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Chapter 1

María was staring at Alfred’s back, looking very un-amused. “You know, if you hadn’t eaten all those hamburgers before we left, this wouldn’t be happening.”

Alfred opened his mouth to respond, but was forced to lean over the railing of the ferry again to upchuck another hamburger or two. When he ceased his bout of vomiting, he turned to the now green-tinged girl behind him. “But I was hungry, María…”

“Hungry enough to eat, what, twenty hamburgers?” she scoffed, pushing her dark hair out of her face.

“Really? Was it only twenty? Are you sure it wasn’t more? I feel like I’ve thrown up at least twice as many as that,” moaned Alfred, clutching his stomach dramatically.

María massaged her temples. “How should I know; I wasn’t counting. What kind of normal person eats that many hamburgers?”

“Well, I do, obviously. A hero has to keep up his strength,” he beamed at her, his wide grin sliding back onto his face. But then he felt his stomach churn, and he was again forced to spin back around and heave up more of his lunch.

He heard María muttering something behind him about ‘not normal.’ “Look, I’m leaving before you make me sick, too,” she said, and Alfred could hear that she really was feeling sick. He turned to apologize, but the hem of her skirt had already disappeared around the corner.

He considered chasing after her, but quickly gave up on that idea as he heaved over the rail again. On the plus side, though, his seasickness was letting up, seeing as his stomach was now pretty much empty of food. After one or two more dry heaves, it let up completely.

Shifting his position so that he was leaning on the rail more comfortably, Alfred took a deep breath of the ocean air, able to enjoy it now that he was no longer being violently sick. Again, he considered going after María to see if she was okay, but decided against it. The surly Mexican would probably throw him overboard if he saw her heaving her lunch as well. On the bus ride to the ferry station, she had almost gotten carsick. When he paused his rambling, one-sided small talk to ask her if she was okay, she gave him such a life-threatening glare that he actually shut up for the rest of the bus ride. Which was an impressive feat, because Alfred always had a hard time sitting still, and an even harder time sitting still and shutting up. Of course, he realized now that he may as well try to convince a brick wall to talk to him. In fact, it probably would be easier to talk to a brick wall; at least it wouldn’t interrupt his heroic monologues with glares and insults.

Alfred pouted at the vast seascape in front of him. María was already dead set against liking him, and they had only met about four or five hours ago at the airport. His best friend Paquita, an exchange student from the Philippines, had considered him a good friend after a little over an hour together. Then again, he and Paquita hadn’t met under such odd circumstances…

Alfred heaved a heavy sigh. The past few days had been so very strange, almost too much so for him to handle. Which was saying something, because he had experienced some very strange things before.

Despite the bright late-afternoon sun, Alfred felt a slight shiver pass over his skin. He pulled his letter out of his back pocket and perused it for the umpteenth time. His eyes skimmed past the dates and times of the various flights, buses, and ferries, instead skipping to the last few lines of the letter.

We, the staff at the school, realize that you have likely experienced strange events in your lifetime. You will experience more strange events in your travels to our humble school. We ask for your patience, as everything will be explained upon your arrival.

Dr. Adonis Philander Hetalia, Headmaster of Hetalia Academy

The first time he had read that, he laughed. The second time he laughed harder. The third time, after his plane had landed in Greece, he was severely freaked out.

He hadn’t questioned the location of the school (an uninhabited island in Greece that failed to show up on Google Earth), simply assuming that his ability to speak English, the modern currency language, should get him through to the school.

So onto the plane he hopped, his usual carefree, heroic self, chucked his suitcase into the compartment above his head, got himself buckled into his seat, and accepted a pillow from the young Greek stewardess. It was as she was walking away that he realized what had just happened.

He could have sworn that she had spoken to him in Greek. In fact, he knew that she had spoken in Greek; he remembered thinking how odd the language sounded. Yet he had understood her perfectly. Not just ‘gotten the idea’ (it had been very clear that she had been offering him a pillow), but he clearly knew that she had said “Would you like a pillow for the flight, sir?” Not, “Hey, would you like a pillow?” or “How about a pillow for the long flight?” No, he had understood very clearly that she had said, “Would you like a pillow for the flight, sir.” Only spoken in Greek. The only other language he spoke was rudimentary Spanish from school. He had never learned a lick of Greek in his life. As the plane took off it was more than g-force that made his stomach churn.

The other weird thing was, when he first met María, she was speaking to him in Spanish. Well, that wasn’t weird, since she was from Mexico, but that he understood everything as if she had spoken it in English. The words reaching his ears were in Spanish, because he could pick out words and phrases that he had learned in school, like “Como se llama usted, “ or “Me llamo María,” or (as he was getting used to hearing), “idiota.” But, at the same time, he just inherently understood what she was saying.

He supposed he couldn’t really blame María for lashing out at him; she was probably just as wierded out as he was. It had to be pretty unnerving for her to clearly understand what he was saying when she only understood basic English. On the other hand, he wished that she wouldn’t be so closed off, so that he could have a friend in this odd adventure. At the very least she could pretend like she didn’t hate his guts.

