Paper Shredder

She had to get out of here, she wasn’t safe in here with that… that monster! Weak legs slowly started to stand up again, her tiny frame shaking more than ever before. Her eyes opened slowly, she didn’t want to see her, just thinking about it made her want to die. Her eyes were still unused to the darkness, but it didn’t seem like she was somewhere near yet at least. Her head turned to the window, where the moon light found its way inside the library. Careful steps slowly taking her over there.

As she stepped into the light, she instantly felt at least a little bit calmer. Sure,the panic of being in the same room as her was still there, but at least it wasn’t unbearably dark anymore. She climbed up, keeping her hands on her ears meanwhile.

“You’re trying to block me out?! Touko!!! You know I hate that! Surely you know I hate being ignored; I thought I told you that before; that’s a big part of my character!!! You keep saying you were the one who made me so you should at least know that!!!“

Syo acted nonchalant, but the sight of Fukawa trying so desperately to block out the sound of her voice stirred something hateful inside her. She paused in front of the beam of moonlight, unsure if the author could see her or not. 

That voice… It couldn’t be her, right? She was supposed to be sealed inside her, only awake when she was asleep. But she could her voice so crystal clear, there’s no way it was just an hallucination, right? 

She couldn’t handle this- Big tears started to run down her pale cheeks, as slender figners pulled on her hair. And as she curled into a ball, it was like the darkness around her only turned bigger. 

“Stop- stopstopstopSTOP!!!”

She screamed out, trying her best to cover her ears to block out the sound. It was definitely her. No one else would ever know about those things, and only her would be so cruel to talk about them like that! 

“RUDE!!!! You’re so RUDE, Gloomy!!! This is why nobody likes you! I pop up and try to keep you company and this is the thanks I get!? I haven’t even said anything naughty yet!!! What if I just wanna talk for a while?! You’re down for a little chit-chat, arentcha?!”

Syo rocked forwards as her eyes slowly adjusted to the dim lighting. She could see the faint outline of the desk, the girl - her body, curled up, it looked like - but she still didn’t want to get up yet. She didn’t really wanna trip over any piles of books and ruin the mystery, for one, and she also didn’t want to cut the buildup short. 

Touko had barely noticed the sun going down, and the moonlight starting to peek through the curtains of the library. Completely lost in her own world while writing the newest chapter of her new novel. She had a flow for several hours, and finally managed to lean back and relax. Which was probably a mistake- As she leaned back the lamp on the desk fell to the floor, a crack could be heard and suddenly, her surroundings were almost pitch black, Sadly, the moonlight wasn’t much help this time.

“H-HII-”

Terrified of the darkness, she suddenly stood up from her seat, her breath going much faster than usual. In panic, she tried clicking the button of the lamp several times, but it was in vain. 

“No- No no no nononononono….”

She heard a door close, and immediately looked up. Was this how she would die!? She didn’t want to believe in ghosts, but when it was this dark she couldn’t help but be scared of the paranormal. 

“Toukooooo!!~ You should really pay more attention to your surroundings!!! If you get jumped in a scary place like this, that puts me in danger too, right?! What if I’m too slow to wake up and you die!? That’s not real fair to me, is it!?”

Though the darkness was almost void-like in the black library, moonlight was still streaming in through the window - Syo still had a light source to work with. It would probably just take her eyes a few minutes to adjust.

“Who’s there?! Shouldn’t you know already!? It’s me!!! Your old pal!! Oh, at least I think it’s me! Maybe you’re just hallucinating my voice, hmm?? Maybe you’ve snapped?? That’s kinda pathetic from just a few seconds of being in the dark!! I thought you were able to take more than that! Remember that one time in the closet!?? That was days!!!”

Togami absolutely detested going to the school cafeteria whenever Shiori wasn’t around, but sometimes there was no avoiding it. Shiori was out on a case. Emiko was in Sweden working on some kind of bizarre movie involving sea monsters, and Natsuko was in Paris for her favorite annual fashion show. How could he be the only one left? He, the international businessman who was wealthier than all of them combined, was stuck at a cafeteria table all alone in the middle of high school, all because he wanted to follow his same routine as if it didn’t bother him. The worst part was that he wouldn’t even have minded it being Natsuko across the table, as long as he didn’t have to sit by himself in the middle of a mob. 

What a perfect opportunity!!! She was awake in school but not in class!? 

