Panther Blues
Ahhh! Thank you for the comments, everyone! You guys comment too quickly, I swear.
Or maybe I'm just slower than dirt, which is more likely. I was planning to be really quick and efficient with this, but, um, you see, this rather inconveniently-placed trip to London kind of knocked me off schedule…? …But now that I'm back in the states, I probably will try and use the benefit o having a computer around (even though this computer, technically, is not mine. That's part of the problem, you see. People don't like me sitting here for three hours writing fan fiction when they have to balance their checkbooks and things like that…)
Well! Seriously, everybody, thank you soo sooo soooo much. Just knowing this handful of users are consistently reading this story - even after horrendous amounts of time that I was inactive - well, it makes me feel all warm and buttery inside. You astound me! (GROUP HUG!) …Ahem. If I leave anyone out of this little thanking session feel free to bitchslap me. These go in the order in which they appear on the comment board thing. (Goes and does "I-would-like-to-thank-the-academy" speech)
Jolie: Ha ha, well, thank you for not going away. Means a bundle, really it does! I'm glad you were entertained! Mew-Sahara: Yeah… heh. I seem to be on drama overload. Maybe because I'm emotionally unsound? And I'll try my very hardest not to die. O.o Dark Flamingo: Yeah, alive, but just hardly. Do you think maybe I should try eating real food, rather than Pocky and chunks of peanut brittle? I heard that helps… And yes, she is sort of like her. It's the whole spaz thing, I'm fairly certain. Kaze 160: She's gonna break down and call up her personal SWAT team, that's what! XD… :D;;; (inserts head into bucket) …Thank you so much! Honored! Skibbies: Ah! Thank you thank you thank you! I shall do my best! Wesleylover213: Yes, Ryou is quite the stud these days. He'd better watch out, too, because I heard some girls planning to bishi-nap him. Thank you!
Ahhh! I love you all so much, I can't stand it! C'mere and gimme some love!
(Frightened readers flee quietly from room)
"God does not call the equipped. He equips the called."
- David Moore
Chapter Fourteen!
We walked side-by-side, slowly carving a dent in the waves of people, on our way to my home.
A freezing wind blasted through the Tokyo avenues at top-speed. I shook inside myself, wishing that I had something to wrap around my ears and neck. I should have purchased one of the plaid scarves from the school uniform catalogue, the ones I'd before so strongly detested. Only the rich girls wore the scarves.
Ryou sauntered nonchalantly beside me, silent as the grave. His pace was easy, but his face signaled alertness.
This part of Tokyo was like a neon fairyland when the sun went down. Colorful lights and advertisements bloomed overhead like a garden of brazen flowers, raining their petals down on us in scattered light. Streetlamps whirred and billboards flashed, alive. Thousands of shiny, dark-haired heads pushed past each other. A band of hooligans ran, screaming down the crosswalk in front of us and skidding around a taxi cab, which angrily slammed on its brakes.
It was an ordinary night in the Insomniac City. Things bustled, buildings set up like glowing glass matchboxes and steeples. It was not an innocent city. It was not just the clean, hospitable, and friendly culture tourists and foreigners saw upon their visits here. Beneath its fascinating exterior, Tokyo hid a devastating amount of suicides, depression, abuse. I could think of not another place with nearly so many unhappy young people, struggling to define themselves, to find their identities… but only to be drowned in claustrophobic hordes of other people. Was there a city in this world that could call itself innocent?
Thirty five million, one hundred and ninety-seven thousand people. All teetering on the edge of destruction. All being rooted up by inbred hatchlings which grew beneath their unsuspecting feet. All sitting in the palm of the hand of fate. …But would they be able to decide their own fate? Would they help themselves and flee? Would they discover they were endangered quickly enough to do so?
Thirty five million, one hundred and ninety-seven thousand people all depending on eight youths. Seven of them experienced and confident in their abilities, ready to help and serve their home. One of them unsteady, stupid, doubtful, hesitant, moody. Like a lost child, clinging to any stranger who would offer some - any - form of comfort.
Ryou checked his watch. He whistled. "Time passes too quickly. What do you say we pick up the pace a little? The sooner home, the better."
I wordlessly obeyed, lost staring into the blazing nightlife. We were engulfed into the blur. Music from advertisements and shops and the sounds of traffic swept us away into the masses, herded like cattle down the sidewalks. Like animals.
Yes, it was indeed an ordinary night. Granted, nothing is planned in a city, not the small turning of events. And yet, the spontaneity was all part of the divine rush of synonymous life here. Everything was always the same. Everything followed the same routine. Tonight was nothing - it could be nothing more than a simple pawn in the full plan of events. And for years of my life I had seen it that way. It was something of a common thought among all residents of this monstrosity. Life had its breaks of new curiosity, of course. Every now and then something would change about our outlook on Tokyo. Absolutely - Tokyo was always shifting and improving and overgrowing and sprawling, never to die, a legend within its own. But no matter how it made transitions, our perspective of the city didn't grow much. I looked out upon the shredding people, multiplying like rabbits in a cage, rampant and chaotic. I had once felt drowned into the never-ending numbers, once felt like I was insignificant to the life that would continue to thrive in this place. I didn't matter. I was not instrumental.
I went to school every day and I sat in the back corner and slept through the majority of classes. I griped at anybody who bothered me. I hurt anybody who pissed me off. My father ignored me and I pushed him away. I curled myself up like a porcupine and hid inside myself, safe, where only I could know myself. On the outside, I was prickly. Get too close, and I might even give you a little jab.
My tough exterior was my safe harbor and shelter. Nobody was supposed to get inside. Nobody was supposed to fool around with the stuff hiding within - no, they weren't allowed. Don't tear it apart. Don't break me down, so that you can see right through my shell. My presence had not been needed.
