Author's Note: I love watching the view graphs on my account. Seeing people read through and enjoy my work is very satisfying.
It also allows me to make pseudo-truthful boasts, like 'This fanfic's been read in ten countries!' Most authors struggle with international publishing!
Tiny apology for the delay; it's patch day on FFXIV and I got more than a little wrapped up in the new raid...
I hope you enjoy! As always, leave your thoughts in a review, let me know how I can improve!
Ikko yelped, pinned against the door. For such a short girl, Kia cornered him with incredible ease. Her hands splayed either side of his shoulders, rising to meet his gaze.
Rising… Ikko's heart skipped a beat. She grew. Stood at his height – and seconds later outstripped it, bearing down over him. He stared up into sunken blue eyes. "C'mon, Ikko," whined the creature Kia warped into, "Let's have some fun…"
Her breath rolled in thick waves from a distended maw, yet even that wasn't enough to break his stare. Ikko could not escape, this he knew, and like the mouse pinned by the owl simply surrendered to witness the experience.
Kia's eyes transfixed him. Mere moments ago, those blues bubbled like a stream. Now they cracked, shifted, ran deep like the currents of oceans dark and distant. "K-Kia…" Ikko whispered, his mind registering the words as if read aloud by an actor on-stage. He sat apart from the show, an audience to his own gruesome death. "Kia, yuh-"
Her jaw opened wider to swallow him whole, and still he could not help but watch. "Your eyes…"
The warmth of her breath froze. The crushing embrace that rolled over him like the wrap of a sodden duvet vanished. Kia shrank. Bones snapped back into place and in mere seconds Ikko looked down at the girl reformed, shirt sprung open, stretched and shredded by her transformation. Her eyes shattered. Hands covered her small mouth and full lips. "Oh my god," came the muffled, strangled cry, "Oh my god- Ikko…"
"Kia…?" repeated he, numb.
Tears rolled free, streaking across soft cheeks. "I'm sorry. I'm – I have to – oh god, oh god I didn't mean it, I swear-"
His world lurched, pushed to one side in her desperate escape from his room. Her sobs carried down the hall, howling even as she took to the stairs. Ikko slumped, sliding down the wall. It took but once breath to bring reality crashing down on him, and suddenly every breath wasn't enough. He retched, heaved, bent over himself, curled into as tight a ball as he could manage.
"I did warn you."
Ikko wanted to look up, but his arms turned to lead. A freezing hand scooped under his shirt and lifted him up. "C'mon, up you get. You're okay, Akada. Let's get you…" Miss Shirayuki urged him onto a seat on the side of the bed. "There we go. You alright?"
Fearing that words might bring a fresh bout of revulsion, Ikko decided on a tremulous nod. Her voice, the sweetness of her breath, the cold pressure of her hand on his back – he could remember naught else of the woman, spare the image of her hysteria at the headmaster's office. Miss Shirayuki sat with him for a long while, crooning assurances and guiding his ragged, erratic breathing. When he finally found the strength to face her, he found her expression inscrutable. "Mizore…?"
"That's Miss Shirayuki to you, Akada," she reminded, too gentle to chide, "I'm surprised you remembered."
"When did you get here?"
"Just before Kia backed off. I was getting ready to step in, but it looks like she got a hold of herself long enough to recognise her actions."
"Kia…" Ikko murmured. He tried to recall her true form, but all that manifested was the oppressive warmth and her broken, twisted eyes. He pushed his hair back, hunching over on himself.
"Need a bucket?"
"N-no, I'm fine. I think…"
"Here." She pushed a wrapper into his line of sight, pinching the stick between two fingers. A lollipop.
"I'm not hungry."
"It's not for your hunger. It'll help, I promise." She wiggled it, insistent. "Go on."
Trembling hands unwrapped the dark green candy ball. It clacked against his teeth, a cold shock scraping ice across the roof of his mouth. "Ish colh!"
"They're frozen," she explained, leaning back in her seat. She rolled hers around her mouth, "I keep a stash. Help me cool off, keep my head clear."
Ikko popped the iced lollipop out of his mouth, staring at it. "Is it medicinal?"
"What? No, not like that – it's just mint, you dummy. Chilled mint."
He replaced it, growing used to the cold. It spread through him, true to her word, and gave Ikko something to concentrate on. "Spearmint."
