~Chapter 1: Welcome to Yasoinaba~
"Welcome to the Velvet Room."
Opening her amber eyes, the light-blonde finds herself in what appears to be a limousine, shelves of glasses and liquor on her left side, and a man with a very long nose and a woman dressed in a blue outfit. The woman is beautiful, she admits, but the man gives her a stare with those tiny pupils and a wide creepy grin.
"It seems we have a guest… with an intriguing destiny," he chuckles. She nearly jumps at the sound of his voice.
"My name is Igor. I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter… It is a room that only those who are bound by a 'contract' make enter… Now, why don't you introduce yourself?"
Igor sees her hesitating and chuckles. "Don't worry… I won't hurt you. Just let me take some of your time and let me explain myself just a bit…"
She sees his grin widen. Nonetheless, she says her name to them. "Akie Amamiya."
The man nods just a bit. "Hmm… I see. Now… let's take a look into your future shall we?" On a table before him appeared a set of cards. As they were laid out, he flipped one over. "Each reading is done with the same cards, but the result is always different," he chuckled. "Life itself follows the same principles, doesn't it?"
"I g-guess so..."
He gestured with his hand and the card on the bottom right corner flipped over. It looked like a tower being struck by lightning with a bunch of people falling off the top of it. On the bottom was the Roman Numeral XVI. "Hm... The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future. It seems a terrible catastrophe is imminent."
"The card indicating the future beyond that is…." He gestured again and the card on the bottom left corner flipped over. It was a crescent moon. "The Moon, in the upright position. This card represents 'hesitation' and 'mystery'…. Very interesting indeed. It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you," he continued. "In the coming days, you will enter into a contract of some sort, after which you will return here. The coming year is a turning point in your destiny…. If the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost. My duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure that does not happen," he said. He waved his hand over the table and the cards disappeared.
"Ah! I have neglected to introduce my assistant to you," Igor exclaimed. He gestured to the woman. "This is Margaret. She is a resident of this place, like myself," he explained.
"My name is Margaret. I am here to accompany you through your journey," she informed her.
"We shall attend to the details another time," Igor said. "Until then, farewell." Everything faded into black.
Monday, 4/11 (Daytime)
Akie wakes up when she hears a buzzing noise from her phone. She reaches into her bag and sees that she just got a text message.
[Meet us outside Yasoinaba Station at 4PM.]
Sighing as she closed the phone, she watched out the window as the scenery passed her eyes. In her reflection, she can briefly see the Yasoinaba High School uniform. She was suddenly reminded why she took the train to said country.
"Well, I'm sure that you all know already..." Mr. Omada said as she stood in front of her class with him. "But at the end of this month, she will be transferring to another school."
The news caused a stir in the classroom as students protested against it while Akie stood there stone-faced.
"Quiet down, guys. I'm not finished... I know you'll miss her a lot but it's only for the year."
Coming back from her short reminisce, she pursed her lips. 'Missed me? Yeah right, all they care about is that I'm their walking check book.'
Then, as soon the announcement for Yasoinaba Station came on, Akie grabbed her bag and stood by the the doors.
Once outside the station, she glanced around the area she'll be living at for the next year and smiled softly. It looked nice… very peaceful. It was a bit change from the bustling city of Tokyo. The air was soothingly fresh and it was strangely quiet, but she happily welcomed it. Hey, it's nice to get away from the hustle and bustle.
"Hey, over here," someone called out to her, breaking the silence. She turned her head in the direction of the sound spotting a man and a small child. She walked over until they were face to face. Literally as she was tall for a girl her age. "Well, you're prettier in person than in your photo," he said.
Blushing bashfully at the compliment, she thanked him.
"Welcome to Inaba. I'm Ryotaro Dojima. I'll be looking after you," he introduced. "Let's see…. I'm your mother's younger brother, and that about sums it up."
"It's nice to meet you," She replied with a smile.
"You probably don't remember, but we've met. I've changed your diapers before, you know?" he laughed, making the girl blushed from embarrassment. He brought out the girl behind him. "This here's my daughter," he said. He looked down at the girl. "Come on, Nanako, introduce yourself to your cousin." She looked down shyly.
"Hello," she said briefly as she walked to her hiding spot. Dojima chuckled.
"What're you so shy for?" he asked, a smile lighting up his face. Nanako, pouting at the tease, smacked on the back.
"Ow," he said, laughing. She glared at him.
"Well then…. Let's get going," he said. "My car's over there." Pointing to a nearby car, they began walking towards it when a boy bumped into her.
"…Um, hey..." he said. He has shiny dark hair and bright green eyes, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and checkered pants with black-striped red arm warmers. He's carrying a big blue bag with golden designs. He bent down to pick something.
"Um, you dropped this," he said, showing the item.
Looking down, she saw it was her uncle's address her mother gave her, in case he's too busy.
"Um, thank you." Akie said as she gratefully took back the paper.
"...It's nothing..." He muttered while looking away before walking off, leaving a confused Akie.
"What's wrong," Dojima called.
"Uh… nothing!" She called back as she went over to the car.
