Obvious spoilers for the Illuminati Arc are obvious! Read at your own risk!
A/N: I started writing this story somewhere around chapter 58. You know, the manga was full of feeling (and pain, so much paaaain!), Backstabby McStabbyPants aka Illuminati Trash just decided to show what he's made of... I needed something cute to raise up my spirits.
At the same time I was sort of done with waiting for every new chapter, because sitting for a whole month and chewing on my fingernails is actually not something I enjoy. I think the arc is done now, but I still have to pick the manga up and read what I've missed. So, I might be a bit off here and there.
"The Animal Parade"
Being alive was weird, Izumo decided, staring at the hospital ceiling. After all that happened it was quite a miracle. She was so sure that she was going to die no matter what.
Yet, here she was. Lying in a hospital bed that was definitely too hard, with an IV and trying to put her mind back together. At least they let her wear her own pajama instead of hospital gown. Wearing something like that so soon wouldn't be good. Especially when you can't sleep at night and just lie there, in the dark, quiet room that smells like antiseptics.
She curled her legs up, feeling a sudden wave of cold and trying to find some sort of comfort in the feel of flannel material of the pajama rubbing against her legs.
"Think beautiful things," Izumo whispered to herself with a dry smile.
She was safe and - even with the doctors from the Order poking and prodding her - sound. Soon enough she would be back with the rest.
But then what?
Izumo honestly had no idea whatsoever. Since that terrible day, when her life and family fell apart, Izumo was sure that she was going to die. Her only goal was just to keep these bastards away from her sister as long as possible. But she was alive. Scared, scarred and with pain still shooting through her body followed by a cold shivers, but alive.
And they were not.
"That's stupid...!" she sniffled. "Why I'm feeling so empty?"
It was like with the tension leaving her body, her willpower was gone too. The only thing that stayed was but an empty husk of what she had once been. Izumo sniffled once again, hoping that the night will end soon. With the sunlight filling the room everything would be looking better, wouldn't it?
1. The Puppy
It was raining. Strong enough to turn the view in her window into a grayish mess, dim and unpleasant. Even the shapes created by the drops of water wandering down were not interesting in the slightest. Izumo sighed. Apparently the world still didn't like her much.
There was a TV in her room, but she wasn't in the mood to watch anything at all. Not even chick flicks and she actually liked these, no matter how stupid they were.
Sleeping was also out of the question and not because Izumo was afraid of having a nightmare. She just slept way too much since she got here – got back – and highly doubted that she would be able to sleep anymore.
All she could do, was to sit there, stare at the walls or the window and try to not think about all that happened. It was difficult. Before, Izumo was able to shut down that part of her memories, keeping them away just so she could function and crawl up the school hierarchy high enough to pass the tests and get in the True Cross Academy. Now, everything was slipping like water through her fingers and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Well, she could cry, but she was also really tired of crying.
Suddenly, the doors to her room opened with a small creak. Izumo jumped, startled more by the sudden movement she noticed with the corner of her eye than by the noise.
But the person that walked in was a familiar one, so she relaxed. A little.
"Paku...?" Izumo gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to visit you, stupid!" The girl grinned broadly, walking further into the room and leaving a wet trail behind her.
"But the weather... you're dripping!"
"So what?" Paku just shrugged. "You're my friend! I needed to make sure that you're fine!"
"You could just talk with somebody from the group," Izumo mumbled.
"With my own eyes," Paku added with a small sigh and opened her bag. "Besides, I have a little something for you!"
The bag was as wet as the rest of her, but the inside of it was perfectly dry. After just a moment of careful digging through the things inside, Paku pulled out a plushie and handed it to Izumo.
"Here!"
It was a dog, with a floppy ears long enough to wrap them into a bow. It was brown with white spots and a pink tongue sewn in a way it looked like it was sticking out of the plushie's mouth.
"That's…" Izumo said slowly. "Actually pretty cute. Though I feel like I'm five again, or something."
"It's no secret that you have a soft spot for cute things," Paku happily grinned. "And I bet you need something to hug in here, hospitals aren't nice after all."
Izumo looked at the plushie and slowly ran her fingers through the soft material.
