The representative of 7 - part 1

“So Abraxas, can you tell us where your home is?” Xiao asked the child in his arms. They had long left the alley they had found the child in.

Now once again, standing on the sidewalk with huge buildings dwarfing them, the three quietly made their way around.

However, the sight of two teens holding a child and clearly unrelated to each other made for a weird sight. And that’s why many eyes could be felt at them at the moment.

“I don’t know. I was here with someone that sister said would look after me while she worked on the important stuff. I don’t know how to get back” the child replied and Xiao mentally let out a prayer.

What were they supposed to do now? The wishing contract was already made and they had to go forward with it. He also knew that it was most likely the influence of the wish which had made the child not hesitate to trust him.

He could see the child’s consciousness toward strangers. Even Kei to some degree was most likely covered with the wish influence to a degree.

“Who’s your sister anyway? Can you give us a name?” Kei asked as he brought his phone out. As expected, it was out of signal but otherwise working the same as his last one.

Looking at it, he could easily figure out that this world and the previous one had a huge difference in how time moved. They had been here for about a day now, but according to his phone, only 5 minutes had passed.

This gave them ample time to finish it all. There was a thought on Kei’s face which Xiao could not decipher. However, the moment didn’t last long when a pair of eager eyes glued to the hand holding the phone.

“Abraxas, Kei asked you a question. Can you answer him?” Xiao gently shook the child in his arms a little. That seemed to snap the child out of whatever trance he was in and a little colour crept on his face.

“Sorry, the one I’m talking about is not my blood sister. She just takes care of me since I don’t have parents and I call her sister because she works for the church. She’s super awesome” that didn’t answer their question at all.

Was this child an orphan who was being picked on? But elves like this child needed special welfare. No matter how rich the church was, it would not be capable of looking after such a child on its own.

“Yes, we get all that. But doesn’t she have a name? Can you describe her looks to us?” the frustration of Kei’s voice was well hidden. Enough for the child to not feel it.

But Xiao could clearly hear the notes in Kei’s voice.

“She’s tall and kind and good looking. Sister is the best model right now. She looks like that” the child’s finger pointed at a TV shop which had dozens of TV’s playing the same TV scenes.

The beauty in the scene was very different from what they had in mind. Her dark skin complimented her curled hair. But her body looked like it had the muscle to it.

She was still slim and clear featured, but her flamy red hair and grey eyes were the main attractions of her face. She was a perfect definition of tall, dark and beautiful. Below the screen, her name flashed as Azurl.

“Kei, I think we just found the person we were looking for” Xiao commented but Kei had a frown on his face.

Even the child in his arms had his face twisted a little. Of course, nothing was that easy so why would he think that this would be anything but so?

“That’s sister Azurl acting in the movie ” The child whispered and Xiao nodded. Clearly, something was troubling the child, but he would not ask him what it was.

But he could ask Kei what was wrong since his face seemed to be twisted weirdly.

“Xiao, what were your plans before you picked up the child? I’m afraid we will have to keep him with us for now” there was something in Kei’s voice which said that he would explain things later and they should get going for now.

Kei’s butterflies and other animals were acting as vigilantes around them and passing him the relevant information. If he had thought to speak up now, that meant something was wrong.

“I told you that there was someone here who made a wish from me before. More specifically, they made a wish to come here. The rift they used was a more approachable one though. It was a bet on my part to think that they would end in this world, but I can feel their part of the contract here” Xiao explained the important part as he hurried out of the area.

Kei was faster as he ducked in an alley and motioned toward him to do the same. The child in his arms tensed as he lifted his head to take a look at Xiao. Xiao just passed him a reassuring smile.

The grip the child had on his arms was beginning to hurt a little now.

“Are you taking me to my sister?” the child asked, his voice a little wet but Xiao just shook his head

“We’ll take you to her later. We don’t know how to contact her, but we know someone who does. Do you want to come with us?” Kei was not exactly giving the child any choice there. His words were a deliberate trap for the child.

And even before the child had opened his mouth, Xiao knew what the result would be.

“Alright. But you stay away from me. I’ll stay with this brother here” The child seemed to shrink and Xiao could see a small smirk on Kei’s face.

“Aww, come on here. I’m not so bad” Kei made a motion as if he was going to grab the child in his arms but Xiao decided to not play along. This had gone on long enough already and he was tired.

