Yuuka's Misfortune

Oshiro Yuuka sat alone in the buzzing classroom. She was asked to sit with another girl’s group, Akiyama Hanako, a classmate, with bleached light brown hair and a smile unwavering like the sun. Hanako was always friendly, she was obviously trying her hardest to befriend Yuuka, to befriend everyone she thought was in need of someone’s company, but Yuuka didn’t want to mingle with commoners, she didn’t want her pity. She wanted to be left alone in this vapid school, filled with nothing but empty minds and boring people. The melancholic atmosphere of the school drained her more every day. The only reason she was here was because it was the only all girls school in the area, and her parents want her to focus on her studies, rather than getting ‘caught-up with boys’. As if Yuuka cared in the first place. Obviously Yuuka would focus on her studies, she always had. Her parents seemed to only notice when she didn’t try, when her grades were lacking, when she wasn’t up to their high expectations. They never seemed to praise her, it just pushed her to try harder. Her only motivation seeming unreachable the more she tried. It was incredibly depressing.

Her attention was drawn the the classroom seats pushed together. On one side sat Hanako, beside her a girl with long straight hair, a soft black, she had a mature look to her. From what Yuuka knew, her name was Mikazuki Rin, she was 17 years old, she lived in the sketchy part of town, and she was supposed to be in her 3rd year of high school but she missed almost all of last year so she was held back a grade. Rin gave Yuuka the creeps, she was intimidating to say the least. She was tall, pale and thin, she was beautiful, but the way her eyes were sunken in and tired, she looked like a living corpse. Standing, breathing, talking. But it was like she wasn’t really living. Sort of like… a shell of a person. Yuuka wonders what happened to her to make her this way. She knew about her only mother, from listening to her and Hanako’s conversations but… Yuuka seemed to be the only one that noticed how odd she was, everyone else seemed to like Rin.  She shook her head and observed the rest of the table, Beside Rin sat Hanako, the girl with lighter hair, she was leaning against Rin, talking to her enthusiastically about a show she was watching last night. The other girl across from them spoke up. ‘You should have been studying last night, Hana-chan’. Yabe Ai was her name, she was a stern girl that was on the volleyball team, she seemed to be Hanako’s childhood friend by the way they interacted. Ai didn’t even try to hide the fact that that she didn’t like Yuuka. She would outright say ‘don’t bother talking to her.’ ‘I don’t want to be her friend.”

The girls irritated Yuuka to say the least, from Hanako’s unwavering determination to befriend Yuuka, to Rin’s unsettling existence, and Ai’s disapproval of Yuuka. They stood out too much, she wished they would melt into the background like the rest of the class, that they would turn into static. Sighing, Yuuka began to eat her lunch. Once again Hanako approached her, this time with Rin, Yuuka looked up at them and raised an eyebrow.

“What do you two want?” she asked blankly.

Rather than Hanako speaking, Rin took a step forward and bowed slightly. She looked at Yuuka with softness and hesitation to speak.

“Uhm, Oshiro-san, we just wanted to ask again, are you sure you don’t want to sit with us? You seem really bored alone. You don’t even have to talk to us really you could just-”

Yuuka furrowed her “I’m absolutely certain I don’t want to sit with a girl who hates me, a cheery halfwit, and an impecunious b*****d that wasn’t raised right. I’m fine by myself.”

Rin’s expression dropped. The kindness in her eyes replaced with fiery wrath, she stood up completely straight, shoulders and head raised, looking down onto Yuuka, her posture was harsh and cold, confident and intimidating. Hanako quickly grabbed her arm tightly, seemingly to keep her back. Was Rin going to attack her? A couple classmates were looking at Yuuka and Rin and mumbling. Yuuka felt a shiver run down her spine, she was terrified. She meant to be rude, but she didn’t expect Rin to look so angry.

“Rin-chan!- Please-” Hanako looked scared too. Rin turned to her and looked into her pleading chocolate eyes. Rin immediately softened, her shoulders dropped and she placed her thin hand gently over Hanako’s and they began to walk away together. Ai seemed happy she was sitting farther from Rin. The rest of lunch passed by quickly, as well as the rest of the day. Yuuka’s anxiety never stilled. Rin was more silent than usual, expression a mix of neutral and cold. School ended, and Yuuka was relieved, it seemed like Rin really wasn’t going to do anything. She can just stay mad. Yuuka thought to herself. Her walk home was to be as mundane as ever, she left school, passed through downtown, and into the quieter part of town, though as soon as she passed by a alleyway she was grabbed and her world went fuzzy, until it faded to black.

