Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Hitori Dake no Mikazuki ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter One

"Oi, Yo-chan!" Murasaki called to her foster sister.

"Hai, Mura?"

"You all packed?"

"Hai. I even took the liberty of carrying both of our things out to the car."

"Aritago, Yo. Oh, by the way, I know this is gonna suck, but kaasan offered to drive Nikushimi and Same to the airport as well."

"It can't be helped, I guess." She sighed. She had been feeling depressed and pensive these past few days. She didn't want to leave home and go to school. She didn't want to leave Hanako all by herself here.

Before, when she had lived with a different foster family, she had been sad and moody, and her foster mother made her own name hateful to her. She would no longer answer to her given name because of that. Mikazuki meant nothing to her. It was either Mika or Yo, never Mikazuki. Besides the emotional abuse from her previous foster parents, it served to remind her of how different she was. The red crescent-moon on her neck wasn't going to let her forget how she had received that name.

There were times when she had felt so alone, lost in the middle of nowhere, searching for an exit she knew didn't exist. Sometimes she would even find herself holding a knife over her wrist until she heard the rasping calls of, "Mikazuki! You still didn't clean the bathrooms!" which would then be followed by the weapon being thrown into the drawer and then it being slammed shut before anyone could see what she was doing. It was said that people who wanted to die usually joked about killing themselves, hoping someone would notice and save them before it was too late, but not Yo. There would be no friends, shrinks, counselors, nothing like that. When she was ready to die, she would do it.

But that all changed when Hanako had taken her in. For the first time in her life she had someone she could call mother, and someone else became sister. But even then feelings of loneliness could consume her, feelings that she was different from everyone else. The crescent moon `birthmark' was proof enough of that.

"Yo?"

"Huh?" she gasped, startled. "Oh, gomen, Mura-chan."

"Hide me. Same's here."

Nayamasu Sora, the pervert who was always after Murasaki, had earned the name Same when he was in eighth grade, when he came to school with his hair gelled into what looked to him like a mohawk, but to everyone else a shark fin- thus, Same was born. He had had a crush on Murasaki since second grade, and what had started as a childhood infatuation had grown into…a sexual harassment case. He never lost a chance to look down her shirt, or snap or unhook her bra, or make lewd comments around or about her.

"Here," Yo said, pulling her futon out of its cupboard in their room. "You should fit in here." She hoisted herself up and closed the door, and Mika locked it and slid the key under the crack in the cupboard door.

"Murasaki-chan! Koi!" Innocent enough, but Yo wasn't fooled. Under no circumstances would she let Same know where her neesan was.

"Oi, bitch?" he said, poking his head through the shoji. "D'ya know where Murasaki is?" Yo didn't to answer. "Oh, sorry, Yo," he mocked her. Her anger went unnoticed as he shrugged his leather-clad shoulders and lit a cigarette.

"Bakayarou!" she cried, knocking it out of his hand, taking care that it didn't hit the tatami mat in her bedroom. "Kaachan has asthma, you can't smoke here!" That idiot! He infuriated her to no end.

"Geeze, sorry." And the thing that pissed her off the most was the derisive tone he always used with her. He made a wise decision and walked away. Yo had been known to be able to take down Makeikusa if ticked off enough at his antics, and Akuun was no pushover like Same was.

Poor Murasaki stayed in the cupboard until her mother called that it was time to go. Same wouldn't pull anything in front of the no-nonsense Hanako. In fact, Hanako was the one who had to get her out.

"What are you doing in here, chibi-chan?" she asked, exasperated.

"Hiding."

"Well, I know that, but-"

"Kaasan, we're gonna miss the plane! It's the only one going to Tokyo from Naze!" she cried, hoping to divert her okaasan's attention.

"Kami, you're right! Hurry up, get your sister and get to the car."

They made it to the airport just in time to have a soap opera/Hallmark moment where the single mother saw her two daughters away to college for the first time and run to the plane.

They watched as the Ryukyu Islands disappeared in the distance, and as the main Japanese islands came into view, they looked at each other and smiled weakly. It seemed like an initiation of sorts, two Ryukyuans seeing the archipelago for the first time. Shikoku passed under them and Honshu hurried forward.

"Mura-chan?"

"Hai?"

"What's your uncle like?"

"Nice, I guess. I haven't seen him since my first baasan died."

"And your cousin?"

"Oh, Shuuichi's a sweetheart. Politest little boy I've ever seen. Really good with kids, too." Murasaki smirked as she looked at Yo. "And his stepbrother's a hottie."

"That's why we're going to Tokyo and not Okinawa, isn't it?" Yo accused.

"Not really. I didn't want to be a burden to Kaasan."

"Oh." Yo never really thought of it that way. Had they gone to the University, Hanako would have either run herself to the poorhouse trying to support them while in school, or insist they stay with her. "I guess this is alright, then, staying with your aunt and uncle."

"Shu-kun's stepmother is really nice. You'll like them, I promise."

The plane touched down about a half hour after their conversation, and Murasaki and Yo silently retrieved their bags. Murasaki was excited about everything that was going on, new school, new people, new home, but Yo…she was homesick already. She missed her mother, and that was all. No matter how kind Murasaki said this Shiori woman was, she would never take Hanako's place.

The one waiting for them must've been the stepbrother Murasaki was talking about. Yo watched as her sister's jaw nearly hit the ground at the sight, and even the former had to admit that he was a sight for sore eyes. He had astonishingly long, bright red hair and flawless twin emeralds for eyes. He, in turn, sized them up as they did him. The elder of the two, Kurisutaru Murasaki, little Shuuichi's cousin, had shiny copper hair down to her knees, and crystal purple eyes that could give Touya a run for his money had there not been laughter hidden behind them. The other, Ryoushi Mikazuki, vaguely reminded him of Hiei. She wore all black and had razor-etched jet hair except for the jagged red bangs that hung in front of her eyes on one side.

"Kon'nichiwa," Yo said.

"Hello. You must be Murasaki-san and Mikazuki-san."

"Hai," Murasaki answered.

"Please call me Yo."

"Hai, Yo-san. Do you two have a lot of bags?"

"Iya. We can carry them," Yo insisted.

In truth, Yo was the one who had only brought two suitcases and a messenger bag. Murasaki, on the other hand, was unable to part with anything, which included books, photographs, CDs, old clothes she had really liked and was `waiting for Yo to grow into', and all sorts of odds and ends that she didn't really need.

"I told you so."

"Urusai, chibi."

"I am not a chibi!"

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Are too."

"Are too."

"Are not."

"Alright then." Yo picked up her bags and walked towards the car Kurama had pointed out.

"Hey- wait a sec! Dammit Yo!"

(A/N- Kurama= O.o')