Alice Alive

By, KKYOKO

Chapter Four: Waiting Games and Realizations

The cuts on Shiori's arms healed and scarred, and time went on for me. We finished third grade and went into fourth. Shiori was promoted to a higher position at the publishing company where she worked, and suddenly insisted that Kurama and I should take piano lessons. I'm not particularly sure why she thought of this, but if I had to guess it would be due to the influence of someone she worked with. However, she seemed adamant about it, and I've always like music.

We took our lessons from an older woman who lived on our street. She was German, and her Japanese was broken and but her English was good. Her name was fairly hard to pronounce, so I usually called her "Frau" which meant something like "ma'am or Mrs." in German. She taught me and Kurama a few German words and phrases, along with the piano, to keep our time together interesting.

I loved learning the piano. I've always had a very good ear, and I could sing a bit, but I had never taken any musical lessons before in any of my lives. My mother could never afford it, and I would've never dared to ask her.

Kurama seemed to enjoy the piano as well, but I got the feeling that it was merely another thing for him to perfect. Perfectionist.

I found out, a couple weeks into our lessons with Frau, why Shiori was interested in us learning to play the piano. I went exploring in the backyard one day and got into the shed, curious to see what was in there. Underneath a few boxes and plastic tubs sat a dusty, black, baby grand piano. Judging from the dustiness of the boxes and tubs verses everything else in the shed, Shiori had recently moved them into storage. I was guessing that she saw the piano and thought it should be put to use.

I asked her about it at dinner that night, which made Kurama blink in surprise and Shiori look down at her lap, sheepish.

"Well dear," she began, glancing at Kurama's curious face. "Shuichi's father played the piano, which is why we have it. While I was pregnant, we had it moved into the shed so that Shuichi wouldn't hurt himself while he learned to walk." She looked up and smiled. "I just thought it would be nice to have the piano in the house again, and it seems you both enjoy playing it."

I grinned at her. "Yes! When can we move it in the house, Shiori-san? I can help move it too."

She chuckled. "I don't know about that, sweetheart. You're terribly tiny to be trying to move something so big. I'll have some friends from work come over to help out. Hatanaka-san seems willing enough."

Kurama's eyes narrowed at the mention of this "Hatanaka-san".

"Oh!" Shiori's brown eyes widened as she was struck by a memory. "And I have to file adoption papers." She smiled at me. "Soon you'll authentically be Minamino Alice, dear."

"Yay!" I cried cheerfully, getting up and hugging Shiori.

The next day when Kurama and I came home from school, we found two men in our kitchen. Shiori was sitting at the table with them, serving tea and laughing at one of their jokes. The one closest to the entrance was short, round, and had a black beard and mustache. The man closest to Shiori was tall and lean, with huge eyeglasses that made him look a little dorky. Shiori stood up as we came in and greeted us, offering a snack.

I, figuring that I should be more excited about the piano than meeting strangers, shook my head and bounded into the living room where I saw the now shiny piano. It stood in the small nook of the far end of the living room, where Shiori's houseplants previously bathed in sunlight that came from the surrounding windows. It was a bit overcast, so there wasn't a lot of sun coming through this day. I climbed on the bench and pushed on a key and quickly found the piano to be completely out of tune.

"Nice," I deadpanned. "Oh well." Guess I'd have to meet the two strangers after all. I got down and went back into the kitchen, and found a frown on Kurama's face as he stared at the tall, dorky guy. "What's wrong?" I asked him quietly.

Shiori interjected before Kurama could respond to me. "Alice, please greet Hatanaka-san and Omaya-san." She sounded a bit irritated, like I should have done this before running off into the living room. Good, the little girl act is working.

"Oh, hi and welcome home," I said, flashing the silly little girl smile. "Did I get it right, Shiori-san?"

Her mouth twitched like she was trying not to laugh. "Sort of," she replied.

Hatanaka looked a bit awed. "So, this is the little girl you're adopting? She's just as exotic as Shuichi-kun. They're very adorable, side-by-side, Shiori-san." His smile was genuine. "Where does Shuichi-kun get his looks, by the way?"

"Oh, Ichirou – my late husband – his mother was from Switzerland," she replied.

Omaya grunted, looking at his watch. "We'd better go Hatanaka. Don't want to miss the Tokyo Giants."

"Oh, uh, right," Hatanaka said, glancing at Shiori. "Um, Shiori-san, I'll see you tomorrow at work then?" he asked, getting up from his seat with Omaya.

Shiori nodded, smiling. "Of course."

Hatanaka looked relieved.

Ah. I see why Kurama's frowning now, I thought smugly.

Shiori showed them out and bid them good evening. When she came back, she ushered us upstairs to do our homework while she made dinner.

Kurama didn't stop frowning, and I followed him into his room. "So…what's so terrible about him?" I asked. "Is it because he's a dork? Dorks aren't very scary you know." I bounced on the bed.

