It's a Naegiri Week prompt! The prompt was "Plant." There are ***SPOILERS for Kirigiri-Sou*** in this story. If you want to read that wild little "sound novel," though, I strongly recommend you do so. Just google the English translation by drmedicsgamesurgery.

In a nearly empty coffee shop on a rainy afternoon, Makoto Naegi and Kyoko Kirigiri sat across from one another in silence. Makoto fiddled with his cell phone occasionally. Kyoko pretended to be interested in the shop's decor or in the people passing by outside, watching umbrellas bob past her view idly.

With a sad, forced smile, Makoto broke the silence first. He dropped his phone to the table between them and asked, "This is awkward, isn't it?"

Kyoko finally looked at him, lowering her cup of coffee to give him a small nod. "A bit," she admitted.

Makoto's eyes fell to the table, avoiding hers. "It's like... it's like we've been friends for so long that I don't know what's supposed to be different."

She kept her gaze fixed on him even as his own eyes began wandering. "I understand how you feel," she agreed. "Perhaps we're expecting something to change where it doesn't need to?"

He looked at her sideways. "How do you mean?"

"I'm suggesting that when two people become so close and know one another for so many years... " Kyoko paused, attempting to find the right words. "...then perhaps a transition to 'dating' is only minimally different from the time they already spent together."

"No," Makoto responded quickly, turning his head back to look at her directly. "No way. That'd mean that we were such good friends that we were essentially automatically dating, and I refuse to accept that that's a thing." He threw up one hand in a half-shrug. "Like, how many of the days we've together are retroactively dates now? What's the threshold for 'automatic dating'? How close do you have to be? Is my sister 'dating' Fukawa-san now?"

Kyoko smiled tightly. "They already share an apartment and a bed, so... ?"

At that, he had to chuckle. "Okay, okay — bad example!" Makoto said, waving his hands and laughing. "Most friendships aren't that close, I know. I just mean-"

"I understand," Kyoko assured him, interrupting. Her voice and her expression both were soft when she continued, "And I didn't mean to imply that we had already started dating months or even years before now because we achieved some vague friendship-maturation-date. I think you misunderstood me." Setting down her coffee, she said, "I just meant that once you've shared so much of yourself with someone, perhaps it's understandably hard to find new layers to add."

His mouth tightened as he considered this. "So then... the act of saying that 'we're dating' is the new layer?"

She tilted her head ever so slightly, looked bemused. "Well... I'd argue that declaring that you're in a romantic relationship with someone should bring a natural increase in emotional intimacy." She paused, reaching out to place one gloved hand on top of his own. "And physical intimacy, of course," she half-whispered.

Makoto grinned at her touch in spite of the fact that her skin wasn't even in contact with his. The act of casually touching one another still felt so fresh, so new that he still blushed intensely. He rolled his hand over to hold hers and said, "Just the emotional and physical stuff, huh? So I, uh, guess this means you already know most everything else about me... ?"

She shook her head once. "Not that it would matter if I did, but no. There's no chance of that."

He was skeptical. "I'm pretty much an open book," he noted.

"In a lot of ways," she agreed. "Yet you continue to surprise me with stories of your life experiences and in how you react to what your unusual luck throws your way." She rubbed one of his fingers between her forefinger and thumb gently. "I'm positive that I still have many stories you haven't heard, either."

"All right," Makoto said with a mischievous smile. Hopping out of his seat, he pulled his hand free of hers and stood up. As he kicked his chair aside, he pointed at her dramatically and announced, "I challenge you to tell me something I don't know about you!"

Kyoko covered her mouth to stifle her quiet laugh. "I suppose that's one way to guarantee that something new and different happens today." She took a sip of her coffee. "Can it be anything at all, or are you looking for a certain type of thing?"

Dropping his hand to his side, he shrugged awkwardly. "I-I didn't really have any specific ideas. Something personal? Maybe about your family? Or just something from one of your cases?"

"Hm," was all Kyoko said at first. Her eyes once again traveled the room as she sought inspiration. Once she landed on a potted fern near the door, she said, "I can think of something that fits all of those criteria."

