Posted: December 23rd, 2014
Times Edited: 3
Last Edited: July 8th, 2015
~Yeah, ya know~
Warning: Foul language (why do I put this here; it's a given…), long chapter, end of the arc, fighting, weapons, blood… you get the gist.
Flashback:
"Alright, that settles it. We're doing this tonight." Shoichi stood up and cracked his neck, quickly putting his glasses back into place. "We have to break in."
Chapter Seven: Edelweiss
Despite meaning "noble and white" when translated from German, Edelweiss actually is more of a silver color, with yellow accents in a star shaped flower. Edelweiss only flowers once and then dies. It must reseed itself before growing once again. This flower can be used to make tea. It is full of anti-oxidants, and other compounds that are said to help in the ageing process. It is also used in sun block and moisturizer. Edelweiss is even being hailed in the scientific world as a natural medication to help with vascular problems.
Meaning: noble purity, courage, daring, power, and/or gracefulness.
I watched as these people–the ones who claimed to know me in the somewhat distant future–rush around frantically as the plan was set in stone.
"Tonight, we're rushing Byakuran," Shoichi had said earlier. His glasses had begun to slip off of his face, and he had pushed them back into place as if they were a nuisance. "We'll exploit Silvano and use his unique ability to our advantage. After that, I say we wing it and hope that we don't get too much company."
Idiot. Something dropped onto the hard, concrete surface that happened to be the floor. Why are we so willing to fight?
Only a couple of us remained; the large burly guy and his blonde-haired, lipstick-donning accomplice had volunteered to stay out of this one, which left me, Shoichi, Silvano, the brown-haired person and the ever-so-mysterious Gio. While the party was small, Shoichi did make the remark that we hopefully weren't going to need "all of our forces" for this one.
"This is stupid," I remarked aloud. "As if fighting is going to solve a thing. Besides, aren't we supposed to be asking this guy for a favor? Why would fighting make him more willing to do what we ask?"
I wanted to voice my opinions, but those around me only continued what looked to be preparations for an altercation; scattered ammunition lay about the table that I continued to mope at, and the constant clicking of casings was nearly rhythmic.
"Are you ready to go back to the past, Hana?" Shoichi's voice cut through the silence about the room like a gale of piercing wind, and he loaded his sleek gun before continuing. "After this whole ordeal, I mean."
"I'm still debating whether I'm tripping or not," I retorted, allowing my hands to comb through my course hair, that of which hadn't been washed or brushed since my alleged 'teleportation' to the future. "It's not as science could support the whole idea in the first place!"
"Is that a challenge?" Shoichi asked, raising his eyebrows at the prospect of arguing the probability of science with me, but the brief exchange between the two of us halted when a clock, presumably from upstairs, began to chime.
Once.
"Hand me a casing, will you?" Someone asked.
Twice.
"Yeah, sure." Someone else answered.
I waited for a third ding, questioning if I could hear it over the sound of metal clashing with metal, but it never came. A sense of dread cloaked me, but that stopped when so-called Gio looked up from his weapon. Those eyes, deep and blue, shone in the dark room where he was nearly hidden between his dark attire and skin.
"Is it really that late?"
"I suppose so," Silvano glanced around the room, his eyes landing on Shoichi. "Ya'bout ready?"
What the hell kind of stupid idea is this?
"I'm ready," Shoichi responded, dropping something in front of me at the table that we sat down in front of. "Here, Hana. I loaded it for you; you're going to need it this time."
This time?
"No, I can't use this!"
You can't make me.
I can't carry a gun.
I pushed it away from me as fast as I could, resulting in a slight nick to my knuckle as I hit the old, wooden table with my hand. The gun pivoted and shot off of the corner of the table. It clanged against the concrete flooring and the room began to freeze as time slowed for me.
I can't carry a gun.
The mere thought of it made me sick to the stomach and breathing became tedious. Without the effortless pump in and out of my lungs, I grasped for a full breath like I was used to. The breath seemed to come in short puffs as I searched for an answer to my repulsion.
It was as if Shoichi knew there was none.
He only seemed to shrug it off and reached for the machine with his foot, sliding it toward himself and picking it up as the noise of metal against metal continued. A small chip had come off of the metal, stripping the jet-black paint away.
"At least carry it," Shoichi asked me. This time, he sounded much gentler, almost as if he understood something that I could hardly even explain. "If we can help it, you won't need to shoot it."
He doesn't know a thing about me.
"I don't think I can do it," I admitted, reluctantly putting my mask away. It had already begun to slide off as I shot back to my arrival in the distant future, when Dante had constantly taunted me with it; threatening my life over one-sided information. "You expect a kid to kill someone? Tell me how that works out."
Not a damn thing.
