31/05/2018 - Fixed the formatting and a few third person errors while uploading to DeviantArt. Currently working on Chapter 26
Chapter 6 – Settling In
We made it home around two hours before dinner was due. In those two hours, I decided to have a nice long bath mainly so Yuu could have some alone time. She didn't seem in the mood for talking so she left her be. It had been a long and tiring day and what I needed the most right now was a long soak in a red-hot bath.
My mood fell when I made it back to my desolate bedroom. I really needed to spruce the place up a bit. A few books and something to put on the walls would make it feel a bit homelier, but at least the bathroom was well stocked. There was even bubble bath!
I ran the water, emptying half of the foamy bottle into it, threw off my dusty yukata and stepped into the large steaming tub. The water wasn't unbearably hot but it was enough to make my skin red, so I wouldn't be able to lie here for long.
I relaxed, remembering the events of the day. The thing that really stuck out was the white light and finding out later that it was spiritual energy. Something rare and mysterious.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back over the edge of the tub, visioning the white light in my mind's eye and trying to summon it again.
When it had happened, I had been trying to protect my body from a potentially deadly fall and my arms had acted like a shield forming the protective white light. I held my arms out again and tried to summon the light, but nothing happened.
"Maybe it's one of those stupid things that only happens when you need it most..." I grumbled aloud.
But then another thought struck me. If I could use my arms as a shield, would I be able to summon it in similar places for different uses? Like at my feet to run faster or jump higher, to strengthen my arms or punch harder.
"That would be awesome..." I smiled imagining myself as some sort of superhuman. I wanted to try it out the second I got the chance, but summoning the light seemed easier said than done. It would probably become easier with practice though.
After forty-five minutes of absent-mindedly pondering the meanings of spiritual energy and letting my imagination run wild, I noticed that I was literally cooking.
The water wasn't getting much cooler and forty-five minutes of stifling steam had me feeling light-headed.
I finally got out and retreated into the comfort of my futon with a clean plain white bathrobe and a towel wrapped around my head.
For the remainder of the time until dinner, I put my theories into action.
I sat up straight, legs crossed, concentrating heavily on my outstretched hands. In over an hour the most I managed to do was form a tiny speck of light on the tip of my index finger.
When it happened, I had been concentrating on my right hand so hard I was going red in the face from holding my breath. It felt like my hand was pulsing, kinda like blood flow but something else. It was the flow of energy in my body increasing, like tingling waves of coldness in my veins. Instead of trying to make my whole hand glow I tried one single finger, and it worked.
I smiled ecstatically "Yes! Finally!" and leaned in to get a good look at it. It looked almost like a shard of glass. It was nothing impressive, but it was a start.
I released the energy and it fizzled out. I felt my body relax and only then did I see how hard I was straining to force the power out. I wondered if straining my physical body for something that was more likely to be centered in the mind was more of a hindrance. So I relaxed my muscles and tried again, and again, and again until it became easy to do after a few minutes of focus.
A shadow walked past my door. "Miss Kimiko, dinner is ready" a woman called, kneeling outside of my door without opening it or announcing her arrival.
Must be one of the maids, I thought. "Thank you, I'll be right there"
I had to stretch a bit to work the tightness out of my muscles from sitting still for so long.
I threw on another Kimono that was hanging in my closet, this time grey with pink flowers, and rushed over to dinner.
Yoshino and Shinsetsu wanted to know all about our day but Yuu didn't say much and I purposely kept out the parts about the Soul Reapers and spirit energy. She was unusually subdued and I had been expecting her to be dying to tell her parents about how much fun we had. But nothing, she silently pushed her food around her plate and that was all.
They were just happy that I was fitting in so well and encouraged me to get out and explore more as long as I was with Yuu, seeming not to notice how down their daughter looked.
The meal hadn't been as extravagant as it was the previous night, as that had been more of a celebration, but they had laid out plenty of delicious food.
I was truly impressed now, considering the rest of the family didn't get hungry and could barely taste the food, or so Yuu told me anyway, they were exceptional cooks.
I guessed that Yuu had already spoken to her parents about my hunger issues and they had made sure to have plenty of choice for me like I was a turkey being fattened up for Christmas dinner.
I suddenly had random mental images of them fattening me up with food, throwing me into a giant cooking pot and then stirring the mixture while they laughed like witches. I shook the strange idea out of my head.
I returned to my room a while later, pleasantly full again. Considering I had eaten less than two hours before dinner I was surprised by how hungry I was. "Maybe using spiritual energy makes you hungrier faster, like your draining yourself of energy and needing to refuel" I pondered, making the crystal on my fingertip again as I sat down.
Again I made myself comfortable on top of my futon. I wasn't tired and it wasn't even getting dark yet so bedtime was out of the question, and the only thing I had to keep myself occupied was my little white light.
