Chapter 6: Punishment and Hunger
Author's note: Hey, this story isn't dead after all.
A thing about me is that I'm a Jack-of-all-trades type of creator, I write, draw, design and create costumes, crochet, quilt, make toys, have a few different projects in the works etc. As well as other hobbies like reading and play games. Put that all together and I don't end up having a lot of time for each individual thing.
It can be a real pain because while I'll want to do one thing, my motivation ends up getting pulled away to do another thing, leaving my other projects to just lounge there half-finished or not started yet. There are times where I'll open the Word doc to start writing, but then not write anything or only manage a sentence because my attention is more on reading and watching videos.
Rin dragged her feet down the stairs, as if she could somehow delay her fate. But really, all she was doing was cutting down on the amount of time she had to eat breakfast.
"I wanna go back to bed." Rin grumbled to herself.
"Tough luck." Her father told Rin, overhearing her. "Though, I don't know why you're so tired with how early you've been going to bed. Have you been sneaking?"
"No." Rin answered automatically. "Why would I even stay up? You took my manga."
Her dad had only just calmed down after her first outing with Ami, she didn't want to reawaken his ire by giving away that she had snuck out to hunt Witches with Melodie.
Shiro hummed and looked down at Rin critically.
"What are you looking at me like that for?" Rin huffed, pushing past him to sit at the dinner table.
"Lose the attitude, young lady." Shiro told her.
Rin rolled her eyes, with earned her a smack on the arm from Yukio, who really didn't want his sister to dig her grave even deeper with their father.
After a quick breakfast, Rin reluctantly followed her brother out the door, aggressively pulling on her school hat.
It was Monday, which meant that it was time for Rin's in-school suspension, where she'd be separated from everyone all day in a single room, even during break and lunch times. Which wouldn't have been so bad if it didn't mean also being separated from Yukio until home time.
"Where are we going today?"
"Ah!" Yukio startled as Ami abruptly appeared next to them as they set off for school.
"School." Rin answered with a groan.
"You don't want to go." Ami remarked.
"I've got no choice." Rin bemoaned.
"Hello. Who are you?" Yukio asked Ami.
"I'm Ami." The other girl introduced herself, not bowing or offering her hand.
"She's my…friend." Rin explained, still unsure as to whether the label really applied to Ami.
Did someone who was basically a walking and talking doll really count as a friend?
"Oh, the person you snuck out to be with." Yukio recognised. "But, what's your family name?"
He found it weird that the other girl would be so informal when introducing herself. Even his sister, who could barely be bothered to remember her formalities and politeness most of the time, introduced herself to other people with her full name.
"I don't have one." Ami answered simply.
"What she means is, she doesn't like to give it out." Rin interrupted before her brother could question her friend.
After spending some time as a Magical Girl and realising just how dangerous the job was, as well as Yukio dismissing her the first time she tried to tell him, Rin no longer felt like letting him on the secret.
"Yes." Ami immediately picked up on why Rin was lying about her name. "For personal reasons."
"Okay." Yukio accepted unsurely.
Maybe Ami's family were influential rich people. Or perhaps her family were well-known for illegal activities. Yukio did not like the latter option.
"So, how did you meet Rin?" Yukio asked.
Ami went to answer but then paused and looked to Rin for what she should say.
"We…met at the park. You know, the one we usually go to?" Rin quickly made up.
"Really? I haven't seen you around before." Yukio said to Ami.
"That's because she just moved here. Isn't that right, Ami-chan?" Rin answered for Ami again.
"Yes." Ami didn't add anything else.
"And what made you decide to become friends?" Yukio continued to grill Ami.
After what had happened last week, he didn't want his sister to be hurt like that all over again.
"Because Rin-chan wanted to." Ami answered simply.
"Really, just like that?"
"Yes, just like that." Rin huffed. "We don't need some fantastical reasoning for becoming friends."
Even though the cause of them becoming 'friends' was actually fantastical.
Yukio continued to ask Ami questions on the way to school, trying to get a judge on her character. She gave good answers that satisfied him that she wasn't intending to hurt or use his sister, but her demeanour freaked him out. Ami spoke very blandly with no inflections in her voice, and she also spoke very simply, using the minimal number of words needed to answer his questions. It made him question why exactly Rin would want to become friends with the other girl when they were so different, other than his sister being so deprived of friends that she accepted anyone who didn't turn her away.
