Chapter 4: Welcome to the Jinnouchi Household Pt 2
There was a loud crash as Aoi collided in to the wall and slid down to her knees, knocking down brooms and brushes. Everyone in the hallway turned and stared at the commotion.
"What's going on?"
"What happened?"
Aoi stared at the ground feeling the side of her cheek go numb with the metallic taste lingering in her mouth. The boy walked up to her and kicked the wall next to her face. Aoi looked up to the boy with dull eyes.
"Hmph," He put his foot down and grabbed Aoi by the bangs, pulling her up, "That should teach you some manners," He sneered. He looked at her and his smirk dropped.
"Are you done?" Aoi asked.
"Ha?!" Aoi got on her feet and swatted away his hand. Maintaining her balance, she walked past the boy and started to walk away, "I'll be late for class-" The boy grabbed Aoi by the shoulder. Aoi glanced back at the boy with expressionless eyes, "What?" She asked.
"I don't like your attitude!" The boy glared at her and pulled her back throwing a fist towards her face again.
But quickly, Aoi turned around and brought the heel of her hand down to the joint of his arm. The boy was brought forward and Aoi rammed her knee in to his stomach. The boy gagged and fell forward holding his stomach.
"Oi! Akutsu!"
"Hey!" His two friends ran to his side. Aoi looked down at the boys.
"Bring him to the infirmary," Her voice was cold and emotionless, her face blank and empty. Sighing deeply, Aoi turned and walked down the hall. Everyone backing in to the wall as fear was showing in their eyes.
Thus, began Aoi's lonesome days of school…
"Aoi-chan!" Kenji and Sakuma yelled.
"Aoi-chan!" Natsuki yelled as she walked down the street.
"She's not answering her phone." Kazuma told them. Hinata looked up with a worried look on her face. Then she ran forward.
"Onee-chan!" She called, "Onee-chan!"
It was six in the evening, four hours since Aoi left and never came back. The sun was setting, dying the blue sky in to a bright orange-red and the clouds dark gray. Dinner was almost and the group consisting of Natsuki, Kenji, Sakuma, Kazuma and Hinata went to look for her. And so far, she was nowhere in sight.
The group split for thirty and then gathered at the road in front of the estate.
"Where is she?" Kazuma thought as he looked up to Hinata, who was still frantically looking for her sister.
"Onee-chan!" Hinata yelled out still, "Onee…" As tears began to form, Hinata sniffed and wiped away her tears. Kazuma walked over to her and saw tears dropping, "Onee…chan…" Sighing, Kazuma patted her head.
"Don't cry; I'm sure she's still here." He told her. Hinata looked up to him and nodded. She wiped her face and looked around.
"Where could she have gone?" Natsuki asked.
"She could have gone to the town."
"Or she's lost somewhere."
"Then let's split up aga-" Kenji stopped feeling something grasp his ankle. He hesitantly looked down and saw an arm covered in dirt and leaves grabbing on. His mouth dropped as an sharp chill went down his spine, "AHHHHH!" He fell back passing out.
"Kenji-kun!"
"Kenji!" Natsuki and Sakuma got down to the unconscious boy.
"What happened?!" Kazuma and Hinata ran to them. Everyone saw the hand holding on to Kenji's ankle and jumped out of their skins a bit.
"W-w-w-what is that?!"
"Is this a murder scene?!"
They stepped back and away from Kenji.
"What should we-"
"That bastard…" They all heard a voice hissed darkly. "I'll kill him…" Another hand came out and clawed in to the asphalt ground. Then up came a girl, covered in twigs and dirt, her hair all over her face and her hands scratched up and bloodied. She had a dark aura around her with a vicious glared. No one dared to come close to her. "What the hell was his problem?"
"Onee-chan!" Hinata ran and embraced her. The girl looked up and everyone stared at her surprise.
"Ryuumon!"
"Aoi-chan!" Hinata held on to her tightly, afraid to let go. Aoi hugged her sister back, "Are you okay?" Natsuki asked getting down to her.
"Hai… sorry."
"What happened?" Sakuma asked.
"Hm? Oh… I tripped." Everyone stared at her with dumfounded looks on their face. "Then I twisted my ankle and got lost in the woods…"
"What…?"
"She climbed up that edge?"
"What's wrong with her?"
"Eh- okay…" Natsuki helped her up, "Let's get back to the estate…"
Aoi's POV
"AOI-CHAN?!" Kiyomi-san screamed in shock as we walked inside the estate, "What happened to you?!"
"Ah- I fell, ended up tumbling in to the woods…" I explained. I glanced to the side, "Maa, it's not a lie…" Kiyomi looked at me up and down, then released a deep sigh.
"Take a bath now," She told me, "Dinner is almost ready. Have someone dress your wounds."
"Hai."
"Natsuki-chan, can you take her to the bathroom? The kids are getting ready too."
"Hai!" Natsuki took my arm, "Aoi-chan, Hinata-chan. Let's go!" She pulled us towards the bathroom.
"Ah- Natsuki-san, I need to get my clothes-"
Sitting in the hot water, Hinata counted. I leaned on the edge of the bath and sighed.
"Are you really okay?" Natsuki asked, "I highly doubt you tripped."
"Why is that?"
"Because, when you were crawling up, you were saying stuff about someone."
"Ah- you heard."
"Pretty clearly." Hinata looked up to the girls as they talked. Aoi sighed and looked up to the ceiling. "So what happened?"
"It's not a lie, I fell. But, I was dodging something that caused me to fall back."
"Heh, but, why did you climb up from the side? You could have gotten out of the woods and found the road."
