((I'm so angry. So, so very angry. I had this ENTIRE chapter written up, and I was happy with how it was! It was a super long chapter, too, like I promised! And then I clicked on the "backspace" key without the area being selected, so the entire PAGE went back! And since I was typing this up on the site, it didn't autosave. I'm so angry at myself, augh. But I was happy with the nice reviews I got, so I decided to get over it and rewrite it, but with a different approach this time. So now instead of having the first chapter where she awoke in a hospital and fought her way out(she even killed a guy with a stolen scalpel how cool is that), sleeping in some alleyway, you now get this chapter where she instead WAKES UP in the alleyway, and I'll write how her new life here is, in this chapter. Here you go. No hospital fight scene for you. Sorry.
Also wow! I didn't expect to get so many reviews in two days? Thank you so much omg! Also to that one reviewer who said not to care about how many reviews I would get: I totally agree, but reviewing always makes me feel better, anyhow. Thanks for your kind words, everyone! Now, onto the story!))
Running.
Even when she wasn't awake, the girl dreamed of running. She did not know whether this running was good or not. She couldn't tell whether she felt fear- or joy.
Was she being followed? Was she alone? She couldn't tell. She was running, but she was running free.
She decided that, yes, she was running with joy.
But her dream did not last long, as her eyes shot open with a shuttering gasp. She coughed, then, several times. Her throat felt dry, and she chocked on her own breathing, making it all the more difficult to breath.
"Woah, are you okay, there, kid?" She heard a voice. She shot up in surprise. Yet before she could sit up correctly, her head made contact with something solid. Hard.
"AUGH!" The voice from before shouted in surprise and pain, stumbling footsteps heard behind her. She whipped her head around, looking to find the source of the voice. There, kneeling behind the girl was a young boy, holding his forehead with both hands, groaning in pain. The girl took a frightened step back, launching herself to her feet, only to fall back to her knees with a hiss of pain. She looked down at herself, shocked.
Shocked not only to see herself wearing the same outfit as she was wearing the night before, but more so to see it so bloodied and torn. It was only then that the pain really registered to her. She trembled as she brought her knees up her chest, inspecting the many cuts and bruises across her pale skin. She hadn't gotten a lot of time in the sun with her life before, but that would change, now.
"Christ, I just wanted to know if you were okay! You didn't have to go and break my skull, girl!" The boy groaned out. He let one of his hands fall to his side as he looked up at the girl, the other hand still held gently to his now reddened forehead.
"I-" she whispered. Her voice was quiet and shook, showing her fear all the more. "I'm sorry." Then the boy froze. He put both his hands up in the air, his eyes wide.
"N-no, no! It was totally my fault! Don't worry about it!" He smiled nervously, getting back up on his feet as he looked down at the poor girl who looked just about ready to cry at that point. He suddenly felt very bad about his comment. She was obviously scared, alone, and hurt, and he had only made it worse by making her feel bad. Such an idiot.
The girl nodded slowly, afraid to say anything more. Don't speak unless spoken to.
"So, eh," the boy mumbled, now standing up at his full height. He looked fairly young, almost the same age as she was. His dirty blond hair ruffled in the light wind, casting an almost angel-like halo around his head. He looked back at the girl, curious brown eyes wandering. "What's your name?" He asked.
The girl stayed quiet.
"My name's Fujita Aki!" The boy bowed respectively, smiling politely. The girl furrowed her brows at the odd name.
"Fujita...?" She asked, quiet. "What kind of first name is that?"
"Oh, no, Fujita is my last name. I figured you weren't Japanese, which is why I'm speaking English, but I guess I kind of forgot how you Americans say your names. My name, to you, would be Aki Fujita," the boy, Aki, explained gently. He was careful to not spook the girl any more than she was already. She looked badly wounded, and he wanted to help her.
"...that's still an odd name," she mused, smiling politely. She was beginning to feel slightly comfortable around the young boy. The boy grinned.
"Well, what's your name, then, American?" He asked good-naturedly. And yet the girl remained quiet once more. "What's wrong?" He asked, his grin faltering slightly. "You don't want to tell me your name?"
"I..." The girl began, looking down at her cut and bruised skin, poking delicately at one of the many cuts adorning her legs. "I don't have a name."
"You.. don't have a name?" Aki asked, brows furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean? Why not?"
She shrugged. "Mother says giving me a name would make me seem human."
Aki stayed silent for a moment, confusion written clearly across his features. Then, he mumbled out, "But you are human... right?" Again, the girl shrugged.
