Night Rain: Prologue

“I belong here.”
That’s what she said to herself, much to her parents’ slight dismay, as they walked into the grounds of Yamaku academy.
This was her idea all along. Aiko Amaya decided that she needed to come to Yamaku Academy. Her parents could never understand why. She had been doing so well at her old school until recently. A once bright future being tarnished by a plummeting performance report. They were still reeling at their daughter’s proposal to switch schools. Yamaku was a school traditionally for the disabled. Sure, they took normal children, but it was still a cripple school. And a pricy one at that. But they made that promise to each other, those eighteen years ago. They would do whatever it took to make their daughter happy. They could make ends meet with this arrangement. He’d do some more shifts at the plant, she would do a few part time jobs at night. All for their lovely beautiful daughter.
“I’m Mutou, the science teacher, and your daughter’s homeroom teacher.”
A somewhat disheveled thirtysomething  mumbled before them as if he wasn’t used to talking to outsiders.  At least the school looked to be everything their daughter said it would. Three floors with a central opening and skylights. Skylights. Skylights aren’t a feature for schools with tight budgets. Hush, this wasn’t the time for such nitpicking. They barely even heard him dismiss them as he took their lovely daughter up to the class room.
She was gone now. Gone from their lives into the world. They knew it would happen eventually, but not like this. Not like this.