Note: Starting in this chapter, point of view changes from first person to
third. Having Mimi narrate the first four chapters helped get the ball
rolling, but now that the story has developed, her POV is unnecessary.
Chapter Five: Divided We Stand . . .
Since Mimi was still too weak to walk, she had to again be carried by Yamato, and her backpack carried by Koushiro on top of his laptop. The experience certainly humbled her a bit, especially since Yamato couldn't walk fast with her on his back. Mimi tried to apologize for the inconvenience, but Yamato just told her that if it weren't for her, Takeru would be slowing them down anyway. Takeru stuck his tongue out at this comment, and Mimi couldn't help but chuckle at the funny expression on his little face. Other than that, they walked in nearly complete silence, Yamato and his brother sometimes exchanging comments. The scenery never seemed to change; it was as if they walked along the same stretch of river over and over.
Yamato could only think of how his brother must be holding up. He couldn't comfort Takeru by telling him that this was all just a bad dream; everything was too real, everyone acted so rationally and normally, and unlike the scattered, disorganized events in dreams, everything that had happened up to that point did make some sense. "Takeru may be young," Yamato told himself, "but he's not that gullible."
Mimi was too busy trying to stay awake and alert to really think things through. Her brain kept telling her "please, sleep, and let your body heal itself. That is what you want, is it not? You want the strength to walk on your own again, so sleep and recover."
"Just a few more hours," Mimi kept telling herself. "I'll rest when the others set up camp; I can make it until then." However, this was one argument that Mimi could not win, and within minutes, she was asleep.
Koushiro, on the other hand, was wide-awake and trying to decipher all the goings on into a logical explanation. He sorted through his memories so that once they did stop for the night, he could get right to writing a journal about their adventure so far. He just couldn't believe the incredible opportunity in front of the seven of them, and he knew that their first objective was to get home, so he had little time to waste.
Except for a few small Digimon peeking out of the trees and water, no one disturbed the group. Which, of course, was very fortunate since everyone's mind was on something else, leaving them wide open for attack. They took occasional water breaks, every half-hour or so, but then continued on. About two hours before sunset, Yamato pointed out a concave dent in the cliffs on the other side of the river. After some brief discussion, Koushiro and Yamato decided it would be a decent spot to sleep, as they were partially protected. The river was wide, but the current was slow and smooth boulders jetted out in the middle, so crossing wasn't too difficult. Mimi had woken up by then, so she was able to cross mostly on her own.
The four of them shared a meager dinner on the beach alongside the river. When they finished, Takeru asked if he could have more. Reluctantly, Mimi reclined, saying that the leftover food needed to last through tomorrow, at least.
"But I'm still hungry," he moaned.
Yamato thought for a moment, then asked his brother "why don't we go looking for more food? It will be like a scavenger hunt to find nuts and berries, ok?" Takeru brightened at this and Yamato leaned toward Koushiro, who was obviously unsure of Yamato's decision, and whispered "don't worry, we won't eat any old berry we find, and we'll stay close to the campground; this is just to distract Takeru." With that, they started off into the forest, their Digimon loyally following behind.
With that, Mimi felt a wave of jealousy and sadness that she did not have Digimon like that. She crawled over to her backpack and pulled out her CD player and headphones and her sketchbook. She turned up the volume as if drown out reality and set to sketching an unusual, tropical-looking flower a few feet away. Mimi found herself concentrating so hard on her drawing subject that she did not even notice when Koushiro walked over and sat down next to her, observing her work. After a good fifteen minutes, he finally placed his hands on her headphones and slid them off, telling her gently "that's a beautiful picture you have there." Mimi nearly screamed in surprise, but seeing it was only Koushiro, she slammed the sketchbook shut.
"H-how long have you been there?" she stammered, removing her headphones. Koushiro shrugged his shoulders.
"Not too long, but long enough to see that you have real talent." Mimi glanced down.
