Kumori's voice came through the phone. "Hey Korū! Liam's being annoying, help."
"Kumori, don't interrupt people's phone calls," Kaito called from somewhere far away.
"Tell him to back the fuck off or he's dead," Korū deadpanned, referring to Liam and not his uncle. Obviously.
"Anyway, there's still no news about Rich." There was a disappointed pause from Alina. "We'll find him, okay?" Joanne said more gently, "Think that's about all that I had to tell you."
"Hold on, Jo. When you said that we should try jumping down the middle of Mount Fuji, were you actually serious?" Linda asked.
There was a moment of thoughtful silence. "Kind of. There's a limited number of entrances to their alcove. The only one the Council knows about is the one at Fuji, although there's a chance they won't let you in and you go splat. Another way is to find a Fujihana and convince them to let you in nicely, and pray they won't kill you. Any Fujihana that you find will most likely be in the area, so you should still head there anyway. Mount Fuji is their main entrance, kinda."
"Pretty dangerous bet, don't you think?" Shōhei said. "Like, jump in and if they don't wanna let you in, you die. I mean, I could fly and maybe save two or three of you but the others are gonna die."
"Hence the second option. There's already a risk you would die on a normal day, so this is just a little riskier than normal, considering how messed up most of our lives are." Joanne told him.
"You have a point." Shōhei leaned back in his seat. "Sometimes I'm kinda glad my life wasn't so bad." He glanced apologetically at the others. "No offence."
"None taken." Alina said, getting a confused look from Cayne, who had no inkling about her past.
"Didn't you like, volunteer for all this?" Cayne asked.
Alina, who had twisted herself around to face the three people at the back when the call started, blinked once, before she paused, shrugged and said, "I guess I did. Jo, why didn't you tell us to find a Fujihana before telling us to jump straight into a volcano?"
"I thought it was given." Joanne was silent for a while, before she spoke up again. "Well, if that's all we need to say to each other, I'll go take a nap before double checking the potion for Hikari."
"No, go and actually sleep and leave the potion checking to our healers." Korū's eyes narrowed.
"They don't even know what I put inside! It didn't even exist before this!" Joanne said indignantly.
"Firstly, if you're too dang tired you might get something wrong anyways. Secondly, I'm fairly certain that even if the thing doesn't work my sis isn't gonna die."
"That's why I'm taking a nap. Also, although she's not gonna die, she basically incapacitated with pain. Not fun, I tell you."
If Korū had a tail, it'd be twitching back and forth in annoyance. "Tch. Sleep afterwards, or my sis is never gonna forgive herself."
"Duh. Any less sleep and I'll be causing more harm than good. I know myself well enough to know that. Anyway, bye. Be careful." Joanne bid them goodbye and hung up.
Korū chucked the phone into his bag, the tension in his shoulders easing. "So are we actually gonna jump down the middle of Fuji?"
"I hope not." Linda said. "I think we should scout around the area to see if we can find a Fujihana and persuade them to let us in."
"How do you even identify a Fujihana?" Cayne asked. Alina shrugged.
"We'll find out when we get there." Alina told him, before Korū spoke up.
"Hold it. If they were the ones who set the curse on my family, what makes you think they'll be willing to remove it?"
"It's a pretty old curse, isn't it? And they aren't the ones removing it, we'll be the ones breaking it, and all Fujihana curses have a way out, like we said before." Alina told Korū.
"And if they're anything like me or my parents, hell, even my grandparents, their 'vengeance' would be passed on down the generations."
"Say what?" Alina asked tiredly, slumping back into her seat. "Someone translate that to English, please."
"He's saying that the Fujihana might still be pissed off about whatever happened at that time when they cursed the Okazaki line because vengeance isn't normally a 'one generation' thing here," Shōhei explained.
"They give everyone a way out of their curse. Always. Even the people who mass murdered their family a few centuries ago, but those people died trying." Alina said.
"You think they'll be kind enough to tell us how to break it?" Korū leaned back in his seat. "I don't think so."
"Stop being such a pessimist." Linda berated him.
"They usually tell those who ask, and you already said that as long as there's a chance that we can break it, you're willing to take it, remember?" Alina said.
"Did I?"
"If Korū starts being optimistic, we gotta run," Shōhei joked.
"So anyway, we're going to try this. I have a suspicion, though…" Alina ignored Shōhei's comment.
"What?"
"I feel that although this curse is to your grandmother's bloodline, Akui is involved too."
"And?"
"What do you mean 'and'?" Alina asked.
"...There's no 'and'?" he questioned. "Your train of thought crashed and burned after that thought about my grandfather being involved?"
"Well, what do you want to know?"
"I don't know, maybe something along the lines of 'he was cursed as well'? There's a possibility, after all."
"I can only guess he's involved because he's the one that killed your mom, uncle and possibly a cousin. Doesn't mean he is directly cursed or something." Alina reasoned.
"For all we know he's cursed to be bloodthirsty for the rest of his miserable life."
"Exactly, that's why it's a suspicion." Alina said, getting annoyed.
"Meh, whatever."
"Can you guys explain what we're talking about?" Shōhei asked.
Alina sighed and turned back to face the front. "How long more?"
"About five, I think." Linda answered.
"Minutes?"
"Hours."
"God damn it."