Summary: If you were to get another chance at life would you take it? Layla should be dead yet here she was in an anime, but she's no fool, no way is she going to get herself into trouble by involving herself in with the story line...but she never had the best luck, she had died hadn't she?
Dying at 21 isn't something I would have ever planned for myself. Those of us who are young tend to think of ourselves as invincible and we ever only live in one moment, it's why we are so dramatic.
It's why during highschool, us youths pick apart every minor problem until it's a drama, we become a society within a society because our sights are only set on the horizon and we can never see what may be before or beyond.
This is why I got in the car. I was drunk of course, wine and vodka and chivas regal, cowboy shots and champaigne, the sorts of things you drink at a coming of age party. It was for my younger brother, he had turned 18 yesterday, and there fore he was of age to drink.
If I had been in my right senses I wouldn't have put the key into the ignition, and if my friends and family were in their right senses they wouldn't have let me put my key in the ignition.
"Night Laylarrrr," my friend Jackson slurred at me and I kissed him sloppily on the cheek before proceeding to drive off.
In my drunken mind I was driving fine, and maybe the upcoming accident was my fault, or maybe it was the fault of the man who pulled out without indicating. Either way he pulled out and my dulled reflexes made sure I didn't react fast enough.
There was the sound of breaks screeching, metal crunching against metal, blood curdling screams as metal tangled with flesh, there was pain, horrible tear enducing, inexcapable pain and then there was death.
I died too early, and I died for nothing but a drink.
...
When I opened my eyes it was raining, it was the reason I had opened my eyes actually. I stared at the sky that blanketed the world, dotted with the sequins that are stars. I got to my feet on unsteady legs and took a strangely small step.
I felt light, lighter than I have felt in a long time and I wondered if I was a spirit as memories of the crash flashed through my mind.
I frowned and began stumbling through the street I had awoken in, it was late at night and the rain was falling fast, creating curtains in my vision. I frowned and kept going, but soon I had to stop, I was exhausted and it made me angry, how could I already be tired? I hadn't walked all that far!
But as a wave of nausea overcame me I was forced to head over to a doorway of a very large house and I curled up in the very little cover the doorway offered, wondering if I was dead or alive and if I was alive, if I was going to die again.
XXX
Imagine the most shocking thing you've ever heard, now imagine multiplying that shock by a million and one and you might understand how I felt when I found out what kind of situation I was in.
I was a 5 year old, and I had just spent the night in the doorway of an orphanage. I didn't know if I was ridiculously lucky or ridiculously unlucky, what with being dead and all.
The child care woman took me in and they reviewed my case, I had been surprised to find out they spoke Japanese so in my own broken Japanese that I assume they believe is because of my young age, I told them I had woken up not knowing where I was and why I was there, I told them that my name is Layla Miller, I cried in front of them. I told them I was actually from Sydney and told them my dad had been japanese with European origin (a complete lie, I learnt Japanese for my L.O.T.E classes at school) which explained why I could talk.
These were real tears, I wasn't sure what was going on, I wasn't sure why I was here, I just knew something had happened, and I knew I would never see any familiar faces ever again. They said they would wait to see if anyone claimed me and if not I was to stay here, an orphan.
They spoke to me in a very kind way, the kind of way I used to speak to children, voice soft and higher pitched, smile inviting and friendly. And that's how I came to live 3 years in an Orphanage, of course as my actual age was 21 so I felt more like a babysitter than a child myself amongst the other children.
I would instead of playing with the other children, spend my time in the library, looking at picture books to try and learn how to read and speak Japanese fluntly, because it didn't take me long to figure out I was in Japan and I can't just spend my entire time speaking poorly.
I would read only the picture books because the librarian didn't trust children with books and would always be looking over the shoulder, if she saw me reading something more adult I'm sure it would raise suspision, because if I told them I'm really 21, I'm quite sure I would end up in a crazy house.
So the first year I spent learning to read, write and speak properly, and I was kind of forced into learning it because no one around me really spoke english, not that I would expect them to bother learning a second language just for a kid.
