I then sat down, and began to think. I thought about all those pictures I had seen, all the smiling faces, the little kiss between Miyako and Akito, the happiness that Akito was finally able to show to my little sister, the interactions that Miyako seemed to bring together. I thought about how much her light had faded, how empty her smiles and laughter now seemed, how vacant she seemed to be. And I reached a conclusion. It was a hard conclusion, it was a sad conclusion, but inside, I knew that I had known it all along.
Chapter Fifty-One- Kyo's Pov
Shigure emerged from his study, with a somewhat vacant look in his eyes. That worried me. I had been worrying a lot more lately, something was just making me nervous, and it made me even more nervous that I couldn't locate what was wrong.
"What's wrong with you dog?" I asked. Shigure's head snapped towards me, finally his eyes refocusing into the current world.
"Hmm? Just thinking, I guess I got pretty deep into it." He laughed sheepishly. But I could tell there was something more to it, and normally I wouldn't care what was wrong with Shigure, but these past three days, something had been off as I said before, and if this was my chance to determine what it was, I was going to take it.
"Thinking about what?" I pried. Shigure sighed.
"I'm not too sure myself." He took a deep breath, and let it out again. Something was obviously bothering the dog, but it looked like I wasn't going to get any more out of him. So instead, I went up to the roof. It made sense; it was the place I felt the most comforted, especially now that I felt so on the edge.
As soon as I got up there, I saw Miyako running around the perimeter of our property. Something was bothering her as well; I wonder what it could,
And then, suddenly, it all made sense. It was Miyako who was bothering me. Not bothering me, but something was bothering her, which was worrying me, subconsciously. I couldn't believe I didn't realize this until now. Her smiles, her laughs, they had all been missing something. I leapt down from the roof and darted down to find Shigure. I found him leaving the kitchen with a plate of sweets, and heading towards his study.
"What's wrong with Miyako?" I demanded. Shigure raised an eyebrow and then sighed, shaking his head.
"So you've noticed too." He responded. Of course, that's what had been bothering him earlier. Then what was it, he seemed to know more than I did, perhaps he had known earlier, what was it?
"What's wrong with her?" I repeated, irritated.
He paused, and then spoke. "She's lonely."
I drew my forehead together. "But she has us, are we not paying enough attention to her? How can I help?" I rushed.
Shigure shook his head.
"It isn't us. It isn't anything that we can do to make it go away, except one thing. Just leave it, I know what to do, and believe me, it's something that only I can do as her older brother. I'm sorry, I would include you if I could, I know that you've gotten attached to her." He sighed.
What? He couldn't leave me out of it!
Seeing that I was about to argue back, angrily, he quickly retreated to his study, closing the door tightly behind him.
I growled, frustrated, and stormed outside. If Shigure couldn't tell me what was wrong, or how to help, I would find out from Miyako herself.
That is, if I managed to find her. She had simply disappeared; Miyako seemed to be good at that. I looked for her around the last section of fence I had spotted her at last on the roof, but she was gone.
Then it occurred to me to look in her "roof".
I raced back to the house and stopped once I reached the porch, and slowly, I crawled underneath into the darkness.
"Miyako, are you here?" I called. Nothing, not even a movement, nor a breath.
As soon as my cat-like eyes became adjusted to the darkness, I began moving quickly underneath the dark, cobweb filled crawl space. I just couldn't see how Miyako liked, or found this place comforting. At all. It seemed as if the walls were closing in on me, about to smother the very breath out of me, like it was going to dispose of me, and I would rot underneath, nobody ever finding me. What a deeply disturbing thought process.
Suddenly, I let out an embarrassingly high pitched squeak as something brushed up against my ankle.
"Did you seriously just squeak? Wimp." Miyako giggled. Her red hair gleamed in the darkness, and she seemed to be able to move around much easier than I could underneath the house.
I turned around so I was looking at her. "Shigure's worried about you, and so am I. What's been bothering you?"
Miyako responded automatically with "I'm fine, just a little tired, I haven't been sleeping very well."
I nodded. "Okay, now what's really been bothering you?"
She sighed, realizing that I wouldn't let her get away with that, I had used those excuses too much to buy them from her lips.
"I actually am tired, but not for that reason. I've been having nightmares, more nightmares than usual. It was seeing Ren again, staying near her, being near her. I could feel her presence in that house; I could almost feel her eyes on me where ever I went. I just need a little time to get over that." She admitted, looking down, studying the dirt.
"Oh, that's all?" I asked, surprised.
She nodded. "I'm sorry for worrying you and Shigure, I just haven't been in my right mind." She tried to smile.
I patted her arm reassuringly. "It's fine. Now I'm going to get out from here and go take a shower. How can you stand it here?" I asked, shuddering as I spied a particularly large spider hanging in the corner.
"It feels comforting to me, it lets me feel warm." She responded."What, is little Kyokyo afraid of spiders?"
She saw me watching that large arachnid out of the corner of my eye.
"N-no." I responded.
"Really?" She smiled. Then she reached over and plucked the huge, hairy spider up and held it out towards me.
With another shriek, I lunged towards the light, and then rushed upstairs, passing a laughing Shigure.
But as I ran, I felt inside that Miyako hadn't been truthful about what was bothering her.
