Walking up the stairs, the guards tensed up when they saw their boss walking by, then they nodded his way. Alethea, who was walking right behind Tousuki, didn't seem fazed by the reaction at all. Taking off his coat and giving it to the nearest person, Tousuki walked through the dark and quiet halls, much to his dismay, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Something bad happened, and he hoped it wasn't about anything related to the "business". Walking up to the dark wooden lounge doors, Tousuki turned around to warn Alethea about the people inside, when something caught his attention.
"Keiichi! As in the Keiichi?" asked one voice.
"Yeah, Tousuki's brother," another female voice said.
Slamming the doors open, an angered Tousuki entered the room.
"What did I say about--"
Standing in front of him, was a bandaged Keiichi, shocked by his brother's appearance in this place, he closed his eyes tight and hoped to be dreaming. Alethea came out from behind Tousuki, and once she saw Keiichi, she gasped, he wasn't supposed to be here and she knew it.
"Please tell me I'm dreaming," Tousuki muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Tousuki signaled for Mike, his butler, and most trusted servant, without a second thought, Mike rushed to Tousuki's side. Clutching his tablet tightly, Mike stood in front of Tousuki, ready to give him a report of the current standings of the company. Although Mike might seem like a mere butler, with his suit and trousers, he was in charge of way more than just some butler duties.
"Call a meeting for the five families," Tousuki looked at his brother before signaling Mike to come closer, he quietly whispered, "take Keiichi to a guest room."
"No, Tousuki you have to tell me what's going on," Keiichi said looking around the lounge, "what and where is this place? Why can't I leave? Who are those people? And why are they so scared… of you?"
The room became colder, Tousuki's breath became icy, scaring Alethea and Keiichi in the process. Sighing out loud Tousuki walked up to the bar, and asked one of the girls who was a bartender, Keira, for a drink. Alethea watched as the lady behind the counter searched for a bottle on the shelf before pouring some liquid into a glass cup. She then passed it to Tousuki who took the cup gracefully, with the room's temperature gradually going down and he shooed her away. Alethea snatched the drink from Tousuki before he could put his lips on the cup.
"Tousuki that's a bit rash don't you think, you're still underage," Alethea said with her arms crossed.
"Its club soda honey, relax," Tousuki said, snatching the cup from her hands and chugging the whole thing.
In that same room, around the wooden table at the front part of the lounge sat the Big Five, each in their leather chair. Sitting majestically in the front of the group was the head of the families Tousuki. Beside him sat Keiichi and Alethea, Keiichi suffocated in the tense atmosphere. He looked at the people sitting in front of him, none of these he recognized, except Mike, who was standing by the door.
"I called you," Tousuki started, "to talk about matters regarding not only business but family."
"With that said--"
A phone began to ring, Alethea sheepishly looked at Tousuki, mumbled a "sorry", and took the call outside. Tousuki glanced around the room, looking at every single well-dressed person in the room. He wasn't mad, everybody around the table noticed that he seemed more… disappointed. Whether it was because of their current situation, or the problem with Alethea.
"I'll cut to the chase," Tousuki mumbled, pointing to his muddled brother Tousuki asked "why is he here?"
Standing up, the head of the Nightingale family, Markus began to explain the reason for Keiichi's appearance at "home".
"Your brother, I mean, Keiichi was… he was found in the psychiatric hospital, by Noemi and me, with burn wounds on his back. I thought that we should bring him here and help him."
Tousuki glanced at Mark's wife Noemi for confirmation, she nodded, Noemi's five-month-old stomach made it a bit hard for her to stand up before she was about to speak. Tousuki immediately told her to sit down, with a grateful face she took her seat.
"Tousuki, all formalities aside, we need to speak of the current situation. I--"
Putting a hand up, Noemi stopped talking, and she sat down once again next to her husband. Keiichi watched as Tousuki had full control of everyone in the room. Being able to talk so formally must be hard, and the fact that these people don't seem that old made Keiichi wonder.
Who are they?
"A report on the B.W. Operation," Tousuki's dull voice caught the attention and curiosity of Keiichi.
The head of the Elliot family, Denim, then stood up, his wife Rhett standing up with him. His eyes turned dark as he was going to speak, but before he opened his mouth, Althea burst into the room with her phone at her ear, her frantic eyes met Tousuki's. Standing up, everyone's attention was directed to Alethea.
"It's the hospital."
While in the car, Alethea explained the theories of the multiverse, parallel universe, pocket dimensions, and realities; sometimes speaking about alternative universes. Tousuki quietly listened as she explained the blade and the guy from the hospital.
"When we travel through dimensions, it was found out that the cells in the body can't function properly. To fix that my father, the king of the Dymestics, had made these pills with a dose of our dimensional energy," she pulled out normal-looking blue and white pills, "that's how I'm not in a hospital right now glitching like a scratched CD, but Peter, he doesn't have these pills. And the fact that he is a parallel universe different from his own isn't helping."
"Hold on, wait, let me recap, a parallel universe is a universe that looks like ours, has the same lookin' people in it, but they aren't?" Tousuki asked, looking worried more than surprised.
"Yes. There's another Tousuki Norigani in Peter's parallel universe, cool right?" Alethea asked excitedly, almost bouncing like an excited child; before her eyes widened and her mood dropped like gravity.
Tousuki gave her worried and weird looks, "...right..."
As they got out of the car, they ran into the hospital's parking lot, and got inside asking for this "Peter" guy's room number. They sped walked to the elevator and the information hit Tousuki exactly how Alethea frantically punched Peter's room floor.
"Holy Crowley," a bewildered Tousuki asked. "The theories of the multiverse, pocket dimensions, and...and..." Tousuki rambled and rocked in his shoes.
Alethea watched confused at this new side of Tousuki, he seemed like the "I'm the big boss" and "I'm quiet and mature" type; but this Tousuki looks like a kid, a kid his age.
The guy in the corner of the elevator, awkwardly glanced at the young man. Alethea awkwardly smiled at the man, smiling at tousuki for a second, she cleared her throat getting tousuki to come back to earth. When Tousuki finally realized what he was doing; he stopped, took a deep breath to stop the blood from going to his cheeks, and cleared his throat, going back to his normal self. The way he acted a moment ago made Alethea wonder was that the real Tousuki?
The elevator made a soft but loud "Ding!" and the doors opened revealing a loud floor. People with white coats sped walked in a specific direction, nurses and more people ran to another, a typical hospital.
"Okay, Tousuki, be prepared, Peter might recognize you from his world," she said through a clenched mouth.
"How is that a problem?" Tousuki asked a shaking Alethea.
"You'll see…"
Walking into the room, Tousuki saw a bandaged boy sleeping on the hospital bed. He glanced out the window, it was still dark, what time was it? Peeping at the clock outside the room, he saw that it was midnight already. That was bad. He walked next to Alethea and watched as she tried to wake up Peter.
"Peter, wake up," she said softly.
Peter's eyes fluttered like in the movies before they glimpsed around the room. He looked at Alethea confused, before coming to an assumed conclusion, what he was thinking was clear in his eyes. He was looking for someone, and they weren't here. His voice was loud, and his face was hard as he spoke.
"Where's Monica?!" he asked.
"Peter, my name is Alethea, and.." her talking was getting nowhere as Peter didn't even look at her.
"Oi, at least look at the lady while she's talking," Tousuki said huskily.
This caught Peter's attention, and his face twisted at the sight of Tousuki.