Doukoku suru MAJENTA no ame ga
(The sobbing magenta rain)
Kokoro ni shimitsuite kuru
(Imprints itself on my heart)
AIshiTERU to itta hibiki wa
(The echo of 'I love you')
Subete ni kooushite chiisana hoshi no you ni
(Blends itself into everything and like a tiny star,)
Hikatteiru
(It shines)
Chapter Two, A Broken Doll
"Kazune-kun… I…" Karin stammered as she peeked her head into the blonde's room. As always, he was just sitting in bed, staring out of his bedroom window. "Himeka-chan and I are heading off to school now."
Something had happened to Kazune in those two days that he was missing. Something serious, and damaging. He had not been the same ever since he had been brought home. He sat around all of the time, staring off into space; whenever he was brought a meal, he did not eat it; when he did get to sleep, he always woke up with nightmares so severe that he cried. Despite all of that, he stubbornly insisted that he could not remember a thing that had happened to him while he was missing.
Kazune did not reply to her. Karin hadn't really been looking for a response, though it would have been nice to get one. He just sat there as always, staring out the window, as if she hadn't even entered the room. She wondered if he even heard her voice in his trance-like state. If he did, it didn't show.
What did that woman do to him? she thought curiously.
"Kazune-kun." Calling out to him again couldn't hurt. At the very least, she'd have his attention and know that he was in there. He. Was there anything left of the real Kazune? It seemed like there was less and less of him left. "Kazune-kun, can you hear me?"
He still did not respond to her.
"………"
There was nothing that she could do to get his attention now. For the past few days, there had been nothing that anyone could do to get him to speak to them. Even Himeka had failed miserably at that. He wouldn't speak, and when she tried to touch his shoulder to get his attention, he lost it. He screamed and cried, did everything that was so unlike Kazune. He had almost hit her in the process of "escaping". Since that, Himeka did her best to avoid him. It probably hurt her too much to be near him, Karin figured.
Karin took a few steps into the room. At least… At least, she could just try to get him to look in her direction. That alone would be enough for today.
"Kazune-kun, look at me," she said softly. As she nearer him, he turned his head away. I really can't help him, can I? I can't help him at all…
Karin sighed softly and turned away. From what she could tell, Kazune would be happier if she just left him alone. That was what she would do for now. That was all that she could do for now.
----------
The school day had been long, and boring. It was always long and boring, and a little too hard for her small brain, but she had always made it through each day because of her friends. Kazune had always been there to help her out when she was having troubles. He encouraged her to keep trying as hard as she could. He would smile, and pat her head lightly, maybe even tousle her hair a little, and promise that that night he would help her with her homework. Without Kazune there, she felt like the schoolwork was crushing her.
He really did do so much to help her out.
It's the least that I can do, Karin told herself as she hesitated outside of Kazune's bedroom door. It was already dinner time, and Himeka had showed her how to make all of his favorites. She held a silver tray in her hands that held the food. Since Himeka was not willing to come up here, it was Karin's job to make sure that the food at least arrived to him.
Whether he ate it or not was another affair.
"Kazune-kun," Karin sang as she rushed into the room.
It had to be rushing. If she eased her way in, she would have lost her nerve. Again. By now the food had to be getting cold. If Kazune was willing to eat today, then she was sure that he would appreciate it if she didn't freeze his food.
At first she couldn't see Kazune. The lights had all been turned off and the curtains were drawn. When she took a moment to look around, she noticed an unusually large lump under the blanket on his bed. She could barely see it, outlined by the faint light that filtered in through the curtains.
"Kazune-kun," she sighed, sounding a touch annoyed. "Just what are you doing? Sleeping? It's not even six-thirty!"
There was no reply from the lump. Not even a simple muscle twitching to show life.
Karin sighed again at him.
"Really, Kazune-kun…" she said softly. "We're all worried about you."
"… I'm sorry," he said softly. He still did not move, but he spoke.
Karin stopped for a moment. "Kazune-kun?"
"I'm sorry for troubling you so much, Karin," he sighed. His voice sounded tired and strained, nothing like Kazune. Even the apology was unusually formal for him. At least, coming from him and going to her it was.
