Chapter 4: Azusa

Azusa's Bedroom


In Her Dream

Azusa creeks her eyes open. She lies on her heavily wrinkled bedsheet. Her stomach grumbles, she fights against her heavy eyelids, and she struggles to move against the tide of her heavy sweating.

Within arms' reach, Azusa finds her school-branded water bottle. She lightly opens it and sprinkles some water onto her eyes, hoping it will wake her up. Tragically for her, the bottle cap becomes undone, swarming an avalanche of water onto her.

Azusa sits up and violently coughs. Well, that woke her up. She wipes the water - and unintentionally - all her makeup from her face. A beat later, Azusa calms down.

"Aaaaazusa-chan!" Yui's voice plays from the same frame. The knot in Azusa's throat tightens. She rushes towards the frame and hits plays again. It repeats, "Aaaazusa-chan!"

"No….no, no! No!" Azusa begs the frame: "Call me Azu-nyan! Please, Yui-senpai." The frame slips from her hand and disappears upon impact. That's when it hits the high-school junior - She's in a dream.

"I remember now…I passed out. I'm dreaming, so at least I'm still alive."

Ambulance sirens blare from the ceiling. Then she feels a clutch on her hand. "Hopefully, that's Yui-senpai clutching my hand in the ambulance."

Then she notices all the bullying posts from the internet plastered on her wall. She can't read any of the comments under the posts. Fortunately, she can see the profile profiles of everyone who comments. She approaches the wall and taps a profile picture that, for some reason, looks familiar.

"Hitori-chan?" she asks herself.

"DING." A VR headset dings. Azusa pivots to find it on her bed. She lays down and puts it on.


School Hallway - VR Perspective

1st Period: T-Minus 10 Minutes

"Thank you for dropping us off, Azusa-chan" Mio thanks her. They stroll the hallways with Ritsu and Mugi-senpai.

"No problem," Azusa-chan yawns. "My apologies. Jun asked if I could help her review some audition tapes for the jazz club."

"How'd that go?" Mugi-chan asks, excited. "I love jazz!"

"Most of the auditions were good," Azusa yawns again: "But one performance was unbearable".

"Ohhhh, Nakano" Ritsu nudged her shoulder. "Give us the deets and I'll pay for your lunch".

Mio whacks her head.

"OW!"

"Don't bribe your kouhai!"

Then phones beep across the entire hallway. The crowd stops and hunches together to check their phones, or their friends' phones. It's a notification from their school's MyFace account.

"Looks like someone hacked the school account and posted something on it," Mugi tells her friends. Then she shoots them a confused look, "Why are you crowding me? Don't you have phones?"

"We maxed our data for the month," Azusa/Ritsu/Mio informed her.

The rich girl looks confused, "Oh, I didn't know data limits were a thing."

Mio, Azusa, and Ritsu stare at each other, shocked. They collectively ask her, "You have unlimited data?!".

Mugi nods and plays the video posted on the school's MyFace account. It's a video of Hitori, a junior girl like Azusa. The video shows her bomb a jazz club audition: Her electric guitar isn't strung correctly, her fingers rush onto the chords, and she pants under the enormous pressure.

"That's the unbearable girl from the audition. Her name is Hitori," Azusa tells her friends.

Ritsu stretches and tells her, "Well, it is pretty bad-"

Mio prepares her fist for impact.

"OW!"

"Don't make fun of Hitori!" Mio scolds her, "She just needs to get a hold of her nerves."

Speaking of Hitori, she limps into the hallway. She clutches her aching chest, her breathing intensifies, and her knees threaten to buckle. A bunch of girls laugh amongst themselves.

"Ha, what a loser!" A random girl comments. The girls surrounding her laugh too. Hitori wears a hoodie. She pulls it over her face and tugs on the strings.

Azusa blocks Hitori. Hitori tries to walk around her, but that doesn't work. Ritsu, Mio, and Mugi form a wall around her. Mio advises her, "Hey, all you need to do is calm your nerves. So don't listen to them-"

"-Aaaazu-nyaaan!" Yui yells, running down the hallway. Azusa throws her arms against her body, bracing for impact. Yui rushes in and gives Azusa a hug attack.

