Siren Slayers: Side Stories

Serena's World

Katsumi Locklear POV

It had felt like hours, no it almost felt like days as I watched the clock hands slowly move around and around waiting for news. At this point I would have been good with bad news, because then at least I was getting informed about something. Setsuko had gone into the birthing room hours ago, and it was driving me crazy not being able to go inside and see her. There were somethings about this family that I hated, like the fact that they had twelfth century birthing traditions. I walked up to the desk one more time, to see if anything had changed.

"Mr. Locklear." The receptionist, who was also my newest aunt, didn't even look up at me anymore to glare at me. "If anything changes, you will be the first to know. Setsu is fine, the labor is going smoothly and there are no complications."

"Well that is lovely, why can I not go in and be with her?" I had asked the question almost a million times by now. I wanted to be in there with my wife while she gave birth to our daughter.

"Because it is an ancient family policy that the men stay out of the birthing room." I could tell that she was getting really annoyed with me asking the same question over and over again, but things where I was from were very different. "So if you will sit on the chair and wait until the kid is born, you and I won't have a problem. But if you come up here and interrupt my reading one more time, we will have a problem. Do you understand me?"

"Uh, yes ma'am." I rushed back to my seat, the chair closest to the desk so that I would hear any news as soon as it came in.

It was so frustrating to me. I came from a different time period and a different way of life, and I wasn't allowed to acknowledge that at all. I had to go along with the family rules, it was the price for becoming the wizard I was. I wasn't allowed anything that came from my former life. At first it wasn't so bad, there were things that I really missed but I could live without them, but then there were times like this. Things that I was used to being a part of that I wasn't allowed to be included in.

"Katsumi," Someone called my name, "Katsumi you can come in now." It was one of the nurses, who also happened to be a cousin. "Grandmother Burrow says that it is alright."

"Thank goodness." I shot up from the seat so fast I almost fell back down onto it. "How did everything go?" I questioned following closely, my hands wouldn't stay still no matter how much I willed for them to stop shaking.

"It all went according to plan." The nurse smiled up at me. "Well, almost."

"Almost?" I questioned, now confused with the contradicting statements that I was receiving.

"Well, I mean it was fine nothing was wrong. But it was just unusual." Her brow was crunched, as if she was extremely confused. "Everyone in our family, always has twins. It's almost a promised outcome. But Setsuko didn't give birth to twins today, she only had one."

"Always twins?" I questioned. I had remembered the dragons giving me a lesson on the family history, but I often tuned out during those lessons.

"Twin girls, it is an effect of the dragons training and the siren blood that runs through our veins." The nurse still had her puzzled look plaguing her face.

"You better think about something else." I warned as we neared the birthing room. "You wouldn't want Setsuko to sense your opinion on the matter." I lowered my voice, to a whisper so only she would hear.

"You think she doesn't know this is weird?" The nurse turned towards me. "She grew up in this village, she is a twin herself."

"So what are you implying?" My brain couldn't follow her thought process. It was now annoying me, I still felt like such an outsider.