Color of Your Soul
Chapter 9: First Sign of Danger
Nighttime in Kokuyou was a lot deadlier than that of Namimori. Kokuyou was such a run-down place that there were barely any street lights. The thick, black clouds in the sky seem to gather all above Kokuyou tonight. The night was so quiet that the only sounds were the ruffling of leaves and owls' hoots. But it wasn't so quiet for Yotsuba. Her heart's beating pounded in her head. Mukuro's sadistic smile made her feel numb; if he were to attack her right now, it would be an instant kill.
She tightened her fists in attempt to calm herself. Think it out, Yotsuba! She told herself, think carefully! With her utmost effort she lifted one of her fists and wiped her sweaty forehead with it. Questions whirled in her brain. Never in her life had she been discovered when she's spying, how did this guy find out? Who are those two in the back? His subordinates? What does he want?
She swallowed. "You're the one that's been in my head, aren't you?" That came out a lot calmer than she expected. It was a relief. But a new wave of anxiety washed over her as Mukuro stepped closer to her. Each of his steps was graceful and slow, taunting her nerves and laughing at her. He looked at her amusingly; the blood-red pupil of his right eye and the word that read "six" inscribed inside it shocked Yotsuba. She began to wonder if the boy was a human or not.
"Why so alarmed, little clover?" Mukuro sang. "We've spent countless of nights together, haven't we?"
Anger boiled inside Yotsuba's head from Mukuro's intimate statement. She didn't notice as the anger overcame her first fear. She gave up on the plan of "thinking it out" and lead Kabi out onto her shoulder from her bag, and threw the bag aside. After all, Yotsuba never liked to think too much. "You better watch what you say, barbarian. You're not too lucky to find a clover of my kind." She spat.
Mukuro laughed. The shrilly laughter gave Yotsuba a chill. "Aren't you smart with your tongue? But I kind of like it better when you were scared!"
Yotsuba's face went from white to red to green. What a disgusting man! "Pervert… My patience is very limited. Now, tell me how you found out about me… and why you've been invading my head!"
"Pervert?" gasped Mukuro sarcastically. "How hurtful! I think you already have an idea on how I can see inside you, don't you, my little clover?"
It must be his eye, thought Yotsuba. "I am not yours. Why are you targeting me? And do not back-question me this time."
Mukuro chuckled and stepped closer to Yotsuba, making her back away a little. She didn't want that eerie red-eye so close to her. It felt as if the eye was going to consume her, which was probably Mukuro's intention anyhow. The hair on Kabi's back stood and the little creature growled at the blue-haired boy. Mukuro raised an eyebrow at the sight of the animal.
"What an unattractive creature!" Mukuro exclaimed. "You really arouse my interest, little clover! At first I targeted you because you seemed like an easy bait to get to the Vongola. But after diving into your mind a couple of times, I realized that you and I are quite similar…"
Furious at Mukuro's words, Yotsuba shoved a piece of cracker into Kabi's mouth, transforming him into a ferocious yeti. In no way was she similar something like him! It enraged her even more when Mukuro put on a nonchalant expression as Kabi displayed his shark-like teeth with a roar. But to her miscalculation, the doggish boy behind her was quick to stand in between Kabi and Mukuro. She was astonished to see sharp fangs grow out inside the boy's mouth and the hair on his body became fur-like. A symbol of a lion imprinted on his cheek. Though Kabi was a lot bigger than the now-lion boy in size, the lion-boy was fast.
Seeing that her pet might need some assistance, Yotsuba rushed toward them. But before she could get close she was struck by something very rapidly on the shoulder, and she fell to the floor, losing her balance. Quickly checking the spot that was hit, she found her shirt wet with fresh blood. Yotsuba bit her bottom lip to distract the stinging pain from her shoulder, and looked to where the attack came from. An emotion-less face settled in front of her eyes; the pale-skinned boy looked back down at her. She noticed the pair of yo-yo in the boy's hands, one of which had blood stains on it. I'm in a bad position, aren't I? thought Yotsuba.
"Never turn your back to an enemy!" Mukuro said, laughing a little, "Though it wouldn't have made a difference since Chikusa here is great for long-distance combat, and your Aikidou won't help you at all, will it?"
