Us From Now On
Chapter 6
Summary: Why is it that we realize the importance of someone after they are gone? For it is hypocrisy and the human nature that blinds us to what matters the most.
Disclaimer is on page one.
"Don't ever wipe your tears away if you still want to cry."
"Tokyo?"
"Yep. I found a bigger place there, and I've got a sponsor as well."
"Heh."
"What's so funny?"
"Well…strangely, that's where my future's headed as well. Odd huh?"
"A bit. You're welcome at my place anytime though, don't worry."
"I'll hold you to that."
"But, won't you be sad leaving your friends behind?"
"Partings are always sad…but honestly, it's much better this way."
It started like the usual bedtime rituals, she stretched and get in some voice practice before plopping herself in bed with her headphones covering her ears. This happened all the time to help her reduce the stress she had gained over the 2 years; the soothing music was mostly to help lull her to sleep. Somehow, Mio felt she needed the music for tonight.
Bleak darkness met her unconscious and even though she was asleep, the raven haired bassist knew at the back of her mind that this was not something she wanted to see during her sleep.
She was alone, running desperately on a narrow damp tunnel, hand stretched in front of her as though reaching out into something, or someone. She wanted to shout out to anyone, to get her out of this suffocating place. Her lips opened, but nothing came out from her throat, not even a croak. Pale, trembling hands went blindly to her throat, trying to figure out why her voice wouldn't come out.
"Mio."
A familiar voice broke her out of her fear. Her ears strained to hear where the painfully familiar voice came from.
And why did it sound so sad?
Her feet started moving, towards where she didn't know. All she knew was that she wanted to go where that voice came from. To seek out the one who had called out her name.
A bright spot of light appear in front of her, breaking through the pitch black blanket of darkness that had surrounded her since forever. Her steps quickened, her pulse raced. The light was getting closer...her left hand reached out…
Bright light blinded her sight as torrents of voices flooded her hearing. A pair of grey irises opened and recoiled upon seeing that she was literally buried, between the mass bodies of people trying to cross the busy intersection. She was right in the middle, standing rooted on the ground, while the faceless people around her moved in a motion-like blur.
Where was she? The girl found herself thinking as she got caught between the flows and walked towards the other side of the road. Her eyes strayed to look for any familiarity, which was proved to be futile. There was nothing familiar about this place; the road which she was standing on, the reddish buildings and even the slightly grey sky looked different to what she was used to.
The wind blew particularly hard at that moment, and the girl had to fight down the usual annoyance of having her long hair getting in her eyes- long hair?
Fingers trailed up the long strands of raven-black hair in a merge of shock and disbelief.
'This hair…' she had cut her hair short 2 years ago! 'How could it - how did it-!'Her mind tickled at the strange occurrence, her fingers stopped moving along the long strands. How could something like this happen? She knows full well that she had cut her hair short; it was her own hands that did it! The memory of cold surface of the metal scissor was still fresh on her left hand.
As though breaking her from the thought, her feet moved suddenly. Walking a few paces, before breaking into a full run. She ran and ran without needing to take a breather. Her feet seemed to know her next destination as the raven haired girl went by more reddish buildings that all looked the same before her eyes.
Suddenly she stopped, feet rooted to the ground as her eyes took the view in front of her. It was a 2 storied building, slightly worn out and it stuck out like a sore thumb in between the rows of well-kept buildings. A lop sided sign hung above the only door, its green neon flickered lightly. The windows were cracked and blurry, as though they haven't been cleaned in years.
Shadows of people could be seen through the glass, but what they were doing she didn't know. The raven haired girl couldn't move her eyes from the building, staring from across the road and ignoring the busy people rushing around her. This building captivated her, as though she knew what was coming.
A creak came from the worn-out wooden door, loud enough to reach the girl's ears. Grey eyes stayed unmoving as 2 figures went out the door. A tall woman with a short jet black hair stepped outside; accompanied by a young, familiar looking brunette with that yellow headband she wouldn't be able to miss. She knew by heart who the latter was.
"Ritsu."
The two female talked in a voice too soft to be heard from where Mio was standing. She tried to call out to her best friend, but her voice won't come out. Her body stood rooted to the ground, and she was unable to move any of her limbs.
"Ritsu!"
Her heart called out to her, desperately wanting the brunette to turn around. To see her, to acknowledge her, to let her know that she was wanted in her world.
Her heart ache as the black haired woman's hand went to the brunette's face intimately. It was like an action the two of them were used to. Their faces inched closer, and Mio's heart felt like breaking.
A sudden weight appeared on her right shoulder, and her eyes flickered to see the familiar form of her bass. Her left hand was weighted down by a familiar blue bag. These two objects only adding the weights upon her, as though not wanting her to cross the street and disrupting the moment.
Not caring one bit, her eyes returned to the two women across the road.
