I've finally got around to chapter 11.
Chapter 11God help her if she was indeed hearing voices of random acquaintances of hers echoing in her own head and insulting her even. She wasn’t dumb! But what was she thinking, attempting to rebut the voice that doesn’t even have a body.
“I have to lay off the stress…” The usually perky woman groaned to herself as she quickens her steps in hopes of getting home soon for a cold shower to clear her head.
<i>”You’ve to lay off the Yoshizawa if she’s giving you this much issues.”</i>
“Oh, shut up. What do you know? You’re just a nonexistent voice- What the hell am I doing?!”
<i>”You’re talking to yourself, Ishikawa. You’re going crazy.”</i>
The voice in all its sarcastic nature replied the surprised woman. At first intending to snap back at the voice again, Rika clammed her mouth shut and kept walking. If she would just stop entertaining that voice, maybe it’ll go away.
<i>”Hello, are you there?”</i>
The voice pushed again, wondering why there weren’t any more responses.
<i>”Ishikawa? Hey, I know you’re there... Are you? How does this thing work?! Wha- Ow!</i>
Listening to the Fujimoto-like voice talking to herself was rather amusing to Rika, but as she had intended, the voice did stop eventually albeit arupbtly. She had wanted to worry for a moment there, but remembering how it was just her imagination after a day of nothing that made sense, the voice was probably just her tired mind playing tricks on her.
- - - - - -
<b>Thud!</b>
It was like falling off a three-storey building and landing on her precious butt. Even as a trapped soul, she still wore some sort of garment and she still felt the choking sensation from around her neck caused just moments ago, which pulled her back to the usual irksome abyss.
“My mistake to underestimate you…”
Her assailant looked down at her thoughtfully, rubbing his imaginary beard as if thinking of how to deal with her.
“Get to the point.” Miki grumbled while adjusted her clothes and attempting to get up after her untimely fall.
“I thought it was weird when you weren’t playing my conscious again… so I thought to check on you…”
“And how do you do that? Close your eyes and bam you’re here?”
The sudden long silence between them made Miki think twice about her guess. But the other quickly picked himself up and continued.
“I didn’t think you would be able to figure out how to contact the outside world… Who were you talking to?”
“No one you’d be interested in.” Miki folded her arms and turned her back on the man.
“But I’m very interested.”
“But I’m <i>not interested in telling you anything</i>.” A slight turn of the head and the man was sent an infamous death glare. But that did not faze him one bit.
“That’s fine.” He simply replied to the woman’s stubbornness.
A smile, and he was gone, leaving a bewildered Fujimoto in the dark again.
“What the fuck was that about?”
- - - - - -
“How long has she been like this?”
“Since this morning, before we even got here.”
”So she’s just staring at it?”
“Yeah… look, her breakfast is still untouched.”
“That reminds me, I’m hungry.”
“You better not try to take it. And it’s cold! That’s gross.”
“It’s still food! Who cares? I doubt she’ll notice at this point anyway.”
A mischievous pair of hands stretched out in attempt to snatch the plate of cold bacon and eggs, while the others nearby just stared in anticipated horror. Although the woman seated opposite of them appears to be turned off right now…
Smack! “Ouch! What the hell…”
“I told you not to try it, Reina.”
”Yeah, Eri did that too and SMACK! Poor girl…”
“Sayu! Why didn’t you tell me earlier then?”
“Well… Uhm… Look on the bright side! You two have matching red hands now!”
Sayumi quickly adverted the question and took her friends’ hands to make a comparison. Reina’s was freshly raw from the sudden slap, and Eri’s was healing rather slowly. After some petty arguing about loyalty and friendship, the three girls decided not to further disturb the dazed Musume seated in front of them for the sake of their lives and all three slumped back again their seat in thought.
“What’s she staring at anyway?” Reina crouched down slightly to catch a glimpse of the cover page of a magazine the stoned women was staring blankly at.
“Friday?!” She yelled in surprise, her voice cracking slightly.
“Shhh! You’re too loud!” Eri pulled the yankii back down to her seat in a fluster.
“Why’s Takahashi reading Friday, I thought <i>she</i> thought that it was all just bullshit.”
“Who knows? Maybe she saw herself in it.” Sayumi kindly suggested with some doubts and a playful grin.
“Hah, yeah right. What can she possibly do to be featured in that piece of nonsense? She’s boring.”
“Reina!”
“But what could be so interesting? Hmm.” Sayumi hummed, trying to pose as a curious detective.
“Aa! She blinked!” Eri exclaimed and withdraw against the seat while the other two were still busy with wild speculations. But that stopped immediately.
Timidly, they all stiffened and carefully watched Ai set the magazine down beside her. All this while expressionless, she got up from her seat and wandered away.
“Ok! I officially declare that weird beyond all reasons even if spacing out is her thing.”
Once Ai was out of sight, Reina slammed her hands on the table as she got up. The timely smack to her delicate hands earlier was enough to trigger her yankiness for the rest of the day. She bent over to grab the magazine and fell back down on her seat. While her two better friends were busy mourning over the loss of Ai’s kinder personality, she began to flip through the pages hoping to find an answer.
“She’s right. What’s with Ai-chan today?” Sayumi pondered, tugging at her pigtails and it’s tangled locks.
“She wouldn’t hit us even if she was our mother…” Eri was about to go on when Reina started nudging her continuously. “What is it?”
“I think I know what’s wrong with our lovely leader. Hey, Kame… Remember the sissy boy?”
“Your brother?”
“What? My brother’s not- No! I meant our makeup artist!”
‘Oh, <i>that</i> one. Something wrong with him?”
“Definitely. Still remember your best friend?”
“Sure, they’re sitting with me right now.” Eri beamed happily and pulled Sayumi and Reina close to her in a one-sided group hug. The girls smiled but that wasn’t Reina’s point. She pulled away quickly.
“The other one!”
“The other one?”
”Get to the point, Reina” Sayumi was already leaning forward in attempt to reach for the magazine after being fed up with playing guessing games involving Eri as a player.
“You guys are no fun.” Reina held the magazine page up which had a short article yet a very large and high quality photo printed in the top corner. The turtle and hare duo gasped in surprised.
“That’s our sub leader!”
“In the arms of someone that’s not our leader in a suit!”
Reina scoffed at the latter remark and pulled the magazine away. “It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? Our sub-leader got hooked to some guy so quickly. If she liked androgynous people like these…”
“I’d know a much better and safer candidate.”
“Ohh, do you now, Sayumi?” Reina countered the narcissistic girl’s knowing look with an amused one of her own.
“Do you think we should help them out though?” Eri interrupted the girls’ mental battle of wits and took the magazine from Reina, analyzing the photo carefully.
“They’re adults, they can handle it. We shouldn’t be a bunch of busybodies.”
“We should be an audience then, right? But first, let’s lunch! ”
Reina and Sayumi didn’t seem to be too bothered by the seriousness of the scandal, and gleefully raced to the buffet table in the cafeteria. Eri however, stayed behind in thought.
Risa wouldn’t risk her career for some guy, Eri was quite sure of that. Something was also incredibly fishy about the photo… but what?
- - - - - -
“Have you found the Guardian?” The unique and feminine voice rang out in the hallway, stopping beside someone slightly taller than herself.
“I’m still working on the search.”
“I insist that you pick up your efficiency, <i>Sakurai</i>. This is no game that we’re playing.”
“My apologies. The Guardian is however, a rather evasive person.”
“I expect better news when we next meet then.”
Sakurai turns and walks away in the opposite direction from his acquaintance, looking solemn and quiet.
“A little while more and you’ll have your Guardian, my dear Sonobe. Just a little.”