He also couldn't help noticing that Rin would answer the questions he directed at Ami most of the time, and when Ami did answer, she would look to Rin first.
Eventually, the trio of children reached the school gates and went to go inside.
"Uh," Yukio stopped when he saw that Ami was following them inside. "Do you go to this school? You're not wearing the uniform."
Though most children didn't have to start wearing uniforms until they reached Lower-Secondary, Yukio and Rin's school was one of the Elementary schools that had a uniform. So, Ami stuck out like a sore thumb in her slightly-dirty casual clothes. Clothes that were very similar to the ones that Rin had in her wardrobe now that he thought about it.
"Oh, uh…Ami is home schooled." Rin jumped in to answer for Ami again. "She just wanted to walk with me to school and didn't notice that we arrived."
Yukio frowned as Rin dragged Ami a short distance away, but then shrugged.
…
"Listen, you can't follow me into school." Rin told Ami as soon as she was sure they wouldn't be overheard by her brother. "The teachers would be able to tell you're not from here and start asking questions."
"I understand." Ami replied. "But what will you do during breaks?"
Rin sighed.
"I'll manage." She then assured.
She was already used to spending her breaks either with just Yukio or alone when he was busy. So not having Ami wouldn't be a loss.
"Should I wait here until you leave school?" Ami asked.
"No, people will see you and ask questions too." Rin shook her head. "Just…just wander around town until school is over or something."
She really didn't know what to do with Ami. When she made her wish, she hadn't considered whether her new friend would be able to follow her around in school and where she'd go when she couldn't follow her places.
"Onee-chan, the bell's about to ring!" Yukio called over from the school gate.
"Coming!" Rin shouted back. "See you after school." She said to Ami before running off.
Ami watched Rin disappear into the school gates. Not long after, she heard the distant sound of the school bell ringing, signalling the start of class.
Ami remained standing there for a minute before complying with what Rin had told her to do, going to wander around the town. At least it would allow her to familiarise herself with her friend's home during the time they couldn't be together.
A few hours of wandering later, Ami found herself on a random street, looking at the plaque for the street's name while swaying on her feet.
"Have I already been past here?" She asked herself.
There was a blue-painted corner shop down the road that she might have passed while exploring a different street, but a lot of the buildings looked the same. She had already made the mistake of thinking she'd already seen a shop when it was actually an entirely new shop when trying to backtrack in her wandering. Which now led to Ami's current predicament.
"I'm lost." Ami concluded. "How can I find my way back to Rin-chan in time for school to end now?"
A loud grumbling came from Ami's stomach accompanied by pain but she ignored it. Her stomach had been doing that for a while now but she didn't have anything to stop it, so her only solution was to ignore it.
Ami turned to retrace her steps but found that she couldn't remember which street she had turned into this one from, nor could she remember the name of the previous street. So, she was just left to wander even more, hoping to find her way back to the school before it ended.
As she walked, the world suddenly went dark around the edges and dizziness shot through Ami. The next thing she knew, she was staring up at the sky and her head hurt from where it was lying against the pavement.
Continuing to just lie there as she struggled to understand what just happened, a familiar figure appeared in Ami's vision, staring down at her with wide red eyes.
"I thought as much." Kyubey commented.
"What happened?" Ami asked, sitting up and swaying violently as the dizziness reasserted itself from that simple action.
"Though you are an artificial creation, it seems that you still have human needs such as food and water. What you just experienced is the result of not receiving enough nutrients or hydration for your body to function. As such it is beginning to shut down."
"I need food and water." Ami concluded.
It made sense. The only times the pain in her stomach and the dizziness went away was after the post-hunt meals Melodie bought for them. And the last time, Ami had been struck with the intense need to eat her food as quickly as possible, unable to control herself until Melodie had told her to slow down.
"What do I need to do?" Ami asked Kyubey.
She couldn't do her duty as Rin's friend if she was collapsing from lack of nutrients.
"Find a regular source of food and water so that you can maintain your body, of course." Kyubey replied. "There should be food and water in that shop over there."
The creature pointed with a paw at a small shop.
Climbing unsteadily to her feet and swaying hard, Ami made her way over to the shop and went inside. The cashier didn't bother looking up at Ami as she started looking over the items until she found food. Grabbing the first thing she saw, a packet of ramen, Ami tore open the packet and bit into the dried noodles. They tasted bad and dried out her mouth but Ami continued to eat regardless, she needed food and she didn't let such things get in the way of that.