"Thanks," she sighed. "I think I really need something like that. And I'm sorry."
"For what?" Paku blinked in surprise.
"For not saying anything."
"Hey," she put her hand on Izumo's. It was still slightly wet . The sleeve of her coat was a bit more wet, leaving a pattern of few stains of water on the sheets. "It's okay. You had your reasons and I'm fine with that, really. I'm just glad you're okay now."
"Yeah," Izumo sighed. "I'm glad that I'm here too."
Not okay, though. She definitely wasn't okay. She doubted that she ever will be even remotely close to being as okay as other people.
2. The Devil
"You just had to do that," Izumo sighed, unable to stop her mouth from forming a smile.
It was a day after Paku showed up with a doggie plushie and the weather was still nasty. That didn't stop another visitor from entering her room. This time it was Rin, with a goofy smile glued to his face and another toy in his hands.
The plushie was kinda cute, but it was all about the joke anyway. It was one of the kind that was getting funnier and funnier over time.
"Yeah..." Rin grinned back. " I don't want to spoil anything, but we're going with a theme."
"Theme," she repeated, raising her eyebrows.
"Yeah, there's a lot of plushies awaiting!" He said enthusiastically. "But they are letting us in only one person per day, since you're resting and all that..."
"More mascots for me then," Izumo smirked and looked down.
The Devil was fashioning a wide, goofy grin and had a little black tail ended up with an arrow. While she examined the toy, she was also observing Okumura with a corner of her eye.
Izumo pretty quickly found out, that she was feeling pretty uneasy while she was at the same room as other people, like her subconscious was expecting another stab in the back at any moment. Rin was surprisingly comfortable. And looked like he was about to start waggling his own tail. If not for the Kuro, Izumo would swear that Okumura was a totally dog person.
"So, you're feeling better now, right?" he asked. Then the smile slipped out of his face and a worried frown took its place. "Or you don't like it?"
"The plushie is adorable," Izumo said, chuckling slightly. "Really. And thanks."
The grin returned in an instant.
Yup, Izumo nodded to herself. Just like a dog. Like a small, overenthusiastic puppy. That somehow overdosed on caffeine.
"Can you check on Paku on me?" she asked.
"Uh, sure," he blinked. "Why?"
"The rain was pretty heavy yesterday," Izumo explained. "And she walked here through the worst of it, I think. I don't want her to get sick."
"Consider it done! I can ever buy her some vitamins or something!"
Izumo chuckled. Of course he would.
"Just take care about yourself too, okay?" Izumo asked softly. Then she pulled herself together, because she wasn't sounding like herself at all. "I don't like hospitals and I sure as hell would not visit you, if you end up in one because of pneumonia or some other stupid thing!"
Rin laughed.
3. The Monkey
"A monkey," Izumo said, staring at the plushie of the day. Then she looked at Suguro, who tossed it at her.
He looked even more like a thug than usual, with colorful bruises here and there, the biggest one on his cheekbone. There was a lot of awkwardness too, like he was feeling completely out of place in this quiet hospital room.
"Well," he grunted, blushing slightly. "Your brain seemed to be wired that way, so..."
Instead of finishing the sentence, he just shrugged.
Izumo shook her head and looked at the toy up close.
It had a really wide green and big eyes, with irises put in a place that accused it to looks like it had a severe problem with squint.
"Did you choose the plushie with the dumbest expression ever?"
"I don't really get that cute or not cute stuff," Suguro explained.
"So you went for the thing you were familiar with?" Izumo chuckled. "Seeing same expression in the mirror every single day?"
"Is that just your natural charm, or are you trying to piss me off?" he grunted, just as she expected. He was cool this way, sturdy as a rock and not changing, no matter what. Bickering with him was the only thing that proved there was some stability in her life after all.
So she yanked his chain some more, enjoying the reaction to the fullest. "Have you considered the possibility of your monkey brain leading you off?"
"Natural charm it is," Suguro nodded with comically serious face. "Or the lack of it."
"I'm going to punch you," Izumo warned him. "You will be bruised symmetrically."
He smirked. "You can try when you're out of this place."