"Yep. Used to like cherry, but I grew out of that. Mint's been a winner this year."
"Huh…"
She gave him a few moments to relax before speaking again, shifting from the casual cadence to a sharper, more official sting. "You understand now why I told you to go home?"
"What?"
"Kia's just the start." Miss Shirayuki pushed from the bed and knelt in front of him, forcing eye contact. Blue eyes – but not like Kia's bubbling stream. Hers were glacial, solid, impenetrable, stoic. "You were lucky she reined herself in like that. The next student who catches a whiff of you might not be able to hold back."
"But you were there," Ikko noted, pushing the lollipop into his cheek so he could talk properly. He found himself swapping its position every other utterance.
"That's not the point," she exhaled, listing to one side, "What if I wasn't?"
"Th-then Ruby would be there…?"
"Mikogami's assurances aren't absolute, Akada. We might not be able to get to you in time. If a student loses control and we're not around, it'll be far worse than a hickey."
"That's not their fault!" Ikko's protest threw her. Miss Shirayuki stared at him, baffled. She collected herself.
"It might not be the lion's fault – but that doesn't stop them munching on antelope all the livelong day. Instinct is instinct, Ikko. Yokai was established, in part, to help young monsters learn to manage their drives. Some of these kids have never seen a human before."
"Really?"
"Our kind can be reclusive. Forget never seeing another human, actually – in some rare cases, it might be their first time seeing a monster of another species. That alone causes problems…"
"What about you?" Ikko asked, regaining more of himself. "You seem alright."
Miss Shirayuki smiled a hollow smile. "I'm used to it. Spent the last year out in the human world, and I grew up near a human village. Your scent doesn't bother me."
"Oh." Ikko's gaze anchored to the floor.
She saw her chance. "That said – you're going home, right? You know you can't stay here."
"Miss-"
"Ikko, please." She placed a hand on his knee, staring up at him. "I'm begging you. I'll keep begging! Get out of Yokai. Forget all of this before you get hurt, or worse…!"
"I can't."
"Yes you can!"
"I can't!" He shook his head, the violence of the motion whipping his hair and ripping her hand from his knee. "I can't go home."
"Why not?"
"I didn't enrol here by choice, Miss Shirayuki," he began, "My parents, they- they're working abroad for the next two years. My grades weren't high enough for a private school, and then they saw that Yokai only needed an application review, so they dumped me here. I can't go home because there's no home to go back to."
"Akada…"
"I'm sorry, Miss. I am, but I don't," he looked to his suitcase, breath shortening, "I know how much trouble this is for you, but I don't have anywhere else to go. I'm stuck here."
Miss Shirayuki fell back, retreating from her urging to sit cross-legged on the floor. She watched Ikko as he picked at the last scraps of his luggage, refusing to meet her eye. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "I didn't realise."
"S'okay," he mumbled.
"No, it's – not. I said some terrible things, not knowing your position. I should have asked."
"Really, it's fine," Ikko assured, pushing his suitcase away. He slumped forward and sighed, heavy, "They pulled this in middle school, too."
"What do they do?"
"Corporate stuff. They make a lot of money, but it sends them all over the place. I don't really ask."
He looked lost. Utterly lost – absolutely trapped. A twinge of empathy caused her to wince, and then she found a small smile. "Ikko."
"Yes, Miss?"
"Call me Mizore."
"But-"
"It's alright. Here, anyway. In class you'll have to behave, but if I'm going to be protecting you then we might as well be friends, right?" She shrugged. "Call me Mizore."
When he looked to her, he found her hand outstretched again, as she had on the bus. He returned the smile, grasping it lightly. "Alright. I'm Ikko."
"I know."
"Oh. Right." He laughed, quiet. Seeing him warm, even for a moment, eased her.
"Do you need anything?"
"No, I'm okay. I'm alright, yeah." He repeated this, in part to assure her but mainly to soothe himself. "I'll get the rest of my stuff sorted and then I'll grab some food."
"'Kay. You got a phone?"
"Uh- yeah." He fished it out of his pocket. "Signal's garbage."
"Gimme."
"Huh?"
"Your phone – gimme." She took it from him, and when she passed it back he saw her number and email address. "Use that until we figure out a better way to stay in touch. There's wi-fi, so it shouldn't matter if your network's struggling."
"Thanks." Ikko stared at the digits, swiping quickly through his contacts list. Hers became the third entry.
