Less people stare ya know"
"You could've just washed your uniform sooner," Ryoma sighed and Shia laughed.
"Well you know how that stuff goes," She mused, "I just didn't have to time really." They walked towards their class in silence for a while. Finally Ryoma looked over at her.
"Lets play a match after school today, I don't have practice," Ryoma said and Shia looked over at him, mildly surprised that he would challenge her.
"I can't..." she said, averting her eyes, "I have some things to do today." She smiled lazily, "I've been busy ever since I moved here"
"Really?" Ryoma asked and Shia nodded. Talk between them was sparse for the rest of the day and Shia rushed away right after school, leaving so quickly that she forgot her bag. Ryoma picked it up from beside her seat and looked at it. There was a new adress plate on the bottom. "At least I know where to take it." he mumbled and headed out the door.
Shia rushed into the house and up to her room. She moved quickly over to the
closet and pulled out the box she had placed in there before. She opened it, looking at it's
contents. A tennis jersey, a golden colored racket and a journal. She ignored the journal,
but pulled the racket out, twirlig it in her fingers weighing it in her hands. She felt like
she should smile, holding that piece that took a place in so many of her fondest memories.
She couldn't smile, she couldn't find it in her to do something like that. The good
memories that made her want to smile only triggereed more terrible ones, like being
beaten and 'that time'. Before she knew it her shoulders were trembling with the force of
her tears as they flowed forward unrelentingly. In her distress she seemed to let go of
something inside. A crash was heard from the kitchen. Feet thundered up the stairs and
Shia moved quickly to hide the racket, tossing it under her pillow and the box back into
the closet. The closet door shut itself as her mother stormed in.
"What in the name of all that is good are you doing up here!" The woman yelled,
a broken plate still clutched in her hand. She threw it onto the ground, the peices
shattering all over the carpet, "Why does this always happen with you! Why was I
cursed with a beast as a child!" The woman came over and grabbed Shia's wrist and as
the girl struggled to get away the pillow fell off her bed and the racket lay exposed to the
room. The woman's rage furthered, her face reddening, "You evil demon spawn! You
little devil! You terrible demon child!" The insults flew relentlessly as the woman
grabbed the racket and began to beat Shia with it. The blows came down like a freezing
rain, stinging and continuos, coming at her haphazardly, but repeatedly.
Finally she broke the racket over the girl's shin and tossed it aside, using her fists to continue the flow of pain that she had started. Shia moved her arms up, sacrifising
them for her face. If her face was too damaged an excuse would be much harder to come
up with. Finally the blows stopped for a moment. Shia managed to stand up and raced
past her and out the door. Tears continued to stream down her face as her mother's
screams followed her, yelling for her to come back, that her punishment wasn't through
yet. She was fast though, and was down the stairs and out the door before her mother
could catch her.
Ryoma rounded the corner onto a new street. It matched the one on the address plate. A ways further down a girl rushed past him. He paused and glanced back at the quick moving figure. 'I didn't get to see that person well, but the only girl I know that can run that fast is Shia.' He turned around and raced after the figure. He could still catch up.
Tears continued to stream down Shia's face as she ran. She didn't know where she was going, but she didn't really care and her tears were blurring her vision so much that she couldn't have known where she was headed even if she did know the destination. In her distress her control fell to pieces, a nearby window shatterd and somewhere else a car spun off the road. Her crying just got worse and finally in the race of confusion she tripped, falling face first into the sidewalk. She didn't bother trying to get up, she didn't care anymore. She just stayed down on the cold cement. What good would come of getting up? What was the piont of going on if she would only be pushed back down? She was tired. If she went to sleep would she ever wake back up? Deciding didn't matter because her eyes closed whether she willed them to or not. Darkness was bliss as the exhaustion took over and she fell into a dreamless sleep.