It was like walking with blinders on.
But then I had taken a fated trip to a cute little café, at a far and unfamiliar part of town, and the blinders came off.
My pace quickened.
Something was out of place. Something. The dullness was gone, replaced with needle-points of shocking sensation. It was an utter stimulation. The air was too painfully sharp and cold. I could hear too many noises, the ones which normally faded into the background. The lights were too fierce. The ads were too persuasive. The feeling of a stranger's sleeve brushing mine, as we carefully maneuvered the jumble, was too pronounced.
My porcupine shell was cracking. I looked down at my bare, shaking hands.
I had taken a fated trip to a new café. That was how it had happened. So simple, so unsuspecting, how such a little transition - one which had seemed like it would be lost in the billions of small transitions of Tokyo - had made such an enormous difference. A small spark had ignited an enormous flame. Here I was, only half-human and glaring at my own two hands, knowing that I had been given something new. It really was possible after all.
I could change things. I could make a difference. I could be needed. I had been offered something that thousands of high school girls were praying for to befall them, praying they too would become known to more than just the ones close-by, to others who actually needed them to be there. To other people who would want their presence, to others who would think of them when they needed help. For a total stranger to rely on them and await them. To be recognized as another honest, living, capable human being. Yes, I was capable. Yes, we were all capable! I stopped dead in a footstep and a business man crashed into me. I ignored him as he grumbled and pushed past me. I eyes my hands towards the endless Tokyo skyline. I was living the dream of millions! I wanted to scream, with every fiber of my being.
I'm doing it for you! I'll do it all for you! For every person in this city! I understand you!
They say that when an epiphany occurs to a human being, or, in this particular scenario, half-human being, time stops. That's what they always write in books - suddenly, time stopped. I didn't like that when they wrote that, mostly just because it's a horribly over-used phrase and it begins to lose its meaning after a while. I didn't really understand the purpose of it, either - epiphanies could occur without the world suddenly crashing to a halt, couldn't they?
The thing is, that no, they can't.
Musical bliss was thumping through my skull, vigorously, like an irritated woodpecker nabbing down the thought until it finally made itself understood. When I would reemerge, I would have a migraine.
I want to help you, so that you can live, really live.
My head pounded. I felt myself grinning with unadulterated joy, late-night energy streaming to my fingertips. Somebody roughly jostled me as they ran past, and I snapped out of it violently, senses raging.
Oh, God. God - where was Ryou?
My head turned in all directions, and nothing tall nor blond met my line of sight. I stood in the same spot, spinning around restlessly. Somebody's voice was calling madly under the roar of the city. It was not his voice, nor even mine, but it sounded desperate. I couldn't tell where the voice was coming from.
Ryou's timing was never satisfactory, but this was more than infuriating. Somebody was screaming bloody murder into the night, and he chose this moment to disappear and be his elusive self. Where did he run off to? Or had I run away from him? I realized I'd been walking more quickly than I'd intended, lost in contemplation, just pushing blindly forward. I had been saturating in my own senses, but not aware enough to notice where I was walking?
I slapped my forehead in aggravation. It was so much like me, my blatant idiocy, to lose my escort. He was probably stuck in some alleyway, pulling his pretty bleached hair out and cursing my name - somebody was screaming - danger was throbbing through the atmosphere -
A strong arm took hold of my shoulder and sharply dragged me around.
"Shiro…"
It wasn't him. It was a panicked woman holding a wailing toddler in one arm and holding the hand of a slightly older child with the other. She glared at me violently. More people were beginning to cry out.
"Miss, move out of my way! You've got to get out of here!"
"What?"
I took a look over her shoulder.
A swarm of black marks were ripping through the masses, crashing like a dark cloud of oversized gnats through street vendors and infesting open-door boutiques. They zipped and flung through the air as though they were hummingbirds - hell-sent hummingbirds.
Were these… inbreeds? And so soon? A wave of consciousness melted over me. Had they hatched already? Right under our noses, before we even had a chance to locate them? Were these the only ones, or were there more? Hundreds of questions popped into my shocked mind. I stared, mouth hanging open.
The thundercloud of the marks took a five-second long roost on a row of fruit vendors, and within the same duration of time, ripped the entire thing to shreds. Once they took to their frenzied flight again, all that was left of the oranges and bananas were crumpled-looking bits of black rot. The wood that was used to hold the vendor's sign up disintegrated and exploded in a soft puff of dust on the concrete.
Riots of fear were building up, men and women fleeing like slight woodland creatures before a ravenous wolf. Cries of terror were growing to be more panicked and chaotic. The masses were all reversing their direction and running, pushing back the other way, in my direction. As did the swarm, following the crowds. I gasped as a black animal shot an inch over my head. The noises of these strange creatures - the sound of millions of little wings flapping insanely, paired with small screeches and squeaks that wounded the ear. What the hell were those things?
Another shot towards me. I flung my arm to the side, panther reflexes in full development, and grabbed hold of the little thing. It squirmed and shook, squealing angrily. My fist tightened around it as I held it close to my face to get a better look. It was perturbing. Disgusting. A bat - no, a bird. What… A bat's wings, a small bird's body. And the head of a locust, antennae prominent and miniscule jaws clicking furiously. Revolted, I threw it out of my hand, and the tiny inbreed went tumbling on into the air.
Ryou was gone. The cloud was growing closer. I bit my lip, small bouts of terror seeping in. "Oh, crap."
I knew what to do. How could I not know? It was so simply pictured in my mind. I was still rooted to the same space of sidewalk, numerous people trying to push past me. I could not flee. That was for certain. But would it be so simple to physically carry out? I thought about the last time. I had done it easily last time, had I not? Although it had only been a test run, I had not been aware, and carried it out without ailments to myself. My hands balled into fists. I stuck my chin up.
