xD -frolicks with the butterflies-
Chapter 9: Dearly Beloved
Love has many forms.
“How is the progress of your mission?” Kagami asked, keeping a stern face as he looked at Ayumi’s sleeping face.
“It’s going well this past week. Ishikawa, however, never transformed since,” Hitomi sighed, pushing the curtains of the window aside to permit the rays through the glass.
“Also, you refuse to tell me where she currently resides. You claim that her hosts came to your condo and took her, giving you their family name by accident…” Kagami looked at his watch, seeing how it is the eighteenth hour of the day.
“…And then I looked up the family, and found out where Ishikawa was,” Hitomi continued, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. “I’m sorry for my slight defiance, but I would rather not disclose her location. She needs rest, Chief.”
“Hmm… I can not say I am against your cause, but as a result, you are the only one in this project to know where the tennyo is.”
“But there’s something else I contributed, right? Something that has your interests at this moment, one that Abe-san is currently occupied with?”
“Ah yes, you were the one who fought the maiden. After she collapsed, you had taken a blood sample from the stiletto wound and then came to us, presenting blood sample of that maiden. Even now, we are still attempting to analyze it and study it.”
“But you’ve been busy, Chief. The Shibata International Company, which is the trading firm side, right? And you’re also the head of the extension, Shibata Corps.”
“Ah yes… The biochemical side…” Kagami adjusted his glasses. “Though, I may be the head of the extension, my father runs the main company. Though, I can see a future where I will soon lead that main company too…”
“Lovely. I can not wait until I see that CEO title,” Hitomi smiled, hoping for the man to dismiss her quickly.
“Say, have you ever wondered about the scars my cousin has?” Kagami asked, looking at the aforementioned woman.
“I do, from time to time,” Hitomi looked at the face of Ayumi again, “Do you know?”
“There has been a family rumor that our ancestor, the one who had taken the tennyo’s robes, was slashed to death. Supposedly, that’s what these scars are supposed to represent.”
“Slashed to death you say? That’s interesting…” Hitomi became intrigued with Ayumi’s lacerations now that she has heard the story behind them. “What are we going to do if she wakes up?”
“It depends on how she acts. If she shows signs that her ancestor is possessing her, then it’s good for the project. If she is still ‘normal’ to say the least, and if she does not have the memories, we will try to restore the memories of her past and see if we can figure out anything beneficial for the project.”
“So when are we incorporating Rika into the project?”
Bad move, Hitomi thought. She accidentally called her by her first name in front of the Chief…
“I didn’t know you were on a first name basis with the tennyo, Hitomi. That’s new…” Kagami retracted his gaze from Ayumi and turned to look at Hitomi with scanning eyes. “What is your relationship with her?”
“I’m…. I’m not sure…” Hitomi became uneasy with the questioning. “The maiden, before she fought me, called her ‘that foolish lovesick human’ or something along those lines… I guess it’s been occupying my mind for awhile…”
“The tennyo’s host likes you, ne?” Kagami rested his elbows on his knees, and then rested his chin on his entwined fingers. “What is your point of view of the situation?”
“I think it’s probably due to amnesia, but now I’m just… really curious if what the maiden said was true… And it’s been making me restless, especially when I’m not doing the surveillance of her. I just keep thinking about her and want to question her feelings for me, but that would defeat one of the main points of the mission where it said I was to never reveal myself during surveillance.”
“This is a first for you isn’t it?” Kagami said in a half-smile.
“What is?”
“Being lonely.”
“So that’s what it was, wasn’t it?” Hitomi looked out the window again, “If this is loneliness, then I hate it. I don’t want to have such an unnecessary and hideous feeling like that plaguing my mind so frequently. I would rather feel something else than loneliness.”
“It’s up to you on whether you want to resolve it or not. But there is one thing I advise you not to do,” Kagami stood up, catching Hitomi’s attention again.
“The one thing I shouldn’t do, Chief?”
“Try not to fall in love with her.”
“In what way will it cause trouble?” Hitomi took a stronger stance and a lower voice, unaware that she sounded quite defensive.
