The Devil’s Only Friend
Peaceful slumber, dreaming of red tapestries and her unholy prince, are broke by the morning routine. “Rise and shine! Up and at ‘em! Get up, gotta get at ‘er, gotta go, gotta get ready!” Ikuno’s mantra accompanies her morning sets of squats and stretches to limber up for the day. She’s so insistent on being a biological alarm clock that Kirako has stopped setting her own alarm.
Stretching her arms out in a yawn, Kirako throws off the blankets from her tatami mat. The sun isn’t even up yet.
Getting up from the floor, Kirako reluctantly joins her roommate’s practiced motions. “Yeah! You know the drill! Hut, two, three, four! Pump that blood, feel that burn!” Pump that blood indeed, if only Ikuno were able to bleed. The astonished and uncomprehending look her face would make… delectable.
Still. As gristly and annoying as the girl is, having a workout partner to keep Kirako honest is a hidden blessing. The stronger she gets the stronger her quirk gets, and she has a lot of size disadvantages to make up for.
Eventually the workout ends and it’s time to get dressed. The cafeteria serves breakfast before classes start, and Kirako’s early morning allows her to be one of the first on site. First dibs on the best, freshest bacon and eggs. Standing in line outside of the cafeteria doors beside Ikuno, she checks her phone, scrolling through quirkchan memes on the villain board. Nothing featuring her dark prince, so she clicks the screen off and stows it away.
Loud footsteps jogging towards them announce the arrival of one of the other early birds. Yamasaki’s large, burly figure comes up behind them. “Good morning Ikuno-chan, Yagami-chan,” he huffs, still jogging in place. The smell of his rancid sweat curls Kirako’s nose, but she’s gotten used to it through exposure every morning. He’s always early, yet barely eats anything from the cafeteria. Just grabs some fresh fruit and runs off again.
“Good morning,” Kirako responds pleasantly, automatically.
“Burning the morning oil? Can’t waste any of that sweet, sweet moonlight! Keep working out and you might be as invincible as me one day!” Ikuno throws back her head and laughs.
“That’s the plan.” Yamasaki yawns, and the contagious motion passes over to Ikuno. Kirako leans back and stretches, pretending to yawn as well.
The doors open at last, and Kirako is free to distance herself from the boy’s nasty stink. Two more people follow them inside, arriving exactly on the dot for the cafeteria to open. Mitarai Isao and his roommate, Kirisuto Hiro, whose tired eyes signal being dragged along by a preppy roommate much like Kirako. Collecting her plate of fresh, still-sizzling bacon and eggs with a bottle of rich, sweet milk tea, Kirako takes a seat at her usual table. Isao and Kirisuto join her soon after, setting down their own trays. Isao chops up his tamagoyaki and mixes it into some plain rice, eating through a mouth hole in his helmet like some kind of freak. What the hell does his face even look like?
Kirisuto joins them with a tray of burnt toast and half-eaten eggs, a bit of white still hanging from the mouth of the red lizard draped over his shoulder. The creature’s buggy eyes and goofy smile look very pleased with himself.
“You’ve got a little something there, Adversary-kun,” smiling, Kirako reaches over and picks the egg white from the reptile’s face, popping it into her mouth. The looks she gets delight her, even though she can only see Kirisuto’s.
“Highly inappropriate!” Isao announces, like an angry training officer. “You should not eat food from another student’s face! Or, er, his construct’s face.”
Jaws curling into a devious grin, the Adversary taunts back, ”Jealous, you oversized soap dispenser? Knowing that even I know better than you how to treat a woman. Or maybe in your incestuous soapy tumbleweed, you only know how to treat your sister.”
“Please-” Kirisuto’s plaintive plea is cut off. Clenching his fist, Isao raises it up and stands from his seat.
“Do I need to wash your mouth out with soap again, you filthy reptile?!”
Raising a finger, Kirako interrupts in her most level voice. “The use of one’s quirk on another student… or student’s construct,” she smiles as she imitates Isao’s own words. “Is strictly prohibited outside of combat exercises. Surely you haven’t broken a rule, Isao-kun?”
