Chapter One
"Hm…. Her birthday's coming up this weekend, we should get her something really great, but I'm not sure what.."
"Ah, Onee, you're so strange sometimes, this is your best friend we're talking about, surely whatever you gets has to be out of the park perfect!"
"I know thaaat! I just don't know what that perfect thing is.. Rena loves so many different and even random things that you can never know for sure what it is she wants or is obsessed with for the moment.. surely you might have some ideas Shion? You're better at girly things then me.."
"Hmmm…." The younger sister hummed as she looked for the right kind of answer to help her beloved twin. Suddenly her face lit up as she brought up what she believed to be a good idea, "That's it! One thing that's always good to give is something that the person doesn't already have, and since it's Rena we're talking about…. How about some sexy underwear?"
"EHHHHHHHHH?"
The mischievous Sonozaki girl couldn't help but fall backwards onto her bed laughing by her sister's flustered reaction. It was almost too easy to freak out the other girl. Mion on the other hand, was a bright red by the idea of such a gift. Even she never went out to get those kinds of things! (Instead she'd usually have her sister do that sort of stuff)
"Oh don't worry Onee, I was only kidding! Counting first we'd need you to get those things for yourself before we have you get some for somebody else right?" Her sister frowned and puffed her cheeks in embarrassment as she looked the other way. "Jerk" Mion muttered as her sister continued to hold a cheerful yet calm smile as she suddenly jumped on her sister.
"Aw don't be so mad big sis, I promise I'll be nicer" she mused with a laughter and a hug, a laughter that made it easy for her sister to see through it "Liar" Mion mumbled as she stuck out her tongue. Before Shion had a chance to tease her sister even further though, their mother called out from down the hall.
[i]"Girls! I need your help"[/i]
Both girls called back as they got off of the bed and made their way out and down the hall, when reaching their mother, they saw her carrying a large cardboard box from the old closet room.
"What's going on Okaa san?" Mion asked as their mother as the two watched her put down the box. Wiping a few stray beads of sweat from her forehead, the woman answered, "you're grandmother decided that it was time that we cleaned this old room out so I need your help, I did most of the work but have a meeting I need to get going to, do you think you girls could handle finishing the rest of it?"
Both girls nodded as their mother gave a short sigh of relief. It didn't really take much work to do until they were able to get down to the last few boxes.
"Phew," Shion said, being the first to break the silence as she stopped to stretch her arms.
"If Okaa san and Onii baba is going to make us do most of the work, then we might as well be allowed to keep one of these dusty old artifacts, knowing them, these things are probably going to be locked away into another dark place anyways. What do you think sis?" The girl asked with a little yawn. She honestly wouldn't be too surprised if her younger sister rejected that idea, Mion was always a bit of a goody goody anyways.
"I'm not sure sis.. I just… I have a bad feeling about this, like something bad will happen if we take them.."
"Oi! You're so paranoid" Shion laughed, getting a little more bugged by her sister's objection to the plight. "Counting, you need a gift for Rena chan correct? How about one of these old things, surely she'd find one of this old junk pieces cute right?" Mion's look of uncertainty but lack of words was enough for Shion to claim it as her own victory as she tore open the rather big box's top.
The two were surprised though when instead of finding a bunch of pieces of miscellaneous items they found a more vast and mysterious trunk inside. The dusty old trunk, looking more like a fragile treasure chest, was a burgundy red while the metallic portions were more of a contrast of a rusty gold as hand paintings covered the entire outside of it.
"Wow.." Shion whispered as she imagined all of the possiblilities of what kind of treasures could lay inside of the box.
"The art is beautiful.." her sister whispered as well and indeed it was. The bottom corner of the box began the roots and base of a beautifully hand painted sakura tree as it grew to the top of the box where the blossoms and branches sprayed out across the entire top. The sun could be seen on one end as a painting of two young girls could be seen playing together, each girl beautifully and rather uniquely designed with their one individual trinkets and accessories, and yet, the same face.
Mion couldn't help but study the fascinating art pieces with awe as her sister began tapping her foot with impatience. Shion was always the hastier of the two after all. "Isn't it pretty sis?" Mion asked with a small delicate smile as she returned her eyes to the magnificent handmade workings. Perhaps the entire thing was hand crafted.
"Yes yes, it's all nice an pretty now let's look at what's inside!" Shion stated, interrupting her sister from the her state of awement before unlatching and opening the top part. As the door swung open the first thing that the girls caught sight of was a tsunami of dust that seemed to nearly knock them off their feet with fits of sneezes and coughing. But when their attention was returned to the opened chest, their chests seemed to skip a beat in amazement.
What was inside were.. antiques! Not the normal antiques but the really pretty elegant kind. Like jewely and even fashion accessories like purses and such. Both girls seemed to light up at the sight as they whispered together… [i]"jackpot![/i]
While Shion didn't seem as interested in the artwork as her sister, both had eyes the size of baseballs as the two pairs of green orbs searched through the chest. The more outspoken girl reached in for something first.
