Shakugan no Shana: Life of the Sakai family!
Disclaimer: I do not own Shakugan no Shana
Warning: I am still studying so please forgive me if there is too much grammar mistake
Warning: Since something had happened, the software I am now using don't have grammar checker so please forgive me if there is too much grammar mistake
Chapter 4
Of knowledge, of books
"Are you really fine with his decision Shana?"
"It's fine. That's his main objective to come to Xanadu in the first place."
I replied to Alastor as I put down the laundry. Ironically, the Tendokyu which was supposed to be the fortress of the Flame Haze Army turned up to be just a simply housing residents for them. Even after a few years had gone by, there was no denizens activities that threatened the world balance and everyone was beginning to be accustomed to their new and peaceful lifestyle. I must admit that I have changed too.
"...Shana you seemed taller than when I last remembered, I guess you must have been starting to grow now."
"Now that you mentioned it, I guess I am really growing huh?"
I replied with a cheerful smile. Both Alastor and I shared a small laugh as I looked at the center pit burning with fury fire. That was Alastor in the treasure tool Caina.
That's right... I had severed my contract with Alastor.
It was the most important decision that I had made in my life. I did not want to be separated with Alastor. I wished to have him continued to guide me in the form of the pendant. But...
"It's fine, it's time that you start to grow up anyway."
The one that helped me to make the decision was none other than Alastor himself. Severing a contract between a Crimson God and his Contractor was unheard of but Alastor told me that if with the help of Yuji, who had the power rivaled to a Crimson God, would be able to help maintain to flow of the outburst of existence when the separation started.
Yuji and Wilhelmina were against the idea but they had nothing to say when I told them that I wanted to age with Yuji. It took some time but still in the end, both of them agreed.
One year had already passed since our contract had been broken. I leaned my back towards the silvery wall of the Caina, feeling the flame that once surrounded my body and my soul.
"So where is Sakai Yuji right now?"
"He is currently in China, in his letter he told me that he had met up with the "Arbiter of Reverse Reasoning" (Bel Peol) and would probably be returning after one more week."
That's right, Yuji is not with me right now.
It has been a few months since he started leaving the Tendokyu to search and told the Crimson Denizens that they could live with humans. He was hesitant to told me about it but I already seen through him. I told him to go and did what he need to do. He would write back a letter once a week and would occasionally came back to see us.
""Mum, read us more stories!""
A pair of synchronized voice echoed throughout the small room as two little children emerged into the room. They were my precious children: Saya and Yuris. They are already four years old now. In a few years they would probably need to enter a school like all other children.
My two children surrounded me from both side and pestered me to read them more stories. Although they were just four-year-old, they were already quite smart and could read simply picture books by themselves but they still preferred me telling the story to them.
"Sorry Saya, Yuris. The story that I told you last time was the last one. Can you two wait until we buy more books next time? In time you can play with Justus."
""Justus nii-san is currently being scolded by Wilhelmina nee-san for playing a water prank at her.""
"Now that's troublesome..."
I forced a small laugh as I tried to figure what to do. Justus was one year older than Saya and Yuris. He was quite playful and loved to play pranks at Wilhelmina. Although Wilhelmina seemed annoyed by the pranks, I knew that she did not mind them and was quite enjoying them.
"Actually, there is a library deep inside the Tendokyu."
"There is one?"
I asked Alastor. Alastor who was in the form of a burning red fire in the Caina replied.
"Yes, in the past Wilhelmina used to take the books from there to entertain you with. But I never got the chance to explore it and Wilhelmina must have forgotten about its existence. I heard that it's deep inside the Tendokyu."
""Thanks for the info Alastor jii-san!"" (Jii-san = Gramps)
The two small little kids replied in their cheerful voice and started to drag me up. Alastor let out a laugh hearing them calling him 'jii-san', I guessed that it must be quite an interesting experience for a Crimson God to be called Gramps.
"Come on mom let's go!"
With Saya pulling my left hand and Yuris pulling my right, Alastor bid me good luck as we exited the room.
"Ah where are you guys going?"
