Hale Academy: University of Sui Generis (Vol. I)

Chapter 10: Ding Dong Ditch

Chapter 10:

Ding Dong Ditch

Key for this chapter:

* Rinzen’s Thoughts *

// Anyone Else's Thoughts //

'Old dialogues memories, spoken out loud thoughts, the past in general...'

///Memories///

POVs

""Not an Actual Speech or Thought""

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Warning: Alternative POVs

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1-04-2113 (11:00 pm Kyoto: Original City, Japan)

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Isuzu Kai-Mikumi hated Japan.

Well no, she hated her home, not so much the country. The country had never wronged her. As far as she was aware, she’d lived a relatively blessed life, good friends, and a good neighborhood. She was treated relatively well, and on certain days she had the love of a man; biologically her father.

Yet she hated her home, because it wasn’t a home, it was monolith of monochrome and chilly frigidness that stole the air and left everything in its wake, broken and cold. Dead. A family is what she’d always wanted, craved, but she was left with a metal and chrome.

It was disheartening to say the least.

“Wow!”

Isuzu took in her home with empty eyes, but her companion obviously seemed to be enthralled.

“How do you—this is…whoa —where are we?” she finally settled on.

“Um…” Isuzu paused, “At least several stories high”, she answered absentmindedly.

“Well duh”, Fiona scoffed rolling her eyes, “Heck all I can see are clouds. I was more curious about where in the blazes are we, I meant city-wise”, she queried flailing around the floor to ceiling high rise windows.

“Oh. Right”, she chuckled, “Last known location”, she muttered half to herself, because after they’d moved out of her bedroom. Fiona having landed on her bed and Isuzu slipping on the puddle of water she’d left behind, and after she’d finally changed into simpler-actual clothes (and carefully folding away Ray’s and Zen’s offered clothing items), allowing Fiona ample time to scour out her apartment. “We’re in Kyoto, Japan. In one of the original cities”, she informed as she looked around and hummed.

An original city, a city that pre-existed before Mother Nature went berserk and war corrupted and divided the world according to its whims.

"We’re in Kyoto City it's the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu", she informed idly wondering when she'd become a geography teacher, "Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. Back in the year 2018, the city had a population of 1.47 million. But now, well after the wars and Gaia Beserker, it reformed back into what it was like back in 794. Kyoto (then known as Heian-kyō) was chosen as the new seat of Japan's imperial court. The original city was arranged in accordance with traditional Chinese feng shui following the model of the ancient Chinese capital of Chang'an. The Imperial Palace faced south, resulting in Ukyō (the right sector of the capital) being on the west while Sakyō (the left sector) is on the east. The streets in the modern-day wards of Nakagyō, Shimogyō, and Kamigyō-ku still follow a grid pattern—"

"Okay, okay stop! Oh My God! I don't need a geographical lesson", Fiona raised her hand waving it all over the place. “I don’t even recognize half the words you said, or any of them besides Feng Shui, and that I only know as a general concept used in décor”, she muttered as she settled on the edge of a couch, “And so, how do we go about this?” she asked, Isuzu idly noticed her eyes looking around wildly, “I mean is there a welcoming committee we gotta be aware of?” she asked warily.

Isuzu paused, for a moment she genuinely had no idea what the woman meant and then snorted, “Oh God”, she laughed, “No”, she dissolved into slightly hysterical giggles after that, sinking to her knees on the plush rug in her living room, and gasped for air.

Eventually after what felt like hours and she had arranged all her limbs carefully, she lay sprawled staring up at the ceiling, she cleared her throat as discreetly as she could, but still ended up sounding distinctly strangled (a sure sign of extreme emotional gut wrenching hysteria), which is on par with conversing about this topic at all.

"Sorry", she managed to gasp as she lay on the plush rug.

"Don't mention it", Fiona answered settled casually into the couch, "Felling better?" she asked amused.

"Yup", she agreed, "Man, I didn't know how much I needed that", she muttered.

