No Hard Feelings
The high school student at the tender age of sixteen found herself huddled up in the middle of the park under the tall shady tree. Rain poured down in sheets, pounding upon the streets that were barely lit from the light of the lamplight. The silver drops stuck in her hair and outlined her scars. She didn't bother to brush away the continuous drops of water from the locks of her chocolate hair or the smarting cuts that bled out carmine liquid. It wasn't noticeable due to the rain, but if you looked very closely, her mocha coloured orbs were leaking its own salty warm liquid.
Naomi sat beneath the leafy tree, arms wrapped firmly around her legs and pulled up to her chest while she cried her heart out for no one to hear. Her satchel that contained her school books were haphazardly tossed upon the wet grass, having been thrown in a fit of frustration. She donned the uniform of Kisaragi High; a yellow tan sailor shirt fit with a cerulean blue collar and a strip of a creamy ribbon attached to the front of her chest. The short navy blue skirt barely covered up her undergarments, her legs only doing so much as concealing them by being so tightly pressed together.
"S-Seiko… Seikoooo…" she sobbed out softly, having lost all the initial power at the start by screaming out and releasing all her anger on the oak tree.
If any of her other classmates or even her mother had heard her utter that name, Naomi would have been greeted by a look of confusion, a roll of their eyes or a concerned expression plastered on their faces. It was then followed by the same answer.
"Whoever 'Seiko' is… she isn't real. Get that in your head."
With that thought screwed in her head, she hiccupped even harder before she wept some more, her hands desperately moved to grip the side of her head, attempting to alleviate the pain from that thought.
The worst thing was that it was raining.
The rain reminded her too much of that time.
It all started with an 'innocent' little paper charm that Ayumi had so excitedly brought to school one day as a departure gift for Mayu since she was going to leaving for another school. The next thing she remembered after they got their individual scraps was falling through the breaking floor into the nothingness of space.
And when she finally woke up from the depths of unconsciousness, she wasn't in her classroom that was decorated so prettily for the school festival. She only heard the steady pour of rain outside what looked like a rotting dank elementary school, as she realized from the size of the desks.
To her luck, she managed to find her best friend, Seiko. But one thing led to another, and she recalled herself yelling herself hoarse at Seiko for being so optimistic, when she was really trying to brighten up the atmosphere. Naomi was very aware of that while she screamed cruel words at her perky best friend, and it was only where it landed on the topic of Seiko's mother, who had disappeared two years ago, that Shinohara had snapped back, firing how she was worried for her family as well.
Soon, they eventually went their separate ways; after an attempted apology from Naomi, and with Seiko deciding it was best they split up if it was on her best friend's request. With that, she gave a small but sad smile, and disappeared into the opposite direction of the meaty blood splatter on the wall.
That was all she remembered before Nakashima found herself walking through the broken wooden corridors of the lavatories, yelling for Seiko and pleading not to be left alone.
That was where she heard the door creak and bang back and forth from the girl's toilets.
The moment she saw the shoes laid almost terrifyingly daintily upon the floor that she decided to push the door open to reveal…
… Seiko swinging from a noose lifelessly.
She held back a gasp before collapsing on the floor, eyes brimming with tears before she started screaming her best friend's name in a frenzy.
It was answered by the tightening of the rope and the rasps of her dying friend.
Despite trying to get her down by hoisting her up, which only succeeded in suffocating her some more, despite emptying the disgusting bucket filled with intestines and maggots for it to be used as a footstool to help Seiko breathe fresh air again, the grubby metal container clattered to the floor as Naomi returned to her friend and looked at the once lively face.
Seiko's dull amber eyes were clearly rolled up as her hands swung lifelessly from her sides.
That's when the screaming started.
She screamed at the swinging corpse of her former best friend, 'why would you kill yourself', 'you promised we get out together', 'please just let this be a horrible dream'.
The pouring rain outside did nothing but prove that it was all a reality.
