The eyes of Tamura Akiko are blessed.

Some say that they look like dancing ginko leaves on a crisp autumn day, the setting sun casting an angelic glow through the pocket holes of trees.

Others disagree, preferring to reference the classic chrysanthemums. You can twirl in a garden of chrysanthemums, spring air flowing through your hair and the sickly sweet smell drawing you closer to the flower, and it would feel like looking into her eyes.

People envious of the girl claim that her eyes reflect the treasures she's privileged enough to see. The museums her father would take her to in both Japan and Europe. The uncovered Greek vases displayed under dazzling lights, Egyptian jewelry for all to fantasize over, and most importantly, all the world's sparkling gems set center stage for select few to see.

These hate filled people would argue over her eyes, claiming that they look like citrine, while others yell back that they look more like danburite, though there's a strong fight for topaz as well.

"Papa?" Ray Wilbur looks down at his daughter, her ink black hair contrasting with his own hay colored hair.

"Yes love?" He bends down, swooping the younger girl up into his arms for her to have a better look at the spectacle. Ray doesn't seem bothered by the reflected flames bouncing around his daughter's eyes.

"Why won't you go and save him?" Her little arm points to the automobile.

The firefighters have finally arrived, showering the death machine with water while the man stuck inside screams in anguish. There's a crowd of people gathered around, their eyes only holding pity, whereas Akiko's eyes hold something different.

Ray has never been the best at reading his daughter, and he supposes no one else will be able to either.

Akiko waits for an answer, arms wrapped around her father's neck as they both stare at the burning car.

"Hmmm, let's see.... Well, you know how daddy is a doctor, right?" Akiko nods her head, eyes blankly following the way the fire curls around its victim, and the screaming gets louder.

"What is the number one rule for doctors?"

This catches Akiko's attention, and she blinks out of her daze to stare at her father. He smiles, glad he's piqued her interest.

"Save lives?"

"Close," he taps her nose, "but not quite, love."

Akiko pouts, pressing her forehead against her dad. He pushes back with a smile and the two giggle despite the dying flames.

"Do no harm." Ray turns his head back to the scene, setting his daughter back down onto the cobblestone road before picking up his big leather physician's bag. Akiko knows what's in it, despite the countless times she's been told not to open it. She might "cut herself."

"Doctors must do no harm, love, and if I went in there to save him before the fire was put out then I would have harmed myself, right? Then there wouldn't be anyone to save that man, and I might have even gotten in the way of the firefighters if I ran out there." Akiko slowly nods her head in understanding before her father stands back up to his true height.

He towers over the kimono clad Japanese people, though some of the richer ones are accustomed to Western clothing already, donning suits and dresses. He starts to push his way through the crowd, ordering Akiko to stay put, and excusing himself as he bumps into people.

Our little girl doesn't listen to her father, crawling in between legs and stepping over getas to reach the front, where she watches her father with her fire lit eyes.

Akiko believes that her eyes sparkle like a princess tiara, and they glow like the new electric lamp she has in her room.

Akiko believes that they might even remind someone of taiyaki, but Ray laughed that off and so she had to change it to the lemon macarons she got to eat in France.

However, out of everything, she strongly believes that her eyes are gold. But that's only because her father and mother have golden wedding rings that Akiko loves to hold in her tiny hands. 

Her liking towards linking her eyes with gold is reinforced by her fiance.

It's her fiance that believes that her eyes look like liquid gold. He said that he's seen gold being melted and that it reminds him of her eyes. She remembers the day that he promised to make a bunch of money and craft a gold ring for the both of them.

How can she forget that? She cried for hours in her fiance's arms.

Other than that, he also said that they remind him of the rising sun. He even went so far as to say something like, "The warmth of the sun on your face after a cold snowy night is what my heart feels." Akiko loves how gently his words caresses her face. 

He even showed her the amber his father brought home one day, and claimed that because her eyes also look like the gem, that he would create an amber ring for her too, because one ring isn't enough for a princess like she. 

Her fiance finds a lot of things to compare her eyes to, and she's always her happiest beside him.

But despite all her good fortune, Tamura Akiko believes that her eyes are damned.

When going home to the family house in the mountains, Akiko saw a wolf tear a deer to pieces, a crow circling nearby to watch.

Ray told her that he didn't see anything, but Akiko insists that she saw it happen deep within the mountains. He claimed this to be impossible, because they were miles from the closest mountain.

Akiko remembers watching her grandpa fall over in the gardens, finally realizing how morbid the situation to be when a crow landed on top of the body a minute later to peck at the body. Akiko screamed that day, and Ray wasn't quick enough to save her grandpa.

