Since it was already 10 minutes away until the cruise ship sailed, most people had already entered the ship to avoid being late. Kaede and Shu weren't late per say, but they were probably one of the last few passengers that still needed to board this ship. They both walked up to the reception desk that was near the cruises hip's entrance.
"Good afternoon!", said the receptionist, which was a young-looking woman in the usual receptionist uniform. "May I have your tickets?" she responded right after.
Huh. That was fast. Kaede was thinking. I thought they were going to ask for something other than the tickets. She wondered.
And that's when she remembered. The only logical reason that they were taking this very seriously. Even though not even like 10 seconds had passes, she forgot about the fact that they were going to the Magic Side of the World for a second because she was too focused on…never mind.
Her brother, who's hand she wasn't holding anymore, took out the 2 tickets from one of his hoodie's inner pockets. He gave the receptionist these tickets and she ripped them in half. Which made total sense, since these tickets were meant to "behave" like so.
"Here you go!" she said, as she handed both Shu and Kaede their respective halves of the tickets provided to them by the letter which Shu still had in his backpack somewhere.
"Before you go, though", the receptionist added when the siblings started planning to go on ahead. She took out a piece of paper and a pen. "We need the 2 of you to sigh this paper."
"Huh? Why?" Shu remarked once he saw said paper. Kaede said the same thing, but in her brain instead of out loud.
The receptionist told them to get closer to her, and when they did, she started whispering to them. "As you know, this cruise ship is going to the Magic Side of the World. This contract is for you to promise us that you will not tell absolutely anyone about the Magic Side. Unless they already know about it beforehand." She spoke.
Both of the siblings, realizing that she was whispering to avoid anyone who could potentially be listening in, nodded a confirmation of "yes." They both took their pens and signed the contract. It really didn't matter how old you were, as long as you had something that could be considered a "signature."
"Thank you. Also, here", the receptionist gave them what seemed to be like a drive that perfectly fit in their phones' charging port. They knew this because the drive's connecting port was identical in shape to their phones.
"This is a drive that contains 2 lists:
1. A list of things the ticket provides you with.
2. A ticket of things you can overall do in this cruise ship."
They heard and nodded.
"Well then, that about does it for me. Enter through the door and have fun!", the receptionist said.
Both the siblings nodded for the third time and waved her goodbye.
They then started walking through the ship's entrance and while walking, Shu took out his new phone from his pocket and plugged the drive into its charging port; the drive fit perfectly and worked successfully.
Once the drive turned itself on and connected to the phone, a black screen showed with 2 names that were obviously too familiar to the both of them.
Welcome, Shu Makahoushi and Kaede Makahoushi.
"I guess we were already registered on the system by whoever gave us these tickets." Shu responded when he saw the screen.
"I suppose so yes. But if you think about it, it sort of does make sense to already be registered before getting on the ship itself." His little sister remarked.
"I'll check what we can do later. For now, how about we reach our room?"
"Okay!"
Once the drive connected, it showed an interface of different icons over the black screen. One of them was labeled "Map", which was the one that Shu tapped on in order to see if they could use it to find their room. And as he suspected, he could. There was a list of things to locate and there was only 1 room in the list: Room 317. He tapped on it and the phone opened up a map with a map of the entire cruise ship. The map showed a green like where he needed to go, kind off like in certain games.
Shu told his sister to follow him, and she did so after responding with her usual "Okay!"
They walked for like 5 minutes, and found their room, as well as saw many things that looked extremely pretty and cool.
"Well, this is it. This should be our room."
"Welcome."
"Huh?"
The room's door unlocked automatically. That "welcome" was actually an AI's voice. There was an AI installed in every room's door that would unlock with voice recognition.
"Is that voice recognition?" Kaede acknowledged.
Shu shrugged his shoulders, since he didn't really know about that sort of thing as well as her sister. She WAS extremely good with certain types of technology, after all.
