No Such Thing of Piece of Mind

The anxiety in my body couldn't be any higher than it was right now. For each step that we took in the forest, the less amount of patience that I contained was leaking out. For now, I would just need to calm down so I don't do anything more reckless than I already had.

"We're here." Immediately seeing the cave, I quickly increased-

"Haru-san." Before I had the chance to even run down the set of stairs in front of me, I felt someone's hand on my arm, along with the voice of Mio-chan. Turning around to look at her, I noticed the worried look that was etched on her face. Her frown had considerably influenced the direction her wolf ears faced.

"Someone going to attack me or something, Mio-chan?" I didn't like being held down like this, and I didn't really like the annoying feeling that I am feeling again. I could feel the heat arising in my cheeks, before I quickly took my arm from out of her grasp. Luckily, she didn't have that much of a strong grip.

"N-no it's just... be careful." I tried my best to curve my lips upwards in a reassuring way. As it was an attempt, it didn't look like Mio-chan was agreeing with it.

"I'll be fine. I have Kiara-chan and you, if you want to stay here. I won't hold you here if you don't want to be here." With Kiara-chan walking past Mio-chan, I stared at the motion of Mio-chan's shaking head.

"I'm afraid that I can't stay. I have to make sure a friend of mine doesn't try to sneak out and go anywhere and get lost. It looks like we have to part ways again, Haru-san. Kiara-chan, please make sure that he's safe; along with you watching your own health, Haru-san." With that, she walks away from our vision, taking the gentle wind and leaves along with her. But before showing me a twitch of her lips curving upwards.

"Another girl concerned, Haru~? If I were you, then-" I reached up and flicked her head hard, causing her to flinch back and yelp.

"You know it isn't like that. There's... something that I can't seem to understand about her, though." But before I dawdled there for too long, I quickly turned my head around and focused on the task at hand: the cave itself.

After quickly rushing down the stairs, I ran to the cave opening and stopped before hearing something from the side of it. If anything, it was the sounds of footsteps.

"It... took you long enough." Hearing a pained feminine voice, I turned to left side of the cave and waited to see who it was. Immediately seeing a familiar color of yellow on her hair, I ran to her side to help.

"Amelia-chan!" She was holding her head that seemed to be the cause of her painful expression.

"H-hey, not so loud, Haru. I can barely hear myself think because of this headache." She grinned, but the familiar grin that I was used to was ruined by the fact that she was still feeling pain in her head.

"I'm impressed that you were able to get out of that cave. I was having a bit of struggle trying to get through that witch's gimmicks. It makes me worry if you're really human or not" I heard Kiara-chan say from my right.

"Alright, now's not the time for any of this. Amelia-chan's safe, so we should get going. I know this is going to be a hassle for you, but could you find Sakura-chan and tell her that we're going home? We weren't able to obtain the book but..." I looked at the entrance of the cave. "I think we just let out something more than we can chew."

"Traversing through this entire forest is going to be a hassle to begin with. Alright, just make sure you go straight home, got it?" Her finger was pointed very close to my eye, but I didn't care.

"Yeah, I got it. And also tell her that this place isn't safe anymore. If anything, she's going to need a new place to stay, so..." Kiara-chan could only smile before giving me a thumbs up.

"Don't worry! I'll make sure she's safe at my home!" And with that, she ran... into a direction that I don't think would bring her to Sakura-chan. I can't even remember where we first started off...

"Alright, Amelia-chan, I'm going to need you to go with me, okay? I'll give you a piggy-back ride to my house." Her breathing was starting to become hard, along with that fact that it looks like she can barely stay awake.

"Why... did you come back for me?" As I knelt down in front of her, I felt her chest gently press on my back, motioning me to grab her legs and stand back up. With her arms around me a bit tightly, it was time to go. I ignored the feeling again, and walked.

"I couldn't leave you there because of my reckless decision of just wandering about. If anything, I should've tried looking for you a bit harder in that cave." As I walked up the stairs that was behind me, I could only hope that it was going to lead us to an exit of some sort.

"But... I was only going to hold you back. I couldn't... I was not good at that kind of situation."

"Yeah? Me neither. But... I think that's alright. If anything, I was afraid that I was going to hold you back. Guess we both have some problems believing in ourselves, huh?" I could feel her mouth chuckling on my back.

"Yeah. I guess we weren't prepared... were we?"

"Nope. And I don't think we will ever be prepared to fight Ina-chan. But... we can only try and see the results."

