Amusing at first, but it's going to turn really serious xD
Chapter 37: Calm before the Storm.
Yui waited patiently for the person in front of her to finish. While she waited, she looked about the shrine, taking in it’s beautiful traditional features. Soon, the person in front of her finished, and she reached into her pocket, drew out a 500 yen bill, and threw it into the crevices of the box. Then she yanked the rope of the bell, clapped her hands a few times and prayed.
Afterwards, she turned and walked away.
However, as she did, she noticed someone familiar, one of Rika’s bodyguards, heading somewhere with a tray of food. She looked around again, it seemed that the other shrine workers were busy trying to regulate the line since this time of day was usually its busiest. With curiosity by her side, she followed the bodyguard.
After a rather confusing network of shrine homes and houses, Yui had followed the guard to a secluded house, seemingly branched off from the rest thanks to being on a slight hill. She watched from the safety of another house corner to see the guard open the door, hesitantly; thus suggesting that the house was locked and the guard had the key, and entered.
Yui made note to visit this spot again, where it was at its quietest.
Trapped…
“I think you if you lay out all your new clothes on the bed—it will be purple,” Risa chuckled as she opened the door.
“Sad thing is, that always happens,” Reina looked off to the side, shifty-eyed.
Before they conversed any further, there was a peculiar smell coming from a certain part of the building. Reina pondered on what the odd fragrance was composed of… However, Risa displayed a very expressive face, one that Reina found amusing. Before she could comment on the priceless face, the target of her amusement bolted to where the smell came from. Reina chased after the eighth head, to find her headed straight for the kitchen.
In fact, Reina knew now why it smelt of weird aromas…
“Megumi-san! What are you burning this time?!” Risa shouted as she slammed the kitchen door open, letting the burnt smell fill the nostrils of the youth that were there. In fact, the room itself was a high temperature due to the heat, Poof! Thus, Risa transformed right on the spot.
“…Ah?” Megumi looked up from her book, neglecting to stir a pot that seemed to be emitting smoke.
Risa slithered over to the older, then up the counter, and looked at the pot, wide-eyed, “Whoa! You tried stew this time? You even burned the fish!”
“Ah… Many people left this apartment to spend time with their families… Therefore, no cooks…”
“So you thought you could do it?” Reina raised a brow as she too, looked into the pot of disaster.
“Do not read books while you are cooking!” Risa said as she watched Megumi trying to tend to the burning stew, “Will you ever under—OH NO! FIRE!” Risa’s eyes nearly fell out of her sockets at the flames bursting from the fish in the pot, “FIRE~! IT’S FIRE~!” The eighth head panicked as she slithered around the kitchen in frenzy while Reina also panicked and ran around the kitchen in frenzy.
With a stoic expression, Megumi simply lifted the pot (whose contents were still ablaze) by the handle and shoved it in the sink and turned the faucet on at maximum, setting out the small fire.
“Ah… That was amusing…”
“No it wasn’t,” Reina and Risa stared shifty-eyed.
“Ah…At least the sprinklers did not turn on, thankfully,” Megumi tilted her head at the odd blackened material clinging to the inside of the pot, submerged in water.
“Thankfully, it didn’t,” and there was a poof, “But seriously, can you wait until someone comes to do the cooking for you?” Risa said as she gathered her clothes and wore them.
“Ah…” Megumi looked up at the ceiling, staring blankly, “I thought I could do it today…”
“Yeah yeah, keep dreaming,” Risa stared shifty-eyed.
“Ah! Megumi-san, you wouldn’t happen to go by Ai, have you?” Reina suddenly asked.
Risa looked at Reina ambiguously, but then at Megumi to see if she did know the answer.
“Hmm… I don’t think so… I think she went home…Otherwise, I would have asked her to cook for me…”
“But weren’t you the one saying you thought you could cook today?” Reina raised a brow.
“Ah… There Fujimoto-chan is…”
Risa and Reina turned to look at the newcomer who waved her hand as if fanning her nose.
