Author's Note: Wow, look at that...it's been uh, seven years since I've posted anything? It's been eating me up, leaving this unfinished, so my Isolation Project is to try and get this all finished. No guarantees, but I'm hoping to be better about it.
10. She hated bugs.
It started when she was four.
She doesn't remember much about her early, years, but she remembers the Garden Incident, as her parents call it. They were visiting her grandparents at the time and they were going to have lunch outside since the weather was nice. Her cousins Atsuo and Eito were messing around by the old shed while she hung on her mother's leg and stared at the food being set out hungrily.
"Yumi," her father said. "Let your mother be. Go and play with your cousins."
"Mama," she whined, reaching for a bowl of something that smelled good. Her mother casually pushed the bowl back farther on the counter so that she couldn't reach.
"She's fine, Takeyo," her mother reassured, patted her head idly.
"She should be outside, having fun," her father repeated. He made a shooing motion at her. "She does not get to play with Atsuo and Eito often. You know how my sister hates to travel."
"Mm," her mother agreed. "Your father's right, Yumi. You should go and play with your cousins. Go on," she smiled down at her. "They are being watched?"
"My sister is outside. Come on, Yumi." He took her hand and led her outside. The sun was bright and her aunt was reading under a small patch of shade. "Another one for you, Asa!"
"Hello, Yumi. The boys are over there." She pointed toward the shed and Yumi followed the sound of their voices.
"What are you doing out here?" Atsuo asked when he saw her come around the corner of the shed.
"Why d'we gotta play with a baby?" Eito whined.
"'M not a baby!" she protested. Her cousins exchanged looks and Atsuo stood back, arms crossed as he studied her.
"Eito lost our ball in there," Atsuo stated, pointing to a hole under the shed. "If you can get it, you can play with us."
"What?" Eito whined. "You threw too hard."
Yumi hesitated, peering into the dark hole. "It's dark," she said. "What 'bout monsters?"
"Only babies are scared of the dark. Everyone knows monsters don't exist."
"Baby, baby, Yumi's a baby," Eito chanted gleefully. He peered up at his older brother with a grin, trying to get him to join in.
"Fine!" Yumi exclaimed. She dropped to her knees and began to crawl forward. The broken wood pressed and caught at her sides. "I don't fit."
"You will," Atsuo said. He gave her a push from behind and she yelped as her head hit one of the low pieces of wood. "See the ball? It's in the corner."
She saw the ball. Carefully, she crawled over to it. She kept her head down and blinked her eyes to get the dirt and tears out of them. Not baby, not baby, she repeated in her head. Sunlight and leaves poked through the lattice work and she could just make out something sitting on top of the ball.
Frowning, she rolled it closer and looked at it. It was about the size of her hand and fuzzy. She leaned down to study it. It looked like the toy that her father had got her. She reached out to touch it and pain raced up her arm. She screamed and dropped the ball. Her skin was red and angry looking, itchy splotches stretching over her palm and wrist.
"Yumi? Yumi!" her aunt called as she continued to scream.
/
Buranko mushi. That was what her grandmother had said when Yumi had been brought wailing into the house. Her hand burns and she's sniffling and hiccupping and can't catch her breath right. Her mother gets a cold cloth, her father gets the car keys.
"What are you doing, Takeyo?" her mother asks. He picks her up from the counter, takes the cloth from her mother.
"Do you see the way she's breathing, Akiko? I want her to see a doctor."
"It was a buranko mushi," her grandmother states. "Nothing more, the rash will go away."
"She's been screaming her head off for almost an hour, of course she's breathing funny," her mother protests. "Takeyo, really."
Her father doesn't listen. She's bundled into the backseat of the car, wet cloth wrapped around her stinging hand. "Come on, Akiko. She will want her mother." She watches her mother disappear back into the house for a few minutes. Her grandmother comes out, brushes the hair out of her face.
"All this fuss for petting a fuzzy caterpillar, eh?" she asks. "You'll be fine, Yumi."
Yumi dozes on the drive to the hospital. Her breathing returns to normal, but her father still makes her see the doctor. He holds her hand the whole time while her mother apologizes for the overreaction.
. . … . .
She meets Kaito because of a butterfly.
No, really. She and Hina are stretched out on a blanket at the park, flipping through magazines and laughing. Every so often they'll glance over at the field to watch the boys play sports and Hina will nurge her and point out one that's tolerable to look at.
"Really, Hina," Yumi laughs, "I think you've pointed out half the field by this point."
"Hush, I have not," Hina responds. She hits Yumi's shoulder with the magazine and rolls over to watch the boys better. "It's just a good day, is all."
"Uh huh," Yumi replies, hiding a smile behind the magazine. Hina nudges her anyway. They're mostly quiet then, Hina intent on the field and only tickling Yumi every so often when she doesn't respond straight away. That's why, she thinks, I wasn't suspicious at first.
The at first refers to the light tickling she feels on her shoulder. She's crossed her arms and rested her head on them, opting for a doze in the warm sunlight instead of openly ogling the boys like Hina. It feels like Hina's running her fingers over Yumi's shoulder.
"Stop it," Yumi mumbles.
"Lighten up," Hina replies, voice distracted. Yumi shrugs and the sensation disappears.
It reappears a moment later on her bare arm and she blows out an exasperated breath. "Hina, stop." Her eyes open and Hina's giving her a weird look.