Grey orbs widened.
No.
No!
NO!
"MIO-CHAN!"
Metallic grey eyes snapped opened at the call, its owner instinctively sat up only to recoiled back down moments later as she felt her forehead collided against a solid object. Seeing stars, the bassist tumbled out of bed and fell to the floor with a loud smack, hands began rubbing at the bruise she knew was forming. A loud thud following her fall informed her that the white pricey headphone she cherished had fallen off as well.
"Yui!" Mio looked through teary eyes to see a brunette crouching on her bed, babying a sore forehead "what was that for?"she could feel her heart rate beginning to slow down now that she had known her attacker.
"I was trying to wake you up!" the guitarist whined, hands still rubbing furiously "Mio-chan seems to be having a bad dream and you were trashing around in your sleep, mou!"
The raven haired bassist stopped her hand motion "…trashing?"
"Un. You were trashing around for about 5 minutes before I could wake you up," innocent brown eyes peered worriedly at her friend "that was one nightmare, Mio-chan. Are you alright?"
Mio buried her face on her palms, her breath came out in gasps. Flashes of her dream resurfaced uncomfortably,making it hard to reply.
"I'm fine." A white lie.
Yui tilted her head at the vague answer, but didn't have time to ponder on it. Rapid footsteps came towards them before the thick wooden door of the room opened with a slam revealing Azusa and Mugi who looked ragged as though they've been running from across the huge mansion.
"What's wrong?" the rhythmic guitarist –now pigtail free- collapsed on the bed, beside Yui, wondering eyes directed at the latter and the bassist who was still seated on the floor "We heard screaming-"
Mugi sat down on her knees in front Mio and laid a hand on the bassist's raven head, ignoring the other two's conversation about how Yui had to yell to jerk Mio back from a nightmare.
"You okay?" she pet the head in an act of comfort.
Grey eyes peeked out through the fingers on her face and met a pair of concerned blue before giving a short nod.
"I'm fine. Just… a bad dream, that's all."
Mugi didn't look like she was going to buy Mio's fib this time, she frowned and opened her mouth, but a call from Yui made her turn away from the bassist distractedly. That was enough time for Mio. Hands quickly rubbed away the tears that slipped her closed eyelids as subtly as possible, holding in a sob that threatened to break. Unfortunately, this action was not missed by a pair of concerned blue eyes.
Mugi wished Mio would tell her the truth.
In which she would tell her the truth in return.
After this morning's rude awakening, Mio had a feeling that today was going to be very difficult. Thanks to that dream she had, she was distracted throughout the whole trip. Her mind kept wandering off and the others would catch her staring at nothing particular with a dazed look on her face. Shingo, as a good tour guide, was a bit concerned and after listening to Yui's suggestion, he brought them to a lefty fair at the Yamaha Music Store. Even that didn't manage to cheer the bassist up, even though she still browsed around the store like a possessed woman.
Metallic grey eyes focused on a left-handed Fender Bass with an unnecessary intensity. Her eyes could bore a hole on the poor instrument, and even the store clerk looked a bit worried as he paced behind her.
'That day, the school had finished an hour earlier. There was no club thanks to graduation.'
Eyebrows furrowed even deeper as she moved away towards the drum section, fingers trailing over a shiny golden cymbal. Her heart was heavy, with what she didn't know. The glow she had in her heart after seeing the Budoukan last night was gone without a trace. All that was left was an overwhelming feeling of loss.
'Ritsu disappeared immediately after the end of school bell rang and I couldn't reach her by phone.'
Sets of plastic-covered drumsticks hung upon the wall behind the drum sets, some even autographed by famous musicians Mio's childhood friend would fawn over if she was here.
'Nodoka said she was called over to the teacher's lounge after school and I went there to get her.'
A large Intocabille poster, along with the Hell Fest posters, were stuck on the wall behind this month's 50-percent-off sale of second hand instruments and Mio found her eyes strayed over to it in a daze. The words on them registered in her mind, yet she didn't really pay much attention to it, preferring to drown in her own train of thoughts.
'Sawako-sensei said she'd left immediately after seeing her and told me Ritsu looked very preoccupied.'
Pale hands took one of the leaflets available on a nearby shelf, its vivid red-blood color took her attention and it didn't even occurred to the girl that she hated blood and all that resembled it.
'I decided to head home by myself afterwards.'
The leaflet was folded 4 times and was fiddled with as she moved towards the magazine shelves by the doorway, eyes straying unconsciously as her mind worked even harder to remember the events afterwards. It's hard to think when a stream of people walked by past you endlessly.
To be honest, Mio didn't really remember that day all that clearly. She remembered taking a detour on the way home to get something for her mother then doubled back when she saw a familiar figure across the street, pacing by the downtown area.
