Chapter 5: Evanjerin Atanashia, Atanashia Katerin, and Katerin Anerize

Enzeru Yuri.

My memory is still as good as ever.

Back in my village, she could easily be mistaken for me, and I for her, if it were not for our height and hair. She was a head taller than me, and her hair was longer than mine then, flowing about her. I was very young, and naive, and looked up to her. She was a mother, a sister, a close friend. We were alike in many ways, aside from appearances. We both were pushed by society, I more than her. She introduced me to Sentarou, a friend she made in the village, who soon became my friend. Sentarou, the betrayer...

I closed my eyes, and breathed in deeply.

But Enzeru Yuri had left, after a few months. Disappeared, without a trace. Some say she died in a hunt, some say she was chased away, some say she was a spirit of evil that was taken by the gods. Things happened soon after. Before I knew it, Sentarou, and the whole village was dead, and I became the Jigoku Shoujo.

Yuri wasn't to be blamed. I didn't think so, and I still don't.

In all my years of being Jigoku Shoujo, I didn't expect to see her again. But somehow, deep down, I believed she was still alive. Something that kept me going, kept me doing my job. Although I have closed my heart, it was and always be open for her, the only one who actually understood and cared for me.

I opened my eyes slowly. Turning to look at her once again, I said, quietly,

'Yuri, would you like to join me?'

***

'Wanyuudon, what does Ojou mean? There's a new Jigoku Shoujo?'

Hone Onna, being one of the new members, was still confused. Just as I am. But we all heard Ojou right. She is not going to be Jigoku Shoujo any longer. Somehow, someone will take her place. But who?

'Exactly what she means. Her ordeal is over, and she is free. She is giving her position to someone chosen by the Lord of Hell.' Sadness, I could feel sadness in Wanyuudon's voice. We all feel the same. We were all attached to Ojou.

'Does this mean our companionship is over? What happens to Ojou after this, and what happens to us?'

Wanyuudon looked at Hone Onna, then me. 'Well, either we stay to serve the next Jigoku Shoujo, or we are free to wander Hell and earth as we please, be it beside Ojou or not.'

Hone Onna stood there, silent. I myself could not answer to that. To serve a new Jigoku Shoujo would be different, if the Jigoku Shoujo were not Ojou... To be free to wander Hell and earth for eternity, well, wasn't that what we were trying to avoid, by joining Ojou?

'There's one other possibility, though,' Wanyuudon said, turning his gaze to the eternal sunset.

Hone Onna walked over to where I sat, by the porch. Taking a seat, she too, gazed into the sunset.

I looked at her for a moment, and turned to the sunset. 'And that is?'

'That Ojou will stay to instruct and to serve the new Jigoku Shoujo. And she may need us, as the next Jigoku Shoujo may, too.'

I sat up a little. That didn't sound too bad.

I looked at Wanyuudon, and then at Hone Onna, and then smiled.

Our job is never over, really.

***

I observed Mikage Yuzuki. She seemed quite fidgety during school, and looked like her mind was elsewhere. But I knew why.

Enzeru Yuri did not come to class, and that bothered her. I narrowed my eyes.

Really, wasn't it obvious that she wasn't Jigoku Shoujo?

I sighed, something I normally didn't do, and I earned a look from my twin, Evanjerin. She smirked at me. I stared back, and I knew she was thinking what I was thinking. I smirked back, a signal that we used since we were children. It meant that we had to talk, a conference.

Driiiiiiiiiiiing.

I stood up from my seat, packed away my books swiftly, and took my bag. I walked out of my classroom as my sister caught up with me.

'By the cherry tree,' I said, and she nodded in reply. On our walk home, there was a big cherry tree that we could pass by, and that was where we usually met and talked.

Once we got there, we put our bags aside, and sat down. A breeze greeted us.

'Interesting, isn't it, Atanashia? We've stumbled upon another supernatural.' Evanjerin mused, and she twirled her hair.

'Yes, Evanjerin.'

Evanjerin and I are not your usual students. We are mages, and vampires. We have been around for over a century, or so. Through the years, we've been recognizing supernaturals—people, items, or anything out of the ordinary. Just like Enzeru Yuri. Just like us.

Evanjerin Atanashia Kent was born just a few minutes before me, Atanashia Katerin Kent. Our birth was celebrated largely by our family, the vampires of Kent--a family so close to extinction. Evanjerin, I, our father and several of our cousins are the only remainders of the once invincible family Kent. Invincible, until that night...

I still hear the muffled scream of my mother, the quiet footsteps that we heard, the creaking of the old staircase, the horrible sound of gunfire... Gunfire that was blessed by holy water, to repel us vampires. How they ever found out our existence, I will never know. They took that to their graves. They took my mother. On that day, I remember burning with rage, seeing my mother lying in a pool of blood. And then, I remember black, the dark that took me. I remember nothing afterwards.

Evanjerin told me that father had taken care of it, but I could sense something, something amiss. There was something that happened that told me it wasn't just my father that slaughtered them, mutilated and tortured them to their horrible deaths. She refuses to tell me, up until now. I shall never know. But I saw the bodies. Some had their heads twisted, necks snapped, eyes gouged, ears, fingers and limbs torn off, torsos showing the insides of the human body. I won't go into further detail, as I know that my mother would have disliked it, even thought it disrespectful, but I was fascinated. Fascinated, not scared. Mother would have reprimanded me if I ever said that out loud, if ever she had been alive. But she's not.

'Atanashia!'

My eyes quickly went into focus as I realized that my mind had quite wandered off a bit.

'Atanashia! Listen, if you don't get a move on, I'm leaving you here, and I'll be damned if Father whips you to death. You're going to give Helena a hard time too, you know she's supposed to take care of us. She's going to get it worse than you ever are.'

My mind went out of its reminiscent state.

'O-of course, Evanjerin. Sorry. I... I wasn't thinking.'

'Atanashia, we're really going to be late. Any ideas?' Evanjerin shot me a glare, which I ignored.

'Should we conjure up skates and just skate home?'

'Good idea, ' she said. Avis Lilac Roveletu Sketas!

Standing up, I brushed the dirt from the seat of my skirt. Evanjerin offered me a pair of skates, which I accepted and strapped on.

It was a long way home...

***

Graceful, my beautiful mirror image, my twin, was graceful.

Skating alongside me, she looked so innocent, so pretty, so young. Her every move was that of grace, her smile so sweet, her gaze so intimate and binding.

It wasn't her back then. It wasn't her that killed them.

It was a monster. A monster that emerged out of her sister. A deadly, and beautiful monster. That monster, was the true nature of a vampire—nature that in Atanashia's case, was let out by extreme emotions. Just like that infuriating anger, white-hot and boiling, when our mother had died. The monster had a name—Katerin. Katerin Anerize Kent. The unborn sister. The stillborn triplet.

I didn't believe that was the sister we were supposed to have. I believe that the monster learned the name from somewhere, possibly Atanashia, and named herself as such.

She was very pale, paler than I could ever be, the paler of us two. Her eyes were a bloody red, burning with bloodlust and thirst. She appeared to be an older version of Atanashia, with a lean but muscular body. Her hair was until her ankles, with black streaks beginning from her waist to down, her mane a shimmering silver. Her fangs were more than an inch long, protruding through her lips, impossible to hide much longer.

I would have shuddered, but I dare not give Atanashia any cause to find fear in me, to find a secret buried deep.

Because that night, that monster, that was what made our lives a living hell.