Chapter Text
The next day, Takumi was awoken by loud banging at his door. Even though he had already slept through the whole day, he was determined to keep at it, covering his ears with his pillow, trying to ignore the noise. Unfortunately, this only prompted whoever was outside to actually start using the doorbell and emit a shrill yell every few minutes.
Takumi admitted defeat and went to open the door. At least he knew who it was, thanks to the yells.
“Hi Darumi,” he yawned. “What do you want?”
“Man took you long enough” Darumi pushed her way into his room. “Damn, this place is so boring, you should decorate more or all your guests will shrivel and die of boredom!”
“They should have thought about it before they invited themselves in then," he stretched and added, "and isn't that what we have Revive-O-Matic for?”
“Hah, you still trust the Revive-O-Matic after that fiasco! You’re so naive!” She pinched his cheek, which the still sleepy Takumi allowed for longer than he should before swatting her hand away.
"Sirei fixed that, didn't he?"
“That's what you think, this was clearly no accident. There is no doubt that Sirei discovered that by fusing two fighters together, he can strengthen their Hemoanima to produce super soldiers.” She said all of that in one breath. Takumi was almost impressed. "He can claim sabotage as much as he wants, but I know the truth soon, we will all be fused together“ Darumi made her trademarked thumb down pose and said: “Dibs on Yugamu when that happens.”
Takumi crossed his arms and humoured her. "Yugamu? I thought you wanted to see Yugoshika.”
“Eh, I decided Yugamu would suit me more. Besides, you and Kyoshika would probably be funnier: a weirdo and a normie. Both perverts. And you would get three swords, she would like that."
"Can't really argue with that, except for the pervert part. I'm not a pervert.” Darumi gave him a dubious look, so he decided to move things along.
“So why did you come here?”
“Ahaha, right, yes, I need you to take Ima exploring.”
“Why?”
“So I can hang out with Gako, dummy. Right now, Ima won't let her out of his sight. You should have seen him yesterday. He’s worse than he was with Kako, honestly. He’s totes afraid that if he leaves them alone for too long, Gaku will infect his pwecius whittle sister with his personality. It's too late, idiot! They're already infected with each other!”
Her yell was loud enough that Takumi had to massage his ear before answering. “Okay, but why do I have to take him exploring? Can't someone else do it?”
“Cuz you're the leader, duh! You can order him to go with you, or I dunno, lie that Sirei is sending you guys for something to fix the Revive-O-Matic. He would believe you! Takemaru said he will go with you, so you just need to pick the fourth one, or you can go as a trio, which-ever.”
“Takemaru wants to go?”
“Yeah," Darumi put her hands behind her head and rolled her eyes. ”He had a really long, boring talk with me about it. He’s worried that the situation is unhealthy or something. He was all like blugh blugh blugh ‘Ima is regressing' and chater chater chater ‘what if this Imasolation affects Gaku’s part of Gako negatively’ and so on.”
Takumi smiled wryly “Did Takemaru really use the word Imasolation?”
Darumi giggled, “Nah, that one's mine, but seriously, I agree with the big guy. Ima never liked Gaku very much, so this must be a pretty garbo situation for his part of the Gakostain monster.”
“I guess so. Though I don't think Ima would be nasty to Gako. I mean Kako is in there…”
Daumi turned to him. Unlike before this point, she looked completely serious with cold, dead eyes. Her voice was also very cold and calm as she said, “He may try to be nice, but believe me, Takumi, when somebody quietly resents you, you can tell even if they try to hide it.”
“Oh, erm…” Takumi didn't know how to react to that, so he decided to just go along with her request to appease her ”I'd better take him exploring, then, so Gako can have some Me Time.“
“More like DaruME time,“ Darumi yelled again in high spirits. Takumi supposed he would never quite understand her.
***
And now he was here, in the sweltering desert, looking for mechanical parts that Sirei sorely needed . " Ima I swear". At least the wild invader encounters went fast, with Ima venting his frustrations with every attack.
“I don't understand Mr Sumino," he said between one and another hit of his wing fist. ”Why was it necessary to drag me here at this time?”
Takumi, who was silently leaning on his sword and observing, answered, “I just find you really reliable in the field and with your wings, you are really good for gathering materials,” the answer was even true for any other exploration he dragged Ima on. Just not this one.
“Don't lie to him, Takumi," Takemaru contradicted him immediately. He was likewise practically lying on his Hemoanima Motorcycle with nothing to do. “We took you out to touch base with you. This shit can't be easy."
"So we're not going with the subtle approach, okay, I understand,” said Takumi, not hiding frustration in his voice.
“Fuck subtle, come on, Ima don't hold out on us!”
