1. The Beginning?
'It is near,' the boy whispered. The rashin board in his hand glowed frantically at his remark and spat out a string of light to the North.
'Far away, it is,' a girl, some years older than him, replied. 'Is it not out of Hong Kong?'
'It is,' he promptly answered, 'though near enough to be called 'the neighbouring country.''
'I see."
'Did Haha-ue* really ask you to come with me?'
'Yes.'
The boy crunched his eyebrows in guilt. 'Would… would it be alright?'
'?'
'You… Do not you have a lot of things… important things… to do?' he quietly mumbled.
She slightly smiled, though her seriousness did not faze. 'I do.'
'Then…' but his lips were stopped by her finger.
'Is this not one of them?' she monotonously whispered, but you could hear her tone cooed for the boy.
He stared at her for a moment, and then blushed as he slowly understood what she meant. 'Thank you,' he whispered again, trying to conceal his happiness. But he failed.
She chuckled for a second, then looked again at the board in his hand. 'Shall we go then?'
He nodded.
And as to his answer, they disappeared.
Touya
I saw Sakura in the distance with someone I didn't know. I heard her voice, struggling, and that was when my instinct realised something was wrong. I rushed to the fence which separated the high school and elementary school ground and leapt over it.
'What the hell are you doing to my little sister?' I shouted.
'Onii-chan*!' she loudly whimpered.
The unknown boy in front of her jumped aside and faced me, making a strange fighting stance.
'That's a stance I've never seen before. A form of Chinese martial arts?' I asked.
He kept quite, challenging me with his eyes. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at him.
'Not talking, huh?' I sneered. Then a flash of blue struck the ground, and a wave of magical presence surged through me. If I wasn't instinctively concentrating, I would have thought that that flash was a monster, considering that it had shattered the asphalt floor as it landed. But standing right before me was a girl, about my age, coldly but impassively staring at me. I heard a voice straining, only to find out that it was mine, choking with recognition.
'A… Akizuki?' I forced out the name. Instead, as if in response, she made a stance similar to the boy behind her and asked, 'Who may you be?'
A sudden realisation came to me. No, she can't be Akizuki.
In a glance, she may look dangerously similar to her, but her demeanour somehow didn't match the annoying girl I know. The girl's hair – though straight like Akizuki's – was messily cut. Her brows were edged sharply, furrowing as she sat her eyes on one object (me). And her eyes. Akizuki's – even if they were really annoying to look at – were playful, bright yet deceiving. This girl's eyes – even if you could see the intensity in them – were blank, expressionless, lifeless. It was something that a normal girl shouldn't have had.
'Who may you be?' she repeated.
I felt my eyes stubbornly harden, still severely checking if this girl before me wasn't Akizuki, playing yet another trick on me. When my eyes finally softened, unsuspecting, I retorded, 'Isn't that what I should be asking you?'
Her eyes narrowed.
For a moment, I could see red sparks flying in her eyes, but it vanished in seconds when the brat touched her sleeves.
'Why are you here, Onee-sama*?' said the brat.
She didn't answer him, still looking at me with suspicion. It wasn't the kind of a normal suspicion towards a criminal or a terrorist. It was the kind that indicated that this very object in front of her could shatter her whole world... Wait. What?
Suddenly that suspicion of hers made me itch, and made me ask something I would never have asked before. I didn't know why I said it – maybe it was my curiousity of her gaze – but I did.
'Do you like me or something?'
She didn't freeze, nor did her eyes widen as to what I had had expected. Her muscles didn't even twitch.
'If she likes someone like you, the whole family will break down,' the brat coldly barged in.
'Am I talking to you?' I snapped.
'I am to speak on Onee-sama's behalf if she thinks a question is a waste of time,' he sharply replied, as if reciting some words he had to remember from a textbook.
My head became hot. 'Why you-'
'OOOOOOOOOI!' shouted a familiar voice. 'THEY HAVE IT! NIKUMAN!'
Yuki?
The grey haired guy climbed up the fence, landed on the ground and offered me a fat paper bag. 'Here,' he said while smiling. 'They have some left at the cafeteria. They also had pizza bread… and curry bread… Ah, would everyone like some? I have five of them…' Then he looked at the boy. 'Here,' he said while offering him a nikuman.
The boy gazed at him, and the red tint of his cheeks grew. He screamed and ran away, tripping on the mud in the process. The girl in blue watched the boy and had a questioning look. Yuki bowed to her in apology. 'Ah, I-I'm sorry! I didn't know that he doesn't like nikuman.'
For that mere moment her eyes flicked open and brightened. The blankness of her eyes was swept away. At first, I didn't know what was going on. I just suddenly realised something when her hands cupped his cheeks, smiling endearingly at him.
'Yue…'
Then she collapsed.
Glossary:
Onii-chan: Big brother
Haha-ue: Mother (formal)
Onee-sama: Big sister (formal)
~Not a very good start indeed, and a little choppy as well (sorry for that), but this is my first fic, so please be nice to me, and please REVIEW! :)
