Magika - Chapter 16 (New)
“Ah, what a long day!” remarked Nino once they were back in their room. Ohno nodded in agreement. It was a long day, indeed. After what happened during the quest, they were brought to the infirmary to check for injuries. Luckily, none of them were hurt physically, except Jun. So, while Jun was being treated by Hiroko sensei, who was in-charge of the infirmary, the rest of them were brought to the headmaster’s room for interrogation.
During the interrogation, the headmaster informed them that the forest wasn’t part of the quest. The woman tampered with their door and made it as the portal to bring them to the forest. Yamada sensei, who was in-charge of the first obstacle, realized they were missing when they didn’t show up for the first obstacle even though it’s already 30 minutes since the quest started. He notified Kimura sensei and the latter immediately stopped the quest and asked all the students to gather in the field to ensure no one else was missing.
Then, both Kitagawa sensei and Kimura sensei tried to open the portal. It took a while to do so because it was layered with variety of protection spell. The headmaster said that whoever the woman is, she must be powerful. Ohno wasn’t going to argue with that. He had seen what the woman can do and she is definitely powerful. But, as he thought of the woman, it reminded him of what the woman accused him to be and it made him felt uncomfortable.
As he and Nino weren’t attacked or tortured by the woman, they were responsible to explain to the headmaster what happened in the forest. He wasn’t really good in talking, so Nino was the one who explained while he added whenever necessary. When the headmaster asked them to describe the woman, all of them lied involuntarily, saying they do not know how she looked like because she didn’t take off her hood. He knew it was wrong to do so as it would help the headmaster identify the woman… But… They couldn’t bring themselves to say it.
Though the headmaster appeared to doubt what they told him, he didn’t say anything and all four of them were allowed to get back to their room. When they get back to the dorm, most of the students they met asked them for what happened. Thanks to Ogura sensei who accompanied them, they successfully get back into their room without problem.
“Jun isn’t here yet,” said Aiba, observing their room. “Do you think he will sleep in the infirmary tonight?”
All of them nodded their head. He didn’t know how serious Jun’s injury was but it had to be painful to be thrown like that. He silently prayed that nothing bad will happen to Jun.
“So…” Sho started as he fixed his gaze on Nino. Ohno knew why he was looking at Nino like that. “Care to tell me why didn’t you tell Kitagawa sensei everything?”
Nino, who was searching for something in his drawer, lifted his face and turned to look at Sho. He feigned innocence by pretending he didn’t understand what Sho meant.
“Nino, why didn’t you tell Kitagawa sensei about how Ohno kun...”
“I told Kitagawa sensei everything I know,”
“But, you didn’t tell him that Ohno was the one…”
“Didn’t you hear me?” Nino suddenly raised his voice, startled all three of them. “I said, I told him everything I know. I didn’t know what makes the woman stopped from attacking me, what makes her lying on the floor, unable to get up. I didn’t know any of that,”
Other than not telling the headmaster about the woman’s appearance, Nino also lied about how they were able to get away from her. Nino told the headmaster about how the woman suddenly stop attacking them like someone was controlling her but he didn’t tell the headmaster Ohno was the one who controlled her. Ohno was grateful to Nino for keeping that as a secret. He was worried of what the headmaster would do to him if he knew he had the same magic as The Stranger. Regardless of what was written in the diary, everyone thought of The Stranger as the villain and he was afraid that the headmaster would expel him from the school, or worse, killed him out of fear that one day he will be like The Stranger. Heck, he wasn’t even sure if he really had that magic.
“But, she said it was Ohno who makes her…”
“That’s what she said. I know she was after Ohchan. What if she was pretending that Ohchan was controlling her so that we will freak out and give Ohchan to her. And if you think that’s the truth, why didn’t you tell him just now? Why do you want me to tell him? The answer is simple. You had the same doubt as me but you brought it up now because… you want to discuss about it. Geez, Sho, could you just go straight to the point instead of pretending that you were angry for not telling the headmaster about it?”
