Enchanted (12/?)
Title: Enchanted (12/?)
Pairing: Ohmiya
Summary: Once again, the boring academic year at the Magic School begins for Nino and his friends but… is this year really boring? Someone is trying to kill him!
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: The plot is mine. Co-written with zazasukie .
Genre: AU, High school, magic
Words count: 2232
AN: unbetaed
Previous
CHAPTER 12
“Is everything ready?” asked Sho, for the umpteenth time, wringing his hands nervously.
“Yeah,” answered Jun, rolling his eyes. “You asked the same thing just a few minutes ago. Please, calm yourself or they will get suspicious,” he added, pointing to the half-closed door that led to the living room.
Aiba, who was trying to hear the conversation in the other room, raised a hand, asking for silence. “Shhhhh!” he hissed, “I can’t hear a thing if with all the noise you‘re making!” he whispered.
[That morning]
As soon as they arrived to the mansion, the butler led them to the Duke’s studio.
“We were waiting for you,” greeted them the Duke, with a warm smile. He dismissed the butler with a nod and motioned them to sit down.
“It’s been a while since we’ve met, hasn’t it?” commented the Duchess, serving them tea and pastries. “But I don’t remember meeting you,” she added, looking politely at Sho and Ohno. “Are you Kazu’s friends?”
“Just a moment, darling,” Nino’s father interrupted her. Raising a hand, he cast an “Isolating spell” to make sure that no one was able to hear their conversation. “Well, now I made sure nobody can hear us we can continue… You send us a message saying that our son was alive so, where is he?”
Ohno searched in his pocket and took out the little mouse in his hand. “He’s here,” he said shyly, showing Nino’s parents the rodent.
The Duke and the Duchess looked at the mouse open-mouthed. “Wha-”
“Hi Dad, hi Mum!” Nino greeted them, waving his furry paw.
~~
It took them three hours to convince the Duke and the Duchess that the little mouse was indeed their son and to explain them what had happened since Nino had been poisoned.
“To sum up, thanks to Ohno, we have the chance to catch the real culprit behind Nino’s murder attempt,” concluded Jun, patting Ohno on the shoulder.
The Duke and the Duchess looked gratefully at the first year student, who blushed deeply under their warm gaze.
“We can’t thank you enough, Satoshi-kun,” the Duchess affirmed, taking Ohno’s hands between hers. The Duke nodded, holding Nino in his hands. “I’ve never seen a magician as capable as you,” he added. “That “Disguise” spell you’ve shown us… I’m amazed beyond words!”
Ohno blushed even more, stuttering in a timid attempt to rest importance to his skill.
Noticing that Ohno felt uncomfortable with all that praise, Nino took pity on him and skilfully redirected the conversation to the main topic; their plan to catch the person who had ordered his poisoning.
“As we explained you, we’ve found that the culprit must be one of the inhabitants of this house,” the little rodent resumed, walking up and down the table where they have put him.
“I still find hard to believe that someone in this house could have schemed your death, my son,” Nino’s father interrupted him, rubbing his temples tiredly. “Even if the letter with the instructions to the killer had my father’s seal, it still seems like a bad joke to me.”
“I know father,” Nino stopped and looked at his parents sadly. “I would have never believed it myself if it wasn’t for that proof. But all the test we conducted gave as the same answer: the culprit is someone of this household.”
Nino’s father grimaced. They were a noble and rich family, sure, but they had never been anything else but respectful and thankful with all the people that worked for them, no matter how humble was their condition. Every year, they donated big amounts of money to help those who were less fortunate than them. They had a good relationship with all the other noble families of the kingdom and had never been in any kind of dispute with anyone. Could be his own brother behind all that had happened? He had always envied him for inheriting the title but, could he hate his family that much? Could he hate them to the point of scheming the assassination of his own nephew to give his son the chance to inherit the title? Or was there another person? Someone who had never been considered a menace. An employee, maybe even a close friend, who had always smiled to them on the surface, but had been plotting his family demise’s behind their backs all this time?
