AN: I may look purple and shapeless sometimes, but I assure you, I am not Akimine Kamijyo. I regretfully don't own SDK. No suing me now.
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Yuya woke up as the sun filtered through her blinds into her eyes. She yawned and stretched, and turned off her alarm as it started to go off. She often got up jut before her alarm… Good internal clock, she always thought. She slowly got out of bed and smoothed her nightgown back down her legs and, stretching once more, went downstairs for breakfast.
She had been quite lonely since her brother died two months ago. The bills had started coming in and she knew she couldn't hold onto the house much longer. She was lonely and hurting, but she couldn't let her pain keep her from doing everything in her power to keep the home she and her brother had shared. She knew once the authorities found out she was living alone and her brother had been killed in a drive-by shooting, there would be an investigation and she would be moved into foster care. She was only 16… much too young to be on her own like this.
She sighed, thinking about her brother. Had the police already found his body? When he had suddenly yelled to her, she had ran… Heard the gunshot, and ran faster. She had nearly died as well, and had a slowly healing scar to prove it, but still she had ran until the next thing she knew, she waking up in her doorway and bleeding slightly. Two months later, no one had said anything to her, she had kept going to school as usual, and almost nothing had changed. When the money ran out, she didn't know what she would do. In the meantime, she was going to eat her cereal and get ready for school. Her problems could wait... for now.
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Elsewhere, a tall, well-built man with brilliant blue eyes contemplated the results of his actions… How had Nozomu known it was him? Had Yuya lived? Would he have to finish the job? His higher-ups back in Japan had wanted Nozomu killed… It wasn't his place to question their orders, but still he wondered why the girl had to die…
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He was a mess. Scratch that, he was more than a mess. He was going crazy. He was well off and had lots of money to spare, and a successful job he knew people would kill for, but still, something deep inside him was restless. It was driving him insane. There was something he couldn't quite identify, a space in him that felt it need to be filled, strange dreams demanding answers he didn't have. Living day by painful day, the restless feeling inside him got worse. He had resigned himself to his insanity and had made an appointment with a psychiatrist later that week.
It was on his way to that appointment that he found himself taking a different way to the office. He had never been down these roads before… What was he thinking? The train station was that way! Still, he kept walking, turning a corner here and there, until he was deep in an older neighborhood. The streets were very narrow here. He recalled roads like these, somewhere deep in his past. He had followed roads just like these at one point to take him into the city, where he had grown up, finished school, and made it big. Just where had he been born anyway? When had he left the old houses here in the downtown, and wandered into the city?
He was torn from his musings when he found himself in front of an antique shop. Yet, he still didn't have control over his body. A bell tinkled overhead as he opened the door and walked inside the shadowed store, noticing that there was no air conditioning to save him, and his suit, from the humidity outside. He thought he heard his name. It wasn't a sound; he felt it. Something was calling him. He was being compelled by something he didn't understand to the back of the tiny store to some large paintings resting against the wall. The canvas and wood frames protested quietly as he leaned them forward to see behind them. It was still half covered by a smaller, yet still large, painting… It was a huge sword, a nodachi. He stared at it for some time before he reached out to touch it. The moment his fingers touched its smooth and strangely shiny surface, he felt as if he had just been jolted with a tazer. Strange images flooded his mind. There were people he had never seen before, someone who looked a little like him, bloodshed. They were the same as his dreams that haunted him every night. He pulled the nodachi from behind the last painting and drew the blade… It was sharp and reflective, and he could see his own eyes in it, and the eyes of someone else. He whispered something under his breath, but he didn't know what he said.
A voice broke him out of his unsettling reverie. He quickly sheathed the giant blade and turned around. An elderly woman peered up at him quizzically, looking semi amused. He regained his composure and gave her his own confused look.
"What did you say?" He sounded sleepy.
The woman chuckled. "I asked you if you liked the sword."
He stared at it mechanically. "Yeah." He sounded like he hadn't used his voice in a long time.
The old woman smiled, saying, "That sword is really old. It's been through a lot of history. There's an old story saying that that sword you're holding is one of the legendary swords by a man named Muramasa. He called it—"
"Tenro" he finished with her, hardly above a whisper.
She looked at him with her surprise clearly showing on her face. "You know your legends!" she laughed.
He nodded distractedly. How had he known…? He shook his head to clear the thought out of his head. "I'll take it," he told her, looking at her directly for the first time so his long bangs weren't covering his eyes.
The smile disappeared from her face and she managed to stutter "T-take it." He tried to ask how much, but she shook her head and repeated, "Take it!" She was leaning against a clothing rack to support herself.
He walked out with the sword, wondering about the old woman's reaction. He knew his eyes were startling, but this sword had to be priceless. He didn't think his eyes were unusual enough to frighten an old woman into giving him such a valuable antique free. He just missed the old woman's shakily whispered, "Onime no Kyo… You've returned…!" as the door shut.
He glanced at his watch and realized he was going to be late to his appointment! He then realized he didn't know how to navigate back to the main road. That was okay, though, seeing as he found himself walking again. He was soon on the main road, hailing a taxi. He heard himself speak, felt his lips moving.
"Tokyo International Airport, please."
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Yuya came in her front door, horribly tired and worried. She had gotten the mail and found more bills. She shut and locked the front door, opening an envelope. She sighed miserably. They were going to shut off the power if she didn't pay this bill. She had decided the last bit of money in savings was going to be for food, and already there wouldn't be enough left to buy food for the next month, much less pay the bills. She couldn't get a job because all the places nearby had higher age requirements and she couldn't drive. Nozomu had died before he had gotten a chance to finish teaching her. She really didn't want to go into foster care… This house and the things in it were all she had left to remind her of her brother. She pulled a TV dinner out of the freezer and ate it after microwaving it. She had rationed the food that was left in the house to save money. She climbed into bed in a despaired mood and forced herself to sleep… She had school in the morning. She had to keep going as long as she could.
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On the plane, Kyo reminisced on why on earth he was headed halfway across the world. He remembered walking into the airport, buying tickets, and using a great deal of money, managed to find himself on the next flight. He mused that he still had plenty more money, but what had possessed him to get on the next flight at all costs? He hated not having control over his body. He had always been stubborn and cold, even refusing to wear contacts when his school protested his unusual eyes, and this feeling that someone else was controlling him was unbearable. On top of that, he wondered why no one in the airport had questioned his sword, or why they all seemed so mechanical as soon as he approached them… He was getting quite sick of all this. He hoped he would get an explanation for it soon.
Fortunately for him, he wouldn't have to wait too much longer, because the plane would land soon enough, and he would find himself immersed even deeper in something he couldn't hope to control… fate.
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Well, what do you think? It's my first attempt at a serious story (that I've been serious about writing), so please let me know what you think. Reviewing is nice ya know. Also, I might take a while to update because I'm busy with school right now. I have to bring my grades up before Thursday... .