I was Roxanne Adele. Now Yozorako Verona. However tarnished my view was to the world, all it comes from the point of no return of existing and living in this universe. I have wondered with no satisfying result.

I have theories, from a quantum theory of parallel universe into a simple yet dreadful comatose state, brain dead and all.

Yet it is just a speculation, just a fickle thought while I move with the surrounding vicissitudes around me.

I thought I have used all my excess luck in my bidding, put a dent of the seismic waves of a tossed stoned into the lakebed of atoms and threads of Fate.

Que the humiliation.

I overestimated- the Karma has reached me now. I was cornered. Humbled. Leashed.

'Never tempt fate.'

I was at ease for years. I thought I was a ripple that descends upon hell and hauled herself in the pitfall of a lava into the land of knowing.

But ripples do not come in solo. It disrupts the calm of the surface and moves the stabilized movement deep within its bed. I have woken something in there.

I have learned it in a terrifying faith of knowing the future, until that ripple of tossed stone which is I, have made a colossal chain of reaction I do not decipher.

And those ripples come in small things. Small things that I never realized that were the foundation of a forming character or a relationship built to know who we truly are. It comes like a burglar at night, or a murderer in the subway. You wouldn't know they have come near and after you….. until it was too toolate.

There was no memorable occasion that happened to me for five years except, to the atrocious complex decision- making skills into an observatory perceptive, high- tailing my introverted personality in a focused intuition, feelings and judgment. In short words, an emphatic person, one thing which is similar to my past and present body have ascends to another level of sensitiveness.

I have become a comfort to others pain and a great receiver of emotions, something I am quite wary and is utterly avoiding to no avail.

I am already ten years old and I am delighted to the serenity I have before the actual storms brew into something more. I grew to appreciate new things and adapt to the canonical simplicity and outrageous moments only in anime and manga would perceive. I grew as a person, balanced in the fickle bridge between being Yozora and Roxanne and had blend the mentality for a great purpose, pushed by the pressure of my grandmother I have long realized to be fond of.

Mother, Ume, is still the supportive mother as ever. However loved her consideration is, she was as impatiently disturbed. She has seen the importance of my studies and isolation as an addiction, and she is not mainly wrong. I am strong- willed, work is my passion and it sings to me like a lyre just much as fashion is to Yuzu's.

Yes, no person would make me as confident as I am to my little sister's success. She has grown into a fine girl. Always glowing, her energy has been the unusual brightness to my dimmed world. She is my sun and I am her moon. No person would understand her deeply like I do. She was charismatic, with a sense of justice and cheer. She is bland, crass and hyperactive. I am not blind to her imperfection but I am no ignorant to say she'll be the same Yuzu in the manga either. For instance, when the world 'What is Love?' appears in a TV screen, she would gazed at the man and woman like she would look at the weather, then she will gazed at me, asking;

"Nee- chan, what is love?"

She did not go into charade. She didn't blurt out things about boys and their handsome chivalry or lie that she knew things.

No.

She had asked me. Many would brush it off, but I knew a root behind the plain inquiry.

She grew dependent on me. I have become a solid presence on her life, where Yuzu in manga would learn things from a simple television or books, my Yuzu had a person grounding her an second opinion- shredding off the fallacies her mind construct.

That's why we are inseparable. And it thoroughly unnerved me.

We are twins, yes, but the features we have when we were young begin to disintegrate. Now, everyone can spot which is which.

I am barely out of our house, no more than an hour before I was barricaded and fetch with needs. I grew in height, taller with few inches apart. I am also paler, unlike Yuzu's slightly yellowish skin common to Japanese women, my hair golden blonde and eyes slightly sharper, light red orange with thicker eyelashes than my twin's doe eyes. I was unkempt, indecisive to my clothing and hair, while my Yuzu was a walking 'Gyaru' with a penchant to take my hoodies and pants into something euphorically classy.

I was unconcerned to my appearance but Yuzu would lend me her hand. I am content with my shelter and medication, in which my mother pays. And there I grew unhindered in my goal, eating logic and reading academic books most would throw, thanks to my Grandmother- Grizelda's devious motivation.

