Ahahahaha, I finally got the chapter out. Anyways, enjoy the last chapter before I officially go on my hiatus!
IA shook her head to rid her thoughts. It was impossible that it would be the same mark — impossible that Rei Kagane would belong to the same people who killed her family and took away her brother. He was too young. Too inexperienced. Unsuitable for their strict criteria.
Those were jut excuses, she knew. Exceptions could be made. Differences between Rei and them didn't mean that they had to discriminate. Just like how the director didn't reject just because of her age. Most of the...people...here were in their twenties or so, and IA was probably the youngest one here.
In their world, age didn't really matter. All that mattered was your bloodlust and your will to kill. For IA, she was only making use of this chance to find out her parents' killers and taking revenge for them. But in the job, there was also a danger of being exposed because you were too inexperienced, being young and a greenhorn (never mind that new ones almost never got any jobs) and that was the main reason that teenagers weren't accepted.
IA had lived and survived through all these, forsaking all useless things to make sure that her life was still intact, lived to take on missions and requests to find clues about her long-lost brother. After all, she couldn't possibly take revenge and find him if she wasn't even alive. And now, a possible member of one of those people was right in front of her eyes. The blonde longed to kill him off. It would help to suppress her bloodlust for now. But she couldn't. She had orders to take care of this brat and she didn't exactly have the right, or the want, to disobey the Director.
She needed more information before killing them — Rei included. IA had to wait for the perfect chance. It did not matter how long she had to wait. Patience was a virtue, and her strong point.
Rei chanced a look behind him, where IA was walking with her head down, presumably thinking about something serious. He could never guess what she was thinking, what with her poker face (she could go and play poker and win five rounds in a row) and (possible) loss of emotions. She was a complete mystery and a tough nut to crack, and it would be fun to break her. The results would be interesting and sweet enough, enough to keep him interested for now.
But first...
"Hey, IA, where am I going to sleep?" Said blonde snapped her head up, still not showing any surprise from the broken silence throughout the walk to her room. She regarded Rei with cool eyes — and again, again Rei couldn't help but shiver under the sharp gaze of those light blue irises. It was a strange feeling, warm and cold running through his entire body. Strange, but not unwelcomed. Rei nearly slapped his brain (it was physically impossible, but not mentally so) for that treacherous thought. What am I thinking about?! I. AM. NOT. A. PERVERT. NO. Just a normal otaku.
"My room. On the sofa or the floor, obviously." IA added after seeing the shocked look Rei gave her at the end of the first sentence. She sighed and rolled her eyes. Boys and their perverted fantasies. "I'm going to lock the door, so don't even think of sneaking out. There's no electricity for the television as well, in case you do, so it's useless to try to switch it on to watched your stupid 'anime' or whatever that thing is called," the blonde snapped. She didn't get why Rei liked such useless things. Sure, she used to like them, but that was a long time ago...Items that were unneeded were thrown away.
IA shook her head. Since when had she started thinking about such things again? Rei was beginning to remind her of her past that she wanted, no, needed to forget. How annoying. Useless. Frustrating. She grabbed the collar of the taller boy and steered him away from the wrong direction as they continued left.
"Frustrating?" IA rolled the word around and over in her mouth as she whispered the long-forgotten, foreign word out. Rei must have heard her, for he shot her a strange look, but she ignored him as they started up the stairs. Footsteps thudded and echoed through the empty stairwell, and outside the tightly shut windows, there was nothing but the blackness of the earth. The whole building was under the earth save for an innocent convenience store at the very top of the underground maze, so IA had no idea why there were windows. Not like there were anything to see out of.
To make matters worse, the walls were blank and the corridors seemed to stretch forever, so it was boring. IA had once wished that the windows had sunlight streaming through it, and she could hear the cheerful twittering of the birds and the sound of the wind. Not as if she was anything close to such happy, such cheerful, such free nature. She had no right to. But perhaps if she could get her way with the windows, the walk...and her life...might have been a little more...interesting.
The walk seemed especially long. Even more so than the trip down to the dining hall.
Reaching for the futon at the very back of the closet, Rei dragged it out and dumped it on the floor with a loud and purposeful 'thump'. He coughed as the dust swirled around him and tickled the back of his throat. Near him, at the entrance of the room, IA coughed a little as well, but kept her eye on him to make sure that he didn't do anything weird like stealing her precious anime badges that her parents bought for her (he was definitely eyeing them).
Though the blonde didn't like being reminded of her past, those badges were the only reminder of her parents that she could cling on to. Those very same memoirs were the things that drove her forward to keep going. For the sake of their revenge.
Rei stared at the dirty — wait no, dirty was an understatement here — futon in disgust. "You expect me to sleep on this?! You're crazy. Freaking crazy." He stared defiantly at the shorter girl and her eyes snapped back to him from her anime badges (Wow, he never knew she had them. Then again, they had only met for one day or so). Her eyes still electrified him, but he was not going to back down, for the sake of his precious sleep.
