Sejren

Tsuruko Sejren, Excellen Kilekion, and Hikari Zanna were casually escorted to the Sejren residence; she was honestly surprised—Tsuruko was expecting her other family to be a clan of hobos who robbed people for the lint in their pockets or something like that.

There was also another thing on Tsuruko's mind—namely, "How did you know it was me?"

Marisa gestured to her hair as Derrick explained, "We're the only people with purple hair. It seems to be an Old World trait or something."

"Eh?" More Old World stuff? "You mean like Dzerve?"

Excellen, right behind Marisa and Tsuruko, applied her palm to her forehead in exasperation. "So much for keeping secrets..."

"Oh, Dzerve!" Marisa knew what she was talking about. "There's a long story about that. I assume that you've got the message from your belt?"

Before Tsuruko could answer, Excellen butted in. She was suspicious now. "...How do you know about that?"

"Don't worry about it."

Excellen protested. "You know, whenever anyone says 'don't worry about it', or 'it's no problem', there is something wrong." She felt the need to investigate further.

"Anyway, Tsuruko," Marisa gestured to her calmly- though there was a sense of a need to switch the topic. "If you really want to know, Alphonse sent us a letter years ago with your name on it, but that was the last I heard from him."

Derrick continued on from Marisa, "Then we saw a picture of you in the newspapers about the explosion of the Hargeon Kindergarten, and how you fought that black and gold knight."

"I-I see...." Tsuruko was a bit nervous. "Do they know that I got my butt kicked?"

"And then we saw the fuss you caused at Four—the destruction of the graveyard was on the news."

Derrick interrupted again. "And then we saw how you blew up that shopping mall—"

"I get it, I get it!" Tsuruko shouted at the top of her lungs. "I know I'm not really good at this!"

"Yeah, I could have destroyed a heck-ton of things if I lived in a thriving city that didn't have its resources cut off by the council," Derrick flexed his muscles. "You've gotta be thick-skinned."

"Oh, no," Tsuruko corrected her uncle, beginning to count with her fingers, "I grew up in an orphanage for most of my life. Then I was homeless, and then I joined a gang, and then I was homeless again..."

Marisa gently yet firmly pushed the door open to their mansion. She called out, "Hey, everyone! It's Alphonse's kid!"

A crowd of purple-haired people, with ages ranging from young to old and in-between gathered around. Each and every one of them had an expression of utmost joy plastered upon their faces. "Welcome, welcome!"

Excellen herself was taken aback with the sheer number of relatives that Tsuruko had. "You've got enough people here to make a baseball team..."

An older lady, who looked to be in her eighties at the least, hobbled over to Tsuruko; her white hair had a tint of purple in it. She used her walking cane for balance- as you do. "...Is that you, Ethel?"

"Ethel, this is your grandma, Sincera."

Sincera wrapped her arms around Tsuruko's waist, drawing her into a warm embrace. "It's wonderful to finally meet you. ...Where is Alphonse, anyway?"

Tsuruko's body felt a bit clammy. How would she explain this? "...You don't know?"

---

Hours later, Tsuruko, Excellen, Hikari, Marisa, Derrick, and Sincera, along with the rest of the Sejren family were grouped around the luxurious-looking table, eating.

Tsuruko, despite not really needing to eat, well, ever, was happily digging into what was there.

Excellen was a bit creeped out—that family seemed to not really eat per-se, but rather, inhale what was on their plates with their mouth acting as a vacuum.

The fact that the entire Sejren "clan" was like this was a bit uncanny.

"This is totally awesome!" Tsuruko shouted; her mouth not even bothering to chew the chicken wing stuffed down her throat. "I've never had a family before. Now, I've got like, one, two...five...eleven...twenty-six...fifty-nine...a really big family! Yeah!"

Excellen's eyes were shifting around from place to place, attempting to pick up any traces of irregularities that could pull the thread out and expose this...sham.

"This place is great!" Tsuruko asked while downing soda, "Why did Dad leave?"

"My brother was a big dreamer," Derrick sighed as he rested his shoulder on the table. "He was really excited to see the world when he saw that Phoenix Knight defeat Hellions here. He wanted to tag along with her. Of course, dad thought it was stupid."

Marisa continued for Derrick, "Your grandpa wanted Alphonse to stay home and continue the family business. But he never gave up, he wanted to leave—so they had a fight."

Sincera, listening in, cringed a bit while turning away.

"And that was the last time they ever spoke—" Marisa noticed Sincera's heartbroken expression. "...Sorry."

Excellen spoke up. "Before, you, Rick, is that right—"

"MY NAME IS NOT RICK!" Derrick shouted at her from over the table.

"Ahem," Excellen continued, ignoring the reference to the pineapple under the sea. "Well, you said that you were cut off from supplies. What does that mean?"

"A decade ago, the Magic Council cut off the trade routes from other countries to here. We've been trying to open up connections, but they've basically barricaded us away from the rest of the world, aside from the train." Marisa went on, "I think it's because the council head is jealous of how much progress regarding technology we've made in half a decade. I've been writing letters to them, but I haven't had any response as of yet."

Excellen interrupted abruptly. "Okay, now here's what we came here for." She pointed to Hikari, who was disturbingly eating in the exact same manner as her elder sister. "She's got these dragon-like things chasing after her. I think since she was under experimentation by the council—"

"Hmm, she's cursed?" Sincera butted in surprisingly. "We're able to fix that—or I would like to say that. The materials needed for a divination are in the main land—"

"—If you could open up a channel between our city and the main land, then we could do it." Marisa herself interrupted.

"Oh my fucking god," Excellen immediately smashed her head into the table. "Nobody ever makes this shit easy, do they!?"