Chapter Text
The morning felt the same as every other day that week.
“It always is the same.” Mafuyu thinks, plopping in the last coffee pod. “I can’t believe I promised
to keep doing this shit.” She rolls her eyes, and leans on the counter over by the kitchen sink.
On mornings like this, she wished Kanade was there. Not like it’d change all too much. Kanade
probably wouldn’t even be awake at that time in the morning. Sometimes she would be though,
and something as simple as her walking sleepily into the kitchen to get water was just so..
“Oh, my coffee is finished.." Mafuyu takes the cup out and drinks straight from it. No need for
creamer if you can’t taste a thing.
Mafuyu checked the clock, time had moved faster than normal this morning, she thought she
had time guesstimation down to a science, but apparently not.
Opening the door, she speaks to herself. “Now it's time to do this again.” Mafuyu’s feet
move her toward the school as if they were automatic.
Those two legs had gotten so used to the
walk to school, that if she had encountered a speeding car on the way there, she’d probably
develop spider-sense just to get to the destination.
The average route she took went past quite a few shops, a coffee shop, clothing stores. At the
very end of the strip mall there was a small bakery located at a shop corner turn.
As Mafuyu passed by it, she took a peek in.
There were the old workers that had looked like
they were going to die working in that bakery, two men looking like they were discussing
business over their sweet ass coffies, and a girl from their school.
Mafuyu saw the uniform, but couldn’t see the person. It didn’t matter to her anyways, so she just
kept walking.
“Wait! Come in, Asahina!” Mafuyu stops in her tracks as Honami waves from the doorway of the
bakery, three entire apple pies in her opposite hand.
The two walk inside and steal one of the few booths in the small shop.
The two sit awkwardly in the booth, usually Honami had been good at starting a conversation,
but Mafuyu didn’t seem all too talkative.
“So, how is Kanade?” Honami starts the conversation in an extremely rudimentary fashion.
“She got her voice back, she should be due to move back into our house in a week or so.”
Mafuyu explains, leaning on the table in expectation for a long conversation.
"Oh! That is very nice! I remember her telling me something similar to that. I should be back to
cleaning the house very soon!” Honami seems kind of happy to do the work.. weird.
“You won’t have all too much work cut out for you, I like to keep the place tidied up.”
“Yeah, Kanade’s room is always the dirtiest.” The drummer slightly giggled while scratching the
back of her head.
“So.. Did you have a reason to bring me in here? Not to be rude, but we will have class soon.”
Mafuyu slides the fact into the conversation, she has never been on for small talk.
“I just wanted to thank you for standing up for me and Shiho back a week ago! I thought I'd treat
you to an apple pie.” Honami takes a box off the stack of three and places it in the middle. “You
hang around Kanade a ton, so I assumed you might have acquired the taste.”
Mafuyu wanted to decline, but decided it was too much effort to communicate her lack of taste.
One of the upsides of not having working taste buds was that even if it tasted bad, she wouldn’t
have to care.
Mafuyu thanks the girl and takes a stab out of one of the slices. The texture was very defined,
she did like how it felt to bite out of it.
After even more silence, Honami decides to attempt at starting up their conversation again.
“Out of curiosity, do you have any interest in anyone?” Honami hadn’t meant to say this as a
reminder of Shiho’s pestering, but it had ended up doing that.
Mafuyu gives her a deadly side eye upon hearing the question.
“Nonono! I'm not talking about anyone in particular!” The girl specifies a little too late.
Mafuyu tries to give a simple answer to the conversation to get past it. “Oh I don’t know. I'm not
all too close to that many boys.”
“Well it doesn’t have to be a boy.” The drummer quickly responds, not helping the idea that
Shiho wasn’t on the dot.
“Well I don’t really know.” Asahina simply replies.
“I just think you could use someone that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside.” Honami cutely
describes.
The first person that came to Mafuyu’s head was Kanade.
“Tell me more..” Mafuyu acted as if she was interested, she wasn’t locked into an accusation
she didn’t know how to feel about any longer.
“Well I can just go to her for everything, doing everything with her feels better, even simple
things can make her look so gorgeous.”
Such a simple conversation made the walls start closing in. Mafuyu had felt all of those things,
but in her opinion, she might have cracked the wrong code.
An old memory comes to mind.
“Mafuyu we need to talk.” Her mother had said at a nearly empty dinner table one afternoon.
“I've heard about this thing recently about all of these girls who like girls, and if you ask me, it is
sinful.”
Mafuyu was only a child, so she couldn’t understand a thing her mother was talking about at the
time.
“Promise me you won’t get with any girls!” The old lady had nearly screamed the order at her
daughter.
“I won’t mommy!” The girl raised her spoon in the air, happily making a declaration she couldn’t
comprehend.
Mafuyu sifts back into reality and sees Honami trying to get her attention.
“Don’t tell me I'm that boring!” The girl squeals, waving her hand even more in front of Mafuyu’s
face.
