Trapped in the Fandom Net
Me: Horray! I'm back!
Neko: You're timing is off.
Me: Yeah. Blame stupid school and stupid math. I've picked a tragedy story...! T.T contains character death, beware! It's beautifully written!
Neko: BladeofMoonlight does not own TMM or MMP. Nor does she own the fic Only Ten More Minuets; it belongs to Essence of Gold!
Me: Wonderful job btw! WHAAA!
Normal talking, present tense
movie/alternate reality
Chapter 3: Tragedy
Ichigo hadn't been exactly sure what to expect when Moon lead her and the others into the Tragedy genre, but when she got inside she felt unspeakably sad. It was a kind of crushing sorrow that weighed down on her soul and drained all energy from her. Tears pricked at her eyes and she let out a choked sigh.
"I'm so depressed..." Lettuce said sadly.
Moon nodded sympathetically. "Yeah, I try to avoid coming to this genre. It makes you feel really upset, doesn't it?"
"That doesn't begin to describe it." The green mew sniffed.
Moon lead them to the theater-like screen and seated them. Again, the mews were too preoccupied by the sorrow instigated by the genre to notice who was sitting next around them (e.g. Kish was on Ichigo's right and Tart was sitting between Ryou and Pudding)
"What are we going to see this time?" Keiichiro asked, his tone heavy.
Moon pulled a card out of her pocket. It looked a little like the one she had used to access Monkey-Lover-25's story, but it looked different and had a Tragedy marking on it rather than a Romance one, and it was a deep purple and blue instead of gold and red. She slid it in, and once again the TV screen turned blue.
It read; Only Ten More Minuets, by Essence of Gold.
"Essence of Gold did a beautiful job. I wish I could write like that." Moon commented, and then nodded as the images came into focus...
Only ten more minutes.
No...
'No...'
I'm sorry. But her all her major organs have malfunctioned, and she has a great internal bleeding. Her heart is going to give out, and there's nothing more we can do.
Ichigo's eyes widened. It hadn't been on for a full minute and already someone was about to die. Tart and Pudding gasped slightly. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, except for Moon and Neko, who had probably seen it before.
It can't be...
'I can't believe it.'
I'm sorry.
'It's not your fault.' It's mine.
'You may go inside, if you wish.'
'thank you.'
Agony.
A door swinging open.
A chair, pulled roughly away from a beside, and collapsed in. A faintly bleeping life-support, a barely changing line. Sunlight shining through a window.
Red hair, splayed across a pillow. A face that everyone loved, still, pale.
Ichigo paled when she saw the image. "That's me!"
"Shh!" Kish hushed her, eyes wide. Zakuro was staring at the screen, as if she couldn't quite believe it.
"You said these stories are...things that could happen...right?"
Moon nodded. "Right."
Ichigo swallowed, and contiued to watch.
All that, fragmented by tears, as though seen by someone drowning.
I never meant... I'm sorry...
How did it happen like this?
I'm a...
... it might have been an accident.
It wasn't.
'Ichigo, how could you!'
At this, everyone gasped.
'I'm sorry, Lettuce, I really am...'
'Like HELL you're sorry! I saw you kiss him!'
'I forgot – I just thought... you know he's always liked me, Lettuce – '
'You WHORE!' the word tastes strange in my mouth. I've never said this aloud before. I've never spoken to anyone in this way, just to hurt them, to know I'm hurting them and relish it and wish I could hurt them more. 'Because you broke up with your f%&king boyfriend because he couldn't stand you! Because you can't live a day without seducing some hapless fanboy who's head-over-heels for you because you act so f%&king cute!'
"She speaks the truth." Moon commented.
"Wha-! I wouldn't-!" Ichigo's loud protest was broken off when Moon leaned over.
"Let's see...you act all charming and irrisitable, then when someone asks you, you rub in their faces that you already have a boyfriend. Sure you don't." At this, she jerked her head in Kish and Ryou's direction.
Ichigo didn't speak again, but looked back at the screen.
'I didn't - '
'You KNOW that we're together! He asked me out after you refused him for the millionth time! And now you'll have him... and now you're sorry. Do you know how it feels to be second best, Ichigo? Have you EVER thought of how that feels? For Kisshu, maybe, or Ryou? For me?'
'Lettuce...' she's faltering, the words registering, and I can see the affected shock and shallow hurt growing in her babyish, brown eyes. Her hand goes to her mouth, her polished nails glinting in the afternoon sun. She staggers back, clumsily cute in her shorts and sandals and choker and bunches.
Ichigo has always known exactly who she is. I never have. She knows, and she exploits it. She has confidence. I am the least confident person I know. She isn't kind. I try to be. She breaks hearts, and acts like she wishes she didn't. I've never had even my offered heart taken. She has everything I want.
At any other time, I would be able to pretend it was some other way. Maybe I would be right. But now, the cynic's truth, the paranoid clarity of a heart shattering is making me see it this way. And I wonder I didn't see this before.
"To be second best...to always know that there was someone better than you, because that person won't let you forget in a hurry..." Neko murmured. "I know how that feels to, actually..."
Moon gazed softly at her, but didn't speak.
The aliens, mew mews, Ryou and Keiichiro were too busy staring wide-eyed at the screen to notice to exchange. Kish's eyes were misty, as if mentioning how it felt to be second-best had flipped a switch inside him. Ryou's mouth was half-open, but he wasn't half as stunned as Ichigo or Lettuce.