A sudden shiver run up and down his spine. The Duke had always thought his family didn’t have a single enemy in the world. He had been wrong.
“I’ll send a message to gather the suspects in the living room,” Nino’s father said with a resolute expression. “It’s time to find out who tried to kill you, my son.”
[Current moment]
“My cousin has finally arrived,” whispered Nino, peeking at the people gathered in the living room through the small gap of the half-open door. “It’s time for you to make your grand appearance,” he said turning around and facing his friends. “I’ll wait here with the magic cloak until the moment when the “Searching” spell pointed out the culprit.”
Jun looked at them one by one and nodded, “Let’s go!”
Without more preambles, they opened the door and entered the living room.
Everybody fixed their surprised eyes on them.
“Aren’t you some of my cousin’s friends?” asked Nino’s cousin, arrogantly raising one eyebrow.
“What are you doing here?” exclaimed his father outraged, “This is a private meeting!”
“I invited them,” coldly replied the Duke. “They are going to help us with a little problem…”
“What little problem?” asked Nino’s uncle with suspicion.
“Finding the person who ordered my son’s assassination!”
~~
“We found this letter in possession of the man hired to poison Nino,” affirmed Jun, holding the incriminating letter in his hand. “And this,” he added, pointing at the blue sphere resting on the mahogany table behind him, “it’s a spell to find the owner of the object placed inside it.”
“Bullshit!” exclaimed Nino’s cousin. “Nobody is able to cast a spell like that!”
“Unfortunately for the assassin, there is someone who is able to, indeed,” the Duke retorted with a shark-like smile. “ But if you don’t believe me, lets prove it with a little, innocent game.”
He took a small, leather bag out of a drawer and opened it. He put his golden tie pin inside and offered the bag to his spouse. Nino’s mother took off the silver hairpin that held her bun, leaving her long, dark hair free, and put it inside the bag. She glared at Nino’s uncle, daring him to refuse to participate in the test. Nor he, neither his bad-mannered son dared.
The Duke beckoned his secretary over. The old man seemed a bit apprehensive for a moment, but he quickly came to the Duke’s side.
“You too, my friend,” the Duke held the bag in his secretary direction. “I don’t want to give anyone a reason to believe that there is some kind of trick behind this magic spell.”
From his hideout behind the room‘s door, Nino thought he had seen a flicker of doubt in the old man’s eyes for a second before he had put a small, silver fountain pen inside the bag, but it had been so brief… Could he have imagined it?
“And now, my incredulous brother,” the Duke continued, “come here and take something from this bag. Then put it inside the blue sphere, please.”
Nino’s uncle did as the Duke had said with a grimace of disdain. It was obvious he believed his brother was making a fool of himself. Who had heard of that kind of spell before? Everybody knew it was impossible to track other people’s belongings with magic!
He took Nino’s cousin ring out of the bag and put it inside of the small sphere with a snort of contempt.
The ball began to sparkle, slowly at the beginning but growing in intensity and velocity with each passing second. Finally, the ball lost its solidity and became a bright blue light hovering over the mahogany table.
A few minutes later, the man’s jaw almost dropped to the floor when the blue sphere sparkled and slowly gravitated to his son’s direction, finally stopping in front of him.
“Bu-but it’s impossible!!” he exclaimed, astonished.
“As you can see,” the Duke replied, “it isn’t. Let‘s begin!”
Following the Duke’s command, Jun inserted the letter in the ball and moved a few steps away.
The light floated erratically around the room followed by the anxious eyes of the people gathered there. Everybody held their breath when it approached Nino’s uncle, who looked at the light incredulously and backed away from it.
“I’m innocent! I’ve done nothing!” the old man protested, outraged, colliding with the Duke’s secretary in his hasty retreat. The secretary quickly moved away from the irate man, and situated himself near the elegant mahogany bookcase. At that moment, the light surprisingly changed its route and slowly floated towards the old secretary, who looked at it stunned.
“W-What?!” spluttered Nino’s father, shocked, when the pale blue light finally stopped over his secretary. Everybody looked at the old man open-mouthed, the shock clearly written in their faces.
