CHAPTER 15

THE STANDOFF

Breakfast the next morning for the Hiiragi family continued to be quiet and awkward, as per their new lifestyle whether Tsukasa was present or not. Inori and Matsuri sat next to each other and finished their toast and fruit bowls as Tadao read the newspaper while clutching a mug of coffee. Miki put the finishing touches on a bowl of oatmeal for Kagami and placed it on a tray and began to walk it upstairs to her room. Though what happened last night was one of the most horrifying spectacles to date, Miki took some comfort in the fact that her oldest twin didn't lose all of her sanity.

Matsuri's brutish slap brought Kagami back to them, but the oldest twin wished it didn't. Since the second bathroom incident, Kagami quarantined herself in her room and refused to come out. She kept calling herself "ugly" and didn't want to show what she had done to herself to the world. Miki and Tadao already agreed that it was best that she stayed home from school today so they could continue to talk her back to her senses.

Miki arrived at Kagami's door, placed the tray of food on the floor, and gently knocked. "Kagami, I have breakfast for you."

Silence was the only response.

The Hiiragi housewife sighed and slowly opened Kagami's door and saw her daughter sitting on her bed with her back facing her. Kagami was wearing a large hooded sweatshirt with the hood tied tightly over her head, hiding her follicle self-mutilation from the world. She hugged her legs to her chest as she sat still.

Miki entered with the tray of food and placed it on the floor while taking a seat on Kagami's bed. "Dear, you should eat something. I made oatmeal for you."

Kagami inhaled and quietly replied, "Thanks, mom."

It was good to hear Kagami's usual stern and serious voice again. Her forced cute voice trying to resemble the Tsukasa everybody once knew was nearly as terrifying as the new Tsukasa was.

"Are you feeling okay, sweetie?" Miki asked.

Kagami shook her head no. "I want to apologize to you, mom."

"Apologize? For what?" Miki asked.

Kagami slowly turned her body around and looked at her mother in the eyes. Kagami's indigo pools of life had returned and they were still lodged in her serious expressions with the hood wrapped around her face. She inhaled and said, "I'm so, so sorry for last night. I couldn't even begin to imagine how terrified you and everybody else was when you saw me like that with those scissors. I'm so embarrassed."

Miki slowly nodded. "We were scared, Kagami, but you don't have to apologize. I just wish you wouldn't hide yourself life this. You're still a beautiful young woman."

Kagami quickly looked downward, grasped the drawstrings of her hoodie and pulled them tighter. "I'm not beautiful, mom. I'm hideous. You saw what I did to myself. It took me years to grow my hair like that and now it's all gone."

"Hair grows back, Kagami." Miki replied in a soft voice. "I still love you no matter what you look like, and so do your sisters and your father. So what do you say we go downstairs and join them?"

Hearing the offer only made Kagami clam up even more as she quickly turned away, laid on her bed, and retracted into a ball. "No way, I want to be homeschooled and enroll in an online university. It'll be the only place I'll be able to get in to after this picture incident with Tsukasa and my hair."

Miki rolled her eyes and sighed. "Don't talk that way, Kagami. You are a smart, witty, clever, and above all, strong girl. No matter what your sister does, it'll never change who you are and the talent you have. Now…you are going to get out of bed, join us for breakfast, and keep doing what you do best; working hard and making us all proud."

Kagami slowly turned her head and looked at her mother. "Do…do you really mean that, mom?"

Miki smiled for Kagami and nodded. "I would never lie to you, Kagami. Now come on, let's get you outside and with your family again."

Still reluctant, Kagami slowly sat up and reached for her hood. She slowly pulled it off and revealed the damage she had done to her once long, beautiful hair. The side of her that lapsed in sanity the previous night had gotten its wish when it wanted to look like Tsukasa as Kagami's hair now barely covered half the back of her neck. It was still a shock for Miki to see such little hair on her oldest twin. The last time Kagami had this little amount of hair, she was in middle school.

"At least now you don't have to worry about getting those pigtails caught in the car door again." Miki spoke softly as she gently rubbed her hand through Kagami's short hair.

Kagami formed a small smile and when she released her own natural giggle, Miki felt that the Hiiragi family was able to find one sliver of hope in their god-awful pile of a mess. They were able to save Kagami from the darkness of insanity and bring her back, but it would ultimately hurt the former twin-tailed girl's self-esteem when she would eventually have to return to school. No doubt that she would be blasted with questions about her radical change in appearance. Kagami just hoped that Konata and Misao wouldn't go too overboard in their remarks about her hair.

