Time: 9:30 pm
Weather: Clear
Location: Sanae's Home at 35 Reinfield
PCs: Sanae, Martin
================
"..."
Once Sanae opened the door, she felt something terribly odd. The atmosphere was heavy at home, and it struck Sanae as being really uncharacteristic to see all four of them quiet and completely silenced, on the sofa or at the dining table, and doing absolutely nothing.
Well, maybe not so much for Mitsuki, but the rest had unhappy, pale faces. A deep frown across Asuka's usually impish, expressive face; many long sighs from Chihara; studious Mitsuki sprawled across the table; the landlady holding on to a lit cigarette she most likely confiscated from Asuka yet again, but without actually snubbing it out; everything seemed so out of place.
... they are so distressed by the molesting... it seems unfair that I'm the only one who got away with it.
Martin, who was at the door expecting to be allowed in by the landlady, was a little hesitant to remove his shoes upon realizing that the entire household was unresponsive to his appearance.
"...it seems like a bad time for me, isn't it, Sanae?" Martin spoke at near whisper volumes as he noticed, too, the totally down atmosphere.
"Ee... I think it is not a good time..."
Martin hand-signalled his departure, gesturing to Sanae's mobile phone. Sanae nodded in a dainty manner, after which Martin felt secure enough to leave Sanae for the night and wave her a goodnight. As she turned around though, looking at the unchanged state of the women whom she'd gradually started to get accustomed to, she decided that she can't leave them alone to wallow in their self-pity.
...I'll do something for them. Now.
So off she went into the kitchen, with everyone still as they were, upset and all.
--- Fifteen minutes later... ---
Sanae, tired as she was, was still able to do something in the kitchen, with the makisu she was using quickly churning out five balls of rice filled with whatever she could find - in this case, pre-grilled chicken from the supermarket.Onigiri is the best way out for everyone now...
As she stopped, however, she was disappointed to find out that one of the balls was too loosely rolled up, and had ended up breaking apart where the seaweed was supposed to be. Setting that one aside, she brought the four remaining rice balls to a still-staid living room, starting by palming one into Chihara's hands, which Sanae noticed was streaked with tears for quite a while. Reaching into her skirt pocket, Sanae quietly took out one of her tissues and slowly wiped it across Chihara's face.
"Here, Chihara-senpai. I made this. Don't go hungry..."
It took the usually bubbly woman a while to register Sanae's gesture, but as she came to realization, she gripped at Sanae's fingers and pried the tissue away from Sanae's hands.
"...I'm fine, thank you so much Sanae."
Sanae smiled a little, knowing nothing was fine but at least Chihara was trying to get over the problem. Sanae then headed over to Asuka, who had noticed what Sanae was doing.
"...Can I have that?"
"Sure you can! It's for everyone!"
Asuka grabbed one, but then stopped. "There's only two left."
"Ah... don't worry about that! Please be well, Asuka-senpai!"
"Um... well... I don't know about that Sanae..." The usually hot-tempered woman's mellow, off-tune response quite nearly freaked Sanae out. Thankfully for the lady, Sanae remembered what her mother liked to tell her whenever she felt uncomfortable about group situations:
"If everyone is unhappy, everyone will depend on you not to be unhappy, too."
And so she put that to great effect, replying Asuka with an assured upward curl of her lips that, as Sanae would notice, put Asuka a little more at ease as she began to chow through her onigiri like it was the first meal she had in months, gnawing and munching in an ugly fashion.
Just as Sumire snapped awake noticing Asuka's ugly eating manners, Sanae was already beside her.
"Onigiri for you, Sumire-sama?"
"Eh... well... why not..."
Letting out one long sigh again, Sumire took the onigiri from the bowl and began to nibble on it slowly, using her fingers to wipe away the tears that had dried up at the eyelids. Sanae handed her a tissue at this time, then smiled again at Sumire before heading for Mitsuki, who still remain slumped on the table limp.
"Mitsuki-senpai. Mitsuki-senpai?"
Mitsuki, wordless as ever, did not answer Sanae, only raised her head to acknowledge Sanae. Her spectacles and face, too, were smeared by sobbing from hours ago, but her hair was also made messy by having leaned on top of it with her face for what seemed to be hours, and her face left slightly reddened as a result.
"Mitsuki-senpai, here's an onigiri... don't go hungry, okay?"
Mitsuki blinked at Sanae for a bit. Then she quickly sat up, bowing in apology before taking the last onigiri out of the bowl.
"Are you not eating one, Sanae-chan...?"
Sanae shook her head. "Don't worry, senpai! I have my own in the kitchen!"
Just as Sanae was about to head back to the kitchen, though, she noticed that everyone is now back to life, at least a little bit. Everyone was busy eating the onigiri, so Sumire was no longer taking long sighs, Asuka and Chihara were no longer quietly sobbing, and Mitsuki sat up at last.
"...as long as everyone is not so sad now..." Sanae thought it would be a bad time to mention about Takao's arrest that she had personally ensured, but before she could even formulate a proper response, Mitsuki had already reached for the television remote and turned it on.
"---come back to Pebbleton Channel News at Ten with me, Traynor Baxter."
"...it's the news."
"Today in Pebbleton is the start of the three-day Festival, but this year's festivities has been fraught with much logistical difficulties and increased severity of incidents..."
A face Sanae was too familiar with, suddenly popped up onto the screen.
"One of the performers this year, Takao Maeda, of fame in Japan and belonging to the Broadcasting Corporation of Japan, has been arrested in connection with a serial molester case that struck more than twenty women today. Broadcasting Corporation of Japan has not responded to our queries at press time..."
...nandeyanen?
The unbelievable timing of the news report left Sanae slightly exasperated, but the neutral expressions on her housemates' faces brightened a little upon the news, thankfully for her.
It was then that Sanae's phone rang. Hurriedly, she ran back up to her room.
"Moshimoshi?... Eh? Father?!"
--- And later... ---
"...yes, Father. Yes. Yes. Yes, that's right...... but why? I'm settling in outside of Japan. No, I told you before, father - I don't want to be stuck inside Japan!"By this time, Mitsuki, the first person to rise from her self-induced catatonic state and to walk up to her room, found Sanae's voice rising in volume with each line she spoke.
Just as she approached Sanae's room, however, the call was ended abruptly without any preceding "goodbyes", and the next she saw was Sanae quickly reaching for the power button on her desktop computer.
"...Ah, Mitsuki-senpai... are you alright now?"
"... Yes."
"Do you want me to make some miso soup? I think we still have enough materials."
"... No."
Mitsuki looked at Sanae's mobile phone intently. Sanae realized that Mitsuki must have heard at least part of her argument on the phone.
"Ah... please don't worry about that, senpai. My parents in Japan are just worried too much for me..."
Mitsuki blinked, but said nothing more. Sanae took that to mean "Oh, okay, I guess thanks for telling me", which made Sanae a little upset inwardly for being slighted after answering earnestly; Sanae swallowed her displeasure before it showed up on her face, though.
"... Sorry to disturb. Thank you for the food. I am going back to sleep now."
"Please have a goodnight, senpai!"
Sanae watched Mitsuki exit her room without so much as a shuffling in her footsteps, and heaved a sigh of relief - Mitsuki is back.
But so are the homework submissions from her day-class students.
"...gosh, I have forgotten to check on the homework... I need to be marking all these papers now... and the administrative work... Maybe I'll leave it for Monday night."
Sanae then cupped her hands around her forehead.
Too much on her plate had rendered her entirely confused and out-of-focus.
When will all the madness end and all the things settle down?