#first name is ayumi he calls her ayumi-chan for the rest he either does “first name only” “last name only” “last name+honorific”

[t4tadrienette]

I love it when I post something about Kazuha and Shinconan, and everyone just agrees that they need more interactions so badly

[alexiethymia]

I was today’s years as old when I realized Shinichi (as Conan) calls Kazuha, ‘Kazuha-chan’.

So there’s Ran and Sonoko who he calls only by their first name, further cementing childhood friend status. I think besides Ran, Sonoko is the only girl he addresses on a first-name basis (which Sonoko pays in kind by calling him ‘Shinichi-kun’).

Then his usual mode of address for girls who are his peers is just by their last name. See: ‘Haibara’ and ‘Sera’.

I can’t recall if he addressed Asami (his alleged first love, but we all know the truth by now) by first name with senpai, or last name with senpai, or just senpai.

Then there’s the rest where befitting a polite boy like him he addresses with ‘-san’. 

(Speaking of, his personal pronoun is ‘ore’ normally, but he uses ‘boku’, not necessarily depending on whether or not he’s Conan or Shinichi but when he’s talking to the authorities or in general social situations. He uses ‘ore’ as Conan for those who know him to be Shinichi. What I’m trying to get at is he has pretty good manners, in contrast to Heiji who uses ‘ore’ all the time. I get the impression that Kaito does that too, while I’m not sure if he uses ‘boku’ as Kaitou Kid *edit Kid apparently uses ‘watashi’ in keeping with the older gentleman persona, while Hakuba uses ‘boku’ all the time.)

Anyway, going back, where does ‘Kazuha-chan’ come from? All possibilities are cute. Either he picked up Ran’s mode of address for her, or to make it easier since he calls her as ‘Kazuha nee-chan’, like ‘Ran nee-chan’ normally. But I noticed he only every uses ‘chan’ for really young girls see: ‘Ayumi-chan’.

I guess what I’m getting at is it’s cute that he doesn’t address Kazuha as he does with his classmates and peers (his real age peers I mean), but he isn’t so distant because Kazuha, after all, is the girl his best friend, Hattori loves. As an aside, I also love how genuinely supportive he is of them, troll faces aside. Not just them, but for other couples in the series too. One thing I can pick up from reading the manga, is that Shinichi takes shipping and his OTPs seriously. He’s pretty romantic like that. And let’s be serious, he and Ran (add in Sonoko matchmaker extraordinaire) ship as a bonding activity.

So what I’m getting at is if ever a situation like Crossroads in the Ancient Capital comes up again, there better be none of this ‘Toyama-san’ business. 

tldr: Shinichi calls Kazuha, ‘Kazuha-chan’, and I think that’s cute, and his friendship with Heiji continues to be precious. 

[sexyshakespeare]

Sasuke comes home - Part 5: What happiness feels like

I was taking a walk by the training field today, reminiscing. I have spent so many hours here.. throwing shuriken.. I love the smell of the grass here, there really is nothing like it. I sat myself down under a big tree and watched the genin practicing in the distance. They were arguing about their formation. It made me smile.  I found myself wondering how it is that I got here. I was smiling at the little things. The feeling was sublime. Niisan’s eyes were on me just now, I could feel it. I felt happy enough to get up, run towards those kids and shoot some shuriken.  Let’s take things slow shall we Sasuke-kun? I tend to call myself Sasuke-kun now in my head. Isn’t that really sad.. I say it sarcastically of course, unlike Sakura who says it lovingly. That’s a bit presumptious of you. She says it in a friendly way. You’re such a cocky bastard thinking she still has feelings for you. Sakura is a very friendly, nice person, that is all. She had a stupid crush on you back when you were genins. You really think that means she’s hot for you now- really living up to the Uchiha name of snobbery aren’t you champ?  “S-sasuke-san?”  I blinked at the little girl standing in front of me, her little face shaking me back to reality. 

“Yes?” “I hope I’m not bothering you..”, the girl said, looking embarrassed. “No- uh- did you want something?” She looked even more embarrassed and stood there awkwardly. A couple of boys were snickering at her from a little ways away. I looked back at her, trying to understand. I looked at her pants, scruffy and dirty. 

