CHAPTER 11

YUKARI, PART II

It wasn't her alarm clock that woke her this time. Even if it was, Yukari would just slam the snooze button and resume her slumber, even if it was a school day. It was a school day however, but she would not be going today. The pain that made her stir was throughout her body. Her head pulsated wildly and that alone was worse than any hangover she had. A stinging pain radiated from her left wrist and her left shoulder was pure agony.

She slowly shifted in an unfamiliar bed and she groaned. Pieces of reality began to trickle back, and the previous evening began to stitch itself back together. Yukari remembered going out for drinks with Minamo, but not much after that. For some reason, Yukari thought that Minamo seemed upset about something. What was it? Or was that even the case? Yukari felt new sensations in her hand when it was lifted by a foreign appendage.

"Tanizaki-san…? Tanizaki-san…?" A voice echoed in the inky black her closed eyelids allowed her to see.

Yukari felt her eyelids twitch as she slowly lifted them. A white light engulfed her, and Yukari's pain intensified from the burning bulbs assaulting her eyes. A shadowy figure stepped into view and her vision began to clear. She could see a man dressed in a white lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck. He was holding her wrist and looking at his watch, timing her pulse.

"Good morning, Tanizaki-san." He said when he met Yukari's eyes. He pulled his flashlight from his breast pocket. "You were in a car accident last night and you are at a hospital right now. Can you tell me your full name?"

The doctor shined the light into Yukari's eyes and her pupils reacted normally. Yukari cleared her cotton throat and whispered, "Yu-Yu-Yukari Tu-Tanizaki…"

"Very good." He replied and put his flashlight away. "What does two plus two equal?"

"Fa-fa-four…"

"Correct." He replied again. "Tanizaki-san, the crash gave you a concussion and knocked you unconscious for about five minutes. You also suffered a broken wrist and dislocated shoulder. Aside from that and some cuts and bruises, you're going to be just fine. We want to keep you for a few more hours for observation and after that you can go home. Your school's principal, Kitazawa-san, was here a few minutes ago. He wanted you to call him when you're feeling better."

It suddenly came back to her. The bar, the fight in the parking lot, the drive home, and the accident. Yukari remembered everything. Her heart began to race, and she started to panic. She sat straight up and the doctor caught her.

"Nyamo! What happened to Nyamo?!" Yukari cried as the doctor restrained her.

"Yukari-san, please calm down." The doctor replied and gently guided her back down. "If you're talking about the driver, Kurosawa-san, she is fine too. She's in the next room."

Hearing this let Yukari relax and she let herself get rested back on the bed. "She's okay?"

The doctor nodded. "She is. She had eight stitches for a cut on her head, a few bruised ribs, and a minor fracture on her left forearm."

"Please let me see her." Yukari said.

The doctor sighed and backed away. "I'm sorry, Tanizaki-san, but I cannot allow that. Kurosawa-san was intoxicated at the time of the crash and is in police custody. She'll be transported to jail as soon as we clear her."

With each piercing word, Yukari felt herself shrink under them. Minamo Kurosawa under arrest? Such a notion seemed laughable, but Yukari's setting showed there was absolutely nothing funny about her predicament. Yukari was not in any trouble since she was a passenger, but another thought occurred to her. This thought also spiked her heartrate monitor. Minamo was arrested for drunk driving less than twenty-four hours after she promised Principal Kitazawa that she would cause no more reckless scenarios with alcohol.

"Try to rest up. I'll have a nurse bring some food for you in a bit." The doctor said and checked Yukari's vitals again. When they were all good, he left her alone.

Yukari waited a few minutes and listened to the hospital's sounds. A few people walked past the open door of her room. She could hear phones ringing in the hallways. Every now and then a PA announcer would ask one doctor to call another one at a certain extension number. The rhythmic beeps of her heartrate monitor were the only thing to distract her. She had a television hanging from the wall but couldn't locate the remote, so it stayed dark.

The dark thoughts were beginning to creep into Yukari again and her heartrate monitor started to jump. All her hobbies and crafts were at home and weren't there in her growing hour of need. This pattern was nothing new to her, but this time, she had nothing to distract her. Her eyes stung as she stared at the ceiling and she could hear Tomo Takino's distant laugh. She could see the infamous wildcat student swimming and playing on the beach of Chiyo's summer home. Yukari remembered the last day she saw Tomo alive. It was just another day. She had to whack her over the head with a rolled-up lesson plan towards the end of the day for sleeping in class, but that's what made the day all the more normal. Then the next day…

Yukari could feel water wash over the corners of her eyes and decided she couldn't stay here. She needed a distraction and she needed it now. She tore off her heartrate monitor clip and removed a few other sensors from her body. Glancing to her left, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and threw the covers off. She grabbed the IV drip stand as a crutch and felt stinging pains in her wrist and shoulder, but she was still able to stand. It was a struggle at first, but she eventually hoisted herself up and stammered towards the door. She looked out and saw doctors, nurses, and other staff were distracted with her work.