After the noodles, half of which had spilled down the front of her shirt from crumbling away in her hand, Ami located some bottled water on a different shelf and loudly gulped it down, once again taken over by her body's impulse to fulfil its needs.
"Hey! You need to pay for that!" The cashier finally took notice of what Ami was doing.
Ami turned to him but grabbed another packet of food and ripped it open as she did so.
"Pay?" She asked before stuffing the food into her mouth.
The cashier stormed over to her and snatched the food out of her hands.
"I was eating that." Ami stated plainly.
"You need to pay for it first. Wait, did you eat the ramen right out of the packet?" The cashier took notice of the mess down the front of Ami's shirt and on the floor.
"I'm hungry." Ami explained.
"Geeze, you're really that desperate?" The cashier lost some of his steam as he realised what Ami's situation had to be like for her to eat dried ramen. "I'm guessing that you don't have any money then."
"No." Ami said.
The cashier sighed heavily.
"Look, I'll let you off just this once, but I can't let you have anything else without paying for it." He told Ami.
"I need money to get food?" Ami asked.
"Yes, that's usually how the world works. Haven't your parents taught you this already? You can't just go about stealing food or you'll get in trouble." The cashier crossed his arms.
"How do I get money?" Ami asked.
"You're a little too young for that. Speaking of which, why aren't you in school?" The cashier asked as it dawned on him what the time of day was.
"I'm home-schooled." Ami repeated Rin's earlier lie.
"Sure." The cashier didn't look like he fully believed her. He then sighed again, looking around the shop. "Look, I think there's a soup kitchen nearby. How about I take you there?"
"Is there food?" Ami asked.
"Yes, and you don't have to pay for it either." The cashier nodded. "Let me just call in a coworker to see if she can cover the store for me."
Ami waited patiently for the cashier, Kou as he introduced himself as, to call in his coworker and then for said coworker to arrive. Then Kou took Ami out to his car to take her to the soup kitchen.
"Just for future reference, don't get into a stranger's car like this." Kou told Ami as he drove. "There are a lot of creeps out there who want to hurt little kids like you. And you never know who's nice and who wants to hurt you."
"Okay." Ami agreed.
After some driving, the two of them arrived at the soup kitchen and Kou took Ami inside. Ami stayed silent as Kou explained the situation to the kitchen staff.
"And she just showed up on her own?" The lady in charge asked.
"Yeah. She was so hungry that she ate ramen straight out of the packet." Kou explained.
"That's concerning." The lady frowned.
She then crouched down to be at Ami's level.
"Hi, sweetie. Can you tell me your name?" She asked gently.
"Ami." The girl replied.
"And what about your family name?"
"I don't like to give it out." Ami repeated the excuse that Rin had come up with.
"Okay. What about where you live? Would you be able to tell me your address? I'm sure that your parents are worried about you."
"I don't have an address and I don't have parents." Ami answered honestly.
She saw no reason to lie, since Rin hadn't told her to say otherwise yet.
The lady and Kou traded frowns.
"Thank you for bringing Ami in." The lady told Kou. "I'll see to her safety from here and call the appropriate authorities."
"Yeah, sure." Kou said. "Just…make sure that she gets some food in her. Bye, Ami."
Ami didn't respond, much to Kou's disappointment, too invested in the food the kitchen cooks were now offering her.
Rin sat in the isolated classroom and felt the strong desire to hit her head against the desk from absolute boredom. Underneath the desk her legs vibrated up and down like a rabbit's and one of her pens had flown off into the corner of the room from bouncing out of her hand while she had been clicking it against the desk.
"Settle down." The staff in charge of the suspension huffed, not caring that Rin couldn't exactly help it.
She needed to move, she needed to talk to someone, she needed to hear people talking, she needed to find Yukio and make sure that he wasn't getting picked on in her absence. She needed to do something. But, instead, she was going to be stuck in this single room all day, not even allowed to leave the desk most of the time.
Today was only the first day of her in-school-suspension and things were already bad for Rin.
When she had first walked back into school, everyone had looked at her and given her a wide birth, except for Kodama Hideyo's group. They had glared at her and made some nasty and infuriating comments, though still kept their distance in case Rin got violent again.
