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Kyouka doesn’t get many visitors.
Verlaine, Kouyou, and Akutagawa are the only people she really sees, and when she isn’t with one of them, she’s shut away in a cell for “safekeeping”. Because she doesn’t have anywhere else to go, because she didn’t have any family left to care for her and she’s too young to live on her own and and she might run if they let her walk free.
Where would she even go?
Sometimes, Verlaine talks to her from three cells down, but he’s half-mad and Kyouka often can’t make sense of what he’s trying to say outside of training. It’s like he’s stuck in some other world, or maybe the past.
The only other occupant of the dungeon Kyouka knows of is a child who must be younger than she is by only a year or two—someone whose pitched giggles bounce off of the stone walls in the night, who hides in the shadows, who Kyouka has only caught sight of once while sticking close to Kouyou’s side as they walked past the occupied cell. She remembers the mismatched eyes peering into her soul, the smile stretched too wide across their face, the scary doll held tightly against their chest, and the chipper voice asking, “Do you want to play with me?”
Ignore them, Kouyou instructed, and with no other option, Kyouka obeyed.
Today, though, the footsteps approaching her cell fall too lightly to be any typical company.
Kyouka draws further in on herself, back pressed to the wall and knees hugged tightly against her chest, letting the shadows fall over her and shield her from view. Her fear is that the other child somehow escaped their cell and is now seeking her out, because it sounds like someone young is coming toward her. Their gait is quieter, with an off-beat rhythm as if they’re skipping.
And it comes to a stop right outside of Kyouka’s cell.
A small knuckle raps against one of the bars. “Hellooooo?” A voice calls out—a girl’s? So it’s not the other prisoner down here; it’s someone new—someone Kyouka has never met before. “I know there’s someone in here; I heard Rintarou talking about you!”
Kyouka doesn’t respond. Is this some sort of test?
The girl huffs. She leans into view, then, and Kyouka is met with the sight of bright blue eyes. Her hair is long and blonde, falling in perfect curls over her shoulders, and she seems to almost glow in the dark. She grins when she meets Kyouka’s gaze, but this smile isn’t scary.
“Hi!” she greets. “I’m Elise! What’s your name?”
Kyouka still doesn’t answer, trying to parse out whether or not this is an enemy. She isn’t aware of any other children in the mafia—and why does this girl get to walk freely while Kyouka and the other one are locked up in the dungeons? Is she here to break them out? Or is she just wandering around, bored? Does she have family in the mafia? She has to be even younger than Kyouka; she only looks about nine or ten at most.
Elise pouts. In a blink, she somehow worms her way between the bars of Kyouka’s cell. Once she’s in, she skips over to Kyouka and plops down across from her. “I heard Rintarou saying you have an ability that manifests a spirit. Is that true?”
Kyouka stares at her. She’s not sure if spirit is the best way to describe Demon Snow. Curse might be more accurate.
“Do you not talk? I know some sign language from Gin-san and Tachihara-san!”
Slowly, Kyouka shakes her head. “I don’t…know sign language.”
“Oh.” Elise furrows her eyebrows. “Do you want to?”
“No.”
“Okay.” Elise shrugs. “That’s fine! Anyway, is it true about your ability? I’m sooo curious! People are saying that it’s like Kouyou-san’s—is it really? I like Golden Demon a lot, but I never get to play with her—”
“Yes,” Kyouka interrupts. “But I can’t control mine like Kouyou-san.” It’s another reason she’s shut away down here—if Demon Snow wreaks havoc, there will be no lasting damage. Verlaine will end Kyouka’s life before she can destroy anything important, killing both her and her ability in one fell swoop. If she were allowed to live elsewhere, there’s no telling what Demon Snow may do, or how many people she might kill before someone could get her under control.
It’s why Kyouka doesn’t mind being stuck down here. She knows it’s for the best.
Elise looks up at her curiously. “You can’t? Even with Kouyou-san’s help?”
Kyouka’s shoulders hunch. She shakes her head.
“Oh.” Elise’s face falls. “I was hoping to meet her.”
“You don’t want to meet her,” Kyouka replies darkly. Demon Snow is a monster. If Kyouka could sever this ability from her soul, she would do so in an instant. She would cast away the blade and the blood that follow her wherever she goes, looming over her shoulder. She would free herself from the chains of darkness that trap her in this cell.
But there is no way to remove an ability from yourself without ending your own life.
“Is she not your friend?”
“No.”
Elise looks down at her hands, as if Kyouka’s distaste for her own ability somehow affects her. “I thought—” she pauses. “Well… If you have an ability that can manifest another being…isn’t that kinda like having a built-in ally?” She folds her hands together, brow furrowed. “Someone you know you can trust, and who trusts you in return?”
“Maybe for Kouyou-san,” Kyouka amends, because Golden Demon listens to her commands and Kouyou has found her place in the shadows. “But not…not for me. My ability is more like a curse.”
“A curse,” Elise repeats. “That’s what they call Q-kun’s ability too, but I don’t think that’s true. If one ability is a curse, that means all abilities are curses, and I hate that!” She shakes her head furiously. “No way are all abilities curses! That’s just so not fair to say!”
Kyouka frowns. She thinks of Demon Snow, and her blade covered in blood—of the cell phone in Kyouka’s hand hanging open even after Akutagawa has ended the call, leaving her alone with nothing but death for company. In those moments, Kyouka wonders if, released from command, Demon Snow will turn on her next.
Sometimes, she hopes for the worst outcome—craves it, even, because if she dies too, then it will all be over. She won’t have to see Demon Snow ever again.
“I can’t believe abilities are a blessing,” Kyouka decides. If the only option that leaves is for every ability to be a curse, then she supposes that must be true. It’s a much more plausible statement.
“Well, do they have to be one or the other?” Elise challenges. “I think abilities are just a part of you. Like your organs. Just because you have a heart murmur doesn’t mean your heart is a curse. And if you have some freakishly crazy control over your heartbeat to the point where you can communicate using it, that doesn’t necessarily mean your heart is a blessing either.” She shrugs. “It’s just a heart.”
“I guess…” Kyouka concedes, though the thought of an ability being neutral doesn’t quite sit right with her either. She would like for that to be the case, but Demon Snow has caused too much pain and suffering. Is an organ still neutral if its failure ends up killing you?
Well. Is it the organ’s fault for failing, or was it simply made wrong? Was it a purposeful sabotage of the body, or did it just collapse under too much pressure?
Is Demon Snow at fault, or is she a victim of circumstance, just like Kyouka is?
It’s hard to be sure.
“I think someday, you’ll be able to control your ability just as well as Kouyou-san can!” Elise declares. She says it so confidently it actually startles Kyouka a bit. Elise doesn’t know her or Demon Snow, but something about her tone makes Kyouka think she does know what she’s talking about. Like she’s seen people wrangle untameable abilities before.
“You do?” Kyouka asks, voice small.
“Yep!” Elise jumps to her feet. She clasps her hands behind her back, leaning forward, blonde curls brushing against Kyouka’s knees. “And when you do, I want to meet her!”
“Okay,” Kyouka hears herself say, more surprised at her own agreement than Elise appears to be. She’s not sure it will ever happen—not sure she’ll live long enough to have the chance—but if, somehow, she does manage to gain full control of Demon Snow like Kouyou has with Golden Demon…
She wouldn’t mind letting Elise meet her. It seems like a fair trade for her kind visit in the dark.