When the two women arrived in the kitchen, it didn't take long for Tadao, Inori, and Matsuri to look at Kagami. Seeing their eyes locked on her scalp prompted Kagami to quickly blush and look away. It was at that moment that Inori and Matsuri looked at each other, smiled, and nodded once to each other and began to put their plan into action.

"Kagami, that hair actually looks good on you!" Inori exclaimed with enthusiasm, grabbing Kagami's attention and making the fragile girl look back at them.

"That's for sure!" Matsuri added. "If you let it grow a little more on the sides you and I would look alike!"

"Nu-uh!" Inori interrupted. "What she needs to do is let it spread out a little in the back and she and I would look alike! Kagami, listen to me and I'll take you to the salon in town I always go to and we'll look identical!"

Continuing to shower love and support onto Kagami, Matsuri kept going along with their plan and added more. "Kagami, don't listen to her! She's just jealous that you have so much of my good looks in you! You stick with your big sister and I'll bring out your true beauty! You'll be the hottest girl to hit Saitama!"

Kagami formed a small smile and saw what her sisters were trying to do for her. They set this up to try and cheer her up about her hair and were trying to compete for her attention, and it was working. The ailing oldest Hiiragi twin giggled in her natural way and took a seat as Inori and Matsuri continued to vie for Kagami's attention and told her all the great things she could do with her new short hair.

Tadao smiled deeply at the lifting scene and glanced at his wife, who also had a smile on her face. When Miki looked at him, she playfully winked, indicating she too was in on Inori's and Matsuri's plan. Tadao slowly nodded with a smile and resumed reading his morning newspaper as the harmonious break from the drama continued to grace the Hiiragi family.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(- )-(-)

Konata ate her lunch with Miyuki later that day. She knew Kagami was absent today and feared that yet crisis had found the Hiiragi household. Whether it had to do with Tsukasa or not was anybody's guess, but Konata had a sinking feeling that it had to do with Kagami. Ever since the New Years crime hit the Hiiragi family, it hit everyone and they couldn't even have a peaceful lunch together anymore without something else happening or to always have their minds trapped in the sympathies for the Hiiragi family.

"I hope that Kagami-san isn't sick or anything." Miyuki said as she closed her bento box. "That would be disappointing because of how much school she has already missed."

Konata sighed remorsefully. "I'm not worried about how much school Kagamin has missed. I'm worried about what that confrontation with Tsukasa the other day did to her."

Miyuki added her sigh and agreed. "Yesterday sounded so horribly tragic. I saw that horrendous billboard of Tsukasa-san in the city and I can only imagine what that's doing to her family. And to wake up and find that some…person…if you can even call them that, did such a thing to their shrine. Have people no morality anymore?"

"Hey, Miyuki?" Konata asked and the pink-haired girl focused her attention on her shorter friend. "You know how me and everyone else always come to you for advice or to explain homework for us?"

"Yes," Miyuki replied politely.

"Well…I really need your advice on a hypothetical scenario." Konata pushed out and added more. "What if I knew someone that I thought was a friend to me and after an altercation with another friend, she did something horrible for revenge."

Despite Miyuki's high intelligence, she was still naive and oblivious enough for the rising tensions between Patty and Konata to pass over her head. She collected her thoughts and answered, "Well, that does sound like a difficult situation. But if I was in your spot, Izumi-san, I would confront the person who committed the revenge. No matter what the first person did, revenge is never a good response. It can cause permanent damage between friends and depending on how bad the revenge is, it could—"

It was at that moment that Miyuki realized she was talking by herself and Konata was no longer still sitting with her. All of the classroom's attention was on her and a bright-red blush plastered Miyuki's face and the class went into a roar of laughter.

Konata meanwhile arrived at her little cousin's classroom and saw her sitting with Minami Iwasaki and Hiyori Tamura. It surprised all three girls to see the blue-haired otaku approach them but Yutaka was happy to see her nonetheless.

"Oh hey onee-chan!" She happily exclaimed. "What are you doing over here?"

Konata took a seat with them and put on her usual cheery demeanor for her cousin's sake. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Oh thank you, onee-chan!" She exclaimed happily. "You're so nice to me! I'm doing fine. Just talking with Minami-chan and Tamura-san."

Konata smiled for her. "That's nice, but I was wondering if you knew where Patty-chan was."

Hiyori knew the answer and said, "You just missed her she's in the bathroom."

Konata nodded. "I see…hey Hiyorin, could you meet me outside for a second? I have something I need to talk to you about."

Hiyori's eyes twitched as the memories from the other day were still fresh in her mind. "Is everything okay, sempai?"

Konata nodded. "It is…but this does pertain to a certain billboard on Otome Road."

