Wakaba put another DVD back down on the shelf and shook her head. While she wasn't exactly an expert she was pretty sure that 'Monster From the Sable Estuary' wasn't a shining classic of the horror movie genre.
'Maybe I should just buy something online.' Wakaba had hurt her thumb during training the previous week. It was nothing serious, but she was supposed to be resting it and that meant that she couldn't play video games with Chikage for a while. Wakaba wasn't overly bothered about not being able to play in itself; video games were fun enough but she could live without them. No, what concerned Wakaba was the lack of activity between them that this had caused. The two of them had used video games as a way to develop their previously tense relationship into proper camaraderie after Wakaba had blundered in her role as leader, and it was still the only activity that they ever did together by themselves. Wakaba might not have Hinata's social skills but she knew that with a relationship as rocky as theirs and a girl as moody as Chikage, if they drifted apart now then they might end up back to the way they were before, causing friction in the team again and putting everyone at risk. That in mind, Wakaba knew that she had to find something else for them to do together, something that would enable them to spend time together and not drift apart.
After consulting Yuna, she'd learned that Chikage was a fan of 'weird horror'. Mostly she played board games, which Wakaba had thought would be fine for them to do together, but no, apparently you needed more than two people to get the best experience from it and that would defeat the purpose (besides, the rule books were thicker than the average school textbook). This being the case, Wakaba had decided that weird horror movies were the only way to go, and being the determined girl she was she'd decided to go to a niche store to find some rarer movies for them to watch instead of the usual (relatively) mainstream fare so that she could impress Chikage with the effort she'd made. Unfortunately, she'd failed to take into account age ratings and a good 90% of the movies she'd looked at she couldn't buy and nothing in the remaining 10% seemed promising.
She moved away from the shelf with a sigh and looked around the store again. The young man behind the counter hadn't looked up since she'd come in, he was completely absorbed in a stained, gory covered magazine. Wakaba didn't bother asking for recommendations.
She was a second away from leaving when a basket in the corner caught her eye and she wandered over to it, not expecting anything special. Wakaba looked down at the DVDs in the basket dubiously. Not only did they look ancient, none of them being free of scuffs and stains, but there wasn't even any cover art on most of them. If it wasn't for the niche nature of the subject matter she was looking for she'd never consider buying any of them. The internet and it's mainstream fare was looking to be a better option by the minute.
She picked one of the cases with an actual cover up at random and looked at it. To her surprise, it didn't look that bad. The cover, showing a woman in a silver space suit being chased after by some tentacled thing, was decent enough looking at any rate. There was no blurb, but at this point Wakaba was at the end of her rope. This would do, she couldn't stand staying in this smelly place for much longer. It had a cover and a title and it was only 400 yen, what more could she ask for? 'Wait...'
There was no age rating on the case, strangely enough. Maybe that meant that it was suitable for all ages? It seemed doubtful, but who knew. She might as well take it to the counter, if it wasn't suitable then the worker just wouldn't let her buy it and she'd have to look elsewhere.
Wakaba took the DVD to the counter and waited for the youth to look up. He didn't. Eventually she cleared her throat and he finally dragged his eyes away from his magazine. "Just this please," she said politely.
The youth turned the cover to face him and stared at it. He looked up at her and back down again, an annoying expression Wakaba couldn't quite catergorise starting to form on his face. "So...you come here to buy this?" he asked her, the corners of his lips twitching.
"No, I was just looking for any 'weird horror' movie that I could buy. It's alright for me to buy it, right? There's no age rating on the case," Wakaba said. She hoped she hadn't missed the rating somewhere and he thought she was trying to buy it illegally, that would be terribly embarrassing.
The peculiar look on his face became more pronounced. Wakaba couldn't identify it, but it made her strangely annoyed. "Nice. Yeah yeah, it's totally fine for you to buy it. ...You going to watch this with your friends?"
"Mm, one of them. She likes this genre so I thought I'd buy something that she might not have seen before."
"Great...that's really great. Here you go then. You have fun now," he said, his face breaking out into a grin that was closer to a leer than anything.
Wakaba paid, slipped the DVD into her bag and left the shop behind her, taking a deep breath of clean air as she left. That had been more of a nusiciance than she'd been expecting. Still, she had what she'd been looking for now. Hopefully Chikage would be happy with her selection.
The next day, Wakaba knocked on Chikage's door, DVD in hand. Chikage opened the door and her eyes were immediately drawn to the case in Wakaba's hands.
"Hi. ...You want to watch a movie with me?" Chikage's curiousity was piqued. Wakaba didn't seem like the movie type.
"Yes, since we can't play video games for a while I thought we should do something else together. I heard from Yuna that you like weird horror so I went and found a movie like that." Wakaba couldn't help but sound proud of herself.
