A month had passed since my injury, it was now summer break. As I looked out my window to view the nearby trees sway in the cool summer breeze, the screeching of the cicadas wasn’t the only thing that broke my usually mannered temper to a grinding halt. What lay next to me, with sheets thrown in haphazardly, threaded in between her feet and waist was a certain Aika Yamaguchi, who was now a regular at the Hayashida household. Because of “circumstances” as she likes to call it, Aika has a lot of free time now. For the past month, we have been talking, strategizing, and planning our next move. If all turns out well, we will be able to move forward with our plan. My leg has… for the most part, healed. With Nakamura now on our side, moving forward with the plan should be a breeze. But that’s easier said than done… there’s so much we still don’t know, and Nakamura’s knowledge is limited. There’s that cm height added to the hurdle that could lead to us tripping up and fucking up any chance of success in our mission.

“We use Nakamura’s fob to gain access to the main building, from there we use the layout of the building Nakamura gave us to find Jacob Barron's office.”

The plan, this incredibly convoluted, hard to follow plan, left me feeling confused. I read it over and over in my mind. There was so much my mind had omitted due to how longwinded and thought-crushingly painful it was to remember. It was only now when my agoraphobia was fully realized, that any tiny fuckup within the plan would spell disaster for all of us. As for a plan B, if things do go wrong… well, she’s still thinking about that.

Whilst the rainy weeks had passed, it was now replaced with the heat and torture of the midsummer blues, that feeling of being completely paralyzed by the sun's unmatched temperature. This feeling of fatigue, this feeling I know all too well… I hate it.

“I feel like I’m gonna be-”

Audible gasps of air were heard from the toilet as the vomit hit the side of the toilet bowl. I was in such a rushed panic that my aim was a tad off when forcefully projectile vomiting into the toilet bowl. This was the worst pain of my entire life. This feeling was pain encapsulated. I had no control over my own stomach, and I just saw Aika staring at me with a confused look in her eyes.

W-w-why are you just looking at me like that?! Get a doctor or something! I'm literally dying from pain!

After a couple of seconds, it stopped. “Ooohhh… Goooood!” I was bawling in angry tears, why now all of a sudden? What the hell caused this? What?

After a month of relative peace, it hit me like a train when I found myself lying on the floor with vomit dripping from my mouth, I got to get a better look at Aika’s face, it wasn’t that she was confused, more like she didn’t even know what she had to do in that situation, like she had never had experienced this before in her life. I don’t blame her, though. I’m sorry that you had to see such a pathetic side of me. I don’t take pride in it, myself. Please understand this is not something I plan to show you often… so don’t think you’ll have to get used to it.

She approached me slowly, gently laying at my side and put her hand on my back and said, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay, I’m okay~”

“Maybe we should tell your mother?”

“Don’t bother, she’ll be down my neck all day about this, speaking of which… what are we gonna do about this?”

This was a spectacle to behold.

“Grab a sponge and cloth.” Aika said walking off. I stared at her dumbfoundedly.

“There’s no helping it…” This task would be utterly disgusting and yet… Aika had a straight face the entire time. With any luck we could make a game out of how much of my vomit we can manage to clean up amongst ourselves, otherwise the two of us aren’t going to see eye to eye anymore.

August was rearing its ugly head, meaning more heat, more humidity, and that feeling of wanting to do nothing being ever-so-present. But it also meant that this term was coming to an end, we were set to journey to Akihabara, I wasn’t excited to go really, I mainly used it as an excuse to look at hardware and novelty items, but besides that, there isn’t really anything else you can do in Akihabara.

“So where did you say we were going, again?”

“Do you know of that cafe near the school?”

“Oh yeah, I know that one, that’s the one my mom used to always take me to, what about it?”

“I want to go there.”

“L-like right now? Why?”

“I just want to.” I sighed begrudgingly, “You’re the boss.”

"Besides, it might be nice to take your mind off of things." She made an excellent point, I haven't been to that cafe in some time, I wonder if anything has changed since the last time I visited?

