Most mornings were perfectly ordinary. This one was not.
"Where's my brush?" asked Ritsuko. It hadn't been on her desk, where she was sure that she had left it, and it wasn't on the bathroom counter either. It wasn't anywhere. For a moment she wonders if Shigeko had borrowed it, she loved to borrow things without asking, but she quickly reigned those thoughts in. She wasn't going to upset Shigeko. Even this early in the morning she knew better than to upset her sister.
Even though sharing brushes was super gross!
"Mom got us new ones." Said Shigeko as she brushed her teeth. Ritsuko handed her a tissue from the box. She could hear Mom walking around, stomping around more like it, which meant that she was in a mood. If she saw Shigeko ruining her uniform then it would just be worse on all of them. Not that she would punish them, of course, she'd just be…mom.
It was too early to deal with mom.
"What do you mean 'Mom got us new ones'?" asked Ritsuko as she heard Mom and Dad's door open and close again. She glanced out into the hallway. They weren't having a fight but Mom…well she could mistake this for a fight and then she'd be so mad.
At Ritsuko, of course, not Shigeko. Never Shigeko.
"Here, see? I didn't try either of them yet. I thought that you should get first pick." Said Shigeko as she held up two brushes…two little kid brushes. They were way too small, for one thing, and for another they were Hello Kitty and her bunny friend…Ritsuko used to know her name, back when she had been a little kid, but she was thirteen now.
Much too old for Hello Kitty. Not that she would tell Shigeko that.
"Do you want Hello Kitty or My Melody?" asked Shigeko as she waved both brushes in the air with her powers.
"Neither, I want MY brush." Said Ritsuko before she could stop herself. That had been way too loud and way too harsh. She heard Mom coming down the hallway and braced herself. The bathroom door opened all the way and there was Mom, still in her pajamas and with curlers in her hair. Big thing happening at work, probably, if she was curling her hair. Big, stressful thing…
Ritsuko wondered if things were going to be like that for her, too, when she grew up and got a job. She hoped not, she hated curling her hair.
"Both of you needed new brushes and, luckily, I saw the cutest ones at the Family Mart." Said Mom with her hands on her hips. She looked them over, daring them to say anything. Shigeko didn't see it, of course, she never noticed how other people felt. Ritsuko had to notice enough for the both of them.
It was exhausting, sometimes.
"You can have Hello Kitty and I can have My Melody, alright?" asked Shigeko as she opened the brushes with her powers. She ripped the plastic apart and tossed it in the wastebasket. Ritsuko groaned. She knew she had to shut up but…but she had liked her old brush. It hadn't been old, she had just gotten it last summer, and she had spent her own money on it. Since she had spent her own money on it that meant that it had been hers and Mom couldn't just-just go into her room and throw it out!
"I want Unit 2." Said Ritsuko. She did want her Unit 2 brush and…and it wasn't like Mom would have done this to Shigeko. No, if it had been the other way around Mom would have let Shigeko keep her brush until the bristles were gone and it was just a handle.
"You know I don't like you watching those scary robot shows, Ritsuko, they're much too violent for a little girl like you. Now you take the bunny and Shigeko can have the kitty, just like it's always been." Said Mom. There was a look, there, one that told her that she was on dangerous ground. Shigeko was stull holding up the brushes. She didn't even notice. Why would she? She liked Hello Kitty. It was always about what she liked, it had always been that way, and Ritsuko knew why. She had always known why since she'd been a little kid.
She wasn't a little kid anymore.
"…yeah, when I was five…" muttered Ritsuko as she looked away from Mom. She heard Mom click her tongue.
"What was that?" asked Mom
"Thank you, Mom, I love My Melody." Said Ritsuko, stapling a smile to her face. Mom nodded. There, she had said the right thing. That was what it always came down to, right? Saying the right thing so you wouldn't upset other people. Reading the atmosphere. Getting a clue. All the things that she was good at. All the things that Shigeko wasn't good at.
All the things that she had to be good at exactly because Shigeko was bad at them.
"You like Kerokerokeroppi best though, right?" asked Shigeko. She didn't mean anything by it so Ritsuko had no reason to feel like she had. So she wasn't going to feel that way. So she was going to stop herself from feeling that way.
Right now.
"I used to but now I like My Melody the best." Said Ritsuko, keeping that smile pasted to her face. She could feel it cracking, though, at the corners. Mom needed to get out of here right now…another thought that she shouldn't have had. If Mom had been able to hear her thoughts then she knew she would have been in for it.
"Which one is Kerokerokeroppi?" asked Mom
"The frog." Said Ritsuko quickly. Mom shook her head as she walked away.
"Of course, that damned frog…too many characters….Maro?! Have you seen my silk stockings? They weren't in the bathroom or my drawers…." Mom's voice disappeared as she closed her bedroom door. It was only when her voice disappeared that Ritsuko let her smile disappear too. She didn't have to smile, not now.
Shigeko didn't notice these things anyway.
"Don't worry, Mom'll get you the one you want next time. She always finds the best stuff." Said Shigeko. Ritsuko wasn't going to argue. She was going to brush her teeth and fix her hair and then get to school and have another ordinary day.
That was, of course, if Shigeko let her have any of the mirror.
