Thank you ReachingOutFES for the review :D Yes! Ruriko still looks the same. I figured that if she were to be a seal, she won't grow during that time, as in my mind a seal looks like a stone carving of some sort, so why would stone carvings grow. That's why I decided that Ruriko will still remain as her 17 years old self. Anyway, I'm not really good at describing but I will try my best. Thank you again! :D Here is the second chapter. This chapter is longer and I don't know why . it's just kind of weird to cut it short. So, enjoy!
Chapter 2: Revelation
Ruriko arrived at the familiar back alley of Paulownia Mall. The weather was warm and she wondered if it is summer or spring. She walked slowly to the buzzing mall and was amazed at how the mall had changed. Well, there was not a lot of changes, just a few new shops opening up and more people could be seen walking around the mall now. But still she was amazed or to be precise amused on how small changes can lead to her being happy for some unknown reason. She walked around aimlessly trying to register the surroundings that she had missed for a long time. She could see the fountain shooting water up as usual. She could hear people chatting pointless topics. She misses this feeling of being in a crowd. She was confined in the dimensional space for a long time and it felt unreal to be in the middle of the place where she spent a lot of time in during her school life. She even wondered if she was still in the space dreaming of all of these.
When she realized that she need to do something, she immediately rose to her feet from the bench where she was sitting then slowly walked to the exit. On her way out, she saw a familiar face from a far, standing in front of the police station. Silver hair and silver eyes looking at his wristwatch. He looked calm as usual attracting the attention of passing women and girls. He had grown taller and grew some muscles but not the bulky type, just about the right proportion to his age and looks that every women that passed him by would think of this man as gorgeous. She hurried her feet to meet with her dream guy. 'Aki' she thought as she pushed her way through the crowd of people hoping to arrive at the side of the guy that stole her heart years ago.
She stopped dead when she saw a woman approaching Akihiko looking apologetic but Akihiko smiled at her understandingly. She was beautiful Ruriko have to admit. Long brown hair that flows straight to her hips with reddish-pink lipstick perfectly aligned her lips. She wore a business like attire, a black blazer with matching short skirt, but it doesn't seem like they are doing business as Ruriko saw the woman was holding Akihiko's arm as they walked towards her direction. Ruriko immediately turned around and walked out of the mall blending in well with the crowds. she didn't want Akihiko to see her now. She felt weird. She clutched her left side of her chest as if in pain. Well, she did feel hurt when she saw the scene, she felt that her heart was crunched inside her chest and it hurts so much that she decided to ease her pain by going to the most peaceful place in Iwatodai, that is the shrine. She walked out of the mall feeling her feet as heavy as her heart.
'How much longer do she have to make me wait?' Akihiko thought in his mind as he looked at his watch. He tapped his feet impatiently and still wore his calm face as he did so. He just got out from his job and was permitted to have lunch for only an hour and a half and now he had waited for 15 minutes and the woman that he waits for still wasn't here. He doesn't like wasting time pointlessly like this. He don't know how many times had he waited for this woman, she never make it on time and he wondered if all girls are like that. He stopped wondering when he found the answer. 'No, not all girls are like that. I know a girl that will always fulfill her promises' he thought to himself. He looked down to the ground and sigh longingly. 'I miss her.' He was drowned in his thought when suddenly he felt someone's hand on his arm. He looked up and saw the woman that had made him wait for a while now.
"I'm sorry to make you wait Akihiko, my boss was pushing all the works on me and I can't get out until I finish all my works," the woman said in a hurried tone. Akihiko smiled at her cursing in his thought and said, "don't worry about it." The woman then wound her arm around his and led him to the exit as planned. "Let's go now," she said happily as the guy that she love had forgiven her. Akihiko just followed her lead. He was looking around the mall thinking that there's a lot of people than usual during lunchtime. He doesn't like the crowd and 'tch'ed silently praying to get out of this crowd as soon as possible. As he scanned through the throngs of people he saw a familiar figure walking towards the exit. Brown hair tied in a ponytail style walking amongst the crowd. Her wavy hair thrash from side to side as she tried to pushed her way through. He can see her crimson eyes a bit from where he was standing. Before he knew it, he was chasing the girl through the throngs of people. He hurried his feet wanting to see her as soon as possible. He couldn't even hear the woman he was with calling out to him. That girl is what had been haunting him in his wake or in his dream. If he could only meet her, he would feel very happy. He want to hold her again. He misses her, even now he thinks that she is the only one that could make him feel restless and insecure like this.
