Moshi moshi, Minna!
I'm sick (again. =.=) so I figured I'd post this chapter a little early. New character! Yay for that! I'll put the character pole back up at the end of this chapter too, I know one of you asked for it, so I gladly will!
~Tiruneko ;3
X~41~X
A school bell blares loudly with a sharp and reverberating ring. A boy grunts under his breath, tipping his head and sighing. His eyes travel downwards to his paper with its margins covered in childish doodles. The lead of his pencil gently dances along the outline of a long katana blade with elaborate and small handle embroidery.
"Oi, are you coming to the speech later today?" A girl with a deep voice asks.
"No."
The girl chuckles, "You going straight home then?"
"Yeah."
"I'll walk with you." The boy lifts his head. The girl at the desk next to his has already stood up, and now stands at her full height, stretching. Her hair is scraggly and untamed, pulled into two twin black shoulder length pig tails. The left one is held by a red ribbon, the blue right one is held by a blue ribbon. Her eyes two different colors, a deep blue and a vibrant gold. The school uniform is a long sleeve beige colored sweat shirt with a bleach white tie and a matching white skirt for the girls. The boys have grey dress pants instead.
"No."
The girl scoffs as chairs scrape against the concrete as other students begin to stand. "Why?"
"Because." The boy stands, light pink hair falling in his eyes.
"Yuma!" The girl whines.
"Bye, Ruko." The tall and lean boy with pink hair stands as the teacher at the front of the room speaks.
"All right students, your homework is to prepare a two page study guide covering the materials from pages one hundred and six through one hundred and fifty two. Your quiz will be tomorrow, and don't forget about the field trip into the upper floors on Sunday. Students that are not outside the North West wing of the building by nine AM will be left behind. Uniform is required."
The speaker in the class room hisses to life with a robotic voice, "Good afternoon, Students. Reminder, high school track will begin in thirty minutes in the east wing gym. Your teacher will now lead you in the afternoon prayer."
In unison the man over the intercom and the teacher at the head of the class, and all the bored looking students in the room begin to chant methodically.
"Lord banish the demons that walk among the land,
And the creatures that dwell within the sea,
Grant the Masters power by thy hand,
Give blessings to my kin, give holy protection to me,
Embrace me in thy tender arms.
Never shall I wander beyond your breadth,
Or stray from the teaching of thy servants,
Keep thy holy protection over my head, and drown the demon glare in your depth,
Oh Lord, grant me protection
For my life is at your feet."
"Have a blessed day, students." The teacher dismisses the buzzing students and they begin to file out of the room like bees, a swarming hive of commotion. The hallways are bleak and white, the only movement is the bobbing heads of teachers and kids.
The pink haired boy walks alongside the ink-black haired girl and she chatters using lots of vulgarity, even though such language is strictly forbidden. A group of chatty and giggling girls by the entrance to the South building turn their heads and giggle even louder as they gaze upon the boy and the cursing girl.
"Hi, Yuma!" They giggle and wave. Yuma turns his head grunting under his breath.
"… and then I was like, 'screw you too, asshole! You'll burn in h-", the boy elbows the girl in the arm sharply, but not hard. She turns, glaring at him, her mouth agape. "What the heck?"
"Keep talking like that your Dad will have it out with you again."
"Don't remind me about that as-", she stops herself and frowns. "Gwah! I hate this! I wish some Watcher would just catch me cussing and feed me to the Demon Children already!" The girl opens the school's main door and the two walk down the steps and out into the florescent lights high above their heads. The ceiling above curves like the sky, a rounded bowl of thick earth held together by pillars and chunks of cement compacted with rock.
"I wish you wouldn't talk like that." The pink haired boy says, sighing dryly. He tugs the lip of his black beanie cap down further.
"Like what? I didn't cuss n'll!" Ruko jumps in the air, pouting and stamping her foot harshly against the ground. She moves over to the bike rack with the boy at her side.
"Talk about the Akuma like that. They don't eat people, Ruko." She stares at him in awe.
"You don't know that." She grumbles, unlocking a blue bike from its chain.
"They don't. I do my research, Ruko. What I can. I've been reading up lately. Did you even see the rally a few days ago?" Yuma's eyes gain a small spark of life.
"Everyone did. It was mandatory."
"That little girl was scared."
"Her eyes were red, I don' care what she was feeling. If I were a bloody demon surrounded by the people of God, I'd be scared shitless. Whoops, did it again." She gets on her bike and adjusts her backpack.
