1

The all-white ceiling and the smell of citrus fragrance told Sana where she was.

She turned her head, and beside her was Hikari.

"Hikari," she weakly called out, her heart still pounding as recollections of what happened in the classroom returned.

"Sana, how are you feeling?!"

There was clear worry in her voice, and it had a shaky tone that she had never heard before. That trembling sensation remained as her tender hands took Sana's pair.

"H-hikari... I'm better now. Just a bit... light in the head."

"I'll be right back, Sana!"

When her friend left her, the throbbing in Sana's heart wouldn't stop. Even her fingers felt fidgety and not in the way her usual shy personality caused them to be.

A while ago, she had felt something different. It was something that filled her to the brim with fear for some reason.

"It's good that you're up, Kurashiki," said the school nurse in a gentle voice.

While the nurse proceeded to open her tote bag of supplies, Hikari hurried by Sana's side. She pressed her hand over Sana's forehead before quickly running her hand down the rest of Sana's arms.

Hikari's pigtails bobbed up happily with her head. With a smile, she gave Sana a look that slightly calmed her down.

"It's going to be okay," she assured.

How can you tell? Sana wanted to ask, but she instead gave a weak nod and said something else.

"T-thanks."

"Okay, let me get your temperature first," called the nurse, who sat down beside her. "And let me check your body."

The whole procedure lasted only a few seconds.

"All signs are pointing to this just being fatigue. You were breathing heavily and sweating when they brought you in, too. While you were sleeping, we also gave a call to your caretaker and notified her of the situation."

Finished with her work, the school nurse put away her equipment.

"Feel free to stay here until your caretaker comes. Oh, and Arata, would you mind?"

"No problem, nurse. I'll make sure nothing bad happens to Sana."

"T-thanks..." said Sana in response to the both of them.

Then, she lay down again, tightly holding onto one of the many pillows on her comfortable bed.

"H-hikari..."

"What is it, Sana?"

"I-is it just me or... those colored things..."

"Colored things?" wondered Hikari.

Sana looked at Hikari with inspecting eyes. To her relief, those wisps were nowhere to be found.

"W-when we were in the classroom... I saw them. Yellow. Gray. Black. Colored winds that flowed out of people. Some were unclear, but others, like yours, shone extra bright."

Before Hikari can let out an audible gasp, Sana shushed her with her finger.

"You don't want anyone to know about it?" asked Hikari.

Sana nodded, to which Hikari responded to with raised eyebrows.

"But I think you should ask for help. I know someone who might be able to help. But... I heard he disappeared months ago. He was my favorite doctor, too... Made the visits to Aspira extra fun," Hikari furrowed her eyebrows. "Ah, perhaps I can ask Big Bro. He gets around a lot and can find someone. Yeah, even I get caught off-guard with the kinds of people he meets. Now, I wonder if one of those is another doctor."

Hikari was completely lost in her own world and continued chattering before hitting an abrupt pause.

"Ah! Your mom is coming back, I remember. Think she can help if you tell her about those things you saw?"

"N-no... Not her."

"Hmm? Doesn't she? Why?"

A puzzled expression was on Hikari's face, but that was to be expected of someone who did not know anything about the family.

"M-mama doesn't like the... magic stuff."

"Ehh?! So, you're convinced it's some sort of magic? That you developed some powers? Wait, I should tell Big Bro about it if it's the case!" she gasped, drawing some laughs from Sana.

"O-of course it isn't," chuckled the yellow-haired girl in return. "I just said that Mama hates those things."

"Oh, really?"

Hikari's expression deflated almost instantaneously.

"What was she like? She seems no fun."

"Hmm..." Sana looked up towards the ceiling. "She's very strict, very hardworking, and very firm in her beliefs. She can also be scary, you know?"

"So it's one of those types, huh?"

"I'll be fine, Hikari. Sorry if I made her seem so bad. She says that she does that for me, all she wants is for me me to do well in school and have a good future like her, and I'm very excited to see her."

She was not sure whether that managed to convinced Hikari, but after looking at her expression, Sana was convinced that she wasn't a good liar.

"Yeah, but I feel that it's not right."

"What is?"

"My mom says the same things, but whenever she comes back from abroad, I don't think she's any of those words you used to describe your mom. She gives Big Bro and me a lot of responsibilities, but she always gave us a feeling of warmth. Like she's happy to be there, and whenever we had issues, we always talk it out easily. It's Big Bro getting most of the scolding, though," she chuckled. "But I think that moms are there to be your best friends. People you love and would love and understand you."

Sana went silent.

"I'll be fine, Hikari," she said with a longing smile. "You should visit my house this weekend and see how nice Mama is."

"Hehe, sure thing. I'd love to meet her myself. Maybe I can make her a nicer mom to you."

Sana began to laugh at the absurdity of that when the sound of a door opening caught her attention. Turning to the side, she saw her caretaker walking towards the infirmary bed.

Yura, her parents' trusted caretaker who had stayed with her for as long as she can remember. She must have made her way here as soon as the news reached her.

"Sana!" she called, a look of distress on her face. "What happened?"

"She collapsed in class. She suddenly felt unwell, and she just..."

