"Before we start class today, I have a special announcement," teacher spoke, looking up from the papers on his desk. "We have a new student who will be joining us today. Please, come introduce yourself, Mai."
Mato stopped fidgeting with her bracelet and quickly cast her gaze to the door of the classroom. She watched as a girl, about the same age as her, with shoulder-length wavy brown hair and freckles, timidly entered the classroom, stepped up to the front, and bowed.
"Hello, my name is Mai Hayashi. This is my first year at a public school, due to medical issues I've had from a young age."
Mai straightened herself, and as she gazed around the classroom, Mato noticed that she was rubbing the area at the base of her neck, as if trying to soothe it.
"Let me know if you have problems catching up with the work. Why don't you sit by..." the teacher scanned the room. "Why don't you sit by Mato?"
Mai nodded and went to sit in the empty desk next to Mato. Mato smiled at the girl as she pulled out her homework from the night before.
The girl sheepishly smiled back, but her eyes still frantically darted about the room and she continued rubbing just below her collar bone.
The lunch bell rang and as Mai was putting her books away, Mato turned to her.
"Hey."
The girl jumped and sat bolt upright, and her left arm quickly went around her stomach.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Mato quickly apologized. "I was wondering...do you maybe want to have lunch with me and my friends." Yuu was now standing at the door, holding her lunch box and waiting for Mato to join her.
"Uh...I-if that's ok with you, I suppose...It's...Mato, right?"
Mato nodded eagerly and smiled, and as soon as Mai had her boxed lunch, she grabbed her by the hand and pulled her towards the door, causing the girl to let out a yelp.
"This is Yuu, by the way!" Mato exclaimed, gesturing towards the shaggy-haired girl.
"Nice to meet you, Mai." Yuu said, nodding her head, and Mai nodded back.
"Well, everyone's waiting for us on the roof!" Mato cheerfully continued dragging the girl down the hall towards the stairs.
Yomi and Kagari were waiting on the roof when they got there.
"Sorry we're late!" Mato called, entering the rooftop with Yuu and Mai tagging along behind her. "Yomi, Kagari, this is Mai! She joined our class today!"
"Nice to meet you Ma-" Yomi started to introduce herself, but noticed that the young girl was gripping her stomach. "Um, are you ok?"
"Oh, y-yeah I'm ok, I'm just hungry. I woke up late and skipped breakfast," Mai explained. She was lying, though. Her mother was far too excited about her daughter finally going to a proper school to let her sleep, and had cooked a massive celebratory breakfast, more than she could have possibly eaten on any given day. But she tried her best to hide the tightening pain in her gut.
"Oh. Um, I'm Yomi Takanashi," Yomi said, bowing.
"And I'm Kagari!" Kagari joyfully exclaimed, waving at Mai.
"Nice to meet you all," Mai, said, bowing herself.
"Well let's get eating, I'm starving too!" Mato said, and they all sat down against the fence and began unwrapping their boxes.
Mai unwrapped her lunchbox, opened her apple juice, and when she thought everyone seemed distracted enough, popped two pills in her mouth and washed them down.
"What are those?" Yuu asked, startling Mai. Apparently, she hadn't looked well enough, and quickly she found the rest of the group's eyes on her.
"Uh, they're just my medication...I'm...I'm supposed to take them with my meals..." Mai shyly answered.
"I see..."
Everyone quickly returned to their food and conversations, occasionally turning to ask Mai about things like hobbies (cross-stitching), her favorite colors (green and purple), and her favorite music (rock), all the while Mai waited for the pain in her gut to subside.
It never did. Instead, the pain spread down her legs, and crushed her chest, leaving her breathless. She squeezed her eyes shut and doubled over.
"Mai, are you ok?" Mato asked, placing a gentle hand on her back.
"Yes, I'm fine, I just...I just..." Mai quickly stood up and rushed towards the maintenance shed, ducking around a corner, and fell to her knees.
"Mai!" Mato sprinted over to her. "What's wrong? Do you need to go to the nurses office?" She placed her hands on her shoulders.
Tears trickled down Mai cheeks, and she slowly looked up at Mato. But Mato wasn't there, and she wasn't on the roof anymore. Instead, she was in a barren landscape, flat and dry like a desert, with nearly blindingly bright sunlight, and looming over her was a pale, dark-haired figure, wearing a long, black coat and holding a katana.
"Get up." The pale figured ordered, pointing the katana at Mai's throat and looking down at her with icy blue eyes.
"N-n-no...g-g-go away...y-you're not real..."
"Mai! MAI!"
"GET. UP." The figure grabbed the poor girl's shirt collar and lifted her upwards, onto her knees. The woman then drew her katana back, and stabbed it into Mai's chest, and finally she screamed, then went limp in Mato's arms.