"Ah, I lost consciousness and woke up completely lost." Natsuki stared at me strangely. "So I thought, 'Oh, let's just go up the way I came from…' and climbed up the cliff."
"Seriously?"
"100!" Hinata yelled. We looked down at her, "I counted to 100, time to get out."
"Hai, hai."
"One hai!"
"Hai, hai." I got up and helped Hinata out.
After getting changed in to our clothes, I sat down in my room trying to treat my wounds. I sighed seeing the bandages tied poorly. I always had Mamiru treat my wounds, and never really cared.
"Tsk." Suddenly, Hinata sat in front of me with a first aid kit.
"Ote," She said putting her hand out. I gave her my right hand and she began taking off the bandages.
"Oi-"
"Stay still!" I stared at her and sighed. Hinata dabbed on clear medicine and wrapped my arm with the bandage. "Other hand!"
"Hai~" I gave her my other hand, and she repeated the same treatment. After she was done, I looked at the bandages put on properly, "Uwa… where did you learn to do this, Hinata?"
"Mama taught me!"
"Heh~ that's amazing." There was a knock on the door and I looked up to Ikezawa.
"Ikezawa?"
"Dinner's ready."
"Aa, thanks." I got up and grabbed a summer jacket before leaving the room. Hinata held on to my hand as we walked down the hall. I looked down at the ground in deep thought. "What bad luck…" I thought, "But, why was Akutsu there? Maa, whatever-" I was cut out of my thought, when my head hit someone's back. I looked up to Ikezawa and backed away. "Su-Suman."
"Hm." Ikezawa sat down at a seat.
"Aoi-chan, Hinata-chan, take a seat."
"Ah- hai." I sat down across Natsuki with Hinata on my right. Once everyone was here, I was introduced to the whole family by Natsuki. My family is big, but never close. The only people who took up Martial arts was my grandfather and his brother with his sons.
"Itadakimasu!" Everyone said.
"Hinata, what do you want to eat?"
"Chicken, croquette and eggplant!"
"Okay," I got her what she wanted, "Make sure you eat it all."
"Hai~!" I put my hand together.
"Itadakimasu," I whispered. I ate quietly and glanced towards Hinata. He had trouble picking up her food. I reached over and picked up a piece for her, "Here,"
"Ah~" She took a bit and smiled, "Oishi~!"
"Really?" She nodded. I took her chopsticks and hand, "You hold the chopstick like this," I showed her. Hinata nodded and fed herself.
"Uwa~ Finally, Kazuma brings home a girlfriend!" A relative yelled, "You're finally growing up." I looked up.
"We're not dating!" My voice lapped with another. I looked back to Ikezawa.
"You don't have to be shy."
"I'm just…." I stopped for a second, "Hm? What am I to Ikezawa?" I thought, "Our parents are close, but…"
"She's just a classmate," Ikezawa told them.
"Alright, just keep saying that." Everyone laughed and continued eating.
After dinner, Natsuki brought me to play hanafuda, and take care of the kids as their parents washed the dishes and cleaned up.
"Should I help?" I asked Mariko-san.
"Oh no, it's fine! You stay resting, Aoi-san."
"Ha…"
"Koi koi!" Hinata yelled.
"Uwa! Hinata-chan, you're good!"
I turned to see Hinata smiling at her victory. Feeling assured, I walked back to the group and joined the game.
~*~ Night
I laid in my futon staring at the ceiling. The light of the moon shined in through the thin net keeping the mosquitoes out as crickets chirped loudly. Sitting up, I sighed and took out my laptop from my bag. Sitting against the wall, I opened the screen and logged on to OZ
~*~ OZ
I was sitting near my platform looking down at the leaders of Oz and the view. Sighing, I looked up at the clock.
"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" I turned to a tall boy, dressed in a dark blue hakama and white kosode. He had snow white hair with white fox tails and ears.
"You too, Nii-san," He laughed softly and shook his head.
"Can I sit next to you?" I scooted over and patted the spot next to me. My brother smiled and sat down. "You can't sleep?"
Hm… yeah."
"Are you having fun?"
"Yeah."
"One word responses aren't really convincing." I looked up at him and gave a pouting face. He laughed and patted my head. "You should get some rest,"
"Nii-san too!"
He stood up, "Hai, hai." He got up, "I'll be going to sleep now."
"Yeah, oyasumi nasai, Nii-san." I smiled and waved.
"Oyasumi, Aoi-chan," My brother vanished leaving me alone on the white platform again. I looked down at the view of Oz, and sighed.
"I guess I'll log-" I stopped in mid-sentence and jumped back in time dodging an attack. Getting up, the red sign showed up in front of me. "Che, you're late!" I pushed away the screen, but had a hard hit in to my gut. "Ah-" The force threw to the edge of the platform, but I quickly got on my feet and blocked the next hit. I looked up to the player looking at me with a smirk. Grabbing his arm, I turned and threw him over my shoulder. But my opponent was swift and landed on his feet, and used my strength throwing me in to the ground. A loud crack filled the air and bits of the ground flew up.
The avatar smirked at me.
"You're weak, Ryuumon." My eyes widened.
"You…"
"You're still alive, too bad." The avatar clenched his fist and threw his fist down.
K.O.
Those large letters flashed on my screen. Sighing deeply, I shut my laptop and leaned against the wall. Glancing out the open doors, I stared at the full moon and reached out to the light, but the light was covered by a cloud.
"What's wrong, Aoi?" My eyes widened and I looked out to see a man standing out there. I sat up and gasped.
"Tou-san…?" The light slowly came back, but the man was gone. My eyes narrowed and I got on my knees rubbing my eyes. "What's wrong with me…?"