Chikage looked surprised, then pleased. "...If you want to then that's fine, I guess. Come in."
Chikage shut the curtains, fetched food and drinks, and turned the lights off before loading the disc. Wakaba almost gave her a lecture about eye strain, then decided to leave it after the movie, to keep the mood harmonious. One movie wouldn't do any long term damage.
The movie started playing immediately, there was no menu. That was probably a bad sign, Wakaba had never known a movie to not at least have scene selection and subtitle options. 'Well, it doesn't matter that much I suppose.' Even if the movie turned out to be terrible at least they could joke about how bad both it and her buying sense were.
The movie opened with a panning shot of the stars, which carried on...and on...and on. '...This isn't going to be a good movie, is it. I should have bought something online after all.' After two solid minutes of stars, credits and hysterical music, the camera violently zoomed in on the Earth, plunging through the sky towards Japan and through the roof of a house into a kitchen. A kitchen where two naked people were having sex.
Wakaba's body went rigid. 'Oh, please, no...' She tried not to react, to look casual, but she was squirming like a worm stranded on a dry pavement on the inside. 'Why? Why!? Isn't this supposed to be okay for minors to watch!? He sold it to me after all!'
Wakaba's entire body felt as if it was burning up as the scene continued. For what seemed like an eternity, but was only 86 agonising seconds, the act was shown in painful openness, sound fully supplied. The grunting and gasping noises might as well have been as loud as a train in the deathly silence of the room.
Finally, it was over. Wakaba still didn't look up.
The male said, "Phwoar, your breasts are almost as big as your scientific credentials." Wakaba died just a little bit more inside.
Mercifully, the pair pulled their clothes on and started to do actual plot related things. Wakaba watched as the woman took a phone call, emoting painfully as she tried to get what Wakaba thought was supposed to be urgency across to the audience. She hoped the bad acting would be enough to take both of their minds off what had just happened.
She wondered how Chikage had dealt with that cripplingly awkward scene. ...No, she'd never know. Wakaba couldn't even turn her head to the left, somehow the thought of moving and reminding Chikage she was sitting next to her was too much to bear. She couldn't stomach the thought of actually risking making eye contact right now, she'd be lucky if she could look Chikage in the eye all week. Still, at least they'd got the gratuitous sex scene over and done with at the beginning. The movie was obviously going to be garbage, but at least she didn't have to worry about it being sleazy garbage beyond this point.
The movie rolled on gamely like an unserviced car, and Wakaba felt herself starting to relax. Her face stopped looking like a tomato after ten minutes or so and she no longer had to fight the urge to crawl into a hole and disappear forever. Hell, the bad dialogue was kind of funny, at this rate they could joke about the movie afterwards after all, even with the terrible opening scene. She'd probably be able to come up with a witty comment about the beginning to diffuse the awkwardness of it by the time the movie had finished. It wasn't so bad. Even if she was pretty sure that space flight didn't work like that.
It was ten minutes later that Wakaba began to realise that her misery had only just begun. The female lead had made contact with a liquid substance on the meteor they were checking out and had been infected, unbeknownst to the rest of the crew. As she walked into the botanists quarters, she gave him a sultry look and started flirting with him. Wakaba's discomfort started to rise. 'Surely they wouldn't...' Her dread mounted as the woman slipped her shiny silver spacesuit off her shoulders and gave him a sultry look. 'It'll fade to black, they wouldn't waste another scene on...that,' she reassured herself. 'There's no way.'
As she watched, tension rising, the woman ungracefully lunged on top of the man and pinned him to the bed as they started kissing. Then, to Wakaba's absolute horror, they started having sex.
'Why!?'
Wakaba wanted nothing more than to get up and turn it off. She could just say that she didn't know it was that kind of movie and they could watch something else, that would be the sensible thing to do...but she couldn't. The embarrassment she felt was crippling. Her body might as well have been turned to stone. If Chikage gave her an indication that she wanted her to turn it off she might be able to summon the strength, but from a quick glance out of the corner of her eyes, Chikage was just looking at the screen blankly. 'Is this normal for 'weird horror'? Does she watch these kinds of movies all the time?' All she could do was sit there and pray for the scene to end.
Finally, it did end, but not in the way she'd been expecting. As Wakaba stared blankly into the corner of the room she heard a strange, wet bursting sound come from the TV, followed by the man screaming in terror. She glanced at the screen from the side of her eyes, too morbidly curious to not look at what was happening. Tentacles were coming out of the woman's mouth, and now she was forcing them down his throat. With a gurgle and some thrashing, the man died.