Rin had told them to shut up just in time for the staff member who was in charge of her suspension to appear around the corner to pick her up. Even though Rin had done nothing, the staff member had still assumed that Rin was provoking Hideyo and her group, not helped by the other girls pulling out the innocent victims act. So, the staff member had berated Rin for causing problems and trying to start fights on her first day back while she was already in trouble, shutting down Rin's repeated claims of innocence.
It made Rin's blood boil at how unfair it all was.
During lunch, Rin put aside her workbook and pulled her bento out of her bag. It was the first school lunch on a long time that she wasn't eating with Yukio.
Without Yukio, and not allowed to go anywhere, Rin was left with nothing to do the remainder of lunch after she had eaten. It was exceedingly boring to just sit there, the only other option to voluntarily continue with her work during what should be a break.
"If you want something to do, drop these files off at reception." The staff sighed as Rin started fidgeting loudly from the lack of stimulation.
The staff member wrote a note allowing Rin to be out of the isolation room despite her suspension and then sent her on her way with the papers.
Rin sighed as she walked through the corridors of the school, staring enviously at the students who got to be wherever they wanted during break. But at least she got to stretch her legs with this.
As she walked, Rin spotted Kodama Hideyo and her group, the lead bully still with a plaster over her nose.
Though she wasn't afraid of the girl and her groupies in the least, Rin also didn't want another confrontation like that morning that would lead to her being unfairly blamed as the instigator. And she knew that Hideyo would start something if she spotted Rin.
So, Rin quickly ducked behind a set of lockers to wait until the group passed her by.
"…mi anyway?" Rin picked up on the conversation the girls were having as they passed her by.
"No idea." Hideyo said dismissively. "I haven't spoken to her since Friday."
"Yasuda-san didn't look very well on Friday." One of the groupies said. "Maybe she's sick."
At the mention of the girl who faked wanting to be her friend, Rin realised that she wasn't there, and that she hadn't seen her that morning either.
"Sick?" Hideyo snorted. "More like ashamed."
The girl stopped and clasped her hands in front of her while appearing weak and simpering.
"Hideyo, don't you think that the prank went too far." The girl said in a weak-sounding voice, mocking who she was quoting. "She didn't do anything. It was cruel." Hideyo dropped the act and snorted again.
Another of the groupies laughed. "If she thought it was so bad, she shouldn't have gone along with the test in the first place."
"That girl's pathetic. The only reason I considered letting her hang around was because father insisted that I be there for my cousin." Hideyo huffed.
Rin didn't hear anymore as the girls moved away.
"No good lowlifes." Rin hissed as she pieced together what the girls had been talking about.
She suddenly felt sorry for Azami, having Kodama Hideyo for a cousin, and it was clear that the bully looked down on her cousin and took advantage of her. Though, Rin didn't feel too sorry for her. Azami may have felt sorry for what she did, but she still did it, humiliating Rin and leading to her getting in so much trouble.
"Whatever." Rin mumbled, shrugging and continuing on her way to reception.
"…no response from the Yasudas." Rin overheard one of the school receptionists say as she approached the desk.
"Are their phones off?"
"No, it's ringing."
The receptionists stopped talking as Rin approached the desk.
"What are you doing out of isolation?" One of them asked sternly.
"I was asked to drop off these files." Rin replied blankly, putting the files on the desk and showing the note.
"Fine. Now go back to the room." The receptionist accepted.
Resisting the urge to scowl, knowing the receptionist would only call her out for being rude, Rin turned around and marched back to the isolation classroom.
"I shouldn't have to put up with this. I'm a Magical Girl now." Rin fumed to herself. "See if I save them when a Witch catches them."
Ami sat in a corner, reading a book that one of the staff at the soup kitchen had given to her. She had been told to stay put for a while and Ami saw no reason to not follow their instructions for now, though she would be leaving soon so that she could find her way back to Rin's school in time to greet her friend as the school let out.
"Ami." The head of the soup kitchen approached with a woman dressed very professionally. "This is Miss Fukui. She wants to talk with you."
Ami lowered her book and looked at Miss Fukui as the woman sat down opposite her.
"Hello Ami. I'm Fukui Emiri and I'm a social worker. Do you know what that is?" The woman introduced herself in a gentle tone.
"No." Ami answered simply.
"Well, it's my job to look after children and make sure that they are getting the care they need." Miss Fukui explained. "Now, I need to ask you a few questions about your family and home life. Is that okay with you?"