“Oi, you, Alfred!”

Speak of the devil… “Hey, Maria, how are you feeling? Better?” He turned around to face her, sticking his letter back in his pocket and grinning at her. She still looked slightly green tinged, but at his comment her cheeks flushed with embarrassment and anger. She marched over to him and seized him by the ear.

“Ouch! Hey, leggo of me! That hurts! What’re you d-”

“The ferry’s landed, and I want my answers.” She glared at him. “I know you want your answers, too.”

“Yeah, but that’s no reason to take my ear off. Can you please let go now?”

“No.”

-------

Maria finally let go of his ear once they reached the doors of the ferry station. Alfred rubbed his still aching ear, pouting at his companion. But it was lost on her, because she was gazing around the lot, scanning for whoever was supposed to be taking them to the Academy.

Geez, and I thought I was itching for answers. With a sigh, Alfred pulled another hamburger out of his jacket pocket and proceeded to eat it (in his opinion) slowly, trying to quell his own nerves with out getting on María’s.

It worked for a while, as the two of them fell into a relative silence, with Alfred eating his hamburger and María continuing to glance nervously around.

He tentatively put his hand on Maria’s shoulder. “Y’know, the ferry arrived a bit early, so maybe whoever is supposed to meet us isn’t- Ouch! H-hey, not cool! Can’t you at least grab my other ear?”

“No, I can’t. And if you can’t shut up for the next five minutes, I swear I’ll punch you so hard you’ll never find all your teeth!”

“Okay, okay! Just- Ack! Ear! Let g-”

“Mr. Jones? Ms. Bellón?”

María immediately dropped Alfred’s ear, for which he was thankful. She had a really strong grip. The man approaching them was garbed in military uniform, and she seemed averse to causing trouble in front of a member of the military. So was Alfred, as a matter of fact. But the man a approaching them, upon closer inspection, appeared not to be much older than themselves, and was regarding them with a kind of lazy smile. The both of them nodded.

“Ah, excellent we’ve been waiting for you. My name is Warrant Officer Heracles Karpusi,” he said, extending a hand to each of them in turn. “If you two would please follow me to the boat…”

“What, another boat ride?!” exclaimed Alfred, before he could stop himself. His stomach got nauseous just thinking about it.

Warrant Officer Karpusi just continued to smile, a hint of amusement in his dark green eyes. “Yes, another boat ride, but it will only last another half an hour. Now, if you will please follow me, Dr. Phoenix is waiting to see you.” With that he turned and motioned for the two students to follow him.

Seemingly unable to hold back any longer, María let lose a string of questions. “Who is Dr. Phoenix, and why does he want to see us? Why not Dr. Hetalia? What is…? Can you explain what’s going on here?”

Karpusi turned his head and gave her a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry, you’re going to have to hold your questions for Dr. Phoenix, she is the one with the answers. In fact, she can probably answer a lot of your questions better than Dr. Hetalia himself. The boat is just right here,” he added, gesturing.

They had reached a small, quaint dock, but the boat he was gesturing to looked severely out of place. Whereas most of the surrounding boats were modest sailboats or speedboats, they instead boarded what seemed to be a small yacht. As the group made its way across the ship, Alfred couldn’t help but admire it. From what little he knew about boats (which really wasn’t all that much), he could tell that this was no cheap toy. Whoever owned this yacht was no stranger to money.

He was brought back to reality as the Warrant Officer knocked on a door. “Mr. Jones and Ms. Bellón are here, Doctor.” There was a muffled reply, and Karpusi held the door open for Alfred and María.

If the exterior of the boat was impressive, then the interior was doubly so. Everything, from the decorations to the furniture to the carpet, was clearly of expensive taste, while at the same time refraining from being gaudy.

There was a movement in the center of the room, and Alfred tore his gaze from the chandelier to the woman that had just stood up to greet them. She was talk and dark, and he supposed she probably could have been considered beautiful at one time in her life. Instead, age had granted her more of a motherly visage, accentuated by the bright smile she was giving them.

“Ah, yes, thank you for delivering them here, Warrant Officer. If you would be so kind as to inform the captain that we are ready for departure?”

“Yes, of course, ma’am,” he said, nodding. When he had shut the door behind him, the woman moved out from behind her desk to greet them properly.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Alfred, Ms. María,” she beamed, shaking their hands enthusiastically. “My name is Dr. Aradia Phoenix, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to Hetalia Academy. Please, sit,” she added, motioning to the comfortable-looking chairs situated in front of the desk.

They did so, Alfred glancing at María. She seemed somewhat unnerved by the doctor’s enthusiasm. Alfred, too, had to admit that he felt slightly self-conscious with the way she was gazing the both of them as she took her own seat behind the desk. She studied them a moment longer before she smiled apologetically.

“Well, I suppose it is time for me to uphold the promise that was written in the letter sent to you. Please, try to hold your questions until I finish explaining as much as I can. I am going to ask you to bear with me and just listen to what I have to say, because much of what you are about to hear is going to be hard to believe.”