Ritsuko had accidentally taken Shigeko's shoes.
She hadn't noticed her mistake until she had gotten to the shoe lockers at school. The entire way to school she had been wondering why her toes felt so crowded, why the ground felt weird, and why the strap was digging into the side of her foot. She hadn't noticed until she pulled her shoes off and saw 'Shigeko' written on the inside. She sighed. There was no point in getting mad at it, it was her mistake.
Or maybe Shigeko's since she had gotten ready first.
She didn't always pay attention to what she was doing. She didn't have to. It wouldn't have been out of the ordinary for her to just throw on whichever pair of shoes she had found first and then left. It wasn't like they were that different when it came to shoe sizes so…so maybe it didn't matter. Maybe she was just making something out of nothing. It wasn't like she had to wear these all day, anyway. She still had her inside shoes.
She checked the name on the inside just to be safe. It still said Ritsuko.
She put her shoes on the ground and was about to slide her feet into them when there was a blinding flash of light. She looked up. Her heart was pounding, her palms were sweating, and she could feel the hair on the back of her neck standing up. That had been-oh. It was most likely that annoying reporter girl with the camera, the one who was always getting into trouble…what had her name been?
Ritsuko closed her locker. She may not have remembered the girl's name but she did remember how to write people up.
"How do you spell your name again?" asked Ritsuko as she walked up to Reporter Girl. The people between them scattered. They knew better than to get caught in the crossfire, or maybe they just didn't feel like having their pictures taken. Ritsuko knew that she sure didn't.
"Hey, wait, stop there. This is perfect, the light is-" said Reporter Girl
"Just tell me your name again so I can write you up." said Ritsuko
"You don't know my name?" asked Reporter Girl. Ritsuko shrugged.
"You're enough of a troublemaker that I recognize you but not enough of a troublemaker that I remember your name. Consider it a good thing." Said Ritsuko. She actually looked like she was considering it. Well, Ritsuko couldn't blame her, there was something weirdly…fun-ish…about breaking rules…but small ones! And not first thing in the morning!
"Mezato Ichi…and there's no way you're writing me. You can't!" said Mezato
"Yes I can. No unauthorized photography on school ground. You just took my picture." Said Ritsuko. Mezato held her camera to her chest like it was a baby.
"It's for the paper, I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die." Said Mezato as she as crossed her heart, the lights beating down from above them reflecting off of her shiny pink nailpolish and right into Ritsuko's eyes. Ritsuko crossed her arms and turned her head to the side. If Mezato kept pushing her she was getting written up for those nails, too. Honestly. Was it really so hard to follow the rules?
She knew that they sucked but it wasn't like they were complicated or anything.
"Question: Why are you taking pictures of me for the paper?" asked Ritsuko. There was also the question of who actually read the paper but she knew better than to ask that. She was supposed to be on the right side of the law, there, the responsible one and it was irresponsible to go around running her mouth and pissing people off like that…even though they had clearly started it.
"I'm doing a whole expose series-" said Mezato
"If it's about corruption in the student council like your last one I'll save you some time. We don't have any." Said Ritsuko. Everyone had all of these weird ideas about the student council. That they embezzled money, that they were secretly controlling the schools, that there was some kind of secret shadow middle schooler government and they were pulling the strings. She had even heard something about secret make out parties happening after hours which, honestly, made even less sense than the shadow government thing. The guys may have been a little cute but their personalities were just so…not good. Boring, stiff, uptight, and the weird pretending to be parliament thing they were so invested in didn't help either.
People were so weird about them…which was fine, just so long as they were weird far away from Ritsuko.
"That's just what someone trying to cover up corruption would say." Said Mezato
"If that's all I have to get to class." Said Ritsuko as she turned to walk away. She felt something under her foot…oh. Another one of those stupid letters. She picked it up. She didn't have to open it to know what was inside. Some guy she either didn't know or barely knew wrote something about how he was in love with her and he wanted to be her boyfriend. She looked around. No lurking boys at least…whatever. She didn't care who it was from.
It was going in the trash.
"Ooh, is that a love letter? Who's it from? Or is it a cypher-" said Mezato, pulling her camera up to her face. Ritsuko could see the lens focusing. She held the letter above her face.
"Are you always this nosy? And pushy?" asked Ritsuko. It was rude to call people names but Mezato was being even ruder so maybe it all cancelled out or something. She didn't know all the rules about this but what she did know was that she didn't want to have to read about her nonexistent love-life in the next issue of the school paper.
"Yeah, of course! A good reporter never backs down when the story's on the line." Said Mezato
"Ok…and what's the story here? Second year student breaks record for number of write ups given in one sitting?" asked Ritsuko, the letter still in front of her face. With the light above her she could kind of see through the envelope. She caught the word 'admire' and 'passion'….she put it down. She didn't care what it said on the inside or who had written it.
"No, and don't write me up. I'm doing an expose series on your sister. It's like an early years thing before she-hey! What are you writing?" asked Mezato as Ritsuko quickly started scribbling down anything and everything she could think of.
"You're still wearing your outside shoes even though we're technically on the 'inside' floor. You're taking pictures without prior authorization. You're wearing cream colored socks when ours have to be stark white. Your hair isn't brushed. Your camera counts as jewelry. You're loitering in the halls. You're harassing me. Also you're wearing nail polish." Said Ritsuko as she wrote as fast as she could. She could hear Mezato choking and gasping. Good. Maybe this would teach her not to bother Ritsuko about Shigeko and her powers.
