First of all, I would like to apologize for the late coming out of this chapter. The last few weeks had been kinda crazy since I had quite a handful of tests and homework to do. And even this time when you're reading this chapter I'm still dealing with them. I've tried to spent as much time as possible to finish chapter 6 before Sunday but, well, shit happened. It's been a long day with classes and lectures which drained most of my energy and now I am sitting in front of my computer with my favourite kara no kyoukai OST playing, managing to write as fast as I can. So please don't mistake me as some lazy asses who are making excuse for his delay.
Another thing is that chapter 7 won't be coming out anytime soon since my studying is getting more and more intense, for this month at least. So I can't make any promise of releasing it in the next few weeks, or even in this month. Sorry guys but I have to focus on studying cause my scores suck ass, really.
Guess that's enough of apologizing. Chapter 6 begins here...
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"You're just pure stupid aren't you?" He snorts, definitely not happy with the current situation.
"Well, it's not like I have a choice." I reluctantly replied, knowing that he's in a foul mood right now.
"Excuse me? Don't have a choice you say? Come on gimme a break. There were like plenty of choices. And guess what, you chose the worst one out of them." He's not cool down, or even more boiling with anger.
"Uhm...but...." At this rate, I can't think of any way out without taking heavy mental damage from him. Damn, as if the road is not long enough, this guy makes it feel like I'm walking on a part of thorns.
"You could have just left her there. What do we know about her? Nothing, absolutely zero. And yet you decide to take her to your place? You sure have guts idiot."
"Don't say such cruel thing like that. How was I able to turn her down with that looks on her? You saw that too, right? She was in pain, hurt. Definitely something wrong must have happened with her." I try to reason with him, however I'm not sure this could do any helps.
"So now every time you see someone crawling in the street, you'll take them home okay? Oh and next time you go out, make sure to wear a sign which says "I'm the dumbest guy in the world, kill me please", so they will not have a hard time to find you." Wow, you just went overboard mate.
"Hey, just want to remind you something. Both you and I know she's special right? The fact that she appeared in my dream long before I met her is more than enough for me to help her." What a stupid reason I just said. I know he will crack my point easily.
"Let me remind you what special girl of yours capable of. Or have you forgotten already? She saw US, both of us,. with her mere eyes. And don't make me go on about how dangerous it is..."
"I get it." I cut him out. Somehow I feel angry too, not because of his repeat yelling at me, but because of his idea that Thera is dangerous.
"Then fuckin' act like it will you? From what I see you don't seem to understand anything, at all." You can't play "tough guy" with your soul, he reads all your thought for sure.
"Guess I'm still.....adjusting to it." I make a sight, pretty much an escape attempt. And what do you know, looks like it works.
"Geez, you are surely hopeless. Are all human as stupid as you are? That would explain why this planet is dying out, cause it's full of stupidity."
He keeps going on and on about how dumb and reckless I was, letting the girl to come with us. I know that was kinda a bad move too, but somehow I couldn't just leave her on her own. Strong and capable she might try to act, I think if it's not for final resource then she wouldn't have asked something like that from a stranger like I am. It's not like her I think. Oh, who I am to say something like that? He's right, I know nothing about her. So there's no way I could understand her way of doing things. But at least she said that we were reliable. That's pretty relieving to some extents.
"Do you think she trusts us?" I ask, forgetting that he is still not settle down yet.
"Yes, with all her heart. And I'm sure you do the same to her." I think I hear him spits out "idiot" in the end.
"Yeah, I don't have any basis, but I feel like she can be trusted." I ignore his sarcasm and speak out my own thought, hoping that it will change the situation. An unintentional smirk appears on my lips.
"Guess what, stupidity can't be trained. Damn it, in the end it would be me to pull you out of your hole you dig for yourself. It can't be helped I guess."
"Is that a sign of giving up?" Yes, yes it is.
"Do you even need to ask? Call me when we arrive home." He grunts that out, implying I should shut up.
Yes, my stupidity again has won the argument, as always. Have to admit that his anger was reasonable, all his purpose is to protect us from outside threads, such as other souls. Moreover, my action really put us in an uneasy situation. That's why I feel for him, the one who tries to protect a reckless shit-head. This must be really hard for him. However, even with his consultancy echoing inside my head, all I could think of at that moment was "that" image, the image of a dream.
The image of a lone person.
Standing in the middle of a fiery field.
Surrounded by a collapsing world.
Filled with regrets, the person watch everything purified by the flame.
Hold no will to reverse what happend.
The person believed that was the right thing to watch it happened.
I wonder whether Thera was that person. She carries an image of someone who had been hurt, betrayed, strayed from her path. Just by looking at her, all sources of peaceful feeling inside me was replaced by coldness, desperation and most of all, hollow. To be brief, she makes me shiver. It's just scary, I know.