The events in Heavenly Host passed in a blur; being found by Satoshi during an attempt to hang herself, meeting up with the class rep and Yoshiki, getting lost in the abandoned bomb shelter…
Before she found herself in front of an old television in the basement, a video tape having being inserted into the machine and already rolling.
And before her eyes, she finally knew who was the person who killed her best friend.
… She had killed her best friend.
Naomi watched the scene unfold in horror; Seiko attempting to send a text message to Naomi in an apology only to have her best friend drag her to the lavatories with a thick rope in hand. Try as she may, Seiko couldn't get out of Nakashima's grasp, and she struggled hard against her as she herself slowly wrapped the noose around her neck and kicked the bucket used as a footstool to leave her to die. And as the hanging girl kicked and flail in a desperate attempt to break free, Naomi pulled her shoes off to place them neatly in front of the door, before slamming it shut and laughing darkly.
Whoever had the camera in his hands had let out a piercing shrill from his mouth before running away, cutting the recording to black.
Naomi fell to her knees blankly as the video ended. She wanted to puke all the contents out of her stomach. She didn't remember any of that, she couldn't have killed her, she was her best friend, no, no, NO-
"The Darkening drives a person to insanity. Some would rather kill themselves than to suffer that, while others… kill their own friends while being possessed by it."
That ghost girl. She- that means, no-
And for a long time in the last two hours, Naomi let herself bawl herself into the oblivion, believing that she deserved to die after what she did to her best friend. With that, the dark mass appeared, slowly entering any entrances of Naomi's body, choking her.
And she didn't mind it at all. This was a punishment, wasn't it?
Ting-a-ling.
With a small gasp, she gingerly pulled out her phone, her face being lit up in the dimming darkness from her green light of her phone screen. What was even more shocking, was that the message that she received was from none other than her dead friend, Seiko.
The title said, 'No hard feelings'.
This was the same message Satoshi had showed her when she cursed and swore at how she deserved to die in front of him and how he would possibly never understand how Seiko felt when she yelled at her. And so Naomi ignored it, believing that Seiko couldn't possibly still like her after all that, she'd probably wanted her to die and hate her for all eternity in this place, suffering the pain of being strangled to death.
Ting-a-ling.
Another start from Naomi, and she switched on her phone again.
It was the same message.
"W-What are you… what are you trying to say Seiko? You hate me… don't you-?"
Ting-a-ling. Ting-a-ling. Ting-a-ling.
Apparently not, as the title flashed three more times in her inbox; 'No hard feelings'.
"Seiko…" Naomi hiccupped as the tears began to brim her eyes.
Ting-a-ling. Ting-a-ling. Ting-a-ling. Ting-a-ling. Ting-a-ling.
Now it seemed clear now, as the mist began to fade and Naomi began to sob harder, bringing her phone to her chest. Seiko really didn't hate her, now did she? Then again… it was always that cheery attitude of hers; she'd always be willing to forgive someone so easily… no matter how detrimental the problem was.
"Seiko… I'm so sorry… please, I'm so sorry… I love you so much…" the sixteen year old cried, gripping her green phone harder than before.
Ting-a-ling.
'No hard feelings'.
~x-x-x- No Hard Feelings –x-x-x~
The happiness of being back in their real world was only for a flicker of a moment, before they finally realised that three of their fellow friends and their dear teacher had died in the place, forever bounded to that place and cursed to feel the pain of the moment of their death.
That wasn't the end of it all yet.
Unwilling to break the class rep's promise of being at school tomorrow, Naomi willed herself to drag herself out of bed to meet the others. After reluctantly taking a short shower and willing herself to get into a clean set of school uniform, she trudged down the stairs with dark circles under her eyes. She promptly sat herself with a thunk on the chair, eyes only focused downwards in fear that looking at her mother would cause her to question about her health, and would most likely result in crying again. It was bad enough she cried all night already, why cry some more?
And sure enough, her mother bustled in with a platter of rice, the usual miso soup and some roasted salmon, setting it down on the table before she looked up with a bright smile. It immediately faded from the face of Natsumi as she sees her daughter's shadowed eyes and nervous behaviour.
