Chapter one: Introduction

WARNING: DEATH AHEAD!

Mrs. Waters was unnerved. She couldn't look at her daughters eyes, a baby should look so calm, so collected, so inhuman. It scared her to death to look into those eyes and just know that she knew what was going on.

Mr. Waters had died not too long after Hine was born. He never witnessed the anomaly that was their child.

The doctors would comment on how eerie those eyes were. They were a mossy green, mostly normal besides the fact that they could see.

None of them really knew what she actually saw but they knew one thing. The child was made for great things.

I knew a few things, my mother was scared of me. The doctors visited way too often to be normal. Then was the biggest fact. I was a twenty-five year old stuck in a baby's body.

I could only watch and observe from any one's arms. I was too small and too weak to support myself for much of anything. I was fed, bathed, and changed by some one else, usually it was my mother but the doctors would help when ever I was around them.

That went on for about a year.

I won't say exactly a year because I could move around on my own by the time my 'first' birthday came up.

It wasn't anything special just a small celebration with my mother and a few presents. I wasn't going to complain, mother was a widow trying to take care of a very weird child. She worked so hard for me it almost made me feel remorse when I finally did leave.

I was kept with her for about three years, those three years were spent learning a new language, tripping on my words, stumbling and falling, learning how to live again. It was weird not being tied to a bed from a sickness that was basically eating my insides. It was weird but not unwelcome.

I could suck in a breath and hold it without my lungs burning, I could stand on my own, walk on my own, I could run! I don't think I've ever felt so free!

I smiled happily at my mother, she crouched in front of me fixing that blasted tie again. "Musume, are you sure you want to do this?" Her hands stopped moving, her eyes wouldn't meet mine though. Her vivid red bangs hid them from me.

"Kaa-Kaa I'll me fine." I awkwardly patted her much larger hand that was still holding my tie.

"I know, musume, nothing could ever hurt you." She lifted her head slightly allowing me to see the tiny smile that curved her lips. It was small and it was sad.

"Kaa-Kaa, I'll call you every day."

Her eyes finally met mine. Tears gathered at the corners and they looked glassy. I had to blink, I didn't think she would actually miss me. "I know, and I'll hold you to it." Her smile trembled as she let go of my tie, her hands slipped down both my cheeks then one through my thick red curls. Her caramel brown eyes closed for a brief second and the tears spilled down her cheek. "Musume, every one is going to be so much older than you." Her hand curled in my hair at the nap of my neck and pulled my head into her chest. Her other arm circled around my back in a tight hold.

"I know." I whispered into her shirt. Not every three year old got excepted into grade school, let alone a boarding grade school. Just one more thing that was different in this world than in my last one.

She held me for a little while longer, I had wrapped my tiny hands into the fabric of her white blazer.

She pulled back as we both heard the wurr of the train heading our way. "Musume." She breathed tucking my red fringe behind my ear, "Hine, I'll miss you." She gave a small peck to my forehead, "Don't forget who you are my lovely. Don't forget to study and keep on top of your classes. I love you Hine."

I smiled and pecked her salty cheek, "Love you too Kaa-Kaa."

She smiled, "You'll do great, I know you will." She stood up to her full height, she wiped her eyes dry with the cuff of her shirt.

"Of course." I latched onto her hand with a huge smile.

She chuckled and walked us closer to the edge of the platform. All around us kids dressed in similar outfits were giggling and making excited noises next to their parents as the train rolled into view. It's breaks were quite silent, I was expecting to need to hold my ears for fear of going deaf.

I heard her sigh long and soft, "Well this is it." She smiled down at me, her eyes were getting watery again.

"I'll make you proud Kaa-Kaa!" I chirped briefly hugging her leg. I stepped back and detached myself from her, I knew if I let her have the option I wouldn't be heading down this new road. I skipped a head and turned back around, she was still standing there her lips trembling. I raised one hand and waved, "Love you!"

"Love you too." I didn't hear her but I watched the shape of her mouth. I gave her a bright grin and then turned around hoisting my pack higher on my back in the same moment. I let my smile drop. This was it. I was finally going to see just where I was, when I was.

