Chapter Text
Shinmyoumaru sat sheepishly at their table as Seija was at the counter, talking to the oni there and visibly shaking her legs in her shoes. Shinmyoumaru folded her hands together on the table watching her date return, dragging her weary feet along the way.
“And? Can we go?” Shinmyoumaru asked.
Seija grimaced. “Yeah. Turns out usually the waitress just comes and gives us the bill though.”
“Oh.”
Now that business here had been wrapped up in a sloppy, well-meaning bow, the question of what to do next hung heavy above their heads. The inchling was racking her brain, her thoughts clouded by the squeaking of the rusty cogs in her head until somewhere in the ashy product of ‘thought’ there lay a tentative suggestion.
But of course, it’s the classic date, dinner and a movie. Shinmyoumaru told herself that what was her breakfast surely counted as dinner in this case, and so their next destination was decided.
She tapped her nails together as they made their way with the help of good old GPS. Even as a child, she had never gone to a movie theatre, preferring to watch the occasional film at a friend’s house. Hell, she hadn’t seen a movie in years at all. She had no idea how to turn the simple sequence of events that is going to an establishment to watch a glorified video into something romantic or even plain fun, but she was banking on the movie doing the work for her.
Seija didn’t say anything along the way. Neither did she. The two just trudged on with a newfound awkward tension and the same unwieldy distance. Shinmyoumaru glanced at her partner’s face.
Seija and Miasma are the same person, that much is obvious, right? That’s what she told herself, but looking at the subtle features on her face, her hair, it revealed a simple truth. Seija is the mirror image of Miasma, or rather, the other way around. Even the way she acts is…
A strange feeling blossomed in Shinmyoumaru’s stomach. Whether it was a knot or butterflies, she didn’t know. The situation the two of them were in was a stressful one, and who’s to say that Miasma wouldn’t act a bit different under pressure? God knows Shinmyoumaru did.
Posters aligned the walls and a salty smell permeated the air once they’d found their way to the movie theatre. “What’re we watching?” Seija asked. Shinmyoumaru grimaced. Yes, she was happy to hear her say something to break the silence, but she had been dreading this particular question.
“Er… ah… I don’t know, I haven’t watched a movie in so long, Seija…”
She pressed her lips together, looking around her. Stupid Seija and her overgrown legs, the lanky dullard’s eyes felt so unreachable when she didn’t hang her head. “Me… me neither. Wanna try and watch something scary?”
Something scary… yes, another sappy classic. They could hold onto each other for support and everything. Shinmyoumaru smiled. “Yeah, that sounds nice.”
“Okay, well, go ahead.”
“H-huh?”
“Go ahead, get us some tickets,” Seija handed her a card. “1-4-0-5, in case it asks for a pin.”
Shinmyoumaru frowned, looking at the bank card.
“H-hey, I handled that café business, this is on you, now.”
“Seija, I could rob you with this information, you know? Are you sure you should just tell me?” Shinmyoumaru gave a stern look.
“And I could just kill you if given the chance. Hurry up and get us some tickets, will you?” She said, crossing her arms. Shinmyoumaru finally caught a glimpse of her dull eyes as she spoke.
“Hmph… well, since you’re paying, I guess we’re even,” she trudged over to the ticket counter, her fist tight around the card in fear of losing it. They weren’t even at all, she was well aware. Seija was stuck paying for everything since Shinmyoumaru forgot to bring any money. She diligently brought her wallet, yes, but she wasn’t bright enough to actually check its contents.
The snotty teenager manning the register, noticing the approaching woman, put away their phone as they reluctantly plastered a service smile to their face. “What will it be, madam?”
Shinmyoumaru hesitantly walked onto the steps put in place for inchlings like herself. “H-hello, uhm, two tickets please.”
The teenager cocked their head, indiscernible green eyes fixated on Shinmyoumaru. “For what?”
