Itoshii Sune-ku

Itoshii Sune-Ku.

Chapter 24:Yobichishiki.

\"Have you ever noticed that whenever there\'s something to clean up, Hari cleans it up?\" Yochi asked, sitting next to Sumikiru, her chin resting on her hand. Sumikiru looked over, then at Harry, who was listening to Hanone instruct him on a potion he was working on.

\"Obsessive Compulsive.\" Sumikiru said, yawning right afterward. Yochi sat up right, and stared at her sister, confused.

\"Say what?\" Sumikiru sighed.

\"Obsessive Compulsive. It means that he\'ll do something, over and over and over again, but not really realize he\'s doing it. He thinks it\'s normal. And sure, a lot of the time, it is normal. But to such a degree? That\'s not normal. Kyoushi is planning on sending him to a class or something, if she can find an affordable one, so he won\'t be in the house to BE \'obsessive compulsive.\' See?\"

\"Class?\"

\"Uh huh. She wants him to get out of the house for a while. You\'ve got your butterfly club. Hanone has her calligraphy, Karasu has his...Ahem...\'Sharp objects\' club...\" She rolled her eyes slightly.

\"Kyoushi has her hands full with keeping this house in order, cooking for all of us, and grocery shopping every day, not to mention, cleaning, and keeping that ghost in the attic from waking everyone up. And I\'ve got my cat \'n\' mouse club. All Hari\'s got is his potions. He seems to really enjoy them, but Kyoushi wants him to get out more. All he does is goes to the apothecary, comes back, works on his potions, helps clean, cooks, works on his potions some more, then goes to bed. In between meals and such. She wants him to be more active.\" Sumikiru lays her head on her arms, burying her face and sighs.

\"Put him in the Junior Potions Class.\" Both girls look up.

\"Say what?\" They both ask. Karasu stares down at them, raising a brow and looking for all the world like an annoying older brother, instead of a younger.

\"Junior. Potions. Class. It\'s at Zairyou Suiyaku. The apothecary? They hold the class Monday-Fridays, and once on Sundays. You can go any day. I bet he\'d have fun.\" Karasu stuck his hands in his jeans pockets, and scuffed the toe of his shoe on the ground.

\"Enrol him in that. He\'ll enjoy it. Plus, a lot of times, there\'s at least one Potions Master as a guest in the class a week. He\'ll learn a lot.\" Karasu shrugged, turned, and walked over to Kyoushi, who was just about to bring in some food for everyone.

\"Hey, guys, Karasu\'s just told me about this class. What do you guys think? Should we put Hari--!\" Kyoushi was cut by a loud yelp, a clatter of knives, and a spray of an unknown ingredient. They looked over at Hanone and Harry, one of whom looked in a panic. Harry and Hanone were sat on the floor, Harry was apologising repeatedly, but when he saw Hanone\'s hand, one finger which was dripping blood, he called for Koran, who came trotting in with a wash cloth in her mouth.

\"How did she get in?\" Karasu asked quietly.

\"I have no idea.\" Yochi and Sumikiru said quietly.

Each person in the room jumped up, about to go help, when Hanone let out another yelp. Harry had put her bleeding finger in his mouth, left it there a few seconds and, once Koran had gotten to his side and dropped the cloth, wrapped the finger in the cloth. The others looked at each other a moment, all thinking the same thing.

\'This is so not good.\'

\"Don\'t worry, Harry. I\'m fine. See? No harm done. It\'s just a little cut and it\'s already stopped bleeding, see? I\'m all better.\" Hanone tried to reassure him.

\"Yeah, she\'s all right, but what about Harry?\" Karasu muttered, staring at a few small drops of red on the wood floor.

\"That blood is so going to stain. Not only the clothes, but the hardwood floor, as well.\" Kyoushi sighed mournfully, causing the other three to stare at her incredulously.

\"And Hari?\" Yochi asked.

\"I\'m not all that worried. We all know that Harry likes Hanone the best and--\" Sumikiru cut her off.

\"That\'s not true. Harry likes all of us.\" Kyoushi shook her head and smiled.

\"That\'s true. But because Hanone is the best one to teach Harry about all the fascinating potions he\'s begun to love so much, he wants to spend most of his time with her.\" The other two girls \'oohh\'ed\' and nodded. Hanone and Harry cleaned up their mess, and came over to the table to sit with the others.

