Somewhat long chapter xD
Chapter 2: Premonition
There’s always this ominous feeling…
Rika emerged from the shopping districts with a single bag of clothes and an umbrella since the weather was drizzly. Deciding after seeing others already put up their umbrellas, she too, opened it and continued walking along the streets. Despite being a woman, she wasn’t the type to frequently visit clothing stores. It just seemed unnecessary to buy so many clothes to the extent of never wearing the same article twice.
As long as the clothes are comfortable and cute, Rika didn’t mind wearing anything of the sort. However, her sense in fashion often conflicted with others, and due to being occasionally self-conscious, the woman would often buy the entire set straight off the mannequin so she would not have to hear such opinions against her.
It’s amazing how opinions affect one, really.
The opinion that still inflicted concern upon her was what had affected her most of all other opinions, however. The visit to the fortuneteller under her best friend’s suggestion didn’t exactly comfort her of the nightmares. Instead, it was more of a confirmation of the cursed life she might live through, since the road of darkness is the path she will take, apparently.
It began to rain.
She was glad that she opened her umbrella when she saw the others. However, that feeling of slight happiness shrank into her mind again when she focused on the rain.
It was raining blood.
Trepidation placed its heavy burden upon the woman, causing her to walk sluggishly in this creepy atmosphere. Rika was surprised she could even move at all with the sudden horrific weather. The people walking around her did not seem to notice the grotesque scenery much to her fear. Why was she always subjected to seeing these horrible visions?
Again, she felt it.
That all too familiar pain.
Her right shoulder blade pulsated with pain. With each pulsation, that horrid tattoo would show up, with each breather in between, that tattoo would fade, but then the next pulsation would add onto the tattoo of the previous pulsation, extending the design. She nearly dropped her umbrella to clutch onto her right arm; it was almost acting like it was being prickled by needles.
Instead, she chose to feign ignorance of the vision happening at all. She stopped at the street corner, waiting for the light to turn red in order to cross. She watched the various kinds of cars and trucks zoom by as if there was no end to them. She looked at the faces of the people of the other side of the road, wondering if she might catch a glimpse of any familiar faces. In fact, she did catch the sight of someone familiar to her.
But fate was toying with her again.
It was that haunting woman with the tattoos.
But why was she standing amidst the crowd of people during the gruesome red weather? Rika swore internally that this nightmare was never going to leave her alone. For what reason did this woman have to haunt her? She had done nothing wrong in the past. She had done nothing that would label her as a sinner.
The light changed.
Rika was still frozen in place, immobilized by fear. The burning pain of the matching tattoo on her back contributed to her immobilization. The people around her didn’t seem to take notice and walked in their intended directions. Rika and the tattooed woman had a brief staredown amidst the life blurring past them. Eventually, a random person managed to walk in their line of sight. When that person walked away from that line of sight, the tattoo woman had vanished.
Rika blinked a few times.
The rain had also managed to retain its natural translucent color as well.
“Was that a dream?” Rika’s head began to ache.
Just in front of her, she caught a man bumping into an old woman. She witnessed the man grab the old woman’s purse as he uttered his apologies. Then the man walked away, the old woman oblivious to his thievery.
“M’aam, that man took your purse!” Rika called out. The old woman looked bewildered at the sudden outcry and looked at her elbow, verifying the absence of the missing item.
“Theif!” the old woman called out, pointing at the man now running away with haste.
Feeling obligated to help, Rika ran after the man, dropping her things near the old woman with not so much as a “watch that for me!” as she chased after the man. It like an obstacle course really, having to jump over pots and plants, having to divert direction to avoid colliding into people. Rika was glad she was in two sports teams, for her legs did not fail to get closer to the man.
Soon, they were on an overpass with a small water channel flowing underneath. Ahead of her, the man collided with another person, flinging the purse off the bridge. Rika immediately took action and grabbed the railing and swung her entire body, hitting the man on the back of his head, and using that force to snatch the purse in the air thanks to the circulatory move, and then returning to the ground with the purse latched onto her ankle.
Killing two birds with one stone as they say.
But not all endings end well.
The man came to himself again, and immediately attacked Rika, but the furthest he ever got as holding onto her wrists. On instinct, the woman tried to push him away, unaware of how close or low the railing behind her really was. The people around them were panicking and she caught sight of someone calling the police. She just had to hold off the man until the authority came, right? She struggled to be on par with the man, who seemed to be on the upper edge with his strong build. Then came the final point of the battle.
The man managed to push Rika over the railing, and into the flowing water she fell.
But not all endings end horribly either.
