nice to meet you." Johan looked at Sho," so…you're Marufuji, as if in Ryo Marufuji? Are you his brother?"
"Yeah, I'm his brother," Sho smiled sadly, remembering his lost brother," I hope he's ok…."
"I see. You try to look for him. He's a great duelist, I wish I could duel him sometime." Johan said, then he came up with an idea, "hey, how if I go with you to find him? I've looked for many people before and I've found them all. I have connection in many towns too, I can help you."
"We DONT need your help. So much for your excuse to get close to Juudai." Manjoume grumbled.
"Why you're so angry about? Ah, and I'm not-" Johan said calmly.
"—As you can see!" Manjoume raised his fist, showing Johan his bracelet," that we are couple blessed by Miai."
"But…I thought that you don't like that marriage and looking for a way to cancel it?" Sho said innocently.
If only Manjoume's glaring eyes could kill, Sho was dead right now.
"Oh, so you don't like that marriage? Then…I might be able to help you finding way to cancel it." Johan smiled, "I know some people that claimed they can do that."
"I'm still hungry." Juudai suddenly said, "I want to buy more burgers."
"Then, I'll treat you, Yuki-chan." Johan put his hand on Juudai's shoulder.
"Ah….arigatougozaimasu!" Juudai smiled widely while Johan left to take more burgers. Juudai followed him.
If only Manjoume's glaring eyes could kill, Johan was dead right now.
"…." Fubuki, Asuka, and Sho looked at each other, sharing one thought. Then they set their eyes on Manjoume.
"Manjoume-kun, are you jealous?" they asked in chorus.
Manjoume looked away, "that's impossible." he grumbled.
"Hmmmmm." The three hummed in unison. Then Sho said, "You know, I think we'll need Johan's help. He does say that looking for people is his job and he has the connection. He can help us."
"You don't mind, right?" Fubuki asked Manjoume, raising one of his eye brows.
"Grmblbl. Up to you." Manjoume was lost by three eye glares.
Juudai and Johan came back, bringing another tray of food.
"Johan, we agree to ask for your help. How much do you asked for the payment?" Fubuki asked.
"You don't need to. I'll help you as friend." Johan answered.
Manjoume frowned and grumbled in whisper, "another excuse!"
"Johan-san, do you really want to go with us?" Juudai asked while chewing her burger.
Yeah, I'll go with you. I already have some clues after all." Johan stated, looking at how cute Juudai was now. Seeing Manjoume frowned deeper, he added, "I'm interested in this case since there're many people who had been lost before in the Land of Eternal Snow that is around White Stone Island."
Sho looked worried, then asked, "Do…do you think…how could that happen?"
Johan took his blue pocket book from his bag and explained, "Probably it's a dimensional rift. Somehow, the borderline between this dimension where we live in and the other dimension is corrupted. I don't know what dimension it is, but it looks like the time logic there is different—about a half. There's a case, just call him Mr. X. he's been lost since 12 years ago. But, 2 years ago when he's found near to the Land of Frozen Fire, he's only aged 5 years older than before, and he lost his memories."
"So…so it means…, that if we find my brother, he'll lose his memories? And he'll be younger than me? Oh my God…" Sho looked shocked.
Asuka, Fubuki, Juudai, and manjoume looked sad, "Ryo…will lose his memories…? All of those?" she asked in trembled voice.
"…probably. But there's also a possibility that he'll be just all right. We're talking about another unknown dimension here, anything can be happened." Johan tried to cheer them up.
"…anything…including the possibility of…death." Sho whispered gloomy.
There's silence for a while. Everyone thought deeply. Then suddenly Juudai's PDA rang.
"Oh, it's Daitokuji-sensei," Juudai smiled, reading his email, "He asked me where I am. He wants to meet me."
Asuka tried to be cheerful, "he must miss you a lot. It's been 8 years since he left you in the Land of Blessing Rain."
"Hey, may I know who Daitokuji-sensei is?" Johan tried to bend the speaking topic too.
"He's my guardian since I was child. He left me to…to look for certain thing…" Juudai answered.
"Hmm…and what was that certain thing?" Johan asked further innocently.
"That..that is…" Juudai was confused. Unlike Daitokuji, she couldn't lie in ease. She'd rather be quiet than spoke the truth.
"He looks for the sorcerer stone," Asuka answered as what Daitokuji had told her, helping Juudai without realizing anything, "he left Juudai to stay with my family after that."
"How about your parents?" Johan asked.
"Um…I don't know…about them…" Juudai smiled forcefully and continued to eat.
"Uh…by the way, where do you will go after this town? I mean…to go to that Land of Eternal snow—from west route or south-west route? We can only start deep investigation when we're there. Not to mention if my friends give me information before." Johan tried to bend the topic again.
"We plan to go through the west. So we're going to the Land of Rock, by train, tomorrow morning." Fubuki said.
"Ah…then I'll tell Daitokuji-sensei to meet me there." Juudai was indeed happy that she would see his guardian again. She finished her last burger.
"Now, Juudai, since you've finished. Let's go now." Manjoume stood, "and you, Johan. Leave! We'll meet at train station tomorrow."
"Yeah. Now it's really 'see you later', Yuki-chan." Johan smiled (mockingly, in Manjoume's point of view)
Johan waved his hand and went away. The group replied by waving their hands too. Manjoume turned away and acted as if he didn't see it.
'Is the people that Johan know—claimed to be able to remove the bracelet—are really able to do that?' Juudai thought, 'ah, that's no use. Now that I think about it, the bracelet isn't a problem to me. It's removed or not, Manjoume will not be with me because…because…' she thought about the mark of monster reborn on her stomach.
To be continued….
