'Tis the Season
Winter I : Tapestries of Fate
How beautiful the world seemed to be right now… with infinite snow scrawling part of the city and the other half of it bathed in pale wintry light. One, two, three… -- sweet ol' melodies of life. And ever so slowly, the gilded hues broke into full force as they came in contact with the naked city, reflecting off the whiteness of it. Even though it was just the start; a whole new beginning for yet another seasonal winter, cold would be an understatement. The morning was exceptionally frosty and chilly enough that only within one night, one can see and feel the difference.
Makimichi Misao heaved in a long, deep breath, stretching her hands frantically to relieve her tense muscles as she settled cozily into an empty seat with a refresh look and a rather wide smile. Cheerful would be the word best described Misao's current mood despite the fact that no child, let alone teenagers, would love to wake up one chilling morning and take all the trouble to set themselves up for another day in school. Yeap, my friend, Misao is one of a kind…or is she?
"You sure you wanna do this, Misao-chan?" A woman in her early twenties walked up to her and placed down a bowl of miso which was gently accepted with another smile.
"Of course I am Okon-chan. I see this as a challenge, an adventure and not even the old Ji-chan can dampen my spirits! It would be fun to know at least something that Ji-chan don't," she replied blithely before sipping up the remaining content of the once brewing bowl, teeming to the brim of delightful essence of a traditional meal. Her sister; Okon, could only watch her amusingly as Misao slung a pair of skates spontaneously onto her shoulder blades and her bag pack on another before bidding a swift goodbye.
"Itterashai, Misao-chan."
"Ittekimasu."
Sauntering down the slippery path in full ease, she carefully shifted the skates as her shoulder was starting to hurt a bit. The world was a glorious white that very day and everywhere she turned to look, joviality was presence in the atmosphere. Kids were running exuberantly in the snow-covered parks as adults could be seen prodding heavily behind them while the others was busy shoveling up snows out of their way to clear a path for walking. In the distance, she spotted a couple of kids puffing up snows to build a snowman. With a smile still evident on her rosy lips, she waved extrovertly to the group of kids who in return shouted her name and ushered her to play along with them.
"Gomen-ne! I've got something on today!" she clasped her hand, a sign of apology. And then she turned into a path where it led her straight to the college she was attending for the past few months.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"No, a little bit to the right…Yes, you heart me right, to the right…" Misao walked into the school ground in the perfect moment to witness her best friend dangled up in circuits of what seemed to be early Christmas decoration with enchanted lights sticking out of her ebony black hair.
"Ohayo Yuki-chan! What a jumble up situation you ended up in this early of the morning," Misao shot a sarcastic greeting and on the same time offered a hand to help her best friend up.
"A-re? Misou-chan? Why are you here today?"
"I am here for the first skating lessons…"she paused before giving a nice pull. "Say, you look rather stylish in that."
"What?" Yuki Junichiro furrowed her brow and then she realized she was still in complete mess. "Oh, that. I was in charge of this year decoration and surprisingly I've got a bunch of idiots who could not differentiate between left and right working under me. Darn, I'm going to ask for my compensation after this." She said blandly, obviously in no mood for a conversation.
"Idiots you say?"
"Yeah, idiots." Yuki muttered monotonously and pointed her thumb towards the 'bunch of idiots' behind her. "Hey!" Misao greeted but they could only smile sheepishly back as they were afraid of their senpai who looked like she was going to burst any moment. And their worst fear was confirmed when…
"Hey you there!" Yuki's voice flared up, startling a poor first-year whose face was now as pale as a ghost, when she spotted the same guy who dropped the Christmas garments, shifting the banners to yet another new position. "I say right not left!"
"I guess I better leave Yuki-chan. Err… pleasure meeting you people."
Misao excused herself just in time as another pile of freshly hung banners came crashing down, landing on the poor senpai who seemed to have just enough already.
"See now what you have done! I told you to shift it to the right not left…" her voice faded into the distance.
Misao went up to her locker and neatly placed some books she produced from her bag pack in exchange for a few new ones which she had promised to borrow them to some friends of hers. As she was doing so, a figure came bumping into her, the momentum of the crash sent her off her feet causing her to land heavily on the floor with a loud thud.
"Itei…"
"Oops, sorry."
"Could you look at where you are walking next time?" she groaned in pain.
"I just wasn't looking…"
"Make use of your eyes then!!" she replied heatedly. And then something clicked within the back of her mind. Something is missing………….Her skates… her PRECIOUS skate…they, they are GONE!!
"Oh my god, where are they? Where are they?" she went completely ballistic.
"A-re…?"
"My skates…" Her voice was shaky.
"Skates?" The figure spoke up in a perplexed tone. "Don't you mean…"
"Yes, skates. My skates. You do know what skates are, don't you? You know how much they cost right? You, you…" Her voice which was momentarily calm went shaky with anger once more. Her eyes felt extremely warm and –
"Baka, baka, BAKA!!"
"I didn't mean to…but…"
"Go away!"
"Please… err…is this, what you are looking for?"
A glint of blue met her eyes and went she finally decided to look up, a young man, somehow estimated same age as her, held up a pair of blue skates that looked awfully familiar…
"Hey, that's mine!" and she snatched it away from him even without muttering a thanks since this young man had saved her skates just in time before it went crashing into other lockers and gave itself scratches all over.
The young man looked rather confused and pushed no further of the subject. Misao on the other hand was now busy detecting for any permanent damage or harm done to her precious skates during their collision.
"Err…"
"What?" she hissed impatiently.
"I'm sorry." He shot her a last look before disappearing of into a hallway. He was however unaware that Misao was making faces and shoving her sore butt at him.
And she hit the spot.
"Ouch."
*~*~*~*~*~*
This is just a short chapter. I couldn't write any longer, exam starts tomorrow and will last me at least a month or two…sigh. Not really good is it? This is my first Kenshin fic though. Just drop me a review of what you think and I'll be happy.
Signing out,
Psycho_kyugurl