Prologue
-Tokyo-
A spring storm was raging in the middle of the night.
Like a warning, a lightning struck nearby, illuminating the almost completely dark apartment, closely followed by a roaring thunder that vibrated throughout the minimalistic furnished apartment.
But none of that was the reason why she woke up with a groan.
It was the skull splitting pain, as if her brain was about to burst into thousand tiny pieces between her ears, that ripped her out of her restless sleep. Slowly she turned her head towards the clock on her nightstand and the red glow indicated through her half opened left eyes that it was barely 4a.m.
'What a godforsaken timeā¦' she thought to herself as her hand habitually reached for the pills under her pillow and the water bottle right next to it and ingested two of them with a generous amount of water before laying down again, completely still to avoid nausea.
Her whole body ached as if it was standing at the door to the afterlife, begging for entry, and the energy that she had exerted to take her pills was the only bit that she had had left in her reserves that kept her from falling through it.
Minutes, that felt like hours, passed as the pain subsided as slow as a snail, soaked in tranquilisers, climbing stairs. Eventually the pain dulled enough for her to dare turn onto her back and to look up to the dark ceiling.
Another lightning.
The ceiling was bare of any feature and she sighed resigned in anticipation of the thunder that did not aid the lessening of the skull splitting pain in her head. As the familiar pressure in the abdomen faded, she ventured to sit up. 'Coffee' was the only thought on her mind. She knew she was not going to get any more shut eye either way, so coffee would be her only ally now. She needed coffee.
Putting both of her bare feet onto the ground, the coldness rushed through her toes up to shoulders, causing her to shudder lightly before leaving the warm bed and heading to the kitchen to make herself a hot cup of coffee. On the way to the kitchen she tripped over a thick file that lay forlorn on the ground and she cursed her never ending messiness.
Returning from the kitchen with her cup of steaming coffee, she reached down to the file and took it with her to the couch where she put it in front of her onto the coffee table and looked outside to witness the spectacle that presented itself in front of her. Looking through the floor to ceiling windows, she watched how the wind was racing the raindrops almost horizontally across the glass. Another lightning struck, illuminating the scene in front of her, revealing the many other high-rise buildings in the distance, only few reaching the same height as her own. She couldn't help herself but to think that they looked like silent giants watching the demise of humanity in front of them, with the thunder only loudly complaining about the momentary disruption of the darkness that the lightning caused. She put the cup to her lips and let the hot bitter brew flow over her tongue, tasting the complex bittersweet nature that slowly warmed her body. Slowly coming back to life, she reached for the light next to the couch and turned it on to be able to review the file in front of her. The file that was filled with plans of a very specific building on the other side of the world that she would be visiting at exactly this local time next week. As the light turned on, the reflection of herself in a black t-shirt and shorts revealed itself in the window. She looked into tired teal eyes that were framed by unruly short blonde hair that defied gravity, reminding her of a past that she did not dare to dwell on too much unless she wanted to get lost in a time long gone.
-Kyoto-
She woke up the chirping of birds outside of her window and the early morning sunrays that managed to reach her face. For a moment, she didn't know where she was until she recognised her childhood bedroom and remembered that she had had work business nearby and had decided to drop by at her parents' place to check up on them before heading home.
Of course she stayed over the weekend for the sake of their happiness instead of heading back to the capital and back to work straight away.
She closed her eyes again and turned away from the window to avoid the bright light, but closing her eyes only made her hearing pick up a notch and she could hear how her parents were already up and in the kitchen downstairs, making breakfast and teasing one another as if they were still teenagers. She mainly heard her mother talk and her father chuckle and was not looking forward to join them any time soon, just to be exposed to another inquest about her own non-existent love life. She knew that hiding in her bedroom for eternity to avoid her parents would not work, but she also knew that she did not have the patience nor energy to face another inquisition just yet.
It felt like she had been tired all her life but today even more so and so she decided to sleep some more, or at least to pretend to do so.
