Beneath the tree that the children once stood around above ground, was a small little living space where Nainai and Zenbu spent most of their time. Now, down here, the young group crowded together around a small wooden table in the centre of it. To help illuminate the place, there were small candles scattered across. Yet, when sitting there patiently, waiting for their drinks, the children noted that they could barely see anything. “I feel blind.” spoke Frankie in a low voice.
Zenbu, who was holding fruits in her hand, and walking to a fire, stopped at Frankie’s chair. “Eh? Not bright enough?” she asked Frankie. Frankie mumbled “Mhm.” as a response, before Zenbu walked over to a dark shelf, and knocked at it. “Vuala!” she shouted happily, as from left-to-right, the shelf began to glow colourfully. In happiness, and curiosity, Ciel hopped up from her small seat, and ran over to the shelf. “Rainbow!” she shouted. Nainai stepped over. “Yeah, that’s right. It’s the same dust responsible for my flight.” she told Ciel, who poked at the before mentioned particles that followed after Nainai. “So, what exactly is that enough?” asked Lucette. Nainai turned to her. “It’s spiritual energy.” she told her. Lucette looked over, this time more intensely. “Like in the Hikidama?” she asked. Nainai, most obviously, didn’t know much about the Hikidama. “I guess so,” she told Lucette, before going back to prepare the drinks. “Almost done!” she declared, as she scooped up some of the red liquid. “What’s that?” asked Kräuter, as she turned her head.
Nainai poured some into a cup. “Wine.” she single-word-idly responded.
“What!?” called everyone else, at once, as Kräuter was served her cup.
“You heard me.” spoke Nainai, as she went back to get more.
As everyone waited for their drinks, they all looked over at Nainai. “I’ve never had that before, how is it?” asked Ciel, as Kräuter lifted the cup of wine to her mouth. “Wait!” screamed Lucette - “We should wait until we all receive some, then drink.” She ordered Kräuter, who placed the cup back on the table. “Okay,” the girl spoke, whilst looking off at the shelf. “That dust is amazing.” she spoke. “Yeah.” responded Lucette, “Though, I just want my-” Lucette’s drink was placed before her, and so was her serving of food. “Soup!” she shouted, as Zenbu gave everyone else their bowls, and Nainai the wine. Then, Zenbu and Nainai themselves sat down. “So, are we ready?” asked Ciel.
Charlotte shook - “No - !” she replied. Amalia got close to Ciel, “We are.” she whispered. “So, then!” Ciel yelled, “On the count of; 3-, 2-, and, -”, a large burp erupted from the group, and everyone began a chaotic chat. “Ew”, “Nasty”, “Gross”, “Weird”, and “The heck?” they shouted and complained amongst other things.
“Shut up!” yelled Ciel, “We were supposed to drink at once!”. Everyone went quiet, and Amalia burped again. Thus, the whole group began laughing.
Ciel groaned as she fell back into her seat. Finally, she took her own sip of the drink. Ciel’s face when starile, and stuck. “Bweh!” she said, as she stuck her tongue out. The whole group looked at her, especially Nainai. “What?” asked Ciel. Nainai blinked, and made a frown of anger. “What do you mean, ‘what’? That’s what I should be asking you!” she called across the table. Ciel stood, and kicked the chair down. “This wine is bad!” she yelled back at Nainai.
All the other kids spoke a silent “Ooh~” as if Ciel was in trouble, as they glanced back at Nainai, who stood - and, fell backwards…
Meishu snickered. “Drunk.” Lucette told him, talking about Nainai who lay on the floor now. “I guess so.” Meishu said quietly back to Lucette, as he stared down.
