Story: Himeko and Chikane: Their Story (chapter 3)

Authors: mandygirl78

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Chapter 3

Title: Perspective

As the blue haired girl walked out of the alley, Himeko followed, not quite sure if she felt safe on her own yet, the memories of what could have happened were still fresh in her mind. Well that and her sudden urge to get to know the stranger in front of her for reasons she couldn't explain.

Chikane was aware that she was being followed and knew exactly who it was. At first, she chose to ignore it. Who knows, maybe it was just a coincidence, but the farther she walked, the more she began to doubt it. Pretending the girl wasn't there would have been easier if the blonde was more...ignorable. For some reason her presence stuck out more than most. Regardless of the reason, Chikane found that she was quickly losing her patience.

"Will you stop following me, girl?" She said with a harsh tone.

The blue haired beauty's word stung more than Himeko would like to admit but she understood. To bluntly put it, she took it as if she wasn't good enough to be around her.

"S-sorry, thanks anyways," she said meekly.

The smaller girl's emotions played on her face like lights on the fourth of July. Her sadness and perhaps even a small trace of fear could easily be read by any bystander that bothered to look, let alone the girl standing right beside her. Oddly enough, the look on the fragile blonde's face pulled at Chikane heartstrings in a way she figured was best to examine later but for now she had to something about look.

"Never mind, let me take you back to your place so that no one can hurt you again. Where do you stay?"

"Actually take me to Neko-chan's tent; I was supposed to help her out with a few things."

"Neko-chan, eh? Is that crazy cat-woman your friend?"

"Yes she is, why do you say she's crazy?"

"She runs a circus full of cats, she's always cheerful, she thinks she rules the park, what else can I say about her to prove to you that she's crazy?"

Himeko was not the debating type, thinking that she's always wrong so it was useless to debate. Thus she went along with Chikane and all she said was "oh ok."

After that they walked in silence. Well up until the point that it began to much for Himeko to bare. So in a last ditch effort to start up some sort of conversation, she asked the taller girl a question, though she already knew the answer to it.

"Are you from Mahoroba?"

"Yes, you could probably tell from my accent. I'm guessing from your accent that you're also from there?"

"Yes I am. How long have you been here?"

"Long enough to know better than to go to some dark alley without carrying at least some sort of weapon, besides why did you run away from your home? You don't seem to be the type to run away, it must be something very serious."

Himeko hung her head down low and said softly. "Yes it was...."

"Never mind, you don't have to tell me because I really don't care," she said rather coldly.

Himeko couldn't understand why she was being so mean, if she truly didn't care then why would she bring it up in the first place. It was possible that perhaps there was something on the other girls mind. Or more likely, as the smaller girl saw it, Chikane could just simply be annoyed by Himeko's very presence. Whatever the case, she didn't dare to ask.

As soon as they got to Nekoko's place, the small cat girl spotted them and came up to Himeko.

"Where were you? I was a bit worried since I know it doesn't take that long to collect some cans."

But before Himeko uttered a word Chikane spoke up.

"Your intelligent friend here was all alone in the alley collecting cans when she had a rendezvous with the Snake clan."

Nekoko's eyes jumped when she heard that as Chikane continued.

"They were about to rape her before I saved her." Chikane said as she showed her swollen right hand to Nekoko. Nekoko gulped after she heard that. She knew about the Snake clan and how dangerous they were but she never thought that they would resort to raping. Also she wasn't pleased that it was Chikane of all people that saved Himeko, a woman who always seems to pluck her last nerve, but she didn't let her animosity with the woman get in the way of thanking her.

"Thank you very much Chikane-san."

"No problem lion tamer."

"Will you stop calling me that Chikane!" Nekoko hissed angrily. Himeko didn't see anything wrong with the name but her feline friend clearly saw it as an insult.

Chikane just chuckled and said "Why should I? You have your little rinky-dink circus with smelly cats doing stupid little tricks in front of a group of apathetic people."

Nekoko frowned and told her "Well at least I'm doing something besides brooding myself to death all day. Anyways I have trained my "smelly" cats a new "stupid" trick - to attack bitchy blue-haired bimbos, nya!"

Chikane gritted her teeth and pulled out her Tanto then stated to the tiny feline brat in a threatening tone "Go ahead and sic your polecats on me, see if I don't skin them all."

One thing that Chikane hadn't kept in mind was that Nekoko was part cat and being part cat meant that she had very sharp claws. Himeko saw her feline friend's hands were ready for action. Sensing that a fight was about to occur, she stepped in quickly before anything serious happened.

"OK, let's not start a fight here, there really is no need to be fighting. I think you two should apologize to each other."

When the two girls heard that they looked at Himeko like she had grown a third head. At first, due to their pride, neither said a word let alone look at each other but then Nekoko spoke.

"Look I apologize for being rude, Chikane-san." Nekoko said while looking at her face directly.

Chikane, then returned the stare and said "You should be sorry."

Then she walked away but not before giving the circus ringleader one last cold stare. It infuriated Nekoko even more. Turning to Himeko, the cat girl said. "See what I mean. She's ungrateful, self-centered, aloof, and arrogant."

Himeko was still surprised by how Chikane acted just then. Unlike Nekoko, she wasn't mad at the blue eyed girl, instead she was twice as concerned as she was before.

"Why is she so cold and mean Neko-chan? I was being nice to her and you apologized to her."

"I don't know Hime-chan. She has some serious problems, she always carrying a chip on her shoulder. As you can tell I can't stand her one bit."

