There are a lot of people asking me if this is really my first fanfic. Yes, it is, but I've written other things too. Most of them are research papers though. I'm a biology major so I literally write for a living. XD
Chapter 8: New Feelings
A long clear tone from a prayer bell rang through the quiet night. Incense hung in the air as mother and son kneeled to say a silent prayer in front of the Ouma family altar.
"Today was the perfect time to visit Oshima," Haruka straightened up her yukata, a kimono made of cotton and usually worn during warm summer evenings. It was bright orange with yellow camellia flowers printed all over.
"Just in time for the Obon Festival," Shu stood up wearing a plain dark teal yukata that once belonged to his father. On the small wooden altar lay tablets inscribed with the names of ancient ancestors as well as two mementos of the recently departed: Kurosu's broken eyeglasses and a silver cross that belonged to Mana and Gai.
Haruka noticed the look on her stepson's face and adjusted his brown obi cloth belt slightly. "I'm very proud of what you've accomplished, Shu, but if there's something the matter, you know you can always tell me."
Shu thought of telling her about his daydreams with Inori, but choose to keep it to himself.
"I'm fine, Haruka," he smiled. "Thanks for asking."
On the other side of the sliding door, Daryl sat on the porch in his navy blue yukata. Hearing their conversation made him think of his own mother. For so long his father bad-mouthed Maria for having an affair with her sister's husband that Daryl started to think ill of her too, but the thing he hated her the most for was the fact that she committed suicide on the night of his birthday.
"Sulking again?"
Rowan approached Daryl wearing a moss green yukata with vertical stripes. He sat down next to him and looked out at the moonlit garden. Daryl just hung his head low and said nothing. The man in glasses continued speaking.
"Obon is a festival for remembering the deceased and celebrating life. Were you thinking about your father just now?"
"No," Daryl quietly answered. "My mother."
"You know what?" Rowan smiled. "Maria was the first person to believe in me."
Daryl was quite surprised and asked, "You knew her?"
"Yes," the brunette remembered. "When I was seventeen I wrote a program that became part of Endlave technology. Many others rejected my idea as something useless, but your mother saw its potential. Before she died, she told me to join GHQ and keep an eye on her creations. I became a GHQ officer to help people, but I ended up causing so many deaths instead."
"That's too bad."
"It's okay," Rowan stared up at the full moon then placed his hand on Daryl's head. "I guess I made up for it by protecting her most precious creation."
Before he could figure out how to thank his old comrade, he was distracted by a pretty girl walking towards them.
"Are you guys having a yaoi moment?" A mischievous grin spread across Tsugumi's face.
Daryl's bright purple eyes widened in absolute horror as he felt the hand on his head grip tighter. The emerald-eyed Rowan slid his other hand inside the blonde boy's kimono.
"Come on, Daryl, how about some fanservice?"
"WHAT THE HELL, ROWAN!" Daryl broke free and staggered backward only to knock his head hard against a wheel.
Ayase wore a red yukata with pale pink cherry blossoms. This time it was her turn to look down at the lanky frame sprawled on the wooden floor.
"Hey!" She shouted, secretly revelling in the fact that she moved her chair forward just so his skull would hit it. "Watch where you're going!"
Daryl frowned at the abuse, but forgot all about it when he heard Tsugumi laughing. She held onto her wide blue obi belt and giggled with abandon. The tiny birds for which she was named were printed all over her violet yukata. They seemed to flap their wings with every chuckle. She looks so beautiful, he thought.
"Waaait~ Don't have fun without us~!" Haruka whined as she slid the door open, arm in arm with a smiling Shu.
The three pairs made their way to a local shrine where the Obon festival was being held. Tsugumi and Daryl challenged each other to carnival games like goldfish scooping and ring tossing while Ayase and Shu enjoyed the delicious food and the sound of drums that set the merry atmosphere.
The adults however had a different notion of fun. Haruka and Rowan sat near the main shrine, happily drinking shots of Japanese rice wine called sake.
