2002
Two months after Yoru is adopted
Long Island
Outside of an Elementary School
7:44 AM
*Skrrch*
John's car came to a stop in front of a brick building. The five-story structure's imposing stature stood over Yoru as she stepped out of the vehicle. The morning sun bore down on the school's lawn with an almost eager intensity, projecting an orange hue onto the grass.
"Nervous?" The hitman asked once he caught her staring at the structure.
"... A little bit." The girl hesitantly admitted. "It's… different."
"You'll be fine." The Soviet assured her. "You know where to go, right?"
The child nodded. The principal had led her and her guardian through a tour of the school a couple of days ago. The different classrooms and facilities she would have access to for the next four or so years were pointed out to Yoru.
But still, it was a bit overwhelming for her. With the sheer number of classrooms present on just the second floor alone, the process of remembering where each one is was dizzying. Additionally, the principal used a lot of English words Yoru didn't quite understand. The girl had a few days since then to process everything she'd been told, but it didn't help with the butterflies in her stomach.
"Have a good day, Yoru." John said when they reached the school's entrance. "I'll pick you up during dismissal."
He handed his ward her backpack before walking out through the building's courtyard. The child took in a shuddering breath and walked through the school's metal doors.
'It's just school.' She told herself as it shut behind her. 'I can do this.'
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Cafeteria
Yoru stepped into the cafeteria as the principal had told her yesterday. Immediately, she was greeted by a wall of noise. The din of active conversation and loud spikes of excited screams echoed throughout the dining area. The girl didn't remember her old preschool ever being this loud, but she also never saw this many kids in one place either.
The child attempted to ignore the racket as she scanned the lunchroom's walls. Bright papers were plastered all over the area, each denoting which tables belonged to which classroom. Eventually, she did find it. Sitting close to the back corner was a light blue sign with "1–209" printed with bold black letters.
Yoru made her way to that sign and plopped down on the far end of that table. There were a group of kids who were already there, chatting away as none of them had registered her presence.
The twin caught snippets of their conversation, understanding just enough to know there's a story, but not enough to comprehend. But, that's alright. Just sitting in the cafeteria is close to overwhelming her. Having to engage in a conversation would probably be-
"Hello!" A voice greeted her.
Yoru looked up, seeing a green-eyed girl sitting down in front of her.
"Hai." the child intoned in response.
The other kid blinked.
"You talk weird." She tilted her head. "You not from ██████ here."
"I…" Yoru stalled as she tried to remember the right word. "Moved."
"From where?" The brunette questioned.
"Japan." The way the name of her home country came out of her mouth felt like a stone rolling across the violet-haired child's tongue.
"Hmm…" The first grader sitting in front of her hummed. "Never heard of it."
"Made Pokémon." Yoru replied, almost muttering under her breath.
"Pokémon?" The other child's eyes lit up like twin light bulbs. "Ooh! I love Pokémon! My favorite is Pikachu! What yours?"
"Yogiras." The eldest twin relaxed, almost breathing a sigh of relief as the conversation shifted to something she could more easily understand.
"Hmm… I don't know that one." Ah, there goes that hope then.
The Wick grew silent as an uncomfortable atmosphere grew around the two. The cafeteria's din increased in volume as more and more students filtered into it. But despite the heightened noise level, the silence between the two ended up being the loudest thing to Yoru's ears.
"Umm, what's your name?" The brunette asked in an attempt to break the awkward stillness. "My name is Emma."
"Wick." The violet-haired girl replied. "My name is W- um, Yoru Wick."
"Why did you say your last name first?" Emma asked once more. "Is that because you come from Japan?"
"Yes." The purple-eyed girl nodded. "Tell names that way."
"Hmm." She hummed. "That's weird. Japan ██████ are weird."
The Wick stayed quiet at that. She wasn't being weird! The other child was being the weird one here! But no matter how much she wanted to say otherwise, Yoru kept her mouth shut. It's just the first day, she shouldn't be causing problems so soon.
Emma soon left her alone, moving down the folding bench to converse with other – less strange – children. No one else came to talk to her after that, and it wasn't hard to see why.
