Chapter: 3 Daydreams and Nightmares—Karia

Karia was sitting in her room eating an apple and working on her laptop when her phone started buzzing next to her pillow. She picked it up and saw that she had a txt from an unknown number. She flipped it open and pressed the view now button. The txt said Hey it's me Masamune if you're feeling alright you should come down to the park. She saved the number into her contacts and then walked over to her closet. She pulled out a dark blue, black and silver plaid button up shirt and a dark gray tank top and a pair of jeans and tossed her sweat pants and hoodie into her hamper. After getting dressed she shoved her phone and her IPod into her pockets and grabbed her wallet from the kitchen counter. She walked down to the park to see it pretty empty. There were a couple little kids with their parents but she saw no sign of Masamune. What she did see was a boy about one year older than her sitting on one of the benches reading a book. Since she didn't see Masamune she decided to go talk to the guy on the bench.

She sat on the bench next to him, causing him to lower his book and glance at her indifferently. Karia peeked at the cover, not recognizing the rather hefty novel from anything she'd read. "Is that a good book?" she asked, attempting to make conversation. The upperclassman made note of his page and closed his book, setting it in his lap. His face was unreadable, showing next to no emotion. "Yes, it's a pretty good book. I'm enjoying it so far. What's your name?"Karia smiled, glad to have made a conversation. "Karia, Karia Kuro and you?" A flicker of emotion crossed his face for a split second after he heard her name. "Kojuro Katakura." The name sounded familiar to her but she couldn't seem to remember why. Could this be the Kojuro Masamune was talking about on Facebook? "Um you wouldn't by any chance know someone named Masamune Date would you?" Kojuro then gave her an amused grin. "Did you come here looking for him?" "Yea how'd ya know?" he pointed up to the Sakura tree that was right above them and there she saw a boy with shaggy brown hair asleep on one of the branches.

Karia rolled her eyes and laughed. "So your one of his friend's right?" Kojuro nodded as he picked his book back up and said. "He was waiting for someone and now I know who?" Karia climbed up the tree and sat down on the branch next to him. His eye was closed and his foot was moving up and down. She saw blue ear buds in his ears and an IPod sitting on his stomach. Karia slowly reached over and lifted the IPod up. She scrolled through and picked a random song. At the sudden change Masamune looked up and then smiled, "Wondered when you were gonna get here."

Karia laughed as he laid back down. Karia looked down to the ground and decided that it wasn't too far of a fall down. A mischievous smile crossed her lips as she moved to push Masamune out of the tree. He looked up right as she pushed him giving him enough time to grab her hand pulling her down with him. They landed on the ground right behind the bench. Kojuro put it book down and looked over his shoulder. Karia was trying hard not to burst out laughing as Kojuro looked at the two who were previously in a tree. All of her bottled up laughter came out as Masamune himself started laughing.

Then as she looked at Masamune he quickly gave her an evil smile. Knowing what was about to happen next, Karia stood up and started running down the field. She heard Masamune's quick footsteps at her heels as he yelled, "Get back here!" Karia just ran faster and started laughing again. She ran all the way to the kid's playground where she could use swings and slide to her advantage. As she got the monkey bars she jumped up and caught the highest bar she could reach. Then she made her way to the other side. She peaked over her shoulder to see Masamune still right behind her. She jumped off the monkey bars and rounded the corner of the plastic castle.

She ran back to the open field glancing behind her several times as Masamune kept at her heels. Then she ran straight into someone else. As she backed up she saw a guy with short white hair that was pointed in the front. He was wearing a purple shirt with a white unbuttoned shirt over top of it. He looked at her with cold green eyes and a disdainful smile.

Karia remembered being in the middle of the battle field as she was fighting the head of the Ishida family. She tried to block one of his attacks but was too slow and received a minor blow to her thigh. She heard the man call out as he looked over to the area that both of their lords had been fighting. She saw her lord deal the final blow to the man that was leading the Toyotomi army. The man she had been fighting took off to go be at his lord's side. Then the man looked at her lord and promised to kill him someday. Karia quickly moved to defend her lord. "If you want his head u must first take mine." The man glared at her with his menacing green eyes and said, "I will kill both of you if I have to I swear I will!"

