RP [Illi] Doki-Doki Channel!

“Yeah, you’re right,” Yuina said. She looked back over her shoulder to the hallway, a cooling evening breeze drifted through the window, ruffling her hair and tickling the back of her neck. The light outside the room flickered again and reds of the distant horizon bled through the windows. Still, knowing the hallway was scary didn’t really do much to settle the bundle of nerves in her stomach when she looked back down at the drop. Would Karen be fine? She was always carrying the burdens for the both of them, always getting hurt.

Yuina nodded her head and the ruffles of her dress returned to the neat lines of her school uniform in a puff of smoke. “I’m sorry for always troubling you like this.” She said with a small smile.

“If you think you can make it, then I know you can” Yuina added. She reached out and after a faint hesitation she placed her hand on Karen’s shoulder. She gave her friend a small squeeze. “We are partners afterall, right? Uh, and sorry if I’m a little too big to give a piggyback ride too.” She added, with a little laugh to help brush away the tension she could feel on the tips of her fingers.
 
"It's okay," Karen said, quietly, once more. There were things that she wanted to say, but she couldn't find the words for them. She didn't know how to tell Yuina how she felt - how it was nice, for once, to do something useful, something real. Something that might help solve a problem, rather than just running towards it screaming. Even if it was running away, it was... it was using what she could do for something besides destruction, and that meant a lot. Maybe not to anyone else, but it meant a lot to her.

Yuina's fingers were on her shoulder again and Karen's hand moved slightly, an almost-instinct to reach up and touch them. She stopped herself, though, thinking back to the walls. Am I clingy? A frown creased her features, and she didn't know whether or not she could play it off as concentration. Better to change her features, then. At least there was no mistaking what she was like, when she was...

Intrusive thoughts whispered; bone shrieked. Karen climbed up, perching herself half out of the window to give the bones space to grow, letting Yuina come closer and hold on.

I want...

Mine.

Karen shivered, and closed her eye, and jumped. She hit the earth with a crunch, the splintering of bone enough to silence the whispers, at least for a moment.
 
“Right, okay. Just a little fall.” Yuina said, mostly to herself, as Karen stepped up onto the window sill. She wrapped her arms around Karen, one over her shoulders and the other around her chest and squeezed a little tighter than was necessary, but it wasn’t like she knew exactly what the necessary amount of squeezing was for jumping out of a building while hugging someone’s back. The plates of bone were hard against her skin, and even through the fabric of her school uniform she could feel the negativity like something oily smeared against her skin. It was… Yuina tried to push the thought aside, it was wrong to read people like this, and she felt even guiltier knowing that Karen was a friend who trusted her.

But, it was hard not to focus on it when she really didn’t want to think about falling.

Karen tipped forward, and Yuina felt her stomach drop as a faint oh escaped her. Wind whipped through her hair, and Yuina quickly turned her eyes away from the rapidly approaching ground back up to the window that they had jumped from. A black shape, like a stain, lingered in the window in the room next to the one they had been in, two orbs of glittering golden light staring back at her.

They hit the ground hard, Yuina winced at the sound of bone cracking and the stinging in her own shoulders. Yuina loosened her grip, a worried knit in her brow.

“Are you okay?” She asked, placing a foot down onto the ground below.
 
A lot of things were very broken, but Karen nodded in answer to Yuina's question anyway. Sometimes, it was okay to be broken. Some things were meant to be broken. As long as she could hold on to Yuina-

No, that wasn't right. She had to let go, sometimes. Carefully, Karen released her friend, making sure that she was steady on the ground and looking back up at the window. The window was looking back at them. Karen looked away, not liking it. Something was very wrong, that much they were both certain of, but Karen didn't know what she was supposed to do about it. There hadn't been anything there for Yuina to turn to smoke, just strangeness and mysteries.

They needed help, help from someone who knew what they were supposed to do. Yuina had suggested finding a teacher earlier, but that hadn't worked out so well. There had to be someone out there, didn't they? They were so...

...Alone.
 
“Okay, good, good.” Yuina breathed. She didn’t know if Karen really was fine after that fall, but Yuina had faith that Karen would tell her if she was too hurt. Karen was always the one who was getting hurt for her, wasn’t she? Yuina shook her head quickly, pushing the thought away, for now they need to remain focused on how to get out of this weirdness. “Should we try to head back to the dorms?” Yuina said, looking back over her shoulder. She had no desire to attempt going back into the school, but there would be people that way, right?