"Go get help!" Mato shouted, and Yomi rushed to the door to go find a teacher.
Mato held Mai up and shook her by the shoulders, but Mai only muttered "Leave...leave me...why are you..."
Without thinking, Mato lifted Mai into her arms and rushed to the door, then down the stairs, and nearly crashed into Saya and Yomi.
"Saya, she won't-!" Mato started to explain frantically, but Saya simply took the girl into her arms and carried her into the counseling office.
Mato bent over, bracing herself on her knees and panting.
After a few moments, Yomi spoke up. "Saya was already on her way to the roof when I found her."
"She...was...?" Mato said, still catching her breath.
When Mai woke, she was in a dimly lit room, laying on a couch. She tried to sit up, but her stomach felt tight, as if she'd pulled something.
"Don't get up, you need to rest." A woman's voice said from the other side of the room. It was Saya.
"Huh? Where am I?"
Saya approached the couch. "You're in the counselor's office. My name is Saya. I've called your parents, and they're coming to get you." Saya tried to gently place her hands on Mai's shoulders, but just as she did, Mai recoiled from her touch. Saya swore inwardly. She was trying her very best not to inflict pain on Mai, but that was easier said than done.
Saya had looked over the new girl's medical records while she was unconscious, trying to figure out more about her. She had been diagnosed with schizophrenia at a very young age, which usually caused spontaneous chronic pain, often in her chest or stomach, and vivid hallucinations, but Saya could already tell that her real problem wasn't mental, and knew that no medication could give Mai what she was missing.
"Can I get you anything?"
"W-water, please..." Mai whimpered, and Saya obliged. Mai took a couple sips, then set the glass down on the floor, laid back, and closed her eyes. "Let me know if there's anything you need. Anything at all," Saya cooed, stroking the girl's hair, then returned to her desk to read the record more in-depth, hoping to gleam a bit more about Mai's condition, though she doubted that it would be able to tell her much more.
"Do...do you suppose she'll be coming back tomorrow?" Mato speculated, cupping her warm mug of coffee in her hands. She, Yomi, Yuu, Kagari, and Saya were gathered in the Dawn Counseling room after class.
"Perhaps," Yomi replied sipping her coffee, "Or maybe she'll have to wait while her doctor changes her medication."
"I wonder what was wrong with her..." Mato wondered.
"I've looked into her file," Saya replied, finally breaking her silence. "Her doctor's believe she has a mental illness."
"Really? Is...is it really ok for you to tell us this?"
Saya nodded. "She doesn't really have any illness, physical or mental. It's why her medicine wasn't working."
"Then...what's wrong with her?"
"She doesn't have someone to protect her. "
"I thought so..." Yuu muttered, staring down at her cup.
"No other self...? But how's that possible? What happened to it?" Yomi asked.
"I don't know," Saya responded. "Her record says that she's been experiencing pains and hallucinations since she was five, starting with her first day of kindergarten. It's as if she never had one."
"Isn't there something we can do to help her?" Mato couldn't believe that Mai would have to go through that kind of pain. She still held dark memories of her suffering at the hands of Insane Black Rock Shooter. She hadn't thought that it was possible to tolerate such pain, especially for such a long period of time.
"Maybe. When she comes to school next, bring her to me. I'll see what I can do."
Mai was back the next day. Her parents and doctor decided that the stress was likely to blame for Mai's symptoms the day before, and wanted to give more time for the medicine to take full affect.
"I recommend having her attend another day at school. If the same thing happens again, then we can look into alternative medication, but I think we're on the right track." That was what the doctor had said.
That morning before she left, her mother hugged her and said "Don't be afraid to come home if anything goes wrong, ok?"
"I won't, mom. Thanks."
But even though class had only just started, her chest was already aching again. She often felt the eyes of her classmates on her back, knowing that they would have noticed her absence after lunch the day before. Their gazes felt line tiny needles pushing into her spine. She tightened her grip on her pencil.
Yesterday, she had dared to hope that the phantoms had finally left her behind. She hadn't felt their presence since she'd gotten to school, although the pain continued. Instead, it seemed that she had simply found new ones. She could tell that the blue-eyed woman she'd met yesterday was watching her from where Mato sat, with a gun pointed at her head.
Her eyes burned with tears that she struggled to hold back. Not matter where she went, or what medicines she took, it seemed that these strange phantoms were always following her.
Why won't you leave me alone? Please, just leave me be!
"I can't." The figure spoke.
Why not?
"Because. She needs me."
"Mai? Are you ok?" Mato whispered.
BANG. The pale figure fired off her gun, and a migraine blinded Mai.
"I'm fine..." Mai whispered back, but braced her elbows on her desk and rested her head in her hands.
