(Well, this is near the end. I noticed a plot hole or two that I've yet to fill in, but don't worry, I'll be sure to get all of it done during the veeeery last Chapter. I'll also be sure to try getting the very last Chapter done in earlier than a month. n-n; Well, best of reading. Review if you'd like, I always appreciate it.)
A day passed. Indeed, a day, just like that. A day so completely boring and pointless that it does not even deserve mention. No wolves chasing, no fireworks exploding, just a day of walking and chatting for the group of teens, and a boring one at that. However, by 11:00 am of the tomorrow of the day previous, they had reached the hill crest of Forget-Me-Not Valley, in all of its total serenity. The group proceeds down the hill gradually, and within a minute, they had reached the very bottom. The people from Mineral Town look around at the surroundings, a strange sensation overcoming most of them… Boredom.
"…This is it?" Ricca says incredulously. "You've lived in this place all of your lives? It's… tiny!"
"I don't even think it qualifies as a village…" Matthew states, taking in the incredibly small number of buildings and people wandering aimlessly about in the distance. "…or a hamlet… I never would have thought that Mineral Town was a large-scale community, but… this is just a bunch of vacationers who happened upon the same area by some strange coincidence…"
"You're not too far off." Miro states, glancing at him. "That's pretty much how this town was founded. First, there was some dead old farm that nobody's sure where it came from, and then I think Vesta's parents along with their friends Nina and Galen and I believe Romana and her husband came along, hoping to take claim of the dead farm, but then they figured out it would cost less just to build one of their own. A few years after that, a young couple, as in, like, fifteen, moved in and built a house right there," he pointed to the Inner Inn, "since they had run from their homes and thought that the property would be worth something eventually. The problem was, the dead farm brought the property value down. So-"
"Wait, I know this part," Kate cuts off, wanting to throw in her knowledge of the tiny habitation's history. The group had began walking again, passing Vesta's farm and nearing the bridge. "So Tim and Ruby, the couple, decided to make a risky investment and ask for a loan from the successful farm so that they could build a small Inn. Needless to say, it went down the toilet at first, so they moved out with what money they had to go travel the world. Now, some more time passed, and Vesta's parents and Romana and her husband had kids. At around the same time, I hear, Romana's husband died for… some reason, I don't know, but one of the funeral invitations was sent to a guy in a nearby city by mistake, who worked for the national government. He recognized the name and sent a return letter saying that Romana's husband was wanted dead or alive for fifty million dollars! That was a lot of money back then, too! So, this government guy comes into town and interviews Romana to see if she was the one that killed him. He didn't believe that she did at first, but after tasting her Beef Kabob he quickly changed his mind and handed her the check just before running out the door to puke."
"…But what was the guy wanted for in the first place?" William inquires as they cross over the bridge.
"Treason, to about twelve different countries," Miro states. "He had passed very important wartime documents into those countries but none of their governments were able to see them before he had moved on to a different country. But here's the catch: He never knew what he was doing. He just liked to move a lot and forgot that he had left the things in his briefcase."
"We're pretty sure that's where Lumina's oblivious nature comes from." Kate adds, clearing her throat to continue the story. "Anyway, after the money was handed to Romana, the co-owners of the farm figured that they should spread it evenly to benefit the property. But… Instead, Romana figured that it would be an even better idea to bring up tourism interest in the area by building a huge mansion on the top of that hill, and have her live in it to keep it maintained." She pointed a long distance away, to some elevated part of land too obscured with trees and other hills to really see. "The farmers accepted the idea, especially since Romana had a child to raise so she really didn't have the time to help much on the farm. Of course, a while later the bunch of them realized that they had been seriously duped, but it was too late by then…"
"Not too long after, Vesta's folks had her." Miro continues. "A lovely, 12 pounds 9 ounces little girl. Since there were two parents to the kid, though, they didn't have to move out of the farm to take care of her. At around the same time, too, the pyrotechnicians of the place moved in, bringing their entire, empty water tower with them by camel-back. They were kind of, umm, new to the business and such, so the bangs, sparks, and occasional brush-fires attracted the attention of three little kids who wandered away from their campsite."