There was a crow preening its feathers on top of her fiance's house when she came to visit on the day of her fiance's father's death.

He was lying on his deathbed, a calm smile on his face as his children wept around him. Akiko's father was checking his condition when his heart stopped beating, and Akiko remembers crying in her fiance's arms, the two of them curled under a futon together for the rest of the week.

Akiko's cursed eyes glance up to the soot scorched buildings, reminded briefly of her fiance, before spotting ruby orbs from a crow overlooking the spectacle. Her heart feels as if it's been coughed up her throat and her hands feel wet.

Topaz eyes stare blankly at her kneeling father, who removes his stethoscope from his ears. Akiko can see that the man's heart is no longer beating. Her father shakes his head at the firemen to confirm her observation.

The crow cries out once before beating its wings, soaring away. Others can't see the crow as it camouflages well with the night sky, but Akiko can.

She can see the crow.

She always sees the crow.

She continues to be haunted by that crow.

A year later when she's in the midst of class, surrounded by males, she catches sight of a crow that soars past the room's window.

Her teacher collapses and dies of a heart attack.

A year after that, she is on her way to visit her father at the hospital.

A crow's picking out of a trashcan in an alleyway before she arrives, and her father walks out of the OR a minute after she's walked into the building, his eyebrows furrowed and a rather upset look on his face.

Apparently, the person he was operating on had a solid chance at surviving, but flatlined on the table 2 hours into surgery. They weren't able to revive him, and Akiko spent her time doing the paperwork until night.

A month unfolds before Akiko, where she would constantly see a crow followed by death so close she could feel it breath down her neck.

However, after the month, she didn't see a single crow in Tokyo for a safe few years.

Until now.

She can see the crow.

13 years old and separated from her fiance since she was 8. He continues to live in the mountains.

Akiko is in the middle of writing a letter to her fiance, a soft smile on her face as she recalls the day's events.

She relives the new western cafe that opened up in Ginza, and how bitter the coffee tasted. Her mother, Hiratsuka, laughed at the face she pulled, though the two enjoyed some french pastries.

She remembers to ask about his siblings and his new brother, to ask how the other villagers are, and how her grandma is doing.

She goes off about how much she longs to see him, and how much she loves him, and how much she wants to hold his hand.

He'll most likely return the favor, hoping to see her shining eyes.

Akiko is about to sign off on the letter, wishing her fiance a happy new year, before a single noise outside her window stops the turning of her blood.

"Caw!"

The lead tip from Akiko's pencil snaps and it takes her a second to comprehend the noise. Akiko slowly looks up from her letter, sweat trickling down her face despite the cold winter air blowing in from her open window.

She always sees the crow.

It's perched on the building in front of her window, and it prances around the snow covered roof a few seconds before staring straight at her.

Akiko can see its beady eyes, and she feels a different vibe from this crow.

It's the same feeling she's been trying to ignore the past week and a half, convincing her mother and father to spend more time with her as to try and ease her mind. She spent more time with her friend this past week too, and sent her fiance as many letters as she possibly could.

She can never pinpoint the feeling, but it makes her want to throw up.

The feeling returns when she sees the crow, but she shakes her head.

"I'm a woman of science..." Akiko mutters to herself. "Curses aren't real," she lies through her teeth, "and that crow means nothing."

Akiko is about to close her window to rid herself of the sight of the crow when it cries again, beating its wings and flying off. Akiko leans out of her window to watch it fly away.

Elbows resting on the ledge and her chin in her hands, she blinks the new fallen snow from her lashes as her eyes continue to observe the crow.

"See? I haven't seen a crow in ages, anyway. But I wonder what one is doing in this snow-"  .

"Lady Akiko!"

The door slams open and Akiko jumps away from her window with a meek shriek.  Her maid stumbles into the room, looking like a mess, and Akiko doesn't look all too happy.

"Dear lord, Mika, you scared me! What's so important this late at nigh-"

"Your fiance!" She pants out, tripping over to a now deathly pale Akiko.

Her hands shake and the room drops to the temperature of an icebox as Akiko waits for her maid to catch her breath.

What Mika says next has bile crawl up Akiko's throat.

"The whole Kamado family has been murdered!"

She continues to be cursed by that crow.

Akiko's vision goes black and her liquid gold orbs are closed off from the world. Her maid rushes to catch her crumpled body, screaming for her employer to come and help.

Everything is a whirl as Ray rushes up the stairs to find his maid crying over his daughter's close to death looking body on the floor.

Tamura Akiko believes her eyes are damned.