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Anthy wakes up earlier than usual. She can see through the window that the horizon is lightening, but the sun isn’t even close to up yet. And Anthy feels- well, she’s heard it compared to a lot of things, but she’s also experienced most of those things and none of them quite capture it. A punch in the gut? Not quite. Stabbing? Not even close. No, this is cramps. And they’re worse than usual. In this symbolic hellscape of a school Anthy is sure that means something, but she doesn’t know what.
She won’t be falling back asleep, so she gets up, checks her sheets for stains (there are none, luckily), and trudges to the bathroom. She opens the cabinets to find… nothing. She pulls out every item inside and inspects it, thoroughly rearranging its insides, before she accepts that her pads are not here. This means either A), she forgot to bring them when she moved back into the tower, B), she brought them but somehow misplaced them, or C), someone got rid of them.
She is going to kill her brother in cold blood.
After making herself an impromptu pad out of toilet paper like an amateur (and deciding that Akio’s decision to get rid of the one buffer between her and his white sofa is his problem, not hers), she realizes she’s hungry.
She opens the bathroom door more aggressively than is strictly necessary and storms into the kitchen to find Utena already there, staring into the open refrigerator with her most perplexed face. It’s… cute. Even cuter when she turns to Anthy with a helpless, questioning look. But why she’d be confused by leftovers is beyond Anthy.
Anthy looks into the fridge and nearly screams with frustration.
Cranberry juice. Bottle after bottle of cranberry juice. The school itself is mocking her.
But she is rather thirsty, so she picks up a bottle and oh. The label reads N.K. Farms.
All brain activity in Anthy screeches to a halt for a solid three seconds, and then kicks into high gear, flooding her with thoughts. They all come back to the same thing- or, well, the same person.
Anthy starts giggling, semi-hysterically. Poor Utena looks even more confused than before. Anthy takes out another bottle of the stuff and tosses it to her.
“Cheers,” Anthy says.
00-00-00
Blood. Blood on her sheets, blood on her nightgown, blood probably on the mattress too, fuck! This isn’t fair! She’s too young to die! God, what has she done wrong? How did this even happen? She certainly hasn’t dueled recently, and she doesn’t know what else could injure her like this- it must be some kind of disease. Not one she’s ever heard of, but who knows, maybe she’s its first victim.
Nanami wails in despair. Who knows how long she has? How much blood is in the human body… ten pints, right? That’s hardly a lot. With how much is on her bed, she’s probably already halfway to the grave! She needs to find Touga. She has to say goodbye.
She checks every room of their shared mansion before giving up, still terrified and now, angry. Of all the nights for Touga to be out with one of those floozies, why did he have to pick tonight? Or… actually, it’s morning. Whatever, her point still stands. Ugh, and she won’t even have a chance to yell at him the way she wants to, because she’s in the middle of dying and has to spend her remaining breath on saying goodbye.
Wait, does she need to write a will? Do children need wills? In any case, she doesn’t have time, and Touga obviously isn’t here.
The good news is that he’s probably still on campus. The bad news is that the campus is huge. Nanami has no time to waste.
Nanami sprints, barefoot and bleeding and mostly aimless, screaming for Touga over and over. She collapses in exhaustion, out of breath. She curls up against a tree and cries.
Why did God do this to her?
“Nanami!”
It’s Juri. Juri is running towards her, looking more worried than Nanami has ever seen her.
“Juri, what are you doing here?” Nanami sniffles, and she hates it. Crying at all is bad enough, but crying in front of the mature, beautiful fencing captain? It’s torture.
“I was on my way to spar with Miki before we go to class, but I heard you screaming- what, would you prefer I left you to deal with whatever it is alone? You’re a wreck.”
Nanami knows that’s objectively true, but she still hates Juri a little for saying it. “Do you know where Touga is?” She asks.
“No. Probably off messing around with one of his… companions,” Juri says, visibly restraining herself from commenting further.
“I know that, I was hoping you could point me in the right direction. I have a lot to say to him before I die.”
