Azumi walked through the halls forlornly.
It wasn't as if people hated her. It was more of where no one knew or particularly cared of her existence.
Not that she minded. After all she received love and affection from the two whose attention mattered the most.
Her brother.
And...
"AZUMI!!!!!!!!" A little blur sped through the halls. A very very very short blur. It jumped up and landed into her arms perfectly. Scratch that. It knocked her to the floor in the process.
It looked down at her with beautiful red eyes. Those red eyes were sprinkled with golden flecks all throughout. The scarlet eyes she wished she could stare into for eternity looked down at her with all the love the world could possibly give.
(Which doesn't amount to much against the love of the void.... yes author will shut up now)
As she continued to stare she felt a tickle on her nose. She realized that the shorty's light blue hair was hanging down in such a way that it hid her face from anyone who could possibly be watching.
That's when she realized.
The scarlet eyed beauty was currently on top of her. Her hands were trapping her in between as they were on either side of her head. One of her knees was in between Azumi's legs well the other rested at the side of her leg.
Her face flushed at the awkward, seemingly accidental position. That was when a light smirk slowly made its way onto the pale skin of the small girl.
A smirk that only lasted for a fraction of a second.
Azumi tensed up before relaxing again. She laughed at her stupidity. After all there was no way this beautiful angelic girl would smirk at such a situation.
She lightly pushed the girl off of her and sat up. The girls were sat on their feet, knees entertained.
Azumi smirked at the girl and finally managed to reply to the cheerful greeting.
"Hey shrimp how are you doing?"
The brilliant smile that was on her face a moment before vanished and was replaced with a scowl.
"Idiot. I've already told you. My name is Tora.
T-O-R-A. Tora. Get it right."
Tora turned her head away from Azumi with a slight scowl still mumbling about how to say the name correctly.
Azumi laughed before standing up and lending out her hand. Tora grumbled for a bit before finally lending out her paw and clasping onto the hand given to her.
She stood up and the two girls walked hand in hand to their next class.
Azumi thought that today was truly magnificent.
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As the bell rang signifying her last class Tora stood up rushing out of her seat. In the process she tripped over the leg of her chair.
She glared at it before quickly jumping up again and dashing out of the class. Her classmates looked on with amusement and mild curiosity, as they usually did when it came to petite female.
Tora made it to her locker quickly, unlocking it in an instant. She stood on her tippy toes as to reach the hanger where her sweatshirt was hanging off.
And then she bent down to her knees to grab her backpack. (She kept it on the floor since she knew that if she'd attempt to grab it from the hanger it'd surely topple on top of her with all its weight.)
She hopped giddily down the hall to the tennis court. "Almost forgot." she muttered to herself. She slid her hand into her pockets so as to turn her phone on silent.
She didn't want a repeat of last time Azumi had called her. She giggled at the memory. Her phone had started playing the opening to 'π΄π‘π‘πππ ππ πππ’ππ'π π€πππ'.
The whole practice ended up being so amused and delayed as she had to dig through her bag to turn it off.
That's why this time she would make sure her phone was on silent.
She hummed a little tune to herself as she finally made her way to the tennis court. She put all her things in the corner and was ready to enjoy herself.
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When Azumi got out of class she made her way to her locker. And she was lucky enough to see the little shrimp run in excitement to her tennis class.
She chuckled to herself. Tora always seemed happiest when she was playing tennis. Shrimpy's strive to be the best at what was important to her was one of the qualities that drove the white haired female into falling in love.
She knew Tora wouldn't like her back. After all she was part of the minority. Which meant that Tora was probably straight.
But that was fine.
She didn't care if Tora never liked her back. What was most important was that she was able to see her 4'8ft friends brilliant smile. Once she was finished with all that needed to be done at her locker she slowly started making her way home.
She smiled to herself the whole way, taking the route that she and Tora used whenever the little tigress didn't have Tennis.
Azumi spent the whole walk thinking about the many laughable moments they shared on their walks home. And finally after her 9 minute walk, (yes 9 minutes. She was very precise when to came to time.) she stopped in front of the door.
She reached out for the door handle but before she could even graze the thing it flew open. What was waiting for her was a furious mother.
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Mizuko was annoyed at first at her sons need to interrupt her work. And as she listened to his petty little speech in the beginning she was even more irritated.
'Did I really raise my child to be such a tattle tale?' She pondered to herself.
But then he finally managed to stop beating around the bush. And her eyes opened wide with frustrated horror at the subject that came out of his mouth.
She immediately dropped all her work and ran upstairs to the living room where she'd wait for her disgraceful daughter to open the front door.
Finally after two hours of waiting she saw a child walk up the driveway, the sidewalk, and then stop right before the door.
She lunged for the handle opening it before the girl even had the chance. She looked down her nose at the baffled face of her daughter.
She pulled her inside and slammed the door. As soon as she closed the door she started screaming at her mmmm the little wench.
'How dare she.... how dare she go against my wishes for her without so much as telling me!'
