A/N: I WAS DOING SO WELL

And then I moved house and killed all momentum on all my fics. Man, that was frustrating. I've been reading Dress-up Darling and Wakana's grandfather says something like 'If I take a day off, it takes me three days to get back up to speed' and I've never felt that more keenly than now.

Sincere apologies for the delay and the short chapter. I just needed to get the ball rolling again.

Enjoy!

Sunday came faster than Ikko could ever have anticipated. So filled were his days with training, studies, and his social life, that he found himself waking up to the weekend before he could feel at all settled into the new routine.

Saturday, too, was stolen from him by a last-ditch effort to research as much as he could about the kuchisake-onna. Etsuko and Kia tried their best—even Judo joined in, convinced by the cause of researching for the culture festival—but all their efforts gleaned no information they could use for Ikko's purposes. It did create the opportunity for a surprisingly enjoyable evening, where those researching and the rest of the Writing Club—Naoko, Nori, and Su—all piled into a single common room to watch terrible horror movies. Squeezed onto the sofa between his friends with popcorn aplenty, it served as a capstone to the week that left him charged for the day that followed.

Ikko waited outside the headmaster's office, a location he felt he probably shouldn't know the route to without guidance. They didn't hold him long; the door creaked open, and Ruby poked her head out. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be." He pushed off the wall, checking himself over.

"You'll be meeting her mother first," she added, in a quieter tone, "She's just inside."

"Oh. Uh—" Ikko began to fidget. "I wasn't expecting a parent."

"Her request," Ruby replied, "She wants to meet the student taking Kaiyo under their wing. This way."

She led him in. To Ikko's surprise, the headmaster wasn't the first thing he saw.

Indeed, the headmaster wasn't there at all. Not his habit, not his presence, not the tantalizingly familiar mystery of the cigar smoke. Only his desk, empty. Two chairs were drawn up opposite each other, a short walk from the door. The woman formerly sat across from Ruby, he assumed, stood to greet them. She was as tall as Ikko, wearing a black shirt and a long, flowing cardigan buttoned up as completely as possible, hiding all of her legs except her shoes. A surgical mask covered her face, which she removed to greet him, though her features were kept in shadow by her hair. "Emiko Honoka," she said, bowing once, "Miss Tojo has told me a lot about you, Akada."

"Nothing to put you off me being here, I hope?" Ikko asked, looking at Ruby. She smiled, shrugging.

"Quite the opposite," Emiko replied, "I was having my doubts about sending Kaiyo here, but after hearing that you were here, and the work you've been doing…"

Ikko fidgeted. Hearing about it in the second person set him ill at ease, like a more fabulous version of himself had waltzed through the door and charmed the pants off everyone in the room before he'd stumbled in. "It's nothing impressive," he mumbled, "But—why would my being here give you confidence?"

Emiko smiled, an expression that pulled her features momentarily into the light. Ikko blinked. His blood chilled. He wasn't quite sure how to describe what he saw at first, only that her smile didn't end where her the corners of her lips spread. She continued before he could make sense of it, returning her expression to the half-light of the office. "You were at Kaiyo's school before you came to Yokai, I'm told."

"I was."

"I had no idea another monster lived so close. I'm sure a familiar face will bring her some comfort."

He looked to Ruby, deliberately concentrating on the emotion pulling at him. Sensing the urge, she nodded. "Mrs. Honoka—"

"Miss," she corrected.

"Miss. Apologies. Uh… I'm not a monster. I'm human."

He noticed the change immediately. Her fingers curled into fists. She leaned a little further back in her chair. How strange, he thought, that those words shifted the air about him so easily.

Despite all that, she managed to phrase her surprise in a polite question. "Is that so?"

"I'm here on exchange," he explained, "But I'm human. That work you're referring to, it's because I'm human that I'm doing it. Learning about this world, learning how to co-exist."

"It's quite the situation you've landed yourself in."

