| Fan Fiction |
by ferine
She blinked a few times to adjust to the light then gradually sat up in bed, trying to orientate herself. She scanned the usual peaceful room and her sight landed on the empty sofa bed that Kame slept on every night. She closed her eyes and tried to organize her thoughts a little, something at the back of the mind told her that she was suppose to go somewhere today. Then she frowned, hadn’t Kame asked her yesterday if she could give him a tour around places Erika used to frequent? Where did he go early in the morning?
Maki looked around and notice a slip of paper on her bedside table. She picked it up and read:
Maki,
I have some place to go first, I’ll meet you straight at your high school at noon.
Kame
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Kame placed a bouquet of tulips on the cold stone before him. He knelt down before the photo of his beloved Erika that was hitched painfully on the cold tombstone. He allowed his hands to reach out for the photo caressing it as though it would inject warmth into the person in the photo and it would suddenly come to life.
“Erika…” Kame breathed her name carefully into the chill of the morning air. “You understood me so well, my every thoughts never escaped your notice. It’s the same this time, isn’t it?
Kame leaned his head against the tombstone for support and stared off into the distance.
“You know… I’m really confused now. Ever since you left me, I’ve never opened my heart to anyone. I thought it would remain that way till the day that I join you. For the past 6 years, you occupied my every waking moments and my dreams, I didn’t think that it could be possible that there would be space for anyone else. But lately… someone else had been intruding my thoughts. You know her too… She was brought to me by a twist of fate. Of all the people my father chose, it had to be her, your best friend. She helped me up in my darkest times, untied the knot that has been tormenting me in my heart. With her around, I always felt at ease. I never thought I would meet anyone that could give me that kind of feeling other than you. But I don’t know, is this kind of feeling pure gratitude towards her? Or if I had taken her as you, or do I really feel something special towards her? Erika… would you blame me for these feelings?”
A soft breeze blew across, caressing his face and for a moment he thought an all-too-familiar scent lingered in the air. Her scent…
“Erika?” Kame bolted upright, looking around confusedly. But as soon as the breeze came, it stopped. There was no one in sight, no more of that lingering scent, no Erika.
He mentally laughed at himself for actually thinking for a moment that Erika had been there beside him. How could she have? He looked at the cold tombstone that stood as solid as ever on the cold ground that buried his beloved. Erika’s face on the tombstone smiled back at him. Then he leaned back against the tombstone again, closing his eyes he drifted off to sleep.
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It was near noon when he woke up, the sun almost directly overhead him, the chill of the morning air had disappeared, replaced by the sweltering heat from the sun. He took awhile to register the surroundings as light flooded his eyes. Slowly he stood up from the tombstone and made his way down after getting one last glance at the tombstone. It was time to move on.
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Maki was already there when Kame reached. She was dressed in a simple white wrapover dress that ended just above her knees. She stood by an old tree, her hands laid upon the trunk as she looked fondly at whatever she was fingering. A light smile was evident upon her serene face; she seemed to be in a rather good mood today.
“Maki!” Kame called out while jogging lightly up to her.
She turned towards the direction of his voice and smiled, waving for him to join her. “Look at this” she pointed to some sort of vandalism carved deep in the bark of the tree she was fingering. There must be about a hundred of those; most of them screamed abusive language aimed at someone with the nickname of “Toad-eyed Gumi”.
Kame raised his eyebrows and looked curiously over at a rather amused Maki waiting for her to explain what this was all about. “This was written by Erika. We came here quite a lot; she likes to carve her feelings in these trees. She doesn’t mind bearing her heart to the world, and well… let’s just say the world isn’t that keen to share her thoughts. We got into a really deep trouble when the teachers found out about this queer habit of hers. And they couldn’t really do anything about it since unlike some other furnitures they couldn’t possibly paint over these scribblings and also it seems silly to get someone to cut down the tree just because some student decided to carve stuff in it. So I guess that leaves them no choice but to leave these as it is. But at least, there’s something that Erika left behind. I, on the other hand, was pretty much the kind of person you would call a model student. Doing things so that people around me would be happy, never doing things that would upset anyone. But that also meant that I did not express myself as much as I wanted to, often restricted by my thoughts of others. Sometimes I wished I were as forthright as Erika was, at least I would be able to face myself more truthfully.”
Kame looked at Maki earnestly, “there’s nothing wrong with it really,” he spoke softly. “Everyone is different, Erika lives her way and you live yours. There’s not much to compare between the both of you.” Somehow, his words seem to awaken something that had been asleep in him. He recalled the first time he met Maki again and how she seemed to remind him so much of Erika. How she loved tulips as much as Erika does. How similar her eyes was to Erika and how similar the effect those eyes had on him. But really, the similarities ended there, he was clear now that they are 2 different entities, and yet the feelings he had for both of them remained so similar…
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A sleeping figure laid on the vast bed, chest heaving heavily, the sheets crumpled around him by his own movement. If you went closer, you could hear the soft moans escaping his throat.
“Maki…” he called out softly, his voice heavy with desire.
Suddenly, he gasped and woke up with a start. He could hear his heart pumping in his ears. Looking around, he realized he just woke up from a dream, and a very erotic one at that. His body was covered in glistening sweat and his clothes stuck uncomfortably to his skin. Swiftly, he took off his drenched shirt and tossed it to the side, then giving a grunt he got out of bed and walked to his private bathroom. When he looked at his own reflection in the mirror he saw that wet spot on his boxers just above the groin area and swore. All the images of his dream of beautiful Maki pressed under him came flooding back. Just thinking about it alerted his little brother as it started to harden once again.
