3

“Yoshizawa-san?”

The words ‘you’re dead’ weren’t something that Yossi was expecting, but again, after all that she heard the last hours, she shouldn’t have been so surprised.

“You’re ok?” Kaoru seemed worried.

“Hmm… yeah… It’s just… Too much information, you know?”

“Maybe you’re right and we should go ba…”

The girl’s words were interrupted by a deafening noise, as if the sky was crumbling over them. At first, her mind told her to be quiet and wait until whatever it was passed, but Yossi didn’t seem to agree with that and taking her arm, made the younger stand up.

“Run!”

None of them could see what was happening but it was better to hide somewhere than staying there where they would be easily noticed. The girls ran as fast as they could to hide behind a wall at the same time that gun shots began to mix with the cracking noise. It was like being in the middle of a war.

“We have to get out of here!”

Yossi was trying to make the younger understand that they had to activate the Traveler to go somewhere else where they could be safe, but Kaoru was too scared to move. She had curled up herself, hiding her head between her kneels and under her arms. It was then when the whistle of a bullet passed almost brushing her ear and hit the wall behind her, making the girl scream. Seeing that, Hitomi ran next to the younger and took her wrist, where the Traveler was, and pushed the button.

After a few eternal seconds, nothing happened.

No white blinding light, no headache and, definitely, no safer place.

“It doesn’t work! Why it doesn’t work?!” Yossi’s voice began to sound hysterical and desperate “Kaoru! Do something!”

“I… I can’t…”

“Yes you can! Wanna die?!” this time Yoshizawa was angry “Because that’s what will happen if…”

Suddenly, the older realized that the shooting had stopped. She doubted for a moment but, as the leader as she was, Yossi couldn’t weaken. She mustered all her courage and, standing slowly, she stuck out her head over the wall, just at the same time that something jumped over her.

Yossi moved back surprised and tripped, falling to the ground and hitting her head. Luckily, she didn’t lose her consciousness and remained on the floor just a little confused.

“Yoshizawa-san!”

Kaoru’s voice was a warning. A desperate attempt to make the older get up before something could attack her. Hitomi could just kneel, with a hand on her head still hurting, and raised her eyes to look at the threat in front of them.

The first thing that crossed her mind was that the thing that was looking at her wasn’t human. It was standing on her legs like a man; it had strong arms like a man; but the face.., the face was something that Yossi could have just seen in a nightmare. Big red glassy eyes, white cracked skin with some black spots and an evil smile that showed a row of sharp teeth.

Yossi hesitated for a moment. After seeing how that thing jumped the wall, it was obvious that it wasn’t going to be easy to escape. There was just one way to make one of them to stay alive. She stood up and looked at the creature. There’s no turning back.

“Run!”

She shouted to Kaoru at the same time that she began to run too, but in another direction. Right straight to the creature that didn’t expect the attack. With one move, it was knocked down by Yossi, but she felt as hitting a rock and remained on the ground too. She just could move her head a little to check that the younger wasn’t there anymore. At least, one of them was safe.

The creature had stood up and was looking at her with a awful smile. She gave up. There was no more strength in her body to fight. But suddenly, when she was going to close her eyes to wait the end, the smile on the monster’s face dropped. Something had gone through her throat, a thing and sharp arrow.

A bit relieved, Yossi finally closed her eyes. No matter what was going to happen after. She just wanted to rest. It didn’t matters if she was alone, lying on the ground of a destroyed city. It didn’t even matter the steps approaching her. She just stayed there with her eyes closed, even when she heard a surprised and familiar voice.

“Holy shit…”

Labels: Traveler

Three... two... one...

“Miki! Bring my clothes back!

“No”

“Fujimoto! I want my clothes back or I’ll kill you!”

I love when she sounds so desperate.

“Try it!” I shout, laughing at the same time.

“You’re going to regret that, I swear…”

“I don’t think so”

I know I’m bad but she looks so cute when she’s ashamed that I can’t help it.

“You want you’re clothes?” I ask her in a cheeky way, waving her panties in the air “Then, take them”

I’m being too bold, I know, and maybe later I’ll regret about it, but it’s the only thing I can do to catch her attention. I’m aware that this seems pretty desperate and, in some way, even stupid, but that girl is too oblivious of her own charm that don’t understand how she makes other people feel, how she makes me feel. If she knew it, I know for sure that she wouldn’t be playing with me; she wouldn’t have jumped that bench and wouldn’t have cornered me against the lockers. If she knew it, her lips wouldn’t be so near…

“My clothes”

Her voice’s deep, sexy, playful… It’s making me burn inside.

“You look better without it”

Here we go again. Miki attacks without thinking before… Someday, somebody’s gonna slap me for making things that way…

Here eyes are looking at me, wondering if all this was really some kind of entertainment for me. I don’t know it, either, when this game has become so serious. I truly wanted her to notice me, but now that I have her so near, now that it seems a great opportunity… I don’t know what to do. Well, that’s not right. I know what I wanna do, but I’m afraid.

Finally, it seems that the look on my face makes her realise what’s going on through my head. Obviously, she tries to run away.

Not this time Yocchan. Not before I can do a last and huge stupid thing.

Before she can move away, I place a hand at the back of her neck and hold her closer. My eyes are locked on her lips, slightly opened, as waiting for mines to find them, my fingers playing with her still wet hair, trying to hold something real, to not loose my mind thinking about her naked skin against my body. How I’d wish to be as slow as her when we have to change after practice. This situation would be even more interesting.

