Chapter 22 - The Storm (cont.)

Kimi hummed to herself. The melody sounded like “Today and Forever” from the karaoke session the other day. Keiko pressed her hands against her mouth. Akiko looked content with the ghostly Ms. Ishida.

I shook my head. “There has to be another way…”

Hitomi huffed through her teeth and the storm lashed at Mecchen.

Everything vibrated.

“DO YOU THINK I DIDN’T TRY?!? I’ve looked and I’ve looked and I’ve looked… at everything. So many times. I’ve struggled with this longer than you can imagine. I didn’t want it to be this way…”

She panted and held the edge of a couch. “I’d give everything for my sisters. I have. I feel like a… shadow of what I was as a little girl because of all that I've had to give up.”

Kimi emerged from the hallway with the plush stuffed under her arm and the sweater draped across her shoulder. She fidgeted a bit.

“The dress is a little small for me, especially in the chest. “ She frowned and sighed. “Short too.” She tugged at the bottom. I grimaced with each touch, fearing she might tear a precious seam.

She was right. The top was close around her chest and clearly made for someone with a smaller shape. Her hips also looked awkward in the lower half.

Kimi managed to adjust the top, so it looked presentable, but didn’t seem satisfied with the hem. She glanced at the sweater, held it to her waist, and smiled. She tied a quick knot and draped it over her legs.

She giggled a little. “That looks really cute! I can’t wait to show… show… umm…” She blinked a moment as though something had distracted her train of thought. Her body had taken on the luster of a richly-polished gem.

Tara, who was still standing patiently near, gave a little sigh of what seemed like relief. Hitomi didn’t seem to notice. She went over to the edge of the couch and waved her hand in front of Reiko, whose sky-like eyes cleared.

Keiko quietly backed away.

Reiko glanced around. She didn’t seem too confused. She stood and appraised Ms. Ishida’s faded form.

She asked Hitomi, “Are you going to end my suffering?”

Hitomi held out her hands. “You will fulfill your purpose. Beyond that, I don’t know.”

Reiko only gave Hitomi’s hands a quick glance. “Why do I always feel like I’m splitting in two?”

“Because you came from two ideas forcibly bound together. Masuyo’s young niece and nephew I once wished I could ‘fix’.”

I remembered Keiko’s vision and once again wished I could’ve heard what my past self had whispered to Hitomi. At the words ‘niece’ and ‘nephew’ though, I had a vague inkling of what Hitomi meant, like my eyes were adjusting to the natural glow of a darkened cave.

Hitomi leaned closer. “Their names are Reiji and Kotori.”

Reiko shut her eyes. “I don’t care… Just do whatever it is you intend to do.”

Hitomi stood behind Reiko. The blue began to flow into a silvery cloud. Reiko fractured where she stood, twisting into something like a conjoined twin. The two parts turned to touch each other’s hands. One seemed to push and the other tried to pull. Akiko turned away from the ghostly form of Ms. Ishida and watched the two in their struggle. She watched till the silvery cloud caught her attention.

The cloud slipped into Keiko. She tensed up. Her skin sparkled like the ocean on a clear day. Her eyes opened slowly. She glanced over at Hitomi and looked down. Keiko folded her arms and seemed about to speak when she clenched her head, as though in the throes of a massive headache.

Hitomi darted to her side. A slow, steady stream of air hissed through the windows like the flow on an air tank. She pressed Keiko’s hands against her own.

“Accept it, sister…”

Keiko's head trembled. “No… suffering.”

The cloud of silver drifted, as though being forcibly expelled. Hitomi grit her teeth. The wind pushed the cloud back onto Keiko’s skin. She thrashed.

I flashed forward and shoved Hitomi away. Her wind braced her, and she shoved me back.

“Please, don’t interfere!” She shook and her right hand twitched. Despite my efforts to rise, I felt smothered down by Hitomi’s outstretched hand. The books flew all around, and one shelf shuddered. The TV vibrated in place. With her other hand, Hitomi pushed towards Keiko until the silvery cloud sunk into her.

Hitomi’s hands slowly lowered and the chaos settled. I struggled to get to my feet as she slumped. The Reiko twins swirled a bit, and Ms. Ishida hunched lower. Akiko’s hair twisted like black spikes. Keiko’s head lolled.

Hitomi panted and rubbed Keiko on the shoulder. She glared at Hitomi for a long time, then looked away.

She continued to rub Keiko’s shoulder and softly explained, “I’m sorry. I had to.” She glanced at me and said the same. We both looked away from her.

Keiko didn’t seem much different. Her expression was evocative of Reiko's. She seemed sterner, but it was nowhere near the change to a girly girl as seen in Kimi, who smiled and brushed her hair gently.

Kimi glanced over and asked, “Would anyone like some cupcakes? Chocolate with frosting flowers! It’s like they’re planted in cake.” She half-twirled and her wind-blown hair swayed in time with the sleeves of the sweater tied around her soft waist. She snuggled the Yumeko plushie and smiled.

Keiko shook her head slowly. I wondered if Jamie would believe later what he was doing right then. I wondered if there would be a later.

