Sleeping mask over her eyes and the hot pink covers pulled over her ears, Totoko laid in bed, only somewhat pissed off that she hadn't gotten as much attention she had hoped that day.
Who the hell did everyone think they were?! She was a great idol and her CDs deserved to sell out and tickets to her shows needed to be sold on eBay for ridiculous prices that people would actually be willing to pay because she was just that great! Yet still, no more than a couple people appeared at each of her shows (and Choromatsu would've been there too if he hadn't gotten sick all those years ago; she counted him as present anyway). Grumbling to herself, she gripped the covers tighter. The nerve of people.
And where in the hell were the remaining Matsuno brothers? They were her biggest fans, yet she hadn't seen them in years! Who just falls off the face of the Earth like that?!
Luckily, as she laid there, she began to relax herself and started to fall asleep, the sound of crickets outside distracting her from bubbling rage. Her face fell more and more stoic, and she felt herself being pulled away from consciousness.
"Totoko-chan." Goddamn everything! She was just about to fall asleep!
"Huh...? What?" Totoko just laid there, recognizing the voice as a Matsu, but had known them for so many years that she wasn't even fazed that one of them had found their way into her room. "Damn you, I was sleeping."
"I know; I'm sorry," he apologized, "Come over here."
Totoko scowled, inconvenienced. "What? No? I'm in bed, you idiot!" She rubbed her eye through the mask. "Which one are you? I can't tell."
The Matsuno's voice grew desperate. "Totoko-chan, please?"
Totoko was silent for a minute before clicking her tongue. "I don't have a bra on."
"...Can't you just put one on or something?"
"Not with you in the damn room!"
"I can close my eyes."
"Wha-who are you, anyway?!"
Totoko ripped the mask off of her face to investigate, seeing red with her patience thin. Her blood turned to ice when she saw that nobody was even in the room.
"H-Huh...?"
She sat up and leant forward to look out of her window. No one. What in God's name...
"Totoko-chan, I'm over here."
Her head spun over to glance deeper into her room. Literally no one was there.
"What the fuck?" Totoko mumbled, swinging her legs over the side of her bed and standing up, walking through her room. "Where?"
A tapping noise caught her attention and she shifted her gaze to the right; in the mirror on her vanity, one of the brothers waved sheepishly at her from the inside. Maybe it wouldn't have been so frightening if he didn't visibly have a bullet in his head that looked like it was gushing everywhere.
She screamed, covering her mouth with her hands and locking her knees. The brother inside the mirror flung a hand up and threw a finger in front of his lips, shushing her.
"Shhh, be quiet! It's not that bad! See?" Desperate to prove himself, he took his left hand and reached up, digging three fingers into the gory bullet hole. Totoko could do nothing but watch in horror as this wet, macabre noise came from the mirror as he dug around, clamping his middle and thumb onto something. Wincing only slightly, he managed to pull out a bullet about an inch and a half long, gore and tissue stuck to it on some parts of the metal. Holding it out in front of him, he tried to make the situation better by giving an awkward smile and a tiny, "See?"
"What the fuck," Totoko murmured, sitting down against her wall, "Are you... are you Osomatsu...?"
"Yes!" The mirror replied cheerfully, happy to hear someone he knew say his name to him for the first time in almost 15 years.
"You-! You're supposed to be dead!" Totoko shrieked at him, pointing a finger. "I remember your funeral! I stayed over your house for a week after with Chibita to keep your brothers company!"
"Listen to me, I need you to listen," Osomatsu pleaded, wishing that she could shut up for maybe five seconds.
Totoko breathed heavily, hand on her chest.
"Are you listening?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Just... talk, please!"
"Okay. So, I think you've learned by now that yes, I died when I was ten. I was shot. The wound is clearly there." Osomatsu replaced the bullet for some odd reason, placing it back where it was much to Totoko's disgust. "When I died, I was a nervous, crying little boy shoved into purgatory. I was still too young for my actions to be determined by anybody yet, so I was given a decision: go to heaven and stay dead, or have a chance to live again as a demon." Oso ran a finger under his nose. "Now, obviously, you know a frightened child is going to pick the option to live again."
Totoko grew less and less scared and loosened her muscles, watching Osomatsu curiously. This had to have been the strangest thing she had seen in a reaaaaally long time.
She nodded once. "Yeah." That was understandable.
Oso leant out and rested his arms against the mirrored container that held all of her makeup on her dresser, a coy smirk on his face. "Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're anything like you used to be, you're deserving of the whole world."
Totoko clenched her fist agreeingly, letting out a laugh. "Hell yes!"