"You can say that again," he tried a laugh, "Miss Honoka, may I ask a question?"

"You may."

"The, uh… Kaiyo's awakening was reported on by Under Moonlight, which is a network monsters use to stay apprised of such things. That was quite a few months ago now. Why the delay in bringing her to Yokai?"

Emiko looked at her hands, mostly hidden by the long sleeves of her cardigan. "It's easier to show you."

Ikko took a breath. In a single motion, she rolled back her sleeves and pulled back her hair, releasing her features into the light of the room. Scars—could such holes even be called scars?—ate into her pale skin, crevasses and pits and canyons that from ghostly white to a deep, dark, glistening red, as if the wounds were still fresh. Most striking were the gashes either side of her mouth, which made every smile too wide, and too bloody. Yet despite these innumerable wounds, she seemed perfectly comfortable, and the longer Ikko looked at them, the more he saw that they did not bleed as such injuries do. The crimson lurking in its depths was more like mist, or dew, than fresh blood. "We kuchisake-onna carry in us a great power," Emiko explained, "Its volatility makes it incredibly difficult to disguise. Even if I were to strengthen my Guise to its fullest…" She did so, and the caverns in her flesh shallowed. The mist disappeared, and soon her skin looked much more whole, with only faded pits and light valleys. "…A trace remains."

Ikko laced his fingers together, leaning forward in the seat. "And you're telling me this because…"

She tilted her head.

A soft 'aha' escaped him. "You wanted to see how I'm handling it before letting me see Kaiyo."

Emiko nodded. "Even stronger wills can cower in the face of the true form of the kuchisake-onna. That you are human and responding—or not—as you are is impressive."

"I've had help," Ikko answered, with an eye to Ruby, "A lot of help, and a quirk of my blood."

"Your blood?"

"Ruby—Miss Tojo thinks there's a witch a few rungs up my family tree. It helps me protect myself against some of the more visceral reactions an unguarded human might have."

"A quirk indeed." She smiled. "How fortunate that you're the one tasked with my daughter's induction to the school."

Ikko chuckled. "I wish I could say luck's got something to do with it, but it's more the headmaster's prudent planning that landed me here than anything else. Speaking of, where is he?"

"On other business," Ruby answered, "Miss Honoka, if you're convinced, perhaps we should make ready for the introductions?"

Emiko stood, smoothing out her cardigan bowing to Ikko. "Of course. Lead the way, Miss Tojo."

Ikko followed the women back out into the hall, where they turned left towards what he remembered as the conference room he, Tsukune and Moka had first conversed in. Reaching the door, Ruby turned her back on it to look at him. "Ikko, I'd prepare everything in advance. Kaiyo isn't showing the same restraint her mother is."

"Right." He followed her guidance, summoning the barrier over his major senses. He smiled at Emiko, his green eyes a little greener thanks to the magic. "You want to announce me?"

"That's probably for the best," she agreed, and stepped forward to poke her head into the door, "Kaiyo?"

Nothing. Ikko folded his arms, straining his ears to hear something, anything.

"It's Emiko," she whispered, the creaking of her tone the first emotion that slipped through unrestrained, "The Yokai student we discussed is here to see you. Are you ready?"

He looked once more to Ruby, who shook her head. She couldn't hear anything, either.

Exhaling, Emiko leaned back from the door and closed it. "She's in there," she said, "The lights are off for her comfort. If you would, Mister Akada."

"Yeah." He strode past them both, grasping the door handle. No amount of barrier magic could protect him from the lump in his throat, or the cold sweat of anticipation that slicked his hands in the face of meeting this woman. He shook himself, cleared his throat, and announced himself to the darkness.

It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust as the sliver of light from the hall vanished, and even then, it proved a struggle to see anything beyond the vague outline of his body. He tuned his focus to his other senses.

Smell came first. A thick stench of iron overpowered almost everything else in the room, a miasma that twisted his stomach. It was a scent a primal corner of his mind recognised, though he had never smelled it in such quantities. Blood. Ikko reflexively strengthened the barrier over his nose, dulling the odour.

