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Yumeno was hiding from the Ultimate Artist. It had taken Miu a while to come to this conclusion. After that first time the adventurer had come by to fall asleep, she'd made a habit of it. Miu didn't think it was anything too special, at first. After all, Saihara had made return visits since that first time that Ouma dragged him in and nothing weird had come of that.
That was before Yumeno had come in one day, slumped on the bench beside her, and said a weary, "I'm tired."
Yumeno had been added to the list of people she felt comfortable being herself around, along with Ouma and Saihara, so she said, "Of course you are, Tiny Tits. You're always running around this damn place looking for stupid places to sleep."
"Nyeh, that's not what I mean." The girl slumped over even further, until her head was on Miu's arm. Miu couldn't hold in the sound that she made, something between a squeak and a whimper, even as her body completely froze up. Then the girl kept falling still, until her head was fully in Miu's lap and the sound she made was more like a moan. "Don't get so worked up," Yumeno grumbled.
Miu's face was as red as Yumeno's hair. She was grateful that the girl wasn't looking at her. "I-I can't h-help it," she whimpered. "I'm not used to people touching me like this."
Yumeno opened her eyes, her sleepy gaze meeting Miu's more flustered one. "That's not healthy, Iruma."
"You think it was a choice?" she yelled.
Yumeno closed her eyes again without saying anything though, so Miu took the chance to calm down. "What did you mean, then? What's got you so tired."
"No one respects me," she answered quietly.
"Huh?" Miu had no idea what that was supposed to mean. She spent all her time locked up in her lab, so if anyone was bullying Yumeno she wouldn't know anything about it. Wouldn't be able to do anything about it either. As soon as she felt everyone's eyes on her she would clam up. Miu couldn't defend herself, let alone anyone else.
"When everyone looks at me all they see is someone sleepy and small," Yumeno confessed. "They don't think that I can do anything. Akamatsu's always telling me to be careful and Chabashira's always saying that she'll protect me. But I don't need to be protected! I don't want to be careful! I'm an adventurer. I want to explore and go dangerous places and they don't get that."
Miu began pressing keys at random, just to have something to do with her hands. She didn't want to play a full song and make Yumeno think she wasn't listening to her or put her to asleep before she was ready. Miu wasn't good at this stuff though. She didn't know anything about having friends. Not beyond playing outside and laughing together, anyway. The time to figure those things out had been stolen from her.
"Why don't you just tell me to leave you alone?" she asked.
"Whenever I do, they end up looking so hurt that I have to apologize, and then everything is about them instead of me. Akamatsu means well, but she's such a worry wort. And a busybody. And a--"
"Wow," Miu interrupted suddenly. "You must really dislike Shittymatsu."
Yumeno sighed. "No, I don't dislike her. I like her a lot, actually. She's just more fun when she's with Ouma. That's the only time she's too distracted to be in everyone else's business."
Miu had never been all that curious about what her classmates did without her, ignoring her resentment that they liked each other and not her, that is. Now, though, now she was curious about Ouma. What did he get up to out there? She assumed that he just hung out with Saihara, since Ouma had dragged him here and he was all Saihara talked about most days. But... Akamatsu was in the mix now?
"She and Ouma hang out?" Miu wondered if her voice sounded normal when she asked that. Was it bad to ask about what your friends did when they weren't with you?
"Ouma hangs out with everyone," Yumeno answered.
Oh. She guessed that made sense. He'd even gone out of his way to hang out with her, after all.
She brought her attention back to Yumeno, who'd made herself comfortable on Miu's lap. It was weird. Really weird. Miu didn't know what she should do with her hands or if she was allowed to touch Yumeno back? Maybe it was a one way street? She'd never tried to touch Ouma when he leaned against her, so she hadn't tried to figure out what the rules were. She really didn't want to get it wrong. Her fingers went back to playing random keys.
"I thought you liked being drawn by that art freak," Miu said.
Yumeno shrugged. "I don't mind it sometimes, but she's always following me around. She draws me when I'm sleeping, too, and when I'm eating. It's... " Yumeno struggled to find the word before just giving up and saying, "It's a lot."
Miu nodded. She couldn't relate at all.
