Disclaimer: Chapter one.

Anyone who thinks that I can write is obviously in some sort of delirium.

Little Brother was bright enough to learn that girls wear lace and hairpins when he was a younger age than most boys with this realization. Maybe one could credit that to having good female influence in his life, but Big Sister never bothered with that stuff; wasn't her style. She liked her black cloak just fine and enjoyed letting her pink hair fly loose. It was more probably because the boy just seemed to like girls more than he did boys. Oh sure, he played with boys, but he gave special attention to girls with a grin that was a little more than friendly long before most kids actually "discover" the opposite sex.

Uranai took that as a good sign. He was healthy, happy, and much farther ahead when it appeared beside other kids that he was behind.

This easy association is what had her nicknaming the kid as "Turtle", starting with his turtle crawl. His movement remained slow and clumsy, never revving up to the fast crawl other babies got. Time passed at six, seven, eight, nine months with no speed gained… but at ten months he was walking around like he owned the place, getting his paws into everything he could, hardly a toddle in his toddling. His baby babble was utter nonsense—not even imitations of sounds he heard—until he spoke out a sentence with three words ("I want that.") at a little after his first birthday. Nonsensical social sounds came a little later.

Similar, it took him a while to get interested in socializing with others his age, but when he did, he jumped comfortably into the idea that friends are fine but girls are finer. He was wise and dumb at the same time, ready enough to make stupid mistakes, but only after he finds out that the stupid mistakes are the ones he was willing to chance. Uranai didn't need to look in her crystal ball to determine that this mindset will certainly not make him wealthy in his future (a pity!) but he likely wouldn't starve, either (no need to lend him money). Turtle still turned out to be a good nickname, because he did seem to have the affinity to them that she predicted, much to their mother's confusion.

And he was infinitely more likeable than her mother to spend time with, so when she got missives to visit home, she'd go and do her best to avoid her mother, using Turtle as a great excuse to get away under the guise of "instilling sibling togetherness". He was, thankfully, not a brat. Just a little strange, and there's nothing wrong with that.

When taking the little tortoise boy out to a local ice cream shop, she was surprised to see that the man who ran it wasn't at the register. Instead was his son, who was still in his bleary years of being a teenager when he's got too much on his mind and the hormones don't help. She raised a brow to the father, sitting down with his head leaned back. "Can't you get up and give me your cone? Your kid here somehow always has it melty before we get it."

That kid looked indignant at the comment, but said nothing. The owner only shrugged. "What? You expected me to break into song and dance right away? Recovery is a delicate matter!"

"Recovery?" It took a moment for her to remind herself that this man was once a professional wrestler who still dabbled in his old trade from time to time. On her ball she'd seen that he broke his arm not too long ago. She blurted out her faux pas without thinking. "Oh wow. I can't believe I forgot about that. I'm really sorry."

"An apology? From you?" A busy brow raised at her and his smirk broke through. "This is the last thing I expected to hear you say."

"Hey, give me a break. My brain is still full of prophecies about blights to wheat crops that feed nations and predictions on pinch battles that could decide wars. I'm allowed to be a little off when I'm already a little off."

"Whatever you say, you young-looking 'baba'. Son, make sure you warm the scoop more before using it, huh? It helps getting the ice cream quicker, so the whole batch can keep its cold longer."

"Can I hav' chocolate swirl?" Turtle asked without a care about the conversation.

"Sure thing."

.-.-.

"Look! We're almost to the obelisk."

"I don' wanna. Can we go back to the station?"

"What? But we always visit the obelisk!" Uranai looked down at her little brother, tempted to show him a scornful glare. She liked going to the obelisk, damnit! It gave off an interesting vibe (from years of idol worship in the area) that most other people couldn't detect except in the most subliminal sense, and at that point made them avoid it because they didn't understand it. But she enjoyed it just as she'd enjoy a sit in a graveyard, because after you get over the strangeness of it, the spirits could be quite personable. Pleasant, even.

Turtle looked up at her with an impish frown, the sort that curled the lips in more ways than a smile ever could. "Do we hav'ta?"

"Yes! Now, come on, you!" She took his hand and walked briskly. "Just because you might find it boring doesn't mean I don't enjoy it!"

"Tha's not—aah!" He was jerked around through the crowd towards the structure. The surrounding area was never empty—it was a tourist attraction in this place, after all—but it did lack the walking noise the street had. Uranai found the strip of path surrounding it she preferred and took it. It was the one that looped around through trees planted in the park the obelisk marked the center of. It didn't wander too far and the structure could always be seen just above the trees, so if (when) Turtle ran off the path, it'd be easy to find the way back after going to catch him.

