Warning for implied animal cruelty
Chapter One - A Strange Little Bunny
Tachikawa Mimi was in a terrible, terrible mood.
Everything, including her, was drenched with the rain from a late spring storm. Her hair was matted in clumps, the pink dye starting to fade and her uniform jacket ripped at the edges. Every step she took came with a tap and a squelch. However, for the Mimi of this second, those were the least of her problems.
She was an outcast in her own hometown. How awful was that? All she was doing was coming up with something different. They didn't have this stuff in New York! Not like this. There were clubs but a festival… an honest to goodness cultural festival! It was a perfect time to show off a little! Let loose and have fun! It would be a good distraction from the Digimon too. Then they could talk it out over cake and tea. Honestly, it seemed smart to her.
But nobody else seemed to think so.
She sighed and threw her wet hair out of her face. Today was just a bust. Even Jou-senpai didn't have any easy answers. But being the senpai had never determined that he would. And to think he was jealous of her…
She made a face. Mimi slapped her cheeks and shook her head, pulling a smile. She would just have to take things as they came. Whether she was merely selfish or overbearing, whether she was self-centered or not, it would have to work out in the end. It wasn't like anyone else had had any ideas. Not about this… and not about the Digimon either.
What were people even thinking? They had seen this before! There were good Digimon and bad Digimon! And their partners were the good ones, what was so hard to understand?
She didn't even want to face Koushiro-kun right now. If he didn't have Palmon (she didn't quite trust being able to bring her home from her house quite yet. Anything could go wrong.) and didn't want to see her sad and think of her lonely face and think, what good are we, she wouldn't even go.
People were so busy calling them monsters, so much like her and her friends during their first adventure. They had faced monsters, but the worst, the scariest, had looked human, had acted by human desires.
They were all such kids, despite them being adults. Everyone was… even her.
As she passed down another street, the high office building visible at this point, a loud bang echoed across the street as a trash can toppled over. Mimi jumped and turned to look at it. It was one of those old style metal trash cans that kids at her elementary school in America had used the lids to get in trouble at recess. They were still phasing them out in Japan too huh?
She almost turned away from it. The winds were getting stronger and could easily knock those lightweights over. Then something small crawled from its depths, pathetic, short noises leaving its mouth in panicked bursts.
Then the smell of blood reached her nose.
Mimi ran to scoop it up. It flinched at first, tense and stiff as her arms wrapped around it.
"It's okay, little guy," she said, the cheer in her voice muted by slight terror. "I'm gonna get you some help, okay?"
Rising from her crouch, Mimi ran the last few blocks to Koushiro's office, everything else forgotten.
Koushiro, even when he was irritated with Mimi, was never able to resist the hurricane force of her. It was especially difficult when you came into contact with her pleading for help rather than insisting on how things needed to be.
So he didn't hesitate to call a vet even though it went against his immediate judgment. He helped Mimi lay the creature in the sink and gently wipe it clean, resisting the urge to look away at the fresh gush of blood. He had prepared for an emergency situation after all and was doing all the more these days due to the situation of the populace in regards to Digimon. The twelve -currently eight- of them and their families could end up in danger. Even with the Bureau helping, Koushiro didn't want to take the risk.
He helped her, even as the creature twitched. Its short black fur soon left dry, purple ended furs pulled out onto the next towel.
That gave Koushiro pause. "Mimi-san," he said quietly. "Rabbits aren't supposed to have purple fur."
Mimi had been busy murmuring to the twitching creature, whose one visible eye was on her. Mimi looked up at him and her eyes narrowed. "So?"
Koushiro almost raised his hands and stepped back, seeing the fury in her simmering to a boil. They were all still angry at each other, angry at everyone and everything. But Mimi-san's anger always ran hot and would cool when placated with something that made sense.
So he took a deep breath and exhaled through his nose. "We might not be able to treat it like we would, say, an Amami rabbit, which is what it looks like. So we need to consider the possibility that it might be a Digimon. We'll bandage it, then…" he grimaced. "Let's give them a scan with the analyzer. By then the vet should be here and we'll have some supplies."
He had watched Mimi as he spoke, watched her hunched shoulders gradually fall under her ears. She went back to rubbing the clean spots of fur, her eyes slowly looking down.
"All right," she finally said, "That's… that's okay. That makes sense." She paused. "Thank you, Koushiro-kun."
Koushiro felt his face burn and she laughed. "Oh honestly, you can't react like that all the time," Mimi said to him. "It's not healthy."
He didn't want to risk her mercurial temper by pointing out she was the one causing it this time around (or get the likely questions that he was not confident enough to answer right now), so he only nodded and held the rabbit still as she wrapped the critter's foot up. It continued to watch them with one eye open. It was the quietest rabbit Koushiro had seen in his life, even in those sparse times, his parents had tried to take him to the zoo to see him cheer up. He was afraid to scan them now, in case that changed somehow.
He shook his head. "Let's get ready."
The rabbit watched them in silence.
A/N: I blame Peach for this, but I also love it. I hope all of you join me in loving it the same.
Challenges: Epic Masterclass (adv/02/tri) 5, Epic Big Bang (Digimon), Mega Prompts Quote Prompt 179, Advent Calendar 2017 day 23