""Ah, Good Afternoon Rebecca Baa-chan."" (Baa-chan= Gramps/ Aunt)
"Don't call me 'Baa-chan!"
Rebecca Reed, the "Scatterer of Sparking Light", complained as the two shouted a playful scream and hid behind my back. I sighed in amusement as Rebecca started chasing around my children with me in the center in circles.
"Okay Saya, Yuris, stop playing around and Rebecca please stop fooling with them."
"Chee, you are no fun."
Rebecca complained again as she finally stopped chasing the children. The two spouted out their tongues towards Rebecca but struggled frantically when I grabbed them by the tongues. I swore that Rebecca and her contractor sweat dropped at my actions but I decided to ignore them.
"So where were you and your children heading?"
Rebecca asked after I released Saya and Yuris' tongues. That will keep them from doing such rude behavior for now.
"We were heading towards a library that Alastor told us. It's deep inside the Tendokyu and we are trying to find it."
"Hm... Well good luck finding that library. Books related things are just not my-"
"What are you talking about Master! I can't believe you just said that!"
A third voice echoed in the hallway that we were in and the culprit appeared. Even without seeing his face, the fact that he called Rebecca Master could only be one person.
""Ah, it's Justus nii-san!""
Saya and Yuris emerged behind my back to run towards Justus. Despite being five years old, he was very playful and always led Saya and Yuris into a chain of troubles. Wilhelmina had always put the blame on Johann but it's more like Rebecca was the culprit. For odd reasons Justus called Rebecca his Master, which led me to wonder in my terms was Rebecca his master.
Rebecca turned around, surprised by the sudden arrival of his apprentice and asked.
"Justus! I thought you were told to reflect your actions in your room?"
"I sneaked out Master!"
"Well done!"
"Don't praise him for that!"
I scolded Rebecca but she just laughed it away. I swore that Wilhelmina is not going to be pleased that Justus escaped, again
A maid could be seen at the door of a certain room. Numerous unlocked locks were scattered on the floor and the captive that was supposed to be inside the room was gone.
"JUSTUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"
Justus did not look in the least guilty of what he had done and continued to talk with his master.
"Master, think about it! It's a new place that is being forgotten in the Tendokyu! Nobody knows where is it! That could only mean one thing!"
"An adventure!"
"That's right! What are we waiting for? Come on Saya, Yuris, we are going to find that treasure room!"
""Let's go!""
"Wait! Like I said it's a Librar-"
Before I could finish my sentence, the four of them already started running down the hallway with Rebecca in the lead, Justus behind her flanked by Saya and Yuris. I quickly tried to catch up with the four of them, hoping that we would not get into more trouble than what I was expecting already,.
...
"Are you alright Sakai Yuji?"
"I am fine...Just thinking about what is happening back at home."
Sakai Yuji reassured his aid, Bel Peol, that he was perfectly fine. He was wearing his old red battle armor again. He started to walk forward towards a small village with Bel Peol beside him.
"Last time when I visited this village I met a few Crimson Denizens. It hadn't been a long time so they should be there. They should be a good start for you to be ready to tell everyone that they can live with humans."
"Thanks Bel Peol, I really appreciated your help." Yuji said.
Bel Peol smiled lightly. Yuji have not changed even after arriving into Xanadu. Her Commander Sairei no Hebi is currently asleep with his two other children. Although he sometimes would appear and accompanied her, she found herself quite lucky to meet up with the mystes. She was sure that her commander would be proud when she told him that she would be helping Sakai Yuji in his quest to make the Crimson Denizens live with humans.
"Is something the matter?"
"...No nothing, let's us proceed."
Bel Peol replied and caught up with Yuji. In front of them was a normal village where a few normal Crimson Denizens hidden themselves in. Little did Yuji know that the future that he wanted to create was started in a small village with a few insignificant Crimson Denizens that would slowly help him to achieve his dreams in the future..
"...Is this it...?"
"...It probably is..."
Rebecca and Justus muttered as they stared at the huge door in front of them in amazement. I stopped beside them and looked at the door. I never knew that this room existed in Tendokyu.
""Neh Mom, is this the treasure room?""
