Unexpected Guests, pt. 1

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<B>[ AȥαႦυ-JυႦαɳ, Tσƙყσ, Jαραɳ (αɳ αʅʅҽყ ʂσɱҽɯԋҽɾҽ ɳҽαɾ ƚԋҽ Tҽɳσԋ ɾҽʂιԃҽɳƈҽ). ]</B> <I>It started with a whisper,</I> gloves as black as coal pinching and scraping at her tender scalp, ripping at the hair cascading around slender shoulders and yanking her neck backward with unrestrained ferocity. <I>It started with a whisper,</I> a muffled scream from the depths of an alleyway followed by a piercing... cackle. And though the day had been brilliant, a black fog seemed to creep from that same alleyway with the stalking gait of a predator, billowing out like an ape puffing its chest in all directions. A single hunched figure was enshrouded by the embrace of darkness, the shadows and putrid wisps of fog wrapping themselves like a blanket around her rocking body. Her silky black skirt was gathering dust being pressed so hard into the ground by the weight of her knees while wretched hands twined themselves in raven locks, fingers pulling too hard. The sound of hair being removed by the root was only audible to the open-mouthed girl, whisper-screaming, smoke passing through her purple-lined lips, borne from without the black lining of her lungs. <I>It started with a whisper...</I> A tenuous note of a song nearly-forgotten, now being repeated with feverish delight, torso undulating with unbidden glee as the song reached its crescendo... A true outpouring of the soul that echoed through the empty alleyway. It was as if the mysterious fog had formed a protective barrier, concealing the strange girl and her strange actions from the public's eye. They were blind to the smoke, blind to her shrieking, blind... Sheep. Baaaah. Well, what did she care? Her song wasn't for them, anyway. No, it was meant to penetrate the heart of another. Her mouth sealed itself, and gloves hands untangled themselves from her hair. In both, there were sizeable chunks of hair clenched tight, and the heat she felt at the top of her scalp suggested she was bleeding - but her joy numbed the pain. To be back, to be here on the streets of Tokyo again? The wait had been worth it. It was just as her Mistress had promised. In six years time, she would be back on Earth... And to the day, as was promised? So she had returned. Yami was crying with unbridled joy, too overwhelming an emotion to contain behind glossy eyes. Black tears spilled down her cheeks, stains of eyeliner mixed with thick mascara marring her corpse-white flesh. Now, a gloved hand reached to her side, flattening on the wall. And then there was a crunch, as concrete crumbled into her palm and with the very meat of the building she hoisted herself to her full height. Which, presently, wasn't that imposing. It matched her sister's... she assumed. They were identical in almost every physical way, some might even mistake her for the other as she bent to reclaim her parasol, tossing aside locks of hair and the accompanying bloody roots. But the demeanor of the pair starkly contrasted one another - her sister often appeared gentle, calm, and in a word: <B>normal.</B> She, herself, lacked any of her sibling's softer traits. She was all sharp arrogance and flippant exaggerations of movement, each and every gesture performed as if on a stage. Did it matter that the theater was empty and she performed to humor herself? No. If one could just look at her as she was, blood dripping from the wound she bore on her scalp, one couldn't imagine another saner version of her walked the Earth and was even hailed a ([n] unlikely) hero by its citizens. Logically two very opposite people should not have spawned from the same single source... Yet here they were. Sometimes reality defies logical expectation. But enough of that, let's refocus on the girl.  Though the trek to find her sister had just begun, already her chest was heaving even as she fought 'compose' herself for appearance's sake; her eyes were wild... darting from side to side as she gingerly waltzed from the alleyway. Her 'fog' was enough to mask her presence from the ignorant humans swarming about like hundreds of worker-bees. She glided through foot traffic, her ash grey parasol shielding her delicate complexion from overcast skies. Though her stride felt fluid, if anyone were actually able to observe her, they'd see nothing but a hot mess - her motions were jilted, lacking grace, and honestly? A tad bit bizarre. Her posture scarcely remained straight, and her entire being seemed to be swaying with the wind - however, the wind was dangerously close to overtaking her, the only thing that kept her going her drive to reach her sister. <B>She</B> was why Yami had come back, after all... If not for her beloved sister, she would have probably given this planet a single-fingered salute, bidding farewell to such a wretched world. Then she would see it destroyed. She had no intention of allowing Earth to remain as it was. And because they were family, she would allow her sister a month's time to choose the <B>right</B> side and abandon this hellhole. After all, what had <B>Earth</B> ever given the pair of them aside from misery? Their home life had been nothing but abusive to