Chapter Text
‘You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.’ -
Ezekiel 28:15
‘You flocked to the earth like a moth to the flame. Now you, alone, must bear that pain of the burning and falling all in Satan’s name. You grew too prideful and lustful for a life you did not possess, now possess it you shall at your behest. Farewell, old friend.’ – from the writings of Momoi Airi in Heaven, one of her private collections published in 3251, written in 20XX.
Ena expected the fall to hurt much more than it did. It felt like she was flying quickly decelerating too fast without Airi by her side and offering advice. It pulled at her face, it pulled at her eyes, and she knew far too soon that she was dropping into civilisation.
She opened her eyes for a moment, peered up and sighed upon seeing Airi standing at the gates watching her. Tears lining her pink eyes as Shizuku held her back, because Airi would’ve fallen with Ena if Shizuku and the rest didn’t stop her.
But they did and Ena was alone again.
#
Mizuki woke up and expected their day to go as normal. They would wake up, Nene would decide she wanted to cook and inevitably burn something, but something would be edible. An would chide her and take the edible thing. Nene would scrap the inedible thing into the bin as An made Nene and them breakfast. They would sit on the small couch, maybe talk other times just eat before they went off to their jobs.
Nene would travel by An’s side to take the bus to the library and café that they worked at. Whilst Mizuki would walk in the opposite direction, head onto the city for around twenty minutes, skirting past people before arriving at the office they worked it. It was awfully dull, nothing that they wanted to do but none of them did anything they wanted to do. They did, instead, what they needed to do to survive and didn’t make them suicidal.
An had waitressing experience thanks to her father and WEEKEND GARAGE, so it was natural for her to migrate back to a café, to ashamed to turn back home without having succeeded in music. Nene really was just too people shy and the library in their local area rarely had visitors and whilst she preferred video games, she did read from time to time. Even if she only did so because it was like an RPG that was prechosen for her and cheaper than video games.
Mizuki was the odd ball. There was nothing about their mundane office job that was related to anything they liked. There was no hints of fashion or art or music or anime or anything cute. It was just white walls upon white walls with a darker flooring. Cubicles upon cubicles and desks upon desks with the clattering of the keyboard as the only sound heard save the coffee machine everyone’s saving grace.
The only thing, arguably, was safety that the office job provided. Sure, if the offices shut down, they would be without a job but that was a large ‘if.’ And office skills were always applicable to other office skills. And, besides, they got a decent pay from it so who where they to complain exactly.
Then, they would enter the office, smile at their co-workers maybe talk to Ichika for a moment about the project and complete their assignments. Then for the latter half of the day they would have nothing and would just try and stop themselves from spinning around on the chair. Then, and only then, would they allow themselves to dream. Sketching outfits that would be seen all over the world, from Milan to Paris to Madrid to London- well, that was more like a glorified European tour, but Europe would only be the start. Soon, they would be in New York, Beijing, Rio de Janiro, Cairo and more. All over the world.
That was a far distant dream and almost as soon as they began, once they had the basic line work and framing of the outfits. More work would be conveniently given to them, and they would have to do that. Sometimes, if they were lucky and efficient, they would have an hour to dream or draft up videos for the company because Yurina never did her work properly and they always had to fix it. Other times, it took them up until they were meant to clock out and then they were drafted for overtime to fix it properly. The boss would complain, sending them a sneer but couldn’t complain when Mizuki handed them the work in perfect condition. It was why they were never fired. They were too good at everything and yet, nothing at all.
But this Tuesday, because God forbid weird shit happens on a Monday, was different. Mizuki and Nene and An got ready and were about to leave their apartment, stepping outside of the lobby before stopping as they spotted a girl laying on the grass. Her hair was windswept and cut short, it fanned around her face. Her lips were tinged blue slightly and her fingers red from the cold (it wasn’t that cold though, not even Nene was complaining about it). Her eyes were shut firmly, and her outfit covered in dirt.
Mizuki was tempted to ignore it, today was not their day and they weren’t in the mood. They had to attend a meeting that morning and deal with a full inbox of e-mails, requests to do mundane and simple things. Yet they couldn’t leave the girl in the cold looking like that, at least without having tried to wake her up. If she didn’t budge, you could argue and say it wasn’t their fault. Right?
“Hey?” An called out first, she was more naturally extroverted than either Nene or themselves.
