Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Alice In Chains ❯ Crime 5: Hayabashi Ai ( Chapter 5 )

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Alice in Chains

By: Melissa Norvell

Crime 5: Hayabashi Ai

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"Who am I?" The blonde asked as she held a hand up to her chest, closed her eyes and smiled. "I work here. Who are you, my dear?"

"Mine Yohru, I work here," Yohru pointed to herself and blinked in question. She felt like she was in the Twilight Zone or something. How could this bizarre, lolita-clad girl work at the same place that she does but the two of them had never seen each other nor have they ever met? This was beyond strange.

"I think you're mistaken. I've been working here for two years," the blonde's voice was pleasant and polite, unlike someone who'd be offended when someone else claimed to have their job. She didn't know if this girl was mocking her or if she was really clueless to the predicament at hand. Perhaps she thought that she was crazy or something.

"Then why weren't you here the past week and a half?" Yohru asked.

"Side-job," the mysterious blonde cocked her head and smiled quaintly.

"Can I talk to Alice?" Yohru wanted to ask the shop owner a few questions, as well as clear up her little problem. Why didn't Alice ever mention that someone else had been working there before? The white-haired girl would have liked to think that it would definitely be a problem when the other person came back if she wasn't informed that they had been there. She was sure that the other girl would have liked a better explanation then the one that she provided as well.

"You know Alice?" The pleasurable girl asked.

"Look, I do work here and I want to find out what's going on," Yohru wanted to get down to the core of the problem.

"I've never seen you here and I wasn't informed by Alice that anyone was working here aside from myself."

"Just let me talk to her. I'll tell her myself." If she wanted something done, then she was going to go straight to the source. That would be the one way that she could know the answers to her questions.

"Alright, I'll direct you to her," the blonde wasn't going to carelessly let someone into Alice's personal chambers with no backup. Yohru could very well be one of her enemies and the blonde couldn't make such a mistake, especially when she owned Alice a great debt as well.

"I know where she is," the white-haired girl placed a hand on the blue-eyed girl's sternum and shoved past her. The blue-clad girl nearly was shoved against the wall on her way through. As soon as she managed to get two steps past her, the blonde followed her down the hall and towards Alice.

Alice slowly turned her head towards the door as both girls busted through and stumbled in, calling out her name in unison.

"Hello girls," the odd woman's reply was calm as ever as if there was nothing wrong.

"What's the meaning of this? Who is she?" Yohru strongly stated her question and pointed back towards the long-haired girl behind her, who still seemed slightly confused at the whole situation.

"Her name is Ai and she's my assistant," Alice replied in a calm manner.

"You said that you were alone here."

"I was at the time. Ai was away so I managed the shop by myself," the woman never told her that she had an assistant but never felt the need to until now. It was a trivial matter and Yohru was bound to find out sooner or later about the other girl. It wouldn't put a damper on anything she had planned, however and if nothing else it would help Yohru a bit to have someone else around to lend her a hand. She just hoped that Yohru would be able to put up with the blonde's quirks.

"What now?" Yohru scratched her head.

"Do you have something against Ai working with you?" Her boss asked.

"No..." The girl blinked a couple of times in response. That wasn't what she wanted Alice to say. There was still a problem at hand- if they both worked there then who would do what now? Ai was quick to cover that base and explained that Yohru could work the register while she explained to them what tasks their products preformed. The school girl agreed that it sounded fine.

The two girls bowed to each other and Yohru apologized for being so rude before.

"It's alright. We can start over...Yohru is it?"

"Yes, and you're Ai."

"It'll be nice working with you," Ai was glad that things weren't as she'd expected. Perhaps the two would become close now that they were better acquainted with each other and didn't see the other so much as a threat anymore.

"Yeah, it's kind of lonely here," Yohru had to admit that it seemed more fun now more than anything to be working with Ai. It did get lonely when it was just her and she had to admit that she could definitely use a hand when the customers got a little too worked up or a little abundant.

Ai gestured to Alice with one hand, "but Alice is great company." How could it be lonely when Alice was there with her?

"I see you're getting along fine. I'll be in the back if you need me," the stoic woman arose and walked away from the two girls, headed towards a pair of doors in the back of the room that she resided it. As soon as Alice was out of sight, Yohru turned to Ai and spoke.

"Alright, Alice doesn't say much to me," she commented.

