Author's Notes: I'm glad that all of you appreciate the effort I've been putting on this particular story. Thank you for all the compliments. Enjoy!

Echoes Of The Past


After Metamorphosis

Ten years later, she had become an accomplished businesswoman. She had shed off and forgotten about the shy and insecure crusty shell she once found so secure and safe. She now walks with complete confidence, back straight and head high. She learned to rely on no one else but herself. She discovered her exceptional capabilities and that with pure willpower and sheer determination; no obstacle was going to hinder her from her goals.

She graduated on top of her class, receiving numerous plaques of recognition upon graduation (though she only received a polite applause from her peers and the loudest were from the teachers who instantly recognize a genius when they see one). The largest corporations vied for the opportunity to have her working for them, offering the highest positions and the fattest salaries. However, Kaede turned them all down. She had big plans of her own.

In a few years' time, their corporation, already renowned throughout the country, branched out all over the world. She also invested in other fields of businesses, everything from food manufacturing to automobile assembly. She took the business world by a storm. She became the youngest female billionaire. They were literally raking the money in with the profits her investments reaped. She was a business miracle.

Nagasaki Kaede. Twenty-three and already a legend.

She would've snorted at how they were making a big fuss out of her. The ones who looked down at her now kissed up to her. "How could I be of any assistance? Coffee, juice, tea...uhh, beer?" The ones who mocked her now have to beg for her forgiveness. "Oh, of course I didn't mean it when I said that horses looked better than you. (nervous laughter) I was just a girl then, naïve and stupid and an idiot and...Sorry?" The ones who stepped on her ego now ceaselessly shower her with flattery. "Why, it seems you're looking younger and younger everyday. What's your secret? I can't believe that you're already twenty-three! You're like a medical miracle! You don't look a day older than sixteen." (Toinks rolls her eyes)

Pretentious little devils. If she didn't know better, she would've fallen prey into their snares again.

But she was smarter. Hell, she was smarter than anyone she knew.

That had even been understatement.

Her daily routine went pretty much like this: Wake up. Take a Bath. Eat breakfast. Go to Work. Go home from work. Eat something, anything. Sleep. It was like she had a built-in organizer and alarm clock that woke her up every morning at the exact same time even when she barely slept a wink the night before.

Life was pretty exciting...not.

Kaede had transformed into a mechanical life form. Fun and relaxation were consecutively removed from her vocabulary. Every minute of her day was spent in supervising the operations in the corporation, going through a large pile of paperwork, scolding, firing, and in some cases, even traumatizing, delinquent employees and then venturing out to appointments with other business conglomerates about possible future mergers or transactions. Busy as she was, the years went by in a flash.

Soon, she found herself twenty-seven and still very single. She began to see how the society measured her. She was nearing her thirties and she was as close to a marriage engagement as the North is to the South Pole. She had no social life, unless you consider those cocktail parties where you're surrounded by fifty-something balding or already bald males who would've loved to spend the night with a young woman like her and nosey wives who only live to spend money, gossip, backstab and cheat behind their husbands' backs. Meetings, yes, she always had to rush from one meeting from the other. But though she would love to deny it, her meetings consisted only of formalities and business discussions.

"No man is an island" is a dim-witted pathetic justification of a person's constant need for reliance. Whoever made that must have not known the meaning of independence.

She was a woman of the world. She had both her feet firmly and securely planted on solid, not to mention, sky-scraping ground that people would have to look way up just to catch a glimpse of her.

All she needed was her caffeine boosters and she could handle anything by herself.

Yup, just herself.

Friends? Who needs them? She had no time for friends.

It was what she believed in.

Or rather what she forced herself to believe.

Though some of her usual colleagues did ask her about her life once in a while, she easily recognized the glint in their eyes as either curiosity and eagerness to share a piece of gossip (perhaps even sell the information to the press) or that it was the glow of money they hoped to have a taste of from just rubbing shoulders with her. Their sincerity was about as true, as authentic as an aluminum-plated ring. Did they think that she woke up one morning and discovered that money had miraculously sprouted on her?

Money. Money. Money.

Money made the world go round and still does.

It was all they ever wanted. And right then, it was all she needed.

She was truly a complex conundrum waiting to be solved. Something about a traumatic childhood, growing up too fast or she was just born without feelings, the tittle-tattles speculated. Everyone couldn't quite figure out why a lovely young woman like her could be so tough, so...frighteningly cold.

But fact of the matter was she's scared to death. She was terrified of opening up, of taking the big risk of trusting again. The last she remembered, she had trusted too easily and too much. She was hurt and traumatized. God knows how she had barely managed to survive that ordeal. All the essence of hope for something good in this world was simply sucked out through a black hole she now learned to call her heart.

She had actually missed the feeling of having someone special. She missed the way a person would gaze into your eyes like you were the only person in existence and make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. She missed the way a just the sound of a person's laughter could instantly metamorphose your knees, all skin, flesh and bones, to Jello. She missed the way she could hold and solely call another person, hers.

But she would rather die that admit it.

It was in an ordinary, but fateful day that she met him. The one person that tested her to the limit. The one guy who had managed to break through the barriers she had erected all around her. The only one who rose to the challenge.

His name is Doumyouji Hisaki.