Fantasy :: Chapter #1

The Return

Carefully walking to the entrance of the airport, Ayumu stares around trying to recognize the airport that she went to when she was a kid. A sigh is brought out. "This place has changed a lot." She thought to herself. She stopped right in front of a chocolate store and decided to enter it. Looking around for a certain product of a chocolate, a man appears before her. The man wears a uniform of black suit and sunglasses to cover his sight. She is shocked and turns into a guarded mode. But she is stopped when he calls her, Princess. Right from there she knows that he is no ordinary person, he is working for the Klein's family. And also the man who is picking her up. She stares at him from up till bottom wondering how would a handsome and charismatic man such as himself would end up working for her father. "Must be one of his tricks." She thought. Sighing, she decided to continue looking for the chocolate that she wants ignoring the man in the black suit. The man does not say anything, not even complain about her attitude. Might be because she is the Klein's family Princess and he is just the errand boy. 

While searching for the chocolate, the man in the black suit finally blurted out something, "Um um. Princess, we have to go. Lord Klein is eager to see you, My Lady. He has ordered me to take you straight up to the mansion." Feeling a little annoyed by his orders, she decided to ignore him and pretend to not hear him. The man in the black suit starts to feel a little concern if she would continue to ignore his warnings. Seeming like he is about to pee in his pants, Ayumu finally found the chocolate that she wanted and take it to the counter to pay. The man in the black suit intrudes and paid for the chocolate before Ayumu could take out her wallet. Insulting act to her turns her face into red and she wants to give him a piece of her mind but she cools down when her cell phone rings. Looking at the screen of the red-black phone, she reads the caller ID, Father. She then asks the man in the black suit to get her suitcases at the luggage pick-up room. He blankly stares at her and asks how many suitcases she brings and the answer comes with the 8 suitcases. He is shocked and almost faints but he just nods and walk away towards the luggage pick-up room.

Told by the man in the black suit to wait at the car, Ayumu starts making her way to the outskirts of the airport. Looking about for the car, another man comes up to her with a warm smile. Unfortunately, the smile did not receive any response from Ayumu. She does not have to check him up. She knows that the guy also works for her father. Disappointed by her response, he offers to take her to the car. He feels a little uncomfortable because the situation is in awkward silence. He thinks that Ayumu would be just like Miyuki, Ayumu's younger sister but he rethinks that and sees the differences between them. Ayumu is way much darker of a person compared to Miyuki and she is abundantly more beautiful than Miyuki. Ayumu is more intimidating than Miyuki who is happy-go-lucky and cute. 

While he is lost in thought, Ayumu sees something that reminds her of the past. The moment when she was forcefully banished. She can see that time as clearly as she sees the present. How her father dragged her to the airport in the middle of a rainy day. It was a stormy day and she was forced to walk in the rain all by herself to the airport accompanied by two of her father's men. The memory is a very painful memory. It scarred her for life and she knows she could never let go of that past. Her father was too cruel she thought. Her father never loved her, she buried that right deep inside of her heart. She is startled by a man's deep voice. It is her driver asking her if she were to get in the car. Stares at the airport for one last time, she gracefully puts in her right leg followed by the rest of her body into the car. Looking right outside the window, she sighs again but this time she gives out a big, long sigh. The two men in front notice her sigh and they stare at her reflection through the rear mirror. Ayumu seems upset and her cold eyes seems restless. Maybe because of the long flight from America to Japan. "She is so different from the younger lady." said the friendly man. "It is none of your business." answered the driver.

So, while driving to their destination, the friendly man decided to introduce himself to Ayumu. "Urm, my name is Kuroki Maharo and this is Keisuke Ogawa." But Ayumu does not respond to his introduction at all. She just blankly stares outside of the window. He scratches his head and wondering to himself whether the Princess is deaf. Then, the silence is broken by Ayumu's response, "I'm Ayumu but my friends back at the states call me Mika." Kuroki nods and asks a few questions but this time Ayumu decided to ignore him all the way.

Ayumu just keeps staring at the view of Tokyo thinking of why his father urgently ordered her to come back to Japan. She keeps procrastinating that matter back and forth in her head and still cannot figure out why. She then lets out another big sigh. This time, Kuroki decided to keep shut his mouth knowing that Ayumu would not respond to his questions. Then, suddenly, Ayumu tells them to stop the car. The two men are in shocked and wonder what is happening. Ayumu spring open the car's door and steps out of the car. She runs as fast as she could towards something. She seems to be scared and anxious. Kuroki is afraid that something might happen to Ayumu and runs after her but then he finds that she is just helping a little boy falling from his bicycle. He sighs. Then Ayumu looked at Kuroki.