What's with him? she wondered, walking around the bed. He's not being himself. It's weird. What did that woman do to him?
Kazune sat up slowly. He sighed softly. His hair was a mess, and even though he had been doing nothing but sleep all day, he looked absolutely exhausted. It was as if for the past few days he really hadn't been getting any sleep.
"Is that for me?"
"Huh?" Karin was snapped from her thoughts by his voice.
Kazune pointed towards the tray that she was holding. "Is that food for me?"
"Ahh… yeah," she replied. She smiled nervously. "Are you hungry today, Kazune-kun?"
He nodded and stared at the blanket.
"Yeah."
Kazune glanced up at her with a small smile on his face, as if he was laughing at himself.
"I've just been sitting here, but I haven't eaten anything," he replied. "I'm starving."
"Ah, well, here y' go, Kazune-kun!" Karin chirped nervously as she placed the tray on the night stand. She had no idea where else to put it. She never really had. But Kazune seemed satisfied with her choice. He watched her with that same small, pleasant smile on his face.
Actually, it was beginning to weird her out.
Kazune barely waited before she could let go of the tray and get out of his way before he lunged for it. She watched in awe as he inhaled the entire plateful. He hadn't had much of an appetite lately, but suddenly he seemed hungry enough to eat everything in the house.
Who knew? Maybe he could.
"It's good," he sighed blissfully, smiling at her. "Did Himeka make this?"
Karin pulled a face. She knew that she wasn't usually any good at that sort of thing, but it still annoyed her to hear him ask if it was Himeka's cooking. Why couldn't it be hers? She took it to him. The least he could have done was pretended that he assumed it was hers.
"Actually, Kazune-kun…" he choked out through clenched teeth.
"Ah, it's yours then, Karin?" he said suddenly. He laughed a little, half hiding his mouth behind a fist. "That makes it amazing. Thank you."
"Aaah…" Karin was shocked speechless. She, too, laughed softly, but hers was more nervous and unsettled.
Kazune was finally acting a little more normal now. She was relieved by that. He was even starting to poke fun at her again. Despite the fact that he looked completely exhausted, Karin was sure that he was getting better. Of course, being exhausted was a usual state for Kazune after he used his God form. Maybe that had something to do with his recent fatigue.
"Kazune-kun…" Karin called out to him softly. She hesitated for a moment. If she asked him this now, she would definitely be bringing up painful memories for him. But she wanted to know what had happened to him in the warehouse.
"You must be tired of standing, Karin," Kazune said, abruptly changing the subject as if he had known what she was about to ask. "You've been standing since you came in. You can sit down, you know."
"Aha ha…" With nothing to say, and no real argument about sitting down, Karin glanced around the room. There were no chairs readily available for her to use.
He gave his bed a light pat. "It won't bother me if you sit here."
"R-Really?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Sit."
Still unsure about what was happening, Karin did as she was told. She sat down on the edge of the bed, and stared at him. Even his smile seemed to be genuine, and the way that he was looking at her now was familiar to the other times when they were alone. It was a personal stare, with a gentle smile, and his eyes locked with hers. Only Kazune could have pulled it off without being romantic about it.
"Geez, girls," he sighed, leaning back against the headboard. He rolled his head back a little, and stared up at the ceiling.
Karin's eye twitched, but she forced herself to remain calm. Yeah, Kazune was slowly, but surely, returning to his old self.
She looked away from him, and out the window.
"Kazune-kun, I'm glad that you're feeling better now," she told him.
He made a small sound that she couldn't distinguish.
"Yeah," he agreed. "I am… I am…"
Something in Kazune's voice caught Karin's attention, and she turned to face him.
"Kazune-kun…?"
"I don't remember anything," he told her with a sigh.
Karin fell silent. He looked upset enough that not even she was not going to question if he really couldn't remember what had happened to him. It wasn't like Kazune to hide that sort of thing, especially when it was so important. And when he had been so unstable lately, and he was just seeming to find some peace, Karin was not about to shatter that.
She leaned over the side of the bed a little, and thought for a moment. There were very few things that she could say for him.