“A-ah! Right! Right, uh… s-sorry, for… two tickets for a scary movie,” she stammered, head lowered. Surely, she could trick this employee into believing this bank card was the most interesting thing in the world. Ah, but wouldn’t that be suspicious!?
“A horror movie… Say, aren’t you that girl that used to visit the old community centre?”
The steps buckled under Shinmyoumaru’s feet as she leaned on the counter, her head either bright red or completely drained of colour, she couldn’t tell anymore. This was the absolute last thing she wanted today to deal with today. No matter how hard she tried to scrub herself of her past, it still lingered in the darkest nooks and crannies of this city.
“Sukuna, was it? It’s been a while since I went out here, so…”
“Y-yeah… Sukuna… s-sorry, I d-don’t…” Shinmyoumaru gathered the courage to look at the kid in front of her, who still wore the same blank expression but with a more genuine looking smile to it.
They laughed heartily. “I don’t expect you to remember me. I’m Komeiji, from the Palace of Earth Spirits.” A fancy building at the centre of Hell. For a little while, they were in contact with the community centre of the Deepest Pits. For a Komeiji to still be all the way over here, though, and working a lowly job, no less… Shinmyoumaru missed a lot of what must have happened.
“K-Komeiji Satori… right….”
The teenager laughed once more. “What? Nonsense! Komeiji Koishi.”
The relief fluttering through Shinmyoumaru’s body plummeted back to the pit of her stomach, crushed by newfound embarrassment. Fuck, there’s no way Satori was still a teenager. Why did she even think that?
“Anyway… a horror movie, then? There’s two, right now. The Deep Red Menace and The Tragedy Of-” “D-Dark Red Menace, please.” And there she went, interrupting people again. She sheepishly slid the bank card over the counter.
Komeiji grinned, sooner amused than annoyed. “Two tickets to Menace it is. Here you are,” they said, handing Shinmyoumaru the tickets before taking the card, working some cashier magic behind the counter and handing it back. “Enjoy the viewing, Sukuna!”
“Y-yeah, you too,” Shinmyoumaru said, tightly holding onto the card and walking away as the dread set in.
“Knew them?” Seija asked, taking her card back and putting it in her wallet.
“S-sort of… Not really, I mean, they remembered me, but I didn’t remember them.”
She hesitantly brought a hand to rest on the head of her distraught girlfriend. “Uhm… I’m sure it’s okay.”
“Yeah… they also told me to enjoy the movie, and I was all, ‘you too’,” Shinmyoumaru leaned her head against Seija’s stomach.
“Uh… yikes,” her eyes averted as she spoke.
“Yeah…”
“Anyway, what movie will we be seeing?” Seija asked, hand still firmly on Shinmyoumaru’s head.
“The Red Menace or something, it should be uh…” she turned her head away to look at the tickets in her hand. “It’s in room four.”
And room four was where they went, Seija trailing behind Shinmyoumaru, who staggered along the rows of seats with a big container full of popcorn in her arms. Seija had insisted that they could share, but her date began to suspect she had a dislike for popcorn, too.
They sat down in two adjoined seats, Shinmyoumaru’s eyes just barely looking over the popcorn bag in her lap. She glanced sideways to see Seija fiddling with her sleeves once again. A suffocating warmth waved across Shinmyoumaru’s face as she tentatively put her open hand on the armrest between them and fixed her gaze at the screen. The warmth spread to her stomach as she felt a slender, slightly sticky hand take her own.
The movie appeared to be about a vampire, possibly even multiple. There was something about a mysterious red mist, possibly a menace, and some heroines presumably beating the mist up. Shinmyoumaru found it quite difficult to pay attention.
She frowned when she looked at Seija only to see her on her phone. The situation until now was a far cry from the romantic visions she held. Shinmyoumaru sighed inwardly and turned back to the screen, trying to get a sense of what was happening on it.
She flinched as a white flash illuminated the space around her and a loud shutter sound chirped in her ears. She whipped her head in the direction it came from only to be met with Seija’s wide eyes and the trembling phone in front of her. She quickly put it away and looked back at the screen as if nothing had happened, blushing like crazy.