Hikari was the one who answered the question, and it prompted the caretaker to rub her hand over Sana's forehead.

"It must have been the stress these past days," she said with a sigh.

"Stress?" asked Hikari.

"The past few days, those dreams she's been telling me about are becoming more and more frequent. She doesn't show it, but she often wakes up very uneasy."

"Is that true?" Hikari asked Sana, to which the yellow-haired girl nodded weakly. "But I have those, too!"

"It all started after that party at Samsara... You were also there, right?"

Before she can get an answer from Hikari, Yura turned her attention back to Sana. "You'll be fine, Sana. I already contacted your mom about this. She'll be cutting her trip short to return tonight."

She did not look forward to that.

Yet, she maintained her neutral expression before drifting off to half-sleep as Yura and Hikari had their conversation.

2

Hours had passed since Yura had taken Sana home. They had taken a taxi which passed through the same route as usual, but for some reason, Sana felt that the trip back to their residence, several blocks away from the Shiroki City beach, took a lot longer than usual.

Still somewhat dazed, Sana lay on her bed, reflecting on today's scary events. She had no clue what happened, but she can still clearly remember the overpowering sadness that filled her heart when she saw the wisps.

She looked towards the other items in her dimly-lit room: the books, a half-finished glass of water, the TV set, the lone stuffed penguin that sat on top of her desk. She gazed at them, as if she was expecting the wisps to come out of them.

Of course they didn't. It was all a one-time thing, wasn't it?

But what bothered Sana more was why they appeared in the first place. And at school, of all places?

*ding-dong*

A doorbell broke the relative silence in the Kurashiki residence, and the yellow-haired girl sprang to life. Putting on her feather hairclip, she made a beeline towards the door.

She had to put on a good first impression to kick things off on the right foot.

Running down the stairs, she ran into none other than Yura, who was already halfway towards the door.

"Take it easy, Sana," urged the caretaker, but that would not be enough to stop the unexpectedly lively girl.

Still in her nightwear, Sana showed an unusual spurt of energy.

"Not this time, Yura!"

Yura, finally having caught up to her near the door, sighed. "Sana, I know you're excited to meet your mom today, but please be careful."

She said those words with some weariness while looking at the untidy trail that the yellow-haired girl had left in her wake.

The sound of the door unlocking followed, and the door slowly creaked open.

"Welcome back!" joyously greeted Sana, spreading her arms out.

On the doorstep stood a tall woman. Her hair, mostly brown with yellow highlights on the strip that flowed near one eye, was tied in a bun. Prim and proper, her presence stifled the air around her. This was further emphasized by the blazer and the polo she wore, the former which she immediately took off and folded neatly.

You are reading story Fractal Plane: Heartful Cry at novel35.com

Asuka Kurashiki. Motivational speaker and consultant. One of the top-performing and highest-paid in her field, reaching international acclaim. Her achievements put her husband's to shame.

To Sana who barely understood most of those implications, she was merely her mother. An often-absentee mother.

That was why moments like this still mattered to Sana, and while she admitted that she had a complicated relationship with this mother, having the family together was still something to be celebrated.

Asuka looked at the two people with a relaxed expression before placing her suitcase on the doorway's cabinet rack.

"How has my baby girl been?" she asked, leaning down and taking a cheek kiss from the little girl. Finishing that, she set her polished nails onto Sana, giving her playful tickles along with cooing sounds.

"I'm not eight anymore," complained Sana between laughs. "But school's been awesome, Mama! I've been doing great!"

"Is that so? But I heard what happened," Sana's mother responded before turning to the caretaker, who looked quite on edge. "Yura, how has she been?"

"I told her to rest up, but she just wouldn't listen. I think she's just so excited to meet you after months," chuckled Yura.

"No. I mean school. School things," Asuka replied, a tone of displeasure in her voice. "Grades? Teacher complaints? Sketchy people she hangs out with?"

"O-oh..."

"So? What is it, Yura?!"

"N-no, Ma'am. No problems."

"Good. I'll go over her report cards later."

Yura nodded, and Asuka turned to her daughter without another word on the matter.

"Keep it up, then," she said sweetly before heading towards the house's living room. Sitting down, she opened her tablet and started checking through swathes of emails. Her eyes were completely locked to the screen, remaining so as she ordered Yura to fetch her some juice.

"Mama, you won't believe what happened when you're out on your long trip. Hikari and I wer—"

"I'd love to listen, baby, but mommy's quite busy tonight. Maybe during dinnertime," she said, patting Sana on her head. "While we're waiting, you also do your homework and rest up, okay?"

"Ma'am," started Yura, but her concerned tone was interrupted by a quick response from Sana.

"Okay!"

Those words had instinctively left Sana's mouth, but she never wanted to just say those words. Somewhere deep inside, she had some hesitation and disappointment.

3

Asuka Kurashiki placed part of her untied, shoulder-length hair on the back of her ear while typing down notes on her laptop. She hummed while giving her notes a thorough review.

Everything looked good. It should be all fine for the talk next week. But there could still be wrinkles, and that fact bothered her.

Possible scenarios of conversations and questions flowed into her mind. She prepared for some of them, starting with the common questions first.

