One would suppose you could call her a mouse of sorts, quiet, withdrawing at the first sign of a threat. She's been compared to a dog once before, but she could never bring herself to bark, and she had no bite. She was an old dog, too old to bark, no teeth to bite with, just a quiet little mutt hiding in the corner. She rested her chin on her hand and sighed; a high school student comparing herself to an old dog. She wasn't nearly that useless...was she?

"Staring off into space are you? Anything in particular you are thinking of?" There was a flash of blue, and then there was a cat-like grin blocking the girl's field of vision.

"Hello Kona-chan. I was just thinking about, well, nothing really." Tsukasa smiled gently, not wanting to place her concerns on someone else. After that interruption, her brooding went uninterrupted for the rest of the class; unfortunately, this caused her to forget her note-taking.

Physical education...a class she had opted out of at the start of the year, but due to poor attendance in several classes due to the previous night's snowfall, there was a decision to combine several of the classes and give the students some exercise. On the plus side, her sister was there too, along with her classmate Kusakabe. This amazed Tsukasa, as Misao had always struck her as the type of student to opt out of school given the current weather.

"Hey, Imouto! I didn't think they'd be able to get you down here after that last volleyball match." Of course she'd bring that up; it was something Tsukasa had been trying to clear from her mind. Tsukasa glanced at the energetic, if not hyper-active, track club member and suppressed a sigh. It would be a long day.

"Have they told us what we're doing today?" Tsukasa inquired to her sister, not wanting to speak with Kusakabe for the time being. Though, she feigned her ignorance carefully, as to not alert the fanged girl to her slight aversion.

"Well, seeing as we're all cooped up inside the gymnasium, they decided they'd split the room and have basketball on one side and general exercises on the other for those who...aren't that athletic." Tsukasa knew her sister was trying to phrase it as nicely as she could, but she knew that Kagami had meant people with zero athletic ability. "Ah, they're separating it now." Tsukasa's twin pointed at a pair of tall, narrow doors opening on one side of the large room, where a massive wall unfolded itself from the opening. It slowly stretched across the wooden floor, the motor whining slightly all the while, until it clicked into place at the far end. There were two doors in this wall to allow people to pass through it, and the opening from which the massive divider had come was closed up to keep stray equipment from ending up in there.

"Well, let's try to have fun today." Tsukasa smiled sweetly, not expecting to really do much in the way of strenuous activity.

For the time being she was content tossing a ball back and forth between her and another of Kagami's classmates. She had gone for a light jog around the perimeter of the room with the girl, then they'd done some stretches together, they'd talked about some baking recipes that they liked, and now they contently passed the ball back and forth in their own little corner of the gym.

A loud crash came from the other side of the divider, and the entire wall shuddered from an impact. A whistle was heard, followed by shouting. "Kusakabe! This is not a contact sport! Penalty against the red team!"

Tsukasa chuckled at the commotion, and was distracted long enough for the ball that she'd been tossing to fly past her. She jumped at seeing the piece of equipment fly past her and turned on her heel to chase it. She froze, however, when she saw the ball roll into the now wide open door from which the divider had emerged. "I-I guess...I'll go get it. You wait here Minegishi-san while I grab it." They were technically not allowed back there, but she would only be in there for a moment.

Despite the gymnasium being well lit and the opening reaching all the way up to the ceiling, the space where the divider was stored remained cloaked in an unnerving darkness. Tsukasa would never admit it, but she was still somewhat frightened of the dark. The shadows hid unseen obstructions or dangerous footing that could otherwise be avoided with ease. Tsukasa's vision was adjusting to the low light levels, and she spotted the object she sought right at the back of the narrow area. She reached down to grab it but, just as her fingers grazed it she lost sight of it. Had it moved away from her without her noticing? No, she could still feel it with her fingertips; it just meant that she was now in total darkness. She picked the ball up and turned around, just in time to hear a heavy thud and a sharp click, followed by a continuous loud whining. The sound was terrifying from her perspective, each moan and creak from the machine was, to her, the snarl of an angry beast waiting to descend upon its helpless prey. There was a sensation of something approaching her, so Tsukasa held out her hand.

At first she felt nothing, so she took a few steps forward, then her hand met with a solid surface that had not been there when she'd entered the space. The divider was folding up into the wall for storage...while Tsukasa was still inside. She kept her hand up and slowly moved backward with the closing barrier that kept her from her class. Minegishi was still out there, right? Hadn't she told the person holding the button that she was still in there? Why was the wall still coming?

Her questions ceased the moment her back reached the back wall. She was running out of room. She was running out of space. She was running out of time.