I should have looked back before boarding the train. I should have ran back and gave her another hug to make sure she knew I loved her. For what ever reason I didn't look back and I climbed into one of the carriages. I didn't even look out the window to see if I could spot her. After all she was just the woman who gave birth to this body. Not my actual mother. No my actual mother had abandoned me a month after I had gotten hospitalized.

I frowned and pulled out the hand book for my new school.

I never even got to open the damned thing when I heard the gun shots. I jolted upright only to sway back and almost fall on my ass as the train began to surge forward. I hurried to the window as the shots rang out, my heart was thudding painfully against my chest cavity.

I pressed my face to the glass, 'Kaa-Kaa's' red hair was indistinguishable from all the blood that was still spraying around the panicked crowd. I caught a brief glimpse of her though when some one bodily pushed her out of the crowd and into the moving train. I had to look away after her hand got caught under a wheel.

When I got to the school our group was led to a large gymnasium to morn while they told us what had happened back at the train station.

"Twenty-one people were shot and killed, thirteen are in critical care, and one was torn to shreds under the train." A man with a solemn face told us, "A mad with a gun had entered the platform at the very moment each and every one of you were boarding that train. He opened fire after a man bumped into him." He looked down before continuing, "Miss. Natsuno has a list of every one that had been effected in this tragedy. Please be quiet until she has finished reading the names."

"Misuki Asuno, age twenty-six, killed by a shot to the side of the head."

The person next to me wilted, "Nee-san?" I heard her whimper.

The woman dressed in a black pinstriped dress suit continued to read off the list. Several more hushed whimpers chorused around me. I felt the sting inside my chest as she read, "Takara Waters, age twenty-seven, killed by a shove under the train." I didn't whimper, nor did I cry but my eyes felt like they were burning and I could hardly breathe. I wanted to cry, I wanted to grieve for this wonderful woman but I couldn't. I just couldn't.

Then the rather roundish man had us bow our heads in silence in memory of those who had just perished.

We wouldn't be attending the funerals though. School had just started and unfortunately they couldn't just book us a train to send us back in the middle of a school year for a few days then take us back. Several of those kids had dropped out and what was left of their family came to pick them up.

I had gotten a phone call about what I wanted done with my mothers body since no other family contact could be made. I had asked them to cremate the body. There wasn't enough of the body to collect for a proper burial, nor did I have the money to do such a thing. They locked down our house and kept a hold of the keys for when I was ready to go back. That house was my mother's mothers and for that reason the bank didn't take it away.

We were safe here though, even as the world around us kept getting darker and darker. In this school it functioned very much like a college. You earned a certain amount of credits to move onto the next 'year.' It didn't take me very long to start climbing the rope to graduation. A lot of this stuff was basically a repeat of what I had learned in my old life.

I would sit in the corners in classrooms and make sure I was over looked by the other kids. I knew how cruel kids could be and did not want to gain their attention even for a moment. As a result, I had no friends besides my roommate who didn't really count as she would just chatter to me when she couldn't find any of her other friends to hang out with. I didn't mind it though, no friends that is, it actually made me feel slightly comfortable. It reminded me of my last four or five years in the hospital before I woke up as a screaming baby.

Three years had gone by since Takara's death, I had forgotten how to preform the Japanese ritual to talk to the dead. Instead I had locked myself in my bathroom with her picture. I sat there humming the same song she would always use to try to put me to sleep. Three years and I could finally cry for her. I chocked on a sob. "Kaa-Kaa I hope I'm making you proud." I whispered and hugged the frame to my chest.

The counselors didn't really know what to do with her. She never spoke to any one but she would watch, she was always watching, always observing, never acting. It was like she was wary, it was like she knew something terrible was going to happen. It might have been because her mother was brutally murdered, it might have been because she had no dad, it might have been because of a lot of things but it still baffled them to an extent.

The professors were astonished how quickly she gathered her credits, she would even stay over the summers to complete different classes pushing her further and further down the path towards graduation.

The Principal was proud. He took a very risky move allowing Miss. Waters into his school at such a young age. He took an even bigger risk when he brushed away the thought of sending her back into her hometowns legal system. Now here she was already being labeled with nicknames such as 'little genius' or 'prodigy.'

A/N Question: How badly do you want me to fuck up cannon? I've got the story almost completely planned out and should be getting the next chapter up in a few days if I find the time around work.

Please review, I'd love to hear your thoughts!