Yotsuba sent him her fiercest glower, but the cold sweat on her forehead kept falling uncontrollably. Mercilessly, the boy named Chikusa attacked again. This time Yotsuba kept an close eye on the two yo-yo, dodging them as they came at her. She could feel Mukuro's eyes on her as she moved about, which made her movements stiff. This is getting nowhere! she thought. With a determined look, Yotsuba started to sprint toward Chikusa. Chikusa released his yo-yo yet again, but this time Yotsuba grasped the string from the yo-yo and twirled it around her hand. A knife in her hand, she pulled Chikusa toward her, startling him briefly. But Chikusa reacted quickly; Yotsuba's knife only made a fine red line on his cheek.
Before Yotsuba could say the word "damn" in her head, she felt an immense pain to her side. She fell to the floor again and found about fifty needles stuck in her skin. Blood poured out from her side and her vision started to blur. She tried to stand up, but she was too dizzy to. The most she could do was prop herself up with her two shaking arms. She was feeling so tired, so tired, and her eyes drooped. The next thing she saw were Mukuro's shoes before her eyes. She looked up to see his malicious smile.
"You must not have many experiences in combat, little clover!" taunted Mukuro. "I must say that your fur ball there is stronger than I'd expected. But I guess it's lucky that Ken ate something weird this morning and isn't feeling too well, or your beloved pet would've probably died."
Yotsuba looked to where Kabi was a while ago. There were many wounds on the yeti with blood flowing out, and it was lying on the floor. Unconscious and suffering, it seemed. The other boy named Ken was back to his doggish look and was in the same state as Kabi.
"Kabi…" Yotsuba murmured. She wanted to reach for him, but her body was too heavy for her to drag, so she glared at Mukuro instead. Mukuro, on the other hand, smirked amusingly at the struggling girl. Slowly, he knelt down next to her and caressed her left cheek. Insanity burned in Yotsuba's eyes; she opened her mouth wide and bit his hand. Mukuro hissed and looked at her with disgust, trying to shake the animal-like girl off his hand. When she wouldn't let go, he kicked her until she yelped in pain, letting go of his hand while doing so.
"Aren't you a princess!" said Mukuro sarcastically. Darkness enveloped his eyes. "Face it. You're not match for me. I am, after all, a man who has experienced the six reincarnation cycle."
Yotsuba frowned. "What do you mean?"
Yotsuba felt a sick feeling as the number in Mukuro's eye shifted to "one". A field full of green clovers replaced the worn-out theater. Yotsuba blinked. Was she really bleeding that much that she's seeing things? She felt Mukuro's hand on her cheek again, but this time she had no strength to bite him.
"Do you like my present to you, my little clover?" Mukuro cooed at her. "You're really an interesting one. What do you say? Shall I get to know more about you?"
Yotsuba wanted to protest, but her vision faded before her eyes could close.
It was a western style house, dimly lit. Mukuro looked around, finding a newspaper in the Italian language. Then a series of sobbing came from the corner of the room. Mukuro turned toward the sound, and found a little girl no older than five years old curled up in the corner. Judging by the iron-black eyes of the girl, she must be the five-year-old Yotsuba. Mukuro was inside Yotsuba's memory.
"Where do you think you're going? You're just going to leave us?" a woman shrieked from another room, drawing Mukuro's head to the very direction. Mukuro advanced to the other room where the voice came from, and found a couple, probably Yotsuba's parents, arguing. The man seemed to be very nervous about something; his whole face was pale and beads of sweat were forming on his forehead. The woman seemed to have the same amount of anxiety.
"I have to leave, Sayuri! Boss found out about me!" the man stuttered, trying to pull the woman away from the door. "He's going to kill me!"
"And you're going to leave Yotsuba and I behind?" the woman named Sayuri went hysterical. "You selfish man! Is your life more important than your daughter's?"
"NO!" said the man exasperatedly. "Idiot! It's going to be more dangerous if you two are with me! Stay in this house! Change your names! And leave this place when the Estraneo's are not active!"
"What about the Vongola?" Mikami Sayuri exclaimed. "He's the one that hired you to spy in the Estraneo family! Shouldn't he be responsible for your safety?"
"The Estraneo doesn't know that I spied for Vongola," said the husband solemnly, "I can't disappoint the Vongola!"
"Is the mafia more important than your family?" Mikami Sayuri screamed.
The man lowered his head and remained silent. Mikami Sayuri looked at him desperately, but only to be pulled away from the door by her husband's strong hand. The man hurriedly put on his shoes and opened the wooden door.
