Chapter Nine: Breaking News- Emotions!
"Any idea on where to start, teacher?" Brii asked mockingly. Kouen thought for a moment, trying to think on the best place to start when using a djinn. Brii mentioned she had no formal combat training, which would be a must whether she knew what her djinn's weapon was or not. She didn't seem to know officially, though, since she also mentioned that she's only used a partial djinn equip once. She'd need to be comfortable with her weapon, as well. It wouldn't do well to be using a weapon that was difficult to use; at least if you aren't Kouha.
"First, let's try making sure you're comfortable with your djinn's weapon," Kouen responded in a businesslike manner, "You're less likely to control a djinn if you can't even control a weapon." The comment was a little harsh, but Brii didn't seem to be perturbed by his choice of words. In fact, she hardly responded to them at all. It almost worried Kouen how she seemed so preoccupied.
"So I basically need some sort of weapons training?" Brii asked for clarification. For all her knowledge, it was shocking that she didn't know the first thing about using a djinn. Kouen still had doubts about this fact, he expected her to suddenly come up with the information on her own.
"That's exactly correct," Kouen said, nodding as well. Brii mulled over his words and Kouen didn't think to add that she needed to know what her weapon was first.
"What do you suggest then?" Brii asked. She really didn't know the first thing about Djinn equip then.
"Weapon out," Kouen demanded, crossing his arms and staring the woman down. She looked almost bewildered at his request, but that quickly turned into annoyance.
"How?" Brii questioned him. "I barely know anything about using my djinn, and you expect to just conjure even a partial djinn equip on the fly? Why do you think I asked for help?" She did have a point. The practice would be good for her, though.
"What was the weapon that appeared when you did use your partial djinn equip then?" Kouen countered. Surely she'd remember that. By the relaxing look on her face, she did.
"It was a glove," Brii answered simply. Kouen paused at the information. A glove was an interesting weapon for a partial djinn equip, but there had to be more to it. A glove couldn't have been the weapon this djinn had. He needed to see her full djinn equip.
"I need to see your full djinn equip," Kouen said, much to Brii's dismay. Her brow furrowed and her confusion and frustration was very obvious.
"And how exactly do I do that?" Brii asked; a little venom in her voice. Kouen almost didn't blame her for being frustrated. She was being asked to do things that she specifically asked for help with, but Kouen still found it annoying how easily frustrated she was.
"Just do whatever feels right," Kouen said with an air of finality. Brii knew that arguing wouldn't get her anywhere and thought for a moment. Kouen could tell when she began to focus her magoi; she grabbed the wrist of the hand her ring was on. He noticed before that she had a habit of moving the ring to various fingers. When he first met her and noticed the ring, it looked like she was married.
"Spirit of Trickery and Leadership," Brii began. She was extremely focused, her eyes closed and her muscles tense. "I summon you to give me the power to make my will stronger, convert my body into a transmitter of your strength, dwell in my body, Hilal!" As her ring began to glow, Brii's hair grew messier and her clothes changed. What once was a simple t shirt and jeans was now a shirt made of bandages covering one shoulder and loose fitting dull teal pants ending at her knees. The ring itself grew along her arm, forming armor with golden accents along the way and wrapping black leather straps around her to keep it in place; a metal head band wrapped around her head and also held golden accents. The djinn's third eye rested on the band. Golden belts looped around her waist with a white cloth hanging under them and black leather wrapped itself around her feet to form sandals. A large aquamarine gem was embedded on the hand guard.
"Very good," Kouen complimented the woman on her transformation. Brii didn't seem to be as happy for the success though. Instead, she wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.
"Why the hell am I wearing a bandage bra as a shirt!?" Brii screeched in protest, "It's cold!" The temperature of the day was actually rather warm, but Kouen thought that she was more so referring to the sudden loss of coverage. Brii was touchy when it came to temperature. She'd acclimate to a certain temperature and she'd shiver if it suddenly changed. He's seen her complain about being cold just by removing a blanket.
