Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
Like You've Seen a Ghost; [Nishiyo Sadako - Single Post]
Topic Started: Dec 17 2013, 09:21 PM (164 Views)
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
This post takes place shortly after Dead Eyes.

---

No one was there, no one. Masumi Suzuki very rarely worked overnights, but she had the overnight shift at the grocery store on that particular night, and none of the people she had asked to spend time with Etsuko were free to do so in the middle of the night. That was fine, though--Etsuko Sadako was a big girl. She'd lived on the streets with nothing but one other youngster to watch her back for years. Getting nervous about leaving her to sleep through the night without adult supervision would be silly, right?

Except Etsuko wasn't asleep.

She'd had a dream, a nightmare. A very vanilla nightmare, actually, one of those ones where you're running and running through an endless hallway being chased by something but the exit keeps getting further and further away. It had woken her up, and she'd rolled off the futon with a grumble and a groan, and now the girl stood by the window in her nightdress and slippers, rubbing at her arms a bit in the chill. Masumi's house was narrow, small, cheap, and the heating was terrible. There was a space heater, but Masumi had warned Etsuko not to overuse it, because of the electric bill. Etsuko knew her unofficial guardian probably wouldn't fault her for turning it on for a bit, but she was reluctant to impose, even in this small way. Masumi had done so much for her...

...

There was someone walking by on the other side of street, and they'd just then come out . It was a narrow street, and Etsuko's vision was perfect--not that she even knew what "20/20" or any other visual terms meant--so she could see their features clearly. This was the first interesting thing to have passed by the house in five straight minutes, purely by virtue of the fact that it was a moving object, so naturally, the young girl focused on it, leaning closer to the window, vaguely curious about who would be walking along the dirty, dangerous part of town this late.

She was too short to be Masumi, but that thought didn't even cross Etsuko's mind. The powerful, forceful, and stiff way that girl carried herself was nothing like the fortune-teller, who brought words like "gentle" and "caring" and sometimes "a little bit strict" to Etsuko's mind. Whoever that was down there didn't look like someone Etsuko wanted to cross.

She saw the girl's face, and even at this distance--

--No.

No.

...Was it? It might have been a trick of the light. Etsuko pressed herself to the window, wide-eyed, and felt her heart begin to pound in her chest. She wasn't sure whether what she was feeling then was fear, or hope. But the girl passed out from under the streetlight too quickly. She couldn't get a good look.

Etsuko hovered in place for a moment, unsure. She knew that if that was really her sister, then the last thing she should do was get closer. But if it was her sister, it was her sister. Memories of the old times clouded all of her thoughts, memories of laughter and toys, and sharing desserts they'd snuck out of the kitchen into their room.

Her decision wasn't so much made as pre-determined. Etsuko ran frantically to the door, threw it open, and dashed down the stairs, jumping the last two steps and running to the door. She didn't even bother with outside shoes. The only care she took was to open and close the front door very quietly. Bedroom slippers padded across the sidewalk as Etsuko ran after the figure she'd seen, who just then disappeared around the corner of the convenience store at the end of the street, "The Easy Meal." Etsuko had been there to buy snacks once or twice since arriving here... the man who owned the shop was kind of gruff, but nice.

Etsuko stopped at the corner of the building--the lights were out, it was closed. She peeked around the street, and saw black hair retreating away from her. She would never get a good look at that girl's face if she kept following from behind, though--shivering, Etsuko realized she could see her breath. It was cold out, and she was in a nightdress...

She'd taken the lay of the surrounding area days ago, though. She knew where the alleys and things led. So she withdrew and ran back to the other side of the shop, and then around back, and out toward the street that girl would probably have to cross when she got to the end of this one. There was a dumpster and a bunch of trash cans she could slip behind, near the mouth of one of the alleys. She could hide there, and get a decent look at the girl's face, maybe, but she had to reach it first.

Running, jumping over a half-dried puddle, on left turn, a right, another right. She managed to skid to a halt in the correct alley. There, she crouched, peeking out from between trash cans where barely any light would reach.

She waited. And waited. And waited...