The ride was mostly quiet with the exception of Dojima trying to make small talk to break the ice. But the blonde politely answer in short like "Yes." or "It's alright." Watching her from the rear-view mirror, Dojima can already tell breaking this girl's shell is a lot harder than he originally thought but who could blame her?
She was sent here out of her own free will. All because her parents couldn't afford her to get used to another country. Even when they're in the same country, they're never home. Even from childhood, her parents were never around. Always out for work or, in this case, business trips and the only person she could talk to back then were the occasional caretakers hired by her parents. All her life, her parents were never in it. Right now, all she sees them are not people who could support her emotionally and physically.
But as he thought more, he's slightly reminded of himself. Sure, he was busy with work to spend time with Nanako but at least he eats dinner with her and spend some quality time with her.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when Nanako tugged at his sleeve. "I want to go to the bathroom..."
"Welcome to Moel!" an attendant came running by once Dojima entered the station.
"Can you go to the bathroom by yourself?" he asked. Nanako nodded. Dojima got out of the car and talked to the gas station attendant as Nanako walked towards the bathroom.
"It's in the back, to your left," the attendant called. "You know which way's left? The side you don't hold your chopsticks in."
"I know…. Geez…." Nanako muttered, annoyed.
"Are you going on a trip?" he asked.
"No, we just went to pick her up. She came from from the city." Dojima informed the attendant as said girl came out of the car to stretch her limbs.
"The city, huh? How exciting." He replied.
"Fill it up while you're at it." Dojima said, kindly informing the man to do his job instead of yapping his mouth.
"Yes sir!" The boy said, but remained standing in the same spot glancing a bit at Akie.
"Good time as any for a smoke…" Dojima muttered to himself, wandering off.
Akie watched silently before turning to the attendant.
"Does it surprise you to see how little there is to do out here? There's so little to do, you'll probably be bored fast. You'll either be hanging out with your friends or doing part time jobs."
'Friends, huh?' the blonde thought.
"Speaking of which, we're actually looking for part time help right now. Think about it, wont ya? We don't care if you're a student." He informed you, taking a step toward you extending his hand out to you. Looking down at it, she politely shook it.
"Oh, I should get back to work!" He said, quickly walking away to fill Dojima's gas tank. As the attendant walked away, her head started to ache.
"What's wrong? Did you get carsick?" Nanako asked shyly and a bit worriedly.
"No, it's nothing, I'm alright…" Akie replied. "Just a bit a little tired."
"You're probably just tired from the long trip. Why don't you walk it off, stretch you legs a bit? It'll help you know your way around while you're at it." Dojima interjected returning to the car after finishing his cigarette.
"Alright." she said.
"Nanako and I will wait here for him to finish," he said, directing toward the lollygagging attendant. "Don't wander too far." He smiled softly and she nodded before wandering off.
Taking a glance around the shopping district, she chanced upon a book store but they weren't open. Deciding to come back another time, she moved on. She visited several other shops and had seen other teens of the same age as her until her uncle called for her.
(Evening)
After unpacking her things in her new room, Nanako called her down for dinner. Sitting down at the coffee table, she was surprised at the small feast that was set out in front of her.
"So, your mom and dad are busy as always…. They're working overseas, was it?" She nodded. "I know it's only for a year, but getting stuck in a place like this because of your parents… It's rough being a kid. I hope you're settling in well," Dojima said smiling kindly. "It's just me and Nanako here, so it'll be nice to have someone else around."
"Thank you so much for allowing me to stay here with you, uncle." Akie said politely.
"No need to be so formal, we are family after all. My house is your house now." He chuckled. "Well, anyway…. Let's eat," Dojima said hastily.
And just when they were about to eat their first bite, his phone rings. "Ugh…. Who's calling at this hour?" he muttered. He picked it up.
"Dojima speaking." He stood up. "Yeah? I see…. So where is it? All right, I'm on my way," he finally said. "Looks like I made the right decision to skip the booze…" He muttered. Akie had a somewhat Déjà vu feeling when Dojima once again excused himself. She nodded to him, not really listening as it was a reflex she had whenever her parents did the similar thing. Once he's out, the air turned tense as she turned to the young girl.
"Does uncle do that often?"
"Uh-huh, it's always like this. Dad's a detective and he gets called out a lot…" She said, returning her attention to the TV with a sigh. Not knowing what to respond, she quietly ate her food as she listened to the alleged scandal about the council secretary Taro Namatame having an affair with a local TV reporter named Mayumi Yamano. He had cheated on the popular enka singer, Misuzu Hiiragi.
"This is boring…" Nanako grumbled, changing the channel. The channel she went showed a commercial about some store you overhead from a few people while strolling the shopping district.
"At Junes, everyday is Customer Appreciation Day. Come see for yourself and get in touch with our products." A feminine voice said followed by a catchy song. "Every day's great at your Junes~"
"Every day's great at your Junes~!" Nanako sang happily.
Seeing her perked up made the older girl happy, so she decided to sing along. Hey, it's catchy.
"Every day's great at your Junes~!" She sang.
"Oh! You memorized it already?! I'm the best in my class!" She said proudly.
"It is a catchy song." The blonde said.
Dinner then became a bit more lively as the two chatted more as they ate until Akie sent Nanako to bed while wrapping up Dojima's food before hitting the hay herself.