Chapter 11 Sakura Guild
(Ikuto's POV)
"Neither Amu nor I intend to follow you anywhere, until we know exactly where you plan to take us, and what you plan to do once we get there" I said with my fangs showing as well.
"I can see you have met resistance to who and what you all are" Nagi said sadly while nodding in understanding. "Please understand that Rima nor I have any intentions of doing you or your friends harm. We were simply going to take you to the guild. The building is magically enforced to be able to handle accidental sparks. Rima told me that she saw two girls floating inside a red bubble and sparks were flying around it. I would like to request that you all call me Nagi. Only my enemies call me Nagihiko."
"I'm sorry if we are scaring you or making you nervous" Rima said quietly. "We just want you all to be safe and the rest of our customers to be safe as well."
"Besides, you will find our guild is very accepting. We like to have people with different abilities" Nagi added. Then he looked at her closely, "Amu forgive my asking, but are you sure that you aren't at least half witch?" Nagi asked.
"I honestly don't know" she answered. "I know that I was told I am full blooded vampire, but my siblings are all different. So, who knows? I could be a half bird zombie with a liking to blood and brains for all I know. I do however know one thing, we will follow you to your guild, but if you or anyone tries anything, we will not show mercy."
I took Amu's hand and told everyone behind us that we would follow them.
"Ikuto?" Ami asked. "Are you sure they won't try to kill us like Chichi and Haha? Maybe they are pretending to be our friend."
"Your parents tried to kill you?!" Rima yelled, "No wonder you are all so nervous. Come here my majo no imōto" Rima said with her arms out and running to Ami. "Since you're a witch, we will be sisters and I will personally train you."
"Rima, you know what happened last time when you thought someone hurt your sister, right? The poor man still has a limp" Nagi said cautiously.
"And now he knows not to mess with my sister" Rima responded stubbornly. "I don't see the problem here."
"Never mind Rima" Nagi said shaking his head and looked back at us. "If she has accepted her as a sister, you truly have nothing to worry about. The man I am referring to, pushed her young and untrained majo no imōto that she adopted into our family, to the ground because she was walking too slow and Rima made sure he understood that just because he had longer legs didn't mean he could push people around. Then the man called Rima 'shorty' and it all went up in sparks! Lightening hit him so many times that it is a wonder she let him live." He said laughing. "Anyways, please follow us. You will be safe. You have my word."
After walking for 20 minutes, we all arrived at the guild. As we all walked in, we noticed there were a bunch of people up and drinking at the tables. There were people playing cards, there were people dancing, there were people shooting sparks at a dart board trying to hit the center and there were people in a corner of the room in an all out fight with tables and chairs flying around.
"Ikuto?" Amu asked while pointing to the fighting area, "tell me that you see a dragon with purple wings."
"Yup, it looks like it has pink claws too" I said laughing.
"That is one of our guild members familiar. Her name is Naomi and she is really protective. Her master is currently in the middle of the pile and if Naomi feels as though her master is in trouble, she uses her energy to fling everyone apart to get to him" Nagi explained. "She is kind of like the referee of the training area."
"Training?" I asked him.
"Well, it is not official training but there is more than one way to strengthen your abilities" he said.
"Not to be rude, but you do know that it is almost three in the morning, right?" Amu asked. "when do you all sleep?"
"Whenever they feel tired or no later than 3 am" Rima replied. "So, it is a good thing you all cam when you did. We are about to lock the main area. Thank you for trusting us. While Nagi tells everyone to go to home or bed, I'll lead you to your rooms."
"Jee thanks Rima, you get the fun job" Nagi said smiling.
"Anytime Nagi" Rima said smiling and ushered us all upstairs to a door.
Our small group followed Rima up a winding staircase that led to a long hallway. There were doors all along the walls and about 15 doors on each side. They were many with different colors and many different designs. Rima led us down the hall until a room near the what we thought was the end of the hallway to a door that was blank. As we walked towards the rooms, one door changed colors to purple with pink shooting stars.
"Wow!" Ami exclaimed. "It's so pretty!"
