ghosts and gauze. -a bandaid oneshot

tsumioda

Tsumiki's internship began as an extra period for school credits. After doing it for a while though, she really started to feel it was her calling. So every Tuesday and Thursday at 5am Tsumiki was at the hospital. This Tuesday particularly was relatively slow, for her at least. She sat at her desk, reviewing a patient's insurance papers and humming along to the music playing softly in the background. It wasn't until she listened closer to the music that she ran into a forgein thought.

Who was approving this sort of music?

Tsumiki tried to push the question away, but as the music became more and more explicit, she couldn't help but let her curiosity get the better of her. She stood from the desk, following the sound of the incredibly indecent music around the floor. As she walked she wondered some more.

How had she never noticed how loud and crude this music was?

After wondering nearly the entire first floor, Tsumiki found a room that she'd never seen before; room zero. She was almost positive the music was coming from in there, thus leading her to assume it was some sort of computer room for medical data. When she pushed the door open however, her theory was madly disproven.

Room zero appeared to be exactly like all the other rooms on the first floor, however, this one was much dirtier and dustier. On a weirder note, the music completely stopped when the aspiring nurse opened the door.

If it's not from here, where is the music coming from?

"BA BOOIE!!"

"AH!" Tsumiki fell to the floor in fear. She hid her face as her eyes filled with tears. Apparently room zero wasn't quite empty.

"OH NO! IBUKI IS SORRY, SHE DIDNT MEAN TO MAKE YOU CRY!!" The resident of the room apologized. They removed a paper bag from their head to reveal their sickly pale face. As the stranger began to frantically apologize to Tsumiki, her tears quickly dried.

"N-no, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come in to your room. Sorry!" Tsumiki apologized as well, finally looking up at the other person in the room.

"Huh? No, this isn't Ibuki's room anymore." The seemingly teenage girl replied. Tsumiki didn't understand, was the other girl admitting to breaking and entering? And furthermore, was she the one blasting that terribly explicit music?

"What do you mean? Are you staying in a different room?" Tsumiki asked timidly.

"No, this is the room I've been staying in!"

"Then what do you mean this isn't your room? I-if you don't mind me asking of course!"

"Ohhhhh, Ibuki isn't staying in the hospital!" The worryingly pale girl started, "Ibuki is already dead!!"

Tsumiki felt her whole world collapse upon hearing that. The tears began to swell in her eyes again as she scooted away from paranormal being in front of her. She whimpered and she cried and she begged for her life, all the while keeping her eyes forced shut awaiting some sort of terrible death. But all she got was a tissue, and a gentle, but not unexcited, PSA.

"Here! Your makeup is running!!" The undead informed. It wasn't much, but that comment somewhat calmed Tsumiki's nerves. "Ibuki's name is Mioda Ibuki!! Who are you??"

Tsumiki stayed quiet for a second, contemplating whether or not it was safe to give out her name, but eventually she realized if this Mioda was gonna kill her, she was gonna do it whether she knew her name or not. "I'm..I'm Tsumiki Mikan."

"Wow!! Mikan is such a pretty name! Can Ibuki call you that!?"
Mioda complimented in pure honesty and excitement. Tsumiki flushed in embarrassment before nodding in agreement. Whether or not the ghost used her first name was the least of her concern. Mioda sat down in front of Tsumiki, who had previously backed herself into a corner in fear, and used the tissue to clean off the nursing student's runny makeup.

Tsumiki couldn't help but stare at the translucent girl in front of her. If it weren't for the fact that she could peer right through Mioda, she wouldn't have believed she were dead at all. As her eyes began to dry from all the tears, she was able to take note of Mioda more carefully. She had multiple piercings and multi-colored bangs, and she appeared to be wearing a hospital gown over top of her clothes. Aside from her being translucent, Mioda was visibly just a normal, 18, maybe 19, year old girl.

Tsumiki opened her mouth to ask Mioda a few questions, which could probably have imagined she had upon meeting a ghost, but something caught her eye and caused her to snap her mouth shut. Mioda had a ring of rope burn and bruises wrapped around her neck. Tsumiki didn't want to overstep any boundaries, or to pry, so she decided some more light-hearted questions would be better. "Mioda, uhm, how old are you?"

Mioda didn't hesitate a second before answering, "Ibuki is 10 plussssss 9!!"

"So you're 19?" Tsumiki confirmed in confusion.

"Yep!! How old are you!?"

"Uhm, I'll be twenty in May.."

"Huh!? May is soon though isn't it!? Happy early birthday Mikan!!!"

Tsumiki became a bit embarrassed by all the attention she was receiving. February had only just started last week, but assuming Mioda had no track of time, Tsumiki couldn't bring herself to explain that, so she just nodded in gratitude.

In all the excitement of meeting a ghost, Tsumiki had completely forgotten what she'd come in here for. "Ah, uhm, Mioda? Were you the one playing that music earlier?"

"Yeah!! Wasn't it great!? If you liked that you should come here everyday, it'll be like your own little concert!" Mioda suggested. Her magenta toned eyes were filled with untouched bliss, excited by the thought of often seeing her new friend.

"Uhm, I don't know... M-maybe if I'm not too busy?" Tsumiki suggested, unsure if all her days would be as calm as this one. Mioda looked as if she were forcing everything inside her head to manually function.

"Ibuki has an idea!! She'll just come help you when you're busy!" Mioda offered. And unsure how to respond Tsumiki agreed. The beaten up ghost girl moved Tsumiki's choppy purple bangs out of her face and, in a somewhat gentle manner, pressed her palm against the living girl's forehead.

"Thats how we'll make promises!!"
Mioda smiled retracting her hand. Tsumiki couldn't help but wonder how the girl could be translucent, but solid, or how anyone could be so incredibly cold. "Come on Mikan! Now you have to promise to me!!"

Tsumiki hesitated for a second before pushing Mioda's multi-colored bangs out of the way and planting her lips on the other's forehead instead of her palm. Tsumiki immediately pulled away and started apologizing, she didn't know what had gotten into her! It was simply as if everything inside her was begging her to kiss the girl.

"Eh!? Why are you sorry? Ibuki thinks forehead kisses are a better way to make promises!!" Mioda assured. "Anyways, wanna hear my songs!?"

Jeez, by the look of it, Tsumiki wasn't gonna last more than a day with this new friend of hers.