When I was 8 a snobby woman and her rather quiet husband came in to adopt, because the woman thought herself above having children herself she decided to adopt, she wanted only the smartest and cutest child and when she found out they had a foreign child she immediately wanted to see me.
I had very good grades in my schooling in the Orphanage, not like colouring, spelling and basic mathematics is hard. This woman took in my curly brown hair, my white skin, my large green eyes and slightly crooked teeth, she immediately wanted the foreign child and so I was adopted.
She sent me to a dentist to immediately get braces, saying no child of hers would ever have crooked teeth and the years continued to pass by at a rather fast rate.
I grew from a child to a teenager and since I had already been through all of this before I didn't need 'the talk' or any of those other things. I found out the woman was quite the spoilt kind of person and her husband was very friendly and humble, how they ever ended up as a couple will forever be a wonder.
Like in the Orphanage I spent a lot of my time in the Library, but now my age allowed me to read what ever I pleased without drawing suspicion so I began to look up science books, religious books and books on bizarre theories, mainly they were books on death.
I wanted to find out what had happened, why I had died and become a child again, I wanted to find out what the hell was going on. I never found a thing.
In my previous life, I suppose you would call it, I had taken dancing classes, when I asked if I could take them my adoptive mother whole heartedly agreed to the sport and trying to make me 'a proper lady' sent me to learn to ride horses as well, always complaining at the smell when I would return home from the stables.
She wasn't a bad person, my adoptive mother, Mori, she was very nice to me and would gladly give me make overs and spend girly time with me, she was just ignorant, she had an eye for fashion and expensive make up, she had an eye for the best. But she wasn't at all a bad person and I grew to like her very much. I also grew to like my adoptive father, Shizu, he was always willing to give advise and he was the one who kept our budget in control what with Mori always wanting to spend.
The years did go by very, very quick and my theory is that because in reality my mind is that of a 21 year old, not even counting the extra 8 or 9 years I've spent here, that because of my mind's age, is why the years are very fast for me.
One odd thing I noticed is that I would often find myself with cuts and bruises I never did anything to get and as one day I watched a cut slowly appear out of nowhere on my leg I realised something.
Each and every cut and scratch I received was something I have experienced before, in my old life, in my old body. That cut was from the time I tripped over at a festival and a nail dug into my leg. I frowned realising each inexplainable injury was connected to every injury I received in my past life.
I filed this away for future reference.
And soon I was on my way to middle school.
...
Meioh Private academy was the school I was to attend. It was a junior high and honestly, I didn't understand why I had to go to a private school, I wonder if Mori realised that private school education is the exact same as public school education, it's just more expensive.
I sighed, I had broken my leg and the doctors said I had to be very still and therefore couldn't attend school for a while so for a while I just had to get a tutor coming in. But now the leg (which was another injury from years ago) was healed and here I was, out side the front of a school.
I wasn't very excited about going in, I remember how highschool is, jealous girls fighting over guys, guys taking advantage of girls, socially awkward people avoiding it all. I remember how some teachers were just out to make life living hell and how much pressure they put on your back when it comes to exams.
I made a face, the crowd milling around me, people casting curious looks at the foreign girl with her bag still on her shoulder.
"Now where do I go to find lockers?"
I questioned out loud as I looked at the map of the school I had been given.
I have always been absolutely terrible at reading maps and you'd think having a second chance at life I would give it another go right? Well no, I hate map reading, I refuse to do it!
So when an oddly familiar red headed boy walked over and informed me with an amused look that I was holding the map up side down I felt my face flush with embarassment.
"Uh...thanks..."
I looked up at the red headed boy, frowning, since when does Japan have red heads? I cocked my head to the side and grinned, thinking of the Hunger games, one book series I had been quite obsessed with in my previous life.
"Have you ever read the hunger games?"
