Twelve Shots of Shuuya

By: Aviantei

A Kagerou Project Anthology

[Twelve Shots of Summer: Trinity Limit 5/12]

04. Haven


The doorbell rang just as Shuuya was trying to plow through a book he had picked up from the school library for the weekend. With a sigh, he untangled himself from his blanket cocoon. Even though they had turned the heat on, it was still a bit chilly in order the save energy. Shuuya had chosen the solidarity of the living room over the cluster around the kotatsu, which wasn't very conductive to reading.

It also made him the closest to the front door, making it his duty to answer. Flinching as the cold leaked through his sock, Shuuya draped the blanket around his shoulders and shuffled to the door. Marry stood on the other side, her white hair almost blending in perfectly with the dusting of snow across the yard, the pink of her fluffy winter jacket nearly shining against her equally pale skin.

"Hello, Kano!" she chirped, even as Shuuya shivered from the newly cold air from the outside. "I know that Kousuke's not home yet, but he said I could stop by early. Do you mind if I wait here?"

"No problem, come right in," Shuuya said, stepping aside with a bow. The gesture let loose a lot more heat than he had liked, but at least Marry shut the door behind her. She quickly headed over to the table, swiping up the book he had been reading.

"Eh, I've never seen this before. Is it good?"

"It's alright so far, but I haven't been reading it too much." Shuuya focused on putting as much distance between him and the entrance as possible, attempting to shuffle across on his blanket. Marry took note of the spare trading card Shuuya had used as a bookmark with a nod. "Onee-chan and Tsubomi are with the kotatsu if you wanna warm up in there." Marry hadn't come over too much since she had moved out of the hideout, though that would probably change once Kousuke got his savings piled up properly.

Marry gently returned the book to its resting place, glancing in the area of the dining room, mittened hands coming together at her chest. "Um, is…Kenjiro-san home…?" she asked, a slight quaver in her voice. Shuuya barely held back his urge to frown. While he couldn't blame Marry for being afraid of his adoptive father for hosting the Clearing Eyes Snake, Shuuya also couldn't blame Kenjiro for trying to get Ayaka back. Considering his own actions, it wasn't a judgement that Shuuya could make.

Still, there wasn't any point in worrying Marry more than necessary. Shuuya put on a smile, patting Marry's shoulder. "Why don't we wait for Kousuke in the front yard? Gimme a sec and I'll get my coat."


Marry had already started building a verifiable snow menagerie by the time Shuuya had suited up and went outside. There wasn't too much snow out, and Marry's collecting had revealed some patches of dead grass in the yard, but they were easily ignored when you noticed she had put together the traditional snow bunny, as well as what looked like an in-progress rodent of some kind. For wearing mittens, she was surprisingly dexterous.

Settling down on the cleared off path to the door, Shuuya found a snow frog next to him, eyes and a wide smile drawn into its face. "You're pretty good at this," he said, and Marry's face lit up with enthusiasm.

"Well, when Kousuke used to come and play with me in the winter, we would do all kinds of stuff like this," she said. Shuuya remembered those trips, almost as often as he remembered the house panicking when they thought Kousuke had gotten lost on the way home. "Before he came along, I just holed up in the winter next to the fireplace with a book. But Kousuke took me outside and showed me that there was a lot of fun stuff I could do…oh, and you and Kido helped me out with that, Kano!"

Shuuya chuckled attempting to build his own mini snowman. It was really the best of his creative efforts at the moment. "I mean, if you think me teasing you about your poems helped you out…"

Marry's cheeks puffed up, but her gaze stayed locked on her current creation. Good thing, too; it was already freezing enough without Shuuya getting his motion locked down for a few minutes. "You don't have to be such a jerk about it…" she mumbled, but didn't seem on the verge of tears. At the very least, Shuuya could say he had helped her take friendly jibes a little bit better. "Still, I'm very happy that I met you all."

"Especially Kousuke," Shuuya added on for her.

Marry didn't hesitate to nod, a smile spreading across her face. "Especially Kousuke!"

"Eh, you guys are out in the snow? I thought you'd be inside."

"Kousuke!" Marry called, shooting to a standing position and rushing to the gate. Kousuke had barely opened it before getting captured into Marry's hug. "Look, look! I made Hanao out of snow!"

"You did?" Kousuke asked, almost stumbling to shrink his strides to Marry's pace. He crouched down with her, taking in the snow sculpture that Shuuya now recognized as a replica of his brother's pet hamster. "Whoa, that's awesome, he looks just like him!"

"What animal should I make next? There's not a lot of snow, so we can't do anything too big… Oh! You think if we got some icicles, we could make a hedgehog, Kousuke?"

The two quickly became caught up in their chatter, and Shuuya was able to sneak back inside without them noticing. Those two really had their own little world, and Shuuya couldn't get in the way of that. Marry and Kousuke had a bright future together, and he, at the very least, had a book that he needed to finish.


[NOTES] Phew, finished on time! I was lucky enough to have all my ideas for this piece come together well and not give me any issues!

Thanks this week go out to Chronic Guardian, who, despite being really busy himself, took a lot of time this past week to talk to me and help me through things. Seriously, dude, you keep my creative energy high. It may not be conductive to schoolwork, but it is conductive to doing what I love. So thanks for that.

Anyway, I found it ironic that the main prompt this week was "Love of Humanity" when Marry's a quarter-medusa and all, but I think it fits well since I think that the fear of the outside world is a big part of her world view until Kousuke opens that up and shows her that sort of love. I made "Jury Duty" take a much smaller part because I do feel like Marry would be nervous around Kenjiro, but Shuuya doesn't feel like he's a fair judge of the situation. I had to skip out on Poetic Justice because I couldn't think of a way to add it in without being contrived, but I do think this piece managed to capture the themes and go full circle without wasting too many words. Yay!

Hm, next week we have "Master and Student," "Through the Wasteland," the optional Pathetic Fallacy, Momo, and Spring! Hm, yes, I think these will work out very well for what I want to do. (chuckles to self)

Please look forward to it!

[POST] 070216