Beyond the Bounds

Grave Disparities

It was the fourth time Keiji had asked her if she were okay and Chiori was beginning to get annoyed. "Are you sure you're alright?" he insisted. She frowned instead of actually giving him an answer and Keiji sighed upon realizing that she would likely begin to ignore him altogether if he asked again. Inori Yuzuhara walked alongside them and fixed them both with a bland look before tossing her hands in the air with a groan as they rounded the corner.

They'd just left school and the street they were on had a few other kids walking about just like them. Many of the houses on that particular street looked about the same: white with perhaps a few soft pastel colors dotted here and there. The farther they walked, the more kids began to move off in their own directions and they made their way home.

"Has she been like this all day?" Inori asked, glaring pointedly at Keiji.

He flinched back from her gaze before mumbling a quiet affirmative under his breath. Inori's glare grew worse. "Don't look at me like that!" Keiji snapped, "I didn't do anything!" He jerked away from both girls when it looked like Inori might lunge at him from Chiori's other side.

Keiji certainly did not appreciate the look in Inori's eyes. She had a very child-like appearance with her hair-ties adorned with shiny green baubles. Her pig-tails were pinned high on either side of her head and while they were very cute, they only served to distract people from the girl they belonged to. No one would believe Keiji when he told them that Inori was dangerous until they experience it first-hand.

Inori scoffed at both of her friends, hands settling on her hips before she stopped walking completely. "What were you two doing this morning before school without me?" She asked and Keiji frowned before answering her honestly.

"We just went to see what was going on at Kamakura Station," Keiji muttered, "We told you about that in class." Inori's eyes narrowed minutely at Keiji and the boy grit his teeth, silently asking whatever deities existed for strength.

"You could have brought me along." Inori whined and Keiji sighed exasperatedly before shrugging his shoulders in return.

"It didn't really matter, there wasn't even much of anything to see." His expression turned thoughtful. Inori continued to stare at him for a moment before snorting and turning away. She looked as if she were considering something very deeply.

"Well anyway," she continued. "Chiori, you've been falling asleep in class a lot more than usual, ya ever thought about asking your dad for sleeping pills?" Chiori shrugged her shoulders indifferently.

She grimaced at the thought of medication and fiddled with the earbuds hanging around the back of her neck. Inori patted her shoulder in a placating manner. "It doesn't really matter," said Inori, "I was just curious."

Chiori didn't even really have much of an answer for Inori anyway. To be honest, she just hadn't felt like bothering anyone with her problems. It did however make for a much more extensive collection of monsters to draw and the walls of her bedroom definitely could attest to that.

When they drew closer to Chiori's home she broke away from them and made her way to the gate. She turned and waved to her friends before entering the gate and disappearing inside her house. "Do you think she's...okay?" Inori's voice was just above a whisper, but Keiji heard her just fine anyway.

"She's fine," he replied. Inori gave the boy a skeptical look, but Keiji didn't say anything more and she didn't ask him anything else as they continued down the street.

Inside the house, Chiori pulled her shoes off at the front door in front of the landing by the stairs, before making her way into the kitchen. Her bag slipped from her shoulders to land by her feet and she whistled shrilly as she massaged one of her mildly aching shoulders. She didn't spare time to greet her family properly.