A collection of short stories

Monochrome Rainbow

(Fun fact corner: The idea for this actually came from Tokyo Ghoul. Somewhere in the first volume, Lize mentions a short story by Sen Takatsuki called "Monochrome Rainbow".)

Once in a while, in our little rainy town, we happen to have sightings of a grey rainbow. People call it the "Monochrome Rainbow". We are not sure what causes it, some think it is because of a varation of the rain and others say it's because of a so-called ghost that stole its colors. Of course the first option is much more believed and logical.

One day, a young boy named Hibiki decided to pierce the mystery around the Monochrome Rainbow, he was going to go directly at the feet of the rainbow. And so, he waited during days and days of rain until it finally appeared. Putting on his coat and slamming the door open, he ran outside and through the streets. He finally arrived to the town's gates, ignored the guards and got out of town. He stopped and looked up the sky, glancing at the Monochrome Rainbow. It seemed to be continuing and falling into the depths of the forest.

Without thinking, Hibiki turned to his right and ran towards the forest. He made his way through the streets, sometimes glancing over his head to see the Rainbow. He continued to ran through the trees, eventually encountering a wolf or a squirrel from time to time. After what seemed like hours of running, sometimes walking, he arrived in front of a small wooden house. The triangular roof of the house looked like it was reaching for the skies as the rainbow was falling down on it, getting cut. The house only had one small, round window, Hibiki approached it and tried to look inside. When he put his eyes againt the window, an eye other than the own of his reflection jumped in front of him.

A eye with all the colors of the rainbow contained in its iris. ...The color thief? The eye soon disappeared and Hibiki, pushed by a strange mix of fear and curiosity, decided to go for the wooden door. The wooden door was smaller than him, around the size of a child. He crouched and turned the small knob and pushed the door to open it. He entered the small house, it seemed much bigger now that he was inside.

In a corner, a young child was standing in front of a glass container that threw a bright white light on their faces. The child didn't seem to notice Hibiki, he decided to approach them. As he got closer to the child, he heard a voice, propably the child's :

"You've found me, entered my house, and now you've found the color..."

The child stood up, their white hair started to have reflections of all the colors of the rainbow. They turned around, revealing their colorful eyes. Those rainbow eyes... Judging by their apparence and voice, it was still unclear what gender the child was, if they even had a gender.

"I can't let you take the color..."

The child glared at Hibiki. Hibiki, confused, stood there, not sure of what he had to do. The child opened an hand and a colorful ball of what seemed to be light formed in their palm. The child then threw the ball at Hibiki. By simple reflexes, Hibiki attempted to dodge the ball, unfortunately, the ball flew past his shoulder, tearing off a bit of his skin. Hibiki looked at the open wound on his shoulder then back at the child. Confused and horrified, Hibiki rushed for the door. Locked. The child chuckled behind him.

"Sorry mister. Anything can enter but nothing gets out... Alive."

The voice seemed horribly close, Hibiki turned around, the child was right in front of him, as if they had teleported. The light contained in the spheric glass container behind them suddenly glew brighter than ever, blinding Hibiki. When he reopened his eyes, the child had become a teenager, it seemed. She was now almost at his height, "she" because the child turned out to be female, since she now had breasts.

"Ha ha~ Yes... The color made me stronger... Now I won't have any problem getting rid of you, don't you think~?"

Hibiki couldn't move, the girl was maintaining him stuck against the wall. He glanced at her right hand and noticed she had created a blade out of the colorful light. Her white hair traveled by the colors of the rainbow peacefully waved around from the wind that came in from the now open window. The girl glanced at the window, intrigued, and dropped Hibiki on the ground as the blade in her hand vanished into a bunch of colorful powder.

"Who's there?" She asked, apparently trying to find someone out of the window.

Suddenly, as the girl put her head at the height of the window to see better, a knife ended up in her right eye and her colorful blood splattered on the wall and on her face as she screamed. She held her eye with her left hand as a rainbow blade popped out of the palm of her right hand and she stabbed whoever was on the other side of that window. Blood. A scream of agony. The sound of a body falling on the ground. And a laughter of vengeance, coming from the girl. The girl removed her hand from her right eye. It was covered in blood, the iris was broken and turned monochrome. She turned to Hibiki.

"That guy was one of your friends wasn't he?! He came to save you, hm? Maybe you'd like to suffer the same end as him?!"

Hibiki was still sitting against the wall, unable to move or speak, because he was terrified, more than he's ever been.

"Oh, oh~ I'll have a lot of fun taking your color too~..."

Still unable to speak, Hibiki at least managed to stand up and run around the house, searching for a weapon.

"Why are you running~? There's no way you could hurt me with human weapons, just give up~!"

What to do? What to do? ...Of course, the glass sphere. It propably contained her power. Hibiki ran towards it.

"Where are you going~...?"

When she realised Hibiki was heading for the sphere, the girl screamed in rage and started to run with an inhuman speed.

"Oh no! Oh no, oh no! You're not touching this!"

Hibiki ran with all the speed he had, he reached the sphere. He put his hand on the sphere and pushed it over, the sphere fell off its pedestal.

"No! No! Please! Don't do that! I beg you!"

It soon touched the ground and broke in a million pieces.

"No!"

The light and colour contained in the sphere released and engulfed Hibiki and the girl. For a second, he thought he heard her crying. He then heard a scream of rage and felt a sharp object piercing his chest. He looked down, a rainbow blade had pierced his heart. He turned around and saw the girl disappearing with a surprisingly smiling expression on her face. His vision soon darkened and he was permanently lost in darkness. Oustide the cabin, the rainbow regained its colors and even the sky was tainted of all the colors of light. Everyone came out of their house to contemplate the sunny and rainbow sky. The monochrome rainbow had finally stopped.

...Later on, Hibiki found himself in an unending darkness, floating alone. Alone? He wasn't sure of that. He felt somebody's breathing behind him and turned around. He saw the girl standing behind him. Her white hair had become a dull grey and so did her eyes. All trace of color had been taken away from her.

"...You are..." Hibiki asked.

-"...Yes."

-"...The Monochrome Rainbow."

She nodded.

-"Thank you for freeing me."

-"Huh?"

-"I was born without color. I've always wanted to become colorful, and when I did, I turned insane. By taking the color away, you freed me."

-"...But we are..."

-"Dead, aren't we?" She smiled.

-"..."

-"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll meet in another life."

And she silently faded away, smiling. Hibiki looked around him as the darkness engulfed him. It seemed that he was ready to begin his new life. Maybe they'll meet again in this life...