Priestess at her weakest (2)

Once the girl was secured by the red-haired delinquent, they made their way upstairs to one of the rooms. Unlike the entire house, this place had Watanabe Mami written all over it. There was not a single spot on a wall that wasn’t covered by posters or drawings of all of the different kinds, some looked like covers of movies or books, and the others looked more like hand-drawn illustrations of Japanese demons. The biggest one was a picture of a howling wolf which was proudly hanging right above the bed filled with tons of pillows and adorable plushies. Mami’s desk had a typewriter on it, as well as a laptop. The trash can right under it was half-filled with crumpled paper. Other than that, there was also a quite big wardrobe that probably held not only normal clothes but cosplays and some props as well.

“Okay,” he said while letting Watanabe sit on her bed, “you get dressed, I will be back with food soon.” But before he could leave the room, he froze midway hearing the girl’s next words.

“You won’t help me?”

If his cheeks weren’t already flushed red from the embarrassment of being alone with the girl in her room, they now most definitely were.

“Absolutely not!” he shouted and quickly left the room, slamming the door behind him just to make sure he wouldn’t accidentally see her undressing.

The red-haired teen looked down on the floor to cool his head off from the dirty thoughts that came his way and only then he realized that he never took his shoes off. Quite rude but it didn’t look like Mami was bothered about it, even if she were, she probably won’t remember in detail what happened that day.

Now that he was alone with his two tasks: cooking and finding medicine, Makoto had time to observe the environment he ended up in more carefully. The house felt… Cold. And that comes from the person who lived in his house almost alone. But it was way different. Even though his parents were absent because of work, their home was filled with souvenirs from the trips they took together, photos of the most important moments of their family life. Those small elements gave off a warm and comfortable feeling. This place, on the other hand, didn’t have a soul. It was tidy for sure but there was no sign of anyone living there. If Watanabe’s family wanted to sell it, they would probably only need to clean up Mami’s room and it would be ready for sale.

Once the porridge was ready and he had found some pills and vitamins, Makoto went back upstairs hoping that the girl managed to dress herself and was safely laying in bed right now. Holding the tray with the food bowl and medicine on it, struggling a bit, he managed to open the door with his elbow.

“How are you feeling?” Onitsuka asked the girl. It looked like she managed to do the tasks he gave her. That was a huge relief because he had no idea what he would do if he saw her passed out half-naked.

“A bit better,” she weakly replied slowly getting up to swap her position from laying to sitting.

Makoto walked closer to the bed and gently put the tray on her legs. “Careful, it’s still a bit hot.”

“...there are no sprinkles,” Mami started with a disgusted voice.

“Who the hell adds sprinkles to the porridge?”

“I do.”

“You’re insane.”

“It tastes better!”

“As hell it does! You are not getting your porridge with that sugary crap on my watch!”

After bickering some more, Mami decided to give up and actually eat the porridge made by the boy. Though if she were in better shape, she would not back down that easily, the delinquent boy was sure of it. To prevent the room to be silent, Makoto wanted to start talking about something, anything, but before he could come up with an idea for a topic, both of the teens were alerted by the noise of the front door opening.

Watanabe’s eyes were suddenly wide open and she looked terrified. She quickly turned her head towards Onitsuka and whispered, “Hide in the closet, quickly.”

The gang leader didn’t want to argue with her so he obliged and got inside the furniture that was conveniently big enough for him to fit.

Partially Makoto could understand the reason for him to hide. Being alone with the girl in her room would not be the best first impression he could give to a parent but there had to be something more to Watanabe’s reaction. He just had a gut feeling about it but decided to stay quiet.

Seeing nothing but the darkness and a small line of light coming from the crack between the wardrobe’s door made his other senses heightened. He could hear the crack of the stairs getting louder with each second. Suddenly, Makoto felt like in some horror movie. The steps were getting closer and closer until the boy was sure that the person, a woman, he assumed from the soft steps, was in the same room as he and Mami.

“Mami, I told you so many times, you have to lock the door when you’re alone.”

“Yes, mother. My apologies.”

Ah, so it’s Miss Watanabe.

“Why are you in bed at this hour?”

“It appears that I have gotten an illness, Mother.”

Makoto could hear a heavy sigh coming from the older woman.

“Still with this ridiculous speech. You need to stop playing, Mami, you’re not a kid anymore!”

At that, Mami decided not to respond in any way.

“You don’t want to disappoint me like they did, do you?” The voice of Miss Watanabe was at first sounding like a plea but there was some different emotion that could be spotted there… There was some anger hidden between the lines, maybe even disgust.

Once again there was no response from the younger girl so her mother decided to keep on going. “Just make sure to get better soon. You can’t afford to skip school.”

Makoto could hear that the woman was taking some steps, possibly wanting to leave the room. He already felt awkward listening to a private conversation, one between family members at that, so he really hoped he could leave as soon as possible.

“Just remember,” Miss Watanabe’s voice rang out once again, this time harshly. “The time you’re taking right now to rest takes away your time to write. I can’t let you waste your academic potential on some silly hobby of yours. Do you understand?”

No answer from Mami. She could have agreed by shaking her head up and down but Makoto wouldn’t be able to see it through the small crack anyways. He sure hoped she didn’t because what the older woman said just now, made his own blood boil in anger. He really had to hold back from jumping out of the wardrobe to defend the poor weakened girl.

Soon after that, the gang leader heard the doors to the room closing followed by the sound of the cracking stairs. The moment he stopped hearing those noises, Makoto decided it was a perfect time for him to safely come out.

He was met with the saddened gaze of the girl half sitting in her bed.

“I’m sorry for that,” she started but Onitsuka didn’t let her finish.

“Hey, you have nothing to be sorry about, just…” he stopped for a moment wondering if maybe he should be the one apologizing but brushed it off. “Just make sure to get better, okay? And if you need someone to come by and make you more porridge again, just call me.”

He handed out his phone to Mami so she could take out hers in order to exchange the numbers.

“I will make sure to bring Tomoya along. I can promise you, his porridge will be better, but I can’t promise there will be any sprinkles in it!”

This made the girl chuckle. It was a good idea to not mention her mother and just ignore the whole situation. If that made Mami feel a bit better, he was glad he was able to cheer her up this way.

“Guess, walking out through the front door is a no-go, huh?” he chuckled himself this time looking at the window. “Good thing I did not take off my shoes after all, coming down from that tree outside your window would be much more painful barefoot.”

Not waiting for any answer from the girl, he started to climb out of the window and only stopped when he heard Mami’s trembling voice.

“Onitsuka Makoto,” it was the first time she has used his name instead of calling him Red Oni. It sounded… Nice. “Thank you for today.”

He only nodded in response and continued on his way out. He’d rather not be caught by her mother, that was a top priority. It looked like the relationship between the two Watanabes was already not the best one, at least not for Mami. Makoto couldn’t imagine having such a cruel parent. It affected him so much that it was all he was able to think about on his way home.

How would Mami’s own mother be so cold seeing her daughter sick and weakened? And what’s worse, she treated the teen girl’s dream as some sort of useless hobby. That was what pained Makoto the most. He always imagined the girl’s family to be proud of her, for being in an elite school and having top grades but apparently, in this household, giving 100% was not enough. It was disgusting.

No wonder why Mami didn’t want to go back home when he asked her for the address. He wouldn’t feel good in such a place either. Maybe that’s why she was hiding in her own fantasy world, to forget about the reality she had to live in…

No matter if that was a reason or not, Makoto decided he will make sure that at least when she was around him and his friends, he won’t let anyone step on her dreams and passions like that.