Chapter 2:
The night that changed her life forever was arriving sooner than she would have liked. Miyako had chosen to sleep with all the younger kids that night at the Dai-Rin House, since they had been begging her to for weeks. She had her own room, but she knew it wouldn't hurt to let them have their way once in a while. She didn't sleep though; she had been doing homework by the light of the moon.
Something was going on. She could hear loud noises like gun shots mixed in with voices, and she immediately knew they were close. Climbing to her feet she crept over to the window and peered out from behind the curtain. What she saw was definitely not what she had expected to see. There was a fight going on outside, between some insane creature that kept changing its form and a teenage girl with several guns. Miyako knew then that what she was seeing was Ouri's phantom dead girl that he had told her about. She felt stupid for not believing him, and she was only mildly surprised when the cat showed up and confirmed what she had already guessed was the truth.
She heard voices out in the hallway. Keisei's voice and someone she didn't know. She wanted to go and see him, but something inside her told her that she wouldn't be able to use the door. With only one other option she climbed out the window as quietly as she could. Her actions weren't fast enough though, for she heard the sound of Keisei screaming. Something had happened to him, and she ran to the front door, avoiding rogue gunfire and ignoring the shouts of the girl. Opening the door she saw Keisei collapsed on the ground and Ouri standing over him. The other man standing before her had yet to notice her presence and she took advantage of that to aim a kick at his gut. He noticed at the last second and slammed her into the wall instead.
"Let me go!" She cried out, scratching at his hands in an attempt to break free.
"Interesting. You came here of your own free will. You're not shikabane or shikabane hime. What a strange girl." His words were teasing, his voice cold. She lashed out, kicking him in the ribs with her bare foot, making him let go. She crashed to the floor and ran over to Keisei and Ouri. No sooner had she reached them when the other girl came crashing through the wall to land in front of them. She glanced back at them, and when her eyes landed on Keisei they filled with fear and anger.
"Ouri, what happened to him?" She asked angrily, gaze drifting to Miyako for a moment before latching on Keisei. Ouri couldn't string together an entire sentence, let alone answer her question, and Miyako had no clue what had happened either.
Keisei reached out and grabbed onto Ouri's hand before muttering something that Miyako couldn't make out over the sound of her heartbeat and the crashes outside. Apparently it was something important though. Whatever Ouri agreed to he then passed out. Miyako was torn between the two most important people in her life, but the corpse girl seemed to be taking Keisei's imminent demise just as badly as she was. Making up her mind she crawled over to Ouri's unconscious body and held his hand as she tried not to cry. Keisei was talking again, but she still couldn't hear anything, and she felt that it was probably something private. The girl held his hand and smiled at him, and at that point Miyako could no longer hold back her tears. She knew he was dying, she knew he was going to leave that night, but she didn't want him to go. As the tears streamed down her face she saw the life leave him, and she saw the tears on the purple haired girl's own smiling face. The girl's eyes were angry, and Miyako had a feeling that the other girl was about to lose it. Unfortunately Miyako wasn't going to get to find out what happened after that, because the stress of the moment was too much for her and she passed out, falling next to Ouri on the floor.
When Miyako woke up again she was in her own bed and the sun was streaming in from the window. Her head hurt and her cheeks were damp, for she had been crying even in her unconscious state. She knew she was dehydrated, but for the moment she didn't care. All she wanted to do was find out what had happened after she had passed out. No-one was in her room, and as she climbed out of bed she noticed that she wasn't wearing her blood-stained pyjamas from that night, which made her curious as to how long she had actually been out for. Everything came rushing back to her and she felt like crying again, but she had no tears left, she had cried herself out.
"Riko?" She called hesitantly from her doorway, not sure if she trusted herself to walk to far into the Dai-Rin House.
"Miyako, are you awake?" Riko's voice sounded strained, as though she too had been crying for a long time. When the older woman rounded the corner Miyako noticed she was dressed in her temple clothes and her expression turned darker.
"It's today isn't it?" She knew that Riko almost never wore those clothes, so the only explanation was that it was time for Keisei's funeral service. Backing up a step she closed the door to her room, ignoring anything else Riko had to say to her. She walked over to the window and closed the curtains as well. Digging around in her closet she found her good black dress and threw it on her bed, getting on her knees in order to find some shoes to go with it. She didn't have any nice shoes that would be appropriate for a funeral, so she found her black canvas shoes and grabbed them. It was the best she could find.
