I woke up with pounding in my head, and gave a muffled groan into my pillow.

I froze. 'Wait. My bed feels... odd.'

I shot upright and looked around to find an unfamiliar room. I panicked for a moment before remembering the day before. 'Right. Inaba.' I sighed. Clearly I hadn't fully woken up yet.

It was then I also realized that it wasn't my head that was pounding, it was the door.

"Are you awake? Dad told me to wake you up now." I heard a young girl's voice call in. Nanako, I remembered.

"I'm awake," I called back groggily. Clearing the sleep out of my eyes, I hurriedly threw back the covers and swung my legs off the bed. I knew from experience that I would invariably fall back asleep if I didn't immediately escape my bed after waking, and today was important.

"Okay. I'm going to make breakfast, so come down when you're ready," she said, her footsteps fading as she hopped down the stairs.

I put my head in my hands, only to realize that I was covered in sweat. 'Huh? That's strange. My bed wasn't that warm. I guess I must have had another nightmare or something.' I'd had plenty of those before, though I usually remember them. Being a walking ball of neuroticism forces the brain to relieve stress whatever way it can.

With great difficulty, I stood up and excavated my school uniform from my suitcase. It was a rather plain, grey sailor uniform with a yellow tie. And a skirt. I sighed. I wasn't really a fan of skirts. So impractical. I preferred function over form any day of the week, and skirts made basic things more difficult than they needed to be. And this particular one was a bit too short for my liking. There was nothing I could do about it though, so I grabbed the uniform and my toiletries and headed to the bathroom

Twenty minutes later, I was dressed, ready, and standing in front of the mirror with a dissatisfied expression. I curled a bit of my hair around my finger, trying in vain to figure out if there was anything else I could do about my appearance. My blue hair was short enough that it required very little maintenance in the morning, which was perfect for me, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do with it either. My chest was, ah, ample enough, but there was no way that I was capitalizing on that. Frowning at my lack of options, I absentmindedly fussed with my uniform. When I realized what I was doing, I just huffed and crossed my arms.

'Dammit, stop doing that. You look fine.' I chided myself. 'Besides, it isn't as if you're trying to impress anyone.'

Taking a bit of bittersweet solace from that statement, I snatched up my already-prepared schoolbag and walked down the stairs to see Nanako sitting at the table by herself in front of a plate of toast and eggs, with a similar plate across the table. I noticed that Dojima was nowhere to be seen, and there wasn't a spot at the table for him. I said as much to Nanako as I took my seat.

"He had to go to work early," she replied matter-of-factly. "He said there was some kind of trouble at the police station. My dad's a detective."

I already knew as much, but tried to show interest anyway. "Oh." I said, "Does he have to leave early a lot then?" Nanako stiffened slightly and her head dipped.

"... not all the time," she murmured, now looking down at her food with slumped shoulders.

I mentally slapped myself for my indiscretion. 'You idiot! This is why you don't talk to people!' I hastily tried to distract her from my massive faux pas by changing the subject. "O-oh. Well... did you, um, do the cooking yourself then?"

By some miracle, Nanako did seem to cheer up as she puffed up in pride. "Yep! I can toast bread and make eggs sunny-side up. Dad doesn't really cook, so we buy dinner."

I did not want to say something stupid and hurt her feelings again, so I just smiled and focused on eating my food. It wasn't bad at all. The eggs were cooked adequately and toast isn't something that's easy to mess up.

Nanako seemed to find the lack of conversation more uncomfortable than I did, and asked, "You're starting school today, right?"

I nodded.

"My school's on the way, so… we should go together," she said with a smile. I froze mid-bite, for it was only then that I realized that I didn't actually have any idea of how to get to Yasogami High. I hadn't even thought about it before now.

"Y-yeah. That sounds like a good idea." I replied nervously. 'Wow, dodged the bullet there.'

"Okay!" she cheerily replied, and went back to eating her breakfast. Thankfully, this time, she was content with just that.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Just as the weatherman had predicted, the rain had continued throughout the night and was still pouring when we exited the house. Nanako grabbed us umbrellas before we left, so we stayed pretty dry, unlike the few underprepared students who periodically ran past us at full speed, holding their book bags above their heads.

Neither of us felt the need to start up a new conversation, so we walked in silence. It was when we had started to walk alongside the river that ran through the middle of town that Nanako finally stopped and turned to me.

