Murphy's Law

by Yai-tzu Hin

Warning: No part of this story or cast of characters may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author, Yai-tzu Hin. If you do, moths will eat your favorite shirt, mice will take up residence in your kitchen and you can't get rid of them no matter what, all the bulbs in your reading lamps will go out, you'll run out of gas in your car when you're running late, and your computer will develop the annoying habit of deleting the best part of every fic.

Kagamida Imizu stared at the bracelet. It was a simple pseudo-silver chain with a single charm shaped like a lionfish. The storeowner glanced at her over the counter.

“Are you sure this is the one you want miss?”

“Yes, it’s perfect.” She said as he picked it up. The man nodded and carefully lay it out in a tissue-lined box. “Just perfect. I’ll bring me good luck in my next major swim meet. It’s the regional championship.” Imizu informed the man. He nodded again and rang up the bracelet.

“Good God! Yatsurugi!” Keien growled as he reached for a pair of balled up socks. He threw them at the angel who was laughing so hard he could barely stay vertical.

“I got you good!”

“I’m glad you have your powers back, but for pity’s sake! Quit sneaking up on me like that! I’m attempting to finish my homework. Speaking of which, don’t you have some you should be doing?” Yatsurugi shook his head.

“Done.” He replied still snickering.

“Honestly, breathing on the back of my neck isn’t funny.”

“That’s your opinion.”

“Yatsurugi!” Keien growled. The angel laughed again and spun in a circle.

“Keien, I can’t help being in a good mood. I have my wings back.” He said leaning forward, letting his wings catch him when he lost his balance and fell. “I missed them.” He lay on his stomach, hovering just above the carpet. Keien rolled his eyes.

“You know you’re being obnoxious. Unlike some people, I have homework to finish.” Keien sat back down at his desk. Yatsurugi lowered himself to the floor and watched him for a few minutes.

“You done yet?”

“No, why?”

“No reason.” Keien raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

“Yatsurugi?”

“Nothing.” Yatsurugi held the last syllable out as if he were a naughty child trying to cover up some secret from his parent. Keien didn’t fall for it.

“Yatsurugi.” He warned, turning to look down at the lavender head. Slate blue eyes glanced up and locked with green.

“Well, I sort of made this dessert and I was hoping that you would come have some with me.” Yatsurugi confessed. “That and I thought we could go for a walk while it is still light out. It’s a lovely spring evening.”

Keien thought about it for a moment. Glancing down at his nearly complete homework he quickly calculated how much longer the remaining four problems would take.

“Oh, why not? I need a study break.” Yatsurugi flashed him a winning smile and climbed to his feet.

“This better not turn out like your attempt to bake a cake without adding the sugar.” Keien told him. Yatsurugi blinked innocently at him. “Oh, God. You made another cake, didn’t you?” The angel smiled impishly. Keien groaned.

“Oh, don’t worry. This time I used a mix. I didn’t make it from scratch. That’s too time consuming.”

“That and you might set the over on fire.”

“I haven’t done that yet, it was just the microwave those two or three times.” Keien sighed.

By the time they’d actually made it to the kitchen and Keien had decided that the cake didn’t look that dangerous, Yatsurugi was ready to test out his latest cooking challenge. He had just cut a slice when the phone rang. Keien reached over and plucked the new kitchen cordless phone off the wall.

“Moshi-moshi.”

“Hello, Keien. This is Meiko.”

“Hey Meiko, how is my baby sister?”

“Not bad. Listen there is a swim meet tomorrow. I was wondering if you and Aisaku would like to see Imizu compete? It’s a practice meet before the regional next Saturday.”

“Hold on a second, let me ask.” Covering the receiver Keien asked Yatsurugi, who’d been standing within ear shot and waiting patiently for him to finish, if he wanted to go.

“Imizu is a good swimmer, I’d like to see her compete. I haven’t seen a swim meet since you quit the swim team back in high school.”