“Ahahaha, Mr Yakushiji, I'm just fine“ Ima turned away from the enemies’ remains and back to the group. He struck a pose, but Takumi noted that it fell flat compared to his usual efforts.
“Yes, you are very fine, which is why you were hitting dead enemies for over five minutes now” Yugamu, whose weapons did not easily lend themselves to leaning on, was sitting on a nearby piece of debris. “I haven't seen a body in such small pieces since my brother's ex started dating a rival assassin."
“Hate when that happens," murmured Takumi. “Was that the bomber or the one with poisonous darts?”
“The one with darts.”
“Yikes,” Takumi winced, hearing Yugamu’s answer. “Not a nice mental image”
He hadn't originally planned to take Yugamu with them, but Hiruko, his first choice, was parked in the Leisure Lounge with her bikini on and had let him know with just a look to better let her be. When he was leaving the room, he ran right into Yugamu, and, feeling too lazy to look for anybody else, Takumi invited him on the spot.
“Yeah, cut the crap, Ima," Takemaru scratched the back of his head. ”We all know you looked like shit yesterday. I understand this is a difficult situation, but…”
“I said I'm fine! I just sleep badly, that's all. Besides, even if I wasn't, Sirei said that this won't be a problem for long, we just have to wait it out.”
Takumi had a feeling that Sirei may have been oversimplifying the situation, but decided not to mention that.
“Okay, be that way, asshole. Let's focus on something else,” Takemaru said, got off his motorcycle and came closer to Ima. “Let's talk about how Gako is feeling. Why were they crying yesterday?”
“How-how do you know about that?” asked Ima at the same time, Takumi asked,
“She was crying?” He turned to Yugamu, but the assassin shrugged; he apparently didn't know about the crying either.
“Yeah, they came to breakfast all red-eyed and shit.”
“Well, nobody else noticed that, Mr Yakushiji. Were you watching us? Are you a stalker now, hmm?“ Ima did one of the poses that long ago Takumi mentally labelled as ‘Do you want to get stabbed?’ . He hoped this would not be a repeat of the situation during the first hundred days.
At Ima's question, Takemaru, immune to Ima's killing aura, got surprisingly bashful. He started to tinker with his ear before saying, “Don't be stupid, I just… try to look out for you and Kako, especially during the meals. You guys always mix flavours and stuff. I want to make sure you get your proper nutrition. I mean, we all know you guys didn't have the best access to food growing up.”
Hearing that, the air went out of Ima, and he too went a little awkward. “Ahaha, thanks for looking out for your juniors, Mr Yakushiji, but we are fine on the food front, so don't worry.”
“That's why you had rice covered in Destructive Seasoning for lunch 3 days in a row last week?”
“I didn't feel like cooking then, and I had a salad for dinner. So there,” Ima crossed his arms haughtily, but it was clear he was just teasing.
“There was hard candy in that salad-”
“And salmon! Salmon is very nutritious, Mr Yakushiji.”
“Heh, I guess I can't argue with that.”
The tension was gone from the atmosphere. Takemaru put his hand on Ima’s back and brought him closer to the rest of the group. They sat on some debris nearby Yugamu. Takumi sat down as well. The discussion could start for real.
Takumi decided that it wasn't very leaderly of him to leave all the work to Takemaru and went first.
“So why was Gako crying?”
Ima made a face. "Eh, it was nothing really, she had some wardrobe difficulties.”
Yugamu looked at him skeptically. ”They cried because of wardrobe difficulties?”
Ima shrugs, “I don't understand it either. She couldn't decide whether to wear Mr Maruko's pants or Kako's adorable skirt. The pants were too itchy for Kako, and I think Mr Maruko is just too much of a whip to wear a skirt. So she just burst into tears. It was quite distressing, but I managed.”
“Oh, so that's why they were wearing your pants yesterday," said Takumi. If only the things he actually cared about had such an easy answer.
“Heh, but isn't that kind of excessive?” Yugamu was looking into space with an expression Takumi couldn't read at all. ”Bursting into tears over something so small?”
Takemaru started playing with his ear again “Eh, I don't know… Is it really that surprising aren't they kind of… you know like a baby?” everybody looked at him strangely. ”I mean, they're kind of newly... born?”
“Newly made,” supplied Yugamu with a smirk.
“Newly made whatever,” Takemaru looked more and more nervous under their combined scrutiny. ”Babies cry because… I mean, everything is new to them. And like they also have all that memory crap to deal with and shit, and I mean Gaku is kind of a whiner and Kako is a sensitive girl that could make a crybaby when put together right?”