"I heard her talking to Dad, before, she's going to stop off at the store after work and get us matching dresses for the family picture. I hope she finds ones like the ones we wore last year, remember? With the lace and the heart shaped buttons?" asked Shigeko as Ritsuko reached past her and got her toothbrush. She remembered those dresses well. They had been really itchy and made them both look like they were still in elementary school. Shigeko didn't mind, she liked that kind of thing, and therefore Ritsuko had to like it too.
Or at least pretend to.
"I remember. Where's the toothpaste?" asked Ritsuko. Shigeko passed her the tube…with the middle all squeezed out like she always did.
"I was thinking that I could braid your hair, too, that way we could match again like when we were little." Said Shigeko
"Alright." Said Ritsuko as she fixed the toothpaste tube as best as she could. Shigeko started to tug at her hair. She let her.
"But we can do elastics instead of ribbons, too, since you like those better." said Shigeko as she picked up Ritsuko's brush with her powers and started brushing her hair…even though Shigeko had no idea what she was doing. Ritsuko didn't say anything, though, as Shigeko tore through the knots in her hair. Even though it hurt. Shigeko was just trying to help.
You couldn't be mad at a person when they were just trying to help.
"And maybe we can do one braid, instead of two, since you always have your hair in a ponytail." Said Shigeko as she kept on brushing Ritsuko's hair. Ritsuko didn't say anything, she just focused on brushing her teeth. She could taste copper.
She kept on brushing.
"Kind of like this, I think." Said Shigeko as she started to braid Ritsuko's hair…even though she looked horrible with her hair in braids. Even one braid. She knew her hair was going to be sticking up all day. She knew she was going to look like someone had electrocuted a cat. She knew that Mom was going to say something and then she'd above to pretend that this was her idea and then Mom would probably say something about how darling she and Shigeko were when they matched and then the next thing she knew they were going to be in 'Big Sis' and 'Little Sis' dresses from togs for tots again!
She knew what was going to happen if she opened her mouth, too, so she just kept on brushing.
"Wow, you're so pretty, Baby Sister. I wish I had hair like yours." Said Shigeko as she let go of Ritsuko's hair. Ritsuko looked at herself in the mirror. Her braid was practically standing up on it's own…great. She couldn't take it down, not now anyway, not with Shigeko right there.
"Ritsuko! Shigeko! Get out of the bathroom!" said Mom as she walked in. Ritsuko spat out her toothpaste and made room for Mom before she could get into one of her moods.
"Why aren't either of you ready to go yet? Get a move on, especially you Ritsuko, you have to set a good example for the other kids and being late in your first year is not setting a good example." Said Mom. Ritsuko could have told Mom that she got herself to school every day and was never late, that she knew how to get herself ready in the morning and how to tell time, that she hated her hairbrush and her hair and a whole lot of other things, too.
She could have said all of that but she didn't. She knew better.
"Sorry Mom, I'll go get dressed now." said Ritsuko, stapling that same smile back onto her face. She kept that smile on until she got to her room. She had to take a break sometimes and this was one of those times. She just couldn't keep it up, smiling for that long.
Especially when she didn't have anything to smile about.
She knew that she had to be grateful. She had a sister and a mom and a dad who loved her, which was more than a lot of people had, and she had a house and clothes and food and she wasn't laying dead by the side of the road either. She should have been grateful. She was…she was there. She was alive. She should have been grateful.
She brushed her bangs down over her forehead.
She quickly got into her uniform, nearly forgetting her armband, and then just as quickly she went downstairs and had breakfast. Pink porridge again, like Shigeko liked. She kept her mouth shut about the porridge just like she kept her mouth shut about everything else. It wasn't like it hurt her or anything, trying to like all the same things as her sister, and she knew for a fact that upsetting her would certainly hurt.
It had, before, after all.
"Girls, I have to run, so be sure to put your bowls in the dishwasher when you're done…and rinse them beforehand!" said Mom as she walked right past them without even looking. Dad followed closely behind her.
"Don't forget or you'll have to come clean later!" laughed Dad as he left. Ritsuko laughed even though, as usual, Dad wasn't that funny. Shigeko looked at her before she started to laugh too.
"That's funny, Dad!" called Shigeko as the front door opened and closed. Ritsuko rolled her eyes when she was sure Shigeko wasn't looking.
"That was funny, right?" asked Shigeko, turning to face her. Ritsuko quickly looked down at her porridge.
"Funny as Dad ever was." Said Ritsuko
"Oh, ok. It's just…sometimes I feel like Dad isn't that funny." Said Shigeko. Ritsuko shrugged. She agreed, of course, but she knew that if she told Shigeko that she agreed everything would get back to Dad and then his feelings would end up getting really hurt. Then Mom would be mad at them, her, too, so really the best thing to do was to just keep on eating breakfast.
"But I'm weird sometimes." Said Shigeko. Ritsuko shook her head.
"No you aren't." said Ritsuko, lying through her overly brushed teeth. Shigeko couldn't tell, of course, she never could.
"I feel like I am, though. I mean I don't have a lot of friends, not like you." said Shigeko
"I don't have that many friends." Said Ritsuko as she scraped her spoon on the bottom of her bowl.
