Miyuki's Story
I leant back against the white van belonging to Toya. He And Tenchi had gone into the mountains to train, and I was left wondering what to do with the six months I had to kill.
I yawned widely. How boring, I thought I'm going to be stuck healing those jokers, Killi and Huey, every time they try to kill each other for six whole months!
At that moment Kiana sat against the tyre next to me. I looked down at her and asked "What's up?"
She peered up at me, "Alice misses him already" she sighed, "he's been gone like three hours and her puppy dog eyes have already gotten old"
"Why do you think I'm over here?" I said, with a sigh "I don't need to see a vision of how I used to look"
"Ha, used to" She scoffed "you get that look whenever you see the two of the together"
I smiled "I'm just jealous is all"
"Oh yeah, it's near that time again, huh?" she said, her eyes dropping to the floor "time goes so fast"
"Tell me about it" I sunk to the floor beside her
"You ever wish you'd never met him?" Kiana asked, looking up through her hair at me
I thought about it for a moment. "... No, never."
I leant my head back against the van, shutting my eyes. I didn't want to remember him, but the images of his face came all the same. After a few minutes I heard Kiana get up and walk away.
I don't remember falling asleep, but I do remember the dream because it was one I'd had many times before...
I walked towards the house, the brown bag of groceries cradled in my arms. I could hear nothing over my iPod, and wasn't really paying attention. That's when he ran into me.
I fell over backwards, dropping the bag, its contents scattering all over the floor. The iPod smashed.
I looked up; all ready to kill the idiot who'd knocked me, and didn't exactly see what I was expecting. Instead of some thug or some twat on his phone, it was the most terrified guy I'd ever had the pleasure to see.
Glass smashed somewhere behind him and shook both of us out of our daze. I don't know why I did it, they guy had just broken my beloved iPod, and 500 yen's worth of eggs. But I grabbed his hand, and I ran.
I dragged him back along the street, away from the house and the noises, down an alleyway, and then left at a crossroads. I lived on the edge of _________________, the Otaku paradise, and thankfully it was still busy. We ran into the nearest arcade, me gasping for air. I clutched at his arm, breathing heavily; I hadn't run like that in a very long time, the most exercise I got was on the Dance Dance Revolution machines.
Finally after getting some of my breath back, I looked up at his face. He was taller than me, although that wasn't hard; I hadn't grown since middle school, and I was in my last year of high school now.
He was looking out at the street, looking for his pursuers no doubt. It suddenly occurred to me that I might have just rescued a criminal, and I jumped back from him in shock.
He turned to me, surprised by my sudden movement.
"How many people have you killed!?" I pointed at him and shrieked. People looked at us, shocked by my sudden outburst. He merely looked at me like I was a psycho.
"What the heck is wrong with you, woman?" He said, the first time I'd heard his voice, "first you run away with some guy who's knocked you flying, then you shout in the middle of an arcade that he's a murderer; you bipolar or something?"
I wasn't really listening, his voice had knocked me out of my hysteria, and I'd suddenly seen his face properly. He had deep chocolate hair, but was pale with icy blue eyes. He was a Gaijin, a foreigner for sure; no Japanese guy was that good looking.
I gasped; he was like an anime character in his perfection.
"You still puffed out from that little run?" He said, his voice scathing "Geez, you're unfit"
I was still memorized, his voice was rough, and he spoke in Kansai dialect.
"Did you hit your head when I knocked you?" He said "or are you this dumb all the time?"
That woke me up. "Hey, I just helped your ungrateful butt out!"
"I could have gotten away!" He said crossing his arms "I didn't need some chick's help"
"For someone so good looking, you sure are a jerk!" I fumed "I guess beauty really is only skin deep"
"Rather that, than some bipolar idiot!" He said turning away
I stomped past him, towards the open front of the arcade, the people still staring at our little scene.
"Whoa, fiery couple" Someone said
"You know what they say, opposites attract. I bet they're hot in bed too" His friend replied. I chose to ignore this in favour of looking at a man in a dark robe across the street.
He was staring at Mr. Ungrateful.
I span around on my heel, grabbing the jerk's hand, and ran toward the back of the arcade, shoving people out my way as I went.