"Oh, and the kids were Lumina's dad, Takakura, and, umm…" Hugh trails off, scratching his head in thought.
"My grandpa." Miro finishes for him. "The three of them knew each other pretty well, from what I've heard. Anyway, they were called back to camp and such. But after realizing that people actually camped near here, the farmers got the idea of refurbishing the abandoned Inn and calling Tim and Ruby back over to return. So yeah, they did." He motions toward the Inner Inn, which they were just passing. "So some more years passed, and people started noticing the place. Hardy was one of the first; he's our doctor. And then a young scientist who got knocked out of his academy on a count of insanity, and a metalurgist, and other types… mind you, this is over about ten years."
"Oh," Lumina chimes in, remembering this part of the timeline since her grandmother had told her of it. "And after some time, Miro's grandfather, Takakura, and my Dad came back to visit for an extended vacation. My mother got engaged to my father, and they left back to the city together. Miro's grandfather and Takakura were somewhat older, and Miro's grandfather was already married. They all left back to the city and Miro's father was born, as well as me about seven or eight-"
"Nine." Kate corrects.
"…Nine years later." Lumina concludes, sighing lightly. "Tim and Ruby had a child as well, the same year as Jack was born. Jack's mother and both of my parents died in a car crash… umm, separate ones. Two separate ones, one for Jack's mother, and one for my par-"
"We get it." Hugh says, speaking for the group since, if he got it, it's likely that everyone else did as well. He decides to continue. "And, yeah, at around that time, my mom and dad and me all moved in at that house there," he nods over to it as they passed by. "And then some more time passed, and this random hippie kid Gustafa of about nineteen unpacked his yurt and decided to live here. Some archeologists did, too. They found out that there's some big secret buried out underground or something…"
"And that old barn was still lying around there without an owner?" Ricca remarks, looking strangely.
"…Well, somebody bought it eventually." Miro points out.
"Who was the sucker?"
"…My grandpa. And he was not a sucker, he was an entrepeneur." Miro claims, snuffing defiantly. "My Dad says that he told Grandpa that a farm in the country would make more sense than the city farm he and Tak were trying to make, so Gramps went and bought this place."
"City farm…" Kate mutters. "Jee, I can see where you get it from…"
"Get what?"
"Err, nothing."
"Around that time was a good idea, too." Hugh adds suddenly. "Both of Vesta's folks died about a year before, so the founding farm had dwindled a little. Vesta, though, about a month after their passing-off, got her brother Marlin dragged over here and Celia followed soon after. And not only that, Miro's mom wandered into here, too."
"And Grandpa, poor guy, died at about 50, before he could even touch his new property." Miro proceeds. "So my Dad had to take over, with Tak helping to get things from the city. Now get this… He put himself on a deadline, mostly by trying to marry my Mom, since she was planning to leave in a year. Soon enough, he proposed, and I guess she said yes."
"…Hang on, your Dad and Mom married a year within even seeing each other?" William gasps, looking at Miro strangely.
"I guess so, yeah…" Miro mutters, shrugging a bit. "Times were different back then, I suppose. People were more… careless, or something."
"And then, a few years later, my family moved in and Miro was born." Kate concluded. She thought a moment longer, but for some reason couldn't think of anything else to add. "…Um, and I guess that's all that has happened so far."
"Hey, you know, this whole thing we've gone through is probably an important bit of history for this town." Miro points out, the idea suddenly coming to mind. "I mean, we killed a demon that's been plaguing the town since Galen was only touching on senility, and we had some good adventure along the way. And most of the parents of both towns got together and formed a posse to find us-"
"And any posse is worth noting in history." Kate agrees with a nod. "But, umm… Daachan really wasn't 'plaguing' the town. I mean, it was sitting still in your bedroom for about ten years, that's not exactly threatening the people of the Valley…"
"And are we sure it's dead?" William adds in tentatively. Kate and Miro glare at him coldly.
"YES." They both hiss sharply.
"We smashed it up, it's over, it's gone, its toast, it's dead, okay?" Miro demanded, to William's repeated nodding. "Good…"
"Hey, where are we going, anyway?" Anna inquires, to the group's shrugs. They were at the end of the pathway now, which turned up toward the mansion. They pondered for a moment as to what they should do next.
