A Different Path (Growing Up)

A New Neighbor and a New Friend

Ayano had not been feeling good that morning. Everything was hot, her skin was sticky with sweat, and she could barely breathe as the room spun around. But instead of just staying in bed and going back to sleep, Ayano struggled to get up to continue her day. Weakly, she walked out of her room.

She was forced back into bed 5 minutes later by a panicking Tatsui, who saw that Ayano was acting strange and barely caught her when she accidentally missed a step and nearly fell from the stairs.

"39.1°C!" Tatsui exclaimed, and bit his thumb in worry. "Damn... Just relax Ayano, I'm going to get some water and call Tsumura... Hopefully she knows what to do."

Ayano couldn't respond and simply watch her Papa leave. She then closed her eyes, wanting to rest for just a few seconds. But when she opened her eyes again, she stared confusedly at Tsumura who was suddenly by her side, wetting a towel and cleaning her skin.

"Ayano, you're awake." Tsumura sighed in relief, cleaning her forehead with the slightly warm towel. "How are you feeling?"

"...H-Hurts..." Ayano sniffled, her throat dry and mind spinning, she couldn't think of what to say, and her eyes slowly closed again as her fatigue was taking over again. "Papa..."

"He's meeting with the pediatrician right now Ayano, just relax and save all your energy, okay?"

Ayano didn't answer back as she fell back to sleep again.

Throughout the day Ayano would wake for a short period of time before she would fall asleep. She couldn't remember much of that day, but she could faintly remember  Aso holding her hand in support and Osano crying and telling her to get better soon. She also faintly remembered her Papa waking her up with a man in a white coat standing besides him, and more often than not Tsumura was there with Nemesis sitting by her side, staring down at her in worry. Other than that, everything else was a blank.

She woke up with a jerk, and she stared at the darkened ceiling in confusion.

...Oh, she had slept the whole day away.

Slowly sitting up, Ayano noticed that she felt terrible and very numb, it took awhile to remember how to move. But at least she didn't feel so dizzy as she did that morning.

Tic

What was that?

Tic

Looking around, Ayano furrowed her brows and slowly got out of bed, searching for the source of that strange sound.

Tic

Turning her head to the window, she stepped closer.

Tic

Opening her window and letting the cool air in making her shiver, Ayano glanced out to look for that source of the sound. She then felt something flying through her face. Looking back, she knelt down to grab a pebble. Ayano furrowed her brows.

Who was throwing rocks at her window at this time of night?

As Ayano was standing up, she felt something light hit the back of her head. Now frowning in annoyance, Ayano turned to see a crumpled piece of paper that was definitely not there before. She opened it.

"So sleeping beauty is finally up, you've been sleeping for nearly 3 days. You missed me moving in to the house next to you. Not that anyone else knows besides my Uncle."

Knitting her brows together, Ayano went up to the window and looked out. One of her windows faced the left of where she could see the neighbor, and as she peered through the darkness, she narrowed her eyes. And there, she noticed that the usually closed window of her neighbor's was open, and there she could see a figure of someone moving there. She caught a glint of red.