Revised and edited 06/17/2022

Chapter One
Rehabilitation

Saturday, April 9th

Her head leaned against the window, idly watching the scenery pass by without really looking at anything. At sixteen this was hardly the first time Chiyo traveled the train on her own. This was just the farthest distance she traveled on her own. At least three hours away from Higashiizu. Coincidentally, this also happened to be the first time Chiyo traveled to Tokyo on her own.

Hours-old memories of her departure from Higashiizu replayed in her head. Which only dredged up more memories, the ones that lead to her venture to Tokyo in the first place.

Chiyo's dad couldn't be bothered to see his only daughter, his true child, off at the train station. Of course, he wouldn't, not when Chiyo was the source of his embarrassment at work. As far as Eiichi Koga was concerned, Chiyo was immediately guilty of whatever she was accused of. The sad part was, that Chiyo couldn't say she was surprised. Eiichi barely cared enough to see her more than a few times a year, at best. Why would he when he had his second wife and a stepson?

And her mom? Well, it didn't matter what Chiyo did. All that mattered was Coach Matsubara wanted nothing to do with her anymore, no one would even think of training her. She lost her chance to go to nationals, therefore she was useless to Ryou.

Chiyo absently tugged at her cardigan sleeve, making sure the bandage around her wrist was well hidden. She didn't bother to cover the bandage around the center of her hand, hiding away the burn she made on her palm twice. The skin was beginning to look better, so she could probably remove the bandage on her palm. Besides, Chiyo figured it was easier to explain away the burn mark than the thin smile on her forearm.

The combat the darker thoughts, Chiyo tried to think about the ribbon routine that would never be. Since Chiyo was finally sixteen, she could finally complete elite competitions and this routine was supposed to show them what she was truly capable of. The theme was Swan Lake, or rather, the seductive black swan. The entire routine was supposed to 'seduce the judge's panel.' The world of rhythmic gymnastics knew Chiyo was talented, but this routine was going to prove that they hadn't seen anything yet. Bold and elegant moves, aloof and mysterious. Then the routine would end with a straight thirty-two turns, influenced by a similar move in the ballet.

It was still a work in progress when she had last seen Matsubara. Everything was dropped after the arrest.

Chiyo realized too late that thinking about the routine was going to do little to help improve her mood. Now she just wanted to mourn everything that was lost because of that night. The routine that wouldn't be, the dreams unfulfilled, the backs that were turned on her. Everyone in Higashiizu had something to say about Chiyo as a result of the arrest. Few, if anything said, was nice.

But what no one wanted to talk about, was the truth.

When the familiar numbness started to sink in, Chiyo brought her uninjured hand to her face and pushed her glasses into place as a means of distraction. The thick black frames were round enough to cover about half her face. She then pushed her bangs back, fingers entangling in the powdery gray locks.

Ryou had barely paid any notice when she first saw Chiyo with her dye job and a new haircut. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Especially since Chiyo technically wasn't supposed to leave the apartment.

Chiyo was a natural brunette and her hair had been waist-length when the year started. Easy to pin into a burn for competitions. But a week ago she managed to find a hair salon that would work with her so long as she paid them. Chiyo initially just wanted a haircut, and seriously considered just cutting it all, just having her hair nothing but peach fuzz like women in American post-apocalyptic action movies.

The stylist convinced Chiyo to shorten it a bit. Now what was waist-length, went just past Chiyo's shoulders. The dye work - well it was more like her hair was bleached first, then dyed, was something decided at the last minute after she asked the stylist if it was possible. It cost more than what Chiyo originally went there for, but she quickly grew to like the new look.

Her time at the salon was probably the nicest Chiyo had been treated in weeks.

After cutting it, Chiyo had taken to styling her hair in a half ponytail, held in place by a periwinkle, lavender, and white tie-dye scrunchie with a matching hair scarf tied to it.

She was currently dressed for late winter-early spring in long sleeves and a long skirt made from thick fabrics, a pair of easy-to-move-in leggings, and a pair of well-worn boots.

"Are you for real?! A mental shut down?"

Her pale grey eyes traveled to the opposite end of the cart to find a couple of girls around Chiyo's age dressed in dark blue blazers with a gold star logo by the lapel and matching skirts.

"But it's true!"

"To a person though? It's gotta be a joke."

With her eyes cast back downward, Chiyo slid her hands back into her sleeves and tried to focus on the carry-on bag weighting on her shoulder. In theory, the circumstances of her transfer were going to be between Chiyo, her guardian, and the school staff, but she wasn't an idiot. It was going to get out one way or another. These things always did.