"I really think you ought to see a doctor about this problem" He said, following me anyway.
"I just saw some guy in a robe, staring at you from across the street" I said, looking for the back door.
Jerk skidded to a halt, and ran back the way we came, pulling me along for the ride.
"What're you doing!?" I said, pulling at his hand "the guy is out there!"
"He wanted you to see him, so we'd take the back route!" He said, almost to the entrance again
"No!" I shrieked "Maybe he wanted you to work that out, so we should take the back way!"
That stopped Jerk in his tracks, and he turned to look at me; I could almost see the cogs turning.
At the same time we ran for the back door again, this time we reached it and barrelled through. There were no men in robes; I felt proud of myself.
I pulled him through another alleyway, and then another. Suddenly we shot out into the evening light again, right beside the house, where I could see the remains of my shopping.
I ran to the door, and fumbled around with my keys before getting the right one. He shot past me a soon as I had the door open, and I locked it behind us.
I slumped against the wall, my chest heaving. Yet again Jerk looked as if he was about to step into a modelling shoot or something. He must run a lot, I thought, probably chased by those men in the tacky robes.
I sank to the floor in the hallway, he was right, I really am unfit, I sighed.
He looked out of the window beside the door, before slipping out. I'd have asked him where he was going, but I still had no breath.
Suddenly there was a crash, and I shot to the window.
Six men in cloaks surrounded the Jerk, who had some vegetables in his arms, and what looked like some white earphones; my iPod.
"That idiot!" I hissed, crashing out through the door. I hadn't realised it was slightly open, and I flew into the back of one of the cloaked people, knocking him down, there was a crack as his head hit the pavement.
Jerk used this opportunity to kick the nearest guy in the chest, and he hit the wall with a sickening crunch.
I rolled off of the robed man, averting my eyes from the blood that was now seeping from his head.
Someone laughed and grabbed me from behind, while the other three guys advanced on the Jerk. One suddenly lunged for him, but he sidestepped, the wrong way, as another leapt at him, connecting and ramming him to the wall.
Well he tried to anyway; Jerk twisted his wrist at the last second, smashing the robed one in his place.
Meanwhile, the guy who was holding me was distracted, so I stamped on his foot as hard as I could. He let me go, and I ran towards one of the robes that was sneaking up on the Jerk as he fought hand to hand with another.
I jumped on his back, my hands over his eyes. Jerk heard my war cry (read: scream of adrenaline pumped terror) and knocked out the robe he was fighting with a quick hard whack between the eyes, before leaping over my head at my recovered would-be captor, landing a kick to the gut.
He span and pulled me off of the last robe with ease, he put me down, but kept his hands on my hips to use as leverage to throw his legs at the guy behind him.
Now he was panting, and I could see blood dripping from above his eye, and his shirt was becoming redder by the second.
I pulled him back towards the house, "I'm the dumb one?" I asked.
"You are for running out there like that, you could have died" he said, still as ungrateful as ever.
"Ha, you're the one who went outside to pick up some crap!" I laughed; my emotions somewhere in between annoyance and relief.
"I was going to try fixing your iPod, but..." He opened his fist to show me some metallic dust and a screw, I laughed despite myself.
"It was outdated anyway" I said, opening the door again and shutting it behind him.
I saw him settle on a chair in the kitchen as I wondered up the stairs to find the first aid kit...
I awoke with a start, someone had poked me. I looked around to see Alice knelt beside me, I smiled at her.
"Sorry to wake you Miyuki" she apologised, bowing her head a little "but I was just wondering if I could ask you some things?"
I nodded, not wanting to think of the dream I'd just had.
"Could you tell me how you became an Awaken?" she asked, her face all sunshine and smiles.
I frowned, and she jumped up.
"Oh if you don't want me to know, it's fine!" she fretted, but I grabbed the pocket of her jeans and pulled her back down.
"No, it's just that I was dreaming of it just now... well sort of" I said, "It's common knowledge here, so you may as well know"
She nodded again "I asked the others but they said it wasn't their place to say"
I smiled, and shut my eyes, preparing to remember something I hated...
