Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover Fan Fiction by Chester Castañeda
Original Concept by Chad Yang
The conclusion of Aloise and Makoto's story.
Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV, and St. Pierrot. Rurouni Kenshin is the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shueisha, Shonen Jump, Viz, Sony Studios, Fuji TV, Studio Gallup, Studio Deen, and ADV. This disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very poor.
Chapter 32: Homework Never Ends (Part 7)
Nostalgia overwhelmed Keiko Yukimura's senses as her childhood memories came flooding back her mind. "People kept asking me why I hung out around Yusuke even as he began building a reputation as a delinquent. To be able to see a nicer side of him few others ever saw made me feel special, I guess. I'll never leave his side because I knew he'd do the same for me. No matter what happens to me or him, we'll always be together."
Yusuke Urameshi made mental gagging sounds within the depths of his consciousness. 'You're tearing me apart, Keiko!' However, had he control of his bodily functions, his body language might have conveyed a different message altogether.
"I understand. So your first love is your boyfriend, Miss Yukiko," said Makoto.
"I'm sorry for not telling you earlier." Keiko hugged the motionless Puu tightly, who might or might not have understood Yusuke's earlier bluff about him being a stuffed toy.
"Don't apologize." Makoto's lips quivered. 'How unfortunate.' To her, he asked, "Was there any particular point when you realized you've fallen in love with him?"
'...It was when I saved you from falling down the river, right?' thought Yusuke. 'That was what Natsuki said.'
"No. Actually, there was no set time or instance," Keiko responded to both Makoto and Yusuke. "It happened gradually. Every little thing he did for me made me fall in love with him more and more. Before I knew it, I couldn't imagine life without him," she confessed, and for all intents and purposes, Yusuke died of embarrassment right then and there.
Makoto sniffled and wiped the tears flowing freely from his eyes.
"M-Makoto-kun! Is there something the matter? Why are you crying?" Keiko felt a chill at the nape of her neck and, sure enough, behind her were Aloise and Sayaka. They made themselves scarce as soon as Makoto began his tirade earlier (saying things no ten-year-old girl should hear, regardless of the fact that she was a shinigami), and returned just now.
"You reminded me of someone. When I was in middle school, there was this sharp-tongued sarcastic rich girl who enrolled in our public school although she probably had the money and intelligence to get into any of the top private schools in the country. When I first met her, I thought she looked like a doll, and I didn't know how to act around her. For the longest time, I wasn't part of her inner circle of friends, but then I never imagined I would be.
"She was always with this emotionless guy who lived with her that she claimed to be her butler. The truth was even crazier than the rumors; the guy was the adopted son of her head butler back in their mansion. She was the typical spoiled little princess who spoke her mind whenever possible. Her supposed servant was usually the butt of their jokes, with her calling him Mister Roboto, an alien, a wax figure, and a statue, among many other things.
"Like you, I didn't know when or why I started falling in love with her. Did I fall for her razor-sharp wit? Her regal presence? Her ability to tell what everybody else was thinking but couldn't say out loud? I don't know. It just happened. Even if she spoke ill of her gangly manservant of sorts, I knew she was fond of him. She may have started falling in love with him too around the same time I did her... in the same manner, at that.
"I was determined to replace that bothersome guy as the person who was always next to her before he wised up and stole her away from me forever. So I gathered my courage and tried cutting in to talk to her, to confess the feelings I've been harboring all throughout middle school. I failed every time because her butler was everywhere, and he even investigated my background like some sort of junior detective. Luckily, she got into an argument with him for always shadowing her around more than usual to protect her from me.
"She and I eventually talked privately during the school festival, at your typical Maid Cafe. It was another disaster. I couldn't relate to anything she told me at all. She knew various topics about literature, film, and animation. If our school had a Film Club instead of a Cooking Club, she'd definitely join. All I knew were computers and videogames at the time. We were totally incompatible.
"I was so desperate to become a part of her life and have her secretly smile at me the same way she'd do to her butler that I called Kurosawa Akira a hack and a traitor to the country who only made western-style Japanese movies for an audience of foreigners. I admit, I was also pissed off at her yapping endlessly about her butler boyfriend when I told her that. It was a criticism I read in the newspaper once. Funnily enough, it worked, or at least in the sense that it made her start talking to me. At the time, she was so angry that she put me in a headlock until I took back what I said.
"The relationship we developed afterwards was mostly immature. Grade school crushes had more depth than our type of romance, or at least it seemed like a romance to me. She called me a nerd who'd remain a virgin for life. I called her the Virgin Queen who'll never find a man good enough for her royal standards. It escalated into pranks. She took away my school slippers one day. I took away her school swimsuit and put it in her butler friend's locker. She spread rumors that my best friend and I were gay. I spread rumors that she and her butler friend were engaged. Petty things.
"She even spread a rumor of her rejecting my love confession, ironically enough. The rumor hit close to home, and before I knew it, I almost cost her Cooking Club their chance to participate in Bunkasai by hiding all their measuring equipment in the Science Club's lab at the last minute. It didn't occur to me at the time that it was too awkward for her to get the measuring cups from me thanks to the rumor she spread.
"Then I discovered that her butler friend again solved all her problems and became her hero by making substitute measuring devices for the club's baking needs. When I came to visit her, apologize, and bring back the stolen cups, she congratulated me on a job well-done, but said that I was no match against her butler who was always there to help. I don't know whether it was jealousy over her manservant or anger over how easy it was for her to lie about rejecting me that made me snap, but I lost my temper anyway.
"I asked her who exactly was I to her anyway. Time stood still at that moment for me, and I was so frustrated that I took the plunge and confessed my feelings to her. I didn't care that she was going to reject me for her butler friend anymore, I just had to let it all out. Our immature love-hate relationship ended then and there. As it turned out, as everyone in our school already knew, she was quite smitten by the boy that doubled as her servant and her childhood friend.
"So that was the point when she rejected you, right?" probed Keiko after sitting there and listening to Makoto ramble all that time.