“Were you practicing with your 3-man cell?”, I asked her. She turned towards me and answered quickly, “No sir- I was on my own. My team mates are out of town and sick. But I wanted to work on my shuriken.” I smiled at her slightly, encouraging her to speak. “It’s just- I kept falling in the mud because I was nervous... and..” 

I eyed the boys as they laughed at her from behind the stump. Her face was very red now. “I’m sorry for bothering you- you’re my hero. I want to be just like you when I grow up Sasuke san!”, she blubbered.  I blinked at her confused as she walked away. The genin boys were having a riot, laughing at the girl as she limped past them. It was pissing me off. She’s limping and yet she came all the way here to tell me I’m her hero? There was something off about this.. I stood up and walked towards her, which to my slight pleasure immediately sent those shitty kids scrambling. “Ano- what’s your name?”, I called out at the girl. She stopped walking and turned around looking scared. “A-A-Ayumi, sir-”  “Ayumi.. you’re hurt really bad aren’t you- can I have a look at that leg?”  She looked a little less scared now, and lifted her pant leg gingerly to reveal an ugly bruise on her shin. I squatted in front of her and gave her the kindest look I could manage, given my generally ominous face. She looked at me, embarrassed. “Who are those boys over there?”, I asked while pointing in their direction purposefully. She looked over at the frightened kids and looked back at me, fumbling, “Oh-they’re just the other genins-”  “Did you all graduate from the academy together?”, I asked her. She nodded quickly. “They refused to carry you to the hospital didn’t they?”, I said loud enough so they could hear me.  Ayumi shook her head frantically. “No-No it’s not like that Sasuke-san. They just- they wouldn’t be able to carry me on their own and-”, she looked at her feet, angry and embarrassed at the same time.  I interrupted her and declared as loud as I could, “Well- you know something- I’m a genin too. Unlike certain other genins, I don’t shirk my responsibilities to my friends-” I stood up. “I’ll carry you to the hospital- come on”, I gestured to my arm. “No- Sasuke-san it’s fine, I’ll walk- or they’ll take me if you ask them-” “No. I’ll take you”, I said with finality. Ayumi reluctantly let me lift her, her legs dangled on the side of my arm. She looked very red in the face. I walked with the little girl in my arms, past those dumbfounded idiots. As I passed them, I flashed them my sharingan and said, “At least do something useful. Go back to work-” The boys ran away from their hiding place, and began to aggressively do their jutsus and throw kunais.  I carried Ayumi till the village gate without either of us saying a word. As we walked in the streets, people began to look and comment in whispers. “Sasuke-san, it’s really okay- I’m really sorry for being a bother-”, Ayumi looked like she was about to cry.  I smiled down at her warmly. She seemed to look a little less upset, her eyes sparkling. She began to blush a little and looked away. I stifled a chuckle. In fact, we both might have been beaming as we went through the village that day. Ayumi, because she was being carried by her apparent ninja idol, and I, because I was apparently some young girl’s idol! Me?! She called me her fucking hero-  As we approached the hospital, I awkwardly said out loud, “Ayumi-chan..”  It was the first time I had ever called anyone by -chan, and I was regretting it.  She looked at me, blushing again. I continued, “Why.. why is it that you look up to me- there’s better ninja in Konoha..”. I put her down on the seat inside the waiting room, my eyes cast downwards. I didn’t think this girl knew the whole truth about my involvement in the war.  She beamed at me then and started. “Because! You’re so brave Sasuke-san! It must have hurt you to leave Konoha but you had to go to become strong with that creepy Snake guy- You must have been so scared- but you fought anyway- you fought your best friends- but then you had the guts to come back and make everything right Sasuke-san! You’re amazing! You don’t even need your sharingan to be amazing but you have that too! AND-AND your shuriken skills are LEGENDARY- you-”  I was staring at her feeling a mixture of horror and incredulity, maybe even a hint of happiness. I suddenly put my hand on her shoulder to make her stop, “Okay! That’s- thank you Ayumi- that’s very kind-”, I looked around to find that the entire room full of people was now paying attention to us.  “..Oh.. I’m so sorry..”, Ayumi chan looked downcast. I bent lower to look her in the eyes. “I’ll go find someone to take care of your leg okay? You sit tight-”  She nodded gleefully at me.  I stood up, feeling pretty damn gleeful myself at the moment. I nodded at the receptionist and asked her if a certain pink haired kunoichi was available. “She’s very busy but- for you Sasuke-san..”, she smiled in a strange knowing way. I frowned at her, unsure of what that little comment was supposed to mean, and watched her make a call.  A few minutes later, Sakura walked out into the waiting room. “Sasuke-kun! It’s so nice to see you!”, she had her hair tied up in a long pony tail today. Her eyes glinted at me, making me feel warm. I gestured towards Ayumi. “Some stupid genins refused to take her to the infirmary so I brought her here- think she’s broken it-”, I said. Ayumi shook her head, still trying to defend her classmates.  Sakura knelt down to take a look. “Oh- it does look a little bad sweetie..”, she said to Ayumi. “But don’t worry okay- we have some great healers who can fix this right up- I’ll take you inside now to them okay?”, Sakura said with a smile on her face. Ayumi looked very excited all of a sudden. As she was being wheeled away to another room she addressed Sakura, “Sakura-san! Aren’t you Sasuke-san’s girlfriend yet! Everyone wasn’t sure about Sasuke-san before he came back- but now he’s back and he’s still awesome! Why aren’t you his girlfriend yet?” Sakura put her hand on Ayumi’s shoulder much like I had before, “OKAY! You need to rest up and take care of that leg now! Thaat’s enough!”. Sakura’s voice was very shrill though she tried to remain chirpy. 