“It will burden you and your future in the project, and it will also burden her among the many burdens she bears by having a second spirit within her. Especially the one that seems to arise whenever she feels aroused, as you have concluded in your reports of her. For the sake of this project and for the sake of regaining your memories, I’m sorry about this, but I simply have to advise you to not fall in love with Ishikawa Rika.”
“So be it.”
“I’ll see you attending to Ayumi’s bedside again at 4 AM.”
“I will be here as you wish.”
“You are dismissed.”
Love has many outlooks.
Hachu! Rika sneezed aloud, much to her bemusement since it was so sudden.
“A single sneeze must be somebody’s rumor of you,” Miyabi raised a brow, “Need a tissue?”
“No thanks, I’m fine,” Rika waved her hand dismissively.
A week with the Fujimoto family was not as bad as Rika expected. Despite eccentric behaviors, they all really seem like the normal dysfunctional family.
Yuko would always prowl about the lower floors, teaching her classes the arts of traditional dancing. Now that the power Yuko held was known to Rika and the others, she then used it freely around them, often throwing random sharp objects at Miki whenever she was burdened with excessive boredom. Sometimes, she would even walk by with a bottle of beer floating behind her. Her nickname for Rika, “Charmy,” had also stuck to Rika as her permanent nickname from Yuko. It was pretty much cemented after the cursed woman, out of distaste of idleness, began purposely annoying Yuko which had caused her to say something out of the lines of ‘how can you live up to being ‘Charmy’ if you don’t act charming, huh?’ and then it stuck ever since.
Miki wasn’t attending university (and Rika wasn’t so shocked to find that Miki was a month younger than her) but was instead, attending a school which unsurprisingly deals with food. Otherwise, she would either be cooking something or sitting in her room watching movies the entire day-off. Rika does have to admit though, Miki really was a great cook as her sisters claim her to be. In fact, she was sure that Miki could go and challenge the iron chefs themselves if the show had not stopped. Obviously, they had not got along better since day one. Rika found that the best way to annoy Miki was to act like her positive self—that is, not acting like her age and acting cute. It was a successful technique rather, for Miki would always call Rika disgusting whenever she made a narcissistic comment or tried to hard to be cute appealing. Though, on Miki’s birthday (surprisingly a few days after Ayumi’s), Rika decided she would be nice just once and did not subject Miki to the harsh punishment of electrocution and took her out for morning coffee.
Unlike her older sister, Miyabi actually found Rika’s cuteness appeal to be successful and obviously, cute. Had Miki done the same thing, Miyabi told Rika that the chopstick woman could never be as feminine as Rika. The sniper was actually pretty active, probably due to her young age, the cursed woman thought. She seemed rather energetic when she came back from junior high, if one would call getting pissed at one’s sister energetic. She can’t pinpoint it exactly, but Rika would always find it amusing whenever Miki and Miyabi fought. When she would get home, Miyabi would eat a snack and then she would go out with friends or do some practices which involved flicking coins at targets in the garden. Rika realized with that target practice that Miyabi liked to keep her abilities in tact, contradicting her lazy sister. Then at night time, Miyabi would work on her homework, occasionally asking Rika for help pertaining to the work.
Kei was a rather interesting house keeper to say the least. She had a rather extensive knowledge of pop culture, surprising Rika that she actually knew what Rika was talking about. Although there was none of the sort at the mansion, Kei also knew how to play various instruments such as the piano and flute. The house keeper was just as amusing as the sibling arguments, for she didn’t seem to realize that she was incomparable to superstars. One of the celebrities she frequently associates with was Chisato Moritaka, for sharing the same frivolous attitude in things (Kei also argues looks, but Rika would always deny her of it).
It would be considered a lie if Rika said she still wasn’t used to the entire thing in general. She liked the laid back attitudes of everyone, and met a few nice people from helping in Yuko’s dancing classes. She was a good help to Miyabi and was nice to her friends whenever she saw them. Helping Miki in the kitchen wasn’t so bad either, save for an occasional grope or two. She had to say though, watching Miki being so obsessive with the correctness of food preparation was sort of cute, as opposed to her normally indifferent attitude towards everything else.
