How Far Chapter 12: A Woman Scorned

	The feeling of impact in my fist sends a spike of pain, but the adrenaline is flowing now and I’m screaming.

	“YOU TOOK HIM TO FUCKING SCOTLAND!? YOU PUT AN ARRYTHMATIC GUY ON A PLANE!? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU FUCKING FUCK!!?” It comes out much shriller than I wanted, but I don’t care. The boy, Kenji, is crumpled on the floor, looking up at me from his position against the wall with anger in his eyes.

	“How the hell was I-” he starts, but I fling my prosthetic leg forward with my leg muscles, and it strikes him right in the chest. Even confined to this dammed chair, I can still work my knees. The impact from his chest tears open the fragile skin of my leg, but I don’t care. I’m barely able to resist the urge to fling myself at him.

	“Emi.” Says a melancholy voice from behind me, but I ignore her.

	“How wouldn’t you! You’re his hall-mate, his fucking friend, right? Oh, you’re such a fucking hero, Kenji.” I say, gesturing to the notes and posters people had made and dropped off for him. I kick my leg at him again, but he blocks it this time, shielding himself. “You didn’t even know, did you?”

	“Emi.” Says the girl again. “The elevator is moving.”

	I ignore her again, tears breaking over my eyes. “You stupid bastard. He was supposed to- supposed to…” I start crying openly, not caring who sees. I put my head in my hands as I sob, hating the world.

	“What the hell is- Ibrazaki? Emi? Hey, are you- Setou, get back in your room.”

	A deep voice, the security guard Kane, talks over my sobs. I refuse to pick my head up though. Fuck Kane, fuck Kenji, and fuck fucking stupid Hisao.

	“She hi-”

	“Setou! Return to your room. That’s an order.” Kane booms. The door clicks as Kenji returns to it, muttering darkly under his breath.

	I feel a hand on my shoulder and finally look up, and see Kane kneeling down next to me. “Emi?” he asks.

	“He was supposed to stay here with me.” I say, and I grab Kane, fresh tears falling down my face. I bury my head in his shoulder, sobbing. He hugs me, muscular arms around me as he pats my back.

	“Hey, hey, it’s alright. Come on, we gotta get you to the nurse, you’re bleeding.”

	“Oh, so you are.” Says Rin.

	“Uhh, Ms. Would you mind pushing… oh.” Kane says, apparently looking at Rin. It catches me soo off guard that I break off, looking at them. Kane is looking at Rin, a furious blush on his face, as she waggles her armless stumps in what looks like some weird kind of shrugging dance. The scene is enough to make me laugh, and I bust out laughing. God, I’m so emotional. I’m crying on a security guard.

	Kane looks over at me, and he smiles. “Hey, that’s better. I’m going to have to push you to the nurse, okay?”

	What he says finally registers with me, and I grab down towards my right leg. “Oh no! Nononononono- aghhh dammit.” I curse, finding the blood dripping off of the ancient prosthetic. The thing was essentially a cup connected to a bar connected to a foot. It was a really old pair, the ones I had gotten a few years ago after growing and needing to get used to walking with longer legs. That I had to use them at all sucked, and now they had blood on them. I popped the leg off, and sure enough a small wound had torn on my leg. “Ahhhh, shit. Mom’s gonna have a fit.” I say.

	“Is it better to leave that off?” Kane asks.

	“Yea, so it doesn’t bleed all over it. Ugh.” I sigh. “Let’s go. That man.” I say, grumbling as Kane takes the handles on the back of my chair and starts pushing.
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	The walk to the nurse’s station was in silence, which I was grateful for as I was able to finally get some thoughts to myself. I hadn’t meant to punch Kenji, hadn’t meant to even yell at him, I’d wanted to ask what had happened and if Hisao was in trouble because they didn’t bring him back. It was me, after all, who had found out he was missing. Well, me and that Hanako girl. I’d waited until 12:30 by the track before thinking that maybe he’d just overslept and was on my way to wake him up when I ran into her as she was exiting the girls’ dorm. I’d asked her where his room was and told him he hadn’t shown up for breakfast like we planned, and she went dashing off to the boys’ dorm. It’s not exactly easy to hurry in a wheelchair, but I’d caught up to her by the dorm as she came back down the stairs, crying and saying his room was broken into and he was gone. We went back up as the front desk called security and saw all of his stuff there, all of his pills and clothes, and a giant hole in his wall. I thought he’d been attacked, not jumped ship to fucking Scotland to chase after that stupid freakishly tall blonde…

	“Rahhh.” I growl to myself.

