The grassy fields pressed against Omo’s feet. The embrace of a beautiful flower field laid before her for miles around. Red roses, pink tulips, violet pansies, white daisies, the field was decorated in a splendid litter of flowers that brought her ease and relief. Absolute serenity.

Omo gasped, clapping her hands eagerly. What staggering view, without the sight of a worry for miles. She found herself a bundle of tulips, lowering herself into the patch and laying there. With her arms outstretched and her legs spread wide, she could just breathe in the fresh spring air. Absolute serenity.

The warm sun beats its rays down on her body, it tingles her arms and legs. What a shame it was only her in this warmth, if only there was someone who could share in this absolute serenity.

It was then when she noticed a young handsome boy laying next to her. He had slicked back hair the color of lavender, the eyes of sapphire. He was dressed in the finest of designer suits, a black dress coat and slacks outfitted with a white tie. In his hand was a bouquet of these flowers, which he offered to Omo aided with the gentleness of a smile.

“For you, my princess.” he uttered in a hushed voice. “All of the flowers you could ever want… so long as I live, it is all yours.”

The words of this boy were soft like velvet, it soothed her just the same as the calm wind. She held these flowers close to her chest. She wished she could live forever in this moment… this moment of absolute serenity, love, and joy with the man of her dreams.

And that was what made this an absolute nightmare.

Omo’s chin began to quiver, tears of sadness rolling down her cheek. “I want to stay here forever… with you, Damian!”

The boy gently caressed her cheek with a single hand, visibly heartbroken by her sorrow. He leaned his head forward, whispering just five words that jolted her into life.

“Then be strong, my princess.”

The next thing she knew, she was sitting in her bed, hugging her pillow tight to her chest. She looked left, right, then down at her pajamas. “It was a dream…” she sighed.

After a fulfilling morning of packing her books, eating a few slices of peanut butter on toast, and a goodbye kiss from her beloved pet cat ‘Fluffers’, Omo snatched her bag and left the house.

New Tako Town was a large coastal town located directly on the coast of Japan. The town was split into eight sectors, and she lived in the third where all of the neighborhoods were. Just at the edge of the third sector was Maguro Junior and Maguro High, both being placed at the convenience of the students so they didn’t have to fight through town square’s traffic.

Speaking of town square, that was the first sector. Town hall, the mayor, the police force, the hospitals, and so on can be found there. The second sector was the poorer side of the town, which was where the cheaper houses could be found. The fourth sector were the parks, the sixth had the historical monuments, restaurant chains, and tourist attractions. The seventh was where the construction plants and factories were. The fifth was the direct access to the beach and trade depots, and the eighth was the highways taking tourists to New Tako Town or deeper into the Japanese mainland.

This place was a potluck for tourists and foreigners.

Maguro High was a big school, being the only High School in all of New Tako Town. It was three stories tall and housed over a thousand students. Was it a prestigious school? No. The Mayor of New Tako Town protested the idea of an ‘elite school’, thus prompting those with gifted intellect to instead act as role models and helpers to the less gifted. It was a ridiculous notion to many, but it did have some of its benefits.

Today, Haruna Omo was about to witness those benefits when she was called to visit her math teacher after class. This was Mr. Taro, a rather tall and overall unamusing man. His beady eyes were amplified under his massive frames, and he carried a natural stone-face expression and equally monotonous vocal tone.

This man’s sheer existence made Maguro High ten times more boring than it already was, but his mastery of mathematics made him one of the best in the surrounding prefectures. He even taught engineering at a university for a little over a decade before moving back to his hometown of New Tako. Needless to say his skill was unquestionable, thus Haruna never doubted his expertise when he pointed out the numerous errors in her work.

But this time, it was different… er- not really, because he called her over to discuss the latest test she took. Yet again, that bright red marker glared at her in the bright red letter “C”. C after C after C, how can she score this low? Her parents used to scold her for taking home scores this low, but after a while they just… stopped. It was likely because they gave up on her… and it seems today that they weren’t alone.

“Omo, are my lessons of no help to you?” Mr. Taro asked.

“Uhhh… well, no! Of course not! It’s just… I’m not great at math.” Haruna looked at her shoes, hanging her head in shame.

“How often do you study the material I provide?”

“I try! I study at least once!... a week…”

“Once a week? You need to study everyday if you want to get scores above a simple C. You’ll never get into a quality cram school or university with those kinds of scores.”

“I… I understand, forgive me.” She sighed. “I’ll try…”

On the surface Mr. Taro seemed as stoic as ever, but underneath he did truly worry. What could be the cause of her failing scores, he wonders? He pondered and pondered but no answer laid avail. “How many hours of sleep do you get in a night?”

“I usually get a few! Like, five… maybe four.”

“Do you have any trouble sleeping?”

“Yeah…” She admitted, “I’ve been having quite a few nightmares…”

“I am not one to tell you how to fix those problems, but I implore you to try to get more hours of sleep and more hours of studying. That should be your solution, unless you need something more than that.”

“Something… more?” She asked, tilting her head.

“Would you like a tutor? I know of someone who is suited for this kind of dilemma.”

