Mar: “Brother, I won’t leave until I finally meet the owner of this book.”

The two glance down towards the quietly behaving piece of literature which only recently began performing miracles of natural destruction out of self defense. Noel was creeping closer towards it, his footsteps no longer making any sound. He’d already found himself a nearby stick and, grasping it in hand, tried poking at the book.

…

Nothing happened.

Mar: “…Is he…?”

Mor: “...He’s ...fine. Anyways, Mar. If you’re not not strong enough… both your fates will be swallowed up by the stream. I am the same. With such dangers present...your ‘creation’ might be even more dangerous to handle than my own, for different reasons, too. Are you really willing to choose? Right now, having found nobody and made absolutely NO guesses, you may be able to back out – or… maybe father will agree with our proposal and let you write with me instead. How about that, any thoughts?”

Mar: “Mmmm, Shakes head No, I want to figure out what this connection means. Don’t worry brother, I’ll be fine~ more importantly, what should we do about this boo-”

*TSSSSSS!*

Noel: “Ow!”

Noel’s use with the stick became bolder, as he found nothing wrong with tapping and poking at it. Thinking of switching his movement up a bit in order to safely gleam more information out of the original owner, he had the idea of using this stick to gently… flip the cover open.

…

who knew that doing so would be no different from triggering Pandora’s storm? A cloud of flames erupted forth and engulfed his poor stick, burning it to ash. This action both startled the youth, and stirred the mysterious fragment inside of him. But after a few seconds, both the book and fragment calmed down, and Noel seemed to be deep in thought.

{After flipping open the over slightly, before the fire could burst forward – wasn’t that … I swear I saw the words “For my daughter Aria” on the first page. So… this probably belongs to Aria, huh? Unless there’s ANOTHER Aria that I haven’t met yet, in this school. Heheh. Whatever. Lemme try returning this to her first. She should be in a separate room at the stadium, right?}

Mor: “...Do you want us to try and negotiating with it? Maybe even give it a bit of a seal temporarily, or convince it that the boy means it no harm? That he’s most likely tied to it and the owner by fate and can’t actually hurt her without hurting an aspect about his own future, to some extent… It may let up and allow him to carry it.”

Mar: “Huhu~ I can feel it…

...Wishful thinking. It doesn’t want anybody save for its own master to touch it. That boy included. It might be weakened by its battle against the mage … criminal … person. But still...to a twelve year old child, all it would need is an electrical undercurrent to finish him off, with that boy, your precious future creation none the wiser.”

Mor: “...Gah, fine! Let’s search for the girl first. That way, you can lecture her about the irresponsibility of leaving her book here out in the open, and I can save my precious protagonist. Judging from the red string’s pull, her location should be--”

*ZZZZZZZZZAPPP!*

*CRRRACKLLE!*

*BOOM!*

*TSSS-ZZZZZ!*

Noel hesitated for a moment before quickly grabbing it. The moment he held it in his grasp, a burst of knowledge about its owner’s current location flooded his mind. Concurrently, the book released powerful discharges and minor tongues of flames at the literary ‘kidnapper’ in a bout to conserve energy, yet also rid his dirty, sweaty hands from its covering. But no matter how much calculated bouts of energy it let off, the book couldn’t pry his fingers off. There wasn’t much energy left to begin with, so it hesitated on putting out stronger levels of energy for a split second. That second allowed it to hear him speak.

Noel: “Oww! What the heck is this thing?! Should I just… kick it? Yeah, I should kick it all the way back to Aria, right? I can handle the electricity and fire but, it still kinda stings… I should probably thank dad ahead of time for…

...Haah. No, forget it.”

{…For the torture he… they …put me through. This little bit of electricity and fire… I barely even recognize it as tickling. I can … endure.}

Book: “…”

‘Kick it all the way back to Aria’…

After hearing that sequence of words exhale outward from his softly – parted lips, its oppressive energy and elemental discharge died down some. Almost like a wounded beast cautiously sizing up this invasive being that claims to be capable of healing it. In the end, its electrical discharge doubled in an effort to expunge this wastrel who dares touch it! Who dares threaten to kick it!

That strange and temperamental book diverted its power by transferring all of the energy it used to create tongues of flame into sparking up greater quantities of electricity.

