.hack//Legend Of Twilight Bracelet Fan Fiction ❯ In All My Bitterness ❯ Prologue: Not So Fond Farewell ( Chapter 1 )

Prologue-- Not So Fond Farewells

 

An ongoing and awkward silence hung in the air and Anissa found it aggravating. Despite the circumstances, they shouldn't be quiet and solemn. It wasn't like someone had died.

 

"Come on, you guys! Lets smile and jump and cheer!" she laughed, raising her hands up aboce her head and twirling around with giggles. When it proved to be fruitless, she sighed, loudly, and crossed her arms. "Look, its not like we aren't going to see each other for years or anything. We'll visit each other and have reunions... right?" She looked over at Shugo, waiting to hear his agreement but the look on his face told her that he doubted that what she said was the truth.

 

Rena spoke up instead. "Yeah! We will mail each other, talk on the phone and stuff!" Her voice seemed less enthusiastic than she wanted but there was still a little gleam of happiness in her eyes.

 

"And don't forget, we'll still have the World too," Shugo reminded. "We can always email each other and instant messaging as well."

 

Anissa grinned, glad that things were finally looking up. "Even if we're in different countries, we'll always have the World, right?" She was looking at her sister now, who had remained quiet through-out the whole time. Balmung had already left her sister, having to move to England for important businesses and breaking the news that he wasn't going to be able to return for at least three months. Not more than a few days ago, he called and said he wasn't going to be able to return at all.

 

Kayane sighed lightly, deciding against the thought of reminding the three that the World didn't reign through-out the whole world, just in same language areas. "Yeah, we still have the World, Nissa."

 

Before Anissa could stand up to hug her sister for the encouragement, the loud speaker interrupted her thoughts.

 

"Flight 392 boarding now. Flight 392 to North America boarding now."

 

"That's your flight, Nissi," Shugo murmured, looking up to the speaker then to Anissa.

 

Anissa stared up at the speaker for a moment, hating its existence, the leaned down to pick up her black back pack and her dark blue suitcase. "Guess time's up, huh?" Anissa crossed her arms the best she could and sighed. "I could always stay and live wherever. I would at least be near somebody."

 

"No, you can't stay at dad's, police forbid it and mom's in jail, so you can't stay with her. Just go live with grandma, and when she comes to visit, you can come then, too."

 

"Fine." Anissa turned to leave after giving her sister and the twins each a hug and glared at the flashing number 392 above her gate.

 

"Wait! I want a picture of all of us together. That way I have something to look at while we are separated." Rena slipped a camera out of her bag then grabbed a man as he was passing by. "Take a picture of us, please!"

 

Pulling Anissa back, the four of them stood together, Shugo behind Anissa with his arms draped around her shoulders and Rena and Kayane standing back-to-back with amused smiles.

 

The picture was taken and Anissa ran off to her flight, already late and Rena left for her flight to Italy as well. Shugo gave Kayane a quick smile and hug then left to Nagasaki, to live with his aunt and go to College and Kayane left to Kushiro for her own reasons.

 

For a few months everyone was in touch with another. But the emails came less and less and shorter and shorter. Phone calls became less lively and excited. Post cards weren't sent. The four of them grew further and further apart, until they never talked in the slightest bit after a year and a half.

 

 

 

Anissa walked down the metal steps of her apartment building, skipping steps purposely, and sliding on the banister when other inhabitants blocked her way. It was a Saturday, bright and sunny, and for the first time in 3 months, she didn't have to wake up at 5:30 to walk Ms. Johanson's three yappy, shitzu's, Darling, Precious, and Dutchess. Ms. Johanson was out of town for Autumn business and she hadn't stuck the dogs with her for once, and Anissa thanked Kami for it every second of that day so far.

 

"Bum ba da dum, ba da da da dum, bum bum," she sang loudly, her slightly preppy attitude not quite matching her attire. Anissa was feeling more like a punk or a prankster that day and it showed in her clothing. A black tank-top with 'The Used' in messy red letters that covered the top of her shoulders, adorned by a red tie, and a grey skirt with black shoes was her wonderful attire. She was in a less 'wear all black mood' than usual due to the fact that her day was going perfect so far and the fact that she was going to be paid five-hundred dollars for simply pulling a kid out of a tree the day before. Maybe I should save rich kids more often, she thought, running down the hall and sliding to a stop at the door.

 

"With my luck today, I won't be surprised if I win the lottery in the mail," she giggled. Even after the years that had gone by, she was still the same bubbly, out-going and wild girl she had been. A few inches taller, fuller body, and more mature, and she was the twenty-two year old she had wanted to be when she was seventeen.

 

"Mail for room 79, pleeaaase," she said coyly, holding out her hand waiting for the mail to be put in her hands with her eyes closed. Anissa opened her eyes and blinked when only one envelope found its way to her hand. And it was an invitation. From her mother. "What's this?" she murmured, spinning on her heel once then going back towards the stairs. Tearing the envelope open, she realized it was for a wedding.

 

"Keh! Yeah, right! Mom getting remarried?" Anissa rolled her eyes then looked at who the groom would be. She froze in mid step.

 

"NO-"

 

(-)

 

"-Way." The letter was tossed into the trash angrily.

 

A girl glanced up from the book she was reading on a couch and chuckled. "What's wrong? Landlord say we didn't pay again?"

