Chapter 12
The Quivering Anemone
"Have you been feeling better?" Mukuro asked, his pineapple hair gliding around thanks to the wind, and as a huge breeze came, it stuffed his mouth full of his hair.
"kdfajndskajfnsdf" Mukuro managed, and the girl in front of him laughed. Her eyes still as crystals, reflecting back the sun, the clouds, the small shifting wind as well as his own features. Her hair moved along with the wind as well, but instead of it getting into her mouth, it brushed by her neck oh so delicately.
"Haha, Mukuro-san, have you had breakfast yet?" The girl leaned on the counter again, her right hand already grabbing the pineapple snacks that had been out of stock just yesterday. The pineapple haired man smiled, took the snacks gracefully and pulled out his remaining change.
"Only have 100 yen… kufufu…"
"Eh? Mukuro-san!" Yumi looked around slightly worried, but then turned to Mukuro again with a smile on her face.
"Kufufu…go men…I'll bring the money over tonight, alright?"
As if scared? or more like excited, Yumi blushed with a slight raspberry color, then raised her hand to wave Mukuro goodbye. Her scent just flowing through the air… Japanese cherry blossoms… He forced his legs to continue walking as he remembered that one person that he kept on trying to forget.
Hibari…
And then another person. Rei-chan… What would she do then? If she was forced to remember of her parents whose outcome she doesn't even know? Would she feel that thud in her heart like Mukuro's and be hindered by it? He grunted as he knew the answer by heart anyways. She was never pulled back by her emotions from what he had known, it was always the thing that propelled her more. Did she not have pain like Mukuro did? She did. She had been betrayed just as much as Mukuro did. Just as he was planning to continue thinking, he stopped.
What was he doing, thinking about Rei-chan! She was gone now, only an apprentice, none more than that. They didn't live together anymore, they didn't need to feel that…care…anymore. So why was it… that he had this thud? Was it envy and respect? Thinking that, Mukuro arrived at the training center only to find two people there. Chikusa and Ken.
"Where's Reika?" Mukuro knew to use Rei-chan's full name just like Rei-chan always said Mukuro-san in front of others. Rei-chan… was that a nickname too? Was he now…forbidden…to use it? He threw that behind his head as he waited for Chikusa's answer.
"I don't know, Mukuro-san, we thought she'd come with you."
Where was she? That silly girl… did she think that just because she moved away that she could skip out on Mukuro's training? That was not acceptable. Not acceptable at all.
"Mukuro-san! There has been assassination requests, Reika-chan should come soon…" Ken hurried up to Mukuro, holding an armful of pieces of paper from small to big, horrible to refined quality of paper.
"Kufufu… a lot…" Mukuro had to throw the girl's things out of his mind and flipped through pieces of paper. Rei-chan would love these…opportunities for money… but then he found himself thinking of her again. She had just been prey… right? Or was she even more than that now?
r-
Reika slid her card down the machine, and with a ka-ching she knew the business was done. She would have her own house that she would live in. The man grinned and the old man beside patted Reika's shoulder. The three high five-d despite the difference in their ages, and two of the three waved good bye and while chattering, left the house empty.
The only decorations in the house where two candle stands on the sides of the stairways leading upstairs, the dining room had been not cleaned properly in quite some time, but the other rooms were in good condition. This was good enough for a cheap house, and more like only what she could afford.
She turned around her wrist to see her watch, and the burning numbers from it. 13:02.
"OH SHIZ!" She slammed the front door shut, clutching the keys as she ran out in a hurry, almost tripping over the stairs in the apartment and landed on her knees at the ground level.
"Ouch..." She murmured, but again, remembering the time, fought against the own beating in her heart to get to the training center. Mukuro would be mad...very mad. Now that he thoughts she hated him, perhaps this action of being late would also be considered as... disrespect? Darn.
She swung open the front door to Kokuyo High School and hurried within, seeing three bodies on the couches, and each reading a sheet a paper...
Did I get in the wrong school...? Reika thought to herself, but recognizing the tattered furniture, she knew otherwise.
"Ken? Chikusa? Mukuro-san?" She murmured, walking closer. But it seems that they were too absorbed in reading, that they didn't hear.
"Ken? Chikusa? Mukuro-san!" She raised her voice, walking closer and closer, but they only kept on blinking their eyes and reading. As she approached them, Ken's mouth suddenly moved, making no noise, but more like gulping down joyously. With no time to react, Ken was already jumping around Reika, the piece of paper flowing down somewhere in the room, and exclaiming, "ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND YEN!"
One hundred thousand...yen...?
Not knowing what was going on, Reika looked past the jumping Ken towards Chikusa and Mukuro-san. Chikusa placed the paper down very slowly, fixed his glasses and looked at Reika. "Three hundred thousand..."
Three hundred thousand...?
The only "normal" person would be Mukuro-san then...if Reika hadn't seen what had happened next.
With a dark face and evil eyes, in the corner some awkward, "kufufufufufu...twenty million... two million...kufufufufu...kufufufu..." Seeing the "haunted" Mukuro, Chikusa and Ken backed away, but it seems that only Reika noticed the important part in his words. kufufu + twenty million? That would be enough for a lot of rents!
But Reika, has if suddenly realizing who this man was in front of her, what he had thought of her..and the incident this morning, she hesitated/ Did she hate her now? Just like he thought she hated him? But he doesn't know... doesn't know what Reika had been thinking the entire time. How much she wanted to hug him, to tell him that she adored him too, to tell him that we'd do all the missions together. But she knew that it wasn't possible either. Mukuro liked Yumi...and only Yumi. She was a nothing? Perhaps the only reason that he even cared was because of the food that Reika had made him.
Mukuro hearing footsteps, looked up, and flashed the piece of paper with the exciting title, twenty million yen. But then as if suddenly waking up, realized who was in front of her. A sort of grief, mournfulness flew into his eyes, his heart, his soul, tarnished all that was joyous, and only an arid plant like Mukuro was left sitting.
"Mukuro-san..."
"I know it...kufufu...Reika-chan, I know that you don't like me..."
"It's not...that I don't like you." Reika managed. She couldn't say Oh Mukuro do you know how much it hurts to see you walk away? How much it hurts to be the one walking away? But how happy I'd be to see you smile and be happy? She couldn't say any of that... it'd only confuse Mukuro.
"Kufufu...you don't need to appease me..."
"It's not that! Mukuro-san...let's...talk. Let's talk after training...let's have a long long talk..." Reika managed. What she would say, how she would say it she didn't know. All she knew was she wanted Mukuro to know that she didn't hate him, and that Mukuro wasn't that weird thing that he called himself.
Whether this long long talk would work...Reika didn't know either.
belluv's note: Hey! I'm here again~~~ its 11:30 AM here...figured that i have more inspiration in the morning! And today's friday so it's update day! :D Hope you all enjoy this chapter and again... try to decide who you all like ! Thanks!