Hitomi looked at me. She gave a little sigh and the house again creaked. “I suppose there’s no more reason to delay your first, Arisu. I promise to do my best, so yours is perfect. I will be perfect for you…”

I pressed my foot into the floor. “Don’t do this. Look at how much Keiko is hurting. Look what you’ve done to Reiko and Ms. Ishida…” I gestured to what was left of them. “You… you are no sister of mine…”

Hitomi’s head spasmed back. She sighed. “I am strong. I can do this no matter what you say. I’ve resolved myself to it. I… have to be the big sister for all of us.”

I shook my head. “This isn’t strength! Listen to me! You are hurting and destroying. Whatever you get in the end will be tainted by what you’ve done. You’re crushing delicate flowers to get a perfect copy…”

Hitomi pressed her fingers into her head and shook. The walls roared, as though her spirit were speaking through them. A window shattered in another room. She stared at me and said, “You don’t understand. You can’t understand ‘till you get some of my recipe…”

She seized Katsumi’s limp hand and lifted her to her feet. “Wake up, Cat.” Katsumi’s emerald eyes pierced open. They seemed unnaturally tall and narrow. They found me first.

Hitomi brushed Katsumi’s hair. “You were my first. A wandering, lonely tomcat on the street. I breathed my influence into you.” Katsumi glanced back at her.

She continued, “You rubbed against my legs all the way home. I wanted to keep you, but I had to tell Toki what I’d done. She was very upset.” Hitomi clutched her hand and stared at Katsumi.

“I felt so humiliated by her words. She stopped being my teacher that day. As for you, her glow only seemed to frighten you, so she left you as you were and let me keep you.” She squeezed a bit of Katsumi’s hair and sighed.

“You are my intense feeling for Cat, not Cat herself. I had to do it that way. Toki certainly would’ve noticed if I used the original in my plans.”

Katsumi leaned away from Hitomi’s hand. She squeezed her mouth and asked, “What about my mother…?”

Hitomi lowered her hand. “As with the others, your past was taken from bits of my fears, memories, and imaginings. Everything before nine months ago never existed for you.”

Katsumi dipped her head. “I… them… YOU!”

She grit her teeth and hissed at Hitomi, “You made me what I am?!”

“Yes. In just about every way… from a tomcat to a girl.”

Katsumi arched her shoulders. “You… I… feel…sick.”

She trembled and panted into her hands a few times. She shut her eyes and slowed her breathing. I kept my distance from her as the tingle grew stronger.

Kimi sat on the edge of a couch with her plushie. Tara sat near her. They waved to one another with gentle smiles. Keiko had scooted up on the floor.

Katsumi took a long breath and looked at Hitomi. “So… what do you want…?” It seemed Katsumi desired to add a harsh word to the end of her statement, but she kept it to herself.

Hitomi curled her hands. “You’re going to serve your purpose of becoming fuel for Arisu’s rebirth. And you’ll go back to being the lady cat I made.”

Katsumi raised her hands. “That’s what my life is to you?! You made me and now you’re just going to cast me aside at your whim? I refuse!” She backed away until she bumped up into a wall of air, which blocked her from going further. She flailed at it.

Hitomi turned away and seemed distracted by what Katsumi had said. I dashed towards her, not quite clear what I was about to do. As I should’ve expected, she had a wall of air ready to trap me as well.

She panted a little and said, “I don’t enjoy this, but it has to be done.”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t! Let her go! Let them all go! Give back what you’ve taken away and we’ll figure this out together.”

The winds outside groaned. “Do you think I really believe that the male shell over my sister would want to help me? It is only concerned with human self-preservation.”

She beckoned to Katsumi and she slipped closer against a cushion of air. She held her hand out. The sensations from Katsumi swarmed in my thoughts like a thousand embers eager to reach out and consume her.

Hitomi brushed Katsumi’s cheek. “Some of my plans have gone awry but do you think the traits I encouraged in her were… incidental? Tell me, as you look at her, do you really feel that bad for her?”

I watched Katsumi look at me. Her chest rippled quickly with shallow breaths. I knew what Hitomi meant. Katsumi had treated us all as her personal playthings and Mecchen House as her maiden domain. But as I thought of her history as a cat, the self-centered aspects didn’t seem as strange. I could see the predatory and the playful.

I glared at Hitomi. “I do feel bad for her and I feel bad for how you’ve manipulated her as a pawn to get what you want. The same with all the rest.”

She bit into her lower lip. “Well… that’s. That’s what you say now. You’ll be different once you’ve gotten her into your system.”

She pressed a hand against Katsumi’s back, and she tensed up. She tightened her fingers. She made a strangled little noise. The silver cloud rose from her skin.

Katsumi gave me one last look. I wanted to say 'sorry' for something, but I didn’t know what to tell her. I wanted to comfort her somehow, but words felt like colorless smoke in my mouth.

I could only urge out, “You are beautiful!” Why I said it, I didn’t know. The memory of jabbing her several times about her chest swirled in my thoughts.

Hitomi tightened her features and a fury of air shook at the house. Another window shattered in a closer room than the previous one.