...And there she was, that girl. She seemed to have slowed down, because her walk wasn't as powerful anymore, it was more relaxed, now with a slight, casual sway of the hips. Etsuko hardly noticed. Her eyes snapped to face level immediately. And... yes.

That face. It was so like her own, so like the one that looked out of the mirror every morning. The eyes were probably close to the same shade of brown, too. Nishiyo's hair was long and lustrous, though, not short and scraggly like Etsuko's. Her clothes were simple, practical women's wear, warmer than Etsuko's--warmer--

Etsuko's teeth chattered faintly together as she thought this.

And then Nishiyo was gone, gone on her way. Etsuko turned around and slumped against the side of the building, hugging her knees, shaking more than a bit with the cold now.

"Nishi... N-Nishi... oh, Nishi..." she breathed as she shuddered, ten seconds after her sister had passed. It was her. It was her! It really was her...

Slowly, after a time, she stood up. Hugging her arms all the more tightly, she began to walk back the way she'd come, toward the house. She felt such a curious mix of happy and sad right now. Her sister, there, alive and healthy. But the knowledge of what their father had made her into... she wanted to cry.

Hard to do that with this much cold and chill and shivering. House. Back to the house. Back to the house where the space heater was. Back to the--

Something, a sheet or a cloth or a handerchief, snapped over her mouth, behind it a hand. Etsuko flinched, and then tried to flail at the person behind her, but a hand grabbed her from around the back sharply, holding her arms in front of her where they'd been hugging each other for warmth. She gave an almighty wrench, and a moan, but--this smell was funny--her head was... funny...

She slumped back. The arm's grip loosened, and dimly, she heard words...

"Shouldn'ta tried sendin' a tail after me. Idiots."

That voice. Accent. Sounded like mom. Younger. Was it--was it--no, no, please no--

The cloth fell away from her mouth and the only word she weakly managed to get out was: "Nishi..." She felt herself turned around, heard something muttered in a puzzled tone, but that was it. Darkness... dimness, haze... weakness...

Her head felt so funny...

---

"...The fuck? Why're ya in a nightdress?" Nishiyo asked in a harried, puzzled voice, as the girl she'd caught hold of fell limp in her arms. Clutching the chloroform-soaked cloth in one hand, Nishiyo sighed. She'd gotten it wrong, hadn't she... probably just someone from the adjacent shithole apartment who'd forgotten to take the trash out and decided the asscrack of midnight was a good time to fix that.

Nishiyo turned the unconscious girl around, idly curious as to who she'd mistaken for a tail, and wondering what she should do about this--leave her here? Probably would freeze or something. Or get found by some night predator with a taste for stupid girls who left home after dark, if she was really lucky... in the ironic sense.

The sight of the girl's face, the muttering of "Nishi," wiped all such considerations from Nishiyo's mind. That face. It was hers. It was...

...It was her face. But different. Short hair, too--and--

--and--

That

no that

couldn't be

Father lied. Father lied and we believed it.

no but there was a funeral a cremation a bone picking


We never saw the body whole and in one piece. Someone else's child.

even her father wouldn't kill some random kid just to


Deception. A lie. Deceived us. Deceived us!

A lie, a trick, to make her wish she'd never told. To scare her into silence. Nishiyo had gone so long believing Etsuko had run away and been killed because she had told--

--no--

The chloroform cloth fluttered to the ground, as Nishiyo's legs gave out. With a quiet oof, the girl fell to the ground, holding her sister tightly in both arms like a large, heavy ragdoll with bones and muscles inside it for some reason, and sat there, staring flatly down the alley in front of her, unmoving.

She didn't move until Etsuko began to shiver. When Etsuko did, Nishiyo wrapped her arms more tightly around the girl, pulling her closer.

It couldn't be. Couldn't be.

But it was.

