2 Betrayal [part 2]

Third person POV:

Emily walked out of the kitchen bearing the loaded tray of food she prepared. She promptly saw Michael who had just come in. She moved towards them, dragged a bed tray and gently placed the food near the starving Yukino. Before Yukino could instantly seize all the food to herself, Emily wisely gave Michael's rightful share to him. It undoubtedly resulted a small pout on Yukino's adorable face along with an amused chuckle from Micheal.

"Dear uncle Mike must have already enjoyed his breakfast, Emily." Yukino said meekly, still feeling a bit sour about sharing the food prepared for her.

"He can still have brunch Yukino" replied Emily, glancing sternly at the sulking girl.

"It is alright, let the girl have all she wants, she must be starving and I did eat before coming here, Emily." Michael said furtively.

Emily felt similar parts irked and warmth by this. Leaving no place for a compelling argument, Emily retorted "You must not be too easy on her, uncle Mike. She mustn't eat too much now that she is scarcely recovering, so please don't be lenient with her anymore."

Micheal inevitably raised his hands in imminent defeat and Yukino decisively started eating her dear food. They both knew Emily cannot be persuaded, not after she typically set her mind. With that, a mutual and peaceful silence shrouded the place as Emily took a seat in between, waiting for them to finish.

The two of them knew it was strictly forbidden to talk while they eat, especially Yukino. She once choked on her food a long time ago and that absolutely did give Emily quite a terrible scare. Since then, Yukino had to indignantly learn 'safe' eating manners: eat slowly, with small bites and no talking.

Only Emily has what it takes to make the little devil behave. Yukino, the little devil had no choice but to naturally oblige to everything. Her beloved sister's stern gaze was one of the few possible things that genuinely makes her feel real dread.

Michael still wonders how Emily is able to deal with Yukino so easily. He enjoyed the rare time they spent together and waited for his chance to finally make himself clear about his intentions for one last time.

When eating was done, it was time for talking. Without any further ado, words flew from Michael's mouth with all the apparent seriousness. "Emily, Yukino, I would like speaking with you both if you would appreciate it."

"Sure", the two of them chimed together. Emily had a particularly nasty feeling in her gut for reasons unknown. It usually implied something bad.

Michael looked at both of them with affection, which is usually hidden by his graveness. Selecting his words cautiously, he said gently, "You both grew up well, more than what I could have imagined. I admit it. I'm proud of you girls. I-"

"Not this again Uncle Mike! We've hosted this discussion, like for a million times already!", Yukino interrupted rudely along with a scowl on her face.

Michael looked at Emily, anxiously hoping an odd bit of support, but the raven haired merely stayed silent. Seeing Emily quite, Michael experienced a thorough defeat and Yukino, the smug little lady celebrated her first score in the entire day(within her brain).

Emily bitterly cursed under her breath at her undeserved misfortune. Looking at the duo, one over cloud nine and the other depressed, she could assume life toying with her. Both of them are competent adults, yet they still act so childish. Feeling vexed at being stuck between two contrasting moods, she willingly chose to end the stalemate.

"Uncle Mike, I do agree with Yukino. We've already talked about it. Our decision is not changing. Please stop being so adamant about it. I do not wish to go against you over and over again." Emily said tiredly.

"You both don't understand how important it is admittedly! What's wrong with you both inheriting something which is rightfully yours?" Michael couldn't stay placid this time.

"We understand. Precisely so, we don't wish to take over Aseth. It deserves something much better. I feel-"

"No, you don't understand anything. You consider this so lightly, what exactly is wrong with it?"

"Aseth is the sole thing our deceased parents left behind. It was founded for a proper reason. We do not want to ruin it. We both have different aspirations and can never wholeheartedly lead the organisation. It is tantamount of marring it. And that would be the last thing we would ever want to happen."

Michael stared at both of them in an appalling silence. The two sisters returned him with the same. Michael could feel himself giving up, his former resolution overthrown by the girls' evident determination. Being stressed enough over how to manage, the awful yet familiar sensation crept back to him. Before the suppression broke, he decided to go away from the girls.

"Fine." with that he headed out of the room.

The girls were visibly startled by the his abrupt departure. They stared at each other in confusion. The way he left made them a bit curious. Yukino shattered the silence. "That was weird. He never left like that."

Emily nodded in agreement with her. "You're right. He looked a bit upset. Maybe we shouldn't have been so blunt."with a frustrated sigh she continued, "but then again, this talk has literally become an endless loop that even got me sick."

