Barriers

[*~Meri§§a~*]

Chapter 1: - New Home, New Chances

Two girls carefully opened the front door of the old house. Everything was covered in sheets and dust- the house hadn’t been in use for over 40 yrs. But the house itself had survived two world wars, since it was over a hundred yrs old. The family that had once owned it had lost it when the last owner willed it to his two adopted grandchildren. The house itself was in a fine part of the Japanese country side, a few hours from its capital-Tokyo. The ground would need a lot of work before it could be restored to its former glory.
One of the girls was two years older then the younger, smaller one. Her waist length fiery hair and pale lavender eyes spoke of the fact that she wasn’t native to Japan. In fact both girls were foreigners to the country, recently moving since the death of their only guardian. The second girl, while smaller was likely to become much taller then the older. She on the other hand wore her hair a lot shorter, it only coming down to her shoulders and being a bright blond colour with the blacken tips. Her small slightly snubbed nose added to the sweet nature of her heart shaped face. Both girls had recently moved from their home city this other country in hope of leaving their past behind them.
The girls both had rough pasts- often they were not proud of what they had to do to survive in their world. Downtown New York City was no place for a couple of orphan girls who had the incredible ability to get into fights with almost every gang in the city in the matter of a few months, but then again it had been for a good course. When the girls had discovered that everything that the grandfather had own had been willed to them instead of to the family, they had taken the chance to start a new life in a new country. But there were some things in their pasts that the girls could look fondly back on, things to be proud of.
“Well, this is it. What ya think? Does it have potential?” The older girl looked back to the younger one, who had already dumped her bag at the front door before coming in.
“Yeah, I think so. I wonder why G’s moved away from here to a dump in DT NYC? Yo, my girl, check this out.” The younger one moved over to the side of the front entrance to look out the small window. Outside stood a statue of 3 people, all of them carrying swords. While two was kneeling and holding their swords in front of them the third was standing over them. All three had long hair, but that was all that they could see as a vine and come up and was entangled around the statue.
“That must be that statue the G’s was always talking about. Talk about old school.” The younger girl looked back at the older one, who was busy studying the rafters in the roof to notice.
“This place doesn’t seem to need too much repair, but decorating is a must, think you got that one covered Nicky?” The older girls glanced over to the younger, who happily complied with the unvoiced request and took out paper and pen from her bag.
“Now, we need a theme-” Nicky started
“Restoration and modernisation.”
“Fine bossy. Let’s go look at eh rest of the house. I think we are going to need a few extra things added if we are to survive here. Come on Nashi, I want to see what is going to be need to added to the kitchen and I want to see the bedrooms- I want to pick out mine- and I really want to see where we should put the office, I still have my laptop but I want a more reliable connection for my website. Oh, oh, oh! I want to see the bathroom! I love big baths and G’s said this place had a huge one!” Nashi smiled to herself as she grabbed Nicky by the back of her shirt before she could take off to explore the house.
“In Japan it’s considered very rude to wear your shoes inside the house. You wouldn’t want those nasty rellies of G’s to drop by and get offended, would ya now? Oh, and remember the next bus to the city goes by in two hours, and the next one is not until 9, and I really don’t want to stay here over night until we at least have a few things we need to done. And no, we are not Nigh clubbing tonight, one we are not dressed for it, two you are under aged and three we only arrived in this d**n country two hours ago and still haven’t checked into the hotel yet. Just remember that alright? If you need me I’ll be checking the dojo, k?” Nicky smiled innocently up at the older girl, they technically weren’t related, but they were best friends and sisters until the end.
After taking off her shoes and running off to explore her new home, Nicky couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching her. But after living in NY for so long she didn’t give it a seconded thought.
Nashi went outside and around the side to look for the dojo. After several turns around the house she stopped short. Before her was a post, a plain wooden post about 6inchs think. The grass around it was short, unlike the rest of the grass around the house. The plants around it look as if it had been slashed back, not cut with even a little attention, but more randomly slashed, like someone had been ticked off at something. But that was not what caught Nashi’s eye- it was the marking on the post itself.
There were what looked like claw markings deep into the wood- some had four while others had five. Nashi moved closer to the post. She had seen such markings before- they were like the nail marks you get when women with long nails attack you with them, only these were deeper. They looked like that had been done with claws and not nails since nails would had broken long before they could have gotten marking that deep. They hadn’t been done far some whacked out art project, that was plain to see. Whatever had made these markings, Nashi did not was to get into a pregnant dog slapping fight with.
Trying to put it to the back of her mind, Nashi moved on until she found what she was looking for, a separate building that would be the dojo. Hundred There was a veranda all the way around it. It had a bit of junk piled up against the walls that would have to be gotten rid of, put the trees that were growing way too close to the dojo would have to be cut back, the roof could use some cleaning and a few repairs, but other then that it looked like it was in good condition.
