Soar, Kira!

Chapter 1 - Secrets, Buried in a Thesaurus.

Shy - Timid, introvert, retiring, withdrawn, bashful, diffident, inhibited, reticent, reserved, quiet, (See Outgoing for Antonyms)

Kira sat on her bed with the thesaurus open in her hands, and glanced over to the blank page in her English book. In fact, it wasn’t blank, it had a title at the top of the page “What makes me who I am?” This was possibly the hardest assignment she’d ever have to do, and it wasn’t because she couldn’t understand it, or because she wasn’t good with words. No, it was a hard assignment because “What makes me who I am?” was something she’d rather not put onto paper.

As she picked up her pen to start writing she saw the marks on her hand, the two marks that made her life hell. You couldn’t guess the amount of damage that two little fifteen years and 365 day old scars could do to a person, even if technically she wasn’t a person. As she stared at the scars, her face started to turn red, and tears formed in the corners of her eyes. The thesaurus was on the wrong page, “Shy” did describe her, but there was one word that described her more.

Hated – Reviled, loathed, detested, abhorrent, despicable, despised, unloved, insufferable (See Hate for related words) (See Loved for Antonyms)

The tears in her eyes started a slow journey down her face as her eyes caught the last part, “(See Loved for Antonyms)” Loved. How long she’d craved for that. She didn’t even know how it felt, because she never came into contact with anyone. Her lessons at school were all the same, she sat in one corner of the classroom, while the rest of the class sat as far away as they could. All the classrooms were built like that. Built like a prison for her so that she couldn’t communicate with anyone, even the teachers.

She looked back to her book and closed it, the tears still hanging from her face. That was it, she gave up; she just couldn’t do this. It didn’t matter anyway. Tapei-sensei wouldn’t give her a detention; he was too scared of her to want to spend the extra time after school. She grabbed the thesaurus and threw it across the room, resting in the corner with the pages most likely torn up now. ‘Great,’ she thought, now she’d have to buy a new thesaurus. Why was her temper like this? She was just lucky she hadn’t lost it in school yet.

She knew exactly what she was capable of, and where she’d end up if she ever did it. She felt like screaming, but didn’t want to wake her mother up so she picked up her pillow and cried into it. Thinking of her mother only made her cry more. She was weak, with an unknown illness; it wasn’t a rare illness, or a new one that hadn’t been discovered, but it was unknown because no hospital would take her because of who she was. She worked with her dad to try and help as much as she could, but without a doctor, they didn’t even know what they were treating.

They had a small family, just her Mother, her Father and her. That was another thing caused by what she was, they were only allowed to have one child per family, and they weren’t even allowed that if they weren’t married. Then there was the problem of finding a church that would wed them. Her parents had to leave Tokyo to get married, and her mother had to leave again to give birth to Kira.

Kira felt the tears just kept coming, but why? Why was she treated like this? Just because she was different, these memories haunted her. She pulled her head out of the pillow and dragged her reluctant hand to her eyes so she could wipe away her tears. When she removed her hand from her face, she looked to the mirror on her bedroom wall. She loved her face, it was perfect for her. She had almost flawless skin, and beautiful green eyes. Her dark blonde hair hung down her back, tied into a ponytail with a red ribbon which her mom had given her for her birthday last year.

It was her birthday again tomorrow, and her father had gotten her a silver necklace with links so fine it just looked like a silver coated string at first sight. She was wearing it now, because her father had given it to her an hour ago, it looked so pretty around her neck. She ran her fingers over it and smiled, she didn’t do it often, but it made her look so much better than the dull expression she was so accustomed to.

Kira walked over to her schoolbag, which had her drawing pad in it. All the time she spent alone meant she had to find something to do, and drawing was what she’d found. She took the drawing pad and her drawing pencils out, and flicked to her latest work of art. It was a still unfinished drawing of a manga girl, Taki, the girl she’d created. Taki was a Neko, a girl with cat-like properties, and Kira loved to draw her in all sorts of different situations and poses. This drawing was one she’d started in school that day, Taki was sitting at a desk reading. Kira had done the general outline of Taki, and drawn the long hair (Which would be coloured pink when finished) and cat-ears.

Kira took out a HB pencil to make a start on her eyes, but changed her mind, and decided to gamble on using the much darker 6B pencil. It only took her 5 minutes to get them done perfectly, using the 6B pencil had paid off. She put the 6B pencil back and took out the HB one again, she was doing the clothes now and there was absolutely no way she’d be able to get the folds right first time, especially when Taki was sitting down. She put the pencil to the paper, and instantly felt a sharp pain in her right hand.

“Dad!” she shouted, “Dad, come quick, it’s happening.”

She heard footsteps racing across the landing, and in seconds her Father was at her side.

“It’s Okay darling, don’t worry, I’m here,” she heard his voice and felt his hand on her back, but she wasn’t focused on that, she was focused on suppressing the burning pain in her hand, that was slowly creeping up her arm. She couldn’t hold in anymore, and screamed out loud, the familiar tears back in her eyes. The pain in her arm had made its way to her chest, and now it felt like she was being torn apart from the inside out. Her Father was pulling on her hand, dragging her out of the room.

She could hardly move, so she let him drag her out of the room and up to the top of the stairs.

“Calm down darling, I’m going to carry you down the stairs now.” She heard his comment but didn’t take it in until he scooped her up and started walking down the stairs. This was also the time she realised she was thrashing around, making it incredibly difficult for her Father to help her. She was also screaming still, and she tried so hard to stay still, but the effort wasn’t enough. The pain had spread all the way around her body by now, and she felt as if her blood was cutting into her as it flowed around the body. They came to the door she knew all too well, and her father opened it, while still carrying her thrashing body. He went down the second set of stairs just in time, she felt the extra bones emerging from her back as her curse began to take effect.

They finally reached the bottom of the second stairs, and her wings had fully formed. The pain slowly withdrew itself back to her hand, and her screaming stopped as she regained control over her body. She looked around the room she was in. It was the basement that she had to live in for 2 days every other month. The law said that all winged people were never to spawn their wings above ground, and for 2 days every other month, her wings sprouted of their own accord. She thought of how foolish she’d been. She should have come down here and summoned the wings herself 10 minutes ago. If she’d summoned them it would have been painless, but she’d forgotten, and was lucky her Father managed to get her here in time.

Her breathing was heavy, and she walked over to one of the beds. The room had three beds, one for each member of the family. Whenever Kira had to stay underground, her parents would live down in the basement with her, just in case she needed anything. Her father came over to her on the bed and put his hand on her shoulder. It calmed her down a little, but it took a lot to get over that pain so quickly. She realised that she could feel his skin on hers, and looked down her front to see that the wings had torn the back of her shirt, and it was now hanging from her waist.

“It’s Okay now darling, it’s over. That will never happen again.”

She turned around and flung her arms around him, whispering a “thanks dad” because she couldn’t find the energy to speak. When she let go, he stood up and walked to the door.

“I’m going to get your mother and one of your t-shirts, have you had anything to eat yet?” Kira shook her head.

“Well if you go turn on the gas to the stove, I’ll get some eggs from upstairs and you can have an egg sandwich, Okay?”

Kira nodded, and he went upstairs into the main house. One thing ran through her head as he left, one thing he’d said. “That will never happen again” He was right. She was sixteen tomorrow, and she’d finally gain control over them. Finally, there was something positive in her life.

She stood up to go over to the small stove in the corner of the room, but was stopped as soon as she left the bed. Her eyelids grew heavy, and she had to sit back down again. Her head dropped to the side, somehow managing to hit the pillow, and she drifted away into a dreamless sleep.

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