Sho’s face was red when he heard the response from Nino. He looked embarrassed that Nino could figure out his real intention so to avoid embarrassment, he ended up grinning innocently at Nino. Nino smirked in return.
“So, what should we talk about first?” asked Sho.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Jun? I’m sure he wants to know what happened as well,” asked Aiba. Right on cue, the door of their room was opened. They were surprised to see Jun and Ogura sensei at the door.
“J, I thought you will sleep in the infirmary,”
“He should. But he didn’t want to. Hiroko sensei was against it but as the headmaster allow him to get back to his room, here I am, bringing him to you,” explained Ogura sensei as he closed the door behind them. He placed a chair at the centre of the room as he continued talking. “He needs to rest and so do all of you. I will wait in the room until all of you sleep,”
Everyone pouted when they heard the instruction from Ogura sensei. Aiba tried to appeal, to make Ogura sensei changed his mind and leave them in the room alone but his puppy eyes didn’t work this time. Ogura sensei kept his stern face. Nino, on the other hand, glared at Jun as if he was blaming the latter for bringing Ogura sensei to their room. Knowing that there’s nothing they can do, all of them pulled the blanket to get some sleep.
Ohno was surprised and relief to see Nino lied down next to him, as always. He didn’t know why but he was afraid that Nino would put a distance between them after what happened today. Even though Nino defended him just now, telling his friends that the woman was pretending so that she could get to him, he was still worried of what Nino might think of him.
From the corner of his eyes, he noticed how the history teacher was surprised to see Nino sleeping next to him. He heard the teacher mumbled in a soft voice. “Good! You were sleeping together. You must be so afraid after what happened today so you need to comfort each other,”
He couldn’t help but giggled in response before closing his eyes to get some sleep, hugging Nino close to him. Perhaps because he was too exhausted, he didn’t need to have to wait too long to be drifted to the dreamland.
He had a dream. He dreamt of Nino and him building a sandcastle together. In his dream, Nino was much younger, much smaller, perhaps around three years old. But, he was as cute as he always was. They were happily build a sandcastle together until Nino get bored. He suggested they played in the beach but Ohno refused because he wanted to finish the castle first. He took the shovel and lightly hit Ohno’s head while he was concentrating in making the tower for their castle. Ohno ignored him which made him pouted in return. He then took the sand and pour it on top of Ohno’s head but Ohno still ignored him.
“OHCHAN!”
He heard Nino’s scream. Nino smacked his head, slapped his face, pulled his ear and slowly the image of younger Nino was replaced with the present Nino who looks angry at him while at the same time… worried. Thinking that perhaps the boy was angry because he didn’t want to play in the beach with him, he pulled the boy closer and hugged him, placing a soft kiss on his forehead to calm him. It worked because Nino stopped his tantrum and looked at him shyly. His cheeks turned red, he looked so cute and it made Ohno kissed his lips next. It’s okay, right because it was just in his dream. If this is reality, he didn’t think he would be brave enough to kiss his friend. Well, he could kiss his cheeks but there’s no way he would kiss Nino’s lips.
But the kiss was interrupted when someone pulled both of them apart. He turned to look at the culprit and he wasn’t surprised to see Jun. Urgghhh, this boy always teased them in reality and now here he was, disturbing them even in his dream.
“We don’t wake you up to see you kissed Nino,” he heard Sho’s voice. Sho was standing next to Nino and trying really hard to hide his laughter. But he burst into a laughter when Aiba laughed first. That is when Ohno realized where he really was. He was in his room, not at the beach and this is reality, not a dream. Nino was screaming, smacking, slapping and pulling not because he ignored him but because he wanted to wake him up. Realizing this, he lowered his gaze, feeling embarrassed for what he did earlier. This is even more embarrassing than when he made the water-Nino.
“What did you dream about? Do you have some kind of...”
