"Are you sure you'll be fine Kanari-chan?" Ryuji questioned her as Kanari began to leave a few hours later.

"Yes I'm sure, besides it's not like something bad is going to happen to me or anything."

Her blonde friend frowned, and she smiled at him. "Fine," he replied, "But I'm going with you!"

Kanari waved her arms, "You don't have to do that! Besides, I'm pretty sure that your mother needs help with the twins."

"Nah, they're usually great at going to bed." Ryuji opened the door to his house, and gestured for her to walk outside his house.

After forty minutes of walking, they had reached the familiar doors of Kanari's house. Kanari reached inside her pocket, and pulled out her keys, inserting them into the keyhole of the door. Successfully unlocking the door, the duo proceeded to walk inside the house. 

"I'm home!" she announced, placing her schoolbag on the nearby coffee table.

"Ah, I see!" came the jovial voice of her uncle, "How was it?" Kanari could hear his footsteps walk down the hallway towards her.

"It was fine, Ryuji-kun came with to make sure I was fine on my way home." Kanari jerked a thumb back at her blonde friend as her uncle came into view.

"How kind of him to do that," Suigetsu responded, and he rested a hand on Ryuji's shoulders, "Thanks for coming here, is there anything I can get you before you go back?"

"Uh not at the moment, but I think that there is something that you should know." he stated boldly, and her uncle froze, and he looked at him as if it was bad.

"What is it?" Suigetsu's tone shifted to a darker one, and Ryuji smiled warily.

"N-Nothing too bad I promise," he started, holding his hands up in defense, "It's just that there was a moment today that Kanari freaked out in pain, almost as if she was hearing something." Ryuji stared worriedly at his female friend.

"Huh is that so?" her uncle questioned, "What happened Kanari?"

"Nothing too bad Uncle Suigetsu," Kanari huffed out, "I just heard a loud, high-pitched sound earlier today is all..." she trailed off, unsure as to whether or not tell anyone as to say what happened to her blonde friend a few hours earlier.

"Okay Kanari," her uncle replied, "Just make sure to drink plenty of water." Her uncle proceeded to grab his keys, "I have a late night lesson to attend to tonight, so be safe, and hold down the fort."

Kanari nodded her head, and she kept her gaze on the ground.

"Be safe Kanari, okay?" her uncle requested, pressing his lips to the top of her head, "I'll be back late tonight, so don't wait up for me."

"Understood." she replied, and her uncle eyed her friend.

"Ryuji-kun, make sure she doesn't do anything bad alright?" he pointed right at her friend.

"Uncle!" she exclaimed, and her uncle laughed it off.

"I just tease, I'll see you tomorrow kiddo." And with that, her uncle walked out the door, and it shut with a soft creak, leaving the duo by themselves.

Silence filled the air in between them, and Ryuji was the first to break it, "So..." he began, "Are you going to tell me what else you were going to say?" he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I... Don't know for sure yet." she replied.

"Let me see." he said out of nowhere.

"What?" she questioned him, giving him a surprised look.

"Your eye silly!" he nudged her arm in a playful manner, "What else did you think I meant?"

"You know how I feel about my eye..." she complained.

"Doesn't matter to me," Ryuji turned towards her, "Anyways, I find it to be the coolest thing ever!"

"Easy for you to say," she replied, "You've never had a peculiar trait that everyone wants to know about."

"Come on, please?" her blonde friend intertwined his hands together, "Just for a few minutes, I promise!"

She thought on that for a moment. "Alright," she gave in, "But I don-"

"Yeah yeah, it's the same thing every time! 'Don't tell anyone about my eye' tell me something I don't know for once!" Ryuji leaned forward as he said so, and he was a few inches away from her.

Kanari sighed, "Alright, calm down a bit, I need my personal space!"

"Oh, sorry Kanari-chan, I guess that I just got too excited there for a moment. I mean, it's not every day that I get to see the eye."

"I get the point Ryuji-kun, just calm down for a moment." Kanari brought a hand to her face, and she felt the familiar fabric of the patch that hid her right eye.

She began to remove the medical tape that bound the patch to her face, and she gingerly removed it, blinking a few times before leaving the eye open for her blonde friend to see. "I've seen it more times than I can remember, but it is still the coolest thing I have ever seen."

"Yeah, that's not what I think."

"In all the years I have known you, you've always had that eye."

Kanari winced at the mention of this. While it was true that Ryuji had known her for quite some time, that wasn't the complete truth. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"... Nothing." came her reply.

Ryuji didn't buy it. "You are a terrible liar, do you know that?" She nodded, "So don't tell me 'nothing' when it's not! I've known you for far too long to not understand when my best friend is lying!"

"It's just not something that I want to talk about."

"Since when?" he crossed his arms.

"Since forever!" she huffed out.

They stared at each other for a minute, before beginning to laugh a lot.

