Parasyte -the maxim-
Symbiosis
Chapter 3: Normal

Shinichi had known Kayoko since they were kids. They went to elementary school together, and had grown up next door to each other. They were close friends until high school, when Kayoko seemed to drift away. He later learned it was because she started dating an older boy from a different school.

He only ever knew her boyfriend as "Hiroshi," and that was because Murano told him about it after school one day. Murano was worried about Kayoko, as she'd been distant since the two had gotten together. She'd been hanging out with her friends less and less, spending more and more time with Hiroshi. It seemed like Murano was the only one who noticed.

She asked him to talk to Kayoko, knowing that the two were close. Shinichi, of course, agreed, not just because she asked him to, but the way she'd said it made him fear for Kayoko.

Kayoko hadn't told him anything.

She'd simply smiled at him and said that everything was fine.

He knew that she was lying.

Desperate to see what was happening with her, he stayed close, in their circle of friends. He tried to look after her as best as he could, seeing her off after school every day. He couldn't help but worry about his oldest friend. She was like his little sister, and if anything happened to her, he would never forgive himself for not watching out for her.

Then, a little more than halfway through their second year of high school, Kayoko stopped coming to school for a few weeks. Everyone speculated about what had happened to her. There was no announcement and no news, like there would have been if she had died.

But she hadn't even texted any of the girls she was close with, like she usually would if she was sick.

A week after her initial disappearance, she returned, looking haggard, with dark circles under her eyes and her skin paler than it should have been. She wasn't well, and that much was clear. He hated how she looked so sad and tired all the time. The look persisted for another week or so before Shinichi finally told Murano that he would walk her home another time. He needed to look after Kayoko.

Murano understood, like she always did.

"Kayoko," he'd said one day. "Let's go to the park."

She nodded. "Sure, Shinichi."

There had been a lot of talk that followed them that day, speculating what they were talking about, but Murano and the others shot it down as best they could. They had gone to the park without anyone following them, trying to see what was happening between the two old friends.

"What's wrong, Kayoko?" he'd asked as soon as they sat on the swings, just like they had when they were younger. "You looked so tired lately… I can't help but think something's gone wrong."

She hesitated. "Shinichi… you've been seeing the news about those mincemeat murders, right?" He nodded. "About a few weeks ago, my parents went out for their anniversary. They were killed by someone, and… all that's left of them is with the police right now."

For some reason, Kayoko wasn't crying. It may have been because she had run out of tears.

"We don't get the bodies until the police are finished conducting autopsies. It's been a while, since there isn't much to see. The funeral is this weekend. I was going to tell you tomorrow, but I guess you know early." She managed a weak smile. "Sorry I kept it from you," she apologized as she stood, the swing gently swaying from the force.

Shinichi didn't know what to say.

He and his family went to the funeral. They'd told him about it the same day that Kayoko had. His mother had been devastated. His mother, who had died because of the parasites, the same way her parents had.

He knew what it felt like to lose someone that way.

So he couldn't bring himself to understand how Kayoko could accept Shimada, even though she knew that his kind had been the ones to take her parents away from her.

It just didn't make sense.

Gym class was pleasant for Hideo.

He didn't have to hide his superior abilities. He just had to hold back a little, in fear of making himself stand out too much. It didn't matter, though. He was still faster and stronger than everyone else in the class, even if he was only using a percentage of his true abilities.

Everyone except for Izumi.

Izumi, who stood in front of Hideo with crossed arms as they spoke. Hideo was continuing his attempts to convince the human that he didn't have any intent to harm anyone in the school, and that he was only there out of curiosity about the human race. Izumi wasn't seeing the truth, though. He was still stubbornly seeing Hideo as a threat to his friends.

So, Hideo thought that a little white lie would help things along.

"I haven't harmed any human in recent memory," he said bluntly. "I've been managing to exist on a diet similar to those of humans. Kayoko's cooking is quite enjoyable, especially her… what is it? Hamburg steak?" He paused, seeing how Izumi's face darkened at Kayoko's name. "Something wrong?"

Izumi glared even more strongly. "You have no idea what's happened to Kayoko, do you?" he demanded.

"I do." The parasite frowned. "Your right hand wouldn't know, but when we devour the brain of a living being, we can absorb all its memories and skills. I took over her boyfriend's body, even though what he's done is very unpleasant. But he's been there throughout the entirety of the past year." He looked down at his hands, where his knuckles were still missing some skin from the night that his host had beaten Kayoko. "You're angry because she's accepted me, when one of my kind murdered her parents."

The human made a sound of disapproval. "Of course," he spat.

Hideo sighed, catching the soccer ball he was juggling with his feet. "I see. That's how it is. If that's what you're worried about, just talk to her. She'll be back at school tomorrow." He tossed the soccer ball to Izumi, not wanting to waste any more time with the stubborn boy.

Izumi caught it, purely out of reflex, but never lessened his glare.

In just one day, Hideo had become one of the most popular boys in the school.

Kayoko stared up at him as they ate lunch together behind the school. "You've got a lot of admirers in just one day," she joked, nudging him. "Mister Popular, huh?" She giggled at his confused face.

"Admirers? Why?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Well, that face is attractive. You look like you could be a model or an actor or something. Some kind of celebrity," she explained.

He still looked confused. "Why would I want to be one of those?"

Sighing, she smiled at him again. "You won't get it, so don't worry about it. Just know that those girls want me gone. They want to be sitting with you." She glanced over to the corner of the school, where a few girls were peering around the wall, glaring at her with jealousy.

Hideo turned, following her gaze. "I don't want any of them to sit with me. None of them are very pleasant. They are all very loud and some of them even smell strongly like chemicals. I'm fine like this," he replied bluntly, his tone bored.

