Chapter Text
Chihiro nervously fiddled with the edge of her manga. She’s admittedly never even gone to karaoke with friends, much less the manga café. And if you had asked her who she would’ve gone with, this wouldn’t have been her first guess.
“S-So… H-How are you e-enjoying your manga, Senpai?”
“The logistics of this protagonist’s weapon intrigue me,” Mitsuru said, scratching her chin and pointing at the page. “Is the oversized nature of it not impractical? And how does he sheathe such a wide weapon with the scabbard on his back? Would this not make indoor combat with it next to impossible?”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to think so hard about it,” Chihiro nervously laughed.
“I see… I believe I am enjoying this story, though I have several qualms about the immediate sidelining of the supporting female lead. It is quite a waste of a character.” Mitsuru’s eyes lit up as she got an idea. “Is there an address I can mail my feedback to?”
“Um… I don’t think so,” she lied.
“To publish work with no avenue for receiving criticism and feedback… What a cowardly author.”
“You can choose another one if you’re not enjoying it. I thought something action-y would just be more your taste than a slice of life or romance.”
“No, you were correct,” Mitsuru reassured, glancing at the cover. “Where may I buy this? I believe I would like to purchase the entire collection of volumes, if possible.”
“Oh… I don’t think that one’s finished, actually. You should ask the man up front if you’re curious where you can read it, though. I-I think it’s in Shonen Weekly.”
“I’ll be right back then.”
As Mitsuru calmly got up, taking the manga with her, Chihiro let out a sigh that she didn’t even realize she was holding in. When Mitsuru asked her where she went for fun and to relax, she didn’t expect that her senpai would come with her. Chihiro didn’t even think Mitsuru would be into manga, but she did read a lot, so it made at least a bit of sense to her. She hadn’t been acting like her usual self after the death of her father—as one would expect—but Mitsuru’s intrigue with trying new things lately was a bit odd. Some students even say that they saw her eating ramen and burgers with Makoto. Imagine that: someone as refined as Mitsuru eating fast food.
“The man was very helpful,” Mitsuru reported, coming back. “He told me that I can come here every week to read the latest chapters or buy them from my local convenience store.”
“How nice of him!”
“I shall have to ask Kikuno to track down all currently available volumes and ship them to my dorm,” she decided, taking her phone out and typing out a message. “Though now I will have to make a scheduling differentiation between academic and leisure reading…”
“You mean you don’t normally read for fun?”
“It serves a dual purpose. I enjoy literature, and most of what I read is selected from various works of the literary canon around the world,” Mitsuru said, shrugging her shoulders. At least to Chihiro, that just sounded like personally assigned homework that she just so happened to enjoy. “Why do you read, Fushimi?”
“Oh… Well, I just read what I like…” she meekly admitted. “I have a lot of my favorite manga on my shelf at home so I can go back and read them whenever I want.”
“That’s great to hear; I also have a personal collection,” her senpai said with a beaming smile. “I’m quite proud of it, as I expect you also are of yours.”
“O-Oh, yeah!”
“I’m interested in our differences in taste though… Could I see your collection for myself?”
“You want me to bring my books to school…?”
“Well, I suppose you could,” the redhead chuckled. “But I assumed it would be easier for everyone if I came to see it personally.”
“Y-You mean t-to my house?!”
“If that’s alright,” she nodded. “I’d like to see it as soon as I can.”
“Y-You w-want to go today…?”
“Oh! That would be excellent,” Mitsuru smiled, clapping her hands together and standing up. “Though, if we are going there, we should leave now. It won’t be long until nightfall.”
“O-Oh, ok…”
“I’m sorry about having to cut the time you paid for short though…” The girl sighed. “It’s unavoidable though. I’ll simply pay for us both the next time around.”
“R-Right… Next t-time…”
“What just happened…?” Chihiro thought to herself. “Seeing Senpai this excited and determined makes me nervous for some reason…”
* * * * *
“Um… my mother might be home, so don’t be surprised or anything, okay? We’ll just go straight to my room…”
“How curious it is that I’ve known you for so many years and I’ve never seen your home before,” reflected Mitsuru.
“W-Well, you did meet me in your last year of middle school. After that, it’s not like we could talk very much…”
“How excited I am to rectify that,” she grinned as Chihiro fumbled with her key.
“Oh, one last thing. It’ll be a bit weird to call me Fushimi in my own house, so…” The girl ran her fingers through her hair. “Just call me Chihiro, okay?”