"Let's split up and take a look around town." Ricca suggests. To this, the group nods.
"I need to check on the farm, anyway…" Miro states. With that, the lot of them broke off into small groups and began to tour the town's various sights.
- - -
Miro stepped into the farmland, noting that the level of destruction wasn't nearly as high as he expected. They would likely need a new front door and many of the plants were wilted, but aside from that, property damage was at a particular low. He continued walking, looking left and right for any signs of the volunteers. Matthew was walking with him since he wanted to see the farm first before any of the other sights. Unfortunately, Miro forgot to look down, and a soft squish below his foot signified that at least one worker was present at the site. Lifting his foot carefully, Miro noticed the light blue Harvest Sprite Nak staring back up at him from the shoe's imprint.
"Oh… Um, hello there," Miro says in an apologetic tone. "…Is everyone else gone or something?"
After a moment of struggle, Nak pulls himself from the ground and stands up, looking at him.
"Yep." He replies. "Your Mom and Dad showed up and said that we could stop, but I was supposed to stay here to tell you."
"Okay… And where are they now?" inquires Miro, looking around once more.
"They left on an errand a while ago. I like their new boat, it's really fast." Nak answers, smiling up at him. Miro smirks and then sighs.
"Well, you're free to go." He says, waving him off. Nak nods and scurries along past him and Matthew, heading back into the forest that was his home.
"That was interesting, I suppose." Matthew says, shrugging a little. Miro nods. A few moments of silence pass by, and Matthew yawns once before looking to Miro again.
"…What do you think of getting engaged?"
"Sorry, I don't like you that much."
"No, I mean to Kate."
"To Kate…?" Miro paused at the idea. After a moment of humming in thought, he shrugged. "Yeah, it would be nice. It's bound to happen eventually."
"Well, you could do it right now." Matthew suggests. Miro gives him an odd look.
"And get married at fifteen?" he inquires.
"You don't have to marry right away." Matthew states. "Tradition says that you can delay the wedding for as long as you want. You can just get the engaging part out of the way right now."
"And why should I, again?" Miro asks, looking at him.
"Can you think of anything better to do?"
"…Point taken."
A few minutes later, the plan was set. Miro only had to retrieve his parents' Blue Feather from the display case on the shelf of their fireplace, bring it to Kate, and all is well. Matthew waited patiently outside the door, and Miro, having stepped in and reached the fireplace, stared at it expectantly. Reaching out a hand, he touched the glass lid of the case with intention to open it, and was met by a section of the stone shelf flipping from where it sat and smashing his arm.
"…Something up, Miro?" Matthew inquires when the screaming faded. Miro steps out, nursing his arm, and glares at him with annoyance.
"No, I'm peachy." He replies. "I was shouting in joy and praise of all the goodness in the world, Matthew."
Matthew could sense sarcasm. "…So it's trapped?"
"Yes."
"Well, try a stick."
And try a stick he did. Upon his second attempt, Miro found a long piece of discarded wood and reaches it out from the other side of the room to try and open the box in a safer manner. As soon as he touched the glass, the trap sprung just as he expected. But when it replaced itself once more, he groped at the box with the stick again. When he touched this time, however, the trap did not spring. He would have appreciated this immensely if he weren't immediately unconscious from the second trap, being a section of roof flying down and striking his head where he stood. It replaced itself into the roof calmly once this occurance was said and done.
- - -
"How's the concussion?"
Not the loveliest words to hear when one wakes up. Miro opens his eyes slowly, followed by squinting both in pain and in determining the identity of the blur speaking to him. After a moment, he realized it was Matthew, and sighed.
"It's doing just fine…" he hisses irritably. After a moment, he sits up, looking at his surroundings. "…What, you didn't move me?"
"You've still got a job to do. No time for medical care." Matthew replies sternly.
"…How about; You give it a shot, while I try to remember my birthday." Miro suggests with a sideways glare. Matthew smiles a little nervously and, after a moment of deliberation, nods.