“Welcome in!”

We sat down at a nearby table, Aika sitting opposite of me.

“Are you just having a drink?” I asked.

“No, I think I will have something to eat as well, something light.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Maybe something like… a sandwich… maybe~”

“I think they have those on the menu, and for drinks?”

“Some milk tea will do.”

She took a sip from the hot cup of tea, her elegancy was only bottlenecked by the shaggy looking clothes she wore, clothes that hadn’t been washed in nearly a month, apparently she has no idea how to use a washing machine, my mother even offered to do it for her but she respectfully declined, saying she ‘didn’t want to be a bother.’

“Are you feeling better, after this morning?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess getting all that out of my system had some positive effects on me.”

She lightly smiled, “That’s good to hear, but.." she stared at me deadpan in the eye.

"About this morning... this incident, if you will. I suspect that it was not a random incident. Whether or not it was a side effect of all the tests them people did on you, or some external trigger, is yet to be seen."

"This morning... huh~" I thought back to the moment I was sick, that shit really was a disgusting sight to see, Aika was so calm too. Even though I tried to put up a strong font, I was terrified out of my mind. I've never thrown up before, that was my first time, and my entire body was shaking from the shock.

Yeah... it was horrible but weirdly different from what I imagined it would be like. Not horrible in the sense that I didn't feel well, or my stomach was upset, but because of this fear of mine, it felt like it had been lying dormant inside of me for so long, not knowing what it was exactly, but I knew it was there nonetheless, and me throwing up was the catalyst for that fear to be finally realized.

"It was fear, I think."

"Fear?"

"Yeah, I was scared when I threw up." Aika looked me dead in the eyes, the same eyes from before.

"What do you mean?"

Aika... them eyes... the other customers are looking at us.

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"Well... it's like I said... I felt really scared when I started to vomit, I don't know, I just couldn't control it and..."

She gave me this dejected sigh, maybe discussing it now wasn't a good time, we came to this cafe to get our minds off of the 'incident' that happened this morning.

"Welcome in!"

The doorbell dinged, Aika pierced right behind my shoulder, glaring at the person who had just come through the door.

"Ha?! W-what the hell are you doing here?!"

"I should be the one asking that question! What are you doing here?" Nakamura scuffled over to me and Aika with that 'annoyed' face, as if she was saying, 'you two are the last people I want to see today.'

"You two..." Oh god, here it comes.

"Is it your goal to try and get me in shit? If we're seen together in public, that'll put me in hot water." Aika was glaring off into the distance, hand on cheek, ignorant to Nakamura's combative speech.

"I would expect this from someone like Yamaguchi, but you too?" W-wait... me? Why me? What have I done? And why does it feel like I haven't been able to live up to someone's expectations all of a sudden?

"Would you mind silencing yourself? God, you're annoying..." Aaaaiiiiikkkkkaaaaaaaa~~~! For fuuuucks saaaaakee~~~!

"Come again?" Right now everyone in the cafe was looking at us.

"If I didn't make myself clear the first time, I'll say it again more slowly this time; I guess there's no helping it though... be - quiet."

Ironically enough, Nakamura's declaration to us both that she and we shouldn't be seen in public together, also meant that they had to draw as much attention to each other as possible through snarky jabs thrown each others way, so much for all that secrecy, I guess.

Nakamura gritted her teeth and took a deep breath. She put on a new face and smiled back at me and Aika. "Do you guys mind if I join you?" I guess we're starting fresh then... anyway, Aika did let her at the table, both letting their guard down. That entire time I had to bury my head in shame, there was this elderly lady that was just looking, not at them, but at me, the entire damn time... the entire... damn...

Time.

Wait.

What.

I slowly lift my gaze upwards, slowly looking past my shoulder. She took a sip from her coffee. Whilst Aika and Nakamura were still talking, I felt singled out by this women's gaze.

"Aika, please hear me out."

"Eh? Oh, what is it, Yuuki?"