"Calm down and get used to it," Kouen said, almost coldly, "It's your djinn equip and you'll most likely be using it more than you expect." Kouen wasn't sure if anything would happen to instigate a battle in this world, but it was always better to be safe rather than sorry.
"Right, well," Brii looked at the newly donned armor, "Hilal's weapon seems to be armor, so…" Her unspoken question was already being pondered by Kouen, however. Without a sword or other weapon to train her with, the next best way to fight would be hand to hand combat.
"Martial arts would probably be the easiest way to utilize your djinn," Kouen asked her. Brii nodded and allowed the equip to fade. She rested her hands on her hips with a determined, if not a little scared, look.
"So where do we start learning that?" Brii asked.
First, Kouen taught her the basic forms. It took her a few days (and a few sunburns), for her to get it down enough she wouldn't immediately fail a test on them. Another few days passed with learning some more complicated moves and applying lots of sunscreen. Each training session they had seemed to have an underlying sense of flirtation. Kouen sometimes had to physically help Brii with her forms and Kouen couldn't deny how fun it was to tease her about how red her face would get. Brii was decent with what he had taught her at this point, and Kouen didn't see any harm in some light sparring with her. At least, until she managed to clock him right in the face with a well timed feint.
"Oh my god," Brii began to panic. Kouen was crouched close to the ground, still in shock of the fact that Brii had managed to punch him square in the face despite still being an extremely low level fighter. "I'm so sorry!" She apologized, crouching in front of him to try and see the damage she had done. She tentatively reached out to touch him, but Kouen caught her wrist.
"I think that's enough for today," He said calmly, standing up and inadvertently pulling Brii up with him. Brii nodded and took her hand back from him. She wasn't done trying to help him, though.
"Is your eye okay?" Brii asked, and began to shoot rapid-fire questions at him, "It doesn't hurt too bad, does it? Oh, are you feeling nauseous or dizzy or anything?" More came after that, but he began to tune them out. Kouen was beginning to get very annoyed very quickly despite her good intentions with all the questions she was asking him.
"I'm fine," Kouen said harshly. Brii quieted down immediately, but still looked very worried. She gestured to the car, but Kouen was already walking to it. Brii followed him silently and didn't even tease him when she opened the door for him.
"Sorry…" Brii apologized as she got into the driver's seat. Kouen was already 0situated in the passenger side. He nodded to acknowledge her, but didn't say anything after that.
The drive home was mostly silent, but not pleasantly so. One inhabitant of the car was jumpy and still occasionally commented on Kouen's health, while the other was contemplating exactly how Brii was able to trick him like that. Kouen was certain he had been focused, not thinking about anything inappropriate while he helped her train. Yet somehow she still managed to get past his defenses. It was a simple feint and somehow he fell for it despite being the one to actually teach her that move. Perhaps he let his guard down too much and expected her to not use it due to her straightforward mentality. That had be what happened. They arrived home at what felt like record time and Kouen was out of the car almost immediately.
"Do you at least want som…" Brii trailed off as she saw Kouen was already gone.
Kouen walked inside with Brii rushing to catch up with him. He made his way through the short entryway to turn right, coming into the large living room. There, he sat on the couch next to his brother Koumei who was watching Kouha play videogames yet again. Thanks to Kouha's newly found and hopefully short lived addiction in the strange technology, the living room had almost entirely become the Kou Empire's territory within the house save for the few times Sindria inhabitants would come in with MD. Currently, Judal was perched on one of the plush chairs watching Kouha as well.
Kouha played bloody and gory games on what Brii claimed were older consoles. The stories in the games interested Kouen, as some were about young women connected to spirits and others about humans being taken over by mushrooms. Kouha's favorite was a game including a superhero named "Deadpool," though. Kouen and Brii had spent a whole day translating the controls into their language for Kouha together. Now that Kouen began to think about it, she had surprised him then, too. Only that time it was with one of her usual vulgar jokes and to his astonishment and horror, Kouen had laughed at the sheer surprise of it. More instances similar to that one began to come up in his mind, and Kouen began to think that this was an issue possibly related to her djinn. She did claim he was a spirit of trickery after all.
