Featured in post: Shupple, Lux, and Shift
Time: While Lux and Shupple are in the cafe.
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Shupple
I couldn’t believe how much I had played of that one song that I had heard recently on the radio. It was weird how I could remember it, really, but I played it the best I could, made many mistakes, but when I finished and stood, I couldn’t believe I had gotten a standing ovation and claps from random Gijinkas. When the original piano player got back, I was nervous he was going to scold or something of the sort but then I realized he too, was a Ghost Gijinka and gave me a purple rose in response. I honestly couldn’t tell how bright my cheeks were, but I guess they were extremely bright because when I got back to Lux, my blush went to its extent when he complimented me on playing and kissed me on the cheek.
Of course I noticed him drinking something… but I shouldn’t be that worried, right? When I tried to ask him what it was, he didn’t answer straight away and avoided the conversation to going to the table that was open and I finally got to ask Lux what it was, which was some alcoholic drink, and then we ordered our food. He made some snide joke of me hating pink but drinking lemonade and made no comment on how I just wanted a salad because my stomach was sticking out a bit and it was bugging me so I wanted to lose maybe one or two pounds at the maximum in the stomach.
A thought occurred to me that if I made change to how I looked on the outside, Lux should do the same and start with his hair. In my opinion, I think he was completely hotter with his hair down and the fact that it made him look better and girls turned their heads without him even noticing while I fixed his hair and made him put on his glasses because this whole time, he had been squinting at the menu or at something on the wall, and besides the fact that it made him look even hotter. I knew he probably remembered most from when he was a kid, remembering how people made fun of him, but why should the past bother you? Then again, playing the piano made me remember Shift and how I used to play for him all the time, the constant instruction he gave me every day to make myself better, and how I told Lux only some of that earlier.
I told Lux that I was stunned after he saw my reaction of how he looked with his glasses on and hair down, and I could tell he did believe me after I kissed him quickly on the cheek and gave him the best hug I could give him from across the table and enjoyed the rest of the date with him, eating when our food came and when I started to chew on some tangerines and he was eating some French fries, he looked at me with serious eyes and looked like something was bothering him. I didn’t want that… Did I do something?
“Shupple I want to ask you something a bit more serious now dear okay?” I just nodded as I continued to eat my tangerines. “Shupple, I want you to tell me who you are?” Okay, now that was a silly question. He knew who I was.
“Pfft, Lux that’s a silly question you already know the answer,” I exclaimed to Lux and he just frowned.
“No it’s not, I can tell you are hiding things from me and things you haven’t told me. Before I open up more about my past since you already have seen a great big chunk, tell me what happened as a child and tell me who you really are….?”
Now I knew what he was talking about. I put the tangerine that I was about to eat down and just looked at my feet, like I used to do a lot when I was five and six.
“It’s different to me, I guess, because I knew that I should’ve stood up to Shift but…” I whispered and Lux leaned in to hear me. “He didn’t do anything to me, to answer a question. He just… taught me how to fight, stand up for myself, and how to play the piano with the strictness he had in him. He taught me how to hide in the shadows and play tricks on people and how to get away with things that I probably wouldn’t have done. Though with the strictness he put me, I crumbled like a tiny twig. I was pushed down, beat up, and I didn’t stand up for myself,” I sighed but Lux interjected.
“But you’re still not telling me who you really are, Shupple,” Lux told me and I sighed and leaned forward and put my fingers to his temples and closed my eyes.
“Just close your eyes and I can show you, Lux,” I sighed and he looked at me weird before I felt his eyes close and as careful as I could, I sent memory electrical waves into Lux’s temporal part of his brain and showed him a memory of mine. It was hard, but I mostly used darkness to do all of this and it really seemed like the only way to do things. I didn’t really want to show Lux… Not really but he really insisted on doing this…
I showed him a memory back when I was seven, when Shift was teaching me how to fight.
Memory Flash
“Just bring up your arm and punch straight forward like this,” Shift told me, I being eight years old and him being eleven, and little me punching forward as best as I could in a purple dress and him guiding my arm and then leaving me to do it but I didn’t do it correctly and Shift got in front of me with a frown.
“Why didn’t you do it correctly, Shupple? I taught you exactly how do to it correctly!” He pushed me down and got over me and I whimpered and started to cry. “Why didn’t you do it correctly?” Shift growled and I continued to cry.
“I-I ju-just-” I hiccupped. “I just didn’t know the correct way, S-Shift,” I cried and Shift’s face grew lighter and softer and took me up and let me cry into his shoulder. I was probably about 4’5 at that age and able to fit into his arms perfectly. I didn’t see it before but I saw a smile creep up on his face as he hugged me and then put me back down and pushed me down.
I screamed a little in the scene and whimpered.
“Why did y-you d-do that?” I had hiccupped again and he smiled.
“There’s no reason to cry. It’s a sign of weakness. You should know that by now.” And we continued to practice and the scene changed.
Next Memory Flash
“Next key.” I continued to play the piano in the cave of my home and be taught by my parents as Shift cleaned his nails over on the couch and my dad sat beside me and tried to teach me but all I did was pout and didn’t go on to the next key. I was about nine.
“Shupple, do the next key,” Shift said sharply as he sharpened his nails with a nail file he had then taken out of his pocket and I immediately did it, obeying Shift because I had no choice or I knew at the time he would either push me down or come over at push my fingers down. My dad sighed and gave up.
