KOI Kiss: Tragic Tales
Disclaimer: Shinshoku Kiss and its characters belong to Kazuko Higashiyama.
Story: Two more dolls. That was what he wanted. Instead, in exchange for her very existence, Kotoko Kashiwagi becomes nonexistent to all but Yuta and the others of Fool Rod. Where is she and what happened to her? In fact…what deal did she make?
Set after the first volume.
Spoilers: For the first volume, and then it’s all speculation and fun from me.
Warnings: Plenty. So beware.
Pairings: Yuta/Kotoko, some Kotoko/others.
KOI Kiss
Chapter One: Tragic Tales
“In exchange, will you willingly give yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Then it is done.”
Yuta Kujyo scowled, looking at his latest piece of work. The doll seemed lifeless in his hand and he couldn’t seem to bring it to life like he usually did.
“Where’s that brat?”
“Oh, don’t be so harsh on Kotoko,” Mayumi admonished. Eiichiro nodded fervently next to her.
The Todoroki’s face faulted at Yuta’s bland expression. Takuto sighed in response to his older brother’s blasé attitude, but didn’t say anything.
“We should just drag her from her home,” Yuta announced, getting up from his chair and deciding that was a good idea. “And for not coming I should turn her hair white for the whole day,” he muttered under his breath.
Remembering her address from the contact cards he had stolen the first time he met her, Yuta led them to a normal, small two-story house. Knocking, Yuta waited for someone to answer the door and hoped it was Kotoko so he could threaten her again or something like that.
Instead, a middle-aged woman opened the door and looked questioningly at them. There was a definite likeness there that showed she was the mother of Kotoko.
“Is Kotoko Kashiwagi here?” Yuta put on a smile.
However, Kotoko’s supposed ‘mother’ only looked confused.
“I’m sorry. There’s no one of the name Kotoko living here. This is the Kashiwagi family, but we don’t know of any Kotoko,” she smiled apologetically at them and closed the door gently in their faces.
This time even Mayumi sighed in annoyance, “That girl! She’s probably pulling a prank on us. Today’s a school day, right? Maybe she hid out at school so we wouldn’t catch her.”
Agreeing to search her high school, they moodily walked to the school and found it strange that it was empty.
“Hey you! Do you know a girl named Kotoko Kashiwagi?” Eiichiro yelled at a group of schoolgirls walking out of a building.
They stared at him in surprise, but quickly answered their heads in a no. Deciding it was worthless to ask students, they went to the library to check out the student information book.
“Nothing. Her name’s not even listed!”
“That’s impossible,” Yuta frowned and took the book from Eiichiro. He scanned it himself and didn’t see Kotoko’s name anywhere.
“But how can that be?”
“Eikyuu no Sonzai,” a girl’s voice interrupted them. They looked to see a girl reading intently at a table slightly close to them.
“What was that?” Mayumi narrowed her eyes.
The girl laid her book down onto the table and turned to look at them. Smiling blankly, she shrugged and repeated what she said.
“Eikyuu no Sonzai.”
“We heard you. What is that?” Mayumi was starting to get into a bad mood.
The girl giggled, “Eternal Existence. The place of happenstance. You wouldn’t, by chance, have any secrets someone can uncover?”
Yuta and Takuto paled, but no one spoke up. The girl shrugged, “You’re going around asking for Kotoko-chan, right?”
“You know her?” Eiichiro mirrored his wife’s stance.
“Know her? Other than you four, I’m the only one. Kotoko Kashiwagi’s existence has been erased completely from this plane. You will only find her in Eikyuu.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Mayumi growled, frustrated. Her earlier annoyance was replaced again with worry.
The girl smiled sadly, “Other than your memories, Kotoko-chan doesn’t exist.”
She placed the book under her arm and walked away. Shocked, it took them a moment before they realized they should follow her. When they reached the outside, the sun was setting and the colors of muted oranges and purples scattered the sky.
The girl they chased after stood in the middle of the school grounds, staring into the sunset skies.
“Kotoko-chan loved sunset.”
She took out a necklace from underneath her school uniform and let it dangle before her. The image of a silver key staff with a small crystal teardrop on top made up the ornament.
She did nothing else but watch it, until wind stirred and slowly Japanese rice paper doors appeared and opened. On the other side, marble buildings and people were mixed in normal busy living. It was strange to see the mirror world.