"Hey Mion, fancy enough?" Shion hummed as she held a pretty pearl earing by her ear. Mion smiled as she decided to one up her sister.
"Oh I hope Mister Dawson likes my new bonnet~!" The tomboy spoke, in a mocking English accent as she place a piece of aged fancy fabric on her head with the old laces and everything. Her sister began laughing, but for a different reason.
"Uh.. Mion?"
"Yes madam?" the girl answered, continuing with her bad british voice.
"…That's a pair of granny panties you have on you're head.."
"…"
"…. Also…. I think those are Oni baba's.."
"…."
Without a single word, the embarrassed and also rather disturbed girl returned the ancient pair of underpants back into the trunk. Though she couldn't help but wonder, Onibaba was always one mainly involved with Hinamizawa's culture, so why would she be want something as frilly and western themed as laced undies? Oh well, even Mion knew never to question her grandmother's strange ways.
Returning her gaze towards the old chest, something immediately seized the attention of the younger sister. It was… a doll, a fragile, delicate little doll. Being the biggest softy when it came to these little toys, the girl couldn't help but gently reach over to pick it up.
"It's so pretty.." she whispered as Mion gently stared at the little doll. It had soft yet dusty black hair with scarlet eyes and lips, the perfect contrast it's ivory glass skin. The doll sort of reminded her of Snow White. Luckily only Shion and Rena knew of Mion's true girlish nature even though she'd always try to hide it. There was no huge reason as to why, she just never saw it as fitting to her character.
While Mion kept herself distracted by the doll, Shion curiously rummaged through the rest of the items in the chest. There was so much jewelry.. it felt as if they'd found a pirate's chest! That's when the idea occurred to her.
"Hey Onee, what if we gave Rena some jewelry for her birthday gift? I'm sure Onii baba wouldn't notice if just one piece of jewelry was missing." Shion could see that her sister was thinking about it, though the confliction in the girl's eyes made it hard to figure out what the girl would say. Well, maybe not difficult, but it'd either be black or white, a "okay" or a "she'd find out and I'm a goody goody!"
"Well… I guess you might be right.. it seems wrong, but…" Shion grinned as her sister shut her eyes. "Okay let's do it!"
"Great! So which one should we give her.." Shion began as she continued to rummage through the chest, that's when she saw it, a small little box. She easily picked it up and opened it, inside was a little locket shaped like a heart with pretty swirled designs all over it. It looked as if it was real silver as it had a little red stone incrested onto it as well. "Actually it seems kinda perfect, if this is a ruby then it fits perfectly as her birthstone!"
"You're right!" The other sister gasped as they both agreed on making the cute little necklace a gift to Rena. It all just seemed too perfect! The two were about to end the day with that as Mion planned on taking the doll to her room to "clean it up" while Shion took note of this chest to be her own personal jewelry box. But as she was about to follow her sister out of the room, Shion remembered something.
Returning over to the old box, the girl looked inside to look further at something she saw earlier. "I could've sworn there was a little bundle down.. ah! Here it is!" In her hands was now a little bundle of fabric that was secretly the object of her curiosity the entire time. Wondering what was inside, the girl was about to open it when she began to hear the voice of her relatives reaching the front door.
"Shit!" she quickly scrambled to put everything in place, the box top back over the chest and running it over to the desired location. She even got back in time to return to the empty room, pick up the bundle and rush over to her sister's room.
"Thank god I'm not a slow runner like you Onee" The older teen sighed with a triumphant chuckle as she plopped herself onto her sister's bed.
"That's because of your perverted café job" Mion stated while sticking her tongue out at her sister. Shion simply chuckled at the reason, it was true, she did have to run from a lot of weirdos over there and the frilly little uniform with it's heels didn't make it any easier.
Keeping the little bundle to herself, Shion continued to goof around with her sister until dinnertime came around from where they both went over and ate. Mion had to go help their grandmother a bit as Shion lazily returned to their room and plopped onto her own bed. It was then that she let her curiousity get the best of her. Pulling the bundle out from under her pillow, her current and most laziest of hiding places, before slowly taking off the rags and fabrics that kept the true item hidden inside. Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked down at the real treasure in her hand.
"This is an old… photo album?"
-x-
Author's note; Fwaaa I hope you like my story and stuff! (even though this is only chapter 1) Nontheless! Please I am really keen on what your opinion in it is thus far and if there are any questions just message me and i'll either answer them back or put the answer in the next chapter. By the way, this fanfic is also sorta my weird way of trying to advertise for an rp site that I'm apart of that's truly awesome. It's a Higurashi/Umineko themed site so if you're a 07 expansion fan please be sure to at least check it out! ;D (ps. the link for it will be on my profile pageness) thank you for reading! *o*