aiko's otter den

Color of Bones - One of the truly painful things about being the magical inheritor of a powerful family was also getting all of the skeletons in the closet shoved in after it. Kiriha has never looked forward to a birthday any less. Lucky for him, his friends come around to make it better.

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1

The first thing Kiriha thought of London was simple: it was ugly.

The streets of Japan were straight and narrow, like someone had taken a ruler to each road. America was just a mess, from its melting pot and indecisiveness and well-blended stupidity. He liked this; it was controlled chaos..

London was just overkill. Buildings for the sake of buildings, all lopsided and full of unnecessary angles. The stars were a joke, and the magic was thick enough to kill a horse. He was glad Nene had work this week; she’d suffer a migrane within minutes.

He popped a pain pill as he thought about it. The manor he was going to for the day would probably be worse. House elves and wards and creatures ready to be hunted like pigs. What a pain in the ass.

He’d be willing to go and beat up a Death General again, if only to avoid this mess.

Kiriha made his way to the edge of the underground. All the fireplaces had an electric one at this point. It’d look weird to be dropping that Floo powder there. He hated the stuff anyway. So he took a tighter grip on his bag and began to push through the crowd. He paused. Was there a wizard, oh god. These damn morons. No wonder they had so many security breaches if they were this obvious.

He sighed and rubbed between his eyes. The carriage was waiting for him… where again? This was why he’d rather have flown over. Considering how oblivious non-mages were here, he could have gotten away with it. But, no, because this system assumed magical potency peaked at seventeen for everybody, and he lacked a chaperone, here he was. Give him the mundane system any day.

The train stopped and he joined the throng, walking until he saw a gleaming black car. The passenger window rolled down, leaving him face-to-face with a worn, old face.

“Mister Aonuma.”

Kiriha raised an eyebrow and slid into the backseat.

Only the Malfoys would have such a flashy car. Not even he was that dumb.

---

2.

“Your taste in cars is outdated.” Kiriha paused. “Never mind, that’s just your society.”

“Nice to see you too.”

Kiriha snorted. It looked like Draco Malfoy had learned the dance his father had liked so much. He remembered the old man. Was the guy even alive? “You called me here to fix your mess. Sorry if I don’t feel like I’m being nice about it.”

Draco raised an eyebrow. “Apologies are new.”

Kiriha shrugged. “I run with a new crowd. They’re less pointy than you.” Unless you counted Taiki’s hair, but he swore that was just a mess.

The aristocrat made a small snort. “I suppose I deserved that.” He moved closer. “So, what I need from you is—”

“Kiri!” shouted a voice from the bannister. Kiriha stepped to the side as a miniature Draco went zooming down the stairs towards him. “You are not supposed to dodge,” he said, trying to imitate his father and failing.

Draco let out a snort. “Scorpius, Kiriha has never been a fan of physical affection.”

“Pot. Kettle.” Kiriha uncrossed his arms and nodded at the little Malfoy. He had nothing against Scorpius; he couldn’t help being the spawn of a bastard, Death Eater mess aside. Still, the kid was young, not much of a wizard yet. He had been a baby when Kiriha met him. Getting attached was a stupid idea right now. “What do you want, Malfoy?” He jabbed it to prove a point.

Scorpius let out a huff and went back to his father. He wasn’t good at this. It was almost as cute as he was when he had been his age. Of course, his father had been dead when he had started.

He needed to get home soon. At least Japan or America wasn’t as bad with the vibes of angst.

Draco went to one of the manor’s many windows. “There’s a cottage of by the sea. By legal rights, it’s a Malfoy property. By magic, it’s one of yours. The records say it’s the one where our families united centuries before. So it’s likely that there is wild magic roaming around there.”

“You can’t handle it?” It’s not a challenge. Draco still shifts to a defensive look.

“Wands get in the way.”

Kiriha sighed. Of course. Maybe he’d have to call his friends in after all. They were better with the use of wild magic than he was.