The trees seemed to loom a little taller in the strange muddled light, and Yuina caught the edge of her lip with her teeth. “Can you walk? I can lend you my shoulder if you need it.” She said, a little softer as the feeling of eyes prickled the hairs along the back of her neck.

—~—~—

Windows were such odd things. Walls he understood, they built walls to keep themselves separated, hidden away in their own little piece of space but safe. But windows were so frail, like skin, and he could feel it creaking against his crooked fingers. He was grateful for windows, that they always gave him a place to peer inside, though today it was he who was huddled inside watching out.

The girls too were strange, and they had not been as clear as a window. He had thought that all other means of escape had been stolen away forcing them to go down the stairs, but then they had found a different way down that wasn’t part of their routine. It would have been so simple if they had just taken the stairs but now…

His breath wheezed out, and Désir struck the window with the palm of his hand. It crackled, thin breaks forming into a latticework of a spider’s nest whose thin strands glittered with golden light.

Would their bones also snap so very beautifully?
 
Karen was quieter than usual for a moment, thinking about Yuina's question. Back to the dorms seemed like the best place for themto be, but there would be other people there who could help with whatever this thing was. If there was an attack at the dorms, there would be someone there who could do something about it.

Here... here, Karen didn't know. There should have been someone here, shouldn't there? A teacher? A staff member? Another student, even? But the building had been quiet and wrong and quiet, in all the wrong ways. Were there still other people there? Were they trapped, like Karen and Yuina had been? Not everyone could just jump out the window, after all. What would have happened, if they had gone down those stairs.

I want...

Karen didn't know what she wanted. She wanted to be with Yuina, of course, that was easy. But beyond that... she thought about some of the people they had met, about the little boy who had signed to her, about their teachers. Karen didn't always know what to do about people. Usually she was afraid of them, or afraid of herself when she was with them, but that didn't mean that they should be alone. No one should be alone.

And she wanted to help. She wanted to do something right with this awful thing that she was, some day, to make it become something that no one had to be afraid of, not even herself - and if she wanted to find out how to do that, then she couldn't run away, especially if there might be people still in there. Karen gave a quick shake of her head, to the first question rather than the second, trying to figure out how to put that into something that was easy to understand.

There was a noise, somewhere above them. Karen looked up - the window was broken, like they had almost been. Like Karen had always been. She pointed, drawing Yuina's attention to it, testing her strength. She had enough, she thought.

"I want to go back."
 
Yuina drew in a breath and she turned her gaze to the school, her lips drawn into a tight line as she set her jaw. After doing all the could to get out of the school did she really want to go back in? Something stood in the staircase window as Yuina raised her gaze, its broken image scattered between the crackled edges of the glass. But… Karen was right wasn't she? They were magical girls so they were the ones who should be going to help. Yuina released a breath and relaxed. She looked back to Karen and gave a determined nod as black smoke washed across her school uniform, turning it to ribbons and lace.

“It was planning a trap, I think” That was an obvious statement wasn’t it? Still she could feel the ghost of that tackinesson her fingers, that… Yuina brushed her fingers against her skirt to wipe that feeling away. She pressed her fingers to her chest and took another breath. That helped push the nerves away. “There might be others in the school, helping them should be our priority, first.”

She looked back to Karen, a faint smile curving her lips. “And, how about we set a trap of our own?”
 
Karen nodded at Yuina's assessment. This felt like a trap, the same way that the Grimm in the alleyway had. It wasn't chasing them down, it was letting whatever it wanted come to it. Of course, if they went back in there, that was going to be exactly what it wanted... but if they didn't, who would? Someone elsewould. Someone else would, maybe one of the younger girls who wasn't ready yet, maybe one of the teachers, maybe just someone who happened to be walking by. Maybe one of their fans, the people who supported them.

Magical girls didn't leave things unfinished. Whoever was still in there still needed help, and Karen might not have been the besthelp, but she was here. She was here, and she had Yuina with her. With Yuina beside her, she could do anything.

