AN: It's been a while since I updated this story, or any other of mine for that matter, but since I have the internet access for a few short weeks I'm using it to post some chapters. This is my most recent rewrite, and it puts the original to shame. I hope you enjoy it.
T.K.
The Other Juunishi
Chapter 1
She lay in her little dark room, accompanied only with a small lamp and a small battered bookcase piled to the rim with her favorite tales. Battered and ripped, well worn books lined the over stocked shelves and threatened to splinter the wood of the bookcase into a million pieces. This threat had been so for several years, yet the dependable little bookcase held strong beneath the weight of such authors as, Goldman, Tolkien, Sohma, Hemmingway, Barre, White, and countless others. Those books lucky enough to be hardcover often had their titles worn away or their pages start to unglue from the binding, a superior fate to the softcovers who's covers were often worn beyond recognition or torn away altogether. This was not from lack of care, however, but from an overabundance of reading, for it was all Aki ever did.
She was by no means lazy, no, Aki would gladly have run and played instead of all day being bound up in her books, but she was not able to. Aki had been in her cage for just over ten years, ten years too long. She longed for the world outside where she could again feel the warmth of the sun, again hear the happy babble of a brook, again feel the prickle of grass beneath her pale, thin feet. For what good is the reading of books if you cannot remember the sensations described? Where is the wonder of baby blue skies when one no longer remembers the concept of color? Aki's little world was of darkness and hunger and pain where there was no escape, except into the world of literature. But her world was soon to be shattered.
The only ray of light in her cage was in the shape of a tall, stern doctor. This father figure, doctor, brother, friend, was the only person Aki ever spoke to, with the exception of. For as long as she could remember Aki had called this doctor Hari, and though Aki had no idea what he looked like, she felt the warmth behind his dry tenor and the cool comfort of his hands. A vague image of him still remained in her mind with short, wiry hair that framed a thin, stern face. She recalled him wearing a dark kind of uniform that fit his cool, calm personality, and set him apart from two other figures so dim in her memories that Aki had trouble naming them.
One she knew to be a man named Shigure Sohma who wrote books. He was still Hari's friend, and Aki felt she knew him to some extent, for she owned every one of his books. His autograph had been worn away from many a cover as Aki had examined it over and over again. He fascinated her, as did Hari, and one day she hoped to meet this Shigure. She would tell him how good his books were, and how she had cherished them until they were barely still together. Then she would ask him if he could show her the world. That is, if Hari hadn't shown her everything first.
A sharp rapping brought Aki's attention back to her little room, her cage, where she sat with one of Shigure's books open on her lap. Shaking her head free of heavy ponderings, Aki rose and made her way over to the door with Shigure's book under her arm.
"Hello?" she asked quietly, standing close to the door, but not so close it could swing open and hit her. Luckily, it did not swing open to hit her, but cracked slightly open.
"Would you like your dinner?"
"Very much." said Aki quietly, stepping back a bit more and turning to put her book in the bookcase. The door swung slowly open and flooded Aki's room with the dim light of the hallway. Hari's silhouette could be seen for only a minute before he shut the door and walked towards Aki, holding out a plate of food. Aki eagerly took the tray and sat on the floor to eat. Moments later, licking her fingers carefully, she handed the plate back to Hari.
"How long has it been since you ate last?" asked Hari.
"A while." said Aki, shuffling slightly and turning to stare at the ground.
Hari sighed, shifting the plate around in his hands.
"Shigure wrote a new book."
"Really?" Aki looked up into the shadow that was Hari.
"Yes, I will give you a copy as soon as I get one."
"Thank you!" said Aki, resisting the urge to wrap her arms around the doctor.
"You are welcome." said Hari quietly, standing.
"Do you have to go?" asked Aki, rising to her feet.
"Yes. He limited my time here."
Aki nodded sadly, stepping back.
"Thank you for the food, and for coming."
"I hope to see you more often." said Hari, walking toward the door.
"That would be nice." Aki smiled.
Hari opened the door, looking back into the room one last time before stepping into the hallway and closing the door behind him. Locking Aki again in her prison.
Aki sat back on the floor, staring into the darkness of her room. Her mind flowed again into the past as she wrote her story over again, wishing she could write a book of her own.
The Shogi door slid open and Hatori stepped inside, closing the door behind him. A dark collapsed form at the window turned slightly, his dark eyes peering beneath thick bangs in his face. His frame was hidden beneath an oversized kimono in purple and white. Hatori knelt before the fragile figure, bowing his head.
"Hatori." drawled the figure, drawing himself up from the window and turning; all with a strange, almost unearthly, grace. "I trust you fed it."
"Yes Akito." said Hatori, still looking towards the floor.
"Then tomorrow you will take it away."
Hatori's head shot upward to stare at Akito, puzzlement in his eyes.
"Away from the room?" he asked, his voice carrying his shock.
"Yes." drawled Akito, turning away towards a tall shadowy figure behind him. He draped himself over this taller figure, leaving his head turned to the side. "Take it away. And introduce it to Miss Honda. Perhaps this monster will remind her of her place."
Hatori bowed his head again and left in silence, closing the shogi behind him.
Hatori knocked at the old-fashioned door, hoping that its owner may actually be home. He was.
"Hari, what a pleasant surprise!" said Shigure with a wide smile as he gestured Hatori inside.
Hatori entered, tacking off his shoes and following Shigure through the house, all while taking off his suit coat and loosening his tie. He followed Shigure all the way out to the back porch where the writer's things were spread. A small laptop computer was surrounded by several pages of notes, a plat of what had once been his lunch, and an ashtray. A thesaurus lay open in the middle of the mess with the word 'pleasure' highlighted. Shigure sat in the middle of the mess and shut the book, sliding it to the side. As Hatori sat beside the mess, Shigure smiled, his face a careful yet pleasant mask.
"So… what brings you here in the middle of the day to visit little old me?" he asked, waving his hand slightly.
Hatori sighed, pulling a box out of his pocket and freeing a cigarette and lighter, "Do you remember Aki?" he asked, lighting his cigarette and taking a long drag.
"Of course I remember her. Who could forget such a bright little face. She was such an apt little pupil." he said, staring into the sky and smiling evilly as her thought of her. "Imagine the damage she could do today… she'd be what, fifteen now? A year younger than Momiji and Haru wasn't she?"
"Yes, she's fifteen." said Hatori, exhaling a smooth stream of smoke.
"Do my ears deceive me? I could swear you just used the present tense."
"She's alive. Tomorrow Akito has ordered me to bring her here."
Shigure turned toward his old friend, eyes wide though his face was completely controlled as it always was.
"Little Aki, coming here? Is that what Akito has been keeping in the cage…" Shigure pondered, staring away in thought.
"I need someone to come with me." said Hatori, "You just volunteered."
"Why me?"
"She remembers you." Hatori took another long drag, and stubbed his cigarette in the ashtray scattered amoung Shigure's writing paraphernalia.
Shigure nodded. "I'll do what I can." The usual smirk on his face, toned down considerably.
AN: That's the re-write. Brought to you by Twilight Kitsune and her lovely non-crashing, virus free, internet free, computer (as well as the local library who's computer was used to upload this.) Thanks for reading, hope to see you next chapter.
T.K.