Beep. Beep. Beep.
The alarm went off earlier than it needed to - there was still a good hour and a half before school started. She only needed an hour at most to cross the city, and that was if she stopped to grab breakfast along the way.
Regardless, Koishi reached over and gave the machine a good smack to shut it up. It was cathartic, if nothing else, and the sheer force with which she hit it was usually enough to pull her out of her sleepiness. She crawled out from underneath the covers, her nightgown dragging along behind her as she went to the bathroom to wash her face.
Now that she thought about it, she didn't have the same dreams anymore. It used to be that she would wake up in the middle of the night, either reaching out for a sister that wasn't there or choking on water that didn't really exist. She had been too scared to sleep properly, keeping herself awake for days on end until at last her body would force her to rest.
She still had the occasional nightmare, but it was the exception rather than the rule now. Getting back to sleep was easier too - Rin was a light sleeper, and if she heard Koishi startle back awake the cat would be on her lap within seconds, offering herself to calm down her mistress. Petting and stroking her worked wonders, and Koishi would be back to sleep within half an hour, the nightmare that had haunted her too vague to stay frightening. Her work done, Rin slumbered peacefully on her mistress's bed in case she rose back up again, but that was rarely the case nowadays.
As such, it no longer needed the same gargantuan effort for Koishi to wake up in the mornings - in fact, as she started on her morning routine, she looked almost excited about the day ahead of her. She stepped into the bathroom to splash her face and get rid of the last traces of sleep.
As she saw Sango lying asleep in the bathtub, she was slightly disturbed by how at ease she was with her being there. The pair had come to a compromise in terms of Sango's nightwear - namely, Koishi had needed to convince her it was a good idea to wear anything. There were plenty of things she was willing to get used to along with this whole Siren business, but waking up a naked youkai every morning was not one of them.
After some long, hard deliberations, Koishi had finally managed to teach the dolphin the concept of human indecency, and Sango was slumbering in human form when her friend entered. She found her normal clothes too warm to sleep in, so instead she'd opted for a long, pale-blue shirt with a carefully-placed slit to let her fin through, and a grey bikini bottom to cover her lower half (again, at Koishi's insistence). It was only slightly less unusual to look in on than a dolphin in the bathtub, but the immediate confirmation that she was wearing clothes helped to calm Koishi's nerves.
"Morning, Sango-san."
"Mmph."
Sango was a surprisingly light sleeper - it would only take a few words aimed at her to wake her up. Koishi remembered reading somewhere about dolphins only resting one half of their brain at a time, so that would explain it. Sango gave off a muffled complaint from beneath the water before pulling herself up and out of the bathtub. As the carpets were once again soaked through, the Siren couldn't help but sigh. Really, with all the restrictions, Koishi had been trying to subtly tell Sango that there was another bed for her to use that wouldn't drip water all over the floor. She'd expected Sango to pick up on the suggestion, but she'd overestimated the dolphin's ability to think outside the box. Maybe tonight she'd just tell Sango to sleep in Satori's old bed.
Besides the heaving puddles left in Sango's wake, the morning routine went more or less like that of any ordinary household. Get changed, have breakfast, feed the pets, get ready for school, and get started on that long walk across the city. Nowadays, though, they took a more scenic route, because they saw enough of the city's main streets in the evening.
It was only after school they engaged in their more supernatural investigations, examining Gensouto's main streets and walkways in the hope of encountering a Siren. They'd been doing it almost ritualistically for the last two weeks, but besides Mokou they'd made no discoveries. No Sirens, no signs the Claw had managed to find one either, and not so much as a trace of a Teardrop's presence.
Koishi was unnerved by this fact. She'd considered bringing it up a few times previously, but she didn't want to give off the impression she had no faith in Sango's ability to find the Teardrops. Now, though, she'd decided this had been long enough, and finally put her concerns into words.
"Sango-san, I have a question. Is it meant to take us this long to find the Sirens?"
Koishi had been surprisingly quiet on their latest walk. Sango flinched at the question, then sighed.