I didn't need Ryou to be here for me to do this. I just had to remember - how could I make it work? How could I make that energy flow again? I couldn't just… make it happen, could I? If I just thought about transforming, would it happen? What had done it the time before? The heat of the moment just been so sudden… things had just clicked… that would never happen to easily again, would it?
"Crap, crap, crap," I muttered, watching the flock of inbreeds burst on. Every few moments they would roost for a period of seconds, and once they removed themselves from their perch, it would crumble into rotted ashes. It would keep going until somebody put a stop to it. But how, in the name of Jesus -
The subtle but ominous voice in the back of my mind spoke up at long last.
Don't struggle. Don't think. Just do. You already know what has to happen, so make it happen.
Then turned around and bolted into the swarm.
They tore at me like vultures picking apart food. Like mosquitoes gathering on exposed flesh. Their little locust jaws shredded the sleeve of my sweater with ease, taking them no less than a few seconds to take hearty chunks out of my school uniform. The sense of filth lingered wherever they touched, making me gag. I swatted at them angrily and knocked several to the ground, but there were too many to take them on one by one. They were tough little buggers. I would need a broader method of destruction.
"You're going DIE!" I screamed, thrashing at them, half-animal. I pounced into the air.
In mid-jump I was claimed by a power so strong it was like having my entire body wrapped in the fist of God. Bubbles and surges of warm claimed my every limb. I twisted in the air, feeling all parts of myself shift and change. The ears, the tail, popping forth on top and on bottom. Around my torso, the gray bands of fabric were being wound, slowly forming into the corset, out from which my skirt magically blossomed. Gloves wrapped about my forearms, and boots fastened themselves tightly onto my lower legs. I twirled, eggrolling through the atmosphere, until the changes were complete, and the air returned to normal.
The power was overwhelming. I floated, reborn. The citizens stared up at me, things quieting, but only for a moment. I could tell - they were all waiting for me to do something. The inbreeds had scattered apart from each other. I opened my mouth, and involuntarily, a pre-programmed line of speech spewed out.
"There will be consequences for your actions!"
I raised my right arm, feeling white-hot pulsations of wrath burst into my fingertips. This power was stronger than it had been before - I was trembling within.
The inbreeds were rejoining, and all together, the swarm of them looked much larger, much more menacing. The noises of the flapping bat wings and snapping of their locust jaws. They were gathering on the side of an office building, clinging there somehow. Hoards of them - disgusting. My stomach nearly turned at the sight - the feeling of them on my skin had been…
No. This was time to get the job done. I set my chin. Ready or not, Ryou or not, it had to be done.
"Plum Fan Paradise!" I bellowed, the sound of my surprisingly authoritative voice bouncing off the buildings. Instantly, the thin weapon materialized from blinding white light straight into my hand, and it whipped open with a simple flick.
Fan opened, I took the it by the string, which was attached to the handle. I began to rotate it at my side, swinging freely in a counterclockwise movement like a deadly razorblade. A furious blaze of energy and gray vapors released from its orbit, creating a blinding light. I relinquished it with a final, tossing swoop, and it took into the air. The fan spun so quickly that it acted as a boomerang. It whirred away, slicing through the swarm. The fan knocked a handful of the inbreeds down to the pavement, cutting a few chips away from the block - the attack had done little to abate the mass. The fan came careening back and I caught it by its handle.
(NekoBun: Quick author's note, sorry for breaking the flow of action here, hardy har har. Anyway. The use of the "karate fan" here is not quite the same as the good-old tessenjutsu. If you've ever seen tessenjutsu in action - whether in a class or in a martial arts film - you'll know it's much more powerful and sophisticated than it seems. It's also rare - usually an auxiliary weapon learned way after ken, bo, jo, and chained weapons. Normally woman warriors - usually kunoichi, or "female ninja" - would use traditional bamboo fans, called sensu, in combat. But Sumono is no girly girl, being a superhero. She uses the authentic iron tessen that a man would use. …Sadly, you won't find many dojo in the west teaching authentic tessenjutsu techniques... Unless you're lucky. And rich. [Cough The things I'll be writing in here will not correspond to traditional tessen form. It's mostly stuff I've made up... So for those of you who are big on the martial arts, don't get mad at me! XD I'll shut up now - don't want to sit here giving you weapon lessons.)
The inbreeds quickly became irritated and shrieked eardrum-piercing sirens quaking through the air and they rebounded, gathering into a denser group, a formidable wall, daring me to penetrate. They advanced, flung themselves at me, and before I could realize that I was even thinking, I dropped to the pavement a kneeled. I swung the fan by its tassels and created a shield with its energy. It glowed and quivered, a translucent bubble. Thousands of animal bullets struck the shield and fell, either dead or stunned I would not tell. It was like watching rain thundering down from behind a car window. The inbreeds which had struck lay surrounding me as a black sea.
The force of the downpour weakened me. My arms ached and I would not keep the bubble up much longer. I relinquished and dodged, missing the rains of inbreeds by inches, and kicked off into the air. The still, nonmoving inbreeds on the street looked, from above, like a ghastly dark quilt. People running on the ground avoided them in disgust. And the swarm remained, suspended, somehow looking no slighter than it had before.
I flicked the fan again to strike off a bout which had come flying at me. Then another, and another. The forces of the swarm did not retreat in size nor tact, despite the damage I had caused. They relentlessly blasted at me like clustered-together canon balls of fury. I barely escaped one particular blob that sent itself barreling directly at my head. Another fired off unexpectedly at my feet, and struck forcefully, sending me careening ungracefully into the concrete of an office building. The air escaped from my lungs and I plunged onto the ground, gagging and gasping to reclaim my breath and bits of cinderblock crumbled around me.
