Night In The Akiyama Household

I wasn't sure when, but after a bit, we eventually left the hospital. There wasn't much to note about Miku and Hashimoto-sensei. It even felt like he didn't even talk to her.

I didn't have much clothes to wear when I woke up. Luckily, Yuumi went home while I was asleep, making sure to pack some clothes of mine before she left which she really didn't have to. The hospital had a shower, too, so I decided to just take it there since I already had my clothes brought. I felt refreshed. She also brought food, though I wasn't hungry.

"How was it, Yuu-nii?" Yuumi asked, holding a bag that had my previous clothes. "Did the doctor say anything about it?"

"Nothing in particular, really. I guess I'm still safe."

"What did you even do in that office?" Miku asked.

"What's even more surprising is how you recommended him to me. He may be the only psychiatrist in town, but there's not much who knows about him."

I only knew about Hashimoto-sensei due to my special circumstances. If he hadn't been there, I'm pretty sure I would've been in some sort of special facility that's for people with disorders like mine.

And the part about how not much knows about him is true. He is the only psychiatrist in town, but almost every in this town doesn't know about him. He tries to keep a low profile for some reason, and he never discloses his name to the public. He only did that to me and my family since I was a rare case.

"He's my uncle," Miku said.

"Your uncle?"

"Yep. It's been awhile since I last saw him, actually, so I just decided to drop by to visit him while he was at work. Glad he's still kicking."

That would explain a lot. If Hashimoto-sensei and Miku was related to one another, then it would make sense that she'd know about him at some point.

"But if he's your uncle, why did he have to ask me if I saw you?"

"You know her distinctive features, Yuu-nii," Yuumi answered. "I'm guessing that Miku-chan-senpai made a call to the doctor, but the doctor didn't want to leave his office. So he resorted with the one thing that was noticeable from Miku-chan-senpai, which is her long, blue hair, so that finding her would be easier. Did I guess correct, Miku-chan-senpai?"

"As expected of a fellow otaku! That's exactly right."

"Though I can't figure out why the doctor didn't want to leave his office. I can think of a few things, but everything that I thought of doesn't quite seem to add up."

"He's just lazy. He doesn't want to leave his office because walking around while he's working is an incredibly huge pain for him."

"Not only did the possibilities narrow down, it also answered a lot."

The streets was once again illuminated by the street lamps. This scenery attacked me, making me remember about my actions yesterday. The air also felt unusually colder than yesterday. It felt like something was about to happen.

"By the way, Yuu-nii," Yuumi said. "Kentarou-san says that he's sorry."

"Huh? For what? Wasn't I the one who hurt him?"

I'd accept it if I was the one who apologized, but Kentarou turned that bit around, delivering a message through Yuumi with him apologizing. He apologized to the one who hurt him, which is pretty unusual for an individual.

"I don't exactly know the details, but he said something about the problems in his club, with one member roping you in their problems. I'm not too sure if he's apologizing because of that one person, or he just wants to personally apologize."

That was rather shocking to hear. I didn't expect Kentarou to just babble about my school life towards Yuumi. But thinking back on it, it probably would've been for the best.

I haven't been notifying Yuumi about my school life, and neither has she. When we do, which is pretty much already a rare case for us, it would just be in small details and quick exchanges. It was the type of conversation we both really don't want to talk about. So having Kentarou tell her about me was somewhat relieving.

It made sense now. About how he wanted to apologize to me, instead of the other way around. He's a true friend through and through.

There was a sudden drop of water. Another one, and then another one. Before long, the drops kept multiplying.

"Oh no, it's raining!" Miku shouted rather unexpectedly. "Follow me! We gotta find shelter!"

Although a little confused about the sudden outburst that came from the sky, both me and Yuumi decided to follow her.

We ran for a bit. The rain was getting stronger, and the air that felt cold earlier became much more colder due to me getting wet. Actually, every single one of us was getting soaked by the water.

Of course, the rain gradually grew stronger. I was getting more and more tired, probably from the fact that I had just woken up when I was running quite tirelessly yesterday.

We kept running. The road seemed to be almost barely visible, and the only things I could see were both Yuumi and Miku. Whether it was the street lamps not being bright enough, or I just had bad vision. Either way, I still couldn't see much.

Looking at Miku, she turned to the side and then opened the gate in a random house.

"Come on!" she invited us. "You should take shelter before going back to your house."

Although barely audible due to the rain, both me and Yuumi got her message. We went ahead and entered the house.

The light attacked my eyes. Even though I had just gotten out of the hospital that was more brighter than here, the light here felt rather calming. Not just the light, but the atmosphere, the smell, it was really comforting.

Speaking of smell, I could smell dinner cooking in this house. I could smell a bit of miso soup along with grilled fish, so I'm assuming they're having the typical one.

"I'm home!" Miku shouted. "Dad, you got any spare clothes?"

"What are you going to use it for?"

I could hear a voice of a man just not far from here, probably in the living room. When Miku shouted, he responded, albeit a little quiet. I'll assume that's her dad.

"We've got guests over!' Miku said. "Remember the house I was sleeping in? The siblings are taking shelter in here for now."

A man came out of the living room and then peeked in the front entrance. He had muscular features, and he was really tall. It seemed as though he hits the gym everyday.

"Who ya got there, Miku?" he asked. His voice sounded different from the one that shouted earlier.

"Sorry for intruding," Yuumi said, bowing at the person, which I also did. "Would everyone in this house mind if we stayed for a bit? The rain is getting pretty strong to navigate through."