Hearing this prompted Hiyori to glance at Minami and Yutaka and to their relief, they were still somehow clueless about what has been happening with Tsukasa. She nodded and stood to join Konata as they walked outside and when they were alone, Konata talked to her.

"Have you been noticing if Patty has been acting strange lately?" Konata quickly asked as she looked around as if she was trying to make sure the coast was still clear.

The question however caught Hiyori off guard as she thought this had to do with the billboard. Nevertheless, she replied, "Well, I uh, I didn't really notice her acting strange. What do you mean by strange?"

"Strange as in she might be defensive or hiding something." Konata quickly replied, still looking around.

Hyori shook her head. "No, nothing like that…but what does this have to do with…Tsukasa's problem?"

Konata was finally able to put her paranoia away and faced Hiyori again. "Tsukasa's family shrine was vandalized the other day. Someone spray painted graffiti all over the buildings and put posters of Tsukasa dancing and kissing that girl all over the place."

Hiyori's eyes nearly exploded in her head when she heard the news. She suddenly put it together and stuttered, "You…you…you…do…don't think…think that…that…Patty…"

"I think that we need to be careful," Konata quickly said. "I just wanted to bring you in on this because I trust you and you're the only other one that knows this much about how badly Tsukasa and Kagami are both suffering. I don't want to bring Miyuki into this and I don't think Kagami's other friends are the best to handle this. Like I said, you were there with me at The Black Window and saw what Tsukasa did and how Kagami took it."

This was a very tough spot for Hiyori but she still knew what needed to be done. She nodded and said, "Okay so what are you asking of me?"

Konata narrowed her eyes. "For now, just wait for my text. I work with Patty after school today and I'll talk to her. I'll find out exactly what she knows and doesn't know…or what she did do and didn't do."

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(- )-(-)

Feeling the heat from the spotlights burning on her face, Konata breathed hard and felt the sweat drip down her face as she stood frozen in her Haruhi pose pointing upward. The applause from the audience in the cosplay café roared as usual and Konata and Patty took their bows after completing yet another reenactment of the infamous dance and the two girls held each other's hands and smiled for the crowd. However, underneath their smiles, a storm was brewing between the two girls.

Konata still held her suspicions about Patty. The blue-haired otaku may have spent most of her time with her face either buried in manga or her eyes glued to the television, but she still knew suspicious behavior when she saw it. Something was telling her that Patty knew way too much about the Hiiragi shrine desecration, and it was Patty herself that let it slip. It wasn't until their shift was over later that day that Konata planned to do her own sleuthing.

When quitting time came, Konata and Patty undressed themselves in the locker room, their backs facing each other. The silence between them was tense and both girls were thinking the same thing. Which one was the bigger threat to the other? Konata hoped that she was wrong when she thought that Patty knew more about the shrine than she was letting on, but Konata had known Kagami much longer than Patty. She had to assume the worst until she had the real answer. Kagami meant a lot to Konata and she needed to be a good friend to her.

"You know, Patty-chan, it's kind of funny," Konata said, grabbing her work partner's attention as the kept their backs to each other. "How your one friend knew about the Hiiragi shrine."

Patty once again felt the sweat form across her head and she quickly wiped it away when she knew Konata wasn't watching. She replied, "Well, yeah. Like I told you, she got the info from Kagami's sisters."

Konata slowly nodded as she pulled her school uniform skirt back up and secured it over her hips. "Yeah…because I have known Kagami for a long time, so I also know her family, and I also know that because of their father's rank in society, they would want to keep an incident like that as quiet as possible."

Damn, did Konata figure me out? What should I do? Should I come clean? Or should I…?

"I guess you do have a point, Konata." Patty calmly replied with her back still turned.

"No doubt that whoever did that to the shrine wanted to cause a scandal for the family," Konata continued to instigate with her back still facing Patty's back and the tension continued to rise in the room. "I may not know Inori or Matsuri very well, but I do know that when a scandal that size reaches a shrine, they will do whatever it takes to keep it quiet."

Patty's heart continued to pound in her chest. She slammed her locker door shut and turned to Konata for the first time. "What exactly are you trying to say, Konata?"

Konata still stood firm with her back facing Patty until she replied. "Nothing. Nothing at all, Patty. Why are you getting so defensive? We're just talking."

Patty glared at Konata. She hummed, grabbed her bag, and began to walk out of the locker room and said, "Good talk."

Konata turned for the first time to look at Patty walking away. "I do have just one more thing I would like to say before you go."

Once again, Patty froze in her tracks and slowly turned to face her coworker. "Why…whatever is it, Konata?" Detectable resentment and frustration was in Patty's voice.