In this one moment of my weakness they attacked, the entire swarm. Countless little angry welts suddenly appeared on my skin before I could even consider evasive action; they pecked at me and tore the flesh off my arms, legs, and chest. I scrambled away, blinded by the density of their siege and the sharp and sudden pains infesting my extremities. I thrashed until I could regain my train of thought. I pushed off the ground and bellowed, my voice harshly coarse,
"PLUM FAN PARADISE!"
A sick ripping noise erupted out of the end of my fan and a colossal band of white lightning crashed outwards. Hundreds of thousands of bat-like creatures were suddenly obliterated in the brightness, disappeared and replaced by a frightened group of sparrows which scattered and flew away in separate directions.
I had no time to celebrate. The remaining clouds of inbreeds reacted so quickly it knocked all the strength from my body. Before my mind worked out the resolve to sort out what was happening, I was pinned back onto the ground being wrapped in a crushing, suffocating, bone-breaking barrage of animal-stones breaking me, pressing me inward on all sides, wrapped in a rocky grip of death. There was no air. I dare not open my mouth or surely they would hail down inside my throat. My stomach flipped over. I was paralyzed. My lungs were caving in, my ribs were being pushed into my heart. There was no room -- oh, God, where was the air? My body weakened, my senses dulled, vision clouded --
"Su… ono…!"
There were voices, shuddery pounds of multihued power and light. The rock-hard grasp on my frame lessened. The numbers of black canons dissolved. My mouth opened and oxygen lurched stiffly into my lungs. Someone took hold of my arms and pulled me up. A pair of very concerned green eyes met mine. I almost started to cry.
"L-Lettuce… everyone…"
Lettuce gave me a genuine, comforting smile and squeezed my hand. I tried to grasp at my bearings and find a way to make my vocal chords function.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I gasped. "I'm all right -- "
Pudding came skidding to halt next to us and screamed, "Sumono! What are these things?"
"I - I think they're the mutants Ryou told us about. They breed and multiply as they roost - they don't ever stop - be careful --"
"Act quickly!" Mint bellowed from afar as she shot a series of arrows into another cloud of deathly creatures. Lettuce screamed and shoved me away to protect me. I scrambled to my feet and dodged around a blast of furious inbreeds.
I saw the whole gang there. Pudding cart wheeled wildly through the air and helped Mint eradicate the mass. Not far behind were my other comrades in arms, colorful blips soaring over the nighttime horizon. Zakuro and Ichigo.
"Everyone!" I cried, and gestured for our assemble.
Together we bound as a rainbow-like wall. Ichigo summoned her heart-shaped weapon and raised it high. She grinned at me, almost insane with pleasure.
"Sumono, don't worry! We'll beat them together, or not at all!"
I had to try very hard not to throw my arms around her in gratitude and spoil the triumphant moment. Pudding wrapped herself around my arm and gave me one of her hyper-girl smiles. Pride washed through me. I was one of them after all.
"Everyone!" Ichigo shouted. "We'll do it all together, at once! We've got to use a broad attack, or they'll keep coming! On three!"
She spun the heart in her hands elaborately and steadied herself. A shield surrounded us.
"One…"
Everyone drew their weapons, the energy building up gradually as a single sonic powerhouse, all colors and attacks combined into one --
"Two…"
Vibrations from the core of my heartstrings warmed my entire physique. I swung the fan by the tassels, sheaths of light popping and weaving --
"THREE!"
The shield blipped away for one pocket of time to make our move. It had to be perfect punctuality - just one wrong millisecond it would unhinge. We moved as one, a single flick of the hand, and then six gusts of pure adrenaline bombed the streets. Winds whipped at us and rolls of thunder cleared out slowly.
Then, as hundreds of sparrows broke away in terrified frenzy, I suddenly realized; I created a barricade as quickly as I knew I could, and I screamed, my voice violently out of control,
"THEY"RE GOING TO COUNTER! REBOUND AND DO IT AGAIN!"
The Mews looked at me with wild, doubtful eyes, not knowing what I meant.
"JUST DO IT AGAIN!"
We regrouped and shielded ourselves just as the remaining, inflamed inbreeds launched their formidable, suffocating barrage. It took all the strength in my muscles to hold a barrier to the forced of their enraged frenzy to kill. I had to raise my voice to an incredible level to make myself heard over the hailing thunder.
"KEEP HOLDING UP YOUR SHIELDS UNTIL I TELL YOU WHEN!"
They did as I had said, and just as our barrier had grown its strongest, I let mine fade, and I slipped out from behind it and tumbled out into the madness.
"Sumono! What are you --"
"Keep holding it!"
The mutants became distracted by my sudden presence outside of the barrier, and they released their bombing on the rest of the Mews, to attack me. The entire swarm doubled back and turned on me, leaving the Mews unattended. They flooded to me like hellfire.
"NOW!" I roared, and was I engulfed.
It all happened in slow motion to me and seemed to last for hours, rather than the actual few seconds. For a short while I felt like I was being burned alive - bite after bite of tiny, furious jaws ripping me apart. Then, as the Mew's barrier broke and they exploded into their element of absolute power, I felt as though I were being cleansed, like cold water on a rash, glorious white light bathing the sparrows and I.
I thudded loudly to the ground and the small birds gently fluttered around me while I drifted away.
-
Congratulations, the voice told me in a rarely appraising voice. You've made it back alive.
Oh, I thought hopefully. That's good, I guess. Are you proud of me?
Sure, the voice said, fairly enough. Then it added with distaste, But I've also been meaning to tell you. I think your dress is too low-cut.