Juri’s eyes widen. “Die? Nanami, what do you mean? Were you planning to…” She trails off, and Nanami realizes what she means.
“No! I have a disease! I think. I haven’t done anything to get hurt, so it must be that. What disease makes you bleed from your-” Nanami cuts herself off and flushes. Oh, hey, she still has enough blood left to do that! Must not be dead yet. But still, she can’t say it out loud. Of course, when she’d seen the blood, she’d frantically examined herself to find the injury, and hated what she’d found. Of all the places, why there?
Juri clearly knows what she stopped herself from saying, though. The look of dawning comprehension makes Nanami bury her face in her hands in embarrassment.
She can’t see Juri anymore, but she hears a deep, deep sigh.
“Give me a second, I need to call Miki.”
Nanami’s head snaps back up, jaw dropping. How can Juri be so callous? She watches in sputtering, inarticulate rage as Juri dials Miki’s number and talks to him. Juri sounds exhausted.
“It’s Nanami. I need to help her with… womanly things. No, Miki, I won’t elaborate, figure it out yourself. The point is, I’m not sparring with you this morning. Thank you. Goodbye.”
Nanami is slightly less angry now, but no less confused. What does Juri mean by “womanly things”? It sounds like a euphemism.
Oh God. Is she about to find out if all those rumors about Juri are true?
Juri grabs her hand and pulls her to a standing position. “Come with me. I have supplies in my room.”
Supplies? Nanami questions to herself, mental voice going up several octaves.
After speed-walking to Juri’s room, Juri throws open the door and tries to stave off the urge to simply crawl back into bed. Juri has been tired before, from staying up all night or pushing herself to her limit fencing, but this takes the cake. Even the anticipation of the conversation she’s about to have is draining her. But still, she soldiers on, because someone has to.
She finds a dress she was planning to donate because she’s outgrown it, and throws it in Nanami’s direction. Nanami looks bewildered. Juri storms into her own bathroom, raids the cupboard, and finds the pads. She takes out two and comes back into the bedroom to find Nanami still standing there in a nightgown (that Juri is only just now noticing is horribly bloodstained) holding Juri’s old dress, seemingly paralyzed. Juri brandishes the pads.
“You put this on your underwear.”
“WHAT?” Nanami shrieks, both indignant, confused and terrified all at once.
Juri remembers a little too late that Nanami has no idea what’s going on, and that Juri has a reputation. A mostly unearned reputation, to be sure (she still questions how anybody knows, when she didn’t make a move on Shiori and hasn’t moved on from Shiori) but a reputation, nonetheless.
Juri doesn’t have the time or energy to try and unravel truth from lies right now. “Nanami, this isn’t a lesbian thing. I’ll explain later, I just need you wearing one of these as soon as possible before you get blood on my floor.” Juri plucks a random pair of panties out of her underwear drawer. “I will demonstrate on this.”
Nanami looks less ready to sprint away, at least. She watches Juri demonstrate, and then retreats into the bathroom.
Nanami shuts the door, noticing the fur-trimmed robe hanging on the door’s hook, still wondering what Juri is going to explain to her. At least she can understand why Juri doesn’t want blood on her floor, although she wonders what the hell these things are supposed to be for under normal circumstances. She takes off her nightgown, uses one of Juri’s makeup wipes to wipe away the blood on her inner thighs and makes a real attempt to clean her underwear too, only to give up. At least the “wings” on this pad thing will cover the stain on the outside of her underwear, so there’s not much chance of her staining anything else.
Nanami opens the bathroom door feeling more awkward than she has in ages. This pad feels so much thicker than it looks, she’s sure other people could see it if she were wearing pants. And Juri’s dress, though it’s too small for Juri, is practically falling off Nanami’s shoulders.
“So, I know what you’re thinking. And I promise, no one can tell you’re wearing it. Not even if you wear pants. Have you ever noticed me wearing one? No? Exactly.”
Well, that’s a relief- wait, what? That raises several questions. Is Juri okay?
“You wear these… regularly?” Nanami asks.
