Cure for stress

Those were the words Narissa typed into the search engine on her lap top. It had been over a month since she first came to Shokushu. The same time it was for her to run into one of the hidden surprises of the island.

A monster called Fornicuras being one of those unpleasent surprises.

Even though she had no more run ins with the Marquis, his cryptic words had been engraved into her heart. Always watching, there'll be another time. The faculty hadn't been much help, writing her off as anit-social, homesick, or just missing her 'Mummy.'

Narissa was none of those.

Inside the library, her fingers danced over the keyboard and her index finger scolled down the little pad on the laptop. Her slightly baggy eyes scrolled over the screen.

The best ways for someone to get over their stress is to face their fears inhabiting their stress. . .

. . . . .

Narissa was quick to backspace on that topic and scroll down the search engine again. A sudden cold wind came over her shoulder. Jumping, she looked back. Nothing but the empty space between bookcases existed behind her as she sat at the table.

Always watching . . .

Her heart beat instantly picked up a tempo at the memory, feeling more chilled air licking at her. Scrutinizing the aisle again, her eyes stopped at the ceiling. Placed between the flurscent lighting rods and where one of the styrofoam panels would be, a metal vent was afix. She could see the little paper tabs lifting with the airconditioning turned on.

'It's all just in my mind,' she thought, trying to soothe herself to relax again. But really, she was never relaxed anymore nowadays. Each and every corner of Shokushu had become a mind trap for her to spook herself, only a brave front had kept her classmates and gym peers from questioning her. She was trying so hard to be strong but . . .

"Libraries closing! All students please exit through the doors at this time."

Another distraction from the ceiling, one of the intercoms had turned on right above her, making her jump. Narissa frowned at herself, thinking on the prospects of returning to an empty room. Gathering up her lap top and the power chord in her hand, she scooted the chair back and resumed to leave out with the other students, some in unifrom, others in their personal clothes since it was afterschool.

A horror for Narissa to find that none of the students were heading towards her dorm direction in the orange glowing afternoon.

"You can do this. Just head straight to your room and no short cuts. Easy!" A smile perked itself on her lips, too weak to actually reach her eyes. With the onyx color laptop under her arm, she distracted herself with the thoughts of her missing roommate.

It was the same night that Narissa was attacked by a thing called Dendrite that her roomate left with another student for a project. That was what she told her that day. The russet skinned girl would only have a sticky note with the message of "N.I.C.E. experiment products." to remember her by, the rest of her belongings taking out of the room while she was at class. Now it was empty. In the time it would take her to finish these thoughts, she was able to make it to her dorm room and head to her door.

"I'll research some more tomorrow."


Digging in her pocket for the brass key, she stuck it in the lock and twisted it. Taking the lock back out and opening the door,she was greeted to an unexpected sight.

"Who are you!?"

When Narissa opened the door to her dorm room, the site she'd be greeted with was certainly surprising.

First, the less important parts: The room was divided into two normally, with two beds, two desks, two separate drawers, two closets, etc. It was designed for two people, after all, and had all the things necessary to allow for two people to have, well, not a LOT of space, but enough to be comfortable.

But where before the one side of the room had been bare... things had changed drastically. Pictures were plastered over the wall, the simple mattress on the bed she didn't use had a large pink comforter on it. A large fuzzy faux-fur rug was on the ground, taking up a large amount of the ground on both sides, and a warm yellow lamp was on on the desk. That desk had a number of items on it, little figurines and a few stuffed animals, and the closet was open, showing a number of outfits hung on a rack.

Slightly more important than the sudden change of decoration in her room was that there was a girl in there. It was Saburo, and she was standing right in the middle of the room, without a care in the world. She stood there like it was her own room or something, and that this wasn't at all a surprise. She certainly didn't look guilty.

But of even greater importance was a slight detail about Saburo. At this moment, she was almost entirely naked. In fact, as Narissa entered the room, the sight that was on view was actually Saburo pulling up her panties, which was the only thing she was wearing at this moment!

How did Saburo get into this situation? Well, it was quite simple. For the moment, she was without a roommate. Oh, it wasn't like she'd gotten kicked out or anything... just that after some months her own roommate had left for awhile, and so Saburo had gotten a little lonely.

So, being the energetic girl she was, she asked the people in charge of the dorms if there were any other girls who didn't have a roommate. And so she saw this one girl, Narissa. She decided immediately on rooming with that girl, and did the paperwork quickly for a room change. After all, they weren't really supposed to have private rooms, so the people in charge were quite happy to help her follow their rules...