After taking her shoes off and pushing aside some of the junk, Nashi tried to unlocked the padlock that look almost as old as the house, but it had rusted beyond unlocking. Taking hold of it, Nashi twisted the lock until it snapped in her hands. It wasn’t very hard since she was use to doing it and the lock was very rusted. Carefully opening the door, she stepped in and looked around. Apart from 40 yrs of dust, the inside of the dojo was pretty good. The roof hadn’t leaked- which that in itself was a miracle- and there didn’t seem to be any damage from the 40yrs of neglect. The ring from the call of her younger sister’s cell brought Nashi back from her daydreaming
“Yo, Nashi! Can you help me with this? I can’t open this door. It’s got a weird lock on it and it needs the key. BTW, where are you? I was calling for you!”
“You called my cell for that! I’m in the dojo, like I said I would be! It’s a separate building altogether! I’ll be up there in just a sec, just hold tight. Which room are we talking about here?”
“That’s the weird part- it’s not just a room, its part of the hallway! I’m guessing two to three rooms have been completely blocked off to us.” Nicky sounded really confused.
“Wha-? Never mind, I’ll be up there with the key in just a sec. Which part of the house are ya?”
“The east wing, I think. I’ll open a window for ya.” Nicky hung up after that as Nashi made her way back to the house.
Upon making it back to the house Nashi looked up to the arched roof before gently jumping up and grabbing hold of the roof. Bring her legs together and lifting them complexly straight as high as she could before sharply swinging them back and bringing herself to a handstand on the edge of the roof. Nashi held it for a few extra seconds then slowly brought her feet back to the roof and calmly stood up. Sighing in relief, Nashi wen to turn to go she her sister and best friend when the tile under her foot gave way and sent her fall backwards. Pushing off her hands and jumping up to the top of the roof. Taking a few seconds to regain her balance and slow her suddenly fast heartbeat. Turning towards the east wing, Nashi didn’t notice the 3 sets of golden amber eyes watching her from the trees around the dojo. One set was bored and cold, while the other was simply curious to whom these new strange people were and the third was carefully summing her up and a slight look of approval.
Jumping in though the open window Nashi found her friend waiting while she listened to her MP3 player. Looking up with a slight look of frustration, Nick pointed to the looked door. The door was in the middle of the hallway and it was not the kind of door that would lead to another room. Nashi examined the handle to discover that there was no lock.
“It’s probably locked from the inside, there’s no lock on this side. We’ll look into it later, but first I want you to decide what we are going to need in the way of appliances, I want them ordered by the end of the week. Since its summer break at the moment we have until the holiday to finish the house.” Nashi turned to go have a look at the kitchen and where she should put the new TV they would be getting, not to mention how she was going to rig up the sound system throughout the house. With all the money they now had they could afford it. Nashi was careful to plan out how much they could spend on what and knew not to go on a crazy spending spree like what Nicky had wanted to do but now she could see just what there had to be done for them to live comfortably for the rest of their lives, and of course she also knew not everything always goes to plan.
Later they moved outside and found a deep pond that was really hot.
“Hot springs, funny, G’s never said anything about any hot springs. Well, at least we don’t have to worry about running out if hot water.” Nashi stated causally
“Yeah, I can’t wait to swim in that! I’ve always wanted my every own heated swimming pool. Yay!” Nicky jumped up and down with excitement, which was somewhat childish in Nashi’s eyes.
“Ah, Nicky, that’s not an outdoor pool, that’s an outdoor bath. Man, for someone who can speak, read and writes Japanese so well, I’m surprised that you don’t know more about the culture and customs of this country.” Nashi looked at her sister with a fake sad look in her eyes. Nicky on the other hand gave her a surprise and shocked look.
“You mean… we gotta… HELL NO! We are getting a special set of swimmers. I sure as hell am not coming out here with nothing on!” Nicky shuddered involuntary.
“Come on, we’ll discuss this later, if we don’t leave now we’ll miss the bus back to the hotel, cause I’m sure as hell am not going to walk back and I’m sure how to hack us a ride in this country.” As Nashi moved off towards the bus stop that was about a half hour walk she could have sworn that she felt something fly past her, fast enough to cause a wind to move her hair, but the day was completely still and there was no breeze.

[*~Meri§§a~*]

Chapter 2 Strange Occurrences

Everything was finally completely done at long last. All the junk and been removed, the plumbers had been called in and he repaired, replace and completed all the plumbing that needed to be done, that took over two weeks with 4 plumbers. The electricians came and added power to the house and installed about half of the appliances that had already come in, plus the carpenters had came to fix everything else that needed repair. Nicky and Nashi did a lot of the finishing touches themselves, which was hard work in and of itself. Now that everything was finished, the two girls suddenly realised that they still hadn’t gotten into the East wing. They had each chosen rooms on the West wing and had done the least amount of work on the East wing. So just before the last carpenter left they requested that he removed the door completely. Surprise at the request he complied none the less and soon the girls were exploring the last bit of the house.