Karen flashed a quick smile, nothing of the Grimm lurking behind it - just a simple happiness, being there with her friend. Yuina's smile was there as well, and Yuina had a plan of her own. It was rare that they had a chance to plan things - much of being a magical girl was about reacting to a situation. Being able to shift the situation was an interesting concept.

I want that.

Of course she did. It was only natural. Karen gave Yuina another nod, this one much quicker, much more definitive. Let's do it.
 
The school was still as the duo passed through the shoe lockers and into the entrance hallway. A pinboard decorated with butterflies greeted them, as it did every day, covered in several neat rows of papers. The current rankings for all the active magical girls in New Kyoto, updated weekly (or at least Yuina was fairly certain it happened every week) and with the names of enrolled students bolded. Yuina had never really spent much time looking it over before, even after they had signed a contract with the DDC, but in the stillness it caught her eye. There were only two names, and those names repeated down the sheets of paper;

Okazaki, Yuina Mitsumi, Karen Okazaki, Yuina
Mitsumi, Karen Okazaki, Yuina Mitsumi, Karen
Okazaki, Yuina Mitsumi, Karen Okazaki, Yuina
Mitsumi, Karen Okazaki, Yuina Mitsumi, Karen
Okazaki, Yuina Mitsumi, Karen Okazaki, Yuina
Mitsumi, Karen Okazaki, Yuina Mitsumi, Karen


Yuina reached out and brushed her fingers against the board, and the longing lingered here as well, sticky as old gum.

“They were on the western staircase, right?” Yuina spoke softly, turning to face Karen. “There’s a blind nook to the left hand side that one of us could hide in and the science classroom is just across the hall with that big window.” Yuina undid the clasp to her cloak and slid it off her shoulders.

“We’ll need to draw it downstairs somehow, and if we dress the anatomical model up with my cloak then we might be able to distract it enough to… I’ll try to use that one power again, the one I used on the Grimm that had been in my dorm room. I think we can take it down if I hit it with that first.” Yuina smiled, faintly, though she could feel her heart high in her chest.
 
The paper on the board was very strange. Karen knew that neither she nor Yuina had really looked at the paper much before, but they both stared at it for a little while. There was something wrongthere, having just their names on the paper and no one else's. It wasn't supposed to be that way. Yuina started planning out what they might be able to do, and Karen nodded agreement. Getting whatever it was to stop hiding was a good first step - they couldn't fight it if they couldn't face it.

Yuina seemed to think that she could use the new power, which was impressive - but Yuina had always been impressive. Karen could see why the Grimm wanted her, but she was not about to have that. Yuina was her friend, and there was no way that Karen was giving her up. Her eyes returned to the paper after she'd met Yuina's gaze. It seemed to be trying to claim them.

Karen picked up a pen and crossed out Yuina's name, rather firmly, over and over again. As many times as it took.

You can't have her. She's mine. I want her.
 
“Oh, that’s…”

Skritch. Skritch. Skritch. Skritch.

Yuina froze, watching Karen’s hand as it moved down, line by line. Words stuck in her throat, lingered unspoken on the tip of her tongue. Tracks of black were left on the page, rough messy scribbles. Yuina set her shoulders as she stepped forward, it was only a few steps to close the distance between them, and reach out to place her hand on Karen’s arm.

Yuina winced at the snap of emotion that bucked against the tips of her fingers. Thick, like old taffy, the feelings clung to her, but Yuina gently wrapped an arm around Karen’s chest as she hugged her from behind. Was it wrong to feel what another felt like this? Emotions should be private, but when someone was hurting then… Yuina squeezed tight as she rested her forehead against Karen’s shoulder. Hardened plates felt sharp against her skin, but Yuina remained still until she felt the pen start to slow.

“I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have to carry this alone,” She said softly. Still, it wanted, or, she wanted didn’t she? That was the emotion that Yuina thought she felt. The Grimm and Karen were one, even if they felt so disjointed, but what both felt was real. “I can try… to make it a little softer, would that help?” Yuina looked up, and she looked to Karen.
 
"No."

The word came late, after a moment of silence. Yuina was there, was... with her. An arm around her, a hand on her own arm, a resting weight against her shoulder. Would the bones cut in? But no, not her. The plates softened, or at least smoothed - not gone, but not so jagged. Keeping Yuina safe was more important than anything else, of course. Karen - or whatever else she was - wouldn't hurt her. The pen had stilled, but Karen didn't make any move to step away from the closeness. Her eyes lowered, half-closed.

