March 1st

The sun gleamed, its golden rays making the emerald grass shiver under a warm light. The sky was a clear blue, that of a robin's egg. The day itself was gorgeous, but the events that happened in it were less than so.

It all started out normally. Ruri Kobaruto was over at the Hanane's, her home-away-from-home due to her brother's raging temper. Sosuke Hyakune had just moved out to his brand-new apartment, leaving Mimi Hanane, his older cousin, with the video game controller all to herself. She was absorbed in playing Portal 2 for the fifty-third time, this time without cheats enabled. Kori Akiyama, Mimi's older brother, was sitting on the white leather couch in the living room reading a book. Ruri was reading a very shojō manga, and had currently just gotten over her noisy sob-storm that had occurred when the book had mentioned child abuse. Ruri was abused often by her older brother Ruro Kobaruto, and she was a crybaby because of it.

The silver-haired girl suddenly blanched and looked up. Her eyes mostly closed, she bit her lip. Kori sensed something was wrong and looked over. "Ruri?" he asked, concern shining in his ice-blue eyes.

She just swallowed, then hoarsely whispered: "I don't feel so hot…" She was breathing deeply, her eyes now totally closed. Ruri swallowed again and clutched the arm of the white leather chair she was sitting in.

Kori now dropped his book in alarm. Ruri had never admitted to feeling sick before, and she had been sick very often, whether from allergies or just weak metabolism.

Ruri suddenly slid out of the chair and dropped to the floor. She continued to swallow, as if she was biting back something. Kori knew the signs, as he had seen her throw up so often, and he quicky fetched her a bucket. "Look away," she said, her voice faint, and he did so as she let the rising waves of bile escape out of her mouth.

A hard object fell into the bucket with a clunk, and Kori couldn't help but look over.

He saw the item in the bucket and stared. "What the hell…" he whispered, his eyes wide. Mimi looked over at this, finally tearing herself away from her game long enough to see what was going on. It was a rare occasion for her brother to swear.

In the bucket, along with the puked-up bits of bile and food, was a giant, gleaming ruby. Mimi saw this and promptly cursed as well. Ruri just kept staring. Suddenly, she fell back against the base of the chair and closed her eyes. "Goodnight," she breathed, before collapsing to the floor, fast asleep.

Mimi and Kori looked at each other. "I know that she would hate this, but I think we have to call Ruro," suggested the pigtailed girl said.

Kori shook his head. "Not yet. But the twins and Sosuke, definitely."

When Ruri awoke, a crowd of amazed, wide eyed faces was peering down in front of her. "Do it again! Do it again!" shrieked Mizu eagerly, almost bouncing with excitement.

Blearily, Ruri rubbed her eyes. "What… happened…" She yawned. "Did I… fall asleep… again?" she asked sleepily.

Mizu shook her head. "No, Ruri, you can vomit rubies!" she grinned.

Ruri gasped as the memories flooded back to her. She curled into a tiny ball and closed her eyes. "I don't like that. I don't wanna do it again. It hurt."

Kori stepped between the two girls. "Don't force her to do that again. You can tell that she doesn't like that. Anyways, this might just be a one-time thing."

Ruri nodded. "Thank you." she murmured, giving him a weak smile. Suddenly, she began convulsing again. Kori set the bucket back in front of her and in no time at all, a glistening sapphire about the size of Ruri's thumbnail laid there next to the ruby.

Mizu squealed with excitement as Sosuke and Mizuumi stared in disbelief.

Mimi blinked, not believing her eyes. Kori, even though he had seen it before, could hardly believe it himself. It just wasn't possible.

Kori finally tore his eyes away and spoke. "I think that this happens about a minute to thirty seconds after she speaks. Remember, Mimi, she started screaming about child abuse because of that book. And then, about a minute later, look what happened. Same thing here, only a little less time passed."

Mizu suddenly looked up, her eyes wide. "I read a book where something like this happened!" The white-haired girl suddenly raced out the door, coming back only a few minutes later. In her hand was a book of fairy tales. She opened up to the page and quickly read the tale aloud.