She inched toward the sleeping girl and checked to see if she was still breathing. If she wasn’t… thankfully, she was because An didn’t dash back being afraid of the dead and anything to do with it. She instead inched closer and crouched down shaking her slightly. “Are either of you calling an ambulance?”
“What if they don’t have the money?” Nene countered. “We can’t foot it for them. We barely have enough as is.”
An clucked her tongue at them and started in a new vigour to wake the girl up. She mumbled, made a sound of protest before An sighed in relief. She looked back at them and urged them over, which Mizuki thought was stupid in case the girl was a killer, but she might not have been, and she tried to sit up.
She failed though, weak and collapsed onto her back which caused an even louder hiss to erupt from her body.
“Woah? A rough night?” An smiled to her whilst Mizuki inched a little closer to the girl and huffed. An looked at them and linked her arm through the girl’s arm on the floor and pulled her up.
She was shaky and Mizuki bit back a scoff.
“Th-thanks,” she murmured out and Mizuki tapped their foot impatiently as they led her over to the nearest bench. “You’re… not how I was told you would be.”
Mizuki held their face as they sighed, one normal day. All they wanted was one normal day! They weren’t asking for much, at least, they didn’t believe so. Especially because this was a cause of concern because now, they just couldn’t move on with their day normally because that was a sign of some sort imprisonment, whether it was from a cult or just a serial killer.
Nene seemed to share their misery as she looked up from her phone and shook her head, but now they couldn’t dissuade An from being kind even if they lacked the money.
“Do you have anywhere to go?” An questioned softly and Mizuki kept looking at their watch, wishing that Yurina didn’t need anything or that the meeting was cancelled.
They knew not to ‘pray’ because that was bullshit and false (and yes, they used the ‘Lord’s’ name in vain but saying ‘Oh my God’ was far superior to ‘Oh my gosh.’) and wishing never accomplished anything. But they did. They were manifesting something to explain their tardiness, maybe an asteroid that wiped out the whole planet? No, their boss would still want them to attend, broken ribs or not…
“No… I’m alone in this place…”
An glanced back at them and Nene, and they knew the silent question in her eyes. Nene nodded hesitantly which meant Mizuki had to otherwise they were an awful human being and maybe they were but even they had boundaries. Leaving a struggling girl to, well, struggle wasn’t in their nature. They would have to figure out food bills and the likes, but they could do it if she was somewhat acquainted to the world and they could get her life back on track… right?
“You can stay with us then. We have a couch,” Mizuki spoke up. Their voice was rougher than normal, their hesitance showing but they cleared it all and looked her in the eye, trying to convey sympathy. “You can stay with us until you get your life back on track. Find a job or something.”
“A job…” she repeated, it sounded bitter, but she smiled, nonetheless. “I don’t mean to be burdensome.”
“Nonsense!” An exclaimed a little too happily and a little too loudly that anyone knew she was lying. “It’s the least we could do. Nene and I can get you settled because we missed the bus already…”
“The bus?” she repeated in awe and wonder, and Mizuki contemplated every life choice they made up until that point in an instance.
“Yes, the bus. It’s public transport, like a car but bigger.”
“And sweatier. But far cheaper,” Nene added on, and the girl nodded along like she as lost. “You have no clue what we’re on about, do you?”
“I didn’t see much when I got to… erm… observe,” the girl rationalised. “This place is so much prettier but, there were only short bursts of not being monitored where I got to admire this place.”
Mizuki laughed sourly. “Trust me, this place is not that pretty. But it’s home.”
“Home? I don’t think I truly get that…”
“What’s your name? I’m An. The pink haired one is Mizuki, the grey haired one is Nene,” An interrupted before someone – Mizuki - said something they would regret.
“Ena. Shinonome Ena.”
“Is there anyone looking for you Ena?” Nene asked as she began to tap at her phone with vigour, trying to see if ‘Ena’ was a real person.
“No. I’ve been… banished.”
Mizuki looked at Nene who stifled a laugh herself.
“Banished? Huh, sounds like a tough life. But we can get you back on your feet. But, Mizuki, don’t you need to go right now?”
“Yeah, I’ll, you know, see you all tonight. It was nice meeting you Ena.” Please don’t be a murderer.
“It was nice to meet you too!” she returned happily, too happily for a Tuesday morning after having slept on the grass.
God truly had favourites, and Mizuki was not one of them.