>>43111831
>>Nope! Time to leave!

>>43111831
>"GO AWAY!"
>Nope! Time to leave!

>>43111831
>"Good!"
But also
>Nope! Time to leave!

>>43111831
>"GO AWAY!"

>>43111831
>"Good!"
>Nope! Time to leave!

>Good!
>GO AWAY!
>Time to leave!

WRiting!

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"Good!" I yell into the air. Kaori jumps at my sudden outburst, and then clings tightly to my shoulder.

"(Masami! I don't like this! I don't see him, I can't feel him, and I can see anyone! Any time I want! I've never felt like this before!)"

I put my hand on hers, "(I know Kaori, but we can't let him know that he's getting to us, this is just another one of his stupid tricks.)"

"All you had to do today was stay at home with your sisters, and you couldn't do that." The phantom voice booms out from the abyss. "I'm afraid you and your sister will need a time-out for a short while."

Uh oh. It's time to go.
Kaori opens her mouth to say something, but instead I snatch her by the arm and sprint in the other direction!

Space works differently here, if we get just a few meters away from where we were and cross back over to the real-world; then we should have cleared Fortune. We should be safe if we just stick to the roads on the way back home.
"Masami! Wait!"
"No! No! There's a lot of places I want to be but right now is not one of those places!"

WHAM!

That's when my face meets nose-first against some kind of invisible wall hovering in open space. I fall over backwards and land on my back, coughing.
"MASAMI!" Kaori kneels down over me, examining my nose.

"Do you see now?" That voice rumbles once more. "The time-out isn't just for you two, the shield wouldn't be very good if it didn't keep me in from this world, too. It'll be down shortly, and you can go home soon. But if you try escaping by crossing back into the real-world, I'll be waiting for you."

He's using the shield that is imprisoning him to imprison US, too! I didn't know it extended to here!
I sit up, and look over toward Kaori.

She looks like she's about to cry.

>Hugs!
>Stand up, and quietly search for places you can slip through.
>No time for crying! Coordinate an escape plan with Kaori!
>Talk with Asai! Argue with him! He's trapped here with us, not the other way around!
>Other?

>>43112625
>Hugs!
>Talk with Asai! Argue with him! He's trapped here with us, not the other way around!

>>43112625
>>Hugs!
>>Stand up, and quietly search for places you can slip through.

>>43112625
>No time for crying! Coordinate an escape plan with Kaori!

>>43112625
>Stand up, and quietly search for places you can slip through.
>Talk with Asai! Argue with him! He's trapped here with us, not the other way around!

>Hugs!
>Talk with Asai! Argue with him! He's trapped here with us, not the other way around!

Writing!

File: Masami_Pout_By_Larro.png (1.19 MB, 916x1392)

1.19 MB PNG

My nose still hurts, and I can feel tiny blobs of water forming at the corner of my eyes.
But forget that! Kaori is sad! Kaori comes before whining!

I reach over and wrap my arms around her. Gently, I squeeze her in my grasp. She buries her face in my shoulder and starts crying.
"This is your fault.." She whimpers, her hands are slowly trembling. "All your fault, Masami."

I could argue with her, but I can't think of how.

She gently leans over and lays across my lap. I want to comfort her, but I'm feeling about the same way that she is right now.
This sucks.

"You're very caring, Masami. Dare I say the best daughter a father could ask for."
OH THAT MAKES ME MAD!

"LISTEN HERE YOU!" I scream at the sky, "The only reason we're here right now is because you have been trying your hardest to tear my family apart!"

"I never wanted to tear 'our' family apart." The voice bellows, "I only wanted us to, live, as our kind should! I've only wanted to make a place, for all of us. I know it's hard to understand, if you've never seen how our kind should be living."

"I don't even think you know what you want, anymore!" I squeeze Kaori just a little more tightly. She gently tries to push my arms off.

"Masami. I wish nothing more in this universe than to raise you in the environment that I grew up in. One where, you lived, and fought for the place that you yourself would call your own. None of this 'living' in the places that humans granted you, under lock and key."

"You're under lock and key right now, Asai.."
"I've been under lock and key ever since Fortune was founded, and so have you. It has been this way ever since our place in the world was wrongfully stolen from our kind, by the very humans you wish to protect. Don't you at least remember the place that was made for you when you were created?"

>"I don't care. I'm done talking with you."
>"You're crazy and maybe a little dumb."
>"What 'place that was made for me'?"
>"I'm glad I got the sane parent."
>Other?

>>43113564
>"You're crazy and maybe a little dumb."
>"I'm glad I got the sane parent."
I'm sorry, I just like upsetting him.

>>43113564
>>"I don't care. I'm done talking with you."

>>43113564
>"I don't care. I'm done talking with you."

>>43113564
>"What 'place that was made for me'?"

>>43113564
"And I want to make you like us! Can't you at least try it my way? I-i made a card and everything can we try that? I don't want you to fight the humans, and I don't want them to fight you! Why can't we just be friends!"

