A/N: Rewritten...
Sensei=teacher
XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~
\iiiii/
, * " " . V . " " * .
{ :':THE GARDEN }
\'.'OF SINNERS/
". . . - " - . . ."
XDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~
"Mama! Mama!" an auburn-haired three year old girl hollered to a woman in her 20s. "Wut ish fwir?"
The woman, with the same hue of hair, smiled to her daughter who clung to the hem of her ankle-length orange skirt. Halting from brushing her reddish tresses, the woman inquired lovingly, "You mean 'fear'?"
Her daughter nodded and flashed a two-front toothy grin. "Wut's it?"
"Hmm..." the woman pondered good-naturedly. Then, seeing her daughter tilting a tousled head, she bent down and tapped the girl's nose with her index finger; the gesture induced a cute giggle. "It's something that makes you uneasy. Remember how you felt when the nurse pricked you with a needle?"
Paling and gulping in remembrance, her daughter bobbed her head.
"That's how you'll feel when you have fear; you feel uneasy and afraid." The woman tickled her daughter on her sides, and her daughter squeaked adorably before scooting away in haste in a fit of giggles. Not letting her daughter escape, the woman entrapped her daughter with an embrace from behind and positioned her child on her lap.
The girl wore a peach-tinted dress which had the same design as her mother's blouse; her mother actually made them that way. They resembled a mirthful pair.
As the mother looked down, her daughter looked up, brightening. The girl wiggled and bounced her bottom on her mother's lap excitedly. "Ano ne, ano ne! Keiko says she has a fwir of spy-ers! How 'bout you, Mama? Wut d'you fwir?"
The woman blinked and hesitated. Her daughter waited eagerly for her reply with an overhead stare, unblinking with anticipation. Suspiring, the woman then smiled before uttering, "Mama is...afraid of herself."
The girl finally nictated in wonder. "Shelf? Wutsh dat?"
"Self is who you are," the woman elucidated, "Mama is afraid of Mama."
"Why ish Mama afraid of Mama?" Her daughter was confused.
Sometimes, innocence brought about profundity in children's questions, although the child might not know the depth of his or her queries. So, the woman was quite surprised with her child's query but was soon comforted by it.
She'll forget it anyway...
" 'Fear of self is the greatest of all terrors, the deepest of all dread, the commonest of all mistakes. From it grows failure. Because of it, life is a mockery. Out of it comes despair,' " the woman recited and gazed softly at her flummoxed daughter. "Someone named David Seabury said that...and he's very correct..."
The girl furrowed her brows and wrinkled her nose in befuddlement; she couldn't comprehend what her mother had dictated. Then, eyes lighting up as though she recalled something, the girl got off from her mother's lap and faced her mother with a cheerful visage. As usual, the child began her prattle about her day with her playmates in the kindergarten, and everything about fear was forgotten.
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2 YEARS LATER
A red-headed boy swung on the swing mirthfully. The sands on the playground flew along when he kicked them with his shoes as he drifted upwards again, and the sun gleamed in praise of him.
Gripping the chains of the swing in midair, he swished his head and shouted to an auburn-haired girl in pigtails, "Mai! Mai! I'm flying so hiiiigh! I almost touched the cloud!"
Unimpressed, the girl just shrugged, and the boy immediately halted his swinging by skidding his shoes on the sand. When the momentum finally died down, he gazed at the girl on the swing beside him.
"What's wrong, Mai?" he asked.
Usually, Mai would say that she could do better than him, and usually, she would. However, Mai seemed too out of it to be competitive. The boy knew, though, that it was her randomness kicking in again. One time, she would be childish, and then next time, she would not. Sometimes, he thought Mai was an adult trapped in a 5-year-old child's body; she usually seemed to look like his father when reading newspapers during breakfast.
Mai regarded him in silence and then sighed. She stared at the magenta slide before them. Garbed in sky blue uniforms, they were king and queen of the deserted playground.
"I'm going to kill myself," came her soft yet serious voice.
The boy blinked and gaped at her. "W-wha-what are you saying?"
Emotionless, she peered at him. "I'm going to kill myself."
The boy was horrified and stood in front of Mai while waving his hands frantically. "W-why are you saying that? If you kill yourself, you'll become a turtle!"
Mai raised an eyebrow. "Who said that?"
"My father!" the boy declared.
She smirked. "That's not true."
The boy reddened and fumed. "Wha―Are you picking a fight?"
Shrugging again, Mai replied, "It's true that what he said wasn't true. Because when we die, we don't wake up anymore."
The boy nictated and quivered. "W-we won't wake up anymore? H-how can you be so sure?"
"Because I'd seen a lot of dead people."
He gulped and fidgeted.
"B-but then, we still dream, right? I mean...we won't have nightmares?" The boy was puzzled and nervous.
Mai frowned. "How should I know? I haven't died yet."
"T-then are you going to kill yourself to find out?" The boy sniffed. He was afraid. Sometimes, Mai made him afraid. She was too far out of his league. She was too...
