Human stores were not places where Kirihito could often be sighted. He had gone to some for Ayaka in the past, but he ordinarily avoided them like the plague. This was not because he particularly disliked shopping in and of itself; it was simply because salespeople had a knack for making Kirihito have very detailed, violent thoughts.
He had taken a deep breath when, upon entering the electronics store for some service provider, a woman came up to him with sparkling eyes, rambling about great offers. He cringed and declined the offer, before asking the saleswoman for a "normal phone—just what people normally have". When the woman rambled on about different companies, he finally snapped.
"Just a normal phone! A popular one or something. I don't really care about the cost, just get me the phone. I need to make a call."
The woman began avoiding eye contact. "Are you buying a phone to make one call?"
"Yes, I am. The more quickly I can get the thing, the better."
Something seemed to connect for the woman, and she suddenly nodded. "This is your first phone, isn't it? Here, this phone is simple to use, especially for basic functions."
"I'll take that then."
"For cases, we have—"
"I just want the phone."
Ayaka would certainly have scolded him for this whole exchange, but Kirihito found that he didn't care at the moment. Truly, he just wanted to know why buying and connecting a cellphone took so much time. By the time the woman finally thanked him for the purchase and handed him the phone, Kirihito's impatiently tapping foot was actually beginning to hurt. However, regardless of this impatience, Kirihito slid his phone in his pocket and began his walk back to the shrine.
{{{/}}}
"The girl is coming," Kirihito informed the familiars as he removed his shoes.
Seemingly worried, one familiar asked, "Are you going to pick her up?"
"No."
"When's she coming?"
"Don't know."
"Um, why's she coming?"
"Because she's an idiot."
At this point, Kirihito had certainly not made any plans with Ayaka. However, he knew her well enough to know that she would come at his request, regardless of how dangerous an action that may seem. Because Ayaka was surely the type of person to give others every chance to reconcile.
Kirihito dug into his pocket, finding the forgotten crumpled up paper with Ayaka's number on it. She had given it to him back when he had taken her to the movies, but it had been useless at the time.
Tapping in the numbers rather aggressively (and luckily not breaking the touch screen), Kirihito pressed the green call button and brought the phone up to his ear.
"Hello?" When Ayaka's voice answered, Kirihito was surprised to find it slightly uneven, as though she had been running. But their encounter with those two had been a couple hours ago… She picked up her phone immediately, though, so she couldn't have been in danger or anything… "Hello?" Ayaka's voice repeated in a confused tone. "This is Tsukino Ayaka. May I ask who is speaking?"
Snapped out of his thought process, Kirihito simply addressed her, "Ayaka."
There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment. And Kirihito had never before known the feeling of seconds feeling like hours and now that he did, he understood why silence could feel suffocating, why it seemed to come alive and strangle those in it…
Only the shuffling of feet as his familiars made themselves busy could be heard, their garments sliding over the wooden shrine floors, shifting…
"Mori-kun," she finally replied, her voice cracking just slightly. "I apologize for my rather emotional reaction… I'm just very confused, but that's no excuse to refuse to let you explain…"
"Ayaka, do you know that shrine about a quarter mile east of town?" Kirihito cut in.
"Huh? Yeah. I've entered it before, though. Why do you ask?"
"It's where I live," he continued. Realizing that didn't fully explain anything, he finished, "I'd… appreciate it if you would come over, so I could tell you the whole story."
"Oh, okay. That sounds like a… good idea," she responded vaguely, a formality. Surely she felt uncertain.
"And in exchange, you can tell me about Naito Kaiya." Kirihito hadn't really thought before he had spoken. Something in him still refused to admit he owed an explanation to her. Instead, he had to ask something in return. Something of equal importance.
And so that something may just have involved a certain suicide victim, whose photograph had been respectfully hung in Ayaka's principal's office.
Ayaka was quiet again, and when she spoke again, she sounded dazed. "Kaiya-chan…? But she…"
"So?" Kirihito asked, an undesired but automatic condescending tone entering his voice. "You want to know about me, right? So I get to know about you, too."
"Uh, okay," Ayaka responded, voice small. "I'll be over in fifteen."
Kirihito simply hung up, internally—and externally—cursing himself for being so rude. But what was done was done, and Ayaka had agreed to come over. Knowing her, she wouldn't even tell Yamamoto. Somehow this made him uneasy, even though he knew he wouldn't hurt her.
"Hey!" he shouted. Immediately his familiars came into the room. "Make sure this place is clean. And prepare a nice dinner. Also, I don't want you to mention anything about my current predicament, as I assume you know. And..." Kirihito trailed off for a moment. "Stay out of sight when she comes. I'll greet her myself."
After agreeing, the familiars went off in different directions, completing various chores. Kirihito vaguely wondered if he should do something to help, before realizing just how ridiculous that idea was.
But she wouldn't be there for fifteen minutes.
Fifteen minutes in which each second felt like an hour.
And Kirihito had absolutely nothing to do.
Kirihito supposed, for a moment, that he could walk around the outside of the shrine. But that wouldn't be the brightest idea. Kirihito hadn't really taken energy from Ayaka recently, due to the sudden appearance of guilt in his mind, so he wasn't at his physical best.
Kirihito realized he should have a television somewhere.
If a phone was that much of a pain to get, though, how bad would it be to get a television?
And he wasn't even planning on paying his phone bills. He was going to let the company cut him off. He even gave them someone else's address. Actually, now that he thought back on it, he had put in Momozono Nanami's shrine's address. Tomoe would certainly not be too happy about that.
Kirihito glanced at the numbers on his new device, wondering how only three minutes had passed since their call. This was a bit ridiculous.
He realized that it would likely be best to figure out how to explain everything. There should be a certain manner that's more subtle, or that won't seem so dreadful, right? But even if there was, the words would inevitably come out differently when Kirihito spoke them.
A sigh escaped his lips. Standing up, he looked in the mirror to find that he was still wearing his outdoor clothing, including his coat, and decided he should dress into something more relaxed. No more worried about outward appearances as he normally was, he settled on black jeans and a long-sleeved shirt of the same color.
He folded his worn clothes and placed them in another room to be washed, only doing this task to waste time.
Kirihito went into the main common area, by the door, and decided to wait the last couple of minutes there.
And then, only a couple minutes after his sitting down, the doorbell rang.
{{{/}}}
A/N IM SO SORRY GUYS. I TOOK FOREVER TO UPDATE. Life's been really crazy. I actually moved states and such and now I'm starting at a new school and I know I had plenty of time and this is such a short chapter but I also had writer's block IM SORRY thank you so much to those who still read this! I'll continue to try and trudge through this. Please be patient with me.
Ai Star: Yep. He mad.
LadyDeadmau5: Thank you so much! and I'm sorry I made you wait this long just to give you this (probably cruddy) update!
BloodDDB: Thank you so much for your critique! I understand what you mean about Nanami ,and I apologize if she was OOC. However, I personally think she would be this blunt if she was worried the Kirihito may have been planning to do... unpleasant things to an innocent high school girl. And about the yokai... I understand what you mean there, as well, but at this time Kirihito is still pretty weak, so I'm not sure? I actually didn't even think of that, so thank you!
killerrosegirl: Thanks! I appreciate it uwu
Guest 1: I finally did!
Guest 2: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR FINDING THIS
kirihito's lover: Thank you so much! You encouraged me a lot. I apologize if this update disappoints you in any way, but hopefully I'll be inspired again soon!