They both entered the room and saw a really pretty room. It has 2 beds, a desk, and a relatively big balcony that could maybe fit around 7 people. The room looked pretty normal, but this was actually one of the most expensive types of rooms you could get in this cruise ship.
"This is nice!" Shu exclaimed while looking at the water from the balcony's door.
"Yay!" Kaede jumped to the best closest to the balcony and landed with her body looking up. \
"Hey, I wanted that bed!" Shu said in a jokingly tone (he was actually serious, but he didn't want to sound like it.)
"He he too late, brother!" Kaede jokingly grinned as her brother.
"Well, let's put our stuff on a corner and see what we can do for the time being."
"Agreed!" she replied to him before starting to organize her things.
In reality, all the did was literally put their things on a corner, since they didn't think they were going to need many things.
"While we were walking, I read that this cruise ship will get us to our destination in less than 24 hours."
"Oh really now?" Shu asked his sister.
"Apparently, this type of cruise ship is a prototype that is very fast for what it is. Right now, it's 2:05 pm, so we should be in our destination in like 9 am."
"That's 21 hours."
"Yes, but at least it's not like 2 days or something."
"Yeah, you're right. I think I would die if I was here for more than a day."
They kept talking about things that came to mind until they heard an announcement.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard this ship. I am Captain Rey, and I will be your captain for the 21 hours that you will be with me."
Yes! I guessed the time! Kaede thought.
The announcement went on for a long time before it ended with the usual "And enjoy your ride". The announcement wasn't that interesting. It had many safety precautions, ideas for what to do during these 21 hours, and other things that they forgot because they were so uninteresting and boring.
"It's time to have fun, then!" Kaede told her brother.
"Yeah! Let's go!" he responded.
They didn't understand why they said these things since they weren't going to be doing much for a while. A long while.
4 hours later…
It was now 6:30 pm. They were both still in their room, watching whatever they could find on their TV. Well, Kaede was doing that, at least. Shu was reading a book he decided to take from his house's basement. A book called "The 3rd Study of the Secondary Elements".
"I'm surprised that you actually bought a book to read. Haven't you already read all the studies on the 4 Elements?"
"No. I sadly only got through the first and second one. I found this one randomly a few days ago, actually. I didn't even know it existed somehow."
"To be fair, you always end up finding something new in that basement."
"That's true. Also, I think we should let our grandfather know that we're doing well. Can you let him know later, Kaede?"
"Yeah, don't worry. I'll take care of it."
"Changing subjects, though. It's still surprising that magic is actually allowed where we're going. I guarantee you that I'm going to use my magic once I have the chance so I can feel better about myself."
"Yeah…you do that, brother."
After talking for a while, they went back to doing their own thing for 3 more hours.
It was now 9:40 pm.
They were now at the front of the cruise ship. That area where people would lean and look at the water and relax; that was exactly what they were doing right now.
It was extremely dark. The only way they could see was due to the cruise ship's lights that were around the whole thing. They were looking at the water and, in some cases, at the dark horizon beyond them. It was so dark, but it had an oddly satisfying feeling of comfort.
Leaning at the fence-esque "guard" that prevented them from falling to the water, Shu started talking.
"I know this is the 20th or so time I've probably said this, but I am so excited that this is happening. Who could have guessed that there actually is a side to the world that's specifically for us mages?"
"I know, right? It's all so sudden, but my feeling of excitement overtakes everything. Although, I would like to know why Father never mentioned this to us." Kaede added.
"Who knows…" Shu started once more, "maybe he just doesn't care that we know."
"But what if he was trying to…I don't know, protect us or something?"
"Kaede, you know very well that that's not true. He wouldn't do that. He's too arrogant to do that." Shu finished.
"But, brother-"
"Kaede, I don't want to talk about that." His tone turned very serious for a second.
"But what if-"
"Kaede!" he shouted at his sister.
Kaede stood there with a sad looking face for a few seconds. Shu realized what he'd done and started to apologize.
"I'm…I'm sorry…I shouldn't shout at you like that. That was wrong of me." He spoke.