I frowned thoughtfully.
You can take that up with the guy who made it, I said tiredly, and yawned.
-
Approximately eighteen seconds later I woke up and gazed into the faces of strangers. Tokyo citizens peered, concerned, into my face with wide eyes. They were hunched around me cautiously like they were afraid I would snap awake and scare them all. One little boy was crouched at my side, holding a stuffed wildcat, tears rolling down his cheeks. I blinked and my vision cleared slowly. I smiled at the frightened boy, even though my face hurt. He returned a brilliantly halfhearted sniffle and beam. My neck began to ache so I turned away after a moment.
"Out of the way, out of the way!"
A particularly peeved male voice sang out, like a heavenly omen to my ears, even if it also sounded like he'd been crapping kittens for the last hour or so.
The Aryan pushed through the wall of curious people and kneeled, glaring anxiously into my face. His hair flopped into his pretty aquamarine eyes. He grabbed my shoulders and shook me around, desperation in his herald angel's voice.
"Sumono-chan? Sumono, talk to me, please! Say something, anything!"
"Go walk off a cliff, you fascist pig," I giggled in a hysterically broken voice.
His face instantly relaxed and his arms wrapped around me. My head spun as I suffocated quietly into his jacket. He smelled unusually good for fascist pig, like soap and coffee. I thought maybe I could die right then and it would be perfectly okay with me, because I would grab him by his shirt collar and drag him into hell right along with me.
He released me and I sat up slowly, painstakingly. I was back in my normal clothing like a human being should be. The welts and wounds had disappeared from my body, like a miracle; I realized suddenly that the magic used to restore Kirema Anima to their original form without hurting them had made the same effect on me; I looked like myself, despite the pain that was radiating through me from the hard landing I'd taken onto the concrete.
I looked around; the crowds were beginning to thin down as they all walked home and away from the chaos that had once existed. A few sparrows were hopping furtively around trashcans. The Mews were dressed in street clothes, standing in an alley, out of sight, in a circle around Keiichiro, who had also strangely arrived in the last eighteen seconds of stillness.
I let my eyes travel the Tokyo skyline above my head, the stars and the blazing lights, then I flushed scarlet as they landed accidentally on Ryou's face. I tore my gaze away quickly, even though I knew he'd caught me looking at him. Every time our eyes met, it always felt like my face was going to combust into agitated hormonal flames.
"Where were you?" I whispered.
"You ran off suddenly and I couldn't find you. Then I saw the inbreeds, and called the rest of the girls."
He squinted at me in that way that makes you feel like you're a bug under a microscope.
"You look like you have a fever," he said, suddenly using his famously condescending and Holier-Than-Thou voice.
"No," I croaked. "It's not that. I'll be just fine if I, uh, get some fresh air."
He glared at me, disbelieving.
"You're already outside, numbskull."
"Oh," I squeaked. "Right. I'll just, um, stretch my legs."
I got to my feet and teetered unsurely before making my way to the rest of the Mews. I snuck up behind Ichigo and threw my arms around her. She turned around and nearly cried out. Before I knew it, we were in an enormous group hug filled with wrathful embraces that would crack any normal person's spine. Pudding nearly tackled me from behind, and Zakuro have me one of her awkward pats on the head.
"You saved my life, all of you," I told them. "I don't know what to say. It feels like a miracle."
"Anytime, anywhere," Mint said smugly and inspected her nail beds absent-mindedly. She seemed to think that it was no big deal - and to her, I guess it wasn't. She'd surely saved countless lives already.
Lettuce's eyes swam with tears of emotion; Ichigo put an arm around her shoulder and looked at me in a very noble way. I suddenly felt an overwhelming and newfound respect for Ichigo. I wanted to tell her, but I couldn't find the right words to make it sound genuine. I was never good at communicating.
"Um, I know this sounds corny and all," I said slowly, "But I'm… I'm completely indebted to every one of you."
"Nonsense," Ichigo said. "That's not true. You did just fine by sacrificing yourself into a swarm of angry mutant insect-birds. Don't feel bad."
"We are a team," Zakuro said. "There are no debts."
I have to admit I was astounded by them all.
Ichigo's unfailing dedication and courage for her people.
Mint's slightly pretentious but extremely valid will for bravery.
Lettuce's gentle and loving standards of being fair and just.
Pudding's boundless energy and lack of resent towards life.
Zakuro's wisdom, unbeatable strength, and encouragement.
They all completed each other. Fit together like puzzle pieces. They worked together as a perfect team. I knew then that they would not give up this fight. Not ever. They would stick it out to the very end.
I wanted to be a part of their ways. I had to be.
I had always known that I could not stay a whining, angry, precocious high school student forever. I knew that someday I would grow up and go on with other things. That my life would go on despite what seemed like gigantic obstacles in my one-and-a-half-decade-long lifespan. I wasn't wise, I wasn't some amazing and brave colorful individual with lots of doting friends and cool clothing, and I didn't have my own answers for my problems. I was, technically, a walking time bomb.
I was a mess. But, when I looked at the five of them, I knew that none of it was going to make a damned difference in what I wanted now. I was one of them, and I had to do what they did, because was simply how it was - it was how it had to be. If I resisted, nothing good would ever come of me. I had to do my duty now. If I didn't, what else would I do with myself? This was how it was meant to be.
I reached out and took a hold of Ichigo's shoulders and gave her a grateful kiss on the cheek, and then I threw my arms around Lettuce, and then Mint, and then to Zakuro, who, surprisingly, hugged me back; then I knelt and kissed little Pudding on the cheek.
"My heroes. You were incredible. I'll repay you somehow."