I just blinked at the girl waving goodbye to us as she disappeared into the next room. Sakura stood next to me, looking mortified. Every other individual in the room looked embarrassed for us. I spied the clock showing 5:30 pm. Sakura seemed to notice too and hurriedly left her medical apron at the receptionist’s desk to leave.  We walked out of the hospital doors, heaving a sigh of relief. She side eyed me then, and burst out laughing. I did too. I couldn’t help it. We both laughed so hard that day, it was incredible. We just kept walking, and laughing. “What was with that girl??”, she said loudly. “Talk about- enthusiasm!” I laughed at the expression on her face, not being able to catch my breath. As we both gasped for air, I took her hand and led her into a snack parlour. We ordered juice and onigiri and continued to laugh.  “You know she told me I was her hero- at the field- I couldn’t believe it! So weird!”, I started to laugh at my joke, but Sakura wasn’t joining in. She caught her breath and looked me in the eye. “You know she must’ve meant that..” I looked back at her, sipping my ice tea. “Oh- I know but! Damn, she- she didn’t think I was a traitor at all- she thought I was.. brave..”. Sakura was still looking at me straight. I glanced at her. her eyes shone at me. She didn’t say anything else, but her hand reached out and squeezed mine just then. Then she let go and went back to her sandwich.  My heart began to thump. I sipped again. I just looked at Sakura looking the way she did after 12 hours of work, it thumped, and I sipped again.  Thump. Sip. Thump. Sip. Then she blushed and looked away.  Thump. Thump. Thump. Sip 

[iamwhelmed]

The Jisatsu Experiment: Chapter 2

Some people were interested, so here’s the second chapter!

EDIT: If you like my writing, consider my ko-fi? <3

Read it on AO3

Read it on Fanfiction.net

Summary: Years after Conan leaves with no explanation and Haibara becomes a distant Miyano Shiho, Ayumi graduates and heads off to Himura University-- as far away from Tokyo as she can get. She finds it hard to leave Conan and Haibara behind her despite Mitsuhiko and Genta moving on, but the mystery she's about to take on is going to begin unraveling a past she'd repressed, and it's very possible she's bitten off more than she can chew. Just how deep does this case run? Shinichi may just have to step in, but can he and Shiho stomach the mess Ayumi has gotten herself into, or save her from herself?

