So that was half to freak you all out and half to advance in plot... but yeah. This chapter's pretty much monopolized. Cute, heartwarming fluff here... next chapter we get back to the action. Ai-chan needs to go bust some ass.
Chapter 12 :: Heartbreak Street pt. 2
What happened?
Okay, beyond the ‘I just messed up with a sexy woman’ thing. The last thing I remember is seeing her starting to smile back at me. It was adorable… or it would have been, if I could remember anything else before this darkness.
“Yocchan!”
Who was that? Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I need to think.
What happened last?
Oh, right. That prophecy thing. Kaorin always wanted to talk to me after my graduation, as if she was spooked about something.
But still, why now? Why not like two years ago, when I wasn’t fawning over Gocchin?
“Yocchan!”
Shut up!
Pain. Ow. Something hurts. I don’t know what it is, but it hurts. Oh, everything hurts. It doesn’t matter. It’ll stop soon. This is all just some bad dream or something.
What was it that Kaorin said? The leader who graduates in the 7th of the 21rst or some such nonsense. Whatever. Never believed in strange prophecies like that.
But… Gocchin. I can’t leave her hanging. I couldn’t. That was why I was distancing myself, so she didn’t have to ever worry about it again.
”Yocchan! You can’t die on me!”
I’m not gonna, now if you would wait three more seconds!
Wait, something tasted funny. A little on the salty side actually. I don’t remember being in the ocean.
Oh. Tears. Right. Or was that blood? It tasted a little on the funny, metallic side too…
Wait.
Was I dying?
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Yocchan! Don’t die!”
There was a lifeless body in her arms, and tears flowing from her cheeks.
“Yocchan… please… say something…”
She let out a sob, as Rika and Miki stood on the sidewalk, the former with her jaw dropped.
The latter with a phone in her hand.
“Moshimoshi! Ah! Hai, it’s Miki… yeah, just wanted to call and tell you to make sure the rest of clan Yoshizawa’s safe inside, and away from the streets… yeah, it seems that there’s a natural attraction for you people and cars.”
There was a pause, and Rika let out all hell on Miki, while the person on the other end, probably someone related to Hitomi, did the same.
Maki paid no heed.
“Yocchan… I’m here for you… okay? I… I know you don't want me to get hurt or whatever… but… I’m here. I wanna help. You might be slightly stupid in the head… but ya know what? I don’t care. I… I love you…”
“… wanna… get… off…”
Maki stared down at what used to be a dead corpse, or what she thought was one. No coherent sentences, and her thoughts went right back to the zombies that she thought about earlier.
“… Ribs… ow… OW!”
Letting out a noise, Maki paused, unsure of what to do.
“OW. REST OF BODY OW!”
Another noise, followed by Hitomi moving around in Maki’s arms.
“Owwww… OOOOWWWW! Oh god! Ow!”
Maki blinked down at her. She didn’t seem to be horridly in pain. She was bleeding in a few places, but if she was still on the brink of death, there would have been quieter noises, and less moving.
Oh, healing powers. Duh.
“… Yocchan, I heard you the first time.”
“Ow! Ooooww-… oh… wanna kiss me, make it better?”
“… What happened to ‘going it alone’?”
“Oh fine, don’t be here for me…”
“Brat…”
“Yes, I am.”
The sound of sirens snapped them both out of the looks they gave each other, Hitomi’s was more of a suave ‘You know you want some of this,’ and Maki’s was a look of pure anger.
“We should get out of the street.”
It was a neutral statement that came out of Hitomi’s mouth, but Maki wasn’t sure to follow it.
“If you get run over by a car, no one’ll be around to heal you.”
“Rika will.”
“She’s a mimic. You die, there’s nothing to mimic…”
Back to the not making sense again! At least things seemed to be in order.
“… That was your car… I think…” Maki finally blurted. Brow raised, Hitomi gave her a look.
“What do you mean… ‘that was your car.’ And before you say anything else… remember, no one wants to steal my hideous death trap of a machine, remember?”
It was true. Once Hitomi got her license, Yuko and Natsumi took her out car shopping, and they finally settled on an inexpensive car that looked relatively shiny and relatively safe.
That was a few years ago.
“… Maybe we should get off the street…”
“No no, I wanna know how you know that’s my car…”
“Yocchan…”
“Fine, mom. Fine.”
They stared at each other for a few moments more, before Maki slowly helped Hitomi up. It seemed there were still some bruises and sprains, but they were slowly healing.
The main threat was the part that shook them both the most.
Neither of them said it right out, as they finally settled on the sidewalk, but they both knew the other was thinking about it. An ambulance sped by, completely missing the scene of the accident, but it didn’t seem too concerned.
The victim was mostly better now.
“Sorry,” Hitomi finally said, paying no heed to the scene of Miki and Rika arguing at each other behind them.
