25
The cousins had retreated to the safety of their assigned guest room, leaving the adults to work things out amongst themselves while they sat together in silence, hoping to get a moment of peace and quiet to themselves.
"Are you sure you'll be all right, Beato?" asked Battler. "And you, Maria?"
Beato, having changed into the maternity dress given to her by Kumasawa, said, "I'll be fine, Battler; I've made it through worse than this."
"Uu, Maria will be fine, Battler," said Maria, "The black witch was taking over mama again!" Indeed, the red hand print on her face was beginning to fade now.
Battler was about to respond to that when he felt a small tug at his arm sleeve. He looked to his left and saw a fearful-looking Ange who said, "Onii-chan, are the grown-ups always going to be mad at each other?"
Battler gave Ange a small hug. "Of course not," he said gently, "they have their issues, but they won't stay mad about them for very long."
"What a shame," sighed George, combing out his hair, "I hope they can all get along for the wedding rehearsal this afternoon."
"Right, I forgot about that," groaned Jessica. In the midst of her worrying about what Sento was going to do to her family, she had completely forgotten about the event that would give him a reason to go in the first place: The wedding. It was funny, in a way; the wedding itself would have a rehearsal right before the ceremony. So they were basically holding a rehearsal of a rehearsal.
"It's all right, Jessica," said George, "In the chaos at lunch, I think most of us would be bound to forget. I should probably go and remind the other adults about it."
Just as he was about to follow up on his own suggestion, however, the door slightly opened by a crack. Jessica turned her head and stood up, slowly walking over to the door. "Who's there?" she said.
The door was pushed the rest of the way open and there stood Sento, looking perfectly innocent. "Is this the room the cousins were assigned to?" he asked.
Jessica folded her arms. "What if it is?"
"Oh, I just thought I might as well make myself welcome here, since I, too, would count as a 'cousin' to the others," shrugged Sento, "May I come in?"
Before Jessica could answer that, Beato had already gotten up and marched over to the door, which she began to slam, but was held back by Jessica. Not that she didn't want to do such a thing herself; she knew that if she tried anything to harm Sento now, right after he had made it clear to the family he had gone through a lot of trouble just to see them, she would look jealous, insane, or both. For now, she would play nice. If he did anything to harm the cousins in this room now, she would let go of her reasoning and let him have it.
"Sure, but not for long," said Jessica, opening the door the rest of the way. Sento walked in not as though he were a proud and cruel opponent looking to crush his sister's spirit, but as a curious young man getting to know his surroundings.
"If I may ask," said Sento, looking around the room, "why exactly did this young woman try to slam the door in my face?"
"This young woman is named Beato, thank you very much," snapped Beato.
Jessica shrugged, "She's at that stage now where she's hormonal and oversensitive."
Beato huffed, picked herself up, and stormed back into the bathroom, where she locked herself in to have a few moments to herself. She wondered what Sento was doing here, and if Jessica had been totally honest when she had said the game was over.
While she was left to ponder this, Sento said, "So what exactly shall we all do until it is time for the wedding rehearsal?"
"I will go and make preparations for it right now," said George, "I will come back when it is time." He shook hands with Sento and said, "Pleasure to meet you, by the way...Sento, was it?"
Sento nodded before letting go of George's hand and allowing him to leave, leaving him, Battler, Jessica, Maria, and Ange. He bent down to Ange's size and said, "You must be Ange."
Ange nodded, feeling a little uncomfortable with the revelation that she had another brother. She didn't trust him as much as she trusted Battler, seeing how she had known Battler for much longer; besides which, she was already getting a niece whom she would regard as a sister; wasn't the family big enough?
"Do you like school, Ange?" coaxed Sento. "I'll bet you hate it during flu season, right?"
Ange nodded. "I always get sick during that time," she said.
"Oh, being sick is no fun at all, now is it?" said Sento sympathetically.
Ange shook her head. "No. But I guess school is okay."
Maria got off the bed and ran over to Sento. "Uu, Sento!" she cried out. "Maria went as Beato for Halloween! Do you know about Halloween?"
Sento stood up, turned to Maria, and nodded. "Oh yes, I am quite familiar with a few of the festivities myself," he said, "I remember falling back on one of Dr. Hashimoto's old coats as a costume for many years—I'd always go as a mad doctor, or a crazy scientist."
Maria sighed, "Not many people know about Halloween or celebrate it, uu."
"What a cute little verbal tic you have there," mused Sento, "I used to make those sort of sounds when I was learning the alpha—"
"Ahem," said Battler, beginning to feel uneasy by the whole situation. It was somewhat bizarre to see Sento acting as a kindly older brother or cousin. He had something up his sleeve; what, Battler was uncertain of.
"Yes, Battler?" said Sento. "Do you have a problem with me getting to know some of my family? Particularly our young sister?"
