Falling to the mist

How it began

I had never felt truly loved by anyone.

My mother was rich and her father had died when she was young. Even though my mother bought me everything I needed, but never gave me any love…I know that now. Whenever I saw her all she did was talk about how much of a disappointment I was. My grades were quite good, I wasn't dragging behind, but I didn't have any friends. For this reason mother ultimately became disgusted with me and constantly ridiculed me. This wouldn't have happened if father had still been alive. He had always cared for me. Whenever mother had shouted or hurt me father had taken me to my room and talked about it with me. I respected mother and felt that was enough, it was a type of love right?

Well, father wasn't there anymore. I wouldn't stand up to her mother either; I felt I had to be loyal to her mother.

"You got into ANOTHER fight?" mother stood over me. She looked cross. She had been at work again and had not been very happy when she'd been called up and told her daughter had been in trouble.

"How very dare you put the name of this family at risk" Mother was fuming. I looked at her feet, as if they could somehow help me disappear. It was unlikely.

"Well?"

"I-I" I stuttered, I wanted to tell mother that the fight wasn't so much of a fight, more like getting beaten up by some of the older girls again for being 'weird'. It happened a lot. I didn't mean to be like that….it was just how I was. The other girls didn't like me as much as I'd hoped they would when I first joined the school.

"Nagi you stupid girl" mother slapped me. Ii fell to the floor. It hurt and any other girl would have been in tears. But to me, this wasn't unusual. Mother would always find something wrong with me and 'punish' me. She then walked over to me and began kicking me. After a few minutes she felt content and walked out of the room, leaving me in the corner.

I sat up and rubbed my arm. There was a bruise.

I didn't realise then that the way Mother treated me was wrong. I thought she was just treating me like a daughter. I now realise I shouldn't have been so quick to accept the abuse; unfortunately as I did mother's punishments became worse and worse.

The next day it happened again. The girls at school hit me. I didn't fight back. I didn't know how.

So as I got into more trouble with school and my mother she got more and more angry.

That night I didn't feel like going straight home so I went and sat on a bench instead. A small cat came up to me. I fed it some treats and it softly curled into a ball. I felt the warmth of its fur and for a few moments forgot my worries.

When I eventually went home my mother was sat in the front room.

I was taken into a bathroom where my mother run some water from a tap. I didn't try to run…she knew I wouldn't. I could see what was going to happen and to be quite honest I felt relieved.

As I felt the cold water in my face I couldn't help hoping it would all eventually be over. It was clear and I could see the two figures looking down at me. My vision began to get blurry and I couldn't breathe… just as I was about to close my eyes I thought "At last it's all over" before I was pulled out.

I felt disappointed. As I sat on my bed drying my hair I wished they had left me.

I fell asleep keeping that thought in my head.

The next day I awoke and slowly made my way downstairs. My mother and stepfather were gone so I made some breakfast, quickly got changed and rushed to school. On the way there I saw the people I'd hoped never to see ever again in my life; the girls from the other day.

They were walking right towards me and I had no hope of escaping, there was nowhere to run or hide… I put my head in my hands, my long purple hair flowing out and wished I could just disappear.

I wished as hard as I could, I knew it would do no good, that it was impossible. The girls were closer now, there was no way they couldn't have seen me, they walked up to me, stopped for a minute then…walked straight past me as if I wasn't even there.

I looked up; maybe they had just ignored me?

No…that was impossible. Those girls were not the type of people to do that.

I ran back home as fast as I could and sat down on my bed. My mother would be out for the rest of the day and…

Oh no, what had I done?

Surely the school would ring up to ask where I had been. I looked at the clock, it was already 9.00 am. I'd never make it in time and I didn't feel like going into school half way through a lesson, everyone would look at me. All I could do was phone school and tell them I was sick. They would probably ask further but I could say I had a bad cough...

I thought to myself…"this would be so much easier if I sounded like mother".

I picked up the phone and dialled school's number. The receptionist picked up and asked who was calling.

"Hello" I answered.

"Hello Mrs Yoshida" the receptionist replied. I nearly dropped the phone with shock. I considered sticking to my original plan but if the receptionist thought I was my mother then that would only make things easier.

"I-I'm calling about Nagi. She has a terrible cough and won't be able to come in today" I stuttered, afraid of being found out with every word.

"Oh okay then, I'll tell her teacher. Thankyou for calling" the receptionist said before hanging up.

I fell back onto the sofa, I'd done it. I smiled to myself.

Since I had nothing better to do that day I decided to go out. I put on some of my own clothes instead of my uniform and walked out of the door.

I sat down on the same bench I did yesterday and by chance saw the small cat that had happily comforted me. It was sat on the other side of the road cleaning itself. It saw me and began to walk over; I looked forward to stroking its soft fur again.

It began to cross the road when I heard a noise, a low screeching sound slowly getting closer. The cat oblivious continued to cross the street, I saw a car a red car pull around the corner, it was going at an incredibly fast speed and didn't intend on stopping. I could see what was going to happen and tried to warn the cat to go back, but it didn't.

I remembered the warmth that cat had made me feel and wasn't about to let it die. I ran into the street and grabbed the cat. I cradled it in my arms once more before throwing it at the curb. The car screeched, probably trying to stop, but it was too late.