Mai stared at him. "No. That's not the reason."
The boy snuffled and cried, "Then whyyy?"
"Why are you crying? You're a boy, right?" Mai frowned again.
"B-but, I like you! I don't want you to die!" The boy confessed and blushed and cried some more. "Look at what you made me say!"
Mai blinked at him. "You...like me? Why?"
The boy snuffled and wiped his tears with his arms. "Because you're smart! And you're c-cute! You're quiet and disciplined! Sensei always praises you!"
The girl lifted a corner of her mouth hesitantly. "I'm not a good child."
"Mai―"
"That's why I'm going to kill myself," Mai intercepted resolutely. "I'm going to be a good child."
"But, how―?"
"I'm going to be somebody else," Mai said solemnly.
She finally smiled at the boy.
"I'm going to kill myself so that I won't be afraid of myself anymore!"
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PRESENT TIME; MID-AUGUST; DAY 1
Something jabbed me on the side, and I swatted it sleepily.
"Stop..."
It came again, and I jerked my head up awake. "Sto―!"
I came face-to-face with a handsome amused narcissist and didn't survive from the super frontal attack of the heat.
"Wha―!" I unceremoniously fell off the hanging chaise lounge and moaned with butt pain. Then, erubescent and miffed, I glared at the sable-haired boy standing before me...
But was soon dazzled.
He was wearing a royal purple blazer over an ultra-white shirt. The black pants were ordinary of him, but the lightness of the upper garments wasn't.
As usual, he shrugged and smirked. He was grating on my nerves...
But I loved it.
I love him...
Soughing, I pouted. "Mohh. Why do you always poke me awake?"
...And stare so closely?
"Because you're slacking," he replied tersely, helped me up, and motioned to the side with his head.
I rubbed my eyes and gaped at the view.
We were currently on a ship.
Not just any ship too.
A luxury cruise ship. A school's luxury cruise ship. I was relaxing near the unfilled pool of the 9th deck before my "suave boss" invaded my serene territory.
"I can't believe an elite school is in an abandoned island like this..." I muttered, but Naru didn't respond.
The sound of the sea waves and the flopping of blue-green water after hitting the huge rocks created a strange music to my ears. The sun was unforgiving with its sweltering glare. Summer was supposed to end soon...but the star of the day wasn't going to stop mercilessly baking and grilling us to dehydration.
Anyway, the abandoned island I was referring to was Hashima Island. It was called a Warship or Battleship Island because of its shape. Old walls and buildings of gray and brown depicted the slow urban decay that possessed the island ever since its abandonment in 1974 (information by courtesy of Yasuhara). There were chunks missing on the supposed skyscrapers, as though the paintless buildings were eaten by Godzilla in a buffet spree ever since.
Why was it abandoned?
The story of the island was a little sad actually. According to Yasu, when petroleum evicted coal as a fuel in Japan, the coal mines were shut down, and the source of livelihood in the place was gone. Consequently, everyone left the island.
...And it's now also called a "Ghost Island."
"Mai!" I whipped my head to the rest of the SPR gang near the railing of the balcony and saw Bou-san (in an olive shirt and blue jeans) waving at me.
I cheerfully waved back.
"Get ready," Naru instructed as he fixed a violet neck tie to complete his ensemble.
I jounced my head, adjusted the collar of my ivory shirt and the violet ribbon tie, and tried to mend the creases on my royal purple skirt.
For the first time, we weren't armed with infrared cameras, monitors, and thermometers. For the first time, we weren't going to exorcise ghosts.
Naru and I were going to be exchange students and infiltrate Heika no Teien Gakuen...
And stop what Madoka Mori-san called as Psychic Proliferation: the abnormal increase of psychics in the school.
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MANY DAYS LATER
"Nee, Naru..." Mai whispered coquettishly as she held his glowing right hand to her heart. "You...love me, right?"
Garbed in a red halter dress, she was breathtaking...
And very dangerous.
"Mai, you―" Kazuya Shibuya or, simply, Naru was inexplicably perturbed at what she was doing...
Who she was becoming...
She beamed at his voicelessness...rather diabolically...yet angelically.
"You love me, right?" she carried on straightforwardly, almost testily.
He remained unresponsive as her eyes glinted, and she neared him and pressed herself gently to his.
Such an intimate gesture from a usually coy person addled him. Also, he knew she knew the answer to her reiterated question...
And it had always been an affirmative.
Her breath tickling his collarbone, he shifted a little as she gently leaned on him. His hand was still clutched to her chest by herself. If he was an ordinary young man, his breath might have hitched, especially when she gazed up at him under her lashes and uttered, "You love me...so..."
She smiled innocently.
"Won't you kill me?"
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Nee=Hey
Heika no Teien=King's Garden
Gakuen=Academy
A/N: This is now the complete (consisting of past, present, and future (?) events) chap 1...meant to confuse everyone...^^
Sorry for revisions. I will update Dreams (real chapter) 4, Cloud 4, Rapture 2, and Naru's Moving Castle simultaneously.