-_-

Haruna held onto a small notecard, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. In the card were characters written rather sloppily, translating along the lines of ‘Teacher wants me to study with you. Meet me in math class after school.’

Well, it was after school, and this gave her a reason to avoid the boxing club. She needed help with her math and this ‘Megami’ girl was the one to ask, at least to Mr. Taro.

When Haruna entered the empty math room, she noticed the student there. She was small, standing just under five feet tall, jagged short brunette hair, pale white skin, and a petite under-fed body. Even at a glance, Haruna was hit with an unnerving tension.

“Megami, was it?” Haruna gently asked, pulling up a chair and sitting down.

The girl looked at her through the corner of her eye, sighing. “Oh. I wasn’t expecting you to take the offer.”

“W-well… I, I kind of had to…” Haruna pulled out her textbook and immediately began to flip through the pages. “I’m Omo, Omo Haruna.”

“Megami.” She quietly answered. Without another word she stuck her nose back into her textbook and wrote down some notes out to the side. Just watching her partner go, Haruna could tell just how skilled she was. Look at how that pen dashed across the page. Even though she wrote in poor chicken scratch, there were no errors in her writing, no scribble marks, no miscalculations, everything was pin-point precise! Incredible! And, it doesn’t look like she’s asserting herself much. Truthfully, it looked like she was paying more attention to her own studying than tutoring Haruna.

“W-well-... Hey-” Haruna nervously sputtered. “I-I was–”

“Spit it out.” Megami ordered.

“I-...” Haruna hung her head lower. “Forgive me… I was just wondering if you could help me.”

After she completed her train of thought, Megami sat her pen down, then held her hand out for Haruna’s notebook. Haruna silently passed it over and watched Megami scan over the entire page in just a few short seconds… and then, laughter.

“Wh-what is it?!” Haruna’s face began to turn red. “Did– did I do something wrong?”

“You squared your twos. You’re supposed to multiply them.” Megami pointed out, circling the incorrect word problem and handing it back.

“Oh- wait I did?” Haruna asked, reading the circled problem over. That’s strange, she didn’t remember ever squaring her twos. But, maybe she did it by accident. So, she pulled out her calculator to check just in case. Two squared. Four.

If two squared is four… then what is two times two?...

Four.

Haruna’s eyes widened. She gently placed her calculator on the desk, then looked back at Megami, who was trying her best not to burst into a fit of laughter. “Megami, they’re the same thing!”

“Hah.” Megami smirked. “Your answers are fine. You just need to show your work”

“Oh… thanks?”

After Megami’s little joke, the two continued their study session. For most of the hour, Megami and Haruna spent their time together reviewing each other’s work, although mostly it was Haruna getting help from Megami and not the other way around. After all, Megami was more like her tutor as opposed to a ‘study partner’. Though even for a tutor, Megami barely talked. Aside from occasional ‘yes’ or ‘no’s, she only communicated through the papers passed between each other.

Why was Megami keeping to herself? Did she not like talking? Did she feel like she had nothing to say to Haruna? Was it Omo’s fault she didn’t want to talk? Or, was it something else at work? With a returning glance at the skin-and-bone frame, Haruna connected the dots and began to worry, giving into her urges to bring it up.

“Hey… are you okay?”

“Huh? Yeah. I’m fine.”

“You… you don’t really look like it.”

“What do you mean? I’m always like this.”

“Just… N-nevermind.” Haruna shook her head, her focus trying to shift back to her work. But, she couldn’t help but sneak a couple distracted looks at her emotionally distant partner. Soon, Megami took notice of Omo’s brief stares, her dull icey blue eyes beaming down on her.

“Quit staring at me. It’s distracting.”

“S-sorry…” Haruna stuck her nose back into her book. Even though it was hard not to look, truthfully she didn’t need to see her to notice her partner. She could feel it, a growing eeriness in the air. The kind of tension that makes your palms grow sweaty, your knees to shake, and your heart to beat out of your chest. With just a glimpse she could see those eyes… they looked so empty, so null of life. It was like an iron door, or a steel safe locking away what was inside from the world to see. And then… a tear.

“Me-Megami… are you crying?! Don’t lie to me…” Haruna reached her hand over to her partner, whose eyes were beginning to water.

“Don’t-!-- you fucking touch me.” Megami hissed, swatting Haruna’s hand. She turned her head away, so as to not show her face to her.

“I- I can’t do that! I can’t see you sit here like this! You clearly aren’t okay!”

“I’m perfectly fine, thank you very much.”

“Telling yourself that you’re fixed won’t mend your wounds any quicker! Tell me what’s wrong!”

Megami’s head contorted back towards Haruna… revealing… a dark, almost devilish glare that pierced Haruna’s heart. “Why? Did you just assume I was depressed?”

“I–I-...”

“So you did. Do you just assume that all goal-driven introverts are mentally broken study bugs that are pathetically easy to push around and snap like a twig to fulfill some other humans’ ugly power fantasies?”

“Megami… Please-”

“You know what? Study by yourself. I didn’t sign up for a therapist, I signed up to study.” Thus Megami got up, pushed her chair in, slammed the door shut, and left the anxious Haruna there alone and in shock.

“Was I being too nosey…”