Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐘 : 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐋'𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐒
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
At least I know how to make one hell of an entrance.
"Surprise!"
This is the handiwork of Carla. One second he tells me to close my eyes at Banmaden, and the next I open them in the middle of supper at the Mukamis dining hall.
The clanging of a fork against a table, Yuma stopping mid chicken leg, Kou trying to rip it away from him, Azusa staring into my soul, and the slight raise of Ruki's eyebrow.
Maybe I should've called in advance.
Kou swallows. "Sayaka!" He gets up abruptly, knocking a chalice of something maroon over Azusa's lap. If he was at all wondering how I appeared in thin air, he didn't press further.
"Mmph."
He squeezes me and the scent of rosemary and cedarwood floods my senses. His blonde hair is pressed against my cheek, soft as it always was.
I temporarily forget about my situation until he freezes and I know he has found out.
"You, um—" He steps back from me, perplexed. "Feel... solid?"
"Kou do not speak of her body inappropriately."
"No, Ruki—" He tries to look around my shoulder to see what is different but I don't let him. I thought maybe I'd get a few minutes of small talk before I let them know of my imminent fate.
His right eye flashes red. "Sayaka." His tone is warning me. "Let me see. What happened to you?"
I do not even get a second to decide how to tell them before Yuma pushes me facing against the wall and lifts up my sweater, exposing my back. My cheek is squished against the wallpaper, and out of reflex, I move my hands to try and pull it down. No doubt Yuma would make an excellent addition to the police force.
Yuma grasps both of my hands in one of his palms and pins it up above me. His other hand keeps a firm hold on the hem of my sweater and I can't go anywhere. Whatever of my back that is still skin can feel the cool air and the four sets of eyes staring down on it.
"No— let me go!"
I thrash and try to move but it is futile against Yuma's strength. I am on display for them.
"What the hell happened to you?" Yuma asked, not as angry as he was confused.
I hear a chair scoot back and footsteps walking closer. I flinch as cold fingers trace an indelible line over the damage, goosebumps leaving a trail in its wake.
