Like the way white and black fuzzes on a broken television screen, her mind didn't process anything until color bled into her vision.
There was a man seeping red, dying, in front of her right up until he wasn't. His body dissolved into the snow flying around them, a hurricane of static. Around them, herself and the boy who looked much too young to be so serious and so much taller than her.
His soft words tensed her body up when he bent down and took her hands.
"Are you okay? Did he hurt you anywhere?"
Why are you saying that to me? You're the one who attacked a grown man.
But really, she didn't reply with anything. Her arms were shaking and the blood on her gloves was quickly drying in the cold air. If she spoke, her voice would probably shatter like ice.
"...Let's get you somewhere safe," he said after she gave no answer.
And then he did something even less boyish than kill a person.
Bats broke out of the ground, shaking off the snow. They crawled up her and the boy's legs and one blink later, they were enveloped by them. The bats' wings brushed up against her clothing, eachother, the air. She knew she was flying, soaring above a blank field high in the heavens, even as her vision was obscured by black fur.
A while later, after she found herself settling into this new skin of hers, they touched down to a stone ground and the bats flew off to scatter against the dark sky. The building ahead stood firmly in front of them, gothic and small. He led her up the high steps and knocked on the door three times. Not five seconds later a tall, blond-haired man answered.
Hey, isn't everyone a bit too tall here?
"Kaname-san," the man softly said, surprise and concern covering his features.
"Kurosu-san, something happened." the boy Kaname replied.
They were quickly let in.
The entrance area didn't look like it belonged to a home. More like a formal receiving place for an office. Light wooden chairs and a couch pressed up against the walls. A bit more than a few plants stood out in the bright, yellow light.
Kaname turned to her and took her hands again, "Yuuki, can you wait here while Kurosu-san and I talk?"
"It'll be just a little bit, okay, Yuuki-chan?" Kurosu said, giving a strained smile.
An awkward silence muddled the air until she realized she was expected to respond this time. After receiving an abrupt nod, Kaname squeezed her hands and went with Kurosu to a room to the left.
Immediately after they closed the door, she went up and pressed her ear against it.
Nothing.
Are they even whispering or is the wood really that thick?
She backed off and wandered around the room. Really, it felt like she was back in secondary school, sent to the principal's office. Maybe Kaname was in there speaking with Kurosu like a parent would to the administrator.
Yes, I know she wandered off outside and ran into a creepy man. I even had to murder him to get him to back off! But please don't expel her; she's such a good student.
There were a few photos on the walls. If she raised her head high enough she could make out a man smiling in front of a black, ornate gate opened wide to show off a great, prestigious looking structure. It was like a cross between an English palace and a cathedral.
Even a building in a picture emphasized the discrepancy in size between her and her surroundings. She felt small, cold, and wet, now that the ice was melting from her clothes, but that didn't mean she actually was small.
And yet.
Everything seemed to indicate she was a child. From how large a simple chair was to the way Kaname and Kurosu treated her. She wasn't though, that was the truth. She was a grown adult. Someone who had a life, who had loved ones out there, somewhere, while she was here, standing around like a—
The door swung open.
"Yuuki-chan~!"
Kurosu looked brighter than before. Oh, good. Maybe she wasn't expelled after all. Kaname walked steadily towards her and stopped, not even touching her.
"Yuuki, Kurosu-san is going to take care of you and you'll get to live with him. He's a good person, even if a little weird," a noise of protest came from behind him. "I'll come back for you, Yuuki. So please wait for me."
He gave her a heavy look, which settled strange on a face as young as his, but hey, she couldn't judge him for being an adult playing dress-up in a child's skin.
There was another pause even when she did nod back at him and he looked a little sad, a little desperate, a little something she didn't know.
"Kaname…-san," it felt like a whisper-sigh from her lips but Kaname heard and stared back at her.
What did she want to say? Nothing, really, but he looked so needy. Now was the time for her to comfort this strange boy who brought her to this stranger place.
