My Childhood with You
Chapter 6
Hotaru stirred in her sleep slowly opened her golden eyes, fixed lazily on the wall directly in front of her. She usually ever woke before dawn and if she did, something was wrong. She rubbed her eyes as she slid out of the covers, looking over the garden that was beginning to burst as spring approached. Oh yes, that's what's wrong. Okaa-san is leaving today for a trip. But why was she disturbed at all? When Akemi left, leaving the three children behind, Hotaru felt no change in her daily routine except for the presence of more freedom. And yet today, felt so incorrect, so insecure, and so dangerous. When she looked away from the sky and down at the garden, she saw that brief movement once more in the trees.
And frowned, yanking a black cloak out off her chair. She pulled it on as she jumped from the top of the stairs and running outside into the garden the moment her feet touched the ground. Hotaru ended up with a feeling of déjà vu, chasing this person again through the trees, but this time, she caught up. Maybe it was the absence of snow or just the nervous feeling she had the moment she woke, but she caught up and ended up with the man pinned against a tree, her claws threatening a bloody death. "This is the second time. Go away."
He grinned, "But I can't, I've found the pair I was looking for and they're your brothers aren't they? I'm so incredibly excited to meet them-"
Hotaru had one of her claws pointing straight in between his eyes, "I don't want to see your ugly face ever again. Promise you'll leave us alone."
If he was afraid, he showed no evidence of it, instead, he was smiling in a kind, cheerful, unbelievably cheeky, and irritating way that was sprinkled with evil, "But I can't do that. How can I promise something that I can never do?"
Hotaru nearly killed him right there-why hadn't she?
~Arrival at present~
If she did, none of this would have happened. Hotaru would still be here, cheerful as ever, with Kamui and Subaru. Hotaru sat by the piano, thinking over that memory. If she had removed that insolent man from the face of the earth, she would not end up, locked in her hell, alone, thinking over her mistakes. She sighed, knowing that she was then, still a child. Murder was something she couldn't have on her conscience-something she could not bear. So that was shy she told her brothers to run.
~Arrival at a different past~
Hotaru stepped onto the ladder and looked up at the towering shelves. There were so many books to look through and so many she was forbidden from. Her golden eyes strayed to the door and she hastily turned around, focusing on finding the book that held some of the most powerful magic secrets in the universe. Hotaru ran her fingers over the spines of the books but stopped at a large, thick one that had no label. She frowned and pulled it out. The "pulling out" part wasn't as easy as it sounded. It required so much force to extract, that Hotaru fell from the ladder, landing on her back on the floor. If it was an ordinary child, they would surely have died; Hotaru sustained no injuries apart from a slight ache as she slipped out of her mother's library.
As she slipped out, Akemi grinned from her hiding place, a dark corner. She was proud of her daughter, so ambitious, so determined to help those she could. But still, that was a very powerful spellbook she just let slip away from her grasp. I should rethink these things…