Chapter 5
Her . . . Twin?
Rise sits alone at the student council room one afternoon, working on filling out some documents. From what she saw yesterday made her heart flutter. She had never seen such a kind and gentle woman like that before. And she was even willing to comfort her a bit when Rise was crying. It's been about a week since she saw that woman and wishes she could just see her once more. Just then, there is a knock on the door, which makes Rise look up.
"Hey, it's me, Ayano," the voice says from behind the door. It opens and out comes the purple haired girl with her friend, Chitose. Hi, President. Sorry for bothering you, but we kind of need your help."
Rise whispers as she stands up.
"Oh, come with us," Chitose says. "We'll explain on the way."
Rise nods as she follows her two members.
"So, we need your opinion on where we should put our banner for the special event coming up in 3 weeks," Chitose explains. "Unfortunately, Furutani-san and Ohmuro-san were arguing too much and just quit. That's why we needed your help."
Rise nods. As soon as they get outside, they find the banner lying flat on the ground next to the entrance with two ladders next to it. Rise examines it for a bit, turns to Ayano and whispers to her.
"Um . . ." Ayano says.
"President says that it should be just fine hanging it on the entrance so that every student will know about it," Chitose explains.
"Oh, I see. Well then, thanks for your help, President." She and Chitose help each other hang up the banner.
The three then back up and check to make sure it's balanced and even. Rise whispers her approval.
"I'm glad!" Chitose says.
"My, what the heck is this?" a snotty voice says from the distance. Rise turns and notices Suki and her friends walking over to the banner. "That banner looks hideous! It's colored purple with yellow letters, really? It's way too ordinary!"
Ayano frowns. "Who asking for your opinion, lady?"
"You're holding a festival with a banner like that?" Suki says, pointing at it. "No one would want to see that banner that looked like toddlers spattered it with paint."
"You should get rid of it," Riri adds.
"Even we can do better than that," Akira says.
Rise glares at them. How dare they express a harsh opinion on their hard work?
Chitose then steps in. "Well, to us, it looks good. Please know that all of us student council members worked hard on this banner."
"Student council, huh?" Suki says. "Who's running it? You are?" She turns to Ayano.
"Um, no that would be her," Ayano says.
Suki frowns as she puts a hand on her hip. "Oh, the quiet girl? You mean, you have that silent dolt as Student Council President? That's lame."
"Why?" Ayano asks.
"You fool!" Suki says as she points at Rise. "How can you girls have this girl be president? She is too quiet, cannot be understood at all and just wears this expressionless look on her face!" She walks up to Ayano and pokes her chest hard. "I say get rid of her. She's not worth being president if you're gonna have her like this."
"Hey, take it easy," Ayano says, gently pushing her away.
"Don't push me!" Suki shoves Ayano hard until she bumps into a wall.
"Matsumoto doesn't deserve to be president!" Akira says.
"Make her go away and find another president who can be fully understood!" Riri adds.
"No, we can't!" Chitose pleads. "Rise-chan is a good president, believe me. I know she has this condition, but we still love her! Please, don't think badly of Rise-chan!"
"Oh, yeah?" Suki says, stomping over to Chitose. "What makes you think she got nominated anyway? How can anyone vote for this silent girl? Something's definitely wrong here, don't you think?"
Rise feels startled and hurt by this. From what these girls are saying, she felt that she can no longer be part of it.
"Hey!" Ayano says. "Who do you think you are anyway!? You have no right to tell us what to do just because Rise-san cannot speak!"
"Oh, yeah," the blonde says, flipping her hair. "I'm Suki Kawasaki and these two are Akira Watsuki and Riri Satsuki."
"Well, Suki," Ayano says, stepping up to the blonde and pokes her chest back. "You know what? We can do whatever the heck we want. Rise-san may be a silent girl, but she's still a person with feelings. And you're hurting her right now as far as I can tell."
"And you don't know anything about her," Chitose agrees. "Judging a person like her like that is just cruel."
"Yeah, whatever," Suki says. She notices Rise close to tears, though she's still wearing a stoic expression. "Oh, look. She's gonna cry. How sad."
"Are you gonna cry to your mommy?" Riri teases. "Oh, wait. You don't have one, do you?"
"Or a father," Akira adds. "She's just a stinking orphan who lives alone at a house, right?"
Ayano and Chitose gasp and turn to Rise, who is trembling in fear.
"What are you taking about?" Ayano asks, afraid of what the answer might be.
