Magitalia

Chapter Nine- Red Light

Rose petals rippled in the air around Italy. Hazy pangs burned at his head. He barely knew where he was, but knew that it wasn't a place he really wanted to be.

Someone rushed ahead of him- a young, blond boy wearing a sailor uniform and carrying a cannon. Another person passed him- a young ponytailed girl carrying an enormous paintbrush that left trails of green ink splattered across the ground as she practically flew through the battlefield. He thought he felt something else brush past him, but didn't see a thing but small ripples through some of the girl's paint splatters.

Ahead of them was a man with a long coat and pink scarf. He looked calm, unafraid of the people charging towards him, but he didn't attempt to fight back. The young boy shot a cannonball at him, but he didn't flinch as it approached him. It simply bounced off of him, like it was rubber rather than metal.

With a start, Italy realized someone was standing behind him. He quickly turned around to face a familiar figure: a man wearing black robes and a white mask. He held a spear in one hand, and took Italy's hand in his other. The two ran up to the scarf-wearing man, who turned from calm to livid the second he noticed the masked hero.

A thousand needles of ice were produced from the scarf-wearing man and charged straight for the two of them, that terrifying fury being kept on them all the while.

"We're nearly there," a voice told Feliciano, accompanied by a few taps on his shoulder. Quickly, he opened his eyes. He was in Ludwig's car, (they'd been driving to meet up with England, right?) leaning over in the middle of the back seat, and an odd heat, like the one a computer gets when it's on too long was radiating from the metal cross around his neck. Had it caused him to have such a weird dream?

He decided to ask for a second opinion. "Uh, so if you have a really weird dream when you're wearing your transformation cross thingy and it's really hot when you wake up, does that mean magic things?", he questioned.

"Doubtful," Ludwig answered, very clearly more focused on driving than anything he'd said. "Not everything happens because magic. It's more likely you just had a weird dream."

"Actually, Magical Girls have precognitive dreams quite a lot," Kiku corrected. "What was it about? Were you fighting a mysterious enemy?"

The details were hazy, but that sounded sort of right. "I think so... " More came back to him, like the image of a pink scarf like the one the lady had attacked them with a few days ago. "Wait! Yeah, there was this really scary looking guy with a scarf like that lady from the other day, except instead of trying to kill us with pitchforks he had like icicles or something. And that hero guy that saved me when I was little was there and so were some little kids with weird weapons."

A weird sigh came from Kiku. "Well, that could be prophetic, but I'm not really sure. We should ask Flying Mint Bunny. It would probably know."

"How did I get to a point in my life where my friends consult an invisible rabbit for advice?", Ludwig questioned under his breath.

"Good question!", Feliciano said. When put like that, yeah, it sounded completely insane. And maybe it was, but whatever. They were nearly to where England had told them (okay, told Flying Mint Bunny to tell them) to meet him, and probably everything would be fine once there were three of them fighting together.

Three… of them… Right. Kiku was part of this now too. Was that awesome? Maybe, but it also meant that he really didn't have much way to keep his friend safe, or any good way to dissuade Ludwig from coming with them. Still, it meant he wouldn't be defenceless if some country attacked while he wasn't there… even if it also meant countries would attack him period.

Well, at least Ludwig didn't have powers, right? Wait, did he? Was that even possible? If two of them were countries, did that make it more or less likely that all three would be? Would it be better if he did have powers? He was going to be involved regardless, so would it be better if he had powers of some sort?

So many questions, but all of them cut off by Ludwig saying "I think this is the place" and pulling into the parking lot of a beat up old diner that looked very undercrowded for noon on a Saturday. It seemed sort of shady, but also it was lunchtime and Feliciano was really hungry, so he didn't hesitate in jumping out of the car and starting for the diner.

The second he opened the door and stepped in the place, which was just as decrepit inside as it was outside, he noticed a man sitting in a booth that looked freakishly familiar. Blond and with incredibly prominent eyebrows, he was the same exact man from that weird dream with the chalk. He probably would have recognized him right off the bat even if Flying Mint Bunny hadn't been hovering beside his head.

From the smile and beckoning hand motion, it seemed he knew who they were as well. Or maybe just assumed no one else would probably be coming in there but them. That was pretty likely.

England stood up to greet them, shaking Feliciano's hand as he approached. "It's quite nice to finally meet you," he said, sounding a bit more actually British than he was expecting. "My name is Arthur Kirkland."

"I'm Feliciano Vargas!", he said in turn, really not sure what to say otherwise. He had a million questions, but was unsure which to ask first.

"My name is Ludwig Beilschmidt," his friend continued, offering a hand to Arthur, who quickly took it.

Kiku didn't offer a hand, but simply bowed politely. "And I am Kiku Honda. It is very nice to meet you."