That--that--that--

That complete

and utter

bastard~<3
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
The cabin in the woods--it was nice, it was homey, it was a lot more well-insulted than a log cabin should have been, it was all looks, of course. The place appeared to be a simple one-floor house with kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, sitting room, and fireplace. It was, in fact, equipped with a basement, and upon exploration, Nishiyo had discovered that this basement had an escape passage inside it, a trapdoor and ladder that she had once assumed would probably lead into the sewers or something. The cabin had been owned by someone else entirely before she'd come here, and Nishiyo could only wonder what the previous owners had gotten up to that they needed a secret sewer escape route.

The basement itself was empty and barren of cargo or any sort of implements or artifacts that might have suggested its former purpose. Nishiyo had thought, after some idly theorizing, that it had been used by smugglers, maybe--

--had thought that, until the day Kyo Charinko's red-eyed Shadow-doppelganger had appeared, until the day Ng Wei had chased her off, leaving her to fend for herself in the ruins, until she had encountered that strange satellite-thing... until it had teleported her with magic, and she had found herself sitting on top of that very trap door in that very basement.

A quick trip down the ladder had confirmed that yes, this basement was connected to the ruins. That might have explained why her cousin had given her such a blank look when she'd asked about the escape route, and said that there wasn't one. He probably couldn't even see the trapdoor... to her, it looked like a square slab of concrete with thin cracks dividing it from the rest of the floor, and an indent handhold. But perhaps to him, and to non-users, it looked like just another spot on the basement floor.

The ruins escape route was irrelevant now, though. What mattered was that down here, there were things that her cousin had stored here during his brief stay in Nagashima (he'd returned to Kyoto upon news of the "Skull Kid" being found dead, which had relieved Nishiyo so greatly that she didn't even think to point out that the corpse was a lie). Things that Nishiyo mostly didn't care about, except for the first aid kit on the countertop in the back.

The black-haired girl rushed down the stairs, pausing only long enough to pull the tug-switch, turning the light on. It was one of those really bright bulbs with no tint in the class--the illuminated wire inside was clearly visible, and the bulb was far too bright for this confined space. The girl blinked against the annoying blotchy spot in her left eye and walked quickly to the count, roughly unlatching the first aid case and throwing it open.

"Seriously? Yusuke, ya slob, if someone actually needed this they wouldn't be able t' find what they needed!" she blurted out to the empty basement in exasperation.

The contents of the case were that disorganized. So disorganized, in fact, that she wondered if it were a trap designed to waste the time of anyone who was looking to treat an injury. Well, whatever. She wasn't pressed for time, exactly--there were still quite a few hours in the night, even if getting Etsuko to this cabin without being spotted carrying a girl in her nightdress through the slums had been... tedious as hell to achieve.

Eventually she found the smelling salts, and held the bottle up. She didn't know if this would work to wake someone up after being put under with drugs... now was a time to find out.

Not bothering to shut the case, Nishiyo headed back up the stairs, turning the light off on the way.

Upstairs, the fireplace had been lit. Etsuko lay on the couch, a heavy blanket filched from the bedroom and draped over her. Nishiyo slipped between the coffee table and the couch, and knelt down close to the girl's face, unscrewing the bottle. She held up Etsuko's head with one hand, and passed the bottle beneath her nose...

...Nothing.

Nishiyo grunted in annoyance when there was no response at all, just Etsuko's continued breathing. She tried again. Still nothing. "Great," she muttered, laying her sister's head down on the small couch-pillow again, and standing up, stepping back. She look at the bottle as if it were a failure at its own existence, and picked the cap off the table again, screwing it back on. Right, so shocking a chloroform victim awake with weird smells didn't work. Nishiyo had the presence of mind to berate herself for not knowing this before now, considering how often she employed the substance...

...But then, foresight had never been her strong suit.

Nishiyo set the bottle down on the table and resigned herself to waiting. She knew there was undoing what she'd done to her sister--both tonight and all those years ago. But she wanted to talk. She wanted to--needed to--there were just--

This matters not. Ensure she stays hidden and focus on what you need to do before the end.

But there were just so many questions! Where had Etsuko been all this time?! How had she survived? She was wearing a nightdress... that meant she lived somewhere, in a house or apartment, probably one of the ones right near where Nishiyo had found her. What was she doing outside in the first place? Why was she following her? Was she one of them? No, couldn't be, could she? Nishiyo couldn't feel a Persona inside her sister...

