Magika - Chapter 17 (New)
Nino couldn’t sleep at all last night. Well, he slept when Ogura sensei was in their room but he woke up when the teacher went out. He was a light sleeper. Even though Ogura sensei went out as quietly as he could, he still hear it. He waited for a while, thinking about what happened on the quest before decided to wake his friends to talk about it. He couldn’t wait any longer.
However, even after they discussed about what happened, he still couldn’t sleep. What bothers him the most was the appearance of the woman. He felt uneasy to see the woman looks just like him. Knowing that the woman was an illusionist, it was possible that perhaps she was trying to fool them with her appearance. But, he was convinced that it was her true face and maybe they were related somehow. This may not be possible but maybe she didn’t attack him before because she didn’t want to attack him. That’s why she offered him a chance to escape and caressed his cheek but was offended when Nino refused to give Ohno to her.
He lied awake for the rest of the night, thinking of the possible explanation for his relationship with the woman until Ogura sensei knocked on their door to let them know their parents were here. Nino was undeniably tired but he couldn’t wait to see his parents. He wants his parents to explain the diary and his relationship with Ohno. Listening to Ohno talking about his dream last night made him think maybe it wasn’t just a dream. Perhaps Ohno didn’t realized that the dream he was talking about was depicted on the mural painting in Nino’s wall. The painting was the key for him to find the diary and maybe he wasn’t crazy to think that his parents knew about the diary. If he was lucky, maybe his parents knew the creepy woman as well.
They followed
Ogura sensei to the headmaster’s room in silence. When they approached the headmaster’s room, they heard an argument from inside the room. The argument was between Nino’s father and Ohno’s mother. He didn’t need to hear to the whole conversation to know they were arguing about Ohno. From what he heard, Ohno-mama seems to blame herself for letting Ohno came to this school but Nino-papa thought it was better for Ohno to come here.
The voices stop talking when Ogura sensei knocked on the door followed by the order from the headmaster to enter the room. When the door was opened, Ohno-mama immediately ran to Ohno and hugged him, asking if he was fine. Ohno didn’t seem to mind the attention given by his mother as he told her that he was fine. However, his mother didn’t believe him as she continue
to check her son, especially after she noticed the injury on Jun’s forehead.
“Mama, I’m okay. I’m just a bit shocked and terrified for what happened yesterday,” said Ohno, stopping his mother. “Did you just arrived?”
“Yes, I just arrived. Satoshi… are you sure you’re okay?” asked his mother once again and Ohno nodded again. “Do you want to leave this place? If you want, let’s pack your stuff and we will go from here,”
“Didn’t we already talk about this? He will sta…”
“He is my son. You don’t have any rights to decide for him,”
“But… it’s not safe for him out…”
“It’s not safe for him here too,”
“STOP!”
The argument between his father and Ohno’s mother was stopped by Kitagawa sensei and the two of them stopped talking almost immediately. All five of them were surprised to see the headmaster raised his voice and even though Nino didn’t want to admit it, he was scared to see the headmaster like that.
“I didn’t call them here to watch both of you fighting,” said the headmaster. He turned to look at Ohno-mama before continue
. “I know you are worried for your son’s safety but Ninomiya san was right. The only way to protect your son is to let him learn how to defend himself,”
Even if Ohno-mama didn’t seem to completely agree with the headmaster, she didn’t say anything anymore as she caressed her son lovingly. From the corner of his eyes, Nino watched how Ohno hold his mother’s hand tightly to ensure her that he was okay. In return, Ohno-mama hugged him tightly. Nino watched the whole exchange with a smile on his face. He wouldn’t blame Ohno-mama if she wants to take him away from here. Ohno is the only one she has now and after what happened yesterday, it makes sense if she wants to bring Ohno to a safer place.
“Well….”Matsumoto-papa started as he approached Jun to examine the injury on his head. “How about you? Are you okay?”
Unlike Ohno, Jun easily convinced his father that his injury wasn’t serious. Then, Sakurai-papa, who was usually the spokesperson for the council, asked all of them regarding yesterday’s incident. He repeated what the headmaster told him and all of them nodded in agreement, still keeping the part about Ohno as a secret. Nino knew it’s better to tell them about Ohno… but Ohno looked uncomfortable to talk about it.