“Heeeey, Murata, did you try cooking again? Smells like something burnt in here,” Miki wheezed slightly, walking towards the cabinets holding miscellaneous foods.
“Since we’re all here… Perhaps we should try cooking some yaki—”
“HELL YEAH!” Reina and Miki turned to face Megumi. Risa was startled at the sudden yells of her fellow members, while Megumi remained stoic as usual. Miki took out the small yakiniku grill and happily skipped over to the island counter in the middle of the kitchen and plugged it.
“Perhaps I should tend to the grill…” Megumi said as she nonchalantly walked towards it, only to get pushed away by Reina and Risa.
“So is there any meat already marinated in the refrigerator?” Miki asked as she sat in front of the grill, armed with chopsticks and a small finger plate of sauce.
“…So all you do is plug it and expect us to do the cooking?!” Reina raised a brow.
“Of course! I’m too lazy to go over to get the meat!” Miki whined, pointing to the refrigerator behind her while still looking at the other three on the other side of the counter-island.
Twenty minutes later, the four were happily eating the yakiniku for their lunch, Chatting about mundane things as they ate.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you this but…” Megumi began, to which Miki stared at, “you hold your chopsticks the wrong way.”
“Seriously?” Miki stared at her hand.
“Ah… yeah…”
“So do I hold it like this?” Miki shifted her chopsticks in her hand.
“No, not really… It’s more like this…” Megumi held her hand out in a position for Miki to see clearly.
Miki scrunched up her nose as she tried in frustration attempting to copy Megumi’s pose, and tried to pick up a piece of meat from the grill from that awkward positioning. Unfortunately, the meat winded up falling repeatedly as she tried many times to pick it up.
“The meat will burn if you go at that rate,” Reina used her free hand to stifle a giggle.
“Just shut up…” Miki gritted her teeth as she continued failing to grab that one piece of meat.
“It’s more like this…” Megumi sighed as she took a piece of meat with her correctly positioned chopsticks, and ate it.
“And this…” She took another piece of meat and ate it.
“And this…” She took another piece of meat and ate it.
“And this…” She took another piece of meat and ate it.
“And this…” She took another piece of meat and ate it.
“And this…” She took another piece of meat and ate it.
“And this…” She took another piece of meat and ate it.
“And this…” She took another piece of meat and ate it.
“DAMMIT!” Miki threw her chopsticks which landed perfectly flat against Megumi’s face. One stuck to her forehead, the other underneath her nose.
Still stoic as ever, Megumi simply peeled the chopsticks from her face and with shifty eyes, looked at them. “Ah… You chose chopsticks of different sets. One’s bigger than the other. Figures…”
“Oh by the way…” Miki said, ignoring Megumi’s comment, “I went and bought a new whiteboard for concerts. Since the one we have now is so dirty that it is completely unusable. It’s in the lobby now.”
“Aww! I didn’t think you were that nice!” Reina sneered.
“Of course not, my manager has been bugging me for weeks about it, I only did it to shut her up,” Miki twitched her eye.
“Let’s give it a look then,” Risa said as she shut off the heat of the yakiniku grill, eating the last bite and left. The remaining people finished their bites and also headed for the lobby.
There it was, a simple whiteboard which could rotate vertically so that the other side could be written.
“I haven’t bought markers for it yet, so the ones you see now are mine…”
“By the way, I think it was me who used up the marker, I doodled on Yossie last month…” Reina raised a hand apologetically.
“Huh? I doodled on her last month!” Risa looked at Reina, “I gave her a unibrow!”
“You two were the ones who used up my marker that time?!” Miki grabbed the other two and noogie’d them both. After protests exclaiming that it was not their fault Miki randomly had the marker out, she let them go. “Since we’re here… Why not assign colors to people?”
“What do you mean?” Reina raised a brow.
“You know, like that sentai* stuff.” (Sentai = masked superheroe stuff like Power Rangers, Kamen rider, etc).
“Oh! I’ll be the purple ranger then, if such a thing exists…” Reina raised her hand lazily.