"I could guess you were keeping a lot in, I mean of the entire group, towel-introductions aside, you seemed to be the quietest", she stated as she tilted her head to one side. “Embarrassment can only push you to stay quiet to a degree; eventually curiosity will step up and make itself known. So a lot happened, do you want to talk about it?” she asked quietly.

“Are you loved?” Isuzu asked instead.

“Yes”, Fiona answered quietly.

Isuzu nodded she sat up and leaned against the couch, “My whole life the only family I ever had was my mother and my wolf-familiar. The others when they were talking, about their family situations. As messed up as we all are, each one of them had someone to rely on. Ash has his grandmother and Zee has her seven dads, and Jasmine has her extremely large family and twelve brothers, Red has her sisters, and Ray has his adopted family and even though Zen obviously has one f****d up schedule, straight out of a martial-arts manga, it’s practically fictional”, she muttered dryly, “He worships his dad and I’m fairly certain the man cares about him too, and that’s just from what I can understand when he talks about the sheriff”, she smiled softly. “We come from broken homes and we are discriminated against. But we are loved”, she whispered.

“And you aren’t?” Fiona asked.

“I was”, she answered, “Till I was five, I was loved. I had a good mother, a good father and a wolf cub. A small family that could or would want for nothing”, she whispered smiling happily.

Fiona swallowed audibly and waited as she exhaled weakly.

“And then it all changed”, Isuzu continued, “Mom died, it was a sudden heart attack, though how anyone dies of from a sudden cardiac arrest at the age of twenty two already makes me feel like somehow it was foul play”, she muttered, “Though I don’t have any proof and it could be childish feelings of wanting to blame someone because I felt so incredibly helpless when it happened”, she muttered.

“Survivor’s guilt”, Fiona murmured.

Isuzu nodded, “I mean it could be”, she agreed, “It’s just it took my dad less than a year to find another bride. I felt betrayed, I mean her body wasn’t even cold yet you know. Like let the decay start for crying out loud”, she hissed suddenly angry, “It’s been nine months, babies are born in less, and you’re going to get married?! How dare you, how could you?” she grit her teeth as she spewed questions for a man who was no longer in her life, “I had no say in the matter. I was five and everyone assumed it was for the best. It’s odd how easily they demanded a child of the ~Mikumi~ household must have a mother, a father cannot raise a girl-child correctly, blah, blah, blah. One hundred years in the future and still we’re treated worse than women back in the 13th Century. If this was west Asia, we’d be confined to living behind a curtain for all eternity”, she muttered disdainfully.

“Probably”, Fiona agreed weakly her ears were still ringing when the household’s name was mentioned all she could hear were the sounds of bells ringing.

“What happened after that?” she enquired softly.

“I grew up with a ridiculously strict step-mother, I mean she makes evil step-mothers from fairytales seem tame by comparison”, she sighed weakly, “And

I’m not talking childhood favorites I’m talking stories that were grim from the get go. Written by brothers back when even our parents weren’t concepts”, she muttered cheekily.

Fiona laughed, “I understand each reference, don’t worry”, she huffed slightly amused.

“Okay”, Isuzu offered and then smirked, “Anyway, she wasn’t kind—not by any definition of the word, by the time I was ten I had experienced what I assumed was the worst thing a mother could ever offer and I had friends so I knew that’s really not how a ‘mother’ is supposed to be. Of course like all naïve idiots, I assumed that it would get better over time. Made up excuses like, ‘she’s stressed’, ‘The Main family must be pressuring her’ or things like, ‘dad must want me to become stronger’, what a fool I was”, she laughed derisively.

“Why?” Fiona asked.

“Well, as soon as her children were born, twins that were blessed at birth by the High Priestess of our family, it’s like I didn’t exist anymore”, she stated quietly.

“What do you mean when you say you ceased to exist?” Fiona asked worried.

“Well you see it don’t you? My skyscraper penitentiary, no warden, no guards, just a residence in the sky—isolated and alone, with a wolf familiar as my only family, cut away from the spiritual power of the Earth, cut away from my mother buried deep in that very earth”, she laughed manically.

