[A/N: The title of this chapter is the name of Reika-chan's theme song, and it's very fitting for her personality. The song also makes me think of Juuzou and his "Body Stitch".~ This chapter is dedicated to iLiVe-san for commenting every chapter.~]
{Hm? What's with that face, Reader-chan? That guy was harassing me, so he deserved what he got.~ Eh? Oh, I see! Haha~ You thought I killed him, right? I left him for dead, but I didn't kill him. I made him appreciate life more when I injured him so badly, so it's fine.~ Now, back to my story, Reader-chan.~}
I tilted my head sideways at Haise. I understood what he said, but I didn't get why he'd said it. It was strange.
"Um...Reika-san?" Haise said, trying to regain my attention. I blinked.
"What would happen if I agree to that?" I asked.
"You would be safer and not hunted down by CCG," Haise said.
"Okay. I'll do it," I complied. "But I never believed in such a thing as safe, so just know that's not why I'm agreeing to this. It's just an excuse to see Kio-oneechan and Juuzou-kun more often.~"
"Um...that's fine," Haise said, sweat-dropping. "How are you able to eat normal food, anyway?"
"I dunno. All I know about it is that it makes me different," I answered. "Also, I can only be sustained for so long, and its affects are very short term. It's like....a sheep trying to sustain itself on a wolf's diet. Sheep can't live very long on that, but it sustains them just enough that they don't die sooner.~"
"I see. Do you actually like the taste of food?" Haise ventured, being careful not to offend me somehow. I didn't see the need for him doing that; I was very hard to offend as long as the person knew what to avoid saying to me.
"Yup!~ I think maybe that's a good thing because I'm no good at faking those things. I tend to let my true emotions show," I yawned. "Sleepy..."
"Ah...You can sleep for a while. I'll wake you up later so you can meet a few people before being fully introduced to the CCG," Haise said, patting my head. I was too tired to care and I liked Haise enough, so I let it slide. Normally, people petting me or the like was a huge "no no".
"M'kay," I mumbled and curled up into a ball on the sofa. I fell asleep soon after.
|~|~|~|~|
I hung by my legs in a tree, making a face and sticking my tongue out at Juuzou. He laughed and made a face back. It was just the two of us, having a childish form of fun. I loosened my legs from the tree and landed on my hands, then did a cartwheel in the same motion.
"Juuzou-kun, give me some pocky!~" I chimed.
"Nuh uh," Juuzou replied, shaking his head.
"I want pocky," I huffed, pouting. Juuzou laughed.
"Rei-chan's so funny when mad~," he said in a sing-song tone.
"Give me pocky!" I demanded childishly. He looked thoughtful for a moment, tilting his head sideways with a hand on his chin.
"Then come and get it~," he challenged.
"Gimme!~" I giggled, accepting the challenge and running over. I grabbed for the little box of pocky, but he kept it out of my reach and laughed. "Meanie!"
"You have to get it from me if you want it, Rei-chan~," he said. I chased him, but ended up loosing sight of him. I was now alone in an alley, and at a dead end. I pouted, thinking he had to be cheating. There was a sudden pressure at the back of my head and I blinked. Blood dripped down from above and I placed a hand to my head. Pulling it away to observe it, my hand was now covered in blood...my blood. I looked behind me to see Juuzou with a malicious grin, an odd-looking scythe in his hands, blood on the squared blade.
"Juuzou-kun?" I said, my voice soft and oddly faint.
"If you want the pocky, you have to get it from me, Rei-chan. If you don't, you die~," he said darkly in that sing-song tone of his. Something was wrong, my head wasn't healing. If anything, my head was bleeding worse now, a gaping hole having been ripped in my head....by Juuzou....and I'd placed my trust in him almost as soon as we'd met. Would I really die? I didn't mind dying, nor did I fear death. I'd never cared whether I live or die, but at the moment, I wanted to do at least one thing before I died. What that was, I didn't know. At least if I did die, it would be by Juuzou's hands and not another's.
"Okay," I said almost meekly. I licked some of the blood from my hand and moved swiftly out of the way as Juuzou swung the scythe down. I had to be fast to keep from being hit, and I had to keep moving. If I slowed down even a little, I'd get hit. My head still hadn't stopped bleeding and my own blood soaked my hair and dress. Blood dripped down my skin. I brought out my ukaku kagune to pick up speed, needing to get close enough to grab for the pocky. The scythe clipped my dress and a piece of fabric from it fluttered to the ground. Juuzou was laughing as he tried to cut me. Eventually, I managed to tackle him to the ground and I snatched the box of pocky. He frowned.