"Thank-you," she settled on. Everyone liked being appreciated, right?
He hesitantly reached out and wiped something off her forehead, "Don't worry, I'll always protect you."
When Kaname pulled back his hand she saw stains of blood stuck on his fingertips.
Please, please don't lick it off like last time.
"Yuuki-chan," Kurosu said, kneeling down, "I know things might be confusing right now, but it'll get better. We'll be living together starting from today, so let's do our best to make lots of happy memories together, okay?"
"...Okay."
With the way things had been going, she didn't have a choice in the matter. Besides, Kurosu really seemed like an honest man, even if he did look strange. Messy, long blond hair fell past his shoulders and he wore the most ugly pajamas paired with too large lion feet slippers.
He beamed, "We should really get you cleaned up, but after that, if you aren't tired, I can make some yummy treats and we can stay up watching movies."
Was this suddenly a sleepover?
Another slight nod prompted him to start leading her towards a door in the back. When she looked over her shoulder for Kaname's gaze, she found the rest of the room empty.
The door in the back ended up holding a stairwell leading to an upper area and a lower area. They climbed up. Past a study filled with books and another closed door, Kurosu and the child he thought was Yuuki reached the bathroom.
After removing her coat he checked her body for injuries. He didn't blink twice at the bloodstained nightdress underneath, but she gasped at the sight.
That man must not have been the only person who died today.
The blood didn't belong to her though. Kurosu turned on the shower and showed her the soap and towels. He stood there, nervously glancing between her and the shower until she caught on.
"Thank-you, I can do it by myself," she said, internally wincing at the high pitched voice she heard back. Despite her physical predicament she certainly didn't need help washing herself.
"Are you sure?" he asked, relief and doubt mixed in his voice.
Glancing back in the mirror, she also doubted the capabilities of the wide-eyed five year old girl who stared back. But after a firm nod, she sent Kurosu out of the room.
After she was dry and dressed in the smallest men's shirt Kurosu could find, they walked back down to the largest room of the ground floor: the kitchen opening to a dining room. It was mostly western in style with a low table and zabuton in the middle of the eating area, but a regular table and chairs pressed against a wall.
"Are you hungry, Yuuki-chan?"
Kurosu was already up and taking out appliances from the kitchen. She sat down on one of the zabuton and stared down at her so, so small hands on the table. After about a minute of silence Kurosu kept up an idle running dialogue.
'Usually I eat out but I suppose I'll need to learn how to cook now, huh. Children grow up the most healthy eating from home-cooked meals, you know? What do you like to eat, Yuuki-chan? I'll make lots of meals for you to try. I promise my cooking won't be as bad. Shit, that was hot. Fuck, I can't curse around you. Wait—'
They were back to not talking after Kurosu set down two bowls of miso soup that definitely tasted like it came from a packet. He seemed more interested in staring at her, waiting to see if she'd break down crying or whatever children were supposed to do in this sort of situation.
If this is a dream or hallucination, then it's the most boring one I've had.
It didn't feel like a dream, though. Usually, when she started questioning reality that was the cue for her body to wake up.
"Umm," she started, "why do you call me 'Yuuki-chan'?"
"Oh," he said. Whatever he expected, it wasn't that question.
Well, it would be strange if someone asked why they were being called by their name. Except 'Yuuki' wasn't hers. (Except this body also wasn't hers.)
"Because 'Yuuki' is your name. I guess you can change it if you want, but I think 'Kurosu Yuuki' sounds very pretty, don't you think?"
"Isn't 'Kurosu' your name?"
"Oh," Kurosu(?) said again, sounding more surprised and less sad. "I completely forgot to introduce myself." He did a partial sitting bow, "I'm Kurosu Kaien, although I hope you'll call me 'tou-san'."
Whoa, man. We just met and you're already asking me to call you daddy?
"...Okay...tou-san."