The store clerk took a deep breath before answering, "No, she didn't. She instead asked me if I could help her forget about her butler. I told her that I couldn't promise her that, so I instead pledged, 'I'm going to make such a huge impact on you that you'll have a hard time forgetting about me instead.' She didn't reject me then, but her feelings for that man were too great to conquer, it seemed.
From behind Keiko, Aloise stirred and covered her face.
"So she didn't reject you at all?" came the falsetto-pitched question of Yusuke. 'Dammit, I thought he was committing suicide because his high school crush dumped him. Really?'
"We had a hard time keeping our dates secret from the student butler and his honed detective skills, but he was unexpectedly dense compared to when he thought I was stalking her because she was covering both our tracks this time around. Her consent and his obliviousness of her feelings made all the difference.
"Those precious few dates and secret rendezvous were some of the happiest moments in my life. Then, around the time her butler graduated high school... he was a year older than her... he made a scene at the graduation ceremony by giving her his second topmost button and attempting to French Kiss her for good measure. The bastard waited the last minute to confess his feelings for her."
"Ah! It was a graduation ceremony love confession!" Keiko exclaimed.
"She rejected him right on the spot, much to the shock of everyone who presumed they were already dating anyway. I was relieved at first, but a couple of days later, she told me something that I suspected from the start: There was already someone else that she liked, and it was her butler friend.
"She then begged me to break up with her. I knew deep down he was always going to get in the way of my relationship with her. She was always going to end up with him all along. I was the third wheel who failed to make her forget about him. We went our separate ways. I was nothing more than a distraction for her until the real love of her life finally got the balls to confess to her.
"Bad habits die hard, though. When we were dating, I started watching a lot of movies and reading a lot of books to keep up with her vast knowledge. When we broke up, I kept my viewing and reading habits, but this time around, animated series and comic books took up my interest. The 2D world then became my refuge and safe haven.
"Dude, isn't this story already over?" Yusuke asked, his patience wearing so thin that he forgot to pitch his voice up. "My apologies! I was being rude! Please continue!" Keiko amended while tweaking Urameshi's butt with his own hands.
"Is there something wrong with your voice?"
"Hehehe. I have a bit of a cold."
"...Well anyway, I was about to graduate from high school when she came back into my life in my final year. She really blossomed after entering her third year. She used to be flat as a board, but she then became a real beauty afterwards. That butler of hers was a goddamn lucky bastard, let me tell you.
"We decided to become friends, and from time to time, I listened to her rant about her boyfriend. Yes, she permanently trapped me in the friend zone, but I took what I could get. I couldn't make heads or tails of why she entered my life again, but I was happy she was in it.
'W-What's going on...?' both Keiko and Yusuke thought simultaneously as they gazed back and forth at the unreadable pokerfaced expressions of Aloise and Makoto.
"We both decided to study hard to enter Todai. It was bittersweet. I had to support her in the sidelines whenever one of her plans to reach her boyfriend's heart backfired, or whenever she became insecure about his inscrutable love. That guy, even though he's a regular Sherlock Holmes, is as dense as lead when it came to love. She told me everything, even her first kiss with him. It was heaven and hell for me.
"Around the time we finished taking our exams, my curiosity got the better of me and I asked what her boyfriend's plans were. She admitted that he was going to the police academy to pursue a career in law enforcement... yeah, surprise, surprise... and he asked her to marry him. But that wasn't the biggest shock I got. She apparently started studying with me to ask for my opinion. She wanted to know whether or not she should accept his proposal.
"It's like someone rubbing salt on partially healed scars until they became wounds again, to be honest. I told her to forget about me and be happy with her fiance. I told her that I'm happy she came back to my life and I wanted her to be happy. I told her everything I thought she wanted to hear from me.
"We met again for drinks a year later. That was the last time I saw her. She said she'll definitely contact me, but a few days later, I heard on the news that she'd been killed by a serial killer and her husband was in critical condition."
'Oh yeah. I heard about the Kanji Killer. Freaky stuff. He and Elaine were actually linked to that criminal?' thought Yusuke while Keiko asked, "What happened to Tokyo University? Why aren't you studying there?"
"I never went. Todai held too many memories of our study camps together. I honestly wanted to die after learning about her death. I applied for other universities as a ronin, did the whole nine yards in cram school, but in the end, I guess I wasn't as motivated as before.
"I became a regular in the Akiba scene, drowning my sorrows with the anime she taught me to love instead of with alcohol; I might have ended up living in a larger apartment had I just chosen alcohol. My allowance from home stopped coming, so I was forced to get a part-time job, and now here I am."
Makoto took a deep breath. "You know, that butler policeman is still around. He survived the attack, and he has proven to me that she made the right decision. He was much more deserving of her love. Until now, he's been painstakingly trying to piece together the identity of the asshole that killed her. He's her Knight in Shining Armor. I've completely lost against him."
Yukiko had her head bowed low, the bangs of her brown wig concealing her eyes, her lips as flat, straight, and pencil-thin as a ruler-made line.
"Thanks. I've decided to not attend your Aokigahara get-together after all. I'm sick of pining for a one-sided love that was never meant to be." He moved towards the portion of his home housing stacks of computer paraphernalia and got a hold of a shoebox. "If you would be so kind, please burn or throw this away."
"You forgot a couple of things in that story of yours," Yukiko said, her voice somehow sounding a lot different than before. It sounded rather recognizable to Makoto.
"What do you mean?" the store clerk asked.
"When she met with you for the last time, she confessed that like you promised, she couldn't forget about you ever since she graduated from high school," Yukiko said.
"W-What?" Makoto stuttered. "How did you know...?"
"Then she asked you a simple question: 'Do you still love me?' What did you answer?" Yukiko queried.
"I answered, 'More than life itself,'" Makoto replied.
Yukiko questioned, "What else happened?"
