Inside Your Mind

12 - Shinsou

Up in flames we go, you fire breather

Kaori Shinsou had always enjoyed reading her course material for the upcoming lessons on the roof of their apartment building. She didn't really know why, because it was a pain in the ass dragging all her stuff up there with her and getting comfortable enough to actually be able to focus on what she was reading.

Maybe it was the feeling of being on top of everything else - the lights of the city, the streets and all the world at that moment was somewhere further down and just didn't concern her. It was just her and the night sky and the view of the city skyline. Anything that happened down there - in real life - didn't concern her.

Today was different, though. The night was perfect for this, but Kaori just kept getting distracted. She found herself reading the same sentence over and over, until she took a deep breath and looked up. She let her eyes wander over the city. She didn't understand why she was getting so distracted all the time. It was like her mind was just wandering back and forth.

Maybe it still was the concussion, although she was feeling much better at this point and was even able to get rid of her bandages. Maybe it was because she had been hanging out less with Hitoshi lately, because he was so obsessed with preparing for the Sports Festival. She didn't even know why he was trying so hard.

If he wanted to get into Criminology, he could do so without doing well in the Sports Festival. Of course, Hitoshi wanted to work on actual cases and get a chance of interning at some police department. That much was clear. He had been mentioning doing a shortened version of the basic training, if he got the chance, but to Kaori that was a wild thought. Hitoshi had never been very strong physically, mostly because he just didn't have the kind of patience to go through with a workout plan. He was athletic, in a way. He'd always go on a morning run with her, but that was it.

Well, it was really up to him, what he wanted to do. She was just worried that he would get in over his head. She knew he wouldn't admit to overexerting himself with how stubborn he could be. But the more she was thinking about it, the more she knew that that wasn't it. There was something else.

She was almost certain it was her crush on Mr. Aizawa acting up again, but that hadn't been a problem for her the last two years, so Kaori wasn't sure whether that was really it. Maybe the fact she was actually going to be his TA next term was distracting her. Plus, he had that way of looking at her, since she had started his course. Kaori liked to imagine he was only looking at her that way. She also liked to imagine that the look had gotten more intense since they had been fighting off criminals together. But she knew damn well that those were just some stupid daydreams.

Maybe today wasn't a good day to be studying after all. She had a bit of time to get through those chapters, so it wasn't too bad if she didn't get it done right away. Everyone was busy with the Sports Festival that was approaching (except the people who knew there was no point for them to do well in it), so her assignments all had gotten an extended deadline at the moment.

Maybe she should just finish studying at the festival. She wouldn't take part in it herself (only students in their first three years were required to take part, plus the concussion gave her a good excuse anyway), but she'd go and see it just to support Hitoshi. There were some parts that were dragging on for ages, though, so during that time she could easily just read up on some stuff.

Kaori sighed. She felt tired as hell, but she knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep if she went to bed now. She was taking less painkillers and with her concussion getting slightly better, the insomnia had returned strong as usual. The worst part was that she still wasn't allowed to drink coffee, so she just felt tired all day and all night, every day and every night. It was torture.