Chapter Four: We Find the Book

Back in the Real World…

"Dad?" Suzuno called. "Daddy?"

There was no response.

"That's strange." Suzuno muttered quietly to herself as she slipped down the hallway, moving with a gentle grace that she had never noticed about herself before. Her thick, padded socks were slippery and silent on the polished wooden floor. She made her way to her father's room and opened the rice-paper door with long, careful fingers. Suzuno had never taken the time to notice it before, but she was quite beautiful. Her long, golden brown hair was braided into two separate braids at the nape of her neck and trailed down her back to her waist. She was pale, but she had long, slender legs and fingers and large hands that made her graceful, her soft hazel eyes gave her gentleness, light, brown bangs drifting into her eyes. The just seventeen year old, high school student wasn't stunningly beautiful, in fact she was quite far from it. But there was something about her that was simple, and pure. It was an innocent beauty that she had around her, a sweet, gentle, purely innocent beauty that she had failed to notice every day as she looked into her mirror. But then… if she had noticed it, she probably wouldn't have seemed so beautiful.

She found her father slumped over in a wicker chair, asleep with his head resting on his sturdily crafted, mahogany desk, one of the few beautiful treasures of their house, and their only family heirloom. It wasn't that she and her father were poor, it was more that her father was forgetful and distracted; without his wife around, he rarely thought about buying nice things, or pampering Suzuno, though anyone could tell you that he loved her dearly. She was all he had. Just as hew as all she had.

So they led simple lives and they were happy. Suzuno hadn't ever known any different. The girl smiled lovingly at her father, as her hazel eyes tracing over his figure. His arms wrapped around his head and large, long-fingered hands clutched at his elbows. His messy, unkempt black hair fell over the lenses of his circular glasses, which were perched crooked on his nose. She watched his hunched back rise and fall… slowly. Suzuno loved her father almost as much as she had loved her mother. She did her best to take care of him, no matter how forgetful he was. Indeed, Suzuno was her father's saving grace, and he loved her dearly for it. Everyone did.

Eventually, Suzuno noticed that in front of her father's sleeping figure was a large leather bound book with a dull red cover. It was open to page one hundred and fifteen, the cracked, yellow paper looked as if it might be one hundred years old, but… it was blank. Curiously, she moved forwards and took the book, sliding it towards her and tilting it to study it more closely. She flipped a page back, her long, delicate fingers gentle with the ancient pages as they silently fell back into place. She leafed through it until she found pages with writing on it. Looking forwards, she realized that everything was written in Chinese.

"That's strange." Suzuno said quietly, frowning; her father couldn't speak a word of Chinese. As she picked up the book to hold it in the crook of her arm, a note fluttered out from somewhere in the depths of its pages. She set the book back down on the desk and picked up the note, her heart skipped a beat when she saw it was signed from her father's old friend, Takiko's father. She started reading it, not even thinking that her father would have forbidden it if he were conscious at the time. If she had known… she never would have picked it up…

"I came across this book a couple years ago…" She read quietly to herself. Her father's eyes flickered open.

Suddenly something clamped down on her wrist and yanked her downwards with surprising force. Suzuno gasped, startled as her father's hand held her down tightly. He snatched the note away from her delicate hand. His eyes scanned over it before coming back to meet hers. "Suzuno." He stared in a way she had never seen before. His eyes were a malicious black. "Get out." He had never used that tone with her before… never…

"What?" Suzuno stared at her father, suddenly and inexplicably afraid. She had never been afraid of him before… Her father's eyes moved rapidly around the room until they came to the red book. Without warning he snatched it up off the desk and held it close to his side, as if he were protecting it from her. "Suzuno, don't you ever come in here!" He said, tugging on her wrist to emphasize his point. He looked at her angrily, "Do you understand!"

"Daddy, you're hurting me." Suzuno fought back her sudden tears at the excruciating pain he was gripping her small wrist with.

"I ASKED YOU IF YOU UNDERSTOOD!" Her father roared, throwing the book into the far away corner with a violent whip of his arm. Suzuno jumped at his unexpected show of aggression. She knew he was furious. But she couldn't understand why. "Never come in here!" His voice was cold poison in her veins.

"Daddy! Let go!" She pleaded, pulling slightly away from him, his grip was threatening to crush and shatter her… and it was tightening. It was as if he had her clamped in a vice; the pressure was unimaginable. "Daddy!"

Mr. Osugi let go of his daughter's hand, and the blood and color returned to her fingers and palm in a warm, welcome rush as she cradled it sorely with her other. Her father studied her coldly, as if he were studying another one of his experiments... There was no sign of comfort in his cold features, only hard anger. "Leave. I'll be down later." He removed his tie with his strong hands. She had never realized how strong… how dangerous… "I'm going to take a shower." He said, heading towards the door with his back rigid and his fists clenched. Suddenly he stopped, sighing. "Suzie… look, I'm sorry." He said, without turning, she almost burst into tears when she heard the regular, unthreatening tone in his voice return. "But please," he said, almost pained, "the office is … private. And I don't want you coming in anymore." He turned and looked at her, his eyes no longer black and violent, but regretful and loving. "Alright?"

Suzuno nodded, glancing at the book that he had thrown into the corner. It lay there lifelessly, and she saw nothing special about it. She didn't understand what it could have done to make him so angry…

Mr. Osugi did his best to smile at the girl, but it came out so twisted that it looked more like a grimace. Slowly he opened the door and waited for her to walk out. But she hesitated. She was afraid to go near him. She was rubbing her wrist where her father had grabbed her. The pain was far from gone… in fact… the flesh was starting to bruise.

"Suzuno."

She took a breath and did her best to walk past her father and out the door without showing him that she was afraid. When he shut the door she flinched visibly, as if waiting for something else to happen to her. "I'll be down in a bit." He said. "I dusted out the cabinets so this time everything should be nice and clean for you, alright?"

She nodded, doing her best to smile. "Thank you."

He took her head in his hands and kissed the top of her head. "You're welcome, darling." He said, smiling gently at her and then turning to head upstairs towards the bathroom. Once he was gone, Suzuno took a shuddering breath and crouched down on the floor, leaning up against the firm, plaster wall. Her world seemed to shrink around her, forcing her to crouch tightly into a fetal-position, her aching wrist in her lap. She could feel it throbbing. Her father had hurt her. He had hurt her. He had never even yelled at her before, let alone do anything to make her afraid… truly afraid. And now… she looked down at her wrist and saw the large purple and red, swollen flesh rising in lumps where he had grabbed her. They were forming in fingertips. The dark colors harshly contrasted with her snow-colored skin. "Daddy…" She said quietly, setting free her hot tears for the first time in years. They slid down her face, burning, and dripped onto her stinging bruise. But she didn't care. Instead she cringed and bit her lip to keep her father from hearing her cry out. She hated it when she cried… "What's happening to you?" She whispered into her knees as she began to sob quietly. "What's wrong?"