Brightest of Shadows Chapter 10: Pretty
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Hello. :3 Quick question.. I'm not exactly great with Japanese honorifics, and I heard chan is usually used for girls and kun usually used for guys, while those close to each other don't use any at all. If that's completely wrong and you either want to tell me the proper way, or just want me to stop just tell me through review or a PM. So nothing insane is going to be happening this chapter besides a little bit of relationship development between Yami and Sachiko. You'll also see something happening between Yoshiki and Ayumi, although it may not be amazingly good. ;) All I'll say for now! On with the chapter.
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"So your parents still don't know the truth huh?" Yoshiki asked as he shut the tv off, noticing that the rest of the group had gradually ceased their attentions to the television, with everyone wandering around his apartment doing their own thing.
Naomi and Seiko were off having their own little conversation about what they would be having that night for dinner since Naomi was planning on staying at her house as revenge for Seiko staying at hers the previous week. Ayumi was silently surfing some random websites, including her social medias, although when she noticed that the website that she had found the 'Sachiko-Ever-After charm was still on her favorites list, she quickly deleted it before going back to browsing her twitter timeline.
Even Satoshi and Yoshiki had eventually stopped paying attention to the television and were now softly speaking among themselves. The subject on hand was rather difficult. How exactly the members of their little group would hide the truth to their respective parents.
"Well what am I supposed to tell them?" Satoshi grumbled, cradling his head in his hands, running his fingers through his own hair. "Hey mom and dad, Yuka and I were trapped in a haunted school where we may have been slaughtered in horrible ways! Oh also you know that Sachiko girl we've been hanging out with? She's a psychopathic killer that followed us out!"
"Look... Obviously we can't tell anyone about that part, but eventually we're all going to have to explain not only why your sister is having nightmares but where Sachiko-chan even came from in the first place." Yoshiki sighed. If someone had told him two weeks ago that he would visit an ethereal school, and end up taking care of a 7 year old ghost girl with one hell of a mean streak, Yoshiki would've asked what exactly they had smoked that morning. "We need to come up with some sort of story eventually... Someone will ask exactly where she came from sooner or later..."
But here he was, discussing with his best friend on the best course of action to dealing with the events of the last week, and the perceived aftermath of it all.
"We could say that we found her wandering around the streets homeless, but that would spark a massive search for her real parents, and something tells me her real parents wouldn't be able to do much in terms of taking care of her..." Naomi had heard their conversation and shuffled over to the two young men, sitting next to Satoshi. Noticeably close to Satoshi, Yoshiki noted.
"Well for now we should at least introduce her to my sister. She's an even bigger fan of occult stuff that I am." Ayumi said as she pulled out her phone, sending a quick text to her sister informing her that she needed to meet Sachiko, before she placed the phone onto the table softly, making sure to not add any scratches to the wooden finish.
"That's certainly saying something." Yoshiki whistled softly, shaking his head. "So it's settled then. We'll take Sachiko-chan to see Ayumi-chan's sister tomorrow I guess. Hopefully she doesn't have any paper dolls sitting around eh Shinozaki?"
Before Ayumi could make a snide comment in response, the entire room began to shake softly without warning, with some of the decorations around Yoshiki's apartment falling off of shelves, with one old box full of random objects nearly beaning Seiko, only for it to miss and hit the table next to her, spilling the boxes contents everywhere.
A moment later, an almost unbearably loud whooshing noise, along with a bright flash of light assaulted the groups eyes and ears, forcing them all to shut their eyes and clamp their hands over their ears. Ayumi even suffered a small nose bleed due to the sudden assault on her senses.
When the group each slowly realized that they could open their eyes once more they were treated with a both relieving, yet distressing sight. There stood a blood covered Sachiko, with her was a badly injured Ms. Yui, who's clothes were also stained in her own blood while she held her arm with the other, which looked as if it was bent entirely in the wrong direction. Both were holding a half of a paper doll charm in their hands.
"Yui-sensei! What happened?!" Satoshi said running over to the two who had magically appeared in Yoshiki's living room without even bothering to check how fast he was standing up, causing Naomi, who had been sitting almost directly beside him, to nearly be catapulted off with the young man.
"Ugh... A bookcase... A really heavy bookcase... A blue flame and I had a conversation, and he became angry and turned red... Then red flame pushed it onto me somehow, and it broke my arm..." Yui explained, the pain clearly evident on her face. With an extraneous amount of effort, Yui finally was able to over to a wall, leaning against it with her good side. "I think a few ribs are probably gone as well..."