"Mikami Kyusaku…" Mikami Sayuri whispered with a raspy voice. "If you step out of that door, Yotsuba is no longer your daughter!"
Mikami Kyusaku stopped in his track. He turned back to look at his wife with dark eyes. "If Yotsuba can live on safely, there will be nothing that I'll regret."
He left. Mikami Sayuri collapsed on the floor. Her hands covered her face, but no tears came out. She let out a shaky sigh and stood up, walking toward the living room where the young Yotsuba was. She found the little girl crying at the corner of the room and went over to embrace her.
"Don't cry, Yotsuba! Your daddy will come back soon! He's just out for work again!" the mother rubbed Yotsuba's back, trying to calm the sobbing from the girl.
Yotsuba cried silently.
No, daddy is not coming back. They think I don't know anything. But I do. I know he's not coming back. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. From now on, I am no longer a Mikami…
Mukuro stared down at the young girl. It surprised him that she had such a grown mind at such a young age. He smiled maliciously.
This is how the human world is, little clover.
Mukuro walked through the window of the Mikami residence and landed on a grassy field. He looked around and found himself standing in the middle of a park. A woman was walking along the park, holding a little girl's hand. It was Yotsuba and her mother. Yotsuba had grown a bit taller, perhaps a year older, too. Mukuro bemusedly walked toward the pair.
Mikami Sayuri stopped walking as she came close to a long bench. Yotsuba raised her little head to look at her mother, curious at the sudden stop. Mikami Sayuri placed Yotsuba on the bench and held the little hands with hers.
"Yocchan," the mother started, "mommy has to go somewhere really quickly. Will you be a good girl and wait for mommy here?"
Something sparkled in Yotsuba's iron-black eyes. "Yotsuba is a good girl. Yotsuba will wait here for mommy and won't go anywhere!"
Tears started to fall out from the woman's eyes, then. Yotsuba frowned and reached out her hands to wipe her mother's tears. "Mommy? Don't cry, mommy! Yotsuba will be a good girl!"
"I know, I know…" Mikami Sayuri hugged Yotsuba, resting her head on the little's shoulder. "Yocchan has always been a good girl."
Yotsuba smiled. "Hurry back, mommy! Yotsuba will be waiting right here!"
Mikami Sayuri patted Yotsuba's head with a shaky hand and walked ahead.
"Wait for mommy to come back, Yocchan…"
Yotsuba stared at the back of her mother. She relaxed on the long bench; her two legs swinging just above the grass. Mukuro advanced toward her and sat next to the little girl on the bench. He studied the girl's face. Only six years old, and she has the expression of her teenage self. The girl blinked several long blinks and finally, giving in, fell asleep on the long bench. But only after twenty minutes, the sky turned gray and clouds gathered together. The light touch of raindrops woke the sleeping girl. Yotsuba looked around, but there was no sign of her mother.
She wasn't surprised. But she just sat there, and waited. Rain soaked the little girl's clothes, but she didn't seem to be cold at all. The rain fell harder and harder and pounded on her body mercilessly. Having no other choice, the girl ran toward the convenient store across the street to hide under the roof. Mukuro followed behind. She ran into a tall boy when she reached the convenient store and fell down. The boy didn't help her up. Yotsuba glared at the boy, in his teens, who had black hair just like hers and a pair of blood-red eyes.
"Hey!" Yotsuba grabbed onto the boy's sleeve when he ignored her. "How rude! You're supposed to help me up!"
The boy looked at her angrily and incredulously. "Let go of my sleeve, you filthy thing!"
Yotsuba pulled herself up on the boy's sleeve, but didn't let go. "Not until you say sorry!"
"Why should I say sorry to you?" the boy growled. "You're the one that ran into me!"
"…" Yotsuba stared at the angry boy. His red eyes were intimidating, but she wasn't afraid for some reason. "My name is Mi… Yotsuba! What's yours?"
"Ha?" the boy raised an eyebrow at her. Thinking that the girl was crazy, the boy turned to leave. But Yotsuba's grip was stronger than he thought. "Let. Go. Of. Me."
"You're not going to leave me, are you?" Yotsuba asked. Her big black eyes shot pleads at him. "I'm cold and wet!"
The boy looked her up and down coldly. "Go home."
"I can't!" Yotsuba whined. "I have to wait here for my mommy!"