Shoichi finally took a deep breath and placed it atop of the table, and I watched it shiver without a hand to hold onto it.
"Whatever you say," he muttered, wiping his hair away from his face and glasses before addressing those around us. "I'm ready when all of you are. Let's just get this over with."
"You're tellin' us, Ecchi," Silvano snorted, and the congregation snorted along with him. "I was born ready, yeah."
The boy with the pretty, light brown hair stood up first, clipping the magazines onto his belt. His slender fingers ran across it, making sure that it would stay in place.
"What're we waiting for? If we wait any longer, the sun's going to come up."
Shoichi glanced from me to the killing machine in front of me before nodding.
"Let's go."
The quiet night seemed to swallow up the footsteps that broke through the unfamiliar neighborhood of Namimori. I listened for the soft chirping of restless birds or the roaring of motors, but there was none. Time was nearly frozen, and it noticeably took an effect on my entourage; it was as if no one could even breathe, for they were so afraid of making a sound. The cold autumn wind caressed my shoulders and my legs, spinning between my Namimori school uniform.
"I'll repeat this one more time before we get there," Shoichi had broken the dreadful silence, his voice cutting through it just as a butter knife would cut through butter. "Everyone will take a hold of Silvano as we approach so that we can at least get in undetected. Using the elevator will be an immediate sign of a break-in, so we may as well take the stairs. I will take the initiative of finding some way to disable the cameras so we can move around freely."
The tenseness in his throat showed on his face as the half-moon illuminated it. His eyebrows were knitted together with worry, and his jaw was clenched as he held two weapons, both his and mine, with both hands.
I wanted to ask a multitude of questions:
What was I supposed to do?
So what if we get to this Byakuran guy? How are we going to peacefully convince him to let me leave this damn place?
What do we do if he outright refuses to send me on my way (however the hell he would even be able to do that)?
It was all too soon; even though I had only been with these people for (what, a full day?), I had already begun to miss the time that I currently lived in; I mean, the biggest things on my mind before coming to the future were how screwed I was with my father when I got home after he found out about me being in the principal's office, and then about Shoichi's mom finding me in his closet when she was so strict that women besides her were not allowed in their two-story apartment.
"Aight; I ain't gonna be able to hold my illusion for long," Silvano snapped me out of my thoughts as he moved to the head of the group. "We gotta make this one quick, 'nd once we're inside, we ain't gettin' out until this guy complies."
In a great shift, everyone seemed to crowd Silvano as the large building came into sight mere yards away. I grabbed ahold of his forearm and held it as tightly as I could, careful not to let go as we inched closer and closer.
The things I could do with invisibility.
I watched as Silvano reached toward the door, but as he laid his hand on it, it jiggled softly but would not budge.
"Shit, it's locked. What dumbshit didn't think of that?" Dante whispered loudly, and I could feel the idiocy seep out of Shoichi, who stayed next to me. "You'd think that it–"
"Hold your horses." Gio's icy voice pierced the night sky, and I watched him pull out a deck of cards from his shirt pocket.
What the hell does he think he's doing? We've got no time to waste!
Gio quickly pulled out one card, the Ace of Spades, and I watched as it slowly went up in a blue flame. He looked into it as if it had every answer he wished to know, but upon closer inspection, I saw that it was nothing more than a mirror.
"No," Gio shook his head quickly. "It's not locked; just reinforced. It's one of the stronger illusions that I've encountered recently, so be on the lookout for anything suspicious."
How does he know all that?
I was lost for words, but no one else seemed to have the problem that I had; everyone had sprung into motion as I came to. Gio quickly switched out his Ace of Spades for the Queen of Hearts as he wedged it between the doors, sawing as if cutting wood in half.
The glass doors swung open and we bundled inside. My grip on Silvano's forearm loosened just as we made it inside, and I was pulled away from the entrance in an instant.
"Ow!" I snapped as my arm jerked past its jerking-point. "What–?"
Shoichi looked down at me, shaking his head. "Cameras," he mouthed to me, but I watched as Dante crowded around me instead. "We gotta move. I wanna get as far up this bitch as we can before we get caught. There's no time to disable the cameras; if we want this heist over by daybreak, we're going to have to wing it."
"Quiet!" The boy with the pretty light-brown hair hissed from Silvano's side as they slithered back into view. "Let's find the stairs. That way, we won't get stuck in the damned elevator."
"We're splitting up," Gio remarked as Rusty stopped whispering. "If we do, we'll cover more ground."
"No," Shoichi quickly interjected. "If we do, it'll be easier to get captured and killed, for all we know. We're not here to start a war; we just want our leader back."
I watched something linger in Shoichi's face, but I couldn't tell if it was nostalgia or something completely different.
