[Edit: None of these chapters are a standard length, but since I'm posting it again in this daily format, I decided to break up the ones that are over 3000 words. So if you read this part yesterday, you can skip straight to the next chapter, nothing else has been changed.]

A terrified haze of time later, the patrol car pulled up in front of her house. As soon as the door was opened, Hikaru tumbled out of the vehicle onto the walk beside the small patch of grass that counted as a yard in this residential area.

Her body felt weak and clumsy with fear, but with her feet on the ground, fear abruptly transformed to anger. "You fucking bastard!" she turned and screamed at her mother's husband where he still stood beside her with his hand on the door.

He raised his hand and slapped her hard. They both froze in shock.

After a moment, in an ice cold voice, Hikaru said, "Don't you ever hit my mother. I don't care if she's standing over a dead body screaming, don't you ever hit her."

The breath gasped from him as though he'd been the one hit, and when he caught his breath again Izumi replied, "Never. I would never hit Miri."

Hikaru clenched her jaw and turned away, and he did not follow. She stalked up the walk, up the steps, and into the house. She shut the door and leaned back on it for a moment.

"What, no 'I'm home?'", called her mother from the kitchen doorway.

"I'm home," Hikaru said shakily.

"Welcome home," said her mother, drying her hands on a small towel. She came forward into the living room and frowned up at Hikaru. "Oh Hikaru," she said with dismay, "another fight?"

Hikaru looked down into her mother's face uncomprehendingly. Miri raised a hand to Hikaru's cheek and said lightly, "we better put some ice on that." Hikaru winced at the touch, nodded, and let her mother pull her into the kitchen. Miri sat her down on the stool. "What happened?" She asked while she prepared a cold compress for Hikaru's cheek.

Hikaru shrugged. After a long moment she said, "It won't happen again."  

Her mother laughed at her somewhat disconnected answer, and replied wryly, "Until someone else needs rescuing again." She looked at Hikaru knowingly, but Hikaru did not reply right away. "Do you want something to eat before supper?" Miri asked.

Holding the compress against her cheek, Hikaru shook her head and replied, "No, sorry, I'm going to my room. I don't want dinner, I'm not hungry." Her mother bit her lip, but made no protest as Hikaru walked back through the house and climbed the stairs.

She entered the first room, then stripped off her school uniform and changed into regular clothes. She pulled out her ponytail and let her dark hair loose, scrubbing her hands through it. Out of habit and a need for comfort, Hikaru reached for her guitar. The familiar curves of it in her hands soothed her a little, and she hooked it up to the amplifier out of long habit, instead of the headset she'd been using recently.

Miri gazed up the stairs as the first chords blazed out, and realized suddenly that she hadn't heard her daughter play at home in months.

--

When Mizuki Izumi returned home after his shift finished, his pretty wife had dinner waiting, as she always did. The loud strains of an old pop song poured out of the room above and he snapped with irritation as he hung his jacket, "Can't she listen to music at a reasonable volume?"

Miri regarded her husband in surprise. "It's not a recording, Hikaru is playing," she said.

Izumi was taken aback, and replied uncertainly, "Well, she should stop and eat anyway." Without waiting for a reply, he marched up the stairs and knocked on Hikaru's door. 

When she set down her guitar and opened the door, he grabbed her arm. Hikaru looked down at Izumi's hand on her arm and said, "Let go of me." He released her quickly, with an uncomfortable expression. She clarified, "Don't ever touch me." 

He replied with quick anger, "It's dinner time, come down and eat."

"No," returned Hikaru bluntly.

Izumi glared and then turned away stiffly. "Did she tell you she was kissing a man today?" He asked, looking down the stairs at his wife.

Miri shook her head and asked with curiously sparkling eyes, "Who was he?"

"It doesn't matter!" Hikaru replied angrily. "I'll probably never see him again, gods only know what he thinks of me now." She stepped back and shut her door firmly.

"I hope he's not the one who hit her," Miri said worriedly. Izumi didn't reply immediately and she added, "Leave her alone and come eat."

Izumi came down and joined her at the table. His lips compressed in irritation when the music resumed a little more quietly, but he didn't say anything else about it.

--

Eventually Hikaru calmed and drew the mournful angry song at her fingertips to a close. Belatedly she realized she'd been playing a very old song, Bon Jovi's 'Bed of Roses'. Recalling the lyrics, it seemed a little extreme of a sentiment, and she laughed ruefully. 

As soon as she relaxed enough, she felt hungry. She unhooked the amplifier and put it and her guitar away carefully. She thought of taking her homework down to work on while she ate, and then remembered that her school bag had been left on the pavement at the feet of the man she'd been kissing. 

Her cheeks heated at the remembrance. She would have to go to the office first thing in the morning and report it lost, and get a temporary ID card, she realized. She thought about calling Risa and asking for help with tomorrow's assignments, but after looking at the time and imagining the requisite explanations, she didn't.

She descended the stairs quietly, and went into the kitchen. Her mother had put the leftovers away in her usual careful fashion. Hikaru dropped some on a plate, and filled a container that would work as a temporary lunch box with a selection of foods for her lunch tomorrow. She ate the food on the plate, and put the plate into the washer.

She returned to her room, set her alarm earlier than usual, and surprisingly calmly fell asleep.