Chapter Text
Date: Sometime in late November.
Perspective: Nene Kusanagi.
---
Nene sat quietly as the math professor trailed on into a speech she didn't care to hear. The clock was ticking away on the wall. Four minutes until lunch. Birds chirped through the lengthy windows along the far wall, and the scribbling and erasing and repeating of pencils echoed throughout the room like nails on a chalkboard. The desired formulas were sprawled across Nene's page, penned in her favourite blue ink, but it might as well have been gibberish to her right now.
Three minutes. The clock ticked again and the movement of the arm on the analog clock drew her eyes like a moth to a flame.
Nene rather liked moths. They were tiny creatures, small and insignificant, but she'd always found them interesting. It's not that she didn't like butterflies or dragonflies or any other flying insect, moths were just easier. Being in the wings of any other bug was uncomfortable for her, and the winter air was certainly not helping. That's what all the fur was for, to keep them warm on long flights and to and to act like a jacket for their tiny bodies. She'd noticed their wings were a lot sturdier, too, and that extra bit of knowledge made it much easier to handle such a flimsy form.
Oh. And that was another thing.
Nene, of all the people in the world, was a shapeshifter.
A boring one at that. What kind of shapeshifter spends their days stuck in a crappy high school..? Though, at least I'm not as boring as Mr. Izumi. Like, god.. could this man ever shut up about math..?
Two minutes left. Nene had barely even noticed the arm had moved further, too caught up in her thoughts. It was merely a waiting game now, wait for the bell to ring and run to the rooftop. The usual playthrough. She tapped her fingers against the desk in rhythm to the first song she could think of.
I've always been a shapeshifter, it was something I was born with as far as I know. My father and I are the only people that know since we'd figured it out when I was around five, and mom had already long since filed the divorce. I don't know much about how these powers work, either. I've never done much with them because if anyone were to find out, it could ruin my life, though apparently I was quite the rowdy child with them..
One minute left. She started packing up her stuff to leave, completely ignoring how the teacher was still writing on the board. All she wanted was to get to the rooftop.
I spend a lot of my time at the rooftop because it's quiet up there and nobody really comes to bother me. Or at least, not directly to bother me. Rui and his new friend, Tsukasa I think his name is... They've been up there with me a few times because neither of them can stay out of trouble for long, and well, the roof is one of the few good places to hide from teachers. Tsukasa breaks the usual silence of the spot, but I don't mind it that much because his antics seem to make Rui pretty happy.
Rui's been brighter recently, too. He smiles more, and when I asked him about it, he mentioned a theatre troupe he'd joined. I'm happy that he's finding places to be himself and making new friends along the way. I know Tsukasa is one of the other members, he certainly has the personality for it, and the third one..
The bell suddenly rang before she could finish her thoughts.
Students stood up out of their desks and began to talk, but Nene completely avoided the socialization.
I've never had the courage to speak to the third member..
...
I really hope she comes to Kamiyama again soon, though..
Nene deposited her binders back into her locker, grabbing her lunch bag and her phone. She found the steady current of the halls and let herself be pushed upstream, up toward the rooftop that sat in waiting for her company. As she broke out of the ocean of students, she thought back to that girl. The mysterious third...
She had short, bubbly pink hair and the kind of smile that could light up a pitch black room, her energy comparable to that of the sun. No, comparing her luminescence to the sun would be an insult.. She shown brighter than that. Her voice was quick but at the same time, slow like honey, but it was the warm kind of honey. The kind that would leave a sweet, savory taste in your mouth for the rest of the day. And her eyes were almost a complete different story. Maybe that's what was keeping Nene from talking to her, she didn't want to mess up under her loving gaze..
Her eyes were these vast, pink pools of warmth that looked shallow from one eye and deep from the other, though you could never tell which you were looking into. They were bright and soft and loud and sweet and every beautiful thing in the world combined. That girl simply was beautiful. Her smooth figure, her endless energy, her warmth, her presence... And that girl was none other than Emu Otori..
Nene remembered the first time she'd ever seen her. Another rightfully-boring day at the always-boring school. It was too cold to go outside on the roof so she was seated in the corner of an empty classroom, playing some crappy mobile game that she'd probably forget about in a few weeks (What was it called again?). The silence was loud, and so, when she'd heard the commotion from down the hall, she was a little surprised. Nobody ever came to the third floor, so who was making all the racket..?
She could remember the noise coming closer to her empty classroom:
"Emu! I can't believe you came here..!" Tsukasa exclaimed for what he made seem like the hundredth time. "Don't you realize you're literally trespassing..?!" He leaned against the doorway.
The pink-haired girl, Emu, mustered a laugh, and that was around the time when Nene had started paying attention. "Awwww 'Kasa! Don't be so harsh! I just wanted to visit my awesome troupemates..! Is that so baaaaaaaaaaaad..?" She whined, clasping her hands together like a pleading child.
"Hey! Don't make me the bad guy here!" Tsukasa complained while Rui started to laugh.
