"I'm tired."

"H-Heh? R-Rika, w-what are you talking about, nano desu?"

Swirling the wine in her wine glass, the miko of the Furude Shrine scowled to herself as she sipped a bit of the strong alcoholic beverage. It was 12 am in Hinamizawa, and Satoko's fast asleep, drooling on the futon without knowing anything about her friend's silent monologues to herself nor her conversations with the village god. Furude Rika was at a pensive mood, looking out of the window just to see the full moon staring at her back in its full, basked glory. Squinting at it, Rika emptied her glass, put it on the windowsill and sighed unsatisfactorily.

"I'm tired of being like this, Hanyuu," she said in a hopeless tone. "No matter what, it'll never change."

Hanyuu was taken aback somehow at Rika's sudden change of behaviour. "Don't tell me you're giving up, hauu! You've been trying to change fate so many times, Rika! Don't tell me you're giving up now, hauu hauuuu!"

"It's not that!" Rika exploded, but she made sure not to wake the Hojou girl. "It's...something personal."

"Personal? What do you mean, nano desu...?"

With that question, Rika looked at her own chest with a rather insecure expression, and sighed hopelessly.


Insecurities

A Furude Rika and Takano Miyo Oneshot

She really didn't want to do this, but she did.

Furude Rika asked herself for a thousandth time; why on earth did she take the initiative to go to the Irie Clinic to discuss about...hormonal problems.

And there she was, about to be diagnosed by Takano Miyo, of all people. Rika begrudgingly booked an appointment at the clinic the day before(with her usual childish facade and pretended to have a cold to convince Irie) without letting any of her friends know. Nope. Not Keiichi, definitely not Mion, Satoko's out of the question, and she obviously won't tell Rena. Hanyuu simply wouldn't listen to her and tell her something like 'You don't have to worry about that, Rika! You're fine just the way you are, nano desu!' The subject would've been too awkward anyways to be even discussed with among her friends, so she opted for the 'consult a professional' option. Staring at the clock, Rika swung her legs to and fro as she waited for the woman who massacred her and her friends in many, MANY kakeras get herself a notepad and some medical equipment.

"So, Rika-chan," Takano smiled 'pleasantly' at the Furude miko. "You came all the way to the clinic because you had a cold? Well, I don't blame you, you're still very young anyways, so it's no surprise that you're prone to all these sicknesses." With this, Takano laughed somewhat, crossed her legs as she sat down to write Rika's symptoms. Rika obviously wasn't pleased to hear any of Takano's sneers and insults, but she tried to be civil.

It was hard.

"I'm not having a cold, Takano," Rika spat. "I need your...professional advice."

"Aha, professional advice?" the nurse raised her eyebrow, then smirked somewhat. "The Queen Carrier's asking for my professional advice? Oh, ask away. I'm very interested in what you have to..."

What's with those black stockings of hers anyways? Rika thought. It's like she's some hentai nurse trying to seduce her patients or something.

"-and obviously, you wouldn't come here for a very valid reason..."

Should I ask? Should I ask this bitch about...that?

"-so why don't you ask away, Rika-chan? Rika-chan?"

Look at hers. I don't even have those. Why can't I have those? I've lived for a really long time, and yet I haven't even grown an inch!

"Furude Rika, are you there?"

"A-ah?" Rika snapped out of her thoughts, focusing back on Takano's face. "Yeah...I need to ask you if..."

"If...?"

"...If I have hormonal problems."

For a moment, the room was deathly silent. Takano could only blink, Rika bit her lip and cicadas chirped in the night right outside the window. The needle of the clock sounded as it moved, and after finally registering what Rika said, Takano took a deep breath and jotted it down.

"In...what sense, Rika-chan?"

"...Body development."

It really, REALLY hurt Rika's ego to say that. Especially to Takano.

She expected Takano to laugh maniacally, or become plain hysteric, or even rush out of the room and shout for Irie at the top of her lungs to share the joke. But what Rika didn't expect Takano to do was merely sit there with a serious expression on her face, staring RIGHT at Rika as if she had a serious chronic illness written all over her face. Rika merely awaited what Takano was about to say, but she did feel some sort of suspense from Takano's stare.

It was a good thing that Hanyuu was dormant for a while.

"Look, Rika-chan," Takano began. "You're aware that your mental development is far more advanced than most children, right?"

"I am not a child," Rika crossly replied.

"Alright then," the blonde nurse laughed a bit. "Well, I must ask you a few questions before I give you my advice. Are you...insecure about your physical development?"

Was she insecure? "Yes."

"In which aspect?"

"...C...t...a..."

"Excuse me?" Takano leaned closer to Rika, to which Rika felt herself going beet red just saying the damn sentence.

"...C-Chest...a-area..."

"Ara? Why are you so concerned about that at such a young age?"

"Why do you ask, you bitch?" Rika growled.

"Because you wanted me to," Takano whistled, childishly pouting to squeeze more information from Rika and ease a bit of her anger.

"It's just that..." Rika sighed. "Mion has a large...chest, so does Shion...Rena's acceptable...Satoko's are growing...and...I haven't even..."

"Ah. So it's that," the nurse nodded, wrote it down and relaxed in her chair, thinking what would be the best way to make the girl satisfied and less...angsty about her rather flat chest. Rika looked really hopeless as she tried to read Takano's writing backwards, but to no avail. It was merely too blotchy and messed up, so even if Takano wrote her thoughts on a piece of paper and gave it to Rika to read, it would be no use reading it.

"Rika, I'm advising you as a fellow woman, and not a nurse," Takano began again. "There's nothing wrong with wanting a large chest, really, but you have to be patient."

"I've been waiting for centuries," Rika deadpanned. "It's not working."

"But having a large chest can have some disadvantages as well, you know. If you want it right now, you'll look out of proportion, trust me! When I was your age," with this, Takano laughed yet again, "I couldn't even care less about it, because I know I'll have them in the future."

"Can you just tell me if it's safe for me to have bust enlargements?"

"Ahahaha, no."

"WHY?" Rika exploded, slamming her hands on the table. It's as if she came in here for vain, and it really pissed Rika off if that was the case right now.

"Because, steroids are bad for you, and you wouldn't want side effects and complications to happen on your body, don't you, Rika-chan?"

"You'll kill me anyways."

"With the Hinamizawa Syndrome only. Not with bust enlargement serums, that's for sure."

Well, there goes her hopes and dreams. Rika could only comply with Takano's advice to wait, and sighed yet again. "Thanks for the advice. Didn't help at all."

"Well...that means I'm not doing my job right..." Takano paused. "By any chance, try asking Oyashiro-sama to visualize yourself in the future or something, hahaha!"

Rika merely slammed the door on her.


"...That's how I look like when I grow up, Hanyuu...?" Rika gasped.

"Nano desu! See, it isn't so bad after all, Rika! You'll be pretty when you grow up someday!"

Rika saw the placid woman with faded, long blue hair just like hers, tall and majestic even though she was only wearing a simple dress outdoors. Maybe Hanyuu's right, it could be alright if she waited for a while to grow up, and maybe it's alright not to have them at the moment, as Takano said. But when Rika came to see her older counterpart's chest, well...

She wasn't too happy.

"What's wrong, Rika-chan?" Hanyuu cringed, seeing the emotionless face of the Furude miko once again.

"...It's still flat."


A/N: Hiatus does weird things to you. In my case, it's not helping me get ideas, and it's decreasing my sense of humor. :(

This was just a passing idea while eating mackerel, xDDD. Hope you enjoyed it! (In this fic, Rika and Takano are at each others throats, xD)

-Densetsu-no-Maguro.