“Pretty boring.” Asahina jokes, she doesn’t usually do that. Honami hadn’t noticed though.m
“Uh oh! We got to get to class Honami states, looking down at her phone.” The drummer picks
up the leftover apple pie, and places it into her upperclassman’s hand.
“You and Kanade can
share the rest of this, keep it, now we gotta go!”
Mafuyu goes along with it, she didn’t want her mom to possibly be notified of absence. No
confrontation from her was better than any.
The two make it to the school only two minutes before the class bell rings for the very first time.
Honami is breathing heavily, but the star student next to her couldn’t be less exhausted.
“How can you do this?” Honami asks huffing heavily, curled over standing up.
“I don’t know, you just get used to it I guess.” The lyricist humbly responds.
Mafuyu made her way to class a minute early, nobody sitting in the cafeteria would care that she
got a slight headstart.
The purple haired girl sits down in her seat the second the bell rings, with only one thing to think
about.
[]
Kanade wakes up again, she honestly feels she has forgotten her original room. The amount of
times she had woken up in this one was more memorable.
Boxes everywhere, empty walls, one doorway, and an empty seat right beside her. Really, being
bedridden and with Mafuyy was more comfortable and enjoyable than the contrary. It kind of
hurt not having her there.
“Man, I wish she took night school like Ena.” Groans the composer, as she sits up from the bed
she was fused to.
Kanade looks around the room again. There is nothing to do, she can’t even compose her heart
away in the dark room. What reason was there to have any hope for? The family she once was
so close to is gone and the one person she had gotten close to since then was scared to get too
close to her.
Was there anything she could do about it? Going to sekai is an option. Who was the last person
who even went to sekai? The last time she went was back when she had.. a problem.. Kaito
really was right. They were a whole bunch of pricks with free robo therapy.
The idea was more of a last option. There has to be a lot easier ones. It would be better not to
annoy the vocaloids with all of their personal problems and actually converse with them
normally soon.
Hopefully, that would make up for all of the venting that they have had to listen to.
In retrospect, she really felt bad about it, but she could demean the idea too much yet, it hasn’t
been scrapped just yet.
[]
Mafuyu had decided against going to cram school that night. Ever since she got more questions
to ask earlier that morning, she started asking them.
Of course, asking them to herself wasn’t
exactly optimal, she didn’t bear all the news in the world, especially when it came to herself.
God, was everything so confusing. It would be so much easier if someone was to just tell her
who she was. That didn’t work last time, maybe she was wrong.
She can think of a way to maybe get those answers though, and she has no guilt for it whatsoever.
[]
Kanade felt like she had fused to the bed as she tears herself off of it. As she stands up, her
legs barely work, but she is able to balance herself as she makes it out of the doorway.
The house is awfully empty in the living room and kitchen. Either everyone is in their rooms, or
half the house is gone.
Either way, she wants to finally do something. Being stuck in the same room for days is possibly
more depressing than the whole reason she got into this mess.
The composer looks for something.. anything to do. The kitchen is searched head to toe, and
the only thing that looks mildly interesting is the coffee maker.
Kanade thinks back to how mafuyu would always be drinking a coffee in the morning.
“It has to be good then, right?” She assumes
The clouds shift outside as the steam finishes rising from the pot.
Kanade takes out the pot and
pours some coffee into a leftover whiskey glass.
The composer looked around the room once again before stepping onto the porch, which was
small and had steps leading up to it. The shinonome household actually had a small 2nd floor apartment.
Kanade leans onto the wooden guard rails and takes a swig out of the steaming cup of ground
beans.
COUGH COUGH COUGH
Kanade enters a coughing fit and spits out the drink.
“How does mafuyu drink this?” She stares down at the glass.
It was a bad time to forget she couldn’t taste I guess.
A notification hits her phone.
Honami: Hey Kanade! I was wondering how you were doing. You still aren’t back at the house,
so I assumed I should check up on you.
K: Oh, I'm fine. Thinking of getting back to composing soon.
Honami: That's great! Just don't be hard on yourself, you deserve free time too!
Kanade had thought about that for a second before responding.
K: Yeah, I will, thanks.
A few minutes pass after that text.
K: How’s school going for you?
Honami: Oh it's going grand! I get to see shiho everyday, my whole group is just so nice.
K: That's very nice
Honami: OH, AND ANOTHER THING!! I saw Mafuyu this morning walking by the bakery and we talked over some apple pie.
K: What did you guys talk about? (P.S I luv apple pie)
Honami: Oh, not much, you know. She isn’t much of a talker.
K: Did she say anything about me?
Honami: You seem to care about her a ton.
K: Yeah.. Did she tho?
Honami: Not really, she was a little distant every time you were mentioned for whatever reason.
K: Oh no.
Honami: What? Is something wrong
K: I don’t know. She’s been weird for a while now.
Honami: Was she not before?
K: I don’t know.
Honami: huh?