Nah. He needed a challenge.

“Lead the way,” he said with a smirk.

3.

Draco led him to a cottage that stank of magic. Kiriha almost doubled over at the stench of the stuff. If Draco noticed, he said nothing, Then again, he probably hadn’t noticed the smell at all.

Bastard. Or lucky breeding. Did British magic-users even know the basics of genetic engineering? He doubted it.

He took a deep breath and paused. He knew the tang of that little thread of magic. He would have smiled if it wasn’t a big deal. That nag. How had she found the time to show up here?

The magic ran up Kiriha’s skin like a millipede. He hoped she wasn’t unconscious in there. Her brother would kill him.

“Worse than I thought, is it?” Draco inquired. He tapped his cane in the dirt. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Older wizards had a habit of leaving their toys lying around,” Kiriha muttered under his breath. “They figured Muggles wouldn’t pick them up.”

They certainly will nowadays, it’s old history to them. “Draco snorted.

Kiriha rolled his eyes. “It’s old history to us too. Now, go on, let me get in here. I need to build up the immunity.” He went towards the wards, which parted like curtains before he could say who he was. Yep, Nene had gotten in. Thieving cat. He supposed that was good, at least. He went inside before Draco could actually ask him what happened. He set his bag down and groaned. “Nene, where are you in here?”

“The kitchen,” she replied, voice musical with laughter. “I figured you wouldn’t mind me getting you something to eat.”

“I do mind you being here,” he said as he entered the next room. He barely saw any need for walls in here, the rooms were so tiny. Then again, he could probably fit five Japanese apartments in here and still have room. “So, spill.”

“You’re going into your magical inheritance,” Nene replied from where she sat on the counter. “I’d rather it not end up with you dead.”

Kiriha snorted. “Taiki asked you to.”

“He told me where you were headed, yes.” She laughed. “I had my inheritance ceremony already. You would choose to have yours in the most dramatic, flashy area imaginable and then become a bonfire in the process.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “You two have no faith in me.”

“For good reason, I feel.”

4.

Nene sipped her drink from her stool. “Even so, are you sure this is a good place to have your ceremony?”

Kiriha shrugged. “It’s the quietest, and that’s what I need.”

“For you and your temper tantrums.” Nene spooned the soup into a bowl and passed it over. He took it and swallowed, grunting appreciation. Yuu had learned from somebody.

“Pretty much.”

Nene rolled her eyes. “Do the fellows here go through this?”

Kiriha shook his head. “Not as dramatically. Their wands tamper down the whole thing. Also, Muggles.” He made air quotes. Honestly, if he didn’t know better, it sounded like an excuse. Okay it still sounded like an excuse.

“Japan is surrounded by non-magic users,” Nene pointed out, wrinkling her nose at the slang. What was she angry at it for? She was a pureblood, same as most of their friends. Then again, Japan had differing ideas of pureblood. “Not even surrounded, smothered by them. So is England, and America. You could find a needle ina haystack before you found a mage in America.”

Kiriha snorted. “I know, but hear me out.” It was frightening sometimes. Nene made logic into an art form when she didn’t have her brother to think about, or everyone else. “They use wands, which dilutes their magic. Don’t tell them that, last time I tried, I had an angry uncle inform me my blood was as twisted and rotten as a squib’s wand. Our Catalysts,” He touched the obsidian knife in his pocket. “draw directly from the body, because most of our magic is based around our martial arts. Speaking in Eastern countries anyway.”

“Wands make my skin crawl,” Nene mused, beginning to set up a mirror. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “So easy to snap.”

“It’s a European thing,” Kiriha said with a shrug. “The Americans could give a damn to be honest. So long as they can use it, they’ll apply their magic anywhere. But see, the Europeans are used to wands, so their bodies are born not really expecting the magic to go anywhere but their wand hands, while we—”

“Have it go through all of us, yes.” Nene sighed. “And because of that, their magic and electronics tend to clash worse than ours because direct power goes against alternating current and direct current.”

