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If Ena knew anything about Mizuki, it’s the fact that they took pride in their cute appearance.
Rightfully so, she even thought, as there was no denying that Mizuki was the epitome of cute. Niigo’s cinematographer always took the utmost care in looking absolutely perfect, from their well coordinated outfits to their always properly styled hair, even if only taking a short visit to Sekai. Even as annoying as it was having to hear Mizuki constantly boast about how adorable they are on their best days—everyday, if Ena was being truthful—the rest of Niigo, including the residents of the Empty Sekai seemed to always agree.
It made Ena wonder if Mizuki happened to have days where they never looked their best, but even she couldn’t fathom such a thought. Imagining it seemed wrong, after all, even as curious as she was.
Besides, Mizuki would never show that side to them.
From what Ena could see, the Mizuki she sees in front of her, in their many shopping dates or afterparties in the diner with the rest of Niigo, is their true self. The cute, mischievous, childish friend of hers who would always greet her with a smile. It had been something Ena could respect about them.
So why didn’t others respect that about you, the same way that I and the rest of Niigo do?
There never was anything good that came out of coming to school earlier than necessary, so Ena avoided it as much as she could in favour of sleep. There were days, however, where Ena woke up too early to go to school, yet too late to go back to sleep. With a disapproving groan, she decided to go to school early and maybe do a bit of studying for a potential pop quiz.
Ena let out a great yawn upon walking into the building. She vaguely recalled Mizuki mentioning in Nightcord that they were at school, taking supplementary lessons to keep up with their attendance. “I wonder if Mizuki’s still around?” Ena wondered aloud, thinking that she could probably spend time with them instead of studying, as much as she needed it.
But what she got was not Mizuki themself, but their potential whereabouts.
A mixed group of students passed by Ena in the hallways, their conversation within earshot of the young artist. One of the boys in the group had a worrying tone. “Hey, do you think they were for real when they said they were gonna do that to Akiyama?”
One of the girls responded. “You know how they are. Besides, they know that Mizuki’s up on the rooftop, so they’re gonna for sure going to corner them with a pair of scissors.” At this statement, the other people laughed, as if whatever it is Mizuki’s about to encounter was nothing to them. As if they wanted this very thing to happen even if it brought harm to Mizuki.
This infuriated Ena, and her body moved almost automatically, without thought, sending her rushing to the rooftop with the intent of making sure Mizuki’s okay.
She was so close, yet the sound of Mizuki’s voice echoed before she could open the door to the rooftop.
“Stop! Let me go! D-don’t!”
Click.
Ena saw it all.
Two boys held a bruised Mizuki back, while a girl held a pair of scissors to Mizuki’s untied pink hair. Then the blades closed, and the locks of hair rained down on their feet and over their tattered hair ribbon while the group of bullies only laughed at their sloppy, disgusting work. What managed to infuriate Ena, however, was the fact that Mizuki’s wide eyes showed no tears on them.
Nothing, except pure shock.
Staring at their once perfectly styled hair and ruined red and black ribbon with trembling amaranth orbs.
Mizuki uttered no words, and no one seemed to have noticed Ena until something inside her snapped, causing her to launch herself at one of the boys.
“What the fuck did you do to Mizuki?!”
She swung her bag with all her might towards one of the boys, causing him to let Mizuki go. Without a moment of hesitation, Ena swung her leg as hard as she could, foot kicking him right in the groin. “You get your filthy hands off my friend, you bastards! ” Ena thundered, doing the exact same to the other boy before he could even find the chance to guard himself.
With both boys down, groaning in excruciating pain, Ena faced the girl. “Wh-what the hell’s your problem?” the girl stammered, but Ena didn’t care about what she had to say.
Ena couldn’t control the rage inside of her as she yanked the girl’s scissors away from her hand and threw it on the ground, not caring if it hit one of the boys in the process. “I should be asking you that, bitch!” Ena roared. All she cared about was the harm done on Mizuki, which she wanted to return to the perpetrators tenfold. Ena slapped the girl, the sting travelling throughout her palm, but she continued her onslaught, even if the girl started to fight back with slaps of her own. Even if the two boys tried to get up and pull Ena away to no avail.
If she hadn’t been bound by the rules of the school, she probably would have killed them with that very pair of scissors.
But Ena could still see Mizuki’s pitiful state, grounding her even just a little to hold back her desires for murder. She, however, resorted to tackling the girl down, using her fists to pound at the girl without rest.
