Important Note!
For all those who have read this fanfiction titled 'Pandora, The Magician And The Five Silver Bullets' previously, the fanfiction has undergone huge changes so reading the first chapter is a must. For those who haven't read it before, you could kindly ignore this and enjoy reading and hopefully leave a review with your opinion.
"This is the end...," so guileful and cunning, the deep voice called out, awakening the girl cloaked by the depths of the darkness to her new reality. She allowed her irises to flutter about erratically, her mind buzzing with questions, and the voice being the last matter bugging her in the sudden plight. She gazed at her surroundings cluelessly, trying to figure out what was going on. Combing through her memory, she attempted to uncover anything that could inform her of the situation, but no such memory existed.
Everything around her consisted of black, no object that could be categorized bearing existence, giving her an unsettling feeling.
Although no luminosity attended the locale, looking down at herself, her features were clearly evident, as if she has been showered by Sun's bright gleam. Also, if her memory could candidly be deemed precise, the last event her mind registered was her drowsing off while reading a book. That knowledge itself failed to elucidate the situation, only cutting out more possibilities and darkening her cognizance as much as her unlit surroundings were. Her mind started whirring in disarray at the realization of these odds. She tried to grasp her footing but her mind ended up going in circles.
If she had fallen asleep on the couch, then why was she standing? She primarily considered the possibility of a blackout, but her current position ruled it out. She riveted her eyes downwards, studying her own form as if it would magically impel a proper conclusion to spring into existence, but instead, it forced her thoughts to another screeching stop at an eerie realization. Her eyelids edged away from each other, more than they did when fulfilling their usual task, allowing her a few moments to take in the information while she still wore an expression of befuddlement. As she gazed down at herself, her legs seemed to be closer than usual, and as she turned to her hands, they seemed to be smaller than they were originally. When she had examined her condition moments ago, she was too confused to notice the change.
For some unknown reason, the hair on the back of her head erected, and her instincts told her it wasn't the shock of being miniaturized. If she would give her physical age a wild guess, it would be around seven...
A cold chill ran down her spine.
What happened when she was seven that triggered her fear..? She tried to recall any memories entwined with that particular number but not even a hint of it resurfaced.
She inhaled deeply, attempting to regain her equilibrium. Mustering some courage, she pulled her feet forwards into a brisk walk, experimenting whether anything would emerge somewhere in the distance. Soon it extended to a vigorious stride as she took wider steps.
Nothing.
Nothing broke into her field of vision. Nothing other than black. If it was really darkness, she would be accustomed to it by now. The fact that she could clearly see herself stood in the way of any definite explanations.
The voice from earlier stated nothing more and it had died out since then. Sure, she was grateful for the quiescence, but the inarticulateness taking over the place caused her to worry even more.
She pryingly noted that she didn't bump into any object on her brief patrolling of the area. Which made her come to the only believable conclusion during that succession of absurd events...
She wasn't at home.
And it was blatant enough from the first moment, really. When her inner turmoil remained under control, she would usually prevent herself from stating the obvious. In the turbulent state she was in, however, she couldn't help but revise everything with herself again, obvious or not.
She came to a stop, deciding that walking deeper into the labyrinth-like premises would lead her thoughts to dead ends.
She glared at the non-existent horizon, itching to recall anything that was useful. With every second passing with useless results, her fretfulness intensified. She
tapped with her feet impatiently, waiting for a recollection to intrude.
"Miyuki!"
Upon hearing her name being called by a different voice, one she found greatly familiar, she turned on her heel to take a good look at the owner of the voice.
A distant form stood, the placid face wonted by Miyuki's memory rimpled by an unusual demeanor that unveiled fear and concern.
"M-Mom!," she hollered, her wavering voice echoing, almost in disbelief at the unexpected appearance of the parent. Her mother's presence scarcely calmed her vigilant senses and seemed to stretch out a fragment of hope. A part of her conscious found it odd though... why was she too dazzled at seeing her mother? Something was unnatural about those occurings...
