Chapter 3: Pain
~A quick note. This is a Drama/Hurt chapter. I tried real hard to draw this out, but I really wanted it over. Well… here we go!
Six months had passed since Parsee had first met Yuugi. Slowly, the Oni had brought her party friends to meet her, thus broadening her own circle of friends. She learned that Marisa was, in fact, a horrid cook, Suika wasn't any different sober than she was drunk, and Yuyuko could eat.
She was also feeling happy for the first time in a long time. While she still felt envy when the others left, since they could leave, her jealousy had largely disappeared.
Currently, she was sitting down with Yuugi, sipping sake from a dish the Oni had gotten for her. "So Pars," said the Oni, "anything special comin' up?"
Parsee looked at her friend, not wanting to tell her, "No…"
"That's not what I heard."
Parsee squinted at Yuugi, "What?"
"A little birdie told me that your birthday is comin' up!" The Oni laughed at Parsee's shocked expression.
"H-how did you… Satori!"
Yuugi shrugged, draining her sake dish. "She may have, ah, told me. It's no her fault she can read minds!"
Parsee sighed, a little irritated that Satori had told Yuugi about that. "Yeah, it's next week."
Yuugi grinned, a grin that Parsee had come to know all too well. "Ya know what that means, right?"
"Yuugi," Parsee said slowly, "don't you dare."
"Party! And you know what a party needs, right?"
"I swear, if you tell anyone, I'll… I'll…"
"Partiers!" Yuugi jumped up, "Suika'll grab Reimu and the others, and I'll get Satori, Yamame, and everyone else!"
"No! Don't you dare!"
"Why not Pars? It'll be great!" Yuugi drained her second dish, "Maybe I'll get Sakuya to make a cake for ya."
Parsee tried to glare at the ecstatic Oni, but the rational side of her said, 'Why not? It could be fun.' "Fine. Just, don't get drunk." Yuugi could handle her liquor, but if she drank way too much, well… things tended to get interesting.
"No promises." Yuugi hugged Parsee, almost breaking a few bones in the process, "See ya Pars!"
Parsee watch the Oni walk off. "What did I just agree to?"
…
Yuugi worked quickly, procuring people to come to the party. The day before, she finally got Sakuya to make a cake, though she hoped the annoyed maid didn't poison it. And everyone agreed to her plan for a perfect birthday present for Parsee.
Everyone except Satori. The little Youkai, while willing to let the others do it, had reservations. She said simply, and cryptically, that Parsee was a complex soul, and that Yuugi should be careful about altering the place she was bound to.
Still, a master plan must go on.
…
Parsee had allowed herself to be blindfolded and beeswax to be put in her ears while Yuugi and the others prepared for her party. When she was released, she saw that they had set up a long, elegant table piled high with food, and in the center, a cake with a multitude of candles upon it.
"So Pars," said Yuugi, propelling her to sit at the head of the table, "there's an Outside World tradition of making a wish while you blow out your candles. Why don't ya give it a go, eh?"
"Sure…" Leaning forward, Parsee closed her eyes, thought for a while, and blew the candles out. As the air left her mouth, she felt the world stop for a moment. As if everything had stopped, frozen in time. She opened her eyes…
…To see that her bridge had been transformed. It looked new, with rails and a high polish shine. Off to the middle of it, connected and suspended above the water by stilts, was a small little house. Everyone was yelling something, though a rush of emotions blanked everything out. Yuugi was smiling at her with a lopsided grin.
Her irrational side was pissed. She didn't care that the bridge looked new. It wasn't the same bridge, and that could have altered the binding that bound her there. An anger never felt before surged through her body.
…
Yuugi was glad that her plan had went off without a hitch. After all, improving a bridge and building a house, even when she had friends like Sakuya and Suika, was hard. She was positively giddy, and wanted to see Parsee's reaction.
However, the reaction obtained was not the expected. Parsee's eyes had grown dark, and her fists kept clenching and unclenching. With a cry of fury, the Youkai grabbed the table cloth and tore it off of the table, scattering the food, booze, and cake.
"What. Did. You. DO!?"
Her eyes were full of hatred, and they were aimed straight at Yuugi. "W-what?"
"Do you have any, ANY, idea, of what you have done!?"
In Yuugi's peripheral, she could see everyone being herded away by Satori, an interesting sight, since the little Youkai wasn't taller than a single one of them, but she was a little preoccupied. "Parsee, what do y-"
"I can't BELIEVE you did this!" It was clear Parsee was out of control. Yuugi took a step towards her irate friend, but the Youkai shot off a bullet of danmaku. It struck her shoulder, but it wasn't that bad. "Parsee-"
"I hate you!"
Yuugi froze.
…
No sooner were the words out of her mouth, did Parsee's rational side go on freak-out mode. The anger had left her, leaving her shaky and sick to her stomach. Her eyes were still fixated on the Oni, but Yuugi's were no longer on her.
She watched as her 'friend' turned and walked off the bridge…
~Sorry this was late guys. Meant to get it on yesterday, but my time ran out. I have Chapter 4 written… on paper. It'll be up soon, and there'll be a twist leading to another. How am I doing?
And so we go!
