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Chapter 33: Realization
It's not simple.
The woman didn’t dare open her eyes yet. Instead, she fine-tuned her ears to listen for any noise foreign to her own, to make sure she was alone. She heard breathing; however, that was a steady and pulsating breath: whoever was with her was watching her intently.
Please tell me that’s not Risa watching me…
“You know…”
Oh. It’s Reina.
“I won’t try to tell you what you should do with yourself, but I can tell you one thing …Gaki-san. She is still in love with you, y’know? She really is…”
Ai still remained like a dead possum in bed.
“Feh… Grabbing a drink…” Ai heard Reina mumble before shifting around the room. After she heard the doors close, she opened her eyes, noting that she was still in her leader’s room, and that there had been a chair pulled up to her bedside.
Ai lowered the covers and sat up slowly, attempting to regain energy through her sleepy body. As she did this, she heard the door open again, and in came two people.
“Ah ha, you’re awake!” Yossie smiled as she walked nonchalantly to the chair Reina once sat in. The second visitor had with her a small box, probably some unopened brand new medicine. “I called Kaorin over since she usually had the best medicine for things like this.”
Ai remained silent, but brought her knees to her chest, the bed cover still on them, and wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her head so that she faced away from her two visitors.
“Reina heard some noise, found you coughing like hell, and then you passed out. I came back from the meeting when she was trying to get you on the bed, so I helped her, and that’s when I called Kaorin… We figured you needed to go to the hospital, but needed your consent, so we’d wait until you woke up so we could discuss. Do you remember what happened?”
Ai gripped the covers tighter. Yeah… I do remember… I was shamefully humiliating in front of Reina… And then I had that nightmare…
“And Ai… please don’t run away. If you’re so opposed to not bothering anyone, then you need your strength. All the more to be able to get around without abusing us, ne?”
“You make it sound like she is abusing you…” Kaori sighed as she set the medicine on the stand next to the bed. “You should be able to recover gradually with this if you refuse the hospital. So take care,” and with that, the pillar turned around and left, the second pillar tagging along.
“So, are you going to stay for awhile to see Ojou-sama or what?” Yossie asked as she drank some milk tea.
“What was Ai doing in your room in the first place?” Kaori narrowed her eyes as she tried to get an answer out of the other.
“I don’t know why she’s so desperate…” Yossie lifted her hands but kept her elbows close to her chest in a “whatever” look.
“Desperate for what?”
“Breaking our curse.”
Kaori’s eyes widened, “Seriously?”
“Mm, she thinks I know the way, so she keeps pestering me.”
Kaori looked at Yossie with a surprised glance, “That is… That’s so…absurd…”
“You say it’s absurd, but is it possible I wonder?” Yossie turned to walk again.
“What are you implying?” Kaori followed after.
“Don’t you hear it?” Yossie stopped in her tracks, Kaori also stopping.
“Hear what?”
“The sound of breaking?” the Morning Musume turned around, revealing a half-smile with narrow eyes—the smile of the scheming woman returned.
Not going to give up just yet…
“Come on, stop being stubborn and eat something,” Reina, arms crossed, was tapping her arm with her opposite fingers with irritation watching the girl in front of her.
“I’m not hungry. Leave it at that.”
“I know you haven’ eaten in like two days now, I know you’re starving!”
“I am not starving…” Ai replied coldly, not even looking at the younger girl, “leave me be.”
“No way, unless I see you take at least a bite, I’ll leave you alone.”
Ai turned her head to look at the denying yankii, “You. Stop trying to lift the curse.” Reina seemed taken back by the statement, confirming to Ai that she really was trying to lift the curse, “You went to Tsunku to ask, didn’t you? What are you thinking that those cursed are so pitiable that you must help out of generosity? That kind of thing isn’t your business. Kind people should live in their kind worlds.”
“Kind? Like hell I’m kind.”
“You’re usually so insulting and blunt, but you have the morales of a kind person.”
“…Are you trying to lift the curse too?”