The Japanese girl stood out like a sore thumb, a speck of purple in a sea of browns and blacks. Her conversation with the brunette basically announced her un-Americanness to the heavens. Yoru's strange. And to children this young, strange isn't good.
The violet-haired child put her forearms onto the table and rested her cheek in between her elbows. She wasn't bummed out that no one was talking to her, she really wasn't! The Wick didn't want to interact with them anyways.
Her classmates were too different from what she's used to. They don't look like her, they don't eat like her, and they aren't speaking like her. The twin was supposed to be around them for the foreseeable future, but Yoru couldn't see herself talking to them like she used to talk to her friends back home in Japan.
The child closed her eyes.
No, Japan isn't her home anymore. New York – America – is the girl's home now. The place Ai, her mother, and she lived in wasn't theirs anymore. John had told her that her sister and mother moved. Both of them are now living somewhere far away from their old neighborhood. The Soviet's mansion is the only place where she has a space she can call hers.
Yoru breathed out a sigh through her nose. She picked her head up from the table and looked at the cafeteria's front entrances. Multiple grown-ups have walked through the red doors.
"The t████ers are here!" One of the kids sitting beside Wick excitedly called out.
'T████ers?' The purple-eyed child took a moment to process the word. 'Oh, those are the Sensei. They are dressed… very weird.'
The aprons she was used to her educators wearing were nowhere in sight. Instead, long pants, patterned t-shirts of various colors, and long dresses replaced them.
A brown haired woman moved toward their table. Her classmates curiously looked at her, excitement bubbling underneath their eager expressions.
"Good morning 1-209!" Yoru's gaze settled onto her new teacher. "Please █████ up and get into two █████!"
The six-year-old blinked in confusion for a couple of moments. Then, the sound of commotion could be heard further down the table. She turned toward the source of the noise, only to see that the rest of her classmates had already stood up and were walking down the length of the bench.
The child quickly deduced what her teacher must've said and quickly followed suit. She made her way to the back of the line and averted her eyes from the stares of her classmates.
'It's just the first day.' Yoru told herself. 'Everyone makes oopsies on the first day.'
But those words just rang hollow in her mind. They bounced around like rubber balls as she followed the class out of the cafeteria and up the school's narrow staircases.
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Classroom
"Good morning everyone!" Yoru peered up at the smiling woman from her spot on a carpet that seemed to depict a cartoonish American suburb.
The experience of getting there was… not something the girl wanted to repeat. She couldn't understand what her teacher was saying, and it took a humiliatingly long time hand waving and pointing for her to get it. And while she couldn't understand them, some of her classmates' whispers didn't sound nice.
"My name is Miss Lawson." The educator gestured at the name written on the whiteboard. "And I'll be your te█c█er!"
Ms. Lawson seemed to agree as well, given that she immediately shut down any whispering once Yoru was seated. But,that didn't stop the stares.
"Welcome to your █i██s█ day of █i██s█ grade!" The brunette clapped her hands together. "Are you all ███████?"
"Yessss!" A chorus of eager voices answered her.
"Very good!" The woman nodded. "Now, can a █████ █████████ tell me what day it is today?"
Several hands eagerly shot up into the air. Yoru peered around herself before resolving to do the same.
"Hmm…" Ms. Lawson hummed as she lifted her finger and swept it across the classroom. "How about you? █████████ yours███ to your new friends and say the ████."
Her finger stopped at a blonde boy sitting two spots away from the violet-haired girl.
"My name is Sammy and today's ████ is September fifth!" He confidently said before sitting back down.
"Very good Sammy!" The woman smiled at the student's answer. "Today's ████ is September fifth!"
'████ must mean date then…' Yoru mused to herself while the educator moved to the whiteboard. 'Or maybe it means day, but I already know the English word for it.'
"Do you ████████ having █████████ in █████████████?" Ms. Lawson asked, receiving several nods in response. "Well, it's a little bit █████████ here in █ir█s█ grade!"
"You'll all be learning a lot more this year." She divulged. "So, there won't be ████ for █████ and you'll start doing something called ███████████ today. Do you think you're █████?"
Yoru's classmates let out another chorus of affirmations in response to the teacher's question. Even though the girl couldn't understand what the brunette had said, the positive feedback of everyone around her must mean something, right?