	“Hey, the Nurse isn’t that bad.” Kane says, pushing along. I twist in my chair to glare at him, but he only smiles that stupid smile and keeps pushing. I huff as we enter the building, and within a few moments we’re at the station.

	Kane raises up a large hand and knocks on the doorframe.

	Heeelllloo.” Comes an annoying voice from inside. Kane pushes us forward, and there’s Nurse sitting at his computer typing. “How may I-” he starts, spinning around, but he stops midsentence as his eyes lock on me and within seconds he’s in his serious doctor mode.

	“What happened?” He asks, standing from his chair and advancing on the first aid station. He quickly washes his hands. “Jumping Jacks.” I say, arms crossed and miffed.

	“She kicked another student.” Kane says. I shoot him another glare which seems to bounce off of him.

	“She hit him too. You might wanna check his face.” Rin says to Kane. I had almost forgotten Rin was there, but now I find myself exasperatedly looking at her.

	“Oh, I didn’t… Well, I’ll uhh, I’ll be back.” Kane says, hurrying from the room, Rin still looking after him. She looks down back at me, and then towards my leg, which is dripping with blood.

	“I don’t like blood.” Rin says, and she walks to a corner and sit in the chair, tucking her feet up. Her face is impassive as she slips her shoes off of her feet.

	The Nurse approaches me, bandages and gauss in his hands. “I’m guessing Mr. Setou was involved in this?” He asks, knowingly. I look away, but that seems to gratify his answer.

	“I’d have done it myself if I could earlier. Don’t worry, you’re not in any trouble.” He says. I look back to him, surprised, and he winks. “We had quite the discussion earlier, about endangering other people’s lives.”

	I huff and look away again.

	“Come on, let’s get you out of that chair.” He reaches forward, and I find myself grabbing onto him as he bodily lifts me from the seat and places me in one of the beds. Anger courses through me as this is the second time this week I’m here. And it’s all that stupid Hisao’s fault.

	“Alright.” Nurse says. “The bleeding was already slowing, so you should be okay. It’s not that bad, but please, TAKE IT EASY.” He says, empathizing the last three words. He unbuckles my other leg, and takes it and the one I took off earlier, putting them on his desk. “I’m taking these, so you’re not tempted to act out any time soon. Okay?” The nurse asks.
Before I can answer, I hear a loud bang from outside, followed by incoherent yelling.

	“NO!NO! YOU CAN’T MAK-” I recognize Kenji’s voice, as he’s propelled into the office by Kane, who is holding him by the scruff of his neck. He had apparently tried to give himself some sort of first aid, as gauss was layered over half of his face, and band-aids were stuck to his neck.

	“I found him about to try to give himself stiches.” Kane says, grabbing one of Kenji’s flailing hands and placing him in a hold.

	“Come on, Mr. Setou. We need to have another talk.” The Nurse says, standing. “This one about medication, apparently. The room across the hall, if you’d please.” Kane nods, and leads Kenji, flailing, from the room.

	The nurse sighs. “They really need to approve my padded cell idea.” He says to himself. He then turns to me and gives another of his trademark winks, and he’s gone.

	“Padded cell?” Rin asks.

	“He’s kidding… I think.” I respond. Rin is sitting, one foot raised to her head as she tilted her face into it, like a bored person would with their hand.

	“Are you okay?” She asks. “You’re not very Emi today. Or are you too much Emi? It’s difficult to tell.” She says.

	I look at her a few moments before just giggling. “I’m as me as me can be.” I say, remembering a phrase my mom told me when I was little. Rin just nods, then places her legs cross legged and closes her eyes, apparently needing to meditate on the days events.

	I reflect on them too, and before long I find myself steaming too. If Hisao hadn’t run up those stairs, I wouldn’t have hurt my leg. If Hisao hadn’t had lunch with me, I wouldn’t have seen Rin and fallen. If Hisao hadn’t left, I wouldn’t have hit Kenji. This is all that stupid Hisao’s fault. If he hadn’t left… If he didn’t run after someone who obviously didn’t care about him…

	“Ugggghhh.” I groan to myself, putting my head back in my hands. I hate this. I hate feeling like this. He’s just a dumb boy, why do I feel like someone just punched me in the gut?

