By the time Teshigawara's parents had booked an appointment with the school counsellor for their son, Mochizuki feared it was too late for anything to be done; the trauma the blond had experienced was no longer just depressive symptoms; it had escalated into anxiety, severe nightmares and a phobia of blood to the point where he couldn't even see the bodily fluid on TV without breaking into a panic attack.
Mochizuki, as always, stayed by his friend's side, even through the counselling sessions. His hand held the taller male's as he gently coaxed him to speak hoping that, by some miracle, his friend's mouth would open and start spilling every little thing he was thinking.
"Teshigawara, would you like for me to explain the beginning?" Mochizuki offered, smiling gently. "Then you can just talk about how you're feeling. Okay?"
Teshigawara made no acknowledgement of the other's words and only continued staring at his feet, his eyes seemingly faraway as his lips twitched in what Mochizuki feared would be a permanent frown.
The reddish-brown haired boy's eyes slipped closed, heartbroken to see the once-happy-go-lucky fool now unable to even allow the smallest of smiles grace his face.
"...It started when his friend passed away..." Mochizuki explained to their school counsellor, a dark-haired woman named Kikuko Momotani. "It was... on the school trip to Yomiyama Shrine... Kazami was one of the ones who went insane... Who was killing the other students... We don't know what happened, but... apparently he was killed himself..."
Momotani nodded as she wrote in her notebook, her features soft and sympathetic. "Teshigawara-kun was also injured, wasn't he?"
"Yes... He received a gash in his leg from a knife..."
The woman wrote something down again before she lifted her head to smile gently at the two boys in her office. "Teshigawara-kun, may I ask you a question?" Said boy just shrugged, provoking the counsellor to continue on. "What was it about your friend's passing that hurt the most?"
Teshigawara was silent for a few minutes, leading the other two to believe he wasn't about to speak. Just as they had given up on a vocal response, his mouth opened, his voice shaky and quiet, but still comprehensible.
"...He was killing the others..." Teshigawara's eyes filled with tears, but he didn't let them fall. "...He wasn't... the Kazami I grew up with... And now that he's dead... I'll never be able to understand why he was doing what he did..." The first tear slipped down a pale cheek, unable to be held in any longer.
For the first time in years, Mochizuki witnessed his best friend crying. He wrapped his arms around the other's shoulders and pulled him close, not knowing how he could help. He followed his instinct, knowing that he couldn't just leave Teshigawara like this.
"It's okay," the grey-eyed boy said softly, his voice calm and soothing. Mochizuki raised a hand and brushed away blond hair from Teshigawara's eyes, smiling reassuringly. "We'll always have each other, and I'm sure Kazami is in a better place now. It will be alright."
Teshigawara moved to bury his face in the other's purple shirt, his hand coming to cling to said material. His body shook from the overwhelming force of his emotions, his breath coming in strained gasps.
Mochizuki just looked helplessly at the counsellor, his eyes full of pleading, begging the woman to help his friend.
"Teshigawara-kun..." Momotani got off her chair and moved toward the two boys, putting a small hand on the blond's shoulder. She made no move to separate the two boys, knowing that they both needed the support their embrace gave them,"...Teshigawara-kun, would you like to go home? You can come back another time. You don't have to stay here."
Teshigawara nodded, raising a red, tear-stained face. He looked so lost, his eyes unfocused, his teeth biting down on his bottom lip.
Mochizuki helped his friend to his feet and stood beside him, one arm wrapped around the other's shoulders. He bowed respectfully to the woman who had taken time out of her day to talk to them, thanking her for listening.
"I'll take him home and let him get some rest," the dull-haired boy said softly. "Come on, Teshigawara."
Teshigawara's broken sobs followed the two boys out of the counselling room, sounds full of heartbreak and despair. The longer Mochizuki heard them, the more hope he lost in his friend's recovery; he could never have even dreamed his friend – so happy to a fault – would ever be so depressed.
~~Mochizuki household~~
Mochizuki couldn't say he was surprised when the older boy refused to go back home, instead wanting to go to the well-known comfort of the other's home. He didn't say anything apart from vocalising his agreement, changing their route to the one that would get them back to his house.
"Yuuya, you're home."
The two teens looked up at Mochizuki's mother's voice. They found her standing in the doorway to the kitchen, smiling softly, her long brown hair tied in a bun and a white apron covering her front.
"Yes, kaa-san." Mochizuki smiled back before he gestured to his friend. "I brought Teshigawara with me. Are you making lunch?"
"Yes; dango. Shall I bring some up for you both?"
"Please."