"It's, it's really not that good. Just something to distract me from this madness, I suppose." She laughed weakly and clutched the sketchbook tightly to her chest. "So, have you discovered anything new about our device-thingies?" she asked, vainly trying to divert attention away from her drawing. Koushiro realized this, but pretended otherwise.
"I haven't made much progress yet, but my theory about the red and green dots is correct, see?" He pulled out his device and sure enough, three green and one red dot marked our location, and three green dots marked where the others' were. Mimi stared at it for a moment, and then unzipped her backpack and withdrew her device.
"What do you suppose this blue dot is, in the river?" She asked Koushiro, pointing to a glowing blue speck on her device map.
"I don't know; it doesn't appear to be on mine. I wouldn't worry; I'm thinking it's just a glitch or something unimportant." He paused for a moment and then asked quietly, "Why do you suppose you don't have a Digimon? You have a device after all, like the rest of us."
Mimi closed her eyes as she felt small teardrops form. She put her headphones back on and tried to think of an answer that would satisfy both Koushiro and herself, but the only words she could make pass her lips were "I don't know."
Not knowing what to say in response, Koushiro quietly stood and walked over to a rock on another part of the beach and sat down, resting his back against the rock's cool, smooth side. "Why is she so sensitive about the topic of her Digimon? Is there something she isn't telling us?" He chuckled softly, "Of course, we've only known each other for a few hours; why would she reveal everything to me anyway?" He opened up his laptop and began typing the events of the day into his journal. Tentomon scurried up to him.
"Something wrong?" He asked in a rather mechanical voice. Koushiro stopped typing long enough to glance over at his Digimon before returning to his writing.
"Tentomon, did you know the others' Digimon before today?"
"Certainly," he replied. "We waited for the arrival of the chosen ones together. We helped guard each other from aggressive Digimon and find hiding spots from those too strong for us to fight. Why?" Koushiro turned towards his Digimon.
"What about Mimi's Digimon?" Tentomon cocked his head slightly.
"She was there too. A bit more stand-offish though, particularly after the accident."
"Accident?"
"We all had a little trouble when were first learned our bubble blast attack, accidentally hitting each other when we sneezed and the likes. Katamon had a similar problem." Seeing that Tentomon wouldn't reveal anything else, Koushiro returned to his work.
Soon after, Takeru and Yamato returned to camp, surprisingly, with a handful of berries each. They were yellowish and bitter, but edible.
The sky darkened soon after and the air grew cold. No one had any means to start a fire, and being just acquaintances they felt uncomfortable using each other to keep warm, so they ripped some fern leafs off of a nearby plant and used them as crude blankets. As tiring as the day's events had been, they had difficulty falling asleep, or even shutting their eyes. Eventually, exhaustion won over and the group was asleep.
However, Yamato couldn't stay asleep. About four hours before sunrise, he realized how vulnerable they really were just lying there in plain sight.
"Damn," he muttered as he pushed himself into a sitting position, "we should have chosen a sentry or something." Seeing the others sound asleep he rolled his eyes. "Looks like I just volunteered myself for that position."
The quiet still of the riverbank was starting to creep Yamato out, so he reached into his pocket to pull out the key chain flashlight that he had used to maneuver around back at the camp. It was pretty useless for most tasks, considering its size, but it was perfect for detail work, such as reading or opening doorknobs. Yamato played with the on/off button for a little while, flickering the mini flashlight to the beat of a song he had been working on back home, but he soon grew tired of this and scanned the area for some other form of diversion.
His eyes finally rested on Mimi's backpack. "No," he told himself, "I shouldn't." He glanced over at Mimi, who was sleeping quite soundly, then back at the backpack. "It looks pretty full; there should be something of interest inside it. Besides, it'll be like payment for carrying her around all day." Trying to erase his guilt with pointless excuses, he crawled along the sandy ground to where the backpack sat a few feet away from Mimi's head. He slowly unzipped the largest pocket, nervously glancing over at Mimi's still head periodically. He finally managed to open the zipper wide enough to pull out its contents, and leaning over it began to shift through the assorted belongings inside it. His finger's fell upon the surface of spiral notebook. Strangely, its surface felt rough and bumpy across his fingertips. Intrigued by this abnormal notebook cover, he gently slid the notebook out of Mimi's backpack and slinked over to his resting rock with it.