She dropped the ball and placed both her hands upon the approaching surface, a disturbed sense of awe overwhelming her. As the invisible force slowly approached her, she thought about how much she really wanted to shout, but there was no way anyone would hear her over the motor, right? She could feel a slow bead of sweat make its way down the side of her face. The closing space was stuffy, yet devoid of warmth. She tested her strength against the approaching wall, but couldn't even get it to slow down. She tried to consider her options, but she couldn't think of any. She was running out of room to manoeuvre, so she did the first thing to come to mind; she placed both hands firmly against the approaching barrier, she propped her feet against the wall behind her, and she pushed with both her arms and legs, grunting from the effort. All she managed to do was make the motor propelling the divider wail louder than before. There was now so little room that Tsukasa was forced to flatten herself against the wall behind her. She felt the ball that she had come after by her foot, a ball a little larger than her head, something that, when it burst, would mark the moment when she'd start to feel the wall against more than her hands. Her breathing was becoming laboured; perhaps the closing space had forced the air out? She felt bile rising in her throat, but she swallowed it down.

Her sister would save her, right?

Wouldn't someone save her?

Was there anyone there to save her?

Out of an unwelcome desperation she began to pound her fists on the wall, some part of her mind hoping to scare the bad feelings away, but all it did was cause her to panic more. She felt the ball by her foot go rigid...it was closer than before. She began to count as each second passed. One, two...seven, the ball was deforming, pushing against her foot, she was forced to turn her head to the side, eight, nine...fifteen, she felt a pressure on her chest; the wall had reached her, sixteen, seventeen...twenty-one, the wall was pushing the air out of her, her chest began to hurt, twenty-two, twenty-three...twenty-seven, the pain in her chest was unbearable, she could feel her head being squeezed, the motor was screeching loudly, twenty-eight...thirty-two, something in her chest pooped, and a sharp pain wracked her chest cavity. Tsukasa could no longer focus on her counting as her breathing became painful; she could feel a hot liquid pooling in the back of her throat. There was a loud noise, a bang, as the ball beside her burst from the pressure. This startled her so greatly that she became able to do something she could never have done before, something that she should not have been able to do in her current position.

She screamed.

She screamed with all her being and more.

She felt as if she had taken every ounce of energy from every part of her body; from her fingertips to her toes, and forced it all behind that one sound. She made it last several seconds, finally stopping when her strength was gone, her lungs burned in protest, and she could not stop herself from sobbing as she slowly faded from consciousness.

But something caused her to stay awake, maybe the pain in her chest, or the other parts of her body that were now being crushed; a light-headed feeling took a hold of her. Then she noticed something...

...the wall had stopped moving.

Had her body become too much for it? Had the engine given out? Perhaps this space was always there, and she was simply trapped, left to pass out from the pain and never wake?

The motor started up again with renewed vigour, and Tsukasa braced for the crushing feeling to get worse, but it didn't. Instead, she had the faintest sensation that she was leaning forward. Upon her head reaching the floor with her crumpled form behind it, she realized that the wall was moving in the other direction. Had the time come for the next class? How long had she been back there? Then a funny thing happened...

...she was blinded by a white light.

She heard muffled sounds, and felt the light fuzzy sensation of being turned over. The pain in her chest had long since turned to a numb feeling, and she couldn't move, but she could make out blurry figures above her as her vision adjusted to the light. Despite being so close, she could barely hear them as she felt herself moved.

It was then she realized that this was not the next class, but students and a teacher from her own. In her terror she had lost all hope of rescue, and from that she'd lost all concept of time. She realized that she was being saved by the ones who'd let her be crushed. She blamed them for what happened. They didn't save her. Ayano would have told them she was in there, and yet they chose to crush her. Then the voices became clearer...

"How did you find out she was in there?"

"There was a bang, and then we heard her scream."

"Didn't anyone notice her go in there?"

"Her exercise partner might have, but she was taken to the nurse's office to treat a twisted ankle."

"How did that happen?"

"Someone ran into her."

"So if Minegishi hadn't been hurt, Hiiragi would be fine?"

"I suppose so."

As she listened to this, Tsukasa felt her eyes water. She had blamed them, but in reality it was just a stupid accident. She had been stupid and accused them for causing her pain. She felt stupid for getting mad like that. This whole incident was stupid...

...and yet she found that stupidity funny.

Despite her condition, she began to giggle quietly, and then she slowly built it up into a laugh. Her chest felt like it was on fire from her actions, and she could feel the liquid from the back of her throat come out of her mouth. The people moving her on what she now realized was a stretcher panicked. Maybe the liquid frightened then, or perhaps her tears...no, they were startled by her unusual behaviour. After being conscious throughout the entire incident, most people would be catatonic, or panicked. But Tsukasa felt better as she laughed.

It made her worries go away.