Ima made a thoughtful expression. “I suppose. Your first theory is probably right. We haven't had any incidents since yesterday morning so it must have been the newness of the experience rather than being a crybaby but,” here Ima made a depressed face, ”she does whine quite a bit more compared to Kako’s norm.” Ima shook his head. His usual pristine, slightly mocking smile came back like he turned on a switch. ”However, like I said, aside from that, everything is great, I am fine, and she is fine.”
“She. She. She.“ Takemaru was getting irritated. “I wanted to talk about that too. Have you asked them about pronoun preferences like at all? I mean you do remember that there is a guy in there too? Gako could be non-binary or shit,” here Takemaru started to make wild hand gestures clearly looking for a word, ”like you know the other nonbinary.”
“Bigender, Genderfluid? Maybe Agender?” proposed Yugamu and Takumi got lost. "Why were there so many?"
“Yeah, that's the shit I meant. Maybe we should ask them what they prefer?”
Ima rolled his eyes ”What's. The. Point? They won't be here by the end of the week. So it doesn't matter what pronouns they prefer. There is no point getting hung up on details when in a few days we will have Kako and Mr Maruko back” his smile was visibly strained. "And besides, she didn't protest when I called her ‘sister’, so she must be fine with it.”
“I don't know,” Takemaru awkwardly scratched his head. “You kind of jumped on them with the whole ‘sister' thing right off the bat. Does it count when they decide under pressure?”
“Heh, I wouldn’t worry about it,” interjected Yugamu. "Immediately after that, they asserted themselves as an older sibling, so they weren't completely out of it. They still had their- “ Yugamu did jazz hands ”-preferences."
“Ugh, don't remind me,” growled Ima. At the same time, Takumi said:
“Huh, you're right, they were pretty insistent on that. Must be Gaku’s influence” it was weird to think about it, but apparently Gaku’s identity was more attached to being an older sibling than to being a guy. Weird how people worked. “You sure you're okay with all that, Ima? I know you're not his biggest fan.”
Ima's nose scrunched at Takumi’s question, “I admit it’s annoying. Just this morning, Gako refused to put her hair up as it apparently interferes with that stupid hat.” He massaged his temples “I really can't wait for the week to end and for Mr Maruko to be out of our lives.”
Yugamu put a hand to his chin as if in thought. “Are you sure he will be out? Maybe after that memory sharing, he and Kako will be as thick as murderers. You know what people say about walking a mile in somebody's shoes and all that.”
Ima gave another blinding fake smile at that, “I will have you know that Mr Maruko's shoes don't enter the equation at all. Gako got my sister's feet, not his, and those stupid slippers are a bit too big. They kept falling off, so my sister's shoes are the only ones in play here.”
“You’re deflecting again,” pointed out Takumi.
“Because Mr Sumino, as I already said, everything will be back to normal soon. There is no need to focus on it.”
“Okay fucking fine. We will park the topic.” Takemaru crossed his arms. "I guess if everything goes okay, Gako really will be gone in a few days.”
“What do you mean if?" questioned Ima, but Takemaru ignored him.
“And if you say you’re okay, then that’s that. I won't disrespect you anymore by calling you a liar. But if something changes and this gets too heavy for you… We’re here. For you and for Gako. If something goes wrong with them that you can't deal with, we'll help you.”
“That's right,” confirmed Takumi. “You aren't in this alone. We're here to help you. I mean, I did go back in time partially to make sure you didn't get killed, so I think you can trust me."
“Oh, Mr Yakushiji, Mr Sumino, you are making me blush” Ima waved them off. Takumi couldn't tell whether he took them seriously or not.
“I could also make you blush-” started Yugamu, but Takemaru's enraged yell interrupted him.
“That's a fucking middle schooler, get your shit together, man!!!”
“Ah, Mr Yakushiji, do not worry. There is really nothing Mr Omokage could do to make me blush,” Ima laughed while Takemaru looked at him with a worried expression.
Nobody talked for a while after that. Takumi thought that they should probably move from the sun, but before he could propose that, Ima spoke.
“Eh, okay, I gotta admit there is something that's bothering me about this situation,” everybody looked at him with interest, and he continued. “For you see, I had a plan.”
"A plan?" asked Takumi, already dreading what stupid bullshit this was gonna be.
“Yes, you see it bothered me how not all of us had to do a task for Sirei, so before this… incident, I was going to convince him to give everybody else something to do. But now I don't want to rip him away from the Revive-O-Matic, so it's a bust” Ima made an exaggerated gesture of sorrow. Takemaru looked at him incredulously, Yugamu laughed a little, and Takumi put his head in his hands.
“Oh God, he would love it. That's just his style.” Takumi looked at Ima through his fingers. ”You realise that I would have to do half the work again? What did I do to deserve that?”