But now, I'm feeling at ease. This stroll in the rain reminds me of a story about a lumberjack and a beautiful woman. In a middle of a snowstorm, a lumberjack was on his way back home when he found a beautiful woman lying on the snow. Talking to her, he knew that she was injured and couldn't get back to her house. So the kind man offered to carry her to her house in his back basket. The woman turned out to be a demon which fooled men walking by then sucked their blood. The man, of course, knew nothing and still trying to take her home as quick as he can, to avoid the storm getting ugly. Moreover, he kept on asking the woman to stay awake and not fall asleep. He even cut his arm and told her to drink his blood in order to not fainted during the cold. Moved by the kindness of the man, the demon melted away, leaving the basket with snow. The lumberjack had no idea where the woman went, only seeing his house was right ahead. Geez, what am I thinking? Thera is definitely not a blood sucking demon, and I am definitely not that kind of a man. Curse my overly imaginative mind.
I should ask how Thera is doing. Thinking that to myself, I make a quick gaze through my shoulder. Thera is following quietly, with her eye casting toward. It feels like she had watched the whole previous scene. What if that happend then? knowing that she could have heard the whole argument sends me a chill. That will set me in the total awkwardness. What if she asks me about it? Therefore I decided to make my move first hand.
"Thera, are you alright now? Are there any problems?" I try to avoid her gaze by keeping my head turing only half way.
"..." She nods, locking her vision at the one who are walking in front. Damn, she must have heard the whole thing, and now she's as angry as he was. Still it's really hard to tell her emotion.
Shit, how long is this road anyway? Normally it only took around 20 minutes from the bookstore to home, but today it last for milenium already. I'm stuck between two opposite fearful forces. One side is my soul who is definitely not happy, and the reason for that is the other side, the mysterious girl whose expression only brings creep to the one she's facing. It's a walk of redemtion, for all the sins I have commit in my life.
The tension makes me fail to notice that there are some rays of sunshine piercing through the rain clouds.
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Finally, we arrive home.
Shugging off the water, I make my way inside. Meanwhile, Thera still standing outside, carefully inspecting the house.
"You live here alone?" She asks.
"Actually, with my parents. But they're currently on a business trip so...yeah, I'm on my own for now."
To think it's strange for some one of my age to live alone in such a big house like this is understandable. Well, it's not really big though. My dad designed it and also supervised the building process, have to say he did a really good job turning the old pile of crap into this. The house has 4 floors, 4 bedrooms with 2 in second floor and the others 2 in third floor. The living room and the kitchen placed in the first floor, together with the dining room. This tall style help it fit in the image of the neighbourhood, where highrises can be seen anywhere, and houses keep getting higher. We used to live in an apartment, but as time went by, it could no longer provide enough accomodation. So we moved from one side of the ciry to the other.
Luckily, we have 1 room available for Thera. Since my sister has moved to her husband's house, her room left unvacant for months. Oh now mention it, I should go and see if there is anything to do with it before Thera can stay there.
"Oi Thera, can you wait in the living room? I'll go prepare your room now." I call out to her.
Settling down at the living room, Thera with her normal silence show no sighs of agreement. I will just assume that's the way she says yes.
"Meow" Huh? looks like Shaggy's watching Thera very closely, and Thera is too. What an interesting blinking contest. Let's leave Shaggy take care of everything. I grab the key and moving upstair.
Hah, it definitely needs some cleaning, but not much of a hard work for me. Grab the broom, I sweep the dust and Shaggy's hairs on the floor. How come the cat hair can be in this locked room I wonder? Keep on thinking about trivia matter, I wipe the floor and change the sheets. My mom regularly cleaned this room just in case of some sudden guess visits. Well mom, you will never know when one comes by.
...
...
"There you go, not so bad isn't it?" I puff out with pride.
"It's not like there're anything to do from the start." He's as critisizing as always. "At least you know how to clean a room, I'm so proud." And as sarcastic as always.
"Alright, let's go get Thera and show her the room." I ignore his mockery and proceed downstair, only to see another interesting scene. Thera is still remaining her pose, the only diference is now Shaggy has already positioned herself on Thera's lap. Now this is really strange. I've never seen Shaggy sleeping on anybody's lap, even my mom's who feed her and pet her the whole time. But here we have a total stranger and Shaggy looks like enjoying herself staying with Thera. Does she have some sort of charisma which makes her drawing animals' affection? Probably.
"It kept on stairing at me, then it climb up and made some strange sounds before going to sleep. I didn't know what to do so I just stay like this." She suddenly talks out of the blue, and that again unexpected.
"Umm, guess she likes you. Strange enough she doesn't act like this to anybody else. That's a big surprise even for me." Honestly, Thera must be a cat magnet to be able to turn the sassy shaggy into that.
"Likes....me?" She murmurs, as if it's the first time she heard of it.
"Oh by the way, your room's ready, as well as the bath. You may want to clean yourself after getting all dirty and wet in the rain. Let me show you the way." I make a friendly smile, just to make her feel as comfortable as possible.
"Do you like me Kai?" Hammer strikes again.
I just stand there, frozen. This is the second time I hear something really crazy in a crazy situation.
"This's gonna be a long day" He is holding his laugh, I can tell.
-End chapter 6-
