Cover High/Pekora

Chapter 4: We're With You, You Goddamn Rabbit!

Night hangs over the slumbering town. Thick, moisture-gravid clouds have blotted out the stars, glowing with a faint yellowish hue from the many lights shining down below. The cicadas have fallen silent, only to make way for the chirping of untold numbers of crickets, their high-pitched song serving as a constant reminder of summer's unceasing approach. But their cries can't reach you within the safety of your room, the window shut tight to muffle all outside noise. Within your haven, the only ambient sounds are the low hum of the A/C unit, and the faint scratching of sharpened graphite against paper.

Your pencil flits across the worksheet, scrawling out an unending stream of numbers and symbols. The page is steadily filling up with quadratic bullshit that you can only hope will satisfy your math teacher. Algebra's enough of a pain in the ass already, but in your current drained state, solving each problem feels like a truly herculean task. Yet despite your exhaustion, you force yourself to keep working. This shit needs to get done. The last thing you want is for unfinished homework to nag at the back of your mind tomorrow. You'll need one-hundred percent of your focus for the task ahead; starting the moment you wake up, helping Pekora is going to be your top priority.

Bzzz.

Your hyper-fixation is interrupted by the sound of your phone vibrating against the surface of your desk. The screen lights up to display a LINE notification hovering over your lock screen wallpaper. The sender's name catches your attention instantly: Moona is finally getting back to you. Hastily snatching the device off the table, you enter the unlock code and open the app.

'How you holding up?'

'Surviving. I just woke up.'

So she was asleep all day. Getting caught in an explosion is bound to take it out of you, so you can't really blame her. While you're busy contemplating how to respond, the telltale three-dot bubble of a message-in-progress appears on Moona's side of the screen. It lingers for only a moment before a second message comes in.

'How is Pekora?'

Hoo boy. Here we go. You start typing up a response, opting not to sugar-coat your words. Moona has always been honest with you, almost to a fault. You'll extend her the same courtesy.

'Very bad. And very arrested.'

The message is barely up for three seconds before your phone starts to thrum rhythmically in your hand, the incoming-call screen forcibly closing the chatbox. Moona's deadpan face stares at you from her user icon. Your thumb taps the Accept button and you put the phone to your ear.

Moona's words are brief and to-the-point. "Tell me what happened."

"Don't waste time, do you?"

"Please." Her urgent tone isn't lost on you. She's clearly worried about her friend, and rightly so.

Inhaling deeply, you sigh through your nose. "Alright. This might take a while."

And so you find yourself, for the third time, expounding on the circumstances of Pekora's arrest. The heartache that you felt the first two times has become dulled; thanks in no small part to your time spent with Marine, you've become able to emotionally distance yourself from the memory and look at the events calmly and clinically.

"Dammit..." The pain in Moona's voice is unmistakable. "I had a feeling the Oozora Police would come for her, but...to think it would happen like that..."

"That jackass was way out of line. If Subaru hadn't shown up when she did, there probably would've been a fight." One that you almost certainly would have lost. But you weren't exactly thinking straight at the time.