Promptober 2026 Day 24: Bad
The moment I stepped into the hallway, my courage nearly failed me. There had to be another way to do this. There had to be.
A series of increasingly stupid ideas flashed through my head - what if I stole a Tsukinimori uniform? I’d have to stake the school out for a couple of days, but… no, I’d be sniffed out immediately, right? For one thing, the chance of finding a uniform that fit me exactly… and it’s not like I had the money to go buy one; even with the pay I got from RiNG…
No. It wasn’t realistic.
I took a deep breath, then another. I raised my hand, and knocked.
“...Hey, um… onee-chan. There’s… something I want to ask you about.”
I heard movement in the room beyond - a shuffling. Then, footsteps.
The door opened to reveal my sister’s surprised face. The look that she gave me was shrewd, appraising. I hated it. It felt like an x-ray.
“...what is it?”
—
“You want to know where the Tsukinomori orchestra concert is?” Maki narrowed her eyes. I was sitting on the floor at the foot of her bed, steadfastly avoiding eye contact. I was staring at a cracked mug of tea on her low table, instead. “Why?”
“O-oh, well,” I said. “I just– you know, I wanted to, um… support… my friend.”
“Your friend?”
“N…Nagasaki Soyo,” I mumbled.
“The contrabassist?” Maki raised an eyebrow. “...why not just ask her? They’re allowed to invite friends and family, y’know? It’s encouraged, even.”
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” I said. “I thought I would… surprise her.”
Maki looked at me for a long time before shaking her head. “...super shady.”
“Ha?!” I glared up at her.
“You’re acting so shady right now, Taki-chan. Like– if I give you this address, I need to know that you’re not going to show up with a box cutter or something–”
“Of course I’m not going to–”
“Okay, so why not tell me what’s going on?” She paused. “Or is this another Togawa-san situation?”
“...it’s not.”
“You know, she still isn’t answering my texts.”
“...that’s not my fault.”
“I give her your name because she’s looking for a drummer, six weeks later, you come home crying, and she drops off the radar. You won’t tell me anything, she won’t tell me anything. Then, right at the last second, you switch schools? Mom and Dad thought you were being, like… bullied or something.”
“First I heard about it.” I tried to keep the sulky, grade-schooler tone out of my voice, and failed.
“Yeah, well, they can’t exactly come talk to you, can they? You’re never home anymore!”
I pressed my palms into my forehead. This is exactly what I had wanted to avoid. The prospect of spending a month’s wages on a Tsukinomori uniform was so much better than this.
“I’ll give you the address,” Maki said. She slipped off her chair and joined me down on the ground. “I’ll give you whatever you want. But I just… I want to know why you want it.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Never mind. Forget it.” I made a move as if to get up, but she stopped me. Her hand closed down on my wrist.
“It does matter,” she said. “This is for me, too, y’know? I’m not just helping out their orchestra program for fun - I’m getting credits from this. I need to know that you’re not going to show up and…”
“And?”
She shrugged.
“Taki-chan, you’re just… so angry,” she said. “Y’know? Every time I see you now - and I never see you now - it’s like you’re mad at me, or mom, or dad, or something else. I don’t get it. I don’t know what I did to make you so mad.”
All at once, I felt the energy drain out of me, like it was seeping out of my pores. I felt beyond tired. Beyond exhausted.
“It’s not… you,” I said. “Okay? Whatever it is– it’s not you.”
She nodded slowly. There was a small spiral-ring notebook on her desk - she scrawled down something, then tore the page out of the notebook and folded it in half. She offered it to me, but as I reached out to take it, her hand jerked backward.
“Two conditions,” she said. “First: You don’t show up and cause trouble.”
I nodded.
“Second: When this is done, you tell me what it’s all about. Start to finish. The whole story. Togawa-san, Nagasaki-kun, all of it. Got it?”
After a moment of hesitation, I nodded again.
She handed me the paper. I took it. I stood up and turned to go.
“Taki-chan.” Her voice was suddenly hard.
I looked at her.
“I’m your sister, y’know? I love you. No matter what.”
The way she said it… it wasn’t reassuring. It wasn’t gentle.
It was… an ultimatum.