“Kei, knock it off now. I need you to make a butterfly and send a message to the place I direct it at” Xiao said as Kei nodded. Since this place was guarded by another power of 7, then that meant there would be no black chaos here.

These butterflies would not cause any panic.

As the black mass converged into Kei’s hand, he could feel the child in his arms lean forward and he held on tight to not allow him to move. With a quick look down, he could see the child have an almost enchanted look on his face.

Xiao made a decision and he let the child down.

“I’ll cloak it with magic, just in case” Xiao moved forward and took the teens hands which held the butterfly in his own. He could feel the hands in his hold tense as he held them, but he had no time to analyze that.

He channelled his own magic into the butterfly’s outer shell to camouflage it. He could have made his own messenger, but he had no material to work with.

Besides, Kei had a better mastery of the subject.

Once that was done, the butterfly flew away and he let his hand return to their original position. But Kei’s were still up and there was a blank stare in his eyes.

“Kei, we’re done here” his call managed to snap the teen out of it and purple eyes blinked slowly in his direction before a weird expression took over the handsome features.

“I think you broke him” the child commented from beside him and he almost jumped. He had honestly forgotten that the child was still there.

“Sorry, I backed out” that was understandable. He should have asked first before moving to help. He was clearly not thinking.

“It’s alright. For now, I know where we need to go. The message would arrive there soon” with the final words, he decided to pick the child back up and began moving. Kei followed him at a more sedated pace.

Something was fluttering in his stomach which he ignored. Even the static after-feel on his hands he ignored. If he did, it would go away.

And so the trio made their way through what could be described as a copy of Tokyo. But then again, Xiao had not been there in recent times and had only seen the place in photos.

Just, the style of the billboard or something around them screamed of that influence rather than the western one. But it could also be the food he could spy out of his eyes.

Till now, both children with him had been well behaved. Neither had done anything outrageous and that's saying something. Kei’s more subdued nature did worry him a little though.

“Kei, something on your mind?” Xiao asked. The child in his arms had his attention on everything around him out of the pair, so he felt more comfortable talking to Kei.

“Not particularly. Just thinking how different this place is from my own world” this was the first time he had heard Kei talk about it and he was surprised. He was under the impression that the teen would not want to talk about that topic.

Clearly, that was his own misconception. Kei, from the very start, had not tried to hide but Xiao had assumed that he would not want to share. Maybe he was just being too clinical there.

“Your world, what’s it like?” Xiao decided to ask. He tried to gouge out Kei’s reaction to the question. If it looked like it was making him uncomfortable or angry, he would drop it.

But his curiosity was massive and he really wanted to know more about him if possible.

There was no visible reaction and Xiao debated how to take that. Was it good or bad? Was his question alright?

“Xiao, do you have any idea where your client is?” Kei asked and it did enough to derail Xiao from his train of thoughts completely. His mind now fully occupied with the question almost blanked.

His magic seemed to guide him, but that was a general direction rather than a destination. Slowly his face coloured and his eyes averted. This seemed to gather the attention of the child in his arms.

“Do you have a fever?” There were tiny hands on his face and the heat on his face increased. He now felt really stupid. There was a small chuckle.

“Don’t worry, Xiao is fine. Actually, the messenger reached its destination safely so I can guide us the rest of the way. It’s not very far from here, maybe in one or two-kilometre radius,” the child seemed to not believe Kei as small hands still checked his face.

There was a sigh from Kei and Xiao forced himself to calm down. He was worrying the child and amusing the devil here.

“Alright, you lead and I’ll follow” Xiao finally managed to squeeze out in a somewhat normal voice. His face was also returning to a more normal tone of colour.

Purple amused eyes looked at him with fondness before Kei shook his head and moved to the front. With him in the lead, the party of three once again began moving.

And then the annoying part of the journey began.

“Are we there yet? When would we reach?” now that the child had been in their company for some time, he seemed to have decided that they could be trusted.

And thus, in a truly childish fashion, had taken all liberties off and decided it would be a fun time to ask all questions.

Repeated questions every 5 minutes. Since Kei was a little in the lead, he pretended to not hear the answers at all. So, the responsibility fell to him and no matter how cute it was at the start, it was soon getting irritating.

Kei was a devil and apparently, he still had a few hours of torture left to handle. He just needed to grin and bear with it. Just grin and bear.