"You keep going straight from here," she said, pointing up the path. "Your school's at the top of the hill." Nanako turned around. "My school's this way. Bye!" She waved at me as she walked away.

I gave a wave back, making sure to smile. It was kind of her to take such a detour to make sure I knew where I was going. Another thing I'll have to pay her back for.

As I started to walk along the path again, my smile melted into a tight frown. The volume of commuting students around me was still fairly sparse, but that would soon change, and I would be surrounded. My stomach was already doing preliminary flips, and my hands were getting more and more jittery.

'Okay, okay...' I tried to console myself. 'This won't be that bad, just do what you usually do. Strategize. Think or focus on anything to distract yourself from the dense, teeming, masses of students around you, looking, staring at you to see who the new kid- Ah! Stop that!' This was so not going to go well. The fact that I'd done this same, damn "new kid" routine multiple times didn't ease my fears about doing it at all. As familiarity with my surroundings started to set in, I knew the nervousness would fade somewhat, but that didn't help me now.

I heard a strangled yelp come from behind me, and I turned my head to see a poor, poor student attempting to ride his bike while holding an umbrella with one hand. He zoomed by me at top speed, and it was obvious that he was rapidly losing control of what he was riding. He only got a few more meters before veering to the right and crashing magnificently into a streetlamp. Upon impact, he flew through the air and landed hard on his side.

I winced in sympathy. 'Yeesh, that had to hurt. Maybe I should go see if he's alright.' I started to take a step forward, but hesitated again.

'Yeah, let's not do that,' said my inner voice. 'He's fine. He doesn't need some new girl checking on him.'

'But...'

I grimaced, torn between walking over and avoiding it. I wanted to try to help him, but... my body just refused to move. My decision was never made, anyway. By the time I had looked up, the student was speeding away, having already gotten up and re-mounted his bike, this time without the umbrella. Leaving me staring after him, feeling quite foolish.

'Told you.'

'Oh, shut up,' I thought back, a warm feeling encroaching on my cheeks. I started walking again. 'God, that was awful. A boy crashes his bike, and I have a goddamn crisis over what should've been a simple decision.' My face twisted into a scowl, my head dipped downward, and my stride became stiff as my mind circled in on itself.

It was not until I had passed the gate of the school that I was broken out of my thoughts. I looked up, seeing… a rather dull and nondescript building. I felt a pang of disappointment. I wasn't expecting anything glamorous, but something about the greyish exterior of the stone building combined with the still-persisting rainfall made the entire scene all the more depressing and undesirable.

I sighed. I seemed to have been doing that a lot lately.

At least my episode of self-derision had distracted me from my previous worries, though those were now making a rapid comeback. With some degree of difficulty, I took deep breaths and forcefully swallowed my anxieties and focused on the task at hand: being the new kid at Yasogami High.

'Okay, battle plan. For the first few weeks, people are going to notice you a lot. This is a small town where most faces are pretty familiar, and most of the students will have already gone to school with each other for most of their lives. You are a completely new face. People will probably approach you out of curiosity at first, but once your novelty wears off, you'll fade into the background and cease to be a major focus. For now, just be fairly polite, don't do anything to utterly humiliate yourself, and things will be fine.'

And so, with a grim determination, I walked through the front doors of Yasogami for the first time.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It took all of ten minutes before things started to go really wrong for me.

It started out fine enough. I quickly found the main office, and mainly just stood around while the secretary checked me in and attempted to locate my file on their ancient computer system. The secretary was a nice enough young woman, thankfully too busy with all the manners of business that the first day of school brings to a faculty to start being overly friendly with me, as some adults I've known have tended to do. They never did understand that they weren't making things easier for me, merely more uncomfortable.

Eventually though, she finally found what she was looking over and handed me a sheet of paper.

"Okay, Seta-san, here's your homeroom and class information." she said, pointing to the sheet. "Wait just outside this office, and your homeroom teacher will come and get you soon. He'll take you to your class and introduce you." She checked her watch. "Homeroom is about to begin, so he should be along shortly."

I gave a small bow and thanked her before exiting the office. The volume of students had increased while I was in there, and they were all running to get to their homeroom in time. My chest felt tight from all of the people, but I refused to leave my spot. 'Just stand up against the wall, don't make eye contact with anyone, and your teacher will be here soon enough.' I comforted myself. Thankfully, no one really noted my presence or approached me while I waited.