Wakaba blinked. 'Didn't see that coming.' She slowly raised her arm and rested it on the sofa, leaning her face against it. She had to resist covering her eyes. Now, a truly awful thought dawned on her. 'This isn't...this isn't how the alien is going to kill the whole crew, is it? There's no way...no way. What kind of movie would that be? No one would make that. Or watch it. There's no way. This scene was just for shock value. It'll start killing them normally now. Definitely.' Somehow, deep down, she didn't believe herself.
Half an hour later, Wakaba had watched four people be sexed to death. She'd never seen so many tentacles in her entire life, not even when Hinata had decided to throw three whole squid into a hotpot one night. Her initial embarrassment had transformed into a dull mix of despair and humiliation. Not one word had been spoken by either her or Chikage during this time, nor one movement made. To make things even worse, from the fleeting glances she shot at Chikage every now and again, Wakaba had slowly realised that Chikage did not, in fact, watch movies like this on a regular basis. Her eyes were now firmly fixed in the direction of the window, despite the fact that the curtains were drawn, and Wakaba didn't think she'd ever seen the girl look so uncomfortable, which was quite a feat.
Thus, Wakaba had to face the facts. She'd walked into a team mates's room and put a borderline-perhaps not even borderline-pornographic movie on, and instead of doing the sensible thing and turning it off she'd over thought and second guessed everything until the damage was irreversible. Chikage probably thought she was some sex crazed freak with no social skills now. 'Why did this happen?' Wakaba lamented. 'Damn that wretched shop worker...if I ever see him again I'll give him a piece of my mind!'
"I have the results," the actor on the screen shouted, "The poison can only be cured by semen!"
'Of course it can.'
Wakaba was dead inside. All she felt as she listened to the people on the screen loudly plowing away at each other was dull resignation. Whatever hope she'd had of maintaining her comeradrie with Chikage had died what seemed like an eternity ago, now all she hoped for was being able to convince her that she wasn't a sex fiend. Maybe she'd explain things to Yuna and ask her to put in a good word for her...then again, she didn't really want anyone else to know about this. God, what if Chikage told everyone? What would they think of her? She'd surely lose their respect as their leader all over again, permanently this time. They wouldn't even want to be in the same room as her from then on. And the Taisha would find out as well, wouldn't they? They'd probably send her for a mandatory sexual harrassment course and put her on probation. Maybe Yuna would take over as leader. Hinata would most likely believe her explanation, but that was the only silver lining to all of this.
Finally, finally, the movie ended. Even the final scene was a sex scene as the two survivors started going at it in the escape pod. Why they had any appetite for sex after what they'd just been through Wakaba had no idea. The credits rolled on and on with more hysterical music blaring over them, then the screen went black.
Silence reigned. Neither girl moved a muscle. Even the sound of their breathing was painfully loud in the leaden silence that was hanging between them. Wakaba kept staring into the same corner she'd been looking at for the last hour and a half. She could have drawn every speck of dust and flaked paint from memory at this point, it had been burned into her eyes for so long now that she'd probably see it when she closed her eyes to sleep. She wanted to delay the inevitable as long as possible.
But, Wakaba was no coward. She knew she had to face the music, sooner rather than later. Besides, she was starting to cramp. She gritted her teeth, squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then forced herself to take her head away from her hand and sit upright. Chikage still didn't move.
"...I...you don't actually watch those kinds of movies, do you? I-I should have realised...after the first scene...I would have switched it off, you see...ahem." Wakaba cleared her throat, her voice sounded choked to her own ears. "That is to say..."
Chikage didn't turn to look at her.
"...I...didn't know that there were adult relations in that movie," Wakaba said stiffly. She sounded like she was being strangled. She wished someone would appear and strangle her unconcious to put her out of her misery.
"...Mm." Chikage gave the briefest, quietest of acknowlegements. She was still staring at the curtains.
"...I...I've never...I don't watch those kinds of things, you see, the boy behind the counter said it was fine, so...it didn't have a synopisis you know, and I didn't know what to buy, and the cover looked alright and I was in a hurry. A-And! There was no rating on it, but he let me buy it, so I thought it was suitable for minors!"
Chikage slowly turned her head half towards Wakaba, resolutely not making eye contact. "...Okay..." she said, so quietly that Wakaba could barely hear her. Now that Wakaba looked at her, she seemed to be leaning away from her. Wakaba flushed even redder. Chikage really did think that she was some sort of degenerate pervert. Wakaba needed to persuade her of her innocence right away.
"You see, you see what happened is...I, I was set up! Yes, thinking back on it, the boy that sold it to me looked like he was laughing at me, and I thought that he was just some strange rude person, but he must have been laughing at me because he knew what kind of movie I'd picked up, b-by accident! He let me buy it illegally because he thought it was funny! I had no idea at all!" Wakaba explained, tone growing almost pleading.