Ami paused before eventually shrugging in response. Questions about her opinions and feelings continued to stump her as she had none, so she couldn't give answers.
"Can you tell me why you're not in school today? I'm not mad or upset. I just want to know." Miss Fukui assured while taking a notebook and pen out of her bag.
"I'm home-schooled." Ami used the excuse Rin gave her.
"Right." Miss Fukui nodded, writing something down in her notebook. "Now, can you tell me you family name?"
"I don't like to give it out." Ami answered with the same excuse that she had used before.
"Is that something you were told not to do, or something you decided not to do?" Miss Fukui questioned further.
Ami paused again. Rin hadn't given her an excuse for if someone questioned the matter further. She had no idea how to answer.
"I don't like to give it out." Ami settled on repeating.
Miss Fukui frowned but seemed to accept the answer, for now.
"What about your parents? Do you know their names?"
"I don't have parents." Ami answered honestly.
"I see. What about your guardians then, the people who take care of you? Do you know their names?"
"I don't have guardians." Ami continued to showcase no emotion in her replies.
Miss Fukui's frown grew heavier.
"Then who takes care of you?"
"No one."
The woman took a deep breath.
"…I see." She said calmly. "Do you have a place that you stay?"
"I've been sleeping beneath a tree so far. I wasn't told to go anywhere else."
"Oh, this poor girl." Ami caught the woman whispering under her breath.
Miss Fukui took a moment to write down some more things before packing them away in her bag.
"Ami, I'd like you to come with me." She stood up and then crouched down to Ami's level. "I can find you someone who will take care of you. You'll be able to stay in a house, get your own bed at night, and you'll be properly fed. You won't have to look after yourself anymore."
Ami saw no reason to object and so stood to follow the social worker. The woman placed a hand on her back and gently guided her out of the soup kitchen.
"Bye, Ami-chan." The workers waved to her.
Once outside, Miss Fukui guided Ami over to a car and opened the passenger door, prompting her to get in.
"Seatbelt." The woman instructed as she climbed into the driver's seat. "I hope you don't get car sick. it'll take a while to get to the centre."
Ami looked at the clock on the car's radio, it wasn't long until school was meant to let out.
"I have to meet Rin-chan when she gets out of school." She informed the social worker.
"Rin-chan?"
"My friend."
Miss Fukui hummed.
"And does your friend know about your situation?" She asked in concern.
Ami thought about the question. Rin had never given her a place to sleep, and Melodie was the only one who had given her food before today, but she also hadn't stayed to see where Ami went after going inside or asked about it.
"No." Ami eventually concluded.
"Okay then." The woman said. "I'm afraid that you're not going to be able to meet with your friend right now. I need to take you to the centre and get your care sorted out. I'm sorry. But once that's done, if you have a way to contact your friend, we can see about you meeting them later on."
Ami looked at the social worker. That was not acceptable in the least. As Rin's friend, she needed to be there for her whenever Rin needed her, included as soon as she left school. If going with Miss Fukui meant not being able to be there when Rin needed her, then she couldn't go with the woman.
Ami released her seatbelt and opened the car door.
"Hey, where are you going?" Miss Fukui reached out to Ami.
"I can't go with you. I need to be there for Rin-chan." Ami said, sliding out of the car.
"Listen, you can't run off." Miss Fukui began to undo her own seatbelt.
Seeing that the social worker was going to try and stop her, Ami took off running, intent on getting away and finding her way back to Rin's school.
"No! Wait! Stop!" Miss Fukui shouted, running after her.
Ami continued running right towards a road that was full of cars.
"Stop! Stay away from the road!" Miss Fukui cried in fear.
Ami didn't listen, running right out into the road.
There was a lot of beeping and near-misses as cars braked and swerved to avoid her, but Ami managed to make it across without getting hurt and then kept running, ignoring the angry shouts of the drivers behind her.
Meanwhile, Miss Fukui remained on the other side of the road, too afraid to charge into the road herself until the cars cleared enough for her to make it safely across. And by the time she did make it across, Ami was already out of sight.
Ami looked around her, breathing heavily as she continued to run. She had succeeded in getting away from the social worker but that still left the issue of being lost and not knowing her way back to Rin.
