Something To Report

“Are you going to say anything, or are you just going to stand there?” Nor asked, crossing his arms while leaning on the back wall of his ‘tomb’.

Yeah, I realized I was being awkward, but I didn’t know how I was supposed to face Nor right now. There wasn’t a single one of his words that had left my brain for a second these last few days. Maybe it’s because I’d heard exactly what I needed to hear and was cherishing that fact, or the complete opposite.

“Do you ever get tired of looking for ways to go back on what you’ve learned? I’m personally pretty tired of hearing you do it,” Nor straightened his back and walked toward me.

Right…he can read my mind.

“And how many times have you had that realization?”

Plenty of times I think.

“Exactly.”

It’s really weird to talk to you like this. It could be pretty useful though.

“Yeah, but believe me, the last thing I ever wanted was to be in the mind of a kid every waking hour.”

“Sorry about that.”

“A bit late to apologize now, don’t you think?”

Now that he stood in front of me, I was noticing all the smaller details of his outfit. Mainly all the cuts and scratches it had suffered, there was no wound though. Not that I expected an immortal man like him to bleed.

“Are you even human?”

“About as much as you, or more actually. You do have some Pantherian in you.”

“Then why are you immortal?”

“That’s for me to know and for you to wonder.”

Yeah, that was a stab in the dark. I wasn’t really expecting an answer out of him. But that being said—

“Then…what does someone like you need with someone like me—or Ze’Seki for that matter?”

Nor furrowed his brows. “I guess I never did tell you what I was up to huh.” He paced side to side looking at the four walls around us. ”This place is my tomb, I’ve told you that before. However, that also meant that I shouldn’t be awake.”

“So, since you are, you think that—”

“I’m needed. For one reason or another. By one person or another,” he stopped, looked at me, and said, “By who, that I don’t know.” He once again walked back to me, for some reason this guy was always moving around. “I needed someone to let me free of this place.”

“I’m guessing that’s where I—or I guess Ze’Seki comes in?”

“That, you’re right.”

“But why her? What’s so special about her?”

Nor grinned, “I think you’ve found plenty special about her.”

“T-That’s not what I meant,” I cleared my throat, “What does she have to do with letting you out?”

He snorted as he put his hand against the wall closest to me, the one on my left, “Because this tomb can only be opened by someone with the bloodline of the one who locked me in here.” He paused, looking at me with the void that was his eyes, “I needed the last descendant of the Finisterra warrior Kipton.”

Once I woke up, I began to wrestle with all the information Nor had given me. Honestly, I couldn’t very well believe Ze’Seki was the descendant of one of the Finisterras. Maybe that’s where she got her fascination with them.

Apparently the whole process of how that tomb worked was a complex mix of things, but honestly, wrapping my head around all of that was far beyond me.

All I knew is that Ze’Seki was the key to letting Nor out.

I’m pretty sure he could’ve just told me that the moment we met. I would’ve taken her wherever I needed, gotten him out, and that would be that.

Man, I just had to add something else to my mind today.

I lazily got out of bed and went to open the door. Today wasn’t my day to make breakfast, so I was more than fine with oversleeping, but with the way things were I don’t think I could easily go back to sleep. Plus, I didn’t want Nor to get me trapped in his tomb again, not that I saw that as an actual possibility.

Turning the knob, I—

“Heeyy, Ari!” Kokoro pushed me back into my room, slammed the door behind her, and dropped me onto my bed.

With me on my back, and her hovering over me with both arms at either of my sides, I was now pinned down.

“I’m a little afraid to ask…but what are you doing?”

Kokoro smiled, her sharp canines glittering with the slight rays seeping through my window. “I was just thinking…”

“Wow, you can do that?”

“I know right, revolutionary. I’ll make sure to teach you later.”

“Sorry to tell you, everyone else learned that centuries ago.”

She tisked, “Dumb people don’t always know they’re dumb, sorry you had to learn it this late.”

Alright, with a stab at my pride, bit over.

“What did you actually want?”

People don’t just suddenly pop into other’s rooms like that…wait, no, Kokoro definitely would do something like that.

And she did.

Kokoro fully sat down on top of me, pinning me more than I already was, before saying, “Oh, I just miss my dear old best friend Ari. You’ve been spending so much time studying we haven’t had time to have fun.”

“You literally kept me in your room for most of the day yesterday.”

I still didn’t know what the point of that was, but Kokoro was acting really strange yesterday. With that in mind, I wasn’t that strange that today she was acting the same way.

Still weird though.

“That was yesterday. This is today.”

“Yes, you just pointed out a true statement…and?”

“And, since yesterday was yesterday’s me, today is today’s me.”

“Oh, so completely different people.”

“Exactly!”

“Right…”

---

Kokoro wasn’t a master at staling, very far from it actually. The fact she had to do the same thing twice, two days in a row, was a catastrophe.

Please hurry up! She wanted to yell at everyone involved.

Everyone had decided to wake up earlier than usual, and thankfully they had. Everything had basically gone wrong at once. Not only was Totoro not responding, probably because he’d overslept, but they’d lost some of the decorations they were going to put up around the house.

They probably should’ve checked that beforehand, but they were so sure they knew where everything was that it never occurred to them to check.

Now, Ina was off to buy more decorations and Ze’Seki went to check up on Totoro.