"You look troubled," Koumei commented casually, his eyes still trained on the foreign television. Kouen couldn't respond before Kouha was already asking about his condition.
"Did Brii punch you?" Kouha asked; some concern in his tone. Brii came out of the connected door to the kitchen and gained everyone's attention.
"Yeah, I did," Brii confirmed Kouha's suspicions as she held out a white, wrinkled rectangle with condensation forming on the parts that weren't wrapped in a thin, blue rag. "Your eye is bruising, take the damn icepack." Judal began to laugh from the sidelines, but an annoyed look from Brii caused him to quickly quiet down. Judal had gotten on the lilac haired woman's nerves rather fast and she made him pay the price by forcing him to eat carrots. It was an unorthodox punishment, but served its purpose none the less and Judal was almost frightened of Brii now. After silencing the magi, Brii turned back to Kouen with a glare.
"I don't need it," Kouen said defiantly. He glared back at her. He respected her despite her odd nature and blunt attitude; he couldn't exactly protest since his status as imperial prince was nonexistent here. Kouen also felt like he owed Brii after she let him and his family stay in her home despite it already being overrun with Sindria. However, his frustration surrounding the very same person bled into his usual demeanor. After all, Brii was the reason he was beginning to feel confused and being confused was not something Kouen enjoyed.
"I will shove this down your pants if you don't take it," Brii threatened. She seemed oddly serious, but Kouen suspected it was just another one of her empty threats. In the background, Kouha and Judal snickered.
"I don't need it," Kouen protested again. His previous hypothesis of Brii threatening him emptily was wrong.
Brii lunged for the waist band of his pants, fully prepared to enact her warning. Kouen leapt out of the way, his vision blurring as the movement aggravated a headache. A flash of light later and Brii flew at him again in her djinn equip. Kouen was knocked the ground and thoughts of what he could do to fight off Brii circled in his head; yet on some level he was amused at the sheer absurdity of the impromptu wrestling match and Brii's stubborn determination to help. Kouen could easily have just used Phenex to heal himself, it was the only inconspicuous metal vessel he had and kept it in his pocket, but instead he decided to humor the fight.
"Should we stop them?" Kouha sounded in the background. Laughter that suspiciously sounded like Judal saying no followed, but Kouen wasn't really paying attention.
Kouen flipped them so Brii was below him. She only attacked by shoving the icepack up his shirt. Instinctively, Kouen moved away from the cold, but also let Brii flip them back over. Brii's armored forearm came dangerously close to pinning his entire upper body and Kouen caught it with both hands, pushing on it with all his might. It wasn't that hard to push the arm up, but then coldness on his stomach made him freeze and start squirming to get away from it again.
A flash, and both Kouen and Brii froze in their position. Looking up, MD stood there, grinning eerily ear to ear, with the strange device known as a cellular phone in her hand. Out of the corner of his eye, Kouen saw Brii flush red from the tips of her ears to her collar bone just as her djinn equip faded.
"Gee, Brii, you're really going for it," MD teased. Mischievousness radiated off of her in waves so thick you could almost see it.
"Shut up!" Brii yelped, scrambling off of Kouen as fast as she could. Kouen sat up a little slower, his head hurt after all.
"Wow she really did a number on you, Kouen," Sinbad snickered. Kouen couldn't stop the internal, Oh so he's here too.
"It was a lucky shot," Kouen defended.
"That was great!" Judal exclaimed from the sidelines, wheezing in his attempt to breathe again after the laughing attack he had.
"I wish I was here for the whole thing," MD chipped in, "It must have been adorable!"
"I can't believe this." Brii held her face in her hands. Kouen saw Jafar whispering to Sinbad, which was already suspicious, but it got even more suspicious as Sinbad cleared his throat to gain attention on him again.
"MD and I had a discussion and there is something we'd like to try," Sinbad started, sounding as if he was talking to his commoners in mass.