“That kind of thing is none of your business…”
“Hey—”
“My business is my business!” Ai raised her voice, glaring at the other.
“Do you know a way to lift the curse?” Reina raised her voice, also getting angry.
“I said it’s none of your business! Stop butting in!” Ai grabbed the collar of Reina’s blouse.
“Hell no! I’m not going to back down!” Reina also grabbed the collar of her senior. “I WILL butt in!”
“Don’t screw around with me!” Ai yelled in reply.
“Hey! You may have your reasons for trying to, but I have my reasons too! There’s something I stand for too!” Reina yelled in return.
“Shut up!”
“I won’t!” and with that, Reina released her grip from her fellow leading Morning Musume vocalist. “Who are you to try and discourage me from trying to fight?!”
“Shut up! There isn’t a way! There isn’t a way to break the curse!” Ai was too caught up in her maelstrom of anger and sorrow to throw any comebacks any longer. She broke down.
Reina could only look on without a comment at the girl in front of her, crying.
Who would give up?
“It’s good that Ai surprisingly did go to the hospital…” Miki raised a brow, “How long will she be there for? It’s been two days since she went…”
“I visited Ai to ask about it…” Risa began, “But as soon as I stepped into the room, she started swinging the I.V at me and even knocked out a nurse trying to get me out…”
“…And you love this violent stubborn maniac?”
“Yes, I do, and isn’t your best friend a narcissist?”
“Shut up,” Miki twitched as she shot Risa a glare from the other end of the couch.
“Then make me,” Risa sneered. Then her face transitioned into a shocked reaction, thinking she should not have said that, remembering what happened last time. This time, she braced herself.
However, all Miki did was kick her off the couch.
“Huh?! I thought you were going to kiss me!” Risa exclaimed as she rubbed her butt.
“Huh?! Like hell I’d want to touch that soy-sauce mouth ever again!” Miki waved her hand dismissively.
Risa got up and wiped whatever might have caught onto her pants when it was on the floor, before proceeding to sit on the leather chair perpendicular to the sofa Miki claimed. They both had a rather intimidating staredown before finally, Risa’s manager came in, asking for her presence somewhere Miki did not bother to know.
“Joy, I get the lobby to myself…” Miki stretched her limbs on the sofa before trying to get comfortable on it. Her moment of relaxation was interrupted when something jumped on her body from the wall of the sofa. Miki let out a small yelp of pain as she tried to look at whoever was unfortunate enough to feel her wrath soon.
“Eh? I didn’t know you were on it,” Reina raised a brow, scrambling to get off of Miki’s body.
“Damn, at least check to see no one was on it before jumping!” Miki sat up to rub her sides.
“Well excuse me for being ignorant,” Reina said as she crossed her arms.
“Oh screw it. What brings you here anyway?” Miki laid on her side, using her elbow and hand to support her head as she looked up at Reina.
“Just came back from the hospital,” Reina sighed as she sat on the chair with her feet rather than her bottom—in other words, an infamous yankii squat.
“Oh? You didn’t visit Ai-chan, did you?”
“Yeah, I visited her.”
“…No problems came out of the visit, right? She didn’t happen to swing her I.V around at you, right?”
“What the hell are you talking about? But no problems came, some color returned to her face, so that’s a good sign that she’s getting better. And she’s coming back tomorrow.”
“I see… I see…”
Utter silence.
“Hey, Yankii, why is Maki your idol?”
“I thought I told you a long time ago, she’s a cool person. She’s calm and collective most of the time and she’s a great singer and whatnot.”
“So, ‘cool’ eh?” Miki said as she switched sides so that she now faced the wall of the sofa.
“Something wrong with that?”
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I hate Maki or anything. I just hate it how she barely has to try and people already look up to her.”
“You think I’m one of those people?” Reina replied, “I admire her hard work too…”
“Well it’s not really like that… It’s just… She’s really ‘cool’ and in anything she does, she can do really well. And there’s me, the lazy ass who has to work really hard to try and be on par with her… But my efforts aren’t noticed, people still look up to her, and I’m the anger management idiot next to her…”
“Jealous?”