Every punch she gave wasn’t enough. Ena wanted this bitch to suffer more than the pain she caused Mizuki.
“Hey! What are you kids doing?!”
A teacher. Ena could feel herself getting lifted off the girl’s body as she struggled, yelling. Yet another look at Mizuki being guided up by another teacher brought her back to reality completely, and her body stilled. The three bullies, Mizuki, and Ena were guided to the principal’s office, where she continued to fight back using words instead.
Defending Mizuki as much as she could while the bullies didn’t dare deny everything they did to her dear friend.
Mizuki, however, only remained silent, hand growing white as they gripped their tattered ribbon. Ena couldn’t see their eyes, hidden from everyone’s view, but she could tell that they were trying to prevent tears from even brimming their eyes.
After what felt like an eternity in the suffocating room and their neverending debates, Ena and the bullies were suspended for a week. While it did sting to have her permanent record tarnished that way, she thought nothing of it as her main concern was Mizuki. They all left the school building, but Ena stayed behind just to see what Mizuki would do.
“… Mizuki…?” She called out to them, but the young cinematographer didn’t acknowledge her. “… Hey, Mizuki…. Do you want to maybe stop by my place? Akito’s not home so you don’t have to worry about him seeing you like this.”
Then Mizuki finally took the time to glance at Ena, and in that moment she could feel her heart shatter.
Mizuki forced a smile through their breaking, bruised facade, yet their eyes held nothing but pain.
“It’s okay, Ena. I’m just going to go home,” they mumbled, voice nearly cracking from having to hold back tears. Ena only grew more worried by the minute. “No, you don’t have to walk me. I’m sorry,” they added, as if they could read Ena’s mind. Mizuki didn’t wait for a response, and walked away from Ena.
Ena wanted to chase after Mizuki, but they broke into a run after a few seconds.
Ena hadn’t seen Mizuki in days after that ordeal.
At first, she knew Mizuki needed a break, and after them not logging onto Nightcord for the evening, Ena decided not to pester Mizuki any further as she knew they needed to take a break. She knew that Kanade and Mafuyu would be worried, so she answered for Mizuki’s sake.
“Amia probably won’t be in today….” Ena told the other two. She felt that it was not in her right to tell them the full story, so she kept her excuse vague. “Something happened at school today and I think it’d be best to give them some time off.”
“Oh,” she heard Kanade’s worried tone. “I hope they’re okay….”
Ena bitterly smiled. “I hope so, too….”
Yet a week passed, and Ena was allowed to go back to school. Mizuki, however, remained out of sight. Not a single message to Nightcord was made, and while Kanade and Mafuyu were understanding despite not knowing the situation, Ena knew they were still worried. “Amia…. It’s been a week since they last showed up, huh?” Mafuyu brought up, voice as monotonous as usual yet Ena could hear the hint of worry. Something none of them expected from the usually almost emotionless Mafuyu.
“They apparently haven’t been in Sekai either. Miku and the others have no recollection of sensing their arrival at any point,” Kanade added with disdain in her voice. Ena sighed.
“I… I’m sorry, guys. I know you’re worried about Amia, and I am, too, but…. I just didn’t think it was right of me to tell you guys what happened to them,” she responded, looking over at her mostly blank drawing app on her tablet. All she had been doodling for the past few days, instead of making any significant progress in their MV work, had been Mizuki—at least, what they used to look like before the situation that had recently happened. They always looked so perfectly cute, that she never really took into consideration just how much effort Mizuki always put in looking and feeling their best.
The look that Mizuki gave her that day had been engraved in Ena’s mind ever since, and she hated to admit it, but it scared her to the core.
“You don’t have to say anything, but if it helps you feel a little better, we’re willing to share the burden. I’m sure it’ll also help Mizuki feel better as well, Enanan,” Kanade said after a pause, as if she was able to tell how guilty the artist felt. “This has something to do with the fact that you got suspended from school for a week, right?” She made a good point, and even though it wasn’t in her place to talk about what happened, she finally began to tell the other two. It lifted some of the guilt off her shoulders, though deep inside her she knew she did nothing bad other than not chasing after Mizuki.
Ena almost wanted to cry when she told Mafuyu and Kanade the story.
As she spoke, the doodles on her tablet grew in numbers, becoming more refined than simple line art. The cute Mizuki that Ena admittedly missed seeing. Ena only understood that the Mizuki she saw that day was something they never wanted to be.