"She told me that she was going to make her final decision soon, and she wanted me to wait for her till she did. I remained hopeful. The exam results came and went. We both passed, but I then heard she got married with her butler and they ended up living in another district, and I thought that was that. They lived happily ever after. But then she died..."
Time stopped for about a second before Yukiko asked in a manner that Makoto deemed disrespectful to the memory of his lost love, "What do you think was her decision?"
He snapped, "She obviously decided to stay with her husband."
"You're wrong." Yukiko pressed her lips against Makoto's.
'Wha... WHA? WHAAA?'
The otaku hikikomori dropped the shoebox he was holding, spilling its contents: Pictures from the time his lost love and he secretly dated, the time she came back to him to study with him for the Tokyo University exams, and the time when they had their last dinner together, with him wearing a coat and tie and her wearing a business casual suit and pinned hair that he joked made her look like the mayor's secretary.
After he calmed his pounding heartbeat, Makoto maintained, "N-No. I can't be wrong. She isn't the type to cheat."
"Don't be stupid. Stop putting her on a pedestal. She isn't perfect. Not at all. And you of all people should know that."
"Stop it." The tears wouldn't stop flowing from his eyes, though. "I don't know how you know all this, but stop. I thought you wanted me to decline your stupid Aokigahara Suicide Pact. How can I do that if you won't let me move on? How can I do that if you won't let me forget about her and what I've lost after she was killed? Why tell me something when it's already far too late to do anything about it?"
"Please don't forget her." Yukiko blinked back her own tears. "If she were here, she would want you to know that she chose you after all. Would it be too much for you to move on while knowing that fact?"
"Stop it, dammit." Makoto chuckled while sobbing. "You sound just like her, making unreasonable demands." He almost choked on his own spit. "Look at what you did to me, making me taste bittersweet victory. That's a helluva information network you got there if you knew that much about me, Miss Yukiko."
"I apologize."
"Don't. I'm grateful for your help."
"Goodbye, Makoto-kun."
"Goodbye, Itsumi-chan."
Yukiko's heart got caught in her throat.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I meant to say Yukiko-san."
"No. It's quite all right. I feel like a heavy burden has been lifted from my shoulders. Thank you too."
With her realistic (or surrealistic) stuffed toy in tow, Yukiko slipped out of her slippers and into her school shoes, opened the door, and went off into the outside world. That was the last time Makoto ever saw her, at least as far as he knew.
"I guess it's about time for me to do some long-overdue oosouji, huh?" Oosouji was incidentally Japan's version of Spring Cleaning done every December 28. He took a look at the 1988 wall scroll and broken clock, then took them down.
Outside the small apartment tucked away somewhere in Ueno District's Taito Ward, around noon or so...
"Was that a successful mission or... what?" Yusuke asked after finding an empty men's room to change out of Keiko's uniform and wipe out the makeup on his face. "I was surprised how Ally was able to force your ghost out of my body at the last minute. Now that's some willpower right there."
"I sort of consider ourselves to be ghost helpers instead of ghost fighters, to be honest," Keiko said, sighing at her lack of a reflection on the mirror.
"Uh, Keiko, this is awkward. Wait outside. This is the men's room!"
"Yeah, yeah..."
In front of the comfort room floated Sayaka. "Where's Aloise, Sayaka-chan?" Keiko asked.
Sayaka said, "She's gone, but she explained to me everything before she left."
"I'd also like an explanation. I was shocked to learn that she planned to cheat on her husband with that guy. I mean, it's none of my business, but wow! I wonder what led her to marry that butler friend of hers even though she rejected his proposal to date her earlier on."
"Keiko-neechan, she's just like you," Sayaka murmured.
"...What?"
"She's being used as a source of jaki by one of the Chojin's minions, just like you."
"W-What are you saying? Are you sure?" Keiko grabbed hold of the tiny girl's shoulders while she trembled.
"She was killed by the Kanji Killer, correct? We have reason to believe that her murderer is part of the Chojin's army. I called the Spirit World to confirm it."
"But why did we let her leave, then? We have to save her!"
"Because we couldn't do anything to save her. I'm sorry, Big Sis. The person she's bound to, unlike with you and Seiryu, is still alive, so no soul reaper from Reikai can help her rest in peace. Also, she's not in a coma..."
"...You mean to tell me that if I'd died back then and Seiryu were still alive, I'd be in the same position as her?"
"Y-Yes."
"But Seiryu's dead, so I'm better off than her at least, right?"
"I don't know. I'm sorry, Neechan."
Just behind the door of the men's room stood Yusuke while holding Puu and a duffel bag, eavesdropping on the entire conversation the whole while before coming out to comfort his bawling girlfriend.
Back when Itsumi Ikumi was in high school and Likka Ikumi was a nine year old in primary school...
"Chocolate for you, Uncle Jiji!" said Likka as she visited her adoptive big brother and the head butler's son after classes on Valentine's Day.
"Thank you. This is obligation chocolate, isn't it?" queried Daiji Matsudaira, opening the package and savoring the taste of the professionally wrapped bars. 'I wonder what brand of chocolate she bought. Rich people have it easy.'
"Uh, yeah... Of course." Likka's heart sunk, but at least Daiji appreciated the effort she put into both making the chocolate and wrapping it in Likka(tm) brand wrappers she made during arts and crafts class. They even spelled out her name.
"Don't worry. I'll make it up to you on White Day. I might even buy cake."
In Japan, Valentine's Day (February 14) was an occasion wherein females presented chocolate gifts as an expression of courtesy, social obligation, or love to men.
In turn, White Day (March 14) was the time males who received courtesy or love chocolates were expected to return the favor by buying presents, usually expensive ones. The latter holiday had been observed since 1978.
"D-Don't bother!" Likka harrumphed, pulled an eyelid, stuck her tongue out at Daiji, and left in a huff.
Unfazed, Daiji waved back at the girl with the same stony, unchanging face he always had.