"No, I think it's the library that we have been searching for."
I answered my children question and walked towards the door to have a better look. There seemed to be a few words on the door. Although they were covered by dusts, I wiped away them and read out the words.
"...Fountain of Knowledge... I guess this must be the librar-"
"It's confirmed that this is the treasure room Master!"
"Good job Justus, finally the long lost treasure hidden in the Tendokyu shall be ours!"
"No, like I said it's a libr-"
"Come on Balar! We are going to blast this door open!"
Rebecca shouted out to her contractor. Balar was too surprised by Rebecca's chain of thought that he did not have enough time to stop himself from opening his eye. Aiming towards the door Rebecca-
Buck!
-fell onto the floor, unconsciousness.
"""Ah, Samurai jii-san!"""
The three kids called out and started to surround Tenmoku Ikko, tramping on Rebecca who was still unconsciousness on the ground. I unconsciously smiled at the sight of the most feared Mystes by Flame Haze and Crimson Denizens being surrounded by kids. Tenmoku patted Justus and Yuris with his large hand in the head as they smiled in delight. Saya held onto the Nietono no Shana that was still heavy for her and struggled to keep it balance. Even though Tenmoku was wearing a mask with a devilish mood, I could see the small smile in the samurai-blacksmith.
Even though I had lost my power as a Flame Haze, Tenmoku still deemed me worthy of wielding his Nietono no Shana and appeared when I called for him. I was glad that I managed to summon him before Rebecca started blasting the door.
"... ..."
Tenmoku as usual said nothing but signalled me to step aside from the door. I slowly backed away as Tenmoku started to approach the door and raised his hand to push open the door. The door let out a ear-piercing creak as it slowly opened.
"Alastor, do you happened to know where Justus and Rebecca are, de arimasuka?"
The maid, Wilhelmina, entered the chamber and asked Alastor who was in the Treasure Tool Caina. It was nostalgic for both of them to talk together like this, never have they thought they they would actually talked like this again after Shana contracted Alastor.
"Well... I have not seen them but Shana and her children are heading towards the library to find some new books. The chances that the two of them have meet up with them are quite high so why don't you try to start from there?"
"...The library de arimasuka?"
Wilhelmina had a confused face as she stared at Alastor. Alastor saw through that she did not understand where does he mean so he add on.
"I am talking about the place where you bring the books from to entertain Shana in the past. I remembered that you tended to go to that place to rest when you were tired or Shana was asleep."
"No I did not remember such pla-!"
Wilhelmina's sentence paused suddenly that it surprised Alastor. For a moment he thought a Crimson Denizen had attacked Tendokyu but he dismissed that thought. He saw Wilhelmina's eyes becoming wider and wider before before she broke into a run.
"Wait where are you-"
Alastor never got to finish his sentence as he felt her presence disappeared from the chamber. For the 1849th time, he hated the fact that he could not move. There he was, locked in a dark chamber looking at the same scenery all day...
"So this is the Fountain of Knowledge..."
I muttered as I entered the room. Even though for a library it's quite a small room, as compared to the other rooms in Tendokyu this must be classified as some of the largest. The room was simply designed with bookshelves sticking to the walls of the room and a normal white table at the center of the entire room.
Tenmoku had returned back into the Nietono no Shana, which Saya was holding onto. Since the sword was still too heavy for her she had to hug it to keep it stabilized. Oddly enough Saya was kind of fond of the Nietono no Shana. Ever since she saw me waving it when I had a simply sparring with Yuji, she would try to lift it up and tried to swing it. From the looks of Tenmoku, I think he is going to make her his master in the future.
Meanwhile Justus and Yuris were already on the move, they ran towards different shelves on the walls and picked a few books out. Most of them turned out to be full of words and they put them back into the shelves dejectedly.
"Mom, what is this?"
"Ah...this is..."
I took the book from Saya's hands and opened it. It was quite old and its pages were turning yellow already but the colors were still there.
"I remembered this book, Wilhelmina used to read to your mother this story when she was young like you."