“I’m…gonna see if Mizuki’s in Sekai again.”
Kanade and Mafuyu didn’t stop her, and instead only wished her luck as Ena transported herself to the grey, desolate place. She thought about going to Miku and the others first, but to her luck, she saw a mass of light blue curled up in a ball against one of the protruding triangles off the ground.
A person, wearing a hood over their head. If Ena listened closely, she could almost hear the sound of quiet, choked sobbing, as if they were trying to hold it all back.
“Mizuki?”
Ena approached the figure who didn’t lift their head up in acknowledgement of the brown-haired girl. “It’s you, right, Mizuki?” she prodded as gently as she could, as if speaking to a lonely child scared to make friends. Mizuki finally took the time to acknowledge her, peeking out of the arms that they hid their face in.
Most of Mizuki’s bruises have healed enough to only appear as small black spots on their face, but Ena noticed that through the hood, their hair had been trimmed to a neater short-cut than what they received from the bullies. If Ena didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought of Mizuki to be a boy from their hair and their rather androgynous appearance.
“Ena…”
They sounded so weak, and while usually this would be the cue for Mizuki to give her a pathetic, forced smile, she saw none of that on the cinematographer’s face. Their eyes, instead, only looked so listless, almost as if they were glaring at her.
“I thought I told Miku to leave me alone. Did she send you to me?”
“No, I came here on my own to look for you.”
Mizuki hid their eyes once more, going back to their curled ball position without much thought. “I see. Well, now you’ve found me. Do you mind leaving me be?”
Ena clicked her tongue, but sat beside the younger with a huff. “I gave you space for a whole week, Mizuki. Don’t you think that’s enough time? Kanade and Mafuyu have also given you the time to yourself as well, and they’ve been nothing but patient and worried about you.”
A soft, empty laugh. “Mafuyu, worrying? That’s new.”
“Mizuki, I’m not joking.”
“Neither am I. Leave me alone, Ena.” Their voice sounded more forceful this time, adamant about wanting to be alone while Ena remained her stubborn, persuasive self. Neither one of them made a move, and when Mizuki realized that nothing was going to be driving Ena away, they sighed. “Fine. Then take a look at me and tell me. Do you think I look cute right now?”
The pink-haired cinematographer abruptly stood up, revealing their entire self to Ena while they yanked their hood off. Their eyebrows furrowed in frustration, yet their eyes remained so lifeless that it sent a shiver down Ena’s back. Never has she seen Mizuki this angry, while at the same time suffering from deep within. “Do you think that I’m Akiyama Mizuki right now? Tell me what you see, Ena!”
The artist rose.
Ena’s lips moved faster than her mind.
“You are! You’re so annoyingly cute even now that I can’t help but feel jealous at how good you look in anything and everything ! You’re still the same Akiyama Mizuki that I’ve known all these years, and how you look, or whatever secret you have, isn’t going to change the fact that you’re my friend and I’m still going to worry about you!”
Mizuki’s eyes widened, sparking with a bit of life as Ena breathed heavily.
Before they could reply, however, Ena launched her arms around the taller, as tightly as she could. Refusing to let them go. Because if I let go, you might disappear, and I can’t have that happening, she thought, her whole body trembling.
Mizuki was at a loss for words, but even as Ena buried her face onto the crook of Mizuki’s neck, she could tell that the tears were finally starting to brim their eyes. She could only wonder how long Mizuki had been holding it for the past week, while the regret of not checking up on her friend finally seeped in.
Maybe I should’ve been more persistent. Maybe if I kept bothering you this past week, then you wouldn’t have held it in for this long.
“Ena….” Their voice sounded so strained, struggling to form any words as they slipped back down onto the ground. Ena followed suit, arms still around Mizuki. “I…. I don’t know what to do anymore…. It hurts. I want to disappear. I don’t want to disappear….”
Their words began to become incoherent. Ena gently rubbed circles on their back to soothe them as they began to cry. Their hands gripped the back of Ena’s shirt, and just like a little child they started to sob.
“I just…want to be me…. I don’t want to have to throw myself away to be liked by others but…. It just hurts, Enanan….”
Ena remained silent.
Mizuki needed this. Even if their words were hard to understand, they were still in pain and the only thing Ena could do was listen. Listen and hold onto them to show that she wasn’t leaving.