Waiting underneath the stairs of the overpass where Likka gave her Valentine's chocolate to Daiji was her bobcut-sporting, glasses-wearing older sister. "You still don't have the guts to confess to Jiji-kun, huh? You should give up on him. You know that robots are incapable of love, right?"
Likka's perspiration flew as she waved her arms around and ran while swaying back and forth like a battery-operated toy of some sort. "Eh? U-Um, it's just obligation chocolate...!"
"That's a lie." Itsumi winked at her little sister as she patted her head. "Relax. I already know your secret. No need to hide it from me anymore. Walk with me."
"Please don't be mad, Sis!" Likka bowed low, the braid of hair she'd been growing long since grade school fluttering at her sudden movements. "I couldn't help myself. It... just happened."
"Now hold on a minute. Why should I be mad?" Itsumi's glasses fogged up as a vein popped on the side of her head, her arms crossed and her hips tilted while she awaited Likka's response.
"W-ell, you know. Even though I knew that you two are already dating, I still wanted to confess to..."
"WHO SAID WE WERE DATING?" Honestly. Likka was the last person whom Itsumi expected to fall for the rumors circulating around her school about her going out with Daiji, her childhood friend and manservant.
"Y'know, the usual people in the neighborhood."
"They have nothing better to do. I don't date the hired help."
"He isn't hired help! He's like family to us!"
"I don't date family either."
"...Um, so you're not dating Uncle Jiji?" Once Likka set her mind on something, it was hard for her to let it go, like making Valentine's Day chocolates for her "uncle".
"Like I said... No. And if you ask him yourself, he'll say the same thing."
"You're not being terribly honest with yourselves! You're always seen together after school!"
"You and I are always seen together after school too, but we're not dating either."
"You know that's different, Oneechan! Everyone knows you love Uncle Jiji! People are always asking if you two are dating or not!"
"Those people don't have a say on our relationship at all."
"So there is a relationship between you two?"
"Yes. Master and servant."
"Doesn't that sound a bit kinky?"
"Stop talking like a dirty old man."
"Come on! He's handsome, he's super-intelligent, and he's also the tallest member of his class. He even got offers to play in the basketball club!"
"Who cares? He turned down those offers anyway. What, do you want me to date him?"
"If you don't date him, then I might steal him from you when I grow up."
"Please do, Likka-tan. Please do."
"I mean it, you know."
Itsumi shook her head, turned, and tossed her bobbed hair as she faced her sister.
"If you insist on it so much, then I'll propose to Jiji-kun and we're going to get married after high school. He'll inherit our vast fortune before the inevitable moment when he kills me and you out of greed and becomes part of a whodunit case where for the first time ever, the butler actually did it."
"You don't have to be a smart aleck about it! Poor Uncle Jiji. You're not taking his feelings seriously." In the corner of Itsumi's eyes, she saw a shadow of a smile form in the corners of her little sister's mouth.
"What feelings? That robot doesn't need human companionship."
"I don't want to hear that from you. You're the one he's always guarding like some sort of VIP," said Likka as her cheeks ballooned like a puffer fish's body.
"Aw, but he acts as your bodyguard too, Likka-tan! It was just the way he was raised! All Ikumi servants are trained like that. Don't put any special meaning into it," Itsumi waved off Likka's suspicions to no avail. Her little sister didn't buy it.
Likka brushed her forelocks away from her eyes. "I should give up. Maybe he likes you better than me."
"No, he doesn't. You don't know that. You're precious to the both of us."
Likka giggled. "Maybe you like him better than anyone else as well."
"No, I don't! Don't decide that on your own! Besides, you know Jiji-kun loves you a lot."
"But he only sees me as his little sister, and when I talked to him about Hikaru Genji and how he got his wife, he turned blue even though he still had that poker face of his on," Likka related the story as though she were talking about the ending of the Little Matchstick Girl or the Dog of Flanders (the 1975 version that the Ikumis had videotapes of).
By "Hikaru Genji", Likka meant the protagonist of the Tale of Genji who once got a wife by rescuing a little girl from her impoverished life, taking care of her, and waiting for her to grow up so that he could wed her when she was of age.
Itsumi flicked the top of Likka's head. "Little girls shouldn't talk to men about such stories. Let that be a lesson to you!"
'Ugh. It's Kurogane-kun.'
Itsumi walked brisker than usual at the sight of the gigantic geek in front of the local Mom and Pop video store. She didn't have time for his usual bullshit.
Makoto Kurogane had an appearance that made the Revenge of the Nerds cast look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. On top of that, he was three inches shorter than Itsumi. According to Daiji, the creepy little gnome was the same kid who followed the two of them around when they were in middle school.
Her butler alleged that Makoto had been spying on her during sports club practice, PE classes, and lunch breaks. He might or might not have taken up photography to get pictures of her as well, but that was more speculation on the butler's part.
Because Daiji feared that Kurogane's obsession would escalate to peeping at Itsumi in comfort rooms, bathrooms, showers, locker rooms, and her own house, he decided (without consulting her at all) to shadow her every movement like the Tokugawa Shogunate's Oniwabanshu (government-employed undercover agents).
She had to admit he was quite good, like he was born to play such a role had the Bakumatsu never came to pass and Oniwabanshu continued to exist all the way to the twentieth century. However, ironically enough, she quickly ran out of personal space herself because of Daiji's constant tailing of her, to the point that it was he who peeped at her in comfort rooms, bathrooms, showers, locker rooms, and her own house.
She probably didn't talk to Daiji for about a month or so after the embarrassing debacle. Regardless, Kurogane thankfully lost interest in her since then and, even as the three of them entered the same high school together, she'd been able to talk to Makoto recently without fear of being bound, gagged, and kidnapped. He probably took a hint after what happened to Daiji.
Of course, the kind of conversations they had nowadays seemed to be worse than the nonexistent talks they had when they were in middle school. He creeped her out less, but now he was insufferable! He insulted all her favorite movies, actors, and directors, claiming she had bad taste in film and television. That nerdy bastard couldn't even appreciate a national treasure like Akira Kurosawa!
