Chapter Text
Kanade headed out of her room and began walking to the kitchen. She had been working for a while and lost track of time, the sudden growling of stomach breaking her focus. In truth, she wanted to continue composing but she knew her roommate would be upset at her if she skipped dinner again. So for her sake, she opted to at least grab something to eat.
Ena, her roommate, really was a blessing.
After nearly being kicked out of her apartment for not paying rent on time, Honami had recommended that Kanade should find a roommate to split the bills with. Initially, she wasn’t too pleased with the idea of sharing a home with someone as she was a borderline-shut in. However, the commissions she earned from her work weren’t yet stable enough to live off of so she complied. Kanade then put up a listing online and eventually found a roommate the same age as her.
Before meeting her in person, Kanade had frantically asked Honami what clothes she should wear and what conversation starters to pick. It had been years since she tried talking to someone that wasn’t just a one-off conversation. She was terrified of being an inconvenience to her future roommate.
Fortunately, the two found common ground quickly. Ena was also working in the creative field. After graduating from university, she had just landed an internship at a local tailor shop as a fashion designer. However, she had alternative plans for her future career. Ena had said that her true calling was to make it big as an artist. Intrigued, Kanade had asked if she could see some of her work.
Upon seeing Ena’s work for the first time, Kanade was shocked .
She saw the sheer amount of hard work and dedication Ena had to her craft. From the colouring, to the composition, to the imagery, to each individual brush stroke, everything bore meaning that transcended mediums. All of it was meticulously crafted to evoke such visceral emotion, akin to how Kanade hoped her work would reach others. If one single artwork of hers was enough to gain this much inspiration, Kanade knew she needed to keep Ena around.
Ena had asked Kanade if she could see her own work in return, only to return the praises Kanade gave her tenfold. Kanade was embarrassed but also felt glad knowing that her work had a positive impact on someone else.
For the next six months, they gradually got to know each other better. Whilst they often bounced off ideas between each other, they also kept the other in check. Kanade would always reaffirm Ena when her insecurities about her art got the better of her, and Ena would always be there to remind Kanade to not overwork and neglect her health.
Although she felt like she didn't deserve it, Kanade was grateful to have Ena as her friend.
As she walked through the corridor, Kanade stopped just outside Ena’s room.
Something felt wrong. Usually, she would hear a bit of movement here and there from the door. However, whenever Ena was seriously upset, she would either trash her room in a fit of rage or silently rot in her bed.
It was dead silent this time. Kanade gently knocked on the door and waited for a reply.
Ena, are you alright?” Kanade asked.
No response.
“Ena? Are you in there?”
Again, nothing. Kanade vaguely remembered the jingling of keys and the opening of the door whilst she was on her computer so Ena had to be home already. Taking a deep breath, Kanade reached for the doorknob and gently opened the door.
Kanade looked around the room. Ena was nowhere to be found.
Ena’s room wasn’t perfect, but it was nowhere near as messy as Kanade’s. To the right, Kanade could see that her desk had various art books piled up haphazardly. She could also see a sketchbook littered with various sketches with her pencil sitting beside it. On the left side, she could see various cute plushies neatly placed on one end of the bed which contrasted half of the blanket having fallen to the floor.
Directly in front of her, Kanade could see Ena’s easel with an unfinished painting on the canvas. Worryingly, her paintbrush, palette and apron seemed to have been thrown on the floor. Kanade bent down to have a closer look. She noticed that Ena must have accidentally spilt some of her paints as there was a mix of them pooling on the floor.
Kanade’s brows furrowed. Something obviously bad happened and Ena desperately needed her help. But where was she? Kanade slowly stood back up. She had to go search for Ena. As she reached for the door, She heard the sound of paint slowly oozing slowly.
Kanade paused. The paint wasn't moving before, she thought.
She turned around slowly to see what was happening. To her horror, she saw puddle of paint slowly approach her. The front part of it slowly morphed into human teeth, tongue, and a mouth as the abomination croaked out a single word.
“Kanade.”
She screamed.
Ena’s day had been quite eventful.
Mizuki, Ena’s coworker, was already a handful to deal with. She would always tease her for various things during their shift. Recently, Mizuki had the gall to accuse her of having a crush on her roommate which she vehemently denied. She had yet to meet Kanade in person nor listen to her work, so of course she didn’t understand her qualities.
However, today they were both busy trying to deal with a particularly difficult client. He came from a wealthy background and had visited their shop to order a tailor-made suit. Usually, it would be normal for a client to ask for several revisions on the design before Mizuki and Ena would start working on it. However, he had the nerve to ask for the entire suit to be redesigned after they had already measured out and cut the fabric. He looked particularly disgusted when Mizuki said he would have to pay an extra fee to cover the expenses. The client argued that he had already paid and refused to cover the additional costs. Ena was about ready to blow up at him until their boss intervened and talked him down. Reluctantly, he agreed to the request and then left for the day, not without shooting a glare in which Ena returned.
After that ordeal, Ena was desperate to go home.
Opening the door with her keys, she had planned to go straight to her room. Ena wanted to blow off some steam through painting.
Once in her room, she began to set up her workspace. Ena placed the easel on the floor and grabbed a blank canvas to put on it. After that, she collected her paints, palette and paintbrush, and tied her apron on.
Ena didn’t want to paint something overly complex. She already had a tough time at work, so drawing something difficult was bound to make her more stressed. Perhaps she should draw a pond, Ena thought. Simply imagining natural scenery like that was enough to make Ena feel a bit more relaxed.
She put some paint onto her palette and began mixing colours together. She would need some light blue tones to paint out the water, dark blue tones to help convey shadows, and some white paint on the side to help convey the reflective highlights on the surface.
As Ena reached out to the canvas and began painting brush strokes. She began to feel a weird sensation. Did she need to lay down? Her body felt like liquid. Ena wasn’t too pleased with the idea that she might be running a fever. She moved her paintbrush away from the canvas and noticed something on her hand.
Her hand was melting.
Ena looked at the rest of her body. Her clothes and body were also melting.
What the fuck.
Her mouth was left agape. She could do nothing but stare in horror as her body slowly melted into an assortment of paint colours. Losing her grip of her paintbrush and palette, they both fell to the floor. Ena tried to run out of the room and yell but her legs gave up on her before she could reach the door. She could no longer speak and her vision had long since disappeared. She could vaguely hear muffled sounds coming from outside, it felt like she was underwater.
Ena didn’t know whether she wanted to laugh or cry. She always wanted to represent herself through art. She didn’t intend to literally become art itself.
The muffled sounds became more distinct. Ena could hear the opening of the door as someone stepped inside. That must be Kanade. Of course she would always be there for her in her time of need.
After a brief period of silence, Ena realised that Kanade hadn’t caught on to what had happened.
She heard the sound of Kanade starting to move away from her. In a panic, Ena forcefully willed her liquified body to slowly move towards her. Luckily, Kanade’s footsteps seemed to have stopped. Ena desperately wanted to reach out to her and call for help. She hated this foreign sensation, her body being contorted in ways that shouldn’t be physically possible. Ena needed it to end. Ena could feel a part of her body slowly transform into something more familiar as she tried yelling out her name with all her willpower.
“Kanade!”