Chapter Thirty-Six

Was I So Ignorant That I Never . . .

"You take care of my girl, okay, Iroha?" Len made Iroha promise with his arm slung around Rin's shoulders as they, Aria, and Gumi made their way down the hallway afterschool. The girls had made plans to sleep over at Iroha's that night, though Aria had been forced to cancel due to her mother being overprotective, as always. "And if you guys try anything weird, remember that I'm right next door. However, naked pillow fights are encouraged so long as you leave the curtains open."

"You're such a creep!" Rin exclaimed, amused despite her attempt not to be. "Get your hands off me, you weirdo!"

"And yet she makes no attempt to move me," Len said with a smirk to Iroha, who rolled eyes in return. Rin scowled at her boyfriend and shrugged out of his grasp, choosing instead to hold on to Gumi's hand.

"I'm gonna become a lesbian if you keep promoting things like that, you know," Rin responded, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Apparently for Gumi," Aria joked at their linked hands.

"I wouldn't mind," Gumi responded with a joking smile.

Rin closed her eyes and leaned her head against the headboard in Yuki's room. She couldn't sleep. She was too anxious with Yuki out of the house. Lily had promised that Gumi was nowhere nearby when asked, but Rin wasn't sure if she could trust someone who thought she'd beaten her own child.

Would she really be able to convince anyone of her innocence? She'd flung a plate at Yuki once, after all. Perhaps it was better that the girl be parented by someone else.

Rin shook her head though. No. Yuki was her daughter, not Gumi's. She'd get her back, no matter what.

Iroha glanced down at her phone as it began vibrating while the girls were preparing to finally go to sleep. She frowned and wondered, "Hey, would you guys be alright if I went out for a bit?"

"The boyfriend?" Rin wondered as she ran a brush through her short hair. Gumi peered over curiously from the bathroom, foaming from the mouth with toothpaste.

Iroha sighed and nodded, declining the call for the moment. "He's so needy."

"At least you have someone," Gumi responded after spitting into the sink. "All I have is my beloved Rin, and she's making me share her."

Gumi and Rin had had a long-ongoing joke that they were a lesbian couple, as per Len once seeing Rin tackling Gumi onto the ground and him complaining that Gumi had gotten farther with Rin than he had. He'd gotten punched afterward, of course. Because of this situation, Gumi saying things like this wasn't uncommon, and Rin and the others would chime in with it once in a while.

"I'm all you have?" Rin wondered in feigned hurt. "I'm not enough?"

Gumi smiled and said, "Can I have all of you instead of just a part?"

"Nope, 'cause I love Len, too."

Gumi pouted and said, "Then nope, not enough."

Rin sighed and said, "Aw, too bad. Should we break up, then?"

Gumi had returned to brushing her teeth, but through the foam she managed to make out the words, "Nope, never."

Rin laughed and said, "Alright, whatever you say."

Rin had crept out of hers and Iroha's room, being sure not to awaken the sleeping Aria on the couch, in order to rest in Yuki's room. The scent of apples calmed her a bit and made her feel as though Yuki was still here. Aria's words had meant nothing to Miku, the woman had reported. It seemed hopeless. Rin hadn't felt this hopeless since that day so many years ago.

She moved her hand to her chest, feeling at the scar on her chest. There was another scar beside it now, too, from when Rin and Len had broken up after that Christmas party. Angry at herself for screwing things up because of some stupid scar, Rin had tried to replace the old scar with a new one she herself would make, but Iroha had walked in and stopped her before she could get far enough for that.

"Good night, Gumi," Rin said as she curled up beside Gumi on the mattress. Iroha had gone to meet her boyfriend at the park – he'd had a fight with his parents, apparently – so they'd left the right third of the mattress vacant for her.

"Good night, Rin," Gumi reciprocated, turning her back to Rin's after reaching to turn off the light. "I love you."

"Love you too."

"More than you love Len?"

"I don't know. I'm pretty deeply in love with him after being together for almost two years, you know?"

"I see."

Then, they fell into silence, and Rin swiftly drifted to sleep.

She squeezed her eyes so tightly shut that sparks of light showed on her eyelids. Why couldn't she stop thinking about it? Every time she thought about it, she wound up losing control of herself. She didn't want that to happen, not again, not now. This was when she most needed to be in control of herself.

At first she thought it was a nightmare, so, when she woke up screaming, she relished in the thought of the pain being gone in a few moments. But it wasn't. Rather, it was much, much worse.

She wanted Yuki back here. She'd feel so much more at ease if she knew Yuki was here, safe from Gumi's clutches. Why hadn't Rin realized it sooner? She should have known that Gumi would get what she wanted. She should have just given in. What it Gumi did something like that to Yuki?

Moonlight glittered on that blade, a sharp knife surely taken from the kitchen, as delicate red painted its silver. It didn't take long for Rin to see that the red was coming from her chest as it broke open the skin. Her eyes flashed up to meet Gumi's smiling face. She continued her screams, forcing out partially-intelligible cries of, "What the hell are you doing, Gumi? Stop that, stop, it hurts! You're scaring me, what's wrong with you?" She tried to knock the blade away, but Gumi snatched both her hands by the wrist in one hand of her own and pinned them back against the wall. Gumi grinned, compassion in her eyes.

"Shh, Rin, it's okay," she cooed. "It'll be over in a second, okay?"