A little softer. No. Yuina could be soft, but Karen couldn't be. Karen had to be hard, to protect her. To stand between her and the things that might hurt her. And - sometimes - just sometimes - to stand close.

"I'm not alone."

Not any more. Yuina was here. Yuina was with her, had come to her. A little smile touched her features, something of amusement in it. She'd gotten what shed wanted, after all.

"It's okay, Yuina. I like it." This feeling.
 
“Okay…” Yuina said gently, pressing her lips into a tight line for a lingering moment, before smiling. It felt so… tacky and pleased against her fingertips, like molasses had dribbled down her arm and she couldn’t quite wash it off. Still, it was Karen’s choice, not hers. She couldn’t just — Yuina squeezed Karen’s shoulder. Feeling how someone felt was always so… Yuina pulled her hand back and shook her head. It didn’t really drive what she felt lingering on her fingers away, but she could tell herself that it did.

“Right, we’re together,” Yuina said, her hand slipping off Karen’s shoulder. She reached out for the paper, now dotted with scribbles, and tore it off the wall with a yank. The paper too was filled with longing, so Yuina crumpled it in her hand until all that was left was a tight ball that she dropped onto the ground.

She still felt conflicted tight in her chest, but she offered her hand for Karen to take. “Are you ready?” She asked.
 
Yuina didn't seem as happy about it as Karen was.

That ruined it, somewhat. It would have been one thing, if they were both happy about it, but if Yuina was worried... it just wasn't right. Karen sighed quietly, and closed her eyes. She supposed that she had to let it go, didn't she? The feeling of...

...no.

Maybe it wasn't what she had thought it was. Her eyes blinked quickly, and she brushed the back of her hand across them. Oh... she'd untransformed, hadn't she? When Yuina had pulled her had away. She'd said they were together, but...

...but her hand was there, for Karen to take. If she wanted-

-wanted-

She did. Truly, she had never wanted anything more. Karen closed her hand into a fist at her side, forcing herself to keep it alone this time.

Are you ready?

No.

She really hadn't been, had she? Instead of answering, Karen just gave a little smile, the sort of little smile that said that there really wasn't any choice about it. There was something here, after all, and it wanted-

It was more important than what she wanted. Maybe that was what she had meant. Maybe. Karen blinked her eyes again, then started forward.
 
That was all… Yuina released a breath as her hand returned to her side, and she returned Karen’s smile with a nod. Yuina smiled, brief and fluttering, and her gaze turned down the hallway to the staircase. She ran her hand across the smooth fabric of her cloak, soft as velvet, and nodded again for herself. If they could just distract it for a moment or two, then she could make it weak.

There was a dull noise from the floor above, doors slid open and closed, wood grinding against wood, and the slow thudding of feet.

“If we draw it downstairs, then we can ambush it.” Yuina said faintly, looking for the best place to hang her cloak so it might catch the eye in a rush.
 
It was upstairs, wasn't it?

Or, at least, something was. Yuina was thinking about setting a trap, and that seemed like a good plan. If whatever it was didn't see her, she could touch it before it had a chance. Yuina fingered her cloak, looking for a place to put it, and Karen gave her a silent nod in return. If they could bring it down the stairs to them, they might have a chance.

If we draw it downstairs.

But that wouldn't work, would it? Because Yuina needed to stay hidden. Karen looked up the stairs, to where the noise was coming from, something frustrated and angry and searching for what it wanted-

She turned around quickly, before she could convince herself not to, and threw her arms around her friend's neck, only for a moment.

Because I want, too.

But she wouldn't say that. Instead she just let go, because she had to - she always, always had to - and said, softly, "I'll go."

And then, before she could want anything else, Karen turned around once more and ran up the stairs.
 
She was always asking too much of Karen, wasn’t she? Even now, this was too much wasn’t it? Karen was fine with it, but… Yuina watched as Karen disappeared up the stairs before she turned away. There wasn’t time for doubt, so Yuina hurried into the science room, and slid her cowl over the shoulders of the anatomical model. She pulled it with her back to the doorway and propped it up just inside. The flash of red should catch the Grimm’s eye. Probably.

Yuina squeezed out of the room and slid across the hallway into her hiding spot.