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Nainai struggled to stand back up, before falling again. Meishu snickered at that as well. “Was her drink poisoned or something?” he asked Lucette in a funny, but still quiet voice. “She made it.” Lucette responded. On the ground, Nainai wiggled, “Not drunk.” she told everyone else. “But you’re right. Nasty!” she then added. Everyone else looked at each other. “Definitely drunk!” Amalia exclaimed, as she hit the table. With the sound her impact caused, Meishu and Lucette both looked at each other. “Oh no…” Meishu told Lucette, as he knew what was coming. This event, and this kind of behaviour happened all the time when the kids were at the academy - and everytime it did, they would always end up singing some girl named Castille’s traditional Irish songs.
Meishu and Lucette both hated when this happened, and Lucette stood so. “Please don’t.” she begged Amalia, who was already turning to look at Castille.
Castille had curly green hair, and a short sleeve orange shirt, with an orange skirt attached to it. Her shirt had a flat curved collar like a lot of other girl’s did, and her skirt had a white line going around right above its bottom circumference. Castille also had a little thin white ribbon made from tied up paper below her collar. Now, she spoke happily, with another paper ribbon on the right of her hair. “So, you wanna sing again?” she asked, without getting an answer. “What song!?” she then asked, to which she now received a response. The response didn’t come from Amalia, but rather her own friend. Always following after Castille, was her little friend Flawrin. Flawrin had light pink hair like Brittanica, but much lighter, and straight out. Flawrin also wore a darker pink coloured mob cap, with a red bow on the front. On her body, she wore a red short sleeve shirt, with a yellow skirt that was longer, and less pointed out than Castille’s. “How about that one about the drunk guys!?” she recommended to Castille. Castille grew rosy cheeks. “Yeah, she is drunk!” she replied to Flawrin, before hitting the table. From there, she instructed the group on what to do. “We’re all going to chant - ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor’ twice, before adding ‘-early in the morning’ at the end, and then saying ‘Way, hey, and up she rises!’ twice now with the same ending. After that, someone will respond with whatever they want, of course to the melody, twice, before applying the before stated ending, and repeating the process. After plenty of us have gone, we’ll then all chant - ‘That’s what we do with a drunken sailor!’ to the same point, and thus with the ending. Understood!?” she explained.
For a while, everyone was quiet, just in comprehensive thought. But alas, they began hitting the table, and singing. For the chosen phrases, they shouted multiple weird things, until finally, they concluded.
Meishu now had a headache, as he looked down at Nainai. Zenbu stepped down to Nainai, and tapped her on the forehead. Looking back at the group, she said “I hope you guys don’t ever meet a drunk person…”. Lucette snickered like how Meishu did earlier. Brittanica, who stood behind her, hit her on the head. “That’s not funny.” she cautioned her. “So serious.” Lucette told Brittanica, who then walked over to Nainai, and lifted her up. “All is okay.” she told her, whilst looking back at Lucette.
“Take me to bed…!” Lucette moaned with her eyes back in her head.
“For real drunk.” Castille told, as she watched Zenbu lead Brittanica to the bedroom, in order to put Nainai to sleep. Once there, Nainai was placed in bed. “Good night.” Brittanica told her while smiling. In the bedroom, there was a little lantern. Zenbu, smiling, picked it up, opened it, and blew it out. “That’s right - goodnight.” she told Nainai, as she looked over at Brittanica who was still smiling. “What? I can’t get over it,” she started “I miss when Lucette was this young.” she said while imagining little Lucette causing a day of chaos before finally going to sleep.
Lucette continued to grin as she left the room, and went back to the table.
There, at the table, nobody was sitting. The room was an utter mess, and all the kids were surrounding the door. When Zenbu made it back to the room, she was just as confused as Brittanica. “What? Someone here?” she asked everyone, who all looked back at her, and nodded, rather than speak. Zenbu frowned as she pushed through everyone to get to the door. She stopped. Behind the door, which was already open, stood a little witch-girl, who was smiling intensely with sharp teeth, and short blond hair and menacing red eyes. In her hands, she held her broom as if it were a weapon. Suddenly, she pointed it straight towards Zenbu’s stomach.
“Death.” Castille spoke.
“Death has arrived!”