Authors Note: Wow, ok! Now I know why my stories have been removed! So before I have to wait another week to start over, I'm replacing this chapter again! I am going to go through and hopefully post one chapter a day until I get caught up. You don't have to re-read them if you don't want too. There shouldn't be too much changed, but you never know. Anyway, thanks to Birth stained Scarlet and Ugly Kitten. All other reviews will be answered when chapter 6 or 7 is posted! Thanks for your patience!
"You'll love Japan sis. We're going to tour the whole country this summer!"
Rika can't help but laugh at her older brother's excitement. It is rare that she gets to see him so happy. Rumiko is an unquestionably handsome young man. Though he is actually her twin, the two of them really look nothing alike. He is average in height and inherited their father's exotic Asian appearance while she resembled their European mother. Rumiko has semi-long hair that falls half hazardously into his dark brown eyes. His skin is a little darker than Rika's, and his complexion was almost perfect; not littered with freckles like she is, and he keeps himself in great physical condition, well toned and slim.
Rika is a head and shoulders (literally) shorter than he is, with long straight reddish-brown hair and bright blue-gray eyes. Her skin is pale and she have freckles sprinkled on her shoulders and arms. When she actually gets sun, the freckles disappear instead of becoming darker, but because of her profession Rika is generally inside. She keeps herself in shape, as healthy as possible when she hardly has any time to herself; managing to go jogging, though it's mostly on a treadmill or indoor track. Rika also swims regularly and lifts weights. She had taken lessons in self-defense, and had even picked up throwing knives and guns before. That had been years ago though, and she no longer owned any of said weaponry. The self-defense moves are buried beneath 5 years of college and a year in the working world. Despite all her accomplishments, Rika and her brother are only 24 years old, still young in any culture. Rumiko is currently a teacher at a small town junior high school; he always has had the patience with teaching someone something and he loves his job.
When Rika agreed to go with Rumiko (Rumi is her nickname for him) for the summer, she had no idea that he was going to go this far with it. For the last 5 months he had given her a crash course in speaking the language. Only when Rika had speaking down had he started trying to teach her to read. It was difficult; just one line would change a whole word….stupid things. Rika couldn't remember the right word for it now; being flustered and pulled through the airport in Tokyo is not her idea of fun. Rika finally get her bags from the luggage claim. She has 5 bags to Rumi's 3, and he just had to pick on her about it.
"Jeez Rika, how do you expect to get anywhere if you have to lug all that crap with you?"
"I intend on having someone else carry it," Rika doesn't try to keep from grinning as she throws two bags to your brother, "And besides, only 4 of these have clothes and stuff, the other one is all my camera equipment."
"Oh right. You're going to take pictures and stuff," Rika noticed the tone of Rumiko's voice and gave him a look. "You're always working sis. Can't you just have a vacation for once?"
Shaking her head, she replies, "Look, these aren't going to be just for the magazine ok? Mom and dad always wanted me to take pictures if I traveled, and I'm not going to stop now."
Rumi sent her another look. Their parents had passed away two years ago. It wasn't a surprise to find out that their father had died. He'd been fighting cancer for two years, but when the doctors had found it, it had been too late for them to really do anything. Father's heart had finally given out on him, and he died in his bed asleep, just like he wanted to. Rika's mom followed him into the after life about two weeks later. She had simply stopped wanting to live. It broke the twin's hearts as to watch her waste away, and no matter what your family or the doctors told her, Mom had just let her misery eat away at her heart until she had nothing left.
"You had us mother, but you couldn't see that. You were too upset about dad leaving you," Rika thought dismally as she remembered exactly how her mom had looked the last day she was alive. Nothing of her former beauty remained, she looked wasted and sick. Sighing, Rika brings herself back to the present as Rumi squeezes her shoulder. She looks up at him and realizes that she had been zoning out.
"I'm sorry Rumiko. I just want to honor the promise I made them."
Rumi smiled, "I know sis. I'm sorry too. Let's get going before it's too late to catch the bus!"
"Couldn't we wait until tomorrow? I mean, come on! We just got off the plane! Do we have to get on a bus now!"
Rika's brother grinned at her as he walked away carrying 4 bags. Heaving another sigh, she picks up her 4 remaining bags and follows him, careful to swing her camera pack up on her back so it wouldn't get bumped too badly. They catch the bus, without any problem, and decide that they should start speaking the language now that they're in the country. (From here on out you're speaking Japanese unless otherwise mentioned)
"So Rumi, where exactly is this bus headed?"
Looking out the window, he replies, "Right now we're going to a small town about an hour from here. I can't remember the name of it. But our real first stop on this adventure is Mushiyori City. You'll love it sis, I've been told it's very beautiful!"
Rika shakes her head as jet lag starts to hit her full force, Rika's day is starting over again, it's still early afternoon here. But her body is convinced that the sun should NOT be up right now, and neither should she. Taking this bus ride to her advantage, Rika falls asleep, holding her camera bag in her arms and leaning against Rumiko, the only real family that she has left.
Rika wake up as the brakes squeal and the bus jerks to a halt. She glances around to see that she's alone, her brother had gotten off the bus somewhere and she is the only one there. Even the driver was gone.