"Is that a challenge?" Izumo couldn't help herself, but smile back.
"You want it to be?"
"You're on!"
It was probably weird, but the promise of a chance to pulverize his face raised Izumo's spirits way more than anything else. Now she had something to wait for. She could make all sorts of plans for the fight, imagine all the ways it could go. It was almost like Suguro handed her an anchor and because of than she was no longer in danger of floating away.
Then, of course he had to do something odd and so old fashioned it was just plain ridiculous.
Without any sort of warning, Suguro dropped on his knees in front of the bed and bowed deeply. There was a heavy thud, when his knees touched the ground and Izumo was pretty sure that she heard another one shortly after, like he smacked his forehead on the floorboards.
"I'm sorry!" he said. "I'm so fucking sorry, for all that happened! I should've noticed something, anything–!"
"Honestly!" Izumo hissed, because she had no idea how else she was supposed to act in situation like that. Of all the times he could, Suguro definitely choose the weirdest one to act so traditionally.
"Get up, you dumb gorilla, I can't even see you from here!"
At least he listened to her. Slowly, he stood up again, his eyes still avoiding looking at her. There was that certain grimace on his face, that was telling everything about how uncomfortable he was.
Izumo shook her head. That guy was like an open book, even more than Rin, who was wearing his heart on the sleeve.
"Look," she sighed. "Whatever was going on in his mind, you had no way of knowing it."
"Don't you think I should have?" Suguro crossed his arms. "We were raised together. I should be able to at least tell that something was not right..."
Izumo just rolled her eyes.
"The saddest words of tongue and pen, you know."
That caught his attention. He raised his eyebrows, recognizing the quote.
Izumo smirked. "Yeah, way to catch attention of an Aria, isn't it? Quote some old stuff and here you go, all done!"
That actually made Suguro chuckle a little.
"You got me here," he admitted.
4. The Centipede
"...is that?" Izumo blinked, staring at the strangest plushie ever.
"A centipede!" Shiemi smiled sweetly. "Isn't it cute?"
As always with that girl, it was hard to find the right words. Or any words at all. "...it's definitely very original."
"I knew you would like it!" The blonde clapped her hands together.
"Yeah..." she mumbled, poking at the side of plushie. It was fluffy and very soft and the bright colors made it looks like some sort of a pokemon gone wrong.
Izumo was always feeling slightly awkward with Shiemi around. Maybe it was because she felt guilty – after all she was bullying the naïve girl. Nothing too bad, but still, the actions were leaving a bad taste in Izumo's mouth. The headstrong, nasty girl was a mask she pulled on and the role somehow dragged her too far. Shiemi was like a walking, talking reminder of the past sins, even if she was completely oblivious about the whole situation.
"So…" Izumo started, deciding to break the awkward silence. "How's school?"
"Oh, it's great!" Shiemi happily picked up the topic. She probably hasn't even noticed the uncomfortable silence between the two of them. "I never knew that school is so fun!"
"Only you…" Izumo shook her head slightly. "Are you aware that many people would disagree, right?"
"Oh, I'm sure they're just saying that!" Shiemi said, like it was the most natural thing to do, act like you hate your school while you just love it, including the long, boring math lessons.
"Well, I'm glad you like it," Izumo sighed. Then chewed on her lip at the same time wanting to stare right at Shiemi's face just to look for any sort of any expression different that the sweet cheerfulness or avoid her gaze by any means necessary.
"What?" Shiemi actually caught that.
"I, I…uh…!" Izumo gasped, suddenly completely flustered, her mind blank. What was she supposed to say? Was there an instruction or something, about how to act in a situation like this one? Because she sure as hell would like to use one right now.
"Look," she finally said, forcing herself to take a deep breath. "Remember how you wanted to take a bath with us?"
Shiemi nodded. "Of course I do! But don't worry about that, I know that some people are just shy! And we barely knew each other back then anyway!"
Was she trying to comfort her? About such dumb thing, especially when Izumo was a bad guy?
"Honestly," Izumo sighed. "You and Okumura, you two are one of a kind. "
"Um… may I ask which one?"
She wanted to say that she was talking about the dumber one. But Rin wasn't dumb. Not at all. "The one with the sword." She said instead.