Yuuka awoke slowly, limbs buzzing dully with pins and needles. It was dark where she was… Where was she? She had no idea. As her eyes adjusted she could see the dim image of cobblestone walls, she could feel the cold dingy environment, and the taste of blood on her mouth. Had she bitten her tongue? She swallowed dryly and tried to lift her arm- but she was stopped, she looked down to see that she was handcuffed to the chair- both her arms were. She checked her legs, to find that they were tied to the chair as well. Yuuka gasped, looking around worriedly. She immediately wanted to cry out, but hesitated to speak, scared to find out if her abductor was within hearing range. What if they come back? What will they do to me? Yuuka was terrified. She felt like she couldn’t breathe, her chest felt impossibly tight, inhales shallow, exhales the same. How long has it been? She couldn’t tell, the dull ache in her head made everything feel surreal and hazy. Time didn’t seem like it existed in this dingy room, the windows looked as if they were boarded. The stairs out of sight. Her thoughts of what will happen to her turned to thoughts of what might not happen to. It seemed like an eternity had passed already, and she wondered if the person that had taken her would ever come back. Would she be left there to starve and rot? She felt hot tears swell up in her eyes, would she ever see her parents again?  

She sat there for too long, her whole body felt cold and numb, her neck hurt, and she wished she could just sleep, she wished it was a dream, but the sound of careful footsteps coming down stairs that she couldn’t see jolted her out of her daze. She clenched her fists, lowered her head and closed her eyes. She heard the person walk in front of her and opened her eyes to see  worn black combat boots covered in dirt, observing the figure higher she could see faded camouflage cargo pants, and a black hoodie. The sight of their face and hair made Yuuka shake.

“Good evening, Oshiro-san.” Mikazuki Rin. Mikazuki Rin was the one that took her. Took her away from her normal life and her family and her studies- Mikazuki Rin was the one that chained her to a chair in a basement in who knows where. Yuuka should have figured it out earlier, that this was her own fault not some random pervert abducting random girls. I

“Wh-what do you want with me…?” Yuuka cringed at the sound of her own wavering voice, not hearing anything but the buzz of electricity and her own faint breathing for hours and hours.

“Hmm…” Rin raised her right hand and tapped her chin in thought, tilting her head and pouting. “I haven’t quite decided yet…” Yuuka shivered, Rin’s hushed grating voice making her uneasy.  What do you mean? Yuuka wanted to ask, but hesitating. Did she really want to know? It was painful not knowing what Rin was going to do to her, but she could imagine whatever Rin might do could be more painful. Yuuka was assuming the worst. Rin was obviously capable of more than Yuuka would have thought at first. So where does Rin draw the line? Would she just scare her? No... Rin’s smart and she knew Yuuka would tell the authorities if she just let her go. Would she torture her? Yuuka didn’t know, she didn’t want to know, but she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about all the possibilities. Would Rin simply just kill her?

“Oshiro-san. Listen,” Rin held her hands behind her back. Yuuka swallowed dryly and looked into Rin’s cold black eyes. “Firstly, I’d like for you to apologize for what you said.”

“Let me go.” She wasn’t sorry for what she said. Though she was absolutely terrified, she refused to give in to the demon that was Mikazuki Rin. She acted on impulse, spitting at Rin’s face.

Rin wiped her face and cocked an eyebrow at her. “Apologize.”

Yuuka didn’t. The air felt cold and Rin’s gaze never left her, Yuuka felt exposed, like Rin could see right through her. She thought that not apologizing could get her in more trouble but… she decided to be stubborn still. “Why are you doing this!?” Yuuka yelled out.

“If you won’t apologize, I’ll have to make you.” Rin sighed. “Pick a side, left or right.”

Yuuka gulped. I guess it would be too late to apologize now, she thought. She said nothing again, scared to pick a side in fear of what Rin has for her.

“Pick a side, Oshiro-san.”  Rin’s tone scared her.

Yuuka answered in a quiet tone. “... Left.” She clenched her jaw. Anxiously waiting for Rin’s next move.

Rin held out both of her hands, revealing what she was holding behind her back, a scalpel in her right and a spoon in her left. Rin raised her eyebrows and smiled. She walked around Yuuka and out of her sight. She heard faint rustling behind her and the harsh sound of Rin’s boots on the stone floor echoed in her ears. Rin soon returned behind her, placing a hand holding a pair of medical scissors gently on her shoulder and shoving a rag into Yuuka’s mouth with her other hand. She gagged and immediately tried to spit it out. Rin’s hand clenched against her shoulder painfully and Yuuka whimpered.

