Chapter 26
Mary and Shuu yawned in unison, scornfully glared at by Reiji who commented on how his brother was influencing her; the couple had exchanged bored looks and had rolled their eyes to the sky, ignoring him.
They were walking across the bridge, unable to take advantage of the mobile structure that would have transported them faster, since the gears had become unavailable because of the cold weather.
- Ne, how do you feel about being back home~? – Kou asked, reaching the half-witch and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, curious; she shrugged.
- Mh, I'm not that enthusiastic...
- Eeeeh?! But don't you have friends here?!
- That's true... - Mary murmured, mentally focusing on familiar faces, wondering if they had remained the same over a year and a half or if they had changed; considering one of her four kohai, she denied this possibility.
The blond curled his lips and tried to get some more details on why she wasn't so happy, until he decided that he would have had more satisfaction at bothering Subaru, rather than being ignored by the girl, who cracked a victorious smile as Kou let her go.
Soon her grin disappeared because, as soon as they were a quarter way through, she sensed unusual vibes; she looked up at the tall columns holding the complicated network of narrow, raised streets used to keep an eye on the surroundings, thanks to some volunteers.
She felt like someone had been staring her since their arrival...
Someone she knew but at the same time couldn't recognize...
- Mary? – Shu called her by whispering in her, having noticed her uneasiness.
- Ah... it's nothing - she whispered, smiling slightly, thinking that maybe Theo and Mark would have been able to explain her strange feeling that was gradually growing stronger and more disturbing.
- Cho-himeee! – they heard Theo shouting, not far from them, as he waved, with Morten standing next to him and making sure he wouldn't raise the volume of his voice too much, so not to risk causing other earthquakes.
The vampires felt internally very relieved to see them, since they represented the end of that journey and the beginning of something new: in the past, especially the Mukamis, they hadn't been able to attend places with wizards and witches, so there was this excitement towards the unknown and unexpected (perhaps someone was a little less enthusiastic about new experiences, like Shuu or Subaru).
- Did you have a good trip? – the short-haired wizard immediately asked, looking at them a little nervously; even Kanato was taller than him...
- It was a bit tiring, but there were no problems - Ruki replied before Reiji, annoying him and perhaps voluntarily, as his eyes fell on the four figures who were watching them from the stairs carved into the rock in front of them.
Mary had widened her eyes and blushed slightly as she noticed them too, awkward.
Sitting on the last step was Claire, her best friend, with her elbows resting on her thighs and her face in her hands, smiling a little mischievously and looking attentively at the vampires with her purple eyes clashing with her red hair.
Leaning against the wall supporting the handrail stood Anna, arms crossed, her long braid of platinum blonde hair flashing against her dark blue jacket, peering at them while seeming a little arrogant with her stone-coloured eyes.
A little above was Finn, Morten's younger sister with pitch-black hair, so still that Subaru, Yuuma and Ayato almost mistook her for a statue, with her hands tucked into her pockets and her blue eyes staring at Azusa who was staring back at her, unreadable.
At last, on the top step was Isa, who smiled cheerfully and a little shy with her red cheeks, her amber irises nearly hidden by the chestnut bangs, and she was the only one standing up and running towards her senpai, who paled.
- MARY-SENPAIIIII! - she shouted, jumping on her, arms wrapping around her neck, causing her to lose her balance and fall ruinously to the ground on her back.
- Ouch, Isacchi... - Mary mumbled, telling her to move off and grinding her teeth as she held her tightly, stare at by the vampires, some puzzled, some amused; finally, the half-witch felt that weight leaving her body, since the young kohai had been raised by her coat by Anna, irritated.
- Isa! It's not polite to behave like this in front of guests! - the blonde reproached her, furious; the other murmured apologies, breaking in a cold sweat and begging her to let her go.
- Look who's talking, I bet my gems that within ten minutes you'll begin yelling at them! - the red-haired girl exclaimed, giggling, getting up and walking with stumbling steps towards Mary, giving Anna a mocking look so that she bit her lips to stop herself from insulting her - Cho-hime! I'm glad to see you again, hehehe~! - she said tenderly, hugging the friend who had stood up
Laito had been staring at her silently and blinking, curious; the other five brothers tilted their heads, thinking that that tone of voice sounded rather familiar...
