Leap of Faith

Done With This World

Kaoru has said she was airing the futons that afternoon, she insisted on doing the same to Miyo's cushion, in that light she decided to take the mask with her to school that morning. However... She also stayed up writing that letter she wanted to give Hinode.

The mask was secured inside her bag, her books infront of said article to hide it a little bit better. More than all it was a hassle to bring the darn thing to class, she was excited to leave it back at her room the next day.

"Muge?" She looked to her side, smiling at Yoriko slightly. "You okay? You look really tired."

"Oh yeah... I spent all night thinking of my life." Putting her determined face back on, she continued by getting the letter out her backpack, accidentally leaving it open.

Miyo walked up to Hinode's desk, a sudden feeling of nervousness filled her over, she had the urge to kneed something as that would usually calm her down, at least it calmed Tarou down, shouldn't it calm her as well? She felt her ear twitch and her tail wag in excitement and, knew it had to be wrong, she was a human at the moment and yet, all her feelings were very keen, almost like confused...

Gulping down her insecurities she took at the side of her destination, holding her hard thought letter out, "G-Good morning Hinode... I want you to have t-this letter..." he looked surprised yet, just as he was about to grab it, the envelope was ripped from her hands. Looking up she saw her two bullies, Bantai and Nabori.

Bantai took the letter, laughing all the while she kept trying to grab it from him again, she noticed how, even if she was still clumsy, she could very well keep up with the desks in the way and jump on them easier than him, soon Yoriko joined to take the letter. She lost track of Nabori.

Eventually the two of them just resigned and glared daggers at him while he read it, Muge noticed... It wasn't what she had written at all in the letter. The bastard wasn't reading it, he was making up words as he went. She tried to calm down... Hinode wouldn't get mad once he read the actual content right?

"So what do you say, Hinode?" Bantai asked, allowing Hinode to snatch the piece of paper from his hand.

"Hinode, I-" Miyo tried to explain, but he cut her off.

"I hate you..."

"What..."

"Didn't you hear me? How did you think this would make me feel?!" He held the letter up and crumpled it. "I hate you!"

Her heart stopped... Breathing hitched, she wanted to cry, her eyes stung, she should be crying... Why did she want to smile through it?

"You hate me... Nice to know..." Tears flowed down her cheeks yet, she felt... Normal and as she was about to leave and gather her nerves on a roof somewhere, someone else broke the silence.

"Wow! You have a cat mask? What? Are you a furry too?" Looking towards her bag, and to Naboris holding the mask in his hands she froze, she should've zipped her bag...

"Naboris... Give that here." She said, dead serious.

The sudden change in her tone made him falter a bit, yet he composed himself and started playing with the mask, putting it on a few times while throwing it from hand to hand, she knew he wouldn't change since he didn't want to and hadn't done the Summersault, but the nervousness remained.

'I have to get it back! Think of something... Please...'

"My mother gave me that, Naboris. Give it back." She walked closer, trying to grab it, just for it to be thrown over to Bantai, who held it over the classroom's teacher desk window. "Bantai, please, I'm not joking, hand that mask over..."

She was getting closer, slowly, almost preying them, the atmosphere was tense yet, Hinode recognized the gleam in her eyes, couldn't place it on just yet though...

"The mother that abandoned you gave you this mask?" Bantai laughed, though a bit nervous he continued, "you should get rid of it... The same way your mom got rid of you, here, I'll help." As he let the mask fall, Miyo jumped after it out of instinct, reaching for it and placing it close to her face, doing the Summersault and landing mostly safe on her four paws...

She had two options... Get seriously injured while falling since there was no tree to 'cushion' her fall, or do the summersault and get to the ground safely, revealing herself in the process yet not breaking any bones. She reacted too late that she was not on a top building and could've easily grabbed it after it touched the ground.

She heard the gasps and the screams, yet she ran, ran as fast as she could, screaming for the mask seller, she was done. Done with this world.

•••

Hinode was speechless, had... Had Muge turned into Tarō? The cat he had fed so many times and considered Tarou's reincarnation?

He wanted to be mad at her, hate her for lying to him that way, but Bantai's comment about her mother made him curious more than he was mad and confused.

Her mother abandoned her? He knew she had a woman in her life, he'd seen her come and walk her a few times and Muge had seemed happy about it, he assumed it was her mom and yet... Now it turned out she was her stepmom? Why? She was always happy, always smiling, she was 'Miss Ultra Gaga and Eccentric'... She couldn't possibly be... Depressed could she?

His mind wandered back to a quote he read on one of those psychology book his mother made him read:

'Because people can smile on the outside, laugh at jokes in certain cases, and still have depression looming over them. Sometimes, the person may laugh on the outside, but feel the same; grey and void on the inside. Depression does not always show visibly on the faces of those who suffer from it.'

"What was that comment about her mother?" Hinode whispered, looking straight at Bantai who was frozen in place, watching Muge run away.

"That's what's got you worried?! Not that she literally turned into a cat?!" Naboris yelled. Yoriko, having had enough, punched Bantai on the nose and, taking Hinode's wrist, ran down the hallway to follow Muge. As they passed the school gate she started explaining Muge's life.

"She was abandoned by her mother when she was six ... All the kids made fun of her and stopped talking to her, playing with her and just being around her at all, I stuck around yet... She never seemed bothered by it, I've begged her to get checked up, I was worried she had started using other coping mechanisms until now..." she kept running, with him following after her, "her mom... She reappeared this year trying to fix everything, but Mu-Miyo was already too numb to even notice at that moment, she even had the guts to ask her to move in with her..." He saw Yuriko clench her fists, bolting it faster down the street, to where she saw the white cat head.

"I knew what she had back then was a mask, a different kind of mask but a mask nonetheless. Lately she seemed... Happier... Giddier and a lot more alive than before. I wondered why an.. Being a cat must've been relaxing."

Hinode thought back to the night he found Ta-Muge under that place, she was obviously confused, yet she smiled at him and cheered him up, she must've been so confused... Yet she was focusing on him and he failed to notice her.

"... I feel like an idiot," he whispered.

"Oh you are an idiot... I'm just bringing you along because you seemed to recognize the cat she turned into..." She panted, stopping at a park where the rain was already going down harder. They looked around for a few minutes until they saw her...

Just below a tree, a white cat was facedown, looking at a human mask while pawing it softly...

"Muge..." Both of them whispered.