My Normal Life Now Has Nothing

Tama discarded her phone after the seventh missed call.

The news declared Chiho as the victim of a brutal murder, the culprit captured and secured. Someone aware of Society Prime was in the police, so she assumed, fabricating a cover story to keep panic as low as reasonably possible. Given everything that happened, crafting a solved narrative, an easy resolution—it seemed to be kindest.

But Tama wasn’t as easy. She opted for a cover story of her own. Declared missing. In truth: staying with the Ohzora family alongside Sarine, in a room where no light touched them.

It would’ve been safer for them to stay with Society Prime, yes, but Tama refused. For the time being no one wanted to oppose her. She still held onto Chiho’s baton, now devoid of life, but in times of great distress others witnessed it coming to life. It would release erratic blasts of light until whatever distressed Tama stopped.

Tama knew she was being selfish, abusing the fragment of Chiho’s power to cling to her selfish whims, but she couldn’t.

She couldn’t…

let her go.

“Hey, how’re you guys doing?”

Aoi slipped in, turning on the light. Sarine splayed herself over her futon tucked in the corner while Tama stayed in the other corner, turned towards the wall. Aoi dropped off two trays of breakfast for both girls, smiling—something so paper thin it dissolved in the silence.

“…I get it,” she said, sitting down, bringing her knees close. “I miss her too.”

Nothing else needed to be said. The three let their grief choke their hearts out, allowed themselves to fall apart. Aoi sighed and picked herself up before she let herself fall, truly fall like these two had. “But…she wouldn’t want this.”

“I know,” Tama said.

“She’d want you to live your life, y’know? Show that weirdo research lady what’s what. Work with us, Society Prime, whoever you want.”

“I know.”

“But you can’t hide forever. Not if…you don’t wanna lose anyone else.”

“I know.”

“And besides—”

“I know, I know! Can’t you shut up?”

“…and she was my sister.”

You asshole. Aoi would never say it, but Tama sensed it hanging off the older woman’s tongue. A sense of shame pooled in Tama’s stomach, and she buried her head in her hands. “…Sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Aoi said, but it really wasn’t. She stood up and left the pair to their lonesome. Tama swallowed the lump in her throat—diving for her food to wash it down fully. Maybe if she brought the dishes back, she could offer to do some inside chores as an apology. Windows were a no-go, but they could just cover them up for a bit…

Sarine’s food remained untouched. Tama crawled over. “Hey. You—uh…you should eat something too,” she said. “Pretty sure you can’t photosynthesize, even if your wings look like leaves.”

Tama reached—Sarine flew away. “Don’t touch me!”

“Uh—sorry…”

“…No, I’m sorry.” Sarine flew back into place. Into another corner, far away from Tama.

Tama frowned. “What gives? Like, I get it. I do. But why are you always over there?”

“I—” Sarine started, stopped. Another attempt at speaking faltered before it truly started. Did Sarine know why? Of course she did, but saying it…it made those feelings seem stupid. Irrational. And Sarine preferred the little, paranoid bubble of her head where all her worst thoughts could rot without a shred of judgment.

Without a pointed knife to tear it apart.

The little faerie curled into a ball, saying nothing, doing nothing, content to keep to herself until footsteps approached.

A touch to her head—Sarine jolted and zipped to the other side of the room. Tama punched the wall, kicked it, before she yelled: “What the fuck was that for?”

“It’s nothing!”

“What, you think I believe any of…whatever that bitch was talking about? That you were using me?”

“…”

“Come on. Who do you think I am? She killed Chiho. I’m not listening to a single fucking thing she said. It’s not like either of us knew.”

“…But—”

Shouldn’t Sarine have known better? When Tama cupped Sarine in her hands, she tried not to resist. To fly away, out the window, out into the world until the night swallowed her under a hushed blue gleam.

The same blue, ever watching, two orbs, a star and a stone, two eyes looking downward. Even if they hid it changed nothing. These two—they could hide forever, in the darkest crevices, in the most forgotten stretches of emptiness, but whatever the sun lost track of, the moon looked down on. Sarine clutched her head as Tama held her to her chest.

“You weren’t using me. I don’t—I don’t care what happens to me. If you have some special power, use it. How else are we gonna kill that piece of shit?”

Sarine chuckled, weak, exhausted. But in agreement all the same.

If she had to wield it, this soul, irremovable, using other as she pleased, then she’d wring Pleasa into a husk. The same way she tore Chiho apart. A young girl, fighting for those she loved, who hadn’t done a thing wrong but have a good heart.

Hell? Throw Lavi in there two. Sarine flew up, holding out a hand and armed with a wobbly smile. Tama returned the gesture however she could.

“Right. Yeah, okay. I’ll…try not to think about it.” Sarine promised all she could, and Tama nodded, satisfied.

With that, she went back and retrieved Chiho’s baton, staring down at it. “…if we’re gonna do this,” she said, “I can’t let her use me again.”

“Hey! Don’t you dare go to that shrine. There’s no way you can do anything with Pleasa watching.”

“I know, I know. Fuck. But I have a better idea. You just gotta have some faith in me to not do something stupid, ‘k?”

“…Hm…”

“Hey! Are you listening!?”

“I am, but—you know.”

“Ugh. Fuck you.”

Sarine pouted, turning away. Despite it all, though, she smiled. Tama returned it, raising the baton and resting it under her arm as she marched out the door. Whatever she had to do, Sarine would wait.

She’d waited for a very, very long time, after all. What was a little longer to someone born to guide, to wait, to dream?