the twins; their father was a mad scientist, resurrecting the dead with his machines. Day after day, week after week, the experimenting never seemed to end... for her sister, leading to increased health problems that resulted in long bouts of illness and hospitalization, year after year. As for herself, well... perhaps she should have thanked her lucky stars that their father never seemed to want anything to do with her. She witnessed first hand the monster he had created from the ruined body of her beloved sister, why should she want that kind of attention? And yet... In retrospect, all of her outrageous behavior, all of her bullying her much weaker half, she understood it now as instinctive desperation to seek the love she had been deprived of from a father that didn't know how to love. Like a savage, mercilessly she had ripped brick after brick out of her twin's already-cracked foundation. She had wanted to watch her collapse in on herself... maybe even die. Because though her love burned for her white-hot like a brand, her hatred brought numbing buckets of ice water to soothe smoldering flames. Maybe... Maybe she should have died, like their mother, instead of having allowed herself to come this far. Then perhaps the other could have known some semblance of peace growing up - as much as what was permitted a child as special as she. How <B><U>tragic</U></b> it must have been for her sister, that the girl had been chosen for a higher purpose and had escaped the twisted wreckage of their car alive and unscathed. If their father were alive, she'd rub it in his face-- that she was better than her sister, more important than her sister, and he had obsessed over the wrong girl. Why he had been so bent on her frail, incapable form seemingly stunted and unable to grow to its fullest potential while beside her, the better twin had blossomed like a flower into the petite, heartthrob that she was? Anyone would be foolish to draw some kind of comparison - her sister was a pale shadow of the glory that SHE was. What would she have to do to get them to-- <B>w a i t.</B> Why was she getting so suddenly worked up? They were going to die in a month's time. With or without her sister at her side, she would destroy this damned planet. Then perhaps the chemical-soaked memories would be obliterated as well. The scent of burnt flesh and oil still clung to her skin; idly she adjusted her grip on the parasol and flexed long, skinny fingers toward the opposite arm where clothed fingertips dug at snowy flesh, turning it raw as if to scrape off the ghost of that insidious memory. Why must it follow her? ...The girl steeled her resolve. It didn't matter if her mind wished to betray her; all would be renewed by her purging darkness. More fog passed between her lips, extending skeletal fingers out towards passersby. However, this time? It wasn't such a harmless gesture. They curled around the <B>shadows</B> of innocent people and wrench them away, pulling the panicking manifestations of darkness into her bubble until they were no longer separate entities, but a part of her entourage. The men and women robbed of their shades crumpled to the sidewalk as if tripped, color drained from their person. How stupid they were, longing for a piece of themselves they didn't know the name to. How could one miss what they never understood in the first place? That was obviously how her family felt after she had run away from them into the embrace of-- well, it was just her now. And the alluring siren that sang from the coldest corner of her heart from time to time, her every word making the girl feel as though she had been plunged into a frigid lake. They were the hot vines of the numbingly cold water digging into her youthful flesh and culling from it her very essence. Despite the terrifying way in which that was described, it was maybe the second most exhilarating feeling she had ever experienced ...next to right now. The joy consuming her heart made even the beauty's enticing words ring unsatisfying and empty around the hollow halls of her heart. Around the girl's figure, pedestrians would cave at the knee... And one by one their shadows would be devoured into her gloom, fueling her as she released increasing amounts of fog that began to take over the city street. Of course, regular humans were blind to this -- they would simply experience overwhelming fatigue and, like those who had their shadows wrested from their beings, give into the inexplicable urge to <B>s l e e p.</B> <I>Perfect.