Miyuki cautiously lifted her foot off the ground, opting to take a step forward.
"No! Miyuki, don't come!," she cried out, her cerulean irises endowing her daughter an icy forebidding glare. The girl in question froze up in her spot indecisively, her mother's expression putting her into confusion. What was going on? Her mother appeared to be... creeped out? She wasn't sure what it was that made her feel a chill when her mother gave her that stare, but she had an inkling that misery was not so far...
"Run away from here!," she austerely ordered, hoping Miyuki would follow. Instead, she sprinted towards the far-flung individual without second thoughts. She was aware she took the wrong choice but she wasn't about to let go of her only source of safety in the anonymous vicinity.
"Miyuki, don't co-," the mother attempted to let out another precaution but her countenance abruptly registered horror, her eyelids parting to their maximum as a gunshot sounded through the air. The girl stiffened in her spot, her attention affixed on her mother. Slowly, droplets of cold sweat began to slide down her cheeks. The pounding of her heart escalated to a level above the standard.
"...M-Mom...?," she wheezed questioningly, ogling at the unmoving figure before her, still under the growing premonition that something was off. Just as she was about to let out another call to the still individual, her mother's body toppled forwards to the ground lifelessly, revealing it's spirit has already betrayed it. A deep crimson circle was thoroughly carved into her back, out of which a similarly coloured liquid was oozing out. Puddles of thickening scarlet rhythmically formed around it. It didn't take a moment for her to come to the realization that her mother was no longer in this world. A woozy gob of adrenaline discharged into her circulatory system, causing her limbs to quaver and her breathing to resort to quicker patterns. Her heart seemed to be trying to rival the running seconds, throbbing rapidly in her chest.
At that moment she felt like shrinking into a corner, but there unfortunately was none. She gulped. Her mother was dead. Gone from this world. Yet, topping her mournfulness, there was yet another feeling.
Familiarity. The scene was too familiar to be ignored. As if it was a replay of something that had already occurred before...
She shuddered tremulously. She didn't know what was about to unfold before her, but she knew it wasn't over...
Then, as she stood there helplessly wondering whether to wait for the next melancholy or to flee, an ominous feeling made it's appearance to her paranoid head. The feeling of being watched.
She slowly looked over her shoulder, ascertained that she would face another jeopardy, but there was nothing behind her.
Yet even after checking, the feeling still haunted her thoughts. She cautiously paced forwards, nearing her mother's corpse. Miyuki knew it was quite puerile to believe her imaginary bugbear existed without catching a glimpse of it, but there were times when she trusted her instincts more than common sense. And this was one of them.
The ominous scene before her seemed to catechise how much time was left before she ended up with the same fate, the sound of a clock ticking away becoming within earshot. Miyuki looked around her again, but there was nothing like a clock or watch anywhere around. Weird...
The black listlessly started to subside, wiping itself out to envision a foggy surrounding of a calming living room whose peace was shattered. A carpet appeared under the corpse of Miyuki's mother, which seemed to be the center of the living room. Shards of glass reclined beside her from the broken TV screen to the left. Everything was painted into dull shades of gray. Miyuki almost swore these objects didn't exist there formerly, and this only caused her fears to escalate.
As her surroundings became clearer, Miyuki was starting to notice the place was none other than her own home, yet... it felt strange to call it her home. As if it was no longer where she resided. As the dark fog cleared out, however, she came to another bloodcurdling realization when another corpse was tossed out of nowhere beside her mother's to the floor. Miyuki's body was gradually starting to tense, a cold chill moving down her spine. Her legs tampered in the same spot, hanging on whether to move fowards or to figure out an escape route with the absence of direction.
She didn't need a closer look to recognize the second corpse as her father's.
Footsteps sounded throughout the place, the voice getting closer with each moment. Miyuki whirled to every possible angle, trying to work out where that sound was coming from. She put in her utmost efforts to overlook the feeling of something votalite approaching, the sensation nagging her to resort to elopement. She pulled her oscillating feet, cautiously edging away, but immediately halted when one of her feet hit something, causing her heart to skip a beat.