"Mother says I'm evil. Evil doesn't deserve to be treated like a human," she looked down at her feet again, suddenly very self conscious about the way the boy was looking down at her. He looked at her the same way her father used to look at her. He was saddened for her. Pity, she believes he had called it one day. The boy pitied her. The girl tightened her hold on her legs, eyes set to the ground in front of her. She decided she did not like being pitied.
"Ruri Shinju."
The girl looked up in surprise, the silence broken by the boy. He looked down at her, but this time, she realized, there was no pity in his eyes. There was determination, she thought.
"What?"
"Ruri Shinju," the boy repeated, not once breaking eye contact with the shocked young girl.
"What is that?"
The boy smiled at her. "Your new name. You said you didn't have one, right?" She nodded slowly. "Then I'll give you one. Ruri Shinju! Or, in Japan you would say you're name was Shinju Ruri."
She looked up at the boy in wonder. She had a name? Ruri Shinju. Shinju Ruri, she scolded herself mentally. She nodded, she liked this name. Her name. She was human, now. Not evil. "Why that name, though?" She asked our of pure curiosity.
"Because," the boy looked at her with nothing but glee and friendliness in his eyes and smile. "It means 'emerald pearl'. And you're pretty, just like a pearl." He looked down, blushing at his last comment, and the girl, now accepting her name as Shinju Ruri, nodded, grinning widely.
"Shinju Ruri!"
"Well, Ruri-chan," he smiled, holding out a hand for her to take. "Let's get you fixed up."
And she would take his hand, gladly.
The walk to Aki's home was almost 15 minutes, and the girl, Ruri, chatted with him on the way there. Aki had given her his black jacket, which he had told her was part of his school uniform, to cover herself up. She accepted it graciously. Then she had asked about what she had called her.
"Ruri? That is your name now, right? I mean- I can change it if you want!"
Ruri shook her head, frustrated that the boy didn't grasp the meaning of her question.
"After you called me Ruri! You said something! What did you say?" Aki was silent for a moment as they walked, Ruri getting noticeable stares from many people as she wore nothing but a torn and noticeably bloodied shorts along with a single, black school uniform, before Aki snapped his fingers.
"You mean -chan!" Ruri nodded her head several times, glad he finally caught on.
"Ah," he smiled, looking to his new friend as he explained. "-chan is a suffix you add to the back of someone's name, for a lot of reasons, really, but the reason I added it to your name was because you're a young girl. You say -chan to a young female to be polite toward them."
"Oooh," Ruri nodded. "So Ruri-chan means 'young Ruri' ?" She asked, confused. Aki laughed for a moment before settling down.
"No, no, Ruri-chan. It doesn't really mean anything in particular, it's just the polite way to address young girls, is all."
"Oh. Then what is the polite way to address young boys?" She asked, glancing at Aki. He grinned.
"Call me Aki-kun." Ruri nodded her head, smiling.
"Okay, Aki-kun."
The walk home was mostly silent after that. Ruri occasionally brought up a question about where she was, how she got here, and about Aki's family. She was very surprised to find out that his mother was kind to him, even saying that she had loved him. Then she couldn't help the creeping feeling of jealousy.
And finally, after a brisk 15 minute walk, Aki had finally made his way home. The two children stood in front of a wooden gate, a plate that said something in a language that Ruri could not understand off to the side, while Aki took out a key to open the gate with.
"My parents are very worried that someone may hurt me whenever they're not home, so they lock the gate and give me a key to open it when I come home alone after school," Aki explains when he sees Ruri's questioning gaze. Then he can't help but wonder why she pouted, muttering something under her breath. "What?" He asked, holding the gate open for Ruri to walk through.
"My parents never worried about me," she muttered, walking through the gate silently. She walked up the steps, waiting for Aki to come up with her. She didn't want to walk into somebody else's home, uninvited. Especially not if there's a chance his parents are home. Aki kept his mouth shut after hearing this, suddenly reminded of how he had assumed her parents were abusive and cruel, and he seemed to have good reason for this. He assumed she was also cut and bruised because of them, but knew better than to outright ask her about it. Instead, he unlocked his front door and allowed her to walk inside before himself, being the kind gentlemen his family raised him to be.
"So, uh, Ruri-chan," Aki began, closing the front door. Ruri felt very trapped all of a sudden, but she said nothing about it. "How old are you?" He asked.
"I was born 14 years ago," she answered without hesitation. She was used to being asked questions.
"Ah, so you're 14, then, got it." He mumbled more to himself, chuckling at her odd way of answering his question. "I'm 15. I turn 16 in two months, though."