Mezato was in Shigeko's year, maybe even in her class, she could have asked Shigeko herself instead of bothering Ritsuko.
"You…you're not being serious right now…you're reaching, Kageyama, this is a clear abuse of power and-" said Mezato
"And now you're yelling in the halls." Said Ritsuko
"I was barely even raising my voice and, anyway, I wouldn't have had to if you had just answered my questions." Said Mezato
"I'm not going to. If you want to talk to my sister then talk to her yourself. Just leave me out of this." Said Ritsuko as she turned and walked away, stopping only once to throw the love letter in the trash. She didn't know what it said and she didn't care. She didn't know what Mezato wanted with Shigeko and she didn't care. She didn't know what she was planning on doing with those pictures and she didn't care.
The only thing she cared about was getting to class.
People gave her a wide berth as she walked up the stairs. Apparently people had nothing better to do than watch her write people up. She heard whispers as she passed. She didn't care. They could call her whatever they wanted, she had just been doing her job, and she didn't think that anyone else would have done any differently if they had been in her shoes. She had a job to do and she did it. She hadn't forced Mezato to break all of those rules and it wasn't like she had enjoyed writing her up.
She just took pride in her work, that was all.
The stares and whispers grew silent as she made it to her classroom door. However, before she could reach it, she heard a pair of footsteps match hers. She saw a pair of shoes, boy's school shoes, start to walk along side her feet. She let her eyes trail up. Boy's school pants, boy's school jacket…hmm. She stronger suspected a boy was standing next to her. She prepared to tell him off as she finished dragging her eyes upwards to reveal.
Oh.
"President Kamuro?" asked Ritsuko, blinking a couple of times to make sure that she wasn't seeing things. That was definitely President Kamuro and he was looking as exhausted as ever. She looked around. Just him, no one else…emergency meeting? He had called one once but everyone had voted unanimously to never have a before school meeting without at least a week's notice and…and anyway it was cutting it way too close to class time, anyway, and…and…
And maybe she had been kind of excessive in writing Mezato up.
"Miss Kageyama. I never would have expect to run into you here. I was just on my way to class and-" said Kamuro
"You're class is on the third year's floor, this is the first year's." said Ritsuko. She glanced out the window. She wished that she knew how to tell time based on the position of the sun. If she could have then she would have been able to estimate how much longer she had until the bell rang. If it rang then she could have run to class and spent the whole day thinking up arguments, defenses, as to why it was alright for her to write one person up about so many things…things that actually happened! Ok, yes, that was a good argument and…and she couldn't afford to get in trouble!
What would people say if she did?
"I know, I just…took a detour. I was just wondering if I could talk to you about-" said Kamuro
"I know, I know." said Ritsuko
"You…know?" asked Kamuro. She nodded. He looked just as nervous as she was…probably because the bell was going to ring first. She must have really messed up if the word on what happened had made it to Kamuro this fast and he was risking ruining his perfect attendance record to talk to her about it…but it wasn't like she had broken any rules!
It had still been kind of mean, though, and close enough to an abuse of power that of course he was going to talk to her…great. She couldn't get away with anything, could she?
"I shouldn't have written Mezato up about so many things at once, I'm sorry. I won't submit those write ups and I'll call it a warning, ok?" asked Ritsuko. Kamuro blinked.
"Wait…you wrote someone up? This early in the morning? School hasn't even started yet. What could she have possibly been doing this early in the morning?" asked Kamuro
"Just Mezato. She was taking pictures and being nosy and yelling and she had nail polish on so…so I wrote her up. But I can take those back if you want me to." Said Ritsuko
"No, no, don't. I'm impressed, actually. I never knew you could be so ruthless." Said Kamuro. Ritsuko didn't know how she felt about being called 'ruthless'. She liked it but she didn't like that she liked it. She wasn't supposed to be ruthless, she was supposed to be the good one, she was supposed to be nice and…and perfect, all the time.
Even if she didn't want to be.
"Thank you…um…I guess." said Ritsuko
"You're welcome." Said Kamuro as he played with the strap of his bag. She glanced out the window again. The sun was still moving but for some reason she and Kamuro were standing in one place. Had she missed something? If she wasn't in trouble then she didn't need to be here. She had to get to class before she ruined her own perfect attendance record. If she didn't get that certificate at the end of the year then Mom wouldn't have had one to hang up with the others, there was an unbroken line of them in the hallway starting with kindergarten aside from that one year, and then she'd do that thing where she sighed and talked about how disappointed she was.
Yeah, no, there was no way Ritsuko was going to go through a lifetime of that.
"So, yeah, if there's nothing else than I guess we should just get to class because, you know, the bell." Said Ritsuko
"R-Right! The bell. I was just…just wondering if I could talk to you about one thing before it rang." Said Kamuro
"Fine, if it can't wait until after school." said Ritsuko
"It can't." said Kamuro. Then he paused. He just stopped talking but kept on staring at her. She didn't know what she was supposed to say. For something that was so urgent he sure did like to take his sweet time. Well that was fine, he could take up as much of his own time as he wanted, but she had to get to class.
"Is it important or can I get to class?" asked Ritsuko
"It's important. I was just wondering if you'd checked your locker this morning. If there had been anything in it, I mean." Said Kamuro. Ritsuko turned her head to the side. What was he even….wait, yes, now she remembered.