Yamato turned the rough blue plastic notebook cover over, revealing the first page. Nothing. It was completely blank. He turned to the next page, and the next. Nothing but blank pages. Yamato sighed in frustration. "I go through all the trouble of getting this thing; what a disappointment." Annoyed, he quickly flipped though the remaining 200 or so pages with his thumb. Blank. Blank. Blank. And then he saw a page with writing on it. He flipped ahead a few pages and saw that they too had writing on them. "How bizarre; she started writing in the middle of the notebook. Wonder why." Yamato began reading the words on the page. It was done in pencil, but nothing on the page had been erased or crossed out. The words flowed in a way that had obviously not been planned out, but they still sang softly in a soft voice. The words formed a story. It began rather sweetly: a boy and a girl meeting, becoming friends, and slowly falling in love. Yamato rolled his eyes. "Girls," he murmured, "love's all they ever think about." All the same, he continued reading. However, he sensed a drastic change in tone at about the seventh page. The romantic, innocent voice that the story had started with disappeared, replaced by rather edgy-feeling narration. Intrigued by this new mood the story portrayed, Yamato read on, more carefully now. "After a slightly awkward dinner scene, the girl and her boyfriend went on a drive along a quiet road beside an empty wood. They got out of the car and sat down in a grassy clearing on a hill, overlooking the moon as it slowly rose above the eastern horizon.
"The boy leaned over and wrapped his arm around the girl's waist like he always did, gazing into her eyes, but he could feel her muscles tighten under his arm and she looked away.
" 'I-I think we should start seeing other people,' she told him, her voice barely above a whisper. His smile disappeared, replaced by a look of confusion and protest. 'I don't think this will work out, and so I'm breaking up with you.'
The boy's eyes narrowed in hatred as his confusion was replaced by blunt anger. 'You're dumping me? After seven months? Haven't I been good to you?' The girl, still staring at the ground, slipped out of his embrace and slid a foot away from him.
" 'I'm sorry,' she murmured.
" 'Sorry? SORRY?' the boy yelled. 'Dammit, what more do you want from me? So that's it, just 'good-bye' and we're through?'
" 'I suppose so.' The girl had to force the words out of her mouth as a lump began to form in her throat, blocking out all sound. The boy shook for a moment and then violently pushed the girl to the ground.
" 'Like hell we are!' he hissed. Frightened, the girl tried to sit up, but the boy pinned her shoulders to the ground with his hands. He leaned down and kissed her on the mouth, only to have the girl push him back.
" 'Let go of me!' She wailed. 'Take me home!' She freed one arm and slapped the boy squarely on the cheek. Temporarily dazed he lifted his hand to the red mark on his face, gritting his teeth.
" 'You'll regret that,' he smirked, and removing his hand from his injured cheek, he yanked at the collar of her shirt, breaking off the top button on her blouse."
Yamato's eyes widened as he continued reading the story. He was absolutely stunned and surprised that Mimi had written such a painful story.
"It's so emotional, almost like it was written from personal experience. But," he glanced over at where she lay, "that couldn't be right." The story stopped rather abruptly, in mid-sentence, and Yamato had to squint to try and read the last few words as they were smeared. The paper had obviously been wet at one time as the blue lines bled into the white and the paper was wrinkled in spots, a sign of water damage. Scribbled at the bottom of the page was another paragraph.
"I hate boys. I hate them I hate them I HATE THEM! I hate them for their centuries of crime against us, the pain they've forced upon us, the way they shamelessly give themselves authority to control us. Who died and gave THEM the liberty to decide that they should be superior to us? I hate the way they pour shame on us like melted butter, denying us of even a glimmer of hope that maybe one of us will be saved from their ruthless abuse. They all must be punished for centuries of suffering, every last one. They think that equality has finally been reached; thank us, women! We have given you equality! You call this equality? Damn moron will never have any clue as to what we have put up with all of our lives. Screw them! Oh no wait . . . that's just what they want . . . bastards"
Yamato just stared blankly at the tear-streaked paragraph in disbelief.
