Worlds Apart

Chapter 4: Life's Pretty Flowers
By Tiger Dauthi

The next morning Nagisa woke up to find the same white walls reflecting the morning's pale light. Pissard was already strolling in, bellowing loudly and handing out breakfast.

As he approached Nagisa the bright smile plastered on his face tightened, but he passed the plastic tray to her all the same repeating the cheery, "Eat up!" he gave to everyone.

Nagisa clenched the gift in her hand. This is... This is... My world is not a figment of my imagination. A rustle on her bed caused her to look up. Honoka sat perched on the edge of the bed, smiling weakly.

"Y-y-you should eat."

Nagisa glanced at her dull white tray, then at Honoka's. Both were still full, but at least Nagisa's had some portion of hers gone. She looked at Honoka's sallow face.

"Says you," she said teasingly, poking Honoka in the stomach.

Honoka squeaked, which caused some stifled laughter from everyone else. As she blushed, Nagisa smiled devilishly, then lunged forward and started tickling Honoka. Amid bursts of squeaks and laughter, the tray clattered to the ground, contents upturned, causing complete silence as the sounds faded away.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry..."
"No, it's ok."

Nagisa tried smiling reassuringly, but all Honoka did was look down, sliding to the linoleum floor and reaching a trembling hand towards the mess.

"Here, I'll help."

Nagisa hopped out of bed and crouched down, using a spare rag to mop the miso soup off the ground.

Pissard chose to burst in at that moment, brandishing a mop. Grinning, he said, "It's no problem, girls. I'll clean it up, and Misumi-san can have some more if she wants."

Nagisa shook her head vigorously.

"Ok, then, move over ladies!"

Honoka huddled on her bed and seemed to shrink within herself. No matter what Nagisa did, she couldn't get Honoka to make eye contact with her.

Pissard marched out, whistling a happy tune. The lyrics came unbidden to her head.

Purikya, Purikya...

He winked at her.


It had started out with Dr. Marks talking about nice pleasant things, like the weather and that kind of crap, but eventually he noticed that Nagisa wasn't making any effort to respond, and so trailed off into a stagnant silence.

The low burble that started filtering in caused Dr. Marks to jump up again, energetic once more. Smiling kindly at Nagisa, he asked, "Would you like to go outside and see the rest of the world? It might help you become accustomed to this place."

Nagisa flashed a look at Dr. Marks that conveyed complete desperation, but he didn't notice it, and so she replied in a monosyllabic tone, "Sure."

She climbed out of bed and plodded towards the door with Dr. Marks not far behind, but jumped back when the breeze and chill from outside seeped in through her threadbare slip. She landed on Dr. Mark's polished black shoes, eliciting a yelp of surprise from him. Glancing down, he asked, "What's wrong?"

Nagisa grimaced at the cold and asked, "Could I get some real clothes?"

Dr. Marks chuckled a bit, and said, "I'm sure we could arrange for that. Pissard!"

When Pissard had arrived with the clothes Dr. Marks nodded to Nagisa, saying, "We'll leave you to change. When you're ready, go and talk to Pissard here. He'll give you a tour of the place."

Nagisa nodded, then scampered off with the bundle of clothes as the door creaked shut behind her.

She was dismayed to find that the jeans were a couple sizes too big and that the shirts were designed for men, but they were real clothes, and at least for that she was thankful.

As she yanked the hospital gown over her head, the voice from the other bed in the room said, "Nice bod."

Nagisa immediately blushed, and looked over to see who'd talked. It was a girl who was stick-thin and had a long thin braid of silvery hair. Nagisa had only seen her once. She was casting her eyes up and down Nagisa's body appreciatively. After the inspection she gave a slow long wolf whistle.

Nagisa tried to put her shirt through quickly, but her hands fumbled with the sleeves of the white polo, and so she was subjected to several more catcalls and leers.

When she pulled up the jeans it was even worse. The girl smirked and said, "You have lovely legs. What I wouldn't give to be in between them."

Nagisa was just about to tell her off when Honoka stepped right next to her and spoke up, albeit a bit timidly.

"L-l-leave h-her alone."

The girl started in surprise, then looked at Honoka evenly.

"So, the little scaredy has finally decided to speak up, eh? Destroy our fun, hmph."

She gave a dramatic sigh of longing as she gazed at Nagisa through her similarily silver eyes and said, "She was a good catch too. But since you've chosen... Be thankful I've got a little kindness in my heart. Maybe you'll be able to pay it back someday, eh?" She winked at Honoka, who looked away.

Nagisa exploded.

"Look, will you just stop with your sexual jokes! Not everyone appreciates them, and you're making both of us uncomfortable!"

Instantly two pairs of eyes were trained on her, and Nagisa instinctively took a step back.

A stifling silence reigned between the three, standing in an awkward triangle.

Finally the silver-haired girl spoke up. Shaking her head sadly, she said, "I don't think you understand. You've just awakened, so I guess we should give you some leeway."

Her eyes became flinty and she said quietly, "We're in a mental hospital. We're the fucked up people who get carted here by our families," here she nodded to Honoka in some strange exchange, "and most of us never manage to get out. So we have to find some form of something, something to remember and believe in. You'll get it eventually, when you've been up and about long enough." She turned away and looked at the wall.

