By WEIZZ-dono
[Disclaimer]: I do not own Flame of Recca, I get no profits, whatsoever in doing this and blah, blah, blah… and anyways I was not the first to pull this kind of, well, hoax, so if anything, the authorities should arrest the one responsible for starting this whole thing… eh-heh kidding!!!
[A/N]: I'm new… sorta like testing waters… please be gentle? Puh-lease……? O__O
Chapter One: The Similarity Behind All The Difference (part 1)
"All say, "'How hard it is that we have to die'" –
A strange complaint to come from the mouths of
People who have to live."
-- Mark Twain
"You can fool some of the people all the time,
And all of the people some of the time,
But you cannot fool all of the people all the time."
-- Abraham Lincoln
It was late in the afternoon of a lazy Saturday.
The streets buzzed with various sounds of many people enjoying the day when almost everyone can sit back, relax, and be idle.
The day would have been a perfect one if it weren't for the imminent black and gray clouds hanging in the sky, promising a grim revenge of hard downpours. Outbursts of sudden lightnings followed by brash thunders would sporadically light up and rumble the heavens, almost as if reminding the world of the impending showers.
But inspite of the occasional surprise and momentary interruption in peoples' businesses due to the loud heavenly hullabaloos, heads would just look up, comment on the obvious and go back to whatever they're doing. Some would even totally ignore it all.
Of course, it was weekend after all.
And for people especially those real busy ones; weekends are equivalent to total freedom and relaxation. It was the only time in consecutive hectic days, that it's legal to lounge around and literally be lazy, so a little rain; okay (from the looks and sounds of the skies) a lot of rain cannot dampen the universal happy and stress-free feel of a free-day.
For normal people, Saturdays equal enjoyment.
Except for the one named Mikagami Tokiya, that is.
Tokiya's mind does not function by the everyday customary basis that the others live upon, whether because of high regards to himself or some other sad reason only he can tell. He does what he wants without any consideration over what people around would think of him. There was just something about him that goes beyond everyone's scale of typical standard. So place him in a crowd-filled place where everyone was just hanging around and doing nothing with that very unique attitude of his, expect people to shut up and gawk at him.
Because Tokiya was the very antithesis of the word normal.
Tokiya walked the streets of Tokyo with a cold expression and an even colder heart. Women, and even some, um… doubtful men, of all ages ogled him with various expressions in their faces ranging from disbelief, jealousy, perversion, and just plain admiration as he pass them by. Some even gave him interest much more than they give the apparent weather.
He truly was an eye-catcher, with long hair the color of unusual silver, face inexplicably beautiful almost and more than that of a woman's, and eyes of steel blue bordering to gray that bespoke of unfathomable mystery and ruthless coldness devoid of any emotion. The inexpressiveness of those eyes, which one would've thought could lessen his appeal, only makes people more smitten by him than ever, and squashes any dare I say um-manly initial beliefs that his feminish face inflict on some minds.
The walking young hunk of beauty and sex appeal, they would name him, right after they give him more than the look-over. But Tokiya has no care for the people around him. In his mind, he has no thoughts over the fact that people find him appealing, or that some men were looking at him with something similar to murderous hatred in their eyes, he wouldn't care even when he walked around with his fly on, okay so maybe he would care at that, but y'all know what the point is.
He only has the care for the one woman that had truly taken care of him, loved him and sheltered him. That one woman that was taken away from him and now only exists in his mind.
And heart.
He walked among the crowd sparing them less than a passing glance and no thought at all.
He was the antithesis, remember?
Or maybe he only tries to be… for some reason?
Maybe.
'Mifuyu-neesan…'His shoes made small rhythmic sounds on the pavement as he slowly walked by, not truly looking at anything or anywhere. He's more interested with what he sees inside his mind anyway.
'Come on Tokiya… let's play…'
'Smile for me, little brother.'
'Now don't cry, Tokiya… don't pay attention to what they say…'
'…I don't think of you that way, and that's what's important, ne? Smile for me, please?'
Tokiya was so lost in his little fantasy world the he didn't notice the person, with the same occupied look on her face that was walking directly to his path.
"Nee-san…"
One minute he was thinking about his beloved sister and the other a curse was coming out of his mouth as he slammed to a smaller body with force hard enough to make him sway on his feet and his teeth rattle.
He demanded, "Watch it!"
"Oops! Gomen nasai!" answered a small female voice, which was very familiar to him. "I wasn't paying attention to where I'm—"
"Mi-chan?!"
"Fuuko?" he uttered her proper name in slight disbelief as he gazed at her.
She was wearing a simple blue dress that went a little above her knee, which she smartly matched with small-heeled sandals. The dress flowed perfectly on her small body and the color accented her eyes making them stand out a deeper blue. It looked like she really spent time to arrange herself this time, and she turned out real nice.
And does it look like she brushed her hair or is Tokiya's eyes misleading him?
Wow.
"Fuuko?" he repeated as if not sure if it were truly her.
Fuuko smiled in slight humor at Tokiya's obvious astonishment. "What no monkey?"
Oh no, 'monkey' was the last thing in Tokiya's mind at the moment.