Katashi was ambitious, very by-the-book; he wanted to join the police force, become a detective, put away the bad guys. He almost hadn't believed her when she told him who she was, that she was a part of that little group of kids who went around foiling illegal plans ten years ago. The Detective Boys, even after Conan's departure and Ai's return to the adult world, had remained in the news for a good while. They spent summers in junior high solving cases around Japan, and Shinichi kept it no secret that he'd taken them under his wing. The Detective Boys were as much a household name as Heiji Hattori or Kaito Kid, though their individual names were little known. When they graduated to high school, that's when their name died down, (that was the year Mitsuhiko found his place at the lead of their class, the year Genta found his love for cooking). Her name stayed out of the papers. She wanted it that way. The Detective Boys were on hiatus, that's what she said. She'd flashed Katashi her badge (she held it on her person still; she told herself it was just in case). Katashi's nose wrinkled before he said "so what are you doing here?"

She didn't have the heart to tell him she was getting away from those memories.

He was a straight-A student, didn't appear to try very hard to keep it that way. He was focused on cracking a case that the police had sort of given up on-- kidnapping cases, a string of them, spanning at least two decades. All children, ages one to three. No suspects, no bodies, nothing. Just a place of suspicion that'd been burned to the ground twelve years ago. They'd found bodies of hired guns, sure, but nobody important. They suspected a trafficking ring, but had never found any trail, and the kidnappings had stopped eighteen years ago. Katashi, smart as he was, couldn't find anything to open the case up again. "Those kids are still missing. They were your age, Yoshida-san. That could have been you." She resisted pointing out that it could have been him, too. The kids would be adults now, and Ayumi admitted she didn't want to think about the grim life those children had lived-- assuming they had. Katashi plopped the case files on the library table, eyes looking as deep with death as Takumi's regularly did. If her face portrayed concern, he'd ignored it with a wave. "I gotta find a way to bring these sick bastards to justice."

She peeled back the first page of the folder and looked one child in its grey eyes. A school photo, black-and-white. She turned the page to find an in-color picture of an even younger child, ball in hand, reaching just far enough so that the puppy sharing the frame couldn't grip it between its small, barred teeth. "Do the police know you took this?"

Katashi's cheeks burned, and he waved her off with a snort.

That didn't answer her question, so she'd take the plausible deniability. "Why this case? If it was closed 10 years ago…"

"Trafficking rings don't just disappear, Yoshida-san. They either got better at hiding, or something even worse got to them first."

She turned the page to find photo after photo of ash, charred skulls beyond recognition, and symbols. She frowned. It was hard to see the carving under the ash, but it was an eye, egyptian-looking, eyelashes looking more like the rays of a sun, lower lid looking like a river thick with eyeliner. Claws, razor sharp, sat below and threatened to swallow the eye in their paws. She'd seen it somewhere before. "Did anything come up about these symbols carved in the floor?"

Katashi shook his head and plopped unceremoniously into the seat across from her, huffing and pouting as he leaned forward and dug his jaw into his palm. She nearly giggled at him; instead, she bit the inside of her lip and shook herself of the tickling urge. "No, a friend told me there was nothing and I didn't believe him. Did some digging myself and he wasn't kidding. No mobs, gangs, individuals, cults- anything- associated with that symbol. It's like it was a company brand or something but…"

"That would have come up in the search results."

"Especially in the police database."

"Did you," Ayumi raised an eyebrow "have clearance for that?" Katashi didn't respond, so she made a mental note. Not as by-the-book as I thought. She frowned and skimmed the rest of the folder. The only thing tying the kidnappings back to that burned down building was a small tuft of unburned hair belonging to one of the kidnapped, even more confusing when the body itself didn't turn up in the wreck. "Have you found anything?"

"No. That symbol doesn't show up anywhere else in this city, and I checked abandoned compounds. So if they're still here, they're well-hidden."

Ayumi frowned. She'd have to do some research herself if she was going to help him with this case. She thought about asking Haibara-- Miyano-- because maybe she'd know if she'd worked for that organization Conan took down before he left, but the thought left as quickly as it came. No, she wouldn't answer the call, Ayumi knew this. Stupid. She shook her head. "I'll do some research myself, see if my friends back home may know anything." Sato and Takagi may be able to help. Katashi's eyes leveled with hers, and he looked at her almost quizzically. He huffed into his hand, chin digging into his palm.

"Oi, Yoshida? Don't breathe a word about this to the other two, okay? I don't think that toe-haired idiot would ever let it go if he knew I asked for…" help. The word was right there, but he was too proud to say it. Ayumi didn't dare refrain, she giggled.