"When I found her Blockhead had been feeding her to keep her alive, so you might want to make sure he didn't end up feeding her something that will make everything worse." Sachiko explained, crossing her bloodstained arms over her equally bloodstained torso, the red color fluid mixing in perfectly with her dress. No one in the room dared to ask her where the blood covering her small frame originated from, instead they merely prayed that the source was not their teacher.
"Alright, don't panic Yui-sensei, we'll get you to a hospital!" Satoshi said as he walked over to Yui and helped her get her balance before he realized he had forgotten his shoes on the other side of the room, and handed his teacher off to Ayumi who had a few things to say on the situation as well.
"I'll come with you guys!" Ayumi informed Satoshi and Yui, causing the slightest of frowns to form on Yoshiki's face, although he knew better than to speak up. "I know a quick way to the hospital, plus if my sister is near her phone I can call her and have her drive us there!"
"Got it, can you take Yui-sensei down to the lobby and call your sister? I'll meet you there in a second." Satoshi said, fighting with his shoelaces as he usually would whenever circumstances forced him to put them on quickly.
"Hey... Shinozaki-chan wait a second, what was it you wanted to tell me?" Yoshiki asked before Ayumi was able to fully guide Yui out of the doorway, a strange tightening feeling becoming prominent in his chest.
Ayumi was about to answer until she realized that she and Yoshiki were alone. Glancing around the room at the occupants of Yoshiki's apartment, and in particular at Satoshi, who was now leading Yui out of the doorway, before answering. "Aha! Don't worry about it Kishinuma-kun, it was nothing important. Just a stupid question was all!"
"Oh... Well then you 3 had better get going." Yoshiki said with a little more venom in his words than he had previously intended once he realized what Ayumi was staring at, though he chose not to correct himself. He was through apologizing for that sort of thing to Ayumi, who had always been a little thick in these sorts of situations. Turning back to the kitchen he began walking towards a small cupboard.
Ayumi however had taken notice of Yoshiki's sudden strange behavior for once in her life, as she had been watching for it after what Sachiko had said yesterday, but when she walked over and placed her hand on his shoulder he shrugged it off rather forcefully, never even turning to face Ayumi. "Kishinuma-kun? What's wrong?..."
"Save it, go and help Mochida-kun. I'm Sure he needs it." Yoshiki spat, saying Satoshi's name in a mocking sing-song voice, continuing his trip to the kitchen while Naomi and Seiko watched the events unfolding before them, unsure of whether or not to interfere.
"You know what... Whatever... Bye." Ayumi hissed out between clenched teeth before stomping out of the apartment in a huff, slamming the door behind her so hard that the small picture frame on the wall that had been lodged loose by Sachiko's entrance fell onto the ground with a loud crash.
Yoshiki growled softly, but it soon turned to a distraught sighing. Originally he was having trouble falling asleep, but at this rate he was pretty sure that 14 hours of sleep would do him well.
"It's insane that Yami-kun hasn't woken up after all of this... I'm pretty sure we've woken half the province at this point..." Yoshiki muttered as he wandered over to the kitchen cupboard and pulled out a fluffy red showering towel before walking back over and plopping it on Sachiko's head "I won't ask why you're covered in blood, but you need to go and wash off."
"What?! No!" Sachiko had not even realized that she had whined until all the occupants of the room had turned to her surprised. She usually had no issues with staying clean. As she had told Yami back in Tenjin, she had always secretly taken pride in how clean she kept herself, despite usually ending up in her current state every few hours. This was a different situation however; someone was telling her to do it. "Why? I don't wanna Kishinuma-kun... I'm not dirty! It's just a few blood stains!"
"A few stains?! Sachiko-chan... You are completely drenched in blood, and I'm pretty confident that it's not your blood!" Yoshiki paused as a different thought entered his mind. He knew exactly what would get under the young girls skin, and so he spoke once more attempting a different tactic. "You know if Yami-kun sees you like that he'll be really worried about you..."
Bingo. Sachiko needed no more convincing than that as her eyes shot open almost as wide as they would go. Without taking even a moment to ask Yoshiki which way the bathroom was, Sachiko snatched the towel from Yoshiki's hand and began speeding around the apartment, opening random doors in search of the bathroom.
The moment it was found, Sachiko shot inside, slamming the door behind her with a loud bang. A few moments later the sound of the shower being activated along with the sound of running water hit the ears of the other occupants of the apartment, with one in particular grinning slyly.
"I think 'someone' has a crush on Yami-kun!" Seiko giggled evilly to the rest of the group, clasping her hands together in a prayer position as she jumped up and down, bouncing around the apartment like a spring while Yoshiki sighed, worried that Seiko would end up jumping out of the window or something.