He continued to stare intensely at her as if making sure that the nice, and neat and not to mention, girly-looking girl was really Fuuko, the same Fuuko that was the Hokage's resident tomboy.
She doesn't look very tomboy now. Quite the opposite in fact, and Tokiya was at a loss for words.
Fuuko fidgeted a little in a very feminish manner. She took his silence and surprise as a bad thing. It didn't look like she was aware of how good she looked.
"It's the bandana isn't it?" She asked bringing her hand to her naked forehead, "I would've worn it but it wouldn't go well with the whole girly-girl motif thing, y'know?"
She let out a small laugh and gave him her trademark slap-in-the-back-that-she-must've-thought-doesn't-hurt-but-it-did and said, "But hey, Mi-chan, this is still me. Don't look that surprised or you'll really hurt my feelings."
It was still her all right, the pain in Tokiya's back could assert to that. He glared at her while massaging his offended flesh. Dressed up nicely or no, Fuuko could still pack a mean wallop.
He was about to insult her something hideous when his eyes landed on the bouquet of flowers she was holding carefully in her hands.
"Hmmm… monkey on a date?"
Fuuko looked at the bouquet in her hands with something like serene fondness in her eyes before saying, "A date? Yeah, I guess you could say that."
If you had asked him yesterday about the idea of Fuuko on a date, he would have hollered out loud in laughter. But now looking at her in a dress, of all the unbelievable things, and without her bandana? You should have asked him yesterday.
Oo-kay, so who's the lucky guy?"The world must be ending then." He teased instead.
Fuuko laughed. Not biting back in her usual banter mood.
"And what about you, Mi-chan?" she asked giving him a small smile, "Where have you been? Or is it going?"
"I was at the cemetery." Answered Tokiya plainly. And it surprised him that he responded to her question truthfully and without hesitation. Regularly he would scornfully answer 'none of your business' to her or to them all.
Was there maybe something wrong with him?
Hmmm.
Must be the weather.
"Your nee-san huh?"
A very loud thunder interrupted whatever words Tokiya was about to say. For a moment a bright streak of lightning illuminated everything and Tokiya silently studied Fuuko who has raised her head and stared at the angry sky.
He gauged her reaction.
"You must think it's pathetic, right?" he asked in a small voice barely concealing the bitterness from the pity he heard in her a while ago. It amazed him again that he was actually having this conversation with Fuuko, under the pending rain and in the middle of the streets.
It was so not like him.
"To be hung up like this?"
It was the sympathy, he supposed. He never liked hearing that in people's voice when it's directed to him.
He'll never like it.
Fuuko furrowed her brows and gazed at him in slight puzzlement. The cold tone and the pain plus the strong resentment underlying it all was more than she was used to hearing from her odd friend. Yes, she knew he was cold, but not like this.
"No, of course not, Mi-chan," and her voice was not without understanding, "I don't think I can think of you that way even if I wanted to or don't know you better."
She paused and stared directly at him. And there was conviction in her voice not pity when she said, "I don't think of you that way, Tokiya. I just don't."
'…smile for me, please?'
Another thunder saved him from reacting. And he was thankful, because he has no answer anyway.
Silence enveloped them as they both raised their heads to stare at the dark sky that seemed bottomless and empty at the same time.
He then commented, "It's going to be a hard rain." Which sounded plain dumb to him to say just out of the blue.
"Yeah," she agreed, "I like it when it rains. It feels like God's way of, I don't know, washing the world or something?" and that also came out sounding like something a mental person would say.
He smiled a little, "But?" inquiring for the upturned tone she used that signaled an opposition.
"But," she smiled too, but a little melancholic this time, "not today…"
And Tokiya was again silent at that. It seems like it was the-Tokiya-running-out-of-words-to-say day that day.
"Well, I better be going now, Mi-chan," giving him a strained smile and another 'pat' at his shoulder. "I don't wanna be late for my date y'know."
After giving him one little wave, she walked away.
Tokiya stared at her slowly retreating form.
All those time he went to the cemetery to visit his sister, he would come home later feeling himself sink a little deeper to the coldness and darkness of his hatred. The naked loneliness and the still fresh pain would slowly consume his entire being and he would be lost in that… world… that zone, where everything was black… where no one can rescue him.
And he cannot smile.
'I don't think of you that way… I just don't'Fuuko's form disappeared amidst the thickness of the crowd but Tokiya still stared, with something akin to wonder in his face.
After a while, he slowly turned around and continued on his way, padding his feet on the pavement with his slow and deliberate strides.
It was just another afternoon of a lazy Saturday. Everyone was out and enjoying on the streets, and as usual, they would goggle at him and salivate when he passed by.
He was coming home from another visit in the cemetery. Every weekend like all the other times, when he would go to his sister, nothing extraordinary.
Yeah, nothing extraordinary.
But for some reason, he can't seem to stop himself from smiling.
Must be the weather, ne?
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So??? How was it? Good? Bad? Strange? Hideous? Dumb? Ugly? Revolting? Weird? Horrific? Appalling? Awful?... choose one and tell me, okay? You're all welcome to point out my mistakes… just be gentle okay? Pleaseeeeeeeee?