"In March?" Ruri asked, breaking her gaze from the expensive looking chandelier at the top of the living room. It looked like it was made of crystals, and she marveled at the beautiful sight of light bouncing off it at all angles, making the room seem to glow. She looked at Aki as she asked. Aki seemed confused for a moment.
"No, Ruri-chan. You know it's not January, right?" He asked, seemingly thoroughly confused by her question. Ruri paused. Then shrugged.
"Maybe I have the dates wrong, I don't remember." Aki nodded quietly.
"It's April, right now. My birthday is June 2nd." Ruri nodded absently. She made a mental note of his birthday. She paused once more.
"What's that noise?" She asked, before her eyes widened. She knew this noise. She dreaded hearing this noise every morning, and every night. It was a car, parking in the driveway. Then she froze, the cold grip of fear spreading throughout her being as she heard his next words.
"Those are my parents."
As it had turned out, Aki's parents were very kind, much to Ruri's surprise. They were upset with Aki for bringing a stranger into their home, very well aware of the fact that they worried constantly that he would get hurt when they were away, but those thoughts were immediately cast out as they took a single glance in Ruri's direction. Aki's mother, a young woman with beautiful chocolate brown hair that looked silky to the touch and kind brown eyes, has immediately dropped to her knees and hugged Ruri, much to everyone's surprise. She babbled on about how she was sorry for whatever she had to put up with, and Ruri remained silent, glancing at Aki every now and then, as she felt cornered and scared. Aki managed to get his blubbering mother off of her and convinced her to go make some tea and prepare some food. She left with a single nod and mumbling out, "yes, yes, she must be starved! Look at her, all filthy and cut up! Poor child.." then her words were drowned out as she walked through the house, her heels clacking against the smooth floor as she went.
And then Aki's father was next to express his concern.
"Dear Lord, child!" This expression made Ruri flinch visibly, as if she had been struck. "What ever has happened to you? Who did this to you?"
Ruri said nothing as Aki whispered into his father's ear. She assumed he was explaining that her parents were very harsh with her, and she was only proven correct on her assumption as Aki's father's eyes widened before he, too, dropped to his knees and hugged Ruri close. She once again said nothing, stiff as a wall. Aki, once again, managed to get him off of her by telling him she was probably tired.
At once, Ruri was rushed to the bathroom. Aki's mother was persistent on giving her a good wash, tending to her wounds, then settling her down in bed with a warm meal and a hot cup of tea. Ruri couldn't believe how good that sounded. Yet, as she stood in the very big bathroom, at least big to her expectations, with Aki's mother behind her, she stood still, confused as to what to do next. Aki's mother noticed this.
"Darling, do you not know how to do this?" She asked gently, gesturing to the many knobs and handles of the shower. Ruri shook her head, brows furrowed.
"I only got to bathe when Mother had guests over," Ruri admitted. The older woman once again hugged Ruri close, and for once, Ruri welcomed it. It was warm, she realized, being hugged by someone. But that thought was sent racing out of her mind the moment she looked into the kind woman's eyes.
Pity.
She was being pitied, again.
"I'll show you how," the woman smiled gently, unspoken tears in her brown orbs. Ruri nodded silently.
"Okay, Mrs. Fujita," Ruri nodded again, remembering Aki's last name.
"Oh, no, child! Please, call me Suzume!" She gushed, turning a few knobs on the shower, which, in turn, made the water start to pour.
"Now, dear, you have to take off your clothes to get yourself clean!" Ruri did as she was told, albeit a bit hesitant. If she took off her shirt, Aki's mother would see her scars. She hated her scars. It reminds her the evil her mother had to beat out of her. And as she expected, as soon as she took off her clothing, Aki's mother gasped, covering her mouth. Ruri felt very trapped, now.
"Please go," she asked quietly, covering her scars to the best of her abilities.
"But, darling-"
"I can shower myself, thank you very much, Mrs. Fujita." Ruri remained polite. She was taught to be polite. After a moment of hesitation, Aki's mother nodded, walking out the door. Yet before she closed the door all the way, she turned and gestured to a pile of clothing in the corner and said,
"You can wear these once you get out of your shower."
Then left Ruri alone.
Ruri did shower by herself, after all she had nobody to clean herself all her life, it was no different now. She felt very glad to be rid of the dirt and leaves that coated her skin before. As she dried on a fluffy towel that she couldn't help but hold against her face for a while- it was soo soft- she put on the clothes in the corner, as she had been instructed to. Oddly enough, the clothing fit her well. A quick glance in a full sized mirror told her what she had been thinking- it was Aki's clothing.
