Harem of Side Characters [Rewrite]

??? - White

An empty husk of a human returns to her room, covered in the blood of her former classmates. Or was it her blood?

White bed. White ceiling. White walls.

A place I know far too well.

In that room, the brown haired girl lies on the bed, staring at the blank ceiling.

The room was lit by white lights.

Yet for her whole life, she never saw any light.

Droplets of blood dripped from her formerly white clothes, staining the white environment around her.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The cries of the other children seeped through the walls.

The scenery I could have been in.

The room of someone who holds no expectation.

A room without a single sign of improvement.

Every night, the girl falls asleep without any hope.

The days tick on like the smallest hand of an analog clock, passing over line after line because she's seen them so many times that they're just not enough to make her stop anymore.

Everything today was exactly the same as it was yesterday.

She just winds herself up and goes around in circles.

She knows she's not heading anywhere in particular, but that's never stopped her before.

She continuously moves forward, surviving alone.

Why? She doesn't know the reason either.

Why, does she continue to live in this horrid white space? Why does she still struggle to survive?

There is no heaven. There is no hell.

There's just this.

Embrace it.

For it is all the girl has now.

Those days when she was younger, when she was unable to hold a book in one hand because her hand was too small...

Those days are gone.

Now, her hands are bigger. Her body is stronger.

Her physical strength has reached its limits, but her brain still grows.

She knows things now.

Things that a girl her age shouldn't be able to comprehend.

Things she was forced to learn because that's what she needed to survive.

...

And now, she's doing it again.

Hiding away in the darkest corners of her mind, distracting herself with thoughts of better days, because she's afraid of opening her eyes and seeing how terrible it's all become.

The same thing I'm doing now.

Then suddenly, the girl opens her eyes, and they met mine.

Her expression barely changes, but I can tell she's surprised.

We stare at each other in silence for a while, until the girl finally speaks for the first time in years.

"...Who...are...you...?"

"Ayanokouji? Are you okay?" I hear as someone shook me.

"...Hirata?"

"You've been spaced out for quite a while, you okay?" I look around.

I'm not in that place.

There was no brown haired girl.

I was in the cruise ship, in my shared room.

"...I'm fine." I reply.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes...I'm fine."

"...If you say so..." Hirata didn't look convinced, but he didn't press further.

...

...

...

...I'm fine.