With Your Half-Wired Broken Jaw
Chapter 21
AuthorNotes: so let me explain. This chapter represents me to a key. I'm very miserable nowadays because my best friend seems to hate me when he says he doesn't. He calls me and says sorry for not hanging out and that he'll call me tomorrow to hang out but then that never happens and I love him WAY too much to just go fuggit! Like my dear friend in FL says, it's more worth going through the pain for those special moments you get with that person. But right now, I'm just real miserable. I'm not depressed, no no. Just miserable and in need of oreos and ice cream. But you guys are going to seriously hate me for this chapter. You'll see why at the end! Love you guys! :D
"I thought I sensed you here," Natsumi stated with a smile. I was real confused so I didn't know if I should embrace her or act as if she was my enemy. I thought she dropped off the face of the planet and yet, here she was. She was standing in Genkai's resting room with Genkai beside her. Natsumi looked the same as I remembered with her shortness and bright blond hair but her eyes were different. They were a deep purple that seemed enticing. She was wearing a collection of beads around her neck and a large, layered kimono that swayed across the floor as she stepped toward me briefly. "I'm here as a friend, Ardelia. I always have," she stated and I smiled, disconnecting from Kurama and heading toward my best friend. I always knew she was the best. We embraced as she smiled, chuckling a little.
I stepped back some and she examined me with a nod of her head. "I can see Genkai's been training you. That's good. I take it you got my text message before I shut my phone off." I nodded. "So that leads to the assumption that Ritsuko and her horrible bodyguard Rio got to you." I nodded, once more. Natsumi sighed and sat beside the table, motioning for me to as well. I grabbed Kurama's hand and dragged him to sit with me. There's no way he's going anywhere in this type of moment. I felt the others sit behind me and I smiled over at them as Hiei took his seat at the window, acting like he wasn't listening. I knew he was.
"I guess I owe you some explanations?" Natsumi asked, smiling. I nodded. "Ok. Well I was sent to protect you from your mother, Jessibelle." I gasped, so did Kurama and Yusuke and Kuwabara. "Yes. She's been making sure your safe. Given she's furious you're mute but we'll get to that issue in a minute." I narrowed my eyes, making sure to remind Natsumi about it if she was still forgetful like she was before all this hoopla. "Firstly, did you create that scepter yourself?" Natsumi asked, pointing at my scepter that I was still holding. I held it up with a grin and nodded. "Fascinating. That's good. Ritsuko is weak to sorcery, which is why she's been plotting to kill you and try to steal your voice all these years."
"Her voice?" Kurama asked. See why I wanted him here. I couldn't have voiced that and sign language took too long. Natsumi sighed.
"Well since we're on that topic, I'll get to it first. You were born with a voice, Ardelia. You had one. It worked, just fine but your father, being the worry wart he was, couldn't handle you bringing home pets every day. Pets are sirens' captures." I held my hand up.
"Siren?" I motioned. Natsumi nodded with a serious look on her face. By this time, everyone's eyes were on me.
"Your mother is a siren, and a very good one. She has complete control over her voice so when your father vowed to raise you, she was excited to see how you'd come out and by your sixteenth birthday, she wanted to take you back but when I reported you had no voice, she was furious and decided to wait it out," Natsumi stated, sighing at the end. "Jessibelle is wondering if your father destroyed your voice or locked it away in something. I haven't been able to pinpoint it anywhere. I'm not a banshee or else I would be able to." My hand flew to my pendant, thinking of how the banshee lunged at my neck when she said I had it. "You know something…" Natsumi whispered.
"No," Kurama stated. "I know what she's thinking. A banshee has been attacking her. Not recently but every time it did, it was always lunging for her throat." Natsumi's eyes narrowed as she looked at my pendant before reaching out, smiling. I unhooked the pendant and handed it Natsumi. Natsumi looked at it and sighed.
