Chapter Text
Komatsu was halfway through scrubbing down the stove when he felt a burst of magic underneath his finger tips. It flowed through the kitchen but disappeared as soon as it had come. He paused and started to wipe his slightly tingling fingers off on a nearby dish towel, when he heard a door open. It was followed by Starjun's voice, although Komatsu couldn't make out the words, and a voice that he didn't recognize.
"Honestly Star," the mystery woman groaned. There was the sound of something hitting the ground, and of a bird's cry. "Running all of these stores is, like, getting tedious." She picked up speed as she spoke, her irritation growing more and more. "The government's getting nosier, the people are more demanding, and the others, like, can't even be bothered to help with anything! Did you know that I was followed yest-" there was a pause before, "Oh? What's this?"
By this point, Komatsu had his ear pressed against the door. He hadn't intended to eavesdrop, but the thought of going out there to greet the new arrival wasn't the most appealing one. Call it bad nerves.
Komatsu figured that this must have been one of the wizards that Starjun had told him about. One of the actual owners of the house. Someone who could possibly help with his cur-
He squealed at the sudden feeling of a hand on the nape of his neck as his feet were suddenly an inch or so above the ground. In the same breath, the kitchen door blew open and he was practically tossed into the next room. He landed on his feet, just barely, but still stumbled forward and hit what felt like a wall.
"Oww," he groaned and stepped back before blinking up at what he had hit.
Or who.
"So-So-SORRY!" Komatsu burst out, jumping back so quickly that he ended up tripping over his own feet. He hit the ground this time and winced before freezing up completely. The person in front of him was definitely a witch- as if the spell just now hadn't been enough of a clue- and a powerful one at that. Komatsu could feel the power radiating off of him and it left him feeling a bit lightheaded.
He slowly looked up- slowly, slowly- from the woman's scuffed boots, to her dark pants, and the red blouse and cloak. He saw her round face, bright blue eyes, and choppy black hair, and a part of him thought that she looked so young- maybe even younger than him. That part of him was eclipsed by his fear. The bird on her shoulder, the raven from before, didn't help her frightening image. He felt a bit like prey caught in a predator's gaze but he couldn't look away, and she didn't say anything either.
Starjun's bored voice interrupted their standoff. "Rin, this is Komatsu. He's our new housekeeper." Starjun gestured between them. "Komatsu, this is Rin, a very powerful witch."
The woman- Rin- snorted at the introduction and turned to glare at the fire. "Just 'powerful' Star? Please, I'm, like, the best that there is!" She unclipped her cloak and swept it over her shoulder. The raven took flight at the movement and landed back on its perch by the hearth.
"Fine, since you want to be so boring about it, I'll do my own introduction- my name is Rin, the Aroma Witch!" She grinned for the first time, her face lighting up. "Every scent, every smell falls under my domain! My potions and spells can, like, totally captivate people! Heal them! Even make people fall in love!" her cheeks turned slightly pink at the last idea.
"And I wonder how successful those last potions are." Starjun mused and Rin scowled down at him.
"Shut yer trap before I douse you in water!" she huffed and tossed the cloak to the side, onto a pile of junk. "And it's about time that we got a housekeeper. This place is a mess!"
Starjun gave her a withering look. "Yes, and it would be less of a mess without your help."
"Psh." she flapped a hand at him. "You can skip the lecture Star. Besides, I won't be here for long." The raven croaked, seemingly a noise of agreement from Rin's smile. "You wanna come along Melk?"
"Um..."
Rin paused to look back at him and Komatsu almost lost his voice then and there. He took a deep breath and continued.
"He-Hello Miss Rin-"
"Just Rin is fine." Rin cut in, making a face. "Calling me 'Miss' is just weird ya know."
"Ok. Um, Rin, my name is Komatsu and I was cursed a long time ago- I'm not sure when- but I hope that you'll let me stay here until I can figure out what to do about my curse." he bowed like he had with Starjun. "I'll cook and clean and help with the housework around here in the meantime." He didn't hear a response from her and for a few seconds he feared the worse. When he peeked up at her, he saw her hand folded over her mouth like she was trying to hold back a laugh. Confusion slid onto his face as she snorted again.
"Oh man Star- where did you even find this one? He's, like, so polite! Can we trade him for Zebra? Or my brother? Please?" she sounded almost hopeful. Starjun replied with a quiet,
"I wish," before continuing with. "He's also take care of the cooking for the household. He's quite good at it from what I've seen."
Rin brightened up immediately at the mention of cooking. "You can cook? No lie?" she hummed. "That's great! It'll be nice if I don't have to run around to get a good meal anymore. Plus there's, like, no way that the others would kick you out if you told them that." she paused, "Well, unless you're shit at cooking." she hummed. "I can see why you let him stay Star.
"Anyways Komatsu," Rin turned back to him and propped her hands on her hips. "I'll accept you staying here. Star could use another hand around this place." she paused and scratched at her cheek with her finger.