Grizelda was the driving force of mine to proceed and achieve the unachievable which I gladly took in competitive strife. She is ecstatic, and even I can tell my success was beyond her standards, much to the businesswoman in me take pride of. She would have a great heiress, she said, but it was half- minded, it is inevitable. I'm the blood of my father. Business is as easy as the air we breathe. But it doesn't mean I like it.

They have the tradition of giving inheritance and title, one not given to the eldest son or eldest daughter of the main family but with wits. They prefer unhanded tactics and slithering. They are dirty handed and losing a few screws and hinges in the head.

No wonder father was dead.

He grew in a family of snakes and sharks.

I am greedy of power over money just like they are but I do not like it to be given to me in a silver platter. I want to deserve it. I want to work for it and beyond. She saw to it and brought me a 'challenging' works for many 'greedy men'. Grandmother thought me as a naïve little thing. She called it home work, my sister called it demon's language and mother almost burned it.

Of course it was no demon language nor was it also from a Baranomiya Academy where my home- schooling curriculum was stationed. Mother has a right to burned it though, if her ten year old girl would receive a true work from a grizzly grandmother.

Grandmother didn't give me homework. She had given me a journal of business transactions which happens at the first day of January and ends at the last day of June of this year, courtesy of her company. Sad to say it was huge pile for my age, as is her motives would make me done her perpetual income statements and define the whereabouts of debit, credits, liquidation and merits and ledgers. It is an adult's work, a professional one at that. One wrong number and the company would fall into disorder or worst, bankruptcy.

It contains thousands of transactions, in and out cash flows and borrowed capitals. I do not hold thousands of income statements. In my hand are billions of income data, and every transaction is not limited but greater than two to three million US dollars.

She had trusted me, a ten year old girl home-schooled like it was nothing.

What a woman she is.

So here I am, nose deep in my table, my left hand writing and the other pressing the familiar and comfortable buttons of a calculator without looking at it. It's fast- paced beeps lulls me for days, no sleep and food could parse me in my doing all except two-

"Ne ne, Yonee- chan~!" a small body wraps up on my lap. It brings me back to reality, my pen stopping an inch close to my ledger. I gave a deep sigh. So much for focus.

-attention deprived girls namely my little sister and Matsuri.

By keeping the body closed longer than she intended my legs feels too warm to my liking and I quickly look at the reason of my discomfort, pushing her away to no avail.

"I'm a little busy, Matsuri- chan. Bother Yuzu-nee for a bit, okay?" I consoled, voice patchy but still tint with those childish vocal cord.

"Ehhhh… but Yonee- chan's been ignoring me for days~! And Yuzu- chan's been cooking~! She said not to bother her when she's cooking so I come to you~!"

"I don't-, ugh…." I tried to reason, grimacing as she looks at me with those traitorous dejected face. "I have a lot of important papers due a day after tomorrow. I have no time to compensate for it. I'm sorry." Even in years I am wary to stay close to this girl.

She's clingy to me than Yuzu's and I have distanced myself many times but no use. This girl is stubborn as a mule. If only Yuzu didn't tell her I'm the one who like her here, I've could have gone unseen.

"Matsuri- chan, please not now."

"Eeeeeehhhhh~!"

"Matsuri….."

I feel like I'm going to suffocate and she's being stubborn more than usual. I tried to regulate my breath, feeling the thud of twitch approaching.

Matsuri pouts her annoyance and she shushed away, slumping on the floor next to my feet, grumbling her discontentment. "Yonee- chan's have no time for me now! I hate it! I hate it!"

"Stop being stubborn, it was only for this week." I reasoned, restocking the papers immaculately.

"But you said that last week~!"

"….." I can't refute, I just scratch my nape, twirling my hair in a low ponytail.

"Mou! SEE!?"

"Matsuri," Yuzu called out, stepping out the kitchen with a tray in hand and the smell of waffles and sausage filled the house. "Don't bother Nee- chan, she love her papers more than us anyways!"

"Yuzu-nee not you too…" I groaned, rubbing my temples when Matsuri rolls all the more. I steady the tower of folders in my side, keeping it away from Matsuri's flailing limbs. My sister huffed, but she clamps Matsuri after she pushed the food in my table, on top of my incomplete ledger.

"Whatever. Eat that first, I don't want Mama saying I starved you."

"Nye nye, Yonee- chan~!"

"Yuzu nee-chan…."