“I’d say it was science if science really worked in this case.” Kiriha swallowed another spoonful and put his head on the table. “Also means they couldn’t smell magic without perfume in it. I can’t wait to get the hell out of here.” His head was still throbbing.

“Sleeping helps,” Nene said with a withering smile. “I’m going to contact Taiki-kun.” She ran her fingers over the mirror and it flickered with light.

“Don’t.” Kiriha glared at her. “You know he’ll drop everything, including his boyfriend and his inheritance prep, and come running over here. I’ll be fine.”

Nene snorted. “You do realize my magic is unsuited to healing spells, correct? Have you seen an inheritance in action? I am not going to try dragging you out of here. I’d kill myself. You’ll thank me if and when he shows, trust me.”

Kiriha glared at her, then let it go. It’d be hard as hell for Taiki to even get here. He would be fine. It was just some settling of old grudges and declaring his superiority to the dead. It wasn’t even a big deal.

“I’m taking a shower.”

“Do that, you drama queen.”

Kiriha balked at the unimpressed smile on her face, then turned away, face burning red. He hated them both sometimes.

5.

That night, Kiriha lay on the battered old couch and listened to the old house creak. As much as Nene wanted to chalk it up to him attempting to be polite, she knew better. The core of the house’s annoying as hell magic was here, probably under the floorboards if not in the room. She’d probably need to be carted off to a hospital before he did. So she stayed in the bedroom at the other side, and he laid and looked at the ceiling. He almost wished he had been called to Hogwarts, would give him less headaches by the end, but the wands-only regulation would have ruined that.

Cobwebs and dust littered the furniture even now. He wasn’t a master of cleaning charms, but provided he woke up all well rested and all of that, he could do Draco a favor and clean the place so he could sell what was left. Not like he wanted it.

That was asking for too much at this point but hey. He could dream.

A spider scuttled by and he had to resist the urge to curl under his covers and ignore it. He had hated spiders before the Digital World. Quartzmon and Gravimon did not help that problem.

His best friend bled out on the ground. He could heal anyone but himself, wasn’t that pathetic?

Kiriha sat up, sweating. That was not his thought. Well, it had been at one point, but that had been years ago. He hated the thought, especially since it had almost consigned said friend to his death. He glared at the ceiling. “Did you do this,” he hissed at the room. The urge to dismantle it, board by board, and then burn it made him very glad his Catalyst was nowhere near his hands.

You should have killed them when you had the chance.

Stupid damn house.

He could always burn it afterwards. Draco didn’t care, the old families had so many abandoned properties.

But no. He couldn’t. This had history in it, and family, and treasures. He and Nene could go through it tomorrow.

Perhaps you’re the pathetic one.

It was going to be a long night.

6.

Kiriha awoke to an itching in his skin and the smell of chemical spray in the air. He grunted, realizing what Nene was doing. “You could have woken me to help.”

“You were thrashing for a while there,” Nene replied, voice muffled by the cloth over her mouth. “I figured it was best for your magic if you slept through this part. Don’t worry, the cleansing is the most tedious.”

She was probably right, but still. “Stupid Black Magic.” He rubbed his eyes and flexed his fingers. They cracked a little but no more. Good enough.

Nene sneezed away some dust mites. “Yes, I’m sure if Voldemort had had Blood Magic added to his repertoire, we’d have been much better off.”

“He tried, apparently,” Kiriha pointed out. “It didn’t do him much good. Harry Potter still killed him, or as good as.”

Nene rolled her eyes. “You need blood and more than a pinky finger’s worth of soul to even think of using real rituals. With his soul jars, that was little more than reconstruction. The digimon do better than that without even trying—”

“I get it,” Kiriha muttered. She had to remind him she used the arcane branches while he was set to mainstream.

She snorted. “Sorry, your ego’s showing more than usual, hm?”

“Shut up,” he muttered, trying not to let his temper rise. “Did you put some stuff in the icebox?”

