Finale:

Cataclysm

Tomo yawned loudly as she woke the next morning, taking a few moments to stretch and look around. The couch was much more comfortable than she had remembered, perhaps because she'd been sleeping on concrete just the day before. She gazed around the apartment, her hazed mind not registering the sound outside of her own thoughts, thus leaving her in relative silence.

"She moved the dinning table… bigger TV… a note…" she picked up the note and examined it closely. It took her a few moments to finally register what it said, but the message finally clarified itself in her mind.

"I'm going out to pick up Kagura. Be back in about thirty-five minutes. (10:27). Yomi"

She checked the clock. "10:48. That leaves… ugh, math… well, some amount of time, enough for me to get ready at least…" After another minute of stretching, she stood and headed toward the bathroom. "My first real bath in two years! This'll be so awesome". She entered the tiled washroom, shuffling her feet along, towel dragging on the floor next to them, and pulled open the shower curtain.

Two eyes stared back at her, one brown and one blue, both utterly confused. Attached to these eyes was a girl not much taller than Tomo, long, currently wet raven colored hair hanging down to just below her collarbone. Her figure was definitely not that of an athlete, or at least not that of any athletes Tomo had met. She was skinny, her small muscles seemingly the only meat on her. She had about the same complexion Tomo had before she had left, a healthy rosy hue to her peach colored skin.

Tomo nearly jumped out of her skin at the sight of the girl, pointing and stuttering out

"W… why are you b… bathing in my friend's house…? Are y… you some kind o… of crazy s… serial killer…?" She backed against the door, ready to dart away if she needed to. The previously confused girl suddenly seemed to remember something and began to laugh softly.

"Ah! You're Tomo, then? Yomi told me so much about you! You sound like such a lovely girl, I hope we can become good friends".

"Y… who are you…? Why are you here…?" Tomo repeated, still very shaken and distrusting of the intruder.

"Oh! Where are my manners,? I'm Hikari" the girl extended her hand, leaving it out for a few moments before realizing that it was not being accepted. She explained further. "Hikari Morimoto? Yomi's girlfriend? She hasn't told you about me, I guess… ah well, I'm sure we can continue introductions after I get my clothes back on, right?"

Tomo simply stood and stared, shocked. Realization had hit her like a nine-tailed cat.

"Yomi… doesn't love me anymore…"

Bravo, Sherlock, you solved another completely obvious case. Really, did you think that after two years, Yomi wouldn't have moved on? That she wo—

"Shut up! Just shut the fuck up, I don't want to hear it right now!" Tomo screamed, holding her head and doubling over. Tears began to hit the floor, her body began to shake uncontrollably. Hikari reached out a hand cautiously, watching the cowering girl with worry, asking softly "What's wrong…?" Too suddenly turned, hands moving to cover her face, and darted out of the room towards the front of the apartment. She threw the front door open and tore down the hallway, sobbing uncontrollably. With every step, she felt the threads that held her life together unraveling, her willpower slowly draining. She screamed at herself, and the voices in her head shrieked and wailed at her, her darker voice loud and commanding over the rampant hollers.

You see what you've done, Takino?! You see what you've done to yourself?! You're alone now! No one can save you, you've shut everyone out! All because you had to have a little temper tantrum, all because you had to be a stupid bitch who couldn't answer a simple question! There's nothing for you anymore, Takino, nothing to look forward too, nothing to hope for. Face it, you can't live without Yomi…

"Damnit, shut up! Get out of my head, just leave me alone!" she shouted, drawing quite a bit of attention for the patrons of the Café she was passing at the time. She ran as far as the nearest street corner and rested her head on the light post, still sobbing loudly.

"I'm… I'm g… gonna regain my co… composure, and then I'm going b… back… just you watch, I… I'll make everything right again…" she murmured between sobs, turning back towards Yomi's apartment.

How? Go back and tell her "Oh Yomi, I still love you, come back to me! Forget this other girl you're dating, anything the two of you share, come back to the girl who abuses you and runs away for long periods of time without contacting you! Doesn't that sound fun? Giggle giggle!" Are you really that selfish, Takino?

"I'm not selfish! I… I'm not… I just want to be happy, I d… I don't want to feel like… like this anymore… I don't want to hate myself like this… I don't want to be alone like this…"

At this point a small crowd had grown at a reasonably safe distance from her, murmuring and pointing and whispering. Tomo took no notice of them, the conversation with herself consuming all of her attention.

Would it really make you feel better? Making someone else miserable for that happiness, is it really worth it? Are you sure you wouldn't just be amplifying that pain? I think you know what you need to do, Takino, what your last option is. Now you just need to find out how to execute it.

She slammed her fist hard into the light pole, the pain not registering to her in her current state. There was a small dent in the pole where she had hit, and the crowd gasped and began to move away, frightened for their safety.

"F… fine… i… if it's really the only thing left… I'll do it…" she growled, shuffling toward the train station.

The train station? You can't run away from this, Takino, and you know it. Besides, you don't have any money.

"You think I'm that stupid? (Yes) I know exactly what I'm doing…" her voice trailed off into a monotone as she let her mind slip away. Only the thoughts of her current task and her lost love lingered in her mind, and they, too, were quickly slipping away.

She stumbled down the stairway, nearly falling on her face as she tripped on her own feet. Her eyes had lost their luster, now blank and emotionless, staring straight ahead of her at nothing. She arrived at the platform, looking to the left, then to the right. No trains coming. She waited five or so more minutes and finally heard a train in the distance. She waited a few moments more, until she thought it was close enough, and stepped off the de of the platform. Her darker self may have said something to her, but she didn't care. She turned to face the oncoming wall of metal and began to laugh as the last of her sane mind snapped and disappeared. There were shrieks and shouts from the platform, women covered their children's eyes, people began to flee the scene. Tomo simply continued to cackle, extending her arms to either side of her, ready to embrace her destiny, to embrace Death as it sped for her in its iron chariot and carried her away from her sorrow. She closed her eyes, she listened to the chaos around her… she heard something familiar, yet completely new to her.

It was nearby, the voice she heard, crying out for her, filled with terror and despair.

"Tomo! Get out of there Tomo! Hurry up, get over here!" The voice became steadily more choked with sobs as it neared her, now seemingly only feet away. Tomo opened her eyes and looked toward the source of the voice.

"Yomi… what are you doing here…?" she thought, though she was completely indifferent to the girl's presence. Just a few more moments…

"Yo… mi…" she mouthed, smiling warmly to the frantic woman. A blast of pain suddenly surged though her body, she could feel herself shatter, the world around her fading as her life-blood poured from her broken body. Yomi's face contorted to a look of pure horror, her body frozen as her closest friend's blood splattered on her, drenching her in crimson, a sickly sweet taste filling her mouth. Tomo Takino, age twenty three, was now nothing more than a smear on the 11:15 to Yokohama.