The guy yelled at her, "Watch where the hell you going. I don't like it when people run into me so make sure it doesn't happen again or someone might get hurt." Then Masamune who had been behind her moved in front of her. "Lay off jackass. If anyone gonna get hurt here it's gonna be you." The guy just glared at the both of them before walking away. Then Masamune turned around and said, "Are you okay?" Karia nodded. She was startled when her phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID. "Yea Moto?" "Karia where the hell are you?" "Huh, oh I'm at the park why?" She heard Motochika shut a car door and say something to his mom before saying, "I guess you feeling better then." Karia sighed, he probably just knocked on the door to her apartment and was now headed for the park.

Karia and Masamune had returned to the tree where Kojuro was still reading his book on the bench. She climbed up the tree and leaned against one of the branches. Karia was slightly out of breath from running around the park as Masamune chased her like an elementary school kid at recess. She felt her phone buzz in her hand as Motochika texted her saying, I'm at da park where r u. She looked around and saw Motochika approaching the tree. "Up here Motochika." He looked up and then climbed up to the branch on the other side of her. "So you've been here hanging with Kojuro and the Date kid eh?"

Karia was about to ask if the Masamune, Motochika and Kojuro wanted to play soccer or baseball or something when Masamune's started vibrateing. He looked at it then put it back in his pocket. "Yo Kojuro can you give me a lift to the restaurant, the old mans calling." He dropped out of the tree and waved back at Karia and Motochika before he started walking off with Kojuro. Motochika then dropped out of the tree himself and said, "Come on Karia lets go see if Sasuke and Yukimura want to play a few rounds of soccer." Karia jumped out of the tree and then said, "Okay I'll race you."

Karia and Sasuke wound up kicking Motochika and Yukimura's ass's at soccer winning 11 to nothing. Yukimura demanded another game so Karia and Sasuke swapped positions. Instead of playing goalie Karia went to actually kick the ball around with Yukimura. Karia kicked the ball and was moving it towards the goal when Yukimura slid in front of her stealing the ball and headed for Sasuke. Karia ran after him and caught up with ease. She took the ball back and started running for Motochika. Just as Yukimura was about to try and steal it again she kicked it hard and sending it right between Motochika's hands wasting his effort to block it. Then Sasuke called out from the other side of the field, "Hey Dana it's getting late we should head back!" Yukimura looked a little disappointed but he scooped up his soccer ball and ran over to join Sasuke as they headed home.

Motochika's mom pulled up a couple minuets later and drove Karia back to her apartment. Karia and Motochika got out of the car as the car pulled into the parking lot and Motochika walked her to her room. As Karia turned the lock to her door she said, "Hey why don't you come in and get your jacket you left it here last time." Motochika followed her inside and sat down on the couch as she walked into her room. She opened the closet door and took the purple jacket of the hangar and then threw it on top of Motochika's head. "Thanks I've been looking for that thing since last week. Karia sighed and flopped down on the couch after he left. Karia had almost fallen asleep when the phone rang making her jump.

She looked at the caller ID and it said Unknown. She picked it up and hit the talk button, "Hello Karia Kuro speaking?" Then to her surprise she heard a familiar and angry voice come from the other end. "Karia this is your father and dammit if you don't get your ass back home I'm going to come get you!" She grabbed her cell phone and started texting Motochika and Masamune telling both of them to get to her apartment pronto. "Why the hell would I go back. Where I am right now is my home dammit! Come here and see what happens." She heard something break and she also heard the car start up before he hung up. Within a few minuets both Motochika and Masamune were waiting at the door. She opened it and as soon as they were inside she shut the door and locked it. Motochika then asked, "Karia you're crying and locking the door what happened?" Karia hadn't realized she'd been crying until he had said something. She wiped the tears fom her face as she said, "My dad found out that I live here he coming to take me home. I told him I wasn't going Motochika I'm scared."