"Is that how she sees us?" He looked over to where she lay again. "She didn't act this way around us, so why . . ." he numbly dropped the notebook to the ground and just sat, trying to comprehend the messy words on the page. "I guess," he mumbled, "that everyone has a secret world, and hers just happens to start in the middle of a notebook." He stared up at the stars in the sky not hidden by wispy clouds. The only sounds were those of the water lapping up against the riverbank, and the wind occasionally brushing up against the tall river grasses. "Are we, really that way? That evil?" He let out a warm breath of air. "What happened to her?"
Yamato's head drooped and he blankly picked the notebook up again and slowly flipped through the pages. There were other stories after that, but he couldn't read any more. Instead, he stumbled over to Mimi's backpack where he carefully placed the notebook back in and closed the zipper.
"If a picture is worth a thousand words," he chuckled weakly, "and that was just a few hundred, I don't want to even guess what's in her sketchbook." He sat and stared at Mimi's sleeping face, her harsh words repeating themselves over and over in his mind. She seemed so calm, just lying there, very unlike the violent voice buried somewhere inside her.
Yamato just wanted to sleep away the confusion, but this recent perspective set him in a zombie-like state that lasted for quite some time. Actually, he managed to stay awake until dawn at which point his mind finally gave way to sleep.
~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
Author's Note: Bizarre, huh? Don't worry, there won't be too much of this again for a while; I just wanted to introduce this other side of Mimi as a precursor of future events in the story. That, and the fact that I need to rant about things occasionally, so I incorporate these feelings into the characters to make them seem more realistic (and help control my own emotional confusion and hatred). Not much really happened in this chapter (despite its incredible length), so I'll make up for that next time, 'k? ^^ PS: the more reviews I get on "Replaced," the sooner I'll finish the next chapter (the reviews work as a motivator)!
Chapter Five: Divided We Stand . . .
Since Mimi was still too weak to walk, she had to again be carried by Yamato, and her backpack carried by Koushiro on top of his laptop. The experience certainly humbled her a bit, especially since Yamato couldn't walk fast with her on his back. Mimi tried to apologize for the inconvenience, but Yamato just told her that if it weren't for her, Takeru would be slowing them down anyway. Takeru stuck his tongue out at this comment, and Mimi couldn't help but chuckle at the funny expression on his little face. Other than that, they walked in nearly complete silence, Yamato and his brother sometimes exchanging comments. The scenery never seemed to change; it was as if they walked along the same stretch of river over and over.
Yamato could only think of how his brother must be holding up. He couldn't comfort Takeru by telling him that this was all just a bad dream; everything was too real, everyone acted so rationally and normally, and unlike the scattered, disorganized events in dreams, everything that had happened up to that point did make some sense. "Takeru may be young," Yamato told himself, "but he's not that gullible."
Mimi was too busy trying to stay awake and alert to really think things through. Her brain kept telling her "please, sleep, and let your body heal itself. That is what you want, is it not? You want the strength to walk on your own again, so sleep and recover."
"Just a few more hours," Mimi kept telling herself. "I'll rest when the others set up camp; I can make it until then." However, this was one argument that Mimi could not win, and within minutes, she was asleep.
Koushiro, on the other hand, was wide-awake and trying to decipher all the goings on into a logical explanation. He sorted through his memories so that once they did stop for the night, he could get right to writing a journal about their adventure so far. He just couldn't believe the incredible opportunity in front of the seven of them, and he knew that their first objective was to get home, so he had little time to waste.
