Hanabi

Chapter 34: New beginning

It felt like the song was carrying her away, all her insecurities and worries. Everything was going away with the wind and the notes that she played. It had been a long time since Tomomi last felt that way, so consumed and taken by a melody, especially one produced by herself.

Her body felt light and her thoughts were running free, emptying her mind and leaving only the music behind. The music was all that mattered anyway, there was no reason to keep anything else in mind.

Tomomi felt different emotions emerging as the time passed and as she kept playing. There wasn’t anything flooding her mind anymore, nothing about any nightmare, nothing about ancient demons, nothing urgent, and so different emotions could surface. A level of peace she hadn’t felt for a while, followed by a weird kind of happiness that came from knowing all she had to do was to play the next note.

That same weird happiness completely assaulted her after some time, bringing other thoughts and memories back. She thought about the other girls and they were suddenly with her in the living room; Mami calmly playing with one of her pencils and lying around on the floor near her, Haruna wearing headphones and reading in a corner, and Rina sitting at the door with her eyes closed while enjoying the wind that came in. Tomomi didn’t know if those things were simply her imagination or if she picked some of that up during their time together and now pieced everything into one peaceful image. All she knew was that she liked it very much.

She closed her eyes into that dreamlike image, and when she opened them again, she wasn’t the same. She saw her hands and they looked a little bit different, but she couldn’t quite understand what that was until she looked around and saw the other girls.

Haruna was still in the same corner with the same manga in hand and the same headphones, but she looked younger. She looked like a teenager, she had bigger cheeks and looked softer, and her eyes were deep and saddened. They were reddened and had shadows under them. Tomomi took a second to notice Haruna was reading her manga upside down, and her hands were shaking slightly.

She blinked several times, but Haruna didn’t go back to normal. She then looked over at Rina, and the clear apathy on her face was very unsettling. The kitsune was sitting at the exact same spot as well, but her eyes were open and empty as she let out a heavy sigh. Her hair was disheveled and there was a big hole on one of the knees of her pants. She looked dirty as well, like she hadn’t been taking care of herself for weeks.

Fearing the worst, Tomomi finally looked at Mami. The blonde was also on the same place, lying on the floor, but Tomomi’s breath got caught up in her throat when she saw her now, curled around herself instead of lying carefree. Tomomi couldn’t see her face, but she was covered in blood and it stained her hair and the floor as well. However, she seemed to be breathing calmly. It seemed like she was just trying to keep herself calm instead of freaking out about how much she was bleeding.

When Tomomi blinked again, she saw a ghost.

She looked at her hands and they were different again, but this time a lot smaller, and then she glanced at the ghost one more time. She was in another place, clearly a child’s room, and that translucent little girl stared back at her with a sweet smile. Her chest felt warmer.

But the warmth escaped completely when she blinked again, and what took the little ghost’s place was a huge shadow, creeping over the wall at the back of the temple. It moved away from the little boy’s body as Tomomi watched frozen on her spot, leaving Mami’s brother cold and lifeless.