Summer Snow
curiouzkatt: Pardon if I don't get to mention the charats at the beginning of this, I just have to give character background info first.
I know I need a lot of improvements in my writing and I'd like to hear them… just no flames please… constructive critics are very much welcome!
Note: I made my character even before I knew Saiyuki… it's purely coincidental.. pardon if there are still any html tags uncleaned... it's hard to shift from to fanfic sites...
DISCLAIMER: (plays tape)I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. I do not own Saiyuki. ( I think it's broken… oh well… brings out claws)
Chapter One: Linlin Kazuya
"Linlin…" the voice was calling her again. The blond girl turned around, searching for its source. Unable to locate it, she started to walk through the dark hallway. It was no ordinary hallway, for every sound she made was absorbed – swallowed by the darkness.
"Linlin…"sapphire-blue eyes searched the dark hallway once more, only to find nothing. She started to run, the sound of her footsteps unheard. She knew that voice… it was her brother Alex... Alex was calling her.
"Alex!" she called out, but there was no answer. "Alex!"
"Linlin…"the voice called once more."Remember…"
"Alex!"
"LINLIN KAZUYA!"
Linlin jolted from sleep and came face to face with her teacher's pointer. She glanced at her Math teacher and decided to focus on the end of the stick instead. She knew her teacher was furious and she'd rather not face the fire directly. Math wasn't one of her favorite subjects, and at this rate, it never will be. The teacher finally flicked the pointer away and Linlin was forced to look at her. She was scowling darkly.
"I expected more from you, Miss Kazuya… why, you're not even in your uniform! You make yourself look like a boy!" the teacher ranted, starting to fix her things. ("Here she goes again..." Linlin thought.) "Your family is well-known around here… you shouldn't humiliate the name at all!" she gave an air as she stepped out of the classroom and gave one final look. "I'll see you in detention."
Linlin sighed. She didn't give a damn about school. It was only a formality. She now regretted being broken in early, learning things ahead of everyone else. Damned tutors! She was beginning to doze off again when her raven haired friend Ryoko called her attention.
"Tough luck." she said, returning to her comic book awhile before giving her full attention. "I guess we'll have to work on the project without you." Linlin wasn't sure if her friend was being sarcastic. Either way, she always spoke in that manner. "Incoming."
"You just love seeing others suffer, don't you?" Linlin looked up, finding the most annoying girl in school smirking at her – Maria Ingram. "Little miss know-it-all!" Maria would've gotten the satisfaction she wanted if she got the blonde mad, but the girl was asleep once again.
Mayumi, Linlin's soft-spoken, red haired friend, laughed quietly. "Um, I guess she found you boring." She ducked in time when Maria threw something at her.
"Our English teacher is here!" everyone else went back to their seats, Ryoko set aside her manga and Linlin even abandoned the dreamland. Everyone knew there was going to be a blunder, and they knew it would be soon.
"Good afternoon class!" the Miss Mala greeted, swishing her hair with such exaggeration and ended tripping face first on the cement floor with an ungraceful thud.
"I'm okay!" the teacher faintly said and the others laughed at this while Ryoko and Linlin sweatdropped. How could she say she was fine when her nose was bleeding? They watched as two of their classmates helped to get her to the clinic. Once out of earshot, some students started to cheer. It was the last class for the day, and they just have to wait for the signal to go home.
"Mayumi, maybe we should start on the model," Linlin suggested, bringing out their small model of a house from under her desk. "I have to be in detention in an hour."
Mayumi, Ryoko, Linlin and their other group mate, Mili worked in silence. Although they needed to expand the time, they weren't getting as far as they wanted. For one thing, Mili was accident-prone and they seem to end up cleaning than actually working. Ryoko wasn't of much help either. She was too engrossed with the manga she was reading.
"Oops…"
"Aaaa….."
"Mili…." Linlin groaned, slightly annoyed with the slow progress. She then checked her watch. "I have to go."
Mayumi smiled apologetically at Linlin. "I'm sorry we didn't get as far as we should have."
"Don't worry! We'll finish this!" Mili interjected, her pigtailed curly black hair as bouncy as she was.. (Ryoko: Wai! Sanzo-sama! I adore you!) Mili sweatdropped. "I hope…." The three watched Linlin leave and continued their work. "You know, I kinda miss her smile… it doesn't show as often anymore."
