"So… this wall?" Alina asked.
"...Another wall?" Korū frowned. He might form an aversion to walls if this kept up.
"Well, there was only one other so far, and you were hardly involved." Linda pointed out to him, "So it doesn't make sense for you to say it like walls have been continually annoying you."
"He never makes sense." Hikari stated, and the glare was averted from Linda.
"Not wall, floor." Mrs Ishikawa told them.
"Huh." Cayne grunted.
They glanced down. "How does this thing work?" Hikari asked.
"Well, it's sort of like a trapdoor to the other house." Mrs Ishikawa told them.
"That doesn't answer anything." Alina stated, staring closely at the floor. She was feeling a strange sense of foreboding.
Mrs Ishikawa chuckled. She drew her wand and gave it a wave, causing the section of floor in front of them to fall away, becoming a circular pool of white against the marble.
Korū peered at it. "Where are we gonna pop up?"
"One of the sitting rooms of the family house. No one is usually there." She said.
"I- Okay, sure, but what if there's someone there?"
"Say hi and explain yourselves."
"Eh. We'll try." Linda said.
Hikari shoved Linda and Korū into the pool, Korū screaming bloody murder.
Linda just yelped as she stepped forward from the momentum, expecting her foot to be met by the white section of the floor which looked solid, only for it to go right through, causing her entire body to fall over.
"Well, that's quite an exit." Mrs Ishikawa commented, looking slightly amused. "Good luck."
Alina waved and stepped onto the white, falling through like her friends just did, except with less noise.
Cayne shifted from foot to foot, looking nervous. Couldn't be some kind of trap right? A test?
"Go on, or do I have to push you in, too?" Hikari asked.
Shōhei hung back, intending to wait until everyone else was gone.
"How 'bout you go first?" Cayne offered, grinning to hide his concern.
"Nope."
Cayne sighed and grabbed both Hikari and Shōhei, dragging them down with him.
"Bye, Ishikawa-san!" Hikari yelled.
Cayne let out a high pitched squeak as he continued to fall. "WHAT THE HECK!?" he shouted, looking down as the wind whipped their clothes around. Now he was the type to love rollercoasters, but this was a bit much.
They were way up in the sky, and below them, the yawning mouth of a volcano.
With a yelp, Shōhei shifted on instinct, ripping his second last set of clothes. He reached out for Hikari and Cayne, but the two were plummeting too quickly for him to do anything. With another yelp, he plunged after them, but they'd disappeared. Blinking in confusion, he tilted his wings and shot downwards. It seemed like the logical thing to do.
Cayne resisted the urge to scream as loud as he could, forcing himself to get used to the sensation of falling. If he had to choose a way to die, it definitely would not be from going splat. But since it seemed like he was indeed going to go splat, ending with a horrified, undignified screech was not what he wanted to do.
Hikari simply spread her arms and legs out, enjoying the feeling, "Oh look, the same sensation I got when I fell off that cliff into the sea. This is going great. Now where the hell is Korū?"
Suddenly, the whooshing stopped and their descend slowed to a halt.
"Wow, we didn't go splat." Was Cayne's first sentence after he gathered himself, his feet back on solid ground.
"Cool." Hikari replied, "Where's-"
Shōhei appeared beside them at that moment, his wings spread as though he were still airborne. The room they were in was somehow large enough to accommodate his size. "Wait, what?" His facial expressions were just switching between varying amounts of confusion. He then grunted a little at his two companions.
"Yo." Cayne told him, "I don't speak dragon."
Hikari translated for Shōhei. "He says, 'I'd shift back, but your eyes might catch fire again'."
Cayne squinted at the dragon. "Ah, at least I didn't panic shift. Now, where's the others?"
"If you panicked and shifted, it wouldn't be of any use," Shōhei pointed out, shifting back and pulling on some clothes as Cayne and Hikari turned away. "At least I can fly."
"Sure."
"Oh, you're here. We thought you'd never show." Alina said, entering the room from what looked like a balcony.
"Bless your eyes. You didn't see anything this time." Shōhei said.
"Lucky me." Alina muttered.
"Nice clothes." Linda said from behind Alina.
"There you are." Korū entered after Linda. He studied his friend. "You panicked, huh?"
"Pff- shush."
Cayne snorted, drawing a weird look from Linda.
"What were you doing on the balcony, or whatever that is?" Cayne asked them, ignoring Linda's look.
"It's cool out there. Not in a literal sense. Like, you can see the rest of Japan from there, but you can't see the house from Fuji. At least, I think the view is Japan…" Alina trailed off thoughtfully, "Anyway, let's try not to die, shall we?" Alina said, "Pray for yourself." and she made her way out of the room through another door that seemed like it led to the rest of the house, her footsteps silent on the tiled floor.
The others followed her, Korū with his hand on the hilt of his katana as usual. Linda nudged him to warn him to stop being so defensive. Or offensive, rather. It was obviously ineffective.
As they exited the room, they were met with a dimly lit, vacant living room.
Korū glanced around, looking like he was checking the room for assassins or something.
"I just realised, isn't it weird and impolite that we just barge into someone's house through a magic portal?" Shōhei mused in a nervous way.
"Well," A female voice sounded from behind them. "It's not your fault that you have no front door to knock on."