𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 "𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐣𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐨 𝐧𝐨 𝐟𝐮𝐤𝐮𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐬𝐮!"

<(_ _)>

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"Otōu-san...Otōu-san, wait...I don't want—! No—please!" 

The sound of a young girl's hoarse voice from screaming was heard as the overhead abandoned warehouse lights flickered, casting tall shadows into the misty night, the only other source of visibility coming from a parked car's headlights.

The sound of wooden geta sandals clacked against the cracked black asphalt as a tall man folded his arms into his yukata sleeves and bent down before his sobbing daughter.

"Please..." The young girl tried once more as her small body wracked with pitiful shivers before she was interrupted from speaking further by the man pulling her into his arms and shushing her by stroking her head softly.

"Shh. I know it hurts," He murmured, though a sharp undertone was heard through his warm voice. "But you can handle it, you're strong. And I'm going to make you stronger."

▬▬▬▬▬▬

Bleary eyes of a pretty high-school senior fluttered open, her long eyelashes brushing against her cheeks as she groaned with a stretch of her arms above her head. 

The clock next to her bed showed the red digital numbers of six o'clock, showing that she had two and a half hours before school to get ready. Her phone was resting on the same side table which she picked up as she shuffled out from under the blankets, starting her day.

This was actually a later time than normal for her to wake, since she had been instilled in as a child to wake at five in the morning without fail. Though not that she was living on her own, she allowed herself the extra hour.

Her face was paler than usual when she got up, her body taking some time to gain back her colour as she padded into the kitchen to make herself breakfast while tying her long hair back smoothly in a high ponytail, leaving two strands of hair loose and framing her face.

From her own apartment to school was a thirty-minute walk and a fifteen-minute bike ride so she wasn't particularly rushed as grabbed her freshly pressed uniform which was hanging on the wall. 

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A cool spring breeze rustled through the blossoming cherry trees as students walked onto the school grounds, greeting one another with cheerful waves and the swishing of navy pleated skirts and ties. 

As the girl wheeled her bike into the bicycle rack shed, her eyes scanned the grounds for familiars faces before she heard the shy voice of a younger girl hiding right next to the shed.

"Good morning, Himikō-senpai." The short-haired girl greeted with a small wave of her hand, poking her head up from some bushes where she was hiding. 

Unsurprisingly turning to face the voice she beamed cheerfully at her kōhai and returning the hesitant greeting energetically, her bubbly personality showing perfectly despite it being morning.

"Good morning, Izumi-chan! Still having a rough time in your second-year?" 

The girl nodded slowly, her strangely cropped hair falling in her eyes as she stepped out of the bushes, brushing the leaves off of her uniform. 

"It's fine, senpai. I'm already used to people treating me differently because of...well, that."

Himikō looked at her with a small frown for a moment before brightening again, her hands pumping in the air. "That's right! Izumi-chan, have you seen him yet?"

▬▬▬▬▬▬

The bell rang as students streamed in their own respective classrooms, the seniors and juniors going to their own floors which separated them. As a new third-year, Himikō Kikyō dashed up to the top floor with her white indoor slippers skidding into a classroom with a sign reading "3-A," with five minutes to spare.

"Good morning, Kikyō-chan!" She was greeted by her classmates as they all mingled and chatted before the teacher arrived. "Did you do anything on your break?"

She laughed them off with her usual pleasantries, still scanning the classroom but not finding who she was looking for. Her cheeks puffed up annoyedly at the lack of a familiar face but slid into her own seat, tucking her pleated navy skirt underneath her just as the door slid open and two people entered just at the last second, a student and teacher.

The student was wearing the male black uniform and a white face-mask covering his face. His cold eyes also had dark circles underneath them, making him look as though he hadn't slept in days. 

To be quite honest, he looked like a major shut-in otaku. 

Making his way to the back of the classroom and silently sitting in the chair directly behind Himikō, he made no sound as their teacher started class. 

With the teacher's voice speaking in the background of the scene, the pretty long-haired girl started to scribble on a piece of notepaper in her cutesy-style handwriting before slipping the note back to the boy covertly, complete with the doodle of a little frowning face.

『 𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑎𝑦? 』

She heard him pick up the paper but only slide it into his desk, completely ignoring her without reading the note. This made her puff up her cheeks again and do the same by turning and drawing doodles of wedding dresses on the inside cover of her notebook.

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As the bell rang once more, grateful students began to stream through the hallways, some going down to the cafeteria, others to the vending machines outside, though most stayed in their own classrooms eating packed lunches.