"You could sleep on this pathetic blanket," she pointed to a small and thin blanket that couldn't even cover his torso, "or just sleep on the floor with nothing covering you except for your clothes. Honestly, I couldn't care either way. Your choice. Or," IA added, seeing the rebut Rei was going to give her, "I can kick you out of my room and you can sleep on the sofa where it's hot and stuffy."
Finishing her piece, she turned her head to ignore him. Rei internally applauded the blonde. That had to be the longest and most awe-inspiring speech he had heard her ever made. "Or, I could sleep with you." He suggested with a wink.
Next second, Rei found himself on the floor of the living room with a throbbing bump sitting atop his head and a harsh "Out!" accompanied by the slam of the door in his face.
Oh his precious face and his precious pride as an otaku and his precious sleep.
He couldn't even recognize what anime those badges belonged to and he had no blanket or whatsoever to cover him now. The black-haired boy sighed, dragging himself to the sofa and plopped down, preparing for a restless night with no anime to accompany him into the wee hours of the morning.
She couldn't sleep. Not with the nagging feeling at the back of her head and the fear of having nightmares of that day again. IA had enough trauma to last a lifetime, and she didn't need more to invade her brain through the form of nightmares and bad dreams. Perhaps she had sinned in her previous life, and was paying for it now.
IA shrugged through her blankets (a considerable feat). She didn't believe in superstition, so why think about it now? It wasn't like ghosts or anything was real. Definitely not real, and all those movies and pictures were edited. Edited. Yes, that must be it. Trying hard to think of something else other than the topic of ghosts, she found her thoughts turning to Rei. Who was currently stuck on the sofa, and she probably didn't tell him about the kitten (who was a night owl) she kept as a pet...
...Crap.
IA flipped over the blanket and strode to the door, panicking like crazy. She stopped in front of the door, slightly buzzed at this stupid, irritating emotion. How could she panic? Panicking was...not good. Not good for her. Not good for assassinating people. It wasn't welcomed. It would be best if she didn't think about it. Perhaps she might be able to forget it then.
Shaking her head and suppressing the surging panic, IA reached for the knob, but sudden tiredness washed over her like a wave and she flopped down on the floor, unable to summon her strength. I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a little nap before I storm out...?
.
.
.
A wet tongue.
Soft and furry nuzzles.
A cat...? IA thought sleepily, frowning and turning her head away from the friendly cat. Annoying cat, interrupting her precious sleep. She already had a cat and didn't need another one...Wait...cat?! Her eyelids flew open, and she grabbed the cat gently away from her face. Hugging the purring kitten to her chest, IA stood up and looked around her, frowning. She clearly remembered that she had fell asleep on her bed, so what was she doing on the sofa? However hard she tried to remember, IA couldn't dig out the reason.
...Weird. IA stared at the clock. By this time, SeeU should be here to wake me up...Why isn't she here? Plopping down on the sofa, the blonde sighed and decided that she might as well wash up and go to the dining hall. There was something nagging repeatedly at the back of her mind, and she had a feeling that the something was also annoying, but she couldn't remember, no matter how much she racked her brains. Shrugging, the girl stood up and headed for the bathroom, but stopped, frozen in her tracks, when a black-haired stranger came out of her bathroom without a shirt on and actually said 'hi'.
"What the hell," IA muttered softly. "Who are you?" This time it was louder, loud enough for the guy to hear. She sighed and looked away (at least she was decent, not like this random guy here) as a pout appeared on his face and he reached for his shirt, which hung over a chair nearby.
"Ehh? You don't remember me? How sad! I'm Re—" IA could almost see the 'OAO' and 'T_T' on the guy's face, even though she was facing away from him. "...On second thought, it might be fun to tease you a little." A grin spread across Rei's face, as he imagined the fun of annoying IA and see her poker face break. As he expected, the girl frowned, a childish look of annoyance flashing across her features before disappearing.
"Go die in hell." The blonde threw at him the curse and Rei fake-winced, whining fake-sadly. Yes yes, almost all the responses Rei gave IA so far (though by the looks of it, she doesn't remember) were fake. Humans needed faces and lines and stuff to survive; after all, wasn't Shakespeare's famous quote "Life is but a stage..."? He was merely living up to that. What was so wrong about it?
...Okay, he felt bad. Really bad. Because so far, IA hadn't told any lies (or maybe she has) to him — it wasn't quite fair. And Rei Kagane has always been fair. Especially towards the time spent on each anime. And girls. But whatever; that wasn't the topic here. Now, he had to think up how to annoy/tease IA...
It was going to be fun. If she didn't kill him first, that was.
It feels bad leaving you guys with this cliffhanger-ish thing. D:
Reviews, nya!