“Maybe you should do this, Shift. She seems to obey you more,” my dad sighed and got up and went into the kitchen and Shift sighed, got up and sat beside me on the seat of the piano.
“At least you’re obeying me now. You used to not do that,” Shift sighed and put his fingers over mine and moved his hands along with mine with a softer smile than before in the last memory and helped me play the piece and I relaxed and played fluently.
“If this was the last day you played piano, what would you do, Shupple?” Shift asked and I shrugged while playing.
“I would give it my all.”
It was the last day I played.
Next Memory
“Fight me.” I looked at Shift in my age of ten and I tilted my head.
“Fight you? I wouldn’t even be able to beat you, Shift,” I told him and he shrugged. We were in a big open field of grass with trees here and there.
“I know. That’s why I’m telling you to fight me.” Shift got in a ready position and I disappeared into the shadows of the trees.
“Good, using your resources to fight. But you’ve got to come out sooner or later, Shupple!” I came up behind Shift and grab his shoulders and threw him behind me as I jumped above him. He landed perfectly on his feet after doing a flip in the air and stood like a butler on the grass, ready.
“Frontal assault,” Shift whispered and I did what he said and made a frontal assault with my fists and tried to punch him in different ways that he taught me and he deflected every one of them and then I did fast kicks and he was able to grab one of my legs and push hard down on the ground, starting to shatter the bones in my leg but I didn’t show any pain. All I did was able to push myself up and grab onto his neck and force myself out of his hold and wrap my legs around his neck and force him to fall backwards with me doing a choking hold with my legs. He struggled for a few moments and then flung his body backwards and caught me under his arms and threw me across the grass field, my leg bleeding and my lip bleeding when I stood up.
“Good.” And that was all he said while I stood there in pain.
Next Memory
“Trip her.” I was hidden in the shadows and Shift was sitting on a branch and I used the darkness to my will as I hid in the shadows and took aim to the girl in front of me and made the darkness rise using Dark Pulse and tripped her. She fell front on her face and I didn’t care. I was growing stronger so I wasn’t caring at the moment. I was about eleven.
“Nice. Go haunt that house in front of you and make everybody screaming as they run out,” Shift told me and I went to the house that was in front of me, made the darkness embody the whole house and lights break and the windows break and I walked inside, looking like my Ghost self and moved around them like I did Mia and whispered haunting words into the people’s ears and freaking them out, losing all the color in their faces and run out of the house screaming.
I walked out of the house and formed back into a regular form and went up to Shift.
“Good. I think my training’s done.”
Next Memory
It was the night of when my parents were captured and after I woke up during the middle of the night after being knocked out by a hunter and saw Shift at the mouth of the cave with rain pouring down behind him. I was crying and hiding behind a table.
"They were taken for a reason,” Shift said as I stood up and realized he was there and cried even more.
"What, are you friends with those bastards?" I screamed out at him and all he did was smile.
"Why, yes, I am, actually. You see... they were the only ones that fulfilled my life with meaning. With what they want, you have no idea!" He laughed and I started to walk towards him.
"What would they want with my parents? How could you be so cruel and cold hearted to take away my parents?!" I cried out as my nails grew longer.
"You see... us hunters are taking away the most powerful Gijinkas to make something powerful come from the ground, to make us even more powerful! We have a reason! You’re too stupid and naïve to understand the concept of what we want!” He laughed and I continued to walk towards him.
“So, all of what you taught me, all of what you did to make me happy and survive… What was that for?” I screamed and he just smiled.
“To test out new moves. To see if you were worthy to be taken by Team Rocket. Tanner was too weak so that’s why we took him and he’s now gone. I captured him myself, and there was no reason to capture you.” I glared at him and stopped in my tracks as lightning flashed behind Shift.
“Why didn’t you take me?” I asked quietly and he smiled sweetly, like he always would when he was to make up for something.
“Because I love you. I can’t help but love something that’s so beautiful and yet so weak at the same time. It makes me feel worthy, makes me feel happiness. Join me. Tell me you love me back,” Shift pleaded and I just stayed quiet, wondering the option but it didn’t take long to have an answer.
“I’ve never loved you. Maybe I did, but I never had since you disappeared three years ago when I was eleven and left me to perish. Left me to fight on my own with those hunters surrounding me. YOU let that happen, Shift! I could never, ever love anything so cruel and evil,” I spat and his face grew into a frown.
“Of course you don’t love me. Why love a hideous monster like me? I TRAINED YOU, MADE YOU BECOME WHAT YOU ARE! WHY DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT? I DID EVERYTHING FOR YOU!” Shift bellowed and I then continued to walk towards him.
“Because you’re a monster. And you will die one day, by my hand… YOU TOOK AWAY MY PARENTS. DIDN’T YOU CONSIDER HOW I WOULD FEEL? I THOUGHT SOMEBODY WHO LOVED SOMEBODY WOULD CARE ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THAT!” I shrieked at him and Shift flinched as I stood mere centimeters away from him and used my Shadow Claw and ran my hand down his face, causing it to be covered in blood and his face scarred.
“Leave. Or you die now.” And he left and I stood in the rain, crying.
And the memory faded into nothing.
End Memories
I took my fingers away from Lux’s temples and found myself to be crying and so, I just hugged myself and stayed quiet as tears strung down my face and Lux blinked a few times and stayed quiet.
“And that’s the real me,” I whispered to Lux.
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Well, there's the real Shupple, and a somewhat long post! :) Finished with my posts for today and I hope this was okay! :) Here ya go, N-chan! :D
~Anime-chan