"Seiko! They're both kids, she probably just doesn't want to freak her friend out!" Naomi laughed, crossing her arms over her chest in slight exasperation as she observed her friend jumping around Yoshiki's apartment, inwardly gasping every time Seiko drew near to a breakable object, swinging her arms about as she jumped.
"Sort of like how you don't want to freak Moch-... MMPPPHH!" Naomi grabbed Seiko's jaw in midair and pulled her into a headlock, holding it shut with her free hand while the girl in question began to flail about like a fish out of water.
"Huh? What about Satoshi-san?" Yoshiki asked, finally drawn into the conversation at the mention of the name of his best friend, along with Naomi's reaction to what Seiko had said in general.
"Ha! Hahaha! Nothing Yoshiki-kun!" Naomi laughed uncomfortably, giving the entire scene a humorous air around it. Naomi knew that attempting to hide her friends previous statement was pointless, as she was fairly sure Yoshiki already knew about her crush on Satoshi. "Seiko here is still a little dizzy from running is all!"
"Running huh? She hasn't left my apartment in over half an hour..." Yoshiki said, but shrugged off the conversation, recognizing he wasn't going to receive an answer from Naomi without forcing it out of her. He was pretty sure he knew what they had meant anyway.
Not that it was too hard for even a blind man to figure it out anyway.
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Around half an hour later, the three teenagers heard the soft click of the bathroom door opening. All of them turned towards the source of the noise expecting to see Sachiko still completely covered from head to toe in blood, and refusing to take a shower after all.
There stood Sachiko. However she seemed much different to the group than before. Her skin was still the sickly pale color that it had been before, along with the strangulation scar that lined her neck like an ever present tattoo, and her eyes only hinted as the faintest shade of purple behind the grey tint that had long since taken over. However her eyes were also filled with what could only be described as the spark of life. In fact, her entire face was filled with life, from the sleek shine in her freshly washed hair, down to the subtle smile on her face.
Naomi could not help but to silently stare at Sachiko as she walked by them in the sleepwear that Seiko had lent her from when she had been Sachiko's size. It was almost as if in that shower, the young girl had physically cleansed herself of evil, restoring the once innocent little girl to way she was before.
Sachiko however was thinking something completely different given the situation. She knew exactly how she looked, and she knew it would elicit a reaction from the older members of the group at first. But it was only for tonight. She would be back to her near old self tomorrow, but for tonight she wanted to appear in such a way.
Making her way to the apartment's bedroom, Sachiko gave a little wave of acknowledgment along with a small smile to the teens before disappearing into the room, closing the door behind her.
It was only a few seconds before the three teenagers had all snuck over to the door and were all attempting to peak through the crack in the door that Sachiko had left open to let air circulate for Yami.
Meanwhile inside of the room Sachiko had quietly shuffled over to the bedside that Yami was still fast asleep upon. Taking a chance while simultaneously praying that Yami was asleep, the young girl softly began to crawl up onto the bed and move herself close to Yami. Close enough that she could feel his breath on the exposed scars on her neck.
A moment later, Yami began to shift in the bed, until his eyes slowly opened, revealing to him a smiling Sachiko, who's hair fell in front of half of her face like a shroud, leaving only one shining eye and her smile visible to the boy. "Sachiko?... Boy am I glad to see you... I had a crazy dream that you had gone back to Heavenly Host and that there was an earthquake and... Well you get it."
Sachiko giggled, thankful that while the noises had in fact made their way to Yami, they still failed in disturbing his rest, which Sachiko was extremely thankful for. Yami needed all the rest he could get at the moment. There was something else on Sachiko's mind as well however. "That's... Not the reaction I usually get when someone sees me..."
"Well it should be." Yami muttered before he stopped cold, causing Sachiko to tilt her head slightly on the pillow in curiosity. It was then she realized that Yami had been sniffing her hair that had made it's way near his face, a small smile appearing as he did so. "You smell really nice..."
"R-... Really?..." Sachiko asked, the slightest blush appearing on her checks, although her hair thankfully did quite a good job in hiding it from the boy next to her. This was completely new territory for her. She had never behaved in such a way before. Not to say that it was bad at all. When she was acting it such a way around Yami, she loved it.
As this was all going on, Yoshiki, Naomi, and Seiko still observed the events unfolding the room through the small crack between the door and wall, completely engrossed in what was happening. At first they had been surprised at Sachiko's actions when she had left the shower, but now after hearing Sachiko and Yami talking they all realized exactly why Sachiko was acting the way she was, though they had their suspicions to begin with.
