Well, this is my second ficcy, and personally I'm really liking how it's turning out so far. Hope you all like it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Kiseki sighed quietly to herself and stared out the window of the car, though it was difficult to see anything, for it was raining a flood outside. She focused slightly on her reflection in the window, her face in constant motion from the streams of water flowing over its surface. Her light blue eyes were sad-looking as they usually were, her short blue hair parted on one side and held mostly back by a small white headband, her bangs left out of the bunch to frame her face. Her hands were placed delicately in her lap, which was covered by a knee-length blue skirt; on her torso she wore a plain white blouse with a dark blue tie about her neck, underneath the collar. Her feet were covered by sneakers, her legs above them left exposed; she had expected it to be warm and sunny when she and her family arrived in Japan. A slight trace of colour was in her skin, though she still looked rather pale as she blinked and refocused her eyes to the distorted street beyond.
As the car came to a halt at a red light, she had time to glance through the glass around the one spot upon which she had all her attention. In the dim lighting of the night, she could barely make out some stores, all darkened as it was far past their open hours, and more towards the corner of the streets she saw one that was also closed, but had a big bright sign still illuminated above the front door. For some reason, it interested her, so she leaned forward slightly and squinted her eyes to try and make out what it said through the rain. Tu..Turbie...Turbie Game Shop... hmm, odd title, maybe I should go visit there sometime, she thought to herself. She remembered its approximate shape and colour and decided to keep track of all the turns that her family's little car made after that.
"God damn light," her father was saying. "There's no one coming through on the other street and the stupid thing won't turn green! Come ON!" He hit the steering wheel with his fist and leaned forward to bare his teeth at the bright red light, but all it did was twinkle innocently back at him through the downpour, and he sat back with an extremely heavy sigh. His cold, grey eyes remained narrowed as he stared through the front of the car and the fast-pumping windshield wipers, his black hair aiding in the colour-less appearance of his straight, stiff face.
Kiseki's mother was sitting in the passenger side of the car and had her head tilted to one side, cheek resting upon the tips of her fingers, her long, red hair cascading onto her hand and down her back. "Yelling won't help, Korosu," she sighed, much in the same way he just had done. "Sometimes I wonder why I married a man who thinks that he can manipulate inanimate objects like mindless children..."
He turned his head to her and glared, but did not say anything. Kiseki glanced at the both of them before turning to stare outside again. I was hoping they wouldn't fight as much here...she thought to herself. Thankfully, before her father could come up with something to say in response, the light turned green and his attention was turned back to driving. He was, after all, a very cautious driver. The girl now had something to distract her from the disappointment in her parents and started remembering the turns that the car made from the game shop. Left....go for a while.... another left at the restaurant with the peaks... right at the little park..... Her photographic memory remembered every detail and thankfully it didn't need to remember much, for the house was only about 5 minutes away from the little store. Or, as Kiseki learned when they arrived, the apartment. The car stopped and as Korosu took the keys out of the ignition, he squinted disapprovingly through his window at the rain before turning back to Kiseki.
"Hey sweetie, could you hand me my overnight bag? I think that's all we'll be able to carry in through this mess." Kiseki obediently moved a few suitcases out of the way to pick up a small black duffle bag, concurrently pulling out her mother's and her own. She handed her father his bag and pushed up the small red tote bag to her mother before lifting the strap of her navy blue bag over head to let it rest across her opposite shoulder. Her father flipped through his key ring and got the key to their new home at the ready, then putting his hand on the handle of their SUV. "All right ladies, let's go!" And with that, they all opened their doors and quickly shut them, bolting for the apartment building, slipping and squeaking occasionally as large drops of water hit their heads from the overhanging trees. They actually started laughing together as they watched the others getting soaked, and Kiseki and her mother went into hysterics when Korosu turned to look at them and ran into a low-hanging gutter, immediately causing several gallons of rain water to come splashing down upon him. They could barely make the rest of the way to the door without falling over from laughter, clutching at their sides. They were sure to quiet their mirth into a fit of giggles as they got inside and made their way down the hallway of the building since it was so late at night, but lost control in the elevator to the second floor, and laughed loudly until they opened the door of their new home.
As it swung open, they almost instantaneously went quiet. It was tiny. Very tiny. Kiseki was the only one of the three that went inside and looked around; her parents were too busy staring in shock in the doorway. She carefully set down her bag next to the futon in the living room to take a quick look at the small kitchen, then moving to slide open the frame of paper on the other end of the living room to reveal the narrow hallway with three doors leading off from it. Carefully sliding it back into place, she turned back to her parents, who were steadily changing their looks from ones of shock to ones of anger.
"You said this was a two-bedroom, Korosu," whispered her mother dangerously, narrowing her green eyes.
"It is," he growled back. "The bastards didn't tell me it was this damn small, Takai."
Takai rolled her eyes at her husband. "Well most people actually look at the square footage before they go to live somewhere!"
"Well this is where we're staying as long as we need to before we go back to the US, and there's nothing you or I can do about it!" he shouted, walking in and throwing his bag to the floor.
"I like it," piped up Kiseki quietly.
"Be quiet, Kiseki!" roared both of her parents at once before they commenced their arguing. She closed her eyes and turned back to the living room and saw another door. Upon opening it, she realised it led to a small porch and quickly slid the door shut behind her, which did almost nothing to quiet her parent's shouts, but as she went to the edge of the porch, the rain pit-pattering against the wall of the building and its gutters drowned out their voices somewhat. She sighed, frustrated only slightly at how childish her parents were sometimes.
The view from here was spectacular; she could see down the street on which they lived for at least 5 blocks in either direction, and she recognised the small park that they had passed on their way from the game shop. She vowed that she would go there the following morning since it was only Saturday, for she felt like enjoying her last bit of freedom before she was pushed into the high school of the town. She heard her parents give one last shout at each other before the sound of two doors slamming shut reached her ears. Sighing, she realised this must mean that she'd be sleeping out on the couch tonight. Because she didn't feel tired enough, she stood out on the balcony for nearly a half hour, just looking out at the rain and the little shops and tall buildings of her new home town. One in particular caught her eye: it stood tall and prominent over everything and a large, brightly illuminated KC was near the top of it. She noticed that it looked to be only about 20 blocks from her house, and decided she might go to visit it in her tour of the city the next day. Other than the two large letters, it was completely darkened, though near the top, one sole office window was lit. Kiseki smiled to herself, thinking that whoever was working this late would be her motivation on nights like these, when she'd probably stay up and paint outside. Turning back to her apartment, she knew that the porch would be her place of sanctity and that she'd try to get some of her furniture from her bedroom into it to make it her own. She looked back at the KC building one last time, smiling a great deal to the unknown person still working diligently near the top, before sliding the porch door closed and unfolding the futon in the living room. Collapsing onto it, she silently thought that she might quite possibly be the only American to love the smallness of the Japanese housing before falling asleep.
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:clears throat and rearranges a random stack of paper: And thus concludes the introduction to Kiseki. As a little random note to all of you: in Japanese Kiseki means "miracle", Korosu means "to kill", and Takai means "death". let me know what you all think so far! Ja' ne!
Edie