Except for a few small Digimon peeking out of the trees and water, no one disturbed the group. Which, of course, was very fortunate since everyone's mind was on something else, leaving them wide open for attack. They took occasional water breaks, every half-hour or so, but then continued on. About two hours before sunset, Yamato pointed out a concave dent in the cliffs on the other side of the river. After some brief discussion, Koushiro and Yamato decided it would be a decent spot to sleep, as they were partially protected. The river was wide, but the current was slow and smooth boulders jetted out in the middle, so crossing wasn't too difficult. Mimi had woken up by then, so she was able to cross mostly on her own.
The four of them shared a meager dinner on the beach alongside the river. When they finished, Takeru asked if he could have more. Reluctantly, Mimi reclined, saying that the leftover food needed to last through tomorrow, at least.
"But I'm still hungry," he moaned.
Yamato thought for a moment, then asked his brother "why don't we go looking for more food? It will be like a scavenger hunt to find nuts and berries, ok?" Takeru brightened at this and Yamato leaned toward Koushiro, who was obviously unsure of Yamato's decision, and whispered "don't worry, we won't eat any old berry we find, and we'll stay close to the campground; this is just to distract Takeru." With that, they started off into the forest, their Digimon loyally following behind.
With that, Mimi felt a wave of jealousy and sadness that she did not have Digimon like that. She crawled over to her backpack and pulled out her CD player and headphones and her sketchbook. She turned up the volume as if drown out reality and set to sketching an unusual, tropical-looking flower a few feet away. Mimi found herself concentrating so hard on her drawing subject that she did not even notice when Koushiro walked over and sat down next to her, observing her work. After a good fifteen minutes, he finally placed his hands on her headphones and slid them off, telling her gently "that's a beautiful picture you have there." Mimi nearly screamed in surprise, but seeing it was only Koushiro, she slammed the sketchbook shut.
"H-how long have you been there?" she stammered, removing her headphones. Koushiro shrugged his shoulders.
"Not too long, but long enough to see that you have real talent." Mimi glanced down.
"It's, it's really not that good. Just something to distract me from this madness, I suppose." She laughed weakly and clutched the sketchbook tightly to her chest. "So, have you discovered anything new about our device-thingies?" she asked, vainly trying to divert attention away from her drawing. Koushiro realized this, but pretended otherwise.
"I haven't made much progress yet, but my theory about the red and green dots is correct, see?" He pulled out his device and sure enough, three green and one red dot marked our location, and three green dots marked where the others' were. Mimi stared at it for a moment, and then unzipped her backpack and withdrew her device.
"What do you suppose this blue dot is, in the river?" She asked Koushiro, pointing to a glowing blue speck on her device map.
"I don't know; it doesn't appear to be on mine. I wouldn't worry; I'm thinking it's just a glitch or something unimportant." He paused for a moment and then asked quietly, "Why do you suppose you don't have a Digimon? You have a device after all, like the rest of us."
Mimi closed her eyes as she felt small teardrops form. She put her headphones back on and tried to think of an answer that would satisfy both Koushiro and herself, but the only words she could make pass her lips were "I don't know."
Not knowing what to say in response, Koushiro quietly stood and walked over to a rock on another part of the beach and sat down, resting his back against the rock's cool, smooth side. "Why is she so sensitive about the topic of her Digimon? Is there something she isn't telling us?" He chuckled softly, "Of course, we've only known each other for a few hours; why would she reveal everything to me anyway?" He opened up his laptop and began typing the events of the day into his journal. Tentomon scurried up to him.
"Something wrong?" He asked in a rather mechanical voice. Koushiro stopped typing long enough to glance over at his Digimon before returning to his writing.
"Tentomon, did you know the others' Digimon before today?"
"Certainly," he replied. "We waited for the arrival of the chosen ones together. We helped guard each other from aggressive Digimon and find hiding spots from those too strong for us to fight. Why?" Koushiro turned towards his Digimon.
"What about Mimi's Digimon?" Tentomon cocked his head slightly.
"She was there too. A bit more stand-offish though, particularly after the accident."
"Accident?"
"We all had a little trouble when were first learned our bubble blast attack, accidentally hitting each other when we sneezed and the likes. Katamon had a similar problem." Seeing that Tentomon wouldn't reveal anything else, Koushiro returned to his work.