But she couldn't help but imagine herself gossiping like those girls with some featureless girl. Or maybe a boy. A shadowy figure in the vague shape of a person wearing clothes. It was a fantasy Chiyo had often long before the arrest. A fantasy of having friends. The life she led until it all came crashing down left very little room for friends.

Through a means, Chiyo hadn't cared much to understand the full story, her guardian for the next year was going to be a man by the name of Sojiro Sakura. She had no idea who this man was or just how he knew Eiichi. A part of that was solely on Chiyo, and she didn't think much about it when the day started. But now she was steadily growing a little more nervous with each passing hour.

Ryou had given Chiyo two different addresses, his home and work address, where she could meet Sakura-san on his behalf. His home address, however, was solely for the off chance that Chiyo happened to arrive in the middle of the night. Otherwise, she was supposed to meet Sakura-san at his workplace, a coffee shop called 'Leblanc' in Yongen-Jaya.

As the train prepared to stop Chiyo got her phone out and pulled up the GPS app. As Chiyo got off at the train station, she was immediately slapped across the face by the sheer scale of Tokyo. The towering buildings, the number of people, and the hustle and bustle of Shibuya alone were enough to invoke a severe case of culture shock.

It wasn't as though Chiyo hadn't been to Tokyo or other big cities before. It was just the first time she was completely on her own. And Chiyo was out of her element, she was going to get herself lost. She was going to end up in a terrible situation and her life would be more of a mess than it already was!

A cold chill ran down her spine, bringing her out of her pessimistic thoughts. When she stared down at her phone, Chiyo's brow twitched as soon as she saw the scene. An app she had never seen before appeared on the screen, even though she already had the GPS open. It was a red icon with a black accent creating the shape of an eye with a five-pointed star in the pupil. The app icon suddenly grew, taking up more than half the screen. It even appeared to be animated in the red area, giving it a shimmering, watery effect.

She tapped the screen twice if only to get some sort of reaction from the app. But nothing else popped up. But then a sudden… change in the air caused Chiyo to lift her head.

The voices and sounds around her became lower and lower with each passing second. Like a recording was being slowed down, deepening until it stopped altogether. Which was just what happened to the hustle around Chiyo. The people around her stood frozen in mid-step or locked in a conversation. It was as though someone had pressed the pause button on a DVD player.

Chiyo scrutinized her surroundings. Everyone was simply frozen, the people, the massive TV screens, even a man on his bicycle. She was about to start questioning her surroundings when something caught her attention in the middle of the crosswalk.

It was a fire, standing tall and flickering icy blue. The flames grew taller still, soon flickering into a human shape.

The image stayed still for a moment before the fire burst, making the image appear larger and bulkier. A pair of orange slits appeared against the blue flames, with a single, thin crescent line underneath, creating the silhouette of a smiling face.

The longer Chiyo stared into the face of the fire, the more she could make out something distinctly human. Flesh with defined features in their face, their eyes closed as powdery white hair flew about them. Their eyes opened, revealing a set of yellow irises, their lips pulled back into a mischievous grin. It was only at that moment that Chiyo realized she was staring at her own yellow-eyed reflection.

Someone bumped into Chiyo's shoulder, causing her to break free of her trance. She looked around; like someone had pressed the play button, city life had returned as though nothing happened. No sight of the fire, or the vision held within it.

Chiyo looked down at her phone. The mysterious app was still there, but someone a simple app amongst everything else she had on her phone. Shaking her head, Chiyo tapped on the icon and dragged the app over to the waste bin. 'Best not worry about it too much,' Chiyo told herself. 'The last few weeks have been stressful. You're just nervous.'

Now the real question was, did Chiyo honestly believe the lie she just fed herself?

Putting complete trust in the GPS, Chiyo traveled to the backstreets of Yongen-Jaya. It should have been easy for her to feel claustrophobic with the narrow walkway and people traveling it. But, as it turned out, after the crosswalk, surrounded by towering buildings and people, Chiyo found herself more relieved than anything.

Leblanc was a rather quaint coffee shop; Chiyo would have missed it altogether were it not for the awning with its name printed on it over the door. She stepped inside and was instantly met with the scent of coffee.

