Eyes That Change

Needed Rest

It had been a few hours since Shuichi brought Yuna to his home. His mother had phoned the police to notify them of the "burglary" that had occurred at Yuna's home. While she did that, Shuichi and Yuna had begun to clean the small guest room where she would be staying.

While the two of them cleaned, a song projected into their minds from Yuna. It was more a rhythm now since she could never grasp the words. She just remembered it from when she was far younger.

Shuichi continued to think about her actions from earlier. He knew it was none of his business, but if her father really did do something to the poor girl he couldn't risk her losing control. The thought of what she could potentially do to someone if she lost herself to her emotional weakness was a dark one. His eyes flicked to her, watching her pack a few boxes and place them in the closet before pulling out a folded futon.

"Yuna, may I ask you something?"

The short girl jumped, startled from her cleaning. Looking over her shoulder, she locked gazes with him. There was a small glint of fear underlying within her gold eyes. Quickly, she nodded before looking away from him as she adjusted the futon absently.

"Has he hurt you?" His question sent shockwaves through her spine. The image of an older man with steel-like eyes using his fist to strike her ribs flashed through their heads. It was followed by countless others, some were where she was on the ground and he kicked her, others where he hit her with a switch to leave welts.

Much to his disgust, the last few images flashing through his head were the exact reasons why she'd received such treatment. Every test and paper she received that had been graded below perfect marks without her extra credit work. The beatings were all over her grades? He knew that their teachers were especially hard on her, but for her father to go to such lengths over slightly lower grades? It was barbaric.

"Have you told anyone?" She bit her lip, large tears threatening to spill over again. Shaking her head back and forth vigorously. Her shoulders began to shake as hiccups wracked her body. She bent her head low, still shaking it back and forth trying to rid her mind of the images.

"They know," she hiccuped loudly, her voice coming out hoarse and she sunk to her knees, "most of our teachers know. The headmaster knew since the beginning." Her tears finally started to fall only to slowly float in the air. The other items within the room quickly followed, floating just inches above where they were placed.

He quickly made his way to her and gently placed a hand on her back, only to have her violently shake him off. He bit the corner of his mouth, there was no way he could send her back to her home, it was too high risk.

"I'm not gonna hurt you Yuna. I won't let him hurt you again." He spoke calmly and slowly reaching his hand over to rub her back. This time she didn't shake him off, though she was still shaking from him touching her.

"Just calm down and try to think of something happy." He urged her, so as not to have more things within his home start floating and distress his mother. She breathed deeply, trying to calm down. She tried to find at least one happy memory that didn't make her sad. However, that was proving difficult since the only good memories she had were with Yusuke and with him dead that made it worse for her.

She stared at the floating tear and took a deep breath, thinking of her classmate's kind mother. She was warm, the warmest person she had ever known. Thinking of the kind woman was enough to calm her down. Yuna took a deep breath, soon everything that had been floating fell to where they had originally been. Exhaustion crashed into like a wave, every part of her feast like lead.

Shuichi chuckled softly and gave her a soft pat. "It would seem that your body has hit its limit with your abilities. Get some rest, I'll wake you when the detectives come."

He urged her to the futon, giving her another reassuring smile before turning off the lights and leaving. As he closed the door behind him to give her some peace, her voice filled his mind.

Thank you.