Chapter 5: Support

Ayumi flipped through the seemingly endless pages of another book about mystical charm she had found in the local library, and it was getting late in the night again. She had discovered all kinds of different magic rituals and spells, but she couldn't find a single one that would tell about how to bring life back into a deceased person.

Nor anything about how to restore erased existence.

She must have thoroughly gone through four or five different books right now, all very different and all about black magic and spell casting. There were even instructions on how to extract a soul from a dying person, how to lay all kinds of curses, how to convert physical energy into tissue-repairing substance, vice-versa, and much more.

But still nothing about any form of revival.

Ayumi tried repeatedly to tell herself that there wasn't exactly a great hurry in this endeavour, but she also felt like she couldn't just sit back while her dear friends were completely lost, suffering all kinds of horrible fates. She simply had to keep trying. For them.

But Yoshiki had been right. This had really taken a toll on her body, both physically and mentally. She didn't have as much energy, as much will, as she had had before she had started doing her research. She had been staying up way more late than what anyone would have deemed healthy, getting only a very slim amount of hours of sleep every night, and always after page after page of fruitless church. So Yoshiki was very much right in his assumption that she wasn't quite all right.

She had been quite efficient in disguising her sleep deprivation this far, but she knew it was only a matter of time before she couldn't take the pressure anymore. She'd most likely just drop down, sleeping, in the middle of some important test they would have to write.

That spelled out plain bad news. Her parents would be very displeased.

She had to do something about this. Take a break? Probably…

-"Onii-chan!" The first voice Satoshi heard as soon as he stepped through the door to his home belonged to a person that meant a lot to him. She was a few years younger than him, though to an unfamiliar eye, she might as well have been taken for a lot younger.

-"Hey, Yuka!" Satoshi greeted his sister cheerfully as he set his backpack down on the floor, next to the wall. Yuka stepped out into the hallway, and immediately rushed towards Satoshi, holding her arms out. Satoshi laughed, and tightly hugged her. He then got up again before his mother appeared in the doorway.

-"Welcome home, dear." His mother Miho mused at him with a smile. Satoshi walked over to his mother and hugged her, giving a kiss on the cheek. "How was school today, sweetie?"

Satoshi felt his air get caught in his throat momentarily, but he came up with an excuse quickly. He knew his mother couldn't be told about their tour and retour to the cursed machine, he simply had to hide what had had happened at the school with Naomi and everything.

-"It was great… I had a really fun day." Satoshi remembered that Yuka had been sick the day before, and so to prevent further spreading of her disease, she stayed home, even one day after she was seemingly well again.

-''Did you spend time with Nakashima?" Her mother asked with a somewhat sly grin and a wink, and Satoshi blushed somewhat before bursting into a nervous chuckle. Yuka giggled at his reaction to her mother teasing him and Satoshi awkwardly put a hand up to his neck.

-''Mom…! Uh, well…" Truth be told, Satoshi had spent a lot of time with Naomi lately, and it wasn't something he would regret. He enjoyed being with her, being in her presence, having her as company.

Satoshi guessed it was just part of it to be messed around with by both family and other friends alike.

-"I bet you two really had some good time together, onii-chan!" Yuka chirped, and Satoshi's blush only got worse as he grinned light-heartedly at his little sister's humorous comment. He smiled, ruffled her hair and looked right at her.

-''Ah, Yuka…" He sighed playfully and put an arm around her shoulder, patting her on the back, being met with another of the little girl's almost "trademark" giggles.

Yoshiki deemed it may have been a risky move, outside the obvious fact that it could have been taken the wrong way. However, since there weren't really anyone else who was going to step up and try to help, he figured he just had to do something.

He had just received his salary for the month. He hadn't planned on it, but he ended up working extra time at the music store he had been employed at. Before this particular job, he had tried a few others, but due to several various factors, he felt like he didn't quite enjoy the site he worked at. He tried to stick with it, but after a while, it just didn't work out, so he had drifted from job to job, all the while having school to think of from time to time, and also to be mindful of his apartment.

But Yoshiki figured that this might have been an action worth risking. Shinozaki was clearly suffering.

He made a slight noise of reluctance as he checked the amount of money he had. It would be fine; he could do with the extra cost. It wouldn't mind him. The small loss wouldn't affect his own living.

With a deep breath, Yoshiki put his money deep in his wallet, which he made sure to keep safe, just in case, before continuing his work for the day by standing by the cash register, for the moment.

