the.astronomer
by liahime, a short ryuki tale.
.sirius02.
She was in hiding.
Her red hair was swinging around her shoulders, falling out as she dozed, anonymous, on the northbound train. College students swirled around her, chattering as they pulled out purses, ate their sandwiches.
First test. If she truly was gone, no one would notice her, the silent girl half-staring, half sleeping, leaned against the window. No one would ask for autographs from the girl who saved her country, no one would ask for discounts or photos.
Fame didn't become Rika. She did not care for it, nor did it care for her. They kept eye contact, but only as long as necessary, and parted on their separate ways. Fame's glitter did not care to compete with one who rejected it, always moving onto something else, some one who would care for its splendid glory.
Someone like Akiyama Ryo.
Ryo had basked in the glow of it all. There was a girl on his arm almost every week of high school, a new face she had to accept for his pride's sake every time. Pedophile, she had grumbled inwardly. A stupid one that prefers his girls as two dimensional stick figure sluts.
And as much she repeated it over and over, she knew it wasn't true. She just preferred it that way. The guy wasn't that bad. He was just too close to Fame's glory for her. He had lived in it, drank it in, and was impossible to imagine without it. There was no way he could be anonymous anywhere. Even if she shipped him off in a duct taped box to the coldest reaches of the South Pole, the world would follow him and start a fan base with the adoring penguins.
The thing that scared her was he was used to getting everything, simply because he always did. It was his personality, as well as hers. What they wanted, they got. What they got, they kept until it was useless. And so if Ryo Akiyama wanted her, he would go after her- fan clubs following with their cell phone cameras all the way- chasing Rika on and on until the ends of the earth.
It wasn't Akiyama himself that scared her. She could deal with this. One personthat she had known for years would not be able to shake a queen so harshly. It was what he was made of that scared her- of determination that would hunt her down until he caught her.
She had once wondered what it would be like to give up, for a second or two, on silent days. To just give up to his hunt, stay in peace- it offered an easier life. No more making sure that neither Ryo nor girl friend of the week was hurt. She would not have to be on her guard all the time, constantly throwing down each stone he put up.
She could relax.
But that was the lazy way out, she decided, the lazy, unpleasant way that she would firmly oppose for the rest of her life. Because she too had a core of iron, and this was merely escaping a siege, planning for a second counterattack. Rika was not running, she reminded herself, from Akiyama. She was running for herself. It became her mantra, reminder of the purpose that was meant to be.
She was running merely so that she would not lose herself in everyone else. So that she would be purely Rika, one hundred percent unadulterated by any hero-boy or fame. Stay with something long enough, the saying had gone, and it will rub off on you. This was escape from it, she told herself.
But try as she might, each rattle of the train struck a different note against it, putting the rest of the truth along with the wishes. It wasn't just the hero-boy she was running from. Because maybe it wasn't only Ryo slowly stacking stones up to the tower. If she was tempted, then one day she might- just might, though the chances were tiny, she protested indignantly- to let a ladder dangle down from a tower.
One day, her siege could be broken. And as tiny as the chances were- they were there.
So Nonaka Rika wasn't just running from Ryo.
She was running from herself.
"Oh, wow! Look, look, Masaki! Over there!"
"It's her! Look at that gorgeous red hair. It's impossible to miss- like a flame."
"I should have brought my sister's cereal collection! An autograph would make the prices skyrocket!"
-"You'd think the whole thing would have died down by now, neh, Rika?" It had been a quiet moment, she remembered. One where Ryo- for once- didn't have a girlfriend. One where she- for once- could relax, because Ryo stopped the hunt when he became distracted- gloomy over the loss of a girl who had- for once- dumped him. It was a rare day for all three to be together. A truce between both sides, attacking and defending.
Or would have been.
Because it was also the day that Kenta and Kazu ha found it. He was rubbing it into everyone's- and anyone's- face in loud surround sound, cereal flying out of his mouth as he looked for a re-release of everyone's favorite heroes, including- who else- Kazu and Kenta. Four boxes of cereal, eight plastic figurines later, he was still going strong.