\"Are you all right, you two?\" Kyoushi asked.

\"I\'m fine.\" Hanone said, then glanced at Harry, nudging him to speak.

\"...\'M okay...Sorry, \'Noné.\" He mumbled. Hanone sighed, and reached over to tug his ear sharply.

\"It was an accident, ya nutball.\" She admonished with a small smile. Kyoushi leaned over to whisper to the others.

\"See what I mean?\" Sumikiru and Yochi giggled quietly. Kyoushi cleared her throat.

\"Hari, you remember what we were talking about this morning?\" Harry looked up, eyes lighting up, and nodded repeatedly.

\"Of course. You explained a bit about you, but never got to anything else. Are you gonna continue now?\" Harry asked, smiling brightly.

\"Yes, I am...\" She trailed off for a moment, watching as Harry squirmed for a moment in his chair, reached for one of the small cakes in the middle of the table, and sat back. Waiting patiently. Expectantly. Kyoushi sighed, and began.

\"You already know what we are. You don\'t know the specifics, just the general idea. You don\'t know how we were created.\" Kyoushi stopped and looked at him expectantly. He stared at her questioningly. She sighed again.

\"I know you want to ask something. Ask it.\" Realization dawned, and Harry blurted out.

\"Don\'t you mean \'born,\' Kyoushi?\" She shook her head, some of her black hair falling out of the bundle she had placed it in on top of her head, and drifting into her eyes. She brushed it away impatiently.

\"No. I mean, created. Yes, we were basically born like any other normal, human kids, but the difference isn\'t in how we were born. It\'s in how we were created, or given life, whatever you want to call it.\" She shook her head vigorously, waving a hand as she did.

\"See, Harry, let me explain it a little better. I think it\'s a little difficult for Kyoushi to get the right words out. See, you have a mom and a dad. That\'s it. One mother, and one father. No one else. We,\" Hanone interjected, and as she gestured to the other girls and Karasu, Harry began to have the feeling he wasn\'t going to like what she was going to say.

\"Well, we don\'t have a mom and a dad. We have parents, yes, but not like you. From what we understand--Granted, it isn\'t much that we do, but it\'ll have to do--We have, at the very least, four fathers. We were created with blood from four normal, human wizards. From conversations we\'ve over-heard,\" Yochi interrupted, muttering something about not over-hearing, but eavesdropping. Hanone glared pointedly.

\"As I was saying, from what we\'ve over-heard from different conversations, their blood was mixed with someone else\'s magic. Their magic, not their blood.\" She repeated at Harry\'s uncomprehending expression, and sighed.

\"Blood and magic are two different things. Blood is what, basically, makes you who you are. Blood can tell you anything about a person. From their possible hair colour, to eye colour. Possible heights after their growing phases stop. But magic is completely different. A person\'s magic can tell you, not only their accurate hair and eye colour, but also accurate height, their name, their age, what sort of magic appeals to them most, and what sort of magic they\'re best at.

A person\'s magic can tell you their whole life, up to a certain point. After that certain point, though, it\'s all clear water. Do you understand now?\" She looked to Harry, who nodded thoughtfully.

\"I understand a little better. I read something about that in one of the books in the other room.\" Hanone nodded.

\"Good. Read that book a little more. You\'ll get a better understanding than what I can give you.\" She made a dismissive gesture.

\"Moving on. Four men\'s blood was mixed with another\'s magic. Now usually, someone\'s magic is passed on by blood. But not in this case. In this case, he took a piece of his magic...\" Yochi interjected at this point, seeing Harry\'s confused look, explained what \'piece of his magic\' meant.

\"Okay, I\'ll take up this explanation, Sis. Hari, it\'s possible for someone to take part of their magic from their body. Not like regular magic, where you purposely expel a bit of magic for a certain task. Now, I am so not going into a detailed explanation on how to do that, but just know that a person\'s magic is a living thing. Basically, it\'s like cutting off an arm, or an ear, or maybe even a leg or two. In this case, he cut off an arm, a leg, another arm, his other leg, and probably a couple ears, a nose, he might have even ripped out several teeth for the occasion. Never try it, Harry. From what I understand, it\'s very painful. Like ripping your soul in half. \'Cept it was more pieces than a half, so...\" She trailed off, chuckling nervously, and gestured for Hanone to continue. She did.

