Chapter Text
Eyes stared blankly at a white ceiling, visions progressively growing hazy. Blood was mixing with water, turning the tub a garish red. Small fingers holding a tiny razor blade….
Beep…beep…beep
Keep her steady! We can’t lose her!
The distant anguished cry of a mother crying out for her child.
Beep……beep…..beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
You’ve met an unfortunate fate, haven’t you?
A young brown haired woman gasped loudly as she awoke suddenly. She blinked hazily, looking around her, taking in her surroundings. A thick fog permeated the air and made it hard to see, she could barely see 10 feet ahead of her. She slowly stood up, her legs feeling as wobbly as a new born foal. She dusted off the seat of her…dress? She wore a long dark shroud that swallowed her hands and her feet. The young woman sincerely didn’t know what to think of all this. Things were getting weirder and weirder. Was this all a dream or reality?
She began to walk cautiously, her naked feet making very little noise in what seemed to be grass, dry, yellow grass. Forms seemed to form into the fog, making her glance around her wearily, wringing her hands in front of her. A dark gnarly tree stood tall on her right and what seemed to be a tombstone to her left. She slowly moved to be able to read what was written on it.
‘Hopes and dreams’
The young woman blinked in confusion. Why…
She went on her journey, slowly piecing the pieces of the puzzle together the further she ventured into the fog. More gnarly trees and more tombstones, each holding sayings like ‘future’ or ‘love life’
‘Hello?’ she called in the eerie silence, the lack of noise was starting to make her feel skittish. Plus, she was tired of walking aimlessly in this cemetery.
‘Ahh, there you are, playing hide and seek I see’ A eerie voice sounded from right behind her. The young woman let out a shout of surprise and promptly fell on her ass, her heart hammering against her ribcage.
A tall man, that probably stood at 6 feet plus, stood in front of her, was holding a lantern in his hand. He had long, silvery white hair that cascaded down and pooled at his broad shoulders. He wore a long, sky blue coat along with a white blouse and black pants. The bright blue seemed out of place in the bleak and grey background.
‘Who are you?’ The young woman asked, blushing in embarrassment at having made a fool of herself in front of a complete stranger.
‘I am Alucard, now, follow me please, we mustn’t keep my master waiting’ the man said in his gravely tone, looking down at her with his unnerving, bright, yellow eyes. He didn’t offer her any help in standing up and turned on his heels and started walking. The young woman sputtered and scrambled to stand up and follow the tall gangly man. She had a hard time following the taller man with her short legs. His strides were long and brisk, as if he was in a hurry. They walked in relative silence, the woman trailing behind ‘Alucard’ until he stopped abruptly, making her walk into his back. She spluttered and backed away from him as he finally turned to look at her. She looked up and saw that they had reached one of the entrances of a crypt. But not any crypt…this one had her name on it.
‘Mina Turquoise’
Her breath shuddered in her throat as she took a step back. Why? Why did it have her name on it? The brown haired woman blinked and held her head, trying to make sense of the situation. What happened? Why was she here?
‘All will be made clear… please do go in’ Alucard said soothingly, a hand motioned her to go inside as the other held up the lantern. She shook her head and gulped before slowly venturing inside the crypt and went down a flight of stairs. She could hear Alucard follow her in and then the sound of stone grinding against stone. The entrance was closed…
She felt a wave of panic seize her heart as she went to back pedal but a prodding hand kept her from doing so. She gulped and continued her journey down the stairs, the cold cement uncomfortable beneath her feet.
Once at the bottom of the stairs, she expected to see coffins, skulls and the like but what she saw was the complete opposite. The room was dark yes, but there was no coffins, no skulls. However there was a desk right in the middle of the room. It had one singular lit candelabrum on it. The glow of the candles lit up the features of a figure that was sitting behind the desk. It seemed to be an old man with a long, narrow nose that reminded her of Gru. He had white hair and wore a black suit. He was hunched over with his long fingers stapled in front of him.
‘Welcome to the Velvet room me lady’ the man spoke up, his tone deep and gravely, his voice bouncing off the walls eerily.
‘I am Igor, the master of this place, remember it well’ the man said, his long fingers coming to tap idly on his desk. She frowned and slowly moved forward until she was standing in front of the desk. Alucard moved past her and came to stand behind ‘Igor’.