"This is strange," Rika thinks, "Where'd everyone go?"
Getting off the bus, she realizes that she only had her camera bag. Everything else was gone, including her purse that had the cell phone in it. The bus itself is sitting in an open parking lot. There are no other cars and no people around at all. The closest building seems to be about 25 meters away, so not knowing where else to go, Rika heads toward it. As she draws near, Rika realizes that it's an office building. There are lights on everywhere and the glass doors are unlocked. However, as Rika enters she notices that everything is eerily quiet. She walks up to the receptionist desk and looks for signs of anyone having been there recently. The phone is off the hook and has long since gone silent, papers are scattered everywhere and an ink bottle has been turned over, spilling its black contents over all the pages. Rika turns and walks up to the stairs, after a moment of deliberation; she ascends, hoping to find someone that can help her. There was no one on the second or third floors that she could see, but when Rika reaches the fourth floor, she pauses. All the blood is draining from her face; she can feel it retreat as her hands grow cold and numb. Bodies lie everywhere, pale and contorted in strange positions. Something is wrong though, there is no blood. Gashes torn into the bodies lie open, but dry. Disembodied heads lie near her feet, but there is no sign of bleeding from them either. Rika sees something move out of the corner of her eye, and screams in terror as her mother's body tries to crawl toward her. Rika runs down the stairs and out of the building, screaming her brother's name in English, begging him to help her.
"Hey, Rika! Wake up! We're there!"
Rika groggily sits up to see Rumi grinning like an idiot and trying to push her off his shoulder. She stands, still clutching her camera bag in fear because of the dream. Apparently Rumi notices her shaking.
"Hey, don't be nervous sis. You'll do fine, and we get to find a hotel room so now you can really relax."
Rika nods and smiles apologetically; she can't help but feel guilty about being so upset over the dream. After all, who would let a dream affect them like that? Rika figures she's just being silly; upset from the change in her surrounding and then the disturbing memories of her mother stressed her out. That's all it was, she is just stressed out.
After getting off the bus and picking up three of her bags, Rika follows her brother closely as he threads his way through the crowd on the street. It seems that the sidewalk has become a street for pedestrians. Everyone moving their direction (forward) was on the left, and everyone walking toward where the twins had come from was on the right. Like driving here would be. Rika thinks it's rather strange but humorous and fails to notice that her brother had stopped.
"Oh crap! I'm so sorry bro!" Rika exclaims in English as she picks up one of the bags she had knocked off his shoulder.
"It's ok. This is our hotel. I think."
Glancing at Rumiko, she notices that he seems a little confused. Taking a closer look at the building, you understand why. The sign had an English translation which read "Sunrise Hotel." The building, however, looked like an office building. At least 30 stories of glass and steel towered above you, and the revolving door spun constantly as men and women dressed in business suits came and went. Sending Rumi an amused look, Rika starts forward nudging him to walk in front of her. Rika remembered that these people (no offense) were still very old fashioned. The men were expected to enter and exit before the woman, walk in front of her, and take care of all the business stuff. Well, hopefully they aren't that bad, but you never know. And Rika knows for a fact that her brother does NOT want to look like a bumbling tourist. So she lets him handle things instead of making an idiot of herself and him by trying to be Americanized.
As it turns out, this is a very good thing. Rumiko speaks with the receptionist (who for all the world looked like a secretary at a high stakes corporation), and then had to read and sign some sort of paper. Everything was in kanji, of course, and Rika knows that she would have looked stupid had she tried to handle the situation. Rumi hands the secretary the signed paper and takes a card from her. He turns to Rika, picking up four of the bags and leads her to the elevator.
"What was all that about?" Rika asks.
"Because of all the tourists, the hotel makes you sign a statement that basically relieves them of any possible lawsuits should the suit be broken into or something."
Rika nods; after all it only made sense that they would cover their own ass. That they would go this far with it was a little odd, but still they couldn't handle the dough they'd have to dish out if some idiot lost her purse and claimed it had been stolen in the lobby or something.
"Where's our room?"
Rumi smiles, "Room 117 floor 13."
"Jeez, these rooms must be tiny then."
"Yes, they are. We'll have a pair of twin sized beds, a TV, a small fridge, and a bathroom. So don't expect much," he replied chuckling.
Rika shrugs, despite the fact that Rumi is laughing at her. She had heard somewhere that the islands were heavily populated and they didn't give anyone more room than they had too. She wouldn't be surprised to find out that this was over exaggerated, but then she wouldn't be surprised if it was true either.
The elevator door opened on the thirteenth floor and Rika follows Rumi out into the hall. He quickly walks to room 117, slides the card through the lock on the door handle, and opens the door when the light turns from red to green. Rika is surprised to find the room a little bigger than she had thought it would be. There is at least three feet around the three sides of the beds not against the wall and comfortable walking room past the TV to the bathroom (which was almost unbearably small). Rika plops her bags at the foot of the bed and flings herself on the bed.
"Very graceful," Rika faintly hears Rumi murmur as she falls asleep.