Chapter 7: Lost in Language
Another calm day at the Owl House. It had been a few days since me and Luz had that moonlight conjuring with Willow and Gus and we had managed to get our mess all cleaned up. Nothing was happening today, so we all decided to try and use the time to relax. Wasn't sure what Mom was doing, but the rest of us were doing our own things in the living room. Juniper was listening to music with an MP3 player and a pair of headphones as she read some manga, going through issue after issue. They weren't the same, but she didn't care as she was trying to have a good time. While she was doing that, me and Luz were enjoying some The Good Witch Azura, Luz reading out the scene from where Azura and Ludolf decided to team up with their rivals Hecate and Gonzalo. King was close by and, after a moment of trying to drown it out, soon joined in as this caught his interest.
"'Azura!' Hecate began." Luz said as she read from the book. "'The paths of you and I as well as the alphas of the two packs have crossed only in battle. But today, our paths have crossed for another reason.'" She then spoke in a deep voice as she read the next lines. "'Yes, for as of today,' Gonzalo spoke out, 'we do not stand before you seeking foes, but allies.'" After this, Luz then closed the book and sighed in contentment.
"Luz, mind not getting all swoony over there?" Juniper spoke up, taking off her headphones. "I'm trying to read here."
"Sorry, I can't help it." Luz said to her. "Azura is so amazing. She's able to befriend anyone, even her biggest rival."
"So can Ludolf." I added. "He's able to bring out great change in the world and others, even managing to get the very alpha who had been against for so long to become an ally."
"Yeah, they're both amazing." Luz said. "I wish I had that kind of power."
"And befriend who? Amity?" Juniper commented. "Good luck with that."
"Luz, rivals are meant to be annihilated, not befriended." King added.
"That's not completely true, King." I told him. "Rivals come in many different forms. They can be those who have differences or share something in common, like mutual respect or even a goal. It just matters in perspective."
"Yeah, but this is real life." Juniper put in. "While it might seem you can befriend a rival, you can't expect someone to give you their friendship so easily."
"Why not? You and King did for me." Luz said, causing Juniper to pause in reading and look at her.
"That's because I'm not like people like that Blight chick." Juniper told her. "Unlike her, I know better and can see if someone is good or not. Amity is just a bitch who thinks too much of herself to actually care about anyone, so you ain't befriending her overnight. That's just a fact."
"Yeah, but maybe we both have something in common with each other." Luz said to her. "I mean, Ryuji managed to find that with Xander and get him to open up. I bet I can do the same."
"Somehow doubt it." My twin said with a bored expression.
"Well, I think you may be surprised, sis." I said to Juniper. "You can't always judge a book by its cover. I mean, Willow was once friends with her, so maybe she's not such a bad person. Plus, Ruby and Weiss were much the same and they managed to become friends. I bet you anything that Luz will be able to do the same with Amity when given time."
"I'll believe that when I see it." Juniper said as she then went back to reading her manga.
"Hey, keep reading!" King said as his tail started wagging. "I've been sucked into your awful fandom."
"Okay." Luz said before she then continued reading out loud, much to the little demon's delight and my sister's displeasure. "Suddenly, the door swung open…"
"Ding‐dong-ding! Hoot! Hoot!" Hooty said as he, much to our surprise, swung the door right open.
"Whoa! Freaky." I commented.
"You can say that again." Juniper added.
"The book has come to life! Burn it!" The little demon said, Luz ignoring him as she went out to check if anything was at the door.
"What's out there?" I called out as Luz noticed something.
"I think Eda got a package." Luz replied as she came to the living room with a little wicker basket with a small blanket covering whatever was inside it in her hands with Hooty closing the door.
"Were you expecting something, Juni?" I asked my sister who used her magic to send her manga back to her room.
"Not that I know of. We usually do deliveries, not get any." Juniper said as we all then stood up. "Come on, maybe Mom knows what it is." With that, the four of us headed into the kitchen. "Mom?"
"Right here!" Mom replied as we saw her walk in through the back door. "What's going on?"
"Well, we just found this out front." Juniper said as Luz carried the basket over and put it on the table which King climbed on. "Any ideas on what it is?"
"Probably an offering." Mom guessed with a smile. "Ah, being the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles has its perks."
"Define your view of 'perks'." I said with air quotes.
"Let's see. Might be something good." King said with a napkin tied around his neck like a bib. As we all peered down, I then pulled down the blanket to find… a sleeping baby? Yeah, it was a baby with a tuff of blank hair on top of its head.
"A baby?" Juniper asked in confusion.
"Mm! Fresh meat." King excitedly said, causing him to get bonked in the head by Juniper.
"Nu-uh! No way!" I said, raising my hands in defiance. "I'm not cooking any babies."
"No, not eating that." Luz said as she walked away, not wanting to eat the child.
"Same here. Witches eating babies is so 1693." Mom added.
"Yeah, and humans wondered why people back in Salem were all paranoid." I said in a flat tone as I eyed the infant. "Though why would anyone leave their child with people who had been deemed criminals for?"
"Oh, please don't let this be like one of those moments where someone leaves their child for us to take care of them." Juniper said as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"It better not be." Mom said, not wanting to do the task.
"There's a note." King said as he tore off a tag on the basket's handle and read what was written on it out loud. "'Take care of my child till the day after. Yi-Yi'?"
"Nope. Not happening. Babies are awful." Eda said, earning looks from me and my sister. "Oh, not you two though. You guys and Ben were an exception." Juniper hummed while I crossed my arms as we were both having a hard time buying what she said.
"'You'll be handsomely rewarded. X‐O‐X‐O‐X‐O‐X, the Bat Queen." King said as he read more of the note.
"Bat Queen?" Mom said as this got her attention before smiling upon seeing the three gold coins King pulled out from the basket. "Reward?"
"Okay, now this just got a whole lot better." Juniper said with a smile of interest.
"Wait, who's the Bat Queen?" I asked as Luz came back, just as curious as me.
"Just only the most wealthiest demon on the Boiling Isles itself." Juniper answered. "Anyone who gets in with her is set for life."
"That's right." Mom added as she took a coin. "And we just need to keep this thing alive for a few hours and we get paid." She then flipped the coin in the air and caught it. "Pfft! Easy."
"Uh, maybe we should call Dad for this." I said, Mom losing her smile as she looked at me. "Not that I don't doubt you, but maybe it would be easier if you two worked together. You are a duo, after all."
"Yeah, plus I wonder at times how you even managed to raise me." Juniper added.
"Oh, we don't need him. Besides, I think Axel already has enough trouble making sure no one expects Ryuji isn't at summer camp." Mom said as she regained her smile. "Plus, I still got 24 years worth of experience. Babysitting a child for a day will be easy."
"Our greatest adventure yet!" Luz happily said. "Learning about love and life through a child's eyes."
"Not you." Mom said to her, making Luz lose her smile. "You have to return the books I checked out from the library." She then used a spell circle to make big stacks of books appear and fall into Luz's arms.
"Whoa! Whoa!" Luz said as she was about to lose her balance before I caught her and helped her regain her footing. "Thanks."
"No problem." I told her before I then used my magic to take half the stack and put it in my own arms. "I'll come with and help you return Mom's books."
"Wait, you're gonna leave too?" Juniper said with surprise as I used my magic to get my Saisho on me.
"Well, yeah. I could use some fresh air. I always wanted to see what a library around here is like." I said before I then whispered in my sister's ear. "Plus, I can find some certain books we might be interested in." By seeing my wink, my sister caught on and smiled at the idea I had with it.
"Oh, yeah. You go on ahead then." My twin said to me. "I'll stay here and help Mom with the baby."
"Yeah, go on ahead and have fun." Mom said before she then whispered to King. "At least we don't have to worry about cutting the loot five ways now."
"I heard that!" I snapped. "And, just for that, you can forget me buying apple blood when I make grocery runs!"
"Eh, it'll be fine." Mom said as she waved me off. "Now, let's take a look at this little darling."
Upon removing the blanket, the baby which looked like a human head with red eyes and bat wings and legs started screeching like crazy, being loud enough to shake the whole house.
"Oh, that's loud!" Juniper commented as King fell onto his back.
"On second thought maybe, we could use your help!" Mom yelled out as she covered her ears.
"Well, we better get to the library! Got to go! Bye!" Luz said she made her way out the door with me following suit.
"DK, wait!" Juniper said, making me stop and look back. "You're not gonna leave your dear mother and sister like this are you?"
[Ryuji's aside]
Well, she isn't wrong. It would be a little mean just to leave them with a crying baby like the one we were given. But, considering that Mom is cutting me and Luz out of a share of the payment Bat Queen promised, I can't miss the chance to get even with Mom. Besides, even I'm not really sure if I could help them with a kid like that.
"Bye, sis, and good luck." I said with a smirk as I slowly closed the door.
"What?" Juniper said with a look of horror. "No, no-no-no!"
"Ryuji Kamui Frank, don't you dare…" Mom said right before I closed the door.
"Phew! Dodged a bullet there." I said before I turned to see Luz giving me a look. "What? I'm sure they'll be fine. Come on, let's get down to the library." With that, the two of us then made our way toward Bonesborough.
[No one's view]
Back inside the Owl House, the baby continued to screech while Eda and Juniper kept their ears covered with looks of worry.
"Okay, everything's fine!" Eda yelled out to her daughter. "We got this, right?" Just then, the baby flew out of the basket and into Juniper's face.
"Aah!" Juniper cried out as she stumbled backward.
[Ryuji]
After getting to Bonesborough, me and Luz continued to carry the stacks of books as we made our way to the library.
"Still can't believe my mom checked out this many books." I said as we kept walking. "I'm pretty sure most of these are overdue."
"You sure Eda will be fine?" Luz asked with concern.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. She somehow managed to raise Juni, so I think she'll do fine. Besides, I think we should focus on finding the library." I replied before noticing a familiar face who was carrying a book that was twice as big as her. "Hey! Excuse me!" I managed to get her attention as she turned around and put her book down to look at me. "Remember me? Did you get that book from the library?" She nodded in confirmation. "Great. Can you tell us where we can find it? Got a couple of books to return." With that, she then pointed forward, me and Luz turning and looking in awe to find the library which was quite an impressive and decent-sized building that looked like it could house thousands of books. "Sugoi." With that, I then gave the conspiracy theorist a grateful smile. "Thanks." With the midget taking her book and walking away, me and Luz then continued on toward the library.
"So have any ideas why your mom's having us return these books for her?" Luz asked me as we walked to the front door.
"Besides her reputation and considering she got this many books checked out, I would have to say she might have gotten her library card revoked." I told her as we reached the door which I then opened with my magic.
"Whoa!" Luz said as we entered the library, amazed by seeing how much of a treasure trove of literature and knowledge it was with a vast number of bookcases with shelves full of books as far as the eye can see and having at least one other floor beside the ground floor.
"Okay, I'm going to come back here after this." I said right before the books we had flew out of our hands and towards a warlock who stood behind a counter with a bored expression on his face as the books passed through a green spell circle above the counter. The word "LATE" appeared above the circle as it beeped and flashed red with each book that passed through it.
"Late. Late. Late." The warlock said as three books from the two stacks passed through the circle. "Late." With the fourth one, he grabbed it and examined it as we walked over to him. "Stains of coffee, grass, and blood?" He then turned to me and Luz. "These are Eda's, aren't they?"
"Yeah. Heh, that was a crazy night." Luz said with a nervous chuckle.
"Yeah, we're sorry." I told him. "My mom can be a little messy."
"I see. So you're the Dragon Kid everyone's been talking about." He said to me. "The fact anyone is her child is beyond my understanding."
"Yeah, I guess it is quite shocking." I said. "I never once turned in a book I checked out late. Guess the late returns are part of the reason why she doesn't have a library card anymore?"
"Yes as well as returning the books damaged and/or ruined." He said as he then summoned a long scroll and wrote on it with a quill. "I'll be putting these on your mother's tab."
"Okay." I said before I then went on to ask him about what I wanted to find in the library. "Hey, I'm new here, so can you maybe help me find some books I've been looking for."
"Do they happen to be ones that a certain little witch was looking for?" he asked me as he finished writing, the scroll rolling up before disappearing.
"If you mean my twin, then yeah." I told him.
"Dark Magic History. Second floor, west wing." He told me.
"Got it. Thanks." I told him with a grateful smile.
"If you're looking to check out any books, you'll have to hurry." He told me. "We're closing early for the Wailing Star meteor shower."
"Ooh! What's that?" Luz asked with interest.
"I've read about it." I said as I explained. "It's this rare comet that flies by every few years. It's said to give off a sound that resembles a wail as it flies through the sky, hence the name."
"Oh, that's cool." Luz said.
"Yeah, hopefully, we'll get to see it tonight." I said before we then headed off to find the Dark Magic History section.
As we headed to the west wing and tried to look for the stairs, we came across a filing cabinet containing multiple demons with a single red eye.
"Demon Decimal System?" I read the sign beside the demons.
"Bloop!" Hearing Luz, I watched as she fed one of the demons a gumdrop. Looking back over to the sign, I saw that it also said "Do not feed demons" and gained a look of shock.
"Uh, Luz?" I said as I pointed to the sign and showed her it said to not feed the demons right before we looked at the demon she fed as it grunted with its mouth closed. "Oh, no." With that, the demon then spewed out a bunch of catalog cards at us.
After that mess, we finally made it upstairs and looked through the different sections of bookcases, me checking the signs to try and find the right one.
"Beast Ecology, Herbs and Potions… Ah! Here we are!" I said as I found the Dark Magic History section, which wasn't much with only a few shelves, but had enough books to fill them up. I then looked through the shelves and picked out the books I was looking for. "Okay, History of Curses, Curses for Beginners—Oh! And the Case Study of Dark Magic and Curses. Perfect!"
"Wait, you're looking at curses?" Luz said, confused by what I was doing before it dawned on her. "You're looking for a way to cure Eda, aren't you?"
"Yeah, why?" I replied.
"Well, didn't she say it was fine as long as she takes her elixir?"
"Yeah, but for how long?"
"What do you mean? That's how it works for you."
"Yeah, but only because I'm a different case." I explained. "While it's true that my curse came from my mom, the Dragon Blood I got from my dad might have changed it."
"How so?"
"Well, my big bro is one good example. Unlike me, he's able to control his dragon form and change to and from it at will. Me and Mom always lose control when turning into those beast forms and have to drink elixirs to make sure we don't become them."
"But you were able to change back without having to drink more elixir."
"That's only because of my Dragon Blood. It's the only reason how I can change back even by only having one elixir a day. My Mom doesn't have Dragon Blood, which means she might not have the same luck I do. Unlike mine, her curse is getting worse with each passing day, becoming harder and harder for her to control. There might even be a point where one elixir a day might not be enough. I know that this might be a long shot, but I need to take any chance I get and look to every possible way I can help her. I only just got her back in my life, I don't want to lose her."
Luz then walked over and put a reassuring hand on my shoulder, getting me to look up at her smile. "I get it and don't worry. We'll make sure your mom gets cured, I promise."
I then returned the smile. "Thanks, Luz."
"Now, mind if we explore the library a bit?"
"Not at all. Got the books I need, so it would be a waste not to check the place around.
