Chapter 5
As Rio reached out to ring the doorbell, the door in front of us opened up. Standing in front of us was a girl, she looked to be around the same age as me. She glanced at me before seeing Rio, and a big smile filled her face. "You came, I'm so happy you're here Rio-chan."
Rio smiled back at the girl in front of us. "Hey Kaede, I wish this was under better circumstances but it's nice to see you too." She lifted up her hand holding her bags from the store, "do you mind if we head inside? These bags aren't getting any lighter unfortunately." Kaede moved into the apartment, and we followed her inside.
It was a nice apartment, even as someone who didn't go inside a lot of apartments could tell that much. The halls had framed posters of different movies, shows, and even some product ads. The kitchen looked new, with the appliances looking as though they had been put in recently. Either this Sakuta had just gotten the apartment, or he was well off to keep it looking so nice.
We set the bags down, and Rio quickly put away our purchases. "Kaede where's Sakuta? I thought he was going to be here." Rio called out as she finished up. "He had to run out for a second, he didn't say where he was going but he promised me he'd be back soon." Kaede peeked her head around the corner and the look on her face made it seem like she was sorry, even though it wasn't her fault.
"Well I know he wouldn't break a promise to you, so I guess we'll just have to wait for him to come back." Rio shrugged and headed out of the kitchen, beckoning me to follow her as we ended up in the living room. The tv was on, there was a documentary about Pandas playing. Kaede eagerly jumped onto the couch and patted the spot next to her for Rio to sit down.
"By the way, who's the guy that's with you?" Kaede looked over at me before staring at Rio. I meekly smiled and waved, and Kaede waved back. "This is someone I met today, he's going through a rough spot because of adolescence syndrome. So I brought him here to get Sakuta's help."
Kaede nodded, and looked back over to me. "My name is Kaede, Sakuta is my older brother. If Rio-chan is helping you out, you must be a good person" She smiled and tilted her head slighty. I introduced myself, and felt a little more at ease.
As we sat waiting for Sakuta to arrive, I watched the pandas on the documentary currently in the middle of a nap, as the voice over talked about their sleep habits. The low tone of the speaker mixed with the peacefully sleeping pandas had affected me, and it was only the sound of the front door opening that prevented me from joining the pandas in their nap.
A guy entered the room, the look on his face making it seem as though he was trying to avoid any contact from the world. "I'm glad you could join us Sakuta, I was beginning to think you ran off instead." Rio crossed her arms and stared at Sakuta. He ruffled his hair and sighed. "Tomoe called and said there was some guy following her so I walked with her home. I would have let you know but she made it seem pretty urgent on the phone so I didn't have the time."
He sat down across from us, leaning back and closing his eyes for a moment. Rio reached out and lightly kicked his leg after he did this. "Alright alright you don't have to abuse me." He opened his eyes and looked at her. "So what help of mine do you desperately need?"
She rolled her eyes at this. "Actually this is just a favor to me. He's the one who needs the help." She looked over at me as she said this, and Sakuta and I stared at each other. I introduced myself and held out my hand. Sakuta reached back and we shook hands.
"Kaede do you mind going to your room for a bit, it might make our guest feel a little more comfortable." Sakuta looked over at Kaede, and I felt grateful to him. Having to tell someone else everything was already going to be hard enough, having a third party there would ruin my concentration.
Kaede nodded, and turned off the tv. As she left the room, she paused and messed with Sakutas hair, much to his dismay. Laughing, she continued walking away until we could hear the panda documentary faintly from somewhere else in the apartment.
Sakuta grumbled and tried to fix the damage to his hair, but it was a half-hearted effort. "You should appreciate your sister giving you help with your looks Sakuta, your hair looks leagues better than before." Rio looked as though she was very amused. He ignored her comment, and finally gave up on fixing his hair.
"Sorry for asking, but Kaede is your sister?" I asked as Sakuta placed his hands down. He nodded. "If the help you need is asking my sister out, you're on your own there." I started to stammer before Rio spoke up. "It's a shame your sense of humor is so bad, I'm sure Mai could have introduced you to some comedians."
Sakuta grumbled at that, and I managed to stop stumbling over my words. "Sorry but no. I was just curious about the nameplate outside. If she's your sister, does that mean someone else lives here too?" Finding out I would be staying with two strangers was already tricky enough, now there could be even more strangers?
"Ah, yes. Kaede is my younger sister, there's actually two other people that live here. Well one and a half, the other one stays from time to time and stays with her parents when she's not here." Sakuta's face lit up as he began talking. "Right now, she's over with her parents so you won't be seeing her, but my fiancé will be home later."
So this unassuming man in front of me was engaged. He seemed to be similar to me in how we treated the world, but when it came to relationships we were on completely different levels. "She's actually the owner of the apartment, so that's why her name is first on the nameplate. She just added my last name because of my sister."
I nodded. "Now that that's out of the way, it's time for why we're here." Rio nudged me as she spoke. "Right, sorry. It's all still new to me, but I have adolescence syndrome. She brought me here because I have no where else to stay." At that, Sakuta began to pay attention.
I started from the beginning once again, and just as Rio did, Sakuta also spoke up once I mentioned almost meeting myself. "... and then as I was at a computer at a net cafe, that's when I meet Rio." I finished and waited for one of them to begin speaking. Sakuta leaned back and thought to himself.