Ima giggled. “What do you mean by deserve? Mr Sumino, isn't it an honour to help your teammates as a leader?”
Yugamu winked at Takumi, "If you are wondering, you can help me out at any time. No need for Sirei's involvement,” Takumi groaned. Takemaru looked from giggling Ima and smiling Yugamu and murmured:
“It's not that fucking funny," then he got up and dusted off his pants. “That's all?”
Ima also got up and stretched.
”Well, I lost one of my pictures of Kako, but I think it just fell behind some furniture. I will look for it once everything is back to normal.”
“Good, if you need help moving stuff around, you know where to find me," nodded Takemaru.
Takumi and Yugamu also got up.
“Okay, everybody, the day is still young, we have a lot of ground to cover before we have to go back to school.” Takumi felt a little silly stepping into his leadership role when Takemaru had done so much to lead the discussion, but it's not like he could do anything else.
As they walked, Yugamu, apparently quickly bored with the now peaceful atmosphere and started teasing Ima.
“I heard that Gako was going to hang out with Darumi today. Aren't you worried about all that negative influence on Kako?”
Takemaru threw Yugamu an annoyed look. Ima, however, grinned.
“Worry not, Mr Omokage, for while I'm not there, I have acquired the help of a chaperone.”
“Chaperone?” asked Takumi, slightly nervous. He hoped that whoever that was wouldn't bother Darumi too much; if they did, she would surely make it his problem.
“Yes, I have engaged the help of a pure-hearted girl in good standing.”
And then Takumi, instead of keeping his mouth shut, asked, ”Nozomi is your chaperone?”
***
Tsubasa didn’t know how she got roped into this situation. Oh, wait, she did. The old peer pressure got her again, or rather, Ima pressure as it were. She had no chance when he cornered her in the Garage with an offer she couldn't refuse. Literally, he wouldn't take no for an answer. He kept asking and asking till she agreed.
And now she was here in Gaku’s room, currently occupied by Gako, as Kako’s room got sealed by Ima. Playing third wheel to Gako and Darumi's hangout. This was so embarrassing, having to invite herself over like a pest. Made her feel like a creep. Worsened by the fact that she didn't often socialise with any of the people present. She didn't really know how to deal with Darumi, Kako, when she wasn't with Ima, preferred company of people cooler than Tsubasa and Gaku… Well, Gaku liked her. In fact, no matter how much Gako channeled Kako when they said “Oh, it would be so cool for you to join," Tsubasa knew that the sentiment must have come from Gaku’s part of the equation.
He was one of the more relatively normal people in LDA. They had some friendly conversations together. And he belonged to the group of people who would sometimes bring her snacks and drinks if she was taking too long in the Garage. But there always came a moment when he would start ogling her, and she had to cut the pleasantries short.
He was apparently friends with Darumi, so he had to know how to be friends with girls without being weird about it. Right? Unless Darumi didn't mind that? Scratch that, Darumi probably thought it was funny. Speaking of Darumi.
“Man, that’s a meagre collection. I expected more from the so-called Yuri connoisseur. ”She and Gako were looking at Gaku’s bookshelf, which was now actually filled with books and some magazines instead of trash.
“ Eva and Shouma did a pretty good job ,” Tsubasa thought. Darumi took one manga from the shelf and opened it at a random page
“And only one shots and short series, really?”
“Me and what money, dude. I can't even afford a new t-shirt. Why would you think I can spend on manga? This is all bargain bin stuff. And why would I go for a long series if I'm not sure I can complete it? I read most of my stuff when I have a bookshop part-time or online, if I have the time.”
“Ohohoho but this looks pretty new,” Darumi dropped the manga she was holding on the floor, some pages fell out of it as if to prove how cheap it was. She moved her finger along the spines of crime novels higher on the shelf. After Shouma and Eva's clean up, when Gako was distracted with making dinner (an absolutely normal katsudon but with a glowing blue sauce only Tsukumos could eat), Ima and Takemaru had transported some of Kako’s belongings to Gaku’s room. So now, aside from Gaku's stuff, it also held several of Kako’s detective books as well as two evidence boards. From the bed where she was sitting, Tsubasa could get a good look at her own picture (labelled: 'good with machines seems nice') pinned diagonally below a conspicuously empty spot where Gaku’s photo must have been.
“Oh, Ima gets me those," said Gako, not without some fondness in their voice. Quieter, she added, ”I think he steals them.“ Darumi expressed her apparent enthusiasm toward stealing with a loud yell and then immediately pivoted into asking Gako whether they had read something she called ‘infamous yuri incest’. Tsubasa decided that maybe she didn't need to know what that was and stopped listening to their talk.
