Into Another World (The Lost Souls Trilogy)

-Alyona-

⚠

Alyona slowly sipped the soup sitting on the table in front of her. Mathieu sat nearby scrolling on his phone, occasionally glancing up when she sneezed. "So how'd you get sick anyway?" he asked her.

"I was stuck in the rain after detention," she said, clearing her throat afterwards.

"Oh, yeah Elizabeth mentioned something about detention, man Franḉois was not happy," he chuckled lightly. "But he doesn't go too hard on her though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, she's his only daughter, despite being a micronation, which you'd think their relationship would be affected by."

Alyona furrowed her eyebrows and swallowed another spoonful. "She's not a micronation."

"What?"

"Yeah she's just human, Romeo told me."

"Huh." Mathieu burst out laughing. "Franḉois you really have done it now you idiot."

"Is there a problem with mortals or something?" Alyona pushed the now empty bowl away from her, and wrapped herself back up in her blanket.

"We're not supposed to interact with them, both Frances have a history of doing it anyway. You know I'm actually surprised Canada got away with adopting you two." Mathieu grabbed the bowl and set it in the sink.

"Actually Aoi and I aren't mortals," she said. "Don't know what we are but..." The blanket fell from her shoulders as she moved, reaching a hand up to her chest and pulling her soul out. It glowed brightly in front of them.

"Huh... that's weird." There was a knock on the door, startling the both of them. "Wait here," Mathieu said as he stood up. The soul glitched away as Alyona watched him walk over. Mathieu opened the door, not bothering to check the peephole.

"Delivery for Johnson, uh, a regular pepperoni," the man mumbled. His hat cast a shadow over his face, obscuring it from Mathieu's view.

"We didn't order a pizza," he said, beginning to shut the door. His eyes widened and he jumped back, just barely avoiding the knife slashed at him. Luciano grinned at him, the hat and pizza now tossed off to the side revealing a blood splatter on the uniform.

Alyona jumped out of her seat and ran upstairs. Mathieu slammed the door shut, catching Luciano's foot in it. He forced it open, flinging Mathieu back into the wall, and heading after his target. Alyona ran into her bedroom, grabbing one of the guns from her nightstand. She pointed it at the door just as Luciano ran in.

"Don't be stupid little ragazza, we both know you won't shoot me." Alyona adjusted the barrel slightly and pulled the trigger, the bullet just barely grazing his ear. She pointed it back at his head. Luciano put his hands up just as Mathieu ran upstairs.

"Alyona are you-" He stopped at the sight of the gun. "Well okay then."

Alyona's guard lowered and Luciano took the chance to throw one of his knives, embedding it in her shoulder. She cried out in pain and quickly pulled the trigger, shooting his arm. The gun fell to the ground, discarded as Alyona focused on her shoulder and the knife sticking out of it. Lucidano leaped forward, grabbing her and throwing a small bag on the ground. "Courtesy of Loki," he said, grinning. They disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Canada clicked his pen nervously, glancing back towards the door every now and then. "Canada, relax, she's just out the door," France assured. "We'll know if anything happens." Just as he finished his sentence there was a small shriek outside. A few of the other countries close to him turned towards the door.

"That couldn't be her, right?" America mumbled. Canada stood up and burst out of the room, his family following. There was nobody in sight except for a cleaning lady walking down the hall.

"Canada, America, is everything alright?" China looked in their direction.

"Aoi's gone..." he mumbled. Canada left the meeting room to search the rest of the building for his daughter, but there was no sign of the blue haired girl anywhere. He began panicking as he realized Alyona could be in danger. Canada pulled out his phone and shakily tried to call Mathieu, but it kept slipping out of his hands and landing on the hard tile.

America picked it up and pressed on the screen. "Canada, I'm so sorry-" Mathieu answered the phone.

"This is his brother. Why are you apologizing already?" He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Darn Luciano, he took Alyona. I tried so hard not to stop him but... I'm so sorry," Mathieu sounded guilty as he spoke, like it was his fault or something.

"A-Alyona too?!" Canada overheard their conversation, and took the phone from his brother's hands "You let him take her?!"

"I'm so sorry Matthew, he-"

"I don't care about whatever happened! Find her now!" Canada yelled into the phone. In a panic he hung up, sinking against the wall.

England walked up to the two of them. "Canada, I-"

Canada glared up at him, "this is all your fault! If you hadn't insisted Aoi wait outside then none of this would have fu-" He was interrupted by his phone ringing, Aoi's name flashed on the screen. "Aoi-" He quickly answered.

"Oh, gomenasai, were you expecting someone else?" Kuro's voice rang through. "Unfortunately, Aoi is a bit... preoccupied right now." Kuro looked over at Aoi who was tied up to a chair. Her head hung low, staring at her lap. "Should I tell her you said happy birthday? After all it's probably the last time you'll see her," he chuckled, "really what kind of father are you? Letting your daughter get kidnapped on her birthday." There was a bit of silence as a door opened in the background. "Kestubestu!" Kuro hung up.

Aoi slowly looked up at him, a cut on her cheek slowly healing. "Why are you doing this? It's only been what, a week? Two?"

"Oh no reason, just something I need to do," Kuro explained. "Shikashi, soreha subete kigen-naidesu." Kuro grabbed a large cart which was wheeled in while he was on the phone. On it sat a vase, open on the top for whatever creature was in it to come out as it willed. "I think it's time for one last experiment, don't you?"

Aoi's eyes widened in fear, whatever he planned was never good. He reached in the vase and slowly pulled out a white snake resembling the legendary 'Tsuchinoko' Aoi had heard about as a child.. His pearl-like eyes scanned the area, then rested upon Aoi.

"I believe you two have met before," Kuro said, holding it up. "While he was in his vessel, Akuyaku." Aoi recalled the night where she met the strange boy at the festival. "His idea, but it really does make this whole process a lot easier." The snake reached over from him, and slithered onto her arm, it's fangs sunk into her skin and the whole snake seemed to go along with.

Aoi screamed out in pain, much to the delight of Kuro. Aku-no was gone, and she could feel the creature crawling under her skin, leaving a burning sensation wherever it went. Thoughts seemed to invade her own, making her feel insane.

"Aoi Koharu, it's a pleasure to finally meet the real you."