[ cute dumb children ]

[hasaringonit]

[ Someone--not naming any names because it could've been staff or rich boys or maybe even a very tiny lady--has stuffed a giant and super classy tree strung with fairy lights and little bits of tinsel right smack in the middle of some big giant room in Casa de Kureshima.

Another someone--this one absolutely a very tiny lady--is trotting around its base carefully arranging perfectly wrapped gifts beneath it. A little bell in her hair jingles every time she moves, and overall she seems to be getting into the holiday spirit extremely well.

If anyone should need her, that's where they might find her. ]

Comments

[hasaringonit]

It's too sad.

[grapesofyan]

It's just what we had to deal with.

[hasaringonit]

I understand it, a little.

[grapesofyan]

You do?

[hasaringonit]

Haruto and Wajima-ojisan were the only ones for a long time.

[grapesofyan]

Was it ever enough?

[hasaringonit]

During that time, they were all I knew.

[grapesofyan]

So you didn't think there could be more?

[hasaringonit]

There were visitors to the shop, but no one stayed long. I knew there was more, I simply did not know just how big the world was.

[grapesofyan]

I'm glad you learned.

[hasaringonit]

I was too afraid.

[grapesofyan]

Of what?

[hasaringonit]

That others would learn my secrets. What I am, and what I am not. Though at that time, the truth of those questions had yet to be uncovered. I only knew I was different, and humans are known to ostracize those who are different from themselves.

[grapesofyan]

I'm happy that things are different for you now.

[hasaringonit]

Mm. Rinko-san was the first.

[grapesofyan]

First what?

[hasaringonit]

Outsider to accept me. To show me that such things are not as important.

[grapesofyan]

How did it happen?

[hasaringonit]

It is a very long story.

[grapesofyan]

I don't mind.

[hasaringonit]

It was long ago, when I had still not been with Haruto for long. I did not know who or what I was, only that I was different. At the time it was assumed I was the result of a Phantom's failure to be born.

[grapesofyan]

And then?

[hasaringonit]

[ YOU GET THE FULL STORY, FRIEND and somewhere near the end: ]

I was selfish. I believed I was the only person who could help Haruto. When Rinko-san and Shunpei-kun tried to assist, I was rude to them. I believed they were not good enough to help. At some point I followed a Gate, trying to warn him that he was being targeted. Shunpei-kun came with me. That was when ...

[ twisting her ring and :< :< :< ]

Medusa stole my energy. She said I was nothing but a doll, and left me for ...

[ dead. the word is dead. ]

I do not know for how long I was like that. When I came to, Haruto and Rinko-san had come to join Shunpei-kun.

[grapesofyan]

*He's quiet as he listens to the whole story*

You all care for each other.

[hasaringonit]

That wasn't the end of it. Because he helped me, Haruto didn't have enough magical energy to defeat the Phantom. He failed to protect the Gate at that point in time. That person became bitter, and blamed Haruto. At the time I did not believe that Haruto should risk his life for someone like that.

[ a brief pause to pour him some more tea ]

But Haruto said something that struck a chord. Something I remembered after confronting Takagi-san, the Gate. He was the same way I had once been. He could not accept himself as he was because he chose to live in the past. "No matter what we have become, we have to live in the now."

Rinko-san and Shunpei-kun were with me when I confronted Takagi-san. After we left, I tried to make them leave; to say that they were not needed. Rinko-san refused. She took my hand. "I won't let go." "You and I are the same, Koyomi-chan. I am alive now because Haruto-kun gave me hope." "We may not have special powers, but we can also accept everything."