Taking the opportunity, she limped out of her room and towards the next dwelling where Minamo was. As Yukari limped, she froze and her blood turned to ice when Principal Kitazawa exited Minamo's room. He wore a somber expression, but it was still enough to prompt Yukari to turn around. The principal turned the opposite direction and walked down the hallway. Yukari glanced over her shoulder and saw the principal's back walk further away. He eventually turned a corner and was gone.

Yukari resumed her earlier mission and used the IV drip stand to help her walk. She approached the open door. Taking a slow peek around the frame, she saw Minamo lying in her bed. What sunk Yukari's heart was when she saw a pair of handcuffs binding Minamo's right hand to the bedrail. She was staring at the ceiling with a pale face the likes of which Yukari never saw before. Minamo wore the face of a woman who truly lost everything about themselves, especially their dignity.

Yukari gently sighed and limped into the room. Minamo knew who her latest visitor was but did not acknowledge her. She continued to stare at the ceiling as if she were in her own little world. The closer Yukari got to Minamo's bedside, the more nervous she felt. She struggled to find any words as she believed no syntax in the world could comfort Minamo at this point in her life.

"Hey there, Nyamo." Yukari said as she grabbed a chair next to the bed and sat down.

Silence fell between the two women. Minamo stared at the ceiling and Yukari stared at her friend.

"So…I guess this means you can never criticize my driving again…right?" Yukari asked and followed with an uncomfortable chuckle.

The excruciating silence continued, and Yukari began to shift in her seat.

"I was thinking that we—"

"I was fired, Yukari."

Minamo's icy voice coupled with those four frightening words somehow dropped the room temperature. Yukari gulped and stuttered, "Wh-wh-whu-what…?"

"Principal Kitazawa came down to see how we were doing and when she saw I was okay…he fired me. In a few hours, the police are going to come back and take me to jail to arraign me for driving while intoxicated." Minamo said, her voice still icy and deadpan.

Yukari's heart was racing again, and she began to sweat. She tried to hide her trembles and fight the tears. It seemed strange to Yukari that she appeared more upset than Minamo.

"I…I…I'm so sorry, Nyamo. Maybe we can—"

"Don't call me that, Yukari. Not anymore." Minamo snapped while new life and color swam across her face. Minamo sat up and nearly lunged forward but the handcuff kept her bound. "You don't get to call me that anymore! Only my friends can call me that!"

Yukari reeled from the sudden attack and realized she was staring at a stranger. She could see it in Minamo's face. Minamo Kurosawa had already cut ties with Yukari Tanizaki.

"Bu-but I—"

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, YUKARI…!" Minamo screamed and lunged forward, the handcuff stopping her attack. "IF YOU WEREN'T SO GODDAMN STUBBORN AND WOULD HAVE JUST LET ME HELP YOU, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED…!"

Yukari shied and felt her eyes flood again as Minamo hoisted her cuffed hand up, making the chain links rattle.

"YOU SEE THIS?! I'VE LOST MY JOB AND I'M GOING TO JAIL FOR TRYING TO HELP YOU…!" Minamo screamed, finally grabbing the attention of a passing nurse who alerted security. "I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN! DO YOU HEAR ME?! YOU RUINED MY LIFE BECAUSE YOU'RE A SELFISH, SPOILED, NARCISSIST…! SOMETIMES I THINK YOU WERE NEVER MY FRIEND AT ALL…!"

Yukari fought back her tears and was able to hide them once again, just like she had been able to do with Tomo Takino. Minamo's angry and venomous words continued to whip her but she could barely hear them anymore. She retreated into her own world and could still feel the saliva droplets strike her face from Minamo's harangue. Her best friend was ushering her out of her life and Yukari did not know how to deal with it. This moment had daunting parallels in the seconds after Yukari learned that Tomo Takino was dead. In that moment, it a comforting thought graced Yukari: she had never tried her hand at writing the next great bestselling novel. She was going to start when she got home.

Two security guards rushed in as Minamo continued to scream incomprehensible hatred. Minamo was still restrained but her aggression was making her sink the cuff into her flesh and fresh blood was beginning to rise. One guard pushed Minamo back to the bed while a doctor rushed in to help restrain her. The other guard and a nurse helped Yukari out of the hospital room and back to hers.