For lack of anything better to do, she took one of the notebooks that were now neatly stacked on the desk and not spread all around the floor like before. She wondered why Gaku needed so many notebooks, so she leafed through one of them.
Foster siblings birthday calendar, holiday calendar, list of sibling food preferences, ideas for cheap birthday presents... It was kinda cute. Aww, he even started to write down the birthdays of the SDU members. He didn't have everybody yet. Maybe she should let him know hers so he can add it once they have him back. She put that notebook back on the desk and took another.
Schedules. Schedule after schedule after schedule. School, and work, and work, and work and late late in the evening, home. How to get from school to work, from work to work. Traffic density. Reliability of different public transport lines. Which teachers will give a shit if he skips class to get some more work, and which teachers won't notice. What homework he needs to do, and when can he do it. Tsubasa's hands started shaking. Among Gaku's frankly terrible handwriting, she couldn't find a single moment of respite. Tsubasa thought that the schedule her mom had her on when she was a kid was bad, but this… this…
She snapped the notebook shut and tried to calm her rising nausea. Breathe in, breathe out, Tsubasa. In out. Calm down, do not vomit on a freshly mopped floor. Do not. In out. Ugh, this is why she never went to her friends’ houses. This is why she always kept her distance. When she felt the crisis was averted, she tuned back to the world.
It seemed that Gako and Darumi switched their talk to straight-up porn.
“You know me, I'm a gamer, so all my wank material is bundled up in save files, but seriously, only Gift-O-Matic’s sexy magazines?” Darumi was holding one of the aforementioned magazines by its side, clearly looking at some two-page spread. Meanwhile, Gako, red in the face, was gathering more of those magazines, apparently set up on the bookshelf.
“Really, Shouma, you just put them on there?” though Tsubasa and Gako echoed her thoughts with a distressed:
“Why are they displayed like that?! They should all be hidden!” They ripped the last magazine from Darumi's hands, who, in response, put her hands behind her back and started to mimic whistling. Gako hugged the stack of magazines to their chest and said
“Be-beside, Takumi gave me those, so it's not like-”
“Really, you didn't even get them yourself-” started Darumi, but Tsubasa interrupted her. She figured this was the type of discussion Ima sent her here to stop.
“Hey guys, weren't we supposed to play a game or something?” Darumi and Gako looked at her, clearly surprised. Did they forget she was in the room with them? This was becoming increasingly awkward. “Thanks Ima .”
Gako, upon realising somebody else was in the room, got even more embarrassed, and Tsubasa was worried that they would start crying. Thankfully, Darumi loosened up the atmosphere by bursting into a fit of laughter.
“Ohohohoho, that's right," she comically hit her head with her fist. “I'm such a dumbo. I completely forgot what we were supposed to be doing.”
“Don't say that about yourself,” said Tsubasa, but Darumi just waved her off. She took the stack of magazines from Gako.
“Let your Darumi hide that for you," she said and chucked the entire stack under the bed, the universal place to hide your porn. A few of the magazines slid from the other side, and Tsubasa kicked them back under. She thought they would move to the couch to play, but Darumi had a different idea and started pulling the small coffee table from the front of the sofa to in front of the bed. There was a deafening screech as she was dragging it, but she clearly did it in deference to Tsubasa's chosen sitting place, so Tsubasa felt like she couldn't complain.
To distract herself from the noise, she turned back to look at Gako, who was dealing with that manga Darumi had dropped to the floor earlier. They were squatting on the floor, putting the lost pages back into their places, except for one that they held for a while and then put in their pocket. They looked up and smiled upon seeing Tsubasa. Then they got up from the floor and went to plop themselves on the bed right next to her.
“Sorry for ignoring you, we got kind of carried away,” they said.
“Eh, don't worry, I could have joined the conversation at any time. And I mean, I did kind of intrude on you guys,” Tsubasa scratched the back of her neck. Gako tried to be nice, but it just made her feel awkward. She really shouldn't have listened to Ima.
“Ahaha, don't get your panties in a twist," Darumi answered her instead of Gako. She finished with the table and was now setting up a gaming console. ”We would kick you out if you were bothering us. We usually hang out at mine or in the Rec Room, so I got curious about Gaku- shit Gako’s collection” Gako blinked a few times very slowly. The reaction worried Tsubasa, but Darumi, whose back was to them, did not notice.
The blue-haired girl stopped fiddling with the console and sat next to Gako at the opposite end of the bed from Tsubasa. She stretched and, to Tsubasa's annoyance, as she had no more ideas how to switch the topic, said.
“So, back to the topic, if all this boring crap is what Takumi gave you, where is your actual porn stash?” Gako started blushing again.