O
Just before dawn would break across the horizon, Yuuki(?) turned around in her bed to face away from the wall. She met the gaze of Kaname, who had been watching her for who knows how long. His eyes, a sort of deep burgundy, were especially striking in the dark room, near glowing.
Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?
That question was more towards herself than the other person. She woke with that thought in her mind, after feeling memories of a dream slip past her fingers. The experience left her cold and muscles taut, but she didn't think she had a nightmare. Rather, it was the tenseness when waking up on the day of an exam: the feeling that something big was coming and she didn't prepare for it at all.
"Where did you go?" She finally asked.
"I had to… make some plans."
That couldn't be any vaguer.
"Yuuki, I'm going to be very busy for a while, but I'll come back to visit."
"Will you promise?" she asked, more for his benefit. His words sounded desperate and like a plea instead of a statement.
"Of course. I'll always come back for you,"
Kaname, if you want to lie successfully, you can't sound so uncertain.
When she stepped out of the guest bedroom across from the study, Kurosu tou-san Kaien was climbing up from the stairs. He looked more presentable with his hair brushed back to a ponytail, rectangle glasses framing his face, and sans lion slippers.
"Good morning, Yuuki-chan," he said, sounding too cheerful for 7:00 AM. "I washed your clothes. After breakfast we'll go to town and get a cute new wardrobe for you, alright?"
"Sure, tou-san."
He smiled just like last night when she first called him 'daddy': half pleased, half forced.
When they walked outside, her eyes widened at the sight of the greenery and architecture. She faced the left side of the same grand building in the photo on the wall. An upper story bridge reached out in her direction like a thin, stone grey arm to grasp a smaller structure at her left. Farther ahead she could see the silhouette of a fountain.
"Amazed, aren't you?" Kaien spun around with his green shawl stretched out, "Welcome to Cross Academy, your new home."
His smile didn't seem as artificial as it had been. Whatever this place was, Kaien truly did like it. He explained more about the estate as they walked. They had spent the night at the groundskeepers house, Kaien preferred to live in a house smaller than the mansion the previous headmasters stayed at. However, that meant they had to travel a kilometer to the gate, where most of the cars were parked.
Apparently, Kaien was the headmaster of the academy. It seemed impossible for someone as young looking as hum, but a lot of impossible things had been happening anyways. In his words, it was 'a cozy place to educate future generations on values of acceptance, understanding, and knowledge'. Cross Academy wasn't a religious school, despite the name and the three chapels still on the premises. It had been a catholic school, until the previous owners closed it down around a hundred years ago and Kaien reopened it to be secular.
"Why did it close in the first place?"
"Well, everyone lost interest in going."
Huh, that totally seems like the whole story.
They reached the fountain, a shallow but wide structure with a statue in the middle. Three girls and three boys were around it, all seemed to be fifteen or sixteen except for one guy who was clearly just entering puberty.
"Good-morning, gakuchou-sensei," one of the guys said.
A girl with a short bob wasn't so formal, "Hey, sensei, why's there a kid on campus?"
"Harimoto-san, Hirotsu-san, I'd like you to meet," Kaien paused and gestured with his arms, "my very own daughter: Yuuki-chan."
A chorus of comments erupted from that news, which amounted to nice ways to say 'Gakuchou-sensei has a daughter?' and 'But aren't you a lonely bachelor with no one in your life?'. Next came the introductions that she struggled to keep up with.
The youngest boy was the brother of a girl with short blonde hair, with the surname Ichinose. The girl with the bob-haircut was Hirotsu Shizuko. The boy who said 'But I thought 'gakuchou-sensei was married to his job?' was called 'Mori-kun' and the girl who told him off for rudeness was 'Eriko, but you can call me Eripi-chan'.
After some talk, like 'We're going to town to pick out Yuuki-chan's winter wardrobe' and playful banter in 'Hey, let's go together and make it a school field trip. ...What? We'd only miss chemistry', they parted their ways.
