It was evening time. Sophie awakened from her exhausted slumber like a jolt of electricity, shocking her from a nightmare that she had. Yet her body was trapped within the piles of rubble from the ceiling. Her gashed skin stung with every single movement she attempted, and the shattered pieces of the ceilings entered her eyes through the air to blur her vision. As she remained trapped in her injured position, all that was on her mind was her nightmare.
She dreamt of their time at the amusement park and carnival combination on a sunny morning. Both of them held cotton candy and smoothies in their hand, enjoying the company of each other as time passed. The area was not crowded either. They shared each other's food and drink together like sisters, and they laughed like jokesters seeking to enjoy what they had.
But all of that suddenly faded as Ash vanished from her sight. Her cotton candy and smoothie dropped to the ground and splattered next to Sophie's shoes. Several seconds later, the food began to rot as horseflies began to magically appear out of thin air. The sunny weather of the amusement park area began to frost up into a frigid and bitter coldness, sending chills through Sophie's skin. Amusement park rides, food vendors, and carnival activities began to vanish one by one. Frosty hail began to drop from the sky in the form of glass shards. As she moved to shelter herself from the danger, large pieces of the picture frame that Sophie shattered not too long ago descended from the skies burnt to ashes.
This was all her fault, she presently thought. Her thoughts of Ash hadn't faded just yet, but she realized that the consequences of her actions would have done so. Sophie realized she was only thinking about herself and took advantage of her shock factor to seem like a victim to Ash. After rejecting her love, the wrong words had escaped. Sophie bit her bottom lip and attempted to hold in her tears. Now Ash had vanished, and Sophie was trapped without a single escape route.
"Yeah," A faint voice from what seemed like miles away spoke in a hushed and muffled tone. "No, we knew her very well. Sometimes this would happen, but we weren't sure whether or not it was an animal incident or not."
Driven by the insatiable hatred of her own actions, Sophie successfully freed her right arm from the rubble and began thrashing the collapsed walls in front of her. Her imperfect heart needed to set things straight. She needed to tell Ash the truth of how she had felt about her. Her voice gradually increased in volume as she jammed her fist through her front. "Somebody… let me… out!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. With each word, she jabbed fist harder and harder. "Let me out!"
"Did you hear that?" Another light voice echoed from the distance. "I think I heard someone!"
"Hey, there's someone still under there!"
"Let's move this shit aside! There's someone there!"
The people surrounding Sophie's crash site began to shift the rubble aside, making Sophie's movement much easier. Her hands and legs began to free themselves as the voices of the neighbors began to ring more clear. "Let… me… through!" Sophie cried. "I have to get… to Meguro-san!"
Sophie finally broke free of her trap by bursting through the rubble. She collided with a police officer that held her tightly. The surrounding neighbors from Ash's apartment complex all gasped in terror after seeing the major injuries that Sophie sustained; Sophie couldn't quite tell her condition after being trapped in dark rubble. In addition to her skin being gashed, Sophie's left wrist was broken. Her forehead was scratched and torn, creating a searing pain that only made it worse with the heat.
"What the hell?!" One of the neighbors exclaimed.
"Hey, is she okay?"
Sophie shook the police officer back and forth, panting and withstanding her pain. "Listen to me," She cried. "You have to take me to find the girl who lived in this house! She ran away earlier and we have to find her!"
"No, we can't!" The police officer yelled in return. He examined all of Sophie's wounds in an instant and came to a solid conclusion. "You need to go to the hospital. We'll call your parents and they'll come and see you. You're badly injured!"
Sophie shook her head. "No, damn it! She could be in danger! You have to help me, please!"
"I can't do that," The police officer rejected. "Tell me your parent's phone number. We'll call an ambulance straight away, and-"
Sophie roared and broke free from the police officer's grasp. She sprinted towards the door to Ash's apartment and rammed her right shoulder through.
