Prologue
There was nothing here.
Nothing at all.
Really.
Nothing.
That's right, nothing.
Well, what's the crackle of leaves as someone steps on them?
Yes, the soft, sweet rustle.
And the river gently flowing downstream, what's that?
Gentle river drifting here and there, anywhere, nowhere in particular.
Colors deliberately swirling around
The hesitant touch of wind
The feeling of soaring above the clouds
And never wanting to return home again
Just the taste of sugary sweetness
Pure, soft, yet lingering always and forever
And then, as the bright light returns to your eyes
Realization hits upon mind, that it was all a façade
And it still is.
The sense of humidity
And the sensation of water dripping down your forehead?
Well, what's that?
The feeling of being left alone
All alone
And no one to care
You see, there's really nothing at all here for you.
No one wants you.
You're not needed nor wanted.
In plain words....
YOU DON'T BELONG HERE!
"WAKE UP, you CRAZY kodomo! WAKE UP!" an unfamiliar and instantly unlikable voice screeched in Mima's ear. "WAKE UP NOW! NOW!" This voice got louder.
Mima stirred slowly, and decided she really didn't want to wake up right now. Who was that? Had to be a woman. It was much too sharp and high to be considered one of a man's. Couldn't be Haruka or Ami, as neither of them talked so harshly like that. Haruka's voice was soft but strong, and Ami's was pensive, full of nervousness. Their voices were nothing like this. Maybe one of her teachers? Or some sort of nurse. Yeah, most likely a nurse. A very bad-tempered one, probably.
"I'm telling you, kodomo, AWAKE!" shrieked the monstrous-voiced lady. Mima sat up without any further delay.
"What is it? Is there a fire? What do you WANT?!" the girl screamed back, taking off her light-blue-rimmed glasses and rubbing her eyes.
"Good." The woman's prickly, prim voice replied. "You're awake."
"Of course I'm awake, you bakabrain. What are you, blind?" Mima muttered to herself as she cleaned her glasses quietly and put them back on. "And I'm no child."
"What's that?" the woman challenged Mima, staring at her as if she were some sort of germ on her thoroughly cleaned floor and tapping her foot endlessly, as if expecting for her to get up and get out.
"Nothing," Mima spat, glaring at the woman viciously and looking around. "Where am I?" she added.
"You are at the Soul Corridor Hospital." The female answered promptly. She took a deep breath and began again. "I am Yami Everlast, doctor." Mima nearly gagged. Everlast. What an awful, horrid name. But it suited the doctor. Pfft! She shouldn't even be a doctor. How old was she, anyway? Didn't seem that old, yet seemed at least three years older than Mima.
"Upon entrance to the Soul Corridor, they say that you passed out. A young hikari informed my staff of your fainting and we sent out a team of trained carriers to bring you here," Everlast finished in triumph.
"Whatever. Anyway, would you happen to know an Amane Moon that ... resides... here?" Mima asked hurriedly.
"You'll have to go look that up at your prepared Soul Room Phone Book." Everlast answered curtly.
"What's a Soul Room?" Mima barked at the now standing Everlast, at least five inches taller than the teenager. She stood up furiously.
"For that information, you will have to go to the Soul Corridor Information Centre." Everlast smirked.
"And where is that?" she both asked and answered Mima's question before the girl could ask it herself.
"Why, if you exit this hospital, walk to the door furthest to the left. At the very end." Now Everlast pushed Mima out the door, making no effort to answer Mima's next question, which was regarding Everlast's contract.
Outside the hospital (which seemed more like a professor's office rather than an infirmary), the petite girl squinted and pushed her glasses up to find the door "furthest to the left, at the very end." She groaned when it meant another long walk.
"Why me?" she complained. "Where the freak am I now, Amane Moon?" Mima scowled while pondering. "Where am I, and what the hell am I doing in a stupid 'Soul Corridor?'"
"Hey, Meemz."
Mima paused, nearly falling over. She glanced over her shoulder. "A......M...?"
"Boo." A figure mocked and tapped the girl (well, it was more of an extremely sharp poke to Mima) with her long, sharp fingernails from behind. "Miss me?" it taunted.
Mima groaned. "Oh, there you are. OK, AM, tell me what this place is. NOW!" she demanded of the goth.
Amane sighed. "Oh, do I HAVE to?"