"We need to go, now."

"What do you mean, now? We only just got here?"

"Just listen to me, on my right shoulder..." Her pupils began to dilate.

"Let's get going."

"What? Yamaguchi! Oi! We're not done talking!" Aika grabbed me by the arm and dragged Nakamura by the hair out of the cafe.

Were they looking because of what happened with Aika and Nakamura, or...

"What was all that about suddenly? Dragging me out of there like that... you hurt my goddamn head!"

"It seems your utter stupidity in joining us here today has finally caught up with you, Nakamura."

"Ha? The hells that supposed to mean, huh?"

"Was I being too paranoid? Was that really the right call to make?"

No, I'm sure it was, that elderly lady was staring right at me. Looking back at it, it seemed like everyone in that cafe was uneasy, even before Aika and Nakamura made that scene in front of everyone. If this was the case, and my assumption was right, then... what would that mean for us?

"Oi, yer' goddamn brats! Thinkin' you can order from us and walk off without payin', huh?"

"Oh crap, it's that weird-looking bitch with the wonky eye from when I came in!" Aika exasperated mockingly.

"H-...Huh?!~" She stood there, unable to move. Knees weak, she fell to the ground.

"My eye..."

"IS NOT WONKY!!!"

"Aika!? What the hell that was so mean!"

"What are you talking about, Yuuki? It worked, did it not? She has been rendered immobile without a doubt thanks to my elaborate wording."

"W-w-w-what are you two doing! Run! both of you!"

"Ooohh~ right!"

"My eye..." She clenched her fists into the air, "it isn't wonky..."

"Thank goodness... that was a close one... Oi, Aika! If you hadn't dragged me out of the cafe like that, we wouldn't be in this position right now! What was all that about anyway...? You both looked really spooked."

"So I'm assuming you didn't see it, perhaps if you weren't caught up in your own arrogance, you would've noticed that the elderly person behind Yuuki, seemed to be one of your goons... 'seemed to be a tad fixated on our Yuuki here..."

"Hold on a sec... you didn't even notice her until Yuuki pointed her out!"

"Ehem-... t-that's beside the point. Look, it doesn't matter who looked at who first, let's just be glad we made it out of there unscathed."

"And without the cops being called on us... thanks for that one, you two..."

"But weren't you just saying a minute ago tha-" She put her finger next to Nakamura's lip.

"Shh shh shh... quiet now. We might have gotten away but we don't know whether or not they're still following us or not... quite the predicament we're in if I do say so myself..."

For crying out loud...

"I actually did my hair this morning to... and then you..." Blood welled up within Nakamura's face.

"You went and ruined it!" It actually looked like she was ready to bawl out into tears.

"Aika!" I couldn't think of an adequate response, and I'm not best suited or equipped to deal with these types of situations.

Fumbling over my words, I managed to let out an, "Are you okay?"

"Damnit! Just leave me alone!" What else am I supposed to do? Shit... I stared at Aika for answers but all she left me with was this befuddled face.

"What's the point? In any of this? The three of us are just gonna die anyway... they know... THEY KNOW! Everything...! My life... might as well be over at this point... even if I did get some stupid fake ID and moved to a different country, they'd still be able to find me, they're smart like that... I've seen what they're experimenting with... if they have the power to do all that then they'll know how to track me..."

So this was what she was worried about, all this time and I never noticed... why am I always like this? Why can't I ever read the room? How many times has this happened before? Nakamura, no, Mao...

"I'm sorry, for not knowing up until now. It was selfish of us to make you do all of this for us, and now... we've put your life on the line."

"That's not-..."

"Nakamura." Aika lifted out a hand to Mao.

"Whatever it takes, I will get you to that plane, and you will not have to live out the burden of forever being on the run.”

“You promise?”

“Yes.” They shook each other's hand, I guess you could say that they had some sort of solidarity with each other through their situation. Aika, who wanted nothing more than to die, and Mao, who wanted nothing more than to live.