Restlessly, Nishiyo paced the apartment. But Etsuko continued to lay there. At some point, perhaps she awoke from unconsciousness and passed almost directly into actual sleep if only because of how comfortable Nishiyo had made her. An hour passed, and eventually, Nishiyo ran into the bedroom, seeking something to distract herself from the roiling maelstrom of things and ideas and suspicions in her head.

She snatched her laptop computer off the bedside table, yanked the charger out of the adapter port, and walked back into the sitting room. Stiffly forcing herself to sit still in the armchair, Nishiyo opened the laptop, and logged on.

She barely noticed herself going through the motions of entering her password, waiting for the OS to boot up, and then opening the browser and logging into Bedlam. The first thing she saw was a topic that had only been posted thirty-six minutes ago. The topic title, Good Evening.., caught her eye immediately, as did the username of the poster. It looked like... a prophecy thread, one of the same prophecy threads as the one Nishiyo had used to try covering her tracks when--

And then she clicked it. She didn't even register the specifics of the first two predictions. Her own name jumped out at her, multiple times.

Good Evening..
 
Post By: JesteringPalette
Date: XXXX-XX-XX at 01:16

Good morning. Here is today'S news.

➀ At 16:00 on XXXX-XX-XX, the Black Hoods will gain access to Bedlam after a member steals a phone from a Persona-user. Security is compromised as a result.

➁ At ▉▉▉▉ on Matechi Street, a Five-alarm fire will kill 40 people. Suspected to be an arson.

Suspect:
Naoya Imoto

➂ At 01:00 on XXXX-XX-XX, Nishiyo Sadako will fall to her death from the balcony of a hotel on Matechi Street. Believed to be a suicide.

➃ At 16:30 on XXXX-XX-XX ▉▉ ruins, Kyousuke Fuben will be killed by a Pers▉na-user.

⑤ At 10:00 on XXXX-XX-XX, Nishiyo Sadako will be found dead in the ruins. Evidence ▉f struggle.

⑥ At 12:30 on XXXX-XX-XX, an explosion will take place at a mahjong parlor in the Nagashima backstreets. Several Sadako family members will be killed, including Nishiyo Sadako.

⑦▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉Nishiyo Sadako▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉

Have a n▉ce day.


Her first thought--it had to be some kind of trick. But that first one--fall to her death from the balcony of a hotel on Matechi Street. Believed to be a suicide. She'd been thinking of getting an apartment on Matechi Street, actually, one of the upper floors... this cabin was too near the ruins, it would be too easy for a passing Analysis-user to detect her out here. Removing herself from ground level had seemed like a good idea, but--

...No. No, best to be safe. She wouldn't do that...

The second one. Found dead in the ruins, evidence of a struggle. Her mind flashed back to that red-eyed Shadow-girl, and then to her previous encounter with the real Kyo. The first had set two other Persona-users on her. The second had tried to outright kill her, had only stopped because that Nishiwaka girl had shown up. And the other Persona-users--no, surely her threat, her bluff, her blackmail, those photos under her bed, the photos that had no secret distributor waiting to pass them out if she didn't check in every so often (not that her enemies needed to know that)... surely that would stay their hands...

...But...

But she couldn't count on Piglet's Shadow being so reasonable. Who knew what sort of madness that thing was capable of. If the real Kyo could kill her in cold blood, the Shadow might outright--torture her.

A shiver ran down her spine at the idea. But, she hadn't planned on entering the ruins again, not until she could be sure that red-eyed thing wouldn't hound her the whole way...

The third prediction. Nishiyo's eyes narrowed at the mention of a mahjong parlor in the backstreets. Sadako family members? Why would they even be there? The Sadako family had no dealings in Nagashima, not since their low-key search for Skull Kid had turned up a corpse in police custody. And the backstreets were under Samurakami's control. Unless--unless they got wind of Persona-users, and decided that Nagashima might be worth something, and Samurakami didn't like them muscling in on her turf...