"But it's still not yours." Oso overexaggerated a frown, placing his index fingers at the corners of his mouth. "And that makes you sad."
Totoko sat up straight suspiciously, sliding a foot out under her and propping her up on her heel. "Wait, what are you getting at?"
Osomatsu slid a hand through his smooth black fringe. "While technically I am a demon, you can probably see that I don't have horns, right?"
"Yeah, so...?"
"That's because I have to earn them. On my side of the mirror, it's a totally different world. And I'm the prince of it all."
Totoko lurched forward, falling off of her heel and catching herself before she could smack her face on the hardwood floor. She shot back up, gathering her footing to stand.
"A prince?!" Her jaw was nearly on the ground.
"Yep, the prince; see, they felt bad for me since I left my brothers behind and had terrible separation anxiety, so they kinda spoiled me a little. Once I get my horns, I can be King." His expression grew suddenly serious, and he stared the hysteric girl right in the eye. "In order to become King, though, I need a Queen."
"What-no!" Totoko crossed her arms across her chest and huffed. "Goddamn you, I thought this was going somewhere good! First you freak me out by showing up in the first place when you're supposed to be dead for cripes sake, and then you start spewing shit about me marrying you?!" With a 'hmph', she turned her head stubbornly. "I never liked you like that anyway! Besides, it'd require a 15-year catch-up, and I don't have the time for that! I'm an idol, you know! I'm a busy girl! I have places to do and things to be-" Flustered at messing up her words, she twisted one of her pigtails, "-Oh! You know what I mean!"
Osomatsu looked kind of disappointed, but didn't mention anything about it. "Totoko-chan, nobody's asking you to marry me?"
"What the hell do you think 'becoming a Queen' means?!" Totoko threw a hand on her forehead. "Oh, I'm dreaming. This is just a bad dream, Totoko! Wake up, wake up, wake up!" Desperate to prove herself right, she scanned the room and found her pink shoes she usually wore. Running over and slipping one on, she put all her weight on it and crushed her opposite foot with the heel. Crying out in pain, she removed it and pulled her bruising foot up, tears of regret welling in her eyes.
"Somehow I can't help but feel like there was an easier way to do that," Osomatsu said, leaning to the side to try and see her out of the mirror.
She took the shoe off and kicked it next to her bed, limping back over in front of the mirror. "So this isn't a dream...?" Her voice was small.
"No. You have to listen to me though," Oso began again, trying to negotiate, "I knew you my whole life. I realize there's been a bit of a time gap since I've talked to you last, but nobody here is requiring you to actually love me." He rolled his eyes, shoulders sulking. "I mean, that would be nice, but unfortunately that's not gonna happen. And I mean, sure, you may or may not have to marry me in order to be Queen, but we can just fake it. We don't actually have to get married, we just have to somehow convince everyone we did. Consider that if you do that, we both get what we want-I get my horns and will eventually earn the ability to break the mirror and come onto the other side, and you'll have anything you want." He shrugged. "I mean, after all, this world technically is mine, so it'd be yours, too."
Totoko watched him uncertainly, wringing her hands in front of her. "Osomatsu-kun, I don't know about this."
"Come on, Totoko, it'll be fun. We used to have tons of fun together, remember?" He smiled at her. "This'll be like that, only instead of having a small section of a town to have fun in, we'll have everything."
Totoko stood there in thought. She wanted the world, yes, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to give up the things she held dear on the other side.
"I'd have to leave everything behind, though, wouldn't I...?"
Osomatsu nodded, mouth curved into a sympathetic frown. Totoko looked back over at her bed, the covers still askew and her sleep mask lying on top. Was she really prepared to do this...?
But then again, what opportunity did she have over here? She was just going to inherit a fish market. How boring was that? Her career as an idol was going nowhere. She wasn't finding love no matter how hard she looked. She could stay here and wallow in her own bad luck and misery, or she could climb into the mirror and be treated like the royalty she knew she was.
Swallowing, she lifted her head. "Alright. I'll do it."
Osomatsu smiled, actually not having expected to get that far. "Sounds like a plan." He took a step back and held out his hand. "You'll have to come to me, though; I can't leave the mirror."
Totoko walked over to the vanity, bringing one leg up onto it, hesitantly holding her delicate hand close to her chest. "Huh? My hand will just hit the glass and I'll break one of my nails."
"Just trust me."
Nodding and enjoying her last glimpse of her bedroom, Totoko shakily outstretched her arm, which surpassed the glass much to her shock and reached inside the mirror, taking her old friend's hand.
Bringing both legs onto the vanity and putting all of her trust in him, Totoko held her breath as Osomatsu pulled her out of her reality and into his.