"Something on your mind Asuka?" Kimura asks her still facing forward.
"H-Huh…?" Asuka piques turning her head to look at Kimura.
Kimura was leaning forward a bit as he had his forearms sitting on his legs with his fingers interlocked. "You seem a bit distracted today, somethings clearly on your mind." Kimura remarks as he looks at her and stands back up, lending a hand to her.
"C'mon, No one's stopping us from taking a stroll."
Kimura extends his hand to her as Asuka looks at it, looking at his hand and then back at him. She moves her hand away from her wrist as Asuka softly takes his hand. Kimura helps her up onto her feet as they head out and take a different path, one path behind the Kyoushou station that led into the forest.
During their stroll through the mystical forest of the dimension, the sound of crickets began to appear as they hopped over fallen logs and kept walking on the dirt path. "You wanna tell me what's on your mind Asuka?" Kimura questioned her, she walks a bit softly and slowly as Kimura was ahead by a small margin. "I…" She pauses, conflicted if she should tell him.
Kimura slows down for Asuka to catch up beside her as she keeps her hand on her wrist as she looks down at it conflicted.
"I…really like h-having someone who could l-listen to me…" Asuka spoke softly.
"Well…It's not like I have much to say now do I?" Kimura responded.
"I guess not." Asuka lightly chuckled, her smile quickly fading back to a somber frown.
Something's clearly wrong with her… Kimura thought while they walked, he had a hunch, but he didn't want to believe it. While they walked deeper and deeper into the forest, Kimura noticed small changes in Asuka's behavior.
Asuka grew more and more quiet, their talks began to simmer into short formed small talk as Asuka was also smiling less and less, her skin was peachy to a slight pale as they walked deeper. Kimura looked at her with concern, the first time he's been seriously concerned about someone in a while.
"Asuka are you sure you're not sick? You're pale and you don't look well."
"I-I'm fine…" She muttered.
"Asuka, are you sure you-"
"Kimura…I-I really liked our talks…even if we barely knew each other…" Asuka suddenly cut off Kimura's sentence.
"What? What are you talking about??" He expressed his confusion. "You've been acting off since we've started walking in the forest Asuka." He explained.
"…H-Have I…now…?" Asuka began to take slightly deeper and labored breaths as she cracked a soft smile.
Without a warning she collapsed behind him, Kimura turned as she hit the floor. "Asuka?!?" He shouted, kneeling and shaking her shoulder. She was unresponsive as he noticed a spot on her hoodie, a red splattered spot on her hoodie where her wrist was. He grabs her wrist and moves her hoodie, his eyes widened to see multiple cut marks along her wrist, each one being shallow with one being deeper than the others.
"Oh shit…!"
Kimura finally pieced it together as he picked up and carried the bleeding out Asuka in his arms and began running the way they came back. "Shit Shit Shit!!!" he shouted to himself as he ran as fast as he could, knowing he's running out and low on time. "Hang on! Just hang on Asuka!!" he shouted as he kept running.
***
Why was I even here…
Asuka stood as she watched a coffin slowly being lowered, wearing funeral attire and having her eldest brother carry a picture of her father. Her mother was crying as she fell to her knees, her second oldest sister comforting her mother. The question remained in her mind as she imagined herself back in her room as she sat on the ground hearing her mother scolding her second oldest sister.
I feel out of place…Like I wasn't supposed to be here…
Asuka suddenly imagined herself looking down as she stood outside of the principals' office, staring down at her bloody knuckles. They caused the fight…they got what they had coming… she heard the door open as she looked over, but instead of an embracing hug, she was slapped across the face by her mom.
It stunned her so suddenly as her mom grabbed her arm roughly as her mother dragged her out of the hallway.
"M-Mom…you're hurting my arm…"
"I haven't even hurt you in the slightest Asuka! When we get home, we're going to have a serious talk!"
"M-Mom…! It really hurts!!"
"Like I said you're not-"
"MOM YOU'RE CRUSHING MY ARM!!"
Her mother lets go of her arm as a hand mark was a deep red color as Asuka held her arm in tears, the pain was unbearable, much worse than her bloody knuckles that were aching. Tears dropped as she looked up at her mom, instead of a somber expression all she got was a stone-cold stare.
Maybe I was born too early…
Asuka is suddenly slapped by her mom across the face again, leaving a much redder mark as she bore the Kyoushou Academy jacket attire. Her mom looks at Asuka with disgust as she doesn't bother to look back, the light in her eyes faded long ago as she looked down, seeing some clothes, some of her pillows, and her journal tossed onto the ground in front of her in a poorly packed suitcase.
"I want you to leave as far away as you can. You disgust me wearing that attire…"
"..."
Asuka kneeled to properly pack her stuff as her mom slammed the door shut in front of her. This was her breaking point as she began to tear up, plopping her head onto her clothes in the suitcase as she began to cry silently into her clothes.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse…Life decided to drag me deeper into the pits of hell…
Out of nowhere Asuka is slammed into a wall, her back smashing into it as she plops to the ground aching in pain as she coughs. A couple of other students laugh at her as one kicks her on the head as an unnecessary extra hit. She blinks after a while, waking up still on the ground her dim eyes didn't shine with the setting sun as she struggled to get up. Asuka felt a sharp pain in her leg as she cried out in pain.