To be honest, that bath felt quite relaxing. It was so warm, and so peaceful. I swore I fell asleep at one point from all of it. I sat on the bed they provided me with and waited for them to fix my bullet wound. One of the servants, who I found out was named Carl, came in with a bottle.
He applied some sort of liquid onto the wound. It burned a lot, before healing the wound immediately. "H-how did that-?"
He smiled. "These are Lyrquif tears. The miss owns many bottles for similar purposes. They heal many wounds, caused by both magic and weapons."
"What's a Lyrquif?" I asked him. Rosaline entered the room, and looked disappointed.
"Carl, what's taking you so long? The others are already dying their hairs and you're still here cleaning wounds." She kindly smiled at me. "As for your question, I am a Lyrquif."
"Tall, stylish, a giant ego to match the size of their house?" I joked. She frowned, but quickly hid it with the same smile.
"Lyrquifs are creatures that live alongside with Carthyans and are known as, how would you humans call it, 'cousins' of their kind. We are known to be clever, stylish, rich, and most importantly, skilled!" She laughed shortly.
"Skilled in what?" I grabbed a sweatshirt beside me and put it on.
Her smirk never left her face. "Killing." Carl left the room to get some dye colors and closed the door behind him. She started walking around the room. Not a good sign. "In order to be considered a Lyrquif, you must have killed at least one person, regardless of who they are and where they come from." Her claws came out.
"You see, I've already killed many people," Her eyes never left me. I got up and kept my distance from her. "My first kill was when I was a child. I was six, when I killed a boy." The clipping noise of her heels started to speed up. I followed her actions.
"Interesting. Why? I'm sure there was a reason other than fulfilling traditions." I narrowed my eyes at her. "Even a child has their own reasons to do what they wish."
"My, you catch on fast, don't you?" Her sickening grin grew. "I killed him because he was mean, and always hit me whenever our parents weren't looking at us. Always called me a disgrace, for not being able to kill like the others." I tried to form an ice spear, instead I got a simple icicle.
"One day, he hit me so hard I started bleeding, left a scar on my face you see." She pulled her hair back to reveal three claw marks on the top side of her face. The markings looked similar to her claws. Wait a second . . . "Do you know who that boy was?" She stopped walking.
I tried to make my icicle longer and sharper. "No, who was it?" I nervously asked.
She raised her claws. "My older brother." She whispered, and jumped over the bed. She raised her hand-
"I'm back~" Carl opened the door with a closed-eye smile. "I found a lot of dyes that could work with yo- oh?" Rosaline landed beside me, centimeters away from my face. "Was I interrupting something?" I glanced at her with fear. How did she-
"No, it was nothing." She placed a hand on my shoulder. "We were just talking about some designs that could work with him." I could feel her squeezing my shoulder, hard. "Try to find some clothes that are modern but have that rebellious feeling to it, hm?" She walked out and left the room. "His hair is also quite long, so you might want to cut it." She closed the door.
"Oh, I see. Thank you, miss." I looked at my shaking hand which was wet. I guess I'm starting to control my powers?. "SO, do you want chestnut brown or dark blonde hair, or maybe a dark raven color?" He asked innocently. "If you want to change your hair to have a more artificial color, I do have pastel pink, mint green, holiday red and stunning silver."
I thought about it. "How about more than one color?"
~~~
"Wow, that actually came out well!" I had to admit, it did look nice. My hair was dark blonde, with silver and green highlights. He pulled out a pair of scissors and a shaving machine and pulled my hair back. "As wonderful as your hair looks, I still need to cut it. So hold still."
It took a few minutes, but he managed to fix my hair into a simple quiff with a mid fade. "Perfect. Now for your clothes," He left to look inside the massive closet. "Let's see, the miss said you'd look good in modern and rebelling kind of clothes. Hmm . . ." The door opened again. I flinched, fearing it was Rosaline coming back to kill me.
Luckily, it was Vanitas. He dyed his hair raven black and got a high fade with a crew cut. He looked over me quickly before sitting down on the bed. "You look fine. Different, but fine."
"Never thought I'd live to see the day where your hair isn't gelled back." He snorted and looked outside. He glanced at the floor.
"So, you had a near death experience with Rosaline, I see." Carl found a nice leather jacket and some ripped jeans. I was focused on what he said though. Did Rosaline tell him? She must have.
"She didn't tell me, there's a puddle on the floor." Vanitas read my mind. "You showered a long time ago, and it was only a few minutes ago she left my room to check on everyone else." He chuckled. "Don't worry. It runs in most Lyrquif families, but in hers, it practically gallops."
"Alright, now." We turned our attention to the servant. "As much I enjoy your company Vanitas, I believe we are still in the process of disguising your friend here."
"Ah! Right, sorry." He got up and left. "Just a reminder, we're heading out to meet my friend, so you might want to hurry up a bit." He yelled.
"Okay, go in the bathroom and put these on." he closed the door. I look carefully at what he gave me. There was a black shirt with the word "FREAK" designed in the form as a glitch with white, neon green, and purple splattered around it. The ripped jeans were a faded bright blue with a blood orange belt hanging on the side. The leather jacket had a few buttons on the front and a "King" design on the back with a spray paint look to it.
"Well, it certainly looks rebellious," I felt something touch my leg. I looked down to see my tail out again. "Looks like it wore off." I looked in the mirror and saw my horns sticking out too. I ignored it for now and changed into the new clothes provided to me. They felt really comfortable. But I still felt weird wearing this kind of clothing.
