-[The Fear Of Blood Tends To Create Fear For The Flesh - Hiei Jaganshi]-
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT: Symphony Of The Darkest Treasures
I could feel my legs almost refuse to work as I strolled ever so slowly towards the house. My eyes were drooping shut as I felt as if I was about to collapse. It was a little before dusk, and I could see faintly ahead of me, both the hints of Motoko running ahead of me, and the hints of the Spirit Detective Household. As if I was dead tired from running all over the damn city with Motoko for the morning, I had been doing laps for Genaki all afternoon. She said something about building up my stamina before she had me do anything that was remotely close to useful. Until everything was all sorted out and routeen, I was under orders to think Genkai's name as Futako, fair enough, what with a telepath that I was beginning to dislike, I understood completely the need to use different names. But I didn't like the idea that anything I thought at all at any time of the night was going to be heard. Of course I didn't like it! I was visiting Genkai every second day now to go and get training to defend myself, which by the sounds of it from Koenma, his father King Enma was going to murder if he ever found out about it. It's not like I was scared of the fire apparition myself, I was more worried about what would happen if he heard me thinking these things. Oh it was so painful just thinking about it then!
"Hurry up Meia! You're slower than an elderly woman!" Came Motoko's voice, and I flinched in reaction to that.
"Leave me alone! Everyone's been dragging me around the city all day!" I shouted at Motoko, and I could distinctly hear a sound of annoyance come from her. I could hear the sounds of a stovetop sizzling away as I got within ten meters of the house, and I felt an almost sick look cross my face as I began to count down. Three ... Two ... One ---
"Shuichi!" Motoko squeaked, and I just felt the need to gag – I understood the girl liked Kurama, but I could literally see pictures in my head of all the goey thoughts and fantasy's that I knew ran through the girl's mind – I was the unfortunate idiot to not drift off into fairy land when Motoko went on to one of her fantasy describing sessions. "How're you?"
"I'm quite well, Motoko." Came Kurama's voice, and I dragged myself up those steps of the house. Oh how I wanted to just collapse onto the bed down in the basement and not wake up for a good three days. "What brings you out here, if I may ask?"
"She had to lug all of the gear she made me buy here." I said loudly, and I stepped into the house to see through the doorway, that Motoko had immediately b-lined for the kitchen counter. I could see Kurama standing at the stove, and I stepped in to place the kilo of Sugar on the counter. "There's your sugar anyway." I commented, turning to leave as I heard Motoko beginning to reel in her thoughts. It was better to leave the over-enthusiastic girl to her devices, or rather, her admiration.
"I'm assuming you're going straight to bed, Meia?" Came Kurama's voice, and I merely gave a thumbs up over my shoulder to answer as I proceeded to drag myself towards my lair. I could hear the sounds of Kuwabara running around upstairs, and I could hear that Yusuke was here, as well as Keiko again, however, it was of no relevance to me really. The sooner I collapsed onto the bed, the sooner I would be able to drown out that sickly gabble that Motoko was going to start spewing. The girl wasn't afraid to show her affections at least, though she went overboard with it a lot of the time. I stepped down the stairs slowly, making sure I didn't suddenly fall down them like Kuwabara usually does, and I was down on the landing as I heard Motoko begin to spew her nonsense. I could hear it now.
"God damn it, stop being so god damn pathetic with your words." I complained to Motoko, as if she was standing right in front of me, however I knew she wasn't. I opened the door to my room and stepped in without proper coordination. My mind was beginning to ache as I shut the door behind me, and as the scent of something unfamiliar met my senses, my eyes drifted over to where the source of the smell was coming from. For some strange reason, the sight of the brown paper-wrapped package sitting on my desk didn't surprise me in the least, and I could feel a sense of routeen begin to overcome me at the thought of these appearing packages. However, I didn't want to really look at the package just yet, a shower was first in line, after essentially doing nothing but running all day, I thought I deserved a shower.