"We'll start by going this way," Shoichi thrust his head toward a dark corridor, masked with beautiful furnishings and desks with computers. "Look for the stairs, and protect yourselves at all costs. I don't want to have any casualties if we can help it in this case, but don't hesitate if you feel that your life or someone else's is in danger."
I watched the sky and how the only visible stars seemed to be nearly fading out of sight.
Hopes and dreams… would the future even be worth having any dreams, if this is what it's been reduced to?
I couldn't answer my own thought as Shoichi quietly crouched down and advanced forward with both of his weapons by his sides, and I followed straight after him. It was especially quiet; nothing made a sound but our breathing and footsteps (not to mention the occasional swear or stumble), and I was able to take deep breaths and clear my mind.
"Ecchi," Silvano raced to his side and crouched to an identical height as we crept forward. "Why ain't ya think nobody's seen us yet? Cameras are hidin' all over the place."
"I'm not entirely sure myself." Shoichi stopped briefly, cracking his shoulders, but he turned to me and handed me that damned weapon once more. "At least hold it and be careful."
"Why don't you hold it?" I asked, my voice rising to a squeak in despair. "I won't use it anyway!"
"I can't risk it," Shoichi shot back at me quickly. "Just hold it and be careful, okay?"
I stared at it, as it had hit the dark carpet flooring with a muffled thud.
Why doesn't he understand that I can't do it?
"Okay?" Shoichi pressed, leaning in for emphasis.
My hand reached toward the machine on the ground, and the cold material shocked my nerves, giving me immediate goose bumps. I continued to force myself to clench my hand over the handle of the gun until my index finger rested upon the trigger, but I moved it as fast as I could from it, swallowing my fear.
"Let's get on with it; we've got six floors to clear before we get to the top." The brown-haired person seemed tense and nervous. "I don't want to have to take any lives if I can help it."
"I get it, Rusty," Dante snorted. "Let's just hurry the hell up already."
Everyone got quiet as we snuck by desks and office rooms that all appeared to be locked. Paintings of landscapes and cityscapes alike dotted the walls periodically. Who the hell is this guy, anyway; a multimillionaire with nothing better to do? Or is he some nobody scientist who found a way to screw over everyone in this damn town? I unconsciously tightened my hold on the machine in my hand, but my unease only got worse the more I thought about it.
"This way."
Shoichi led us with Silvano right behind him to the left as we entered a lobby-like area with little-to-no offices and decorative fake plants accenting the open room. I stopped as our group surrounded me.
"Hey!" I exclaimed, feeling their shoulders and backs touch me from all sides of the circle-like stance they had assumed. The gun shivered in my unsure grip as I drowned in conflicting scents of the men surrounding me. "What–"
"Where's Byakuran?" Shoichi questioned aloud. He's talking to someone. "Tell me or I'll shoot you."
"The hell's it to you?" A deep voice shot back. I stood on my toes to see, regardless of how sore they felt after being barefoot all day. "I've been ordered to take out any trespassers. Turn back or die."
The group surrounding me took a collective breath, and a shot rang out almost impulsively. I jumped, and stumbled backward, unbalancing the person behind me as I recovered from the shock of a gunshot.
The hell has gotten into me?
"You aight, missy?" A much more serious Silvano asked me, but I couldn't pinpoint where he was in my shock. It was almost as if he was looming over me, but I was unsure.
"Yeah," I coughed; covering up my fear became even more tedious than before. I took deep breaths in an attempt soothe myself. "Scared me, that's all."
"The stairs are over here," Gio nodded in front of us, and I could see the secluded stairs just ahead. "I'll go first and scout; I'm sure he knows we're here now."
In the dark, I could see nothing but his eyes and the shine of a weapon that he revealed–a sword-as he advanced quickly toward the steps. I recovered from the shock, but I was wary of another hail of bullets when we began to move forward. My stomach lurched when I took notice of the man on the floor who had been shot; while no blood could be seen, his muscles appeared to still be functioning as his arms occasionally flailed and his fingers twitched.
Silvano sighed beside me. "He's not dead."
"Good. Kick his weapon away and follow Gio's lead; I just want this shit to be over and done," Dante's sour attitude reflected just how much I had unconsciously asked he and everyone else to do for me. I had not only caused a bunch of trouble just being in the future, but the means of which they had to take to get me out of it were extreme and possibly deadly. "Hana, you'll stay behind me."
I started forward, but the gun in my own hands shook uncontrollably as I focused. It feels… right. I'm terrified of the damn thing, but it fits in my hands like I've held it for years. As I stared at nothing, so-called Rusty shoved me into motion, forcing me to follow Dante and step over the body of this victim. His eye twitched when I reached over him, but I dashed forward and to the stairs, not stopping until I reached the top.
