Tokyo University Orientation Day 2015
After the email from Usagi, I insisted on a less formal get-together this time as I only agreed to the session because Usagi felt it time to reveal more of the puzzle that frankly I could do well without for sure. The truth was; I was stuck with all this weird shit whether I wanted it or no. One thing was for sure, life wasn’t boring for one Beryl Canoga.
Usagi I and the girls sat to lunch. To my surprise, Ami had a penchant for song writing.
“I-I just wanted to get your thoughts…,” she trailed off, looking down, so shy and self-effacing; well then, I’d soon do something about that.
I shocked the blue-haired girl by asking her to rehearse with the guys that same night. Of course, as flustered and flattered as she was, she accepted. Usagi came back with our shakes and sat between us and Ami handed Usagi her song lyrics to get her feedback.
“These are good, Ami,” Usagi gushed looking more like a student herself, at ease in a pair of black body-hugging jeans, yellow top and leather sandals - her hair tied in a single plait. I liked her best this way, in civilian garb.
“Thank you Usagi, I showed these to Beryl just out of fun, but she really wants me to write for the group; I’m still getting used to the idea of being part of Dark Empress Butterfly, lil ol’ me!” she giggled.
“Get used to it kiddo, you’re freak’n good!” I patted her shoulder.
“Sorry guys, but I’ve a class to rush off to, nice to meet you Ami, any friend of Beryl’s is a friend of mine; hope to meet you again soon.”
“You can count on it,” I supplied, hugging the petite blonde.
“Beryl, I’ve got a class in… ten minutes, got to drop these library books off, catch you later. Sorry, seems we’re all in a rush.”
“Cool, Ami; catch you later, and I’ll call you Usagi!”
“Got it booked!” she shouted as she wove her way through the crowds of students and faculty staff disappearing from view.
Finishing my shake, I got up, grinned and signed for the Gothic Make-up and music clubs.
I eyed off a sexy glossy black electric guitar, I licked my lips and made a mental note to look at it later. First, though, I wanted to check out the cosmetic stall.
I stood before the dark haired girl, her long black ringlets framing a bird-like and pretty face. She possessed dark pools for eyes. The girl smiled with a hint of mischievousness as she met my eyes and handed me the pen. On a substantial bosom, she wore the badge, ‘Alice of wander-land.’
I couldn’t help myself, and laughed.
“Love your name, Alice, chased after any wayward rabbits down holes lately?”
The girl smirked and giggled, “No, but I have a few chase me down mine now and then!” I grinned and the girl continued, a playful look crossing her face. “You’re kind of cute, and I wouldn’t mind a little stroll in wonderland with you…Hmmm.”
The tiny pixie-like girl’s hand squeezed mine and she winked, making me blush. “Thanks for the offer. I am sure it would be lovely, no thank you. I am an Edgar Alan Poe girl myself!” I replied; bowing, the sexual references, though veiled in humor, were clear. The sweet innocent looking pixie-like girl wiggled just a little to accentuate the obvious endowment of full breasts under the thin cheesecloth bodice of her low-cut Gothic dress that left little to the imagination.
Giggling, the girl pointed to the nearby jewelry stall. I thanked her, turned on my heel, and rushed away, still blushing.
“A shame you know,” she said, “Nice ass!” she chuckled to her male companion who struggled to stifle a laugh. I bristled a little as she intended me to hear her comment on said butt that felt the eyes of the universe on it in that moment. I could still feel the raven-haired nymph’s dark eyes upon me. It felt as if Alice’s hands were sweeping over my entire body and I did my best to shake off the feeling.
I shifted my gaze to the jewelry, noticing the silver anvil. It was beautiful. Etched on its smooth surface, the caption, “I am malleable” The silver chain had Gothic styled links and I immediately fell in love with it. I had to buy it, and did so without a moment’s hesitation.
“Good choice, lady Beryl.”
