A/N: I'M ALIVEEEEEEE!!!! dodges flying objects ...barely.
I'm SO sorry for the long, loooooooong wait, but I'll just blame takes out list and starts reading the stupid (not to mention HUGE) Writer's Block, University, life, family, brains, useless computer list goes on and on ... and laziness in general.
And now the excuses are over... On with the story..!
Disclaimer: I'm considering getting a job so that I can get my hands on the Fushigi Yuugi manga collection, and to continue buying Evangelion and, of course, Rurouni Kenshin. Now, ... do I look like I own anything apart from my mind (and that's not even always)? Oo
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PREVIOUSLY...
"I... err... It was nice spending the afternoon with you, you know." Aoshi said, to Misao's complete shock.
"Thanks. I had a good time too."
"So... I guess I'll see you later."
"Yeah---" Misao's keys dropped from her hand. She went to grab them back, but Aoshi had already taken them in his hands. He straightened himself once again, and remembered a little too late he had closed the distance between Misao and himself. So he stood still, right in front of her, mere inches away. She was taken aback as well and for a moment neither knew what to say or do.
"I... uhm... Your keys." Aoshi said, stepping back.
"T-Thank you."
"So... see ya."
"Yeah... bye."
Then, Aoshi turned as Misao opened her car door. A bit out of the blue, Aoshi's inner self decided to lead his nice ass back and go to Misao again. Aoshi did just that. She turned her head and was surprised to see Aoshi once again standing there. Close. And then, snap he was placing his lips over hers. He had his hands cupping her cheeks, and the kiss was not more than a simple lip-lock that lasted a few seconds. Then Aoshi let go, looked right into her eyes and said nothing more than "bye" before going back to his car, leaving Misao to bring herself back from the lala land attack.
"Who are you??"
"..." Not a word from the stranger.
"Stay back. Call 911." He directed to her.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that..." That would be the one and only line they'd ever hear from him.
Things happened almost simoultaneously. A shot was heard throughout the entire house. A yell. Desperation. Another yell that died almost before it could come out of her throat, silenced with another shot.
Then nothing but calm footsteps getting away.
ABSENCE IN THE HEART - CHAPTER 6...
Aoshi woke up the next day during the morning. Having nothing better to do this Sunday, he put on a pair of track pants and a sweatshirt and went out to buy some things, seeing as to how empty his fridge had become these last few days.
He needed to get a job. He was currently living on what money he had received from the government, but it wasn't that much not to work again the rest of his life, anyway. He thought it would help if he checked the ads in the newspaper, so he bought one on his way to the supermarket.
-..-..-..-..-
The previous day, after Misao and Aoshi's meeting at the park, she found it very hard to concentrate at work. Fortunately, today was her day-off so she could just stay put and do nothing.
She would have done just that, but she turned on the tv and time seemed to stop for her.
-..-..-..-..-
Aoshi arrived home and, after he put the stuff he had bought in order, he sat on his couch in the living room, and started reading the newspaper.
There was a name that caught his attention amongst the rest. Makimachi.
"Another killer on the run" read the headline.
Last night, at around midnight, the local police received several phone calls, all with the same message: shouts were heard, then there was some shooting; we don't know what's going on, but now everything's silent.
Minutes later, patrols parked near the house where the shots had been heard. They called, but no one answered. After breaking in, an awful sight welcomed them. Two corpses laid on the floor, no signs of the killer.
One neighbour recognised the victims as Mr and Mrs Makimachi. Upon further investigation, the Police managed to catch hold of some information about the family. The Police is still trying to locate Makimachi Misao, daughter of the killed couple. Everything was investigated, but there was no clue as to who the killer is, so, sadly, there is another assassin on the run---
Aoshi stopped reading at that point. He registered the information given. Makimachi Misao? Of course. It was the Misao he knew.
'Damn it...' he murmured as he exited his house in a rush and drove towards Misao's home.
On his way there, he called, but nobody answered.
Ten minutes later, he arrived and rang the doorbell. He could hear a tv inside, so he assumed Misao was there. Then he knocked on the door, calling out her name while he did that.
"Misao..! Open the door! It's me, Aoshi..!"
-..-..-..-..-
She felt like she was dreaming, but everything felt real enough to her. She wanted it all to be a nightmare, something she could get rid of when she woke up.
Then she heard the knocks on the door, and Aoshi calling out to her.
Without thinking it twice, she grabbed her keys and opened the front door. It was Aoshi, indeed.