Looking around, he attempts to spot something irregular about the walls of the area. What exactly he was looking for, Miro didn't care. After a moment, though, Matthew seemed to find whatever it was and walked to a section of wall that seemed just about as inconspicuous as every other section of wall to Miro. However, with a very particular series of taps on the knotholes of the section, it suddenly made an odd beeping noise and flipped around to reveal a small keyboard and screen. Miro's eyes widened.
"Why didn't Mom or Dad tell me the house was wired?" he mumbled to himself, Matthew turned to him with a 'shh' and went back to the keyboard, beginning to type on it in a long sequence, apparently trying to get into the house's marital security database.
"Registry: .hack/bluefeathersecurity …Denied. .hack/marriage …Denied. .hack/jackisoneluckybastard …Approved." Matthew mutters, smiling as he got into the security system. After a moment, however, he widens his eyes in surprise. "What the…?"
Before him was a virtual game of checkers. He was black, his opponent, red. The red side moved after a moment, and then awaited his turn.
"Oh, I get it… Must be some kind of security system." He mutters. Miro was staring, dumbfounded, from his spot on the floor.
"We don't even have a real game of checkers!" he snaps. "Talk about holding out on me! Over fifteen years with nothing but blocks and crap to keep me busy!"
"Miro-"
"I almost had to go into therapy!"
"Miro, let me concentrate." Matthew says calmly. With a huff, Miro quiets up and allows Matthew to continue his game.
Roughly half an hour later, Matthew had jumped the last of his opponent's pieces with the very last of his own. A tough game – not noteworthy of a play-by-play, but needless to say it was programmed well.
"Hah, victory." He states, holding a fist out to the screen. He then watches it intently for the security menu to appear. Sadly, however, the computer did not take to being defeated very well: proving beyond much doubt that it was programmed by Nami, a section of wall above the monitor shot out, struck Matthew right above the rim of his hat, and retracted once more. Matthew paused a moment, blinked, and then fell to the ground with Miro's laughter encouraging him to lose consciousness.
- - -
"How's the karma?"
"Shut up…"
"You can't even remember what I'm talking about."
"The massive headache is giving me an indication…" Matthew replies, raising a hand to the side of his head before opening his eyes. "…You didn't move me?"
"Usually I would have, because I'm a better person than you, but then I remembered… I'm not." Miro states from where he was sitting on the floor. "Besides, that's what you get for leaving me on the ground to bruise and taunting the computer."
"Right…" Matthew grumbles, pushing himself into a sitting position. "…But what should we do now?"
"We go at it together." Miro says while getting to his feet. "I'm sure it couldn't take both of us."
"Bull-rushing a security system…" Matthew mutters. With a sigh, he stands up fully as well. "I suppose that might work, yes… Fine, let's do it."
"All right." Miro begins in preparation, both he and Matthew facing the glass case and getting into a running position. "On three… One, two, three!"
- - -
Awakening a couple of hours later, Miro peeled his eyelids slowly open to see what had just happened. At the time, he once again couldn't remember exactly, but a funny sense of repetition seemed strongly present. Noticing that there was sky above him, he noted that he was somewhere outside, and glanced around to find exactly where. Immediately he noticed that he was just beyond the door to his house, and that Matthew lay some distance from him, still completely unconscious.
With an effort, he strained himself into a sitting position, noting the pounding headache that made itself present as he did so. He was sure that he had noted quite a few various things that day, but it was no matter since he had forgotten basically all of them. He followed sitting up with standing up, only narrowly keeping his balance but eventually gaining all of the equilibrium he could ever dream of for walking, or perhaps even kicking Matthew awake. However, he decides against it after a moment. These were his favorite shoes…
Someone cleared their throat. Miro looked around, trying to spot the mysterious figure who apparently had mucus blocking their airway. At first, he noticed no one, but upon looking back to his house he noticed a human elbow sticking lazily into vision from around the corner. Cautiously, he stepped around to it, and once the shaded side of the house could be seen by him he realized who the elbow belonged to.
"…Oh, hey Mom, Dad…" he muttered, sounding a little nervous for his own sake. Nami and Jack, both leaning against the house with arms crossed in an equal matter, looked to him calmly. Jack smiled a bit.
