Trust Me (Open)

Lights flooded the small, crowded room, and the floor shook with the beat coming out of the speakers. It smelled like sweat and alcohol, and while it wasn't a smell Ruri enjoyed, she had gotten used to it. It wasn't her first time coming here since her sister died - not that her visits were often, she wasn't stupid enough to become an alcoholic - but a couple drinks here and there didn't hurt anybody.

She remembered the first time she had come to the bar, it had been the night after her second sister died. She had been so...done. Like life wasn't worth living anymore. Why bother, if only bad things were going to happen to her? Next it would be her parents, and then she would have truly lost everyone.

Not caring, she had waltzed right through the doors. No one had even asked her for ID, even at the bar. It was sad, really. She had come back again tonight because of the nightmares. They were always vague - after all, the cause of her sisters death had never been discovered. But images of her sister dying haunted her dreams - it was something different every time. A fire, drowning, a car accident, a murderer. She would always wake up in a cold sweat and be unable to fall back asleep.

Tonight, she came here instead of going to bed. Who knows, maybe she'd even run into a senshi to destroy.

Walking along the night time streets deep in thought, Honami wasn't sure where she was going. Nor did she care, really. She just didn't want to go home, as that meant having to face her parents and her sister. None of them understood. Even though it was nearly ten years ago, nearly dying kind of leaves a mark on you. She stopped and sighed. She looked to the side and saw bar. 'Maybe one drink before I head home and face the music,' she mused. She pushed the door open and gasped.

The smell of sweat and alcohol assaulted her nose, and it was darker than she realised. She shrugged and headed straight for the bar. She waited for a gap in the crowed, then ordered her drink. While she waited for her drink to be prepared, she turned and scanned the rest of the bar.

As she was sipping on her drink, Ruri noticed a new patron come into the bar. Oddly, she looked about the same age as herself. While it wasn't hard to get into the bar, the violet haired girl hadn't seen many other younger customers here. She was slightly intrigued, wondering if this girl had just as many problems as she did. It was doubtful, but not impossible.

Besides, of the younger girls that did come in here, most of them danced most of the night. She felt like an old man, tired with the scars of battle, always sitting at the bar by herself. Thinking this, she was surprised when the brunette came right up and ordered a drink next to her.

Normally, Ruri didn't talk to people. She didn't care. However, she was just tipsy enough that she figured 'eh, why not', and looked at the other girl. "You're pretty young to be in here," she commented. "I thought I was the only one."

As she scanned the other patrons of the bar, Nami noticed another girl, around her age leaning against the bar. She stood out not only because of her age, but the colour of her hair. Nami arched an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't pay much attention to the girl as she continued to look around. But when the girl spoke to her, Nami turned to her and smiled. 'You're one to talk,' she said. The barman appeared then, with Nami's drink in his hand. She thanked him, paid the correct amount and picked up her drink. She took a sip and sighed. 'Not bad,' she commented, before she turned to the other girl. 'Want to grab a table?' she asked, nodding towards an empty table next to the window, before she made her way over to the table without waiting for a reply.

Ruri could only stare after the girl as she walked towards a table. Did she want to join her? All the alarms she had in her head were telling her not to - after all, she had broken off all ties with any of her old friends. But the walls were slowly crumbling, thanks to the alcohol, and after a moment she followed the girl.

She sat down at the table across from the girl, staring out the window at the sky. This beat going to sleep, at least. Eyeing the brunette's drink, she asked "What are you drinking?" Ruri, herself, wasn't drinking anything fancy - just a beer. She didn't come here to order girly little drinks with obnoxious names. She came here to forget. "I'm Ruri, by the way. Izumi."

Reaching the table, Nami put her drink down, then took a seat. She smiled as the other girl came over and sat across the table from her. 'Just a beer,' Nami said in response to the girls question. She put the glass up and took another sip. 'I'm Honami. Honami Shizumi,' she introduced herself. 'Pleased to meet you.' Nami took another sip, then put her drink down. She looked out the window as the clouds wonder across the night sky. She turned to face the girl, Ruri Izumi and smiled. 'So, what brings a girl like you to a place like this at this time of night?' she asked, deliberately wording it to sound cheesy.

Ruri nodded when she found out the other girl was also drinking a beer - at least they had that in common. She might've smiled, if she still had the ability to. "Me too," she commented.