“For what?” Maki asked, giving Hitomi a strange look.
“Scaring you. I did that a lot today, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did.”
“So what’d happen if I told you that I was a guy?”
“I’d kill you and never heal you again.”
“You don’t mean that… You said you loved me…”
“Tough love knows no bounds Yocchan.”
Hitomi grinned, but didn’t do much else. No kissing, no hugs, no corny ‘I love you back’ statements.
Just a grin.
“Yocchan… you gonna be alright?”
“Of course I am. You know me better than that. I’m tough! I’ll bounce back from anything!”
“There’s a snake next to you.”
“OHMIGOD WHERE?!”
She let out a noise, and clung to Maki, before realizing that the younger was laughing at her own joke. Hitomi snorted.
“Not funny.”
“Yes it was… it was hilarious…”
Maki let out another laugh before smiling over at Hitomi, who went solemn again. She was fiddling with her black cellphone, which was adorned with cute soccer balls and a little beetle sticker.
Inside jokes always escaped Maki.
“It’s broken. I think whatever bumped into me must’ve killed the phone too. No one’ll be able to get a hold of me…”
Maki nodded.
“Mine works fine. We’ll be alright.”
The elder woman shook her head.
“I have to do this one on my own.”
Despite the fact that there was an argument (now on why Reina got the lead Shabondama part) behind them, Maki didn’t find it fit to yell at her friend.
It seemed like something Hitomi had to do.
“Will you come back?”
Hitomi shrugged.
“I hope so. My plan is to stay alive… I’ve been lucky so far… but I can’t always depend on you…”
She smiled lightly, before eyeing Maki, a bit on the nervous side.
“No matter how much I might love you back.”
Maki smiled back, and the two shared a moment that one of them would later gag over how uncool it was to do it in public.
They were in a city after all, and, despite the fact that no one was smart enough to call 911, there was a large number of bystanders watching the scene, until they were sure no one was bleeding.
Guess the whole ‘getting up from being hit by a car’ thing must not have spooked city folk anymore. They probably thought it was a publicity stunt.
Nonetheless, both Hitomi and Maki had their egos, and their reputations to look after.
“So… you’ll try?”
“Best I can… they don’t call me Mr. Moonlight for nutin’…”
“They still call you that?”
“Yes.”
It ended their small, light hearted banter, and Hitomi stood up.
“Maki… I mean it…”
She smiled down at the other woman, stuffing one of her hands into her pockets, and fiddling around with her cell phone a moment.
“I’ll come back… or I’ll die trying.”
After a moment, she plopped the black device in Maki’s lap.
“That’s reassurance.”
Pulling her hand out of her pocket, she showed Maki a slightly battered friendship bracelet, much like the one the younger woman used to wear, shortly before her own graduation from Morning Musume.
“And this is luck.”
They grinned at each other for a moment, before Hitomi looked back at the two, who were still fighting, and now causing a mass of people to collect around them. She sighed.
“Those two will never learn. OI!”
The two stopped, and stared at Hitomi, who looked rather sternly at the both of them.
“If you two are gonna fight, do it inside, where no one who gets off from this sort of thing can gawk at you. Otherwise, just don’t, okay? You’re gonna give us a worse reputation than Kutagawa can do on her own.”
Hitomi let out a snort, and glanced back over at Maki.
“I think you’ll be entertained by them, even if I don’t come back…”
Maki didn’t smile back at this.
“… Fine. Be that way. Seriously though, don’t wait up for me. Live life. Don’t mope around… ‘cause I really might not come back.”
“You’re dead set on that, aren’t you?”
There was a small silence between them.
“No. I don’t want to be… I’m just being a pessimist. Kaorin’s never been proven wrong before…”
“I thought you didn’t know.”
There was another small silence.
“… She told me a few minutes before I tried going to Tsunku… I’m kinda spooked by the whole thing. I really don’t want to die…”
Maki had never seen this side of Hitomi before, so it was natural for concern to spread across her features.
“I’m allowed to be afraid of something other than snakes.”
“Yeah… but…”
“No one else hears of it. Just you, and Miki… and Rika, who’re totally paying attention now.”
They grinned again.
“… Now before this turns into some strange, corny moment, I’m gonna go…” Hitomi said lightly, “… And watch yourself… someone finds out that we’re fawning over each other, and FRIDAY’s sure to follow.”
“… I don’t care.”
“Good. Neither do I.”
Hitomi smiled again, before leaning over and giving Maki a small kiss on the forehead.
“I’ll be back. This time I promise.”
Without another word, Hitomi winked, and slowly walked off into the crowd. Rika and Miki watched her do so, before Miki glanced over at Maki.
“So no naked closet time for you, huh Gocchin?”
Topic: Nanakusa (THE END?!) (Read 48238 times)