"Great!" Makoto said, grinning. "So that means it's something about your family that is also related to a case... ?"

Closing her eyes, Kyoko's smile faded as she said, "Just remember that you asked for this."

That was enough to make Makoto's grin melt in an instant. "Uhhh, wha-wha-what do you mean?!"

"Only that this may be stranger than you'd imagine," Kyoko replied. She folded her hands together. Utterly straight-faced, she opened her eyes and told him, "Once — for a very short time — I had a sister."

At this, Makoto looked relieved. "You're talking about Samidare-san," he said, relaxing.

"I am afraid not," Kyoko said. "I'm talking about a genetic sister." She smirked slightly. "I had a twin who was... well, she was a plant."

Makoto cocked his head at that, his eyes narrowing. "Now, when you say 'plant', you meeeaaan... what, exactly?"

She took care to speak clearly: "I mean that I had a twin sister who was, in truth, an organism that used chlorophyll and photosynthesis to generate nutrients within her body."

A laugh emerged from Makoto reflexively, but both it and his smile faded in the face of Kyoko's steely expression. A long moment of silence passed while he stood there and regarded her, his expression quizzical. Then, finally, he reached out and pulled the wooden chair closer to him, watching her the entire time.

"Okay... " he said slowly. "Help me out here: Is this like a metaphor?" He lowered himself back to his seat. "Do you mean that your grandfather had a plant that he loved as much as he loved you? Or, y'know, maybe you had hedge at your family home that someone trimmed into the shape of you, so it was your 'twin', or—"

"Sadly, 'no' to both." Kyoko said firmly. "Kyouka was her name, and she was a walking, talking, independent person who looked exactly like me as I did at the time." Her eyes grew distant as she thought back. "To look at her, you'd never have known that she was made of plant matter. She grew as rapidly as someone might grow a weed."

Though he was growing pale, Makoto still tried to laugh it off. "Yo-you're dead set on tricking me, aren't you?" he ventured. "This is... it's a practical joke."

With a slow shake of her head, she said, "Bizarre though it may sound, I promise that I am telling you the truth."

There was a soft thonk-slap as Naegi's arms and hands fell limply onto the table between them. He expression was one of confusion and shock, and his complexion looked sickly. "I... " he said softly. Swallowing hard, he finished, "I wasn't prepared for this."

"If you think it sounds outlandish now, you can imagine my reaction to seeing it," Kyouko said. "Someone had sampled my DNA and used it in a biological experiment to create a plant-based clone of me. Furthermore, she was one of a series of intended clones of Hope's Peak students."

Still stunned, Makoto asked, "Why didn't you ever tell me about this before now?"

"A Kirigiri never makes an accusation without proof," she said. "Even though I know what I saw and experienced, I have no evidence to support what I'm telling you. I only knew 'Kyouka' for a day before she was reduced to a shriveled-up network of roots and leaves. And without evidence, this is all nothing more than an outlandish story."

Still stunned, Makoto shook his head and said, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Kyoko responded. "I made the decision to keep this to myself just as I eventually made the decision to stop searching for lingering proof."

"N-no, I mean that I'm sorry you had to carry this alone," Makoto said. He looked at her with sympathy as he reached out and put his hand over hers, returning her earlier gesture. "Seeing someone that looks like you — someone made from you, even, who you only know for such a short time before you seem them quickly wither and die right in front of you... it couldn't have been easy."

She smiled warmly at him. "Then you believe me?"

"Of course," Makoto said without hesitation.

"I knew that you would," she said back. "And I'm grateful."

Makoto smiled back at her, and the two sat there for a while, staring into each other's eyes. Kyoko rolled her hand over and took his in hers, giving him a slight squeeze as she did so. Makoto slowly exhaled a happy sigh.

...

"WAIT!" Makoto said, snapping back to reality.

"What?"

""I just realized you glossed right past a super-important detail," he observed intensely.

Kyoko leaned forward. "Which is-?"

"Was she, like, evil?"