“…What are you all doing…?” came a familiar voice.
“Ah… Gocchin, we are discussing sentai colors amongst ourselves…Miki’s idea.”
“…What?”
“Ah…Red for me since I’m the leader!” Miki grinned, writing down names and their colors.
“I get dibs on being the black ranger then.”
“Why black? Such a boring color,” Risa looked at Megumi.
“Ah… The black ranger is a cool ranger… It’s like you all are on the brink of destruction until I appear on a hilltop with a sunset behind me while I lean against the tree with a piece of straw in my mouth, all cool, then I transform and beat the crap out of the villains…”
“My my, what an impressive insight…” Reina went shifty-eyed.
“What’s your color going to be?” Megumi asked Maki, clearly with a sneer.
“Do I seriously have to take part in this?” Maki went shifty-eyed.
“Just give out a random color to be, that’s all!” Risa grinned.
“Eh? I’d rather not,” Maki waved her hand dismissively.
“You know what? Isn’t the fact that we’re choosing sentai colors very stupid?” Miki suddenly butted in, with an angry tone.
Everyone stared at her.
Maki took the marker from Miki’s hands, crossed out ‘red’ and wrote down ‘puke green.’
“What the hell?!” Miki tried to get the marker away from Maki, but to no avail, Maki kept it out of her reach.
“You were the one who came up with the stupid idea in the first place!” Maki replied, blocking Miki’s advancements.
“The new white board…” Reina looked off to the side, and sighed painfully, “covered with moronic words…”
“Oh, Miki, mind if I ask you a question?”
“Oh, Risa, mind if I don’t answer?”
“Have you seen Ai anywhere?”
“Her? I thought she went home for her vacation.”
“…Is that so?” Risa stroked her imaginary beard to ponder.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Next Day.
“Hey, brat, mind if I borrow your time for a moment?” Miki said as she smacked the aforementioned person on her favorite part of the human body—her ass.
“Eh?!” Risa squealed at the sudden contact, “Sure, nothing will stop you, I was just about to leave this lobby to go to my room anyway.”
“It’s about Ai. Reina found some information that she’s at the hospital again. Though, her sources are very unsure about it… Were you aware of this?”
Risa was silent.
“Yeah… Reina was really worried about her…” Miki looked off to the side.
“She was worried about Ai?”
“I don’t see them fight as often as they used to, so I’m just assuming they get along well.”
“Ah… So Ai made another friend… I’m touched…” Risa smiled.
“Don’t be pulling a Megumi on me now…” Miki went shifty-eyed. “But for a reaction queen, what’s with the Megumi stoicism? Did she and you switch bodies or something?”
Risa’s eyes stared on the floor. “Yeah… Normally, I would become worried… right? Maybe something is wrong with me…” then she walked to the exit of the lobby, “I’m changing my mind, I’m going out for a walk.”
“I love you…”
“I thought I had lost you…”
“I don’t need you anymore. Stay the hell away from me.”
Yui stood in front of the house. Surely, she needed the key to enter it, so the only logical thing was to wait for the body guard to come by, perhaps with the food for dinner, since she now knew that whoever lived in this house had to have food at least twice a day. Sure enough, the same bodyguard came with a tray of food, bewildered at Yui’s sudden appearance.
“O-Okada-san?” the woman stammered, “What are you doing here? Entrance to this place is prohibited…”
“If entrance is prohibited, then why are you bringing food in?”
The woman was clearly panicking internally.
“I’ve seen you bring food before as well. Who are you giving the food to?”
The woman was still silently panicking.
“I know this house is used to contain evil spirits or evil deities, yet a mortal human is in there?”
Trapped in darkness…
“How did recording go?” Miki asked as she walked slowly, hands in her padded vest pockets.
“Pretty well really! Just because I love you, I’ll tell you ahead of time that album will have a jazzy feel to it,” Aya smirked.
“Is that all you’re telling me?”
“Of course, Tan, just because I’m evil like that.”
