Warning: This chapter is REALLY short compared to others. That and some parts might not make sense o_o;
Chapter 43: Soliloquy: Hitorijime
It was raining rather hard today. But here she was, enticed by the falling drops of one of the gods, the god she was supposedly descended from. Rika had both of her palms flat on the glass balcony door, leaning heavily against it. The glass was very cold to her touch, but she didn’t mind. After all, she did happen to descend from a god whose element is the storm and wind.
“Ojou-sama?” Yui called out almost silently as she opened the door. “Is there something that bothers you?”
“…Yeah,” Rika turned her head slightly sideways to look at the younger with the corner of her eye.
“What is it?”
Rika curled her fingers against the glass, head tilting forward in a depressed manner. “I changed, didn’t I?”
Yui shut the door behind her and stood near Rika, staring at her back, listening for more intently.
“Didn’t I used to be nicer? Wasn’t I kind once? So much that they had even called me ‘motherly’ because of my kindness?” Rika lowered her eyelids slightly. “That woman… Shibata… Her words hurt me very much…”
Hitomi too…Back then, she was so kind… So sweet to me… Something about her changed… But what had caused her change? Why is she always acting like everything is a play-thing for her? Is she expecting a certain answer from me for something? I don’t like this… I don’t like this at all… Why can’t we go back to those days?
“Is that when my world began to collapse…?” Rika’s fingers enclosed themselves into fists against the balcony door. She began to reminiscence all the times she had thought herself to contradict the image given by her fellow companions in the past.
From there…
“I hear rumors now… I think Ruru and Kaorin are dating... Are you going to allow that, Ojou-sama?”
That world was distorting…
Rika felt a piece of her soul tear itself away from her… She clasped onto her heart tightly, panicking at the sudden departure. “No… Yui…”
Desperately reaching out…
“Why are you so obsessed with this damn bond that you share?! Can’t you see that your supposedly ‘loyal’ Hitomi preferred me over you?! That experience was intoxicating! You’re definitely no good for her, you bitch! I can see why she left you for me!”
Trying to hold it together…
“What’s bothering me, you ask, Ojou-sama? Hmm… I thought I saw Ai and Risa being intimate with each other earlier… I wonder if that is supposed to suggest something…”
No matter how much I was being betrayed…
Rika glared at the sorrowful atmosphere before her. She glared very contemptuously towards the cityscape below from where she stood, cursing everything with her narrow eyes which could possibly kill if given the feature to do so.
Then she came… That lonewolf…
“I thought bonds could never be broken… I was mistaken… I was mistaken but kept praying…I will never be free because I have the blood… I’m condemned… I kept restraining everyone like a real curse… Because I felt like I would die if I didn’t do so…”
The corners of Yui’s mouth sank further into the frown she had on previously, unable to speak for she knew no words of consolation. Instead, she continued listening intently to her Ojou-sama.
“But already, it’s useless…” Rika backed away from the door, now simply staring at the outside scenery with saddened eyes, “Everyone is leaving me…”
Risa backed Rika into the glass wall. Yui could not stop Risa’s flying fist in time. There was a loud crashing noise when Risa’s punch connected. Yui and Rika were both shocked at the outcome. Risa had hit the glass door, shattering the glass she had hit, leaving her hand bloody from the shards. She had narrowly missed Rika, for her extended arm rested on the head’s shoulder.
Everyone is betraying me…
“About those weeks ago… Things had changed. I have various things to consider ever since that day. What I… I only… Erm… I tried to work out the origins. I have thought about it constantly, but there wasn’t anything useful from it… However, I can tell you one thing… I can’t stay by your side forever. I can’t do it. You can’t bind me anymo—”
Everyone is leaving me behind…
There was a loud door slam much to the surprise of the fourth head and the demi-goddess. They both whirled around to find out who had just intruded.
It was Ayumi, and in the door frame was her manager and the Viyuuden manager, gasping for breath.
“Shibata!” her manager held the other manager by the shoulder to support himself.
“I was struck by realization…” Ayumi panted, “Someone had to stop you… And everything’s clear now…I should have done this from the beginning…” she glared at Rika, grasping the knife in her hand tighter.
Rika kept on a calm front, analyzing her once best friend’s state of emotion as the frightened managers looked on. “That’s very low of you to do that…”
“That box… I know of it…” Ayumi growled, “Your ‘loyal dog’ told me that it has something very precious to you in it... Something of mine I heard… Anything that belongs to me deserves to be returned to me at once! I can’t stand the thought of having such a bitch holding it…”
This woman… I promised myself that I wouldn’t lose to her…
Rika reached inside of her drawers and pulled out the aforementioned object, that dark marble designed box. “I’ll give you want you want then!” Rika glared with animosity as she smiled, “You want it?!” and then she threw the box at the older.
Ayumi caught the box and threw the knife away, too desperately caught up with what was inside of the box like a carnivorous animal gorging itself on its prey. She tore open the box and gazed at what was inside.