“Kotoko-chan, I’m coming,” the girl whispered sadly. She stepped through and without another thought the rest of them followed.
The place they entered was teaming with life, whereas the place they had left seemed lifeless. They had just left the night and entered this bright day, people ready to get started.
“Where’s the school?” the girl they followed asked someone passing by.
“Eien Academy is just right up ahead. We’re just on the outskirts of the Academy,” the passerby informed them.
“Do you know if Kotoko-chan is studying there?”
“Kotoko-sama is probably in class right now. You can try to talk to her. She always makes time for her fellow students. Though I think Rokujou-sensei might be with her.”
“Kotoko-chan,” the girl insisted, “might want to see me. I have to see her as soon as possible.”
“Like I said, that way,” the passerby frowned, muttering about arrogant girls.
The girl ignored him and headed in the direction pointed out, leaving the group to follow after her.
“Hey, what’s your name anyway?” Yuta demnded.
“Asahi…Asahi Kashiwagi. Kotoko’s my sister.”
Before they could ask anything else, the very girl all of them had been searching for walked out of the building they were standing a little ways away from.
Kotoko looked different. Her black hair was down, instead of the ‘clione’ style that Mayumi was fond of calling it. Her cobalt eyes were soft, but not expressive. Her mouth was set in a faint smile for those around her, different from Kotoko’s usual happy smile. This smile was for reassurance and gentleness, not quite the happy smile Kotoko gave even when they were softened.
“Toko-nee?” Asahi sniffled.
Kotoko looked over to them surprised. For a moment, they thought she would smile brightly at them and tell them she was sorry she hadn’t met them earlier that day, yesterday, or whatever day it was.
No, this Kotoko gave them that smile and then turned away. A man appeared next to her and slipped a hand into hers, glancing back curiously at them. Then he gave them a shark-like smile that said he knew more than any of them.
“Isn’t Kotoko-sempai so nice?” a girl next to them talked excitedly to her companion.
“Hai! Today, she helped me finish my report. It was due after that study period too!”
“I wish I was like her,” the first girl said wistfully.
“I wish I could have her,” the other girl said in the same tone.
“Wouldn’t the both of you just wish to be her?” Mayumi couldn’t help but cut in, feeling slightly lost and needing something to focus on.
“Be Kotoko-sama?” the first girl said horrified. “No way! A world without her is a horrible world. People can be like her, but it’ll never be the same.”
The second girl nodded in agreement.
“Oh look! Class is going to start up again. We better get going, Haruka,” the first girl looked at her watch.
“Okay, Momo.”
The girls left them and it was the same group again.
“I want my Toko-nee,” Asahi almost wailed out.
“This…is so weird,” Eiichiro mumbled.
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“I don’t get it. Why doesn’t she talk to us?” Mayumi complained, staring at Kotoko entertaining a group of girls with a story that they all laughed at. Kotoko was still acting weird, her personality softened so much.
“How’d you know about this place anyway?” Yuta directed his question to Asahi, taking out a cigarette and lighting it.
“A man came to me. He said my Pandora Box was waiting to be open, and that Kotoko will come back to me,” Asahi said simply.
Yuta frowned but refused to comment any further.
“He also said that Kotoko made a devil’s deal. Mentioned something about a fool, dolls, and Pandora’s Box was said a lot,” Asahi furrowed her eyebrows.
Yuta and Takuto looked at each other.
Mayumi caught the exchange, “You two know something! Spill it.”
Yuta ignored her and glared at Asahi, “What else did he say?”
“Um, he quoted something about ‘Two dolls for one existence.’ And then he laughed and quoted something else, ‘In exchange, will you willingly give yourself?’ and then I heard Toko-nee’s voice coming from his mouth! ‘Yes.’ He finished by saying, ‘Then it is done.’ He told me she was in Eikyuu no Sonzai, and when I returned home no one could remember her. I was starting to read a book on Eikyuu when you guys came. He even told me where to find the book and gave me this key, saying it would lead me back to her.”
Yuta flinched, “But how’d she find out about it?”
“Because I told her.”
Their heads snapped to the side where the voice was located at. To Yuta’s surprise, Nohara was in one of the school uniforms and was smiling sadly at them.
“What do you mean you told her?” Yuta angrily asked.