_

The next day, school was very much like it always was. There were a few lessons, but nothing new turned up and there weren't, fortunately, any tests or anything like that around the corner. As soon as Makoto announced the end of the lesson and the day, Yoshiki immediately got up from his seat, quickly gathering all of his stuff in a bag he had. He saw that Ayumi hadn't gotten up from her seat yet, so he was fairly certain he wouldn't run the risk of losing her in the crowd of students.

-"…I know, right?" He picked up the voice of one of the girls in the class, Hayamoto, the one who had insulted Naomi the day before. Seems like the only good she ever was up to was picking on others for their flaws and then gossip. "…He is so stupid to stay with a group of people like that! A guy like Kishinuma could get so much better!" Usually, Yoshiki didn't really care about what others said about him, what they thought about him, what he did or what he liked, but now…

-''Do you have something to say to me, Hayamoto?" Yoshiki spat her name like it was a foul taste in his mouth, clenching his fist and doing his best to keep an even voice. Upon hearing her name being spoken, Hayamoto Kusaki spun around, standing in the doorway of the classroom, shifting her position to let the other student through. Her two friends visibly backed away a bit, but they remained silent. Yoshiki glared daggers at the girl he had just addressed, and said girl didn't look like she was about to back down. Ayumi had stopped what she was doing and was looking up from her desk, watching the two have some kind of stand-off. Satoshi and Naomi had been about to get up from their seats as well, having put their books in their bags, but now they stood where they were, regarding Yoshiki with uncertainty.

Hayamoto huffed and took a step out of the classroom. She gave him a rude gesture with her middle finger before disappearing out into the hallway. Yoshiki gritted his teeth tightly, and he considered following her out in the hallway to give her a piece of his mind, but he managed to calm himself down. His breathing was heavy, and he regarded the doorway Hayamoto had just stood in with a glare that made it seem like the doorway was his greatest enemy.

He only calmed down significantly when he sensed Ayumi's appearance at his side. Almost all the students had drained out from the classroom, eager to get to their respective homes to begin the weekends. Only Satoshi, Ayumi, Naomi and Yoshiki were still there.

-''What was that all about, Yoshiki?" Satoshi asked him cautiously, somewhat afraid of accidentally tripping a sore wire. Yoshiki turned his head towards his shorter friend and let out a tired sigh.

-''Hayamoto's giving the bull again. She started trash-talking you guys." Yoshiki admitted, feeling perhaps a little ashamed to show that he cared about his friends so much. Satoshi blinked and made a noise, but then smiled and patted Yoshiki's shoulder with his, a friendly gesture that was supposed to be reassuring.

-"Don't mind Hayamoto, Yoshiki. She's always been like this, even before you joined our class." Satoshi explained, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw both Ayumi and Naomi nod their heads and he could hear the two utter confirmatory noises. He sighed once more but then shrugged it off, not wanting to spend some of his already limited energy on screaming at careless, harsh people.

-"Ah, forget her." He grumbled, slowly unclenching his fist and letting the fingers hang limply by his side.

-"That's the spirit, Kishinuma!" Ayumi beamed at him, and even though she looked like she hadn't slept at all for the latest three days in a row, Yoshiki couldn't help the warmth spreading throughout his body whenever she looked at him or even said his name. He smiled faintly, and when Satoshi urged him to exit the classroom, Ayumi already had done so, and the idea of what Yoshiki would be try to do suddenly slipped into the first priority of his mind.

-"Shinozaki?" He called out, and was satisfied to hear her reply in the form of a short "Hm?" She returned to the classroom, obviously a bit annoyed by the fact that something was keeping her from getting home and actually getting some work on finding the right charm done. She couldn't live with herself if she didn't do everything in her might in order to help the deceased souls of her dear friends. After all, she was the one responsible for their deaths; if she hadn't gone about searching for stupid charms, then the four beloved ones would still be breathing, would still be standing by their sides. Maybe not Sakutaro as much as the others, but still. They had actually usually enjoyed Sakutaro's company, due to his silent and calm demeanour.

Then again, it was,in fact,Naho Saenoki, a high school girl who was very into paranormal activities, who had started spreading all the info about the charm in the first place. If anyone was to blame, it was her. Ayumi would deem it as one of the most selfish actions she had ever been unfortunate enough to be involved in, and she would have expected the same opinions from most different people she knew, would she have told them about it.

