Its the beginning of a new day, the cherry blossoms were blooming, the birds were chirping, the sky was blue and seemed even wider than usual; a light, weak rainbow crossed the sky after it had been raining for a while, dew droplets were slowly falling from the cold surfaces of the streets and some traced the foggy windows of "her" room. The bright sun rays gently faded in- waking Yuki up. She languidly opened her pine green eyes, blinking several times to adjust her sight. Annoyed by the early beams of sunshine, she struggled a bit in her bed but eventually gave in and turned to check the time from her phone. "Its already time to wake up..." she mourned as she blew off the cover, stretching in many inhuman forms. She got up from her seemingly crowded bed, scratching the back of her brunette, messy hair as she casually strolled to the washroom to wash-up. After getting out, she seemed a little more aware of her surroundings; the messy bed, the unwanted laundry lying on the floor, the new calender and the new date,"Today is... Oh I need to hurry before I miss it!", Yuki shrieked. She wore her sailor uniform and hurriedly headed downstairs. She nibbled on a jam sandwich and had a final turn to look at her reflection- Asoaka Yuki, a tall, slender mixed female, with light, brunette hair, inherited from her Japanese deceased Father and wide eyes with pine green pupils inherited from her deceased British Mother, milk white skin and a heat warming smile that was invariably drawn on her face- "I'll be leaving now Mother, Father" she announced, looking at the picture in the photo frame, before leaving with a broken-hearted smile on her face.
Yuki walked eagerly across the street, she put on her headphones and listened to the deep notes and tunes of the Nightingale, a song that made her feel peaceful and in harmony. She reached the crowded train station, but somehow felt uneasy riding it; it just reminded her of unnecessary memories which were graved deeply in her seemingly fragile heart, after cluttering a bit with her thoughts, her feet were lifted up and made a turn, she headed to the public restroom and exited with another transformation; from the perfect appearance of a female highschooler to a sporty tomboy, with a bun tied upwards rather than the straight,long hair opened; a pair of sneakers and her backpack. She played an active track on her MP3 player and left the restroom jogging, and continued running, until the school gate came into view.
"Good Morning,Yuki-chan!,"greeted Aoko, as her panting friend entered the classroom. "Good...Morning..Aoko-chan,"panted Yuki "We have known each other since middle-school, and yet your habits never changed! Jogging to school daily is even painful to see; I mean shouldn't beautiful girls just stare at the mirror and take care of their calories?," asked Aoko."That implies on beautiful girls, not the athletic ones" replied Yuki while walking to the restroom, in order to change back into her uniform. Yuki has always been the athletic type of a girl; jogging and running were her hobbies, that appeared to never change, she won the school marathon by first place two years in a row during middle school, also when she lived in England; she had always participated in many races and won a collection of trophies and certificates.
"Hey! Yuki-chan, did you receive any love letters or listened to confessions during the spring break?,"asked Aoko curiously in a rather teasing tone. Yuki; being a high school beauty, had always been confessed to by the boys in her school, although she always rejected them; she is still idolized by the boys and popular among the girls. "Unfortunately... I did..,"sighed Yuki, its not that she is arrogant and thinks that she is better than the others; her problem is that it is quite painful when it comes to rejecting someone's feelings where he has mustered all the courage he has got to confess; smashing one's hard work was the toughest thing she could overcome.
"And how did you overcome it this time?"Aoko wondered. "I...told them the..truth," Yuki hesitated, barely swallowing her words. Outwardly, Yuki is single, she has no crushes and if she did, it would be easy to capture him, so it was apparent that she was open for confessions and for a new love story. Yuki devoted herself to trying to be independent by working in her part-time job, getting high scores in tests and exams and keeping herself healthy physically by exercising; which was her favorite hobby; and eating healthy food. Lamentably, Yuki is the worst cook found on planet earth, usually a person's cooking is either bad or good but hers was more to the poisonous side-non-edible .