"You can't blame her," Ryoko voiced out, finally finishing her manga. "Her brother died and she blames herself for it. No matter what we say, she won't listen…it's like clinging to the past." She glanced at their work. They will never finish this. "Like sleeping and not ever wanting to wake up." She snapped her fingers and the other two were suddenly asleep.
"I will not sleep in class. I will not sleep in class. I will not sleep in class. I will not sleep in class. I will not sleep in class. I will not sleep in class. I will not…" Linlin paused from writing. This was making her sleepier.
"Why are you stopping?" the teacher demanded, breaking the silence in the room. "You are not yet done." Linlin wanted to reply, but her words were left unsaid.
BREEEP! BREEEEP, BREEEEP!
She fumbled for her phone and answered it. "Hi Mom…"
"Hi dear!" she heard her mom say, amidst unfamiliar voices issuing from the background. "Do you think you can excuse yourself from your friends? I need a few extra hands. Shun isn't here yet…"
"Give me…." Linlin glanced at her teacher who signaled 'thirty minutes'. "Thirty minutes… I'm in detention."
"Like there's anything new about that…" her mother said laughingly. "Okay, I'll give you forty minutes to get here. Bye! Love you!"
Linlin smiled. "Love you too mom." She locked the keypads and pocketed her phone. She could see from the corner of her eye that her teacher was pretending to hurl. Mrs. Techner hated mush. Those thirty minutes seemed to fly for her and soon, she found herself walking home. Spotting paintings in a shop reminded her of her friends, making her stop. I have to tell them something came up. She took out her phone and continued walking, bumping into someone in the process. "I'm so sorry! I wasn't ….looking." she had bumped into a boy who, judging by his uniform, seemed to be a fourth year from her school, Lion Mane.
"No problem," the boy said, giving Linlin a smile. Even his coal black eyes seemed to smile. Her face felt hot, but she didn't know why.
TAK!
Both of them looked down and found a small silver card. The boy bent over, picked it up and handed it to her. "Here, you dropped this." Linlin took it and realized it was a platinum credit card.
"Um, it's not mine," Linlin said, handing it back to the boy who looked at it for any identification.
"It reads Linlin Kazuya," he looked at her, bemused. "That's you, right?"
"Um, yeah… but…"
"Oh, my name's Jei by the way," he said then started to walk away. "See you around!" Linlin watched him leave, her argument stuck in her throat. She looked at the credit card in her hand once more.
"But it's not mine…."
Watching the lotus pond not too far away, Kanzeon smiled.
"Linlin!" her mother exclaimed, giving her a peck on the cheek. "Five minutes late." She noted cheerily, heading for the second floor. "Come, put your stuff in your room and help me fix the bedroom across…. That's where our guests are staying."
Linlin followed and looked around, noting a few "changes" on the walls. Bullet holes. She looked at her mom in askance. "Mom?" she called, sliding the door of her room open and placing her things beside the computer table, while her mother went in the guest room.
"Yes?" her mom replied, coming out of the guest room with used bed sheets. "What is it?"
"Why do the walls have bullet-like holes on them?" she didn't want to sound like a curious kid, but she couldn't help it. It wasn't everyday that you find your home full of them.
"Um…" her mother trailed off and handed her half of the sheets to carry to the laundry room. "One of our guests has a short temper."
Linlin's eyes widened. "We have a madman for a guest?" she didn't know that the "madman" she mentioned was just sitting in the living room, reading the newspaper.
Gojyo smirked. "Hey, I guess I found someone who agrees with me."
Sanzo continued flipping through the newspaper and ignored the red head completely.
"Hey madman! I'm talking to you!"
TZIING!
The shot was heard throughout the house and Linlin turned around, as if looking through walls and seeing Sanzo.
"I guess that was the madman."
"Linlin! That's not nice!" her mother scolded, getting the sheets and dumped them in the washer. "He's a monk."
"A WHAT?"
"He's a monk."
"No monk ever holds a gun!" Linlin argued, getting new sheets from the closet and came face to face with Sanzo on the way out. He arched an eyebrow.
"Is that so?" he said sarcastically. "Well, I'm an exception!"
Linlin just glared at him. He was handsome, no doubt about that, but she didn't like him at all.