"About that curse though, I dunno what to tell ya about that." She reached out and suddenly cupped his head with both hands. She turned it from side to side, her eyes focused like she was reading something off of the pages of a book. "It's a bit of a weird curse- not really my area of expertise. I might be able to do something to help with it, but I wouldn't bet on it too much."
Komatsu tried to squash the disappointment welling up. Her words were hard to hear, but as long as she wasn't saying that there was nothing that she- or the rest of her group- could do, he'd cling to that hope.
Komatsu looked up after a moment and spotted the bird watching hum. "Hello again." It looked a bit smaller in the light of day. "Rin," he asked "Is this your familiar?" He'd heard stories about witches and wizards who had them- special animals that helped them cast spells and use magic.
"Familiar?" Rin asked, looking at him like he had suddenly spouted a second head. "No! Of course not!" she walked over to the hearth and ran a finger along the bird's back. "For starters, I don't have a familiar. They're, like, a pain to take care of.
"And second, Melk isn't a familiar. She wasn't, like, even originally an animal. She's was cursed and now she just looks like a bird. Big difference." Rin rubbed at her temple with her free hand. "We're also having problems figuring it out..." she propped her hand against her hip. "It's fine for right now though. As long as she remembers that she was originally a human- and still very much a human on the inside- then her curse can still be broken. It's when she starts forgetting that, then we have a problem." Her voice trailed off as Melk nipped at her finger. Komatsu couldn't quite think of what to say to that. It was just another reminder of how bad these curses could be.
"Ya know, I'd say the same to you too." he looked up again when he realized that Rin was addressing him. "Curses are more dangerous and persistant than other spells because they just... chip away at you until there's nothing left. It's easier to resist them if you can hold onto your sense of self, but that gets harder when you can barely remember it at all." Komatsu shivered at the expression on her face. It was miles away from the cheeriness that she'd shown before. Her eyes were sharp and cold. He wondered what was going through her mind.
"I'll remember that." he promised.
Rin seemed a little startled out of her thoughts but she nodded and said, "Ok great. Follow me then, Komatsu. I'm going to assume that Star couldn't give you a tour of this place."
He shook his head and began trailing after her as she started walking towards the stairs near the kitchen. She pointed to the kitchen door. "You already know what that is, right?" He nodded. "Ok, I'll show you a few other places then." she walked towards the stairs but instead of walking up them, she went behind them.
Komatsu followed her to the small space behind the stairs. A light flickered on above their heads, illuminating the dust and cobwebs there, but Komatsu noted that there was less clutter in this area. Before he could ask why, Rin knelt down onto the floor and drew his eyes with a, "See that?" She pointed to a silve ring on the floor. "If you pull on that then you can lift up this section of the floor. The room under this door is where Zebra lives. Whenever he's, like, here anyways." she stood up again and brushed off her pants. "You shouldn't go into any of these rooms without permission but Zebra's room is especially off limits. He's pretty fond of 'kill first, ask questions never', if ya know what I mean." She seemed amused, but Komatsu got the feeling that she was completely serious, so he nodded. "Don't worry about cleaning our rooms either. If we need anything then we'll let you know.
"Now let's go upstairs."
She led the way up to the first landing, then the second, and then the third. All of the floors had the same general layout. They were crammed with magical items, trinkets, statues, books- the type of shiny hoard to make a magpie, or even a dragon, jealous- and a single door. What differed were the names that Rin attributed to each door.
Toriko lived on the first landing. "So that he's closer to the kitchen!" Rin had grinned. "Not that Star will even let him near it if he can, like, help it."
Sunny lived on the second landing. "Because it's more 'beaut'ful' if he's in the middle, or something. Don't ask him what that means unless you want an hour long lecture." The words had been followed by a deep sigh. "Honestly, I try and forget that we're related sometimes."
Coco lived on the third landing. "Coco's easy to get a long with if you can ignore the rude things he says sometimes. His fortunes are always spot on too."
"And up there?" Komatsu asked, "The stairs keep going up. Is there another floor?"
"Yeah. The very top floor. It's where my room is." Rin told him. She didn't make a move to go up the stairs so Komatsu remained where he was as well. "It's been a few weeks since I've been back here so I'm not sure what else Starjun's added to the place. I'm sure that you'll find a lot of fun stuff if you just poke around."
"When you say a few weeks- do you not live here?" Komatsu asked, taking a seat on the steps. After a moment, Rin followed suit. "You said this was your home right?"
"Hmm, I don't know if I'd call it a home. It's probably the closest thing to that." She put up a few fingers like she was counting. "There are other places that I sleep at. Other places that I spend most of my time- selling potions, gathering more ingredients, ya know- but I always come back here in the end." she glanced over at him. "What about you? Where's your home?"
"My home?" Komatsu tugged at his shirt cuff. "I don't know. I've been traveling for a while now. I usually don't stay anywhere for more than half a year." That was when the anxiety would begin to build, like hands circling his heart, applying more and more pressure until he cracked. Then he'd leave. Sometimes he'd leave sooner than that. He'd see a person- almost never the same one, but they always struck the same chord of fear within him- and before he'd realized it, a bag would be packed and he'd be on his way. He could rarely remember the time inbetween those two points.