"The truth about what?,"Aoko queried."Y-you see.. I h-have a boyfriend back in my home-country; England, and obviously I can't date anyone when I already have a boyfriend" Yuki explained,'Lying is bad,'Yuki regretted in her thoughts. "What?! You.. You have a boyfriend?! Since when?," Aoko exclaimed in surprise. Aoko and Yuki have known each other since middle-school; when Yuki first joined in her second year of middle-school, Aoko became her very first friend and gradually they became best friends, and for Aoko not to know about Yuki having a boyfriend; it must have been complicated... "We have been dating since the beginning of middle-school, I didn't tell you because having a long-distance relationship is a bit of tragedy and I didn't want you to get worried," Yuki explained with cold sweats trailing off her face. "Jeez! You should tell me such important topics! I always tell you about me and... and Kaito.." she complained shyly. The loud school bell echoed across the building and the students rushed to the auditorium; all in one direction, smiling,laughing and talking "It's finally time for the opening ceremony! About the boyfriend topic... I hope that there are no hard feelings, I am sorry I didn't tell you earlier and I promise it wont happen again," Yuki, with her wide eyes looked hopefully at Aoko. Aoko gave in to the charming eyes and nodded, the girls then headed out after Yuki changed and were both walking in the hall "Yo! Aoko, Asaoka!" a familiar voice greeted from behind the girls. Aoko looked behind with an agitated frown, turning her facial features frusterated;Yuki on the other hand turned with a sigh, with a face that says 'here comes the pain'.
"What interesting features you two have there?" The boy commented with a smirk on his face. Turns out that the unwanted boy was none other than Kuroba Kaito;the one who iritates his childhood friend, Aoko, and teases his female classmate,Yuki. "I wonder who is the cause of those features?" Aoko replied with apparent annoyance. "Leaving that idiot aside, wouldn't Yuki-chan finally agree to be my girlfriend?" Kaito asked, ignoring Aoko who was practically turning on fire. The question wasn't any new, Kaito has always been asking Yuki the very same question continuously and the answer would be a no.
"She can't! Because she already has a boyfriend!,"Aoko exclaimed. At this moment the time seemed to have stopped, the busy crowd walking back and forth, paused... 'Yuki got a boyfriend!' The thought ran through all the minds, the boys nearby were close to tears and girls were dead curious to know who is the lucky guy who won the heart of the beautiful Yuki. "Oh, so you've accepted one of the boy's confession?" Kaito asked after shaking his head several times to process the thought. "I ... I never did, and never will. I've had my European boyfriend since 3 years now but it was kept a secret, and now the great secret is revealed" explained Yuki. Yes, Yuki was a bad liar, but it is true that she has someone whom she holds dear back in England, but again the possibility of the so-called boyfriend coming to Japan is close to zero and so, she would be free of confessions for a while. "And now you reveal it? Sounds suspicious to me" kaito suspected, giving her a know-it-all grin. The emphatic, clear bell rang again, giving the students final warnings to gather in the auditorium. The frozen crowd resumed walking; some trekking because of the news and some strolling around. "But Yuki still couldn't beat the Queen!" a guy admitted from behind.
The bewitching Akako; she's not Yuki's rival nor does she take Yuki's existence into account, the number of boys after the impervious Akako is beyond what's countable. A squeaky, evil-like chuckle or apparently a laugh came from behind, the girls heard the crowd of people talking and walking haphazardly; all centered around one girl...Akako. "Guess your debut is over, Asaoka-san" Akako stated proudly as the people surrounding her slowly became more organized and peaceful. "I guess so, the seat is all yours now, Koizomi-san" Yuki replied. She was the observant type, one with a very sharp eye;looking at the people, how they act, look, touch or their ways of speech gives her a complete survey of the person in front of her, not only living things but she can also deal with non-living things observing the popular Akako, Yuki deduced that Akako is one who seeks attention as if it was her fuel that she uses to recharge herself. Akako also appeared to be the type that doesn't give up to a debate, and so, Yuki was always the one to retreat first to avoid the loud fusses.
"It gives me a great pleasure to welcome all of you and chair the Opening Ceremony this morning..." The student representative greeted. Yuki was chosen to be a representative before but since she wasn't a new transfer student, she wasn't allowed to be one. The ceremony continued and the representative kept on explaining and describing the amazing facts of being a student and how being a high schooler, is only a short period of time where memories tend to be the main outcome out of this phase... "Well, if it's memories, I want to make a lot!" Aoko cheered, coming out from the auditorium. Yuki just nodded with agreement as she was lost in her thoughts, arranging her schedule for the day. "Please take a good care of me this year too, Yuki-chan" kaito teased, trying to get her out of her 'serious mood'. "It's no use.. I bet she is managing her time for the day.." Aoko explained. "Again with you thinking that you know her best, when you didn't even know that she had a boyfriend all this time" Kaito said bluntly. "That's...that's not true!...ok ... ya it is ... But.!" Aoko tried to negotiate on the topic but no matter how a person looks at it, not knowing something so important about your best friend, surely is heavy.