A maze of one large laboratory stared me and the others in the face; the brightness pierced us uncomfortably and the bubbling sounds that emitted from it were nearly distasteful.
"I've always hated the smell of sterilization," Rusty muttered from behind me as Gio stopped in the center of the lab to look around. "It just doesn't seem natural to me."
Shoichi, the one whom I thought would have been enamored by this gigantic chemistry set, only took a quick glance and kept going.
Of course, I ran with certainty this time, regardless of the machine in my hands and the impending fear of the future. I can imagine having older-me running off will have been detrimental to the others. To think that in the future, I have people who care about me just this much…
I approached more stairs and we were careful to cover our tracks.
"You'd have thought that more people would have shown up after hearing gunshots," Gio commented quietly. "I've never encountered this before."
A loud bang sounded from above, and I looked up to see the faces of more than a few people staring down at us from a balcony-like precipice just above the stairs. No one made another sound as Dante casually pulled out his gun and motioned to the rest of us:
"I've got this lot. See if you can all slip through; I'll cover your asses."
"What?" Rusty from behind me questioned, but another bang, a gunshot, interrupted him. This time, instead of showing my obvious fear, I jumped at the sound. "You don't have to–"
"No time," Shoichi cut in, sprinting his way behind Dante and up the stairs behind him as he shot off as many bullets as his trigger finger would allow. "We'll catch up; find the other stairs!"
I wanted to point out that, on these narrow steps, we couldn't move anywhere until the path was somehow cleared, but Silvano took my wrist instead. Of course! Wow, this guy really comes in handy, doesn't he?
"I ain't know where we'd be without me!" He chuckled, but helped me, Rusty, and Gio slide past the mob of people who aimlessly shot at Shoichi and Dante without getting shot at ourselves. "The stairs ain't too far 'head."
We shuffled over toward the middle of this room, which housed couches and an empty café near the corner, but the stairs were nowhere in sight. I swung my head around hopelessly. The sound of rapid gunshots tore through the air, piercing my eardrums and causing them to ring uncomfortably.
We have to keep moving!
"I'll stay behind and help those two!" Gio suddenly pulled away from Silvano's grasp, hurrying back to the way from which we came. "Find the way up!"
"He coulda been our ticket to the way up," Silvano scoffed while wildly turning around in circles. "What if there's another illusion that only he can see through?"
"There!" Rusty shot off as well, but in a different direction just beside the vacant café. "The stairs are here!"
Sure enough, they were there, but well-hidden behind a wall rather than in plain sight like the ones before us. The gunshots continued, and I followed Rusty up the stairs.
It has to end here, doesn't it? They don't care if the past, present, and future are supposedly screwed if something happens to me here.
"Ow!" I yelped as I stubbed my bare toe on the stairs. I tumbled upward, slapping my face against more stairs in the process. "Damn…"
"Missy, ya okay?" Silvano asked, stumbling downward to help me up, but I had already stood on my own two feet.
"Yeah, fine."
How embarrassing.
I stood up and followed Silvano to the top, where Rusty waited with his gun drawn. "I think someone's in here… but I'm not sure."
Silvano paused, taking a deep breath and looking around; it was only a narrow hallway that led to another set of stairs, but office rooms dotted the hallway in increments. The catch? All of the doors were open.
"If we're lucky, the doors are open because of the people Ecchi and Dante are fighting. If not, we just walked into a trap."
I held onto my machine, allowing my hands to tighten on it. The gunfire had ceased downstairs, leaving the whole building in an awkward state of quiet, such as a morgue; full of bodies, yet none of which have the ability to speak.
"I'll go first with my ability, then you follow if I give you the signal."
How can we follow if we can't see the signal?
I waited until Silvano was out of sight to ask Rusty, but he only intently stared ahead before saying something surprising:
"Shoichi's going to be okay, Hana," he smiled at me, the little braid on the left side of his head dangling limply as he did so. "I'm worried about Dante, too, but he's always been fine in situations like this. Shoichi's the same way."
I couldn't even respond as Rusty slowly moved forward, beckoning for me to follow quietly. I did so, forcing myself to slow my breathing as much as I could; if I breathed too loudly, it would surely give us away. The office that we passed had a great view over Namimori from its window and one of those chairs that spins, and for a moment, I forgot that my life was in danger.
It's almost as if there's nothing to be afraid of.
"Psst!"
I stopped for a moment, looking around. Is that in my head, or…?
"Hana, come here!" I turned my head slowly toward the office that I had been observing, but I could see someone sitting in the chair now. "Quickly!"
With a moment of hesitation and making sure that Rusty was far enough ahead that he didn't see me, I did as the person said, curious as to how yet another person knew my name.