Misao stayed there, motionless, waiting for him to speak. When he hugged her tightly, she realized everything she had heard on the news was real. Next thing she knew, her knees gave way and if Aoshi hadn't been holding her, she would have fallen flat on the floor. Then Misao felt Aoshi lead her inside and both sat on the couch.
She barely recognized the agonizing screams as her own. Then darkness claimed her.
"Misao..!"
-..-..-..-..-
A shadowed figure contemplated Misao's house from outside, a sadist smirk on his face.
'Don't worry, your time will be up soon enough, Makimachi Misao.'
-..-..-..-..-
After half an hour, Misao came to. She had a wet cloth over her forehead and was lying on her couch.
Aoshi sensed some movement and noticed Misao was finally awake. He approached her and her eyes widened. She stood up and faced Aoshi.
"It was all a dream, wasn't it? Tell me it was... Tell me I was just having a nightmare..!"
Hope was scurrying away from her. He sighed and hugged her tightly.
"No matter how much I want to, nothing I can tell you about this is going to be good news."
Misao let out a sob as he muttered, "I'm sorry."
She held him even tighter as she cried her eyes out.
"I don't believe it."
"..."
"No! I don't believe it! It's just a joke... right? Tell me it's not true! Please, Aoshi tell me this isn't real... I beg you... Tell me... Tell me... Please..."
He never answered.
Hours went by, and time found Aoshi and Misao sitting on the couch, he rocking her body back and forth, trying to sooth her pain in any way he could.
"We should go to the Police and tell them who you are. You have a right over your parents' belongings in case you want to check anything before---"
"I know." Misao interrupted.
She shrugged his arms away from her body, staring at him coldly.
"This was not an accident. The killer was not a thief. It can't be a coincidence, not after someone tried to killed me days ago."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I'll find the bastard. And I'll kill him! I'll find out what's going on and get over with it!"
Aoshi's eyes widened as soon as he stared right into her eyes. He could've sworn he saw an amber flicker within the usually happy blue orbs.
"Misao..."
Then she closed her eyes tightly, but no tears came out. She was not crying anymore. A strange wind surged out of nowhere and at the same time Misao put her arms around herself and crouched on the floor.
Aoshi stood up and extended an arm in her direction. But he didn't get to touch her. Misao then opened her eyes and looked at Aoshi from her crouching position.
He stopped at once. Her eyes had changed. They were still the usual blue, but there was something else within...
And then he saw it. Where once there was no mark, now Misao had a dark kanji. A kanji on her forehead.
"What's..."
Just then, Misao seemed to realize where she was and blinked a couple of times.
"What's the matter, Aoshi?"
"Your forehead. You... didn't use to have a mark there, right?"
"What do you mean?" She asked as they both went to the bathroom to check the mirror.
"Oh my god... What's this?" Misao asked aloud while holding up her hair. She turned to Aoshi. "What's this? It means 'Gen' which is 'Dark' but... Of all the weird things to happen..."
Aoshi carefully ran his fingers across the brand new mark. "Does it hurt?"
"No..."
Aoshi looked just like Misao felt.
"It looks as if it had always been there..."
-..-..-..-..-
Having nothing to do about the strange mark, minutes later, Aoshi and Misao went to the local Police station.
Misao was questioned and then allowed to go to her parents' house. There were some things that had been thrown carelessly on the floor, but nothing more. Misao confirmed that the valuable things were still in their place. So it was obvious now that it hadn't been a thief the one to kill her parents.
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The following day, Misao and Aoshi went to Mr and Mrs Makimachi's burial. They were the only ones there, as Misao preferred to keep it that way, and avoid the press that wanted so badly to get juicy details for their newspapers or tv programs.
The only things Misao truly wanted to keep with her were three rings: the ones her mother and father kept in their ring finger, that is to say the ones they got after they got married; and the one ancient ring her father had in his right middle finger. As for the rest, everything went six feet under, together with them.
Aoshi had an arm around her waist all throughout the ceremony, while she cried silently and held him as well.
"I didn't even said goodbye... That day... I just slammed the door shut and escaped... We never talked again."
"Some things cannot be understood or justified... You'll just have to keep stepping forward. We all have to."
-..-..-..-..-
That night, Misao didn't go to work either. In fact, Misao chose to phone Tae and tell her a reduced version of what was going on and decided to let go of her waitressing job before anyone there could be affected. Tae understood, and told her that, when everything got better, she would have her job back.
Misao chose to go directly to sleep and not bother with anything else for the moment.
'Tomorrow I'll be brave and fight what's out there. But for now, I'll let myself grieve. Just tonight.'
