The bathroom door slammed open with a bang.

 

Toshi, in the middle of paging through the most horrifying porn he had ever encountered, literally threw the manga up into the air and fumbled with it. In a comical display the equivalent to getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar, he tried to scoop up the periodicals he had already taken out, square them up, and hide them back under the bed. He was so flustered, however, that he completely failed to figure out how to lift the mattress back up. The problem was most likely that he was still sitting on it. After several seconds of ineffectually flailing, he stopped, ~Crap. This is not going to end well.~ Toshi took a deep breath while avoiding Mieko's gaze, "Uh... funny thing..."

 

"YOU. OWE. ME."

 

Toshi furrowed his eyebrows, ~That... didn't sound right.~ Toshi slowly looked up and the first thing he noticed was Mieko was standing in the bathroom doorway, leaning heavily on the door frame. Well, actually...

 

First he noticed she was naked.

 

Then he noticed where she... actually, no. In retrospect, that would have been the last thing he noticed. The next thing he noticed was the redness of her skin as well as the scratches all over her arms and legs. Then the pile of clothes behind her that looked more like she tore them off her body than undressed. Then he noticed the fact her pupils were at maximum dilation. Then the thin sheen of sweat over her body, and the fact she looked like she was either cracked out of her mind, or having the most bizarre allergic reaction ever to her own clothing.

 Maybe she was having an allergic reaction to crack.

 

 Hard to tell.

 

Mieko leaned heavily against the door frame, her long, black hair clinging to her face and neck because of the sheer amount of sweat seeping out of every pore. Toshi's initial reaction was based on an incorrect assessment of the situation. In Toshi's mind, Mieko was tortured by her sisters. Her sisters knew she was going on a date. Mieko went into the bathroom and was stumbling out absolutely fucked up. Ergo, Her sisters did something to her bathroom. Maybe switched out her medication or something. Who knows? Toshi's conclusion:

 

~Mieko is sick. I should help.~

 

Toshi left the porn sticking out from between the mattress and box spring as he leapt to his feet and rushed over, "Mieko? Holy crap! What happened to you? You look like-"

 

And that was as far as he got before she punched him in the throat.

 

She looked wobbly. She looked like she was out of it, but her training was still top notch. She immediately followed up with two nerve strikes to Toshi's shoulder areas, leaving both his arms numb and useless. Toshi was completely caught off guard as he staggered, stunned from the sudden assault. Mieko effortlessly slid around him, hooked her arm inside his, and with a roll of her shoulder, threw him face first onto the bed.

 

Toshi, struggling to breathe, having just been flipped head over heels through the air, and struggling to control his arms, did little but lie there while he tried to regain his senses. Mieko, on the other hand, pulled the cord lose from her lamp, and proceeded to tie Toshi's hands behind his back, the whole time muttering over and over the phrase:

 

"you owe me you owe me you owe me you owe me you owe me..."

 

This was the point where Toshi began to suspect he was no longer in control of the situation.

 

Toshi's eyes were quite wide when Mieko flipped him over and grabbed his dress shirt and tore it open. Popping shirt buttons went flying. She frowned at the undershirt and hopped up to rush over to her closet. Toshi coughed and cleared his throat. He sputtered a bit as he figured out how to talk again, "Mi- *cough* UH- Mieko!" Mieko apparently was finished searching through her closet, because she turned around to face Toshi while holding a rather large hunting knife. Toshi's eyes somehow managed to grow just a little bit wider as he exclaimed with a voice filled with dread, "OhFuckMe..."

 

Toshi knew, even as he spoke, that this was a poor choice in words.

 

Mieko stalked back over, pausing to itch her left arm by scraping the blade up and down her flesh. This caused several of the scratches on her arm to open up and start trickling blood. She didn't seem to notice or care. Toshi went crosseyed as Mieko straddled Toshi's hips and brought the point of the knife right up to the tip of Toshi's nose.

 

"YouOweMe!"