"It's made of 24K gold and has some small inscriptions on it. This could possibly be it," Natsumi stated before she tried to open it but it wouldn't budge, like any other time. "Does this thing open or do we have to shatter it?" Natsumi asked in her usual ditzy tone. I couldn't help but wrinkle my nose with a goofy look as Natsumi blushed and giggled. "Wow. Being in the ditzy high school teenager mode has really rubbed off on me. Ah well." Natsumi handed me the pendant again and sighed. "We'll have to talk to your dad to see if he can get it to open. It's vital you have your voice where it belongs or it'll be real hard for Ritsuko to steal it. Stealing a voice from the voice box is harder than stealing it from an artifact."
"My dad said it would open at the right time," I motioned and Natsumi sighed, running a hand over his forehead.
"This isn't good. Did he ever specify what the right time was?" Natsumi asked, hoping he did. I shook my head and she grumbled slightly before slouching and closing her eyes. She sat there, silently for a second and I grew nervous. I glanced over at the boys who shrugged and then I looked at Hiei, hoping he'd give me answers but he was staring intently at my pendant. I looked back at Natsumi who opened her eyes and was staring at me. "We have to find a way to open that locket prematurely. We can't wait until your golden years before you can talk again. That's not fair." I smiled, nodding. I seconded that motion. "I'll go see what Jessibelle has to say and then I'll be back. She might know a way to open the pendant prematurely without using your father at all." I nodded and Natsumi stood, swiftly, smiling at me as I began standing, along with the others who seemed speechless. I'd have to ask why they didn't talk. They always wanted answers.
"It was good to see you, Ardelia. I'll be back shortly with answers, hopefully," Natsumi stated, reaching out and hugging me. I gladly hugged her back as I smiled. It was so nice to know she wasn't dead or anything. "Sorry to just vanish, by the way. It was necessary. I'll try to get a new phone so I can keep you updated as I go, in case it takes longer than expected." I nodded and she kissed my cheek before waving politely at the boys with a carefree goodbye and bowed to Genkai before vanishing, in thin air. I gasped and looked around before walking to the front door, but I knew she was gone, again.
"You ok, Ardelia?" Yusuke asked. I looked over at him and nodded.
"Why didn't you guys say anything? You were rather quiet," I motioned. Kurama translated and Yusuke grinned cheekily.
"It was your moment of finding answers and we all knew you wanted them so we kept quiet so you could get them," Yusuke answered, making a face at how jumbled the sentence sounded. "We wanted to make sure we didn't distract Natsumi from explaining stuff to you." I smiled and rushed over to hug him, which he laughed and hugged me back. "Wow. I say something nice and I get a hug. I should do that more often," he joked and I rolled my eyes, pulling away to lace my fingers with Kurama's once more. I smiled over at him and released his hand to grab my pendant and head to my bedroom. "Where ya going?" Yusuke asked.
"Yeah. We should celebrate!" Kuwabara shouted. I smiled and nodded with a thumbs up. Kuwabara grinned as I headed into my bedroom to think. It was a lot to think about, now that it was sinking in. My dad had casted my voice into this pendant when I was younger and my siren abilities were working. Why hadn't he told me? I could've kept it secret and acted as if I was mute all my life. It wouldn't have been hard and then my dad wouldn't have been compelled to lie to me. I reached over and dug around for my iPhone before I held it out, thinking about texting him. I sighed and set it down, confused and conflicted.
"Ardelia, are you doing ok?" I looked over to see Kurama who was making his way toward my bed. He sat beside me, moving my phone over before smiling. I nodded, adding a smile to justify it more. Kurama nodded. "I know you're probably confused about your father but to him, it was an easy way of living for you." I sighed, lowering my head as I laced my fingers together. Kurama was way too good at reading people. "If you're thinking about confronting him, you should try to see from his point of view. He was a father with a daughter who seduced men at a young age with just her voice. That'd be a hard thing to come by," Kurama stated. I nodded, understanding that point. But he didn't have to lie to me. I kept that hidden. Kurama would probably have some validated reason for that to not matter.
Kurama reached over and brought my head to his lips and I smiled up at him, grabbing my phone and scooting closer to Kurama to lean my head against his chest. I was so confused now. It was strange. I had an amazing power boost this morning and then just learned I was a siren. Apparently I came to a powerful bloodline, with my mother. I wondered what she looked like and how she acted. I wondered if she loved me or not. All these things flew into my head like rocks being thrown at my face and I buried my head against Kurama's chest, letting my emotions free as I began to cry. Kurama wrapped his arms around me as the emotions flowed out of me. It was hard not to cry in this situation.
