||MekakucitY∞TimE∞TravelS|| Part 2: The Haze

●GOSICK I● The Tower Garden presents Shards of Memory

Raw, exposed, vulnerable, and utterly powerless. 

That was what Mary felt like.

She had been powerless to stop Kuroha from taking her friends. She could still hear their screams bouncing throughout the corners of her mind, otherwise drowned in the roaring of the flames that enveloped her body, choking her, burning her to a crisp...

"Victorique!!!"

Mary opened her eyes just a slit, blinded by the sudden brightness of the sun. The rays gave way to a haze that stirred in the distance, and Mary felt the warm surface of a tile floor resting on her cheek. She could smell warm earth, which reminded her painfully of the flower crown she used to put on her mother's head. 

". . . I must be dead . . ." she mumbled to herself, closing her eyes that were heating up like a furnace.

"Victorique?"

Hurried footsteps echoed from somewhere very near. I'm not Victorique, she thought heavily. Whoever you are, please just kill me now. 

A hand touched her shoulder gently. Mary, too weak to move, let herself be turned like a rag doll.

"Who-who are you?!" With tremendous effort, the person said this while pulling her into a sitting position. He felt her forehead. "You're freezing, I should get some help. Can you stand?"

Do I look like I can . . . ? Mary thought. Her head lolled onto the person's shoulder.

"My name's Kujo Kazuya. Uhmm . . . Did you fall from the sky or something?"

That got Mary's attention. She shuddered at the jolt that ran through her body.

". . . s . . sk-sky . . . ?"

She moved her numbing feet, then recoiled slightly at the pain that suddenly shot up. She lifted her dress a little and saw a small open wound dripping blood. She looked around at the shards of glass that surrounded her like a bed. 

She felt her cheek. A cut was there, too.

Kujo Kazuya reached out a hand to brush the glass out of her hair. Mary had a fleeting memory of another person doing the same thing, and she could almost see his green-sleeved arm. She recoiled.

"Don't look in my eyes," she begged, covering them. "You'll turn to stone."

Kujo Kazuya touched her arm. "I'm not going to hurt you," He said gently. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

"Liar," Mary mumbled between her fingers. "G-go away."

"I'm not going anywhere without helping you," he insisted, taking her wrists in his hands. "Come on, I'll take you to the nurse."

Mary let her palms be torn from her face, keeping her head down. She could remember this scene so clearly, but why won't that memory come?

"I'll tell you something. People around here, they always call me a 'Grim Reaper' or 'The Reaper that comes in the Spring' because of my black hair and black eyes. Because of that, I never really had much friends . . . except for a very few. But still, everyone treats me like I'm a monster."

"Monster . . ." Mary repeated.

"I was just like you, I was scared of what people would think of me, added to the pressure that I get from my father to make me focus on my studies, but then someone came and I realized: this world, no matter how unforgiving, lives just by one simple code: that no future comes to those who live in fear of it."

Mary finally opened her eyes, which she found wet with tears.

She thought Kujo looked like that person from her own past.

Then her eyes suddenly heated up.

Kujo Kazuya's smile faded, to be replaced by a blank expression of surprise.

Mary watched as all his colour was drained into a grey.

Tears streaming down her face, she wrenched her wrists from the cold stone hands and ran down the steps as fast as she could. 

===================================

In the heart of a garden maze, Seto's consciousness was slowly starting to come back.

He could smell the scent of flowers in the air, touched by a hint of sharp cologne. Outside, he could hear birds chirping.

"Ahh...yes, I see."

He turned his head and opened one bleary eye, spotting a washbowl and a towel placed neatly on a bedside table. He smiled at the memory of a fluffy-haired girl tending to a Dan member's passed out older brother, and . . . 

"MARY!!!!"

An agonizing pain coursed through his shoulder, sending him cringing back onto the covers. Apparently his right arm was too injured to support his weight. He felt his shoulder and found that a thick bandage had been placed there.

"No need to thank me," a female voice said.

Seto looked up to see a doll-looking girl in a heavy maid's dress looking at him haughtily, as if he was some irritable bug. Her long golden hair glistened in the brightness of the room. His eyes threatened to heat up, but he kept his power under control.

"Are you a time traveler of some sort?" The doll girl demanded.

Seto rubbed his eyes. "I don't know . . . what year is it?"

"It's nineteen-fifteen."

"NINETEEN-FIFTEEN?!" 

At that moment, an urgent knocking sound echoed from the door, and the girl called, "It's open!" A pretty student with short blonde hair came in, panting. She must've been running, Seto thought.

"Victorique!" She cried in between gasps for breath. "Kaz . . . Kazuya . . . He . . ."

"Spit it out, you farting newt!"

The girl glared at her, obviously annoyed at the word. "My name's Avril Bradley, remember, Victorique? Haven't I told you that hundreds of times?!"

So this doll girl is Victorique, Seto thought. What kind of name was that? He found it even weirder that her short height did not change when she stood.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Victorique was close to screaming.

"Kujo . . . " Avril Bradley shook her head.

". . . he's turned to stone."