Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
Chronicles of a High School Hedonist, Interlude; As she cuts class, the butterfly sets its sights on her at last... [One-shot, Awakening lead-in]
Topic Started: Oct 8 2012, 11:24 PM (140 Views)
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Kyo Charinko had a good time chatting with Hotaru at the local Wild-duck Burger, but because the two of them were in different years, they didn't see much of each other at school in the days that followed. Still, Kyo had every intention of inviting her along to some other eatery the next week. The move to Nagashima and her lingering grief over her dead boyfriend had seriously thrown her off her groove, so she decided the groove needed to be re-established. The weekly "eat out with friends" day thus needed to start happening again. Hotaru was her only friend right now, so... well, it was a no-brainer, really. She only hoped Hotaru would be open that day.

She'd drifted through the past few days without any real excitement, though, so she was bored out of her wits when class started on the Wednesday morning after the bomb incident. She didn't know much about that debacle apart from the fact that a lot of students stayed in the apartment complex and were thus scared out of their pants by it. Kyo's dad was well-to-do enough that her family had a house in one of the city's relatively nicer neighborhoods. She wasn't even that close to the apartment complex to begin with; she'd heard some distant sirens but dismissed it as unimportant.

It occurred to her in hindsight that she didn't know where Hotaru lived. She hoped it wasn't anywhere near whatever'd happened in the apartment complex. Because that would eat, majorly.

The teacher droned on and Kyo's thoughts continued to wander. This lesson didn't interest her in the slightest, and she'd just have to re-learn it when the time came for exams, anyways...

Kyo's glazed eyes finally gave up pretending to be attentive and stared instead out the window. It was rather dreary today, reflecting the tense mood of several of her classmates, who she could hear behind her, whispering conspiracy theories about the bomb incident. This one was about the rumored "magic people" and whether or not they were behind it. The gossipy duo was currently debating whether or not such a "magic person" would even need a bomb to explode an apartment building to begin with.

Kyo sighed. Honestly... "magic people." She'd seen some honest-to-god gullible kids before, but Nagashima really took the cake. She had no idea what kind of stuff had happened here to make everyone so fucking superstitious, but she could hardly go anywhere without hearing whispers of supernatural this, magic that, demons here, devils there... it was getting a wee bit annoying, really.

Kyo pondered texting Hotaru and asking her to cut class with her, but as she always did, she discarded the idea. She had no qualms about ruining her own academic performance, but she'd be damned if she was gonna drag her friends down with her. Cutting class by itself, on the other hand, sounded like a fine plan. She just had to wait for this lesson to end, and she could--

Something glittered across her line of sight, just outside the window, and she found herself leaning forward for a better look. It had looked like a bug, a really beautiful bug, and it was by far more interesting than this class was. But it wasn't there anymore. Oh, bother. Well, maybe she'd luck out and see it again when she bailed during the teacher-swap. She just had to be really stealthy on her way out, she was on the third floor, after all, and she kinda stuck out like a sore thumb besides. Cutting class was always awesome; being caught and reprimanded just sucked.

And she especially wanted to avoid that because, well, she had kind of been a bit paranoid ever since Kenshin had died. And had calmed that paranoia by always carrying a small pocketknife with her wherever she went, including school. And that was definitely against the rules in a rather bad way. So getting into any kind of disciplinary talk with a teacher made her nervous, naturally.

Kyo continued to stare out the window, taking heart in the fact that a particularly bulky student happened to be sitting in front of her; not much of anything she might do would be visible to the teacher. And then, in no time at all that somehow felt like far too much of it, class ended and lunch began.

And Kyo walked, calmly, out of the classroom, through the building, and out the front door. Nobody was watching for departing students today, so it was easy... she didn't even have to deal with the stalker-boy from her class anymore, who (she reflected with a twinge of regret) hadn't bothered her at all in the days since she'd met Hotaru. Yeah, she reflected as she passed the shoelockers (taking only a few moments to switch her own), that whole thing was mostly her own fault... she'd practically jumped him and then made him feel all shitty by rejecting him right afterward. And it turned out the poor dip had been crushing on her before that. On her, of all people! Ugh... it was flattering, but also, annoying. She wasn't interested, plain and simple. And if she hadn't gone and done the guy, it never would have become an issue.

Hotaru slipped out the front door, eyes drifting left and right for any passing faculty, and then she set out toward the front gate--

--and saw it.

She knew immediately that this had to be the beautiful bug she had seen out the classroom window: it was glittering gold, beautiful beyond words, a perfect--absolutely perfect--butterfly.

Butter... butterfly...

She realized that her feet were carrying her toward it, and she hadn't consciously decided to follow it. It, too, was heading out the front gate of the school, but at an angle that Kyo hadn't been following until two seconds ago...

And her thoughts were getting a bit foggy...

...

A sudden memory emerged, clearing her mind: it was at one of the few parties she'd been to in the past where she had sought get laid and drunk in the same night. Her quarry that night had turned out to be in search of sex as well, but with more devious intent, for he'd slipped something illicit into her drink and it had taken effect while the two of them were alone in a locked room.

The story then took a humorous turn, at least when she thought back on it, for she had realized what was going on before the drug had completely stolen her ability to fight back... and had brained the asshole so hard in the head with the beer bottle that the drug actually wore off before he'd woken up again. She had promptly delivered a somewhat weak-willed kick to his family jewels before calling her friend and going into hysterics about the whole thing (she'd only been fourteen at the time, so... yeah). This sense of mental haziness wasn't quite the same, but it reminded her of the incident--the reason she never drank and fucked on the same night--and it was like a bucket of ice had been dumped down her spinal cord--
(virgin-eating butterfly it's a butterfly and you're following it ARE YOU CRAZY)
The haziness was coming back, though, and her vision seemed to be fading to white. But she could still move her arms then, and she can still move her arms now--

She thrust her left hand into her uniform's inner jacket pocket, and withdrew the small knife she always carried. Flipped it open. Hands getting weak now--no, not weak, just unwilling--and the butterfly was so pretty she just had to follow follow where it went it could lead her only to happy places happy places

Kyo turned the knife over in her hand and drove it into her right forearm. It was such a half-hearted motion that the blade didn't even sink halfway in... but it sunk deeply enough that when her left hand released the handle, and it clattered to the ground just outside and to the left of the school gate, the cut bled enough for her purposes.

You see, one thing that was not readily apparent about Kyo either in appearance or in personality was that she had quite a strategic mind, and could think and react well on the fly. It was a trait that would serve her well in the months to come, but for now it had simply provided her a desperate hope:

That either someone would pick up her blood-trail or that she would pass out from blood-loss before reaching wherever it was the butterfly was trying to lead her. She had also hoped the pain of the injury might break whatever hold this thing had one her, but... it didn't. So there went that idea.

This thought was swiftly followed by blissful mental silence, and the end of Kyo Charinko's memories of that day. When she awoke at last it would be well past midnight, and she would be a dark place, a place that was both unfamiliar and extremely dangerous, holding a strange mask decorated with bat-wings...
Edited by The One True Nobody, Dec 21 2012, 02:59 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Fully Featured & Customizable Free Forums
« Previous Topic · Taiyoutono High School · Next Topic »
Add Reply