After I'd patched him up, the Jerk left, spouting some crap about how I'd gotten myself in some serious trouble and that I was better without him.
I let him go, he was an idiot anyway.
3 months passed; nothing any good happened, nothing to write home about.
That was until one day, a certain guy knocked at my door covered in blood.
"I had nowhere else to go" he said as I let him in and ran to get the first aid box.
I found him sat at my kitchen table.
"They find you again?" I asked, wetting some cotton wool.
"Yeah, this time there were 14 of 'em" He sighed "I just made it out alive"
"If you can call this alive" I grimaced, and put some antiseptic on the damp cotton wool. I touched it to a long wound on his arm and he hissed in pain.
"Stop being a baby" I told him as I tried again.
We sat in silence a while as I cleaned and dressed the wound on his arm, I could almost hear his teeth gritting.
"You're going to have to take your shirt off" I said, looking up at him.
"With my arms like this?" He said, "You're going to have to do it"
"What!?" I exclaimed, blushing
"Don't tell me you're embarrassed" he sneered "never done it before?"
"Shut it" I said looking away from him, "And put your arms up"
He did as he was told, and I pulled the blood soaked shirt off of him, blushing viciously. In hindsight, I should have taken his shirt off first, but I wasn't very good at this yet.
I studied his chest; he had a deep gash from his shoulder to his navel, and a few smaller cuts here and there.
"Look I know I'm hot, but there's no need to stare so much" he said suddenly. I poked him with the antiseptic cotton.
"Ouch, that hurt!" He griped
I giggled and did it again...
After I'd cleaned him up and bandaged him, I cooked something to eat and sent him to bed.
Well, I sent him to the couch, but hey.
"What, I don't get to stay with you?" He asked as I threw a spare blanket at him.
"You won't be able to more around very much or at least 2 weeks" I said, choosing to ignore his previous question
"Two weeks, no way, I'm leaving tomorrow!" He proclaimed
"Oh, let's just see how much you can move tomorrow, eh?" I said "Goodnight, Jerk"
I turned the lights off on the way out...
The next morning I rolled over to find the Jerk sat leaning on my bed, half asleep.
"You nearly gave me a heart attack!" I said, irritated
"I was trying to leave you a gloating farewell message, but when I reached your bed, I ran out of steam" He said, eyeing me tiredly
I laughed and snuggled into my pillow again.
"Gabriel" He said suddenly
"What?" I asked
"My name, its Gabriel , not Jerk" he said as he leant his chin on the mattress.
"Oh, well I was close" I said, and he snorted. "Can I call you Gabe?"
"Why not?" he answered
There were a few moments of silence.
"Sukiyo" I said suddenly
"I know" He replied
"Huh, how?" I asked
"The mail came; your Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei volume 2 is here" he answered
"You went through my mail!?" I said, sitting up
"Nothing gets past you does it?" He sneered
I hit him with my pillow.
The next few days passed in the same fashion, every morning I'd awake to find him with his chin on my mattress; he was like a puppy.
Until one day, I awoke and he was gone. I thought he'd left, but then I heard the noise outside; fighting.
I ran outside, still in my little nightgown, and there was Gabe facing 5 robed men. There were four on the floor, and Gabe was panting heavily, there was no way he could take five more.
I was about to clamour to his side when I remembered something. I turned on my heel and sped back to the bedroom, upturning the mattress to reveal a red leather case.
I picked it up and threw it open, retrieving the 9mm Glock handgun from inside. I checked it was loaded, and ran back outside.
There were three left standing now, but Gabe was clutching at his side, blood oozing between his fingers.
I pointed the gun, and one of the robed people caught sight of me. He laughed, and Jack turned his head.
"What the hell are you doing!?" He shouted, and I gasped. There was blood all over his face, his nose looked broken.
Suddenly one of the robes used me as a distraction and leapt at Jack I screamed, and shot the gun.
It hit its target, and the robed guy went down, Gabe's eyes widened in surprise.
"Gabriel!" I shouted, the other two men ran at me, one pulling his own gun from beneath his cloak.
Gabe sprang with what was left of his strength at the one with the gun, but in the air he was a prime target.