-..-..-..-..-
Everything was so strange. Aoshi couldn't stop thinking about the suddenly-appearing mark on Misao's forehead. That kanji... It had to mean something. It wasn't normal. Hell, their lives were far from normal.
-..-..-..-..-
Misao's telephone rang the following day.
"Hello?"
"Misao, it's me."
"Hi, Aoshi."
"How are you doing?"
"I don't know. I'm surviving, I guess."
"Would you like to go out?"
"We've got training classes in a couple of hours."
"I didn't think you'd be going."
"I'll be there. More than ever, I want to become stronger. I'm serious about this. Throwing knives was my hobby. Now, apart from that, it's what I have to do. My destiny."
"I don't think I can convince you not to think that way, but at least let me help you."
"This is my own battle. Not yours."
"Have you forgotten that this mess revolves around the two of us, not just you?"
"..."
"I'll see you later."
-..-..-..-..-
After hours of training, Aoshi and Misao had a shower, still in the training hall. Just as he was closing his locker, he noticed Misao had already come out of the shower room. He approached her.
"Hey."
"Hi."
"You... wanna go out or something?"
"I don't know..."
"That's okay. I understand." Aoshi then turned around, but Misao held him in place by catching hold of his wrist.
"Aoshi... I'm sorry about what I said earlier."
"No problem. I'll see you tomorrow."
"... No."
He turned around once more, to face her. She sighed.
"Why don't we go out somewhere? I changed my mind."
"... Sure."
"Give me a couple of minutes, then, and we'll go."
-..-..-..-..-
Half an hour later, both were sitting at their usual spot in the park, both leaning against a tree trunk.
They didn't talk much, but rather let the wind soothe away their worries. Not even ten minutes later, Aoshi felt a light pressure on his right shoulder and realized Misao had fallen asleep and was leaning against him. He surrounded her with his arm and closed his eyes.
But his instinct didn't want him to fall asleep. It kept tugging at his mind. Just as he was about to give up and think he was just being delusional, he picked up a strange ki near Misao and him and, out of pure instinct, he threw himself over Misao so that they were lying in a horizontal position over the grass. That made Misao wake up.
"What's going on?"
"..."
"Aoshi?"
Then Aoshi straightened himself and helped Misao up. "There was someone out there."
He turned and checked the tree trunk. Just where Misao's head had been moments before, now there was a dart.
"We need to get out of here."
-..-..-..-..-
Minutes later, both arrived at Aoshi's place. Aoshi went directly to the bathroom.
"What's wrong?" Misao followed him.
He took off his shirt and observed as a dark mark appeared quickly on his torso, just right over where his heart was.
"Oh my god..."
Aoshi lifted his head and stared right into Misao's eyes.
It was happening again, but the other way round. Now, Aoshi's blue eyes darkened for a split second.
"It had started to itch strangely when we were at the park. Now I also have a kanji on me."
"'Chikara'..."
"That means 'Strength'..."
"What's going on here?"
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A/N: So. Yeah. What do you think? hopeful look If you liked it, tell your friends. And if you didn't, tell your enemies anything to get reviews! oO
Twists, confusing stuff... I'm completely out of my mind, lately (lately? Oo). Anyway, yes, this story became dark and angsty, but that's the way it came out, I guess. Hopefully, it'll get better. That is, when I manage to come out with an appropriate climax. I've got the ending figured out, but I don't see it any time soon sweatdrops
Sorry the chapter is short, but well, I guess it became some sort of... habit sweatdrops
A ::wave:: and a "hi" to the reviewers..! (if you still read this, anyway... sweatdrops)
gaby (hyatt: Thanks! Stay tuned..!
jade eyed neko (purpo kitee katx): Regarding the necklaces, it's just symbolic, so yeah sheepish look There are weird things in this story, as you could see (or rather, read), but for now the silver necklaces are not one of them P
girl-who-sings-the-blues: Thanks..! Here's the next chapter, hope you liked it!
Flopi: que te quedó una sensación rara? Y eso? Oo Explicaaaa P Y sip, ya puse algo WAFFy, así que... )
Twishinky: riveting? hands over reality-check pills LOL, kidding! Thanks! Hope you liked this chap!
LT: Thanks for the e-mails!
You know the drill. Suggestions, random comments, WAFF demands and the like are very welcome..! You could even flame if you think I should get a life and/or let up on the chocolate
Tell me what you liked and what you disliked, so I can try to work on it..!
Sorry for the long notes..!!
I'll see you later..! Stay tuned!