All 3 rooms were observably the largest in the house. The rooms looked like there still were people living in them, which didn’t make since there was no sign of human life in the rooms. The rooms all looked as if they had been recently lived in, all 3 in different states. While one room was perfect, looking like it had just been cleaned, the one across the hall was a complete mess. While there were no cloths or other personal items, the bed was a mess and there was a serious need for a serious dusting. The third was clean as well except for the unmade bed.
“Ok, any guesses to who been living here?” Nicky asked
“No idea, but by the looks of things I think they may have left. Looks like we have a bit of cleaning ahead of us in that other room. Hay, isn’t this one suppose to have an office attached to it?” Nashi looked around to see if she could find the office. On the far side of the room there was the door that would lead into the office.
Causally opening the door Nashi walked in to discover an unusual sight. All the papers in the room were in perfect order, the desk neat and everything was in its place, just as it would have been 500 yrs ago.
That was what made Nashi stop in her steps.
Instead of books on the shelves there were scrolls, instead of pens there were ink wells and brushes. Dust was nowhere to be seen.
It almost looked like they had taken a step back in time, either that or a museum’s exhibit. If she didn’t know any better Nashi would have sworn that was what had happened. Moving over to the large wooden desk, Nashi picked up the piece of paper that had been left on the desk. Looking over it she saw that she couldn’t read any of it since it wasn’t in any language that she knew of.
Looking over the different pieces of paper, Nashi sat down at the desk and started to look for something that she could recognize. When she found nothing she could understand, she turned to the maps on the walls. The paper looked very old fashioned, something that you more likely to see in a museum under think glass that had became foggy with the amount of marks that had come about from people pointing to places they thought they knew on the map. Only here there was no foggy glass, just brownish-yellow paper with ink all over it.
Shrugging off the feeling that there was something very wrong with the room apart from the obvious, Nashi left the room to discover that the bed had been made up.
“What the-?” Nashi looked about the room. Nicky was no longer in the room, and it was completely unlike her to do something like this. A cold breeze drew her attention to the open window. Frowning, Nashi silently closed it.
Heading down stairs to find her sister at the kitchen table happily munching away at her breakfast, laptop opened and on in front of her.
“Hay, enjoy your trip to the museum?” Nicky asked with a raised eyebrow, looking at her friend with a odd look in her eyes. Nashi knew that meant trouble.
“Alright, I’ll bite, what’s up?” Nashi gave her a look to let her know she was having no games that mourning.
“Arr, I know you are gonna think that I’ve gone a little over the edge with this one, but you know my sixth sense right? How I always know when people are watching me and just where they are when they are doing it?” Nicky gave Nashi a bugging look, hoping that her sister would believe her.
“Yeah, you caught 9 pricks that keep watching us from the building across the road. It wasn’t until after the cops busted the place did we find out it was the FBI. Seriously, I still don’t know why they would want to watch us or anyone in our building, but anyway, please continue.” Nashi gave her sister a sheepish smile.
“Well I got that feeling again, but every time I look there all I ever …well, all I ever think I see is a flash of read or while, sometime a little black as well. But really there nothing there, and… I- I’m really worried that something is about to happen, something bad. I don’t know what, but I can just feel it!” Nicky looked around, almost as if she was expecting whatever bad thing that was going to happen to start right after what she had said.
“Look, don’t worry, I’m sure the bad feeling is just has something to do with the fact that we are in another country for the first time. As for someone watching us, ever thought that maybe the fact the we are no longer in the city and for the first time in our entire lives we are far away from any other form of human life? Maybe it’s the lack of people around us that’s getting to you- you felt the same way when we went on that boring summer camp and ended up being isolated. Which I still say is your fault.” Nasi gave her sister a cold smile, knowing the last statement would drag her out of the feeling of dread and back to her normal self.
“ME! You’re the one who decided that the councillors needed to get up four hours early! And I was not the one who used honey to attract all the birds. Which only brought that bear into the camp!” Nicky glared up at her friend.
“Hay! You can’t blame me for the bear. OR how every adult at the camp ran for the lives which only made the bear panic! And it’s not like anyone got hurt, and besides I was the one who took care of it! And how was I to know that there were bears in the area? There shouldn’t have been any, it was SUMMER CAMP! Besides I wasn’t the one who hardwired the camp sound speakers to so that everyone in the camp could hear what was going on in the office! That was wrong on so many levels! Then you hack into the camp system, why they needed one I don’t know- and rescheduled the activities so that we were always either on swimming or archery. I swear that guy hated us!” Nashi gave a sad look to her friend, remembering the other poor campers.
