It was nearly time for her to sleep, and she had only eaten about half of what the full table consisted of. She was extremely fearful of what her uncle had planned to do to her. She didn't want to suffer because of her own mistake as a child. She took a few more bites before giving up on the food in front of her. 'I can't eat anymore.' She thought as tears welled up in her eyes. She knew that she was probably not going to be going to school for a while as punishment for starving herself, but she was so sure at the time that her Nii-nii would be proud of her and be happy that she withstood her uncle. But Irie-Sensei knew her Nii-nii more than anyone in the world. When he said that Nii-nii would be upset, she couldn't help but take it to heart.
"Satoko! Why is there still food here?" He said, his voice elevated, making Satoko quiver and quickly move herself away from the table bearing all the food. She tried to hide but knew it was much of a futile attempt.
"I'm full! I'm sorry! I would eat more if I could! I'm so sorry!" Satoko begged for forgiveness, even though she had done nothing wrong.
"You will eat it all!" He demanded of her, causing Satoko to push herself farther back then she was before. He advanced on the little blonde. He grabbed some of the food and threw it at the cowering girl.
Satoko covered her face and let herself start crying. "I'm sorry..." she pleads again, hoping he would listen to her weak cries.
"Eat it!" Her uncle yelled. He threw more of the cold food at her. "Eat it all off the floor!" he pointed to the rice grains that scattered the wooden floor.
Satoko leaned forward, tears streaking her pale face, "Please... I wanted to eat it all... I did... But I am so full..." she said, bowing down to him, trying to beg for him to not make her eat it off the floor.
"I said eat the food!" he said, angrily kicking Satoko in the side. She coughed roughly. He just laughed at her, "You little wimp, can't even take a little kick in the side." he said, kicking her again.
Satoko coughed harshly, and gagged a little. She coughed again, and without warning, vomited up everything she had eaten. She coughed harshly again, arched over her own vomit.
"You little...!" he leaned over her and pushed her face into her vomit. "Stay there! You move from that spot, and much more will happen then a kick in the side." He told her as he walked away, making Satoko nod softly.
Even though she wanted to move-because all she could smell was her vomit, and she felt disgusting, like she needed to clean herself-she stayed exactly where she was, in fear of getting hurt worse then she already was.
After a few minutes, Satoko heard the front door slide open, and then closed. Her uncle had left. She thought about getting up but then remembered that it could be a trick to see if she would listen to his command. He had done that before, forcing her to do something, then leaving, only to come back within moments to check and make sure she was doing as told.
She closed her eyes, trying to hold back tears. She couldn't take any more of this. She was trying to figure out what she could have done wrong to deserve the torture she suffered.
After a few moments, Satoko's uncle didn't come back, but Satoko stayed put like she was told. She just lay on the floor, her face beginning to get irritated by the stomach acid.
She waited patiently for her uncle to get back, in hopes that he would tell her she could get up. 'Stop wallowing. You know that if you had been stronger when Nii-nii was around, he wouldn't have left, and you wouldn't have needed to learn to grow up. This is just one punishment. One punishment for all of the wrong you've done.' Satoko thought to herself. She curled up a little, and decided that if she was going to be stuck there all night, she might as well sleep. Her uncle was, more than likely, going to get home and forget that she was even in there and crash drunk on the couch.
Satoko stirred a little, regaining her consciousness. The first thing she did was remember what happened last night. Remembering this, she stayed laying down, instead of getting up and getting ready for school like she normally did. There was no way her uncle was going to let her go to school today. She had bruises everywhere from where he had been roughly tossing her around.
Not even five minutes after she woke up, her uncle came into the room, wearing a pair of sunglasses, and resting an icepack on his neck. "This room smells awful. Satoko, you can get up, just clean this room first before you do anything else." he said, before walking out of the room.
Satoko was lucky. He uncle had gotten drunk the night before after he left, and had gained a hangover. Even though he was a horrible person and an even worse drunk, he was rather mellow when he was suffering from a hangover. Probably because he didn't want to deal with fast movements or yelling with a headache.
