A/N

Okay, second chapter on the same day! Woot woot. Please review/favourite/follow if you enjoy, thank you!

2: Shadow

She ran and ran and ran through the town, a vision of blue and long limbs rushing past all the people. Normally Emi's old friends came home at this time and she didn't want to hear what new taunts they had managed to create to spite her.

If only she had just watched where she was going, instead of blindly running. She bumped into a someone on a bike, causing both of them to topple over.

"I'm so sorry!"

The person fixed herself up and smiled up at Emi, speaking in perfect English. "That's quite alright. No harm done."

"Oh, Julie! Sorry."

She offered Julie a sheepish grin and helped her pick up the camera and the books that had fallen from her basket. All in English, all definitely nonfiction and all falling under the topic of plants, fun facts or ghosts.

The woman was a photographer from England, here in some random rural rice farming area to snap fantastical photos. They kind of bonded over not quite being in place among the townsfolk.

Julie Gerald, with her fancy cameras and invasive mannerisms, and Emiko Ina, with her colourful style and shady family history.

"Did you just come back from the rice fields?"

"Yeah," Julie said. "But I'll walk back with you there. The nearby river is just gorgeous. Honestly, it's the perfect place for a picnic and nap or a proposal. I can just imagine it! Dining and wining, as the sun is about to fall under the horizon..."

Emi's nose wrinkled. "Best not to get married here. They might have driven out the potential superheroes in town, but the spirits here are all the same."

Julie laughed, pulling her bike along as they started to leave behind the town. "You're just like the townsfolk, full of superstition. And you guys hate superheroes, what is up with that? I would marry Black Widow any day."

She shrugged.

"Black Widow's a fugitive now, you should be careful with what you say. Besides, there are some things that happen with no better explanation than dark spirits and ghouls. Superpowers just add more weirdness to this place."

"Babe, please. Have you ever been to a giant boarding school in England?"

The look on Emi's face said definitely not.

"Well, the first few years were terrifying to sneak out of curfew. The girls and I were totally convinced that there were dark shadows following us and vampires lurking around every corner, until we realised in year eleven that it was just the boys pulling silly pranks on us. I'm telling you, any funny stuff here has got to be a prank."

Emi had to admit, she felt insulted on behalf of all the towns people and tourists who had been scarred by this town. Those strange disappearances, people stepping out into the open the next day with complete flips of personalities... Maybe it wasn't the same as the Leviathan creatures eating at the sky and civilians during the Battle of New York, but it was definitely something.

Julie spoke up after a moment of silence.

"By the way, what are you in for at college?" What a lovely change of conversation.

"I'm hoping to be a botanist," Emi beamed.

"That's still a career?"

"Oh, shush!" she laughed, nudging Julie in the side. "Either that or a vet. I love all that nature stuff."

"Figures," Julie deadpanned. "You dress like a year long Coachella chick."

"Can't here though. I have to wear a modest outfit to not hurt the feelings of the elderly." Emi did a little twirl, flicking the oversized sleeves of the tracksuit jacket obaa-chan had forced on her.

The two joked over the weirdness of the town and the lives they had left behind for the moment. It was good, having a friend in these parts. That gaping hole in her heart was filled by friends, and she needed as many people to love as she could get.

When they got to border of the rice fields, all the cells in Emi's body froze.

"What's up with you?" Julie snorted.

"Don't you feel it?"

She swept her gaze over the vividly green rice stalks. The ones within their half mile radius were low, and beyond that were even taller plants. The farmers were probably concealed in there.

"Feel what?"

That sadness, pain, anger...

Saying that would have made Julie think Emi was even crazier than originally thought, so instead she said, "Something feels off."

"Uh..." Julie did a quick glance around. "Nope. All I see is rice, rice and rice."

Emi shook her head. So it was just her and her weird radar again.

"Okay, whatever. Let's just find my uncle. Take off your shoes and leave your bike here, we'll come back for it," she commanded while slipping off her sandals.

"Nah, I'll just wait." Julie sat on the bike sideways, keeping it upright with straight legs and letting her blonde hair fall over the arm on the handlebar she was using to rest her head on. She looked like the kind of tourist pictured on those travel brochures promising a rejuvenating experience.

Emi's heart raced. Nope, you are not leaving me alone in this hour of fright.