The store interior was a bit rustic and just as cramped as the rest of Yongen-Jaya. There was a small handful of tables lined against the wall and a bar. Currently, an elderly couple sat at one of the booths watching the news playing on a small TV set in the corner of the room, just outside the kitchen. Seated at the bar was a middle-aged man with black, possibly thinning, hair. It was difficult to tell with the man's widow's peak. He was dressed in a pale pink button-down shirt, white slacks rolled up a few inches, and a brown apron around his waist. He wasn't paying attention to the news, instead engrossed in a crossword puzzle in the newspaper draped over his knee.

"A public transit bus was driven down an opposing line with its customers till in it! The citizens can't live in peace if this keeps up!"

"How frightening," the elderly man said through a sigh.

"Didn't something similar happen just the other day?" asked the man's wife.

"Vertical is…" the middle-aged man said, seemingly oblivious to the couple's concerns. "The name of a shellfish used for farming pearls…"

"Oyster," Chiyo said quietly.

The man glanced up from his paper to find Chiyo, he folded it back up and placed it on the bar with his pen. "They did say that was today," he muttered to himself as he stood up.

The elderly couple exchanged a knowing look between themselves before they stood up. The man reached into his pocket and placed something on the table. "We'll be going now. Payments on the table."

The woman gave the store owner a polite farewell as they hobbled out of the shop. The man, whom Chiyo presumed was Sakura-san, muttered something under his breath. Something about four hours and a cup of coffee. Making his piece, Sakura-san looked back at her. "So, you're Chiyo?"

"Sakura-san?"

If Chiyo had to take a guess, she figured that Sakura-san had to be in his mid-forties, early fifties at the oldest. His black hair sicked back, showing off the widow's peak and he had a bit of facial hair along his jawline. Oddly enough, his wire-frame glasses certainly fit right in with the coffee shop setting. "Sojiro Sakura. You'll be in my custody over the next year." He paused for a moment to scrutinize Chiyo. "When I first heard about you, I was expecting someone a bit more… unruly."

Once more, Chiyo had the distinct sense that Sojiro meant something more than just 'unruly.' He gestured over his shoulder at the door by the restroom. "Follow me, I'll show you where you're staying."

Was she staying in the broom closet?

What she didn't realize was that the back room had a stairway that lead to an attic. In the upstairs room, there was a bit of junk littered across the floor. A mattress was at the other end of the room by a concrete wall and windows. There was an old love seat to the left of the room, and a work desk loaded with old books. There were a lot of old books amongst the pile of junk. A layer of dust covered just about everything while cobwebs decorated the ceiling. The only thing untouched by time was the cardboard box in front of the love seat. It was some of Chiyo's things she had shipped over a few days before she left home. Clothes for days off, a few pieces of gymnastics equipment, her mom's old laptop she gave her, and some other belongings.

"This is your room," Sojiro said plainly. "I'll at least give you a set of sheets for your bet. It'll be up to you to clean the rest. I'll be locking up each day after hours. You'll be alone at night, but don't do anything stupid. I'll throw you out if you cause any trouble."

Throughout his piece, Sojiro's stone-cold tone made it clear that he certainly would follow up on his threats if Chiyo gave him a reason to do so. "I got the gist of your situation," he continued, crossing his arms over his chest as he spoke. "You protected some woman from a man forcing himself on her, he got injured, then sued you. Right?"

Chiyo's hands grasped the strap on her carry-on bag as she forced herself to look down at the floor. "Yes."

"That's what you get for sticking your nose in a matter between two adults. You did injure him, yeah?"

Chiyo shrugged, a silent manner of answering Sojiro without actually answering him. The man was injured to the point where blood was drawn. But that was more on the man than it was on Chiyo. His breath reeked of alcohol and he had that look in his eyes that told her that he wasn't completely there. In the end, it didn't matter how intoxicated he was, or how obvious it was. He had some form of power and it was ultimately his word over Chiyo's. And it was because of that power that there was no winning the case, it didn't matter what Chiyo's life was like before then.

Supposedly, the man was willing to 'put the ordeal past him' so long as Chiyo 'learned' from this experience. And it was Chiyo's first offense, so she was put on a year's probation as opposed to immediately being sent to juvenile hall. But it was enough for the damage to affect her. Her old school expelled her, Coach Matsubara washed her hands of Chiyo, and life as she knew it was over.

"That's what happens when kids stick their noses in adults' business," Sojiro said, more to himself than to Chiyo. What came after, however, was most definitely directed at her. "It's best you not talk about anything unnecessary. I am in the restaurant business, you know."

Chiyo nodded once.

