Part 2: The new World - Chapter 4
Kirino opened his eyes to the view out the window near the bed in his room. When he opened his eyes to a fully risen sun, he shot up in his bed.
"I slept in!" He exclaimed. He looked confused for a moment before remembering where he was. 'Oh that's right.' Kirino thought, 'I'm still here.'
Kirino admit long ago that he was scared. He hated being scared. He'd spent so much of his life living in fear and he was sick of it. Just when he thought he'd catch a moments rest travelling with Grace and the others, the water kingdom had to ruin everything again. Kirino had been raised to think of the water kingdom as wonderful and all-powerful. It's amazing how opinions can change so quickly.
Kirino wondered why this was ever a surprise in the first place. After all, the water kingdom was also widely known for the genocide of fire magic users. The fact that there were even any left was what was surprising.
The worst thing about all this was that there was nothing he could do, and he hated that even more. Kirino got out of bed and walked towards the window, staring out into the unfamiliar city. When he was a kid, he'd always dreamed of seeing the world, and he did. He thought he'd feel happy and fulfilled when he travelled with his friends. And yes, he was happy, but he still felt like something was missing. Memories of his childhood came rushing back to him and he shook his head to shake the thoughts. He sighed, turning around and heading to the vanity at the other side of the room. He stared at himself in the mirror. He'd only been here one day and he could barely recognise himself. For one thing, he was so clean he could sparkle. His clothes seemed strange and abnormal. He picked up a pretty white brush off the vanity and started to comb the knots that formed in his hair while he slept. Every few second, he'd glance towards the door. What would he do now? Should he go find Shindou or Kinko? What if he got lost in the enormous house. Luckily, he didn't have to answer those questions, as a knock on the door pulled him from his thoughts,
"Uh, come in!" Kirino called out into the hall. The door opened and Shindou appeared in the doorway.
"Kirino, Mom wanted me to call you down, she wants to talk to you." He said. Kirino nodded and followed Shindou into the hallway. He noticed Shindou's attire,
"Are you going somewhere?" He asked. Shindou had a bag slung over his shoulder and had his shoes on.
"Yeah, I'm about to head to school." Shindou replied, leading Kirino to the stairs. Kirino stared at him wide eyed,
"Wow, you go to school!? I always wanted to, but I could never afford to go!" Shindou raised an eyebrow,
"School is free though." He said and Kirino sighed,
"Maybe here it is, but it cost more money then I'd probably make in my entire life back home." There was a silence as they walked down the stairs. Shindou stood at the front door and pointed towards a nearby door, "Mom's waiting in there." He said, "See you later." When Shindou turned to leave, he was stopped by Kirino,
"Wait!" He called, "Do you think you could maybe…" He paused and looked at his feet shyly, "tell me about school when you get back?"
Shindou smiled, "Of course." He opened the door, "Well, I'll see you in a few hours then!" Kirino waved at Shindou as he shut the door behind him. Kirino stood in place for a moment before walking to the door that Shindou directed him to earlier. He knocked at the door. The knock was promptly followed by a 'come in'. Kirino slowly opened the door and stepped in, quietly shutting it behind him. Kinko was sitting at a desk, writing something down on a piece of paper. When she heard the door opening, she spun her desk chair around and smiled,
"Ah, Kirino, I'm glad you're here! I wanted to talk to you!" She motioned for Kirino to come closer and sit down on a comfy looking green chair near the desk. Kirino did as he was instructed and sat down. "I wanted to talk to you about your current situation. I assume the water kingdom is involved?"
Kirino nodded, "Uh, yeah. How did you know?" Kinko chuckled,
"Oh, it's just they always seem to be involved in something. So I just guessed!" Her face suddenly turned serious, "But I didn't call you here simply to ask you that. I want to know the whole story. If you're going to be living here, I'd like to know."
Kirino lowered his gaze to his lap, letting out a sigh, "Well, you see, I was found out as a user of fire magic and I was forced to flee the kingdom. I met Grace in the woods and she took me in. Just recently, an old friend from the water kingdom asked me to come back."
"Why would they do that?" Kinko asked. Kirino shrugged,
"I have no idea. Of course I said no, but the next day they had a number of water knights blocking the path, demanding my return. Grace and I escaped from the back of the wagon and she brought me here, that's about it." As he finished, Kirino noticed that Kinko was writing his down on her notepad. She smiled when she saw that Kirino had taken notice of this, "Oh, I'm just writing it down in case I forget!" there was a short silence as she finished writing everything down. "That's all, you can go now!" She said with a grin.
"But what do I do now?" Kirino asked. Kinko stood up and walked to the door, opening it.
"Why not just wander the estate. It'll help to memorise the layout!" Kirino stood up. It was better than nothing. He left Kinko alone in her office and aimlessly wandered the halls.
Several hours later, Kirino found himself in the mansions gardens. He'd figured quite a bit out about the house. There were a lot of guest rooms. Judging by the lack of dusting in them, they were rarely used. In the very back of the gardens there was a small but nice house where the live-in maids and chefs lived. There was a large fountain in the front and a river behind the fence in the back of the gardens. Speaking of the gardens, there were a lot of shrubs cut to look like various things—a dragon, a hawk, a knight on a horse. His stroll was interrupted when a maid ran up to him,
"Mr. Kirino!" She said as she approached him, "Mrs. Kinko asked me to inform you that the young master will be returning from school soon." The young master? Kirino thought, is she talking about Shindou? "I could bring you to the front door if you like." The maid added on. Kirino nodded,
"That'd be great!" He said, following the maid through the gardens.