“Is that everything?” asked Sakurai-papa, clearly doubting them. All of them turned to look at each other. As it seems that Ohno didn’t want to talk, Sho answered instead.
“Yes, that’s everything that happened yesterday,”
“I know that all of you are hiding something from us,” Kitagawa sensei took a deep breath before he continued
. “But, if you are not cooperating with us, we couldn’t do anything. I hope you realized that all of you, especially Satoshi, are in danger. She would attack you again and unless we know who she is, we cannot do anything to help,”
Nino tapped Ohno’s shoulder. He knew his headmaster was right so he had to convince Ohno to talk. Ohno turned to look at him, as well as their friends. All of them were smiling at him to encourage him to talk and with a heavy sigh, he nodded his head.
“Okay. But don’t blame my friends for keeping it as a secret,” he said reluctantly. “We were just afraid of what you will do to me if you know,”
“Satoshi, don’t tell me…” said Ohno-mama, suddenly looking panic. Nino and his friends looked at her in confusion. “Ah…. I know this would happen,”
“What are you talking about?” asked Ohno in return. But his mother shook her head, refusing to answer. Looking at her reaction, as well as the other adults in the room, Nino suspected that they already aware of Ohno’s other ability.
“Do you know what Ohchan can do?” he couldn’t stop himself from asking. The adults didn’t seem surprise. In fact, if he had to say, they were asking about what really happened in the quest just as a confirmation
for Ohno’s ability, not because they want to know.
“Kazu…” his father started but Nino immediately cut him off.
“You expect us to tell you everything but you didn’t tell us about Ohchan. Do you know how he felt yesterday when the woman accused him of controlling her and being related to The Stranger?”
He couldn’t control his anger as he remembered the look on Ohno’s face when the woman implicitly said that he was related to The Stranger. The adults, especially Ohno-mama, looked guilty and avoided looking straight at them. Why did she keep everything about Ohno a secret? She didn’t tell Ohno about him being a wizard until a week before the school started. And now, she didn’t tell Ohno what his true magic ability is! If it’s to protect Ohno, wouldn’t it be better to tell Ohno everything?
“I… I…. Satoshi, I’m sorry. I should tell you everything but I’m too afraid,” Ohno-mama started to blame herself, leaving Nino and his friends confused. They looked hopefully at the adult, waiting for explanation. However, they were disappointed when the adults remain silent.
The only sound in the room was the sobbing of Ohno-mama and Ohno’s low voice as he tried to calm his mother.
“So…” Nino began carefully when Ohno-mama had stopped sobbing. “Ahhh…. I don’t know what to ask. I just want to know every secret that you hide from me, including the diary in my room,”
That surprised the adults in the room, including his father. What? They didn’t know about the diary? He thought it was put in his room by his father. Then if it wasn’t his father, who put it there?
“Do you mean… Founder Ninomiya’s diary?” asked his father. Nino nodded his head. He was surprised when his father screamed in excitement.
“I was right. I know that Mamoru put it in your room. He stole it from my study room and I’ve been looking for it. I’ve been searching for the diary in your room but never found it. How did you find it?”
Okay, that freaked him out a bit. So, someone named Mamoru stole the diary from his father’s study room and put in his room. Who is Mamoru and why would he steal the diary only to put it in his room? But, more importantly, how did the guy even had access to his room to even build the secret basement room?
He didn’t have to ask who Mamoru is. Someone else already answered for him.
“The diary in Nino’s room… My father put it there?” asked Ohno, almost whispering. So, Mamoru was Ohno’s father. Nino wasn’t surprised to know that. True, he didn’t thought of that at first but now that he knew it, it made sense.
Okay, so here is what he thought as he remembered the first day he met Ohno. His father said that Ohno’s father aka Mamoru is his best friend. Ohno and Nino used to live together and share the room. Mamoru painted a mural and used it as a key for his secret basement room. One day, Ohno’s family left the house but he didn’t take the diary in Nino’s room. Nino would like to think that he purposely left the diary in his room for him to read, based on the note he found in the drawer.
“Hmmm… May I know what is going on?” asked Sho politely. “We didn’t understand anything. Do you mean the diary that Nino found was real and the real villain in history wasn’t The Stranger but Naomi?”
All the adults turned to look at each other, as if debating to let them know the secret they were hiding or not. Nino was irritated to see that. Like he said before, it’s unfair that they hide a lot of things from Nino and his friends but expected them to cooperate. He was about to say something but his father was faster.
