I woke up to the feeling of my head throbbing like hell. I groaned, and tried to get an understanding of where I was. It seemed like I was in a cave of some sort, with a fire in the center of it burning. There were a few pots and pans laying around, and some blankets piled up in a corner.
"Good to know you're awake." Someone said behind me. I turned to see Keith sitting on some sort of molten rock. "Didn't know if you needed a blanket with your ability to do ice and all until I saw your horns."
"Horns?" Something touched my leg. I looked and saw a bright blue tail moving on and off my left leg. I touched my head and felt two horns pointing back in a wavy formation. I looked at him with fear and anger. "Did you do this to me?"
He scoffed. "As if. This is all on you." He looked outside, a storm raging with the wind screaming. "Didn't think Kettō would try to hide here and keep you hidden from the rest of us."
I froze. This guy went from annoying to mysterious in seconds. "How do you know my mother?"
"She worked with my father, King Hikari." Hikari, I know that name. He was from the Kasai family. "You come from a family of nobles, with you and your twin brother Skai to take her place once of age." Twin brother? Nobles? Where did that come from?
"I'm sorry, but I think you got the wrong guy. I don't have a twin brother, and coming from a royal family seems even more far fetched than that. I'm just an ordinary kid who doesn't get enough sleep and has a few tricks up my sleeve." A light flicked in my eyes. "Ah! What was that for?"
"Name; Oni Tomodachi. Age; 14 years. Parents: Kettō Asuna and Ienzo Tomodachi. Siblings; Skai Tomodachi. Species; Kyron-Human Hybrid. Ranking; Noble-Knight. Skills; Memory sight, Cyrokinesis." Keith showed me a device with a bored expression.
"Still think you're an 'ordinary kid?'" A smile tugged on the corners of his red mouth. "I can understand why she wanted no one to find out what you are, but not why she gave your brother up to Vanitas." I tried to understand what this all meant. How much of my visions were actually true? How much of what he was saying was true?
"My advice," he created a flame the size of a plum in his hand, and threw at the fire, relighting the room. "Don't worry about it too much. I'm sure my cousin had a good reason to hide the truth from you. Maybe he wanted to wait until you were like this when he told you about your family."
I noticed carefully that his hair was hiding a pair of snow leopard ears, with it's matching tail curled around the rock he was sitting on. One of the ears twitched, and he looked outside. "Speak of the devil." He laughed shortly. "You can come on out guys! You're friends safe, I won't hurt him."
An arrow shot through the storm, nearly missing Keith's right eye. He glanced at the weapon, and looked at his attacker. Nico walked in, with black horns shining from the light, and wings that dragged across the floor, draped over his shoulders. "That was a warning shot. Next time you won't be so lucky, Keith."
Keith merely cocked an eyebrow. "Really? I just took you friend and you get pissed like that? I wonder how Hayori must be when she's this mad." Nico's eyes narrowed. Ashrin came in with everyone, and a boy that looked a lot like me, but with neon yellow eyes. He waved at me non-stop and had a giddy look on his face.
"Get your stuff, Keith." Vanitas ordered. His eyes seemed to be glowing while his ears became more pointed, like an elf. "You're coming with us."
Ash looked at him, confused. "Vanitas, he may be the person Yuuto's looking for, but he's still my brother and your cousin."
Vanitas rolled his eyes. "I'm not giving him to Yuuto, are you crazy?" He nodded his chin to Zane. "He'll create a distraction with Keith's help to give us enough time to get out of here and see if we can get everyone home. Now let's move before Yuuto finds us."
My brother- Skai, I think his name was- rushed up to me and checked my eyes. "Wow! Your eyes look like an amethyst purple, completely different from mine! And you have the same horn and tail shape as me, so cool!" The excitement seemed to almost disappear as he let go of me and looked at the ground. "Sorry, I get really annoying sometimes. Do you hate it?"
I smiled genuinely at my lost brother. "No, it's not. In fact, it's actually nice to hear that someone in our family likes to talk more than usual." He perked up and smiled widely. He then grabbed my hand and dragged me with the others.
"Come on!" He laughed. "I want you to meet Sholto. He's this really cool guy who can also turn into a snow tiger, kinda like-"
"Wait. Sholto, my 'caretaker', was my pet this whole time?!" A gruff sound came from behind me. Sholto moved past me and walked beside Keith, who seemed to be having a conversation with Zane.
Skai grabbed my hand and dragged me down the mountain as fast as he could. Once we gained about maximum speed, he let go and rolled in the snow. I panicked and ended up copying him. At first, it seemed scary, but after a while of not hitting anything, I started to see why he enjoyed it. We could hear Vanitas scolding us for doing such reckless things in a dangerous area, but we didn't care- we were too busy having fun.
Out of nowhere, we heard a gunshot. We stopped rolling and looked in the distance. "Shit," Vanitas gritted his teeth as he caught up to us. "Yuuto found us." He was right. At the bottom of this mountain was Yuuto with a bunch of people. His stitched smile never seemed to wipe his face. "Get to Nico. He'll lead you to the others while we follow our plan. Go!" Vanitas whispered. Skai took my arm and ran to my cousin.
"What's going on?" I tried to ask my brother. He said nothing. "Skai, what's happening? Why aren't we going back to stop them?"
