So it's not a very good chapter
and I think it just makes more questions rather than asking them
But yea...
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Chapter 8: Strangers
“Hey you dropped this!” Miki yelled as she leaned down to pick up a little green wallet that one of the three girls, who were now walking away, had dropped. None of them seemed to hear her as she stood there with it in her hand. “HEY!” she yelled again finally causing one of them to glance around behind her to see Miki standing there waving the wallet in her right hand. The one who had finally noticed Miki poked the one who had dropped it in the shoulder so she turned around as well.
“Oh thanks!” she yelled as Miki walked over and handed it to her. “I can be so spacey.” The girl laughed a little before shoving it back into her pocket and patting it.
Miki shrugged, “it’s alright. Just be careful.”
“Yea be careful Kamei,” The one who had noticed Miki first scolded; before laughing a little and punching Kamei in the shoulder. “Oh well that will never happen.” Miki then recognized her as the one both this Kamei Eri and Takahashi Ai called Gaki. I think her name is really Niigaki Risa…
Kamei puffed out her cheeks, “I am careful.”
Gaki rolled her eyes, “sure you are.”
Finally Ai cut in, “You two always argue.” She pretended to grab at both of there ears. “Do I have to be a babysitter?” The three laughed and then Gaki suddenly stopped, noticing that Miki was still standing there.
She bowed a little, “thank you again for returning Kamei-sans wallet.”
“Uhh, yea no problem,” Miki bowed as well but kept one eye on Ai who was now looking at her strangely…like she recognized her. That can’t be good. “Just try not to lose it again,” and before any of them could say anything further Miki turned and walked away back to the bench she had been sitting on.
She sat down and looked over at the three girls who had now resumed walking home. It wouldn’t surprise Miki that Ai had recognized her. She had sat at this bench every day for the past four days just waiting for them to walk by so she could continue watching Ai. Miki hadn’t been as careful as she normally would have been when stalking her next target, but Ai had seemed so distant she hadn’t though she would be recognized. Sighing slightly Miki leaned back, “I’m going to have to switch up where I watch her from. Jeez, what a pain.”
“What’s a pain?”
Now a normal person would have jumped at this sudden intrusion from above. However, Miki had been aware for the past hour that someone had been sitting in the tree above her staring down; watching her.
“Nothing Yossui,” Miki replied to the blonde who was now sitting next to her with a couple of leafs hanging out of her hair from the tree above.
Yossui put her hands behind her head and leaned back. Miki looked over at her, but then glanced past as she saw Ai take her normal turn off from the other two and into her home. She watched as Ai struggled while searching through her school bag for her key. She could just use the spare one Miki had come across while snooping around her house trying to find the best place to hide while still keeping the most windows in view so she could see Ai at most times. Turns out that hiding place is a tree in there backyard that was very simple to climb, but had so many leaves no one would even see you in there. She must have been watching for too long because suddenly Yossuis face was right in front of Mikis and looking at her oddly. “What’s up?” she asked nonchalantly.
Miki pulled away a little and leaned back into the bench. “Nothing, just watching my next assignment. You know, the norm for us.” She avoided eye contact with Yossui because she new she was about to be scolded again.
“You know we’re never supposed to approach an assignment unless it is as a stranger.” Yossui sighed and ran one hand through her short hair.
Miki rolled her eyes at the taller girl, “yea and?”
“What was that just then?”
“I was returning a wallet,” Miki snapped at her. “There is nothing wrong with that. It wasn’t even my assignments wallet. I barley said ten words to them.”
“Okay well then answer my next question.”
There was silence as Yossui stared at Miki like she was trying to see right through her eyes and to her very thoughts to get the answer without even having to say the question. Like, she didn’t really want to ask the question. “Which is?” Miki asked annoyed now at the slight interrogation she was getting from Yossui.
“Why are you watching this close?”
“What do you mean?” Miki glared at her annoyed.
Yossui sighed and stood up, motioning with her hand for Miki to follow her as they began to walk down the street. “You know exactly what I mean.”
“No I don’t. We’re supposed to watch them.”
“No this close Miki.” She said with particular emphasis on the word “this.” “We are supposed to watch them just enough that we know a time when they are alone so we can fulfill our mission. That’s it. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
“What makes you think I’m doing more than that?” Miki looked down and began to count the cracks they passed in the sidewalk. She and Yossui have had a similar conversation to this last time.
Yossui stopped and made Miki look her in the eyes. “Because I know you Miki.”
“Yea, and I thought I knew you,” Miki said quietly.
The taller girl held her breath for a moment mildly shocked by her statement. “What?” she finally breathed out.
Miki shook her head, “It’s nothing.”
“No its not.”
“Since Aya has been gone you’ve been different. I thought we were always on the same side. But now you’re always following me without me asking and scolding me about things Aya had always told us to do. It’s weird.” Miki felt relief that she was actually able to say this.
Now it was Yossuis turn to avoid eye contact. “What Aya taught us was…it’s just too much.”
“Aya taught us to be human…” Miki glared at Yossui who took a step back.
“When were we not human?”
“Oh like you don’t understand. We we’re never human when we first lived. You know this. They took the humanity right out of us and made us hateful…”
“And then we got another chance.” Yossui said smiling, thinking Miki was calming down.
Miki sighed, “what other chance? Yea, we sometimes get time to ourselves. But its not like we can really live again.”
“You want to die again?”
Miki was shocked at this question. Did she want to die? She looked down at the floor. As much as she hated herself sometimes, she didn’t want to die. She loved being able to live forever. She loved the fact that she had all this power. She was selfish. She would always be selfish…it was there fault.
“No, I don’t.” Miki finally said with a very strong voice.
Yossui kept smiling, but it was a more peaceful smile than before. “Then why are you so determined to make sure that they deserve to die? We aren’t supposed to do that. Its just Aya who thought that.”
“What’s wrong with being skeptical?”
“For us…everything. You have to trust these assignments. I’m only trying to protect you.” She dropped her voice; “You know it’s not good to break the rules created by someone as powerful as the devil.”
Miki nodded her head, “yea I know. But Aya said-“
“Aya isn’t here anymore. So just forget it. Complete your assignment and move on to the next. Live your life.”
“What life,” Miki said to herself so that Yossui couldn’t hear. They resumed walking in silence for a while as Miki tried to let go. But she couldn’t, what Aya had taught her to do was to check. But never get so close that you get in trouble…she had forgotten about that warning. As much as Aya seemed to care about the people she killed, she never let that interfere with keeping her own life. Miki silently scoffed, that was the problem with being an Interfector. They are all so selfish.
“Listen, I know you still have more than seven weeks to go on this assignment. And I know it’s going to be an easy kill because she seems to spend quiet a bit of time alone, so do you want to take a break? I’ve got an assignment up in Italy for the next two weeks. You want to come up for one?” It was then that Yossui pulled out an envelope and handed it to Miki. “Even if you don’t I still got you the ticket. It’s for tomorrow, Friday. So I hope you come out, we should spend more time together.”
Miki smiled, yea just because Aya is gone doesn’t mean we have to split up. Yossui smiled back and then jumped up and into the nearest tree. Leaving Miki standing there with a smirk on her face. That was Yossui, she just shows up whenever she pleases, and leaves whenever as well.
Staring down at the envelope she opened it up to see the plane ticket Yossui had bought her to Italy. She looked up to see that they had stopped walking right in front of Ais house. Yossui was right; it was going to be a very easy kill. But…Miki still didn’t think she was a bad person…she was actually quiet nice. Miki sighed again, “This is all too much. Maybe a vacation will be good for me.”