"I guess that it's just that it wasn't always this way." she started to explain, and Ryuji turned his head back to her. She grabbed a handheld mirror, and gazed into it, bringing her free hand up to her face, touching the area around her eye.

"What does that mean?"

"I mean," she thought for a moment before continuing, feeling tears beginning to build up, "My parents knew that something would happen to them one day, and they just decided to-"

She was stopped by Ryuji grabbing her arm in one hand, and he pulled her close to him before wrapping his other arm around her, and Kanari found herself to be lost with the sudden action. "Don't. Say anything like that, ever." he breathed out.

"I-" her voice seemed to hitch in her throat, and she felt the tears threaten to slip more.

"It's okay to cry sometimes you know," her friend began, "It's okay to be selfish in moments like these."

"W-What are yo-"

"I can tell Kanari-chan, you're not feeling too well at the moment. You're fighting against something, tears I would conclude."

"I guess you're right about that," she replied, "I meant it when I said that it wasn't always this way."

"What do you mean by that?"

"My eyes."

"How so?"

"When I was a child, before I met you, I would have the same eye color."

Ryuji shot her a confused look. "I don't remember exactly what happened to my left eye, but one day, I woke up, and my eye was purple. A few days later..." she sighed, placing a hand on her forehead, "Can we stop talking about my eye now please?" she broke free from her blonde friend's embrace, "There's a reason that I hide it. To avoid conversations like these." She stood up and walked back from him, and he pouted.

"Come on Kanari-chan!" he argued, "You can tell me, I'm your best friend."

"There are some things that are best left alone." she teased him.

"You still haven't answered my question!"

"Which one? I'll need a refresher." she began to ascend upstairs towards her room.

"Ugh..." she heard him groan from the bottom floor, "The one about your head pain from my house." he offered, and Kanari froze, her hand on the doorknob.

Kanari heard his footsteps from behind her, and she turned slowly, "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"Try me Kanari-chan." he gestured his hands in a come-at-me fashion, and Kanari let out a sigh.

"Fine," she began, "But you'll have to wait for me to change."

"Fine then," he shrugged, "But I'll be waiting for you out here."

"That's okay by me." was all she said before she quickly opened her door, and went inside it, as she shut it. She locked the door just for good measure.

Kanari quickly changed into a simple T-shirt and shorts, and she exited her room to see her friend's back turned towards her, and he appeared to be playing a game of sorts on his phone.

She quietly approached him from behind before she proceeded to let out a loud "Hey man!" to which he responded by jumping up in surprise, dropping his phone in the process, and it tumbled down the steps.

"Aw come on! I was about to beat another level." he complained.

"Oh," she replied, "I guess then that you don't want to know what happened then." She began to retreat into her room, and Ryuji grabbed her arm.

"No no no, you're going to tell me downstairs." he then proceeded to lead her down to the first floor, and they sat on the couch. "So," he mentioned, "What happened?"

Kanari began to think. She couldn't tell him about the skeleton pirate on a hoverboard, he'd call her crazy, and then she'd have to explain how she can see the auras of people. "It was just a terrible migraine, nothing to worry about." she offered.

Ryuji gazed at her, almost as if he was trying to see into her mind. "Are you sure about that?" he inquired, and she nodded.

"It's getting late, you need to go home before your mom assumes we're doing something bad." Kanari added.

Ryuji looked at the screen of his phone, "Crap, it's that time already? I really gotta head off!" Ryuji then stood up, and gathered his things, "Are you sure it was just a regular persistent migraine?"

"I'm perfectly sure of it, I'll text you if anything else happens." she waved him off, and he smiled at her softly. 

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow Kanari-chan." he replied.

"Good night Ryuji-kun." she returned the farewell.

Ryuji then stepped out the door, and it shut behind him. Kanari stood up, and walked over to the door, and she peered out the window.

He was walking out of her property, when suddenly there was another high-pitched ringing inside Kanari's head. She placed her hands over her ears, and she turned to look at Ryuji, and sure enough, the same skeletal warrior was over him.

Kanari ran over to the bathroom sink, and she quickly turned on the  faucet, and she proceeded to cup her hands under the chilly flow of water, and she splashed it over her face. She repeated the process a few times just to make sure that she was all better.

She then shut the water off and stood there, her face dripping wet. She silently stared into her reflection, taking in the view of herself- wet, in pain, and confused.

She stepped out of the bathroom, and went inside her room, where she sat on her bed, her knees pressed against her chest.

"What is wrong with me?" she asked herself, and she stared into her hands. The pain was still there, but it was more bearable than a few minutes beforehand.

But when she blinked, all she could see was mechanical parts in place of her arms, power gages strewn across the back of her hand, wires connecting all over her arms to her torso.

And that's when she knew.

She needed to talk to her parent's coworkers, at least, the ones she can trust.

Translation notes:  Intabyū, which is interview, which I believe is written as インタビュー