She had looked at the two small figurines, mounted on the same plastic base. One was beaming; the other had an out of character grin on her face as the two waved to cereal buyers. "Even plastic and Rice Krispies can't change ugliness, Akiyama. Don't worry. Just live with the truth of how your face looks like. There are no miracles."-
The two toys had found their way into the garbage, along with their matching cardboard information sheet. "Did you know," the cute cardboard had read in its pink lettering. "that Akiyama Ryo and Nonaka Rika are the Digimon King and Queen of the card game?"
Why yes, little paper, she did. People would point this out every time, as if determined to hook her up with a boyfriend, as if that was an essential part of a satisfactory life. As if that tournament that had happened so long ago connected them as soul mates.
Honestly.
She was ready to crumble the paper up, when the second pink sentence caught her eye.
"Did you know that Rika and Ryo, not only being the Queen and King in cards, are also a king and queen together in reality-"
The pink information sheet, along with the rest of the cereal boxes, were thrown into the trash compactor, and Rika, silent, had left early, plans already coming up in her mind. Because if a cereal company started to hint at it, there wasn't much she could do.
Her eyes blinked open to a chaos.
"Masaki, Masaki! I'm not lying! It's the hottie's girlfriend!" The excited girl waved to Masaki, plastic figurine in hand. "You know, the one with the nice hair!"
"I'm so glad I bought that cereal box for my brother!" Grocery bags were being pillaged, looking for a souvenir to remember Japan's quietest heroine.
"MASAKI!"
"Do you think she'll autograph my shoes? They're Rumiko signature line!"
"Oh- right, her mother is Rumiko! She could be one too- that would be so cute!"
"I need an autograph! A celebrity on the 32 BTomoeda line!"
She turned her face away from autographs, leaving the excited girls standing uncertain, awkward in the jolting path of the railway, pens and camera phones in hand. The heroine sighed, and turned up the volume on her CD player.
First thing, Tomoeda, I'm dying my hair.
--
Kari Minamoto- oh, this isn't going to be a oneshot. Nothing huge and enormous, but not that short either. I'm not at this point either, but I also wondered what it would be like..
misanu- I love silent readers emerging! I'm glad you like this take on a ryuki. It's new for me, and more difficult as well.
karika88-One more chapter for you! I'm glad it's not totally boring... Plot's going to come soon, I swear>
Dolce Saito- Yay, I remember you! Glad to be back and writing again. It feels good. Updates as soon as I get my computer back from a move, everyone.
starof06.- I'm glad this doesn't sound phony or fake. I'm trying to write a realistic fiction again. After fantasy, it gets a bit hard. More is coming!
takari freek- If my story makes someone think, then I'm glad. It was more than I hoped for. I'll try to update ASAP.
Thank you everyone, for my lovely welcome. Thank you times a million and forty two by a googleplex. Seriously.
authoress emerges! (like in that movie.. um, I think it was called Alien? haha..)
anyways, I'm happy to be back, everyone. Your reviews are making my day. Especially since my computer is being packed up, since I'm moving from my most beloved Oregon to Georgia. I haven't been writing here very much because of writers' block, as well as just... I was busy, I was lazy, and I was trying to branch out. This story is going to be a stab at writing something short... unlike Thorns, which was a huge ryuki... I think it was the longest thing I had ever written, and it spanned about a year. (Partly because I was so blocked up on ideas.)But I was feeling a bit lost out there, running around the world of stories. So I needed to come back and water my first roots before trying to start branching out in new directions... and I'm happy to be back, and see familiar names in the review box.
I'm going to try and update quickly, and chapters will get longer as well. (Today's update faster than normal, because my computer is going away today... boo hoo..), and I hope you like this, everyone. It's going to be different from the usual stuff, because I'm a bit depressed right now, and I'm thinking a lot more now... about the future.
Wow, I sound a bit like a college packet.
Love you to death, everyone
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-long winded liahime.