Forgive me, I rushed this xD
Chapter 3: Contradictory
There is no such thing as coincidence.
“Because you embody the nemesis of our family’s ancestor… You shall die.”
Rika’s eyes widened, set ablaze by the dark flames of fear. Was this a horrific joke? No, it was not any laughing matter, everyone was staring at her, with anger, with sorrow, with fear. Her best friend’s family did not utter a word against Tsunku’s judgment. Her best friend’s family did not move a centimeter to aid the scarred Ayumi. Her best friend’s family did not do as much as blink when the words echoed throughout the dining hall.
They were afraid of her.
And so was she.
Rika was immobilized by her fear, conflicting within herself the validity of her sudden death sentence. Under what sin did she commit to earn this horrid consequence?
Existing?
Being born?
No. It was that dreaded woman. The woman who drawls in a haunting fashion, her tattoos of lotuses with butterflies glaring maliciously. It was that evil spirit the fortune teller spoke of, possessing her, warping her senses of reality. And now, Rika, the innocent one, was supposed be condemned to damnation just because her body was taken hostage of the spirit?
“What is the meaning of this? Surely you are after the spirit, but you have to kill me too?!”
“The only way to kill the spirit is to kill the host, I’m afraid,” the head of the family shook his head sympathetically. Deciding that he did not need to see this execution, Tsunku, among a few other relatives, left the dining hall quickly.
Bewildered, Rika turned to run, but was met with several guards clad in black soldier armor, almost the sort of team one would label as high ranking officers. Three of those guards quickly swept in, carrying the unconscious bloody Ayumi away while the others stood in the way of Rika’s only escape route. The family dared not getting in the way of the execution, everyone sat up and maneuvered towards the walls, wary of the submachine guns now facing Rika, courtesy of the officers.
She has never been this afraid in the past.
She felt herself pale and shrink.
There was nowhere to run.
There was nowhere to hide.
There was nowhere to escape.
Nowhere but the hell which awaited her.
There was that annoying pulsation again. Rika flinched and immediately gripped her upper right arm with her trembling left hand. She could feel her body going numb, as if it was being pierced by needles, as if snakes came in and out of her body, as if she was a specimen in a butterfly collection. The energy was rising in her again, growing powerful and painful at the same time. So much that Rika felt like she was going to pass out soon.
The men fired their round of bullets.
“Die!” was the last voice Rika heard in her head before falling into a realm of the most horrendous pain. Impaled by bullets in every spot imaginable, Rika staggered backwards, collapsing in the said direction onto the table. Her head lolled to the side, her control of it was weak as it succumbed to the power of gravity.
The soldiers ceased their firing, daring to venture closer to see if their designated target was truly dead. The squad took a few steps towards the corpse, in awe of what had happened.
But there wasn’t any blood.
And her body spat the bullets back out, the tattoo of a lotus appearing in every spot that which the bullets had sunk into.
The head regained complete control, pulling herself up to look at the soldiers at the bottom of her eyes.
They were flashing a bright gold.
For the other myriads of bullets which somehow failed to reach her, there was a barrier. In front of her were all the bullets, suspended in midair at mere millimeters from contact. The pain she had felt earlier were the results of small two-dimensional black butterflies exiting from her body to cease motion of the bullets, and then there were the bullets which happen to bypass the speed of the barrier construction hit her, only to be spat back out, dealing the aforementioned pain.
From the butterflies, the black energy expanded, creating elaborate patterns of oriental designs and lotuses, now creating a barrier perpendicular to the bullet tips.
What… is this?! Rika’s widened eyes returned to their normal color. The black wall of butterflies and lotuses dissipated, dropping all of the bullets onto the ground. The soldiers and the family members were stunned at what had just transpired. Rika then chose to use this moment to do what she had planned to from the beginning.
She bolted past the soldiers who were still in awe in their stopped assault, into the hallways, trying to flee from the mansion. Behind her, the soldiers gave chase, shooting her whenever opportunity presented them a chance, in this case, with every time they catch sight of her.
Oddly enough, whenever she looked back, she would always find that the tattoos would materialize out of no where, stopping the bullets, and disappearing once its goal was accomplished.
Was it her doing?
Or was it the other ‘her’ who did it?
That didn’t matter to her now. After bolting from the main doors, Rika immediately tried to seek cover in the dense forest, seeing how the squad chasing her had slowed down due to her choice of hallways of that maze of a mansion. Surprisingly most of the guards which were traversing the forest earlier were not there.
Speaking of guards, would she see that woman again?
Why was she even thinking of such a thing at such a critical moment like this?! Right now, she was running for her life and what she’s thinking about is her unfortunate love life?! Despite the creepiness of the disappearance of the guards, Rika found it better to think of the convenience the absence provided for her.
Soon, she was able to slip by the empty gates, running a few more blocks, a few more roads, and a few more streets to find that the same taxi which had dropped her off was still waiting for her. She nearly crashed into the car, but stopped herself from doing such a silly thing and opened the door and then crashed into the seats, begging the driver to take her back to the front of her university, seeking escape by heading back towards her dorm.
At least the chase was sort of over.
Fate is what brings us together.
After catching her breath, Rika leaned against the seat, trying to process again what had just happened…
Damn spirit… If what just happened was one of your illusions again… Rika huffed exhaustedly as she closed her eyes, leaning her head sideways to the chair, looking out the window.
“My god, what happened back there? You’re really beat!” the driver, seemingly in his elder years, commented as he drove.
“Nothing much… Nothing much…” Rika sighed, and then she opened her eyes.
That tattooed woman was on the other side of the window, almost flying towards her with intent of an airborne tackle.