‘Now to discuss the reason of your presence here’ Igor began, stapling his fingers once more. The woman frowned, she could barely remember anything…
‘You were chosen to be given another chance at life’ Igor said smoothly, his large beady eyes pining her in place as he met her eye. Then it suddenly hit her…the…
She squeezed her eyes shut at the painful memory, subconsciously clutching her wrist to her chest. That’s what happened; this was why she was here. Was this limbo, was this her punishment for taking the cowardly way out.
The man looked around but showed no expression on his face, his face remaining neutral; despise his mouth being stretched into a default wide grin.
‘For now, this place looks quite…distressing, for it reflects the state of your own heart’ The man explained, fingers going back to tap softly onto the desk. ‘ But depending on how you came to be here, it comes as no surprise’
The young woman bit her lip as she wrung her hand. So her heart was a crypt? A cemetery? Her heart was…dead? In a sense…
‘It may sound confusing for now, but everything will fall into place soon, I assure you, but we must begin with your introduction to this whole new world’ Igor soothed, almost as if he sensed her inner turmoil.
‘We have much to discuss but unfortunately our time is up. Take your time to slowly understand this place and your new place into this world. We will meet again in the near future’
An alarm suddenly off which made all of them look up at the ceiling. What the…
Good luck on your new journey…
Memories that surely weren’t hers started flashing before her eyes. The brown haired woman slammed her eyes shut as the rapid succession of images made her dizzy.
All she could suddenly hear were people whispering as she slowly made it back to the world of consciousness or in her case… the living.
‘Your daughter overdosed, she temporarily died on the operation table but suddenly she came back…it’s nothing short of a miracle, especially after the amount of drugs she ingested’ Mina heard what she thought was a doctor.
‘Thank god…thank you god’ she heard a woman whisper in relief before she heard a heart-wrenching sob. Mina felt her heart pinch at the sound.
‘When…when is she going to wake up’ A man’s voice asked softly, the voice audibly shaky as if he was holding in his own tears.
‘She is now stable, she should wake up shortly, however we should discuss the matter of sending her to rehab to make sure that an episode like this doesn’t happen again, like I said, your daughter being alive right now is nothing short of a miracle Mr. and Mrs. Madoka’ Mina heard the doctor say in a serious tone. The man and woman voices started to fade along with the doctors which indicated that they were walking away or perhaps Mina was losing consciousness.
Her eyes snapped open as she gasped, a rapid beeping sound filling her ears. She blinked rapidly, her eyes blinded by an overhead neon light.
‘Oh thank goodness, my baby you are awake’ A lady’s voice said softly. The brown haired girl eyes fell on a very pretty lady’s face. Her beautiful green eyes wide and open, long lashes framing them. A few laugh lines on her face indicated her age along with a beauty mark right below her left eye. She also had long blond hair, which were kept in a side braid that draped over her shoulder. The woman’s eyes were alight with grief and relief, perfectly manicured hands held in a prayer at her chin, a tissue tucked between them.
Who was this woman? This wasn’t her mother… Then the girl thought back to what had happened. Of course this wasn’t her mother because technically she was dead… But managed to come back alive… through this woman’s child…
Her ‘mother’ rested a warm, sweet smelling hand onto her cheek and Mina felt the comfort it brought seep through her skin and without her good judgment, she leaned into it like the touch starved person she was.
‘ hey princess’ A man’s voice said on her other side and she turned her head weakly to be face with a very handsome man, probably her ‘father’. The man offered a shaky smile as she met his warm chocolate brown eyes. He had neatly combed dark brown hair with strong dark eyebrows. His eyes looked sharp even if they shared the same look that her ‘mother’ had. He himself held a few aging lines on his face that gave him a chiseled, older man look.
Her new parents were so beautiful, she thought as she took her time to look at them both.
‘Mom…dad?’ She found herself whispering hoarsely, her mouth and throat feeling dry and disgusting. The woman’s face shriveled up as she let out a sob and gathered her into arms. She let out a small noise of since her body felt sore as hell and the IV in her arm pinched. She felt another pair of arms wrapped themselves around both her and her mother. She felt a stubbly cheek press against hers, the feeling comforting instead of itchy. She could get used to this, she just came back to life and she was already getting all this love...
‘Please…never do this again… I beg you Midori…’ The woman sobbed, her hand clutching her nightgown.