Sanzo took the glare as a challenge and glared back. Moments passed and he found it quite silly so he brought out his fan and tapped her on the head. "Stupid girl."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY? YOU DROOPY-EYED MONK!" the girl yelled, and (exaggeration) flames surrounded the two as sparks were exchanged. The girl tore her gaze away and walked off to her room.
BLAG!
"Huh? Wha?"
"Goku!" Mrs. Kazuya exclaimed. "Where did you come from?"
The brown haired youth still seemed to be in a daze. "Uh, who's Goku?"
WHACK!
"Itai! Sanzo no kechi!"
Mrs. Kazuya sweatdrooped. "At least his memory's back…" she looked up the ceiling. Finding no possible place that Goku could have fallen from, she turned back to the boy. "Goku, where did you come from?" When the boy pointed to the ironing board, she assumed that the boy must've been covered with clothes unintentionally. "Well, since you're up, do you mind helping me?"
The boy smiled at her with cheerfulness and got on his feet with a leap. "Nope!"
Linlin turned her computer on and opened the Typing Tutorial with a vengeance. "Asshole…" she muttered. She worked in silence when the door adjoining hers and her brother's rooms opened. She turned, half-expecting her brother to be there. Of course that was impossible, but she still held on to the light of Hope, the words of the prophet in mind. But to her disappointment, it was only one of the guests. This one was black haired with emerald-green eyes. He seemed to have gone through a lot in his life. She turned back to her lesson then addressed the guest. "No one's allowed in that room… (but me)."
"Oh, I'm sorry…" the man said apologetically. His voice sounded very kind. "I was just looking around." He let his eyes wander about the room and looked back at the girl. "I'm Hakkai by the way, Cho Hakkai."
Linlin stopped typing and scrutinized Hakkai. "It's a weird name, but it's okay, I guess… I'm Linlin." Silence ensued after that exchange and only the soft tip-tap of Linlin's typing was heard. Hakkai decided to break the ice again.
"Er, who occupies that room?" he decided to ask. "It looks well-kept."
"Alex did." was the frank reply.
"Did?"
"He's gone."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" Hakkai now regretted asking the question. Linlin now looked at him with hurt.
"You didn't mean to…" Linlin repeated. "You didn't know…. You shouldn't have asked." The girl stood up and went to the wooden balcony. Hakkai followed her. "Look. I don't want to talk about it… even though it happened a year ago, it still hurts."
"I know how you feel," Hakkai said, thinking of Kana.
"You DON'T know how I feel," Linlin yelled, surprising Hakkai. Her anger seemed the pass through him. "You don't know how sick I feel every time I remember that my brother died – because of me!"
"Linlin, I…"
"I know what you're going to say… you didn't know… you didn't mean to," Linlin's eyes were starting to fill with tears. She suppressed them and jumped on the overhanging tree branch, climbed down, and ran deep into their tree-filled backyard.
"Linlin!" knowing it was in vain, Hakkai sighed. He seemed to have gotten on the wrong side of everything..
"Let her be…" Hakkai turned to see Mrs. Kazuya by the doorway.
"But…"
"Let her be, give her time alone.." she told him. He could see the deep sadness in her eyes. "Talk to her when she gets back."
Hakkai looked back to where Linlin had run off to, then sighed. "If you say so…" Feeling Goku's presence, he looked around for the boy. He was down below, playing with the family dog, Sniper. He and Linlin would be about the same age…. And yet, they were so different. Goku acted like an eight- year old boy while Linlin acted much more mature for her age. It reminded him of something. "Mrs. Kazuya?" he looked but Mrs. Kazuya had left the room.
"Yes?" her voice called out from somewhere outside.
"Um, will Goku be going to school with Linlin?"
Goku, hearing the question, jumped up to the balcony. "School? Is that a restaurant?" he looked at the room. "Eh? Where's the girl? Sanzo asked me to watch her."
"She left."
"Uh-oh…. Sanzo's gonna be mad at me…" the boy said, shifting to an Indian sit, his chin resting on his hands and a pout on his face.
Hakkai laughed. "Then don't tell him," he suggested.
"What's a school?"
"It's a place where you learn things," Mrs. Kazuya answered, entering the room and placing a bag down. "Since you're staying with us for a while, you're going to school with Linlin."
The boy pondered it for a moment. "Hmm, it sounds kind of boring, but I guess I'll give it a shot." He smiled at Mrs. Kazuya just as another thought entered his mind. "When are we going to eat?"