As the boy with the face-mask stood to rise, leaving the classroom without a word as per usual, Himikō followed after him a few seconds later in a stealthy manner. 

As she ducked behind pillars and open classroom doors, her fellow students cast her weird glances but still thought that it was cute looking anyways to see the pretty girl trying her best to be covert. 

She was known throughout the school and was popular for being the "cute and ditzy type," so no one really batted an eye at her strange actions, simply taking it as is. 

When the dark-eyed boy walked out of the main school building and rounded it to head towards the back of the school where he liked to sit away from the loud chatter of the student body, Himikō followed after quietly slipping out of her indoor shoes to her outdoor ones.

Though right when she turned the corner to the back of the school building, the boy was standing right there with her arms folded and an annoyed, unimpressed expression written across his face.

"Stop following me so sneakily." He huffed, poking two fingers right between her eyes and making her blush partially in surprise at his ambush.

Turning back and sitting down on the grass underneath a closed window, he stuck a straw into his boxed green tea before pulling down his face mask to drink. "How exhausting...if you wanted to eat with me, then just ask."

His dark under-eye circles seemed more prominent in the high noon sunlight as the pink-blushed girl happily sat down next to him, her white knees touching his as she pulled out her own lunch box.

"Are you still having trouble sleeping?" She asked quietly, tucking a loose strand of her raven hair behind her ear as she aimlessly moved her chopsticks around her rice. 

"It's fine." Was the sole, blunt reply as he shut down any further conversation on the matter. He had a habit of disliking to speak on his own matters, not that he spoke much anyway, to begin with.

"Boo~" Cheeks puffed again, as the long ponytail swished.

Just before she spoke again, a dragging sound was heard from around the corner accompanied by feminine giggles and girls' voices, which made Himikō turned her head around the corner to the tight alley in between the gym and library buildings. 

The boy sighed heavily at this noise once more, yet again annoyed but purposefully did so a bit more quietly than before as Himikō strained to hear and see the situation.

"Damn inhuman. Walking around so shamelessly in school." One of the girls spoke in disgust as the two others threw what they were dragging onto the ground, head hitting the gymnasium wall with a thump.

Himikō's eyes widened as she recognized the dragged figure as her shy underclassman, Izumi-chan. Her unevenly cropped hair covered her eyes as she rubbed the back of her head in pain, muttering a low "ow," sound.

Her own fists began to tighten as she started to rise, but the boy, his face mask firmly back on, held her hand to prevent her from interfering, making her look at him with a pained expression although she understood why he did so. 

One of the girls in the trio drew scissors from her navy uniform blazer pocket and took a strand of Izumi's already cropped hair in her hands about to « snip, snip, snip.»

A single frightened tear fell from Izumi's wavering eyes as the blades narrowed onto her already short black locks.

« Tear.»

« Snip, snip, snip.»

« Fear.»

« Please. »

« I don't want— »

And thus the young girl's rose-coloured glasses become a bloody crimson red. 

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"Himikō."

A single hand was placed upon her trembling shoulder as her fists clenched beneath her, fisting the blades of grass with her knuckles stained with a wet red colour. 

The boy spoke gently in a low voice, almost so as if not to disturb the monster that was brimming beneath and entwined into her very veins.

She had tried.

She had tried to not hurt another person again. So why...?

Izumi was still in the same spot she was thrown, her back up against the gym building's wall before she stood and in the very spot her rose from, tiny buds started to grow and instantly become small nameless flowers. 

"...Thank you, Himikō-senpai." She bowed slightly in gratitude before the two. "Fūjioka-senpai."

However, Himikō couldn't reply as no words formed in her numb mind so the boy answered for her before waved Izumi off.

"Classes will be starting again in a few minutes. Hurry back to your classroom."

Their younger second-year kouhai looked down at her feet for a moment, eyes flashing with a multitude of nameless emotions before she ran off with another bow, small flowers still unfurling in that spot. 

"Himikō." The boy repeated her name again, carefully kneeling down beside her.

She was still silent for a moment, eyes burning before she got out her heartbroken words from a bitten lip she let bleed.  

"I— I'm a monster, aren't I, Daisuke." She curled into herself, wrapping her arms around her head as she pressed it to the ground, almost as if she was bowing in apology to the earth that held her for living upon its surface. 

Daisuke pulled down his face mask as he took her hands from her head and held them in his, kissing them ever so gently. 

"A monster? Hardly any more so than the rest of us."