"Hey, get back here, damn it!" The police officer's voice yelled as Sophie descended the stairs as fast as she could. Feedback from his radio began to play. "901, requesting an ambulance quickly! I need backup! We have a victim who just escaped custody and is evading!"
Sophie disregarded the police officer's emergency requests. She escaped through the front door and the booming echo of thunder sounded through the skies. A bolt of lightning tore through the atmosphere several meters away from Sophie's position, causing her to squeal and fall back down to the road. She landed on her left wrist, making her searing pain even worse. Sophie yelled in agony, quickly shifting her arms to recover.
Salty rain droplets began to form on the road, splattering tiny specks on Sophie's cheeks. The thundering weather surged onward, making it extremely difficult to track down one's location. Luckily, Sophie memorized the streets and blocks after arriving and going multiple times to visit Ash. The issue for her was where to go; Ash could have picked any location and escaped.
Flickering beam lights caught Sophie's attention as they flashed on and off, gleaming in the thunderstorm. Sophie turned to her left and squinted deeply at the driver's seat. The suited suicide watch guard leaned out of the driver's seat, oggling Sophie from the distance. With a charming wink and chuckle, the man shut his vehicle's door and drove off at a slow speed. The speed was slow enough for Sophie to follow as if he was conspicuously provoking her.
"Motherfucker!" Sophie shouted, collecting her strength to stand up once again. She scoffed in contempt, believing that the guard had to do with Ash's disappearance. There was a possibility that she was kept inside her car. But for the third time encountering him, Sophie believed that his appearance was not a coincidence. She knew he was lying about his title as a suicide watch guard.
Sophie dragged her leg across the wet pavement and followed the guard's car through the rain. Her long red hair tangled and soaked in the thundering rain; she needed to sway it back over her shoulder to avoid obscuring her vision. She pressed on through the end of the block where the suited guard's vehicle made a sharp left turn into another long street.
As she pressed on, several thoughts were rushing through her head. At first, she thought she was no better than Ryo Nakai, the one who was a slave to Sezan Fuma for being the hindrance and barricade to Ash's existence. History repeated itself as Sophie's temper ruptured under the pressure. At that moment, she believed she was mentally choking Ash, much like Sezan forced Ryo to do so.
It seemed that all of the memories that they had accumulated together were being lost in an instant. The rejection of her affection, the verbal threat to end life, and the explosion of Sophie's true anger was a rampant trinity that no person wanted to deal with. Sophie realized that by her harboring the pressures of Ash's passive control, her life was eating away. If only she had explained it to her aloud, she thought. If only she had voiced her concerns and explained to her that she wanted to have a life of her own outside of Ash's bubble.
Minutes passed, and Sophie followed the suited guard's vehicle into a docking station's road. The edge was near a massive sea of abandoned and rusty boats spread across the expansive ocean. Sophie could see massive ripples forming on the water's surface from the pelting thunderstorm rain. She heard the sound of another thunderstrike in the distance, but Sophie continued pressing on. The suited guard's car vanished before her very eyes after she was distracted by the evening ocean's view. The streetlights dimly lit her path and made it nearly impossible to locate her direction.
Sophie hauled herself forward once more, exhausting herself with her injuries and swift movement. A minute passed until Sophie caught Ash laying in the middle of the pavement with her body facing upwards.
"Meguro-san!" Sophie's voice cracked as she pushed herself to the limit to reach her. She kneeled beside her and placed two fingers on her neck to check for her pulse. It was terribly faint. She was completely unconscious and a single gash appeared straight across her arm. "Hey, wake up! Meguro-san! Wake up! Wake-"
An unknown force snatched the back of Sophie's school uniform and launched her away from Ash. The figure wore an unknown jet-black uniform with the Asahikawa Yakuza logo; an eagle on a scale to define the balance of power and bonds. He approached Sophie with his face shrouded in mystery.