Yuuki stared down at the ground as they walked. There were still little stains of blood on her boots. That group consisted of a bunch of teens, who probably couldn't drive. Couldn't drink in some countries. And even they treated her like she was younger than them. Everytime she interacted with a person, she was one step closer to being forced to acknowledge that what the fuck, am I actually a—
"Yuuki-chan, this one is my car," Kaien announced.
It was a nondescript gray vehicle with the one noticeable feature being a crest sticker on the back window. She went to the passenger's seat only to pause at the driving wheel placed on the wrong side.
Isn't England the only country who drives on the left?
"Ah, Yuuki-chan, this is where you'll be sitting," Kaien said, opening the… back seat.
Because, of course, children couldn't ride shotgun.
Going to town brought unexpected complications.
It wasn't her fault, Yuuki refused to think otherwise. It also wasn't Kaien's fault, she grudgingly admitted a while later. Really, it was just the byproduct of some careless assumptions and unfortunate mistakes. Like the assumption by Yuuki that, while seeming like a five year-old girl, she could surely walk around freely in the shopping plaza, approaching any store that held her fancy. Or like the mistake by Kaien, who either forgot he had a child to begin with or didn't realize he needed to keep an eye on small children in a crowd.
A mother with her own gaggle of children stopped her after half an hour left alone. Her 'Are you alone, little miss?' was countered with a firm 'no', but Yuuki didn't have any defense when the woman followed up with 'So then where's your parents?'.
Fortunately, the walk to the police station wasn't long. Unfortunately, it took another fifteen minutes for Kaien to realize he was supposed to have a shopping partner. The awkward small talk with her accompanying police officer began with 'so, you're Kurosu Kaien's daughter?' then went to 'Well, for only a day' and ended with a bewildered look. When Kaien finally met her at the station, the look of unmistakable guilt on his face fizzled out Yuuki's annoyance.
There was a small scene of Kaien profusely apologizing, apparently he was on autopilot and went ahead to get groceries, and Yuuki acting more like a reprimanding adult than a scared daughter who lost her father. Then, they reenacted the 'You have a daughter, Kurosu-senpai?' scene with the police.
They were more polite in their surprise of Kaien having a family. Nonetheless, it ended up being a longer shopping trip than expected.
It would have taken two trips to get the food and clothing back to the groundskeeper house if not for a passing staff member, who helped them, while giving the 'miracle child' of headmaster Kurosu curious looks along the way. Yuuki escaped from having to help put the groceries away with an 'I'm going to take a nap' and a 'No, I don't need to be tucked in' before bolting up the stairs.
She closed the door to the guest bedroom and collapsed on the hard, wooden floor. The bed was less than five feet away, but she didn't need to be reminded how small she was with how she had to struggle to even sit on it.
Wardrobe shopping felt like the most creative and uncomfortable punishment a person could think of. The clothes were too small, in the way an adult would view them, but seemed to fit her stupidly tiny body perfectly. They were too 'cutesy', in the way a grown woman wouldn't be caught dead in them, but the shop associates thought they looked very fitting. The bags were too heavy, she couldn't even carry one of them, and Kaien just smiled patronizingly when she tried. It was all a bit too much.
She couldn't lie to herself, couldn't think it was a dream or an act of god LSD trip, couldn't pretend she was fine with this in any way at all. She was a child, she saw another child kill a man without hesitation, she was now the daughter of a man who didn't blink twice at the thought of adopting a newly blood-covered orphan.
Her eyes burned and she couldn't stop the sob coming out of her like vomit.
If this was reincarnation, then shouldn't she have died first?
She covered her mouth and nose until her face burned from the effort and survival instinct kicked in to force a gasp of air. However, that meant she was too busy taking lungfuls of air to cry.
How was she supposed to make sense of this? Clearly, whatever thing, god, space and time, or reality, that did this didn't really care what she felt.
Wallowing in despair won't fix this. There has to be some good in this.