Their arguments escalated to what the jocks in her school called a "pissing contest" wherein they played pranks on each other to irritate one another until one of them gave up. Nevertheless, she had could do without hearing him call her the "Virgin Queen" again, that was for sure.
However, curiosity overcame her reservations, and before she knew it, she was hiding behind the Science Fiction section and spying on Kurogane, doing what he did to her back in middle school. 'Never mind. It's karma in action.'
"Are we really going to rent that Matsuda Yusaku film, Makoto?" asked Kurogane's voluptuous (male) friend, his headphones strapped to his neck and his Sony Walkman resting on one of his belt loops. "I'd rather play with my Famicom. I want to pick up a new game."
"Shut up. If you want to go, then go. I can do this by myself."
That was strange. Itsumi and Daiji were just talking about Yusaku Matsuda and his "Detective Story" film shown in theaters about two years ago. That detective-obsessed fanboy finally found a modern Japanese pop culture detective he could look up to (because he thought Lupin III's Detective Koichi Zenigata was an insult to the legendary Heiji Zenigata), so naturally he was hyped about Matsuda's latest detective film.
"I need to know more about Matsuda Yusaku, okay? I'll probably have to watch his films in reverse, starting from his latest ones to his past hits."
"And you call yourself Japanese, not knowing who the great Matsuda-sama is! What rock have you been living under?"
"I-I was preoccupied back then!"
"Bullshit. You didn't even care about television or movies until you entered high school." The rotund male chuckled. "Is it because of Ikumi? She has an interest in cinema even though she's part of the cooking club, right?"
"Y-You talk too much!"
"So you are doing this for Ikumi! Forget it, man. She's way out of your league. She's too gorgeous for you. Didn't you learn from your mistakes the last time you tried to stalk her?"
"I didn't stalk her, her pet giraffe overreacted!" Incidentally, giraffe was one of the crueler nicknames Daiji was given as a kid with an overactive thyroid gland.
"That's the thing. She and Matsudaira are practically husband and wife already."
"They're not. They've both denied they're dating."
Itsumi had heard enough. She went through the fire exit to avoid being spotted by the two nerds. Then, for one reason or another, she waited for Kurogane in a blind corner of the alley until he passed her by. She then jumped out and called his attention.
"Kurogane-kun."
"V-Virgin Queen!"
"Who's the Virgin Queen?"
The slap she gave Makoto impressed even her, especially with the way he turned around twice before landing on the ground like a puppet entangled by its own strings. One of her best slaps yet.
"W-What did you do that for?"
"You don't have to try so hard, you know?"
"W-What?"
"Never mind. I'll leave you to your hobbies, Kurogane Makoto-kun. See you at school."
"Huh? Why are you calling me by my full name? Hey, wait...!"
As Itsumi left Makoto behind, she realized, 'Jeez, he's still madly in love with me.'
There was a possibility of her misinterpreting his intentions because she was full of herself, but she had a feeling... via her female intuition, perhaps... that she hit the nail right on the head this time around.
She herself could relate. She didn't even touch all those Betamax and VHS tapes her father accrued through the years until Daiji himself began scouring through them like a madman.
She and Makoto were on the same boat.
It was strange. Before Kurogane started talking to her about movies, novels, and TV shows, she had a hard time following what Daiji told her about his latest discoveries in the world of detective media.
Hell, she didn't even know the difference between sweet basil and Basil Rathbone until the vertically challenged geek suggested renting the subtitled version of the series, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" if she wanted to see what a definitive Sherlock Holmes looked like.
Now she could converse with Daiji about detective movies with ease.
'Thank you, Makoto-kun.'
When they reached their second year, because she had a devilish sense of humor, she spread a rumor that he confessed to her and she dumped him in order to end their pissing contest once and for all.
A year later since then...
"Curse you, Kurogane-kun!"
The diminutive dweeb did it this time by hiding all the measuring cups that the Cooking Club needed for the School Cultural Festival.
Last year, the boy induced her wrath by insulting Akira Kurosawa, and this year he made her even angrier than before by doing something that could cost her club the chance to present fresh-baked goods for this year's Bunkasai.
Was he really in love with her? Because if this was an expression of his love, she didn't want to know what his idea of hate was!
Okay, maybe she shouldn't have spread that rumor about him being rejected by her no matter how believable it was, but that was no excuse in involving innocent parties into the matter! He was totally overreacting to what she did.
She even got to the point where she had to call Daiji's help to solve the crime (or at least have him take the cups from Makoto's hands) when he came up with a better idea on the spot that would buy them some time, since the festival was about to start anyway.
With a conversion table on hand, her club was able to use an empty milk jug that was about a pint and a glass that was marked off by half a pint with permanent markers as a substitute for measuring cups, give or take a pint.
She didn't need to humiliate herself by confronting the guy she supposedly rejected (she imagined his demand would be, "Clear the rumor about me!" or something), her classmates were able to create their pastry masterpieces in time, and she would emerge the victor of their pissing contest (although she really wished it wasn't called that).
Most importantly, this was the second sweetest thing Daiji ever did for her ever since he told her and Likka that they were always going to be family after their parents died from the Japan Airlines Flight 350 crash about five years ago. She gave Daiji a peck on the cheek in appreciation of his quick thinking.
"Of course, she can only rely on her husband in the end to help sort out messes like this. They're an unbeatable team!" said one of Itsumi's friends.
"They should be the festival's King and Queen, methinks," said another fellow Cooking Club member.
"Shut up, you guys." She felt her cheeks heat up.
"Please don't bother Itsumi-san. She doesn't like it when you tease her about that," pleaded Daiji in monotone.
A different fire engulfed Itsumi's chest. "Don't you see you're bothering Mister Roboto here? The silly affairs of us puny humans are beneath him."
"Oh? I thought you were bothered by it," said Daiji.
"Really?" Itsumi's heart skipped a beat. "So what am I exactly to you?" she asked before her whole body became feverish upon realizing that Daiji and her had an audience before them.