He shut the door and stood in front of it, folding his arms. "I want her to be happy, of course, and he seems an all right enough man, but I still don't like it."

"Mm, why not?" I asked. "Is it because you want her all to yourself? Are you really that clingy, Kurama?" I bounced off the bed and smiled at him. "You're really possessive, aren't you?" I suggested, breaking character. Pretending to be a little girl was actually more tiresome than you'd think.

His green eyes narrowed at me. "Don't go too far with that assumption, Alice," his voice quiet and threatening. "I also have a tendency to throw away what I don't need."

I pinched his cheek. "You're not so scary, demon, especially in that body. Grow up a little bit more before you threaten someone," I chided, letting go of his cheek and shot forward to tickle his ribs. He caught my hand before I could make contact and squeezed it warningly.

"I'm not in the mood to play your games, Alice," he said, green eyes flashing. He advanced on me, and for a split second, there was a glimmer of hard gold in his gaze. Like mist in a forest, it wove through the greenery and dissipated.

"Kurama," I began, feeling a little unnerved. "Are you getting your powers back?"

He let go of my hand and stepped away. "You don't have to act like a child when we're alone. I know what you are, so you don't have to hide it from me." He turned away from me. "As for my powers, you know what I am. I grow stronger every day."

"Kurama?" He turned over his shoulder to look at me expectantly. "Am I your enemy?"

I watched a thought flash through his eyes, like he was calculating something. And then he smiled. "We're on very mutual terms, Alice. So long as you never betray me, I have no interest in throwing away something that could prove to be beneficial in the future. You have an interesting ability, you know."

I sighed. "I know. I should be an exorcist."

"Right," he said, and somehow I got the feeling that that wasn't what he was talking about at all.

We learned more about Hatanaka over the next few weeks. He had a son, also named Shuichi, but he was younger by three years. He was divorced from his wife for various reasons. He lived a couple of streets over. And he was also dating Shiori.

She sighed and gushed all over the house, on the phone to her mother, and especially to us. She really needed some girlfriends. I tried to be nice about it and put myself in her shoes, trying to remember what falling in love was like, but unfortunately remembering only irritated me. It was hard to be my age and a little girl of eight. I should be out partying and living it up, but instead I was stuck as a small child, and I felt robbed of the fun I should be having. I wanted to be out falling in love, going on dates, and dancing, and maybe make out with a stranger or two. Also, I had to deal with a throbbing psychological craving for alcohol. As soon as I turned twenty-one, I practically became an alcoholic, and the desire to drink when stressed or happy was so overwhelming sometimes that I had to go shut myself up in my room so as not to blow up at someone.

I was craving what Shiori had. I wanted to be twenty-two again. I was so incredibly jealous of her, that I vowed to party and go wild once I reached age twenty (again), which was Japan's drinking age.

Since I had no real outlet for this, I started running. The nice thing about Japan is, because of the harsh punishments the government deals out, the crime rates are low. Therefore it's safe enough for a child to go on a mad dash around the house/block/town without having to worry about getting kidnapped. I would run and run until my sides twisted and split, and I hyperventilated, and I could run no more. I ran until I was too worn out to think, or to feel anything. I would run myself numb.

Shiori was a bit worried that I pushed myself too hard, so to balance it out, she was constantly shoving food down my throat. I ate it all happily, as I knew my body was growing and I was burning a lot of calories. She fed me all of my favorite things, like peaches and onigiri, after realizing that I hated to eat meat and fish.

Kurama, as observant as he was, noticed my sudden desire to run myself into the ground, but didn't say anything about it.

Then something occurred to me one day when I was tearing my way through the local playground. I was thinking about my last life and the guy who killed me, and then how jealous I was of Shiori, and how I needed to expunge these feelings from me, and I needed to run faster and faster – when it suddenly hit me.

I was a self-destructive person.

I drank and flirted with strangers in my old life, I told a man to shoot me in the head, I wanted to run out of the haven of Shiori's house and drink my weight in alcohol, I wanted to kiss and sex up men I didn't know, I wanted to go to smoky, shady clubs and dance my heart out on the floor, I wanted to drive recklessly and speed like a demon, I wanted to smoke a pack of Marlboros a day, and I felt the driving need to literally run myself into the ground to control these impulses and desires.

So I ran faster, since I couldn't think of anything else to do about it.

Not too much going on this chapter, but do watch for that self-destructive reoccurring theme. It's not like Alice is going to go emo-Sue and dye her hair and cut her wrists, but it might get her mixed up in things she shouldn't be doing.

Also, I'm really sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I'm also sorry about how short it is. But I think the next chapter might be a bit better when we skip ahead to ...junior high. ^.^

We might even see Hiei for the first time. =D

Also, if you have any questions, comments, ideas, or if you just want to berate me because I might have lied to you about when this chapter would come out...please do so in the form of a review. Likely, I'll PM you back, now that I have more time.

...actually I had just as much time as before. I'm just lazy.

D=