Everyone's claims to what pairing this fic will be made me laugh. I didn't even show any pairings yet and already there are bets? lol Well...I still won't tell everyone will just have to keep reading to find out. My lips are sealed! Thank you all for the comments though. They made my day. I should probably reply to them, but...I've been in a weird/tired mood today. I'm surprised I even was able to write out this update. I only hope it's just as enjoyable as the first chapter.
CHAPTER 2“Please Gaki-san?” Ai complained.
Risa tried to ignore her best friend, hoping Ai would give up with her constant begging, but it's been at least twenty minutes and Ai was still nagging her. Risa would normally be willing to help her best friend when asked, but there were just certain occasions or exceptions to that and what Ai asked fell under one of Risa's exceptions. The answer was easily no, but that just wasn't enough for Ai especially since her father expected her to be out already to do what he considered to be an important responsiblity. Ai walked over to her desk and sat down, staring at Risa, who was still looking at the TV, or trying to.
“Gaki-san!!” Ai yelled, watching Risa flinch.
“Ai-chan will you stop it?!” Risa shot back, surprised to her sudden shout.“You're so loud.”
Ai sighed and ran a hand through her bangs, feeling a lot more tense. Risa let out a sigh of her own in frustration and gave in. She looked away from the TV with a visible frown on her face as she stared down at the bedsheets.
“You know I hate doing this.” Risa clarified.
“And do you think I like what I have to do?” Ai questioned. “But sooner or later we have to face it and accept it. You'll have to control your gift just how I had to learn to handle mine. You shouldn't deny what you are Gaki-san.”
Risa let out a small chuckle with a sad expression in place. “Do you think you're ready for what you accepted?”
Risa watched Ai's face change to a more serious and thoughtful one. Although Ai knew her father always liked that Ai never thought of her orders, in the back of her head Ai had always wondered about her choices to listen to her father. She always questioned the training and the researching and the facts stated in olden history books she read. There were times when she even questioned her existence to having such a burden put on her shoulders.
Just like Risa, Ai hated this life, a life of secrecy, where Ai had to pretend she was normal and hide a part of her true self to others. That's why Ai was so happy to have found Risa. There was some trouble at first but eventually things settled down and Ai had someone to experience her problem with. She had someone, who for once understood her, and had the same experience as her.
It made Ai feel no longer alone, but she knew even though they had something in common their reactions and thoughts to their chosen path was always different and caused some sort of conflict between them. While Ai accepted what was destined for her to follow, Risa did everything she could to reject her set path, wanting nothing but to be as normal as she could which meant shutting out a part of herself to the world. Ai cleared away the threads of questions in her head and looked away to the side.
“No, I never was.” Ai admitted. “There really isn't much that can be done about that now.”
A pitiful smile stretched across Risa's face. “Nothing we can do, huh?” Risa shifted her position so she was sitting in front of Ai at the edge of the bed. “Alright, just give me what I need to do this.”
Ai dug into her pocket and yanked out a small bracelet that made her feel guilty just staring at it. She felt much worse holding it. Risa walked over to take it and clutched it tightly into her right hand. The room was filled with complete silence, Ai watched intently as her best friend took several deep breaths to calm her nerves.
Feeling confident enough, Risa closed her eyes and concentrated on the beads of the bracelet. A sharp gasp came from her and Ai sat up stiff in her chair, watching Risa's body turn tense. Risa opened her eyes and sat down on her bed to relax. She held out her arm to give the bracelet back.
“What did you see?” Ai asked, taking the bracelet from Risa's hand.
Risa silently went over to the nightstand and pulled out a small notebook kept in the draw in case things like this happened. A pen was also tucked inside and Risa began to quickly write down directions. The small lined paper was ripped out of the spiral notebook and handed over to Ai.
“Everything you need to know is on that paper.” Risa instructed.
“Thank you Gaki-san.” Ai replied, reaching towards the door.
She knew after every session Risa needed to be alone and recover. From the look on Risa's face, Ai can easily see that each time Risa tapped into her skill it became more power and Risa becomes more exhausted. It's probably one of the reasons why Risa didn't like to use it so often, but Ai saw that as a problem that can easily be fixed if Risa had agreed to train with Ai.