And so she'd gone to this room after class, expecting to meet the girl. But she wasn't there, so she simply made herself at home, unpacking quickly and taking over as though she owned the place. She had been quite busy, and she hadn't even taken off her school uniform, so after getting everything pretty much in order she decided to change... and that's when Narissa finally showed up.

"Well hi there! You must be Narissa!" She waved cheerily, showing not a hint of shame about her body. She giggled lightly, and walked over to the girl, and patted her on her shoulder.

"I'm your new roommate, Saburo! Nice to meet'cha."

And with that, she walked back over to her own bed, and grabbed the bra from the outfit she'd laid out, and put it on. However, she wasn't even bothering to hide herself even then, and Narissa, well... Narissa would get quite an eyeful, if she looked!

When she saw who or, more importantly what, was on display in her room, Narissa almost drop her laptop on her foot.

"Wh-what??" She was stunned to say the least that anyone was here, more so at her lack of attire, then last on priority all the sudden neon colors blinding her.

"My new roommate?" The staff had not forwarned her, not even sure if she had to be, momentarilly distracted by the girl's buxom breast.

"I . . . I didn't know I would get a new roommate." In truth, she was still hoping for her old roommate to come back, but it was not meant to be, apperantly. "Oh . . ."

The sudden appearance made it hard for the dark blue haired girl to register all of this as she made her way to her bed over a plush neon rug underfoot.

'I'll just . . .take it in strides,' she thought, placing her laptop on the desk next to her bed as she looked at the long brick-haired girl. She seemed to be very . . . airy if she could describe her on what little she knew of her. Someone with too much energy for her maybe . . .

Remaining silent for a moment, her eyes looked over the new decor of the room, the clothes, her black eyes making their way to her wall, where they widen exponentially.

"Crap!" she hissed under her breath, ripping down the cut out magazines of blonde men, many of the darts still dug into the wall from the force they were thrown. She gathered them up as quickly as she could, balling them up as she went and tossing them under her blanket.

Maybe the airy girl never bothered to look on her side?

And the out on display pictures on her wall.

. . . . .

Talk about false hope.

As Saburo slipped into a skirt, she glanced back at her new roommate, seeing how she was suddenly freaking out about something. She was grabbing the pictures and the darts manically, like they were some sort of big secret. She grinned at the girl, and stopped dressing to watch her. Naturally she'd seen them before now, and had a silly smile on her face when Narissa had finished 'hiding' them so... poorly.

"So, what was all that about? So you hate blond guys, big deal." Though her words were themselves rather nonchalant, her tone was anything but, as it was very clear she was trying to stifle a giggle while she said it. She was dressed quickly and walked over, sitting on Narissa's bed, watching the girl.

"Anyway, yeah. I didn't have a roommate, I guess you don't either... we're supposed to have roommates... so I was placed in this room with you! I'd hoped to see you earlier, but I didn't know who you were, so..."

Yes, she was lying. Well, fibbing a little bit! ...more like she was leaving out the fact that she was the one who initiated it. The stuff she SAID was all true, after all! Wasn't that all that mattered?!

"Um . . .Sorta," Narissa said evasivly, while facing away from the girl. She really did wish there was a policey on notifying students of new room mates. . . It was embaressing for her to have this total stranger see her . . . Photos.

Even though, to some, that was probably normal, to not hate a particular group of guys in the dating scene, Narissa never had that type of friendship before Shokushu to know that with other girls.

She was glad that Saburo wasn't making too big a deal about it, though. It allowed her to remind herself she hadn't properly introduced herself. So turning around to give an apologotic smile, she made due her hospitality.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Yeah I'm Narissa Lorris. So, " a yawn escaped her, a bit of stress had kept her waking up sporadically for awhile now. "Oh, I'm sorry, didn't mean to sound bored. Hah haha. Is there anything I could do to help?" Yes, that's what she would do, she thought.

Keep her mind off anything unpleasent, maybe this roommate thing wasn't such a bad idae afterall. Maybe she'd actually get some sleep without worrying of being sneaked up on in the middle of the night.

"Well, nice to meet ya! I'm Saburo... Saburo Tepidona!"

The young woman noticed Narissa's nervousness, of course, but didn't really know what was causing it. Was it really that big of a deal to her? Oh, well, it didn't matter too much. She watched the young woman with a smile on her face. She might have been rather airy, but she wasn't an idiot, and had her own goals here, now didn't she?

She'd gotten here, and here was this girl, her new roommate. She chose her kinda on purpose, because she seemed nice, even in her picture. She wasn't completely innocent, but she didn't plan on doing anything bad to this girl... just on enjoying her company. Yet she did choose this room herself, it wasn't foisted on her like she implied it was.

