Chapter Text
Kabuki took a step back. “You saw who?”
There was no way Tex had said what he’d said. Sure, Daisy had come back for some reason, but only he could see her, and she was right next to him.
“Texxy saw me…?” Daisy herself reinforced the impossibility of it all. “Wh-where?! Where am I?!”
“Calm down, you’re right here,” Kabuki muttered under his breath. “A-are you sure, Tex?”
“Hundred percent,” Tex nodded vigorously. “I was out, searching for Apollo like I said I would, and then I saw her! Strolling through the woods out that way like she didn’t have a care in the world! She was wearing the same old dress and everything!”
Kabuki swallowed down something painful. He glanced Daisy up and down, only for her to look back at him in confusion. There were too many coincidences here. Could there somehow be two of her?
Judy looked suspicious, and Deirdre looked no less perplexed than Daisy, but Isabelle needed more convincing, it seemed.
“Please don’t lie to us like that, Tex…” she mumbled. Her voice was deathly soft and gentle, like a winter chill. “Daisy couldn’t be out there, remember?”
“I-I know it sounds dumb, I really do.” Tex cried. “A-and I’m sorry Mayor, but I’m not kidding! I really saw her out there! C’mon, come see!”
Without any further ado, Tex burst from the log cabin and into the woods opposite, leaving the rest of them little choice but to follow.
Kabuki stood in the doorway and gestured after him. Deirdre just gave a worried nod while a cynical Judy furrowed her eyebrows, but both followed after him. Isabelle hovered at the doorway, her eyes wide and glimmering.
“Times are strange, Madam Mayor,” Brewster cooed, wiping down the bar.
Isabelle’s lip trembled. “V-very much so.”
Kabuki found himself chasing after Tex’s disappearing silhouette, with shadowy tree branches snaring at him, and the eerie crackling of twigs underfoot. His, Tex’s, someone else’s… he wasn’t sure exactly whose. But every errant snap was like a gunshot in the night, doing nothing to calm his nerves. Tex darting left and right in his search wasn’t helping either. He said he’d seen Daisy. But he couldn’t have.
It definitely wasn’t Isabelle, either, because Isabelle was with them when he burst into the room. There wasn’t anyone else in the village who looked like Daisy, was there?
Tex came to a rumbling stop, doubling over and gasping for breath. “Gotta… find her…”
“She can’t be too far,” Tex put a paw on his back. “You remember which way she was going?”
Tex thrust a fin uphill, where of course the trees grew denser still.
“And you were leading us this way because…?” Kabuki’s cheek dimpled.
“Hate… hills.”
“But didn’t she go that way?”
“Uh huh…”
“So don’t we have to go that way?”
“Do we really, though?” Tex straightened up at last. “She was, like, super glowy, so we’ll be able to see her from a mile away, no-”
Judy took in a sudden breath.
“You can dress up all you like, but blue is not your colour Darling!”
Tex and Kabuki turned around, only to see her looking mildly disappointed. Since when did she have such a powerful voice?
“Know something we don’t, DeeDee?” Kabuki frowned. Even Deirdre was staring at her, aghast.
“Many things, dearie.” Judy’s eyes sparkled.
“…about this thing in particular?” Kabuki groaned.
“Perhaps,” Judy glanced towards the crest of the hill. “Rather coincidental that Apollo’s not here, wouldn’t you say?”
Something behind Kabuki’s left temple short circuited. That made even less sense than the ghost of Daisy appearing to other people. Why was Apollo not being here a coincidence?
Meanwhile Tex’s jaw dropped and Deirdre’s eyes widened.
“You’re joking.” She said.
“We’ll see,” Judy’s smile didn’t meet her eyes. Leading the way up the hill, Kabuki and Deirdre followed closely while Tex groaned and dragged his feet. As if the hill itself was ready to repel these intruders, the trees seemed to be growing gnarlier with every few steps. Swiped in the face by a branch as Deirdre squeezed through a gap ahead of him, the whole thing just started to seem a bit pointless. Anyone with a brain would’ve made themselves scarce long ago.