“And why not? You did shot him, 8 times!”
“Hay, he asked me to. It is not my fault that he didn’t believe I was any good with a bow and arrow. Ok, so he was sent off to the hospital for that one-”
“That’s because you shot him twice in each limb! Come on girl, I know you got away with it since he did ask you to but that’s no reason to be so mean. …. You could have at least have finished him off!” Both girls laughed at this.
“And be charged with murder! I think not! The cops already have a hard enough time as is printing out my history, they don’t need anymore. Getting back to the point, you were the one who somehow managed to get two diversions of the U.S. army to show up at the camp’s front gate and try to arrest that annoying guy that was in charge…… They weren’t too happy with you.” Nashi silently laughed at what she saw as a fond memory, or at least on of the better ones she had. Nicky on the other hand laughed all out at the memory, simply because she knew that there had to be something to laugh at.
The laptop that was sitting on the table made a few small musical notes along with a pop-up to notify Nicky that she had a new email. Clicking on it, Nicky’s eyes went wide with surprise when she saw who it was from.
“It’s from the Carters!” Nicky looked over to Nashi to find her pouring herself a cup of green tea.
“Really? What, they need our help again? Maybe they need me to get some ancient statue from a booby-trapped temple? Or steal some ancient jewel back from the black market? Or get something back from some rich collecting snob who stole what is not their’s in the first place. Or do they need someone blackmailed again?” Nashi causally sat herself down across from her friend, waiting for an answer.
“Not sure,” Nicky clicked on the email, opening it up “Crap.” Was all she said as she turned the laptop to face Nashi, her face full with worry. Nashi rea it out loud
Dear Contact of Mr & Mrs Carter
We regret to inform you in such a way but we feel all must know. Mr and Mrs Carter were found dead yesterday morning in their apartment in Tokyo. Their only child Alexzandria has been placed in police custody for protection reason and also due to the fact that there is no suitable relative for her to be placed with. It is believed that the deaths of Mr & Mrs Carter were unnatural but this has yet to be out in writing. If you have any clue or information that may be useful in this matter please forward it to the address below.
Nashi sat back, numbly. Shock was written all over her face. Nicky mirrored this look.
“Zanda, Isis. Oh sh$#! This is not good.” It didn’t take long for Nashi’s mind to reboot and start working again. “All right. I think school next week is going to be cancelled. First we gotta find Zanda. Nicky, hack into the police data system- I want to know where they think they will be hiding her. I’ll go upstairs and see if she answering her email. You use the wireless. See what you can find on the case once you know where she is.” Nashi stood up and moved towards the hallway, catching out of the corner of her eye a glint of silver and red. Nashi glanced towards the window, only nothing was there. Nothing was ever there.
A lone tall figure calmly watched the house (even though it’s properly more of a mansion) from the safety of a old cherry tree. The pink blossoms budding all around him. Not even sparing a glance to the figure clad in red that had just arrived he spoke a signal word
“Report.”
“Apparently one of them has the ability to sense when people are watching them, I mean really watching them. But it’s been brushed off because of an incident at someplace called Summer Camp where they were isolated for causing trouble.” The red clad figure pause as the tall figure looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Trouble?” Was all that was said.
The red figure tucked his hand into his wide sleeves and smiled smugly. “Yeah, there was something to do with bringing a bear into the camp, waking up the councillors 4 hours early, shooting the archery master 8 times, calling in 2 diversions of the U.S army to arrest the guy in charge of the camp-” The figure in red paused to watch the tall figure chuckle softly to himself.
“A real pair of trouble makers, are they? Well, this should prove more interesting then I thought. What else?”
“IT seem that trouble has fallen one or two of their friends. There was something about a murder and at present they are trying to find out about at least one of the friends. One of them- the older one, Nashi- has gone upstairs to try and contact the friend while the other one- Nicky- is downstairs trying to find the friend and any information on what has happened.”
The tall figure continued to watch the house, as if waiting for something to happen.
“Continue to watch them, I will want to know if more of them are to arrive. I am unsure how long this will last. And where is your brother? I hope he still isn’t entertaining ideas of a massacre.”
The red figure huffed and looked away. “He’s properly in some meadow thinking of absolutely nothing that doesn’t involve making my life worst then it already is.” With that he left the tall figure turned his attention back to the house with only one thought
At least those two don’t try to kill each other, unlike my two. Maybe it’s because girls are gentler? This seemed to amuse the tall figure.

[*~Meri§§a~*]

Chapter 3. The New Arrival and the Girls Night In.