Having a couple minutes of downtime, I glanced at the sheet of paper in my hands. It seemed that I was in Room 2-2 and my homeroom teacher was Kinshiro Morooka. In addition to that, my class schedule was laid out, showing the variety of subjects I would study that year. It ranged from things I was relatively good at, like Math and History, to the one class that has always been the bane of my existence: Physical Education. I scowled. Excuses to get out of that class were always difficult to conjure up, and I never had the courage to try and put them into action.

The secretary had said that my teacher would 'be along shortly,' but it wasn't until several minutes had passed, the trickle of students having almost completely halted, that he finally showed up. I looked up when I heard someone clear their throat loudly.

…

'Oh my, that's unfortunate.'

The man was dressed in a dark blue suit with a mismatched checkered tie, and he had a very unusual hairstyle that could best be described as a bowl cut that exposed his entire forehead. But all of that came secondary to his very prominent overbite that attracted attention like a neon sign.

"You Seta?" he barked. I was caught off-guard by his brusque speech.

"Uh, y-yes, I am... Sir." I hastily added.

He impatiently gestured to the staircase. "Well, come on then! I'll take ya' to your room," he said, and immediately turned and started to walk back up the stairs.

I stuttered out a vaguely confirmative remark before jumping up to follow him. My apparent teacher, Mr. Morooka, didn't seem inclined to wait for me, and I had a feeling that making him angry would not be in my best interest.

After I got to the top of the stairs, I realized something with horror: my class introductions were coming up. 'Oh god, I am so screwed.' There was a small chance that Morooka would just introduce me himself and I wouldn't be required to say anything, but those odds weren't in my favor. Even worse, there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

The hallways were practically empty, but I could hear muffled chatter from inside the classrooms. Morooka stopped in front of the room marked "Room 2-2" and marched into the classroom, whipping the door open and yelling "Homeroom's started!" The chatter grinded to a halt immediately as everyone rushed to get to their seats.

Though Morooka demanded a lot of attention, I could feel several pairs of eyes lock in on me as soon as I entered the room. I stiffened, but firmly kept my body moving and stopped next to him.

"Listen up, everyone!" he barked from his podium. "I'm Kinshiro Morooka, your homeroom teacher from today forward!" A few people wilted in their seats. He obviously had something of a reputation in this school. "First things first! Just 'cause it's spring doesn't mean you can swoon over each other like love-struck baboons. 'Long as I'm around, you kids are going to be as pure as the driven snow!"

Several students' faces frowned in confusion, but no one dared question anything he was saying.

"Now I hate wasting my time, but I better introduce this transfer student," he said, gesturing his hand to me. Every pair of eyes in the room locked in on me, and I suddenly felt very, very small. My hands started to shake, but I forced myself to clench them into an iron grip on my bag handle. "This little girl's been thrown from the big city out to the middle of nowhere, so you stupid boys better not even think about making a pass at her! Tell 'em your name, kid, and make it quick."

'Come on, social butterfly. Just speak your own name out loud. Nothing fancy.' My chest tightened again, and my mouth felt dry, but I forced myself to speak before I could think about it anymore.

"N-Naoto.. Seta," I managed to force out. My body was as tense as a spring board and my voice was shaking, but I at least managed to get full words out. Fortunately, Morooka seemed content with that.

"Okay then, go and take your seat, uhh," he paused, peering around the room, "there in the middle row."

I grimaced inwardly, but kept my head down as I hurried to the only vacant seat available, smack dab in the middle of the room, and plopped down a little too fast. Among all of the possible desk locations I could have gotten, the center of the room was among the worst. The back row was obviously greatly preferred. Bonus points if it was the corner desk by the window. But alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, I was completely surrounded by other students, with neighbors on all sides.

As Morooka launched into a heated speech about ground rules, I concentrated entirely on taking deep breaths to calm my still rapidly beating heart. 'Solid C+, old sport. Shaking like a leaf, and stuttered the first name, but coherent enough. Certainly better than some past performances.'

I was so entrenched in my thoughts that I did not notice the brunette sitting directly to the right of me lean over until she had already started speaking.