"Yeah." Yuma looks away.
"Stop digging into that stuff, you'll get taken away you know. It isn't good to look to deep into that stuff, you'll get dragged into the agency at an early age. You know what happens to those bunch." Ruko makes an eating motion. Yuma growls. "Say hi to your sister for me!"
"Wait, where are you running off to?"
"I'm meeting Rook for dinner." She blushes softly, smiling.
"Figures. Tell him I said hi." Yuma says, raising his hand and walking the opposite direction, passing groups of chatting guys and squealing girls hovering over the newest magazine releases.
The streets that lead away from the school slowly become filled with more people. On either side of the cobblestone rode are small shops and restaurants. To Yuma's left is a crowd of adults, men and women, wearing white, walking in huge throngs to the speech Master Yowane will be giving in a few hours. It's an adult only thing, not that Yuma even cares at this point. He moves with the masses until a large sign outlined in green neon lights that says: C DISTRICT.
The swarms of people slowly thin out until Yuma finds that he is the only one navigating the large neighborhood. A grey brick wall divides four houses on top of the wall and the two forks it separates leads uphill towards more sections of homes. Yuma walks up the right path and then makes a left turn, leading up the front patio of one of the homes on top of the hill framed by the brick wall. A cob web covered bench sits in a melancholy state in the overgrowing grass of the yard, hidden by the shadow cast from the house.
Yuma pushes open the door with ease and sighs, closing it behind him. "I told you to lock the door when Mom and Dad are out." He calls throughout the house as he kicks his shoes off and sets his backpack down by the shoe storage shelf.
"Yeah, yeah!" Footsteps bound down the stairs. A relatively tall girl with hot pink and drastically curled drills lands on the bottom step. A loose fitting sea-green T-shirt and a pair of grey fabric shorts hand loosely off her shoulders. A book is clasped under her arm and she smiles in that playful way that makes Yuma smile. On the inside.
"Teto, honestly. It's not very safe." Yuma undoes his tie and flops down on the brown couch in the living room. He puts his arm over his eyes and mumbles to himself.
"The crime rate hasn't been above two percent since two years ago, Yuma. You over react." Teto opens a can of a fizzy fruit drink and sits beside him.
"Still. You never know what you don't know."
"I got that book you said you wanted…" Her voice trails off a little sadly.
"Really?" Yuma sits up a little straighter. Teto nods, handing him the very old and beaten up leather-covered thin paged book to Yuma. His eyes brighten for a moment.
"It was really hard to get, the whole time I kept describing it to the records clerk she was just staring at me like I was crazy. I ended up finding it though. I said it was a birthday present for you. It kind of is anyways, so enjoy." Yuma takes the book from his sister's hands, gently turning it over. As he flicks through the pages he realizes that it's the wrong book. He already has this one. "Thanks, it's just what I needed." He lies. Teto smiles at him, clapping once. "I'm glad."
Yuma takes the soda can from her and takes a large gulp of it, relaxing into the back of the couch and exhaling deeply. Teto mumbles something.
"What?"
"I said you should probably stop." Teto says loudly, jumping at the sound of her own voice.
"Oh God…" Yuma grumbles, pressing his thumb to his temple.
"Yuma, I know you don't want to stop, but you know what happens to those who dig deep into the foundations of Demon's Crow… I don't want you to end up like that. Please, don't keep doing this." Teto pleads, standing now. Her eyes swim with desperation.
"Teto…"
"Please, at least be careful."
"I always am."
Silence.
"I heard that the school is taking your class into the upper levels on Sunday… that must be exiting." She shifts uncomfortably in her position back on the couch.
"Yeah…" Yuma mumbles, thinking again of what must lie above the city.
"I should go… Ritsu is meeting me to work on our research project." Teto stands, not looking at Yuma at all.
"Make sure to put on your uniform." Teto turns to face Yuma, blushing.
After Teto leaves Yuma rushes upstairs to his room and flops down into his chair before a stack of assorted books and documents. Yuma has always been obsessed with the Demon Children, ever since he was a child. His parents, naturally, were terrified of this obsession and hid it from everyone. Gradually they thought it had faded away but really Yuma had just learned to hide it on his own. Except from his sister, Teto.
People that are enthusiastic about the Demon Children or people that have a rabid fascination, are usually taken from their families and plucked out of their lives at an early age, sent to work at the upper floors or other corporations immediately upon turning fifteen. Yuma still hasn't been taken, and doesn't plan to be. But he doesn't plan to stop either.
