Chapter Text
“She’s sleeping.”
It felt surreal. A complete stranger, was able to see exactly through her.
“You can see them, Raana-chan?” Soyo asked in surprise.
The daughter of celebrities. The daughter of the great comedian Wakaba. Raised alongside by the wonderful actress Mori Minami. From the start she was put in a frame of an picture. Her name may have been Wakaba Mutsumi, but she would forever be known as the daughter of Wakaba.
It was suffocating. It felt as if she could never escape both the spotlight, and the frame she was put in. She didn’t want to become more, she wanted to become less. She wasn’t aiming to surpass her parents or live a life of wealth and riches, she wanted to be understood. She wanted to simply be human.
Through hardship and struggle, eventually she would find a place she felt safe and warmth. Crychic. A band formed by her childhood friend a 3 others. With them, she wasn’t the daughter of Wakaba. She wasn’t seen as the child of two celebrities. In Crychic, she felt like she could be herself.
That was in the past however. Even a home like Crychic couldn’t last forever. And she had believed, that as long as she would live, no one would understand her. And so to protect herself, she would seal herself away. Wakaba Mutsumi would disappear, and Mortis would take her place. A version of her who was braver, a version of her who was more liked. A version of her who could be more human.
“There are two people.”
She had seen the white haired girl a few times now. Usually on stage during a MyGO concert, but never had either of them talked to her. She was just the guitarist of Tomori’s and Soyo’s band.
“You can see Mutsumi-chan?”
The part of herself she could never tell someone else. A part of her she couldn’t explain properly herself. A disorder of sorts that she had lived with until now. And yet this girl understood it in a second. It was almost too good to be true.
It had been a few days now since Mutsumi fell asleep. Usually the switch between Mutsumi and Mortis would happen before they performed. This time around however, Mutsumi just couldn’t wake up no matter how much time passed. But if someone like she were to help, maybe they could figure something out.
“I gotta go. Bye-bye.”
Before anything could even be explained, the girl walked towards the exit. She couldn’t just let her walk away. Without thinking Mortis chased after her.
“Wait!”
The day hard turned to night.
“Finally caught up with you.”
The girl had stopped walking, and settled down to play with some cats in a parking lot.
“What’s your name?”
“Hm? Cat.”
“Huh?”
She pointed at the cats she was playing with one at a time.
“No, I mean your name.”
The girl turned her finger to point at herself.
“Raana.”
Then she pointed at Mortis.
“Mortis.” A faint smile ran through Mortis’s face.
“Who’s asleep?”
The smile faded from her face. “Mutsumi-chan.”
Raana said nothing. Choosing to simply look at Mortis with her soft eyes. In their moment of silence, one of the cats walks up to Mortis and and lets out a gentle meow.
“She likes Mortis.”
Mortis was taken aback. For as long as she could remember, no one ever wanted to talk to Mortis. Everyone was always looking for Mutsumi. For the first time, someone wasn’t pushing her away. Raana treated Mortis like she was just another person on the street. The smile returned to Mortis’s face. She had never felt like this before. Crychic may have accepted Mutsumi, but no one had accepted Mortis. Mortis shifts her gaze to Raana. Her two-colored eyes glowed in a way which could only be described as beautiful. Raana wasn’t off put by Mortis, she simply smiled at her.
For a second Mortis forgot completely about Mutsumi.
Chapter 1, end.