“NO!”
He cut off Aiba before the latter could finish his question. He knew what Aiba is going to ask and it made him felt even more embarrassing. He cursed himself for not knowing how to differentiate between a dream and reality. He should know that it wasn’t a dream when the younger Nino was replaced with the present Nino.
“I was just dreaming about making sandcastle with Nino. But in my dream, we were younger, maybe around three years old,”
Hearing that made his friends look at him with wide eyes. They were shocked for reasons that he didn’t know of. But he didn’t bother to ask them because he thought they were just overreacting. Perhaps they were thinking that how could a dream about making sandcastle together would make him want to kiss Nino. It’s better if he didn’t ask or else his friends would tease him about the kiss again.
“Where is Ogura sensei?” He asked them instead when he noticed that the old teacher wasn’t in the room anymore. His friends seem to recovered from their earlier shock as they told him that the teacher was gone by the time Nino woke up.
“Why do you guys wake up so early? It’s still dark,” he complained. He was tired and all he wanted to do was to rest. If they didn’t disturb his dream, maybe he could enjoy teasing Nino in his dream. But all of them rolled their eyes in disbelief. Nino even smacked his head.
“Ouch, that hurts, you know!” He scolded his friend but that makes Nino pulled out his tongue at him.
“You baka Oji san,” said his friend and smacked his head once again. “Didn’t we agree to talk about what happened?”
Oji san? That’s the first time Nino called him that but why does it feel familiar? It was as familiar as when Nino called him Ohchan during the first time they met.
“Okay okay. Could you guys please stop being childish?” Said Jun and it distracted Ohno from keep thinking about the oji san nickname. Perhaps it was just a coincidence. “So, who would like to update me with what happened after… You know…. I…”
Everyone was laughing looking at how Jun tried to avoid talking about his stupid action in the cave earlier. He admit Jun was being hard on himself sometimes. Jun must be thinking how foolish he was to try attacking the woman when he knew he didn’t have any chance to win and resulted in him being thrown away and made all of them worried for him. But, Ohno didn’t think he was an idiot for doing so. He thought Jun was really brave.
“Well, after you tried to take her down, Aiba was her next target. She…,” just like with their headmaster, Nino once again told Jun what happened. However, this time, he told Jun that the woman accused Ohno of controlling her and was related to The Stranger. Jun was really surprised to hear that.
“But.. that’s impossible. Ohno is in the same house as me. He controls water, not…”
Jun stopped himself as he finally realized something. Ohno knew what it is. From the history, The Stranger was initially known as the master of water element before revealing to others his true specialty. Even in the diary that Nino found, Samii could control water while at the same time controlling magician. Jun used to tell him that it was actually rare to find a student in House of Matsumoto that control only one element. So, perhaps his inability to control other element was because he was related to Samii aka The Stranger. But how could he be sure of that?
“Ohno kun, do you think that you might… that you really….” Asked Sho carefully.
Ohno know what he meant. But, he didn’t know the answer so he shrugged his shoulder.
“I…. I…” he stopped. He was at a loss for words because he didn’t know what to say. Nino, who sat beside him, caressed his back to comfort him. He found the gesture to be helpful in encouraging him to talk. “Well, at that time, when I saw she was targeting Nino… I was wishing…. Hoping… I want her to stop… I want to push her away from us…”
“Well, she was indeed push by something,” explained Nino. “I don’t really know what pushed her because I closed my eyes. I heard someone screaming. At first, I thought it was Ohchan but when I opened my eyes, I saw her lying on the floor,”
“Ohchan,” Nino called him softly from his side. He looked at the boy, trying to guess what’s the boy going to ask him. “Have you seen the woman before this? When she appeared, you looked… I don’t know… you’re not happy to see her…. It’s like you already know she wasn’t part of the quest,”
“Ah,” was Ohno’s short response. He didn’t expect Nino to notice how uneasy he was. But, he wasn’t surprised. Nino was an observant. He usually noticed things that others won’t notice.