That was true. The rain was getting stronger and stronger on the outside, and although the street lamps are on, the neighboring house in front of this can barely be seen."

"What a respectable tone!" the man said, clearly impressed by Yuumi. "Such a cute one as well! Of course we don't mind y'all stayin' for a bit. It's only fair with this stupid rain anyways."

He uses some rather unusual wordings. It seemed as though he was a foreigner and not at the same time.

"Come upstairs," Miku said. "I should have some spare clothes for you, Yuumi-chan. You'll have to make use of Dad's clothes, Yuuji. While I'm at it, you should both take a bath."

"Isn't that a bit too much?" I asked.

"What are you talking about? This much is pretty normal! It's only natural since you let me stay in your house, and you even let me use your bath."

"Did you ever use that?"

"Well, you weren't there, but it was I think it was four days ago. Y'know, when I suddenly went ahead uninvited when you weren't there?"

Now that she mentioned it, she's right. The next day after that was her second meeting with Ayase Shimamura.

***

"Aah, that was refreshing!" Miku said, drying up her hair with a towel. "I never expected that rain to suddenly fall though. Sorry if I caused you two trouble. Also, catch!"

Miku suddenly threw some pajamas straight into my face. I'm assuming this is her dad's clothes with how, and no offense, old it smells.

"It's fine," Yuumi said, picking up a manga on one of Miku's bookshelves. "It should be us apologizing to you. Giving us shelter from the rain truly did help us out. If Yuu-nii and I went out our way to go home, I don't think both of us would have stable conditions by then."

We were currently in Miku's room. The interior looked fairly like Yuumi's room besides the messy clothes; there was a desk in the side, a bed in the other side, two bookshelves, one with two empty rows, and the interior looked just natural.

As of right now, the rain still isn't showing signs of stopping. It was quite the opposite, in fact.

And like Miku had promised earlier, she lent us some clothes to wear: Yuumi was wearing Miku's old pajamas from her junior high days which had a cool yet cute design, and the size was just about enough to fit her body, while I had the clothes of Miku's dad. Our clothes were currently drying up.

The room felt quite unusual, to say the least. First off, even though Miku is a full-fledged honor student and class representative, I could barely see any books at all in her shelves─just mostly consisted of manga and light novels. And second, just like the house, this room smells just like Miku. It wasn't that unusual, but it was rather calming. And third, although she was an otaku, her room was much more organized unlike a certain little sister I knew.

"But wow, the rain still isn't letting up, isn't it?" Miku said. "So much for a day called Sunday."

"The sun is out since it's already night, so I think it's only fair that it's gonna rain," I said.

"I'm talking about the day, not the time the day is currently on," she giggled. "But jokes aside, if the rain still doesn't stop, the only options both of you have is to navigate with an umbrella which would probably be extremely hard, or just stay the night here."

"Since we don't really want to get wet especially since we just got out of bath, the latter is most likely the safest option. What do you think, Yuumi?"

"I'm hungry…," Yuumi said, giving me an unexpected answer.

"That's not what I asked, though. Didn't you have lunch earlier?"

"I couldn't. Me and Miku-chan-senpai were too busy looking after you."

This is really reassuring me a lot of things. Despite having all of the time in the world earlier to at least eat lunch, she instead looked after me when I was unconscious.

Although I appreciated her doing that, she's still quite the heavy eater. Even just adjusting the eating schedule of hers would really be tough on her, as she might get hungry often times. She must've not seen the food I left yesterday.

"Miku, do you have anything for Yuumi to eat?" I asked.

"I can bring her some ramen," she answered. "Just wait for me, I'll boil it for a bit."

"I'll come with you," I said.

"Y-You don't really have to…," Yuumi said meekly.

In response, Miku smiled gently towards Yuumi as both of us exited the room.

"Your brother is worried about you. If you don't have anything to eat, he'll try to find a way to provide you some, even if it means asking other people for some. Of course, I'm also worried about you. So just let your brother do his job of worrying about you, and I'll bring in some food, okay?"

"But…"

"We may be siblings," I said. "But after all the things you've done for me when our parents weren't by our side, just consider this as repayment. You've been taking care about me so much, and I wouldn't want anything bad happening to you. So just listen to me and stay put, okay?"

"…"

This time, she stayed silent, but after a few moments, she nodded as she gave up from Miku and my persuasion.

As I exited the room, Miku closed the door behind her.

The house was now pretty dark, albeit the light coming out of Miku's door from the crack. The family, which was in the living room, was now absent and instead in their own respective rooms.

Miku and I took careful steps and tried to be careful not to make much noise, and eventually reached the kitchen. Miku boiled some water in a kettle as she dropped at least two cups of ramen in a bowl. All we had to do was wait.

"Hey, Miku," I called out to her, trying to make just a bit of idle chatter. "What was that story earlier?"

"What story?"

"Y'know, the one where we were both kids competing to see who had the most skipped stone in a river. I don't exactly remember doing that."

Miku and I met about a month or two ago, which makes that our first ever meeting. A child version of her in my dream seemed way too developed, as if she was residing in my memories. Miku had a cheerful side to her, which seemed to fit perfectly with the girl's personality.

Not only that, we both seemed to have a good time together. We both knew each other pretty well in that dream. That has never happened in my childhood before.

"Well, it's complicated," she said. "Truth be told, that story doesn't exactly belong to me; I just heard it from someone."

"So you just altered a bit to replace both of us?"

"No, those were the actual characters in the story."

That didn't make any sense.

If she just heard that story from somebody, then why would the characters be us? And how come the representations of our personalities projected in those characters were similar to our actual ones?