Juri’s soul makes a valiant attempt to escape her body. She forces it back inside and puts on her fencing captain voice, as it’s the closest thing she has to a teacher voice. “Yes. Most girls my age do. Most girls your age do. Or, well, this or something that serves the same purpose. Nanami, you don’t have a disease. You’re menstruating.”
---
Utena is confused.
This is hardly unusual for her, considering everyone at her school seems to be locked in a constant competition for Most Perplexing Person, and her roommate is indisputably winning. But now she’s extra confused.
First the debacle with the cranberry juice in their fridge- upon some digging, they find that all their leftovers are still there, just smushed and stacked rather creatively to make room. Utena is still befuddled as to how the actual hell someone managed to do all this without her or Himemiya noticing. She’d suspect Himemiya, but they spend basically all their free time together. She wouldn’t have the chance.
At least the juice is tasty.
And now there’s Nanami. To be fair, she’s just gotten a soccer ball to the face courtesy of Utena, which Utena immediately apologizes for. But Nanami is stranger than usual today. Snippy, as expected of her, but also strangely guarded. Like she’s nervous.
Nanami is a bold, proud, surprisingly bloodthirsty girl. The last time she’d seen Nanami nervous was when she’d been convinced someone was trying to kill her. Something’s obviously wrong.
“Nanami, are you doing okay?”
Nanami, who looks ready to deliver an impressive rant, simmers down slightly when Juri puts a hand on her shoulder. That’s another odd thing, since when do they hang out? Utena always thought Nanami’s friends were those three girls always following her around, and maybe Miki.
“Nanami is experiencing some-” Juri begins, but Nanami jumps up to put a hand on her mouth.
“Are you crazy? Don’t go telling other people!”
Juri gently removes Nanami’s hand. “Nanami, Utena will understand.”
Nanami’s eyes narrow in skepticism, then widen. “You mean she…” she doesn’t finish.
“I would assume so. She’s older than you, after all.”
Utena is completely lost.
Juri turns to her again. “Nanami’s on her period. Specifically, her first period.”
Comprehension hits Utena like a ton of bricks. “OH! Ohhhhh. Congratulations! Or sorry that happened. I don’t know, pick whichever one you like more.”
“Idiot,” Nanami grumbles.
Utena flushes a little. She really has no idea how to talk about this, especially not so bluntly- the last person she had period talk with was Wakaba, who calls it “Aunt Flo”. Oh, and Himemiya this morning, but that barely counted, the conversation was so short. Utena still needs to make a run to the drugstore to pick up some pads, for some reason their shared bathroom has none. They must have forgotten to pack them when they moved in.
Oh, she can get some for Nanami, too! That would be a nice surprise. Maybe she already has some, but hey, you can never have too many. Maybe it’ll help smooth things over and make Nanami stop looking at her like she’s trying to set her on fire with her mind.
“Well, good luck with that, Nanami! And sorry about the ball. Have a good day!”
She runs back to the field, where her teammates, opponents, and Himemiya are all waiting.
“Was she okay?” One of the boys asks.
“Yeah, nothing broken! She was kind of mad, though…”
They play for another few minutes, and then their free period- free hour, Utena corrects herself, free hour- is up. She and Himemiya have their next class together, and they walk next to one another. Utena consciously slows down- she’s only a couple inches taller than Himemiya, but she takes bigger steps. Himemiya is making quick work of the bottle of cranberry juice she’s got in her hands.
“Wow, you must really like that stuff, I didn’t know.”
“Are you thirsty? You can have some.” Himemiya holds the bottle out to her.
“I- uh, I’m good. We have plenty at home.” Utena tries to ignore the thought of drinking from the same bottle as Himemiya- Wakaba would call it an indirect kiss.
“Nanami was pretty out of it today. Apparently, she’s having her first period.” Utena mentions.
“Oh my,” Himemiya says. She has that little pressure in her voice that she gets when she’s trying not to laugh, and Utena is proud of herself for recognizing it. Himemiya is probably imagining the carnage of hormones boosting Nanami's already dramatic outbursts.