—~—~—

Where were they? Where were they? Why were they keeping from him? If they had run to the edges then he would’ve known, he could have felt them scampering about. He hated when it was like this, he craved when it was like this, the longing of it all. That damned papillon was so very greedy, why did she always keep them all to herself? No, no, they were his and she couldn’t have them. If she wanted them, she would have taken them, so now she couldn’t have them. Yes, that was right, they were here so he didn’t need that papillon anymore.

He cackled, a voice like dry wood creaking, as he skulked down the hall, hunched over but nearly scraping his shoulders against the ceiling. His body moved incorrectly, angles of motion twitching in queer directions, or bending at just the wrong place as he pulled open classroom doors to peer through. Breath rasped, each taken in long gulps, but Desír knew he was closer now.

“Come out, come out, and let me…” Crooked talons scraped along the wall as he walked.
 
It wasn't bravery that made Karen stand her ground, when the scraping steps drew closer.

Maybe it was confidence, for some definition of the word, but it was very much confidence in the sense of I am confident that if I run, it will kill me. She was terrified, but it was a paralytic fear, and so she stood in the hallway, just beside the stairs, her hand still on the railing, her eyes watching down the hallway as whatever it was grew closer and closer.

What would it look like?

What a strange question. Did it matter what it looked like? Did it care what she looked like?

Karen hoped not. She wasn't pretty, like Yuina. The bones were piercing, but not closed - waiting, as if they weren't sure what form they wanted to take.

Maybe she was just tired.

If she let it downstairs, Yuina might be able to kill it.

If she led it down the hallway, Yuina might be able to get away.

But she could think a thousand thoughts, and none of them dispelled the fear and the certainty, so she stood there, rooted, and waited to see what it looked like, the last thing she would ever see.
 
“Come out. Come out.” Lips pulled against his teeth as words dripped with a certain sort of singsong rhythm. She was close, like an itch in his bones, but which one? The air here was thick, was it hunger? A different sort of longing? An impure mix of emotion, then this was the one that wore the skin of his brethren. A child all made up in her parents clothes for a costume, amusing.

Talons crunched into the corner of the wall as Desir drew himself half stooped past the edge. A girl stood at the staircase, one eye flickering with a pale imitation of golden light. Just one girl, a disappointment in that, did he not deserve both? No, the other had to be near, they were always together.

He was a long and lanky man, but inconsistent. One arm longer than the other, one leg more twisted and the other with a knee higher and bent at a queer angle. He had been wounded once, a slash across his boney chest where silver skin had regrown in lumpy knots. He smiled, full of teeth and nothing warm as his golden eyes quivered like a dying candle.

“There you are, and no little butterfly will take you from me.” The words wheezed through his teeth, syllables dripping like drool. One was missing, but she would come running to his arms once the little Grimm sang for him.
 
The Grimm appeared. It was not what Karen had expected. The ones she had seen before had been... creatures. Strange creatures, horrible creatures, but creatures. This one was... whatever it was, it was in the shape of a man. A strange man, a horrible man, but a man.

He was beautiful.

Not in the way that Yuina was beautiful. She was pretty. No one would ever call this man pretty, he was far too twisted and misshapen for that, but he was... beautiful. She wanted-

Her feet shifted, but she wasn't sure if she was trying to take a step back away from him or a step forward towards him, and so she ended up in the same position, one hand outstretched, half-covered in bone.

He spoke.

Karen was stricken by a sudden sense of unfairness at that, welling up below the longing. Why was it that he could speak so clearly, when she could not, could never - it was so hard, and yet he had words and he was not-

What was he, anyway?

What was she?

Karen swallowed, her heart fluttering in her chest. Little butterfly, he'd said, but she wondered who that was, what that was. Karen wasn't a butterfly. Perhaps she was a caterpillar, trying to become one. This seemed absurd.

It was all absurd. She should lead him down the stairs, to Yuina, and Yuina could reach out and touch him and he would be gone, only smoke, no more beauty. No more words.

Her eyes closed, opened once more, soft and gold, searching for something and not sure whether it was in him or in her. Words.

"Run... away." Soft. Ever so soft. Halting, hesitating, struggling. Breaking free. "She'll... kill you." Her hand moved once more, reaching, never touching. "You're... beautiful."
 
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