Hideki left his apartment. He heard the voice call out to him, begging to be followed. Then he saw it. There in the hallway was a glowing entity. When it spoke directly in front of him, it's voice made no sound. Yet, he heard it. He knew what it was saying without knowing…
"Follow…me…please… remember? Remember what?" He asked it. "Who are you? What do you want with me?" Hideki screamed out to it. He was frightened. He'd heard things like this in the movies, where some type of phantom would haunt you and it usually foretold death, perhaps this entity was the bearer of death? Was it death itself? Was he going to die soon?
Then he felt it, an overwhelming sadness. Somehow, one way or another he could feel this being's feelings. It begged and begged, "Open my heart? What is that supposed to mean?" It wrapped around him. Suddenly he felt at peace, like everything in the world didn't matter. He was happy.
"Yes…I'll follow you." He answered robotically.
Everything around the building became blurry, and the entity got clearer but it's true form still eluded Hideki but he didn't care. Happiness bounced off of this being as it held him, guiding him to wherever.
They made their way to one of the bathrooms. The entity pointed at something on the floor, blood. He had tried his best cleaning it up, but the stain never left. It was his blood. It was from when he attempted suicide for the first time. This blood, this stain was a reminder of that night. The being seemed to be…
"Crying? Why are you crying?"
He felt a great sadness enter him, and then his thoughts became dark. He was suddenly reminded of his life, and his lost love. The entity let go of him as soon as he started thinking like that yet the being still tried grabbing for him. There wasn't something right about this…but what was it?
Hideki blacked out again, feeling something pull at him from the darkness. It tugged and tugged, the entity however tried it's best to embrace him. It failed miserably, only to watch Hideki fall into the blackness that seeped from somewhere.
The dream was vivid. Hideki was surrounded my images…floating memories of his time with Chi. He looked around overwhelmed. He saw the good times, and the bad. He saw the boring times, and the fun times. Then he saw it, the image of the night he called Chi back to him.
He watched the image come to life, seeing Chi crying. The light beamed from her, giving emotions to all Persacoms. Then he saw her run toward him, and he said He'd stick with Chi. Even though she wouldn't be able to do things with him a normal girl might have been able to but…he had promised to be with her, no matter what.
Then another Hideki, an older more tired version of himself entered the dreamscape. This was how he looked now, a direct mirror of himself. Then it spoke "It wasn't worth it…you shouldn't have fallen in love."
Then another Hideki, a much younger version of himself from his prep school days appeared and argued. "Love is love, you can't help it."
The representation of his dark thoughts, the older Hideki echoed into his ear. "Love is an illusion. No one can ever truly be happy from it. Everything dies, no matter who or what it is, even the artificial. Why should you be searching for Yumi? She doesn't love you…"
Then the younger, nicer form of his good thoughts appeared in front of him. "She does love you, not the way Chi ever did. She's basically your little sister, and you care for her. That alone should be reason enough to live."
"Lies! Life is pointless, you are born and then die, from something comes nothing." The dark Hideki stated.
"But from nothing comes something!" The good Hideki whined.
Then Hideki, the real Hideki interrupted. Which seemed to surprise the other representations of Hideki. "Who cares about that? Yumi is missing, we have to find her!" The good Hideki smiled at him and faded, then the dark Hideki frowned and faded.
Then the darkness faded. He opened his eyes to find himself on a bed. "Good, your finally awake, you've been passed out for awhile." A familiar voice called to him.
He sat up to see Paul Richards, the cop who almost killed him earlier giving him a weird kind of smile.
-
The room was cool, well air-conditioned. Paul was going over something, some kind of papers. He finally looked at Hideki. "I found you passed out on the floor, mind telling me what happened?" He asked.
"I don't really know myself." Hideki replied.
Paul seemed to have some sort of conflict with thought. "Well, it looks like you'll be fine. Anyway, I was called out this morning about stolen property. I ran into an old friend of mine…a rather husky fellow but a good guy at heart. Well, after the reunion I found a van near there with a body in it." Hideki suddenly looked afraid, was he going to tell him Yumi had been found, but too late?
"Don't worry, it was the body of a cop. Killed by the drag and gag slasher no doubt. He can't be too far away…even if we do find him, doesn't mean we'll find Yumi. We still don't have any leads on her whereabouts."