"I got a letter this morning but I threw it out." Said Ritsuko
"You…you threw it out. Did you…did you at least read it first?" asked Kamuro
"No, I never read them. They're always the same, anyway. Why? Is someone doing prank love letters again?" asked Ritsuko. Who had time to be writing fake love letters? Didn't people have lives? What was even the point? Oh, yes, so funny to get people's hopes up…people were so stupid sometimes.
"Prank…yes! Someone's been giving out prank letters, it's becoming a real nuisance. It's not funny at all. You could really hurt someone like that. Not that you'd be hurt, I mean you must get a lot of love letters…." Said Kamuro. He was shaking, now. Nervous…well maybe if he had taken the time to talk to her about this at a normal time he wouldn't have had anything to be nervous about.
"Are we going to do something about it?" asked Ritsuko. That could be fun…a good use of their time and resources. Finding whoever was behind this and punishing them…well, this was probably something to turn over to the teachers…but still. It could have been a good use of their time. Better than pretending to be parliament, anyway.
"We are but…but not now. You're sure that you didn't read it, though?" asked Kamuro
"No, but if it's so important I can go back and-" said Ritsuko as the bell rang. Kamuro nearly jumped. That was the most active she'd ever seen him. He was really red after that…maybe he needed the nurse. Well if he did then he could get himself there. She was late! She walked briskly to her classroom as the bell rang, running would just get her in more trouble, and she managed to slip into her desk before her teacher noticed.
Safe.
The people coming in after her weren't so lucky. Well then it sucked to be them. She had been fast enough to make it and even if she hadn't been…the thought of being late to class gets her heart beating more than it should have. Really, it was just a tardy…but she'd never gotten one before. Not even when she had been little. It would have been nice to get one, maybe, because then she wouldn't have had to worry about that stupid attendance reward.
But then Mom would have been mad.
It didn't even matter, she had made it to class on time as far as her teacher knew, so the whole thing was a pointless thought exercise. She couldn't let it take up any more room in her head, not when she had school stuff to do. She sat up straight and put on her most serious face. She pretended like she was giving her teacher her full attention. She didn't have to, though, she could pass just from half listening. Her mind could wander where it pleased but she would still get at least a ninety five on whatever was assigned. Tests, quizzes, homework, bell ringers, all of it. She didn't have to pay attention at all, even, maybe…
But she did.
She did because that was who she was. She was Kageyama Ritusko, a good model student, not someone who ever would have stared off into space and daydreamed during class. She knew how important it was to study and learn and she had to model it for everyone else. Even if it bothered her, a little, that everyone was supposedly always looking to her. Even if maybe she wished she had been consulted before everyone decided that she had to be a model student. Maybe if people could just sit down, shut up, and do the work then maybe she could take a break every once in a while.
But no, that was never going to happen.
People made no sense sometimes. They had rules, the rules were written down where everyone could read and memorize them, and you didn't get in trouble unless you broke a rule. If you followed the rules you'd have an easy life, a good one, where nothing bad happened. If you broke them then you made your life harder…and also more exciting, though it made no sense.
The people around her made no sense sometimes…she wondered if this was how Shigeko felt all the time.
She had said, before, when they had been little that people had always been very confusing. She never knew what they meant by what they said. It was like they were speaking in riddles. Ritsuko kind of understood that part, it was annoying when people said things they didn't mean, but what was really confusing was why people did things to make their lives harder? Did they want to be worried all the time? Did they want people to be disappointed in them? Did they want people to think badly of them? Was a little excitement worth that much?
Ritsuko didn't know…but she knew better than to try and find out.
So she went through her day as normally as possible. One class passed, and then another, and then another, and then lunch, and then before she knew it the day had gone by. Nothing interesting happened. Mezato even left her alone for the rest of the day. She had expected her to pop out during lunch at least but apparently she had learned her lesson. Once the day was over all that was left was student council and then she was done.
Or not.
"Kageyama, a word?" asked Tokugawa as he stopped her just as her hand made contact with the door to the student council room. She sighed and turned around, trying to at least look neutral. Her eyes darted upwards. His hair had been parted extra pompously today.
"Yes, Vice President Tokugawa? Can't this wait until we're inside?" asked Ritsuko
"Well since everything's cancelled today no, it can't." said Tokugawa. Ritsuko tried the door. It was locked…but why would everything be cancelled. If they hadn't cancelled their meeting the time the animal rights club freed all of those frogs in the school, even though they dissected pre-killed ones, then why would they be cancelled now?
"This is so weird…" muttered Ritsuko
"President Kamuro wasn't feeling well today and went home…and cancelled everything….damn it, Shinji…" muttered Tokugawa
"Why would he cancel everything? And not tell me?" asked Ritsuko. If she had been him then she would have set this entire thing up to discredit him, maybe even as a bid for power…but he was already the Vice President. There wasn't any way he could get any higher unless they held another election…wait, he was trying to discredit Kamuro then but…but why…
"I don't know, maybe he doesn't have your number. All I know is that he texted me right after the bell rang and told me to tell everyone that everything was cancelled, we could all go home, and…well he said to 'let it burn' but he's just being dramatic." Said Tokugawa
"I can't imagine President Kamuro being dramatic." Said Ritsuko. She really couldn't. High strung? Yes. Bossy? Of course. Full of himself? Duh. But dramatic?