The execution of her speech had to be perfect for the message to be sent across clearly. That was the bare basic of public speaking, especially considering her line of work.

She had to be perfect in both tone and word choice in order to capture the hearts of the audience. Seeing a possible error, she hurriedly crossed it out before staring at her room's ceiling, looking for the spark of inspiration.

"Yeah, that didn't seem right. It's pretty vague if you ask me. How about something to give it a bit more oomph? God help me."

She muttered a silent prayer before going back to the draft of her speech.

*knock knock*

"Come in!"

The door creaked open, and she temporarily paused her activities to turn around.

"Ah, Yura. Has Sana gone off to sleep for the night?"

Her daughter's caretaker nodded.

"Good. Is anything the matter?"

"Ma'am, with all due respect..."

Even before Yura finished her query, Asuka's lips formed a frown in anticipation. She already had an idea what this was going to be about.

Still, that did little to rattle the caretaker.

"How long are you planning to keep that up?"

"Keep what up?"

"You know Sana has been looking forward to your return, and you know what happened at school. But ever since you arrived, you did not even have any quality time with your daughter."

"Didn't we have dinner together? Wasn't I the one who gave you the money and asked you to cook her favorite pasta this afternoon?"

"That's not what I mean, Ma'am," complained a frustrated Yura.

"Then, what is it?" asked Asuka, now having an irritated voice. "We also had some conversations during dinnertime."

"About what? All you did was ask her about school. All you did was ask her about her grades and told her not to hang out with bad influences. She had so many things she wanted to tell you, and you hurried up here, holed yourself up in this room, and went straight to your laptop."

Asuka hurriedly closed the lid of her laptop in response.

"Excuse me? I have an event scheduled for Wednesday. It's a big talk, and I will be having an audience of a couple thousand youth in need of hope and inspiration."

"Wednesday?!" Yura looked at the calendar on the wall. "It's barely a week! You're planning to leave on the weekend again?"

"Anything wrong with that?"

"Everything! Can't you see you've become distant from your own daughter? With due respect, I think that your daughter should be your priority over those other kids and young adults."

"When did you get that habit of talking up to me?" Asuka sulked. "For the record, I have nothing but my daughter's best interests in mind."

Yura paused, only pursing her lips.

"If it weren't for me, she wouldn't have been enrolled in such a prestigious private school. She could somewhere in... I dunno, some second-rate public school in this city. If it weren't for me and the money I get from these jobs, you wouldn't be here because you won't be getting paid, Yura. She would not be enjoying your services."

The sight of the caretaker's head shaking only served to agitate her some more. The distraught expression on Yura's face added even more to her frustration.

"You just don't get it, Ma'am."

"And who said I'm all about work and school? Where did you two get the money for that Yu-Yuka, whatever, concert a month back?"

"Okay..." slowly muttered Yura after a pause. Asuka did not like the hesitation, but was good enough of an answer for the mother.

Who was Yura to get in between family affairs? She's just a caretaker. A competent one, but still.

"At least..." Yura started. "Put down that laptop for a moment and at least come see your daughter off for the night."

"Isn't she asleep?"

"Yes, but..."

With an agitated sigh, Asuka finally got off her chair. "Alright, alright."

She gave one last look at her laptop before putting on her jacket.

Her room was on the second floor, adjacent to Sana's. This won't take much time, she thought.

With Yura trailing her, she opened the door, being careful not to wake her daughter up. All she had to do was to give the fast asleep daughter a gentle caress. She may not like it, but Yura's got a point.

It's about time for her to show some warmth for her daughter. It's not her favorite way of doing things, but that's just a thing for parents.

Then, she can get back to work, and Yura will be satisfied.

Her heart skipped a beat when the door creaked open.

Moaning.

Sobbing.

Hearing those sounds caused her to hurriedly open the door and rush inside.

"Sana!"

Just like her, Yura made a break for the bed to see her daughter clutching her blanket.

With a pained expression, Sana rolled around her bed. Her eyes remained tightly shut, but her mouth moved in overdrive.

"Sana! Sana!" Asuka shook her daughter, trying to wake her up from the nightmare.

The young girl continued to roll on the bed, seemingly oblivious to the cries of her mother. Instead, she continued muttering incomprehensible words.

Just what is going on?

She shivered, her grip on her daughter growing tenser with each passing second. She clasped her clammy hands together before muttering panicked words of her own. When it did not work, she only called in panic.

"Sana!" she continued nudging her daughter. All the while, her entire body shivered, a powerful and ominous presence enveloping her. She did not know what it was, and her wide eyes saw nothing besides Yura reaching out for the phone.

She continued muttering prayers with eyes shut and a voice of desperation, even as the hair on her body stood up on end.

Then, the sobbing stopped. Sana's eyes refused to open, yet a look of tranquility swept over her face. Asuka sighed in relief, while Yura put down her phone, her call cut short.

"Thank god!"

Asuka slumped onto her daughter, her energy spent.

Yet, her daughter's breathing was now calm. She had a peaceful look on her face, and she continued to doze off to sleep.

Asuka had no idea what had happened, and frankly, so did Yura.

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