"I'll head off, then. You gonna be alright?" Mizore hovered at the door.
"Yeah. Oh, Miss? Mizore?"
"Hm?"
"I didn't see you come in through the door. How did you…?"
She only nodded in the direction of the window, before waving farewell. Ikko locked the door again, staring at the slightly ajar window. The metal bar that stopped it opening too wide had been pried loose.
He looked down from the sixth floor. "Whoa…"
Ikko woke to a knock at his door. He yawned, stretching out under the tangle of his bedding. "Timeissit…"
He flailed around for his phone, hearing the smack of plastic on hardwood. "Ugh…" Flop. Roll. His hand scraped and scrabbled until he claimed it from its new home, wincing at the brightness. Seven in the morning. "Four hours…"
His guest knocked again. Ikko wrapped himself in a dressing gown and leaned against the door, the gentle thud of his head his first reply to the knocker. "Kia? S'at you?"
"It's Ruby," replied the voice – and so it was, when he opened the door. She laughed at the tangle of his black hair and his half-lidded eyes.
"Sleep well?"
"Mm."
"Miss Shirayuki told me about what happened."
"Mm?" Ikko wiped his eye. What happened? Oh, right. "Mm."
"How're you feeling?"
How best to express his current state… "Mm…"
Ruby laughed again, shaking her head. "I'm sorry for waking you. I wanted to drop these off before you started your first day."
She handed him a plain black container with a screw lid, filled with a creamy white gel. "What is this?" he asked, stifling a yawn and catching a whiff of rotten leaves. "Eugh."
"It only smells bad, I promise. It's a masking spell – you apply it like deodorant. It won't completely erase your scent, and it won't work if they're too close, but so long as you keep from snuggling up to anyone…"
Ikko took another sniff. "I'll smell like eau de forest?"
"You'll smell like any other monster. Mostly." Ruby's smiled waxed apologetic. "It's the best spell I could manage on such short notice. I'll refine it over the next few days."
"A masking spell… like a magic masking spell?" Ikko replaced the lid, looking at the underside of the container. "I thought magic was like this?"
He made a series of vague, wand waving gestures. "Only sometimes," said Ruby, causing him to grin, drowsiness almost forgotten.
"Magic and monsters…"
"It's a brave new world. I'll let you get back to it – I've got a meeting with my boss. See you later, Ikko!"
She left before he could thank her. Ikko went back inside, now too excited to return to his bed. He took to his desk chair, unlocking his phone and switching through the tabs he'd opened the night previous; Yokai Academy; real life monsters; do monsters exist; school for monsters…
When he'd first discovered the survey it had contained a link to Yokai Academy's front page, but even digging that up from his history availed him with only an error message. Strange, he thought, but he remembered Mikogami saying that the server's had gone down for unplanned maintenance. That would explain the lack of a website, at the very least, but it didn't explain the expansive volume of absolutely nothing he'd found on monsters. Nothing save urban legends, folklore, and myth. Nothing about small girls transforming into massive, snake-jawed abominations – except that one horror movie – and certainly nothing about attractive female teachers carrying frozen lollipops.
Well, there'd been plenty about attractive female teachers, but the academy wi-fi blocked those pages.
Ikko set his phone on the desk and plucked the controller sat next to it, switching on his console. In an hour his life at Yokai would begin in earnest, but not now…
It passed too quickly. After a full minute spent deciding on whether to brave this supposed masking spell from Ruby, Ikko conceded. Applying it felt like rubbing butter into his skin, and though he shuddered in disgust, even he could tell how it altered his natural smell in subtle ways. Satisfied, he threw the rest of his uniform on and hastened to join the throng of students preparing for their first day.
Just outside the dorms, he felt a shift in the crowd. Groups parted and gave a couple a wide berth, though most looked on. Like watching a car crash, Ikko too found himself drawn to the spectacle, and his heart sank to see who caused it.
Kia. Cheeks flushed red, eyes puffy, tears streaming and fists balled, she glared up at the guy he recognised from the opening ceremony. Her boyfriend? He spoke quietly, hushed and keenly aware of the scene they caused. "I'm not trying to start a fight. I'm just worried-"
"No, you're being selfish!" she spat back. "Where do you get off?"