"Great!" Ms. Lawson clapped her hands together. "I'll be giving you all some ██████████. I'll only be using them to see what I can help you all with, so don't █████ about getting the ███████ right or █████."
"Now, let's go back to our █████!" Upon hearing that, the students around the Japanese child all scrambled to their feet.
Yoru followed them, taking a seat at a rectangular table with three empty chairs. Two other children sat across from her, both being stragglers who weren't fast enough to get the seat they wanted. The three waited in silence until Ms. Lawson came over with their '██████████'.
'It looks like… a big problem paper.' The girl thought as the stapled stack of sheets and an orange pencil were placed in front of her. 'I think it's a test?'
"Please don't open it until I say you can." The educator announced. "You'll have two ███████ to finish the reading section. Remember, it doesn't ██████ if you get █████████ right or █████. Just try your best!"
"With that said, you can now open your tests!" Yoru flipped open her thick booklet and stopped once she saw the first question.
'I… I can't read this.' Her eyes widened in fear as she looked at the two paragraphs she's supposed to read. 'There're way too many words.'
The twin looked over to her two tablemates, but neither of them seemed to have any reaction toward the material in front of them. She blinked in surprise at their lack of emotion but quickly realized that's because English was their native language.
The girl snapped her eyes back to her own paper and let out a breath. She'll have to 'try her best' like the teacher said, but Yoru doesn't know if her best would be enough.
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Three and a half hours later
Cafeteria
11:31 AM
Yoru sat – almost slumped – at the lunch table with a stormy expression. The girl knew she didn't do too well on the exam, often resorting to circling randomly whenever she's completely stumped.
Her classmates circulated around her with trays of food in their hands. Unlike her preschool in Japan, schools in America seem to serve food to every level of the education system. But even as everyone around her was digging into their meals, the child wasn't eating. The combination of knowing she had likely gotten most of the problems wrong alongside the unappetizing appearance of the food made her content to stay still and wallow.
"Hey!" Yoru looked up. It was the brown-haired girl she had talked to this morning.
"Hai… Emma." Emma, that was her name, right? Green eyes, brown hair, and… the Wick couldn't remember what she was wearing. Hopefully she got her name right.
"Are you hungry?" Given the other child didn't object, she did get it correct.
"A… little bit." The twin replied.
"Why aren't you eating?" The six-year-old moved closer to her.
"Food no look good." Yoru replied. "No want to eat."
"But they tasty!" Emma protested against the foreign girl's dismissal of the school lunch. "Look!"
She shoved her plastic tray toward the violet-haired child. Yoru looked at the lumpy brown balls dunked in brown sauce before turning her gaze back at the American.
"Sorry, no look good." She shook her head before repeating herself, much to the other student's dejection.
"Come on!" Emma pressed on. "Try! You didn't even eat it! Chicken nuggies are good!"
"Sorry, no want to eat." Yoru shook her head once more. "No look good."
The brunette looked at the Japanese child before stabbing her plastic fork into the "chicken nuggies". Before the twin could wonder what she's going to do, the American shoved it into her face.
Yoru's eyes widened. Her eyes didn't see a white fork coming at her. The utensil's sauce-covered prongs morphed into the pointed end of a fruit knife and her stomach dropped.
'No…' The Wick thought. 'Not again.'
At that very moment, her brain stalled. The child's pupils narrowed into pinpricks as her eyes tracked the knife's movement. Although she hadn't prompted them to do so, her hands were already moving.
They shot up and intercepted the knife by seizing the wrist of the person holding it. The blade stopped in its tracks and Yoru slammed the limb onto the table.
*Thud*
"WAHHHHHH!!!!" A piercing cry snapped Yoru out of her haze.
The hand she smashed into the table wasn't holding a fruit knife anymore. A baked piece of processed chicken had been dislodged and now sat on the table with droplets of brown sauce scattered throughout the plastic surface.
The Japanese girl's grip slackened and Emma pulled her hand through her fingers. Yoru looked at the brunette, the noises of the cafeteria slowly being superseded by a high-pitched noise.