Minamo's angry words still rattled in her ears but sounded like echoes in a long tunnel. The nurse helped Yukari back into her bed and Minamo's meltdown concluded when the doctor gave her a sedative. Silence once again engulfed the ward aside from the resurgent heartbeat monitor. Yukari's heartbeat was surprisingly steady despite losing her best friend. The outline for the novel that would rock the world was already occupying her headspace. Anything else would just drive her to inconsolable tears.

An hour later, both Yukari and Minamo were cleared by the doctors to be released from the hospital. One was going home, the other was not. Yukari changed her clothes and was rolled to the reception desk in a wheelchair by her nurse to sign herself out. The English teacher was handed the clipboard with all the necessary forms and she began signing them.

As she concluded her signatures, movement caught her right eye. She looked to her right and felt her heart speed and her eyes swell again. Two police officers led Minamo Kurosawa out of her hospital room with her hands cuffed behind her back. Her face was swollen in anguish and defeat until she was guided past Yukari. For the last time, their eyes met. Yukari cast a meek and frightened look up at former best friend, only to be met with piercing hatred, making Minamo look like a wicked stepmother figure. There was absolutely no love in her eyes.

Minamo was led away by the police and Yukari watched the three people exit the hospital. Yukari sighed again and just as another bubble of pure anguish began to swell within her, the inspiration for a crime novel came to her. Yukari's brain was in self-preservation mode as she pushed Minamo's words and Tomo's distant laugh out of her head. It was the only way she could cope without a bottle by her side.

When Yukari finished her paperwork, a nurse wheeled her out the same front doors where she was brought in the previous night. The nurse helped Yukari to her feet as her taxicab arrived and her overnight stay in the hospital was complete. With a fresh bag of prescription pills for the pain in her possession, Yukari started vocalizing some ideas for her novel. This was unnerving to the taxi driver as this was not the first person babbling incessantly to themselves he had to take to or from a hospital. At least Yukari wasn't covered in feces or screaming that government agents were following her like he normally got.

The taxi pulled away and drove past a police car. Two cops sat inside, and Yukari tried to ignore the silhouette of a woman sobbing in the backseat. She started to pitch ideas for her story to the cabdriver, who only grunted and sighed with each question from Yukari.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

Yukari Tanizaki sat alone in her dark house, the computer screen the only source of life radiating from the dwelling. It was hour four since she arrived home and fired up her computer to start working on the crime thriller that would change the world. Yukari not only created the timeline, but she was also wrapping up the third chapter. Sixty-five pages were already complete, and the plot was beginning to take shape.

She stared at the screen with leering eyes and bearing a toothy grin as a trickle of drool fell from her corners. Only three chapters in and Yukari Tanizaki was already enticed by the story of Motoko Kotobuki, a disgraced salesman framed for a crime he did not commit. Kotobuki's story was that he had just been paroled after serving eight years in prison for extortion and grand larceny of the company he worked for. However, it was his former business partner Yuzu Tomoko that had committed the crimes. While incarcerated, Kotobuki joined a Yakuza prison gang and while "putting in the work," the gang was able to gather the incriminating intel he needed on his former associate. However, the devious Tomoko had planned on that and was now planning on setting a trap. A trap that would force Kotobuki to commit a crime, thus violating his parole and landing him back in prison with a longer sentence.

Yukari cackled maliciously as she shouted her character's dialogue as she typed feverishly. To her, it brought the characters to life and made her "write with feeling." This tactic also worked well for trying to drown out bad memories of students and harsh verbal lashings from friends. But in the end, she only looked like a screaming maniac.

The clicking computer keys and disturbing cackling lasted the rest of the day and into the night. It continued to echo in the dark house for hours until the first crimson streaks began to paint the new day's sky. It had been twenty hours since Yukari was released from the hospital and she had nearly two hundred pages to show for it.

At this point in her novel, Kotobuki had already fallen victim to Tomoko's dubious trap and every policeman in Japan was looking for him. It forced him to change his strategy by kidnapping another old business partner of his. After several tense hours holding her hostage in her own apartment, he was able to convince her that he was innocent and that he needed her help to prove it. Little did Kotobuki know that this too was part of Tomoko's plan and that she was in on the scam.

Yukari's hands were a blur across the keyboard as she typed faster and faster. Her shirt was nearly drenched from the persistent drooling and sweat stains from her armpits stretched to the hem. Her hair was a frizzled mess, and her skin was an icy pallid shade. Her eyes had no life, and her figure resembled a dress mannequin over a living human. Her fingers continued to assault the keys.

