Emergency
Kahoko Hino. 16. Found dead in her room, hanging from violin strings tied to her fan, thin wire cutting into her neck.
"We never knew she was so unhappy as to go this far..." one of Hino's teachers, Hiroto Kanazama, told reporters. "I mean, we all knew she had some kind of terrible secret that was keeping her isolating, keeping her alone, but..."
"Good riddance," Len Tsukimori, a classmate of Hino's, declared. "She and her odd violin were messing the whole concours up. At least not everything'll be normal once more."
Others felt more sympathetic.
"I- I wish," Shoko Fuyuumi, an acquaintance of Hino, said, tears staining her eyes, "I wish I had just asked more- showed her someone cared about her- just tried to understand-"
Kazuki Hihara abruptly woke up.
Leaping out of bed and running down the rode, Kazuki's mind was gone, uncaring of the time of night, only caring about making sure of one thing. He skidded to a stop in front of a small, familiar house, and banged loudly on the door.
"Kahoko! Kaho-chan!! It's an emergency!! KAHO-CHAN!!"
"...?"
A sleepy girl clad in pajamas opened the door, yawning, only to have an impassioned Kazuki throw himself onto her, promptly enveloping her in his arms.
"Ah!! ...Hihara-senpai?"
"You- you were dead-!" His voice was upset, urgent, as he buried his face in her hair. "You- you killed yourself! I couldn't do anything-"
"...Hihara?"
"Kahoko... Kaho-chan..." Kazuki's voice was soft, broken, wavering, and he could feel himself shaking against her. Her arms slowly came up around him, holding him, and one hand gently brushed his hair back from his face.
"Hihara... I won't ever leave you guys like that. I promise."
And for some reason, Kazuki felt himself start to cry.