“Come on, you can't just ask them that," protested Tsubasa in a desperate attempt to get the conversation back to Ima approved levels, but Darumi shushed her.
“Quiet pretty girl, friends are talking.”
“Hah, so much for not bothering them.”
“Come on, dude, I just watch stuff online when I can. I can't just keep porn around. My younger siblings could get into it,” there was a slight pause where Gako’s face went oddly blank before they continued, ”and Ima would probably freak out if he knew I'm looking at that stuff.”
“Meh, I'm sure you could hide it. You told me you had your own room.”
“Yeah, and they all come barging in there and bothering me at all times. I won't risk one of the little ones getting into it. I'm not like that asshole.”
“Like who?” asked Tsubasa, genuinely surprised by the amount of venom in Gako’s voice. They stayed silent for a while, glaring at the floor. After a bit, they started speaking.
“Before I was the oldest at the group house, there was this other guy. He… I mean... eh, never mind,” they went quiet again before starting over. “He was the oldest, and eventually he grew up. And he just up and abandoned all of us. Disappeared without a word. Mom and dad are still worried about him. Everybody is.”
Gako started playing with a loose string from Gaku’s jacket.
”Anyway, once he left, I was the oldest, and I got his old room, and I found like a whole stash of porn magazines. And I mean, what's wrong with him keeping all that stuff where the kids could find it? He didn't even hide it that well,” Gako was becoming increasingly aggressive with that string, as if desperate to rip it off. ”And it was all so disgusting, too. So gross. It was so upsetting. I couldn't even deal with it. I had to get our foster mom and ask her to throw it out.”
Tsubasa wondered what kind of porn could get Gaku, of all people, so out of sorts, but felt it would be rude to ask.
“Man, what the heck was in those magazines to freak you out so badly?” Darumi didn't share the same sentiment.
“Oh, you know they… There were…” Gako started some sort of hand gesture but gave up partway through in favour of bringing their knees under their chin and hugging their legs “I don't want to talk about it anymore. It was gross. He was gross. And I’m not sad that he left."
Tsubasa shuddered as Darumi started to pat Gako on the back. She had felt like she was intruding from the beginning, but now the feeling had risen tenfold. This was not for her. This was a confession for Gaku's close friends. Darumis Takumis Takemarus of the world.
She could only hope there wouldn't be any Kako confessions going forward. Because there really would be nobody appropriate to hear them.
Darumi apparently decided that the best way to fix everybody's mood was to finally start the game. It was some sort of click-through novel. Tsubasa didn't remember what they were called. Darumi started to read it out loud. It was about a group of friends hanging out together and having fun. Gako seemed to be slowly relaxing as it went on.
“You know this isn't that bad. Considering how you always talk about your games and stuff, I expected a killing game or something,” said Tsubasa after a while.
“Gakuu...oo... fuck Gako doesn't want to play the killing game ones with me. He only wants the porn games. We're still in the setup stage. Eroguro starts later,” explained Darumi. Gako's head snapped to her.
“Again with the Eroguro!? Can't we have normal sex for once?” after saying that, Gako's face got very, very red ”Wait, wait, that's not what I meant!” Tsubasa tried to stifle her laughter with her hand, but Darumi didn't hold back and started laughing so hard she fell on her back. Gako took the pillow stuck behind Tsubasa and hid their face in it.
“Gosh, this is so embarrassing," they mumbled barely audible. Tsubasa and Darumi giggled for a while as Gako groaned into their pillow.
“Okay, hehe that's enough Darumi, let’s lay off them” Tsubasa finally said, and Darumi started the process of trying to get up from her lying position, but she just slid from the bed instead. She giggled on the floor for another minute. Eventually, she reached her hand up and hit Gako’s thigh a few times. Gako's head rose up from the pillow. They sighed and helped her up. Once both Darumi and Gako were correctly seated, Darumi restarted the game.
After a while, Gako spoke, “But seriously, my phrasing aside. Would it kill you to put on a game where they don't pull out each other's guts during sex?”
“I did last time, and you didn't like it.”
“Yeah, because it looked ugly. I'm sure you have something nice looking without the Eroguro.”
“Heck yeah, I do. Killing games!!!” Gako groaned with annoyance, hearing that, and Darumi giggled.
“There is skull-fucking in this one," she cheerfully added, and Gako started pouting.
It was only then that the meaning of Eroguro fully sank in for Tsubasa.
“Wait, you mean this is one of your gory games?” She looked at the screen. The characters were so adorably drawn that she couldn't imagine how they would look with their guts out.
Ugh, maybe she shouldn't try the freshly mopped floor and all that. She put her hand to her mouth.