They all sat down in the booth, Flying Mint Bunny hovering about and Kiku trying very hard to create a healthy amount of distance between himself and England, who he sort of had to sit next to. "It was a good move to choose such an uncrowded location," Ludwig remarked after a moment.

"Ah, I just like the food here, to be honest," admitted Arthur, who shoved a menu at the other side of the booth. "Anyone want anything? I'll buy."

While the other two rejected the offer, Feliciano was kind of starving. Scanning the menu, he found pretty typical food, with only really the Fish and Chips sticking out as unusual. Well, if he was with England, it made sense to eat British-type food, right? "Can I get the Fish and Chips?"

Arthur smiled and looked at Ludwig. "Mind getting up to order for us? We have a lot to talk about."

"Sure," Ludwig said, but he glared at Arthur like it was very far from okay.

"Oh, and can you get me another tea? Mine's gone cold," Arthur added as Ludwig got up. His request was met with another glare.

Flying Mint Bunny hovered in the general space where Ludwig's head had been a moment prior and gave a small frown. "There's no reason to be rude!", it berated.

"My apologies, but I don't want to involve civilians more than I have to," explained England. "Sometimes the cold shoulder is the only way to keep people from sticking their noses where they don't belong."

Feliciano was preparing to say something to defend his friend, but Flying Mint Bunny did it for him. "Actually, I've been doubting he's actually a civilian," it said. "Given his association with so many other Countries, and specifically with these two, I think he might just be one himself."

"I kind of thought that too," Feliciano admitted.

"Given what I know of the Country Spirits from before all this happened, I definitely remember Germany being really close friends with Japan and Italy, so it's possible he's Germany," suggested Flying Mint Bunny.

Kiku looked oddly excited by this prospect. "If all three of us were Nation Scouts, that would truly be amazing, don't you think?"

"Eh, 'Nation Scouts'?", England repeated. "I don't believe I've heard that before."

Smiling, which Feliciano noted he'd done an awful lot more lately than usual, Kiku said "I made it up. I thought it sounded better than just referring to ourselves as 'Countries'."

Arthur nodded. "Yes, it does sound a bit better. Now, on to why I wanted to talk to you all. All this… 'Nation Scout' business must seem horribly confusing. I know I wasn't really sure what to make of it at first, but I got used to it and things have pretty much just gone on as normal."

That was pretty much exactly what he wanted to hear. Feliciano felt a smile spreading across his face. "Seriously?"

Arthur nodded. "Sure, there's the stray attack from-"

A chiming of the door in the front of the diner signaled someone else had entered, and from the way Arthur's eyes narrowed as he walked in, Feliciano assumed it wasn't anyone good. He looked pretty non-threatening, wearing a white hat and blue uniform, but a cold look in his eyes made him sure that this guy wasn't a friend.

"England," the man greeted, and from the corner of his eye, Feliciano could see that Flying Mint Bunny had suddenly vanished.

Standing up, Arthur replied with "Finland. I see you're doing well. How's the family?"

A sour expression crossed the face of this "Finland". "Please stop with the small talk," he requested. "I was sent here to trail the new ones, but, well, I'm outmatched and we both know it. So, I'll just ask you what I came here to find out: what powers do they possess?"

"Water and Light, from what I've heard," he replied simply. "Seem a bit underwhelming, to be honest. Nothing you need to concern yourselves with, I think."

"That's it?", Finland pressed, but an odd expression crossed his face. "Nothing else? Do you want me to make you all fight me?"

To prove his point, he conjured a sniper rifle from nowhere. "No!", Feliciano quickly exclaimed. "We don't want to fight you!"

"Eh, that'll work," Finland shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not really sure why they sent just me, but I'm sure they'll accept bad timing as an excuse. Have a nice day."

Gun vanishing into light, Finland walked back out of the diner. Feliciano was glad they'd avoided a fight, but a bit suspicious of that odd smirk he gave as he left.

"He'll be back," Arthur stated as the little bell on the door rung again as Finland left. "He's planning something, I'm sure." Grabbing a napkin, he scribbled a phone number down on it before handing it to them. "Probably isn't good for you to stick around here. Give me a call later and we can talk."

This all seemed a bit off to Feliciano, but he took the napkin and nodded. "Um, see you later, then."

He caught Ludwig, who still standing at the counter, by the arm and proceeded to walk out, still feeling uneasy about the whole ordeal. Some sort of red warning light was going off, and he knew deep down that something was off with England. Still, he was so grateful for his reassurance that he really didn't care.

AN- Behold! Finland not doing anything! Yeah, this chapter was sort of weird and more exposition, but hey, at least England is a part of the story now. And also very suspicious. That's good, right? Right? Thanks for reading! -Twilight Joltik