- Hi, Claire - Mary replied simply, cracking a sincere and serene smile, and hugged her back, then she turned her eyes to the other figure that was still standing apart, expressionless - Ficchan, why don't come here to say hello?
The tiny girl slowly descended the stairs, as Claire moved sideways, hastening her steps in approaching her senpai and hugging her tightly; the vampires had their mouth almost wide open: from a distance she had looked quite short, but compared to the half-witch, those thirty centimetres of difference in their heights were impressive.
- Senpai - she whispered, letting her stroke her hair while smiling softly; Finn immediately broke away and looked into Azusa's eyes, both impassive.
Kou, Ruki and Yuuma looked at them in confusion and exchanged questioning glances.
- Anna - Mary turned to the kohai with whom she had always had a stormy relationship with; the latter glared at her, arms folded, a bit undecided and a bit sulky.
- Good morning, Mary-senpai - she just muttered, looking away; the girl gave a small smile and nodded her head, then turned to Morten.
- Have you already prepared the bedrooms?
- Aaah that's right, Theo, you and I have to talk about other stuff... - the young man answered a little agitated, beckoning her to approach him and rubbing the back of his neck; the three retired to talk, leaving the four witches to get to know the vampires.
- Yoroshiku ne~ I am Claire, hehe~ - the redhead introduced herself with a honey-like sweet voice, assuming a slightly frivolous pose; Laito chuckled and approached her to kiss her hand and his brothers looked at her for a moment and then exclaimed a "oh" in unison.
- There was no need for the female version of this hentai - Subaru muttered with a dark face, as Reiji rubbed his nose bridge, mumbling "Such indecency!" and Ayato scratched his head, huffing.
Shuu thought a little bored that maybe everything would finally be fixed up, in that place; that way, he would have had Mary just for himself... he silently glared at Ruki, who had his back turned to him and was staring disgusted at Laito, as he mischievously sweet-talked with Claire, her fingers on her giggling lips.
- I'm Anna, nice to meet you – the witch with a long blond braid said, with cold courtesy, annoyed by the friend's behaviour; she a hand on the shoulder of the youngest of the quartet - This is Isa, please be patient with her, sometimes she suddenly becomes too lively, although she gets embarrassed easily.
- Nice to meet ya! – said girl exclaimed after pouting at that accurate but not very nice description.
Silence suddenly fell, as everyone's eyes turned to the shortest witch, waiting for her to introduce herself; yet, it seemed that the silent young girl had lost herself in Azusa's eyes... and only then everyone noticed that she squeezing his hand.
- A-Azusa... ?! - Yuuma called him, puzzled, his eye twitching and a funny grimace on his face; Kou put his hands on his little brother's shoulders, shaking him slightly, and Ruki tried to get his attention.
- Ruki... I found... my future... bride... – the minute vampire murmured, looking at Finn with enchanted eyes.
- WHAT?! - was the general reaction shouted; even the other three girls were shocked.
Only Laito had blinked and then smiled mischievously, whispering something in Claire's ear whoimitated his expression.
- She's... ah~... destroying... the bones... of my hand... - Azusa moaned in a bliss, a background noise actually resembling that of breaking bones.
The giant and the idol emitted a groan of exasperation, turning their eyes to the sky and facepalming; Ruki remained motionless and expressionless, though he was probably mentally wondering why none of his brothers were a little more normal (they were still better than the Sakamakis, that for sure).
Anna mumbled to Isa that all they needed was for the newcomers to make the young girls in their city fall in love with them, but she stopped as soon as she saw that the kohai was looking radiantly at one of the boys who, following her gaze, she discovered being the albino, who, along with the other brothers, was looking sickly at Laito, his arms wrapped around Claire's waist (No comment).
No. No. NO, she thought, putting a hand on her forehead, deeply resentful; she would have preferred such a thing to never happen, but now who would have stopped Isa from chasing her first love? She sighed desperately and turned to the three who had left to discuss about the bedrooms' arrangement and some other topic and thoughtfully paused on Mary's figure, concern in her grey eyes.
Then, suddenly, she heard a faint voice calling for her from behind and turned, looking down at the blonde that the vampires had brought with them and that, from what she had seen and understood, was the girlfriend of the arrogant red head.
- Nice to meet you, I'm Komori Yui! - the girl smiled, holding her hand towards her.