He then told his friends how he had been feeling anxious since one or two weeks ago because he thought someone was watching him. Once again, Nino proved how sharp-eyed he is. He told them how he noticed there was something that bothering Ohno since he told them about the diary. Ohno then told them that he saw the woman yesterday as they practiced in the lake and they were shocked to know that.
Complete silence surrounded them after he finished until Nino talked again.
“Ohchan, may I ask you something again?” asked Nino. He nodded his head.
“Do you remember when we first met? You told me that you knew you’re a wizard a week before, right? But, your mother didn’t tell you anything about the school,” asked Nino and Ohno simply nodded his head. He also told Nino at that time how he thought his mother didn’t like being a witch because of his father’s death.
“You said your father died because of magic. Do you know anything about it?”
Ohno shook his head. For years, his mother told him it was an accident. But when she revealed to Ohno that they are a family of magician, she told him it wasn’t an accident. His father died because of magic but she didn’t go into details. Now that Nino asked about this, he thought maybe it will be logical to think that… the woman in the cave was responsible for his father’s death. He knew she had been spying on him for a while. She accused Ohno of having the same magic as The Stranger. So, what if she used to do the same thing to his father?
“Ohno kun, when did your father died?” Asked Sho.
Ohno told him it was ten years ago and as he was only five years old, he didn’t remember much. Sho also asked him what his parents’ specialty magic is but Ohno shook his head because he wasn’t sure. When his mother told him about being a wizard, he wasn’t aware that each person has their own specialty magic until Nino told him about it. He didn’t bother to ask his mother after that because he knew his mother didn’t like to talk about it. He simply assumed that both his parents controlled element and that’s why he could control water. If… If he indeed could control wizard like what the woman claimed, he must have inherited it from his parents and most probably it was from his father.
“I think we will not get anything today. I will go to the library tomorrow, try to find anything about your parents and the accident that killed your father. So, maybe we should go back to sleep first…” Even though Sho had stopped talking, it seems that he wanted to talk more. He took a deep breath before continue. “Well… you know… the woman… she looks like…”
“She looks like me, right?” said Nino as everyone turned to look at him, waiting for him to say something. They were really surprised to see the woman’s face when she took off her hood. The woman’s facial features were indeed similar to Nino. If anyone said she is Nino’s sister, no one would deny it. “Well… I don’t know her. Maybe I should ask my parents if I had any secret sister that they hide from me,”
He joked dryly as he said it, perhaps to hide the uneasiness he felt because of the woman. Ohno could only think of one thing. If Naomi really exists as claimed by the diary, the woman might be related to her. That would explain why she was after Ohno, if Ohno was indeed related to Samii. Perhaps she wanted to avenge her ancestor for what Samii did to Naomi. But, for Ohno, Samii was not guilty for anything that happened to Naomi. She’s the one who started everything.
Now that they had nothing to discuss until they get some answers, all of them lied down on the bed to sleep. Ohno kept thinking of the incident that happened today, of who he really is and who the woman is. He didn’t know when he slept until he heard a knock. Jun, who was the closest to the door, grunted when Nino asked him to open the door. The rest of them didn’t bother to know who’s at the door.
“Good morning, sleepyhead!” it was Ogura sensei’s voice. He could hear his friends whined, not ready to wake up. “Get ready. You have to be in the headmaster’s room in 15 minutes. Your parents are coming,”
A/N: I didn't watch any Japanese drama for the past few weeks except Tokyo Tarareba Musume. My life had been a constant cycle of watching walkthrough of Super Mario (I'm a noob, my mario usually died when I entered the second world. I think I am too impatient to wait for the perfect moment to jump), The Big Bang Theory (Sheldon, you're so annoyingly cute) and replaying games like the dash series and delicious series. If you have interesting games for me to try playing, please let me know. I preferred to play time management or hidden object games.