"...Haru?" I felt her voice become a little faint.

"Yeah? You're not dying on me, right? I would hate to have to bury you in a maze."

"No... it's just... thank you for not leaving me... behind." I could feel her head slowly lowering itself farther down on my back.

"That's what friends do. As much of a crazy ride these two days went because of you, I at least can say that we got through them together."

"Heh... I think... I'll take a nap right... now." I felt her arms slightly loosen around me as I noticed that she was softly breathing on my back.

"Sweet dreams... if you can after all that's happened here."

                                      -Holonatural-

Luckily enough, there was no one home. I'm glad as I wouldn't have to explain this entire situation to my dad. Carrying a girl to my house when she's asleep? Well, that's just begging for my dad to just tease me and bother me about it.

"Alright, Amelia-chan, time for you to actually get a pillow to drool on..." Finally laying her down on my bed, she immediately spread her legs and arms on my bed. Feeling the dampness on my back had caused me to remove my shirt without hesitation. Not only was the shirt that I had been wearing wet with the saliva of someone, my t-shirt was also a bit wet too. Other than Ina-chan, I hope she doesn't die in her sleep with the excessive amount of drool she holds in her mouth.

"Gu..." While I was removing my T-shirt to replace it, I was able to hear faint words coming out of Amelia-chan's mouth. As I had been carrying her for a long time, not only had my arms been killing me, but her sudden outings of words during her sleep didn't really faze me this time around. If I could remember correctly and piece her random wordings together, I could guess that she was dreaming about a... stupid shark... dropping something... and swimming after it.

I mean... her dreams, not mine.

With the t-shirt replaced, it was about time that I checked on Kiara-chan. Reaching for my phone, I scrolled through my contacts to find Kiara-chan's contact, only for a contact that read: "Fiery Phoenix" was starting to call me.

...She's making this very much obvious for no reason.

"Hello?" Before anyone replied, I heard the sound of a door shutting.

"How ya' doing Haru~! I made it back home with Sakura-chan! I can guess that you're already home, too?" Never ceases to surprise me about her giddy she is.

"Yup. I didn't come home without damages though." Before she replied, she must've moved her phone away from her ear as I could faintly hear her talking about an extra room.

"You were saying? Sorry, Sakura had asked me where she would be sleeping, and I just answered her." Well, I guess that this comes to show that I can't joke around.

"Nothing, I was just saying that we got to the house safe and sound. Anything else happened in the area?"

"Nope! Not a single thing happened! Although, Sakura was a bit worried that we weren't able to stop that witch and get the book. On a scale of one to ten, how worried should I be about this?" The fact that she wasn't worried to begin with is already frightening.

"The scale would break if I told you the answer. If anything, things are going to be a whole lot more stressful with the criminal agency, Calli-san, Ina-chan, and the artifacts being as a whole circle of pain."

"Well, don't be stressed! I promised you that I'll help, so I'm going to do the best I can! Whether if it's Calli, Tentacle Witch, or that stupid agency, I'll knock them down! Well, with Calli... I guess you can say that I'm going to-" Yeah, the moment I heard Calli-san's name from her mouth, I wasn't ready for the next few words.

"That's enough of that. Seriously, we're going to need some sort of plan of action with this. The most problematic situation is that book that Sakura-chan talked to us about, but... there's also the fact that the agency could be after the artifacts and-"

"Haru." Just by hearing her strict voice, it felt as though I was actually getting my ear or cheek pulled by her.

"W-what?"

"We're going to find a way to get through this. There's a lot going on in the world for one person to go through with. Especially when that one person is a high schooler who needs to focus on their academics, too. But, you know that there's saying that two heads are better than one. And with two more added to that one body, three heads are better than two!" I sighed at her misinterpretation of the quote.

"You don;t really understand that quote, do you?"

"Do I have to? Anyway, it's time for you to have a break! You have school tomorrow, so you shouldn't be fretting over stuff like this. Have some piece of mind tomorrow, okay?"

"...You should know that school isn't something that correlates with peace, right?" I was expecting her to say something, but she only hung up. She hung up herself, right? Nothing caused that sudden hang up, right. Jeez, look at me, being concerned over something this small. I turned my head over to the sleeping detective, noticing how strange she looked sleeping on my bed.

"Just as strange as she was able to get out of that cave on her own, I can't seem to understand the many things that she could be hiding from me. With those crystals and shards or whatever she had shown, it makes me think that she's hiding too much, especially for someone who's a human. Maybe I should ask her to teach me something... less destructive with one of those things..."

