Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Distance ~faraway memories~ ❯ Akari ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Well, yeah, I finished Kuroi-Shiroi. But I'm absolutely DYING to write more, and I'm not quite ready to start on the sequel, "Mei no Okaeshi". So... ready to learn about the past lives of a few certain assassins? :D Weiß Kreuz is not mine. Duh. Nagareboshi Akari IS my character, however... Nusutto Eiki and Retsukari Mei are property of Saiko and Meikari, respectively. ^^ I, however, aided in their creation ;p



Distance ~ faraway memories
by flyingpinkbunny





Chapter 1: Akari



"For in that sleep of death what dreams may come..."

I've always loved this quote. Never really knew why, it just rings a bell in the back of my mind... sort of like a forgotten memory.

No matter how hard I try to forget, I just can't block it out... that horrible things I had to go through... the things that forced me to try to change who I am...




October 22, 1987... I was six years old at the time. It was just a normal autumn day, the sky was brightened by the light of the sun, and the trees were painted with vibrant orange and red hues. I just barely remember playing ball with my brother, Ryu, who was eleven at the time.

Our parents were happily chattering away in the living room, as we could hear through the opened front door. The conversation died down when a man in a black '75 Honda pulled up in front of our house in Okinawa.

Ryu and I paid no attention to this, but when our ball bounced across the yard at the strange man's feet, I ran over to pick it up. But the man got to it first. He picked it up, looked at it for a second, then handed it to me. I was too young to understand this at the time, but the man was a mass murderer.

"Here ya go, little one," he said calmly. He ruffled my black bangs and walked into the house. There seemed to be just a hint of anger in his voice, but I didn't notice.

Ryu, however, did. He took me back over to the other side of the yard and we began playing again, but he just wasn't as enthusiastic at the time.

Minutes later, fierce shouts erupted from the living room. I looked at Ryu, frightened. He could sense my fear, I guess, because he smiled at me and patted my head. "Daijoubu, imoutochan," he said. He took my tiny hand in his and we quietly crept behind the house, into the kitchen via the back door.

As we slowly made our way to his bedroom, I peered into the living room. The man was yelling at my otousan, and my okaasan was trying to make him stop. The strange man scared me.

Ryu pulled me into his room, picked me up and sat me on his unmade bed. "Stay here, Akari," he said, walking back into the hallway where the telephone was. "I'll call the cops if anything bad happens." He gave me a reassuring smile, and shut the door behind him.

Just then, I heard a very loud noise, almost like a giant pop. Okaasan screamed, and then came another loud pop and the screaming ceased. Loud footsteps rumbled like thunder as they came nearer and nearer to the room I was hiding in. I began to cry. I couldn't help it, I was scared.

Then another thought hit me. Where was Ryu? Surely, he would come to save me! I sat there on the bed, waiting, as the footsteps got closer and closer. I began to wonder if he would ever come.

Just then, something began pounding on the door. I screamed, and dove under Ryu's bed sheets. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed. I prayed with everything I had, with all of my heart. I prayed that Ryu would come and save me, or that my parents might wake up and help.

I heard the door being kicked down. My whole body stiffened as the sheets were ripped off of my shaking body, and I looked up at the man who was about to kill me. He had deep, dark red hair, pulled back in a ponytail. His beady black eyes narrowed as they glared at me, a grim smirk scross his face. Then, I suddenly realized who it was.

I had seen him on the news before. He had murdered 471 people in fourteen countries, including my parents... and I was about to be the 472.

Akai Houou.

He pointed a gun at my forehead. I must have been a pretty pathetic sight, as I sat there on my brother's messy bed, in my pink sundress and my hair up in little pigtails. My face was streaked with tears.

Time seemed to stop as his smirk turned into a sadistic sneer, and I knew it was about to end.

It did.

"We've got the house surrounded! Akai-san, come out with your hands up, or face the consequences!"