"Oh yeah!" MD piped up with a voice of remembrance, "Sinbad thinks I might be a Magi and-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Judal cut in, "A fifth Magi?" Judal was incredulous and obviously offended.
"Judal, enough," Kouen stopped Judal's rant before it began.
"It does make sense…" Brii mumbled, before getting louder, "If I'm a King vessel, it's possible MD would be one of this world's magis. Plus she has been wearing a braid in her hair for a while now, seemingly compulsively." Kouen could see that Brii was uncomfortable. It probably had something to do with Sinbad believing this. Brii didn't trust Sinbad and acted as an ally to the Kou Empire, which Kouen was grateful for.
"Exactly," MD started again, "So we were wondering if you could help me raise a dungeon, Judal." Sinbad nodded next to the slightly nervous brown-haired girl. Brii's suspicious expression immediately morphed into shock and that almost looked like offense.
"What? Why wouldn't you just start with summoning a djinn? That seems much safer than just summoning a dungeon straight out of the gate." Brii was obviously worried for MD.
"Well, technically anyone can summon a djinn with enough magoi," Sinbad replied, "So that wouldn't actually give us the best answer to this question." Both Brii and Sinbad had intense gazes, challenging the other-
"Well it doesn't matter because I'm not helping her!" Judal proclaimed. Kouen glared at the magi, but Judal didn't care. He just sat there with his arms crossed, pouting.
"Judal, if our hosts want your help-" Judal cut Kouen off once more.
"No! I don't wanna!" Judal was very adamant about this. Kouen glared, but Judal only pouted more.
"Why don't we just leave it be?" Brii suggested.
Everyone in the room agreed for the sake of keeping the peace and the day continued as if nothing happened.
Later that night, Kouen and I were talking in my room, the usual information swap of different worlds. I was leaned back in my roller chair; my legs propped up on the end of the bed and stretched out. Kouen sat stiffly on the bed, but I shouldn't expect anything else given his personality and upbringing. He was extremely curious, but just as stoic.
"Something you haven't mentioned yet is your childhood," Kouen supplied to the conversation, seemingly hinting at a larger question.
"Why would you want to know that?" I asked. My expression shifted into suspicion. My childhood was one that I didn't hate talking about, but I didn't necessarily enjoy it either. It felt odd that he'd ask about it; especially since this was ultimately a temporary gig, they'd be going back to their world eventually.
Before Kouen could answer or deflect my question, a loud crashing sounded and the floor rumbled. A girlish scream quickly followed. Panic welled up in my chest, was it MD? Without missing a beat, I rushed out of my bed room, smacking my arm on the door frame in the process, and opened the door to MD's room. Not caring for anything or anyone else, I focused on MD.
"MD, are you okay!?" My voice elevated with panic, but my panic quickly faded in exchange for disgust. Sinbad and MD were about to do the do, if you know what I mean. I quickly turned away, my hand hiding my burning face. I was surprised to be met with Kouen right behind me, or more so the sight of Kouen's half chest no more than an inch from my nose. Partially as a joke, and partially as a way to keep MD's decency, I reached up and covered Kouen's eyes, having to stand on my tiptoes to do so.
"There is a penis, you don't want to look," I mumbled.
"Thank you for the help," Kouen's response sounded honest as he backed away from the door, taking my wrists to pull my hands away from his eyes and giving me room to move away with him. Judging purely off of sound, as I was still too embarrassed to move my gaze from the wall beside Kouen or even leave a few feet from the nearest guy I didn't totally hate, I guessed that most of the others in the house had crowded onto the staircase to see what was going on.
"You can look now, you know," Kouen said, turning me around. MD stood there, embarrassed and hastily dressed. Without even thinking, I flung myself at her and started to check for any injuries.
"Are you okay?" My voice was probably a bit too scratchy to be likeable at this point, but thankfully MD didn't mind. Instead, she just hugged me.
"Yeah, I'm fine. My bedroom isn't though…" She mumbled.
"Huh?"
