An Idiot
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@ Arceon:
On the contrary, I think that "I ran" is a rather good hooker. It's short, it contains a lot of possible emotions and it evokes questions.
@Mystique:
Meh, we don't have local libraries that offer English novels around here...I live in remote Switzerland...¬.¬ So I usually just buy the books. ^^;
Hum, well, I don't have anything new that's readable as a stand-alone...so I thought I'd upload the next little tidbit of that girl entering the bar story. Timeline is wonky, it pretty goes back in the past when compared with the bar sequence...hope you'll be able to understand it.
By all means, this is definitely no final draft, so I'll probably keep changing words/numbers/details and whatnot. I'm just not too satisfied with this chapter...it seems to be too superficial in a sense. But I'll wait and see if any of you have opinions on it.
Spoiler for No Title Yet!:
Chapter One
They chose a spot several hours by car from the city where many farmers resided with nothing more than endless fields of rice, wheat and vegetables. Barely six trains stopped at the local station during the day and the only cars were those that chose to stray from the motorway to drive through the small villages on a street that really looked too narrow for two cars to be lined side by side.
Walking slowly along that road were Hoki Tomoe and Matsudaira Rena, dressed in long skirts and heavy jackets and each carrying old rucksacks on their backs. Tomoe walked in front with both hands stuffed into her skirt pockets, more out of habit than anything else. Behind her followed Rena, her short, brown hair easy caught and tossed by the occasional wind. Every few steps, she half turned and looked over her shoulder.
“I can’t believe I agreed to do this,” Rena growled after being met with an empty road once again. “Since Ken dropped us off three hours ago, only four cars have passed; three of which were going in the opposite direction! What if no one picks us up by night?”
Tomoe rolled her eyes and reached up to tuck her long hair behind her ear before stopping and turning around to confront her seething counterpart.
“Complaining isn’t going to get us the money we want, Rena,” she said firmly, meeting Rena’s dark glare with her own sharp look. “Just in case that squishy brain of yours has forgotten already – “
“Hey, hey, you picking a fight, huh?”
“ – I’ll explain once again, so someone even with your infantile IQ can understand,” Tomoe continued unflustered, absently pushing away the hand that had grabbed a fistful of her jacket at the collar. “We chose this area exactly because there aren’t many cars that drive by. It serves several reasons. One, because if no one else is around to help us, the people in the car feel that they are the only ones who can, which increases the probability that someone will let us hitch-hike with them. Two, when we demand the money off the driver, there won’t be people to whom the driver can call help for.”
“I know that, dumbass, I didn’t need you to tell me,” Rena spat, throwing her a last glare before sidestepping her and walking on.
“There are, of course, other reasons, but they’re a little too strenuous for those too fatuous to comprehend,” Tomoe said offhanded and followed a few strides behind.
There was a moment’s pause that stretched unnaturally before Rena glanced over her shoulder with a scowl. “I’m not fat, dumbass.”
Tomoe just shrugged, and when her companion turned back around, she laughed silently at the poor, pitiful girl walking in front of her. People like her who did not have enough vocabulary to understand a sentence with a few unusual words, and could do nothing more than repeat several swearwords. Tomoe’s everyday life had very recently been filled with these intelligently-challenged delinquents of the city alleys.
It wasn’t that she hated her life, not exactly. She was just…bored.
In her opinion, her life so far had been ridiculously simple and almost disgustingly perfect.
The large Hoki family had, for the past two generations, produced a number of outstanding individuals, and were fairly well known in society. Tomoe’s father, for example, was currently the Senior Vice-Minister of Defence, and was rumoured to be taking over the position of Minster of Defence soon, since the current Minister was already in hospital due to an illness. Her mother had always worked as a school teacher, and was now the headmistress of the elite Kouran All-Girls High School. Other than that, her uncle was one of the top five lawyers in the country, and her second uncle was a famous architect.
Being the only child, her parents seemed to be expecting a lot of her. They had placed her in only the best of schools from kindergarten to high school and had already selected a number of universities, to which she had sent in her applications the previous spring. In two months, she was scheduled to take the entrance examinations.
But she was sick and tired of it all. She was tired of pretending to be the obedient daughter who studied hard and earned top grades all for the sake of meeting her parents’ expectations. Because she wasn’t obedient, and she felt disgusted each time she put up a false smile. She didn’t want to hear their praise anymore and didn’t want to see their looks of pride.
Her patience had snapped several weeks ago when her father had announced he would start looking for appropriate men to whom she would marry once she graduated university. Arranged marriages that were to happen five years from now! Was it not enough for him that he had already dictated her life up until this point? What was she, his puppet?
