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* * *
“Akira-dono, your friend is here,” a servant said to the young woman sitting in an armchair with her nose in a book.
“Could you send her in, please?” the young woman asked, setting her book down.
“Certainly.”
A minute later, Rei came through the door the servant had left through. “Hey, Akira. How are you?” Rei said, smiling.
Akira smiled back. She had long, dark auburn hair with the first layer tied back with a yellow ribbon. Her eyes were olive green and she appeared to be far too pale to be Japanese. She wore a yellow kimono with red and purple flowers and a sea green obi.
“I’m fine. How have you been? I haven’t seen you in a while,” Akira said as she got up to give her friend a hug.
Akira was the first friend Rei made when she came to Japan. Even though Rei was three years younger than Akira was, they had always been best friends. They were like sisters, except for the fact that they actually liked each other and neither had ever considered pushing the other off a cliff and telling everyone she’d “slipped.”
“Sorry, Akira. I’ve been busy lately,” Rei said apologetically.
“So I’ve heard,” said Akira as she sat down and motioned for her friend to do the same. “I’ve also heard that you had another run-in with that cute demon slayer.”
Rei blushed. “I-I never said that he was cute!”
Akira smiled mischievously. “You said that he was, and I quote; ‘mildly attractive.’”
“But I never said cute!”
Akira laughed. “By the way, where’s Kuro? He hasn’t complained about the subject matter yet, so he can’t be here. Did you leave him at home?”
“Yeah. I wanted to talk to you without him listening in for once.”
“What about?”
“Do you want the blunt version or the carefully worded version I thought about for a week?” Rei asked in a monotone.
“The blunt version, please.”
“Fine,” Rei grumbled. She took a deep breath and groaned loudly, “I can’t get Somai-kun’s stupid mug out of my head! I dreamed about him last night, Akira!”
“What happened in the dream?”
“We just talked.” Rei leaned back in the sofa and cast a sideways glance at Akira. “Why? What did you think happened?”
Akira blushed slightly.
“Eww! I don’t want to know!”
Akira laughed. Then her face got serious. “Could you maybe be developing feelings for him?”
Rei glared darkly at her friend.
“I don’t mean romantic feelings!” Akira said quickly. “Maybe you two could just be friends. You know you need more.”
“He would never agree to my terms. His instinct would be to defend me and he would most defiantly act on it.”
Akira’s eyes saddened. “Rei, you can’t just give up fighting. Erebus might not even be after you. I mean, he hasn’t come yet so—“
“He’s waiting for me to reach my prime,” Rei said, cutting Akira off. Her voice was sad, but sharp. “His strength will increase more if I’m stronger. A few years after I’m recognized as a master sorceress he’ll come.”
“When will you be recognized?” Akira asked quietly.
“When I’m twenty-four at the latest,” Rei said. Then she added, “I’ll probably be dead by the time I’m thirty.”
Akira shook her head, refusing to believe what her friend was telling her. It was hard for her to hear Rei talk about her imminent doom this way, even after all these years.
When Rei was fifteen, she learned of the existence of a vampire named Erebus. He was a motlé*, a guardian thief. He spent his time tracking down notable Ultima class guardians and stealing them. Unfortunately for the guardians’ partners, the only way to take a guardian by force involved stealing the life source of the partner. In short, they were killed. Not all guardians could take the drastic change in life sources, so they “died.” Last time Rei heard, Erebus had only been able to keep two of his stolen guardians for any significant length of time. The number fluctuated often.
Kuro was a fairly well known guardian. He had been given one of the longest sentences in centuries: fifty lifetimes. He was currently on his thirty-second. Kuro was also known for being one of the few ancient demons that became guardians after their deaths instead of coming back to life. He was also quite strong. It wasn’t much of a surprise that Erebus wanted him as a guardian.
Akira remembered the day Rei told her about Erebus. Rei had only just recently learned of him herself, and she was terrified. He was Rei’s worst nightmare. She’d heard that he was ruthless, sadistic, and that he killed anyone whom got in his way. Rei was too kind to allow anyone to get hurt because of her. She was worried that when he came, people who were close to her would try to help or protect her. Rei responded to this knowledge by forcing her family to swear they wouldn’t help her, cutting ties with all her friends, and breaking up with her boyfriend. She’d tried to tell Akira that they couldn’t be friends anymore, but Akira wouldn’t let her. She knew Rei needed friends to help her get through this. So, in order to stay friends, Akira agreed to abide by the same rules Rei’s family did when it came to Erebus.
* * *
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*Creole for "thief."
 Kyokiri · Sat Feb 02, 2008 @ 02:28am · 2 Comments |