She pushed herself off the floor and flinched. Her face felt very raw and irritated from being burned by her vomit. Her nose also hurt from the smell. She stretched up, feeling very sore from sleeping on the floor. If her uncle was still suffering from a hangover in the afternoon, she decided that she would take a nap.
Satoko grabbed the mop and bucket out of the kitchen cupboard and took it to the sink. She moved the mop out of the bucket, and began filling it with water.
After swiftly mopping up the dirty floor, she took the bucket out to the backyard, to empty it of the dirty water. She shook it violently, and then took it back inside.
She finished cleaning the entire kitchen, and started to the bathroom to wash her face. It was stinging badly, and she knew that there must be a scab forming from the acid burning through her pale skin. She took a wet rag and ran it across her face, flinching and hissing at the pain. She didn't want to clean it, but she knew that it would get infected if she didn't and if she got an infection, that would give Irie even more reason to take her away from her uncle, which she couldn't let happen.
She quickly got all of the chunks of food and such off of her face, even disinfecting the wound with soap and hot water. She cried while doing this, but knew she couldn't just not do it.
As soon as she finished drying her face, she heard a quiet knocking on the front door. She sighed, and looked at her face in the mirror. It almost looked like she fell and skidded on her face. With that in mind, Satoko smiled at herself, realising that she had just given herself her next lie.
"Coming." she said, as she turned to go answer the door.
She passed her uncle, who was napping soundly on the couch. She almost smiled at how vulnerable he looked to her right then. She almost wanted to kick him, but knew that if she had she would most defiantly regret it later.
She got to the sliding front door, and opened it a little, "Yes?" she asked, trying not to show her face.
"Satoko!" she heard the voice on the other side. It was Mion. Of all people to visit her in the middle of the day, it had to be Mion?
"What's up?" Satoko asked, watching Mion carefully.
"Chie-Sensei told me to come check on you. Said that you were really sick yesterday." Mion said, standing very close to the door.
"I'm fine." Satoko said, looking away.
"May I come in?" Mion asked, trying to invite herself into Satoko's home.
"My uncle is sleeping on the couch in the living room. I don't think that that would be a good idea." she said, backing away slightly.
"Well then can you come out here, only for a moment?" Mion asked, taking a small step away from the door.
Satoko sighed, knowing that the next head of the Sonozaki home was not going to back down until she got what she wanted.
She shook her hair into her face, and then opened the door.
Mion gasped, "Satoko-Chan, what happened to your-" she was cut off by Satoko.
"I fell yesterday, after mopping the kitchen floor. I was really dizzy, but didn't think anything of it until it was way too late." Satoko said, touching her face delicately.
Mion nodded slightly, seeing right through Satoko's lie. Almost everything Satoko spoke recently was a lie. "Ahh, okay." Mion nodded again, before smiling at Satoko. "Well I wanted to go on a walk. You've not talked to anyone in a long time. You won't even talk to Rika anymore. Everyone is really worried about you." she said, looking down at her shoes.
Satoko thought for a moment, and then decided that a short walk with Mion couldn't be too horrible. "Okay. Let's walk." She said, softly, looking back into her house, seeing her uncle sprawled out on the couch, 'Hopefully, he will not awaken before I get back... Or I'll be in trouble. But Mion is scarier.' Satoko thought, as she slipped her house shoes off and put on her flats.
Mion internally smiled. She knew that she might be able to get Satoko out of her house, now for the next part of her plan. She wanted to get Satoko to admit about her uncle. Chie-Sensei had told Mion and their group about how Satoko had been intentionally not eating, and that scared Mion. "So how is everything going?"
Satoko smiled, "Everything is going good."
Mion narrowed her eyes but did not say anything. She needed to let Satoko think she was lying her way through this. "Ah. How is your uncle?" Mion asked, with no real care, but rather to beat more around the bush.