The tall, ravishing youth with spiky bangs and the bluest eyes she'd ever seen on a Japanese boy took a look at her, then at her fellow club members, and answered, "My childhood friend and employer."
Her heart plummeted to her stomach, swimming in digestive juices. In the corner of her eyes, she saw her friends wince at the answer.
With a smile and a nod, she said, "Thank you for clearing that up, Jiji-kun. See you later."
"You're welcome," he said.
"Domo arigato, Mister Roboto," indeed.
A little later, after the festival, inside the Cooking Club's room where she volunteered to clean up the ensuing mess...
"I heard your pet giraffe... I mean, Matsudaira rescued you from karmic retribution," said a subdued Makoto as he entered the club room while carrying a box full of measuring cups. "Congratulations on a successful Bunkasai."
'It's okay that you call him a giraffe. I want to call him worse things,' was what Itsumi wanted to tell him, but she was pissed off at him too.
With a saccharine sweet voice, she said, "Congratulations on the measuring cup prank! You sure got us. Too bad my butler is always two steps ahead of you. I'll pay you back later. Look forward to it."
He seemed taken aback by her attitude. "You're not going to congratulate me on a successful Bunkasai?"
She took the box of measuring cups and began placing them back on the cupboards. "No. The Science Club's School Festival presentation sucked. Seriously? Baking soda volcanoes? What are you, in middle school? Lame."
Even Makoto had to laugh at that. "Yeah, we did go a bit 'Science Fair' on the whole presentation thing. That must've given me enough free time to pull the prank."
After Itsumi closed the cupboard and turned around, she expected Makoto to have already left. He hadn't yet. "Can I help you with something, Kurogane-kun? If you're waiting for me to apologize about the love confession rumor, all I'm going to say is all's fair in love and war."
"Whatever. I'm actually wondering if you need any help washing the dishes."
"Nope. I have that covered."
"Sweeping the room?"
"Already did that."
"Y'know, 'A Taxing Woman' was quite interesting..."
"I don't want to talk about movies right now."
"...I'm sorry, all right!"
"Nope, still not... What?"
"I'm sorry I took your damn measuring cups!" he said while prostrating himself on the floor.
"H-Hey! I said it was no big deal! And besides, I did even worse by calling you and your one fat best friend gay!"
"I don't care about that!"
"If it's about the love confession rumor thing... F-Fine! I'm so...!"
"I LOVE YOU! I've always loved you! Will you go out with me?"
Those words shouldn't have as much impact on her as they did because she already figured out he was smitten by her a year ago. Nevertheless, hearing it straight from his mouth served as her metaphorical truck horn while she stood petrified in front of the eighteen wheeler that was about to plow her down and turn her into Japanese pancake (also known as okonomiyaki, by the way).
"I've loved you ever since middle school. No, I didn't stalk you, but sorry for making you think that I did. Now, if you want to make those rumors that you rejected my love confession into reality, go ahead. Get it over with."
At the back of her mind, even though she hated herself for thinking it, she desperately wanted the taller, handsomer, smarter, would-have-been basketball player, and wannabe detective known as Daiji Matsudaira to confess his love for her.
"Even now, you're thinking about him, aren't you?" Makoto didn't need to say who it was he was referring to.
"I-I'm not...!" she lied.
"So what am I exactly to you?"
She reeled from having her own words thrown back at her. Suddenly, she could empathize with the person before her, as though she were looking in a mirror.
She remembered Daiji's answer to the same question.
Those were the circumstances that prompted her to ask, "Can you make me forget about him?"
She didn't know if he heard it from a movie or read it from a novel, but she never did forget his answer. "I can't promise that. But I do promise that even beyond death, I'll make sure that I'll make such a huge impact on you that you'll have a hard time forgetting about me."
After a minute or two, she smirked and said, "Then I'll go out with you."
That was the first time she ever saw a man faint.
"You aren't doing something silly like dating some computer geek to make Uncle Jiji jealous, are you?" was the first thing that Likka told Itsumi as soon as the littlest Ikumi got word that her big sister was "cheating" on her "husband" with the President of the Science Club.
"No. Mind your own love life."
Makoto and Itsumi didn't get many dates because they stayed under Daiji's radar. She imagined the situation as though she were Irene Adler and she was hiding an illicit affair with another man from Sherlock Holmes himself, except good ol' Sherlock only viewed her as an employer and a friend. He could spy on her, but he most likely wouldn't because he wasn't interested at all.
'Huh. It's just like what happened in the books, then.'
"If you're still sore about Uncle Jiji's answer to you in the Bunkasai," Likka started while Itsumi braided her hair and demanded to her to reveal her sources, "then think for a second. He's not the type of person to embarrass you in front of your friends, especially after all the times you've vehemently denied that you two were going out."
"We really weren't going out!"
"...And that probably convinced him that you don't want to go out with him at all. Ever. I bet he said what he said while remembering what you said about him being a mere friend and hired help."
Itsumi harrumphed. "People seem to have made their mind up about me and him. Don't I have a say on the matter?"
"I guess you do. Too bad you don't really love that nerd."
Itsumi didn't bother addressing the allegation. 'Unlike Jiji-kun, he's actually interested.'
Seemingly reading her mind, Likka asked, "But are you interested in him, though? It won't work out if only one party is interested in a relationship."
'The same could be said of me and Jiji-kun, then,' Itsumi reckoned as she finished braiding Likka's hair.
Around the third years' graduation time, which meant it was Daiji Matsudaira's turn to graduate because he was a year older than Itsumi...
"Okay, I'm here as I promised. What the hell do you want?" Itsumi was her pleasant self, as usual.
"Thank you for coming, Itsumi-san." Daiji's jacket was button-free by the time Itsumi arrived.
The Japanese tradition of taking buttons from a male senior as a confession of love... specifically the topmost second button... was a practice popularized by a novel written by Daijun Takeda.