"...Okay, I believe you..." Chikage mumbled. She still didn't look at Wakaba. Wakaba was sure she didn't actually believe her.
'What do I do, what do I do!? I can't leave things like this!' Wakaba had a sudden flash of inspiration and leapt off the couch.
"Purity!" she barked. Chikage visibly jumped.
"...What...?"
"Heroes can only use the Shinju-sama's power if they're suitably pure! If I wasn't pure then I wouldn't be a Hero, and pure people wouldn't watch this sort of thing deliberately! This is proof that it was an accident and I didn't know what kind of movie it was!" Wakaba shouted triumphantly, raising her arms and balling her fists in her excitement.
"...Sure, whatever you say..." Chikage said. She still avoided looking at Wakaba.
Wakaba's spirit deflated. It seemed that even if Chikage didn't still think she was a pervert, which she very well might, she'd still gone down in her estimation. 'Well of course I have, making such a huge blunder is more than enough reason for her to think less of me. I wonder just how long this will take to fix...damn it all.'
As Wakaba stood there staring at the floor lost in her thoughts, Chikage looked at her dubiously. The silence dragged on for so long that Chikage herself was the one to finally break it.
"...Did you want something? If not then...I have homework to do..." She didn't, but Wakaba didn't need to know that.
"Huh? Oh, no. ...Uh...so, this didn't go the way I thought it would, b-but I still think that it was a good idea in principle! Why don't we try again next week? You can choose the movie next time!"
'Yes, that's brilliant! What a great save!'
Chikage, unnoticed by Wakaba, grimaced, but reluctantly nodded. "...Yeah, sure."
Silence reigned again. Wakaba shifted her weight from foot to foot as she desperately tried to think of something else to say. She scabbled around in her suddenly empty mind for a topic, a witty comment, anything, but she drew a blank. Now the silence had lasted too long anyway, anything she said would be too obviously forced. 'I guess that's it then. What a disaster.'
"...I'll leave you to do your homework then...u-unless you want any help?" One last hope of salvaging the day.
"No," Chikage replied.
"Oh, okay." Wakaba was crestfallen. "I'll be off then."
Wakaba walked outside, Chikage seeing her off out of politeness. Wakaba was still so humiliated it felt like the evening air would start steaming when it hit her face. An impulse to reassure Chikage that she was innocent again overtook her, deep down she knew that she should just leave it be, but it was just too much for her to bear. She turned back to Chikage and opened her mouth to speak, but a voice interrupted her.
"Oh, Wakaba-chan, you finally finished!" Hinata smiled as she walked over to them. "Was it a good movie? Wait, tell me later, I have a surprise for you! I managed to get some tickets to the aquarium for us, just in time for the octopus exhibit! I know you were disappointed that you missed out on tickets for it, so I searched for resales high and low. Let's go together tomorrow after our lessons are finished. ...Wakaba-chan?'
Wakaba and Chikage's eyes were locked onto one another's, both of them frozen rigid on the spot. Wakaba felt like she was falling from a great height, or maybe being sucked down to the lowest depths. Of all the possible things, of all the possible timings...
'Why me? Why? What did I do to deserve this? Haven't I fulfilled my duty to the best of my abilities? Haven't I protected this land? I don't deserve this!' Wakaba cursed the universe. Why was this happening to her? Hadn't she been through enough already? Who could possibly deserve this?
"Chikage-"
Wakaba opened her mouth to speak one more time, to try and convince Chikage that she was the victim of circumstances beyond her control, but Chikage had had enough. Slowly, cautiously, like she expected Wakaba to lunge back into her room, put an octopus documentary on and remove her trousers given half the chance, she pushed the door shut in Wakaba's face, her expression saying more than words ever could.
Wakaba heard Hinata's voice behind her. "Oh...did I interrupt something? I'm sorry Wakaba-chan, I didn't realise. Did you get into an argument? You should try and make up right away, you know that it'll be worse the longer you drag it out. ... Wakaba-chan?"
Wakaba turned around slowly, her eyes dull and leaden, her figure barely more animated than a corpses. "Hinata...why did you do that?"
Hinata's face twisted into a look of puzzlement. "Do what Wakaba-chan? ...Goodness, you're looking at me like I threw your sword off the Seto Ohashi bridge. What-"
"My stint as leader is over. I'll go and tell Yuna right away, she'll be able to handle things..." Wakaba mumbled, dead eyed and slumped over.
"Wakaba-chan!?"
Wakaba ignored Hinata's concerned calls and trudged towards Yuna's room like a zombie. It couldn't be helped, she had no authority as a leader anymore. Hopefully Yuna would let her stay on the team. If not, then at least she could be held up as a cautionary tale of how not to be a leader for all eternity.