"Rotten luck you get stuck in King Moron's class." she whispered. Startled, I turned my head over to her. The first thing that I noticed about her was that she was wearing, of all things, a bright green athletic jacket with numerous buttons on it. She smiled sympathetically. "Hang in there. I hear we'll get used to him eventually."

Not knowing what else to do, I simply nodded and went back to staring a hole into my desk. Whatever her reaction was, I couldn't see it.

After several minutes, with no end in sight for Morooka's rant, and with me still getting quick glances from other students, I let out yet another quiet sigh.

'This is going to be a long day.'

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It was indeed a very long day, but, eventually, the end of it finally arrived. The many introductory lectures had all winded to a close, and we had met all of our teachers. Some of them were… eccentric to say the least. Our World History teacher, Ms. Sofue, actually wore a full Egyptian headdress throughout the entire day. When she was finally asked about it, she lectured us on how important Egypt was, but never really gave a concrete reason as to why she felt compelled to keep its fashion alive.

As for my desk neighbor, I made the conclusion that she was tolerable. She was rather pushy for my taste, but she didn't seem mean-spirited about it. In fact, she seemed to be making an overt effort to be friendly to me. Certainly, I'd been seated next to worse people. Her curiosity would fizzle out eventually.

The fact that she and the girl in front of her were the only students I had seen that day that actually modified their uniforms and didn't seem to get into any trouble for it still surprised me, though. I would have thought that Morooka, of all people, would clamp down on any presumed violation of school policy, but he never even acknowledged it. 'Oh well. Guess I'll have to check out that school manual a bit more closely.' Even if modifications were allowed, I doubted I'd be able to ditch the skirt. And even if I could, it would probably draw more attention than I'd ever want.

As the ending bell rang through the school, Morooka addressed us all. "That's all for today. Normal lectures will start tomorrow."

My entire class let out a collective sigh of relief, and everyone, except for me, began to chatter away with their neighbors. But only a few seconds passed before our imminent escape was rudely interrupted by a woman's voice coming through the intercom. I immediately recognized her as the secretary that helped me in the front office.

"Attention, all teachers. Please report to the Faculty Office for a brief staff meeting. All students must return to their classrooms and are not to leave the school until further notice."

'Dammit.'

Morooka, almost out the door already, growled in annoyance and turned to us. "You heard the announcement. Don't go anywhere until you hear otherwise!" He quickly left the room in a huff.

Part of me was curious of the reason behind holding onto all the students after the bell had already rung, and on the first day of school no less, but most of me was just supremely agitated that I couldn't escape the classroom. Another depressing situation that continued the ongoing combo, slowly destroying any optimism that my mind could muster in its more disillusioned moments.

Most of the students around me complained loudly about this news to their friends and classmates, while I feigned busyness by jotting down the name of every book that I could remember reading onto a sheet of paper. I could still detect a few people in my peripheral vision glancing over at me, some of them looking a bit too long, but those were pretty easily ignored.

Police sirens started to wail outside. That caught my attention, as well as everyone else's. Most of the crowd headed over to the window, but thick fog had gathered outside the windows, not allowing any of the students to see the outside world.

As several students voiced their curiosities of the sirens and complaints of the fog, I turned my attention back to my notebook and started to think.

'The school keeps all the students inside after the school day is already over, and then police sirens go off? Not a good sign. Chances the two events are unrelated are pretty slim, as those sirens sound pretty close, and it's obvious from the class' reaction that this doesn't happen very often.' I could think of a variety of explanations behind this turn of events, and all of them, besides the slim possibility that this was just a big coincidence, were not good. Not good at all. Something happened, of that there was little doubt.

What that something was, I could only guess.

The subsequent announcement all but confirmed my suspicions.

"Attention, all students," said the same voice on the intercom. "There has been an incident inside the school grounds. Police officers have been dispatched around the the School Zone."

'I knew it. They were connected.' I scowled. The theories that remained somewhat plausible in wake of this new information got worse as I went along.

The announcement continued. "Please stay calm and contact your parents or guardians as soon as possible, and quickly leave the school. Do not disturb the police officers. Head directly home."

While the first two commands contradicted each other because my guardian was a police officer, the last one was long-awaited, and eagerly followed. I sent off a text to Dojima that I was on my way home, and got up to leave. But just as I stood up from my desk, my tracksuit-wearing neighbor walked up to me, her friend in the cardigan in tow.