The familiar sound of a bell ringing from not far off caught Ami's attention and she quickly headed towards it. But when Ami reached the school that the bell had brought her to, she realised that it was a completely different school to the one that Rin had entered into that morning.
Ami turned to leave when a voice called out to her.
"Ami?"
She turned to see Melodie emerging out of the school gates alongside other teenagers, dressed in a school uniform different to Rin's.
"Melodie-sempai." Ami turned back and walked over to the elder Magical Girl.
"What are you doing here?" Melodie asked, looking around.
"I got lost. I'm trying to find my way back to Rin's school." Ami explained.
"Ah." Melodie nodded. "Well, I guess I can walk you there. My mates are all doing their own thing this afternoon."
Ami gave the name of Rin's school and Melodie walked here there.
The school had already let out by the time they reached it, but thankfully Rin and Yukio were only just leaving it. As part of her punishment, Rin was in charge of cleaning the isolation classroom and Yukio had elected to wait for his sister.
"Melodie-sempai!" Rin smiled widely at seeing the older girl, running over to greet her.
"Hey, little spark." Melodie reached over and ruffled her hair, much to Rin's indignation.
"Onee-chan, who's this?" Yukio asked.
He didn't like that the older girl was acting so familiar with his sister. When did they even meet anyway? The suspicious part of him couldn't help but wonder if the older girl had some sort of ulterior motives.
"This is Melodie-sempai. I met her when…I ran off last week." Rin got quiet at referencing what had caused her grounding.
"Saiki Melodie." The older girl bowed.
"Okumura Yukio." Yukio bowed back politely. "So, how exactly did you come to know my sister?" He asked.
Melodie raised an eyebrow at the suspicion the young boy was showing towards her.
"Why are you treating Melodie-sempai like that." Rin huffed. "She saved me."
Rin's mouth snapped shut at what she had given away while trying to defend the older girl.
"Saved you how?" Yukio questioned, looking his sister up and down as if he'd suddenly find some new injury.
"Rin got into trouble with…some bad people." Melodie quickly concocted a story. "And I helped to chase them off."
"Yep!" Rin quickly agreed.
Yukio frowned, still not sure if he could trust the older girl.
"I think that dad needs to meet her." He said, crossing his arms.
"What? Why?" Rin questioned.
"It's fine, Rin." Melodie assured before Yukio could explain. "I'm an older girl, it's unusual for me to be around younger kids."
"Oh." Rin said. She hadn't really thought about it like that.
"Well, I've got nothing to hide." Melodie shrugged. "So, lead the way."
…
Rin hung near the back of their small group as they walked home, feeling anxious at the inevitable confrontation with her dad.
She and Melodie would have to explain how they knew each other, leaving out everything to do with Magical Girls and Witches. But how else could they explain how they met and gotten to know each other? Melodie and mentioned 'bad people', so they'd have to work around that, but they'd also need to keep their stories straight, and Rin sucked at coming up with long excuses because she always forgot details. Maybe she could let Melodie do all the talking.
"Calm down, little spark."
Rin startled at Melodie's voice.
It sounded right next to her, practically in her own head, yet Melodie remained where she was a few feet away, not even facing her. And Yukio didn't show any signs of having heard Melodie speak, though Ami turned her head slightly towards them showing that she had.
"Let me introduce to you another perk of being a Magical Girl." Rin startled as Melodie's voice came again. "Short range telepathy."
"Huh?" Rin said, thankfully not loud enough for her brother to hear.
Melodie peaked over her shoulder to flash Rin a grin and a wink before turning back around.
"Kyubey allows us to communicate our thoughts to each other." Melodie clarified. "Though only with other Magical Girls or those who can see Kyubey, and only over a short distance."
"Cool." Rin projected her own thought towards Melodie.
"Okay, so how about we work out a non-magical explanation for how we met." Melodie suggested.
So, using their mental connection, the two Magical Girls, plus a silent Ami, figured out what they were going to say once they met Rin and Yukio's dad. It thankfully didn't take much effort and contained enough of the truth that it'd hopefully be believable.
"We're home!" Yukio called as he opened the front door.
Shiro emerged from somewhere in the house and was surprised to see a girl his children's age and an older teen standing outside. He vaguely recognised the younger girl as the one who Rin had returned home with after sneaking out of the house.
"Hello, I'm Fujimoto Shiro, Yukio and Rin's father." The man introduced himself, eyeing the two new girls with interest.
