Dein Weg ist Mein Weg

Chapter 47: Nishizumi No More

"Lady Nishizumi disowns her, and hereby cuts any and all ties to her and her descendants in perpetuity."

The words hung heavy in the summer air, drowning the observation deck in a crushing silence. No one spoke. No one moved. No one barely even breathed. The summer sun creeping low beneath the mountains along the horizon still bathed them in its light and warmth, but it couldn't keep them from being frozen in place, the entire scene trapped in non-existent amber. Even so, Saori's mind was racing.

Maho's mother had disowned her. Saori knew that Maho and her mother didn't get along, that was one of the few facts of her life Maho hadn't kept a closely guarded secret, and she felt a chill run down her spine as she remembered the afternoon in Yukari's room, back at the start of the year, when Maho had shown them the marks of her mother's cruelty. The sight of Maho's back and the more than a dozen perfect scars that crossed it was still burned onto Saori's retinas. Still, she couldn't understand it. For a mother to disown her daughter completely like this... robbing her of her family, her inheritance, even her name... it was like something taken from a TV-drama, not something that happened in real life to actual people. Not to people she knew... not to her friends... Sure, Hana and her mother hadn't spoken since their disagreement over her choosing Sensha-Do as her elective, but that was just a fight... Every child fought with their parents from time to time, but things always worked out, right?

Saori glanced over to Hana, looking for reassurance, but her expression was as calm and enigmatic as always. There was no telling what she might be thinking.

She felt a lump in her throat, and tried to swallow as her eyes darted back and forth between Maho and Kikuyo, but to little avail. She remembered all the times her excitement and imagination had gotten the better of her, and all the questions she had bombarded Maho with; and with every moment that passed, she felt an overbearing guilt build in her chest. Instead of treating her like a person and a friend, she had first-and-foremost seen Maho as a curiosity; Someone whose presence could be a source of excitement and intrigue for her, who might let her experience all those things that never actually happened in real life but were only dreamed up at a writer's desk. So wanting for romance and drama had she been that she projected all of it onto Maho, convincing herself that the new girl in class had to have some mysterious and tragic backstory.

Only now did she realize how soul-crushingly terrifying the idea was when things like this happened in real life. When they happened to people close to you, and not characters on a screen. She sighed and quietly cursed herself for not realizing sooner, privately promising herself to make up for it all in the future, assuming Maho would let her.

Looking at Maho, with her head bowed low, Saori noticed that her shoulders were gently bobbing up and down and if she listened closely, she was pretty sure she could hear sobbing.

"Maporin..." she said cautiously, and began taking small, slow steps over towards her friend. "It's f-... I mean..." she continued, gently reaching out a hand towards Maho's shoulder. "Everything's going to be alright, I promi-"

"BWAHAHAHA!" Maho threw her head back and roared with laughter, clenching her hands across her stomach in an apparent attempt to stop her torso ripping open from the force of her laughing.

"M-maho?!" Yukari exclaimed as she jumped back in surprise.

"She's finally lost it..." Mako muttered with a shrug.

"Maho? Are you alright?" Hana asked calmly.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Maho said through teary-eyed laughter, and waved a reassuring hand towards her comrades as her laugh calmed itself down to a mirthful chuckle.