Work Text:
The phone rang three times before it connected. No one answered, so Chiemi spoke first. “Hello, is this Misamine-san?”
“Who wants to know?”
Chiemi smiled at the gruff voice, sounding so much like an old man under its slight femininity. “It’s Serizawa Chiemi, from Yasumizu.”
“Oh, right. Haruaki’s new girl.”
They were on a first name basis. Chiemi stomped out her irrational jealousy. “That’s not… we’re not together.” It seemed possible, once. Now Chiemi wasn’t sure, and since she couldn’t talk about Haruaki with anyone else, she’d used the phone number that Misamine had given her. It probably wasn’t what the woman had had in mind.
“If you say so,” was Misamine’s reply. The line crackled. “Is that all?”
“No!” Chiemi said, a bit more forcibly than she’d intended. Calling her once was bad enough. She cleared her throat. “So, Haruaki. He’s a strange guy.”
“Mm.”
Now came the awkward confession. Awkward to say, but even more awkward to say to the man’s ex of all people. “I can’t stop thinking about him.”
She’d only just admitted it to herself. After time resumed its forward march, she’d begun to wonder. Wonder what it’d be like, spending time with Haruaki outside of her small town, getting to know the mysterious city boy who stumbled into a small town death game.
They’d parted ways. That should have been the end. Maybe if the loop hadn’t happened, there wouldn’t be so much baggage between them. As it was, they’d bled, killed, died together. There was too much darkness for something as sweet as dating.
“You should, you know,” Misamine said.
Chiemi snapped back to attention. “What?”
“Forget him.” There was no jealousy in Misamine’s voice. Instead, she sounded almost weary. “He’s trouble.”
“Misamine-san, the same could be said of you.”
Misamine hummed. “That’s not a good thing.”
No, it really wasn’t. Trouble had dogged Chiemi the entirety of her life, ever since she’d stepped into that forbidden room. Over and over, in an endless loop. She should try to avoid it.
But…
“I know he’s trouble,” Chiemi began.
“Double it.”
“Huh?”
“Whatever troublesome thing you’re thinking about him,” Misamine said, “double it.”
Chiemi thought of Haruaki, of all the negativity she’d felt during their endless cycle of kill-and-be-killed, and tried to think it worse. He was a liar, but she knew that. Immoral, in some ways, but there was nuance there. He wouldn’t have helped the townsfolk otherwise. Besides, she’d fallen too, pushed by desperation and her god.
What else?
She saw a relaxed, handsome man in a red jacket, sharing drinks and making her feel normal for once. His eyes kept glancing at her, and she felt wanted. When he laughed, it was real.
She saw a golden-eyed god, crowned in a ragged wolf’s mane and prophesying past and future as her hands tightened around a gun. When she fired a shot, the smell of gunpowder made her nose itch, even as her eyes burned with frustrated tears. That felt real, too.
Chiemi sighed. “Even though he’s abnormal and kind of crazy…”
“…you can’t seem to stay away.”
“Yeah.”
Through the silence on the other end, Chiemi could hear clicking and clacking, as if Misamine were typing on a keyboard. Didn’t she work at a convenience store? Wait, but she hadn’t been there when she’d been with Haruaki. It occurred to Chiemi that she didn’t know the other woman at all.
Maybe liars attracted each other.
It was Misamine who broke the silence. “It might be too late.”
“To escape?” Chiemi joked.
Misamine didn’t laugh. The tapping stopped, and she sighed. “You’ve heard my take. You gotta decide for yourself.”
“Whether I should leave?”
“Yeah.” Almost too soft to hear, she added, “Not that you will. Jinxes are damn magnets.”
“What was that?”
“Mmm.”
Chiemi tested the idea in her mind, imagining a future where she never saw Haruaki again.
She’d go back to school, probably. Yasumizu still wasn’t the home she’d hoped for. Being there made her feel like she was wearing a sentimental sweater two sizes too small, itchy and unraveling. Maybe she’d meet someone at school if she hid the worst parts of herself. Maybe she could feel normal again.
Maybe, maybe.
She frowned. It was all wrong. After so many loops, she wasn’t sure she trusted herself, but oddly enough, she was starting to think she trusted Haruaki. As much as she could trust a liar.
Misamine broke through Chiemi’s thoughtful silence. “He’s not all bad. Just mostly.”
Chiemi snorted. “Sounds about right, Misamine-san!”
You have my blessing, seemed to be the meaning. Or maybe her curse?
“If you’re gonna be an idiot about it, at least know this. Haruaki can’t be pinned down. He’s restless, and he’ll keep you guessing.”
All things she’d known already. Chiemi was about to say so before Misamine added, “But the one thing he doesn’t lie about is his heart. If he cares about you, you can trust that much.”
Chiemi still had scars from caring too much, from trying to find her place in a world that saw her as tainted, leaving and returning and leaving again. But care had power. “Did he care about you, Misamine-san?”
There was a cough. Affronted, maybe a little embarrassed. “The hell you askin’ for?”
“Just wondering.”
“You’re as abnormal as him,” Misamine said, but she chuckled. “And stop calling me Misamine-san. Call me Mitsuji.”
“All right, Mitsuji.” Chiemi smiled and pressed her luck. “Did he?”
Mitsuji sighed. “He did. And before you ask—”
“He told me about the pudding.”
“That asshole.”
Chiemi’s heart felt lighter. There was just one thing left. “So, uh. Do you have his address?”
“He left without even giving you that, huh?” Mitsuji mumbled again. “A stalker and a liar. Sounds like one of his stories.”
“Stories?”
A pause. “He didn’t tell you about that, either.”
“Apparently not.”
“And this isn’t a giant red flag to you?”
“Apparently not.”
“You know, maybe I take back what I said. You guys can be trouble together.”
Chiemi laughed.