"I've known him longer…anyway, I need to talk to you about your sister." Said Tokugawa. Ritsuko narrowed her eyes.
"If you want to talk to my sister then do it yourself." Said Ritsuko. What was it with everyone wanting to know about Shigeko's powers? She was Shigeko, she had powers, sometimes she lost control of them, sometimes she just used them to brush her hair. She wasn't that interesting. Her powers…her powers weren't that interesting…it wasn't like she had asked for them…and it wasn't like she used them for anything interesting either.
"I would if I could but I don't even know how to address this and, anyway, it's just easier if girls dress code other girls." Said Tokugawa
"Dress code?" asked Ritsuko. Shigeko had broken the dress code? Did she even own anything that could break the dress code? Aside from her hair ribbons or maybe if she was wearing the wrong color socks but that wasn't anything to go bothering her about. Usually she was asked to dress code other girls about rolled up skirts, make up, hickies, and other stuff like that.
"Just…talk to your sister, please? She should still be in her club room. I just…I can't." said Tokugawa. Ritsuko was torn. On the one hand she wanted to tell him to do his own job but on the other she didn't want Shigeko to get written up…though for what she didn't know. They weren't allowed to wear make up, they didn't even own any, or any nail polish for that matter. They didn't have any jewelry, nothing real anyway, and Shigeko didn't even like jewelry. She couldn't think of any other way that Shigeko could have possibly broken the dress code, let alone gotten Tokugawa so frazzled that he was in danger of messing up his hair.
Apparently, Ritsuko just wasn't very creative.
"Why do you have to have so much hair? This is impossible." Ritsuko heard the girl before she saw her. Shigkeo's new friend, Kurata Tome. They were all alone in the club room, the boys were hanging out in the hallway doing push ups or playing videogames, things that she didn't feel like writing them up for. She had to worry about Shigeko and…and what she was wearing.
It was a uniform but it wasn't their uniform.
"My Mom won't let me cut it-Baby Sister! What are you doing here?" asked Shigeko as she stood in front of a full length mirror, the edges covered in motivational stickers.
"What am I doing here? What are you doing here, Shigeko?" asked Ritsuko
"This is my club room…well, kind of. Tome told the body improvement club that they could work out in here if it rained and it looks kind of grey outside but it's still the telepathy club's room and-" said Shigeko
"And we will not stand for this blatant harassment! You can't force us out! You have no ground, and I will fight this all the way Petty Bench, the Grand bench, and…and the Prime Minister!" said Kurata as she waved a handful of bobby pins in Ritsuko's face. The rest, she assumed, were keeping Shigeko's braids in place for…cosplay?
As a Black Vinegar Student, apparently.
"The Prime Minister doesn't have power over the Supreme Court like that and, anyway, there's no bench past the Grand bench." Said Ritsuko as she pushed Kurata's hand out of her face.
"You're so smart, Baby Sister, you know everything." Said Shigeko as Kurata muttered something that Ritsuko was sure she could have written her up for if she hadn't been so focused on Shigeko.
"Thanks, but I don't know everything. Like why are you cosplaying as a guy from Black Vinegar?" asked Ritsuko
"I'm doing an exorcism in disguise, remember? Master Reigen said that because I look more like a boy than he does he trusts me to do this all by myself." Said Shigeko. Ritsuko groaned. Reigen.
"Yeah, I remember now…can't you just 'not' and say that you did? You could get into a lot of trouble. There and here." Said Ritsuko
"Uh-huh, and what rules is she breaking, Miss Student Council." Asked Kurata
"My sister's is out of uniform, going to infiltrate another school wearing their uniform, and also…also that's a boy's uniform." Said Ritsuko, trying not to lose it. This was Shigeko's friend. She must have really cared about Kurata even though she was loud and annoying. Shigeko was staring at her, not blinking, which Ritsuko assumed meant that she liked her…and Kurata wasn't being nasty to Shigeko, unlike some former friends of theirs…
She would play nice. For now.
"Yeah, uh-huh, and how are you going to write her up for being both out of uniform and in a guy's uniform? It can't be both, you know." said Kurata
"Wow Tome…you should be a lawyer…but please don't fight with my baby sister, she's very sensitive." Said Shigeko
"I'm not sensitive…" muttered Ritsuko. That was rich, coming from Shigeko. She was the one who made the whole house shake every time she…Ritsuko had to calm down. She was being mean. Shigeko was her sister and she loved her…and it didn't matter that Shigeko lost control sometimes. Ritsuko smoothed her bangs down just in case, taking care not to feel the scar on her forehead for too long.
"It's alright, Ritsuko, I know you get upset easily. It doesn't matter and…and Tome, please don't fight with Ritsuko. I'm going to do this and even if I get in trouble it'll be worth it because I'm helping people…but please don't get me in trouble." Said Shigeko. Ritsuko, if she had been meaner, would have told Shigeko that she was getting herself in trouble by doing this. But she wasn't going to be mean to her sister. She nodded and forced herself to smile.
"Alright, Sister, but just be careful." Said Ritsuko as she stapled a smile to her face. One that she knew would be lost on Shigeko, she never paid attention to expressions. Her new friend was glaring daggers, though…Ritsuko kept on smiling.
No need to set Shigeko off.