‘We were so scared pumpkin…we thought… we thought we would never see you again’ The man whispered, his deep voice vibrating through his chest and into hers. This made her own eyes tear up… If only they knew…
-A few weeks later-
Mina had made a surprising recovery and was cleared to leave the hospital within the first week after she woke up. After that, it seemed like her ‘parents’ had made it their task to never leave her alone by herself ever. She could understand their fear however; she could see it in their eyes whenever they thought she wasn’t looking. Mina finally learned their names, which was mostly in the memory flashes she would occasionally get. Memory flashes from Midori. That was her name now… and her parents name were Hime and Kaoru.
Her mother was an important lawyer, in fact so important that she was apparently one of the best lawyers in Tokyo but she had stepped down from her job to open her own bakery, a long since south after dream. As for her father, he was a Private Agent with his own bureau.
That was probably why they moved two weeks after her release from the hospital. Both of their important reputations were at stake… A drug-addicted daughter who had an overdose would probably cause a scandal and tarnish their reputation. Mina had no qualms about that at all. She actually resented Midori for making her parents go through this awful experience… But then again she had yet to know them properly and she didn’t really know the full story behind all this so she didn’t want to be too quick in judging the poor girl. Sure she saw Midori’s life flash through her eyes before she woke up but there were still a few pieces missing that had her staring at the ceiling at night.
‘Midori, honey, you were spacing out again, would you mind setting this up for me?’ Hime’s sweet voice broke through her musing. Mina blinked slowly and looked her at her mom, who was holding a few pots of flowers in her arms. Mina offered a sheepish smile and took the pots out of the woman’s hands.
‘Could you put those on the tables outside?’ Her mother asked over her shoulder as she went back to the kitchen. Mina felt herself salivate at the sweet smell of cake and all the pastries Hime was making. She had been an aspiring baker in her own world herself but obviously her career had been cut short. Mina gulped at the wave of grief that nearly swallowed her whole. She clutched her flowers pots to her chest, slowly inhaling their refreshing scent to ground her in the present. Getting over her failed suicide attempted often hurt and made feel even more like a failure but at the same time… She got another chance and so far…things seemed to look up somehow.
She… would be able to make it.
She stepped outside, the heat bearing down on her heavily as soon as she stepped out of the cool, Ac generated air of the inside of the Café.
Mina quickly went to work to set down the flowers pots perfectly in center of the cloth covered tables of the Café’s terrace and adjusted some of the cute pink wickers chairs that matched the Cafes awning and bubbly pink sign.
‘Café Mon Coeur’ the sign said and if that didn’t scream her mother, she didn’t know what was. The Café was situated in a small neighborhood called Yongen-Jaya. The area was quiet and calm, people slowly going about their days.
She noticed someone walk up to the terrace as she busied herself into straightening up the table cloth. She went to greet them with a smile but found herself pausing as she stared the older man in the face. She suddenly got the feeling of a déjà vu hitting her. She blinked and shook her head and was about to approach the tall man when she heard the door of the café jingle open.
‘Sojiro! Her mother cried as she stepped out of the Café with a wide smile. She happily bounded up to the man and gave him a big hug. The man’s stern face broke up into a sincere smile.
‘Hime, you trying to steal my business by installing your Café in this neighborhood’ the man grouched but Hime seemed to take it with humor, giving the man a sunny smile.
‘Hey now, you have me beat in matters of coffee and curry and you know it’ her mother said, putting her hands on her hips as the man gave a smirk.
‘Damn right’ the man chuckled before turning his eyes on Mina. She found herself freezing in place and wrung her hands nervously. She felt like she knew this man but who was he?
‘Is that how you greet your uncle after so long Midori?’ The man asked, seeming a bit disappointed. Suddenly Mina saw it, the memory.
‘She’s beautiful Hime, who knew such a beautiful child could come out of someone like you’ Mina heard the familiar voice of the man.
The scene slowly unfolded before mina’s very eyes as she stood as a spectator to Midori’s memories.
‘Tch, go to hell Sojiro’ She heard Hime growl, voice clearly exhausted.
Mina saw the man, Sojiro, holding a tiny baby as Hime laid in a hospital bed, looking dishevelled and sweaty, and her hair all over the place. The man had a tender look as he gently wagged a finger the baby who grabbed it swiftly and giggled in victory. The man let out a rumbly laugh and Hime smiled tenderly.