The downtown area was heavily avoided by people in general during daylight and thus was pretty much deserted before sunset. That was why it came as a shock to her to see someone clearly underage to be sneaking around the area during daylight, someone she knew very well no less!
Mio had followed Ritsu a couple of blocks deeper, but remember losing her on an intersection when the crossing light turns red before Mio had the chance to cross the street. She saw Ritsu went into a suspicious looking alley and when the light turned green the bassist had rushed over only to find the alley deserted. She remembered feeling very frustrated then, and had dialed Ritsu's number repeatedly to which only reached her voicemail.
The bassist remembered nothing afterwards, except for the hurt she felt from her best friend ignoring her. After that day, it became harder to get together with Ritsu after school.
She was reminded once more of her dream and felt a jumble of emotion rushed through her when a particular scene came into her mind; the one between Ritsu and…that older woman.
Was that reality? No…she didn't remember seeing anyone with Ritsu that day.
Then, was it a fragment of her dream? Made up from years of pent up confusion, shock, hurt and …a wry smile came on her face that was obscured by a palm she ran over it in frustration. No…she wouldn't go that far.
Yet.
Picking up a music magazine and flipping through it idly, Mio wondered why she had forgotten about this particular memory and why did it resurfaced now of all times. Was it because she was too overwhelmed with graduation then? Or was it because she had a short attention span and quickly forgotten about it the next day?
The last one seemed impossible since she knew she wasn't that type of person.
Maybe it's because of how good Ritsu looked that day, she mused to herself with a small smile. To be honest, Ritsu looked different than usual that day; she looked very…mature, for a lack of a better word. She had taken off her yellow headband, letting her very long bangs covered her face. The black attires she wore were also different than her usual bright colored clothes and it shed the childhood image her best friend was known for, especially the jacket. The leather jacket that Ritsu wore had an orange tribal tiger-like design on the back and Mio remembered wondering about where Ritsu got her leather jacket from.
She found herself letting out a small smile, head shaking slightly at how quickly her mood changed. Was it her time of the month already? One moment she was down and depressed, and the next moment she was acting like a giddy school girl.
'This is stupid. But I couldn't help it,' the bassist put down the magazine she's been flipping through the last several minutes back in its shelf, eyes straying over at the sidewalk through the glass door of the shop 'she looked really good with those clothes on.
'Like that person just now-'
Her thoughts ceased into a halt immediately as a figure went past her.
Wearing the same leather jacket.
With the same design.
A brunette someone.
Mio only stood there in silence to process all this , before her reflex took control.
She bolted.
"Eh? This one's no good?"
"Senpai! We had the same store back in Osaka! We didn't come all the way to Tokyo to buy something like this-"
"Ufufu, I think it's different Azusa-chan. You might not find the same thing back in Osaka after all."
"Are you serious? You already have a Gibson Les Paul."
"Oh, yeah."
"Thank you, Shingo-san."
"Aww."
The overly pink and flowery Fender Telecaster guitar was returned to its shelf by a dejected looking Yui. The brunette had been putting up a not-so-smart argument for 5 minutes about buying the guitar as a souvenir, backed up by a certain blonde, before shot down by the combination of an incredulous Azusa and Shingo.
Mugi looked down at her watch as she felt her stomach rumbled uncomfortably "it's nearly 8," she informed the others, realizing that they've been wasting more than 3 hours on this shop alone "want to get something to eat?"
Yui nodded vigorously as she pumped her arms "dinner! Then we go see Shibuya at night!"
"That's good, I was planning to take you guys ther-"
"SENPAI!" Azusa's screech halted the tall man's words and all turned towards the petite girl who was running after their raven haired bassist's back, who had bolted out of the shop as though hell was on her heel. The store's glass door slammed hard after the two and without looking at each other, the 3 went after them, shouldering past people and treading on wayward feet.
Her breath a misty white against the chilly spring wind as she ran. It's already late March, but it's still very cold in Tokyo. The bassist's mind was focused solely on catching up to a far figure between the crowds that had the same posture as someone she know.
The same back she had been chasing after since 2 years ago.
The figure lagged behind as it crossed a busy street, the thin leather jacket contrasts painfully against the thick coats surrounding it, its vivid orange design on the back reflecting the artificial lights of the street lamps. Mio picked up her pace, her breaths coming up in short and painful pants.
A hand stretched out on its own accord as the figure walked further away and her pace faltered as she drowned in the sea of people coming from the other side of the road.
Ritsu!
"Senpai!"
A frantic cry reached her ears and all Mio saw was a black Chevy Blazer rushing towards her from the left.
Her mind went blank.
A/N: Sorry for the lack of update. A paper gave me a killer migraine for days and I couldn't write anything. I'm stressed and frustrated, but glad that I can get this one up. I'm still making up my mind on the scene breaks, sorry.
Anyway, please read and review. Reviews really do my heart good.