The lunch bell rang, and Mato invited Mai to join her for lunch again.
"I...I don't know...I think I want to be alone..."
"Are you sure?" Mato replied. Mai nodded silently, looking down at her lap.
Yuu approached Mai and stood infront of her desk. "Mai, we want to help you."
Tears poured out of Mai's eyes. "You can't help me. No one can. Not my parents! Not my doctor! No one!" She put her aching head down on her desk and wept. "I don't even remember a time when I wasn't in pain. Even in my earliest memory, I've always been in pain!"
"Mai..." Mato crouched down beside Mai and rubbed her back. "Saya knows what's wrong with you. And she want's to help."
"How can she?! No doctor I've ever met has been able to fix me!" Mai cried out, continuing to sob.
"Just come see her once. Please?"
The figure now had her sword across the back of Mai's neck, pushing it down into her skin. And now some other figure had joined her, with a tail that scraped against the ground, screeching in her ears.
"GET UP. GET UP." Both of them yelled at her.
"O-ok...just once..."
"Do you want some coffee?" Saya asked.
"N-no thank you..." Mai replied.
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"So, Mai. I understand that you've been in pain for a very long time..." Mai nodded. "Can you explain your past to me a bit more?"
"Well...on my very first day of school when I was five...I had a migraine and nearly fainted. I was sent home, and tried to go back to school a few times...but it always ended the same. It never worked out. We talked to the doctor, and he prescribed painkillers to me...but they didn't help either. And then he tried another prescription. By summer break, I'd completely given up on going back to school, and my parents felt the same way.
"Around this time...I started seeing weird...phantoms...that always attacked me. The doctor told my parents I had schizophrenia. Ever since it's just been...one kind of treatment after another...from medication, to physical therapy...I've even been sent to several mental health hospitals.
"This spring, I was prescribed a new medication, and at the same time, things seemed to get better...I still saw the phantoms, but they left me alone. The doctor doubled my dosage, and my condition continued to improve, so we decided to finally try school again. But it didn't seem like it worked after all..." Mai started whimpering.
"These...phantoms...can you describe them to me?" Saya was really just stalling for time. She needed time to be able to find her.
"They're always people...with black clothes and bizarre weapons...they do things to me...they attack me..."
Black Gold Saw finally found what she was looking for in a barren landscape, completely devoid of any life, save for a small group of people.
Four women stood in a circle. Once they noticed Black Gold Saw's presence, they stepped away, revealing the small, bleeding, purple heap that was Mai.
Saya stood up. "Mai, I know this is difficult for you to tell me...and I'm sorry I have to make you go through this, but...Just hold still, ok? Everything's going to be fine..."
Mai looked up at the new figure that towered over her, with long, dark hair and red horns. She was in the desert again. The figure held some kind of watering can, which she then lifted up over Mao's head.
Mai tried to scramble away from the figure, but she was pinned.
"No, please, just leave me alone!"
The figure then tilted the can forward, and Mai squeezed her eyes shut as they let a single drop of black liquid fall onto Mai's head.
The liquid was ice cold. The coldness spread, covering her scalp, creeping down her back and spreading throughout her body. She thought she would freeze solid. But just as the cold enveloped her completely, it was lifted from her.
The sunny sky that was burning through Mai's eyelids clouded over, and it began to rain. It was cool and refreshing, and Mai was thankful for every drop that trickled down her face. The ground shook, and from the desolate landscape, a forest of black, coiled, metal trees sprouted, towering over the group and leaving them in a cool shadow.
Mai opened her eyes to see yet another new figure standing over her. It had her hair, her eyes, and wore a blank tank top and shorts, as well as a purple half skirt. In either hand was a long, cast-iron drill-bit
"Who...who are you?"
"Someone who's been waiting a long time to meet you," the figure said. "You don't need to be here anymore. I'll take your place. I will take all your pain onto myself. From now on, you won't suffer."
"Really? But...why would you do this for me?"
They smiled at her. "Because I love you."
Just like that, the dark figures disappeared from her sight. They were gone.
Mato, Yomi, Kagari, and Yuu all waited patiently out in the hallway.
Then, the door to Dawn Counseling opened, and out stepped Saya, gently leading Mai by the hand.
"Are...are you ok now, Mai?"
Mai braced herself for the pain that Mato's expectant words would bring, but it never came.
"It...it doesn't hurt anymore. They're gone! They're really really gone!"
Everyone cheered and hugged Mai. "Now let's go have lunch! I'm starving!" Mato said, drawing laughter from the entire group.
Dancing Core stood alone, outnumbered 4-1. But that was fine with her After all, they were standing in the one place that she knew inside and out. Home field advantage.
She squeezed the triggers on her pair of matching drills, causing them to spin wildly.
"Now, let's get this party started for REAL!"