Walking around the library, we ended up finding it quite an amazing place. It was like the usual library, but with magic. There were many different subjects, most relating to all types of magic, the history of magic, and even great tales and legends here in the Boiling Isles. Upon getting to a railing, we were amazed as a row of books were magically traveling amongst the upper levels.
"Whoa—Aah!" Luz said as she tried to take a book, only to be dragged off with it. "The books got me!"
"Luz!" I said as I then quickly tucked the books I had in one arm before drawing my Saisho and managed to change it into a lance before using a Vine Whip to grab and pull Luz to safety, gently putting my friend down beside me.
"Thanks, DK." Luz gave me a grateful smile.
"No problem." I replied before we were shushed by the people sitting at a table down below.
"Sorry." Me and Luz quietly said at the same time before making our way back downstairs.
"You seem to be really getting a hang of the weapon transformations." Luz said with an impressed smile as I changed my Saisho back into a sword.
"Yeah, though I guess I have my dad to thank for that." I told her as I put my weapon away. "Speaking of my Saisho, I've actually figured out what to call the spell I use to transform it."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I was thinking of calling it 'Transformation Magic: Weapon Change'. What do you think?"
"Sounds perfect."
"Oh, I also had decided to give my Saisho's new forms different names. I know it's still the same weapon I'm using, but those different forms just make using it feel different, you know?"
"Yeah, I guess. So did you figure out what to call them yet?"
"Well, yeah. I decided to call its lance form 'Saisho Yari' and its bow form 'Saisho Yumi'. Decided to keep it simple by using the Japanese words for 'spear' and 'bow' at the end, plus it's rather fitting considering my Saisho is probably the first weapon to be other weapons."
"Yeah, you're right. And they sound so cool."
"I just hope they sound as cool it a call out when I use the spell."
After walking for a while, we soon came across the Reference Section and saw a group of people at a table using crystal balls. What they were depicting reminded me of how people used computers in a library with one person taking notes while watching a video on how to fly with a staff, one watching a video of a cat playing the piano, and one waiting for what he wanted to load with a classic internet loading screen shown in the ball which he tapped a bit from being impatient.
"They even have crystal balls that act as computers?" Luz was surprised to see this. "This place is amazing."
"Yeah, I'm definitely coming back here." I said, feeling just the same. "This is exactly what I thought a Boiling Isles library would be like."
"What do you think you're doing?" Said a voice that sounded familiar.
"We've been caught! Pretend to be a book." Luz said with a gasp of shock before putting her arms out while trying to shape herself between two bookcases.
"Wait, doesn't that voice sound familiar?" I asked.
"Yeah… it does." Luz said as she came out from her hiding stop before we heard some little kids laughing and followed it to a room within the library.
Quietly walking in there and hiding behind a small bookcase, we poked our heads out and were surprised to find Amity sitting in front of a couple of kids. With her holding an open book in front of her, even I could tell that this was a children's reading like the libraries in the human realm usually have. Honestly, I was surprised as I didn't expect this, especially since the last time we saw her.
"'We're your friends and we wanna help.' said the Tin Boy with a yelp." Amity said as she read the book with a smile, even doing facial expressions to act out what the characters were saying. "Otabin smiled and paced the floor. 'I've never had real friends before.'"
"No, frickin', way." I whispered in disbelief.
"Amity? Reading to kids?" Luz whispered, feeling the same.
"'Then we'll be your first.' the Chicken Witch clucked. Otabin couldn't believe his luck. So Bookmaker Otabin, surrounded by friends, bound a book of friendship and that's the end." Amity said as she finished reading before closing the book, the kids around her giving her a round of applause as they clearly enjoyed the story that was read.
"Amity seems so nice and smiley." Luz said in surprise.
"Yeah, I didn't she would act so nice like this." I whispered with the same feeling. "Or at the very least, show this side of herself in public. Makes you wonder why she doesn't show this kindness to others like she's showing these kids." From there, I then turned back to Luz as she gasped excitedly.
"If she's actually this nice and not actually cold," Luz said with a smile, "maybe I can befriend her, like Azura befriended her rival."
"Uh, Luz? As much as I would like to see that happen, I'm afraid there might be a few problems with that theory." I said before looking back to see the kids leaving the room with a smiling Amity following behind. "Oh, she's coming this way!" With that, the two of us ducked for cover, Luz taking one of the books I had before opening it and putting it on her head. We tried our best to go unnoticed as Amity waved goodbye to the kids that were leaving.
"Thank you so much!"
"Goodbye!"
"Goodbye, Ms. Amity. Thank you." Hearing that deep voice, I looked down to see a little red demon kid who looked like a certain prisoner warden me and Luz met as he hugged her legs.
"Thank you, Braxus. See you next time." Amity said, patting Braxus on the head before the kid then ran off to join his friends.
"Wow. Talk about not judging a book by its cover." I spoke up which spooked the witch spoke up spooking her as she turned and noticed us. "Hey, Amity."
"Ugh! You two." Amity said, losing her smile and sounding very displeased to see us.
"Amity… Whoop!" Luz said as she got up, catching the book that slipped off her head. "Reading to kids, wow. Looks like this sour lemon drop has a hidden sweet center."
"It's for extra credit." The witch quickly replied.
"Yeah, right. I saw that smile." I said, having a hard time believing that excuse. "You actually enjoyed that. "Didn't think you had a soft spot for kids."
"Don't get the wrong idea." She bluntly said as she looked away.
"Whoa! Hey! Don't get your stockings in a bunch. It was a compliment." I said, raising my hands before I then noticed the book in her hand. "I see you read them Otabin the Bookmaker. Good choice. My dad used to read that to me when I was little myself. Seeing how you read the story, I guess it was read to you as well?"
"That's none of your concern." Amity turned her eyes to us but turned her head in surprise. "Curses?" Hearing that, I then realized she noticed the book in Luz's hands.
"That's one of mine." I said as I took the back from Luz, earning a confused look from Amity. "It's for research. Need to know your curses if you want to stay safe." It looked like Amity was about to question me before she shrugged it off and went back to where she was reading, picking up books that were on the floor.
"Hey, me and Ryuji could help with the kids. We could take turns reading." Luz said as we walked over to the witch girl. "You should see Ryuji do voices, he's so…" Luz was interrupted by Amity slamming the books she had on the table.
"Human," Amity harshly said as she turned around to face us, "do you see me going to the Owl Shack and bugging you and the hybrid while you… fry up owls?"
"What? Fry up owls?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "You do realize not everything we do is owl-related, right?"
"Okay, I don't really know what you do there, but my point is that I don't want either of you bugging me." Amity said with a scoff. "Every time either one of you comes near me, I get in trouble."
"Whoa, hold up there." I said while pointing a finger at her. "What happened the first time we ran into each other is because you were too focused on your pride and tried to get Luz dissected. The other happened because of my aunt using you and Xander just to embarrass my mom. Xander was able to not let his stubbornness stop him from admitting his mistakes, why can't you?
"You want me to admit? Fine! I admit it!" Amity told us. "All of that was my fault and you just happened to be there right when things went back for me! Happy now? Now just leave me alone!"
"I'm sorry." Luz apologized before she then ran off.
"Luz!" I called to her, but she was already gone. A little pissed off, I gave a growl before turning around to glare at Amity. "What the hell is wrong with you?" With that, I then ran after Luz, calming down as I managed to find and catch up to my friend. "Hey, Luz, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Luz said before she sighed with depression. "So much for befriending rivals."
"You gonna let her get to you like that?" Said a voice as we looked ahead and saw a witch and warlock who looked about a few years older than us.
They had Hexside uniforms that showed they were from the Illusion Track, only the warlock was wearing the boots of the uniform while the witch was wearing flat black shoes along with a pearl choker necklace. They looked like twins considering they had green hair and one mole under one eye. The witch's hair was long and tied into a bulky plaid, her mole was under her left eye, and was wearing round, gold piercings and the warlock had short hair and his mole was under his right eye.
"Who are you two?" I asked as the two walked over to us.
"Well‐wishers on a mission." The warlock replied.
"A noble quest." The witch added.
"Watch this. Hey, Mittens!" The warlock called out.
"Mittens?" I said before I heard a flinching grunt and looked over to see it was from… Amity?
"Mom says stop forgetting your lunch." The warlock said as he held up a small bag shaped like a bunny that had a winking eye.
"Wait, 'Mom'?" I said before I then realized it and looked at the two in shock. "No way. Are you two?"
"Yep. We're Amity's older siblings." The witch answered. "I'm Emira and this is Edric."
"And, yeah, we're twins." The warlock Edric added.
"Wow. Didn't see that coming." I said as Amity stomped over to us.
"Yeah, which is why we're telling her to stop being a jerk to her friends." Edric said as Amity took the bad from her brother.
"These two are not my friends." Amity harshly said, making Luz look down sadly upon hearing that.
"Okay, you know what? Screw it with trying to make peace with you." I said as I had enough of the Blight girl's attitude. "When Willow told me you were friends with her, I thought I could see how exactly you ditching her would get her to try so hard to prove herself to you. Honestly, unless you don't count that you're from some high-class family that lives on fenced-off private property, I find it hard to believe anyone wants to be your friend." Amity was taken aback by this a bit right before she then glared at me.
[Ryuji's aside]
Okay, even I had to admit that was a bit harsh, but I didn't really care one bit about it at the time. Considering how she was treating us, I really just wanted to strike a nerve with her because that's what she deserves for being so rude.
"Okay, okay. Let's calm down and don't make a scene." Emira said, putting a hand on both of our shoulders before taking her hands off and getting between me and Luz, put on hand on mine and her shoulders. "Besides, this does make a little sense these two aren't your friends. They both seem too cool for you anyways."
"We are?" Luz said, surprised to hear this.
"You can leave now! All of you." Amity said in annoyance before marching off, her older sister laugh a bit.
"Yeah, don't mind us! We'll just leave ya here to your icy lonesome!" I retorted back before me and Luz then walked away with the Blight Twins. "Tachiōjō meinu." I cursed that in Japanese. Didn't bother to say that under my breath as I doubt she knew Japanese.
[No one's view]
As Amity walked back to where she was reading earlier, she scoffed repeating Ryuji's words. "'Unless you don't count that you're from some high-class family that lives on fenced-off private property, I find it hard to believe anyone wants to be your friend.' Heh!" Amity said with a scoff as she walked back to where she was reading earlier. "Who is he to talk to me like that? He doesn't know a thing about me."
"Maybe he would if you acted differently. What you said back there was rather harsh." Said a voice, making Amity stop and turn around to see Xander leaning against the bookcase Ryuji and Luz were hiding behind, the young Duskerman reading a manga book in his hand. "It only stands to reason that the Dragon Kid would return those harsh words in kind."
"How long have you been there?" Amity asked, trying not to show her surprise to find Xander standing there.
"The whole time." Xander answered before looking up from the book to make eye contact with the witch girl. "So, 'Mittens', huh? Even I have to admit, that's kind of adorable." Hearing this, Amity growled in embarrassment while supporting the same blush as Xander then returned to his book. "Don't be so worked up. You wouldn't want to give those children the wrong impression when you see them again, now would you?"
"Don't lecture me on how to do things."
"I'm not. I'm only pointing out the facts, that's all."
"Well, go point them out to someone that actually cares."
The black-haired warlock only sighed as he then lowered the book from his face to look at Amity. "Amity, that attitude hasn't been working for you so far already, yet you persist on hanging onto it. Shoving others away won't help you in the long run. Also I think you owe the Dragon Kid and the human an apology."
"Apology for what?"
"For being so harsh when there really wasn't a reason for you to be as such. They were just trying to be nice, especially the human."
"That human is more like an annoyance."
"That's not what I saw from you." Xander then closed the book before putting the manga away on its shelf which happened to be the one he was next to. "You know the way you acted was wrong. The Dragon Kid's friend was only trying to do the right thing and make amends yet you keep pushing her away. Why is that?"
"I can't show weakness." Wilhelm hummed at her response before he stood up stood straight.
"Understandable. But deep down, we both know that's only fear and denial and living as such will only get you so far. I managed to get over that and admit my mistakes. If anything you should do the same before it becomes a regret." He then bowed his head before making his leave. "Farewell for now, Mittens."
"Don't call me that!" Amity snapped with a blush before giving a sigh.
As much as she didn't want to admit it, Xander's words greatly affected her and a bit of guilt that started out small slowly started to grow within her as she began to think on what she should in consideration to Luz and Ryuji.
[Ryuji]
After getting far enough away from where Amity was, me and Luz decided to talk with her siblings who seemed much nicer than she was.
"Still can't believe you two are the older sibs of Ms. Cold and Humorless back there." I said to the twins. "In fact, I thought she was an older sibling if she had any siblings from the way she acts."
"Yeah, we get that impression a lot." Edric said to us. "So I just noticed the ears on one of you. You two wouldn't happen to be the human and Dragon Kid we heard so much about?"
"Yeah, that's us." Luz said with a smile. "I'm Luz and this is Ryuji."
"Great to meet you both." Emira said as we all stopped with the twins turning to face us. "We heard how you two embarrassed her at the school and at the Covention last week. No wonder she hates you."
"I know." Luz said. "But we didn't mean any of it. I thought we were as cool as cucumbers. But we're as sour as pickles"
"Eh, that's her lost." I said as I pat her on the back. "Don't worry about it."
"Your boyfriend's right." Emira said. "Mittens is like that with everybody."
"I'm not her boyfriend. /He's not my boyfriend." Me and Luz quickly said at the same time, making Emira giggle.
"You two are so adorable." Emira said to us, making me and Luz blush.
"Got to say, it's great to finally meet an actual Frank." Edric said to me. "Especially one who took down Xander."
"Yeah, and we're surprised he hasn't really talked bad about you." Emira added.
"Really? What exactly does he say about me?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing really. Just bits and pieces whenever someone asks." Emira told me. "Doesn't seem like he really hates you."
"Well, he is my cousin after all. Plus, I do get a sense there's some mutual respect between us."
"Well, at least you befriend your rival." Luz said with depression.
"Hey, you'll be able to make friends with her." I said with a reassuring smile. "You just have to give her time to warm up to you."
"Yeah, don't worry about Mittens. She's always been such a killjoy." Emira put in. "Me and Ed are way more fun."
"Yeah, you should hang with us." Edric added. "Not every day you get to hang out with the son of Axel Frank."
"Yeah, I heard my dad was pretty famous around the Boiling Isles." I said.
"'Pretty famous' doesn't even cut it." Edric told me. "The guy actually changed the Boiling Isles for the better. Everybody loves him."
"Even though he's a criminal?"
"Criminal or not, he still managed to do something no one could." Edric told me before him and Emira got behind me and gently pushed us into walking with them.
"Come on and we'll show you a real good time." Emira put in. From this, we then followed them as they pulled pranks all over the library.
First, Edric wiped off the 'Non' on the sign that showed the Fiction and Non-fiction sections of the library. After managing to do so, he then rejoined us as we hid and watched the scene unfold as a librarian giving a tour walked over.
"And here we have our sections of fiction and…" The librarian said before he gasped upon seeing the sign. "Fiction?" the four of us laughed as the guy was baffled by this.