Honami Shizumi, huh? When she looked out the window, Ruri joined her. The clouds were rolling across the night sky, but it didn't really look like it would storm. They were obscuring the view of the moon, making it even harder to see anything outside. She was going to have a great time trying to get home.

Hearing the girl talk to her, she turned back to face her new company, snorting at her cliched question. "I was having nightmares," she replied dryly. "Thought I'd drown 'em out." She paused, taking a sip of her drink. A rather large swallow, really. "I could ask the same of you."

When she heard Ruri snort at her question, Nami smiled as she took another sip from her beer. 'Nightmares?' she asked, before snorting herself. 'That's another thing we have in common.' She looked out the window, wondering how she would get home after drinking here. Then turned back to Ruri. 'But I don't think mine are anything like yours,' she said. 'Mine's just about a phobia, an incident that happened to me a few years ago.' She shrugged. 'Like I said, mine's just fear.' She took a gulp of her beer, then put the glass down. 'Do you want to talk about it?' she asked.

She watched the girl carefully. From the way she spoke, it sounded like she knew Ruri's nightmares were more than just that. She was turning out to be quite an interesting person. A phobia, huh? Sounded intriguing enough, but form the change in topic, she assumed Honami didn't feel like talking about it. The violet haired girl closed her eyes, trying to decide if she did want to talk about it. She hadn't spoken to anyone about the incident for seven years. But then, maybe it was time to grow up.

"My sister died. We never found out how." She kept her gaze hard, not letting any sign of emotion show in the violet orbs.

She was half way through swallowing a drink when Ruri answered. Nami finished her mouthful, swallowed then put her glass down. She sighed and looked at Ruri. 'I'm sorry,' she said. She looked down at her drink. 'I... I have a younger sister. I don't know what I would do if I lost her. Though she was almost in the same boat as you a few years ago.' She looked out the window, wondering if she should tell Ruri what had happened, or focus on her. 'My nightmares are nothing compared to yours. Compared to what you must be feeling.' She gave a short, self-deprecating laugh. 'I'm afraid of water,' she said, blushing slightly. 'Large bodies of water to be exact.' Nami turned and looked at Ruri. 'Nothing compared to losing a sister.'

"It's okay," she answered. "You don't have to feel bad for me." She had stopped feeling self pity when she got her powers; she didn't need it from other people. She was stronger than that.
"Thank you for your condolences, though." She took a deep breath, blocking out the memories. She had come here to escape this. Quickly, she took another swig of beer. It was almost empty now. She swirled what remained around inside her cup, as she listened to Honami talk.
Shaking her head, she said "No. I don't think there should be any sort of superiority to things like that. We've both been hurt someway in the past, and that's all that matters. Your pain is just as important as mine."

Finishing her beer off, Nami sighed. 'I think part of why I understand why you feel like you do is because I nearly left my sister.' She smiled sadly at Ruri. 'My phobia of water comes from the fact I nearly drowned a few years ago.' She picked up her empty glass and grunted, putting the glass down. 'My parents keep telling me that it happened years ago, that I should be over it by now. But nearly dying kind of leaves a mark on you.' She sighed and shook her head. 'Sorry. I don't usually talk about what happened.' She smiled at Ruri again. 'Do you want another one?' she asked, nodding to the girls empty glass. 'My treat for listening to my rambling?'

The girl shook her head. "Parents are wrong. That's not something you should expect anyone to recover from. There's always going to be some sort of effect on you. It might seem dumb to some people, but I hate senshi." A dark look crossed her face at the very thought of them. "I hold a grudge over the fact that they're supposed to be these great hero's, but yet not one of them tried to save my sister. And I'll never forgive them for that." She left out the part about having a magical bracelet that transformed her into an evil senshi slayer, though. That wasn't exactly the kind of information she liked to give out.

Ruri nodded. "I was just thinking about getting another one, myself. But you don't have to worry about paying. I didn't mind listening to you talk." She stood up and made her way over to the bar with the other girl, thinking about how odd the whole situation was.