"Look at those crazy kids, Rowan-kun," an obviously inebriated Haruka observed her son and his friends. "I miss being so young and carefree!"
Rowan, despite having consumed twice as much sake, remained completely sober. He smiled serenely at the drunken woman.
"No need to worry, Haruka-sensei. You still look quite youthful."
"Thank you very much!" She flailed her arms around and cheered, "It's a beautiful night to fall in love! These kids should be falling in love!"
"Haruka-sensei," Rowan impishly hiked up his eyeglasses making them sharply reflect the festival lights. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Haruka gave him a naughty grin.
"I think I am, Rowan-kun."
The two grown-ups ran off into the woods screaming, "It's spying time!"
Back in Tokyo, the Kuhouin Annivesary party was in full swing. The opulent ballroom glittered under the light of large chandeliers. Champagne overflowed left and right as lavishly dressed guests twirled across the dance floor to a quartet of strings.
In the middle of the festivities was Kuhouin Arisa.
Souta watched her waltz with one man after another before bravely cutting in to steal her away from a particularly lecherous shipping magnate.
"For once, I'm glad to see you," Arisa rolled her eyes at her previous partner.
He led her along the shimmering dance floor saying, "I heard down the grapevine that he's eyeing you to become his fifth wife."
"Disgusting," the dark honey blonde scowled.
"A man can dream!" Souta whirled her around and dipped her low, making her laugh unexpectedly.
He smiled and admitted, "I told myself that if I can't make you crack a smile, I'll definitely make you laugh." He looked into Arisa's red mahogany eyes. "Mission accomplished."
The tall girl stopped dancing and glowered at the short haired boy. She was surprised to see him wearing a tuxedo, but not even that could distract her from his annoying remark.
"I'm sorry," she turned around and walked away.
Souta felt dejected as he sat back down on his table. He drank a flute of champagne and thought about how he and Arisa were going through the same pain. He caused Hare's death and she caused her grandfather's. All he wanted to do was open the door of her heart so they could share that guilt. He hoped that someday they could heal each other.
He finished the bubbly and decided to try again.
Ayase and Shu took a break from the festivities by strolling to a view deck next to the shrine. Ayase looked over to the reflection of a full moon on the water. This was the place where Shu took out Souta's void after saying "Inori is my—!"
"Come to think of it," Ayase asked the brown-haired boy. "What was the continuation of that sentence?"
"What sentence?"
Ayase deepened her voice and imitated him. "Inori is my—!"
"Oh that," Shu laughed. "I don't know. At that time I wasn't sure yet, but if you ask me now, I would say that Inori is my love."
The crippled girl regretted asking the question. Might as well pile it on, she mused.
"Hey Shu," she was nervous as hell. "Have you ever thought of loving someone else?"
"You mean, eventually getting married and starting a family?" Shu placed his mismatched hands on the view deck's railing. "Not really. My life is comfortable just the way it is now. Even if none of us are related, I think of Haruka as my real mother and you and Tsugumi are like sisters to me."
Ayase couldn't take it any longer and figured that should go ahead and lay down all her cards. She gripped her wheels and bumped Shu's leg.
"I can't believe how dense you are!" her voice quivered. "I've been trying to show you all these years what you mean to me and I'm still just a sister to you?"
"What?" Shu bewilderedly rubbed on his sore calf. "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me, Ayase."
"What I'm trying to say is," she took a deep breath and yelled. "I like you too much and you should take responsibility for making me feel this way!"
Shu stood motionless for a while, trying to process his dear friend's confession. When Ayase started to sob at his silence, he went down on bended knee in front of her and took both of her hands in his.
"I like you, too."
Nearby, a pair of figures crouched behind the bushes.
"Daddy Rowan," the busty woman whispered to the man in a green beret.
"Yes, Mommy Haruka?"
"Our children are growing up so fast~!"
