Box of grief

    "Hey, you're going?"
    Fin snapped from his daydream.  He slurped back the drool, inching away from the edge of his mouth and realized his neck was burning with pain.  He straightened himself up on the chair.  Heads on the desk, he looked sideways at his friend.
    "Go where?" he asked.  His eyes hurt and his head aches.  When was the last time he had a proper night?
    "Where?  Home.  Or have you gone senile already?  Haha, dude, you're still in secondary school and there's like 5 months left here you know, so you better don't go forgetting things," the other one said.  His eyes contracted to small lines when he smile and laugh.  His hair was bright red and people often thought it was dyed.  But truthfully, a friend from some country he won't ever get a chance to go would be one likely-to-cool friend.  At least that's he thought.
    A year ago, in the middle of June, a transfer student, no, more like a new student getting forced to go to school here had been brought in by the teacher.  His hair was flaming red, his face was a oblong, and all but perfected his outwordly physiques was a pair of hazelnut eyes the colour of the sky.  A very dark sky.  People swarmed all over him then, all the school found out that same hour, most likely, that a new student had enrolled and he looks really cool.  The student though thought that this was all an ordeal he had to deal with.  Particularly the part where he had to suit his own lifestyle to this place.  He came from a cold country and this place was hot as the bottom of a burning pot.  He didn't like it that much but he likes it when he can wear lighter clothes.
    Of course, Fin at that time was going through one of those emotional phases after a certain accident happened.  After all he's a ripe man, going through a very delicate process called puberty.  He started to realize there were far more girls in his class and all of them seemed to have very attractive properties.  It was all that he expected but they didn't explain the part where you feel lonely and sad for no reason at all.  He had friends, yes, and they were all probably going through the same thing.  Still, he thought that he's the only case where you look up at the sky at started to ask yourself some very hard questions.  For example: Who am I?
    Then this guy suddenly butted in.  Red hair and pretty eyes aside, he's a guy you don't want to mess with.  He has bigger body and taller than most guys here.  And he's athletic but never joined a club even until now. This guy saw him staring at nothing.  All of a sudden, he's there poking him in the face.  It all seemed like a blur after that.
    "Ahh!  Why do we have to go back?  It's too early, anyway," Fin said, refusing to move from his position. He had his face down straight on the desk and it was hard to breath.  So, he moved his head to look out the window.  It was evening, not quite late yet.  And it was hot.  Burning hot.
    "Oh come on.  So, you wanna go somewhere else?  The mall maybe?  Play some games or watch a movie?"  the other guy said.
    "Look at that outside.  Unless you have a car you can drive to the mall, I ain't going back until it's too late to stay here,"
    "Well, I could call up my driver."
    Silence.
    "Oi, Laz, you have driver?" Fin asked.  His face still facing away.
    "Yeah.  My parents thought it was too troublesome to wait for a bus or ride a bike, so they gave me a driver.  Although, I don't really use him that much except when I'm too lazy or I just want to give him something to do,"
    "Your parents hired you a driver?"
    "No.  More like, gave me a driver."
    Silence.
    "You know, Laz.  I still don't know what your parents do or how rich you are,"
    "Eh?  Why do you care, anyway?  Come on, I'll call up my driver and we can go hang out,"
    "Well, if it's on a car, I'll go."
    30 minutes later, the driver opened the back door to give the two boys entrance to the black shiny Mercedes Benz. There wasn't much student left at the time, but the few still waiting for their buses stared at the car and the two students going in and gaped like a fish out of water.  The driver slammed the door and got into the driver's seat.  Laz told him to drive to the mall and 5 minutes later, they were into heavy traffic in the middle of the city.