Nohara shook his head, “I saw her again in town, and I let it slip. She begged me to tell her and I did. She ended up researching all about it and…well, the Dante you told me about reached her.”
“Damn it, you shouldn’t have! What the hell are you doing here anyway?” Yuta stood up, ready to stride forward.
Nohara hesitated but then shrugged, “I saw it happening and I begged Dante to let me come with her. She remembers me, but everything of you has been erased from her memories.”
It wasn’t a possibility they had thought of. It wasn’t because they missed it, but because they had avoided that idea in their minds. Kotoko, their Kotoko, forget them?
Impossible.
They saw Kotoko walk up to Nohara and place a hand on his shoulder, “Nohara-san, could you take over my duties for today? Rokujou-sensei needs my help. Oh, who are they?”
Nohara looked uncomfortably at them, “Left to right, that’s Yuta, Takuto, Mayumi, and Eiichiro. I’m not familiar with the other girl, sempai.”
“I see. Well, minna-san, my name’s Kotoko. I’ll see you around,” her smile grated on their nerves.
“How’d she get like this?” Mayumi whispered in horrified awe.
Yuta glared, “Weren’t you listening?”
Nohara sighed, “No, actually, I don’t think you fully understand what’s going on either, Yuta.”
“Oh? And what’s that?” Yuta shifted his glare to him.
“Dante told Kotoko in plain talk of what this girl just explained, that Kotoko made the deal to willingly give up her existence for two dolls. Yuta, she gave herself up for you and Takuto,” Nohara said, watching as shock and anger flashed through Yuta’s eyes, a hint of pain in them. Takuto averted his eyes to the ground.
“That’s not all. Dante considered Kotoko’s soul worth more than the bargain so though she only bargained for your souls, Dante decided to cancel the contract for the two dolls that you owed as well. That means there’s no way you can retrieve her, she is irrevocably chained here through the bargain she made and the fact that so much was given up in exchange for her soul.”
“Just watch us!” Yuta exploded, dropping his cigarette to the ground and smothering it underneath his shoe. He sneered and turned, striding away angrily.
The others watched him, just as eyes with a gleam watched behind a window of the main building on the top floor.
Started 10/17/07 –Completed 10/27/07
Story: Two more dolls. That was what he wanted. Instead, in exchange for her very existence, Kotoko Kashiwagi becomes nonexistent to all but Yuta and the others of Fool Rod. Where is she and what happened to her? In fact…what deal did she make?
Set after the first volume.
Spoilers: For the first volume, and then it’s all speculation and fun from me.
Warnings: Plenty. So beware.
Pairings: Yuta/Kotoko, some Kotoko/others.
KOI Kiss
Chapter One: Tragic Tales
“In exchange, will you willingly give yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Then it is done.”
Yuta Kujyo scowled, looking at his latest piece of work. The doll seemed lifeless in his hand and he couldn’t seem to bring it to life like he usually did.
“Where’s that brat?”
“Oh, don’t be so harsh on Kotoko,” Mayumi admonished. Eiichiro nodded fervently next to her.
The Todoroki’s face faulted at Yuta’s bland expression. Takuto sighed in response to his older brother’s blasé attitude, but didn’t say anything.
“We should just drag her from her home,” Yuta announced, getting up from his chair and deciding that was a good idea. “And for not coming I should turn her hair white for the whole day,” he muttered under his breath.
Remembering her address from the contact cards he had stolen the first time he met her, Yuta led them to a normal, small two-story house. Knocking, Yuta waited for someone to answer the door and hoped it was Kotoko so he could threaten her again or something like that.
Instead, a middle-aged woman opened the door and looked questioningly at them. There was a definite likeness there that showed she was the mother of Kotoko.
“Is Kotoko Kashiwagi here?” Yuta put on a smile.
However, Kotoko’s supposed ‘mother’ only looked confused.
“I’m sorry. There’s no one of the name Kotoko living here. This is the Kashiwagi family, but we don’t know of any Kotoko,” she smiled apologetically at them and closed the door gently in their faces.
This time even Mayumi sighed in annoyance, “That girl! She’s probably pulling a prank on us. Today’s a school day, right? Maybe she hid out at school so we wouldn’t catch her.”
Agreeing to search her high school, they moodily walked to the school and found it strange that it was empty.