He has been waiting his whole life for this trip. Every five years the most advanced class in the school is taken on a two day tour of the upper floors, and Yuma has ensured since he first learned of this trip that he made it into this class. And now he has.
And it's on Sunday.
It's so close his skin boils with pleasure at the thought. He'll finally learn the truth. Even if it kills him.
~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~
By the time IA is let back into her cell it is already past midnight. The next day.
She is spun around suddenly, still dizzy and off set from all her medication and sedatives, she stumbles and flails wildly until crashing painfully into the ground. But she doesn't crash painfully into the floor. IO catches her.
IA rises into a sitting position out of his fragile and twig-like arms. His eyes are blazing with crimson intensity, his mouth is slightly open, startled. IA sits very quietly in front of him, thinking for a long time. Then her mouth opens into a small, half-hearted smile, and tears begin to spill like rain out of her eyes, overflowing and spilling onto her dress. The thick tears roll down her round cheeks and stick to strands of her hair. Her tiny hands ball up and curl around themselves, pushing into her eyes as her crying becomes audible.
IO flails for something to do and he grabs her hand in his, like she did to him. Her eyes, puffy from crying and exhaustion, slowly travel to his. She sees her own teary-eyed reflection in his shimmering pupils, and she cries harder. Her legs won't hold her anymore, and she drops like a weight into him.
"Please don't rain from your eyes anymore, IA…" IO pleads.
"I-I-It's called c-c-crying..." She chokes out in between sobs.
"Don't cry anymore, IA." He corrects himself.
"I don't want to."
"Then don't, please?" IO raises her face to look at her eyes. It's easier to understand people if you're looking at them. IA grips him by the fabric of his torn and stained shirt and buries her face into his chest. Her sobs are muffled this way.
"I'm sorry…" She says a few minutes later, sitting up again. She shudders and nearly passes out, falling back down on top of him. IO wraps his arms under hers and gently, but still roughly pulls her over to the bench. She crawls up on her own and leans against the wall.
"I cried more when… when it was then." IO looks at her face.
"Do you know any stories, IO?" She asks him. He shakes his head. "Sorry… it makes me happier when Lenny would tell me stories…"
"Um… I don't remember any stories." IO looks at his feet, disappointed.
"It's okay. I can tell you one. Len told me this after I met this girl. Her name is Yuki, and I met her at the beach, where there is waves made out of bad-tasting water and the sand is really hot even though the sun has gone out, and she gave me a shell and a towel and then Oliver came and she left with him.
"Rin got mad at me for talking to a stranger, but Len was happy for me. I asked him if he had any friends, 'cause that's what he said Yuki was. And he told me this…
"He said one time, when he was a little taller than me, him and Rin had the best friend ever. He said his name was… Lu... Lui… Yeah, Lui. He said that Lui was really sick and was in those big buildings made with glass walls where sick people that don't heal fast like us go when they're hurt. He said Lui's chest didn't breath on its own and he had legs that didn't work right 'neither. Len said that him and Rin thought everyone healed fast like us do and they were waiting for him to come play with them…" IA yawns, staring off into the distance.
"Did they get up and play together? Did he get all better?" IO asks, intruiged.
IA shakes her head, continuing. "I don't think so. Lenny got really sad then and stopped talking. I think he was tired."
"Did he ever finish the 'story'?" IA shakes her head again. "Then how does it end?"
"I don't know. It doesn't have 'n ending." IA begins to close her eyes.
"Can I make one up?" IO asks, his eyes gleaming. IA looks up at him tiredly and nods her head gently. "Lui got up and played with Lenny and Rei- I mean Rin and they came and played with us too and the people with masked came and played to but they don't hurt no more and we all played forever." IO's face lights up, but IA is silent. He turns to face her and see her reaction. Her head has slowly fallen against the wall and her eyes are closed. Her chest rises and falls gently.
"Well… maybe not forever. Forever's a long time…"
IO finds himself overcome with the same heavy exhaustion and falls asleep, his head on IA's shoulder and Len's jacket falling around them both, wrapping them in gentle warmth.
Character Pole:
IA- 2
IO- [NEW!]
Kaito- 1
Lapis- 2
Len- 4
Miku- 5
Rin- 7
Oliver- 2
Luka- 1
Gumi- 3
Yuma-[NEW!]
Teto-[NEW!]
Reviews are always appreciated, and thanks for all of your continued reviews and support!
~Tiruneko ;3