It was ‘show her a kitchen and she’s happy’ indeed.
“Hmm… I guess there’s one proverb defied…”
“Eh?” Miki turned her head a bit, distracting herself from using Miyabi’s computer.
“One Life, One Meeting, do you know that four-character idiom?” Rika looked over at Miki.
“Duh, of course,” Miki waved her hand. “What about it?”
“There’s the spirit within me, so she must have had like, twenty or so lives, but she never had meetings, you know? Isn’t that funny?” Rika giggled a bit.
“Ah, that’s lovely,” Miki gave an exasperated sigh. “You and your lame jokes.”
“Come to think of it, even when you’re speaking about normal things, you’d laugh about it too, Rika-san,” Miyabi giggled.
“I can’t help it~!” Rika let out a cute pout.
“Creepy~!” Miki mocked Rika’s voice, holding herself as if she had the shivers. “Aren’t you like, twenty-two?”
“So are you~!”
“Sheesh! Haven’t you heard that ‘shame is written off the road’ saying? I’m going to write you off!” Miki turned the chair completely, facing Rika.
“Do you even know what that one means?” Miyabi gave Miki a skeptical look.
“Uh… Yeah…?”
“You don’t,” Miyabi and Rika said in sync.
“Bah, I’m not going to even bother answering. Just because there’s a saying like that doesn’t mean I have to go out of my way to do something shameful.”
Rika crossed her arms, shut her eyes and nodded as if she was a kung fu teacher, “Wise choice.”
“Come now, don’t be insulting to me, I own this house too!”
“But this is my room, I even labeled it!” Miyabi pointed at the rather small scribble on the shoji door, written in a very messy calligraphy, “I wrote it when I was 4!”
“What the hell?” Miki laughed, “why would you go as far as to do that?”
“Labeling one’s own room!” Rika joined in on the laughter.
“I just said, I wrote it when I was four!”
The rest of the evening faired out pretty well. It was midnight when Miyabi had trouble trying to word out an essay she had to write for her science class. As a help, Rika tried writing her own version of the prompt question, while Miki also wrote out of her boredom. But they were both useless to Miyabi’s essay because Rika’s essay barely touched up on the question at all (too many sentimentalities) while Miki’s was on the right track but not exactly what Miyabi was looking for (too many wrong pieces of information) so the youngest ended up doing the essay on her own terms, borrowing a few good-sounding sentences from Rika and Miki as she did so.
After Miki finished her piece of writing, she went back to her own room. Since the essay was the last thing Miyabi needed help with, Rika also left shortly after Miki did. As soon as Rika settled in her bed for the night, her neighborhood groping demon just HAD to turn the music on loud.
“Can’t she keep it down to herself..?!” Rika complained with a sullen face.
She tried to sleep.
Insert heavy bass music here.
She rolled over on her stomach and tried to sleep.
Insert the next song which had an even heavier bass to it.
She placed the pillow over her head and tried to sleep.
Insert more songs with an emphasized bass here.
She curled into a ball and tried to sleep.
Oh look! A ballad!
She rested easier.
Oh shit. Back to heavy bass.
Rika has had it for the past three hours and a half. Why didn’t someone go up to her and complain about the loudness of the music? Then again, Miyabi did happen to mention that she, herself is a fairly heavy sleeper and that Yuko is on the other side of the building, so she wouldn’t be able to hear it…
Was Miki doing this on purpose? Rika wondered to herself. To anyone else, the music wasn’t that loud, but to Rika, even a meter that took up just one-fifth of the full volume bar would bother her during sleep. Deciding that she has had enough of the annoying music, Rika rose from bed and immediately proceeded into Miki’s room.
“Hey! Don’t you have a sansa or something you could listen to? I’d rather not hear your music!” Rika tried to say in a loud voice, but not loud enough to be heard by the other people of the floor.”
“I can listen to whatever I want in my room,” Miki said boredly, sitting on a cushion at the low table in the middle of the room.
