Yeah. I updated early.
Anyway, I know it's a day LATE (great going Mystery.) But HAPPY HALLOWEEN.
AND I ALSO WANTED TO POST THIS CHAPTER UP EARLY IN PREPARATION OF THE INSANE ARMY'S CONTEST. THE THANKSGIVING CONTEST THAT MUERTE-TAICHO AND SAKURA-TAICHO ARE HOSTING.
Be sure to enter it. It sounds amazing.
**~~
If Tsukiyomi is water; cool, running, thoughtful and mature, then Sakura is fire; the voice to Tsukiyomi's quiet desires, the hand that guides the puppet strings, and the wild and reckless spirit that just wants to be free. While Tsukiyomi maybe the voice of reason between the pair, Sakura's passion, natural survival instincts, and her inability to do anything except what she feels in her hear it right is just what makes them the perfect team.
Sakura
Sakura had lived in Rukon District 80 with a poor family that took her in. Sakura dreamed to be a Shinigami at a young age, but the family had other plans for her; not wanting their plans to become a reality, she took drastic measures to ensure it wouldn't happen, to ensure that nobody she cared about would ever get hurt again. Perhaps there's a reason for her frosty demeanor…
The moon held its face high in the sky, shining with pride. The pale silvery light peaked in through the cracks of the run-down shack. A young girl, about in her teens thrashed and whimpered pitifully in her sleep.
It's all your fault… If you hadn't stole it… Nobody would have died….
Echoes of her nightmare danced in her head endlessly repeating… Never ceasing…
The girl stands before a scene… there's a small child in front of her… about the age of five… Staring at her with big blue eyes that have lost the sparkle of an innocent childhood… The little girl… was herself.
The sleeping teen's eyes twitched as she grew desperate to wake up… desperate to escape this nightmare…
The tiny girl stared blankly at the flames that ate away the building… the smoke that drowns out the moon of the night sky. Her ears echoed with the screams of her friends… trapped in the building… The laughter of that cruel rich bastard that set their small and humble shack on fire…
The smell of blood… all the blood… it oozed everywhere… she was covered in it… it threatened to suffocate her. The blood of her friends.
"NOOOOOOO!!!" the girl screamed as she wrenched her eyes open and flew off the bed, landing on her butt.
Shaking she stared at her hands… they were clean…
"J.. Just a dream..." she whispered, slow tears rolling down her cheeks… it was that dream… the dream of the night she'd never forget… The night… she lost everything she had ever cared for.
Footsteps could be heard as bare-feet padded down the hallway. An elderly woman flung the door open and entered.
"Sakura?" she asked.
The girl, Sakura stared at her "I'm sorry to disturb you ma'am"
The woman glared at her as if she were trash. "Well, could you possibly try to remain silent during the nightly hours? You know that once you become a bride… you cannot keep this tirade up."
Sakura nodded, absent mindedly. She knew the old woman and her husband planned to marry her off to some stranger in exchange for money… She knew it would happen on her fifteenth birthday… She had one more year.
The old woman slammed the door with such ferocity it made Sakura's ears ring and padded back down the hallway to the room next to Sakura's.
She stood up and brushed a long strand of her light brown hair behind her ear and crept over to the wall that connected her room to the room where the old couple slept. Pressing her ear to the wall she listened for the snoring… as she heard the rhythmic breathing, she held her breath, counted to twenty and slowly crept to her door, opened it up… and snuck out of the house… and began running.
'This could be my last chance to escape… I'll never become a shinigami at this rate.' She thought.
Her hair, such a light brown it looked almost blonde, her eyes were deep sky blue. She stared at a reflection of herself in a river that she had come across. She had no idea where she was, nor did she care. As long as she was free…
The bank of the river was littered with glass bottles, sharp shards of steel, plastic containers… Sakura stared at the objects. She hated the thought of becoming a slave to a man. She picked up the sharpest shard of steel she could find, and cut her hair around her ears and an uneven fashion, not that she particularly cared. It was something that would distract any trackers going by description.
The old couple had made her grow her hair out; saying something about it being more suitable for a marriage or something, Sakura didn't know which, she had long since stopped listening to them. For her, it had always been a pain in the butt to take care of… and besides, it's not like they were going to rule her life forever… She was NOT going to let them decide her fate. Not for money. She wasn't an object to be toyed with. She was a person with feelings and emotions.
She threw the steel shard down and stared at the fifteen inches of hair in her hand. Angrily throwing her fist full of her hair down, she took off once again in to the shroud of darkness that protected her from any eyes that may be watching.
'I'll never go back.'
**~~
Sakura opened her eyes upon hearing a door slam. She didn't know where she was or how far she had ran; she didn't even know how many days had passed. The night before, she grew so weak from hunger and so exhausted from her constant running, resting only when tired, and just hopped up in a random tree to catch some sleep before she could go again.
