Good morning(?), and thanks for the reviews!
This was a little difficult to write, to be honest. Introspection is not one of my strong points.
Mai-hime belongs to Sunrise.
Atrophy
Before leaving the facility they had taken a set of replacement clothes along with a warm coat to avoid detection. Shigeru drew his coat around his body closer in an attempt to trap body heat. Within a few minutes of wandering after they left the train station at Sapporo they arrived at a rather ratty joint. He raised an eyebrow at first but when she brandished the cumbersome keys he shrugged and ducked into the back entrance. The room they stepped into was more of a technological warehouse than a hotel room. She stepped over the wires that crisscrossed the room and frowned.
"Yuuki, clean up after yourself," she barked while placing the keys on the bedside table.
"Hey, hey, don't mess up my configurations," an annoyed voice said through the bathroom door. "It took me hours to get a good signal in this dump."
The door opened and out stepped a nymph with red hair and fierce green eyes… and a towel. He let out a low whistle which earned him a glare from his rescuer and a look of surprise that quickly melted to coquettish amusement.
"So, who is this?" she cooed as she walked over towards him.
"Not one of your clients."
Nearly identical shades of green locked on to one another as the redhead sneered at the older girl's general direction.
"Hey, just because you don't score any doesn't stop me from doing what I want!"
"Client?" Shigeru echoed musingly. His smile turned into a full-blown grin. "Did you hire an escort service to welcome me back to civilized society?"
She turned and sputtered as the redhead gave off an amused look.
"What?! No!"
His smile dropped and he shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Oh." A sigh. "Well, it was a nice thought."
The towel-clad vixen merely smiled in response.
"And as much as I'd like to rob you senseless for an hour of my time, I'm afraid the party pooper over here won't recover from her next fit."
"This is a job, not a booty-call," the older girl stressed. "And put some clothes on. I need to head out to make sure no one's been following us."
"Fine, fine."
Shigeru rubbed his chin thoughtfully as the redhead gathered some clothes and disappeared into the bathroom once more. He heard the front door open and close once more. When the redhead reemerged she gave him a thoughtful look when he pulled the hood off of his head.
"… That bird's nest has to go," she announced before rummaging through the bathroom's drawers.
She returned with an electric razor with changeable cutting guides. With a wordless jerk of her chin he followed her back into the bathroom. After some maneuvering he decided to kneel over the tub as she plugged in the razor and fitted on one of the clips.
"So, you're Fujino Shigeru?" she asked nonchalantly over the drone of the razor.
"I am."
"Charming."
The razor ran a straight line from the base of his head down to the top. A clump of brown hair fell to the tub. She continued with only the monotonous drone of the razor to keep her company. By the time she turned off the razor to observe her handiwork a good mop of hair graced the tub. He briskly ran a hand across his shorn head before being handed a towel and a bar of soap.
"The name's Yuuki Nao, by the way."
"… Charmed."
The lights flickered on after he slid the door to the bathroom shut. Tired eyes stared at the tiny mirror above the sink. He shrugged off the coat and suit jacket before unbuttoning his vest and shirt and laying them aside. For a moment he absently rubbed his cheeks, feeling the unkempt beard that scratched against his fingertips. Inwardly he bemoaned his condition. He had never gone unshaven in his entire life save for an experimental period with a moustache. His mother had laughed so hard at it that he lopped it off within the next hour and that was the end of that particular grooming exercise. He fumbled around his coat pockets and flipped open a single-bladed razor.
"What a useful coat," he muttered to himself.
Indeed, the man he had snatched the coat from seemed to be ready for most situations. Upon a cursory look through the pockets he had found rations, a utility knife, and even a set of brass knuckles. On top of that it was warm, roomy, and rather well-made—a perfect coat. He would have to thank that man later.
I suppose, if he wakes up.
A quick shuffle around the welcoming basket beside the sink gave him a tiny bar of soap along with a set of washcloths and a pair of scissors. The buzz cut looked just fine. He had been meaning to get a haircut for a while anyway. He neatly combed the frazzled locks of his beard and attacked it with the scissors before clearing away the pile of hair in the sink. He then filled the sink with hot water and lathered the soap over the short hairs of his beard. The razor from the coat was sharp and ran across his cheeks smoothly. After a few careful swipes he decided to leave a moustache and beard before trimming them down with the scissors again. After nearly an hour he dunked his head under a re-filled sink and toweled himself off.