The boy stammers, unclenching his fist nervously. “N-no, never! Ah, actually there are no rules against the constructs. Or are there?” now muttering to himself, Isao flips open a pocket book full of all the school rules and speed-reads through them in a panic. Kirako and the Adversary exchange an easy smile. Placing a piece of bacon on her tongue, Kirako closes her eyes and savors the salty flavor of the meat, imagining what it could be. Maybe not Isao. She feels like he would taste too soapy. But Kirisuto…
After breakfast, the day’s classes pass by uneventfully enough. Kirako completes her assignments diligently, when not distracted by her morbid drawings. When everybody is let out, Kirako returns to the dorm building. It’s crowded by the rush of people, all their bodies pressing and jostling together. As a small girl, she’s forced to move to the fringes to avoid being carried away as if by a river current.
Feeling peckish, Kirako chews at the side of her finger. Not enough to draw blood and leave a mark, but the subtle salty flavor spreads her mouth in a faint smile. To anyone else just a cute little habit when she’s thinking. So sad she has no Kirako-rinds left from her last harvest. Visits to the nurse’s have started to be noticed and she’s had to dial back her indulgences.
Following her friends back to their room, Kirako steps forward and stops the door before it closes behind Isao. He turns and looks, met with a smile and a shy wave. “Hello. I’m just here for my date.”
“Date?” straightening his back, the Mitarai brother bristles and winds up for a stern talking-to.
“Only bugging you,” Kirako quickly cuts him off, forcing a small giggle. “You are much too easy to rile up, Isao-kun. I’m sorry.” Blinking her eyes, she looks past the class rep at Kirisuto, and his shoulder passenger. “I meant a study date. Adversary-kun and I were going to work on my mathematics homework together.”
The two boys stare at her and react at the same time. “What?” “What?”
Slithering down from Kirisuto’s shoulder, the Adversary slaps his master’s calf with his tail. ”Am I not allowed other friends? Trying to keep me only for yourself, master?” the creature practically purrs, reveling in the two roommates’ awkward discomfort and suspicion.
“Well,” Kirisuto says softly, “If you really are making friends, and helping others… that is incredible progress. I am very proud of you.” The Adversary struggles to suppress a gag reflex. “But you can only manage to get so far away from me. Should I come as well?”
”Do not suffocate me like that,” the lizard hisses. ”I need space from you. Have you ever thought of that? No, no,” chirruping softly, the Adversary needles deeper, ”You care only about yourself. Your misguided crusade of redemption. It’s never about the ones you’re redeeming it’s for you.” Silently taking the Adversary’s accusations, Kirisuto looks down at the floor.
Clasping her hands behind her back, Kirako sways from side to side. “The study booths are just on the other side of the boys’ bathroom. I think we can manage to stay in range there..”
“… Alright.”
Smiling, Kirako leads her odd little friend out of the room. Isao watches them from under his helmet. Not suspicious of Kirako, she thinks, but of the Adversary. How the little creature must be trying to corrupt her, in Isao’s virtuous little eyes. She wonders what they would taste like.
There are little enclosed study booths with excellent soundproofing, against one wall of the common area. It’s hard to get one if you’re not early but they’re so nice for privacy. Carrying the Adversary in, Kirako deposits him on one side of the table. Only after shutting the curtains does she slide into a chair opposite him. He’s visibly uncomfortable, very near the current maximum range from his person. Going around to the study room door was even just out of reach, forcing him to wriggle in pain in Kirako’s arms. His little claws had scratched her up, and raises one of her arms to drag a tongue over the wound. “Mmm.”
Taking out some bandages and disinfectant for herself, Kirako watches the Adversary lick his own claws clean, smiling and feeling a flush come to her face. “How are you feeling?”
”I have never been able to force myself beyond my leash,” the Adversary’s tongue slithers in and out of his mouth, googly eyes watching her while she binds her wounds. ”Not alone. But with help… I wonder how far it could be stretched.” Kirako bites off the end of the bandage and tapes it in place.
