I wasn't meant to be left on a shelf (4)

Cleaning up after ourselves was a pain, as you'd expect. As plague doctors, it's not exactly good to leave our finished work out in the open, ready to infect any poor souls that happened to pass by. ...Especially with others coming fairly soon. For lack of time, we'd basically resigned ourselves to dumping everything into the spawning ground of a room and then combining our powers to make a controlled burn to incinerate anything left of the Anxi that were here. It's not the most practical, but... two birds with one stone. We'll just have to jam the door to lock in anything we can't fully be rid of, I guess.

"God, what a mess." I speak up, if only because I'm going to go insane if we keep doing this in silence.

"I'll say. Guess we know where tha' damn dogs come from, now. ...All the more reason for us to take out tha' monsters, too."

"They're basically just overgrown zombies, anyway."

"Ya' think so...?" Her voice slumps.

"Think about it. They're always lingering over specific areas, yeah? Malls, hotels, hospitals... Must've been something important to them in life." I glance once more over the decrepit state of this hotel. "Maybe this one owned the place... or was going to own it."

"That's more like a ghost, though-- with the whole 'unresolved business' angle, n' shit?"

"True, true. But they're more mindless than you'd expect for a ghost. This one was practically on autopilot trying to usher us to a room. I doubt they actually had any proper intelligence."

"Yea, yer' probably right." She chuckles dryly. "Maybe if I ever turned, I'd be crawling around the swamps."

"Probably."

"What about you? Where'd you think you'd end up?"

I pause for a moment, uncertain. It's obviously not something I'd ever thought of, yet... I guess I'm drawing a bit of a blank? The two of us perform in a band, but we don't have any regular venues. I love romance, but mostly just visual novels or shows I can experience from the comfort of my bedroom. ...It's not like my interest in 80's American dad rock is going to have any relevance, unless I'm going to be haunting a yacht in Miami or something.

"I guess mom and dad's place. Or the thrift store."

She steps up to me, looking as though she's trying to intimidate me. ...Bit hard, that, with how she has to angle her head so our beaks don't bump into each other. "I'll kill you if you get our favorite thrift stop closed down." She growls.

I smirk. "And I'll kill you if your gator ass tries contaminating the water."

"Deal." Though I can't see it, I can hear her toothy grin from a mile away-- her voice always gets slightly higher when it happens.

...

"There. Best we can get it, I think." Mizuki pats the dust off of her dress to commemorate a job adequately done.

Now it looks more like someone exploded trying to cook meth, rather than an Anxi spawning den.

"Yeah... good enough."

I take out my phone, checking the time. Phew-- ten minutes to spare.

Oh, right-

------------

Monster Anxi, fuck fuck fuck-- might want to come quick

Doesn't seem hostile yet (SOMEHOW) but that might change

Fue-chan: Oh god.

Fue-chan: How big is it?

Fue-chan: We'll be right over!

Fue-chan: Hello?

Fue-chan: Asahi????

Fue-chan: Mizuki????

Fue-chan: fuck where did you say the gfhotel wass agagin??

Fue-chan: helhloo???

------------

I grimace, heart dropping to my stomach. Whoops...

------------

Fuck shit sorry!!

Didn't realize that those messages actually sent out

Everything's alright now, we took it out on our own

Fue-chan: oh!!! thats good!!

Fue-chan: this is chisaki btw

Fue-chan: fueko-sensei is freaking out because she thought the two of you were dead :(

Fue-chan: but its good the two of you arent!!

Micchan: oh shit is she okay

Fue-chan: give me a second sry..... im trying to calm her down

Micchan: get that bodypillow of hers

Micchan: it usually helps calm her down.

Micchan: and stay close to her too, if you can.

------------

"God, I feel bad now."

"Probably don't need ta. How could you predict your phone would get signal in the middle of all that?"

"I guess you're right."

...

After letting Chisaki know we'll be busy for the next few hours (and apologizing again for the misunderstanding), the two of us sit outside the hotel, waiting for our cameraman to show up. While we wait, I figure I might as well check the analytics for our music-- gives me something to do.

"Ya know you shouldn't be doin' that." Mizuki chides.

"I know. It beats doing my gacha dailies, though."

"Does it? They're both bad for you."

"Yeah yeah, both use disappointment to fuel addiction, I know what a skinner box is. I just want to see how our new song's performing."

Which is to say... it isn't. Damn. I really thought people would take to this one-- especially with my attempts to push for it on our socials. I guess that's what the music video is for, just need to wait...

And wait...

..and wait....

...and...

...

"Wait, what time is it?"

"Hour and a half past our shoot time." I move over to my messages with the cameraman we hired.

------------

Hello???

Where tf are you??

You have been blocked by capricandykorn, and cannot send them any messages.

------------

I let my phone drop to the ground, not wanting to shatter it in my fist. "Fucker was scamming us."

"Goddammit..."

This always happens. Reach out to someone to help us with our music, and they turn out to be some goddamn scammer who just wants our money. I was looking forward to this, too. But that was my mistake; assuming anyone gives a shit about our art.

"FUCK!"

I slam my fist into the wall, screaming as fire blazes across my fingers. "This keeps fucking happening...!" Another punch. followed by another. And another. My hands are starting to bleed-- I'm not as hardy as Chisaki --but I don't care. I'm sick and tired of being taken advantage of, just because I'm a goddamn nobody! I'm so fucking sick of this!!

!!

Mizuki grabs my fist before it can make further contact with the wall.

"...Choose your next action carefully." I growl out to her, not in the mood to pretend to be cordial right now.

She takes a second, healing my hands up for me... before shoving me back.

"Yer' not the only one that's pissed, dumbass." She raises her fists. "If you need somethin' ta' take it out on, take it out on me-- not the poor, defenseless drywall."

I smirk, raising fists of my own, before rushing down Mizuki. I take a swing... going wide, as she ducks. Should've seen that coming. She quickly takes advantage of this, throwing an uppercut directly to my stomach.

"F-fuck... You bitch!" I struggle to catch my breath, doubling over from the pain. This isn't our first time resolving our anger through a consensual fistfight, far from it. But, it's been long enough that I've forgotten how much this can fucking smart...!

...Mizuki points to her eyes, confusing me for a moment. Oh, right. I never took off my glasses. I make sure to do that real quick, not wanting to ruin a perfectly good pair of lenses. Then, I approach her once more.

She takes a heavy swing, which I block with my forearms. Another one-- blocked. Another one-- blocked once more. She's trying to wear me down. I move to sweep her legs, only for her to jump over. She's damn nimble-- fitting for a water witch, I guess.

But, I've got an idea. I make for another blow-- feinting, to bait her into ducking again.

"Yer' really gonna try that aga- Oooufhgh!!" I slam my knee into her chin, forcing her to shut up. Then, I grab her by the sides of her head and slam our foreheads together, causing her to collapse to the ground.

"...Ya know what? I deserved that one." She chuckles, sitting back up. "Has yer' mom been trainin' you, again?"

I laugh, crouching down and resting a hand on her cheek. "Yeah, she has. Anxi on the rise means she's been concerned for my safety again."

"Makes sense. You feelin' any better?"

"A bit." I help pull Mizuki back up to her feet.

She smirks. "Hey... I've got another good idea-- I think I'm on a lucky streak."

"?"

"Let's ask the others to hang out. They can help record our video, too."

...

...

...Why didn't I think about that?