It's a Secret

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By: Ryoko

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Track 00:08:00

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She couldn't sleep, again...for the fifth time this week.

It was paining her far too much to even breathe now, but physical pain . . . she'd been able to ignore it.

Silently, she wobbled to her feet, biting her tongue to keep from crying out when the full bunt of the pain hit her.

Taking her time, Ashura moved unsteadily to the barred window. She looked outside at the rain, still unable to get her mind off of Hatsuharu and the group of people that had taken her in.

Her heart just wouldn't settle until she saw him again. Until then, she would continue to cry, inside.

She'd only been separated from those people for five or six days, but already she was willing to run away again- anything to see them once more.

Her parents had taken all precautions in locking her in her room: they barred the window . . . padlocked the door . . . she couldn't escape unless she could go through walls.

Still feeling tired and weakened from lack of food, Ashura leaned against the wall and used it to slide to the floor. She closed her, now cloudy, eyes and began to imagine that she was back with the boy that had saved her- Hatsuharu. She wanted him to hold her again, even if it was for a second, she just wanted to feel that warmth and love again.

Nobody had ever shown her kindness before, until he had come into her life.

Only six years old and narrowly escaping death more than any other human being could dream of.

"Daddy . . . " she whispered into the darkness, hoping for his strong arms to reach out to her and take her in once again. But it wasn't going to happen. Not now. Maybe NEVER.

As emotionless as she was making herself, this thought always seemed to trigger painful jolts in her chest, and tears that wanted to escape.

Again, she picked herself up off of the floor and looked out the window into the streets.

The sidewalk was empty, as always, but a shadow caught her eye.

A taller person, dressed in black with a white trench coat. She couldn't see their face, but she recognized the hair color and style anywhere.

"DADDY!" She yelled, pounding on the glass as hard as she could. "DADDY! DADDY!" She cried, banging harder and harder, cracking the reinforced glass with her tiny hands.

The shadow stopped momentarily, looking around. Thinking that maybe he heard a noise other than the pounding of the rain and occasional thunder.

"DADDY!" She called once more.

But the figure couldn't hear her.

He continued to keep walking.

"DADDY! DADDY! PLEASE LOOK AT ME! DADDY!" She screamed, "DA-" the door to her room flung open, both of her parents at the door, eyes ablaze with anger. She froze, backing herself to the nearest wall and sinking as soon as her shoulder blades touched the corner of the room.

As both of them proceeded to slap and kick her, she drifted from consciousness, picturing what she had just seen, believing it to be Hatsuharu.

***

They never had a good enough motive to beat the child- there was no reason for it.

But they continued to do it just the same.

It relieved stress- on their part- and communicated, what they masked it to seem like, to all those who asked, discipline.

Beating your child, a discipline? No- a form of cruel torture- hidden by nothing more than a mask of lies.

***

"Haru? What's wrong?" Momiji asked, looking up from the floor as the teenager entered the room.

"I . . . I thought I heard Ashura again . . . that's all . . . "

"That's the third time, now. You sure you're just imagining things?"

"I've been dreaming about her too . . . I just can't seem to grasp the fact that she's not coming back . . . I guess I got a little too attached to her . . . damn it."

"Dreaming about her? How so?"

"In my dream . . . it always repeats . . . she's running toward me and then just before she gets to me, somebody's arms reach out and steal her away into the blackness . . . I don't understand it at all. The dream haunts me . . . even when I'm walking around out there."

"I see . . . Listen, Haru . . . I'm really sorry Hatori did . . . what he did . . . it wasn't right."

"I know. But I guess I can't blame him either. He didn't really have a choice . . . "

"You're in denial." He smiled sympathetically. "You want her back more than anything else . . . don't you?"

"I guess so . . . yeah."

"Heh. I thought so."

"But I have no idea where she was taken to . . . I'll never be able to scout out ONE little girl in this entire country. She could even have been from overseas . . . "

"Nuh-uh! That's where Hatori's not-so-neatness comes in. Guess what? I saved a paper for you . . . "

"So? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Uh-uh! You didn't let me finish!" His smile grew bright and wide again as he pulled the ripped piece of paper from his pant's pocket. "You see the ad circled? That's the one Hatori called, asking if these people were her parents. See? There's an address on here too." He pointed to a single line in the paragraph. "According to what Hatori knows, she should be HERE. So you wanna go see her, or not?"

He looked closer at the address.

"I walk by there all the time. It's a really dangerous neighborhood. Lots of shootings and robberies. It's basically like the slum of Kyoto. She lives HERE?"

"Guess so. Poor thing."

"Momiji . . . thank you . . . " his eyes welled up with tears of relief. "Thank you so much Momiji, thank you . . . " he stood and took the paper from the boy, grabbing his coat as he raced out of the house.

"Bring her back safe, Hatsuharu." The blonde sighed, staring at the doorway.

***

'God, bunny-boy. Thank you so much! I'll never make fun of you again!' "I'm on my way, Ashura!"

Coat flying in the wind behind him, Hatsuharu darted through the city, knowing exactly where he was headed. The only thing he wasn't sure of, is what he would find when he got there. Silently, he prayed for the girl's safety, clutching his necklace in his fist.

***

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