Ayumu: (sigh) What are you doing here?

Kuroki: Well Princess, you just ran out of the car just like that without telling either of us the reason. I was        afraid that something might happen to you.

Ayumu: Don't worry, I'm not gonna run away.

Kuroki: Wha-? I-I- didn't mean it that way. I was saying--

Ayumu: Save it.

Ayumu then walks away from Kuroki without finishing their conversation and heads to the car. Kuroki then shakes his head in confusion of the princess's attitude and actions. He thought that Ayumu is a very interesting girl and very mysterious. He feels like he wants to get to know her more. He then follows her lead towards the car. After getting in the car, he gives Keisuke the sign to move. The three of them continue their journey to the mansion.

After 20 minutes, Ayumu then arrives at the mansion. Staring around, some memories flashes back into her mind. The front yard reminds her when she was 10 years old. She was playing with her little brother, Shin. That was before the kidnapping and the war between her father and the sorcerer from the west happen. Shin was crying because Ayumu taunted and teased him by taking away all of his toys and hid them somewhere in the bush. Shin was very upset and started to cry really loud and stomped his feet onto the ground. Kaoru would always laugh and smile at his sister's tantrums. Ayumu was very naughty and always managed to get into all sort of troubles. She was the infamous troublemaker in the family but her father loved her very much. Rikuo would always keep to himself and not get involved. He has been like that since he was a small child. Totally the opposite of Ayumu but some what similar to Ayumu. They are fraternal twins. Twins which were born with different gender. They seemed to not be closed to each other but were extremely close and loving. Rikuo is the kind of person who does not show his affection much to his siblings but when him and Ayumu are alone, he acts totally different compared to when people are around. That is one of his charm. Rikuo would always help Ayumu to get out of the troubles that she gets herself into. That is how close they were. Miyuki was not part of the family until much later because she had a disease that forced her to stay at the hospital all the time. So, Ayumu is not close to Miyuki at all. She thinks that Miyuki is a nuisance to her with her pink personality and cheery attitude.


Ayumu's day-dream is interrupted by her father's voice. He told her to enter the mansion and get settled in quick. She looks at her father as she has seen a ghost. Her face turns pale and she becomes stiff. She does not move an inch and sweats starts running down her body. She is scared because of the memory that she has been keeping all these years. The situation is interrupted by her elder brother's greetings. She then forgottten all about her father and gives a smile towards Kaoru and enters the mansion. Before she could even put her right foot at the door step, Rikuo appears out of nowhere and greets her. "Welcome back, sis." She just nods and make her way into the mansion. Entering the mansion, she can see her little sister, Miyuki is standing right at the stairs waiting to greet her. She looks at her with an uncomfortable look. "Welcome home, Ayumu-neechan." But this time, Ayumu just ignore her and passes her by without even saying anything without any gesture at all. Miyuki is dissapointed and starts to wonder that Ayumu is not fond of her or something. She turns away with a sad face. Then Kaoru sees it and consoles her by saying that Ayumu is tired and not feeling very well. It cheers her up right away.


Walking upstairs accompanied by her twin, Rikuo, she lets out a big sigh and stops right in front of her room. "This is not my room. Why are we here?" Rikuo looks at her and answers, "Miyuki occupies it now. We did not know that you'd be back this early." Angry, Ayumu glares at him. "Why her!? Hmph. Things have changed a lot since I----left." Sighing, Rikuo looks away, "Yea, it hasn't been good. Miyuki is the center of the attention now. We all feel the same." Ayumu turns away and heads straight to her old room and enters it. Rikuo is shocked but he follows her into Miyuki's room. "I want back my room if I were to stay in this mansion." Sighing again, Rikuo looks at Ayumu, "You can use my room. I don't use it much anyway." Confused by Rikuo's response, Ayumu asks without hesitation, "What do you mean by that?" Rikuo giggles a little and heads towards the door, "I don't live here anymore, sis. Hmmm. This place, well, suffocates me." Ayumu's face turns pale, "You live at the dorm?" Rikuo does not answer the question rather simply nods in agreement to the question. Ayumu is dazed by how things have changed since she last lived in the mansion. Straing at the ceiling as if she is staring at the sky, she whispers, "Mother, how did it become to this? Give me strength God." 


After that, she heads straight to Rikuo's room and settles in. Looking at his room, she thinks that the boy has changed a lot too. She puts her bags in the closet and lie on the bed gently. A thought crosses her mind, "This is my home now, I'm back." With that last thought, she closes her eyes and dozed off.