Magi: The Tale of Faith and Hope

Moon Watching

Standing alone in the dark room, illuminated only by the light of the full moon, Aladdin stared out of the window into the cool night.

"Ugo-kun, it has taken a long time... to reach Balbadd," he said quietly. "But, it's just like you said. Just like how I have experienced many things this past half year... Alibaba must have gone through a lot as well..." He felt a sharp pang of sadness when an image of Alibaba's face when he told him he couldn't fulfill their promise flashed through his mind. "All right! What should I do from now on? I have to set a new goal for myself!" Aladdin said brightly, trying to cheer himself up. "That's right. I should continue fulfilling my promise to Ugo-kun, to find the rest of the Djinn's Metal Vessels. And I should talk to Sinbad-oji-san with Faith and Hope... and ask him about things like being a magi and dungeons... Ah! And if they figure out a way home, I can follow Morg-san and head over to the Dark Continent, too! I wonder what it's like? Hehe, to think that there were so many things that I can do!" he exclaimed, when his stomach suddenly growled long and hard. Aladdin paused for a moment and blinked. "I'm starting to feel hungry again! Come to think of it, I haven't eaten since yesterday... Let's find something to eat then!" he said brightly as he turned to step away from the window. "Huh?" Aladdin said, confused when his body suddenly went limp, and he fell into a kneeling position, sitting on his feet. "... I don't seem to... have any energy left..." he realized as it hit him how emotionally and physically drained he felt. "..." Aladdin stared up at the moon, thinking about all the adventures he'd had with Alibaba, as well as with Faith and Hope, and imagined what could have been if Alibaba had come with him, and the twins didn't have to go back to their old world. 'To think I was... so looking forward to it, too...' he thought sadly, suddenly feeling very lonely when it occurred to him that everyone would be leaving him soon or later. He sat there in the darkness as a cloud passed over the moon in silence without moving. The room he was in and the night outside seemed perfectly still.

And then, everything seemed to happen all at once. Through the window, he saw a small shadow form on the moon, which grew bigger as it drew nearer, revealing itself to be Morgiana, who was flying towards him with Alibaba in her arms. As the door to the room was opened by Faith to let Hope in with a tray of food for Aladdin, Morgiana threw Alibaba in ahead of her through the open window, and the screaming teenaged boy was sent rolling past a very stunned Aladdin.

"WAAAAAAA!!!" Alibaba cried with tears in his eyes as he crashed into the wall near a pair of startled twins. Aladdin stared across the room at him, stunned. Alibaba stared back.

"H-Hey..." he greeted the younger boy a bit awkwardly with a lopsided smile. "Sorry for disturbing you... Aladdin..." A vein popped on Faith's forehead.

"You've got a lot more than that to be sorry for, jackass!!" she snapped with a dangerous look in her eye as she loomed over him, making a fist.

"Oh, so this is what you were up to, Morg-chan? Good job!" Hope said with a smile, setting down the tray of food in her hands and offering Aladdin and Morgiana some snacks. "Who wants juice?"

"Uwaah—It multiplied!!?" Alibaba shouted in alarm as he flinched in shock, seriously freaked out to see two Faiths in the room when he recognized the twins' faces, though one of them seemed distinctly less evil.

"Who're you callin' an it!?" Faith demanded furiously, giving him a good whack on the head. "That's my sister, dumbass!! You're just a big bag of asses today, you know that!?"

"..." Aladdin blinked as he watched Faith pummel Alibaba. To their surprise he started to laugh.

"Huh?" Faith said, so taken aback that she actually stopped as she and Alibaba stared at him, stunned. Was this really something to laugh at? She was trying to be serious, here...