“Of course.” Nene tutted and returned to mumbling repairing spells over a wall and flicking her nails. “Goodness knows how these fellows survive without refrigerators…” She continued to flick green and purple sparks, wincing at a spot of yellow beneath her hands. “How do these people live?”

“With more spells than you need,” Kiriha muttered. He managed to sit up, ignoring the whispers floating above his ears. He wandered to the kitchen, touching the walls and brushing the counter free of dust. One of the doors rattled. He tried to ignore it. It rattled louder.

He needed to get out of here. But that meant he needed to confront this nonsense.

He sighed. “Do you want soup?”

“That would be wonderful.”

No choice but to get started then.

7.

At a particularly loud bang in his ears, he swore to himself and sat up, nearly smacking his head on the closet wall in the process. Kiriha was half-tempted to just get out and do the ceremony from outside the closet. However, that would be slightly off from the house’s magical core and redirecting his power because of loud noises, no matter how bad the sensory overload, was just not worth it and also very time consuming. He adjusted himself, sitting up once more. He took his Catalyst and cupped it in his hands. Blowing a puff of air onto it, he shut his eyes and let the blue light overcome his vision.

He just had to hold this state for a couple more hours. Then the time of his birthday would pass. Not that he knew what would happen after that, but it was likely going to hurt him in more ways than one. Not that he knew the exact time of his birth down to the second but any decent mage felt the time like a blossoming flower.

There was a singular rumble from outside the door, followed by a squeak of a scream. Not Nene. Nene had left, muttering something about the pride of stubborn dragons and a lack of venomous comas. He didn’t want to understand the last one. He hoped she wasn’t going to get Taiki.… She probably was.

Damn it.

He felt his Catalyst’s core, the kappa scale, begin to thrum gently beneath the jeweled casing. The irony that his core was a healing one never stopped making him itch. Still, it would help with the dark hell in this place.

Water began to drip once more. He swallowed.

Then the laughter grew, mixing with the banging of the windows and doors. Insults hurled themselves at his locked closet door.

Traitor…

Weakling…

curse on you…

How dare you walk here when you can’t kill properly…

how dare you…

get out… get out…

Kiriha took a deep breath, then exhaled. “No,” he said.

The roof cracked. He didn’t swear, though he really wanted to. He’d faced worse. He’d faced gravity trying to fall on him. Kiriha checked his watch. About an hour or so left. He shut his eyes again and began to focus. The house hissed.

If these were ghosts, it would be easier, but they weren’t. Magic didn’t leave ghosts. It left traces.

Somehow, those were worse.

8.

Kiriha woke up with a curse. Figured he would fall asleep while waiting for his birthday. His family had never been a very big fan of birthdays. It wasn’t easy to be, being rich and powerful and still foreign. Stupid isolationalist traditions. They looked down on people for what? Not being born there? Ridiculous…

As that thought burrowed into his brain, pain shot up his spine. The magic smoked and burned. He grimaced. Well then. Thinking happy thoughts, thinking very happy thoughts…

Time then.

The house began to smoke and snarl. Kiriha sneered at the walls as porcelain smashed into the door. There was a schink noise. That was probably an expensive plate. Eh, Draco had hundreds even now, he would guess. Another crash.

I really hope none of those hit me, he thought, preparing for the worst.

Another schink.

Shit. He ducked and rolled into a ball. The next shards landed a foot over his head. Yep, this place was trying to kill him. Oh well.

“The great progression is a load of bunk,” he singsonged, trying to summon that inner thorn in the side that had been so outward for five years of his life. “Your traditions are dead, your lord is dead, there is no one here who cares if you’re alive.”

no one who cares about you either.

Kiriha snorted. They were going to have to try harder than that. “I’m going home after this to get yelled at by all the people who care about me. I beg to differ.”

where are they now?

“Running frantically to me.”

too late.

A loud thunk.

Too late.

The ground rumbled.

TOO LATE!

There was another splintering crack.