Nagisa didn't really know what to say. She felt like a foreigner, and indeed, this wasn't someplace she wanted to be either, but it'd become some strange part of her world whether she liked it or not. What frustrated her the most though, was that she felt the desolation and despair in the girl's voice, saw the sorrow in both of them, and yet she didn't understand. She couldn't understand it and she couldn't accept it.

Presently the girl turned back to face them, joker face turned on again. She stared at Nagisa and grinned.

"I say, you'd make a stunning guy - so cute and yet so manly." She nodded vigorously. "Yes, you'll definitely be great for Honoka."

Honoka stuttered out something Nagisa couldn't make out, but the silver-haired girl seemed to understand, and waved a hand about.

"Nonsense, you'll soon learn to enjoy sex, and then we'll be on to the wonderful vice of drugs!"

As if remembering something, the girl dove under her covers and rummaged for something, presently coming out with a small box with a red cover. They were cigarettes. She pushed one out and offered it to Nagisa.

"Take one?"

Nagisa shook her head, partly in refusal and partly in wonder.

"Ah well. Now Prince Charming, I command thee to leave and sweep your blue-haired beauty away!"

Nagisa stared at the silver-haired girl who was lighting up her cigarette for a moment before walking away along with Honoka. She was out the door and in front Pissard before she finally noticed that she was holding Honoka's hand and had dragged her out the door. Blushing, she released her grip quickly, only to find that Honoka still kept her hand wrapped around hers. Nagisa looked up at Honoka, who looked down, then looked up and blushed. When Nagisa felt Honoka's fingers uncurling from her hand she retightened her grip, and so Honoka kept holding Nagisa's hand. They smiled at each other.

Pissard apparently didn't notice this exchange, or else he was immune to it, for all he did was pleasantly say, "Oh, so you brought a friend with you? The more the merrier!"

He proceeded to lead the two around, pointing to objects and things and explaining them. Nagisa scowled, thinking him rather tedious, for he was even pointing out and explaining such mundane things as coffee pots and water fountains.

Presently they came to the common room, a place stuffed with poofy armchairs that showed their age. A couple people were huddled around a small black TV, but most of them were sprawled randomly across the sofas or sitting by the window staring out into nothing. It was filled with people of all ages and there were some guys here too. Not a single one of them turned around to look at the newcomers, who were standing at the doorway like two kids in a fairytale, hands linked together in wonder.

Nagisa slowly swept the room, and started when she noticed a teenage boy with brown hair who was spinning a battered old soccer ball. Unknowingly Nagisa slipped her hand out of Honoka's grip and walked quickly over to him, almost at a half-run.

"Fuji-P?"

The boy took a drag of the cigarette he was holding in his left hand and blew the smoke into Nagisa's face.

"What a weird name, girl. Is it some strange sex toy? Drug? At any rate, I don't think I have what you want." He sounded almost wistful.

Nagisa blanched and said quickly, "No, sorry. I just thought you were someone I knew."

The guy smiled good-naturedly and said, "No problem, girl. If you ever do make up something called Fuji-P, lemme know. Maybe I could help you do it." He smiled in a way that let Nagisa know exactly what he was insinuating, then stood up and tossed the soccer ball at a guy sitting at the window, turning away from Nagisa.

Everyone's a pervert... Nagisa stood there in shock until Honoka snapped her out of her thoughts by tapping her on the shoulder.

"I-I'm s-scared of these people..."

Nagisa grinned jokingly at her and said, "Don't worry, I'll protect you!" She protruded her chest and flexed her biceps in a mock representation of the stereotypical hero. Honoka giggled at this, but then closed her mouth as a pained expression came over her face. Nagisa frowned, unable to comprehend exactly what was wrong.

There's so much that's different with this Honoka that I don't know...

At any rate, Honoka had lost the slightly terrified look she'd had on her face, and tugged Nagisa to the silent group clustered around the television.

The group had clearly elected a leader, from the way everyone looked to her as the duo approached. Said leader was a woman with bright red hair and a vampire-like cape covering her. She was reclining on an armchair, legs crossed, and seemed together, unlike the other patients Nagisa had seen. She stood up when they reached her armchair, the cape swirling about her black pants and shirt making her look impressive and foreboding. Smiling slightly, she bowed, then stood up again. A crazed look entered her eyes then which made her look positively evil, and she grabbed Nagisa's shoulders and shook them violently, saying at the top of her voice, "Would you like some chocolates?"

A sharp pain lit up Nagisa's body, and she pushed the woman away, clenching her head in agony as the world started spinning. She keeled over as stars burst across her vision, and somewhere in the dull roar in her ears she could hear Pissard bellowing, "Stop it, Poisony!"

The world faded to black.


Yay. Chapter 5 will be out... sometime. Well, it might be relatively quick since it's Spring Break now and I have nowhere to go.

Reader: Hey, thanks for the comments! True, not many English-speaking people watch PreCure, let alone think of shoujo-ai. There's relatively few places to advertise it, but that's okay with me. If I wanted to write fics where I would get lots of comments I'd be doing something like Harry Potter or CCS. :p