The Spice of Life
Saturday. It’s a lovely day outside, and Kirako whistles as she walks up out into the field behind the dorms. There are students sitting outside and eating together. Akuba and Romero-kun are kicking a soccer ball back and forth in the shade granted from the afternoon sun. Slowing her walk to watch them, Kirako guiltily admires the way Romero-kun’s wiry muscles move beneath his pale flesh. Licking her lips, she wonders if his quirk makes his blood taste any different. Squeezing her eyes shut, she pushes those sinful thoughts away. The vampire boy is not HER dark prince.
Hurrying her feet along, Kirako comes up to a wooden table set up in the field. There’s a fine mesh net laid over it to keep the other insects out. Inside is a large corkboard with many crickets stuck to it. Their bodies have sat here where the hot sun hits them all day, drying them out into flaky husks. A little white sign taped to the mesh says: Science Project! Do not touch!
But of course some curious someone is standing there looking at it, feeling tempted to touch. Putting on her best smile, Kirako taps Lixdite on the edge of his wing. “Hey there. Checking out my science project?” she asks, flinching when he turns towards her. Chewing at her lip, she struggles against the pounding of her heart.
“I don’t remember an assignment like this,” he says.
“Well,” looking away, Kirako leans back and rolls her foot along the toe. “It’s more of a personal project.”
“What are you testing?” Of course that’s not good enough. He’s got to stick his big dumb snake tongue in everything and sniff all around.
… Kirako has no rehearsed excuse. She was hoping nobody would care. Picking at her ear with a fingertip, she strains her mind to come up with something, anything plausible to make him go away. Lixdite fidgets his wings awkwardly behind him, and his tail lashes against the grass.
“I wanted to see how they’d decay,” she finally answers vaguely. Quirking his head to the side, Lixdite raises one eyebrow. Like a relentless inquisitor, he still wants MORE. Dammit. “Oh, you know. Like the Chernobyl disaster. I heard nothing rotted for a long time there because all the decomposers died, so there was nothing to rot the bodies or leaves or anything,” she expands, drawing on some of her morbid personal research. Reading and listening to stories about disasters is always fun. “So I wanted to see if they’d dry out before they rot if other bugs can’t get at them.”
“Okay.” From the look on his face, Lixdite still doesn’t totally believe her and that’s okay, as long as he goes away already. Taking off the bug net and rolling it under her arm, Kirako takes the corkboard and carries it away before he can hound her with more questions. “Toodles,” she says over her shoulder, forgetting to sound cheerful as she does.
Finally away from that weird autistic boy, Kirako descends into the bowels of the dorm building. Few people come around down into the boiler room where the heat swelters against her skin. Finding her other corkboard, Kirako sets her schoolbag beside it and squats on the ground. The concrete floor is cool against her legs compared to the heat of the air. Her second board is populated by a collection of live spiders pinned to the cork. She comes down and feeds them in different intervals to see how long she can keep one alive while stuck in one place.
Grabbing a plastic container of fresh bugs, Kirako plucks some out with a pair of tweezers to feed to her captive pet arachnids. These ones still have the juices inside. The spiders that don’t move fast enough are presumed dead and get fed to the others.
“What are you doing there?” a small voice asks behind her, making her jump. Kirako spins around onto all fours, eyes wild, hair splayed, ready to kill. A short boy with two large bunny ears and a horn on his forehead stands there, eating dirt from a plastic baggie of potting soil.
“Who are you?” Kirako asks, her friendly demeanor cast aside. She’s ready and eager to pin him and gouge his eyes out down here, alone and unattended. No cameras…
No, no. There’d be too much evidence. She relaxes her muscles.
“I’m Runt,” he answers, holding out the bag. “Do you want some dirt?” Then he pops a clump of it into his mouth. Eyes flicking between his face and the bag, Kirako eases herself up into a normal human standing position. They’re just about the same height. Reaching into the bag, Kirako pinches some dirt between her fingers and places it on her tongue.
There’s a surprising richness to the taste of it, though the grittiness is unusual. “Not bad. Did you add dark chocolate to this?”
“No. This is just the good loam. Sandy dirt doesn’t have as much flavor but I like to treat myself from the gardening store when I have extra allowance from the social workers,” Runt says. Kirako sits back down, and he sits with her, watching her feed the spiders. “What are you doing?” he asks again.
“I’m feeding the spiders.”
“Cool.”
Picking one of the dried crickets from her dartboard, Kirako pops one in her mouth. The dry exoskeleton crunches against her teeth, and some of the sharp pieces poke titillatingly into the soft parts of her mouth. They have a pleasant, nutty umami flavor. She hasn’t even added the other seasonings yet. Taking another one from the board, she offers it to Runt. “Would you like to try one?”