It took a few more minutes of crying, hugging, and a mess of words, but Mizuki finally calmed down enough to tell Ena everything.
“I’m sorry, Ena,” they whispered, the smile on their face lighter than before. “A lot went through my mind for the last week….”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m going to be listening to you, no matter what.”
Mizuki nodded. They told Ena, first and foremost, about themself. About the secret they so desperately kept from the rest of Niigo, in fear of being abandoned by them. They’ve been left alone so many times because of this, that they once almost threw their own self away. Even as they embraced who they truly are, and started presenting themself the way they want to, they still weren’t accepted by many, until they joined Niigo. Met An in high school, and even met Ena in person.
Ena understood that this had been the reason why Mizuki didn’t go to school all too often. The fear of being looked at with prejudice affected Mizuki so much that they avoided school to prevent any more terrible memories from forming and resurfacing. “Those people,” Mizuki went on, fiddling with the drawstrings of the light blue hoodie they wore, “weren’t so violent like this before. I don’t know what set them off, but I guess my mere presence just annoys them so much that they decided to change how I look right now, to how I’m supposed to look.”
“That’s a terrible excuse.”
Ena’s quick response gained her a soft chuckle from Mizuki.
“It hurt me that they did that,” they admitted, before they started to tie their drawstrings together in a ribbon. “But it also hurt me to know that you found out, and I thought that you’d abandoned me for good when you didn’t send me a single message for days.”
The artist grunted. “I…. I’m sorry about that, Mizuki,” she admitted with guilt in her voice. “I just thought you needed time alone.”
“It’s okay, Ena. I now know you were just being considerate of my feelings. I know Kanade and Mafuyu are, too. I guess I was just jumping into conclusions…. But in those days, I thought that maybe it really was time for me to throw away everything I ever was. I couldn’t try hard anymore, and I came here in hopes of disappearing….”
“But I found you,” Ena stated, tucking her knees close to her chest with a small grin. Mizuki returned the smile with their own, closer to the ones they’d usually give her on a daily basis.
“You did. Thank you, Ena.”
Ena huffed proudly. “No need to thank me, Mizuki. I did promise that I was going to stay by your side until you told me what was troubling you. I say I kept my patience up fairly well! But you know….”
Her hand reached up to Mizuki’s soft pink locks, before she gave them a pat on the head. “You’ve done well, too, Mizuki. You hid all this pain from us for all these years, and you’ve finally worked up the courage to at least tell me.”
The two of them shared another smile, but Mizuki’s expression shifted as quickly as Ena blinked.
“So…. Are you no longer gonna be staying by my side now that I’ve told you?”
Mizuki let their drawstrings go, the loose ribbon they worked on falling apart. The question held so much weight, but to Ena, it meant nothing, especially when she had already given them an answer earlier.
“Hah? The hell are you talking about?” Ena grumbled, glaring at the video editor. “Didn’t I tell you earlier that I was going to stay by your side no matter what? Besides, I’m your ally now, Mizuki.”
“Ally….” Mizuki averted their gaze, but the smile on their face grew. Just like what my big sis told me….
Ena shifted to sit directly across from Mizuki, tying their drawstrings for them. She carefully knotted it into a simple, cute ribbon. “You know, you look cute even with short hair,” she started, fingers now lightly playing with Mizuki’s locks, even going as far as lightly braiding the hair behind their ear in a similar fashion to her own hairstyle. “But I know this isn’t the ‘cute’ that you want, right? So I’m gonna make you another promise.
“I’m going to stay by your side until you can appear the way you want to be again, and even after you achieve just that. The ‘cute’ that is true to only you and no one else, and if anyone tries to mess with you again, they’ll be getting more than a slap in the face and a kick in the crotch from me to make sure that they won’t do it ever again. I won’t hesitate, you know.”
Mizuki paused, before they snorted. “What the hell, Enanan?!”
The two of them laughed, voices echoing in the Empty Sekai.
“But… Thank you, Ena…. Thank you for choosing to stay by my side….”
Ena smiled, taking off her hair’s ribbon and tying it onto Mizuki’s little braid. She lightly chuckled at how good her hairstyle looked on Mizuki. “Cute,” she mumbled, watching as Mizuki’s face reddened in embarrassment. For someone who usually took pride in how cute they looked, Mizuki was awfully shy at getting genuine comments like this.
“You’re welcome, cute Mizuki.”