Entwine - second step

We reached the snow-covered playground around eleven pm, but I asked Violet to wait one more hour before using the ticket. There was something I wanted to try and she agreed to it.

We dusted off snow from two of the swings placed there and killed some time by swinging and talking. The tranquil silence of the night was favoring conversations coming from the heart, but neither of us was in the mood for heavy stuff like that, instead we tried to find a fun and light topic to discuss.

First, we talked about favorite food. I learned that Violet’s a great pizza lover, but nearly every time she tried to order one to the mansion it was intercepted by the maids and destroyed by Viktoria. When I asked why she didn’t eat it outside, she shot me a grumpy look and said that it was impossibly shameful for one small girl to order a pizza and eat it alone on the spot. This line, coming from a girl who cursed at her teachers and was ready to puke during our eating contest in the café, lacked credibility. After voicing my doubts, I managed to make her say the true reason. Apparently, to truly relish the taste and make the best out of it, she had to eat a pizza while watching a good movie, sitting in her pajamas. I seriously started suspecting that Violet was my spirit animal.

The topic naturally shifted into us talking about movies. I was shocked. There were so many things I could teach her in this area. An enormous mental note was made to order a huge stack of pizzas, shut us both in our flat and spent a few months on enlightening my little sister about the wonders of cinematography, after that we would move on to a three-year course on anime, manga, and visual novels. Violet was a bit overwhelmed by my enthusiasm but said that as long as we would keep it to a reasonable amount, she didn’t mind giving it a try.

A dozen or so of the remaining minutes was spent on talking about local celebrities. I asked her about my recent discovery.

“Neko, Vampire, and Blackie? Oh! You mean those three idols that are popular lately?”

“Yeah, do they only look good or is their singing worth giving a try as well?”

“Look good? Worth giving a try as well? Would you like to give a try to their bodies first? Tasting an untarnished flower that many men dream about, is that your dream pervy-nii-chan? I’m starting to understand the warped taste in girls my nii-whoa!”

She swung hard backward and avoided the incoming snowy bullet which put an end to her attempt at making fun of me.

“Hah! You missed!”

“You know that’s not what I meant, but nevermind. I’ve changed my objectives, shooting at moving target will be a good practice.”

There wasn’t enough snow in my arms range, so I jumped down from the swing and started preparing ammunition.

“Then I will do the same!”

Before she could stop the moving swing and get off it I said:

“As soon as your feet touch the ground, I will move on from throwing to tackling. You think that you can run away from having your face rubbed with snow? You better keep swinging fast.”

“That’s not fair! Do you want to pull this off with a brute force approach? How can you do that to your cute little sister? Have you- oomph!”

Like a champ, Vio took the bullet face first, not that she could do anything about it anyway.

“Hehe, keep swinging, there are four more to come.”

After shaking off the remains of the snowball, she quickly shifted through three different phases, an angry state of incredulity which was the groundwork behind plotting revenge, the sly state connected with a brilliant idea as if she was to remove the seal on forbidden psychological armaments, and lastly the prelude of taking the defensive stance and waiting for the perfect moment to strike back - everything was clearly reflected on her face.

How can I hinder her plans?

I also surprised myself as to how well I could read her expression or she was allowing me to do that by deliberately emphasizing them.

“Four more? I’m ready! Give them to me.”

Vio used both hands to create a defensive barrier in front of her face and increased the speed of her swinging. I didn’t follow the first snowball with consecutive ones and just kept her in suspense, wondering how long it would take for her to realize that I wasn't planning to attack anymore.

She proved to be surprisingly patient, as she kept swinging for the next five minutes before erupting.

“Are you throwing or not?!”

“Throwing? Throwing what? I’m just watching my little sister playing peek-a-boo on the swing. Aren’t you too old for that?”

A long ‘huuuuuhhh~’ noise of her disappointment was heard before she looked at me sharply and said:

“Lame-nii-chan! This punchline was weak, I gave you such a perfect occasion and this is all you could think of?”

“Even the greatest artist can’t create a miracle when the material he has to work with is of low quality.”

“... just a tiny bit better, but whatever, you won this one, barely.”