“But they're so cute… they're having a nice sleepover. How would that even go? Is there a serial killer that will come and kill them or something?”
“Hihihi, I told you this is the setup. The game shows us their fake, nice, and normal outward personas first, only to shatter the illusion later. Then we will see how rotten they are inside, and to highlight this, we will get to see their actual insides.” Darumi moved her head to the side. “Their actual insides are not rotten, of course, that's a different game.” She turned to Taubasa, "and they're not having a sleepover. They’re having lunch on the roof. I don't think you're getting a good view from where you're sitting.”
That was true. The desk blocked Darumi from moving the coffee table as close to the bed as she wanted, and Tsubasa ended up quite a bit away from the console screen compared to the other two. She leaned over to get a closer look, and indeed, what she had taken for funny wallpaper in somebody's bedroom was a rooftop with a typical chain-link fence.
“Ah, you're right. Sorry, I didn't see the background that well, and they had all those hair decorations. I thought they were doing each other’s hair,” she pointed to the bento boxes the girls were having, ”and I thought those were their toiletry bags.”
If Tsubasa was being honest, she had a hard time following the plot. The atmosphere in the room was all over the place, and Darumi was pretty bad at character voices.
“Oh, I guess,” said Darumi as Tsubasa moved back to her seat, ”but this is just how they wear their hair normally. It's not like a makeover thing. Is that what normies really do?” She turned to Tsubasa, ”You really do that whole make-up and hairdo shit at sleepovers?” Gako turned to Tsubasa as well, clearly curious. This made Tsubasa nervous.
“How… how would I know? I've never been to a sleepover!” both Darumi and Gako looked surprised at that.
“Really never? But you're so nice and cool," said Gako, which Darumi followed with:
“Yeah, girl, you look so popular, how did that happen?”
It was kinda nice that they thought so highly of her, but it was also incredibly awkward to explain.
“Well, it's not like I haven't been invited, but you know with my difficulties… It was a social suicide to vomit in public, imagine if I did that in somebody's bedroom. There were a lot of fun hangouts that I had to give up on due to my condition.”
Hearing that, Darumi looked uncomfortably away from Tsubasa, but Gako looked weirdly pumped up with sparkling eyes.
“Wow, then it was so brave of you to join us today. I'm so impressed!”
Tsubasa felt herself blushing ”Ehehe, thanks, but it's not impressive at all!”
“I guess it's easy when it's with the social rejects and not cool people," murmured Darumi bitterly,
Tsubasa blushed even harder. Great, she tried to avoid the undeserved praise and offended them. How to explain this mess without telling them of Ima’s involvement? “Nononono, that's not what I mean at all, I-”
“Oh, don't mind Darumi," Gako interrupted her rambling “You know how she gets, she doesn't really mean that.“ Tsubasa was doubtful. Darumi seemed pretty annoyed at the moment, and she pointedly wasn't looking at her, but Tsubasa decided not to contradict Gako, who was still talking, “You know I always wanted to do something like that.”
“Like what?”
“What you did earlier. Just come to somebody and join in on a hangout”
“She always wanted to be rude?”
“You know I never had friends before coming to LDA," Gako started to look pensive, and Tsubasa worried about any potential Kako confessions, desperately cut in with fake cheerfulness.
“Oh, but you have Ima right?” Darumi looked at her funny when she did that. Gako crossed their arms.
“Yes, I do, and I love Ima, but it's not the same. There are things I can't really open up to Ima about the way I could with a friend. And he has this whole parental attitude when it comes to me. There is this sense of authority there that really kills the whole vibe.”
Gako sighed. “Same with my foster siblings, except I'm the parental authority as the oldest. I know I complain a lot here, but I can't really do it at home. I don't want to worry anyone or make them feel guilty. Back home, I’m most open with my coworkers, and that's just cuz I can always bitch about the job with them.”
“So I always wanted to approach some friends like that and join in on their fun,” as Gako was looking at her, Tsubasa had to keep up a polite smile, but behind Gako’s back, she could see Darumi throwing her a nervous look. Yeah, that was a highly idealistic view of things. Tsubasa was extremely happy that Gako never actually tried that. She could imagine how poorly that could go with the wrong group of people, and in Tsubasa's experience, the wrong group in this case could mean your entire school population. She wondered whether that idea had come from sheltered Kako, socially awkward Gaku, or maybe it was a mix of both.
Unaware of the tension, Gako daydreamed, ”I would love to go out for coffee with somebody, get pizza, maybe try karaoke together. But now that we mentioned it, I would like to have a sleepover with somebody most of all. I almost never get to stay up late for fun reasons. It’s always chores or waiting up for Ima. It would be so cool to stay up for fun with friends.”