She shut her eyes tightly, costively moving her head to check what it was. She then slowly allowed her eyelids to part in order to see what it could be. She trembled in fear, recognizing the third person, also now a corpse.
It was none other than Akai Shuichi.
She gulped, her fingers clinging to the hem of her shirt as they resumed their shakey movement.
A golden cylindrical object fell, causing Miyuki to almost jump. Then, before she could get a good look at it, something else fell down to the floor. A young girl with messy dark brown hair rested eternally in a blood-soaked attire on the ground.
Suddenly, as if a switch has been turned on, the memories came back rushing into her mind. But when cold metal pressed against the back of her head and a mischievous chuckle sounded, she knew she was following them.
But by the time the recollection came to make sense, it was too late.
With the trigger being pulled, the same voice bid her the final farewell...
"Rest in peace...Koyama Miyuki..."
Rum's cold voice...
She thrusted upwards from her slouched position on the couch, wheezing quickly with her chest rising and falling contiuously, her hands beside her, digging into the cushions forcefully while sweat descended down her fearful countenance. The adrenaline rush continued to declare its presence by inciting hasty breathes and disorderly heartbeats to enliven the silent room. Though her eyes were wide open gaping at the room, Miyuki didn't fully comprehend it was a nightmare until her eyes met the book lying on her lap; A Study In Scarlet. Her memory took her back to the previous night when she was reading the mystery book and drowsed off on the couch. She took a deep breathe, allowing herself a few more minutes to calm the adrenaline-induced behavior her body obeyed- her quick breathing pattern and her hands performing a shakey dance to the melody of her rhythmetic and ever quickening heartbeat.
With her anxiety attack finally lulled into serenity, she became more aware of the present. She hurriedly grabbed her phone lying on the small table in the middle of the living room and checked the time. 6 am.
Look at the good side, Miyu, she sarcastically told herself, it's easier to arrange the cushions than to make the bed sheets presentable. A bemused smirk outlined her lips as she bent down to the cushions, which weren't moved much during her sleep, positioning them back to their proper places before heading over to the bathroom to get ready for the day ahead of her.
After that, she changed into her brand new sailor uniform, slipping on her school shoes at the door and took off towards the road that will lead her middle school life to a start.
Reaching her station, Miyuki filed out of the train along with a crowd of passengers seeking to go to different places. Some would be pleased at the sight of the early signs of the spring blooming, claiming that it was a nice day, while others would've overslept and are pulling their legs out of the train to reach their office before they are late, deeming no heed to their surroundings and the good weather. But one Koyama Miyuki exiting that very same station could be categorized as neither of these. There was a more important matter that her subconscious unwillingly busied her with no matter how much she tried to forget it.
The nightmare.
Miyuki wasn't one to panic about death quite often, but that one particular display during her slumber gave her an uneasy premonition and triggered her paranoia. With each step, she whipped her head attempting to get a full view of her surroundings to make sure she was safe. Memories of that nightmare remained fresh, fulfilling their purpose of creeping her out as if she has just seen the dream again. Inhaling deeply, Miyuki regained her composure and tried to remain calm throughout the walk to the school. She let out a chuckle at how silly she was, shelving the matter away in her mind to be clicked upon later.
Upon reaching the school gates, a gust of cool breeze brushed against her face, fiddling the pile of cherry blossoms on the ground, and picking up the black locks streaming down to her elbow, causing them to float animately in the wind's blow.
She stepped into the vast building, taking a side to make sure she wasn't blocking the way. Her emerald green eyes scanned the room in search for her name. Spotting it, she strolled over to her designated locker, slipping on a pair of indoor shoes before presuming to the board to check which class she was in, in front of which a crowd of students gathered eagerly to check the same thing.
She stood behind the crowd, trying to get a proper view of the board while the students' moving heads continued to block her vision. She spotted a first name written in katakana and eyed it confusedly with slight interest. Sairenji Rya...