"Well, I'd suggest keeping your voices down at the very least.. You wouldn't want me making a decibel-detector for you, now, would you?" Rui nudged Tsukasa a few times and started to lead the group down the hall again, away from the empty classroom, not even knowing Nene was watching.
Emu laughed again, loudly, as if she hadn't even heard Rui's attempted threat. She glanced in toward the empty classroom with those awe-striking eyes of hers and Nene...
"Nene's not going to finish that thought.." She mumbled to herself, closing the door to the rooftop. She sat down on the cold ground and breathed in the soft, winter air, happy to be out of the classrooms. She opened her bento box and slowly started to eat.
And Nene hid under a table because she was too scared to talk to her. To talk to the girl with the bright pink eyes that made her feel things she'd never felt before. She couldn't bring herself to even show her face..
Date: A few days after the previous perspective.
Perspective: Emu Otori.
---
Emu walked outside into the icy air, the falling snow already beginning to mold to her jacket.
She was in a great mood today. Her chemistry test had gone way better than she'd expected it to, and now, she was on her way home to where Hinata, her sister, was waiting. They intended to go to a new cafe that had just opened up, and she was more than thrilled to be going. She loved spending time with her sister and she loved going outside, so, why wouldn't she be excited? She could only imagine the kind of things they'd be selling there.. Oh how she loved sweets!
She hummed a tiny song underneath her breath as she started down the street, a small jump in her step. Slush clicked beneath her feet in rhythm with her melody while the birds chirped along with her, perched along traffic lights and telephone wires. As she grinned at the scene around her, she felt a buzz come from her pocket, a notification from her phone.
A small message popped up on the screen, one from Rui sent to her performing troupe.
She smiled.
I actually went to see them today at lunch. I like going over to Kamiyama every once and a while. I always have so much fun seeing Rui play around in the science lab, and Tsukasa always makes these funny looking faces when I show up..! It makes me even more happy to have them as troupemates, to be able to go and visit them like this!
Emu clicked into the conversation.
Rui: I made a new invention
Rui: I think Tsukasa will like it a lot
She laughed and typed in a reply as she went to cross the street.
Emu: What did you make, Rui-kun? ^^ !!
Tsukasa: What kind of torture device did you make this time?
Rui: Oh Tsukasa, always assuming the worst of me!
Rui: ...
Rui: I made the decibel-detector
Emu: Wooooaaaahhhh! That sounds awesome..!
Tsukasa: There's no way you actually made such a thing. I'm refusing to believe that.
Emu chuckled at her phone. She watched the typing bubbles under Rui's name jump up and down like popcorn. The slush gurgled beneath her feet with each step she took and the screen of her device started to blur, covered in freshly-fallen snow. As she went to wipe it away something new landed on her screen, though. It wasn't snow at all.
It was a green moth.
"-Woah!" She exclaimed aloud, "Hi there, little friend..!"
The furry creature looked up at her with its big, beady eyes, staring intently as its antennae twitched. It shifted its weight and ruffled its wings a few times, and Emu was in a state of temporary awe of the miniature creature. The moths wings were the same greenish colour as its body, but were splattered in different values of the original hue, seperated in layers of saturation and tint. Dark greens like the trees at night, pale greens like the withering, snow-covered grass of the winter. And mixed in alongside it, were occasional accents of purple. Small flecks of violet in a forest of gentle, tired green. It was one of the prettiest things she'd ever seen and Emu struggled to take her eyes away from the patterning.
The moth itself seem to notice her preoccupation and its fluffy antennae crooked downwards in... awkwardness..? Embarrassment?
"I've never seen a moth like you before..!" Emu said. She slowly reached her free hand up to its fluffy body, and the creature slowly climbed on to her fingers. "I've actually only ever seen moths in the summertime, don't you find it cold..?"
She lifted the moth-holding hand up to her eyes and looked closer at the tiny creature, wondering what was going on inside its head. It suddenly climbed onto her nose, and Emu laughed.
"Do you wanna come home with me..? You can stay in my room while I'm gone out..!"
The moth trilled slightly, a tiny vibration rumbling across her face, and Emu took the response as a yes. It flew back down onto her shoulder and Emu only realized then that she'd stopped walking, too distracted by her new friend.
Aw well, I'm a fast runner anyways. I'll get home in no time. Besides...
I like this moth. It seems friendly..!
She started forward again, crossing the street. She put her phone in her pocket and started to talk to her brand new moth friend, oblivious to the weird looks she received from nearby onlookers.
Nene let herself fall back into her human body, now in the comfort of her own bedroom. The strange purple magic covered her body and she found herself back onto the two feet of her birth form, and with being back to normal, she immediately crumpled into her bed. She started to shake in self-embarrassment.
I can't believe I just did that. I never thought I'd end up reaching this point, using my powers like this.
But she doesn't know it's me. She won't ever know it's me, and that makes me feel a little bit better.
...
She really liked her moth friend, though.
...Maybe it'll come back tomorrow.