She immediately shied away from the thought. Letting this abrupt relocation of personhood go felt like rolling over and saying 'okay, life, go ahead and fuck me over whichever way you want!'. However, didn't this happen to her despite her lack of consent? She was absolutely powerless: couldn't revert this transmigration, couldn't shop or cook on her own, couldn't even touch objects five feet off the floor without a step stool.
She lay there like that, turning over every aspect of her life which had gotten worse and picking it apart in her head until it felt like she was just repeating words whose meanings dissolved like paper in water. Then she went over her memories, which weren't quite as solid as she would have preferred. Exhaustiation and stress muddled the specifics. Flashes of scenes and leftover emotions entered and exited her mind without order.
She remembered ULille, and the old student housing with broken air conditioning. Even thinking about it made her tense up from thoughts of classes and tests. There was some place where she swam around in the ocean with three other women. They pet manta rays and tried to ride dolphins, but one of the instructors was sick. Her tenth birthday was in a tree house; it was so cold it took her brother four tries to light the candle. That was one of the few times she liked him. Her cat died recently. She entered her apartment on a Wednesday to be greeted with a small, cold body. Like she needed more depressing information.
Kaien's knocking on the door ripped her from her thoughts. She opened it to be greeted with a smile. He smiled a lot, even when it looked like he was forcing himself. The bachelor probably didn't even want children, so why did he accept her so readily?
"Did you have a nice nap? I made some dinner if you're hungry."
"It was nice," she mumbled, and followed him to the dining room.
Sorry, Kaien, you ended up with not only a child, but a deficit one.
They had white porridge with fish and vegetables for dinner, which attested to Kaien's lack of cooking skills if she needed another example than last night and morning. At least he didn't think of her like an infant and serve it flavorless. After a silent dinner and minimal talking when putting the clothes away, they both looked at the clock and then each other.
"I don't suppose you're tired enough for bedtime?"
It was 7 PM.
"I can look around the house," she offered, which Kaien reluctantly let her do after he gave her a quick tour and told her to call him if she needed help.
The layout was pretty simple: there was the kitchen/dining room on the ground floor as well as his office he used for work. The upper floor had two bedrooms, a private study, a bathroom, and a closet. She shouldn't go in the basement because he had workout equipment and laundry machines.
It might have been a boring place to some people, but Yuuki wasn't averse to doing in-depth snooping. Her height cut her search ability in half, which meant looking under a lot of furniture to only find dust bunnies. For a fleeting moment, she was excited to explore the study full of books until she opened one.
Japanese. Naturally, it wasn't in a language she was fluent in. She might've gained some sort of freedom from being able to read and the world couldn't let that happen. She knew some kanji, but never really tried in her Mandarin classes. In essence, a fountain of knowledge was before her and she didn't have a mouth to drink from it.
There were other things in the room, like a map too high for her to properly look at and a drawer full of pens. Some parts of the large cherry wood desk couldn't be opened without a key, which Yuuki felt was incredibly unfair. If you live alone, then why would you need to lock stuff up?
The study was no good, the closet was full of linen, and the bathroom was just a bathroom. She didn't dare approach Kaien's bedroom. An adult's room was private, and she didn't have the childhood innocence to not recognize an embarrassing object if she came across it. This left the office, which Kaien was at.
She entered without him noticing and gave it a cursory look: a few photos of him with other adults, strange souvenirs, presumably gathered from overseas trips, degrees in teaching and anthropology. She sat on one of the chairs and stared at Kaien typing away on the computer.
1
"..."
2
"..."
3
"..."
Yuuki counted to 164 until Kaien acknowledged her.
"Was there something you wanted, Yuuki-chan?"
What would you do if I just started screaming until my head exploded?
"I think I'm ready for bedtime now."
O
"So did you do anything fun while I was away, Yuuki-chan?"
"I stared at a wall."
"...Eh?"
