Chapter 4: Where Oh Where did Our Little Brother Go?!
After you left the palace and headed towards the slums you could see the massive crowd of angry citizens. Everyone was making their way to the palace in mobs. You could also sense that something big was going on and you pretending to be king actually made it worse. You decided to get off of Balbadd as soon as possible but that was going to be a problem. You used too much Magio so you couldn't fly around anymore and there were no ships at the docks right now except for one which was heavily guarded. No one dared travel to Balbadd during the crisis they were having. You made it back to the dense forest where you had first landed and decided it was a nice place to rest and restore your energy. You hid yourself around the dense forest and fell into a deep slumber against a large tree.
Meanwhile back in Yokoharu, the storm had finally come to an end and dawn was approaching. The twins were still sleeping like logs until the alarm finally went off. It was as if they had been put under a sleeping spell because they did not even wake up once during the storm. Luckily for them the house did not catch fire when lightning struck the top of the roof.
Sizo slowly got out of bed and opened the blinds of his room. Sato on the other hand had already left the room to go make breakfast. Today he was cooking a traditional Japanese breakfast which consisted of white rice, Miso soup, fried eggs, Sardines and Octopus sausage. He was also preparing today's bento boxes as well. Little did they know that their brother had suddenly vanished until Sizo went to go wake (Y/N) up.
"(Y/N) it's time to wake up~" Sizo said as he barged into your room. Then he pauses to look around and noticed something was a little strange. Your bed was a mess and you weren't in it. The covers were pulled right off and the T.V was left on and making that annoying static sound. Sizo walked closer to the bed and reached for the T.V remote to shut the T.V off. He looked under your bed and in the closet in case you were hiding in those locations but there was no luck in finding you. Sizo tosses the remote onto your bed then rushes to Sato as fast as he could.
"Satoooo kunnnnn!" Sizo said in a loud voice which startled Sato a bit causing the fork he was cooking with to slip from his hand and drop onto the ground. Sato turns to Sizo with an irritated look on his face.
"Yelling so early in the morning…. What is the matter with you?" Sato asked while furrowing his brow.
"It's... It's (Y/N) is nowhere to be found! I have searched everywhere in the house and could not find him." Sizo said then itched the back of his scalp frantically. "You don't think he ran away do you? I mean he was pretty upset when we told him we were sending him to live on school grounds." Sizo added.
Sato just stared at him for awhile then turned around to turn off the stove. "It's a possibility he could have already left for school. I'll call the school to find out. There is nothing to get so worked up over our little brother would never run away from us." Sato said in a calmly fashion. Sato grabbed his cellphone that had been charging next to the living room sofa outlet and started dialing in the number.
"Ah Hello, this is Sato and I am calling to know if (Y/N) has reached school," Sato said after someone picked up.
"Let me go check with the other faculty," said Mr. Ikkumi. (The sound of chatter could be heard in the background from Sato's point of view.)
"No I am sorry Sato san no one has seen him around. Did something happen?" Mr. Ikkumi asked but Sato had already hung up after hearing that he was not there.
"Hello, Sato san? Hello? Sato…." Ikkumi said until he realized that the line was cut.
Sato had hung up. He stared at the phone for a moment before looking to Sizo with a plain look on his face.
"So what did they say. Is (Y/N) there?!" Sizo asked.
Sato was quiet for a moment. He was very irritated of the current situation right now.
"No he is not there but we must not panic yet. I am sure we will find him or he will come back soon. Even if he did run away he could not have gone far without being noticed by our neighbors." Sato said as he put his phone in his pocket.
"I hope you're right brother." Sizo muttered while gripping his hair.
The two brothers took time off of work to search for their missing younger brother. They first started asking some of the neighbors who were walking about and the answers were the same. They did not see anyone come out the house the night of the storm. Nor did they see anyone come out their house early this morning. The two then started asking students that went to his school. They knew nothing of his whereabouts. Some of the students did mention something about a curse that was placed upon the house they were living in but Sato and Sizo took it for a joke and went to search around some more till night fall came.