There was a bright silver chain necklace inside of it. A broken silver chain necklace which was in pieces was Rika’s most precious item?
“What is the meaning of this!?”
Rika winced at the comprehension of the words Ayumi spat at her. “You forgot didn’t you…? When we had that fight about Hitomi, you ripped that necklace from your neck, claiming that our friendship ties were over…I collected the pieces and kept them…”
“That friendship necklace? Why would you do such a thing?!”
“Because I thought one day… I thought maybe one day you’ll come back to me as the best friend I treasured...”
“What madness do you speak of, Ishikawa-san? You lack common sense! This woman who supposedly was your best friend had wielded a weapon with ill intention of killing you! Do you really think something like that furthers your ideal image of her returning to you as a best friend?!” Rika’s manager shouted at her.
“Yeah…” Rika crouched down to pick up the knife that had landed near her feet, “I guess that day will never come, eh?”
When Ayumi looked up from the box, she saw the demi-goddess towering over her, with the knife raised over her head.
But the one broken… Is me…
“But I’m not going to fall down to your level…” Rika said as she walked past Ayumi, knife at a less conspicuous level. “Take her home,” she said to the corresponding manager as she walked off into the hallway. The managers and the older woman were left speechless as they watched Yui chase after the Viyuuden leader.
Yui had found Rika standing in the rain near the front of the building. Immediately, she ran out and stood near her. She knew that Rika was aware of her presence by the way Rika lifted her head to look straight.
“I was… I was still torn about the box… A part of me believed that she would come back as the best friend I knew… A part of me believed that the woman I remembered was gone forever… But keeping that necklace furthers my belief that she would come back… So I kept it with me,” Rika turned around to face Yui, a few tears escaped from the demi-goddess’s eyes from restraining those tears before. “Is my common sense so bad? Why did no one teach me otherwise? How am I supposed to know what I don’t know? If anyone else’s common sense is so obvious, how come I was not taught?!”
Yui pulled the older into a hug, allowing her someone to cry on.
“Unknown experiences and understanding…” Yui began, “From here on, you can learn from this. Shall we change, Ojou-sama? If you continue thinking as you are with these bonds… They will tear you apart and you will never be satisfied…”
“Why didn’t you tell me from the beginning…?” Rika almost growled in Yui’s embrace. “Why didn’t you push me away that time? Why didn’t you abandon me from the beginning? Did you pity me?”
“That…” Yui fought for words to say.
“You just keep talking…”
Yui felt a sharp pain in her lower back. She struggled with breathing and trying to maintain her consciousness as she realized what had just happened—Rika had just stabbed her with the knife.
“Half-trying to abandon me… Half-trying to help me…Your kindness has been killing me…” Rika backed away, pulling the knife out of Yui’s back as she did so. “All this time! ‘It was a mistake’ won’t help you! Take responsibility! Atone! Die and atone!” Rika shouted as she turned to run into the empty night streets.
Yui did not have the energy to run after the older. She was slowly losing consciousness as well…
She heard a gasp behind her. She used all of her strength to turn around, grasping her wound as she did so. “Oh… You’re the bodyguard that gave me the key…” she weakly said.
“Okada-san! You’re bleeding! We have to get you to a hospital!” the female guard said in a frantic worry.
“Don’t worry about me…” Yui was now panting, “Just… go find her… Go after her…” and with that, the fourth head collapsed onto the ground, no longer conscious.
Everything falls apart…
Erika looked at the sight before her. She was holding an umbrella amidst the now light rain, walking around the neighborhood of her parent’s house. At her feet was a dead garden snake, lying lifeless on the ground.
“I wonder what happened to you?” Erika said sadly as she crouched, looking closer. “Did a bird get to you?” she stood up again, still looking at the dead snake.
“I wonder what Yui is doing now…”
And then death comes…
Rika was soaking wet, but not that it mattered. She looked at her hands which were once stained with the blood of the woman she had stabbed earlier.
“Because it’s Yui’s fault… It’s her responsibility to atone…” she said grimly, clinging to herself in the cold, for the rain was now just a slight drizzle. But that wasn’t the case… Rika knew Yui better than that…
“Are you nervous for our first Viyuuden tour?” Yui asked as she opened the curtains, letting the night illuminate the room. “Come, you should breathe fresh air from the night, it will make you sleep easier, I promise,” the younger turned around and smiled kindly at the older.
“Does it matter how much time passes when it’s someone else’s fault…?” Rika tilted her head upwards, looking at the clouded sky. “So I’m to blame…?”
She then glared at the empty direction in front of her, “So I’m to blame for everything’s that’s happened?” She gripped the knife tighter, “But if I’m just a fragment like this…”
Where will the Orochi go?
Regardless of chapter length, there's A LOT of things to comment on here, so I still want fifteen reviews. If I see very 7 nice long and efficient reviews/critiques, I'll post the next chapter by that too.
Topic: Our Cursed Gift [Chapter 47: Our Final Promise][COMPLETE] (Read 132592 times)