Chapter Five:
Thank you to all that reviewed (And to those who just added this fiction to their lists).
I will be leaving the 21st and will not return until at the latest the 28th for my Brother's Wedding. Let's hope I don't die breaking my neck walking down the aisle in my bridesmaid wedges from being blinded by the sun. They don't call me Mole Girl for nothing when I'm without sunglasses.
Now, please enjoy the next (And sadly short) installment of The Wolf's Cry.
It had seemed like forever to Akiye as she still lay on her bed staring at the photo of the man she'd found in her mother's office. She couldn't place him in her memory, but he seemed so familiar. Even with her mother, who hosted parties every so often, she couldn't remember ever seeing him there.
'Maybe he's dead?' Aki thought to herself. But he looked so young in the photo, barely in his mid twenties. He'd probably be in his late thirties by now...
Akiye sighed, rolling onto her side and looking closer at the photo for any sign of where the photo had been taken. There was a building behind him, but she couldn't make out it's sign. It seemed like a club, but she'd never seen one before she so could only guess. When turning the photo and squinting didn't work, she figured she could make it out more with a magnify glass, and reached for the one she kept in her nightstand drawer.
Now with glass in hand, she moved it over the rectangle she guessed to be the building's sign.
'H.I.T.E.'
'Sounds like its pronounced 'Height'...?' It obviously stood for something, though she couldn't begin to know what. 'But it does sound like a name for a club.', she thought.
Having no computer, she'd have to wait until tomorrow when she and Ai left for school for her to do research on the building.
--
Ayame was furious and panicked when she left her office, heading back to the main room where she'd left Ai. All she could think about was Akiye having that photo. She'd spent over a decade hiding everything under the rug, and then her youngest decides to play detective and was snooping through her stuff.
She turned down the path she'd taken but at a much slower pace, and quickly located Ai still where she'd been, biting her lip.
She knew she was going to run out of lies sooner or later, but she was going to keep it up. It was easier to keep things hidden when only one knew what was happening. She just had to keep it that way.
--
Gnawing on her lip, Ai quickly quit when her mother came back five minutes later, looking like she was fuming internally. Which, in her opinion, was much worse than an outwardly fuming person; at least when they were loud about it, you knew what they were thinking and there were no worries over when they would snap at you like the quiet ones.
"'kaa-san?" She asked her mother worriedly.
Ayame raised her head, making eye contact with her daughter; pushing away most of her anger to keep from being questioned.
She put on a smile and petted Ai's short hair in a motherly way when she reached her.
"Um, hi?" Ai said awkwardly. Wasn't she mad?
"I'm fine, dear." Ayame let go and smiled once more before she turned and led Ai to the kitchen. "How about we have something to eat, hm? It's already lunch time."
'She was furious when she came up, and now she's being overly motherly and happy? What the hell?'
Ai gave a sheepish smile back, starting to wonder if her mother suffered from Bi-Polar tendencies.
"Uh, sure."
--
Ayame walked ahead of Ai, leading her off to the kitchen area. She would let her girls think nothing was wrong, but keep a very tight watch on Akiye for the moment until something larger arose.
'I'll let her off for now before I step in.'
--
The rest of lunch, dinner, and the time in between was the usual to Akiye, so it really didn't stick in her mind. Her mother had been acting odd for the duration of the night, seeming to be restless and didn't let Akiye go anywhere in their home without telling her (Yet she let Ai go to the bathroom without a twenty question survey unlike Aki).
But with all her mother's strange behavior, she could still only think about going to school tomorrow to access the computers there to do her private research.
When she thought she would be left alone, she said her good nights and planned to head to her room when her mother stopped her halfway up the stairs.
"Don't I get a good night hug?"
Aki wasn't sure of what to say, since her mother only embraced them before they left for school, never before their bedtime.
Not wanting to seem rude and start something late at night, she gave a confused smile and let her mother embrace her. She glanced off to the side for a minute before she pulled away.
"See you in the morning." She said quietly and jogged up the stairs, not noticing her mother's pleased look of accomplishment.
--
It was around six that the Mori household's silence was disrupted by the dual buzzing coming from Ai & Akiye's rooms.
The girls' commute was a long one; having to walk twenty-five minutes to the local bus stop, which was another twenty-five. Thankfully the bus's next stop was a ten minute walk to their school and they didn't need to rush with the extra thirty minutes they had before classes.
With a yawn and stretch, Ai slid out of her covers, grabbed her uniform hanging on her desk chair, and left to freshen up in the hallway bathroom. Between the soft padding of her feet on the cool wood floor, she heard a thump from Akiye's room and half awake muttering. Rolling her eyes she slid the bathroom door open and grabbed her tooth brush.
--
In a bundle of blankets and stray pillows Akiye was trying to wake up enough to get on her feet without falling. She knew from the water running Ai was in the bathroom, and she figured since she bathed last night and was fine enough in opting to just dress into her uniform.
While slipping into her sailor uniform, she tried to plan out her best approach to ditching Ai and getting to the computer lab to find where H.I.T.E. was. Since they had thirty minutes before school started, she figured it would be enough time and would hope that Ai's posse would keep her busy enough that she wouldn't notice her disappear for awhile.
--
Around six twenty, the girls we already downstairs and finished with their breakfast; grabbing their bentos for that morning, they made sure they had everything and headed to their mother's office, planning to say their goodbyes before they left for school.
--
Ayame was reading in her office, mainly because she had no calls coming in or plans to work on. She figured things would be fine with Akiye since she had things set, and hoped they went accordingly.
When she flipped the page, she heard her twins walking down the hallway, and glanced at the clock. With its time she knew they were coming to say goodbye before making their way to school, and stepped out of her seat and set her book down, and met them at the door.
--
Ai was about to open the door when it slid open before she could. She heard a mock pleased noise from Akiye.
"Did we finally get motion-activated doors?"
Ai rolled her eyes for the second time that morning, and looked up to her mother's face.
"Ohayo, 'kaa-san."
Their mother returned the greeting, and stepped out of her office, closing it behind her.
"Well I guess I'll see you two when you get home." She embraced them one at a time, and Akiye wasted no time in trying to lead Ai down the hall when the hug-fest was over.
Ai waved to their mother, half-dragged by Aki down the way, and grabbed their shoes. While putting them on, Ai looked over at Aki.
"Why are you in such a hurry to get to school? Normally I drag you…not the other way around." When she had her shoes on, she grabbed her bag and waited for Aki by the door.
"I just want to…you know? Don't want to be late." She made sure she had all her stuff before following Ai out the door.
"Right…"
Okay... I apologize for the lack of length. I'm working on a small schedule here, and I'll be leaving in about four days…so I'll try to work on chapter six as much as I can. We've been having thunderstorms here so every time I begin to work, I have to shut down every other night. But Koga finally makes his appearance in chapter six. :]