That night as they got home there was someone waiting at the front of the door. She looked like she had came all the way from Akihabara by how she was dressed. She had on what looked like one of those lolita dresses. It was colored in black and red. She also wore a hat and a pair of gloves that corresponded to her dress. To the side of her was shoulder bag that also matched. As the two approached the house she would bow to them with a smile on her face. She had a nice light tan to her skin and her eyes were black as the midnight sky when there was no moon shining and her hair was a nice dark brown that came down to her back.
"Greetings you two" the young looking female replied.
"Who are you? I have not seen anyone like you here before" Sizo said pointing at her.
"Oh how rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Azriel Von Kaiser. You can just call me Aki." she said with another polite bow.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Aki. I'm Sato and this is my twin brother Sizo. Now will you please explain what brings you at this hour?" Sato asked.
"Hmmmmmmmm~ Well I heard someone from this household has gone missing. What if I told you that I knew where they have disappeared to?" Aki said with a gleam in her eyes.
"I don't think we should trust her nichan. Something about her makes me feel uneasy.." Sizo whispered quietly to Sato.
Sato looked a Sizo for a moment then at Aki. He was thinking hard about his decision he was going to make. She said she knew where their brother went but he also had an uneasy feeling about this. Sato walks up to the house door and opens it.
"Come in, I will make some tea for all of us while you tell us what you know." he said calmly then walked in and took off his shoes. The other two followed, Sizo was behind Aki trying to keep his cool. Sato filled the kettle with water, turned it on and once it started making the whistling noise he turned it off. He then filled each cup with hot water and prepared the tea. Sizo and Aki had walked over by the sofa. Aki took her seat while Sizo kept standing and eyeing her like once every three seconds.
"How come you keep glancing at me? Have you fallen for me gehe~" Aki teased.
Sizo shook his head and looked away shivering. That laugh was a bit creepy.
"Aww I was just teasing you boy." she said then Sato came with the cups of tea in his hand. He placed them on the coffee table then sat across from the woman
Sizo's eyes twitch and once the tea was placed down he grabbed for his and started taking little sips. He was trying to avoid speaking with her any further.
"So, don't you have something to tell us?" Sato said. Aki turned her attention to Sato now.
"Where do I begin, where do I begin?" Aki said.
"Just start from the beginning." Sato said as he folded his arms.
"Okay~, I'll make this quick and easy. You see there was a curse placed on this house 15 years ago." Aki said. The twins gasped in synced when she said that.
"Are you just wasting our time with some cheesy curse story?" Sizo blurted out.
Aki furrowed a brow. "I have you know it that curses are real. Please let me continue without interruptions" she said. Sato glanced at his brother and gave him the be quiet look.
"As I was saying this house is cursed. It is said if a person has their T.V on during a thunderstorm at precisely midnight they will be sucked into another dimension!" Aki said with a spooky tone. "Oh come now, don't look at me with such a face." Aki said while looking a Sizo who was glaring at her.
"So you're telling me our brother got warped to a different dimension? How do you even know all this?" Sato asked playing along.
"Well...haha funny thing is I was the one who placed the curse on this house and I'm actually a witch. I just forgot to remove it. Didn't think anyone else would move in here." Aki said while twirling a strand of her hair with one finger.
Sizo slammed his tea cup down on the coffee table then looked at Aki with sudden rage "YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! THAT'S THE MOST BULLSHIT STORY I HAVE EVER HEARD. Clearly! YOU SPEND HALF OF YOUR TIME AT AKIHABARA TRYING TO LOOK ALL CUTE THEN YOU GO HOME AND WATCH SOME ANIME PROBABLY FULL OF MAGICAL BULLSHIT AND THEN YOU GO AND MIX IT UP WITH REALITY!" Sizo yelled clearly not pleased that this lolita could be wasting their precious time.
"Sizo that's enough and don't use such vulgar language towards our guest. It's too late for all this noise" Sato said then looked to Aki who was a little frightened at the sudden yelling.
"You're just going to take her bullshit?" Sizo mumbled.