Tsubasa decided to speak up. “Well, if you guys want to, SLDA girls do sleepovers sometimes. Nozomi invented me, but I was too anxious to agree at the time. I’m sure if we asked, we could join their girls' sleepover no problem.”
“Meh, count me out, too lively for me” Darumi's answer was kinda expected, but Gako's reaction was not. Their face turned from extreme enthusiasm to mostly blank, with just a hint of emotion that Tsubasa couldn't quite read.
“A girls' sleepover? Why would I want to go to a girls' sleepover? I’m not a girl!” Oh, right. Whether Gako counted as a boy or a girl was discussed a bit since they showed up. There was a camp in this discussion claiming that they had to be a girl because they let Ima call them sister, but here he denied that. She decided to address it head-on.
“Oh, sorry. You let Ima call you 'sister,' so I assumed-" Gako interrupted her.
“Oh, you know how Ima is," he waved his hand with an annoyed look on his face. “You have to know which battles to pick with him. He would probably freak out if I told him I'm not a girl, so I just go along with it.”
“So you're a boy," said Tsubasa, satisfied that she had found a definitive answer.
“Yeah… wait, am I a boy?” Gako put their hands to their head and accidentally knocked Gaku's hat to the floor. While they bent over to get it, Darumi made a questioning, annoyed gesture above their back. In response, Tsubasa did a questioning, confused gesture, and Darumi followed with a whole set of gestures that Tsubasa didn't know how to interpret at all, and thankfully, Gako went back into position before she had to.
She wasn't so thankful once she took a better look at Gako's face. It had gotten really pale. There was sweat on their forehead, and their expression looked pained. They were still holding their head, their fingers now entangled in their hair. It looked like they didn't manage to get their hat from the floor.
“Gako, are you okay?” asked worried Tsubasa.
“But I'm not a boy, I can't be a boy. I can’t. Can I be a girl, then? But... but... I mustn't, I mustn't. I won't be a girl. I have to be a boy, but… but I have to be a girl… What... what..."
Shit. Is this why Darumi was annoyed at her? This was the same sort of expression Gako wore before they fainted in the infirmary.
“Hey, maybe we could do a mixed sleepover then," Tsubasa said loudly, almost yelling. Maybe if she distracted Gako, they wouldn't... they wouldn't…
“Mix-ed?” Gako asked and turned their head to Tsubasa. They had a hard time focusing their eyes on her.
“Yes, we can invite boys and girls. Wouldn't that be fun?”
“Oh… yeah, that sounds… pretty amazing…” Gako didn't look much better, but they started to smile a little. “We could ugh... organise it in the rec room so we could play games or watch movies or… or whatever we wanted.”
“Who would we invite?” asked Tsubasa.
“Ugh… not Ima. I wouldn't be able to relax with Ima there, but we could… I'm sorry, girls, I have a terrible headache. I think we need to finish for today…”
“Yeah, no shit," said Darumi. ”You should probably take a nap or something. You wanna painkillers? I have some in my room.”
“Yes, please, if you could," hearing that, Darumi shot out from the bed and out of the room. Gako closed their eyes and fell on their back. Tsubasa got up to make more space for them, and while Gako was setting up on the bed, she picked up Gaku’s hat from the floor. Once Gako was all laid up, they opened their eyes again and continued speaking.
“We could invite SLDA guys, they're cool… and my bro Takumi, of course… Hiruko is coolsexy but she is too stiff and scary, so she is out… Takemaru has an old man's sleep schedule, so I don't think he would like to… Darumi already said no-” Gako yawned ”-you can decide on Shouma. It could go either way with him.” Tsubasa nodded just as Darumi walked into the room with a glass of water and some pills.
“Here you go. I usually rawdogg them, but I didn't think you would want to” Gako rose up a little, took the pills and drank the water.
Tsubasa collected the glass from them and put it on the desk along with the hat.
“Hey Tsubasa,” Gako was barely keeping their eyes open but was still holding on.
“Yes? Do you need anything?”
“I know I usually deal with things like that, but I’m not really up to it this time... Man, I feel like crap. So could you… Ugh, could you organise that sleepover for us?”
“Sure, no problem. You rest up, and I will take care of it. We can set it for tomorrow when you feel better.”
“Thanks, dude,” and with that, Gako fell asleep.
Tsubasa left the room with Darumi. Once they were on the roof, Darumi turned to her and said. “Man, I thought you really blew it out there,” she put her finger to her face as if deep in thought. ”But it didn't turn out that bad after all, so nice work. Have fun organising your loser party!” Then Darumi awkwardly patted her on the arm and ran off before Tsubasa could react.
“Thanks, I guess…”