Chapter 15

12 On a Stormy Night “Mifu?!” “Mifu! We were so worried about you!” Ichika and Nitori were shocked by the sight of me when I came home. “You’re soaked. And you’re blue!” “Didn’t you have an umbrella? Use this to dry off!” My body and my mind warmed up a little as I was wrapped in a big bath towel. I…wasn’t alone. The feeling washed over me, and I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. I was definitely calmer than when the rain first started. Even so, I couldn’t stop panting after I had run through the downpour. “Huff…huff… Sorry… I’m okay,” I murmured weakly and buried my face in the towel. “Get in the bath right away. You’ll catch a cold.” “You really okay? Something happen?” “Well…” I wanted to tell them how scared I’d been. How I’d remembered something from when I was little and been trembling in the entrance of the school. My heart was still pounding, and my chest hurt. When I went to speak, I remembered how scared I’d been and almost started crying again… Flustered, I squeezed my eyes shut, and I swallowed the words somewhere deep in my throat along with my tears. To think the two of them were so worried about me, and I couldn’t even explain what had happened… I hated how weak I was being. Just as I looked down… Creak! …a door opened, and I raised my head. Shizuki came out into the room. Thank goodness she’d come home. So it really hadn’t been Shizuki riding in that black car? I felt relieved and tried to smile at her, but I couldn’t get my cheeks to move. She paled in surprise when she saw me soaked. Thunk! She slipped back into her own room and firmly shut the door. Sorry I startled you, Shizuki. I wanted to do something to get Shizuki to open up, but I was too wrapped up in my own problems. It was just sad… I was supposed to be her older sister. That thought alone almost made my fragile heart well up with tears again. “It’s a flash storm, right? I’m sure it’ll pass quickly…,” Ichika said, looking out the window while the storm roared on. But even by night, the rain, wind, and lightning showed no signs of letting up. Fwiiish… Crack… Roar… It was later that night, just before midnight. The storm was still raging outside. The wind made the house creak periodically with eerie sounds. I lay frozen in my futon, eyes wide-open. I wished morning would come already… I felt like those bad memories would chase me into my dreams if I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to be asleep or awake. Honestly, a ghost popping out would have been preferable… Then the sliding door to the hallway quietly opened in the dark. “…Huh?” Who was it? A chill ran down my spine, and I timidly called out, “Nitori?” No answer came. Clutching my futon, I tried calling out again… “I-Ichika?” The darkness shifted, and something came closer. “?!” I held my breath and squinted to see a face that looked just like me besides her glasses. “Sh-Shizuki?” Wh-why was she here? I sat up and got out of my futon. …Huh? Why were the hallway and the staircase so dark? Shizuki’s room was on the first floor. Don’t tell me she’d climbed those steep stairs in the dark? “Shizuki, why didn’t you turn on the lights…?” I asked timidly, and Shizuki whispered in an even smaller voice than usual: “I thought I might wake someone up if I turned on the lights… I was fine. There’s a banister.” “B-but…” Crack-crack-crack! Boom! “Eeek!” A deafening thunderclap hit, and I couldn’t help but cower. My heart lurched. Just as memories of that rainy day started to fill my mind again… “It’s okay.” …a warm hand touched my back. I slowly glanced up…and saw my identical sister. Shizuki, who normally avoided eye contact, met my gaze shyly. “You looked like you were crying…so I got worried and came to check on you.” As the rain pattered outside, Shizuki’s voice was so clear that it seemed to drive away the darkness. A single ray of light broke through the despair in my heart. On that rainy day, I’d shut my eyes, afraid of the thunder, and when I’d fearfully opened them again, there’d been no one in the hallway. But now Shizuki was right here with me. “Um… Want me to pat you on the back…?” Pat my back… I was so happy, I couldn’t find the words. I thought I should thank her. Huh? Suddenly, I noticed some wetness on my cheek. I…was crying. My mind went blank, and Shizuki drew back her hand in surprise. “Oh…sorry… I shouldn’t have done that… Sorry. I’ll lea—” My body moved on its own. I cut her off, hugging her. Her thin body radiated warmth. “Stay with me…” Someone had finally shown up to save me when I was hurting and lonely. “I’m happy. I’m crying because I’m happy…!” I wasn’t alone! My heart was full, like it had drunk a whole jug of warm light. It was like the sun’s sparkling rays were shining down on the little girl who’d always been crying in a corner of my heart since that rainy day… After that, Shizuki and I slipped under the futon together. She kept gently patting my back. I wrapped my arms around Shizuki and held her tightly. She was so warm but small… We all had the same face, but each one of us was a little different. Shizuki was paler and thinner than the rest of us. It felt like I might break her if I squeezed too tightly. She hadn’t turned the lights on because she hadn’t wanted to wake us and gone up that steep staircase… If she’d fallen, she definitely would have broken something.