Bungou Stray Dogs x OC ~ Alter Ego

Chapter 2

Her new life, as she had feared, was one of restricted freedoms and flavorless days. She had soon realized that her family had not adopted her out of love for children in general. 

No. Her new parents, far from being caring, had only thought about their estate. They already had children, certainly, a girl and a boy. But these two were not what one would call... docile children, far from it. 

They were more concerned with their bank account, fed by their rich parents' pocket money, and especially with what they could spend. What was the point of paying attention to what wasn't theirs, after all? Their parents were not so much to be pitied, with all the money they owned. 

But, strangely enough, they did not really agree with their children, who never came to visit them, except to ask to replenish their bank accounts. The unfortunate parents had then thought of a stratagem in order to palliate this problem in part, especially in the future. 

They did not want to leave such a large inheritance to children who would spend it all in such a brief time. Yui had therefore arrived in the family in order to change the situation. 

Her new parents had appointed her as the sole heir to their fortune, to the great despair of their biological children, who had taken this news very badly, as well as their pocket money, which was melting away, their father preferring to invest more in his new daughter, whom he intended to educate perfectly, so that she would not follow the path of her siblings. 

Yui, at the age of fifteen, had let herself be tossed around by the waves of this new life, accepting everything that was asked of her, proposed, or imposed without flinching for a second. Money was not what interested her, so she did not care. 

Because money could not buy everything. She had learned that the hard way, during her tumultuous past. 

Why would such wealthy people, who were so concerned about appearances and demands, take in a girl who didn't even have the use of her eyes? That was what their acquaintances from the big world had thought, before they were softened by the symbolism and nobility of the maneuver. 

A blind young woman was theoretically not attached to material things, and would be sure to spend her money wisely and intelligently, on things that were worthwhile. Giving a chance to a child like her was altruistic in the extreme, this poor little child who had never known anything but poverty and misery, who had never been able to see the world and its wonders with her own eyes. 

A child who was gentle, kind, docile, in a word the perfect daughter. Completely at odds with her half-siblings, who only thought of spending the money of their generous parents in a crude way. 

A touching story, at least on the surface. Yui, on the other hand, was well aware that she had been adopted out of self-interest, without any mercy from her parents. But if she had to look on the bright side, it was that she was now in a comfortable situation, without having to struggle to survive each passing day. 

Two years had passed since her adoption, and she could tell that her new family was satisfied with her. She never spoke out of turn, learned what she was told to learn, and was perfectly behaved. She never asked for anything, and had a smile that everyone loved, even if it was just one of many compliments in a world where people lied like they breathed. 

In secret, however, when her parents or the servants were not looking, Yui was busy with something else, typing on her brand-new computer with difficulty, she who had never really gotten used to all this technology, especially since she could not see anything. She sometimes spent hours searching for information on why she was here, the first step on her way to her longed-for freedom. At least, she hoped so. 

She had collected everything she could on this subject, well preserved in a notebook covered with holes, where she had obviously used Braille writing to do so, knowing that she could hardly read otherwise and that she wanted more than anything that no one would accidentally find it. 

With headphones in her ears to listen to the digitized voice that came out of the computer to guide her through her research, she dutifully took notes, not forgetting to delete her research history as soon as it was completed so that neither of her parents would notice. 

It was not the first time she had found her computer, or her workspace in general, in a different order than when she had left it. It was a sign that every move she made was being watched by her new family, to control and subdue anything that differed from their strict and perfect upbringing. 

This was part of the reason Yui's search had taken so long, not to mention her unusable eyes. But in the last few days, she had finally managed to find what she had been longing to find all these years. 

She nearly burst into tears when one particular phrase rang in her ears, on a night when she was supposed to be dozing off, knowing that she had to meet her tutors for her weekly lessons and attend a charity ball the next day. 

So, she tried to stay quiet, biting the inside of her cheek, in her room plunged into total darkness, if not for the light from her screen that she could not see anyway, filtering through her comforter, under which she was hidden. 

‘You are now on the Armed Detective Agency website,’ the artificial voice in her ears indicated. 

“What is the address attached to the location?" she whispered into the small microphone attached to her headphones, getting an answer after a few seconds of silence. 

She hastened to write it all down in her notebook, making several holes in a row, before closing it, breathing a sigh of immeasurable relief. Finally. She had succeeded in the first step. 

The next, however, would prove to be far more complicated than this formality, which had taken her over two years. She was now seventeen years old, and well on her way to realizing her greatest dream. 

Failure was not an option. She had to get there. 

The next step was to convince her parents that she could go to Yokohama, where the agency was located, while she was currently in the heart of Tokyo. 

But, like everything else, she had a plan. 

For the time being, it was urgent for her to fall asleep, without forgetting to delete all traces of her virtual research beforehand, to put her laptop on her bedside table and to hide her notebook under her mattress. 

Just as her head was finally settling on her pillow, as it should have been for several hours now, footsteps were heard in the corridor, which she distinguished without any problem although their owner was doing his best to be discreet. 

Her door, unsurprisingly, softly opened the next moment, spilling a ray of light into her once pitch-black room, and a few seconds passed without anyone moving; Yui's useless eyes as usual hidden behind her blindfold, as she did her best imitation of the cute and obedient sleeping girl. 

Finally, the door slowly closed, and the room was again covered with darkness, which the girl could not see anyway. Light and darkness, in her eyes, were nothing more than unknown concepts. 

She did not take long to fall asleep, exhausted by the day and the long night she had, and already sighing with weariness at the prospect of tomorrow's program. 

Total silence fell again in the gigantic building, only disturbed by the discreet coming and going of some servants somewhere in the manor.