Sniff… sniff…
Yuzuki's shoulders trembled as she staggered forward, each step heavy and uneven. Pain echoed through her body, every bite, every blow screaming anew with each movement she forced herself to make.
Even the weather had turned against her today.
Cold rain poured relentlessly from the sky, soaking through her clothes and clinging to her skin like an added burden she couldn't shake off. Mud smeared her dress, dark and ugly, while diluted blood mixed with rainwater and dripped silently onto the ground beneath her feet.
Her vision blurred not just from the swelling around her eyes, but from the tears she could no longer hold back.
She tried to swallow them down.
She really did.
Why…
Why does it always have to be like this…?
Her steps slowed. Her back hunched, her body curling inward as if she could make herself smaller less noticeable, less real. Rain streamed down her hair and face, hiding her tears, but it didn't matter.
She cried anyway.
Form the pain.
Form the humiliation.
Form the helplessness.
Form a life she never asked for.
"I didn't… I didn't do anything wrong…" she whispered between sobs, her voice cracking and dissolving into the rain.
But the world didn't answer.
It never did.
"I just… I just want to go home…" she murmured.
Her legs finally gave out.
Yuzuki collapsed onto the wet ground only a few meters from her front door. The wooden frame of her home loomed so close yet so painfully far.
She didn't have the strength left to stand.
Not even to crawl.
Every bone in her body ached as if shattered from the inside. Her chest felt hollow, as though something vital had been torn away. Mud coated her hands and lips; she could still taste the dirt in her mouth, bitter and cold.
She wanted to forget everything.
To return to a time when smiling didn't hurt.
She tried desperately to think of happy moments, of warmth, of kindness.
But every memory shattered before it could take shape, replaced instantly by despair.
The rain continued to fall.
And Yuzuki lay there, broken and shaking, alone at the doorstep of a home she didn't even have the strength to reach.
"You are a fool."
The voice came from directly in front of her.
Yuzuki's breath hitched.
Her trembling gaze lifted, eyes straining through the rain and blur as she tried to find the source someone standing over her, ready to mock her, ready to hurt her again.
But there was no one.
Only empty air.
Only rain.
"A weak, useless person."
This time the voice came from her right.
Yuzuki jerked her head toward the sound, her neck aching with the sudden movement. Her heart pounded violently in her chest as her eyes searched the shadows, the alley, the walls—
Nothing.
There was nothing there.
Her breath grew shallow.
Her fingers dug weakly into the mud beneath her palms.
"Still trying to find me?"
The voice was closer now.
Too close.
It wasn't loud, yet it echoed inside her skull, slipping past her ears and straight into her mind. It sounded calm almost amused.
Yuzuki's lips trembled.
"Stop playing games…" she whispered hoarsely, her voice nearly swallowed by the rain. "This… this isn't fun."
A low chuckle answered her.
"The audacity of you," the voice said, as if genuinely wounded by her words. "To think I am trying to make fun of you."
A pause.
"And yet… how could I sink so low?"
Her chest tightened painfully.
Unwanted images surged behind her closed eyes memories she had tried so hard to bury.
Hiro's cold gaze.
The weight of the money bag dropped into her hands.
The alley.
The pain.
The rain.
Its tone sharpened, twisting.
"And tell me what there for me is to make fun of?"
The voice leaned closer, dripping with mockery and anger.
"You are nothing but worthless," the voice continued softly.
"My dear Yuzuki," it hissed, "answer me. What is there for me to laugh at?"
Her fingers curled into the mud.
Her nails dug into the earth until they hurt.
"Nothing…" she muttered, the word barely leaving her lips.
"Can you say it more clearly?" the voice demanded, rising in volume, authority crashing down on her mind.
Yuzuki squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head weekly's-Stop… please… just stop…"
"Stop?" the voice repeated, mockery bleeding through every syllable.
Then it roared.
"I ASKED YOU—WHAT IS THERE FOR ME TO MAKE FUN OF?!"
The sound echoed inside her skull, leaving no space to hide, no room to escape.
Her breath hitched.
Her throat burned.
And finally—
"NOTHING!"
"You are right," the voice said calmly. "There is nothing for me to make fun of you. So I won't."
Before Yuzuki could process the words—
Something grabbed her.
Not just her arm.
Her entire body.
"N—ngh—!"
Her feet left the ground slightly, boots scraping uselessly against the mud as she was pulled upright. The rain continued to pour, soaking her hair, her clothes, her wounds but she no longer felt the cold.
Only the force.
Only the unyielding grip holding her in place.
She struggled weakly, instinct screaming at her to escape, but the strength restraining her was overwhelming unyielding, absolute.
"Stop resisting, child," the voice said, close now.I am here to help you."
That voice.
The same one.
The calm, steady tone she had heard before.
Her breath hitched.
Slowly—trembling—Yuzuki forced her eyes open.
Her blurred vision struggled to focus through rain and tears until a familiar silhouette came into view.
The black hooded coat. The gloves. The mask hiding his face.
The man holding her arm.
"…Doctor?" she whispered in shock.