They looked at me with glassy eyes. Then Keiichiro tapped my back. I turned around.
"Shirogane tells me you should be getting home, Milady. Something about your father?"
"Oh, good Lord! I completely forgot!"
"He also told me to tell you this." Keiichiro cleared his throat and recited, in an impeccable Ryou impersonation, "'I'm walking you all the way home, no matter what you try to pull over this time.'"
I tried and failed to suppress my mirth regarding this.
"Oh, is that so? Pray tell, where is he now that he's so dead-set on getting me home and out of his sight?"
An agitated, impatient voice from behind me said, "I'm right here. Don't get your panties in a wad. I had to check up on a few details while you six were having your girly hugging session. But I'm back now."
I flushed over.
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh. I'll see you tomorrow, everyone. Wonderful job out there tonight. You have succeeded in impressing the famously blasé Ryou Shirogane."
We giggled accordingly.
"Kobayashi, come on."
He impatiently made a gesture with his hand, indicating for me to follow, and began to walk out of the alleyway. Mint elbowed me in the side to make me go, and then she exchanged a glance with a very red-in-the-face Ichigo. I waved and smiled at everyone nervously and hopped off to catch up with him. They watched me with very wide, amused, and knowing eyes. I didn't really get what that was all about, but once Ryou and I rounded a corner, I heard sudden bouts of hysterical, uncontrollable laughter.
-
It was as though we had picked up where we'd left off, only not as alert and quiet. After a while of drifting off into my own world, I gradually realized he was using the scenic route to get me home; we were in one of the various small walking parks of Tokyo, like the one I'd slept in days before. It was very nearly deserted of people. We made small talk and I nervously fiddled much too much with a keychain on my bag. I had nearly torn it off with my desperately shaking hands when Ryou said,
"I have to ask. Why did you call me a fascist pig?"
"What?"
"You know what I mean."
"Oh. Um. It's stupid."
"I don't care."
"Oh. Well. Er."
I looped a strand of my hair around my fingers and began tugging until tears sprang into my eyes from the pain. I really didn't want to tell him this.
"I'll tell you if…"
"If?"
"…If you t-tell me why… y-you only call me by my first name… when there's n-nobody else from the café around."
It was a difficult question to get out. I stared at my keychain and began to tug at my hair again. Pain stung in my scalp. He didn't make it any easier. It was too quiet. I looked over at him, but it was hard to see in the particular lighting we were in at that moment. He had turned his face away. I regretted having even let the words come out of my mouth. Ryou was the "ask-me-no-questions-and-I'll-tell-no-lies" kind of person; anyone could have said the same. I was almost biting my lip off as I attempted to gage his reaction; it was nearly impossible. There was no way to see his face.
Then we walked under a street lamp, bathed in the artificial light, and I could see everything. I tried my hardest to keep from gasping. The Aryan had turned the ripest shade of red I'd seen ever dare to cross over his stony complexion. I almost smiled, but caught myself just in time for him to steal a glance at me and then quickly look away, obviously trying to seem apathetic, but knowing I'd seen him look. Suddenly I did not feel regretful at all.
It must have been awkward to him, but to me, it was fascinating. The color flooding his face was overwhelming, even to me. He had allowed for me to see raw emotion in him for the first time - and it was embarrassment, no less. My lungs caved in as I forgot how to breathe. He was too impossibly… too deliciously human now that his guard had dropped. It was cruel, but I liked seeing his embarrassment, not for the embarrassment itself, but for the emotion itself. It was so real and human, I couldn't help but like it. Really like it… And it was such an oddly endearing thing that it triggered something very strange in me.
I grabbed his rough hand in mine, and swung it around playfully. He looked shocked but remained quiet and did not try to shrug off my grip.
"Never mind what I asked," I told him brightly. "It's not important."
"If you say so."
He gave me a painful smile and squeezed my hand. "But you haven't answered my question."
"Oh. I guess not. Um. Promise you won't think I'm weird."
"Not think you're weird? It's too late for that, I'm afraid."
Suddenly he stopped walking and pulled me to a halt beside him. He looked at me with those two brilliant blue stones. His smile widened to a grin, almost in a burst of insanity. "Just tell me why, and if you do, I'll try to behave more nicely, how's that?"
"That's… b-better…"
"Then tell me why I'm a fascist pig."
"You… you look like you're a German soldier. I mean, you know, an Aryan. Blond hair and blue eyes, and you're… really tall a-and …"
I stammered and stopped speaking. Ryou looked at me incredulously, but I knew if I had to look into his eyes it would mean the death of me. He was trying desperately not to let his face melt into hilarity. I know this, because the corner of his mouth was twitching pretty badly.
"I-Is that right?"
I couldn't contain my exasperation.
"Well, you can't tell me it isn't true!"
Then he threw back his head and laughed. It was a gorgeous sound. This Ryou person… he was all right when he wasn't boxing up his personality and hiding from the world. The sight of his face in a state of relaxation was quite something, as well, his broad smile nearly contagious. I turned my gaze at my feet so as not to let myself find his smile on my own face. He dropped my hand. A few minutes passed and we walked quietly. Then I found that I was nearly dying of curiosity. I wondered what he was thinking, in all this silence. So then I made myself take a quick peek at him.
His face was as a stressed sigh that he didn't let out.
"What is it?"
"Oh, nothing. You just concern me. You're crazy… You do crazy things."
"Huh? Like what?"
"What kind of a…? As though you don't know? Like running straight into an angry thundercloud of mutant and inbreeded Kirema Anima."
"But… I'm supposed to do that. Aren't I?"
"Yes. I mean no! No, not when you're still in human form, you're not. You just went straight on and risked being picked apart, eaten alive, or worse. You should at least transform first!"