"So I guess doing it that way wouldn't work huh?" He said to himself. Rio laughed "No easy way, trust me I know." Sakuta looked over at me. "I get it. But you don't have to worry, we can figure it out. I'm guessing you need a place to sleep?"
I nodded. "I hope I'm not being a bother by asking this." I appreciated the help so far, having people who understood that I could talk to was already a huge help. Rio was right, being alone and trying to deal with this would be a nightmare. Without having someone to help, it would be like trying to swim in a storm without a life vest.
"Well I'd have to check with Mai-San, but I think she'd say yes. She's dealt with the syndrome too so she's no stranger to this situations." Sakuta smiled at the mention of his fiancé. "You'll have to sleep out here, her sister wouldn't be too happy if a strange guy was sleeping in her room when she wasn't here. I hope that's okay with you."
I started to speak, and at that moment the sound of the front door opening could be heard. Immediately, Sakuta sat up straight. "Oh I didn't realize we were having guests. Did Sakuta offer you anything to drink?" The women speaking must have been the Mai that had been mentioned.
With her looks, she must have been a model or an actress, which would explain the nice apartment. She smiled sweetly at me, and introduced herself. Then she looked over and Sakuta and her sweet smile faded slightly.
"Sakuta dear, you know you shouldn't slouch." She pinched his ear as she spoke, and Sakuta began to wince as though she was ripping his ear off. "Your clothes give you away, so don't try to lie to me." She released his ear and gave him a kiss on the cheek, before sitting down next to him.
Beside me, Rio looked over to Sakuta and then to Mai. "Well it might have been better to wait, but long story short he's dealing with adolescence syndrome and needs a place to stay because of it." Sakuta looked over to Mai and nodded. "I just got told the story and would have given you a heads up, but then you came home."
"Sure, you'll have to catch me up on everything though Sakuta. And you'll have to sleep out here, as long as you're okay with that I don't have an issue with it." Mai looked at me for the last part, and I nodded in agreement. "That's more than enough, thank you for letting me stay here."
Rio stood up next to me. "I thought we might eat dinner and then after we could discuss possible solutions. We have two immediate problems to solve, so some time to think things through would be good." The rest of us agreed, and Sakuta and Mai stood up.
"If you'd like, you can go wash up. There's nothing a nice warm shower can't help fix, and we can cook in the meantime. Plus I'll get caught up from Sakuta so you don't have to tell everything again." Mai said this to me, wanting to give me some time to myself. I thanked her, and she pointed out the bathroom and handed me a towel.
The sound of the water and the heat of it helped me relax, and my mind began to wander. "I hope they can figure things out, they seem fairly confident in themselves" I thought to myself. As I massaged the shampoo into my hair, my eyes closed to prevent any of the shampoo from getting in them, when suddenly things changed.
I was staring at Sakura, running away from something. Tears ran down her face as she moved past, "I don't understand, I don't understand." From where she came, I could see myself, chasing after her. The look on my face was an insane one, eyes wide and bloodshot. "Please just listen" I heard myself say, and soon he too was gone.
The scene before me changed again. I looked through a window to see myself seated at a table, a police officer on the opposite side asking questions. "So you came across the body? And you didn't get a good look at the guy who did it or where he ran off?" The other me shook his head.
A flicker, and then the scene changed again. Sakura sat speechless, face turning pale in shock as the other me layed on the ground, the knife that would have taken her life instead in his chest. "no no no no nO NO NO." She cried out, but it was too late.
Knock-knock-knock. The sound of the bathroom door being knocked upon pulled me out of that nightmare and back into reality. "Hey are you okay in there? It's been a while and just wanted to make sure you're alright." I could hear Sakuta calling from the other side.
I washed the shampoo off, and cleared my head. "Yeah sorry, I think I just nodded off for a little bit." I leaned my head back and sighed. What had I just seen? I hadn't experienced anything like that in my life, yet those three scenes felt so real. "You know, I get it. It can be a lot to take in, even after days or seeing multiple instances of it. If you want to talk about it, I'm here to listen"
Sakuta waited after finishing, and I told him about what I just saw. "Are you sure you weren't just day dreaming? Or maybe between everything you've experienced and the heat of the water created a hallucinatory effect?" I thought it over a moment, "No, this felt too real. Like I was watching some of the scenarios I had been coming up with as a way to fix this."
I got up and dried myself off. "I think this is something Rio would know, she's always been better at the scientific side of things." Sakuta spoke up. "I'll go talk to her and check on dinner, it should be done soon." I hurried and got dressed, heading out to meet everyone for dinner.
The Authors Desk
Now we're getting to the juicy part. I debated on whether to put those scenes from the bath that our protagonist sees in this chapter, or whether to make it a dream sequence after falling asleep for the night. But I think the route I've taken will lead to much more interesting developments, hopefully you do as well.
Next chapter, we'll get to have a nice home cooked meal, try to figure out some possible solutions to our two problems, try and figure out what else is happening to our protagonist, and much more. Our cast has been more or less assembled, so now the story truly begins. (I'm not planning on adding any more characters from Seishun Buta Yarō, at most they'll be name drops like Tomoe)
As always, thanks for reading and see you at the next chapter.