"Hey, are you going home by yourself?" she asked.

After a moment's pause, I nodded. This was apparently the wrong thing to do.

Her face lit up like a thousand-watt light bulb. "Well~~ why don't you come with us?"

It was technically phrased as a question, but the tone of it clearly showed that she had already decided to walk home with me.

'... DAMMIT.'

All I wanted to do was say no, but that could have consequences. 'Gah, I don't have any good reason to decline her offer, and I can't exactly say that I hate being around people. And just saying no without a reason would be even worse.' Terrible situation, but I didn't have a choice. Offending her would be rude, and it was better to not piss off the person that I would be sitting next to for the rest of the year.

"Uh, sure," I said. Her smile widened.

"Great! I'm Chie Satonaka," she said, pointing to herself, and then pointed to the girl behind her. "And this is my best friend in the whole world: Yukiko Amagi."

Contrary to her friend, Yukiko was the very picture of grace. She had long, black, and frankly beautiful hair that was held up by a red headband. She seemed to be wearing the school uniform, but wore a red cardigan over it. I had to admit, it really worked for her.

Yukiko gave a little bow. "Hello. Nice to meet you." She smiled nervously. "I'm sorry this was so sudden."

Chie swatted her shoulder. "C'mon," she complained, "don't apologize like that. That's a nasty habit of yours."

Yukiko's face drooped. "Oh, sorry."

At this, Chie growled in annoyance, then sighed. "Ah, whatever." She turned back to me. "I just wanted to ask some stuff, is all. Well, might as well get going!"

I turned around and we were about to leave the classroom when a boy with brown hair and headphones around his neck stopped us, nervously clutching a DVD case. He smiled uneasily, and seemed to be… sweating?

"Umm, hey Satonaka," he said. Something about him was familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Chie narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Yes?"

He gave a nervous chuckle and held up the DVD. "This… was really awesome. The way they moved was just amazing to see." He bowed suddenly. "And… I'm really sorry! It was an accident, so please just have mercy until my next paycheck!" he blurted out, shoving the case her hands.

"Huh?" asked a bewildered Chie.

"See ya later!" he said, and dashed away. However, Chie apparently wasn't quite ready to let him go and, without looking, reached out her foot and tripped him, sending him straight to the ground. His face landed on the ground hard.

I suddenly snapped my fingers. 'Ohh, that's where I've seen him. Telephone-Pole-Guy.'

"Not so fast," she said. I made a mental note to Not Mess With Chie.

She popped open the case with a concerned expression, which quickly morphed into one of horror. "What the!?" she exclaimed. "It's completely cracked! What the hell did you do to it!?"

The boy, who was just starting to get back on his feet, futilely tried to appease her, "I said… I was sorry. Oww." He grimaced and massaged his abused knees.

"Are you alright?" Yukiko asked with concern.

Just as the boy was about to respond, Chie cut him off without mercy, snapping the case shut decisively and speaking on his behalf. "He's fine Yukiko," she said with a murderous glint in her eyes. I shuddered. This girl could be really scary. She turned back to the boy and said, "We're leaving, but don't think you're getting out of this one." She paused, and smiled maliciously. "I'll give you a proper punishment later."

With that, she stuffed the case in her bag and pivoted with a flourish, grabbing both Yukiko's arm and mine to march out of the classroom. I flinched and quickly wiggled my arm out of her grasp, latching onto the handle of my bag with both hands. I didn't dare look up to see Chie's reaction, but she didn't say anything about it, and in fact stayed rather quiet as we walked through the hall, down the stairs, and out the door.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

We didn't make it two steps out of the school boundaries before being stopped again.

This boy looked to be a student around our age, but his uniform showed he was from an entirely different school. Probably a private school, judging from how formal his uniform is. It was a full suit with a tie and everything, as opposed to the blazers of Yasogami. He had disheveled black hair and eyes that looked utterly dead to the world.

But even so, I could see the tenseness in the way he walked. He was consciously forcing his body to do this. I could tell because it was something that I did almost every day.

He approached Yukiko as we were walking by. "You're Yuki, right? You want to go hang out somewhere?" he asked with a casualness that I strongly suspected he didn't truly possess.

Yukiko stopped, surprise evident on her face. "Huh? Do I know you?"

"Um, no…" he trailed off, nervously shifting his feet around.

