(Please refer to Chapter One for the STANDARD DISCLAIMER)
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Ohayo, minna-san! I didn't mean to take this long to write this chap but the reviews were dismally few that I had to derive inspiration from other things in order to write this.
What started out as a one-shot fic is slowly turning out to be another series… Just hope you'd stick with me till the end.
I know very little about SODOM, not having read the manga, so please don't flame me about the plot hole. After all, I'm basing this on the anime and there was no SODOM there, was there?
NIGHT WINDBy: Ryuuen
Fuuko's Point of View
Darkness.
A flash of silver.
Rain.
The jeweled hilt of a sword.
Wind.
Blood.
Thunder.
Falling…
"NO!" I scream, jolting out of the nightmare in time, perspiration cascading down my face, mingling with the tears that fell unnoticed. Clutching at my hair, I pull myself up into a sitting position ignoring all the hospital equipment latched on to me. Burying my face in my arms, I feel all my pent up emotions break loose.
I lost. I failed. I am disgraced forever. Raiha…
I remember the time when he rescued us from the water room back in the Uraboutusatsujin Tournament. He was the enemy, I knew, and yet I still trusted him. He told me that we were bound by destiny and that gave me hope. Not even after he told me that we were destined to fight did I doubt him. I was instantly drawn to him by some inexplicable emotion that I tried to ignore. We met in stealth after the tournament, secret trysts that I always looked forward to. I kept it from my teammates, not knowing what their reaction would be. And I loved him. Beyond all reason and logic, I fell in love with the enemy. I fell only to find that he wasn't there to catch me after my fall.
Destiny… somehow I think it is all your fault! If it weren't for our madougus, Raiha and I…
It was on the night that I finally admitted my feelings for him to myself that he had to go and assault me. He said that he was just following orders, he said that the kindness he showed me was just a disguise, a foil to gain my trust. He told me that the times we spent together meant absolutely nothing to him, that the laughter we shared was nothing more than a masquerade. All he wanted was my madougu, my Fuujin. The Raijin, as it turned out, was a velvet sphere that controlled lightning and he needed the Fuujin for it to reach its maximum potential. I tried to talk him out of it, refusing to believe all the things he had just told me. I hadn't brought my Fuujin that night so for the first time in my life, I couldn't fight back, I just stood there and let all the blows come. But it didn't matter anymore. Nothing did. Physical pain was incomparable to the pain that pierced my heart that time. He hurt me, sliced through my delicate skin, made me feel what it was like to be at the receiving end of a blast from his madougu but he didn't get as much as a scream from me. All I did was shed silent tears as the one I loved tore apart my body as well as my heart. Upon discovering that I didn't have the Fuujin with me, he stopped attacking me and left, just like that. Left me to deal with the pain, the agony, and a stinging sensation in my heart.
I staggered to stand up, squinting blindly through the falling rain. Recognizing my surroundings, I took small furtive steps towards the nearest house and fell limply against its doorsteps. I hear the sound of impatient footsteps coming to open the door and a low familiar voice exclaim. "Kirisawa, what the hell happened to you?"
"Mi-chan," I said, trying to stand up but falling midway, my last memory that of icy blue eyes staring into my own and sturdy arms clasping my frail body as I lost consciousness.
Mi-chan…
"You are not strong enough, Fuuko…"
There were times when he made me believe that he did not care at all. I guess I could never know how gravely mistaken I was.
He was always an enigma, a challenge, the only person who can get me so riled up and frustrated by a single gesture or word. He's so infuriating, the way he acts superior over us, the way he executes even the slightest movement with precision, the way he flaunts his unbelievably captivating looks with careless grace… he was close to perfection and he knew it. Damn how I hated him the first time I saw him. To think that he totally ignored my presence and thought me incompetent back then in the mirror house! It was a good thing Recca blasted his sorry ass after that.
When he became part of Hokage, I tried to treat him as I treat the others. I could tell by his reactions that I really annoyed him and I couldn't help but congratulate myself for accomplishing such a feat. I don't know what made me continue teasing him and calling him all sorts of nicknames when I knew that he could have easily finished me off if I got on his nerves too much. What was stranger was the fact that he actually didn't. But he really is arrogant and I hate him for it. We could hardly stand two minutes without bickering with each other. We were at each other's throats most of the time but that doesn't mean that we really despised each other. I remember the time when he let me hug him after his first fight. I don't know whether it was from exhaustion or shock that he didn't pry me off of him. Actually, I was also surprised at myself for that action. It was weird.
After the tournament, I made it my mission in life to annoy him as much as I can everyday at school. I'd pop up from behind him and try to startle him, chat incessantly by his side as he grumbled unintelligibly, give him playful pats on the back… all in an attempt to make him loosen up. But he didn't. After all we've been through, the Ice Man still refused to thaw and I hated his guts for it. I hated his lone wolfish manner and devil-may-care attitude. I hated him even more after he confronted me about my meetings with Raiha. I never found out how he knew about it and I never bothered to ask why. I was so pissed off by the fact that he was interfering with my personal life that I wasn't able to acknowledge the truth that he actually was concerned about what was happening with me. Ice Boy… concerned? Now something was seriously wrong about this picture…
"Sleep tight, monkey…"
Mi-chan… I never knew…
A door opens in the background as I hear footsteps approach.
"So, you're finally awake, Kirisawa," came the once-gentle icy voice.
Mi-chan?
I did not stir. I just buried my head further into my arms. Maybe if I ignored him, he would just go away. The last thing I needed was for him to see me like this, for him to pity me, or worse, sneer. I was just probably dreaming when I heard his voice speaking to me gently and telling me to rest. The tender soothing gestures must have been mere hallucinations brought about by the fatigue. Maybe I just imagined the concern I saw reflected upon his cerulean eyes beyond its usual icy exterior. Maybe…
"It was Raiha, wasn't it?"
Okay, I have finally realized what was wrong with the first chapter. Mikagami focused too much on the past rather than the present. He was too caught up reminiscing about the times he spent with Fuuko that he seemed to forget to be logical and think of who did it to her. Well, I guess that's not entirely my fault, considering that this story was intended to be a one-shot fic but I'll see to it that I make up for that teensy weensy problem in the next chap.
Gomen to all you Raiha lovers out there if I always seem to be blaming Raiha for all the bad things that happen to Fuuko. I just can't help it. Please don't flame me though. I'll try to make it up to you by writing a fic on him in the future.
Please review. You do not know how much it hurts to have nobody appreciate my work. It's not THAT bad, is it?
Until the next chapter! Ja ne!