So she compromised everything that she had ever worked for. So she looked the other way. So she went home, a smile stapled to her face every step of the way. She had to smile, too look happy, because that way maybe the inside would start to reflect the outside. Maybe then she would stop thinking about how Shigeko got to do whatever she wanted to do. She could break whatever rules she wanted to, even the big ones, but Ritsuko had to do everything right. The rules were right there in black and white where anyone could read them, even Shigeko, and she had just chosen not to or…or to ignore them…and for Reigen!
Shigeko would have done anything for that guy…even stupid stuff like this!
There was no arguing with Shigeko when it came to Reigen and, now, it looked like she had another friend to bring out the worst in her. Someone who hadn't ever seen her at her worst. Someone who didn't know what happened when she lost control or, worse, if she ever got it in her head to use her powers to be…to be someone else…
Shigeko wasn't that kind of person.
She didn't think like that. She didn't have those same kind of stray thoughts that Ritsuko had. Ritsuko may have been the good sister on the outside but Shigeko was the good sister on the inside and…and the inside mattered more, right? Or maybe the outside since that was what everyone saw…she kept smiling. She smiled all the way home. She smiled up the sidewalk, into her yard, past the doorway, and into the genkan. She even smiled as she entered her empty house.
Then, and only then, could she stop.
"Hello?" asked Ritsuko as she smile fell. She didn't know what she had been expecting, of course nobody was home. Mom and Dad were obviously still at work and Shigeko…she had no idea when Shigeko was planning on coming home. How long did undercover exorcisms even take? She was probably going to be home late again. Ritsuko was all alone.
Mostly.
She felt like she was being watched. He hair on the back of her neck was starting to stand on end. Goosebumps started appearing on her arms. The temperature dropped. She went to the thermostat. She knew that Dad had said never to touch it, the price of fuel and stuff like that, but someone had obviously accidentally turned the air conditioning on or something. She turned on the light and checked the screen. It was supposed to be seventy two and the air wasn't even on…it must have been broken.
She reached out to fix it.
Slimy. That was the first word to enter Ritsuko's mind. Then cold. Then green, finally, as she saw what looked like a huge glob of snot stuck to the thermostat. It seemed to be crawling up her arm and…and she couldn't move! She felt so cold and weird and…and…and she took a step back. She forced herself to move. She forced everything she had into moving back and-and that thing was stuck to her arm! She had to get it off!
So she did the only thing she could think to do. She banged her arm against the wall.
"Hey! What the hell?!" shouted the…snot? It was talking to her? She slammed her arm against the wall again and again and again. It didn't seem to do anything but make her arm hurt. She made a fist and punched it into the wall as hard as she could…and it seemed that she was stronger than she had ever thought.
There was a hole in the wall now.
"Hey, c'mon kid!? What kind of welcome is this?!" shouted the snot. Ritsuko pulled her arm back. Thankfully the snot seemed stuck to the wall and…and no, it wasn't. It started to hover in mid air! It was…it had eyes?! It was coming into focus, now, like she was looking through a camera lens. She could see eyes and lips and….and dimples? Red cheeks. It might have looked kind of cute, even, if it wasn't attached to some kind of weird hallucination she was having.
"I'm crazy…I went crazy….ok." said Ritsuko before she turned and walked away. She was crazy, she knew that, and now the healing could begin…but first she had to do something about the hole in the wall. If Mom and Dad saw that they'd freak out and she'd be in so much trouble! She wasn't that crazy, she knew that they wouldn't be happy about this, and…and she was sane enough to think of a plan but…but what?! She couldn't think.
It was hard to think when you had hallucinations snapping their fingers in your face.
"Hey, little girl? Anyone in there?" asked the hallucination. Ritsuko waved it away, her hand slapping against it's body and leaving her with a slimy feeling all over. She wiped her hand on her skirt…great. Now she was going to have to do laundry in secret too.
"I know that I'm losing my mind and all but can you come back later? I really have to figure out what I'm going to do about this hole you made me put in the wall." Said Ritsuko as she took a step back. That wasn't a big hole, something could have gone in front of it, but what…
"I made you? I was just trying to shake hands, you're the one who decided to try and give me a beat down!" said the hallucination. Ritsuko looked around the room. She could have just pushed the bookshelf in front of it…but that would have blocked the thermostat…
"Move." Said Ritsuko. She decided that the best thing to do would have been to move the bookcase. When Mom and Dad noticed, which of course they would, she would own up to it but right now she didn't feel like dealing with them being mad at her. She was losing her mind and that was enough of a problem without adding this. The not hallucination didn't move, it just looked at her like she was crazy. She wondered what this said about her psychologically.
Probably nothing good.
"Fine, be that way." Said Ritsuko as she tried to push the bookcase. It was heavy, it would have been easier if she'd had time to take the books off, but she didn't have that kind of time. Mom and Dad would be home sooner or later, it depended on what they had to do at work, and she had no idea how she was supposed to explain a hole in the wall.
"You know I could help you with that, if you wanted me to." Said the hallucination
"How? You're just a figment of my imagination." Said Ritsuko as she heard the bookshelf grinding across the floor and…and that wasn't good. There were big scratches on the floor now. She had no idea how she was supposed to hide those….oh! She was going to be in so much trouble!
At least if she got in trouble it would be the longest possible time before she got in more trouble.
