WARNING/NOTICE; If you don't want to read some of Kotoko's flashbacks, please just skip the italic. It's nothing too explicit, but if rape is a trigger for you, just don't read it.

DISCLAIMER; I would not have been able to create the torment this children go through, at least not to this extent. But since the torment has already been created for me, I might as well play around a little, right?

gentle

"Don't worry, Kotoko. Everyone will be super gentle with you since it's your first time. Plus, guys are always soft when it comes to super cute girls like us!"

"Mommy, I-"

"This is going to make you shine even brighter! Everyone's going to love Kotoko! The director's doing this because he wants Kotoko to sparkle even more, just like me. And Mommy will be there with you every step of the way."

"I-I'm scared, Mommy. What if I don't want to sparkle anymore?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Kotoko! Every girl wants to sparkle! But only the adorable ones like you can shine brightly. That's why, it's your responsibility, okay? Plus, there's no need to be scared since everyone will be gentle with you since they love Kotoko just as much as me!"

"They... They love me like Mommy?"

"That's right! Kotoko's just so cute that everyone has to love her! Now come on, okay?"

"...Okay."

...

"Kotoko, you were so cute, as always! The director, the producer, the sponsors, everybody was super happy.

"And now...there's another business you have to attend to. And your mom's gonna come too, okay?

"It's going to be alright... Kotoko is just so sweet... Everyone will be gentle with you. Very, very gentle..."

...

I'm changing? Why's Mommy crying? Mommy can't cry! Gentle is... I'll be gentle all the time, so don't cry anymore, okay Mommy?

Smile. Laugh. No wait, he wants tears.

I have to get it right and be super duper gentle. After all, an adorbs girl like me has to take responsibility for sparkling so much! I'm a super shining star! Everyone's showstopper!

Hehehe, I think I can fool myself if I keep this up! Smiles and tears and laughs and jokes and curtsies and cute clumsy antics all on demand. I'm amazing, aren't I? Super adorbs!

No wonder everyone's so gentle with me. Tank you veddy much!

...

"Ah, Kotoko, you're early for the shoot, aren't you? Where's your mom?"

"She went to poop!"

My obedient reply startled the older man into a laugh, and I smiled back at him reflexively. Smile, Kotoko. Pretend he's just another camera. "I see. Then let's start without her this time, okay?"

"But..."

"Don't worry, Kotoko. You have another shoot tomorrow, so I'll make sure to be really gentle. Besides, the early bird gets the worm, as they say. Don't you want to brag to your mom? She's doing the best she can to help you be successful, after all."

"Alrighty!"

"Come on, then."

...

"If you're going to be gentle...JUST KILL ME INSTEAD!"

...

Kotoko's body made a thump as she fell out of her bed, bringing her strawberry patterned sheets down with her onto the floor.

"Owie...," she mumbled, eyes blinking open. The young girl ignored the tears staining her cheeks, instead focusing intently on the ceiling as she focused on getting her frantic gasps under control.

Luckily her training helped her stabilize her breaths quickly, even if it was just her wearing her usual facade, and Kotoko felt a stab as she remembered standing in the spotlight, soaking up the adoration and praise everyone gave her.

Still, she was a Warrior of Hope now! The Fighter, even! She could beat all of the Demons and properly educate adorbs girls so that they understood the responsibility of being super cute, and everything was perfect. The stage was her past, as was everything about it.

But even though she'd already defeated her Final Boss just like the others, Kotoko kept having nightmares.

Kotoko twisted as she tried to maneuver out of her bed sheets and hair. Her hair was really super long, nothing at all like Mommy's, and even though Nagisa kept telling her to cut it since it got all tangled Kotoko never listened to him since it looked absolutely adorbs the way it was.

Even if Masaru was always a jerk about pulling on her pigtails. He was just a smelly boy, anyway.

After finally escaping her bed sheets grasp, Kotoko wondered what to do. Everybody else was asleep, but Kotoko already knew she wouldn't be able to join them back in dreamland. Stupid nightmare.