I slowly stepped out and saw Jay sitting on the bed with Carl. "Oh, man. You look so cool!" He beamed. "I wish I could pull it off like you." I smirked.
"I could say the same about you." His long ginger hair got cut into a textured spikey blonde hair. His clothes gave him an adventurous look. "This look suits you."
"Ya think?" He took my words to heart and glowed. "Thanks! I still gotta do makeup and piercing." He didn't seem to like the thought of powder and lip gloss on his face.
"Piercing?" I asked Carl.
He nodded in agreement. "In order to complete your look, we will pierce some of your ears." He noticed the panic in my eyes. "Oh, d-don't worry! It won't hurt, it'll go by really quickly, I promise!" He frantically explained.
He pointed to the chair in front of the vanity. "For now, we'll just apply a bit of makeup and maybe a few accessories."
One of the servants came in and sighed in relief when they saw Jay. "There you are! Come now, we have to apply makeup."
"Never!" He sprinted out the door and was chased by the servant.
Carl pulled out a bunch of makeup tools and started applying them to my face. It felt so strange, having a brush go over my face. "Hold still, please. You might ruin it!"After a lifetime, I finally saw what he did. It wasn't really anything, my skin just looked lighter and he made me look like I had freckles.
"Alright!" He clasped his hands together. "Let's go with the others and get your ears pierced." I still felt uneasy about it, but if it meant I could go back home, then I would.
I opened the door to find Vanitas talking to someone. Or was it screaming? I wasn't sure. "God, I know, I know!" He shoved the phone to me. "Deal with her, she won't stop yelling." He walked away before I could ask any questions.
Who's "her"? And why did I have to talk to her?! I hesitantly put the phone near my ear. "H-hello?"
There was silence for a while. Then, I heard a voice I longed to hear; "Oni? Is that you?"
"Mom?" My voice cracked.
"Oni! Ienzo come here, our son's on the phone!" Tears pricked my eyes. I tried taking in deep breaths to control myself, but every breath seemed to break me bit by bit.
Jay noticed and asked what was wrong. I decided to put my parents on speaker. "Oni, where exactly are you? Please tell me where you are, I'll have your uncle collect you all and your father and I will keep you safe, I promise."
His eyes widened. "Mrs. Tomodachi? How'd you find us? We're all the way in America, planning our-"
"Oh, Jay! You're here too! Are the twins there as well?" She completely ignored the question.
"Mom," My voice quivered, but I wanted to know too. She was in Europe, while we were in another continent. "H-how did you find us?"
"Vanitas has been calling me ever since you disappeared." She answered. "He's been giving me updates on what's been happening there." There was a pause. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about your brother or what you truly were."
I shook my head. "That's not important. If you knew where we were, why didn't you take us back when we were about to go to Mexico?"
Again, another pause. ". . . They were reasons." My joy started turning into frustration and anger.
"What's that supposed to mean? What reasons?" Jay tried to calm me down, but I shoved him away. "What was so important that you had to send my pet tiger instead of yourselves?"
Mune came out and noticed the commotion. "Hey, what's going on-"
"Oni, calm down. I get you're mad, but you gotta be reasonable about this, okay?" Jay warned.
"No! What could possibly be more important than saving us?!" I yelled, snapping my tail.
"Oni, listen to me," My father spoke on the other side. "I know you're upset, but-"
"Oh, I'm more than upset," I glared at the phone. I put it on silent and growled into it. "You knew. This entire time, you knew." My breaths were coming in smokes now. "Goodbye."
I barely heard my mother's plea before ending the call. I shut my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose, trying not to cry again. "If you're done, could you stop freezing the hallway?" A voice spoke up beside me. I jumped.
Nico looked at me, clearly annoyed. "Well?" I looked around the room. The entire hallway was encased in a thin layer of ice, with a few icicles growing out of the ceiling.
"Oh, s-sorry." I tried retracting my ice, but it wouldn't budge. Keith decided to use his fire to warm it instead.
Vanitas came back with a eyebrow piercing and a few ear piercings on his left ear. He sighed. "I suppose it didn't go well, huh." He glanced at me.
I ignored him. Skai came out and ran towards me. "Oni!" He literally leaped at me, laughing as he did so. "You're okay! Haha! I thought you were a goner when Rosaline separated us, but you're okay!"
I wish I could laugh with him, be as carefree, but that call just made me so angry. I shoved him off a bit hard. "Not right now, Skai."
He looked at me, confused and hurt. I went back to my room and slammed the door. I could hear a bunch of noises coming from outside but I ignored it. I fell face first on the bed. There was knocking on it a few minutes after. "Go away! I'm not piercing my ears!" The door opened anyway. I jumped into a fighting stance. "Get out." I gritted my teeth.
Rosaline smiled at me. "Oh? I should be telling you that." She closed the door, and locked it this time. Shit, I thought. She brought out her claws and smiled her fangs at me. "You know, I would've taken your brother the moment I first met him, but that Carthyan always kept him close."
She swiftly ran across the room and grabbed my neck and slammed me on the wall. "You on the other hand, are a perfect specimen, being a hybrid." I grabbed her wrist and froze, thinking she would release. She only held on harder. "And a powerful one too." Black dots started dancing around my eyes, and it was harder to breathe now. "I would have killed you and sold you, but you'll pay much better alive."
I could hear the others banging on the door. My vision started to blur as my eyelids started getting heavy. The last thing I remembered was the door breaking and Rosaline's sadistic face.