I Need Sleep

Rena walked in her school uniform with her backpack. She turned when a corner appeared in her path, walked a little further, and arrived at a house. The front door of the house was locked, but Rena didn't care. Instead, she went around the house and found a broken window. Using her tiny hands and legs, she jumped through the window. She looked around the room she had entered; it was a silent kitchen. After leaving the kitchen, she entered another room where she saw a cute girl with white hair drawing in a book.

"Ruby-chan," Rena smiled and called out to the cute white-haired girl.

"Onee-chan," Ruby lifted her face, saw Rena, got up, and ran to hug her tightly. She had been feeling lonely since Ryuki left, but now, seeing Rena, she was filled with incredible happiness as she held her tightly.

"Hey, let's sit down and eat first," Rena suggested. Ruby's stomach rumbled at the mention of food. Ruby let go of Rena but held her hand, afraid of feeling lonely again.

Taking out the food from the bag with one hand was tough, but Rena managed it. She fed Ruby, and Ruby fed her. They spent time together. Rena was tired, and she didn't know when she would fall asleep. Although she and Ryuki had a hard time sleeping in an unfamiliar and unsafe place, they would eventually fall asleep if they became too tired.

When she woke up, she checked the time and realized it was time to meet up with Ryuki.

"Let's go meet up with Ryuki and the others," Rena said. She took off her clothes and put on casual attire.

"Ruby, there's clothing in the bag. Take off your school uniform and put on that clothing," Rena instructed.

Ruby didn't understand why she needed to change clothes, but she didn't question it and changed. The clothes seemed a bit large for her, but they were comfortable to wear.

After leaving their bags at an abandoned house, they walked to the park.

---

"Ryuki, did you come here to sleep?"

I opened my sleepy eyes and saw my old-age teacher. I sighed and apologized, and then he began to lecture me and started saying something. Who knows what he said, but the whole class laughed.

I don't even care about that. Old man, just go and do your job as a teacher. It's annoying. I can't even sleep properly in school.

"Little Brother, let's go eat with me." Out of nowhere, Saki pulled my head during my lunch break.

"Saki, let him go. You didn't even let him sleep at home, so at least let him now," Asuka pulled Saki away from me.

Very good, Asuka. Don't worry, I will give you a delicious chocolate as your reward. Then I went to sleep, only to be woken up by Yuta, saying he bought an AV DVD.

It's good he bought that, and I want to watch it, but can you please let me sleep for a while?

Fortunately, my protector, Asuka, came, and she dragged Yuta away.

Now I can have some rest.

"Did you watch yesterday's drama?"

"Yeah. In that drama, the princess was so beautiful. I want a wife just like her in the future."

"Hey, that's my lunch!"

"Did you do your homework?"

"The english teacher is beautiful, isn't she?"

The class is so loud that my head is buzzing. I can't sleep. Forget it. I don't want to sleep anymore.

As school time ended, I thought I would finally go back home and be able to sleep.

"I forgot, I have to meet Rena and Ruby before that," I sighed and started packing up my bag.

"So, will you come to my house this Sunday? We can watch that AV DVD together," Yuta said, swinging his arm around my shoulder.

"Cuckold, just get away. I'm way too tired to support your weight," I pushed his hand away from my shoulder and picked up my bag.

"Ah... okay," Yuta said and ruffled his hair.

"Hey, hey, little brother, are we going to meet Ruby today?"

Another pang of pain came; I looked at her as she dashed into the classroom and stood in front of me.

"Yes, we are going to meet at the park. Lead us, lowly servant, to our destination, Empress," I dramatically bowed to her, and she instantly became happy and laughed.

"Haha, okay, this Empress will lead you to our destination safely," She turned and began to walk forward.

"Yuta, as a knight, you should be behind the Empress. What are you doing here?" I looked at Yuta and said.

"Oh, yeah," He also began to walk behind Saki, and now I could finally sigh with relief. These two are just chatterboxes, always trying to talk to me. Although I feel comfortable and like talking to them, today I'm way too tired and sleepy for that.

Asuka is much better; she only walks beside me and doesn't talk. Silently beside her, I walked behind Yuta and Saki.

Without Saki and Yuta trying to talk to me much, I arrived at the park, bought a bar of chocolate from the vending machine, and gave it to Asuka.

"Uh? What is this?" Asuka held the chocolate in her hand and asked.

"It's for trying to keep Yuta and Saki away from me during lunchtime," I told her, "Also, hide it before Yuta or Saki see this."

"But you still couldn't sleep?" Asuka said as she put the chocolate away in her pocket.

"Don't worry about that," I said, waving my hand.

"Onii-chan," I heard a voice behind me and saw Ruby rushing over with a smile. Behind her was Rena, without any sign of fatigue or sleepiness.

She must have slept well at the abandoned house.

"How are you, Ruby?" I smiled at her and asked.

"I'm fine, but..." Ruby looked at me, "You seem tired?"

"No, boys don't get tired," Yuta chimed in strongly, walked up to me, and patted my back, "My best friend doesn't get tired. He's a beast among ma---"

Before he could say more, Asuka smacked him on the head.

"Ruby-chan, my little brother, is the best. He doesn't get tired easily, and today he slept double the amount he usually does. So, he's the most energetic person here," Saki said, nodding as if she had just said something profound.

Rena gave me a pitying gaze while Asuka tried to talk to Saki about my tiredness.

Today, I learned something important: no matter what happens, I'll make sure to get a good eight hours of sleep.

----

Shimizu Fumiko had come out of the hostess bar after talking about her work and sighed.

She is coming tomorrow to start her work. She did expect that she might have to work at this place, but when the time came, she still felt depressed about it. Now, she had to deal with annoying men who would try to grope her.

At least she was glad that this hostess bar wouldn't let these men do anything more than groping.

She looked up at the sky; it was afternoon — time for her son and daughter to return home.

"I should buy some meat and make a meat dish. It's been a year since the last time we had a meat dish. And I should also go back early to surprise them," Fumiko muttered to herself and smiled as she walked to the market.

She arrived at the market and looked for a cheap meat shop. She found one and looked at the cheap meat for a while.

"Well... I think," Fumiko closed her eyes for a moment, then she smiled and asked the shopkeeper, "Give me premium meat."

Although this might be out of her budget, she felt that sometimes her children deserved premium meat.

After paying the money, she put the meat in the bag she had brought and then looked around the market some more. She found some fresh vegetables, which cost her a bit, but it's okay. Today, she was going to give her children the best dinner they've had.

After walking around the market for some more time, she left.

"How happy Ryuki and Saki will be," Fumiko smiled as she crossed the road. Suddenly, she felt a huge impact on her left side. She felt like she was flying through the air, everything spinning around, and then, with a huge impact, she fell onto the ground. She saw her bag and the meat box inside the bag, and then everything turned black.