"Don't Nee-chan me!"

"But I need to-"

"Don't eat that now or I'll tell Mama obaa-chan's giving you another assignment again!" She sounds mad, and I take immeasurable relief when Matsuri's voice stopped protruding my ears when she too realized how mad my twin is. I ground my teeth, before I comply and put down my pen to eat her serving. Grandmother's assignments are the only interesting thing I could fry my brain. They treat me like my age, and my maturity and intellect had passed it long ago.

If Mama would banned my stash then I would be a vegetable, I can't take that risk. Still, Mama got the balls when it comes to me and confronting grandmother. I respect that woman.

I take my first bite and turned at Yuzu to thank her for the meal but they were turned away from me.

They were distant, a few feet from me sulking. There are no cartoons today so the television is off. It is the usual time for us to play. But I am busy, I have no time for dillydallying, such as my will and the persistence of children away from me.

However good the food was I couldn't enjoy it. They were silent and it chills me to break it so. They were never been mad when I was having my moods before, always understanding when I would lock the door and never see them for unquestionable hours. But this is my doing, my rapport.

I dropped my spoon, sighing loudly and shaking my head when they jumped at my sudden break.

Fine, I was in wrong and this work shouldn't have been done for weeks but I must prove grandmother that I can. She would come for at least four times a month. I have the timetable for her schedules. I know when she'll return. I am running in circles, trying to find a good testimony. But I would lower my pride, just for this one I would concede.

"Nee-chan," I called, patting my side to invite them. She seems reluctant but I didn't say more. I look into her eyes, waiting for her patiently.

I feel my sister's warmth to my side, but unlike Matsuri it isn't constricting. She was always patient when it comes to my personal space. It suffocates me when I do not permit it. She knows I have boundaries I don't want anyone to prod.

I pull a lone beanbag to me just a little out of reach, snapping it open to retrieve two phones grandmother gifted out of necessity. That old woman. I wonder why I wanted to impress that loveless hag. I gave it to them. I have no use of it at the moment.

Yuzu's eyed hers like it would explode any moment while Matsuri grasps hers like it was the greatest treasure in the world.

"Wow, phone~! Kaa-chan and Tou- chan have it but they don't want me having it~!" the youngest of us exclaimed and tried to find the power button, much to our amusement.

I pondered for a bit, tilting my head. Matsuri had an obsession to communication devices, but I don't recall what it is. I shrug my shoulders, placing my hand on Matsuri's head.

"Are you sure obaa- chan would…" unsure, Yuzu stopped her question, fiddling with the device. I gave her my consent, bumping my head softly to hers.

"Uhn, I owned it now anyway. What I do and don't in my possession is my own business, not hers." With that she calmed down, smiling that sunny cheer of hers before she moved, sandwiching me between them.

"Now I will teach you how to use a smart device… in hope you will not be a nuisance to me for a while longer…" they gave me a full blown pout and I just laughed, flicking their heads in unison. They might not know the bigger words I uttered, they know if I was insulting them.

"Meanie Yonee- chan~!"

"Yes. Yes, I am." I huffed, content as I tap the power button and Matsuri's phone came to life. "Nee- chan, follow me, alright? Since I can't entertain you today I would teach you something you will be entertained. Have you two heard of internet and browser?... No? Then I'll explain where you can understand. So internet…"

They are quite taken for only a day and a week to see the adjustment in our playtime. It's addicting- the new technology. Shame I'm not thoroughly interested of the process of science and engineering.

As predicted, Grandmother came at the exact date I drawn. She was different, too silent- too weak looking. I have given her the complete ledger, statements, capitals and cash flows. She smiled, quite big that time.

While it was a smile of genuine happiness and pride, I couldn't get off the feeling of her shining eyes, watery and dreamy, as if looking at the distance.

She praised me, and cue how that stroke my ego. But her voice is solemn, I have never heard of that sound before.

She left that night, surprising me and mother the most. She would usually go out for an hour or so seeing me, but she have overstayed her welcome, telling me of strategies and factors I will see when I run my own company. I never stopped her since I'm content to be indulged in the ways of a professional leader. She left with one last smile and a peck on my forehead, the first affection she had towards me besides the smirk and pat she waged on me since I was young.

With those actions comes my confidence. I am happy, I have proven myself.