Saburo brightened at Narissa's offer, and shook her head, before yawning a bit herself, and walking back to her bed.

"No, no... I think I've got everything pretty much done! Do you like the room now? I figured I'd bring out a bit more color... your room was so normal before now! It needed some spice, so even for that reason alone I'm glad I'm here!"

She went to her bag and pulled out a few books, placing them on the shelf neatly, humming quietly to herself. It was a nice little tune, but the girl stopped for a moment, blinking as though she'd done something strange. She was thinking about that tune, and the fact that it was a song from her childhood... but it felt oddly like this was the first time she'd ever heard it. She shrugged, however, and kept going, humming happily, finding herself... liking the tune. Yeah, it was pretty good!

Narissa watched the girl move again, a new music being hummed from her. 'She's kinda strange.' But even with that thought she had to take another look of all the added colors.

"Yeah, I . . . never bothered to decorate it or anything, the look before never bothered me that much. Is that so strange?" she finished, rubbing her right ear between her fingers.

"That's a . . . nice melody you have there," Narissa complimented, already feeling slightly tired from her long day as exhaustion caught up with her. She began to slouch on her bed. "Where's it from?"

Saburo listened to the girl speaking, before she asked about the melody. She looked at her for a moment with a slightly... confused look, of all things. She blinked a moment, and gave an expression as if thinking very hard on the subject... then she chuckled a little bit, though it was strangely more forced than her previous airy giggles.

"Um... I guess when I was a little kid. It's just... I couldn't remember when for a moment!" She smiled as though slightly embarrassed, and shrugged her shoulders. "That happens to me all the time, though. I mean, I can remember things just fine, but it's weird. Sometimes, it feels like I shouldn't remember something, and then there it is, like magic... kind of... I dunno, forget it!"

She was blushing now, squirming a bit in one place. Her mind was well made, but... there was a problem. Everything had been implanted all at once, so whenever she accessed a memory, her brain somehow knew it shouldn't really be there. And this little dichotomy, of knowing something, and knowing you shouldn't know it, struck poor Saburo all the time. Of course, she didn't know this was strange, and was able to dismiss it quite easily. It only took a second or two for her to reorient herself, and she was fine with that!

"But anyway! You look tired, Narissa. I don't want to keep you up too late if that's the case, so is there anything I could do to help? I know this is a bit of a surprise, so please tell me how your normal way of doing things is, so I don't get in the way of it..."

It sounded a little weird how she described herelf, but she couldn't care that much about it.

A routine? Everything had run into one meshed month. It was just one abstract of different colors runnnig into eachother.

"No . . .no routine, just, school."

But Narissa was feeling exhausted, so she kicked off her shoes to the ground as she lowered her body to the bed.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more, I've just been really tired lately," and with those words Narissa couldn't remember much after that while Saburo moved between her bed and closet several times, still humming that strange songs. Maybe it was the melody or the monotony of her movements, but it had lulled Narissa to sleep, rolling over and burrying herself in the sheets.

Time continued on as night had fell over the island. It was after eleven that one of Narissa's paranoia was beginning to get to her. It was a feeling of the hairs in the back of her neck were standing up, an imaginary warm breath blowing against the shell of her ear, or the sensation of something crawling over her leg. Her breath began coming more erratic as she gripped the blanket in a tight hold.

Her eyes shot open in the dark, pulling the sheet from her as she sat up, knocking her head against something and yelling in pain.

"Ow! What the??"

Before she knew it, her roommate was fast asleep. Saburo was surprised, because it was still early... barely even 9 o'clock! But maybe Narissa was an early sleeper... she supposed that wasn't a bad thing, but she found herself liking to go to bed much later than that. Still, once she was done setting things up to her satisfaction, she grabbed a book, and with only her lamplight to help her, started reading quietly.

But, the sound of Narissa's breathing was there too, wasn't it? She looked over at the girl from time to time. By 10:30 the girl was making sounds in her sleep, and it was quite curious... Saburo put her book down and sat up, watching her roommate quietly. By about 10:50 the girl seemed even more distressed. But even so, she was also quite pretty when she slept... Saburo got out of her bed and walked over, leaning over the young woman, watching her very closely.

Very, very closely... she could kiss this girl if she wanted to, and no one would be any wiser! But she wasn't going to do anything silly like that. It's not like the chances were great this girl was interested in such things, and technically SAburo wasn't either... it's just that she never got the opportunity to do such things with anyone who wasn't a girl! She blushed at the thought and started to pull away right about then-

Which was when Narissa sat up suddenly. And the thing she hit...? Saburo's head!

