AN: feels like I haven't updated in forever...IDK I guess when you're swamped with school work, crew practice, diabetes management, AND trying to get your forms in order so you can study abroad, time can seem to pass weirdly...meh, anyway, chapter...11 now? geez this is getting long! Good like I like writing it! Enjoy!!
"Ashton-kun, have you had any strange dreams lately?" Yoru asked tentatively. Her charge, Ashton de Winter, was a sickly nine-year-old boy who was confined to his room almost 24/7.
Ashton glared at her, "Don't look at me like that!" He spat, "I don't need your sympathy!"
Yoru was taken aback. Were all the lord's children rude little brats? First Evangeline and now this little snot, it pissed her off. She sighed, trying to control herself.
"Look, just answer the question." She said, bluntly.
"Why? So you can tell me I'm insane?" the brat retorted.
"What the hell is your problem?!" The Japanese teen demanded.
Ashton was shaking with anger, "I can't do anything because I'm so frail," he said bitterly, "and all people do when they see me is give me sympathy! No one plays with me or laughs with me! No one even lets me go outside! I'm sick of suffering!"
"You think you're suffering?" Yoru said quietly.
"What?"
Yoru laughed, so bitterly that it scared the child she was taking care of.
"Wh-what is your problem?" He asked, bewildered.
"You honestly think you're suffering?" Yoru asked again, now standing over the quivering boy. She leaned down, glaring right in his face, "What you're going through right now…that's nothing compared to what I've gone through." She said icily, "I've been forced away from my family only to end up being tortured every single day for over two months. I screamed and cried and begged to be let go. I never saw the sunlight I loved so much during that time. I never got to go outside and enjoy the fresh air. I wanted to die every single second of every single day. I wanted it to end! Even after the torture ended, the suffering didn't. I couldn't trust anyone except my two best friends, who were suffering just like me. Even that didn't last! I was forced to watch one of them kill the other and then watch even him start to fall apart! I haven't seen him smile once since that day. The worst is not being able to help him." Yoru paused and went over to the window, gazing at the snow falling outside. She turned back to Ashton, whose eyes were wide with shock, "But you know what?"
"What?" He asked sheepishly.
"All that pain, it's what's made me the person I am today. I almost died four years ago, but you know what saved me? All the strength that had built up from that suffering. Helpless can destroy a person completely. I turned that feeling into my drive to keep going. I fight so that I can help people who are suffering, from worse pain than yours, even worse than mine. I also fight to make that friend of mine smile. I do everything to brighten up his day a bit more and to lessen the burden he carries, even if only a little." Yoru put her hand on Ashton's head, grinning, "The key to easing your suffering is by letting it become your strength. Don't let others see you unhappy. Smile and laugh and show them that you're stronger than they think. Maybe then they'll let you do more."
Ashton blushed and turned his head away embarrassed, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," He said, but Yoru knew he didn't mean it. She started laughing, jovially this time.
"Maybe, but it's worth a shot!" She said, gasping with laughter, "Now are you going to answer my question?"
Ashton blushed again, "Yeah, I have had a dream. A man with a violin was leading a line of children. He reached out to me, beckoning me to follow."
"I see." Yoru said. It was the same dream. Her black golem, circular in shape with little cat-like ears popping out of the top, flew out of her collar, "Kanda, did Evangeline tell you anything important?"
"Tch! What HASN'T she told me? The girl won't shut up!" he said in a furious whisper.
"Has she mentioned a dream?"
"Miss de Winter, have you have any sort of weird dreams lately?"
Pause.
"FINE! Miss EVANGELINE, same question."
Pause.
"Please," came Kanda's desperate voice, "just answer the damn question."
Another pause.
"Kanda?"
"Nothing," came the monotone reply, "She hasn't mentioned anything weird."
"So he's only targeting one of them then…" Yoru thought for a minute, "Kanda, stay with Evangeline just in case."
"You're joking!"
"No I'm not, just do it, you antisocial ass!" Yoru replied, she then returned her golem to its proper place.
"What's going on?" Ashton asked nervously.
Yoru smiled, "Well it seems you're the target this time, Ash-kun."
"ASH?! And what do you mean I'm the target?"
"I called you Ash because it's cute and I mean that the dream you had is the same one that the other missing children had just before they disappeared. Don't worry," She added, seeing the look on Ashton's face, "We won't let anything happen to you."
"Promise?"
"I promise!"
"Miss exorcist?"
"Yes?"
"What's your name again?"
"Kuroumi Yoruko, but I prefer to be called Yoru. It's a nickname, just like when I called you Ash."
"Thank you for what you told me…I'll try to be stronger…"Ashton trailed off as he slipped of into dream land. Yoru smiled, ruffling the boy's hair.
"Sweet dreams, Ash-kun." Yoru turned out the light and waited. Kanda did the same in Evangeline's room. Allen and Link we standing guard on the rooftop. They were all lying in wait, waiting for the violinist to strike.
AN: Mission will finish up in the next chapter and then we'll get a little more plot going (i.e. this is just to show Yoru in action). Just a little side note, I have an original fiction going on right now that I'm really happy with so far. I'm thinking of posting it to my FictionPress account, but I'm not sure yet...If you guys think I should and you think you'd read it if I did, please let me know and I'll post it and let you know when it's up.