Several family members would be killed. But which family members? Would they be hers, or would they be from the Kyoto branch? If her father died, that would be glorious, but--

But Etsuko was here, Etsuko was here. Etsuko was here Etsuko was Etsuko was no no they couldn't they had to stay out stay away stay--they had to had to--

The computer slipped from Nishiyo's gasp, fell off her knees, and hit the floor with a loud thump and crack. The monitor snapped shut, and Nishiyo swore, jumping to her feet and wiping her suddenly so sweaty hands on her skirt...

And then froze. Etsuko's eyes were open, and she was looking right into her sister's eyes...
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
The two girls stared at each other for a very long time, Etsuko blearily, and Nishiyo like a dear in headlights, her brain having completely shut down. Her laptop computer lay on the floor, forgotten, perhaps broken, perhaps not. It didn't matter either way.

Etsuko blinked her eyelids slowly, her lips parting, not knowing what to express, or how to express it. Nishiyo wondered what was going on in her sister's head right now, how much she knew. Did Yamada know about Etsuko? Had Yamada learned of her father's depravity through her rather than Spencer? If so... how much did Etsuko know about--

"...Nishi..." the girl on the couch moaned. "Nishi, is that...?"

Nishiyo was there in an instant, kneeling by the couch. She didn't feel any rush of sentimentality or happiness, or even worry for her sister. But she had lost Etsuko once. Etsuko had been stolen away once. And now here she was again... her sister, her little sister.

"It's me. God, Etsuko--dad said y'were dead," Nishiyo said tonelessly. "It's been... I ain't seen ya since... how many... years's it been, shit...?"

Etsuko smiled a bit, and said, "Ten years, about. I think." Her smile faded. "Dad thinks I'm dead...?"

"No," Nishiyo said in that same toneless voice. "He just made me think y'were... soulless s-son of bitch." A slight, reflexive tremor entered Nishiyo's voice, as it always did when she tried to directly insult her father, even in private. Etsuko sat up, shaking her head.

"He doesn't know now, does he? Nishi, I can't go back, I don't wanna go--"

"Hush, skooterbutt," Nishiyo cut in, reaching up to put a hand on her sister's shoulder, pushing her down. "He ain't ever gonna know about you. Not while I'm breathin'. So relax. Don't get up too fast. Chloroform's not good for the system, don'tchaknow. Let yourself wake up proper."

"Chloro--what?" Etsuko asked blankly, letting herself be pushed down, all tension leaving her when she was reassured that her family wouldn't know, wouldn't find out, wouldn't take her back. "Whazzat?"

"It makes people sleep," Nishiyo said. She remembered that Etsuko had run off before even attending school... there was no telling what she did or didn't know. "I used it 'cause I thought y'were someone tryin' ta follow me. For bad reasons, I mean." A pause. And with what sounded to Etsuko like a painful attempt at sincerity: "Sorry."

Etsuko lay in silence for a bit, and the two girls just looked at each other, Nishiyo on her knees in front of the couch. After a while, Etsuko said: "Because o' the people ya killed. 'Cause o' what dad turned ya into... right?"

Nishiyo grimaced, and then nodded. "Yeah..."

"...What's gonna happen, Nishi? Will ya get arrested?" Pause. "...D-Dad and mom'd get ya out if that happened, though, right?"

The older girl's lips rose in a slight snarl, and Etsuko flinched. "I'd sooner confess," she said flatly. "...No, scooterbutt. The people after me are the sort who take justice inta their own hands."

Etsuko blinked. "Whaddaya mean?"

"I mean they'll kill me without the law bein' involved at all."

The younger sister let out a choke and tried to sit up again, but Nishiyo's hand was still on her shoulder: she was pushed back down into the couch again. "I said, don't get up too fast," said Nishiyo firmly. "It's fine. I'll be fine... I got somethin' that'll keep 'em away from me. I'm safe."

Etsuko frowned slightly, trying to work out what that might mean, but Nishiyo stood up. "It's been a few hours, and it was already late when I found ya," she said. "You're stayin' with someone in the backstreets. Who is it?"

