School Girls' Stories - Year 3
Yuki Stands Alone
Still no fanart besides the small few ;_;
“Mom…”
Mrs. Oshidori rose so quickly from her chair that it fell to the side from the loss of her weight. She leapt the two feet across the room and took her daughter in her arms, nearly gasping through her tears as she hugged her eldest daughter to her chest. “Kaori!”
The door burst open to the room and in the rush of things nurses, doctors, husband, father, and brother all came rushing in. The nurses and doctors tried to push the men and mother from the room so they could administer tests on the awaking woman, but none of them would budge. They all were determined to know that Kaori was okay.
Yuki stood outside the door and every time it swung open she took a glimpse in, to see what was being done. The chaos did not last long. In a couple of moments they determined Kaori stable, and within a couple of days she would be allowed to go home. Home, however, meant Canada now for Kaori.
“Thank you… for taking care… of wife,” James Grant bowed and spoke in his broken Japanese that had probably taken him his entire visit to learn. It did not matter, Mr. and Mrs. Oshidori were touched and nearly in tears watching Kaori slowly walk, her weight leaned heavily on her husband, who had his arm wrapped around her. Nakago had already boarded the plane, having very little interest in saying good-bye to his family, though before he had left he had slipped a piece of paper into Yuki’s hand. Upon further investigation she saw it was a phone number, the private line to Nakago’s room. Had her brother somehow become human during his stay in Canada, or had nearly losing Kaori, and saying good-bye to his daughter, returned the soul that had been stolen by drugs and incestuous lascivious thoughts.
“Mom,” Kaori walked up to her mother and father on shaking legs, grasping each of them in a warm embrace. “I will miss you both,” she said breathlessly, almost sounding like she meant it. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“Please call us,” Mrs. Oshidori begged, even though she knew it would never happen. “I love you Kaori.”
“I love you too, Mom, Dad,” she said, then slowly pulled away and looked over to her sister. Kaori stepped up to Yuki and reached out for her. Yuki hesitated before taking her hands and letting the other girl embrace her warmly.
“Make sure Shai takes care of Bliss,” Kaori whispered into Yuki’s ear, “and send me pictures, and call me. Yuki… I’m sorry, for everything I’ve done to you, but I’m trying to make it up to you, and the best way to do that is for me to leave.”
“What did you tell James happened to the baby?” Yuki asked, not yet ready to let go of her sister. This was the last time the two of them were ever going to see one another, and Yuki would have loved to have felt nostalgic, but Kaori and Nakago were always the ones close, Yuki had spent more time with her friends then her siblings. Perhaps that is why she never saw what was happening between the two of them all of those years.
“Nakago told him that the baby died,” Kaori whispered, “leading to why I was having a hard time coming out of the coma.”
“Always the liar.”
“Always cunning,” Kaori corrected, kissing her little sister on the cheek. “I do what I have to to survive, you will learn that one day. Hopefully not for a very long time.”
“Goodbye, Kaori.”
“Goodbye, Yuki.”
Kaori walked over to her husband and took his arm in hers and lead him away from her family, a forlorn look on her face though Yuki knew she was happy to be leaving Japan.
“You talked to your parents like you would never see them again,” James pointed out to his wife as they boarded his private plane.
“That is because I never will,” she told him honestly, the hatch closing behind them.
“You’re what?” Yuki asked, shocked, her mouth agape. She looked to her best friend who stood out in the hallways of the school with her, both of them looking wistfully out the windows.
“This is my last day here,” Shai pointed out. “I’m moving to the mountains with Kyoei, but it is just for the school year. I will be back after the school year.”
“But…” Yuki didn’t know what to say next. She had always expected all three of them, Yuki, Shai, and Fuji, to graduate together. From there Fuji would go to Tokyo University, then Shai would go on to play at Wimbledon, and Yuki would join as the assistant for some anime corporation, slowly working her way to the top.
“This isn’t the way things were supposed to go,” she said quietly. “If you go now, I won’t be able to spend this last school year with you, and then after this, though you will be back, Fuji will be in Tokyo, and I’m trying to find a corporation to link up with so I can go to Tokyo and train there, and…”
“Yuki… you can’t have expected our perfect lives to have lasted forever?” Shai asked of her friend, pressing a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Our first year of high school was disastrous, our second year not much better. For our third year, yours and mine, we should make the most of it.”
“How am I supposed to make the most of it?” Yuki whined, the first time her pessimism every truly showed through. “Fuji’s in Tokyo and now you are going to the mountains. Shinwa won’t call me and hasn’t answered my mail or e-mails. My sister and brother have broken my parents hearts once again. What am I supposed to make the most of?”
“Your talent,” Shai pointed out flatly. “Yuki, I gave up something I love for a son I was not sure I was going to love because of who is father was.” Yuki was shocked to hear the words from Shai’s lips. Yuki had never questioned Shai’s undying love for her son, it was the type of person Shai had always been. She loved with all of her heart, unconditionally. It had never occurred to Yuki that Shai might have felt resentful carrying the son of a man who had betrayed her, in many ways. “I’ve lost tennis because of Shu, and I regret that in many ways, but I love Shu. But now, with no Shinwa, with no Fuji, with no me, you have nothing to keep you from your dreams but your own stubbornness. Yuki, this is possibly the best thing for you.”
Yuki looked out the window, to the people scattered across the courtyard enjoying their lunch break, and their last day of school before summer. Was this really the best thing for her? Had she really been trying to work on her talent at all, or was she just following a wishy-washy dream while she waited for reality to set in?
“Who will do the voice for the anime?” Yuki asked of Shai. “Without you we don’t have a lead.”
Shai gave her a loving smile and said, “You will.”
“I’m not a voice actress,” Yuki insisted. “I am just a cartoonist, if even that. I don’t know who else will do it.”
“You two don’t want to go out and enjoy this nice weather?”
“Mr. Diotrephes,” Yuki said, turning on the man who always seemed to interrupt every quiet moment she had with Shai. “We didn’t hear you come up.”
“I’m quiet,” he said smiling down at her. “I’ve always been that way.”
“Excuse me,” Shai said, bowing her head, “I must return to class and finish gathering my things.” She stood back up and turned to Yuki and said, “Meet me at my class after school, we’ll walk home together.”
Yuki nodded, though she regretted it every moment, watching her friend walk away and knowing it would be the last time they walked home together. She turned back to Mr. Diotrephes, who was watching her carefully through those cold lavender eyes.
“You don’t recognize me, do you?” he asked of her finally after a few moments of looking her over.
Yuki blinked. “Should I?” she asked, looking at Frost carefully. She would remember someone so beautiful, wouldn’t she? He was perfect, in almost every way, and she was very sure he was perfect even underneath the leather that she was positive he was not supposed to be wearing, even as a student teacher.
“I guess not,” he said sweetly, his smile never wavering. “See you in class, Oshidori.” Frost turned his back on his student and walked away slowly, leaving Yuki to look after his back cautiously. He said he knew her sister, but now he wondered if she recognized him. What was really going on with that Frost?
Well, it would give her something to do while by herself.