スケルタルファイア - Skeletal Fire

𝐎𝐧𝐞 - 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐔𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐬

Homura Shytoshi.

She's quite like your ordinary five year old girl. Well, other than the fact that her face is a skull mask with small flames inside instead of a normal human face.

That doesn't make her different by much in her small town of Shirakawa. In fact, the locals aren't even scared of her, treating her more like a normal kid than others would. But inside, she knew she was different. She knew she would always be a scientific wonder.

The scientific lab of Japan tried to get ahold of her, but she was not allowed to have an allocated spot in the lab for the fear of protestation. So she was let free and was able to have a normal childhood.

The news about this girl stayed in Shirakawa, not spreading anywhere outside the town. No one from any other countries could contact about a girl that they hadn't heard about.

But when Homura grew up, her family had to move to Kamakura for her mother's business expansions. But Kamakura had only heard very little about this girl from people that went to Kamakura from Shirakawa as tourists. They were not at all prepared to see her face.

And this is where Homura's story starts. In Kamakura, in her family's new home.

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"Mama, Papa, look how big my room is!" Homura exclaimed, running out of her new bedroom in shock.

Her father turned around to see his daughter looking up at him and smiled. "Okay, show me, Homura." he said, following her to her bedroom.

When they went in, she turned back around to him. "Isn't it massive? I could fit a hundred giant stuffed animals in here!"

"Yes, honey, it is." her father replied, ruffling her snow coloured hair. "Now, I have to go and help your mother with moving stuff. You can decorate your room!"

Homura gasped excitedly and nodded. "I will, papa!" she said happily, running over to her box of items from their old house. Her bed and other large furniture had already been moved into the room, so that part was taken care of. Her father soon left to go help her mother, and she was left alone to decorate her bedroom however she wished.

She immediately grabbed her large packet of art tools, which were mainly cheap crayons and coloured pencils, other than some paints and a couple small paintbrushes contained in a small tin case. She put them into her drawer, along with her paper and sketchpad. She then moved onto putting her toys in the other drawer of the cabinet, carefully placing down the more fragile ones.

Then, she put her clothes away, which wasn't difficult, as she didn't have that many opposed to other children. Then, she put her stuffed animals on her bed and she was done.

Homura skipped over to the kitchen, where her father and mother were. "Papa, papa, I'm done decorating my room!" she twirled excitedly and almost hit a counter.

"Careful, sweetheart, and I'm glad you were able to do it all on your own!" her mother said, smiling at her, and her father nodded in agreement.

"Am I able to go and paint now?" she asked, and both her parents allowed her to. "But just be careful not to spill any paint!" her mother yelled to her as she ran to her room.

Homura got her painting supplies and sketchpad out, and flipped over to a blank page. "What to draw..." she thought aloud, before getting an idea and giggling. She started painting, making a small family with two adults and two children, who also had an appearance that resembled a stick figure.

Meanwhile, her twin brother, Akihiko, was in his bedroom, playing with his toy cars loudly, with his bedroom door fully open. So loudly, in fact, that Homura could hear it from her room, which was halfway across the house, with her door closed.

She got annoyed and went over to her brother's room. "Akihiko, please be quiet." she said politely, as to not start any fighting. Unfortunately, her brother was not wanting to be kind and accept his sister's request.

"No! I can play with my cars as loud as I want," he paused for a moment to think of an insult for her, "skull head!"

Homura sighed, but did not lose her cool. "Akihiko, I want to be able to paint without you loudly crashing your cars into your bed like it's a building. May you please be quiet, or at least close your door?"

Akihiko shook his head. "No way, freak! I'm allowed to have my door open, it's not a law that I need to keep it closed!"

When Akihiko kept denying her request to stay quiet and called her 'freak', Homura felt something inside her bubble up. It was like the pull of a magnet, only stronger.

Rage.

She had never felt it before, but now it seemed to suddenly overwhelm her, and her only thoughts were to slam her brother's head into his wall until his face was red with his blood and dents were made into his skull. She could internally hear a voice telling her to do it.

And she did.

She lunged forwards, grabbing Akihiko's hair. He gasped in shock, not expecting it. "Homur-" he started to say, only to be met with his head slamming into the wall. Hard. He screamed in pain, trying to wrestle himself out of his sister's grip. But it was as if her fists had locked on his hair, and she continued to slam his head into the wall, going faster and harder until her parents came in and tore her apart from him.

"Let me go!" Homura screamed, attempting to get back to her nearly unconscious brother, who was bleeding heavily. Instead, she was met with her father carrying her to the lounge area, but not without some kicks to the ribs from Homura.

Her father set her down, and they could hear her mother calling an ambulance in the distance, panic and worry evident in her voice. "Homura, why would you do that?" her father asked, shocked and angered by the sight he had just witnessed. Homura looked up at her father. "I couldn't help it! He was being rude and I suddenly got an urge to do that, and I couldn't stop myself!"

Her father sighed and looked outside to see an ambulance parked by their door, it's alarms screeching for the neighbourhood to hear. He decided to let the situation rest until Akihiko was healed.