A half hour after that Shigeru emerged from the hotel bathroom dressed in his borrowed clothes and carrying a towel around his neck. The sound of someone typing on a laptop paused for a second as the desk chair turned. Nao started for a second before sinking back into her chair.
"… It's scary how similar the two of you look," she muttered after a few seconds. "Must be the eyes."
"Eyes?" he echoed.
She shrugged but failed to respond. He rubbed the back of his neck at the awkward silence before taking a seat at the edge of the bed.
"… Is she still out?" he asked finally.
"Mh. Never really sleeps, that one," Nao replied in a detached manner as her fingertips tapped against keys.
"And you?"
"I had nothing else to do but sleep earlier while the two of you were out stomping around in that frozen hell hole, so I'm paying for it I guess."
Another pause.
"Well, this is a rather delicate situation."
Shigeru perked up at the sound of her voice. This time Nao turned fully so her back was facing the laptop. She tapped her chin with a pen before twirling the pen between her fingers. Whatever the news was, he could tell that it wasn't good.
"We'll be stuck here in Sapporo until either the airport advisory lifts or the tracks get de-iced overnight, but I kinda doubt that'll happen." She studied him with a frown. "So I guess that means we'll be spending more time with you than we would've liked."
He frowned. "It's a job thing, right, to be this detached."
"Yeah… a job thing."
She draped her arms over the chair's back and studied him for a moment.
"Tell me, Fujino-san… how'd you end up hanging out with a bunch of foreigners toting guns in an abandoned lab?"
"You mean you don't know that answer?" he asked.
"Indulge me," she replied.
"I guess… I had to be kept quiet."
He paused to gather his thoughts. Really, it had been a year. There should have been a clearer answer than that. Nao watched him intently but when he failed to continue she sighed and leaned her cheek against her hand.
"Honestly, I was expecting more."
I agree.
She returned to her computer and Shigeru leaned back to fall onto the bed. The cheap sheets crinkled from a zealous overuse of starch, but it was a whole level up in comfort when compared to the cement floor he had been subjected to for the better part of a year. He closed his eyes and drifted off to the noise of keys being tapped and the gentle hum of the laptop next to his ear. Questions about who he was with and where they would go from there would come later.
In reality, Shigeru figured that he shouldn't have been so surprised at the identity of his rescuer.
Two days after the aesthetic overhaul reduced his wavy locks of hair into a stern buzz cut and replaced his tattered suit with casual clothes, he found himself wandering the streets of Sapporo with his taciturn rescuer leading the way. Sapporo was liquid nitrogen poured over permafrost but he wasn't one to complain. Instead he drew his borrowed jacket closer to himself and stamped his feet to restore circulation to avoid looking like a tin soldier. He looked up and caught an unreadable look from his rescuer before she flicked her dark hair over her shoulder.
What an ice-cold beauty.
If she saw his amused smile she failed to acknowledge it. After a few minutes of what seemed to be aimless wandering around, he noticed that they stopped in front of a ramen shop. She ducked in under the curtains and he followed her to the bar seating where the cook was busy doling out portions to hungry customers.
"Two miso ramen," she announced to the cook who merely nodded.
Shigeru rubbed his hands as the warmth from the portable heater and the noise of the boisterous crowd washed over him. She leaned her chin on her hand in a relaxed pose, the first that he had seen from her. As they were given two glasses of water and a washcloth each, he decided that now was as good a time as any.
"You knew that facility very well. Well enough, in fact, to deduce that I would be in an underground cell instead of the laboratory."
She looked up. At first she remained quiet and returned to wiping her hands with the warm cloth. When she tossed the towel back on the counter she turned and fixed him with a serious look.
"It was a lucky guess."
His eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
"I don't quite believe that."