“At least have SOME feeling for the people around your room—” Rika began, but then something caught her eye as soon as she said those last two words…
Miki wasn’t wearing her bands…
…And Rika was in Miki’s room…
“I’m going to talk from the balcony!” Rika bolted out of Miki’s room, swerving to enter her room (and lock it) and then went out the balcony door.
Soon enough, Miki lazily drawled into her own balcony, and then sat on the thick ledge with her back facing Rika. “What’s the weird attitude, dear? Afraid I might ravage you now that my bands are off?” her head was turned so that Rika could barely see the outline of her nose.
“Just remember that if you do try something, I will not hesitate in beating you like I have before.”
“Ouch. Hostile. But I like having fun with people like that,” a rather naughty tone was implied in Miki’s voice as she said it.
“Only in your dreams,” Rika retorted, letting her arms cross on her balcony ledge and then resting her head on it. “Why not do whatever to Yuko-san? She’s not even related to you, so this school would be more in place with your hands because you’re the one directly related, right?”
Rika heard a click which made her curious. She looked up to find that Miki had a small remote control in her hand and that she had shut off the music with it. Did she make Miki angry with that statement? Did she reach a taboo topic. Rika can’t exactly imagine what would happen if Miki became really angry at her, for her normal personality is pretty biting. Would that mean when she’s angry, she would tear limbs off…?
“Well…”
Miki broke the awkward silence.
“I was the one who asked to live here, so I’m not complaining with the way Yuko’s running this house hold.”
“Oh…” was all Rika could muster from the repertoire of words in her head.
“This is just one of the random branches of the main house, the Fujimoto school of Japanese Dance. My Dad opened most of them, this one included. I was supposed to own this one, but as you see, because of my ‘incompetence,’ my old man went as far as to adopt Yuko, a close family friend of our’s, into the family so she could run this school. So yeah, she’s been running this branch ever since.”
“What about your incompetence that made your father go as far as to do that?”
“I thought you could figure that out with my personality, but it mainly has to do with my obsession.”
“You mean cooking?” Rika tilted her head so that she was really resting it on her arms.
“Yeah, I don’t dance. Cooking is more of my thing. My mom was a really good cook, but she died when I was starting middle school. You see, I really hated everyone else’s cooking. It all really sucked, so I decided that I should cook my own food. Guess I’ve been doing it ever since.”
“And your father?”
“Back at the main house, he’s still single though.”
“Do you not get along with him?”
Miki was silent.
Seeing how Rika might have hit a nerve with that question, she decided to avoid asking that again.
The silence was also rather uncomfortable, so she decided to comment on something else.
“You and Yuko-san really act like sisters, you know? Ayumi and I are like that too…
Ayumi… Are you alright? How have you been doing since? I want to see you again to make sure you’re alright…
“Hmm… Yeah… I guess it’s fortunate to have Miyabi. I’m lucky I have a family to talk to…”
Family…
Hitomi…
Hitomi can’t even talk to anyone… She knows nothing about herself…There’s no family she could look to... She’s so…
So lonely…
“What about you? What family do you have?”
“I’m a middle child. But my family lives far from me. My father is doing business overseas, my mother is also in the same line of work as my father. My younger sister is attending high school back in my home town… And my older sister is also a university student, but she’s also far away from me, further than my younger sister.”
“Do you keep in contact often?”
“Well… I guess we drifted apart… Well, my sisters and I, really. We used to be close when we were living together, but ever since we went off to college, we just never bothered to keep our bond. Our parents too, I guess…”
“Do they know that you dropped out of your education?”
“Yeah, I gave them an excuse that I needed a break, that I will return to university when I feel up to spirit again.”
“They don’t find it a waste of money?” Miki scooted closer to the wall, leaning against it, though her back was still turned to Rika.
“I don’t think they even care anymore… Besides, we’re a wealthy family too, so it’s not that hard paying for it again.”
“Quite the family huh?”
“I’m not sure if I could even call them a family anymore…” Rika looked down at the garden below, eyes half lidded with a tinge of sadness to them.