Utena gets the feeling Nanami wouldn’t want her telling people, but it’s Himemiya, she’s no gossip. She barely talks to anyone that isn’t Utena, Chu-chu, or…Wakaba.
Wakaba, who very much is a gossip. And is headed right towards them.
“What about Nanami?” Wakaba asks, with Utena captured in one of her tackle-hugs.
In the time it takes Utena to put together a coherent thought (the thought being “this is bad”), the words “first period” have already left Himemiya’s mouth.
Shit.
---
Utena Tenjou is a dead boy-girl walking.
Or at least that’s what Nanami tells herself, walking away from Keiko. Keiko, who somehow knew about her condition. Who said that she “heard it from Aiko, who heard it from Chizuru, who heard it from… I think Wakaba’s her name?”
Nanami knew who Wakaba was. She’d long since dismissed her as no threat to Nanami’s popularity- she wasn’t interested in Touga and despite being relatively well-liked, she sort of blended into the background most of the time. An unremarkable girl who happened to be enough of a friendly chatterbox to charm people. “People” including one Utena Tenjou, who’d gone and spilled her secret like the massive idiot she was.
Nanami has never been so embarrassed in her life. Keiko had been bafflingly excited for her, or at least pretended to be. Apparently Utena wasn’t the only person on Earth who thought “congratulations” was an appropriate response to this, which meant Nanami was officially moving to Mars as soon as she could.
Juri wasn’t there as a buffer. She had her own classes to get to, which left Nanami to fend mostly for herself.
Mostly, because Tsuwabuki is also here. The chat with Keiko had flown directly over his head, and Nanami had shut down his clarifying questions at lightning speed. There is no way in hell she’s going to explain this to Tsuwabuki. This is already the worst day of her life, no need to make it worse.
It’s bad enough on its own. Bleeding every month for a week because her body decided to set up for a guest that never comes? Terrible. Horrendous. Her bed looks like a crime scene. Zero stars. But the fact that the world had the audacity to keep it a secret from her? Unacceptable.
She had assumed the cowbell was a one-off. An absurd coincidence that resulted in her not knowing common knowledge. But this was the second time, and she was starting to wonder…
Was my upbringing strange?
She knew her childhood was different from that of her peers, it only made sense. She was a Kiryuu, she’d grown up fabulously wealthy in a mansion that managed to feel empty even though it held so many precious things- no, expensive things. There was only one precious thing in that house, and she hadn’t seen him all day.
Is it my family, or just me? Does Touga know things about animals, or growing up? He must, right? He’s smart. He’s not making a fool of himself all the time like I am.
Nanami’s eyes feel hot, and her vision blurs for the second time that day.
She rubs her eyes before the tears have a chance to fall. Tsuwabuki is asking if she’s okay, but his voice sounds almost muffled, like she’s underwater.
What’s wrong with me?
Nanami doesn’t end up going to class.
She dismisses Tsuwabuki, too, though it takes a few tries. He walks off with that girl in his grade he seems to be friends with, casting worried looks at her as he goes.
Nanami spends what she feels is an unreasonable amount of time crying under a tree. Once she’s done, she has a headache. Juri had said something about emotions being more intense… or maybe it was just because she’d gotten the scare of her life this morning.
…She’s hungry now. And since she’s already missed half of class…
Nanami heads down to the little town right by Ohtori- it’s so close it may as well be part of the campus. She ends up heading into a McDonald’s- she knows of this place, but never actually been there herself. To her dismay, the most prominently displayed menu items are burgers, and the idea of eating beef disgusts her now for reasons she’d rather not think about.
Is that Kozue looking at the menu?
Yes, it is Kozue, and she’s seen Nanami, and she’s looking at her like she’s grown a second head.
“…You’re skipping class too, you don’t get to judge me,” Nanami snaps.
“I’m not. I’ve just never seen you here before.”
“Never been.”
“Really? I come all the time, the milkshakes are cheap. You want to sit together?”