"U-Um... her name's Masumi," Etsuko said timidly. Then, looking as if mentioning the name might have been a mistake, she quickly said, "She's really nice! Treats me like her own kid. It's been great there, real great." Pause. "She's workin' overnight at the food store. I dunno when she'll get back, but if I'm not in bed when she does--"

"Then we needta getcha back home pronto," Nishiyo said immediately, turning toward the bedroom. "I'll getcha warmer clothes... wait here, yeah?"

Etsuko slowly sat up, and watched her sister walk away. Then, looking around the room, she took in her surroundings. It reminded her of the summerhome in Yakushima that her parents sometimes took them to when they were small, although it wasn't as big. "Nishi, ya dropped somethin'."

"Eh?"

Nishiyo paused inside the bedroom door, looking back. Etsuko, still sitting on the couch, was pointing at a spot on the ground that was hidden from view by the coffee table. Walking back out into the sitting room, Nishiyo saw that it was her laptop. "Oh--yeah," Nishiyo said shakily, remembering why she had dropped it in the first place. Hurrying to snatch it up off the ground, she muttered an automatic, "Thanks, scooterbutt," and hurried back to the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

---

Once inside, Nishiyo found herself clutching the closed laptop computer to her chest, and leaning back against the door, eyes closed, mind and heart racing. Her sister was here. They'd found each other again by blind chance, but now Nishiyo was prophesied to die and if those predictions were correct, other members of the family would be in town soon, too. Nishiyo didn't care about dying, but Etsuko cared about the things Nishiyo couldn't, she still did, their dad hadn't broken her the way he'd broken Nishiyo.

What do I do... what do I do... I have to be able to do something...

Etsuko had two choices as it was: continue living with some strange woman--the specifics of how that arrangement had happened didn't matter in the slightest, but Etsuko was being fed and sheltered and clothed and that was something--or go back to her blood relatives. Nishiyo wouldn't let the second one happen, ever. But she also knew that as long as those blood relatives remained on this Earth, there wasn't any hope for Etsuko to live and grow with all the same benefits other kids had, not legally. She wouldn't be able to get an education, and then work would be a problem, and it would follow her around for the rest of her life unless she could get legal child services help--

...But...

But of course.

That only remained true as long as they remained on this Earth, and Nishiyo had already planned on killing one of them as it was! Why not just take that notion and go all the way with it? Why not just go all-in...

"Ha... yeah," Nishiyo breathed. "It's the only answer. Every blood relative's gotta go. Every last fuckin' one... then she'll be free."

Not me, though. I'll never be free. Been marked for death, I have. And the spider pit's still got me. Dad's still got me... I'll never be what I coulda been. Just what I am right now. A "monster" that needs to be wiped off the face of the earth, haha... or in more objective terms, someone who has lost the game.

Nishiyo felt something stirring in her heart--which was a funny sensation, because Nishiyo hadn't thought of the "heart" as something other than a physical organ since she was a little girl who still had one. But she felt something. An ironic part of her mind wanted to make a reference quote to How the Grinch Stole Christmas in response to this, but before it could get that far--

Diabound was there, hovering in the air in front of her. Nishiyo stared at it flatly, and brought one hand to her face, feeling it. She wasn't wearing the hood... what was this, then? That stirring intensified, and she understood. Her resolution...

To play her hand to the end.

To stave off death until her final move was made and she had dragged her family down into the abyss with her.

To free her sister.

And while she was at it, to give those fucking self-righteous bastards plotting and scheming her demise the chase of a lifetime until it was finally time to clock out.

No redemption.

No escape.

No life, no future. Not for her. Just a trail of bodies leading to her own grave, as long a trail as it took to guarantee a life and a future to the girl on the other side of this door, who still had both ahead of her.

The half-humanoid, half-cobra spirit before Nishiyo began to lose substance, becoming naught but blue light, which coalesced and converged in a new shape: large, black, many-legged and many-armed. The large, bulbous, hairy body of a spider, its front legs on the floor in front of her, its back legs atop the bed. Where the spider's face should have been, a human torso, shapely and feminine but just as bristly as the rest, with eight arms of its own, each with long, wicked fingers. A vile, wickedly smiling face with more eyes than was needed stared back into Nishiyo's own. Nishiyo felt a chill run down her spine, but nonetheless, this was part of her. This was what her father had turned her into, and the reason she wanted him dead.