</I> She was the eye of her own storm, and all around her, she could see through the haze of her smoke the damage she doled out to these infernal humans. Like cows being herded toward the slaughterhouse, they did not see her and kept coming her way. None realized anything was 'wrong,' her smoke had the illusory ability to insinuate a false sense of normalcy, all the while sneakily she stole from them their energy... and their shadows. This was too easy. How oblivious they all were!! The presence of her sister grew stronger, her negative aura attracting her like a moth to a flame. Or, maybe that analogy was far too backward. She was the clueless moth and the girl was the beautiful, flicking flame that crept ever closer. Would her sister <B>feel</B> her coming? They shared a bond that could not be severed by mere distance. It had been dulled these years, numbed by the siren in her head to mask from her sister what was being done to the girl's body and soul. Darkness had plunged itself into her every pour, molesting any innocence she dared retain until not a speckle lay untainted by the perverse seduction of chaos. The pull of her flesh and blood called her home... Through suburban Azabu-Juban, her trailing fog making the slate-grey sky even darker... It was as if night had fallen on Tokyo early in the day!! <I>It started with a whisper...</I> A tenuous note of a song nearly-forgotten -- reclaimed at last. "<B>Hooootaaaaaaruuuuu...</B>" She was practically screaming for her sister now, at the top of her longs, her head thrown back in sheer ecstasy as those three delectable syllables ruptured from the depths of her blackened soul... She screamed and screamed, a sound only Hotaru could hear, until her throat was bleeding just as her scalp and just as her arm were doing. And oh, she wouldn't be silenced until.... <B><U>"It ended with the echo of a door being slammed open."</B></U> Steel eyes crushed against violet, but before a single word was uttered, the very Earth itself had shifted and the girl with her parasol stumbled. A piercing pink shaft of light could be seen even through her inky fog --but though Hotaru's face visibly scrunched against it, she was bolting toward the tumbling, "<I>Yami!</I>" But the kiss of pavement was closer than Hotaru's disembodied voice and blurring form... "<I>YAMI!</I>" {<B>E</B>}
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HOTARU'S RESPONSE
Leaving her coat behind may or may not have been the smartest idea around, but Hotaru didn't feel as though she had been left with much of a choice. She couldn't stand by and let that child freeze on the streets. Whether he was a homeless orphan or just some bratty kid that had refused to put on his coat (even after his mother had begged him to do so), in the violet eyes of the petite young woman, both were equally in need. Of course, he hadn't visibly reacted to her offer - they had stood there so long in silence she felt as though the girl vibrating with energy at her side should have already detonated before she gave in holding it out to him. Instead, she'd folded it neatly and laid it at his feet in hopes that he'd see reason and take it. It was far too chilly for somebody his size to be without a coat. And while Hotaru wasn't much larger than him, she was certainly...made of sturdier stuff. Saturnians were notoriously accustomed to graveyard climates. Though on the surface she was human, at her core... well... She lifted her chin up to the sky and exhaled, her breath condensing into a white cloud. Beside her, Diana giggled and clapped and made to imitate her. Warmed by this, she'd shoot one last glance over her shoulder to see if the child had taken the coat ...but he was no longer visible through the densely-packed sidewalk clogged with morning foot-traffic. 'Ah, well...' Hotaru twined her fingers with Diana's, and soon the pair would arrive at the park. After all, it wasn't much of a walk. It was just down the street, in fact! They'd really only had to cross it and then boom! The playground! Diana had been overcome with excitement, she'd teetered over to the equipment faster than Hotaru could blink, a small blur of white-and-grey that soon disappeared among the bodies of the other children whose parents had allowed them to brave the weather and enjoy this nice, albeit chilly day. Sure, there wasn't any sun to speak of, but the temperature was mild for this time of year! Hotaru relinquished the book bag she had been carrying this entire time (she had to shift it around after removing her coat but it was back and better than ever) onto a nearby bench and, after unzipping it, began to rummage around the largest pocket for ... aha! Her notebook. Still working on that report about the Edo Period. End-of-semester projects were the worst, weren't they? So while Diana was playing, she found a pencil in the sack and went back to crafting her rough draft. Things went on this way for about twenty minutes or so... Until a feeling so negative her stomach found itself in an instant knot slammed into with such shocking an amount of force that she half cried out, and the writing utensil fell from her grasp. But that was to be expected, was it not? Hotaru.... couldn't believe what she was feeling. It was so painfully familiar that she was left winded. Around her, the children still played, oblivious to the pins and needles impaling her from behind -- impossibly, she felt as though she were being watched. Which was... absolutely irrational because of course people were watching them! They were in public! But that sensation of a cold, reptilian gaze sliding itself like the hands of a predator around her neck and pulling her back toward it... It was as if the world were shrieking and being hushed into silence simultaneously, everything too loud but too eerily quiet and that gaze, heavy with malicious