"I agree. It's such a joy to watch young love blossom!" Rowan said while looking around. "But I'm more interested in how that other couple is doing,"
"Hmm, I guess we can leave this pair to make their own magic," Haruka grabbed Rowan by the arm and dragged him away. "Let's go!"
"But there's something you need to know," Shu looked up at where he thought her face should be. "In my dreams, Inori is still with me."
"Well," Ayase wiped away her tears. "It's normal for you to miss her. You loved her so much."
Shu shook his head. "You don't understand. This is the first time I'm admitting it to anyone, but I talk to her."
"I talk to my father, Gai and even Ogumo sometimes, too."
"But you see," he lowered his head and voice. "I talk to her like she's still here. I make believe that we're having the kind of relationship we never got to have. It wouldn't be fair to you if I still feel this way about her."
Ayase roughly snatched her hands away of his gentle clasp and glared into his empty brown eyes.
"Are you seriously trying to tell me that you can't accept my feelings because you have an imaginary girlfriend?"
"I'm sorry, Ayase, but you deserve the truth."
"That's sick, Ouma Shu," she rolled away in disgust. "That's really sick."
Shu kneeled there for a while listening to the sound of distant drums. Maybe I really am sick. I'm so pathetic.
As he stood up to follow her, he heard an ominous set of footsteps behind him. Ayase used to say that people will try to take advantage of his disability, so he learned how to use his other senses to detect danger. He spent years training in different martial arts to effectively defend himself blind and one-handed.
When a hand grabbed onto his shoulder, he used the attacker's own force to send him flying forward with a shoulder throw followed instinctively by a grappling hold.
The masked assailant realized that he greatly underestimated his target. But having the advantage of the most severe military training and real fighting experience, he fought to free one hand and swiftly chopped a pressure point on the back of Shu's neck, knocking him unconscious.
Arisa marched into a room, locked herself in and lay down on the king-sized bed. She rumpled her gorgeous silver designer gown, but she didn't give a fuck. Closing her eyes, she instead thought of Tsutsugami Gai.
She imagined him in the white tuxedo he wore on that party years ago when they first met. In her mind, he took his jacket off and kissed his way up her long smooth legs. It felt so real and she enjoyed the lucid fantasy until she realized that it WAS real.
Her eyes shot open to find a woman with blonde hair and pale blue eyes on top of her.
"Lady Charlotte," she calmed down at the memory of Gai's blue eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"You suck at letting people spoil you," the older woman placed her hand on young girl's head. "I just wanted to help turn your dream into reality."
Arisa remembered Gai telling her the exact same thing. She became addicted to the stare of those sky blue eyes and slowly drowned in them.
"Eat it!" Tsugumi waived a candied apple at his face.
"Not this again," Daryl grimaced at the bright red confection. "I hate sweets. Plus, you already licked it! I don't want to have to share with a runt like you!"
Tsugumi pinched his cheek. "Are you worried that it would be like an indirect kiss?"
"Don't flatter yourself," Daryl blushed. "I just don't want your germs to infect me."
"You are so rude!" She pouted and walked away.
Daryl wanted to run after her, but he felt incredibly annoyed. He roamed the festival grounds instead looking for a distraction.
"I think you should apologize to her," Rowan appeared to his right.
"Who the hell gave you permission to spy on me?"
Haruka appeared to his left. "We weren't spying! We were just looking out for our children!"
Daryl nearly gagged at the strong smell of alcohol in her breath.
"We are not children!"
"You say that, but," Rowan draped an arm across his shoulder and weighed him down. "Aren't you the one being a little childish here?"
"I concur," Haruka did the same and added her weight. "Aren't you just making excuses?"
"It's none of your business!" he broke away and walked faster.
"It is my business," Rowan's voice suddenly turned serious. "I risked my life to save yours because I knew that, deep down, you were a good kid. You just wanted to matter to someone. I thought that a wish like that was worth protecting."
