Part II

Chapter 44

"Wh-what?"

Kagura had just shouted out in alarm at her, but Minamo didn't appear to notice the yell at all. Instead, she just sat there idly, watching her phone, hardly breathing.

"...coach, what'd you just say? Hey, tell me what you just said again."

The woman was deaf to her.

She gritted her teeth, Kurosawa-sensei's bizarre unresponsiveness beginning to truly frustrate her. "Hey, listen to me. I heard you just say that you were gonna' die. Don't just say somethin' like that and then go all silent on me. You hear me?"

Still, not a word.

"Hey, coach. Stop starin' at that damn phone and answer me." Kagura grabbed one of the woman's arms, attempting to make her face her, but was shocked when her coach just simply fell against her upon the pull. "Whoa...?"

Minamo lay on her now, staring blankly into the center of the apartment.

Kagura could only gape down at the eerie sight that was in a heap upon her lap. Her sensei had just given way like a flimsy rag doll, and now, the woman was weakly lifting a hand as she attempted to retrieve her phone, pawing at it in the air. Eventually, she righted herself up, picked up the device, and then resumed her previous posture: arms around knees, her eyes set squarely on her phone as it sat under her legs.

...what...the...hell.

It was like she had just watched a coil slowly morph back into its original form, this inhuman lethargy coupled her coach's movements. And now, Kurosawa-sensei seemed once again oblivious to her presence, as if her old student had never even entered her apartment in the first place.

Ok, I'm officially freaked out now.

The entire situation was becoming increasingly disturbing, Kagura having no real idea on how to proceed with what was now before her. She hadn't at all expected to find her mentor in such a haggard state, the woman both appearing and acting as if she were some corpse that had recently crawled out from its grave; her awareness, her personality, everything had just been completely sucked out from her, only a hollow shell left behind.

Kagura scrutinized her closely then, Kurosawa-sensei's particular symptoms prompting an idea. She slowly crept next to her, examining her arms as she cautiously lifted them, the woman not noticing her touch.

...well, they look ok, but then again, I don't really know much about this stuff...

She let go of the limbs, Minamo placing them back around her knees. The only explanation that Kagura could think of for her coach's freakish behavior was that the woman was on some sort of drug. She had conjectured, if that was the case, that she would have seen some sort of needle mark or such upon her skin, but nothing of the sort was found. Outside of seeking some sort of physical indication, though, Kagura didn't really know what else to possibly look for, having no real knowledge about narcotics or hallucinogens or what not.

Do they swallow that stuff too? How do I check for that? I dunno', but...that's the only thing that makes sense, with the way she's acting. But why would she take someth-...oh, wait...

"Coach...are you...waiting for a call?"

As expected, no response.

Kagura sighed as she tried to piece things together, investigative work not exactly her forte. She had just recalled the confession that Kurosawa-sensei had mentioned last week, the one that had supposedly taken place yesterday. Earlier, Kagura had messed around with the notion that the woman's advances had possibly been rejected , and hence, had wound up in a depressive stupor at home because of it, alcohol at her side. However, she had seen her coach drunk before, and the way she was now acting had been nothing like those past occasions...

...but it's coach I'm talking about here. She wouldn't get wasted on something to try and feel better, not her. I mean, where would she even get stuff like that...?

She waved a hand in front of the woman's face then, Minamo not noticing it.

Holy crap, she really is gone. It's got to be...she's got to be on something then. Oh, how about if I...

With great caution, Kagura reached for her coach's phone, picking it up and taking it away.

Let's see if th-

Minamo looked straight up at her then, an empty set of eyes attempting to pierce through her student.

...whoa...whoa...whoa...

Her sensei started to reach for her phone, but Kagura set it aside, grabbing the woman's wrists. Minamo then attempted to pry herself away, eyeing only her phone, the blind desire for it beginning to truly startle Kagura.

"...let...me go..."