Somethin’ must have really hit Gloomy hard in the bathrooms, because when she first woke up she was face-down in a lunch in one of the stalls (which is so cliche!!! Touko!!! At least go to the roof or something so you can pretend to be cool!!!), but honestly with this outcome she would be happy to wake up face-first in her lunch for the next decade if it let her into a sweet spot like this!!! Seriously!!! A whole new school full of fresh, interesting, possibly-doable faces -

Plus one particular blonde... hmm!!! 

Syo strode up to him from behind, hands behind her back, as she peered closer into his bento. Oh!!!!! OH!!!!!! SHE WAS RIGHT!!

“A NOTE!!!”

She leaned precariously over the boy, head just above his shoulder as she talked into his ear. 

“Ohhh, who is that from?? Your mom??? Does your mom still make lunches for you in highschool? How does she even do that? We’ve got dorms here, right??”

Syo swung her leg around a chair and took a seat next to the boy, leaning her head on her hand. 

Gathering up her things, Byakuren escaped the curious eyes of her classmates and slipped out the door, making sure to close it quietly; thinking back to what she had heard before the ruckus had begun she headed towards the nurse’s office–only to find it completely empty. Thin lips pursed into a frown, and after careful consideration she decided to check the library; after all, she wasn’t going to go anywhere near that roach’s disgusting room, and more often than not she knew that made her permanent residence among the countless books and silence. Thankfully enough, her hunch was correct to a degree, and she found her sitting in the hallway leading up to the library, her nose in a book–of manga? Brows furrowing, she walked up to her and crossed her arms against her chest, tilting her head in curiosity and annoyance; another sigh slid from her mouth, and all she could do for a moment was stare. Why did she always have to put up with the most insufferable of people?

GEHEHEHH!! And something about being out here in the middle of the hallway, in public just made it so much more... hmm!! What was the word!? Scandalous!?!

But the sharp, purposeful footsteps resounding down the hallway told her she wasn’t going to be able to keep caressing her pages in peace for much longer. 

“Hooohh, Togami-sannn!! I can’t believe it! I can’t believe you’re still on my case even after I escaped!! ”

“Well!!! At least nobody else is in the hallway, right!? Just us?”

Syo casually let her manga flop down between her legs, graphic pages open for anyone to see. 

“Between you and me, I’m pretty sure the only insane thing here was the way you can sit in that godawful classroom for more than 10 minutes without your brain melting outta your ears!!!

But more than that!! It meant she’d have to switch tactics! Going to the bathroom would just prolong the inevitable work, right!? Togami would know where to find her, then! So she couldn’t do that!!! 

A better, more “permanent” idea would be... hmm~!

Syo leaned back in her chair, eyeing the heiress through her chilling stare, and drew her tongue back into her mouth. 

“I d-don’t think the bathroom will... help... at this point... ugh~”

“I think... I n-need to go to the nurse’s office!!! Sorry!!!~”

The Genocider jumped up and grabbed Touko’s bag, not even bothering to take the worksheet, and quickly hurried out of the room, trying her best to ignore the (delicious!) stares of the rest of her classmates. 

Togami could probably handle that shit on her own, anyway!!! It didn’t really seem that hard for a smart girl like her! 

As soon as she crossed the threshold and heard the door slam, Syo breathed a sigh of relief. letting her tongue fall out again. It wasn’t often that she had to deal with pretending to be Touko, but when she did it was... exasperating, to say the least. 

Now... where to go from here? Not her own room; she was cooped up in there far too often for her liking. No... 

“OH!!!~”

Like, sure, she was technically pretty good at English due to Touko’s grasp on the subject, but that didn’t mean she was good at actually applying it. 

“Hey, listen... T-togami-san...”

She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, hunching forwards over her desk, much closer to the heiress.

“We both know we’re probably the best in the c-class at English, right? Why are we doing this?? ...One little hitch in our grades isn’t gonna kill us, right? I bet you get 100′s on everything else in here!!! Plus, I know you must hate working with someone like meee, right?”

Her tongue snaked out to its full length - it was pretty much impossible to keep it in her mouth past a sentence or two. 

A nervous laughter escaped her lips. 

“If you’re looking f-for love… You’ve really gotten the wrong person. Even if I’ve got th-…three parents, I don’t get any more love- I-… I probably get much less! TH-They hate me!! E-Everyone does!!”