    It took quite a while before Fin realized that it was too quiet inside the car.  Still gaping, he desperately searched for a topic to converse with his friend.
    "Well, I heard you got a girlfriend."
    That was Laz.
    "Huh?  What girl?  No, more importantly, who said that?" Fin slide to the left and looked outside.  Buildings made out glass scratched the skies like claws.  All of them seemed too dominant and quiet but inside, he was sure a lot of people were still working.  It was a city made out of buildings like these and most of them are probably offices.  Fin looked down and saw a stall, selling what seemed to be candies.  The shopkeeper was sitting on a bench, looking tired.  He was wearing a hat, symbolized like a lolipop.  It wasn't ridiculous but he thought it wasn't funny either.
    "Everybody," Laz's voice seemed distances away.
    "Well, I don't, okay?  Still, if we're gonna talk about girls and such, might as well say we're gossiping,"
    "Gossips seemed to start everything, though.  I saw you with Hill the other day.  What were you guys talking about?"
    "Her?  Oh, she's just asking about the Archery Club.  You know, the one I ditched?  I wasn't good at it but she seemed desperate to pull me back into it.  Well, I'd say I humbly decline,"
    "That club?  I heard it was going down because there wasn't that much member to begin with,"
    "Yeah, that's probably why,"
    "Why'd you join it in the first place?"
    "Because I thought that there's not gonna be that much people in it.  Seemed it was famous once because of a pretty girl, but now that she's graduated, the club's finished,"
    "Oh."
    Quite settled in after that.  The whole thing was like a little spark, trying to ignite something bigger.  Well, it was worth the shot anyway.  Fin tried to searched for a topic again.  The car was moving slickly along the road, quiet and yet seemed to be fast.  The driver was good to drive with this speed with this much traffic around.  Maybe he was trained or something.  Or maybe he's just used to it.  Fin thought the latter was probably it.
    "I'm going back after 5 months."
    That was Laz too.
    "Back?  To your country?"
    "Yeah.  My family's here for just a year but my parents thought I better finished graduating here and then we go back and apply for a university, back home,"
    "Oh.  Good for you, then."
    So, that's why.  He's been like this for quite a while.  So, he's going back after finishing school, right?  Well, everybody will be forced into their own paths one way or the other.  No one can't really stay at one place forever and expects it to be the same.  Something's gotta change after a while.  The buildings seemed shorter now.  There were more restaurants and shops.  A couple was hand in hand, walking along the pavement.  They were smiling and seemed happy.  Fin watched them until they were out of sight.
    "Well, we have 5 months more, right?  After the exam, we'll go to the beach or something.  We can go hang out with the others.  Invite everybody,"
    "I don't know,"
    "Eh, don't worry.  It's not gonna be just you going away.  Everybody's going their ways after this.  So, it's not that big of a deal,"
    "Please don't say that."
    Man, this guy can really be emo sometimes.
    "Well, look.  We'll be in touch.  I got your number, your FB, twitter, everything.  We can Skype if you want,"
   "Yeah, probably."
   Like I said.  It's not like I like it this way but hey, I knew this would be coming.  Man....
   "Don't sweat it," Fin said.  He didn't want to see the other guy's face.  Probably at the edge of tears or something.
    They arrived at the mall after some time.  The driver let them off at the entrance and Laz said to be back after 2 hours.  What the hell are going to do for 2 hours?
    "Fun.  Come on, this time I'll beat you at Mars Invaders!" Laz exclaimed when the car was out of sight.  He was smiling then, happy as ever.
    "Oh really?  We'll see about that.  Oh and you're on everything,"
    "Eh??? I don't have that much money on me right now,"
    "Well, we have this machine called the ATM,"
    "Tch.  Pay for yourself,"
    "Hey, you dragged me here and you expect me to pay dinner?  I don't think so,"
    "Shut up."
    5 months.
    Not long.
    Too fast.
    Minus the exam and everything's gotta do with school, we're left with a couple of weeks, only.
    Man...
    And this guy had to remind me.