Ryoma sighed when he saw her on the ground. He moved to her side and gentely
moved her onto her back. 'She's covered in bruises,' he thought as he glanced at her legs
and arms. Her chest rose and lowered with labored breaths, but she was breathing. Ryoma
sighed and picked the girl up, Shia was limp in his arms. It didn't look like she needed a
doctor, but she certainly needed rest. Judging by the bruises and how fast she had run
away from her house, he decided that wouldn't be a good place to take her. He sighed
again and began walking in the opposite direction they had come from. Towards his
house.
"Well well," Nanjiro Echizen smiled as Ryoma walked in the door, nudging it
shut behind him. "What do we have here"
"Save it," Ryoma said, "She's a friend from school, she's pretty bad off." Nanjiro
glanced over the bruises with a more serious expression.
"What happened"
"I don't know, she was like this when I caught up to her, she was running for a
long time"
"Really?" Nanjiro sighed, "Well, we can't just dump her by the curb, put her on
the couch. We can get your mother to fix her up some." Ryoma did as he was told as
Nanjiro called Mrs. Echizen into the room. The woman came and took a look at the girl
on the couch.
"This will take some work," she said and grabbed the first aid kit.
Shia was awake before she opened her eyes, she felt around her hesitantly. She
vaguely remembered the incident with her mother and the pain in her arms and legs told
her that that was real. She tried to think back but all she could remember was running.
'...And then I tripped...' she thought. She realized with a cold sensation that she was no
longer on cement, but rather something soft. She sat up quickly, opening her eyes. Pain
shot through her body from the sudden movement, and she grunted a bit.
"Hey!" a voice yelled, "They told me not to let you do that!" Shia turned to see
and elderly woman with a feice expression. "You are to rest up until they get back so lay
back down!" Shia obeyed, this woman had an air of authority to her, Shia knew it was
best to just do as she said. The woman came around the couch and smiled, "Good." She
said, "It won't be too long and then they'll be back, but they'll want to ask you some
questions, as will I"
"Who are they? Where am I?" Shia asked.
"Hold your horses, you're Ryoma's friend right? You're at his house. He brought
you here yesterday after he found you passed out on a sidewalk somewhere"
"Oh," Shia said, "But you said 'they' who else are you talking about"
"Ryoma, of coarse, and his father. I'm Ryoma's grandmother and his mother and
father are at work and Ryoma is at tennis practice right now. It's already afternoon, you
slept through the whole day! His cousin leaves with us as well, but she is in an after
school program at her school and she won't be back for a while yet to come" The old
woman smiled, the lines of her face deepening, "They've placed you in my care until they
get back"
"Oh," Shia said again, it was allot to take in. She looked around as much as she
could without sitting up. So this was where Ryoma lived? She heard a door open and
shut.
"Ah! They're here!" Ryoma's grandma said and Ryoma and an older man, his father,
walked around the couch.
"Hey! She's awake!" Ryoma's father smiled, "I'm Nanjiro Echizen, Ryoma's
father"
"I'm Shia Raiku, it's nice to meet you," Shia introduced. "Hi Ryoma... Um.
Thanks for helping me out... again"
"Not a problem," he said, "What happened"
"I think we all want to know," Nanjiro added. Shia averted her eyes.
"I appreciate all that you've done for me," She said, "but it's not really any of
your concern." Ryoma looked like he might push the matter further, but Nanjiro shook his
head.
"Ryoma, why don't you take her up to your room and let her lie in the bed for a
bit? We can call her back down for dinner." Ryoma nodded and helped Shia off the couch
and up the stairs. He took her into his bed room and she crawled into the bed and under
the covers. Kalpin hopped up and curled up beside her. She rubbed the cats fur with a
slight smile. She looked back up to Ryoma.
"Are you mad," she asked, "that I didn't tell you"
Ryoma sighed, "No, It's your decision"
"I didn't want to talk about it with all of those people listening." Ryoma shrugged.