Tsukasa awoke with a start, her bed sheets soaked with sweat as her eyes shot open. She stared at the ceiling above her, bewildered. She felt something grip her hand, she turned her head to see her twin holding her hand and watching her with concern.

"You had that dream again, didn't you?" Tsukasa stared at her sister after she was asked this question. It was the same every time, she'd laugh out loud in her sleep after screaming, and every time she'd find someone in the room with her.

The girl in the bed grasped her twin's hand and smiled. She shouldn't have been screaming or laughing in her condition, speaking was to itself a laborious task after having both her lungs punctured by her own broken ribs. Admittedly, most people would have been dead given the amount of blood she'd coughed up, but then again...she did have a perfect donor. "Onee-chan, it is past visiting hours." She took note of a nurse in the corner of the room, as well as two other people passed out in chairs across the room. Every day since she stabilized she had been visited by these two, who believed they were to blame for her state. Apparently Misao's group had finished their game early and she had come to see Ayano. But in her rush she tripped and crashed into the other girl, causing her to twist her ankle badly. There were a pair of crutches beside Ayano as she slept; showing that she still hadn't quite healed fully. "You should go home now...you need sleep."

Kagami shook her head, as Tsukasa had expected her to. "I'll stay one more night, if only to keep those two knuckleheads out of trouble." This had become a routine for the older twin. Tsukasa always told her to go home and rest, but her sister always made an excuse for staying one more night.

Smiling, Tsukasa turned her attention to the nurse quietly observing the lovely moment with dreamy eyes. "Excuse me, nurse?" This seemed to startle the woman from her thoughts, and she scrambled over. "Would it be possible...for my sister and I...to share a bed tonight?"

She observed quietly as the nurse shifted her gaze around the room. "I know I should say no, but...okay, just for tonight. Just don't let my supervisor know. And she needs to be out of the bed by noon." The younger twin smiled at the antics of the woman and turned to her sister, watching the girl stutter in half-hearted protest. She knew her sister would get out just a few minutes before noon, even if Kagami would claim to be an early riser.

As the nurse left the room Tsukasa tugged on Kagami's hand, signalling for her to cease her fake protests and to get into the bed. Once her twin was settled under the blankets with her, Tsukasa snuggled up as close as she could without turning on her side. "Onee-chan."

"Yes?"

"I think...I will speak up more...and try...to be more...outspoken."

"What's all this about?"

Tsukasa took a moment to come up with an answer, and then spoke again. "I could not...I couldn't scream. I'm always...so quiet. I couldn't scream...because part of me...felt I'd be punished...for the noise." Tsukasa reached up a hand to the oxygen mask on her face, gripping it and pulling it from her face. She leaned her head towards her twin and placed her forehead against Kagami's. "I don't want to...to put you through this...ever again." Through all her pain, all of her fear, Tsukasa had realized that the old dog she had compared herself to had died. It had been slowly run over by a large truck and was helpless to stop it. Now she was a new-born puppy, still helpless, but with a life ahead of her, where she could be anyone. She would not hold back if she was in danger anymore, she would yelp and bark until someone saved her; and at the same time, she would try to be stronger, so that she might bite back in the future. She snapped out of her musing when she noticed her sister was crying. She supposed that she, as a dog would, should comfort her sister, so she kissed Kagami lightly on the cheek and smiled, and as an inside joke, added: "Woof."

Kagami looked at her with a bewildered look, her face taking on a rosy colour. "I-I...thanks." Kagami gave Tsukasa her own kiss, but this light peck was on the girl's lips. ""If you're ever in trouble, just give me a shout and I'll come running."

Smiling, the younger twin placed the oxygen mask back on her face and looked back up at the ceiling. "I am sure...that you will...always be...close at hand."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The Gunner's notes: This was written based purely on a little thought I had in a recent Physical Training session in which I was forced to retrieve a rugby ball from just such an area. And I couldn't help but think about how horrible it would be to have the divider close in on you like that. Being technologically advanced and very space conscious, I figured that something like the dividing wall wouldn't be out of place in a Japanese high school. As for the lack of people, I recently discovered that some school districts are heartless enough to keep school open despite the chances of any students attending being rather low, so it comes to a point where there are only a few people who were forced to go by their parents for whatever reason.

One might ask: "Why Tsukasa?"

My answer: Purely because she was the perfect character for this. I have a clear understanding of her personality, and she is more susceptible to psychological trauma in such a situation, while not automatically passing out like Yutaka would have done.

One might wonder why I chose such an ending as opposed to the dream-like sequences I seem to be so fond of. I chose this ending because it was frankly the most satisfying one, and it left it open for continuation should I so choose. But please, do not pester me for another chapter, such a thing annoys me to no end.

-The Gunner, Sturmgeschuts