“I’ll tell Meiko to save us two seats.” Keien spoke once more to his sister, confirmed the time and agreed to meet here at the swim center. With that settled he hung up and Yatsurugi handed him a plate with a chocolate cake slice on it.

“Eat it, then we can go for a walk.” Yatsurugi stated.

“You really want to go on a walk.” Keien said stabbing his fork into the slice.

“After this cake, yes. We’ll need it to burn off the calories.” He joked. Keien rolled his eyes, yet again at his roommate.

Sheepishly looking about, Imizu prayed that she had brought her extra swimsuit. She couldn’t believe that her new swimsuit had developed tears in it already. It was only a moth old. Normally they lasted longer than that. Cursing silently to herself, Imizu dug through her locker in hopes of finding the other suit. It wasn’t looking good.

“ARG!” she screamed, causing several of her teammates to stare at her in shock. “Why can’t I find it? I know I left it here!” Again she dug through her locker, tossing goggles, caps, and towels on the floor. “Where is it?”

Meiko waved to her brother and Yatsurugi. “Over here! I saved you a couple of seats!” The men hiked up into the bleachers and settled themselves next to her. “How are you guys doing today?” She asked, smiling brightly. Her wavy light brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail high on her head. It swung back and forth every time she turned her head as she started a rolling conversation with her brother.

Keien and Yatsurugi nodded politely as Meiko talked of this and that. Mostly it was about swimming or school. She focused on several projects that she was doing for her graphics design class. Most of the terms she used were familiar, but some were not. It took Keien a few minutes to figure out what she meant by tables. In webpage design, tables were necessary for making the page look neat if it held lots of graphics and text. When Keien heard the word tables, he’d immediately attributed them with charts and graphs that he made for his physics experiments. He silently thanked the heavens that he’d passed that class and never had to take any more physics classes. If he could have, he would have broken into song after the final, but as it was, he’d been too tired to celebrate and had crashed into bed as soon as he’d gotten home. Thank you whatever powerful being saw fit to save me from another semester of advanced physics, he thought.

“So you’re designing a webpage?” Yatsurugi asked. Meiko nodded.

“It has to be a full working page with links to other pages both within and out of the actual site. It has to have graphics, text, and a theme. The colors must work well together and everything must work properly. I’m about halfway done. It has to be a total of ten pages.”

“Sounds interesting. I’ve finally gotten away from most of my history courses and have started working on some cultural courses.”

“What exactly is your major Aisaku?”

“It’s Cultural Studies with an emphasis on politics and diplomacy.” Meiko gave him a wary look.

“So you want to be a politician.”

“No, I want to be an advisor. It is what I do best. I advise people and hope that they take my advice. Although,” He added leaning towards Keien. “Some people don’t listen.”

“Excuse me?” Keien demanded, but he couldn’t get another word in as the announcer’s voice exploded from the loudspeaker. Several people covered their ears against the horrific crackling sound the man’s voice made as he stated the names of the swimmers in the first race.

“Look, there is Imizu!” Meiko said pointing her finger at the girl walking towards lane two. She climbed up on the starting block, adjusted her goggles one last time and prepared for the starting gun.

“I hope she does well.” Yatsurugi said sincerely. “She practices hard.”

The gun went off with a loud boom, sending the swimmers into the water. They erupted a moment later to catch a quick breath before submerging again. The 50-meter butterfly race was on. At the far side of the pool the women dove down and flipped over under water so that they were facing the correct direction for the return lap. Imizu was in the lead and going strong as she came to the wall, but when she didn’t come up right away from the turn, the lifeguards knew something was up. Immediately they rushed over the check. Just as they reached the lane, she came up sputtering and shaking her head. Before she could go under again, they had her out of the pool.

“Something is wrong.” Meiko’s voice was full of worry. Imizu was her friend and they planned on rooming together in an apartment next fall. The last thing either of them needed was a serious injury that could keep them in the hospital. “It looks like she hit her head on something. Oh, I hope it is just a bump.” Keien and Yatsurugi nodded and watched with concerned faces. They watched as Imizu was taken away to the medical station and they wondered if the paramedics would have to be called in. After a bit, Meiko snuck down to see if she could get any information out of the coach or the one lifeguard who had returned. The other two continued to watch the meet. By the time the last race finished, Meiko had discovered Imizu’s whereabouts and had gone to get her.