Moments after this, we found the same librarian (recognized by his third eye) who seemed to be trying to calm himself by checking books to ensure they were on the proper shelves of each bookcase, the warlock using a ladder to reach the shelves he needed to check and holding a list. Close by was another librarian who was shelving books in the Fiction section from a cart he had, too indulged in a book she had to notice Emira taking the one book he shelved back on the cart and making him shelf and reshelf the same two books in the cart. After a moment of this, Edric and Emira then used their magic to switch the two librarians around, leaving the one by the cart trying to shelf a book on a full shelf and leaving the other shocked to find himself in the Fiction section.
"What? Fiction?" The librarian said, confused by this. "But I could've sworn I was in the Non-Fiction section. Am I starting to lose it?"
After having a little laugh, the four of us then ran off before the two noticed us. A while after, Edric and Emira took us to the Demon Decimal System filing case.
"Okay, just stand right here." Edric said as he got me in front of the case of demons before going to stand beside it. "Now, you ready to see something funny?"
"Yeah, but why do I have to stand here for?" I asked before Edric pulled out a book. "What are you doing with that book?"
"Nothing, just this." Edric said right before he held up the book and blew on the cover, blowing dust right at the demons who began to gasp from it.
"Oh, no. Aah!" I said with realization, right before the demons sneezed catalog cards and buried me in a pile.
"Pretty funny, huh?" Edric said as I poked my head out of the pile while his twin and Luz giggled at this.
"Okay, you got me good." I said, smiling at finding this prank amusing. "Just know I'm gonna get you back for this."
"Hey!" Hearing that voice, the girls stopped laughing as we turned to see Amity standing behind us while accompanied by the librarian me and Luz met at the counter who glared at us, both of them having their arms crossed.
"Wait, where's Gary?" He asked.
"Coming!" Said the three-eyed librarian from before as he ran over and gasped at the sight before him. "Noo! Not the catalog cards! Will this torment never end?" As he began to sob, I gained a look of worry as the other librarian walked over to us.
"Uh, heh-heh." I gave a nervous chuckle as the librarian stood over me.
Moments later, the four of us found ourselves being pushed right out of the library by the same librarian who glared at us.
"Hey, we were just having fun." I told him.
"Pranking our staff and breaking them to tears is not fun." The librarian said. "Honestly, I had expected you to be better than both your mother and your sister, but I suppose that my hopes for any child of the Owl Lady showing good behavior. Good day to you." With that, he then slammed the door behind us.
"Well, that's the first I've been kicked out of a library." I said as I dusted myself off. "Who put a stick up his ass?"
"I know, right?" Edric said as we all shared a laugh.
"Though it looks like Amity's even madder at me now." Luz spoke up after we stopped laughing. "I didn't think that was possible."
"Oh, she's not mad. When Mittens gets mad, she looks like this." Edric said before he held his breath, making his face go red like he was angry for a brief moment before losing his hold to breathe and nearly falling over. "Whoa! I almost passed out."
"You two are pretty fun." Emira said to us.
"So are you guys." I said to them. "We haven't had fun like that in a while."
"Yeah, you guys are so cool!" Luz said to them. "I wish we could hang out more, but we better get on back home. There's a little situation over there and Ryuji's family might need our help." Crossing her arms, Emira exchanged a look with her brother, both of them nodding before she leaned over to us.
"You know, we can hang out more if you want." Emira said to us. "We're coming back tonight. There's a certain book we forgot to check out."
"Tonight? But the library's gonna be closed for the Wailing Star." I said before gasping in realization. "You two are planning on breaking in there!"
"Well, yeah, but it'll be worthwhile." Edric said as he leaned in too. "Rumor has it that the Wailing Star's supposed to unlock some rare magical event."
"Rare magical event?" I asked, what he said catching my interest.
"Yeah, and it only happens here at the library. That's why they have it closed when it's around." Edric told us. "So, you in?"
"Sure, I'm in." Luz said before she turned to me. "You wanna come, DK?"
"Well… on one side, I could get into trouble, which almost seems to find me anywhere." I said as I thought about it. "But then again, the Wailing Star only appears every few years and it would be interesting to see what it does around her." With that, I then smiled as I knew my answer. "You know what? I'll bite. I'm in."
"Great! Meet us back here at midnight. Don't forget!" Edric said as he waved us goodbye while he and his twin both left.
"Bye!" Luz waved back before she squealed excitedly. "Ryuji, this is great! First, I befriend the siblings, then I befriend the Amity."
"Well, that's one way of looking at it." I said as we then made our leave back to the Owl House. "Considering how they are with each other, maybe we'll mend the sibling bonds of the Blights and she'll finally open up more to the idea of being friends."
[No one's view]
Unknown to the two as they walked away, Amity was close by and had been watching the whole time. Growling in frustration, her face turned just as red as Edric said it would when she got mad.
"Settle down, Mittens." Xander said, popping out of nowhere. "There's no point in getting mad at them."
"Yeah, I guess." Amity said as she calmed down, her face returning to normal. "And I thought I told you not to call me 'Mittens'."
"Yes, I remember, but I believe that it would prove to help if I used such a nickname for you while we're in public together." Xander said before gaining a smirk. "Plus your reaction is sorta of adorable with how flustered you get over someone calling you that." With a growl of annoyance and a blush, Amity then marched off in a huff, the young Duskerman watching to do so.
As Xander then took his leave, he was unaware that someone was watching him from the rooftop of the library, the mysterious figure smiling at him.
"Good to see those two getting along." The figure said before he turned towards Ryuji and Luz. "Guess I was right about Ryuji and his human friend. They really are doing some good for Xander and his girl."
Back at the Owl House, the bat baby was still crying and the remaining residents were still covering their ears. Juniper and King tied some pillows over their ears while Eda used her detached hands to block out the sound.
"It's been hours! How can it keep screaming?" The little demon questioned in disbelief. "How did you and Axel ever put up with this? With any of your kids?"
"Shut it, pip-squeak!" Juniper snapped at him. "Me and my bros weren't that bad."
"She's not wrong. Besides, Axel helped me learn to be more patient and gentle with the kids." Eda spoke up. "Also, compared to Ben when he was a baby and this thing, Juni was more quiet. She barely cried at all, thank Titan." She muttered that last part. "As much as I hate this, we need to remember why we're doing this. Think about the money." After she reattached her hands and rubbed her fingers together, the baby's crying caused a few bottles to shatter and her framed wanted poster to crack.
"No amount of snails is worth this torture!" King said as he fell down onto the floor. "Make it stop!"
"Yeah, even I have to say that this is hell!" Juniper cried out. "Mom, do something!"
"Uh! I can't believe I'm about to do this again." Eda said with a sigh of defeat before she picked up the bat baby and, upon doing so, it finally stopped crying as King reappeared from behind the couch. The young witch and little demon exchanged a look for a brief moment as they watched Eda sit down on the couch. "Okay, how did this go again? Oh, yeah." The Owl Lady then began to gently rock the baby while singing a lullaby. "Rock-a-bye, baby on the tree top. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. And down will come baby, cradle and all." After the baby finally fell asleep, the trio then gave a sigh of relief as they were able to stop its crying.
[Ryuji]
As we walked back to the Owl House, me and Luz talked about our excitement for tonight as we would be spending time with Amity's older siblings which could help us get her to open up more.
"Hey, guys! We're back!" I said as we entered the Owl House.
"And we just had the best day! Cool teens like us!" Luz added as I used my magic to send the books I checked out. "Call us library books ʹcause they were checking us out."
"Luz, you realize how weird that sounds, right?" I said before we then turned and saw my mom with Bat Queen's baby asleep in her arms, causing us to smile. "And I see you two got a handle on things."
"Aw! Eda, you look so motherly." Luz cooed at the sight.
"Yeah, considering she hasn't been like that for a long time." Juniper commented.
"Say that again and I steal your tongue." Mom threatened my twin while Luz walked over.
"Aw! How can you say that around this cute, little baby?" Luz said as she lightly poked the baby's cheek and, upon doing so, it gagged up another one which gagged up an even smaller one.
"What the crap?" I said while Luz yelped and the three babies all flew up into the air, chirping away as they flew around the room. Before long, one of the babies started to breathe fire, shooting it at the couch and making all of us run for cover.
"Okay, we better get an early start." I said as I passed Luz her bag and opened the door.
"Yeah, parenting sure looks rewarding. Enjoy your life lessons! Bye!" Luz said as we went out the door and she closed it behind us, the two of us running as fast as we could to the library.
[No one's view]
After the two left, Eda, Juniper, and King stared on as they watched the babies fly around, throwing and breaking stuff from multiple shelves.
"For the money?" Juniper questioned with a straight face.
"For the money." Eda replied as they avoided some incoming spit.
[Ryuji]
After finally returning to the library, the sun was already set as we waited for Emira and Edric at the front door which had a big lock on it.
"Okay, this better be worth it. ʹCause I just know Mom is gonna be pissed for leaving her back there like that." I said before I turned to Luz and saw her pacing around. "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to figure out how to be cool." Luz replied back. "Gotta be cool. Gotta be cool." She then set an elbow on a nearby pillar. "Cool? No." Removing her elbow from the pillar, she then leaned back with her foot and the top of her head on the pillar. "Cool." I smiled in amusement as she then quickly squat down with duck lips and a peace sign like a rapper before dropping her head a bit with a groan of depression.
"Luz, you're trying too hard." I told her.
"I know, but I just want to make a good impression." Luz told me as she lifted her head up to look at me. "I just don't want them to think I'm a weirdo like everyone back home."
"Who cares what they think? You're just being you. Nothing wrong with that."
Luz only sighed while shaking her head. "Not everyone thinks that way, Ryuji. This is the first time anyone else in the Boiling Isles wanted to hang out with me. You know, aside from Juni and King, and Eda—oh, yeah! Gus and Willow too."
"Well, at least you're getting somewhere. Better than nowhere, right?"
Luz only smiled at what I said. "Yeah. You're right."
"Keep going!" Caught by surprise with Luz trying to jump to her feet only to slip and fall on her backside, we then looked to see Emira and Edric standing there at the pillar across from us.
The twins were in more casual clothes with both twins dressed in matching outfits with burgundy tunics over their long-sleeved, gray shirts. The differences between them were that Emira had gray shorts with burgundy cuffs, and a green diamond at the center of her chest while Edric had gray pants, a black belt around his waist, and gray boots with burgundy cuffs.
"This is fun to watch." Emira said with a smile. "Seriously, you two are so adorable."
"Yeah, you sure you're not dating?" Edric questioned with a smirk.
"No, we're not." I replied with a light blush, Luz being much the same.
"Okay, if you say so." The male twin shrugged his shoulders as the two walked over to us with me helping Luz to her feet. "So, Luz, you ready to bring this whole, uh… whatever you're doing inside?"
"Mm‐hmm‐mm‐hmm!" Luz nodded her head with a happy smile before we all headed to the door.
"Okay, so how do we get in?" I asked. "The librarians locked the door."
"We came prepared." Edric said as he brought out a piece of paper with multiple keys placed together to form a symbol.
"Whoa! A lock pick seal!" I said, impressed by this. "Nice."
"Yeah. The sign may say 'no trespassing', but we say 'go on in'." Edric said before he passed the seal to his sister. "Might be breaking rules, but then again, I'm allergic to the rules."
"And dairy." Emira added as she took the seal, earning an unamused look from Edric.
"Wow, okay. Just expose me." Edric said as his twin then placed the seal on the lock, the symbol glowing before it burned into glowing pieces of ash.
"Wow!" Luz said with surprise as the ash transformed into a big key that then inserted itself into the lock and unlocked the door before disappearing.
"Come on." Edric said as he opened the door and we all went inside, the building void of any people.
"Okay, we're in. Now what?" I asked before Edric spoke up.
"There! The Wailing Star!" Looking to the stained glass window he was pointing at, we all watched as we saw a green shooting star flying through the sky, a cry-like wail coming from it as it flew by.
"Huh. So that's what it sounds like." I said as we then waited for the event the twins told us about. After the wailing faded away, we all gained looks of disappointment as nothing seemed to happen.
"Hm, nothing happened." Edric said before Luz tapped me on the shoulder and pointed over behind us.
"You sure about that?" I asked as we all then walked over to one of the bookcases which had books glowing in the same light as the Wailing Star.
"Look at the books. They're all glowy." Luz said as she grabbed the nearest book she could find, the book titled Extinct Birds of the Boiling Isles. The moment she opened the book, we all watched in awe as a whole bunch of different birds popped out and flew around the place.
"Whoa!" I said with a smile, taking off my hood before one of the birds landed on my head. "Now this is quite the magical event."
"You can say that again." Edric added. "The Wailing Star magicked the books to life!" Luz then closed the book and we all watched as the birds that came from it disappeared.
"Huh. I wonder…" I said as I looked for another book while Luz put the one she took back on the shelf. After searching for a while I found one titled Weird Ancient Creatures of The Human Realm. Figuring something cool would happen, I opened it up only to be met with a frickin' T-Rex that roared at me before I quickly slammed it shut and put the book back where I found it. "Okay, never opening that one." Recomposing myself, I then smiled as I walked to the center of the room. "Looks like whatever is inside the books can only stay out as long as their book is open."
"Hey, DK. What's going on with your hood?" Luz asked before I then pulled my hood a bit and saw that a green light was coming from it.
"Huh? Oh." I said before I dug in and pulled out the comic book I had in there, said comic glowing like the books. "Forgot I still had this in there."
"What is it?" Emira asked as she, Edric, and Luz came over.
"It's my copy of RWBY Volume 4." I explained as I held the comic. "Sometimes I put something to read in my hood when I go out traveling. It's become sort of a habit."
"Well, I'd say it's a good habit." Luz said as she then grabbed my arm and started jumping excitedly. "Open it! I've always wanted to meet Ruby in real life!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow your role there, Luz." I told her. "As much as I would love to meet the real Team RWBY, I'm afraid we can't open it."
"Why not?" Luz asked me.
"Because we're not sure how all this works." I explained. "As we just witnessed, apparently anything that these books detail instantly become real, so we need to be careful what we open. Sure, opening this comic would bring out Team RWBY, but it can possibly bring out the dangerous stuff in it. Like the Grimm."
Luz then shivered in fear from hearing that. "Oh, yeah. Definitely don't want to deal with that."
"Exactly." I said as I then placed the comic back in my hood. "So until we fully understand how all this works, we need to be careful about which books we open. We'll start with some safer subjects and see if we can work our way up from there."
"Sounds like a plan." Emira said as she and her twin nodded.
"Come on! Time to do some fun reading!" Edric added before we all then ran off.
[No one's view]
As they were running, the group was unaware of a small, orange claw that managed to sneak into Ryuji's hood and pull out the comic from it without his notice. Retracting over to the upper level, the claw held the comic book in front of a mysterious individual who then took it.
"Huh. RWBY." The figure said, sounding very pleased. "Now this is a good read. Dragon Kid's got some taste."
[Ryuji]
Traveling around the library, the four of us made a few stops to see what the magic placed on the books could do. First, we went over to the magazine stand where Edric grabbed one called Regal Couture and opened it up, him and his twin magically being given fancy clothing that—for some reason—was followed by a peacock flying out of the magazine. I picked out a magazine called Steampunk Monthly and instantly got myself a suit, a top hat, a pair of goggles, and a cane from opening it, the suit having an assortment of gears over it. Luz picked one called Witch Wares Weekly, resulting in her gaining a cool adventurer's outfit that came with a large sword strapped to her back. Unfortunately, the sword was too heavy for her and I had to catch her before she fell over.
