Episode Two- Part A- Intruder
Yarho
Yarho glanced at her watch as she stood in front of the school gates. She had gotten there early because Jenn promised to give her a tour of the school that morning. It had to have been at least fifteen minutes since she got there an still the boisterous red-head had yet to show herself. All the waiting- and at this early in the morning- was starting to get to pick at the light hearted mood she had initially woke up with. Still the blue haired girl waited, internally announcing to herself that she would wait another five minutes. Just in case.
The long hand indicated it was now twenty minutes passed the proposed meeting time and still no Jenn. Yarho huffed just about ready to explore the school herself when she heard the sound of feet against the pavement not too far off. "Hey Yarho!" a voice called from across the street, she looked over catching the tell-tale glimpse of the orange haired girl running up the hill waving at her. J-walking shamelessly down the empty street she stopped beside Yarho.
"Morning~" Jenn greeted a smile on her face.
"What took you so long? I thought you forgot or overslept," Yarho frowned not bothering to return the greeting.
"Ha ha… I kind of did," she admitted laughing guiltily, "I kept pressing the snooze button on my alarm clock".
Yarho simply stared back, her considerably furrowed brow indicating that she was not finding the humor in the situation.
"Aw come on! Lighten up, I'm here aren't I?" Jenn pointed out, "when I make a promise I always follow through. Now come on, we don't have much time so let's go, go, go, GO!" She forcefully grabbed the other girl as they ran into the school.
The two made conversation as they rounded the empty halls. Throughout the tour, Jenn acted as part guide and part entertainer imitating teachers and other students as she spouted interesting tid-bits and helpful hints on how to survive the conundrum that was Domino High. Yarho's foul mood quickly dissipated through laughter from her new-found friend's often outlandish observances. The tour neared its end when they finally made their way to the juniors section.
"Here we are, class 10-B, my classroom" Jenn stated grinning making a big show of sliding open the door. As the red-head stepped into the classroom her face lit up in surprise seeing that there was someone already inside. "Oh it's Ryou," she exclaimed, "you're here early".
Yarho meekly walked in after her curiously peeking over the girl's shoulder to see who she was talking to. Sitting in one of the back desks was a boy. He looked about their age (which was to be expected, he was in a tenth grade classroom) his figure was rather slight. His silvery white hair had an interesting chunky body to it and was almost up to his shoulders in length. The boy in question averted his eyes from the textbook that lay before him to look at the two girls.
"It is pretty early isn't it?" he repeated beaming at his classmate. Yarho felt her breath catch in her throat for a moment from the small gesture. He had sweetest smile she had ever seen—well- ever! "I forgot to study for the Math test so I'm trying to go over the things I don't understand" he finished laughing nervously.
In spite of herself, Yarho blushed when his gaze floated from Jenn to her. Her eyes darted to the floor as she fervently tried to feign interest in the much abused linoleum. Summoning every ounce of her being she willed her body not to flinch or fidget as he looked her over.
"Who's your friend Jenn?" he questioned still smiling pleasantly as he stood up making his way over to them.
Placing both hands on her hips Jenn cocked her head in the direction of her blue haired companion. Yarho took this as a signal to introduce herself. Still looking down she bowed rigidly, "Eh, I—I'm Yarho Otachi, class 10-A. It's a pleasure to meet you Ryou-san".
Yarho looked up at Jenn who suddenly burst out in laughter, "You idiot! He's the same age as us you don't have to bow so deeply! Ryou's none special!"
Yarho felt her face turn from pink to beet red from annoyance, "You know I'm not used to the customs here yet! How was I supposed to know.." she stammered straightening herself as she attempted to stare daggers through her friend's smug face. "He he! Sorry, sorry, I'll shut up," Jenn giggled.
"Oh so you're a foreigner?" Ryou cut in.
"Well, kind of. I was born here, I've just been living in Egypt for so long I'm kind of fuzzy on a few things," Yarho explained.
"Ah I see!" he laughed in amusement, "I'm not from here myself, I'm here as an exchange student from England. It's nice to know someone who in the same shoes-- kind of". The grinning boy stuck his hand out in a friendly gesture.
"Likewise," Yarho smiled back, shaking it.
She unclasped her hand moving to pull it back to her side but Ryou still held on firmly. "Um… Ryou…?" Yarho murmured trying to tug her hand away gently. When she looked up at him she realized his gaze was transfixed on something. She followed his gaze to the golden bracelet on her wrist. From her vantage point his eyes were covered by his bangs, but she did not miss the almost sinister smirk plastered on his lips. Terror chills danced down her spine, Ryou's near-angelic grin now only seeming like a distance memory. Unexplainable panic surged through her as his grip on her hand tightened. Her emerald eyes flickered to his chest as a golden glow emitted from a strange article that hung around his neck. Everything seemed to stop around them, the room was beginning to warp; she could've sworn the ticking from the classroom clock had halted too. She wanted to yell for him to let go but the cry died in her throat. She never felt this scared before.
'YARHO LET GO OF HIM NOW!' an urgent female voice seemed to echo from her mind. Her body reacted on the command readily obeying the voice. Yarho stepped back forcibly wrenching her hand free from the Brit's grip. A spark of electricity emitted from the frightened girl's bracelet. Ryou's smirk faltered for a moment as jerking his own hand to his chest in surprise, the tendril of electricity having given him a jolt in warning. The clock began ticking again as the moment dispersed with Jenn gaping at the two and Ryou looking a little more than shocked.
'What.. What just happened?' Yarho thought as she cradled her hand against her chest.
"Yarho..?" Jenn spoke up. She snapped out of her trance tearing her eyes from Ryou to see her friend. Jenn looked confused, lost, and slightly disturbed, as if it was Yarho who had done something uncomfortable. 'Did Jenn not see that?'. Her mind was so incapacitated by the moment that passed between Ryou and herself that she could not formulate coherent thoughts, much less find words.