Looking a little worse for wear and sporting a nice bruise, Imizu leaned on Meiko as they walked out of the swim center.

“I feel really stupid.” Imizu said. “I over shot and when I dove, I was too close to the wall. The medic said there will be a lovely lump there by morning and it already has begun to bruise. No amount of cover up is going to hide that tomorrow. I still can’t believe that I did something that stupid and injured myself before regional.” She sighed deeply and let Meiko guide her down the sidewalk. “This just has not been my day.”

“How so?” Yatsurugi inquired.

“Well,” she began. “First of all my alarm didn’t go off and I was late to class. Then my literature professor, the dear man that he is, assigned a book that is a thousand pages long, dry as can be and very wordy to be read by Tuesday. Today being Thursday and all, that gives me exactly four days to read this thing. I don’t believe the man understands that the world does not revolve around his class. Anyway, so then I get home and discover my new swimsuit has developed tears in strategic locations making it unfit to wear in public. So thinking I have a spare in my locker, I spend fifteen minutes tearing apart my locker and the lost and found looking for it. All the while, it is sitting comfortably in my duffel bag. Now I whack my head on the side of the pool. I swear, Murphy has decided I’m his new best friend or something.”

Yatsurugi glanced around. “Nope, I don’t see him.”

“Who?”

“Murphy.” Yatsurugi replied calmly. Keien knew he was serious, but the women laughed.

“Well, that’s comforting to know.” Imizu said. “That he’s not stalking after me.”

“He normally doesn’t stalk people.” Yatsurugi informed her. “He’s actually very nice, it’s just he has a job no one likes.”

“Really Aisaku, I think you’re taking this a little too far.” Meiko chided. Imizu snickered.

“I need some comedy after what has happened today. Let the man cheer me up.”

“Fine.” Keien decided that this was a great time to change the subject before his sister started getting too huffy.

“That’s a new bracelet isn’t it?” he asked quickly. Imizu smiled and held up her hand letting the bracelet slide down her wrist.

“Yes it is. I was down by all the shops in the tourist area of town and saw it in a trinket shop. It wasn’t very expensive and I liked it. It’s just fake silver, probably a type of stainless steel or some metal like that. I didn’t care, I like the lionfish charm and I’ve never seen one like it before. I’m hoping it will bring me luck in my swim meets, but so far it isn’t working.”

“I believe you make your own luck.” Meiko stated.

“This coming from the girl who has two lucky horse shoes from Ireland when Father went there on a business trip when she was seven.” Meiko scowled at him and turned away. Yatsurugi and Imizu giggled.

“How about some ice cream?” Yatsurugi asked.

“Oh, me! I would love some.” Imizu cried.

“Great, I’ll pay for everyone.” He said jogging ahead. “As long as you beat me there.”

“You’re on!” Meiko, Imizu, and Keien called. They tore off after him towards the local ice cream parlor conveniently located on the other side of campus.

Imizu’s week hadn’t gotten any better by Friday. She was beginning to think that there was a force out there that was after her. After four pop quizzes, one tumble down the stairs, her purse being stolen, and an allergic reaction to pistachio nuts that someone had slipped into her salad after she’d specifically told them to put none on she was about to ask Meiko for her lucky horse shoes. Sitting in the university’s main library surrounded by a mountain of books, she sighed heavily realizing that none of them had what she needed. This was getting to be ridiculous. After two hours of going through the data base, the stacks of books and several magazines, Imizu had yet to find the information she needed for a report that was due on Monday. It was only supposed to be four pages, no problem right? Now she realized that she shouldn’t have put it off until the last minute. That had been stupid.

“Kagamida?” She turned in her seat at the sound of the familiar voice. Keien stood just behind her with a thick book tucked under his arm.