"Aren't we rushed?" says Jack, the smile still on his face as though he knew something beyond the situation that even Miro was aware of.
"Miro, you didn't need to try stealing our own Blue Feather." Nami states, face unchanging but with a tone of irony to her voice. "You could have just waited."
"Waited? No, no way was I gonna ask you for it!" said Miro, sounding quite nearly as off-centered as he felt. "I was either stealing it or not getting it at all!"
"Of course," Jack replies. "it would've been a really awkward thing to do, asking like that. I wouldn't. I sure don't expect you to. But that's not what we're talking about, now is it?"
"What…?" Miro mutters, tilting his head a little in confusion. The look on Jack's face was beginning to make it glaringly obvious that they knew something that he didn't…
"Oh, come on, when was the last time we needed to leave town for an errand?" Jack reminds him. "I'm telling you, you could have just waited and I'm sure that a Feather of some sort would have come your w-"
"Hand it over."
"O-kay."
With lavish, Jack reached into his pocket – a pocket reserved only for important things – and pulled out the physical element of all great affection, holding it out to Miro expectantly. Miro spent a moment looking at it, and then quickly snatched it away, turning and beginning to walk. However, he stopped, and half turned to them.
"…You're not mad?" he asks a little timidly. Jack and Nami shake their heads.
"You have no idea how much better this is than what we did." Jack says, chuckling a little.
"At least the two of you have known each other all of your lives, that's much more time than we had to think about it." Nami adds with a small sigh. "…But still, if you decide to marry before nineteen, I'll twist your head off personally."
"Eheh… right…" Miro muttered, nodding nervously a little. Nami, though, looked unimpressed with his reply. Realizing why, he shook of his nervousness and made his face more solid and unapproachable. "That is, if you're not too musty to twist off a cork by that time, Mamsie."
Nami smiles a little. At least the whole adventure hadn't turned him completely righteous and social with others. She holds her hand out, waving it in a dispersing manner to signify that he could go. Miro nods, turns, and hurries away.
- - -
Sunlight shone down in mystical, wavering beams between the branches of forest's trees. Anna and Kate were observing the scenery; Anna with awe, Kate with slight boredom since she had been to this spring on numerous occasions.
"Wow… We don't have any place as pretty as this at home…" Anna says, walking to one of the oversized flowers growing about and touching it curiously. "It's so smooth…"
"Yeah, it's plenty smooth…" Kate mutters, standing idly near the pond. She was bored, not that this was a place that bored her usually, but she felt like there was something that needed doing at the moment. It made her fidget… She then heard footsteps, somebody was coming up the path at an excitedly hurried pace. As she watched, she saw Miro round the corner of the path and start toward them, slowing to a walk when he got near. He seemed to notice Anna, who was now trying to pull the flower she had admired from its roots, and he cleared his throat.
"Anna, Matthew's been knocked out. Um, he's outside the farm house and I don't think he's woken up yet." He says, nodding toward the path hintingly. Anna blinked once, looking away from her flower and toward Miro.
"Oh, okay Miro. Should I bring ice?" she inquires. Miro nods slightly. "Okay, I'll find some and then I'll go help him! See you guys later!"
With the determination of a movie hero, Anna dashes off to the pathway and is quickly lost to sight, the echoing of her laughing call rebounding off into nothing.
"She's an awkward girl…" Miro mutters, half-shrugging once.
"Of course, we all know that…" Kate agrees.
"…She um, doesn't she seem like she should be Ricca's mom's daughter instead? They're both bubbly…" Miro claims, rocking casually on the balls of his feet.
"Well… yeah, things happen…" Kate states. Obviously they were both stalling for something. Kate was stalling for what Miro was stalling for, but she wasn't sure what Miro was stalling for in the first place… "Was that all you're here for, Miro?"
"What? No, no, I'm here for… Here, I'm here for this." Miro says, stepping toward Kate. He stops about a step away from her, and takes in a deep breath. Quietly, he lets it out, and then proceeds to flex his fingers some and shake his head to the sides. Kate looks at him oddly.
"…You're here to teach me Pilates?"