A look of horror became fixed on the man's face. Somehow, I guess he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. Before I knew it, three policemen had burst into the room, grabbing him. I watched with a look of wonder as they chained his hands up with handcuffs, and began dragging him out the door.

Then, Ryu came running in and wrapped his arms around me. "Akari, are you alright?!" He seemed distressed. I didn't blame him.

I nodded, unable to speak. I wasn't hurt, but I was scared beyond belief. I cried into his shoulder, wondering what had happened to our parents.

He must have sensed what I was thinking, because he took me by the shoulders and looked me straight in the eyes. "Imoutochan... I have to tell you something. Okaasan and otousan are... that... that bastard... he killed them, Akari. They're gone." I saw tears forming in the corners of his eyes as he continued. "Don't worry, I'll take care of you. That man will never hurt anyone again, 'cause he's going to jail for a long, long time. It's gonna be okay..."



From then on, we lived with my okaasan's brother. We continued with out lives as if nothing happened, and we began to grow closer to each other. We did everything together. Sometimes, Ryu would take me out for ice cream. I would always get chocolate, and he would get vanilla. It became our own little ritual.

We always had fun together. Once, when I was twelve and he was sixteen, we went for our usual ice cream. A group of boys a little older than I was walked up to me while I was sitting at our table, waiting for Ryu to come back with our ice cream. They began trying to talk to me, and they started... flirting with me. I told them to go away and leave me alone, but they wouldn't.

Then, Ryu came back just as one of them put their arm around me. "Hey, hands off of my bishoujo!" he said.

I laughed. The group of boys shrugged and looked at each other, then they walked off, disinterested. It was pretty funny.

Then... came the time when Ryu had to go away to college. It was... only a year ago, in fact. I was fourteen, he was nineteen. He got one of his workmates to drive us up to Osaka Grand College; the whole ride up there was fairly silent. I was quiet outside, but inside I was cursing at him. *Damn it Ryu, don't leave me! We've been together too long!*

But I had known this was coming. I had known it for a very long time. We finally arrived, and both of us got out of his friend's car. We looked at each other for a few moments, then he hugged me tightly. We said nothing; everything was being said with our actions. He let me go, and I got back into the car. I watched him sit down on the grass, and I pressed my hand against the window. The car began moving, and he began to get smaller and smaller as we drove away.

Even though he would be away for a whole year, I knew that everything would be okay.



And then, the unthinkable happened.

It was only a month after my sixteenth birthday. Ryu had sent me some money, so I could get away from Okinawa, which had steadily grown worse and worse over the years. I moved to Tokyo. It was a crowded city, but it was very safe because of all of the public officials. I had taken up room with a kind old woman, in exchange for helping her out with chores.

This day... this marked the beginning of my life as a different person.

I had gone to the market to buy some bread for that night's dinner. I cheerfully walked back to Umi-san's house, humming to myself. Nothing could ruin my day.

Unless, of course, it involved rape.

I felt something wrap tightly around my wrist. It pulled me into the alley that I was passing by. I hit the brick wall hard, dropping the loaf of bread. I shook my head, wondering what had just happened. But then, I saw him.

Dark red hair. Beady black eyes.

It couldn't be! Akai Houou... was in prison for the remainder of his life! How could he have just... escaped?

Things are a little fuzzy from there... I'm not really sure what was said, or what all happened, but the next thing I knew, I was laying face-up in the alley. I felt a draft, and my head moved down to look at myself. What I saw shocked me.

I was bleeding. There was a long cut on the side of my leg, and I was almost completely... well, bare. I sat up, reaching for my shirt, which was a few feet away. But my whole body hurt too much to function properly, and I fell back down. I took the time to examine myself again. There was a sharp pain in my abdomen, and my legs had dried blood on them. I didn't know what had happened.

I suddenly felt very queasy, and I blacked out.



When I woke up again, I was nearly blinded by a mass of white. It took a few seconds for everything to come into focus, and when it did, I saw that I was in a white room. My guess was that I was dead, and this was heaven or something.