Anyway, I hope this chapter is okay. There is a key event happened here and I wonder if you could guess which one was it. Hopefully you will enjoy this chapter and as always, comments are very much appreciated.
During the interrogation, the headmaster informed them that the forest wasn’t part of the quest. The woman tampered with their door and made it as the portal to bring them to the forest. Yamada sensei, who was in-charge of the first obstacle, realized they were missing when they didn’t show up for the first obstacle even though it’s already 30 minutes since the quest started. He notified Kimura sensei and the latter immediately stopped the quest and asked all the students to gather in the field to ensure no one else was missing.
Then, both Kitagawa sensei and Kimura sensei tried to open the portal. It took a while to do so because it was layered with variety of protection spell. The headmaster said that whoever the woman is, she must be powerful. Ohno wasn’t going to argue with that. He had seen what the woman can do and she is definitely powerful. But, as he thought of the woman, it reminded him of what the woman accused him to be and it made him felt uncomfortable.
As he and Nino weren’t attacked or tortured by the woman, they were responsible to explain to the headmaster what happened in the forest. He wasn’t really good in talking, so Nino was the one who explained while he added whenever necessary. When the headmaster asked them to describe the woman, all of them lied involuntarily, saying they do not know how she looked like because she didn’t take off her hood. He knew it was wrong to do so as it would help the headmaster identify the woman… But… They couldn’t bring themselves to say it.
Though the headmaster appeared to doubt what they told him, he didn’t say anything and all four of them were allowed to get back to their room. When they get back to the dorm, most of the students they met asked them for what happened. Thanks to Ogura sensei who accompanied them, they successfully get back into their room without problem.
“Jun isn’t here yet,” said Aiba, observing their room. “Do you think he will sleep in the infirmary tonight?”
All of them nodded their head. He didn’t know how serious Jun’s injury was but it had to be painful to be thrown like that. He silently prayed that nothing bad will happen to Jun.
“So…” Sho started as he fixed his gaze on Nino. Ohno knew why he was looking at Nino like that. “Care to tell me why didn’t you tell Kitagawa sensei everything?”
Nino, who was searching for something in his drawer, lifted his face and turned to look at Sho. He feigned innocence by pretending he didn’t understand what Sho meant.
“Nino, why didn’t you tell Kitagawa sensei about how Ohno kun...”
“I told Kitagawa sensei everything I know,”
“But, you didn’t tell him that Ohno was the one…”
“Didn’t you hear me?” Nino suddenly raised his voice, startled all three of them. “I said, I told him everything I know. I didn’t know what makes the woman stopped from attacking me, what makes her lying on the floor, unable to get up. I didn’t know any of that,”
Other than not telling the headmaster about the woman’s appearance, Nino also lied about how they were able to get away from her. Nino told the headmaster about how the woman suddenly stop attacking them like someone was controlling her but he didn’t tell the headmaster Ohno was the one who controlled her. Ohno was grateful to Nino for keeping that as a secret. He was worried of what the headmaster would do to him if he knew he had the same magic as The Stranger. Regardless of what was written in the diary, everyone thought of The Stranger as the villain and he was afraid that the headmaster would expel him from the school, or worse, killed him out of fear that one day he will be like The Stranger. Heck, he wasn’t even sure if he really had that magic.
“But, she said it was Ohno who makes her…”
“That’s what she said. I know she was after Ohchan. What if she was pretending that Ohchan was controlling her so that we will freak out and give Ohchan to her. And if you think that’s the truth, why didn’t you tell him just now? Why do you want me to tell him? The answer is simple. You had the same doubt as me but you brought it up now because… you want to discuss about it. Geez, Sho, could you just go straight to the point instead of pretending that you were angry for not telling the headmaster about it?”
Sho’s face was red when he heard the response from Nino. He looked embarrassed that Nino could figure out his real intention so to avoid embarrassment, he ended up grinning innocently at Nino. Nino smirked in return.