“Nicky? Any idea who’d that be coming here? There’s a car coming up the driveway and people don’t come up the driveway for nothing!” Nashi desperately tried to find Nicky, but she was no longer at the laptop.
“Yeah, our new housemate!” Nicky appeared in the hallway, holding the clean new sheets that they had brought for the house just a few days before.
“New house mate? And I was going to be told about this when?” Nashi glared at Nicky, who just grinned at the older girl.
“Hay, there is no point in glaring at me for this, you were the one who told me to invite them!”
“I did?”
Alexzandria looked nervously out the window. She toyed with a strand of her jet black knee length hair as her cold icy blue eyes stared out the window. The orders were very unusual. She had been told that she would be staying at a safe house for the time being, hiding as a member of the family whose house she was now to be staying at. Catching sight of the house, all hope that she was going to be happy while here fled. It was huge, a lot bigger then what she expected for a safe house.
What happened to all the rickety old building that no one remembers? Alexzandria couldn’t help but wonder. The car pulled up and the officers (that weren’t in uniform) got out and made their way to get all of Alexzandria’s belongings out of the boot of the car. They moved it all into the front room of the house and drove off without a word as soon as Alexzandria was out of the car. Pulling together all the courage that she possessed, Alexzandria walked up to the house and into the front room. There was another door that led to the rest of the house. Walking up to it, Alexzandria gently knocked on the door.
The door opened to reveal a figure standing alone in the darkness.
“Yes?” The voice sounded familiar to Alexzandria, but she couldn’t quite place it.
“My name is Alexzandria, I here to be put in a safe house.” Alexzandria stated calmly, but inside she was fearful that there had been some mistake and she was going to be left stranded out in the middle of the countryside.
“Really? I don’t remember being told of that, but then again there is a few….how could I put it? People given to toying with others toys here in this house. People that take matters into their own hands.” Alexzandria could barely see the cold smile that spread over the other person’s face and fear started to build up inside Alexzandria.
“But then again you also do that don’t you? You seek answers that do not belong to you and you do have a certain gift, so to speak, at finding the answers to the questions that you shouldn’t ask. Don’t you?”
Alexzandria started to fear this person in was front of her. There only a very few people in the world that knew of her odd gift and that could only mean trouble.
“Well!” The tone changed from one of mystery to that of impatience.
“Well what!” Alexzandria shot back.
“Well aren’t you going to even say hi to your own sister!” The figure stepped out of the darkness to reveal that it was none other the Nashi herself.
Before Alexzandria could open her mouth to reply- or retort, either one was good- something hit Alexzandria with enough force to send her back to the ground. She looked up to see a blond head that was attached to the body that was now hugging her fiercely.
“NOW I HAVE AN OLDER SISTER! NOW I HAVE AN OLDER SISTER! NOW I HAVE AN OLDER SISTER!” The figured screamed at the top of her lungs.
“You already had an older sister.” Nashi stated flatly.
The figure-Nicky- finally pulled herself away enough to look between the two older girls. All was silent for an extra few seconds.
“NOW I HAVE TWO OLDER SISTERS TO TAKE CARE OF ME!” Nicky screamed happily before clinging to her sister again.
Nashi laughed at this before kneeling down to help Alexzandria up with Nicky still attach.
“d**n right you need more people to watch over you, otherwise you’d properly be dead! Come on, Zanda will be tired after all that has happened to her over the last few days. Come on, we’ll show you to your room.” Nashi picked up two of the bags and moved into the house.
‘What’s going on you guys? What are you doing here? What am I doing here? What’s going on?” Zanda had no idea why her two sisters where there standing in front of her instead of causing chaos in New York.
“Long story cut short. G’s left us the house and we decided to change countries for the hell of it. That and the fact there was a lot of people back home wanting to kill us for one reason or another. We upgraded the house so we can live here and we found out what happened to you parents this morning.” Nashi paused so Nicky could take up the story.
“So I hacked into the cop’s data system and changed the address so that you would end up here. Not hard, they obviously don’t expect people to go hacking into their data systems. Clearly they are unable to ensure your protection, so we took matters into our own hands.”
“You do realise this properly counts as kidnapping.” Zanda stated in a flat tone.
“Are you complaining?” Nashi questioned causally. Zanda stoped dead in her track and looked at the other two girls.
“Why did you bring me here?” She questioned.
“Because that’s what sister’s do, we take care of each other.” Was all the Nashi said before Zanda broke down crying. The other two girls come in and started to comfort their sister. They said nothing, just simply sat in the hallway holding onto each other for what seemed like hours. No one said anything, they just listen to the sound of Zanda’s sobs.
Finally Nashi broke the silence.
“Come on, we’ll have a girls night in and have some fun! Now what will be needing for tonight?” Nashi smiled down at the two girls waiting for an answer. Zanda blew her nose before answering with Nicky saying every second one.
