A/N: A warning to those of you that hated my Chiyo "accident" in my previous chapter, there will be another miniscule amount of it here. Then I ask of you to look beyond the "reddish fluid" and read on about poor Ayumu.

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Sakaki was awoken by the bright mountainsun shining on her face through the window. As she opened her eyes she protected them from the sun with a slender arm while she sat up on the side of the bed.

Her head was abit foggy after the big dinner she´d eaten yesterday as well
as the alcohol she´d partaken in.

Sakaki had never been one for drinking lots of alcohol, instead she got very easily intoxicated. When she considers it she has already done quite a few "improper" things in the grips of alchohol, in fact just thinking about it is putting a deep red on her face.

To rid the face of it´s predicament Sakaki let her thoughts wander through what had happened last night and what will probably happen today.

Then she remembered Chiyo-chan.

Sakaki turned around to look how the little girl was doing. Chiyo-chan was lying on her side, facing away from Sakaki.
Deciding that it´s time to wake her up, Sakaki leans over and rustles the younger girl´s shoulder.

The face that looks back isn´t the cute Chiyo Sakaki´s grown used to.

Chiyo´s eyes are halfopen and droopy , abit of snot is crusted right under her nose and she got drool all over her chin.

"Sakaki-san?...uhhhh...gulp..." And before Sakaki can react Chiyo-chan is up and running towards the bathroom.

Sakaki decided against following to check on her, and decides she can take care of those problems on her own. Instead Sakaki goes downstairs to start preparing breakfast.
After a good halfhour Sakaki got a good and nourishing meal set. Lots of juice and fruits because fluids help on a hangover.
Sakaki was happily humming as her rival entered through the door to the living room.
Leaning on the doorstep Kagura was still abit drunk, still half asleep and had a headache that could tear apart Mount Fuji.

"Could you please, please stop the infernal humming? It´s slowly ripping my head apart and if you continue for another second it won´t be a pretty sight."

"Ah!...Gomen...I got breakfast ready as an excuse." Sakaki replied with a rare smile.

Yomi who had just entered behind her said "Breakfast?" and put a hand to her mouth.With a pained look on her face Yomi disappeared through the door to join Chiyo.

With something that looked like a triumphant smile Kagura threw an insult after Yomi as she retreated.

"LIGHTWEIGHT!...urgh..."

Before she started to feel like joining the two herself, Kagura walked over to the table and sat down.

"Would you mind pouring me some juice, Sakaki?"

The tall girl didn´t respond , but went over and got her rival a glass of fresh juice.

After a few minutes of thinking and feeling sorry for oneself and such, a third drunkard found her way to the kitchen and seated herself. Tomo wasn´t quite as genki as she used to be, but when compared to the three others Sakaki had seen so far she was a sunbeam.

"Ahh, that was a great party last night, I´ve even got the worst hangover I´ve had in months, my head is like a planet with a core about to explode."

"Then why the heck are you so damn loud?"

Looking completely innocent Tomo looked over towards Kagura. "Because it´s morning. And in addition the sun is shining and Yomi´s regretting she challenged me last night." The last part came out with a wide grin..

Suddenly a thud can be heard against the kitchen window. The three look at the white lump of snow slowly finding it´s way down the window. When they can see clearly through the window again they see Osaka running around in the snow with a big bandaid over her nose, tossing snowballs at everything and nothing, playing like she was a five-year old. All the while laughing like a kid.

"That´s it! How can she be even more energetic than me? She was still drinking when I passed out last night!"

"Hah! That´s what I said yesterday, she´s hardcore!"

"Just how can Osaka be hardcore?...She´s Osaka for Kami-sama´s sake."

"I don´t know, but look at her. And she even broke her own nose back, you gotta admit that that´s pretty hardcore."

The two stared at eachother for a while and then looked out on Osaka who finally tripped into a heap of snow and lay there laughing for a while, before getting up and walk inside, exhausted.

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After breakfast the girls gather in the living room, a map of the surrounding region spread out on the table in front of them. "Soooo, where are we going to go play?" There comes from a giddy Tomo.

Yomi starts to open her mouth, but is quickly shut up by Tomo again.
"DON´T SAY IT! I know you´re gonna complain about that it´s not playing, right?"

"Uhm, ye..."

"Shut up! We´re having fun in the snow and if that´s not playing then I don´t know, and I don´t want any stupid comments about how grownups don´t play, because that´s a load of bull."

Before Yomi even gets to open her mouth in protest, Tomo nearly pounce on Chiyo.

"Chiyo! I´m sure you know about all the good slopes and such around here?"

"Ano... Not really , it´s been years si..."

"Ok, then! Then we´ll go HERE!" Tomo yells and points at a random point on the map."

The rest of the girls bend over to see where Tomo´s pointing.

Kagura who´s leaning over Tomo´s shoulder points out the fact that it´s about a 7 mile hike through rough terrain."And you see this green stuff here along the pointy lines?" Tomo nods.
"That´s a steep hill clad in bushy undergrowth about 75 metres high."

