Shadows & Chaos - Side Story

    Yorukai sighed. It had been several days since Amefuri's strange appearance in the storm. He treated her as best as he could, but there were no visible injuries aside from the gashes in her leg. There was no reason for Amefuri to be unconscious for so long. The only reason the doctor came up with was blood loss. 

    Worry and fear tormented him, making it impossible to maintain an appearance of normality. What happened before she appeared? Who caused those injuries? Why did she choose to come to me? Or did she come to see Akuma? Did she know I lived here? Or was she here for someone else? Was she running away from something? Or was something chasing her? Most importantly, why was she so scared?

    "Chikawa-sensei, are you okay?" A timid voice interrupted his thoughts

    Yorukai looked up with a start. He had forgotten that he was in the middle of class. The owner of the voice, a boy with short brown hair and green eyes, looked up at him. Behind the boy were the other kids in the class were giving him worried looks. It wasn't like him to drift off with such a melancholy look. 

    "Sensei? Why are you so sad?" A little girl piped up. 

    Yorukai gave the class a warm, if somewhat forced, smile. "I'm okay. I was just worrying about a friend."

    It didn't matter how many times he turned the matter over in his mind. No new possibilities presented themselves. She had just appeared out of nowhere, a shivering, crying wreck. 

    "She's... She hasn't been feeling good and had a lot of bad things happen to her. But, she doesn't want anyone to know she's sad, so she pretends everything is okay."

    He had even discussed the situation with Akuma and Shinzui. Neither of them had any real advice to give. Both of them thought that nothing was wrong with her. Amefuri would wake up in a couple days and be the same as she always was. 

    "...but I know she's not."

    She woke up, but she wasn't the same. Sure, she acted the same when she was around people. It was an easy act to pull off. All she had to do was avoid contact and threaten people that got too close with violence. He would have believed it too, but Amefuri did something that she would never do normally. 

    "A present!" 

    She didn't attack him, threaten him, or be rude to him in any way. She treated him like a confidant, like she ne-

    Yorukai blinked owlishly at the smiling children. "Present? What..." 

    "Get her a present!" The little boy repeated happily. "Everyone likes getting presents!"

    "Especially when it's not their birthday!"

    "And they don't expect it!" 

    "Yeah!"

    "But.." Yorukai was shoved towards the door by many little bodies. "I can't..."

    "If you do something nice, that'll make her smile!" 

    Those were the right words to say, even if he had reservations about the effectiveness of the suggestion. But sometimes, children had the best ideas. Also, looking at all those smiling kids, he couldn't just refuse their suggestion. 

    "Okay, I know when I've lost." He laughed, holding his hands up in defeat. "I'll get her something after class." 

*  *  *  

    'Who am I kidding, Ame-chan won't like anything I'd get her.'

    Yorukai sighed and burrowed deeper into his jacket. After class ended, he drove to the mall to find something that could cheer her up. Then he remembered all the other times he tried to cheer her up. It ended with him covered in bruises, most of them to his pride. It didn't seem like Amefuri liked anything. 

    'If she doesn't like anything, then nothing I get her can make her happy.'

    That thought cast a dark shadow over his mood. If that was true, then all of his efforts to help Amefuri were wasted. Nothing would ever get her to change, especially him. 

    'I might as well call it a day. Even if I could find something, it would probably be too expensive.'

    The streets were already devoid of people. He had been wandering the city so long that everyone had gone home. It was too late for the morning workers to be out and it was too early for the night crowd to leave. It was just the hour when the city looked like empty. 

    The day was a waste. 

    Amefuri, still insisting everything was okay when it was obvious that she was not, refused all offers of help. Akuma and Shinzui, who the only people she talked to other than him, saw nothing wrong with her. He had spaced out in class and worried everyone. He was fast-talked by elementary students into spending the last 6 hours searching Tokyo for a present that would cheer her up. 

    "Why must I be so helpless? I... "

    Worst of all, he was no closer to finding a way the reason for Amefuri's strange behaviour than before or a way to change her mood.

    "I HATE this!" Yorukai savagely kicked a rock out of his path. "Why won't she let me help her!?" 

    A sudden yelp of pain dissipated all traces of anger, replacing it with worry and fear.

    'What have I done?' Yorukai rushed forward. "Please, are you alright? I'm sorry!" 

    He looked around the alley helplessly, whoever cried out didn't reply. He didn't think that a rock could do that much damage. If anyone had gotten seriously hurt because of him, there was little doubt that he would never forgive himself. Trying to get one person to feel better, only to make another feel worse. 

    "I didn't mean it! Please, answer me. I didn't want to hurt anyone." 

    A timid whimper was his reply. To his surprise, a scruffy silver-haired puppy peered out from under a car. The puppy looked at Yorukai suspiciously as he held his hand out. Yorukai gave the puppy an apologetic smile and waited patiently. 

    "I'm sorry, can you forgive me?"

    Slowly, the puppy crawled out and looked up at him. Yorukai beamed as the puppy settled comfortably in his jacket. The puppy didn't have a home or an owner, but he knew the perfect person that could fix both those problems. 
 

Prev | Back | Next