Kiriha pushed outwards with all of the magic he could muster.

The house roared.

9.

When Kiriha woke up, his body told him that was a bad idea and knocked him out again. The magic thrummed on through his system, and that was the equivalent of having your blood set on fire in your organs after getting supremely drunk.

The third time this pass-out, wake-up thing happened he managed to wrench his eyes open and look around. He didn’t try to move. What the hell had… oh, right.

The cottage had fallen on him. Stupid dark magic spiritual crap.

“Move and you’re getting water up your nose.”

Kiriha would have winced if he could move. Shit.

Nene had called Taiki there after all, and the normally mellow gogglehead was pissed. Kiriha made sure to stay still. As more feeling came back to his limbs, he could feel the gentle touch of water soaked hands running up his arms and chest.

“Careful,” he croaked. “Your boyfriend might think you’re up to something.”

He couldn’t see it, but he heard Taiki snort. “He was too busy rolling his eyes. You let a house fall on you, Kiriha, a house full of Dark Magic and only with the protection of your inheritance and a Kappa Catalyst. Did you not think this was reckless?”

The worry was thick in his friend’s voice. Kiriha winced. Well, okay, he did deserve that, but still. “Oh so now you get what Akari was getting at huh?”

There wasn’t even a second’s hesitation before water went up his ears, making him cough. He made his head turn and spat. “Trying to choke me to death?”

“You’ll kill yourself for me.” Taiki’s fingers ran over his chest in a manner that on the outside, would look coy. However, Kiriha knew better. He had to get that close to make the healing work on him, to resonate with Kiriha’s Kappa scale. One of the issues of healing magic was close contact if you weren’t using actual medicinal items. Taiki would wear himself out soon enough doing these crazy stunts.

Kiriha snorted. Of course he would. He cared. That was one of his vices.

Though, to be fair, that vice was why he was laying here in the first place and not dead by gravity. “How… how are things?”

“Nene’s looking right now.” Taiki gently poked his forehead. “Just rest. We’ll tell you.”

Kiriha sighed and did as he was told. He really hated getting water up his nose.

10.

The building, of course, was in ruins. His cousin wasn’t talking to him, which wasn’t a big deal. Honestly, considering the rest of his family, that was probably the best reaction. Scorpius wasn’t either but that was probably because he didn’t know where to start. The kid remained by his father, bouncing as best as he could while not leaping across the grass. An entire cottage had blown inward! With what? He could appreciate a kid’s love of explosions, but, unfortunately, it was better not to tell him. At least for his own sake. He would never get to do it. Poor sod.

Clutching his shoulder (Taiki kept refusing to heal broken bones, saying it was asking for them to break again, or something.), Kiriha limped up to the rubble. Scorch marks on the side that used to be painted wall, scratches from broken dishes. It was like something had happened here.

He needed to heal soon, so he could stop having extra sarcasm.

“Did no one tell the civillian that magic bursts cost money?” Nene didn’t glance up at him as she spoke, still moving rubble aside. “You would think a survivor would recall.”

“You’d think,” Kiriha agreed, grateful she said it because he was about to. “Anything make it?”

“Nothing financially valuable.” She flicked her wrist and a pile burst into dust. ‘If there was, your magic melted it when it struck the black curses. Speaking of which, it still smells like them over there.’ She pointed towards a block of splintered wood and glass. “I pulled you out of there. Be careful where you walk.”

Kiriha grimaced. He should probably go over and look. But… “We’ll look at it together when I can let go of my arm.”

Nene’s eyes twinkled with approval. “And when Taiki-kun wakes up.”

“That too.” Not that that would be long. The scent of danger woke him up.

Of course, things had to go wrong.

The air shivered suddenly and Kiriha felt his knees start to buckle.

Then something screamed, lunging for him. He dove, the green and black light flying towards—

“Scorpius, look out!”

11.