With the disappointed look of a child Tomo turns to look into Kagura´s eyes a few inches away. "Oh...so...no go?"
For a second Kagura almost goes along with the stupid idea, so pleading are Tomo´s eyes, but she catches herself after a few seconds.
"No, you moron, and don´t look at me like that!

Puzzled Tomo looks back. "Like what?"

Noone noticed, but Yomi was growing very tense.

" Like that! You look like a lost little child I just want to take in my hands and..." Suddenly very aware of her own blushing Kagura leans away and puts her hands up infront of her in defense.Now Tomo was smirking instead of pouting, and an idea started taking place in her head.Tomo´s smirk changed into something...confident and her eyes weren´t very innocent anymore, quite the opposite.Tomo´s eyes now looked as if she intended to be a very bad girl, and Kagura felt the blush on her face heat up even more.
Tomo took the last step between the two and grabbed Kagura, one hand behind her waist and the other up under her arm and behind her neck.

Kagura stuttered out a protest , but Tomo silenced her "Wha...what are you doi..glmpf.." with her tongue.Tomo´s grip wasn´t hard or at all forced, but somehow Kagura couldn´t find the strength to push her away.Kagura felt a good feeling spreading and her body. This was the most intimate she´d ever been with someone, it was so close, so hot, and after a few seconds Kagura melted in Tomo´s arms and didn´t do a thing to resist.

Yomi left the other girls to their moping with a muttered "I gotta go to the bathroom.".

Not too long afterwards Tomo broke the kiss and looked into Kagura´s eyes. Kagura kept her eyes shut for a little longer, till she finally realised it was over, and when she did she slumped together on her knees, blushing like never before.

Abit puzzled Tomo looked down on the tan girl, she hadn´t thought things would go this well. It didn´t take long , however, for her to put up her usual facade of Tomoness.

"Ahahahaha, that´s what happens when you get a taste of this, now lets go play!"

Osaka cheered and joined Tomo to the run for the outdoor clothes, Chiyo and Sakaki shared a glance before following them, this left Kagura on the floor, staring into empty air for a minute or so before she got up and ran after them.

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A few hours later the girls came back inside, hungry, sweaty and tired. Chiyo lead everybody to the backside, where she showed them her family´s huge hottub. Chiyo herself only took a quick clean before she ran off to prepare dinner.

The girls sighed in pleasure as they let the hot water envelope their bodies. This was just what they needed after a few hours in the snow. Even Tomo was exhausted and when she entered next to Yomi, she tried to lean against her, like she´s done so many times before. There had been so many times when Tomo had been either exhausted or drunk or even shaken from fright, and all those times she could trust Yomi to be there with either kind words or harsh words, but always a shoulder to lean and perhaps cry on. But this time that shoulder wasn´t there for Tomo. As she snuggled up against Yomi´s back and leaned her head one that oh so good shoulder the shoulder gave in and disappeared.
Tomo´s head went underwater for a brief moment as it went away.

Surprised Tomo looked after her shoulder, but Yomi´s head was turned against Sakaki and she didn´t seem to have noticed. Before she could try again , however, Yomi disappeared out of the hottub and into the showers.
Feeling very lost Tomo looked at Yomi´s back disappearing behind a wall, Tomo didn´t have a clue about what had just happened.

Suddenly she could feel a thump and soft hair on her back. Before she could turn Osaka spoke.

"Heheh, looks like Kagura´s exhausted, she´s sleeping on your back Tomo-chan. Aww, she looks so sweet."

Tomo couldn´t see Kagura´s face, but she could feel her head resting on her back, somehow it felt very comforting to have it there. Tomo shifted just enough so that Kagura´s head could lean on her shoulder instead. Looking at her Tomo can´t help but feel a little...fond... of Kagura. She looks kind of cute.´ Tomo didn´t even notice that she was stroking Kagura´s hair.

After a little while Chiyo came and said that dinner was ready. The girls left the tub, Kagura abit groggy, and soon Ayumu was behind schedule. As she was pulling on her skirt she saw something fall out of Sakaki´s bathroom purse as she left the room. As soon as she got dressed properly Ayumu went over to pick it up.

It was a packet of razor blades.

"Hmm, I better give these to Sakaki." But as she looked at them Ayumu couldn´t help but feel a certain...familiarity with the blades.Hesitantly she opened the package and pulled out a blade, and a flash came back to her.
She saw herself cutting a first cut in her wrist, and remembered that it had felt so good, it had made all her worries flow away.
At the moment Ayumu couldn´t feel anything that worried her, but the movements were automatic.

She went over to a sink, pulled up her sleeve and looked at her wrist. It was covered in old scars. As she looked over them she remembered a few of them, and why she had done it. She saw herself being separated from the others as she had to move again, after the graduation and a pained look grew on her face. She remembered being told her parents had taken their own lives and tears welled up in her eyes. And then she remembered reading their last note to her, claiming that now she was old enough to take care of herself and that she shouldn´t follow their example, even if the world was a cold hell.
She remembered...and then she started cutting.