Soon after, Takeru and Yamato returned to camp, surprisingly, with a handful of berries each. They were yellowish and bitter, but edible.
The sky darkened soon after and the air grew cold. No one had any means to start a fire, and being just acquaintances they felt uncomfortable using each other to keep warm, so they ripped some fern leafs off of a nearby plant and used them as crude blankets. As tiring as the day's events had been, they had difficulty falling asleep, or even shutting their eyes. Eventually, exhaustion won over and the group was asleep.
However, Yamato couldn't stay asleep. About four hours before sunrise, he realized how vulnerable they really were just lying there in plain sight.
"Damn," he muttered as he pushed himself into a sitting position, "we should have chosen a sentry or something." Seeing the others sound asleep he rolled his eyes. "Looks like I just volunteered myself for that position."
The quiet still of the riverbank was starting to creep Yamato out, so he reached into his pocket to pull out the key chain flashlight that he had used to maneuver around back at the camp. It was pretty useless for most tasks, considering its size, but it was perfect for detail work, such as reading or opening doorknobs. Yamato played with the on/off button for a little while, flickering the mini flashlight to the beat of a song he had been working on back home, but he soon grew tired of this and scanned the area for some other form of diversion.
His eyes finally rested on Mimi's backpack. "No," he told himself, "I shouldn't." He glanced over at Mimi, who was sleeping quite soundly, then back at the backpack. "It looks pretty full; there should be something of interest inside it. Besides, it'll be like payment for carrying her around all day." Trying to erase his guilt with pointless excuses, he crawled along the sandy ground to where the backpack sat a few feet away from Mimi's head. He slowly unzipped the largest pocket, nervously glancing over at Mimi's still head periodically. He finally managed to open the zipper wide enough to pull out its contents, and leaning over it began to shift through the assorted belongings inside it. His finger's fell upon the surface of spiral notebook. Strangely, its surface felt rough and bumpy across his fingertips. Intrigued by this abnormal notebook cover, he gently slid the notebook out of Mimi's backpack and slinked over to his resting rock with it.
Yamato turned the rough blue plastic notebook cover over, revealing the first page. Nothing. It was completely blank. He turned to the next page, and the next. Nothing but blank pages. Yamato sighed in frustration. "I go through all the trouble of getting this thing; what a disappointment." Annoyed, he quickly flipped though the remaining 200 or so pages with his thumb. Blank. Blank. Blank. And then he saw a page with writing on it. He flipped ahead a few pages and saw that they too had writing on them. "How bizarre; she started writing in the middle of the notebook. Wonder why." Yamato began reading the words on the page. It was done in pencil, but nothing on the page had been erased or crossed out. The words flowed in a way that had obviously not been planned out, but they still sang softly in a soft voice. The words formed a story. It began rather sweetly: a boy and a girl meeting, becoming friends, and slowly falling in love. Yamato rolled his eyes. "Girls," he murmured, "love's all they ever think about." All the same, he continued reading. However, he sensed a drastic change in tone at about the seventh page. The romantic, innocent voice that the story had started with disappeared, replaced by rather edgy-feeling narration. Intrigued by this new mood the story portrayed, Yamato read on, more carefully now. "After a slightly awkward dinner scene, the girl and her boyfriend went on a drive along a quiet road beside an empty wood. They got out of the car and sat down in a grassy clearing on a hill, overlooking the moon as it slowly rose above the eastern horizon.
"The boy leaned over and wrapped his arm around the girl's waist like he always did, gazing into her eyes, but he could feel her muscles tighten under his arm and she looked away.
" 'I-I think we should start seeing other people,' she told him, her voice barely above a whisper. His smile disappeared, replaced by a look of confusion and protest. 'I don't think this will work out, and so I'm breaking up with you.'
The boy's eyes narrowed in hatred as his confusion was replaced by blunt anger. 'You're dumping me? After seven months? Haven't I been good to you?' The girl, still staring at the ground, slipped out of his embrace and slid a foot away from him.