Bittersweet victory, next time I will do better, still... one more point for Victor’s side! Woo~hoo~!

“Out of curiosity let me ask, what would have happened if I continued throwing snowballs?”

“Fu-fu-fu, there was a police patrol watching us from the distance behind my onii-chan back, I was preparing to scream, reeeeaaaally loud.”

“You wouldn’t go that far…”

Just in case, I turned back as naturally as possible and cautiously scouted the area behind me. I didn’t see any patrols.

“Were they there before or not? You luckily won’t have to find out this now.”

Can’t treat this as my win anymore, she fought to the end and got herself an armistice.

Violet stopped swinging, went off the swing and came close to me. She seemed to be in a good mood but kept shooting glances at the slide. I moved one hand under her parka’s hood and kept it there, gently stroking her soft hair. She closed eyes and enjoyed the pleasant sensation.

“Nii-chan, what time is it?”

“Two more minutes.”

“Will it work?”

“I don’t know… my power is hard to predict, sorry.”

“... no, don’t worry. It’s good that you’re trying to reassure me. I appreciate it. If it won’t work I will just have to do something with my burning spirit alone.”

I gave the ticket to Vio and turned her towards the slide. Just as we had agreed, she was waiting for my signal before centering the paper on it.

As soon as the phone's alarm rang, announcing that it was after midnight, I used Three Answer. There weren’t three clear options presented in front of me so I had to ask a more general question.

What will happen to Violet when she uses the ticket?

One - Action: Swiftly french kissing Violet.

Reaction: Shocked, she allows the user’s tongue to explore her mouth before exploding in a crimson rage.

Two - Action: Snatching ticket from Violet’s hand and using it by yourself.

Reaction: Nothing happens, Violet becomes angry.

Three - Action: Asking Violet if she will become the thespian.

Reaction: User lacks mana to complete the prediction.

“...”

Does this power of mine want to see the world burn?

“Onii-chan? It's time already, did you do it?”

Asked the girl on whose shoulders I kept my hands and turned her head in my direction.

“Sorry… I just used my power and it has spectacularly failed.”

“F-failed?”

Her calm tone of voice was shattered in a second and a distressed one appeared instead, she might have understood it in a really grim way.

“No, no, calm down, it didn’t predict you failing the challenge. The fault lies on my side, I guess that it won’t work as it should if the question isn’t centered around my actions. When I asked what will happen to you after using the ticket, the results were all over the place.”

Violet placed her free hand on mine and urged me to explain.

“It told me that nothing will happen here even if you kept staring at the ticket for hours, you know what does it mean?”

“That… umm… the mana spot’s gone?!”

“Yeah. Most certainly, someone has used it already.”

“... I want to give it a try anyway.”

“Sure, go on.”

When she stood almost motionlessly staring at the black square, I changed the gears of my brain to turbo mode.

‘Asking Violet if she will become the thespian’, that’s obviously referring to The conductor…

… does it need other people's cooperation to work?

Would it be safe to ask her that?

“Nothing happens, I saw the square disappear immediately when you’ve used it… now what?”

Vio sounded pretty crestfallen, after all the mental preparations it must have been a huge letdown, so I just sighed deeply and decided to take her to another spot.

“Let’s go, I know another place that may work.”

“Really?”

A hint of hope returned to her voice.

“Although this may be a sign that you shouldn’t become an es-”

“Don’t say it, this topic is closed. Lead the way please.”

The falling snow was continuously gathering on the pavements and it finally reached the amount that considerably hampered our speed. Vio said that she had enough of walking and we went towards the nearest taxi stand.

While sitting in one I said:

“Vio, give me our father’s number.”

“What for?”

“The Sunday’s dinner.”

“Don’t worry about it onii-chan, we will just have to go there, clench our teeth and endure till it ends.”

I had exactly the same though not so long ago.

“You know that it’s not that simple, it’s better to make sure. Come on, just tell me the number.”

“It’s late, father’s asleep already.”

“He will pick up a phone no matter what time it is.”

“But there must be a good reason behind it or he will get angry!”

She sat with her back turned towards me, watching the passing scenery of a city shrouded in the night through the taxi’s window.

“Talking with him about the dinner is a good reason.”

