center
iTears from the Sky/i
Gingetsu looked out the window to the night, and the city below. It was raining so hard tonight...just like 3 years ago.
Even the complication of life then seemed so simple now. Kazuhiko was still in the hospital. He tried to overdose on sleeping pills a month or so after Faerie Park exploaded and the four-leaf died. He was 2 months in a coma. They put him on some heavy stimulants, electro-shock therapy, counseling...it seemed nothing could pull him from whatever void the four-leaf's dead that pushed him into. General Ko checked in on him from time to time. What information he knew had all come from her.
There was one thing he was fairly certain she didn't know. A week after Kazuhiko was admitted, there was a call from the hospital. He wasn't sure what it meant. They where asking something about a green leaf.
iTo Be Born Again For Your Sake/i
His mind fell on the Clover Project. The four-leaf. Three-leaf. Two-leaf. One-leaf.
First the Three-leaf died. B, they called him. Then the one-leaf, Oruha. And then the four-leaf, Suu.
He remembered Oruha. When Kazuhiko introduced them, he didn't bother to see if she remembered him. She was young when they met. And if she did remember, she made no comment either. She came into the project 2 years after him, though she didn't stay there long. His years in the Clover Project where something of a blur. Long white hallways and people with faces he couldn't recall. Always giving him pills or tedious jobs. Trying to test the reaches of whatever "magic" powers he might be blessed with.
He did remember the day they met. He was 7, and sitting on a bench rubbing his sore wrist where his brand had been only recently burned into his skin. Oruha came up to him then. She was only 4, and the happiest and most beautiful thing he had ever seen in what he remembered of his life. She skipped up to him, and her thick black curls bounced around her shoulders.
But when she was close enough for him to see her eyes, he saw she had the look of a Clover. They where never really children. They knew things and saw things that adults either didn't believe, or didn't want to believe.
"Do you live here?" She asked him
"Yes."
"My mom and dad want me to live here too." She looked at him "But I don't think I want to. Do you like living here?"
"No."
"Then why do you?"
"I've always lived here." he said "This is where I belong."
"I think I might belong here too," she said, turning her eyes to the ground.
"Why? Did they tell you that?"
"No, but I know something." she said "For as long as I can remember, I know exactly when I'll die."
She said it matter-of-factly. He thought maybe she was too young to comprehend what she was saying. But if she was a Clover, it was more likely she hadn't let herself comprehend it, or didn't believe in that power. What he found most surprising was that he had never had a single premonition about his own death.
"Does that make you sad?"
"Sometimes, but mom and dad say I shouldn't believe it. But I know it's real."
"How will you die?" Maybe it was a morbid question. But Clovers could ask things of each other. Their powers would differ greatly, he would learn. But they all shared a common understanding that they where not like the masses around them. That was enough to unite them.
"Oh, I don't know. I just know the day. But it seems far away now anyway."
Her parents called for her in the distance.
"Ok, well I have to go now. Nice to meet you!" She ran off
He would see her from time to time being pushed around the halls of the Project building. Then one day she disappeared. It wasn't until many years later that he would meet her.
It was uncanny how much she hadn't changed. Still thick curly hair. Still luminous green eyes, still that unshakable energy. But still, perhaps more strongly beneath it all, that overwhelming and yet subtle feeling of a profound sadness.
iTears from the Sky/i
Gingetsu looked out the window to the night, and the city below. It was raining so hard tonight...just like 3 years ago.
Even the complication of life then seemed so simple now. Kazuhiko was still in the hospital. He tried to overdose on sleeping pills a month or so after Faerie Park exploaded and the four-leaf died. He was 2 months in a coma. They put him on some heavy stimulants, electro-shock therapy, counseling...it seemed nothing could pull him from whatever void the four-leaf's dead that pushed him into. General Ko checked in on him from time to time. What information he knew had all come from her.
There was one thing he was fairly certain she didn't know. A week after Kazuhiko was admitted, there was a call from the hospital. He wasn't sure what it meant. They where asking something about a green leaf.
iTo Be Born Again For Your Sake/i
His mind fell on the Clover Project. The four-leaf. Three-leaf. Two-leaf. One-leaf.
First the Three-leaf died. B, they called him. Then the one-leaf, Oruha. And then the four-leaf, Suu.
He remembered Oruha. When Kazuhiko introduced them, he didn't bother to see if she remembered him. She was young when they met. And if she did remember, she made no comment either. She came into the project 2 years after him, though she didn't stay there long. His years in the Clover Project where something of a blur. Long white hallways and people with faces he couldn't recall. Always giving him pills or tedious jobs. Trying to test the reaches of whatever "magic" powers he might be blessed with.
He did remember the day they met. He was 7, and sitting on a bench rubbing his sore wrist where his brand had been only recently burned into his skin. Oruha came up to him then. She was only 4, and the happiest and most beautiful thing he had ever seen in what he remembered of his life. She skipped up to him, and her thick black curls bounced around her shoulders.
But when she was close enough for him to see her eyes, he saw she had the look of a Clover. They where never really children. They knew things and saw things that adults either didn't believe, or didn't want to believe.
"Do you live here?" She asked him
"Yes."
"My mom and dad want me to live here too." She looked at him "But I don't think I want to. Do you like living here?"
"No."
"Then why do you?"
"I've always lived here." he said "This is where I belong."
"I think I might belong here too," she said, turning her eyes to the ground.
"Why? Did they tell you that?"
"No, but I know something." she said "For as long as I can remember, I know exactly when I'll die."
She said it matter-of-factly. He thought maybe she was too young to comprehend what she was saying. But if she was a Clover, it was more likely she hadn't let herself comprehend it, or didn't believe in that power. What he found most surprising was that he had never had a single premonition about his own death.
"Does that make you sad?"
"Sometimes, but mom and dad say I shouldn't believe it. But I know it's real."
"How will you die?" Maybe it was a morbid question. But Clovers could ask things of each other. Their powers would differ greatly, he would learn. But they all shared a common understanding that they where not like the masses around them. That was enough to unite them.
"Oh, I don't know. I just know the day. But it seems far away now anyway."
Her parents called for her in the distance.
"Ok, well I have to go now. Nice to meet you!" She ran off
He would see her from time to time being pushed around the halls of the Project building. Then one day she disappeared. It wasn't until many years later that he would meet her.
It was uncanny how much she hadn't changed. Still thick curly hair. Still luminous green eyes, still that unshakable energy. But still, perhaps more strongly beneath it all, that overwhelming and yet subtle feeling of a profound sadness.