Inai Ni Yami ((Within Darkness)) {{FINISHED}}

Inai Ni Yami ((An Original Story)) Chapter 35

Chapter 35

“Ta- I mean, Ruko? What’s wrong?” Daisuke caught up with me, and standing next to him was a timid girl with silver hair. Not white or grey, but literally silver, as if it were made of wires. The strands even had a strange look to them. She looked up to me, and her violet eyes flashed from exposure to the light above us. Something about her… so familiar… “Oh, this is Aria Deane, daughter of the First House. She looked a bit uncomfortable with the others, so I pulled her along.” Daisuke grinned, showing that he actually trusted the girl, and if not that, he liked her. I’d have to discourage him from trying to go further soon, just so that he wouldn’t end up the way I felt everyday now. 

“Nice to meet you,” I said politely to Aria, extending my hand. “I’m Ruko, a friend of Hiro’s.” Aria stared at my hand, and then looked down at her own at her side, covered over by long loose white sleeves. Her dress was much the same, long and loose around her body, but her neckline was strange. A turtleneck dress. Too much white on one person, I thought, waiting. 

Finally, she stepped away from me and looked to the Kurai’s walking around. When her eyes landed on me, she said one simple sentence. “My brother hated you, Takeyama.” With that, she turned to Daisuke with a timid smile and bowing down slightly, walked away. 

Wait, what? Brother? Maybe that’s Why she looked so familiar. Because of her brother… Who did I know with hair like that…? We were left to stare in confusion, those question drifting through my mind, just as Keisuke walked over to us from the other side of the procession. “I think I’m done here,” he said in his silent, husky voice, his eyes showing he wanted to be anywhere but here. I agreed with him there. 

Lastly, we needed Rio and Rika to come back. I looked about but saw nothing of either, and that was becoming a problem. If their instant changers’ had died, they’d be the easiest targets with Rio still in training and Rika practically vulnerable when her abilities relied mostly on knocking her targets out. With this many people, it would be too much. “You guys, time to search for Rio and Rika. We meet here in five minutes, and if we still don’t find them, you’ll have to do some quick hacking, Daisuke.”

Daisuke nodded in answer to the last command, while Keisuke had already gone off in search of the other two kagami’s. I went on too, going my own separate way. But how ironic that that direction just so happened to lead me towards the woman from before who now was sitting beside another crying woman - but the difference with this woman and all the other guests in the place was this: she was a Dorei. 

Gold curls cascaded over her shoulders and down her back. A white wraparound dress hugged her body, small black jewels similar to the black haired woman’s dress decorated her own dress, but in much simpler patterns. As I approached, the middle of a sentence drifted to my ears: “…they’re going to kill me. Not even take me to the Pound!” And finally, I realized who the Dorei must’ve belonged to. 

Kurai’s, when they died, usually relinquished their Dorei’s to a Pound so that they may either reproduce or be used again by another Kurai. That wasn’t the case with Dorei’s that belonged to either of the six Houses for the fact that anyone could use them to tell any secrets of the Houses that they may have accidentally heard. This Dorei was no doubt set to die now, being the Dorei of the one and only Daisuke Shiroi. Poor Girl. And I can help her. Putting on my game face, I walked forward and introduced myself to the woman, not bothering to listen to the black haired woman’s protests. “Hello, my name is Takeyama and I may be able to help you out.”

We never did find Rio or Rika. Soon after I’d hidden the Dorei away and met up with Keisuke and Daisuke, we’d had some hacking done. Rika was purposely blocking us, that much was sure. Rio, on the other hand, was just a dead end. His mind was shut down - somewhere else. The funeral soon ended without giving us much an option to stay, and we left, the Dorei hidden inside our vehicle. None of us spoke, but it was clear at that point that the anger Daisuke had been feeling towards me had grown, and Keisuke, even though he looked calm, had an aura around him that said he was ready to kill someone. 

Leaving the vehicle in one of the sanctuaries secret parking lots, we made the shortest way to the sanctuary and from there, we separated. Keisuke stalked off to fin Yuki and do some training. Daisuke left to his room to do some more research on Evelyn Col Bailey, and I moved the Dorei in the direction of someone who could actually help her. 

Damn, in that moment, I felt so helpless. Sighing, I walked towards the only place I knew I’d get some peace and quiet in the sanctuary. The only place people would think I’d be in: Eve’s room. Her body looked as if it was breathing right then but I knew it only to be the electrical pulses sent through the wires inside her. Even if she wasn’t moving like me and the other kagami’s, her body still needed electric pulses to keep her “alive.” We kagami’s generated energy simply through moving, so with her unmoving state, the energy had to be supplied through the many machines connected to her “veins.” 

I sighed and leaned over her body, pressing my lips lightly to her forehead. Oh, god, if only we could be together long enough for her to finally see how we could be and long enough for me to keep her in my arms. If only, if only. “I’ll be back soon,” I whispered into her ear, thinking of the invites in my pocket. If possible, I’d get all the materials necessary to fix her up and find Rio and Rika. I had to… “Just… wait for me a little longer, ok? Just a little longer.” 

With that said and a little of my bad move shaved off a bit, I opened the door and turned to my right, ready to go to my own room, when I saw something I had never actually expected.

“Keisuke…s-stop! Please? Not h-h-here...." I didn’t really see Yuki, her small figure covered over by Keisuke’s body, but I didn’t need to see her. I only needed to see the possessive look that Keisuke gave her to know what was going on, heard the soft moan that left Yuki’s lips to tell me I should go away. Trying not to make a sound, I stumbled back into Eve’s room only to realize the door was closed. I smacked against the wall and Keisuke looked up, his ice blue eyes burning with a fiery passion that soon changed to hostility.

Yuki’s blushing face peeped out from past Keisuke’s shoulders and she froze. This was the most awkward moment in my life. I’d known Yuki used to like me, sometime back when we were all just regular kagami’s in ShiroTech. Then cam Eve, and I’d forgotten her completely. I just hadn’t realized that a spark between Yuki and Keisuke would happen, yet I could see it. All the while, Yuki had somehow been able to understand Keisuke when no one else has, and vice versa. That, and compared to the “friendships” of our little group, their’s was one that stepped on to the next level. 

Finally bringing common sense into my head, I stepped back, opened the door to Eve’s room and locked myself inside, facing a dead mask of calm that had never bothered to try and kiss me before in all the time I’d pursued her.

“We can’t… we’re just machines…”

“Damn it,” I hissed, looming over Eve’s body once more, caressing her cheek. “Damn… it!” If only I could cry and feel that same release Dorei and Kurai experienced when they let their emotions flow through tears. If only I wasn’t a machine and Eve wasn’t either. She’d have accepted me all those years ago. She wouldn’t have abandoned me. She wouldn’t be half dead and lying before me, unable to even generate simple energy for her bodies functions.