Before she registered the fact that she was pushed over, a strong arm immediately grasped her arm. Rika looked up at her savior. Was this an androgynous male? Was this a handsome woman? Rika couldn’t tell since the savior had short bronze-red hair that was up to their chin and sunglasses on. The person pulled their gloved hand upward, bringing Rika along with it, and then helped her get over the railing.
“Yes, thank you, Sir…” Rika bowed her head slightly to thank her savior politely as well.
“Actually… I’m a woman.”
“Ah! I’m so sorry!” Rika’s eyes widened. Since Japan was filled with normally feminine men, she thought this woman was no different!
“Regardless, are you alright?”
“Er… Yeah, I’m fine,” it was then that Rika took in the appearance of this woman.
This woman seemed like one of those bodyguards that protect celebrities, Rika thought. After all, the woman was in black pants, white blouse, black tie, black jacket, and pretty much everything that makes one a stereotypical guard. Rika felt tempted to ask the guard what famous person she protected as a joke, if not for the slightly intimidating gaze the taller woman gave through her not-so-dark sunglasses.
“Glad to know.”
Why did that simplistic phrase tug a few heart strings? Was it that unique low voice the taller woman spoke in? Was it the way the handsome stranger looked? Was it the way the enigma saved her just now?
What was going on with her? Why was her heart beating fast for a woman of all people? She remembered her parents telling her that heart would beat faster for her fated person, but she was sure they were thinking about a man as her designated partner.
“Are you okay, child?” Rika heard an old woman’s voice behind her. In fact, she was glad that the old woman ruined the moment, for she didn’t like that maelstrom of confusion for her orientation one bit.
“I’m fine, here is your purse,” Rika smiled as she gave the thankful senior her belonging. Then Rika took her umbrella and shopping bag from the woman as the promised exchange before the elder went on her way while Rika turned around to go her way.
That enigma which was the cause of her orientation confusion had already disappeared.
“What the…” the woman didn’t do so much as raise a brow at the absence, but simply brushed it aside and headed home.
There’s also this feeling of longing…
“What?! You’ve got to be kidding me!” Rika smacked her palm to her forehead in disbelief.
“Yeah… Sorry about that… My parents, for some odd reason, want to celebrate my birthday back the main house with my family,” Ayumi placed her hand in a flat praying motion in front of her face as a gesture of apology.
“But we already planned to go out a long time ago, and your parents accepted! What made them change their mind?”
“I’m not sure, but it sounded like they were going to beat the crap out of me if I didn’t, so I guess I have no choice but to follow… Sorry Rika-chan.”
“Oh well, I guess it can’t be helped, family comes first,” Rika smiled to hide her disappointment. “But did you have to tell me just before we go out to do what we planned?”
“Guess I forgot?” Ayumi laughed sheepishly, rolling her eyes into a different direction.
“You silly girl,” Rika swung her upper body horizontally, smacking Ayumi lightly on the arm. “So when do you have to go, birthday girl?”
“…In like, five minutes,” Ayumi grinned widely, hiding her fear. Before Rika could complain any further, Ayumi grabbed her belongings and fled out of their dorm.
Rika blinked at the event which came by her, waving at her mockingly. Sighing, she decided to spend the rest of her day studying. So she sat down on the futon, cracking open her text book, and started reading.
She barely got through the first sentence.
Rika diverted her thoughts onto Ayumi instead, though. Why was she supposed to be with family anyway? She thought as she fiddled with the page corner. Actually, there were many valid reasons for that, but why was she called to the main house so suddenly? The woman cast her textbook aside, immediately dropping the idea of studying and then she lifted her feet in the air out of boredom, inspecting her toes. Some sort of emergency? Rika lost interest in her wiggling toes and began rolling side to side of her futon. I mean, we planned this at the beginning, and her parents said it was okay… So the only logical reason is that something has happened over there… Rika sat up, now fiddling with her bangs.
But if she was told yesterday about it… Then it’s not really an emergency…
Rika got up, now fed up with her annoying thoughts.
“I hope they don’t mind an intruder.”
There are feelings that I don’t think are even mine…
Hoping to get by undetected, Rika had the taxi drop her off a few blocks from the private mansion which happened to be located in small forest. Regarding the forest, Rika was once told by her dear friend that the Shibata family had the money to grow their own trees to serve as a wall of privacy-guaranteed. In fact, the Shibata family was pretty rich in general. Rika’s family was just as wealthy, but her family didn’t want to look like a rich family in particular, just wanted to use their money sparingly and liked to live like everyone else.
Bypassing the gates by climbing over, Rika quietly traversed through the trees, avoiding security as necessary.