" 'I'm sorry,' she murmured.
" 'Sorry? SORRY?' the boy yelled. 'Dammit, what more do you want from me? So that's it, just 'good-bye' and we're through?'
" 'I suppose so.' The girl had to force the words out of her mouth as a lump began to form in her throat, blocking out all sound. The boy shook for a moment and then violently pushed the girl to the ground.
" 'Like hell we are!' he hissed. Frightened, the girl tried to sit up, but the boy pinned her shoulders to the ground with his hands. He leaned down and kissed her on the mouth, only to have the girl push him back.
" 'Let go of me!' She wailed. 'Take me home!' She freed one arm and slapped the boy squarely on the cheek. Temporarily dazed he lifted his hand to the red mark on his face, gritting his teeth.
" 'You'll regret that,' he smirked, and removing his hand from his injured cheek, he yanked at the collar of her shirt, breaking off the top button on her blouse."
Yamato's eyes widened as he continued reading the story. He was absolutely stunned and surprised that Mimi had written such a painful story.
"It's so emotional, almost like it was written from personal experience. But," he glanced over at where she lay, "that couldn't be right." The story stopped rather abruptly, in mid-sentence, and Yamato had to squint to try and read the last few words as they were smeared. The paper had obviously been wet at one time as the blue lines bled into the white and the paper was wrinkled in spots, a sign of water damage. Scribbled at the bottom of the page was another paragraph.
"I hate boys. I hate them I hate them I HATE THEM! I hate them for their centuries of crime against us, the pain they've forced upon us, the way they shamelessly give themselves authority to control us. Who died and gave THEM the liberty to decide that they should be superior to us? I hate the way they pour shame on us like melted butter, denying us of even a glimmer of hope that maybe one of us will be saved from their ruthless abuse. They all must be punished for centuries of suffering, every last one. They think that equality has finally been reached; thank us, women! We have given you equality! You call this equality? Damn moron will never have any clue as to what we have put up with all of our lives. Screw them! Oh no wait . . . that's just what they want . . . bastards"
Yamato just stared blankly at the tear-streaked paragraph in disbelief.
"Is that how she sees us?" He looked over to where she lay again. "She didn't act this way around us, so why . . ." he numbly dropped the notebook to the ground and just sat, trying to comprehend the messy words on the page. "I guess," he mumbled, "that everyone has a secret world, and hers just happens to start in the middle of a notebook." He stared up at the stars in the sky not hidden by wispy clouds. The only sounds were those of the water lapping up against the riverbank, and the wind occasionally brushing up against the tall river grasses. "Are we, really that way? That evil?" He let out a warm breath of air. "What happened to her?"
Yamato's head drooped and he blankly picked the notebook up again and slowly flipped through the pages. There were other stories after that, but he couldn't read any more. Instead, he stumbled over to Mimi's backpack where he carefully placed the notebook back in and closed the zipper.
"If a picture is worth a thousand words," he chuckled weakly, "and that was just a few hundred, I don't want to even guess what's in her sketchbook." He sat and stared at Mimi's sleeping face, her harsh words repeating themselves over and over in his mind. She seemed so calm, just lying there, very unlike the violent voice buried somewhere inside her.
Yamato just wanted to sleep away the confusion, but this recent perspective set him in a zombie-like state that lasted for quite some time. Actually, he managed to stay awake until dawn at which point his mind finally gave way to sleep.
~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~
Author's Note: Bizarre, huh? Don't worry, there won't be too much of this again for a while; I just wanted to introduce this other side of Mimi as a precursor of future events in the story. That, and the fact that I need to rant about things occasionally, so I incorporate these feelings into the characters to make them seem more realistic (and help control my own emotional confusion and hatred). Not much really happened in this chapter (despite its incredible length), so I'll make up for that next time, 'k? ^^ PS: the more reviews I get on "Replaced," the sooner I'll finish the next chapter (the reviews work as a motivator)!