“Then, it was the secretary?” loudly whispered Aiba to Jun.
“It must be an error, Sir,” protested the secretary, offended. “I’ve faithfully served your family all my life, no matter what this stupid light say.”
Ohno grimaced, knowing that his spell had signalled the real culprit. Seeing Nino’s father hesitate, he made a sign to Nino, who was waiting outside the room holding between his paws the little cloak imbued with Ohno’s magic.
After a little flash of blue light, Nino entered the room walking calmly. “Are you completely sure of that?” he asked, shocking everybody.
Watching him, something seemed to change in the old man’s eyes and he suddenly changed his attitude from one of calm servility to one of pure hatred. As fast as lighting, he raised his hand and threw a fireball at Nino before someone could stop him. As it had happened with Aiba’s hand when Ohno was disguised as a hawk, the fireball went through Nino’s body without causing him any harm.
The secretary swore rudely and was beginning to prepare another offensive spell when a movement in the other corner of the room alerted him.
“Stop!” he shouted, raising his left hand in Jun‘s direction. The young offensive magic user, who had been trying to surprise the secretary approaching him from his left side, stopped immediately. The old man was holding a small, red ball with a strange symbol painted in blank ink.
“A m-magical bomb!” exclaimed Sho, stunned.
Everybody froze, looking at the small bomb with fear. Although it seemed small and innocuous, the little bomb was one of the most destructive magical artefacts in the world. Years ago, the King had banned them due to their great power of destruction, able to reduce to ashes the biggest city of the kingdom, killing millions of people.
The terrified silence was broken by a strange, chocked laugh coming from the secretary. The old man contorted his face in a sneer, the madness clearly shinning in his eyes. “Morimoto-san do this, Morimoto-san do that,” he intoned, fixing his cold blue eyes on the Duke. “All these years obeying the orders of those below me…”
“W-what?” murmured Nino’s father, confused.
“Mine,” kept saying the old man, without paying any attention to the Duke’s question. “Everything should be mine if it weren’t for the Great Duke!” he almost shouted.
“My grandfather?” asked Nino’s father, even more confused.
“Yeah,” replied the crazy old man, looking haughtily at the Duke and his family. “He was my father, you know?” he confided them with a maniac grin plastered on his wrinkled face. “I was the firstborn, but unfortunately for me I was the son of his mistress.”
Everybody looked shocked at the old secretary, who laughed again. “A few days after my birth, his wife got pregnant and he didn’t hesitate to throw me away to give preference to his second son. After all, who was I? Just the son of his mistress…” he sneered contemptuously.
“B-But my father never told me a thing,” protested the Duke.
“That old goat…or should I say… my little brother,” mocked the secretary. “I don’t know if he knew something but I doubt it, because he wasn’t in good terms with our father. Nonetheless, after his death a year ago, I found an old diary of the Great Duke when I was going through his documents. There, I learn the truth; how my father had financed my education, and how he had managed to give me a job as his son’s secretary when I graduated… The old man wanted to have everything under control, I suppose,” he chuckled. Then, he fixed his cold eyes, full of hate, on Nino. “It was time to make Justice,” he declared with a resentful glare.
“Murdering my son?” asked the Duke, incredulous.
“Not only him, off course,” replied the old man with a dismissive movement of his free hand. “He simply was a loose end I wanted to left tied up before killing you and the rest of your family,” he commented easily, as if he was talking about something as innocuous as today’s weather.
Everybody gasped, looking horrified at the mad men, while he continued his diatribe.
“And finally, when all the heirs were dead and my relationship with the Great Duke were discovered… I would be the Duke! As it should have been from the beginning! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
The maniacal laugh made the occupants of the room shrunk in fear.
Suddenly, the old secretary fixed his eyes on Nino and his friends, “But now everything has been ruined by those brats… my carefully plotted plans… my hopes… EVERYTHING!” he yelled furiously. “I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!”
With the last outraged cry of protest, the crazy man threw the red ball at the floor with fury.