"Same as ever." Satoko answered. She couldn't figure out Mion's motive, and she wasn't so sure she wanted to know. Mion was a sneaky person, with a lot of secrets that even her closest friends didn't know about. But Satoko assumed that was just something that came with her job of being a leader to one of the Three Houses.
Mion nodded a little, more to herself. 'That means that Satoko is still suffering... If not worse than when Satoshi-Kun was still around...' she thought to herself, as she watched Satoko walk, almost like a zombie, with how she had no hop in her step, no emotion in her eyes. Everything about her looked depressed. And then the wound on her face. There was no way to miss that. It was very obvious that she was not clumsy enough to do that, just from falling. There had to be an external source. "Hm. Well, what about that supplement shot that Manager wants you to take?" she asked, as she looked at Satoko frail looking body. Mion felt if she just hugged her too hard, she might break in half. How could anyone hit a child as innocent and small as Satoko?
"I stopped taking it for a while, but then he found out, and said that not taking it was part of the reason I'm becoming so clumsy." Satoko said, watching her feet. Everything she was spouting was lies, and even though she didn't want lie to her friend, she had no choice. Her Nii-nii would feel ashamed if she fell back on someone all because of a little bruise here and there. It was nothing. It was just a trial to see if she's worthy to have her Nii-nii back, and she was going to try her best not to mess it up.
Mion nodded and smiled, "But you've always been rather clumsy. You used to miss school all the time, because of those killer stairs in your house." she said, trying to make a joke out of Satoko's primary lie, 'I fell down the stairs.' Mion shook her head, "You are rather small, gravity shouldn't hold you as tight as it does."
Satoko put a fake smiled on her face, "Yeah. I guess I just have bad luck." she said, trying to push all of her happy emotion to the surface, so her smile wouldn't look so superficial.
"Mmm. But Rika has pretty bad lucky too. Living in that extra house all by herself. I'm rather glad that she was the priest's daughter, or I don't know what would have happened to her."
Mion said, sighing a little. Rika's father had died of unknown causes almost 3 years ago, leaving Rika all alone to live in the shrine building. The Sonozaki family told her she could stay with them but she refused, and instead moved into an old house that was on the property not too far from the Shrine.
"Yeah..." the depression in Satoko's eyes got even deeper, and she looked like she was going to explode any second now. Even though Mion knew that this was cruel, she was pretty sure it would get some of the emotion that Satoko has been feeling out, and possibly even get her to confess about her uncle.
"Well, she didn't want help. She said that she would rather live alone. My mother offered our home to her, and she politely declined. It's almost as if she doesn't want anyone's help." Mion said, watching Satoko looking up at her with round eyes.
"Do you think Rika will be okay?" Satoko asked softly, watching Mion's face for an answer.
"I don't know... She's too young to be independent. I don't think I could even live like she does." Mion said, sincerely.
Satoko looked at the ground and frowned. She wasn't sure what to say at this point.
"Anyway, how are you? And please do not say fine. I do know better than that." Mion said, beginning the true interrogation now that they were a fair distance from Satoko's home.
Satoko was taken off guard by the question, and replied, "But I am fine..." she said, softly, wrapping her arms around herself protectively.
"Satoko, I can see the bruises on your arms, I can see the red mark on you cheek that isn't wounded. I can see that wound. I see you at school, and never do I see you fall, or even stumble. You aren't fine." Mion said, almost anger in her voice.
Satoko turned away, stopping in her tracks. "It's nothing. I can handle it on my own." she said with a stubborn voice.
"Satoko-Chan... Obviously you can't, or you wouldn't be hurting like this. If you could handle it, you wouldn't be missing school all the time, or constantly having to lie or... or starving yourself." Mion finally brought up what she knew, and it made Satoko turn to look at her, backing up a little.
"How did you know...?" Satoko asked, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Chie-Sensei told me, Rena, and Rika. Told us not to tell anyone else, and try to keep it secretive." Mion said, watching the fear, and shame that was written across Satoko's face.