"I'm in the same class as her! Lucky, aren't I? I hope Sairenji-san is cute...," a boy daydreamed while the other boys commented on how lucky he was.
Even for a foreign name, it's quite a rare one, Miyuki thought, sighing when the boys continued to imagine what kind of person Sairenji Rya could be.
"Perverts...," she mumbled softly, pacing away.
She briskly made her way through the corridors, in search for her class, which was supposed to be on the first floor. Before she started her search though, she could hear some noises in the background, and as she took a minute of her time to check for the source of the voice, she came to realize it was class 1-B. She inwardly groaned about her misfortune to be stuck in a noisy class for the rest of the year, quietly walking in.
The surroundings seemed rather lively, a better replacement for the dull 6th grade class she used to study in for the past year. Some students were introducing themselves, while others were chit-chatting with their friends that transferred with them, either intentionally or by pure coincidence. However, what caught her attention was a blue-eyed brunette that was talking about Sherlock Holmes to a seemingly annoyed dark haired girl.
"... and when Watson asked Holmes about how he could observe stuff easily, he asked him how many times he had climbed the stairs to his lodgings and asked him whether he remembered the number of the steps," he went on, and Miyuki could see the girl rolling her eyes at his endless speech about Sherlock Holmes. From the looks of it, it seemed like he could go on for hours if no one ever stopped him. Miyuki unknowingly listened intently to each word he said, a result of her interest in all kinds of mystery novels, be it Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Edogawa Rampo, or even the infamous Kudo Yusaku. Now that his name came to her mind, she started to realize that boy had some resemblance to Kudo Yusaku.
Abruptly realizing she didn't move from the spot she was in yet, she scurried over to the nearest empty seat.
"When Watson failed to do so, he said-"
"Shinichi! Enough!", the girl snapped at the boy, whose name happened to be Shinichi.
" 'You saw but you did not observe' ," Miyuki completed the sentence, not able to hold back to urge to do so as it was one of her favourite quotes of Sherlock Holmes. Shinichi and Ran turned to her direction, gazing at her and wondering how loud their conversation was to be noticed by their classmates.
"Was I mistaken?, " she questioned, their stares making her start to doubt her knowledge.
"No, you're not...," Shinichi quietly assured, still in a stupor due to it being his first time meeting a girl who was interested in detective novels.
"Shinichi-san, was it? Your name sounds like what would act in favour of Holmes' work...," Miyuki commented, earning a confused expression from Shinichi, urging her to go on.
"Shi-nichi, death day. In other words, the day in which a person dies. And if it was due to a crime, Holmes might take the honour. Also, Shin-ichi, one truth. Detectives like him uncover the one and only truth behind murders...for a Holmes fan like you, maybe that name fits you..,"upon finishing her sentence, she pulled out an empty seat and sat down, ignoring the gazes she was getting from some students, the guy known as Shinichi and the girl arguing with him not being the only ones who eyed her.
'Damn it, another one...,' Ran thought irritably before noticing Miyuki was not going to join the conversation anymore.
"Hey, Shinichi! Enough of the Holmes talk now!," she snapped.
"But Ran-," he stopped mid-sentence as he noticed Ran's glare.
"You..," she paused for the dramatic effect, letting the suspense pour into the silence. "...haven't forgotten about my Karate Tournament this weekend, have you?," Shinichi sweatdropped and his face turned pale, much to Miyuki's amusement.
Ran punched the desk infront of her, causing the other students, except a few, to jump off their chairs due to the sudden action and Miyuki heard an amused whistle from behind her. She chuckled to herself, wondering about what would happen if one of the teachers noticed the damage she had inflicted to the school's property.
"Listen...," she said in a lower tone, as a maniac smirk made its way to her face, an expression that only warned him of what was coming next. "You better come or I'll demonstrate what I did in the tournament on you!", she yelled, her vexation reaching it's limits, directing a punch towards his face, as a form of threatening. His face was luckily too far to recieve the punch, but seeing her fist a few inches away from his face was a menacing sight by itself, knowing what she's capable of.