"There aren't a lot of places to hide in here," Miu told her.
"Yeah," Yumeno agreed. She sat up suddenly, startling Miu into slamming down on the keys. Luckily they weren't bad notes together, but it was a drastic change in volume. "Hey, Iruma. Come on an adventure with me!"
"What?"
Yumeno smiled as she jumped to her feet, pulling on Miu's sleeve. "You can hide with me."
"But I won't be able to play for you out there," Miu said. She couldn't imagine what use Yumeno would have for her without the piano.
The girl's smile dropped for a moment, but only a moment. "Don't worry about that, Iruma. I'm not trying to take the piano on an adventure, just you!"
Miu felt her heart beat faster in her chest. "R-really?"
Yumeno nodded, pulling Miu off the bench and toward the door. "It'll be fun."
Maybe... maybe it would be.
Miu didn't understand any of her friends. She didn't understand Ouma, who had come to her when she was at her breaking point and pulled her away from the edge, who made jokes the same way she did and understood her humor, who pulled people into her world so that she wasn't alone even when he wasn't there.
She didn't understand Saihara, who never looked anyone in the eye and could talk nonstop right up until he was actually talking to another person.
And she didn't understand Yumeno, who loved to travel and explore, but always looked two minutes from falling asleep, who could be boisterous and dramatic except when it came to her feelings, who both loved and resented the people she considered her friends. She was starting to, though. Understand that is.
They had been found by Chabashira several times now and while being painted was fun the first couple times, it quickly began to make her nervous. The Ultimate Artist watched them with so much intensity it felt like she was being stripped bare. When Miu made a joke about this, trying to find humor in a situation that made her uncomfortable, trying to make it into something that Miu understood, Chabashira snapped at her. The glare that came with it guaranteed that Miu kept her mouth closed whenever the artist was around and Miu started to understand why Yumeno might not want to voice her feelings to the girl.
Yumeno found more and more reasons to pull Miu around the school. It felt like playing a giant game of hide and seek with her classmates, though in reality Miu thought that they were just hiding from the Ultimate Artist.
It wasn't bad though. While Miu played the piano when they were in her lab, Yumeno told stories as they wandered around the school. Stories about weird places that she'd found to take naps, times when she'd woken up in time to snap a picture of a rare bird or catch a particularly beautiful sunset. Stories of getting caught in a rainstorm while she was caught in a tree and being afraid that she'd get hit by lightning or going into a cave too close to low tide.
The Yumeno in these stories was reckless and impulsive. She walked toward danger and laughed at her own misfortune. She kept her emotions close to her heart because she didn't think she was good at talking to others and because she never felt like anyone was ever listening to her anyway. It wasn't a different person to the one that slept any and every where she could and always looked a little too tired, just another side to her. A side that none of her classmates seemed to really know.
Saihara made her a portable piano that folded into a backpack and Yumeno started carrying it around whenever she wanted Miu to play for her. Amami made them a picnic and Yumeno took her up to the roof so they could enjoy it. They found a vantage to watch their classmates without being seen. Miu got used to Yumeno taking her hand to lead her places or sleeping against her. She slumped against her shoulder or rested her head in Miu's lap, and Miu slowly got comfortable enough to touch Yumeno in turn without having to wonder whether or not she was allowed.
They hid out in Ouma's lab with Gokuhara and Yonaga finger painting, and Ouma telling them a story that he made up on the spot. Yumeno fell asleep in her lap again and Miu gently tapped her fingers against Yumeno's stomach like she was playing piano keys.
"Atua says the two of you have become really close," Yonaga said. "Angie is really happy for you both."
Miu blushed, keeping her head down as she replied, "She's... a friend."
"Oh?" Ouma questioned. "Is that all she is?"
"Sh-shut it, you stupid gremlin!" Even when Miu yelled really loudly, Yumeno never got mad. Even if Miu woke her up she would just keep her eyes closed and snuggle closer to her until she fell back asleep. Miu didn't think she'd ever felt so comfortable around another person.
"Gonta think it nice. Miu look really happy now," Gokuhara said.
"I... think I am," Miu answered. "I'm happy."