"You better be taking this seriously, understand? One slip up and you'll be sent straight to juvie."

She stopped trying to argue her case as soon as she was released back into Ryou's custody after the trial. Chiyo tried to give her mom her side of the story, only to be cut off when Ryou whipped around and slapped Chiyo across the face. It was clear right then and there that neither Ryou nor anyone else cared about what really happened. All they cared about was the fact that Chiyo either got herself in this situation in the first place or that Chiyo really was what the man claimed. She stopped trying to argue her case, stopped trying to defend herself, she just let the adults make their piece and move on.

"We'll be going to Shujin tomorrow," Sojiro went on, "you'll meet the principal and your homeroom teacher. You're a week late, but from what I hear you shouldn't have a problem catching up."

Why did the adults in her life insist on telling Chiyo everything she already knew? It wasn't as though she hadn't figured this out for herself. She'd even done a little research on Shujin Academy herself after Ryou told her what school took her. They were quite eager to boast about the Olympic alumni turned PE teacher, and the accomplishments of the volleyball team he coached.

"What a waste of my Sunday," Sojiro murmured ruefully.

"I don't know where to begin with just to calculate the yen you've ultimately wasted. Hundreds of thousands? And for what?"

Chiyo couldn't help the glower that formed on her face. "Sulk all you want." Sojiro brisked past her. "It won't change anything."

"I'm not sulking," murmured Chiyo. "I'm just-"

But Sojiro had closed the door behind him. A hand slapped over Chiyo's mouth as she struggled to bite back the sob that put pressure on her throat. Fighting back against tears was always a difficult struggle, the only saving grace was that Sojiro had already left her alone.

It seemed like all Chiyo was capable of was crying these days. What else could she do? No one was willing to hear her out. No one was willing to let her confide in them. No one actually cared. No one cared to know what really happened, or if they cared, it was only about how they looked by association.

A part of Chiyo wondered why she didn't just drop out of school and start working right now. It wasn't as though she could go home when her probation was up. She couldn't go to Eiichi, he was barely in her life anymore after the divorce and especially after he remarried a fellow divorcee who had a son around Chiyo's age. What did he need a daughter for when he finally had the son he transparently wanted?

Ryou disowned her, she made that abundantly clear at the train station. She knew it would be futile to think she could earn back her mom's affection by playing by the rules. Playing by the rules up until the arrest got her nowhere after all. It was best she push away the fantasies that everything would just work out once and for all. It was only going to hurt more if she kept daydreaming of getting through probation and coming home to open arms after Ryou and Eiichi realized the errors of their ways.

What would be the point in going through the motions like this? Wouldn't Chiyo be better off just trying to strike it out on her own somehow? But when she thought about everything required for adulting, she got scared and even more overwhelmed than she already was. No, she wasn't ready to make it out on her own… yet.

After she forced herself to calm down, Chiyo removed her glasses and wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. She placed her lenses back on, the scrutinized the room once more.

Home for the next year, huh…?

Chiyo searched her carry-on bag for her hairbrush and restyled her hair into a full ponytail. As much as she didn't necessarily want to, she went downstairs to ask Sojiro if there was any cleaning equipment - a dumb question, it was a restaurant, of course, there was - and if she could use them.

Getting what she needed, Chiyo got to work. She dusted everything off overhead, making her hair look elderly grey in the end. After sweeping up the dust, Chiyo mopped the floor. More than once, when Chiyo was in the zone, she needed to put everything down to move things around then she forgot what she was doing. To Chiyo's surprise, she didn't find any traces of mice, but she supposed it was a good thing, given the shop downstairs.

When she was satisfied with the floor, Chiyo stored some of the unneeded stuff out of the 'living area' of the room. She made a mental note to remember where she stored the heater before winter came around. While cleaning out space she stacked away Sojiro's books, books on curry recipes, coffee brewing, and surprisingly enough, books on metaphysics and neuroscience. She discovered an older TV set that looked like it was still in working condition, but it would have been nice if she could find a DVD player to go along with it.

When she felt satisfied with her work, Chiyo grabbed a few more items from her carry-on bag, her glasses case with a cleaning cloth, and her contacts. She wasn't fully sure why she bothered to bring her contacts with her, she hadn't worn them since the trial.

Reaching her hand back inside her bag, she pulled out an old cookie tin that rattled when she moved it. Chiyo pulled off the lid revealing the yen coins and paper notes inside. She got out her wallet and dropped a few more coils inside before she closed the lid. A box half-full of protein bars came next. The last of Chiyo's reserves, they likely would have gathered dust and spoiled if she didn't bring them with her. The last thing Chiyo dug out of her bag was a small, red, cigarette lighter.