"Isn't it just so cute? Do you think they actually like each other?" Naomi whispered to the others, never taking her gaze off of the scene playing out before her. If only she could find herself in this sort of situation.
"A little, but it might just be one of those 'puppy love' situations." Yoshiki mumbled in reply, ready to turn away until he realized that he was trapped in between Naomi and Seiko like the filling in a sandwich, and that trying to move would only result in the three of them making an unnecessary amount of attention which would no doubt alert Sachiko to their presence.
"Shut up, I'm trying to listen to this! It might get hot!" Seiko chastised the two other teenagers before returning to her spot of the door, adopting what could only be considered as a 'spy pose' by the other two Kisaragi students who were rolling their eyes at their perverted companion.
Meanwhile in the room the conversation had taken a different direction, or perhaps had just advanced further down it's predestined destination. Sachiko had shuffled considerably closer to Yami, although the volume of their conversation had not yet lowered, much to the delight of Seiko, and even Naomi to a point.
"Hey can I just ask something?" Sachiko suddenly mumbled out, the blush on her cheeks growing ever darker with each word she spoke. Yami couldn't also help but to notice that Sachiko was also attemopting to hide her face with her hair, however the blush could not be hidden this time. "There's... There's this thing that I overheard back in Heavenly Host and... I just want to know... Do you think I'm- I... Uh..."
Sachiko's voice grew softer as she unconsciously began to lean even closer to Yami to the point that she and Yami would have been hugging had either one bothered to put their arms on the other. Which Yami did.
"Do I think you're what?..." He asked, not entirely sure how to respond to Sachiko in the current situation. But hey, it was going well so far, so why not continue with his current steak right? Right.
"I heard guys always telling their female friends they were pretty when they were in Heavenly Host... So... Um... Do you think I'm pretty?..." That essentially froze the entire apartment. Even Seiko, who would normally always know what to say in any given situation was at a loss for words.
"Of course you are..." Yami uttered as he brushed the hair away from Sachiko's face, revealing the sift smile she was giving off to the boy. "I don't know where you got the idea that you weren't but you're wrong... You're-..."
"KAWAII!" Seiko could not hold it in any longer. With a leap of excitement, the brunette slammed into the door accidentally with her knee, while her elbows shot out, with one impacting Yoshiki, who accidentally dragged Naomi down with him. It only took a moment for them to end up in a giant pile on the floor.
"SEIKO! Get your hand off of me!" Naomi called from inside of the pile, kicking out her legs in an attempt to drag herself to her feet, but only succeeded in accidentally smashing another one of Yoshiki's vases.
"Sorry Naomi, but the glorious privilege of claiming your body as mine does fall to me this day!" Seiko said from rather far away. Upon realizing the distance between her and Seiko's voice, Naomi glanced over to find Seiko had fallen almost 2 feet away from her. With a growl, the short haired girl looked down to where a pair of hands grabbing her to find that they were not the hands of a female at all, rather, they were male.
"KISHINUMA-KUN!" Naomi screeched, pilling herself free before giving Yoshiki a loud slap that cracked against his face with a snap, leaving a pulsing red mark in the shape of her hand in its place.
"Ah... Ahh... Sorry! It was an accident!" Yoshiki yelped, throwing his hands desperately into the air to show that he meant no harm to his currently enraged friend. He knew that no matter what he said he would end up with at least one black eye. But at least, he hoped, if he could convince Naomi of the truth he would walk away with his face intact. "I swear, I was just trying to find stable ground!"
It was not enough. With the strength of what felt like ten men, Naomi rugby tackled Yoshiki to the ground and began to use her fists as hammers, slamming her knuckles into Yoshiki's face over and over. While it was not doing any real significant or lasting damage, that did not mean that it did not hurt.
"Well now you know Blondie... Now you know how Mochida-kun feels at least! Now you see why he is so lucky! To have such a conquest all to himself!" Seiko snickered, her cat-like grin appearing upon her face once again as she watched her best friend wail away on a begging Yoshiki as he clung to the bedroom doorway, desperately trying to drag himself away from the wrath of Naomi.
"...Seiko-chan?..." Seiko suddenly heard Sachiko's voice from behind her, and while it certainly didn't sound as cheerful as it had before, Seiko quickly attributed this to the fact that there was a decent amount of people in the immediate vicinity.
"Yes my dearest Sachiko-chan?" Seiko spun around with a chipper tone in her voice and her hands clasped behind her back.
She never even saw the lamp coming.
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Man Seiko is both fun yet hard to write for. It's really annoying to get her personality down only to switch back to another character. Kind of hard to stay in the groove unless you write all her dialogue at once. . Anyways, I won't take up any more of your time! Until next time my minions!