Fill the sky

    It was night, about 11 o'clock.  The park at the outskirts of Altair was filled with homeless men as they struggle to keep themselves warm and cozy in their dirty clothes and jackets, with torn gloves that show their fingers.  Many of them are men while some are old women, dressed similarly that you can't nearly tell which is which.  Food was scarce that day and begging for the whole day had turned to the worse since cops patrols had been operational since start of the month.  Begging was the only thing they could do in these cases but not all of them wanted to live like this forever.

    Amongst those, a man stood inside the darkest patch of the park, where a single big tree made a big shadow on the ground, blocking the moon's view and the stars' glitter.  He wasn't one of those homeless and yet in mere couple of minutes, he will be worse than the worst of those men.  He was wearing simple office clothes, complete with jacket and a glove, since it was too cold for anything else that night.  Clutching a bottle of alcohol in his right hand, he have a gun in another.  A Glock .40 bullets.  He had a license for that, but he being as is right now, he had all but forgotten where that piece of paper is.  He looked up to that big tree, standing there with his eyes unfocused, then took a great drink from the bottle, spilling some onto his clothes.

    There was another man, a man with a special ability.  He had sensed the strong sense of danger from this part of his territory and he had eventually found it.  He was watching the one with the gun, away from his sight of view and well in cover.  He had nothing on except a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, tightened around his waist with a buckled belt.  Now, he stood at the far right back of the one with the gun, watching him from behind a smaller tree, well within the shadows.  His eyes were focused but he didn't to be so since his special ability enabled him to see what other humans can't see.  In his eyes, he sees but a man, ready to kill himself.  But in his mind, he sees something entirely different.  He clenched his fists, cursing the cruel fate in which humans cannot simply ignore.  He was so cold outside on his skin, but inside he was burning with anger.

    "Why do humans neglect themselves so much?" he thought.

    The one with the gun took another long haul from the bottle, until all the content vanished inside his mouth. He took a despairing look at the bottle and smashed it on the tree, making the surrounding glitter for a while with glasses flying.  Then he looked up and point the gun barrel at his head.  He removed the safety with a click and pulled the trigger.

    A brief loud bang and an explosion.  Pieces of brain flew and settled on the grass.  Then, silence.

    The other man looked at the whole scene with a familiarity in his eyes yet he was shocked to his core.  He began to shiver for a moment but then stood firm as something beyond his eyes slither away from the body.  That was it.  He moved with grace and certainty, following the slithering shadow, originated from the body and now making it's way to the deeper parts of the park where the trees are big and the paths hidden by weeds.  He knew the area like the back of his hand, and yet a sense of danger rang through his head like a siren.  He needed to go forward and faced this.  Just like he did so a lot of time before this.

    Every man and woman and children have spirits in their body.  These spirits are what would surface as emotions and thinking.  These spirits are unstable in children and sometimes in women.  But these spirits are the only barrier that differs the sane and the insane.  These spirits are a form in which humans had manifested all their wills and their dreams.  These spirits linger inside the human body, separate from the soul or the body, yet one with them.  The man was chasing a Wild Will, a spirit of a human being, set free before the hos died and now, with lost of the body and soul, it roams the earth, with no destination or goal.

    Wild Wills are yet another form of spirits.  When humans have the spirit to live and love, his spirit would be strong and controlled.  But when a human gone berserk, sometimes lost his sanity or a prolonged moment of anger or even the break of a relationship.  These can lead to Wild Wills, where the intention to live or love are gone from the human.  In this case, Wild Wills are what the man would call an abomination that had used to be human.

    His job is to get rid of the abomination using his own special ability to call forth his own Wills into action.

    The slithering shadow stopped under the shadow of an oak tree, young still to be called big.  It stood up and formed the shape of a human being, with no sense of skin or face.  It turned around to face the incoming man.  It grew eyes, white holes on the head and slumped.

    "You.  Don't move," the man gasped for breath.  "This could end the easy way or the hard way."

    The figurative shadow moved it's hands.  He formed a mouth, yet another white hole on it's head.  The mouth moved but only whispers of it's words were heard.  "...fill me... hurts... done with... fill..."

    The man almost pitied the creature in front of him.  But if he let it grow any larger than this... "Don't move. I'll be done with you in a minute."  He touched his chest and a single glow of light, briefly glowed around his body and disappeared.  From the spot he touched, a visible shape of a rectangle slowly protruded.  Then, the man pulled it out.  It formed itself into a card, drawn.  It was decorated with the faces of a child, a woman and a man, facing up to a pair of wings that glowed.  He set it on the ground.  Instantly the whole area vibrated for a while.

