The Past and Future
Chapter 10
Dorm Life Begins
Just as the number one pearl was about to answer, the door from behind her burst open revealing the nurse and her half-drunk friend.
"NAT-CHAN!!! We're back!!!" The self proclaimed seventeen year old exclaimed.
That officially broke whatever tension there was.
The nurse hid her face behind her left hand and muttered, "I swear I don't know her!"
The number one pearl gave a classic, "Ara."
Last but not least the ice princess sighed. "Midori, can't you stay sober for even five minute?"
"Nope!" The defender of justice replied easily but turned her attention on to Shizuru when she noticed her presence. "Shizuru-chan! You're here! Aw! Don't tell me!" She turned to Natsuki. "Nat-chan, You're such a player!"
Playing along Shizuru added, "Ara, Kruger-san had this kind of reputation?!" She faked shock by dramatically bringing her hand to her mouth, covering it. Then came the waterworks. "And to think she courted me with such sweet words!"
That was it. Just being around so many familiar presences the ice princess's walls of ice were slowly melting. The raven hair girl's face was graced with red. "WHAT?! NO! I didn't! BAKA!"
After a lot of screaming, yelling, and a few more teases, Yohko stepped in and solved the problem. Once the problem was solve a pouting Midori, a still red in the face Natsuki, and a Shizuru with a calm and polite smile sat on the bed facing the nurse on her chair.
"So Voila-san, are you here because of the Butou procedures?"
The number one pearl answered with a positive nod and just as the nurse was about to perform her duties, a check up for the number one pearl, a sudden interruption came up.
"Oi! What are you doing?! I'm still here you know!!" The raven hair HIME announced.
The other three occupants in the room looked at each other with confused and amused looks.
"What?!" Natsuki demanded to know.
The lips of all of the three were twitching, resisting the temptation that was right in front of them but in the end a certain red head defender of justice just had to fall into temptation.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" Midori laughed so hard that she fell to the floor and even somehow managed to allow her head to land on a corner of a table but remained laughing while holding her newly acquired wound.
The other two, Yohko and Shizuru, was a little, no make that a lot more discreet about how simple minded Natsuki was. Yohko was giggling, using her hand to cover her mouth. While Shizuru's smile just grew slightly wider.
Had Shizuru just laughed at her or even teased her about it, the raven hair girl might have gotten what they were laughing at but no, that did not happen. Natsuki could still remember the times in the past when Shizuru (Fujino Shizuru) had that kind of smile on.
It was horrible!
One of the times was when Natsuki refused to lower her consumption of mayonnaise to two bottles a day and Shizuru was so mad she told Natsuki that she would not speak to Natsuki until Natsuki lowered her mayonnaise intake. The next day Natsuki saw that look on Shizuru's face. Shizuru had on a polite smile, looking at Natsuki, but what mattered were her eyes, they said something that her expression did not. Everyone else was whispering something. In the end Mai came and told Natsuki that she had toilet paper stuck to her shoe.
That was not it. It happened other times too, those times just got worse and worse. Truth be told, the toilet paper thing was one of the better times when Shizuru had on that smile, a polite smile with those eyes.
"WHAT?! Why are you laughing?!" The raven hair girl, surprisingly asked, not the hyena who deserved her new injury or the giggling school nurse, but she asked Shizuru.
This caught Shizuru by surprise, seeing how she was not even laughing on the outside. "Ara, why Kruger-san asks such usual questions, why would she ask me why I am laughing, while Suguira-san is laughing along with Helene-san?"
Natsuki smirked, she knew what to say to respond to this, and after all she had this discussion before with Shizuru (Fujino). "That's easy. Your eyes, they were twinkling and not to mention that it in a lighthearted way."
Midori stopped laughing and looked on with Yohko at how the two interacted. It was just like the old days, the time before thathappened. They both knew what was going to happened next, and probably Natsuki did too.
"So Kruger-san has been glazing deeply into my eyes? Ara, I did not know that she paid that much attention to me!" It came, the expected tease from Shizuru.
What happened next too, was expected. A light blush appeared on the raven hair girl's face as she turned away and with a 'humph' she escapes. "Whatever, Midori did you get my things?"
"Oh, you mean this?" Midori asks and waves a manila folder up in the air.
Seizing the folder at an unbelievable speed, Natsuki left the drunken defender of justice still waving the invisible folder in the air until she saw Natsuki leave the nurse's office and noticed how invisible the folder was.
"AHHH!!! Nat-chan stole the folder!!!" Midori whined.
The nurse sighed as Shizuru watched on at the amusing scene unfolding in front of her and made a mental note to 'get to know' Natsuki more.