"Honestly? No. The boss figured that at least six of you would've been found by now - either by us or the enemy, but we're nowhere near that. We've been going through every area of the city that other girls your age is likely to visit, and we've found nothing."
That wasn't exactly the illuminating answer Koishi had been hoping for, but Sango didn't seem to be quite finished yet.
"The boss also said there were two big points that could be responsible for this lack of progress. The first is that there really aren't any Sirens to be found - they were born here around the same time you were, yeah, but that doesn't mean they're still living in Gensouto. For all we know, the other five Sirens are scattered across five other continents. Which is a good call for us, because it means the Claw are never gonna get all the Teardrops together."
That seemed like good news, but looking at Sango's face suggested otherwise. She looked pained, almost frustrated.
"Of course, the boss has already ruled that option out, even if it makes a whole lot of sense."
Koishi raised an eyebrow there. It wasn't anger, per se, but she didn't seem to comprehend the idea she was trying to pass along.
"Why, exactly?"
"Because apparently this has all been planned out."
A statement like that was enough to stun Koishi into silence for a few seconds.
"Wait, you mean who becomes the Sirens? Who would have planned that?"
"Who else? The woman who set the whole thing up, Yukari Yakumo. Apparently not only did she work this whole thing into her magic-sealing ritual, she managed to see thousands of years into the future and choose just the right kids for the job."
Skepticism was more than obvious in her tone, and Koishi didn't have to guess why. She wasn't exactly familiar with magic, but she could guess that prediction to that extent was verging on impossible.
"And you're telling me the professor believes that theory ahead of the simpler, more logical one? That doesn't sound right coming from a physics teacher."
"It's different with Yukari. I mean, I wasn't born until after the war, so I never knew the woman, but apparently there's a whole bunch of weird rumours about her. Things like how she was really a super-intelligent alien who landed on the planet riding an asteroid, or how she was actually responsible for the birth of not just all youkai, but all life on the goddamn planet. If you listen to enough of the stories, it seems as if the woman's a freaking god."
Koishi was vaguely aware of her mouth going dry. It was hanging open as Sango spoke, unsurprisingly, as the story became more and more dramatic. Sango herself seemed undecided about how to feel - her face screamed frustration, but her voice sounded more unsure and willing to consider the possibility.
"I mean, I trust the boss. She's the smartest woman I know, so if she's got a good enough reason to think this is all part of some big plan I'll believe her. It's just...not the sort of thing you can take in without firsthand experience."
"Sort of like what magic is to people who've never seen it before?"
Sango stood upright suddenly as Koishi made the comparison. It had clearly never come to her quite like that before, and she nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I guess it's kinda like that. I mean, if you just told someone that you were some kinda crazy magical girl with superpowers, they wouldn't believe you unless you proved it, right?"
Her face brightened. Koishi had picked just the right curiosity to lift her out of what could otherwise have been a rather awkward topic. As they continued down the route to school, the two girls couldn't help but smirk at one another, giggling at a joke no-one around them could have possibly understood.
For the most part, the discussion that followed was routine by her current standards. Explaining whatever parts of human culture Sango happened to be confused about today, explaining why they were being taught math techniques that would be no use in real life, and so on. It soon dawned on Koishi, though, that one part of her old routine had been lost in the transfer. The Scarlet Bakery, where she'd always stopped by to get something to munch down fervently on the way to school - she hadn't visited it in a fortnight now that she was making her own food rather than living on take-away. It seemed a shame to just disregard them, especially since the attendant had been concerned for her while she was at her worst. She glanced at her watch - still plenty of time to spare. They could afford a little detour, and with a few changes in direction she lead Sango backwards towards the store.
She was not expecting to see a hastily written up sign on the front saying 'CLOSED INDEFINITELY'.
"What the...?"
Sango didn't seem to understand the relevance of this fact, looking back from a distance and wondering why Koishi was suddenly so interested in this strange red building. The lights were still on inside, and a quick inspection of the door confirmed that it was unlocked, and Koishi knocked hastily before letting herself in. Immediately the bare shelves and counter caught her eye, so the note on front was deadly serious.