After we were done there and went back to our normal clothes, we moved on to the Graphic Novels section. We waited, but nothing popped out after Luz opened the book she picked.
"Nothing happened." Luz said just as an actual word bubble appeared above her with the exact words she said in it, making all of us gasp in surprise.
"Wow!" The twins said, their word bubble appearing before Luz closed the book and all of the bubbles popped with a "Thump" sound effect word bubble appearing beside her before instantly disappearing.
"Now that's what I call comic." I said as we all shared a laugh at my joke.
After that, we managed to find four volumes of a book series called Snowballs: A History, which had to be the weirdest subject to cover, even by Boiling Isles standards. After seeing that the books fired snowballs when opened, we decided to have a little snowball fight, all of us scattering with one own volume to use. Traveling on the bookcases, I watched the twins and Luz go at it with Edric on the move to try and ambush the girls only to get blasted and knocked down to the floor by Luz. Luz managed to get out of the way of his retaliation only to find Emira around the corner, my friend soon getting a face full of snowballs. As Emira laughed away, I quickly got above her before giving out a little whistle, making her look up before blasting and burying her in snowballs. Jumping down, I then dodged a blast from the other twin and retaliated with another blast while in midair. After landing, the two of us then blasted at each while laughing at how much fun we were having.
After the snowball fight, we decided split up to explore more of the books in the library with the twins going with each other while me and Luz went on as our own group.
"See ya, guys! If you find anything cool about the magic, come and show us!" I said as me and Luz waved to them.
"You too! See ya!" Edric said as we then went off in our pairs in different directions.
"Okay, this had got to be the most fun I ever had!" Luz said with a smile.
"Yeah, same here. Emira and Edric are awesome!" I put in, feeling the same. "Hard to believe that those two are related to Amity."
After walking for a while, me and Luz stopped and looked around and found ourselves in the Kid's Corner, the very room where we had run into Amity earlier. Looking over, I saw that the book Otabin the Bookmaker which Amity had read to the kids was sitting on the table. Walking over and picking it up, I opened it and watched as the little pink, long-eared creature with buck teeth and dressed in brown shorts appeared on the pages while holding onto a sewing needle with a string from a little green ball of yarn tied to it. I couldn't help but smile from seeing the main character of my favorite book from when I was little. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I looked at Luz as she had the same smile I had.
[No one's view]
Back at the Owl House, Eda, Juniper, and King took cover underneath a table as they were unable to get the bat babies under control with one was flying around with a mace, another spilling a potion across the floor, and another hopping around in another set of Eda's boots.
"Crap, we could really use Ryuji right now." Juniper said. "I bet he could get those babies to calm down."
"Well, he isn't here right now, so we'll have to do it ourselves." Eda put in. "We need to stop them before they tear apart the house. Only question is how?"
"What if we invent a TV network for ages six to eleven?" King suggested.
"King, that's insane." Juniper told him. "There's no way we can make something that entertaining that these flying rugrats will like."
"There's only one way out of this." Eda said as she reached into her hair before pulling out a switchblade. "The same thing I used to do for Juni when she was mad back when she was little." She then flipped out the blade, making her daughter and King gasp in shock.
"Mom, you don't mean…"
"Yep." Eda said before she then used her magic to bring out a plate of apples and cut them into slices and brought out the same children's book that was read at the library. "Feed them apple slices and give them a little story time." She then looked to Juniper. "Juni?"
"On it." Juniper said as she then took the plate, came out of hiding, and used two fingers to whistle. After getting their attention, she then put the plate down as the babies gathered around and began eating them. "Okay, go ahead, Mom."
"Thanks, Juni." Eda said as she came out of hiding and sat on the couch while Juniper sat in the chair by the couch. "All right, brats. Let's do this." The babies then turned to her as King then joined them and Eda opened the book. "Ugh! I can't believe I'm doing this again." After giving that groan, she then began to read from the book. "Otabin spend his days alone amongst the many books he'd sewn. With needle and thread…"
[Ryuji]
"…the pages he mend. But all the while he longed for a friend." Luz said as she read from the book which I gave to her so she could have a look. Seeing her smile, I knew she saw that this was a great book to read to children.
"Friend?" Otabin said as he perked up upon hearing that word with me nodding to him in responce before we heard Edric's voice, making Luz close the book.
"Luz, Ryuji!" Turning around, we watched as Edric and his twin came over to us.
"Look what we discovered." Emira said as she held up what I recognized to be a children's book called Quacks Eats Snacks before opening it and making a cute, little duck appear on the pages before it flew off and down to the floor, the duck quacking away as it moved on the floor like it was a pond.
"Aw! Cute, little quackster." Luz cooed as she found this to be absolutely adorable.
"Okay, so what's up with the little duck?" I asked the twins.
"Oh, it's not the duck. Watch this." Edric said before he took out a pencil and drew a pair of human legs under the picture. I was confused by this until I heard the duck panicking and looked over and was horrified to find that it now had hairy, human legs.
"What the crap?" I said as me and Luz were shocked by this. "What did you do?"
"Made the little guy extra cute." Emira said with a smile. "Turns out that we can add a few things to books that have pictures and make them better." She then laughed with her twin who then closed the book before she took the pencil and held it over to us. "Here, your turn."
"What? No way!" I said before reaching into my hood. "I'm not gonna doodle on any of these books, especially not…" From feeling nothing in my hood, I became shocked to find my comic book gone. "Wait, where's my comic?"
"Chill, chill. If you don't want to do it, then fine." Edric said as he then took the pencil back and held it to Luz. "Here, Luz."
"Oh, I don't know." Luz said, not wanting to draw in the books.
"Come on. Don't stop the fun." Edric urged her as he gave her a pencil.
Luz then opened the book and held the pencil over the page with Otabin. I knew she was hesitant to draw any alterations to the pictures since she loved books and respected them just as much as me.
"I can't do it." She said with a sigh and I smiled while feeling proud of her.
"Here, let me help." Edric said as he then grabbed her hand and made her draw on Otabin.
"Hey, wait…" I said as I was about to go over until Emira stopped me by putting hand on my shoulder.
After Edric was done, I went over to see the picture of Otabin with thick eyebrows to make him look angry, a couple of fangs in his mouth, and razor-sharp claws.
"Close it, close it, close it!" I said as something was about to come out.
"I don't wanna see it." Luz said as she slammed the book shut.
"Whatever. We didn't come here just to doodle." Emira said as she grabbed Luz's hand and her twin grabbed me by the wrist, the two dragging us out of the room. "Come on."
[Ryuji's aside]
Okay, now I'm rethinking my views on the Blight Twins. What they were doing before was fun, but they just vandalized a beloved children's book, one of which I loved as a kid. As of now, Emira and Edric are starting to be less cool than me and Luz thought.
[No one's view]
What the four didn't realize was that, from being grabbed and pulled away, Luz accidentally dropped the book where it opened with its pages to the floor. Shaking a bit, the book was then risen by a large claw that slowly appeared out of the pages followed by its owner who gave a deep, menacing growl.
Outside the library, Amity and Xander stood there as they looked at the door which was unlocked and opened.
"Of course, Em and Ed would break in here tonight." Xander said with a nonchalant look on his face. "No doubt from hearing those rumors relating to the Wailing Star."
"And there's no doubt that human and her hybrid boyfriend are in there with them." Amity added.
"Amity, I know you called me because you knew the twins were up to no good, but I highly doubt that the Dragon Kid and the human in any way joined to do such mischief."
"Of course they are. Why else would they even be in there?"
"Because maybe they were interested in what the Wailing Star would do? They both do seem to have an interest in magic."
"Whatever. Let's just go in there and stop them before they wreck the place." With that, Amity then walked inside.
Xander then followed in behind her. "Right behind you, Mittens."
"Stop calling me 'Mittens'!" Amity snapped.
[Ryuji]
After being dragged for a while, we all then stopped in one particular section of the library which actually surprised me.
"Okay, here we are!" Emira said as we stood in front of the bookcase.
"Oh, wow. Boiling Isles romance. That's totally lame." Luz said, making me raise an eyebrow in confusion. "I mean, unless you guys are into it? You into it, DK?"
"Sometimes, depending on the mood and if I wanna take a break." I replied back before turning to the twins. "So what exactly are you two looking for in the Romance Section?"
"Oh, nothing much, and we'll find it with this little book." Edric said before he pulled a book called The Lone Witch & Secret Room from its corner, causing a click and the bookcase to shift back and slid to the side.
Upon this, me and Luz were amazed by the secret room hidden behind it. Clearly, someone had been using it since there didn't seem to be any dust around, not to mention the glowing decorations hanging from the ceiling, the pillows on the floor, and the candle resting on the desk with a wheeled chair pulled into it.
"Wow… That's a good book." Luz said with surprise as we walked in.
"Yeah, gotta say, this clubhouse of yours is like the perfect secret hideaway for us." I said as we looked around. "Makes me wanna make one for us back home."
"Oh, this isn't ours." Emira said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"We don't hang out in the library." Edric said before doing an impression. "'Uh, teacher, I'm in love with a dictionary'."
"'I'm studying the dork arts'." Emira added, doing the same.
"Wait, if this isn't your hideout, then whose is it?" I asked with confusion.
"Isn't it obvious?" Emira said. "This is Amity's secret hideaway." Upon hearing this, I got the feeling I wasn't liking where this was going. Seeing Luz's expression, I could tell she had the same feeling. "Yeah, we found out about it after following her and her boyfriend here."
"Xander hangs out here too?" Luz said with surprise.
"Wait, if this is Amity's secret place, then what are we doing here?" I asked.
"To find something that can help us with our little sister." Edric said as he and Emira walked over to us. "You see, Mittens has gotten too full of herself."
"Yeah, she keeps tattling on us when we try to have fun." Emira added. "She needs to learn to lighten up and not mess with people like that."
"Okay, so why are we here then?" I asked.
"Because this is where she keeps her diary." Emira answered. "We're going to find it."
"And then post the pages she wrote in all around school for everyone to see." Edric put in before he and Emira then laughed.
"Say what now?" I asked with shock.
"Yeah, isn't that taking it a bit too far?" Luz put in. as Emira put a hand on her shoulder.
"It's called tough love." Emira said as she put a hand on Luz's shoulder. "See, we're her family and we know what's best for her." As they walked off to look around, Luz shuffled over to me with worry.
"Ryuji, we can't let them do this!" Luz whispered into my ear.
"Yeah, Amity might be mean, but she doesn't deserve this." I whispered back, making sure the twins didn't take notice of us. "Let's find the diary before they do and get the hell out of here."
"Right. We just have to…" Luz said before she then noticed something caught her eye. "Wait, are those…" Following her gaze, I gasped from seeing a shelf labeled "My Favorite Books" full of books one series I didn't expect to find here. "The Good Witch Azura Books One through Four!" After she squealed that out in excitement, we both ran over to the shelf as we couldn't believe what we were seeing. "You get these on the Boiling Isles?"
"Yeah, this is amazing." I said before noticing nine other books by the third volume and was shocked as I recognized what series they were. "Wait, she read Black Clover too? Looks like we have more in common with Amity." I said before I noticed one book smaller than the others and pulled it out to find the cover bearing the drawing of a witch that was dressed like Azura. "A hand-drawn cover?" I gasped in surprise at this. "Does she write Azura fanfics?" Without giving it a second thought, I opened the book and soon a mini Amity appeared on the pages.
"I saw that human girl again and her hybrid boyfriend." The mini Amity said with an emotionless expression. "I tried to get them to leave me alone and then that hybrid snapped at me. After they left, I bumped into Xander and he told me what I did was wrong. I think he might be right. I may have overreacted. I don't wanna come off as cruel, I just can't show weakness."
"Oh, no." I said as I quickly closed the book with eyes widened in realization. "This isn't a fanfic! It's Amity's diary!"
"DK, we need to get out of here." Luz whispered to me.
"What ya got there?" Turning around upon hearing Edric's voice and seeing him and Emira walk over to us, I hid the diary behind my back.
"Oh, nothing." I replied.
"Yeah, just Book 5 of The Good Witch Azura where she goes through her Goth phase." Luz quickly added before Emira used her magic to take the book out of my hands. "No, wait!"
"Stop! Don't look at it!" I called out, but the twins wouldn't listen and opened it up to reveal a mini Amity of another entry.
"It's not fair. I'm the only one who knows Ed and Em aren't perfect." The little witch said. "Why do they keep getting away with things?"
"This is it." The twins said with pleased smiles before they then turned to us with surprise.
"Luz, Ryuji, were you hiding this from us?" Emira said to us.
"Yeah, why would you do that?" Edric added. "You see how she treats people, how she treats you."
"Yeah, and your solution to it is by revealing all her embarrassing secrets?" I retorted bitterly. "That's just low."
"Ryuji's right. I know Amity can be kind of cold, but no one deserves this." Luz spoke up. "These are private thoughts. We should just put it back and leave." Luz then attempted to grab it from Edric, but he refused to let go, causing me and Emira to join in on the little tug of war with me grabbing onto Luz and Emira grabbing her twin.
"Edric, let go of the diary!" I said with a grunt as I pulled.
"No, she needs this!" Edric grunted.
"No, she doesn't!" Luz put in.
"Yes, she does! It's for her own good!" Emira argued.
"'Her own good', my ass!" I said as me and Luz kept pulling until we managed to get it out of Edric's hands.
"I wish I had somewhere to go." A mini Amity said as we then looked to see that a couple of pages that looked to be glued in fell out onto the floor, a mini Amity appearing and speaking out each entry.
"Why won't the human and the hybrid leave me alone?"
"Why does Xander like that son of a reject?"
"Called my teacher mom again."
"Today, I somehow made a new friend."
"How is this manga so good?"
"Sorry, I haven't written for a while. Wait, why am I apologizing?"
"Oh, crap!" I said before we then scrambled to pick up the pages. Just when we got them all…
"Really?!" Turning to the entrance, me and Luz were shocked to see Amity glaring down at us with her face all red while accompanied by a shocked Xander.
"Amity, it's not what it looks like!" Luz said before Amity turned to her twin siblings as they held back their laughter.
"You two are the worst!" She exclaimed before taking her diary and the lost pages of it from us. "But you two… I've been trying to figure out what your deal is. Are-are you posers? Nerds? But now I know. You're both just bullies."
"Mittens, wait!" Xander called out to her, the witch ignoring him as she continued to run off.
"Amity!" Luz tried to call her out but she wouldn't listen and ran off while both her siblings were laughing at her misfortune, the laughter causing me to clench my fist and glare at them.
"Mittens killed the fun." Emira said as she and Edric walked out of the room.
"Again." Edric added before Xander turned and angrily growled at them. With that, he then took out his lance, the spear extending out and glowing purple as he raises it and his spirit minion appears from the tip.
"Ow!" The twins said after the spirit made them bonk heads.
"What was that for, Xander?" Edric asked as he and his twin glared at the Duskerman, the spirit vanishing as the lance stopped glowing.
