Haruka and Rai's Japanese Adventure

[Faye]

Rai felt a little embarrassed when her mother turned the subject onto him kind of, asking if he was the reason Haruka didn't visit much. He wanted to speak but he knew it would be best if he remained silent and let the two talk through things, something obviously needed to be solved.

But then things went sour, like Haruka hoped they wouldn't. Rai's eyes widened as he witnessed her mother slap Haruka across the cheek, Haruka didn't look very phased but he couldn't help but move to her rescue.

He was then commanded to get the doctor, he hesitated for a moment but he nodded and dashed for the door, yanking it open. The light blinded him a little but he found a doctor soon after leaving the room, "Oisha-san!" He called out, using the correct honourific for a docotr despite the gender or name of the person. "Please, you need to come, something's happened in Amagi Tsukiko's room," He pleaded to the doctor.

[Nicolette]

A few doctors came to Rai's aide just as there was a loud crash from Tsukiko's room. They ran inside to find that Haruka had been thrown into some medical equipment and Tsukiko was attempting to get out of the bed. One of the doctors ordered another to get some special medication while he and a third doctor went to pin Tsukiko down to the bed. When the second doctor returned, he had a tranquilizer, which he used to calm Tsukiko down. The woman soon fell asleep as the doctors worked on getting everything back to normal in the room.

Haruka slowly opened her eyes when she heard things calm down and let out a soft sigh as she slowly sat up. She grabbed a nearby table edge in order to haul herself to her feet, though she found she couldn't see a thing. She crossed her fingers and looked around the ground, as if trying to look for her glasses. She prayed they hadn't been crushed in the confusion.

[Faye]

Rai followed the few doctors back into Haruka's mother's room and watched them attempt to pin the frail woman to the bed to calm her down. Glancing to the side he saw Haruka had been thrown into the medical equipment in the room, forgetting completely about her mother he rushed to her side and picked up her glasses just before someone could stand on them.

He placed his index finger under her chin and gently moved her head to face him. He opened her glasses and placed them carefully back on her head so she could see again. "Are you okay? Are you hurt at all?" He asked, concern laced throughout his voice as he tried to find any cuts, bruises anything on her body that could have been harmed.

[Nicolette]

Haruka blinked as she found herself able to see again. She felt Rai's gentle fingers on her jawline, moving her face around to look for any injuries before looking over the rest of her. She took a hesitant step back, taking her arms away from him when he touched them.

"I'm fine... Let's just get out of here while she's still asleep. We'll let my grandparents deal with the rest.... I just need to get outside."

[Faye]

The boy was shocked a little when she jerked her arms away when he went to inspect them but he shrugged it off, realising that he probably shouldn't fuss over her so much. He nodded when she requested to go outside and he took her hand gently, taking her out into the corridors, he mentioned to her grandparents that he was just taking Haruka outside.

Down in the foyer, people weren't reacting much, it was a still yet noisy as it was when he walked in. "Do you want me to stay with you?" He asked her in English when they reached the cool air of the outdoors, Rai was glad to be outside but he could still hear people's every footstep, their conversations, crying babies and he swore sometimes he even heard a knife slide across someone's skin.

[Nicolette]

Haruka took in a deep breath once they were finally out in the cool morning air. She shut her eyes and let the air flow around her for a moment before she sighed and walked over to sit down on a ledge, making sure to keep out of the way of people who needed to get into the hospital.

"If you'd like, you can stay..."

There was a long silence following the comment. When Rai didn't leave, she glanced at him before looking out at the parking lot of the hospital.

"I... I cannot express how sorry I am that you had to see that..." She whispered, shutting her eyes for a moment.

[Faye]

Rai followed Haruka to the small ledge she sat upon, out of the way of others and also secluded enough so they could talk privately, who knew who else knew English in this city. Rai took his seat beside her on the ledge and placed a hand on top of hers, gently massaging it.

"Don't worry about it, Haru-chan," He said with a light smile, he was more disturbed by the noises he kept hearing with every place he went to. Sometimes he wished to be deaf... as much as he feared it. "The noises I hear are what's disturbing," He continued, his voice quiet as if he was speaking to himself.

"Are you going to be alright though?" He asked, concerned about her.

[Nicolette]

Haruka was quiet for a long moment, trying to focus her mind on the hand that gently carressed her's rather than the events of earlier. She had really hoped that her mother might have gotten a little bit better with having been in the hospital, but not enough time had passed... Maybe Tsukiko never would get better and would always be haunted by the memories of her love.

"I... I ressemble my father." She hesitantly spoke. "Mother... Has been unstable. When she sees me without my glasses, she sees my father.... She loves him very much, even if it's been ten years since she last saw him."