She shrugged wordlessly. Two bowls of steaming ramen were shoved in front of them by the cook and she refused to elaborate any further. The bowls were put away in record time, it seemed, and she tossed a few bills down before gathering her coat. Shigeru rubbed the back of his neck and ducked out of the shop after her. Instead of going straight back to the hotel, he found that they were picking a path out towards what seemed to be a park. She stopped in front of a park bench and without warning sat down on the cold wood. He stared at the frozen seat with some trepidation but decided to bear with it. There was a certain faraway look in her eye, the type that clued him in that something interesting was about to go down.
"I grew up there," she said finally, and the pieces begin to build in his mind.
"Your parents were employed there?"
They watched the beginnings of a snowball fight between two factions. One was holed up at the slide and the other parked their main barracks by the jungle gym. The shrieks of children filled the atmosphere in the absence of a reply as snowballs flew from one corner of the playground to the other. For a good five minutes he watched this game with a soft smile on his face and nearly forgot his question until the young woman beside him cleared her throat.
"My mother. She was the top researcher there."
"Ah. What did her work entail?"
Emerald eyes roved over onto his. It wasn't the first time that he was struck by the crystalline beauty of those eyes. The emotion behind them, however, spoke of a dulled acceptance and a hint of bitterness.
"You tell me, Fujino-san."
Now it was his turn to rest his chin on his hand. He stared out at the expanse of snow-covered land right down to the playground equipment. The snowball fight was abandoned in favor of gliding down the ice-covered slide. Children shrieked as they slid down only to tumble down into snow drifts with giddy laughs.
"I suppose you would like it if I tell you that I had no idea."
She shrugged again.
"The answer wouldn't affect me either way."
He placed his elbows over his knees and leaned over in this position overlooking the lively park. The cold wasn't such a nuisance this time.
"That's a lie."
He shook his head and continued before she could argue.
"My father bought a majority share and funded the laboratory in the hope of finding a cure."
"A cure?"
He offered a half-smile.
"My sister. She suffered from something that other doctors were unable to fix. Father thought it was epilepsy at first. Shakes, tremors. But then she would go off on fits of anger for days on end. First District Pharmaceutical took a huge interest in it and within a month of studying her they provided a set of pills. She took them, and got better."
She stuffed her hands in her pockets and let out a slow, steady cloud of steam from her lips as she exhaled. He rested his chin on his hand once more.
"We never liked each other, even before her condition. Things seemed to get worse as we grew older, especially after I got married. After that, Father took the situation into his own hands and kicked her out of the family, and that was the last dealing I had with that company."
He paused to rub his hands together.
"Come to think of it, I really don't know what that research was about in the first place."
"… They wanted to control gods."
Shigeru looked over.
"I'm sorry?"
She shook her head and straightened from her slouched position.
"That was the goal. The experiments tried to test how well a human could hybridize with a god, in order to create some sort of super race… something like that." She cleared her throat. "But to test it, they needed to gather a remnant of a spirit already transmuted in a human."
Shigeru shifted.
"Our family… always held a sort of communion with jealous spirits," he said with a ponderous frown. "Family history can tell you quite a few instances of almost legendary acts of passion born from that sort of jealousy. But… this is the first time I've heard of that sort of explanation for my sister's behavior. I always thought she was being a huge bitch."
"That was the purpose of the First District," she muttered in response. "Take whatever you want from it."
The children had long since left, called home for warm dinners and soft covers for the night. The cold was starting to return along with the frigid silence. He scratched his head with a frustrated twitch. This wasn't his expertise at all.
"Alright, that's enough."
She looked up at him quietly as he pushed himself up from his seat. He shifted so that his feet were doing a sort of skip. Warmth began to return to his limbs as he danced a semi-circle around the bench and even threw a few punches into the air. She watched his shadow-boxing for a few minutes before sighing.
"… What are you doing, Fujino-san?"
"Warming up, of course."
He paused and felt the blood coursing through his limbs. She gave him another unreadable look.
"You've got something bottled up in you," he elaborated with a left hook that swiped the air in front of him. "Sometimes the best way to get it out is to fight it out."
She took in his philosophy for all of two seconds before she shook her head.
"I'm not going to fight you, Fujino-san." She paused. "It probably would be against protocol to injure you."
"Injure me?" He let out a short bark of a laugh that nearly echoed in the park. "Injure me? I doubt you could."