Yuzu Tomoko…Motoko Kotobuki…Yuzu Tomoko…Motoko Kotobuki…Yuzu Tomoko…Motoko Kurosawa…Yuzu Tomoko…Motoko Kotobuki…Yukari Tomoko…Minamo Kotobuki…Yukari Tanizaki…Motoko Kurosawa…Yukari Tanizaki…Minamo Kurosawa…Yukari Tanizaki…Minamo Kurosawa…Yukari Tanizaki…Minamo Kurosawa…

Yukari froze as she read back the last words. Her bloodshot eyes shifted to the glowing screen and bolted from corner to corner. She was no longer writing a novel. She was writing an autobiography about how she lost Minamo Kurosawa. Yukari was the villain. She was the one who destroyed Minamo's career.

Her heart began racing and she slowly pushed herself away from the computer desk. Fresh sweat formed across her forehead and rained from her armpits. The violent thumping in her chest showed as her shirt pulsed with each beat. Her breathing became shallow and her worst fears were starting to come to fruition.

Yukari could no longer deny how devastated she was about losing two important girls in her life. Life without them…was not worth it.

Her cell phone rang and she shrieked. Jumping at the excuse to get away from the glowing window into her rotting psyche, she grabbed it and saw Principal Tanizaki was calling her.

"Ha-hello…?" She wheezed.

"Good morning Tanizaki. How are you feeling?" He asked.

She stuttered at first but was able to muster through a bubbling cry, "Gah-good. I'm good."

"I'm happy to hear that. I just wanted to call and check in and make sure you're okay. I stopped by your room yesterday, but you were asleep." He replied.

She nodded and added, "Th-thank you for checking on me, sir."

"Listen, I did not want to burden you with this but I need you to know that I had to terminate Minamo Kurosawa from her teaching position." He said with a heavy tone. "I wanted you to hear it from me first."

A broken, horrifying smile crept across Yukari's face as yesterday's events replayed in her mind. In a deadpan tone she replied, "Ya-you don't say…?"

"Yes. I'm sorry, Tanizaki-san. I know she was a friend, but I cannot tolerate reckless behavior like that, especially when dealing with students at such an impressionable age." He replied. "Anyway, I want you to take a few days off and rest up. Try your best to come back to school next week. Take care, Tanizaki-san."

He hung up the phone and Yukari were alone again. The moisture in her palms allowed her cell phone to slip from her grasp and it crashed on the floor. Yukari stared into space as reality presented itself as the malicious bitch that it was. A bubble that felt like it was made of nails began to inflate within her and she began to feel a new emotion.

Guilt

It ate away at her like a horrifying Pac-Man game and her eyes drowned. The rivers flowed down her cheeks and her knees turned to jelly. Yukari Tanizaki fell to the floor and cried. She cupped her face and cried loudly for the world (her empty house) to see. Seconds turned to minutes and after twenty of them passed, Yukari still cried on the floor. A large puddle of tears and mucus formed on the floor and as her emotions drained her energy, she slowly sat up.

Staring blankly at the computer desk, she wiped her dripping nose with her shirt and shuffled to a drawer. She opened it and fished under several old documents for a picture. When she found it, she slowly pulled it out and looked at it. The computer screen illuminated a frozen image Yukari desperately wanted to dive headfirst into. More tears flowed when she saw herself in a bikini at Chiyo's beach house. Her right arm was wrapped around Tomo Takino's neck on the beach and her left fist was noogying its way into Tomo's scalp. Both girls looked incredibly happy.

The picture fell from her moistened grip and Yukari pulled herself up. Feeling the pains from the accident radiate, she slowly walked to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. She found the prescription bottle from the hospital and took it. Popping the white cap, she slid one Vicodin pill out and let it sit in her palm. She sat the bottle down and pulled a small glass from the sink's corner and filled it with water as she readied to take the single drug.

A thought suddenly came to Yukari. The physical and mental pain she was in was gutting her like a trout and it was too much for her. She couldn't do it anymore. She lost a student that meant the world to her, and now, because of her selfishness and inability to confront her own feelings, she lost her best friend. It was too much. But soon, none of it would matter anymore.

Yukari snatched the bottle again and poured the rest of the pills into her palm. She nearly dropped a few as the small mountain of narcotics towered in her palm. She gulped and her heart sped as her mind realized what she was about to do.

Casting one final tearful look into the mirror, Yukari knew she was going to commit to the deed when she nearly puked at the image the reflective glass threw back at her. Turning away, Yukari eyed the white mountain. Without hesitation, she shoveled every pill in her mouth and chugged the glass of water. She sat the empty glass on the sink and sighed as a faint smile flexed her lips.

"Don't worry, Tomo…I'll see you soon. Nyamo…I'm so sorry…"