Surprised, I looked up to find the deepest brown eyes returning my gaze. When he spoke, his voice deep, mellow and sexy, I almost stopped breathing. His neatly trim beard, highlighting a roman-like face, I found most compelling. This hunk of a man’s long black hair fell in a thick glossy cascade to the small of his back and the tight fitting black jeans, boots and the jacket with its Navaho motifs interspersed with silver spiders running over the glittering zirconium strands of said web, hooked me immediately.
“Jolyon Knight, at your service, lady,” he said, bowing. “You need a guitar? I have one just for you – come with me please!”
“But how-“
“I am a student in Lady Usagi’s class. You were so spaced out you didn’t see my friends or me. Don’t mind Alice, she won’t get in your face. She is playful and respects your sexual autonomy, but is a shameless flirt. She too is in your class as are most of us on this table.”
“Honor to meet you, Jolyon!” I responded in a husky voice, taking the huge proffered hand, shaking it with enthusiasm. I felt as if I was just accepted into a new job or an exclusive club, and perhaps I was.
---
Fuck, was I out of it or what? I felt as if there were two people in my head, like I was riding pinion on a motorcycle but instead of Kunz, it was a faceless version of myself throwing her head back and laughing as the wind tore transparent glass-like tresses out behind her while I held on for dear life.
I thought about the second sitting with Lady Usagi, freaky, not at first, but this unassuming bunny-like girl with the weird hair-do, and girlish smile, looking like a Goddess in training had shaken me, in a weird, but good weird, kind of way. Ha, yeah that is the perfect description of her.
“Beryl, I’m not sure where this is going to take us, but we do have an ancient connection. Are you willing to explore this with me? I won’t blame you if you wish not to follow this up. No pressure, scout’s honor okay?”
“Shit – hell, I mean,” I croaked.
“You don’t have to worry about cussing in front of me here. I am a priestess of high magic, a servant of the kamis; I’ve seen and heard plenty worse, believe me. Now, Miss Canoga, relax now.”
“I’m putty in your hands, teacher, er, I mean, Lady Usagi,” I giggled and she squeezed my shoulder, the power felt like jumper leads shooting through me at her touch. I wondered if she shocked guys whilst having sex, and I giggled again. Then the thought of Kunzite smearing me with lemon Morang pie in bed made me salivate and blush because Usagi was looking at me strangely, as if – no she can’t. I refused to entertain the idea she could know of my culinary sexual fantasies with Kunzite.
She was blushing, almost shocked, but a cheeky grin was spreading over her face whilst my own cheeks were burning. She tilted her head, grinning at me. Oh shit, she can read my thoughts.
“Oh, lemon Morang, it is so delicious. I’d never thought of eating it that way. It is dripping off your aura and I must say, you guys are teaching me things I’d never thought doable, but.” She was almost purple with embarrassment, “Okay, filed away for future reference. If I get the chance to try that with a hot guy…”
“Woman, you’re freaking shameless, and here I was thinking you a respectable Japanese school teacher and all.”
“Yeah, but I am also a woman you know and your aura is so filled with stuff it’s kind of hard to avoid you know,” she laughed, and then I joined her, tears streaming down our faces.
Recovering herself, pressing her hands against her waist, such was her mirth at my expense, she straightened and sat in her chair and regarded me thoughtfully.
“I guess this is where we get to the serious stuffies?”
“Right Beryl, all right. Clear your mind and focus on the crystal in my hands.”
I couldn’t help but obey, for the jeweled flower, she held was beautiful, I recognized it, but didn’t know from where or when. When, that seemed oddly appropriate right now.
“Fuck that’s pretty, where did you get it?” I asked, feeling like an airhead, of course, she didn’t ‘get it’ from anywhere, it was hers, a part of her.
“It is known as the Ginzuishou, now focus, talk comes later, Beryl.”
“Yes sensei,” I said, mesmerized by the powerful talisman as it bathed me and the room with silvery-blue light.