"I… I'm sorry."
"You're sorry?"
"I guess I just didn't know what else to do."
"I'm sure that cannot be true. I think it would be apparent at that point."
"No, really! I don't even know how to get myself into - into panther form unless I'm in thick of everything. I have to be really into what's going on. I can't just stand there -- I can't just --"
I choked over my own tongue, which was suddenly thick and heavy, clumsily knocking around in my mouth. Why? Why couldn't I simply transform like I was supposed to? There was something wrong with me. I knew it. Ryou turned a concerned expression on me and he shook my shoulder a little, the way he had before, as though he were making sure I was still alive and well. Then, suddenly, his face blurred over. I heard him groan in immediate acknowledgement to something. His voice was guilty:
"Oh no. Please, please don't cry. I hate it when girls cry. It's just too pathet -- I mean, I just don't like it. Come on, now… you're a wreck."
"I'm - I'm n-not crying."
He sounded positively dreadful, resentful, as though we was at fault. "Oh, Jeez, yes you are. God, please don't cry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."
"YOU didn't do anything!" I cried, trying to sound tough, and failing. My voice broke and wavered an octave too high to be convincing.
"Well, then cut it out! Please… I'll do anything. You're making me feel terrible."
"I'm s-so s-sorry! I just don't get why it's s-so hard for me to transform. I try, and I try, and then only times I can get it to really work is when I'm either really scared, or really angry, or just in a total state of panic. It's not normal! I'll never be able to do anything if I keep messing up like that."
The half-rabid, incredulous and utterly exasperated look Ryou shot at me would have been funny, I suppose, if I were not feeling so low. He raised his arms into the air, cursing the heavens.
"Listen! You're not messing up anything, except maybe your head! Good grief, you're such a screwball! There is no normal way to transform into a Mew, don't you understand? There is nothing normal about the entire thing!"
"But --"
"You can't compare yourself to the other girls. You can only do the best you can do. Please, don't go and push yourself into something impossible. Your best is your best. And it's not half bad, either. You did a… a really good job out there. For your first actual time. You did things no rookie would think of. And it must have taken a lot of guts to go outside the barrier and expose yourself like that."
I sniffled and wiped an eye on my sleeve.
"No. Not really. Watching these things - hearing stories about them and everything. It makes it seem much more gallant than it actually is. You just do what you have to do."
"Well…"
He pulled me over again. We were in the dark, away from the reveling beams of a streetlamp, beneath the foliage of a tree. A cold wild rustled the leaves and blew through me like I wasn't even solid. It was getting more and more chilly as time wore on. I shivered. I couldn't dare to raise my hoarse powers of speech much above a whisper.
"Well?"
Every part of me was numb and unresponsive, whether from cold, or something else… The most obvious option to gain some excess body heat was only a foot away. To curb the temptation, I took retreating steps, until I backed up accidentally onto the trunk. He did not help me overcome the enticement, for he merely followed my steps up onto the trunk. Pinned. He spoke softly.
"I don't care whether you were being brave or not. I still think you were fantastic."
Any normal girl would have come up with something witty and memorable to say in reply, but his voice made clean sweep of all useful conversational vocabulary in my mind. My lips, almost by instinct, parted. My tongue ran absent-mindedly on the edges, and left them moist. My heart fluttered against my ribcage like a bird that wanted to fly up and out of my throat. Our breath came out like white puffs of steam and clashed together.
"Your ears."
"What…?"
"Panther ears."
He let out his famous lop-sided smirk. His hands tangled in my hair, and then covered my panther ears gently. I shuddered. Inches, just inches, away. Not even.
"We wouldn't want anyone seeing those."
"But there's nobody here."
"The trees have eyes."
"Screw the trees. They won't tell anybody."
"The trees have mouths, too."
"Oh."
And you sound desperate."
"Desperate…"
"Yeah… And it's kind of…"
He didn't finish. I didn't want him to finish. I didn't let him. It would have been hard for him to finish, with my mouth full on his.
He did not resist, but he tensed against me in surprise. I crushed myself to his chest. His lips were tender. It was as though we'd stepped outside, and straight into a warm summer rain.
-
My father was in bed. I still had chores to do, which would not wait until the morning; all of clothing was dirty and there was no food for tomorrow left in the cupboards. I cleaned the kitchen and washed out some glasses. I put on a scarf and hat, wrapped my flimsy jacket more tightly around me. Then I dumped the laundry into a basket and hauled in out onto the awning where the fire escape was. I closed the sliding door behind me, where the freezing two-in-the-morning air blasted onto my face like a siren. I didn't tremble. I never felt cold when I was alone. It was a strange thing.
With stiff fingers I emptied the clothing into the washing machine and poured in the proper quantity of detergent. I closed the lid, twisted the knob, and hit the "start" button. The machine slowly ripped into life and chugged. It was a comforting noise that reminded me of early childhood, although I couldn't remember a specific memory of a time I'd heard it.
Then I went back into the house, searching the drawers in the chest cabinet by the TV set. Eventually I found a small change purse and rummaged through it; I found what I needed for groceries, and then closed up the cabinet and tried to make it look at though it had not been disturbed. I crept back onto the awning with the apartment key, knowing that if I went through the interior front door I would chance waking my father, who had a hard going back to sleep once he had awoken. I patted the washing machine on my way down the freezing metal stairs. The laundry would be done washing when I got back.
Impatient of stairs, I decided to jump the rest of the way down, and swung my body up and over the railing. The landing didn't hurt, but I skidded ungracefully into a precarious trashcan down below which spilled onto the concrete. I might have taken the time to fix the mess, but I wasn't all that comfortable with sticking my hands into garbage I couldn't really see.