Oh, whatever, she might as well. This day has already gone so far off the rails.
Nanami ends up ordering large fries, to compensate for not having any real entrée. She eats them at a speed her mother would scold her for, but Kozue sips her shake without comment.
“I’m sure that took a year off my life,” Nanami says after she’s finished. She takes a gulp of the water she ordered.
Kozue shrugs. “Yeah, probably. But hey, do you want a long life or a good life?”
“I don’t see why I should have to choose.”
“Fair.”
There’s a lull in the conversation until Kozue speaks up again. “Which class are you skipping? I had Health today.”
“I think I’m supposed to be in Health too.”
“There’s nothing they’d be teaching that I don’t already know.”
Nanami doesn’t like the sound of that. “How do you know?” She quietly hopes it has nothing to do with that “Daddy Long Legs” Kozue was talking about the last time they spoke.
“When I was ten, I overheard some older kids talking about a ‘time of the month’ and I badgered them until they explained periods to me. Glad I did, too. Mom would not have told me. One of them let me borrow a book that basically explained the rest.”
Well, that’s a relief in more ways than one. Kozue’s in the same boat? Well, not the same boat, she still found out earlier than Nanami, but her parents didn’t tell her either?
That means Nanami’s not a freak. Or, at least, not the only freak. Kozue gets it.
“I didn’t know until this morning,” She admits.
Kozue has an odd expression when the realization sets in. “Uh… congratulations?” she half-laughs, half-winces.
“I’m moving to Mars.”
---
Anthy watches, feeling oddly fond, as Utena and “Assistant Detective Chu-Chu” squint at the signs hanging above the aisles of the drugstore, trying to find where they keep the menstrual products.
“This store is so much more confusing than it needs to be,” Utena grumbles.
Anthy wholeheartedly agrees. Navigating the town outside Ohtori can be just as bad as the school itself sometimes, with the bonus of unfamiliarity. Anthy rarely leaves campus, and while Utena goes into town more often than she does, that’s a low bar.
Anthy takes another sip of cranberry juice. “Maybe we should try another store, Miss Utena.”
“No. No! They’re here somewhere, they’re just hidden.” Utena is stubborn, and now she’s also frustrated. Anthy isn’t willing to waste the effort it would take to pry her away. Also, it’s funny.
Utena continues her crusade. “Not in aisle seven, not in aisle four, not in- is that aisle nine? We’re in aisle five! Who designed this place?”
Chu-chu chitters in indignant agreement.
Eventually, Utena grabs Anthy’s hand and marches to the checkout, which is mercifully easy to find since it’s by the door.
“Where do you keep the… oh.”
They’re right next to the checkout. The checkout that they passed as they walked in. Utena looks ready to tear her own hair out, so Anthy handles the transaction. Utena still insists on paying.
They get three boxes- two for the two of them, and one for Nanami. Normally Anthy wouldn’t want to buy (or participate in buying) normal gifts for Nanami, but since Utena’s plan is apparently to just flag Nanami down the next time they see each other, probably in public, Anthy considers it more of a gift for herself.
---
Nanami feels an odd sense of foreboding walking back onto campus, but decides to blame it on the hormones.
“Are you sure you won’t get in trouble for skipping, Miss President?” Kozue says, walking beside her.
Nanami scoffs. “That couldn’t be less of a problem. Student Council members can get away with murder. Worry about yourself.”
“My teachers don’t care. Miki will probably glare at me, though.”
“He knows you can do better,” Nanami says.
Kozue looks skeptical, but doesn’t object aloud. “I’ll call you later,” she says instead, before walking off along a different path. They’d exchanged phone numbers.
Nanami continued walking along for about another minute before her relative peace of mind was shattered.
“NANAMI!”
No. Absolutely not. That is not Utena Tenjou, she is not calling Nanami’s name, she is not running towards her, she is not holding a box of- are those pads?
Nanami could run. Probably should run. But she’s frozen.
Utena comes to a stop in front of her, only slightly out of breath. She holds out the box with both hands, offering. “Here you go!”
