This fic interprets Chihiro as a trans girl. I wrote it a while ago and have since become less sure if that's how I interpret Chihiro, but here's the fic as it is - no wank please, don't read if you're not a fan of that interpretation!
She runs her fingers over her collarbones, her delicate ankles. These parts of her, these little details, are hers to cherish when the rest of her body makes her unhappy. She folds her arms and fiddles with her bra strap. Her underwear is strawberry patterned. She hacks out a tiny cough. She isn't ill, but when she panics, she can't catch her breath. She tends to panic a lot when she looks into mirrors.
In her treasured friends she sees the things she lacks, and in the mirror before her she sees a failure. She wants to be a strong, beautiful girl like Sakura, and what she sees before her is a weak, sad little boy dressing up in girls' underwear like a pervert. She holds her chest and wheezes. Stop looking, Chihiro, just stop looking.
It is past time to meet for breakfast; she needs to dress.
The rapid flurry of knocks on her door as she pulls on her shirt startles her; its efficiency like the drilling of a woodpecker betraying the visitor. "FUJISAKI-KUN! YOU ARE NOW THREE MINUTES AND NINETEEN SECONDS LATE FOR BREAKFAST! ARE YOU QUITE ALL RIGHT?" Ishimaru practically shrieks through the keyhole.
"I'm fine," she musters quietly, and a cough bursts out of her. Her shirt is only half on, her skirt not at all. If he looked through the keyhole, he could see. Ishimaru would never do such a thing, she tells herself, but he could, he COULD, and she's feeling too dizzy with panic to stand up and get her skirt-
"Fujisaki-kun! Is that you?! I cannot hear you!"
"Yes, Ishimaru-kun, I'm sorry, I just-" she pauses to take a wheezing breath, "-I woke up late."
"YOUR VOICE IS VERY FAINT FUJISAKI-KUN ARE YOU ILL OR POSSIBLY INJURED."
"No!" She doubles over coughing.
"It is clear you are in bad shape! Do you need my assistance? I have learnt over fourteen methods for breaking down a door cleanly! I ask you to maintain a distance of four feet from the collision area!"
"Ishimaru-kun, don't-"
He does. Barrelling through the doorway with a kick that must have had surprising muscle behind it, the frenzied Ishimaru Kiyotaka has invaded Chihiro's room. She cowers on the floor. It is obvious. Everything is obvious. They stare at each other for a moment. She starts, quietly, to cry.
Ishimaru seems to have gained the hue and consistency of a beetroot and begins to back out of the doorway. "F-Fujisaki-I-Fujisaki...san... I - I deeply apologise... Had I - had I known you were..."
For once unable to complete his duty of speaking clearly, he flees.
She remains on the floor for a few further moments, allowing her hiccupy sobs to stop, then slowly finishes getting dressed. She's not sure what for, though. She's done for. Even Ishimaru, who is sweet and kind, will never understand... this.
As she enters the breakfast hall, face neutral, those assembled all scrutinise her with a searching expression that makes her heartbeat rise into a commotion. "So what's this?" Asahina loudly demands. "Did Ishimaru seriously break into your room? That's the worst kind of behaviour! I can't believe it!"
"I - I was..."
"F-Fujisaki was having a coughing fit! I! I though perhaps sh-she was in a predicament which required interceding! My judgement was impaired!" Ishimaru is bowing so low his chin nearly scrapes the floor.
"Apparently," Celes observes cannily, "During that time the two of them got to know each other well enough for Ishimaru to stop using honorifics."
Chihiro turns red, Ishimaru purple, neither of them helping matters. Yamada has stood up, quivering like a jelly, and squeaks "Can it be! Ishimaru-dono saw... THAT!"
"'That?'" Naegi has to enquire.
"...The full panties..." Yamada intones, grinning. Ishimaru and Chihiro wear the matching expression of those with a great desire to slide under the table and cease existing forever.
Sakura comes to her rescue. "Enough vulgarity. Let us resume breakfast." she announces in a voice with no room for argument. Chihiro thinks about her favourite coding languages as she manages half a bowl of rice. It's the only way to stop herself from crying.
Mondo can't pretend he isn't extremely curious about what went on, but poor little Fujisaki looks so mortified he knows he can't pry in front of her. Instead, as soon as Ishimaru has put down his soup, Mondo practically drags him out of the room.
"U-Unhand me, you ruffian!" Ishimaru stutters, as Mondo slams him against the wall inside the boys' toilets.
"What the hell happened with Fujisaki?" Mondo demands, blocking the escape with his elbow.
Ishimaru gulps. "I-It's not my place to - Fujisaki-kun was not entirely dressed - I -"
"So you saw a little girl's underwear and now you feel like a freaky pervert?"
Ishimaru nods.
"Well, you should. Fuckin' disgusting, breaking into a girl's room."
Ishimaru looks close to tears. "I know... I am truly disgraceful! For this, I shall remove my own free time privileges and increase my list of chores!"
Mondo sighs. "Listen, Ishimaru. You don't get it. You can't make amends by just punishin' yourself, that's not the issue here. It's Fujisaki's feelings you got to account for. Apologise to her properly, for fuck's sake."
"I- I-"
"You what, dammit?"
"O-Oowada-kun." Ishimaru steels himself. "There is a further issue. I... I ask you not to disclose this to anyone else, but I don't have a guidebook for this situation, and I'm unsure what action to take. You seem like a sensible man. Perhaps you can advise me."
"On what?"
