Kaji Moeko: Origins
He was always such a nice boy.
We met when we were both very young, him being only a year older than me. We were the best of friends, hanging out at each others' houses and every day at school. I started to fall for him too. I didn't know why, or could really explain it to you, but every time he would smile at me or even look at me with those bright orange eyes... I could feel a strange, anxious feeling well up in my stomach, and my voice would start to crack. When he pointed out why I was acting so weird around him, I would just tell him that I was sick... It would work sometimes, but... when he showed his worry for me, or placed his hand on my forehead... I would lose it.
Haha, you could indeed say that I was in love with him... My childhood friend.
...
That all changed when we did, though.
When this innocent smile, this innocent face...
...Turned into something I couldn't stand to look at...
The day was bright and hot, despite it being in the middle of winter. A rare occasion for the area that Kala and Kaji lived in. But, school was in session, and the teenagers of that quaint little town started to flood into the high school for yet another day of the Winter Quarter. Kala walked slowly to the front entrance of the school building, her gaze kept on the ground and her hands holding the straps of her backpack. This was a normal routine for her, to not make eye contact with any of her class mates. No, she never was courageous enough to do such a thing. The only time she could really look at someone new, was when she was in the comforting company of her already-familiar friend circle.
Which included Kaji Moeko.
As Kala walked through the open doorways of the building, she was quickly greeted by none other than the teen himself. A small gasp escaped her mouth as she paused right in front of him, her line of vision stuck on his lower torso area.
"Hey Kala!" His voice chimed, causing the female to finally look up at him.
The tall male had a soft complexion to him, even if he had some acne scattered near his temples and upper forehead. His bright orange eyes seemingly glimmered in the sun, especially at the angle in which Kala was standing. His smile captured her attention most of all though, his grin wide as ever and giving off that familiar, warming sensation that could make any person fall in love. As Kala stared at him for a long while, his grin slowly lowered, but kept the positivity. With a curious tilt of his head and his eyes shifting to that of slight concern, he addressed Kala.
"Yo... What's the matter? You seem kinda off."
"H-Huh?" Kala stuttered, blinking in surprise and leaning back from the sudden realization. Instantly, her face started to flush with a warm red, and she quickly averted her eyes from his. "A-Ah, sorry... I just didn't get enough sleep last night." She said, with a seriousness.
Kaji wasn't convinced though, and with a small pout, he reached over and touched her forehead with his hand, causing the female to instantly tense up at feeling his skin against hers.
"You're not getting sick on me, are you?" He asked, with a little twinge of his usual teasing in his tone.
Kala then started to pout as well, flicking his hand off of her forehead with a wave of her arm. "Of course I'm not, dummy. I'm not THAT stupid." She countered, her own hint of tease in her tone.
Kaji let out a small chuckle and his warm smile returned. "My my, what a little trooper you are~." He purred as he crossed his arms a bit.
Instantly, the female tensed up once again, and her face only became redder. "Don't use that tone of voice with me!!" She said, completely flustered.
But Kaji only smirked as his eyes narrowed with a sadistic glimmer, and he poked her on the cheek gently. "Why not~? You're so cute when you're embarrassed~." He then leaned down a bit to be at face level with her, his sharp, orange eyes piercing into hers.
With a low growl, Kala whirled her head away and started to walk down the hallways, irritation in her step. Kaji blinked a bit in slight surprise and followed after her with slight confusion. "Kala?? What's the matter? Hey..." He grabbed her by the shoulder, but they didn't stop walking. "I'm sorry, okay? It's just funny to me wh-"
"Well, it's not funny to me. So stop it." She said, all of the seriousness in her tone as she kept eye contact away from him.
Kaji clicked his tongue lightly and rolled his eyes. "Kala, you're not normally like this. Tell me what's wrong." He said, his grip tightening on her shoulder as they paused near one of the classrooms.
At that, she twirled around and faced him, staring him dead in the eye and even causing him to lightly flinch at the look.
"Don't you have something better to do besides tease me? Like, I don't know, collect rocks? Don't you want to be a Geologist?" She replied, averting the situation with a snarky remark.