With a crack like a whip, the gun fired, and hit him square in the chest. I screamed and fired my own gun in frenzy. The first and second shots missed, but the third hit the gun totting cloak right in the temple.
Now it was just me and the last cloak. I longed to get to Gabe; I could see the puddle of blood getting bigger from the corner of my eye. I aimed my gun again and pulled the trigger, but the robe rolled to the left, grabbing the gun from his fallen comrade, and firing with such speed, the type you only see in anime or video games.
There was no way I could have dodged the bullet, but I tried anyway. It hit me in the right shoulder, knocking me to the floor, my gun skittering away.
The cloak stood tall over me, I could only see the lower half of his face, and he was sneering at me. He brought his hand up, pressing the barrel against my forehead. I knew what was coming, and I shut my eyes.
I heard the gunshot, but where was the pain relief?
I opened my eyes questioningly, only to see a body stumbling around in front of me, blood cascading everywhere. I looked around; Gabe was lent up on his elbow, my gun in his hand. He pulled the trigger again, and...
Nothing happened; I counted the shots, out of ammo.
The cloak in front of me turned his gun on Jack this time, how he could see anything through the blood haze from where Gabe had shot him in the jaw, I don't know, but he aimed none the less.
I forced my body into his legs, pushing him to the ground, before pulling the gun from his hand, and shot him point blank.
I rolled from him, and dragged my reluctant body though all the gore to Gabe's side. He smiled at me; his teeth red with blood.
I had to get him inside, we'd both die in another attack, or if we stayed out here much longer.
I forced myself to sit up, and then, even as every muscle in my body screamed in protest, and swayed to my feet. I leant down to Gabe, who was reaching up at me; his arm shaking with the sheer effort.
I pulled at him best I could, but it still took me a few tries to hoist him to his feet. He put his arm around my shoulders, and I half dragged him to the house.
The hallway was as far as I could manage. All I wanted to do was sleep, my mind was incredibly fuzzy, and as I reached the first-aid kit, which I'd left in the kitchen, I fell into the counter.
I made a low vicious growl and forced myself up, grabbed the kit, and swayed back to Jack in the hall.
Only too happy to sit down, I opened the first-aid box, and to my horror, it was nearly empty; how could I have forgotten?
Now I was at a loss as for what to do. I wouldn't let us die after winning that fight; that wasn't an option.
"S-suki..." Gabe said, his voice barely more than a whisper "G-get to a ho-hospital.." He coughed violently, blood pouring out of his mouth.
"No" I said, my face wet with tears and blood "I won't leave you here"
He coughed again, and I fell forward in exhaustion. Leaning on his bare shoulders, I felt my eyes shutting. My body's last defence against the pain was about to kick in; unconsciousness.
I tried to protest, but my mouth suddenly wouldn't work.
No! I screamed in my head I won't let this happen!
I pushed against the coming blackness with all my might, if it had been just me hurt, I'd have let it over take me, but this was for Gabe, I couldn't let him die. Not when he had come here for help, I wouldn't have this ending.
I refused it with all my might, pushed it back, screamed and shouted in spite of myself, and soon I could hear something. It was quiet, but it sounded like something rasping against stone.
That thing turned out to be my own voice, and it grew louder, and stronger with each shout, until, finally, the darkness was gone. What was left; a perfectly clear and still mind, like water.
I felt my hands become warm, and there were no questions as to why. I just instinctively knew, I had what I needed to save Gabe.
I pressed my hands to his skin, and the wound suddenly began to convulse, he threw in head back in agony, but I knew what I was doing. The bullet flew into my open palm.
He gasped, and so did I as more blood started to flow from his chest. I examined the hole; the bullet had missed his heart by mere millimetres. Then, using my fingertips, I pushed the skin around the hole, back together; it sealed.
I did this over and over again, on all the major gashes on Gabe's body. I noticed I was becoming tired again, and my mind was becoming blurred. Soon I could hold it back no longer, and I fell forwards onto his chest...
"I awoke in my bed, Gabriel staring at me like before, he really was like a puppy" I said, completing my story.
Alice was looking at me in awe.
"Oh this is a rare thing" Said a voice from above me somewhere. I looked up to see our new leader and Kiana lazing around on the bonnet of the van, listening. I could also sense Karkooky and Killimaru around somewhere nearby and Huey too.
