Sorry for being so late! This week was especially hard on me!

Despite getting, honestly, an inappropriate "review", here's the next chapter. I wanted to try something new for this chapter and I hope it pulls through and it's still readable and enjoyable.

Thank you for your kind comments! And, as always, thank you for always supporting me!

The Garden of Yukako

Chapter Six

A Bouquet of Aster

It hurt.

It hurt.

Yukako's head hurt so much. She didn't know what to do when she saw the bright light as she opened her eyes.

After Takako pushed her, after the ambulance ran over his head, Yukako didn't remember when her head hit the ground. She remembered screaming into the night. She remembered being so angry and jealous towards Takako's enviable position.

Her legs hurt so much. Her legs hurt so much.

Around her, Yukako could hear her parents yell at the nurse. Around her, the familiar voices of Josuke and Koichi could be heard. Yukako could hear the nurse reassure her parents, Josuke and Koichi – she was okay.

She couldn't move an inch. Was she strapped again? She wanted to scream again. She wanted to tell them about her pain.

"My precious daughter! How could this have happened?"

Two voices blended together as Yukako drifted in and out of consciousness. It was hard to make out what Josuke and Koichi told the nurse. Their voices were loud but Yukako couldn't wake up.

But Yukako assumed her parents finally decided to show up. After a month of being trapped in her childhood prison, they finally decided to return. Yukako didn't know where Josuke came from. She knew Koichi waited for her out the door for her when she fell but her head hurt so much. It was hard to focus between the past and the present.

"I don't know! I think she was trapped in her own home… The strap markings indicated she was held down against her will for a period."

"I'm glad you got me. I was worried! Why didn't the school contact us something was wrong! How could they…!" The familiar sound of her mother sighing at the situation before them; the boys muttered something Yukako couldn't hear. There was the unfamiliar sound of her mother sobbing. Was it really such a shock?

The pain was so great and Yukako knew she wouldn't be awake for much longer. It was over. It was over.

But Yukako's body was so weak from the fall in the bathroom. Her head throbbed from the push and Yukako wondered if she was going to be punished for her crime when she woke up. Her body gave out from exhaustion. Her malnutrition on top from the overexertion of her pushing herself with the amount of pain her knee, the hunger, the emotional turmoil, and her haunting thoughts of when Kira's head splattering all over the pavement became almost too much to bear.

.x.

A strange dream emerged from her frazzled imagination: she's a stay at home mother with a child. The child made a mess with their food but it's okay – it was adorable! Oh, how silly her precious baby is… Yukako looked around the house – something unfamiliar to her but her eyes met the clock's face and gasped at the time. She didn't realize how late it had gotten! The sun was about to set and she could tell she did such an excellent job cleaning the house.

Everything was in tip top shape, a house anyone would be proud to call their home.

Enter a man with spikey black hair. He had a very handsome face and seemed very well built. However, he wore something familiar to Yukako – he had a purple business suit and he had a sinister look on his face.

"I'm home, Yukako-chan."

Suddenly, the idyllic life melted and splattered all over Yukako. She screamed in the darkness even as the man's face became obscured with blood.

However, she could feel something pull at her scalp. She half-expected it to be someone, or something, pulling it but instead it was her black, hair that protected her. It strangled the headless body and kept it away from Yukako's trembling self.

She cried as she held the body away from her. Her hair knew what she wanted – it seemed to grow an unnatural amount to throw away the body from her. Blood somehow did not get on her hair and her hair enveloped around the crying girl.

She didn't understand what was going on. It scared and comforted her – all she knew that things might get better if she trusted herself more.

Deep down, though, Yukako knew she couldn't trust herself for long. She remembered she got pushed by Takako. Maybe she shouldn't have gotten as riled up as she did. Maybe she should've just kept quiet.