"Naomi? Are you feeling okay?" her mother questioned before gently pressing her petite hands upon her daughter's forehead. "You don't look so good."
The younger Nakashima jerked away from the contact she felt, shaking her head and bit her lip as she could feel tremors going through her body. But then again, her mother did try to call her during the painstakingly long hours she was in Heavenly Host, so, she guessed, that the truth should be reveal, even if it hurts too much.
Starting off with the most painful memory; Seiko.
"Okaa-san… Seiko's… dead." Naomi mumbled out, salty warm liquid beginning to form at the corners of her eyes.
Her mother blinked once. Naomi held her breath, expecting questions like, 'What happened to her?' or 'Was it the reason why you didn't answer my call?'
Nothing like that was said.
"Seiko? Is that your new classmate that I haven't heard of? That's a pity."
A sharp intake of breath was taken in along with the widening of chocolate eyes in shock. Slowly, young brown orbs looked up to meet her mother's gaze, believing this as some kind of sick game that her mother was playing.
"What... no, Seiko; my best friend! The person who came to my house just before the school's festival!" her voice raised louder and louder in a frenzy to the fact that maybe her mother forgot about the events of yesterday.
"Naomi… as far as I know, there's no one in your class named Seiko." Natsumi spoke in a levelled tone, having a spark of fear that her daughter might be losing her rationality of her mind.
It was then that Naomi realised; her darkest fears and doubts were confirmed.
All the people that had died in Heavenly Host, were not only forced to be retained in that cursed place forever and feel the eternal pain of the moment of their death, but their entire existence was wiped out from the world, leaving the survivors with the memories of those people only.
The faint memory of that fact inscribed in the Yoshie's diary flickered through her mind.
The little appetite for breakfast that she had when she had woken up had diminished into dust as she got up from the table without another word to grab her school bag and got out the door.
"N-Naomi! You haven't eaten your breakfast yet! Aren't you hungry?" Natsumi called out after her, standing up from her chair that gave a sickening scrap upon the wooden floor.
"I'm not hungry." Naomi mumbled back in a monotonous voice, proceeding to open the door and got out in an almost robotic manner.
"B-But-!"
Bang.
The door slammed shut with a force that Naomi wouldn't normally use unless she was in one of her tantrums that she couldn't control. This was completely different; Naomi didn't yell, she didn't scream such profanities. She just walked out off the door without any clue but the name 'Seiko'.
"Naomi… did something happen to you?" her mother mumbled, eyes down casted as she glanced to the uneaten food for her daughter on the dining table.
The cold breakfast made for her daughter gave no answers to the worried mother.
~x-x-x- No Hard Feelings –x-x-x~
Because of the dear time she took up by walking to the streets with nothing but a blank mind, Naomi found herself late to class. Sliding open the door to the classroom 2-9, she had herself hoping; hoping to God that this was all a bad dream and that it was something stupid like April Fool's Day. But the spark of hope that illuminated in her brown eyes was immediately extinguished by the stern face of a male teacher, who held a English textbook in one hand and a piece of chalk in another.
"You're late, Nakashima." He spoke coldly, eyes signifying irritation at his lesson being interrupted.
"Sorry." She muttered in reply, slowly heading to her desk that was on the right of Satoshi's.
With an annoyed huff from the English teacher, he turned his back to the board to scratch out English words for the class to jot down in their notebooks.
As she absentmindedly plonked herself onto the seat and carelessly pulled out the necessary books from the satchel hung from the hook of her desk, Naomi could feel the worried gaze of the Satoshi from beside her. Setting her stationaries down with inaudible trembling breath, she bowed her head down for Mochida to get the message; she wasn't going to be looking at him any time soon throughout the whole day.
The class went on painstakingly slow, and after fifteen minutes from the continuous screeches of chalk marks on the blackboard and the drone of the teacher's explanation, that Nakashima finally gave up on focusing on the lesson; her mind was too fixed on the fact that there were three empty seats in class and nobody noticed it.
Cocoa orbs gradually shifted to the left to see what the seventeen year old boy was doing.
