Quintet Of The Boundaries

06 : Sides

20th of November, 10:40 p.m.

*gunshot*

"Woah! That frightened me. Don't you have a silencer, Mahiru?"

"Snipers don't use silencer." Mahiru replied.

The crowd fled away as soon as they heard the gunshot. Dumbfounded.

"Search the corpse, Aina." Mahiru asked.

Aina went to the corpse and searched the man's jacket and pockets. She then found something.

"Uh, Mahiru? I think you should take a look at this." Aina said.

........................................................

21st of November, 8:15 p.m.

"Have you heard of... what is it...? Ah, 'The White Nora'. She has a scar at the left side of her face." Ashley got very excited as I noticed her expression. I didn't know what was she talking about, but I'm sure she's talking about my older sister.

"Are you listening to me, Izanami?"

"Y-yes." I answered.

"And so... do you want to know where is she now?" she asked.

"Eh?"

"If you want to know, let's make a pact. Between you and me."

Honestly, I've always wanted to know where did my sister go. It's been four years since I saw her. Four years... had gone by. I was just a kid, 11 year old kid. She disappeared just like that without notifying anyone.

"What do you say, Izanami?"

"What should I do if I agree with you?" I asked her.

Suddenly the alarm went off. Someone, a Farsya must have triggered it.

She stared at me for a while with a grin. "Well, I think we'll talk about that later." She stood up while crossing her arm.

"So much for a coincidence. Ah~, even though I wanted to talk to you more." Words came out from Ashley's mouth while looking towards the door I came in just now. The door was opened by someone from outside. Turned out to be Aina and a girl with red middle-length hair.

"A-ah, Aina?!" I blurted out suddenly.

Aina then looked at me with eyes I've never seen before. Those sad and disappointed eyes made me doubt myself. But coincidences always happen between me and Aina since we met.

"How... did you enter this place, Nanami? Aren't you a human?" Aina asked me with a disappointing face.

"I... I just-"

"Would you mind stop causing me trouble again, stupid Farsya?" Ashley interrupted.

Aina didn't put Ashley on her focus, but me instead, of course. Now, she must have doubted me.

"Leave now... or you're not my friend anymore." Those words struck my heart hard. I didn't expect Aina would say something like that to me. But it must be the circumstances which brought her to that level.

"No." The word came out from the bottom of my heart.

Then I continued.

"I feel that there's something I need to do. That's all."

The girl beside Aina muttered, "Told you this would have happen."

...

"...If that's what you want to do, I'll respect it." Aina bit her lips and left the room together with her acquaintance. Now I feel that I've said the wrong word. I'll just close my eyes and rest my mind for a while.

"I'm leaving. Sorry, Ashley."

.......................................................

"We ended up like half-wits." Mahiru muttered to herself as she crosses her arms. Then she got a dull face from Aina.

"*sigh* That black jacket man did bring us bad luck. Maybe we should have just leave this to the Headquarters." Mahiru continued. Still no response from Aina.

"Who's that brown-haired girl just now?" Mahiru asked.

Aina replied to Mahiru this time. "She's Shiodome's younger sister."

"Shiodome?! That betrayer Nora?!"

"Please don't call her like that." Aina's face was still dull. "It's not like she want anyone to call her that way." Aina continued.

"Well, Aina. What are we supposed to do now?"

"No idea."

.......................................................

22nd of November, 9:30 a.m.

I've got no plans today. There's nothing I could have done anyway. I tried to think sometimes, my life wasn't like this past few years ago. I had a family. I had friends. But I couldn't remember what happened to them.

I stood under the shade, then sat on the ground while hugging my legs. This lonely feeling could kill me anytime.

"Oh." Someone stood in front of me. I pulled up my face and saw the exact red-haired girl from yesterday.

"Huh?" I muttered.

"This world's very small. Say, can we have a talk?" I believe she'd just asked me to talk with her.

"I'm not interested." I replied.

"Aren't you feeling lonely now? You've got a chance to get rid of it, if you like." She crossed her arm.

"I'm not...-"

"Want to know why was Aina disappointed?" She made a point. I think that'll be enough to draw my attention towards her.

"...Make things quick."

Suido Park, 10:00 a.m.

"Well..."

She wasn't going to say anything as I stared at her.

"You're not going to tell me anything?" I asked her.

"Eh... Actually, I wanted to tell something which is not really related to Aina."

"I get it. You knew that I wouldn't come with you if you had given me your reason, right?"

"Glad you understand."

We had a moment of silence to think of were are we going to say. She went first. "What race are you?" She asked, all of a sudden.

"I... um..."

"It's okay if you're a Nora."

"Huh?"

"Aina befriended you, which means you're not a bad person."

"I... I don't know how to..."

"If you don't want to tell, then it's okay. I won't get mad."

"I'll explain it to you one day, I promise."

"Anyway, what is your name?" The girl asked.

"Eh... Nanami Izanami."

"...Izanami, huh? I'm Mahiru, Mahiru Hokusai."

I've heard before her family name, Hokusai. "So you're from the Hokusai Orphanage?" I asked her.

"I belong there, but... I didn't want to return. There's no way I would return there. No way." Once we'd started the conversation about Hokusai, Mahiru was displaying a sad face. I'd probably touched about a sensitive issue of Mahiru's.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked about that." I apologized.

"I've got something to do back at the academy. Mind if I leave?"

"No, no. Go ahead."

As she was walking away, some words came out of my mouth. "Did something happen to the orphans... your family?" My instinct told me that it wasn't the right thing to ask.

She just looked back at me with a pair of angry eyes. "Don't ask me about them anymore, Izanami."

Tbc.