She tore away from him – and nearly crashed into Ikko. Unlike everyone else, he'd completely forgotten to keep moving, so as not to make the couple feel too awkward about their public spat. Kia leapt back, startled. She stared at him. "Ikko…"
Before he could speak, she'd turned the other way and fled for the campus. Ikko looked to the boyfriend – and he levelled a baleful glower at him.
He fled for the crowd, joining the masses and cursing his curiosity. What part of 'keep his head down' was so difficult to follow?
Homeroom first. He vaguely remembered the way there. He stared at his feet the whole way, only occasionally checking the campus map to keep on track. Twice now, he'd seen Kia crying. First for her attack on him, and second for… what, exactly? What had her boyfriend said to her?
Ikko recalled the state of her when she'd fled. Perhaps someone had said something? Second-year friendship groups only grew from the first year, so it would make sense that someone could have talked…
His heart stuttered. Did that mean they talked about him? Is that why the boyfriend stared with such withering hated? He tried not to let his search for people staring distract him from his walk to 2-B's classroom.
At last, sanctuary – and most of the seats lay unclaimed. Wanting to avoid yet more trouble, Ikko rammed himself into the corner, away from the seat Kia trapped him in last time. He opened his phone and concentrated on that, flicking through webpages and memes until conversation started to flutter into life around him. No-one cared that he'd taken another seat – in fact, no-one seemed to notice him at all. 2-B took their seats and went on with their lives, paying the strange new transfer absolutely no mind. Not even a wayward sniff! He made a note to thank Ruby later.
Kia came in last, followed shortly by Mizore. One look at her, and how she looked at Ikko hiding in the corner, told him enough. She shuffled over to her desk and dropped into her seat. "All rise!"
Ikko watched Kia as they went through the motions. Every response arrived slowly, a lethargy blossoming from her tremble of her hands and the short, sharp sniffs she took to quiet herself. A few others looked her way not one asked after her once they saw her condition. How bad could that fight have been, he wondered, to upset her so?
"Alright, class," Mizore began, hopping up on her desk, "I won't keep you long. Just a few announcements. Club days are coming up, so make sure you get in on one if you're not already in one…" she went down a list, quick and succinct. Not once did she look at Ikko or even acknowledge him. He nodded to himself; as it should be, of course. Just another student. Another human student at a school for monsters.
Another morsel on the lunch menu. He stole a sideways glance at Kia, who sat with her head hung and her fingers laced together. She moved. Ikko yanked his eyes away, but too late – she saw, and this only worsened her condition.
"Any questions?" Mizore chimed, slapping her clipboard down. His attention for the girl shattered. "No? Excellent. Good. Off you go, then – I'll see you all later."
The class didn't move straight away. When they realized that, for the second time, their teacher released them early, they moved en masse. Ikko tried to join them only to find himself pinned in the corner. He gathered his bag, waiting patiently. When his chance arrived, he made to lunge from the classroom.
"Ikko?" Kia stood in front of him. She angled herself in such a way that he could escape. She laced her fingers together, hunched forward and fought with every inch to meet and hold his evasive brown eyes. "I mean, uh… it's Akada, isn't it?"
"Ikko's fine," said he, on reflex. He looked to Mizore, curled up in her chair and flicking through a folder.
"Okay. Can I-" she jerked her thumb towards the door, "Can I talk to you?"
"To me? Why?"
"It's about-" she paused to look around, before shuffling an inch forward. She mumbled. "S'boutlasnigh…"
"Huh?"
"It's about last-" another furtive glance. Her stained cheeks flushed, before she hung her head. "It's about last night. I'll understand if you say no, but… please?"
He stared at her, mouth slightly ajar. He looked to Mizore. She didn't respond, either too busy or too uncaring. "U-uh… I mean, I have to get to my next class."
"I'll only be a second, I promise!" Kia stepped forward, and once more Ikko found himself backed into a corner. Maybe he should try the middle seat next time. "I-I'll say what I need to say and then, then you can forget all this, I swear. You won't have to deal with me again."
Kia babbled. Babbled when excitement inspired her, when rage took her – but what was this? Remorse? Regret? Ikko couldn't stomach the sight of her, fingers clasped in prayer, lips quivering, eyes big, sore. Even her makeup, however minimal, streaked and blotched with what must have been a god-awful morning.
He sighed. Ceded. "Alright. Where, uh… where do you want to talk? Here? Or…"
Kia breathed, placing a hand over her chest. "Follow me."