 

"That and you won't believe what I got in the mail," Kayane muttered, reaching in the wastebasket and handing it to her friend. "An invitation to a wedding, Taryn. My mother's wedding. I think you got one, too."

 

Taryn read the note and her jaw dropped considerably. "You're fucking kidding me."

 

"I don't want to go and I do. This what I get when someone I hate marries someone I love. Torn between the two."

 

"Uh, I think you should go," Taryn voiced, folding her legs and resting her elbows on her knees. "It would be the right thing to do. Just cause he is marrying her doesn't mean that you should miss out on his wedding. If he loves her, you should respect him for that. Maybe he sees a side of her that we don't or he brings out a better side of her."

 

Kayane scoffed. "Since when did you and I switch wisdom capacities?"

 

"Uh, since I accidentally hit your head with the cooking pot?" Taryn dead-panned.

 

"I still need to get my revenge for that too," Kayane wondered aloud, looking at a metal pot in the room. It was catching water leaking from the ceiling due to a pipe problem in the upper apartment.

 

"Wait, can't the revenge be forcing me to pay for the rent alone?" Taryn pleaded, running out the front door into the sunsetting day after Kayane threw the water on her and grabbing a jacket.

 

"Fuck no! That hurt! I had migraines for a week!"

 

"Can't we be normal best friends and not hurt or attack each other?"

 

"Fat chance of that happening!"

 

(-)

 

Women in knee-length, cotton business suits with finely pressed jackets over white blouses rummaged around the room, passing papers, murmuring into their head-phones, and fumbling around on their computers, typing madly to do their job.

 

Men walked around, doing the same, only a bit less enthusiastically and hurriedly.

 

"Mr. Beyoneisu, you have some mail that some old man dropped off, saying it was from his daughter," a twenty-five year-old woman said, popping her head in the company president's office and looking at a man white short silver-white hair that hung low into his eyes.

 

"Arigatou," he spoke in fluent japanese.

 

The woman's mouth parted in baffled confusion and sputtered, "excuse me?" in a slightly offended tone.

 

He looked up then chuckled lightly. "Thank you, I said." He smiled to lighten the mood, but the reason he spoke japanese was out of habit and the longing to return to what he had left behind.

 

"Oh, well, you're welcome." With that the dropped the mail onto the desk then left, flipping her dark brown hair and placing her hands on her hips, purposefully trying to catch his attention sexually. Glancing over her shoulder as she reached the doorway, she scoffed when she saw he wore a disgusted face while reaching for the letter. She disappeared a moment later.

 

"Why do some women have to flaunt themselves?" he muttered. He picked up the letter and read the embossed lettering of his name on the front of the envelope.

 

Balmung Beyoneisu

 

Opening the letter and reading it, he blinked in surprise and muttered, "Remarried?"

 

(-)

 

Sun shone through the window, directly on the girl's face as she slept soundly on the bed. The door opened and a blonde, long haired girl stood there, hands on her hips.

 

"Get up!" she shouted. "Its almost lunch-time!" Still, the girl sleeping did not stir. The blonde growled. "RENA AIKO TANEGA! Get out of bed, or I swear, I am not Miranda Anita Carranna!"

 

"Itte shimau!" Rea shouted. "Come on! We can pack later, like.. not when its so early in the morning!"

 

"Ah, little Rena, it is near lunch-time. Your favorite time of the day, remember?" Miranda cooed, wagging her finger in the air. Even though Miranda was twenty-three, she acted a lot older.

 

"Wait, lunch?" Rena looked at her clock then whirled around on her bed. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

 

"Because the first two times I tried, you kicked me and now I have a bruise on my shoulder from it."

 

Rena ignored what she said and pushed Miranda out of the room to get dressed.

 

"You sure you wanna come with me to the wedding, Miranda? You probably won't understand a damn thing anybody says!"

 

"I want to meet the people to speak so much of! They sound remarkable and I am sure I will love them. And I can speak some Japanese, so I can follow what they say most of the time. Plus, you will tell me what they say if I don't understand them, right?"

 

Miranda jumped when the door swung open and Rena stood there, a pair of jeans and a red zip up hoodie over a plain black t-shirt. "What makes you think I would do something like that? Aren't you the one who leaves me confused when I don't understand shit that your Italians friends speak? They use such huuuge words that I don't know are and probably wouldn't know the meaning of them if they said it in Japanese."

 

"They are smart. It isn't their fault that you aren't half as intelligent as them."

 

"Shut up! Let's just start packing so I am hungry by lunch time."

 

(-)

 

A heavy sigh echoed through the room and one could not help but laugh at the incredulity hidden inside of it.

 

"Why the sigh? Does this usually happen a lot or what?"

 

"No, its just, I'm a little surprised and suspicious as to why I was even invited. I'm not related to either of them, I just knew her from a while ago when I lived in Hachinohe."

 

"Ah, I see." The man sent a look to the other from the corner of his eye. "So, you gonna go, Shugo? I'll bet a certain someone will be there..."

 

"I don't know. Judging by who the bride is, she probably won't go, Tengaki."

 

"Yeah, but don't forget who the groom is."

 

"I hate it when you're right."

 

"But of course."

 

Revampment. R&R please.

 

Arisa