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As the automatic shade of the lights in the room turns into an ambient shade of morning light, Neiru turns under the covers and slaps her alarm before it could begin ringing. Cautiously, she wiggles her fingers one by one to test for any strains. Good, nothing seems to be out of place. Fortunately, last night’s battle wasn’t too hard to handle.
Her hand slides off the alarm to the top of her varnished nightstand, where she placed her phone last night. Pinky slithers from her spot on the pillow and curls around her warm wrist, peaking at the phone. Neiru sticks her finger out, and predictably, Pinky licks the pad of it.
“Good morning, Pinky.” She pats the top of Pinky’s head and unlocks her phone with the thumbpad recognition. Aside from the devastating daily news, there was nothing to note on her phone, which was strange. Usually, there would be a barrage of texts even this early. She’s an early riser, but surprisingly, Rika wakes up earlier.
Speaking of Rika, she glances at the photo Rika took yesterday using her phone. Rika flashed a peace sign while Neiru tried to grab her phone back with a mouthful of noodles. She waves the slight prick of irritation to double-check the group chat. The last message was at 3 PM from the afternoon before.
Neiru waits a few moments, but no one’s responding. They haven’t read the message yet either. Neiru’s not the type of person to jump to conclusions but crossing out hypotheses one through seventeen; the one verdict she’s come to is that something’s wrong. Something is very wrong.
Tapping on Ai’s icon, she pauses before sending a short message.
She sends another message to Momoe.
No response. On a whim, she sends one to Rika too.
No response. What is going on here? At this point, she’s sitting on the edge of her bed, flipping through their previous conversations. Nowhere does it mention they had many activities planned for today. A chill crawls up Neiru’s spine as anxiety clings onto the recesses of her mind. An ache similar to the one her scar presents on any other day.
Her phone pings, interrupting her train of thought. Ai’s stray cat icon has never been a more welcomed sight than now.
Sighing, Neiru throws off the rest of the covers. Rika's not answering her texts which means she'll need to go visit her. Though Rika never properly shared her address, Neiru knows where it is from the information Rika gave. Long ingrained habits sharpened with a goal gets her ready in half the time she usually takes. She’s down by the lobby by 9 AM sharp.
“President,” her secretary greets her at the front desk.
“I may not be back until this evening or tomorrow afternoon at the latest. I’ll notify you if things change.”
“Understood. The driver is ready with the coordinates loaded onto her GPS.”
“Thank you.”
The bar is hidden between a residential area, making it near impossible to drive through the neighborhood. So she walks the four blocks until she’s in front of her destination. The sign on the front door says, Closed. Opens at 5 PM. An excellent time for business to bloom when most of the workforce ends their day and the workers can drink their misery away.
Neiru slides open the door instead of knocking on it. She’ll make an excuse on the spot, along the lines of Rika inviting her over for a group project.
The bells at the top of the door ring, but seemingly no one’s here to chastise her. “Pardon the intrusion,” Neiru says out of habit and softly closes the door behind her. She wrinkles her nose. The place reeks of alcohol and lingering amounts of nicotine — which makes sense because it’s a bar. That doesn’t mean she has to like it.
Glancing around, there’s a lady at the bar — Rika’s mother presumably — fast asleep surrounded by glasses half full of liquid inside and ashtrays littered with used cigarette butts. Doubtful she’ll wake up anytime soon.
She takes off her shoes and puts them on the rack by the door. It’s small and cramped, and in the corner away from the countertops, there’s a karaoke machine. Neiru’s best guess is that Rika’s room is behind the noren. Giving one last cursory glance at the woman, she moves past the curtains towards the stairs on her left.
Of course, Rika’s door would be full of stay-out signs. Neiru knocks three times.
“Go away.” Rika’s voice is muffled behind the door.
“It’s me.”
“Go away!” The door shakes with the force of the thing Rika threw at it.
Neiru counts to ten, giving Rika the chance to calm herself. “Not until I find out what’s wrong.”
For a fraction of a minute, Neiru doubted that Rika would respond until she heard Rika mutter in a quiet defeated voice, “This isn’t a problem you can solve.”
“I’m a genius. I can solve it.”
“…go away…” Rika repeats, with a large thump against the door.
Precisely after three minutes have passed, Neiru frowns, thinking up another way to get Rika’s attention. Neiru more than matches Rika in pure stubbornness, and if Neiru has to bribe her, she will. Neiru should have had the foresight to bring something up to eat. She’s most receptive to food, after all.
On her way down, she keeps as quiet as possible, but it seems that wasn’t necessary. Rika’s mother lifts her head, blinking.