“No, it’s not!”

“Why are you getting angry?”

“Why do you want to poke the hornet’s nest?! You may have my brother’s memories but you weren’t the one who experienced them. Trust me on this one, let’s just simply endure.”

Ahh… I get it. He only told her about the Sunday’s dinners.

“Vio, father’s sponsoring TET, he knows.”

It took her a moment of silence to fully comprehend this information, in the meantime, I prepared an effective verbal attack to break through her resistance.

“... no way, but… b-but even if that’s true, t-there’s no reason for us to contact him...”

“And accept everything that comes our way without a chance to prepare? Do you think that Viktoria really agreed to you leaving the mansion without any objections? Father always tries to treat all four of us fair, helping me and you is equal to Viktoria and Vincent received something as well. I’ve got a feeling that those dinners were created with this in mind. With us twins already on this side and with you about to join it, everything will get even more complicated.”

“...”

Vio turned my way, a single tear ran down her cheek.

“Onii-chan… l-let’s not go there at all. I d-don’t want to…”

Seeing her weak side and hearing the soft voice used to convey the heart-most emotions I felt my chest tighten, a strange feeling I rarely experienced before was dampening the cold rationality I tried to attack her with.

“Come here.”

“Um...”

She stayed silent, cradled in my arms in the taxi’s backseat for the rest of the way. I decided to bury this topic for now.

There’s still father’s phone number in the papers Michael gave me.

“Let the power of moon shine upon your way!”

This was the substitute number eleven.

I had used a really profound and deep lucky charm during the first three attempts, but it quickly started losing its value and was too long so it had been replaced by a temporary substitute.

“Nothing... wrong one. I’m starting to wonder if you aren’t doing this on purpose.”

“There are only a few left, I’m sure it was somewhere on this street.”

We were checking every single one of the road signs, from one end of the street to the other, as I forgot which one of them was the mana spot. Last time, everything had been covered with crawling red chaos and had looked quite differently.

If someone has used it already… Vio won’t take it lightly.

“Ehh… come on onii-chan, this one is next. You don’t even have to say anything, just hold my hand.”

“No, a lucky charm is a must.”

We locked on to our next target and moved closer to it. I held her hand and she looked at the sign through the ticket.

“A magical girl is born from fluffy dreams! A magical sister to fulfill her nii-chan whims! A mag-”

It started disappearing.

The substitute charm was stopped halfword, I instantly turned off the half-assed mode and went into a serious one. There was no time to use the full version of the charm I had prepared, instead, I held her hand tighter and said only a part of it:

“Entwine your fate with mine, like the equals we ought to be.”

To an onlooker, we looked like a strange duo fascinated by one of the road sign.

To Vio, it was her first visit inside the mana spot where everything could happen.

To me, it was a really long period of two minutes spent on keeping my eyes on her face and looking for any, even the tiniest, sign of troubles. So many things would go wrong if anything happened to her.

Please be safe, my own little sister, please be safe, don't bring the trouble to me, please be safe, please be safe, don’t die, please be safe, father won't take it lightly if you won't come back safely, please be safe, don’t leave me alone, please be safe, you’re the only one who I can trust, please be safe, don't die please, please be safe, I may not be able to take it if you leave now, please be safe, you're my responsibility, please be safe, you're the cheeky actress I want to watch, please be safe, please don't start the avalanche of troubles, please be safe, I want you to trick me more, please be safe, that's how you should worry about someone, please be safe, there’s so much I want to show you, please be safe, please be my support, please be safe, so much fun awaits us in the future, please be safe, please be safe, you can cry in my arms any time you want, please be safe, where will I find someone else to hug, please be safe, please god don’t let the hand I hold become cold, please be safe, please be safe, please be safe, Vio, please be safe, please be safe, let us grow stronger together, please be safe, I want to have more fun with you, please be-

“It hurts.”

“VIO?! WHERE IT HURTS?!”

“My hand hurts, are you trying to crush it? Nii-chan… now I get it, the face you’re making is really cute, you know? Sorry for not worrying about you like you do for me.”

The thought I once had seemed so silly right now, I just realized that it was me whose heart had been messed with by this girl. I might have been way more lonely than I thought.