“Damn right, some times I wish I could be like her…” Miki shifted a bit, “Bah, I just spilt a soft side to you. Best that you keep this to yourself or I’ll shove my foot up your ass in contemplation,” Miki looked over her shoulder, giving Reina glaring daggers.
“S’all good, s’all good, I’ll keep the secret. Won’t tell a soul.”
“You think I can understand that accent of your’s? Speak normal dammit!”
“Feh, I will not tell anyone,” Reina mumbled in standard japanese.
“But why visit Ai anyway? I don’t remember you two being that close,” Miki moved her head forward, facing the couch yet again.
“Oh come now, who wouldn’t visit their hospitalized band mate?”
“Haha, me.”
“You’re so mean…” Reina sighed as she got up, “Have fun, there’s things I have to do,” and with that, she left.
Miki shifted again, facing outwards towards the low coffee table and the opposite sofa. “Hmm… Maybe I said too much today… Reina will think I’m too much of a wuss… I’ll be rough on her next time…” She felt something hard slam into her again. “Dammit!” Miki looked over to see who else was unfortunate to feel her wrath, but she felt lips upon her, and then she felt her body compress, thus emitting out sudden smoke; Miki had transformed into a snake.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help it!” Aya giggled as she got up from the couch.
“You know better than to do that here of all places! What if someone saw?!” Miki-hebi hissed, looking franctically about her.
“Don’t worry,” Aya smiled as she gathered Miki’s clothes, “Let’s go to your room, shall we? I’m sure you wouldn’t want people to see you as a snake.”
“Psh… I wonder whose fault it is that I’m a snake?” Miki retorted as she slithered into the pile of clothes in Aya’s hands.
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“Visit her? I don’t think she’s allowed to have visitors… She knocked out a nurse… I don’t think it’s safe for visitors to come…” The nurse said uneasily as she recalled unwanted memories.
“Oh, I think as long as it’s not that Niigaki person with those eye brows, I think any other visitor is good!” Another nurse came into the conversation.
“Er… So is it okay for me to visit?” Reina wondered what may have transpired with Ai and a knocked out nurse and Miki's mention of swinging I.Vs the day before. Both nurses nodded, and Reina proceeded to search for her destination. Though, she kept searching for maps of the hospital, since this was only her second visit, and everything was still very new to her.
There’s one odd quirk about Reina that everyone knows and makes fun of her for: her sense of geography. Reina has been used to the main apartment’s surroundings and knows the section of the city very well, that is, after she got accustomed to it for three or so years. At first, it nearly took her three hours just to find the park, now it took five minutes to get there.
Then again, this is the same girl who didn’t know where Japan was on a world map. Also, this is the same girl who didn’t even know where her home town was on the Japan map.
Back to the hospital, the day before, it took Reina almost an hour to find Ai’s room, probably passing the same bunch of nurses (who saved her from another hour by helping her find the room). Sighing, she went back to the main lobby (which took her thirty minutes to find) and asked a nurse for help of pinpointing the location of Ai’s room.
“You again?” Ai said as she put her coat on, “I was just about to leave.”
“You know how much I suck at trying to find this place? If I hadn’t asked for help, I might’ve found an empty room…”
“Hey, I was told that I could leave today, never said a time, so it’s not my fault if you find an empty room. Since you are here, I am assuming you want to walk back to the apartment with me?”
“Yeah, and maybe share our knowledge of the curse or something…”
They both walked out of the room, and eventually, out of the hospital, into the moderately busy streets.