Looking over her shoulder, I found what she meant. Instead of the usual purple- walled room with posters and art everywhere, it was half destroyed with a large, blue, horned being coming out of a sword in the midst of the destruction. Nervous giggles rose in my chest at the sight of Baal.
"How did this even happen?" Jafar asked from the sidelines. He had a fierce glare fixated on Sinbad, no doubt thinking about giving the king a lecture later. "Actually, let's just have a meeting in the living room before you start."
"That sounds like a great idea, Jafar!" MD piped up, quickly ushering everyone down the stairs. I ducked into my bedroom quickly to avoid the crowd, though, and walked behind them. I snuck a quick glance into the destroyed room to see that Baal, without the power source of Sinbad touching the sword or MD's concentration, has already retracted back into his vessel. MD disappeared into the kitchen, claiming to be making a snack for everyone.
Padding around the corner, people were getting comfortable on the couches and cushions on the floor that were bought due to the insane number of people staying here. Kouen sat in one of the lone arm chairs, but I decided to follow MD to check on her. Her privacy was greatly invaded just now, after all.
"Hey," I greeted gently, not wanting to spook her.
"Hey, Brii!" MD chirped, a forced cheerful smile on her face. She fluttered around the kitchen like a hummingbird; nearly going too fast for the eye to see.
"Are you okay?" I asked, then immediately mentally berating myself for the answer. Of course she isn't, my mind yelled at itself, think about how you felt when similar things happened to you! Of course she isn't "okay."
"Yeah, I'm fine!" Her voice was strained, and I could tell she wasn't. She always looked out for everyone else like that, even if it meant putting herself in harm.
"You know you can always talk to me, right?" I knew I should let it drop, but I didn't feel right doing so until I knew she'd at least talk to me about it. Talking about problems is proven to help with them, after all.
"I know, Bee," MD was very focused on her task of setting the entire bag of pizza rolls out on the baking pan, but I could see her shoulders begin to slouch a little, "But I'm fine."
I nodded in response and left the kitchen, letting MD be alone for a bit.
Coming around the corner, I leaned against the wall to listen to very intense discussion the others were having. Both Kou and Sindria believed that MD was a new Magi, but both Kou and Sindria also believed that MD should serve their respective countries. I sighed, the competition and rivalry between these two groups was crazy.
"If MD is a new Magi, which is unlikely given that-" Koumei was talking, but I needed to step in here for sure.
"Actually, it makes perfect sense that MD is a new magi," I stepped closer to the once-fictional beings, being met with a mixture of faces between curious and upset, "Your existence here has made magic exist where there was none before. The fabric of this world has had to adapt to it, so ultimately MD is just one of this world's magi's, not yours. So it also makes more sense for MD to be a magi allied with this world instead of being allied with either Kou or Sindria." This stunned them for a moment, but Sinbad quickly recovered.
"Yet we are dating, so-"
"Doesn't matter," I piped up happily, clapping my hands together and beginning to rock on my heels, "MD's not allied with either of you and so her powers aren't allied to anyone but her. Just like my metal vessel is mine, not the Kou Empire's."
"Well said, Brii!" MD walked out of the kitchen just then, the entire pan of pizza rolls in her hands. She set the pan on the coffee table in front of everyone and crossed her arms. "As my best friend said, if I am a magi, which I think I am now… Which is kinda scary… I'm not going to choose a side."
"She's on my side!" I joking slid over next to MD with two thumbs up and a cheesy grin on my face, making at least a few people chuckle in my attempt to break the heavy atmosphere. Kouen and Sinbad still seemed unconvinced, but I hoped they'd at least let it slide for now.
If they had a protest, I'd never know. The doorbell rung right after I finished; I nervously walked to the front door with MD and looked out the door. To my horror, news vans and reporters were there. Panic set in my chest, thoughts of terrible consequences of everything being found out spilling into my head. I barely even heard MD talking, my hands were shaking so bad. I backed my away from the door. Maybe they'll go away if you just don't do anything, my brain said to me, Just lock yourself in your room like usual and it will all go away. But I knew this wasn't true, I knew I had to face this. I just really, really didn't want to.