They are surrounded by people. People who can see very clearly what Utena is offering her. And just like that, anyone who didn’t already know about Nanami’s current condition will know within an hour.
Anthy is standing just behind Utena with a bottle of something red in her hands. The look on her face is almost her usual vacant smile, but Nanami can practically feel Anthy’s amusement. It makes her blood boil.
Nanami smacks the box out of Utena’s hands, grabs Utena by the collar, and yanks her so close their foreheads are almost touching. “Are you STUPID? Who am I kidding, of course you’re stupid! You idiot! Giving me something like this in public- do you have no shame? No class? No-”
“I was just trying to help!” Utena protests.
“WELL, YOU DIDN’T!” Nanami shakes Utena violently as she yells.
“Let go of her,” Anthy interjects. Her voice is as soft as ever, but she isn’t smiling anymore. “If you must, take your grievances to the dueling arena.”
Nanami tries to ignore the shiver down her spine and lets go of Utena’s shirt. “Maybe I will,” she hisses.
A sigh. “That won’t be necessary.”
“Juri?” Nanami asks, in sync with Utena.
“Yes. Nanami, it was an honest mistake, there was no need for that.”
Nanami pouts.
“It’s fine, Juri. I’m not gonna take it personally. I mean, she is on her-”
“I will fight you.” Nanami hisses. Utena, in maybe the only smart decision she’s made all day, shuts up.
“No, you won’t. And take those pads, you can’t borrow mine forever.” Juri says.
Nanami picks the box off the ground, dusts it off, and holds it close to her chest, so the label and picture on the front can’t be seen. Utena winces.
“Uh, hey, Nanami? Sorry. I really wasn’t trying to embarrass you. I just wanted to help.”
“Okay, fine,” Nanami says, “just don’t do it again.”
“I won’t.”
“Oh, Nanami?”
Nanami feels her entire body tense up at Anthy’s voice. The smile has come back full force. Anthy steps forward and holds out another little bottle of that stuff she’s been drinking- now Nanami can see that it’s cranberry juice.
“Take some. You’ll want to stay hydrated.”
Nanami takes the bottle with extreme caution, not entirely sure she’s not handling an explosive. Sure, it looks like a normal bottle of cranberry juice, but who knows what Anthy could have-
She cuts herself off, noticing the label.
N.K. Farms.
One day, Nanami is going to kill her. But today, she just death grips the bottle, forces out a “thank you” while desperately trying to convey that what she means is “burn in hell”. But she has been through too much already and she doesn’t have the mental bandwidth to come up with another scheme to ruin Anthy’s life. Besides, they always seem to go wrong.
Nanami accepts that she’s not going to be doing any learning today, and so she decides to head home. She has sheets to wash.
---
At dinner, she finally sees her brother.
Nanami is elated, but too tired to gush the way she normally would. She washed her sheets in cold water, then hot, then tried to scrub the stain out of the mattress itself, gave up, decided to give herself a bath, and passed out in the tub. Her fingers are still pruny.
“Welcome home, brother.” She beams at him, trying to convey her enthusiasm through her face, since her voice is still groggy.
“Hello, Nanami. Any excitement while I was gone?”
Nanami wonders if she should tell him. Maybe just a bit.
“I grew up a little today.”
Touga’s face falls.
Nanami panics. She’s already done something wrong, and they haven’t even been talking for two minutes.
“Oh, I see. You’re like that now…”
“Like what?”
“You’ve lost your innocence. It’s such a shame, I had hoped you could be my little sister forever.”
“I… what? What do you mean? I’m still your little sister! I’m mostly the same, only a little bit has changed, really!”
“That’s always how it starts. You’re becoming a woman, I suppose. And what woman still needs her older brother?”
“I still need you!”
Touga leaves the room without replying, and Nanami is too shaken to follow him.
Later, when she gathers up the courage to look, she can’t find him. He doesn’t want to be found. Nanami goes back to her room and desperately tries to sleep. But she can’t. She tosses and turns, and all she can think about is what he said to her, what she said back.