The fingers on Chiyo's left hand twitched as she took the lighter into her opposite hand. It had originally belonged to one of Ryou's coworkers and her kind-of-sort-of-lover, who left it behind after staying the night. No one took care of it, so Chiyo claimed it for herself.

With a shaking hand, she placed it on the top shelf beside the head of the bed, put the cookie tin on the idle shelf, then placed her hairbrush and glasses case on the windowsill. It was a bit of a reach if Chiyo was laying down, but there was more than enough room to store her various knick-knacks.

She slid her box up to the bed and sat down before breaking into it. The first thing Chiyo found was a photo from one of her last gymnastics meets. She was carrying a thin golden trophy in her hands. She stood beside a middle-aged woman with her dark brown hair in a pixie cut, Coach Matsubara. This was some time before Chiyo dyed her hair, so it was in her natural color, so dark brown it was almost black. She wore her hair in a tight bun and a hairnet and was wearing a tight form-fitting sequined leotard.

This was supposed to be Chiyo's year. The year she finally made it to the elite competitions and go all the way to world champion. That went down the toilet after the trial. Matsubara let her go as a pupil and there were likely few meets that would let someone with a criminal record compete.

Who cared if she followed the rules in the past?

Who cared if she was the obedient daughter?

A sound, somewhere between strangled yelling and hissing, escaped Chiyo's lips as she hurled the picture across the room. It landed with the sound of shattering glass amongst Sojiro's junk. She dropped her head into her hands, panting.

Who cared if she was scared out of her mind? Who cared if she was the one suffering the consequences of someone else's actions? Who cared when Chiyo inconvenienced the adults in her life?

She forced herself to calm down again. Lifting her head, Chiyo pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. It was time she got back to work.

She needed both hands to pick up the cylinder-shaped light. Cradling it firmly against her chest, Chiyo crawled across the bed to the windowsill. She placed the light roughly in the middle of the half-wall, then decided it would be too far to reach, so she moved it closer to her glasses case and hairbrush. A press of a button later and the lights inside the cylinder came to life, the outer shell began to rotate, and the room lit up with purple and blue stars and crescent moons.

This light was probably Chiyo's favorite self-indulgent purchase.

With the light on she put her things away in a fashion she could live with. The cardboard box was likely going to end up serving as her dresser and stored out of the way. She placed her gymnastics ribbon, her favorite of her collection, on the shelf beside her bed with the tin box. She dressed the bed in the sheets Sojiro gave her and topped it off with the blanket she brought with her from home.

The sun had set by the time Chiyo deemed the room liveable. She was giving the attic one last look through to be sure. She didn't even hear the creaking from the stairs as someone ascended them.

"What the heck?"

Chiyo whipped around to find Sojiro at the head of the stairs, scrutinizing the room. "This… actually isn't that bad…" He shook his head briefly, readjusting his glasses for a moment. "I'm closing up. Since you'll be living here, I'd like for you to double-check the door each night. Think you can do that?"

"Yes."

Sighing, Sojiro crossed his arms over his chest. "Now, I don't want to get into repeating myself, so listen up. There's a bathhouse you can use just across the road from here. But, you don't get back before I close up, you're stuck outside for the night. You want to waste my time, I'm wasting yours. Got it?"

"Yes," said Chiyo. She knew it was fair enough, the restaurant business was bad enough without waiting on someone else before you could close up and head home.

Satisfied, Sojiro gave her a brief nod before he went back downstairs. Chiyo followed as a means to double-check as he wanted. She only stood at the foot of the stairs as Sojiro turned off the lights, locked the door on his way out, and turned the sign from 'OPEN' to 'CLOSED.'

As soon as she saw Sojiro walk away, Chiyo tore the bathroom door open, tossed the lid of the toilet up, and knelt on the floor. She took in only two breaths before she started to heave. Then, there were only two things she quickly became aware of, the foul aftertaste in her mouth as it all came out, and the putrid smell.

Chiyo changed into her pajamas, a loose, black long-sleeved shirt with a set of yellow cat eyes with the silhouette of dancers in each eye serving as the pupil and a pair of dark green flannel pants that were a couple sizes too big. She climbed into bed, turned off the light, and cocooned herself in her blanket. It was a blue-black blanket with golden yellow stars and outlines of sunbursts and white crescent moons.