When neither of them said anything after a beat of long silence, Isuzu exhaled roughly, she swallowed thickly and continued;

“After she gave birth and I actually was quite happy for her”, she smiled softly, “I went to speak to her to offer my services as babysitter or well anything. I was seven”, she whispered quietly, “And then I overheard her beg my father”, she stated recalling the words clearly; they were etched into her very soul.

She had nightmares and dreams about the words;

“’Please Hiroshi, enough, you married me to keep your place in this family. Enough now, we have our children. You must keep her away or we will lose everything, our children will lose their place. We need to get rid of her, please Hiroshi, please. Please, please…’ and on and on, and on she went for what sincerely felt like forever. After I ran back to my room, my father came to me a few hours later and sat me down, and what a tale he told me, a long and truly ridiculous story of how it would be safer for everyone, after some witch attacked”, she sighed heavily, “I mean what witch? When did she attack, when I was asleep, when my step-mother was giving birth, when the twins were suckling her breasts, when he finished suckling her breasts, seriously which witch would break into a heavily guarded, supremely warded, bound and barrier-ed home in one of the most Spiritual areas of Japan and sanctuary to not one but three powerful High Priestesses?” she asked, “I mean can you think of anyone supremely stupid enough to even attempt that?” she asked bewildered.

“Uh… no”, Fiona answered a tad shocked.

“Well of course not”; Isuzu threw her hands up in the air, “I mean those not of the direct bloodlines, a foreigner entering the compound is right up with there being yokai or spirit, and it’s impossible to step foot on the earth’s surface marked by our family’s blood, sweat and their very tears. It’s just not possible, because if anyone did, klaxon bells would ring, and those fuckers are loud”, she shuddered recalling their hefty ringing.

“I see”, Fiona hummed as Isuzu then nodded and continued;

“And lo and behold, for the last eight years I’ve lived here. Oh he used to visit, gave me servants and butlers and tutors, I was and am treated like royalty, but not as family, which is incredibly ironic if you think about it”, she muttered half to herself and then sighed, “I’ve never actually met the twins, they probably hate me, or resent me or well whatever lies they told them, I honestly have never had the capacity to care. I think I’ve run away several times, only to be found over and over and over again by the men my father hired. Always given the same sob story, ‘I’m doing this for your own good’, he’d say. I mean what bullshit, we both know the Elder and the family High Priestesses not to mention my grandmother would never allow for him to stay at the main branch if I disappeared”, she smirked evilly.

“Your father married into the family”, Fiona realized then.

“Yup”, she answered simply.

“And she was a daughter of one the branch family members, who knows maybe they were lovers once upon a time or it was love at first sight or maybe he even loved my mother, I don’t know the past, I don’t care to dwell in the history of my father’s indiscretions. I do know the one absolute rule, my grandmother has. She was the Elder nominated by the prefecture to handle on crisis, so my family—”

“You’re like the definition of prominent”, her companion stated awed.

“Yup. And her rule is basic, ‘Do Not Abandon Blood. If you do, you will be cast out and stripped of your rank and power!’” she answered again, “I think for now”, she hummed looking around, “I want nothing but what I bought with money I earned from several part time jobs. I just want out of this sky prison”, she wished desperately.

“Okay”, Fiona answered, “Though the main reason we came back was for your pet wolf, I don’t see it anywhere”, she pointed out.

“Ookami is my familiar and he’s probably out hunting”, she corrected and continued, “Gives us enough time to pack my stuff into a Level one ETC, and ding-dong ditch this joint”, she hummed cheerful now.

“Ding dong Ditch?” Fiona hummed, “Aren’t we supposed to leave silently?” she asked confused.

//What on earth???//

*

TBC...

Author's Note: In case anyone is wondering why Fiona and Bell aren't suffering from magical issues with the translation spells, is because she lives in an area cut of from spiritual and or normal magic, so there's no basic interference. In this chapter Bell (Isuzu) is mostly speaking in Japanese, and Fiona in both English and Finnish (Her native tongue). Rest, translation magic on the envelope and letter in their vicinity is allowing them to converse easily.

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