My father's been lying to me. My mother never visited or called but had a spy following me around that happened to be my best friend. I was being attacked by other so called best friend, Ritsuko and just killed her cousin, Rio in the fight we had outside. I was mentally and physically exhausted. And as I cried, I felt my body get heavy and I was soon passed out on Kurama's chest.
…::::…
Kurama felt Ardelia's body go limp and he quickly laid her down, grabbing her phone and set it aside. He stared at her face for a second, which was wet with tears and he grabbed his sleeve to dry her cheeks off before peeling the blanket from underneath her and cover her. He kissed her forehead and began heading from the room. Kurama shut her bedroom door behind him and headed into the resting area where Yusuke and Kuwabara were eating some ramen as Yukina sat across from them. Hiei was at his windowsill and Genkai was perched beside Yukina. "She's sleeping now," Kurama announced, taking a seat beside Kuwabara who kept eating as if it was nothing.
"She's exhausted," Genkai stated. "The girl's been through a lot with just today alone. I'm surprised she hadn't passed out earlier." Kurama nodded. That was a lot in its own. Kurama glanced at her bedroom and sighed before helping himself to a cup of tea. Yukina was good at setting out tea at the right moment.
"Do you think we should leave her alone?" Yusuke asked, shocking everyone. "She did just get attacked today and just found out she's a siren and that might attract that banshee bitch even more." Kurama felt insecure at that moment and he stood, heading to her bedroom as the others got up to join. Kurama flung the door open and gasped stunned beyond belief. There was a figure standing over Ardelia's bed with her slung over his shoulder.
"Put her down!" Kurama shouted and the figure looked over to smirk before the cloak dematerialized, revealing Ritsuko. She cackled as she tightened her grip on Ardelia as Kurama went to pull out his rose whip but Ritsuko pulled out a dagger and held it over Ardelia's lower spine.
"Flick that rose and this dagger goes into your girlfriend's lower spine where she'll be paralyzed as well as mute," Ritsuko threatened. The others appeared behind him and went to attack but Kurama pushed them back, narrowing his eyes. "That's a good fox. Now, you'll listen closely. This girl's voice is the direct line from Jessibelle and since my master can't have her voice, he'll settle for this rat's voice. If you're smart, you'll forget all about the mouse and move on with your lives. It's very likely you'll never see her again," Ritsuko sneered and Kurama glared at her.
"You're going to regret this, Ritsuko when I come searching for you and I'm the one that makes your heart stop beating," Kurama said, dangerously and Ritsuko glared momentarily, frightened for a split second, before scoffing and vanishing in a puff of black smoke. Kurama relaxed as Yusuke placed a hand on his shoulder.
"We'll go speak with Koenma and we'll find Ardelia. It'll be our main priority, for you, Kurama," Yusuke spoke. Kurama glanced at him and nodded. He knew that. Even without Koenma's help, he'd go searching for Ardelia and if he wasn't willing, Kurama would make Hiei help. If Hiei could pinpoint his sister, he could pinpoint Ardelia with his Jagan eye. Kurama sighed and turned around, heading out of Ardelia's bedroom and heading toward his own. Yusuke went to walk after him but Hiei pushed him back, shaking his head.
"Kurama has very deep emotions, Urameshi and it'd be best if you left him be for the meantime," Hiei stated, before heading off toward his own bedroom. Yusuke sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He should've attacked Ritsuko, not Rio. He shouldn't stabbed the bitch in the back when she wasn't look in their fight earlier today and now, Ardelia was gone because he thought Rio was the immediate danger. Yusuke promised to himself he'd find Ardelia and murder that son of bitch Ritsuko mentioned as well as Ritsuko. And it'd be for his friend's sake… Kurama's helped him many times before with his own problems and now Yusuke was at his service, to get his Ardelia back.
Author: do you hate me now? :) lol