Wonderland Chaos

Nanami

Halo Eleven: Nanami:

-Nanami-

Nanami lay in her bathtub dazed.

"Sometimes, I wonder if I am worth saving," she muttered.

"What are you talking about?" her fiancé asked. The math teacher glanced over at her lover/colleague.

"Jiro-kun," she said. "Would you still love me if I was damaged goods?" Just then she heard footsteps at the bathroom door.

"What do you mean?" Jiro asked. His fiancée's eyes rolled up to the dimly-colored ceiling. How could she bring herself to tell him? It wasn't her fault that she ended up as a sex-slave to some seedy gentleman's club, but would this good man ever believe her? Nanami didn't even want to know how he would react to the truth. What if he left her out of disgust? She couldn't see how she would live with herself if that happened. The teacher closed her eyes as more tears started to well up in them.

"Are you feeling okay?" Jiro asked. Nanami shook her head.

"No!" she wailed.

"What's matter?" he asked. "I want to help you, but I can't do that if you want tell me what's wrong." I don't think you can help me at all, his fiancée thought. She gulped as opened her eyes.

"Jiro-kun," Nanami spoke up.

"Hm?" her fiancé asked. She turned her head to the door opened ajar.

"Can you promise me something?" the math teacher asked.

"What is it?" Jiro asked. Nanami pressed her lips together as she closed her eyes.

"Will you stay by me no matter how ugly things get?" she asked. The teacher could feel herself starting to cry.

"You know I will," her fiancé said at last.

"Do you mean it?"

"I always will."

It didn't sound too reassuring, but it would have to do for now. Nanami looked up at the ceiling again.

"Thank you," she said in a small voice.

-Tadpoles-

The tadpoles gathered around Mikado at the public library.

"Go on, tell them," Emily said.

"Okay, okay," Mikado said.

"Tell us what?" Midori asked. Mikado sighed and dropped his shoulders.

"You guys remember that girl who jumped in front of the train at Ikebukuro station, right?" he asked.

"What about her?" Nami asked. Mikado clenched his fists at his sides.

"I saw her die," he said in a low voice. "She was one of us." A wave of shock washed over their faces.

"What?!" the other tadpoles yelled.

"When were you going to tell us this?" Midori asked. Mikado shrugged and shook his head.

"I was in shock," he said. "I tried to get Azusa to come with us, but she chose to die instead."

"Why didn't you try harder?!" Tetsu shouted as he shot up from his chair at the table. "We could've helped her get through this! Why didn't you stop her from jumping?!"

"Lay off of him, man!" Masaomi said back. "He tried to save her. Clearly she wanted to die anyway. Don't lay this on him!" Tetsu snorted.

"Easy for you to say," he grumbled. "You're just a normal human!"