“If you insist,” Mitsuru nodded.
Nervously, Chihiro opened the door and guided Mitsuru into her home. The first thing that hit them was the smell of something delicious. Someone was obviously cooking dinner, and as Chihiro and Mitsuru took their shoes off, it became apparent who.
“Chichi, you’re home late!” a woman scolded from just around the corner. “You said you’d be back right after school to help with dinner!”
“O-Oh…” Chihiro’s face turned a deep, shameful red as she partially covered her mouth. “I-I’m sorry, Mother…”
“I called, but you didn’t answer. You had me worried, you know,” the woman sighed with a weary weight to her words. “Better late than never. Come here, honey.”
Chihiro slowly walked into her house’s open area, revealing the modest living room and kitchen, along with the doors leading to both bedrooms and a bathroom. Just a glance showed one person home: a single woman toiling away in the kitchen, stirring something inside a pot.
The woman looked not unlike Chihiro in her general shape. She was tall and slender, wearing a long brown skirt that stretched to her ankles and a matching brown turtleneck with orange and red flowers sewn into it, both things that were hidden behind a solid black apron. Her long, flowing hair was a stark black and was pulled up into a long ponytail hanging from near the top of her head; a beautiful lotus flower hair clip sat neatly nested in the sea of black strands. A set of wide oval glasses rested on the bridge of her nose, covering her hazel-colored eyes.
As soon as the woman saw Mitsuru, she opened her eyes in shock before giving a small bow.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know my Chichi brought a guest with her. She’s never brought a friend before.”
“Mother…” Chihiro was trying her best to hide the embarrassment on her face. “Not that name, please…”
“Oh, if you insist,” she chuckled, turning to Mitsuru. “I’m sorry for my manners, honey. I’m Hasumi Fushimi. Who might you be?
“Mitsuru Kirijo.”
“Kirijo…” Hasumi nearly dropped her wooden spoon. “You mean-”
“Y-Yes, Mother, like the Kirijo Group…” Chihiro nodded, trying to rush things along. “She, um, wanted to take a look at my manga collection. She won’t be long, I swear!”
“Won’t be long? Chihiro, listen to yourself,” the woman said, wearing a warm smile. The kind that felt like a warm hug wrapped up into a single gaze. “You brought her home at this hour and weren’t going to invite our guest to stay for dinner?”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t, Fushimi-san. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of a family dinner.”
“Ah, don’t worry. It would just be Chihiro and I anyway,” she sighed. “I’d be delighted and honored if you could stay, dear.”
“In that case, then it would be my honor,” Mitsuru smiled. She curiously stepped into the kitchen to see what the mother was cooking; Chihiro trailed close behind. “May I know what dinner is?”
“Just my finest chicken curry rice, dear. Nothing special, I’m afraid, but I have a certain fondness for it.”
“It does smell delicious.”
“You’re flattering me too much, dear. It’s probably nothing compared to the kinds of things you’ve gotten to eat before,” Hasumi chuckled. “You and Chihiro run along now. This still has some time to cook, and I want you and my daughter to have your fun before dinner.”
“Oh, yes, you’re right!” Mitsuru turned to Chihiro. “Shall we?”
“Y-Yes…”
As Chihiro led Mitsuru to her room, Masumi proudly looked on at her daughter, thinking about how it only took 16 years for her to bring a friend over. Mitsuru was guided into a room that had a bed and desk against the wall and cutesy decorations everywhere. A couple bookshelves rested against a wall, with baskets of flowers decorating the tops of them. Though the shelves weren’t close to full, it was clear they at least had some method of organization to them.
“My treasurer has a very put-together room,” Mitsuru complimented. “It’s said that you can tell a person’s inner nature by the decoration and condition of their room.”
“O-Oh, um… T-Thank you, Mitsuru-san…”
“These are the novels you were talking about?” Mitsuru asked, bending over and peering across the shelves. “They have such unique names…”
“W-Well, like I said, they’re not the educational novels you read… They’re mainly just shojo manga, so you may not get the same kind of enjoyment out of them that I would…”
“I can tell they’re organized, but I’m not quite sure how.”
“That’s easier to explain!” Chihiro knelt down in front of the shelves, and Mitsuru did the same. The girl pointed to the various sections of the shelving. “These here are slice-of-life, these are the regular romances, this is my complete Luna Sailor Super! collection…”
“And what about these?” Mitsuru asked, pointing to a particularly full row of books on the bottom shelf.