Next
Pairing: Ohmiya
Summary: Once again, the boring academic year at the Magic School begins for Nino and his friends but… is this year really boring? Someone is trying to kill him!
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: The plot is mine. Co-written with zazasukie .
Genre: AU, High school, magic
Words count: 2232
AN: unbetaed
Previous
CHAPTER 12
“Is everything ready?” asked Sho, for the umpteenth time, wringing his hands nervously.
“Yeah,” answered Jun, rolling his eyes. “You asked the same thing just a few minutes ago. Please, calm yourself or they will get suspicious,” he added, pointing to the half-closed door that led to the living room.
Aiba, who was trying to hear the conversation in the other room, raised a hand, asking for silence. “Shhhhh!” he hissed, “I can’t hear a thing if with all the noise you‘re making!” he whispered.
[That morning]
As soon as they arrived to the mansion, the butler led them to the Duke’s studio.
“We were waiting for you,” greeted them the Duke, with a warm smile. He dismissed the butler with a nod and motioned them to sit down.
“It’s been a while since we’ve met, hasn’t it?” commented the Duchess, serving them tea and pastries. “But I don’t remember meeting you,” she added, looking politely at Sho and Ohno. “Are you Kazu’s friends?”
“Just a moment, darling,” Nino’s father interrupted her. Raising a hand, he cast an “Isolating spell” to make sure that no one was able to hear their conversation. “Well, now I made sure nobody can hear us we can continue… You send us a message saying that our son was alive so, where is he?”
Ohno searched in his pocket and took out the little mouse in his hand. “He’s here,” he said shyly, showing Nino’s parents the rodent.
The Duke and the Duchess looked at the mouse open-mouthed. “Wha-”
“Hi Dad, hi Mum!” Nino greeted them, waving his furry paw.
~~
It took them three hours to convince the Duke and the Duchess that the little mouse was indeed their son and to explain them what had happened since Nino had been poisoned.
“To sum up, thanks to Ohno, we have the chance to catch the real culprit behind Nino’s murder attempt,” concluded Jun, patting Ohno on the shoulder.
The Duke and the Duchess looked gratefully at the first year student, who blushed deeply under their warm gaze.
“We can’t thank you enough, Satoshi-kun,” the Duchess affirmed, taking Ohno’s hands between hers. The Duke nodded, holding Nino in his hands. “I’ve never seen a magician as capable as you,” he added. “That “Disguise” spell you’ve shown us… I’m amazed beyond words!”
Ohno blushed even more, stuttering in a timid attempt to rest importance to his skill.
Noticing that Ohno felt uncomfortable with all that praise, Nino took pity on him and skilfully redirected the conversation to the main topic; their plan to catch the person who had ordered his poisoning.
“As we explained you, we’ve found that the culprit must be one of the inhabitants of this house,” the little rodent resumed, walking up and down the table where they have put him.
“I still find hard to believe that someone in this house could have schemed your death, my son,” Nino’s father interrupted him, rubbing his temples tiredly. “Even if the letter with the instructions to the killer had my father’s seal, it still seems like a bad joke to me.”
“I know father,” Nino stopped and looked at his parents sadly. “I would have never believed it myself if it wasn’t for that proof. But all the test we conducted gave as the same answer: the culprit is someone of this household.”
Nino’s father grimaced. They were a noble and rich family, sure, but they had never been anything else but respectful and thankful with all the people that worked for them, no matter how humble was their condition. Every year, they donated big amounts of money to help those who were less fortunate than them. They had a good relationship with all the other noble families of the kingdom and had never been in any kind of dispute with anyone. Could be his own brother behind all that had happened? He had always envied him for inheriting the title but, could he hate his family that much? Could he hate them to the point of scheming the assassination of his own nephew to give his son the chance to inherit the title? Or was there another person? Someone who had never been considered a menace. An employee, maybe even a close friend, who had always smiled to them on the surface, but had been plotting his family demise’s behind their backs all this time?