“Chips.”
“Chocolate.”
“Drinks.”
“Chocolate.”
“Movies.”
“More chocolate.”
“Popcorn.”
“Chocolate.”
“Something Japanese for dinner.”
“And something chocolate for desert.”
Nashi laughed at the two younger girls as the started to argue with one another. Steering them towards Zanda’s new room, Nashi left them there to ‘debate’ with the large number of pillows in the room.
Heading back down to the kitchen, Nashi glanced at the bus schedule and found that a bus would be passing by in the next 20 min to the city. After quickly cleaning up the small mess that had been their lunch, she dashed up stairs to get change and grab her coat before racing out the raid just in time to catch the bus.
The trip to and in the city was uneventful except the part where some weird man decided that Nashi was a good target for something wrong and Nashi had to dislocate his shoulder. But after Nashi got off the bus and decided to take a short cut though the field to get back the house sooner since it was now late afternoon and she had left order for Nicky to finish setting up the sound speaker system in what was to be the new lounge room. She wanted to get back as soon as possible before Nicky discovered any source of fire and burnt the house to the ground. Zanda hadn’t live with Nicky to know fully the dangers of leaving Nicky alone with fire.
As she was crossing the field Nashi stoped short. In the middle of the field was a large rock and on the rock sat a long white figure. The back was to Nashi so she couldn’t see the face. All Nashi could see was the long almost silver flowing hair and one black shoe with white baggy pants. The person looked like they had a fluffy boa thrown over their shoulder and what looked like armour coming over the shoulder.
Nashi stared at the white figure, wondering what on earth they were doing there and what was with the fluffy thingy. It was so fluffy! A noise behind her cause Nashi to glance over her shoulder out of habit. It was only a squirrel falling into the bushes underneath the tree. But when she looked back the white figure was gone.
Nashi looked around the field, she had only looked away for a second and she doubted that they knew she was there. Shaking the feeling out fear building up in her head, Nashi continue on to the house.
Upon entering the house, Nashi knew something was wrong. It was quiet, too quiet.
A/N I’ve always wanted to put that into one of my stories. It’s a classic! LOL
“Nicky? Zanda? Where are you? Yo, my girls? What’s up? Hope ya’ll not dead!” Nashi carefully looked around the seemingly empty house, looking for signs of life.
Finally she looked in on Zanda’s room to find both girls sound asleep on Zanda’s still made bed.
Smiling gently to herself, Nashi went back down stairs to prepare dinner. Tonight she had chosen to make Raman, ok so it wasn’t exactly Japanese but at the point of time Nashi couldn’t care less.
She had just finished serving it up in the bowls and went upstairs to wake them up. Upon coming back down stairs they made a disturbing discovery.
“Oi, what happened to our dinner?” Nashi franticly looked around the room, searching for the lost meal. The other two girls looked around the kitchen only to find three empty bowls and a single pair of chopsticks.
“GGRRRRRR!” Was the only sound made by Nashi as she set about making yet another dinner.
The Girl’s Night In went perfectly after that. After dinner (which they decide to eat in their PJ’s for the hell of it) they sat down with their desert and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Once the movie was over (and they almost killed themselves laughing) the next movie was brought out- Shrek 2. They watched this with the chips, drinks, big bowls of chocolate, popcorn and the little frozen fruit cups Nicky made while Nashi was out. Quite a bit of the popcorn ended up being thrown at the T.V screen for one reason or another.
After the second movie the beds and the extra pillows were brought out. After the sleeping arrangement were made it was time for the time honoured tradition of-
“Pillow Fight!” Nicky threw a pillow at Nashi, who was just standing up form finishing her bed when the pillow knocked her to the ground, catching her off guard.
Nicky and Zanda attacked her ruthlessly, ganging up on the older girls and preventing her from getting up off the ground. Nashi tried to protect herself from her prone position on the ground.
“Ow, ow, ow! All right, all right, already! Cut it out!” Nashi shouted between blows from the pillows. Both girls stoped with the pillows held above their heads ready to strike.
“Why?” Zanda asked.
“’Cause I’m about to do this!” Nashi shot out her leg and caught her foot behind Zanda’s knee, pulling the younger girl off balance and down onto the couch behind her. Rolling over, Nashi barely avoided Nicky’s attack on her head. Scrambling to her feet with a pillow in each hand, Nashi continued to defend herself unsuccessfully from the other two girls.
“Hay! Why gang up on me!” Nashi demanded.
“Good point!” Zanda changed her attack to Nicky who in turn started to defend herself. This continued well into the night, all the girls changing sides and alliances until the effect of all the sugar they had eaten earlier in the night started to wear off. They only paused to put on their CD’s. The first song was Boom, boom, boom, boom! Whenever the boom, boom, boom, boom, part came on the girls would hit each other with the pillows, shouting the words t the song at the top of their lungs.