With the lights off Chiyo took a few minutes to admire her stary night light in the dark before she removed her glasses. She pulled the blanket as close to her as she could possibly manage, taking comfort in its familiar embrace. Steadily, the sheer silence was beginning to eat away at her nerves.

She was a small fish dropped into a big pond. She was living with a man who was a total stranger and it was clear to her that he was begrudgingly taking her in. Should it have surprised Chiyo if it turned out Sojiro was being paid for housing her?

Was there even any use in asking how she got here?

She was on her way home from training that night. It was the last week of January, maybe the first week of February, she couldn't remember the exact date. She was working out her ribbon routine, trying out various combinations, trying to piece together what would wow the judges the most. It didn't help that Chiyo hadn't found the right music either. And in hindsight, it likely didn't help that she'd been neglecting a ball and club routine.

By the time Chiyo was heading home that day, it had grown dark out. She was about halfway between the gym and her apartment building when she first heard something.

"Just get in the damn car!"

"Stop it!"

The owner of the second voice sounded on the verge of tears. They did not sound too far from where Chiyo was. As soon as she heard the frailness of the second voice, she follow the sounds. She could tell that the first voice was masculine and slurred, and the second voice was frail and feminine.

It was the lights of the car that Chiyo noticed first. The contrast between light and dark hurt her eyes, but once they adjusted she saw a woman trying to push a man off her. Beside them, the car door was open, waiting for one or the other to get in.

"Stop it!" the woman sobbed. "I-I'll call the police!"

"Go ahead," the man challenged smugly. His smarmy grin was borderline begging the woman to go ahead and do it. "The police are my bitches. Think they're going to care about you?"

As if on cue, a high-pitched whine of sirens echoed in the distance. The man cursed as he peered over his shoulder, his smugness instantly dissipated. "Now look at what you did!" he hissed at the woman. Chiyo's stomach dropped briefly, afraid the mand was about to backhand the woman. "Must've made so much noise someone called the fucking cops!"

He grabbed the woman roughly by the upper arm, she cried out and tried to step back as much as she could. "Get in the dam car, stupid fucking bitch!" The man tried to force the woman into the back seat despite her sobs, despite how hard she was trying to fight back against his strong grip. The man's anger suddenly spiked when he pulled the woman close to him, hissing, "Idiots like you need to keep your fucking traps shut already and follow where I steer this country!"

Chiyo bit her lower lip, uselessly watching the horrible scene play out. Her hands balled up, damn it if she were in this woman's position she knew for a fact that she would want someone's help. How could she just ignore this?

She half-jogged up to the man and woman, hoping if nothing else, that as soon as the man saw he was being closely watched, he would back off. The sounds of shifting gravel beneath Chiyo's feet must have given her away. The man peered over his shoulder to find Chiyo. "What're you lookin' at?" he slurred. "Nothin' to see here, kid. Beat it!"

But Chiyo stayed rooted in place and fixed her best glare on the man. She hoped she made it clear that she would only leave when he left the woman alone. The man's eyes met with Chiyo's, he had that look to him. The one that advertised that he had too much to drink. When he broke contact with Chiyo, he whirled his attention back at the woman. "See what you did?!" he barked, releasing the woman's arm. She bent over slightly, hugging herself. "Had to go and get someone else involved, didn't you?" He grabbed her by the arm again, eliciting another sob from her. "Now, you can either get in the car yourself, or I take this brat too!"

The woman hiccuped on a sob, her eyes traveled from Chiyo, then to the ground. The man chuckled to himself, he placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. "That's what I thought," he said smugly.

He ushered the woman into the car. Chiyo's feet were moving before her mind could concoct a proper plan. Her hand reached out for the man.

"Hey!"

At present, Chiyo curled in on herself. She barely touched the man, yet he was so hammered he tripped over himself. He told the police that Chiyo attacked him after he politely refused her any sexual favors. The 'official' story was that Chiyo tried propositioning him, then he politely turned her down and encouraged her to turn her life around, even giving her money out of the goodness of his heart. And Chiyo repaired his generosity by attacking him.

That was the story he created. He convinced the woman to go along with it, and she did. He even put his hands on Chiyo, tugging at her clothes, mussing her up to make it look like she slathered herself all over him.