\"Okay, now where was I?\" She thought for a minute, before remembering abruptly.

\"Right. So, in this case, he took a piece of his magic, and...Well, we don\'t know exactly how he did it, but I like to think of it like he took a syringe and injected the stuff inside of the tiny...Uh...Us...Yeah...\" Kyoushi sighed and rubbed her temples.

\"You were going to explain it. But then, right when you get to the most important part, you chicken out. That is so not like you.\" A light blush stained Hanone\'s pale cheeks, and she ducked her head.

\"Well...He\'s six years old, for crying out loud!\" Harry huffed and cleared his throat, drawing all attention to him. He raised a hand, pointing one finger upward.

\"By \'tiny you\'s\' do you mean, \'fetus\' you\'s? Er...\" Everyone gaped at him, even Karasu. He stared around at them, wondering what had them so gob-smacked.

\"What? What\'d I say?\" Hanone snapped out of her daze, her cheeks a darker red than before, and continued on.

\"Right! So...ANYWAY...That\'s what he did. Considering there was four different blood types, from four different human males, there was only a...What? Twenty-five percent chance that just one of the four would be the dominate in our veins?\" Hanone looked to Kyoushi and she nodded absently.

\"Hmm...Is that why you look the way you do? Your features are mostly the same, right? Pale skin, dark eyes, though Yochi has amber eyes, and Sumikiru has really neat red eyes. Though, hers are a dark red. One of the four blood types is predominate, right?\" The girls nodded, and Harry continued.

\"So, you look like your \'father\' then, right?\" The girls looked at each other a moment, thinking.

\"Pretty much.\" Yochi said, shrugging a bit.

\"So, you look like him. He must be nice looking, then, I guess.\" The others snorted, Hanone covering her mouth with a hand, and Kyoushi coughing to cover her laughter.

\"What? You guys are all very pretty, even Karasu. How is it that he\'s not nice looking, but you are?\" Hanone laughed quietly, and explained.

\"It\'s because of our, \'mothers\' I guess you could call them. See, we each had to have a host to carry us until we were able to be \'born.\' Otherwise, their little experiment wouldn\'t have worked.\" Yochi muffled a snort, and muttered under her breath.

\"Didn\'t work anyway, the idiot.\" Kyoushi, Sumikiru, and Karasu gave a short chuckle at that. Hanone glared, but couldn\'t stop her lips from twitching up slightly.

\"It worked to a certain extent, you know. Anyway, we look nothing like our predominate \'father.\' He had a sort of crooked nose, loose, shoulder length hair. We got our hair from him--\" Sumikiru snorted this time, grinning madly.

\"Except our hair is much more manageable than his. He can\'t do anything with his. It just lays flat.\" She giggled again, and even more at the glare Hanone sent her.

\"You people keep interrupting, and I\'m never going to get this whole thing out!\" The other three girls giggled loudly, but nodded, and tried to suppress their laughter.

\"Okay, I\'m shortening this. We have our \'father\'s\' hair, Kyoushi and Karasu has his eyes, Yochi and myself have our \'mothers\' eyes, and Sumikiru has the one that gave his magic; his eyes.\" Hanone dropped her head on the table, and sighed loudly.

\"Oh my gosh! That was the most talking I\'ve done, ever! Kyoushi, it\'s your turn to babble on like that. Continue explaining the whole traits thing to him.\" Hanone turned her head toward Harry, and reached a hand up to rub her forehead as Kyoushi laughed a little and agreed to finish the \'traits thing.\'

\"All right. That probably made very little sense to you. And if you understood it, I applaud you, Harry.\" Kyoushi smiled as Hanone and Yochi both glared at her.

\"Anybody want to take a break? I mean, that explanation took a real long time.\" Sumikiru asked, looking at everyone curiously.

\"No, please. We\'ll finish this now. We\'ve got his curiosity peeked, we might as well finish it.\" Kyoushi said, smiling at Harry.

\"You really do.\" Harry confirmed, brightly.

\"All right. I\'ll start, and tell you about myself. Mostly traits you would have if you were choose based on that. Yochi will tell you about herself, then Hanone, then Sumikiru. All right?\" Kyoushi looked at Harry.

He nodded, not bothering to ask if Karasu would tell him anything about himself. Harry had learned that if Karasu wanted to tell you something, he would. If he didn\'t, Harry wouldn\'t suggest bugging him about it.