Prelude To Inheritance

Target 00: On the Outside

To those that have read "The Inheritance Project", I've decided to rewrite the whole thing from the beginning. There have been some major changes to the plot and characters, but it's still more or less the same story. Let me know what you think! ^^

......

In this world there's a magic circle that can neither be seen nor touched. Its magic separates people into two types: those who belong on the inside, and those who belong on the outside.

I am a person who belongs on the outside.

"Here it is; our new house." Aunt Katerina finally broke the quiet that had settled since we first clambered into the car at the airport.

She likes to drive in silence. She likes to do a lot of things in silence. Even so, Katerina is a person that belongs on the inside.

The car rolled into a garage attached to a plain, cream-coloured two-story house that looked like a slightly newer version of every other house on the street. The front yard looked way too neat, almost like it was made of plastic. A boring plastic house with a boring plastic garden; I wonder if the town is full of boring plastic people too.

A brown-haired woman comes running up the street towards us, arms waving wildly and smiling so wide I think her face might split. A blonde haired man with an equally large, much goofier grin came running up behind her.

"Obaa-chan!" Yoshitaka yelled. The car door slammed shut with a heavy thunk behind him as he ran out to meet them.

I stayed in the car a while longer, watching him jump into Nana-obaachan's arms and be swung around, laughing all the while. Iemitsu-ojiisan ruffled Taka's hair, making him pout and fuss over it. He then got picked up and thrown into the air. I bet you could hear the squealing all the way down the street.

The three of them are the type that belongs on the inside too.

"Mrrreow?" Celica glared up at me from inside her cat carrier.

She's been in a bad mood ever since she had to be stuffed into the carrier. The plane ride must have sucked for her even more than me. Why couldn't she have just come on the plane together with me? She's always quiet, and doesn't take up much room. It wasn't fair.

"Sorry," I murmur and grab my backpack, "let's go."

Taka was sitting on Ojii-san's shoulders while he and Obaa-chan talked to Katerina. I got my hair ruffled too, but I didn't make a fuss about it like Taka does. It's always messy, sticking up in random directions, and it's just too much effort to try and fix it. I pulled my hood up over it instead.

"My! How cute!" Nana-obaachan cooed and gently tugged at the cat ears on my hoodie. She then pulled me into a bone crushing hug, my face squished into her belly. I tried to return the hug with one arm, but it felt awkward. I don't really want to put Celica's carrier down though, so awkward hug it is, I guess...

She pulled back and started chatting away. Obaa-chan always talks to fast for me to follow, so I only got like three, maybe four words. Most of that was when she bent down to coo at Celica, who kept moving around and poking at the little door, clearly wanting out.

She finally let me go when Taka showed off his hoodie, which matched mine, only it was in red instead of purple.

A big truck pulled up in front of the house. It must be the movers with the rest of our stuff.

Ojii-san put Taka down, "How about you two go and explore the house?"

"The bedrooms are upstairs. You can pick whichever one you like." Katerina nodded towards the house. Taka was already running to get his backpack from the car.