It was partly a joke said in deadpan, but more than half of it had been serious. While Kaien was away in his afternoon meeting, the only options left to Yuuki were to stare at text documents she couldn't read, wreck everything she could see like a hyperenergetic dog, and think. She chose contemplation instead of destruction and decided the only way she could gain back any sort of control was if she gathered as many adult skills as possible. That or kill herself. Death might send her back to her own body, but she couldn't reach the kitchen knives. This meant she would need to gain reading and writing materials, since Kaien was too busy running an academy to tutor a child as well.
"Tou-san, there's nothing in the house."
A look of understanding came over him, "Well...isn't there a T.V.?"
He walked over to the dining area and opened a cabinet, where the knobs were definitely too high for her to reach, to reveal an old box television. After setting it to a documentary, Kaien gave her the remote and promised they would go to town after he got some of his work done.
However, the visit to town ended up being pushed to the next day when, at 9 PM, Yuuki awoke from her nap and hunger pushed her to enter the office. Kaien was still there, completely absorbed in his work. He apologised for losing track of time.
You completely forgot you had to take care of a child again, didn't you?
They were both disappointed in themselves.
O
Three days later, Yuuki gained a rudimentary understanding of the Japanese writing structure and alphabets. It wasn't nearly enough to even read the title of one of the books in the study, despite her frustration, but it was a start. The house stopped being tomb-silent with the near constant television noise in the background. Kaien tried switching it to some simple kids cartoons until giving up. She much preferred what seemed to be the Japanese version of the Knowledge Network he set it to the first time.
It was a near comfortable pattern they set themselves into, and if home isn't where the heart is, then Yuuki would call it home. She and Kaien talked everyday, mainly around meal times when he asked what she learned that day, and he read to her nearly every night. It still felt like living with a stranger. Maybe this was perfectly fine. Maybe only Yuuki thought their relationship was totally weird. After all, she didn't remember how much she interacted with her parents when she was an actual child. She didn't remember much of her life, anyways, but she didn't like looking at that observation too closely. Questioning things too much made her body shake and breath hitch, as if her lizard brain understood it wasn't something to be touched.
Today broke from routine when Kaien opened the front door to reveal three shining student faces.
A few greetings later and an 'Ichinose-san, you weren't in trouble, were you?' countered with 'I just wanted to keep an eye on these two troublemakers, gakuchou-sensei', Kaien introduced Yuuki to her new babysitters.
"Before, you were fine with leaving me alone," she very deliberately did not pout, but there was some childish petulant adult and reasonable furrowing of the eyebrows.
"But now you don't have to be lonely when I get out of the house," he said.
She had gotten bored retracing handwriting worksheets whenever she gave up trying to understand the television. Kaien also bought her some other toys when they went out to fetch reading materials. But the only fun thing to do with the dolls was to dismember them and unsuccessfully fix them back together again.
"Don't worry, Yuuki-chan, we'll have lots of fun," said Shizuko, the girl with brown hair.
"And we definitely won't break anything," Mori helpfully added.
One quick tour later with 'Don't go into the basement, don't cook anything, there's food in the fridge. If you actually break anything, you'll get in worse trouble', and Kaien set off for his administrative duties.
"So…," Shizuko started after ten seconds of silence. She let it hang in the air for another fifteen.
The three teens stared at her. While Yuuki was the host and they were the guests, wasn't the dynamic supposed to be a little bit different? She raised an eyebrow back at them.
Among the three of you together, you don't know how to entertain a child?
"Yuuki-chan, what do you do for fun around here?" Ichinose asked.
"Well...there's a T.V."
They ended up doing exactly what she would have done, had she been left alone. Namely, take out all her educational materials while soft television noise filled up the empty space.
"Wow, you're a really diligent kid, huh?" commented Mori, watching her go over her kanji sheets.
"The handwriting is even better than Mori-kun's," Shizuko said, looking through the finished papers.
"Hey, you, what was that?"