I envisioned my body igniting up like a light bulb in my mind's eye and outstretched my arms again, as I had done when it had first appeared.
To my delight, the room was aglow with a brilliant white light emitting from the air around me. I cheered in triumph. "It's just like Yuu described, an aura... it feels like energy is coursing through me!" the air around me felt different, denser and my hair flew around like a breeze was blowing. Though it lasted no longer than a minute and I enjoyed every moment of it.
I spent hours that night trying to make my hands and feet glow, which I succeeded on numerous times.
I couldn't help but laugh as I imagined what it might look like to someone outside of the room like someone was playing with an extremely bright flashlight for hours into the night.
But in my tiny little bedroom, I could do nothing with this new-found power. I had nothing to test out on, so eventually, I stopped. A combination of my nicely heated bedroom, my comfortable futon, and a tired body made me easily drift off to sleep.
The next morning was a repeat of the previous day, although somewhat less disorientating.
I was woken by Yuu again, though this time she crept in slowly and nudged me rather than scaring the living daylights out of me.
"Wake up, it's eight" Yuu whispered shaking me lightly.
"All right, okay, I'm getting up" I grumbled groggily.
"Good, we've got some shopping to do, Mom is joining us"
"Oh yeah? Why?"
"We're going shopping for you, dummy. Meet us out on the courtyard again" and she left, closing the door behind her.
Again, I lay there for a few minutes allowing myself to wake up and eyes adjust before washing and dressing.
It seemed that Yuu had taken note of my mention of breakfast yesterday. Yoshino was carrying a box of sandwiches, which she offered to me when they met in the yard twenty minutes later.
"Thanks, this should keep me going until at least lunchtime," I said munching away at a pork and stuffing sandwich, leftovers from last night.
Yoshino smiled and nodded in agreement. "Shin and I are usually up before Yuu and she wakes up she rushes out before we get chance to see her, let alone prepare breakfast for her. But don't worry, we'll be having breakfast from now on whether we're going out or not"
"The last thing we want is you feeling weak" Yuu agreed.
I smiled. It was nice to know they cared so much about me. "Thanks. So... where are we going?"
"Just into the village. You've been here for a few days and you still have no personal belongings, furniture or your own clothes" Yoshino said with a sigh.
"Yeah I was thinking about that last night, I don't like how bare my room is" I pondered. "Though I don't have any money, how am I supposed to pay for stuff?"
Yoshino laughed "My dear, you really think I would make you pay for things when you have no money? I'll pay don't you worry. When you have your own money, you can pay for yourself. But you can't walk around in the same clothes every day" she looked at the dusty yukata that I had also worn yesterday.
"Just this once, and I promise I'll pay you back!"
"Very well, if that makes you feel better" Yoshino agreed.
"Not that you had the choice to decline" Yuu chuckled under her breath.
"Then first we'll head to the tailors. Clothes are the most important." They spent what felt like hours in the tailor shop, though it probably was hours.
Yoshino had insisted that they first choose four Kimono's for the four seasonal festivals, so I had to be measured and fitted. To my horror, the tailor commented on my measurements out loud.
"thirty-four bust... twenty-four waist... thirty-two hips... exactly five foot tall. My, my you are petite. Your size is in the middle of adult and child average sizes so we will have to make these custom for you"
I whimpered uncomfortably. "Did you have to announce it to the whole shop?"
"Nothing wrong with being small, small is cute" Yuu patted me on the shoulder.
"Easy for you to say!" Yuu was at least a head taller than me, curvier and bigger chest. Not to mention Yuu had her mother's clear smooth porcelain skin, emerald green eyes and the almost carved facial features of a Japanese doll.
I, on the other hand, was short, had a small chest, a round face, hamster cheeks, a ghostly complexion, a little round button nose and creepy ice colored eyes that scared people. I couldn't even be mistaken as a blood relative of the Murasaki's. The only thing similar between us was the straight, jet black hair; but even on that point, if I was to step into bright light or sunlight it would glint a poisonous purple.
It was obvious from a mile away that they were not related, and she felt inferior to it. The Murasaki's had an air of gracefulness and nobility that I just didn't have in me. I felt like a stray that Yoshino and brought home and begged to keep.
We spent a long time looking through styles and colors of kimonos for the season's festivals. Yoshino and I could not come to an agreement on which to pick. I found after trying on a few different styles that I had a hatred of having my legs covered.
"I don't know, it's weird, my legs just feel hot and uncomfortable when they are covered, especially by the warm fabric" I tried to explain to them while fidgeting "I prefer the cool air around my legs" they sighed and eventually agreed to let me pick a short Kimono for Spring and Summer, but she had no choice but to wear long ones for autumn and winter, they wouldn't take no for an answer no matter how much I complained.