Masamune then moved to stand beside her, "Not that I don't want to help but why did you ask me to come?" Karia took a deep breath and said, "Motochika and my dad got into a fist fight once and I got caught up in it too. Not even the two of us could keep him down for long. He is going to come here and more than likely he's going to break down the door. I didn't want you to get dragged into this it's just I don't want my dad to hurt Motochika. I know he would beat the hell out of me and if no one else is around I'm not so sure he wouldn't try to kill Motochika." Motochika gave Karia a hug and said, "Look don't be afraid to ask us for help. I'm pretty sure that the three of us can stop him from killing anybody. Karia if I know one thing it's that he's not taking you anywhere."

Just as Motochika said that there was a loud bang on the door. "Open this door Karia!" Karia yelled out, "Hell no you bastard!" Next thing she knew her dad busted through the door. Motochika tried to move in front of her but her dad pushed him into the couch and sent him rolling over it onto the floor. He grabbed Karia's hair and yanked it hard. Karia tried to pull away but he pulled and her hair harder forcing her closer. Masamune had made his way behind her dad and jumped onto his back. Karia's dad jerked his head back smashing it into Masamune's head making him let go. Karia tried to bite his hand but he punched her in the stomach. Karia dropped to the floor with tears flowing down her face.

Then her dad kicked in the ribs which caused her to cry out again. Motochika threw one of the dining room chairs that hit her dad in the head causing him to stagger. Karia got up and punched her dad in the arm. He grabbed her arm and yanked her towards him. She felt his hands go around her throat and she felt his grip tighten as he tried to choke her. Masamune then too one of the pans and swung it around and it hit the side of his head making him loosen his grip on her throat. She then bit his arm with as much force as she could. As Motochika and Masamune ganged up on her dad he just kept knocking them aside as he kept punching Karia trying to make her let go of his arm.

Karia kept getting punched and punched as her teeth kept their grip on his arm. Karia could feel the blood running down the side of her face and was pretty sure that he arm and a couple ribs were broken. She watched as her dad's fist connected with her head one more time before she finally gave way to unconsciousness.

Motochika watched as Karia hit the floor. He walked over and punched her dad in the face. Masamune then came at him with one of Karia's old softball bats. Motochika cursed out loud. Masamune shouldn't have brought out a bat. Her dad grabbed the bat at he swung it at his side and took it right out of Masamune's hand. Motochika watched in horror as her dad Hit Masamune in the shoulder hard. He fell to his knees with one hand grabbing his shoulder in pain. Right before her dad tried to swing the bat at Motochika the man was talked to the ground be a bunch of policemen. One of then told Motochika to get the others and go. Motochika lifted Masamune over his shoulder and then picked up Karia. Both of them had fallen unconscious and they looked bad. Motochika ran past the mob of policemen that had attacked Karia's dad and met two of them who were waiting outside of the room. They lead Motochika down to the ambulance that was waiting right outside of the doors.

One of the policeman got into the passenger seat while Motochika and the second cop got in the back with Masamune and Karia. Motochika sat down and leaned his head back against the wall of the ambulance. Motochika looked over at the blood that was still trickling down her cheek from her head. He saw bruises on her face and arms and Masamune didn't look all that great either. The policeman that had gotten in the back with them decided to begin his interrogation. "Tell me boy what happened back there?" Motochika sighed. "The man that you just arrested is that girl's father. Her parents are smokes drunkards and abusive. She ran away from home last year and her dad just found out where she lived. So he tried to take her home by force, me and the other guy here wouldn't let him end of story." The policeman looked at him with a look of pure disbelief. "You mean this fifteen year old girl has been living in her own apartment for a year?" Motochika nodded. "With help from her friends of course." He looked back over to Karia and Masamune. He was glad Masamune was there as much as he hated to admit it. The one thing that made Motochika even madder was the fact that he hardly protected her at all.