When he finally was free from the crowd, he had lose sight of her. He run out of the mall and to the street searching for the face of his love one. He run along the street still searching for the brunette girl but to no avail. He couldn't find her and thought that maybe he had imagined all of it. "Damn it, Ruriko" clenching his fist, he cursed and sighed in defeat when he couldn't find her anymore. "I miss you", he mumbled to himself looking down to the ground with his sad eyes. The people passing by him looked at him curiously but he paid no heed to it as his mind was completely occupied with the thought of the girl of his life, Ruriko.
Ruriko arrived at Naganaki Shrine and the first thing that she do is look around to see any changes that may occur during her absence. The shrine doesn't change at all, maybe the atmosphere has become livelier than usual. She sat on the bench that she always used to sit on when she talked to Akinari and breathed in the fresh air of the shrine. It was indeed very peaceful being around the shrine. It calmed her to an extent. She sat there staring at the blue sky of, what she thought, spring. She watched an old lady praying in front of the shrine, hands clasped to each other and her plastic of groceries was on the ground to her side. A young couple was in front of the fortune box, maybe to get a fortune on how their relationship will work out. She could see the playground and few kids were playing around it shouting happy shouts among them. Ruriko smiled at this scene. 'what a nostalgic feeling' she thought to herself.
She soon realised that she need to contact her friends as soon as possible. She need to tell them what she knows before they found out about it themselves and started to get panic when they saw that the dark hour appear again. But she didn't know how to as she didn't have her mobile phone and she don't know where they live now. Surely they wouldn't be at the dorm now as they all finished their studies a long time ago. She wandered aimlessly out of the shrine and found herself standing in front of the dorm where she used to live. The dorm was as usual welcoming and have the warm feeling of being in a family. She don't know why she felt that way but she sat there thinking that even if she waited there she wouldn't be able to see her friends again. Knowing that, she still sat on the stairs leading to the double door of the dorm with her hands cupping her chin and resting her elbows on her knees like a child bored of playing with his/her friends. She wore her expressionless face as some passerby watched her intriguingly. Everyone was talking 'a mysterious girl with crimson eyes gazing intently in front of her with her expressionless face as if she's in an another world' among them and some gossipers happen to hear this passed on the news to their friends and this continues down the network of gossip.
Ruriko sat there for a long time ignoring the stares that people threw at her. She was gazing in front of her watching whomever that would appear in front of her. She don't know why she did that but she just doesn't know what to do to contact her friends. Sitting in front of the dorm while thinking, she may came up with an idea to get down to her business. She don't know how long had she been sitting on the stairs. She heard running footsteps approaching the dorm but she paid no heed of it. She just concentrated on thinking how about should she contact her friends as soon as possible. She heard someone panting near her and thought to herself 'running late?' Without looking at the person or two people because she heard multiple pants as if to catch a breathe due to some vigorous work out.
A man's voice leapt into her train of thoughts. "r...r...r...ru...Ruriko?" the unsure voice asked. She looked at the direction of the voice and saw a couple, shocked written all over their faces. They looked at Ruriko wide eyed. A guy with black spiky hair, wearing a simple black T-shirt with 'I'm the coolest' written on it with a pair of jeans was standing gaping at her. His eyes were as wide as an owl's and he was gaping, looking at Ruriko as if he just saw an alien. A brown haired girl with her chest-length hair falling down proportionately at her back wearing a pink blouse and a pair of short pants jeans looked at her with teary eyes. Yukari leapt forward throwing her weight onto Ruriko and hugged her tight. She managed to blurt out "Ruriko...it is really you right?...I miss you..." between her sobs. Ruriko smiled and said "I'm back" softly to Yukari and hugged her too. Yukari cried as she held onto her but then loosen her grip from Ruriko to give her some space.
"Ruriko, what happened? We thought you..." Yukari didn't finished her sentence and averted her gaze to the ground. Junpei that had been watching the scene started to speak. "Ruriko, I never thought I would meet you again. But man, you didn't change at all. You still look like a high school girl. What do you think of me? I grew my hair a little you know, heheh.." Junpei smirked as he finished talking. Then looked at her in a nostalgic way and said, "welcome back, leader" as he hugged her for a while and let her go. Ruriko managed to thank him for welcoming her back.