"She's mostly the listening type. I'm glad that you're here though. I like talking to people. I think we'll be good friends," the smiling blonde replied as she took the other girl's hands in hers.

"Me too," Yohru looked into Ai's lazy blue eyes and smiled.

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The two went back to their places and began to run the shop together. Yohru worked behind the cash register as Ai attended to the customers. There were a few who came in to purchase charms and others simply needed an explanation on what items they had purchased done. After Ai explained it to them, the shop was soon empty again.

Ai then walked over and leaned on the front counter with both hands propping up her face. Her poofy, blue dress and long, wavy ponytails cascaded across the counter as the two of them were engaged in a light-hearted conversation. It seemed that the two girls had a lot in common, even though their attitudes were so different. Yohru found that Ai was a very laid back and interesting person to talk to. She could even tell her some things that she couldn't tell Michi or Taho.

"Not many customers here, are there?" Ai glanced towards the doors. No one had entered the shop in at least two hours. It seemed that things were going to be slow.

"No one's bought anything," Yohru dead panned. It was even slower than usual. Not one charm was bought and they were free of charge.

"So, how did you get a job here? Usually, they have to know Miss Alice or fall under some special circumstances to get a position here," Ai turned back to the other girl.

"She saved me from a crazy man," the school girl told her.

"How uncharacteristically kind of her. Why would she save someone she doesn't even know? It isn't like her at all," Ai noted. Alice was the type of person to not truly care about human life. In fact, she took more than she saved. What was so special about this girl that she would save her instead of simply killing her? This was an interesting question indeed.

"She does seem very cold," Yohru glanced towards her room in the back. Alice had always kept the same tone of voice, her face had about as much emotion as a statue and she was very distant.

"Oh, she's always been like that. She's a very private person and she'll only tell you what you wish to know," the blonde's voice was a little less light-hearted in tone as the door bell rang and footsteps were heard inching closer to the two. Ai propped herself up and glanced towards the door, where she saw a brown-haired school girl standing. "Someone's here."

It was time once again to act like a shop worker and not so unprofessionally.

Yohru noticed her uniform and stated that she was from her school. Ai asked if she knew the girl in question and the other girl told her that the student looked as if she was in her grade. She walked around the shop and glanced around at several charms before she approached the checkout counter where Yohru and Ai stood and looked rather distinguished and professional as they awaited any questions that she may have.

The two girls noticed that she was carrying a charm in her hands. The girl held it to her chest and spoke shyly.

"Um yes, I would like to purchase this charm from your shop," the girl told the two of them.

"Well, it's free so there's no need to pay," Ai waved in dismissal.

The girl blinked and held the charm up. The jewel-like presence of it reflected the light and shattered it into different bits, spreading it across the room. "Really? It's so pretty, it's hard to believe that it's free," she seemed almost flabbergasted that something as decorative, beautiful and intricate was free.

"If you don't mind me asking, what do you need a charm for?" The blonde questioned. "It is our shop's most powerful charm and people who get them should really take caution. Only if you truly desire to fulfill a wish with all of your heart."

"I do!" The girl was quick to answer and with vibrancy at that. "I want this more than anything! I'm not being foolish! That's what I really want!" She spoke loudly and happily as she protectively held the charm to her bosom.

"If you don't mind me asking, what do you want the charm for?" Yohru questioned curiously.

"Oh, I want this guy to notice me. His name is Takamura Yami," the brown-haired girl replied with a smile. She had felt very strongly for this boy for the longest time and wished for him to notice her so deeply and badly.

"Hey, I know him. He's that male modeled in the class below mine," Yohru didn't know him personally, but the two of them had their run-ins with each other at school and at best she could call him an acquaintance. The desk clerk at least knew him well enough to know that he already had a modeling job at his young age of fifteen.

"I didn't know you went to school with me," the girl blinked and was slightly surprised as she put a finger to her lips and stared at Yohru.

"Yes, I'm Mine Yohru."

"I'm Aya Fumiko."

"Nice to meet you," Yohru bowed and received a bow in return from the fellow student.

"Anyway, I really like Yami and I always try to get him to notice me and he won't even turn my way. I love him so much and I'd like him to just know that I exist," Fumiko told the two girls sadly and looked down, clutching the charm in her and holding it to her chest as despair crossed her sullen face. "I love him so much and he doesn't even notice me. I'm really popular but he won't even look at me." The girl was nearly on the verge of tears in front of the counter. Yohru felt sorry for her and in many ways, she knew what it was like to feel like a man you loved so dearly would never love you back.