"Who–?"
My mouth clamped shut when I recognized Shoichi sitting there, and when I entered, he jumped right up from the chair.
"Are you okay, Hana?"
I nodded, resisting my sarcasm for once. "All but a stubbed toe."
He appeared to visibly relax, but then he tensed again as he noticed the gun in my left hand.
"You still have your gun," Shoichi appeared to be genuinely upset. "I know you don't like them, and I'm sorry that I made you carry it. We should be okay now; I have a much quicker, safer way to get us to Byakuran."
"What about the others?" I asked, but Shoichi shook his head. "If more than two of us go, then he'll think of it as some sort of ambush."
Isn't it already "some sort of ambush"?
I thought about questioning his reasoning, but I thought against it as he took the gun from my hands and armed himself with it.
"Where'd your gun go?" I questioned, wondering why it wasn't on him. After all, it appeared as if he took very good care of his weapon.
"It was damaged during the shootout," He told me, looking both ways before sprinting backward toward the stairs that I had already climbed. "This way. We'll take the elevator from that floor."
The elevator? Didn't he specifically say NOT to take the elevator just in case we all get trapped inside if it gets shut down on us?
Though his reasoning was flawed, I could somewhat understand. It would be a shorter trip upward if we took it from here rather than the ground floor. Regardless, I followed him to where the elevator was, which was near the back of the previous room, across from the café below.
Shoichi pressed the "up" button, and we waited for only a couple of minutes before the elevator made the dinging sound before we stepped in. He pressed the highest number on the machine, 6, and the door shut almost immediately.
"It's been awhile since I spoke with Byakuran," he seemed to be talking to himself. "I'm sure this reunion will be unexpected."
I nodded, listening to the humming of the elevator as we went up. For a moment, it was as if the danger that I was in… was nonexistent.
"Where's Hana?" Silvano turned around at the stairs, disabling his invisibility so Rusty could see him. "Did ya lose 'er?"
"I swear she was right next to me a second ago!" Rusty looked almost disoriented as he looked around frantically. "There's no way she could have gotten away or something! No one took her, either, because we would have heard something!"
"Aww shit," Silvano scratched his head, but his face scrunched up in worry. "Ecchi's gon' kill us."
"Finally, all these bitches are dead!" Dante sighed, but the excitement of the fight shone in his eyes. "Ain't that right, Shoichi?"
"Yeah, I suppose." He didn't look even remotely excited about fighting; the only thing visible in his face was the tiredness that he couldn't seem to shake from being on his toes all of the time. Having a guard up 24/7 made having a real one up ten times more difficult. "Let's hurry and catch up."
Gio nodded in agreement, briefly swinging his sword around to splatter leftover blood onto the beige office walls. "I agree. I hope they haven't gotten into trouble since stalled."
Shoichi took a moment to reload his gun, but after that, he led Dante and Gio up the stairs and toward more stairs before running into Silvano, sending them both reeling.
"What the hell? Why aren't you guys going–?"
He stopped as soon as he saw the look on Silvano's face; fear.
"What happened? And where's Hana?" Shoichi glanced behind Silvano, but he couldn't even see a glimpse of her hair.
Rusty rushed up to Dante just as he stopped in his tracks. "Are you okay? You're not wounded, are you?"
Dante shook his head, surveying Rusty carefully. "No, I'm not. Are you?"
"No." Rusty did manage to crack an unsure smile. "I'm glad you're unhurt… but…"
Shoichi stood up straight, staring at Silvano's face as it didn't seem to move from its horrified expression.
"What?"
"…I ain't mean to lose 'er, Ecchi," Silvano finally managed to open his mouth. "I ain't know where she went, even! She up 'nd disappeared."
Gio suddenly armed himself once more with his sword, swinging it around again to get the spare blood off of it. "Do you think it was an illusion? Did you check first?"
"I swear I did," Rusty nodded, his big brown eyes widening. "I can't tell you where she went. One second, we were talking to each other and the next…"
Shoichi stared right ahead, allowing the thought to sink in. "She couldn't have just disappeared… could she?"
Silvano laid his hand on Shoichi's shoulder. "I ain't even know, Ecchi. I'm sorry; we'll spend all day finding 'er, aight?"
"No," Shoichi said, shaking Silvano's hand off. "No, we don't have the damn time for that. I'm not willing to risk the future or her life by putting all of us in danger."
He pushed past the rest of the group and sprinted up the stairs, skipping every other step as to not waste time. At the top of the stairs, Shoichi inspected every office he passed. The doors were left ajar, yet there was no sign of his childhood friend. Just as both Rusty and Silvano had suggested, she had disappeared and no one had heard her leave.
