Chapter 9: The quick silver pain

Some minutes passed until Kyoya noticed that a tear fell from her eye and slowly ran down on her face. When he asked if she's ok, she just nodded and the silence covered the room. He slowly got closer to her and got her head between his hands, to can look at her better. "What happened?" he insisted, like he knew all time that she was sad. "I know something happened." She didn't say anything, just looked away for some moments, then back at him. "Look... I..." She didn't want to say that, so she kept the silence until she sputtered, bursting into tears:

"Hyoma cheated me and more than this, he left me, so I am over with him because I cannot suffer the lie, and when you saw I was about to get out was just... I was going to buy my ticket for the train because I'm going back home because he cheated on me with Satsuki and I cannot stay even a second with her, here!"

-FLASHBACK-

"Roar... These remedies are just like cough syrup. Yaack." protested Hikaru about the medicines when Kyoya told her she has to get them. She finally swallowed them all, after wars which lasted about 5 minutes. "Yaack." she repeated as she lay on the bed. Kyoya checked if she had fever. Then he took a chair and sat next to her bed. "You don't escape. I'm here if the fever is getting worse." Hikaru looked inquiringly but didn't say a word. She looked at the clock: 10:57 p.m. Kyoya crossed his arms and tried to sleep; well, he didn't get asleep so easy, but finally succeeded.

But Hikaru couldn't sleep. She cast a glance at the clock: 11:38 p.m. She sat up and sighed. Then she looked at Kyoya, who was sleeping. She got up and slowly walked on tiptoe towards the door and opened it very slowly, because it was creaking a bit. She checked if Kyoya was asleep and after she confirmed it, she got out and closed the door.

She slowly went at the ground floor, then at the kitchen to eat something. The house was totally asleep and the silence was terrible. She switched on the light at the kitchen and opened the fridge. "Yeah... I'm not eating these..." she rejected everything which was there because she thought that the green color of food can be dangerous. Hikaru closed the fridge and opened the cup board. "Well... I guess cookies are good for the middle of the night." she finally announced her decision and took the cookies, starting to crunch them.

"Hah. I love eating. I cannot understand some girls. I'm not getting fat even if I eat everything I want. And I totally love chocolate cookies! And what? I'm not trying to impress boys!"

Then she looked outside on the window just because of boredom, so she didn't noticed too many things. She turned off the light in the kitchen and went in the drawing-room, but a desire made her stop. "I always wanted to see what's with this button." she said as she pushed a white button on the wall. A dazzling light made that dark become clear. She sweat dropped at that. "I am so silly. I should've known..." she scolded herself and pushed the button again to turn off the light.

Well, it wasn't really pitch dark, so she could discern things around her. When she was about to go upstairs, she saw a kind of door, so she opened it. There, it was really pitch dark. She stepped, but she suddenly fell down with that. "Oh... So I guess here are some stairs." she realized as she took her cell to light there. And she was right, there were some stairs. She discerned them but it was like they were never going to go somewhere, until she saw another door closer to her with every step she was taking.

She opened the door but not entered it from the first moments. Hikaru stopped for some moments to peer around. It was a big and cold room, with many tables, cupboards and wardrobes. "Are they keeping clothes in these? Seriously...?" She stepped in and noticed that there was a candle on a table, so she searched in her pockets for a lighter and, unexpected, she found one. She walked towards the table and light up the candle. She got it in her hand and started to explore. On the tables were test tubes, pipettes, thermometers, measuring cylinders, balances and lots of weights, alcohol burners, and lots of things like these. She noticed there are some yellow goggles on a table. She also saw a computer and a printer on another table and next to them there was a microscope.

She opened a wardrobe but a surprise hit her: instead of clothes, there were many shelves with little bottles, which were labeled by letters. The first two shelves were labeled 'A', the next two were labeled 'B' etc and the last two were labeled 'H'. She got one and read. It was just a white label: Dextrose C6 H12 O6 – Glucose

Hikaru raised an eyebrow at that. "Seems like someone really loves chemistry..."

Then she opened the next wardrobe and she found the same thing: many shelves. This time, the first two were labeled 'K' and the last two were labeled 'P'. Hikaru couldn't help and got another bottle and read: Mercury Hg - Quicksilver and startled at that. "Wait... I also know something about chemistry and I remember that Mercury isn't so easy to find... Isn't it illegal?"