I could feel a dull pressure in the back of my mind begin to make itself known, as well as the dull buzzing that began to echo through my ears as I began to trudge into the bathroom. My gaze, as I stepped into the bathroom and closed the door, fell upon the mirror, where the girl that always stared back at me resided. I could feel the confusion overcoming me as I looked at the frail girl in the glass, The girl did look more frail than she usually did, and she had shadows under her eyes. She did look a wreck, but maybe that was just because of the running around all day. Yeah, that was likely it. I shook my head slightly and began to remove my new bag from my shoulders as I locked the door with the twist of the tab in the handle. The bag was black, with metal chains hanging from it's pockets. Motoko had really gone and dragged me all over the city, but it gave me opportunity to go grab some things I believed I should have. Like, something to take the place of Kurama's meat cleaver, which was in the bottom of my little brown bag, still there, untouched, unmoved. I placed the black bag on the floor next to the door, carefully beginning to shrug off my half-jacket as I watched the frail girl in the mirror – did I look that pale normally? I blinked slowly, and proceeded to strip, heading for the shower. In essence, the wall that was nothing but mirrors, I really didn't like it, but there was nothing for it.
I looked down at my ankles as I removed my knee-high boots carefully, my gaze tracing the noticeable swelling – I really had been running around all day, my ankles looked twice the size they normally did. And they were tender, I could feel that as I stepped on the cold tiled floor with my bare feet. I could feel the jet of warm water begin to soothe my sore limbs as I stepped under it carefully – I was too sore for the usual cold shower. I closed my eyes slowly as I untied my hair, beginning to think on what exactly I had been doing. I could almost not believe that I had been outside all on my own, deciding what I was doing until this afternoon, and it felt good. I had taken the feeling for granted when I was able to do whatever I wanted before, and now that I could see it, I wished I had done more with my time than do the bare minimum – go to university, come home, hang out with Motoko for a little while, then go back to University the next day. It felt so old, so routeen, and I could have done so much more than that.
I felt my ankles twinge again as I shifted my weight onto my other foot, and I thought of how much I had been running. Five hours doing nothing but walking, running, standing with Motoko while she dragged me all over the city was already agony enough, but I had been running laps around the temple. And I mean, laps. Circle after circle, all around the inner perimeter of the temple. I was told that it was to try and build up a bit of muscle, and I could almost feel the strain in my calves five minutes into the running. I barely did any physical activity before today, and if this was going to be my lifestyle from now on, I had better find something enjoyable to do so I don't become insane. Perhaps something equally as beneficial for my work that I was not supposed to be thinking about. The modern dancing looked a lot of fun, I had watched people playing Dance-Dance Revolution, it looked entertaining, and I knew most of the music that they were using for the songs. Of course, Motoko wouldn't let me live it down.
Turning the water off, I stepped out of the shower, and I reached for the towel that was hanging over the rail next to the cupboard that held a lot of my belongings. I could feel my hair shift against my heels as I wrapped the towel around me, and I frowned deeply – It wasn't too long until I had to cut my hair right back, if it was going to be dragging along the floor soon. I looked up at the door to make my way over, but something from the corner of my eye caught my attention, so, I looked over at what had caught my attention. My gaze fell upon the mirror, and suddenly, I threw myself back from the mirror, and my head cracked into the wall at my back. Words were written in the concensation that had covered the mirror, as if someone had just walked in not ten seconds ago and wrote them in the mirror while I was in the shower.
'You're never alone.' Was what the mirror said, and I could feel my heart racing away in my chest. My mind was reeling as I stared at the glass, and the condensation on the mirror began to trail lines as the drops of water grew and fell, and the words began to become a little distorted. When the hell did that get there?! The only way someone could have gotten in was through the door, and I could have sworn I had locked that. I stepped over to the door numbly, ignoring the pain in the back of my head as I grabbed hold of the door handle, turning it ever so slowly. The door-handle stopped barely a few moments later, and I couldn't turn it the full rotation to actually open it, which proved that it was still locked, and it could only be locked from the inside, I had tested that before. Where the hell did the person that wrote those letters disappear to?! How the hell did they get in when the door was locked, and there's no ventilation shafts?! I blinked. You're never alone. Those words had me beginning to panic, and I could feel my hands shaking as I stepped over to the cupboards shakily, and I yanked the doors open suddenly. The cupboards, as I had hoped, only contained my belongings, I could even see the bottom of the cupboards. I blinked slowly, closing the cupboards again and rereading the words on the mirror. That was written by someone, I wasn't imagining it, and, they had to have done it in the room, while I was in here, the words weren't there before I had stepped into the shower, and, it was written into the condensation, so it had to have been written just before I stepped out. I didn't hear anything, nor did I see anything when I glanced out at the towel on the rack once or twice. Was I beginning to lose my mind?!