The light was, thankfully, not faster than an irritated father, who slashed his wand downward. Draco scooped his son up in one arm and glared at Kiriha, who only winced. Nene’s eyes flickered and she pulled them both down. The light of the curse disappated into the ground, followed by another. They spat out like water from a squirt gun. God, really?

“What crap did people do in that place?” Kiriha muttered. He sniffed and regretted it at once, head reeling from thee sheer smell. “Aside from sacrifices?”

“Cleansing rituals,” Nene replied with a grimace, pulling his head down. (He was just going to ignore how close his face was to her chest, he was just going to ignore it… friends did not ogle like that.) ‘Layers of different kinds, trying to pretend the magic wasn’t what it was, thinking it could be made new.’ She hissed in pain cas it streaked over her arm. “That’s what I’ve managed to guess at anyway.”

“Well, that didn’t work, did it?” Kiriha made himself sit up and groaned, watching for more projectiles. The place where the pile had been before was completely shattered, green and black electric charges flowing outward. Kiriha made a face. Too many alternating magical currents, he guessed. Well then. “My inheritance must have tipped the balance all the way down to the negatives.” He lifted himself to his feet. No choice but to deal with it himself.

At Nene taking his free arm and looping it over her shoulder, Kiriha mentally corrected himself. He wasn’t entirely alone here. They took slow, halting steps, pausing at the rush of the wind and the crackle of the magic. It was going to lunge again, that move was all it had after all.

Kiriha raised his empty hand and flung it outward. Blue embers danced from the tips of his fingers and sank into the lightning. It shriveled and hissed, throwing itself out in an arch of its own.

Nene snorted and slipped a piece of paper from her pocket. It hissed at the sight and Kiriha grinned.

“I need to get one of those,” he said, taking it from her.

“You need to do a lot of things.”

He scoffed and dripped blood over the ink. “I don’t see you offering your services.”

“Pay me.”

“Hell no.”

12.

Two hours later, Taiki let out a small sigh of relief, wiping his forehead. “All sealed.” He shook excess water from his hands.

Kiriha collapsed to a seated position. “Oh thank god.” Nene grimaced, her shoulders sagging. She leaned against Kiriha’s back and he leaned back in return.

“This is why they don’t have inheritances over here,” Taiki murmured, moving to sit beside them, touching their hands.

“No instead they just leave these areas suffering for years and years and store them all in the same underground archive.” Nene really hated European Ministry of Magics. Foreign affairs were all crammed underground like there was no such thing as claustrophobia and the sheer stink of the magic made her itch.

“Well we know who isn’t ever going into that ‘Department of Mysteries’,” Kiriha said under his breath. “Not like the Japanese don’t do something similar.”

“No we just use family spells over and over that clearly don’t work without a purification ritual,” Taiki said with a laugh. “At least we put our stuff in separate rooms.”

They all grinned at each other.

After a few minutes, Kiriha let out a deep sigh. “We should get going, huh?”

Nene cracked her back and let out a blissful mumble. “Must we? I’d like to sleep a little while.”

“We can do that on the plane,” Kiriha grunted. “And without Draco looming like a bristling unicorn.”

“Do they seriously have unicorns here?”

“Shut up, Taiki.”

“It’s an interesting question.”

They all laughed.

---

Somehow, the ride from the Manor to the airport was a lot less stiff with his friends. Despite their exhaustion, Taiki and Nene managed to keep the conversation going, watching Kiriha’s vitals and keeping him alert. Thank god. Now that the actual inheritance burst of magic was running its course, he felt like he was ready to pass out and hibernate.

Not that the other two looked much better. Bags under Taiki’s eyes, the wrinkle of Nene’s forehead, he had caused them to be this worn out.

He smiled a little. They’d both do the same to him. They already had.

“He’s going loopy,” Taiki said, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Thought I already was,” Kiriha muttered.

Nene chuckled. “Oh good, he’s learning.”

He shot her a rude hand gesture, then dozed off to the sound of their laughter. He guessed it wasn’t so bad being around these idiots.

At least for right now.