[Faye]

The conversation before Rai was commanded to find a doctor made sense now, with Haruka's explanation, he nodded slowly as he thought about what Haruka would be going through. He kept silent and just kept massaging her hand softly with his hand, trying his best to show her he was going to be here for him.

"I'm here for you." He said quietly, "Can I ask... though.. what happened with your father..?" He wasn't sure whether or not he should have said something but he was curious. The morning air swept across the parking lot and brushed across Rai's bare arms but were stopped by his denim jeans so his legs were safe from the cold. He didn't mind, though. The fresh air was nice to breath in and the noises from inside the hospital were muffled by the thick walls, they weren't so loud now, they were like normal, inside voices. The kind of hearing he wished he had.

[Nicolette]

Haruka had expected the question.

"I think... I think he died." She paused for a moment, as if remembering. "My parents... they were involved in an illegal study. When the laboratory was discovered, my mother escaped with me, and my father stayed behind. We hadn't heard from him since then... So after a few years, we presumed him to be dead... And.... And Mother slowly began to lose her sanity with each passing day. She still... sort of believes he's out there somewhere..."

[Faye]

His eyes widened as she explained what happened, her mother must have been greatly attached to her husband for her to start losing the plot like that. He moved his hand from hers and put his arm around her shoulders to comfort her more.

"That's terrible..." He whispered as she finished her sentence. He wasn't sure what else to say so he just held her closer to him, feeling the warmth of her body against his as the morning air brushed against them.

[Nicolette]

Haruka leaned her head against Rai's shoulder, looking out into the street. She had never expected her past to catch up with her like this. Just last week, she had planned to stay on T'zen Island and do her usual SFF work like a good member... But everything had turned around so quickly, and now she was in Tokyo, Japan, having just recovered from being attacked by her own mother.

"Ruka-chan?" Yukari's voice said quietly from nearby. Haruka looked up and called out her response, causing Yukari to turn around and smile at the sight she saw. She walked over, her eyes quickly turning sympathetic. "Oh, Ruka-chan... If we'd know that Tsuki-chan would have reacted that way, we wouldn't have made you go without us."

"Don't blame yourself, Grandmother. Rai-kun was there for me. He was the one who had gotten the doctors to make sure Mother wouldn't hurt herself." She gave a weak smile, to which her grandmother leaned forward and kissed her forehead. The woman then smiled at Rai.

"Thank you so much, Aikaryu-kun. We are grateful for helping our darling granddaughter." She smiled again before she turned to look at Haruka. "Oh, Ruka-chan, I nearly forgot..." The woman reached into her shirt pocket and brought out a small device. "Tsuki-chan woke up just a few minutes ago. She requested I give this to you."

Haruka recognized the odd device to be a flashdrive. She blinked and reached out to receive it, looking it over. It looked to be a little old. Why would her mother have such a device at all?

"Your grandfather will be out momentarily, so let's all head for the car." Yukari turned and started to walk toward the car. Haruka stood and waited for Rai to stand before she took his hand, linking her fingers with his.

[Faye]

A smile crept onto Rai's lips as Haruka leaned into his hold, resting her head on his shoulder, he held her gently against him, just watching the people pass by. Feeling the cool air brush up against them, it felt so tranquil as if they were a couple and just out on a date in the park or something.

Then Haruka's grandmother, Yukari-san spoke and brought Rai back down to reality, where Haruka had just been attacked by her own mother and they were at a noisy hospital. He remained where he was, comforting Haruka still as her and her grandmother conversed. His eyes blinked when she handed Haruka a flashdrive, a gift of sorts from her mother? Weird.

When Haruka stood, so did Rai, he nodded when Yukari requested they head for the car and began to walk but noticed that Haruka had linked their fingers together. His heart fluttered in his chest and a smile tugged at his lips. He very gently bumped her playfully as they made their way to the car.

[Nicolette]

The rest of the day passed like a blurr. Haruka had spent her time with Rai, sitting in the backyard as they chatted about school, people from school, the SFF, Japan, and anything else that didn't pry too deeply into the other's life or past. Dinner had come and gone and Haruka had actually eaten a little more than she did the previous night, but not by much. She retired to her bedroom early, and she had been sitting at her desk for the past three hours, staring at the computer screen of her laptop.

It was ten o'clock at night and she still hadn't touched the flash drive that sat on her laptop keyboard. Why would her mother have such a thing? Her mother had never been one for computers; that was her father. Haruka had inherited her father's intelligence, and then some. But now, she was afraid of what she might find on the flash drive. Why would her mother insist on her having it? What use would it be to her?

Another half hour passed before she reached forward and grabbed the device. She plugged it in and it felt like hours before the computer recognized the device and opened up the folder. She looked over the various inner folders and found one entitled 'Journal Entries'. She decided it would be her best bet in finding out exactly what she was reading. She clicked into the folder and found a number of files listing over the years. She clicked on one of the last ones, one called 'Journal, 2000'. She opened it and waited for the text to show.

