Stupid Body

Nitsuki blankly stared at the ceiling of her room, contemplating her poor decisions as she weakly lay in bed. Roughly an hour had passed since she had come down with a case of noodle legs, and the sounds of pots and utensils clanking could be heard from the kitchen.

She sighed heavily as she ran a hand through her hair. This was all her fault.

Of all the things, she still couldn't believe that she had spaced out on eating! It was kind of important to—you know—live. What made it even worse was that when Tachibana had taken her inside to finally eat the damn konbini food, she’d realized she had forgotten to plug the fridge back in.

Now Tachibana was scrambling to make something edible out of the few things that hadn't gone bad.

"Damn it past Nitsuki. Can't you do anything right?"

Here she was again, burdening Tachibana. He was probably stressed, worried, and irritated at her inability to take care of herself. And yet, he was in the kitchen doing exactly that. Like he always had. For years.

Why was he like this?

Nitsuki's face burned as she recalled what else had happened. He had carried her inside like in one of those stupid rom-com animes, then scolded her when she had tried to protest. She had never realized how adamant he could be when he put his mind to something.

She couldn't stop thinking about it. The way he'd held her. How warm his arms had felt. How close their faces were to each other. His scent. The look of concern on his face as he'd laid her down onto her bed, and the gentle but firm expression he wore as he lectured her on taking care of herself. It was all burned into her brain now, and she couldn't get rid of it.

She pulled her blanket up and over her head, desperate to hide from her own shame.

"Stupid hormones," she grumbled, her voice muffled. "Don't do this to me… Don't do that to him. He's too good a friend for me to be having such thoughts about. Stupid, stupid, stupid." She hit her head lightly with a fist, trying to drive the unwelcome thoughts away.

Tachibana was already going above and beyond by pretending she was a normal girl. The least she could do was return the favor and not think of him like that. It’d just cause trouble for both of them if she let her feelings take control.

Even if he did decide somehow to romantically humor her, she could never give him a real family or children—didn't exactly have the necessary parts for that. And that wasn’t even getting into how the rest of Hoshimura would react. He was already pushing the limits just being her friend all these years. To be anything more would be to metaphorically throw him to the towns very mean-spirited and very bigoted wolves.

She didn't want that for him. He was too kind—too good of a person. He didn't deserve to have his life ruined just because a selfish part of her desired to be held in his strong embrace, to feel his lips against hers, and to have him fill the emptiness in her heart and body—

"Shit! What am I thinking!?" she shouted, her voice echoing off the walls. She immediately winced at the harshness of her own voice.

"Hey, everything alright in there?!"

"Y-yeah. Sorry, just stubbed my toe a bit."

"Oh. Okay! Just hang tight, dinner will be done soonish."

Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of his voice. She could feel her cheeks heating up, and she buried her face in her pillow.

These damn thoughts were supposed to have been suppressed years ago, so why now of all times were they resurfacing?

She groaned loudly into the soft fabric, muffling her cries, "Stupid body. Stop feeling things!"

After another few moments of wallowing in guilt, she took a deep breath and sat up again. She had to get ahold of herself. There were far more important things to worry about than her stupid body’s emotions—like how the hell she was going to deal with what she had seen in her earlier vision.

That hag Inoue had somehow found something, some reason, to report her to the cops about. Even if she wasn't going to go to the cafe, she still needed to figure out how to stop the woman from siccing the law on her.

Nitsuki glanced at her phone. Maybe she could try to search online about what to do? It would be better than just lying around and waiting for the inevitable to happen.

"…" Or perhaps she could just use her powers?

She snickered to herself. She was a genius!

She closed her eyes and focused on the problem at hand. She needed to know how to not get in trouble, and she was willing to see anything that might help her achieve that goal.

A few seconds passed, then a minute, then a few more minutes—

Nitsuki paused, confused. "…Why isn't this working?"

She tried thinking of a future where she didn't end up being questioned, but still, nothing came, no matter how hard she tried.

She frowned. Sure, performance problems came with the territory when it came to her body, but she had been expecting them from her downstairs neighbor, not the weird abilities that had come with the old man's gift. Was she doing something wrong?

She tried recalling how Daimon had explained her power. She needed a strong, specific action to focus on in order to see the future it would cause—

"Oh."

The realization hit her like a brick to the head. She couldn't just think of a vague scenario and expect her power to show her a future and how she got to it. She needed to have a clear action in mind. Like how she had been focusing on what would specifically happen if she had gone to the event.

“What a genius I am.” She sighed. “This is what I get for not going to university.”

She massaged her temples. Of course, she couldn't just wish away her problems. She had to act.

"Let's try this again," she muttered. Maybe she could focus on the action of searching the web for advice and see how that well that would go in an eventual confrontation? She’d rather not waste time researching if it would all turn out to be fruitless—

Suddenly, she heard a noise from the front door and… voices?

Nitsuki strained her ears to hear what was being said. One of them was definitely Tachibana. The other was… Officer Kitamura? What was he doing here?! Hadn't she avoided going to the cafe?

