Darkness was all that could be seen, only some few candles on the sidewalls lighted the long corridor leading her downwards. She took every step with shaking legs as fear squeezed her heart tightly. She could hear her mother's voice downstairs at the end of the corridor. She was yelling and sobbing too much. The little girl wondered what that tone she could hear in her mother's voice could hold.
"Please I'll do anything!" "Have mercy!" "What are you doing here?!" "I'm too weak"
Her mother's voice kept echoing and got louder and louder. "I'm.....sorry" the voice whispered at the end, the girl got a chill shiver running down her spine and she had a very bad feeling. Then everything went pitch black.
Suddenly a picture of her mother lying in a pool of her blood numbly on the ground appeared. She couldn't move or do anything as she saw her mother's life fading away right in front of her eyes. She gave a bloody scream and...
....she opened her eyes and shot up quickly. She was panting and sucked up in cold sweat.
That nightmare again! She hated nightmares. Especially that one. Counting all the times she saw that scene in the dreams, she started doubting if that really happened in the first place or if it was just one of the nightmares.
"Mmhhm, Ayane....-san?" The sleepy voice of Youya said as he perked up his head still half asleep. He had one eye closed which he started to open when he realized Ayane's terrified expression. He sat up in his bed.
"What's the matter?" He said concerned. "Nothing, go back to sleep kid" she rushly answered. Unsatisfied with the answer, Youya wanted to ask more, but he knew better than to push the topic any further. He laid back in the bed while thoughts spun inside his head.
"Okay, let's talk later" he finally said. Ayane stared at him for a second, not liking the idea of talking about her nightmares to this kid who has nothing to do with them. She felt bad for dragging him into this mess, but there was no going back at this point.
******
In the morning, Youya's POV:
"Morning!" Said Hina-san with an unusual cheerfulness.
"Uh, good morning, Hina-san, what's up?" I answered. Rin tossed in his bed clearly annoyed with our voices.
"Let me sleeeeep, idiots!" He yelled at us still half asleep. I frowned and crossed my arms. I grabbed my pillow as I stood up from the bed and threw it at this sleepy head.
"Wha-, brat! You finally did it!" He said as he literally jumped from his bed and ran toward me with his weapon in his hand.
"Agggh! Not fair! I am unarmed!" I said as I ran away from Rin who chased me not showing any signs of giving up.
"Hah, that's your fault for throwing your weapon away" he said as he attacked me with the said weapon, his pillow, and knocked me off to the ground.
Hina-san giggled and dragged Rin away from me, earning a low growl but no resistance in general. I glanced at Ayane-san as my big smile faded slowly. She sat in her bed, her knees dragged to her chest and hugged by her hands. Her gaze looked empty and unfocused, as if she was in an another world than ours.
Hina-san seemed to notice what I was staring at and she clapped her hands loudly snapping both me and Ayane-san back to reality. Everyone looked at her.
"You asked about what's so special about today didn't you, Youya-chan!" She said smiling wildly and looking at my eyes directly.
"Today I am going to meet my brother! But I think it's better if we all go to meet him together. What do you think, Ayane-san?"
"W-what? Ah, Uhm, m-maybe some other time" she said and gave a light apologetic smile. "But-" started Ayane-san but stopped, hesitating about saying the following words. "Is it okay? meeting your brother, I mean"
"Yeah, don't worry, he won't tell father or anyone else" Hina-san answered brushing away Ayane-san's worries.
"If you say so..." said Ayane-san, unsure.
The rest of the morning went normal. And by normal, I mean getting in a few fights with Rin over the breakfast table, fighting with Rin over who will get to shower first, driving Hina-san crazy with our loud shouts and getting kicked out by the hotel owner because we almost broke a chair. Yup, just some normal daily things!
******
"He's gotta be waiting in the coffee shop around the corner" Hina-san said and pointed at the next turn we would be taking. Ayane-san stayed behind in the hotel for some reason, Rin just gave us some random lame excuses to run off by himself, so it's only me and Hina-san who are going to meet her oldest brother, Daichi-san.
"Nii-san!" (brother) Hina-san said in excitement and ran toward a longhaired good looking tall man sitting in the corner of the coffee shop, he looked deeply focused on a book he held with one hand while he sipped coffee from the cup in the other hand. He closed his book after putting a mark on the current page he was reading and gave a very gentle and genuine smile.
"Oh, you're here, Hina" He responded while getting up and giving Hina-san a big hug, ruffling her hair slightly. "You brought a friend?" He said as he peeked up to see me standing in total awkwardness. Maybe it was a bad idea to interrupt a siblings reunion.
"Daichi nii-san, this is Youya-chan, my new friend" Hina-san introduced me. Her brother smiled at me with that gentle smile again and raised his hand for a handshake. "Nice to meet you, Youya-kun. Please take care of my sister" He said politely.
"Actually, she's the one taking care of me" I said, giggling, and took his hand to shake it. Daichi-san chuckled slightly and pointed at the table for us to sit down.
