Just another morning...

The sound of heavy rain hammered against Serizawa’s small studio windows. The clock on her dresser displayed seven twenty-nine in the morning. She and Mitsuko lay on the floor in their underwear, surrounded by scattered clothes, a few empty bottles, and beer cans. There was a plethora of empty glass spirit bottles and barely filled glasses of diluted liquor adorning the table. After a minute, the alarm clock started beeping incessantly. Mitsuko frowned, raised her hand, and blew the alarm clock to pieces, yet she continued sleeping. With an indescribable headache, Yuu rose from her bruised back, winced, and opened her eyes, only to find the room spinning around her. She glanced at her chaotic living space, noticing the empty bottles, broken alarm clock pieces on the floor, and her crumpled clothes strewn about.

‘This is a mess,’ she tried to convince herself, as she had done countless times before. ‘I won’t drink again...’ Still feeling dizzy, she stumbled towards her wardrobe. Silently, she opened one of the lower drawers and retrieved clean underwear. Swiftly, she opened the wardrobe doors, selected a black skirt, a white shirt, and grabbed one of her blazers.

She made her way to the bathroom, turning on the hot water tap in the shower. Before undressing, she gazed at herself in the mirror. Tousled brown hair hung over her shoulders; she noticed the heavy dark circles and bloodshot eyes from a restless sleep.

‘Why do you despise yourself, Yuuko?’ a discouraged grimace came over her face. She stretched out her hand to the medicine cabinet. She grabbed a bottle of pills and swallowed two. The mirror fogged up while she undressed and stepped into the water. Fifteen minutes later, she stepped out of the shower, feeling the water droplets still on her skin as she prepared to confront her grim reality. When she finished dressing, she came out of the bathroom and approached Sawari.

‘Hey, Mitsu!’ Yuu tried to move her to wake up her.

‘Just five more minutes...’ Mitsuko resisted getting up.

‘I’m not in the mood to argue with you right now...’ Yuu shrugged. She turned to the furniture beside the door and glanced at her boss. ‘Open the windows when you wake up...’ The vice-principal waved her hand briefly, bidding farewell. Serizawa put on oversized butterfly-style sunglasses to conceal the signs of her hangover and grabbed a small umbrella. She opened the front door, crossed the threshold, and closed it gently behind her. She descended the steps, stopping in front of the door, enduring the relentless sound of the downpour. Sounds were like explosions in her mind. Opening the umbrella, she stepped out onto the street. After taking just a few steps, the piercing sound of a car horn startled her, almost causing her to convulse. Homicidal instinct rising; she then noticed another woman with brown hair and a slightly darker complexion, who energetically waved at her from a pickup truck. In response, she rolled down the window and shouted.

‘Yuu!’

‘Great, perhaps the person I least want to run into right now,’ Yuu walked towards the car, with some apathy. In the passenger seat sat another woman who smiled upon seeing Serizawa. She had brown hair with red highlights and noticeable breasts in her nurse's uniform. She wore a white coat with a red cross embroidered on one pocket. Calmly, she addressed Yuu.

‘Good morning, Yuu.’

‘Where were you supposed to be going? We agreed I would pick you up,’ the driver seemed puzzled. Yuuko offered a passive-aggressive apology,

‘My fault, Azu... I wish I could remember what you say, but when you move your mouth, I stop listening.’ Azu let out a hearty laugh, disregarding the comment, while the other girl’s face expressed her worry; she adjusted her position to the right, freeing the left seat.

‘You’ve been drinking again!?’

‘You’re not my mother, Ko. I don’t owe you any explanations,’ Yuu closed the umbrella and got into the car. ‘Things happened. Onihime called me Yuuko, and more things happened...’ she vaguely justified. ‘Things that I’d rather keep blurry in my mind,’ she admitted. ‘Can we skip the interrogations?’

‘Just like old times, huh?’ Azu started the car. ‘I wish Sayu were here with us.’

‘Did you really have to mention her?’ Yuu lowered her gaze, leaning against the cold window, watching the water trickle down. ‘Now, please be quiet and drive,’ she arranged in a hushed tone.

‘But it’s strange, Yuu.’ Azuki ignored the Yuuko’s order. ‘Why did Mitsu call you by your name? She never did that since we were students. In The Court, she was always extremely formal; just like now, in the Onmyou. You must have really angered her or something serious must have happened...’

‘I believe I’ve made it clear enough that I don’t want you to speak anymore,’ Yuuko was getting more and more upset. The car left the residential neighbourhood in northwest Nankaina and merged onto the empty main road.

‘Well, well...’ the sweet-voiced nurse attempted to make peace. ‘By the way, Yuu, what happened to the girls Mitsu sent you to find? Did they show up?’

‘The girls she sent me to find... Wait, what happen yesterday?’ Yuuko lost track of the conversation, her thoughts consumed by the sensation of forgetting something important. All she could hear was the rain pounding against the glass and the car’s metal. Her friend touched her shoulder, looking at her bewildered.

‘Are you okay?’

‘That’s right, those girls...’ Azu remembered what had happened the day before. ‘On our way home, we looked and were quite surprised. We couldn’t believe the infallible administration had made a mistake. One of their names was Ayumu instead of Ayumi. Can you believe it? And it’s our tutor Nonomiya’s last name.’ The car passed the bus station, approaching the forest.

‘Nonomiya?’ Her voice reverberated in her own head, memories swarming through her. ‘Go to bed early. I’ll come pick you up tomorrow.’

‘Imagine our faces when we saw Daisaku’s last name,’ Azuki cast a quizzical look at her friends. ‘It must be a coincidence. I mean, it was a fake last name. Also, Yuu, weren’t you in love...?’ Yuuko paled, causing Ryoko to become alarmed.

‘Yuu!’ Azu turned her gaze towards the road, going almost as pale as her friend. She slammed on the brakes almost at the edge of the woods, and the vehicle skidded on the wet asphalt, jarring its occupants.

‘What the hell happened here!?’ Azuki shrieked, forgetting to disguise her striking accent. Both Yuu and the nurse looked ahead, getting an unpleasant surprise. The Onmyou Castle loomed in the distance. The rain fiercely battled the flames that had already devoured part of the forest. They exited the car, stunned. The rain was relentless, and they could feel it seeping through their clothes and onto their skin. They stood there for a few seconds, unable to react.

‘No... it can’t be...’ The image of Ayu flashed through her teacher’s mind, and she let out a choked scream. She ran off towards the old dorm.

‘Yuu!’ Ko chased after her.

‘Hey, wait!’ Azu ran after them.