"Saiki Melodie."
"Ami."
Shiro raised an eyebrow at Ami's lack of family name but thankfully didn't comment on it.
"So, what can I do for you young ladies?" He asked instead.
"Well…" Rin started, trying to think of how best to start explaining.
"Nee-chan left things out about what happened when she ran off from school." Yukio said.
"Yukio!" Rin cried at her brother stating things so blatantly.
He was making it sound like she'd done something bad.
"I see." Their dad got that look he usually had when he was figuring out just how much trouble they, usually Rin, had gotten into. "Why don't you two come inside as well and we can discuss what happened?" He didn't need to be told that Melodie and Ami factored into it.
Rin tried not to let her nervousness show as they all went inside and sat down. Melodie looked completely calm and she didn't think that Ami was even capable of being nervous.
Taking a deep breath, Melodie and Rin began to explain their altered explanation of how they met.
Instead of a Witch, Rin ran into a group of thugs doing something and got mad at her, accusing her of spying. Melodie added in a theory that they were 'dealing', though Rin didn't understand why that would cause the group of imaginary thugs to attack her, or what they would be 'dealing' over.
Just like the truth, Melodie saved Rin from getting stabbed, grabbing her and running away with her. But instead of the Witch running away and Melodie chasing her, Melodie instead had Rin hide and then led the thugs away before losing them.
Melodie then ran into Rin again when she had snuck out to the park and made sure she was alright, and had no idea that Rin had snuck out, which was true. And Ami had met Rin at the arcade after Rin snuck out, before they ran into Melodie at the park.
"I see." Shiro's expression was unreadable. "Well, thank you for protecting my daughter. You were very brave for that, though it was still dangerous for you." Some concern for Melodie's own safety came through.
"It's fine." Melodie waved off. "I just did what anyone would do."
"Still, I'm glad for what you did. I had no idea."
Shiro shot Rin a look and she gulped. That look said that she'd be grilled about why she hadn't said anything earlier once Melodie and Ami left.
Shiro continued to question Melodie, as if trying to catch the older girl out in some sort of lie. When asked why she was being friendly with Rin and Ami, Melodie answered honestly that she saw some girls in need of some help and wanted to take them under her wing, which seemed to satisfy him.
He then went even further, asking Melodie about her school life and hobbies.
"What is this, an interrogation?" Rin spoke up on Melodie's behalf when she spotted the growing irritation on the older girl's face. "Why do you need to know what Melodie does?"
"Just making sure that you're not getting wrapped up in even more trouble." Shiro shrugged.
"Mr Fujimoto, believe me when I say that I do not want Rin to get into any sort of trouble and will do my very best to take care of her. And, quite frankly, I resent the implication that I would do otherwise." Melodie said boldly.
Shiro looked at Melodie in surprise for a second before bursting out laughing.
"Ha! I like you." He chuckled.
"I'm glad you approve." Melodie replied, her voice laced with sarcasm. "Well, I need to get going."
"Sure, I don't want to keep you." Shiro agreed. "But give me your parent's number before you go."
Melodie froze.
"Why?" She asked slowly and suspiciously.
"If you're going to be around my daughter, as you claim you will, I'll need to meet your parents, for safety reasons. And also to make sure that they also know about what happened with those thugs." Shiro explained, crossing his arms.
Melodie wasn't able to school her face in time at Shiro's words, giving away that she hadn't told her parents anything and that it would cause issues for her just as it had for Rin. A small part of Rin felt a tiny amount of satisfaction at this, that Melodie would also get in trouble for their made-up story, not just her.
With a great deal of reluctance, Melodie wrote down a number and handed it to Shiro before leaving.
"Remember, no Witch hunting tonight." Melodie reminded Rin mentally as she went out the door.
Rin pouted at the reminder. As dangerous as Witch hunting had proven to be, and as boring the tracking of the Witch was, she was eager to hunt more Witches. The fight got her blood pumping in a way that she had never felt before, and she loved how powerful she felt while fighting.
"Right." Shiro said once Melodie was gone. "As for you…" He turned to Rin.
"Eek." Rin squeaked when she realised that her dad was about to read her the riot act for not telling him the fake story about the thugs earlier.
Thankfully, Rin had a way to delay the lecture standing right next to her.
"I'm going to take Ami up to see our room." Rin said in a rush, grabbing Ami's arm and dragging her towards her and Yukio's room.