Fear enveloping her eyes again, Rika jumped back to the other seat, almost slamming herself against the other car door, much to the confusion of the driver.
“Ma’am, is something the matter?” the concerned driver asked, watching Rika through the mirror in the middle of the cab.
Rika didn’t respond instantly, for she was still panting at the vision she had just seen. Always going to jump at me whenever I try to relax?! Rika angrily thought, intending that those thoughts would be heard by the spirit within her. Why does it have to be me?! Can’t you haunt someone else?! I have a life!
Rika sighed again, knowing that her thoughts would probably never reach that spirit anyway.
Eventually, the taxi stopped in front of the university Rika attended. The woman gave the driver the money and bid him farewell as he drove off.
No matter what circumstances.
“The door was unlocked?” Rika raised a brow as she realized that the key in her hand did not trigger the obligatory unlocking click she was so used to hearing. Before she could put her hand on the door, she began to think.
I locked this door before I came over … there… Rika tried piecing together the puzzle pieces laid out for her in her mind. Someone might have broken in or something…Though, the only person with the other key is Ayumi. It’s not possible for someone to just go up and grab her keys and return here before I came… Unless whoever broke in is skilled with picking locks…
Rika cautiously opened the door, careful as to not make any sound whatsoever in fear of the intruder’s presence still wandering the dorm. She looked down at mats on the floor, searching for any foreign footwear that did not belong to her or Ayumi. Much to her fear, there were sneakers that happened to be out of place, sneakers that are not supposed to exist among the usual.
Oh my gahh… I’ve never been fond of sneaking around since I’m so horrible at it, but I never thought I had to sneak around in my own—
There was an accidental creak.
Rika’s body went rigid.
“Is there an Ishikawa-san heeeere?” Came a voice, a rather young voice.
A kid?
No, the female voice sounded a bit older.
A young teenager maybe?
“Took you long enough!” came another voice, a much older voice than the one before.
Perhaps Rika was safe after all.
Whether it is under Good,
An adolescent teenager came into Rika’s view, almost enthusiastic at her entrance. The younger had a rather elfish face, that is to say, a face longer than an average Japanese person. Her hair was layered and kept neat and short, only up to her shoulders. Speaking of hair, she was wearing a cute white band too… Her outfit contradicted the cute image her head exhibited though. The young woman wore a thick white padded vest, eerily reminiscent of American gangsters. Underneath was a black hoodie with a white skull in the front and on her black pants was white half-arrows (length-wise) embroidered on sides.
The woman following the younger was slightly shorter, but definitely older than the other. This woman’s brunette hair was slightly wavy and up to her mid-back. The woman was also noticeably tanner than her younger counterpart. The woman wore a thin navy blue windbreaker. Underneath that was a simple white tanktop. As for pants, she wore a mundane pair of tan cargo-pants… Quite the light outfit despite the fact that it was Feburary…
“Er…Rescuing me?” Rika became unaware of the caution her voice articulated.
“Well, you were almost slaughtered, weren’t you, dear?” the older one said in a matter-of-fact tone, “why else would we be here to save your lovely ass?” she added a wink.
“We’re your knights in shining armor, you know, so you better thank Sis and I!” the younger added on.
Rika blinked. First off, she felt a little edgy that the older woman hit on her, and all the more edgy after registering the fact that the younger was the other’s sister.
“What are you doing, gaping like that? Let’s just get you out of here, and you can ask questions later,” the older said, walking towards Rika.
“We have to be quick about it too, the first place they’re going to try and find you at is here, they’ll have no chance of succeeding if you come with us,” the younger was also walking towards Rika.
Before she knew it, both women hooked up with each of Rika’s arms, thus dragging her onwards.
What is going on here?!
Whether it is under Evil,
“Hmm… This is troublesome…” a man paced up and down on the room, adjusting his glasses, running his fingers through his short tidy hair, or loosening the collar of his suit every so often to amplify his anxiety.
“Kagami-kun, don’t fret, we have our best body guard on the chase,” Tsunku smiled, patting the poor nervous wreck on the head.
“Sir, that’s not what I’m worried about. This is the first time that the maiden escaped… And I told you to strangle her to death. Bullets will only be rejected from her body…”
“Everything will be all right. Since the progenitor surfaced at the same time, all should be well. The only thing that is left is to kill that maiden, and we only have to wait years again for the maiden to reincarnate.”
“Don’t say that so lightly. Like I said earlier. This is the first time in a long time that she was actually able to run away from us like that. If we let her roam about for too long, the spirit will possess her body and then it’ll be a pain in the ass to subdue and kill her again.”
“But we have a good weapon of our own,” the corners of Tsunku’s mouth turned up slightly, showing a mischievous grin.
“What mere piece of technology could kill a celestial maiden at full power?” Kagami looked up at the head, skeptical of what he might say in reply.
“Oh no no no no, my dear friend, this isn’t a piece of technology. This is a person. We found her a few months ago, survivor of a plane crash. But it is thanks to the crash that she is also amnesiac…” Tsunku stroked his imaginary beard.
“What could an amnesiac person do?” Kagami raised a brow.
“We put her through some tests, and much to our coincidence, she proves to exceed athletic abilities of the average Olympian participant by a landslide.”
“And the name of this woman?”
“Oddly enough, despite being amnesiac she remembered her given name. However, she was unable to recall any information of her family name.”
“Get to the point, Tsunku-san.”
“Her name is Hitomi, and she is the one who will kill the maiden.”
Fate is a very cruel judge.
...Shorter chapter than I thought o_O Oh well, the next chapter should be longer, I think xD
<3
Topic: Our Cursed Gift II [NON SEQUEL] Chapter 22: Another side: Another Story (10/6) (Read 70885 times)