"For mistreating Amity!" Xander snapped. "What I just witnessed is crossing the line!"
"Xander's right." I said as I walked over. "That's your little sister! Don't you at least feel a little bad about what you did?"
"Eh, don't worry about. It's fine." Edric waved it off.
"Yeah, she'll be over it." Emira added.
"Uh, no, she won't." I told them as Luz walked over to me. "Taking it from the guy who's got an older sibling that she will never get over it. What you did there really hurt her feelings. I thought you guys were cool like my big bro, but turns out that you're nothing but a pair of jerks. My big bro might tease me, but he would never embarrass me like that! You two should be ashamed!"
"Yeah, well thanks for the lecture, but we're gonna go and goblin-tipping." Emira said as she and her twin made their leave. "See you and the human cutie around, DK."
"Come on. If you want to apologize to Amity, you better follow me." Xander said as he then put his lance away before me and Luz walked with him in the opposite direction of the twins.
[No one's view]
"You don't actually think we went too far, do you?" Edric asked as he walked with his sister.
"No, not at all." Emira said as she shook her head. "Remember, she needed to be taught a lesson and given some tough love."
"Oh, really?" Said a voice, causing the twins to freeze with shock before two big orange claws appeared and grabbed them by the heads. "Do tell." The twins then screamed as they were carried away.
[Ryuji]
As we walked with Xander and looked for Amity, me and Luz tried our best to apologize to him for what happened, the Duskerman seeming to be quite disappointed.
"Honestly, Ryuji, what were you thinking going along with this?" Xander sternly said to me. "I understand why that human would go along with this, but I know you're smarter than that. Out of anyone, you should've known what they were planning."
"I know, I know." I told him with a look of shame. "But the way they acted was like my big bro back home. I only just thought that they were just trying to do a little harmless fun."
"Yeah, which gets them in trouble." Xander said to me, speaking with anger. "Emira and Edric have never gotten in trouble or scolded for what they did. Their parents only care about them being good in school. They behave when in class and not cutting it, but nowhere else. I should know because I've had to put up with it for the last few years."
"Wow. So you mean those two always give Amity a hard time?"
"More than you think. Which is why Amity is so crossed with you right now." Xander then took a deep breath before speaking more calmly. "Look, I'll try my best and see if Amity will give you another chance. She won't be very open to the idea of you being friends, but I expect she'll keep it in mind."
I was surprised by what he said. "Wait, you want me and Luz to be friends with Amity? Why?"
"Because, despite me giving her support for years, you and the human seem to be capable of getting Amity to be more open with others than I do."
Luz gave a gasp of surprise as she smiled at Xander. "Wow! Thanks, Xander! I bet Amity thinks you're an awesome boyfriend!"
"I wouldn't say that." Xander told her. "More of 'good friend' than 'awesome boyfriend'."
"What?" I said, confused by what he said. "What are you talking about?"
Stopping with him, Xander then gave a sigh before he then spoke to us. "Amity and I aren't actually… dating."
"Whaaat?" Luz said as we were both shocked by this.
"But Boscha said that you were…"
"That's just what we want people to think." Xander told us. "The truth is that we're in an arranged marriage."
"Arranged marriage?" Me and Luz said, becoming more shocked.
"How'd you end up in that?" I asked him.
"Because it's always supposed to be like that." Xander explained. "You see, my family prides itself on strength. As such, we only accept those who possess great strength to be a part of it. This is so that there will always be promising Duskerman witches and warlocks to continue the bloodline. It's been like this for centuries. I am a result of such a thing."
"You mean, your parents were made to get married?" Luz asked.
"Yes. After she joined the Emperor's Coven, my relatives initially sought her out and made the arrangement with the Clawthornes."
"And did your parents do the same with Amity's folks?"
"Actually, it was her parents that made the arrangement." Xander answered my question. "When they found out about me, Amity's parents took the chance in order to bring our families together. Everyone knows this detail of my family and many consider it a great honor to be a part of a bloodline of one of the Noble Three."
"So just they just went ahead and just told Lilith and your dad about their idea?"
"It's a rare occasion for the heads of a family to be so bold on this subject and offer a family member as a spouse. They offered Amity as my spouse and, after seeing her prove herself, my parents agreed to it. It was announced not soon after. Ever since then, everyone sees us as a couple. It's an image we try to keep."
"Wait, you're pretending to date? How long have you been doing this?"
"Three years."
"Three years? You've been pretending to be dating for three years?"
"Correct."
"But this arranged marriage isn't what you want, is it? Either you or Amity?"
"No." Xander admitted. "In fact, we wish we weren't in such a thing."
"Then why pretend you're okay with this?"
"Because it's the only way we can spend time with each other. My family expects us to cooperate and dating is the only thing that makes them think that we are cooperating. If we don't show this, they'll probably terminate the arrangement."
"But why do you even care? You still have chances to talk with each other in Hexside and you said you're both not okay with being forced to get married like that."
"Ryuji's right." Luz spoke up. "If none of this is what you want, why would you put up with it?"
"Because it's the only reason I can be able to spend time with her." Xander said.
"What do you mean?" Luz asked.
"If my family terminates the arrangement, they won't allow me to see her again." Xander answered. "No cooperation towards such things isn't tolerated in my family. When they say they want someone to be a part of it, they either do as they say or be cast aside. My father would not even allow me to even speak to Amity and be more focused on the new spouse the family chose for me."
"And you don't want that because Amity is the only person you want to spend time with." I said as I realized it.
"Yes." Xander admitted.
"You guys must be really close, huh?" Luz said with a smile.
"We are. Though there was a time when we weren't." Xander said before he gave us a tale from his past. "Before this whole arrangement, we didn't exactly get along. The two of us were quite talented in magic and always tried to best each other. "
"Let me guess: you two treated each other like rivals?" I asked.
"Yes, bitter ones at that." Xander answered. "It got worse when we started Hexside around the same time and shared an Abomination Track class, and students. While it was only this one class, the two of us always tried to best each other in using abominations as we both aimed to be top. This often led to us getting on each other's nerves, arguing, and even using abominations against each other. We practically hated each other."
"And things between you two weren't better when your parents told you about the arranged marriage, huh?"
"Not at the very least. In fact, we despised the idea of us being husband and wife or even her being the mother of my own children."
"But you don't seem to act like that now." Luz put in.
"Yeah, you two seem like two peas in a pod." I added. "How did you go from being at each other's throats to hanging out?"
"Well, it actually started here in this library." Xander told us. "It was about a few weeks after we were told about the engagement. Amity and I were forced into spending time with each other which only resulted in us arguing even more with each other. One day, I came to the library to read some of my manga."
"You read manga too? Wait…" I said just as I then remembered the manga books from before. "That manga in Amity's hideout… those are yours, aren't they?"
"Yes, they are." Xander told me. "I may not seem like it, but I do have quite a liking for manga. My father considers it a distraction and doesn't want me to have any. I can't keep the ones I have as my father does pay a visit to my mother and always inspects me to ensure I don't have any. As such, the only place I can even enjoy them in peace is here in this library."
"Okay, this proves we are related." I said, smiling happily to find something in common with my cousin. "I'm guessing Black Clover is your favorite manga, huh?"
"Of course."
"You know, I noticed that you only have Black Clover Volumes One through Nine."
"Yes, that's true."
"Well, I just happen to have Volume Ten. If you want, I can lend it to you so you can see what's next."
Xander was surprised by this. "Really?"
"Of course, you're my cousin. Plus, I'm always willing to help a fellow manga fan."
"Uh, guys?" Luz spoke up. "As much as I love this tender family moment, I would really like to hear the rest of that story."
"Yes, I suppose I should explain what had changed between me and Amity." Xander said before he continued where he left off. "Anyway, while looking for a place to read, I happened to come across Amity. She was acting pretty suspicious, trying to sneak around without anyone's notice. Becoming curious, I decided to follow her and it wasn't long until I found her in her own secret hideaway in the library. She tried to get me to leave, but I managed to get her to at least have a talk with her. It was because of this talk that I found out that I wasn't the only one who was doing their reading in secret. For Amity, it was with this whole series about a witch going on adventures."
"The Good Witch Azura." I said as I realized it.
"Yes. She's quite the fan of it." Xander continued. "I asked her why she had such interest in that series for barely anyone reads that. She told me that she actually liked the story and found some sort of connection with Azura. She said that reading one of those books actually brought joy to her life. She read in secret to avoid being mocked by other students and the eyes of her parents who think of it as a waste of time."
"Wow, that is harsh."
"Indeed. I actually felt sorry for her. Before that day, I didn't think there would be any way for us to get along, that we had nothing in common to have us do so. It turned out I was wrong and that we did have some in common. There was something that she liked and she was afraid that nobody would accept it. She hid it all just so she could be herself. In a way, she was like me. Much like how I had a passion for manga, she had a passion for The Good Witch Azura. Not sure why, but I just couldn't let her be alone like that. You know, when I found out, Amity only had three books of the series. I brought her the fourth as a peace offering." Xander then gave a little chuckle. "You should've seen the look on her face when I brought her that book."
"Awww! That's so sweet!" Luz cooed, causing Xander to lose his smile. "Looks like Amity isn't the only sour lemon drop with a hidden sweet center." Rubbing his arm with an awkward groan, Xander turned his eyes away with a blush.
"And I'm guessing you made progress in getting Amity to open up to you, huh?" I said, Xander regaining his smile as he looked at me.
"Yeah. I told her my secret and showed her that I knew how it felt to be like her, to be someone who wants to be their true self and be afraid not to be accepted for it." He said. "From there, we started talking to each other and learned more about each other. She even got me to see what The Good Witch Azura was about and how great it was and I showed her the world of manga. We actually found comfort in each other's company in a way that didn't make us feel like we were alone."
"She's the only friend you have, isn't she?" This question got a nod from my cousin who lost his smile.
"Wait, you don't have any friends?" Luz asked in disbelief.
"My father didn't let me interact much with other children unless they were those brought by those who he was talking with." Xander told her. "I didn't try to be so social because I was too afraid of what my father would think of anyone I chose to hang out with."
"So Amity's the only person you've met you could connect with." I said to him. "And the arranged marriage is what allows you to hang out with her without any problems."
"And I'm guessing Amity thinks of you as her only true friend too, huh?" Luz added, Xander nodding in confirmation.
"Xander, we totally get it." I told him as me and Luz smiled at him. "Amity's the best friend you ever had and you don't want to lose her. I can't imagine my own life without Luz."
"And I can't imagine what my life would be like if I didn't meet Ryuji." Luz added. "It is pretty hard and scary when you have something good with no one to share it with. But, when you find someone who accepts the real you, you find out you're not as alone as you thought."
"And it's the greatest feeling you ever had, right?"
"Yeah, it is." Xander said as he regained his smile.
"You know, this is actually the first time I've ever seen you smile." Luz said.
"Don't get used to it." Xander told her as he lost it, making me laugh. "Let's just find Amity and get the mess sorted out."
"Hey, there she is!" I said after we turned walking into between two bookcases, pointing towards the witch who sat there with an upset look on her face.
"Mittens!" Xander said as we all then ran over to her, getting her to look at us.
"Go away, Xander." Amity said to him as she turned away. "I want to be alone."
"Not before you have a talk with Ryuji and Luz." Xander said, me and my friend smiling at him using our names.
"Tell them I don't want to talk with them." Amity said.
"Amity, I'm very sorry." Luz spoke up. "I didn't know Emira and Edric were going to embarrass you. I just only wanted to be your friend."
"And how exactly am I supposed to believe that?" Amity said as she glared at Luz. "First, I find you with my diary and now you say you want to be my friend? Honestly, it almost seems like you just want to embarrass me."
"Come on, Amity! Just listen to us for a minute!" I said as I grabbed her arm. "We just want to apologize for what happened."
"Oh, and I'm supposed to take your word for it?" Amity said as she quickly got out of my grip. "You insult me today when you don't know a thing about me and then you suddenly try to do the right thing? I don't get either of you."
"Amity, we're telling you the truth." I told her. "We didn't know that the twins came here just to get your diary."
"Seriously, just shut up and go away!" Amity told us. "Before things get worse."
"Amity, that's enough!" Xander snapped, getting all three of us to look at him. "I know that you feel hurt by what happened, but these two are just trying to explain themselves. All you saw was them with your diary, not them trying to read it. That gave you no reason to accuse them of such. I don't care if you don't want to, you're going to stay and you're going to listen, got it?" With that, Amity's growled as her face turned red, the girl no doubt frustrated by this. She then huffed in defeat as she then looked at us, Xander calming down from seeing this. "Good." He then motioned us to speak.
"Hey, Amity, look." I started as I explained. "Since we met you, I always thought that you were nothing more than a selfish, spoiled brat. But now I know you're no different from me and Luz."
"Where are you getting at with this?" The witch questioned. "You don't even know me!"
"You're right. We don't. Not like Xander does." I told her. "But that's just why we want to talk. Let me ask you this: everything you do outside of this library, is that how you are or is that only just a charade to hide the real you?" I then watched as Amity was taken aback by my question, clearly not expecting it at all as she was hesitant to answer. Before she could answer, the ground began to shake as we heard loud footsteps and were horrified at what walked over to us.
"Otabin?" Amity said in shock
It was Otabin, but he was bigger, had black eyes with glowing blue irises, a mouth full of fangs, long arms, sharp claws, and his book attached to his chest. What we were seeing was a corrupted, nightmare version of Otabin.
"With claws and fangs and breaking bones, I found a friend to make my own." The now demonized children's character rhymed just as it snagged Amity.
"Xander!" Amity called out.
"Amity!" Xander said as he then took out his lance. "Let her go!" He tried to charge at him, but Otabin spun and swung his tail, smacking Xander into a bookcase and causing multiple books to fall off the shelf.
"Xander, help!" Amity said as Otabin carried her away.
"Xander, are you okay?" I said as I helped my cousin to his feet.
"Yes, I'm fine." Xander said. "But what was that thing?"
"Otabin the Bookmaker." I told him.
"As in the little goblin from the children's book?" Xander said with surprise.
"Yeah, but a lot less friendly."
"I'm guessing that's the work of the twins?"
"Actually… that was me." Luz spoke up with a look of shame. "Edric and Emira made me draw in his book. I must've dropped it and now he's loose and Amity got kidnapped, all because of me."
"It wasn't your fault, Luz. You have nothing to be blamed for." I said to her. "Though it does seem those little 'changes' to his story had really changed Otabin. It's almost like he's acting like the complete opposite of himself."
"Which should be more of the reason that we have to save my Mittens from him." Xander said as he used a magic circle to gather the pages and reattached them to Amity's diary which he then gave to Luz. "Come on, there's no time to waste!"
"Yeah, let's go!" Luz said as she ran off with Xander. I then heard a familiar whistling and gasped as I recognized it.
"Luz, Xander, duck!" I said as I then tackled the two to the ground, saving them from the arrows that were shot at them.
"Thanks, Ryuji." Luz said as we all got back to our feet with me helping her up.
"Where did these arrows come from?" Xander said as he took one of the arrows that hit the bookcase, right before we heard some snarling and feral growls. Turning to the direction of the noise, we were all shocked to find a whole group of orcs not too far from us, not a few but many of them.