I told Saya as I gave her the book. Although she could not understand words, she was able to look at the pictures of the knights that was colored in the book. It was not long until Justus and Yuris came and surrounded her to admire the pictures.
"So this was really where Wilhelmina got all the books from when I was small..."
I said to no one in particular as I looked around the room. It was quite spacious. I wondered why Wilhelmina never brought her here before?
"When the God of Atonement said the library...could it be that room?"
"There is no doubt about it. I must hurry and get there before them or else!"
The maid flew across the hallways, pushing away anything and anyone that stood on her path. And it happened that a bypassing Flame Haze was on her path.
"Huh? Isn't it the 'Manipulator of Ob-"
It was a split second, the Flame Haze did not even got his chance to scream when he was being punched away and ended up on the wall.
Tiamat wanted to comment something but figured that it was not the time, her contractor wouldn't listen to her anyway in her current state. She doubted that even if Sabrac was in front of her, she would just punched him like what she did to the poor Flame Haze that happened to be in her path.
I have to hurry! If they saw that-!
Tiamat sighed, she wondered what happened to her once calm and wise contractor.
"Urgh... did a football hit my head?"
"I won't asked why you chose that analogy for something that powerful that could knock you out."
Balar commented as Rebecca slowly raised up from the ground and moaned in pain. She patted on her shirt upon releasing there were footprints on them. She swore that she would get those kids later, a swore that she completely forgotten after she swore it.
"Chee...so it turned out to be a normal library in the end...I was hoping to find something interesting..."
Rebecca's sentence paused halfway as she noticed something in the middle of the shelves. She slowly approached the bookshelves and touched an empty spot on the shelves. I noticed Rebecca's strange movement and decided to ask about it.
"You can't see the book here?" Rebecca said as she pointed on the empty space in the shelf. Was there anything there?
"Ah that's right, you are no longer a Flame Haze so you are not capable to detect such insignificant unrestricted spell."
"Unrestricted spell?" I asked? There was an unrestricted spell here? But this place appeared nothing but an ordinary study room.
"Wait a minute, I will dispel it in a few moments...done."
As soon as she said that, a book suddenly materialized into existence at the empty space. The book was originally concealed by a simply unrestricted spell to keep normal people like Yuris and Shana from discovering it but no way that a Flame Haze would not be able to notice that kind of spell. Sometimes these kind of spell meant privacy so they don't really try to dispel it when they found one.
But Rebecca being Rebecca, she did not even think about giving the owner privacy and took the book out of the shelf.
"It's a photo album...?"
Rebecca muttered as she looked at the cover of the book. There was nothing being written there except for the normal 'Photo Album' printed on the cover. Why would someone want to hide a photo album?
"Is this your photo album?"
"No, I don't recall having a photo album last time. In fact there wasn't a camera in Tendokyu in the first place."
I replied at Rebecca's question. That's strange...I don't think Shirou is those kind of people that actually keep an album...?
"Alastor was definitely out of the question since he couldn't move from his Caina. Could it be that "Rainbow Wings" Merihim guy's? Wait if it is don't tell me...
...its a porn magazine?"
Buck!
"Ouch! That was just...a joke... ..."
"Even as a joke, it is not funny at all."
I replied angrily as Rebecca went on her knees after being punched in the stomach. I couldn't believe that she actually saw Shirou like that. It made me so angry that I punched her with full force without thinking. Luckily the kids were still immersed in the picture book that they did not saw my bad side.
"Okay... excluding Shirou for now... There's only one more suspect left!"
"I doubted that Wilhelmina was the one that owned this album. She wasn't fond of photos in the least."
"Then let's prove it!"
"Wait."
Crack!
I grabbed Rebecca's hand and unconsciously twisted it in the wrong way. I swore that I heard a crack just now. My institution became true as Rebecca became very silent.
"... ... ...You were saying...Shana-chan?"
Rebecca tried to continue the conversation, apparently trying to hide the fact that her hand had been twisted by a mere human. But I wasn't a mere human, I had undergone intensive training that could let me beat the world champion boxer even if I wasn't a Flame Haze. I sweat dropped at her persistence as she cracked it back to normal.