"What are you doing?" Rin screeched, desperately trying to pull away as that cold blade stayed pressed between her breasts.

"I'm protecting you," the greenette said calmly as the blade dipped into Rin once more. A painful caterwaul ripped from Rin's throat. "He's trying to take your heart from you, Rin. Your heart is mine. I'm trying to guard it from him."

"Are you insane?" Rin exclaimed. She threw her head back and screeched, "Someone, help me! Please!"

"Rin, calm down," Gumi requested, scowling.

"You're trying to kill me!" Rin exclaimed, her eyes flashing in disbelief. "How they hell am I supposed to calm down?"

Gumi's eyes flashed with anger, and the blade dug itself deeper, drawing out another scream from Rin as the captured girl squeezed her eyes tightly shut. "I'm trying to save you, Rin."

Rin remembered that so clearly. She'd lost all hope immediately. Len was someone who slept like a log, so he wouldn't hear her next door. Iroha still hadn't returned, and her parents were out for the night. It was only Rin and Gumi. That was the first moment Rin accepted death as an unavoidable outcome. That is, until her saviour had arrived.

"Gumi, what the hell are you doing?" rang through the air as Gumi was pulled harshly backward. And then, Gumi's cool demeanour snapped.

"He's trying to take her from me!" Gumi shrieked, trying to claw her way toward Rin as Rin drew her back against the wall and held the sheet to her bleeding chest. "She's mine! She loves me! She likes me best! No one can have her, no one! Rin is mine, mine, mine! Her heart is mine!"

"Even if it was, that's metaphoric, you psychopath!" Iroha screeched, struggling to pull Gumi away as the greenette managed to get her grip on Rin once more, piercing through the sheet. Rin screamed even louder. The struggle was causing the blade to twist against her and inside her. She was going to die. She had no doubt about it. She hadn't even gotten to graduate or anything. There was so much she still wanted to do.

"Stay away from me, Iroha!" screamed Gumi, lashing at the coral-haired girl with her free arm. "Stay out of this! This has nothing to do with you! Rin loves me, so I'm going to keep her heart from people like you!"

"Stay away from me!" Rin sobbed, breaking into another scream as the blade shifted positions once more. "Get off me, you freak! Leave me alone! Go away! Never come near me again!"

"Shut up, Rin!" Gumi growled at Rin, and that momentary loss of focus was what gave Iroha an opportunity to pull Gumi off of the mattress and onto the floor, where the two girls continue to struggle as Rin's shaking hand touched her fingers to her chest and lifted them up simply to see that there really was blood there.

"Mom."

Rin was so caught up in her memories that she wound up letting out a screech and throwing the first thing she could find, Yuki's alarm clock, in the direction of the voice. She flinched at the sound of impact, suddenly recognizing the voice as Yuki's rather than Gumi's.

Iroha screamed to Rin as she fought to keep Gumi away from her friend, "Lock yourself in the bathroom, Rin, and don't come out until Len or I come to get you!"

It took a moment for Rin to make sense of the words. There was so much blood. It was making her feel so dizzy. Only when Gumi shouted for her not to move and Iroha screamed Rin's name once more was the blonde was able to at least make enough sense of everything to dart to the bathroom and do as Iroha commanded. The lock was only internal, but Rin was terrified that the door wouldn't hold up under pressure.

She heard more sounds of struggle and more screaming until it suddenly went quiet. Then came slow footsteps. Rin was sitting on the bathroom floor, unable to find the energy to move any further away from the door, and gazed at it worriedly. The footsteps stopped in front of the bathroom door. Quietly, Rin murmured, "Iroha?"

"She's gone."

Gumi's icy voice sent a chill down Rin's spine. Gone? What did she mean?

"Oh my god, Yuki!" Rin exclaimed, jumping down from the bed to Yuki's side, her eyes widening in horror. "What are you doing here?"

"I snuck out," Yuki murmured, holding a hand to her eye. Rin flinched. That must have been where the alarm clock hit. She'd done it again. She'd hurt Yuki again.

"Yuki," she murmured quietly, gently touching her daughter's shoulder.

Gumi tried to coax Rin out of the bathroom for three minutes before becoming more aggressive and slamming both herself and the knife against the door. Rin had no idea what to do. There was nothing she could do, was there?

"I failed again," Rin murmured. "I'm sorry, Yuki. I'm terrible."

Yuki didn't respond.

In another four minutes, Gumi had made a big enough hole through the door with her knife that she could peak in at Rin.

"I'm so sorry," Rin said weakly, beginning to cry.

Yuki still said nothing.

Two minutes afterward, right as Gumi reached through the hole she'd made to unlock the door, sirens went off outside the apartment. Gumi's smile faded. She froze, contemplating, and then scowled. Promising to return later, she fled. Iroha entered, holding her cellphone in the air as the siren noises continued sounding from it. With a quick complaint about police taking too long, she ran over to the bathroom, reaching in and unlocking the door in order to come to Rin's side. She said calm words to Rin, but Rin could hear none of them. She'd gone numb, and, finally, fainted.

Rin told her daughter, "You're better off without me."

Finally, Yuki spoke, but it wasn't what Rin had expected. With a harshness she'd never shown before, the girl glared at Rin and snapped, "I'm sick and tired of listening to you talk like that, Mom!"