A Girl's Turmoil

Chapter 17 - When Two Rivals Meet

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEE-CLICK*

A gentle slap of a hand is enough to turn off the digital alarm. The sleepy blonde girl groggily wakes up from her slumber, trying her best to open her resisting eyes. Alas, she then rubs her eyes hard to open them. She then tries to make sense of her surroundings, even though she isn't that focused yet. Followed by a small but hard yawn that she had forced her mouth shut with her left hand.

It took her a moment to realize the day was, in fact, still at midnight. The digital clock states that it's already at 02:00. There is a couple of strangeness that struck her mind. The first was that she never changed the alarm at that exact time or, at least, touched it. The second is, Himawari is nowhere in her futon. Looks like that bluenette had recently left the room.

"Hm... she's probably going to the bathroom."

She scans the room once more from her cabinet until to the left towards the desk, before she returns to-

Wait...

Sakurako turns her head back at the desk again. Her Walther pistol is on the desk. She could have ignored that, but... That wasn't supposed to be on the desk.

Sakurako then turns at the door with such alarm before immediately getting off her bed. She goes for the gun and checks the mag to see it is fully loaded. The blonde carefully approaches the door and opens it, little by little. By now, it would be evident that Himawari would be horrified, or at least, angry that Sakurako has a gun. But deep inside her heart, something is going on in the house, but she can't tell what it is.

She exits the room and checks both ways before heading for the stairs. Along the way, she refrains herself from calling out, considering it's in the dead of night, and might wake up someone in the house. But that's not the case. There's something else going on, and she hopes she's just paranoid.

When she reaches the stairs, she could hear loud noises below. The sounds came from men and...

"Himawari!?"

The armed blonde wastes no time running down the stairs. She could hear the horrified screaming of her childhood friend. The blonde comes into the hallway in no time when suddenly-

*DOR*

Sakurako was shot in the back. The girl shrieked in pain and fell but was able to turn around to see the attacker.

*DOR-DOR* "Aukh-aagh!"

She didn't have the time to aim but shoot it enough to neutralize or at least incapacitate her attacker. Despite that, the sharp pain in her back was so unbearable, figuring that it hits in the middle of her upper back. The girl can hardly move or even try to stand up. She grits her teeth and supports herself against the wall beside her.

"SAKURAKO!"

Sakurako aims forward with all her might. What comes next in view was the two thugs armed with pistols. The girl widens her eyes at a quick realization that these are the two same thugs, the afro guy and the pixie-haired man. Her shaky hands aim the gun forward. But she wished she could pull the trigger.

Another thug, the leader, recognized from his scar on his cheek and his silver earring. One gun in his hand, and the other one... contains a struggling Himawari. Red scars all over her face, and a slick trail of blood runs from her mouth.

"Hi-Himawari!"

"Sakurako! HELP ME!"

"Wha- shit!" the afro guy spotted the blonde, and the two exchanged fire.