(As for you, reader, you can read the story at " . " if you are not familiar with it.)

At the end, Mizuumi glared at her. "You idiot, there's no such thing as fairies. Why on earth would you show us this stupid thing?" Mizu winced at this harsh comment.

Ruri then spoke up. "I like fairy tales, even if they aren't true," she whispered, as quietly as she could. But to her dismay, not long after, a very tiny jade chip fell into the bucket as well.

Exhausted, she closed her eyes and laid back down, breathing heavily. Apparently throwing up jewels was tiring and painful.

Mimi handed her a piece of paper and pencil. Quickly, Ruri wrote: I think I will go home now.

Kori nodded and the silver-haired girl slowly made her way home, weary and silent.

Ruro was waiting for Ruri when she came home. "Where have you been, you little brat!" he scowled, his eyes narrowed. He smacked her across the face, and she let out an involuntary shriek of pain. Angry now, he grabbed her long locks of hair and dragged her inside, swearing all the way, ignoring her screams.

But the screams took their toll and soon she kneeled down on the floor and began to make a horrible noise. Soon, amongst the bile were three identical giant opals and a small chip of turquoise. Ruro stared at her incredulously. "Did you… eat these jewels!" he said at last, his rage gone in a flash. She shook her head. How was she to explain without speaking? She finally decided that she had to.

All in a rush, she told him of how this happened whenever she spoke and that she had no idea how it started. Not long after, a slimy topaz laid on the ground. Ruri, now extremely tired, closed her eyes and laid down onto the floor. She was almost asleep when Ruro kicked her. She opened her eyes, startled. He smiled a horrid grin, full of yellowed teeth. "More" was all he said. She shook her head, her blue eyes wide with fear. Again he kicked her, hard in the stomach. She shook her head again, stubborn yet afraid. Malice dripping in his voice, he threatened: "Speak or else I kill you." Ruri had no doubt that he would carry out with his death threat, and quickly began to talk.

"Umm… I don't want to die. I'll talk, sure!" she said nervously. He glared at her.

"Louder."

"Uh… Umi no Sakanaaaaaa," she began to sing fearfully, her voice echoing around the room.

He hit her. "Not loud enough," he said through gritted teeth. But she wasn't able to raise her voice anymore, because a large diamond came to join the other gems.

Ruro sent her sprawling. "MORE," he growled.

Now terrified, she began to sing a very off-key version of Paranoid Doll at the top of her lungs. Her voice was hoarse and she was amazed that she could even continue to stay awake, but halfway through the song, she spat out a pair of giant saltwater pearls, a great lump of rose quarts, and an unusual black diamond chip.

By this time, the room had begun to spin. She felt herself switch between feeling hot and cold rapidly, and she felt as if was on a boat, going up and down, up and down, up and down, with the raging waves. She kept singing, though she couldn't remember why the song called out 'Boku wa Parajikurorobenzen.' Ruro probably didn't care if she got the words wrong, though. He just wanted her to sing. Oh, more gems were on the floor. When did that happen? And why was the room wavering about? Everything had a weird bluish tint. She must be underwater. Was she still singing? Yes, she was singing still; "Ichigo wo tabe…" She was so sleepy. Why hadn't she drowned yet if she was underwater? She didn't have time to think about that, the world was growing darker, oh look, more and more stones on the floor, were they from her? She wasn't sure anymore. Not sure of any… thing…

Ruri Kobaruto fell unconscious to the floor, an array of multicolored, slimy jewels and bile surrounding her.

After Mizu, Mizuumi and Sosuke went back home, Kori looked over at Mimi, who had already resumed playing Portal. "I'm worried," he said. "I'm really scared that Ruro is going to find out about this."

Mimi shrugged. "I don't know. I still can hardly believe that that ever happened."

After a long silence, he decided that he was going to go check on her. "Even if I run into Ruro," he thought, "Then I'll just punch him in the face and walk past him."