The silvery cloud flew at me and dug into my stomach. My body felt like it was burning on the inside. My skin felt suddenly distant. Words receded from me. Hitomi’s voice seemed miles away.

I could see Katsumi as she shrunk. It seemed like the image was projected on a movie screen below me. When the silvery cloud was gone from her, the faded trace of a reddish-purple cat pawed tiredly at the ground.

I heard a lively meow. Pussy scampered around the corner. I could see her watching. Hitomi scoffed. “I thought it would stay in her room. I might as well deal with her next, so it won’t have a reason to linger.”

My head turned like a truck. I watched Pussy regard the new cat formed from Katsumi and meow a few times at the still, catatonic form of Sumi. I felt like the cloud was burning up to my face. Something seemed to echo, and I felt like I could see more than my eyes usually revealed to me.

I watched Pussy and somehow realized that Hitomi didn’t make her. Beyond that, I couldn’t say. Also, she didn’t have a dust-like layer of silver on her like everything else did.

The silver dusting smelled strange, yet familiar. I shut my eyes. Some of it latched onto the cloud-flame within. It slipped against my fingers and felt like an irritant scouring my skin away with acidic potency. The scouring didn’t entirely hurt though, but it was slowly removing parts of ‘me’.

Pussy nuzzled what was left of Katsumi. She drooped her head against the floor, as though trying to bury it. No amount of urging from Pussy helped. She meowed a little to Katsumi and bounded over to Sumi. She set herself in front of Sumi, arched her back and exposed her fangs. Her ears slipped back, and her fur bristled.

Hitomi didn’t seem bothered. She raised a hand and Sumi stood. Pussy pulled her fangs back and watched Sumi. A voice half-spoke a word in my ear. I slowly turned.

I could see Kimi holding my hands. She looked into my eyes with worry. Keiko’s face was covered. Kimi’s words were muddled. It all felt a bit like being drunk.

Hitomi said, “Hello, Inky.”

Sumi looked at her. “What’s that?”

“Inky. That was what the girls at the market would always call you. Sumi-chan. Sumiko. Inky. A playful name for an octopus.”

The heat tingled through me. Some leftover feeling of an anime nerd smiled at the idea that Sumi was an octopus. The rest feared what would happen now.

Pussy pressed against Sumi’s leg. She begged upwards. Sumi crouched down to pick her up. She murmured, “My precious little girl…” to Pussy and scratched her head.

Pussy’s eyes were wide and right on Hitomi. Her tail stretched out high. She kept her fangs out and gave the closest to a roar I’d heard a cat make. Her  “MROWWWWW!” was enough to briefly silence the tempest outside. Both echoed in my fuzzy head.

She clung to Sumi. She put our own efforts at preventing what had happened so far to shame. Hitomi raised her hand and aimed it at the cat. Sumi laid her hand on Pussy’s back.

Hitomi clenched her hand a few times and looked away. “You’re just briefly delaying the inevitable. Doesn’t matter. I have the next lined up.”

Hitomi rested a hand on Tara’s shoulder. Her face looked pressed between disappointment and calm. “Aaron… You were always decent to me before. I can pass you up for now, if you wish.”

Tara/Aaron lowered her head. “I’d rather you pass up everyone…”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Do I? Do you?”

Hitomi clenched her arm and another window shattered, this time in a room even closer. I could hear the wind spilling inside. “I know what I must do. I’ll deal with the consequences and fix what’s gone wrong… once I rescue my sisters.”

I frowned. I wondered if I did that because it was something Katsumi might do. The haze was beginning to fade, and I still felt like myself. Whatever that meant now.

I tried to think of my name and my past with Hitomi. I searched for it. Dark chasms appeared in my thoughts. I turned from them and watched Hitomi turn Tara towards Kimi.

Kimi leaned on the couch and watched Tara’s blue eyes. Tara smiled. “It has been an honor knowing all of you. I’m sorry we didn’t get to play as much as I hoped… Jamie-kun.”

Kimi sat up. She brought her hand to her mouth. Tara lowered her eyes. Kimi looked down. She noticed the blond figure on her shirt and in her hands.

Kimi looked back up and softly said, “Yumeko… Yumeko!” Her eyes widened. “YOU!” A tough look returned to her face. “If you do anything to Tara, I will make you live to regret it!”

Hitomi didn’t seem fazed by her words. She pressed a small breeze into Tara’s back and the silvery cloud spilled forth again. It swarmed towards Kimi’s body. She put her hands up and the cloud split and wound back into Tara, whose skin cracked a moment then softened again.

Hitomi yelled, “NO! What did you do?!” She clutched Tara by the shoulder.

Tara gave her a calm glance and said, “Earth naturally blocks wind. Sometimes it just needs a little help.” She smiled at Kimi, who trembled in place.

Hitomi’s hand trembled too and three more windows popped. “You charmed it or something… but you never had influence! You weren’t one of us. You were human!”

Tara shrugged as well as Hitomi’s grip would allow her. “Toki was born human…”

“LIES!” The word burst out of Hitomi’s mouth and nearly shattered the walls,

Tara seemed calmer than all of us combined. She smiled gently, peace caressing her face.

“I remember the truth… do you?”