Hiya! This chapter is the result of too much Evangelion in the brain. 26 episodes of Evangelion in 2 separate days. End of Evangelion at 2 in the morning. Yeesh. At any rate, Eva or no Eva, this chapter was eventually coming. Sorry, folks. I do have a weird way of taming a tiger. I think Firuze's way is better (remembering her in full tamer costume with whip and chair……..). ^^
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"I owe you for helping out, Seta-san," Misao smiled at him faintly, tired and anxious. She and the blue swordsman stood just outside the door of Enishi's room. The wanderer had come as soon as he heard, and helped the unconscious patient out of his wet clothes and into bed.
"It's nothing, Misao-san," Soujirou smiled in turn. "Any friend of yours is mine as well. Poor Yukishiro-san. Of all the people in Japan to have amnesia…….."
" 'Amnesia'?" Misao asked. "What is that? And why does Enishi-san have it?"
"It's a new, foreign medical word." Soujirou's face lost the plastered grin. "Sit down, Misao-san, I have something to tell you…………"
When he finished, Misao merely looked straight before her. "So what he said was true. He really does not remember me."
"For the time being, yes."
"Anything I can do about it?"
"Give him time, he will."
She stood up and went into the room again. She sat in the futon, beside where he lay, deathly still.
She took up his left hand and held it close to her cheek. "I don't know everything about your past. I actually think you might have wanted to forget them all instead of having to remember them again. Just remember this, my white-haired, pompous, exasperating, infuriating, arrogant, conceited baka. If you will ever need someone to talk to, I will just be here. Before anything else, I am your friend."
Probably, it was the warmth she gave to his hand. But he slowly and drowsily opened his eyes, and smiled.
"Enishi," she smiled back. She continued to hold his hand in hers.
Yet he merely stared at her eyes and face.
"Nee-san."
He then closed his eyes in sleep, and turned his head away.
As she cried.
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It was darkness, just darkness. Immense nothingness. He was content staying in that darkness, that nothingness. He was nobody to no one. He was not someone another person had said he was. He was not a person someone else thought he was. He was just……..himself.
Enishi!
That was right. That was his name. Yukishiro Enishi. And the voice, was his sister's.
As he lay in the midst of the vast darkness, he saw his sister a short distance away from him, looking down. She was beautiful, as always, wearing a cream-colored kimono, and her hair falling to her shoulders. She smiled. She even held his hand. He smiled in turn.
"Nee-san."
But he looked away from her, and allowed himself to drift farther into the vast darkness, deeper into the oblivion of his making. He did not want to remember the past, or the present. He just wanted to stay like this.
And it was so for a long time. No thoughts, no memories, no ghosts, no time, no space. Quiet nothingness. Whether it was day or night, he did not know and did not care.
He was therefore quite surprised to see her again. The pretty young lady. The one he could not properly remember.
She stood there, the way she looked, on the day………..on the day…………of the festival. Her hair in a bun, her face painted slightly to accent her cheeks. She wore a special kimono then, one he could not easily forget. When she saw him, she gave a special smile, wider than his sister's, and more tender.
They first met………..they met………….in Tokyo. Well, strictly speaking, they had first seen each other when he delivered his vengeance on his brother-in-law, but he had not noticed her then. They really met each other in Tokyo a year or so after that.
To him, she was a weasel. To her, he was a white-haired annoyance.
He was already a proper businessman then, and he came to Tokyo on business. But the weasel kept running into him in the market. It was getting on his nerves. Thus, on a whim, and to finally get rid of her, he invited her for lunch, in the classiest restaurant in the city.
However, as she talked and talked and talked, he found herself drawn to her. She was unlike any woman he had met before. She was open even with him, a former enemy. She did not keep secrets from anybody about herself. He invited her again for dinner. He told her he wanted to know more about her, and despite her misgivings, she agreed. She agreed to be his friend.
A unique friend she became. Over the succeeding few months, both took the other into their world. She took him to long strolls in the woods, to her favorite haunts and hideaways. He introduced her to the world of books. He even went through the bother of reading a French book to her, translating along the way.
So it was, that during those few months, he learned to love her.
She did not know what to make of it. She was supposed to be almost married to the other man………..the okashira. But in the course of time, even she learned to admire the unpredictable businessman. Her resolve for the okashira faltered. The okashira, of course, noticed, and tried to separate the two inconspicuously. He went with her everywhere for almost a month.
When they finally met each other again, independent of the okashira, it was during the festival. She just stood there, in a new kimono, with hair upraised and face covered in delicate rouge. He, too, stopped her in her tracks, dressed in full Japanese attire, worlds away from his usual shirt and slacks. He took her hand, and she followed through the Kyoto streets, and into his house. He tried to convince her to come with him to Paris, but she declined. He considered taking advantage of the situation, but her faith in him held him back. A gentleman does not run away from his problems, and she considered him a gentleman.
Soon after, he was involved in a frameup. The only person he could trust to retrieve evidence of his innocence was her. Against the wishes of the Oni, she went for him, and almost got killed in the process. Nevertheless, she returned with the data he needed, just in time to save his own life, suffocated from inside a burning building.
This situation led to a conundrum for the young lady. Should she say yes to this new friend and more, or should she forget it all and stay with a reliable man? Both options had advantages and disadvantages, losses and gains. Both men lay them all before her, and left her to choose.
She chose white.
Unfortunately, his decision to help eradicate his weapons smuggling branch meant that he had to leave her behind, for her own safety. He left her with her friends and the okashira, with a promise to return.
Now he was looking at her again, the pretty young lady, separated by a short distance in the vast nothingness. This time, it was she who held out a hand, asking him to come with her. Come, away from this place. Come back to me.