“Spit it out and this will be much harder on you.” Rin patted Yuuka’s shoulder and spun around to lean in front of her. “Don’t look at me like that, this will only take a second. It’ll only hurt a bit.”  

Yuuka felt sweat roll down her forehead, tears welling up in her eyes. Fear overtook and she began to shake as Rin stared into her eyes and lifted the spoon to her face. What was she going to do!?  Yuuka felt paralyzed, she saw the spoon come up to her left eye, and felt it gently slipping under her eyelid, the cold metal against her clammy flesh- she wanted to scream, but all that came out was struggled whimpers. Rin clamped her hand on Yuuka’s jaw so she couldn’t move, the spoon slowly sunk behind her eye socket, Yuuka could feel the stream of hot tears flowing down her face. The pressure behind her eye was unbearable, though it lasted for only a few moments, soon enough Rin jerked the spoon handle up and her eye popped out of her skull and hit against her cheek with a wet slap. Yuuka really did scream then, as best as she could through the rag in her mouth. Her uncontrollable loud sobbing only grew more panicked as Rin took her pair of medical scissors and began to snip at the last connections to Yuuka’s eye. Blood mixing with tears on Yuuka’s face, it hurt. It hurt so much, nerves pulsing with electricity, blood boiling and rapidly trying to escape her face. Yuuka wishes she could just die. Pain overtook her senses completely. Yuuka felt like she couldn’t breathe as Rin started laughing, an innocent giggle, too soft for a girl holding an eye in her palm, it turned to a more fitting laugh as Rin stared at Yuuka’s pained face, twisted in despair

“I wish you could see yourself right now! Your expression’s just marvelous!” Yuuka’s sight was drawn to Rin’s shaking form. Her long dark hair, a mess on top of her head. Even with the low lighting and Yuuka’s teary vision, she could clearly see Rin’s almost euphoric expression. She lifts Yuuka’s eye back up to her face and bites her lip to faintly stop herself from smiling to wide. Yuuka could just imagine her sickly pale skin turning a deep red, her face contorting into that of a demon, and horns protruding out of her head. Rin was a demon in human flesh. Rin had so much power over Yuuka. Rin laughed again, squishing the eye gently between her fingers.

Yuuka felt like her was going to vomit, she felt like she was going to fall unconscious, she couldn’t think straight, she didn’t know how to react to anything anymore, even with Rin slowly opened her mouth and placed Yuuka’s eye onto her tongue. Holding it in her teeth for a long moment, Yuuka stared idly, her tears never yielding. Rin’s jaw clamped down, and Yuuka cringed at the squelching sound of her eye being ground down by Rin’s teeth. Yuuka’s eyes stung, she felt as if she couldn’t cry any more, even if she wanted to. She closed her eye and tried not to listen as Rin chewed her missing eye and swallowed. Yuuka sat there, dryly sobbing, she wished she could just go home, she wanted to see her parents. She wanted to be anywhere other than her. She bowed her head, exhausted and in shock, she felt cold, numb, like her world as she knew it was completely shattering around her. Faintly she could hear Rin laugh, imagining the s**t-eating grin she probably had plastered on her face.  

“Yuu-chan- can I call you Yuu-chan? Since we’re going to be very close from now on.” Yuuka didn’t answer, the sound of her voice, oddly gentle, made Yuuka nauseous, and Rin continued. “Now will you apologize?”

Yuuka couldn’t speak, she felt too distant, like her body wasn’t her own. The burn of her wound felt like a faint tingling, the only thing grounding her and keeping her body in her own.

“Well, if you won’t apologize still, you’ll have to do a couple things for me, of else things will only get worse for you.” Yuuka didn’t want to find out what more Rin could want from her, but the monster continued to speak. “Firstly, you can’t tell anyone what happened to you here.“ from Rin’s tone she knew that Rin was absolutely serious. Rin put a hand on Yuuka’s knee and jolted her haze filled head up to see rin crouching down in front of her. “And, you’ll have to do anything else I ask of you! Nod if you understand” Yuuka gently nodded. Rin patted her knee, with a quiet good girl and told Yuuka that she would be back to let Yuuka go later.

Oshiro Yuuka just wanted to shrivel up and die.