"Right, right, not a word to Youta-kun or Akiko-chan! And Katashi-kun?"

"Hm?" He was avoiding eye-contact with her now, taking the folder and stuffing it into his bag. She smiled to herself and placed her hand on his.

He blinked. "You can call me Ayumi-chan!" Katashi seemed to stare at her for a moment. Was he perplexed? Guilty? His eyes read something of sorrow, and she wondered if she should regret saying anything. "Ah, unless…." Her hand twitched, pulled only centimeters away, and he moved agiley to grab her by the wrist. Ayumi glanced down at their hands, then back up at Katashi. His eyes had narrowed with skepticism, or maybe it was vexation. He was hard to read, always looking like he was hiding something, always thinking, and now he seemed to be thinking about her. She only wished she knew what.

"Oi, give me a chance to respond before you get off pouting."

She blanched, nose wrinkling as she tugged her wrist back. His hand followed, grazing the thin of her arm before letting her go. She crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out, like a petulant child. "I wasn't pouting!" Yes she was, and she knew it. She was always the type to open her heart to the world despite the universe's apparent urge to squash that bit of her at random opportunity. She was just trying to be friendly. Katashi was a friend, last names didn't feel right.

"Heh," he stuck his hand in his pocket and threw his bag over his shoulder, nose in the air as he went for the staircase down. "Fine, fine. Whatever you say, Ayumi-chan…"

This ice cream was, no contest, the best she'd ever had. She didn't know how Youta found the place, or how that little old man got the chocolate of her frozen choice to be so creamy, but she found a piece of heaven on earth every time she got a perfectly rounded ball on a perfectly folded cone. Youta pointed out that she'd gotten some on her nose; she wiped it away anxiously.

They took this route on the way to class every other day, treated themselves and each other to a snack whenever they could, not that dairy and ice were all that nutritious. Youta practically insisted every time, and there was no way she could say no when he could so plainly see the drool hanging over her chin. The walk was longer than the closest route to class, but this route was better. She'd missed the company in her high school years, and Youta was nothing if not talkative. She found not a moment dull with him yammering on about football or grades or this case his dad was working on; it made her smile. Youta was smart, she could see that, if not overly sure of himself, and he was kind. He got good grades, knew how to wrap up a wound, did statistics like an actuary. He expressed no interest in following his father's footsteps, least of all in becoming a lawyer. He loved the field, the grass-- the ball and the sneakers. Some evenings, she and Akiko watched Katashi and Youta sparring in an empty lawn, feet moving so fast that she could hardly see the ball until it was dead center in the bushes the boys had deemed "the goal". Youta was so alive, then, always shot her and Akiko a smile and a wink, flexed until Katashi kicked the ball right in his face. He was comfortable, warm, like the first ray of sunlight on an early morning. She eschewed his arrogance and his flirting, but she'd dare say she was warming up to the idiot.

Ayumi laughed at the way Youta tried to lick ice cream off the bridge of his nose, then she glanced at the television display lighting up the store window as they passed. The local news station, playing footage of what looked like a convenience store taped off with yellow. She paused, waited for the Headline to go from "National Donut Day" to something more menacing. The suspected trafficking case was still cold for the moment. Sato and Takagi had been unable to help, had never even heard of the case before she'd brought it up. She was left with little challenge, and a small mystery to quench her thirst was just the thing she needed; the local news did not disappoint.

Kidnappings, so far there had been three of them, one for each month of the new semester. All girls, kidnapped from campus as far as last known witnesses could tell. They each turned up seemingly at random, one at the school's pool, another at the cafe, this one at a convenience store. They were each beaten within inches of their lives, burned, shocked, cut, but it was all done with some form of precision (if she was right about the markings she saw in one photograph). The oddest thing, the woman on the screen narrated, was the inexplicable amnesia each girl had. None had a memory of being kidnapped, nor their time in captivity or kidnapper. It was as though their memories had been erased the way one erases footage from a camera, unnerving to say the least when the human brain was involved. Ayumi frowned and took a contemplative lick of her ice cream.