"Oh," Shiemi nodded.
"Anyway," Izumo forced herself to continue. It felt awkward and by all means, she wanted to run away. Her face was probably beet red already. "I think we're now knowing each other well enough to… unless you don't want to?"
It was such a small, stupid thing. Taking a bath together, like there were no other things to worry about, things much more serious and important.
"I would love to!"
5. The Kitty
Konekomaru visited her next. The weather was nicer now, but the view out of her window wasn't interesting at all, so Izumo gladly welcomed something, she would call an intrusion any other time. To tell the truth, she never cared to know Konekomaru to well. All they shared was the cram school and a crazy amount of shared pictures of cute cats on the internet.
Now there was a cat plushie in his hands. Shaped like an overly chubby kitten, with giant shiny buttons for eyes and quite big compared to other plushies. It reminded her of Kuro.
"If you drop onto the floor too, I swear, I'm going to smack you with that kitty!" Izumo warned him, the memory of Suguro bending his back in this very room still fresh in her memory.
"Oh," Konekomaru mumbled, scratching his chin. "Bon did that, didn't he?"
"Yes, he did," Izumo sighed. "I don't get you guys. You both act like you were supposed to read his mind, or something!"
"We were sure we knew him well."
"It's still not your fault," she sighed. "It's not anyone's fault. "
"That doesn't change the way I feel, you know," he said with an apologetic smile.
Izumo nodded. She knew. She could imagine and she was definitely able to understand.
The boys were as wounded as she felt, probably even more. He was family, he was someone they trusted with their lives and the lives of their friends. It was almost like mom putting that scary mask on her face on that terrible day just for Izumo to see a demon wearing her face like a mask instead. However, this time there was no demon to take the blame.
"Hey," she said, feeling odd with initiating the conversation. "Remember that cat show we went to together?"
"Yeah," he nodded and a small smile showed up on his face. "It was nice."
"Any chance to find another thing like that? They are going to let me out pretty soon," Izumo explained. "And I think I'm in the mood for something cute."
"I will look around," Konekomaru promised. "I assume you're going to be fine with dogs too?"
"Only if they are small," Izumo nodded. "I have nothing against big animals, but they are sort of… big."
Konekomaru nodded, fully understand what she was talking about. They both were quite small compared to their peers, so a dog that looked like a pretty big thing to people of normal size, to them looked like a grizzly bear. And they liked to happily jump on people and lick them. If a beast like than launched itself at someone of their petite appearance, it would surely end up on the floor and they both had enough of bruising already.
6. The Snowman
Yukio Okumura looked much more nervous like all the others of her friends and his gaze was darting back and forth. It was almost like he was unable to decide, which role he was supposed to play; on one hand, he was a boy exactly her age, on the other, he was her teacher and as one probably felt responsible for her.
There was also another reason to his sudden awkwardness. He was holding – obviously – a plushie. This time, it was a snowman. Considering the shape, one of the collectives for that Disney movie with annoying song that seemed to be everywhere.
Izumo smirked. "Let me guess," she said. "You guys still go with a theme?"
"You know how stubborn my brother can be," he admitted with a heavy sight, but relaxed somewhat. Especially after the plushie was out of his hands. Well, he was a Dragoon. For what Izumo saw up until now, these people were usually getting pretty nervous if they had their hands occupied. Knights were almost as bad, but the Dragoons definitely took the cake and Okumura wasn't any different.
"I know this is still early and probably not the best moment," he said. "but I need to ask you a question, Miss Kamiki."
Miss, Izumo noticed, slightly raising her eyebrows. So he was here more as a teacher – or maybe as an exorcist – than anything else.
"After all that," Yukio continued. "It would be perfectly understandable if you wish to stop proceeding your training as an exorcist. "
Izumo blinked. Funny, how that thought never crossed her mind. Not at all. And it should have. After all, she joined the True Cross Academy only because she was forced to do so. Now there was nothing to push her further forward. She could just walk away and nobody would mind. Build a safe, normal life for herself, a life lacking all the dangers that still awaited.