"If this is really Wilhelmina's, shouldn't we put it back?"
I suggested. If this is really Wilhelmina's, I don't want to know what would happen to us if we see the contents inside.
"You are suggesting that this is Wilhelmina's?"
"Should be. So let's put it...no don't open it Rebecca!"
"An album that Wilhelmina wanted to hide! No way I am not going to open it!"
"Give me the album!"
"No way!"
We started having a fight with the album on our hands, even though I was trained, Rebecca's Flame Haze stamina was still powerful to keep up with me. If this is something Wilhelmina treasured, then there is no way that I can lose!
""Eh!""
Both of us shouted out unconsciously when we suddenly lost our balance. We were too concentrated on pulling the book away from the other that when my power overwhelmed Rebecca's, both of us lost our balance and fell to the floor. My grip on the album loosened as it fell onto the floor.
It fell with the content open on the floor.
"This is...a picture...?
Rebecca muttered as she looked at the white haired man with a blue cape in the picture. Like she said, there was a picture- no the entire book was filled with Shirou's pictures. There was different poses of him and some were as if they were taken in secret. Why would Wilhelmina-
"I can't believe it! Wilhelmina actually have someone that she likes! She liked that person so much to have an entire album of him! Oh my god I never thought that Wilhelmina can be so-"
"""Ah, it's Wilhelmina nee-san!"""
The three synchronized voice of the children filled the room as we felt a dark presence at the door behind us. Both Rebecca and I slowly turned our necks to see who was that was at the door.
It was Wilhelmina, she was not moving. Her eyes were fixed onto the album on the floor with the two of us surrounding it. For the first time in my life I felt being afraid, very afraid of Wilhelmina.
"Yo Wilhelmina! I never knew that you have a boy you liked, not to forget to mention that he had nice looks! So what's his name?...Ano...Wilhelmina...?"
"... ... ... ... ...How could you... ... ..."
"... ... ...Wilhelmina... ...?"
"... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...How could you... ... ... ... ..."
Wilhelmina still did not moved as she stared at the photos on the ground. Rebecca was starting to feel the strangeness of the situation but she was too late.
It was a single drop of tear.
That tear slowly coursed down the "Manipulator of Objects"'s cheek.
That was not the only one, more started to come out as her eyes began to become red.
"... ... ...-ka... ..."
"... ...Wilhelmin-"
"REBECCA KONO !"
"WAH!"
With thousands of ribbons taking the form of different kind of spears that was being formed according to her heart, all of them flew towards the room. Rebecca's last cry was drowned by the sound of the spears destroying the entire room, smashing everything into oblivion.
...
Rebecca's funeral was held a few days after that. But basically everyone just partied around and nobody remembered that it was a funeral. On that day Shana and the three kids were saved because Tenmoku had sensed danger and dragged them out of the room before the ribbons reached them. Wilhelmina became emo and began barricading herself in the 'Fountain of Knowledge' with her ribbons. The Flame Haze Army was on the verge of dying from hunger until Yuji came back with Bel Peol, who apparently knew how to cook and the Flame Haze Army was thus saved. Yuji managed to convince the Crimson Denizens in the village they could live with humans and began to migrate into the city nearest to Tendokyu. Shana managed to get Wilhelmina out of her emo state but she would always have that album in her hand treasuring it. Bel Peol and Wilhelmina started a proper cooking class for the Flame Haze Army and all of them graduated as top chefs in the future. After a few years Saya and Yuris grown big enough that in the family of four, the Sakai family lived happily ever after.
A/N: I thank xxxDreamingflowerxxx, Illidan, TheRoseShadow21,forggraven,Fangking2 and Trace Carter for the reviews!
Although this is a short story, hope you like it! See you in the next SnS story!
... ... ...
... ...
...
"LIKE HELL I AM DEAD!"
And then, another evil force appeared. Can the Sakai family win against this new evil-
"LIKE I SAID, I AM NOT DEAD NOR EVIL AND THIS STORY IS NOT ENDING!"
A/N: And next chapter Saya and Yuris will finally be the main character of the story! See you next time!