"Ah, don't worry about all that kidnapping stuff," Youta raised a naked arm, other hand pressing his sleeve up until his bare muscles (of which, she would admit, he had plenty) for the whole street to see. He gave her a wink and a boisterous grin, boyish in nature and cocky. "Nobody's gonna take you while I'm around!" Most men, they'd be joking, and some men, like Genta, would be barking about what they'd sooner cower from. Not Youta, she could tell. He was too genuine, too proud and believed himself much too capable to fear much of anything. She couldn't help herself, she giggled.

"Thank you, Youta-kun, but I'll be just fine!" She waved a dismissive hand his way as she passed him. "One white knight is more than enough…"

She couldn't see the way he watched her behind her back, the tender manner in which his brows creased, or the disquiet settling in his eyes.

The library was quiet at night. University students rarely spent time in its great halls studying on the weekends, and even those dutiful enough were kicked out minutes before the sun began to set. She knew some student librarians stuck around, but there were so few in a building with so many floors. Himura, truly, was a school to behold. For the night though, she would be spending her time scouring the shelves, as there would be plenty of time to stare in awe, later.

The second floor overlooked the first floor on a balcony, green carpeted steps leading up with golden accents and chocolate rails that adorned the railings like artsy fences scaling the outlook. There was another staircase to her right, leading to the third floor, but the second floor's closest wall, filled window to hall with books, was her target. She padded up the staircase with a careful hand at the rail, steps light and slow to avoid detection-- theoretically. She just needed to look at a few items, that's all. She wasn't taking anything. She glanced from right to left and bolted (on the tips of her toes) over to the shelf where the recent magazines were. The one from the top, she snatched it and flipped it open on the table behind her.

The articles didn't have much more than the news story did, but it had pictures. Every girl had blue eyes, light, pretty, like polished angelite. They were all eighteen, new to university like she was, though their backgrounds differed. None of them seemed to have gone to high school in the same area, but they all had the same skin tone with some variations in tan. None of them had any family around, maybe that was the key? Ayumi shook her head. No, she didn't have enough information to go there yet. It would help if I knew exactly what was being done to them. If I could get into the hospital…

There was a creak in the wood; Ayumi jumped.

A girl with two braided pigtails leveled her with an even stare despite the proximity of Ayumi's pepper spray posed inches from her face. Hands on her hips, she raised one to her head with a sigh. "Yoshida-san, what do you think you're doing?"

"Chihiro-chan!"

She readjusted her round glasses with one finger, then waltzed by on feather-light feet. One hand slammed down on the table as Chihiro read over the open page, tossing one ribboned pigtail over her shoulder. Ayumi stood by, awkwardly, uncertainly, shifting from foot to foot and twiddling her thumbs. "I- I was just looking--!"

"At the kidnapping case?"

"Just in case!"

Chihiro watched her, one eye glazed over in the light of the window, the other watching her from the other side of her glasses with contemplation. Ayumi did her best to stand her ground, unsure if a librarian was obligated to report her trespassing to the school. That would be quite the way to end her first semester, she had to admit. Going back to Tokyo with her hopes of moving on, dashed before she had the chance to solve as much as one case. She gave Chihiro her best please-don't-get-me-expelled smile. Chihiro took a deep breath. "You have nothing to worry about, Yoshida-san. The girls this creep is going after are all major loners."

Ayumi, still somewhat unsteady from the generous bout of adrenaline processing in her system, approached the table to point at the headline, Third Kidnapping This Semester. "That's nothing new. Most kidnappers go for easy targets. Girls new to the school and unfamiliar with the area are less likely to have friends."

"That's not all, you know. All of these girls had prior write-ups for misconduct."

"What?"

Chirhio pointed to the first girl, then the next, and the last. "This one punched a guy in the face first week. This one was suspended for a whole month after she got caught bullying some girl. This one cheated our second exam week." Chihiro folded the newspaper into the neat square she'd pulled it in, fingers moving with such grace that Ayumi took a moment to notice how few paper cuts she had for somebody who worked vigorously with textbooks and novels. "Besides, you don't have to worry anyway, Yoshida-san," Their eyes met as Chihiro made one last vertical fold.

Ayumi watched her, patiently. Some part of her worried that this was the moment the mallet would fall, that Chihiro would tell her she was reporting her to the campus heads, that she'd have to fight to stay in a university she'd worked so hard to get into.