“Hello Nakabori-kun.” Keien eyed the stacks of books surrounding her then looked at her frazzled appearance. The bruise was now a dark purple blob that covered much of her forehead.

“How are you feeling?”

“Rotten. I can’t find any information on my topic. It’s driving me crazy!” Keien sighed as Imizu pulled at her strawberry blond hair.

“Here, I’ve got some time. How about I help you?”

“Oh thank you!” Imizu cried. She wanted to give him a huge hug, but that wouldn’t be proper, instead she filled him on the assignment and her topic.

“I’m telling you.” Keien said as he and Yatsurugi sat on the train home that evening. “It’s like Murphy has singled her out to take his revenge on.”

“Murphy doesn’t take revenge on people and you know that.” Yatsurugi snapped. “Although, it does seem strange that Kagamida Imizu is having all these problems. Maybe there is some curse on her. If there is, I can’t tell. She seems perfectly normal to me.”

“Have you talked to her guardian angel?”

“She hasn’t said anything to me. It’s not like we talk anyway. Reimu talks to her more often than I do. He has more opportunity. I might flit by tonight and ask him.”

“It might be a good idea.” Keien told him. “She’s having the worse case of bad luck I’ve ever seen. Did I tell you that she fell down a flight of stairs yesterday?” Yatsurugi nodded. “And we know she’s not clumsy. Could it be that she’s being haunted?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t feel any ghostly presence near her and I would have noticed it in the swim center at the meet. No, it has to be something else.”

“Whatever it is, I hope it goes away soon. She’s liable to get seriously injured at this rate.”

Yatsurugi nodded, but there was little they could do. They sat in silence until their stop was announced.

“ACK!” Imizu cried as she ran to the library. When she’d left her room, it had been beautiful outside. Now it was pouring down rain. Grumbling to herself she didn’t notice the mud and slipped. Sprawled out completely in the wet earth, her backpack soaking in the water and her head throbbing from the impact, Imizu felt like crying. Why me, she thought miserably. Why is this happening? She lay in the mud and rain, staring up at the gray sky. Closing her eyes, she felt tears begin to slide down her cheeks to join the rain already running down her face. Abruptly the drops stopped.

“Are you all right Miss?” a curious voice asked. Imizu opened her eyes and found herself looking into a pair of dark hazel eyes. “Do you need some help up?” asked the young man. Imizu nodded and he offered her his hand. He held the large black umbrella above both of them as Imizu attempted to wipe some of the mud off of her.

“I slipped.” She said feeling totally ridiculous. The man was about her age with short neatly combed black hair. Handing her the umbrella, he walked into the rain to retrieve her backpack.

“Arigatou.” She took the sodden backpack from his hands. As she did, she noticed her bracelet was missing. “Oh, no!”

“What?”

“I lost my new bracelet. I bought it for good luck and now it’s gone. It must have fallen off when I fell.”

“Do you want me to look for it?” Imizu thought about it for a moment.

“No, that’s okay. I doubt we could find it in this mess.” She waved her hand over the tract of grass and dirt. “I’m not too sorry it’s gone. It wasn’t bringing me that much good luck at all. Instead I had more run ins with bad luck with it than without it.”

“Ah, Murphy’s Law.”

“Yep, anything that can go wrong, will.” Imizu stated.

“Can I walk you to where you were going?”

“Actually, I think I’ll go back to my dormitory and change.”

“Then I’ll walk you to your dorm. I wouldn’t want you getting any wetter then you already are. You might catch a cold and miss class.” He smiled down at her.

“Thank you very much.” Taking the umbrella from her, he walked beside her as she began to talk about how her week had been and how she hoped that next week would be better. She had a regional swim meet that she wanted to place in. Winning wasn’t as important as finishing the race without mishap, she told him. As they walked the man opened his hand that he’d had closed and a small bracelet dropped from it. The lionfish charm sparkled, then evaporated in a small puff of smoke. The man smiled knowing that Imizu’s luck was bound to be better next week. He had other things to do besides hanging around a university campus, like finding a certain shop and “talking” with the owner.