"Azu-nyan!" Yui greets her kouhai, tightening the hug, "We just landed a photo-op! It's for our guitar performance as Yui-Azu!"

Azusa and the gang hand motion Yui to Hitori, an indirect way to tell her that now is NOT the time.

"That's great, Yui-senpai. But we have more important things to deal with-"

"-How was the audition review with Jun-chan? I hope those jazz kids were good!"

Hitori-chan freezes. With a quivering voice, she asks: "Did you reject my audition, Azu-nyan?"

The hallway goes silent and turns its attention to Hitori and Azusa.

"Oh, her real name is Azusa Nakano," Yui clarifies, "Azu-nyan is what I call her, but you are more than free to call her that if you wa-."

"-No, only Yui-senpai can call me that!" Azusa yells at her. Then she turns to Hitori. In a somber tone, she confirms, "But yes, I am the one who rejected your application."

Hitori glares at her, tears in her eyes. Mio intervenes, "But don't worry! You just need to work on your nerves. Once that's fixed, you'll be accepted in no time."

Hitori stares at the ground and leaves in the other direction. The hallway goes silent. Once she's gone, Hokagu Tea Time looks at each other, concerned.

"Poor girl," Ritsu comments.

"Oh, I didn't know she was poor," Yui comments.

"Yui-senpai, please stop thinking" Azusa begs.

"Eh, that's not very nice of you" Yui protests, making a puffed face.


Hospital Room

2 Days of Unconsciousness Later

Azusa-chan creeks her eyes open. Her vision remains blurry, her eyelids threaten to pull down, and shivers override her nerves. She's dressed in a gown and hooked to an IV drip. Clutching her veiny hand is Yui-senpai. Yui sleeps across from her kouhai in a desk, dry tears evident on her face.

With great exertion, Azusa removes her hand from Yuis'. That wakes up Yui: She has dark circles, wears no makeup, and is even a bit anemic.

"Azusa-chan?" Yui asks, her throat logged. Then tears of joy rolled down her face.

"Yui-senpai…" Azusa mumbles, her voice weak, "Hitori-chan bullied me because she herself was bullied."

"No," Yui replies, "Hitori-chan bullied you because of me." The senpai hovers over Azusa and bows. "I'm sorry for putting you in harm's way, Azusa-chan," She apologizes.

Azusa looks startled. Neither lady utters a word. Azusa grunts as she unhooks her IV drip and heart monitor. The heart rate monitor flatlines.

"SHIT!" Hokago Tea Time yells from outside. They burst through the door, out of breath.

"Azusa-chan!" Mio and Mugi utter, "You're awake?!"

"I'll call Sawa-chan and the police!" Ritsu tells them, then runs off. Azusa-chan wobbles towards Yui-senpai at arm's length.

"Look at me," she demands her senpai. Yui shakes her head. "Yui-senpai, please look at me," She pleads.

"Yui, look at her" Mio demands. Yui wipes her tears and brings her head up to Azusas', but she refuses eye contact. Azusa engulfs Yui for a long, one-sided hug. Azusa shrieks and she trembles.

"Apology accepted, now please stop the apology tour"

A slight delay, but Yui returns the hug. She begins to stroke the back of Azusa's head. "But I ruined your life."

Mugi looks at Mio. She asks her, "Should we join the hug?". Mio replies, sentimentally: "No, this is between them."

"Yui-senpai. I failed Hitori during the audition, the girls at school made fun of her for failing, she heard a kid or two make fun of my nickname and seized the opportunity. For her, revenge presented itself as a false antidote for her own pain and suffering."

"Hitori-chan?" Mugi elaborates, "That sounds right. We tracked the IP address of that post back to her house. The police took her in handcuffs."

Azusa peels from the hug, her hands resting on Yui's shoulder. "Can you please forgive yourself, for me?". Strong silence. Yui tries to calm her whimpers. Before she can say anything, Ritsu and Sawa-chan enter the room.

"Azusa-chan," Sawako tells her: "You can chat with Hitori now. She's in the room across the hall, under police custody."

To be continued

One Chapter Left