Turtle was uncommonly well behaved this time around, despite the chance of rebellion he showed her earlier. Maybe he figured that the quieter he was, the sooner they'd get back to the station and to home? Well, he was smart in unexpected ways, but it still struck Uranai a little strange; he didn't seem tired. He just didn't want to go to the obelisk today. Probably just bored of the obelisk and the park surrounding it.

"Hey, honey."

Uranai felt a tap at her shoulder. Her eyes flew wide and she turned with a ready-made glare.

A tall man with thick cords of muscle smiled at her. "You walk through this park alone often?"

"Not often enough." She turned to keep walking with a growl. This time, his heavy hand fell down onto her shoulder and stopped her in place.

"Don't brush me off like that. I like dames like you. Not often I get to see such nice pink hair. Say, does the carpet ma—"

"If I wanted to talk to you, I'd find out where you sleep. Which, by the way, I can still do. Easily. So, leave me alone." She tried to pull away, but he held on tighter.

"No way. Not letting a pretty thing like you get away." He pulled her closer. "Why you wear this strange witches robe, anyway?"

"What part of 'Leave me alone' did you not understand?" She successfully tugged away this time. "And I guarantee I'm five times your age. Now buzz off!"

She managed to get a few meters away before he caught up with her again. "Hey! Why so frigid, huh? What's so different between us, just because of some black robes…"

Uranai pulled away again and whirled around, pointing a finger at his chest. "What is the difference between you and me? I'll tell you what that is! You're a muscle-bound moron living off an hourly wage, and I'm a fortune-telling entrepreneur that's been prophesizing the future before your great grandparents were even born." She sneered. "We're not from same worlds. We're not even from similar worlds. And I know that you're trouble, just want to say that you had a time with a pink-haired chick. Get away from me."

She turned to walk away again, but she didn't take many steps before she was suddenly lifted off of the ground. "Hey! Put me down!"

"I don't think so, missy. Your fortune-telling powers should've told you that I don't take rejection well."

"Release me this instant!"

"Not until I've had my fun." He patted her rump, and she screeched in anger. How dare he! The insolence! Well, damnit, with just a few mutters she could summon spirits up that'd do some damn good damage, she'd assure! Well, not that she knew a lot of necessarily powerful spirits, but he would probably freak out over a headless man…

A fruit bowl soared through the air and broke over his head, apples and grapes raining down his shoulders shortly before he passed out from the bludgeoning trauma. Uranai scrambled as he fell to land on her feet, succeeded, and looked up to see her savior.

Little Turtle had his hands outstretched and a bag filled with various odds and ends he'd gotten from who-knows-where spilling out of it beside him. She glanced around and saw that there were a few previous attempts of Something Heavy being thrown at the guy who was trying to kidnap his big sister.

"I knew he was bad!" Turtle huffed and crossed his arms. "See? He was bad. I could tell he was bad. I didn't want to come but you came anyway, even though he was bad."

Uranai didn't understand what he meant at first, right now just grateful that he did something, and feeling more than a little satisfaction that her little brother had knocked out the nuisance; he deserved it.

Turtle kept on with his tirade. "You're smarter than that, sis! You know things that other people don't! But he was bad, and I could tell. And he's kind of strong. I could tell that, too. I wanted to avoid him, because sis isn't that strong. Well, sis isn't weak, but sis isn't strong like that. And Daddy says men should protect women, so I went to get something to throw at him to protect you."

Something finally dawned on her. "Turtle… how could you tell he was bad and strong? We didn't see him coming towards the obelisk."

"I could tell. I could feel it. You know, like feeling rain coming. But not like that. You're good at these things, sis."

Well, sure, Uranai was good at things like that, but she (admittedly) had more of a foot in the spiritual world than the physical. She could sense a strong fighter, but not as well as another strong fighter could, certainly.

A strong fighter… Didn't martial arts have a weave towards him? He hadn't shown any leaning towards it since he was born, but suddenly…

"You know, you're right, Turtle. Don't mention this outing to our mother. In fact, don't talk about our outings at all from now on."

"Huh?"

"She, uh, would get jealous. Yeah. She'd feel left out if she heard about all the fun you're going to have from now on, that I'll take you to have, and she'll stop letting you have it."

"Fun? Fun with what?"

"I'm going to bring you to play with other kids. Mostly older kids, and they might be impatient with you at first, but I bet you'll catch up." She rubbed his head. "Slow and steady wins the race."