Chapter Eight: Having Fun
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Torikawa Sekai
Kuromura had her wooden sword pressed pass her cousin's neck, just beneath his jaw, where a long hair-breadth red line was beginning to form where the surface of his skin broke.
"Your concentration isn't good enough. Had it been a real katana you would have lost your head," Kuromura commented as she withdrew her weapon.
"Aki, you should have picked a bamboo sword that is in better condition," Kuromura's aunt reprimanded.
"What can I say? I'm no good at choosing weapons, right?" Kuromura turned to face her, the black contact lenses unable to hide the despise behind them. She turned back and tossed a towel to her cousin.
"That should hold the bleeding. It's just a small cut anyway. I'll get one of the maids to clean up that wound." Kuromura then walked back for another towel, which she dropped, a moment later, very near my hiding place.
I moved away from view as she bent down to pick it up.
"Scram," she hissed through the vent, "hide, evaporate, whatever. I think he saw you too."
'Too'? Did that mean she had already noticed me earlier on?
"What is it, Aki? Your mother wants to have tea with all of us now. You won't want to keep her waiting."
"It's nothing. I just thought that I saw a rat."
Rat? Thanks a lot, Kuromura.
"A rat? It should be taken care of. Where is it?"
I'm in deep trouble.
"Here," Kuromura kicked at the vent, reminding me to move as I was frozen to the spot, not knowing what to do.
I crawled under the raised platform and waited for the voices to go away.
"Could it be under the platform?"
"I don't know..." Kuromura drawled.
Great, I should have left her house last night. Scratch that, I should not have even came to visit Kyoto at all. Why had I not just stay in the dormitory and sleep the whole holiday away?
I shifted away from the edge and took out the map. Under what little sunlight available, I planned an "escape route".
"I don't see anything..." the voice, accompanied by a sudden beam of light startled me, causing me to bump my head.
"I hear it!"
"I think it's moving."
"Uh... No, I think it's still under there," Kuromura restated her stand as I began to crawl along the bottom of her house, the torchlight scanning where I had crouched over just a split second ago.
"This is ridiculous," I mumbled to myself as I moved awkwardly within the limited height.
This should be near the dining room. I began to crawl out but the sudden sound of conversation sent me back underneath.
"I thought I'd have the upper hand, since she had never worn heavy protection guards before." It was the cousin from just now.
"Not necessarily," a person I assumed to be one of the maids replied. "I heard from the others who had worked here longer that Aki-san used to train with weights on her wrists and ankles since young. The absence of the guards would force her to move faster subconsciously to avoid a direct hit."
"Whatever. The thing is, I thought her eyes looked a little purple just now. Are they?"
"I-I... I don't know, Sir. They're dark-coloured, just like everyone else in the Kuromura family, I thought..."
"Fine then," he sighed irritably, "I was just wondering if she had the curse... But then, she did have black hair..."
What was it with this curse thing?
After the two of them walked off, I stood up, a little disorientated with bright spots floating before my eyes because of the sudden sunlight, and dashed upstairs to avoid any more risks of being seen. I slumped against the wall the moment I got into my room and took a liberated deep breath.
From the sound coming from downstairs, Kuromura was still leading the maids on the wild goose chase. And she seemed to enjoy confusing them.
At least someone was having fun.
Kuromura Aki
As much as I hated to admit, this was getting very tiring. And it was really getting on my nerves, which says a lot because although I could not stand being in this house, I had never been this agitated before. Plus, I do not tire easily.
Trying to keep myself sane around Torikawa must have taken a lot out of me too. Not to mention that I had to make sure that he would not be seen by any one of my relatives- since he could be so careless- and set off necessary questioning.
I did not understand why my mother made sure that I was present during the family gatherings and small talks, making me kneel with her until my feet protested to dislocate themselves at the ankle. Clearly those old and wilting people only wanted to talk about my brother and had outright ignored my presence. As if I wanted their approval of it.
I found some microwavable food in the kitchen, which I thought would never make an appearance in this house, and brought the whole lot up to Torikawa's room after heating them up.
"That's a lot, even for a proper lunch!" He exclaimed as he looked at me incredulously with wide opened eyes. "What are you trying to do, stuff me to death?"
"If only I could," I muttered under my breath as I handed Torikawa some cutlery before raising my voice to its normal volume. "I had to take those people out on a tour and might not come back for dinner. If you don't mind starving, then put these back in the kitchen."
"Aww... You do treat me as a friend!"
I snorted. "If I did, I would have kicked you out the moment you stepped into this house. Did you know that you were nearly seen this morning? It's a good thing that my cousin didn't get a clear view like I did."
"Hah! You do care!"
"You being caught will only cause me more trouble than I need to handle at this moment," I rolled my eyes as I turned to face the door. "Put whatever you can't finish back in the kitchen. Other than that, don't try to move about."
"But I'll get bored..."
"Sleep then. Read, do something if you must. Just- try not to move about," I replied exasperatedly. As if entertaining a bunch of conceited people was not enough, Torikawa had to butt his... self in.
Sheesh!
Torikawa Sekai
"Food!" I shrieked the moment I saw Kuromura appear at my door many hours later with a plate of onigiris. I stood up and made a mad grab for it.
Kuromura held it out of my reach and shoved me back with surprising strength; I thought she would be very tired by now, not forgetting that it was already close to midnight.
"Can't you just keep quiet for a few more minutes? People may hear you," she growled as she stepped into the room.
"Thanks, Kuromura!" I ignored her comment, taking an onigiri and began stuffing it in my mouth.
She sat down beside me on my futon with enough space between to place the plate on before taking one rice ball and started eating.