Our lips are inches away to touch when an unexpected and very bad timed phone rings.

That was too good to be true… Too good to last…

“Sorry… I have to…”

I nod and let her go to pick up the phone.

“Ah… Hi Rika-chan…”

Well…, that’s my cue to leave. Even if it hurts so much, there’s no way she’ll choose me over Ishikawa and I’m too haughty to wait here to be rejected. I still have some pride. So, it’s time to turn and leave the field before being totally defeated.

I drop her clothes on the bench in silence and walk towards the lockers room’s exit trying to not disturb her ‘important’ call. Before closing the door behind me, I turn one last time to look at her, maybe waiting a signal to stay, but she’s still talking and hasn’t realized that I’m gone. I was a fool to think even for a second that there was hope…

I hate those stupid feelings.

Labels: Stupid Things

As slowly as she could, Yossi opened her eyes and bring a hand to her head. It was killing her. It was as if someone were crushing a hammer against it. The most horrible pain in the world.

“I’m gonna kill that girl…”

That’s it. The girl. She was the main reason of her headache and she would have to give Yossi some answers. That’s if she could find her, because probably the stalker had run away already. How did she dare to follow her, to step in the place where she work and hear a private conversation? What reminds Yossi…

Ishikawa?

The Morning Musume leader looked around trying to find her friend, but there wasn’t any signal of Rika near. All that she saw was a devastated area of destroyed buildings that Mother Nature had claimed as hers. The climbing plants had taken the ruins of what seemed had been a big city, now reduced to sand and a few cracked walls. The silence flooding the air gave the whole scenery a smell of death and loneliness that Hitomi hadn’t felt before.

“What happened here?” asked out loud.

“An earthquake? Probably some natural disaster…”

Yossi turned her head and found someone familiar. Too bad it wasn’t Ishikawa.

“Answers. Now” said Yoshizawa with a menacing tone in her voice and taking the younger’s arm in a rage “What the hell you’ve done?”

“I didn’t do anything! It was you who pressed the damn button!

The stalker get rid of Yossi and made some steps backwards, but she didn’t run. That gave Hitomi a better view of the girl and could watch her thoroughly. It’s true that the younger was a bit scruffy and messy, like if she had just returned from a war but there was something… something in her eyes, in the way she was looking at Yossi… it was bold, there was no fear. Unexpectedly, that made the older girl to relax a little.

“You’re name?”

“Kaoru”

“Ok, Kaoru…” repeated Yossi “I just want to know what happened. You know where this place is?”

“Yes…, and no”

Hitomi gave her a glare. It was a warning before she’d exhaust her patience again.

“Basically, we are at the same place where we were before you activated the Traveler”

“I still don’t get it”

The girl sighed and seated at one of the near stones. It was going to be difficult to explain the whole thing.

“Same place, same time, different world”

Well, maybe not so difficult but shocking.

“I shouldn’t be telling you this. You shouldn’t even be here”

“You said different…”

“World, yes”

“That’s ridiculous”

“Then, can you explain me how we get to this place?”

Yossi kept silence and looked around her again. There wasn’t a good explanation for what happened. One minute they were at the studio and in a blink they appeared in that desert city. If there was a logical reason for that she wasn’t smart enough to know it.

“Who are you?” asked Hitomi totally defeated before collapsing in her knees.

The girl kneeled in front of Yossi and lowered her head as signal of respect.

“My name is Kaoru… Ishikawa Kaoru. I’m nineteen years old and I’m doing research for a school work. I’m studying the resemblance and differences between parallel dimensions and if there’s something that keeps them joined. Because of that, I picked a subject, Yoshizawa Hitomi, and studied her life through the different worlds. I’ve been at four, five worlds if we count this…”

“You said Ishikawa…” thought Yossi out loud interrupting Kaoru’s words “…and you called Rika-chan ‘mama’…”

“Ishikawa Rika was my mother”

“How? You’re almost the same age…”

“I’m not from that time”

The younger spent the following two hours explaining everything. The Traveler, the machine that she was wearing in her wrist, it was a similar to a time machine but with the restriction that she’s just able to choose one date if she wanted to use the dimension travel feature. Kaoru told Yossi that her mother talked so much about her that, someway, she felt the need to find her and learn more.

“There’s a way to go back to my world?”

“I don’t think so” answered Kaoru apologizing “The Traveler’s preset to visit ten worlds before returning to the original. Maybe then, Konno-san will be able to bring you back”

“Kon-Kon?”

“She’s the one who created the Traveler”

Yoshizawa stroked her hair, trying to process all the new information. Different worlds? A time traveler? It was like a bad sci-fi movie. She never liked sci-fi movies...

“Then, press that button as many times as necessary to go back to your world to see Kon-Kon”

The taller took the girl’s wrist and was going to press the button, but before she could do it, Kaoru step back protecting the machine with her hand.

“I can’t return yet!”

“Why? You’ve been at four worlds already, right? That’s enough to your work…”

“It’s not enough. I couldn’t study you at the previous three worlds”

“Why?”

Something inside her head told Hitomi that she shouldn’t had asked that.

“Because you’re dead”

Labels: Traveler

Labels: Traveler

Labels: new pet

Labels: When Love Hurts