An: I hope you enjoy this update, and it is the longest I have ever written! I hope the characters aren't to OOC, and I hope that my portrayal of Scotland isn't too bad... If you don't like him then don't worry, because he probably won't appear again. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this update and please review!
Japan had rewinded the video back to the moment when Scotland had nation-hopped into England's house, and all of the nations in the minibus were carefully watching the screen, not wanting to miss any vital information.
"Scotland!" exclaimed England in surprise as his elder brother entered the room, "Why are you here?"
"I'm here because of what happened at the world conference." Scotland said sternly, "What were you thinking?! You made all of the nations suspicious of you, and now it is much more likely that they will discover your secret!" All of the nations gasped at this comment. So England did have a secret that he wasn't telling them!
"I'm sorry Scotland, but France's insult really hurt me. If it had happened at any other time, I would have been fine, but it was just after the ceremony and… well…"
"Well what?" demanded Scotland, "I know how important keeping your secret safe is to you. I mean, you have kept it all to yourself for most of your life! What on earth caused you to make other nations suspicious of you? If they do enough investigating, they might just find you out!"
"Don't you think I realised that!" England yelled as he jumped out of his chair, "I know I screwed up! Several nations have already come over to my house to see why I stormed out. I sent them away, of course, but now I think that their even more suspicious of me! I don't know why I stormed out I guess I just felt…" England seemed to crumple in on himself as he fell back into his chair and whispered the last word "Vulnerable."
After they turned up the volume and rewinded the video to make sure that England had really said that he was feeling vulnerable, the nations all started feeling guilty for what they had done. Had their visit and France's comment made England feel that bad? England was quite proud, so it would take a lot to make him admit that he was weak or vulnerable. Something serious was going on here, something that was quickly getting out of their control. They had come here to find out why England had stormed out of the world conference, and now they had found out that England may have been hiding a life-changing secret from them for most of his life. What would that do to a person? How would it feel to have to keep a massive secret from all of your friends for most of your life? The secret is obviously big enough to make England feel 'vulnerable', but just what is it? What is England's secret?
Scotland also was shocked by England's sudden outburst, but when he heard England say 'vulnerable' he started to comfort England.
"Hey England," Scotland whispered in England's ear, "It's going to be alright. I'm sure they don't even know you have a secret, since you are quite a good actor." England seemed to grow in confidence at these words, and he started to talk again.
"Yes, I'm quite sure they don't know anything about it, I didn't leave any evidence lying around my house, so I hope that they don't know anything."
"Well, if the problem of the other countries finding out has been resolved, let's go to the basement to read over the spells that you will need to use to complete the ritual."
"Alright, I do need everything to be perfect since if something goes wrong I don't know what I will do." England replied as he got up and started to walk toward the basement door. Scotland seemed to look directly at the camera, and all the nations had to remind themselves that this was only a recording, and that it was not a two way camera, before saying,
"Hey England, are you sure that you don't want to tell the other nations about your secret? I mean if it is bothering you that much then surely it is better to tell the others and stop worrying about it? I'm sure that they'll accept you, since they are not ordinary humans like all the other people you told." England turned back towards Scotland with a look of disbelief and fury on his face.
"Are you kidding me!" England yelled, "You do remember what happened the last few times I told people! You know how I was hurt!You know what happened to me and to them…" Striding out of the room, England threw one more comment over his shoulder to Scotland before slamming the door shut.
"Now let's go and double check that we have the correct spells, I don't want to continue with this conversation anymore. I don't know why you even brought it up, since it always ends like this."
Quickly pausing the video, Japan turned around to observe all of the other nations in the minibus. They all had similar expressions of shock and confusion on their faces (well except for Russia, who was smiling… wait that is really creepy) and Japan assumed that his face also showed these emotions. What on Earth was going on with England? First they had discovered that he had been keeping a secret from them for a long time, and now they know that something traumatising may have happened in his past because he told someone about it!
However, another thing that confused Japan was how Scotland had located his cameras so easily. Those cameras were designed to be very hard to find, but he had seen one in less than five minutes! It was not possible! The only way it could have been done was by Scotland using this so called 'magic' to detect the cameras. But magic wasn't real, was it? Sure, Norway, Romania, England and Scotland kept talking about it as if it was real, but they were probably just lying, right? But if magic wasn't real then why was England getting so worked up over performing a 'spell' that wouldn't do anything? Could magic actually be real? Japan quickly shook his head and told himself not to be silly, since magic is definitely not real, before turning his attention back to the others in the minibus.
"So England has been keeping a big secret from us, huh?" queried China, "I wonder what it is?"
"Well we have to find out what it is, otherwise I won't be able to be the HERO and save Iggy!" yelled America as he struck a dramatic pose and caused all the nations to facepalm.
"Yes, I agree that we have to find out what England's secret is, but I believe that you could have phrased it in a better way." Japan commented politely.
"Yeah, I guess we should find out what England has been hiding from us, and then we can make it up from there, since there is no way of predicting how England will react." stated Germany as he he attempted to cheer up Italy, who was looking quite upset.
