A/N: I hope everyone has a healthy, happy springtime ahead of them! Stay well, everyone.
Disclaimer: For the mere enjoyment of those who read.
Shifting her book bag strap higher on her shoulder, Riku stared at the two walking ahead of her. Her sister told some animated tale to the boy who Riku had for so long accepted as just another classmate, even if he had a strange relationship with Niwa-kun and even stranger blue hair.
Walking with him in the daylight, seeing Risa treat him as normal, hearing him respond calmly to her tirade of chatter, made Riku start to doubt yet again that she had seen a blond lunatic with a gun transform into Hiwatari-kun.
She had seen it. She had. Hiwatari-kun had shot Dark—or Niwa-kun, or one and the same—and then he had simply walked away. Everyone else had been preoccupied with the school dance, but she knew she had seen it.
She bit her lip again, staring at her sister's happy face. Should she tell her that their classmate, their taciturn friend, had shot Dark? Would Risa even believe her? But if Hiwatari-kun would try to use such deadly force, Risa really ought to know.
The antique gun had had a peculiar beauty to it, under the moonlight, but it had taken on a much more terrifying reality when Hiwatari-kun had shot Dark from the sky, then turned the gun upon himself. He had looked so far beyond defeated, so ready to pull the trigger, that she had started to run out when—
An explosion interrupted her thoughts, scaring a gasp from her lungs, but she whipped her head around only to see a car drive past. The engine had merely popped, she consoled herself, and she deflated in a sigh.
When she turned around again, she found the pair ahead of her staring back at her.
"Jumpy to-day, Riku?" Risa teased, then shot a smirk towards Hiwatari-kun. "See? I'm not always the biggest scaredy-cat."
As the two devolved into taunting each other, Riku exhaled a slow breath, then gripped her bag. She knew she had gotten in too far over her head, and she did not know if she could bring Risa along with her.
