Rebellion of the Soul

Chapter 4: My Vengeance

"Hello? Is anybody there? This better not be another prank call..."

My teeth chattered quietly enough to be out of his range of hearing. I swallowed nervously. I truly despised phone calls. Formality and phone calls always walked hand in hand. Especially when this was the first occasion I had ever heard the voice of this person. The voice carried a niche air of sarcasm or passive agitation to it, not the kind you would expect in someone hoping to recruit a member for a movement, for which I assumed this man was hoping to do. His voice had no harmony to it, but no discord either. After his mumbling began to become increasingly faint, I quickly yelped out softly:

"H-Hello, yes, nice to meet you"

My eyes creaked open. If I despised one thing more than phone calls, it was formality. It caused me to break down and become nothing more than a yipping puppy. A helpless princess stuck in a tower. But it was all I could revert to in this socially anxious state. I truly was a broken human being.

"Oh? Hi there, this is Mitsuhiro Hassei, welcome to the Gendai Bunka Jinmin Undou, I assume you read the poster?". The strangely sarcastic tone of the man on the other end of the line switched to a more chivalrous one. I sighed softly, no longer caring if he could hear me. Prodding my brain, I dropped the chains of forced emotion that held me to reality. I gritted my teeth and spoke.

"Yes I did. I'm guessing you need more members?"

"That's true. missy, you're a smart one aren't you?"

Before I could even be irritated by the assumptions made by this man, my mouth moved of its own accord.

"If you call me missy again I'll be bringing my guitar to your nearest headquarters."

"Your guitar?"

"Anything can be a killing weapon with enough force. Never underestimate the power of a woman."

I could feel his sudden chill from the receiver. The once confident soul of this man escaped through the dust. I could never seem to access the right balance of social isolation and sociopathy. Somewhere in my chest, I felt that maybe every human struggles with that dilemma.

I heard an audible gulp from the other end of the line. Powerless, he reluctantly gave me the address of the nearest headquarters. I picked out every detail, including the convulsions from his numb throat. I thanked him. I ended the call.

The phone clattered against the stand beside my bed as I sighed a long gust of breath. I slowly nodded to a gap in the wall, in an attempt to reassure me into believing that I could still show my face after my introduction. The crippling weight of what was to come had yet to place itself on my shoulders.

I shifted restlessly in my bed, the clothes I wore to leave the house still clinging to my body. Expectedly, my phone lit up with a new text. However, it was another text from the mysterious sender. My eyes floated towards it. The enigma that these riddles left in their wake was where my listless mind decided to focus on. This time, it read:

'A fallen blossom never returns to the branch.'

I tilted my head. An obscure proverb. The dusty wires in my brain began to search for a link. I glanced around my room, my eyes shielded by my fringe. Not an echo. I was completely alone. With this knowledge, I replied, my fingers softly pressing the letters into my phone, not wanting to disturb the blissful quiet.

'Who are you?'

The reply came in an instant. Not even a fly could have moved.

'The Storm of the 27'

I began to feel restless and disturbed. This automated being, who was so intent on giving me these cryptic messages, couldn't do so much as answer my question properly.

My eyes traced the room again. The same television set. The same wardrobe. The same mirror. Nothing had changed but my perspective. Everything seemed much... colder.

In order to escape this sense of detachment, I quickly locked my phone and turned away, burying my face into the pillow.

I could only see one way to get away from my torment now.

~~~

Once again going through the dragging routine of leaving my apartment, my soul was pining to return to the protection of room, but this time I needed to place my mind in control. The piercing frost of earlier had begun to pass over, and as I heard my feather-like feet tap along the path nervously, I glanced at the address once again. Coincidentally, the area was recognisable. It just happened to be only a street past the Arcade that I used to visit when...

I stopped for a moment and sighed, shaking my head while tears nearly formed in the crevices of my dusty eyes. I wasn't quite ready to face the names of my band members yet. Not until I had gained redemption for myself.

The ominous presence of the empty street filled with nothing but formless cold air pressed on my thoughts. Growing shadows of the mocking buildings transfigured into wicked and incomprehensible figures. Before I knew it, the sounds of my steps had started to get louder and louder, and my arms swung wildly back and forth. I was running, running like a vicious beast was chasing me along these narrow and inescapable streets. This beast had a name, and it was called fear.

Droplets flew from my eyes. My twintails drifting. Kites in a storm. At every stage, I spoke to myself.

"Find shelter. You will be safe. Find the arcade"

I realised much too late that I was sprinting into oblivion because my eyes were shut firmly tight. If it had not been a straight road with no people, I would have ended up in hospital. Stumbling, my feet tangled and I slowly but surely fell into a messy heap in the centre of the street. Instantly I felt a hand land on my shoulder. I creaked my fluid-dressed eyelids open and turned my reddening eyes to look behind me. My eyes adjusted to the incandescent light that flooded in from behind the figure's head, leaving only a soft silhouette in its wake. The silhouette spoke, its hand still gently pressing into my shoulder. The hand gave the sense of ethereal existence, the presence only noticeable when I focused my feeling into it. A familiar voice rang through the black wool of fear that had curled in my eardrums.

"What a strange time to be running in the street..."

Musetsu Amami's toneless voice quietly stole the space around it. I remained fixed to the floor, gazing up at her gradually brightening silhouette. She picked up the address paper that I had unconsciously flung onto the street.

"I know this address... It is one street behind...~

"~behind the arcade, yes." I completed her sentence, still in a state of unawareness.

She held out her delicate, ghostly hand and I held onto her, as we unanimously strained to lift my body from the ground.

"You seem lost..." She spoke before I had a chance to brush myself off.

"I have the address right here."

"You seem lost..." She repeated herself, even though her blank expression emanated the fact that she was soaking in everything around her, not only my words. She took my hand without looking away from my face, which was still plastered with anxiety despite my efforts to hide it. She began to walk, or perhaps in Musetsu Amami style, drift along the street with me in tow.

"We will face the future together now, Jakuna. As it should be..."