"Yes you do, you have all your friends in the student council." Said Shigeko
"We're more like coworkers, actually, and our job is bossing people around and doing paperwork." Said Ritsuko
"So like Mom and Dad, then?" asked Shigeko
"Yeah, pretty much, except we don't get paid." Said Ritsuko
"But you guys must like each other, at least, right? Mom and Dad like some of their coworkers." Said Shigeko
"I guess, yeah." Said Ritsuko. She didn't really like or dislike anyone in the student council. They were all just sort of together. Well, alright, Tokugawa could be really annoying sometimes…all the times. She had never met anyone so pompous in her entire life. He was even worse than Kamuro, and Kamuro acted like they were members of parliament, sometimes, instead of the student council.
"I wish that I had someone I liked, too. I mean a friend." Said Shigeko
"We're friends." Said Ritsuko quickly. They were sisters and friends, which was kind of a given since they lived together. It would have been weird if they had been enemies, or even indifferent to each other. It had always been the two of them together no matter what, and there had been a lot of 'what' over the years.
Ritsuko felt her bangs. Good, her scar was still covered.
"I know that we're friends but we're sisters, too, so I don't think that we have a choice. Since we came from the same parents we're alike. I meant that I didn't have any friends who weren't you, or Master Reigen! I can't forget about him." said Shigeko
"Well maybe you should." Said Ritsuko
"What do you mean?" asked Shigeko
"I mean that maybe instead of hanging out with him after school every day you could try and join a club or something. I mean he only pays you three hundred an hour anyway. Mom and Dad give us more money for taking out the trash and emptying the dishwasher. He's trying to get you to dress up like a guy, too, and infiltrate another school which is kind of…a lot." Said Ritsuko. She had more words for Reigen Arataka and the things he asked Shigeko to do, of course, but she knew better than to use them in front of Shigeko.
"It's not about the money and he said that he doesn't think that I look like a boy, just that I look younger than him. We talked the whole thing over and he says that he feels bad that he made me feel bad." said Shigeko. Ritsuko scraped the bottom of her bowl again. Nothing left. She needed to get going. Loading the dishwasher and heading out to school were certainly better uses of her time than listening to Shigeko go on and on about how great Reigen was.
"I still think that you should make other friends." Said Ritsuko
"I know…I was thinking about what you said before, the other night, and…and I've just been thinking about it a lot. That I'm…I don't know…" said Shigeko
"Wasting your time?" asked Ritsuko as she got up. Shigeko handed her their porridge bowls with her powers and nodded.
"My youth, I mean. That I'll only be in middle school once, that's all. When I get to high school I'm going to have to worry about university and…and next year I'll have to worry about entrance exams so this is kind of my only year to be like you." said Shigeko as she followed Ritsuko to the kitchen.
"We're always going to be alike, we have to be." Muttered Ritsuko as she rinsed their dishes.
"I know that we like a lot of the same things, except for giant fighting robots and doing homework, but I just wish that I had what you had. You're pretty, you're popular, you're on the student council which is kind of the best club in school since you guys get to make all of the rules, and I'm just…me." said Shigeko as she opened the dishwasher with her powers. Ritsuko loaded it, taking the moment to think through what she was going to say. She wanted to tell her to stop hanging out with Reigen and find someone else, anyone else, but what if she found someone else who would wind up using her? Or worse, making fun of her?
Ritsuko could handle that, she decided, in fact she wanted to just to teach someone a lesson.
"It's never too late to find a club or something, you know. The recruiting season ended a while ago but there's no rule saying that you can't join. So yeah, I guess just find something that you like to do and then find a club for it." Said Ritsuko as she closed the dishwasher. She decided to run it, too, since it was mostly full. That way Mom would have one less thing to be stressed out when she came home.
"Something I like to do…thank you, Baby Sister, you're so smart. I knew I could count on you for a good idea." Said Shigeko before she pulled Ritsuko into a hug. She hugged her sister back, quickly, before the weird static electricity feeling could settle in. She always felt like that when she touched Shigeko or when Shigeko touched her.
But that was ok, Shigeko couldn't control it.
She couldn't control her powers, or how she felt, or how other people saw her. Shigeko spent the walk to school asking about what kinds of clubs they had. Apparently she had spent the whole recruiting season going straight to Reigen's after school. Ritsuko knew how people could be, especially towards Shigeko, but she knew how Reigen was. She knew she was never going to trust him. So maybe it was better, then, that Shigeko tried to make some friends at school.
If anything happened she'd be there.
Well, when she had the time, that was. They did have separate classrooms after all. That was the best and the worst thing about school, that they had to separate as soon as they got through the door. Shigeko to where the second year girls kept their shoes and Ritsuko to the first year side. Having some breathing room from Shigeko was nice and all but when they were apart there was no way for her to protect Shigeko, and protect everyone else from her….
Though room to breath was actually pretty nice….
"Kageyama." Ritsuko sighed. So much for breathing room. She would have taken her sister following her around above this. She sighed and put her shoes away, her braid pulling at her hair the whole time. She tossed it over her shoulder and turned around, taking her time.
She wasn't in any rush to talk to Tokugawa.
"Don't tell me it's you who's been leaving these notes in my locker." Said Ritsuko as she turned around, her braid flipping back over her shoulder. Somehow not the most annoying part of this interaction.