“Oh… Well, those are all my BL manga.”
“BL… I’m unfamiliar with that genre. What does it mean?”
“It… Um…” Chihiro fiddled with her ribbon. “Don’t worry about those. Here, try reading the first volume of Luna Sailor and tell me what you think.”
“Alright.”
Mitsuru took the first volume in the collection and sat at the desk, legs crossed as she delved into the story. In the meantime, Chihiro grabbed a random book and crawled onto her bed, leaning back. She couldn’t really focus on the book, though. Not with the obvious elephant in the room: Mitsuru and the complete insanity that was having her over.
“Mitsuru-san, can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“You’re not put off by the fact I’ve never had a friend over?” she quietly sighed. “You don’t think that’s a little strange for a girl my age?”
“Certinaly not,” Mitsuru shook her head, tracing her finger across a page before flipping it. “I have never taken a friend home either.”
“Oh, really?”
“That’s right.” Mitsuru faced Chihiro with a warm smile. “So that means I wouldn’t be in any position to judge. We’re not so different.”
“Hah… I wish that were true, Senpai… I’m only a third as confident as you, and that’s only when you tell me I can do it…”
“You can do so much more than you think, Chihiro,” Mitsuru smiled, holding her place with a thumb and closing the book. “I only encourage you to draw out the latent abilities that you already possess. They don’t manifest simply from my words of motivation.”
“But… I mess up the numbers all the time, a-and I never speak up at meetings unless you make me say something, and… I…” Chihiro put the book down and rolled over, shoving her face into a pillow. “I don’t know why you want to spend time with someone like me…”
“…” Mitsuru took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair. “Do you remember the first time we met?”
“Yeah…” Chihiro rolled over onto her side. “We were both in home ed class together… You were my class partner, and our rice cakes came out like hockey pucks.”
“Indeed they did,” she giggled. “You insisted that we try again over and over, didn’t you?”
“Yeah… even when it was lunchtime.”
“I admired that kind of strength… The will to keep trying and persist even when the trials seem insurmountable…”
“But we never even made any edible rice cakes,” Chihiro sighed. “And there’s a big difference between cooking and being given huge responsibilities… I’m afraid of letting everybody down, but… I’m afraid of letting you down, Senpai… Other than my mother, you’re the only one who believes I can do anything, even when I don’t…”
“You don’t disappoint, Chihiro. Do you know why?”
“…Why?”
“Because you always do your best, and when you falter, you try and make things right. Even if you need someone else to believe in you, those are always your two natural inclinations.” Mitsuru warmly grinned, her expression sparking an inspirational flicker in Chihiro’s chest. “And if I have to be the one to believe in you, I don’t think I have a problem with that at all.”
“Senpai… I…” Chihiro tiredly smiled back. “Thank you… I still think I’m only at my best when I’m with you… But maybe that’s not so bad.”
“I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
“Dinner, you two!” Hasumi Fushimi called from the kitchen. “Wash your hands and take your seats! I’ll do the serving!”
“We should go… My mother doesn’t like letting the food cool for too long.”
“Come then,” Mitsuru said, offering her hand. “Let’s dine together, Chihiro.”
“O-Ok…” the girl stuttered, taking her senpai’s hand.
* * * * *
“Compliments to the chef! C'est magnifique!” Mitsuru said with a nod, taking her time to appreciate all of the strong flavors on her palate. “You sold your cooking abilities short, Fushimi-san.”
“Oh, please, you’re making me blush,” the mother chuckled.
“You’ll have to tell me how you drew out such bold flavors…”
“Home-cooked love!” she grinned. “I may not have time for it every day, but cooking is a passion of mine.”
“This contests with the meals our maids would cook back home,” Mitsuru complimented. “Could you teach my maid Kikuno the secret to your cooking?”
“Oh! Teach… a maid…?” Hasumi let her hair down and ran her fingers through it. “I don’t quite know about that… I don’t think I could teach a maid anything about cooking that she might not already know…”
“Nonsense! With cooking this superb, I have no doubt you could teach our entire staff a thing or two!”
As Mitsuru began to pick up the pace of her eating, Hasumi leaned over and whispered in Chihiro’s ear for only her to hear.
“I like this one. You should bring her back, Chichi.”
“Mother!” Chihiro said in a hushed whisper.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking for seconds, Fushimi-san.”
“Have as much as you’d like, dear! In fact, you’re welcome back anytime!”