Street Rat (OHSHC)

Chapter 4

When Reichiru got to the bottom of the stairs, she looked around, hearing voices trailing from down the hall. Following them, she found herself in a living room, her family was sitting around the coffee table, talking with each other.

Making her way towards the room, Reichiru made herself known once she entered by clearing her throat, and they all looked over at her.

"My darling! Come sit down, let's talk." Her mom exclaimed, a sickeningly bright smile on her face.

"Alright." Reichiru muttered, taking a seat in one of the chairs around the coffee tabel, sinking right into the cushion.

"I can't even begin to say how happy we are that you're back." Her mom started, "And as much as I would love to have you stay home, you have to be educated."

"So you're going to send me to school." Reichiru stated. "I understand." I don't like it but I understand.

"I'm glad." Her mother smiled, "You'll have a couple of days to get adjusted, and then you'll be attending the same school as your brothers."

Reichiru nodded, and she stood up from the chair she had been sitting in. "If that's it, I'll be in my room."

"Wait, Rei, honey! There's some things on your desk in your room that I thought you might like to have again, after not being home for such a long time."

"Alright." She said blatantly, and left the three in the room, climbing up the stairs and walking into her room, shutting the door behind her, leaning back on it and staring blankly in front of her.

A minute or two later, she shook her head and walked over to the window, opening it and feeling the fresh air wash over her. She thought about jumping out of it and running away, but she concluded that it wouldn't be a smart idea, since there wouldn't be anything but grass to cushion her fall, and she could easily break her legs at this height if she decided to jump out. With a disappointed sigh, she moved away from the window and walked around the room, opening a door to see a walk in closet. Stepping inside, she saw that it was full of children's clothes.

"Man, they really haven't touched a single thing in here." She muttered, grabbing a rather frilly dress that was hanging up. Looking at the dress in disgust, she could easily feel that it was very expensive to make, the main fabric being an extremely soft silk.

"Miss Hitachiin, I have been sent to get you for dinner." A voice said, and Reichiru jumped and looked behind her, seeing a maid standing at the door of the closet. She hadn't been up here for five minutes and she was already being called back down.

"O-of course." Reichiru said, still slightly shaken from the sudden person. Hanging the dress back up and turning around, Reichiru followed behind the maid as she led her down the stairs and into a brightly lit room with a giant table placed in the center.

'Woah.' Reichiru thought, looking around the grand room. She looked at the table and saw her family sitting there, all with happy smiles on their faces. Forcing herself to smile back, Rechiru made her way and sat in the empty seat between the twins, feeling slightly uncomfortable with everyone looking at her.

"So... Um." Reichiru said, trying to start up a conversation. It was only slightly awkward to be sitting in the large room in silence.

"Butler!" Her mom exclaimed, and four butlers arrived with shining silver platters in their hands, placing the platters in front of each of the people sitting at the table, lifting the cover to reveal a beautiful display of food on the plate.

"I hope you like it, I'm assuming it's been hard getting something to eat out there." Her mom said, "So, I hope this is enough for you."

"This is more than enough." Reichiru responded simply.

"That's good, and just know that you're my daughter, I'd do anything for you." Her mom said, "I'm just so happy you're back here, and safe."

"Yeah." Reichiru said, not meeting her mom's eyes.

"Let's stop with this small-talk, I'm beginning to sound like a broken record here. Let's all dig in!" Her mom exclaimed, and the three around Reichiru started to eat, and she soon followed suite.

It wasn't long after that Reichiru had finished her own food, and was rubbing her stomach. Her plate was still half full, but there was no way she could of eaten all the food that was given to her.

"Aren't you going to eat any more, sweetie?" Her mom asked.

She shook her head, "Don't get me wrong, this is delicious, I'm just full." She answered, mainly wanting to get out of the room and be alone. Fancy rooms and extravagant dinners were not her thing. "And I would like to just be in my room... I guess." She answered.

There was a hint of sadness in her eyes, but she nodded, allowing Reichiru to leave the room. "I guess we can talk tomorrow."

Reichiru just nodded, and stood up from her place, leaving her half full plate there and walked out of the room, retracing her steps to her room.

When she got in there, she decided to look at her desk, where the objects had been placed. Looking down at the two, she picked one up and looked closer at it.

One of the objects was a wallet, the blank mouthless face of Hello Kitty looking back at her. Unzipping the top, Reichiru saw things of paper, and upon closer inspection, she realized that those sheets of paper were yen bills. Mainly it consisted of four 5,000 yen bills and some 10 yen coins.

"This is enough to feed me for a year." She said in amazement, mainly thinking about the prices of the convenience store she robbed most of the time. "Actually, this is probably enough for me pay back that man for half the things I stole." After a minute she burst out laughing, there was no way she was going to pay him back. Placing the wallet down, she looked at the other object that was on her desk.

"A sketchbook?" She wondered out loud, flipping through the pages, she saw countless child level drawings, mainly poorly drawn clothing on poorly drawn people. Colors clashed and the designs were way too busy.

"You always loved designing dresses for me when you were a child." A sudden voice said, and Reichiru jumped, turning around and seeing her mom at the doorway.

What's with all these people barging into my room today? Reichiru thought. "It seems none of them were very good." She observed.

"Well, you were a kid. I humored you though, and you never seemed to stop making new designs for me." There was a sort of wistfulness in her voice.

Reichiru had stopped at a blank page of the book, it seemed that she had left it unfinished, since all the pages after that were blank. Placing it down, she brought a hand up to her mouth and yawned. It had been a long day, not to mention a strange one.

"You seem tired, I'll leave you to get ready. It feels like this day has gone by too fast. I had a servant bring in some pajamas for you. They're on your bed." Her mom stated, and Reichiru looked towards her mom and watched as she walked away, closing the door behind her.

Looking towards her bed, Reichiru noticed a white night gown placed on her bed, she walked over and picked it up, feeling the soft fabric of the silk as she ran her fingers through it.

Walking into the bathroom, she changed quickly, placing her clothes in the tiny hamper that was connected to the door. Turning back towards the mirror, she noticed that her hair had dried, the auburn strands falling around her, despite the tangles being gone, and it being washed, it had an unimaginable amount of split ends and just by running her hand through it, many of the fragile strands had broken off, leaving herself with many strands of hair in her hand after one run through with her hand. She just threw the strands away in the cat trash can.

With another yawn, Reichiru moved out of the bathroom and made her way through the dark room to her bed, getting under the covers and seeming to sink right into the mattress. It didn't take long for warmth to envelop her and make her give in to sleep.