Daryl stopped in his tracks when Rowan shouted, "But now I see that you're just wasting your time protecting yourself from the uncertainty of a life with the girl you truly love!"
"Don't be scared, Daryl," Haruka handed the young man a pair of paper boxes. "Just have faith and follow your heart."
Tsugumi found her way to the riverside where a small crowd gathered to release floating lanterns. During Obon festival, it is believed that the ghosts of dead relatives visit the living world.
She watched the festival of lights meander down the river and scatter out into the dark ocean. She thought about who would visit her from the spirit world. The parents she never knew? Gai, Ogumo and Kenji?
Then she remembered the first person she ever learned to trust.
How could I forget?
Tsugumi was four years old when Lost Christmas happened. Her earliest memory was of her younger self playing with her dolls while waiting for her parents to come home. Days passed, but her parents never came back. She was hungry so she ventured out of their tiny apartment. She was shocked at the chaos and destruction around her. She had nowhere to go and ended up wandering the streets.
She spent weeks stealing whatever food and water she could get her tiny hands on. She became a strange little street urchin, dragging along two stuffed toys: A yellow cat and a pink rabbit. They were tattered and torn but, alone in a world where not even other ragamuffins can be trusted, they were her only friends. As long she had them, she would be okay. She kept a stiff upper lip and continued living. She looked forward to the happily ever after she always heard in fairy tales.
When a group of bullies took her friends away from her, she cried and cried and cried in a dark alley littered with trash and other junk. Blurry with tears, she spotted a shiny contraption in the corner of her eye. She picked it up and found that it was a rice cooker. The round white metal thing had black lines running across its seemingly smiling face.
The young waif opened it up and saw that it was filled to the brim with fresh warm rice. It was the first thing she had eaten since losing her dolls and this blessing helped regain her strength. She named her new friend Fyuneru, and bit by bit she picked up whatever scraps of metal and electronics she could find to turn it into a moving robot. She found that she had a natural talent for inventing things.
Fyuneru became her partner in crime as they shoplifted and pickpocketed their way across Tokyo. One day when she used the robot snatch an old lady's bag. A GHQ soldier saw what happened and crushed Fyuneru under his feet. With her long dark hair flying behind her, the little orphan rushed in to hold her broken doll.
When the soldier brutally picked her up to arrest her, the old lady interrupted saying, "I'm very sorry, officer." She took the tiny girl in her arms. "My granddaughter is such cheeky little bird. She pulls pranks like this on me all the time."
The old woman's wrinkled face smiled at her kindly and asked, "You didn't mean to hurt me, did you, Tsugumi-chan?"
Tsugumi is what the Japanese call the robin, a small migratory bird with a sweet song. The little girl has long forgotten her real name along with the face of her parents, but she thought that Tsugumi was had a nice ring to it. She shook her head sheepishly and bowed her head in apology to the GHQ soldier. He apologized in return and let them be.
"Where are your parents?" the woman asked. The girl remained speechless.
"What is your name?" Still no response.
"Is this your friend?"
At that question, Tsugumi burst into tears. Fyuneru looked destroyed beyond repair and she despaired at the thought of losing another friend.
The old lady took her hand and said, "Come with me, Tsugumi-chan. I know someone who can fix him up."
They arrived at a big old house covered with vines. Children were playing all around the overgrown garden and each one stopped to greet the woman. As they walked inside, another group of older kids ran to embrace her. A thin boy with a scar on his face wrestled with a large boy for the old lady's attention. One of them was a red-haired girl in a wheelchair pushed by a blonde boy with blue eyes.
A green-haired boy, the only one who was about her age, held on to the blonde boy's coat and stared at Fyuneru with a maniacal grin on his face.
"Everyone, this is your new sister, Tsugumi-chan." The old woman introduced her then tried to take the robot away from her.
"Don't worry, Kenji-kun can fix your friend."
"I can fix him myself," the little girl defiantly resisted.