The sound of Kuwabara yelping snapped me out of my scenario so suddenly I nearly slipped, but I saved myself, and I snapped my gaze up to the ceiling as I heard the sudden thud of an overly tall human crashing to the wooden floor upstairs. I blinked quickly, carefully unlocking the door with my shaking fingertips, and slowly opening the door. As soon as I could feel that I had gotten the door open, I stepped through quickly, and closed the door behind me. If I stared at that mirror any longer, I was going to go insane, I was sure of it. I leant back on the bathroom door carefully, looking around the room in front of me as I fought to slow my racing heart, and I fought to keep my mind on track as my thoughts began to wander onto what would happen if anyone could just wander in and out of my room, while I was still awake to see them, and yet, I didn't even hear them come in! My gaze fell upon the parcel sitting neatly and innocently on my desk. Like that for instance, they've been coming in and out while I've been away, and suddenly I was not so comfortable with that strange package sitting there.
I began to head towards the desk quickly, ignoring the sounds of footsteps upstairs, and I could feel the foreboding of all of the package appearances finally setting in on me again. I had to admit, I wasn't that worried before. I picked up the package in my fingertips, carefully pulling the thread that was tied around it as I took a step back and sat down on the bed. Unfolding the paper from the package, I found myself staring down at a sapphire coloured Ocarina, made of a very similar substance to the little jewelery box that had come before. It was larger than most ocarina's I had seen, and I couldn't seem to focus as I stared down at it. The crystal had been worn down a little bit over the finger holes, and there were a couple of strange marks in the substance, just under where the right hand would be if one was to play it, and I found myself looking down at it with a sense of recognition. The strange marks formed together to spell out the kanji for water. I ran my fingertips over the crystal ocarina as a small smile crossed my face, and, I could feel the alarm that I had been feeling before completely vanish in a matter of ten seconds. I had thought the ocarina had been broken, when I was much younger, but, here it was, in exactly the same state as it was the last time I had seen it.
I stared into the ocarina as I ran my fingertips over the holes in the crystal instrument. Something caught my fingertip suddenly, causing me to look down at where it was. The tiniest corner of a piece of paper was poking out of the third note hole in the left side, and, I carefully pulled it out of the ocarina. There was no sense in leaving it in the ocarina. The piece of paper, turned out to be another note from the person that had been leaving the parcels here, as I had expected, and I carefully unrolled the scroll of paper as I set the ocarina down in my lap.
'Be careful.' was what the paper read, and, I carefully set the piece of paper on my lap as I began to think. That didn't sound like something someone trying to come after me would say, definitely not.
A knock echoed a split second later, and I looked over in time to see the door suddenly open. Motoko's head poked through the door, and I blinked as she seemed to smirk.
"Hey, Meia!" Motoko sung, and I couldn't help but to blink again. Motoko seemed to be acting a little fruity-like. "Can I sleep over tonight?"
"Why?" I asked immediately, and as if someone was mentally slapping me, I suddenly realised as to why as she seemed to smile with a lot of energy. "You don't want to leave cause Kurama's here."
"No! Kurama invited me over for dinner!" Motoko said immediately, just like a little kid would when they were denying something incredibly embarrassing, or denying something that would have their best friend mock them for years on end. I just rolled my eyes at that statement, and, I took hold of the ocarina in my lap.
"I'm sure that's the case." I said sarcastically, and I turned back to my Ocarina.
"But it's true!" Motoko complained, and I slowly felt the smile cross my face again as I watched the ocarina.
"Sure, you can stay in here." I ended up answering, and I heard the sounds of glee suddenly erupt from Motoko.
"Great!" Motoko exclaimed, and I blinked as I heard her hesitate as she began to close the door. "Uh, you might want to get dressed." Motoko commented, and I blinked as I heard the door close.
"I might want to get dressed ...?" I repeated, and I looked down at myself consciously as I felt confusion sink in on me. "Oh hell!" I said as I noticed that I was still in my towel. Setting the Ocarina and Note in the drawer where the jewelery box and other notes were, I began to set about getting changed, once I made sure the door was actually locked.
