Nightmares of a Paper Crane

AN: Since I usually ramble on and on with my Author's Notes, I'll keep this one short and anything else will be put at the end. Last OC, Mitsuru Chiame (was gonna name her Serena, but then realized that the Red Crane really shouldn't be called 'Snow Princess'), finally makes an official appearance, but you'll have to wait until the forth chapter for their plan… Enjoy!

Chapter 3: Silent Dusk

The Red Paper Crane was unmoving as it lay in a pool of red blood that could never be its own, but it struggled, trying to chase after the setting sun, but getting left behind and alone.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The sun began to rest itself behind the mountains again, tucking itself in for the night and letting the horizon swallow it. The sky became a bed of purple, yellow and pink, red mist seeming to rise around the sun. Inside the room, the torches flickered back to life with ominous purple flames that danced in their holds.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Droplets of water dripped down slowly from the basin and onto the railing of the balcony, the sun's rays dying it a deep crimson. Small hands supported the basin and carefully tipped it to make sure the droplets would hit with a dripping sound.

"… You're lonely, aren't you?" a child's voice whispered into the water, a taunting tone to her voice. "You're lonely, but you don't admit it… Deep inside, you just want friends and the closest you had to that… was your proxy, right?" She gave a tiny laugh. "… Don't lie to yourself… You're afraid. Afraid to get hurt and afraid to hurt… " she gave a high-pitched giggled, "You can't hear the Music here... It's Silent." Her voice was innocent, yet fear inducing and terrifying at the same time. Fear itself emitted from the water, flashing scenes of pure terror.

Suddenly, the child winced and dropped the basin. The contents splashed onto the balcony and raced to the edge, pouring down the cliff like a miniature waterfall. She huffed, using fragile hands to pull her red dress up slightly, shying away from the escaping water. Her crystal blue eyes stared longingly at the sunset, but that drawn look soon warped into one of hatred.

"Urg… I hate having to activate my power from a long distance… It's so… tiresome…" the child commented, folding her arms. She turned and stalked back into the room, her long, blonde pig-tails caught momentarily by the wind. Her clothes made her look like a doll. A doll of a child from the Victorian eras or something of the sort. The small top-hat-like accessory on the left side of her head was laced with roses and ribbons, a particularly long one fluttering down like a purple, silky ribbon road. A pink veil came from under the blood-colored hat and partially hid half of her face from view. The dress she wore wasn't very puffy, but still a little. It matched the blood red hat and had lace around the edges. It's long, silk sleeves became larger at the ends and many ribbons laced the bottom half of the dress.

"Mitsuru, what were you doing?" the girl folding the paper cranes asked. A few black flowers had been picked as a head accessory for the dark-haired girl and they hung on pearl decorated strings. The strings originated from a purple lace ribbon resting on the right side of the girl's head and they swayed as the girl turned, fixing Mitsuru with her mismatched gaze.

"Playing a game… Of course…" Mitsuru replied, "Still working on your cranes, Kurohane?"

"Hee hee…" was the only reply.

"Well, you carry on doing that then. I'm leaving. Places to go, people to meet and minds to mess with!" the blue-eyed child chirped innocently, sweeping up a black, tattered bunny doll and a pair of scissors into her hands. Then she swept to the opposite side of the room where she could see the moon rising. The silver disk cast its silver gaze into the room. The sky was clear and stars littered it, blinking down at the child. Mitsuru grinned at the moon with hungry eyes before slowly falling forwards, out of the window.

The red crane came under the consoling light of the silver moon and was picked up by the arms of the night, resting peacefully.

…

Where did he go?

Neku tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Kye to come back to class. The Joshua-like boy had just vanished during lunch break and wasn't here for the afternoon classes. Neku wasn't exactly worried about him, the teen just wanted to keep an eye on the boy. He still hadn't let go of the suspicions that Kye might be Josh. Putting his forehead onto his arms, Neku groaned mentally. Up at the front, the teacher was talking about a passage from their English textbook. This was boring. Wishing that the bell would ring soon, Neku sighed, trying to think positive. Well… at least Kye wasn't here to bother him.

"Sorry I'm late, sensei*," a voice said as the door was slid open.

"Ah… Kasai-kun. Don't worry, I knew about how you needed to go to the infirmary. Sit down please, so we can continue with class…"

Oh crap. He was back. Neku sighed as he realized he wasn't so lucky. Just when he was going to make a positive reason of that Kye was not here, the boy just has to appear. Neku didn't look up as Kye settled himself into the seat beside him. Neku was expecting a sarcastic comment from the boy until he remembered how Kye wasn't Joshua. He sighed.

I am missing him… But…

Neku sighed again. He did miss Joshua, but he just couldn't hold down all the other mixed feelings that boiled up when he thought of the silver-haired twerp. The emotions were harder to hold down than ever. Absentmindedly, he reached for the piece of black paper in his pocket and took it out. He wasn't too sure whether to be confused or shocked when he looked at the piece of paper. It was as if the paper could heal itself. It was a paper crane. Somehow, the paper had folded itself into a paper crane. How… odd… Neku suddenly felt dizzy. The world around him began to sway. He put a hand to his forehead and sat back in his chair.