I can't, he told her. I can't. I don't deserve you. I should not be marrying you. You look for a gentleman. I am not that man. So leave me, please. Leave me here.
He plunged himself deeper into the darkness. Away from her, away from memories of her.
Her sister spoke again.
Why are you running away, Enishi?
She had followed him, to wherever.
Why are you running from yourself, little brother mine?
Because I never liked myself, nee-san, that's why. The person I used to be, the person I have become. Every new revelation just gives me a new reason to hate myself. So it is better this way. I am not someone's boss, someone's brother-in-law, someone's target, someone's fiancée. I am where no one can touch me, and hurt me again, and take advantage of me again. You are here with me, and that is all I need.
You are also in a place where no one can care for you.
Aren't you enough, nee-san?
I only live in your mind, Enishi. I cannot help you in the real world. But there are people around you who want to help you, and can help you better than I can. Let us take as an example your friend, the one beside you right now.
She took his hand, and brought him to the surface of his darkness.
From almost beside him, just audible outside the vast darkness, he heard voices talking.
"It's been two days, Seta-san," he heard his mademoiselle's voice. "The only way we know he's alive is that he's breathing. The last response I got was two days ago, and then he called for his nee-san."
"And the fever?" a male voice asked near her.
"He only had the fever one day, that night he came home wet to the core. But since I found him, and that small thing, there has been no response from him. Absolutely nothing. All told, three days he has been like this. It's like he has shut himself out from the world."
That was exactly what he did. But now that he was hearing it from her, he started to regret it.
He heard her shouting and crying simultaneously, very close to him. "Listen, you….you………STUPID loner! I know you can hear me! Stop keeping your thoughts to yourself! I'm supposed to be your friend! For crying out loud, I'm supposed to be your future wife! So talk to me! Do you hear, Enishi?"
"That's enough, Misao-san," the male voice spoke again between sounds of the lady's sobs. "That's enough."
The voices slowly died down, and ceased.
Stop it, nee-san. I've already disappointed you. Now I'm making a woman cry. I don't want any of this. Take me back. Let me die, nee-san. I'll be with you, then.
She is worried about you, Enishi. She cares about you, and she can do more for you. I know you have had much on your mind lately. Why don't you tell her about them? You have to return to her. She IS your friend after all, and more than your friend.
But who is 'she', nee-san?
Come. I will help you remember.
Then she disappeared, his nee-san, into the darkness.
He opened his eyes, and looked around for his sister. He saw the stars twinkling through the window near his futon. He was……..yes, he was still in the Aioya, the inn of the mademoiselle. But no sign of his nee-san.
Instead, he found the young lady, fast asleep near him. Her hair was unbraided and surrounded her face. She tossed and turned in her sleep, troubled about something. He smiled in sympathy; he had an idea how she felt. Poor young lady. She had been always good to him these past few days, even if he did not understand why. It was quite time he returned the favor, in some small way.
He got up, and slowly made his way toward her. He hushed her as he quietly stroked her long hair. He then lifted her delicately and positioned her properly in her futon. Finally, he covered her again with the blanket. Satisfied, he smiled one more time at her, and returned to his place.
It dawned on him. He had done this before.
To the same woman.
It felt exactly the same. Her hair, her clothes, her body. It was the same woman. It was her.
It was during the festival when he last carried her. He had brought her to his place for dinner, just he and her. She had been at her loveliest then, he could not help but invite her for dinner. She had fallen asleep in the mansion………where he used to live. He did not want to wake her, so he had carried her, from the library, down the stairs, into his carriage, and brought her home.
The weasel, the mademoiselle, the bubbly girl, the lovely woman, were one and the same.
Yes, he did remember her. Finally he remembered her.
She was the primary reason he had remained alive, in spite of being found half-dead in the sea, in spite of all the torture the hospital imposed on him. She was the reason that bore him on, to see his mission to completion. He promised to come back for her. He had to stay alive, through everything, to come back to her. It was finally time to keep his promise.
He took up one of her hands, and kissed it. "Thank you for believing in me. I love you, more than ever." He kept holding on to the hand, as he closed his eyes again.
Now, she was part of his dreams. The world in his head now had color and life, now that she was there to remove the darkness and nothingness. But unlike before, he wanted to get out of this dream state soon, and return to reality. He wanted to be with his friend, now his fiancée, in person. He wanted to feel her presence beside him, warming and changing him.
Will you be alright now, dearest?
I guess, nee-san. Thank you.
Be careful, Enishi. Trust your friends with your life, but watch out for your enemies.
Of course.
Give my regards to Kenshin. Try to get along with him, alright? Let him help you.
I will try, nee-san.
With that, he greeted the new day.
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The birds were chirping outside the window when she awoke. It was already the middle of the summer morning!
How long had she been asleep? She promised that she would not sleep until she was sure he was fine. Baka! Baka! She kept reproving herself.
But as she rubbed the sleep from off her eyes, she made out the figure on the futon, sitting up in bed.
"Weasel."
"NOBODY in Japan calls me a ------ weasel?"
"I do apologize for all the trouble I have caused you. How have you been, little weasel?" He ended with a smirk.
Her jaw dropped, then her arms instinctively went for his neck, and her hands to rumple his snowy hair.
"I like this new white-haired baka. He knows how to say sorry!" She teased.
"Do NOT rub it in, Misao," he tweaked at her nose.
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Baka – Cow ……..oops, I mean, foolish, stupid, idiot ^^
That, in a nutshell, was White and Black, the story this one is the sequel of. Sorry if I keep plugging it. Writer's pride in her work; I think I did my best work for it. ^_^ Thanks for reading this piece as well. Completed in three days, to keep me awake studying for a long exam and to avoid studying for a subject I never really liked. ^^ Thanks again.