    "I'll end this for you.  Mistral," he said.  A figure appeared beside him, clad within iron armor and holding a long halberd in it's left hand.  It moved forward towards the Wild Will.

    "...job ...done..." the shadow in front mumbled with his mouth moving only fractions.  It seemed a bit larger than seconds before.  Standing there, it looked up.  For a while, a human face, similar to the one the shadow originated from, formed on it's head.  It vanished.

    Mistral, the Will summoned from the man, lifted the halberd below it's shoulder and brought it down in a flash, slashing the shadow across the torso.  The remains of a spirit closed it's eyes and disappeared.  Not even ashes were seen floating or flying away.

    The man let escape a breath he wasn't aware holding.  He looked at Mistral.  The Will had done his job and it disappeared too, just like the Wild Will.  The card that was placed on the ground had vanished at the same time.

    "At least, this one had decency to stay still," he said as he walked away from the scene.  Now aware of the cold biting his fingers, he hugged himself and walked fast to his apartment, two blocks away from the park.  The thought of the Wild Will, gone from his head when he reached the door and opened the lock.

    That night, Jake Freelance, Agent Card, slept well.

Chikusho

Why am I the only one like this?

Read or Die -Rehabilitation-

Hideyuki Kurata.

I SALUTE YOU AND I LOVE YOU TO THE END OF THE EARTH.

YOU BRING BACK READ OR DIE.

OH. MY. GODDDDDD.

XDDDD

Seriously, I LOVE THE NEW LOOK of "Yomiko".

If you know what i mean....

I see a massive reduction of boob size, glasses size, and oh wow, a wardrobe change.

Then again, I expected nothing less from an alternate Read or Die, no?

Yep, Read or Die -Rehabilitation- is a SIDE-STORY which means it has NOTHING to do with the original R.O.D.

Look at it like this.

There are... 3 Yomiko's as far as I know.

1) The manga version
2) The OVA / TV version
3) THE NEW YOMIKO

So, the OVA / TV versions follow the manga version, (coat, tie, big glasses, breast size, wardrobe).

But you, KURATA, YOU made an alternate version a.k.a. A new Dimension in the R.O.D. Universe.

Yes.  Read or Die is a universe.

The new dimension, Rehab version, will represent a darker side of R.O.D. With like you said, Kurata, "...the  dark side of bibliophile, a total polar opposite..."

I totally FUCKING agree with you Kurata.

IF YOU ARE READING THIS KURATA.  I AM SALUTING YOU AND GANBATTE YO!!!

Plans

There will be plans on renovating this place up.

Not that many people or any people at all read these things...

So, I'll renovate it my own way.

Maybe... by next week, hopefully, I will be able to finish the renovation.

So... Yeah.

Nothing to write about but I changed my desktop's appearance a lot.

Now, I don't have to look at the big fat taskbar again except for a few times.

And I changed my desktop background to a full picture of Yomiko... in a very delicious pose.

Not that I'm complaining.

Nothing is moving.

Afternoon.

The sun's up on our head.

The campus stares at you and you stare back.

Since the mid-sem break hasn't ended yet, the dudes are gone.  Only a couple stay here during the four days holiday.

It's bloody quite with nothing but the fans' blades buzzing sound, and the occasional quark of a bird and a chirp of a baby bird.

And here I am, wishing I could call up that one person and hear her voice again, whether it be the angry grumpy one or the cute one I heard during my last day at Johor.

Nah, let's not get sentimental here, looks like I'm gonna start bawing or something.

Every now and then, I drifted back to the day when they chose me as a candidate for the Educamp and, well, UTP student.

I still can't believe I got chosen.  I still ask myself, "How the hell do I get myself in this situation?"

And the answer shot through my brain.  "Because.  That's why."

Dammit man, gimme a clue from up there, will ya????

The days are quite the same, with the somewhat strange feeling I get whenever I enter the lectures and the new guys start to realize that I am not like them.  At all.  From any angle.

Still a weirdo and a freak, I still remain, I see.  No surprise.

But the question of one of my dream coming true, is becoming WHEN will that dream come true, never an IF anymore.

Oh yeah.