It was written there that the second button was the one closest to a graduating student's heart and it supposedly contained his feelings and emotions from all three years of his attendance in high school. Girls were also free to ask for the rest of the buttons, not necessarily the second one, from the senior they liked the most.
Daiji was currently without buttons because despite rumors of his "secret marriage" to Itsumi, he remained quite popular among the first and second years. It was also the reason why so many people were bugging him on whether or not he was dating/engaged/secretly married to Itsumi.
Regardless, he rummaged through his pockets and gave his second button to Itsumi. "I love you. Will you please be my girlfriend?"
"W-What...?"
His lips drew close to hers. Her face turned burgundy. Her hand made its way to his face before their lips could make contact.
How dare he? Now, after all this time? After she tried desperately to forget seeing him "that way", he came waltzing back into her heart.
Everyone in the graduation ceremony froze. Even the teachers, the parents, and the vice-principal gathered around to the scene.
"Is that what you want me to say? 'I love you'? Please. Don't flatter yourself," she said through grit teeth. From a distance, she could see Makoto standing stock-still. As soon as their eyes met, she turned and ran away.
Why was she so angry? If she wanted to turn down Daiji, there were far less humiliating ways to do it. The diplomatic thing to do was say she was sorry and she liked someone else. She'd done that a multitude of times to countless suitors before.
Did she really love Makoto that much to do that? Was it really Kurogane who made her do that? They barely even dated.
On the same overpass where, a year ago, Likka gave Daiji Valentine's chocolate stood Likka, her hands on her hips, her posture belying her petite form.
"What do you want?"
"I saw what happened." Likka glared.
"I-I'll apologize to him sooner or later. We live in the same house, after all..."
The jumping slap from her little sister silenced her.
"We may never see Uncle Jiji again because of what you did! He said he was going to the police academy after graduation, right? He may leave our family forever! You know he never cared about the family fortune! He always wanted to live on his own, and you're now pushing him away!"
"Relax. Don't be silly. He won't leave our family because of that. I'll talk to him."
"Why were you so angry back there?" Likka asked the same question Itsumi asked herself earlier. "If you really want to stay with whoever your boyfriend is right now, then you could've told Uncle Jiji, and he'd understand, right? Why did you do that to him?"
She soon realized she was clenching her toes, fists, and teeth. "I don't understand him at all. It's always like this when I'm around him. One minute he acts like he doesn't care, the next minute he does something so sweet that..."
"You still love him, don't you?"
Itsumi could feel the breeze waft through her hair and her clothes as she let Likka's words sink in.
"I... can't..."
"You can't keep stringing your boyfriend along while still holding feelings for Uncle Jiji. You shouldn't date him out of obligation either. It might lead to something you'll regret."
"Then what should I do?"
"I don't know. I'm nine years old, and I'm in love with a guy who's madly in love with my sister." Likka rested her back on the overpass's railings while cars whizzed by below them. "Which of them do you love the most?"
"..."
"Oneechan?"
"Let's go home."
"I'm sorry for slapping you. Your nose and cheeks are still red."
'That might not be your slap's fault.'
A few years later...
Shouldn't Itsumi be happier than she was now? She got what she wanted. She made up with Daiji. She broke up with Makoto before she hurt him any longer by stringing him along.
Daiji and her were about to become a couple living in their own home. It was the happy ending she'd dreamed of ever since she realized her feelings for a boy she'd known all her life.
So why was she studying for the Tokyo University entrance exams alongside her ex-boyfriend, the alleged rebound, Makoto? Why was she hesitating when Daiji proposed to her, asking for her hand in marriage so that they could get hitched after she graduated? Why did she ask him to wait for an answer?
She eventually realized why she was so angry when he confessed to her far too late. A year ago, she would've been putty in his hands. Until then, it was hard for her to hate him, and even harder to forget everything he did for her and her family during trying times, like when her parents died or when they were being bullied by their relatives and their lawyers for their share of the Ikumi wealth.
That fondness for him would never disappear. She'd sacrifice her life for him in a heartbeat. Her romance with him, though, was another story. One of her biggest regrets was breaking up with Makoto in such a horrible way, dumping him as soon as Daiji came whistling back. Who was the master and who was the servant again?
She remembered the excuses Makoto would make in order for them to see each other. Like the frightening, obsessive-compulsive stalker she thought he was, Kurogane got Daiji's daily schedule, gave her a copy, and highlighted all the possible times they could meet.
They might have gone to one or two movies the whole time they were seeing each other. Probably. And a dinner date. The whole remaining second year till Daiji graduated and preparations for the university exams began were filled with aborted meetings, changed schedules, exchanged notes, and stolen glances.
For the longest time, her heart held a torch out for Daiji, and all those emotions came crashing back to her as soon as he confessed his love for her during his graduation. She'd always loved him more than Makoto, which was why he was the one she chose. After all, someone's feelings for another didn't suddenly disappear; but that also meant her growing feelings for Makoto didn't suddenly disappear either.
The damn rat bastard was always there for her even when they decided to become just friends. He supported her love for Daiji despite himself, listened to her love problems, and did everything he could to make sure her relationship with her childhood friend succeeded. Ironically, the closer she got with Daiji, the more Makoto crept into her heart without her realizing it.
For quite some time, she couldn't be honest with herself. Her mind couldn't believe that she could love any other man than Daiji. But soon, even she couldn't deny it.
It was the little things. Feelings didn't disappear in an instant, but they gradually did. They didn't suddenly change, but they did change. The sum of everything Daiji did made her love him more and more. The same could be said about her and Makoto. Every little thing that he did for her, even in retrospect, made her fall for him slowly but surely.
She was soon looking forward to her study sessions with Makoto as much as she looked forward to spending more time with her busy butler boyfriend. What was she doing? Who did she really love? The man who finally shared her feelings for him after the longest time, or the man who made his feelings known to her from the get go?
She told Makoto about Daiji's proposal. She asked him what should she answer. She easily recognized the pain in his eyes, yet she still asked that question. Naturally, he cheered her on. Did she really expect him to say that she should marry him instead?
