Chapter 13 Blessing or Curse?
One of the things down here was the summer holidays. It was unbearably hot. Yuri fanned herself with her hand, succeeding in nothing but making herself even hotter.
Lucky she was standing under a tree. She arched her neck to gaze upwards at the canopy of leaves, providing her some shade.
"This trip had better be good, or I'm leaving right away." A gruff voice said.
She whipped around and smiled at her identical twin.
"This is one of the bookshops I frequented. There is a lot of things on the occult; and curses are still curses, regardless of culture, so there's a chance that you will find something useful." She replied.
Her twin huffed and walked off. Yuri skipped to chase after her.
It was amazing how even though twins, but had different personalities and choice of clothing. She admired Rin's style of fashion that seem to center around black and tight fitting clothes. Along with her long black hair, it gave off a kind of striking beauty and sexiness. Today she was wearing a black mini skirt with a white spaghetti-strap, with black flat heeled shoes. She knew that she would never dare where those kind of skin displaying clothes out in public. She herself wore a light brown sleeveless V-neck top and a black mini pleated skirt because of the heat.
At the familiar clanging of the bell above when they entered the shop, xxx-san lifted up her head and beamed.
"Welcome again, Sohma-chan." She said politely.
"Konnichiwa, Izumi-san." She replied, returning the favour.
She led Rin down to the back of the shop, at the shelf of books where she met first Honda-san. She looked higher a bit and found that the book she had helped Honda-san brought down was still there. She lifted a finger and brought the volume down, handing it to Rin.
"You can start there. There's a lot of books in here so you can come everyday and still find that you haven't pass by this or that book." She went to the opposite shelf and chose one.
"Then I have to hurry, I guess." She retorted and at once opened the volume, not before scanning the title. Soon they were absorbed in their own books and was silent.
"…Neh, Rin…" Yuri sighed as she snapped her book shut and returned it back. She gaze at the books arranged neatly on the shelf.
"Why do you think Akito controls the Jyunishis so much?"
"…No idea."
"Isn't the bond suppose to be a blessing, not a curse?"
Rin sighed softly and looked up from her book.
"Originally, you are right. A bond between people is something to cherish about. It is very delicate, like a piece of glass statue. But if the bonded feel that the bond is a burden and tiresome, then it will be a curse." She said shortly.
Yuri was thoughtful for a moment; and Rin watched her expression.
"It isn't easy for outsiders to understand this. It's a very delicate and complicated thing." She finally said.
Outsiders simply cannot understand the world we Jyunishi's are in…or of the curse we have. Meddling will only bring unnecessary trouble.
"…I know that."
"What?"
"Somebody…told me the same thing."
It was a while before the Rin knew what she was saying.
"What is your answer to him?" she said, looking unconcerned and returning to her book.
"Huh?"
"How did you know that?" Yuri asked suspiciously.
"What is your answer to him?" Rin repeated.
"You look different." The doctor commented as he closed he closed the doors and stuffed his hands into his coat pockets.
She started and looked at him.
"How so?" she asked curiously.
"…you seem…" he paused, as if looking for the right description."... more energetic. Not as if you were going to burst into tears any minute."
Yuri smiled lightly.
"I've decided. I'm not going back to Hokkaido." She said, figuring that this was the main reason she was summoned.
After a moment of tense silence from the dragon, he let out something close to a sigh.
"Something happened. That's why you look different today. I assume that you know the consequences of your decision?" he said melancholy.
"I do."
"What about Akito?"
"What you want to tell Akito I cannot stop. But I will not be leaving here." She said firmly.
"Why? You have nothing to lose over there at Hokkaido. A new life, new environment…" His voice trailed off.
"That is not true. I do have something to lose." She corrected him. The doctor's silence prompted her to continue her words, which she did with a deep breath.
"I do have something to lose. I will lose myself, my sister, and the will of believing in myself." She continued.
"Hatori-san…" she cringed inwardly when she said that, because she wasn't used to calling him by the first name but they were still of the same clan, so she did not see the need to call him by his last name.
"You cannot lose hope. Once lost, there will be no way to fight the curse. As long as there is hope, the curse will be broken one day."
A horrible silence ensured in the room. If it wasn't for she was used to Rin's long period of silence and sudden outburst, she would be fidgeting nervously now.
"You may go now." She looked at the doctor, wanting to see if her words had any effect. The doctor's face was a cold mask as usual, but she thought she thought something flickered in his eyes. Only for a brief moment, because the next second it looked as if it was never there at all.
It must have been a trick of light.
But…she secretly hoped it wasn't.
"Did you find anything useful?" Yuri asked as they walked out of the shop, clutching a bag with some books she just bought.
"A few. There was some Erupoean sort of spells that looked interesting, so I bought them down." Rin said, walking so fast that her hair blew up behind her aura-like. Yuri wondered if she was in such a hurry all the time.
"Where to now?" she asked.
"I'm going to the Sohma Main House's storehouse."
"I'll go too."
"No. This will blow our cover if Akito sees us together. It's too dangerous." She said shortly.
"I am living there from the end of summer holidays. When summer is over, I might be going to the same school as yours as well."
"No. Either way, you are not coming to the storehouse." Her tone had a note of finality to it.
"Okay." She gave up convincing Rin. She could be so stubborn at times.
Rin looked as if she wanted to say something but was hestitant for some reasons.
"What did your parents say when you decided to come back here?" she said softly.
Yuri noted that she did not use the normal Okasan and Otosan in referring and her heart sank several inches.