	Half-tempted to pull out my hair in anger, I huff in exasperation and lie back against the pillows.

	A door opens out in the hall, and the Nurse and Kane enter the room.

	“Where’s the mental patient?” I ask him. He smiles warmly, although Kane rolls his eyes.

	“Emi, and I suppose you as well Tezuka, what are you plans for this summer?” Nurse asks us. I turn to Rin, who seems to still be in her meditative position, not paying attention.

	“Well, I don’t really have any, and I think Rin is free too… Why?” I ask cautiously. Nurse smile grins even wider as he steps forward.

	“Mr. Kane and I, in conjunction with the local hospital, as well as the school, would like to extend an, ah, invitation to the both of you.” He says. He has his smug look plastered on his face, and Kane stands behind him, leaning against the wall. It’s really striking at just how fit Kane is. He looks more like a soldier than a security officer, though he looks extremely American in just how large he is. His blue security uniform looks slightly tight, but it makes his chest look bigger. “This program,” nurse continues, “will allow for you to continue your stay at Yamaku. You’ll even be able to keep your dorms over the summer.” Rin seems to perk up at this, and she moves her head, stretching her neck. “It’s a medical training sort of class, mainly focused on First Aid. I think you’d both benefit from it.”

	Rin nods her head, “Sure, it sounds fascinating. Will we get to dissect people?” She asks.

	Nurse laughs, although it comes out a bit forced. “That’s the advanced class,” he jokes back, although Rin looks rather put-off that she can’t slice someone with her foot.

	She looks over at me. “I’ll join if you do.” She says.

	“Woah, way to put the pressure on!” I say back, she just smiles though. “What if I don’t want to?” I ask, looking back to Nurse. He smiles so large that it nearly touches his ears.

	“Oh, I have a bit of incentive for you.” He says, stretching his lips. “If you don’t, your mother might learn that you punched a student in the face today. You nearly broke his glasses, you know.” He says with a wink.

	“BLACKMAIL!!” I shout at him, and I pound my fists against the bed. “Evil evil blackmail!”

	“I like to think of it as, insurance, to make sure you do something besides grind your legs to dust this summer.” He says, smiling.

	“Besides, you can spend more time with me.” He winks again, and I see Kane smiling amusedly in the background.

	“Sooooo…” I say, after a pause. “If I do join, you won’t tell Mom about what happened?”

	“Promise.” He replies, raising his left hand in a vow.

	“Not even that I tore my leg?”

	He hesitates for a moment, but he nods his head. “Yes, fine. But don’t let her find out about it, because she’ll kill me if she does.

	That woman is a beast when she’s angry.”

	“This woman will turn into a beast if you don’t give me my legs back.” I say, mostly joking. Mostly. He laughs though and goes to the table, handing me my legs.

	“The class begins in a week. You two will have full campus access, as always. Feel free to utilize it.” He says with a smile.

	“Thank you both.” Kane says, and he bows his head. “I’m going to head back out. Hopefully that’s the last attack of the day.” He says, jokingly. I stick my tongue out at him, and he lets out a bark of laughter as he walks out the door. The Nurse helps me back to my chair, and he bops me on the nose.

	“No telling Meiko. Promise?”

	“Promise.” I reply.

	“Good. Now get outta here, ya goof. I don’t want to see you until next week.” I settle in the chair, both legs laid across my lap. Rin walks up and out the door ahead of me.

	“I’m gonna tell Mom that your canceling dinner with her tomorrow then!” I say, and zoom out of the room. He calls out after me, but I’m already gone, following Rin down the hall and outside.

	We walk around for a bit, a little aimlessly. I know how Rin enjoys wandering about campus, so I’m at least happy that she’ll be able to stay the summer as well. I have no idea what she has planned, and I very much doubt that Rin herself knows either.

	Rin begins kicking her legs up as she walks, more of an oblong march than anything. She’s a bit silly to watch, almost in a sort of waddling as she refuses to bed her knees as she does. I giggle and she looks over at me, apparently surprised I’m still here.