Other Yasogami students had started to gather around the scene, two of them in particular being loud enough that I could sort of make out what they were saying. Something about the 'Amagi Challenge.' The boy's eyes shifted towards them, and he swallowed.

After a very long and awkward pause, he spoke up again. "So, uh… are you coming or not?" he asked tensely.

Yukiko blinked a couple of times, before uneasily replying. "I'm not going."

His face twisted up. "Fine!" he half-yelled before taking off and storming down the road away from the school, leaving behind a very befuddled Yukiko.

"What did he even want from me?" she asked when he was out of earshot.

Chie looked at her incredulously. "You really couldn't tell?" she said. "He was obviously asking you out on a date."

Yukiko's eyes widened. "Really?"

Rolling her eyes, Chie scoffed. "Sheesh. I almost feel sorry for him now. But then again," she paused, "it was pretty creepy how he called you Yuki all of a sudden."

As much as I agreed with that, I couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for the boy. 'That obviously wasn't easy for him to do, and he looked pretty hurt when Yukiko rejected him so bluntly.' Poor guy.

It was then that Telephone-Pole-Guy - 'I should really learn his name,' - rode up to us on his bike, which looked surprisingly okay considering this morning's debacle. He gave a short laugh. "Well, that was pretty entertaining," he said to the two of them. "Looks like Yukiko rejected yet another lovelorn fool."

"You again," Chie growled, and pointed her finger sharply at him. "I still haven't forgiven you, so scram."

The brown-haired boy sighed. "Yeah yeah, I know. Well, don't pick on the transfer student too much." He remounted his bike and rode off down the hill.

"I'm not picking on her!" Chie yelled in outrage after him. She turned to me with a sheepish grin. "Sorry about all this. Let's just get going."

And so we walked. I was starting to understand how startlingly different these two professed 'best friends' actually were. Like fire and ice. Chie's little bout of violent aggression was off-putting to say the least, and I was still a bit on guard around her. Yukiko, in contrast, seemed much easier to deal with, on account of her not wanting to chat any more than myself. For a few precious blocks, I was able to simply enjoy the relative quiet of my surroundings as I walked. However, it wasn't long before Chie did that thing again, the thing that I don't like: talking to me.

"So, Naoto-san," she began, "what brings you to Inaba?"

'Showtime, Naoto. Just answer the questions.' At least it was a question I was ready for. "My mother is working overseas." I replied, a bit more tersely than I wanted.

"Oh, you're staying with your dad then?" she asked.

My body froze mid-step at her words and I nearly fell over. "Uh, n-no, not my dad," I stuttered. "My, ah, uncle."

The brunette's cheery confidence evaporated like someone who stepped on a landmine and heard the click. "O-oh, that's cool." she said uneasily. My face grew a bit red at the utter lack of composure that I was presenting. A moment of dense silence passed before she continued. "Where'd you come from before this?"

"...Osaka." At least this was a considerably safer topic.

She whistled, impressed. "Really? Wow, I heard that Osaka's pretty huge."

For my response, I simply went with the bare minimum. "Yes, it is."

"Man, must be cool to live in a big city like that."

"I guess."

"Sheesh, compared to that, Inaba has gotta feel pretty boring," she said. "We've got, like, nothing to do around here. I mean, that is what makes it kinda nice, but there isn't really anything to show to outsiders. Well, I think our dyed clothes or pottery or something is kinda famous..."

There was another pause, but I stayed silent.

She suddenly snapped her fingers. "Oh, duh, there's the Amagi Inn!" she exclaimed. "It practically keeps this town going!"

'Yes yes, I already know about- wait. Amagi? Isn't that...' I turned my head to look at Yukiko, who looked down shyly.

"It's just an old inn, really," she muttered dismissively.

Chie wouldn't hear it, and turned to me. "Don't listen to her, Naoto-san. That inn has been run by her family for ages, and it's still going strong! It's been in all sorts of magazines as a hidden treasure." She pointed to her best friend with a flourish. "And Yukiko here is gonna run it one day!"

"...Not for a long time." said Yukiko, obviously trying to avoid the conversation.

Chie growled in annoyance. "Oh, come on, Yukiko. Gimme something. We get a chance to talk to someone from the big city and you barely say a word." She turned to me again and said, "She's super popular at school, by the way. Never had a boyfriend though. Kinda weird."

