Six years had passed since that fateful day. Daisuke had lived alone in the sewers since then, chewing on scraps of food that floated down the river of sludge, and drinking rainwater that trickled down from the grates above. She had grown thin and pale, almost paper white. Her black hair was matted to her scalp, and all she had for clothes was the scrapped remains of the outfit she wore when she first came down there.
Despite having had no human interaction since then, she tried to stay sane by reading magazines and books, trying to keep up on the trends up above. She wished deeply to get back into civilization, but for one thing, she had no clue how to get out of the sewers. And another, she was terrified of being seen by someone in the state she was in. Despite how feral she looked, she still cared deeply about her looks despite the circumstances.
At the moment, she was standing above the grate she had fallen down all those years ago, hoping that maybe some kind of food would fall from it. She was positively starving. But luck wasn't on her side today, it seemed. She stood there for ages, but not a single morsel fell to her. Defeated, she trudged back to her makeshift hammock she slept and relaxed in, climbing into it and leaning over to her pile of magazines to pick one out to distract herself from the gnawing hunger she felt.
Waving her hand without looking, it took her a moment to notice they were all gone. She did a double take, looking down at the ground and seeing the whole pile she had made over the years had disappeared. She gasped, falling out of her hammock but quickly getting back on her feet to start looking. Those were the only thing keeping her from dying of boredom, she couldn't lose them! She looked around everywhere that she usually sat, but didn't find a thing. Once again, she went to go lay back in her hammock, completely disappointed. But someone had taken her spot, as she saw a silhouette resting right in it.
“Huh?” Her voice was hoarse from the lack of talking for so long. “Who's there? Why are you in my hammock?” She asked as she walked a little closer.
The person stirred, lifting their head to look over at her. He bent his arms behind his head, yawning. “Hmmm? I was tired, I wanted to sleep somewhere. What's wrong with that?”
Daisuke hesitantly walked closer. Another person down here? She'd finally have someone to talk to! What a blessing! “Nothing, I guess. Who are you?”
The person bent his head out of the shadows, revealing a patchwork face with mismatched eyes and grey-blue hair. “Me? Who are you?” He giggled quietly.
“I’m… Daisuke. I'm twelve years old.”
“Daisuke… Okay. I’m Mahito.” He waved to her girlishly. “I'm surprised there's someone else down here, I was gonna make this place my house!”
“You can stay, I need a friend. Even if it is a funny-looking grown up.”
“Grown-up?” He laughed again, sitting all the way up in Daisuke's hammock. “I'm much cooler than one of those. Want to see what I can do?”
“Um, sure.”
He hopped onto his feet, padding across the room with fuzzy rabbit paws and legs like that of a digitigrade, that had replaced his original lower half. Daisuke immediately felt unsettled upon seeing this. What was up with this guy?
“Cool, right?” He grabbed one of his fluffy ankles to lift his leg above his head.
Daisuke shook her head. “No, no… Make it go away.”
Mahito pouted, but switched back as she had asked. He walked up to her and ruffled her hair. “I have those magazines and books of yours, they're so interesting. The outfits in them are so cute, I made some based on them!”
