See You in Carpedium

Chapter One- The Rabbit Trap

It was very wrong of her to run like that. She realised her mistake, and that the guards had to take the necessary precautions. She understood that too.

But throwing her into a cage so small she had to sit so she wouldn't hit her head was just being mean.

Yui looked down at her pale fingers through thick, brown rimmed glasses and nibbled the dead skin on her lip restlessly. What exactly was she supposed to do in this kind of situation? Placed in a cage in front of a throne with a scary butler glaring at her from the corner of his sharp eyes. If looks could kill, then she would be already dead.

Yui sighed quietly.

'Now now, you're the one at fault, Yui. You can't blame others for your mistakes. But… even so…'

Yui cautiously looked up and accidentally made eye contact with the man sitting on the throne. The high and mighty king that was as scary as hell.

'Oh crap.'

She said, twisting her body away from his gaze.

'What… what an intimidating aura.'

She thought, still recovering. The man on the throne seemed nice enough but the silence and the menacing pierce of his eyes struck her dumb.

Her dark brown, almost black, eyes looked to the side, hopefully to look at the detailed architecture to calm herself.

Instead, Yui was met with the butler's scowl, who had purposefully stood a few feet away so she would be able to see him, glaring away her existence. It seemed as if the man's rectangular glasses glasses gleamed with a dangerous shine that Yui's didn't.

The former vacationer inwardly choked and thought back to how she was in this country at all.

'Ah, and I was looking so forward to this.'

She thought tiredly.

At the stet of everything, around two weeks ago, Yui finally plucked the courage to ask her father for permission to travel alone this summer break.

Of course, it wasn't as calm and flowery as it was in the picture drama in her head.

"No." That was it. A solid 'no' from an even more stubborn father.

"B-but Kaoru onee-san has been traveling alone since she was fourteen... And Tomori oni-san had been doing it since he was sixteen… I just want to travel by myself this time." Yui fussed softly. She was always like that, never raising her voice to a shout since she was five.

But, for what it was worth, her father would crack at the pathetic puppy routine. He always did.

"No is no."

Or not.

"Why? Is it because you think I'll get in trouble again?" Yui asked, completely out of idea why he wouldn't let her. Well, truly, she did understand why her father would disagree a bit, but she was all grown up now. Seventeen years old and she hasn't taken one step out of the house without her family.

Not that she disliked that. Yui loved having company, but was clueless when they would all so negatively say no when she wanted to do something alone.

"I do."

Well, that answered the question quite well.

"And I've noticed that you didn't mention your oldest brother Ieyasu."

Devoid of social life or anything pleasant, Ieyasu did basically nothing for pleasure, including traveling alone until he was twenty. It was only until his entire family basically chased him out of the house, especially his father since Ieyasu's only pleasure in long baths was putting a toll on the water taxes.

"But I'm nothing like Ieyasu oni-san. He was never interested in the world, but I am. So please, I promise I won't get in trouble." There was that faint voice again. Her father's stern eyes concentrated on his tea as his youngest daughter waited for her reply.

Within a second, he sharply looked upwards, right at her, surprising Yui. Her hands still clasped together as she had a despondent and pleading look on her face that her mother's never had.

He disliked that. Yui was too soft, not at all like her mother she looked the most like. Her mother for strong, independent, outspoken, loud as a whale while Yui was… independent, but in a way where you felt you couldn't leave her alone anyways.

And then there was that accident that happened so many years ago. Thirteen, in fact.

Yui's father knew exactly why it happened.

Her hair colour, that's why. While his late wife had an overwhelming air around her and a flare for calling out people if they seemed suspicious or rude, Yui was that opposite and welcomed anyone instantly through her awkward people skills. And still, those two looked the most alike because their hair was like a layer of snow.

Completely white.

With the exception of a few cream coloured hairs here and their, both girls in his life had shaky white locks hanging from their heads in long limp curls, the target for most people wanting some of those strands for their own.

Yui was not an offensive type of person, always defensive and sometimes even failing in that. She had a kind-hearted personality but was otherwise boring and usually the first pick for some kind of accident to happen.

Over his dead body, and it might as well happen after he dies.

"I'll be eighteen in November and I promised I wouldn't get in trouble. I'll run at the first sight of danger." The japanese high schooler may be boring, but she had the fastest pair of legs one would ever see. The first place runner in the track team on a national level and often targeted by other sports club coaches, Yui would be able to outrun a their or kidnapper easily.

So should he say yes or not? He knew if he said no his daughter would obey but then again… it would be a lifetime of guilt tripping by her and he wasn't looking too forward to that.

"Fine." Yui blinked rapidly.

"Fine?"

"You can go?"

"I can go? I have your permission? You're not going to change your mind?"

"I might as well if you're going to keep asking questions like that." Her father huffed, crossing his arms.

'I'm not that much of a hardass.'

He thought just before Yui smiled wide and showed all her teeth.

"I'm sorry! Thank you!" She exclaimed in her loudest voice possible, which still wasn't that loud anyways, but the smile still remained as she bowed her head low.

"Thank you, papa." Yui said softly, gazing lovingly at her father.

The stern man cracked a grin at the splitting image of his late wife's smile.

"'Welcome." He grunted, though the grin was still on his face as he watched his daughter leave.

But neither of them would even be able to imagine that she was soon to be chased by police cars and end up getting caught by a guy in a helicopter and end up in a small cell in front of a king. No, there was no possibility that they would be able to foretell this.

'And I only wanted to come here because that botany book said this was supposed to be a hub of plant culture… but it said nothing about being shipped to a palace in bars!'

Yui exclaimed nervously in her head, tugging nervously on the twin braids hanging on her shoulders.

She braved a plane ride and even braved her father… but then again she guessed it wasn't enough because then god wouldn't have punished her.

'Oh kami-sama! I'm so sorry for whatever I did! Please send some kind of saint my way!'

She sulked. But then looking back to her memories made her suddenly freeze.

'Oh yeah…'

She relaxed and looked despondently at her coffee brown mary jane shoes.

'I broke my promise... I guess I didn't run fast enough…'

Yui's black eyes kept staring as she absent-mindedly caressed the glasses' frame.

'How will I ever be able to tell papa I broke our promise?'

.

.

.

And so we end the first chapter of See You in Carpedium!

Please tell me how you felt about this chapter, and I'll be typing up chapter two! This is one of those long-term stories (hopefully), so please be patient because I tend to botch up these kind of stories!

Happy Reading! :)

small japanese terms:

kami-sama: god

onee-san: big sister

oni-san: big brother