I frowned as I looked at her eat the rice ball. "Didn't you have dinner before coming back? It's like, way pass dinnertime."
"I'm not used to what those people eat. They kept ordering expensive stuff. Since my mother was obliged to treat them, they requested Shimogamo because the dishes there are usually around twenty thousand yen."
I choked on my food. Twenty thousand yen?
"I'm not saying that the food wasn't good. It's just that I prefer ordinary food. So I came back for these," she explained before taking another bite.
"You prepared all these yourself?" I picked up another onigiri. "Not bad, not bad."
"It's from 7-11."
"And I thought you would be so kind as to make all these because you couldn't bear for me to starve the night through," I said as I made puppy eyes at her.
"If only I could let you starve, but that would just make you an even more annoying person the next morning," she stated, adding it to the list of "Ways to Insult Torikawa".
Remaining silent, I grinned at Kuromura with a huge mouthful of rice still in my mouth.
"Did you know that there is this uncanny resemblance between you and a mental patient?" She wondered aloud sarcastically.
Not replying, I grinned again before returning to my half-eaten onigiri, causing her to sigh irritably while shaking her head.
It was then that I took notice of this unfamiliar atmosphere hanging in the room, seeping into my bones. I had always felt uncomfortable when it got too quiet with people, so I would keep talking and do whatever that came into my mind to fill up the emptiness in the air.
But with Kuromura, silence is merely a routine. It was a thick, high barrier that she uses to space others from her. Or maybe it was the reverse? This particular void now was just like her others; an unspoken force looming above, spreading and engulfing me like strong waves surging onto a shore. An unexplainable, strong yet calm and underlying current that made its presence known but never surges through the surface to show itself.
When did this happen, that something I find so unbearable becoming another that I had slowly grown used to? Maybe that was why I found myself going to Kuromura time and time again, wanting to stay there.
I leaned into the peaceful atmosphere and kept my words unspoken, not wanting to ruin the moment like I had always done.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kuromura beginning to nod.
"Kuromura?" I whispered and tapped her shoulder.
She slid slowly away from the wall she was leaning back on until she landed with a soft thud on my left thigh.
It could not be helped for Kuromura to fall asleep just like that, I thought as I shifted her on the futon so that she laid properly and then eased a pillow under her head. Taking care of a bunch of people one loathed could only be exhausting.
Pulling out another futon from the cupboard, I made sure there was a significant distance from where Kuromura was, before soothing it out on the floor, to decrease the damage being sent my way the next morning when she would realise that we had been sleeping in the same room.
I placed the empty tray beside me and gave a contented sigh. After much persuasion and constant irritation, Kuromura had relented and agreed to let me eat anywhere outside the guest room that I had been staying in.
"Since you've stayed out of the way for the whole of today," she had said, albeit a little unwillingly.
I stretched my arms and took in the cold night air. We were sitting on the small arch bridge that crossed over the pond in Kuromura's garden. This felt so much better than being jailed up in that room.
"Aren't you curious about how I kept myself from boredom today?" I asked as I edged closer to catch her eyes, trying to catch her interest.
Kuromura's crystal blue eyes shone against the darkness, the black contact lenses removed before she came to get me for dinner.
Predatory eyes. That was the first thought that came to me. I could almost see her pupils enlarging to accommodate the lack of lighting.
Red strands of hair, now free of the restrictive black wig, danced across Kuromura's face and flowed along with the winter wind like wild flames.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Kuromura sighed and broke eye contact as she ran her fingers through her hair, trying to keep them under control. "But you won't give up until I ask about it, will you?"
I chuckled, "You know me so well... I feel so touched!"
She made discrete gagging noises and muttered something that sounded remotely like "Go and die" while I turned to pick up the folders that I had brought down earlier. As they came into view, Kuromura's eyes widened in angered surprise.
"Are those what I think they are?" Kuromura asked through gritted teeth. It was so fun to see her squirm, trying to convince herself to keep her fist to stay away from my face.
"Hmm... I don't know, unless you're psychic," I gave an innocent face.
"I'm not sure for how much longer I can keep myself from drowning you in the near freezing waters of this pond, so you'd better hand those over now."
"Hmm... What if I said that I had seen them all?"
Kuromura began to glare at me. "You didn't."
"I did," I nodded solemnly.
"You are so going to die!" Her ice-blue eyes flashed with sudden fury as she lunged at me. Her hands closed in on the crook of my neck, tightening her hold before mock-strangling me.
"How else am I supposed to keep myself entertained- WAH!" I got cut off as Kuromura's hands found their way onto my sides.
"Oh, so you're ticklish..." she drawled, a malicious grin spreading across her face.
Uh-oh... Not good, not good.
A sudden jolt ran up my spine as Kuromura continuously rubbed her fingers into my waist.
"Stop, stop!" I gasped between hysterical laughter, "we might wake someone up!"
"For once you're talking sense. That should teach you something about looking though other's stuff without permission," Kuromura knelt back down and collected the folders into her lap.
I ignored her statement and picked up a stray grey folder, flipping through her drawings. "Why do you keep all these to yourself? I think these pieces are pretty good."
"These are just sketches."
"You call these sketches? I'll show you sketches," I took out a pencil and a piece of plain paper from the folder before beginning to draw.
"That's a pig," Kuromura said pointedly before taking the pencil from me, "You missed this out."
An arrow pointed towards the pig with my name attached was added to my "masterpiece".
"Hey!" I protested.
Had we been more attentive to the surroundings than to Kuromura's art folders, we would have noticed someone's sharp gaze from behind us.
...To be continued