She tried to imagine how her life would look like and failed. It was just impossible, to create an image in her mind that would cut her away from the Okumura twins, that naïve flower girl and those two dolts from Kyoto. It would be so empty, so sad…
Izumo didn't want to lose her family again.
"You're not going to get rid of me so easily," she snickered. "Unless you fail me, or something. I probably have a lot of quizzes and tests waiting for me, don't I?"
"Right now you are off duty, miss Kamiki," Okumura smiled. "But I would make sure to give you enough time to deal with all the studying at a reasonable pace."
"Good," Izumo smiled.
All was well.
7. And The Tiny Little Fox
They were finally letting her go out of the hospital. Izumo still was supposed to be careful about her health and she had nothing against it; she was still hurting here and there and forcing herself too far to quick would be just dumb. She hated hospitals, now more than ever and going back because of some dumb mistake would be just… well, dumb.
The procedures are as stupid as always and she had to be on a wheelchair, even if Izumo was perfectly fine to walk around on her own. It angered her, but just a little.
The whole exwire group showed up and Rin and Suguro actually got into a fight about who was going to push her chair. While they were occupied, the second Okumura just sighed and took the job in his own hands, with Shiemi following on the right side of the chair. She helped to carry all of the plushies too. Funny, how much space these things were taking. Paku was on the left, carrying Izumo's bag and Konekomaru was a few steps away, to open the doors in front of the group.
Soon enough, Izumo was back home, at her room, which was suddenly awfully tiny, with so many people squeezed inside of it. Not only people. There was another plushie sitting on her bed. Or rather, two plushies. They were exactly the same, only one of the toys was much smaller than the other. They were red and white, with fluffy, big tails – definitely foxes.
"You like?" Rin asked, with a warm smile on his lips.
Izumo just nodded, not trusting her voice to not break at the moment.
The whole theme of visiting her one by one and showering her with toys… now it had a whole other meaning. It was so clever and so nice, her eyes started to burn.
"Good!" his grin widened.
"You don't have to," she managed to squeeze out of her throat. "you have done enough already."
"We want to," Shiemi added. "It's just so nice, to see you fine and happy and we want more of it."
"It's just like that," Suguro shrugged. "You scratched our back, so we scratched yours. That's what friendship is all about."
"You really are a gorilla, aren't you?" Izumo huffed. "Honestly, don't try grooming on me, okay?"
"Hey, I'm trying to be serious and supportive here!"
Arguing was nice, bickering was a familiar ground. Besides, it was funny how quickly Suguro was losing it. "Tell me more," Izumo chuckled. "You can even sing me a song about that."
"Write it first," he snickered. "With all these pink fluffy romance comics around you sure as hell should know thing or two about such sappy stuff."
Low blow, Izumo decided. But also a suicidal one, since Rin was in the same room as them.
"Woah, Wait!" Rin energetically waved his hand, then looked straight at Bon with his eyes wide open. "You can sing?"
"Well, voice emission and other stuff like that is needed if you want to be an Aria," Konekomaru explained with a small shrug. "After all, we are supposed to recite the verses correctly."
"You can sing!" He probably hadn't even heard a word of what Konekomaru just said, to excited about one dumb thing to pay attention to anything else. He was bouncing in his place and Izumo was sure that if there was only a bit more space to roam, he would surely start running in circles.
"I believe you just said that," Suguro scowled at him.
"Well, then there's no way out, you have to sing!"
"I'm not your personal radio!"
"Oh, don't be like that!" Rin moaned. "Sing the snowman song!"
"No!" Suguro protested.
"What, you are one of those people who find it overrated?"
"I don't even watch cartoons," Suguro rolled his eyes.
"And that makes you a sad, sad person!" Rin shook his head. "But we saw the movie yesterday, when we were carving all these carrots into roses and I know how your brain works."
"That doesn't change the fact that I can't make my voice high enough."
"It's a karaoke, you dumbass, you don't need to be the miss perfect!"
"I just don't... and what the hell is with the feminine role?!"
"You are so easy to play it's beyond funny," Izumo snorted. "You're always falling for it!"
xxx
"You guys recorded it, am I right?" Suguro sighed in defeat.
"Yup!"