"Orcs?" Luz said in disbelief.
"What are a bunch of orcs doing in the library?" I said, right before Xander got in front of me and block an incoming orc that charged at me and used his lance to blast it away.
"These are not your ordinary orcs." Xander told us. "My guess is they came from a book."
"Otabin must've knocked their book off its shelf while he was searching around." I said.
"Either that or it was the cause of Emira and Edric's recklessness." Xander added before the orcs then charged at us.
"These guys could tear the whole place apart! We got to find their book and close it!" I said as I drew my Saisho. "Luz, go and find Otabin! We'll catch up with you as soon as we're done with the orcs!"
"I'm not leaving you by yourselves!" Luz said.
"Don't worry, me and Xander can take care of ourselves." I said as I then saw an orc coming up from behind her. "Duck!" she did so, allowing me to blast the incoming orc. "Go! Save Amity!"
"As much as I would like to go and save Amity, I'm afraid Ryuji is correct." Xander said as his Sieghild's spear started glowing purple before he summon that spirit of his and sent it at the approaching orcs. "As of now, he and I are the only ones capable of holding our own against these orcs. The best you can do is go and help her!"
"Alright! Then keep Ryuji safe!" Luz said before she then ran off. "Good luck, guys!"
"Ready, Xander?" I said as I readied myself to fight the approaching orcs.
"Of course." Xander said, doing the same by getting into charging stance.
"Then let's go!" With that, the two of us then charged at the orcs, managing to cut down a few as we began our search for the book.
[No one's view]
As she ran, even though she didn't want to leave Ryuji and Xander behind, Luz knew Amity needed help. She also saw that Xander made a good point. With the way the cousins fought, she'd only get in the way and slow them down in their search for the orcs' book. Considering this, she also wondered how she was going to save Amity from the now monstrous Otabin. It was at that moment that she gained an idea and looked down at Amity's diary.
At the Kid's Corner, Otabin walked in and placed Amity up against the page of a large, open book most likely crafted by him. Holding her in place, he brought out a needle with thread and went on to use it, making Amity look away as she feared for the worst. When she didn't feel any pain, Amity looked over to see Otabin and sewed into the page and avoid puncturing her, but was filled with fear as she saw that the green-glowing black string which tightened on her arm and hand made her limb thin out as it became a part of the page itself.
"Why are you doing this? I've been reading you since I was a kid." Amity said, trying to plead with the altered character of the book. "This isn't you."
"But friends are what I've always sought." Otabin said, speaking in rhyme. "And now, a friend, my claws have caught."
Hearing an odd sound, the two then looked to the doorway as a mist of purple smoke came in along with the walking silhouette of a figure who appeared to be wearing witch's clothing.
"Azura?" Amity asked, noticing the clothes resembling much to the attire of the very character of the book series she loved.
"Close." With the smoke clearing, the figure lifted her head and held up Amity's diary to reveal herself as Luz before she lifted her skirt up a bit. "Is it drawn okay? I kind of interpreted the descriptions."
"Luz!" Amity said, reminding her of the situation.
"Ah, right." Luz said as she regained focus, taking a pencil to write in the diary and speaking out what she wrote. "The Good Witch Luzura grabs her trusty staff." From the pages, a staff materialized and Luz then took hold of it. "All right. Beloved work of children's fiction, let go of her!" With a cry, she charged forward and tried to cast some magic, but the staff did nothing as Luz swung it around. After Luz got close enough to him, Otabin grabbed the staff before taking it and throwing it aside. Luz could only watch as Otabin grabbed Amity's diary and closed it, making her clothes disappear.
"Not an Azura fan, are you?" Luz said with a nervous chuckle before Otabin grabs her.
[Ryuji]
Searching for the book, me and Xander tried our best to brave our way through the entire horde of orcs, me and my cousin getting tired as our foes just kept coming.
"These orcs are overrunning us!" Xander said as we kept on pushing through. "We need to find that book immediately!"
"Wait, there it is!" I said as I looked over to one hall of bookshelves to see an open book lying on the ground. "I got this! Xander, cover me!" With that, my cousin then brought his spirit over and the two fought back the orcs as I prepared to change the Saisho's form, holding it in front of me and putting to fingers at the bottom of the blade while focusing my make into it. "Transformation Magic!" Guiding my fingers up the blade, the guard and blade then started glowing white. "Weapon Change!" After removing my fingers as the blade and guard were now covered in white light, I then thrust my Saisho upward, my weapon instantly taking on its lance form. "Saisho Yari!" With that, I then quickly brought my lance down and focused my Plant Magic into it, the spear glowing green and the tip becoming wrapped in vines as I got ready to thrust it in the direction of the book. "Attack Magic: Vine Whip!"
With that, I then shot a Vine Whip forward, the vine managing to push its way through and knock down orcs that were in the way. As it was about to grab the book, I lost my smile as a large arm came out and my Vine Whip wrapped around it by mistake. Followed by another arm with a big hammer in its hand, I then watched as the owner of the arms pulled themselves out of the book and revealed themselves to be a huge troll that gave out a large roar.
"Oh, come on! Whoa!" I groaned out before the troll then pulled me over by my Vine Whip.
"Ryuji!" Xander called out in concern as I then landed in front of the troll, the vine around his arm loosening and falling off as he glared down at me.
"Uh, hey." I said with a nervous chuckle as the troll then raised its hammer, not wasting time or giving me enough to get away as I only managed to get up on my hands and knees.
Just then, I felt something wrap around me and looked down to see this weird black hook attached to a black ribbon around my torso before I was then pulled away as troll brought down its hammer, allow me see the impact create some cracks on the floor.
"Ryuji, are you alright?" Xander said after I landed behind him, my cousin still fighting orcs coming at him.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I said before I watched the hook unwrap around me and pull away, making me look up to see someone standing on top of the bookcase as they grabbed the hook by the handle with the ribbon retracting into it.
Seeing the hook's blade fold out like a switchblade and extend, I was surprised that it was able to take the shape of a sword even as the user put it into the black sheath on their back. Though sensing familiarity with that weapon, I didn't have time to ponder as the orcs surrounding me and Xander were then knocked to the ground by this red, swirling blur that drove right through and moved around us.
"What the…?" Xander said, confused by this as flower petals fell around us, one of which I grabbed and recognized what flower they were from with seeing their red color.
"Rose petals?" I said to myself before I heard a roar and looked over to see the troll as it roared out with its hammer raised.
When it tried to charge over to me and Xander, it stopped halfway as this white snowflake appeared below it. Not soon after that, me and Xander heard a yell right before we saw someone come in and punch the troll in the face, an explosion coming with the punch's contact as the troll was then knocked to the floor. I was about to go over to get the book as I thought the troll had landed on it when it fell right before I heard a slam and watched as the troll and all the defeated orcs faded away and disappeared. Looking to the top of the bookshelf, we saw the sword user that saved me with the closed book in their hands.
"The Fellowship of the Ring." Said the sword user as they took a look at the cover. "This might be a good book to read if I get a chance to read it." Taking a careful look at the sword user, I gasped in awe as I realized who it was.
[No one's view]
At the Kid's Corner, Otabin placed Luz on the other page next to Amity and began to tie her in place.
"Making friends, taking friends." He sang as he tied Luz's arm to the page. "Never be without my friends."
"You fiend! You can't rhyme friends with friends!" Luz commented.
"Great work, 'Luzura'." Amity said in a flat tone.
"Hey! I was trying to save you!" Luz glared at her.
"And you could've done better." Amity said before she then looked around. "Where's Xander and that hybrid boyfriend of yours?"
"They're kinda… preoccupied. Some orcs got loose and they're working together to stop them." Luz replied sheepishly, making Amity scoff.
"Well, it doesn't matter. We're gonna be stuck together forever." Amity grimly said.
"That's what you think, girl!" Said a new voice, surprising the two girls right before Otabin froze up and they looked to see a snowflake made of white light beneath him.
Before long, a red swirl came in out of nowhere and knocked Otabin into a nearby stand of different books, luckily none of which fell on the floor opening. Landing in front of the girls with rose petals scattered around the room, the red swirl was revealed to be a fair-skinned teenage girl with silver eyes and neck-length black hair with red tips dressed in a white high-neck décolletage blouse with brown studded wristbands on the arms and brown straps over the shoulders, an overbust corset with a red string holding it in place, a black skirt with red lining, black thigh-high stockings that reached to a few inches below the hem of her skirt decorated by the image of a long-stemmed rose, red-soled black combat boots with red laces and red trims around the top containing four straps and buckles apiece, and a red cloak with a silver rose-shaped clip on the right shoulder. Both the cloak and stocking showed signs of tear and wear. Seeing the red rose-colored, black-trimmed rifle over her shoulder fold out and take the form of a scythe with a large, crescent-shaped blade, Luz gasped in awe.
"Ruby!" Luz said as she looked at the scythe wielder in awe and disbelief.
"Thanks for keeping him still, Weiss." Ruby said as she turned toward the exit with a smile.
"It was no trouble at all. Compared to the Grimm, he was easy." Said a pale-skinned teenage girl with pale blue eyes and long, white hair pulled back into an off-center ponytail on the right side and pinned with a silver, icicle-shaped tiara as she walked over to stand beside Ruby with a proud smile.
Wielding a silver rapier, the girl known as Weiss was dressed in a short, glittering dress with a color gradation of gray-blue to pale blue at the hem, a sweetheart neckline, a white, tulle petticoat, a white sash wrapped multiple times around her waist, a slightly sheer, long-sleeved, gray-blue bolero fastened at the collar with large sapphire broach with three pendants dangling from it and a white snowflake printed on the back over her attire, gray-blue wedge heels, and sapphire drop earrings.
"Weiss Schnee?" Amity gasped in surprise.
"You know her?" Luz said before she gasped in realization. "You read RWBY!"
"What? No!" Amity said as she looked away in denial.
"Of course, she does." Said Xander as the girls then looked to the entryway and saw him and Ryuji walking in, the Frank possessing a smile as he held his Saisho Yari over his shoulder. "Ever since I introduced her to the series, she's been wanting to read it all as much as The Good Witch Azura with Weiss becoming her favorite character. I'm surprised you didn't notice the familiar act Mittens had shown you belonging to that Schnee."
"Ryuji! Xander!" Luz said with a bright smile. "You beat the orcs!"
"Yeah, thanks to these girls." Ryuji said as he and his cousin then stood before the girls stuck on the book.
"Yes, even I have to admit that I wasn't sure we would be able to defeat the vast horde without the help of these four." Xander added, keeping his stoic expression.
"Four?" Amity asked, confused by this.
"Well, yeah!" Said a voice as they all turned to see two people walk into the room. "Can't have Team RWBY with just the R and W. You need the B and Y too!"
Joining the group in front of the book, the owner of the voice is revealed to be a tall, fair-skinned buxom woman with lilac blue eyes and long, thick, wavy bright golden hair that faded to pale gold at the tips with a cowlick sticking out at the top. With a bright yellow and black prosthetic robot arm, she was dressed in an orange crop top with a tan jacket with orange lining and gold edging that is unzipped halfway to show the shirt along with darker brown short sleeves, a thick collar that completely encircles her neck, two long, gold-trimmed rectangular tails. She also wore a pair of fitted black pants, a brown belt around her hips and over the tails of the coat which has two pieces of dark brown material trimmed in gold attached to it with the first covering her left hip to the back of the belt and folded over it and the second attached from the right hip and almost around to the other piece of material, knee-high brown boots with gold caps on the heel and toe with the heel caps attached to gold straps across the front of her ankle and a gold zipper on the upper half of the front of the boots and a single small buckled strap on the upper outside of the boots. She also wears a purple bandana tied around her left knee and a pair of black fingerless gloves with long brown cuffs reaching to the mid-forearm. She crossed her arms under her chest as she gained a grin.
The one accompanying her was a teenage girl of a light olive complexion similar to Ruby and Weiss with long, wavy black hair, amber eyes complemented by light purple eye shadow flaring backward with her eyes slightly tilted upwards at the ends to give her a cat-like appearance which is supported by the pair of black cat ears on top of her head. She was dressed in a sleeveless black crop top that has rectangular and diamond-shaped cutouts around the neckline with a long white tailcoat with dark violet inner lining over it as well as a belt attached from behind, black fitted pants with a white belt over them, an X-shaped scar just above her left hip, a diagonal strap with a smaller clip on the back across her torso, and thigh-high black heeled boots with gold-colored edging around the top with the left boot possessing a belt wrapped twice around the thigh and each boot bearing a flame-shaped symbol in white on the outer side of the thigh. There is also a white pouch attached to the back of her belt. Unlike the blonde, she had a stoic expression like Xander.
"Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna!" Luz said with eyes widened in awe.
"In the flesh!" Yang said to her. "Take it you're Luz, my little sis' biggest fan?"
"Yep! That's me!" Luz said almost immediately. "I can't believe I'm actually meeting the real Ruby Rose and all of Team RWBY!"
"Wait, how are they all here?" Amity asked, confused by this.
"Well, apparently, Ryuji brought an RWBY comic book into the library and someone had taken it from him, having spent time explaining things to these girls." Xander spoke up. "While the individual who brought them here had sent them to assist us, they refuse to reveal any detail concerning them." From there, Yang then began gently petting Xander on the head with her robotic hand.
"Hey, it's supposed to be a surprise." Yang casually said to him. "One for both you and your girl."
"Would you please stop doing that?" Xander retorted, shoving the woman's hand off his head.
"Well, we do know it couldn't have been the twins because none of them appeared to be altered like Otabin over there." Ryuji said as they all looked at the corrupted fictional character who began to stir with a groan, surprising them. "Uh-oh! He's waking up!"
"Then let us make haste and free Amity and Luz." Xander said as he and his cousin then went over to help the trapped girls.
"Luz, can you slip out of that knot Otabin put you in?" Ryuji asked as Xander examined the page Amity was on, trying to see if there was a way to free her.
"No, this string has got me stuck on page. See?" Luz said as she tried to move her arm and noticed the page it was stuck in being pulled which gave her an idea. "Amity, follow my lead! One!" Ryuji and Xander backed away a bit as Luz moved her legs and hit the paper, making the book move a bit.
"Luz?" Ryuji asked, confused by what his friend was trying to do.
"What are you doing?" Amity said, just as confused.
"Two! Three!" Luz said as, after a bit of effort, the book fell forward.
"Oh, no." Xander said as he and Ryuji gained looks of realization while the book fell on top of them.
"Ryuji! Xander!" Ruby said before she went to one corner of the book and grabbed it. "Quick! Help me get it off them!" With that, the rest of Team RWBY then joined their leader and grabbed the book with Weiss joining beside Ruby and Yang and Blake on the other side of the book. After giving some effort, the four managed to lift the book enough to where Luz and Amity were able to sit up. "Everybody okay down there?"
"Yeah, we're fine. Thanks, guys." Luz said with a grateful smile before looking down at a recovering Ryuji and gaining a look of concern. "Ryuji!"
"I'm fine." Ryuji told her. "Xander, are you…" Looking over to him, Ryuji saw his cousin lying on the ground with eyes widened in shock and a blush on his face. "Xander?"
"Xander, are you alright?" Amity said, snapping the Duskerman out of some sort of trance.
