Disclaimer: I don’t own Rocket Power, just

“Why would I help?” Shiruki quirked an eyebrow after they’d finished explaining the situation to her

“Aw, come on, Shiruki!” Twister groaned in frustration

“We just want to find our friends.” Reggie told her

Shiruki put her hands on her hips

“Yeah, and all I want is to find a guy who can hold his own in a sadistic kind of way yet secretly thinks it’s hot when I treat him like dirt. But do you hear me complaining about the improbability of this? Nooo.” Shiruki became more and more angry as she talked

Then she paused and cleared her throat in slight embarrassment

“Uh, sorry about that. Guess I got a little too excited.”

Reggie took a deep breath and decided to try again

“There must be something you’d be willing to do to help us.” Of course, there was still a high possibility that Shiruki couldn’t help

“Look, I can’t track as well as Marlian. But, yeah, I could probably find him. I just don’t want to.”

By now the rocket gang was so upset with Shiruki if they could tear her to shreds it would be a serious temptation.

“Why not?” Otto growled through gritted teeth

Shiruki rolled her eyes.

“Repeating myself is such a waste of time.” Shiruki told them, popping some pills into her mouth, “You still haven’t answered why I would.” Then she added in her head, “Plus, I’m getting back at you for going into my room on Halloween.” With that she shut the door in their faces

9999999

“Now what?” Sam asked no one in particular

Sharing the same gloomy face the rest of them had on. He stared at the ground and noticed it had suddenly become darker. No, Sam realized, it was a shadow. A paper wad hit Otto in the head. The rocket gang looked towards Shiruki who had her head hanging low so that her face was obscured by her bangs.

“Try some of those places.” She told them walking away

Otto picked up the piece of paper by his feet and glanced over it. The names of a bunch of places were scribbled on it. The only problem was these places hadn’t been around for quite awhile.

“Where is that? And why would she think he’d be there? Huh, Otto?” Reggie turned her attention from reading over Otto’s shoulder to her brother, who was shaking

“Twister and I have something to tell you.” Otto blurted out

All eyes turned to him

“Halloween Twister and I snuck into Shiruki’s room.”

“You what?!” Reggie and Sam screamed at them

“We know it was stupid, but anyways, Shiruki keeps a record of everything. She even has ramblings of memories she had from all the people she’s possessed. That’s how we found out that Kazuna is her brother.” Otto explained

“Yeah, yeah. We all already know that the witch people refer to themselves as siblings or cousins.” Reggie waved it off, impatient for Otto to get to the point.

“No.” Otto shook his head, “I mean he really is her flesh and blood biological brother.”

If Reggie and Sam’s eyes got any wider they would’ve popped out of their sockets.

“W-what?” Sam finally managed to choke out. There was something that didn’t add up. “But Kazuna would have to be centuries old.”

Twister remembered this part and decided to answer.

“Apparently it was a spell he made up himself. Instead of dying of old age he loses his memories in exchange for being made into an infant again.”

“Yeah,” Otto took over “He just needs something to act as a sort of anchor to keep the cycle going. He uses the other witches for that. Most of his memories with them are probably experiences he had with other possessed people he mistook for the ones we know today.”

Reggie and Sam took a moment to digest that information

“So Kazuna’s immortal?” Reggie asked

If that was the case than Kazuna’s cowardly nature really seemed stupid.

“Not exactly, Kazuna can be murdered or killed in an unfortunate accident; he just can’t die of natural causes, like a disease.” Otto explained

There was something Reggie hadn’t thought of before that came into her mind now.

“You know, come to think of it, it was pretty unusual how he automatically took it upon himself to look after Shiruki when she first came here.”

999999999

Shiruki knew Otto and Twister were telling about her and Kazuna’s true relation to each other. The truth was the two of them had always had a strange relationship. Strange as in dysfunctional. She tormented him and dragged him along and Kazuna let her for two reasons; one, he was scared to death of her and two, he loved her unconditionally. Shiruki had known how to take advantage of that and she abused her control over him out of personal fear.

Of course it didn’t last. The rocket gang had been there when Kazuna chose Uojima over Marlian and Miko. The ironic thing was, the only reason Kazuna invented that spell was so he could look after her and somewhere along the way he’d completely forgotten.

9999999

The Rocket gang had two main problems if they were going to find Uojima and Kazuna. First, they had no idea where the places on Shiruki’s list had been. Plus even when they found out (god bless the internet) they had no excuse for suddenly picking up and leaving home again. Reggie had already had to make up a story about Uo’s estranged aunt inviting him to come for a visit. Maybe they could say he’d wanted them to come along too. That would probably work.

99999999

There was another problem the Rocket gang had over looked. Luckily Shiruki had remembered.

“Lars.” She stopped in front of said boy who was busy practicing hockey

He frowned and continued playing.

“You know, you really should consider all the terrible things I can and will do to you.”

Lars turned to face her.

“You need to cover for Uo at work.” She stated simply

“Why would I do that?” he scoffed

Instead of giving a usual response like, he’s your adopted brother or, it’s the right thing to do Shiruki repeated,

“You need to cover for Uo at work.”

This time Lars recognized it was a command.

“What do I get if I do?” he asked slyly

“You need to cover for Uo at work.”

This was starting to get annoying

“Look, I don’t want to_”

“You need to_”

“Yeah, I get it.”

Pause

“You need to cover for Uo at work.”

Lars felt like pulling his hair out

“You can’t tell me what to do!” he said, jabbing a finger in her direction

“Foolish mortal do not question my authority.” She told him plainly

Lars could tell there was no way out of this.

9999999

Finally they were on their way.

To be continued in: Dark Moon Rising