"Me? No way! Why would I ever leave a note in your locker?" asked Tokugawa
"I can't think of any other reason why you'd be here." Said Ritsuko
"Well it has nothing to do with that, I have a girlfriend." Said Tokugawa
"And let me guess, she goes to another school." said Ritsuko rolling her eyes.
"I know what you're implying but yes, she does, but that's not what I'm here to talk to you about." Said Tokugawa
"Whatever is it can't it wait until after school?" asked Ritsuko
"No, otherwise I would have waited. I need you to help me evict the telepathy club today after school." said Tokugawa. Ritsuko shook her head.
"That's not my job." Said Ritsuko. If it had been anyone else she would have at least considered helping but this was Tokugawa. Why would she help the person who argued with her nearly every single day about nearly every single thing?
"You're a student council member, you have the authority, and anyway I wouldn't ask you unless I really needed you. Kurata's not leaving without a fight and I can't fight a girl." Said Tokugawa. Ritsuko raised an eyebrow. Fighting? Really? How stupid did he think she was? If Tokugawa wanted to get her in trouble he could have at least put some effort into it.
"If you think a fight's going to break out ask one of the delinquents for help. I hear Onigawara's looking to practice, especially after that other delinquent gang sent him home crying." Said Ritsuko with a shrug. She tried to take a step past him but he walked right into her path….and there was nothing that she could do. She couldn't fight him just as much as she couldn't fight this Kurata girl. Fighting…nice girls didn't fight.
And she was, and always had to be, a nice girl.
"Not physically." Said Tokugawa
"What then, you want me to debate her or something?" asked Ritsuko. She tried to step to the side but, again, he put himself right into her path. She couldn't say anything, either, let alone push him. She couldn't attract that kind of attention to herself. Any attention on her could turn into attention on Shigeko and she didn't do well with a lot of attention. So pushing him was out and telling him off was out, too. Even if she hadn't had Shigeko to worry about she couldn't just go around telling people off.
That wasn't very nice at all.
"No, well maybe. I just need you there because girls listen to girls and you're the only girl on the student council." Said Tokugawa. Ritsuko wanted to tell him that if he had a problem with staffing then he needed to take it up with Kamuro since he had final say over who stayed and who left, but she didn't, not only because it wouldn't have been very nice but also because she didn't want to draw this thing out.
"Fine. Whatever." Said Ritsuko. He stepped to the side. There, now she could finally pass.
"Good, I knew you'd come around." said Tokugawa as Ritsuko walked around him. She wanted to shove him as she walked past, to the ground, like they were a couple of kindergarteners or something. But she wasn't a little kid anymore, she was old enough to know that nice girls didn't fight and that fighting its self was stupid, so she just walked past. If she were to push him, anyway, it wasn't like anyone would have been on her side.
Nobody was ever on her side.
They would have just told her that she needed to be nicer, that she should have just been happy to help, that this was her job anyway and she knew what she was doing when she agreed to do it. She preferred to work on her own but what she wanted didn't factor in. She remembered so many report cards from when she had been little. 'Doesn't play well with others' had always been there, something to get Mom all upset, something to get her lectured on. 'Set a good example for Shigeko' and 'you know what makes the two of you different' and 'be a nice girl' said over and over again on a loop…
Shigeko never had to deal with these problems.
Ritsuko felt her braid swinging behind her. There was no way she was dealing with this all day on top of the aggravation she'd just had piled upon her. She ducked into the bathroom, she knew she was cutting it close but there was no way she would be able to stand this all day. She opened the bathroom door and bumped into someone….
Someone she used to know.
"Tsubomi." Said Ritsuko as she took a step to the side. They had nothing to say to each other, not unless she felt like finishing that game of 'guess what I'm thinking of' that she'd abandoned give years ago.
"Oh! Ritsuko! Don't go in there, there's this weird girl bothering everyone." Said Tsubomi as she adjusted her hairclip. Ritsuko stood off to the side and held the door opened. She had no plans to listen to Tsubomi's warning. She thought that everything was weird. If you didn't like to play the games she liked to play then you were weird. If you wanted to play when she didn't want to play then you were weird. If you wore your hair differently then you were weird. If you watched shows she didn't like then you were weird. If you ate green peppers without freaking out then you were weird. If you had psychic powers then you were weird.
Tsubomi was not, and never would be, the supreme authority on what was and was not weird.
"I'll take my chances." Said Ritsuko as she tried to walk past…and was blocked. Again. What was this, block her path day?
"Well then if you're going to go in can you use your student council authority and write her up or something? She's knocking on stall doors and blocking the sinks and I think, I don't have proof but I think, that she took all the paper towels out of the dispensers." Said Tsubomi. Ritsuko nodded. She didn't really care that Tsubomi had been inconvenienced, but she did care about keeping her job.
"I'm on it." Said Ritsuko. Tsubomi stepped to the side.
"Thank you, and congrats, too, on making the student council. That's really amazing for a first year." Said Tsubomi. She said it like they were still friends. She said it like she hadn't abandoned them both for better friends as soon as she could have. That she hadn't upset Shigeko, who had always been better friends with her since they were the same age, and that she hadn't just…you couldn't treat people like that!