"Fujisaki... Fujisaki-kun is not... Well, Fujisaki-kun doesn't appear to be a girl." Ishimaru claps a hand over his own mouth as soon as he says it.
"So you're sayin' she's got a dick?"
"Oowada-kun! I.. Well... Yes."
Mondo pulls Ishimaru forward by the collar and hisses hotly into his face. "OK, so don't be an ass about it. It's her issue."
"B-but how am I to address... her?"
"As a girl, shithead! She obviously wants to be treated like a girl right now, seeing as that's how she introduced herself! God, you're dense as fuck for a guy who's all about manners. Why do you give a fuck what's in her pants, anyway? If you're lookin' to get lucky I wouldn't get your hopes up after that screwup."
"None of that indecency, Oowada-kun!" Ishimaru slaps him lightly on the pompadour. "But... thank you. I see that I was being disrespectful in my conduct." Ishimaru shifts against the wall but Mondo doesn't seem to be letting up. They are still two inches from each other's noses. Ishimaru's uniform is starting to feel oddly prickly on his skin.
Mondo gives him a strange look and then the moment ends. "Talk to Fujisaki," Mondo warns him. Ishimaru nods and hastens to the kitchen to do his self-imposed washing-up duty.
It's at times like this when Chihiro reflects that it would be nice if she could think of the other people at Hope's Peak as her friends. She feels a small but insistent instinct beating inside her, that tells her they could all get along, in some other life, maybe. But not in the school of mutual killing, where any one of her classmates could turn on her, and she is so small, and so useless, and so wrapped up in her own strange issues. As she returns to her bedroom she notes that Monobear appears to have already fixed her slightly demolished door - his strange insistence on keeping the school's image pristine must ring true. She's glad Ishimaru wasn't punished for destroying school property, though. After what happened to Enoshima, Chihiro feels that treasuring her friends while they're still alive should be a priority.
She wants to turn to her computer when she's frightened, and so she does. She's aware of Monobear's gaze, but he can't forbid her from writing a programme -it's why she was asked to come here, after all. As she's putting the finishing touches to version 1.0 of a little AI she's calling Alter Ego, a knock comes at the door, making her freeze momentarily.
"Fujisaki-san?" The voice is indistinct, but it's Ishimaru's. "I... was wondering if I might take a moment to apologise. If you don't mind."
She wants to tell him to go away. She wants to. She doesn't want to have to talk about this. But that's not what someone strong would do, and she should treasure this opportunity to stop things from being weird between the two of them. "Come in," she says hesitantly.
He stands in the doorway rigidly looking flustered, and she feels odd pity. He is very kind, always trying to do right by everyone. "F-Fujisaki-san," he recites, "I humbly apologise for bursting in on you this morning. It was... completely inappropriate."
She doesn't really know how to reply, so just quietly says "That's all right, it was a misunderstanding." Her voice squeaks on the last syllable.
"And would you... I have been addressing all my new friends as, for example, Fujisaki-kun, in order to establish the bonds of fraternity between us, but, Fujisaki, would you prefer it if I called you Fujisaki-chan?" Ishimaru sort of babbles.
It isn't at all what she expected him to say. She's touched, and feels warmer towards him than she did earlier. She pats the edge of the bed next to where she is perched, and he accordingly stiffly sits down next to her. "I um... Whatever Ishimaru-kun wants to call me is fine. Thank you."
"Would you prefer I took my leave?" He doesn't look at her.
"Do you want to leave?"
"Whatever would make you comfortable."
"I... want you to stay."
She clears her throat once, the sound a low growl that she hates; it foreshadows the fact that she's fifteen, fifteen and growing fast. "Ishimaru-kun, did you tell anyone about... me?"
He pinches the bridge of his nose and looks sincerely regretful. "I cannot lie. I told Oowada Mondo-kun because I was not sure how to address the situation. But he is sworn to secrecy. And he... was very sensible and kind, and made me realise I should not start treating you differently now, Fujisaki-kun."
"Really? He said that?" And yet, she can imagine it. Beneath his rough exterior, she has an innate notion that Mondo is a friend she can trust. Ishimaru nods and smiles at her with unexpected warmth, and somehow it spills out.
"Ishimaru-kun... I didn't want to be like this. I wanted to be a strong boy, I did, but... I'm really a pathetic person. I just like being a girl. I just like pretty clothes and being treated gently. It's made me so happy. I want to become a strong person, but I don't want to let go of this freedom. And I can't keep on lying forever, because I know my body will change soon, but I don't know how to make it stop, and in my head I just feel it, I feel that I'm a girl, I know it's right-" She becomes aware of the tears budding in her eyes, and a hand gently holding hers.
"If you think you're a girl, then you're a girl." It's the softest voice she's ever heard Ishimaru use. "You can be whoever you want. You don't have to be a boy to be strong. You're already a strong person, Chihiro."
"You're a kind person... Kiyotaka."
She hugs him tightly around the middle and buries her face in his neck. He relaxes into the embrace and strokes her hair. "Ishimaru-kun," she says in a muffled voice, returning to formalities, "Would it be all right if I did some training with you and Oowada-kun? I would like that."
"So would I."
She smiles at him, wipes her eyes, and stands up. "If you'll excuse me," she says, pressing at her skirt, "Asahina-chan said that she would braid my hair."
"It will look very pretty." Ishimaru stands up too and seems a thousand times more like himself as he exits with a salute. "Tomorrow morning after breakfast, Fujisaki-kun's training commences! Let's do our best!"