Kotoko hummed, absently making her bed as she thought. They'd gotten a servant recently, but he was a Demon and a male, so he definitely wasn't trustworthy. Demons never were, with all their pervy Demon thoughts, and Kotoko wished that Monaca hadn't agreed to spare him when he'd pleaded for his life.

Maybe she could make him a shemale Demon? But that would be harder if they were keeping him alive... Maybe Jataro would have an idea how? But no, Kotoko wasn't desperate enough to ask him. He was even smellier than normal boys because of that his ugly mask of his. He was definitely a closet perv!

She would just have to live with cleaning up her own room. After all, Kotoko was too adorbs to just be some slob!

After finishing with her bed, Kotoko faltered. What could she do? It was far too early for many Demons to be out where they were, even if Kotoko wouldn't mind the head start in Demon Hunting. Stupid Masaru was winning again. Maybe she could go bother someone?

Flopping onto her bed, Kotoko went through her options. Servant was a no go since he was an awful Demon, while Kotoko would never ever go to Jataro except if maybe the world was ending. And maybe not even then.

Monaca was also out, since Kotoko didn't want to wake the girl unnecessarily and make her upset. Monaca could be super duper scary, even if she was adorbs. Plus, she was keeping her bedroom some kind of super sneaky secret.

Nagisa... Kotoko had bothered him before, and he always made her a warm glass of milk before reading a book. It was nice that he didn't immediately go back to bed, but Kotoko always felt super weird in the silence and would leave before too long had passed.

That left Masaru. Masaru, for all his horrible, smelly boyness could be counted on. He was the Hero, after all. And the leader, but that was just because he won at rock-paper-scissors. Kotoko was still sour about losing that game. She would've been the best leader ever. She was used to being center stage, after all.

XXXXX

Masaru shifted in his sleep, annoyed for some reason. Something kept trying to wake him up, and maybe he should hit whatever was speaking with that cute voice and-

The boy sat up with a start, accidentally slamming into Kotoko, sending the girl tumbling off a bed for the second time that night. "Owie! Jerk! You need to be nice to girls, you know!"

"You're the one in my room," he retorted, though his sky blue eyes scanned her for injuries even as he spoke. She was rubbing her forehead irritably, but besides her own bruised pride she didn't seem hurt. That was good. As Hero he had to protect everyone. Everyone besides the evil Demons, at least.

Plus, Kotoko didn't have a wiener, and even if he'd already approved of her and knew she wasn't a coward, heroes were supposed to save girls first. Even if it was Kotoko, he shouldn't hurt her. Unless she was having an attack. Then it got confusing since hurting helped. Monaca was super smart to figure that out.

"Humpf. Hey, did ya know that even though polar bears have super white, fluffy fur, they have black skin! They're cheats! Just like chestnuts! That's why they have to be peeled to be delicious, you know," Kotoko replied, flipping a pigtail over her shoulder. She always had to look her best, even if only Masaru would get to see her. Sitting up, she sat back down on Masaru's bed, glaring at him as she silently dared him to call her out again.

He didn't. Even Masaru wasn't an idiot, no matter how much Kotoko called him one and Nagisa implied it. Instead, he reached out, harshly tugging at one of her pink pigtails. It was her fault for always wearing the hairstyle when she knew he liked messing with them, anyway.

"What'cha need Lord Masaru Daimon fo...," Masaru trailed off as his eyes adjusted further to the dim light, allowing him to see forgotten tear streaks lining Kotoko's cheeks. Nightmares.

All of the Warriors of Hope had nightmares, even if Masaru himself would never admit to it. Heroes weren't scared of anything, ever! Especially not some dead Demon, even it had been his Final Boss.

Still, all of them had their own ways of dealing with them. Masaru went out Demon Hunting, Nagisa worked even harder for their planned Children's Paradise, doing the boring work a Hero like Masaru would never even have to touch! Jataro would hunt down some look alike Demons to his own Final Boss. Monaca...well, Masaru could never really tell when she had nightmares, but she definitely had them. It was part of what had brought them together in the first place.