Satoko shook her head, her eyes going wide. "I told her not to tell anyone. I am fine. I can do this by myself." Satoko said, shaking her head. She took a step back again, and her shoe caught on a rock, making her fall back, onto her behind.
Mion took a step toward Satoko and leaned down to where she fell, "I'm not going to tell anyone. Only your friends know. We wouldn't betray you like that."
Satoko looked up at Mion's face, seeing no trace of any other emotion besides sympathy. She couldn't take any of this anymore. Why was everyone bothering her so much when she knew she could handle this on her own?
Mion frowned at Satoko when she looked away, trying to hold back tears. Mion could see the shame and regret in Satoko's expression, but she could also see fear and determination.
Satoko didn't want to cry, but that was all she could manage at that moment. Her mind was racing far too fast for her to keep up. She was shaking, and she obviously couldn't hold herself up. She gave up at that moment, and just let a year's worth of tears out.
Mion was almost taken aback when Satoko started just crying. Then she got on her knees next to Satoko and wrapped her arms carefully around Satoko's small frame. "It's okay now, just let it all out." Mion said, patting Satoko's back softly.
Satoko nodded, and hid her face in Mion's neck. "I'm sorry... I don't know what I did wrong..." Satoko said, through her tears. She held on to Mion like she was her only life source at the moment.
Mion looked at her carefully, "What do you mean?" she asked, holding on the little trembling girl.
"I don't know what I did... What did I do to deserve everyone to be taken from me...?" Satoko said, hiding her face deeper in the space between Mion's shoulder and neck.
Mion watched Satoko carefully as the young blonde cried. She wasn't sure of what else she could do. She didn't have an answer to why Satoko had to suffer through losing nearly everyone in her life. She lost her family to the Watanagashi Curse, 4 years prior, and then her aunt mysteriously was beaten to death last year, and what came with that... Her brother, the only person she trusted with her life, disappeared. After that, Satoko lost a lot of her own mentality. Before Satoshi disappeared, Satoko was very dependent, asking for help, when it was the smallest thing. Everyone would know when Satoko didn't feel good, or something wasn't going her way because she would begin to cry out, "Nii-nii, Nii-nii...!" until her brother would come to her aid. But after he left, she separated herself, and didn't allow anyone to help her, believing that Satoshi left because she was so dependent on him. Mion was still trying to cope with the situation herself, while trying to help Satoko.
Satoko moved closer to Mion and held her tight. "I don't want to get close... To anyone... Because if I do..." Satoko hiccuped and clung to Mion's blazer.
Mion watched the fear in Satoko's eyes, as the little girl clung to her like her life could end tomorrow. Which, in the situation she was forcing herself to stay in, it could be.
Satoko didn't intend on finishing her sentence as she clung to Mion. She felt if she let go, Mion would disappear, like her Nii-nii did, and she didn't want to take the risk. She wanted to stay like this forever. Someone patting her head, giving her reassurance, even if there wasn't much to reassure. She hiccuped once more before saying, "I don't want this anymore... Please help me?" she said, sadness etched into her pale face.
Mion was almost surprised that Satoko asked for help. She imagined that Satoko would be stubborn through the whole walk and little to no progress would be made. "Help you with what? I can't help if i don't know what I'm helping with."
Satoko shook her head, "You know... Everyone knows already..." she said, moving away from Mion, wiping her tears away. "My uncle. I'm tired of suffering like this... I want someone, anyone to protect me..." Satoko said, looking at the ground. She honestly wanted to cry out 'Nii-nii!' even though she knew he wouldn't come.
"Satoko..." Mion said, looking at her. Out of all the mature moments she had been through with Satoko, this is probably the most mature out of all of them. She looked like she had given in to her immaturity of wanting her brother to love the new her, for her life. She accepted that if this escalated any farther, she was going to let it go too far, and she wouldn't be able to handle it anymore.