Anna smiled after a moment of bewilderment and grabbed it, then letting Isa hold it with both her hands, assuring her that she would have fun with them; she heard Claire apologize to Laito and seemed to hear a suspicious "smack" and the purple-eyed girl also approached Yui to welcome her in a hug, making her blush with her comments on how cute and small she was (no need to say that Ayato was blatantly jealous).
Because of the proximity, Yui sensed the scent emanated from Claire resembling Mary's; this could mean only one thing.
- Claire-san... are you a half-witch and half-demon?
Said girl widened her eyes and stared at her open-mouthed, surprised by that question, and nodded, smiling afterwards.
- Ah, I see! You're a vampire now, so you know how to recognize these things now, hehe~! Congratulations, not everyone can succeed after such a short time since awakening!
Yui gave her a toothy smile, flattered by her compliment, not realizing that the half-demon had already known of her new nature (thanks to Mark's gossips).
In the meantime, Morten had approached the vampires.
- Ok, the bedrooms should be ready by tonight; as for any blood supply, you can either contact Martha, Theo's girlfriend who you'll meet this afternoon, since she's a vampire too, or you can go straight to the hospital and ask for Dr Kuragehime, who will give you some blood bags.
The vampires were a little stunned by that availability and didn't know how to react if not with a nod of approval; only Ruki and Reiji had thanked him with their voices, politely.
Casted a confused and frowning glance at his little sister who hadn't stopped squeezing Azusa's hand yet, the blond was about to add something more, but Anna had interrupted him, having carefully watched Mary who was still talking withTheo.
- She seems too quiet, doesn't she know about...? - she asked, causing several questions in the vampires and the other three girls, who appeared rather uneasy; Morten shook his head, serious, and she cried out:
- YOU DIDN'T TELL HER!?
Her scream was followed by a continuous echo that dissolved in the air several seconds later; Theo and Mary had turned to the group, perplexed, while Morten was rubbing his forehead muttering disconnected phrases, annoyed.
Mary headed toward them and frowned, suspecting what Anna was referring to: after all, Theo and Mark had told her that they had something important to inform her about.
- What haven't you told me? - she asked sternly, shifting her gaze to each of them.
Isa kept her eyes down and her lips tight, Anna grunted, clutching her braid with her hands in a gesture of annoyance, Claire stared at her best friend with sorry expression, Finn didn't even blink (but Azusa felt her grip intensify); Morten exchanged a knowing look with Theo and, letting a disgruntled sigh out, told her:
- It'd be better if Mark told you...
- Aneki, I'll take you there right away - the aforementioned suddenly appeared behind the twin, making someone jump out of fear; Mary turned to look at him and nodded, still frowning and she squeezed his hand, following her brother towards a place she soon recognized being the graveyard.
The vampires watched them as they left, before being invited by the four (or three and a half) witches and the two wizards to enter the city.
I don't like it when you keep your mind closed, aniki.
Meh.
Cooome ooon, you can't do this to me. We've been a single mind since forever.
Meh.
I won't make you pancakes for tomorrow's breakfast.
Be patient, come on...
I knew that the pancakes would have worked, dear brother~.
Mark smiled and affectionately squeezed his sister's hand as they walked among the gravestones; he didn't really want her to find out what had happened during her absence...
They stopped in front of one of those headstones raising from the ground towards the sky: the name "Ryan Plum" was engraved on the surface; Mary stared at those letters with melancholy eyes, in her mind a million images floating in front of her, memories.
Mark took a deep breath and backed away, letting her go and lowering his head, empty eyes that didn't want to "meet" his sister's, who gave him a questioning look; however, something in her head was beginning to process certain signals she had unwittingly received.
- Aniki...? What are you hiding?
The twin didn't answer, biting his lips.
- What happened…? - she asked again, insisting and raising her tone of voice, restless and scared.
- Mary-chan.
Her heart stopped beating for a moment, and at the same instant she turned back to the headstone, to the familiar voice that had called her; her lips trembled and her dark eyes widened, meeting a pair of icy irises that were full of warmth, affection, and also slight bitterness.
His face was slightly grey and seemed full stichings.
Long purple hair with locks of different shades framed his face.
He was wearing elegant clothes and his typical lilac feathered scarf.
His sweet smile was addressed to his dear Mary-chan.
With a shaky voice, her eyes tearing and incredulous, with a feeble voice she whispered:
- Ryan... senpai...?
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