I was so glad to be now on first name terms with Usagi. Sure, she was mysterious, magical and powerful; I knew that, but also, she was a fun person, and I’d like to hang out with her in the arcade and around Tokyo to shop and shit, on her days off for she was okay – a cool chick.
I knew that the trigger point for the violent flashbacks had something to do with the images of that planetoid, Nemesis and more to the point, with Usagi herself.
“Oh crap!” I cried out mournful and scared as I fell into a whirlpool of shocking and bloody scenes: men, women, even children were torn apart, violated and fed upon by things that in my worst nightmares or at the Tokyo cinema I’d never seen their like, and never want to again.
Later, sobbing and gasping for breath I eventually came back to myself. Usagi held back my hair as I puked in the toilet bowl after the ordeal. I felt as if I were wrung out, and completely wasted, though I didn’t drink or take drugs of any kind. Yeah, I wasn’t a dumbass like that.
I must have blacked out again, I vaguely remembered letting Usagi walk me back to the office. She had changed out of her robes and back into her skirt, top and sandals. She washed my face with a cloth she took from a bowl of scented water, offering me a small flaks of which I took my fill and immediately the feeling of being sick vanished, but I was exhausted.
Standing on the threshold of the classroom, I was crouched low to the ground, like a spring about to bolt down the polished hall, everything a little out of phase. I swayed, I must have looked so out of it to my classmates, but nobody said anything and acted as if it were normal for a girl to look as if she were on some kind of bender, what the fuck?
I whimpered as the scene once more thrust itself upon me.
“Stop it, I don’t want this; get the fuck out of my head!” I cried, and fell to my knees.
The blade, the stone faces and charred remains of a ritual sacrifice, the severed hand of a creature not of this world, I saw a huge bird, it was blood red, its eyes terrifying me. I was a little girl, seated in the crook of a dead tree, unable to move. I screamed as I looked up to see the most butt-ugly stone mask I’d ever laid eyes on; it was tribal and throbbing with menace.
I snapped out of it and not knowing how I got there, was grateful somebody had helped me to a chair.
“Usagi, how, what and?” I trailed off, as the gentle eyes of Usagi calmed me in an instant. She was taking my pulse.
“Are you all right, Beryl?” she had asked, in a soothing tone, smiling with those cat-like eyes.
Despite their blue depths, there was something in that moment distinctly feline about this young woman I thought almost too young to be a sensei, but she was good at her job, that was pretty obvious from how the students respected her and her skills as a teacher during a lecture session.
“Yeah, I think so, I saw… um, something horrible!”
Usagi, her brow furrowed in concentration, had, as if a light bulb went off somewhere in her head, straightened.
“I think it might be a good idea if we discuss this privately in my office, Beryl. Like fruit juice?”
“Sure, I could use a drink right now. The non-alcoholic kind is better for me I know, ne? Lead on!”
Still a little out of it, I hadn’t seen or even acknowledged the other students in my class whom stayed behind to see I was all right. They smiled in sympathy, nodded and waved as they filed out of the room. I recognized Alice, her billowing black skirts swirling around her ankles as she winked and blew me a kiss. I scowled, and the vixen through back her head and laughed as she joined her friends at the end of the hallway; her spider hairclips, pretty things, glittering under the fluorescent light fixtures overhead in contrast to her long mane of black hair.
Moments later, Usagi offered me her hand; I took it.
I had entered the room in somewhat of a casual fashion, I was shit scared, but wanted to demonstrate that I was in control of my mind, body and actions…, a picture of perfect poise under pressure yeah right. I sat demurely – this a little hard to do when wearing cut-off denim shorts, silky black stockings, and a breast-hugging T-shirt; I offered Usagi a wry grin knowing she could guess at my thoughts, no, she could see it all in panoramic color, glorious and in detail if that naughty fantasy concerning lemon Morang was any indication. Hey, my aura was the best show in town, and I knew it was entertaining Usagi as well as serving as a lens into my whacked out psyche. I was right, Usagi rolled her eyes, winked and sat in her own chair, somewhat more demurely than I had managed, oh well.