I was proven wrong, when a woman came into the room. My brain wasn't really functioning properly, so I couldn't really tell that she was a nurse. "Oh good, you're awake," she said, smiling at me.

I finally realized that I was in the hospital. "Excuse me, but... how long have I been asleep?" I asked.

"You've been out for about three days now," the nurse said. "One of our interns caught sight of you laying in an alley, and he called for an ambulance."

I had forgotten about the alley, and was reminded of that when I felt another sharp pain in my lower stomach. "What... happened to me?" I was very confused, and I wanted to know why I was in so much pain.

The nurse sighed, sitting down on my bed. "Well, we ran a few tests on you, and..." she took a deep breath, "they have shown that you have been raped."

It took a couple of minutes for her words to register with my brain. I was raped...? But... how could that have happened? I didn't even remember what I was doing before I was pulled into the alley...

But then, it all seemed to come back in one big rush. My clothes had been ripped to shreds, there was a long slash on my left hip... probably from my skirt being cut off. I felt tears begin to run down my face.

The nurse spoke again. "Now, you're going to have to stay here for a few more days while that cut on your leg heals, Nagareboshi-san." She smiled at me. "Would you like anything to eat?"

The thought of eating anything at the time made me feel nauseous. "No thank you..."

The nurse nodded. "That's understandable. Just press that little button on that table next to your bed, and I'll come and bring you what you need. Pain medication, food, water... we're here to help you, Nagareboshi-san." She patted my hand and left.

I sat there in the bed, letting everything sink in. This was just too much for me to handle.



A few days later, I was released from the hospital. I was still in pain from my injury, so getting back to Umi-san's apartment was somewhat difficult. When I arrived, she greeted me, obviously worried. I figured that the hospital had called her and told her what had happened, because she wouldn't let me help her with any of the chores; she kept saying that I needed to rest.

I figured that after a week of being in the hospital would leave me rested enough, but I guess I was wrong. I lay on the couch, flipping through the channels on the TV, an untouched bowl of ramen on the coffee table in front of me. I wasn't really interested in the TV.

Many things were going through my head. I did NOT want this to happen again, so I was thinking of ways to protect myself. I considered taking up Judo again, since I had had six years of it when I was younger, but there was nothing else for me to learn; I was already a black belt.

The thought of suicide crossed my mind, but I discarded that thought before it began to grow.

I finally decided to create a mask for myself. Later that day, I went through my clothes and found an old shirt, and I ripped a long strip of the fabric off. I wrapped it around my chest, flattening my breasts down. If I couldn't reverse what had happened to me, then I would have to cover it up.

I didn't have enough money to get my hair cut, so instead I bought a baseball cap. At night, I practiced deepening my voice, so I would sound like a boy.

I became Kanzaki Shiro, a lonely boy. I would not give in to whoever tried to hurt me anymore.



This worked for a while, but then I guess I began to feel... too lonely. Nobody at my school wanted to talk to me, even though the girls would constantly look at me and giggle, as if they thought I was a bishounen. However, there was this one boy in my Calculus class who would sometimes talk to me. I didn't know him very well, though. I only knew that his name was Tsukiyono Omi, and he worked at a flower shop.

My life changed suddenly, when I decided to pick up some flowers to brighten up my room at Umi-san's apartment. I discovered that Omi-san worked at the Koneko no Sume Ie, which was pretty close.

That night was weird, I somehow managed to find Omi and the three other guys that worked at the Koneko fighting with five other people. I don't know how I knew where it was, I guess it was just instinct... I found out that Omi, along with Fujimiya Aya, Kudou Youji, and Hidaka Ken, were the members of an assassin group called Weiß.

I had been watching the battle, when I noticed that they were outnumbered, so I jumped in to help. And since then, I've been part of Weiß.

I've got no regrets about what I've done, or the people that I've killed. I'm perfectly happy with who I am now, and nothing can change that.

I am Calico.