"It's been a long time guys. A lot had happened and I need to talk to all of you about something important. Can you tell the others about this? I don't know how to contact them", Ruriko spoke and looked at them expectantly. Yukari looked to Junpei in confusion and looked back at Ruriko and nodded in agreement. "I won't ask more but I will contact them for you. I'm sure they will be happy to know that you are still alive." Yukari smiled to herself as she said that. "Aah, Yukari, maybe it would be best not to tell them that I'm here for now," Ruriko said with a naughty smile and looked at Yukari hoping her to understand her intention.
"I know! you want to surprise them, right Ruri-tan?" Junpei smirked knowingly. Ruriko nodded in response and giggled a little. Her friends sure know how to read her mind. "But really, I'm glad we could meet again. We came here hurriedly when we heard a mysterious girl with crimson eyes was sitting in front of Iwatodai dorm. We assumed that a girl with crimson eyes would be none other than the leader. I'm glad I decided to follow Yuka-tan dashed out to here" Junpei said in a joking tone.
"Yeah, you are so reluctant to follow me. You don't believe my instinct at all. I told you that she would be Ruriko but you REFUSED to believe me, stupei", Yukari belted out as she quickly typed something on her phone. She seemed to compose an email to send to her friends maybe to inform about the meeting that Ruriko wanted to hold.
Junpei stammered and snapped, "stop calling me that. That is so old school now, Yuka-tan". It seemed that even if he said it, he still was bothered by the nickname. Ruriko giggled and thought that her friends still haven't changed apart from their appearance.
"What, Ruri-tan? Are you siding with Yukari on this? I'm your best friend you know", Junpei stated with a bit of desperate tone in his voice.
"And I'm her best friend too!", Yukari said as she pushed a button on her cell phone without looking at Junpei and Ruriko and went "Yosh!" as if she had succeeded her task successfully. "I've sent the email to all of them and ask them to gather at the lounge at 7 pm tonight. Now all that's left is to call Mitsuru-sempai. I can't email her because I know she won't be reading her mails. I don't know if she can come tonight, she had been busy since she started running the Kirijo company after she graduated college". Yukari explained as she skilfully pushed the buttons on her phone dialling a number and put her mobile phone to her right ear. While she made the call, Junpei was gazing at Ruriko with curiosity.
"I'm dying to know what this important matter that you need to talk about. We still don't know what had happened to you for the past 8 years and now you are back. I still don't believe my eyes. Is this a dream? Maybe I missed you too much that I'm seeing you in my dream like this. Aah, if Chidori knows this, she will strangle me saying that I cheat on her. But if this is a dream why is Yukari with me? If Yukari is in my dream it would be nightmare but if it's you in my dream it would be a nice dream. What should I do to make sure that this is real?" Junpei started babbling melodramatically with his hands reaching out to the sky as if he was in a play or some sort.
"Should I just punch you on your face to confirm your doubts?" Yukari asked sarcastically as she finished her call.
Junpei straightened out his hand and said, "No, no need for that. Thank you for offering your assistance, Yukari-sama. Having you punch me would mean having my throat slit with a samurai sword" Junpei contemplated and went silent when Yukari glared at him.
"So, Mitsuru-sempai will come down tonight because she said she needed to escape from her work. I told her that we are gathering to celebrate Junpei's engagement with Chidori. But it's a lie though. Chidori would never want to be engaged with stupei anyway," Yukari said knowing that Junpei will surely replied to her statement.
"Hey, I resent that Yuka-tan. Chidori will surely would like to be engaged with me. She said she loves me and want to..." Junpei said with a desperate voice but was cut short when Yukari took Ruriko's hand and dragged her to the dorm. "Now, should we go in? We need to hide you from others before the appointed time. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if they see you lurking around outside the dorm, heheh...", Yukari said leaving Junpei behind as he said, "I haven't finish talking, you know." Junpei followed behind them and was about to follow them to the 3rd floor but was scolded by Yukari. He retreated to the 2nd floor where he went to his room.
Yukari took Ruriko to her room and smiled mischievously. She asked Ruriko to sit on her cushion and as Ruriko can remember, Yukari's room was still as pink as usual. A few changes were made to the room such as, new posters, new pink bed sheet with a few sunflowers embedded on it and a few photos of Yukari and her friends were stucked on the walls.