Ichinose, who was looking at a stack of DVDs beside the television, replied from over her shoulder, "She said you're worse than a six year old."
Mori pouted and gave a quick reply that Yuuki didn't catch, but made Ichinose laugh.
"Yuuki-chan," Shizuko lightly tapped her head with a pencil, "how old are you anyway?"
Err...that's a good question.
"Oh, you know," she did a little shrug of her shoulders as if to say 'and that's how the world goes'.
"No, that's why we're asking you."
Yuuki could feel her face redden as three sets of eyes stared at her, "That— it's a secret."
"I see. It's a secret," Mori repeated, beginning to grin.
Thus commenced a mini-interrogation.
'How old is gakuchou-sensei, your father?'
'It's… a secret.'
'What's your name, Yuuki-chan?"
'It's a secret.'
'Is the sky blue today?'
'It's a secret!'
'Is there a sky today?'
'Secret! Secret! Secret!'
They seemed so entertained at the idea of a six(?) year old having some sort of hidden knowledge. Yuuki was at a cross between being amused herself and irritated that she talked herself into a corner and had to act like a child. It was suspicious for someone to not know their age and she couldn't say their harmless gakuchou-sensei suddenly took her in off the snow-covered metaphorical streets.
Well, she could. He never said it was a secret piece of knowledge best kept hidden. However, she didn't know the circumstances of that day and she wasn't going to announce what she barely understood.
"Hey, where's Keiko-san?"
That must have been the forename of Ichinose. They looked around and true to form, no blonde in sight.
"Maybe the old headmaster's ghost got her," Shizuko continued ominously and shook Mori's shoulders from behind. "OooOOOooHhh."
He rolled his eyes, "I'll go get her."
While Mori headed upstairs after checking the office, Shizuko brought down the DVDs from the shelf and started looking through them.
"We can watch one of these if you want."
The genres were...eclectic. Some supernatural horror, some historical dramas, more than a few rom-coms. She picked one up that had two school girls covered in blood and an easily readable title on the cover. Wizard of Darkness it read. Shizuko took it out of her hands before she could read the back cover synopsis.
"How about we don't pick something that will traumatize you and get me in trouble?"
Out of the two of us, I'm the one who's less likely to be scared from a silly movie.
They sorted through more of the films, ignoring the unmarked CDs. She didn't recognize any of the titles, although it was more her friends, than herself, who got into Japanese media. Besides, Kaien only seemed to have old and outdated media. The opening of the door halted their search.
"I can't find Keiko-san," Mori said, entering the room alone.
Shizuko glanced at a horror film case. "Do you think it really was—"
"Shut up," he huffed. "She's probably just outside and ditched us. This isn't her detention punishment."
"Or she's in the basement," Yuuki suggested.
This led them to walk down the stairs and face the basement door. They weren't supposed to go there, but what if Keiko was already there? More importantly, what was really in the basement? It was the one room Yuuki hadn't been in.
"Yuuki-chan, what's in this room anyways?" asked Mori.
She looked at the two teens with wide eyes. So you're here as a punishment, huh?
"I dunno. Tou-san said not to go in there because it was super dangerous and scary."
She tried to simultaneously appear innocent and give the impression that Kaien definitely kept the dead bodies of naughty school children in there.
Mori's eyes widened, but Shizuko scoffed and pulled the handle.
The door remained shut.
"If it's locked then where—"
"What are you guys doing here? Gakuchou-sensei told us not to go in the basement," Keiko announced behind them, raising an eyebrow at Mori's loud gasp.
"Where were you? I looked all over for you," he said, flustered.
Keiko narrowed her eyes, "In the bathroom, where else? You should have looked harder."
"Where, inside the toilet?"
Yuuki glared at the door in front of her. Who kept an entire room locked when they lived alone? Did this fellow really have such secrets?
