The Witch and the Zodiac | Kyo

Chapter 12- Awkward

Dammit.

Aki kicked the ground as she walked barefoot in the soft grass, weaving through the trees slowly.

I can't believe I said that...

She sighed and stopped to lean against a tree and sigh, hugging her arms close.

I miss Starling. I doubt my phone would work here...

Her eyes widened and she quickly looked back in the direction of the house.

"Oh no."

What happened to my bag? If they go through it and see those books...

Aki started quickly for the house, throwing open the door of the dining room as she panted.

"Tohru!"

"Ah!" Tohru jumped at the sudden interruption and nearly dropped the teapot as she bent to set it down. "A-Aki! You scared me!"

"S-Sorry." Aki caught her breath and looked at her. "Do you know where my bag is?"

Shigure tsk'd behind his newspaper and looked at the Witch up and down. "First you drag blood on my floor, now mud."

Aki looked down at the floor and her feet, and shot the man a look. "Such a baby." She muttered and waved her hand, and both the floor and her feet were clean. She looked back up at Shigure with her arms crossed. "There. Are you happy now, you high-maintenance lapdog?"

Yuki snorted to hold in a laugh and sipped his tea and Shigure's mouth hung open.

"H-High... maintenance... lapdog...?"

"She's not wrong." Yuki commented, smiling faintly as Shigure stared at him.

Aki let out a breath and looked back at Tohru. "Please, Tohru; do you know where my bag is?"

"Well..." Tohru finished pouring the cups of tea and straightened. "I tried to repair it, but it was so damaged that I had to throw it out. I put all of your things into another bag though and put it in my room for now."

Please let none of them have gone through anything.

Aki turned and quickly raced up the stairs and Shigure chuckled and his eyes went back to the newspaper in his hands.

"With how desperate she seems to be to find her things, you'd think she was hiding a dirty magazine."

"That'd be something you'd do instead." Yuki commented. "And then insist that it was just 'a natural part of being a man.'"

"Oh, but it is." Shigure flashed a grin and touched his chin, and Yuki sighed quietly in response.

Aki reached the top of the stairs, slowing as she caught her breath again.

Luckily, I know exactly where her room is because I've all but memorized every single page of the manga.

She opened Tohru's door, gave a quick look around and spotted a brown paper bag resting against the wall. She bent to look inside, then let out a sigh of relief.

Oh, thank God. Everything's here.

She squatted and dug through the bag, holding up the books and sighed again.

Good. The Glamour spell is still active.

She leafed through the pages to skim them and smiled to herself.

If they tried to look at the books like this, they'd be very disappointed.

She set the altered manga in a pile beside her and went through her other items.