For once, he wasn't looking at her. Usually, in any kind of classes together, when Naomi so much as glance to Satoshi, she would find his eyes on her, resulting into him jolting back in shock with a red tint covering his face. That wasn't the case this time, for he idly played with his pencil; gaze so fixated on the twirls of the pencil as it spun in his fingers.
This was definitely something new, since Satoshi was the person to concentrate in all of the classes, not to drift off into daydreaming.
But then again, their trip to that haunted school took a toll on them.
Tilting her head upwards from her bowed position, she was the unusually messy twin tails of the class representative. Ayumi was sitting as stiff as a board, giving a small jerk every time the teacher asked her to answer a question or when a classmate needed help in understanding the topic. Naomi had barely caught Shinozaki's red eyes as she turned to rasp out the explanation about the lesson to a fellow classmate. She heard her classmate ask about the class rep's health, but that only resulted into the seventeen year old girl to furiously shake her head and give a watery smile.
A desk behind and to the left of the occult girl was the bleached blonde that was staring nervously at Ayumi. Naomi didn't interact with Yoshiki too much back in the day, but she knew that his actions were to protect the class rep and to look after her as well. Maybe they could have had a little relationship together if Ayumi had realised that Yoshiki was crushing on her and if the charm event didn't happen.
Sachiko Ever After.
Naomi gripped the slim pencil in her hand harder until her knuckles turned white. After having experienced the dreadful things in Heavenly Host, she was thankful to escape, but… not without her friends. She bit on her lip hard as liquid began teeming in her eyes.
She missed the way Mayu always smiled with her bright warm beam as she strolled into the classroom with a cheery good morning to the class, which answered back in echoes of replies. She missed the way Morishige would interject so sarcastically in any conversation the seven of them had and how he gave an endearing look to Suzumoto when she tinkled out her little nickname for him. She missed how Ms. Shishido would joke around with the class as she went around doing her very best teaching the entire class.
And Naomi knew that she wasn't going to relive those memories ever again.
A small sob broke escaped from her lips as she thought back of all the times she had with Seiko. The times where her best friend had so embarrassingly harassed her by squishing her chest or her behind at any time of the day, the times where they hung out and had their little conversations of their hopes and dreams.
That dream that she had in Heavenly Host where Seiko confessed her feelings was especially prominent. It broke her heart so much when she had finally oblige to Seiko's wish of getting her first kiss to find the girl breaking into tears of how she wasn't ready to die, not when she finally got to feel the soft gentle lips of Naomi's.
Somehow, she managed to get through the class while crying silent tears and a bowed head, and during then, a pair of pitiful brown eyes snaked its way to Naomi's weeping figure.
~x-x-x- No Hard Feelings –x-x-x~
And that's when she found herself in the pouring rain under the towering tree. After school had finally finished, she was the first to run out of the door and get to the isolated park where rarely anyone went to. And it was the place under the tree where Seiko and her hung out whenever they had the time, where they shared their secrets and talks among each other. Now, it was to Naomi, nothing but a place of isolation.
They say that being alone doesn't necessary bring loneliness. And Naomi understood when it was time for Seiko to leave; after all, she had taken the role of her mother after she went missing in order to take care of her three younger siblings. So even after the shortest time of spending time together, Naomi knew she would see Seiko another day.
But it was different this time. Seiko, as much as Naomi wanted to believe so much, wasn't going to pop back into existence after being hung by her own hands. And by the belief of her classmates and other teachers, 'Seiko' was just an imaginary friend of Naomi, the forgotten name eventually spreading like a wildfire around the school. Whenever the sixteen year old passed anyone, she would be greeted by hushed whispers and the sight of stares.
She was all alone now, without the comfort of her best friend.
And the rain continued to pour without a care, as a sign of the loss of the best friend she had. For the rain would now always be a constant reminder of her death, and how Naomi had her hands tainted for doing such a crime.
There was one thing Naomi forgot to remember; one thing that Seiko told her before she left the school for good.
No hard feelings.