Hearing next. Beyond the ambient hum of the room, and his own forcefully steadied breaths, nothing stood out. Was she holding her breath? "Honoka?" he called out, softly, "Kaiyo Honoka?"

A sharp intake of air confirmed her presence in the room, at least. Sticking to the wall, Ikko slowly stretched his arm out across the surface, fumbling for a light switch. "Honoka, I'm going to switch on the ligh—"

"DON'T!"

Something very large slammed into the wall immediately to the left of Ikko's hand, the tremor of the impact roaring through his palm. The warmth of a large body consumed the chill of the room, bringing with it the source of the stench Ikko tried so hard to suppress. No amount of magic could protect him from the direct onslaught. Before terror gripped him completely, he forced himself to speak. "Honoka, my name's Ikko. I'm here to help."

The voice that answered barely registered as human. "Help? You?"

Even without sight, her unrestrained presence bore down on Ikko, crumbling the ramparts of his resolve. He cleared his throat. "I'm not going to hurt you, Honoka. I just need to turn on the light."

"I won't let you." She growled.

"Okay. Okay. No lights."

He lowered his arm and in turn, Kaiyo relaxed. She retreated from him, breathing shakily. "What did you say your name was?"

"Ikko," he replied, willing his legs not to give out underneath him, "Ikko Akada. You probably don't remember me, but we were at the same school before this one."

"I…" Kaiyo lapsed into silence. Her focus on the conversation diverted the worst of her energies, giving Ikko's psyche a chance to relax. "I think I do. You were a transfer?"

"Yeah. I transferred in whilst my parents worked in the area; now I've transferred here."

"You're a monster?" she said, "I thought I was the only one…"

"Ah—you were, unfortunately. I'm as human as they come."

Like mother, like daughter, Ikko mused as he felt the air around them tense. "I-I don't understand," Kaiyo whispered, in a grim rattle of a voice, "How are you here?"

"It's a long story, but it's true. I'm human. The only human currently at Yokai."

Either her shock at his revelation or her wariness of being in the same room as another human stifled her words. Ikko decided to try again. "Listen, Kaiyo," he ventured; when she didn't make to stop him, he pressed on, "I can't imagine what you suffered back home. Your mother told me a little bit about what happened, but to go through what you did, where you did… I don't think I could ever even begin to grasp that. What I can grasp, what I'm here to help you with, is how you move forward from it."

"You keep saying that word. Help." Kaiyo growled. "How are you supposed to help me? How could you ever help?"

Ikko folded his arms. "You have a point. I'm just words at the moment—and a human, to boot. My kind are the reason you're acting the way that you are."

"At least we agree on that." She rasped.

"Alright." He exhaled. "Let me prove it to you."

By this point he could clearly make out the silhouette of Kaiyo's figure. What looked like her head focussed on him, unmoving, and he could only assuming unblinking. "Prove it?" she whispered.

"Yeah. Give you a reason to trust that I can help you. That I'm not just going to run screaming or hurl abuse or… worse."

"Why?"

"Because your mother let me in. Because the headmaster thinks I can. Because a few months ago, I was standing exactly where you were, without a soul to help me and in a world filled with danger, and I don't want anyone to go through that."

Silence. In the depths of the dark, she shifted. "Alright. How?"

"I'm gonna turn the light on."

"I said—"

"I know what you said, but it's the only way I can think of. If I do anything you don't like I'll leave, and you won't see me again. Okay?"

"Okay."

Ikko navigated his hand across the wall, feeling for the tell-tale raised plastic of the light switch. Finding it, he shifted his index finger over the switch proper. "Ready?"

"No."

He breathed a laugh. "Me neither."

"You sounded so sure of yourself."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." He tried a smile, realising too late that she couldn't see it. "Alright."

She took a slow breath, sucking air through her teeth. "Alright."