As she was starting to shuffle in the bed some more with her lips curving upward, I could only sigh. Looking at her hat, I remembered back to her introduction of being a detective.

"Yeah, I guess three heads are better than two. But... with Sakura-chan, wouldn't that make it four? Whatever the case, she's going to need to get out of my bed soon. School's tomorrow and... I'm not hoping for anything special to happen. Especially with... hm? Was I... supposed to do something for school or anything? I can't remember, but it's probably nothing."

                                                                                 -Holonatural-

And so, the first day of school after dying a second time had started. As the obvious and usual days of school, walking to the school was nothing out of the ordinary with students conversing with themselves and whatnot. Seems like people took the memo of leaving me alone when I didn't want to be a center of attention.

"Haru-kun." I turned around, seeing Shinzo-senpai staring at me with a small smile. For some reason, it felt more unregular than his usual one. It kind of reminded me of Mio-chan's...

Regretful.

"..." I didn't want or need to say anything to him.

"Look, I know you're angry for something that I don't remember doing, but I promise you that I really don't! You can be angry with me all you want, but trust me when I say that I really hate myself for forgetting something as important as protecting a friend!" After waiting there for a few seconds, I turned around and started to walk forward. I didn't really care about the people that stood around and watching to see how this would go.

I didn't really see Shinzo-senpai as a friend to call out for. If anything, he was more than annoying with his stupid cheerfulness.

But I kind of learned something from someone who's equally as annoying as him.

"...If you have time to talk, then you have time to hurry up and catch up." I didn't see his expression, nor did I really for it. All I could hear was the quickening paste of someone's footsteps right behind me before I felt his hand rest on my right shoulder.

"Thanks, Haru-kun." I didn't respond as I didn't have the reason or guts to say you're welcome. What would be the point if it was never his fault? It was Ina-chan's, really. But I'm going to have to think of something to deal with her soon, or the world's doomed.

--------Holonatural----------

It was finally break time, so if anything, instead of sitting around in the classrooms or the roof, I'd say the art room would be the best area to finally think of something as to how I'm going to go about these things. Artifacts, Ina-chan, Call-okay, I really shouldn't be thinking too much on these things, but I can't help but to.

Opening the door to the art room, I couldn't help but massage my temples as my head was going to fry up with a lot to think about.

"I'm going to need to speak with a therapist or something. I need a way to make sure I don't overstress myself." Stepping inside, I reached inside my bag to pull out a notebook to write some thoughts on-

"I can help with that, you know? I'm good at getting rid of stress." Hearing the sudden voice, I turned to the center of the room, noticing a familiar figure sitting on one of the desks. There was no possible way that she was here!

"Hey, are you going to say something? It's been a long time since I wore my school uniform, so I would like your thoughts on it, Haru-san." Sitting on the desk before me was the same person that had caused an entire day of stress yesterday.

Ina-chan.

Before she could say anything else, I took steps out of the room, not believing what I'm seeing.

"You could have said that it looked bad without the weird face, you know." And that was the last straw; I ran away from the room without looking back to see if she was going to chase me or not. I didn't care for where I was running to, nor did I care for who would see me running down the hallways at full speed.

Slowing down a bit, I stopped at the top of a staircase, trying to catch my breath before wanting to move again. But before I had the chance to move, something green had appeared in front of me, causing me to have the attention to focus on it.

As it hovered in front of me, it took the form of a butterfly, but it didn't hold the beauty of a regular one. This one holds the hue of green and for some reason, it made me feel a bit uneasy. As it moved towards the bottom of the staircase, I decided to not follow it, as I knew that I would just go into a trap of some sort. But I could still go down the stairs without the intention of following it, I would just need to-

"Huh." Before anything, I felt two hands on my back push me forwards, causing me to go over the first step. Without any balance, I felt myself moving forward without the feeling of the ground under me. And before I knew it, I greeted the ground with my face and the sudden impact caused a ringing in my ears, along with the hazy feeling that I couldn't move my body.

I felt paralyzed.

I didn't see who stood at the top of the steps as I watched the person quickly ran and-

"Are you okay?! Hold on, let me get you to my office!" Before I felt my eyelids become heavy, I was able to outline a woman coming up the stairs with a worried look on her face. She wore something like a white jacket and... something... pink.

Was she... a nurse?