"Never question what Vanitas is thinking." Was all he said."Yuuto shouldn't find us, or we won't get to see mom and dad." Nico was standing at the edge of the forest on the mountain, with Zane and Keith making clones of us behind him. He glanced at us and ran into the woods, leading us to a path opposite from the group.
I tried asking what was happening, why we were running from Yuuto, why we weren't fighting with them, but no one was listening. At some point, Nico started flying, grabbing us our collars and dropping us off in front of my friends and elites. I groaned in pain, while Skai thanked him graciously.
"Thanks for getting us here!" He waved at him. Nico just flew back. "He seems nice. No wonder you stayed by his side this entire time."
"Nico's our cousin," I got up and dusted myself off and helped him. "I'm supposed to stay with him." Skai laughed at that and skipped over to Ash, who changed into Grai when he arrived.
"Nico's a Lorian. You can tell by the wings." He imitated the flapping motion. "We, on the other hand, are Kyron hybrids. The only thing that we can compare to him would be our high ranking." A weird croaking noise came from behind my brother. I was confused when he got excited that it was a lizard.
"Pebbles! You came back!" He picked him up and scratched underneath Pebbles' head. Well that's one thing he got from dad, his love for reptiles. I shook my head, driving the thought away.
"What do you mean by 'high' ranking?"
"Just because your family is highly respected, doesn't mean your ranking is equal to ours." Grai said, entering our conversation. "Your family is ranked as a noble, but could always go up to Lady or Lord, as well as down to Baron or Baroness." Vanitas, Zane and Keith arrived after running through the forest, with Nico swooping down. "However, our family ranks higher as prince or princess, which will soon lead to king or queen. Nico also comes from that ranking too."
"Wait," Jay said, looking at all of us. "So you're telling me that Nico, who apparently isn't human, is also a prince?" Grai nodded. "Ugh! What else has he beat me to?!"
"Wild guess," Vanitas thought aloud while shaking a can. "Maturity." He sprayed all over his face, and his eyes lost their glowing skills and his ears shrunk. He gave to Nico, who did the same to his head and wings. "While ranks are one thing we need to discuss, we also need to find some friends of mine. See if they can find out how to remove this chip on my neck."
"So that's how he finds you? With a chip?" Mune said, unimpressed. "I thought since almost everyone had these cool powers, Yuuto's would have one too."
"He does," Vanitas scratched his neck in irritation. "However, his powers are more commanding than linking, like mine." He glanced at me while Nico threw me the can. "Spray this on your horns and tail. Humans won't see them, and neither will we."
I did as he said, and applied it to my horns and tail. It had a strange, yet interesting scent. It smelt like lavender, with a hint of honey and marshmallows. I gave the can to Skai, who just shook his head and chuckled. "That spray doesn't work on me." He put on a hoodie and hid his tail in his pants. "I've lived my entire life hiding, so it won't matter if I had to do it one more time."
Vanitas took his spray. "Let's get a move on. Yuuto will realize those aren't clones, and he'll find us again." We followed him to a van. I could hear gunshots and screams in the distance, and I felt really uncomfortable and scared. My guts were telling me to go back and stop them, but my mind was telling me to follow them.
Suddenly, Vanitas's leg was shot. He cursed loudly, and turned around in anger. Yuuto stood there with a pistol in his hands. "Now now, Vanitas. You know the rules," He aimed the gun at my brother. "Get me Keith and prove to me these kids are useful. No cheating." I pushed Skai to the side as he pulled the trigger.
To be honest, I didn't really feel anything at first. But then I felt an enormous amount of pain coming from my upper right torso. I fell to the ground as a ringing noise started to blur everyone else's voices out, my ragged breath being the only other noise I could hear. I glanced at the wound. The bleeding didn't seem to be stopping, with the constant pain and continuous spread of blood on the snow.
I could see the faint figure of Skai sitting in front of me, trying to freeze the wound. I couldn't quite hear what he was saying, but I knew it had something to do with staying alive. I could hear faint shouts and gunshots on the other side. I heard a bigger noise with some kind of light shining from there. Shortly after, someone grabbed me from my arms and put me in the van. I'd be lying if I said that hurt like hell. I was placed down on one of the seats, before having someone touching my head and putting me to sleep.
When I woke up, though, I saw Vanitas sitting on a chair, sipping some coffee? Tea? I don't know. He was also reading a newspaper. He noticed me and everything he had disappeared. "Hey, Oni." He gave me a half-smile.
I felt for the bullet wound on my right chest. I looked at his leg. "Are we dead? After all that?" He smiled disappeared with confusion, before exchanging with a short laugh. "Relax. We're not dead. At least, not yet." He reassured me.
With a flick of his wrist, he showed me a memory when my friends were having fun at the park, before we went to high school. "We are inside your mind. Remember what Zane told you about me?" He showed me another memory, when we were still in the hotel.
"Vanitas's power originates from the brain, so he can see memories and feel your emotions. But the best part of his power is that he can read and respond to thoughts." So Vanitas was the one who touched my forehead. He nodded.
"I can hear your thoughts." he reminded me. He looked into the distance. "I gotta go. See ya." And just like that, I was all alone with my thoughts.
I sat down and tried to wrap my head around this. "This is way too confusing. Even to the readers."