"Yes, actually," said Battler bluntly, "What do we know about you? For all we know, you could be an imposter who forged those documents to gain our trust, and you are actually out to steal the inheritance."
Sento raised an eyebrow. "Do I have to show them to you, now?" He pulled out the roll of paper from his pocket once again, unrolled it, and handed each paper over to Battler.
Sento looked over at Jessica, which nearly startled her. "You've been quiet, dear sister," he said, "Whatever is the matter? You don't agree with Battler's wonders, do you?"
"No, not at all," said Jessica quickly, shaking her head, "I just...want to wait until I know you a bit before making any sort of judgment."
"And what do you think of me so far?" said Sento, folding his arms across his chest. "Do you think I am out to somehow trick or scam the Ushiromiya family?"
Jessica looked him steadily in the eye. "No, I don't," she said, "So far, I think you just like to confuse people by making them read too much into their reasons for doing what they do."
At this, Sento had to laugh for a good five seconds before saying, "Oh, good one! Well, that impression is probably spot-on. As for my impression of you, I think you're a spritely girl who is attracted to that young servant boy whom you made eyes with on the way out of lunch today."
Jessica's face turned red while Ange giggled. Before anything else could be said, however, George came in. "It's time."
The tension could still be seen as the family lined up in the chapel for the rehearsal. They only spoke if asking to borrow something for a brief moment, but that was about it. George hoped this tension wouldn't last throughout the entire rehearsal, and certainly not right to the wedding the very next day. Then again, he reasoned, many successful weddings started out as quite stressful, and this should be no different.
"One more time!" called out George from the front of the chapel. "Bride, bridesmaids, ring-bearer, best man, flower girl! From the top!"
The adults sat in their seats in a frigid atmosphere, observing a lightly flushed Shannon, who no doubt was imagining what the actual ceremony itself would be like in just one day from now.
Jessica, along with a tired and irritated Beato, followed close behind. She looked out of the corner of her eye and noticed Sento sitting alone on one of the benches, looking...indescribable. What was he thinking as he watched the preparations for the wedding? Did he think weddings were something beautiful? Or did he think they were nothing more than a facade?
Sento's eyes met hers, causing her to look straight ahead and not pay attention to the thought of how Sento might behave at the wedding tomorrow.
Along with Battler's light footsteps, she heard the light skipping steps of Ange, who was more than happy to play the role of the flower girl—sweet and innocent, childlike and beautiful.
George smiled at Shannon and lightly kissed her hand, his lips lightly brushing the ring that would eventually become the seal of their commitment. Such love...such beauty in love...
"Sayo," said George suddenly, "I have heard of a Western tradition that is common in most weddings, and I was just thinking of using it here: After the bridge and the groom exchange their vows and go back down the aisle, the bride then throws her wedding bouquet for someone in the crowd to catch, preferably a single person. Is that okay, or do you think it's too..."
"Tacky?" finished Eva, who was sitting up front.
"No, I think it's lovely," said Shannon quickly, avoiding eye contact with Eva. She reached over to a nearby vase with a lovely flower arrangement she had taken care of herself, took out the flowers, and neatly tied them together with a white ribbon. She slipped her hand into George's, and the two ran down the aisle together until they reached the doors.
Shannon turned around and tossed the bouquet up into the air and across the aisle. Deciding she might as well keep herself entertained, Jessica ran over to catch the bouquet, not realizing another person had also gotten up to participate in such an activity...
Jessica caught the bouquet, at around the same time another hand grabbed it, the fingers entwining around hers. Jessica lost her balance and nearly fell over backwards, and stumbled into another person's arms. She whipped her face around...
The hand that had also caught the bouquet belonged to none other than Sento, whose arm had kept Jessica from falling, and whose face was right next to hers.
There was an awkward silence throughout the chapel, save for a stifled laugh from Rudolf. Sento quickly let go of the bouquet, and the two separated. Jessica laughed awkwardly, while Sento tried very hard not to smile, still feeling his heart pound and face flush from their close contact.
"Maybe we should call it a day already," muttered Shannon, feeling embarrassed at the awkward situation.
"Yes, perhaps we should," said George. He smiled at Shannon and lightly kissed her on the head. "I'll see you tomorrow night."
In the sea of kakera stood a witch in pink observing the events unfold in Rokkenjima. She hoped that awkward incident wouldn't go to Sento's head—after all, it was his purpose to carry out the murders, not have any sort of bonding moments with his family. Then, it would make it that much harder.
"Who am I kidding," scoffed Lambdadelta, "That kid may act all tough, but he'll never actually do it. He had better prove me wrong, because if he doesn't..."
Her mood changed and she sighed romantically, "Or maybe he will...and soon, I'll have Bern all to myself...not that much longer now...just one more day..."