Sophie panicked, scooting her body back towards a streetlight for coverage. "Get back!" She yelled, pulling herself back with her right hand. Her left wrist was pulsating in pain, and her gashes were stinging even more with the collision of the rain. "Stay the fuck back!"
The light revealed the face of the mysterious figure. He had a cold stare in his eyes and wielded an ornamental tachi in his right hand. His hands were fully gloved in black.
Sophie froze in response to seeing the man's face. "S-Shibusawa…?" She whispered.
Nobu closed his eyes and clenched his teeth as if he was debating between the effectiveness of his actions. He seemed to internally quarrel with himself, fighting whether or not taking Ash and hurting Sophie was the right decision. He pointed the tachi at Sophie's face in a threatening manner, approaching her slowly. "We were fools, Hiragi," His lifeless voice was nearly indiscernible by the thundering rain. "Nothing could have changed if we fought back. Why didn't you know that!?"
"What… what are you talking about…!?" Sophie cried, covering her eyes in shame. She was absolutely disgusted and aghast at how Nobu would have done such a thing; he had disappeared for a week and now it had made sense to her. "What the hell are you doing!? I thought we were-"
"Friends!?" Nobu interrupted with a loud bellow. He continued pointing his tachi at her and thrust it into the air. "You think people in this world need friends? No. If you want to survive in this world, you can't trust anyone. You can't turn back once you realize what this world has become. Friends only make you weaker. That's what my brothers told me."
"Brothers…?" Sophie whispered. "Don't tell me… you're talking about…"
"That's right," Nobu said, nodding in aggression. "Now that Nakai's out of the picture, this is my chance! For years I've been rising to the ranks, and all that you and Meguro's done… is drag me down. I have no use for any of you anymore! I'm going to become exactly like Nakai was before, and I'll be better than him!"
"That's bullshit!" Sophie cried, standing up from her weakened position. "You recited all of that shit, didn't you? I know you don't feel that way. You're better than this. I know you don't give a damn. He must have done something to you. I know you!"
"What do you know about me, Hiragi?" Nobu cried. Rain splattered across his mohawked hair, pushing it down. "What do you know about what I live with? Do you know what's the difference between being a slave for the miserable and what the Yakuza are, Hiragi? It's that we get the opportunity to choose our destiny! We have the power to rule and change the course of this world! But if you remain a slave… then you have nothing. You are born with nothing, and you always will be nothing!"
"Weren't you nothing before!?" Sophie yelled. "And then you met Meguro-san and I. You cared, Shibusawa! You cared!"
"I am something now!" Nobu yelled, pressing his fist multiple times on his chest. "I'm something to this world and something to the people!"
Sophie shook her head in disappointment. "No, you're not," She denied. "No. You're nothing but a slave."
Nobu held his breath momentarily until he exploded in raw rage. He yelled at the top of his lungs and lunged forward with his tachi towards Sophie's shoulder. Sophie moved to the side and the blade grazed through her uniform. Sophie retaliated by slamming her right fist against Nobu's cheek. However, Sophie was much too weak to continue. Nobu tripped Sophie on the ground with his feet and held his ornamental tachi closely to her neck.
Sophie watched as Nobu blinked multiple times with his widened eyes, letting the rain fall down his face. His chest breathed heavily as if they were about to pop up like a balloon. With the blade in his hand, Nobu remained still.
"You can't do it, can you?" Sophie cried, noticing Nobu's hesitation. His dagger-wielding hand was shivering in terror. "You can't kill me. Because you know that I'm one of the only ones in your life that loved you for who you were. The only one that actually cared about what happened to you! Meguro-san and I both!"
Nobu opened his mouth to reveal his clenched teeth. His breathing hesitated and panicked. His hands fidgeted even more.
"Kill me then," Sophie taunted. "I deserve it anyway. I told Meguro-san to kill herself too. I was tired of all the stress and I want her to know that I'm dead. Now no one can hold her back. No one can control her and she'll be independent for the first time. I'll give her the chance to grow on her own and become a free woman. It's what she wanted all along."