Yotsuba grabbed the boy's hands with hers. The boy sent her murderous glares, but he didn't notice that his feet had stopped in their track. His red eyes stared into her deep, black ones. In them he found a wave of desire. For survival. For the truth. For love.
"Are you stupid? Your mother is not coming for you!"
"No! She's coming back for me!" Yotsuba said. Crystal-like tears rolled down her cheeks and joined with the rain water. "If I be a good girl, she'll come back for me! She said so! I have to wait here! I have to wait here!"
The boy watched her cry silently. The next thing he knew, he was sitting in the rain on a long bench next to the girl. He glanced at her; she had stopped crying. Then he glared at her, hard, again. Why was he acting so strange? He had wanted to punch the little girl, so why didn't he?
Meanwhile, Yotsuba stared into space. She remembered the previous day when her mother was crying in her room. It was after a strange phone call. Yotsuba had guessed that it was a phone call from the Estraneo family. Her mother had shouted into the phone, "Why? Why? Why?" Yotsuba had always believed that her mother was a tough woman; even tougher than her father. So who could be the person that made her mother cry like that?
A flash of orange light drew Yotsuba out of her trance. She looked ahead at the blinking marquee on top of a tall building. Being only six years old, Yotsuba only recognized a few words. But for some reason, Yotsuba sensed something bad. She tugged at the sleeve of the boy sitting next to her. The boy turned to her with irritation.
"What?"
"Can you read that for me?" Yotsuba pointed at the scrolling, orange words. Her eyes never left the marquee.
The boy raised an eyebrow at her and looked at the marquee. "Breaking news: a woman named Mikami Sayuri was found dead ten minutes ago in the research lab of San Carmillo Forlanini Hospital. The woman had injected an unknown chemical into herself. The police and scientists are still figuring out the components of the chemical that had caused this death…"
The boy's reading was cut off by Yotsuba. His red eyes widened slightly at the girl. She was laughing. Maybe she was crying too, but the raining was just too hard. Too hard.
"Stupid woman! That's what you get for leaving me! That's what you get!"
Those were the last words from Yotsuba before she passed out. The boy caught her frail body before she fell into the mud.
Mommy, are you going to find daddy alone? Why didn't you take me? Why didn't you take me?
Mukuro looked at the fainted for another couple of seconds, then stepped through the door of the convenient store.
As Mukuro stepped through the convenient store, he stepped into a large, clean room. There was a white bed to his left, and Yotsuba was sleeping on it. Judging by the clothes she was wearing, it must have been right after the day that he just came from. The door creaked open and woke her. A familiar and elderly man walked in and sat next to the bed. Yotsuba's sleepy eyes stared into the old man's warm ones.
"You're awake!" the old man said with a smile. It was such a gentle smile, Yotsuba thought. "How are you feeling?"
Yotsuba stayed silent. She felt like there was sand in her throat.
The old man held her hand lightly yet firmly. "I don't think that kid has ever done something like this before. What's your name?"
"Yotsuba…" she said. Tears fell from her iron eyes again. But this time her eyes were bright and shining. "Mikami Yotsuba. My name is Mikami Yotsuba."
The old man smiled. He helped her sit up on the bed so that his eyes could be leveled with hers. This girl was something else. Something else.
"My name… is Timoteo."
Suddenly everything in front of Mukuro started shaking. Images were falling apart and a white light blinded him. Mukuro felt that he was being pulled away.
"Stop!" Yotsuba's voice rang out in the nothingness. "Stop looking at my memories! Get out right now!"
Mukuro looked stunned as he was pulled out of Yotsuba's memory. The girl was out of his grasp, and she was panting hard and glowering at him. Neither of them was able to say a word. Looking into Mukuro's right eye again, Yotsuba stood up immediately. She stumbled away from him and ran away from Kokuyou as fast as she could after fetching Kabi.
Mukuro smiled and licked his bottom lips as Yotsuba disappeared from his sight.
"Kufufufu…"
She broke away from my power. Interesting. I must've touched something forbidden…
"She is something else."
TBC.
A/N: I hope that wasn't too confusing! Yotsuba's past will be further explained later on in the story. Everyone must know who Yotsuba's step father and Nii-chan is now, right? I really didn't want to reveal it until later, but I guess I had to. I hope everyone liked this chapter, and I hope I'll actually get some time to work on this for the next two weeks. Please review thx!