“Damn…” he cursed. Ever since that incident yesterday, he found that he wanted Maki so badly. It was natural right? To want to make love to the person he loved most. This desire had been put away all this time because they had more pressing issues at hand, but now that all was well with Yui, this desire returned. He was alarmed at how fast it came back to him but was even more amazed at how he had managed to push it down all this while. In the past, he was all in all a bad boy, sex came naturally to him. Perhaps Maki’s goodness had somehow rubbed off on him for he was behaving like a good little boy all this while. He took a deep breath and pressed his hand against his throbbing erection, hoping to ease it but it wasn’t helping much. Deciding that he needed a cold shower, he jumped right into the shower area and blasted the cold water down on himself.
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Weird, he swore he had searched almost every inch of the house and still there was no sign of Maki. Where could she be? He stopped one of the maids nearby and asked about her whereabouts but all that he got was that she had went out early in the morning and no one knew where she went.
Putting aside his thoughts, he focused on another matter that needed to be dealt with. He picked up his cell phone and dialed the number to his right hand man. It was time to end his ties with the underworld.
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“Aniki, do you know what it means to leave the organization?” A young boy who looked like he was still in his teens asked. Even though he was young, his eyes emanated a certain sharpness that told others that his maturity was way beyond that of a normal teen.
“I do know, and I’ve already prepared myself for it.”
“But Aniki!” the boy protested.
“Yuya, I’ve made up my mind. Any protests will be futile.”
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A fat drop of water fell onto her cheeks. Before long another dropped on her shoulder and slowly the droplets of water turned into a downpour. Kame and Maki ran for shelter at the nearest school building. However, by the time they reached, both were soaked to their skin. When Kame looked over to Maki, he immediately turned away when he saw the light white cloth sticking to her skin. At the same time, Maki noticed her own dismal condition and felt heat creeping up her cheeks.
Trying as much to protect her own decency she squatted down and hugged her knees to herself, hoping it would cover whatever was showing through the material. When she found her comfortable position she started to feel the cold biting in, the wind was blowing hard. She looked down the corridor and realized that the doors to the classrooms were tight shut and she remembered that it was always locked during school holidays.
Kame soon realized the shivering figure on the floor. Without thinking, he removed his outer coat and wrapped it around her, hoping it would at least keep some of her warmth in. Inside he was wearing only a singlet that clung on to his skin. That was when Maki saw the marks, or more accurately… the scars.
“Your…” Maki started, eyes fixed upon his back.
He noticed where she was staring but did not bother to hide it. “Oh this…” he looked over his shoulder at his scars. “This is the price for my freedom.”
“Your freedom?”
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Pi walked calmly up to the two leather straps hanging down. This was the only way he could retreat, the one and only way. He strapped each of his hands to the leather strap and waited for his judgment. Although nothing more could be further from a fair one. The air in the room was chilly; the walls were painted red with blood from his predecessors. This was his fate.
The first whip cracked through the air.
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“It’s a rule of the underworld. Because I chose to leave the organization, it is by the rule that I would have to endure the whippings from my brothers. Those who have willingly entrusted their lives in my hands, I will have to pay them back. That is why the higher you climb in your organization, the more whippings you would have to endure.”
Through his singlet, Maki could easily see numerous scars, who knows how much more will be revealed under that singlet. She shuddered at the thought of Kame going through the process, emerging with fresh blood oozing from his back. It is not that easy to leave the mafia after all. Then fear suddenly gripped her heart, she didn’t know much about Pi’s affairs in the gang, but still she could guess that he held a rather high position, after all he’s made officially the heir to the gang. How many whippings would he have to endure? At that thought, Maki was loss for words. She just continued to stare at the back of Kame.
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He had not uttered a word throughout the process, each whip that landed on his skin seared through his previously inflicted wound. There was hardly a sign of raw flesh left; the only sight that was clear is that of his blood running down his back. But to him, it was almost as if he had no feeling left, his back was numb to everything that was inflicted upon him. The only thought that kept him alive, that kept him breathing… was her.
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Kame and Maki walked down the streets stopping by a rather deserted playground.
“This is where we like to meet in the night. Whenever one of us need a listening ear at night we would come here.” Maki smiled and walked towards one of the swings, sat down and started swinging herself lightly.
Kame sat himself on the swing next to her. For a long time, both of them sat in silence. Until he heard the soft sobbing beside him, That was when he realized Maki was crying.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Maki shook her head, “There’s an uneasy feeling tugging at my heart. Maybe visiting all the places we used to frequent has brought back overwhelming memories.”
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Pi stumbled out of the dark room. The soft wind blowing through him was almost biting. He staggered towards the main door, hardly able to hold the weight of his heavy body up. He took a deep breath to steady himself, but all that went up his nostrils was the metallic smell of his blood tainted body.
He pushed himself forward, walking seemingly with intent. He would not die… could not die… there was still someone waiting for him. After today, it would be a new beginning, one that he earned painfully, for himself… and for her.
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A/N
lolz i can't believe how long i took to write this chapter... feeling tired now... yawnz.