"Midori…. (Sigh) If it belongs to her then how can she steal it?"
Once she was outside, Natsuki sat down on one of the benches and opened the folder, emptying its contents out on her lap. The materials that, at one time, filled the folder were different type of documents that 'confirmed' that she was Natsuki Kruger, along with her class schedule, room information, and a key for her room.
After reading the materials, she headed to her room, expecting it to be hers, and hers alone but apparently she had not read the materials but only skimmed over it.
Inserting the key and unlocking the door, Natsuki walked into the room simply to find her day getting better and better.
"Natsuki! Looks like we're roommates!"
Without another word the door was slammed by Natsuki and the said slammer closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind.
Breathe in, breathe out… ok… Good, now that I'm calmed down let's try it again. I bet I'm just tired from everything today. Yeah, that's it. Of course it is!
She opens the door again.
"Natsuki, what are you doing? Come in!"
The raven hair girl walks inside, closed the door, and proceeds with hitting her head against the wall.
"Natsuki! What are you doing?!?! Stop! You'll get hurt!!"
The motherly attitude that was shown to her caused the ice HIME to stop and begin laughing.
What a coincidence?! Who would have thought?! Now it really is like the old days!
"Sorry, Mai. I'm fine."
"Ok, if you say so. By the way where have you been? After that nurse gave you the nano-machines you ran to who knows where!"
The rest of Natsuki's day was spent telling Mai what happened, well the edited version at least. Later that night the ice princess fell flat on her back and into her bed, drifting off into a deep sleep.
Natsuki could hear her name being called.
Not only by one person but by many different voices, many very familiar and others recognizable but not close.
At first everything was pitch black and she could not see a thing, she wouldn't be able to see her hand eve if it was right in front of her.
Soon that changed for the better or worse.
Red, crimson red painted her world and filled it up almost completely.
The smell of rust consumed her and engulfed her entire being.
Slowly, the color and smell subsided and other shades could be seen.
Natsuki was at a lost.
In the beginning everything was insufferable, all she wanted to do was run away, away from the darkness, then away the red scent filled environment, but now while she still wanted to escape something in her made her move toward the orange spot she saw.
She walked toward it, bit by bit increasing her speed because something inside her told her that if she didn't that orange spot would disappear, leaving her alone, once again, in the sea so crimson.
From what seemed to be speed walking developed into sprinting but the orange spot was much fast than that, however, as if the orange spot has reached its destination it stopped.
Natsuki hurries and reaches out to it but the moment she did everything was white for a second and the orange was replaced with images.
In a dark grim filled place the sky was weeping and thunder and lightning roared out in pain.
It was a battle field, one littered with weapons, blood, and bodies.
It was all so detestable and repulsive to her and yet so well-known in her mind that she could remember it as if she saw it only yesterday.
The weapons consisted of many varying from kunai and tonfa to flute and golden rings. However, what stood out the most to Natsuki was the weapon that was most far away from her, a single naginata.
Wherever the weapon was, the owner of it was near. She recognized them all but yet again what stood out to her the most was the naginata.
It was the only weapon whose owner was not laying dead beside it, in fact its owner was alive, but not for long.
A part of Natsuki knew what was happening nevertheless the other part rejects it.
The owner of the naginata was being held by the neck by a figure she could not see because the figure's back was to her.
The body was slumping and no one would think the person was alive, that is until the body being held by the neck looked up and offered a weak smile before all trace of life disappeared from the body.
The hand of the figure that held the neck of the owner of the naginata released the now dead body, letting it fall to the ground just like that.
The scene filled Natsuki with anger as she ran to tackle the figure down but her she arrive, nothing, and no one was there.
She looked down only to see the hands adorned with a nauseating, vile liquid, blood, unfortunately not that of her own.
Again voices called out to her, but this time its call was like the waling of a ghost, a vengeful, unforgiving cry that shivers down her spine.
From the ground hands shot up and tried grasped a part, any part of Natsuki.
While the raven hair girl was not afraid of ghosts or ghouls or anything of the such, she felt an immense fear for the hands and waling.
She backed away desperately, determined not to be captured by those hands of the dead.
"No. No! NO! Stay away!"
Author's Notes:
Well, I didn't think I'll make it but I did so here it is, before New Year! I'm so happy I finished this chapter before New Year! So, what do you think? Was it bad? Good? Any comments, concerns, suggestions, questions are welcomed. Thanks for reading and please review.
By the way, there's going to be more ShizNat, action, and more parts of Natsuki's past coming up really soon so expect it! :)
Happy New Year!