"Last night... Last night was it. Last night made me realise how foolish I've been... Why would Nii-nii ever want me to suffer through this torture...? When he was here, he did nothing but protect me, even when I didn't ask him to." Satoko said, trying to keep her voice from shaking, though she was just gaining her composure back.
Mion nodded. She took in a breath, and dared ask the question that everyone learned not to ask Satoko, "What happened?"
Satoko looked frustrated for a moment, as if trying to word the situation in her mind. "Uhmmm... Well, when Chie-Sensei took me to Irie-Sensei, Uncle found out about me not eating... When I got home from the hospital, Uncle made a whole table full of food, and even prepared the good kotatsu. He told me to eat everything or he would make me." Satoko was shuffling her feet as she explained. She had never spoken about her uncle to anyone. This would be the first time her abuse was spoken. "I ate as much as I could, but I didn't finish everything by when I was supposed to sleep, and he threw the left overs at me, even though I begged for forgiveness, telling him how it was entirely my fault and that I was stupid. He didn't care and told me to eat the food off of the floor. I just cried and told him I didn't want to eat it off the floor again. He kicked me in the side, and made fun of me for coughing, and kicked me again. I tried not to, but after eating so much, at such a fast pace, I ended up throwing up, and he pushed my face in it..." Satoko hid her face in her hair, looking at her feet. She had tears streaming her face again. This was embarrassing. She felt like she had just stripped in front of all of Hinamizawa.
Mion listened carefully as Satoko told her confession of her abuse. Mion was appalled by what he had done to poor Satoko, and from what Satoko was describing, this wasn't the first time he made her eat off the floor, or kicked her. She let the silence take over for a moment, before calmly asking, "Has he ever done more than just physical abuse?" she asked. Satoko used to come to school with dark bruises on her thighs and wrists. She, at the time, blamed her bike, and tight bracelets.
Satoko looked at Mion, watching for any emotion. She found worry, love, and almost a motherly look. She looked away quickly, her heart pounding in her chest, like she was about to have a panic attack like she did in Chie-Sensei's car. She didn't want to face anyone. "Yes." Satoko answered softly, reflexively covering her chest with her arms.
Fear was the first emotion that Mion felt. Then a sudden rush of adrenaline and fierce hot anger ran through her. "I am going to kill that bastard!" she exclaimed, the anger spilling into her voice.
Satoko's eye went wide in realisation, "Mion, you mustn't!" She had confessed her abuse to get help from her uncle but Mion was thinking of something completely different. Mion, after hearing Satoko's confession, went into a white, blinding rage.
"He deserves to die after everything that he has done to you! I won't let you suffer anymore!" Mion said, already storming back to Satoko's house.
Satoko shook her head, "He's too strong, you'll get hurt... If you die... I... I don't know what I'll do..." Satoko couldn't help but to tear up.
"I'll be fine... You... You go to Rika's. Act like you know nothing. I don't want you to get in trouble... I can get out of it... You can't." Mion pushed Satoko away. "Go." she commanded.
The little blonde watched Mion for a moment, before deciding that Mion's logic made sense. Mion was the next leader of one of the Three Houses. She didn't even have to plead insanity, she could just say she didn't do it, and no one would defy her. Satoko, however, was hated by most of Hinamizawa, so they would be willing to mob her to death. Leaving and claiming that she knew nothing was probably the best idea.
Without another thought, Satoko turned and began running in the direction of the Furude Shrine. She ran and ran, ignoring that the burn on her face was becoming irritated again.
When she got to the little home on the shrine property, she banged on the door; "Rika?" she called out but felt it was futile, because Rika was more than likely still at school.
Satoko was strongly surprised when her blue haired friend answered the door. "Satoko? Why aren't you at school?" Rika asked, her eyebrows disappearing behind her straight-cut bangs.
"I..." Satoko nearly started a lie but then remembered that there was no need for that anymore. "Uncle kept me home." She said, "Can I come in? There's more I need to tell you..." Satoko's heart was racing.
Rika nodded, "Of course, Satoko." she smiled, despite the flush on her checks that showed the reason she had missed school.