Kayoko laughed a little, knowing that he wasn't trying to be rude. He just didn't understand the way that human girls worked. Even a genius, alien bug had trouble understanding women.

"You men are all the same, no matter what species you are."

He glanced at her in confusion, but she didn't elaborate.

"Kayoko." She turned to see Shinichi behind her, looking a lot different than when she last saw him. He looked more mature than he had, like he'd aged ten years in only a few months. "Welcome back. It's been a while." He paused, smiling gently at her, the way that he always had. "You look well," he said softly, that kind look in his eyes that he always had.

She returned the smile, shifting on her feet. "You do, too. You started spiking your hair," she commented, pointing towards his hair.

He flushed. Running a hand over his hair, he replied, "I wanted to change it up a little." He looked up at her again, his eyes suddenly serious. "Can we talk for a little? There's something that's been bothering me since I heard you were coming back."

Her eyes widened, fear pricking at her heart. "S-Sure…" she agreed quietly.

The two walked outside, towards the center of the school, where people rarely went at that time of day. She trailed behind Shinichi with concern tugging at her heart, trying to figure out just what he wanted from her, what it was that he wanted to talk about. The only thing that she could possibly think of was that he knew about Hideo somehow, and that was what was bothering him. Her heart jolted at the possibility that Shinichi somehow knew about the parasites.

He stopped, not facing her. She stared at him.

"Hideo Shimada."

Her blood ran cold. She knew that he'd want to talk about Hideo. But what she couldn't figure out was how in the world he'd figured it out. She and Hideo had been so careful when they created his false identity to get him into school.

She shifted slightly, a guilty look on her face. "So, you know then?" she murmured.

"How… how could you…?" his voice was hurt, filled with betrayal. She gazed at him, seeing an unfamiliar look on Shinichi's usually kind face. "You know what he is, Kayoko, but you still stay with him? You let him live under the same roof as you and you feed him, give him a name, and treat him like a human? What's wrong with you?!"

His voice grew louder and louder as his anger boiled over, further and further until he was grabbing Kayoko by the shoulders, pinning her against the wall of the school. His grip was painful, his fingers digging into her shoulders. But still, she didn't look at him.

She could feel tears streaming down her face as she took deep, shaky breaths. "He's not like them. He's Hide, not some mindless monster. He's a good person, Shinichi," she replied quietly, reaching up to wipe her tears away with her sleeve.

Shinichi made a strangled sound in his throat, but backed away. "He's a murderer. They all are," he muttered angrily. "You should know that better than anyone."

"Shinichi." She glared at him, trying to let him know that he'd gone too far. Her tears of frustration had turned into tears of anger. "You don't know him."

"And neither do you."

She shook her head. "Maybe. But I know him more than you. He could've killed me the first night he took over Hiroshi's body. But instead, he helped me." Shinichi stayed quiet. "Hiroshi… he beat me. He beat me so badly that I thought I was going to die. But when Hide came along and killed Hiroshi, he could've killed me, too. And that would've been fine. They would've known it was Hiroshi, and they would've known how bad he was." She hiccupped throughout her words, holding her hands against her heart.

"He… he saved you?"

"He kept me from bleeding onto the kitchen floor. He made sure I was patched up, and he helped me. I trust him, Shinichi. You shouldn't let your own preconceived notions about what they are get in the way of accepting help." She offered a small smile at him.

Shinichi still had it in him to look guilty. He looked down at the ground, at his feet, as he hesitated. His guilt turned to apathy, and he looked at her again, this time without any emotion.

"Do what you want."

Then, he turned, and left her there. She fell to the ground, collapsing on her knees, as she sobbed, mourning the fact that she'd lost another person to the parasites.

Hideo quickly realized that something was wrong with Kayoko. She'd been unhappy the entire day, and the spark of life she'd had as they walked to school together had disappeared, replaced with a cold void of nothingness.

"Kayoko… did something happen?" he asked over dinner.

She shook her head. "No. Just had a talk with someone I thought was my friend." She paused, then glanced at him. "Shinichi doesn't seem to trust you. Why is that?" she asked.

He frowned. He had known that Izumi didn't trust him, but he didn't think that Izumi would have it in him to make someone he cared about feel so sad.

"It's because I'm not human," he finally said. "He's unfortunate in the sense that he's trapped between two worlds – ours and yours. His right arm is like me. The rest is like you." He didn't want to hide it from her. She deserved an explanation.

She sighed, but nodded. "Okay. I get it. He sees you and your kind differently. Bad things must've happened to him… I hope he's okay," she said to herself.

Hideo didn't understand how she could still have the capacity to care. Even after someone had made her cry, she still cared about that person enough to be concerned with their well-being. Most humans would be angry and hurt, but not Kayoko.

Perhaps that was what made her so special.

Yuko Tachikawa liked Hideo Shimada.

Which meant that she was jealous of one of her best friends, Kayoko Kenzaki.

Kayoko seemed to know Hideo very well, and the two were close. They were in the same class, and Hideo rarely ever seemed to leave her side after the first day Kayoko returned. He and Izumi were at odds for some reason, but Hideo only ever seemed to become hostile when Kayoko was near Izumi, while Izumi was hostile almost consistently.

She'd noticed how Hideo seemed to dislike conflict. He'd only displayed some form of violence once, and that was against some trouble-maker that she'd seen messing with Izumi a few times. She figured that he must have been threatening Hideo.

Or Kayoko.

She didn't understand what was so special about Kayoko. She didn't understand what kind of secret they shared to bring them together.

She didn't understand why it couldn't be her.

Yuko Tachikawa never hated anyone. She couldn't hate Kayoko, especially after everything that she'd gone through. But Yuko Tachikawa was jealous.

She liked Hideo a lot.