Without hesitation he takes the bug, bites off one of the legs, and rolls it around on his tongue. “Could use more dirt.” So he puts it in his bag and rustles it around like shake and bake chicken, then eats the dirty grasshopper and hums, pleased. “It’s good.”
Spiders fed, Kirako takes out a bag of pork rinds from her schoolbag. It’s a normal bag from the store, but she refills it with her own home blend. Putting the dried crickets in a bowl, she crushes them up and mixes in a dash of salt, then sprinkles them into the bag of her Kirako Rinds and shakes them just like Runt did, making sure to coat them with the flavoring. “Do you mind if I try a little bit of dirt on these?” she asks. Runt sticks out his bag, and she takes another pinch, adding the bitter, chocolatey loam to the mix.
She shares a few of the rinds with her strange new friend. For the first time since connecting with Adversary-kun, Kirako feels like she’s found a kindred soul.
Bag of Kirako Rinds in hand, Kirako sashays her way into the dorm kitchen. The little Redeemer is inside, heating up some ramen noodles while the Adversary perches on the windowsill. His bulging eyes roll back in his head and he smiles when he sees her, winking one eye beneath a wrinkly red eyelid. Kirako gives him a wink back.
At the other counter, Isao is doing the dishes from his own dinner. “I haven’t seen you at all today, Yagami-chan,” the boy says pointedly. “Have you been keeping up your studies? The test is tomorrow, you know. Everyone thinks the weekend is a time to slack, but-”
“It’s the day after tomorrow, actually,” she interrupts him, sliding into a stool at the small communal table.
“Oh. Yes, I got mixed up!” Isao straightens his back. “The day after tomorrow. Still, don’t leave all the studying for last minute cramming! Studies show that cramming does not retain any real knowledge!”
“Mhm,” she makes an affirmative sound to mollify him. “Ramen again today, Hiro-kun?” she asks, shaking the bag of rinds. “You should have a little more variety in your diet.”
“Those snack foods are hardly more nutritious,” Isao protests, butting in of his own accord.
“But variety is the spice of life,” kicking her feet under her in the too-tall-for-her stool, Kirako leans on her hand. “And studies show that happy people do better in school.” They probably do, but she just made it up to make him pause and clam up.
“Right… maybe one or two, to indulge,” to her great satisfaction, Isao volunteers himself as a subject, walking to the table. He halts all of a sudden. “I mean, may I have one as well?”
“Of course…”
Totally unaware, he takes two ‘pork’ puffs out of the bag and slowly munches on them. Hiro sets his ramen to cool and reaches in to try one as well. Kirako’s mouth waters with sick satisfaction, watching them chew on the flakes of her own skin. “Mm, that’s an interesting seasoning,” Hiro says, smiling. “I’ve never had it before. What is it?” What indeed.
“I dunno,” Kirako flips the bag towards her. “Squid ink.”
“Huh, usually those are darker,” Isao brushes his hands off over the garbage can and then washes them in the sink. Kirako just shrugs and brushes the question off.
”May I indulge as well, my friend?” the Adversary asks. Kirako takes out a piece and flicks it into the air, where the lizard catches it with his tongue like a frog and snatches it back into his gob. ”Delectable as always.” His friendly tone makes Hiro-kun smile, as if there’s been some breakthrough in his demon’s redemption. The dramatic irony fills Kirako with satisfaction.
There’s a shuffling near the kitchen door. Yamasaki-san and Koru-chan come in from their regular exercise routines, covered in sweat. “Heeey,” Kirako greets them happily. “Want a snack?” Her roommate grabs one without a pause, already used to sharing in Kirako’s bounty. Yuudai stops in his tracks, looking at the powder-coated snacks inside the bag. “Come on. I know you’re all about your health foods, but one little snack probably wouldn’t kill you,” Kirako tempts, egging him on. His hand hovers over the bag, but he jerks it away.
“I really shouldn’t.”
Shrugging again, Kirako plucks one out between her fingers. Behind him, she notices Lixdite shuffling past and looking into the room. “What about you?” she asks, relishing the idea of slipping something like this under his prying nose. “Want one? Everyone’s sharing.”
Sniffing the air, Lixdite eyes the powder on the puff and slowly shakes his head. “No thank you. I remembered to eat today,” he excuses himself as strangely as ever, disappearing.
Suit himself. All the more for them. Kirako sets the puff in her hand on her own tongue, savoring it as it melts against her saliva. Well worth the preparation.