intent, never left the back of her head. Out in the open like this, often time she had been confronted by malignant entities whose intentions were less than noble when they salaciously lingered on her petite frame. Though she could not read their thoughts, the nature of their perverse minds she wasn't ignorant to. She'd defended herself on multiple occasions, after leaving cram school in the evenings - often staying far past what others her age did, so immersed in her studying she was.... that by the time she departed, the street lights dimly lit the pavement and she was ensconced by the darkness. Predators with similarly cold, dead stares thought they could get the upper hand on her... little did they know she would eat them alive. They saw her small, but womanly, figure, her bobbed hair, her backpack... and picked her off as weak. They underestimated her, delegated her to the role of a child. Well... They were mistaken, choosing her as their 'victim.' She put them to justice, each and every time... But this? This time it was different. Hotaru was certain nobody actually saw her -- this was disembodied. A phantom. These eyes, they were penetrating her mind and their sheer power daunted her; her, one of the most powerful beings walking the Earth at this moment. Her, able to destroy with the snap of her fingers.... Her. And she was frightened because the only one capable of dealing the kind of damage one such as Hotaru could deal had to be... well... Her. And this ominous stare, it reminded Hotaru of the girl from her dreams. Though beyond the haze of slumber... This was far more oppressive than she believed possible. Yami was making good on her promise ... it seems as though she had come. Without a word, she jammed her notebook back into her bag, shouldered it (without zipping it, yes) and stood up. Her pencil crunched beneath the toe of her boot. "Diana, sweetie... I think it's time we head home." And even though it was as if they had just gotten there, by now she was sure the tiny Mau could sense something was wrong. Whether she argued or not, by the end of it all, Hotaru would have her hand firmly in hers and, very briskly she marched them back toward her mother's house. She took a long way back toward the Tsukino residence, trying to outrun those eyes but now... now there was a voice, too! It was hushed at first, growing more and more frantic as if matching the movements of the two girls. By the time they reached the halfway point, it was almost unbearably loud. And powerful. A psionic attack! She could hear in her head, this loud singing. Those bloodshot reptile eyes were accompanied by manic screams whispering her name like some twisted prayer.... Sending more pins into her fragile heart. Though she doubted Diana could hear anything, they would see fog descending on the area like a thick blanket. It carried with it a siren's song, and around them, people were falling comatose like dominoes. The experience was probably frightening for the girl, and though Hotaru herself was scared - she didn't know Yami was so... capable... She remained a silent rock for Diana, crowding the girl close, their hands locked. So silent were they that the sound of her communicator buzzing was a startle. Oh Gosh... She hurriedly reached for her bag again to ... oh where was it!?? In those dreadfully long few seconds that it had been buzzing, perhaps too long for the other on the opposite end of the line, Hotaru couldn't help but try and keep them moving, it was rather hard, however, to make sure that she didn't lose anything with the one free hand she had. "Luna...? Yeah, I see it.... The fog is really thick out here and-- yeah, we're almost there. I can see your house just up the street-- a pink light? No, I haven't seen...." And mid-sentence, her throat closed up. Because, finally, Hotaru finally took in her surroundings. They were indeed in the Mau's neighborhood.... The fog wasn't quite as thick here, but... O-oh... Oh no. No, no, no, no.... It can't... no, it can't... "Diana, run to your mama. Please, go now." The words were hushed, but she was sure the frightened little kitten had heard her. Gently, Hotaru released her hand and gave the smallest of shoves to her shoulders to give her a head start. But what was frightening was that she had to allow the girl to run in the direction of where the fog cleared. At the very core, heaving smoke by the gallon from her lungs. But hopefully, if the pair had seen the same thing, Diana was running as far away from that woman as she possibly could. Luna's house wasn't too far, it lay between the two... Who locked eyes just as she heard a door slam open. A child darted out into the fog and she saw a flash of red hair--- but then the world was shaking. And though she almost lost her balance, what really got her was, "Yami?!" The figure of a petite girl who looked identical to Hotaru, save for her knee-length black hair, started to sway, 'Is she going to fall?' Her body moved before her mind could understand why it was doing so, and she ran at, "YAMI!!!" with everything she had in her but. But Yami, her sister... her dark-hearted sister... had already fallen and lay very, very still.... {E}