“So, what should we talk about first?” asked Sho.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Jun? I’m sure he wants to know what happened as well,” asked Aiba. Right on cue, the door of their room was opened. They were surprised to see Jun and Ogura sensei at the door.
“J, I thought you will sleep in the infirmary,”
“He should. But he didn’t want to. Hiroko sensei was against it but as the headmaster allow him to get back to his room, here I am, bringing him to you,” explained Ogura sensei as he closed the door behind them. He placed a chair at the centre of the room as he continued talking. “He needs to rest and so do all of you. I will wait in the room until all of you sleep,”
Everyone pouted when they heard the instruction from Ogura sensei. Aiba tried to appeal, to make Ogura sensei changed his mind and leave them in the room alone but his puppy eyes didn’t work this time. Ogura sensei kept his stern face. Nino, on the other hand, glared at Jun as if he was blaming the latter for bringing Ogura sensei to their room. Knowing that there’s nothing they can do, all of them pulled the blanket to get some sleep.
Ohno was surprised and relief to see Nino lied down next to him, as always. He didn’t know why but he was afraid that Nino would put a distance between them after what happened today. Even though Nino defended him just now, telling his friends that the woman was pretending so that she could get to him, he was still worried of what Nino might think of him.
From the corner of his eyes, he noticed how the history teacher was surprised to see Nino sleeping next to him. He heard the teacher mumbled in a soft voice. “Good! You were sleeping together. You must be so afraid after what happened today so you need to comfort each other,”
He couldn’t help but giggled in response before closing his eyes to get some sleep, hugging Nino close to him. Perhaps because he was too exhausted, he didn’t need to have to wait too long to be drifted to the dreamland.
He had a dream. He dreamt of Nino and him building a sandcastle together. In his dream, Nino was much younger, much smaller, perhaps around three years old. But, he was as cute as he always was. They were happily build a sandcastle together until Nino get bored. He suggested they played in the beach but Ohno refused because he wanted to finish the castle first. He took the shovel and lightly hit Ohno’s head while he was concentrating in making the tower for their castle. Ohno ignored him which made him pouted in return. He then took the sand and pour it on top of Ohno’s head but Ohno still ignored him.
“OHCHAN!”
He heard Nino’s scream. Nino smacked his head, slapped his face, pulled his ear and slowly the image of younger Nino was replaced with the present Nino who looks angry at him while at the same time… worried. Thinking that perhaps the boy was angry because he didn’t want to play in the beach with him, he pulled the boy closer and hugged him, placing a soft kiss on his forehead to calm him. It worked because Nino stopped his tantrum and looked at him shyly. His cheeks turned red, he looked so cute and it made Ohno kissed his lips next. It’s okay, right because it was just in his dream. If this is reality, he didn’t think he would be brave enough to kiss his friend. Well, he could kiss his cheeks but there’s no way he would kiss Nino’s lips.
But the kiss was interrupted when someone pulled both of them apart. He turned to look at the culprit and he wasn’t surprised to see Jun. Urgghhh, this boy always teased them in reality and now here he was, disturbing them even in his dream.
“We don’t wake you up to see you kissed Nino,” he heard Sho’s voice. Sho was standing next to Nino and trying really hard to hide his laughter. But he burst into a laughter when Aiba laughed first. That is when Ohno realized where he really was. He was in his room, not at the beach and this is reality, not a dream. Nino was screaming, smacking, slapping and pulling not because he ignored him but because he wanted to wake him up. Realizing this, he lowered his gaze, feeling embarrassed for what he did earlier. This is even more embarrassing than when he made the water-Nino.
“What did you dream about? Do you have some kind of...”
“NO!”
He cut off Aiba before the latter could finish his question. He knew what Aiba is going to ask and it made him felt even more embarrassing. He cursed himself for not knowing how to differentiate between a dream and reality. He should know that it wasn’t a dream when the younger Nino was replaced with the present Nino.