A/N Yes this is a real song, it happen to be on of my favourites.
By the early hours of the morning they went to sleep on a big pile on the floor- sort of like a nest made of pillows, blankets and the odd cushion.
There they slept undisturbed until lunch time, holding onto each others hands. When they woke they had choc-chip pancakes for lunch/breakfast. While cleaning up the mess made by the Girl’s Night In after lunch, Zanda’s eye caught on something almost completely hidden under the couch.
Picking it up she found it to be a red leather bound book with tarnished brass trimmings.
“Yo, who’s is this?” Zanda held up the book for the other two to see. Nicky crossed the room and took the book and started to flick though the pages.
“It’s properly one of the books from the office upstairs. It’s in that same strange language. No idea what’s it’s doing down here though.” Nicky handed back the book with a shrug and bent down to pick up the last of the mess.
“What office?” Zanda’s curiosity was sparked instantly.
“It’s upstairs. It joins on to one of the three rooms that were blocked off. It’s really weird- I think it looks like a museum- heaps of old stuff all in that weird writing. I swear I could feel someone watching me in their, almost like they were waiting for me to do something.” Nicky shivered involuntarily. “Anyway, I got out of there quick. You go have a look, I’m just about done here anyway.” Nicky pushed her sister in the direction of the stairs that lead to the office and Zanda need no extra encouragement.
“Thank, my girls. Later!” Zanda took off at the full run up to the strange room.
First things first, she rearranged the desk to her liking so that she could work without having to feel out of place.
Then she spent the rest of the day there, looking though different book, scrolls and pieces of paper, but the red book never left her side. Zanda just knew it would hold all the answers she would need. She just needed to translate it, but to do that she was going to need a little help.
It wasn’t until it was getting really dark in the room did Zanda bother to take enough notice of time to turn on the light.
“Hay are you going to come down to dinner or shall I simply lock the door until ya starve yourself to dearth, or die of thirst, whatever comes first.” Nashi gave a quick one arm shrug before turning to leave, closing the door behind her slowly.
“Wait! I’m coming! So what’s for dinner?” Zanda quickly got out of the room before moving down towards the kitchen. They had a proper dinning room (why they are yet to figure out) but the never use it since it was nothing but a pain to do so. Rather they sat at the kitchen table to eat all meals.
“I’ve cooked up my special chicken burgers with all the toppings- no pickles or raw tomatoes of course- with some light noodles on the side. You like?” Nashi glanced at the other girls for a reaction.
“Of course I don’t like it!” Zanda stated hotly, crossing her arms and looking away with a fake hurt expression on her face.
“Is that so?” Nashi lifted an eyebrow at the other girl.
“Yes it is!” Zanda paused before throwing her arms around the older girl. “I LOVE them!” Both girls laughed before continuing down the hallway.
After sitting down to dinner and taking a big bite out of her burger, letting all the natural juices gently trickle down her thought while letting out a sigh of pure bliss at the taste.
“These are the best!” Zanda managed to say around a full mouth. After sallowing she turned to her two housemates.
“So, do you want to know what I’ve found out?”
“So, what have you found?” Nicky asked only paying half attention.
“According to legend, there is said to be a great battle fought not far from here. The lord of the west was called to the area because his father- who had died some years before- had been brought back from the dead and if he was not freed soon he would be under the control of the one that had brought him back in the first place.” Zanda paused to take another bite out of her overstuffed burger.
“People being brought back from the dead? Cool, what happen to the dad?” Nicky wondered.
“From what I sort of read-”
“What do you mean ‘sort of’?” Nashi butted in.
“Well, I can’t read it all completely like I can Ancient Egyptian or Latin, but I can read most word and I just full what I can in by guessing. However, I think who ever record this strange bit of history was a bit confused with the dates since this event happened over about a hundred years. That’s started from, the father’s death to the revival. Anyway, as I was saying the Lord of the West went to find his father, but only because having him under the control of another would cause more problems for every, including the son. This Lord dude had a little half-brother who he hated heaps or something to do with the sword he had, I think.” Zanda pause as both girls sighed
“What is it with boys and their stupid toys? Haven’t they ever heard of sharing? Seriously, the second one guy has something that the other guys wants they go to war, try and kill each other and everyone around them! Males are such egotistic morons!” All the girls laughed at this but was cut off sort when someone started to shout.
“Oi!” Anything else was cut of by the sound of something falling to the ground.
“What was that?” Nicky asked.
“No idea, but whatever it was it’s gone now.” Nashi looked out the window only to see nothing.