"There's nothing wrong with looking," she says finally and Yumi rolls her eyes. That's when she feels the tickling again. Only it's on her ear and Hina's arms are definitely in her line of vision. "Hold on, there's a-"
Yumi shrieks and leaps to her feet like she's been scalded. Her hands go to her head; furiously searching for whatever it is that was crawling on her. Hina stares at her, open-mouthed. She notices the laughter after she's stopped jumping around like a lunatic. Hina's staring at something over her shoulder and when she turns she sees it's one of the boys from the field.
"I've never seen someone scream like that over a butterfly," the boy says. He has dark eyes and an easy smile. Yumi stands there, blushing. The boy gives a little bow. "Kaito," he introduces himself.
"I'm Hina," Hina jumps in, brushing her jeans off as she stands. "This spazz is Yumi."
"Hina," Yumi hisses. She meets Kaito's eyes and offers him an embarrassed smile. "I just really hate bugs."
"I couldn't tell," he replies. "It's nice to meet you both, I'll see you around?"
"Of course, we come here every weekend," Hina announces. Kaito grins brightly at that. "We'll bring extra food next weekend if you'd like."
"That would be great!" he agreed. One of the boys from the field calls his name and he flashes them both another smile. "Well, it's been nice chatting." His eyes linger on Yumi and she feels her face redden further. "I'll see you next weekend."
"Bye!" Hina chirps. She grabs Yumi's arm as soon as he's left them. "Oh…em…gee," she whisper-squeals. "I've never been so happy for your weird bug-hatred as now!" Yumi catches him glancing at her as he runs after the ball and seriously, her face can stop imitating a tomato now. "Do you think we should dress up a bit next weekend? Not too much, but you know, enough?"
. . … . .
Their new house has spiders. A whole infestation of them living in the upstairs bathroom. Yumi finds them while unpacking the towels and screams loud enough that the movers outside come running in.
Hiroki rolls his eyes, mutters a disappointed I thought you were getting murdered and sulks back to his room.
Her father comes in brandishing a broom because it's the only semi-weapon they have in the house. The movers stand in the hall and laugh while Yumi shakes and brushes phantom spiders from her hands. Her mother banishes her father and his ineffective broom to the hallway and sprays the whole bathroom with insecticide. Soon they're all coughing and they have to move downstairs while the spiders asphyxiate.
"Great going, Yumi," Hiroki grumbles. "You've probably just caused the extermination of an entire family. What if there'd been babies?"
Yumi's face paled and their father glared at him. "Hiroki, leave your sister alone. Make yourself useful and help your mother move the boxes. Yumi, take a seat."
It took four thorough scrubbings and two weeks before she stepped foot in the upstairs bathroom again.
. . … . .
The first time she ends up in Lyoko, she does not freak out. It's a close call, but she holds it together. Afterwards though? Afterwards her hands tremble and she feels nauseated and thankful that she hasn't eaten anything since breakfast six hours ago.
"Wasn't that amazing?" Odd demands. "It was totally amazing."
"You okay, Yumi?" Ulrich asks.
"What was amazing, Odd?" Jeremie questions.
"I'm fine, I just…I'm fine," Yumi repeats. She is not envisioning gigantic virtual wasps flying at her. This is ridiculous, the wasps weren't even real.
Ulrich nudges her shoulder with his, gives her a shy smile that she finds sweet. And maybe her hands are sweating for a different reason now. "I'm not a fan of wasps either," he admits quietly.
/
After her fifth trip to Lyoko, she's better. She's not great, but improvement is improvement, right? She doesn't wake up immediately wanting to throw up after being chased by a swarm of virtual insects. Yumi knows her standards may be low, but she'll take her wins where she can.
Ulrich gives her a smile each time though, and yeah, that's okay too.
After her tenth trip, she's started to actually look forward to combatting the wasps. They aren't her favorite, they still make her skin crawl, but she can kill them. There's a kind of sick fascination with watching one of her fans slice through them effortlessly, watching them disappear into the ether. If only real insects could be dealt with so easily.
Odd gives an appreciative whistle and gives her a thumbs-up. "Good job, Yumers!" he calls.
"Don't call me that!" she yells back, hand reaching up to catch her fan automatically. She takes aim at the next wasp and lets loose.
. . … . .
At eighteen she moves to Paris and rents an apartment close to her school. Her parents offer to help her move but she shakes her head and hugs them good bye. This is something she needs to do on her own.
"Yeah, but what'll happen if there's a spider or ants or, I don't know, a lady bug or something?" Hiroki snarks. "You'll flip out with no one there to get rid of it."
"I'll be fine," she states. She ruffles Hiroki's hair and smiles. "I'm okay now." Hiroki snorts, but settles into the couch with the remote and that's that.
Her apartment is a small studio. It came partially furnished and she brought her clothes and books, breathed in the smell of the city and felt herself relax. She'd missed city life, she decided. At the end of her first week her first challenge appeared. It was a small butterfly, caught in the kitchenette and flying against the window.
She remembered the feeling of a butterfly crawling on her skin, the memory of dark eyes and an easy smile. She remembered the feeling of pain in the dim gloom under her grandmother's shed. She remembered every incident of breathless anxiety when she saw a creepy crawly cross her path. And she remembered the effortless flick of her wrist, the calculated trajectory, the sudden devirtualization of a wasp followed by a shy smile and shoulder bump, a Good job, Yumers echoing in her memory.
"Here you go," she murmured. She used a ladle to flick the window lock open, a mop to push the old window open, watched the butterfly find its way to freedom and sunshine. Just because she hated bugs didn't mean she had to kill all of them.