What ARE they doing over there to have this tight security?! Rika complained internally to herself playing a game of ‘tiptoe through the tulips’ with the guards, trying to find her way into the mansion.
Finally, Rika somehow hid in a bush, hiding from a passing oblivious guard.
Ugh…This is getting annoying… I’m probably getting further from the mansion…Rika squirmed uncomfortably within the bush. Unfortunately, the guard caught the suspicious sound and turned around, much to Rika’s panic.
OH NO! WhatamIgoingtodowhatamIgoingtodo?!
“Get out of there right now,” the man said in a cautioned tone. Rika had no choice but to obey, since for all she knew, he’s probably armed and ready. She stood up with a guilty expression on her face. “You did realize you were trespassing on private property, yes?”
“Ah, sorry sir…” What was with this man? Rika thought to herself. She internally pulled on the lower part of her eye and stuck out her tongue (she wouldn’t dare actually try it, for he had a gun) as he guided her by the hand elsewhere. The man was speaking to her as if she was just a small kid that was too oblivious for her own good! She would loved to tell the man to not treat her so childishly if it weren’t for the information that he was an armed guard.
She simply went along for the trudging stroll until a voice called out to the guard.
“Kamui! You’re leaving your designated zone, I’ll take the woman from here on out since it’s my area anyway.”
Rika felt a glimmer of hope when she heard that voice.
“Don’t talk to me like that! If you weren’t a woman, I’d beat your ass right about now!” the said man called back, almost shoving Rika into the direction of her enigma to carry out his command. “Feh, kids these days have no respect…” The man called Kamui trudged off in the opposite direction, resuming his patrol.
“What are you doing here?” the woman asked, turning waiting for Rika to catch up.
“Trying to break into the mansion to spend time with my best friend…” Rika hugged her arms, feeling cold of the wet atmosphere caused by the rain the day before. It’s a good thing that stranger had her back turned, for she didn’t want her to see that slightly flustered look in her face.
The woman seemed to be thinking, or so Rika thought by the silence she replied to her with. Finally, the woman said something.
“What are you? Some kind of cat? Sneaking that far…” the woman mused, “You have a talent for getting yourself into trouble, first, yesterday with the bridge, and now here…”
“Well excuse me for troubling you,” Rika immediately defended herself.
“What happened to that polite woman I saved yesterday?”
Indeed, why did Rika grow hostile like that? Did she expect the enigma to still showcase her gentlemen(woman rather?)ness behavior? Then again, was this woman a kind person to begin with? Despite that, what really offended Rika was the fact that she apparently troubled the taller with saving her. She hated it when someone else felt burdened by her, it made her feel like a useless person…
“Rika?”
The said woman looked up to find Ayumi walking towards her. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought you were already in there!” Rika blinked, looking back up the road (since when did the woman lead her onto the road?) and then at Ayumi.
“I order you to permit her under my wing as a guest,” Ayumi said to the enigmatic guard, before taking Rika by the hand.
“As you wish,” the woman shrugged before walking back into the woods once more.
Even as Ayumi pulled her away and led her to the mansion, Rika found herself still staring at the general direction of where the woman disappeared into. Then she caught herself thinking again… What, my heart again? One of these days, I’ll strangle it and throw it to the lions… Then again, I would be committing suicide there, would I? Rika sighed inwardly, trying to calm her heart. What is this, the bishounen effect? Like in those manga where the heroine meets the crush of her dreams?
Before she could elaborate any further on her feelings, the two managed to stop in front of the mansion.
“So tell me again how come I saw you there instead of here?” Rika looked at the mansion, wondering if it had somehow became bigger than the last time she visited.
“Traffic. And why are you here?”
“Because it’s bothering me how your schedule changed immediately.”
“Oh well, now that you’re here, I might as well invite you in,” Ayumi said as she opened the door, greeted by two servants.
As it turns out, Rika’s sudden appearance didn’t phase the main head of the house, Ayumi’s uncle. In fact, the uncle didn’t show signs of being angry at all. He said that he overslept himself, and was just about to get dressed formally until the two had walked in on him sporting casual clothing. Telling them that the rest of the family was waiting in the dining room, the energetic man left them.
“He’s a nice uncle, isn’t he? I’d imagine the head of the family would be just a tad bit more strict,” Rika said as they both walked nonchalantly in the hallways.
“Yeah, Uncle is pretty laid back, so sometimes, even he gets into trouble with his procrastinating ways,” Ayumi chuckled.
“Haha, I wish I had an uncle like Tsunku-san.”