"What?" Shiro spluttered, looking at Ami as if suddenly remembering that she was there.
"Doing friend things!" Rin shouted, disappearing up the stairs with Ami.
Thankfully, her dad seemed no have accepted Ami being there as a reason to delay his lecture, as he didn't follow them to their room or call her back.
Though, now that Rin had Ami in her room, she didn't know what to do with her.
As she looked Ami up and down, Rin realised that her created-friend was filthy. Still dressed in the clothes that Rin had given her days ago, the seat of her pants was stained with dirt and grass, there were food stains down the front of her shirt, and now that they were in an enclosed room, it was clear that Ami smelt bad.
"Geeze, you need a bath!" Rin wrinkled her nose in disgust.
She once again grabbed Ami's hand and dragged her to the washroom. Hopefully her dad and brother wouldn't question what was essentially a stranger getting clean in their house.
…
"Go away, old man!"
Shiro ducked out of his children's room in time to avoid the stuffed bear aimed at his head, chuckling to himself. His daughter was getting increasingly annoyed with him checking in on her and Ami, which only made him do it more often for the sake of riling her up. Call it a small payback for using Ami to avoid the confrontation that Shiro would be having with her about hiding what had happened after she ran away from school.
After their bath, which Shiro had refrained from pointing out that Ami needed when he first saw the girl, the two girls had settled in Rin and Yukio's bedroom, with Ami borrowing some of Rin's clothes.
Yukio, meanwhile, had exiled himself to the living room to read, not wanting to be anywhere near their shared room while the two girls were in there and probably talking about 'girly things', in the young boy's words. It amused Shiro to realise that as mature as Yukio tried to present himself, he was still nine-years old and still at a point where cooties existed.
Through the bedroom door, Shiro could hear Rin loudly doing some sort of play-pretend.
"And then, these big bowls appear and honey starts filling the entire room! We had to climb to higher ground, but I was stuck! So, I summoned more swords to protect me!" Rin's muffled explanations could be heard through the door.
Shiro chuckled quietly to himself again at Rin's imagination. And also her misguided belief that the door being closed somehow meant that she could no longer be heard. Though, it didn't help Rin that she was so loud, especially when excited, cancelling out any sound protection the door offered. It was a sharp contrast to her new friend, who hardly said anything.
Ami was an unusual girl, and certainly not the sort of person that Shiro expected that Rin would become friends with. She was quiet, only speaking when spoken to first, and even then only replying with short and simple sentences. Her voice was also incredibly monotone, with no inflections, and she'd yet to show any emotions on her face either. Basically, she was the complete opposite of Shiro's loud and expressive daughter.
As sad as it was, Shiro understood why Rin would be friends with Ami. His poor daughter had no friends and was fresh off someone pretending to be her friend for the sake of a prank. In that state, a child would accept anyone wanting to genuinely be her friend, no matter whether their personalities gelled well or not, or even how she was treated. It was a recipe for Rin to fall into an abusive friendship, and Shiro just had to hope that Ami wouldn't turn out like that.
But Shiro struggled to see what Ami got out of a friendship with his daughter. So far, Rin had just dragged Ami around and led their playtime while Ami just sat their quietly and listened. Did the young girl actually enjoy being with Rin and just didn't show it? Or was she putting up with Rin's enthusiastic personality for some other reason? Maybe she was as friendless as Rin and, like Rin, latched onto any offer of friendship.
Eventually, after a few hours, it started to get dark and Shiro had to send Ami home.
"Are you sure that you don't want me to call you parents to pick you up?" Shiro asked, frowning up at the sky.
Ami looked at Rin briefly before shaking her head.
"No, I can't remember their number." She replied.
"I can drive you if you want." Shiro offered.
Southern Cross wasn't the worst when it came to safety, and it was still light out, but it also wasn't perfectly safe, as shown by the thugs that Rin had neglected to mention running into.
Ami looked at Rin before shaking her head again.
"No, I'll be fine." Ami assured, as much as she could with her monotone voice. "I don't live far."
Shiro sighed in defeat.
"If you're sure." He relented.
Waving Ami off, he shut the door.
"Now," He said, turning around to glare at his daughter. "About what happened after you ran away from school."
Author's note: Please comment
I'm wondering whether I'm writing Shiro right. It's been a while since I read the Exorcist Manga and am just going based on memory.