The male figured that it wouldn't be best to argue right before classes, so he only curled a smile over his lips, putting his hand on her head and ruffling her hair lightly. Kala hissed lightly and held her head, fixing her hair as he removed his hand. "You know I'll still see you at lunch. Ciao!" Kaji chuckled, waving lightly just as the bell had rung. He then turned and ran off down the hall, greeting his other friends quickly, giving high fives to some of the teachers, and being yelled at by the principal for running in the halls.
Kala just stayed by one of the classroom entrances, watching him run off and turn a corner at the end of the corridor. She released a very small, but appreciative sigh, before shaking her head with her own smile and entering the classroom.
Ash. Smoke. Fire. Kerosene.
Everything had clouded and blurred the newly-formed Chimera's vision, almost to the point of blindness. Smoke and ash seeped into her fresh lungs, and the smell of lingering kerosene that was being consumed in the recent flames, was pouring into her senses. Her weak, but bright blue eyes started to reveal themselves in the waves of heat nearby, and as she started to remember... to flash back to her transformation... All she could remember were her screams, and the sense of being cut open right on the very table she woke up on. However, as the bright lights of the flames started to connect her vision with her train of thought, the instinct to survive started to kick in, and her able, but weak human body started to slide off the table. Holding the side of her body, Kala started to move towards the flames ahead, her steps unbalanced and without rhythm. She leaned to one side in order to steer herself from the biting heat of the fire, but as she spotted the light of the outside world ahead, the feeling of freedom welled within her. Anxious and yearning for a taste, she quickened her unsteady pace and reached her other hand out, almost hoping for someone to pull her out of the heated Hell.
What she didn't expect though, was to see a tall figure forming in the light of the doorway. Its silhouette caused her to slowly come to a stop and stare as if it were some sort of angel. The position of the sun seemed perfect for the figure, giving it a sort of glowing aura, even if the heat waves from the flames nearby seemed to distort it. However, as the figure turned its head slowly around, a pair of flame-orange eyes met with her own blue eyes, causing every feeling in her body to go numb. Her heart thudded loudly in her chest with an unknown pain, and as she painfully grasped at her chest and leaned forwards, an all-too-familiar voice started to speak.
"Kala..."
A stuttered gasp escaped from her lips, and she quickly raised her head to look at the Man of Sparks. Her eyes narrowed out of a clenching fear in her chest, and as she even strained to gulp in terror, Kaji started to fully turn himself around to face her. Burn marks and wounds decorated his whole torso, dripping some kind of bright orange liquid onto the floor. Kala had no words for the moment, only small whimpers of horror as she stared at her childhood friend's body. The next thing he said though, didn't match the sorrow or anxious despair he had expressed when he said her name.
"I... destroyed it... I destroyed him.... My grandfather... is dead."
This time, the beast's voice sounded almost pleasured by this fact, that sadistic twinge becoming more prominent in his tone. Kala's breath hitched in her throat, and as her eyes wandered, though unintentionally, in the carnage that he had created, something absolutely gut-wrenching caught her attention. Laid out on the floor besides Kaji's feet was what looked like a horribly burned arm. The skin was blackened, and the red color of dried blood was underneath the cracks of the arm's crisp flesh. It still sizzled as the blood started to boil from the recent heat, and definitely, no extent of medicine would be able to save the poor soul now.
Kala took a slow step backwards, catching that sadism in her friend's voice and sending a surge of terror down her spine. This wasn't like him... to say such things. Even the look in his eye... and that malicious grin... It all seemed so familiar, but so different at the same time. No words could describe the look he was giving her now though, all Kala knew was that the instinct to survive started to beat strongly in her chest, causing more pain to well in her heart. The feeling of the most important organ in her body starting to rip apart was excruciating, and as the Man of Sparks took a single step towards her, that was enough to let her muscles erupt into a sprint. The smoke and ash in the air created the tears that flicked off the sides of her eyes as she whirled around to run away, and without even taking a glimpse backwards at her friend, she knew that she would never want to see that look ever... again.
The last thing she heard, was the echoing laughter of the beast.
"Run while you can..... Chimera."