Teshigawara remained staring at the floor as he slipped off his last shoe, placing it carefully on the shoe rack and then putting his slippers on. Mochizuki's mother was a nice lady, but he didn't want to be bothered by her today; he just wanted to sit in his friend's room and drown in the familiarity of it all.
Mochizuki was silent as he led the older teenager down the hallway before he opened the door to his room, stepping back to allow the other entrance.
"Doesn't this all frighten you...?"
Mochizuki blinked at his friend's question, unable to understand what was being asked of him. "Excuse me?"
"...This..." Teshigawara raised a hand and gestured at the space around them both. "...The... The way you're trapped in this tiny space... There's not much room to move around in... It makes me want to scream... It's suffocating me... Mochizuki... It's..."
The reddish-brown haired boy gasped when the other let out a piercing shriek. He didn't know what to do, what to say, how to make his best friend stop clawing at his own skin.
"Teshigawara!" Mochizuki cried out when crimson droplets fell to the wooden floor beneath them, a long trail of liquid slipping down a pale cheek. "Teshigawara, please! Stop!"
Teshigawara whimpered and pulled away when hands reached out for him, unable to focus on anything but the woman wielding a butcher's knife in front of him, the fire making escape difficult, the pain in his leg from where the knife had gashed him – Mochizuki's hands on his body, dragging him away from the crazed woman.
There was a very recognisable voice that seemed to be everywhere – no, two voices – playing out the fight he had with Kazami before said boy fell off the balcony. It took him several minutes to realise that it was his voice he was hearing, along with Kazami's. He was drowning in it, choking, unable to get away from the horrible mistake he had made. He relived the panic he had felt when he saw the blood coming from Kazami's head, the horror at believing he had killed his friend, the desperate need to hear that Kazami was not remembered – the overwhelming grief at Sakakibara and Misaki's words, "Of course I know him".
Mochizuki looked helplessly behind him at hearing his mother's footsteps. He whimpered a few pleads for help at her, unable to handle the sight of his best friend clawing the skin from his own face, ripping handfuls of hair from his scalp.
"K-kaa-san..." Mochizuki couldn't even recognise his own voice – it sounded like weak, so pathetic. Why was this happening to them? Why did they have to be involved in the Calamity? Why couldn't they have been placed in any other class? Why?! Why did it have to be them?! What had they done to deserve this suffering? This pain? This fear that they could die any day – that the Calamity may still claim their lives within the coming years.
"Teshigawara-kun..." Mochizuki's mother knelt next to her child's friend, knowing better than to reach out and touch the blond. Her voice was soft and gentle, doing her best to let her kind personality sink into every fibre of her being, knowing that the teen needed it. "...Teshigawara-kun, please, look at me. Please. Look at me, Teshigawara-kun."
Light brown eyes that had been lidded slowly cracked open, the well-known voice breaking through the haze he was trapped in. Tears slipped past thin eyelashes, the soft features of Riku Mochizuki bringing him back to reality. He couldn't focus on the soft sobs his friend emitted, too exhausted from his ordeal to be able to completely acknowledge his surroundings.
"Riku-san..." Teshigawara's voice was heavy with tears, strained under all of the pressure he was suffering. He moved closer, eventually burying his face into the woman's chest. His arms wrapped around her as he released his pain into her chest.
"Teshigawara-kun..." Riku's hand stroked through blond hair, a soft humming escaping her lips. It was the same lullaby she used to hum to her own son when he was upset or scared. "...Teshigawara-kun, would you like for me to drive you home?"
"Kaa-san, he doesn't want to go home," Mochizuki explained, knowing that his friend didn't want to be alone. "He wanted to stay with me."
"Do his parents know he's here or do I need to give them a call?" Riku held the boy tighter, the child being almost like her second son; he and Yuuya were close enough, after all.
"They know," Mochizuki said. "Teshigawara had already told them he wanted to be alone after they dropped us off at the school. They understood."
Riku nodded, not relinquishing her hold on the younger until Teshigawara had cried himself to sleep in her arms. Very carefully, she lifted him up and carried the boy into her son's room.
Mochizuki instinctively pulled back the covers to his bed, his caring nature taking full effect. He waited until his mother had tucked his friend in under the purple sheets and then sat beside the older teenager, not wanting to leave his side.
Throughout the whimpers, the cries, the screams, Mochizuki stayed, unable to abandon the other in his time of need.
"Please, be alright..." Mochizuki whispered as he brushed blond strands out of the taller male's eyes. A single tear slipped down his cheek, finding this harder and harder to deal with – but, no matter what, he vowed to never abandon his precious friend.