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Good day to you, Satoko. How are you doing? I miss you lots, Rika did not write because she did not miss her, not after only a month, no way.
Youve given me quite the advantage, you know?
Maybe she would write to her after all, if she wrote it like that. She fished a pen from her drawer for real, got out her prettiest stationary, and, just to twist the knife, sprayed it with a gentle perfume she's never worn until maybe a week ago.
By now the mannerisms of this place are in my bones. You'll need to take responsibility for the ultimate Proper Lady you've created, next we meet. Failure to buy it sufficient tea and snacks would just be cruel.
I like my classes, I really do. I know that sounds impossible to your ears. I like to look my teachers in the eye as they lecture and pretend I am a human pretending I am a witch pretending to be a human hiding among my classmates. I practiced a few magic tricks to really get into the role, actually! I got very good at hiding and swapping small items in my sleeves. To all eyes I have acted very good, and ladylike, and restrained, but the night after midterms I am going to have myself a proper witches' celebration. By which I mean, if you stopped your greedy little hands from demolishing my secret cabinet the second I left in the adorably ugly-sobbing meltdown you must have had, and wait until the correct date, we can share a drink from far away.
Let me know if you'll join me.
Lo-
No.
Your frie-
She couldn't bring herself to write it.
Furude Rika
---
Not that she was counting, but it took a full three months for Satoko to reply. Exams were long over. Rika's precious mini-winebottle was still full and hiding in a tear in her mattress. (She's got to tell Shion about this. She'd be so proud.)
Choke on your wine and die, read the entire letter back to her, AND she'd packed the torn-off notebook page in an envelope full of glitter that earned Rika a detention for the uncleanable mess it made in her room. The second the scolding teacher turned her back, Rika laughed out loud.
Trip over a stair and land on a rake, she wrote back, and included supermarket coupons for freshly cut pumpkins. A bit weak, but she was caught off guard.
I'm gonna eat your eyeballs, Satoko wrote, instead of "I love you". Good luck doing that when I'm wearing all your teeth on a necklace, Rika wrote, instead of "I love you too".
---
"I won't tell a soul, but, I was just wondering," a classmate- a new friend- whispers to Rika as they take a break from studying. The girl leans in, realizes how close their faces are, and jumps back, embarassed. A girl who's yet to realize something, Rika thinks as the witch she pretends to be sometimes. How amusing. In her head, the witch is always smooth and flirty. The witch has a girlfriend and would never, ever, blush just over, for example, thinking about kissing her. Which Rika the human has never, ever done, either. (That was a lie to herself).
"You're always checking for your mail and stuff... is it true what they say, that you have a long distance boyfriend? That you had to leave him behind in...where you're from?"
"Ahaha, is that what they're saying about me? It isn't true at all," Rika says. And then, with the falsest smile she can conjure up, "It's flattering that people think I'm so experienced."
She hopes that if, like her, there's some cast-away part of Satoko watching her world from outside, or maybe even (please, please, please) Hanyuu, that she has them in tears laughing. She imagines Satoko, SATOKO, in witches' finery. A sleek suit, Rika thinks, Satoko's never really been the dress type- a nice burnt orange that will make her look beautiful, would take anyone's breath away- and she's rolling around on the floor as Rika talks about how she's still so young, she's never been in love before, but she hopes the right man for her is out there somewhere. If Rika isn't careful, she'll slip up and smile for real.
---
"What, only second base?" Satoko mock-gasps to Keiichi's bragging and obscene hand gestures. It's all jokes, of course. Satoko knows the real moments shared in the privacy of Mion, Rena, and Keiichi's college dorms are something she's not invited to. Which is... bittersweet. She can't entirely keep the group acting the same, even though they meet up regularly for twice-weekly game nights. It's fine, she decides to believe. Let the fully human live as humans, and let those recovering from a brush with witchhood find comfort in each other. In any case, right now, she has a joke to tell.
"My, my, Keiichi! So slow you are! Even a lowly high schooler like me has gotten to thirty-fourth base with a girl!"
"Thirty fourth?!" Rena shrieks. "What's THAT? I mean, you shouldn't even know what that is, but now you've GOT to tell me, you've got to, you've got to!"
"It's when you take your hands...and you stand over your partner.........." Satoko says, lowering her voice. Rena steps forward, which is perfect timing for Satoko to jump at her, wiggling her fingers at Rena's stomach. "And then you go like this!!!!"
Rena doubles over laughing, and Keiichi and Mion giggle, embarrassed that they'd kind of believed Satoko was going to reveal something serious.
"Stoppp, I'm ticklish!!"
"I'm not even touching you, Rena!!"
Mion wraps her arms around her girlfriend.
"Well, I am!"
I had to let go of Frederika Bernkastel, Rika had told Satoko once on the phone. Because I want to live a happy life as a human. But I like to imagine her getting to be happy too, and at times like these Satoko imagines her - that terrible un-Rika she's had glimpses of before, a black hole of superiority and cruelty- looking down at the scene, trying to keep a straight face, snorting tea out of her nose and staining the front of her dress.
"Serves you right!" Satoko whispers. "You old snob."
"What?" Rena asks, catching her breath.
Satoko winks to the sky.
"Ohoho!! Noooothing!"