She crawled backwards slightly, trying to get away slightly from the other. Her heart once again beating harder in her chest.

“Hmmm!? No way!!! No way no way!! You must be doing something wrong, then! Parents are, like, love machines, right!?”

She worked her hands up to the bend of Touko’s neck, insistent.

“But if you think there’s not enough to go around, we can always make up the difference in other ways!~”

Her fingernails stroked lightly down flesh, teasing, as she drew closer, pressing her forehead up against her mimic’s. 

In the back of her mind she could tell that something was a bit off, though she wasn’t quite sure what it could be; she never paid close attention in the first place but the girl was still as fidgety as she usually was, though it almost appeared as though she was struggling to keep something inside her mouth, the way her lips parted and immediately closed again, cheeks bubbling up with air and–was that her tongue? Shaking her head curtly she turned back to her notes and tried to brush the suspicion that began to creep up her neck off, focusing on the assignment they had been given. Though she didn’t need her notebook, she placed it on her lap and kept a pen in her hands as she turned around once more, just to keep herself busy so she wouldn’t risk turning to her usual habit of clenching her fists; as tempting as it was to ask the teacher if she could be partnered with someone else she was much too stubborn to give up now, even if her gaze was fierce enough to burn a hole right through the thin, nervous author in front of her. As she spoke, her voice was just as chilling, hoping that it would help things along and make her life a bit easier…

Oh? Was the Togami girl inspecting her, too? She knew that was probably a bad thing, but inside she only really felt giddy.

“Ah...!!! Right!~”

“...Work...!”

...Work? Syo peered up at the blackboard and back again to their papers.

Gah!!! What is this!? 

The worksheet itself was, like, three pages long!!! Why couldn’t Touko do this!? Why was she even awake!? Was the drudgery finally starting to get to Gloomy, too, or had somebody looked at her funny and made her faint out of shock!?

“A-Ah-”

Her eyes finally popped open, wide with both surprise and fear. Why… on earth would she want to do that?

“Wh-…Why would you want to be… me?” It really was confusing. No one would want to be her, not even Touko would want to be herself. She was terrible, disgusting, one that everyone looked down upon… Still, this girl wanted to take her place for a while. Though, she would be okay with it, it felt like there was more to the deal than was being told so far.

Syo held Touko’s gaze, coaxing her to keep her eyes focused. Her tongue flickered on her lips playfully.

“You? You really wanna know?? It feels like you already want it, though!!! I can see that longing in your eyes!~ Why do you need more info if you’re already OK with it!?”

Mostly she was just trying to get Touko to agree. 

“But if you really wanna know more, I can spill! See, things like me, we need a lotta energy to survive! And each of us has our preferences!! 

So, while I was sniffing out new people, I just happened to come across you, and you just kinda felt like my type, y’know? But then, after digging a little more, I almost couldn’t believe what I found!!! Three parents!!! That’s one more parent than most people!!! That means you must have a lotta love directed your way, right?? 

Just a few seconds later, she appeared. Touko stared at the other girl, eyes wide open as she watched her move and speak. She… looked just like her! Just a few years older- Like she could be her older sister, or something… The only difference being the long tongue, and the crimson eyes. She looked around, searching for an answer. But of course she couldn’t find anything that she could actually force out of her dry lips. 

Instead, she just stared, waiting for something to happen. Like waking up… or something. Perhaps this was just a bad dream? That’s what it looked like for at the moment… A nightmare. She even tried to pinch her arm, but no… She was still here. She turned her eyes to the floor, she didn’t want to look at the strangely familiar figure. 

“You look exactly like a frog in headlights so lemme get you all caught-up and then we can dance!!!”

Syo stepped out from the doorframe and sauntered up to Touko, mostly just to get a better look at her, under the guise of continuing the conversation.

“See, my name used to be Syo! But now it’s Touko! Like yours! I know, I know, I kinda have to revise myself a little bit before we’re all perfect, but we’re gonna have loads of time to do that!!

ANYWAYS!!”

She leaned forwards, further, further, bending over the girl as she talked, before finally slinking her way onto her lap, fingers wandering down her shoulders.

Touko had always had trouble with fainting, she supposed it had something to do with to low blood sugar- or something. She didn’t really care… At least it was a good excuse to skip school. After a quick visit at the nurse office, she was able to go home and forget about all the troubles with classmates and classes. 