I'm such a waste, Karin thought, mentally sighing at herself. Her gaze returned to the sky beyond the window. It would have been better if Himeka-chan was here. She's always knows what to do for Kazune-kun.
Both were silent for a while, off in their own worlds. Karin searched her mind for something decent to say, for some way to comfort him, but she came up with nothing. Besides that, she was starting to doubt that she needed to say anything. Kazune seemed comfortable with the silence. Maybe all he needed was to have someone there with him for the time being. Besides, if she opened her mouth right now, there was no telling what stupid thing she might end up saying.
Yeah. Just sit here… she told herself. If Kazune-kun wants to talk, he'll talk.
The minutes passed by slowly. Karin was not sure how many it was that passed, but they were passing slowly. Kazune still had not said a word to her. It concerned her, but at the same time she was a little happy. If Kazune was getting better, then things could go back to normal.
But that woman… she's still out there, Karin thought, stealing a glance at Kazune.
Her eye twitched again.
Kazune had fallen asleep.
----------
For once, Karin was up early enough to watch the sun rise. She had set her alarm clock for five that morning, to give her time to practice some self defense before heading off to school with Himeka. While the attacks from Kirio and Kirika had stopped for the time being, they could start back up at any time. But they were the least of Karin's worries. What worried her the most was the strange woman that had kidnapped Kazune. If she reappeared, Karin wanted to be able to take her on, or at least put up the best fight that was possible.
Kazune-kun would do the same for me, she said to herself. She sighed and frowned deeply. "But… it's hard to practice on your own…"
"Go, Karin-chan!" Nike cheered her on from the sidelines.
"Heh." She bowed her head in defeat. She had been attempting to practice for nearly an hour now, and had gotten no where with it. Her intention had been to practice, but where to start and how to do it was beyond her.
"This is why I couldn't help Kazune-kun," she muttered.
"Nya? Are you giving up, Karin-chan?" Nike asked as she bounced over to her.
"It's only six. If I go back to bed now, that's another hour of sleep," she replied with a yawn. "It's no use for me to practice on my own like this. I'm so stupid without Kazune-kun."
"You're not," she said. She ran in front of her. "You should keep on trying!"
Karin came to a stop two seconds before stepping on the cat.
"What? So I can throw myself on my butt?" she retorted. "Nuh-uh. I can't do this on my own. I'll just ask Kazune-kun--"
She bit her lip hard suddenly to shut herself up. She could not keep depending on Kazune like this. Especially not now. He was in no condition to piggy-back her through both school and in battle.
Karin sighed again. "Those girls were right… I am a pain."
"Nya? Karin-chan?" Nike questioned as she walked away.
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Meh. The new editor is bugging me a litle... I tried to copy and paste the whole thing, but it misplaced parts of my story, italicized and underlined things that shouldn't have been italicized and underlined... It was a pain. At least this way seems to be working. Should have done it from the beginning, but I was too lazy to just save an .html version of the story. It also refuses to do the horizontal line for me -- don't the admin here test out these things before placing them up? ...or maybe it's just this computer...
Anyways, let's start taking a look at some of the story. The first review I got sent me into a fit of laughter(thank you, Otaku-kun) and it still does. I don't know why, just the wording of that one line I think it was. It was also the first time anyone's even asked me that question, despite how obvious it is. No, that wasn't me saying yes to the question, but that was the intent behind how I wrote her dialogue.She's pretty creepy, I know. She will be making another appearance or two in the story, but that won't be for a few chapters.
The story is actually fairly slow going, and will be somewhere between 8-10 chapters long(the amount of verses to the song Magenta Rain, which I have to find again because my account started messing up and had to be deleted, so I lost all of my favourites...).The response already has surprised me. I know that Kamichama Karin is fairly popular at the moment, but I wasn't expecting four reviews(a small number, but even just the first one surprised me because I didn't think MR would be have anyone reading it yet). Even Moonlight Demon took at least three or four chapters before it was noticed, for the original version.
Anyways, I've started rambling. Thank you to everyone who has still been reading, and the next chapter of Magenta Rain will be up as soon as I have written it.