"I'm sorry to hear that," the girl replied sympathetically. "I hope things get better for you, Fumiko."

"Thanks, I have a good feeling about this," the girl smiled and dangled the charm beside of her, watching as the many cuts of the stone collected and scattered the sunlight.

'Then why do I have such a bad feeling about it?' Yohru wondered to herself in worry.

Ai noticed that the white-haired girl seemed troubled at something and asked her if she was alright. Yohru told her that she was fine and wondered why she had asked her. The blonde commented that she looked troubled or deep in thought. That's when the spiral-haired girl decided to bring up the topic of the strange occurrences that had been taking place around the shop since the beginning of her employment.

"Strange things have been happening since I've worked here," Yohru's voice was serious. A part of her wondered if things had been like that since before she even decided to work there but she didn't dare ask Ai for any information regarding the subject. She wanted to figure things about first before she came to any false conclusions.

"What do you mean?" The girl blinked in question. It almost seemed too innocent.

"You haven't noticed all of the deaths because of these charms?" Yohru asked. Surely Ai couldn't be that oblivious to everything around her.

"Maybe it's coincidence?" Ai stuck a finger in the air matter-of-factly. It was a strange theory but maybe all of the incidents just happened to be sighted around the shop and didn't actually take place there.

"I don't think so," Yohru leveled her happy facade with a cold glance. There was definitely something strange about everything that had taken place with regards to those charms that had been purchased and she was going to find out exactly what was going on.

"It's just a charm. It's not like it actually holds any powers," Ai responded. The charms were simply free gifts and had no real powers or they wouldn't be free. There was no evidence at all that they controlled any of the bad events that had taken place. Just because they were present at the scene of the crimes doesn't mean that they had a hand in anything. Aside from that, the charms were popular gifts and most everyone had at least one of them.

Any number of scenarios could have been at play, no one could deduct whether it was the charms or not.

"Then why do people keep dying who have them?" To Yohru, it was just a little more than a coincidence.

"Must be a set-up to give us a bad name. A lot of people think that this shop is creepy, you know?" Ai replied nonchalantly. Some people were really superstitious about things like that.

"It is."

"You know Yohru; the world is a fascinating place. It's full of mysterious events and twists in fate that is unexplainable by humans," the blonde proceeded to inform the school girl in the ways of the world as she glanced out of the door wistfully.

'And so are those charms. I'm convinced that they possess more power then anyone's saying. I'm going to keep a close eye on Fumiko.' The suspicious girl thought to herself. She would not believe any of Ai's cover ups unless something changed in her own deduction. Yohru didn't care about what anyone tried to say to cover it up; she knew that the charms were somehow linked to the death's entire taking place around the shop. There was no doubt in her mind and she would prove it to Ai and everyone else who had anything to do with the production of the charms.

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Yohru waited by the baseball diamond in athletics' class. Dressed in her black, white and red fuku, the girl leaned against the fence behind the pitcher's mound. The gentle wind toyed with her long, spiraling side-ponytail that swayed gently in the breeze. The girl began to hear footstep nearing her and glanced over to see Haji walking towards her. He said his usual 'hey' in greeting and she greeted him back with her mundane 'hi'.

Before the two could even get a word in further, she heard a young, feminine voice shout Haji's name in a high pitch as the voice grew in volume. Then, at the blink of an eye, Haji was hugged from behind by Michi, who had jumped up and put her arms around his shoulders, her bent knees and feet still hung in the air.

"Hey Michi..." The darkly-clad boy told her in a dead panned tone.

"Hey Michi, Hey Taho," Yohru noticed the brown-haired girl walking up behind her cling-on friend.

"Why are you over here?" Taho asked.

"Aya Fumiko plays tennis, right?" Yohru asked. The tennis court was right beside of the baseball diamond so she decided to wait for Fumiko to walk over to tennis practice before she decided to play agent and watch over her to make sure that the charm didn't do anything to her.

"Why do you care about her? She's just one of those preppy snobs," Taho told her in a voice that didn't seem to care at all about the girl.

"She bought a charm from our shop the other day."