"Y-Yes...," Shinichi replied meekly, stepping back to assure his safety, before sighing in relieve when she was far enough. 'Girls... are scary...,' he thought.
"Hello!," Miyuki glanced over her shoulder to check for the source of the voice. It was a girl with cerulean eyes and long wavy blonde hair. From her appearance, Miyuki could easily tell she was a foreigner.
"Hey," Miyuki responded.
"You're a Sherlockian too?," the blonde asked, her eyes sparkling. From her expression, Miyuki could easily tell that the girl was a Sherlockian too.
"Ya, I am..," she muttered, causing her eyes to lit up, delighted to find a person that shared the same interest.
"I'm Kotegawa Ayaka, nice to meet you," she introduced, smiling cheerfully. Miyuki noted that the name sounded familiar but ignored the feeling and followed up by introducing herself, trying not to be discourtous.
"Koyama Miyuki. Nice to meet you too."
Ayaka smirked. "I already know that...," she muttered.
"Did we meet somewhere before?", as Miyuki voiced her question, however, everyone immediately turned to the source of a different voice informing them that they were required to gather in the school auditorium. Shooting the blonde a final glare, informing her that she would question that brief meeting later, Miyuki got up and followed the other students leaving the class.
"Good morning, class. I'm Linda Meric, and from today onwards, I'm going to be your English teacher," a woman with chestnut hair tied into a bun and a pair of chocolate brown eyes introduced with a gentle smile, yet despite the disguise, Miyuki could easily tell she was in fact Jodie Starling from the FBI, this recognition being a result of the three years she had known her and other agents. This time, however, she spoke Japanese like a native instead of the usual faked influency in her tone.
She quickly reached out to stop a pen that was rolling towards the edge of her desk, ending up with a fail attempt.
With an internal sigh, she bent down and reached out for it. She picked up her pace as she felt someone's glare on her back. She straightened in her chair and returned the misplaced pencil to its original place.
"Let's start with introducing yourselves in English, " the teacher announced, her face showing an unnoticed hint of seriousness. "Please start, " she gestured to the student in front of her. Miyuki let herself drown in her deep thoughts, as her head sunk into her palm, the sounds of wrongly pronounced English of her classmates having no effect on her thought process, rather acting like background music.
Her mind automatically shifted its focus back to what she saw in her nightmare. 'Rum...,' she thought, hatred taking control of her emotions at the thought of that one name. The scenes from her past started to flash in her mind, but quickly faded away as the desk behind her hit her. She looked over her shoulder and gave Ayaka an irritated look for pushing the desk towards her like that, before she stood up, realising why Ayaka had done that, since the teacher called her for her turn.
"My name is Koyama Miyuki. It's nice to meet you," she spoke in an American accident, as everyone's eyes were glued to her in both bewilderment and awe, not expecting a Japanese-looking girl to be that fluent in the western language. Jodie smiled under her mask as Miyuki settled down.
"My name is Kotegawa Ayaka. It's nice to meet you."
As Miyuki has expected, Ayaka earned the same expression from everyone. Her appearance did hint at what kund of performance she could pull of during that class, after all.
As the bell rang, the students started to unpack their homemade obentous, as the smell of the freshly cooked food tinctured the atmosphere in the class. Some students joined their desks together and sat for a mouth-watering meal with their newly-found friends while others sat separatedly, wishing to stay away from individuals that talked while eating because of unability to endure the disgusting scene. For Miyuki, though, breaktime was the perfect time for her interrogation. She turned around and looked at the blonde, who was still occupied with taking out her obentou, and was about to start up a conversation when someone interrupted her. Again...
"Umm...," a voice said uncertainly as the teacher's head peaked through the doorway. "Koyama Miyuki-san and Kotegawa Ayaka-san.. will you please come with me for a second?", the brunette asked.
And this time it was for the better...