Cycle // Giyushino

A Puzzling Situation

UHHH...

"What the heck?", Shinobu said, breaking both her and Tomioka's thoughts. They were for sure confident that no one would ever move the body because, well, it's disgusting? No matter how hard they squint their eyes or how hard they rubbed their eyes, the body just disappeared. Wait... there's no blood too?

Shinobu then fumed, "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING IN HERE?" She kept repeating it all over, again, and again. Tomioka just stood there like an idiot. "How is this even possible?", Tomioka thought to himself.

---

Tomioka's POV:

While strategizing on what to do, I keep getting distracted by my partner. I whispered to myself, "She has a flaming aura. Not a good or bad thing but it's just weird seeing her like this. She's usually very collective and calm... What's gotten into her?" I then said out loud, for the little insect to hear, "Kocho-san, let's not get crazy. Let's collaborate on what we know so far." Kocho then looked at me with a disgusted expression. She then shouted, "HOW CAN WE IF WE HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?"

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Kocho's POV:

I am utterly infuriated. Things like this don't happen. This situation isn't some kind of mind trick, isn't it? Of course, I am not mad at Tomioka-san, but this is just ughh. I just stood there for a straight minute, collecting all my thoughts together. Oh, shi- wait. Why am I acting like this? What in the world am I doing? Repeating myself in the middle of the streets, in the center of the town. Right, the people must think I'm crazy... wait, people? As I glanced around, no one was around with the exception of Tomioka. I then proceeded to look up to the sky to determine the time with my hands (I'm not really sure how ppl do it). It was 2 pm in the afternoon. Why isn't there anyone here walking around? Not a single insight.

"Are you done?", Tomioka-san asked. I then nodded and strolled to him. I then said, "Tomioka-san, have you seen anyone walking by?" He then looked at me and shook his head. "I swear if he makes me do all the talking, I will- Kocho, calm down. Let's deal with this first and then think about how annoying this water klutz can be.", I said to myself. I then fixed my posture and breathed again. "Okay, it is now 2 pm in the afternoon, which is really absurd since no one's here. We are in the middle of a town...exactly, in the middle of streets with no noise at all. Don't you think that's weird?", I asked Tomioka.

He then replied, "Of course it is weird. It's not the only thing that is. We came to Dragon's Den (the restaurant) around 6 in the evening to comfort Aiko-san." We were there for about 20 minutes and now it's 2 pm?" I was shocked by his response. Not gonna lie, I completely forgot about it. "Let me see your hand Kocho-san.", he coolly said. I looked at him with a "the heck'' face.

"Why?" I said. He stared at me with his blue ocean eyes and grabbed my wrist. I tried to pull back but his grip was too strong. As he pulled me closer to
him, I just froze there. What the heck is this. He then observed my hands. I looked at him. He had nice, dark blue eyes, a gentle face, and- someone please kill Tomioka-san.

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Tomioka's POV:

"I hope she doesn't kill me," I thought to myself before grabbing her wrist. I tried to be gentle as possible but this insect kept moving so I had to put more force but at the same time, making sure I didn't hurt her. I looked at her hands. It looked smooth and rough. I tried not to make eye contact with Shinobu's eyes or else, it might pierce my soul. Never mind about that. I was correct. I quickly released my grip on her wrist and before she could even react, I interrupted her. "Do you remember cutting yourself with the teacup?", I asked.

Her eyes then shot wide open. It was as if she unlocked an idea or thought, which she did. "Yes, I did. It was 2 minutes before we left the house.", she responded. She then looked at her hand.

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Shinobu's POV:

It's not bleeding anymore? The teacup I "broke" gave me a big scratch on my dominant hand. It was bleeding. Like fast. That was one of the reasons why we left the house. That might have sounded stupid but I had my reasons. I needed alcohol to wipe on my hand so I won't get an infection from it. Sadly, Aiko-san didn't have any medic supplies so I had no choice but to leave and get it treated as fast as possible. I remembered there was a pharmacy next to the restaurant. I didn't want to leave Aiko-san yet so I just stayed there. After all, she needed comfort unlike me. This scratch is nothing compared to my other injuries. But now. It's healed. Kind of healed? I don't know but something isn't right here.