The woman began to wrestle against her then, but Kagura quite easily dwarfed her in strength, holding her still with no effort. "No. You needa' tell me what the hell is going on with you first. Seriously, are you on drugs? What is wrong with you?"

"...you're getting it...all over us..."

Kagura raised an eyebrow, clueless as to what her mentor was talking about, observing that her coach's skin was now beginning to sweat. "...look...just tell me why you're acting nuts, and then you can have your phon-"

"Let go!"

She held onto her wrists with a stronger grip then, her sensei having just suddenly completely switched personas on her. Minamo had screamed right into her face, a shrill voice that was filled with the same desperation that she had used over the phone earlier today, and was now violently struggling to get away from her former student. "H-hey!"

"You're making a mess!"

"Calm down!

"It's everywhere!"

Her eyes were so different to Kagura now, the woman clearly terrified of something, perspiration flowing down her face as she madly thrashed about. "Dammit', calm down!"

"Let go...! You're making it worse! It's not stopping...!"

"Coach, shut up and listen to m-"

"Let go of me!"

"Coach!"

"You're trying to kill me!"

"What? What a-"

"You're just like the rest of them!"

"Hey!"

"Just leave me al-"

"Hey!"

The woman shuddered in awe as she was forced against the bottom of the couch, gawking stupidly at Kagura with a dumbfounded expression, of whom had just roared thunderously into her face.

"Just shut the hell up for a second!"

Minamo could only pant out in tired breaths now, unable to speak.

"Ok?"

It took the better part of a minute, but gradually that lost, devoid look in the woman's eyes finally began to fade away, as if Kagura had just blasted the bleakness out from her. Now, Kurosawa-sensei just simply looked straight on at her, with nothing short of absolute bewilderment.

Kagura blinked as the adrenaline left her, amazed at her own actions as much as her sensei seemed to be. "...calm down, coach. I'm sorry, but just...just calm down for a second, ok...?"

Minamo didn't answer immediately. Instead, through labored breathing, she looked around herself, as if searching for something, appearing as if she weren't believing what she was now seeing. "...I...she...?"

She examined the woman for a moment, trying to get a handle on the state of her erratic sensei. "...ok, you...are you gonna' listen to me now?"

"...I..."

Her voice was so weak, Kagura having great trouble hearing her. "Are you gonna' listen to me, coach? Or a-"

"Get her back for me!"

Kagura almost fell over from the force of the cry, yet another abrupt shift in the woman's behavior taking place. Kurosawa-sensei's face had just crumpled in upon itself, her face soaked as she began to sob without let.

"Whoa...!"

Kagura let go of her wrists, catching her sensei in her arms she started to heave. "What? Get who...?"

"My Yukari!"

"Wh-what?"

"She's gone! She hates me! She's going to tell everyone...because she hates me!"

She held onto the woman even more tightly then, Kurosawa-sensei shivering heavily now as she groaned with despair.

"Get her back...get her back for me...please get her back...!"

"What are you talking about? What happened? Coach, what happened...?"

"I...I tried...she was sleeping, and I was stupid! I tried to kiss her...I tried and then she knew! She knew everything...and then she left...she's gone...oh, shes' gone...!"

Kagura's eyes opened in disbelief as what she heard eventually registered. "What...? You...wait, you tried to kiss who? Yukari?"

"She hates me!"

"Wai-"

"Get her back...don't let her tell anyone! Get her back, Kagura! I'm begging you...!"

The shriek over the phone from earlier in the day, the 'big plans' that her coach had been talking about, the strange, peculiar jubilance she had been showing as of late, all of it suddenly started to form into a new, unforeseen possibility in Kagura's mind. "Wait...coach...you mean...coach, why were you...trying to kiss her...?"

"I want her back! I want things...like they were...!"

She held her closely then as the emotion began to quite vehemently exit the woman, Kagura now grappling with the reality that she might not have known her beloved mentor nearly as well as she had previously believed.