Although he was nervous about this new plan, Kori found himself at the Kobaruto's small, temporary apartment. The numbers "130" loomed up over him. He rang the doorbell and, to his shock, the door opened and Ruro was staring at him, icy eyes meeting icy eyes. But what surprised him the most was what the silver-haired man said.

"You must be the doctor. Little…" Kori ignored the rude swear-word names that he called Ruri. "…won't wake up." Kori nodded. Although this wasn't what he had expected, he could take advantage of it. Doctors didn't even make house calls anymore, so no one would come expose her as a fraud.

"Let me see her," he said, and Ruro let him in.

It didn't take an expert to see that Ruri was in an awful condition. She was breathing shallowly and her eyes were rolled back up in her head so that one could only see the whites. Ruro had obviously attempted to scrub away most of the bile and had well-hidden the gems. She was covered in sweat and her clothes were practically plastered to her skin.

'Kori-Sensei' walked over to her nervously. He didn't know that this had taken so much out of her. Even though he already knew the answer, he asked Ruro, "What happened?"

Ruro quickly lied: "She was sitting here in the kitchen and then started throwing up, over and over again. She fell unconscious after a while."

Kori kneeled down in front of her. "She's probably suffering from a lack of bile and nutrients now," he guessed. He just hoped he was right. "Can you move her to a more comfortable place?" Ruro nodded, and grabbed her legs. Kori picked her up gingerly and together the two enemies carried her into her room.

Although the Kobarutos constantly had to move from place to place because of Ruro's tendency to steal things and get caught doing it, Ruri had found a way to make her small room, no bigger than a closet, look a little more personalized. A couple drawings were stuck onto the walls, and the sheets on the futon were the same blue as her namesake. A poster above her bed depicted her idol, Kamui Gakupo, and another, similar, poster showing Dell Honne was on the wall opposite from the drawings.

Kori was surprised. He had no idea that Ruri liked Gakupo and Dell. The expression must have shown on his face, because Ruro said to him: "Yeah, I know, it's a dump. Full of stupid girl crap."

The dark-haired man just barely contained his urge to punch Ruro out right then and there. How could he be so disrespectful to her dreams? But he concentrated on the pain of carrying Ruri's weight and set her down on the futon carefully.

He wished that he could do something for her. But all he could say to Ruro was: "When she wakes up, try to get her to drink something. I'll be back tomorrow."

Ruro thanked him gruffly as Kori walked out.

On the way home, Kori was so absorbed in his thoughts that he almost walked past his house. He couldn't help but wonder how he had never noticed just how similar Ruri's hairstyle was to Gakupo's. He wondered how, when she woke up and healed, he could manage to get the tickets to see one of the singer's concerts.

Her infatuation with Dell Honne was a mystery to him. What was so appealing about the rude workaholic smoker? He couldn't even sing that well. His voice sounded like a bulldozer choking on a cat.

Kori sighed as he entered his home. "Hey, Mimi," he called out. "I ran into Ruro."

Although Mimi may have been absorbed in her video games a moment before, the Kobaruto's name made her drop the controller.

"Are you okay?" she cried, running up to him. He laughed. "Yeah, I'm fine. Ruro didn't hurt me. In fact, he seemed a bit desperate. I think that he found out about the jewels and started forcing her to speak. She was unconscious on the floor when I found her."

Mimi sat down. "Ruro? Desperate?" she cried, amazement and amusement in her eyes. "Tell me all about it."

So Kori told his cousin all about how Ruro had mistaken him for the doctor that never came, and how he had decided to play along. He almost omitted the part about how he found out that Ruri liked Dell Honne and Gakupo Kamui, but then thought that it wouldn't hurt. To his surprise, Mimi jumped up and ran out to her room. She came back with two pieces of paper in her hand.

"I was going to sell these! They came as a prize for getting the 100th copy of some game or another that I bought. You can take them for you and Ruri."

Kori smiled. "What are they?"

"Tickets to Gakupo Kamui's live concert!" she said excitedly.