As the din got louder and louder, the child bit her lip. Her gaze wandered down to her hands, a torrential flood of static-like thoughts coursed through her mind. However, through the stream of mind-snow one stood tall like a rock in front of a waterfall.
'Why did I do that?' Reverberated throughout Yoru's head as she was led out of the cafeteria.
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One hour and twenty minutes later
12:54 PM
"Please come in, Mr. Wick." The school's principal called for Yoru's guardian.
John stood up and motioned for the girl to follow him. The child complied, getting out of the chair and making her way into the room. Yoru took a quick glance at the principal when she walked in, only to avert her eyes before she could see what the woman's expression was like.
"Finally." An exasperated female voice came just as Yoru took a seat.
"Good afternoon Mr. Wick." The head of the elementary school greeted the Soviet.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Consoli." The hitman returned her greeting. "I █████████ for not coming sooner."
"That's quite all right Mr. Wick." The headmaster assured him. "You had ████████ me that you worked in the city, so this was to be ████████."
"Why couldn't he have gotten her mother to come then?" The woman who was likely Emma's mother interjected as John nodded.
Yoru flinched at the mention of her mother. Her guardian put a gentle hand on the Japanese girl's shoulder, stopping the deluge of flashbacks even before they started.
"Yoru is adopted." He frankly answered. "And I am not ███████."
"I'm sorry Mrs. Jones, but we're getting a little bit off █████ here." Emma's mom opened her mouth again, but Mrs. Consoli quickly interjected. "Do the parents here know why they've ████ ██████ in?"
"Yes!" The Jones matriarch nodded. "Daniel and I came ███████ as soon as I █████ our little Emma was hurt!"
John just nodded in response.
"Great." The headmaster continued. "Now, I just want to ███████ this by saying that ████████████ are still ███████. The school doesn't know the full story ██████ what ███████, so we're hoping this ███████ can ████ some light on it."
"So, Emma." The principal turned to the brown-haired girl. "Please, can you tell us what happened?"
"Yoru and I were talking." The girl began. "And I want her to try my food! But when I make her try chicken nuggies, she grab my hand and hurt it!"
"That ██████ █████ too good." Yoru's mind was swirling. "███████, Yoru, can you ████ ██ ████ ████████?"
The Japanese girl couldn't understand what Mrs. Consoli was saying. The typhoon of thoughts drowned out every word the woman said. She couldn't translate the syllables and sounds quickly enough and struggled to remember what was said before another word took its place.
"█ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████." Emma's mother said something, but the child struggled to comprehend a word of it. "██ █████ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ████!"
"Mrs. Jones," John said the woman's name. His voice wasn't raised, yet it carried a warning like a sword.
"██████ ████ █████ ███████████ ██ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ ███████." Yoru couldn't understand what he said after, but her guardian didn't seem to be angry.
"Yoru." He placed his hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to say it in English if you can't understand."
The girl looked up at the hitman when he spoke in her native tongue.
"I'm not angry." He continued. "I know you're a good kid, but even the best kids sometimes do things adults don't agree with. Can you explain how it happened?"
The Japanese child looked down at her hands before dragging her eyes up toward John's face. His expression was unreadable, containing something she had never seen on a grown-up's face before.
"I thought she was going to stab me." Even though Yoru couldn't quite decipher what it was, she decided to trust him. "When Emma pushed the fork into my face, I thought it was a knife."
"I… didn't want to get stabbed again." The twin admitted. "I was scared."
The assassin nodded before turning to the other adults in the room. He spoke some words in English she couldn't quite catch, and the expression of the principal shifted. She said something to John, her tone one of concern.
After the Soviet responded to her once more, Mrs. Consoli opened her computer and started scrolling. A horrified look swept across the woman's face when the mouse stopped clicking.
The meeting ended soon after. Emma's parents – though, mostly her mother – protested, but some grave words from the headmaster soon quieted them.
The Jones family left first. Following their departure, Mrs. Consoli talked with John some more. Once again, it was a conversation Yoru wasn't privy too because she was too overwhelmed to even attempt to decipher their language.
After some goodbyes with soft tones, the Wicks left the school building and began the drive home.
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In the car
Ten minutes later
1:11
"John?" The hitman glanced at the rearview mirror, catching a split-second look at his ward.