“Damn, to think I thought I had all the special privileges of accessing your secrets…” Miki pouted. “Am I really your best friend and/or lover? You don’t treat me like oooone~!”
“Love smacks m’dear, love smacks,” Aya smiled as she kissed Miki on the cheek.
“Smack me some more, Aya-sama,” Miki smiled mischievously.
“You can wait, riiight? I know you’d rather do that in my apartment rather than a public park like this,” Aya giggled.
As they rounded the park path, Aya walked into someone. Both staggered a bit before confirming who they had just walked into. It was Risa.
“Wow, I told you we’d probably run into the brat here,” Miki simply commented.
“At least watch where you are going next time,” Risa raised a brow.
“We did, you are the one who should watch where you’re going,” Aya raised a brow.
“So who’s left in the main apartment?”
“Almost everyone left to spend time with their families. I think maybe Yui or Rika might still be back at the house,” Aya replied.
“Is that so? I guess I’ll go on my way. Have fun,” Risa smiled as she past them.
“You’re going to see if Ai’s back, aren’t you?” Miki said as she turned to face the fleeting Risa.
The eighth head stopped.
“She’s not there, I think she’s at a hospital, I’m not sure if she is though…” Aya added on.
“So you’re the one of the sources Reina had?” Risa turned around, walking towards them.
“Yeah…”
“Ai… Is she hurt badly? Did she get injured?” Risa asked, concern running deep in her voice. “There was something I’ve always wondered, she’d never let anyone see her in the showers after Metro practice… I manage to get a glimpse of why, that scar… Do you know something about it?”
Aya knew that the younger would ask about that. Even though Ai had told her to not tell anyone, she felt that Risa deserved to know. “Risa-san… Ai…She…Ai was pushed by Rika… From the third floor… That huge wound isn’t some accident… It was because Rika found out about your relationship… And… and…”
Completely broken…
“The person inside… Who is it?” Yui glared at the bodyguard.
“I… I can’t tell… I’ll be yelled out… And I can’t disobey… I can’t lose this job… I have too much to lose if I lost it…I can’t tell…”
“Give the key to me. You only have to say that I forced you into doing so. I’ll also say that this kind of thing… Isn’t good at all…”
“She already… For many days, hasn’t eaten… If this continues…” the bodyguard took her necklace off, thus revealing the key, “She’ll die… Please… Save her…” and with the handing of the key, the guard rushed off.
With the key, Yui unlocked the door and entered. Immediately, she felt repulsed with the atmosphere of the room… The air was so… suffocating… With the open door being the only source of light, she saw that the walls were stained with blood. And not only blood splatters, but with writing made of blood, perhaps priests attempting to keep the evil spirits from escaping from the house. In the corner of the windowless room, there was someone sitting with her knees pulled to her chest, almost as if all life was lost to her…
“I have to get you to a hospital, immediately!” Yui came to her aid. As she went over and tried to snap the other out of her trance, the woman collapsed.
“Don’t die on me! I’ll get you there quickly!” Yui whisked the other into her arms, cradling her.
Before completely passing out, the woman uttered very weakly, “Risa…”
Unable to regain my spirit…
“Ai… She wants to break the curse…” Miki and Risa’s attention were shifted to Aya.
“She wants to free everyone from Rika’s side… But most of all, she wants to give Risa her freedom…On her own too! That’s why… That’s why she left you…” Aya turned to Risa. “Please… Only you can tell her ‘that’s enough’ because if she continues like this… She won’t be okay… She will be very lonely… She’ll suffer forever…”
Risa simply patted Aya’s shoulder, not even saying anything, for that touch alone already made Aya know that she did not have to say anymore.
Slowly, a few tears escaped from Aya, to which Miki tended to by wiping them off. Miki then stared at the fleeting eighth head, walking away with her fists clenched.
Risa had only one priority to fulfill at the moment: Confront Rika.
I’m broken…
<3
Topic: Our Cursed Gift [Chapter 47: Our Final Promise][COMPLETE] (Read 170847 times)