As she read through the book, completely engrossed, a bird landed on her shoulder. Shooing it of, she looked around her, and gasped "What am I doing on the roof?!"
Her first instinct was to panic. Her immediate second instinct was that being panicky really didn't do much to solve the problem of how she got on the roof. While the two instincts fought each other, another problem presented itself, from the front gate.
"I'm home!" came a cheery announcement. The voice was familiar, but she couldn't place it... until she saw a very familiar person running in through the entrance. It's a curious phenomenon, but nobody recognizes their own voice when it comes from an external source. A recording always sounds as if it was an entirely different person speaking, even when one knows that is not the case. The effect is even more disconcerting when you hear it coming from a real, living person.
Taking care not to fall off, Akane watched as she entered the house, and ran out to the dojo.
So she was stuck in the past. Maybe half an hour ago, she guessed? What should she do now? It wasn't as if she couldn't get down from the roof... But then, she might run into herself, and that would be just awkward. What would she even say to herself? And besides which, wasn't talking to oneself a sign of madness?
"Never mind that just now," she thought. That wasn't important. What was important was just what the heck she did now. An annoyed glance at the culprit, sitting in her lap as she in turn sat on the roof, made her feel slightly annoyed at the inanimate object.
If not for the fact it lacked a mouth, she'd swear it was grinning malevolently at her.
There were two choices available to her at this particular moment. Either wait for the half hour to pass, and for her future self to wind up on the roof before heading back to her room... Or try to use the book to get back to where and when she should be. It was a difficult choice. Either waste half an hour of her life, or take a chance with an all too eager magic book.
Shaking her head, she realised that it really wasn't all that difficult a choice at all. Of course, just to try and tempt her, a breeze blew the book's pages open at random. "Well, it's not like you have anything else to do right now," an evil part of her subconscious muttered while the rest tried desperately to drown it out. Unfortunately, the idea stuck, and she began to read. Just to be on the safe side, she occasionally glanced at her surroundings to make sure they weren't changing on her while she wasn't paying attention, and made very certain to not accidentally read any of the enchanted words out loud. Just in case.
At least... she did this at first. The more she read, the more difficult it became to tear away. The book's non-existent grin became all that much wider, as it silently returned her to her room, just seconds before a knock on Akane's door.
"Come in," she replied without thinking. The door opened slightly, and Kasumi poked her head inside.
"There you are, Akane. I've been looking all over for you. Breakfast is ready, come on."
The door closed before Akane realised what had just happened. She scowled at the book, decided it was obviously taunting her, and angrily threw it in the top drawer of her desk. Even in as angry a state of mind she was in, she couldn't just throw out a gift from her eldest sister.
After that incident, she avoided the drawer the book was in. But this became impossible when-
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(Posted Sat, 27 Sep 2008 06:26)
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