"Come on, Julie. You're only here for another week, you should check out the rice farm instead of standing back and taking photos of it."

The photographer was unswayed. "What about the bugs?"

"Please," Emi laughed, borderline hysteric (although hopefully light-hearted to Julie's ears). "No rice farmers have died from the bugs here in the last decade, I assure you."

Julie bit her lip. "Fine. But if I wake up tomorrow with bites all over my legs..."

"Yeah, yeah." Emi tugged at Julie's hand. "Let's just go."

The two girls trudged through the mud, brushing past the plants, both thankful to have been wearing shorts. Then they weaved themselves through the taller rice stalks, headed to the area of the field Uncle Korin had mentioned the men would be working on this afternoon.

It was eerily quiet. No sounds of hacking, or the boisterous laughter and singing of the farmers. The hairs on Emi's arm were standing up, her senses on high alert.

That horrible feeling of death and destruction was beginning to override her mind. It was clawing at her, as if the spirits had found a weakness in her heart and were entering her soul, one by one, to caress her promises of horror.

Suddenly, a hand reached out and grabbed at her arm. She shrieked.

"Emi!" It was Julie's hand, and she was shaking.

"Oyamaa!" Emi protested. "You scared me!"

"Something just hit my foot, in the water," Julie squeaked.

"Are you sure it isn't a rock?"

Julie shook her head adamantly. "It's hairy and slimy and a little soft. Do you have fish in this area?"

"I don't think so..."

Julie crouched down.

"I don't think you should..."

She plunged her hands into the watery mud.

"Julie..."

She lifted up a face.

The face of Uncle Korin.

Julie screamed and stumbled back into Emi, trembling and crying.

Emi was pale white like a marble statue. "Someone has been playing with the spirits again... My uncle... The farmers..."

"N-No," Julie stammered, holding onto her tightly. "Murderer. There's a..."

She was cut off by a rustle of the rice stalks. The girls fell silent.

Then Julie began to whimper as the dark figure started coming into view. Emi's eyes widened.

She knew who the assailant was.

It was him and his darkness invading her mind all along. A man everyone knew from his links to the heroes, from the images on television that followed his wake of destruction. Dark hair just above his shoulders, dead orbs in the place of human eyes and a metal, unnatural arm.

The Winter Soldier.

"Julie, run!" she yelled and shoved her friend in the direction of the road. "I'll hold him off!"

"No, I can't leave-"

"RUN!"

The dazed blonde disappeared into the stalks. The rice fields - once a sustainer of life, now the field of death.

As she stared into the cold eyes of the criminal, fugitive and man she knew Captain America would follow to the ends of the Earth, she was struck dumb.

How could she outrun this soldier?

He was a freaking cyborg, designed to do freakishly super human things.

Emi closed her eyes.

She was going to die today, on top of her uncle's corpse. She chuckled bitterly.

Uncle Korin was right. Nothing good came out of being in the Ina family.

They must have been cursed as a consequence of something their ancestors did, generations ago. Why else would her father have been eaten by a ghoul, and her grandma's siblings vanishing into thin air, and her grandma's mother having to flee after marrying into the Ina family and gaining strange powers of death prediction?

All she could do now was numb her mind and focus her breathing. She couldn't give in to her pounding, petrified heart.

Let me be a good and kind spirit, she prayed, not like the horrid ones that haunted the nightmares of children and took the elderly in their sleep.

Years ago, she had first heard a say she now liked to chant to fight off the bad energy. She inhaled.

Only light eats darkness.

Exhale.

Only light eats darkness.

Inhale.

Only light eats darkness.

Exhale.

Emi open her eyes. She was stable now, calm almost.

She was ready for the Winter Soldier to deliver her death.

But he stood there staring at her, all malicious intent erased from his eyes.

"Where am I?"

A/N

Whoaaa this was a scary chapter to write! Poor farmers. I totally wonder who unfroze poor Bucky and sent him to kill them all. I mean, they aren't involved in any big ol' foreign affairs thing or power hunting, right?

Haha I hope you enjoyed!

Two chapters in one night, because this girl doesn't want to do her almost due assignments because she is very sad that her news ideas have been rejected again and again and she just wants to go party :)))

Thank you for reading

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xx roaary