Though, the house was kind of scary when it was this empty. Gray, empty wall suddenly felt much larger, the room much bigger… She felt so small while her parents were working and everything was so quiet. No one was here to fight and yell… She was unsure if it was a good thing or not.

Taking her shoes off in the hall, she entered the silence and took a seat on the couch. Leaning back and taking a big breath. She was only able to relax for a second though, then she heard a noise that made every muscle in her body tense up. There was no one home, was it-!!? She was sure she could hear foot steps though!! She could hear her heart beating in her chest, feel the sweat running down her back. Oh god- was it a robber?! She sat up, looking around the room.

A slightly-annoyed trill resonated from the kitchen, a cascade of metal clanks immediately following the sound. 

Seriously!! Who the hell organizes their kitchen like this!? Do these people ever even USE this place!? No? No?

“It’s really not that haaa-aard to - OH!!!” 

Syo paused, the floor still littered with various pots and pans, as a faint voice called out from the other room. 

The owner?!!? Maybe!? 

To the best of her knowledge, the occupant of this house - at least, the one she was interested in - didn’t have any siblings, so unless one of her parents was gifted with an exceptionally youthful voice... 

“Awwhh, man!!! You ruined my surprise!!! I had a whole thing set up, uhh...T... To... Temari?? Goddamn your name is kinda boring, you know that!? It’s really hard getting it to stick in my head!!!”

Carelessly kicking a pot out of her way (and watching it crumple upon contact with the corner of the fridge), Syo made her way out to the kitchen doorway and peeked into the room Touko was in.

“Hey, though, we can still make amends, right!? I mean, this might even be BETTER than what I had planned!!! Your parents aren’t even HERE - AH! Whoops!!!”

She flashed (what she thought to be) a good-natured smile upon finally locking eyes with the owner of the house.

I already told you how old I am! I’m 7 years old that is like… over 100 days! So I must be the one being haunted. But you’re not scary, right? You don’t sound very scary, but I’m gonna give you a cool name… How about Syo? It super cool and boyish… If that’s what you want. Otherwise I can come up with something else. 

If my parents told me theyre your parents then the twin theory is probably true! Maybe something scary happened when we were born, and we got merged into the same body… Like in a scary movie, or something. 

Maybe we have to find your body? Then maybe you can return to it…

WHAT!? Really!? I thought you were making that up!!! You’re really seven YEARS old?! How do you stay alive for seven years and not get bored!? You must be really good at finding stuff to do!!!

SYO IS GREAT!!!! It’s short and punchy!! I like it!!!! It sounds red! Like a red name! You know?? 

AH! You mean like... like you ate me before we were born?? And now I’m inside you?? Like that?? But then where would my body be!? 

I think we’d have to make a  new body in that case!! But I know where the graveyard is! We can get parts from there! The only problem is getting me into it! I dunno how to move around! 

Or maybe I can get into somebody else so we can talk! Like one of the parents! Next time I see one I’ll grab ‘em and try really hard to move into them instead OK??

Love love love, 

I’m the original one. I was the one that got the name Touko, so it should stay with me! I don’t want you to steal it and make people forget about me! People barely know me now, I don’t want to make things more difficult. Please, please let me have my name… I’ll do anything… 

I don’t think I’m haunting you, you must be haunting me! Maybe that’s why they call you demon? I could come up with a nicer name for you though… 

Or…

Maybe if they your parents too, we’re like siblings, or something? Since you seem to wake up when I fall asleep… Are you sharing my body? I’ve never heard of siblings sharing a body, but it doesn’t seem impossible…

You sound cute!!! I feel a little bad for you! Since I’m so nice I’ll let you have it ok?? That means you have to give me a better one, though! A cool one! 

I told you I can’t be possessing you because I don’t remember dying! Unless I’m a demon? Those don’t die, right?

How about you tell me how long you’ve been around and I tell you how long I’ve been around and then whoever’s been here longest can say they’re the one who is being haunted!

I’m 12 days and... 4... and a half hours old! Beat that!!! 

They’re my parents because they said they were my parents! Maybe they adopted me as a demon and let me stay in your body and also made me lose all my memories! That’s kind of weird isn’t it?? Our parents are weird!!

Sisters?? You mean like twins but inside instead of outside? Maybe! How did I get here, though?? I kinda want to get my own body! This isn’t really fair!