"Totally agreed. I simply get pissed off at the mere mention of this topic."

"You get pissed at almost everything, Yukino."

"Ouch, that hurt bad. You don't have to be so brutally honest about that and you secretly enjoy messing with me, don't you?"said Yukino with a fake-wounded expression on her face.

"I can't deny that at all." Emily merely returned with a similar fake-solemnity.

"You-, forget it. It's you, the closet sadist, so I should remain unimpressed."

"You speak as if you are any better than me, Yukino."

"Yeah, yeah. You're thorough. I ain't any better person you desire me to be. And I can't be one when I dearly miss My-Cool-Uncle-Mike."

"Agreed, I do miss the real him."

"But then again, what could possibly make him act that way? I never knew Uncle Mike can in fact get on to our nerves."

"I have no proper explanation regarding it, all the more reason to keep me bothered." Emily replied bitterly. Suddenly, she felt more exhausted than ever and had a frown, typically indicating that she was lost in deep thought. And Yukino didn't overlook this. Not wanting to see her so tired, she decided to shift the conversation. Something to much lighter subject than Uncle Mike and his drastic change in personality.

"Okay, enough about Uncle Mike. More about me now." And one has to admit, it was immensely successful in bringing the older one back to reality.

"Do tell me about it."

"Nothing special you know, just about the rats I said earlier."

"I too wanted to talk to you about this. I think it was definitely not a simple coincidence for anyone to know your weaknesses so thoroughly. It was indeed serious this time, we cannot gloss over it"

"I can't put it any better and it has me so annoyed, not knowing who is aware about our secrets."

"Let us hope they didn't find anything tangible yet, otherwise I feel a massive headache ready to hug you and me."

"That would be really unpleasant. Whoever it is, behind all this plotting better be strong, else I really have no idea how to vent my frustrations."

"Oh you will, no need to worry about that. Actually, I roughly got an idea on who it might be.", the raven haired replied with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"Who?" the younger one asked with candid excitement and curiosity.

"I have a feeling that the culprit behind this attack and our parents death are somehow connected."

"How?" Yukino asked in a dead serious tone.

"From all the years we spent tracking down our parents' murders, I guess we finally have a clue on who it might be." Emily said with much graveness.

"And it looks like it is not a good thing."

"Yes. So far I came to certain conclusions. One, the enemy is an insider, plausibly in the core. Two, clearly knows about our parents being witches. Three, the enemy is a single person and not a group, who knows us very well and we might know him as well. There might be a chance that he is a wizard, very slim nonetheless."

Once again, silence enveloped the room. Just that it wasn't a pleasant one this time too. For so many years, the two had explored every corner of the world looking for the culprit. This time was positively an unexpected luck. Emily already figured out the poison that struck Yukino wouldn't be a trivial thing, not after all the poison resistance she painstakingly built.

She was correct indeed, as the toxin was made with the plants non-existent on the planet. At least in this time period. Emily herself would find it hard to recreate the same poison without any magical assistance. As a result, it is not an understatement to say that mankind is incapable of possessing it, yet. But that is not true for the witches. They can easily alter the genetics of the plant species and do many more miracles.

Now here comes the catch, Emily and Yukino already confirmed that there weren't any witches left on earth. They were unable to even discover a possible trace of magic. So that left them even more perplexed.

"I really wonder why all this is even happening to us Emily. We didn't ask for any of it."

"I know, Yukino. But we cannot back down. Not when he is targeting us."

"Us? You mean he got you too?" The girl asked in disbelief.

"Yes, I have noticed that my everyday coffee was drugged for last three days, precisely on the day you left for this mission. Good thing I haven't had it by sheer luck or else it would've been a close call for me too."

"What do you mean? Someone actually managed to do that? Oh my goodness, how on earth is that even possible, Emily?"

"I myself find it hard to believe that someone has the guts to do that here, in Aseth, our territory. But the reality says otherwise. My instincts are being wobbly, and literally screaming that something is going to happen. And I confirmed every possible thing that could go wrong, only to find nothing unusual. Everything is completely normal, scarily almost if I have to say."

"At times, it is flawed for everything to be not wrong, Emily."

"Yep, I think so too-, Yukino what's wrong with you?!" Emily noticed that Yukino's face is going pale by the second and her pulse alarmingly low. Then she realised that strength seemed to leave her body.

She caught Yukino's body with all the strength she could muster. To her horror, she found that Yukino was not breathing anymore. This struck her painfully. So painful that she wasn't even able to notice that she was dying too.