Apollo never seemed like the attention seeking type. Competitive, sure. Flowers, definitely.
Kabuki groaned. Daisy was technically a flower, he supposed. But that sounded a bit too loopholey, even for a pedantic eagle like Apollo.
Yet Judy seemed a bit too sure, striding up this hill like the trees weren’t even there. With Tex slowly disappearing behind them, Kabuki sped up to keep Judy in his sights, because she apparently knew what was going on here.
But by the time the trees eventually thinned out and the hill’s peak were in sight, his lungs were ready to burst. Yet the girls seemed perfectly fine mountaineering this thing. Tex had dropped off some time ago, it seemed.
“There’s your Daisy, Dearies.” Judy gestured softly to a faint silhouette down the other side of the hill.
Kabuki clenched his teeth at the sight. Why was someone playing such a sick joke? About Daisy nonetheless?
Adrenaline started surging through his veins like vile acid. Tex collapsed to the ground behind them, heaving and gasping for air, but despite his rage, Kabuki couldn’t bring himself to move.
Sat at the base of a tree, wearing a dress at least two sizes too small and looking utterly despondent, was Apollo.
Kabuki sighed, and the anger seeped out of him. He couldn’t get angry at someone that pathetic. After all the judgements and petty remarks, it turned out Apollo wasn’t handling things any better than him.
The sadness soaked in, replacing lost anger with every step Kabuki took closer. Apollo just remained sat there, not even bothering to get up or run away again. Both of them were resigned to this now, it seemed.
“…Apollo?” He kept his voice quiet and disarming. The last thing he needed was for the bird to flip. “You okay, buddy? C’mon,” he extended a hand, “let’s get-”
Apollo grabbed the hand, and Kabuki’s momentary relief snapped when Apollo suddenly twisted the arm backwards and brought him to the ground.
“Look at me,” his voice was thick, cloying with menace. “Look at me, Kabuki!”
“H-hey!” Tex cried, raising a flipper in protest. Judy grabbed at his shirt though, halting him.
“Apollo needs to do this, Darling.” She said, her face full of sorrow. “If he doesn’t let this out now, he might never.”
“But I…” Tex grimaced.
“Tell me something, Kabuki,” Apollo held him by the scruff of his shirt. “Do I look like Daisy? Because she’s here for you right now, isn’t she?”
“Apollo…!” Kabuki gasped.
“Isn’t she?!” Apollo’s voice was only getting heavier. “She’s not here because of me, Kabuki! She left, and it’s all my fault!”
“Huh? What’re you talking about?”
“If I hadn’t said what I’d said, she wouldn’t have run off!” Apollo seethed. “If she was going to appear, she’d do it for me! To haunt me, curse me, or something!”
Apollo threw him to the ground and turned away. “But she never showed up… Kabuki. That’s how I know she’s not around. She can’t be!”
“I-I’m right here, LoLo…” Daisy mumbled, her eyes glittering. Wearing the same blue dress as him, rubbing her paws together, she looked almost as pathetic as he did…
“S-she’s… she’s here right now, Apollo.” Kabuki said.
Apollo let out an almighty sob. “…even now, you’d mock me?”
Daisy approached him silently and whispered into his ear.
“She says… thank you for the hairclip, LoLo.”
Apollo gasped.
“And she says she’s sorry. I-I dunno what she means by that, but…”
Without a word, Apollo slowly walked away from him.
“…Apollo?” Kabuki said. He and the others watched as Apollo silently climbed back up the hill and walk past.
“Happy now?” He muttered at Judy, whose gaze sunk to the floor.
“H-hang on, wait!” Tex took half a step after him. “We’re… just letting him go?”
Brewster had prepared them four steaming cups of coffee upon their return. There was no Isabelle to be found either.
“So… you knew?” Tex’s head was buried in his flippers.
