[001] the blink of an eye

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[ ONE: the blink of an eye ]








REI OFTEN REMINISCED what could've been.

It wasn't that she enjoyed swathing herself in bandages of self-pity, trying to pacify the torn thing to left side of her chest; she was simply curious.

     She'd always been curious, analysing the mechanics of the mundane game of life that rolled on and on like a suck VHS tape. Curiosity killed the cat, her mother used to scald her, but Rei had a plentiful amount of lives. She used to sit tentatively at the kitchen table when she was younger, legs crossed and tucked against her warm chest as she listened. Her older sister and mother would usually be arguing about something trivial: boyfriend staying over, helix piercing, the forgotten spring onion on the shopping list ... and Rei's dark eyes would swing between the pair, an indecisive shooting star, trying to figure out the meaning of it all.

     These arguments would always end with a door slam, rattling the chinaware and spilling hot miso soup over the brim of her bowl. A string of profanities from her mother would follow, then an indifferent (and often patronising) comment from her father. Then, another argument would bloom - a blood red flower armed to the teeth with thorns.

     Anger. Rei had concluded blissfully. The meaning of life was how long one can suppress their anger, their savageness, before snapping. Each person was a nebula waiting to explode.

She, of course, was no exception. She'd feel the rage sometimes, a bitter taste in her mouth, poisoning her words as she trapped them between her lips. She could also feel it in her heart, her lungs and her brain. She learned how to suppress it: yen pressed into an open palm in exchange for a bag of something magic. It was by no means moral, but it worked, and that's all she cared about.

Rei often reminisced for a time where she didn't think about anger. She passed coffee shops and restaurants on the way to work, seeing young couples on dates blush and drown in each others souls. That would be me, she'd breathe, if life was fair. She would think the same on the train, sat opposite women and men in suits, shoes shined and ready to conquer the world. That would be me. Sisters sharing earphones on the bus, a rocket reaching the moon on the television, the protagonist of a novel overcoming the villain. That would be her.

     Presently, she chewed on her bubblegum, tasting the artificial strawberry as it fizzled and flattened on her tongue. She tapped the keys of her phone absently, unfocused thoughts swirling in their usual erratic dance at the front of her mind. She was trapped in her head again, somewhere distant but still within reaching distant if she could be bothered to try. Blowing air from her lips, she checked the time. 16:34. Her shift would end soon, and she could take a walk to sit by the park lake. Her feet were sore from standing behind the counter all day - the pain doubled from her six am run that morning.

She pocketed her phone and looked around.

A few customers shuffled around the small convenience store. A middle-aged woman was speaking on her phone loudly, arguing with (what Rei interpreted as) her husband. A man was shoving spices into a basket whist his son read the shopping list from his glowing screen. A teenage girl was lingering around the alcohol, twirling a finger around her blonde locks absently whilst her gaze transfixed on the rows of shiny bottles before her.

     Rei frowned from her position behind the counter, wanting to reach out to the girl and shake her senseless. That'd been her once upon a time, young and naive, well into the process of becoming a stranger to herself. Maybe she wasn't so different after all, everyone had some flame to extinguish nowadays.

"Hello?" The phone woman was now stood in front of her, rogue-painted lips pressed into a frown as she waited for service.

"Oh, my apologies." Rei snapped from her daze, ignoring the look of disapproval shot her way. She feigned her best smile, slim fingers immediately wrapping around the bottles and groceries of the customer to scan.

The woman paid and left, then the man and his son, until it was only the girl.

She watched silently as the girl slipped a bottle of vodka from glass refrigerator, grinned at the alcohol percentage, and hugged it to her chest. Rei simply raised an eyebrow at the blonde who then strutted to the counter and slammed it down.

"Just this one." The girl smiled up at her innocently, platinum blonde hair tumbling in loose curls around her face. Rei's immediate thought was that she depicted a cherub - way too innocent and biblical to be attempting to break the law.

"I'm gonna need some ID." She crossed her arms, unfazed.

"Of course!" The girl's smile didn't falter but the steadiness of her hand did; a simple tremor lacing her smooth skin as she slid it from her back pocket. It's fake, Rei confirmed before it was even pushed across the counter.

The flimsy, laminated material of it gave it away enough. Rei held it between two fingers, lifting to the light. She flipped it over, toying. No hologram either. She almost felt offended. Did people really think she was this stupid?

The girl looked up at her hopefully, triumph shining in the pupils of her eyes. "See! Real-"

"Nothing about this is real. I'm afraid I can't serve you."

The girl's smile tumbled, eyes widening and lips parting in noiseless disbelief. Rei knew that look. Panic. Blind panic to be precise. Had she never been denied anything in her life?

Rei felt oddly glad to be the bearer of bad news. Welcome to reality!

"But - it's real!"

Rei exhaled heavily. She really did not have the patience for this. Her shift ended in five minutes.

"Listen up. Legal age is twenty years old. You are not twenty. Therefore, you can't purchase or drink. Make sense?"

"Please!" The girl's whiny beg made her grimace. "I wanna go to this party tonight and this guy is gonna be there and - well - I can't kiss him if I'm sober?"