Shoichi pushed himself to the end of the hall, staring up the next staircase that led to the next floor as he wracked his brain for an answer to a sudden silent disappearance by a woman whom he knew would not go quietly.
There is nothing that suggests a struggle. No knocked over items and no signs of blood or injury. Witness accounts by trusted colleagues say she was there but suddenly disappeared without making a sound, which would be damn-near impossible without having them notice. The key here is her silence, and I know for a fact that the only way she would be silent in a situation such as this is if she was killed. There's no evidence of that, either. If she wasn't taken by force...
"If she wasn't taken by force," Shoichi continued his thought aloud as he turned on his heel to relay his findings to his peers. "She was taken by will."
The elevator made that dinging sound once more as we reached our destination, the sixth floor, and I looked up at Shoichi as he took a left.
"You know where to go?"
"Yeah," He shrugged. "It's not the first time I've been in here."
I waited for him to say more, but nothing happened as we walked down the much more embellished hallway side-by-side. He opened a large door that opened just by standing in front of it and shoved me inside.
"Ow!"
I stopped struggling in Shoichi's grasp as I came to my senses: the Shoichi that I knew personally would never do this.
He would never leave our teammates in the dark about a plan or the lack of one. He would never have gone back on a plan that he previously scrapped. When it came down to it, he would have let me–rather, made me–keep my gun because he would rather me have it for my safety than he for his.
"Figured it out yet?" The man asked me, and when I looked up at him, he had a different appearance. "Of course, I thought when you started asking all of those questions, I thought you'd have figured it out sooner."
My mouth wouldn't open; this wasn't the time for a sarcastic remark about him or how he was an asshole or anything for the sort. If I let one of those slip or if I didn't comply, the entire operation could be put in jeopardy.
"Why–why do you look–?"
"Different?" He completed my sentence as he morphed again, turning from brown-haired to black-haired. His eyes went from hazel to brown, and his clothes morphed from a uniform to street clothes. "You haven't been here for very long, have you? Regardless, Byakuran would like to have a word or two with you and he sent me to fetch you. Hopefully you can get this solved before any unnecessary death is caused by your friend's lack of compliance."
How could I be so stupid? I knew there was something wrong, but I couldn't put my damn finger on it. How did he morph in the first place... how is that possible?
He shoved me once more and left me in this dark room, but it wasn't all dark, I realized, as the large window depicted the beginnings of the sun's rays came into view.
"Hmm… so I take it the rumors are true, then?"
An unfamiliar, airy voice spoke to me as I came to somewhat terms about where I was, that I had been too dense to figure out I had been betrayed, and the conditions of someone from the past being in the future in the first place.
Byakuran.
"You've come to see if I'll allow you to go back to the past, right?"
"Well, yeah." I bit back an "obviously" when I realized that if I wasn't polite, I would probably not have much of a choice between what he (more than likely) wanted in exchange. "I just don't want to screw up time even more than it already is."
"I understand… but if you stay, maybe you can change the future for the better." The man, whose hair was whiter than the snow on the ground at occasional times of year, stared at me intently behind his purple eyes. A purple tattoo below his eye stared back at me as if it was a third eye, and prompted me to talk.
"What do you mean?"
I'm not going to be hoodwinked twice.
"Hana," he gently spoke my name before getting up from the comfortable chair he'd been sitting in. "You do realize… that the future… the way it is… it's entirely your fault. You should stay behind and clean up your mess. The other you came to me with the same request; she wanted to go back to the Namimori that she knew and loved… not this mess."
The gentle tone that he had been speaking with slowly dwindled away to nothing but hate.
"However, as to not 'screw up time' as you put it, I did not send her back. I locked her inside of her own memories, where she lives through things that you haven't even experienced yet."
I tensed, wondering what to say next.
How do I convince this guy to put me back where I belong if he's so hell-bent on making me stay here?
"I understand that it's a lot to take in," the man sympathized, his face giving way to the human emotion of pity. "You may take a seat. I imagine Sho-chan and his friends will be here soon, accusing me of kidnapping you… just like last time."
Sho…-chan? I took a moment to let that one sink in, but I was desperate to continue the conversation:
"How is… the future my fault? I'm sure there's–"
"How isn't it? If you never existed, anything that has happened or is happening in my present–your future–will have never happened. Whether that's for the best or not, that's up for interpretation."
I watched him lounge back, but suddenly he gave me a wickedly-sweet smile. "After all, I never do favors without favors in return. What do you say we make a deal? I'd never want to torture the kid who hasn't even done anything yet, I suppose."
"Deal?" I crept closer to him, wondering what he meant by this. In all of the crime shows that I watched on TV, whether real or fake, I knew that deals usually went well in the house's favor. I had better be careful.