Ouma came over to her and sat behind her, pressing his back to hers. The touch was pleasant, comforting. Ouma was another person that Miu thought she had permission to touch, so she placed her hand on top of his. He flipped it over so that he could squeeze her fingers, making her smile.
"You deserve it, Iruma. You deserve to be happy."
Miu felt the words all the way down to her bones. She deserved happiness. Ouma said so. And she wanted it. She wanted to be happy. She had friends that understood her and people that enjoyed talking to her.
Miu felt a laugh break free of her throat even as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. She wished that Yumeno had brought the piano with them so that she could play the songs in her head, the ones that reminded her of her friends and being happy and Yumeno in particular. "Yeah," she said softly, choking on her laughter and tears both. "I do. I... deserve it."
Miu wasn't good at talking to her classmates. Mostly because she was sure that they hated her, but also because she'd never learned how to handle anything other than a piano. She was getting better though. Ever since Ouma, since Yumeno, she had gotten better at it. Better at making her jokes without cringing when no one responded right. Better at ignoring when people stared at her and not worrying that they were talking about her behind her back.
Maybe they were, but Miu didn't care about it as much if they did. That was why she was able to get the courage to talk to one of her classmates on her own.
"Hey Momota," she called out. The robot was with Akamatsu and Idabashi, and Miu shrank back a little when all three looked at her at once. Just for a moment though before she puffed out her chest and continued. "I need a favor."
Momota excused himself from his friends and jogged to her side. "Sure thing! The all purpose, extraordinary, Ultimate Robot is at your disposal! What do you need?"
Miu would have teased him if she wasn't about to ask a favor. Ouma did it for her.
"If you're so all purpose, do you have a dick?" Ouma questioned from the other side of the dinning hall.
Momota was riled up immediately. He turned to face Ouma, pointing as he yelled, "Don't stick your nose into other people's conversations! It's rude!"
"You know what else is rude?" Ouma asked in a teasing voice. "Ignoring the question. Answer or die, Momota!"
"D-die?"
"Such threats are inappropriate Ouma!" Idabashi jumped in. He was shaking a fist at Ouma, though Miu wasn't sure if it was meant to get his attention or be a threat of some sort.
"Say, Idabashi... you're pretty close to Momota, right?" Ouma's eyes were sparkling as he approached the astronaut. He bounced on his heels as he continued. "So do you know? Do you? Does he have a dick or not?"
Idabashi recoiled, more and more as Ouma closed the distance between them. "E-even if I did, it would be rude to share that without permission."
That was the wrong answer, if the way that Ouma's eye lit up were any indication. "You know! Don't you? Don't you? Oh, are you two fu--"
"Ouma! You'll embarrass them!" Akamatsu interrupted. She was holding her hands up as if she thought she could physically stop the words from traveling from Ouma to his target. As the Ultimate Magician, maybe she thought she could.
"No way! Did my Aka Aka Matsu know about this and keep it a secret?" Ouma faked a stern look at her.
Miu laughed out loud at that. "Looks like Momota was a sexbot after all."
"No wonder Saihara keeps refusing to give Momota the updates he ask for," Ouma said. He gave them both a stern look. "Don't involve Saihara in your weird robot kinks."
Momota rubbed the back of his head as he looked at Miu. "You didn't call me over here for just that, did you?"
Miu let Ouma and Idabashi's arguing fade into the background. "No, I had an actual favor to ask you. If that's alright?"
The smile was back on his face almost immediately. "How can I help?"
"Do you... have a recording function?" she asked.
"You mean like pictures or..."
"Sound." She tried not to fidget nervously.
"Yeah, I have a sound recorder. What do you need it for?" he asked.
"I... I want to record a song!"
He gave her a thumbs up. "I'd be glad to help you out. Just say the word."
Miu felt more relieved than she thought she would. Funny how, even though she'd built up the courage to ask, she'd still expected to be turned down. More and more, she was starting to think that maybe her classmates didn't hate her after all.
"Thanks Momota."
It was late by the time she'd finished recording her song. Miu had never been much of a composer, but Yumeno had inspired her in a way she'd never felt before. All the stories of adventures, the feeling of being pulled along as Yumeno explored, the weight of having her fall asleep against Miu's side, it all built up to something beautiful. Something that Miu had spent hours trying to find the notes to capture.