"They didn't like it. They tried to talk me out of it but that didn't succeed so they gave up." She said gently, lighting skipping over the subject. Rin nodded and didn't say anything any more.
"How's Hatsuharu?" she said, changing the subject. Her mind recalled the café incident, which she pushed away. Damn, why didn't she think first before saying?
As expected, Rin glared at her and refused to say anything except to threaten her that if she mentioned him one more time she was going to end the relationship.
"Hai, hai." She sweated.
They walked down the street in silence, sticking close to the walls and trees that sometimes provided some shade from the scorching sun.
They passed by a fruit stall with a big umbrella by the road. Yuri was hot and thirsty for something cool. She mentioned Rin to the stall and ducked under the big umbrella in relief. Rin followed reluctantly, seemingly not bothered by the sun.
She looked at the cut fruits in small plastic bag arranged in a box. Her eye also caught the jars of colorful jelly in the corner.
She pointed at the jars of jelly.
"Neh, Rin, your favourite! Jellies!" she said excitedly. Rin frowned.
"I have to hurry back to the storehouse, you know." She said gruffly.
"Never mind, you can still have one before that! Which one do you want?" she examined the jars. Rin sighed and pointed to a purple-red jar. Yuri took it up along with a bright green jar of her choice and paid the man.
They walked down a bit to stop behind a tree. Yuri opened her jar immediately and scooped up a spoonful of the green jelly.
"Oishi!" she said softly.
Rin opened hers and ate a spoonful. The coolness of the jelly seeped into her mouth, to be transferred down her throat. It was a relief against the hotness.
Maybe it was because of the jelly, but as she dug in for the second bite, she suddenly thought of Honda Tohru.
"Yuri…you are sure Akito will not discover about us?" Even though she had agreed to the relationship, it sort of reminded her of her relationship with Haru. In the end, they still were found out.
"As long as we keep it a secret, I don't think anyone will find out." She said absentmindedly.
"You think?" she huffed, skeptical.
Yuri frowned. "We can't control the universe." She held up the half eaten jelly to Rin. "The jelly is nice, isn't it?"
Rin rolled her eyes. What an unreliable sister. But yes, the jelly was nice.
"Yuri…" she said again as she thought of something.
"Hm?"
"What happened that day, before you came and see me?"
"…Ah? I went to see Honda-san, of course. It seems that everyone goes to see her, neh?"
"What did you talk about?" she asked bluntly.
"Not much. She told me what happened. But I didn't expect that to come from Kyo."
"Kyo? What about him?" she asked, surprised.
"You know, that believe in yourself thingie." She said, and looked somewhat uncomfortable.
"What thingie? I don't know what you are talking about." Rin said impatiently.
Yuri sighed softly and closed her now empty jar.
"When I told him I was a useless sister, he said I had to do something about it or regret it for the rest of my life. He also said that if anyone tries to beat you down of the sort, then just tell them to shut up." She repeated the almost exact words. That was the sort of thing you could count on Yuri; she could repeated everything exact, no matter advertisement, bulletin, messages…as if you were actually listening to the real thing. And never lie.
Rin pondered this for a while, her spoon stuck in her jelly jar, forgotten.
"Neh, Rin…I have a thought." Yuri's voice floated to her.
"What thought?"
"It's about the Jyunishi and Akito. I was thinking—maybe if Akito wasn't so demented and control freak, then the bond might not turn into curse."
Rin snorted. "That's for sure." She said sarcastically.
Yuri chose to ignore that statement.
"See, being possessed by a zodiac animal spirit isn't exactly a blessing. Most of them face a lot of problems; both mental and physical." She looked at Rin carefully. "So when they are faced with those problems, they could have turned to their God, aka Akito, to be comforted in their problems." She cleared her throat.
"Even if Jyunishi's had problems outside, they could always retreat to the inner place, and using their bond with their God, probably seek some solace." She finished.
Rin stared at the ground..
"Yuri, you're too naïve. The bond isn't as simple as you think; it's much more complicated than that." She said, a solemn look on her face.
"Like I said, and so has Hatori—Outsiders simply cannot understand the world we are in."
Yuri sighed and lowered her head.
"It would have been better if it was so simple." She finally dug in to her jelly and scoop up a large purple piece.
"Demo, even so, you cannot keep pushing people away." Yuri said.
"That is because meddling people will only get hurt." She retorted.
"Even if they do get hurt, you must believe that it is they who chose this path, and I think I'm old enough to take some responsibility."
Rin only snorted. She scooped up the last piece of jelly and closed the jar with the spoon inside and handed it to Yuri. It joined it's other partner in the plastic bag.
"To the storehouse."
"You've wasted enough of my time. We better get there quickly or I'll never agree to walk with you anymore."
"You won't? Well then, I suppose that I should ask a certain somebody to persuade you." She winked.
Rin started as she knew who her twin was talking about.
"Don't you dare." She growled fiercely. "If you ever went to find Haru about me I will personally—" she stopped in mid-sentence and turned red.
"Aha, I did not say that!" Yuri silently giggled behind her hand.
"THAT'S IT! From now on, I am not going out with you anymore!!" she yelled and flounced off down the street, long black hair flying behind her.
Yuri managed to stop giggling and chase after her twin, the plastic bag bunching sideways as she ran to keep up.
"Rinn.... matte!!" she laughed as she ran.
Oishi: more or less means delicious.
Demo: but
A/N: And so i changed my mind again. This fanfiction is going to continue, until i run out of ideas and stuff. Rejoice: YAY!!