If that was how he saw her, she was out to prove him wrong. She would not sit still and let her family pull the strings. She would go as far as disgracing him and rubbing dirt on the Hoki name, no matter how low she had to stoop to achieve her goal.
Blackmailing money off people was nothing compared to what she was prepared to do. But, well, at the moment, her delinquent friends were not yet willing enough to downright break the laws, which was why Tomoe had settled to volunteering for this role. In time, things would start to work in her favour.
Smiling slightly at the thought, Tomoe threw a quick glance backwards and then turned around fully.
“Hey, Rena, Rena!” she said in barely concealed excitement, reaching blindly behind her to snag her companion’s jacket. “Look!”
Rena quickly came to stand next to Tomoe, and their faces broke out into sincere smiles at the sight of a dark car heading towards them under the afternoon sun. As one, they stretched out their arms as the car drew closer and waited with held breaths.
Even though she wasn’t extremely knowledgeable with cars and mechanics, Tomoe guessed this black one approaching them was not an expensive model. It certainly didn’t look expensive or even new for that matter. The black surface lacked any gloss and was flecked with dirt and the windows were covered with dust or dried water stains.
“Bet you it won’t stop,” Rena mumbled into Tomoe’s ear.
“2000 yen if it does, then,” Tomoe replied, though she was beginning to feel she had already lost that money since the car didn’t appear to be slowing down at all. She pursed her lips and waved her outstretched arm and even tried to bow politely.
All for nothing, however, as the car drove right on and both Tomoe and Rena lowered their hands with slumped shoulders. Tomoe sighed and threw her head back to the innocent sky – only to snap to attention and spin around at the sound of wheels breaking against the concrete.
The two girls stared at the stationary car and then at each other in silent disbelief. Tomoe was the first to grin and she immediately jogged over to where the car stood. The front window rolled open and she paused for a second, curious as to why the steering wheel was place on the left side. Was it foreign made?
“Where to?”
Pulling away from pointless musings, Tomoe focused on the man sitting behind the wheel. He looked young, possibly still in his twenties, with black hair that was tied at his nape. His eyes were covered with dark sports sunglasses.
A polite smile came easily to Tomoe’s lips as she bent down a little to be eye level with the man. “We’re heading to Tokyo city, but anywhere close by is fine. Please, sir, could we hitch a ride with you?”
The man regarded her for a moment and then turned to face the front with a nod.
“I’m on my way to Kawasaki,” he said. “I’ll drop you off in Tokyo.”
Tomoe smiled and bowed low. “Thank you very much!”
The two of them quickly opened the back door and Tomoe got in first. As she ducked, she whispered quietly into Rena’s ear, “I win.”
For a while they drove in peace with Rena and Tomoe sharing small talk and exchanging polite conversation with the driver. At least, they tried to converse with him, but he hardly gave answers that were more than three words long. So far they had found out his name, Hashibara Jun, that he liked to drive and that the car was, indeed, foreign made.
“What sort of job are you doing, sir?” Rena asked, trying to keep the conversation alive. “Forgive me, but you don’t look like a local farmer.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then you work in the city?” Tomoe asked. “In Tokyo or Kawasaki?”
“No.”
She decided to change the subject. “Why were you driving along this road anyways, sir? It’s much quicker to Kawasaki if you use the motorway.” Then she grinned playfully and leaned forward. “Let me guess, is it because you’re pretty picky about money and want to save the motorway fees?”
Briefly, Hashibara’s lips quirked upwards at her comment and Tomoe laughed, shifting forward a little more, resting her forearms on her legs, so that her face was between the two front headrests.
“I knew it! But you know, if you weren’t stingy, we would never have met you and we’d probably still be stuck back there. Thank you.” She pitched her voice low and soft. Hashibara merely nodded.
“But!” Tomoe chimed, her light-hearted grin back in place. “Please don’t try to get money off us for the car trip, sir! There’s a reason we were hitch-hiking after all.”
Again, that half smiling quirked lip, and then, “I know.”
“In fact,” Tomoe continued, silently drawing a knife from where it was strapped to her leg, and the merriment disappeared from her voice and face. In one smooth motion, she lifted the knife and placed the tip of the blade against Hashibara’s bare neck.
“Keep driving,” she ordered as soon as the man’s shoulders went tense. “You see, in fact, we were wondering if you could be so kind as to lend us some money, Mister Hashibara.”
“You…” the man began, but then paused and bit his lower lip in what seemed to be anxiety. Tomoe passed it off as a normal reaction. “I…I don’t have a lot of money.”
“That’s alright, we aren’t planning on bankrupting you of your pocket money,” she replied smoothly. “We just need around 50,000 yen. Surely you have that much.”
“No, no, I don’t, I – “
Rena cut him off just then with a few buttons of her mobile phone. Within seconds, someone picked up on the other end.
