Sokudo: Villains Always Win (ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ ᴛᴡᴏ)

Chapter eleven | a bittersweet reunion

She wanted to tell Miyoku everything. She felt like she could tell her a precious secret and she'd never tell a soul, no matter how shocking or despicable it was. But she couldn't tell Miyoku this, even if the girl wouldn't tell a soul, even if she'd promise to take it to her grave, because it still meant that she knew. She hadn't even told her mother, who she's known her whole life, and she was going to tell a girl she only met on a few occasions and barely knew a thing about her? No, no she wasn't.

She still had the want to do so, though, the need of exposing all her secrets and her woes and giving them to someone else to burden. She could still vent about her feelings of sadness, but she had to do it in a way not to expose herself. It wasn't a choice, there wasn't an option to tell her the truth about her situation. She had to deal with that, in order to keep Minji, Satou, Taichi and herself safe. After all, the villains could still be out there, they could still be targeting her, just out her sight.

She agreed to talk about her feelings on the way home, Miyoku offered to walk her there and she happily complied. So the two headed on their journey, walking through the city side by side. Chieko felt a lot calmer now, she had let all her pain out through her tears, and the rest she'd get rid of by talking. She took in the beauty of the city, from the gardens and parks to the bright blue sky with birds flying by, and the energetic kids running past and the people just taking their time.

She had almost forgotten about what happened just twenty or thirty minutes ago, or at least the pain it came with. "So... will you tell me what happened now?" Breaking the enjoyable silence, Miyoku spoke up and turned to Chieko. Who didn't really want to talk about it anymore, but Miyoku was just a concerned friend. So she tried her best to be brave.

"Well..." She didn't know where to start, slowing down to a stop. "I... was going to school, and I bumped into a friend. He, he looked out of breath, I asked him what's wrong and... He told me it was an emergency and I..." The scene recited in her mind, she was taken back to the scene and she watched it play out before her. Tears falling from Taichi's eyes as he started to break down, she saw it happening again.

She shook her head in an attempt to get rid of the memories. "A friend of mine is in the hospital, and I don't know if they'll be okay..." She should have just said that in the first place. She thought she'd be relieved to talk about what happened, maybe it was because she had to hide secrets from her, but she felt uncomfortable. She didn't want to feel sad again, so she lifted her head and thought they could move on, though she had been mistaken.

"So, your friend, what'd they do to get themselves sent to a hospital?" All Chieko could do was stare at Miyoku in confusion, she thought it was obvious that she wanted to change the topic. For some reason, she answered.

"I... I don't know the exact details, I think... It was a motorcycle accident," She mentally cursed at herself, she lied knowing how horrible she was at it. But there's no reason why she'd think of it suspiciously. "Come on, let's keep going on," she urged, hoping to drop the conversation.

Miyoku followed her, thankfully. She thought that meant the conversation had finally ended. The two started walking again, but the silence didn't last very long. Walking beside her, Miyoku eyes glazed over Chieko, slightly narrowing before turning away. "Don't you think they were being reckless?" Obviously she hadn't gotten the obvious signs Chieko gave off, and that annoyed her to the point of almost snapping at her. But she didn't, she couldn't. Though, she didn't get a chance to actually respond.

"So by getting hurt because of their reckless actions, they got what they deserved. Simple karma, don't you think?" Chieko wasn't one to snap or get angry, she was quite the opposite. She was patient and very understanding, but in this situation, at this point in time, despite knowing that Miyoku didn't know the real situation and she convinced herself the older girl knew no better.