Hetalia - Axis Powers Fan Fiction ❯ Memories of Old ❯ Chapter 1: The Quake and a Spell ( Chapter 1 )

It all started at a seemingly regular meeting in Naples, Italy with 10 nations, and 12 representatives—America, Canada, France, England, Russia, China, Japan, Germany, Prussia, Spain, Romano, and myself. America was speaking about some bullshit that nobody was listening to (what? I actually have opinions too, you know) when it happened. The building started shaking, and everyone started panicking (though those of us who live in earthquake areas, such as America, Romano, myself, Japan, etc…, were much calmer) and the whole room dashed under the table.

Romano was seizing, as nations do when they suffer a major earthquake like this, and even I was feeling some of the ill effects (severe twitching and some bruising)—we are the same nation, after all, but Romano's more attuned to the southern region of Italy, while I'm more attuned to the northern region. As the shaking got worse, a loud groaning was heard just moments before the ceiling collapsed upon us. Luckily, the table was sturdy enough and held. I held Romano down as best I could so he wouldn't hurt himself. I let Romano up when the shaking subsided. As the dust settled and everyone calmed down, we found ourselves trapped under the—thankfully rather tall—table.

“Is everyone alright?!” America asked urgently. “Italy, how's Romano?”

“Ve~ He's fine.” I answered, before Romano spoke up himself.

“Don't answer for me, idiota!” He mock-glared at me.

“Ve~” I answered, using my verbal tic as a private way of telling Romano that I was there.

“Chigi.” He answered the same way. That's why we developed them, our verbal tics. It's a private way of telling each other that we'll always be there for one another, and that we care. I couldn't help the flash of angry, murderous green eyes in my memory, with the distinct sound of a knife cutting through the air… I mentally shook off the memory—now wasn't the time for a flashback.

“Dudes, I don't think we can move this. It's too dangerous. I don't doubt that we're strong enough, but I'd rather not die by being crushed by a building, ya know? It kinda hurts.” America said, crawling back to our little misfit group under the table. Taller nations, like Germany, had to duck, while shorter nations, like myself and Japan, didn't have to bend down as much. Russia had actually taken to lying on his belly.

Spain crawled over to us, and started babying Romano. It was so cute~

“Everybody is alright, right?” Germany asked, before verifying that everyone, indeed, was all right. “Right. Then let's go over what we know. There was an earthquake.”

“Nooo, really?” America muttered under his breath, earning himself a glare from Germany and a chuckle from me.

“We cannot dig ourselves out, and our cell phones have no service.” He continued, as if he were never interrupted. That last piece of information, however, sent almost every pair of hands to their phones, mine included. Many colorful words in many different languages floated around me as everyone saw for themselves that there was no signal on any of our phones.

“Aw man! I knew I should've switched to Verizon!” America complained. “Stupid cheap knock-off. I don't even have 3G! How am I supposed to play Five Nights at Freddy's?!”

“America…” Canada sighed, but nobody noticed him, as usual. Kumajiro was staring at Romano and myself intently, making me uneasy. He never liked me. He could probably sense it… I was never supposed to exist… The familiar words rang through my head. It wasn't a lie. I wasn't putting myself down or anything. It was a simple fact; I was never supposed to have existed. Northern Italy was never supposed to have been. Italy was always meant to be one country, never two. But I'll explain about that later.

That's probably why my friends almost died… If I'd never existed, I would've never heard those rumors… Stop it! I thought to myself, Don't you dare go back into that depression! Wouldn't want Yang waking up, after all… I shivered; Yang had been dormant for a number of years now, for which I was grateful.

“Damnit! Perhaps I could…?” England whipped out his spell book and started chanting in rapid Latin. Then France sneezed, causing some of the dust to fly into the air and England to start coughing, successfully butchering the spell. However, unlike when he usually messes up a spell and it becomes a dud, this time, a ball of soft green light flew right at me. Through the dust, nobody could see what was happening until it was too late.

The light hit me square in the chest, and was absorbed into me. I didn't feel anything more than a warm tingling sensation. Everyone was frozen, more from shock than anything else. Before anyone could say anything, the light reappeared, only it looked different. It was now almost pure white, with tendrils of icy-blue and gold, as well as flecks of black and crimson. It then seemed to explode once in the center of the group, touching everyone with its light.

“What… just—?” America started, before he was cut off as a blinding white flash caused all of us to close our eyes and turn away. We felt, more than saw ourselves being pulled somewhere… If only we'd just been sent to another location… If only…