“Hey Ken, it’s me, Rena. Yeah, we’ve got one. His car’s license plate is Nerima 540, sa 34-82… yeah, let us know when you’ve managed to hack into the data… alright, make it quick.”
“You know, I’m surprised you managed to memorise that,” Tomoe commented as soon as Rena snapped her phone shut.
“I typed it into my phone memo when he stopped. See, I told you I’m not stupid.”
Tomoe simply shrugged and then returned her full focus to Hashibara. Just as she was about to start talking to him again, however, he beat her to it.
“I see. Wait in the country for a lone car to pick you up, threaten him and then track his identity with the license plate, and steal money with some blackmail.” He smirked. “Not bad for a bunch of pranksters.”
Tomoe frowned. “Careful Hashibara, your life is in my hands,” she warned quietly. But on the inside, she was becoming worried. He was suddenly behaving too calm compared to his previous stuttering. It could have been a bluff, but his tone alone made her feel strangely uneasy.
“I have a few questions, if you would allow me so much,” he went on, seemingly undisturbed with the knife that was practically resting against his skin. He sat still and drove the car steadily as if nothing was wrong with the situation.
“Go on, I’ll answer if I feel like it,” Tomoe replied. She saw Rena throwing her a frown, but they had to wait a while for Ken’s return-call in any case, and to keep him talking would prevent him from thinking up ways of escaping.
“Since when were you walking around on that road?”
“Noon.”
“So no one picked you up in three and a half hours? No other cars drive by?”
That was the longest string of words Tomoe had heard him say, and that small revelation was disconcerting. Something was not quite right, but that something was eluding her, hovering just beyond her reach.
She heard Rena answering the questions, but Tomoe was busy looking around the car. He wasn’t a cop, was he? Or a lawyer? There was nothing that indicated his occupation. In fact, there were hardly any personal belongings at all. Not even a bottle of water or some snacks, which were bound to be in any car during long trips. It was almost as if –
“Too slow.”
The words jarred Tomoe out of her thoughts and she frowned, trying to make some sense of them. But before she could do anything, something seemed to strike her square in the back of her head and her entire body lurched forward without warning. He hit the brakes! she thought for the span of a heartbeat, and then her mind went frighteningly blank when her head collided painfully against the front seat.
It must have been just seconds, but it felt like eternity by the time Tomoe had fought down the nausea and blinked away the bright flashes of light on the back of her eyelids.
Everything was now still and Tomoe tried to push herself away from front seat. It was then that she realised her physical discomfort wasn’t entirely from being slammed forward. Her right wrist was trapped in front of her and was twisting her whole body into an awkward angle.
As if waking from a bad dream, everything came back to her. She snapped her head up and was greeted with Hashibara smiling crookedly at her, her wrist held firmly in his large hand. Furiously, Tomoe attempted to yank her hand back and when that didn’t work she tried to twist her wrist enough to be able to harm him in any way with the knife.
“Let go, you bastard!” she snarled, almost managing to slit his forearm, but she grimaced as his fingers tightened into a bruising grip and she lost her hold on the hilt with a gasp of pain.
“You really shouldn’t be playing with these,” he commented casually, snatching the knife by the blade. Without taking his eyes off Tomoe and not relenting his grip on her either, he tossed the weapon lightly into the air and caught it again by the hilt.
“Who are you?” Tomoe asked, since that was the only phrase that came to her lips. There was no way he was a normal businessman.
“Your Devil and your Saviour.”
“What?” Was he serious?
“I wouldn’t try that, if I were you.”
Confused, Tomoe glanced to her side and saw Rena frozen in the act of trying to slide a smaller pocket knife through the gap between the head rest and the seat. Under any other circumstance, Tomoe would have been fairly irritated by the foolish act, since there were clearly many more subtle and effective ways of catching the man off guard. Yanking on his seat belt or snaking an arm from the window side and getting his neck were two of the most instantaneous ideas. But now, she was feeling vexed only because the plot that could have given them their freedom had failed.
Rena hesitated for a moment, and Tomoe swore that glint in her companion’s eyes wasn’t good a sign.
“Rena, don’t – “ she found herself warning, but it was fractions too late.
Everything in the next several seconds was a chaotic blur.
With an animalistic war-cry, Rena lunged forward with the short blade, intent on attacking anything that came in its way. Hashibara was forced to release Tomoe so that the knife didn’t plunge into her elbow. Tomoe immediately threw her entire weight backwards but the blade still clipped her along the forearm.
Then Hashibara suddenly had a gun in his hand and no sooner had Tomoe realised this than the car was filled with a deafening bang mixed with a horrified shriek.
And after that, there was only a ringing silence.
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