"No…it's fine. I shouldn't bring that up so suddenly." She responded.
They didn't say anything for 20 seconds due to the awkwardness of the conversation.
"Let's not make things any awkward between us, Kaede." Shu spoke after said seconds. "If there's anyone I want to be able to talk to perfectly, it's you."
"Uh-thanks. Yeah, I agree with everything you said."
Let's head back. I'm actually feeling a bit hungry.
"Yeah…yeah! Let's go!" she said.
And so, the awkwardness disappeared after a few seconds. They were so close that they were able to make up in a few seconds.
That was a topic that Shu wasn't a big fan of. Everything related to their father.
After 20 minutes of eating, they finally went to their room and laid down in their respective beds.
"Hey, brother…" a soft female voice said from one side of the room. "I'm sorry…again."
"It's okay…" a tired male voice responded from the other side of the same room. "Goodnight, Kaede."
"Goodnight…brother."
A few hours later…
Time: 6:00 am.
Kaede slowly sat up on her bed and yawned while at the same time, stretching her arms and torso. She quickly got up and started to stretch her legs. Before they went to sleep, she had closed the curtains on the balcony's door to avoid getting hit by the sun's rays first thing in the morning.
She walked towards her brother, who was still sleeping and just looked at him for some reason.
My brother is kinda cute when he's sleeping… She thought, for some reason. I wonder if he's ever looked at me while I'm sleeping.
She kept looking for a few seconds until she realized:
Yeah, I'm going to stop. This is sort of creepy. But I just can't…
After another few seconds, Shu woke up. And the first thing he saw? Kaede's adorable face looking at him.
"Uh…huh? Kaede…?"
Kaede was panicking in her head. Oh no! What do I do?!
"Uh…her, brother. G-good morning!" That was the first thing she could think of saying.
"Uh…yes. Good morning. Were you watching me sleep?" he asked immediately after sitting up in his bed.
"Uh…no! I was...looking…for…something?" she kept panicking.
"Hehe. Hahahahaha!" Shu laughed out loud.
"Wh-what's so funny?!" Kaede shouted.
Shu laughed so much that his eyes got watery. "Oh come on. I know you're lying to me. If this is some sort of revenge, I deserve it. I've done the same thing.
"Yeah! Exa-wait what?" Kaede realized what he just said.
"Come on." He put his hand on top of her pet and started petting her out of nowhere, which caused Kaede to close her eyes. "There's no way I can't sometimes watch someone as small and adorable as you sleep. It's like watching a baby Panda sleep."
Kaede's eyes were still closed. That was probably because she was enjoying being pet. Her cheeks were also slightly red since she wasn't used to being pet by her brother too often.
Not long after this conversation, an announcement came on.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are officially approaching the Magic Barrier separating both sides. If you are interested in seeing the barrier, go up to the deck of the ship in order to get a full view of it."
"A full view of the barrier?! We've got to see this!"
They both said at the same time and quickly changed from their sleeping clothes to their regular clothes, which were the same clothes that they wore yesterday.
A few minutes later at 6:30 am, they went up to the deck of the ship. They weren't the only ones there. About 80 people were gathered there to see the barrier.
They stayed up there, waiting for 20 minutes, until out of nowhere…
"Hey! Look, up there!" A random woman shouted, and everyone looked towards the front of the ship, and there it was.
"Woah…" Shu exclaimed.
Kaede was so shocked that she couldn't say anything.
And there it was. The Magic Barrier. The Barrier that separated the Normal Side and the Magic Side.
It was an incredibly tall blue see-through barrier. It had the feeling of being an extremely powerful spell, and a spell that took an amazing amount of Mana to cast.
The ship was getting closer and closer to it.
"Here we go, brother! This is where our new life officially begins!" Kaede said with the most excitement.
"Yes! Let's begin the new life…of the Makahoushi siblings!"
The ship started passing through the barrier. It took 30 seconds or so to do so, but after those seemingly long seconds, the ship finally passed the barrier.