She'd play it for Yumeno herself one day, but the thought made her so nervous that she didn't think she could do it. Better to let Momota play it back on a speaker than risk fumbling the keys like she was some bimbo newbie.
Even after Momota left, pretty late into the night, Miu decided to keep practicing. She wanted to get every note just right. She wanted Yumeno to understand. She wanted her friends to understand. Miu had never thought she could be the type of person to put her feelings into song, but she was. She really was. Yumeno's song. An adventure across the keys. An ode to exploration.
Miu was nearly giddy with anticipation.
"Iruma."
Miu's fingers slammed down on the keys as she jumped halfway off the bench. No one came to her lab this late and that wasn't the voice of anyone she'd expected to come here at all. She only relaxed a little bit when she saw that it was Chabashira. The artist didn't like her and Miu wasn't really comfortable talking to her on her own. It would be way too awkward to just ignore her though.
She tried to smile. "Hey... Chabashira..."
"You're up pretty late," Chabashira said, stepping further into Miu's lab. "Is that usual for you?"
"Uh..." Miu wasn't really sure how to answer that or why it mattered. She lost track of time a lot in her lab, but she wouldn't say that she had a schedule at all. She hesitated too long, apparently, because Chabashira moved on without an answer.
"It doesn't matter, have you seen Yumeno? I know you guys hang out a lot."
Miu blanched. "It's... really late. Why are you looking for her? Can't it wait until morning?"
The look Chabashira sent her made Miu flinch. "Yumeno didn't come to her room. I was worried that something happened to her."
That sounded off to Miu. "How do you know she didn't?"
The artist sighed. "I was waiting for her, but she never showed up." She turned away from Miu. "Whatever, if you don't know where she is, then you can't help me."
"Wait!" Miu called out, rising from the bench and taking a few steps toward Chabashira. "You need to stop that."
Chabashira's voice was hard and her fist clenched at her side as she asked, "Stop what?"
"Following Yumeno all the time." Chabashira glared at her over her shoulder. Miu faltered, but she decided to speak up anyway. Yumeno had a hard time saying this, so Miu would try to say it for her. Miu would be the voice that Yumeno didn't know how to share with the world. "She told me... that it makes her uncomfortable. Even if you really like painting her, being so overprotective..."
"Shut up!" Chabashira yelled, spinning on her heel to face Miu. "What would you know? Everyone is uncomfortable around you all the time. You're wrong!"
"I... I'm not wrong," Miu insisted. "Yumeno told me herself! And not... not everyone feels that way about me."
"You know what, I wasn't gonna say this, but if you're gonna lie on Yumeno then I feel free to speak my mind."
"I'm not--"
"You need to stop spending time with her," Chabashira demanded, marching closer. "You're crude and ill mannered and you spend all your time making fun of people. You're a bad influence and I don't think you shouldn't hang around her anymore."
The Miu of the past, the one that had spent hours thinking her classmates hated her and had to die in order for her to escape, she would have believed Chabashira. She wouldn't have even questioned it. She would have stayed quiet, nodded her head, and hidden in her room until Yumeno stopped trying to talk to her.
She wasn't the Miu from weeks ago. Or even a few days ago! She was stronger than that now. She knew that people cared about her. Liked her, even. Yumeno was one of those people. She had spent time with Miu on purpose, time that she didn't have to. No one could make Miu give that up for anything.
"I won't do it," Miu said firmly. "I won't stop just because you tell me to." She met Chabashira's eyes. "The only one that can tell me to stop is Yumeno herself!"
"You really think you're special?" Chabashira asked, moving into Miu's space. Miu tried to shrink away, but Chabashira grabbed her wrist and refused to let. "You mean nothing to Yumeno! She could replace you with a soft enough pillow."
"Let me go!"
"You dare insult our friendship--"
"I said let me go!"
"You're not better than me!"
"You don't respect Yumeno at all! You're just obsessed with her! She's not an art piece, she's a person!"
"You don't know anything!"
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A body has been discovered!