controlling the marionette

Chapter Three

The third time, Mafuyu was with Ena's younger brother, Akito.

Mafuyu was visiting the Shinonome's residence, but Ena was dragged out by Mizuki unexpectedly to buy a collection of limited edition hair accessories.

"Are you sure you're okay hanging out with him?" She had asked, jabbing a finger at her orange-haired brother. Mafuyu used to have a rocky relationship with her, and although they sorted it out, things occasionally got tense between them. But Ena's distrust of her brother definitely trumped whatever they had going on.

"Hey!" Akito complained. He shot her a dirty look behind Mafuyu's back. "I'm not that bad, am I?"

Ena shot him a dirty look and directed her next words to Mafuyu. "Well, be my guest. We'll try to come back as soon as possible, for your sanity.

"Nah, we're taking our time!" Mizuki squealed. "So many ribbons and different kinds of mascara." She practically had stars in her eyes.

"Well, guess you're on your own, then. Akito, don't you dare bully her."

Akito put his hands up innocently. "I would never."

Ena and Mizuki left through the front door, with Ena sparing a cautious glance at Akito and Mafuyu before leaving. "See you in a bit."

Mafuyu stood there awkwardly. Would it be weird if she just left now and came again when Ena and Mizuki were back?

"So, you're her bandmate, right? Again, thank you for taking care of her," Akito said. "Here, come into the kitchen. I'm sure you must be starving."

"It's no problem at all. And it's alright, I ate before coming, but thank you for your offer."

"Great. The band...it's called Nightchord at 25:00, right? What's your role, if it's not too much to ask?"

"Not at all. I write the lyrics for our songs, mostly."

"That's great. I'm part of a group, as well."

"Oh, I believe I remember Ena saying something about that once. Something about the BAD DOGS?"

"That's what my singing partner and I are used to be a part of. We joined hands with another two singers, the Vivids, so now our group is named Vivid Bad Squad."

She saw the passion in his eyes, the fire that drove him to practice day after day after day, almost as if he had a goal he was working toward. She was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of bitterness but swallowed it down, like always. She smiled politely. "What a clever name."

"Thanks. Here, water."

They engaged in pointless small talk for about a quarter of an hour, before they both got tired of it and Akito said, "Is there anything you wanted to do while you were here?"

"Hm...I mostly came here to talk to Ena about something for Nightchord."

Akito hummed and said, "Maybe you'd like to go to her room? It has some stuff you might be able to do there while you're waiting."

Mafuyu, thankful for a way out of talking to Akito, nodded her head politely. "Okay, thank you." She walked into Ena's room and shut the door softly. The moment the door was safely shut, she slid down the wall and closed her eyes, relieved. She hadn't mentally prepared herself to be "Perfect Mafuyu" when she came. She was planning on being whatever she was around her Nightchord members. It was so emotionally exhausting to have to put on a polite and kind mask on when she was unprepared. 

Down the hallway, for some reason, she heard Akito sigh quietly in relief. She thought about how courteous he had been, almost mirroring her own manners. Was he...also...?

It was a foolish thought to have. She mentally reprimanded herself. Just because some people are polite doesn't mean everyone is as broken as you.

A part of her wishes they were. Because nobody understood her.

She was about to slap herself on the wrist when she saw it. The same marionette doll, twisted hair and eerie face, staring into her soul.

What the heck was it doing in Ena's room!?

Thankfully, she was already on the floor and couldn't slip to the ground.  She bit the inside of her lip and felt the taste of iron and salt on her tongue. She leaned heavily on the wall, as far away from the marionette as possible. 

Akito opened the door. "Hey, I thought you'd need your—"

Mafuyu didn't even stop to glance at him. She kept her eyes on the doll, and only the doll, because nothing else mattered, it was following her, it was pursuing her, she couldn't escape—

The room spun and there were black dots everywhere she looked. The last thing she saw was a quick blur of orange above her before she blacked out.

When she finally came to, she was alone on Ena's bed. She sat up quickly and she saw doubles of everything. A hand reached out to steady her.

She looked up. It was Ena's younger brother.

"You good? You blacked out there for a couple of minutes."

Mafuyu clenched the bed covers. Normally, she wouldn't ask this if anyone, because she couldn't risk being vulnerable in front of others—much less people she barely knew—but the marionette was the bane of her existence. She had to remove it. She had to get it away from her.

"Could you take the marionette doll over there? And...and just...move it? Somewhere else?"

"You mean that painting right over there?" Akito pointed to a canvas.

It was uncannily realistic. If Ena's younger brother hadn't pointed it out to her, she wouldn't have noticed. It was like Ena had used a camera to snap a photo and pasted it on the canvas, but Mafuyu knew better. Why had Ena painted the marionette?

"Um...you still with me?"

"What? Oh, yeah. That one. Please move it."

Akito stared at her strangely and then picked up the canvas, disappearing into the hallway. He came back a few minutes later. "Um...is there anything wrong with it? Or is it just...too realistic for you?"

"It's—it's—" Mafuyu searched desperately for an excuse. Eventually she settled on a half-truth. "It doesn't make me feel very well."

"Okay, got it..." Mafuyu thought she saw something in his eyes. The absence of light in them in that moment...strangely, it reminded her of her own despondent look.

Mafuyu must have been staring, because Akito looked away. "You know...even if I take the painting away, it won't change anything."

"What?"

"It's not fixing the problem, I mean. The reason you feel sick when you look at it or whatever."

Mafuyu stayed silent and mentally thought over what he said. Every instinct in her body was telling her to run away and never look back, but he was right. Nothing was going to be fixed if she blocked it completely from her life. Even just from seeing the marionette a few times, she was finally able to feel fear, which she hadn't since she was a tiny child. It was an improvement. She did not fear death in the slightest, but the marionette was another story.

Akito looked up at the ceiling and looked like he wanted to gag and turn red at the same time. "I'm preaching, aren't I. Dang, if only Touya was here to see this." He looked at Mafuyu one last time and said, "Hopefully you sort things out."

He shut the door on his way out.

She mulled over his words. Should she constantly go looking for marionettes so she could hurl her lunch contents? 

Maybe it was a good idea, actually. If she did that and also listened to Kanade's songs...wouldn't it be like breaking and piecing back a vase together again? Maybe she'd turn out more resilient by the end of it.

Or maybe, she would come back more fragile than ever. Or more broken than ever before. Because even the vase that is patched up multiple times eventually must be thrown in the trash.

Only time would tell.