Risa's deteriorating stamina shouldn't matter to Ai since she now had a path to follow and couldn't be easily distracted. Ai left Risa's room and opened the folded sheet when she stepped outside. Her eyes quickly scanned the shaking writing then was stuffed into her pocket. Now she had a place to start and carefully go over her plan once again.
***
“Linlin!” Linlin's boss shouted.
As a reflex Linlin jumped in fear and quickly turned her head around to the cash register. Becoming even more embarrassed, Linlin quickly gathered the fallen eating utensils from the floor and rushed to the back. She was expecting a lecture when she stood in front of her boss, so when she received a caring touching on the shoulder Linlin was confused.
“Linlin, are you okay?” her boss asked. “Why are you in today? You should be home.”
“I'm sorry Yaguchi-san! I wasn't paying attention.” Linlin nervously replied. “It won't happen again.”
Mari put on a small frown. She can't understand why Linlin still insisted on being here working. It was clear that her kouhai couldn't work properly. A normal person would even call in asking for a few weeks off from work, but Linlin still worked at the ramen shop as she was never given the news about her parents' deaths.
“Linlin, go home. You can always work when you're ready.” Mari promised. “I understand how you need this job now that your parents are gone. I promise that when you come back you'll have your job back.”
Linlin felt herself about to cry and quickly wiped the tear from her eye. “But...Yaguchi-san, if I stay home I'll think about them. And...I don't think I can face that they're...” Linlin looked down to her feet.
Mari pulled Linlin into a firm hug. “Linlin, you've worked here for years and I've known your parents personally just as long. They told me before you worked here to look after you and I need to do that.” Linlin stopped trying to wipe away her tears that didn't seem to stop falling. “And it's okay to think about them and cry. They are your parents you've loved them very much.”
Linlin nodded and Mari let her go when she felt Linlin started to relax. The younger girl wiped the last of her tears and smiled. Now with her parents gone, it was comforting for Linlin to have someone that still looked after as she was a child of their own. But now the young teenager was on her own it will only become more difficult for her.
Linlin knew that the only reason why she was able to receive this small job was because her parents had connections to many wealthy people and companies to easily hand her the job. Linlin now had to figure things out on her own such as how to get better jobs and budget her money. There have been plenty of company advisers insisting on her investing her family money into other stock markets one of the things her parents had done to to remain millionaires.
She knew though that her father never spend all of his money on such a risky gamble and invested his money on buying land and transforming them into well accomplished businesses. Linlin just didn't trust those assistants and decided to just have her money sit in its bank while she tried to figure out her future. She knew she was set for life and didn't have to work, yet Linlin still begged her father to allow her to get a job and let her attend public schools or at least a private school to avoid having a tutor come visit her weekly at home. Linlin always wanted to feel and appear like a normal middle class person. She was modest and humble and thought not once to flash off her money to others.
“Thank you.” Linlin replied, having the courage to speak again.
“Pack your things.” Mari instructed. “And Linlin...I'm here for you. Just call me when you need me.”
Linlin thanked her boss again and walked toward her locker to get what she packed inside before leaving. She wasn't quite sure what to do once she got home, most of the preparation for the funerals were set. A lot of her time off went to setting the funeral plans and the more she thought about it the more she saw what Mari meant about her not being able to mourn.
Linlin also knew she didn't allow herself to cry over the sudden deaths of her parents. She often kept herself busy to prevent that. She knew Mari was right as she always ways. Linlin was glad she still had someone to help her or guide her when she felt that she was heading in the wrong direction.
It didn't take long for Linlin to gather her things and make her way out the ramen shop. She made sure to say goodbye to Mari one more time before exiting and slipped out into the busy side walk of overcrowded people.
“Linlin!” Someone shouted.
Linlin turned around to meet the person who's voice she was not familiar with. When she saw the person in front of her she held on a happy smile and waved.
“Takahashi-san, hello!” Linlin greeted, surprised to see her again. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh, no, everything is fine with the funeral plans. I just happened to be walking by.” Ai lied. “Are you okay?”
Linlin automatically rubbed at her eyes, wondering if the redness around her eyes were that visible from Ai's distance.
“I-I'm fine. I was just heading home.” Linlin replied, noticing Ai's odd behavior. “Takahashi-san...is there something you have to tell me?”