But she needed to know that she didn't see Okuyasu that way. Yukako hated herself and hated how she got. She knew she was jealous and she reacted out of jealousy. Takako may very well have meant to push her like that but Yukako deserved it. She should've just told Okuyasu how much pain she was in. He would've taken her to the infirmary and she would have to go home. She would have to see her mother's worried expression and hear in what ways would be best for her to heal – like stay home for another week.

Deep in Yukako's heart, she didn't want to go home and rest. She wanted to experience high school as best and quietly as she could. She deserved this much. She wanted to work as hard as she did before. She didn't want to be left behind because of an injury such as this.

She caused her injury. She caused the pain. She caused that man to die. She caused Takako to push her and to hit her head against the floor. Yukako caused all this. She would never dare to put the blame on anyone else anymore. It was all her fault.

It was Yukako's fault. As far as she knew, her garden should have withered and dried. She didn't deserve such a beautiful garden.

Yukako then found herself in the garden. Around her, there were different bouquets of flowers and even though she tried her best to convince herself she didn't deserve such a beautiful garden – she couldn't deny it for too long. She knew that the garden she now found herself in, locked in her own dreams, was hers and hers alone. And it was beautiful.

The wind around the garden was cool and oddly comforting. For all the ugliness in the real world, Yukako was surprised her mind could think of this garden and yet it was strangely familiar to her.

Soon, it started to come back. When she had arrived at the hospital, she vaguely remembered being in the emergency room – but she remembered this garden. It was safe. The garden stretched out for miles where different flowers bloomed around her. Patches of daffodils, sunflowers, and gerberas were some flowers she instantly recognized. Yukako could tell there were other flowers trying to bloom but she didn't know what they were, yet.

However, she turned around and noticed a new patch of flowers. Her mind told her they were aster flowers and the cool wind blew through them. Had this been the real world, grass and other debris would collide with her but her garden protected her so no debris flew in her face. She took a deep breath and felt no injuries and felt no pain, even though something whispered in her ear it was still her fault.

However, if it was her fault, why is her garden so beautiful? She couldn't help but cry grateful tears. Maybe she knew that it wasn't her fault.

How was she supposed to know Kira would target her? How was she supposed to know Takako was going to push her that hard?

How was she supposed to know she was to be in love with two?

Yukako laid down in the flowers – they had grown tall enough to protect her from the sun's anger and they provided shade, comfort, and warmth.

She closed her eyes.

.x.

"Oh, you're awake finally! How are you doing?" The school nurse asked. Yukako turned to the window near her and saw that she had been out since early afternoon – the sun had almost completely set. Then she looked back at the nurse, solemnly. The school nurse was extremely beautiful and had her hair tied up in a bun. She did seem about average height and hid her eyes behind huge plastic glasses. She was as kind as she was beautiful. Since Yukako returned to school with her handicap, she became quite acquainted with her. However, it was hard for Yukako to be anything but formal towards her. "You've had quite a spill there. Did you slip on the floor?"

The nurse pried as gently as she could.

Yukako shook her head, even though her head still pounded from the fall.

She tried to open her mouth to speak but found that her throat was extremely dry.

"Here. Here's some water," the nurse said as she passed her a small paper cup of water. Yukako slowly sat up to drink it. "Be careful."

"Thank you," Yukako properly thanked the nurse after she drank the water. "I'm sorry for always causing such trouble for you." She tried to bow as she sat up, as guilt still weighed her down.

"It's okay, Yamagishi-kun," the nurse continued with her gentle tone, "As long as you're okay, that's all that matters to me." The nurse seemed a bit dissatisfied Yukako didn't give her any type of answer but seemed to have expected from the teenager. "Just be careful, okay?"

Yukako nodded her head. "Yes, ma'am."

The nurse smiled and then got up to walk to the door. Yukako kept her head low for a moment and then looked up to watch her open the door. She had said something outside the door and Yukako's heart nearly stopped when she saw who walked in. She grabbed the blanket because she was so shocked.

"Hey, Yukako, are you okay?" Josuke asked.