A slight feeling of irritation started to boil up inside me. It was possible that her previous designation as tolerable was a bit hasty. The more I listened to her, the more it was starting to look like Chie was the type that I never seemed to get along with: cheery and talkative to a fault, not seeming to realize when the teasing and the joking stopped being funny. And I had already seen what she can do when she gets angry.

Yukiko grew even more uncomfortable at her words. "Come on, stop it." she pleaded.

Her brunette friend giggled and apologized unconvincingly before stopping in her tracks. "What's that?" she asked.

I looked up ahead to see an unusually large crowd gathered at an intersection ahead of us. 'That's odd,' I thought. Chie dashed ahead, and I quickly followed suit.

It was only when we neared the crowd that I saw the yellow police tape and the cop cars parked behind it. I skidded to a stop where Chie stood, a growing sense of unease building inside me. No doubt this was the 'incident' that the school secretary had told us about.

There was a brief struggle in my mind between my curiosity to find out what was going one and my intense desire to get the hell away from there. Eventually, curiosity won out. I simply had to acquire more information about this. Not knowing would drive me up the wall.

I walked closer to the crowd, hoping to get some insight.

It did not take long to find an avenue to the information I sought. "Wow. Who could imagine that hanging from an antenna?" I heard an older woman loudly ask. Bingo.

I stopped walking and strained my ears to hear the entire conversation.

"Aw, I wanted to see it too." the woman next to her complained.

The first woman scoffed, "You got here too late. The police and Fire Department took it down just a moment ago."

An uneasy feeling started to well up inside me.

The second woman continued. "Well, I think it's terrifying. I can't believe a dead body showed up around here…"

My mind froze and my fingers clenched my bag with a vice grip.

I was reasonably certain that Chie and Yukiko were saying something, but nothing they said got past my ears. Time became muddled as the world around me faded from my awareness, which held only my breathing and my heartbeat.

A dead body. Hanging from an antenna. Murder.

These words spiralled around in my head, unable to be processed or ignored.

Murder. It was murder. There was a murder here.

Probability of a suicide was too small to seriously consider.

This was a murder. A dead body hanging from an antenna.

My breathing grew heavier.

I became vaguely aware that people were still talking. Fingers snapped in front of my face, bringing me partially back to the outside world. Standing in front of me was a familiar face looking at me with concern. What was his name again? Oh yeah, Dojima. My uncle.

Now that I had some level of awareness back, I knew beyond a doubt that I had to escape from all these people. There was no way that I would've been able to deal with anyone right then.

So, after stuttering out some excuse, I briskly walked away from the scene. Soon after, when it became unbearable, I began to run.

I had to find someplace to be alone.

Dojima's house was still unfamiliar, but it was the only option I had right now. I ran and ran until I finally reached the house. I dashed inside the house, up the stairs, and into my new room. After locking the door, all of the energy in my body evaporated, and I collapsed onto the couch, unfeeling. My mind shut down as I absentmindedly hugged my knees to my body.

A half hour passed like this before I had finally calmed down enough to think, but not too much else. Looking around from my spot on the couch, I quickly located the already-open cardboard box marked Nao-chan's Books. I slowly got up from my position and did a passable impression of a zombie as I shuffled over to it, sticking my hand in blindly and grabbing the first book I touched before collapsing once again on the couch.

Lying on my side, I opened up my newly acquired book to the first page and started reading, only to pleasantly realize that I had picked up one of my favorites: "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." I cracked a small smile, and read all about Sherlock's scandal in Bohemia.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Several solved cases later, I heard Nanako knock on the door and announce that dinner was ready. With great reluctance, I snapped my book shut, my mind finally remembering what I had been blissfully ignoring for the duration of my little episode. 'Well,' I thought as I sat myself up, 'Today certainly could have gone better. I can't believe I didn't last a single day before having an attack. Pretty sure I ditched Chie and Yukiko. Oh, and Dojima too. Dammit.'

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair in dejection, all previous moments of peace now a distant memory. I glanced at my clock to see that it was almost five thirty. I groaned. Two hours.

"Um, are you awake?" Nanako called in again, making me realize that I still hadn't responded.

"Oh, yes I am. I'll be right out."

"Alright. Dad's not home yet, so he said to start without him." Her footsteps receded back down the stairway.