Yes, she did wish that, but maybe he realized what she realized: She currently had a responsibility to do the right thing. So she married the love of her life and left the rebound.
She and Makoto met for drinks a year later. She wanted to hit him upside the head for not going to Todai and being nothing more than a ronin bum even though he passed.
They reminisced about old times, and that was the happiest she felt in years. She remembered the lunches she brought him, the study camps they had, the handful of secret dates they made while they were still together, and the countless movies they'd discussed.
At that point, all he could talk about were love comedy anime, but even then, their conversation went on for hours.
After their meeting, she told him that she made her decision and she would contact him soon. He didn't seem to think much about what she said, but it was something she'd been mulling over for about a year.
On July 5, 1989; at the Ueno District's Taito City, while Daiji was driving around town with his wife of about one year...
"I think I'm pregnant with your child, Jiji-chan," Itsumi joked while trying to broach a sensitive subject as gently as she could.
"I'm happy to hear that," deadpanned Daiji.
She observed, "Yeah, I can see that you're beside yourself with joy, Jiji-chan. You're like a burst party favor right now."
"Please don't call me that," said Daiji, although "Jiji-kun" was somehow perfectly all right with him. "So you're pregnant. That's interesting."
By Buddha's bouncing belly, did he really think she was serious? "U-huh. That's what happens when a girl and a boy really love each other..."
"Not necessarily, as evidenced by the present divorce rate, latchkey children, single mothers, deadbeat fathers, and overpopulation problems. Love doesn't have anything to do with sex."
He really went there. For someone who seemed to be an expert of love, she was amazed at how hard it was for him to read the mood. Then again, she couldn't just say, "Honey, I want a divorce. I'm in love with another man," outright.
But she had to do this. She already made a huge mistake not telling Daiji about Makoto as soon as he confessed to her during his graduation ceremony, although she wasn't sure about her feelings back then.
Was this worth it? Was her love for that otaku ronin worth ruining a marriage before it even started? She remembered her mother, who was in the same predicament as she was now. She discovered it one day when she drank a bottle of tequila in one go.
Her mother didn't love her father. She married him out of a sense of obligation. On one hand, her sacrifice led to her and Likka's existence. On the other hand, it was hard being around the house before her parents decided to sleep in separate beds. The flight that killed them was actually a last-ditch effort to save their marriage.
Or maybe she really was selfish and stupid. Regardless, this had to happen.
She groaned. He still went on and on about the imaginary pregnancy. She listed off what she thought was the symptoms of pregnancy. Swelling breasts meant someone was pregnant, right? "What do you think? Are you excited to become a father?"
"Yes, Mistress. I really am excited. As soon as you can confirm it, I'll be even more excited."
"Whoopty-do, I wonder what that would look like."
Contrary to what she'd imagine as popular belief, she wasn't divorcing Daiji because he was an emotionless pile of dense matter that somehow took human form. She was used to that since they were children. She was divorcing him because they could both do better. She didn't want to hurt him or herself by enduring a marriage of obligation.
"I guess this is as good as it gets, huh?"
His eyes were glazed over, although he paid enough attention to the road to keep the both of them safe. She wondered what he was thinking. The next thing she knew, something blindsided them and their car spun out of control. It went to an abrupt stop, then afterwards... pain.
A car accident right in the middle of her asking him for a divorce: Could things get any worse?
He kept panicking about her wellbeing and a baby that didn't exist. This was the first time she ever saw him so distressed. He asked her repeatedly if she had a concussion. He also said he hoped their baby was safe. In the confusion, even she started becoming worried about a baby she didn't really have.
She told him to calm down, to repeat what she was saying. Relax. They were going to get help. Everything was going to be fine. She saw the man they hit or had hit them... she wasn't sure... move towards their vehicle.
They needed to go to a hospital. She didn't like the amount of blood she saw on the dashboard, and she wasn't sure if she herself was "all there", so to speak.
In an instant, a long, metal something pushed right through the car and into her abdomen, making blood gush from her wound. The stab was excruciating, but what really worried her was seeing a fountain of her own blood.
"IT-CHAN!"
She fell to the side of the road. She then saw her husband battle this muscular behemoth with a longsword. Daiji never joined the basketball team or any other sports club, but the way he moved then and there was nothing short of spectacular. Like he were some sort of ancient warrior.
He did it all for selfish ol' her.
Those were the things that was on her mind the last few minutes of her life when she said to Daiji, "You were amazing. I don't deserve you."
Back at the relative present...
Aloise wiped the overflowing tears from her eyes, wondering if their faint saltiness was due to her imagination or because the ectoplasm leaking from her ghostly tear ducts really did taste that way.
"I've found you at last, Matsudaira Itsumi," the dark, flaming form of the monster that left her bound in the physical plane boomed. It was the murderer of Itsumi Matsudaira (nee Ikumi), deceased wife of Shinjuku Detective Daiji Matsudaira.
"Xinhai Feng." The flaming specter was the shadow clone of Xinhai, who was part of the Chojin's Shin Ju. He was also known as the (other) Kanji Killer or the One-Eight-Ten Killer. For whatever reason, the fire giant's right hand and forearm were missing.
"You had this all planned out too, I suppose," said the jaki-bound spirit. "You allowed me to speak to my former husband and my former lover to gather the info you need."
"Yes. Of course, you couldn't help yourself." He put his flaming hands unto Aloise's... actually, Itsumi's... shoulder, feeling her ectoplasm boil and bubble from his touch. Her face remained unmoved save for a tearful wince.
"I was wondering what you meant when you said that you don't deserve him. Now I have what I need to turn him into one of my slaves, just like you."
To Be Continued...
Next: The prelude to war.
A major event is about to happen in the Demon Sword world, and it involves Kurama and the Kanji Killer crossing proverbial swords once more. A battle of wits is about to take place.
May kailangan pa ba akong sabihin?
Abdiel