It didn't take long for the sexual assault claims to become common knowledge around town. The rumor mill quickly decided that Chiyo either had a history of compensated dating or that she was a full-blow prostitute. As a result, she was labeled the class slut by her ex-classmates. Boys Chiyo never spoke to were sending her messages, asking her if she wanted money upfront or if she would just open her legs to anyone who asked. It didn't take long for her to get phone calls and IM messages from her schoolmates calling her everything under the sun.

Overhead, by her glasses, her phone started to ping. A little afraid to answer it, Chiyo wiggled out of her blanket cocoon and reached for the device. Even with her impaired sight, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. She needed to put her glasses back on to make sure she was actually seeing it.

It was the red and black app with the eye amongst her other apps.

Hadn't Chiyo deleted it?

Too worn out to dwell on it too much, Chiyo slid the app to the recycle bin again and put her phone and glasses back in their respective places. She cocooned herself back in her blanket. Her stomach was suddenly doing flips, a sensation that Chiyo was not unfamiliar with within the days leading up to this. The stress of her situation had caused Chiyo to throw up at least twice.

A line of tears slipped out of Chiyio's eyes. Everyone talked as though things would fix themselves after a year's probation. Chiyo never bought it for a second, and she wondered if anyone saying this truly believed it either. Her record was going to follow her no matter what. She was going to be seen as a harlot no matter what. Everything was going to follow her from here on out, no matter what she did before or after.

Her eyes closed after a few minutes of silent weeping. She needed to, at least try to get a good night's sleep.

It was like she had just dozed off, but something told Chiyo to wake up.

Her eyes snapped open.

The first thing she realized was off, was the sounds. The gentle rattle of metal, the dripping of water from a small sink. Neither of these sounds belonged in the attic. The second thing that struck her as odd was how hard the bed suddenly felt. True, the mattress in the attic was not stuffed with swan feathers, but it was softer than this.

She wasn't in the attic but a cramped room. A room that was so… blue.

Sitting up, Chiyo immediately felt something weighing on her wrists. She looked down to see a pair of handcuffs, the style that had to be several decades older, with a chain long enough that she could still move her arms to some capacity. If it was only the handcuffs that were off about her person. Chiyo was wearing a loose long-sleeved shirt and a pair of paints, horizontally striped in black and white. A stereotypical prison uniform.

She brought a hand to her forehead. Her breathing and pulse had started to quicken, she wanted to calm down before she felt like she was going to die again. Without thinking, Chiyo's hand raked across her temple. She couldn't feel the stem of her glasses; her hand went up to the bridge of her nose and her fingers did not meet with the frames, but flesh. She scrutinized the room, there was a small sink and an even smaller toilet across the room from the cot she sat at. Chiyo could see… and she wasn't wearing her glasses…

Where was she?

She heard a playful chuckle. Her head turned, following the sound to find prison bars with thick chains crisscrossing at the center, keeping her inside the room. Pupils contracting, Chiyo launched herself towards the bars. A metallic sound echoed in the room, followed by a pull on Chiyo's right ankle. She looked down to find a cuff around her ankle, a length of chain littered the floor, leading straight to a weighted ball.

Crying out, Chiyo flicked her leg about as though that alone could make the cuff come off. As her breathing became even more labored, she tried to shake the handcuffs off. She threw her back the bars to hold herself up. Everything was irrational, everything was done in a faint hope that she could somehow free herself.

"Quit your sniveling, Maggot!"

Through the other side of the bars, Chiyo felt something hit the back of her legs. She whipped around to find a boy of roughly thirteen. He wore a long-sleeved, high collared jacket in a fading blue color. Black belts hugged his midsection with his slacks tucked into his knee-high black boots. Atop his head, he wore a blue and black gakuran cap.

His hair was so blond it was almost white, cut neatly and orderly, and his right eye was a vibrant shade of yellow. He wore a black… Well, Chiyo wasn't sure if it was supposed to be an eye patch or a bandage over his left eye. Whatever it was, she ultimately settled on an 'eye patch' it cover almost half his face. His eye patch had a golden logo of a 'V' stitched between a set of golden laurels. The boy had a whistle strung around his neck and a silvery baton hanging off his belt in a sling and a clipboard in his white-gloved hand.

"You are in the presence of the Master, Maggot! Try showing some dignity!" the boy said projecting his voice across the room. He looked down at his clipboard and flipped through the white sheets briefly. "Prisoner P508954TS, Chiyo Kusakabe, has arrived, Sir!"