"Speaking of your new job. How are things going?" Haji asked.

"It's going really well. I have a new partner working with me," Yohru told him with a smile. She was happy that he didn't see her job as a burden to their relationship.

"Partner?" This was the first that Taho had heard of another person working with Yohru.

"Her name is Hayabashi Ai. She's very nice," the school girl commented on her partner's sweet, laid-back nature.

"It's really not fair that mean old Alice wouldn't let me work with you," Michi pouted, still latched on to Haji's neck.

"What kind of employer doesn't want to hire more employees?" To Haji, that sounded a little suspicious to him. It didn't make sense for any flourishing or would be flourishing company to not wish to hire anyone who even asked for a position, unless certain circumstances applied. Perhaps that could have been it.

"It was mean, wasn't it Haji?" Michi asked in a pouty tone.

"Sounds like a bitch to me," the black-haired boy agreed.

"Don't talk about Alice that way! She saved my life," Yohru didn't want anyone to talk badly about the shop keeper, no matter how cold and distant she was, the girl still owed her everything in every sense. Yohru didn't want them to talk that way about her, especially when they knew nothing about her.

"There's Fumiko," Taho pointed out the brown-haired girl, who was in a group of friends. They were all dressed in tennis outfits and walking down one of the side-walk paths that led to the tennis court. Blue eyes glanced over to see that the infamous purple charm was dangling from the top of her tennis skirt and bounced in the breeze as she walked and chatted with her peers and friends.

'There it is.' Yohru's eyes widened as she bolted off in the direction of the tennis court.

Michi called after her, but her friend kept on running.

"What's with her?" Taho seemed a little confused by the whole incident.

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Yohru called after the girl a she ran towards her. She could see her turn with a racket over her shoulder and look at her in question.

"Oh? It's that girl," Fumiko said lightly as she saw the familiar girl head towards her.

"Who is she?" A black-haired friend questioned.

"Why is she running up to you like that?" A blonde asked and glanced to her with a strange look. Usually they didn't communicate with people of Yohru's clique, so why was she walking up to them as if they had been best friends for years?

The white-haired school girl stopped in front of them, bent over panting a little before she rose up and spoke in between breaths. "Hi, I'm Yohru from the other day."

"Oh, thanks for the charm. I'm sure I'll be really lucky with it," Fumiko winked happily.

"But-"

"See you in class!" Fumiko waved as she and her group walked off. She didn't even give Yohru a chance to talk. Yohru wanted to warn them about the charms but she couldn't get a word in edge-wise.

"That's not what I wanted to tell you...I wanted to say be careful..." The girl said in defeat as she watched the dangling charm grow smaller and soon disappear from sight.

"Why are you acting so weird today?" She heard a familiar male voice intone from behind her as she turned around to see Haji, standing there in his black uniform. Michi was also with him, standing by his side with an equally confused look plastered to her face.

"Oh, Haji...Sorry, I just needed to tell her something," Yohru replied as the bell rang. Michi told the two of them that they should get to class and her friend agreed in a distant tone, still watching the charm as if faded from sight.

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Lunch time soon came and Taho, Michi and Haji were all sitting in a grassy, shady spot beneath one of the many sakura trees that littered the school grounds. Yohru stated that she had forgotten her lunch at the shop in dismay. She was so wrapped up with trying to track down Fumiko that she completely forgot about her lunch. Her day couldn't get any worse.

"You can have some of my friend shrimp. I have plenty," Michi smiled.

"I've got tons of yakisoba. I can share," Taho tossed her a smile.

She was then handed a small, square, wooden bowl of rice. Blue eyes glanced over to see that it was attached to Haji's hand. "Take this, now you have a meal."

"Thanks guys," Yohru was very fortunate to have such good friends by her side. She didn't know what she'd do without them.

"Aww, guess I can't give you your lunch, can I?" A familiar female voice rang through Yohru's senses. It almost sounded like Ai's voice. But how could that be when Ai was at the shop with Alice? She had remembered very clearly that she had bid her good-byes to the blonde as she was walking to school that very morning.

"Huh?" Yohru then turned her head to find out that it actually was the lolita-wearing, long-haired blonde with her bento box in her hands. "Ai?"

"Who's that?" Taho wasn't dressed in a uniform at all. Ai was very pretty, more so then any girl in their school and she looked more like a college-going person then a high schooler. Not to mention that she had never seen anyone with hair that long before either.