“I was just dreaming about making sandcastle with Nino. But in my dream, we were younger, maybe around three years old,”
Hearing that made his friends look at him with wide eyes. They were shocked for reasons that he didn’t know of. But he didn’t bother to ask them because he thought they were just overreacting. Perhaps they were thinking that how could a dream about making sandcastle together would make him want to kiss Nino. It’s better if he didn’t ask or else his friends would tease him about the kiss again.
“Where is Ogura sensei?” He asked them instead when he noticed that the old teacher wasn’t in the room anymore. His friends seem to recovered from their earlier shock as they told him that the teacher was gone by the time Nino woke up.
“Why do you guys wake up so early? It’s still dark,” he complained. He was tired and all he wanted to do was to rest. If they didn’t disturb his dream, maybe he could enjoy teasing Nino in his dream. But all of them rolled their eyes in disbelief. Nino even smacked his head.
“Ouch, that hurts, you know!” He scolded his friend but that makes Nino pulled out his tongue at him.
“You baka Oji san,” said his friend and smacked his head once again. “Didn’t we agree to talk about what happened?”
Oji san? That’s the first time Nino called him that but why does it feel familiar? It was as familiar as when Nino called him Ohchan during the first time they met.
“Okay okay. Could you guys please stop being childish?” Said Jun and it distracted Ohno from keep thinking about the oji san nickname. Perhaps it was just a coincidence. “So, who would like to update me with what happened after… You know…. I…”
Everyone was laughing looking at how Jun tried to avoid talking about his stupid action in the cave earlier. He admit Jun was being hard on himself sometimes. Jun must be thinking how foolish he was to try attacking the woman when he knew he didn’t have any chance to win and resulted in him being thrown away and made all of them worried for him. But, Ohno didn’t think he was an idiot for doing so. He thought Jun was really brave.
“Well, after you tried to take her down, Aiba was her next target. She…,” just like with their headmaster, Nino once again told Jun what happened. However, this time, he told Jun that the woman accused Ohno of controlling her and was related to The Stranger. Jun was really surprised to hear that.
“But.. that’s impossible. Ohno is in the same house as me. He controls water, not…”
Jun stopped himself as he finally realized something. Ohno knew what it is. From the history, The Stranger was initially known as the master of water element before revealing to others his true specialty. Even in the diary that Nino found, Samii could control water while at the same time controlling magician. Jun used to tell him that it was actually rare to find a student in House of Matsumoto that control only one element. So, perhaps his inability to control other element was because he was related to Samii aka The Stranger. But how could he be sure of that?
“Ohno kun, do you think that you might… that you really….” Asked Sho carefully.
Ohno know what he meant. But, he didn’t know the answer so he shrugged his shoulder.
“I…. I…” he stopped. He was at a loss for words because he didn’t know what to say. Nino, who sat beside him, caressed his back to comfort him. He found the gesture to be helpful in encouraging him to talk. “Well, at that time, when I saw she was targeting Nino… I was wishing…. Hoping… I want her to stop… I want to push her away from us…”
“Well, she was indeed push by something,” explained Nino. “I don’t really know what pushed her because I closed my eyes. I heard someone screaming. At first, I thought it was Ohchan but when I opened my eyes, I saw her lying on the floor,”
“Ohchan,” Nino called him softly from his side. He looked at the boy, trying to guess what’s the boy going to ask him. “Have you seen the woman before this? When she appeared, you looked… I don’t know… you’re not happy to see her…. It’s like you already know she wasn’t part of the quest,”
“Ah,” was Ohno’s short response. He didn’t expect Nino to notice how uneasy he was. But, he wasn’t surprised. Nino was an observant. He usually noticed things that others won’t notice.