 

Mieko grabbed Toshi's undershirt and proceeded to saw through it, right down the middle. Now that she was closer, Toshi managed to get a much better look at her. She was twitching all over, her movements were somewhat jerky. He could feel her body temperature was way too high and could see her heart was racing, just by watching the throbbing of the vein in her neck. She looked like she was about to explode. Toshi watched her cutting through his shirt with great trepidation, "Mieko? You aren't well! You need to get to the hos-"

 

Mieko pressed the flat of the blade up against Toshi's cheek and spoke in a sing-song song, "but you OWE me!" then proceeded to lick Toshi's chest from his belly button to his neck. Toshi tensed up as she did this, closing his eyes and turning his head away, ~Is it weird I'm into this?~ He opened one eye to squint at her, ~Oh yeah. It's weird. But she needs to get to a doctor! Something is seriously fucked right now!~ He swallowed making a loud gulp sound, ~And I don't do something soon, it looks like it's going to be me!~ He tried to talk to her again, "Mieko-"

 

She snarled and grabbed his face, squeezing his cheeks together, "YOU OWE ME!"

Toshi yelled back, forcing the words through his scrunched up lips, "I KNOW!"

 

Mieko paused. She blinked at him, taken off guard. Toshi was not about to lose the initiative, "I know... I owe you and-" His mind quickly raced through all the possible arguments, but he finally settled on what he thought was his only real option.

"And everything will be okay."

Mieko slowly let go of his face, "What?" Toshi took a deep breath and let it out slowly so he could remain calm, "Its okay. I do owe you. And it will be okay. When... whatever this is wears off and you come to your senses, don't feel bad. It's okay." She blinked. Toshi smiled as kindly as he could manage under the circumstances, "Do what you gotta do." Then closed his eyes, ~Hope this works... maybe.~ 

 

Nothing happened.

 

Time passed.

Toshi remained perfectly still.

Eventually Mieko spoke.

Her voice sounded like she was echoing something only half remembered, "Everyone makes mistakes."

 

Toshi cracked opened one eye to peek. Mieko was still straddling him, but she was looking at the scratches and cuts over her limbs, looking utterly confused. She stood up and staggered off a few steps. She started to eye the knife, "We're all weak from time to time." Her voice sounded like she was talking from a million miles away. Slowly Toshi sat up on the bed, "Mieko? You with me?" Mieko stared at Toshi, then down at herself again. It looked like what was going on had finally beginning to register, "What... what am I doing?" She looked up, "What have I done?" Toshi nodded slowly, "Its okay. Something-"

 

Mieko started to bring the knife up to her own neck.

 

Toshi immediately rocked forward and got on his feet, "NononononononoNO!" He struggled to free his hands, but she tied his forearms against each other and he couldn't get any leverage. All he could do was stand in front of her and yell, "DROP IT!" Mieko looked at Toshi with a thousand yard stare, "I'm a monster." He shook his head as widely as he could, "NO! You are... having a bad reaction to something! Did you take anything in the bathroom?" She gave the blade in her hand a dispassionate assessment, turning it this way and that in the air between them,  "I'm going to hurt you. I-" Toshi got right in her face,  "Do As You Are TOLD." She refocused by staring into his big, beautiful, grey eyes. Toshi spoke with all the force of presence he had from all the decades he had spent working in international sales.

 "DROP."

"THE."

"KNIFE."

 

The weapon clattered on the floor.

 

Toshi's shoulders relaxed as he silently thanked God for small miricles, "Now sit on the bed." Her eyes grew wide, "No! You are my best friend's brother we can't do it! I can't! I-" Toshi tilted his head forward while rising up on his toes to give the most comanding presence he could. He moved in close so his face eclipsed everything else, "We aren't going to have sex. My dick is staying in my pants. Sit On The Bed."

 

Mieko sat on the bed.

 

Toshi stood there, trying to work though all his possible options. None of them seemed good. He thought about ordering her to untie him, but what if pointing out she bound his arms set her off in a downward spiral? Could  he call for help? He couldn't use his phone without his hands, and when the cops showed up, Mieko's life was over. Whatever was going on wasn't her fault, but this still looked horrible.

Maybe he could run through the grounds hoping to find someone to help, but he didn't feel safe leaving her alone. He also knew he had to make a choice soon. His ability to browbeat her into compliance wouldn't last forever, what with the way she was twitching. He needed her to calm down, and only one idea came to mind.

It was the worst choice, except for all the others.

 

Toshi closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then knelt down in front of Mieko. She looked down at him with puzzlement and eyes so dilated you couldn't tell her eyes were green. Toshi let out the long breath before he spoke, "We're not going to have...  sex... but I'm also not going to leave you hanging. You need calm down and..." Toshi leaned forward, but paused to look up from between her knees, "You might want to consider screaming into your pillow."

 

 

 

 

 

Three seconds later, she was doing exactly that.