"N-Naomi?"

I tugged on Naomi's sleeve a bit to get her attention. She looked away from the book on the infirmary desk and gave me a weak smile.

"Yes, Yuka?"

I frowned and blushed a little. This was so embarrassing…

"I have to pee…"

Naomi grabbed my shoulder and knelt down so she could look me in the eyes. "Is it an emergency?"

I nodded slowly. I'd been holding it since we woke up in this old school. I just didn't want to bother Naomi before…

"Well, I think there was a bathroom on the third floor. Let's go."

Naomi stood up and took my hand, leading me out of the infirmary. She was really nice. I wonder if this is why big brother talked about her so much…

Thinking about big brother made me start to sniffle a bit. Naomi stopped and looked down at me. "Is something wrong?"

"I miss big brother." I pouted, trying to hide that I was barely holding back tears.

"We'll find him. Don't worry."

I looked up at Naomi and she gave me a reassuring smile. I smiled back. We went back to finding the bathroom.

When we got back to the third floor bathroom, I ran into the first stall with a working door and took care of what needed to be done. Naomi was trying to hide it, but she was worried about her classmates. I didn't want to take up too much of her time…

I finished up and tried to open the stall door. It wouldn't budge. I checked the lock, but it had rusted away a long time ago. How did it stay closed?…

A splash came from behind me. I turned around and looked at the toilet. There was something wet oozing out of it, like it was backed up. I stepped closer and squinted my eyes a bit to get a better look. Suddenly a spurt of something red and disgusting shot up into my face.

I screamed out reflexively and backed into the door. I heard footsteps outside the stall, then Naomi's voice:

"Yuka! What's wrong?!"

"W-water's coming back out of the toilet!" The red spurts continued, and started to happen more frequently. "A-as blood!"

"Get the hell out of there!"

I turned and banged on the stall door. I tried pushing it, pulling it, kicking it. Nothing worked!

"The door won't open!" I cried, holding back tears.

I heard a banging sound on the other side of the door, as if Naomi were trying to break down the door. But the door barely budged.

"Yuka, can you climb out?"

I looked to the top of the stall. There was barely enough room for me to squeeze out, but I couldn't reach…

"I can't get high eno—" I felt my back splattered with something wet and screamed out.

"Yuka!"

I heard more banging on the door. I turned around and saw that the blood wasn't seeping into the other stalls. It was starting to pool and the toilet was almost covered in blood.

"Naomi! Help me!"

I screamed again as the blood flow suddenly became even faster, the blood level climbing up my legs. I shivered in disgust and started crying.

There were more footsteps outside, but it sounded like they were getting farther… was Naomi leaving me?!

Big brother… where are you?…

"BIG BROTHER!"

I shouted out at the top of my lungs as the blood engulfed my chest. I started to float a bit in the blood, but that just made it all even worse. I was crying so badly I couldn't even keep my eyes open.

Then I heard footsteps again, followed by something metallic hitting the floor. Suddenly, I heard Naomi's voice above me.

"Give me your hand!"

I opened my eyes and looked up to see Naomi was reaching through the opening above the stall. I kicked my legs to propel me upward through the blood and grabbed her hand. She started to pull me out, and I used my free hand to grab the top of the stall to keep from falling back in.

After a bit of struggling, we both landed on the floor just outside of the stall. I curled up into a ball and started crying, not wanting to deal with this anymore.

I sobbed into my chest for a few minutes until I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay, Yuka?"

I looked up and saw Naomi kneeling over me, a concerned look on her face. I grabbed onto her and started sobbing into her chest.

After a few minutes I started to feel embarrassed. Even if she was one of big brother's friends, I just met Naomi. I shouldn't be worrying her like this…

Naomi stroked my back, and I started to feel comfortable again. Being with Naomi felt like being with a big sister.

"Are you starting to feel better?"

I looked up at her and nodded. "Uh-huh."

Naomi smiled at me. I smiled back, not really sure what to do now. I thought of something and dug into my pockets to make sure I still had it…

"What are you looking for?"

"I had something in my pocket…" I pulled out the jar of caramel-scented beads and held it up so Naomi could see. "See? Beads!"

The jar had a few bloodstains, but you could still see inside of it. Naomi seemed puzzled when she looked at it.

"Beads? What are those for?"

I smiled at her. "These aren't just any beads. They're special. They're caramel-flavored, so they'll protect you from getting hurt… and something else too."

Naomi raised an eyebrow. "Really? What else do they do?"

I was about to tell her that it was a secret, but I noticed I had made her blouse all bloody and didn't want to deal with that just yet. "If you give them to someone special, it's supposed to let them know how you really feel about them."

Naomi smiled at that. "Did you have someone in mind?"

I frowned. I didn't really want to tell her. She'd get jealous. Besides, after seeing what Naomi was like, I didn't feel like I had a chance with him anyway…

"Not really!" I lied. "So I thought I'd give them to you. Be sure to keep them close, alright?"

I handed over the jar. Naomi's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, you don't have to give them to me, Yuka. They're your beads."

"Take it! At least keep them safe for now. If you don't want them, you can give them to big brother when we find him!"

Snickering, Naomi shook her head at me. "Are you trying to set me up with your brother?"

I shrugged innocently. "Maaaaaybe."

Naomi raised her eyebrow at me again. It looked like she was trying to figure out how to ask something, but couldn't put it into words.

"You saved me, Naomi. When we get out of here, I'd like you to be my big sister one day."

It was risky, using a half-truth to convince someone. But Naomi eventually snickered and took the jar of beads from me.

"Alright, I'll keep them for now. But no promises on the big sister thing yet."

I smiled and hugged Naomi again. I remembered the blood all over us and frowned. "Ugh… we're covered in blood."

Naomi sighed. "I almost forgot about that." She pushed me away gently and stood up. "Well, we aren't going to get clean here. Let's find the others and get out. I'm not resting until I get a shower, and you seem to have it worse than I do."

I chuckled. "Yeah…"

I stood up and took Naomi's hand. We left the bathroom behind and started looking for some sign of what happened to the others, or some way to get out. I was still a little afraid, but having Naomi nearby was comforting. I started to really believe we'd make it out of here.