Sorry about that. I went AFK for a few moments

>Say things to him!
then
>>"I don't care. I'm done talking with you."

Writing!

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"What 'place that was made for me'?"
I know I shouldn't have asked, it's just going to sound really stupid.

"The place I made for you, Masami, Fortune. I intended for it to be the one safe place in the world, where you could spread your wings and lived free. You are monster perfection, no human control, with perfect mastery over your magic, and none of the expectations that would have placed on you."

"You're being crazy and maybe a little dumb." I squeeze Kaori tighter, she squeaks under my arms. "I'm glad I got the sane parent!"

He sighs, I can practically feel his irritation.
"It's funny to think, if I was five minutes sooner getting to your room that day, you would be sitting alongside me instead of letting that woman brainwash you into human society."

"I want to live in that world!" I yell at the nothing in the air. "Can't you at least try it my way?! I-I made a card, and everything that we would need to bring you to our world! I don't want to fight humanity, and I don't want them to fight you!"

My eyes, they're cloudy.
"WHY CAN'T WE JUST BE FRIENDS?!"

"'You' want to be friends? 'You' want to live the way your mother taught you?" The voice sounds mocking now. "So why are you here, then? Why are you here in the exact place that your mother told you not to go?"

I'm not listening to him, anymore.
"I'll tell you why." It keeps talking. "Because you love this way of life, don't you?"

"WHAT!?" I nearly drop Kaori off of my lap.

"You heard me!" The voice has taken that snide tone that I recognize. "You enjoy the fighting, enjoy the magic, you are curious about this way of life. You would have loved nothing more than to fight your old man."

"I'm not listening to you!"

My hands leave Kaori's head and raise into my ears. I press deeply until his voice becomes a distant drone.

>Maybe I should keep listening.
>Think happy thoughts! Happy thoughts!
>Start crying.
>No! I can get out of here! I'm sure of it!
>Other?

Uh oh, I'm getting tired and the quality of my writing is nosedropping.

>>43114854
>Think happy thoughts! Happy thoughts!
>No! I can get out of here! I'm sure of it!
Asai really is a deluded jerk.

>>43114854
>>Think happy thoughts! Happy thoughts!
>>No! I can get out of here! I'm sure of it!

>>43114854
>Think happy thoughts! Happy thoughts!
>No! I can get out of here! I'm sure of it!

>>43114854
>No! I can get out of here! I'm sure of it!

>>43114854
Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts.

"You are wrong! I fight to protect the ones I love, not because I enjoy it! If I could spend everyday playing with my friends then that's what I'd do, but you keep being a jerkface! I just want you to stop this and be nice for once!"

>Think happy thoughts! Happy thoughts!
>No! I can get out of here! I'm sure of it!

Writing!

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Happy thoughts.. Happy thoughts..

I can hear the muttering outside of my ears. Maybe he doesn't realize that I've plugged them?
Can he really see me? I was just assuming that he could before.
I don't know.

My mind drifts to home. Tonight's dinner, if we'll even HAVE dinner tonight. Or how about our house, and what Kaori said about needing a bigger one. I know Kaori is right, in that we don't run an orphanage. It's just I can't think of any other way to have such a big family.
I think back to my cards, and the monsters I've defeated so far. I don't want to say that I LIKED fighting them, but isn't it normal to like a little bit of excitement? Really, I just wanted them not to bother me rather than fight me.

I wonder if Mom realizes I'm in trouble yet. If she does, I'm sure she would drive all the way back to Fortune to look for me.
Not that she could do anything, even if she knew where I was.
Oh, I hope she doesn't try coming to the other world to get me out, she doesn't do too well here.

I wonder if I have a time-limit for staying here, too. I've never noticed one.
Or worse, what if Kaori has a time limit, and I don't know that yet?

There's a light tug on my shirt, I look down to notice Kaori smiling at me. Her face is reddened, there are still tears on her cheeks, but she's smiling. My hands leave my ears.

"You're not like that, Masami." She cuddles closer in my lap
"..Not like what?" My face is blank.
"W-what he was saying, you're not like that."

"I-I wasn't listening."

"Oh." She seems confused, "Well, you're still not like that!"
"T-thanks, I guess."

We need to get out of here.
I can get out of here. I'm sure of it. There are plenty of ways to get out, I mean, I got in almost effortlessly and I even got out once when all of this happened.

Think Masami, Think!

>Use a card (How?)
>Search along the barrier's edge
>Jump to the real world and run!
>Ask Kaori if she has ideas.
>Other?

>>43115646
Use our new house card and then leave through the door.

>>43115646
>Ask Kaori if she has ideas.

>>43115646
>>Search along the barrier's edge
>>Ask Kaori if she has ideas.

>>43115646
>Ask Kaori if she has ideas.
Kaori is a good girl, I appreciate her reassurance.

>>Ask Kaori if she has ideas.

