Prologue

The city was a very different environment from what Usui Horokeu was used to. The more time he spent away from home the more of himself was lost beyond the sparkle of looming streetlights. He hated Tokyo. City life moved at an uncomfortably fast pace, but he had to adjust for the most important reason of his life. Sometimes he wondered if he was still in Japan when surrounded by the enormous sky scrapers, when busy pedestrians wearing business suits would pass by with cell phones glued to their ears. The culture was annoying. The progression of society bothered him. He wanted to hold on to the simple, old way of life. He needed to cherish the traditions of his ancestors. He had to keep the things that made him feel grounded and human.

All of these things mattered to him most until she came into focus.

Tamamura Tamao had the ability to manipulate gravity; she could change the nature of seasons. The sun would burn through the clouds with fervent heat when she smiled. Fall leaves gathered by the thousands for the chance to rest beneath her delicate steps. Rain intensified with vigor and beat violently against buildings and sections of the ground as she slept, and Winter's chill would freeze everything in its path with unparalleled intensity when she cried. She could enter a room and cause the lights to flicker with an unusual veracity and illuminate every surface with an angelic glow. When she spoke time would suspend, and the earth would completely stop its motion until she could finish her thoughts. One gaze into her eyes could cause great uneasiness, for in them a man's innermost fantasies and deepest emotions were exposed.

She was never aware of these abilities and neither was anyone else around her. Horo could see things in her she never knew existed. He couldn't see her flaws and was never able to distinguish her from anything less than an angelic being who chose to be in his presence. She became a part of his life he knew he could never give up even if he wanted to. It was impossible to imagine a life without her there, so he held on to her as if letting go would cause her to drift away forever.

Horo was her lifeline. He saved her when she was falling. He gave her new life when she felt like dying. She knew she could never love anyone more than she loved him, and living without him was a possibility she never wanted to imagine. There was nothing in her life more important and no necessity she couldn't live without. His love was an addiction she couldn't stop, and she never wanted to.

Their lives consisted of two worlds: reality and an elaborate fantasy. The lines were often blurred; they always seemed to lose track of time when they were together. There were moments when pesky details of reality invaded their fantasy world, and things were more complicated than they wished. Sometimes Horo had to acknowledge there were other people who existed in his life and at times he even had to address them. He never exactly forgot he had a sister, but often it seemed as if he wasn't aware she was alive. Tamao had friends in the realm of reality she would ignore on a daily basis, but on many occasions she wouldn't notice their absence.

Pirika didn't enjoy being ignored by her brother. She didn't want to be selfish, but she knew she wasn't the only person that didn't exist anymore in her brother's world. His friends had equal dissent, but no one wanted to address the issue. Each day she began to recognize him less until the day he became a complete stranger. She couldn't comprehend how this happened but wanted him to come back to her at any cost. She was deeply grateful to Ellie, however, for moving into the house with them and replacing Tamao. In her mind, when she lost Horo as a brother she also lost her best friend, and both were deeply unsettling.

Pirika and Ellie didn't realize how much they had in common until they began living together. The two were dangerously outspoken, and Ellie's sarcasm was greatly amusing. Unlike Tamao, Ellie always told Pirika the brutal truth even if she didn't want to hear it. Pirika returned the favor a few times by telling her she would never have a chance with Tao Ren, but Ellie denied having any feelings for the man in the first place. Pirika was very uncomfortable at first when Ellie moved into Tamao's old room, but the discomfort eased the more time they spent together. Ren was deeply annoyed by the move since his bedroom was in between them, and he complained almost every morning about how badly she snored.

But, Pirika loved Ellie mostly for one reason; she talked about Horo on a daily basis, stirring cherished memories and filling the void she felt in her life. Ellie never referred to Horo in the past tense, and all of her stories about him made Pirika feel she was able to see him regularly. Before Horo and Tamao began dating, Ellie and Horo were very close, and she often contemplated taking their relationship a step further. But friendship always superseded romance, and Horo seemed more interested in Tamao anyway. Ellie often described his interest as an obsession, but Pirika didn't like the word because she thought it sounded like he was some kind of psychopath. The truth was probably that they were fixated on each other, and the magnetic pull was going to fuse them together no matter what they did. Ellie often resented Tamao for that fact but never voiced this grievance with Pirika. She didn't want to be the bitter and jealous friend, and she liked Tamao too much to be angry with her.

Asakura Yoh was Tamao's greatest friend until Horo happened. They went from spending every day together and speaking several times a week on the phone to almost no contact at all. This change bothered him the most because he had always been protective of her, treating her like a rebellious sister. Many criticized their friendship mostly because he was married, but his wife was aware of their past and didn't see her as a threat. Anna even made attempts to befriend Tamao when she was around, and they were able to become acquaintances. But she was now just as worried as Yoh was, and they both needed some kind of assurance that Tamao was still of sound mind.

Ren often warned Yoh to focus on his marriage with Anna. He had a tendency to be too overprotective of Tamao in a way that caused him to neglect his wife. The behavior was obvious, but Ren was the only one who addressed this with him. He never intentionally ignored Anna, but Tamao's estrangement caused him to worry about her private life. Ren was often apathetic about Tamao's relationship with Horo on the surface, but deep inside he felt the same worry. Interference wasn't his nature, however, and he decided long ago to stay out of it.

Tamao would never make her friends understand their relationship. She never tried. On some level, they didn't seem to care what the others thought about them. It was an excuse to disappear from their lives and pretend they didn't exist. To address their concerns would be to admit there was a problem. Of course Horo and Tamao had normal problems that existed in normal relationships. There was no reason to share because they weren't any different from the rest of the world. They were happy together, and that was the only thing that seemed to matter.

Their problem was completely normal. As long as they remained in obscurity.

This story was written a few years ago. It is dark. There is no conventional, romantic fluff in it. I decided to disclose that from the beginning so as to not shock anyone interested in reading. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Pulchrite