Nobu hesitated once again. His body uncontrollably fidgeted until he roared one last time. He reared the tachi back in an attempt to stab Sophie, but he was interrupted by an arm seizing him beforehand. Sophie and Nobu gasped at his presence; the suited man ended their battle with a fell swoop.
"That's enough," The suited man said. "You're wasting your time. Our guests are already here. Make yourself presentable."
The suited man's voice relaxed Nobu's nerves. He dropped the tachi on the ground as the suited man lifted him up from the dirty rain. Sophie could not believe that the two of them were conspiring together to take Ash away from her; the reason at first was not clear. Sophie weakly reached for the dagger in an attempt to end the suited man's life, but she was much too frail.
"Shibu-" Sophie murmured before the suited man kicked her forehead to knock her unconscious. Sophie's vision faded.
"Oh my goodness!" A shadowy figure joyfully expressed his astonishment at the suited man's swift kick. Sophie's eyes were barely open, but she could see a white-coated man holding a jeweled cane and a regal golden umbrella in the dimly lit street light. "Somebody's awfully upset. Can't wait for the opportunity to change your future, can you? Eagerly awaiting that hidden gem?"
"Shut your mouth," The suited man angrily responded. "Was it necessary to come here? We were about to grab the girl and go."
"Oh, but you know I wanted to seize the opportunity to extract that beauty myself!" The white-coated man pranced around. "It's been so long. Years almost. Nurturing it has taken almost decades, and you think I'd leave it to some pathetic rundown gangster? Let me remind you that I am in the process of obtaining one of the biggest companies in the universe. Know who you're talking to before you open your jaw, you imbecile."
The suited man scoffed. "Fine then. Do it yourself." He said.
Two other figures approached the distance, standing next to the white-coated man. One of them was a skeletal machine-like figure wearing a shrouded hood and robe to conceal its exoskeleton. The other one was a shorter and slimmer figure that appeared familiar to Sophie.
"Shall I execute the spare?" The exoskeleton figure's menacingly robotic voice startled Sophie's ears with its filtered vocals. He raised his hand up, and a small assassin's dagger appeared across its robotic and inhumane wrist.
"Sounds lovely!" The coated man said. "Make it a bloodbath!"
The suited man blocked the exoskeleton figure and the rest of the unidentified guests. "No, no, I'll do it. You should grab the girl. She's freezing over there. You wouldn't want your precious energy to get all cold now, would you?"
The unknown figure retracted its hidden blade and turned around. The white-coated man nodded at him. Nobu feebly approached the familiar figure that Sophie believed to have known and disappeared from sight. Sophie watched as the robotic figure grabbed Ash in the roughest manner yet; it did not handle her unconscious body with any care for her fragility.
"I'll fucking… I'll fucking kill all of you…" Sophie whispered to herself.
The exoskeleton approached the suited man and hounded a single order to his ear. "End it." It said, disappearing into the shadows with the white-coated man. They took Ash away, and Sophie couldn't handle it. She began throwing a violent tantrum with the last of her strength, shaking and screaming in horror at the mere mentality of being unable to act.
The suited man turned around and kneeled at Sophie, grabbing the tachi on the rainy ground. He looked into Sophie's angered eyes with calmness. "Don't take it personally," He said, dropping the knife in front of her. "This is all necessary. Your time will come. Once again, my sincerest apologies."
As the man stood up and vanished away, Sophie was left alone and spared in the darkness. She snatched the knife and stabbed the road with it. She picked herself up and let the bloodied gashes of her skin soak in the rain. That same night, although she was alone, she sought vengeance and the truth. Her heart had completely plunged into corruptness and shattered from the overarching pain of being unable to understand. Now that she had one goal in mind, she wanted no one in her path.
She looked at the ornamental tachi, originally held by Nobu Shibusawa, and clenched it firmly in her grasp.