"Again, your decision"
"I want to tell you though. I think you deserve to know." Ryoma pulled a chair up
next to the bed. Shia took a deep breath and then began, "I was always a little bit
different. When I wanted something, something would happen to trigger events in my
favor, when I was upset something would break or the person I was upset with would get
hurt. everything was okay though, no one really seemed to notice." she glanced over at
Ryoma again and then looked back to Kalpin, scratching behind its ears. "Everything was
good. Then I started playing tennis and, just like it always did, things always seemed to
tip in my favor. Balls that should have been out seemed to land in, just barely. If a ball
was too high I would somehow find a way to get to it. Everything always seemed to go
well for me." She sighed, "People would say I had the devils own luck and a heap of talent. Then... it happened..." She looked up at Ryoma again, "You have to understand, I'm not like other people, and it's not that I'm extremely lucky either. I can move things with my mind. I can do something as simple as lifting a paper clip from a foot away to something as difficult as lifting a boulder over a mile away or even rearranging an items chemical make up." She stroked the cat again before going on, "In this particular incident I did something like that. A ball was too high and I remember that I just wanted to get to it, no matter what. I knew it would land in if I missed. I just wanted to get to that one ball... and I did... With the help of a pair of black wings." Ryoma just stared at her for a moment, but she didn't go on right away. Finally she looked back up at him, "I got black wings, yes, but then a raven fell to the ground in the middle of the court. A raven without any wings." Ryoma was speechless now. "I wasn't a talented girl with the devil's luck anymore, I was a devil myself, a demon child, demon spawn." She sighed, "I know you
don't believe me"
"It's a pretty strange story," he admitted and Shia let out a reluctant sigh. She
opened her eyes, her breathing slowed and her heart rate dropped. across the room a piece
of paper and a pencil began moving, the pencil dragging itself across the paper and
forming words. The pencil dropped back to it's original place and the paper came over
and landing in Ryoma's lap. Scribbled on the paper in Shia's handwriting were the words,
'I'm not lying.' Ryoma looked up at Shia and she nodded.
"After that incident the beatings started. If I said played tennis or practiced tennis or even talked about tennis my mother would beat me in blind fury," Shia explained,
"That's what happened yesterday and before when I played you. Even if I'm not using it,
holding a racket is a big enough sin for her. I hope that you understand"
"It would explain allot," Ryoma said, "I believe you Shia." Shia smiled for the
first time since she had arrived.
"Thank you," She said.
"Get some rest, I'm going down stairs," Ryoma started to walk out. Shia put a
hand up.
"Wait." Ryoma stopped and turned around. Shia smiled.
"I'm going out for the girls' team tomorrow," She told him and he smiled.
"You've still got a ways to go," He sighed and continued out, "Good luck." Shia
smiled to herself when he left the room, 'Ryoma's a nice guy...' she thought as she closed
her eyes, 'I want to get to know him better...' She continued to smile as she fell into a
dreamless sleep.
The next morning Shia ate breakfast at Ryoma's house before they both left for
school. It felt strange to be as happy as she was around these people. This kind of happiness was so alien to her, such a sweet essence had only appeared to her in her dreams, and even then it would eventually end in tragedy, when she awoke. This seemed to good to be true, she awaited when she would awake and find it all to have been nothing but a dream. She didn't wake up.
The way this family was run was somewhat comical, as she had learned the day
before when she had gotten to watch Nanjiro and Ryoma go at it on the court and then
listen to the merry sounds of Mrs. Echizen cooking, pots and pans clanking around to
create an odd, but pleasing melody. To listen to small spats about why they never ate
Japanese food, Ryoma's grandmother being more content with Western foods. Ryoma's
cousin being so open and friendly, letting Shia borrow clothes and doing her hair as if
they were sisters. Shia couldn't remember the last time she had smiled so much and was
almost disappointed to leave for school the next morning. She did though, Ryoma helping
her not to get lost as they walked towards the school.