"Oh, you didn't know?" Suki says. "Matsumoto's parents got fed up with her because she can't speak. They had tried everything they could to cure her, but nothing worked."
"You mean, she wasn't like this from the start?" Chitose asks.
"Heck no!" Riri says. "All we know is that half of her vocal cords were severely damaged."
"And why do we know this?" Suki says. "We've heard stories from that teacher of hers."
"You mean, Nishigaki-sensei?" Ayano asks.
"Mm-hmm," Suki says. "It seems that Matsumoto wanted to keep this a secret for some reason, which I don't know why she wants to do that. But what we do know is that Matsumoto is just a fool who has a hard time communicating with other people because of this condition."
"Then, why do you three bully her so much?" a voice calls from behind Suki.
All of the girls look to see a young woman with long blonde hair with a side bang that covers her left eye walking up to them.
"Who are you?" Suki asks.
"I'm Nina Nishigaki," the young woman says. "I'm Nana's twin sister."
"TWIN!?" Ayano and Chitose shout in unison.
The young woman walks up to Rise, who is close to crying and wraps her arms around her. The raven-haired girl wanted to cry even more for seeing this woman again. It's the same exact person that she saw a week ago. Nina turns to the girls and glares at them.
"You three should be ashamed of yourselves for treating this poor girl like that," she says. "She doesn't deserve this kind of treatment. Her two friends love her no matter what condition she's in."
Suki just backs away and bows. "Sorry. Please forgive us. Come on, girls."
The three quickly leave. Nina turns to Rise and gently puts her hand on her shoulders. "Are you alright? Don't worry about them. They're just mean."
Rise whispers loudly and plunges into Nina's chest, sobbing.
"What's the matter?" Nina asks.
"She's just glad to see you again," Chitose says. "It seems that you've met her before and wanted to see you again."
"But how in the world . . . can you understand her?" Nina says. "I mean, if half of her vocal cords were damaged, making her speak like this, how can people understand her?"
"It's quiet hard to explain actually," a familiar voice says.
Nina looks up to see Nana standing by the doorway with a smile on her face. "Sis! You are here!"
"Hey, there, younger sis," Nana says. "Long time no see." She gives her younger sister a hug.
"Yes! Like a couple of months," Nina says.
"So, let me get this straight," Ayano says. "You two are twins?"
"We sure are," Nana replies. "We get along very well with each other, but we have different interests. Nina happens to be a novelist for the time being, right?"
"Yes," Nina says. "I'm just visiting to get some inspiration on my new novel to write. And it looks like I came to the right place." She turns to Ayano and Chitose. "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot both of your names."
"My name is Ayano Sugiura," the purple haired girl says.
"And my name is Chitose Ikeda," the silver haired girl says.
"It's nice to meet you two," Nina says, bowing before them.
"Hey, since we're all here, why don't we come to the classroom to have a chat?" Nana suggests.
"That's a great idea," Chitose says.
"Good, then let's go."
All of them enter the building and into Nana's classroom and lock the door so that no one would barge in. Rise sits next to Nana while the others sit on random desks with Nina standing next to her sister.
"So, I'm just wondering," Nina says to her sister. "This girl, Rise Matsumoto . . . she cannot speak because half of her vocal cords are damaged. How did this happen?"
Nana just sighs. "It's a long, sad story. Besides, the reason why Matsumoto wanted to keep it a secret is because no one would understand. But you can, right?"
"I suppose," Nina says. "If your story gets my attention, maybe it will be a great inspiration to my next novel."
"We'll understand, too," Chitose says. "We have all the time in the world."
"So, please, Nishigaki-sensei," Ayano says. "We want to know how this all started and how Rise became like this."
Nana's expression becomes serious as she pulls up a tall chair in front of everyone. "Very well. I'll tell the story. But only if Matsumoto is willing for me to."
Rise nods as approval.
"Alright." Clearing her throat, Nana begins to tell the tale of how Rise Matsumoto became the person she is today with everyone's attention to her.
A/N: Sorry for the surprise, but it's going to be a long story, so I decided to split it into 2 chapters. It's gonna take some time to think of what incident Rise might be in or what causes her throat to get damaged so much, so bare with me okay? I'm sure all of you were waiting for this chapter, so here it is. Oh, and I apologize for bringing up those girls again. I just felt putting up a few hints for the next chapter and also to have my new character Nina to appear.
Feel free to give out any suggestions, questions or concerns and don't forget to review! ;)