Shinmyoumaru was much the same, head hung down. What the hell was that? It happened so fast! Should she bring it up, or just pretend it never happened like Seija seemed to? Meanwhile, cinema seemed to happen, but it mattered little to Shinmyoumaru.
Her hand slowly crept back to her own side of the armrest. ‘Gods,’ she thought to herself. ‘Show me a sign. Anything at all to tell me what this woman is thinking!’, and on that day, the gods were kind indeed, for as her hand receded, Seija’s finger traced around Shinmyoumaru’s own, curving around her knuckles.The plot of the movie was rapidly developing in front of her but whatever this was was way more interesting. Seija’s fingers eventually came to rest, safe for her thumb, which still stroked along Shinmyoumaru’s wrist.
Daring to glance at her, Shinmyoumaru was met with a gentle smile. “I really like you, Shinmyoumaru,” Seija whispered.
Shinmyoumaru smirked with false confidence. "So much you had to take a picture?"
She felt Seija's fingers twitch but she held on tight, not letting her escape. Not this time. "W-well, y… yeah? What about it!?"
“Uhm… nothing in particular.” Shinmyoumaru blushed, lifting Seija's hand to her lips and planting a soft kiss on the outside of her fingers, closing her eyes. Seija tensed up immediately before slowly relaxing, by a stretch of the word, and shaking in her seat. She sighed wistfully, her chest dropping into her jacket.
"Hah, aren’t you smooth, princess?" Seija pulled her own hand to her chest, pressing it tight, as she turned back to the movie.
Shinmyoumaru closed her eyes. Maybe Seija and Miasma weren’t so different after all, and she shouldn’t be this suspicious of her own girlfriend, for shame.
As the credits rolled, Shinmyoumaru realised they essentially paid for a very expensive seat for an hour or two. She sighed, a good amount of time in the day had already passed. There was an amazing development, namely, they've become official, but she wished Seija would come out of her shell more. That stupid amanojaku had better not make her regret it.
She leaned over the armrest once the lights had turned on, thrusting her face into Seija's breathing space. To Shinmyoumaru's lament, she recoiled slightly.
"What now?" Shinmyoumaru asked.
"Er...well…" Seija looked at her wrist. "I guess we're kind of in reverse order for dinner and a movie."
Shinmyoumaru furrowed her brow in thought. Over the course of their time together she had eaten a big chunk of chocolate cake and the bulk of a bag full of popcorn that rivalled her own size.
“...Should’a just come to my house,” Seija huffed. Shinmyoumaru looked up in surprise. “You want to go there?”
“Huh?” Seija looked at her, eyes just as wide. “Uh… I didn’t mean that, but… s-sure?”
“Y-yeah! Okay! Let’s do it!” Shinmyoumaru said, her heart pounding in her chest. She swung her legs to the ground and slid off the seat. Seija blinked, getting up from her seat too and taking Shinmyoumaru’s empty popcorn bag to crumble it. “Are you… are you sure it’s okay?”
“Why not?” Shinmyoumaru asked.
“Uh… I dunno… maybe it’s, well, uhm, it’s far, actually. As in, it'll take a long time by train. Well, two and a half hours.”
“Yeah, I remember. Uhm, is it okay if I stay over then? Or is that weird..?”
“No!” Seija barked. Shinmyoumaru flinched. “I… No, we’re girlfriends. You can stay over if you want. Let’s go.” Seija pressed the bag in as small of a shape as she could as she briskly left the room. Shinmyoumaru hurried after her. “W-wait, Seija, my legs are shorter, so…”
They sat in silence as they waited for the train to arrive. Shinmyoumaru’s heart beated against her ribs. Their date was cut short, in a way. Not really. Seija had told her the train comes every fifteen minutes, which means it was only four, no, three minutes before she would leave her district behind, all on an impulse decision.