"When's the concert?"

She grinned. "March 4th! Ruri's birthday!"

How had he not known that Ruri's birthday was in three days? He took the tickets but then suddenly realized something. "What if Ruri's not well by then?"

Mimi's face fell. "Oh. Well…"

"Ruro will probably hurt her for not getting well. Or he'll starve her. Or both," he whispered.

The black-haired girl saw his point. "Do you know what I think?"

"What?"

"We're going to bring Ruri here. No matter what that idiot Ruro thinks."

Kori stared at her in disbelief, but then smiled determinedly. "Yeah. Ruri, we're coming for you!"

The plan was ridiculous. But would it work? Ruro's greatest fear was getting caught- everyone knew that. But this was like dressing up in a princess costume and telling the Queen of England that you were her long-lost daughter. It seemed impossible.

But they would try.

When the doorbell rang again, Ruro was both surprised and very annoyed. Who on earth could it be now? He ignored it, even after it kept ringing over and over again.

Finally, he turned and looked at the door when a loud pounding began. What was going on?

Suddenly, the door fell down with a crash. If he had looked closely, a quick inspection would have shown that the hinges had been partially removed. But Ruro was too busy preparing to severely injure the two figures in front of him.

Kori and Mimi had pulled their black hair up to the top of their heads and concealed it under black fedoras. They dressed in all black and their eyes were hidden by dark shades. "We've come for the girl," Mimi growled, her naturally deep voice along with her flat-chested-ness proving a perfect disguise in making her seem like she was a man.

Ruro faltered. "W-what girl?" he said, quickly regaining his composure. He reached into his jeans pocket and flicked out a switchblade. "There's no girl here. Now get out of my house."

Kori tried to hide his nervousness. Had their absurd costume failed them?

But when Mimi strode across the main room and kicked open the door to Ruri's room, a sudden flash of panic could be seen on the silver-haired man's face. But his eyes narrowed and he reached behind him for a kitchen knife. Now, a blade in each hand, he prepared to stab both of them. Fear pierced both Mimi and Kori's bodies. Now they were in danger of getting killed!

Mimi quickly fastened an iron grip on Ruri's arm and dragged her across the floor. "Run!" she whispered to Kori, and he nodded, taking Ruri up in his arms. Since she was only around seventy pounds normally, he could carry her. Combined with the lost weight from all of retched fluids, his strength and the fact that she was now dead-weight, he could just barely carry her and run at the same time. He did so, thankful that they had broken down the door, and Mimi followed. However, Ruro was lean and armed. The cousins both thought that they were dead meat when another black-haired man jumped out of the shadows. A long saber in his hand, he called out: "Take care of Ruri! I'll hold him off!"

Mimi's eyes widened behind her sunglasses. "Sosuke!" she cried.

But he didn't hear her. He was too busy trying to fend off Ruro's expert attacks. This was the first time that Sosuke had ever even gripped a sword, and he knew that he stood no chance.

Within moments, Ruro had both blades at Sosuke's neck. "I could kill you now," he growled, "But I prefer not to. I'd rather not be charged with murder as well as child abuse." Ruro's hands fell away, and Sosuke was left open-mouthed at this new, strange side of Ruro.

The silver-haired man gestured at the saber. "Where in the name of hell did you get your hands on one of those?"

Sosuke stammered: "I-I had it for decoration. It's real, though."

Ruro eyed it with longing. "Tell you what. You were so foolish to try to go against me with that thing. If you'll give that beauty to someone who actually knows how to use it, then I'll spare your life. As long as you never breath a word to a single soul about what happened today."

Eagerly, he handed over the long blade. Ruro smiled, and Sosuke swore that he could see some weird, different side to Ruro in his ice-blue eyes. Something that said that it wanted it not for murder, but for pure pleasure…

Maybe he was drunk and Sosuke was lucky. He wasn't sure.

But he fled that apartment as fast as he could, leaving Ruro to stroke the sword almost lovingly.