chapter 1: Medicine
Yumi:
Yumi Ishiyama woke up to the accustomed blaring of her alarm clock. Each day it was the same: she would wake up, get dressed, take her medicine, brush her teeth, and then wait for Ulrich to walk her to school. Yumi still wasn't sure what made him start coming by her house in the mornings now, as he had never done that before.
Today, however, things went a little differently.
She was out of medicine and so was her father, and Ulrich had neglected to visit. Despite her mother's chidings, the Ishiyama's both left the house and went to their respective locations. When Yumi got to school she felt extremely frustrated and wanted to pummel the nearest thing she saw, but she held back through her first class.
Speaking of classes, her History class had undergone a dramatic change. Everyone wanted to know why William was gone and where it was that he had gone. Because Jeremy was working on a way to get him back, Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich told everyone that he was simply on vacation. But of course they didn't stop there. People are much too nosy for that. They prod and prod until they get the answer that they want to hear. Since the team wasn't willing to produce such information, it took a painstakingly long time for such inquiries to end.
This did not help Yumi's situation at all, and only made her feel worse. By the end of her second class, she had developed a steady headache. She knew that there was no way that Dorothy could help, so to try and calm her nerves she ate her lunch outside that day.
She noticed Ulrich come up and sit next to her at the base of the tree. "So... about this morning... I sorta... well you see... Odd kept me up all night and," Ulrich said, a flustered look on his face. Yumi's head was throbbing and trying to concentrate on what he was saying only made it hurt worse.
"Shut up," she said on impulse.
"Have I been doing something wrong! What was it! I'm sorry if you're sad about William or something... What can I do?" was Ulrich's mixed answer.
"You can just shut up!" Yumi said, clearly getting annoyed. At that Ulrich walked away.
The bell rang dismissing lunch and Yumi just sat there, her food untouched as she tried to clear her mind. She realized now that she should have listened to her mom's advice because Yumi wasn't sure she could contain it any longer. As she sat contemplating this, the worst thing possible at that moment arrived, Sissi. Sissi Delmas walked up to her and asked Yumi something in a snobbish tone about the relationship Yumi had with Ulrich. Yumi got up and tried to flee from the situation, her mental capacity finally being reached. But Sissi was stubborn and grabbed Yumi's arm, pulling her back. Yumi had already gone so fast; however, that Sissi instead caused her to trip and face plant into the ground.
Sissi stood for a second in surprise at the event, and then proceeded to walk away laughing. Yumi slowly got back on her feet, her body reeling slightly. Her breathing quickened and her muscles became more defined. Any normal adrenaline rush would stop here, but this rush was not normal. Her muscles continued to define themselves so that one could see all of the grooves into a joint and every vein throughout her body stood out at its full depth. In a mad rage Yumi dashed forward and tried to punch Sissi in the face. Nikolas, playing the role of a knight, took the blow and was sent ten feet through the air. Herb and Sissi stopped and stared in horror at Yumi. The school grew still as the other kids came to see what had made such a loud snapping noise. What they found: Yumi breathing heavily with bloody fists clenched, staring angrily at Sissi. Looking behind the shocked fan club members they saw the last of Sissi's group, blood gushing out in torrents from his head.
It was at this precise moment that Yumi regained her senses. She panicked and ran home, trying to dismiss the scene from her mind. A stretcher arrived for Nikolas, and there was talk of permanent brain damage and expulsion.
When Yumi got home, she forced a window up and ran up to her room, but not before locking the entrance behind her. She laid on her bed the rest of the day, in tears over what she had done. Her parents left to restock their medicine cabinets, having to travel all the way to a private manufacturer in Britain. Yumi was left with only her little brother, Hiroki. Normally her foolish raven-haired sibling would aggravate her to no end, but seeing her this way scared him into behaving. Hiroki decided to sleep over at their neighbors during the three days they were left home alone. Although he still continued his education as usual, Yumi had been adamant in refusing to return.
The next day around noon, Ulrich showed up at her door. She was embarrassed and scared of the result, so she shut it, hoping he would leave. Ulrich however, stood their and explained how nervous he was for Yumi and how he hoped to relieve her melancholy. She showed him to her room and was overcome with a mix of grief, joy, and anger. Needless to say, she failed to disprove Ulrich's superstitions.
Ulrich:
Ulrich had a test in the morning and he was desperately trying to study. Odd wasn't helping. In fact Odd was dancing with Kiwi around their room blaring his music so loud that it enveloped the dog's barking. Ulrich's earplug trick didn't work either, so that his only option was to wait for Odd to finish his tomfoolery. Slumber land did not grace Ulrich's eyes until one o' clock and he was so tired that he slept right through his alarm and had to make a mad dash to his first class. After a seemingly interminable lecture in Physics, he found himself groggy once more. Ulrich fell asleep again and this process was repeated for his second class that day.
Ulrich ate his lunch with gusto, as he had not eaten breakfast that morning and needed to be awake for his test next class. Once he saw a disgruntled Yumi in the lunch line, he recalled what he had forgotten in his foolishness. Ulrich took the sight of her frustration badly and perceived her anger resulted from his fault. Yearning for forgiveness, he followed her to the base of the tree she sat at whenever she was depressed.
They sat there in silence for a while, until Ulrich couldn't take it anymore and had to say something. "So...about this morning...I sorta...well you see...Odd kept me up all night and...," Ulrich said as he tried to force out his explanation.
"Shut up," came the reply.
Ulrich had never known Yumi to be so rude to someone unless she was deeply offended. That being so, he took her response to the extreme of his overactive imagination.
"Have I been doing something wrong! What was it! I'm sorry if you're sad about William or something... What can I do?" a panicked and bewildered Ulrich stammered.
"You can just shut up!" Yumi said, clearly getting annoyed. Ulrich walked back to his room in a slump and laid down on his bed to stare at the ceiling. He was no longer tired. His mind was now full of potential reasons for her irritability and their results: a break in their healing relationship.
It was then that he heard that horrible, stomach wrenching sound. He looked out of his window and saw what he thought must have been Hell personified. His beloved Yumi was fuming above a bloody Nikolas, steaming blood on Yumi's fist to prove her guilt. Ulrich's first impulse was to follow her, but he decided that he would ask her tomorrow morning. He did not sleep well that night either, his mind being plagued by three fears now instead of the original two. He was so absorbed, that he neglected to hear his best friend's arrival or Odd's apology for the previous night.
When Ulrich heard that Yumi was absent, he went to the nurse, claiming stomach pain. Only he never went to the nurse, he ran straight to Yumi's. Ulrich was so nervous, that he neglected to knock on the door and just rammed into it repeatedly until it opened up.
There stood Yumi, her appearance quite unkempt with one red eye peaking out through the gap in the door. Still shaken up, she slammed the door in his face, making Ulrich explain himself. In a few hours, Ulrich left the Ishiyama residence, more confused than when he had woken up. All Yumi had done was cry on his shoulder and occasionally hit the floor. Fortunately, Yumi's parents arrived to sort out the matter that night.