I asked cheerily, the boy blinked, he had an odd look to him this kid. His forrest green eyes were far too old for someone who was probably about 16, and he seemed to look at every other student as an adult might look at a child, he had a thin frame and his hair made him look a bit feminine for a guy, or maybe that's because of how delicate he looked.
But he held himself like a fighter, I had seen boxing matches before as my father had been very interested in the sport and this boy obviously knew what fighting was, he was balanced carefuly on his feet and he looked alert, I think if I threw a punch at him now he could quite easily avoid it.
"No." He replied, his voice was friendly but he looked very disinterested in my question.
"Ah that's a shame, because I think I might start calling you fox face."
This caught his attention,
"Fox face?" He asked, a mix of curiosity and wariness coming over him. I nodded and disinterestedly flipped through my time table,
"Yeah, a character in it, well the character was a girl but she was a red head and iunno, red hair, connection?"
He blinked and nodded, the wariness had disapeared and I wondered what was so suspicious about 'fox face?'
"I see, are you new here?" The curiosity was back in his voice, he spoke in a very polite and formal way and his language was too old for him.
"Well I was supposed to start term with the rest of you but.."
I tapped my knee where the skirt I was wearing showed the knee brace made of some stretchy, cotton like material.
"Broke my leg."
He nodded,
"Do you have any idea where the locker area is? I can't read maps, I'm a bit of an idiot like that."
He gave me a polite smile and nodded,
"Yes, I'll show you."
I followed the red head kid as he began to walk ahead of me and I kept step next to him, I looked at him and felt that same strange feeling of familiarity, I had seen this kid somewhere before but where?
"So, red hair, green eyes but very much Japanese, what kind of heritage you got?"
He looked to the side and replied,
"I get the looks from my father's side."
He didn't answer my question about the genetics, I tilted my head to the side to look at him better as I shifted my books to lean agains my waist. Yes I definately knew this kid from somewhere.
"I'm Layla." I stated simply. He glanced at me and simply stated,
"Suichi."
I frowned, I knew that name from somewhere...
"Ever been an Orphan?"
Unlike most people who would have looked at me as if I'm crazy, which I probably am, I still haven't ruled out the option that this whole dying and coming back to life thing is just an elaborate hallucination, he looked at me with curiosity alight in his eyes,
"No, why do you ask?"
"Because I could swear I know you from somewhere...ever been on T.V, to horse riding classes...WAIT I KNOW HOW I KNOW YOU!"
He looked at me expectantly,
"I saw you at the shops this one time! With this brown haired woman."
The curiosity in his eyes was abated and he nodded,
"That would be my mother."
"She was pretty." I said thoughtfully.
He nodded,
"Yes."
We stopped and he held out his arm to the lockers,
"Here."
"Thanks fox-face, hope we have a few classes together." I shoved the books into my left hand and held the map in my teeth as I searched for the key I was given for locker 45, I shoved my stuff in and when I looked to wave to the red headed kid he was gone.
Wow he must be wearing slippers, I didn't hear him go.
XXX
I luckily did have a class with fox-face, biology.
"Oh hey if it isn't fox face."
I said, plopping down in the chair at the desk next to his, he looked up at me and recognition showed in his eyes.
"Hello Layla." He greeted politely. I was obviously not of much interest to him because he went right back to reading a book. I decided not to bother him and pulled out my own book but first I looked at the list with all of the students names on it.
Minamino Suichi
I frowned, no it wasn't just seeing him at the shops with his mother one time...I knew that name...
"Holy shit."
I muttered in English.
I know that name.
It was the human name of the fox demon Kurama...from the anime Yu yu hakusho.
"Are you alright?"
Kurama looked up from his book, and I smiled,
"Yeah fine, random leg pain, stupid breaks." I gave as convincing a laugh as I could and he seemed content with the answer because he went back to reading.
I clenched my hands into fists and dug my nails into my skin until I could feel the sticky blood on my finger tips. It took all of my will power not to scream and cry and pound my fists on the table in front of me right then and there, the teacher walked in and it provided a very small distraction for me.
But for the entire class I couldn't help but feel sick to my stomach.
...