Chapter Text
She’s home and I hear her yelling. She’s yelling really loudly. She burst into my room because of a note my teacher left. Said I was still causing problems. Said I wasn’t doing good at school. She says she’s done hearing about all of this. The Black Witch came back and I just want Mama. I’m crying because I just want Mama. She says she’ll give me something to cry about. She puts her hands around my neck and I don’t remember the rest.
It was October 4th, 1994. Maria Ushiromiya was on a boat headed to the island of Rokkenjima for the annual Ushiromiya family conference. She was sitting by herself, listening to music on a portable cassette player. The sound of Judy and Mary’s Orange Sunshine filling her ears as she watched the waves roll by. She remembered years ago when she playfully mocked her cousin Battler as he held onto the boat for dear life. He got over his fear as he grew older, but still became seasick every now and then. She turned her head to the other side of the boat, where her cousins Jessica and George were sitting. In all honesty, she was surprised that Jessica was even allowed back at the conference after romancing Kanon, one of the previous family servants. She had temporarily been shooed away from previous conferences, but seeing as her father Krauss became the head of the family, it’d be hard for him to completely reject his daughter. Other members of the family still made snide remarks about her, disapproving of the relationship between a family member and a servant. Maria didn’t mind though. She was honestly a little inspired by her cousin’s perseverance to stay with the person she loved. Unfortunately, Krauss made sure that Kanon was no longer allowed to step foot on Rokkenjima. The only servants that remained from when Maria was a child were Genji, Gohda, and Kanon’s sister, Shannon.
Maria looked into the boat’s cabin, where most of the adults were conversing. Rosa, her mother, was sitting next to her aunt Eva, probably talking about business dealings that Maria didn’t care much about. Eva’s husband, Hideyoshi, also joined in on the conversation, reminding Maria that her mother has still not been able to find a man to settle down with. She didn’t care much though. Even if she were to have a new father, he would likely be just as absent as her mother was. In fact, before the conference began, Rosa had been across the world in Europe for about three months. It seems that the older Maria got, the longer Rosa would be away from home. At least now she got to be away from the house for a while instead of being stuck there all alone. Letting out a small sigh, she looked back towards the ocean, and let the rest of her music play out.
The boat had finally docked at Rokkenjima, and Maria was being led to the guesthouse. On the way there, they passed by the rose garden. It was certainly beautiful; the servants took great care of it day after day to ensure it looked like something straight out of a fairytale. Despite its beauty, Maria was trying her best to avert her eyes from it. All it did was remind her of a previous family conference. One where her mother beat her in front of the garden and her family at the age of nine. Looking at it after that had happened only made her feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. She picked up the pace in order to get past it as fast as possible. Soon after, she arrived at the guesthouse. Shannon had set her luggage in the cousin room, and she was beginning to put her belongings away. She had almost finished when she heard something from behind...
“Hey Maria!”
It was Jessica. She had walked in alongside Shannon who was carrying more luggage. She seemed pretty upbeat despite having to come to the conference without Kanon. Perhaps talking with Shannon helped bring up her mood? Jessica sat herself down on a bed and continued talking.
“How’re you doing?”
“Um... I’m fine.”
“Good to hear! You’ve grown a lot we last saw each other, I really can’t believe youre not a little kid anymore!”
“Thanks, Jessica. You look... good.”
Every word that slipped out of her mouth made her want to shrivel up into a ball. It seems she only got worse with conversation as she grew older.
“Man, you really are grown up. You even stopped doing that little ‘uu-uu’ thing.”
“...Yeah.”
A short period of silence followed, making Maria want to shrivel up even further.
“Well, me and the other cousins were planning on heading to the beach later like old times. Would you want to tag along?”
Maria perked up a bit upon hearing this. Some of her best memories were made on the beach of Rokkenjima with her cousins.
“Oh, yeah! I’d like that.”
“Nice!”
Jessica quickly turned around to face Shannon, who was putting away the cousins’ belongings.
“Hey, Shannon! You wanna come down to the beach with us too?”
“O-Oh! I’d love to, milady...”
Shannon was blushing hard, she seemed a little flustered at the thought for some reason.
“Great! Let’s all meet there in...half an hour? Does that sound good?”
Both Maria and Shannon nodded, and Jessica gave them an excited thumbs up before leaving. Shannon went back to what she was doing, this time with a pretty adorable smile on her face. After she finished emptying her luggage, Maria decided to go over and help Shannon with her work.
“Oh! You don’t have to d-”
“No, it’s okay. I enjoy busywork like this occasionally.”
Shannon smiled, and let Maria sit beside her as they put clothes and other items away.
“I’m sorry that Kanon couldn’t be here...”