I sat down, embarrassed, just realizing how my social skills are below zero point. Hina-san gave me a comforting smile as if she could sense my floundering.
Oh boy, this was going to be a long, awkward meeting.
********
Youya's POV, One hour later:
"- and, and then, and then I told her that there was no one left in there!!" I said as everyone burst out in laughter. I think I did better than I expected after all. Hina-san brushed the tears of laughter that were forming in the corner of her eyes and finished drinking her tea.
"It's so fun to hear your stories, but I think that we have to get going now, I need to buy some new equipment" she said while standing up and gathering her things.
"Eeeehh?! Shopping is so boring, Hina-saaa~~n" I whined, complaining. "Haha, it's okay Hina, go buy what you need and I'll stay with Youya-chan until you're done" My savior Daichi-san said to my relief.
"Yeah yeah! You don't need to worry about me, I'll keep Daichi-san's company, I have dozens of fun stories to tell!" I said literally bouncing in my chair.
"You still have stories to tell?" Hina-san laughed. "Okay, okay, if you're that excited then good luck with babysitting him, nii-san" Hina-san said playfully to her brother and walked out of the coffee shop.
Daichi-san laughed at the sight of me pouting in dissatisfaction at calling my company 'babysitting'.
"It's so reassuring to see my sister laugh naturally like that" he suddenly said as the glad atmosphere started to drop and a glimpse of sadness was seen in his eyes even though he was wildly smiling.
I remember all the things about Hina-san being from a noble family and her leaving the nobility for some reason. Thinking about it now, this man must be a magician too. How could I not notice until now? And I noticed that I don't know much about Hina-san and that this was the ideal chance to ask about it.
"Uhm, Daichi-san, if it's not rude to ask, why did Hina-san leave your family?" I asked as I tilted myself forward in the chair showing real curiosity with my body language.
"Well, it's a long story" answered Daichi-san and sighed before continuing when I slid my chair closer to his to show my willingness to hear everything. "She had to, for the sake of freedom" he said, some guilt could be seen in his eyes. "I assume you know about our family being noble and our generation being born as blue magicians". I nodded. "Well, for the sake of the next generation being born as goldens, our father was really strict about who we had to marry. Hina, being the only girl, was forced first to an arranged marriage, father brought her a noble golden broom that she had to marry".
"And she ran away so that she doesn't have to marry that nobleman?" I asked.
"It's more complicated than this, but basically, yeah. Anyway, I helped her get out of the mansion. Our younger brothers were not of big help since they held the same ideals as our father, but Hina is a strong girl. She managed all of this on her own" Daichi-san said with a genuine smile.
"She's not on her own anymore, she has a lot of friends now, including me!" I said as I gave my wildest grin and a thumb up. Daichi-san seemed surprised at what I said, but then his confusion turned to gratefulness and he smiled with his eyes closed and whispered a "Thank you".
*******
Hina-san finally came back as I was chit-chatting with her brother for an hour now. We were saying our goodbyes as we were about to go back.
"Hina" Said Daichi-san as he gestured with his hand for her to come closer to him. They were a bit far but I still managed to hear their conversation.
"Take this, Hina, and make sure to call me whenever you need anything" Gentle Daichi-san said as he gave Hina-san something I couldn't really spot.
"Thank you, nii-san, but don't overwork yourself, I don't wanna be a burden to you" Hina-san said as she hesitated to accept whatever she was given.
"You are not and won't ever be a burden, Hina, and don't worry, I am stronger than I look like, this amount won't affect my health as long as you use it only in emergencies" he said. Affect his health? What is that thing he's giving?
"I know, I know, I'm just... no, nothing, just promise you won't activate it all the time" ended Hina-san. Diachi-san smiled and hugged her "I promise" he said as his chin rested on top of Hina-san's head.
"Well then we'll get going, take care nii-san. And remember to keep our meetings a secret from father and brothers" said Hina-san as she waved her goodbye while Daichi-san waived back and disappeared in the horizon.
Hina-san sighed and looked at the bundle she was given. I perked from the side to see what it was.
"What's this?" I asked, curiosity killing me as always.
"It's a.... magical amulet" She answered.
"A magical amulet? What does it do?" I asked further.
"It can protect one with the owner's aura, my brother is the owner of this one, so he can send his aura to this amulet whenever he wants to make a barrier, to heal wounds or to raise my magical powers"
"Wow, sounds useful" I said and tried to touch it. But Hina-san stopped my hand suddenly with a tight grip. She realized immediately and let go of my hand, apologizing.
"Sorry! It's just... this amulet is very sensitive. Whatever happens here will be delivered to nii-san's senses and it can affect him physically" she explained as panic was shown in her eyes.
"Ah, I'm so sorry, I didn't know!" I apologized. Hina-san seemed like she didn't want to talk about the matter anymore, so the walk back to the hotel was silent and tensed...