I've known it since that day by the pool. I've known it since the time I first bumped into her down an alley.
Now, with tears streaming down my cheeks, I'm telling her. Telling her with my eyes, my body, my language.
'Just go away, Ichigo. Just go. I never want to see you again. Get out of my life, and take Ryou with you.
'I'm going to be the one who moves. If you have the tiniest scrap of decency left, you would. But, Ichigo-san, I don't expect you to. I hope you have a good life, seeing as you've...' I search for a word that's strong enough. '...killed me.'
And then she does the last thing I expected.
"I didn't know you resented me Lettuce-chan." Ichigo whispered.
"I don't!" Lettuce protested, then new movement brought her attention back to the screen.
And then she does the last thing I expected.
She staggers back. She takes one step, and then another away from me, retreating, surrendering. And for one golden moment, a fierce, sinful joy fills me. This is why Adam took the apple. Because this feels so amazing. I hold power, there in my hand, over the one person who has everything I want.
Ichigo's still moving backwards. In another moment, she'll have to turn around, to run away properly. Her eyes are fixed on me, as though she senses my transformation, and she pays no attention to the road behind her.
And then I see it. But I already know it's a moment too late.
'ICHIGO!'
My anger has disappeared, evaporated into pure horror. Her shoe is over the kerb, and she's toppling, overbalancing.
She falls.
I run. I run as hard as I ever have, regret, horror, and the sick certainty of what is about to happen in my soul.
'No – '
Everyone sees the car coming, and Pudding hides her head on Tart's shoulder. Ichigo just closes her eyes, her emotion unreadable. Kish grips her shoulder, but she doesn't react at all. Lettuce was just sitting there with her mouth open
The speeding car brakes. But not soon enough.
Ichigo realises. But a not quite in time.
She screams, her voice just audible over the squeal of rubber on tarmac. 'RETAS – '
Impact.
Two minutes.
Everyone gasps, Pudding holds Tart's hand so hard he yelps in pain. Keiichiro is shaken, eyes wide. Ryou and Lettuce were in shock, even Pai and Zakuro were giving signs of shock or sadneess as they watched the scene on the TV screen in front of them. Mint had her face in her hands, and Ichigo and Lettuce were just staring now.
'Do her parents know?' I've ruined their lives.
They've been informed, but they won't get here in time.
There is no proof it was me. The driver saw me, horrorstruck, several yards away from Ichigo. He thinks I was trying to warn her. I was.
But that doesn't mean it's not me. This was my fault. Mine and hers.
'Ichigo?' Ichigo.
'I'm so sorry.' Two lives are destroyed. I guess it's fair.
No. "Two wrongs don't make a right."
I should have forgiven her...
... "a word is not a bird. Once freed, it cannot be caught."
'I'll tell them what happened.' Everything.
'You don't deserve to die...' any more than I do.
"Neither of you deserve to die." Kish muttered. His eyes were watering slightly. Pudding had long since started to cry, and Mint was pretty close to it. Zakuro's eyes were tightly shut, and she kept muttering 'it's just a possibility, it's just a possibility' over and over under her breath. Pai put a hand on Lettuce's shoulder, and she just sniffed.
I'm not going to mend. At least you'll have rest. I will live with this every day, for perhaps sixty years, maybe less, probably more.
Any moment now. At least she has one person with her.
'Yes.'
Two girls will die today.
I'm keeping her company. We killed each other.
'Ichigo.'
Lettuce.
No more words now. Just feelings.
A ray of light through a high window. A cold hospital chair. Two girls, feeling life slip away.
Beep...
Beep...
Beep...
Beep...
... ...
And the screen went black. As if on cue, everyone burst into tears.
"Alright, everyone calm down!" Ichigo exclaimed. "I'm right here! See? I'm okay."
Pudding sniffed and glomped onto the redhead.
Moon retrieved the card and nodded. "It's alright. These things may happen, but not necessarily. The future is in your hands."
The mews collected themselves, and Ichigo stuck next to Lettuce as they left the Tragedy genre to collect themselves. There was a series of howling noises in the distance. Moon stiffened. "Soulless."
Neko nodded. "I sense 9 dark forms from discontinued stories. Five are coming...I cannot tell exactly where the other four are." She transformed into her black-cat form.
Moon nodded. "Be careful Neko."
The cat nodded, and then sped into the distance.
"Will Neko onee-chan be alright?" Pudding asked, clinging to Moon's arm.
"She's an expiranced warrior. She can handle a few soulless. While your here, my priority is keeping you safe. If you die here...you're probably become one of them."
Ichigo imagined turning into one of those black-armoured soulless and shivered. "Well...next genre?" She suggested.
Moon's eyes brightened. "Pick one, Ichigo!"
"Uhh..." The redhead cat-girl thought for a moment. "How about Drama?"
"Sounds awesome!" Moon grinned. "This way!" She lead them down a different road.
A pair of neon green eyes watched them leave. For a moment, the being considered sneaking up on them and attacking. He gauged the Gatekeeper's power and decided against it. He should gather more Soulless before attacking one as powerful as BladeofMoonlight. He picked up his horn and blew. The noise echoed through the twisting paths of the fanfiction net.
The being lowered his horn and smirked. "The gatekeepers WILL pay for taking my soul away." With that he melted into the shadows, waiting.
End Chapter
Author's Note: Hehehe...forshadowing! Just who is this neon-eyed Soulless? And what will the TMM cast encounter in the Drama genre? Any story suggested would help me a lot! Thanks for waiting!