"You're welcome." Said Ritsuko, maybe a little too quickly, as she walked past Tsubomi. When you had nothing nice to say then you weren't supposed to say anything at all, or whatever, and Ritsuko had nothing nice to say to Tsubomi…or the girl who was, indeed, blocking all the sinks.
"Come on, just give it a try! Just for the month, or the week, or the-" said the girl as she stood in front of a whole line of sinks. A girl with a camera around her neck, completely against the dress code, stood in front of her with her hands on her hips.
"For the last time, I'm not joining your weird club. I'm too busy with the school paper and, anyway, it's creepy and weird! Now please, let me wash my hands! You're going to get in trouble if you keep acting like this!" said camera girl. Ritsuko sighed and straightened out her student council armband.
"We're not creepy! I mean, ok, the room gets kind of dark sometimes and spiders have been spotted but that's just nature retaking the school! It's natural and beautiful and-" said the girl
"And I'm writing you up for harassing people and blocking access to a school fixture." Said Ritsuko as she stepped between the two girls. The taller one with the short hair…wait, Ritsuko had heard her name…something with a 'k' sound…she scoffed and crossed her arms.
"See Kurata? I told you you'd get in trouble." Said Camera girl
"Shut up, Mezato, she has no power here." Said Kurata
"It's Misato." Said Camera girl
"Well maybe if you joined then I'd be more apt to remember your name." said Kurata
"I do too have power here, now move before I write you up for verbally harassing a student council member." Said Ritsuko
"Those aren't punishable offenses, Miss Student Council." Said Kurata, clearly making fun of her. Ritsuko had words for her, many of which she knew she wasn't even supposed to know let alone use, and that was why she didn't use them. She was nice, a nice girl, and nice girls didn't tell complete strangers to shut their goddamned mouths before you shut it yourself.
"Try me." said Ritsuko. She and Kurata had a spontaneous staring contest. Ritsuko won. It didn't take long, after Shigeko's staring contests nothing felt long, before Kurata turned away.
"I don't want any student council members in my club anyway." Said Kurata
"Fine, but I'm still writing you up. You can't bother people when they're trying to use the bathroom. It's against the rules and just…weird." Said Ritsuko before she did just that. Kurata was trying to change her mind, bribing her with promises of small amounts of money and access to relatively cute guys. Ritsuko didn't care, she just wanted to do her job.
So that was what she did.
"Now get to class, the bell's going to ring soon." Said Ritsuko as she handed Kurata her copy of the write up slip. Kurata muttered a combination of curse words that Ritsuko hadn't even known went together before she practically stomped out of the bathroom. Ritsuko turned to face the sink, maybe there was enough time before the first bell for her to take her hair down and-
-and be blinded.
Ritsuko blinked and rubbed her eyes. What in the…she saw Misato in the mirror. She was playing with the settings on her camera, it looked like. That was one way to get around the 'no camera phones' rule. It was a rule on the books, true, but it was one of those unenforceable rules. It had been written back before all phones had cameras. It was an old rule, up there with the ones against pagers and breakdancing. Even Kamuro had told her not to bother with that one.
The rules against taking pictures or recordings of any kind in the bathrooms, and maybe also the one about no jewelry or accessories worn around the neck aside from religious ones, she could enforce though.
"Hold still, I left my flash on." Said Misato
"You know that you're not supposed to take pictures in the bathroom, right? That's kind of a big rule." Said Ritsuko
"I'm with the press! Come on, this is turning into an interesting story. Student Counsel Club Rules: Too Much or Too Little…alright, it's a working title. I'll come up with something better once we-" said Misato
"Once I'm done writing you up." said Ritsuko as she did just that. She didn't agree with all the rules but this one she did, and even if she hadn't she enforced all the rules she had been told to enforce. Sometimes you had to do things you didn't agree with to keep your job, Mom and Dad had even told her that. Whether it was coming to work and sitting in a closet all day, counting the sheets of paper in the printer at the end of the day, or going out drinking with the boss even though you hated the boss and drinking and you had a family you had to do dumb stuff to keep your job.
It didn't matter if you were a kid or an adult. Life was just doing one dumb thing after another after another.
"Come on, it's not like I'm being obxious. Not like-" said Misato
"I don't care, now move. The bell's going to ring soon and I don't want to have to write myself up for being late." Said Ritsuko as she left, her braid hitting her on the back with every step. This was going to be annoying. Almost as annoying as Misato muttering under her breath at her. She hated it when people got like that. She didn't understand it. Life just went more smoothly when you followed the rules.
What was better than a simple life?
If you just did what you were told to do, when you were told to do it, without any argument then you could get so much done. You were trusted to take care of yourself, people liked you, and nobody freaked out and lost control. You just had to do what you had to do. Ritsuko was good at that. She went to class, did what she had to do, got good grades, and then went to student council and did what she had to do there. That way she kept her job. Yes, doing what you had to do may not have been fun, or even the least bit enjoyable, but that was just how life worked.
Whether you liked it or not.
And there was a lot of 'not'. She made it through her school day without any incident. No other upperclassmen made her write them up, nobody bothered her about joining any dumb clubs, and she even got used to the constant heavy tug of that stupid braid. She never did get the chance to let it down but maybe that was for the best. Her hair would have looked terrible if she had, she didn't have that stupid brush Mom had gotten her after all, and then she might have gotten dress coded for looking sloppy.