01.01.00
Y2K did not happen, so we can go back to work, just as I had predicted. I decided to run a CAT scan on a telepath, trying to see if there was a change in brain patterns that we could find, possibly to see if there is something we could go on... Oh, the life of a scientist.

Scientist...? She paled and swallowed hard, scrolling down and skimming other entries. She caught words such as 'magic' and 'research' and 'special DNA'... She had a horrible feeling that she knew what this was. She continued on, but paused and scrolled back up when she passed a word that looked oddly like...

Her name...

04.17.09
They want to run an experiment using my dear Haruka. We believe we have found a difference in the DNA of a specific magic user and we wish to see if we can genetically engineer the DNA into Haruka's system. She's the youngest of the whole laboratory, so we believe her DNA would be more willing to adapt to that of another set of DNA. Tsukiko will probably be very angry that we are doing this to our daughter, but this is a risk we have to take. If there is a way we can do this, think of the kind of people we will have for the future. I will talk to Dr. Eiji this evening and get things prepped for surgery.

Her eyes were wide by the end of the entry. This was definitely her father... He even admitted that Haruka was the daughter of him and Tsukiko! There was no hesitation in his decision! He was going to experiment on her, even if it could possibly kill him! She clenched her fists and willed herself to read on.

04.30.00
Last night, Haruka went into surgery. The surgery took six hours, and it was another four hours before she woke up. When she woke up, she was screaming and she nearly destroyed the room without even moving. The power is evident, though there is no telling how long she will last. Dr. Asuma wants to put Haruka back into surgery and reverse the process. I want to keep this going, just for a little while longer. I want to see if her body gets used to this.

05.07.00
Haruka was rushed into emergency surgery this morning. She had nearly impaled herself with a knife by making it float through the air and fly at herself. For the first few days, she seemed to take the change rather calmly. She would just lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. Sometimes, things would move in the room. However, when she woke up this morning, she was screaming again and she had nearly killed herself and the nurse attending to her. The experiment was a failure for now. We will have to find better methods for next time.

Haruka stood up from her laptop, taking a few staggered steps back. Had he seriously kept her in such pain for a whole week? Had he really considered doing the experiment again? After reading all of this, she suddenly felt ill, and then her head began to hurt.

She felt the pain again. The memories were resurfacing. She could feel the pain in the body and she could hear the screams echoing in her mind. She fell to her knees, gasping and gripping her head. She locked this all away! She had locked this all AWAY!

She was curled up on the ground and her hand hit against her suitcase. She felt the front of it, reaching inside until she found her small little box. She gasped a few more times until she was able to force the razor from the box.

She took her shirt and tore at it until it fell to the ground next to her. She took the razor to her arms and began to slice her skin as hard and fast as she could, the tears falling down her cheeks.

Tear away the pain. Tear away the pain. TEAR AWAY THE GOD DAMN PAIN!

She got some pretty intense cuts on her wrists and a few on her stomach and chest before she let out shattering scream and the pain went away. Everything was numb as the blood stained the carpet. She collapsed to the floor, consciousness leaving her.

The bloody razor blade was clutched in her hand.

[Faye]

The conversation Haruka and himself were having pleased Rai, he loved hearing her talk and she was being a bit more lively than she was earlier that day and also the previous night. Dinner was good, too, she appeared to have eaten more than usual which made him feel a little more at ease about her.

Apart from those, the night was uneventful and soon enough Rai found himself back up in the guest room, staring up at the ceiling in the cold guest bed that felt a little too hard compared to his own bed back on the island. He was actually beginning to miss the island... the people there, in fact, he missed school in general but he just wanted to be with Haruka the most.

His grey-ish blue eyes slowly closed as he felt himself drift off into dream land where he would dream of everything he desired.

Until a shattering scream startled him. His eyes snapped back open and he recognised the scream to be Haruka's, much too young for it to be one of her grandparents, no offense to them. He darted out of the room wearing only a simple, skin tight white tank-top and a pair of boxer shorts and made his dash for Haruka's bedroom. He flung open the door, his eyes widening and he felt ill in the pit of his stomach at the sight of all the blood staining the carpet...

His eyes then laid upon Haruka's unconscious body lying on the floor, a razor blade rested in her hand, cuts were all over her body. Despite his want to throw up and faint himself he forced himself over to her on sheer adrenaline. "Haruka! Haru-chan! Wake up, please be alright!" He pleaded to her lifeless looking body as he gently picked her up off the floor, the blood trickling down onto the floor.

"RYOTARO, YUKARI-SAN!!" He called out as loud as he could, he could feel his ear drums vibrating from the noise.