Chihiro placed the newspaper back on the shelf, turning to her with a red-cheeked pout, and a side-eye that could kill. "No kidnapper would dare take somebody surrounded by admirers seven days a week."

Ayumi's cheeks lit up, and she hurried to deny, deny, deny.

She knew she was groaning a lot, perhaps the measure would be more than that of a bearable amount, but she was tired. Despite hounding and bugging and, in one case, jumping out from behind a tree and startling, the local police about the hospital the kidnapped girls resided in, she'd come back with hands so empty she swore the skin had been scraped off. They'd been kind enough to give her some details-- internal bleeding, burns to the scalp, lots of scarred tissue, and yet no trauma to the cranium (as far as x-rays could tell). They wouldn't let Ayumi see them, talk to them, no matter how desperately she pleaded (though they let her know, when she grew distraught, that the girls were expected to make a full recovery-- which helped, it helped a lot). A lesser girl, or maybe just a girl a few years greener, might have stooped to crying. But Ayumi was a woman now, and no way was a case going to frustrate her to tears. So instead, she'd toss and turn at night and grumble all morning.

"Oi, oi, Ayumi-chan," Katashi nudged her with his arm. "You're annoying. What's with all the unattractive moaning?"

She perked up, unintentionally raising a hand to her lips. "Unattractive?"

"Yeah, you kinda sound like a hungry mountain lion!" Youta's warm smile usually helped, but she was on the receiving end of his taunts this time, and dammit if she didn't feel like making the jerks carry her to class.

"It's nothing, I just didn't sleep well."

"Yeah," Youta taunted on. "What kept you up? The evil witch of Himura stealing your youth?"

"Cut it out! I'm already losing sleep! I don't need to be scared out of bed!"

"Hah hah! Look at your face! You don't think the Witch exists do you?"

"What witch? Stop making things up!"

The group of three passed by the store once more, where the TV display was alive and blaring, painting the screen with cross tape and blue headlines. Katashi watched it as they passed, eyes narrowing as blue and yellow seemed to twist and fall into misshapen hues, fading until the screen was red.

[akelyokikagu]

Okikagu week: jealousy

Sex.

At fourteen years old Kagura wasn’t much of a hormonal beast, but hearing her friends talking about ‘sex’ rendered her curious. Ayu-chan always described ‘sex’ as a very pleasurable, tiring and addicting act.

Ayumi Sarugawa was a female friend of Kagura. Unlike the chinese-like girl, she was blessed with a mature body despite being only one year older and naturally, boys came to her like bees with honey. From Kagura’s entourage, Ayumi was the most experienced when it came to men.

Recently Ayu-chan had been saying she and her new boyfriend had a very nice body compatibility, something that made ‘sex’ better or worse, at least that was what she said.

If it was about body compatibility, the closest Kagura had was with a black-wearing boy. Not that they had anything coming close to a couple. Simply speaking it was a different kind of compatibility that resided in striking and dodging continuously until exhaustion, yet the sparring was always satisfying for both party. For Kagura, because she could release all the extra-energy she had as a Yato, for Okita because he could relieve himself from his job and prevent his body from getting dull.

And if it was about bodys, then surely both of them matched each other. Kagura had no apparent muscles, a flat stomach at most, yet she sustained a supernatural strength that far surpassed the humans’. Okita was toned like a samurai though less than Gintoki, but he could take her on anytime and with skills and speed, he made a very honorable rival to Kagura.

So, without doubt, they did have body compatibility in their own way. But when idly thinking about it, munching slowly on a sukonbu, Kagura realized she had never thought of Okita as something more than a rival she loved to hate. Ayumi and lot of her friends always squealed at the mention of his name, apparently was the man attractive, mysterious, and hot.

But really, all Kagura could see was a barking Chihuahua.

Well. To be fair, he wasn’t bad on the eyes either — call her a liar if she said the opposite. A round but attractive face, sharp eyes of red tint and silky flaxen hair with long legs of a mannequin; Okita Sougo was rather a hunk than a bump. It just that she never saw him as a man. Sure, she knew he had something she didn’t in-between his legs but that was there was to it.

Kagura rolled on the wooden bench, dreamily staring at the sky.

She had never been good at romance and stuff like that, but what was sex? Was it really as good as Ayumi-chan said?