"Oh, me? Yes, I'm alright." Xander said, his nervousness evident in his voice. "Uh, mind getting off me now?" Amity was confused until she looked down and blushed upon realizing she was on top of Xander before she then stood up, using her free arm to hold the book up.
"I take it that's the first time you've ever been in that situation?" Ryuji asked with a small smile of amusement.
"Shut up!" Amity and Xander snapped at the same time.
"Uh, guys." Yang said to them as she saw Otabin slowly getting back to his feet. "Unless you all plan on being stuck in that book together, I think you better get up and run."
"Oh, right!" Ryuji said as Luz then stood up and the two boys scooted out from both under the book and each their respective friend before putting their respective weapons away with the Saisho becoming a sword and the Sieghild's spear shrinking down.
"You guys get Luz and Amity out of here!" Ruby said as she and her teammates let go of the book as Ryuji and Xander helped the two girls underneath lift the book, the boys grabbing and picking the book up from the back. "We'll keep Otabin busy!"
"Okay, just don't hurt him." Ryuji told them. "He's not really like this. He's a good guy."
"Don't worry. We're not gonna kill a kid's book character." Yang responded with a casual smile. "Just hurry and get yourselves and your girlfriends out of here."
"Not really dating!" Me and Xander said at the same time.
"But thanks. Good luck, Team RWBY!" Ryuji said before he and Xander then carried the book out of the Kid's Corner just as Otabin fully recovered and looked to see the two pairs of friends running away with his book.
"Come back!" Otabin snarled as he tried to grab them, only to be punched away by Yang.
"Hold it right there, bub!" Yang said as she and the rest of her team stood in front of him, her teammates each holding their weapons as the four stood ready to fight. "You want those guys, you'll have to get through us!" With a roar, Otabin then charged at Team RWBY and the four girls did the same with him, the battle between the foursome and the monster beginning.
[Ryuji]
After running for a while and seeing how far from the Kid's Corner we were, we all then stopped to catch our breath.
[Ryuji's aside]
Okay, I know that we're not really in a good situation right, but I can't help but think how cool it is that we're working with the real Team RWBY. I bet that this had made Luz's night and probably Amity's night as well by letting them meet the Huntresses they admire so much. Whoever has my comic, I really owe them a lot.
"Okay, I think we lost him." I said before looking over to Xander. "Now let's get Luz and Amity out of this book."
"Right." Xander said before we then gently put the back of the book down and rush over to the girls. "You two okay?"
"Yeah, we're fine." Luz told us.
"Okay now what?" The witch questioned.
"Actually, we didn't plan this far ahead." Xander admitted.
"Yeah, we were hoping you girls had a plan." I said to them.
"What made you think we had a plan?" Amity asked in shock.
"Yeah. I mean, all my plan had was me going all like 'roaaarrr'!" Luz put in with a cheap imitation of a roar.
"Luz, really?" I raised an eyebrow at her.
"What? It was all I had at the moment." Luz said before we heard a giggle and looked to see it was from Amity.
"Amity, did you just… laugh?" I said in disbelief.
"No." Amity quickly responded, her eyes widening as she looked away with a blush.
"Yes, you did!" I said with a smile of surprise. "Didn't think you could laugh like that instead of a snarky one."
"Been a while since I heard that sort of laugh coming from you." Xander said with a chuckle, making Amity groan and her blush deepen. Looking at Luz, we smiled at each other as it seemed we were making progress with Amity. This tender moment was short-lived as a needle appeared between the girls.
Looking behind the book, we saw Otabin standing there while holding the thread attached to the needle and Team RWBY tied up beside him along with their weapons tied around him.
"Friends!" Otabin snarled as he reeled in on the string, pulling the book along with the girls over a shelf.
"Luz!"
"Mittens!"
As Otabin was bringing them closer and closer back to him, Amity managed to grab a nearby ladder, her grip on it making the book stand up as she then wrapped her legs around it. Seeing the ladder about to be pulled away with her, I then spoke out to Xander.
"Xander, the ladder!" I told him, my cousin bringing out his Sieghild and using it to send a strand of abomination goo which wrapped around the ladder just as it snapped off its hinges.
From this, I then went on to help my cousin pull back as we started our little tug of war to save our friends from Otabin. After a moment, the string holding Amity snapped and she popped right off the page, causing me and Xander to fall to the floor. Seeing the ladder crash into a nearby book cart, we both then looked up to see Amity screaming as she fell down toward us, the witch girl had been flung up there from the ladder being pulled away so suddenly. Quickly getting back to his feet and putting his lance away, Xander brought out his dragon wings and flew off to where he then caught Amity.
"You okay, Mittens?" Xander asked with concern.
"I'm fine." Amity told him. "And stop calling me 'Mittens'."
"Luz!" I said as Otabin pulled his book back over to him, my human friend still stuck to it.
"Sorry, Luz. We tried our best." Ruby regrettably said to her fan as Otabin pulled the needle out of the book. "Turns out he's stronger than a Grimm."
"Yeah, and this thread he wrapped us in is keeping us from using our Semblances." Yang added just as Otabin turned the book around as he was ready to sew, Luz kicking at him with her attacks not even fazing him.
"You squirm and fight yet scream and shout. But friendship always will win out." The monster rhymed as he sewed and pulled the strings on the page, managing to converge most of Luz's body into the book with only her head left. As he was about to do so…
"Leave her alone, Otabin!" Hearing Amity's shout, I looked to see her holding onto Xander from the back with my cousin flying in and smacking Otabin with his Sieghild, making the monster skid across the floor and hit a bookshelf while dropping the book Luz was stuck on. With the bookshelf falling on top of Otabin, I used a Wind Dash to quickly get over to Luz and used my sword to cut the strings pinning her to the page.
"Oh, third dimension! How I've missed you." Luz happily said as her body returned to normal and she got off the book while I then cut Team RWBY free from the string holding them.
"Thanks for saving Luz, you two." I said to Amity and Xander as Xander landed beside the book, Amity getting over his back to stand beside him.
"It was… nothing." Amity said, crossing her arms and turning her head away from me right before we all then turned to see Otabin push the bookshelf off him.
"We must stay friends until the end." Otabin declared as he walked over to us. "There is no tear I cannot mend."
"Not today, old friend!" I said as I then pulled my Saisho back with wind surrounding it. "Attack Magic: Wind Dragon's Roar!" With that, I then sent the wind blast shaped like a dragon's head right at him, sending him flying away and crashing two yards from us.
"Nice shot, kid!" Yang said to me with a proud smile.
"You and your cousin are powerful fighters." Blake commented with an impressed smile.
"Yeah, you two are awesome!" Ruby added with the same feeling.
"It makes me wish we had people such as yourselves at Beacon." Weiss put in, all these compliments causing me to smile.
"Well, of course my skills are impressive. I am a Duskerman after all." Xander said as he stood there, facing away from the four while trying to look cool. Hearing a snarl, we all then looked to see Otabin pick himself up, looking angrier than ever. "Seems as though Otabin isn't going to give up on capturing us so easily."
"It's not his fault, it's those edits the twins put in his book." I said before I realized it. "Wait, that's it! If those doodles the twins put there are making him act this way…"
"Then removing them should return him to normal." Xander said as he saw where I was going with this. "Good thinking, Ryuji."
"Then let's revise his chapter!" I said before I focused my magic into the Saisho. "Transformation Magic! Weapon Change!" With that, I then changed it into its lance form. "Saisho Yari!" Now that I was ready, I then told my plan to everyone. "Okay, Xander, you and me will tie up Otabin. Team RWBY, once we got him restrained, you all tackle him and hold him down. Blake, send a shadow clone to find an eraser and have it remove those doodles in Otabin's book once we got Otabin pinned."
"No, wait!" Luz spoke up, surprising us. "While I didn't mean to do it, this is still my mistake, so I'll be the one to fix this."
"Are you sure?" I asked her in concern. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."
"I'm positive." She told me. "It's about time I start cleaning up my own mess instead of having someone else do it for me."
"Alright. Then, Blake…"
"Wait!" Amity said before she took a pencil and started writing on the big book Otabin made, speaking out what she write. "Taking a special eraser to return Otabin to his true self, Luz brings right to wrong." With that, a fat eraser popped out of the book with Amity grabbing it before giving it to Luz. "Here."
"Thanks, Amity." Luz said as she accepted the eraser with a grateful smile.
"Okay. Ready, Xander?" I said as my Saisho's spear started glowing green as I focused my Plant Magic into it, vines wrapped around the point.
"Ready." Xander told me, his Sieghild's spear flowing magenta as he focused his Abomination Magic into it with abomination goo wrapping around the point.
"Then let's go!" With that, me and my cousin then charged at Otabin with the monster charging with a roar in response. Dodging a swipe from him, me and Xander then spilted up to where Otabin was between us, Xander on his left and me on his right. "Attack Magic: Vine Whip!" With that, the two of us shot at the monster and began tying him up in vines and purple slime, leaving a gap where the book was on his chest. "Team RWBY, take him down!"
With that, me and Xander then watched as Team RWBY went on the attack with Yang's hair glowing like a golden flame and her blue eyes turning red as she charged at Otabin with her robotic hand pulled back to deliver a punch while Ruby and Weiss grabbed each other's hands before shooting off as spiraling blurs of red and white towards the monster, the blonde and her Rose half-sister using their Semblances with Ruby and Weiss left a trail of white and red rose petals behind them. With the Schnee's snowflake appearing on Otabin's stomach, Yang then jumped up and punched the monster in the face while Ruby and Weiss landed a hit on the snowflake, their combined attack knocking Otabin to the ground. From this, Blake then used her Semblance and created multiple clones of herself which then tackled Otabin with her partner Yang joining them to hold the monster down.
"Luz, now's your chance!" Ruby said as she and Weiss landed in front of the pinned Otabin, the pair returning to normal.
"Right!" Luz said before rushing forward, managing to reach where the book was and use the eraser on it.
With the doodles gone, we all then watched as Otabin magically returned to normal. With Blake making her clones disappear and Luz standing up while holding Otabin, I then turned my Saisho back into a sword and put it back on my back before picking up Otabin's book.
[Ryuji's aside]
Okay, not gonna lie, but that was totally epic! Me, Xander, Luz, and Amity working with Team RWBY to beat a monster Otabin? It kinda reminded me of the moment in Black Clover when Asta and the Black Bulls defeated Vetto the Despair of the Eye of the Midnight Sun's Third Eye.
After Team RWBY picked their weapons on the floor with Ruby having her scythe fold into its portable size and form before putting back on the weapon clip on her belt that was hidden under her cape, Yang putting her gauntlet and the special attachment for her robotic arm back on, Blake sheathing her sword on her back, and Weiss having the spear of her rapier sink down before she placed it back on her hip along with Xander converting his lance's spear so he could put it back on his own hip, we all then gathered around Luz as Otabin looked at us with a shameful look.
"I'm so sorry." Otabin said, feeling bad for what he had done. "I don't know what came over me."
"Hey, it's okay." Amity said with a reassuring smile. "We're still friends."
"Same goes for me, little buddy." I said before getting a nod from the witch. Closing the book, we all watched as Otabin disappeared while Yang sighed in relief as she laid down on her back.
"I'm glad that's over." Yang said with her hands behind her head.
"That was a great strategy there." Blake said to me.
"Yes, even I have to admit that it did help us greatly." Xander added. "While I'm not sure just thinking of it as you go and hoping for the best is a great thing, I would have to say that this habit of yours is quite the impressive tactic."
"Thanks." I told them, smiling in appreciation for the compliments.
"Good teamwork, you two." Ruby said as she and Weiss spoke to their respective fans.
"Yes, you certainly did good in cooperating in this situation." Weiss added.
"Aw, thanks." Luz said, rubbing the back of her head.
"I had only offered my assistants in ensuring the human could fix her mistake." Amity said as she lost her smile and turn her head to the side.
"Amity, was it?" Weiss said as she gained a warm smile and put a hand on Amity's shoulder, causing the witch girl to turn to her in surprise. "From what I was told, you're someone who had not been giving much of your life to do things you want. I understand that it isn't easy with living up to the sort of image your family has and that you don't want to be seen as cruel which is why I'm telling you that, while it is good that you try to make your family proud, you don't need to close everyone around you out. Especially the ones who you can truly see as good people. If you find people that you can see yourself opening up to, then try and see how it goes. Take it from me when I say that having those sorts of people who accept who you truly are is not a bad thing. Don't be afraid to show who you really are." With that, Amity then looked at Luz to see her smiling at her before turning to me as I gave her the same smile.
[Ryuji's aside]
Okay, I think I've now seen everything. I never once thought I would see the former Ice Queen Weiss Schnee give advice about opening up to people to a fellow ice queen.
[No one's view]
Unknown to them, someone was watching them from the floor above and smiling at the scene. The mysterious figure happened to be the one holding Ryuji's comic book which they then closed.
[Ryuji]
After giving that speech, we all then watched as the members of Team RWBY became transparent with Weiss taking her hand off Amity's shoulder and Yang standing up in surprise.
"Looks like our job here is done, girls." Yang said as Blake went to her side. "Well, it's been fun hanging out with you guys."
"Yeah. It was great finally meeting you guys." I said with a smile.
"Yes, even I have to admit it was good spending time with you all." Xander added. "Perhaps we'll meet again when the Wailing Star visits the Isles again."
"Sure! That'll be awesome!" Yang said as she gave us a thumbs up.
"Bye, Luz! Good luck on being a witch!" Ruby said as she went to her older sister's side, waving to her fan.
"Bye, Ruby! Great to finally meet ya!" Luz said, waving back.
"Goodbye, Amity. Take care." Weiss said as she joined her teammates. "And think about what I said. I can assure you that you won't regret it."
"Okay, I will." Amity said as she gave a smile to her favorite RWBY character. "Thank you, Weiss."
With Team RWBY waving goodbye and us waving back, we watched as the four then finally disappeared before me, Xander, Luz, and Amity smiled at each other as we shared a tender moment.
After cleaning up the damages in the library caused by the magic of the Wailing Star, the four of us then made our out with the girls between me and Xander.
"Well, that had to be one of the craziest nights we ever had." I said as I stretched my arms out.
"Yeah, defiantly was an adventure." Luz said with a chuckle. "But it was cool working with Team RWBY. Wish they could've stayed around longer."
"Well, they won't be making any return." Xander said. "The magic that brought those books to life was only enough for tonight."
"Yeah, speaking of which, I still wonder who got my RWBY comic." I said as we made it down the stairs. "Couldn't have been the twins, otherwise we would have been dealing with messed up versions of them. Plus, the comic was closed right after we took care of Otabin. So if it wasn't them or any of us, then who…"
"Man, that was quite a night." Said a voice as we all looked to the library's front door and watched someone walk out of it. "Though at least all of you are okay."
The owner of the voice was a warlock who looked about as old as my big bro with curly and unruly red hair that ran down his back with bangs covering his eyes. He was dressed in a white jacket with azure seems and white pants, an azure cowl robe with gold seems, a white peaked cap, and white boots.
"Cameron?" Xander said with surprise.
"Hey, Xander! Long time, no see!" the warlock now known as Cameron said with a smile.
"You know him?" I asked Xander, surprised to hear this.