Shu and Kaede felt something they hadn't felt before. It was like…a sudden surge of Mana.
"What the…?! Did you feel that Kaede?"
"Yes, I did. My Mana reacted for a second."
"Ladies and gentlemen," the announcer started once again, "I'd like to give you an official welcome… to the Magic Side of the world.
Everyone cheered and clapped, and the siblings joined in because they felt like they had to. I mean, how couldn't they? They'd finally entered their true territory. The Magic Side.
"We will be arriving in 2 hours, so for the remainder of the trip, relax and enjoy everything the cruise has to offer."
Everyone on the deck started walking somewhere. The siblings were some of the few people who were left there.
"We've finally did it, Kaede. We've reached the Magic Side!"
"Im so happy!" Kaede went and hugged her brother. He hugged her back.
"Well, since we have 2 hours, let's go eat, Kaede. I'm starving."
"I agree. Let's go!"
They both walked to a restaurant that was considered to be the best breakfast one in the ship. It was a buffet style restaurant, so the paid the starting price. Grabbed the plates and utensils they needed, went to gran their food, and sat down and ate.
There wasn't much memorable happening at this moment, mostly since they were both doing their usual thing and talking about topics that first came to mind, like the fact that the buffet was a pretty big restaurant. Although that was probably the only thing that was worth remembering.
Before they'd left their house, they'd agreed to not talk too much about magic until they were in the right setting because it would get boring to talk about it in their current setting, because they would get even more impatient about the trip, and just to add a good amount of excitement to their already pre-existing one.
After they'd eaten, they walked back to their room and decided to just chill and watch some TV or something. Kaede did both the former and the latter, whilst Shi decided to only do the former and go back to reading the book he was reading before.
"Hey, brother. I just realized." Kaede started.
"Hm? Yeah?"
"If you're looking for specific information inside that book, why not just skip certain pages?"
"Oh. That's because this book's written in a certain way."
"Really? How so?"
"Well, the collection of "The Study of the Secondary Elements" is written in the way a novel would be. That's to say that it's written as a story rather than something informative. The reason I don't skip pages is because if I were to skip something, I wouldn't get it. Kind of like if you were to skip pages in a novel. You wouldn't understand parts of the story."
"Oh really? That's…actually really interesting."
Some time later, an announcement started.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the penultimate announcement. We are currently 10 minutes away from arriving to our destination. We suggest that all of you start packing your things and getting ready. Thank you, and enjoy the end of your ride.
"Well, let's begin, sister." Shu said, to which Kaede responded "understood!"
After 6 minutes, they'd already packed everything and sat down again. Once they sat down, Shu remembered something that he wanted to tell Kaede before but forgot to do so.
"Oh! That reminds me."
"Huh? What's up, brother?"
We should exchange contact information on our phones. I think Grandfather didn't put any contacts on them so we could do that ourselves. That's what I feel, at least."
"Oh! Sure, ok then!"
And so, they spent the last remaining minutes of their trip exchanging contact info. It was relatively easy. Put the phone in "Contact Finding Mode", put it near the phone who's contact you want, and there.
During the last few minutes, they looked outside their balcony and saw the place where they were going to leave at. Well, they would have done so if the curtains hadn't been closed. They wanted to open them to look outside, but they wanted it to be a surprise, so they just left them there.
After a few minutes, they felt the ship stop, and seconds later:
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the final announcement. We have officially arrived in our destination: Port Lukon. Welcome back, and for those new in this area: Welcome to the Magic Side of the World!"
That was the final announcement, and an automated voice started speaking soon after:
"Opening doors. You are now allowed to unboard the ship. Thank you for using our services."
Shu and Kaede grabbed their stuff and went towards the exit. They saw everyone who was walking out the ship in a straight line, and they did so.
And so, they finally walked out the exit of the ship.
And the first thing they saw? A huge city.
They had finally arrived.
And so, a new chapter in their lives officially begins. One filled with adventure, magic…and mystery.