Chapter Text
Kanade sighed, putting her headphones down. It was around 4:00 A.M, as her and the girls had been working for a while. She ended up being the last one staying on the call. Mizuki went to bed early, Ena finished her art piece and turned in, and Mafuyu had to go to sleep to avoid her mother catching her. She'd gotten fairly far in this song, and was fairly certain she'd be done by the end of the week.
She stood up, her fingers dragging on the edge of her desk as she walked to her door. Her back hurt terribly, and nothing had been fixing it. She went into her freezer to swap out her ice pack before trudging back into her bedroom.
She placed the ice pack on her desk, taking her jacket and tank top off to leave herself in just her bra and shorts. She grabbed the ice pack again before laying down on the bed and trying to place it as close as possible to where it was hurting. It was one of thode vague pains, the ones you know hurt but don't have an exact area or spot.
Kanade laid on her stomach, her face in the pillows, trying to drift off to sleep. Her phone buzzed with a text from Yuki.
Yuki > Sorry I had to leave early. Does your back still hurt?
Kanade sighed, reaching over (with much discomfort) to grab her phone.
K > Yeah but I'll be fine. If it's still this bad tomorrow, I'll let you know.
A lie. She didn't want to bother Mafuyu. Maybe next time, she'd just tell her that her back didn't hurt anymore. Mafuyu already had to deal with school and her mother, she didn't need to deal with taking care of Kanade either. Realistically, if it got bad enough, she'd probably tell Miku. Or Luka. She didn't want to worry Mizuki or Ena either. They all had their own struggles.
Kanade readjusted the ice pack, before finally closing her eyes. They were heavy with pain and exhaustion from the night's work, and she was more than happy to finally be able to sleep.
She couldn't. She tossed and turned, and even tried removing the ice pack. The realm of slumber would not allow her into its arms. Her back hurt, more and more with every moment. Was this God punishing her for what she'd done to her parents? Or putting aside her work to save Mafuyu to sleep selfishly? She didn't want to think about that right now. She'd done so much today that her eyes burned and her head ached. She didn't even want to think about getting back to work.
And now Kanade felt warm. Lovely. A fever to top everything off. Headache, dry eyes, back pain, and a fever. She might actually be sick, which wouldn't be very convenient. Mafuyu had given Miss Mochizuki a specific request to not allow Kanade to work if she wasn't in a good state of health, which meant she'd be stuck in bed tomorrow.
She wiped sweat off her brow with her pillow, already feeling quite unwell. Perhaps she might visit SEKAI, if it wasn't too bad tomorrow—which wasn't exactly a high chance from how it was going.
She buried her face in her pillow yet again, praying she'd be allowed sleep. Finally, the sand dusted gates opened, and she drifted off.