Nothing could go wrong, I told myself.

But I proved too much and I was given so many.

I have tempt fate. I grew arrogant.

I have heard the chime of a home service telephone when I was walking slowly to my room that week. I picked it up smiling, since that day have been a pleasant pace. I answered it and thought it was just mother, checking to see if I was okay.

My smile slowly turns into horror as the voice at the other side grew soft, as if pacifying an animal in cage.

I dropped it, heaving recklessly until Yuzu comes in my side, alarmed.

Grandmother is dead.

She had signed a Will of inheritance on her deathbed.

There were seven men in front of me and I know not of their faces hiding in their lopsided hat. They looked young, tuxed and poised. Crossed legs, they had placed their hands on their top knee, glittering with rings and calloused on their side of their palm and forefinger. They are killers, from the concentrated scent of cigar and sulfur when they shake my hand in greeting.

They sit to intimidate. To get what they want. They are an odd bunch in my home, wearing black tuxedos into my cream living room. The contrast is so amusing but I cannot even lift a single muscle in my face. Thankfully mother and Yuzu got the message to hide when they ring the bell. I wanted no part of these too, but I was named heir.

Heir to her ambitions. Heir to the underworld of the earth.

I gave their tactics no matter, just the paper in my hand signed by a dead woman. I traced the family words: Wit. Blood. Wealth. They were silent as I mulled my decision.

Three multi-national companies.

Six hospitals.

Three academies.

Seventeen five- star restaurants.

Twenty five black markets.

Two base for… certain purposes.

Fifteen mansions.

That's besides personal aircrafts services and other miscellaneous multi-million possession.

I know now what the big deals out of inheritance from Grizelda are. It is a huge gamble, a huge attainment piece together by the family of Verona going back into the early Victorian times. It takes no further mulling what happened to them- picked one by one. And unfortunately for me and my twin sister, we are the last remaining not married into different houses. Which means a debt upon our heads.

I asked them who is behind this outrageous game of inheritance. They remain silent for so long I thought they wouldn't tell me anything.

Then they whispered, all in the same answer I dread:

"Family."

Family. We were picked on by our family members like a chicken awaiting to be cooked.

I asked them who they are.

"Family." They said. I wanted to laugh at their faces, tried to jest how they can just say the word 'family' as if it's the most disgusting thing in the world. But I can't, I am not afraid.

I am restless, I am caged.

I throw the paper in the table and pressed my hands to my hair. "Why am I the sole heir of her Will?" I murmured, tracing my name into a peculiar yellow contract, as if leather that came from an era of Ladies and Lords.

"She trusted you to see the right course of action." Someone said, monotonous, almost like a jeer. I gave him my attention, trying to find his irises, wanting to find the truth.

"And if the right course is to share the wealth to the family?" I challenged. They grew silenced, tense. They subtly looked at one another, as if they couldn't understand my words.

"We cannot refute…. The heir's words are law." Is a soft reply from the farthest man. He is the most built, most aged. He lifts his head and he stared at me as I stared at his own red eyes. I saw hope in deadened eyes. The same hope I saw in my mother's when I was revived. They dance like candle lights, waving in the air. They are tired too. They want the dispute to stop as much as they want to end our family.

That's the reason why I respected Grizelda, was fond of her, even liked her for what she was. But I have never loved her, as much as her arrogance had destroyed our family.

I nodded, before I pulled a pen in my pocket, unscrewed, drawing a line in the middle of our family's wise words.

[WIT. BLOOD. WEALTH.]

And then I write anew.

FAMILY; ALONE, WE DIE. TOGETHER, WE RISE.

"I would like to meet all of them," I closed my pen, looking up to see bowed heads and sheen of tears down their chins. I placed my hand into the nearest man to me, and he gripped mine tightly, clammy and broken with earned freedom. "I would like to meet them all." I repeated, and they raise their heads, red eyed men smiled at me, resembling the same cheer I saw only in my sister's smile.

"No!"

"Yuzu- nee…" I drawled. A husk. Just a name.

I slowly pried her fingers off in my black sleeved polo shirt, but she resist, tugging me all the more inside our house.

"I said no!" my sister hugged me, crying in my shoulders. I gave no comfort. I place no arms on her waist.

I can't comfort her. I can't lie to her face.

