Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Just Your Reflection ❯ Prologue: Nyoko's tragedy ( Chapter 1 )

Just Your Reflection

 

Chapter One: Abroad? Try A-bored.

 

Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA

 

Nyoko was not a quiet girl. In fact, she hated silence with a familiar passion. Unfortunately the car ride had been nothing but. Nyoko glanced at her grandmother out of the corner of her eye. She was dressed all in black, fingers gripping the steering wheel, her eyes occasionally blinking away a tear or two. `Who died?' Nyoko thought, strumming her fingers against her armrest. `Oh, wait, my entire family!' Nyoko cringed at her own mental sarcasm. Even in her head she sounded bitter…and lost.

 

It was just supposed to be a quick family trip. Mom, Dad, and her little sister, Celia, were visiting an old friend of Dad's in Montana. He hadn't been used to Montana weather and couldn't have anticipated the coming storm. Unlike her mother, a Japanese immigrant, her father had been born and raised in Michigan. Good, flat, trusty Michigan. The police had tried to comfort her grandmother by saying that when the wind blew the car off the side of the mountain it was a straight shot down and they had died on impact. They hadn't suffered.

 

Nyoko's fingernails dug into the grey leather of her grandmother's station wagon. Hadn't suffered? What the hell did they call waiting for your death as you plummet four stories towards the ground? `Had anyone been there for Celia?' she wondered angrily. Had anyone held her small five year old body to their chest? Comforted her with lies of `it's okay' and `I'm here'? Did anybody manage to cover her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the earth rushing up to meet them?

 

“Darling, are you okay?” Nyoko's grandmother's voice jarred her from her thoughts. Nyoko blinked, slightly embarrassed, that one of her nails had managed to pierce the leather of the armrest.

“Yes, Grams, I'm fine.” It was a lie and they both knew it. They had been asking each other the same thing all week. It was a dance to her; a way of both of them making sure they other wasn't going to loose it. Of course Grams knew Nyoko wasn't okay and Nyoko was nowhere near fine. It was a polite way of asking are you still sane? I'm not going to loose you too, am I?

 

“You should make sure you get some sleep tonight. Your flight leaves early and I want you to be rested.” Grams' voice was shaky, but damned if the woman didn't hold her composure as gracefully as ever.

“What flight?” Nyoko asked, completely distracted by her dark musings.

“Your flight to Japan.” Grams cringed at Nyoko's reply.

“What the hell?! You mean that stupid foreign exchange program? No way in the seven hells am I going now!” Tokyo, Japan. That had been the plan when her parents left. Nyoko would stay with her grandmother until her departure while everyone else was in Montana. Her father had said that it would make the goodbye easier.

Liar.

 

“So you're not going then? What do you plan to do over your summer then? Sit around and mourn? It's been a week and so far, Nyoko, between the two of us I can't stand it!” Gram's voice was firm now, tears starting to escape down her cheek.

“I can't just leave them!” Nyoko shot back, anger burning a small path across her cheeks.

“Leave who, Nyoko? They're dead!” Grams' eyes burned with a fierce determination as she pressed a little more on the accelerator.

“You listen here, my little `yoko, I loved my son more than you can imagine. I loved your mother too, in all her foreign ways. She just appeared one day, made my baby boy the happiest man on earth, and gave all of us you and Celia. Now all I've got is you and I'm not going to let you waste away all summer. If that were the case you might as well have been in that car with them.” Grams took a breath as the car halted rather harshly at the red traffic light. Nyoko jerked forward slightly, her seatbelt knocking some of the breath from her.

“You parents worked so hard for you to be able to go to Japan. Ever since the day you were a baby your mother told us you were her heir. I wasn't sure what she meant then but I think I do now.” Car beeped around them signaling the light was green now. Nyoko didn't notice.

“You were the eldest, meant to carry on your mother's heritage. She had been preparing you for this trip since she found out she was pregnant. I don't know why it was so important to your mother that you return to her homeland but we'll never know now. You need to be strong now, Nyoko, and bow to your mother's wishes.”

“It didn't mean to be disrespectful.” Nyoko's voice was barely a whisper. The car started moving again.

“You weren't…I just…I guess I needed a good yell. Sorry.” Grams had the grace to give Nyoko a very sheepish look. Nyoko smiled at her. It was her first smile in two weeks and it felt good.

“It was really important to her, wasn't it?” Nyoko sighed as Grams patted her knee.

“Yes, my little `yoko, yes it was.”

 

 

 

AN: Hey, first chapter is all OC! Yay for me. Nyoko sure is going through a tough time, ne? The next chapter will be from Suuchi's P.O.V. How will our favorite redhead feel about getting an exchange student? You'd be surprised…

 

Like it? Hate it? Lemme know!

 

-Pan