"Though everyone had already graduated and worked at some companies, we still go to this place when we need to cool ourselves off. You know, working really tires us out so this place is like a secret place where we can be ourselves and belt out all the stress that was building up. Mitsuru-sempai made this place as SEES meeting place whenever we have events to celebrate. We even gathered here every year to remember the day you left us, 5th March. We would eat sushi and do stuff that we did when celebrating the fall of the 12th shadow. That is the only way we could remember you and show you that we are happy. Though it hurts but we still did that knowing that you will be happy if we are happy. But now you are here, I think this is the happiest moment of my life finding out that I can go out with you again like we used to. Having you around is fun as hell, heheh...sorry for using that word but I can't express how happy I am right now," Yukari said shamefully and smiled at Ruriko. They talked a lot about trivial stuff, laughing whenever they think funny, enjoying every moment of their conversation like they used to in the past. They didn't realize that it was almost 7 until Junpei knocked on Yukari's door to tell her that almost everyone had arrived.
At 7.15 pm, every member of SEES had arrived and was chatting among each other updating their current statuses. Mitsuru was the last one to arrive and apologised for being late. Her wavy red hair was tied in a bun and she wore her business attire indicating that she just got out of work and went straight to the dorm. She was as usual very charming and gorgeous. if anyone hadn't known her, they would be enticed by just the way she walk. Ken was a lot more taller now that he is a 19 year old young adult. His face looked more mature and one would say that he's got a good-looking face, what's with his body proportionately built to match his age, not too skinny nor too plumpy, just about the right proportion for a normal young adult. Fuuka almost never change except she grew taller and looked more sophisticated and confident than before. Her laptop on her lap was still there as she talk and type at the same time. Shinjiro was as usual wearing his gruffy expression 'tch'-ing everything that his friends said or did. His hair was cut short and he wasn't wearing his beanie anymore. Koromaru was nuzzling at his feet wanting to be petted by Shinjiro and it looked like Koromaru haven't change at all.
"So, everyone is here now. You all know why we gathered here tonight right? Our best friend Junpei will be engaged to his love of life, Chidori, so we need to lecture him good tonight. Agree?" Yukari started the ceremony by addressing to her friends that had been with her for a long time now. Then everyone shouted "AGREEEE!" at the same time and bursted into a rapid laughter. They looked at Junpei smirking but Junpei looked at them with an amuse expression knowing that Yukari just acted it all out. He was smiling to himself imagining their shocked faces when Ruriko walked down the stairs. 'Hohoho, that would be priceless. Should I take a picture of every one of them? hehehe...' he thought to himself not realising that he had a wide grin stamped on his face. The others looked at him curiously. Yukari nudged him on his waist and cleared her throat.
"So now, we will welcome Chidori to this lounge. I'll go get her now." Yukari ran upstairs and went straight to her room to call for Ruriko that had been waiting for her turn to appear on 'stage'. The others clapped cheerily as they anticipated the descend of the so called 'Chidori'. Ruriko calmly walked down the stairs and when she reached the stairs leading to the ground floor, she inhaled and exhaled her breath slowly and continued striding down. Yukari followed behind her grinning like a child. She knows that her friends would be so shocked to see that who they had expected was not the one to descend down the stairs.
Ruriko reached the last step of the stairs and walked slowly to the groups that was chatting loudly. They looked up when they feel someone was approaching them and was about to tease Junpei when they saw Ruriko was standing in front of them. They went silent and stared at the person in front of them wide eyes, so shocked to even utter a word. For a few seconds, the lounge grew silent with only Junpei and Yukari grinning knowingly while Ruriko put on her sweetest smile to greet her precious friends. The first one to rose on his feet was Akihiko as he hurriedly rushed to Ruriko and hugged her tight.
"Ruriko...Ruriko...Ruriko..." he repeatedly said her name. "It really is you, right?" asking her as if to make certain of the person that he was holding. He wouldn't let go of her but Ruriko doesn't mind as she hugged him back gently. "Yes, it's me, Ruriko". She said to erase the uncertainty building inside Akihiko's mind or anyone's mind for that matter. Akihiko let go of her and stared into her eyes. He said "I miss you" in a muffled voice. He was too shocked to even say a word but managed to say only those three words. The others that were flabbergasted soon rushed to her and hugged her saying how they missed her and wanted to see her badly. They spilt tears of joy as they blurted out whatever they were feeling at that time and surrounded Ruriko as if to make sure that she won't go away again.
They were laughing and chatting again, asking so many questions to Ruriko but most of it Ruriko answered with a smile. They chattered about their life and what they were doing all this time to tell her how their life had progressed so far. Everyone looks happy and I mean everyone including Shinjiro even with his gruffly face he smiled from time to time and when he realised he was smiling, he reverted back to his grunted face. This happened over and over again. Anyone would be happy seeing the friend that they had thought died was actually still alive. Akihiko was smiling all the time staring at Ruriko as she laughed beautifully at what her friends was saying and talked to them when needed. 'So I wasn't dreaming this afternoon after all. I'm glad I can meet her again. Looking at her up front like this, she haven't change a bit,' he thought to himself.