“Good morning, ma’am,” Neiru greets cordially, her mind filtering through the thousands of excuses until she settled on the one earlier. “I’m Rika’s classmate. We had a group project together.” Which isn’t technically a lie since they share the same burdens.
“A friend? Rika hasn’t told me she was friends with a pretty girl like you. You almost look like a model.” Rika’s mother drunkenly spills, her line of sight out of focus. “Help yourself to the house, kid, but no booze until you’re twenty!”
“Yes ma’am.” Neiru nods stiffly.
Rika’s mother’s head dips back down into the crook of her elbow, and she waves another hand weakly in the air. “There’s eggs and toast, but that’s about it. Need to shop… later...”
Neiru takes that as blanket permission to use their kitchen. Rika’s been such an awful influence on her. There isn’t much in the fridge, but she has all she needs for a simple breakfast.
Cracking an egg at this point is second nature, the shells aside. Maybe if Neiru draws a smiley face the way Ai taught her, Rika might crack a little. Crack, ha, Neiru chuckles at her little joke.
“I have food.” Neiru knocks on the door again, carefully balancing the tray with a plate of sunny side eggs, utensils, and a water bottle.
“Not hungry.” The loud growl that follows tells a different story. A pause, and Rika laughs dryly, mumbling something that Neiru wasn’t meant to hear. “Maybe I should starve myself like Chiemi...”
“Eating breakfast will make you feel better,” Neiru says factually.
“I killed my child,” Rika blurts out. The admission of guilt makes the gears in Neiru’s brain stop before the spark of rationality starts overclocking her thought process.
“What happened?” She needs more information before she can make a conclusion.
“I got him killed.”
Neiru struggles to hold the sigh back. No doubt it'd frustrate Rika into ignoring her. "Who was killed?"
"...Mannen..."
“Who killed him?”
“ME!”
Clearly, they were getting nowhere with this. The eggs will rot before she gets a straight answer out of Rika this way. “You’re rude,” Neiru starts, plain and simple. “Abrasive. Stingy. Manipulative.”
“…are you trying to start a fight?” Rika scoffs.
“But you’re not a murderer,” Neiru says, keeping her tone even. Thoughts of Ai’s fierce protectiveness and Momoe’s gentleness adds warmth to her following words. “You love him.”
“And that got him killed!!”
Putting together the pieces of information, it was more likely that Mannen had saved Rika. No wonder it was a devastating blow.
“Rika. Open the door.”
No answer… except maybe a few thuds.
“I’ll pick the lock if I have to.”
“You’re stubborn.”
“Who do you think influenced me?”
The doorknob turns and Neiru comes face to face with Rika’s glare, keeping an impassive expression.
“There. Now go away.” Rika glares at her from behind the door.
Neiru stares at the bags under her eyes and the reddening wound on her forehead, dried blood caking the skin around it. She pries the door open using her foot and steps beside Rika.
“Our bodies may be immortal in the other world, but they’re just as fragile as anyone else’s in this world.”
“Did you come here to lecture me?”
“No.” Neiru places the tray down on top of the messy table, then stands to one corner in the small room, examining all the contents of her room thrown away and everything. “I came here to check on you.
“Well you have. So get.” Rika doesn't raise her voice nor does she make eye contact.
“You’re not going to chase me out after I’ve come all this way.”
Neiru holds her arms out.
Rika raises her head. “…what are you doing?”
“A hug…” she admits. “Should I hold my arms ten degrees higher?
Rika’s face makes a contradictory expression. Her eyebrows furrow, her mouth is slanted, but the corner of her eyes crinkle.
“You suck at this.”
“I’m aware of that.” Neiru frowns. “No need to dig it in.”
“Yeah well, the mighty Neiru has things she’s bad at too.
Her humor has come back. That’s good.
Rika nearly tackles Neiru, the force causing Neiru to lose her balance for a split second before she regains her footing. “Mannen he’s….” she starts but abruptly stops. “What a horrible mother I am. I turned out just like my own mom…” She doesn’t sob, but it’s a cry all the same. “You’ll leave me too, won’t you.”
Somehow, Neiru feels like she’s not talking about herself for once.
“I will. But it doesn’t mean I won’t come back.”
Rika’s arms tighten around Neiru’s neck, and in the dim glow of the sun from the curtained windows, Rika looks like a scared little kid — the kind that Neiru never got the chance to be. Neiru curls her arms around Rika’s waist, like a snake’s coils.
(Neiru isn’t a person that forgives easily, and whoever made Rika miserable is no exception.)