The hallucination was hovering in front of her now, it's eyes were looking into hers. It had kind of cute eyes, like it could have been from Sanrio, like a Halloween character or something. Like a cute snot glob, or slime ball, or…she smelled it. It smelled weird, kind of like incense, incense and dirt…was it a good sign that she knew it was a hallucination despite being this detailed or a bad sign that it was this detailed in a first place.
She reached out to touch it. It floated through her hand.
"Do I feel like a figment of your imagination?" asked the hallucination.
"If I imagined a giant snob glob, yeah." Said Ritsuko as she took in her handy work. It wasn't the best but it would do. The hallucination floated back in front of her face. She poked it again and pulled her finger back. There was a layer of something slimy on it. When she pulled her finger back a length of something slimy but thin and shiny, like a spider web, came off of the hallucination. It disappeared as she watched it….but she didn't know to where.
"For the love of-I'm not a snob glob! Or a hallucination! I just so happen to be a very powerful evil spirit, thank you very much!" said the…spirit. This was…this made a lot more sense than her losing her mind, since she had no reason to, but also no sense at all. Shigeko was the one who could see spirits, not her, she had always been a little afraid of them…back when she had been a little kid. But she wasn't a little kid now.
She knew what she had to do.
"You want to shake hands properly this time-hey!" said the spirit. Ritsuko grabbed onto it and bashed it against the floor. She threw it down and jumped on it. She didn't really know how to exorcise a spirit, Shigeko had always just sort of waved her hand and they disappeared, but she was going to do her best!
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" asked the spirit as it floated upwards through her shoe. She quickly took a step back and closed her legs while pulling her skirt tightly around herself.
"Exorcising you, obviously. I can't have an evil spirit in the house." Said Ritsuko
"Yeah, yeah, you're Shigeko's sister alright." Said the spirit
"You know my sister?" asked Ritsuko
"Of course I do. She's the one who so rudely broke up my religious group, and for no reason too! She just came in, wrecked everything, and went on her merry way. Left me completely body-less." Said the spirit
"Shigeko told me something about that the other day…" said Ritsuko. Some people had dogs and cats follow them home, Shigeko had spirits. This was…weird. This was really weird…but then again it was also kind of exciting. She was seeing a spirit. This meant…she didn't want to get her hopes up about what this meant. She took her hopes and stomped them down like Sunday's garbage. She didn't have powers. Not like Shigeko did. And even if she did then…then…
Then she could have done whatever she wanted.
"I know, I was there. Here. Your sister's been ignoring me for days on end…me!? Her old pal Dimple! Just waiting for me to get bored and get a move on." Said the spirit…Dimple? She could see that. It wasn't really a name, of course, unless you were naming a cat or something but maybe he had a real name and he'd forgotten it. Spirits were immortal, right? Did he remember when he died? Or how? Or-
She was starting to get too excited. She stomped that feeling down too.
"Why don't you, then, before my sister comes home and exorcises you." said Ritsuko
"She wouldn't do that. She's got this rule about not exorcising low level spirits who aren't bothering anyone…ha! Me, low level. As if…" said Dimple
"You're bothering me. Now go away." Said Ritsuko. This was something that she didn't even want to touch. The last thing that she needed to do was to get her hopes up. She wasn't going to get powers, if she did they wouldn't be anything like Shigeko's, but anyway she wasn't. She didn't need them. She was the good one. She was the one Mom and Dad were proud of. She was the one who everyone was proud of. She wasn't even supposed to want psychic powers and…and yet…
She did.
"Wait! Don't make me go! I don't have enough spiritual energy to survive out there on my own. I've been hanging around the house to leech some but it's been slow going." Said Dimple
"Not my problem." Said Ritsuko as she turned and walked away from what she wanted. She had wanted powers and now she could see spirits…water. She needed a drink of water right now. She made her way to the kitchen, Dimple following her the whole way.
"Now hold on a minute!" said Dimple as he stopped in front of her. She reached through him and opened the cabinet with their drinking glasses. Shigeko's Hello Kitty glass was in front of hers. She moved it carefully, her arm sticking out of Dimple the whole time. It felt weird and cold and slimy…but she had to get to her glass without knocking over Shigeko's-
-she should have just taken Shigeko's glass out first.
"Now look what you made me do." Said Ritsuko as she took in the broken glass on the counter in front of her. She wished she could have exorcised him. She wished that she had gotten rid of him the second she had first laid eyes on him. She wished that she could delete every memory of him from her mind and-
-and the glass kept on shattering.
"What the…" said Ritsuko
"See? I can help you! You may be a late bloomer but you've got a lot of potential." Said Dimple
"Late….late bloomer?" asked Ritsuko. She had never been a late bloomer at anything. She had always been taller than Shigeko, at least when they had been kids, and she had always been first. The first to be able to sleep without a nightlight, the first to be able to take a bath on her own, the first to be able to walk to the store by herself, the first to be able to do her own hair, the first to get her period, the first to move on from an undershirt, the first to get a love letter, the first to be allowed to use the stove, the first to….she had always been first. But now she was second and…and it felt weird. Part of her maybe wanted to be first, part of her was happy to have powers at all, but another part of her wished she didn't have them…that she didn't want them.
She wasn't supposed to want them let alone have them.
"Yeah. Sometimes humans get their powers later in life. I bet with a little work you could catch up to your sister in no time." Said Dimple
"Catch…catch up to Shigeko?" asked Ritsuko. That was…she didn't even know what that was. Something she wasn't supposed to want but…she looked down at her hand. She felt weird. Good weird…excited weird…happy weird. Weirdly happy. She could catch up to Shigeko…she could have anything.