Chiyo looked straight ahead, past the bars of her cell. Her cell was just one of several in a circular room. In the center was a desk where a man sat. His nose was long and slightly crooked, and his ears were pointed and impish. His eyes were open wide with tiny black dots for pupils. The man had a grin so wide it could have split his face. He had on a black suit and extended a white-gloved hand to Chiyo. "Trickster," he said, his voice was deep enough to rearrange Chiyo's organs. It didn't quite fit with his appearance either, he was too wiry for a voice that deep. "Welcome to my Velvet Room."

"What?" uttered Chiyo. Her hands gripped the bars so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "Where am I?! I wasn't-"

In one fluid motion, the boy removed his baton from its sling and slammed it against the bar. "Open your ears next time, Maggot!" he demanded. He was still projecting his voice, as though commanding respect. "As we speak the you in reality is currently asleep. When this is over, you will wake up as though this never happened. Got it, Maggot?!"

"Not really…"

Without warning, the boy brought his baton back down against the bars again. "Not really, sir!"

The man at the center of the room chuckled. "I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those who are bound by a 'contract' may enter."

"What…?" Chiyos gaze fell upon the other cells that circled the room. All of them were open, and all of them were empty.

"I am Igor," the man introduced at long last, "the master of this place. Remember it well."

"What am I doing here?" asked Chiyo.

"I summoned you here to speak of important matters. It involves your life as well as the life of others."

"But why like this?!" Chiyo collapsed against the bars, her eyes traveling around the room, scrutinizing the empty cells around her.

"Yes, this is surprising," Igor agreed, looking around the room himself. "The state of this room reflects the state of your heart. To think a prison would appear as such. You truly are a 'prisoner' of fate."

Glancing down, Chiyo's brow furrowed. Though she would have very much liked to deny every bit of it, wasn't there a kernel of truth to it? No matter what, Chiyo couldn't be free of this criminal record, with this reputation. She would always be seen as a criminal, she was always bee seen as promiscuous. Despite being free to attend school and do as she wished so long as she didn't break probation, how was Chiyo andy different that the typical prisoner?

"In the near future," continued Igor, "there is no mistake that ruin awaits you."

"Oh, really?" Chiyo asked through half-hysterics. "And here I thought my life was ruined enough as it was."

Igor chuckled to himself. "I speak of the end of everything." He began to drum his fingers on his desk. "However, there is a means to oppose such a fate. You must be 'rehabilitated.' Rehabilitated towards freedom. That is your only means to avoid ruin."

"Aren't I doing that already?!" Chiyo shot back. Her heart was pounding in her chest, her nerves made her hyper-aware. If this was a dream, she wanted out of this cell already. "Believe me, I'm being reminded enough that I need to live an honest high school life."

"That all depends on you. Do you have the resolve to challenge the distortion of the world?"

"Well, I would rather avoid ruin."

"Then allow me to observe the path of your rehabilitation."

Like a windup doll, the boy in blue stepped out and turned to face Chiyo. His actions kind of reminded her of a marching drill, fitting with his appearance. "Pardon me for not introducing my attendant." Igor was resting his chin upon the back of his hand. "This young man, Henry, will serve as my warden here."

Chiyo listed her head slightly, repeating the boy's name under her breath. Igor had pronounced it as 'an-ri' as opposed to the 'hen-ri' she heard in the occasional English film or European-set anime.

"Do not expect this to be a walk through the flowers, Maggot," declared Henry. "As the warden, I must whip you into shape to integrate you back into society. That said, I am sworn to be your collaborator. Provided you remain obedient, Maggot."

"You will come to understand his role in your rehabilitation at a later time," explained Igor. Like clockwork, Henry turned his back to Chiyo. "Now then, it seems the night is waning… Take your time to slowly come to understand this place. We will surely meet again. Eventually."

A low siren wailed, getting louder with each second. Henry peered over his shoulder to glare at Chiyo. "Time's up Maggot. Now hurry up and get back to sleep."

Authors Note: I hope there's enough of a difference between Chiyo and Akiren so far. And I hope it becomes more apparent in the future.

One warden for Chiyo. One of those choices made for the quote unquote "replay value" of a female route. I do have things planed for Henry that should hopefully set him apart from Caroline and Justine. Though I get the feeling he's going to end up resembling Caroline personality-wise… I'm going with the French pronunciation of Henry (an-ri), to match how the game pronounces Caroline and Justine. His namesake comes from the character Dr. Henry Clerval, Victor Frankenstein's closest friend. And Henry's design is largely modeled after the child forms of the Bloody Twins from Alice in the Country of Hearts.