Mima glared at her. AM took that as a yes. "Fine, fine, whatever, Meemz," she glowered. "This is Soul Corridor. You know how I explained to you about yamis and hikaris the other day?" Nod nod. "Alright then. This is where the soul rooms of the hikaris, yamis, and neutrals are located."
"I still don't get it."
"Truthful as ever, aren't you, Meemz?" It was more of an annoyed statement than a question. Nod nod. Amane glared at the fifteen-year-old. "Don't be a smart aleck, Meemz. That's my job," AM told her off. Mima smirked. AM motioned for Mima to follow her down the corridor the other way, and that, Mima did.
"Oh yeah, and AM?" Mima asked her best friend as she walked.
"What now?" AM replied.
"Eh... Well... You know how.. sometimes you can summon yourself to another world?"
The all-in-black female one year older than Mima stopped the girl before she could finish. "Lemme guess, Meemz. You want me to get you and some other people to the Inuyasha world, right?"
Mima grinned sheepishly. "Yeah."
"I know you too well," AM sighed.
"So... can you?" the 5'4" Chinese-Korean only child of the Vitones asked hopefully.
"I'll try." AM smiled, then stopped walking. Mima scooted back.
AM put one hand on the doorknob to a soul room labeled "Yami: Amane Moon," then closed her eyes. A few seconds later, she let go of the handle and let it open itself.
"This... is my soul room," AM introduced Mima to it. "You can simply see what I programmed it to let you see. If I don't program it to let you see anything, then you can't see anything. Simple enough?"
"Yeah, too simple." Mima snorted.
"Good. Well, you can go through the Soul Corridor Catalog and pick out your own furniture, or whatever. Got that?" Amane paused to let Mima take in the new information.
"Yep."
"Alright. Now... what would you do if I told you that you were a yami and we've just found your hikari?"
Mima froze. "If the hikari is anything like Riffie, oh great Kami, I'm dead."
AM smiled despite herself, then forced herself to express no emotion. "Follow me." With this she led Mima out the door, supplying them both with identical Soul Corridor Catalogs.
After a few seconds of flipping through pages, Mima finally spoke. "Hey, this is pretty cool! Item number forty-one-ninety-eight. 'A dream canopy, complete with fishhook and screw. Color: lavender.' What do you think?" Mima suggested to AM.
"I think that it's your room, so it's your choice how you decorate it," the otherwise unapproachable sixteen-year-old quietly remarked.
"Fine," Mima sighed, disillusioned. "Oh yeah.. and.. AM... how do I order this stuff?"
"Just pull out the piece of paper attached, fill out everything, and put it in your mailbox."
"Oh, okay," Mima stopped walking to fish inside her pocket for a pencil. "Thanks, AM."
"No hassle for me. I'm bored anyways," Amane expressed her amusement by merely half-smiling.
"K. Sorry."
"Whatever, Meemz." The monotonous-toned, almost eerily silent 5'6" Japanese-Filipina adoptee of her hikari's family replied.
They continued walking until they reached the end of the hallway to what seemed like a locked door. "What the-"Mima stopped. "Oh." The door opened automatically.
"Go first," the seemingly emotionless teenager instructed. Mima did as she was told. Oh, if only her father could see how she was right now, in an unfamiliar environment that held surprises with every door opened. Uh, reality check, Mima! It wasn't as if Jacob Vitone actually cared about his daughter's whereabouts. Mima had been neglected way too much in her fifteen years of life to actually believe the lie that her father paid attention at all. Nope. He wouldn't care. It was always, 'Please go away, Mima, I'm busy painting,' or 'I need some time alone with your mother, Mima.'
It was always difficult figuring out which mother Dad was talking about. Would it be Ami (Mima's biological mother and Dad's first wife), an ex-vampire from the States, whom Jacob left behind when the truth behind Ami's past was uncovered even though he knew she was with child, the soft soul who always helped Mima with her troubles, the one Dad was still in love with after all these years? Or was it Haruka, Dad's second wife, the strong-willed surrogate mother Mima was forever seeking advice from a couple of years ago, whom Mima thought was her real mother back then?
"Uh..... Meemz? What're you waiting for?" AM asked, growing even more impatient every second. "Hurry up and get in!" She rolled her eyes and waited as Mima tried to regain consciousness and break away from her daydream.
"Eh... sorry 'bout that. I was thinking about stuff." Mima smiled absentmindedly. She stepped through the open door, then waited for AM. Geez, it was dark in here. Hmm. Nice place for a graveyard or something like that.