"She's so cute! She looks like a Lolita Doll!" Michi squealed in delight. She had always admired the Lolis(1) of Japan and their cute fringe-fashion dress.

Ai curtsied. "Thank you. I'm Hayabashi Ai. I work with Yohru. I noticed that she left her lunch for today at the shop so I was simply delivering it to her."

"You're a goddess! Thank you!" The spiral-haired girl was grateful that Ai had worked with her and taken time out of her day to hand-deliver her food to her. That was very thoughtful of the blonde.

"Alice told me where you went to school. You're welcome," Ai replied as a group of girls walked across the grass behind her. Yohru peered behind them to see who was in the large group of females headed to cross the street. It was Fumiko and the group of popular girls that she had encountered earlier that morning, only it seemed as though they had gained a few more members.

"Look, its Yami!" Fumiko shouted and pointed towards a tall, handsome-looking boy with an athletic figure, tanned skin, and blonde hair. He looked more Egyptian than Japanese.

"Oh, he's so cute!" A girl behind her squealed in fan girlish glee.

"Super sexy!" Another girl called out.

It seemed that Yami had many fans. Since Fumiko had called out to him first, he turned and glanced at the girl was she was walking across the street. Finally, after all of her numerous attempt to catch his eye, she had finally been noticed. It seemed that her charm had been doing its job.

Fumiko's face lit up with happiness when she saw the young man make eye contact with her. A smile widened across her face as she closed her eyes and beamed. 'He looked at me! The charm is working! He finally noticed me! I'm so happy!'

Then, Fumiko could hear the noise of a car's engine. She opened her eyes and glanced around her, no one had been in the road but her. The brown-haired school girl heard Yami call out to 'watch out'. It seemed like everything was happening in a speed so quickly that it was surreal. Fumiko screamed as everything seemed to blur around her. Brown-eyes glanced up to see her and a few other girl's satchels fly up into the air as she and two of her friends were struck by a speeding car. The driver of the car didn't even stop; it simply kept going without a care in the world of what had happened.

"Fumiko!" Yohru's eyes lit up with fear and concern as she had witnessed the girl's critical injury and possible death. She stood from her place on the ground; her bento box fell from her hands and landed on the ground with a clunk. Another loss happened due to those charms.

"My, how unfortunate," Taho's voice seemed saddened for the loss of her school mate. Even if she didn't like Fumiko or her group that well, it didn't mean that they had to die. It also didn't mean that they deserved such a death by any means.

"Oh my God! Is she dead?" Michi looked freaked out. She had never seen anyone die before, let alone anything like that take place.

"How terrible..." Haji's voice was low and distant as the group watched Yami dash to the girl's side.

"Are you alright? Speak to me!" Yami begged as he held the fallen girl in his arms. A few students from their clique were checking on the other two girls. One was seriously injured and the other had just simply been bumped by the car and was suffering from the shock of the situation. She only had minor scrapes on her body.

Fumiko was half-lidded, but her brown eyes were filled with so much emotion for the man that had finally noticed her. Her life was fading, and she knew that she would soon be gone before the ambulance came to her aid. She could see Yami's face for a few minutes before it too, faded into a brown and golden blur. "My name is Aya Fumiko...and I've always loved you. I've been waiting this whole time for you to notice me..." The girl told him in a weak and pained voice as she mustered as much strength as she could to smile at him for the last time.

"Why couldn't you have just talked to me?"

"I wanted you to notice me so much. I even bought a charm and I made a wish on it...that we'd always be happy and now...now I get to be with you...and I am happy. Too bad...We don't get to be more then acquaintances..." Fumiko's voice trailed off as the last bit of life flowed from her body and the girl passed away.

"Fumiko..." Yami bent over in sorrow and wept for the brown-haired girl as he sat in the middle of the road.

Ai watched the incident with a calm look on her face that only held slight sorrow from behind her blue eyes. The gentle wind slightly picked up her long, wavy pigtails and caused her golden locks to flow as she spoke softly.

"Beware of your desires...Things done in selfishness will always end up badly and more than likely, they will hurt more than one person involved. In a case like this, one must ask them- is it really worth that type of loss?"

To Be Continued…

NOTES:

Loli- A Slang term used for Lolita and anyone who wore the Lolita style of dress.