Shannon seemed flustered again, but quickly regained her composure.
“Oh... yes. I do miss working alongside him.”
“At least he’s happy with Jessica. Speaking of...”
“Hm?”
“Are you and George still going to marry?”
“A-Ah...”
“I’ve heard him discuss it with Battler every now and then, so I just thought I’d hear from you too.”
“W-Well... I definitely want to marry George-sama. It’s just... complicated right now.”
Maria nodded, understanding that it probably wasn’t her place to pry information out of Shannon. Soon enough, they finished setting away everyone’s belongings together.
“Thank you, Maria-sama.”
“It’s no problem, really. Would you want to head down to the beach now?”
“That sounds good to me...”
Side by side, they walked from the guesthouse down to the beach and waited for the other cousins to join them. Soon enough, Jessica, George, Battler, and Ange came down to spend time with everyone. They discussed old memories, their current lives, and whatever else came to mind. It was nothing too special, but seeing all the cousins and Shannon here on the beach again made Maria feel at home, and a smile was stuck to her face the whole time.
A while later, it was time to eat. Everyone sat at the table in their usual order, Maria being placed between Battler and her uncle Hideyoshi, with Ange across from her. Lots of talking went on between the rest of the family, with only Maria keeping quiet. They seemed to be discussing Jessica’s return to the conference, but most of it just formed together into a mound of voices. The volume of the room was really stressing her out. She just took deep breaths and hoped that the food would be served soon. She felt a slight nudge to her right, and looked over to see Battler.
“Hey, Maria. You doing okay?”
“Y-Yeah. It’s just loud.”
“Hey, don’t worry. I’ll help out with that.”
Battler stood up and walked to the other side of the table over to Rosa. He talked to her for a moment, but the greater conversation going on made it difficult to hear. Soon enough, he walked back and sat down.
“Just told your mom that your stomach’s feeling upset and you need to head to the bathroom for a bit. Feel free to take as long as you need to.”
Battler smiled at her, and Maria smiled back.
“Thank you, Battler.”
Maria excused herself and walked over to the bathroom. The conversation in the dining room grew quieter, and she finally got to stay in silence for a bit. She looked into the mirror, really taking in how old she’s gotten over the years. Just like Jessica said earlier, it was hard to believe she wasn’t a little kid anymore. Now she was just a kind of sad looking teenager. Eventually she had gotten tired of looking at herself, and decided to walk back to the dining room before the food came to the table. She got back just in time, as it was served a few minutes after she came back. The food was good, as was expected from the family conference, and the lack of conversation was also a plus.
The meal soon ended, and everyone at the table went off to do their own things. Most of the adults gathered into another room, presumably to talk more about business, Jessica and Shannon slipped away and headed outside, and the other cousins went to the guesthouse. Maria lingered behind, standing next to a window overlooking the island. She heard footsteps behind her, and turned around to see her mother.
“Battler told me your stomach was upset earlier, are you feeling better now?”
“Yeah, . I am.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that.”
“Yeah.”
It was hard for Maria to talk to her mother. It was even harder for her to look into her mother’s eyes. They just stood next to each other in cold silence.
“Have you talked with your cousins?”
“I have.”
“How are they?”
“Um... They’re good.”
“Why aren’t you with them now?”
“They’re busy.”
The silence grew colder.
“Well, why don’t you come talk to your aunts and uncles?”
“I’m fine.”
“You should. We came all the way here to see your family, Maria.”
“I kinda just want to be on my own right now.”
“You’ve hardly spoken to any of them, at least just say hi.”
“Please just let me be on my own. I'll talk to them later.”
“Maria, it’s not going to be long.”
“No, I know that I just really want to be on my own.”
“You’re nearly an adult, you need to do things you don’t want to do sometimes.”
“Please I just want to go lay down.”
“You’re not a child anymore, Maria!”
Rosa’s voice was raised, and so was her hand. Instinctively, Maria shielded her head and tensed up.
“I’m sorry...”
Maria’s body started to quiver as she grasped her hair tightly.
“I’m sorry...”
Rosa, slowly put her hand down and stood silent for a few moments.
“I’ll be with the other adults. You can come with me if you’d like.”
She slowly walked away, leaving Maria with her head in her hands, muttering sorries over and over again under her breath.
Maria walked alone to the guesthouse. Without changing her clothes, she laid down in her bed and stared up at the ceiling. Nobody else was there, so everything was silent. That silence had calmed her earlier, but now it felt oppressive, almost like she was drowning in nothingness. She wanted to cry, but right now, it was just nothingness. With nothing else to do, she just curled up in bed, closed her eyes, and wished to just fall asleep. As she laid there, eyes shut tight, something escaped from her lips.
“Uu...”