A Nice, Peaceful Life is Best

Hi, it's Mari. I'm in my bed right now. Yep, Mari, not Mary. A totally adorable girl of fourteen years just woke up from a dream that I've seen on repeat. I don't have any superpowers, any memories of past lives, or anything that makes me special. Just your average, everyday schoolgirl who is not late for school. With a totally adorable little brother who loves to wake me up a whole hour before my alarm would go off—if I ever managed to sleep that late.

Total spoiler alert? I never manage to sleep late enough for my alarm to go off. My brother is like a living alarm clock, always waking up at the exact same time. Not that I consider it a bad thing, mind you. Of course, I like to have a bit of fun with my brother sometimes. Like today, when I made a totally cool leap into the air and… flubbed my landing as I slipped and ended up on my back.

Told you I wasn’t anything special. Also, just in case anyone is wondering, landing on your back hurts. Especially when your brother’s marbles are on the floor.

“Souta… Were you playing with your marbles while I was sleeping?”

“Sis, I wasn’t playing with them. I was making a picture of you sleeping.”

Okay, so my brother can be a bit weird sometimes. Drawing pictures of me was just one of the things he did frequently. The marbles thing was a bit crazy though. Did he really make a picture of me while I slept? Not that the picture stayed intact given the ones stuck in my back, but after getting up, I could definitely see the resemblance from even just the intact portion. Crazy.

After giving my brother a hug, I looked over to my desk where Mary sat, staring at me. I hugged her too before bidding her a good morning. Oh, and just in case there was any confusion, Mary is a cute little doll imported from Europe. I named her after me and, while I stopped playing with her as much ever since school started, I still loved her. Truth is that she was actually my parents’ way of teaching me how to care for a sibling, but then we found out that I had a little brother, not a little sister. My brother is cute, so it is fine though.

Well, that is enough of that. I got ready for school before going downstairs and eating a nice breakfast. We had some sort of white tuna today, that was odd. The natto was bearable, also odd. Next thing you know, we’ll end up learning that I woke up on the other side of the mirror or something.

And off to school I went. No crazy rushing to school, no expensive black car to take me there, just a calm walk. A few neighborhood cats sitting on the walls for me to pet—some which actually let me pet them, but most which just avoided me—and of course the one dog that the owner sometimes forgets to leash. Looks like today was one of those days where I’d be walking on the walls.

Fortunately, the dog lost interest after a few houses, so I was able to continue on my way. Since today was a dog unleashed day, I’d need to take the shortcut down the stairs. The greengrocer was watering his trees as I passed, so I gave him a quick greeting. After reaching the bottom of the hills, I noticed Akane and Touka were chatting at the intersection, so I snuck over while signaling for Touka to stay quiet.

Once I managed to get close, I covered Akane’s eyes and asked, “Guess who?”

“Mari, you know that you are the only person who does this, right?”

Darn. I guess Akane wasn’t playing today.

“Well, at least you wouldn’t stab me like Touka did.”

In case you were wondering, the one time I tried this on Touka, she stabbed me with her pencil sharpener. Didn’t even hesitate although she did apologize after. I learned very quickly that you don’t try to surprise Touka. I swear, given how peaceful Japan is, where did she even learn to react like that?

In any case, we continued to chat about the latest shows while we walked to school.

“You two, did you hear about the missing person case?”

“Oh yeah, I saw it on the news last night. It interrupted my show. That is the seventh case this month. How about you, Touka?”

“I didn’t know. I was busy last night.”

“I noticed something. You are always busy on days where missing people are on the news. Next thing we know, you’ll tell us that you had something to do with them.”

Now that I think about it, Akane is right. Touka is sometimes just mysteriously unavailable and the past month, they all happened to coincide with days that someone went missing. Not that we actually suspect Touka, but a little bit of teasing never hurt anyone. Touka would just give a curt reply and we’d be onto the next topic.

Except…

Touka didn’t reply.

“Touka?”

“What is wrong, Touka?”

We glanced back at Touka, but she remained silent as if musing. Even when we stopped walking, Touka seemed to be lost in her thoughts as she continued walking. Akane and I looked at each other before looking at Touka’s back.

“Strange, Touka would normally give a response.”

“Yeah, totally weird. I mean, she couldn’t actually be involved right?”

“I was just joking, but now I’m not so sure. It has to be just coincidence, right Mari?”

I nodded. It had to be coincidence. Our Touka couldn’t possibly be involved. At least, I hoped not. Even if it would explain her crazy reactions if she was secretly involved in some evil organization that was making people disappear, I sincerely doubted Touka was that kind of person. I suddenly imagined all those news interviews where the neighbors and friends would go, “He didn’t seem like that kind of person.”

Okay, no point in letting my mind wander into negativity.

“Touka isn’t that kind of person. That is all we need to know. You know Touka as well as I do, Akane.”

“You are right. I am just overthinking things. We should catch up.”

We ran to catch up with Touka. I almost tried to slap Touka on the back, but I stopped when I saw her hand twitch. Probably a good thing that I stopped too, since I suspected Touka would not have held back in her current state. We continued like that all the way to school without Touka speaking a word.

School was uneventful. We had our homeroom, our normal courses, and PE. Okay, I lied about being uneventful. Touka ended up spiking a volleyball into one of her opponents and it definitely broke something. Akane and I both knew that Touka held back in class, but we never realized just how much. The poor girl literally flew across the room and we had to rush her to the nurse’s room. I feel bad, but I was actually glad I wasn’t on the same court as Touka for once.

After school, Touka stopped us at our meeting spot.

“You two, if you see anything that looks out of place, don’t approach it. If everything looks out of place, find a spot to hide, but be ready to run. Promise me.”

Okay, totally weird. Why was she saying such weird things?

“Are you okay, Touka? You are scaring me.”

“Both of you have to promise me. If everything looks out of place, stay away from other people and just hide. Don’t talk, just hide.”

“Touka, what is this about? This is weird.”

“Touka, you are being strange.”

Her hand shot out and grabbed me so tightly that I swear I heard my arm bones creaking.

“Touka, you are hurting me.”

“Touka, it hurts. Stop.”

With a startled expression, Touka suddenly let go. Looking down, I heard Touka mutter an apology. A drop of water hit the ground and I noticed Touka biting her lip. Okay, Touka was being weird, but if it was that important to her, I didn’t mind promising.

“Touka, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it. I promise that I’ll do as you said.”

“Mari?” Akane looked at me inquisitively before turning to Touka, “I understand. I promise too.”

With that, Touka hugged both of us and we finally said our goodbyes. Well, Akane would be taking the same path as me, so really it was the two of us saying our goodbyes to Touka. I’d see her again soon enough, so it wasn’t as if it was a tearful farewell or anything.

As for Akane, she walked quietly for a while. It wasn’t until we were near the top of the hill that she finally spoke up.

“Mari, don’t you think Touka was acting strangely today? This morning, during classes, and just now. Do you think…”

“Wait, Akane. Stop.”

“No, Mari, we have to talk about this. What if Touka is in trouble?”

“No, I mean stop!”

That was when Akane departed this world. If I had been Touka, perhaps I would have grabbed Akane then, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t think that fast. The greengrocer’s house was gone. Akane’s house was gone. All that remained was a hole, as if someone had torn out part of our world and replaced it with another.

I had made a promise to Touka. Don’t go into anywhere weird.

But… I’m sorry Touka.

I’m sorry for breaking my promise.

I couldn’t let Akane be alone.