By the Light of Day - Chapter 1 - Part 3

If you haven't read parts 1 and 2, please read those first.

This part is rated 13+ because I don't think there's anything very bad in this one, but I don't know if people under 13 should be reading the series as a whole, as other parts aren't so "clean".

This is a bit shorter than the others, and is from Yuichi's point of view.



By the Light of Day

"Beginnings" Chapter

Part 3



Nami's short, cherry-red hair blew in the gentle wind that Meikaze was famous for. I saw some emotion in her eyes that could have been either sadness or regret. Then again, they were one in the same, weren't they?

"Nami, I don't want to hurt you." I said quietly. I didn't know if she felt something for me that was more than friendship, but I didn't want to give her anything more than that if she'd only end up feeling bad in the end. "I don't." I repeated, hoping she'd understand.

"People have hurt me before." Her voice was soothing, though her words were not.

"I won't hurt you, Nami."

"People have hurt me before. Soon, I won't even be able to feel it, Yuichi. I won't hurt anymore." I didn't know what she was talking about. It was like she was a completely different person.

"What do you mean?"

"A person can only take so much before they snap, Yuichi. For some people, that change is so subtle nobody even notices. They don't hurt anybody besides themselves, so nobody even notices."

"You won't snap, Nami. You're okay. You're going to be okay." I tried to calm her, even though I wasn't entirely sure what was frightening her. "Nobody's going to hurt you."

"I hurt somebody once." She said this without any emotion; as if it simply didn't bother her at all.

"Why?"

"They hurt me."

"What did you do?" I wasn't sure I wanted to know, but it was too late now.

She was silent, and I was afraid she had left me. I turned back to where she had been standing before. She was still there... at least, physically. Her feet were close together; her knees bent slightly inward and the toes of her right foot angled slightly towards the other foot. She cradled her textbooks loosely and was hunched over a bit, as if the weight of the books was simply too much to bear. Her green eyes looked completely dead.

"Nami-san? What did you do?"

She dropped her head; her bangs fell to cover her face. Her textbooks fell to the ground as she shook her head and mumbled something I couldn't make out.

"Nami? What did you do?"

Her head whipped up and her arm flew towards my face. She grabbed my hair and pulled me close to her--close enough so I could feel her breath on my skin--and shrieked, "I said it's none of your business!" I tried to pull away from her, but her grip was too strong, even if she was only holding me by the hair. Finally, she let me go. I'd planned to run as soon as I was freed, but now I was frozen with fear.

Nami had barely spoken to me all day.

Had I hurt her?

And if so, what was she planning to do to me?