“Well, there’s a lot of things to explain…” said his father as he looked at the other adults, clearly looking for approval to continue talking. “… and like all of you who didn’t know what to ask first, we didn’t know what should we explain first,” As none of the adults seem to object, he continued
. “But, to answer your previous question, yes, the diary is real and all of us are aware of the truth,”
“So, why do you keep it as a secret?” asked Sho again. Nino-papa sighed before he continued.
“How do you feel when you know about it? You must had a doubt if it was the truth. If we let the public know about it, I cannot imagine the consequences. They will start to question everything. So, we decided to just let it be a secret, like our ancestors did,”
“But, how do you know it was the truth? In the first place, why do they keep it as a secret? I don’t believe that they do it just because Samii doesn’t want people to blame Founder Ninomiya. There has to be another reason for that,” said Sho, voicing out the same opinion he had before when Nino told him about the diary. He could see that Sho was enjoying this moment to ask everything that he was curious to know.
“Well…” this time, it was Sakurai-papa’s turn to answer. “We had other sources of history that confirmed
the existence of Naomi and supported everything written in the diary. There is a secret section in my study room where our ancestors put everything regarding Naomi there except for Founder Ninomiya’s diary which remained with the Ninomiyas. As for why they do that, we’re as clueless as you are. We only know that Samii wanted to erase Naomi’s existence to protect Founder Ninomiya,”
To protect Founder Ninomiya? Protect him from what? Nino asked the questions to himself. Perhaps it was explained in the missing pages of the diary.
“There were missing pages in the diary. Do you know about that?” asked Nino.
“Missing pages?” it was Sho who responded instead. He frowned as he looked at Nino and so did the rest of their friends. Nino was puzzled to see their reaction until he realized he didn’t tell them about the missing pages. So, instead of answering, he ignored Sho.
On the other hand, the adults were shocked to hear that so he quickly assumed the pages might be removed by Mamoru after he stole the diary. He wondered what was written on those pages that made him tear them.
“I don’t really remember what was written in the diary. But what was the last thing written before the missing pages?”
Nino then told him that the last pages in the diary was when Founder Ninomiya questioned himself if he was making the right choice. His father didn’t say anything and Nino didn’t interrupt him as he appeared to be thinking. He assumed that his father might be trying to remember what was the next entry about and waited patiently for his father. But, when he opened his mouth next, he didn’t tell them about the entry and instead he asked Nino a question.
“How do you find the diary?” Asked his father. Nino then told him about the note he found in the drawer, which in return made his father frowned.
“But I’ve looked at the drawer and it was empty. I even did as what you did!”
“Concealing spell,” said Ohno-mama suddenly. “It’s one of the few spells that Mamoru mastered easily. We use the spell when we’re dating, to send messages to each other that only we can see. I should have known that he wasn’t normal at that time. He could perform a spell even though he wasn’t a wizard,”
At first, Nino thought he heard it wrongly. But, when his friends looked as surprised as he was when he heard it, he knew that wasn’t the case. Mamoru wasn’t a wizard? But, he thought Ohno inherited his magical ability from his father. So, if he wasn’t a wizard, would that mean Ohno-mama was the one who had the ability to control magician?
“Ah! I shouldn’t say that,” said Ohno-mama when she finally realized her slip of tongue. But, it’s too late. It makes Nino wants to know more about Ohno’s father. He figured the adults were aware of that as none of them seem surprised but they were looking at Ohno-mama disapprovingly.
“Mama… Do you mean… I have that magic because of you?”
“What?” Ohno-mama looked clueless when Ohno said that but she noticed quickly. “No… I can’t do that. You got that from your father. It’s complicated,”
“How complicated is that?” Nino couldn’t stop himself from asking.
Ohno-mama sighed. She looked reluctant to answer but she had said too much so there’s no way she could get away without explaining.
“Your father wasn’t a wizard… Well… he wasn’t a wizard until…… hmmmm… our first night together,”
A/N: I hope this chapter is okay.... I have a dilemma in real life right now. I don't know if I should quit my job or not. I have tonnes of reason to quit but I'm afraid it will be harder for me to get a new job
. I already start searching but no luck yet. Sigh. Anyway, I hope you will enjoy this chapter and comments are <3.