Saburo fell back onto her butt, and cried out quietly.

"Eek! Oooooow..."

Narissa rubbed her forehead, the force of the head butt knocking her back again as she heard a familiar voice shriek in equal pain.

"Sa-saburo? What were you doing right then??" the now waful girl asked, her hand not ceasing to rubb her painful cranium. Now fully awake, Narissa took a moment to look at the situation.

'Was I that tired? I haven't even taken off my school uniform!' she though, looking down at her blue and white blouse and skirt. Her covers had somehow managed to find themselves in the middle of the room atop the new bright rug Saburo had brought in. The same one that was sitting in pain on it right now.

"Did-- did I hit you?" Somehow Narissa didn't need to wait for an answer, as there was no other possible reason Saburo could have been on the floor with BOTH of them in pain.

"It was me, I'm so sorry!" She hadn't even remembered to wait for an answer of why the girl was there in the first place, but she was already worried for her.

"Are you alright?"

It took Saburo a moment, but she nodded, and looked up at Narissa, rubbing her head. There was a little red mark, but it wasn't serious. No bleeding or anything, the girl noticed, moving her hand away for a second. She hopped up after that, and winced, but only for a moment, before holding her head again.

"It's okay! It was my fault for, um..." She blushed, then, looking at the woman. Yes, it was her fault, because she'd gotten sooooo close, thinking of kissing her and other naughty things. She had grown awful. But then, with teachers like the ones she'd had, how else was she gonna end up acting? It's not like she had any life experiences except a few... but then, maybe she was just normally such a mischievous girl either way!

"I, uh... was leaning over you for a moment because you seemed distressed, like you were having a bad dream. I'm sorry, did I disturb you...?" If that was all, why was Saburo blushing so hard?!

"I seemed distress?" ignoring the girls reddening face. Narissa looked down to her lap, still laying on the bed except sitting up. 'Another dream . . .' her eyes instantly lifted up in front of her were some darts were embedded into the wall.

"I'm sorry if I worried you, it's just," Narissa stared at the girl, the pinkish bump on her forehead standing out from her pale skin. "Don't worry about it."

Sighing she laid back down on her back, eyes afixed to the ceiling.

"I don't think I'm going to be getting any sleep though, now that I'm awake."

'At least not with those dreams with him again.'

"Maybe you should sleep, too, if you're still okay."

Saburo frowned after a bit, watching Narissa. She seemed really bothered by something. She sighed, and walked over, sitting on Narissa's bed all of a sudden, right beside the girl. She wrapped an arm around the other girl's waist, and smiled, enthusiastically. She hoped her cheerfulness might help, and transfer over to the girl!

"Aww... it's alright, Narissa. Anyway, I'm wide awake, so don't worry about being awake. We can just hang out or something."

At that point, she seemed to be pulling away... but then she pushed onto Narissa suddenly, an enthusiastic hug that would knock Narissa onto her back if she wasn't paying enough attention!

"You can tell me all about it if you'd like! Or is there anything else I can do to help? I can't stand seeing my new friend all upset, you know?" She giggled a bit, then, and squeezed a little.

But she didn't stay long, and hopped up off of her before she got hit or something. That had happened before. She blushed suddenly, and scratched the side of her head. Then she sat down politely, her face suddenly looking of serious concentration. As though she was trying very hard to not be all overly excited, and yet did so to a comical over-exaggeration of seriousness!

If Narissa couldn't fall asleep before, she was definitly not going to now after that strange exchange between Saburo and herself.

She just could not place a label on this girl. One minute, she was air heady, the next she was . . . .More air-heady, then consoling, and now trying to be serious. Narissa stared at her dark warm colored eyes, her cheeks puffed to try and attempt a firm outlook.

Wow . . . . Just . . . wow

The changes, the somewhat flippant behaivour. . . . it reminded her a lot of him.


The best ways for someone to get over their stress is to face their fears inhabiting their stress...

Well . . . This was . . . sorta the same way of going about it. A much safer one to boot.

"Well, I guess there's no more beating around the bush, huh?" she started, pulling at her ear lobe again. "I guess you can say . . . I got attacked a while back and . . . I'm too scared to relax anymore. I'm afraid he'll come back for me again and I don't know when." It was becoming strangely difficult to keep her eyes dry as she spoke the words she'd been trying to avoid thinking for all this time. In front of a stragner no less. But it was something that she had been trying to deal on her own. Her way of not having to rely on anyone and being her own person but . . . Emotionally it was a different story altogether.