Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Braids and Reflections ❯ Braids and Reflections ( Chapter 1 )

Braids and Reflections

 

In the mornings, she braided her hair into ebony ropes, combed through the strands as if all she could touch and feel was their strength of silk. For the rest of the day, she found her hands busied in flowers around the shop. She didn't like to leave the shop, to leave a sprig of delicate buds strung along a green stem to fade. That one, the flower that had blossoms twined like woven red threads; she was always afraid it would snap and break without her care.

 

Aya Fujimiya was born in 198*, but she looked as if she was still sixteen. When Sakura came to visit, Aya always had a cheerful smile that only wavered slightly, and hid the nervousness in her eyes. It was a strange smile, strange like the walking anachronism that she was. Aya's birth record stated she was in young adulthood, her appearance attested that she was in the bloom of adolescence, but in truth, Aya was merely a lost child. Could anyone understand what it was like? To one day wake up from a restful night's sleep and find out the whole world had aged years? In the old days, the people of Europe told the story of Rip Van Winkle. The world of today calls such an event a coma.

For Aya Fujimiya, that word alone could not make her understand what had really occurred.

 

“Ran liked sweets.”

“Really? I guess so. I offered Ay- Ran-san vanilla ice cream once.”

“He likes chocolate.”

 

Sometimes, in the few times she left the flower shop, Aya would catch her reflection in the shop windows; a figure that wore pastel summer dresses that fluttered in the wind, and wide-brimmed hats with green ribbon. A figure that should be conveying youth, and life. She tried to smile at herself those times. The times when she began to feel as if she should be wearing black. The times when her reflection was a lie.

 

“Ran-san didn't smile a lot.”

“Ran laughed everyday.”

 

Sakura's visits always left Aya disconcerted. She wondered about the person Sakura talked about in their conversations. When Sakura spoke about him, her purple eyes lit up so brightly in happiness. But when Aya spoke, her words were soft and hesitant, her eyes almost distant and sad...because she always had to wonder…

            ;

Which of their Rans had been the real one?

 

One day, the red buds of that flower began to flush black. Aya tested the soil pH, changed the amount of water she gave it daily, and even moved the plant closer to the sun. But day by day, it grew more like a thing of shadow.

 

“Why did Ran ask to be called by my name, Sakura-san?”

“He didn't want to forget you… even if you never woke up.”

 

Aya remembered how she had almost died. A man in a car had purposely run over her, after killing most of her family in an attempt to use their banker father as a scapegoat for embezzled funds.  Her brother, Ran, had come out of the scrap relatively unharmed. Sakura-san told her he had then taken up her name, and her revenge. He'd given up all else.

Ran was asleep now.

And she was awake.

 

In days, the dark, red-velvet buds of the flower began to swell. Their petals seemed to be trembling in anticipation…One morning, as Aya combed her hair, she felt in her heart they had opened.

 

She took a kitchen knife and cut off her braids.

 

Aya didn't want to see them. See their wicked color, dark as her brother's blood on her hands. For her, Ran had taken the lives of others, sacrificed his own for the one that had almost been snatched away from her.

 

“Ran always smiled…it was what made me happiest…”

 

Aya thought about killing the flower, cutting off its buds. She didn't want it to be in bloom; she didn't want her Ran to have grown up into someone who had had only anger and sadness in his heart. But the flowers were also too much like red threads. Too much like the ties of fate. In the end, Aya could only remember Sakura's reply, “…And Ran-san would have been so happy to see you smiling and awake Aya-chan.”

 

Aya cried, letting something that had been struggling within herself for so long to fly away. She didn't know what it was until, then. In the morning light, Aya saw it.

 

Deep in the crimson, the miracle of a white star had been reborn in each blossom's center.

 

That morning, a braid-less Aya walked the streets, and truly she was the Aya that belonged there. Truly, she could heal and be the happy Aya of sixteen again. But for both a new Aya… 

“Ah, Sumimasen!” Aya winced and apologized hurriedly. Deep in revelation, she had not been paying attention to the busy street and had collided with a fellow pedestrian. They had fallen to the ground. She raised her head.  Her unfortunate victim began to un-blur before her eyes.

 

…and the old Aya that Ran had wanted to save…

 

His hair was a startling warm red. Aya took a deep breath. For ten whole seconds, nothing came out of her mouth, and then…

 

…she'd give everything too.

 

 

“…Nii-chan…”

 

 

Owari.