Sword Art Online: Regeneration

11.5

She looks intently at her book. Tracing the fingers on the words of the page as if she was blind, reading brail. A mixture of Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji. She knew what each word meant. Her and the other fifteen seniors and juniors who made up her class. The entire AP Japanese batch this year consisted only about around 70 students this year. One of them was the girl she fought weeks ago.

She continues to read. It was letters of Japanese soldiers in the Second World War. Despite understanding what each character meant, she still couldn't focus. Ever since she started reading, she never even wanted to open her book. She knew if she didn't, her mother would be disappointed.

Lucy Haku took her sight away from her book full of chicken scratch to most people. She turns her chair to see her younger sister's shelf of manga and English novels. Kazuko must've taken the interest of reading from her, beside all of those books was a bluish helmet, paint coming off and the lettering of the name fading. She stood up and attempted to look closer, tempted to pick it up and wear it.

"All you do is study. You don't have a goddamn life, smartass."

Those words still shook Lucy.

I want to see it, she said to herself, I want to see Kazuko's world.

She sighed knowing she can't. She would never understand it. She would fail. If she asked her sister, she would be rubbing in how crappy she played. Not to mention how could Kazuko teach Lucy when there's only one NerveGear in the house.

     I wonder how much the Amusphere goes for?

     She hears the locks shackle. She sticks her head out of her room and see Kazuko with a black hoodie and pants.

     "Where'd you go at this hour, Kazuko-to" she asks her sister. It was a nickname that she used to call her when she was in elementary. To her it was cute, aged like fine wine.

     "Lucy..." she looked down to the ground for a moment, I knew something went down.

     I look down to her hand and see tints of red, splattered around. I rush to her and rolled up her hoodie sleeve to see a massive cut across her arm there was dried blood tracks.

"Hey, what happened to you? How'd you get
this." She asked her in almost an outraged tone, but decided to stay calm.

"Akari." She blurted.

Lucy tells Kazuko to shower first before wrapping her arm with a clean bandage. She did so and went inside our room in her sleep wear. She pours Povidone-Iodine on almost most of her arm and carefully wrapped a bandage around her arm and pat her head, still not sure how her friend could injure her like that.

"Mind to tell me what's up?" She asked facing her.

"I went to meet up with Akari we got into a skirmish and one of her friends decided to slash me by the arm."

"You can't be fighting with people, Kazuko." Lucy scolds, "Why were you fighting with her? You could've been seriously hurt, at this hour? I'd be getting a stroke if you had more than you brought home."

"I know," her sister defended, "But Akari—

"I don't know what I'd do if you went missing. Mom would be losing it too!" Lucy was yelling at this point.

"STOP MAKING ME BELIEVE THAT MOM CARES ABOUT ME!" Kazuko snapped. Lucy could see tears in her eyes, "Stop thinking I don't know Lucy."

The sisters were sitting on their bed, looking at each other, Kazuko scoots closer to her sisters and effortlessly tries to punch her but the force was as weak as a press to her chest.

"Mom never cared, for me and Kaito. She always wanted you to succeed. She never cared about the things I do. Where's she now? Have you noticed every time I'm home she's never here?" She sobbed, "You get to have the feeling of having a mother who cares. I don't have anyone!"

"Kazuko, that isn't true." Her sister wraps her hands around a bawling Kazuko, like when they were both toddlers, "That isn't true, Kazuko-to." She soothed, who already felt tears burn her cheeks.

Kazuko shakes her head in total disagreement. She detested everything about her mother.

Lucy caresses her sister's head and whispered, "You have me."

She couldn't say anything. She didn't know exactly how to make her feel better. Lucy one was well their mother never favored her. She would never come home unless Kazuko is asleep or at school.

"You have a big sister who'll never leave you alone. If I don't do my job to be your sister, I'd rather kill myself."

Lucy said it in such a serious tone, she knew she meant what she said and it was no joke. She would end her life there and then if she failed to be Kazuko's only family.

Lucy was already crying from Kazuko's burden. It was almost as identical to hers. She was tired of being spoilt by her mother and seeing her younger siblings get treat in a horrid and unfair manner. She wipes her tears off with her hand continues to hug Kazuko.

Kazuko's friend, Akari, was very close to her. They seem to most they don't like each other but they do. Akari doing this to her friend meant that they were not in good terms as before.

Could it be about her game?

Lucy ignored that thought and notice her sister now cried herself to sleep. She felt her shirt had been wet from Kazuko. She turns off the desk lamp and helps Kazuko lay on her side of the bed. She puts the blanket up to her shoulders and goes to her side.

"I guess she'd figure out sooner." She looks at her sister who was peacefully asleep. They may have similar looks but they were not of the same blood.

Kazuko wasn't really her sister. She was the child of not a Haku, but of someone close to them. Lucy could not recall who they were but she knew it was definitely Kazuko's real parents were a mystery. Lucy and Kaito's mother forebode the ability to mention to Kazuko who it was. Lucy knew deep inside it was unfair for her sister to not know. She promised herself one day, just one day, she would tell Kazuko the truth.

She lies down beside her little sister, looking now at her, who's silently snoring. She pushes Kazuko's bangs away from her face and nuzzled her cheek against hers. It was warm, and soft. The tears were only coming back.

What Lucy did not know, her sister still doesn't know. Kazuko never thought of it and maybe never will.