	“Hey Emi, will you sleepover tonight? It’s too quiet now that people are gone.” Rin asks straightforwardly, and it catches me a bit off guard.

	“Yea, sure! It’ll make it easier to hide my bandages from mom too. I’ll call her and let her know.” And just like that, I’ll be spending the night with Rin. It’s not the first time we’ve slept over, there’ve been nights where I’ve woken up and she’s on my floor, covered in paint, and she won’t tell me what she was doing, which is a lot of interactions with Rin, now that I think about it. Rin will be Rin though, and I happen to like that about her.

	“You’re staring at me.” Rin says, pointedly.

	“Oh… Sorry.” I say, looking forward.

	“Don’t apologize. I stare at you too.” I look back to her and she’s got her half smile on her face, and we’re back to our afternoon stroll.

	It’s not long before the sun starts to set, and Rin and I head back to the girls’ dorms. As we did, I called my mother to let her know I’ll be staying the night, and though she sounded a bit disappointed she agreed it was fine. I told her I might be doing something over the summer, and she seemed happy enough with that, and to tell her the details when I got home.

	In the yellow light of the setting sun, a couple of girls pass us by as we enter the dorm. They all seem to be loaded up with bags, including that Hanako girl, who looks like she might be trying to carry her entire room at once. I wave to her, and she tries to wave back… dropping a few bags in the process.

	I flinch, a yell out a quick sorry, before continuing on our way inside. Sitting by the front desk is that girl that’s in Rin’s art class. She notices us and hops off of the countertop, then walks over to us cane in hand.

	“Good evening, Rin.” She says.

	“Hmm? Oh, hello.” Rin replies.

	The girl turns to me, extending a hand. “Saki, it’s good to meet you. Emi, right?”

	“Ummm… yes?” I reply, cautiously. Saki seems to find that funny, and giggles into her hand.

	“I owe you a debt.” She says. Confusion must be plain on my face, as she laughs again. “I hear that you, ah, gave Mr. Setou a ‘piece of your mind’?” she says.

	“Oh… that…” I say, and I feel a blush come onto my face. “Yea… I sort of let things get out of hand.”

	Saki humms at it lightly, and I’m starting to get a bit irritated with her enjoying this. “Well, thank you.” She said, and she takes my hand, bowing. “I was on my way to do that myself when Security was tugging him out of the building. Another student told me what had happened, and I decided I simply must meet you. Hisao and I had made plans, but I suppose those have fallen through. Oh well.” She says with a shrug and a smile.

	“W-what plans did Hisao make with you?” I ask, a bit worriedly. I scold myself for even caring, but a part of me still wants to know.

	“Oh, just for lunch. He showed me an excellent book that made me think about a few things.” Saki says, and she gestures to a book lying on the counter where she had sat. “Say, will you be around this summer?” Saki asks.

	“Yea, why?” I reply, curiously. This girl sure seems to move fast.

	“There’s a martial arts club starting up in town, there’s a flyer over on the bulletin board.” She says, gesturing to the cork board where students usually hung pamphlets. “Would you like to join with me? I’d love to have someone else I know besides just myself.”

	“Oh, uhh, well me and Rin…” I trail off, gesturing towards my legs.

	Saki smiles. “I wouldn’t have taken you as someone who’d allow that to matter.” She says. I feel my brow twitch, and the anger of the day start flaring up.

	“When does it start?” I ask, through gritted teeth.

	“Oh, about two weeks. I must be going now, I sure hope you’re able to come. Thanks again, but I must be on my way!” Saki says. She turns, walking back to the counter and picking up her book before heading to the stairs. “See you around.” She says with an irritating wink.

	I fight the urge to shout as I roll over and tear the pamphlet from the wall.

	The pamphlet advertises the new martial arts center, teaching all sorts of fighting techniques. The words ‘kick boxing’ are underlined, and I look over at Rin, cringing at the thought of being on the receiving end of one of her powerful legs. She smiles at me when she notices me looking at her. I look back to the paper, and read a few other art styles. One of the things that actually pulls at me is a section about using weapons, including sword fighting.

	A memory floats into my head. ‘I’ll send ye plummeting into Tha Sea ya scallywag.’

	If I ever see Hisao again, I’m going to make sure that he’ll be walking the plank.