Also Shigeko, maybe, would have seen her with her hair undone and been hurt.
They didn't run into each other often, they were in different classrooms on different floors after all, but there was always the rare chance that they would pass each other during lunch, or even rarer, after school. Shigeko was a member of the going home club, or the going to Reigen's club if she wanted to be specific, but there was always the chance that she could run into Shigeko on her afterschool rounds. A slim chance but a chance nonetheless. One that she could expect.
One that was ordinary.
"I still don't know why you need me along for an ordinary eviction. I met Kurata, I don't think that she's going to do much more than be obnoxious." Said Ritsuko as she walked down the second year's hallway. She passed Shigeko's homeroom and peaked inside. No Shigeko, just a few people she didn't know on cleanup duty. That was a good thing, one of the main good things, that came with being on the student council; she was permanently exempt from cleanup duty. She didn't see why she had to clean up after other people when she didn't contribute to the mess at all. At least here she was doing something for the school, something that let her have power, though she knew she wasn't supposed to care about that.
That was how you wound up like Tokugawa.
"Never underestimate Kurata Tome. Not when you're coming between her and something she wants." Said Tokugawa
"Why evict them? Why not just tell them that they at least had to share space with the paranormal studies club? They mostly just use their clubroom for playing Ouija anyway." Said Ritsuko
"I have my reasons." Said Tokugawa ominously. Ritsuko raised an eyebrow. This sounded interesting. Also like none of her business, but interesting. Like maybe this was personal. They were supposed to be impartial when it came to matters pertaining to the school. If he was targeting the Telepathy Club because he had some kind of vendetta against it's president, and she got him to confess, then she could have had him suspended or even removed from the student counsel…not that she ever would have done anything like that! Nice girls didn't do things like that and she had a reputation to uphold…
Though it would have served him right for always interrupting her during meetings.
"Personal reasons?" asked Ritsuko. She wasn't planning on doing anything with the information but it was just…nice to know. Because she was curious, that was all.
"Do I need a reason aside from the fact that this club does nothing, has no plans of doing anything, and just wastes their budget on snacks like a bunch of pissants?" asked Tokugawa as they came to a stop. Ritsuko didn't have anything to say to that. Anything that she had been planning on saying left her mind the minute the hallway started to shake.
For a minute she thought that it was an earthquake….and earthquake that Shigeko had been the cause of.
The ground shook beneath her feet. That was the way it had been, before, and not just on that day. Shigeko used to get upset a lot more often when they had been little. They used to even fight, and over stupid things, too. Things like who's turn it was to pick what was on TV, who got to be player one, who got to pick desert, who got to swing first…stupid little kid stuff. Not like what had happened on that day. The ground shook and Ritsuko matched it. She felt, really, like someone had poured a bucket of ice water down her back. She just couldn't stop shaking.
She had no idea how long it had taken, really, to stop. Time stopped being a thing.
But time was, in fact, a thing and eventually she did stop. It could have been a second, a minute, a day, or an hour. She didn't know. However long it took for the biggest guys in school to show up. She had seen them before, they were difficult to miss, but she had never seen them all together all at once before. She had seen them in the halls and at the gates, always at a distance, but up close she could see just how tall they were…and how strong.
The ice water feeling went away. It wasn't Shigeko, just a bunch of freakishly tall body building looking guys. Nothing she couldn't handle.
"Good, you're here. Body Improvement Club, this is Miss Kageyama, Miss Kageyama, this is the Body Improvement Club. They'll be taking over this space." Said Tokugawa. Ritsuko nodded in acknowledgement, trying not to look at them. They were just tall, that was all, and strong. It wasn't like that was anything special…well, they were freakishly tall and strong…strong enough to pick her up, maybe, or someone else…
Suddenly the door in front of her was very interesting.
"Let's just get this over with, Tokugawa, I have rounds to make." Said Ritsuko, her eyes focused on the door in front of her. She knew that she was being rude but she would have taken being rude above being weird. She felt weird. All…jittery, maybe, like the time she had tried drinking coffee.
She took a deep breath and clutched her skirt between her fingers. It didn't help.
She watched the door as it opened. It didn't help. She was just…aware. That was the word for it, right? Aware. Aware that there were boys next to her. That was so weird. There were boys everywhere, this was a coed school after all, but she had never been this aware of a boy before. She was just being weird, that was all, and she had to stop. She had things to do. She just had to get this over with. As soon as that door was opened she'd be able to-
-figure out what in the hell was going on.
"Baby Sister!" said Shigeko…who was in front of her, there, in the clubroom…which made sense. She had been talking about joining a club but…but why…why this one?
"Ha! Told you we'd find a new member! Kageyama was just about to sign this club admission form, thus saving us from certain death!" said Kurata as she threw an arm around Shigeko. Shigeko smiled and looked away, down at her shoes…and now it all made sense.
"Shigeko, no. You don't have to join this club just because she bullied you into it." Said Ritsuko
"Nobody bullied me. I want to join." Said Shigeko simply. Ritsuko honestly couldn't tell if she was lying or not. She had never known Shigeko to even be able to lie but…but the truth made no sense. She WANTED to join? Ritsuko looked around. The table was covered in wrappers, it smelled kind of like a shoe locker, and it was mostly upperclassmen. Boys…well, yeah, ok. There were boys but these boys weren't really anything special. Shigeko could have done better. She must have been tricked and she just didn't know it.