"Wait…did you say van?" Hideki asked suddenly.
"Yeah, but what…"
"No, never mind. It's nothing…forget about it." Hideki was actually remembering the dream he had earlier of Yumi surrounded by darkness. This darkness for some reason or another, felt like a van. Was it a van? He yawned even though he wasn't really tired, just had an irritating pounding headache.
Paul got up to move to the window, viewing a homeless man speaking out to the many passing individuals. Two girls giggled at him. He was yelling something he couldn't make out. Paul spoke "Hideki Motosuwa, that's the name of the Hideki who fell in love with a Persacom. Are you the same Hideki?"
Hideki's eyes widened. Why was there sudden interest in this now? Of course he had become quite famous for it but ever since her death he'd wish people would just leave him alone about it. "Yeah, but why do you ask? Your not going to give me some kind of speech about it being wrong, are you?" Paul still only looked upon the busy streets of Tokyo.
"Heh, no…to tell you the truth, I fell in love with a Persacom myself but that's not why I brought it up."
"So, that's why you left your wife? Wait, why would you ask about Chi?" Hideki was confused.
"Chi?"
"That was my Persacoms…her name, but why do you want to know about her?" Hideki was getting annoyed, why wouldn't he face him?
"I'd like to know more specifically about the night she died." Paul answered. He finally turned to face Hideki. "Going over the case files of the drag and gag slasher, I found a similar report. It however doesn't make any sense…" He looked straight into Hideki's eyes. "I'd like to hear it straight from you. What happened exactly that night your Persacom was destroyed?"
Hideki looked down. He hadn't gone over those events of that night for a year, he'd replay it in his head every once in awhile. He had however never talked about it, could he tell Paul about it? He only just met Paul yesterday or a few days ago. He was losing track of time, the days and nights all seemed to melt together.
"It might help us find Yumi, if nothing else…" Paul suggested.
"No, it's fine…I'll tell you but I don't see how this is going to help." He gave a long sigh readying for the tale.
-
The man yelled out into the crowd, gaining their attention. It was the familiar streets he always haunted. He'd yell into the crowds what he believed. The time of judgment was coming, of course. Someone had to do this; someone had to be a warning for the people. "The time of judgment is nigh! The devil has shown its face, behold for he is the drag and gag slasher. He spills the blood of the innocent and is not to be found guilty, it is the way of the demon!"
People would simply ignore the homeless man. He was just some loon, right? The world wasn't going to end anytime soon. Even if it were, people would still be too busy to listen to this wacko. Two girls giggled at the man. "Laugh now, but it is no joke, the great glowing being has spoken to me!" They walked away still laughing at the man.
One of them turned to the other and said, "You know, they say he comes for young maidens like us. Especially innocent ones like you. Better watch out!" the schoolgirl jokingly warned her friend. It was true though. Her friend wasn't like her one bit, she a juvenile delinquent who would please her boyfriend in any way possible no matter how degrading, while her friend would visit her local church faithfully every night.
It was funny how well these two girls, different as they were, got along. The innocent one smiled at her. "Yeah, he'll come for us tonight, we better be ready!" She joked back.
The homeless man looked away from them to continue his speech. You won't be able to save everyone he thought. "I was visited by the great Goddess!" He yelled.
-
One year ago…
Hideki searched and searched. He was worried about her, so very much. It wasn't like Chi just to disappear like that. The only times she ever disappeared were times she had been kidnapped. He regretted ever yelling at her. It was just a damn test. He could always take another one. However, he may not always be able to apologize to Chi. "Chi! Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" He screamed for her. He finally saw her, sitting down on the steps they both had passed so many times before. Despite the cool air, he was warmed to see her.
She looked up at him. She was crying again. His heart nearly sunk at the sight. Why had he yelled at her? He sat next to her. She pounced on him crying. He was the only one she could seek comfort in after all, even if he had been the one who put her in this state. "Chi…" he softly said hugging her. "Come on, let's go home and on the way, we'll see if the new Atashi book is out!"
"Chiiiii!" She yelped as her face brightened up. She pounced on him, causing yet another head injury.
Later they had made their way to the bookstore. He let Chi go in by herself, as she had insisted to. She was getting more and more human as the days passed. He smiled at her as he letgo of her hand.
---
Chobits owned by Clamp, not me!