These thoughts ran through her mind over and over again. Seemed like she'd just have to discipline her daughter.
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Azumi was stunned as her mother practically flung her inside. She turned around for a second as she heard the door slam shut but her mother wasn't there.
She then turned her head back around and her mother was right in her face. She yelped and jumped back, staring at her mother in bewilderment.
Suddenly her mom stopped all the incomprehensible screaming and slapped her, causing the poor girl to freeze up even more. And then her mother said in a low and menacing voice,
"After all the time I took taking care of you and loving you all I asked was for you to strive to be a lawyer. But you hid from me that you wanted to be an artist. Why wouldn't you tell me? Loving art is all fine and swell but when I asked you to spend time studying?...
(If Azumi had recovered from her state of shock she would have refuted with an 'All you ever do is make me study, when would I even have time for anything else?')
"You should've told me. If you had it would have been so much more possible for you to be an artist and have your brother take up the position of being a lawyer.....
Azumi refuted in her mind 'what if I didn't want to force it on brother? What if I didn't want to fight with him? What if...'
Azumi paused.
Her eyes traveled to the left. There they met the bottom step. They started moving up slowly, slowing down at every step for fear of what was at the top.
When they reached the top there was her brother. Her mother continued to scream at her, but she wasn't listening. It was as if her ears had been filled with lead.
She couldn't hear a single thing her mother was saying.
Kisho looked regretful. But at the same time relived. He looked as if he was disappointed in himself, but also proud.
She then understood.
Her brother sold her out for his dream. That wasn't the part that upset her. She knew how important his dream was to him.
What upset her was that he thought she'd try to get in the way of his dream. It was evident that that was the reason he told mother. She could see it on his face.
Azumi was lost in despair at her brothers actions. She wasn't even paying attention to the angry Pomeranian (please do feel free to mention the thought that I know is on your mind - insert author smirking) of a woman before her.
She was so focused on what was going on through her mind that she didn't even notice when her mother got fed up with screaming at her. Nor did she notice when the woman stormed up the stairs and pushed past her brother. She only noticed once she heard the door to her room fling open.
She ran up the stairs to her room where her mother was rummaging through her drawers and throwing things to the floor.
"Mom....." she let out a horse whisper.
Her mother ignored her.
"Please mom..... wh-what are you doing?"
Finally her mother stopped. She appeared to find what she was looking for.
In her hand was Azumi's sketch book.
Her mother opened it and started tearing page after page. Azumi ran to her mother and tried to stop her, but her mother kept it out of her reach. She begged her mother to stop, but she never did.
Azumi was a broken mess as she fell to the floor sobbing. All she could do was watch her mom destroy years of work. Years of art that she had spent so much time on trying to make it just the way she wanted.
All of it was gone and destroyed. And her mother threw the remains to the floor. And then she left without a single word exchange with her daughter.
Her brother who was standing outside in the hallway, just watching finally came out. He reached out to pat her on the back. She slapped his hand away.
This... this was his fault. All his fault. So why is it that all he can manage to do is pat me on the back?
No apology.....
No guilt.....
He didn't even so much as hug her.
No he wouldn't even stay that long to comfort her. That's why it was better to kick him out now before he left of his own will. That was all she could do for revenge at this point.
She glared at him and slowly raised her arm. She then pointed toward the door, her fierce gaze never leaving him.
He sighed and left the room, closing the door slowly behind him.
I hate him.....
I hate him....
I hate him, I hate him, I hate him.....
She repeated this phrase in her head as if it was a chant. But in the end she knew it wasn't true. She loved her brother too dearly to hold even an ounce of hatred for him. Anger yes, but hatred?
At this very moment in time the person she hated most was herself. She hated herself for allowing him to be the one to follow his dreams. She hated herself for not sticking up for her dreams. And she hated herself the most for putting trust in her brother, one of the two people she thought she could depend on.
Two.
The word rang through her head.
Tora! She dug her phone out of her pocket and starting calling Tora.
She called Tora over and over and over again.
And 27 times she finally stopped.
Guess she couldn't count on Tora either.
This thought broke her more than knowing her brother could betray her so easily. She couldn't take it anymore and finally broke down into a mess of snot and tears.
She cried for hours and hours and hours. Never moving from her spot. If there were no evaporation she was quite certain she would've created a flood. The room was very cold and empty with no kindness at all.
And the lights.
The lights were to bright for her. She wished she could just sink into the darkness.
Then a warm but cold embrace locked her in its grasp. She looked up and saw a person with long black hair in a ponytail, hair as dark as abyss. with calculating eyes that were just as dark.
'He' had on a long sort of robe. He looked like he was from the ancient times. 'How strange' was her first thought.
And then she regained her common sense and wondered how the hell he got into her house. Her eyes scanned her room for a weapon of any sort, but they found none.
"Relax I'm not gonna hurt you" he suddenly spoke
His voice was dark, loud and booming. But it was also soft as if it cared for her deeply.
"Who are you?"
He laughed.
"Your a funny one little girl. The real question is what am I? Not who am I."