"Yes, Yoru?" His eyes returned to the road.
"I… I'm sorry." Her voice wavered. "For causing trouble."
"You didn't cause trouble today, Yoru." John assured her. "Trouble found you."
"Doesn't feel different," Yoru replied. "Still made a mess of everything."
"But that mess wasn't your fault." The hitman flicked the car's blinkers and changed lanes. "That's the thing. It isn't your mess to clean up."
The girl sighed and leaned on the vehicle's window. Her gaze fell on the highway, eyes following the trees and white lines blurring by.
"Still not used to everything?" The Soviet remarked after several moments of silence.
"No." Yoru responded. "It's all confusing. I can't understand what everyone says sometimes. Everything is so different. I don't know if I can get used to it all."
"You will." John said confidently.
"You don't know that." She retorted with just as much doubt.
The two fell into another lull of quiet. The whirring of the car's wheel on the concrete highway being the only source of noise in the vehicle.
"Maybe you won't." The assassin admitted, much to the child's surprise. "But, I believe you can do it."
"You shouldn't expect too much from me." Yoru asserted. "You teach me English everyday, but I still can't understand my teacher."
"You understood more than me when I was your age." The man once again countered her self-depreciative comments. "I couldn't even speak English when I was six."
"Four months may seem like a long time right now," John continued. "But learning a new language takes a long time. The fact that you are this good at only four months is amazing."
"Hmm…" The violet-haired child hummed, slightly disappointed at the Soviet's answer.
"By the way," The Soviet remarked before yet another wave of silence could take over. "Your principal – Mrs. Collins – has suggested that I take you to a child psychologist."
"Child… psychologist?" The girl rolled the unfamiliar word on her tongue.
"Think of them as doctors, but for your feelings." The hitman elaborated.
"Why do you want me to go to a doctor?" Yoru sat straighter in her seat. "Is there something wrong with me?"
"No, I don't think so," John replied. "And it isn't a punishment for what happened today."
"The mind is complicated." The former Marine replied. "Even though you don't think there is anything 'wrong' with you, the things that happened clearly affected you. A psychologist will help you understand those things and help you manage them."
"What if…" The eldest twin started, but her words refused to let go of her tongue. "Nothing..."
"What if you didn't want to go?" The hitman immediately guessed what she was going to say. "I think going to a psychiatrist would be good for you. I'll book a session, but if you really hated it and never wanted to go back, then I won't make you."
"But can you promise me to give it a try at least once?" Yoru pursed her lips at her adoptive father's words before nodding.
"Okay." John glanced at his rearview mirror when his ward answered. "I… I can try it."
The man nodded in response. The trip home continued on without incident.
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A week later
Psychiatrist office reception
4:07 PM
*Ding ding*
Door chimes rang when John pushed open the front door. The receptionist working at the front desk glanced at the two from her desktop before standing up.
"Good afternoon." The bespectacled man greeted the Wicks as the hitman reached the table. "How may I help you?"
"I booked an ███████████ for 4:15." The assassin replied. "It should be under 'John Wick'."
*Click* *Clack clack* *Click*
"Doctor Kozlova is ready to see your daughter, Mr. Wick." The front desk worker informed John after a couple of clicks and key presses. "She's in room 107."
"Thank you." The former soldier thanked the receptionist before looking down at the Japanese girl. "Are you ready?"
Yoru looked up at him before silently nodding. It's been a week since her guardian had told her she's going to see a… psychologist – yeah, that's the word. But even as she answered yes, a sinking feeling remained in her stomach. Her heart pounded like an engine, quickening every step she took. Blood roared in her ears when they arrived at room 107.
"Do you need a moment?" As though he sensed the girl's trepidation, John didn't knock on the door.
"...No." She answered, the words tasting sandy on her tongue.
If the hitman thinks meeting with the psychologist can help her deal with her feelings, then she will meet with her. The child couldn't let her emotions control her again. Yoru couldn't let the niggling worm of fear rule her decisions. She needed to be brave, for both herself and for the people around her.
The assassin then knocked on the door, and a soft voice asked them to come in. John opened the oak door and, the child stepped inside for her first session.