As she changed into her dress she noticed that she had some tiny flecks of red under her nails and she cringed, knowing it was his blood. There was nothing she could do about it just then though, so she tried to ignore it. Sitting down on her bed she put on the shoes and grabbed her hairbrush, running it quickly through her waist length jet black hair before letting it fall back on her back. She couldn't be bothered finding anything to tie it up with like she usually would have.
Climbing to her feet she opened her door again and walked through the house, heading towards the temple next door. Her guess had been right, there were people everywhere. What she really wanted was to find Ouri and tell him that she believed him and she was sorry, but she knew that particular fact would be pointless in the face of Keisei's death. As she walked she saw Riko again, but she didn't stop to talk to her this time, not interested in anything the woman had to say to her and not wanting to get dragged into any sympathy speech from someone she didn't know.
Her hair swung in front of her face as she walked, shielding her from the stares of people in all directions. What she really wanted to do was run away, she didn't want to go to the service, but she knew she had to. If she didn't go she would never forgive herself, and Ouri would probably hate her too.
"Hey, is that…" She heard a familiar voice whispering, but she didn't feel like trying to find them.
"It is isn't it? Miyako!" She jumped, looking up and spinning around.
"Hey, don't do that." Someone was telling off the first speaker. She smiled weakly when she recognised the voices. It was Hiroshige and Mizuki. Her feet started moving her in the direction their voices were coming from, and as she walked her eyes drifted until they landed on Ouri. He was standing on the street outside the temple with a monk and a young girl. It confused her as to why the monk would want to talk off temple grounds instead of inside them, but that wasn't exactly high on her list of things she wanted to know.
She pushed herself up onto the bench that Mizuki, Hiroshige and Sumitori were standing behind and watched Ouri and the monk talk. With her sharp hearing she decided to do a little bit of eavesdropping. Normally she would never eavesdrop on Ouri, but this was a necessary thing to do. The monk had the same robes as Keisei did, meaning he was also from the Kōgon Sect, and she wanted to know why he wasn't coming inside the temple. The little information she had managed to glean from listening to the other guests was that the other monks from the Kōgon Sect had held their own little funeral service earlier, so why he was only there now was beyond her.
As soon as she heard the words 'Shikabane Hime' she quickly stopped listening. That was a topic that was private, and also one she had no interest in. Turning her dark gaze on Hiroshige she stared emotionlessly at him and watched him squirm. He was obviously regretting calling out to her now, it was a funeral after all; one for someone Miyako had looked up to as a brother. It wasn't the best time for socialising, even if it was one of the only times she wasn't around Ouri.
Riko walked over to the benches and Miyako glared at her. The older woman had almost caused her to miss the funeral because she didn't try hard enough to wake up her up. The funeral… Miyako's eyes clouded over in grief. She couldn't cry anymore because she was dehydrated, but it wouldn't stop her from feeling sad. Keisei had been her only 'family' and Ouri was her only real friend. Now with Keisei gone and Ouri living elsewhere she was all alone. Outwardly she still had Riko, the kids, Hiroshige, Mizuki and Sumitori, but inside, in the absolute reality of herself, she had no-one.
After the funeral was over Miyako refused to talk to anyone. She would have talked to Ouri, but he didn't seem to want to talk to her. In her grief she wandered aimlessly around the temple trying to avoid having to talk to or listen to people trying to offer her sympathetic words and condolences. She couldn't cope with all their lies and half-truths at that moment in time. The temple was just too crowded, people weren't leaving and they were everywhere, hovering to talk to Riko or other people.
Sighing in frustration she brushed some hair behind her ear, twitched her dress back so that it was hanging perfectly straight and wandered outside with the intent of going for a walk. She needed fresh air and time alone to try and clear her mind. Walking with no real purpose she ended up outside a convenience store. With no intent or aim she headed inside.
Miyako didn't buy anything; she just stared at some things to waste away some time before she felt calm enough to head back to the temple and the Dai-Rin House. People on the streets whispered when they saw her in her funeral clothes, and she balled her hands into fists at her sides. Since she was trying as hard as she could not to listen to what they were saying about her behind her back she failed to notice that she had stepped out onto the road. A motor revved and someone honked on their car horn, making her look up. She froze in terror, staring into the window of the oncoming truck. She never stood a chance.
Tires screeched on the pavement and Miyako screamed, holding her arms up in front of her face as though it would somehow save her. The people who had been gossiping were all screaming too, and it seemed like, for just a moment, the whole world was screaming. One thing flashed through her mind as the truck hit her. She regretted the fact that she had never told Ouri how she really felt about him.
A/N: I'm writing chapter 3 from Miyako's p.o.v, but I'm not too sure about it, so we'll see how it goes. Please review if you read this story, I need to know how much time I should put aside for this one.