“Well as I was saying, the brothers really hated each other so they really didn’t get along. But here’s something that may prove to be interesting. In one story- from the book I found while we were cleaning up- it’s the only one that used present tense- they were referred to as not human, but as youkai.” Paused at the confused looks on the other two girls faces.
“Huh?” They answered in sync.
“You mean they were demons? How’s that work?” Nicky asked
“I’m not sure, but I do know all my answers are in this book! I can feel it! Now all I’ve gotta do is finish translating it. Which may take some time, since its very rear to find anything written in this particular dialect.” Zanda started to chop down on her burger again, almost finishing it.
“Why’s that?”
“Well, the first findings of it date back about four hundreds yrs, when high officials used it to write secrete messages to one another. The thing is everyone who had anything to do with it all knew the language, so it was a complete language before people started to use it. Which suggest there was someone else using it before them. While knowledge of it is limited, the debate is that there was another race that used the language before the Japanese high officials and lords. But no one knows who, it’s like they were never there but they left their mark. Kinda like when you look at Egypt today you wouldn’t have guessed it was once under British rule. Anyway, getting back to the point, the story says that instead of them being human, it says that they were taiyoukais and hanyous, and that the witch that brought back the father then sealed the three with a barrier to prevent them from interfering with her plans.”
“You know you’ve been talking for ages.” Nicky said off handily,
“Do you want to hear the end of the story or not?” Zanda shot back
“Yes we do, please continue.” Nashi shot Nicky a warning look, telling her not to interrupt again.
“As I was saying, the witch, as she’s referred to in the book, set up the barrier to prevent them from interfering. The barrier cover an entire forest, since the witch planned to come back and use them, she didn’t want to drive them insane or they might hurt each other or something like that. Anyway I looked up the forest on the maps in the room- yes Nashi there’s more then one. In fact here’s a whole entire another room that you’ve haven’t seen, it’s so cool. Anyway, according to the map, this house, the one we’re living to is just inside the barrier. But what’s more interesting is that from what I’ve already heard of the area and from my parent’s research, no one will live with a certain area because they believe it’s haunted by the spirits of the lost Lords. But with this new information, I believe that the area is not haunted by the dead at all.” Zanda stoped and smiled to herself, proud that she could dismiss the stupid fears of others.
“Then if the spirits aren’t haunting the place then what’s the problem?” Nashi asked, somewhat confused.
“Well, according to local legend about a hundred yrs ago strange things started to happen within what I believe to be the barrier. While I cant prove anything until the rest of the book is fully translated- I’ve only got about half of the words- I still have reason to believe that the so called ‘spirits’ aren’t even dead. In fact there are very much alive. Since it was always common belief that youkai live much longer lives then us, I believe that we actually have a few house guests, either that or we’re the house guests.” Zanda sat quietly sipping her drink as if there was nothing wrong with what she had just said.
“You mean to tell me that you believe that there is two and a half youkai living with us?” Nashi pressed.
“Yup.” Zanda was very happy with herself.
“…….”
“Cool. Now how do we meet these taiyoukais?” Nicky ask cheerfully.
“I don’t know if having two and a half demons living in the same house as three girls is a good idea. Just think of all the things we’ll have to stop doing just because there’s a few males in the house.” Nashi warned
“Like what?”
“Playing jokes on each other while they’re in the shower.” Zanda pointed out
“And why would that be a problem?” Nicky shot back
“Because you always jump out of the shower with nothing but the towel around you- if we’re lucky.” Nashi replied simply.
“So what, Zanda looks all over the house just for the bra she wants, and you sleep walk in your underwear during summer and sometimes in the middle of the winter!” Nicky glared at Nashi.
“I do not sleepwalk!” Nashi shouted back hotly
“So then where did all the chocolate we were saving go to? Besides, I watched you! And filmed it if you want to see it!”
“GGGRRRRR!” Was Nashi only response. “Fine, I sleep walk, but that’s not my point, my point is we are going to have to give up a lot of stuff if we are to go find these demons. BTW, since when did we believe in demons and ghost and the like?” Nashi looked from one girl to the other, looking for an answer.
“Since right……. Now!” Zanda responded.
Nicky and Nashi looked at each other for a few seconds as if silently asking each other if Zanda was for real. Then they just shrugged.
“Cool, so we know they’re there now, and that explains a lot of what’s been going down here, so now what?” Nicky looked to her older sisters.
“Now we wait, according to what I’ve researched, youkai have advance strength, speed and senses. Though I don’t know about the whole brains department, but going out to find them is properly a big no-no.” Zanda finished her drink and moved toward the sink to rinse her dishes before putting them in the top dishwasher (they have two).
“Maybe we can’t get to them, but they can come to us.” Nashi gave her evil I’m-starting-to-scheme-so-watch-out smile.