Shinmyoumaru felt a lump in her throat. For one's girlfriend, this sort of thing should be okay, right? It was a huge step, a very sudden one at that, sure, but what kind of partner would she be if she couldn’t even sleep somewhere else for one night?
She let out a shaky sigh. All these feelings were dizzying, and for what? She looked at Seija’s tired eyes. Shinmyoumaru had almost considered that asking her out on a whim was unwise. Almost. But she wouldn’t actually think such a thing. She mustn’t. Because she’s known Miasma for so long…
“There it is.” Seija looked in the distance. Shinmyoumaru snapped out of her thoughts to follow Seija’s gaze and saw the headlights of the train slowly approaching. Actually, it was quite rapid.
The train screeched to a halt in front of them. Shinmyoumaru pressed her lips together tightly.
“W-well, uhm, this is the one. Do you have everything?” Seija stammered.
“Y-yeah, I, uh, l-let me check, actually…” Shinmyoumaru forced past the blockage in her throat as she patted down her jacket, feeling for her belongings.
Seija furrowed her brows, her voice rising in panic. “What? The train is leaving in like a minute! They gotta keep to schedule, Shinmyoumaru! C’mon!”
“R-right! Sorry, I…” Shinmyoumaru cut herself off in favour of stepping on the train in a hurry. Seija followed suit, giving her ample space.
“I’ll…look for a seat,” she mumbled.
“Yeah…” Shinmyoumaru whispered in response. Seija began to drag her feet into the car.
Shinmyoumaru’s eyes lost focus as they rested on the platform outside. So this is it, then? She’s just going with Seija, just like that? Until this morning she spent months uninterrupted in her own home and now she’s making a step like this?
She sighed deeply. Personal progress. It’s all thanks to Seija, thanks to her kind words and warm demeanour over the years. It had yet to show much in person but it was certainly there, and Shinmyoumaru would not give her chance to see it for anything in the world.
A whistling noise zapped through her brain, leaving her thoughts on hold.
Shinmyoumaru shivered. No way back now.
“Train’s leaving!”
A rush of adrenaline. Shinmyoumaru couldn’t hear the gasp of a woman next to her over her own pounding heart as she leapt out of the train car.
She breathed heavily as she felt the platform underneath her feet again. The train beeped as the door shut behind her. She whipped her head around and looked straight into Seija’s wide eyes through the window.
Shinmyoumaru’s heart shattered in a million pieces. A look of betrayal. Their eye contact did not break until the window was out of sight entirely. Goodbye to those sad red eyes, goodbye to that greasy black hair, goodbye to its left red streak.
Safety. Comfort. The train station nearest to Shinmyoumaru’s house. She looked around, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. Here she was, all alone again. Was this the end of her and Miasma?
Tears pricked her eyes. She didn’t have anything here but Miasma. She wanted to be with Miasma more than anything. But this person…Seija… she wasn’t her! This wasn’t Miasma! All Shinmyoumaru had here was this girl called Seija, who she barely knew at all.
She sobbed, rubbing her eyes. Damn it, she was calling attention to herself! Seija was all she had no matter how you sliced it. And then she was gone. Safety and comfort be damned, Shinmyoumaru couldn’t just let go of the only person she had a snowflake’s chance in hell of forming a connection with!
Shinmyoumaru sighed and stomped her foot on the ground, furrowing her brows and holding back her tears. Enough! The first step to being an alright person was to not leave one's girlfriend behind. She could amend this. She could!
Another train barreled its way to the platform. “Sorry, Seija, my love,” Shinmyoumaru mouthed to herself. “I won’t leave you behind again, I promise.”
The doors opened, and this time she didn’t hesitate for a moment to get on. No, she only started hesitating after she found a seat. But it really was too late now.
‘Suck it up, princess. You’re dating me now, and I’m stinky and scary and you have no idea what I like or what I’m thinking, but damn it, I can be quite charming, and you’ll love me whether you like it or not!’ She thought to herself in Seija’s voice.
“We’ll see how I like it, Seija. We’ll see!” She whispered to herself, chuckling painfully.