A sudden shiver run up and down his spine. The Duke had always thought his family didn’t have a single enemy in the world. He had been wrong.
“I’ll send a message to gather the suspects in the living room,” Nino’s father said with a resolute expression. “It’s time to find out who tried to kill you, my son.”
[Current moment]
“My cousin has finally arrived,” whispered Nino, peeking at the people gathered in the living room through the small gap of the half-open door. “It’s time for you to make your grand appearance,” he said turning around and facing his friends. “I’ll wait here with the magic cloak until the moment when the “Searching” spell pointed out the culprit.”
Jun looked at them one by one and nodded, “Let’s go!”
Without more preambles, they opened the door and entered the living room.
Everybody fixed their surprised eyes on them.
“Aren’t you some of my cousin’s friends?” asked Nino’s cousin, arrogantly raising one eyebrow.
“What are you doing here?” exclaimed his father outraged, “This is a private meeting!”
“I invited them,” coldly replied the Duke. “They are going to help us with a little problem…”
“What little problem?” asked Nino’s uncle with suspicion.
“Finding the person who ordered my son’s assassination!”
~~
“We found this letter in possession of the man hired to poison Nino,” affirmed Jun, holding the incriminating letter in his hand. “And this,” he added, pointing at the blue sphere resting on the mahogany table behind him, “it’s a spell to find the owner of the object placed inside it.”
“Bullshit!” exclaimed Nino’s cousin. “Nobody is able to cast a spell like that!”
“Unfortunately for the assassin, there is someone who is able to, indeed,” the Duke retorted with a shark-like smile. “ But if you don’t believe me, lets prove it with a little, innocent game.”
He took a small, leather bag out of a drawer and opened it. He put his golden tie pin inside and offered the bag to his spouse. Nino’s mother took off the silver hairpin that held her bun, leaving her long, dark hair free, and put it inside the bag. She glared at Nino’s uncle, daring him to refuse to participate in the test. Nor he, neither his bad-mannered son dared.
The Duke beckoned his secretary over. The old man seemed a bit apprehensive for a moment, but he quickly came to the Duke’s side.
“You too, my friend,” the Duke held the bag in his secretary direction. “I don’t want to give anyone a reason to believe that there is some kind of trick behind this magic spell.”
From his hideout behind the room‘s door, Nino thought he had seen a flicker of doubt in the old man’s eyes for a second before he had put a small, silver fountain pen inside the bag, but it had been so brief… Could he have imagined it?
“And now, my incredulous brother,” the Duke continued, “come here and take something from this bag. Then put it inside the blue sphere, please.”
Nino’s uncle did as the Duke had said with a grimace of disdain. It was obvious he believed his brother was making a fool of himself. Who had heard of that kind of spell before? Everybody knew it was impossible to track other people’s belongings with magic!
He took Nino’s cousin ring out of the bag and put it inside of the small sphere with a snort of contempt.
The ball began to sparkle, slowly at the beginning but growing in intensity and velocity with each passing second. Finally, the ball lost its solidity and became a bright blue light hovering over the mahogany table.
A few minutes later, the man’s jaw almost dropped to the floor when the blue sphere sparkled and slowly gravitated to his son’s direction, finally stopping in front of him.
“Bu-but it’s impossible!!” he exclaimed, astonished.
“As you can see,” the Duke replied, “it isn’t. Let‘s begin!”
Following the Duke’s command, Jun inserted the letter in the ball and moved a few steps away.
The light floated erratically around the room followed by the anxious eyes of the people gathered there. Everybody held their breath when it approached Nino’s uncle, who looked at the light incredulously and backed away from it.
“I’m innocent! I’ve done nothing!” the old man protested, outraged, colliding with the Duke’s secretary in his hasty retreat. The secretary quickly moved away from the irate man, and situated himself near the elegant mahogany bookcase. At that moment, the light surprisingly changed its route and slowly floated towards the old secretary, who looked at it stunned.
“W-What?!” spluttered Nino’s father, shocked, when the pale blue light finally stopped over his secretary. Everybody looked at the old man open-mouthed, the shock clearly written in their faces.