“I was told by Rika that she was a descendant of Susanoo, and that all of the Orochi will be by her side. That they will stay together for all eternity…”
“…Risa once told me that she had absolutely no memories of it. Though, I’m very sure that Susanoo and the Orochi exchanged a promise those thousands of years ago. To be together for all eternity. No matter how many times they would die and be reborn, they wouldn’t leave his side. They’ll come to him, always. The Orochi are bound to that promise, even now. Even though they might not have memories of it, the blood surely remembers…”
“It is difficult for outsiders like us to understand the world they exist in. It’s their own ‘paradise’ as Rika calls it. The connections they have for each other pulsing readily in their blood… A bond of blood…”
“The bond may look beautiful to someone from the outside, but it’s a heavy burden for a person under it. They only see it as bondage. That’s why it’s a curse…”
“I wonder if it really does exist… A way to break the curse…” Reina said as she observed the trivial happenings around them on the busy street.
“Only Rika would know if there is one or not. But there’s no reason for her to tell us. I’d thought ‘what if a person close to her knew?’ so I pestered Yossie for awhile. Though, she claimed she didn’t know…”
“Yui… What about Yui-san? She is a bandmate of Rika after all, they both seem very close too…”
“No good. Rika’s 'personal assistant' won’t do, she’s a pretty shady person too…”
“I don’t believe it. Yui-san has always been a nice person, I honestly can’t imagine her being shady or bad or anything like that.”
“I’m only saying what’s true. Besides, I know you don’t even talk to her that much.”
“If that’s the case, I’ll go talk to her and find out for myself!” Reina walked a little faster, only to be tripped by her senior. “Dammit!”
“Dammit yourself! Don’t go making other people angry!” she said with slight irritation in her voice, watching Reina pick herself up and dusting herself.
“We’re almost there anyway…” Reina sighed as she continued walking again.
“So. Why do you want to lift the curse so badly? What is your reason to stand for? I was meaning to ask you when you said that before.”
Reina looked at Ai, “It’s…”
Reina still watched their hands, and imagined that they let go, and then when she might have looked up, Maki might not be there. She imagined that she might be gone forever, that no matter where she looked, she might have never found her again… What a scary imagination…
Reina looked at the back of Maki’s head, but since she was slightly at the side, she looked at the bit of Maki’s face too.
To imagine that beautiful face… Gone…
She couldn’t say it. Instead, she held a blank expression. She imagined that Ai must have saw through her head in the silence for she finally said, “Never mind… It doesn’t matter,” and they both continued walking.
Why couldn’t I say it? It was only two syllables… How hard is it to say “Maki?” Why couldn’t I say a simple name?
It’s not simple at all.
“Nonetheless, don’t be stupid and try to see Yui. Or do anything reckless for that matter.”
“If you’re saying that I shouldn’t handle things alone… You wouldn’t happen to consider me as a partner now, eh?”
Ai stared at Reina, her face clearly stating ‘are you stupid?’
“Hey, what’s with that “are you stupid?’ look? If you have something to say, say it to my face!”
“Sometimes, I’d rather not waste words when someone already knows what I’m about to say, stupid.”
“Why I outta…”
“Welcome home! Reina, don’t kill someone who just went out of the hospital,” Yossie smiled as she waved her hand.
Reina and Ai both looked away in a glare, to the bemusement of the Morning Musume leader since their glares were focused on her.
“Huh? What’s with the ‘let’s kill Yossie’ look? I didn’t do anything, no use getting angry at me!” Yossie widened her eyes as she waved her hand dismissively.
Reina and Ai both went past the baffled leader and into their separate rooms.
Reina flopped on her bed and pondered what had just happened. The reason why I wasn’t able to say your name that time… I think I know why… Now that I really think of it… When I first knew that you… along with everyone else… are to go to her side… I wanted you not to go…
I didn’t want you to disappear from me. I want to continue making new memories for me to enjoy, to reflect upon…I don’t want us to separate so much… I wanted us to stay together… I want to see you have fun… I want to see you smile…I want to see that you enjoy being with me…
The reason for my unable to utter your name to a simple question, and the reason why I didn’t want you to go…
They are both the same…
I love you.
You know I want ten comments or more :] And Merry Christmas~! <3
Topic: Our Cursed Gift [Chapter 47: Our Final Promise][COMPLETE] (Read 170789 times)