They made it back to the front door just in time to see Shindou come back in. He abandoned his shoes at the front door and handed his bag to a nearby butler, asking him to bring the bag and some snacks up to his room. He smiled when he saw Kirino,
"I wasn't expecting you to be waiting right at the door!" He said with a light chuckle. Kirino blushed with embarrassment and gave a frown,
"I-it's just that I've never been to school, and I've only heard things about schools back home. I want to know what they're like here."
Shindou walked towards the stairs, "Come upstairs, I'll tell you all about it."
A minute or so later, they were seated in Shindou's room, eating some sandwiches a butler had brought up for them. Kirino hoped he didn't look too eager to hear about this world as he waited for Shindou to start,
"Today practice was cancelled. It ended up raining overnight so the field was too muddy to play on."
"practice for what?" Kirino asked.
"Soccer. I don't know if you have that where you come from. It's where 2 teams try to kick a ball into each other's nets to score points." Shindou explained. Kirino nodded,
"We have that, but it was a just game the kids played. We never had a proper ball either. We just made one from whatever we could find." Shindou continued,
"I play on a team for the school. Since practice was cancelled I just caught up on schoolwork in the library. Other than that, I just sat in my classes and wrote notes for the teachers lectures. Nothing really happened."
"What were the lectures about?" Kirino asked.
"In one class, the teacher was talking about Shakespeare plays, in other it was about plant biology, another was about painting techniques, and the last was about musical scores"
"What's a Shakespeare plays?" Kirino asked.
"They're plays written by a famous poet and playwright William Shakespeare."
Of course! Kirino mentally scolded himself, that was obvious, they're separate words, not one name…
"So what did you do all day?" Shindou asked, changing the subject.
"Oh, I just kind of wandered around the estate. It's really beautiful!" Kirino replied,
"You must be getting bored in here…" Shindou said. Although he was strange, Shindou liked Kirino. He was something new and interesting in his otherwise boring life. There was a short silence, as no one knew what to say. Shindou eventually started the conversation again,
"I'm going to a store down the street soon to get some things. Do you want to come?" Shindou asked. He didn't want to do this, but his mother asked him to. He was afraid of something happening to Kirino if they left. Kirino sat up straight in his chair,
"Of course!" He jumped up out of his seat, "When do we leave?"
Shindou let out a light chuckle at Kirino's enthusiasm, "As soon as I get changed I guess." The brunette walked to a dresser and pulled out some casual clothes and tossed them on the bed. He stared at Kirino.
"What?" Kirino asked.
"It's just…Are you going to go or…?"
When Kirino got what Shindou was saying, he nodded and quickly rushed out of the room. He leaned on a wall outside. Changing around other people had never bothered him. Usually there wasn't enough space for everyone to change away from each other. Changing around others was normal for him, but he knew some of the more noble people didn't like it and preferred to be alone.
The door suddenly opened and Shindou stepped out,
"Come on, let's go." He said, walking towards the stairs. He paused at the top of them to make sure Kirino was following.
When Kirino stepped outside, the front yard was so big he had to squint to see the other side of the gate. Shindou pulled out a small device from his pocket.
"What's that?" Kirino asked.
"It's a phone. It's a thing that lets you contact anyone else who has one anytime." He explained, dialing in a number. As he waited for someone to pick up he realised that he'd have to do an awful lot of explaining since he was taking Kirino with him. Kirino had been distracted by a nearby fountain, and when he turned back to Shindou he was putting his phone away.
"I just called for a ride down there."
Kirino smiled and nodded. So they weren't walking. In such a confusing world, he could really use something familiar like a horse and carriage. The smile disappeared when he heard a loud rumble from a small extension of the house and jumped in surprise,
"Definitely not horses." He said, not sure who exactly he was saying it to. An automatic door opened up a large metal machine rolled out.
"What is that!?" Kirino squeaked.
"Oh, it's called a car." Shindou started. He wasn't really sure how to explain it properly, "It's a machine that takes you places. They're faster than horses." Shindou stepped towards it but Kirino was hesitant. Shindou reached one of his hands out for Kirino. It seemed like the right thing to do. Kirino reluctantly took Shindou's hand and he led Kirino to the car. Shindou opened a door and motioned for Kirino to get in. Shindou followed soon afterwards. The driver who was watching them in the rear-view mirror smirked,
"Now don't get too friendly with our guest, young master." He said. Shindou grimaced as a deep red blush appeared on his face,
"I-it's not like that!" He had to force himself to keep his voice down. He didn't want to startle Kirino, who was looking out a window and obviously not listening. The driver chuckled and went to start the car. Shindou turned to Kirino,
"It's gonna start moving so don't freak out." He said. Man, he was really awful at this 'calming people down thing.
"No promises." Kirino said. Of course, when the car started and began to back out of the driveway Kirino froze up in fear, but as they drove he slowly loosened up. Kirino admit, after a few minutes the ride really wasn't very scary anymore. The seats were made of a soft black material with a lot of cushioning. They'd been moving for about three or four minutes when Shindou noticed that Kirino didn't have a seatbelt on and he had to fix that for him. Kirino wanted to learn more about this world so things like this wouldn't keep happening and today was his chance.
Suddenly, the car slowed to a stop and Shindou got out of the car, holding the door open for Kirino. When Kirino got out, he noticed that he and Shindou were still holding hands. He blushed and released it. He didn't look up to see what Shindou's reaction was; he just followed up towards a nearby building. He glanced up at the sign. It said 'Convenience Store' on it. The bell above the door chimed when Shindou opened the door, letting Kirino enter before himself.
So my exams are finally over and I had some time to get some writing done! I was going to make it longer but I didn't have time to write the rest of it so the next chapter might be a little short...
I've also decided to open up requests and commissions! There's a link to a quick thing i wrote up about it on my profile so please read that before sending me anything! I might be able to write more updates from now until like june as long as this semester doesn't end up being as busy and messy as the last one...