Ai looked up from the crack on the side walk in surprise. She wondered if she was that easy to read or Linlin was just very talented like her father had told her many times before. Ai had never believed that such a young girl like her could contain such skill and even though she's in front of the young teenager now Ai still couldn't believe it. That always seemed to change the longer Ai spoke to Linlin.
“I um...Linlin there's something important I have to tell you.” Ai admitted, she carefully looked around her, remembering her surroundings. “It's probably best that we go to your place before we can discuss this.”
Nervously, Ai tucked her hands into her pocket, clutching the item hidden inside. She knew that stating the need to talk could have not worked, but Ai had not thought of what to do after in case I did happen. Her mind worked quickly to try and think of another way to get Linlin to agree about their private talk.
“I can't at the moment. Can we talk another time instead?” Linlin asked.
Before Linlin could wait for a reply she turned around, beginning her walk again towards the train station. In a panic, Ai yanked her hand out of her pocket and reached out to try and grab Linlin. She had accidentally yanked the bracelet out in her action. Hearing something clatter to the ground, Linlin turned around to return the item to its owner, but froze when she saw familiar beads lay on the ground. Wearily, the young woman looked up to the person that was standing behind the piece of jewelry. Nervously, Ai gulped meeting Linlin's questioning eyes.
“Where did you get my bracelet?” Linlin slowly asked.
Ai opened her mouth and stuttered, eventually she decided to stop talking and just stand in silence. Linlin stood in front of her demanding an answer and the longer Ai avoided it the more upset Linlin became.
“It's best that we talk about this in a private place, Linlin.” Ai replied.
Linlin crossed her arms in front of her chest completely annoyed. “You're stealing from me?”
“No, I...I just needed to find you.” Ai answered, watching Linlin's face shift to a confused expression.
“Please do not talk to me again. Good bye Takahashi-san.” Linlin demanded, then quickly walked away.
Ai let out a sigh of frustration. This meeting did not go as she planned. Scooping the neglected bracelet off the floor, Ai shoved it back into her pocket and hurried over to Linlin. She knew if she didn't do as her father asked she would be in a lot more trouble.
“I know what killed your parents!” Ai blurted out, causing Linlin to stop dead in her tracks.
Slowly, Linlin turned around terrified. When she faced Ai the older woman can see tears in Linlin's eyes to such a claim. Ai felt flustered, feeling guilty to find that the only way to get Linlin to listen to her again.
“W-What do you mean?” Linlin stumbled. “My parents died in a plane crash during a business trip.”
Ai shook her head, still remaining positive to her statement. “That is what everyone is supposed to think, but I know the truth. And now the person who did this to your parents will try to do it to you. You aren't safe unless you are under my care.”
Linlin wiped away several tears before giving up on fighting them back. She felt overwhelmed as if her parents' deaths were not enough now a complete strange comes to her saying something different about their “normal” deaths. Linlin just couldn't comprehend it, but Ai held the most honest face when she explained only a small portion of the story. Linlin wouldn't think such a person would faberate a lie like this to her face or a few days after her parents died.
“I-I'm in danger?” Linlin muttered.
Ai placed a hand on Linlin's arm to stop her from entering a daze like trance. Linlin looked at the hand then back up to the older woman. Linlin wasn't sure if Ai was lying, but she needed to be sure. She needed to know if what this person is saying the honest truth.
“Please, let's go to your place.” Ai insisted. “I will try to explain everything as much as I can. There will be others that might be of more assistants. It's time you know the truth about your parents.”
Linlin easily agreed. As much as Linlin wanted to deny these claims about her parents dying a normal death she couldn't help but feel that what Ai was saying was more truthful than what the doctors had said to her. It was sort of a gut feeling that Linlin had gotten.
She couldn't figure out why, but a part of her sort of sided with Ai as the other part of her wanted to remain in denial. Maybe agreeing to speak in private with Ai wasn't so much of a idea after all. Linlin felt completely nervous as she walked, but her curiosity was a lot stronger than the slight panic she felt. She had the right to know the truth about her parents of Ai was right. Linlin only wanted the truth even if it could possibly change Linlin's view on the world forever.
Topic: Intuition(UPDATE 2/17) (Read 3549 times)