An evil, chaotic Persona, a villainous mask for the villain they all wanted to put an end to.

I am thou... thou art I. I am Lolth, the Queen of the Demonweb Pit... and I am where you shall come to an end.

"So fuckin' melodramatic," muttered Nishiyo, who rolled her eyes. Lolth's grin widened, and the Persona vanished. Nishiyo remained where she was for a few more seconds, eyes closed, clutching the computer to her chest again... looking inward, assessing her Persona's newfound abilities. After a few moments, she pushed away from the door, dropped the computer on the bed, and went about the task she had come into this room to complete in the first place: getting her little sister some clothes that were actually fit for a night-time walk.

---

Persona Ascension
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
The One True Nobody
Member Avatar
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
There was an awkward silence between Nishiyo and Etsuko from that point right up until they reached the city limits. Etsuko, bundled up in sweatpants and a heavy, hooded coat (Nishiyo had put on a hooded jacket of her own; the one she'd planned to wear was still in the car she'd left at the motel), walked along beside Nishiyo down the mountain path and then into the Nagashima back streets. Nishiyo didn't ask directions--she still remembered the way to the place she'd found Etsuko, and wherever this Masumi person lived, it couldn't be far from there.

At some point, Etsuko had withdrawn one of her hands from the coat's pocket and tentatively taken hold of Nishiyo's hand. Nishiyo appreciated the warmth, but not much else. If Etsuko was happier that way, though...

...Not to misrepresent: Nishiyo felt no warm feelings at that notion whatsoever. But Etsuko being happy and free was a goal, an objective. It was something to shoot for. Holding her hand took no effort, anyway. Why would she complain? It wasn't as if she were an anime tsundere about this or something.

As they walked down the street, two blocks from where Etsuko lived, Nishiyo broke the silence. "Etsuko," she said. "How'd ya get by all this time? Have ya lived with this Masumi long?"

Etsuko shook her head. "No," she said, "no, it's only been a couple weeks... I kept myself fed mostly by stealin' money and stuff. Moved from one town to another before the cops could catch onta me. Had help for a while. 'nother kid who ran away. I never asked why... but he saved my life a bit after I ran."

"From the kidnappers who tried t' ransom ya," Nishiyo stated more than asked.

"Yeah. I was with 'im for years. Then I--I dunno. I think he wanted t' have 'sex.'"

Nishiyo's hand tightened on hers. "He molested you?"

"He, uh, he kissed me."

Nishiyo's hand loosened a bit. "Oh," she said dubiously. "What didja do...?"

Etsuko ducked her head under the hood. "Well, I ran... I couldn't trust 'im anymore if he wanted that, could I?"

The older girl's voice took on a strangely delicate, careful tone. "...Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes men're most trustworthy when they're tryin' t' get inta your pants."

"Eh?" And Etsuko looked up to her sister, an expression of incredulity on her face. "What's that mean? Why?"

"Some men'll do anythin' for the people they wanna bed, see?" Nishiyo said, tilting her head to one side. "Some girls'll do the same for the guys they wanna bed." Pause. "Sometimes guys want guys or girls want girls or one o' the two wants both, but, same idea. People're wired up t' really want sex, and then they wire themselves up t' attach all these romance ideas to it, love, family, y'know... onward and so-forth. Fairy-tale stuff, like the stories our nanny read us back in the day."

Etsuko frowned a bit, looking thoughtful. "So..." she said slowly, "...I didn't need t' run?"

"Nah. Actually, y'prolly shoulda stayed. Dude'd take care o' ya even harder then, heheh..."

"Wouldn't that be like, takin' advantage?"

"Etsuko, everyone takes advantage of everyone. It's only 'cause o' those romance ideas that people look at it worse when sex is involved."