The blue-haired otaku closed her locker door and faced Patty in a standoff position. "I was just wondering why you've been keeping yourself away from all of us since the day Tsukasa beat you to a bloody pulp. Kagami was still around to talk to and so were Yu-chan, Minami-chan, and Hiyorin, yet you completely disappeared for awhile. Why is that?"

"N…no reason." Patty said as she tightened her grip on her bag and lowered her head, obstructing Konata's view of the foreign girl's blue eyes.

"Really…? Because I think there is a reason. Is it because you were too embarrassed to face anyone…? Or is it because you are the one who did that to the Hiiragi shrine?" Konata finished in a strict tone while narrowing her glance at Patty.

Dead silence fell upon the cosplay café. It was as if the entire globe stopped spinning once again as the two girls continued to wage a war of the words and the mind. Seconds continued to tick and neither Konata nor Patty made a move. If someone took a pin and dropped it and even if it landed on shag carpet, it would still sound like a ten car pileup on a highway compared to the painful silence between the two girls.

Konata, with her eyes locked on Patty's face that continued to look downward, glanced to her right and saw the sinks with individual mirrors above them in the locker room. In one of those mirrors, Konata saw Patty's eyes and her heart began to skip beats when she saw them. Patty's eyes were still obstructed from view if Konata looked directly at her, but in the mirror, Konata saw the meanest, angriest, and most conniving glare she had ever seen on a human face. Not even Tsukasa's looks of hate could touch what Konata was seeing from Patty. It was the look of a cornered animal that was ready to bite now that it knew its survival was at stake.

My god…she really wants to kill me. I can see it in her eyes.

As quickly as the silence came, it was shattered when Patty quickly turned away and to Konata's surprise, began to act emotional. She cried, "How could you accuse me of such a heinous act, Konata?! I thought you were my friend! I'm leaving right now before I say something I'll regret!"

Konata watched Patty dash out of the locker room and she was left alone. The blue-haired otaku slowly raised her hand and placed it over her chest and felt her heart continue to beat rapidly in her ribcage. This was more serious than Konata thought. She was not only able to conclude that Patty was the one who desecrated the Hiiragi shrine, she suspected that Patty was capable of something drastic if she was cornered. The proof of that was in her eyes.

Still, Konata couldn't let this crime go by the wayside. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. A text message from Hiyori Tamura was waiting for her and when she opened it, it stated:

"Did you find anything out about Patty?"

Konata narrowed her eyes at the phone and glanced back at the door where Patty tore through to get out of the locker room. Replying to the text message, Konata began to put a plan into action that would oust Patty as being the one responsible for what she did to the Hiiragi family shrine, as well as to Kagami and Tsukasa. Despite everything Tsukasa did to Konata, the short girl was still determined to save her from the darkness that she was already deeply entrenched in. Konata replied to Hiyori's message with:

"Patty is the one who spread those pics of Tsukasa. We need to stop her before she does worse. I have a plan…but I need your help. Are you still in?"

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(- )-(-)

Later that night, The Black Window closed early. Meeting in the back room of the store, Yuka Miyakawa along with Tsukasa Hiiragi and their friends from the raves continued to throw their lives away in the second long night of drug binges. Used joints littered the floor, along with empty pill bottles and empty plastic bags while clouds of smoke hovered above them. The room was dark with dozens of candles and black lights keeping the room slightly lit with death metal music playing at a lower volume so people could talk.

Tsukasa rested her head in Yuka's lap while the three boys that continued to get high with them were out of the store momentarily. They promised to be back with the hardest stuff to date, which Tsukasa planned on trying as she continued to rest on Yuka's lap as she picked at her fingernails with a small dagger. She punctured her skin several times but her senses were numbed to oblivion and she didn't feel it.

As Yuka paged through a dark manga, she said, "That was really cool what you did to your sister yesterday. I never saw someone make their own sister cry like that. You're a real hard bitch, Tsukasa Hiiragi."

Tsukasa's face remained placid as she punctured her fingernail with the knife and drew blood. Still, she didn't wince in pain. "I guess you could say that. But if I ever see Kagami or anyone else named Hiiragi again, nothing will be able to stop me from killing them all."

"Hardcore…killing your own family. I guess I should start calling you the ovarian barbarian or some shit like that." Yuka grinned. "You know one of these days I want you to read that diary of yours to me. You said you wrote dark poems in there, right?"

A thought suddenly struck in Tsukasa's mind. Her private and devastating diary was still at her home and to her hope, still in its hiding spot. She didn't know for sure though. For all she knew, they could've already discovered it and if that was the case, she already assumed her parents were splitting up or her sisters were committing suicide. Either way, she didn't care.