I felt the impact as it hit my stomach. There was a deep pain in my chest and I could taste blood on my face, it was sweet and tasted good. I looked through one blurry eye and could just see the cat on the pavement and it padded away. Good, it was safe.

That was my last thought before my vision faded completely and my world became black.

I woke up in a hospital bed. There were tubes and masks everywhere. I couldn't see through my right eye...everything had gone black through that eye, but that was okay…after all, I wouldn't be there for much longer (which is true however not in the way I meant it at the time). Everything was white in the room. I looked around with my one good eye.

As my senses came back I felt a huge pain in my stomach, it felt like my heart had been ripped apart (which it had along with the rest of my internal organs) I felt broken.

There were voices outside the door; I could hear the talking…

"Dear, Nagi was in a car accident."

It was faint but I could just about hear them.

"Thanks to her one of my business talks was ruined."

It was her mother and stepfather.

"That girl…she tried to save a cat." Her Mother was talking now, "They said it's too late for several of her organs, She can't be saved."

"Hey, The doctor said she could be saved if they transplant organs of the same blood type."

"Don't joke around, I'm not having them cut me open for that girl!"

"What are you saying? She's your child whom you brought with you."

"I never understood what that child was thinking, she couldn't even make friends…It's not just me, no one really wishes for her to keep living."

"Hey, Nagi can hear you"

"She's in the ICU, she can't hear a thing…"

But I could hear it all…It was strange. I felt like I had known this all my life. I had known my mother was ill and that was why she treated me as she did, at least that's what I thought, but I didn't know that they cared nothing for me…

After that I could only think the same thing…It would all be over soon.

Then I heard a voice. It was soft and smooth, a man's voice, he had a kind tone….

"It won't end, you'll simply keep wondering."

"Who are you?"I asked.

"Oya? You can hear my voice?"

My vision began to swirl, I closed my eyes. When I opened them again I was still lying in my bed but instead of a dreary hospital I saw green fields and a lake.

"Kufufu, it appears this talk was worthwhile" The man laughed slightly. He had blue hair and strange mismatched eyes; one blue, the other a crimson red. I stared into them, pulling the crisp white sheet closer to me.

"W-Who are you? ...what are you?" I stuttered.

"You and I may be alike" he smiled.

Despite everything that had happened I suddenly felt peaceful. It was warm in this place, and so cold outside. I stepped out of my bed and found myself in a plain white dress; it fitted me a lot better than the hospital clothes I wore before.

"Nagi" the man called me again, "Nagi, over here.

I turned around and saw him stood a little closer, he reached out his hand to me and said…

"I need you Nagi." It was the first time someone had ever said that to me. I didn't know what to say. I brought my hands up to my chest from shyness. I looked at him not knowing what to do, then my gaze dropped to his out stretched hand. He nodded, and I took it.

I found out his name was Rokudo Mukuro and he was a fifteen year old mafia criminal who had passed through the six paths of Hell and gained six skills, such as illusions which sounded just like the power I used on the phone and in the street with those girls, summoning beasts and possession. He was now in prison and needed a way to escape, he wanted me to be that escape.

Paying no head to the obvious danger I said yes. I was intrigued by the notion of someone needing me, no one had ever said that before and it had made my heart skip a beat. He walked to my side and lifted up my then long hair, brushing it to my shoulder, a trident appeared in his hand.

"I need to do this to make a contract between us, but I promise I won't hurt you." he said, I wasn't sure but I let him proceed. He carefully nicked my shoulder. He was right, it didn't hurt but immediately I felt my heart rate quicken, my mind blurred as the connection between us was formed and I became his vassal. My stomach began to feel a lot better and I looked down to see my organs were back in place.

"I gave you illusionary organs my cute little Nagi."

He had just saved my life, and from that moment on I decided I would serve him in any way I could. That is when I began calling him by his name, Mukuro-sama.

Over the next day we planned a way to escape my mother and decided it would probably be best to fake my death. Mukuro-sama used his illusions, which he had told that I also possessed, to show a false reading on my heart monitor and to alter my breathing pattern. When the doctors came to check on us they informed my mother I was dead, she wept at it which at first made me feel guilty but when I looked closer I saw they were false tears, she had red around her face, indications she had been rubbing her eyes to make them water. She had probably only even bothered to fake her tears for appearances.

I ran outside the hospital and down the street to where I felt safe.

"Kufufufufu welldone Nagi."

"Mukuro-sama…what do we do now?"

"I have friends not too far from this town, they will look after you." He replied, I let him lead me into the distant sunset, when I got about a mile up the road I found a small box on the floor, addressed simply 'To Nagi'. I opened it to find a school uniform. It was green and seemed the sort of thing that would suite me.

"I asked an acquaintance to drop that off for you"

Mukuo-sama had given this to me, I heald it tight before slipping into a nearby store bathroom to put it on. It suited me well, aswell as the unifirm I also wore a black eyepatch, boots, all with skull designs on them and my hair in a similar style to Mukuro-sama's. If anyone came looking for me, they wouldn't recognise me...

No one would anyway...they all thought I was dead.