He then told his friends how he had been feeling anxious since one or two weeks ago because he thought someone was watching him. Once again, Nino proved how sharp-eyed he is. He told them how he noticed there was something that bothering Ohno since he told them about the diary. Ohno then told them that he saw the woman yesterday as they practiced in the lake and they were shocked to know that.
Complete silence surrounded them after he finished until Nino talked again.
“Ohchan, may I ask you something again?” asked Nino. He nodded his head.
“Do you remember when we first met? You told me that you knew you’re a wizard a week before, right? But, your mother didn’t tell you anything about the school,” asked Nino and Ohno simply nodded his head. He also told Nino at that time how he thought his mother didn’t like being a witch because of his father’s death.
“You said your father died because of magic. Do you know anything about it?”
Ohno shook his head. For years, his mother told him it was an accident. But when she revealed to Ohno that they are a family of magician, she told him it wasn’t an accident. His father died because of magic but she didn’t go into details. Now that Nino asked about this, he thought maybe it will be logical to think that… the woman in the cave was responsible for his father’s death. He knew she had been spying on him for a while. She accused Ohno of having the same magic as The Stranger. So, what if she used to do the same thing to his father?
“Ohno kun, when did your father died?” Asked Sho.
Ohno told him it was ten years ago and as he was only five years old, he didn’t remember much. Sho also asked him what his parents’ specialty magic is but Ohno shook his head because he wasn’t sure. When his mother told him about being a wizard, he wasn’t aware that each person has their own specialty magic until Nino told him about it. He didn’t bother to ask his mother after that because he knew his mother didn’t like to talk about it. He simply assumed that both his parents controlled element and that’s why he could control water. If… If he indeed could control wizard like what the woman claimed, he must have inherited it from his parents and most probably it was from his father.
“I think we will not get anything today. I will go to the library tomorrow, try to find anything about your parents and the accident that killed your father. So, maybe we should go back to sleep first…” Even though Sho had stopped talking, it seems that he wanted to talk more. He took a deep breath before continue. “Well… you know… the woman… she looks like…”
“She looks like me, right?” said Nino as everyone turned to look at him, waiting for him to say something. They were really surprised to see the woman’s face when she took off her hood. The woman’s facial features were indeed similar to Nino. If anyone said she is Nino’s sister, no one would deny it. “Well… I don’t know her. Maybe I should ask my parents if I had any secret sister that they hide from me,”
He joked dryly as he said it, perhaps to hide the uneasiness he felt because of the woman. Ohno could only think of one thing. If Naomi really exists as claimed by the diary, the woman might be related to her. That would explain why she was after Ohno, if Ohno was indeed related to Samii. Perhaps she wanted to avenge her ancestor for what Samii did to Naomi. But, for Ohno, Samii was not guilty for anything that happened to Naomi. She’s the one who started everything.
Now that they had nothing to discuss until they get some answers, all of them lied down on the bed to sleep. Ohno kept thinking of the incident that happened today, of who he really is and who the woman is. He didn’t know when he slept until he heard a knock. Jun, who was the closest to the door, grunted when Nino asked him to open the door. The rest of them didn’t bother to know who’s at the door.
“Good morning, sleepyhead!” it was Ogura sensei’s voice. He could hear his friends whined, not ready to wake up. “Get ready. You have to be in the headmaster’s room in 15 minutes. Your parents are coming,”
A/N: I didn't watch any Japanese drama for the past few weeks except Tokyo Tarareba Musume. My life had been a constant cycle of watching walkthrough of Super Mario (I'm a noob, my mario usually died when I entered the second world. I think I am too impatient to wait for the perfect moment to jump), The Big Bang Theory (Sheldon, you're so annoyingly cute) and replaying games like the dash series and delicious series. If you have interesting games for me to try playing, please let me know. I preferred to play time management or hidden object games.
Anyway, I hope this chapter is okay. There is a key event happened here and I wonder if you could guess which one was it. Hopefully you will enjoy this chapter and as always, comments are very much appreciated.