She could do anything.
"You could even surpass her, you know, with my help." Said Dimple
"No. I can't surpass her. I shouldn't even be thinking like this." Said Ritsuko
"Sure you could. Open that drawer there and take a spoon out." Said Dimple. Ritsuko didn't want to…she shouldn't have wanted to surpass Shigeko but…but she wanted to see if she could. She took a spoon out of the drawer and held it. She stared at her upside-down reflection, her reflection looked back. Dimple had no reflection…maybe she was imagining things…
"Now what?" asked Ritsuko
"Now try and bend it. Come on, you can do it. You've seen your sister do it a thousand times before." Said Dimple. He really had been hanging out at their house for a while…why hadn't she been able to notice him? Were psychic powers one of those things that just snuck up on you, like how sometimes you just woke up in a pool of your own blood and your mom was congratulating you for some reason…better. This was probably a lot better…or it would have been, anyway, if the spoon would just bend already!
Come on!
"It's not bending!" said Ritsuko as she tried to put everything she had into bending the spoon in her hand. It didn't bend, it didn't even hint at bending, it was just being stubborn. She glared at it…nothing. Shigeko bent and twisted these things all the time on accident but she couldn't make it move a single centimeter!
"Look down." Said Dimple. Ritsuko looked down and…oh. The entire cutlery drawer was ruined. She had even managed to twist the chopsticks up…Mom was going to kill her. She needed to get all of this straightened out before she got in trouble! She wasn't supposed to get in trouble! She took a spoon from the drawer and held it in her hands. She had to fix it…she had done this but she had to fix it…
But she didn't want to fix it.
"I did this." Whispered Ritsuko to the spoon in her hand. She had powers. This was proof. She could do…she could do so much. She felt lighter. She could be more like Shigeko. Nobody ever asked anything of Shigeko, nobody ever told her what to do or where to go…she hardly ever even heard the word 'no'. All of Ritsuko's life had been a series of 'nos' one after the other…because she had to be good…because she had to be better….because one of them had to be…
But what if neither of them were?
"I shouldn't have done this." Said Ritsuko. If neither of them were the good one then…then she had no idea what would happen. This wasn't who she was. She didn't know who she was anymore. She didn't know what she wanted anymore. Powers…of course she had wanted powers and now she had them and…and she had done this. This was going to piss Mom and Dad off and they had enough to worry about with Shigeko and…and…and this is the kind of thing that Shigeko would have done!
But not the kind of thing that she would have undone.
"I have to fix this." Said Ritsuko as she started to unbend the spoon in her hand. She wanted to leave it but she wanted things to be alright at home, too. So she got to work.
"Why? Just leave it, who cares." Said Dimple
"My parents would." Said Ritsuko
"You really are Shigeko's sister, aren't you?" asked Dimple
"Stop saying that, clearly I am…and it's whatever. I have powers now, too, it's…it's whatever." Said Ritsuko as she got to unbending everything she had bent. She picked up the last of the spoons…the last of the evidence. The proof that she could do this. She had to undo it, to fix it, before someone noticed. She had to put it back in the drawer. She had to do what she was supposed to do.
She put it in her pocket.
She had never stolen anything before, that is if it counted as stealing if it was from your own kitchen. It maybe didn't but the feeling of the spoon in her pocket was exciting all the same. She wasn't supposed to have done this, any of this, and now she had proof that she could…proof that anyone could find. She had to hide this before anyone did. She rushed upstairs and to her room, slamming the door even though she wasn't supposed to do that either. Dimple floated through the door just as she was hiding there spoon in her pencil holder. Hidden in plain sight. Nobody would ever have looked there and if they did…not that she wanted them to…
Or maybe she did.
"You know, Little Ritsuko, you could do more than bend spoons if you wanted to." Said Dimple
"Like what?" asked Ritsuko
"Anything! You've got potential, kid, a lot of it and you're lucky that I just so happened by. I could help you unlock your potential and send you rocketing right to the top." Said Dimple
"The top…" said Ritsuko. Stronger then Shigeko, he meant, but that wasn't something that she was supposed to want. She wasn't supposed to want powers in the first place and she certainly wasn't supposed to want to beat her sister. They loved each other, they were supposed to support each other, they were supposed to get along. That was what she had been hearing for her entire life, anyway, how important it was to get along with her sister…even though she could see things that weren't there. Even though she could make things float. Even though she could lose control at any time…
If she did then Ritsuko could finally protect herself.
"Tell me how to get to the top." Said Ritsuko as she flattened her bangs over the scar on her head.
"Now we're talking! Alright, the first thing you'll need is help channeling your powers. You've got plenty of psychic energy but right now it's all over the place. If you let me borrow your body then I could-" said Dimple
"You want to possess me?" said Ritsuko. She had never been possessed before but she had seen a lot of movies. There was no way she was going to let that thing inside of her body. She wasn't going to be turned into a puppet! For all she knew her head was going to turn all the way around and she was going to start vomiting pea soup everywhere!
"Just for a little while, you'll hardly even know that I'm here." Said Dimple. Ritsuko shook her head and stood up.