-"What is it, Kishinuma?" She wasn't hesitant to allow her annoyance to be seen. She was tired, hungry and so determined to continue her research that she felt like her brain had turned into a book about mystical things, and that her eyes could perceive colourful, dancing runes of some sort in front of them. While Satoshi and Naomi exited the classroom, saying quick goodbyes to them, Yoshiki took a slight step forward.

-"Well, Shinozaki… I've been thinking about something…" Yoshiki began awkwardly, rubbing his neck with one hand, but doing his best to keep his stature. Ayumi stood, somewhat impatiently, and awaited his continuation. "Maybe you should take a break from whatever it is you're doing and get some sleep?"

Yoshiki mentally kicked himself in the face. This wasn't at all how he planned to say this.

-"Hm? Oh… Well… I'm not sure I can…" Ayumi began, looking down at a spot on the floor. She guessed the signs and consequences of her actions had been far more apparent than what she had first realized. It did touch her, somewhat, that Yoshiki actually seemed to care about her in a way that made him remark about her well-being, though.

Yoshiki felt somewhat frustrated at Ayumi's stubborn behaviour, but he managed to keep a straight face about it. He sighed and absent-mindedly put his hand in one pocket.

-"You see, I just got paid my salary, and my boss told me that I was off the entire weekend, so…" Yoshiki felt his own face flush as he was putting the situation down in front of her so that she could grasp it properly. As much as he thought it unlikely, he really hoped she would accept his offer. ''Maybe… You'd like to do something? Like… Put your mind away from what it is you're doing?" He figured that would have to do it. He couldn't think of any additional way to formulate his words.

Ayumi was a bit hesitant at first. To her, it felt exactly like he was asking her out on a date. This lit a natural beacon deep inside her, and her mother's words of caution rung around inside her skull.

Then again, Yoshiki was actually right about the whole situation. Ayumi had stayed awake well into the night, studying the books she had found. When she simply couldn't stay awake any longer, she used the very last of her resources to put the book she was currently reading away, hide them somewhat, just so that her parents didn't ask her questions she didn't want to or just couldn't answer.

And… And…

Her sister, Hinoe…

The image of her death was still clear in her mind. What had happened before and after the occurrence itself was still dim to the level of impossibility of trying to remember, but the moment, that very second…

She had, along with Naomi, tried using some kind of weird spell book to revive her dead friends, and she also remembered that the two of them had found and travelled to the old Shinozaki estate, where Sachiko and her mother Yoshie had lived when they were alive. Ayumi didn't remember exactly what had happened during those few hours, but she knew at least that it had been a really tough nut to crack open.

After a completely failed attempt at using resurrecting black magic, the book she had been using for it apparently went out of her control, because before she knew it, the book apparently had deemed her a target, because within the very ounce of an instance, dark magic had started blasting about the room, hurting Ayumi and created dark spots all over her skin, literally marking her for death.

That was when Ayumi's sister Hinoe had first entered the room. Ayumi wasn't completely sure, but she figured Hinoe must have sensed the extreme spike in the black magic so that she had come to her sister's aid… And thus sacrificed herself.

Ayumi could still clearly remember those few, horrible seconds when her sister's blood-stained, beheaded corpse still embraced her with limp arms. Naomi, who had been present during the black magic spell as well, had crouched down on the floor, hugging her head and making herself into a ball.

Since that day, Ayumi had felt like all the people who really meant matters to her simply disappeared, dropping one after the other like flies. Yoshiki was right, though… She was in terrible condition, and it actually felt really nice to have someone that truly, deeply cared for you. To Ayumi, it seemed like Yoshiki really did.

Yoshiki stood in front of her, somewhat nervous. Sure, if she rejected his offer, it wasn't the end of the world. He'd be a little disappointed, but he'd get over it eventually.

-"Well… Ah, why not. Sure. Call me tomorrow." Ayumi responded, with such easiness and lack of reluctance that it actually surprised Yoshiki. However, he smiled at her, and she motioned toward the door.

-"Maybe I should get some sleep… Might be best." She said out loud to no one in particular, but understood that Yoshiki thought she had addressed him with it. He almost made a noise, but he suppressed it and simply smiled. When they split up outside the school, Yoshiki walked all the way home with a smile constantly on his face.

(A/N: There, kind of long chapter. I'll see when the next one comes out.)