"Huh?" Korū narrowed his eyes. "Why-" He caught Hikari's glare. "Fine, whatever." Kaguya leaped into his arms, purring softly. "I don't know what really happened, but Hikari and I think our mom and Ryota oji-san were… abused. I've seen scars on our uncle before, and the scars on our mom's face didn't come from the 'land-craze', as she called it." A slight flicker of pain crossed his face.
"When they were six, he left them for another family he had when they were three, but no one knew about it. He was just like 'lol fuck you bye'. Then apparently Kaito oji-san's mother committed harakiri, and he was found by our mother's family after he ran away. Our bitch of a grandfather tracked him down but our pack didn't let him take him back. And then we come to this. He hates our mother, I don't know why, but apparently enough to kill her."
Alina was silent. The sheer amount of trauma was making her nervous.
Korū leaned back in his seat and folded his arms. "That's all I know."
The three of them were quiet for a while. Solemn. The sudden lack of background noise caused Linda and Cayne to glance over, worried expressions on their faces.
Alina just gave a small smile as the three of them all lounged on the sofa, listening as the murmur of Linda and Cayne conversing resumed. This felt like the calm before a storm. Seems like they haven't died yet.
Korū downed the rest of his coffee, while Hikari's was left untouched on the table. Both of them suddenly looked absolutely drained.
Alina sighed. "Jesus, we're so messed up." Was there anyone here who didn't experience any pain and suffering? It was way too early to tell if Cayne was as scarred as his company.
"Whaddya expect?" Korū let out a sound that sounded like a half-snort-half-laugh. "This world is screwed up."
"Yeah… the world is screwed up…" Alina mumbled. Her mind was racing in a million directions, trying its best to organise its thoughts.
Six years ago, the group heading for the Gamma Tournament was attacked by the pack of rogues, which possibly represent Akui. Which means there must have been a target in that group. Those same rogues recently killed Korū and Hikari's mother and uncle. But what for?
On a totally different and possibly unrelated thread of thoughts, Korū and Hikari were apparently cursed to die early, and if there was a way to let them live, Alina would stop at nothing. Even if the possibility was small. But which witch or wizard would be ruthless enough to cast such a despicable spell? A bolt of realisation struck her. She could suspect who the witch was.
What were the chances of her being right?
"Wait, you said that a witch cursed your family? Do you know the name of the witch?"
"Uh, I think Chikara-something."
"Chikara… Chikara… Japan… um… Fujihana?" Alina said thoughtfully.
"I think?"
"Fuck. Are you sure?" Was she to be glad that there would be a way to break the curse, or apprehensive that that would not be an easy path to take?
"What?" Hikari looked worried. "Why 'fuck'?"
"The Fujihana family is very high profile. Heck, even I've heard of them, and they're from Earth. The basic rule of thumb when negotiating with witches and wizards is never, ever, let a Fujihana have a reason to curse you." The best decision would be to stay far away from any witch or wizard related to the Fujihanas.
"Wow, what the hell?" Hikari muttered, her eyebrows scrunching up. Korū just sat there waiting for Alina to continue.
"All their curses are really messed up. I heard of people stabbing themselves everytime they took a step, and being forced to torture loved ones…" Alina shivered. She would have prayed that these were just rumours, but the odds were never in her favour. "That isn't even the worst."
"What the fuck? Why the heck would anyone do that?"
Alina shrugged. "Why not? People always say that all their curses have some sort of way out though, which is obviously going to be more messed up than the curse itself."
"Damnit," Korū hissed, his lips curling in a snarl. "This is just so fucking messed up."
Alina sighed. "Mhm. But that means you might have a way out of this dead-by-adulthood curse."
"We can try," Hikari spoke up. "I just want my family to live, so-"
"We need to find out how to break it in the first place though." Linda cut through. The three didn't realise that Linda and Cayne had started listening to their conversation.
"Mhm." Hikari had a thoughtful expression on her face. "We can try to locate her, maybe follow the trails of the asscracks who ran away?"
"How old is the curse anyway?" Alina asked.
"I dunno. My… great-grandmother? Maybe?"
Alina blinked. Since when did witches and wizards live so long? "Then is she even still alive…?"
"Who would even know?"
"Ah… how 'bout we leave Night Stalker to do their thing and tell us to contact us if they find something." Alina said. "It'll probably take a few months to even find a clue as to what is going on. We can go see the Fujihana family in that time span, and see what we can do."
"Yeah, then we risk offending them, and get even more cursed."
Cayne raised an eyebrow at Korū, "So… someone not charismatic enough to not offend anyone for even five seconds?"
"Fuck off." He threw the empty coffee cup at Cayne. "And obviously not."
Cayne smirked at him, catching the cup. "I'm sure you're going to let your lack of charisma get in the way of possibly saving you and your sister from an extremely premature death."
"Screw you." He glowered at the other guy. "Shut the fuck up. You got hella good charisma with the fucking girls so screw off."
"What gave you that idea?" Cayne asked curiously, his eyebrow flying higher still. This was amusing.
"Huh, I don't know, you were one of those bitches who chilled with that guy whose arm I broke and the girls watching that fight were so clearly swooning over the three of you?"
Cayne and Linda snorted loudly, causing Alina to squint at the two of them.
"Korū, hon," Cayne said in a high falsetto. "Aren't you stereotyping a bit too much?"
Korū narrowed his eyes. "You sound gay."
"Do I?" Cayne asked.
"Does he?" Linda asked, also sounding very amused.
"He does?" Alina asked.
"Yes."
"Second that," Hikari chipped in.
Linda just chortled. The others didn't know that Cayne had come out to the school towards the end of last year, but that didn't stop some girls from drooling over him.
"You know," Cayne said, "They say that gays can always tell if another is gay."
"What the fuck." But Korū didn't deny it.
"Can they really?" Alina looked like a Cheshire cat.
Hikari randomly started to sing like, "There! Right There! Look at that tan, that tinted skin, look at the killer shape he's in, look at that slightly stubbly chin, oh, please he's gay, totally gay-"
"The mood totally…"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
"Did a full one eighty…" Alina finished, while Linda cringed, and murmured "crazy."
"HE'S GAY," Hikari sang proudly.
"I'M BI, YOU DUMB SHIT."
"Wait, really?" Cayne said, surprised. "Wow."
"GOTTA PROBLEM?!"
"Definitely not." Cayne's grin was as wide as Alina's.
"FUCK YOU."
"UH." Hikari burst out laughing.
"Gladly." Alina and Cayne spat out simultaneously, both of them crumpling to the ground in laughter.
"HOLY FUCKING SHIT I DIDN'T MEAN THAT."
"No person fucks shit, Korū." Linda said, laughing too.
"Screw off." Korū flung a cushion at Hikari and stalked off, Kaguya scampering after him.
"He's not really mad, right?" Cayne asked, glancing at the open door.
"You wish." Hikari sighed. "He's touchy about this kinda thing."
"Damn it." He muttered, causing Linda and Alina to glance at him, Alina with a glint in her eye.
"I'll just… let's just assume that we're gonna find the Fujihanas. I'll tell the Alpha." Linda said. Their conversation hadn't been very constructive, but the second half had been fun.