"Nee-chan, it's just a city ahead! I'll be fine!" I whined, exasperated. The men behind me- Shey and Sam chuckled, and I gave them a small glare. My sister can be anticlimactic, I have an important meet and greet to attend.

"But! But you can't go outside without me! What if you have a heart attack or- or you suddenly faint and tired! No one would have given you a piggy back ride and- and!"

"Nee-chan I can walk fine on my own you know?"

"No! No, you can't go alone! I will worry! Don't go, nee- chan!" she wailed until I no longer can take her whining.

"Ma! Yuzu's acting baby again!" I yelled inside my house and mother rushed to me, giggling all the while. Mercy, what's wrong with both of my family?

"Ara~, Yuzu- chan stop making a mess on your sister's clothes will you? She'll be fine, I promise."

"But she never went outside alone that far!" Yuzu protested, but mother is skilled. She buckles my sister's kneecap and carried her like a princess in her arms.

"I'm not alone, remember?" I tried again, pointing to the two men silently enjoying this drama in front of them. "This is our cousin, Shey and Sam. They're family Yuzu-nee, don't worry."

"Family?" she sniffled, totally realizing there is someone behind me. She 'eep!' and blushed, burying herself in my mother's shoulder.

Mother smiled at me and ruffled my head. "Arara, Yozora- chan~! Take care, okay? Don't run and take breaks, okay?" I gave her thumbs up before Yuzu glance again, now looking at the two, glaring cutely at them.

"If my sister got sick I will find you two, you hear?"

The two laughed, bowing in tandem to my sister's outburst.

"Aye, milady. I will see to it she is in our upmost care." Shey promised, tipping down his hat.

I gave my sister a quick kiss on her lips before I grasp Sam's hand, slowly walking out in our doorstep.

When the sunlight grazes me I stopped, hovering my hand before my eyes, trying to look at the clear blue sky above. I inhale the autumn scent and smiled.

True, it would be the first time since we were kids that I will step far away from home. I was doubtful at first, if I can take a step further than I could. But I remember there's someone next to me, supporting me as I grew bold. I lift my shoes clad feet, taking measurable steps one at the time. My legs might be weak, my heart palpitating but I enjoyed these moments, and the freedom it brings.

"Where we'll we meet them all?" I asked softly, seating down into the backseat of the limousine.

"We picked a place safe and short distanced from your home, my lady." I snort, I hate being address that formally. Sam winks at me, knowing what I huffed about. "The Aihara Academy is one of the three academies entitled to but is fostered by our family, my lady. We are to meet them there."

My brain short circuit.

Did I just hear it right?

"Ai… hara?" I can't help but asked. "Isn't it dangerous to... you know?"

"Yes, I assure you my lady, the people that will come, is the people who wanted to keep you safe the most. Did you know, Brianna Aihara is grandmother Grizelda's youngest sister? She's the headmaster's wife. Aihara has been loyal to us for long, my lady they will not betray us. Maybe you will meet their offspring there, we'll never know."

I brought a hand on my temple, gritting my teeth in stress.

I hope it would not come to that.

Author's Note: As you can see, I have made a slight change of phase in these scenario. I have made Yozora looked like 'Natsukawa Haruhi' in her serious and more masculine look in a yuri manga Opapagoto, check that out if you want to know who I am talking about. Also, due to my adoration to Opapagoto, you might have found something that I blend with this Citrus. I have a reason for that and hopefully, you won't figure it out for how long it would take. There's a glaring similarities in Opapagoto and Citrus if you would take a look. Comment your guesses for that.

Trigger:

And don't dare say this is a Citrus fic and it should have more Yuzu and Mei scenes than the actual OC. Well, you're an idiot if you thought that. I'm done with the likes of that people. This story is based on an OC perspective and I don't want my OC became a sideline character just so she could see what we already saw in the manga or anime or narrate what the heck happened like some stupid OC. What's the meaning of writing the same thing in manga and anime in the first place? I would just waste my time when that happens. Don't be a jerk and think deeply. I didn't explicitly write long ass explanation of OC's mindset for nothing. I am building my own character so she can be as competent as Yuzu or Mei. Good luck fitting that in your brain, there's a reason in my title, summary and phase. There's always a meaning into it. Ciao.