“Say… If it ain’t too much, would you consider us your family now? Not as a replacement, if that offends you, but I don’t know how long that spirit will stay inside of you. So maybe you should think of us as your family for now, s’all good with you?”
Miki…
“Haha, thanks,” Rika smiled.
I guess you’re not that bad after all…
“Oh gahh…” Miki looked up into the night sky.
Rika was baffled to Miki’s random outburst, but then found out why she made the outburst in the first place.
It was starting to rain.
“Completely forgot about the weather report…” Miki let out a sigh.
“You wake up early to cook breakfast, right? Aren’t you going to have like, five hours of sleep?” Rika got up, prepared to come back into her room before getting too wet.
“Nah, I’m used to tight sleeping schedules. S’all good. Anywho, good night,” and with that, Miki jumped off the ledge and went back into her room, and then shut off the lights.
Rika decided to take the time to soak in the rain. And she also took the time to think.
So she really isn’t that bad after all… Miyabi was right, even though she may seem like that, she’s actually reliable…
But she still won’t compare to Hitomi…
The rain was falling faster than she expected, so she turned to the door in order to get in. But something had caught her eye as she did so.
Hitomi’s reflection was on her glass balcony door.
Love is a good emotion.
Rika turned around suddenly, alarmed at the sudden presence which had somehow nestled herself on a tree branch.
“What are you doing here? How did you find this place? How long were you in that tree?”
Did she hear the conversation too?
Oh gahh…
What if she misinterprets our talk as me liking that demon?
What will I do if she gets angry?
“I wanted to see you.”
The look that Hitomi gave Rika made her want to embrace her. The rain made her tresses wave in a pattern that made her look for a lack of a better word, extremely hot. The eyes of Hitomi had an especially piercing gaze that could possibly make Rika explode and then melt.
But she had to stay emotionless.
She didn’t want the spirit to come out.
Especially not now…
“Does this have to do with your job?” Rika kept a focused glare at Hitomi, hoping that adding a bit of hatred to the object of her affections would lessen the possibility of her transforming right there on the balcony.
“My job does not start until twenty-five more minutes. I am a free woman at the moment.”
“So that’s how it is, huh?” Rika fixated her eyes on Hitomi’s, “whenever you’re not on your job, you think you can just waltz up to me and act all carefree, and then when you are on your job, you’re just going to try and kill me? What kind of person are you? Are you just bipolar or what? Or are you just playing games with me? Are you enjoying this?”
The enigma remained silent.
“Can’t you answer me?”
“I’m… I’m not sure what’s wrong with me, honestly. This time, I wanted to see you out of my own accord—not out of orders,” Hitomi’s eyes gazed elsewhere, not wishing to meet the contemptuous glare aimed for her.
“How can I believe you?” Rika looked down at her feet, feeling defeated. “How could I believe anything you say?”
All that answered her was the pestering rain hitting the rock tile road of the garden beneath them.
Rika heard the shuffling of leaves and looked up to see what Hitomi was doing. As she slowly lifted her head, she saw feet dangling against the wall. When she looked further up, she saw hands gripping the edges of the ledge wall closest to Rika. Further up was a body learning forward, and with that body, the head sank slightly, since the shoulders were higher than usual from the heavily dependant grip of the ledge.
Rika became flustered.
“Well, you would believe me… Because you love me, right?” Hitomi wondered if it was the correct time to ask, for Rika’s expression was unreadable, and she definitely wasn’t sure if the woman was to transform if the guard had said that. The enigma pressed her finger tips to the wall harder, feeling tense from the sudden apprehension in the air.
“I…” Rika began, “I can’t really respond on what you said before…” There. She said it. She had to keep avoiding things that would cause her blood to cool instead of heat up. If she could stay like that, she won’t be able to transform.
“I see…” Hitomi tilted her head as she looked onto the floor.
“But…”
Hitomi looked up at Rika in the eyes again, finding that they no longer bore an unexplainable tint of contempt.
“I can’t say I will deny what you said before…” Rika tried to keep her face as emotionless as possible when she said that.