"You can trust me, Tsugumi-chan," she smiled at her again, making her let go.
The old woman turned out to be the founder of Angel's Refuge Orphanage. She became Tsugumi's first teacher and treated her with equal measures of discipline and approval. The young girl admired her greatly and years later, as the old lady, lay on her deathbed, Tsugumi promised that she would someday become a teacher just like her. She wanted to give other children the confidence to make friends and be themselves.
She wished she had made a lantern to honour the soul of her great mentor. She glanced around to look for the stall that sold them when she saw Daryl walking towards her. He was carrying a pair of glowing paper boxes.
"I just thought you might want one," his face looked handsome in the radiance of the lamps. "You can give it back if you don't want it!"
Tsugumi received the shining raft with a smile. She crouched down on the dock next to the flowing river. Daryl followed suit and bent down next to her. His hair took on a golden gleam from the lights drifting by. She said a quick prayer for her teacher and released the lantern.
"Japanese people believe that humans come from the sea, so these represent the souls returning to water," the dark blue-eyed girl explained. "Who will your lantern guide back to the spirit world?"
"I don't know."
"There must be someone you want to let go," Tsugumi looked at him. "Your loneliness must come from someone leaving you behind."
"How do you know that?"
"I saw it the instant that we met. Truth is, I've always been lonely too. That's how I can see it in your eyes."
Daryl stayed quiet for a while before blurting out, "My mother killed herself on my tenth birthday."
Tsugumi intently listened.
"That's it," his white gold hair fell onto his face. "My mother died. Pretty lame huh?"
Tsugumi caressed his chin with a gentle hand and pressed her lips softly onto his. Daryl was surprised, but he faced his fears and held her in his arms. They kissed slowly and tenderly, sharing each other's pain and making them go away.
"We're going to celebrate your birthday after my exams, okay?" she rested her head on his shoulder as they sat gazing at the river lights. "From now on, I'll make sure you have happier birthdays."
"Then, I guess," his pale lilac eyes glowed with determination. "The one I want to guide to the other world is me. I'm letting go of the me who hated my parents, the me who enjoyed hurting people and the me who doubted my own heart."
He set his lantern adrift and watched the light of his dark past join the other souls in their journey to the sea.
"Go to hell, Kill-em-All Daryl!" He called out to the distant lamp with a happy smile on his face.
Tsugumi beamed and felt proud that she finally made a difference in his life. She thought of giving him another reward but opted to tease him instead.
"By the way, was that your first kiss?"
"Of course not!"
It was.
Two figures watched the scene unfold from the shadows. One calmly observed that the other was gritting his teeth in rage. The angry brown-eyed stranger moved in to attack the lovers on the dock. He drew his gun and shot the blonde man in the back. He fell into the river and the girl with violet-black hair jumped up and screamed in terror.
The masked man raised his gun to shoot her, but in one unexpected motion, she struck the weapon off his hand with a snap kick. She used a powerful roundhouse kick to hit his head and a push kick to force him back. However, the other masked attacker punched her with a solid blow to the gut and knocked her out completely.
Shu and Tsugumi were tied side by side and lay unconscious on the deck of a small motorboat. The brown-eyed masked man revved up the boat's engine to escape when someone appeared out of the water and climbed onto the craft. With a bloody shoulder, Daryl pulled his gun to shoot the two assailants, but the angry man on the steering wheel made the boat tilt to one side.
Daryl stumbled and the second man took this opportunity to tackle and hold him down against the ship's edge. The blonde man struggled and ripped off the attacker's mask to reveal a familiar set of amethyst eyes. Before Daryl could speak, he was quickly clipped across the face with the cold barrel of a handgun and shoved off the boat to drown in a river of lights.
The dark haired boy sat on the deck exhausted when his phone rang. He clicked it open to answer.
"Do you have the Doll Maker?" The caller asked.
He gasped for breath before saying, "We also have the King's Heart."
End of Chapter 8: New Feelings
Shit just got real.