Well, besides the secret that the headmaster of the prestigious Cross Academy apparently liked romantic dramas. Whatever tension that came from Keiko's disappearing act left the group when they returned and discovered that information. After some initial immature giggling by the students with 'Wow, I didn't know gakuchou-sensei liked this sort of stuff', they settled down to watch a couple episodes of Go Back 夫婦.
The girls were immediately interested in the series and even Mori seemed to quickly become intrigued by it. Yuuki had completely lost the plot when the subtitles used some of the 2,000 kanji she didn't know. At least the lead actress was pretty, even though Yuuki had no idea what the characters were talking about. They spoke too quickly for her to parse the information.
Kaien came back in the middle of the third episode. He dropped his bags and picked Yuuki up when she came out to greet him. "Yuuki-chan~! I missed you, did you miss me?" he said as he spun her around.
She froze in his arms. He hadn't used that tone of voice since the first night. Peeking behind his back, she half expected to see another newly orphaned child he adopted. "...Welcome home, tou-san."
"Yuuki-chan" Kaien set her down, "I know I was out later than usual, but that's because I got you a belated birthday present."
...Huh? Since when did I have a birthday?
He slid one of his bags towards her, except it wasn't a paper sack, but a cardboard box. It folded into itself to give a pointed top with a handle and there were large, round holes on the upper portions which made the impression they were for air. To let something breathe.
Against her better judgement, Yuuki stuck a finger in one of those holes. She felt, just for a second, the wet nose of an animal touch the tip of her pointer finger.
"She's a bit shy right now but I'm sure you and neko-chan will be great friends. That way," Kaien moved away the hair that had fallen on her face, "you won't be so lonely when I'm gone, okay?"
"I thought that was our job," Mori said. He still leaned over her to try to get a look at the cat.
"Gakuchou-sensei," began Keiko, "since it was Yuuki-chan's birthday recently, what age did she turn?"
Yuuki looked at her supposed father, who had a stilled smile on his face.
"Oh," he gave a half shrug, "you know how it goes."
Kaien was much better at deflecting questions than she was. Especially when he had brought them food.
After Shizuko, Mori, and Keiko ate their fill and said their goodbyes, Yuuki was still in the dining room. She lay on her side to stare at the new addition to the household currently under the low table. She was a skinny, russet not-quite-grown cat, who immediately searched for a place to hide the moment they opened the box.
"If you're patient, she'll come out on her own," Kaien said as he drank his tea at the table with chairs.
"I know," she replied. Intellectually, she did know that. It's just that, she was so cute, despite being a bit dirty. Her green-yellow eyes stared back at Yuuki, unblinking.
You look so much like Stardust.
That was a stretch, she conceded to herself a second later. Besides both being cats, there was little in common. Stardust was a male and black. One of her friends always called him Ziggy and would pick him up, singing Starman at him, while drunk. She couldn't remember that friend's face anymore.
"Do you like cats, tou-san?"
"It's more that cats don't like me. But I think this one was too desperate to know better."
"Desperate?" Yuuki slid her arm under the table and tried to tempt the cat with a wiggle of her fingers. No luck.
"Ah, she was sort of on the streets when I found her. Don't worry, she has all her shots now. You just need to give her some love."
Love? She's been picked off the streets, confused and terrified. Simple love isn't going to fix that.
There was a knock at the door. Two more followed.
Kaien rose to answer it, but Yuuki stayed staring at the cat.
Who knows what you've been through. What you've gone through. If only you could tell me and we can share our secrets together.
Distantly, her name was called by Kaien, and then a moment later, a soft voice, "Yuuki."
Slowly, she sat up to meet that person's gaze.
"Kaname."
Author's Note:
This is originally on Ao3 and being cross posted here. Updates on here will be one week after the Ao3 version is updated.
I have strong plans for the plot, but I'm leaving the romance/pairings mainly up to readers.
Japanese:
gakuchou-sensei: university president, which isn't entirely accurate, but the most similar word to 'headmaster' that I could find