Jump 9: Tsukihime - Prologue

            I’ve never been one to really keep a journal, but something about those strange dreams I’ve always had is prompting me to start.  It’s pretty strange for a seventeen-year-old to start writing in a journal on a whim but as long as nobody finds out I won’t be too embarrassed about it.

         

   Seems like someone’s skipping out on work again.  While we don’t live in the biggest place you still need to do your job.  As punishment you’re going to record what Leo and I say to you while you’re writing in that thing.  Make sure you finish and get to cleaning.  With your parents gone it should be even easier for you to clean since you’re living here with me.  Don’t take it for granted or I’ll increase your workload.

            I understand Master Karen.  My sincerest apologies.

            Just hurry up okay?  We’ve got to do this week’s shopping soon too.

            With my employer gone I can continue writing in peace.  She’ll probably tell Leo judging by what she said so I expect more interruptions.  Might as well talk about them while I’m on this line of thought.  Karen is my master, not the kind that teaches Kung-Fu.  I’ve been her butler for as long as I can remember.  Neither she nor my parents ever feel like explaining why though.  She’s pretty lenient with me most of the time, overlooking some of my mistakes and giving me time for school.  Despite the fact that I call her “Master” she feels like an older sister most of the time. 

            Leo is an old friend of mine that likes to drift around.  I swear he must have some incredible genes because he’s looked 22 since I met him as a kid after my accident.  It felt like we were old friends the first time we met, and if it wasn’t for him I… I’ll get to that.  He showed me some pretty cool things he could do, and somehow knew I could do things that weren’t normal.  I never told my parents or Karen what I’m capable of and it’s been our secret.  Leo’s even helped me train to keep my abilities under control.  If I hadn’t met him who knows what would have happened as I was growing up.  When the strange dreams of fantastical places, people and events started happening he even deduced they were related.  I didn’t notice at first, but it was like I was remembering more than dreaming.  Doesn’t really make too much sense so I try not to think about it too much.

            Back to the incident, it happened ten years ago.  The details are a bit fuzzy, but I think I was hit by a car.  It seemed like I was dead on impact from what Karen told me after I recovered.  Nevertheless I was brought to the hospital and they found the faintest pulse within me.  It was a miracle of science that I survived according to the nurses and the doctor that operated on me.  It even made the headlines of the paper I found out when I was finally released since my parents kept a copy.  I was in a coma for a couple days, but something wasn’t right.  When I awoke the hospital staff were overjoyed at my recovery, but when I asked why everything had been covered in scribbles I’m sure one of them said something about possible damage to my retinas.  I didn’t think there was anything wrong with me, being a child an all.  So I was understandably upset when nobody believed what I was seeing with my own eyes.  They were faint, but I could see them without a doubt on practically everything.  The walls, floor, bed, curtains, you name it I saw the scribbles.  Then I got the idea to trace one of them.  I took the knife I was granted for my dinner and traced the lines on my tray in a swift motion.  It fell apart in a swift motion, even though it was made of metal, and I certainly didn’t use that much force.  The nurse didn’t approve of my unintentional destruction and nobody would believe me when I tried to explain how I broke the tray.  Then I realized that they would never believe me, and I stopped trying. 

At a certain point I was going crazy and I’m sure the scribbles were getting thicker little by little as the days went by.  I ran from the hospital, crying at my situation and ended up running into Leo, literally.  I ended up on the ground, and he just looked at me quizzically.  He didn’t even bother to ask me what was wrong or why I was running around when judging by my clothes I should have been in the hospital.  Instead, he picked me up and put me on his shoulders and walked around with me.  It felt really familiar in a way and it calmed me down a lot.  Eventually we exchanged names and for whatever reason I felt like I could talk to him about my struggles.  I didn’t mention the scribbles at the time and instead told him about other stuff. 

For about a week I would leave the hospital and go meet with Leo.  He showed me some of the things he could do like breath fire and played it off as a magic trick (I still don’t understand how he does it, but there’s got to be an explanation).  Not wanting to be the only normal one of us two I took one of the knives from the hospital one day and showed him how I could trace the lines I saw and make things fall apart with a tree.  He promptly gave me a punch in the face.  With my eyes stained with tears out of shock more than pain I was rapt with attention when he explained that what I was seeing were the lines of death.  I had completely killed the tree and it had no hope of recovering.  I was shocked, frightened and probably more, but that’s not the important thing about that event.  Leo escorted me back to hospital and the next day came to visit me there.  In his hands, a pair of glasses too big for my face.  He told me I’d grow into them.  When I tried them on the line of death that I saw vanished.  Leo said that while the lines would always be there, with the glasses I could hide them from my eyes and live as normally as possible.

I couldn’t help but cry and repeat my thanks over and over.  For his part he kept smiling and patted my head comfortingly.  He told me he had some business outside of the city he had to take care of, but that if I was good we’d see each other again.  I was released from the hospital shortly after and while everyone questioned why I had these glasses when my eyesight shouldn’t have been affected I was able to get them to drop the subject after a while.  Karen would tease me about them every now and again until she was used to them, and at the very least they made me look smarter.  About five years afterwards Leo came back to the city and we had another chance encounter while I was on my way to Karen's to start work.  To my surprise he and Karen were old friends.  It made the introductions less awkward for me.  Now that I've transferred schools Leo and Karen are the only two people I can call friends.  I hope I can make some nice friends at school soon.

I think that should do for a first entry.  Not sure when I’ll get around to making another one, but I probably shouldn’t skip out on the cleaning next time to write it.  Until next time I suppose.