Sob stories never worked on Rei. Especially, shallow and self-pitying ones.

"Look, as much as I want you to have fun, no. You're underage, it would be illegal for me to sell it to you."

"You're only a few years older than me, surely you were drinking at this age."

Of course she was.

"No, I wasn't, actually." Rei countered easily, though her tongue stung with the sour mouthful of lies. "Now please quit your arguments and leave. I've heard it all a hundred times and I'm bored."

"I'm not leaving until you let me pay!"

"If you don't leave I'm gonna have to call my boss."

"Call them then. My ID is real!" The girl snatched the bottle off the counter and glared up at Rei through her thickly mascara combed lashes.

"Bottle." Rei held out a frustrated hand.

"What?"

"Give me the bottle and wait there."

"But it's mine!" The girl pouted and Rei wanted to slap her.

"Bottle or I call the police."

The girl let an exaggerated huff leave her lips, slamming the glass into Rei's palm.

"Won't be a moment." She grinned sarcastically, positively sick to death of this job. "Oh, and don't even think about taking anything. Our CCTV works."

The girl held her hands up in mock innocence, rolling her eyes. "Whatever you say."

     Rei slipped through the door that led to the back, shaking her head in disbelief. She never in a million years envisioned herself working in retail, yet here she was, skull-numbingly bored and equally as lost.

She kicked a few cardboard boxes out of her way, cursing God, cursing anyone really.

     She scanned the room for Ken, her boss, who wasn't hunched over his computer and mindlessly consuming the numbers on his screen. It was off, dust clinging to the ancient thing.

"Ken, we have a situation out front!" She called out in frustration, too tired to consider looking for him. Her shift was over, anyway. "Ken?"

No response yet again, and before she could check the toilet, the strobe lighting blinked off.

She dropped the bottle.

It smashed, showering splinters of glass everywhere. Rei didn't even register it, too busy fighting the pickling sensation nipping at her skin. She didn't like the dark one bit, and the entire room was swamped by it. Her hand flew to her pocket to retrieve her phone for the flashlight but that didn't work either. Dead. Aimlessly, she stumbled for the light switch. On and off.

Nothing.

"Power cut." She concluded hastily, pushing through the door back to the front of the store. Her shoes crunched through the glass, echoey and distorted. Again, Rei was met with unwelcoming darkness. The blonde girl had vanished, though the stench of her cheap perfume still lingered in her absence. The air was thick and warm and Rei struggled to breathe. It didn't make sense.

"What the fuck ...?"

It was raining outside, droplets heavy and coating her skin in its slickness. She gasped for air, staggering into the road which lay motionless. The cars were vacant, just like the little toys she saw in department stores. Looking up, the streetlights hung their metal heads mournfully, light sucked from their bulbs like venom from a bite. Rei could feel her heartbeat in her temple, brain rattling around her skull and scattering her thoughts.

Blind panic is precisely what she felt. It was hot and sharp as knives, gutting any courage from her stomach and leaving her void.

"Hello? Anyone?" She called, sprinting into the coffee shop across the road. Desolate.

A latte sat, untouched, on one of the tables. The steam from it curled then died. Rei dipped her index finger into the mug. Piping hot.

She wanted to scream.

Eight more shops were checked before she gave up on them. She tired an apartment complex and it was funeral silent. She tried a phone box and found it dysfunctional. She even sprinted to the park, drenched, her heart in her throat, utterly confused and awestruck at the sight of green and nothing else. Of all the logical puzzles she'd ever come across, the whereabouts of Tokyo's residents was the most startlingly insolvable.

Humanity was gone, totally wiped out in the blink of an eye. Rei collapsed onto the road, soaked by rain and sweat. Her eyes squeezed shut and she tried to piece together the limited information she had to work with. It deemed an impossible task.

     She always knew that the world would move on, but she never realised it would leave her behind like this.

Perhaps this was just a side effect of all the stimulants she'd ever taken? Had she passed out? Maybe there was some evacuation protocol she'd missed? Logic failed her for the first and final time. She was tired. So, so tired. She closed her eyes and fumbled for the chain coiled around her throat, tracing the indents of the crucifix like an infant's pacifier. She prayed for some being in the corner of her mind, emblazoned with a golden flare, to part the clouds and save her.

She waited, and waited, and waited.




















MAYA'S NOTE ...

I normally hate writing introductory chapters but I quite enjoyed this! The pace of this fic will be relatively fast due to the show/manga basically never having a dull moment (☠️), but I will try slow it down to give you all context or appreciate the beauty of it as a whole.

Pls also bare with me with my writing whilst I adjust to the pace, if it seems a little disjointed or dished I apologise <3 the chapter lengths may also be varied with some shorter and some longer, I'm trying to divide the action/dialogue/plot up as best I can without the story being so overwhelming!

Aside from that, I hope you enjoyed this lil intro and insight into Rei & her life/past before being literally held hostage by the borderlands. I'd love to know your thoughts so far!!

See you in the next chapter!🐇


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