Satoko stepped into the small house. She'd never been inside of Rika's new home. Before Satoko's Nii-nii disappeared, no one bothered her, not wanting to burden Satoshi. But before her parents died, she and Rika were great friends.
After a few minutes of Satoko observing and taking in her surroundings, she calmly said, "Mion-san sent me here."
"Mii-Chan?" Rika asked in confirmation. She wanted to make up her own reason but came up with nothing and decided to ask, "Why?"
Satoko look down at her hands. "I told her everything... I told her about how uncle would hit and kick me... I told her about how he hit me until I was sick last night..." Satoko said softly, before looking at Rika again, "I had to tell her, because she didn't believe my lie about falling and hurting my face..." Satoko touched her face, where the scabbing burn was. "And because of the events of yesterday..."
Rika nodded, "Mii... But what does this have to do with you being sent here?"
Satoko averted her vision from Rika again, "Mion-San's... She's planning to kill him. She told me to come here, and pretend that there was nothing wrong."
Rika's eyes went wide for a moment, but then she shook her head, "That's a good idea." she said softly. Rika was raised to be opposed to killing, but Satoko's situation called for it, unless they were going to move her out of that house. If they did that, she would probably have to go to Okinomiya, and Rika didn't want to let that happen. "Umm... If you need a place to live... I have an extra futon and this house is too big for just me."
Satoko let a smile arise on her face, "I'd love to!" she took Rika's hand in hers and let the smile fall from her face, "I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Rika asked. She couldn't think of any reason Satoko would need to be apologising. If anything, Rika should be the one apologising-for not working harder to save her before she was in too much of a rough.
Satoko sighed and looked at Rika's hand in hers, "I'm sorry for not being a good friend... I didn't trust you with anything, and I was always causing everyone so much trouble..." she tightened her grip on Rika's hand, before looking up at her with tearful eyes, "I'm really sorry for being a bad friend..." she murmured, trying to hold back her tears.
Rika shook her head, "You were going through some issues, but it'll be over with soon, and then we can all be good friends again." Rika gave Satoko her most sincere smile. She took a small breath in and said, in a stern voice, "But please, never do something so stupid again."
Satoko didn't need to be told what Rika meant. She was talking about not eating. "I won't. I have no reason to anymore." she said, softly.
Rika nodded a little and pulled her hand away from Satoko's. She saw the surprise on her blonde friend's face and smiled, "Hugs." she said, wrapping her arms tightly around Satoko's small body. She didn't think too much of how she could feel Satoko's ribs against her own, because then she would have just forced her to eat a pail of food.
Satoko was shocked at first that Rika had pulled her into a hug, but then relaxed a little and wrapped her arms lightly around Rika's body. Even though Rika was slightly younger, and had a smaller physique, Satoko was skinnier, because of her malnutrition. That actually frightened her a bit, because she had never really noticed just how tiny she had gotten until then.
"Satoko-chan..." Rika said softly.
Satoko was caught off guard by how delicate Rika sounded, "Yes?" she said, trying not to sound too taken aback.
"Are you hungry? Tired? Do you need a bath?" Rika started asking questions, in a motherly fashion. It made Satoko feel happy inside.
Satoko stopped to think. She did need a bath. It'd been 2 days since her last bath. What about food? No, she wasn't all the hungry and just the thought of last night made whatever appetite she had built up flee. She knew she was tired. Her whole body was still sore from sleeping on the floor, and she was sure that she'd not been fully asleep for most of the night. "A bath, then sleep would be good." Satoko said, as she loosened her grip on Rika's torso.
Rika smiled and nodded, letting go of Satoko. "Okay. I'll start the bath, and then while your washing up, I'll get the guest futon ready." she smiled again, and got up, before disappearing down the main hallway of the house.
Satoko couldn't help but feel happy about staying at Rika's house, even though she couldn't even possibly begin to comprehend what must be going on at her uncle's house at that moment.
Hoped you liked it~! Review? Review?