She raised an eyebrow at that challenge and he smiled as she finally stood up and brushed the snow from her coat. She took only a few seconds to finish tidying up before he shifted into a boxing stance with both hands up to protect his face.
"Now c'mon! I promise I won't bruise you too much."
Her response was a straight left punch that almost got past his defense. He weaved out of its trajectory and brought his arms up to shoulder the blow of a roundhouse kick that flowed effortlessly in her impending combination.
She was, without a doubt, incredibly fast. Shigeru used his legs only for maneuvering. His fists were the ones that did the talking. Her blows seemed to chain off each other—a swing of a punch would easily shift into her spinning into a kick. It was a lot of momentum and turning movement that took full advantage of her otherwise slight figure compared to his muscular frame. He found himself on the defensive as he weaved in and out of her punches and backed away from the kicks. His jabs were only glancing blows that she merely pushed away with a gentle force that would be followed seconds later by a devastating counter attack. He skipped back half a step only to have her move forward like a wave.
Back and forth, back and forth.
"How long have you lost your depth perception?" he asked over a barrage of blows.
She stiffened and nearly took the full force of a left hook that he threw towards her chin. She backed away in time and looked up at him with a curious expression on her face. He offered a brief shrug with his hands still up to protect his face.
"You're never more than two meters away," he pointed out with a quick jerk of his chin. "And you follow through with straight punches and sweeping kicks. Always following through. If you don't hit the target right then, you'll probably hit it later."
They traded a few blows for a moment.
"… A year ago, just about," she managed to say while catching her breath.
"Only a year? You seem to compensate for it well enough."
She flipped over onto her hands and shoved her foot up towards his chin. The kick blew past his guard and he felt the tip of her heel graze his chin before he yanked his head back. He saw the stars for a second before he regained his footing and his gaze traveled back down to earth. By this time she had already pushed herself back to her feet. There was something alive beneath her cold eyes and he relished the ferocity.
"A year ago, huh." His left fist pawed out to graze against her hand as she knocked it away. "How'd you lose it?"
"… Accident. Flipped my motorcycle over and landed head first into a guard rail. It ended my racing career, so I picked up on my other hobby."
Her punches were growing a little sloppier, he noticed. He caught her fist and they stood still as the snow finally settled from their fight. Her torso was still twisted from following through on her punch. Ragged breaths blew up clouds of steam that permeated the inky darkness.
"… A truant and a brawler," he said softly. "Your name is Kuga, isn't it?"
Silence invaded his ears and he wondered for a moment if he had been completely off the mark. Her strength grew slack and the fist in his hand nearly sagged.
"Kuga Natsuki. Yes, that is your name."
She pulled her hand away from his grip and rubbed her knuckles absently. He heaved in a great breath and expelled a dense cloud of steam.
"I failed her."
The words were soft, almost inaudible, but he could see her lips moving in the twilight. She rubbed her forehead in an agitated fashion.
"Because of me she got into that accident. It was my fault she got hurt."
Hesitant emerald eyes glanced up into maple-red orbs but Shigeru realized that she was staring at something beyond him. He shook his head but she failed to acknowledge it.
"I spent the past year trying to track down who did this to me… to us. And it all just led into one huge circle, starting and ending with that name. Your name." Her eyes finally focused on him. "Why? Why did any of this happen?"
He figured what to say to that question if he dug deeply enough. It was not a string of unfortunate events. It had been the simple conclusion to a multitude of small and seemingly unrelated events that strung together to form the tangled web they all found themselves in.
It would have been too much to say that it was his entire fault. No, there were other factors. But how could they be explained in so little time?
He turned and stretched his arms up over his head before letting them down.
"I wonder… I wonder, sometimes, what that answer might be," he said.
When he turned back around, Kuga Natsuki, the truant and brawler, had already retreated deep within herself. She brushed the wrinkles off her coat and stuffed her hands in her pockets before staring off to the stars.
If you have nothing to lose… what causes you to finally break down?
AN: I feel like everything is settling down nicely. This is a shorter chapter due to it being mostly conversation and a little slice of life.
About the lack of Shizuru and chance of a Shizuru/Natsuki reunion: Shizuru is a huge endgame character, like the lone Red Queen on the chessboard hell bent on protecting her King. That said, a reunion is... likely. I suppose.