Etsuko's frown deepened, and she fell silent. Nishiyo figured she might be lost in thought. A few seconds later she wondered whether disillusioning Etsuko about love and romance might be counterproductive to what she wanted for her... this silence carried them all the way out to Masumi Suzuki's rowhome. Nishiyo stopped in front of it, still holding her sister's hand, and looked the place up and down. What a humble little shithole...

"How'd ya come t'be here?" Nishiyo finally asked. Etsuko, ducking her head again, took a few moments to answer.

"Tried stealin' Masumi's hairclip. It looked expensive." (Nishiyo quirked an eyebrow at this factoid.) "Policewoman caught me. Some jerkass boy in a long coat with blue hair did, too."

"Spencer."

"Y'know him?"

"Hate him, he's an ass."

"Ha, me too!"

Etsuko giggled a bit, and Nishiyo forced a giggle for the girl's benefit--it's awkward when you try to share a laugh and the other person doesn't laugh, right? Nishiyo looked up at the house, then, frowning. So, her enemies had Etsuko in their care. They knew they couldn't handle the girl legally, so they were sheltering her in secret. Convenient. She could use them for this, too.

She didn't feel right leaving them here, though. After a few seconds, she let go of Etsuko's hand, turning to face the girl.

"Y'should get inside. That Masumi ain't back yet, so get outta those clothes and straight inta bed, yeah?" she said.

Etsuko tilted her head to the side. "How d'ya know she ain't back?"

"I can tell," Nishiyo said, explaining nothing but nodding her head. In truth, she simply couldn't sense anyone, Persona-user or otherwise, inside that house--and her Analysis power would even have told her if there were non-users in there, now. "She could come back anytime, though, right? I can't be here when she does. They all know about me, don't they..." Nishiyo looked into her sister's eyes, narrowing them. "That policewoman. Her name's Yamada. Ain't it."

Etsuko was visibly surprised, but nodded.

"Them's the ones who'll kill me. Her and Spencer and Benkei Watanabe and some others. So don't let 'em know I was here..."

The girl gasped, and looked over her shoulder, as if she expected one of the named people to suddenly be there. But then she turned back around and said, "But Nishi, we just found each other again. It's been ten years. What's gonna... I mean..."

Etsuko's hands were twisting and fidgeting with each other in front of her stomach now.

"...Will I ever see ya again?"

Nishiyo opened her mouth. She ran through several options in her head--a reassuring yes, a pragmatic Probably not, a scheme so they could sneak over to each others' houses when no one was watching. All of them sucked. The first was a lie, the second would dishearten the girl, the last was unsafe. So she decided on a simple bit of cliché sentimentality...

Nishiyo removed the diamond ring from her hand, the one she'd had enhanced with a Rakukaja spell, and held it out to Etsuko, who looked at it curiously.

"Here. Hold onta this for me. It's a... lucky charm."

Etsuko took the ring, and looked it over. It looked like one of the rings she'd stolen and pawned off in the past, completely normal, unremarkable... surely Nishiyo could have afforded better. The girl bit her lip and nodded, and tried to slip it on, but her fingers were too small: it wouldn't stay on, it was too loose.

"I will. I'll wear it on a string or somethin'," she said. "I'll never let it go. Thanks, Nishi... and, stay safe, alright?"

Etsuko looked her sister in the eye one more time, managing a sad smile. Nishiyo looked back a few moments, and then her expression inexplicably brightened, bearing a huge grin. She stepped over to her sister and wrapped her arms around her. "Hey, don't you worry, everything'll turn out great in the end, just you watch. That's a sister's promise! Now get on, you. Get! Bedtime, skooterbutt."

Nishiyo let go of her sister and gave her a push toward the door, and Etsuko, muttering a quick, hasty goodbye, ran to the door, opened it, closed it. The older girl stood there for a few minutes. As soon as Etsuko was out of sight, the grin slid off her face. And there it was, she thought... it was done. And she would never see her sister again...

Nishiyo Sadako turned on her heel and began the long walk back to the cabin in the woods.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Nagashima Back Streets · Next Topic »
Add Reply