When they stepped into the dining room, the sight before them astonished them with surprised. Everyone was sitting at the long table, composed. Not only that, everyone was wearing black. It was almost as if they stepped into a funeral…
“…What’s this?” Ayumi raised a brow, “All black for a simple birthday?”
“Please stand next to the table. As for your guest, there is a seat available near where you are going to stand,” one of the servants said, ushering Ayumi closer to the table while another servant ushered Rika into a chair which happened to be on the side of the end of the table where Ayumi stood.
“Sorry for canceling what plans you may have, but this must be done,” Tsunku came through the doors of the other side of the room, sporting a similar attire to everyone else. “If you could wait just a bit longer, your present will come.”
Rika wondered what sort of present Ayumi was going to receive from what looks like her entire family. But there had been something that irked her ever since she stepped into the house. There was that fearful apprehension hanging in the air again… But this time it was stronger than usual, and she thought she might collapse under the pressure. Despite her uneasy feelings, she attempted to act normal.
But that pain came again. It started softly, but the pulsation became even more painful with each passing time. She didn’t feel the tattoo rise in her blood, but the pain was surely there, echoing throughout her entire body like needles puncturing her as if she was a butterfly specimen in someone’s collection.
A door opened behind where Rika and Ayumi had entered from.
You again?! Rika thought, but kept her face stoic, as that same woman who always seem to make Rika question her emotions entered the room with a box in her hands. The woman then placed the box on the table and left to resume her duties. As soon as she looked at the wooden box, Rika felt a hot pain surge through her body suddenly, worse than the steady pulsations she felt earlier. She winced at the sudden throbbing, and her breaths slowly became ragged but she attempted to breathe silently to avoid attention.
All this suffering because of a stupid box which was now laid on the table?
Apparently, Rika failed in trying to hide her pain, for Tsunku requested that Rika stand with Ayumi after some quiet discussion with the people of his side of the table.
Standing up was sheer agony. All the pain from sitting down had numbed her body, and standing up made the torture all the more bothersome to Rika’s body. After she stood, Ayumi and Rika were then instructed to remove the lid of the box to bear eyes to Ayumi’s present which Rika somehow got involved in opening as well.
When they removed the lid, there was quite the present waiting inside.
A human hand.
Or rather, a mummified hand.
Again, there was a huge surge of pain through Rika’s body, even worse than the one she experienced before. She grabbed onto her head, trying to stop her throbbing head from aching to no avail. She felt the tattoo instantly crawl from her right shoulder blade, this time, going as far as to consume her neck and the sides of her face. Her hair floated in the air eerily, being lifted by the rising energy, flickering between her normal brunette color and the color of blood red. Her eyes also flickered between dark brown and golden.
Before she felt lost to her transformation, the mummified hand was suddenly covered in a tattoo depicting butterflies resting on lotuses. Before anything else could be registered, the hand exploded into pieces, as if the tattoo’s design constricted the hand until it did so.
Then the pain went away from Rika’s body, the tattoo no longer on her.
This contemptuous feeling…
“Was that my doing…?” Rika turned to look at Ayumi.
Ayumi was bending over, as if she too was in pain. She clutched onto her arms, as if trying to prevent herself from lashing out. All of a sudden, as if some supernatural force was hidden underneath her body, lacerations and scars began to force themselves open, releasing huge amounts of blood with each opening produced as Ayumi screamed while the lashing wounds appeared. There were evidentially scars all over her body, abundant amounts of them at that, for her clothes became soaked in blood.
Then the final scar came, a cross shaped scar on Ayumi’s right cheek. The woman collapsed onto the table in a bloody heap afterwards.
Everyone at the dining table was gasping and gaping, bewildered and shocked at the event that had happened before them.
“Someone help!” Rika immediately shook Ayumi’s body, trying to wake her up. “Why isn’t anyone helping?!” the woman looked about her, noticing the unmoving picture she was placed in.
A sigh came from the head of the family.
“Fate has certainly cursed you two…”
Did these feelings belong to her?
“What do you mean? Why are you all even sitting there doing nothing? Ayumi was just slashed to bits, practically! She’s going to die if you just stand around!”
“Oh, we assure you that Ayumi will live…” Tsunku said solemnly, waving his hand so that guards stood around Rika.
“Ayumi embodies the ancestor which started our family ages ago, so she will lead the family as the successful heir when I die.”
“How is almost dying a justification of what you said?!”
“In regards to dying however…” Tsunku let out a another sigh before continuing.
“Because you embody the nemesis of our family’s ancestor… You shall die.”
Or are they mine?
Oohhhh, what now xD