Ikko tried to catch Mizore's attention one last time, failing. Surely this would count as a time to ask for help?
She took him to one in a long string of clubrooms on the third floor, unused. Tables lined the walls, providing a great open space for drama, or dance, or blood rituals. Whatever monsters got up to during club.
Ikko paused at the door. What did monsters get up to during club?
Kia searched both the back room, supply closet, and the corridor before shutting the door behind them. Ikko perched on the furthest desk, folding his arms. She pulled at her skirt. "Okay. So… last night. Last night… last night happened."
"I-it did," he mumbled, "What happened?"
"You know what happened!" Kia's fists balled. "I got a whiff of you back at the opening ceremony, and then again at homeroom. Next thing I knew, you were all I could think about! I had to- to…" she covered her mouth, rushing forward to close the gap between them. Ikko leaned back – he realised really needed to stop pinning himself on chairs and in corners – as she stopped but a few paces away. "I lost control. I've never lost control before, not once. Not with my parents, not when I awakened, not in middle school. But you…!"
Tears sprung anew from an infinite well. She sniffed, blinking them away. "I'm sorry, Ikko. I'm so sorry, I could have – it could have gone so much worse. If you hadn't called me out…"
"C-called you out?"
"I understand if you hate me. This must terrify you after, after everything I did. Everything I said – I'm such an idiot." She rubbed furiously at her eyes with her blazer, smearing black on the sleeve. "If you want me to leave you alone, I will. I will, but I really wanted to help, I swear! I wanted –wanted to be your friend… you looked so lost at the ceremony, I just… I've never lost control like that before. It's never happened!"
"You, uh, already said-"
"I know!" she yelled, before he could complete his thought. This last noise stemmed the flow, leaving Ikko in stunned silence with only the sniffling, struggling Kia hunched over before him, ferociously drying her eyes and begging them to stop with stuttered apologies.
He lurched, spoke before he could think to temper sincerity with logic. She was a monster. A monster – she'd tried to eat him! And yet…
"I-it's okay." He managed, voice strangled.
"Huh?" Kia looked up.
"First day, right? Nerves and, and stuff. Instincts." He plucked that word from his conversation with Mizore, hoping it might strike a chord. "Bound to happen. No-one got hurt, so..."
Kia's expression emptied. Her arms hung limp at her side. "You mean it? You're not- you're not mad?"
"Mad?" He returned. "No. You scared me, but… I'm not mad."
"Oh…" Kia trailed off. Was she disappointed that he wasn't angry? "Then can we… I-I mean, if it's okay with you, Akada, can we start again? Properly?"
"Properly being not… smelling me?" Ikko asked. She laughed, sniffling and padding her eyes.
"Not smelling you," she confirmed, "Shaking your hand. Let's see…"
Kia held hers out. She smiled, and in doing so Ikko realised just how dimmer she'd been without it. "I'm Kia. Kia Tayama."
He flickered into a smile of his own, and made sure to grasp her hand firmly. "Ikko. Ikko Akada."
"Nice to meet you."
"The pleasure's mine," said he, bowing his head. They lingered there, for a moment, squeezing one another's hands.
"This is a little awkward," she admitted.
"Just a little." They laughed and backed off. Kia still sniffed, still fussed her eyes, but the worst of the storm seemed to have passed. "Do you want to, uh…"
"Huh? Oh, right. I should clean myself up before class. If Masumi sees me like this, he'll freak."
"Masumi?"
"Boyfriend," she huffed, adjusting the strap on her bag, "Soon-to-be ex, after this morning. I can't believe him!"
"Oh." Ikko fidgeted. He looked to the door.
Kia tried another, softer a smile. "See you at class?" she asked, more than a little hopeful.
He nodded. She sighed relief and excused herself, keeping her head down as she hastened back the way they'd came. Ikko watched her leave, trying to digest what he'd just experience. He somehow preferred the almost-being-eaten to this stuff. This feely… feelings stuff. Still, she seemed nice. For a monster.
His phone buzzed. Ikko checked his email.
Mizore, if the sender address gave anything away.
'We're not all bad. Sorry for trying to scare you.'
Ikko looked to the window. No-one. He checked the corridor. Empty. He scratched his head, wondering how she'd managed to compose such a serendipitously-timed message.
The bell rang, forcing him to stow the thought. Maths next!