"I've seen the all the Exorcist movies, I know how that's going to end. No thank you. I'm fine the way I am, thank you very much, now move. I have to do my homework." Said Ritsuko
"You can't believe everything you see on TV, you know! I just need to borrow…or, share. I just need to share your body for a little bit. Think about it, it'll be the best of both worlds for both of us. You get to skip right to the top and I get enough psychic energy to get back to the spirit I used to be. It's a win-win situation for the both of us!" said Dimple. Ritsuko shook her head.
"No way, now move. I have to do my homework." Said Ritsuko. Dimple crossed his arms and grew tiny legs…which he parked right on her desk.
"Nope, not until you hear me out. I've got other points and-" said Dimple
"Then you can make them right here to yourself. I'm going to go do my homework downstairs." Said Ritsuko as she left her room. Her backpack was still downstairs anyway…it wasn't like her to leave it there. This whole day had just been one thing after another and…and she had to get back to normal, somehow, even though she was beginning to forget what normal was. That morning she had thought that this was just going to be a normal day. School, student council, home, and then rinse and repeat. One day like the day before….but now…now this big thing had happened and….and…
And she had homework to do.
Dimple followed her downstairs, chatting in her ear the whole time about how he could help her, how he was going to take good care of her body. About how they would be more like roommates who lived in the same head than whatever she was thinking. She didn't want to listen. If she listened then maybe she would agree and if she agreed then…then she could have been lost forever. Yes, that was the only thing she was worried about. She didn't even want to be the best even if it meant that she would never have to be scared again…even if it meant…
She couldn't listen to this anymore.
She turned the TV on. She didn't care what was on. There were some people talking about some new restaurant that had opened. Parent TV. She didn't care, the noise was just there to drown Dimple out. She didn't need silence to work, she didn't even need to think. She just dragged her pencil across the page and the answers came. Solve for X. Describe photosynthesis. Translate the paragraph to English. Define these kanji that no one used. She barely even had to think. The answers just came…she liked it.
She liked having the answers.
She liked having all the answers…until she didn't. Until, suddenly, the conversation on the TV turned from all the amazing things they were doing with vegan meat substitute these days to a breaking news bulletin…about a phenomenon happening at Black Vinegar Middle School…Ritsuko turned it up. Even Dimple finally shut up. There, right there on the best TV Costco had, was what looked like a school coming apart and flying into the sky! Or somehow coming back down and putting it's self together…she didn't know how to describe it but she knew what had happened. Shigeko's doing, of course…
Shigeko had lost control again.
She scooted until she was perched on the edge of the couch cushion. Mom and Dad weren't home yet. Good. They didn't need to see this, they didn't need to be worried about this. They didn't need to see how…how Ritsuko should have been there! She should have been there and she should have stopped this somehow…not that she could have.
At least not before…
"Damn. Someone must have really pissed your sister off, huh?" asked Dimple
"No. She just does that sometimes. She gets mad or sad or scared…sometimes even for no reason…" said Ritsuko
"What I wouldn't give to have that kind of power." Said Dimple, shaking his…head? She didn't know where his body ended and his head began. She didn't care. She had more important things to worry about. She turned the TV up. There weren't any reported deaths or injuries but…but there was still time. Nobody had reported what had happened back then, either, what had happened to those two older guys who'd tried to steal their new year's money…if not for Ritsuko's scar it was like it had never happened…but it had happened…
And it had happened again. But there wouldn't be another time.
"How do you get that kind of power?" asked Ritsuko. She didn't want…she did want that kind of power. She wanted to be that strong so that she could do whatever she wanted…whatever it took to stop Shigeko if she ever got like that again. If she ever lost control. Ritsuko knew what it was like to be in the middle of that and…and she had been powerless before, all those years ago, but she wasn't powerless now.
She didn't have to be.
"Do you want to find out?" asked Dimple, wiggling his eyebrows. She nodded.
"Yes. Possess me or…or however this works." Said Ritsuko. She closed her eyes and held out her arms. For a moment she didn't feel anything, just a slimy feeling passing over her and a slight chill…but then the chill got worse. She got colder. She started to shiver. She pulled the blanket off the top of the couch. She knew what Mom would have said, that these were just for decoration, but right now she didn't care. She just wanted the shivering to stop. Her whole body was shivering so hard the couch was vibrating. She was…she was glowing! A cool, cold, blue glow mixing with a sickly green…the blue was winning…
'Stop fighting it, Ritsuko! You're going to expel me!' She heard Dimple shouting in her…in her mind? She could hear him just as clearly as she could hear her own thoughts. She tried to relax. She let the green win…the shivering stopped but the slimy feeling stayed. She felt so…so weird. Slimy, kind of…cold…but at least the shivering had stopped.
"Ok, now what?" asked Ritsuko
'Now you…wait. Why am I so tired? Damn it! I'm so weak I can't…hold…on…' she heard Dimple yawn. She looked down at her hand. There was still some of that green glow around her but it was getting dimmer and dimmer by the second. She made a fist and tried to glow again…and she did. Blue. That same cool blue…it felt good.
This felt good.
She made herself glow again. Dimple had gone to sleep. She didn't know when he'd wake up or what would happen but she did know that this…this was…she liked this. She waved her hand. Her mechanical pencil snapped in half. Led rolled onto the carpet. She tried to pick it up….and it snapped again. She knew that it didn't take much to snap it but she still felt strong. Strong enough to be able to do…to do anything…anything at all…
Now she finally knew what it was like to be Shigeko, to be in her shoes, and she liked it.