When I got downstairs, Nanako had already started eating and was watching some kid's show I didn't recognize. On the screen, there was some kind of anthropomorphic dog with a monocle and top hat. Weird.

Ignoring that, I sat down at the other mealbox on the table and began to eat without delay. Nanako looked up at me, just noticing my entrance, and looked back at the TV, suddenly looking a bit nervous. I raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

A few minutes passed before Nanako spoke up. "Um, are you feeling okay?" she asked, a concerned look on her face. "You were in your room for a really long time."

'Crap, she was probably home when I barged in and sprinted up the stairs. That explains why she's so uneasy around me.'

"I just... really needed to be by myself for a while," I said sheepishly. "It happens sometimes. Sorry if I scared you."

"It's okay!" she said with a cheery smile that proved infectious.

The rest of the dinner passed in relative peace, with Nanako's attention largely absorbed by her television show. Afterwards, I helped her do the dishes, since I had ditched her the night before.

Once the kitchen was cleaned up and my young cousin was once again glued to the TV screen, I headed upstairs to my room. Upon entering, I gleefully propped open my laptop for the first time since I had gotten there, and opened up Portal. I was something of a puzzle nut, and Portal had been a recent acquisition that had already proved quite excellent in occupying my mind. The television was left on to serve as background noise, but when a BREAKING NEWS alert flashed through the screen, it caught my attention long enough for me to see what it was reporting on.

"Our top story this evening concerns a bizarre case in a quiet suburb," the reporter began. "Around noon today, a woman was found dead near the Samegawa River in Inaba."

Frowning, I paused the game and set my laptop aside. It was about time that I gained the information I had originally desired. A multitude of emotions still arose when I thought of the death that had occurred just today, but I forcefully suppressed them.

"The deceased has been identified as Ms. Mayumi Yamano, a 27-year-old announcer at the local television station, recently being involved in a political scandal. The body was found hanging from a large television antenna atop a local resident's roof, and the authorities are uncertain as to why the body was in such a state. With the cause of death also uncertain, police continue to investigate whether the death was an accident or a homicide. A thick fog common to the area has slowed their progress, and plans to fully canvas the area are delayed until tomorrow."

'Unknown cause of death? Now that is odd.' I recognized Mayumi Yamano from the news report the day before, though I certainly didn't expect to see her again like this. The thought that her death was an accident hadn't occurred to me.

I picked up my laptop again and opened the browser to research Yamano. Sure enough, she wasn't a resident of Inaba and didn't have any apparent reason to be on a roof in the residential area. The chances of this being an accident dropped significantly, leaving only one option that I could realistically consider.

It really was murder.

I stiffened at the thought, and swallowed heavily. 'Unpleasant or not, that's how it is. Nothing's gonna change that.' The silver lining of all this was that my curiosity was now satisfied, and I didn't have to think about it anymore.

I shut the TV off, and regretfully closed my laptop as well. It was only just starting to get dark outside, but the events of the day had taken their toll on me and exhaustion was starting to set in. So, after getting my uniform ready to be worn the next day and setting my alarm, I slipped under the covers of my futon and closed my eyes.

A few minutes passed before I opened them again and reached for my phone. I quickly typed out a text to Dojima, and sent it off.

"I apologize for earlier. That sort of thing happens sometimes with me."

It would be best for him to have some level of explanation, but I wasn't completely comfortable with sharing some of my many issues with him either. So, I took the middle ground.

Satisfied, I closed my eyes once again, and sleep quickly reclaimed me.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A/N: Before you say it, I realize there was a pretty big time gap between the release of the first chapter and this one. My writing process is very gradual and involves adding to the story bit by bit every day until I'm done. I won't make any promises on update time, but I will try to do better from now on. What I can promise is that a very large amount of time, effort, and energy go into each chapter, regardless of how fast I get it out.

I feel I should mention that I will respond to any question about this that you pose to me in a review, but only if you actually have an account. I can't respond to a guest review. I'm thinking of a few ways to have your questions and my answers permanently available, but that might come later.

Oh, and shout out to Unnegated Positive for proofreading this chapter and helping me out with it. Definitely caught stuff I would have missed on my own. Kudos to him.

EDIT: My thanks to hinata2000100, who pointed out a misunderstanding I had about the 'kun' honorific, as well as a minor narration issue that I somehow missed even though I was on the lookout for it.