A loud bang disrupted me as artificial light poured in behind me; the door had been broken. It laid in tatters against the wall, the hinges refusing to snap. Gio was the first one that I spotted as he sheathed his sword.
"Found her."
I turned back to Byakuran, hoping that he would still hold up on his word of a 'deal' even though we had been interrupted. However, he looked mildly amused as Shoichi began to speak:
"So, you've really stooped that low, huh?"
"Ah, Sho-chan! You've made it just in time for me to propose a deal to Miss Hana!" Byakuran stopped as I turned back and forth between Shoichi and himself, but he let out a faint smile. "I will put you back into the past from which you came if only you follow my instructions."
"Okay," I hurriedly replied, but I watched Shoichi's face turn from angry to fearful. I could have guessed that he didn't want me to hear anything that Byakuran might reveal.
"There's only one condition that I have for you, but it must be followed to the furthest extent. Am I clear?" Byakuran's eyebrows rose, and I nodded before he continued on: "The one thing that destroys you later in your life is…"
"You can't tell her too much!" Shoichi interrupted as he rushed toward Byakuran, stopping steps away from him. "It may ruin everything!"
"I won't; if you want everything to go back to normalcy, then I suggest that you kindly step down."
Byakuran gave Shoichi an identically-sweet smile as Shoichi quieted down and moved in beside me as Byakuran continued:
"The one thing that destroys you later in life is love. You can interpret that any way you want, since Sho-chan won't allow me to tell you anything. Instead of love, lust for power."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I stared into the persuasive eyes of this Byakuran guy, wondering exactly what he meant by that final statement. His stare gave nothing away as he discretely raised his eyebrows.
"I'm sure you'll understand in the near-future," He mused, stealing a glance at Shoichi beside me. He stared ahead at nothing, his eyes wide as he obviously fought against the thought of speaking out any more. "After all, changing one little thing will help to change all of the chaos that has happened in Namimori."
But… what if it changes everything?
I could almost hear the thought in Shoichi's mind. He stiffened for a moment, disarming himself, before finally nodding.
"It's your decision, Hana."
I looked back at Byakuran, whose face had relaxed into a small smirk of triumph; he already knew what my answer would be. If he wanted me to change the future, if it really was as bad as he said that it was, it was true that I was the only hope for this future–my future–to change.
"So, what if I don't?" I challenged, wondering if there would be some sort of repercussion anyway if I didn't do it the way that this Byakuran had asked me to.
"Put simply, the future will not change from the way that it is right now. Pain, death, and hate will swirl around Namimori forever."
Byakuran laughed softly at the end of the sentence, almost as if this was not even a big deal whatsoever, but my world was as if it was falling apart. I couldn't afford to wait to make a decision, and this decision should be easy to make; if I did as I was told, my future and everyone else's would be set… or at least, it'd be better than it was in this future.
"Fine. I'll abide by your terms on the basis that you bring future-me back and if you put me back in the past."
Byakuran clapped his hands together as he smiled once again. "Great; I'm glad we had this discussion! Come here and I'll straighten things out."
I watched as he stood up and beckoned me toward the door, but just as I began to follow, the familiar sound of sirens in the distance filled the room.
"It seems as if your little heist led to a police standoff," Byakuran joked, continuing on his journey to what appeared to be a door blended into the wall. "I'll leave you all to deal with that. I'll be back with your little friend."
I glanced back to see the horrified faces of the people whom I had only met for a full day, but each one of them meant something new to me.
To think that I'll meet these people in the near-future…
My hand made its way to my face, and I slowly waved it back and forth, letting my eyes rest on each face individually before finally stopping on Shoichi.
"I'll see you in a bit, I guess." I muttered, turning around to follow Byakuran and making my way away from them as quickly as I could. The others had sprung into action in the wake of the voices of police not too far from where they were standing. No matter, I couldn't escape Shoichi's last words to me before I closed the door and he turned away: "We'll be friends no matter what you decide to do, Hana."
The door closed behind me, and I rested my thoughts on those words. What they could have meant, I had no idea quite yet other than the obvious. I have an inkling that they may go deeper than even that.
"Are you planning to take forever and get us arrested, or do you want to go back to your precious past?"
I nodded and stepped into the bright, machine-filled room and took a deep breath.
I am going back to the past.
"Oof!" I muttered in pain when I hit a hard surface and realized that there were all these different items sitting below me, including the soft surface of clothing. "Damn, as if I'm not already finished with this crap."
The room was dark, and I recognized that I was in Shoichi's closet once more. I took a deep breath.
Finally.
The door cracked open, and I froze for a moment, remembering the whole deal with his mother, even though it seemed so distant now. My heart rate began to speed up, until I heard a familiar voice:
"Huh?"