The original plan was for Kokoro to go to his place, but since Ze’Seki’s ability to stall was probably much worse than Kokoro’s they decided to do this instead.

<Time: 9:22>

--

“I’m really really sorry!” Totoro pleaded.

“We messed up too, it’s fine,” Ze’Seki answered. Her heart beat quickly. In the back of her mind, there was always a worry something might go wrong, she felt the same for most things, but she was really hoping it hadn’t.

At the very least, it wasn’t too bad.

The two of them were going as fast as they could down the street. Originally they thought of taking a bike, but with the weight of the machine Totoro had built, it would’ve been really hard to pull off. Never mind the size of it.

The gift was inside a bag on Totoro’s back. A clear square shape was visible from the bag. With how sharp the corners were, it almost looked like it would rip through the bag entirely.

“Kokoro is stalling for time,” Evy said.

“She’s already there?” he asked.

Wait a minute, Evy thought, did he not know that the three of them lived together?

Now that she was thinking about it, Araldo and Kokoro never mentioned telling anyone they lived together.

Now’s not the time for that!

“Y-Yeah, she is.”

“They’re childhood friends, right? I guess it makes sense she would drop by really early.”

Well, that’s what he’d have to believe for now. It wasn’t her place to reveal all of that information if the other two didn’t want anyone to know. She worried that it would probably be revealed today with the party being at their house and all of that.

But anyway, that wasn’t important right now.

“Did you have time to finish?”

“The gift box? Yeah, barely. I fell asleep at like six in the morning.”

“S-Sorry about that.”

“Hey, no worries, I had fun working on it.”

If he said so, then Evy would have to take his word.

Hopefully, Kokoro hadn’t failed already.

<Time: 9:34>

---

Ina wasn’t usually a forgetful person. No matter whom you asked, you’d never hear anyone describe her as such. If anything, some might say Araldo got his great memory from her side of the family…

“So then why did I forget!” she yelled at herself.

Normally she wouldn’t use her car much. Most people didn’t even own cars with everyone preferring other forms of transportation, but there were certain occasions where it was needed.

The last time she’d used her car it’d been when Evy first came into town. It was mostly all for a bit which she’d even gotten one of her friends who worked at the library to play along with, but right now it was for a more important reason.

For the first time, probably ever, they were planning a surprise birthday party for Araldo. It just had to be now when her forgetfulness suddenly sprung up. Maybe it was her nerves in seeing how he would react that made her mind get jumbled, but either way, it wouldn’t change the fact that they were low on time.

She’d already gotten the decorations she needed, and now she was driving like a maniac back home.

Checking the time, it was already 9:40.

No matter how good Kokoro possibly could be at stalling, not that she was, Araldo would start finding it weird that she wasn’t letting him leave his room.

There was also the thing with Evy and her present.

“Hope those kids have made it back,” she mumbled.

As if on cue, she noticed two people jogging down the street. The clear horns on the head of one of those people and the massive square object on the back of the other made them stand out immediately—to Ina mainly.

She quickly pulled over to the side and rolled down her windows.

The two people on the streets stopped suddenly and looked at her with shock.

“Get in,” Ina told them.

---

Kokoro was rambling on about something, honestly, I think she was just saying words at this point. There wasn’t much substance behind them and at this point, I had an inkling she was hiding something from me.

I looked at the clock above my door. It read: 9:45.

Normally someone would’ve made breakfast by now, more accurately, Kokoro should’ve made breakfast by now. Now, I wasn’t complaining she wasn’t, believe me, I rather eat something edible in the mornings, but I couldn’t let this opportunity of calling her out slip through my grasp.

“I don’t mean to interrupt your intriguing speech, but are you sure you’re not staling for something?”

“Eep,” she let out as her back straightened frozen.

As they say, actions speak louder than words, and I think her reaction told me more than enough.

In a flash, Kokoro threw her entire body weight on me and tried to lock me in place, “It isn’t personal. It’s just business.”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” I said while struggling to get out.

I knew it was impossible for me to overpower her. In every way, she was stronger. Even if I had a size advantage, the fact she was full Pantherian meant she was stronger than me.

However, she still had a weakness.

While struggling, I just managed to free my arm. I reached for her sides and—

“H-Hey, that’s cheating—” Kokoro burst out laughing.

Tickling.

The one thing Kokoro couldn’t handle.

With a slight moment of weakness, I freed my second hand and tickled her until I was the one on top.

Before I could do anything else, I caught the sound of the car rolling into the driveway. Seeing as it was the weekend, I couldn’t see why Ina would’ve gone out at this time. That wasn’t something she’d normally do.

With Kokoro out of commission catching her breath, I quickly left my room and walked downstairs to the living room.

Just as I was about to reach the front door, the knob turned, and it swung open.

“!!!”

There, their eyes wide and faces filled with shock was a trio I wasn’t expecting to see…for multiple reasons.

Ina, Ze’Seki, and Totoro stood frozen. Each one held something in their hands, but the large square object Ze’Seki held was what caught my attention the most.

Ina looked around the bag quickly and pulled out a triangular object with a string attached to the back. With a tug, the string fell out and an explosion of color filled my vision.

Confetti?

“H-Happy Birthday!” they each said with slightly different timing.