Suddenly a light coming from what seemed to be thin air nearly blinded Mima.
"Hi-hi! I Michie!" squealed a high-pitched baby voice that seemed as if it was coming from the ceiling. No, that couldn't be right. No living person Mima knew could defy gravity and cling to the ceiling.
"Err... where... are you?" asked Mima, looking up inquisitively.
"Over here!" Now the voice sounded like it had been projected from the floor. "Nopeez, over here now, slowpoke!"
Mima looked up at the ceiling, only to be jumped on by what could possibly be the world's most happy child (that is, if Riffie weren't alive). "OY!" Mima furiously attempted to shake the girl off her shoulders, her voice now muffled.
"Michie was wait-waiting for you, Mima-Mima!" Michie chirped, still clinging to Mima's hair as though her life depended on it.
"Get OFF me!" shrieked the normally calm teen, bewildered by the unknown girl's ambush. Waaaiit a minute here. Hadn't AM said something about a hikari?
"In fact, I did. Michie, get off your yami." AM ordered the normally stubborn child, who miraculously obeyed.
"Mommy?!" shrieked the obnoxiously loud brunette blissfully, now hugging Mima.
Mima backed against the wall, scowling. "I don't know what galaxy you're in, but I'm not your mommy, and I sincerely feel sorry for her if she has to put up with YOU every day. I guess I'm your yami. Not your MOMMY, your YAMI." She poked Michie as she emphasized certain words.
After several moments of silence, Michie took a deep breath. "Michie doesn't have a 'mommy,'" she finally announced. "Michie has a 'Mother,' though, and Michie's mother doesn't likee Michie. Michie's mother don't likee Michie's father, either, and Michie no likee him either. All Michie's mother cares 'bout is 'the big cash' and her jewelry. And Michie's father says that he woulda' 'bandoned Michie's mother long long 'go, if it hadna' been fer Michie, he says," the garrulous adolescent shook her head to get her overly-lengthy light brown bangs out of her face.
"O...K." The somewhat-high-voiced yami was slightly taken aback at her hikari's third-person-point-of-view. "Well, does... Michie... want to live at Michie's home, or at Soul Corridor?"
"Michie wants to be happy again like Michie was when Michie little."
"Okay, and how old is Michie?" the ever-patient girl responded.
"Michie is nine." The girl held up eight fingers. "See? Nine. Oops." She put up another finger. "Nine."
"Oooooo....K." Mima sweatdropped. "Nine, huh?"
Michie nodded. "Yeppers, Michie is nine!"
"Al....right. Erm.... AM?"
"What is it now?" the girl responded wearily, turning off her Palm IIIxe and stuffing it in one of her gigantic pockets.
"Erm... Michie wants to be happy, and I'm not sure whether she wants to stay here or at her previous home. What do I do now?"
Amane rolled her eyes. "Take her to her house. Then... research the family situation and conclude for yourself what your hikari would prefer. She turned on her palm pilot yet again, scribbled a few notes down on it, and handed it to Mima. "Here. Read. Get information. Collect it. Use it to your best extent. Got it?" she shot at Mima.
"Yep." The casual clothed Mima was already lost in the information provided by the other yami. "Wow, this is really good."
"I've been taking notes like that since I was about five." Amane sounded irritated. She pulled her favorite sweatshirt's oversized sleeves over her too-pale fingers. "And if you think that's good, go check out the Soul Corridor Library's information folders. I used to get all my stuff from there. The things on your hikari aren't at the library yet, as I haven't sent it to them. I probably will next week or something like that, once I've got more on her. While you're going over to Michie's, make sure you take Kami." She tossed a tape recorder at the not-quite-ready Mima.
"Kami?" Mima looked at AM, suspicious. "Is this thing human?"
"No, of course not. However, I turn it human from time to time during drastic occasions," she sniffed. "Just press record when you have the time, and press stop when you want to stop it from recording. Record it when you get out of the house and your hikari and her family are alone together. That's when they'll probably start acting like themselves."
"Oh, okay. Thanks, AM." Mima started to walk out the door. "Oh yeah, and... erm... AM?"
"WHAT NOW?! Gimme my PDA." AM grabbed her device from Mima's hands, then smiled slightly for a split second.
"Erm.. .how am I supposed to get to Michie's place?"
"JUST WALK OUT THE DOOR, MIMA." AM bellowed, then pushed her out the automatic door as Everlast had earlier.
"WHEEEEEEE!"