"But wait" Alice said, and I looked at her, knowing what was coming next "Where's Gabriel?"
There was a communal gasp, and Hasgin looked down at me sadly.
"What?" Alice looked around questioningly, before finally catching on "ah... its ok, you don't have to tell me that part"
I shut my eyes again, gearing myself up for it.
"Don't worry, you may as well know. You can tell Tenchi when he comes back though; I don't want to recite this again" I sighed and launched myself into the final part of my tale...
When I awoke, he was there, looking at me. I smiled but couldn't hold back the tears. He put his hand behind my head, and pulled me towards him, touching our foreheads together.
We stayed like that a while, me sniffing the tears away. Suddenly he smiled, and I couldn't help myself, I smiled back.
"That's some power you've got" He said, his breath fanning across my face.
"Mmm, it saved your life" I said in reply, and he leant his head back from mine. "What?" I asked, wondering why he'd moved away, and realizing that I'd liked him that close.
"I wasn't talking about your healing hands" He answered, unable to look me in the eye, "I... I'll get us something to eat"
And with that he got up and walked away, leaving me wondering what he'd meant.
I kicked my legs over the side of the bed, and stumbled towards the closet.
After getting dressed, I tried my best to get down the stairs without killing myself, and walked into the kitchen, the smell of bacon luring me.
"How long have I been out?" I asked, surprising Gabe, who jumped and got bacon fat on his bare chest.
"Three days" he hissed in pain, "I wish I had the whole healing thing, otherwise it would have been faster, I was up the day after the fight"
"I wonder what this whole thing is" I said, "I mean, it's not just me either, you should have never survived those wounds"
"Yeah, I know, I've been that way a while" Gabe replied "And ever since those cloaked guys have been chasing me"
He presented me with some badly charred bacon and some hard eggs.
"You cremated it" I laughed, and he blushed out of embarrassment
"Cooking's not my forte" He defended, and I laughed again
We ate in companionable silence for a while, when Gabe suddenly broke it.
"Sukiyo?" He asked, and I blanched at the sound of my full name
"Please, don't call me that" I protested, and he looked at me, puzzled "call me Suki"
He smiled before averting his gaze from me, blushing.
"S-Suki..." He swallowed, "I was wondering, if, well, I..."
"Spit it out, Gabe" I said, growing impatient
"Uh, well..." He flicked his gaze at me, and then back towards the fridge "could... could I stay here, with you I mean, I have nowhere better to go... not that I'd leave if I did! I mean, uh..."
I felt a smile spread across my face.
"Gabe?" I asked
He stopped stuttering and looked at me, blushing redder than anyone I'd ever seen.
"You can stay here as long as you want" by now I was blushing too, and I had to look away.
One day, Gabe and I were out in Tokyo, buying food and playing games, when we ran into an old friend of mine. She'd gone to my middle school and she'd recognised my from behind.
"Suuuki-chaan~!" She shouted, and I turned at the sound of my name. A short kogal type girl ran towards me, her hair blonde, and her skin tanned. I knew her instantly.
"Hime-chan!" I waved at her as she neared me.
She threw herself at me, all hugs and love.
"Long time no see Suki-chan!" She said after she'd released me "is this your boyfriend?"
She motioned at Gabriel, but didn't give either of us time to answer.
"I got one too, you know!?" She giggled, "You'll never guess who... It's Tosen-kun!"
"No" I said in mock surprise, he'd have been my first guess "When'd that happen?"
"First few days of high school!" She laughed like she couldn't believe her luck.
"Wow" I said, smiling my friendliest smile. She'd always liked Tosen, or Toshiro Tachibana, as was his full name. He'd gotten the nickname Tosen from me. He used to teach me maths, my worst subject and his best, and I thought that 'Toshiro-sensei' was too long, hence Tosen. The nickname caught on like wildfire; soon everyone was using it, even the teachers.
"Yeah" she smiled back "You guys didn't keep in touch right?"
"Nope" I reassured her, she was evidently the suspicious type nowadays.