Once the colors and designs of the kimonos were picked we moved on to the casual clothes.
"You do know that in the winter you will have to wear trousers or tights?" Yoshino informed me as I picked through the choices of shorts, short yukata dresses, and skirts.
"I know that but when it's warm I get too hot. I like shorts they're comfortable" I was also drawn to darker colors. Blacks, blues, and purples in particular.
"Kimi, you're female, you need to wear something a bit more feminine!" Yuu frowned as I ignored the sunset yellow T-shirt and made a beeline for a black one with red flower patterns all over it.
"It is feminine! It's made for females, not men so of course, it's feminine, there's nothing wrong with it." I reasoned with a logic that only made sense to me.
"I mean the colors! And you can't wear black all of the time. And you must remember that certain colors and patterns have meanings. Warm colors like reds and yellows represent the warm seasons and cold colors like blues and blacks represent the cold seasons or even night time. And sometimes individual colors have meanings" Yuu tried to explain to me, as though she had swallowed and regurgitated a book.
"Then I'll wear black and pink for spring, black and green for summer, black and gold for autumn and black and blue for winter, is that better?"
Yuu and Yoshino both groaned. "There's no reasoning with her is there?" Yoshino asked.
"Seems not" Yuu agreed as I grinned triumphantly and scooted off to the cold color section.
So eventually after a few hours of fitting, measuring, scanning around the store and trying to reason with me on what to wear and what might suit me, we finally got the four Kimono's and a bunch of casual clothes and moved on.
We did a little more shopping and ended up with an array of items from books for me to read in my spare time, to hair products and jewelry.
"Maaaan all of this shopping has made me hungry" I grumbled rubbing my aching belly with my wrist, as both of my hands were occupied by heavy bags.
"We can stop off at the bakery on our way back if you like?" Yuu asked, waiting for my head to flick up and that grin to spread across my face.
"Sounds good to me! I need to sample the rest of the shop as soon as possible" I said enthusiastically and sped up my pace.
We did indeed stop off at the bakery and this time Kimi chose a cream doughnut with caramel sauce. Yoshino had a chicken sandwich and Yuu had double chocolate cookies. We sat outside the shop on a shaded table while eating and chatting about our purchases.
I felt something warm brush against my leg and jumped, something ran under the table startled by my movement. I looked down to see a large and fluffy brown tabby cat crouching warily below us.
"Aww, Hi there little guy! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you" I apologized offering my hand to it. It quickly changed its mind and rubbed its head on my arm in approval.
I chuckled as it stared up at me, curling its tail around my leg happily.
"Kimi, I think he wants something from you" Yuu laughed.
"Wants something?" sure enough the cat was now eyeing up my doughnut with gleaming yellow eyes. "You want this cream, huh?" Its ear flicked at the sound of the word 'cream' and he curled around my leg again. "Okay, but only a little bit"
Soon after we got up to leave and the cat, whose name was Jesse accord to the silver tag around his neck, looked utterly depressed as he watched us leave.
"Yoshino... Can we have a kitten?" I asked quickly, hoping she wouldn't realize what she was agreeing to.
"Absolutely not. I like animals, but they are troublesome to look after"
"What if I look after it myself?"
"No."
"But-"
"No, Kimi," she said firmly.
I looked away from Yoshino with a resigned scowl of disappointment on my face "Okay."
I felt such a connection with the cat, and it crossed my mind for a moment that maybe I had had pets in my past life, but if Yoshino said no then the answer was no. End of discussion.
I spent the rest of the day in my room, moving around my furniture and reorganizing things.
We bought a new desk of draws in which I kept my books and some pens, pencils, and paper in case I felt like doing something creative. Yuu had even bought me a diary and advised me to jot my thoughts down in there.
"You have a lot of things going on right now, especially with settling in and your memories coming back to you occasionally. Maybe you'll find offloading your thoughts onto paper helpful" she had suggested when handing me a purple leather-bound book of blank pages. I put the diary to one side, doubting that I would ever use it but it was a nice gesture.
I had also gotten a desk lamp, a mirror for the wall, a clock, a puffy pillow, new bed sheets, and blankets.
Yoshino had been to the furniture store and bought me a bed that was more like a raised platform, just off the ground in height and padded, so it was softer than the floor and slightly raised.
My last purchase had been a jewelry box where I only had a few hair clips stored for now.
After changing my mind several times and re-organizing everything to suit my tastes I stood back to admire my work. I felt like a clean freak, obsessed with everything being in its correct position, neat and tidy. There was much more to be added. It did feel a little more like home, like a place of my own now but there were still things to do.
I picked up a book from my desk and threw myself onto the bed with a satisfying bounce.