Hitomi blinked, then smiled at the thought of that truth that she had been seeking.
“How is Ayumi? Has she awakened yet?” Rika’s expression soften.
“No, she still hasn’t woken up. We moved her to the residential floor of the main Shibata Company. She’s in good hands. They won’t do anything bad to her.”
“I see… I’m glad…” Rika gave a sigh of relief.
“Yeah… For now, we just have to pray that she wakes up is all.”
Rika let out an affirmative noise, agreeing with the bronze-red haired woman. But then, she felt tears come out of her eyes for some reason…
Was it because Ayumi’s health was questionable?
Was it because she isn’t able to see Ayumi?
Was it because Hitomi seemed indifferent when Rika practically admitted that she loved her?
“I’m being stupid again…” Rika lowered her head, trying to wipe her tears with her lower arm.
“How so?”
“I promised myself a long time ago that I wouldn’t cry anymore…” Rika sniffled, unaware that she was walking towards the enigma sitting on her ledge.
Hitomi was unsure of the sight before her. There was this feeling within her that felt foreign to her. She watched as Rika clung to the closest thing to her.
And that was Hitomi herself.
She kept her hands glued to the ledge, not changing position since Rika chose to wrap her arms around Hitomi’s waist loosely. The enigma felt the cursed woman’s hands cling to her back tightly as Rika cried into her chest.
“Crying like that isn’t going to help anything, you know…” Hitomi scolded softly, but realized the error of her choice in words since Rika continued weeping.
But having someone embrace her like this…
This feeling…
It’s like all my fatique is melting away…
Something radiating from within me…
“The feeling I’m experiencing…”
Rika looked up at Hitomi with bemusement, the rain pestering her face so that the tears had blended in.
“If this feeling is love… Then I’m no longer a stranger to it…”
Rika felt a pulsation, but it wasn’t the familiar pulsation that was the cause of her being condemned to death those many times.
But it wasn’t the pulsation of her beating heart either…
This pulsation was happening where the tattoo would appear, just like it normally would…
But why was it so soft?
And so painless?
Was the spirit giving her blessings or something?
“Hitomi…” Rika looked up at the taller, her arms still wrapped around the other.
It was too inevitable that such an event should happen.
As they locked gazes with each other, a powerful yet slow-acting magnetic spell was cast upon them. Not even the rain could dispel such a strong magic. What sort of magic was strong enough to compel their heads towards each other like this?
Passion.
A kind passion.
A beloved passion.
And they had felt that passion bind them together when their lips touched for the first time.
But the worst thing…
Her breath became caught in her throat when she saw them.
Normally, she would never be phased when this sort of thing happened…
But when she slept, she would always leave her balcony door slightly open to let some air in. However, as she tried to sleep, she heard voices outside. One of them was someone familiar, while the other was definitely Rika…
There had been a silence amidst the rain, and she became curious. Thus she got out of bed and stood at the corner of the balcony door furthest from Rika’s balcony, allowing curiosity to witness the scene transpiring.
Curiosity can lead to things that she never wanted to know.
Curiosity can lead to things completely predictable.
Curiosity can lead to things completely unpredictable.
But curiosity can be the cause of something grasping one’s heart.
Just like now.
She had regretted her curiosity.
This was completely uncalled for.
She hated it.
No one was able to even look at her heart.
Let alone grip it tightly.
Why did Rika making out with that woman cause Miki to feel such unwanted anger?
That might also come out of love…
It was raining…
It was completely dark…
It was painful…
She stirred slightly…
She realized she was bedridden…
And that she was aching all over her body…
Then she opened her eyes, met with darkness yet again.
She attempted to sit up, only to feel absolutely horrible from her injuries. Letting out a grunt, the scarred woman became frustrated.
But memories came pouring into her…
Her birthday…
Her family clad in black…
That hand…
“Where is Rika…?”
Is jealousy.
Remember dears, five lovely comments or ten half-assed ones xD
Topic: Our Cursed Gift II [NON SEQUEL] Chapter 22: Another side: Another Story (10/6) (Read 84502 times)