Book: “!!!”

…

Yet, Noel was merely rendered immobile from the pain for a short three seconds – not due to the slight increase in pain, but rather because he was immersed in his own thoughts.

Book: “…”

It seemed to be capable of increasing its discharge and adjusting what means it used to repel others. If this book wasn’t actually the property of that chick with glasses from his class, then wouldn’t handing over this book to her be tantamount to murder? Should he really bring it back with him?

Shaking his head helped him to reaffirm his resolute decision.

...

He had to bring it back. In case he didn’t and the book actually did belong to her...it might already be stolen by that weird-faced man from before.

Wait… stolen? Why DID he want it anyways…?

…

{It’s strange… nothing good can come from staying here and thinking about it though. Whatever. I’ll bring it to her first, and place it somewhere out of reach. Yeah.

Mr. Abrams can take over from there.}

The book was re-positioned from within his grasp to being tucked in between his arm and side, safely nestled tightly in his right armpit. And with a flash, he ran full speed back to the dorms.

The book gave him a general location of her room and hall, not to mention the exact path that takes him straight to her. Was this a safety mechanism? In case somebody capable of touching it was kind enough to return it, instead of keeping it for themselves? Well, whatever. It seemed like a stupid design to Noel, and one that could easily backfire by placing her in danger. But he wasn’t the book owner. Who’s he to judge? This whole afternoon was very stress relieving and satisfying enough for him.

One good deed to end his run won’t be too troublesome.

…

…

…

Mar: “…Brother… he just… ignored the electricity… and the fire. All he said was ‘ow’ to the fire! And he didn’t even make any use of the strange chaos energy that existence transferred to him!

Is he... did you really make a soul fit for a human vessel? Or is he secretly an advanced mortal? This is just too strange…”

Mor: “...Hehehe. As expected of my creation… my ‘protagonist’! It doesn’t matter in the end, though. This makes things much easier for you, does it not? Let’s go; we’ll follow him, take a peek, and go back with the others. If she isn’t your chosen creation, which honestly speaking, I’m hoping for your own safety that she isn’t, then we can spend the rest of the day feeling out the campus some more.”

Mar: “...Huhu~ Thank you very much, brother~ it looks like I can no longer slack off either when it comes time for us to train ourselves~ She isn’t going to protect herself, after all~”

Mor: “Haaah. Should we be proud our ‘gifts’ to the stream of Fate have such important friends and foes surrounding them… or fearful? I suppose… I suppose only time will tell.”

…

Ten seconds later and Noel had barely managed his way back inside of the front lobby; swerving around the passersby, onlookers, civilian visitors and fellow students.

He made his way through the swerving maze of hallways and paths, only managing to locate the patient’s bedroom thanks to the map – like directions given to him, and his incredibly retentive memory bank. He may get lost and confused easily when things appear the same, but when he’s being guided or has a specific destination and route in mind, then finding his way around is really nothing short of child’s play.

As luck would have it; or perhaps this was the mysterious workings of Fate ahead of time, but nevertheless, Aria’s room was only two doors down from Noel and Rise’s shared one. He entered the room quietly, trying his best to throw the book in the air, so as to give himself a seconds worth of time, which he needed, to twist the nob and push open the door. Catching the book should have triggered the book’s discharge once again… but it surprisingly became docile right then.

{So… it really IS her book. Either that, or it has some fascination with little girls and refuses to discharge near her. Hmph! Even though it hurt me and kept on releasing energy while I passed by all those people. I hope nobody got hurt back there…}

Stepping inside, he watched her sleeping face slowly exhale a pained breath. Pale as if she suffered from blood loss, and with lips that slowly parted to alleviate her grunts of dissatisfaction, she was akin to a wilting flower – blessed with charm but lacking a proper caretaker.

His eyes were glued to her face and for some reason, deep inside his heart, he felt something. But after 30 seconds of staring, he could only manage to place the book beside her bed, before stepping out of the room. Mar and Mor shared similar pangs of Fate deep within their souls, but similarly to Noel, refused to speak. Mar stepped forward, kissed Aria’s forehead, gave her one last smile filled with emotional warmth, and parted at last, following her elder twin brother.

---