“I would be happy to help you test that. Just remind me to bring a thick sweater next time.”
”You know you liked it.”
Kirako just smiles back at him.
Taking out her mathematics folder, Kirako sets out her latest assignments on the table. It wasn’t only a cover, she wanted a second set of eyes on her work. The Adversary crawls across the table, curling up next to her bandaged arm to examine the numbers and symbols. ”All such a waste of time. Why do you bother?”
“If I can become a pro, I will have more resources to do whatever I want,” Kirako answer simply. The Adversary’s claw taps on a few of the questions and she flicks a pencil into her fingers to reexamine them. “The nurse has started to get wise to me,” she confides, erasing some pencil marks and replacing them. “If we make these study sessions a regular thing, could I use you as an excuse?”
”They may interfere in our alliance.”
“I thought we were friends,” Kirako pesters in a sing-song voice.
”We both know you are not the kind of person who can make real friends.”
Odd. That comment stung a little.
Their conference on mathematics only lasts so long before the Adversary tires of it entirely and shoves the papers away. Kirako cleans up and sits back in her chair, while he slinks back to the other side of the table. “Have you ever thought about killing him?” she asks, softly. The Adversary’s eyes bug out at her, as if shocked by the suggestion. “I read online that some permanent constructs like you can persist after their creator’s death,” she explains. “You could be free of him.”
A silence hangs between them. The Adversary stares back at Kirako. ”Maybes and ifs are not a lot to bet my existence on.”
No, no. That’s not what he really means. “You liiike him,” Kirako grins. “You’re hanging out with me to make Hiro jealous.”
”Be silent, wench.”
“If you wanted to kill him you would. You don’t want him to die. Aw, the cute little cherub cares,” leaning forward on the backs of her fingers, Kirako smiles at the increasingly bristled scales of the Adversary. If he weren’t already bright red, maybe he’d flare pink in embarrassment.
”I do not!” opening his jaws, he lets flames lick out like a dozen tongues. ”Do not press me. I will make your flesh sear and sizzle if you speak these disgusting words again!”
Raising her left hand, Kirako looks at him through half-lidded eyes and waggles her fingers. “Don’t make me shove my finger down your throat and make you choke, Adversary-kun.”
”Hrah! Don’t threaten me with a good time, bloodwhore! Parasite! Witch!”
Holding a hand up to her mouth, Kirako giggles. After a heavy moment hanging in the air with the smell of burning, the Adversary closes his mouth and lets out a hissing reptilian chuckle. Leaning on her fingers again, Kirako grins. Some of the blood from her arm still paints the front of her teeth. “It’s so nice to have someone I can be myself around. It gets so exhausting having to pretend to be like the rest of them.”
Lashing his tail back and forth, the Adversary only releases a rattling hiss, unwilling to admit the same.
Brushing her hair out of her face, Kirako presses, “You want to corrupt him so you can be real friends. Not a bear and his burden.”
The tail lashes more wildly. ”That was not an empty threat. Speak no more of what you do not understand.”
Waving her hand, Kirako shushes the little demon. “Just listen. I have an idea!” she rests her hands in front of her, and traces a finger along her bandages. “The next time I make some Kirako-rinds, we can share some with Hiro-kun. He won’t even know he’s eating human flesh,” she whispers the last two words reverently.
”Where is the fun in that. I want him to choose the sin.”
“But some day he will know,” Kirako adds. “Revealed in the right moment to break him. To reveal he’s already crossed such a deep, dark line. So what’s a little more, just another toe across another line… and then you’ll have him.”
Tail curling to a pleased resting position, the Adversary rumbles. ”You are wretch. A vile, monstrous thing. I do enjoy having an accomplice…” he admits, at last. ”Someone to bounce ideas off of. To test the limits and break through.”
Reaching out to draw a single finger along the back of the Adversary’s head, Kirako purrs back, “What are friends for?”