That was fine, that was what Ritsuko was for.
"But that's-" said Ritsuko
"Seriously? Are you out of your mind?" asked Tokugawa. Ritsuko turned to face him. Oh no he didn't….
"No." said Shigeko, without even the slightest hint that she was offended even though she should have been. But that was ok, that was what Ritsuko was there for.
"What grade are you in?" asked Tokugawa
"I'm a second year." Said Shigeko
"Have any experience in any other clubs or organizations?" asked Tokugawa
"None at all." Said Shigeko
"Cram school?" asked Tokugawa
"I don't attend." Said Shigeko
"Any hobbies?" asked Tokugawa
"Well-" said Shigeko
"Don't you have anything better to do with your time than sit here, eat junk food, and play videogames with these lazy pissants?" asked Tokugawa. Ritsuko had never wanted to hit anyone as bad as she wanted to hit him…but she couldn't hit him. If she hit him her reputation would take a hit…forget her reputation! What was she even thinking? If she hit him then Shigeko would freak out and then the whole school would be level and everyone would die! Or at least get seriously injured! She had to keep calm…but she had to do something, too, before Tokugawa set her off!
"Not really. I mean I have a job but I don't make a lot of money, and I don't really need a lot of money anyway since my parents take care of me, and I think that some of the time I spent working would be better spent making friends." Said Shigeko
"Do you have a close friend or a love interest in the telepathy club?" asked Tokugawa
"I have a new friend." Said Shigeko. Kurata pulled her into a side hug and shook her back and forth.
"A best friend! Right, Shigeko?" asked Tome. Shigeko blushed, actually blushed, and looked away. In all their years together as sister Ritsuko had never once seen her that expressive. She must have been incredibly embarrassed. Ritsuko knew that she would have been if she had been in her sister's shoes.
"Right, we're best friends, uh…Tome." Said Shigeko
"So there, now all of you can just get the hell out of here so we can get back to our important work." Said Tome
"We do important work?" asked Shigeko
"Yes! Oh the work we do! The things we do, the important, complicated, world shattering-" said Kurata
"You don't DO anything in here, that's the point! One way or another I'm going to have this club disbanded and-and-and Kageyama, you need to do something about your sister! Do you really want her to end up more of a loser than-" said Tokugawa. Ritsuko may not have been happy about Shigeko being tricked into joining this club but she was downright pissed off at Tokugawa right now. How dare he! Who the hell did he think he was?! That asshole! She had half a mind to beat the living-
She was going to use her words.
"My sister is NOT a loser, and I would have thought that you'd have been the authority on that. Clearly I'm wrong. At least she's got better things to do with her time than conspire to take other clubs down for God only knows what reason." Said Ritsuko. She didn't yell, she didn't curse, and she didn't hit anyone even though she wanted to. She was handling this well…so why was she making a fist?
She put her hands behind her back.
"No reason? No reason! I've given you reason after reason after reason! Let's start with reason number one, shall we? Other clubs need this room and-" sputtered Tokugawa
"Nah, we're fine. We mostly just needed a room to store our stuff, but we can just keep on using the old janitor's closet with the spiders. Sorry to have bothered all of you." said…someone who Ritsuko probably should have known the name of. He led the rest of them out, the room shaking with every step they took. The telepathy club began to high five each other, Shigeko was even included…and she looked so happy…
She better have been after the massive limb Ritsuko had gone out on for her.
"See! I told you all that friendship would preserve over all adversity! But you doubted me! You all doubted-" shouted Kurata
"You're on thin ice, Kurata, thin ice. One of these days I'm going to take you down." Said Tokugawa
"I'm shaking." Said Kurata sarcastically. Tokugawa exhaled and turned to face Ritsuko, anger rolling off of him in waves.
"May I speak to you in the hallway, Miss Kageyama?" Said Tokugawa. Ritsuko shrugged and left the room. Shigeko said bye as she left. Ritsuko didn't have time to say anything back. As soon as the door opened Tokugawa decided to lay into her.
"What was that all about? I brought you with me to back me up and then you completely abandoned me? What the fu-" said Tokugawa
"Don't curse in the halls or I'll have to write you up." said Ritsuko because, well, it was the only thing that she could say. She couldn't tell him off again, once was dangerous enough. She was lucky that she hadn't set Shigeko off back there. If she heard her 'Baby Sister' was fighting in the halls it might have just been enough to reenact-
Nothing. Nothing that she was going to think about right now.
"You insulted my sister. I had no other choice. Now if you'll excuse me I have to bring this form back to the student counsel room and file it before the day's over." Said Ritsuko
"Fine, run back to Kamuro…you wouldn't be so high and mighty, though, if he didn't automatically take your side about everything." Said Tokugawa
"He doesn't automatically take my side, I'm just not a moron. Now if you'll excuse me I really must be going." Said Ritsuko. She heard him mutter something about 'everyone knowing why she was on the student counsel' but ignored it. He was just trying to set her off but she knew better than to take the bait. As much as she wanted to put him in his place, and kick him in the back of the head, she knew better than to risk her reputation and, even, her life.