"I think," he told her instead. "That a home would be somewhere with a kitchen. Somewhere where I could sit around the table and share a meal with others." he mused. "That's where the best meals are, right? The places where you're surrounded by loved ones?"
"...Maybe." Rin responded after a few seconds. "You might have a point there." She stood up suddenly and offered a hand back to him. When he grabbed it, she pulled him to his feet. "I haven't had that sort of meal in ages, but if you can make it happen with these guys then I'd love to see it." she grinned. "Just don't be sad if it doesn't work out. It's hard to even keep those guys in the same room as each other without some sort of bloodshed." she bemoaned.
"I don't think that it would be that bad." Komatsu said.
"Why?"
"Well," he looked down, saw the clothes that Starjun had gifted him, and looked back up again. This time there was a smile on his face. "It's because I think that you guys are nicer than that. I mean," he gestured as he spoke. "Melk helped me find this place when I was lost in a wasteland, Starjun gave me these clothes, and you've been nice to me so far. So I think that the others can't be that bad."
"Optimistic. I like that." Rin shrugged. "But you haven't seen any of us in a bad mood yet. Your opinion will change after that. We're, like, known as evil witches and wizards for a reason after all."
"I don't think it will." Komatsu said, stubborn this time.
Rin shrugged again before giving him a cat-like grin. "Well don't say that i didn't warn ya." she told him walking back down the stairs. Komatsu followed after.
"And last stop," she said once they had reached the ground level again. "Although you're probably already familiar with it-" she walked over to the descending stairs and the front door at the bottom, "Is this fancy little door. See the five knobs?" she asked, gesturing towards each one. Komatsu nodded but came closer to see them again. "Well, each of them corresponds to one of the wizards here. In clockwise order from the top, there's Toriko's, Coco's, Sunny's, mine, and Zebra's." she walked down and pointed to her knob. "See the colors around the edges?" And against Komatsu nodded. Each door had a ring consisting of 3 to 5 colors. Rin had 5 herself. "These lead to different places in the world. Mostly stores and shops. Some of them just lead to places that we like. We can change the locations with a bit of extra magic or even add more places to our wheels." she pointed a finger at him. "But like the other stuff in this place, don't just play with someone's knob without asking first. And let Starjun know before you go somewhere. His magic helps keep these things working."
"Actually my magic keeps the whole place working." Starjun added lazily from his hearth.
"Yeah, yeah." Rin grumbled. "Anyways, this door leads to some pretty amazing places. Wanna see?"
Komatsu nodded eagetly and Rin grinned before grabbing onto her knob. She twisted it and said, "Blue Ridge door," which Starjun echoed. Komatsu felt the flow of magic from the door and when Rin pulled it open, they weren't looking out at a wasteland, but at a town street. Rain came down in sheets and flooded the cobble streets. People hurried past with their faces down and their umbrellas and coats held above their heads. Komatsu reached a hand out, barely believing his eyes, and gasped at the feeling of rain against the palm of his hand.
"Watch your hand." Rin warned as she pulled him back into the house. "Now time for the Salazar store." she twisted the knob again and the color above the door changed. When she opened the door, they were staring at a completely different town. This time the buildings seemed more green- they were covered with vines and foliage- and as Komtasu took a few steps out of the door, he could feel the difference in the warm, almost muggy air. He marveled at the view of the castle from the outside, where it looked like any other storefront, before Rin ushered him back inside.
"This is amazing!" he told her as the door closed. "And they all lead to places like this?"
"Yup!" Rin smiled. "Every door leads to a new place. It's the easiest way of getting around." she took a step back. "And I can show you more of it later but right now I need to run some errands." she walked over to a pile of junk and started rummaging in it until she pulled out a small brooch. She pressed the brooch to the front of her outfit and twisted it. A layer of magic flowed from the brooch and suddenly there was a stranger standing in front of him. Komatsu found it hard not to gawk.
"You like it?" Rin grinned and now instead of short and black, her hair was long, wavy brown, and tied up with a ribbon. Her dress was bright and festive, and her boots were shorter and shinier.
"So you can create disguises with magic as well?" he asked and Rin nodded.
"I'm a damn good witch after all! It's good to have a few disguises just hanging around." she started for the door. "I'll be back soon. I just need to grab a few items for a spell." she called out but Komatsu quickly followed after,
"Um-Rin! Can I come with you?" he didn't think about the request before asking- the words just seemed to fall out. He blushed as he continued. "Everything you'd done so far has been so amazing. I'd like to see more. If that's ok..."
Again Rin laughed. "Amazing? You haven't seen amazing yet, but sure, I don't mind if you tag along. No one should know your face so you'll be fine without a disguise." Komatsu nodded and followed after as she walked to the door. When she twisted it this time she said, "North Haven shop."