I shrugged, reasoning that my outward appearance was the locus of most of the attention I was getting that day, even from Alice; perish the thought. It had been quite unseasonably hot; I didn’t care if people ogled me, and after all, I was hot, in both senses of the word.
Usagi arched an eyebrow and sighed at this thought that to her supernatural ears must have sounded like a cannon shot in an echo chamber, Eep! I was right, she sat back, folding her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes. I guess I couldn’t really blame her. After all, I kept my vanity well in check but my thoughts of my prowess as a hot chick who was prone to lengthy inner monologues about to set Europe alight as front line singer for Dark Empress Butterfly, which I had formed on campus a couple of years ago was the core of my over-inflated sense of self. I worked hard to keep my rambunctious ego in check and settled for silent smugness. This smugness didn’t work with Usagi as she could literally see through me and read my fucking aura thank you very much. It was cool though, another reason I admired her. She could handle my ego with aplomb, this surprised me at first, but it was all a part of her skill with people. How did she do that anyway?
I let my thoughts drift back to the good-looking guys in the class I’d began to size up, there was one, a tall dark haired guy, with magnetic eyes; he was amazing. Although involved with Kunzite, I liked to window shop. Besides, a girl’s got to do…, you know, look, but don’t touch. I smiled.
Usagi hadn’t commented at all on my dress sense, or lack thereof. She simply grinned and focused on her Tarot pack and the crystal talisman. She began by asking me about the Dark Kingdom, I felt a surge of panic at the reference but she put her hands over mine and I felt immediately calmed and took a few deep breaths and we pressed on, this was going to be tough going I knew. The questions were short and direct; I blinked and tried to answer as best I could. Each Tarot card served as a trigger for further revelation and interpretation. The process seemed more business-like until Usagi excused herself and asked me to meditate.
“M-meditate?”
“Yes, don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it, it’s not too difficult, trust me.”
She then lit some incense. Setting the mood, she played some appropriate music, Enya, I guessed. Smiling, she patted my shoulder on the way out, and left her to it.
I thought I would just sit there like a lump of unresponsive granite, and waited for Usagi to return. I thought I would humor her and began to watch my breathing, counting to four, holding my breath as she told me to do and exhaled this, the four-fold breath technique. As she, felt herself beginning to relax.
The atmosphere in the office had shifted; it felt more like an ancient sanctuary as opposed to an lecturer’s office; I then fell into a deeper state of awareness, having taken in the midnight blue velvet drapes framing the windows, now drawn, and those covering the exit giving the octagonal enclosure a powerful ambiance.
Usagi soon returned. Wearing her black ceremonial robes and untied her odango. Upon her golden head, she wore a silver headdress, this adornment giving her the countenance of an ancient Egyptian Queen, I thought of Isis.
Without a word, she drew a deep breath and began to sing a melodic refrain. It was enchanting and quite haunting.
I felt the edges of her resistance melting away and was a puddle of mush in Usagi’s capable hands. Usagi, as priestess began to chant in something akin to Sanskrit or a branch of Latin lost to the ages. Without knowing the how, why and from where it had come, my subconscious spewed out…all of it: Metallia, the dark agents of that malevolent force, my own tragic and horrific story.
I was shocked to learn I had once been a disenchanted shamaness of Earth in a past life. I had been in love, albeit an unrequited love it seemed. But when Endymion refused me, I swore vengeance; this the core of my resentment and the beacon Chaos, and his spawn needed to lure and recruit me to their dark purpose and the rest was history, albeit a black and bloody history.
Usagi gasped. She had obviously seen her own part in it all; our consciousness’s locked together for the duration of the visions. I gripped her hands as we plunged into a whirlpool that led to the ancient past.
The core of this shared destiny, I realized was the foundation stone upon which my redemption would take place.