"I think she is hurting inside." Himeko said sadly.

"She probably is but after what she just did, I couldn't care less. However she was right about one thing, you should never go into those alleys by yourself. I can handle myself. I'm a better fighter than I appear to be, you know."

"I didn't know any better, I'm sorry." The blonde said with her head hanging down and a tear traveled down her cheek.

"Ah don't feel so bad about it Hime-chan, you just didn't know," Nekoko assured her. "In fact I'll join you in collecting cans for a few days. I think I can put a few days off on my performance and help you out. The cats need a break anyway, so I guess now would be a good time."

Himeko had a big smile on her face when she said that. She was surprised that her busy feline friend would go out of her way to help her out. There weren't many people in her life that she could recall ever doing that for her.

"You really are going to join me?" The petite girl asked hopfully.

"I sure am."

"Arigato! Arigato!" Himeko said and bowed to Nekoko in respect, when suddenly she remembered something.

"Oh Neko-chan guess what I found in the alley today, a good camera!" She said excitedly.

"That's great Hime-chan, nya! Now you can take some beautiful pictures."

"I would but I noticed that the flash isn't working. Hopefully it's because of batteries. I really don't want to get rid of a good camera like this."

She showed the camera to Nekoko and she was amazed. It wasn't that she knew anything about photography because she didn't, but she saw how sophisticated the camera looked and assumed it was of good quality.

"Wow, is it like one of those that you can save on your computer or something like that?"

"No it isn't. It doesn't have any electrical components besides the batteries for the flash."

"Why don't you get some batteries for it right now?"

"But I don't have any money for any batteries. I didn't get the chance to take the cans to the recycling center. Besides, don't I have to do those drawings for you?"

"Don't worry about the drawings; you can do them later on tonight. Also here is some money to get you some batteries and some rolls of film."

Nekoko handed the yen to Himeko and a big smile lit up her face.

"Arigatou gozaimasu Neko-chan!"

"No problem, now go get those batteries and those rolls!"

The blonde girl nodded cheerfully.

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One of the benefits of living in the Shinjuku ward was that if you need anything it was nearby, so Himeko didn't have to go far to get batteries for her camera. She found a photo store and got three rolls of films along with the batteries. After that she went back to the park. By then it was evening and the sun was about to set so the cheerful photographer thought it would be perfect to take some pictures of the park's scenery.

Her first pictures were the sun setting over the pond. She really liked the way the sun reflected from the pond. Then she took some pictures of the trees in the park. She thought how beautiful the trees looked with the evening light as the background. Finally she took some pictures of the park's statues and landscapes but she didn't take as many of it because of the fading sunlight.

By the time she was done she already had went through a complete roll of film and was about halfway through the second. The picture taking helped her take her mind off of the traumatic event that happened earlier, which she needed so badly. She was going to head back to the tent when Nekoko came up to her.

"There you are Himeko, I was scared that something happened to you again! I haven't seen you for a while so I decided to go looking for you. Thank God I did."

"I'm so sorry Neko-chan, it's just that as soon as I got back from the photo store I saw how beautiful the park looked with the sun setting, I just had to take a few photos."

"That's nice and all but especially with what just happened you should be concerned about being out here all by yourself at night." Nekoko stated.

"You're right Neko-chan, I'm sorry." Himeko said sadly.

"Look, let's get back before something happen to the both of us. Besides, you have some drawings to take care of." Nekoko said.

"I haven't forgotten about it."

So they went back to the tent without any incident.

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In the tent Nekoko was training some of the kittens, preparing them for her circus. Himeko was doing some of the drawings on cardboard pieces using crayons that Nekoko had. She found out through trial and error that crayons work better on cardboard than pencil.

In between Nekoko's training breaks, Himeko would show the drawings to her. For the most part she approved of the girl's artwork.

"Hey Neko-chan, check out this one."

The feline came over and looked at the picture. It was a small cute lion jumping over a flaming hoop with Nekoko directing it. At first the cat girl glared at it with a frown, which Himeko saw immediately. Just as she was about to apologize, Nekoko realized that it was just a joke. She laughed and soon Himeko joined in to.

"So I see that you have me as a lion tamer, nya?" Nekoko said playfully.

"Yep!" Was all that Himeko said.

They just continued laughing and enjoying each other's company for some time until something unexpected happen. First Nekoko started to tremble then she started to hold her head like she was in pain. Then she began to scream. The recent events were shocking to Himeko. So much so that she didn't know what to do. Her brain just wouldn't react. Nekoko's knees giving out beneath her eventually snapped her frightened friend into gear.

While the pain and screaming was going on she was having flashbacks of her past.

"Oh my God, I need to get you some help!" Himeko panicked.

Nekoko heard her through all her screaming and told her "I don't need any help! Don't get me any help, nyyyyyaaaaaaahhhhh!"

Himeko didn't know what to do. She saw her friend was in pain but Nekoko also pleaded her not to get any help. Finally the frightened girl decided to get some help but before she could leave, Nekoko seemed to recover from whatever it was that was causing her so much pain.

"Himeko, I'm fine now. I don't need any help." She tried to convince Himeko even though her head still had some of the lingering pain left.

"Are you really sure?" Himeko said with tears rolling down her eyes.

"Yes, it happens every once in a while." Nekoko said.

"But why?" Himeko said with concern as she looked into the other's eyes. Nekoko stared back; it was her turn to explain.

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