I still need you.
It’s true, isn’t it? When she thought she was about to die, he was the first person on her mind. She still needs him.
But does she need him as much as she always has?
Nanami survived the fright of her life, a crying jag, skipping class, and Utena Tenjou’s idiocy all without having her brother step in. What if they really are drifting apart? She’d feared for a while that he didn’t really need her, but what if one day she didn’t need him? Are they just destined to become strangers to one another?
It’s a horrible idea.
She needs air.
---
Anthy watches Utena lie down in the bed near her.
"What a day, huh?"
"Yes, it was," Anthy says.
"You think Nanami's gonna be alright?"
Utena's grip on her hand is a little tighter than usual. She's nervous.
"Yes, I do."
---
Nanami hadn't planned to go that far, but she smelled something cooking, and she was curious enough to follow the smell.
What she finds is a clearing. With Kyouichi Saionji standing in it, wearing a surprisingly frilly apron, making fried eggs.
She needs to stop assuming nothing else will surprise her, she’s always wrong. But this surprise is at least better than the last one.
“What are you doing out here?” She asks.
“Camping.”
Nanami considers asking why, but then remembers that Kyouichi doesn’t really have anywhere to stay in the dorms.
“Why eggs?”
“Protein. Do you want some?”
“…sure.”
So she ends up sitting in an open tent thing, legs crossed, eating fried eggs with a plastic spork off a paper plate. It’s… not terrible. Kyouichi managed not to burn them.
He breaks the silence first. “What are you doing out here?”
“I took a walk.”
“In the middle of the night?”
“If you can cook eggs in the middle of the night, I can take walks in the middle of the night! And where did you get these, anyway?”
“Where I get eggs is my business.”
“What, did you rob a henhouse? Or did you go to the grocery store like a normal person? Oh, oh, I know! You just found them in the woods and decided to eat them, like a barbarian.” It feels strangely satisfying to be just annoyed, not furious or on the verge of tears. Leave it to Kyouichi to be a good annoyance.
“Wouldn’t you like to know, cowgirl?” He’s smirking at her, the moron.
“Oh, fuck off!”
“Watch your language!”
“Don’t scold me, you are not my brother!” The reminder subdues Nanami, and her voice softens. “My brother might not even be my brother anymore…”
“What? That’s ridiculous. You can’t just stop being siblings.”
“What would you know? You’re an only child.”
“Being an only child doesn’t make me stupid.”
“No, you’re stupid for other reasons.”
Kyouichi doesn’t respond to that, which Nanami takes as a win. “Anyway, you still haven’t answered my question. Where did you get these eggs?”
“Again, none of your business.”
“I’m eating them, I’d say it’s my business!”
“You chose to eat them!”
They go back and forth for another few minutes, until Nanami finishes her eggs.
“I’m going home. Don’t make yourself sick with forest eggs. If you die of food poisoning, I’ll refuse to come to your funeral.”
“Terrifying. Go to sleep, it’s too late out for kids.”
“I’ll have you know I grew up a little today.”
“Thirteen is thirteen.”
Nanami huffs, waves goodbye, and goes back to the house. She walks in, down the hallways, past Touga’s bedroom- she can see that he’s not inside it. She keeps walking, until a little light catches her eye.
It’s a landline phone, on the end table next to the couch. That one doesn’t get many calls- Touga has his own cellphone. But that little light means there’s a voicemail.
Nanami sits and listens to it.
Kozue’s voice comes through. “Hey, Nanami, I know it’s late. I’m kind of nocturnal, sorry. This is Nanami, right? Yeah, that’s the right number. Anyway, remember that book I was talking about, the one I got an older kid to lend me? I guess I never gave it back, because it’s still here. It’s beat up, but still readable. If you want to read it. You know, since you didn’t have any middle schoolers to interrogate when you were younger. Meet me at McDonald’s tomorrow, I can give it to you then.”
The voicemail ends.
Nanami smiles and falls asleep on the couch.