The door swung open the whole way, and the younger, current Shoichi stared at me from the outside of the door.
"H-Hana! U-uh, where'd you go? I-I thought–?"
I stood up shakily on my bare feet, breathing in deeply as I realized the life-threatening danger was gone.
"How long has it been?" I asked, making my way out of his closet, breathing in deeply.
"I-it's been three hours," Shoichi mumbled, bringing his hand up to his glasses-less face. "It's six o'clock… I was doing my homework…"
Only three, huh?
I felt the tiredness of not sleeping for twenty-four hours on my eyes as I hustled over to my shoes and sitting down beside them.
"Where are your glasses? I thought you had them on."
"I-I broke them. It was an accident, but…"
It's just like future-Shoichi said; he broke his glasses when he got frustrated about my sudden disappearance.
"That's great," I closed my eyes for a full moment and allowed the silence to take me. The sound from Shoichi's room faded and I was left with only my own thoughts.
It's not as if the future is going to happen tomorrow. Well… it is, but that's not what I meant. I've got years to work out how I'm going to live up to Byakuran's promise, and I'll do just that. For now, I'll just tackle all of my problems one at a time… and I will rely on power, not love.
Q&A:
(Frequently asked): Is "Gio" Giotto in disguise or something?!
Nope. That's impossible. Giotto is long dead by now. I hope you took note of his appearance in this chapter; I realize that I may not have made Gio's appearance clear enough, so I tried really hard to wipe out any discrepancies here. (If you still couldn't see or if I was too vague; Gio has dark skin and smooth black hair, but also sharp, blue eyes). His past is something that I want to expand on later in the story because I think it's kinda cool and thoroughly thought-out, but it safely has nothing to do with Vongola Primo.
What's Hana's deal? Why isn't she taking the chance to shoot people? Aren't guns awesome or something in KHR?
Well, didn't I say there was going to be some sort of… fears system in the first chapter? Don't worry; this won't be the only one, either. –evil author laughing in the distance- Just imagine the possibilities..!
What does Byakuran do in the future that warrants this huge office building?
Well, not only is he the head of his respected family (Gesso) (not the Millefiore; according to this "future", that A) hasn't happened yet, or B) never happened at all) (no spoilers from me; you may take your pick of which choice you think it is for now!), but he also has become a successful business owner and settled himself in Namimori. It really isn't a question of how he got the money to finance the business's building, but what exactly does he work on? Why? Stay tuned for the future to find out! (I know it seems like a really lame explanation, I know, but I believe that this may be important to my plot, so I can't say too much!)
Why'd Byakuran ask something like that?
Well, think about it; sometimes love is great, but sometimes it gets in the fricking way. Desire for power is sometimes great, but sometimes it gets in the fricking way. Supposedly, she went for love in the future, so Byakuran told her to do the opposite to change the future. Maybe he genuinely wants the future to change. Maybe he has an ulterior motive. I'll leave that up to you guys for now.
What was up with the guy who could "morph"?
I've got plot to back that up, but Hana has been kept in the dark about probably 95% of the things that I have planned to happen at this point in time... and, therefore, you are also going to be kept in the dark until I can reveal all of the (cool) things I have planned.
What's the next arc going to be?
The next chapter will explain it all. Although right now, I can't imagine it being too difficult to guess after this arc and its contents!
Will these characters make a comeback sometime in your story?
Guessing by this being the future, yeah, definitely. I worked hard on some of their personalities; too hard to let them go so soon. I'm just hoping that it'll be soon enough, you know?
Tsuna? Vongola? Important canon characters?
Soon.
Long chapter, huh?
Yeah, and I'm sorry that it might seem rushed or anything; it's not like I was in any sort of hurry, but I'm expecting to edit it later tomorrow. Hopefully this long chapter will compensate for all of the time that I didn't update…? Ha… ha…
Author's Notes:
Hey look; my computer cord is fixed! I also did make it through the semester without any C's (for those whose grading systems work somewhat differently, I am above an 80% in all of my classes)! Also, I'm sorry that this has taken so long. Between preparing for exams and taking standardized tests… Fanfiction just seemed to get pushed to the backburner of life for a while there!
I'm so glad that's over. The Future is much harder to write than you think, with all of the plot-holes and everything that need to change since I am not rewriting canon and everything… yeesh! Now for character development and… well, everything else that I have planned!
I noticed that I had a few errors in past chapters and I haven't had the heart to edit them! I apologize, and I'll get right on that after I catch up with my updating!
Don't forget to review; I answer reviews that are more than just "please update, I like dis" and also ones that are not made by Guests, but I appreciate each and every one! Drop one by if possible!
~Teafully~