And then she did a double take.
She ran up to the mirror, almost slipping in the water under her cut feet. Her eyes widened at what she saw.
Her eyes, she gasped. Her eyes were no longer green. In placement of those eyes, the eyes her Father had always told her were beautiful- like a forest - were eyes the color of blood. Her eyes were a bright red, and Ruri couldn't help but think- did the evil break free? Maybe her Mother was always right, she was evil. And now that her Mother was not there to beat it out of her, it made its' way to the front?
Ruri spent a whole ten minutes standing in front of this mirror, holding the fluffy towel to her mouth and chin as she looked into her ruby red eyes. Then, she glanced above her head.
Numbers.
There were numbers above her head. She had no idea what they were doing there, or what they were for, but she followed their wobbling form curiously. Why were there numbers above her head?
Yet she didn't get a chance to ponder this question as the door was opened to her right. Aki's mother stepped through.
"Ah, darling, you look dashing! Who knew Aki's clothing would fit you so well! I hope you don't mind."
Ruri shook her head numbly, still staring into her red eyes, occasionally glancing at the numbers floating above her head. Was this normal? Could Aki's mother see this, too?
And that was exactly what she asked.
"Can you see it?" Ruri asked, her voice muffled in the towel.
"See what, darling?"
Ruri pointed into the mirror, above her head at the floating red numbers. Then, as Aki's mother glanced at her reflection, confused, Ruri caught sight of more numbers.
Above Aki's Mother's head.
Along with a name, she noted. It was in English, and she read it quickly. Suzume Fujita. Her name. Ruri's brows furrowed in confusion for a split second before Aki's mother shook her head, seemingly ignoring the child's question.
"Come, now, darling, your tea will get cold if you don't hurry up!" She grasped onto Ruri's hand, dragging her out of the bathroom gently. Ruri walked by her side quietly, still staring up at the floating letters curiously, dragging along a damp, white towel with her.
It was only mere moments later when Ruri was finally situated in a warm, comfortable bed, a tray filled with warm tea- she couldn't wait to try it, she had never had tea before-, a slice of warm bread, and a bowl of rice with some kind of meat and vegetables atop it. Ruri sat quietly, looking down at the tray.
"So, I know you're American so I don't know if you eat with chopsticks," Aki broke apart the two wooden sticks, placing them in his hands gently. "But we don't have any forks or spoons, so I'll just show you how to use it, okay?" He asked, grinning. He continued looking down at his own hands, motioning to show her how to use it.
"...and you just push your finger down like this, to make them pinch together to pick up food! And you bring it up to your mouth, and I don't think I have to tell you how to eat, haha," he joked, laughing. And in a split second his laughter was cut short.
Ruri let out a quiet sob.
Aki went silent, looking up at the 14 year old girl in question and confusion.
"Ruri-chan? W-what's wrong?" He asked quietly, lowering his hands. "Was it me- did I say something mean?" Yuri let out another sob, bringing her hands up to her face to conceal her tears. "Did I- did I say something wrong? Ruri-chan?" Aki dropped the chop sticks to the ground, bringing his hands up to gently touch Ruri's own hands, but flinching away when she let out another heart-wrenching sob. She shook her head as she cried.
"I- just-" she hiccuped. "You're being so-" she let out another sob, no doubt Aki's parents could hear it now. "nice to me!" She cried harder, leaning over the tray. Her tears landed on the plate of food, soaking it up instantly. Aki looked at Ruri in confusion.
And all at once, it clicked.
He leaned forward and brought Ruri close to himself, wrapping his arms around her small, delicate frame as she cried harder. She didn't waste a second as she wrapped her thin arms around Aki's back, hugging tightly, as if she would lose him forever if she let go. Aki stared at the wall behind her quietly, hushing Ruri's cries with gentle caresses. He smoothed down her damp hair, muttering soothing words. He had almost forgotten, he realized, that Ruri comes from a supposedly abusive home.
Aki doubted Ruri had ever seen kindness before.
And after a few more minutes of crying, Ruri had fallen asleep against Aki's shoulder. She was tired, no doubt from how much she had been through already. Aki took the tray from the bed, looking down at Ruri one last time before leaving the room.
He didn't know what to do with her.
And yet, as he put the tray on the kitchen counter, dodging the questions of his two loving, warm and caring parents, he found that he didn't care if he didn't know what to do with Ruri. Because as long as she needed help, he would be there to help her.
Even if she was wearing his clothes and sleeping in his bed.