The walk to the supermarket was fast. At least, I made it so. In the chill, my senses were hyperaware and stimulated. My feet flew, and startled-looking homeless people sitting in the streets glared after me irritably. I slammed through the front doors, breathing hard. When the late-night cashiers saw me, I composed myself at the last minute and strode in with my head held high, hopefully appearing to be normal enough.
I took a basket from the right side of the entrance and dug the list I'd made out of my jacket pocket.
There was something peaceful about a midnight run to a produce center, and I wasn't really sure what it was, but it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside to see the random but sparse customers roaming the isles, looking for the various items you might want to go shopping for in the middle of the night.
I put my items into my basket, and just as I was rounding a corner to find some curry powder, I saw the last person on earth I was expecting to see standing next to the pharmaceutical section, reading a manga.
"…Takamine?"
His name escaped my mouth before I even had a chance to consider the consequences for letting him know I was there. He was standing with a group of his friends; I didn't recognize any of them, so I suspected they could not be from school. They were all tall and brutish, but none of them held the same qualities as his angelic male-model face. He turned around. Then his face contorted into a mixture of horror and surprise.
"Kobayashi."
We scowled at each other briefly for a moment, and then his features lightened, becoming more pleasant. He smiled. His friends looked at me skeptically, and I broke into a cold sweat under the death glare of their deep-set eyes. They were sizing me up. Kichiro didn't notice.
"Well, well, well, what have we here? Last-minute food run?"
"Er. You could say that. What about you?"
"Same."
Or so he said, but I didn't see an ounce of food on any of them. Just the comics they were holding, and some candy. I had an underlying doubt that they were up to no good, but I knew I would never have the stomach to reprimand or tattle on a group of very dangerous-looking young men, Mew or not. Dealing with people: not my special area of commerce. 'Kaythanksbye.
"Oh. Uh."
Kichiro gestured to his unfamiliar posse.
"These're some friends from my rugby team. Guys, this is Kobayashi Sumono. She goes to my school."
"Um. Nice to meet you."
They either smiled rather dumbly or didn't react at all. These were not my kind of people, if I even have a kind of people, which I more than likely do not, now that I come to think of it. They did not care for me as a thinking human being. They would not acknowledge my presence as a breathing creature, that is, unless I did a pole dance, or something, for them. I could practically see the testosterone levels -- and took it as my cue to leave. I wanted to just sort of wave at him and be like, "All right then, guess I'll see you at school", but I did not have a chance to even move a foot when Kichiro said to his friends and I brightly,
"Well, now it's a big happy party! Why don't you hang out with us?"
I eyed the wall of bodyguard flesh behind him nervously.
"Uhhh, well, I can't right now. Sorry."
"No! Stay! Won't you please?"
"Well, It's kind of late, if you know what I mean. And my father might decide to make a belt or two out of my skin. Ha ha ha."
I stepped evasively to the side. I would have to ditch the plans to make curry, but there was no way in hell that I was going to risk passing by them. I didn't know what was making me feel so frightened, suddenly, but it was like I was teetering on stilts above a pit of spikes. There was something wrong with the atmosphere. I started to round into another isle when Kichiro's fingers wrapped around my wrist. My heart thundered down past my feet.
"Don't just run off. I haven't seen you in while. Where have you been lately?"
"W-work," I answered automatically.
"Oh, I see," he said. There was a twinge of suspicion in his voice that he had not managed to cover up. "Where do you work?"
"A-at a restaurant."
"Which one?"
"The one by the museum of science… the pink one. Café Mew Mew. It's pretty far from here. You wouldn't know -- "
"No, no, I know where that is. How about I drop by tomorrow and say hi?"
I blinked confusedly. What was bringing this on?
"I don't think you'd like it very much. Really."
"It doesn't matter to me, as long as they have food."
"No, I mean it. It's not even my style, and I work there -- "
"That's okay, I'd just want to say hi."
I didn't like this, whatever it was, whatever reason he seemed so intent on coming to see this café. I could tell by the way his eyes were shifting around in his head, the way he grimaced ever so slightly like he didn't believe what I was saying. He could not just be coming to say hi. He just couldn't.
"Uh, well. That's all right, I guess. But really, it's not something you'd like."
"Don't worry."
I frowned.
"You're sure?"
"I'll see you then."
"Oh. Right."
I waved to Kichiro and his friends and walked away, baffled, to the checkout counter.
I pushed the encounter to the back of my mind on the way home. I counted footsteps to and from the train station and around the block. I watched my feet intently because I was terrified of seeing another person who could throw me back into the mix of "real life" … school life. I lost count of my strides around 350, and then started over, pushing my mind into trivial nonsense so that I could keep myself in a nice mood. Yet, when I trudged up the metal staircase to of the fire escape, hauling my paper bags, it dawned on me. When I thought of it, it made me want to be sick.
I slammed my groceries onto a plastic deck recliner and angrily kicked the washing machine, which by now had slowed to a stop. I yanked open the top and angrily started throwing dripping-wet garments onto the clothesline, sopping myself up.
He didn't believe me. The didn't think I was actually working at the café. I knew the reasons why he wanted me to hang out with his rugby friends instead of head on out into the nighttime Tokyo streets all alone. I knew why he looked at me suspiciously when I insisted that he wouldn't like the café. He thought I was avoiding him for reasons I wasn't.
Poor Kichiro. He was only trying to protect me. To be kind and concerned without directly insulting me. But he was wrong, so wrong about all of it.
I made a mental note to add Yumi Yamada to my personal hit list.
---
Ewwwww. End of chapter 14. At long last. Please, do not shoot me. (School has started. Gross.)
Krunk tired.
Krunk go beddy-by now.
Krunk attempt update soon.
-NekoBun