Writing!

>>43115744
>Kaori is a good girl
She is!

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I'm thinking.

I'm thiiiiiinking.
THINK HARDER MASAMI, THINK.
The wall is solid, there's no way I can burst through this wall if Asai has been trying to do it for a week. I don't WANT to burst through this wall, because then Asai could get out.

There has to be something, SOMETHING that I have that Asai doesn't.
Oh, wait, there is one thing.

"Kaooorriii" I moan. "How do we get oooooooout?"

"I've been thinking about it." She sits up, still leaning slightly on my shoulder. "I think the only way out is to use one of your cards."
"But which one? And how?"

"Well, hold on." she stops me, still thinking about the possibilities.

"Hey." Kaori's eyes light up. "That house you made, you said you could get to it anywhere, right?"
"I think so."
"Why don't we try going to it right now?"

I stare at her, and then try to think of a reason it wouldn't work.
"No way."
"Have you tried it?"

I-
There's no way that would work. I'm already in the other world, and it has a fixed location in space. How would I go to a place that already exists when I'm trapped in another part in that same place?
Kaori, you're silly.

--

WHY DID THIS WORK!?

We stand inside of the mansion as Kaori flops down on the couch.
"Toldya so."
"But I don't understand how!"
"That's your problem to figure out." She sticks her tongue out at me.

I pout and gaze off in the distance, to where I think Fortune is right now. I wonder if Asai is even aware that I left.

"We should probably get home before someone wonders where we are." Kaori stands back up.
"Yeah, we should."

--

"We're hooo-"
Kaori bursts in the front door, and then seems extremely scared and confused.
"W-Where is everyone!?"

I push past her.
Sure enough, our house is empty.

>OH NO!
>Frantically search around!
>Call out to someone!
>Jump to conclusions
>Grab onto Kaori and shake her!
>Call Mom on our phone!
>Other?

>>43117239
>Phone Mom. No need to panic just yet, they probably went looking for us.

>>43117239
>>OH NO!
>>Frantically search around!
>>Call out to someone!
>>Jump to conclusions

>>43117239
>OH NO!
>Call out to someone!
>Jump to conclusions
>Grab onto Kaori and shake her!

>OH NO!
>Frantically search around!
>Call out to someone!
>Jump to conclusions
>Grab onto Kaori and shake her!

I'm wearing down, I hate to do this but this will be the last post of the night

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Oh no.
OH NO.
"OH NO!"

"W-w" Kaori seems stunned, but not as stunned as she is when I grab her and start shaking her!

"WHERE ARE THEY WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO?!"
"Masami! Stop! Calm down!"
"NO!"

I rush into the house and start searching! I look under the table, nothing! Then I try searching behind the couch, no one! Then I flip over the couch and look under it, there's nobody!

The house is empty! I'm all alone now! Asai must have taken them when we were busy with that stupid speech of his! There's no other way! This is his retaliation for me going to Fortune!

Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no. Everything is awful forever!
"Masami!"
"Not now! This is a crisis!"

She grumbles as I start checking room-by-room.
"HELLO!? EMILLION!? SECRETARY!? MIR!? CIRRUS!? ANYONE!? AIKO!? MOOOOOOOM!?"

Silence.
That's my greatest fear!
"MOOOOOM!"
Nope, no one!

They're all gone!

I collapse into a heap on the floor, and Kaori rushes up behind me.
"Masami!?"
"THEY'RE ALL GONE AND IT'S ALL MY FAULT!"
"Masami! Chill!"

"NO! All I had to do was not go to Fortune and I did it anyway even though Mom told me not to and she's goooooooooone!"

"Shut UP!"

Kaori and I look up from where we're collapsed on the carpet.
To see Emillion sticking his head out of a strange hole in the floor beneath the table.
"(Shut up and get inside!)"
"Inside?"

"COME ON! GO!"

--

A trap door, in our house.
I had no idea this was down here. It seems to be a relatively large room just below our own home.

There's some wooden furniture down here, including a set of chairs and another old table. Surrounding the room are all of my siblings, they seem tense and scared.
Especially Cirrus, she's clinging onto the secretary for dear life.

"What is going on?"
"Your mom told us to stay down here until she got back." Aiko meekly hides in the corner with her sister. "She said Asai is loose, and was going to stop him."

Wait, I was just there.
How?

>Thread End

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Thanks for the thread everyone. I was hoping the 99th thread would have a bit more content, but I can't choose everything.

100th thread is going to be hopefully very long. There is a lot of ground to cover. I'm hoping to make it one of my longest threads yet, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it with my schedule.

Also, Tomorrow on Saturday, I may not have a thread. There is IRL stuff happening I need to take care of.

Thanks to everyone for participating. Let me know what you think of the Finale so far. Should it be faster? Slower? Am I skipping details? Let me know!

Thank you!

>>43118288
Thanks for running.

>>43118288
Thanks for running. The pace seems fine, I think.