"Ah, sorry!" she heard someone speak up.
Yarho's mind spun wildly when she recognized the voice was her own. But how? She didn't issue that command to her brain—
"That was some static shock huh?" she laughed. The peal of laughter haunting her eardrums.
That was her voice. Again.
Yarho hoped the horror coursing through her system didn't reach her face. Thankfully it didn't seem to when she saw Jenn reply with something between a snicker and a scoff, "Geez, you are such a weirdo".
The first bell rang at the exact moment class 10-B's representative walked in, "Ryou-san, Jenn-chan why are you in here? Homeroom is going to be in the music room today, did you forget a repairman is coming in to fix the windows?".
"No wonder none's here yet," Jenn groaned. "Bye Yarho! I'll see you at lunch. Can you get to your class by yourself?".
The blue haired girl nodded rigidly, secretly relieved to find in that moment she had regained control of her body. Jenn left abruptly with Ryou following behind. "I'll be seeing you around," he mentioned smiling at her like nothing happened -did something happen..?- before disappearing through the doorway.
When she was sure she was alone she steadied herself against one of the desks. Trying to make sense of what happened, hoping it was just a hallucination. She took a few moments to compose herself before leaving for homeroom.
The day passed by in a blur, and before Yarho knew it school was already over. She walked out of her last class still dazed by the strange occurrence that morning. It took all her focus to push it into the back of her mind. Needless to say that it meant that she couldn't concentrate on any of her classes that day. She allowed a heavy sigh to escape; all this worrying has put her in a fowler mood than when she was waiting for Jenn that morning.
Shutting the front door of the house firmly, she called out a loud, "I'm home!". Her voice reverberated through the foyer. She waited a moment for a reply then tried again, "Hello? Takrushi you home?" she exclaimed louder incase he didn't hear her. No answer.
Turning to lock the door to find a Post-It note stuck to the back of it. It read: "Went out to pick up some furniture for the house. I'll be back 9-ish, food is in the fridge. Don't burn the house down" with her brother's name scrawled in delicate script at the bottom.
A surge of unease washed over her as she unconsciously crumpled the note in her hand. The last thing she wanted to be right now was to be left alone. Despite the constant bickering between her and her brother she trusted him to no end and had asked him for advice on many occasions when she felt troubled. She wanted to ask him about what happened today too. But maybe it was a good thing he wasn't home. She had no clue how to bring up the topic. How do you bring something so awkward up in casual conversation? How would she even begin to explain it? 'Oh Takrushi~ Today at school I had this weird out of body experience when I shook someone's hand. It was like someone took over my body. IT WAS SO SCARY. How do I make that stop?'.
Heh, no, he would think she were crazy, or not believe her; which would be worst since he would probably hold that against her until the day she died. Besides, she suspected he might still be mad at her for her outburst the day before. So she really couldn't talk to anyone about this.
Frowning she tossed her bag on the ground on her way to the kitchen. She was probably over exaggerating what happened. She only just came back to Japan, it could be that the plane ride and different time zones were messing with her mind. That had to be it. She opened the fridge rummaging through. I mean she couldn't be crazy right? She felt just fine… Or was that what crazy people told themselves…? she bit down on her lip hoping it was the former.
The day's pent-up stress was starting to make her feel hungry. No more than hungry, she was famished. She would need something bigger than a snack; reaching over the tempting piece of cake from the night before she pulled out the glass container with a sticky note on it reading 'DINNER' in bold black print. She was going to have to eat dinner now, the cake could wait for later.
Removing the lid she popped the container into the microwave and set the timer to two minutes. She was about to press the START button when her finger halted mere millimeters from it against her will. Yarho was about to vocalize her surprise when a voice reached her ears. "I don't think that's a good idea hon... Last I heard glass and microwaves don't mix".
Her green eyes widened as she took a sharp intake of breath. This was her voice yet again, but hearing it this time she realized a slight difference in it. Sure it sounded like her voice but it had a slight intonation, a lilt she couldn't quite put her finger on but there was no mistake about it. Yarho steeled her nerves, "…Who are you?" she managed.
It took a moment for the voice to reply, there was a small sigh then, "I'm not too sure myself. Maybe I'm you?".
Yarho felt her temper flare. This person was making fun of her. "Don't bullshit me! Who are you?!" she spat.
It was then she caught her reflection in the microwave window. It was her, but at the same time it wasn't. The image reflected back to her was her face, though the features seemed more womanly, the hair framing her face was the same style, still blue, but the tips were a frosty white. Most striking of the contrasts was the ageless cool grey eyes staring back at her, they were smaller than her own but they held a measured intensity that she never possessed. Then the reflection smiled, the grin lopsided pulled up more at one corner of her lips, eyes narrowing in mockery, "I am a part of you" it said simply.
This was the second time that day that Yarho had experienced the true sensation of fear. Her heart was beating all too fast, each intake of breath pierced her lungs growing increasingly painful in steady succession. She wanted to run, and her mind shouting the command to her legs but they denied her. The same thing that happened at school was happening again.
"You aren't," Yarho denied weakly finding that at least her voice was obeying her.
The lopsided half of the reflection's grin turned up to match the other amused by this.
"Then should I prove it to you by taking this body?"
Authour's Note: Eeee, this was a bit confusing to write, I hope it was understood throughout that the bold writing is Yarho, but not quite. If you remember the bold text from the first episode this is the same voice. Hopefully I managed to make the saga more interesting with this chapter. I wanted to make this longer but I was really getting tired and figured the first episode was too long. So this one has been divided in half. The voice will be explained in the next chapter :3