Hikaru shrugged and put it back, checking another wardrobe, where she found the same thing, shelves labeled 'S' to 'Z'. She found chemicals like sulfuric acid, zinc etc. She also found water and sugar. Then she heard a sound and in the next second she realized that the clock had struck twelve.

She didn't really care about that and continued exploring. She saw a switch on the wall and sweat dropped. "How stupid I can be." she reproved to herself and turned on the light then blew out the candle, putting it back on the table. "Why someone needs a candle when has a switch?"

Now everything was clear. She saw many tables hung on the walls. Tables with elements. Then she noticed there was a notebook which she opened. It was a journal:

13 February

The experiment with the Mercury and sulfuric acid didn't really work. I did all those crazy equations to explain it, but nothing. And I also used to calculate those seventh grade problems which were... too easy. I need something more now. I found a problem which looked like this; I don't know what grade it is for:

"Hydrogen, in the nascent state is obtained by the action of hydrochloric acid on zinc. Calculate the amount of 80% purity clank necessary to obtain 112 liters of hydrogen, if the reaction yield was 80%."

It was easy and my final answer was 507.8 grams.

I also tested my memory and tried to write the formulas of some chemicals. So I tried with potassium phosphate, sodium hydroxide, aluminum carbonate and sodium nitrate. Just some... you know, picked very quickly, randomly.

And... You know what? The old story with the coke and the mentos is... old. I mean... if a child exploded after he combined coke with mentos... Everyone knows that CO2 makes an explosion which... Man!

I finally added that annoying Oil of Wintergreen to my chemicals. Well, it was hard, cause when I read about it, it wrote that it is found in drug stores. I finally bought it. Anyway, all which matters is that I found it.

Izumi

"Wait, wait, wait... Izumi? She likes chemistry, not writing? Then her mother has no idea that she has Mercury and all these poisonous substances here? Well, because I don't think her mother would allow her. But that door was clearly there and anyone can notice it! Man... how stupid can you be to do not notice that your daughter has a chemistry laboratory at the basement?"

She got her cell and looked at the clock: 00:57 a.m. Then she sighed, took a chair and sat down at a desk. She thought a bit until she heard a strange sound coming from the stairs. She turned off the light and lighted up the candle, and then she got it and opened the door. She climbed up the stairs and opened the door to see in the drawing-room it was still dark.

But, as she heard some footsteps, she went back there and let the door ajar, so she could see what's happening. It was dark, but she discerned a vague figure. As the moon moved and lighted the drawing-room, she could see that is none other than Hyoma.

He was going to leave the house when a voice called his name and he stopped and turned. Then Hikaru heard some footsteps and discerned another vague figure in the dark. She didn't realize that it was Satsuki, until she didn't step in the spot of the moon light. Hikaru looked at the clock at her cell: 1:12 a.m. and the fact that they were awake at that hour surprised her.

"Where are you going?" asked Satsuki, almost bursting into tears. He looked sadly at her and shook his head, turning and leaving quickly. Hikaru raised an eyebrow at that. Satsuki followed him and when Hikaru saw they both left the house, she quickly followed them. She half opened the entrance door and spied them.

They didn't realize that she was spying them. "Look... I have to go." explained Hyoma as trying to chill the situation. "Wait! Where you going? Look... I'm sorry for what happened, ok? I'm really sorry." she apologized as walking towards him, but he didn't mind. "I have to go. I'm leaving. Train to Koma village is at 2 o'clock and I really have to go."

That hurt Hikaru. I mean, he is leaving without a word or an explaining? He told Satsuki and didn't tell her? But it hurt her more as seeing Hyoma pecked Satsuki's lips. "I have to go." he repeated as he walked away.

Hikaru didn't scream, didn't yell, and didn't get angry. Some tears; well, maybe more, fell from her eyes and ran down on her face. She sighed and walked back, upstairs then to her room. "I am sorry... if I wasn't sweet enough for you." When she entered her room, Kyoya wasn't there anymore, but she didn't care. When she entered, well, her anger began when she entered. She started to throw with everything around her.

Next day

Kyoya looked around, then at the clock: 4:39 p.m. Then he left his room and went at the ground floor. For his surprise, Hikaru was about to open the entrance door.

"Are you going anywhere?" asked Kyoya on a nasty and teasing voice and walked towards her. She startled and slowly turned, hoping maybe it's not Kyoya. "Well..." Kyoya already lost his patience after that. "Where you were going?"

-END OF FLASHBACK-