"Even though England is scary," said Italy, "I don't want him to be upset, so let's help him!"
"Well, if we want to help him or find out his secret, we will have to gather more information, but how are we going to do it? I doubt that we will be able to get inside England's home, and he definitely won't tell us anything himself. So what are we going to do?" asked Russia, "Though I think we probably could break in if we really tried..." Everyone stared at Russia as he started to pull the metal pipe out again, and they all wondered where he had kept it.
"No!" yelled France, "Even though I do often break into England's house, I don't think that this is the right time to do it! He is obviously in a very bad mood, and if he catches us, we will regret it very much. He also will probably be even more defensive, since he will know that we are trying to find out his secret. I propose that we finish watching the recording to see if we get any new clues, and then we can make a plan."
"Alright," agreed Japan as he turned back to the laptop, "Is everyone ready for me to play it again?" Everyone nodded in agreement, so Japan started to play the video again.
After England left the room, Scotland turned around and looked directly at the camera.
"Hello," he whispered, not wanting England to hear him, "I know you're watching me."
The watching nations were stunned into silence when they heard this, so Scotland had really seen the camera, it was not just a fluke! How on earth had he located it?!
"Ha ha ha," chortled Scotland, "I bet that you are all very shocked up their! Well, just so you know, I found the camera with magic." He stepped closer to the camera to get a good look at it and pulled it down from its perch above the doorway.
"So Romania and Norway have put a hiding spell on this," confirmed Scotland, as he examined the camera closely. "Hmm, this spell is quite powerful, but to get this amount of power, you had to specialise it to one person right?"
Although they knew that Scotland couldn't see them, Norway and Romania nodded their heads in agreement. They were quite surprised that Scotland could see their spell so easily, and they wondered if England was as good as Scotland at seeing magic as well. Even though most of the spell was specialised to England, there was a small part that prevented anyone with no or little magic skills from seeing the cameras as well. This meant that Scotland must know quite a bit of magic, which was unusual, since not very many nations knew magic.
"Anyway, since you only specialised the spell to England, I can see the cameras."Scotland happily stated, "And I have a little advice for you for your 'investigation'. I can't directly tell you about England's secret, because he made me promise not to, and even though we have got into many fights, we are still brothers and I don't break a promise to any of my brothers unless we are in a war. But, I will give you some clues because..." Scotland looked towards the door that England had stormed out through and sighed before continuing, "Keeping this secret from everyone is not good for him. However, if I find out that you are horrible to him after you find out about his secret, I will hunt you down."
"Germany I'm scared!" yelled Italy as he jumped into Germany's arms.
"Yes," agreed Germany, "I think that we are all slightly scared, I wouldn't want to mess with Scotland; he looks like Prussia when Prussia's fighting for me. I think that older brother nations can get very protective of their siblings."
"I also agree that we should not mess with Scotland, but we should continue with our investigation into England's secret, since it is obviously very important, and Scotland seems to be willing to help us." Japan announced as he turned the video back onto play, "Now let's see what clues Scotland is going to give to us."
"Later this evening, England will leave the house in his car You must follow him. He will be travelling to Stonehenge, but you must be careful to keep a safe distance away from him. I recommend that Norway or Romania put a tracking spell on the car, and take a different route. England will be driving his black Mini, so be sure that you cast the spell on the correct car. I wish you luck, but remember, if my brother comes home feeling terrible, you are dead."
Gulping, the nations quickly exchanged nervous glances with each other before looking back to the video.
"England and I will be in the basement for about an hour and a half, so you better get started." Stated Scotland as he left the room, "Oh and by the way, these little cameras you have set up, I will be sending them back to Japan's home. Wouldn't want you to spy on England anymore, now would we?"
After that, the video went back to static for a while, before changing to a image of Japan's bedroom. Quickly turning off the laptop so that the other nations wouldn't see his bedroom, Japan realised that magic must be real. How else could Scotland have moved his cameras to his house? Pushing the thought to the back of his mind, Japan decided that he could think about whether magic was real or not after they had found out about England's secret.
"So, do you think that we should follow Scotland's advice?" questioned China.
"Da, I think he looked pretty sincere, so I think that we should." answered Russia calmly.
"Hmm, but if he is England's brother, couldn't he be leaning us into a trap?" wondered Japan.
"Yes, he could be doing that, but I know Scotland quite well, and if he didn't want us to know about England's secret, he would have told England about the cameras and our investigation. I think that we should follow Scotland's advice, and besides, have we got any other leads to follow?" stated France as everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
"Tracking spells are quite simple, so I'm sure that Romania and I will be able to perform one on England's car." proposed Norway as Romania summoned a spell book.
"Okay, so it's agreed. We'll follow Scottie's advice so that we can save Iggy!" yelled America.
"His name is Scotland, not Scottie. Anyway, let's get started!" shouted Germany as all the other nations began to follow Scotland's instructions.