"Sizo..what did I just say….?"
"Sorry Sato nichan" Sizo replied looking away.
Sato looks at Aki again "I agree with my brother on this one. I can't come to believe anything that you have just told us. Witches are just a fairy tale," Sato said.
Aki immediately stood up after the two thought she was a faker. "Fine! If you don't believe me then I will show you and then you can get off my case for being fake." Aki said looking at the both of them a little frustrated. She then reached for the bag she carried with her and began rummaging around in it until she pulled out what looked like a wooden baton. After that she moved from the living room area to a more open space and then dropped the baton. Before it could hit the floor it suddenly transformed into a broom. Aki then went and mounted on it and began to float. "See! I wasn't lying." Aki said cockily.
The twins looked at Aki for a long moment then Sizo got up.
"I'm calling the witch hunters now…."Sizo said in a half dead tone.
Aki stretches her hand out "Noooo!" she cried and then hopped off the broom. "I can get your brother back" she said.
"And how are you going to do that?" Sato said.
Sizo stops grabbing for the phone now and looks at Aki.
"If you take me to the area the incident occurred I can bring him back,"Aki said with confidence.
Sato got up now "Very well then, let's see what your magic can do." he said then led her to your bedroom. When they entered the room still looked the same. The covers were pull up off the bed and the T.V was shut off now.
Aki could sense a strong magical force coming from the T.V. The portal had already closed but magic was still leaking out.
"This can't be good...the magic is leaking out." Aki said very concerned. She was close by the T.V examining it while Sato stood by the bed watching and Sizo was waiting outside the bedroom door.
"...What happens when the magic leaks?" Sato asked.
"The worst case scenario is an explosion that could destroy the whole house, but don't worry all I have to do is absorb the waste magic and seal it" Aki said and began chanting a spell. The spell only took 5 minutes. After Aki got rid of the leakage she started casting another spell to try and get the portal open again but in the midst of the spell the T.V just crumbles.
Sato stood there in shock and Sizo was peaking in when the TV crumbled.
"That can't be good!" Sizo said as he walked in now.
Aki stood there for a while just looking at the bits of debris left behind. Then she held her head down in disappointment.
"Hahaha...I forgot about one thing, I made it so if anyone else tried to use the same portal the whole thing would collapse including the T.V used to open the portal. The only thing we can do now is wait for your brother to complete his journey in that world," Aki said and then let out a sigh, she knew what was coming next.
Sizo looked at Aki with a frown on his face. "You are the most stupid witch I have ever met. What the hell gave you the idea of putting a curse on this house?!" he asked furiously.
Aki was quiet for a moment. "It's a long story you wouldn't understand," she murmured.
Sato looked at Aki now. "A long story? Then shorten it. I need to know why our brother is now caught in your mess," he said in a serious tone.
Aki lets out another sigh "Well..this happened long ago when I was living here. I was young and very careless at the time. I had an older brother and we had many fights. At first they were just little pranks that gradually got more crazy. This lasted until I went and learned forbidden magic. I was getting tired of my brother's pranks and I casted the forbidden spell while he was sleeping. He was never seen from again is what I'd say but he came back not the same but as a different person. He currently is the headmaster for Astriel Academy which is a place where gifted students go to learn magic. I found out later that the real purpose of the curse was to rehabilitate troublesome siblings or get rid of them for awhile. Anyways after my brother came back he told me about the place he was thrown into. It was an elite magic school that punished anyone who did the wrong things like pranks and stuff to other students. He ended up becoming more mature and since then we haven't gotten into another fight," she said. "When I heard about the missing boy in this neighborhood I felt really bad. I was supposed to undo the curse after my brother came back but I ended up helping out at the school and I became a teacher. It was the only thing I could think of to atone of my sin" she said
The twins listened quietly as Aki went on. Sizo really wanted to give Aki a nice beating but as long Sato was with him he couldn't lift a finger on the girl. They both wondered how long you would be stuck in that other world. Weeks later they decided to join Astriel Academy in hopes to learn magic to bring you back.
To be continued.