"Hello? Meiling-san, are you here?"
Someone was hunched down on the other side of the counter, presumably taking something off the floor. She thought at first it had to be Meiling - after all, who else would be behind the counter? - but the sound the stranger gave off was one Koishi would never attribute to Meiling. It was a cough - just loud enough to be concerning, but not quite loud enough to suggest she was actually choking. A voice rose up soon afterward, quiet but angry.
"Damned Meiling. You'd think she would dust down here once in a while..."
The voice's owner rose to her feet, spluttering now and then. The first feature Koishi's attention fell upon was her skin - white as a sheet, a colour that definitely foretold of poor health. Long hair - purple, but deliberately dyed as such rather than magically so - carried down to her shoulders, multiple loose ends killing off its gravitas. Her jade eyes stopped on Koishi with surprise for a moment, but it quickly gave way to annoyance as she brushed the dust off her reading glasses.
"I assume you were in too much of a hurry for your breakfast to read the sign outside. We're closed, so if you'd like to leave and let me get back to my duty?"
Her word choice was archaic, overly formal, like she'd deliberately taught herself the oldest and most respectable dialect there was. Japanese didn't appear to be her first language, but Koishi couldn't put a finger on her nationality. European, definitely, but nothing beyond that.
"Uh, sorry, that's not it. I just used to be a regular customer around here, and I wanted to know what the problem was-"
That was not the best choice of words, and the sickly girl grew as angry as her health would allow her.
"Used to be? I can certainly believe that, given that you haven't noticed in the last few days. Our resident cook has gone missing, and without anyone to prepare our food we can hardly expect to sell it. Until we either find the woman or get hold of a replacement, the bakery will be indefinitely closed, so I'd rather you left me be to think of with all the money we'll be losing in her absence."
The anger didn't seem directed at Koishi as much as it was pointed towards the missing cook. The girl's rant ended in another series of hacked coughs, and Koishi almost reached over the counter to hold her in place.
"Your cook? You mean...Sakuya-san, right?"
She remembered the name vaguely from Meiling's discussions with the girl. On hearing it, the sick girl seemed to grow more interested, eyes widening slightly.
"Ah, you know her?"
"Uh, not really...but if you give me a description I can look out for her, if you want."
Behind the bookish reading glasses, Koishi saw the girl's eyes glisten. She took a handkerchief from the side, pulled out an elegant-looking pen, and began to jot down details.
"Sakuya Izayoi, nineteen years of age. Dark blue eyes, pale blonde hair running in two braids down her face. Not her natural colour, could well have changed it by now, so be cautious. Jumps between being serious and being ditzy with such absurd haste that I've long since given up determining which is the dominant side. Should you by some miracle find her stalking the streets, inform her that Patchouli is willing to accept her back and overlook this for a measly fifteen percent paycut."
The handkerchief was filled to the brim with various facts and details about the girl, most of which Koishi would have no use in knowing (her three sizes? Was she meant to look out for a suspicious looking chest?). As soon as she'd written down everything she could think of, she practically forced the tissue into Koishi's hand, her eyes looking straight for the door.
"Go. There will be a voucher in it for you if you find her."
Koishi would have done it whether or not there'd been a reward, but it was a nice bonus on top of everything else. Besides that, she wanted to get out of this building as soon as she could - not for her sake as much as for the sake of the bookworm who'd have an aneurysm if she shouted at Koishi any longer.
"Sorry about that, Sango-san! Think we might have to pick up the pace if we want to make class on time..."
Sango was staring up at the building in confusion when Koishi returned. The detour had taken them a little longer than Koishi had planned with this turn of events, so now the trip to school was going to be a little more rushed. Sango, though, didn't respond, even as Koishi pointed downward. All she heard from Sango was a quiet, almost muttered phwee.
"We can come back and admire the architecture later, but we really need to go right now, Sango-san!"
Koishi found herself needing to haul her dolphin friend down the street, unable to pull her attention away from the building, and whispering too quietly for her to hear.
"...No, it isn't. It's too faint..."