Witch of the Underworld

Intruders

Shortly after Christmas, Iemitsu left for work. He claimed to be working on the oil fields, but I saw through that lie. I would have believed it if I didn't have Aya and the rest to inform me of everything that's been said. We stood outside of the house while Iemitsu stood at a car.

"I'm sorry to leave so soon."

"It's okay. We understand." Mama said. Tsuna didn't seem to understand what was going on. He tugged my sweater.

"Where's papa going?"

"He's going to work for a long time." I answered softly.

"How long?" Tsuna asked me.

"I don't know." I hoped he'd never come back. We had gotten into another fight recently over dinner and how to set the table correctly. It was a pain. Mama started to tear up. Iemitsu hugged her tightly. He was genuinely going to miss her. Tsuna could read mama's emotions and started to cry. Iemitsu got down to Tsuna's level and hugged him.

"Don't cry, Tsuna. I'll be back before you know it."

"Okay." Tsuna said as best as he could. Iemitsu looked at me.

"Will you protect them, Yona?"

"I will."

"Thank you. Keep your mom and brother happy." He stood up and gave mama a hug and a kiss before getting in the car. Mama and Tsuna waved as the car left. I just stared with indifference. His presence didn't mean anything to me. If anything, it meant I could start working on things without worrying about him. With mama and Tsuna, I can explain anything in simple terms and not get caught.

After a month, Tsuna stopped his daily crying about Iemitsu and mama seemed to be back to normal. Though, I could clearly see how miserable she looked in the morning and night. Soon, we were all on a schedule. Tsuna would go to school and I'd get ready to start my day. Mama would make breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day. I was starting to get the hang of the bass and would play constantly in my room from the time I ended lessons to bed time. Freya and Elf seemed to like the sound while Aya was jealous I was spending more time with my bass than her. That's why I had to give my weekends to the four and practice my alchemy. Even though Alter hasn't even woken up, I still made sure to make her feel part of us. I desperately tried to wake her every day, but she wouldn't respond. Elf told me I had to be patient with Alter. She's supposedly a harsh character who has never woken up for any of their previous masters. Today, I decided to do some experimenting with the noise creatures. They could only be summoned if I drew a specific circle for them. It was too time consuming to summon one of them. If I wanted to summon a few, it'd take minutes. They were meant to be used as weapons. How did other alchemists use them in battle if they took so long to summon?

A week had passed. I was still trying to figure out what I could do about the Noise problem. Aya put the glass tube on my desk with a smile. It was the homing device.

"What is this for?" I questioned.

"I found it laying around. We wouldn't want this to be destroyed on accident."

"Thank you, Aya."

She went back into her doll state. I picked the tube up and hummed. I looked at the incantation engraved onto the tube. The incantation could be roughly translated into origin place. Maybe if I took the same concept and instead put something meaning to burst or release, I could insert the noise inside the glass. That way, I'd just have to break the glass instead of wasting two minutes on one single noise. I took out a book grandma gave me of all the incantations. It took me two whole days to go through and pick out a few incantations. From thousands, I was able to narrow things down to a page full of different incantations. While I wasn't working on homework or playing the bass, I was figuring out which symbol to use.