Kotoko was weird, though. Not as weird as Nagisa, but still one giant weirdo.

He could never tell in the daytime, and sometimes it was hard to tell even at nighttime. She was always smiling and joking and hunting down Demons, even if he did have to save her when she got careless sometimes. It couldn't be helped since she was a girl.

But at night...sometimes she broke down. Went quiet and still, and was just so... not Kotoko. Pain helped her, which was even weirder, but Masaru loved to help since he was the bestest Hero ever, even if he did kinda feel like his dad sometimes. That Demon was dead, anyway. Masaru had killed it as the pathetic, cowardly Demon begged for mercy.

He'd do it again in a heartbeat, just like all the others would. After all, nobody in his party was a coward, not even the girls.

Kotoko was quiet now, her practiced smile having slipped. She pulled her legs up to her chest, curling into her pink nightgown. Masaru sometimes wondered if she ever got tired of the color, even though he would never stop loving his own favorite: Red. The color of a hero. All of it's shades, too. Apple colored, maroon, Demon blood, crimson, his hair.

Just red.

He gave her hair another sharp tug as he pulled a blanket up from the floor, where he must've kicked it off during the night. Even in sleep he couldn't stay still, always roaring to go.

He pulled it up and snatched his headphones from the side table. He didn't normally let anyone wear them, but Kotoko was weird, so she could. He was totally gonna steal a ton of her kills next time they went Demon Hunting, though. As Hero he should get the last hit anyway.

His foot bounced as he tuned it in to where the headphones would actually play music, and Kotoko was going to have to deal with listening to all his favorites. She was definitely going to complain tomorrow...er, later that day. When she was back to being Kotoko.

He roughly shoved the accessory onto her head, causing the girl to start and unfold slightly in confusion as she turned to look at him. She hadn't even noticed what he'd been doing, he realized with a snicker.

Next, Masaru grabbed the blanket, swinging it over both of their heads and trapping them in the soft fabric. He didn't really like the feeling, but he'd noticed that Kotoko seemed to enjoy covering herself whenever she was like this, and no Hero would ever just leave a crying girl alone, especially since she was a fellow party member of the Warriors of Hope. That made her extra important.

There, protected and entrapped by the soft fabric's embrace, the two damaged children fell asleep until the morning.

I wrote this during a sort of sleepless night (I did sleep, though, which is kinda contradictory), so it might not be the best. Also, it was hard getting into these kids' heads, and I felt super awkward writing Masaru's since he's this really stereotypical hero character that's all, "Boys rule," and I hope I did him and Kotoko justice.

But because of that, I ended up not giving them a lot of spoken lines. Their thoughts I can articulate well enough to write this (I hope their thought processes seem in character, at least) , but my sleep deprived self could only do so much.

Anyway, I'm a little bit of a Masaru and Kotoko shipper, but this can be read as strictly platonic. They're too young to really be romantically involved yet anyway, and they both have a lot of issues to sort out before I could recommend them actually trying out a relationship.

Also, my thing about the kids.

-Kotoko Utsugi acts almost 24/7. She admits it in canon. And even though her acts seem super fake sometimes, I feel like that's just another illusion. Also, her falling twice was a sort of homage to the actual game and how she trips in that same way several times. Some people don't like it, but I actually thought it was cute. It would be another story if she wasn't wearing those bloomers, but they acted kinda like shorts so I didn't mind. Though maybe that was because I used to be really clumsy as a kid, so I sympathize? Plus, it could be part of her act. A sort of adorbs clumsy girl. (They only thing I genuinely think was horrible was that damn minigame. It was so UNNECESSARY DAMMIT! Ahem.)

-Masaru Daimon is super protective of his party members, and so even if he's a bit book dumb he can be surprisingly perceptive when it comes to them, especially Kotoko since in my head canon they argue a lot (although his rival is forever Nagisa) and he would probably notice if she was being more distant than usual.

Also, someone please go back in time and kill all these children's parents and then adopt them. These poor kids had literally NO good parental/adult figures in their lives.

I hope you all enjoyed this chappy, despite the beginning!