Kagura was decided. In order to understand what ‘sex’ is she needed to gather more data, and who better to infiltrate than her pinpointed rival Okita?

It was a mission. An infiltration in enemy’s zone, well-guarded and dangerous, but all the more fun to challenge its security.

She’ll just need to learn some tricks from Catherine, after all the woman had been a thief most of her life.

°°°°°°°°°°°°

Sasasasasa…. The sound of the wind blasting upon being cut by a fast Yato.

Bon! Strong legs that successfully ended on the upper-side of the fence protecting the Shinsengumi headquarters. For policemen Kagura thought the security was lacking; only a few recruits keeping their eyes on the HQ and she betted they were newbies that couldn’t be assigned to a division yet.

It was a warm afternoon, the sun rested high in the sky and a pleasant wind flew, a perfect time to nap when one was called Okita Sougo. Kagura chuckled at the picture of him covered of a weird eye mask while sleeping on their usual bench all while his division patrolled in his stead.

Idiot. He left his bedroom unguarded of Kagura Lupin III! Big mistake, she grinned and slipped in the yard just before Okita’s room. It was her first time coming in but the strong smell of Tabasco and occult emanated from it; at least to her skilled nose.

It reeked of his smell, but Kagura found the room almost too normal to be her rival’s. She slid the door just to find a clean, simple bedroom with the futon rolled in a corner, a low table and few amenities. No whip, no vodoo or dark magic objects in sight.

“Wow. Who would have known Sadist was like Shinpachi?” Kagura deadpanned alone and stepped in, where would the Sadist hide his secret stash of porn? Gin-chan had some too, badly hidden in his futon but she never bothered reading them when the man was an old MADAO, probably virgin and in all nothing she’d like to learn from. She bet his porn contained lot of old grandma like the white-haired old man he was and seeing these grandmas weren’t in her interest either.

If it was Shinpachi, he would hide in a classic spot: somewhere in corner of a closet.

Kagura did just as so, opening the closet that had mostly clothes and weapon-related items as well as files, her hands rummaged in a dark spot and grabbed what looked like books.

Right here. Boys’ legendary secret stash of porn! The Bible to ‘sex’!

Okita had bothered to put few volumes of JUMPs on them but nothing could escape her great sight.

Kagura mentally patted herself and opened the first book she found, the title was too long for her to read — she was very slow — but it had ‘SM’ on its cover.

“!!”

The book started quickly, a we-endowed female entered an odd building resembling a castle. There were dungeons, but Kagura quickly understood that their aims deviated from real ones as there were a lot of naked people.

“Sadist likes this kind of stuff? He really is a sadist.” Her face unwavering by the obscenities continued through the pages and books.

Whatever Ayumi-chan had said, Kagura decided to not listen anymore. ‘Sex’ was nothing but humans rutting together (sometimes with more than one partner), lot of noises and yells, body fluids… In all the act was pretty disgusting and the girls looked crazier than happy.

Disappointment.

Kagura sighed and put back the books, her mind bothered by something she couldn’t understand, something making her anger flaring up.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Were boobs so nice? She knew Gin-chan and Shinpachi loved them, but to Kagura they were nothing more than two lumps of fat. What made them so attractive was beyond her, but somehow it seemed Sadist liked them big and it created an odd feeling of discomfort in her.

She felt like Otae, observing a rather poor chest. Like a kid’s.

Maybe she should start drinking soja milk too?

Why would that matter anyway, it wasn’t like she wanted to impress the Sadist. She just needed his stash for… Next sparring, ah yes, sparring. They weren’t like Ayumi-chan and her boyfriend nor did she want to have anything close to rutting with him — ew to the sadist cooties.

But really. She wasn’t jealous.

Does size really matter? Kagura sat down and hid her face in her knees, surges of anger and disappointment invading her. It wasn’t her fault if at fourteen, she didn’t have a body like Ayumi-chan’s, or these girls in the books.

If she had a big chest, would Okita treat her better? Would he look at her differently, like how the men in the books looked at the heroine?

Size did matter after all.

She’ll Shinpachi tomorrow for soja milk, she’ll let him see, this sadist, if she couldn’t grow those lumps of fat.