Katanashi Mutsumi, until this day, still doesn't know what particular issue led her to gamble her life away that the cool autumn evening. She was unceremoniously terminated from her job without explanation, and that was what she was most conscious about at the time. Then, of course, there were her family issues. Then, there was her problem with forming proper relationships and intimacy . But none of these by themselves would have pushed her to try and throw herself off of a hospital rooftop. Was it all them together? That appeared to be the only far conclusion. But Office Lady always prided herself on being a cool head, of remaining collected even in the most desperate of situations. After all, her life up until Christmas Day, had been one long endless series of strife, and she always imagined a way to keep herself together and remain strong. Throwing herself off that roof seemed so out of character for her, and the strangest thing about the affair was that she never intended to commit suicide. Her college days may have been only a distant memory, but she did remember learning one thing from her psychology class, and that was that suicides were, as a general rule, planned out in advance. She never planned to kill herself. Rather, it was safer to say that she was distraught with some strange and terrifying sensation, almost like something had possessed her. She just remembered almost hearing this voice telling her to climb on the roof, and to, "just jump off," weirdly calmly, almost matter-of-factly, as if no other option could ever become available. "It's not like you have anything to live for, Matsumi-san," the voice pointed out, "You have no job. You're old and unmarried.

You're a freak and a pervert who cannot form a proper romance."
"It would be better for you, and for everyone, if you just killed yourself. After all, you're just a waste of space."
And Mutsumi simply remembered herself nodding. "You're right," she said. "You're right." And in a moment where all fear was gone, and strange calm, an evil calm, passed over her, she surrendered to the demand of the voice, and she went limp and dropped herself from the top of the hospital.
She must have gone insane, she thought to herself a few days after the episode. But she never had a repeat of the episode. Going back to ol' psych 101, she also recalled that schizophrenia was usually a life long condition that stayed with the patient as she went about her life, it didn't just come and go. Also, despite what movies and books may say, the voices rarely if ever actually talked to you or issued commands.
But in hindsight, it may not have been so hard to believe that Matsumi had, in fact, gone temporarily insane and that it was safe to say that she 'lost her cool.' It didn't take much scrutiny to any outside observer to see that the entire year of 2XXX was the worst year of Matsumi's life. The worst of a series of increasingly terrible years. For, you see, Matsumi had just turned 26, which in her country in this particular time and place, was a hard age for a young woman because you suddenly found yourself old. There's an old joke that a woman at 25 whose unmarried is doomed to be an old hag, and Matsumi was in her second year. Matsumi never advertised her relationship status, or rather lack thereof to anybody, but still she knew people were talking and that she was developing a reputation. Most of the women her own age had been promoted to the coveted position of housewife, pined for by every right-minded schoolgirl across the country, but then again, Matsumi never was right-minded, as her dear parents loved to point out. Those who remained had desks decorated with a special loved one, marked by a framed portrait of their newly-found husband, the wedding glow still irradiating off of it. Most of them; however, were now on maternity leave.

She had become almost an untouchable in the office. Sure, they all worked with her, but outside that, they shunned her like a leper. She ate alone, she never went out with her employers after work. It was weird how this fall from grace happened so quickly. Last year, when she had just turned 25, all the guys in the office kept badgering her about how she should marry them and save herself from the horrors of becoming an old hag, which she loathed. Then, once she turned 26, nothing. Which was fine by her, because she hated them anyway. The only thing she could live without was the constant gossiping. She HATED the constant gossiping. Every time she walked into the staff room, onto the office floor, it was always the same. "Oh, she's hopeless," they would say, either man or woman, "I mean, she must really be some sort of weirdo if she's not married by now. She'll probably never find someone."

In all, she could live with this working arrangement, even if the gossip drove her nearly to the brink of madness sometimes. But it was her family that drove her into endless depressions. She knew that she shouldn't hate her own family, but she did. She hated them, with a passion. And things only worsened when her sister of only 22 years of age found herself a husband before her.

"When are you going to get yourself a man in your life?" her mother berated her, "A proper man! I bet your still kissing girls!" she said, in reference to an instance from her high school years where she dated a friend of hers in secret. It was eventually outed, much to her disgrace. And much to Matsumi's disgrace, her mother was right. She still went out with many women in secret, much to her shame. "Your sister is younger than you, yet she's married and is living a normal life, yet you continue to be a burden to us!"

