Kazumi's Story: Chapter 1

The door eased open slowly.  From the outside came a burst of hot air into the chilling room, cooled by one of the only ACs in the building.  Two men walked in; one, slight, blonde haired, and seemingly flawless save for some scars on his neck, was being forced in by a man who looked as if he was in the police buisness

"Here he is, sir," the police man said.  The blonde haired man snickered, but reduced his emotions to only a smile when the police man gave him a shove.

The man at the desk looked up.  "Don't play with me," he said sternly, "I asked for a man.  Next slip up and I fire you!"

The police man sighed.  "Sir, this is the man who calls himself Kazumi.  He's here to give his story."

The man sitting at the desk gave the blonde man a closer look.  Before speaking, he caughed up a storm.  "Erm...  So you are.  Fine Ka-zu-mi...  Sit here."

The blonde man, now known to be Kazumi, shakes himself off of the police man, who shrugs and shuffles out of the room.  Kazumi takes his time before sitting in front of the man at the desk, looking around at the blank concrete walls.  After seeing that there really was nothing to look at, he sat down.  He crossed his lanky legs and folded his thin fingers to rest his chin on.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"  Kazumi asked.  The man at the desk sat straight up, as if slapped in the face.

"You have a... a beautiful voice," the other man whispered, quietly.

"Thanks, I hear that all too often," Kazumi said with an un-ebbing grace he seemed to posess.

"Right, so, we need to start from the beginning.  We know what you did; you did testify guilty to it.  Now, I want to know why."

"Is this for some media thing?  You want to get famous off of me?"

"No, I assure you, I have no intention of that," The man said with a wheezy chuckle, "It's just that, you're the first case I've actually been interested in beyond locking you bastards up."

"Fine," Kazumi said.  Where to start...  He thought to himself.

"So... are you going to speak or what?"

"Yes, yes," Kazumi said, regaining his place.  "It all started when I moved to New Jersey, a little bit off of the ocean.  I was with my family, me at age 11, my mother, my father, and my sister at age 6.  We came for my sister, who was said to be terminally ill from a rare case of tuberculosis.  Unfortunatly, she didn't get better, and died before she turned seven.  Her name was Chiya, and I loved her very much."

"Wait, but I thought-"

"I am not finished yet!"  Kazumi said, cutting him off.

"Anyway," Kazumi continued, "We lived there for a while, but the next interesting thing happened when I was 12, a little less than a year after Chiya's death.  I was swimming at the time, and was pretty far out in the water.  I carried with me a floating board, just small enough to hold on to, which probably saved me in this instance.  Out of the water, right next to me, sprung a young girl, probably a little younger than I was.  She was beautiful, her hair was long, and she must have been a powerful swimmer to get all the way out to where I was.

"So, anyway, I tried to talk to her, but all she did was shake her head and point to the shore.  Sure enough, she started swimming there.  Within seconds, I saw her come out of the water and walk onto the beach.  It took me many minutes to get to where she was, and I was tired.  I'd swum hard and fast, and was almost out of breath.  But then she beckoned me to follow, and ran away.  So, of course, I did.

"She ran up to the boardwalk and into one of the game shops.  There, she ran into a back room and left the door slightly ajar.  I pushed it open and walked inside.  It was a small office filled with colorful prizes won from various places on the boardwalk.  The girl was wrapped in a towel and sitting in a chair across from a desk, not unlike I am sitting across from you!"

Kazumi laughed for a second, but instantly stopped when he realized that the other man was not laughing.  Not in the least.

"Anyway," Kazumi said once he'd regained himself, "She handed me a towel also and patted the chair next to her.  I sat down, but instantly wished I hadn't.  For five unnerving minutes, all she did was stare at me.  She had big eyes, but what was strange was that it was like there was something in them; they were brown, but I could have sworn there were specks of blue and green just swimming around of their own free will, diving under only to reappear again at a moments notice.

"Then, the other door in the back of the office opened.  A young man stepped in; he was dressed in the usual beach attire of a colorful shirt and a bright pair of shorts.  His hair looked as if it had been dyed an electrifying blue.  He looked over at the girl and smiled, but when his eyes found me, he nearly fainted.

" 'You actually found him!'  He said.  I giggled at him.  The girl next to me giggled also.  'Σας είπα εγώ'  She said."

"What the hell does that mean?"  The man asked.

"It means, roughly, 'I said I would,' meaning that she kept her word that she would find me."

"Oh.. well tell me these things!"

"I will translate for you from now on, don't worry," Kazumi said, chuckling slightly.  "Now," he said, "Here's where things get interesting."