“Call it a hunch,” Judy smiled softly. “He dragged me off to Able Sisters one day, ‘gift shopping’ for some girl. And while I of course mean no offence, you wouldn’t catch me wearing a dress like that, and I’m the only girl he’s close to. Not since… then, anyway.”
Deirdre’s eyes widened, but she remained silent. Daisy was moping on the floor next to Kabuki with her cheeks puffed out.
“Was it really okay, confronting him like that though?” Kabuki said, leant against the wall of the base.
“If you feed a problem, it only gets stronger Dearie,” Judy shook her head. “So we had to act quickly, and scare the beastie away. Hopefully there’s still some of poor Apollo left in there…”
She stole a curt glance at the three of them before clearing her throat and leaving the coffee shop.
“…so what was the hairclip thing all about?” Kabuki said, prompting frowns from the other two.
“H-he… he bought it for me, once upon a time,” Daisy sniffled.
The door to the secret base was thrown open, and Kabuki dashed out of it. His legs were moving so quickly he was little more than a blur, disappearing off into the woods.
“Kabu! Kabu wait!” Daisy chased after him.
“Hold on!” Apollo burst out of the doorway after her. “Daisy, wait up!”
“Huh?!” Daisy glanced back, still running. “But I can’t! If I don’t keep running, Kabu’s gonna-”
“Forget Kabu! Let him run!” Apollo shouted. Daisy gasped, and slowed to a stop.
“He said… that you’re dumb, but you’re not,” Apollo dug in his pockets, pulling out a hairclip with a flower on it. “H-here.”
“…huh?” Daisy frowned at it.
“I thought it suited you,” he made a weak smile. “Perfect for the girl that I… that I like!”
Daisy suddenly blushed a violent shade of pink. Trembling, squirming, she remained painfully silent while Apollo kept his hand out. His hat was covering his eyes, but the horrible sniffle betrayed him.
“…I’m sorry!” Daisy cried. “Kabu’s running away, so I gotta make sure he’s okay! I’m sorry LoLo! I’ll talk to you later!”
Apollo’s reach withered and fell back to his side.
“Daisy.”
Gritting his teeth, he clenched a fist and threw the hairclip into the woods before running off.
The slow walk back from the base was a sobering one. Not only had Daisy reappeared to him, but it was definitely only him, and she was also still very involved with everyone else’s lives. Isabelle went without question, but Apollo habitually dressed up as her, and Judy knew about it?
Yet neither of them had said anything until it was forced out, Kabuki grumbled internally. Just how long had it been going on?
Tex and Deirdre weren’t saying anything, but they probably had horrible secrets about her too. Nothing really was the same since that day.
Even Daisy herself seemed muted. Just walking alongside him instead of skipping about, picking up flowers and climbing fences. Maybe today’s revolution had shocked her too.
Kabu pinched at his nose. What was he doing, worrying about a ghost? Whatever her reasons were for being here, he was going to have to figure that out. But until then, her being here was a positive. Maybe they could finally put any awkwardness behind them or whatever.
“So uh… no luck on the wish, huh?” He cleared his throat. Anything was better than deathly silence.
“I guess not, Kabu…” Daisy skulked beside him. “Maybe we weren’t supposed to get everyone together. But don’t worry, there’s lots of other things to try!”
“You said it,” Kabuki smiled weakly. “Don’t worry Daisy. Whatever your unfinished business is, I’m sure we’ll sort it out.”
“Unfinished… business?” Daisy raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean by that, Kabu?”
“I-I-It was in a manga I was reading,” Kabu scratched at the back of his neck. “The main character was getting visited by a ghost, who was stuck on earth because they had unfinished business! So I figure that, if we finished the unfinished business, we could grant your wish?”
“…oh wow, that’s so smart Kabu!” Daisy went all starry eyed. “So all we need to do is find out what my unfinished business was!”
Daisy wrapped a paw around his, and the pair of them slowly walked back to Kabuki’s house.
A smile curled on his lips. All of them had been left behind in one way or another by Daisy’s departure, yet here she was, side by side with him.
Maybe there was purpose in his life after all.