‘She already loves you…will you…would you like to be her god-father Sojiro?’
‘You got to be shiiii….’ Sojiro closed his lips as he got a warning look from Hime as he even entertained the thought of swearing in front of her child. He looked down at the cute baby in his arms, her big green eyes staring up at him. He found himself smiling tenderly and nodded.
‘ Yeah, I guess I could be the brat’s god-father’
Mina blinked again to clear away the memory and found her mother looking her worriedly and grasping her cheeks, looking her over fussily.
‘Are you ok honey? Maybe you spent too much time out; maybe I shouldn’t have made you arrange the flowers pots’ Hime seemed to be scolding herself. Mina gently grabbed a hold of the older woman’s delicate wrists and offered a reassuring smile.
‘ I’m fine mom’ She said softly and her mother sighed in relief before giving her forehead a soothing kiss before tucking her into her side and brought her over to her god-father. She was then urged forward into the man’s arm. A myriad of scent assaulted her nose as soon as she was enveloped into the man’s embrace. He smelled of tobacco, coffee and spices, all blending in an hearty, reassuring scent. The man pulled her away by her shoulders and looked her over.
‘It’s nice to see you again kid’ He said, giving her a small smile and a pat on the head.
‘Why don’t you go help yourself to some lemonade inside honey’ Her mother said softly as she fixed of mina’s hair away from her face and tucked them behind her ear. Mina smiled at the soft gesture, not missing how it filled up with so much adoration for the woman she barely knew. Mina wordlessly nodded and bounded back inside the café, taking one last peek at her mother and uncle before turning her back on them to seek out the pitcher of freshly made lemonade. Her mother’s famous peach lemonade, it was a high demand on the menu.
Mina found the pitcher on the counter, some water gathering at the base because of the perspiration that ran down the pitcher. The liquid inside was a beautiful gradient from yellow to pink, with a few slices of peaches and lemons floating along the ice cubes. Mina grabbed a tall glass from the bar behind the counter and poured herself a glass. She drank the first glass quickly, realizing now that she was super thirsty, especially after working around the café all day, getting the treats baked and moving the furniture about the shop. Her mother and herself had to do it all by themselves since her father was still going over the paperwork and the transfer of his business to a new location.
She hummed at the tangy, sweet taste of the lemonade and watched her mother outside as she talked with Sojiro as she nursed her second glass.
They seemed to have a pleasant talk but Mina could clearly see the hints of sadness in her mother’s eyes from where was standing. Had the woman told Sojiro of what had happened? It was highly possible since the man was her god-father so he must have been kept in the loop about the whole situation. The two adults had taken a seat at one of the tables as they talked. Mina, not feeling like being rude, filled up two other glasses and stepped out with them to offer them to her mother and uncle. God knew how her mother needed a break and a fresh drink.
‘oh thank you honey’ Hime said gratefully as Mina took a seat at the table with them.
‘Thanks kid’ the older man said gruffly as he hesitantly took a sip of lemonade and hummed in appreciation after taking a taste.
‘So you took in another kid huh? How you pull that off’ Hime questioned, clearly amused.
‘The kid needed lodging, he’s under probation’ Sojiro said simply, as he twirled the lemonade around in his glass. Hime’s eyebrows shot up in shock.
‘Probation?!’ Hime nearly shouted and Sojiro shushed her as it seemed to pike the curiosity of some of the passerby’s.
‘Kid assaulted someone and got sued for it’ Sojiro shrugged and Mina saw Hime give him a knowing smirk.
‘I see you acting all tough and being a hard ass but I know you care, you sentimental old man’ Hime teased as she grinned and poked the older man’s cheek making him growl in irritation and slap her hand away.
‘ Shut it you old hag’ He mumbled in irritation which made her mother puff up, clearly insulted.
Mina found herself laughing. It came out as a giggle at first before it became full blown laughter. The interaction between the two friends was hilarious. It felt so good to laugh again, she could, she could feel like a part of herself was slowly coming back to her, slowly sliding back into place, in her heart.
She looked up and saw her mom smiling happily at her, relief in her eyes.
‘Honey…you laughed’ She said almost tearfully as she reached for Mina’s. Mina took it and squeezed it.
‘Yes mom, I did’