“Then, it was the secretary?” loudly whispered Aiba to Jun.
“It must be an error, Sir,” protested the secretary, offended. “I’ve faithfully served your family all my life, no matter what this stupid light say.”
Ohno grimaced, knowing that his spell had signalled the real culprit. Seeing Nino’s father hesitate, he made a sign to Nino, who was waiting outside the room holding between his paws the little cloak imbued with Ohno’s magic.
After a little flash of blue light, Nino entered the room walking calmly. “Are you completely sure of that?” he asked, shocking everybody.
Watching him, something seemed to change in the old man’s eyes and he suddenly changed his attitude from one of calm servility to one of pure hatred. As fast as lighting, he raised his hand and threw a fireball at Nino before someone could stop him. As it had happened with Aiba’s hand when Ohno was disguised as a hawk, the fireball went through Nino’s body without causing him any harm.
The secretary swore rudely and was beginning to prepare another offensive spell when a movement in the other corner of the room alerted him.
“Stop!” he shouted, raising his left hand in Jun‘s direction. The young offensive magic user, who had been trying to surprise the secretary approaching him from his left side, stopped immediately. The old man was holding a small, red ball with a strange symbol painted in blank ink.
“A m-magical bomb!” exclaimed Sho, stunned.
Everybody froze, looking at the small bomb with fear. Although it seemed small and innocuous, the little bomb was one of the most destructive magical artefacts in the world. Years ago, the King had banned them due to their great power of destruction, able to reduce to ashes the biggest city of the kingdom, killing millions of people.
The terrified silence was broken by a strange, chocked laugh coming from the secretary. The old man contorted his face in a sneer, the madness clearly shinning in his eyes. “Morimoto-san do this, Morimoto-san do that,” he intoned, fixing his cold blue eyes on the Duke. “All these years obeying the orders of those below me…”
“W-what?” murmured Nino’s father, confused.
“Mine,” kept saying the old man, without paying any attention to the Duke’s question. “Everything should be mine if it weren’t for the Great Duke!” he almost shouted.
“My grandfather?” asked Nino’s father, even more confused.
“Yeah,” replied the crazy old man, looking haughtily at the Duke and his family. “He was my father, you know?” he confided them with a maniac grin plastered on his wrinkled face. “I was the firstborn, but unfortunately for me I was the son of his mistress.”
Everybody looked shocked at the old secretary, who laughed again. “A few days after my birth, his wife got pregnant and he didn’t hesitate to throw me away to give preference to his second son. After all, who was I? Just the son of his mistress…” he sneered contemptuously.
“B-But my father never told me a thing,” protested the Duke.
“That old goat…or should I say… my little brother,” mocked the secretary. “I don’t know if he knew something but I doubt it, because he wasn’t in good terms with our father. Nonetheless, after his death a year ago, I found an old diary of the Great Duke when I was going through his documents. There, I learn the truth; how my father had financed my education, and how he had managed to give me a job as his son’s secretary when I graduated… The old man wanted to have everything under control, I suppose,” he chuckled. Then, he fixed his cold eyes, full of hate, on Nino. “It was time to make Justice,” he declared with a resentful glare.
“Murdering my son?” asked the Duke, incredulous.
“Not only him, off course,” replied the old man with a dismissive movement of his free hand. “He simply was a loose end I wanted to left tied up before killing you and the rest of your family,” he commented easily, as if he was talking about something as innocuous as today’s weather.
Everybody gasped, looking horrified at the mad men, while he continued his diatribe.
“And finally, when all the heirs were dead and my relationship with the Great Duke were discovered… I would be the Duke! As it should have been from the beginning! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
The maniacal laugh made the occupants of the room shrunk in fear.
Suddenly, the old secretary fixed his eyes on Nino and his friends, “But now everything has been ruined by those brats… my carefully plotted plans… my hopes… EVERYTHING!” he yelled furiously. “I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!”
With the last outraged cry of protest, the crazy man threw the red ball at the floor with fury.
Next