"Yeah, I wrote poems in that book. Mostly about death and dying." Tsukasa spat with callous anger. "And I wrote the full transcript of when those bastards fucked me in that shrine and how. Stuff I never told the cops or my parents."

Feeling slightly aroused, Yuka began to run her fingers across Tsukasa's abdomen and tickled her navel. "Could you give me a little sample from that book?"

Tsukasa formed a small yet sinister grin and nodded. "One night I had a dream that I was torturing my older sister, Inori. I wrote that in the diary."

Yuka's dark grin deepened as she turned the page in her manga. "Do tell."

"She was strapped in a chair with her mouth held open and I had pulled out all of her teeth with a pair of pliers." Tsukasa chuckled as she watched the blood drip from her finger. "She was screaming in pain and I took a power drill and then—"

Before Tsukasa could finish her macabre dream, the boys returned with their promised drugs. It prompted Tsukasa and Yuka to quit what they were doing and they gathered around the drugs like kids around a bucket of chocolate. One of the boys pulled out a bag of white powder.

"What do you have?" Yuka asked.

"Smack." He replied groggily and added, "With a little bit of…extra spice."

The dysfunctional group began to ready the supplies to continue their drug binge but tonight would be horrifically different. Tsukasa thought she knew what she was doing when she took the smack and began to divide it into lines on the table. She didn't see the others prepare bent spoons, cigarette lighters, and hypodermic needles.

When Tsukasa put her nose to a straw and inhaled the powder, she suddenly heard a voice shriek, "Tsukasa, no!"

The youngest Hiiragi twin suddenly looked up and saw Yuka staring at her with a horrified expression, as were her male junkie friends. A tense silence fell between them as no one knew what to do next or what to expect next.

"Tsukasa, you weren't supposed to inhale that stuff! That's too powerful to be inhaled!" Yuka exclaimed and Tsukasa became scared.

"What do I do?" Tsukasa asked.

Yuka quickly turned to one of her friends and repeated the question but before they could respond, they saw the sudden change in Tsukasa and they knew they had a problem on their hands. Yuka looked back and nearly screamed when she saw Tsukasa. Her skin color drained completely and her pupils began to dilate while blood flowed freely from her nose. The whites of her eyes suddenly began to turn yellow as the youngest Hiiragi twin began to sway back and forth.

"Yuka-chan…I don't feel so good." Tsukasa said in a disturbingly meek and childish voice and suddenly, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed. When her body struck the floor, she began to twitch violently and spewed bubbly foam from her mouth. She had OD'd.

On sudden and panic-induced impulses, Yuka and her friends collected Tsukasa's lifeless body and threw her in the back of one the junkie's cars and they began to speed away. Screams and shouts continued to sound in the car on what they needed to do. Yuka was hell-bent on taking her to a hospital while the others simply wanted to drop Tsukasa in the first open dumpster they could find.

"Why weren't you watching this little bitch?!" One of them yelled as Tsukasa's cold head rested on the back floor, her mouth still dripping foam and her nostrils still leaking blood.

"Shut up, Takashi!" Yuka yelled as she put the pedal to the metal and sped through STOP signs and red lights on the late night. "We need to get her to a hospital or she'll die!"

"She's already dead, Yuka!" Another one of them yelled. "I don't think she's breathing anymore!"

Yuka continued to hyperventilate as she sped. She eyed the hospital's glowing Red Cross symbol and knew that hope was still alive to save Tsukasa. There was still a problem. Neither Yuka nor her friends could afford to talk to the doctors because they knew that the police would be called because it involved drugs. There were arrest warrants out with her name on them and she knew that if she stayed with Tsukasa, the only thing it would lead to was a lengthy prison sentence.

She finally halted the car outside the ER entrance of the hospital and saw nurses and doctors working inside. Yuka turned back and yelled, "Push her out!"

"You want to leave her like this?!" Another one of her friends cried, who was the only one with any trace of a moral compass.

"Damn it I said push her out!" Yuka commanded again and her friends heeded her demand this time.

One of them opened the car door and forced Tsukasa's limp body out and she landed with a crash on the cold cement of the road. As one last parting show of appreciation, Yuka honked the horn twice, catching everyone's attention inside and she quickly sped off. She looked in the rear-view mirror and saw two nurses rush out and swoop around Tsukasa's twitching body and refocused her attention on the road again and disappeared into the night.

Tsukasa was still conscious but everything was blurry. She saw two human figures kneel over her and their voices echoed in her mind as they called for assistance. The last thing Tsukasa saw was more people approaching her, including a doctor who appeared to be much older with white hair and a white mustache. She was certain he called her name as her vision faded and everything became white.