Famiglia

"This train is super-awesome!" Tsuruko exclaimed at the top of her lungs excitedly as she flailed her arms and legs around, which moved so fast they were literally a blur. "An intercontinental railroad! It even runs through an underwater tunnel to get to—"

"Sejjey," Excellen interrupted. "It's the same one as before."

"R-Right..." The air of cheerfulness was let out of the balloon known as Tsuruko Sejren almost instantly. "Can't you let me be excited just this once?"

"You were screaming your head off the last time." Excellen tented her fingers. "Your mother got a lot of complaints about that 'parrot' squawking on the trip. It'd be a good idea not to raise a fuss here."

"Awww..." Tsuruko pouted; somewhat irked.

Hikari took a sip of the apple juice that Excellen had ordered her from the travelling cart a few minutes ago. "She seems the same as before!"

"Tsuruko is Tsuruko."

That much was a truth.

Tsuruko Sejren would always be Tsuruko Sejren, no matter what stood in her way.

Regardless of what happened, Hikari Zanna didn't hold anything against Tsuruko or Giselle for taking so long to rescue her—she could understand the hurdles involved in discovering her location; such as being under tight security.

She really was wise beyond her years.

Then again, it was relatively easy to be smarter than Tsuruko.

"The last stop is Luin." The 'train lady', as Tsuruko called her, had her voice reverberate throughout the train carriages—with those words, Excellen and Tsuruko took one of Hikari's hands each, the trio stepping out of their carriage.

What was in front of them was a decrepit-looking platform, with brick pillars and a concrete ground, in contrast to how futuristic the rest of Luin looked.

Luin, known as the City of Water was at least as advanced as Hargeon.

To break narrative, it was a mixture of Venice, Italy- and Hargeon.

In contrast to the homely-looking Four, Luin was situated directly on a valley flanked by two different rivers, also surrounded by mountains.

The city- no, the metropolis- was simply stunning to look at. All around them were luminous purple buildings and translucent pathways; truly, an absolutely technologically-advanced location that made it seem like they were in the future.

There were no roads—instead, everything was connected via various monorail systems powered by magic.

The entire sight was more than enough to overwhelm the senses in awe.

"First things first," Excellen pulled a note out from her back pocket—Deen had sent it to her before they had left. On the front were directions to the Sejren family home, and on the back was....Deen's credit card number.

Excellen thought she could hear Deen kicking himself in the pants the moment she noticed it.

"I'm getting real hungry..." Tsuruko's eyes drifted to an hot dog cart—at the exact same time, Hikari's stomach growled like it was some sort of tiger.

Excellen simply sighed. "Yeah, I can tell you two are sisters." Why was it that every time Tsuruko or Hikari got hungry, she ended up paying for the meal?

...Excellen checked her wallet as if it were a matter of life or death. Knowing how Tsuruko ate like a pig—or rather, more like a duck; ducks didn't chew –neither did Tsuruko-, Excellen's eyes became blank and white with shock.

Tsuruko gasped in shock; noticing a turning lamb on a spit. For a moment, she looked up at Excellen, leaning in closer and whispering, "...I might have to hustle up a bit of lunch with the good ol' food cart scam."

"Wait, what?" Excellen looked over at Tsuruko in disbelief. "I thought that stealing was above you."

"When did I ever say that?" Tsuruko replied ever-so-casually, "After I left the orphanage, I had nowhere to go, so well, things happened."

What she meant to say was that she used to work in her city's mafia.

"I-I see..." Excellen was taken completely off-guard.

"Come on," Tsuruko grabbed her reluctant friend by the arm, dragging her to the cart. Upon closer inspection, the lamb...wasn't very fresh-looking. Flies buzzed around the meat—Excellen almost threw up in her mouth a bit at the thought of eating it. "So, here's how it goes." Without a second thought, Tsuruko did a shoving motion. "I'm going to push you into the cart." Tsuruko raised her voice, "And you're gonna scream." Miming a dramatic faint, she finalized, "And I'll pretend to faint—"

Excellen, for once, refused to go along with Tsuruko's ideas. "I don't want it. Look at it!"

The flies buzzed around the lamb; there was quite a bit of mould on it as well.

"It's disgusting! You don't want to steal this."

A large, imposing figure rose from behind the cart. He had dark purple hair, matching eyes, and was wearing a wife-beater along with black jeans. He didn't seem to have any shoes, either. Pointing at Tsuruko, he shouted, "Are you trying to steal my meat!?"

Excellen protested, "We just said we don't want any of this outdated food."

"So yer sayin' you're too good for my stock!?" The man's eyes widened in surprise; which quickly turned to annoyance. "This is the best food on the block!"

Tsuruko pressed her finger to her cheek in thought. "So, you're saying you want me to take your stuff and run?"

"Just try me, ladies." The man flexed his biceps as a sign of counterattacking; the sheer manliness radiating from his figure caused his shirt to explode. "Go ahead."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Tsuruko held her hand up in the manner of a stop sign. "You've confused me. So am I stealing or not?"

The man dramatically pointed at the girls once more. "I knew it." He assumed a fighting stance. "Damn street rats!"

Without a second to waste, Tsuruko and Excellen swirled around- Excellen grabbed Hikari- and they began to head for the high hills.

With a faint *zoom* sound, the man seemed to activate some sort of speed-enhancing magic, leaping from his cart onto the trio, tackling them to the ground with a loud THUD!

...

The man briefly glanced up at the sound of the pitter-patter of footsteps.

The one in front of him had arrived using some sort of teleportation spell—it was definitely female; she had a short, small figure –taller than Tsuruko, but shorter than Excellen- with long grayish purple hair pinned up at the back with a purple bow with side braids and rose eyes. She was wearing a long-sleeved black coat with a standing collar which had a magenta bow tie around it. The coat had two rows of gold buttons on the front, light green trims around both of her cuffs and shoulder epaulettes, which had a fourragère passing under and around her side. She wore a pair of white gloves along with an armband on her left arm, and a white web belt with a gold waist-plate. She also had a black skirt, dark gray pantyhose and knee-high black boots.

This lady simply asked, "Derrick, what's going on here?"

The man who had smashed the trio into the ground grumbled back, "Marisa, these meat thieves are insulting our meat! The meat of the people who run this damn city—"

"Wait," The one called Marisa leaned down, taking a closer look at Tsuruko. "Ethel?"

Tsuruko stammered, half in shock, and half because the guy was really damn heavy, "W-Wait, how do you know my name?"

"You look exactly like Alphonse."

Tsuruko's eyes widened in surprise as she shouted at the top of her lungs, "EHHHHHHHH!?"

"Derrick, you'll never believe who this is," Marisa extended her hand to Tsuruko as Derrick leapt off of the trio. "She's your niece—Alphonse's little girl."