The dizzy haze made him unable to think. He shut his eyes. When the dizzy spell past, he looked at the crane. It was meant to be a crane, right? Yeah… Now that he thought about it, it did resemble a crane when he found it. Plus, it couldn't have been that battered and managed to survive in his pocket for so long. Something must have went wrong with his memory. It was just a normal, black paper crane, right?

Kye smirked as he watched Neku.

…

Sensing a faint light touching his eyelids, Joshua snapped his eyes open and sat up. All of a sudden, a wave of pain and dizziness swept over him, forcing him to fall back down. Where was he? He felt… weird. Odd. Strange. He could think of many other synonyms, but that wasn't the point. The point was, he had freaked out and lost. The world was spinning. His delicate fingers covered his eyes, helping him calm himself. Delicate. This was the first time he had thought that he, Yoshiya Kiryu, was delicate. Was fragile. Glass-like and easily broken. He smirked and removed his fingers from over his eyes, looking at the white ceiling that stretched overhead. Now to figure out where he was. His senses began to come back to him, recovering from the numb pain.

Joshua could feel a soft but rough surface under him and a blanket covering him. He sat up again, this time more slowly. A wave of nausea hit him head on and he lurched forwards, covering his mouth. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to stand, getting off the bed he was lying on. Why? Why had he become so weak? So fragile? Then, it struck him and a deranged smile appeared on his face.

He was doing this to himself.

"… Very clever…" he muttered, trying to calm down. He got in now. He wasn't fragile. He was making himself fragile. Being this imaginative had its downsides. His thoughts could influence his own well-being. They made him think he was weak, unfit, fragile and so that's what he had become. But who would be powerful enough to influence his thoughts? No. Not influence. As much as Joshua wanted to deny it, he hadn't been able to fight back. The things they said were spot on and that made him feel fear which slowly turned into powerlessness. He almost laughed at himself.

Now that he'd calmed down, he was back to normal. No more weak feelings in his body. He felt completely normal once more. As his head cleared, he realized he recognized this place. It was Wildcat, Mr. H's café. How did he get here though? The door opened, making the silver haired teen look over.

"Hey, Josh, you're awake! Good, I was getting worried."

The owner of the café had appeared at the door, giving Josh a light smile and holding a cup of coffee in his hands. He walked over, setting the coffee onto the bedside table. Joshua frowned and glanced at the clock. It was almost four o'clock.

"What happened?" Josh demanded.

"I could ask you the same thing, J," Sanae sighed and put on a serious look, his hand moving to the back of his neck, "How come you were passed out at A-East?"

…

The final bell of the day rung and Neku gave a long sigh of relief. After a tiresome day at school, he just couldn't wait to ditch Kye and go hang out with Beat and the others. It was what he needed to get these conflicting emotions sort out. He shouldered his loaded bag and left with Shiki and Eri as he had no clubs today and nor did they.

To his pleasant surprise, Kye did not follow him. Instead, Neku didn't see Kye at all after the final bell. It was as if the boy had just disappeared. Oh well, it was none of his concern. Walking away from school, they met up with Beat and Rhyme in front of their school and the group began discussing where they were going to go. To everyone's surprise, Neku did not suggest Hachiko or Wildcat.

"Le's go get Ramen, yo!" was Beat's suggestion since he was still annoyed at the fact they didn't get ramen yesterday. Shiki and Eri both wanted to go shopping, but Neku said they had already went yesterday, so they took that idea off the list. They didn't really know where to go, so, in the end, they ended up going to Ramen Don on Dogenzaka. As they chatted happily and ate ramen, Neku barely joined in. His mind was wandering. He had ordered Shio ramen because he was thinking and reflecting upon his feelings about Joshua.

Honestly, Neku felt quite empty without his ex-partner, but when he saw Kye this morning, he had so many negative emotions build up in him. He didn't get it. Why would he want Joshua to come back so much if he didn't want to see him? It wasn't right. His feelings were so conflicting. Neku didn't realize his expression was odd until Shiki called him.

"Neku? Are you alright? You look troubled…"

"Huh?" Neku blinked, "Oh yeah… I'm fine…"

"You sure 'bout that, Phones?" Beat asked, frowning at him with unusual concern.

"Yeah, Neku, are you sure you're okay? You seem down…" Rhyme added and Eri nodded.

"Don't worry… I'm fine…" Neku assured them, but Shiki looked more worried and Eri sighed.

His heart began hammering and he glanced outside the window. A young version of Joshua was staring at him, smiling sweetly. Suddenly, the world before him began to spin. He put a hand to his forehead, frowning with pain. A cold feeling began creeping up on him, consuming him. The icy touch came in waves from his pocket. The crane! It was messing with him! But why? Why had he only just noticed. Before he could do much more, the world went black, the last scenes being his friends looking at him, horrified.

AN: This Chapter was… bad in my opinion. *sighs* Can't believe it took me so long. No wonder I dislike it. It's always better if I finish it with obvious rush… Ah well, I'll do better in the next one, I assure you all!

Yuuki Ouma – 桜満 由希 (Cherry Full Reason Hope)

Mitsuru Chiame – 血雨 美鶴 (Blood Rain Beautiful Crane) OMG it rhymes!

EDIT: * - Means 'Teacher' in Japanese