“Hey you! Do you know a girl named Kotoko Kashiwagi?” Eiichiro yelled at a group of schoolgirls walking out of a building.
They stared at him in surprise, but quickly answered their heads in a no. Deciding it was worthless to ask students, they went to the library to check out the student information book.
“Nothing. Her name’s not even listed!”
“That’s impossible,” Yuta frowned and took the book from Eiichiro. He scanned it himself and didn’t see Kotoko’s name anywhere.
“But how can that be?”
“Eikyuu no Sonzai,” a girl’s voice interrupted them. They looked to see a girl reading intently at a table slightly close to them.
“What was that?” Mayumi narrowed her eyes.
The girl laid her book down onto the table and turned to look at them. Smiling blankly, she shrugged and repeated what she said.
“Eikyuu no Sonzai.”
“We heard you. What is that?” Mayumi was starting to get into a bad mood.
The girl giggled, “Eternal Existence. The place of happenstance. You wouldn’t, by chance, have any secrets someone can uncover?”
Yuta and Takuto paled, but no one spoke up. The girl shrugged, “You’re going around asking for Kotoko-chan, right?”
“You know her?” Eiichiro mirrored his wife’s stance.
“Know her? Other than you four, I’m the only one. Kotoko Kashiwagi’s existence has been erased completely from this plane. You will only find her in Eikyuu.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Mayumi growled, frustrated. Her earlier annoyance was replaced again with worry.
The girl smiled sadly, “Other than your memories, Kotoko-chan doesn’t exist.”
She placed the book under her arm and walked away. Shocked, it took them a moment before they realized they should follow her. When they reached the outside, the sun was setting and the colors of muted oranges and purples scattered the sky.
The girl they chased after stood in the middle of the school grounds, staring into the sunset skies.
“Kotoko-chan loved sunset.”
She took out a necklace from underneath her school uniform and let it dangle before her. The image of a silver key staff with a small crystal teardrop on top made up the ornament.
She did nothing else but watch it, until wind stirred and slowly Japanese rice paper doors appeared and opened. On the other side, marble buildings and people were mixed in normal busy living. It was strange to see the mirror world.
“Kotoko-chan, I’m coming,” the girl whispered sadly. She stepped through and without another thought the rest of them followed.
The place they entered was teaming with life, whereas the place they had left seemed lifeless. They had just left the night and entered this bright day, people ready to get started.
“Where’s the school?” the girl they followed asked someone passing by.
“Eien Academy is just right up ahead. We’re just on the outskirts of the Academy,” the passerby informed them.
“Do you know if Kotoko-chan is studying there?”
“Kotoko-sama is probably in class right now. You can try to talk to her. She always makes time for her fellow students. Though I think Rokujou-sensei might be with her.”
“Kotoko-chan,” the girl insisted, “might want to see me. I have to see her as soon as possible.”
“Like I said, that way,” the passerby frowned, muttering about arrogant girls.
The girl ignored him and headed in the direction pointed out, leaving the group to follow after her.
“Hey, what’s your name anyway?” Yuta demnded.
“Asahi…Asahi Kashiwagi. Kotoko’s my sister.”
Before they could ask anything else, the very girl all of them had been searching for walked out of the building they were standing a little ways away from.
Kotoko looked different. Her black hair was down, instead of the ‘clione’ style that Mayumi was fond of calling it. Her cobalt eyes were soft, but not expressive. Her mouth was set in a faint smile for those around her, different from Kotoko’s usual happy smile. This smile was for reassurance and gentleness, not quite the happy smile Kotoko gave even when they were softened.
“Toko-nee?” Asahi sniffled.
Kotoko looked over to them surprised. For a moment, they thought she would smile brightly at them and tell them she was sorry she hadn’t met them earlier that day, yesterday, or whatever day it was.
No, this Kotoko gave them that smile and then turned away. A man appeared next to her and slipped a hand into hers, glancing back curiously at them. Then he gave them a shark-like smile that said he knew more than any of them.
“Isn’t Kotoko-sempai so nice?” a girl next to them talked excitedly to her companion.
“Hai! Today, she helped me finish my report. It was due after that study period too!”
“I wish I was like her,” the first girl said wistfully.
“I wish I could have her,” the other girl said in the same tone.