"The room chose you Ami" Rima said smiling. "The rooms are enchanted and when the owner it wants comes into view, it changes until that owner leaves permanently or dies. Our house has officially accepted you as family. It will not allow any harm to come to you or those you love so long as they are in your room. This will not happen if you are in someone else's room. If they see you as a threat the room will stop them and protect you."
"Seriously?!" she said excitedly and yelled, "Haha and Chichi are the enemy room!"
Rima laughed, "You don't have to tell the room who trust and not trust. It goes off your true feeling of the person and automatically knows if they are temporary or permanent feelings. Right now, your room will not allow your parents anywhere near you while they pose a threat to you, but if one day they accept you, the room will lift its protection spell."
"What if they are pretending?" Amu asked with a concerned voice.
"They can't fool the room" Rima said confidently, "Trust me, people have tried, and they were either injured or killed; per the request of the owner's heart."
Rima requested that everyone stay in the order they were in at the inn, so Suu, Miki and Ran followed Ami into her room.
When Ami was safely inside Rima turned to us and sighed, "We will continue down until we find the room for you two. The house is probably being stubborn because you two are passing through."
We passed three more doors and finally a door changed, but all that changed was the design, it stayed the dull color of brown.
"Just as I thought" Rima said. "The house is accepting you as temporary guests. It will protect you the same as your sister, but since your door did not change color too, it means that you are not meant to stay with us, you are meant to move on when ready."
"You mean that Ami is supposed to stay here, and we are to leave her?" I asked.
"Yes, Ikuto. It does" she said matter-of-factly.
"I know that she is safe, but I already left my brother" Amu said sadly. "Why can't we ever stay together?"
"The hardest part of being a family is knowing when to let go and let them be on their own" Rima said softly. I had to let our 10-year-old daughter go 2 months ago because the door changed back regular color. She was ready to move on because her mate had shown up.
"Mate?" Amu asked.
"She was a werewolf; her mate is part of Kukai's clan. I know that I told you I believed in werewolves from seeing them but there was more to it and I didn't know if I could or could not trust your group" Rima explained as she ushered us into her room.
As we walked in, beds appeared on opposite sides of the room. my bed was navy blue with black lined designs and Amu's bed was pink with black lined designs. There was a wardrobe that had multiple outfits and a bathroom to the back of the room.
"Rima? Is this normal?" Amu asked.
"Yep, the rooms are enchanted, and they go off your own styles right down to giving you clothes. If the clothes have white tags, you can take them with you when you leave. If they are black, you have to leave them for when you visit" she explained.
"That's pretty cool!" I said with a smile. "Not to be rude Rima, but do you think that we can get some sleep now? We are pretty tired."
"Sure," she said as she walked towards the door and left. "Nagi and I's room is at the very end of the hall if you need anything."
(Amu's pov)
I woke up the sound of knocking on my door and so I slowly trudged to the door and opened it. Ami stood there in a cute little dress that had a beautiful flower pattern and matching hair scrunchies.
"Morning Ami" I said while yawning and I opened the door wider so she could come in.
"Morning Amu" she said while giving me a hug. "Guess what? I don't feel scared anymore. Do you think we can stay here? I know Haha and Chichi can't get us here."
"I think it is a wonderful idea for you to stay Ami, but Ikuto and I, we – well," I stumbled over trying to explain what Rima said yesterday.
"– we will cross that bridge when we get there Ami" Ikuto said from his bed.
"Okay!" Ami said smiling, "let's go get breakfast. I'm starving!" she said as she skipped out of our room.
"Ikuto?" I asked quietly, "how are we going to tell her that she is to stay here alone?"
"I don't know Amu, but we will when the time is right" he told me as he walked across the room to hug me. "Now, let's go before she thinks something is wrong."
Author's notes:
Majo no imōto means witch sister
Nikki, I always thought that Rima would do well with magical abilities. Nagi will always support them and he always had a calm demeanor. This is why I chose them for the first contact outside of the forest. Amu and Ikuto would be very cautious of who they chose to trust and Nagi always had a way of making Amu see the good side. He was always calm and understanding. Rima on the other hand was always a hot head that acted like she didn't care but in reality, she cared the same as Nagi lol. Don't worry, she got her hot headedness action in this chapter lol. She will become very clingy soon after too. :D