K: I guess one night I just got a little too close.
Honami: … How close?
Kanade hesitates answering, but decides Honami can likely keep a secret. They are both good friends after all.
K: I was hugging her when we were sleeping.
Honami: Honestly, I think you have a chance.
K: What?
Honami: Do you not want to be with her?
Kanade pauses. She had always chalked this level of closeness down to friendship, she never had thought it was love for some odd reason.
K: I don’t know..
Honami: Think about it. Between you and me, I think she likes you back.
K: Thank you, but I'm not sure right now.
Kanade stares down at her feet, and then her hands, now gripping onto the wood of the porch.
There was a part of her that finally understood and another that didn’t at all. All of this was so
confusing, and all she needed was answers.
“I did ask to actually do something today.”
Kanade tosses a pebble that was lying on the
flooring. “Guess it’s my lucky day.” The composer sighs, right before opening up the song "Untitled".
Upon appearing, she plops down on the ground next to an abandoned pillar, not a person in sight. If there was anything about this place though, people just spawn out of no-where.
"Hello?" A high pitched voice speaks from the opposite side of the large pillar.
"Hey" Kanade responds. The composer already notices the voice.
Rin walks around the pillar and appears right in front of her.
"How are you doing?" Rin asks softly.
"Fine." Kanade shortly lies in response.
"Listen, I remember last time Kaito was mad, but you can tell us your problems."
"I don't have any." Kanade replies. The two most lightly chuckle at that.
"No but actually, what is it?" Rin fishes for answers.
"I don't know, I just have a lot of weird feelings surrounding Mafuyu right now."
"Well what are they?"
"I can't exactly read them."
"Can you try and describe it?"
"..."
"She's perfect."
"Is that really the only descriptor?"
"Yes, she's so good at everything and she's so nice to me but it's weird because she's been so distant ever sin-"
"You know that's not true." A new voice speaks from out of the blue.
"What?" Kanade replies
"Is that how you see me?" Mafuyu asks upon revealing herself. "You know I'm not perfect Kanade! Nobody is perfect!" A part of Kanade refuses to accept that.
"But you're so good at everything and you make me feel like I'm doing nothing with myself at all!"
Mafuyu looks genuinely surprised. Kanade had been secretly struggling with this for a while.
"Her life was basically manufactured by her mom you know.." Rin comments.
"If you are not perfect, then why are you too good for me?" Kanade questions with tears in her eyes.
"I'm not.." Mafuyu blankly responds
"Then why are you so distant?"
"I got scared." Mafuyu honestly defends.
The back and forth continues until a 4th voice finally enters.
"Be honest to one another!" Ena screams as the two turn their vision towards her. "I've had to snoop on the both of you because you won't give me an honest answer. So at least give one to eachother.." Ena says quite angrily.
Kanade and Mafuyu turn to each other and they both feel the same feeling.
The weird swirling motion in Mafuyu's chest feels funny, she doesn't understand this emotion.
Mafuyu goes back to when her mom fed her apple slices when she was sick, then to when kanade and her were in each other's embrace. They both had that same feeling.
One more feeling persists though, the feeling of people watching. Maybe she should hate herself for liking this person. Maybe she shouldn't. But out of all of them, only one wording makes sense.
"I love you." Mafuyu finally speaks and the breath they have both held in for so long has finally been exhaled.
"I do too." Kanade simply responds, continuing her gaze into her "friends" eyes.
Mafuyu smiles one last time, she can rest knowing the right decision was made.
The looks that have been following Mafuyu for so long cease. The lyricist no longer held any shame for the one she loves..
[]
Kanade sits at her dads funeral. It's a small, outdoors, closed coffin funeral.
The composer and her grandma sit at his casket for what feels like days, but she is content with it.
There were other people at the funeral, but the guest list was quite small, and none of the others were grieving.
Just then, two men in suits from a company that bought his most famous tune (that one kanade helped on) walk up to the coffin.
"The man worked himself to death, what an idiot." The two men laugh before spitting on his casket even more by leaving a check with the amount of money the song was worth right on top.
Kanade feels like she is about to cry, she knows her fathers death and coma was her fault. She feels someone tap her shoulder.
Mafuyu is behind her dressed in a formal, funeral black dress.
"Not an idiot, but maybe those two know something." Kanade looks at her confused. "Your father wasn't perfect, remember how I said nobody is?" Kanade smiles in return. "It wasn't your fault, it's due time you accept that." The two exchange a hug.
"Oh! Is this the lucky lady?" Kanade's grandma walks up to the two.
Kanade blushes a little. "Yeah, she is.." She then smiles back at Mafuyu.
"Welcome to the family dear." The grandma then walks away to talk to other guests.
Before they leave Mafuyu slaps a note on the casket that Kanade doesn't read
The note reads: "Your daughter is still more selfless and caring than ever. I hope I can love her as much as you did. Thanks for making me the richest in the world." - Mafuyu Asahina