Her gaze darted to the clock, and she cursed under her breath. The event had started half an hour ago. She didn't know exactly when her vision had happened, but if she assumed it had happened right after they entered, then that meant…

Damn. Inoue was a relentless bitch, wasn't she?

Kitamura probably came straight here after realizing she wasn't at the event. So then, did that mean Inoue had come as well? Nitsuki couldn't hear her annoying voice, but that didn't mean she wasn't outside waiting to pounce.

She strained her body to get up and out of bed. Her head spun, and her legs wobbled beneath her as she made her way across the room to look out her window. When she got to it and peeked through the curtain, she saw that Inoue was indeed there. She and the officer were talking with Tachibana.

She quickly ducked back inside. Her heart was absolutely pounding in her chest. Why was this hag so insistent on making her life as miserable as possible? Did she not have any hobbies aside from smacking others with her proverbial dick and flexing her influence?

*badump*

Nitsuki's vision suddenly doubled, and she almost fell over, barely steadying herself against her desk. 

Crap, not now.

It felt like there wasn't enough blood pumping through her veins. She clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes shut, willing the dizziness to pass. She had to stay strong. If she could hear what they were saying, then maybe she could figure out a way… to…

She collapsed to the floor as her strength gave out.

***

"Nia?" A voice called her name softly, stirring her from unconsciousness. "Can you hear me now?"

Her eyelids slowly fluttered open. She blinked a couple times, her blurry vision slowly coming into focus on Tachibana's face.

He was close.

Like, very close.

"Uh," was all she could muster, her brain still trying to process the fact that they were basically breathing the same air.

She felt the softness of the bed beneath her and noticed that her blanket was pulled over her. She also saw a bowl of food on her nightstand that was giving off steam and the faint scent of miso and something else.

"I can't believe that you had the nerve of passing out on the floor," Tachibana chided, his eyebrows furrowing. He was sitting on a chair pulled up next to the bed. "And after I told you to rest too."

"Sorry." She didn't have the presence of mind nor the energy to summon any of her usual snark.

"What am I gonna do with you, huh?" he muttered, shaking his head. "You doing okay? You were really pale. Still are, actually."

"Yeah, just a little woozy," she murmured. "I'll probably be fine with some food. Thanks, by the… way…" Her words trailed off as she remembered why she had been passed out on the floor.

"Tachibana." She grabbed his arm weakly, only just managing to hook her fingers onto his sleeve. "What happened while I was out? I saw the officer. Is Inoue still here? How long ago was that? Are they—"

"Whoa, relax. It's alright," he assured. "It's fine. That was like, five minutes ago."

"…What?"

He gave a slight nod. "Yeah. I said that too when I answered the door. But uh, like I said, it's fine. I managed to convince them to back off, I guess? They left a bit ago."

Her eyes widened as she stared at him incredulously. "How the hell did you manage that?"

"Kind of easily? The moment they started talking about how you were in trouble for giving a kid a moped, I just asked him why the police was involved. I mean, I’m no lawyer, but I’m pretty sure property disputes like that are a civil matter, not a police one."

Nitsuki blinked. Then blinked again.

Then a third time, just to be safe.

"Did you seriously just question the law to a cop?"

"Yeah." He lightly smirked and gave her a thumbs-up. "Stuff like this has come up a handful of times while working in the shop, and I always get told the police don't get involved in disputes unless there's a reasonable suspicion of an actual crime."

"…So what? They just left like that? I doubt Inoue would give up so easily."

"Eh, it took a little bit more effort. Officer Kitamura asked if I could verify if the kid was licensed. Obviously, I didn’t know anything about the scooter—hell, I didn’t even know you gave it away—but when I offhandedly mentioned that Mrs. Inoue forgot to pay for her tea, well… Kitamura got a little more interested in that."

Nitsuki's brow raised. "Huh? What do you… Oh."

Tachibana smiled. "Gramps told me about that."

A sweet period of silence passed as everything slowly fell into place. A grin larger than life began spreading across Nitsuki's face until she erupted into pure, unadulterated glee.

She couldn't contain her laughter. She didn't care that doing it made her feel even more lightheaded. She didn't care that her sides started to ache. She just let herself go and bask in the joy of knowing that after all this time, karma had finally struck down that bitch.

"Oh god, it's too perfect," she gasped, trying to calm down and catch her breath. "Inoue must have been pissed!"

"She wasn't too happy," Tachibana admitted with a wide, shit-eating grin. "But enough about her. We can talk more once you've gotten some grub in you."

Nitsuki nodded happily as he handed her the lightly steaming bowl of food that had been sitting on her nightstand, then began to dig in. "We better." She swallowed a spoonful of rice and something miso. "I need to know exactly what she looked like."

Tachibana's grin turned into an awkward smile as he scratched his cheek. "Erm, about that… as much as I want to get into details, there was actually something else I needed to ask first."

Nitsuki gobbled down another bite, then glanced at Tachibana. "Mm? And what would that be?"

His face turned serious.

"Nia, be honest with me. Where did all your stuff go?"