'I guess you're right. I still remember the burning in my lungs from holding my breath, the pressure as the water rushed in and filled them.' She shivered as she remembered that time. 'The darkness of the water around me, my vision fading. Then nothing. Until I started feeling again. And the first thing I felt was pain.' Nami ran her finger around the rim of her glass as she spoke. 'Then air being pushed into my lungs. I opened my eyes when the pain got too much and I saw her. Ryo, she was the one who saved me. Suddenly my parents were there, hugging me and kissing me. And they still wonder why I'm afraid of water?' When Ruri mentioned the senshi, Nami snorted. 'Don't get me started on the senshi! Bloody stupid idea if you ask me. A bunch of girls who run around in fuku and short skirts fighting monsters by shooting rainbows from their magic wands?' She snorted again. 'Now, the idea of what they are said to do, defending those who can't protect themselves is something I like, but the rest of it?' She shook her head. 'If you ask me, they're just part of a publicity stunt for a new magical girl anime or game series.'

'Great minds think alike, hey?' Nami said with a chuckle. She stood and walked over to the bar with Ruri. 'Are you sure you don't want me to get this round?' she asked as they waited for a space at the bar. 'I don't mind.'

Ruri shook her head. "That's something I can't sympathize with. I wasn't actually there, I wasn't the victim. I can only tell you what it looks like in my dreams. And I doubt you want to hear that." She tilted her head back to lean against the back of the chair, purple locks spilling over the wood. "At least you were rescued," she murmured. "At least be thankful for that."

She was pleased to know that the girl shared her opinion of the Senshi, at least. There was another thing they had in common. "I never minded them, until their so called heroism fell through for the one person who meant the most to me."

At the mention of paying, she simply waved her hand, as if to brush the subject off. "Really, it's fine. I'd feel like I owe you something if I let you pay." A spot at the bar finally opened up, and the teen ordered a vodka, in a slightly more carefree mood then when she arrived. After all, who knew where their lovely conversation would go next.

'If you want to talk about it, I'll listen, but if you don't,' Nami shrugged. 'I'll understand. And I am thankful for being saved. I just wish my parents would understand why I still don't like water.' She sighed. 'I still sound ungrateful, don't I?' She stretched, feeling her joints and muscles pull, then relaxed. 'Just thinking about it tenses my muscles.'

'If you ask me, the senshi probably aren't real,' Nami said. 'I think the senshi are probably just actors hired by a game or anime production company to promote their new product.' Nami thought for a moment, then shrugged. 'Although if they are real, they're probably just a bunch of masked vigilantes fighting regular human criminals. Which grew and changed, as urban legends have a tendency to do. So criminals become monsters, who the senshi with magic.' She shrugged. 'Either way they're a pretty stupid idea.'

'Only the next round,' she said with a smile. But she didn't push the subject as she didn't want to annoy Ruri, and a gap at the bar had opened up. So Nami walked to the bar, arched an eyebrow at what Ruri ordered, then ordered a vodka and red bull. She felt slightly lighter having gotten some of the pressure of her phobia off her chest. And she was looking forwards to what finding out where the night would go.

Nami paid for her drink, thanked the barman. She turned, smiled at Ruri, then lead the way back to their table. She sat and waited for Ruri to do the same. She picked up her glass and took a sip. 'Don't tell anyone,' she said, leaning forwards slightly. 'But me and Ryo brought some of this to school once.' She smiled. 'We weren't caught because it looks like apple juice.'

She shook her head. "You don't sound ungrateful. Anyone in your situation would feel like that."

She shrugged. "Yeah, they could be fake...that would explain why..." Her thought trailed off there, but there was something wrong in her voice. It was obvious that Ruri was thinking about her sister or something equally as distressing. "It is stupid, though," she agreed. "Completely, utterly stupid."

Listening to Honami's story, the girl scoffed. "Figures. Public schools are idiotic." She arched her brow. "That is, assuming you go to a public school? I do, that's how I know. They don't give a damn about anything."

At the tone of Ruri's voice, Nami realised that the girl was probably thinking of her sister. Damn, Nami thought. Why would talking about the senshi make her think of her sister. Unless... She mentally shook her head and pushed those thoughts aside. 'It is stupid,' she agreed.

Taking a sip of her vodka and red bull, Nami smiled and nodded. 'Yep, we go to the local public school,' she said with a snort. 'It wasn't as though we were that secret about it. It was in a clear plastic bottle.' Nami chuckled as she remembered the incident. 'We were asked what it was, we said it was apple juice and they believed us!' She shook her head and chuckled again. 'They don't give a damn about anything, no.' She took a sip of her drink. 'There are a couple of teachers who actually care, but they're rare.'