In the living room, I could hear them laughing. "She fell down the stairs ?", I heard someone ask. While they were laughing away at my embarrassing mistake of yesterday, I was alone in my room, staring at my blue hair piece. Just moments before I lost sight of that figure, there was a sharp pain on the arm that had Eion's barrier. Whether that meant anything or not, it left me feeling a bit uneasy. I had unanswered questions. A lot of them.
After I fell, I met that boy again. He seemed to be waiting for me at the bottom of the staircase. When I pushed myself up, he was already there, looming over me with a mischievous smile. "Nee-san ?", he had asked, "What're you doing ? Don't you know that it's dangerous to suddenly run towards stairs that are going down ?" I could feel something slowly drip down the side of my head. The boy approached me and touched the wound. I flinched, surprised that I could feel his touch. If he was a ghost, why was he able to touch me ? When he removed his hand from the side of my head, there was blood. My eyes widened when he licked his hand. He looked down at me with an amused smirk. "What ?", he asked me. "It looks like you've seen a ghost." "How..?", I found myself asking. "How are you able to..." The only thing that boy did was chuckle. I never heard a response because he started to disappear as soon as we heard voices coming our way.
I walked over to my mirror and rolled up my left sleeve. At first glance, there was nothing on my arm. As it should be. But when I raised my hair piece and waved it above my arm, the black design slowly began to appear. That was when I noticed that it seemed to have gotten bigger. I was going to look more into it when there was a knock on my door. The sudden noise caused me to jump as I looked over my shoulder and stared at the door.
"Nani ?", I asked slowly. I waved my hair piece over my arm again and watched as the black design began to disappear. Once it was completely gone, I unrolled my sleeve and made my way over to the door. "Yes ?", I asked again. "Shiori", someone said from the other side of the door. "Are you busy ?" I opened my door to see Ciel standing there. "Ciel", I said with a slight grin, "..What is it ?" She seemed to hesitate. "Can I ask you a question ?" I titled my head to the side. "Sure ?" "Why did you run off yesterday ?" "Why ?", I mumbled softly. "If I told you that I got scared, would you believe me ?" She sighed and place a hand on the side of her head. "I doubt it", she replied bluntly. "For one, why would you run off the stairs ? Did you trip or something ? What exactly were you doing ?" I turned away from her and walked over to my window. "Ciel", I said dryly. "Nani ?", she asked. "..Would you believe me if I told you that I was following someone ? Possibly someone that I knew ?" "What do you mean ?" I looked over my shoulder and stared at her. "For some reason, the person that I was following yesterday, before I fell down the stairs, knew who I was." "Are you sure ?", Ciel asked in a doubtful tone. "Are you sure that you aren't just imagining that ? I mean, you did hit your head pretty hard yesterday..." I grinned, but it meant nothing. "I wish that were the case", I replied in a strained tone. "But it wasn't. Whoever that was... It was like they were waiting for me."
"But why ?" I shrugged. "Tonight", I mumbled as I frowned, "I want you to be careful. If that person knew who I was, then surely, it's possible that they know who you are too." "I wonder about that...", her voice trailed off. "Now that I think about it.. there was one time before where it was something like that." "Like ?", I asked. "Someone was watching me."
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Ahh... How troublesome.
"Oh ? You're not going with the others tonight Yon ?"
I shook my head as I watched Sora and Miwa playing around in the backyard. "Not this time", I mumbled softly. Mizuki, who had been inside, walked outside and sat next to me on our bench. "Did something happen ?", he asked. I turned to him and grinned. "Didn't you hear them all laughing about how I fell down the stairs ?", I asked with a forced laughed, "Besides, Izumi is going to be taking my spot tonight." "She's helping now ?" I sighed at the thought. "She would've helped sooner if it hadn't been for those annoying people..", I replied stoically, "I heard that when she came back those people were all over her, asking if she was alright and whatnot.." I automatically thought about Mai and Nanao and how irritating those two must've been for Izumi. After Izumi came back, she wasn't able to leave the Ikeda Clan's base until a little while later I believe. I assume that she was questioned. Even now, none of them, besides Izumi, know that I've come back. They probably think I'm dead or something.
Not that I mind.
All that unfinished business will be cleared someday. And when it does, I hope that it'll happen soon. I don't want to keep living in the shadow of that clan.
"Nee-san ! Nii-san !"
Mizuki and I looked up to see Miwa and Sora running our way. "Look at what we made !" "Dandelions ?", Mizuki asked as we were handed these yellow flower crowns. "Since when did we have this many in the backyard ?" "Waaaaah", I said in awe as I patted their heads, "Good job ! These are so pretty ! Where did you learn how to make these ?" From the corner of my eye, I could see Mizuki staring at me with a doubtful expression on his face. "What ?", I asked as I glanced over at him. He shrugged and turned back to the to children that were in front of us. "Nothing really", he mumbled, "I just thought it was weird to see you act so dote on them.." "Ehhhh~", I whined with a faint grin, "Are you jealous ? Don't worry Mizuki, I love you too." He blushed and quickly raised his hand to cover up the lower portion of his face. "Wh-what're you talking about !?", he snapped as he averted his gaze, "Who said I was jealous ?" I chuckled and reached over to pat his head. "Good grief", I sighed in relief, "What am I going to do with you ?" Mizuki brushed off my hand and slightly glared at me. "Sh..shut up", he hissed and continued to avert his gaze. I laughed and looked up at the evening sky. The sun was beginning to set now, and it was starting to get colder. The stars were also starting to appear.
Miwa tilted her head to the side as she curiously stared at Mizuki. "Eh ?", she mumbled slowly, "Nii-san is...red ?" Mizuki stared at her before reaching over to ruffle her hair. "Hey !", she whined as she tried to stop him with her tiny little hands. He chuckled and stood up. "Cheeky brat", he mumbled as he went inside. "Nii-san !", Miwa shouted as she ran after him. "Why did you mess up my hair !?" I stood up and turned to Sora. "How about going inside ?", I asked him as I held my hand out. He quickly nodded his head and reached for my hand.
"Okay~", he replied softly. "Let's go~ !"