"Cool," She said, even though losing touch with a good friend could hardly be considered a 'cool' thing "Well, I got to go, Tosen's waiting for our date, later!"
And with that she skipped off.
"You don't like her very much, do you?" Gabe asked after she was out of earshot.
"Nope, and she really doesn't like me" I sighed "I can't believe she still thinks I'm after her precious Tosen"
Gabe laughed, "Come on, let's get home"
"'Kay" I said following him through the alleyways back to the house, he was carrying all the shopping, I'd tried to take some from him but he'd insisted, typical man.
We walked leisurely, in no hurry to be home, enjoying the last of the sun. Winter was on its way now, and soon there'd be snow. I loved the snow; my favourite thing was to look up as it was falling.
"Weather man said there'd be snow this week" Gabe said, as if he could read my mind
"I can't wait" I smiled, looking up to the clear sky.
Three days later I awoke to find Gabe in his usual place beside my bed, waiting for me. He smiled as I opened my eyes, and I noticed he was a little wet and cold looking.
I jumped to the window as soon as the realisation hit me. There was a white blanket of snow over everything, along with some footprints and a snow angel.
"I couldn't resist" Gabe said from somewhere behind me, and I giggled.
It didn't take me long to get dressed and eat breakfast; I couldn't wait to get outside. As I pushed open the door, Gabe barrelled into me from behind and we fell into a huge snow drift.
We played outside together for hours, laughing like pre-school kids. We built snowmen and made snow-angels, and we even had a snowball fight. By lunchtime we were soaked and freezing, and the snow had begun to fall again; filling in our footprints.
Then, all of a sudden, something just seemed to click. One moment we were looking up in awe at the falling snow, and the next...
"Suki," he said suddenly, attracting my attention. He was looking straight at me, his icy eyes meeting my own sea green ones. I knew what was coming, and I let it happen.
He held my shoulders and pulled me to him, our foreheads meeting just as before, his breath fanning my cold face. And then, he brought his lips to mine. I felt my arms, almost of their own accord; wrap themselves around his neck, my lips answering every question his asked.
I'd kissed boys before, but none were like this. Those kisses had never had the spark, the energy that this one had. I'd never believed that whole fireworks thing before, but now I was a convert, this was heaven.
I knew, as I watched him sleeping next to me that night; I never wanted to leave his side again...
Of course, that was when everything went to hell.
It was a few months later, after I'd returned from my school graduation, when I found the house on fire. I looked upwards, to see Gabe on the roof surrounded by cloaks.
I began to run forward, only to blocked by three more cloaks, I tried to spin on my heel, to find a way around them, when I was jumped by another two. This was more robes than I'd ever seen.
They held me down, my hands behind my back, but dragged my head up, so I had no choice but to watch the fight on the roof.
I counted nine cloaks on the roof all together, but I could tell from the state Gabe was in that he'd been fighting a while; he was covered in blood, and appeared to have lost the use of his right arm.
I screamed his name as the cloaks jumped, and he turned to look at me, rather than putting up a defence. His left eye was missing.
We both knew what was going to happen now, and he smiled at me. I screamed and shouted for all I was worth, struggling against the strength of the man who held me down.
But it was no use, right in front of my eyes, on top of the house we had both lived in for four months; Jack was torn to pieces...
"I passed out after that, and when I woke up, Toya was there" I said "He told me what had happened and what I was... He'd also destroyed the cloaks"
Alice looked at me in horror, her eyes wide. In fact I could feel the whole teams gaze on me.
"Then I joined the team and took the name Miyuki, after the snow" I sighed, looking into the sky again, it was clouding over... white clouds, snow was on its way.
"I-I've never heard the story like that, Miyuki" Hasign said her eyes full of pity and horror "I mean I knew you saw him die, but..." she couldn't finish.
"Well, now you know" I said "don't let it happen to you, Alice. Look after Tenchi"
I stood up, stretching my tired muscles. I hated telling that story, even though I'd see it every night in my dreams. I was going to help destroy the cloaks, and then... I was going to join him.
"Yes. Even if the monster moon were hauled out of orbit by a pre-crisis superman, and flung at a sleeping Van Hellsing, with batman on it, Van Hellsing would win." – Tycho~