It just wasn't worth it.
So she walked a little too fast back to the student counsel room. She didn't want to keep on fighting with Tokugawa, and she didn't want to have to deal with telling Shigeko that her 'new friend' was just using her for a room to hang out in and twenty thousand yen. That wasn't going to be a fun conversation…she didn't have the space in her mind for this right now. She took a deep breath and walked, at a normal pace, to where they kept the club files.
She just had to do this, do her rounds, and then she could go home and wait for tomorrow to happen.
"Miss Kageyama? Is everything alright?" asked Kamuro. She took a deep breath and tried to look less angry than she felt. Nothing was ever simple for her, was it?
"I'm fine. I just have to file this club admission form and then I can get back to work. Nothing to worry about here." Said Ritsuko
"Club admission form? This late in the year? The recruiting season ended months ago." Said Kamuro
"I know but this is a…special circumstance, I guess. The Telepathy Club got a new member. Kind of a final hour sort of thing." Said Ritsuko. Kamuro shook his head and clicked his tongue.
"Tokugawa isn't going to be happy about this. I suspect that we'll all be hearing about this at our next meeting." Said Kamuro as Ritsuko filed the form. Moving helped. So did thinking about how much of an idiot Tokugawa was going to make of himself next time he had the floor at one of their meetings. Everyone already couldn't stand him and now he was just going to make everything worse….heh…
She felt like this wasn't the sort of thing she should have been happy about.
"I just got through hearing about it, not much of a preview if you ask me." said Ritsuko. She had mostly been kidding, trying to further lighten the mood for herself, but apparently she had struck a nerve. Kamuro's permanently sleepy eyes narrowed…maybe there was something going on between him and Tokugawa that went beyond arguing at meetings.
"What did he say to you?" asked Kamuro
"Nothing. He was just upset that I didn't back him up when we went to evict the Telepathy Club-" said Ritsuko
"That's not your job. It's his project and he should handle it himself instead of dragging you into things." Said Kamuro quickly. Ritusko shrugged.
"I was more upset about him calling my sister a loser than anything. I can help other people out here and there if I'm needed, it's not a problem." Said Ritsuko. She would have rather not helped everyone out but she wasn't going to say that. She was nice, a nice girl, and nice girls helped people out even though they would have rather been doing anything else.
"That's unacceptable, completely unacceptable. To say something like that to you-to anyone, I mean, isn't acceptable. I'll talk to him, don't worry." Said Kamuro. Ritsuko wanted to tell him that she could handle herself and that she had already talked to him…but then he'd know that she was fighting with her fellow student counsel members and then she could end up suspended or even fired.
So yeah, Tokugawa could deal with that, not her.
"Thank you very much, President Kamuro, I appreciate it." Said Ritsuko
"Anytime. I mean if you need anything I'm happy to help you." said Kamuro quickly. Ritsuko nodded. He nodded. She stopped. He stopped.
And then they sort of got stuck.
She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do here. She felt like it would have been rude to leave, especially since she hadn't been dismissed and Kamuro loved to pretend that they were parliament or something, but she did have things to do. He had things to do, too. In fact he had more to do than all of them. She looked past him and eyed the clock.
They'd been standing there and staring at each other for over a minute.
"I-" said Ritsuko. Of course at the moment he chose to try and say something too. They just wound up bumping into each other, verbally, neither of them getting anywhere.
"Yes?" asked Ritsuko. It was better to let him go first. Maybe now since he'd figured out what to say then she could leave, finally. She didn't really want to spend another minute staring at him. He wasn't that much to look at. Maybe if he got more sleep and washed his hair more often, and brushed it, and maybe if he ironed his uniform once in a while…but no, even then staring at someone for a full minute would have been awkward no matter how nicely he cleaned up.
"Your hair…it's…it's different." Said Kamuro. Ritsuko reached back and grabbed her braid. This wasn't against the rules in any way…so why bring it up?
"My sister did it this morning, pretty much the same way she does hers every morning…" said Ritsuko, waiting for whatever was supposed to come next. He looked at her, then away from her, and then at his shoes.
"It looks nice today, I mean you look nice today. That's all." Said Kamuro. Ritsuko didn't know what this was about but she wasn't about to drag whatever this was out. She didn't think that she looked that nice. She hated braids, her bangs were sticking out again, and aside from the braid she looked pretty normal. She wasn't going to argue, though, she had things to do.
"Thank you, you look nice today too." Said Ritsuko politely. Maybe overly politely. She didn't know what else to say. It was just small talk at this point…though why he was making small talk she would never know. They didn't have that kind of relationship and, anyway, she had never seen him talk to anyone else like this either.
"Really? I mean, yes, thank you…thank you." said Kamuro. Ritsuko checked the clock again. Another full minute. Kamuro turned and followed the path her eyes were taking.
"Oh! Right, yes, I'm keeping you. Just…keep up the good work, Miss Kageyama." Said Kamuro before he practically jumped to the side. She wasn't going to read into this even though it was weird. She was too tired. She needed to finish up and go home. She needed to wrap up what was supposed to have been a perfectly ordinary day.
Though no day was ordinary with a sister like Shigeko.