"Aww. You got the pocky," he said, disappointed. I retracted my kagune, blood from my head dripping onto his face.
"I win~," I hummed. A twisted smirk crossed his lips.
"But you're still bleeding, Rei-chan. You might still die~," Juuzou said. Suddenly and completely unlike myself, I started crying. Juuzou chuckled and licked some of my blood and tears from my left cheek. "Rei-chan is so cute crying while covered in blood.~"
"J-Juuzou-kun, please," I cried pleadingly. He laughed and I felt something in my stomach. I looked and saw he'd stabbed me with a knife.
"Rei-chan, go on and beg~," he cooed.
"Gah! Damn it! The hell ya think yer doin'?!"
I breathed rapidly, my eyes wide. I'd just jolted awake and stabbed my bikaku kagune through a person's shoulder. I trembled slightly, the bad effects of the dream having shaken me. I removed my kagune from the person's shoulder.
"S-sorry," I whispered.
"Reika-san, are you alright? You seem a bit troubled," Haise said, standing behind the guy I'd injured. His injury was already healing. I stopped trembling and forced my breath to even out, tilting my head sideways at him.
"I'm not really sure. Is it unusual to wake up with a racing heart after a strange dream?" I replied. "Is this...what fear feels like?"
"Reika-san, you had a nightmare?" Haise said. I shrugged in response. "It looks like you were crying."
"Crying?" I said, brushing my fingers against my cheek. I hadn't noticed the dampness until he'd said something. "Maybe...I'm changing. This is new to me. Tears, fear, nightmares...it's not like me."
"Are you going to be okay?"
"I'll be fine~," I answered, back to my usual self, smiling at Haise.
"Well, if you say so," Haise sighed. "The guy whose arm you impaled is Shirazu."
"Are you a ghoul? You don't smell like one, but you healed too fast for a normal human," I said, staring unblinkingly at Shirazu.
"Not exactly. Yer a weird one, aren't ya?" Shirazu said. I giggled.
"Definitely weird~," I said. Four people walked in, one of those four being Kiomi. I hopped up and ran over to hug her. "Kio-oneechan!~"
"Reika-san, I see you met Shirazu-san," Kiomi said. "These three are Urie-san, Mutsuki-san, and Saiko-san."
"Tch. I can't believe you're letting a ghoul join us. We should just kill her before it's too late," the one Kiomi said was Urie complained. I glared at him. I didn't care if anyone made fun of me or if anyone hated me, but I couldn't stand such biased prejudice as if everyone of a certain species were the same.
"If that is what you believe, then you have no concept of differentiation between individual ghouls. If that is the case, then there is no point in you being here because you will never accept my presence regardless of the facts," I said, becoming very serious. "If you hated me regardless of whether I'm human or ghoul, then I would accept that and not care what you think. You hate me for no other reason than I am a ghoul, but that way of thinking will never do you any good. Until you lose the bias and accept things as they truly are, you'll never achieve anything beyond the minimum."
"Don't go saying things like you know everything and are better than everyone else, ghoul," Urie spat.
"I don't know everything and I'm not better than anyone, but that doesn't mean I know nothing nor does it mean I'm useless," I retorted. He looked ready to kill me.
"Don't be stupid. I'm not falling for your little act. You ghouls are all the same," he said.
"I may be naïve about a lot of things, but I'm certainly not stupid. And don't assume such things. I am loyal to Kio-oneechan and would never betray her, so there's no point for me to act anything," I said in an even tone. "Also, don't try to fight me. I don't bother with pointless battles."
"Don't listen to Urie. He's just being a prick," Shirazu said. I looked at him, then laughed.
"He's...a mean butt face!~" I giggled. Shirazu was definitely someone I could get along well with. Urie, on the other hand, I couldn't stand.
|~|~|~|~|
Somehow, I got stuck babysitting Saiko....or was it the other way around? Either way, I was stuck with Saiko and her narcolepsy this morning. I was bored, really bored, but I had to get more used to staying up during the day rather than night so I could spend more time with Kiomi and Juuzou and Hanbee and Haise and my other new friends. At least Saiko had a lot of manga to read. Heck, I even went through a few of her anime DVDs, managing to figure out how to work the TV and DVD player. The boredom problem wasn't entirely solved, though. I wanted to do something more active.
"I hope someone gets back soon. Sai-chan won't wake up for anything," I sighed. This was going to be such a long morning.