“Wouldn’t the both of you just wish to be her?” Mayumi couldn’t help but cut in, feeling slightly lost and needing something to focus on.
“Be Kotoko-sama?” the first girl said horrified. “No way! A world without her is a horrible world. People can be like her, but it’ll never be the same.”
The second girl nodded in agreement.
“Oh look! Class is going to start up again. We better get going, Haruka,” the first girl looked at her watch.
“Okay, Momo.”
The girls left them and it was the same group again.
“I want my Toko-nee,” Asahi almost wailed out.
“This…is so weird,” Eiichiro mumbled.
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“I don’t get it. Why doesn’t she talk to us?” Mayumi complained, staring at Kotoko entertaining a group of girls with a story that they all laughed at. Kotoko was still acting weird, her personality softened so much.
“How’d you know about this place anyway?” Yuta directed his question to Asahi, taking out a cigarette and lighting it.
“A man came to me. He said my Pandora Box was waiting to be open, and that Kotoko will come back to me,” Asahi said simply.
Yuta frowned but refused to comment any further.
“He also said that Kotoko made a devil’s deal. Mentioned something about a fool, dolls, and Pandora’s Box was said a lot,” Asahi furrowed her eyebrows.
Yuta and Takuto looked at each other.
Mayumi caught the exchange, “You two know something! Spill it.”
Yuta ignored her and glared at Asahi, “What else did he say?”
“Um, he quoted something about ‘Two dolls for one existence.’ And then he laughed and quoted something else, ‘In exchange, will you willingly give yourself?’ and then I heard Toko-nee’s voice coming from his mouth! ‘Yes.’ He finished by saying, ‘Then it is done.’ He told me she was in Eikyuu no Sonzai, and when I returned home no one could remember her. I was starting to read a book on Eikyuu when you guys came. He even told me where to find the book and gave me this key, saying it would lead me back to her.”
Yuta flinched, “But how’d she find out about it?”
“Because I told her.”
Their heads snapped to the side where the voice was located at. To Yuta’s surprise, Nohara was in one of the school uniforms and was smiling sadly at them.
“What do you mean you told her?” Yuta angrily asked.
Nohara shook his head, “I saw her again in town, and I let it slip. She begged me to tell her and I did. She ended up researching all about it and…well, the Dante you told me about reached her.”
“Damn it, you shouldn’t have! What the hell are you doing here anyway?” Yuta stood up, ready to stride forward.
Nohara hesitated but then shrugged, “I saw it happening and I begged Dante to let me come with her. She remembers me, but everything of you has been erased from her memories.”
It wasn’t a possibility they had thought of. It wasn’t because they missed it, but because they had avoided that idea in their minds. Kotoko, their Kotoko, forget them?
Impossible.
They saw Kotoko walk up to Nohara and place a hand on his shoulder, “Nohara-san, could you take over my duties for today? Rokujou-sensei needs my help. Oh, who are they?”
Nohara looked uncomfortably at them, “Left to right, that’s Yuta, Takuto, Mayumi, and Eiichiro. I’m not familiar with the other girl, sempai.”
“I see. Well, minna-san, my name’s Kotoko. I’ll see you around,” her smile grated on their nerves.
“How’d she get like this?” Mayumi whispered in horrified awe.
Yuta glared, “Weren’t you listening?”
Nohara sighed, “No, actually, I don’t think you fully understand what’s going on either, Yuta.”
“Oh? And what’s that?” Yuta shifted his glare to him.
“Dante told Kotoko in plain talk of what this girl just explained, that Kotoko made the deal to willingly give up her existence for two dolls. Yuta, she gave herself up for you and Takuto,” Nohara said, watching as shock and anger flashed through Yuta’s eyes, a hint of pain in them. Takuto averted his eyes to the ground.
“That’s not all. Dante considered Kotoko’s soul worth more than the bargain so though she only bargained for your souls, Dante decided to cancel the contract for the two dolls that you owed as well. That means there’s no way you can retrieve her, she is irrevocably chained here through the bargain she made and the fact that so much was given up in exchange for her soul.”
“Just watch us!” Yuta exploded, dropping his cigarette to the ground and smothering it underneath his shoe. He sneered and turned, striding away angrily.
The others watched him, just as eyes with a gleam watched behind a window of the main building on the top floor.
Started 10/17/07 –Completed 10/27/07