Yukari suddenly rose to her feet and tried to hush the others as she stared at Ruriko in a serious manner. "So, what is it that you wanted to tell us about? It is something important right?" Yukari reminded her. Ruriko's expression changed into a complicated stern as she remembered the details of what she has to say. She sighed and started to talk, "I'm sorry to ruin this happy reunion but I have to tell you guys something really important. I will explain everything and I hope that you guys will remain silent until I finish talking. I will answer any of your questions after I'm done talking so please bear with me for awhile." Ruriko looked at her teammates pleadingly. Everyone nodded and looked at her anticipatingly. She explained everything to them carefully making sure that she made clear of what she wanted to tell. Their expression turned grim when she finished talking and everyone went silent.
"I can't believe anyone would want to resurrect Nyx like that. Why would they do that? And how did they do that?" The first one to ask Ruriko the question was Yukari. She looked enraged. Ruriko answered with "I don't know. We are still searching for the culprit behind this," and went silent again waiting for the next question to come up.
"If Nyx is stronger now, how should we be able to defeat her later? We struggled to the very end when we fight her but now she is stronger, I can't imagine fighting her again", now Ken has voiced out his concern. Ruriko turned her stare to Ken. His brown hair tied in a small ponytail at the base of his head as his faced marred with an uneasy expressions that looked out of place for his handsome feature. Ruriko mentioned about the two other wildcards that will be arriving soon to help them and in the process explained to them the meaning of wielding the power of wildcards.
"Now, you want us to fight against that thing again? Don't joke around like that! We almost die fighting it years ago and now it is stronger, I don't intend to die just yet." Junpei glared at Ruriko as he said those words. Everyone fall silent into deep thinking but Ruriko managed to let out her voice saying her original intention as to why she called for the meeting. "Then don't fight. Tonight there may be a dark hour so I just want to tell you guys before you start wondering how come the dark hour descend again. I don't intend to drag you all to fight with Nyx again. That is not why I'm here." Ruriko smiled at them calmly. She saw that Junpei's expression turned soft as she said those words. She didn't want her friends to suffer again, if she must, she will fight Nyx alone.
Junpei looked apologetic and said, "I'm sorry I snapped at you like that. I didn't mean to say that. I just thought that all these things are too shocking and it's hard for me to accept."
"I'm not blaming you, Junpei. So, you guys don't have to fight Nyx again. Just live your life as normally as you can and stay on alert at anytime. With this, I shall go now. I have to attend to some businesses", Ruriko rose to her feet looking at her friends that was gaping dumbfounded by what she said. She wanted to give her friends some time to register this new shocking news. Besides, she just wanted to warn them, nothing more. She was about to walk to the door when she felt her hand was held stopping her from leaving. She turned her head to find out Akihiko holding her hand, gazing into her eyes.
"I have a question for you as well", he said. Ruriko turn to face Akihiko and nodded to allow Akihiko to shoot his question. It's been a while since she last seen Akihiko so intent like this. How she miss this man but when she remembered what happened that afternoon she tried to erase her feelings. She shouldn't let her feelings get to her, they have their own life now.
"Is there a way to completely erase Nyx?" Akihiko asked shooting his stare at Ruriko. Now all the attention was on the couple. They waited patiently for Ruriko's answer. "Truthfully there are none that we know of. We can only do it the old way, that is to defeat her and seal her like before." Ruriko replied without falter.
Still holding her hand, Akihiko's expression turned grim. "Then are you saying you want to seal Nyx again? Are you going to be the...seal again if Nyx is defeated?" Akihiko asked hesitated about the question. He knows the answer but he still want to make sure the extent to the truth behind what he thinks.
"Yes, that's how it is." As she said it she shook Akihiko's hand free and walked out of the dorm not wanting to be there any longer because she know that the longer she was there the more she can break down in no time. She don't want them to see her weak self. She ran away from the dorm wanting to get far away from there. No one should know the pain that she had to bear and the burden she had to carry. She would bear this alone. She didn't want anyone to know that she too want to live her life like a normal person, going to work, chatting with friends after work and even having a family to brag about. She just wanted a peaceful life without knowing the danger that the world holds. But she could never be ignorant again after all that she had went through. She ran to Naganaki shrine as she wiped her eyes wet with tears. That is the first time in a long time that she had cried a lot like that. It felt so painful and she didn't know what to do.