She noted that it was nearing sundown. Perfect.
She was preparing to be gone when something caught her attention. Movement.
Sakura cautiously hovered in the tree. A girl climbed out the window.
Sakura blinked, knowing she should really get going… and besides… why should she make bonds that would just be broken?
Sakura examined the girl closely. The girl had dark hair, different colors streaked through it, and … much to Sakura's dismay… taller. But… what stood out… the fancy clothing… she was rich… and just what was Sakura thinking when she opened her mouth and called out to the girl?
"Somebody's out past her curfew. Don't all nobles go to bed when the sun goes down?"
The girl whipped her head around, searching for the source of the voice.
Sakura blinked. Was the girl really that dense? She sighed and tried to get the girl's attention again. "Can't you just sense me? I'm up here" The Sakura tried again, getting impatient.
The girl finally looked up and began asking her crazy questions. Sakura gave each a smart-mouthed answer; that was just her way. It amused her to no end to see the startled look on another person's face when she told them off.
**~~
Sakura blinked while the girl kept talking, thinking… and remembering a festival she had seen… poor thing didn't appear to get out much… 'Why not?' she thought.
"Come on" she said as she grabbed the girl's arm and drug her away.
The colorful lights of the festival caused the younger girl's hair to sparkle. Sakura smiled, but secretly felt pale and washed out compared to the taller girl's dark hair.
"W-where are we going?" the girl asked timidly.
Sakura gave her a reassuring smile, "Who knows; who cares?" she said with her defiant tone, stifling a chuckle when she seen the look that passed over the other girl's features. 'She really is an innocent little thing'
**~~
After the festival, Sakura and the girl, Tsukiyomi, as Sakura found out after the girl got attacked by her 'fanclub'.
Sakura knew she should give her name to the girl… 'But… She doesn't need to get hurt because of me…' she told herself firmly.
Sakura watched Tsukiyomi sneak back into her house, and Sakura climbed up to the windowsill to say goodbye…
"I guess, see ya tomorrow" Sakura said, getting ready to leave.
"You never gave me your name!!" Tsukiyomi exclaimed, getting exasperated.
Sakura gave her a sad smile. "Don't worry, Tsukiyomi, you'll know it soon enough. Just remember my face." She said, as she leaped out the window and began to run again.
Tears ran down Sakura's face. 'Tsukiyomi… I'm sorry… I just can't let you get hurt because of me… Why did I let myself get close to someone again? She's just going to get hurt!! I can't lose another friend…'
**~~
The wind slowly began to pick up. Sakura stood on a hill facing the Shinigami Academy. The place she wanted to be.
She smiled, knowing that she'd have to be strong to be there… it may be too late for the entrance exams… but… something trivial had never stopped her before. She was just a bit too stubborn for her own good.
A smirk appeared on her face. "I will see you again… my friend" she whispered into the wind and dashed off down the hill to go fight her way into the academy.
During her run, flashbacks of the entire evening danced before her eyes… why she had spoken to Tsukiyomi to begin with suddenly became clear.
'I know why I felt so drawn to her… she's like me… alone… My friend… I'll be there for you no matter what… just have enough faith to trust me for now.'
**~~
Sakura gasped, never had she been so exhausted in her life… but she had done it… she passed the exam that she was given. Sure, she didn't make the advanced class, but she was in. That was all that mattered. She smiled, the Rukon District seeming so long ago… She no longer was a puppet dancing to someone else tune… she could do it her way.
Hands shaking, she dropped the wooden katana that she had used in combat against the examiner. Her short hair was dampened with sweat and stuck out more at the ends.
She felt joy bubble up from a corner of her heart she thought had died with her friends the night of the fire. She walked outside and flopped on the ground at the base of the hill, thinking about something Tsukiyomi had said… the one sentence that stuck in her mind. 'But… if you hold on to the past, you'll get swallowed up by it… Sure, it can be hard when it's happening to you but… once you make it, you know you accomplished something.' Sakura slowly coming to realize something… something she should have thought of sooner.
Life goes on after all – She could be forgiven!
Smiling she jumped up and walked back to the plum tree in Tsukiyomi's family garden. She and Tsukiyomi had to be ready for the first day of school, after all.
Sakura sighed as she hopped up in the tree… but she couldn't shake the feeling that somebody was there… in the shadows… watching and waiting… 'Oh well.' She thought, shrugging it off as nothing as she dozed off.
**~~
Anyway… Sakura's chapter's still longer than Tsukiyomi's. =_=U I really have to work on chapter consistency. *sighs*
Back to the Drawing Board.
Also, since Sylira decided to throw a Monkey-wrench in my plans, Chapter three will be rewritten. Keep watching out for Akane's chapter.
See you soon.
~Mystery-san.