The first day of school passed; choosing seats, distributing textbooks, nominating a class representative and the like... All those activities seemed all normal for a High schooler, but... Yuki was no ordinary. A deep wound was rooted in her heart. She was not a fragile girl that could break easily, but a traumatic incident caused some remarkable changes in her personality...
"Did you find any other survivor?" Asked a fireman. The flames that caught the train were monumental. The cause of the whopping fire was a bomb, one so severe that it damaged the whole track, out of 470 passengers,15 survived.
A 7-year-old half Japanese European girl, entered the train express with both her parents, oblivious to their surroundings and awaited danger, the decided to go on a family trip despite knowing how dangerous it is to roam in the country at that time. The young parents agreed to take their beloved daughter to a trip, after her continuos nagging. They rode the destined train and cheerfully discussed random topics. "Dear, do you hear something?" asked the British mother. "It sounds like... A clock? I didn't wear my wristwatch today and... There is none around..",replied the half Japanese father. Being Police Officers, their senses have become rather more sensitive than most people and became more accustomed to guarding their surrounding, their ears have become more sensitive, sharper eyes etc. The young daughter, Yuki, gradually started habituating her senses in order to accomplish her long awaited dream of becoming a reliable police cop like her parents. "I think it's coming from... Under the chair? And...another from... Above?" stated Yuki innocently yet sharply. Before the father could further investigate into the matter, "GET AWAY! EVACUATE!" Exclaimed the panicking Mother "it's a bomb!" She cleared passengers, immediately, while panicking, tried evacuating the place, little did they know that between 5 benches, a bomb was planted, in fact, the entire express was packed with bombs as if to assure to end the people's lives.
The parents in topic, along with their daughter, tried escaping too, yet again their sense of responsibility dragged them behind as they helped others exit the train. "You... Know... Who did ... This?"panted the father as her ran, hand-in-hand with his wife and daughter on his shoulder. "him..?" She replied, asking. The time wasn't on their side, the bomb's countdown never stopped,the throbbing hearts of the passengers didn't either only the time seemed to slow down or gradually stop, tiny water droplets trickled over the faces, also called tears...were they goners or was there a glimpse of hope?
"3...2...1..." And it blasts, blowing the train away. The people who were under the title of 'survivors' were not in a recognizable health. Called survivors,but only because their heart was beating, no more. Call it love shield or parenthood but, Yuki,as both her parents tightly embraced her in their arms,was the only survivor with minor wounds. "Damn you Spid...er..." the father cursed as he breathed his last one.. "Eh?...Fa..ther?..Mo..ther..?" Yuki hardly uttered.
Fire cars, ambulances and police cars arrived, their loud siren echoing across the streets. They rescued all the people they could, Yuki, though, wasn't one of them. She clanged to her parent's sleeves and was determined to never let go unless they come with her... "Hey! I found one!" Pointed one of the firemen, with hope beaming from his eyes as he was happy for finding another living soul "come here, little girl, let's get you out of here" he encouraged, extending his hands out as his colleagues put off the fierce fire. "No... I won't go without my parents!" Yuki refused as she emotionally sobbed and whimpered. "Hey! The fire! It's catching the leather of the chairs!"another exclaimed, without further hesitation, the fireman picked Yuki up as he broke off the connection with her parents... The dead corpse, "Mother! Father! No! Let me go! I want my parents! "She kicked and stormed about. The man's grip, however, was too strong to shake off, Yuki didn't stop begging him to let go, but slowly as she saw the flames eat away the remains of the train with her parents inside it, she was too shocked to get tones and sounds out of her mouth. With only one name ringing in her mind "Spider.." Yuki fainted and woke up 2 days later in a hospital...
Yuki, who was sleeping in her bed trembled, whispering"...spider...my fault... Shouldn't have kept...nagging" "I am .. Sorry.. Mother..father" she softly muttered. As Yuki had , another hunting nightmare from the past, her phone buzzed and ringed with a text message appearing in the glowing screen 'I am coming to japan soon - XX'
Who could the text message be from? How will Yuki get hold of the so-called 'spider'? Romance isn't far off from her life either but will her past allow her to live happily without scars? Who would be her 'knight on a white horse' that snatches her away from darkness?