"Unfortunately, I do." Xander answered with a grim expression before speaking to Cameron. "How long have you been here?"
"The whole time." Cameron casually told him.
"Then how come you weren't there to help us with the orcs?" Xander question.
"Hey, I did help." Cameron said before he took something out and looked at me. "Hey, Ryuji, right? I think this is yours." Catching what he tossed over to me, I was surprised to find it was my RWBY comic.
"My comic book!" I said with a smile before I realized it and looked back at Cameron. "So it was you who sent Team RWBY to help us."
"That's right." Cameron confirmed with a proud smile.
"Yet you didn't even join in the fight." Xander bluntly said.
"Hey, I would've joined in, but I had a meeting with some certain people." Cameron said right before these big dragon arms made of orange light rose up behind him, a worried Emira and Edric being held by the three-digit claws of said arms which gripped on the twins' heads. "Heard they caused a lot of trouble with you, so I decided to have a little chat with them. Now I think they have something they wish to say. Right?" Both twins then exchanged looks before they spoke up.
"We're sorry, Amity." Edric started.
"For?" Cameron asked.
"For threatening to post your diary all over the school…" Edric continued.
"For everyone to see." Emira finished.
"You what?" Amity said as both me and Luz held her back as she tried to lunch at the twins.
"There. Now was that so hard?" Cameron casually said.
"I could've handled them myself." Xander coldly said.
"I know. You're a pretty good fighter, Xanny."
"Xanny?" I said, confused even as Xander growled with a blush.
"I thought I told you not to call me that." Xander told him in anger.
"I know, but I like calling you that." Cameron said. "Plus, I know Mom calls you that, so why can't I?"
"Because Mother doesn't address me as such in public!" Xander snapped. "She knows that calling me such does nothing but embarrass me, not like you would care, brother."
"Wait, they're brothers?!" the twins, Luz, and Amity said in unison, shocked by this.
"Oh, that makes sense." I said, taking it all in.
"Yeah, hey, everybody!" Cameron greeted us with a bright smile. "I'm Xanny's big bro Cameron Duskerman, but you guys can call me 'Cam'."
"Will you please stop addressing me with that nickname?" Xander said to his brother.
"Now then…" Cameron said those arms then held the twins to where they would face him. "Since I'm in such a good mood and don't want to spoil the family reunion, I'll let you two go. But, anytime you think about messing with Xanny or his girlfriend, think about our chat. Next time you two pull something like this, I might have to introduce you to Barbara. Got it?" Though he spoke calmly, Cameron clearly showed this threatening aura around him which pretty much scared me, Luz, and Amity.
"Got it!" Emira instantly said.
"Yep! No more mean pranks on the lovebirds!" Edric added, just as fast.
"Good." Cameron said as the claws then let go of the twins, dropping them as Cameron's intimidating aura faded away. "Now you can leave." With that, the twins then picked themselves up and ran off away from the library before Cameron spoke to Xander. "There. Now they'll leave you alone."
"You know, Xander did have a point." Amity spoke up, crossing her arms. "We could've taken care of my siblings ourselves."
"Yeah, I know." Cameron said to her. "But I just like helping my little bro. And helping his cute, little girlfriend is part of it. You're welcome, by the way."
"Cameron…" Xander sourly said to him, the younger Duskerman sporting the same blush as Amity.
"Still I'm glad I was able to help out my little bro again." Cameron said as the right claw extended out and gently patted Xander on the head. "Nice to see you get so strong. Keep up the good work, little bro." After Cameron turned to Amity, the other claw stretched out and patted her as well. "Keep looking out for Xanny for me and keep being his awesome girlfriend. I'm counting on you."
"I won't make such promises… but I will try my best." Amity said, her way of saying that she'll watch out for Xander.
"And you two…" Cameron said before the claws then left Amity and Xander's heads and moved on to me and Luz as they started patting us. "Appreciate you two getting Xanny and his girl to open. While I knew you would get my bro to really talk to ya, I wasn't so sure anyone would get through to Amity like your girlfriend has."
"Uh, actually she's not my girlfriend." I told him.
"Really?" Cameron lost his smile upon hearing this. "ʹCause the way you two act…"
"Trust us, we're just good friends." Luz said, interrupting him.
"I see." Cameron said as he regained his smile. "Well, keep on being good friends to Xanny and Amity, okay?"
"No problem." Luz gladly said to him.
"We'll try our best." I added.
"Great." Cameron said as the claws retracted before disappearing. "Well, I'll be off." With that, Cameron walked away. "Great seeing all ya! ʹTil next time!"
"You got one of those too, huh?" I said as Cameron was out of sight.
"You have no idea." Xander told me.
"So, meet ya at the market tomorrow?" I said to him. "I would like to lend you Black Clover Volume Ten today, but after what just happened…"
"Yes, I understand. I am quite weary myself from last night." Xander told me. "I will see you tomorrow then."
"Just for the record, this never happened." Amity said as she began to walk off with Xander in tow. As she was going, Luz called out to her.
"Amity, wait." Luz said, getting the Blight girl to stop and turn around. "I know this doesn't make up for reading your diary, but would you wanna borrow this?" Luz then pulled out and held out Book 5 of The Good Witch Azura from her bag. "Xander said that you only had up to Four after you two became friends. I thought you might like to see the next part of the series."
"Oh, thank you." Amity said as she took the book with surprise, accepting the offer. As she was about to walk, Amity sighed and stopped before turning back around to face my friend. "Human… Luz, maybe you aren't a bully. I don't blame you for thinking badly of me. I haven't exactly been the friendliest witch either. As to being friends with you, I'll think on that. And hybrid… Ryuji…" As she turned to me, I was surprised to hear her call me by my name. "I'm sorry for what I said. Xander told me it was wrong for me to say that and I realize now that he was right. And I apologize for blaming you two for things you weren't responsible for. Also, I realized it'll be a long time before I ever reach the level of power you have."
I smiled before shaking my head. "I accept the compliment, but I think you may have cut yourself short. You're a great witch, Amity. Ain't about how magic you have…"
"It's how you use it and how you grow with it." Xander said, finishing the quote from Black Clover as he then nodded to me.
[No one's view]
After Ryuji returns the nod, Xander and Amity then walked away with Amity breaking the silence just after a moment of looking at the book Luz lent to her to her before looking at Xander.
"So, Xanny, huh?" Amity asked.
"It's a nickname my mother gave me when I was little." Xander told her, not sounding too happy to explain. "She's been calling me that for years. Of course, she doesn't say it in public as she is the head of the Emperor's Coven, she doesn't miss a chance to call me that where no one would overhear it. It's embarrassing. It's why my brother enjoys addressing me as such."
"Kinda sounds cute to me." Amity said under her breath.
"What?" Xander asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nothing!" Amity instantly said with eyes widened and a slight blush on her face. She cleared her throat as she recomposed herself. "A-anyway, I guess you can call me 'Mittens'…"
"Really?" Xander said with surprise.
"Only if you allow me to call you 'Xanny'." Amity finished, shocking Xander.
"What? No!"
"Fine. Then I guess you won't be calling me 'Mittens'." After she looks away, Xander growls in annoyance for a moment before giving a sigh of defeat.
"Fine. You can call me… 'Xanny'."
Amity then gained a proud smile. "Thank you, Xanny."
Ignoring the blush he got from hearing Amity use his nickname, he returned the smile. "You're welcome… Mittens." Hearing that, Amity then held the book in front of her mouth to hide the little smile she had accompanied by the blush.
[Ryuji]
With the sun rising above our heads, me and Luz made our way out of Bonesborough and back to the Owl House, both of us happy to be back home.
"Well, that was an eventful night with some rewards." I said as we reached the front door. "Now we both befriended our rivals and you managed to do it like Ruby did with Weiss."
"Yeah. I'm not so sure we're friends yet, but I think we found some common ground." Luz said with a smile. "Thanks for coming with me, Ryuji."
"No problem." I said, returning the smile. "Now, don't know about you, but I'm gonna sleep like a rock."
"Here, let me get the door." Luz said as she then opened it up and we walked inside.
"Mom! Juni! King! We're… home?" I said before me and Luz looked over to the couch and smiled upon seeing Mom holding the Bat Queen's babies in her arms with Juniper beside her and King in my sister's lap, all five of them sleeping soundly.
"Awww!" Luz cooed, finding this adorable.
"Looks like my mom isn't so rusty on parenting after all." I said as I slowly closed the door.
"Hoot! Hoot!" Hooty shouted as he suddenly open the door and pushed me into Luz who then helped me to my feet.
"Hooty, what the hell!?" I said right before I saw a large creature who resembled much of the babies my mom, my sister, and King were taking care of, but with the head of a woman with gray lips and long black hair as its body. This surprised me and Luz.
"Whoa! You must be Mama." Luz guessed.
"Yi-Yi! Mama is I. And I is the Bat Queen." The demon told us before she began to whistle, calling her babies who then woke up and happily flew into her hair. "Ah, snuggle dumplings." The Bat Queen then gagged up a big red chest which I then opened up with my magic to find a whole bunch of gold coins before spitting up a whistle with a skull on it which I then caught in my hands. "For troubles. Your mama is owed one, young Frank."
"Wait, how did you…" I said with surprise.
"Your father visit me many times, told me much about your family." Bat Queen told me. "Which is how I knew babies would be in good care of Eda."
"Oh, it was no trouble at all, Bat Queen." I said to her with a bow. "And, seeing how my mom was sleeping with your kids snuggled around her, she was happy to so." With that, Bat Queen then squeezed herself out and flew away. "Goodbye! Take care!" With that, I then went ahead and gently closed the door.
"Ah. Sweet babies." Mom said as she, Juniper, and King woke up and were surprised to find the bat babies gone. "Babies? Where are the babies?"
"Oh, Bat Queen came by and picked them up." I told the three. "It's already tomorrow."
"Oh, right. Forgot about that." Mom said as she remembered it.
"Awww! I just taught Juni Junior how to pick locks." Juniper said with depression.
"Well, it looks like your night turned out to be very successful." Luz spoke up as she gestured to the chest. "Look at all that money you made."
"And Bat Queen just gave us a special calling whistle for when we want her to return the favor she owes us now." I said as I went up and gave my mom the whistle. "Though we'll need to wash it first since she carried it in her mouth."
"Yeah, that's great, kiddo." Mom said in a sad tone.
"Already miss the little trio?" I asked her.
"Yeah." Mom told me. "While I didn't like getting back into that sort of thing, taking care of those babies reminded me of how it was raising Ben and Juni, of how happy I was to have them in my lives. Sure, I didn't like the curse being passed onto them or you, but having you all in my arms back then showed me what was great about being a mom. But what's done is done and we got paid."
"I miss my babies!" King cried as he leaped into Mom's arms.
"So how was your night?" Mom asked me and Luz.
"Yeah, and why do you look so worn out, DK?" Juniper put in.
"Oh, our night just got a little crazy for us at the library." I said. "Long story. We'll tell you later after we get some rest."
"Yeah, short version: our night was good, then got bad, then maybe ended good." Luz added right before Hooty spoke up.
"Hey, you wanna hear about my night?"
"No!" Me, Mom, and Luz said at once.
"That's not a thing anyone ever wants!" King put in.
"Stay out of this, Hooty!" Juniper told the house demon, making him close the door.
"Anyway, I thought you might get like this." I said before I then gave her a book titled Coping with Empty Nest Syndrome, the cover of the book having a little bird in a nest. "So I got you this. Uncle Luke told me this sort of advice helped Dad when Big Bro moved out of the house."
"Heh. Thanks, kiddo." Mom said as she gave me a grateful smile.
"Now, if anyone needs me, I'll be crashed out on my bed." I said as I then walked up to my room upstairs.
"And I better take a shower. Might have something from all the chaos I'll probably need to wash off." Juniper said as she followed behind me.
[No one's view]
After the two left, Eda hummed in thought for a moment as she tried to make sure her twin children were out of ear range. Thinking back to when she was looking after the Bat Queen's children, Eda saw it remind her of all the good times she had while raising her oldest son and only daughter. Sure, she enjoyed it more when she raised Ben with Axel and wished she could've been there to raise Ryuji, but she still enjoyed Juniper nonetheless. She didn't know why, but the experience she had babysitting sort of made the Owl Lady feel the one thing she hadn't felt in a long time: the joy of taking care of children. With hearing doors closed, Eda then gained a smile and raised an eyebrow at Luz.
"You know, even while seperated, Axel made sure I would be in the know of how Ryuji and Ben were doing and I would do the same with Juni." Eda said, getting Luz's attention. "Best way we did it was by sharing copies of pictures we took of them as they grew up. Sure, I wasn't into taking photos like that, but Juni is our only daughter so it wouldn't be fair if her own dad wasn't able to see her grow up, even if it was only with pictures. Not sure if it's just me being a mom or Axel rubbing off on me, but I actually kept a photo album of all my kids growing up. Seeing as to how those two are busy upstairs…" She dug in her hair and pulled out a big, red book. "Wanna see Ryuji and Juni's baby pictures?" Her apprentice merely squealed as she nodded her head excitedly before they were surprised by the twins' voices echoing from upstairs.
"Mom, no!" Ryuji shouted as he overheard what his mother said.
"Don't even think about it!" Juniper added.
Unknown to any of them, Cameron was by the window and chuckled upon hearing what was going on in the Owl House.
"That human really has done some good for ya, Auntie E." Cameron said to himself. "Both you and my cousins. Hopefully, she can do the same for Xanny and his girl." With that, Cameron then used spell circles on his back and made a pair of dragon wings like Xander's, only his having orange replacing the light blue. From doing so, Cameron then took off into the air and flew away out of sight.
[Ryuji's aside]
Okay, well, that's one night at the library I'll never forget and what happened is something I'm not gonna miss out on the next Wailing Star meteor shower. While the plan with befriending Emira and Edric didn't work out like we planned, we did learn more about Xander and Amity's relationship with each other and probably got Amity to open up to us more. Me and Luz had got to learn that we had more in common with our rivals than we thought and connect with them. Not only that, but I also learned that Xander had a big bro like me. Not sure what exactly what sort of complications between the brothers is, but I'm glad that I met one older sibling looking out for their younger sibling, unlike the Blight Twins who I now know to watch out for after the hell we all went through tonight. Not sure whether or not Xander and Amity will be friends with me and Luz just yet, but I do believe we are making progress toward that. All that I can say is that the path toward befriending the two seems to be much clearer now. DK out!
Author's Note: Hey, guys! I hope you all like the new chapter. Well, it seems that Ryuji and Luz had one heck of a time at the library, huh? There might have been a few bumps along the way thanks to the Blight Twins, but it does appear that Luz has managed to get Amity to warm up to her and the possibility of them being friends now seems more possible and Ryuji had even gotten Xander to open up and help Ryuji and Luz understand their rivals better. In any case, it seems as though the Dragon Kid and his human friend might just be able to befriend their rivals. By the way, the cover for the RWBY comic Ryuji haves is "RWBY #6 Team RWBY Cover". Also Cameron Duskerman is voiced by Sebastian Fitzner. In the next chapter, the residents of the Owl House try to see what it is like to spend the day in each other's shoes. That's all I got for now. Don't forget to leave a comment to tell me what you think of it. See you all in the next chapter!
