Yurugi

About two hours later, Mikuta comes out, followed by Saione. Then, a couple of minutes after that, a car pulls up, with the aunt at the wheel. All three of them get up from the bench and calmly walk over to the car.

They all sit in the back seat.

They were driving along quietly. Aunt asked how their day had gone. All three of them replied in unison, sounding rather glum: «Fine».

Aunt glanced in the rear-view mirror. After making sure everyone looked okay — at least on the surface — she decided not to press them for more details.

Rain sat by the left window, Mikuta was in the middle next to him, and Saione sat to Mikuta's right, by the other window. Mikuta looked at Rain…

«What's wrong? You seem… too withdrawn».

«I've always been like this,» Rain muttered dryly.

In response, Mikuta just gave a small smile and gave him a brotherly hug — just like she had on that day before the catastrophe, when she'd seen his drawing.

Saione and Aunt Takihara noticed it but said nothing. Still, they couldn't deny that the scene was rather sweet.

Rain and Mikuta stayed like that for the rest of the ride home. When the car pulled up in front of the apartment building, all four of them got out and headed to the elevator. Inside, they pressed the button for the 16th floor. A couple of minutes later, they were in the apartment.

Aunt's husband was already there. He gave them a calm nod when he saw them all, and when his wife came over, he kissed her on the forehead. Everyone went to their rooms.

A few minutes later, they all gathered in the kitchen for dinner. Dinner was quiet. Afterwards, everyone went to their rooms to get ready for bed.

Years went by.

Rain was sixteen now. He was quite good-looking… but still just as empty inside, still just as cold.

The bullying at school got worse every year. By eighth grade, they'd started hitting him. But he never told anyone.

Even when he started having hallucinations, hearing whispers, and having nightmares, he kept it all to himself.

Even back when he'd been a normal kid — the kind who could laugh and smile easily — he'd always had this sort of restraint. He'd deal with the pain on his own, as long as no one noticed. Back then, that didn't happen very often. Now, though, he'd gotten better at hiding it. Still, sometimes the bruises and scratches on his skin gave him away — and Mikuta was always the first to spot them.

Whenever he had injuries, Mikuta would tend to them. A couple of times, she even tried to stand up for her brother. She was a senior now, in twelfth grade, about to graduate. But his classmates just ignored her — until the day she punched one of those popular boys, the ringleader of the group that had been bullying Rain.

And that popular kid?

Of course, he complained to his dad, who happened to be a well-known lawyer in town.

Just one phone call was enough to force Aunt and Stepdad to pay 230,000 yen in compensation for physical and emotional damage.

«What a crybaby,» Rain thought to himself as he watched the boy throw a tantrum. Rain had figured out long ago that Sakichi wasn't really strong at all. He just pretended to be, so he could fit in with the other kids and look«cool.» Rain knew the truth about him now: he was just a pathetic kid hiding behind his father's status, putting on an act of being cold and untouchable so people would think he was tougher than he was.

What a joke.

Rain had wanted to hit him for all his antics for a long time. But… after the whole scandal that supposedly happened «because of Mikuta,» he knew he couldn't. Aunt and Stepdad had paid up because Mikuta had done it. If he did something like that, no one would cover for him. Besides, he didn't want to rely on those two adults anyway. He didn't see the point.

He didn't feel dependent on them, which was why he wanted to handle all his problems on his own — unlike Sakichi.

A few days later.

It was February 17. A cool breeze was blowing, and it was snowing. Kanazawa was covered in snowdrifts of pure white.

Just an ordinary day — the same at school as everywhere else.

Arrive, lesson, break, lesson… and so on.

Rain Yurugi studied calmly all day long.

After school, he had extra classes in twenty minutes — unlike Sakichi. Mikuta also decided to take extra classes that day. And Saione, as you can probably guess, didn't go to school… She was twenty years old and was looking for a job, currently staying at home.

But after the regular lessons, when Rain went out to the schoolyard to get some fresh air, he felt someone pulling him by the wrist, dragging him somewhere. He tried to break free, but couldn't. They carried him to an alley not far from the school — about fifty metres away.

And, strangely enough, it was completely deserted there. Lovely, isn't it?

Peering at the figures in front of him, he saw Saichi and two of his friends: Haruka and Shisu. And they clearly hadn't come with good intentions.