"A burden," Matsumi replied, "a BURDEN! In what way am I a BURDEN!?" she shouted. "Imouto lived here with you two since the end of high school and never went to college! While I went to school! I payed off my OWN loans, and I never moved back in here permanently! I got a job with a good pay, and I pay my own rent! And yet I'M the one who is a burden!"

"Because your imouto at least knows her place! And she doesn't NEED to pay rent because she has a husband now! Your father and I have had it up to here with you. We've talked, and we've decided that if by your next birthday you still don't have yourself a husband, we want noting more to see or hear from you."

'Well, let me spare you the wait," she said as she headed towards the door. "Because I NEVER want anything to do with you lot again! I hate you, I truly do!"

"I hope you disappear!" her mother's last words.

A week after the incident, the day of the attempted suicide, she was terminated from her job without any explanation. "You're too experienced," her boss tried to put it. He was too much of a coward to say he thought she was too old. She had until the end of the day, but she left anyway. The thought of having to sit there and pretend to do work for the rest of the afternoon while everyone in the office watched her and whispered about her; it was enough to make her sick. She left the office for the ;sat time and went out into the comfort of the street where she wandered aimlessly for god knows how long.
And as she walked those streets, through the mobs of people, she finally realized that she was alone. It never occurred to her before just how alone she was.

And that's when the voice came.

"You're worthless," it said to her as she stood there on top of the roof, the dusk penetrating the sky behind her, "The only wrathful service that you could provide the world right now is to jump off this roof and kill yourself."
"You're right," she nodded again. "You're right." Tears began to fall from her face as she walked to the edge. Without anything more, she leaned forward and fell off.
Except I couldn't have actually fallen off, because I'm alive, right," she thought to herself many times later. It is true that she didn't actually know what happened next. She did remember falling herself, but she must've blacked out. The next even she could recall from this bizarre episode was finding herself in the embrace of a girl. A blonde-haired girl who couldn't have been more than a late middle-schooler. She didn't know how exactly she got hold of her. It was then that it finally occurred to her what she had tried herself to do, and when she broke down sobbing into the girl's chest.
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, "I…I jumped! I actually jumped!" And she just pressed her face into the girl's chest and she cried so much that it caused her pain, almost like her blood vessels would burst from the pressure. It was the tears of a lifetime of repressed suffering all coming out at once. Matsumi felt as if she could stay there crying on that girl's vest for hours and hours, but in reality she only did so for a couple minutes. A soothing calm came over her as that girl pat her and stroked her hair and shushed her. Mutsumi stopped crying. The girl leaned in close to her, to her ear, and she whispered, "It's okay. You're safe now." And with that, a lifetime of sadness and pain was absolved almost immediately. Mutsumi felt calm, but not eerily so like how she experienced with the voice. She felt legitimately calm; she felt at peace. So much so that Mutsumi fell asleep right there and then in that girl's arms, but not before she gave herself one good look of the girl's face.
When Matsumi come to, she was back in her own bed and it was late at night. At first she thought it was a strange dream, but then she remembered everything. She remembered feeling sensations that one just doesn't find in a dream, such as the wind. She also just remembered everything about the girl- the sweet smell of her perfume, and how soft her touch was. No, Mutsumi knew that it wasn't a dream - that that girl, whoever she was, was out there.


A/N:

This is the first part of a crack pairing story for Mami x The Office Lady, as requested by Major Mike Powel III. Consider more of a prologue of sorts. To be honest, I kind of thought that this was complete garbage, so I wasn't planning on releasing it at all, but the Major kept insisting and bothering me about it,and I really just want to move on with my life, so here it is. Does this hold you over for awhile now, Mike? Does it!?

Now, of course, I'll be forced to write another installment since this isn't really done, but I'm sure this is a good introduction. I don't really know what direction to take it; however, so if anyone has an suggestions, I would value the input. Maybe I can make it about the Hunt for Mami? Now that I'm writing this now, I just realized that is a great title for this thing, so I'm gonna call it that. I am currently writing like four Yuru Yuri stories right now, as well as another Madoka Magica one, Mami x Kyouko, so I'm pretty busy, while also packing to go to Korea. As much as I love writing, it takes up a lot of time, and i feel like I let a lot of people down sometimes because I don't update their favorite stories or do their requests as soon as they or i would even like, and so it is the source for a lot of stress. And that's not jab at you Mike-kun, that's just a general thought.

Anyway, we'll see where this goes. I thrive when things are non-regimented and up in the air, and there's a lot of space with this one. It's garbage, but it has potential.

Thanks for reading. Please check out my other stories if you can, and have a nice whatever time of day it is! Peace.