"No!" Miro snaps, glaring at her for a moment. He regains his composure as quickly as he can, however, and makes a quick plan of his next movements in order to perfectly execute what must be done. When his decision was made, he spun once, pulled the object from his pocket, fell quickly to one knee and held it out in shameless display.
"…Kate …will you marry me …um, you know, later?"
At first, and for once in quite some time, Kate was dumbstruck. She was at a complete loss of what to say. But, with a moment's recovery, she decided on it.
"Oh… Well, I don't know… I mean, there's so many other people to choose from that I- YES!" she screamed, actually jumping up and down once or twice. Before Miro could join in, however, Kate held a finger to him and stated "BUT… I want you to say it."
"…Say it?" Miro echoes in annoyance. "But I already did say it…"
"You said it hanging from a cliff when you thought that you were going to die." Kate states, nodding down at him. "I don't see much commitment in that. Do you? Now that you know that you have the rest of your life to pay for it, can you say it right now?"
"…Well, what about you?" Miro retorts, eyeing her heatedly. "You only said it when you were sure that I was going to die! When I was in the middle of falling! How's that for commitment?"
"…All right, let's go the route of tradition." Kate decides with a nod. "You say it first, and then I say it back. Okay?"
"Fine… Hmph, I bet girls are the ones who invented discrimination so they don't have to do the awkward stuff…" Miro mutters to himself. Then, clearing his throat, he looks up to Kate with eyes of complete and utter sincerity. "Kate… In all honesty, I love you."
Kate smiled and leaned down to look at Miro directly. "And you know what? I really love you, too."
She takes the feather from his hand and slips it into her dress pocket. "There. I'll be saving that for later."
Miro stands up, nodding once. That was it. The deal was done. The crippling weakness in their legs and the fairly concealed but still present shake in their voices were due to subside any moment now… Any moment…
"…Let's try something." He suggests. Already on the same wavelength as Miro, Kate nods, and the two approach and enter a picturesque, full-length, fuzzy kiss that, although not lasting days, held to it a certain quality that made it even better than the first. Blissful moments passed before they separate once more, still holding one another by the arms but both looking at once another in a strange mix of passion and suspicion.
"…Are you still you?" Kate asks.
"Yeah… And you're still you?" Miro replies.
"Yep." Kate says. "…So, I suppose we've found our internal-cosmical-biological peace, then, right?"
"Yeah… Well, we can't be certain just like that." Miro states. "I mean, just once we didn't turn into our romantic selves, that's not good enough. We'll need to test a few more times."
"Oh, of course." Kate agrees with a small smile. "Many more times, I'll say."
"Yeah, like there's the environment to think about."
"Also the lighting."
"The air temperature of the moment."
"Not even counting the humidity factor."
"Also the number and variety of animals present in the particular habitats."
"We'll need to do extensive indoor experiments for different wallpaper and tablecloth patterns and colours."
"We'll need to do field experiments for certain positions of the sun and the direction the wind is blowing."
"Cloud cover's also a big factor. Jee, we'll need to write a thesis for all of this!"
"We might even have to call in some scientists!"
"There's another factor; the number of scientists present…"
"Boy, we have a lot of work ahead of us…"
The two sigh, shaking their heads as they tried to estimate just how much kissing they would have to do for the next long, long while. They let one another go after a few moments. After even a few more moments, they both turn their heads toward the spring, which both were standing neat the edge of. Now, more than ever, its shimmering light took them into a world beyond all mortality, all conflict… It now and forever would symbolize this moment for them, encase the memory in its shining, smooth waters. This day here was just another ripple in its great, peaceful perfection, but one that had perhaps decided the final destiny of the two of them. It was the eve of any of their unsureness; any of their fears had been dispersed these past few moments and given way to the dawn of their destiny, together, as a unified entity of love, happiness, and perfect-
"HI, KA-"
"HI, MI-"
The two pause. They had both yelled at the same time… They continue to look at each other, as they had turned to try startling one another well enough… After a few moments, the two smile, and shrug. They allow themselves to tip slowly over the edge, leaning and leaning until they felt themselves pass the point of no return and, not long after, fall into the formerly-calm waters with a massive splash.